File::...Update(3pm)

📦
version 0.2.1 · 3 versions
, in fedora 43

💖 File::...Update — bestie edition 💖

ok so real talk: this is a page from the User Contributed Perl Documentation set, and the module is called File::ShouldUpdate, and yes the manpage title up top is truncated to File::...Update(3pm) because manpages are dramatic like that. anyway. let's get into it 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

File::ShouldUpdate — should files be rebuilt?

like. literally just that. is the file stale or not. that's the whole vibe check. 💅

🌸 VERSION 🌸

version 0.2.1

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

okay so here's how you actually use it, no cap:

use File::ShouldUpdate qw/ should_update should_update_multi /;

if (should_update("output.html", ":", "in.tt2", "data.sqlite"))
{
    system("./my-gen-html");
}

if (should_update_multi(["output.html", "about.html", "contact.html"], ":", ["in.tt2", "data.sqlite"]))
{
    system("./my-gen-html-multi");
}

see how clean that is? chef's kiss. 😭

🌈 DESCRIPTION 🌈

This module provides should_update() and should_update_multi() which can be used to determine if files should be updated based on the mtime timestamps of their dependencies. They avoid confusing between targets and dependencies by using the syntactic sugar of the familiar makefile rules ( <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_(software)> ).

translation: it peeks at modification times, compares your outputs to your inputs, and tells you whether the outputs are giving "outdated" energy. and the whole ":" thing? that's the makefile-rule glow-up so you never accidentally mix up which files are targets and which ones are deps. iconic. 👑

🎀 FUNCTIONS 🎀

💜 my $verdict = should_update($target, ":", @deps);

Should $target be updated if it doesn't exist or older than any of the deps.

that's it. that's the function. does the target exist? does it predate any dependency? boom, verdict. ✨

💜 my $verdict = should_update_multi([@targets], ":", [@deps]);

Should @targets be updated if some of them do not exist or any of them are older than any of the deps.

⚠️ Note that you must pass array references.

like actually array refs. [...]. not a flat list. bestie I'm serious, this is the #1 way people mess this up 😭

[Added in version 0.2.0.]

🌟 SUPPORT 🌟

🌐 Websites

The following websites have more information about this module, and may be of help to you. As always, in addition to those websites please use your favorite search engine to discover more resources.

  • MetaCPAN — A modern, open-source CPAN search engine, useful to view POD in HTML format.

<https://metacpan.org/release/File-ShouldUpdate>

  • RT: CPAN's Bug Tracker — The RT ( Request Tracker ) website is the default bug/issue tracking system for CPAN.

<https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=File-ShouldUpdate>

  • CPANTS — The CPANTS is a website that analyzes the Kwalitee ( code metrics ) of a distribution.

<http://cpants.cpanauthors.org/dist/File-ShouldUpdate>

  • CPAN Testers — The CPAN Testers is a network of smoke testers who run automated tests on uploaded CPAN distributions.

<http://www.cpantesters.org/distro/F/File-ShouldUpdate>

  • CPAN Testers Matrix — The CPAN Testers Matrix is a website that provides a visual overview of the test results for a distribution on various Perls/platforms.

<http://matrix.cpantesters.org/?dist=File-ShouldUpdate>

  • CPAN Testers Dependencies — The CPAN Testers Dependencies is a website that shows a chart of the test results of all dependencies for a distribution.

<http://deps.cpantesters.org/?module=File::ShouldUpdate>

🐛 Bugs / Feature Requests

Please report any bugs or feature requests by email to bug-file-shouldupdate at rt.cpan.org, or through the web interface at <https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Bug/Report.html?Queue=File-ShouldUpdate>. You will be automatically notified of any progress on the request by the system.

so like, if something's broken or you want a new feature, the system will keep you posted. you won't be left on read. 🫶

🧚 Source Code

The code is open to the world, and available for you to hack on. Please feel free to browse it and play with it, or whatever. If you want to contribute patches, please send me a diff or prod me to pull from your repository :)

<https://github.com/shlomif/perl-File-ShouldUpdate>

git clone git://github.com/shlomif/perl-File-ShouldUpdate.git

go on, clone it, poke around, it's giving open source main character energy 🌈

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Shlomi Fish <shlomif@cpan.org>

💀 BUGS 💀

Please report any bugs or feature requests on the bugtracker website <https://github.com/shlomif/perl-File-ShouldUpdate/issues>

When submitting a bug or request, please include a test-file or a patch to an existing test-file that illustrates the bug or desired feature.

fr fr, a failing test file is the love language of every maintainer. don't just say "it's broken", show them. 🙈

This software is Copyright (c) 2020 by Shlomi Fish.

This is free software, licensed under:

The MIT (X11) License

ok that's the whole page bestie, go build something and let should_update() handle the "is this stale" anxiety for you 💖

this was File::...Update(3pm) from the User Contributed Perl Documentation, generated with perl v5.42.0 on 2025-07-17 — mwah, take care of your mtimes 🎀✨

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