Parse::...ibution(3)

💖 Parse::LocalDistribution 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to Parse::LocalDistribution — it's a Perl module, it lives in the User Contributed Perl Documentation section of your friendly neighbourhood man pages, and it does exactly one thing gorgeously: it parses local .pm files as PAUSE does. no cap. that's the whole vibe. 🎀

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

use Parse::LocalDistribution;

my $parser = Parse::LocalDistribution->new({ALLOW_DEV_VERSION => 1});
my $provides = $parser->parse('.');

literally three lines and you're done, we love a low-effort icon 💅

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so this module is the sister module of Parse::PMFile, and she's giving very much "I do my own thing but we're related." 🫶

here's the deal: it parses local .pm files — and a META file if there is one — inside a specific directory (or the current directory if you don't specify one, she's chill like that). then it hands you back a hash reference that represents the "provides" information, plus some extra meta data sprinkled on top like glitter. ✨

it's almost the same as what Module::Metadata does — and fun fact bestie, Module::Metadata has been in Perl core since Perl 5.13.9, so she's basically famous. 👑

but here's the main difference: most of the code in this module is directly taken from the PAUSE code as of June 2013. so:

• need better compatibility with PAUSE? try this. 💖
• need better performance, safety, or portability in general? Module::Metadata may be a better and handier option for you. no shade, just facts.

⚠️ okay important warning moment: Parse::PMFile (and therefore Parse::LocalDistribution too, she inherited it) actually evaluates code in the $VERSION line — inside a Safe compartment, yes, but still — and that can be problematic in some cases. so just, like, be aware. 😭

one more thing: this module does not provide a feature to extract a distribution. if you're too lazy to implement that yourself (real, honestly, respect), CPAN::ParseDistribution may be another good option. 🦋

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✨ METHODS ✨

🌈 new

creates an object. you can pass an optional path and/or an optional hashref to configure it. the options are:

• ALLOW_DEV_VERSION — Parse::LocalDistribution (well, actually Parse::PMFile) usually ignores a version with an underscore, exactly like PAUSE does, because that's a developer release and it should not be indexed, periodt. set this option to true if you happen to need to keep such a version around for better analysis. 🧚
• VERBOSE — set this to true if you need to know some details. nosy bestie energy, valid. 👀
• FORK — if you really need to let Parse::PMFile fork while parsing a version (as PAUSE does), set this to true. like, really really. 🍓
• USERID, PERMISSIONS — Parse::LocalDistribution checks permissions of a package if both USERID and PERMISSIONS are provided. heads up: PERMISSIONS should be an instance of PAUSE::Permissions. unauthorized packages are removed — sorry babe, security is security. 💅
• META_CONTENT — if you already have parsed a META file, set this to avoid parsing the same META file again. efficiency queen. ⭐

🦋 parse

may take a path to a local distribution, and returns a hash reference that holds information for the package(s) found in that directory. that's it, that's the girl. 💜

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🌟 SEE ALSO 🌟

most part of this module is derived from PAUSE. give her her flowers. 💐

<https://github.com/andk/pause>

the following distributions do similar parsing, though the results may differ sometimes (iykyk):

Module::Metadata, CPAN::ParseDistribution

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💜 AUTHOR 💜

Andreas Koenig <andreas.koenig@anima.de>

Kenichi Ishigaki, <ishigaki@cpan.org>

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🎀 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE 🎀

Copyright 1995 - 2013 by Andreas Koenig <andk@cpan.org> for most of the code.

Copyright 2013 by Kenichi Ishigaki for some.

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

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okay that's the whole page bestie, you ate that 🫶✨ this was Parse::LocalDistribution, documented as part of perl v5.42.0, dated 2026-01-17, and filed under Parse::...ibution(3) in your manual. go forth and parse. 🌈👑