{
    "mode": "perldoc",
    "parameter": "CPAN::Meta::History::Meta_1_2",
    "section": "",
    "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/CPAN%3A%3AMeta%3A%3AHistory%3A%3AMeta_1_2/json",
    "generated": "2026-06-03T05:27:29Z",
    "synopsis": "--- #YAML:1.0\nname: Module-Build\nabstract: Build and install Perl modules\nversion: 0.20\nauthor:\n- Ken Williams <kwilliams@cpan.org>\nlicense: perl\ndistributiontype: module\nrequires:\nConfig: 0\nCwd: 0\nData::Dumper: 0\nExtUtils::Install: 0\nFile::Basename: 0\nFile::Compare: 0\nFile::Copy: 0\nFile::Find: 0\nFile::Path: 0\nFile::Spec: 0\nIO::File: 0\nperl: 5.00503\nrecommends:\nArchive::Tar: 1.00\nExtUtils::Install: 0.3\nExtUtils::ParseXS: 2.02\nPod::Text: 0\nYAML: 0.35\nbuildrequires:\nTest: 0\nurls:\nlicense: http://dev.perl.org/licenses/\nmeta-spec:\nversion: 1.2\nurl: http://module-build.sourceforge.net/META-spec-v1.2.html\ngeneratedby: Module::Build version 0.20",
    "sections": {
        "NAME": {
            "content": "CPAN::Meta::History::Meta12 - Version 1.2 metadata specification for META.yml\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "PREFACE": {
            "content": "This is a historical copy of the version 1.2 specification for META.yml files, copyright by Ken\nWilliams and licensed under the same terms as Perl itself.\n\nModifications from the original:\n\n*   Various spelling corrections\n\n*   Include list of valid licenses from Module::Build 0.2611 rather than linking to the module,\nwith minor updates to text and links to reflect versions at the time of publication.\n\n*   Fixed some dead links to point to active resources.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "SYNOPSIS": {
            "content": "--- #YAML:1.0\nname: Module-Build\nabstract: Build and install Perl modules\nversion: 0.20\nauthor:\n- Ken Williams <kwilliams@cpan.org>\nlicense: perl\ndistributiontype: module\nrequires:\nConfig: 0\nCwd: 0\nData::Dumper: 0\nExtUtils::Install: 0\nFile::Basename: 0\nFile::Compare: 0\nFile::Copy: 0\nFile::Find: 0\nFile::Path: 0\nFile::Spec: 0\nIO::File: 0\nperl: 5.00503\nrecommends:\nArchive::Tar: 1.00\nExtUtils::Install: 0.3\nExtUtils::ParseXS: 2.02\nPod::Text: 0\nYAML: 0.35\nbuildrequires:\nTest: 0\nurls:\nlicense: http://dev.perl.org/licenses/\nmeta-spec:\nversion: 1.2\nurl: http://module-build.sourceforge.net/META-spec-v1.2.html\ngeneratedby: Module::Build version 0.20\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "DESCRIPTION": {
            "content": "This document describes version 1.2 of the META.yml specification.\n\nThe META.yml file describes important properties of contributed Perl distributions such as the\nones found on CPAN. It is typically created by tools like Module::Build, Module::Install, and\nExtUtils::MakeMaker.\n\nThe fields in the META.yml file are meant to be helpful for people maintaining module\ncollections (like CPAN), for people writing installation tools (like CPAN.pm or CPANPLUS), or\njust for people who want to know some stuff about a distribution before downloading it and\nstarting to install it.\n\n*Note: The latest stable version of this specification can always be found at\n<http://module-build.sourceforge.net/META-spec-current.html>, and the latest development version\n(which may include things that won't make it into the stable version can always be found at\n<http://module-build.sourceforge.net/META-spec-blead.html>.*\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "FORMAT": {
            "content": "META.yml files are written in the YAML format (see <http://www.yaml.org/>).\n\nSee the following links to learn why we chose YAML instead of, say, XML or Data::Dumper:\n\n*   Module::Build design plans\n<http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.makemaker/2002/04/msg407.html>\n\n*   Not keen on YAML <http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.module-authors/2003/11/msg1353.html>\n\n*   META Concerns <http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.module-authors/2003/11/msg1385.html>\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "TERMINOLOGY": {
            "content": "distribution\nThis is the primary object described by the META.yml specification. In the context of this\ndocument it usually refers to a collection of modules, scripts, and/or documents that are\ndistributed for other developers to use.\n\nmodule\nThis refers to a reusable library of code typically contained in a single file. Currently,\nwe primarily talk of perl modules, but this specification should be open enough to apply to\nother languages as well (ex. python, ruby).\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "VERSION SPECIFICATIONS": {
            "content": "Some fields require a version specification (ex. \"requires\", \"recommends\", \"buildrequires\",\netc.). This section details the version specifications that are currently supported.\n\nIf a single version is listed, then that version is considered to be the minimum version\nsupported.\n\nIf 0 is given as the version number, then any version is supported.\n\nAdditionally, for more complicated requirements, the specification supports a list of versions,\neach of which may be optionally preceded by a relational operator.\n\nSupported operators include < (less than), <= (less than or equal), > (greater than), >=\n(greater than or equal), == (equal), and != (not equal).\n\nIf a list is given then it is evaluated from left to right so that any specifications in the\nlist that conflict with a previous specification are overridden by the later.\n\nExamples:\n\n>= 1.2, != 1.5, < 2.0\n\nAny version from version 1.2 onward, except version 1.5, that also precedes version 2.0.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "HEADER": {
            "content": "The first line of a META.yml file should be a valid YAML document header like \"--- #YAML:1.0\".\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "FIELDS": {
            "content": "The rest of the META.yml file is one big YAML mapping whose keys are described here.\n\nmeta-spec\nExample:\n\nmeta-spec:\nversion: 1.2\nurl: http://module-build.sourceforge.net/META-spec-v1.2.html\n\n(Spec 1.1) [required] {URL} This field indicates the location of the version of the META.yml\nspecification used.\n\nname\nExample:\n\nname: Module-Build\n\n(Spec 1.0) [required] {string} The name of the distribution which is often created by taking the\n\"main module\" in the distribution and changing \"::\" to \"-\". Sometimes it's completely different,\nhowever, as in the case of the libwww-perl distribution (see\n<http://search.cpan.org/author/GAAS/libwww-perl/>).\n\nversion\nExample:\n\nversion: 0.20\n\n(Spec 1.0) [required] {version} The version of the distribution to which the META.yml file\nrefers.\n\nabstract\nExample:\n\nabstract: Build and install Perl modules.\n\n(Spec 1.1) [required] {string} A short description of the purpose of the distribution.\n\nauthor\nExample:\n\nauthor:\n- Ken Williams <kwilliams@cpan.org>\n\n(Spec 1.1) [required] {list of strings} A YAML sequence indicating the author(s) of the\ndistribution. The preferred form is author-name <email-address>.\n\nlicense\nExample:\n\nlicense: perl\n\n(Spec 1.0) [required] {string} The license under which this distribution may be used and\nredistributed.\n\nMust be one of the following licenses:\n\nperl\nThe distribution may be copied and redistributed under the same terms as perl itself (this\nis by far the most common licensing option for modules on CPAN). This is a dual license, in\nwhich the user may choose between either the GPL version 1 or the Artistic version 1\nlicense.\n\ngpl The distribution is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2\n(<http://opensource.org/licenses/GPL-2.0>).\n\nlgpl\nThe distribution is distributed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License\nversion 2 (<http://opensource.org/licenses/LGPL-2.1>).\n\nartistic\nThe distribution is licensed under the Artistic License version 1, as specified by the\nArtistic file in the standard perl distribution\n(<http://opensource.org/licenses/Artistic-Perl-1.0>).\n\nbsd The distribution is licensed under the BSD 3-Clause License\n(<http://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause>).\n\nopensource\nThe distribution is licensed under some other Open Source Initiative-approved license listed\nat <http://www.opensource.org/licenses/>.\n\nunrestricted\nThe distribution is licensed under a license that is not approved by www.opensource.org\n<http://www.opensource.org/> but that allows distribution without restrictions.\n\nrestrictive\nThe distribution may not be redistributed without special permission from the author and/or\ncopyright holder.\n\ndistributiontype\nExample:\n\ndistributiontype: module\n\n(Spec 1.0) [optional] {string} What kind of stuff is contained in this distribution. Most things\non CPAN are \"module\"s (which can also mean a collection of modules), but some things are\n\"script\"s.\n\nUnfortunately this field is basically meaningless, since many distributions are hybrids of\nseveral kinds of things, or some new thing, or subjectively different in focus depending on\nwho's using them. Tools like Module::Build and MakeMaker will likely stop generating this field.\n\nrequires\nExample:\n\nrequires:\nData::Dumper: 0\nFile::Find: 1.03\n\n(Spec 1.0) [optional] {map} A YAML mapping indicating the Perl modules this distribution\nrequires for proper operation. The keys are the module names, and the values are version\nspecifications as described in Module::Build for the \"requires\" parameter.\n\nrecommends\nExample:\n\nrecommends:\nData::Dumper: 0\nFile::Find: 1.03\n\n(Spec 1.0) [optional] {map} A YAML mapping indicating the Perl modules this distribution\nrecommends for enhanced operation.\n\n*ALTERNATIVE: It may be desirable to present to the user which features depend on which modules\nso they can make an informed decision about which recommended modules to install.*\n\nExample:\n\noptionalfeatures:\n- foo:\ndescription: Provides the ability to blah.\nrequires:\nData::Dumper: 0\nFile::Find: 1.03\n- bar:\ndescription: This feature is not available on this platform.\nexcludesos: MSWin32\n\n*(Spec 1.1) [optional] {map} A YAML sequence of names for optional features which are made\navailable when its requirements are met. For each feature a description is provided along with\nany of \"requires\", \"buildrequires\", \"conflicts\", \"requirespackages\", \"requiresos\", and\n\"excludesos\" which have the same meaning in this subcontext as described elsewhere in this\ndocument.*\n\nbuildrequires\nExample:\n\nbuildrequires:\nData::Dumper: 0\nFile::Find: 1.03\n\n(Spec 1.0) [optional] {map} A YAML mapping indicating the Perl modules required for building\nand/or testing of this distribution. These dependencies are not required after the module is\ninstalled.\n\nconflicts\nExample:\n\nconflicts:\nData::Dumper: 0\nFile::Find: 1.03\n\n(Spec 1.0) [optional] {map} A YAML mapping indicating the Perl modules that cannot be installed\nwhile this distribution is installed. This is a pretty uncommon situation.\n\ndynamicconfig\nExample:\n\ndynamicconfig: 0\n\n(Spec 1.0) [optional] {boolean} A boolean flag indicating whether a Build.PL or Makefile.PL (or\nsimilar) must be executed when building this distribution, or whether it can be built, tested\nand installed solely from consulting its metadata file. The main reason to set this to a true\nvalue if that your module performs some dynamic configuration (asking questions, sensing the\nenvironment, etc.) as part of its build/install process.\n\nCurrently Module::Build doesn't actually do anything with this flag - it's probably going to be\nup to higher-level tools like CPAN to do something useful with it. It can potentially bring lots\nof security, packaging, and convenience improvements.\n\nIf this field is omitted, it defaults to 1 (true).\n\nprivate\n*(Deprecated)* (Spec 1.0) [optional] {map} This field has been renamed to \"noindex\". See below.\n\nprovides\nExample:\n\nprovides:\nFoo::Bar:\nfile: lib/Foo/Bar.pm\nversion: 0.2702\nFoo::Bar::Blah:\nfile: lib/Foo/Bar/Blah.pm\nFoo::Bar::Baz:\nfile: lib/Foo/Bar/Baz.pm\nversion: 0.3\n\n(Spec 1.1) [optional] {map} A YAML mapping that describes all packages provided by this\ndistribution. This information can be (and, in some cases, is) used by distribution and\nautomation mechanisms like PAUSE, CPAN, and search.cpan.org to build indexes saying in which\ndistribution various packages can be found.\n\nWhen using tools like Module::Build that can generate the \"provides\" mapping for your\ndistribution automatically, make sure you examine what it generates to make sure it makes sense\n- indexers will usually trust the \"provides\" field if it's present, rather than scanning through\nthe distribution files themselves to figure out packages and versions. This is a good thing,\nbecause it means you can use the \"provides\" field to tell the indexers precisely what you want\nindexed about your distribution, rather than relying on them to essentially guess what you want\nindexed.\n\nnoindex\nExample:\n\nnoindex:\nfile:\n- My/Module.pm\ndir:\n- My/Private\npackage:\n- My::Module::Stuff\nnamespace:\n- My::Module::Stuff\n\n(Spec 1.1) [optional] {map} A YAML mapping that describes any files, directories, packages, and\nnamespaces that are private (i.e. implementation artifacts) that are not of interest to\nsearching and indexing tools. This is useful when no \"provides\" field is present.\n\n*(Note: I'm not actually sure who looks at this field, or exactly what they do with it. This\nspec could be off in some way from actual usage.)*\n\nfile\n(Spec 1.1) [optional] Exclude any listed file(s).\n\ndir\n(Spec 1.1) [optional] Exclude anything below the listed directory(ies).\n\npackage\n(Spec 1.1) [optional] Exclude the listed package(s).\n\nnamespace\n(Spec 1.1) [optional] Excludes anything below the listed namespace(s), but *not* the listed",
            "subsections": [
                {
                    "name": "namespace",
                    "content": "keywords\nExample:\n\nkeywords:\n- make\n- build\n- install\n\n(Spec 1.1) [optional] {list} A sequence of keywords/phrases that describe this distribution.\n\nresources\nExample:\n\nresources:\nlicense: http://dev.perl.org/licenses/\nhomepage: http://sourceforge.net/projects/module-build\nbugtracker: http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Module-Build\nMailingList: http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/module-build-general\n\n(Spec 1.1) [optional] {map} A mapping of any URL resources related to this distribution.\nAll-lower-case keys, such as \"homepage\", \"license\", and \"bugtracker\", are reserved by this\nspecification, as they have \"official\" meanings defined here in this specification. If you'd\nlike to add your own \"special\" entries (like the \"MailingList\" entry above), use at least one\nupper-case letter.\n\nThe current set of official keys is:\n\nhomepage\nThe official home of this project on the web.\n\nlicense\nAn URL for an official statement of this distribution's license.\n\nbugtracker\nAn URL for a bug tracker (e.g. Bugzilla or RT queue) for this project.\n\ngeneratedby\nExample:\n\ngeneratedby: Module::Build version 0.20\n\n(Spec 1.0) [required] {string} Indicates the tool that was used to create this META.yml file.\nIt's good form to include both the name of the tool and its version, but this field is\nessentially opaque, at least for the moment. If META.yml was generated by hand, it is suggested\nthat the author be specified here.\n\n[Note: My metastats.pl script which I use to gather statistics regarding META.yml usage prefers\nthe form listed above, i.e. it splits on /\\s+version\\s+/ taking the first field as the name of\nthe tool that generated the file and the second field as version of that tool. RWS]\n"
                }
            ]
        },
        "SEE ALSO": {
            "content": "CPAN <http://www.cpan.org/>\n\nCPAN.pm\n\nCPANPLUS\n\nData::Dumper\n\nExtUtils::MakeMaker\n\nModule::Build\n\nModule::Install\n\nXML <http://www.w3.org/XML/>\n\nYAML <http://www.yaml.org/>\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "HISTORY": {
            "content": "March 14, 2003 (Pi day)\n\n* Created version 1.0 of this document.\n\nMay 8, 2003\n\n* Added the \"dynamicconfig\" field, which was missing from the initial version.\n\nNovember 13, 2003\n\n* Added more YAML rationale articles.\n\n* Fixed existing link to YAML discussion thread to point to new\n<http://nntp.x.perl.org/group/> site.\n\n* Added and deprecated the \"private\" field.\n\n* Added \"abstract\", \"configure\", \"requirespackages\", \"requiresos\", \"excludesos\", and\n\"noindex\" fields.\n\n* Bumped version.\n\nNovember 16, 2003\n\n* Added \"generation\", \"authoredby\" fields.\n\n* Add alternative proposal to the \"recommends\" field.\n\n* Add proposal for a \"requiresbuildtools\" field.\n\nDecember 9, 2003\n\n* Added link to latest version of this specification on CPAN.\n\n* Added section \"VERSION SPECIFICATIONS\".\n\n* Chang name from Module::Build::META-spec to CPAN::META::Specification.\n\n* Add proposal for \"autoregenerate\" field.\n\nDecember 15, 2003\n\n* Add \"index\" field as a compliment to \"noindex\"\n\n* Add \"keywords\" field as a means to aid searching distributions.\n\n* Add \"TERMINOLOGY\" section to explain certain terms that may be ambiguous.\n\nJuly 26, 2005\n\n* Removed a bunch of items (generation, requiresbuildtools, requirespackages, configure,\nrequiresos, excludesos, autoregenerate) that have never actually been supported, but\nwere more like records of brainstorming.\n\n* Changed \"authoredby\" to \"author\", since that's always been what it's actually called in\nactual META.yml files.\n\n* Added the \"==\" operator to the list of supported version-checking operators.\n\n* Noted that the \"distributiontype\" field is basically meaningless, and shouldn't really be\nused.\n\n* Clarified \"dynamicconfig\" a bit.\n\nAugust 23, 2005\n\n* Removed the name \"CPAN::META::Specification\", since that implies a module that doesn't\nactually exist.\n",
            "subsections": []
        }
    },
    "summary": "CPAN::Meta::History::Meta12 - Version 1.2 metadata specification for META.yml",
    "flags": [],
    "examples": [],
    "see_also": []
}