Perl .gitignore template

/blib is the build library, the staging tree where the build tooling copies modules and scripts into their installed layout before running tests against them. It is a rearranged copy of files that are already in the repository, so it adds nothing except duplication and a stale copy waiting to confuse someone.

The generated build scripts are the awkward part of this template. MakeMaker generates a Makefile from Makefile.PL, and Module::Build generates a Build script from Build.PL. This template ignores Makefile, Build and Build.bat, which is correct for the generated files. But if your project keeps a hand written Makefile for convenience, that file is matched too, with no warning at all.

META.yml, META.json and MYMETA.* are distribution metadata. The MYMETA files are always generated at configure time and should never be tracked. META.yml and META.json are trickier: for a distribution built by the standard tooling they are generated during packaging, but some projects deliberately track a hand maintained copy, and this template assumes they do not.

cover_db is the coverage database from the standard coverage tool, holding a per run record of which statements executed. inc is the vendored dependency directory some older distributions use to bundle the modules needed at build time. *.o and *.bs come from XS, the interface that lets a Perl module link against C.

MANIFEST.bak and pm_to_blib are small housekeeping artefacts: a backup of the manifest and a timestamp file recording that the copy into blib has already happened. *.pm.tdy is the output of running the standard formatter, which writes a tidied copy alongside the original rather than in place.