Module::CoreList(3pm)

📦
version 5.42.3 · 15 versions
, in alpine 3.24

Hey bestie 💖 welcome to Module::CoreList — aka the Module::CoreList(3pm) page, but make it group-chat friendly. If you’ve ever needed to know which modules shipped with which version of perl, this is literally your girl. No cap. ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

Module::CoreList — the whole vibe is what modules shipped with versions of perl. 🫶

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

Peep the quick-start, bestie:

        use Module::CoreList;

        print $Module::CoreList::version{5.00503}{CPAN}; # prints 1.48

        print Module::CoreList->first_release('File::Spec');
        # prints 5.00405

        print Module::CoreList->first_release_by_date('File::Spec');
        # prints 5.005

        print Module::CoreList->first_release('File::Spec', 0.82);
        # prints 5.006001

        if (Module::CoreList::is_core('File::Spec')) {
          print "File::Spec is a core module\n";
        }

        print join ', ', Module::CoreList->find_modules(qr/Data/);
           # prints 'Data::Dumper'
        print join ', ',
                 Module::CoreList->find_modules(qr/test::h.*::.*s/i, 5.008008);
           # prints 'Test::Harness::Assert, Test::Harness::Straps'

        print join ", ", @{ $Module::CoreList::families{5.005} };
           # prints "5.005, 5.00503, 5.00504"

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

Module::CoreList gives you the tea ☕ on which core and dual-life modules shipped with each version of perl. Literally the receipts.

It provides a bunch of mechanisms for querying this info. Multiple ways to get your answers — main character energy.

There’s a utility called corelist provided with this module, which is a convenient way of querying from the command-line. Slay for terminal girlies. 💻✨

There’s also a functional programming API available for programmers to query information. Very demure, very mindful.

Programmers may also query the contained hash structures to find relevant information. Yes, the data structures are right there, bestie. 👑

🧚 FUNCTIONS API 🧚

These are the functions that are available — they may either be called as functions or class methods:

        Module::CoreList::first_release('File::Spec'); # as a function

        Module::CoreList->first_release('File::Spec'); # class method
  • first_release( MODULE ) — Behaviour since version 2.11. Requires a MODULE name as an argument, returns the perl version when that module first appeared in core as ordered by perl version number, or undef ( in scalar context ) or an empty list ( in list context ) if that module is not in core. 💅
  • first_release_by_date( MODULE ) — Requires a MODULE name as an argument, returns the perl version when that module first appeared in core as ordered by release date, or undef ( in scalar context ) or an empty list ( in list context ) if that module is not in core. 🗓️
  • find_modules( REGEX, [ LIST OF PERLS ] ) — Takes a regex as an argument, returns a list of modules that match the regex given. If only a regex is provided, it applies to all modules in all perl versions. Optionally you may provide a list of perl versions to limit the regex search. 🔍
  • find_version( PERL_VERSION ) — Takes a perl version as an argument. Upon successful completion, returns a reference to a hash. Each element of that hash has a key which is the name of a module (e.g., 'File::Path') shipped with that version of perl, and a value which is the version number (e.g., '2.09') of that module which shipped with that version of perl. Returns "undef" otherwise. 📦
  • is_core( MODULE, [ MODULE_VERSION, [ PERL_VERSION ] ] ) — Available in version 2.99 and above. Returns true if MODULE was bundled with the specified version of Perl. You can optionally specify a minimum version of the module, and can also specify a version of Perl. If a version of Perl isn’t specified, is_core() will use the numeric version of Perl that is running (ie $]). If you want to specify the version of Perl, but don’t care about the version of the module, pass "undef" for the module version: ✅
  • is_deprecated( MODULE, PERL_VERSION ) — Available in version 2.22 and above. Returns true if MODULE is marked as deprecated in PERL_VERSION. If PERL_VERSION is omitted, it defaults to the current version of Perl. 💀
  • deprecated_in( MODULE ) — Available in version 2.77 and above. Returns the first perl version where the MODULE was marked as deprecated. Returns "undef" if the MODULE has not been marked as deprecated. 🚩
  • removed_from( MODULE ) — Available in version 2.32 and above. Takes a module name as an argument, returns the first perl version where that module was removed from core. Returns undef if the given module was never in core or remains in core. 🫡
  • removed_from_by_date( MODULE ) — Available in version 2.32 and above. Takes a module name as an argument, returns the first perl version by release date where that module was removed from core. Returns undef if the given module was never in core or remains in core. 📅
  • changes_between( PERL_VERSION, PERL_VERSION ) — Available in version 2.66 and above. Given two perl versions, this returns a list of pairs describing the changes in core module content between them. The list is suitable for storing in a hash. The keys are library names and the values are hashrefs. Each hashref has an entry for one or both of "left" and "right", giving the versions of the library in each of the left and right perl distributions. 🔁

For example, it might return these data (among others) for the difference between 5.008000 and 5.008001:

  'Pod::ParseLink'  => { left => '1.05', right => '1.06' },
  'Pod::ParseUtils' => { left => '0.22', right => '0.3'  },
  'Pod::Perldoc'    => {                 right => '3.10' },
  'Pod::Perldoc::BaseTo' => {            right => undef  },

This shows us two libraries being updated and two being added, one of which has an undefined version in the right-hand side version. Literally the before-and-after. 💖

🎀 DATA STRUCTURES 🎀

These are the hash data structures that are available:

  • %Module::CoreList::version — A hash of hashes that is keyed on perl version as indicated in $]. The second level hash is module => version pairs. Note, it is possible for the version of a module to be unspecified, whereby the value is "undef", so use "exists $version{$foo}{$bar}" if that’s what you’re testing for. Starting with 2.10, the special module name "Unicode" refers to the version of the Unicode Character Database bundled with Perl. 🦋
  • %Module::CoreList::delta — Available in version 3.00 and above. It is a hash of hashes that is keyed on perl version. Each keyed hash will have the following keys:
  delta_from - a previous perl version that the changes are based on
  changed    - a hash of module/versions that have changed
  removed    - a hash of modules that have been removed
  • %Module::CoreList::released — Keyed on perl version, this contains ISO formatted versions of the release dates, as gleaned from perlhist. 🗓️
  • %Module::CoreList::families — New, in 1.96, a hash that clusters known perl releases by their major versions. 👯‍♀️
  • %Module::CoreList::deprecated — A hash of hashes keyed on perl version and on module name. If a module is defined, it indicates that that module is deprecated in that perl version and is scheduled for removal from core at some future point. ⚠️
  • %Module::CoreList::upstream — A hash that contains information on where patches should be directed for each core module. UPSTREAM indicates where patches should go. "undef" implies that this hasn’t been discussed for the module at hand. "blead" indicates that the copy of the module in the blead sources is to be considered canonical, "cpan" means that the module on CPAN is to be patched first. "first-come" means that blead can be patched freely if it is in sync with the latest release on CPAN. 🛠️
  • %Module::CoreList::bug_tracker — A hash that contains information on the appropriate bug tracker for each core module. BUGS is an email or url to post bug reports. For modules with UPSTREAM => 'blead', use <mailto:perl5-porters@perl.org>. rt.cpan.org appears to automatically provide a URL for CPAN modules; any value given here overrides the default: <http://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=$ModuleName>. 🐛

💀 CAVEATS 💀

  • Module::CoreList currently covers the 5.000, 5.001, 5.002, 5.003_07, 5.004, 5.004_05, 5.005, 5.005_03, 5.005_04 and 5.7.3 releases of perl.
  • All stable releases of perl since 5.6.0 are covered.
  • All development releases of perl since 5.9.0 are covered.
Okay but bestie, read the coverage list — this is the actual fine print. 💅

📜 HISTORY 📜

Moved to Changes file. The lore is archived elsewhere, bestie. 📚

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Richard Clamp <richardc@unixbeard.net>

Currently maintained by the perl 5 porters <perl5-porters@perl.org>.

🌈 LICENSE 🌈

Copyright (C) 2002-2009 Richard Clamp. All Rights Reserved.

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

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

That’s the whole manual, bestie 💜. This page is from perl v5.42.3, dated 2026-11-03, and it’s the Module::CoreList(3pm) manpage — periodt. 🫶✨

📦 where this page comes from