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Perl::Critic::Policy::Modules::RequireVersionVar - Give every module a "$VERSION" number.

Affiliation

       This Policy is part of the core Perl::Critic distribution.

Author

       Jeffrey Ryan Thalhammer <jeff@imaginative-software.com>

Configuration

       This Policy is not configurable except for the standard options.

Description

       Every Perl file (modules, libraries, and programs) should have a package-scoped $VERSION variable.  The
       $VERSION allows clients to insist on a particular revision of your file like this:

           use SomeModule 2.4;  #Only loads version 2.4

       This Policy scans your file for any package variable named $VERSION.  I'm assuming that you are using
       "strict", so you'll have to declare it like one of these:

           our $VERSION = 1.0611;
           $MyPackage::VERSION = 1.061;
           use vars qw($VERSION);
           use version; our $VERSION = qv(1.0611);

       Perl's version system does not recognize lexical variables such as

           my $VERSION = 1.0611;

       so they are not accepted by this policy.

       A common practice is to use the "$Revision$" keyword to automatically define the $VERSION variable like
       this:

           our ($VERSION) = '$Revision$' =~ m{ \$Revision: \s+ (\S+) }x;

Name

       Perl::Critic::Policy::Modules::RequireVersionVar - Give every module a "$VERSION" number.

Notes

       Conway recommends using the "version" pragma instead of raw numbers or 'v-strings.'  However, this Policy
       only insists that the $VERSION be defined somehow.  I may try to extend this in the future.

To Do

       Add check that $VERSION is independently evaluatable.  In particular, prohibit this:

           our $VERSION = $Other::Module::VERSION;

       This doesn't work because PAUSE and other tools literally copy your version declaration out of your
       module and evaluates it in isolation, at which point there's nothing in "Other::Module", and so the
       $VERSION is undefined.

See Also