I am working on a module that when given a CPAN distribution, it will determine what modules that distribution depends on by scanning the META.yml file or if that one is not present, the Makefile.PL file.
A while back I started on a module to read, write, & validate the META.yml file according to the spec. I'm not sure if it's usefull or relevant, but it can be found at <http://www.thepierianspring.org/CPAN-Metadata-0.00_02.tar.gz>.
I haven't really looked in detail, but I do know that there are a lot of modules that do this using various approaches. Are you sure you have looked at them all and that none are similar enough to use or extend instead of creating another module? Like I said, I haven't really investigated myself, so I'm just asking.
Is that a good name for it?
I think some of the modules that perform this task are in the Module::* namespace. That's shorter and seems more appropriate.
Randy.
It differs from existing modules in that it merely parses the Makefile.PL file rather than try to compile or run it and look for what modules it requests. For most modules on CPAN, it is quite adequate.
(The parsing module is actually Module::MakefilePL::Parse--which is already on CPAN, although that may not be the best name...)
The purpose of this is for a larger project that checks testing results from CPAN Testers for a module and specific platforms. The lack of test results for some platforms is sometimes because needed modules do not work on specific platforms. This information would be useful to module authors.
Thanks, Rob
