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database/perl/lib/version/Internals.pod
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database/perl/lib/version/Internals.pod
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=head1 NAME
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version::Internals - Perl extension for Version Objects
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=head1 DESCRIPTION
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Overloaded version objects for all modern versions of Perl. This documents
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the internal data representation and underlying code for version.pm. See
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F<version.pod> for daily usage. This document is only useful for users
|
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interested in the gory details.
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=head1 WHAT IS A VERSION?
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For the purposes of this module, a version "number" is a sequence of
|
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positive integer values separated by one or more decimal points and
|
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optionally a single underscore. This corresponds to what Perl itself
|
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uses for a version, as well as extending the "version as number" that
|
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is discussed in the various editions of the Camel book.
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There are actually two distinct kinds of version objects:
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=over 4
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=item Decimal versions
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Any version which "looks like a number", see L<Decimal Versions>. This
|
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also includes versions with a single decimal point and a single embedded
|
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underscore, see L<Alpha Versions>, even though these must be quoted
|
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to preserve the underscore formatting.
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=item Dotted-Decimal versions
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|
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Also referred to as "Dotted-Integer", these contains more than one decimal
|
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point and may have an optional embedded underscore, see L<Dotted-Decimal
|
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Versions>. This is what is commonly used in most open source software as
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the "external" version (the one used as part of the tag or tarfile name).
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A leading 'v' character is now required and will warn if it missing.
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=back
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Both of these methods will produce similar version objects, in that
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the default stringification will yield the version L<Normal Form> only
|
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if required:
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$v = version->new(1.002); # 1.002, but compares like 1.2.0
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$v = version->new(1.002003); # 1.002003
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$v2 = version->new("v1.2.3"); # v1.2.3
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|
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In specific, version numbers initialized as L<Decimal Versions> will
|
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stringify as they were originally created (i.e. the same string that was
|
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passed to C<new()>. Version numbers initialized as L<Dotted-Decimal Versions>
|
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will be stringified as L<Normal Form>.
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=head2 Decimal Versions
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These correspond to historical versions of Perl itself prior to 5.6.0,
|
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as well as all other modules which follow the Camel rules for the
|
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$VERSION scalar. A Decimal version is initialized with what looks like
|
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a floating point number. Leading zeros B<are> significant and trailing
|
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zeros are implied so that a minimum of three places is maintained
|
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between subversions. What this means is that any subversion (digits
|
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to the right of the decimal place) that contains less than three digits
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will have trailing zeros added to make up the difference, but only for
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purposes of comparison with other version objects. For example:
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# Prints Equivalent to
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$v = version->new( 1.2); # 1.2 v1.200.0
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$v = version->new( 1.02); # 1.02 v1.20.0
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$v = version->new( 1.002); # 1.002 v1.2.0
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$v = version->new( 1.0023); # 1.0023 v1.2.300
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$v = version->new( 1.00203); # 1.00203 v1.2.30
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$v = version->new( 1.002003); # 1.002003 v1.2.3
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All of the preceding examples are true whether or not the input value is
|
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quoted. The important feature is that the input value contains only a
|
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single decimal. See also L<Alpha Versions>.
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IMPORTANT NOTE: As shown above, if your Decimal version contains more
|
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than 3 significant digits after the decimal place, it will be split on
|
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each multiple of 3, so 1.0003 is equivalent to v1.0.300, due to the need
|
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to remain compatible with Perl's own 5.005_03 == 5.5.30 interpretation.
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Any trailing zeros are ignored for mathematical comparison purposes.
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|
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=head2 Dotted-Decimal Versions
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|
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These are the newest form of versions, and correspond to Perl's own
|
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version style beginning with 5.6.0. Starting with Perl 5.10.0,
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and most likely Perl 6, this is likely to be the preferred form. This
|
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method normally requires that the input parameter be quoted, although
|
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Perl's after 5.8.1 can use v-strings as a special form of quoting, but
|
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this is highly discouraged.
|
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|
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Unlike L<Decimal Versions>, Dotted-Decimal Versions have more than
|
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a single decimal point, e.g.:
|
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|
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# Prints
|
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$v = version->new( "v1.200"); # v1.200.0
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$v = version->new("v1.20.0"); # v1.20.0
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$v = qv("v1.2.3"); # v1.2.3
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$v = qv("1.2.3"); # v1.2.3
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$v = qv("1.20"); # v1.20.0
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|
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In general, Dotted-Decimal Versions permit the greatest amount of freedom
|
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to specify a version, whereas Decimal Versions enforce a certain
|
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uniformity.
|
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|
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Just like L</Decimal Versions>, Dotted-Decimal Versions can be used as
|
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L</Alpha Versions>.
|
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|
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=head2 Alpha Versions
|
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|
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For module authors using CPAN, the convention has been to note unstable
|
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releases with an underscore in the version string. (See L<CPAN>.) version.pm
|
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follows this convention and alpha releases will test as being newer than the
|
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more recent stable release, and less than the next stable release. Only the
|
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last element may be separated by an underscore:
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|
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# Declaring
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use version 0.77; our $VERSION = version->declare("v1.2_3");
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|
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# Parsing
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$v1 = version->parse("v1.2_3");
|
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$v1 = version->parse("1.002_003");
|
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|
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Note that you B<must> quote the version when writing an alpha Decimal version.
|
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The stringified form of Decimal versions will always be the same string that
|
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was used to initialize the version object.
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|
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=head2 Regular Expressions for Version Parsing
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|
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A formalized definition of the legal forms for version strings is
|
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included in the C<version::regex> class. Primitives are included for
|
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common elements, although they are scoped to the file so they are useful
|
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for reference purposes only. There are two publicly accessible scalars
|
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that can be used in other code (not exported):
|
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|
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=over 4
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|
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=item C<$version::LAX>
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|
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This regexp covers all of the legal forms allowed under the current
|
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version string parser. This is not to say that all of these forms
|
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are recommended, and some of them can only be used when quoted.
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|
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For dotted decimals:
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|
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v1.2
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1.2345.6
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v1.23_4
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|
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The leading 'v' is optional if two or more decimals appear. If only
|
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a single decimal is included, then the leading 'v' is required to
|
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trigger the dotted-decimal parsing. A leading zero is permitted,
|
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though not recommended except when quoted, because of the risk that
|
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Perl will treat the number as octal. A trailing underscore plus one
|
||||
or more digits denotes an alpha or development release (and must be
|
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quoted to be parsed properly).
|
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|
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For decimal versions:
|
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|
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1
|
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1.2345
|
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1.2345_01
|
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|
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an integer portion, an optional decimal point, and optionally one or
|
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more digits to the right of the decimal are all required. A trailing
|
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underscore is permitted and a leading zero is permitted. Just like
|
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the lax dotted-decimal version, quoting the values is required for
|
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alpha/development forms to be parsed correctly.
|
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|
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=item C<$version::STRICT>
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|
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This regexp covers a much more limited set of formats and constitutes
|
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the best practices for initializing version objects. Whether you choose
|
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to employ decimal or dotted-decimal for is a personal preference however.
|
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|
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=over 4
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|
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=item v1.234.5
|
||||
|
||||
For dotted-decimal versions, a leading 'v' is required, with three or
|
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more sub-versions of no more than three digits. A leading 0 (zero)
|
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before the first sub-version (in the above example, '1') is also
|
||||
prohibited.
|
||||
|
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=item 2.3456
|
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|
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For decimal versions, an integer portion (no leading 0), a decimal point,
|
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and one or more digits to the right of the decimal are all required.
|
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|
||||
=back
|
||||
|
||||
=back
|
||||
|
||||
Both of the provided scalars are already compiled as regular expressions
|
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and do not contain either anchors or implicit groupings, so they can be
|
||||
included in your own regular expressions freely. For example, consider
|
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the following code:
|
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|
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($pkg, $ver) =~ /
|
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^[ \t]*
|
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use [ \t]+($PKGNAME)
|
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(?:[ \t]+($version::STRICT))?
|
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[ \t]*;
|
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/x;
|
||||
|
||||
This would match a line of the form:
|
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|
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use Foo::Bar::Baz v1.2.3; # legal only in Perl 5.8.1+
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|
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where C<$PKGNAME> is another regular expression that defines the legal
|
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forms for package names.
|
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|
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=head1 IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS
|
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|
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=head2 Equivalence between Decimal and Dotted-Decimal Versions
|
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|
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When Perl 5.6.0 was released, the decision was made to provide a
|
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transformation between the old-style decimal versions and new-style
|
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dotted-decimal versions:
|
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|
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5.6.0 == 5.006000
|
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5.005_04 == 5.5.40
|
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|
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The floating point number is taken and split first on the single decimal
|
||||
place, then each group of three digits to the right of the decimal makes up
|
||||
the next digit, and so on until the number of significant digits is exhausted,
|
||||
B<plus> enough trailing zeros to reach the next multiple of three.
|
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|
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This was the method that version.pm adopted as well. Some examples may be
|
||||
helpful:
|
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|
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equivalent
|
||||
decimal zero-padded dotted-decimal
|
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------- ----------- --------------
|
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1.2 1.200 v1.200.0
|
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1.02 1.020 v1.20.0
|
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1.002 1.002 v1.2.0
|
||||
1.0023 1.002300 v1.2.300
|
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1.00203 1.002030 v1.2.30
|
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1.002003 1.002003 v1.2.3
|
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|
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=head2 Quoting Rules
|
||||
|
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Because of the nature of the Perl parsing and tokenizing routines,
|
||||
certain initialization values B<must> be quoted in order to correctly
|
||||
parse as the intended version, especially when using the C<declare> or
|
||||
L</qv()> methods. While you do not have to quote decimal numbers when
|
||||
creating version objects, it is always safe to quote B<all> initial values
|
||||
when using version.pm methods, as this will ensure that what you type is
|
||||
what is used.
|
||||
|
||||
Additionally, if you quote your initializer, then the quoted value that goes
|
||||
B<in> will be exactly what comes B<out> when your $VERSION is printed
|
||||
(stringified). If you do not quote your value, Perl's normal numeric handling
|
||||
comes into play and you may not get back what you were expecting.
|
||||
|
||||
If you use a mathematic formula that resolves to a floating point number,
|
||||
you are dependent on Perl's conversion routines to yield the version you
|
||||
expect. You are pretty safe by dividing by a power of 10, for example,
|
||||
but other operations are not likely to be what you intend. For example:
|
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|
||||
$VERSION = version->new((qw$Revision: 1.4)[1]/10);
|
||||
print $VERSION; # yields 0.14
|
||||
$V2 = version->new(100/9); # Integer overflow in decimal number
|
||||
print $V2; # yields something like 11.111.111.100
|
||||
|
||||
Perl 5.8.1 and beyond are able to automatically quote v-strings but
|
||||
that is not possible in earlier versions of Perl. In other words:
|
||||
|
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$version = version->new("v2.5.4"); # legal in all versions of Perl
|
||||
$newvers = version->new(v2.5.4); # legal only in Perl >= 5.8.1
|
||||
|
||||
=head2 What about v-strings?
|
||||
|
||||
There are two ways to enter v-strings: a bare number with two or more
|
||||
decimal points, or a bare number with one or more decimal points and a
|
||||
leading 'v' character (also bare). For example:
|
||||
|
||||
$vs1 = 1.2.3; # encoded as \1\2\3
|
||||
$vs2 = v1.2; # encoded as \1\2
|
||||
|
||||
However, the use of bare v-strings to initialize version objects is
|
||||
B<strongly> discouraged in all circumstances. Also, bare
|
||||
v-strings are not completely supported in any version of Perl prior to
|
||||
5.8.1.
|
||||
|
||||
If you insist on using bare v-strings with Perl > 5.6.0, be aware of the
|
||||
following limitations:
|
||||
|
||||
1) For Perl releases 5.6.0 through 5.8.0, the v-string code merely guesses,
|
||||
based on some characteristics of v-strings. You B<must> use a three part
|
||||
version, e.g. 1.2.3 or v1.2.3 in order for this heuristic to be successful.
|
||||
|
||||
2) For Perl releases 5.8.1 and later, v-strings have changed in the Perl
|
||||
core to be magical, which means that the version.pm code can automatically
|
||||
determine whether the v-string encoding was used.
|
||||
|
||||
3) In all cases, a version created using v-strings will have a stringified
|
||||
form that has a leading 'v' character, for the simple reason that sometimes
|
||||
it is impossible to tell whether one was present initially.
|
||||
|
||||
=head2 Version Object Internals
|
||||
|
||||
version.pm provides an overloaded version object that is designed to both
|
||||
encapsulate the author's intended $VERSION assignment as well as make it
|
||||
completely natural to use those objects as if they were numbers (e.g. for
|
||||
comparisons). To do this, a version object contains both the original
|
||||
representation as typed by the author, as well as a parsed representation
|
||||
to ease comparisons. Version objects employ L<overload> methods to
|
||||
simplify code that needs to compare, print, etc the objects.
|
||||
|
||||
The internal structure of version objects is a blessed hash with several
|
||||
components:
|
||||
|
||||
bless( {
|
||||
'original' => 'v1.2.3_4',
|
||||
'alpha' => 1,
|
||||
'qv' => 1,
|
||||
'version' => [
|
||||
1,
|
||||
2,
|
||||
3,
|
||||
4
|
||||
]
|
||||
}, 'version' );
|
||||
|
||||
=over 4
|
||||
|
||||
=item original
|
||||
|
||||
A faithful representation of the value used to initialize this version
|
||||
object. The only time this will not be precisely the same characters
|
||||
that exist in the source file is if a short dotted-decimal version like
|
||||
v1.2 was used (in which case it will contain 'v1.2'). This form is
|
||||
B<STRONGLY> discouraged, in that it will confuse you and your users.
|
||||
|
||||
=item qv
|
||||
|
||||
A boolean that denotes whether this is a decimal or dotted-decimal version.
|
||||
See L<version/is_qv()>.
|
||||
|
||||
=item alpha
|
||||
|
||||
A boolean that denotes whether this is an alpha version. NOTE: that the
|
||||
underscore can only appear in the last position. See L<version/is_alpha()>.
|
||||
|
||||
=item version
|
||||
|
||||
An array of non-negative integers that is used for comparison purposes with
|
||||
other version objects.
|
||||
|
||||
=back
|
||||
|
||||
=head2 Replacement UNIVERSAL::VERSION
|
||||
|
||||
In addition to the version objects, this modules also replaces the core
|
||||
UNIVERSAL::VERSION function with one that uses version objects for its
|
||||
comparisons. The return from this operator is always the stringified form
|
||||
as a simple scalar (i.e. not an object), but the warning message generated
|
||||
includes either the stringified form or the normal form, depending on how
|
||||
it was called.
|
||||
|
||||
For example:
|
||||
|
||||
package Foo;
|
||||
$VERSION = 1.2;
|
||||
|
||||
package Bar;
|
||||
$VERSION = "v1.3.5"; # works with all Perl's (since it is quoted)
|
||||
|
||||
package main;
|
||||
use version;
|
||||
|
||||
print $Foo::VERSION; # prints 1.2
|
||||
|
||||
print $Bar::VERSION; # prints 1.003005
|
||||
|
||||
eval "use foo 10";
|
||||
print $@; # prints "foo version 10 required..."
|
||||
eval "use foo 1.3.5; # work in Perl 5.6.1 or better
|
||||
print $@; # prints "foo version 1.3.5 required..."
|
||||
|
||||
eval "use bar 1.3.6";
|
||||
print $@; # prints "bar version 1.3.6 required..."
|
||||
eval "use bar 1.004"; # note Decimal version
|
||||
print $@; # prints "bar version 1.004 required..."
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
IMPORTANT NOTE: This may mean that code which searches for a specific
|
||||
string (to determine whether a given module is available) may need to be
|
||||
changed. It is always better to use the built-in comparison implicit in
|
||||
C<use> or C<require>, rather than manually poking at C<< class->VERSION >>
|
||||
and then doing a comparison yourself.
|
||||
|
||||
The replacement UNIVERSAL::VERSION, when used as a function, like this:
|
||||
|
||||
print $module->VERSION;
|
||||
|
||||
will also exclusively return the stringified form. See L</Stringification>
|
||||
for more details.
|
||||
|
||||
=head1 USAGE DETAILS
|
||||
|
||||
=head2 Using modules that use version.pm
|
||||
|
||||
As much as possible, the version.pm module remains compatible with all
|
||||
current code. However, if your module is using a module that has defined
|
||||
C<$VERSION> using the version class, there are a couple of things to be
|
||||
aware of. For purposes of discussion, we will assume that we have the
|
||||
following module installed:
|
||||
|
||||
package Example;
|
||||
use version; $VERSION = qv('1.2.2');
|
||||
...module code here...
|
||||
1;
|
||||
|
||||
=over 4
|
||||
|
||||
=item Decimal versions always work
|
||||
|
||||
Code of the form:
|
||||
|
||||
use Example 1.002003;
|
||||
|
||||
will always work correctly. The C<use> will perform an automatic
|
||||
C<$VERSION> comparison using the floating point number given as the first
|
||||
term after the module name (e.g. above 1.002.003). In this case, the
|
||||
installed module is too old for the requested line, so you would see an
|
||||
error like:
|
||||
|
||||
Example version 1.002003 (v1.2.3) required--this is only version 1.002002 (v1.2.2)...
|
||||
|
||||
=item Dotted-Decimal version work sometimes
|
||||
|
||||
With Perl >= 5.6.2, you can also use a line like this:
|
||||
|
||||
use Example 1.2.3;
|
||||
|
||||
and it will again work (i.e. give the error message as above), even with
|
||||
releases of Perl which do not normally support v-strings (see L<What about v-strings?> above). This has to do with that fact that C<use> only checks
|
||||
to see if the second term I<looks like a number> and passes that to the
|
||||
replacement L<UNIVERSAL::VERSION|UNIVERSAL/VERSION>. This is not true in Perl 5.005_04,
|
||||
however, so you are B<strongly encouraged> to always use a Decimal version
|
||||
in your code, even for those versions of Perl which support the Dotted-Decimal
|
||||
version.
|
||||
|
||||
=back
|
||||
|
||||
=head2 Object Methods
|
||||
|
||||
=over 4
|
||||
|
||||
=item new()
|
||||
|
||||
Like many OO interfaces, the new() method is used to initialize version
|
||||
objects. If two arguments are passed to C<new()>, the B<second> one will be
|
||||
used as if it were prefixed with "v". This is to support historical use of the
|
||||
C<qw> operator with the CVS variable $Revision, which is automatically
|
||||
incremented by CVS every time the file is committed to the repository.
|
||||
|
||||
In order to facilitate this feature, the following
|
||||
code can be employed:
|
||||
|
||||
$VERSION = version->new(qw$Revision: 2.7 $);
|
||||
|
||||
and the version object will be created as if the following code
|
||||
were used:
|
||||
|
||||
$VERSION = version->new("v2.7");
|
||||
|
||||
In other words, the version will be automatically parsed out of the
|
||||
string, and it will be quoted to preserve the meaning CVS normally
|
||||
carries for versions. The CVS $Revision$ increments differently from
|
||||
Decimal versions (i.e. 1.10 follows 1.9), so it must be handled as if
|
||||
it were a Dotted-Decimal Version.
|
||||
|
||||
A new version object can be created as a copy of an existing version
|
||||
object, either as a class method:
|
||||
|
||||
$v1 = version->new(12.3);
|
||||
$v2 = version->new($v1);
|
||||
|
||||
or as an object method:
|
||||
|
||||
$v1 = version->new(12.3);
|
||||
$v2 = $v1->new(12.3);
|
||||
|
||||
and in each case, $v1 and $v2 will be identical. NOTE: if you create
|
||||
a new object using an existing object like this:
|
||||
|
||||
$v2 = $v1->new();
|
||||
|
||||
the new object B<will not> be a clone of the existing object. In the
|
||||
example case, $v2 will be an empty object of the same type as $v1.
|
||||
|
||||
=back
|
||||
|
||||
=over 4
|
||||
|
||||
=item qv()
|
||||
|
||||
An alternate way to create a new version object is through the exported
|
||||
qv() sub. This is not strictly like other q? operators (like qq, qw),
|
||||
in that the only delimiters supported are parentheses (or spaces). It is
|
||||
the best way to initialize a short version without triggering the floating
|
||||
point interpretation. For example:
|
||||
|
||||
$v1 = qv(1.2); # v1.2.0
|
||||
$v2 = qv("1.2"); # also v1.2.0
|
||||
|
||||
As you can see, either a bare number or a quoted string can usually
|
||||
be used interchangeably, except in the case of a trailing zero, which
|
||||
must be quoted to be converted properly. For this reason, it is strongly
|
||||
recommended that all initializers to qv() be quoted strings instead of
|
||||
bare numbers.
|
||||
|
||||
To prevent the C<qv()> function from being exported to the caller's namespace,
|
||||
either use version with a null parameter:
|
||||
|
||||
use version ();
|
||||
|
||||
or just require version, like this:
|
||||
|
||||
require version;
|
||||
|
||||
Both methods will prevent the import() method from firing and exporting the
|
||||
C<qv()> sub.
|
||||
|
||||
=back
|
||||
|
||||
For the subsequent examples, the following three objects will be used:
|
||||
|
||||
$ver = version->new("1.2.3.4"); # see "Quoting Rules"
|
||||
$alpha = version->new("1.2.3_4"); # see "Alpha Versions"
|
||||
$nver = version->new(1.002); # see "Decimal Versions"
|
||||
|
||||
=over 4
|
||||
|
||||
=item Normal Form
|
||||
|
||||
For any version object which is initialized with multiple decimal
|
||||
places (either quoted or if possible v-string), or initialized using
|
||||
the L<qv()|version/qv()> operator, the stringified representation is returned in
|
||||
a normalized or reduced form (no extraneous zeros), and with a leading 'v':
|
||||
|
||||
print $ver->normal; # prints as v1.2.3.4
|
||||
print $ver->stringify; # ditto
|
||||
print $ver; # ditto
|
||||
print $nver->normal; # prints as v1.2.0
|
||||
print $nver->stringify; # prints as 1.002,
|
||||
# see "Stringification"
|
||||
|
||||
In order to preserve the meaning of the processed version, the
|
||||
normalized representation will always contain at least three sub terms.
|
||||
In other words, the following is guaranteed to always be true:
|
||||
|
||||
my $newver = version->new($ver->stringify);
|
||||
if ($newver eq $ver ) # always true
|
||||
{...}
|
||||
|
||||
=back
|
||||
|
||||
=over 4
|
||||
|
||||
=item Numification
|
||||
|
||||
Although all mathematical operations on version objects are forbidden
|
||||
by default, it is possible to retrieve a number which corresponds
|
||||
to the version object through the use of the $obj->numify
|
||||
method. For formatting purposes, when displaying a number which
|
||||
corresponds a version object, all sub versions are assumed to have
|
||||
three decimal places. So for example:
|
||||
|
||||
print $ver->numify; # prints 1.002003004
|
||||
print $nver->numify; # prints 1.002
|
||||
|
||||
Unlike the stringification operator, there is never any need to append
|
||||
trailing zeros to preserve the correct version value.
|
||||
|
||||
=back
|
||||
|
||||
=over 4
|
||||
|
||||
=item Stringification
|
||||
|
||||
The default stringification for version objects returns exactly the same
|
||||
string as was used to create it, whether you used C<new()> or C<qv()>,
|
||||
with one exception. The sole exception is if the object was created using
|
||||
C<qv()> and the initializer did not have two decimal places or a leading
|
||||
'v' (both optional), then the stringified form will have a leading 'v'
|
||||
prepended, in order to support round-trip processing.
|
||||
|
||||
For example:
|
||||
|
||||
Initialized as Stringifies to
|
||||
============== ==============
|
||||
version->new("1.2") 1.2
|
||||
version->new("v1.2") v1.2
|
||||
qv("1.2.3") 1.2.3
|
||||
qv("v1.3.5") v1.3.5
|
||||
qv("1.2") v1.2 ### exceptional case
|
||||
|
||||
See also L<UNIVERSAL::VERSION|UNIVERSAL/VERSION>, as this also returns the stringified form
|
||||
when used as a class method.
|
||||
|
||||
IMPORTANT NOTE: There is one exceptional cases shown in the above table
|
||||
where the "initializer" is not stringwise equivalent to the stringified
|
||||
representation. If you use the C<qv>() operator on a version without a
|
||||
leading 'v' B<and> with only a single decimal place, the stringified output
|
||||
will have a leading 'v', to preserve the sense. See the L</qv()> operator
|
||||
for more details.
|
||||
|
||||
IMPORTANT NOTE 2: Attempting to bypass the normal stringification rules by
|
||||
manually applying L<numify()|version/numify()> and L<normal()|version/normal()> will sometimes yield
|
||||
surprising results:
|
||||
|
||||
print version->new(version->new("v1.0")->numify)->normal; # v1.0.0
|
||||
|
||||
The reason for this is that the L<numify()|version/numify()> operator will turn "v1.0"
|
||||
into the equivalent string "1.000000". Forcing the outer version object
|
||||
to L<normal()|version/normal()> form will display the mathematically equivalent "v1.0.0".
|
||||
|
||||
As the example in L</new()> shows, you can always create a copy of an
|
||||
existing version object with the same value by the very compact:
|
||||
|
||||
$v2 = $v1->new($v1);
|
||||
|
||||
and be assured that both C<$v1> and C<$v2> will be completely equivalent,
|
||||
down to the same internal representation as well as stringification.
|
||||
|
||||
=back
|
||||
|
||||
=over 4
|
||||
|
||||
=item Comparison operators
|
||||
|
||||
Both C<cmp> and C<E<lt>=E<gt>> operators perform the same comparison between
|
||||
terms (upgrading to a version object automatically). Perl automatically
|
||||
generates all of the other comparison operators based on those two.
|
||||
In addition to the obvious equalities listed below, appending a single
|
||||
trailing 0 term does not change the value of a version for comparison
|
||||
purposes. In other words "v1.2" and "1.2.0" will compare as identical.
|
||||
|
||||
For example, the following relations hold:
|
||||
|
||||
As Number As String Truth Value
|
||||
------------- ---------------- -----------
|
||||
$ver > 1.0 $ver gt "1.0" true
|
||||
$ver < 2.5 $ver lt true
|
||||
$ver != 1.3 $ver ne "1.3" true
|
||||
$ver == 1.2 $ver eq "1.2" false
|
||||
$ver == 1.2.3.4 $ver eq "1.2.3.4" see discussion below
|
||||
|
||||
It is probably best to chose either the Decimal notation or the string
|
||||
notation and stick with it, to reduce confusion. Perl6 version objects
|
||||
B<may> only support Decimal comparisons. See also L<Quoting Rules>.
|
||||
|
||||
WARNING: Comparing version with unequal numbers of decimal points (whether
|
||||
explicitly or implicitly initialized), may yield unexpected results at
|
||||
first glance. For example, the following inequalities hold:
|
||||
|
||||
version->new(0.96) > version->new(0.95); # 0.960.0 > 0.950.0
|
||||
version->new("0.96.1") < version->new(0.95); # 0.096.1 < 0.950.0
|
||||
|
||||
For this reason, it is best to use either exclusively L<Decimal Versions> or
|
||||
L<Dotted-Decimal Versions> with multiple decimal points.
|
||||
|
||||
=back
|
||||
|
||||
=over 4
|
||||
|
||||
=item Logical Operators
|
||||
|
||||
If you need to test whether a version object
|
||||
has been initialized, you can simply test it directly:
|
||||
|
||||
$vobj = version->new($something);
|
||||
if ( $vobj ) # true only if $something was non-blank
|
||||
|
||||
You can also test whether a version object is an alpha version, for
|
||||
example to prevent the use of some feature not present in the main
|
||||
release:
|
||||
|
||||
$vobj = version->new("1.2_3"); # MUST QUOTE
|
||||
...later...
|
||||
if ( $vobj->is_alpha ) # True
|
||||
|
||||
=back
|
||||
|
||||
=head1 AUTHOR
|
||||
|
||||
John Peacock E<lt>jpeacock@cpan.orgE<gt>
|
||||
|
||||
=head1 SEE ALSO
|
||||
|
||||
L<perl>.
|
||||
|
||||
=cut
|
||||
Reference in New Issue
Block a user