NAME

MacOS::NativeLib - Make native libs reachable on MacOS

SYNOPSIS

use MacOS::NativeLib 'gd';  # make all versions of GD libraries accessible
use GD::Raw;                # load raw GD support

DESCRIPTION

MacOS has built-in security features that disallow loading native libraries unless they are in a trusted location, or if they are symlinked from a trusted location.

The most common way to install native libraries on MacOS is by using HomeBrew with the brew install command. The location at which these libraries are installed, are however NOT trusted by MacOS.

This module allows one to specify one or more library names that should be made reachable in the use statement. A symlink will then be installed if there is none already.

Library names can be specified with or without the "lib" prefix, so "gd" and "libgd" would produce the same result. By default, all versions of a native library will be made available. You can limit to a specific version by specifying a more specific name, e.g. "gd.3" to only make version 3 of the GD library available.

You can have all libraries installed by HomeBrew linked automatically by specifying "*" or * (aka Whatever), although this may not be a wise decision from a security point of view.

If this module is loaded on any OS other than MacOS, it is simply a no-op.

Any errors will be shown on STDERR, but will NOT interrupt the further execution, so that any module actually depending on the reachability of a native library can use its own checks and error reporting.

AS AN OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY

If a module author does not want to create a hard dependency on this module, it is quite easy to make it an optional dependency in the code, by wrapping the use statement in a try / EVAL combo:

try 'use MacOS::NativeLib <gd>'.EVAL;

SCRIPTS

ensure-symlink-for

$ ensure-symlink-for gd

This module also installs a command-line interface called ensure-symlink-for. It takes the same arguments as in the use statement, and will install the necessary symlinks if they did not exist yet.

AUTHOR

Elizabeth Mattijsen <[email protected]>

Source can be located at: https://github.com/lizmat/MacOS-NativeLib . Comments and Pull Requests are welcome.

If you like this module, or what I’m doing more generally, committing to a small sponsorship would mean a great deal to me!

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright 2024, 2025, 2026 Elizabeth Mattijsen

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the Artistic License 2.0.

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