Debian::Copyright (3pm)

This document describes Debian::Copyright version 0.2 .

    my $c = Debian::Copyright->new();       # construct a new
    $c->read($file1);                       # parse debian copyright file
    $c->read($file2);                       # parse a second
    $c->write($ofile);                      # write to file

Debian::Copyright can be used for the representation, manipulation and merging of Debian copyright files in an object-oriented way. It provides easy reading and writing of the debian/copyright file found in Debian source packages. Debian has recently started standardising its copyright files around the machine-readable \*(L"Format: http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/\*(R" in \s-1DEP-5\s0 format.

note on terminology

The term \*(L"Stanza\*(R" derives from the dh-make-perl <http://packages.debian.org/sid/dh-make-perl> tool. The official term would now be \*(L"Paragraph\*(R". For the purposes of discussing the \s-1DEP-5\s0 format the terms are used interchangeably in this documentation.

header

An instance of Debian::Copyright::Stanza::Header class. Contains the the first stanza of the copyright file. If multiple files were parsed only the first will be retained.

files

A hash reference (actually Tie::IxHash instance) with keys being the values of the \*(C`Files\*(C' clause and values instances of Debian::Copyright::Stanza::Files class.

licenses

A hash reference (actually Tie::IxHash instance) with keys being the values of the \*(C`License\*(C' clause and values instances of Debian::Copyright::Stanza::License class.

new

Constructs a new Debian::Copyright instance.

The \*(C`header\*(C' field is initialised with an empty string. The \*(C`files_block\*(C' and \*(C`license_block\*(C' fields are initialised with an empty instance of Tie::IxHash.

read \fIfile\fP

Parse \*(L"copyright\*(R" in debian and accessors.

file can be either a file name, an opened file handle or a string scalar reference.

write \fIfile\fP

Writes a debian/copyright-like file in file with the contents defined in the accessor fields.

file can be either a file name, an opened file handle or a string scalar reference.

This module is written with one particular version of \s-1DEP-5\s0 <http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/> in mind. Furthermore version 0.1 of this software was for a draft version the standard. The changes in going from draft to standard were such that it was not worth attempting to maintain backwards compatibility.

Test coverage is not yet complete.

This version is not backwards compatible with version 0.1.

Thanks to Charles Plessy for various comments regarding the documentation.

Copyright (C) 2011-2012 Nicholas Bamber [email protected]

This module was adapted from Debian::Control. Copyright (C) 2009 Damyan Ivanov [email protected] [Portions]

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the \s-1GNU\s0 General Public License version 2 as published by the Free Software Foundation.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but \s-1WITHOUT\s0 \s-1ANY\s0 \s-1WARRANTY\s0; without even the implied warranty of \s-1MERCHANTABILITY\s0 or \s-1FITNESS\s0 \s-1FOR\s0 A \s-1PARTICULAR\s0 \s-1PURPOSE\s0.