NAME
    Perl::Critic - Critique Perl source code for best-practices

SYNOPSIS
      use Perl::Critic;
      my $file = shift;
      my $critic = Perl::Critic->new();
      my @violations = $critic->critique($file);
      print @violations;

DESCRIPTION
    Perl::Critic is an extensible framework for creating and applying coding
    standards to Perl source code. Essentially, it is a static source code
    analysis engine. Perl::Critic is distributed with a number of
    Perl::Critic::Policy modules that attempt to enforce various coding
    guidelines. Most Policy modules are based on Damian Conway's book Perl
    Best Practices. However, Perl::Critic is not limited to PBP and will
    even support Policies that contradict Conway. You can enable, disable,
    and customize those Polices through the Perl::Critic interface. You can
    also create new Policy modules that suit your own tastes.

    For a command-line interface to Perl::Critic, see the documentation for
    perlcritic. If you want to integrate Perl::Critic with your build
    process, Test::Perl::Critic provides an interface that is suitable for
    test scripts. Also, Test::Perl::Critic::Progressive is useful for
    gradually applying coding standards to legacy code. For the ultimate
    convenience (at the expense of some flexibility) see the criticism
    pragma.

    Win32 and ActivePerl users can find PPM distributions of Perl::Critic at
    <http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppms/>.

    If you'd like to try Perl::Critic without installing anything, there is
    a web-service available at <http://perlcritic.com>. The web-service does
    not yet support all the configuration features that are available in the
    native Perl::Critic API, but it should give you a good idea of what it
    does. You can also invoke the perlcritic web-service from the
    command-line by doing an HTTP-post, such as one of these:

       $> POST http://perlcritic.com/perl/critic.pl < MyModule.pm
       $> lwp-request -m POST http://perlcritic.com/perl/critic.pl < MyModule.pm
       $> wget -q -O - --post-file=MyModule.pm http://perlcritic.com/perl/critic.pl

    Please note that the perlcritic web-service is still alpha code. The URL
    and interface to the service are subject to change.

CONSTRUCTOR
    "new( [ -profile => $FILE, -severity => $N, -theme => $string, -include
    => \@PATTERNS, -exclude => \@PATTERNS, -top => $N, -only => $B,
    -profile-strictness => $PROFILE_STRICTNESS_{WARN|FATAL|QUIET}, -force =>
    $B, -verbose => $N ], -color => $B )"
    "new( -config => Perl::Critic::Config->new() )"
    "new()" Returns a reference to a new Perl::Critic object. Most arguments
            are just passed directly into Perl::Critic::Config, but I have
            described them here as well. The default value for all arguments
            can be defined in your .perlcriticrc file. See the
            "CONFIGURATION" section for more information about that. All
            arguments are optional key-value pairs as follows:

            -profile is a path to a configuration file. If $FILE is not
            defined, Perl::Critic::Config attempts to find a .perlcriticrc
            configuration file in the current directory, and then in your
            home directory. Alternatively, you can set the "PERLCRITIC"
            environment variable to point to a file in another location. If
            a configuration file can't be found, or if $FILE is an empty
            string, then all Policies will be loaded with their default
            configuration. See "CONFIGURATION" for more information.

            -severity is the minimum severity level. Only Policy modules
            that have a severity greater than $N will be applied. Severity
            values are integers ranging from 1 (least severe) to 5 (most
            severe). The default is 5. For a given "-profile", decreasing
            the "-severity" will usually reveal more Policy violations. You
            can set the default value for this option in your .perlcriticrc
            file. Users can redefine the severity level for any Policy in
            their .perlcriticrc file. See "CONFIGURATION" for more
            information.

            If it is difficult for you to remember whether severity "5" is
            the most or least restrictive level, then you can use one of
            these named values:

                SEVERITY NAME   ...is equivalent to...   SEVERITY NUMBER
                --------------------------------------------------------
                -severity => 'gentle'                     -severity => 5
                -severity => 'stern'                      -severity => 4
                -severity => 'harsh'                      -severity => 3
                -severity => 'cruel'                      -severity => 2
                -severity => 'brutal'                     -severity => 1

            -theme is special expression that determines which Policies to
            apply based on their respective themes. For example, the
            following would load only Policies that have a 'bugs' AND 'pbp'
            theme:

              my $critic = Perl::Critic->new( -theme => 'bugs && pbp' );

            Unless the "-severity" option is explicitly given, setting
            "-theme" silently causes the "-severity" to be set to 1. You can
            set the default value for this option in your .perlcriticrc
            file. See the "POLICY THEMES" section for more information about
            themes.

            -include is a reference to a list of string @PATTERNS. Policy
            modules that match at least one "m/$PATTERN/imx" will always be
            loaded, irrespective of all other settings. For example:

              my $critic = Perl::Critic->new(-include => ['layout'] -severity => 4);

            This would cause Perl::Critic to apply all the "CodeLayout::*"
            Policy modules even though they have a severity level that is
            less than 4. You can set the default value for this option in
            your .perlcriticrc file. You can also use "-include" in
            conjunction with the "-exclude" option. Note that "-exclude"
            takes precedence over "-include" when a Policy matches both
            patterns.

            -exclude is a reference to a list of string @PATTERNS. Policy
            modules that match at least one "m/$PATTERN/imx" will not be
            loaded, irrespective of all other settings. For example:

              my $critic = Perl::Critic->new(-exclude => ['strict'] -severity => 1);

            This would cause Perl::Critic to not apply the
            "RequireUseStrict" and "ProhibitNoStrict" Policy modules even
            though they have a severity level that is greater than 1. You
            can set the default value for this option in your .perlcriticrc
            file. You can also use "-exclude" in conjunction with the
            "-include" option. Note that "-exclude" takes precedence over
            "-include" when a Policy matches both patterns.

            -single-policy is a string "PATTERN". Only one policy that
            matches "m/$PATTERN/imx" will be used. Policies that do not
            match will be excluded. This option has precedence over the
            "-severity", "-theme", "-include", "-exclude", and "-only"
            options. You can set the default value for this option in your
            .perlcriticrc file.

            -top is the maximum number of Violations to return when ranked
            by their severity levels. This must be a positive integer.
            Violations are still returned in the order that they occur
            within the file. Unless the "-severity" option is explicitly
            given, setting "-top" silently causes the "-severity" to be set
            to 1. You can set the default value for this option in your
            .perlcriticrc file.

            -only is a boolean value. If set to a true value, Perl::Critic
            will only choose from Policies that are mentioned in the user's
            profile. If set to a false value (which is the default), then
            Perl::Critic chooses from all the Policies that it finds at your
            site. You can set the default value for this option in your
            .perlcriticrc file.

            -profile-strictness is an enumerated value, one of
            "$PROFILE_STRICTNESS_WARN" in Perl::Critic::Utils::Constants
            (the default), "$PROFILE_STRICTNESS_FATAL" in
            Perl::Critic::Utils::Constants, and "$PROFILE_STRICTNESS_QUIET"
            in Perl::Critic::Utils::Constants. If set to
            "$PROFILE_STRICTNESS_FATAL" in Perl::Critic::Utils::Constants,
            Perl::Critic will make certain warnings about problems found in
            a .perlcriticrc or file specified via the -profile option fatal.
            For example, Perl::Critic normally only "warn"s about profiles
            referring to non-existent Policies, but this value makes this
            situation fatal. Correspondingly, "$PROFILE_STRICTNESS_QUIET" in
            Perl::Critic::Utils::Constants makes Perl::Critic shut up about
            these things.

            -force is a boolean value that controls whether Perl::Critic
            observes the magical "## no critic" pseudo-pragmas in your code.
            If set to a true value, Perl::Critic will analyze all code. If
            set to a false value (which is the default) Perl::Critic will
            ignore code that is tagged with these comments. See "BENDING THE
            RULES" for more information. You can set the default value for
            this option in your .perlcriticrc file.

            -verbose can be a positive integer (from 1 to 11), or a literal
            format specification. See Perl::Critic::Violations for an
            explanation of format specifications. You can set the default
            value for this option in your .perlcriticrc file.

            -color is not used by Perl::Critic but is provided for the
            benefit of perlcritic.

            -config is a reference to a Perl::Critic::Config object. If you
            have created your own Config object for some reason, you can
            pass it in here instead of having Perl::Critic create one for
            you. Using the "-config" option causes all the other options to
            be silently ignored.

METHODS
    "critique( $source_code )"
            Runs the $source_code through the Perl::Critic engine using all
            the Policies that have been loaded into this engine. If
            $source_code is a scalar reference, then it is treated as a
            string of actual Perl code. If $source_code is a reference to an
            instance of PPI::Document, then that instance is used directly.
            Otherwise, it is treated as a path to a local file containing
            Perl code. This method returns a list of Perl::Critic::Violation
            objects for each violation of the loaded Policies. The list is
            sorted in the order that the Violations appear in the code. If
            there are no violations, this method returns an empty list.

    "add_policy( -policy => $policy_name, -params => \%param_hash )"
            Creates a Policy object and loads it into this Critic. If the
            object cannot be instantiated, it will throw a fatal exception.
            Otherwise, it returns a reference to this Critic.

            -policy is the name of a Perl::Critic::Policy subclass module.
            The 'Perl::Critic::Policy' portion of the name can be omitted
            for brevity. This argument is required.

            -params is an optional reference to a hash of Policy parameters.
            The contents of this hash reference will be passed into to the
            constructor of the Policy module. See the documentation in the
            relevant Policy module for a description of the arguments it
            supports.

    " policies() "
            Returns a list containing references to all the Policy objects
            that have been loaded into this engine. Objects will be in the
            order that they were loaded.

    " config() "
            Returns the Perl::Critic::Config object that was created for or
            given to this Critic.

    " statistics() "
            Returns the Perl::Critic::Statistics object that was created for
            this Critic. The Statistics object accumulates data for all
            files that are analyzed by this Critic.

FUNCTIONAL INTERFACE
    For those folks who prefer to have a functional interface, The
    "critique" method can be exported on request and called as a static
    function. If the first argument is a hashref, its contents are used to
    construct a new Perl::Critic object internally. The keys of that hash
    should be the same as those supported by the "Perl::Critic::new" method.
    Here are some examples:

      use Perl::Critic qw(critique);

      # Use default parameters...
      @violations = critique( $some_file );

      # Use custom parameters...
      @violations = critique( {-severity => 2}, $some_file );

      # As a one-liner
      %> perl -MPerl::Critic=critique -e 'print critique(shift)' some_file.pm

    None of the other object-methods are currently supported as static
    functions. Sorry.

CONFIGURATION
    Most of the settings for Perl::Critic and each of the Policy modules can
    be controlled by a configuration file. The default configuration file is
    called .perlcriticrc. Perl::Critic will look for this file in the
    current directory first, and then in your home directory. Alternatively,
    you can set the "PERLCRITIC" environment variable to explicitly point to
    a different file in another location. If none of these files exist, and
    the "-profile" option is not given to the constructor, then all the
    modules that are found in the Perl::Critic::Policy namespace will be
    loaded with their default configuration.

    The format of the configuration file is a series of INI-style blocks
    that contain key-value pairs separated by '='. Comments should start
    with '#' and can be placed on a separate line or after the name-value
    pairs if you desire.

    Default settings for Perl::Critic itself can be set before the first
    named block. For example, putting any or all of these at the top of your
    configuration file will set the default value for the corresponding
    constructor argument.

        severity  = 3                                     #Integer or named level
        only      = 1                                     #Zero or One
        force     = 0                                     #Zero or One
        verbose   = 4                                     #Integer or format spec
        top       = 50                                    #A positive integer
        theme     = (pbp || security) && bugs             #A theme expression
        include   = NamingConventions ClassHierarchies    #Space-delimited list
        exclude   = Variables  Modules::RequirePackage    #Space-delimited list
        color     = 1                                     #Zero or One

    The remainder of the configuration file is a series of blocks like this:

        [Perl::Critic::Policy::Category::PolicyName]
        severity = 1
        set_themes = foo bar
        add_themes = baz
        arg1 = value1
        arg2 = value2

    "Perl::Critic::Policy::Category::PolicyName" is the full name of a
    module that implements the policy. The Policy modules distributed with
    Perl::Critic have been grouped into categories according to the table of
    contents in Damian Conway's book Perl Best Practices. For brevity, you
    can omit the 'Perl::Critic::Policy' part of the module name.

    "severity" is the level of importance you wish to assign to the Policy.
    All Policy modules are defined with a default severity value ranging
    from 1 (least severe) to 5 (most severe). However, you may disagree with
    the default severity and choose to give it a higher or lower severity,
    based on your own coding philosophy. You can set the "severity" to an
    integer from 1 to 5, or use one of the equivalent names:

        SEVERITY NAME ...is equivalent to... SEVERITY NUMBER
        ----------------------------------------------------
        gentle                                             5
        stern                                              4
        harsh                                              3
        cruel                                              2
        brutal                                             1

    "set_themes" sets the theme for the Policy and overrides its default
    theme. The argument is a string of one or more whitespace-delimited
    alphanumeric words. Themes are case-insensitive. See "POLICY THEMES" for
    more information.

    "add_themes" appends to the default themes for this Policy. The argument
    is a string of one or more whitespace-delimited words. Themes are
    case-insensitive. See "POLICY THEMES" for more information.

    The remaining key-value pairs are configuration parameters that will be
    passed into the constructor for that Policy. The constructors for most
    Policy objects do not support arguments, and those that do should have
    reasonable defaults. See the documentation on the appropriate Policy
    module for more details.

    Instead of redefining the severity for a given Policy, you can
    completely disable a Policy by prepending a '-' to the name of the
    module in your configuration file. In this manner, the Policy will never
    be loaded, regardless of the "-severity" given to the Perl::Critic
    constructor.

    A simple configuration might look like this:

        #--------------------------------------------------------------
        # I think these are really important, so always load them

        [TestingAndDebugging::RequireUseStrict]
        severity = 5

        [TestingAndDebugging::RequireUseWarnings]
        severity = 5

        #--------------------------------------------------------------
        # I think these are less important, so only load when asked

        [Variables::ProhibitPackageVars]
        severity = 2

        [ControlStructures::ProhibitPostfixControls]
        allow = if unless  # My custom configuration
        severity = cruel   # Same as "severity = 2"

        #--------------------------------------------------------------
        # Give these policies a custom theme.  I can activate just
        # these policies by saying `perlcritic -theme larry`

        [Modules::RequireFilenameMatchesPackage]
        add_themes = larry

        [TestingAndDebugging::RequireTestLables]
        add_themes = larry curly moe

        #--------------------------------------------------------------
        # I do not agree with these at all, so never load them

        [-NamingConventions::ProhibitMixedCaseVars]
        [-NamingConventions::ProhibitMixedCaseSubs]

        #--------------------------------------------------------------
        # For all other Policies, I accept the default severity,
        # so no additional configuration is required for them.

    For additional configuration examples, see the perlcriticrc file that is
    included in this examples directory of this distribution.

    Damian Conway's own Perl::Critic configuration is also included in this
    distribution as examples/perlcriticrc-conway.

THE POLICIES
    A large number of Policy modules are distributed with Perl::Critic. They
    are described briefly in the companion document
    Perl::Critic::PolicySummary and in more detail in the individual modules
    themselves. Say ""perlcritic -doc PATTERN"" to see the perldoc for all
    Policy modules that match the regex "m/PATTERN/imx"

    There are a number of distributions of additional policies on CPAN. If
    Perl::Critic doesn't contain a policy that you want, some one may have
    already written it. See the "SEE ALSO" section below for a list of some
    of these distributions.

POLICY THEMES
    Each Policy is defined with one or more "themes". Themes can be used to
    create arbitrary groups of Policies. They are intended to provide an
    alternative mechanism for selecting your preferred set of Policies. For
    example, you may wish disable a certain subset of Policies when
    analyzing test scripts. Conversely, you may wish to enable only a
    specific subset of Policies when analyzing modules.

    The Policies that ship with Perl::Critic are have been broken into the
    following themes. This is just our attempt to provide some basic logical
    groupings. You are free to invent new themes that suit your needs.

        THEME             DESCRIPTION
        --------------------------------------------------------------------------
        core              All policies that ship with Perl::Critic
        pbp               Policies that come directly from "Perl Best Practices"
        bugs              Policies that that prevent or reveal bugs
        maintenance       Policies that affect the long-term health of the code
        cosmetic          Policies that only have a superficial effect
        complexity        Policies that specificaly relate to code complexity
        security          Policies that relate to security issues
        tests             Policies that are specific to test scripts

    Any Policy may fit into multiple themes. Say "perlcritic -list" to get a
    listing of all available Policies and the themes that are associated
    with each one. You can also change the theme for any Policy in your
    .perlcriticrc file. See the "CONFIGURATION" section for more information
    about that.

    Using the "-theme" option, you can create an arbitrarily complex rule
    that determines which Policies will be loaded. Precedence is the same as
    regular Perl code, and you can use parens to enforce precedence as well.
    Supported operators are:

       Operator    Altertative    Example
       ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
       &&          and            'pbp && core'
       ||          or             'pbp || (bugs && security)'
       !           not            'pbp && ! (portability || complexity)'

    Theme names are case-insensitive. If the "-theme" is set to an empty
    string, then it evaluates as true all Policies.

BENDING THE RULES
    Perl::Critic takes a hard-line approach to your code: either you comply
    or you don't. In the real world, it is not always practical (nor even
    possible) to fully comply with coding standards. In such cases, it is
    wise to show that you are knowingly violating the standards and that you
    have a Damn Good Reason (DGR) for doing so.

    To help with those situations, you can direct Perl::Critic to ignore
    certain lines or blocks of code by using pseudo-pragmas:

        require 'LegacyLibaray1.pl';  ## no critic
        require 'LegacyLibrary2.pl';  ## no critic

        for my $element (@list) {

            ## no critic

            $foo = "";               #Violates 'ProhibitEmptyQuotes'
            $barf = bar() if $foo;   #Violates 'ProhibitPostfixControls'
            #Some more evil code...

            ## use critic

            #Some good code...
            do_something($_);
        }

    The "## no critic" comments direct Perl::Critic to ignore the remaining
    lines of code until the end of the current block, or until a ""## use
    critic"" comment is found (whichever comes first). If the "## no critic"
    comment is on the same line as a code statement, then only that line of
    code is overlooked. To direct perlcritic to ignore the "## no critic"
    comments, use the "-force" option.

    A bare "## no critic" comment disables all the active Policies. If you
    wish to disable only specific Policies, add a list of Policy names as
    arguments, just as you would for the "no strict" or "no warnings"
    pragmas. For example, this would disable the "ProhibitEmptyQuotes" and
    "ProhibitPostfixControls" policies until the end of the block or until
    the next "## use critic" comment (whichever comes first):

      ## no critic (EmptyQuotes, PostfixControls)

      # Now exempt from ValuesAndExpressions::ProhibitEmptyQuotes
      $foo = "";

      # Now exempt ControlStructures::ProhibitPostfixControls
      $barf = bar() if $foo;

      # Still subjected to ValuesAndExpression::RequireNumberSeparators
      $long_int = 10000000000;

    Since the Policy names are matched against the "## no critic" arguments
    as regular expressions, you can abbreviate the Policy names or disable
    an entire family of Policies in one shot like this:

      ## no critic (NamingConventions)

      # Now exempt from NamingConventions::ProhibitMixedCaseVars
      my $camelHumpVar = 'foo';

      # Now exempt from NamingConventions::ProhibitMixedCaseSubs
      sub camelHumpSub {}

    The argument list must be enclosed in parens and must contain one or
    more comma-separated barewords (e.g. don't use quotes). The "## no
    critic" pragmas can be nested, and Policies named by an inner pragma
    will be disabled along with those already disabled an outer pragma.

    Some Policies like "Subroutines::ProhibitExcessComplexity" apply to an
    entire block of code. In those cases, "## no critic" must appear on the
    line where the violation is reported. For example:

      sub complicated_function {  ## no critic (ProhibitExcessComplexity)
          # Your code here...
      }

    Policies such as "Documentation::RequirePodSections" apply to the entire
    document, in which case violations are reported at line 1. But if the
    file requires a shebang line, it is impossible to put "## no critic" on
    the first line of the file. This is a known limitation and it will be
    addressed in a future release. As a workaround, you can disable the
    affected policies at the command-line or in your .perlcriticrc file. But
    beware that this will affect the analysis of all files.

    Use this feature wisely. "## no critic" should be used in the smallest
    possible scope, or only on individual lines of code. And you should
    always be as specific as possible about which policies you want to
    disable (i.e. never use a bare "## no critic"). If Perl::Critic
    complains about your code, try and find a compliant solution before
    resorting to this feature.

IMPORTANT CHANGES
    Perl-Critic is evolving rapidly, so some of the interfaces have changed
    in ways that are not backward-compatible. If you have been using an
    older version of Perl-Critic and/or you have been developing custom
    Policy modules, please read this section carefully.

  VERSION 0.23
    In version 0.23, the syntax for theme rules changed. The mathematical
    operators ( "*", "+", "-" ) are no longer supported. You must use
    logical operators instead ( "&&", "!", "||" ). However the meanings of
    these operators is effectively the same. See "POLICY THEMES" for more
    details.

  VERSION 0.21
    In version 0.21, we introduced the concept of policy "themes". All you
    existing custom Policies should still be compatible. But to take
    advantage of the theme feature, you should add a "default_themes" method
    to your custom Policy modules. See Perl::Critic::DEVELOPER for an
    up-to-date guide on creating Policy modules.

    The internals of Perl::Critic were also refactored significantly. The
    public API is largely unchanged, but if you've been accessing bits
    inside Perl::Critic, then you may be in for a surprise.

  VERSION 0.16
    Starting in version 0.16, you can add a list Policy names as arguments
    to the "## no critic" pseudo-pragma. This feature allows you to disable
    specific policies. So if you have been in the habit of adding additional
    words after "no critic", then those words might cause unexpected
    results. If you want to append other stuff to the "## no critic"
    comment, then terminate the pseudo-pragma with a semi-colon, and then
    start another comment. For example:

        #This may not work as expected.
        $email = 'foo@bar.com';  ## no critic for literal '@'

        #This will work.
        $email = 'foo@bar.com';  ## no critic; #for literal '@'

        #This is even better.
        $email = 'foo@bar.com'; ## no critic (RequireInterpolation);

  VERSION 0.14
    Starting in version 0.14, the interface to Perl::Critic::Violation
    changed. This will also break any custom Policy modules that you might
    have written for earlier modules. See Perl::Critic::DEVELOPER for an
    up-to-date guide on creating Policy modules.

    The notion of "priority" was also replaced with "severity" in version
    0.14. Consequently, the default behavior of Perl::Critic is to only load
    the most "severe" Policy modules, rather than loading all of them. This
    decision was based on user-feedback suggesting that Perl-Critic should
    be less critical for new users, and should steer them toward gradually
    increasing the strictness as they progressively adopt better coding
    practices.

  VERSION 0.11
    Starting in version 0.11, the internal mechanics of Perl-Critic were
    rewritten so that only one traversal of the PPI document tree is
    required. Unfortunately, this will break any custom Policy modules that
    you might have written for earlier versions. Converting your policies to
    work with the new version is pretty easy and actually results in cleaner
    code. See Perl::Critic::DEVELOPER for an up-to-date guide on creating
    Policy modules.

THE Perl::Critic PHILOSOPHY
      Coding standards are deeply personal and highly subjective.  The
      goal of Perl::Critic is to help you write code that conforms with a
      set of best practices.  Our primary goal is not to dictate what
      those practices are, but rather, to implement the practices
      discovered by others.  Ultimately, you make the rules --
      Perl::Critic is merely a tool for encouraging consistency.  If there
      is a policy that you think is important or that we have overlooked,
      we would be very grateful for contributions, or you can simply load
      your own private set of policies into Perl::Critic.

EXTENDING THE CRITIC
    The modular design of Perl::Critic is intended to facilitate the
    addition of new Policies. You'll need to have some understanding of PPI,
    but most Policy modules are pretty straightforward and only require
    about 20 lines of code. Please see the Perl::Critic::DEVELOPER file
    included in this distribution for a step-by-step demonstration of how to
    create new Policy modules.

    If you develop any new Policy modules, feel free to send them to
    "<thaljef@cpan.org>" and I'll be happy to put them into the Perl::Critic
    distribution. Or if you would like to work on the Perl::Critic project
    directly, check out our repository at <http://perlcritic.tigris.org>. To
    subscribe to our mailing list, send a message to
    "<dev-subscribe@perlcritic.tigris.org>".

    The Perl::Critic team is also available for hire. If your organization
    has its own coding standards, we can create custom Policies to enforce
    your local guidelines. Or if your code base is prone to a particular
    defect pattern, we can design Policies that will help you catch those
    costly defects before they go into production. To discuss your needs
    with the Perl::Critic team, just contact "<thaljef@cpan.org>".

PREREQUISITES
    Perl::Critic requires the following modules:

    B::Keywords

    Config::Tiny

    File::Spec

    IO::String

    List::Util

    List::MoreUtils

    Module::Pluggable

    PPI

    Pod::PlainText

    Pod::Usage

    Readonly

    String::Format

    String::Util

    The following modules are optional, but recommended for complete
    testing:

    File::HomeDir

    File::Which

    IO::String

    IPC::Open2

    Perl::Tidy

    Pod::Spell

    Test::Pod

    Test::Pod::Coverage

    Text::ParseWords

CONTACTING THE DEVELOPMENT TEAM
    You are encouraged to subscribe to the mailing list; send a message to
    "<users-subscribe@perlcritic.tigris.org>". See also the archives. You
    can also contact the author at "<thaljef@cpan.org>".

    At least one member of the development team has started hanging around
    in <irc://irc.perl.org/#perlcritic>.

SEE ALSO
    There are a number of distributions of additional Policies available. A
    few are listed here:

    Perl::Critic::More

    Perl::Critic::Bangs

    Perl::Critic::Lax

    Perl::Critic::StricterSubs

    Perl::Critic::Swift

    Perl::Critic::Tics

    These distributions enable you to use Perl::Critic in your unit tests:

    Test::Perl::Critic

    Test::Perl::Critic::Progressive

    There are also a couple of distributions that will install all the
    Perl::Critic related modules known to the development team:

    Bundle::Perl::Critic

    Task::Perl::Critic

    If you want to make sure you have absolutely everything, you can use
    these:

    Bundle::Perl::Critic::IncludingOptionalDependencies

    Task::Perl::Critic::IncludingOptionalDependencies

BUGS
    Scrutinizing Perl code is hard for humans, let alone machines. If you
    find any bugs, particularly false-positives or false-negatives from a
    Perl::Critic::Policy, please submit them to
    <http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Perl-Critic>. Thanks.

    Most policies will produce false-negatives if they cannot understand a
    particular block of code.

CREDITS
    Adam Kennedy - For creating PPI, the heart and soul of Perl::Critic.

    Damian Conway - For writing Perl Best Practices, finally :)

    Chris Dolan - For contributing the best features and Policy modules.

    Andy Lester - Wise sage and master of all-things-testing.

    Elliot Shank - The self-proclaimed quality freak.

    Giuseppe Maxia - For all the great ideas and positive encouragement.

    and Sharon, my wife - For putting up with my all-night code sessions.

    Thanks also to the Perl Foundation for providing a grant to support
    Chris Dolan's project to implement twenty PBP policies.
    <http://www.perlfoundation.org/april_1_2007_new_grant_awards>

AUTHOR
    Jeffrey Ryan Thalhammer <thaljef@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT
    Copyright (c) 2005-2007 Jeffrey Ryan Thalhammer. All rights reserved.

    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.

