NAME

       Lintian::Collect - Lintian interface to package data collection

SYNOPSIS

           my ($name, $type, $dir) = ('foobar', 'udeb', '/some/abs/path');
           my $collect = Lintian::Collect->new ($name, $type, $dir);
           $name = $collect->name;
           $type = $collect->type;

DESCRIPTION

       Lintian::Collect provides the shared interface to package data used by source, binary and
       udeb packages and .changes files.  It creates an object of the appropriate type and
       provides common functions used by the collection interface to all types of package.

       Usually instances should not be created directly (exceptions include collections), but
       instead be requested via the info method in Lintian::Lab::Entry.

       This module is in its infancy.  Most of Lintian still reads all data from files in the
       laboratory whenever that data is needed and generates that data via collect scripts.  The
       goal is to eventually access all data via this module and its subclasses so that the
       module can cache data where appropriate and possibly retire collect scripts in favor of
       caching that data in memory.

CLASS METHODS

       new (PACKAGE, TYPE, BASEDIR[, FIELDS]))
           Creates a new object appropriate to the package type.  TYPE can be retrieved later
           with the "type" method.  Croaks if given an unknown TYPE.

           PACKAGE is the name of the package and is stored in the collect object.  It can be
           retrieved with the "name" method.

           BASEDIR is the base directory for the data and should be absolute.

           If FIELDS is given it is assumed to be the fields from the underlying control file.
           This is only used to avoid an unnecessary read operation (possibly incl. an ar | gzip
           pipeline) when the fields are already known.

INSTANCE METHODS

       In addition to the instance methods documented here, see the documentation of
       Lintian::Collect::Source, Lintian::Collect::Binary and Lintian::Collect::Changes for
       instance methods specific to source and binary / udeb packages and .changes files.

       name
           Returns the name of the package.

           Needs-Info requirements for using name: none

       type
           Returns the type of the package.

           Needs-Info requirements for using type: none

       base_dir
           Returns the base_dir where all the package information is stored.

           Needs-Info requirements for using base_dir: none

       lab_data_path ([ENTRY])
           Return the path to the ENTRY in the lab.  This is a convenience method around
           base_dir.  If ENTRY is not given, this method behaves like base_dir.

           Needs-Info requirements for using lab_data_path: "base_dir"

       field ([FIELD[, DEFAULT]])
           If FIELD is given, this method returns the value of the control field FIELD in the
           control file for the package.  For a source package, this is the *.dsc file; for a
           binary package, this is the control file in the control section of the package.

           If FIELD is passed but not present, then this method will return DEFAULT (if given) or
           undef.

           Otherwise this will return a hash of fields, where the key is the field name (in all
           lowercase).

           Needs-Info requirements for using field: none

       is_non_free
           Returns a truth value if the package appears to be non-free (based on the section
           field; "non-free/*" and "restricted/*")

           Needs-Info requirements for using is_non_free: "field ([FIELD[, DEFAULT]])"

AUTHOR

       Originally written by Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org> for Lintian.

SEE ALSO

       lintian(1), Lintian::Collect::Binary, Lintian::Collect::Changes, Lintian::Collect::Source