Softwa...eUtils(3pm)

💖 Software::LicenseMoreUtils 💖

okay bestie, gather round, because this is a 3pm page — that's User Contributed Perl Documentation — and it's about Software::LicenseMoreUtils, the module that's basically the cooler older sibling of Software::License. It's giving extra utilities + a license summary, and honestly? Obsessed.

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✨ NAME ✨

Software::LicenseMoreUtils — more utilities and a summary for Software::License. Periodt.

🎀 VERSION 🎀

version 1.009 (yes, the real number, no cap)

🧚 SYNOPSIS 🧚

 use Software::LicenseMoreUtils;

 my $lic = Software::LicenseMoreUtils->new_from_short_name({
    short_name => 'Apache-2.0', # or GPL-2+, Artistic-2 ...
    holder => 'X. Ample' # unlike Software::License, holder is optional
 });

 # On Debian, return a license summary, returns license text elsewhere
 # with ot without copyright notice, depending if holder is set.
 my $text = $lic->summary_or_text;

 # returns license full text
 my $text = $lic->text;

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

So this module hands you more utilities for Software::License. Here's the whole vibe check:

• The method new_from_short_name returns a Software::LicenseMoreUtils::LicenseWithSummary object — and that lil guy gives you all the functionalities</>, of Software::License::* objects plus a summary on some Linux distribution (scroll down for that tea).
• new_from_short_name accepts more short names than Software::LicenseUtils does. Iconic behavior.
• new_from_short_name also accepts the "or any later version" variant of GPL licenses. When you use a short name like GPL-3+, the license summary contains the "or (at your option) any later version" statement. Slay.
• Software::License::LGPL-2 is also provided. Even though the license LGPL-2.1 is preferred over LGPL-2, some software in Debian uses LGPL-2. So we hold space for it. 🫶

📜 License summary 📜

In some distributions like Debian, all packages should come with the full text of the licenses of the package software. Yes, all of them. The whole thing. 😭

To avoid many duplications of long license text, the text of the most common licenses is provided in the /usr/share/common-licenses directory. So instead of copy-pasting a whole novel, the license text of a package only needs to provide a summary of the license that refers to the location of the common license. Chef's kiss. 👑

All summaries are provided for Debian (so, for Ubuntu too 💜). Other distributions are welcome to send a pull request for their license summaries — the door is open, bestie.

🛠️ Methods 🛠️

⭐ new_from_short_name ⭐

 my $license_object = Software::LicenseMoreUtils->new_from_short_name({
      short_name => 'GPL-1', # mandatory
      holder => 'X. Ample' # optional
 }) ;

Unlike Software::License, the Holder parameter is optional. When it's set, summary_or_text in Software::LicenseMoreUtils::LicenseWithSummary returns a copyright notice together with the text of the summary of the license.

Returns a new Software::LicenseMoreUtils::LicenseWithSummary object, which is a Software::License wrapped with a summary. This is a drop-in replacement for the Software::License object, because all methods are delegated to the underlying Software::License object. No drama, no rewrites. 💅

Known short license names are GPL-*, LGPL-*, and their "or later version" variants GPL-*+, LGPL-*+, Artistic and Artistic-*. And unlike vanilla Software::License, this module accepts license names with - (e.g. GPL-2) along with _ (e.g. GPL_2). Both. We contain multitudes. 🌈

SPDX v3 identifiers can also be used as short names. I.e. short names like GPL-2.0-only or LGPL-2.1-or-later are supported. iykyk ✨

If the short name is not known, this method tries to create a license object with Software::License and the specified short name (e.g. Software::License::MIT with short_name => 'MIT', or Software::License::Apache_2_0 with short_name => 'Apache-2.0'). So it'll still try its best for you. 🥺

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Dominique Dumont (the main character who wrote all this)

📝 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE 📝

This software is copyright (c) 2018, 2022 by Dominique Dumont.

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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💀 heads up bestie: this page is from perl v5.34.0, dated 2022-06-04. So if something's changed since then... that's between you and your CPAN mirror. 🙈

okay bye love u, go summarize some licenses responsibly 🦋💖