When you want to install a module, it needs to figure out where to install things. The nutshell version of how this works is that default installation locations are determined from ExtUtils::Config, and they may be individually overridden by using the install_path attribute. An install_base attribute lets you specify an alternative installation root like /home/foo and prefix does something similar in a rather different (and more complicated) way. destdir lets you specify a temporary installation directory like /tmp/install in case you want to create bundled-up installable packages.
The following types are supported by default.
* lib
Usually pure-Perl module files ending in .pm or .pod.
* arch
"Architecture-dependent" module files, usually produced by compiling XS, Inline, or similar code.
* script
Programs written in pure Perl. In order to improve reuse, you may want to make these as small as possible - put the code into modules whenever possible.
* bin
"Architecture-dependent" executable programs, i.e. compiled C code or something. Pretty rare to see this in a perl distribution, but it happens.
* bindoc
Documentation for the stuff in script and bin. Usually generated from the POD in those files. Under Unix, these are manual pages belonging to the 'man1' category. Unless explicitly set, this is only available on platforms supporting manpages.
* libdoc
Documentation for the stuff in lib and arch. This is usually generated from the POD in .pm and .pod files. Under Unix, these are manual pages belonging to the 'man3' category. Unless explicitly set, this is only available on platforms supporting manpages.
* binhtml
This is the same as bindoc above, but applies to HTML documents. Unless explicitly set, this is only available when perl was configured to do so.
* libhtml
This is the same as libdoc above, but applies to HTML documents. Unless explicitly set, this is only available when perl was configured to do so.