CPAN::Changes::Spec(3)					User Contributed Perl Documentation				    CPAN::Changes::Spec(3)

NAME

       CPAN::Changes::Spec - Specification for CPAN Changes files

VERSION

       version 0.01

SYNOPSIS

	   Revision history for perl module Foo::Bar

	   0.02 2009-07-17

	    - Added more foo() tests

	   0.01 2009-07-16

	    - Initial release

DESCRIPTION

       This document describes version 0.1 of the specification for Changes files included in a CPAN distribution.

       It is intended as a guide for module authors to encourage them to write meaningful changelogs as well as provide a programmatic interface
       to reliably read and write Changes files.

DATA TYPES

   Version
       Versions should be formatted as described in "Version-Formats" in CPAN::Meta::Spec.

   Date
       A date/time in the format specified by <http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-datetime> aka W3CDTF.

STRUCTURE

   Required Elements
       In its simplest form, the only required elements are a version, a date and the noted changes. Blank lines between the "Version" line and
       the first "Change" line are optional. Blank lines between "Change" lines are also optional.

	   <Version>(whitespace)<Date>
	   (whitespace)<Change>

       "Change" lines have no specific format. Commonly, authors will use a dash "-" followed by a space to start a new change, and indent
       subsequent lines for multi-line changes. Example

	   - Simple Change
	   - This is a very very very long
	     change line

   Preamble
       Any amount of text before the first "Version" line will be considered part of the preamble. Most existing distributions include something
       along the lines of:

	   Revision history for perl module My::Module

   Groups
       Changelog entries may be grouped under headings. Heading lines begin with an opening square bracket ("["), and end with a matching square
       bracket ("]").  When parsing group headings, leading and trailing whitespace inside the brackets should be discarded.

	   (whitespace)[Grouping Name]
	   (whitespace)<Change>

       Since empty lines hold no special meaning, all "Change" lines will fall under the current group until a new group heading is found.
       Example:

	   [ First Group ]
	   - First Change

	   - Second Change; in first group

	   [ Second Group ]
	   - First Change; in second group

EXAMPLES

   Basic Example
	   0.01 2009-07-16
	    - Initial release

   Example with a preamble
	   Revision history for perl module Foo::Bar

	   0.02 2009-07-17

	    - Added more foo() tests

	   0.01 2009-07-16

	    - Initial release

   Example with groups
	   Revision history for perl module Foo::Bar

	   0.03 2009-07-18

	    [Important Security Information]
	    - This release fixes critical bug RT #1234

	    [Other Changes]
	    - Added some feature

	   0.02 2009-07-17

	    - Added more foo() tests

	   0.01 2009-07-16T19:20:30+01:00

	    - Initial release

SEE ALSO

       o   CPAN::Changes

       o   Test::CPAN::Changes

AUTHOR

       Brian Cassidy <bricas@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

       Copyright 2011-2012 by Brian Cassidy

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

perl v5.16.3							    2012-04-30						    CPAN::Changes::Spec(3)