NAME¶
CPAN::Meta::History - history of CPAN Meta Spec changes
VERSION¶
version 2.142690
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
- •
- 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 version range specifications for prerequisites
- •
- 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.
