NAME
Module::Collection - Examine a group of Perl distributions
DESCRIPTION
WARNING: THIS IS AN EARLY RELEASE FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. PARTS OF THIS MODULE ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE.
The canonical source of all CPAN and Perl installation functionality is a simple group of release tarballs, contained within some directory.
After all, at the very core CPAN is just a simple FTP server containing a number of files uploaded by authors.
Module::Collection is a a simple object which takes an arbitrary directory, scans it for tarballs (which are assumed to be distribution tarballs) and allows you to load up the tarballs as Module::Inspector objects.
While this is a fairly simple and straight forward implementation, and is certainly not scalable enough to handle all of CPAN, it should be quite sufficient for loading and examining a typical group of distribution tarballs generated as part of a private project.
new
my $collection = Module::Collection->new( root => $directory );The new constructor creates a new collection. It takes the named root param (the only param now, but with more to come) and scans recursively inside it for any tarballs, which should be Perl distribution release tarballs.
Returns a new Module::Collection object, or dies on error.
root
The root accessor returns the path to the collection root, as provided originally to the constructor.
dists
The dists method returns a list of the file names for the distributions that the collection is currently aware of.
In scalar context, returns the number of dists instead.
dist_path
my $file_path = $collection->dist_path('dists/Config-Tiny-2.09.tar.gz');The c<dist_path> method takes the name of a dist in the collection in relative unix-style format, and returns a localised absolute path to the distribution tarball.
dist
my $inspector = $collection->dist('dists/Config-Tiny-2.09.tar.gz');The dist methods creates and returns a Module::Inspector object for the distribution.
ignore_dist
Most of the time when working with a collection of release tarballs your code is only going to want to have to work with a subset.
The ignore_dist method takes the name of a dist in the collection and removes it from the collection.
Note the method is called "ignore" for a reason. This does NOT in any way delete or remove the dist itself, it just removes it from the collection's view.
Returns true or dies on error.
ignore_old_dists
The ignore_old_dists method scans through all of the dists in the collection, and removes (ignores) any distribution that has a never version of the same distribution.
This has the result of taking a whole mishmash of distributions and leaving you with only the newest version or each unique distribution.
Returns true or dies on error.
TO DO
- Implement most of the functionality
SUPPORT
This module is stored in an Open Repository at the following address.
http://svn.phase-n.com/svn/cpan/trunk/Module-Collection
Write access to the repository is made available automatically to any published CPAN author, and to most other volunteers on request.
If you are able to submit your bug report in the form of new (failing) unit tests, or can apply your fix directly instead of submitting a patch, you are strongly encouraged to do so as the author currently maintains over 100 modules and it can take some time to deal with non-Critcal bug reports or patches.
This will guarentee that your issue will be addressed in the next release of the module.
If you cannot provide a direct test or fix, or don't have time to do so, then regular bug reports are still accepted and appreciated via the CPAN bug tracker.
http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Module-Collection
For other issues, for commercial enhancement or support, or to have your write access enabled for the repository, contact the author at the email address above.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The biggest acknowledgement must go to Chris Nandor, who wielded his legendary Mac-fu and turned my initial fairly ordinary Darwin implementation into something that actually worked properly everywhere, and then donated a Mac OS X license to allow it to be maintained properly.
AUTHORS
Adam Kennedy <adamk@cpan.org>
SEE ALSO
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2006 Adam Kennedy.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file included with this module.