NAME

       CPAN::Meta::History - history of CPAN Meta Spec changes

VERSION

       version 2.120921

DESCRIPTION

       The CPAN Meta Spec has gone through several iterations.  It was originally written in HTML
       and later revised into POD (though published in HTML generated from the POD).  Fields were
       added, removed or changed, sometimes by design and sometimes to reflect real-world usage
       after the fact.

       This document reconstructs the history of the CPAN Meta Spec based on change logs,
       repository commit messages and the published HTML files.  In some cases, particularly
       prior to version 1.2, the exact version when certain fields were introduced or changed is
       inconsistent between sources.  When in doubt, the published HTML files for versions 1.0 to
       1.4 as they existed when version 2 was developed are used as the definitive source.

       Starting with version 2, the specification document is part of the CPAN-Meta distribution
       and will be published on CPAN as CPAN::Meta::Spec.

       Going forward, specification version numbers will be integers and decimal portions will
       correspond to a release date for the CPAN::Meta library.

HISTORY

   Version 2
       April 2010

       •   Revised spec examples as perl data structures rather than YAML

       •   Switched to JSON serialization from YAML

       •   Specified allowed version number formats

       •   Replaced 'requires', 'build_requires', 'configure_requires', 'recommends' and
           'conflicts' with new 'prereqs' data structure divided by phase (configure, build,
           test, runtime, etc.) and relationship (requires, recommends, suggests, conflicts)

       •   Added support for 'develop' phase for requirements for maintaining a list of authoring
           tools

       •   Changed 'license' to a list and revised the set of valid licenses

       •   Made 'dynamic_config' mandatory to reduce confusion

       •   Changed 'resources' subkey 'repository' to a hash that clarifies repository type, url
           for browsing and url for checkout

       •   Changed 'resources' subkey 'bugtracker' to a hash for either web or mailto resource

       •   Changed specification of 'optional_features':

           •   Added formal specification and usage guide instead of just example

           •   Changed to use new prereqs data structure instead of individual keys

       •   Clarified intended use of 'author' as generalized contact list

       •   Added 'release_status' field to indicate stable, testing or unstable status to provide
           hints to indexers

       •   Added 'description' field for a longer description of the distribution

       •   Formalized use of "x_" or "X_" for all custom keys not listed in the official spec

   Version 1.4
       June 2008

       •   Noted explicit support for 'perl' in prerequisites

       •   Added 'configure_requires' prerequisite type

       •   Changed 'optional_features'

           •   Example corrected to show map of maps instead of list of maps (though descriptive
               text said 'map' even in v1.3)

           •   Removed 'requires_packages', 'requires_os' and 'excluded_os' as valid subkeys

   Version 1.3
       November 2006

       •   Clarified that all prerequisites take version range specifications

       •   Added 'no_index' subkey 'directory' and removed 'dir' to match actual usage in the
           wild

       •   Added a 'repository' subkey to 'resources'

   Version 1.2
       August 2005

       •   Re-wrote and restructured spec in POD syntax

       •   Changed 'name' to be mandatory

       •   Changed 'generated_by' to be mandatory

       •   Changed 'license' to be mandatory

       •   Added required 'abstract' field

       •   Added required 'author' field

       •   Added required 'meta-spec' field to define 'version' (and 'url') of the CPAN Meta Spec
           used for metadata

       •   Added 'provides' field

       •   Added 'no_index' field and deprecated 'private' field.  'no_index' subkeys include
           'file', 'dir', 'package' and 'namespace'

       •   Added 'keywords' field

       •   Added 'resources' field with subkeys 'homepage', 'license', and 'bugtracker'

       •   Added 'optional_features' field as an alternate under 'recommends'.  Includes
           'description', 'requires', 'build_requires', 'conflicts', 'requires_packages',
           'requires_os' and 'excluded_os' as valid subkeys

       •   Removed 'license_uri' field

   Version 1.1
       May 2003

       •   Changed 'version' to be mandatory

       •   Added 'private' field

       •   Added 'license_uri' field

   Version 1.0
       March 2003

       •   Original release (in HTML format only)

       •   Included 'name', 'version', 'license', 'distribution_type', 'requires', 'recommends',
           'build_requires', 'conflicts', 'dynamic_config', 'generated_by'

AUTHORS

       •   David Golden <dagolden@cpan.org>

       •   Ricardo Signes <rjbs@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

       This software is copyright (c) 2010 by David Golden and Ricardo Signes.

       This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as
       the Perl 5 programming language system itself.