NAME

       CPAN::Changes::Spec - Specification for CPAN Changes files

VERSION

       version 0.500003

SYNOPSIS

           Revision history for perl module Foo::Bar

           0.02 2009-07-17

            - Added more foo() tests

           0.01 2009-07-16

            - Initial release

DESCRIPTION

       It is intended as a guide for module authors to encourage them to write meaningful changelogs as well as
       provide a programmatic interface to reliably read and write Changes files.

DATA TYPES

   Version
       Versions should be formatted as described in "Version-Formats" in CPAN::Meta::Spec.

   Date
       A date/time in the format specified by <http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-datetime> aka W3CDTF. Note: The "T"
       marker before the time portion is optional.

       In order to satisfy release events not made to the public, or dates that are historically unknown, the
       following strings are also available:

       •   Unknown Release Date

       •   Unknown

       •   Not Released

       •   Development Release

       •   Development

       •   Developer Release

STRUCTURE

   Required Elements
       In its simplest form, the only required elements are a "Version", a "Date" and the noted changes. Blank
       lines between the "Version" line and the first "Change" line are optional. Blank lines between "Change"
       lines are also optional.

           <Version>(whitespace/non-"word" characters)<Date>
           (whitespace)<Change>

       NOTE: The characters between a "Version" and a "Date" must start with whitespace, but may subsequently
       contain any combination of whitespace and non-"word" characters. Example:

           0.01 - 2013-12-11

       "Change" lines have no specific format. Commonly, authors will use a dash "-" followed by a space to
       start a new change, and indent subsequent lines for multi-line changes. Example

           - Simple Change
           - This is a very very very long
             change line

       Although there is no limit on line length, authors generally wrap each line at 78 columns.

   Optional Elements
       Release Note

       Any text following the "Date" portion of the "Version" line will be considered the "Release Note".
       Example:

           0.01 2013-04-01 Codename: April Fool

             - First Release

   Preamble
       Any amount of text before the first "Version" line will be considered part of the preamble. Most existing
       distributions include something along the lines of:

           Revision history for perl module My::Module

       Or

           Revision history for perl distribution My-Distribution

   Groups
       Changelog entries may be grouped under headings. Heading lines begin with an opening square bracket
       ("["), and end with a matching square bracket ("]").  When parsing group headings, leading and trailing
       whitespace inside the brackets should be discarded.

           (whitespace)[Grouping Name]
           (whitespace)<Change>

       Since empty lines hold no special meaning, all "Change" lines will fall under the current group until a
       new group heading is found. Example:

           [ First Group ]
           - First Change

           - Second Change; in first group

           [ Second Group ]
           - First Change; in second group

EXAMPLES

   Basic Example
           0.01 2009-07-16
            - Initial release

   Example with a preamble
           Revision history for perl module Foo::Bar

           0.02 2009-07-17

            - Added more foo() tests

           0.01 2009-07-16

            - Initial release

   Example with groups
           Revision history for perl module Foo::Bar

           0.03 2009-07-18

            [Important Security Information]
            - This release fixes critical bug RT #1234

            [Other Changes]
            - Added some feature

           0.02 2009-07-17

            - Added more foo() tests

           0.01 2009-07-16T19:20:30+01:00

            - Initial release

SEE ALSO

       •   CPAN::Changes

       •   Test::CPAN::Changes

AUTHOR

       Brian Cassidy <bricas@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

       Copyright 2011-2013 by Brian Cassidy

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