V(3pm)

🦋 NAME 🦋

okay bestie, so V is literally just here to print the version of the module(s) you specify. that's the whole gig. no cap.

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

the classic move:

$ perl -MV=V

or, if you're feeling extra and want more than one:

$ perl -MV=CPAN,V

and now it can also serve as a light-weight module for grabbing versions of modules without loading them:

require V;
printf "%s has version '%s'\n", "V", V::get_version ("V");

Starting with version 0.17, V will show all "package"s or "class"es in a file that have a version. if you wanna see all packages/classes from that file, set the environment variable PERL_V_SHOW_ALL to a true value. 💅

and if you want all available files/versions from @INC:

require V;
my @all_V = V::Module::Info->all_installed ("V");
printf "%s:\n", $all_V[0]->name;
for my $file (@all_V) {
    my ($versions) = $file->version; # Must be list context
    if (@$versions > 1) {
        say "\t", $file->name;
        print "\t    %-30s: %s\n", $_->{pkg}, $_->{version} for @versions;
        }
    else {
        printf "\t%-50s - %s\n", $file->file, $versions->[0]{version};
        }
    }

every element in that array isa V::Module::Info object, and each one comes with 3 attributes and a method — here's the lineup:

• attribute name — the package name.
• attribute file — full filename with directory.
• attribute dir — the base directory (from @INC) where the package-file was found.
• method version — this method will look through the file to see if it can find a version assignment in the file and uses that to determine the version. As of version 0.13_01, all versions found are passed through the version module.

As of version 0.16_03 we look for all types of version declaration:

package Foo;
our $VERSION = 0.42;

and

package Foo 0.42;

and

package Foo 0.42 { ... }

and not only do we look for the "package" keyword, but also for "class". 👑

in list context this method will return an arrayref to a list of structures:

• pkg — the name of the "package"/"class".
• version — the version for that "package"/"class". (can be absent if $PERL_V_SHOW_ALL is true.)
• ord — the ordinal number of occurrence in the file.

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so this module uses stolen code from Module::Info to find the location and version of the module(s) you asked about. it prints them and exit()s. that's it, that's the plot. 😭

it defines "import ()" and is based on an idea from Michael Schwern on the perl5-porters list. see the discussion:

https://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2002/01/msg51007.html

🧚 V::get_version($pkg)

returns the version of the first available file for this package as found by following @INC.

Arguments

1. $pkg — the name of the package for which one wants to know the version.

Response

this "V::get_version ()" returns the version of the file that was first found for this package by following @INC, or "undef" if no file was found. 🫶

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💜 SEE ALSO 💜

there are numerous modules on CPAN that (try to) extract the VERSION from modules. ExtUtils::MakeMaker maybe being th most important inspiration. Module::Info was used to copy code from.

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🎀 AUTHOR 🎀

 Abe Timmerman -- 2002 - 2024 (✝ 2024-08-15 😢)
 H.Merijn Brand C<< <hmbrand@cpan.org> >> (2026 ...)

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👑 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE 👑

Copyright 2024-2026 H.Merijn Brand, All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2002-2024 Abe Timmerman, All Rights Reserved.

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

this program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

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and that's a wrap, bestie 🦋✨ — this was V(3pm) from the perl v5.40.1 distribution, dated 2026-01-25. slay, go check some versions, ily 🫶💖