info > CPAN::Meta::Converter

CPAN::Meta::Converter(3Perl)Programmers Reference CPAN::Meta::Converter(3perl)

📖 NAME

CPAN::Meta::Converter - Convert CPAN distribution metadata structures

🚀 Quick Reference

Use Case	Command	Description
Convert metadata to version 2	$cmc->convert(version => "2")	Convert a metadata structure to a specific spec version
Upgrade fragment to latest	$cmc->upgrade_fragment	Upgrade a metadata fragment to the latest spec version (no validation)
Standardize and clean up	$cmc->convert(version => $current_version)	Convert to same version to clean up errors and standardize data
Create converter with default version	CPAN::Meta::Converter->new($struct, default_version => "1.4")	Handle fragments without meta-spec field

📦 VERSION

version 2.150010

📝 SYNOPSIS

my $struct = decode_json_file('META.json');

my $cmc = CPAN::Meta::Converter->new( $struct );

my $new_struct = $cmc->convert( version => "2" );

📚 DESCRIPTION

This module converts CPAN Meta structures from one form to another. The primary use is to convert older structures to the most modern version of the specification, but other transformations may be implemented in the future as needed. (E.g. stripping all custom fields or stripping all optional fields.)

🔧 METHODS

🔧 new

my $cmc = CPAN::Meta::Converter->new( $struct );

The constructor should be passed a valid metadata structure but invalid structures are accepted. If no meta-spec version is provided, version 1.0 will be assumed.

Optionally, you can provide a default_version argument after $struct:

my $cmc = CPAN::Meta::Converter->new( $struct, default_version => "1.4" );

This is only needed when converting a metadata fragment that does not include a meta-spec field.

🔧 convert

my $new_struct = $cmc->convert( version => "2" );

Returns a new hash reference with the metadata converted to a different form. convert will die if any conversion/standardization still results in an invalid structure.

Valid parameters include:

• version — Indicates the desired specification version (e.g. "1.0", "1.1" ... "1.4", "2"). Defaults to the latest version of the CPAN Meta Spec.

Conversion proceeds through each version in turn. For example, a version 1.2 structure might be converted to 1.3 then 1.4 then finally to version 2. The conversion process attempts to clean-up simple errors and standardize data. For example, if author is given as a scalar, it will be converted to an array reference containing the item. (Converting a structure to its own version will also clean-up and standardize.)

When data are cleaned and standardized, missing or invalid fields will be replaced with sensible defaults when possible. This may be lossy or imprecise. For example, some badly structured META.yml files on CPAN have prerequisite modules listed as both keys and values:

requires => { 'Foo::Bar' => 'Bam::Baz' }

These would be split and each converted to a prerequisite with a minimum version of zero.

When some mandatory fields are missing or invalid, the conversion will attempt to provide a sensible default or will fill them with a value of 'unknown'. For example a missing or unrecognized license field will result in a license field of 'unknown'. Fields that may get an 'unknown' include:

• abstract
• author
• license

🔧 upgrade_fragment

my $new_struct = $cmc->upgrade_fragment;

Returns a new hash reference with the metadata converted to the latest version of the CPAN Meta Spec. No validation is done on the result — you must validate after merging fragments into a complete metadata document.

Available since version 2.141170.

🐛 BUGS

Please report any bugs or feature using the CPAN Request Tracker. Bugs can be submitted through the web interface at http://rt.cpan.org/Dist/Display.html?Queue=CPAN-Meta

When submitting a bug or request, please include a test-file or a patch to an existing test-file that illustrates the bug or desired feature.

👥 AUTHORS

• David Golden <dagolden AT cpan.org>
• Ricardo Signes <rjbs AT cpan.org>
• Adam Kennedy <adamk AT cpan.org>

📄 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2010 by David Golden, Ricardo Signes, Adam Kennedy and Contributors.

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

perl v5.34.0 2026-06-23 CPAN::Meta::Converter(3perl)