How do I parse CPAN .meta files

1arryb has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi Monks,

I build an index from a CPAN mirror (downloaded from rsync.nic.funet.fi::CPAN). The .../AUTHORS/ID/ area of the mirror contains the actual module .tar.gz archives. Next to most of these files is a .meta file with the same name. I've included a typical one at the end of my post. My question is, what module should I use to parse this file? I cannot find any references to .meta files on CPAN. .yml, yes. .json, also. But no .meta. I tried to parse the files anyway with Parse::CPAN::Meta, but without luck. I'd like to avoid re-inventing this wheel if I can. Thanks!

$ cat AUTHORS/ID/C/CH/CHENRYN/Message-Passing-Filter-Regexp-0.02.meta
{
   "abstract" : "Regexp Capture Filter For Message::Passing",
   "author" : [
      "chenryn <rao.chenlin@gmail.com>"
   ],
   "dynamic_config" : 1,
   "generated_by" : "ExtUtils::MakeMaker version 6.62, CPAN::Meta::Con
+verter version 2.112150",
   "license" : [
      "unknown"
   ],
   "meta-spec" : {
      "url" : "http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?CPAN::Meta::Spec",
      "version" : "2"
   },
   "name" : "Message-Passing-Filter-Regexp",
   "no_index" : {
      "directory" : [
         "t",
         "inc"
      ]
   },
   "prereqs" : {
      "build" : {
         "requires" : {
            "ExtUtils::MakeMaker" : 0
         }
      },
      "configure" : {
         "requires" : {
            "ExtUtils::MakeMaker" : 0
         }
      },
      "runtime" : {
         "requires" : {
            "Config::Tiny" : 0,
            "JSON::Types" : 0,
            "Message::Passing" : "0.11",
            "Regexp::Log" : 0
         }
      }
   },
   "release_status" : "stable",
   "version" : "0.02"
}
[download]

Comment on How do I parse CPAN .meta files Download Code

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Re: How do I parse CPAN .meta files by davido (Cardinal) on Jan 19, 2013 at 01:59 UTC
That's JSON. JSON ought to do the trick, or minimally JSON::Tiny: use Data::Dumper; use JSON::Tiny; my $json = do { local $/ = undef; <DATA>; }; my $hash = JSON::Tiny->new->decode($json); print Dumper $hash; __DATA__ { "abstract" : "Regexp Capture Filter For Message::Passing", "author" : [ "chenryn <rao.chenlin@gmail.com>" ], "dynamic_config" : 1, "generated_by" : "ExtUtils::MakeMaker version 6.62, CPAN::Meta::Con +verter version 2.112150", "license" : [ "unknown" ], "meta-spec" : { "url" : "http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?CPAN::Meta::Spec", "version" : "2" }, "name" : "Message-Passing-Filter-Regexp", "no_index" : { "directory" : [ "t", "inc" ] }, "prereqs" : { "build" : { "requires" : { "ExtUtils::MakeMaker" : 0 } }, "configure" : { "requires" : { "ExtUtils::MakeMaker" : 0 } }, "runtime" : { "requires" : { "Config::Tiny" : 0, "JSON::Types" : 0, "Message::Passing" : "0.11", "Regexp::Log" : 0 } } }, "release_status" : "stable", "version" : "0.02" } [download] I won't bother dumping the output here, but it does work. ;) As for understanding the spec itself, there's CPAN::Meta::Spec Or more minimally, as a one-liner: `perl -0777 -MData::Dumper -MJSON::Tiny -e 'print Dumper( JSON::Tiny->new->decode( <> ) );' file.txt` Dave	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: How do I parse CPAN .meta files by zwon (Abbot) on Jan 19, 2013 at 01:58 UTC
.meta files are either YAML or JSON. Try the following script: `use 5.010; use strict; use warnings; use DDP; use YAML::XS qw(LoadFile); my $ref = LoadFile($ARGV[0]); p $ref;` [download]	[reply] [d/l]


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