Perl::CriPerl::Critic::Policy::ValuesAndExpressions::RequireConstantVersion(3)NAMEPerl::Critic::Policy::ValuesAndExpressions::RequireConstantVersion-
Require $VERSION to be a constant rather than a computed value.
AFFILIATION
This Policy is part of the core Perl::Critic distribution.
DESCRIPTION
The $VERSION variable of a module should be a simple constant - either
a number, a single-quotish string, or a 'use version' object. In the
latter case the 'use version;' must appear on the same line as the
object construction.
Computing the version has problems of various severities.
The most benign violation is computing the version from (e.g.) a
Subversion revision number:
our ($VERSION) = q$REVISION: 42$ =~ /(\d+)/;
The problem here is that the version is tied to a single repository.
The code can not be moved to another repository (even of the same type)
without changing its version, possibly in the wrong direction.
This policy accepts v-strings ("v1.2.3" or just plain 1.2.3), since
these are already flagged by
Perl::Critic::Policy::ValuesAndExpressions::ProhibitVersionStrings.
CONFIGURATION
The proper way to set a module's $VERSION to a "version" object is to
"use version;" on the same line of code that assigns the value of
$VERSION. That way, ExtUtils::MakeMaker and Module::Build can extract
the version when packaging the module for CPAN. By default, this policy
declares an error if this is not done.
Should you wish to allow version objects without loading the version
module on the same line, add the following to your configuration file:
[ValuesAndExpressions::RequireConstantVersion]
allow_version_without_use_on_same_line = 1
CAVEATS
There will be false negatives if the $VERSION appears on the left-hand
side of a list assignment that assigns to more than one variable, or to
"undef".
There may be false positives if the $VERSION is assigned the value of a
here document. This will probably remain the case until
PPI::Token::HereDoc acquires the relevant portions of the
PPI::Token::Quote interface.
There will be false positives if $VERSION is assigned the value of a
constant created by the Readonly module or the constant pragma, because
the necessary infrastructure appears not to exist, and the author of
the present module lacked the knowledge/expertise/gumption to put it in
place.
Currently the idiom
our $VERSION = '1.005_05';
$VERSION = eval $VERSION;
will produce a violation on the second line of the example.
AUTHOR
Thomas R. Wyant, III wyant at cpan dot org
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 2009-2011 Tom Wyant.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself. The full text of this license can
be found in the LICENSE file included with this module
perl v5.1Perl::Critic::Policy::ValuesAndExpressions::RequireConstantVersion(3)
