Software::LicenseUtils(3)

NAME
Software::LicenseUtils - little useful bits of code for licensey things

VERSION
version 0.104006

PERL VERSION
This module is part of CPAN toolchain, or is treated as such. As such, it follows the agreement of the Perl Toolchain Gang to require no newer version of perl than one released in the last ten years. This version may change by agreement of the Toolchain Gang, but for now is governed by the Lancaster Consensus <https://github.com/Perl-Toolchain-Gang/toolchain-site/blob/master/lancaster-consensus.md> of 2013 and the Lyon Amendment of 2023 (described at the linked-to document).

Although it may work on older versions of perl, no guarantee is made that the minimum required version will not be increased. The version may be increased for any reason, and there is no promise that patches will be accepted to lower the minimum required perl.

METHODS

  guess_license_from_pod
  my @guesses = Software::LicenseUtils->guess_license_from_pod($pm_text);

Given text containing POD, like a .pm file, this method will attempt to guess at the license under which the code is available. This method will return either a list of Software::License classes names (as strings) or false.

This method looks for a POD heading like 'license', 'copyright', or 'legal'.

Calling this method in scalar context is a fatal error.

  guess_license_from_meta
  my @guesses = Software::LicenseUtils->guess_license_from_meta($meta_str);

Given the content of the META.(yml|json) file found in a CPAN distribution, this method makes a guess as to which licenses may apply to the distribution. It will return a list of zero or more Software::License instances or classes.

  guess_license_from_meta_key
  my @guesses = Software::LicenseUtils->guess_license_from_meta_key($key, $v);

This method returns zero or more Software::License classes known to use $key as their META key. If $v is supplied, it specifies whether to treat $key as a v1 or v2 meta entry. Any value other than 1 or 2 will raise an exception.

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

Create a new Software::License object from the license specified with "short_name". Known short license names are "GPL-*", "LGPL-*" , "Artistic" and "Artistic-*"

  new_from_spdx_expression
  my $license_object = Software::LicenseUtils->new_from_spdx_expression( {
     spdx_expression => 'MPL-2.0',
     holder => 'X. Ample'
  }) ;

Create a new Software::License object from the license specified with "spdx_expression". Some licenses doesn't have an spdx identifier (for example Software::License::Perl_5), so you can pass spdx identifier but also expressions. Known spdx license identifiers are "BSD", "MPL-1.0".

AUTHOR
Ricardo Signes <cpan@semiotic.systems>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
This software is copyright (c) 2024 by Ricardo Signes.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.