I have decided to write a successor to Pod::Readme that works as a Dist::Zilla plugin that plays well with Pod::Weaver.

The idea for Pod::Readme is that a README file that is simply a version of the module documentation isn't all that useful. It often lacks important details like the prerequisites or installation instructions, and it includes a lot of unnecessary details about functions and methods.

A README file should be short and sweet: a synopsis and description, installation instructions and requirements, links to issue trackers, source repos and author/copyright info.

As I am rewriting this, I am wondering if the installation instructions are necessary now?

Many distributions have a generic INSTALL file, generally created by something like Dist::Zilla::Plugin::InstallGuide.

Before Dist::Zilla was as widely used, another option was to add installation instructions to the README file, usually with a few boilerplate along the lines of

perl Makefile.PL
make
make test
make install

or the equivalent for Module::Build.

But this seems unnecessary. Most people are not installing modules that way.

Usually they are using a tool like cpan, cpanm, cpm or even carton. And there's arely anything unusual about a module that requires specialised installation instructions.

The only use case I can think of is to document non-Perl external libraries that are required. But that can be overcome using Alien modules or adding a separate REQUIREMENTS section to the README.

I am considering removing the generic INSTALL file from modules.

I am curious as to what other people in the Perl community think about this.

Is it still worthwhile to add generic installation instructions to distributions nowadays?