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.

       "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.