NAME

       Lintian::Tag::Info - Lintian interface to tag metadata

SYNOPSIS

           my $cs = Lintian::CheckScript->new ("$ENV{'LINTIAN_ROOT'}/checks/",
                                               'files');
           my $tag_info = $cs->get_tag ('some-tag');
           print "Tag info is:\n";
           print $tag_info->description('text', '   ');
           print "\nTag info in HTML is:\n";
           print $tag_info->description('html', '   ');

DESCRIPTION

       This module provides an interface to tag metadata as gleaned from the *.desc files
       describing the checks.  It can be used to retrieve specific metadata elements or to format
       the tag description.

CLASS METHODS

       new(HASH, SCRIPT_NAME, SCRIPT_TYPE)
           Creates a new Lintian::Tag:Info.

INSTANCE METHODS

       certainty()
           Returns the certainty of the tag.

       code()
           Returns the one-letter code for the tag.  This will be a letter chosen from "E", "W",
           "I", or "P", based on the tag severity, certainty, and other attributes (such as
           whether experimental is set).  This code will never be "O" or "X"; overrides and
           experimental tags are handled separately.

       description([FORMAT [, INDENT]])
           Returns the formatted description (the Info field) for a tag.  FORMAT must be either
           "text" or "html" and defaults to "text" if no format is specified.  If "text", returns
           wrapped paragraphs formatted in plain text with a right margin matching the Text::Wrap
           default, preserving as verbatim paragraphs that begin with whitespace.  If "html",
           return paragraphs formatted in HTML.

           If INDENT is specified, the string INDENT is prepended to each line of the formatted
           output.

       experimental()
           Returns true if this tag is experimental, false otherwise.

       severity([$real])
           Returns the severity of the tag; if $real is a truth value the real (original)
           severity is returned, otherwise the effective severity is returned.

           See set_severity()

       set_severity($severity)
           Modifies the effective severity of the tag.

       script()
           Returns the check script corresponding to this tag.

       sources()
           Returns, as a list, the keywords for the sources of this tag from the references
           header.  This is only the top-level source, not any more-specific section or chapter.

       tag()
           Returns the tag name.

DIAGNOSTICS

       The following exceptions may be thrown:

       no tag specified
           The Lintian::Tag::Info::new constructor was called without passing a tag as an
           argument.

       unknown output format %s
           An unknown output format was passed as the FORMAT argument of description().  FORMAT
           must be either "text" or "html".

       The following fatal internal errors may be reported:

       can't open %s: %s
           The specified file, which should be part of the standard Lintian data files, could not
           be opened.  The file may be missing or have the wrong permissions.

       missing Check-Script field in %s
           The specified check description file has no Check-Script field in its header section.
           This probably indicates the file doesn't exist or has some significant formatting
           error.

       missing Tag field in %s
           The specified check description file has a tag section that has no Tag field.

FILES

       LINTIAN_ROOT/checks/*.desc
           The tag description files, from which tag metadata is read.  All files matching this
           shell glob expression will be read looking for tag data.

       LINTIAN_ROOT/data/output/manual-references
           Information about manual references.  Each non-comment, non-empty line of this file
           contains four fields separated by "::".  The first field is the name of the manual,
           the second field is the section or empty for data about the whole manual, the third
           field is the title, and the fourth field is the URL.  The URL is optional.

ENVIRONMENT

       LINTIAN_ROOT
           This variable specifies Lintian's root directory.  It defaults to /usr/share/lintian
           if not set.  The lintian program normally takes care of setting it.

AUTHOR

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

SEE ALSO

       lintian(1)