Target Systems for a Module

Perl 6 poses a new challenge on the distribution format for Modules. At first, because this modules may be written in a variable set of languages and they may use implementation-specific features that are not "STD Perl 6". That brings us the following two concepts:

Runtime

This defines which runtimes can run this module, it refers to all Perl 6 implementations (Pugs, Parrot, KP6, SMOP, v6-alpha). This may relate to the fact that this module uses a feature that is only present on this specific implementation. On the other hand, a module may define "runtime: any" to mean that the module uses strict STD Perl 6.

Architecture

This defines in which architectures this module can be built. This should refer to the arch triplet (i686-linux-gnu, i386-win32???, i386-linux-uclibc) and the build software must be able to realise about compatibilities. When a module is linux related but still independent of cpu and libc implementation, it can use any-linux-any. When a module is compatible with all architectures it may simply have "arch: any".

Source Package x Binary Package

In order to keep track of installed modules and files, it's important that the module should build a binary package before instalation. While the source package may have "runtime: any" and "arch: any", the resulting binary package will be specific to the runtime that compiled it, and eventually it will be specific to the host architecture (if the build process results in architecture-dependent files).