[ SEA-GHOST MINI SHELL]

NAME
    Module::Metadata - Gather package and POD information from perl module
    files

SYNOPSIS
      use Module::Metadata;

      # information about a .pm file
      my $info = Module::Metadata->new_from_file( $file );
      my $version = $info->version;

      # CPAN META 'provides' field for .pm files in a directory
      my $provides = Module::Metadata->provides(
        dir => 'lib', version => 2
      );

DESCRIPTION
    This module provides a standard way to gather metadata about a .pm file
    through (mostly) static analysis and (some) code execution. When
    determining the version of a module, the $VERSION assignment is
    "eval"ed, as is traditional in the CPAN toolchain.

USAGE
  Class methods
    "new_from_file($filename, collect_pod => 1)"
        Constructs a "Module::Metadata" object given the path to a file.
        Returns undef if the filename does not exist.

        "collect_pod" is a optional boolean argument that determines whether
        POD data is collected and stored for reference. POD data is not
        collected by default. POD headings are always collected.

        If the file begins by an UTF-8, UTF-16BE or UTF-16LE byte-order
        mark, then it is skipped before processing, and the content of the
        file is also decoded appropriately starting from perl 5.8.

    "new_from_handle($handle, $filename, collect_pod => 1)"
        This works just like "new_from_file", except that a handle can be
        provided as the first argument.

        Note that there is no validation to confirm that the handle is a
        handle or something that can act like one. Passing something that
        isn't a handle will cause a exception when trying to read from it.
        The "filename" argument is mandatory or undef will be returned.

        You are responsible for setting the decoding layers on $handle if
        required.

    "new_from_module($module, collect_pod => 1, inc => \@dirs)"
        Constructs a "Module::Metadata" object given a module or package
        name. Returns undef if the module cannot be found.

        In addition to accepting the "collect_pod" argument as described
        above, this method accepts a "inc" argument which is a reference to
        an array of directories to search for the module. If none are given,
        the default is @INC.

        If the file that contains the module begins by an UTF-8, UTF-16BE or
        UTF-16LE byte-order mark, then it is skipped before processing, and
        the content of the file is also decoded appropriately starting from
        perl 5.8.

    "find_module_by_name($module, \@dirs)"
        Returns the path to a module given the module or package name. A
        list of directories can be passed in as an optional parameter,
        otherwise @INC is searched.

        Can be called as either an object or a class method.

    "find_module_dir_by_name($module, \@dirs)"
        Returns the entry in @dirs (or @INC by default) that contains the
        module $module. A list of directories can be passed in as an
        optional parameter, otherwise @INC is searched.

        Can be called as either an object or a class method.

    "provides( %options )"
        This is a convenience wrapper around
        "package_versions_from_directory" to generate a CPAN META "provides"
        data structure. It takes key/value pairs. Valid option keys include:

        version (required)
            Specifies which version of the CPAN::Meta::Spec should be used
            as the format of the "provides" output. Currently only '1.4' and
            '2' are supported (and their format is identical). This may
            change in the future as the definition of "provides" changes.

            The "version" option is required. If it is omitted or if an
            unsupported version is given, then "provides" will throw an
            error.

        dir Directory to search recursively for .pm files. May not be
            specified with "files".

        files
            Array reference of files to examine. May not be specified with
            "dir".

        prefix
            String to prepend to the "file" field of the resulting output.
            This defaults to lib, which is the common case for most CPAN
            distributions with their .pm files in lib. This option ensures
            the META information has the correct relative path even when the
            "dir" or "files" arguments are absolute or have relative paths
            from a location other than the distribution root.

        For example, given "dir" of 'lib' and "prefix" of 'lib', the return
        value is a hashref of the form:

          {
            'Package::Name' => {
              version => '0.123',
              file => 'lib/Package/Name.pm'
            },
            'OtherPackage::Name' => ...
          }

    "package_versions_from_directory($dir, \@files?)"
        Scans $dir for .pm files (unless @files is given, in which case
        looks for those files in $dir - and reads each file for packages and
        versions, returning a hashref of the form:

          {
            'Package::Name' => {
              version => '0.123',
              file => 'Package/Name.pm'
            },
            'OtherPackage::Name' => ...
          }

        The "DB" and "main" packages are always omitted, as are any
        "private" packages that have leading underscores in the namespace
        (e.g. "Foo::_private")

        Note that the file path is relative to $dir if that is specified.
        This must not be used directly for CPAN META "provides". See the
        "provides" method instead.

    "log_info (internal)"
        Used internally to perform logging; imported from Log::Contextual if
        Log::Contextual has already been loaded, otherwise simply calls
        warn.

  Object methods
    "name()"
        Returns the name of the package represented by this module. If there
        are more than one packages, it makes a best guess based on the
        filename. If it's a script (i.e. not a *.pm) the package name is
        'main'.

    "version($package)"
        Returns the version as defined by the $VERSION variable for the
        package as returned by the "name" method if no arguments are given.
        If given the name of a package it will attempt to return the version
        of that package if it is specified in the file.

    "filename()"
        Returns the absolute path to the file.

    "packages_inside()"
        Returns a list of packages. Note: this is a raw list of packages
        discovered (or assumed, in the case of "main"). It is not filtered
        for "DB", "main" or private packages the way the "provides" method
        does. Invalid package names are not returned, for example "Foo:Bar".
        Strange but valid package names are returned, for example
        "Foo::Bar::", and are left up to the caller on how to handle.

    "pod_inside()"
        Returns a list of POD sections.

    "contains_pod()"
        Returns true if there is any POD in the file.

    "pod($section)"
        Returns the POD data in the given section.

AUTHOR
    Original code from Module::Build::ModuleInfo by Ken Williams
    <kwilliams@cpan.org>, Randy W. Sims <RandyS@ThePierianSpring.org>

    Released as Module::Metadata by Matt S Trout (mst) <mst@shadowcat.co.uk>
    with assistance from David Golden (xdg) <dagolden@cpan.org>.

COPYRIGHT & LICENSE
    Original code Copyright (c) 2001-2011 Ken Williams. Additional code
    Copyright (c) 2010-2011 Matt Trout and David Golden. All rights
    reserved.

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