=for :stopwords Ingy READMEs WTF licensure =head1 NAME CPAN::Meta::History::Meta_1_1 - Version 1.1 metadata specification for META.yml =head1 PREFACE This is a historical copy of the version 1.1 specification for F files, copyright by Ken Williams and licensed under the same terms as Perl itself. Modifications from the original: =over =item * Conversion from the original HTML to POD format =item * Include list of valid licenses from L 0.18 rather than linking to the module, with minor updates to text and links to reflect versions at the time of publication. =item * Fixed some dead links to point to active resources. =back =head1 DESCRIPTION This document describes version 1.1 of the F specification. The F file describes important properties of contributed Perl distributions such as the ones found on L. It is typically created by tools like L and L. The fields in the F file are meant to be helpful to people maintaining module collections (like CPAN), for people writing installation tools (like L or L), or just people who want to know some stuff about a distribution before downloading it and starting to install it. =head1 Format F files are written in the L format. The reasons we chose YAML instead of, say, XML or Data::Dumper are discussed in L on the MakeMaker mailing list. The first line of a F file should be a valid L like C<"--- #YAML:1.0"> =head1 Fields The rest of the META.yml file is one big YAML L, whose keys are described here. =over 4 =item name Example: C The name of the distribution. Often created by taking the "main module" in the distribution and changing "::" to "-". Sometimes it's completely different, however, as in the case of the L distribution. =item version Example: C<0.16> The version of the distribution to which the META.yml file refers. This is a mandatory field. The version is essentially an arbitrary string, but I be only ASCII characters, and I be of the format integer-dot-digit-digit, i.e. C<25.57>, optionally followed by underscore-digit-digit, i.e. C<25.57_04>. The standard tools that deal with module distribution (PAUSE, CPAN, etc.) form an identifier for each distribution by joining the 'name' and 'version' attributes with a dash (C<->) character. Tools who are prepared to deal with distributions that have no version numbers generally omit the dash as well. =item license Example: C a descriptive term for the licenses ... not authoritative, but must be consistent with licensure statements in the READMEs, documentation, etc. The license under which this distribution may be used and redistributed. Must be one of the following licenses: =over 4 =item perl The distribution may be copied and redistributed under the same terms as perl itself (this is by far the most common licensing option for modules on CPAN). This is a dual license, in which the user may choose between either the GPL version 1 or the Artistic version 1 license. =item gpl The distribution is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 (L). =item lgpl The distribution is distributed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License version 2 (L). =item artistic The distribution is licensed under the Artistic License version 1, as specified by the Artistic file in the standard perl distribution (L). =item bsd The distribution is licensed under the BSD 3-Clause License (L). =item open_source The distribution is licensed under some other Open Source Initiative-approved license listed at L. =item unrestricted The distribution is licensed under a license that is B approved by L but that allows distribution without restrictions. =item restrictive The distribution may not be redistributed without special permission from the author and/or copyright holder. =back =item license_uri This should contain a URI where the exact terms of the license may be found. (change "unrestricted" to "redistributable"?) =item distribution_type Example: C What kind of stuff is contained in this distribution. Most things on CPAN are Cs (which can also mean a collection of modules), but some things are C