Dist::Z...Version(3)

💖 NAME 💖

Dist::Zilla::Plugin::AutoVersion — the plugin that handles all your version numbering so you literally never have to think about it again. Bestie, it's giving "I got you" energy.

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✨ VERSION ✨

version 6.040 🌸

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Okay so picture this: you're building your dist and you're like "what version is this even." And this plugin is like "don't worry abt it 💅" — it just makes up a version string for you, usually based on the current time. Main character behavior, honestly.

By default it comes out looking like this: 1.yyDDDn

Periodt.

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💜 PERL VERSION 💜

So this module should work on any version of perl that's still getting updates from the Perl 5 Porters. What does that mean in practice? It means any perl released in the last two to three years, fr fr. (Like — if the most recent release is v5.40, then this module should work on both v5.40 and v5.38. Both. At the same time. Slay.)

And yeah, it may work on older perls too, but there's no guarantee that the minimum required version won't get bumped. The version can go up for literally any reason, and — this is the important part — there is no promise that patches will be accepted to lower the minimum required perl. So don't come at it with a downgrade PR and expect a yes. 🙈

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🎀 ATTRIBUTES 🎀

⭐ major

The major attribute is just an integer, bestie. Just a whole number, chillin', meant to store the major version number.

If you don't specify a value in configuration, it defaults to 1. Simple as that.

And the cutest part? This attribute's value can be referred to in the autoversion format template. It's invited to the party. 💖

🌈 format

The format attribute is a Text::Template string that gets rendered to form your version. What does it have access to?

• one variable: $major
• one subroutine: cldr, which formats the current time (in GMT) using CLDR patterns — and for those, go consult the DateTime documentation, iykyk.

And the default value? Buckle up, here it is, exactly:

{{ $major }}.{{ cldr('yyDDD') }}
{{ sprintf('%01u', ($ENV{N} || 0)) }}
{{$ENV{DEV} ? (sprintf '_%03u', $ENV{DEV}) : ''}}

Look at her go. 👑

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

Core Dist::Zilla plugins that are also in this friend group: PkgVersion, PodVersion, NextRelease.

Dist::Zilla roles: VersionProvider, TextTemplate.

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🫶 AUTHOR 🫶

Ricardo SIGNES 😏 <cpan@semiotic.systems>

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💅 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE 💅

This software is copyright (c) 2026 by Ricardo SIGNES.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

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Okay bestie, that's the whole page — this one came from the User Contributed Perl Documentation, sitting pretty at version 6.040, and the page itself was stamped by perl v5.42.3 on 2026-10-19. Go forth and never hand-number a version again 💖✨