FAQ 8.48 How do I add the directory my program lives in to the module/library search path?

This is an excerpt from the latest version perlfaq8.pod, which
comes with the standard Perl distribution. These postings aim to
reduce the number of repeated questions as well as allow the community
to review and update the answers. The latest version of the complete
perlfaq is at http://faq.perl.org .

------------------------------------------------------------ --------

8.48: How do I add the directory my program lives in to the module/library search path?

(contributed by brian d foy)

If you know the directory already, you can add it to @INC as you would
for any other directory. You might if you know the directory
at compile time:

use lib $directory;

The trick in this task is to find the directory. Before your script does
anything else (such as a "chdir"), you can get the current working
directory with the "Cwd" module, which comes with Perl:

BEGIN {
use Cwd;
our $directory = cwd;
}

use lib $directory;

You can do a similar thing with the value of $0, which holds the script
name. That might hold a relative path, but "rel2abs" can turn it into an
absolute path. Once you have the

BEGIN {
use File::Spec::Functions qw(rel2abs);
use File::Basename qw(dirname);

my $path = rel2abs( $0 );
our $directory = dirname( $path );
}

use lib $directory;

The "FindBin" module, which comes with Perl, might work. It searches
through $ENV{PATH} (so your script has to be in one of those
directories). You can then use that directory (in $FindBin::Bin) to
locate nearby directories you want to add:

use FindBin;
use lib "$FindBin::Bin/../lib";



------------------------------------------------------------ --------

The perlfaq-workers, a group of volunteers, maintain the perlfaq. They
are not necessarily experts in every domain where Perl might show up,
so please include as much information as possible and relevant in any
corrections. The perlfaq-workers also don't have access to every
operating system or platform, so please include relevant details for
corrections to examples that do not work on particular platforms.
Working code is greatly appreciated.

If you'd like to help maintain the perlfaq, see the details in
perlfaq.pod.