NAME

Algorithm::Dependency::Source::File - File source for dependency hierarchies

VERSION

version 1.112

DESCRIPTION

Algorithm::Dependency::Source::File implements a source where the items are stored in a flat file or a relatively simple format.

File Format

The file should be an ordinary text file, consisting of a series of lines, with each line completely containing the information for a single item. Blank lines, or lines beginning with the hash character '#' will be ignored as comments.

For a single item line, only word characters will be used. A 'word character' consists of all letters and numbers, and the underscore '_' character. Anything that is not a word character will be assumed to be a separator.

The first word will be used as the name or id of the item, and any further words in the line will be used as other items that this one depends on. For example, all of the following are legal.

# A single item with no dependencies
Foo

# Another item that depends on the first one
Bar Foo

# Depending on multiple others
Bin Foo Bar

# We can use different separators
One:Two|Three-Four+Five=Six Seven

# We can also use multiple non-word characters as separators
This&*&^*&File:  is& & & :::REALLY()Neat

From the examples above, it should be easy to create your own files.

METHODS

This documents the methods differing from the ordinary Algorithm::Dependency::Source methods.

new $filename

When constructing a new Algorithm::Dependency::Source::File object, an argument should be provided of the name of the file to use. The constructor will check that the file exists, and is readable, returning undef otherwise.

SEE ALSO

Algorithm::Dependency

SUPPORT

Bugs may be submitted through the RT bug tracker (or bug-Algorithm-Dependency@rt.cpan.org).

AUTHOR

Adam Kennedy <adamk@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2003 by Adam Kennedy.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.