NAME
    cpan2rpm - A Perl module packager

SYNOPSIS
    cpan2rpm [options] <module>

DESCRIPTION
    This script will generate an RPM package from a Perl module. It uses the
    standard RPM file structure and creates a spec file, a source RPM, and a
    binary, leaving these in their respective directories.

    The directory structure used follows the definition rules RPM uses
    whereby /usr/lib/rpm/macros is used by default but may be overridden by
    macros in /etc/rpm/macros and ~/.rpmmacros in that order.

    If the <module> passed is either a CPAN module name (e.g. XML::Simple)
    or a URL (both http:// and ftp:// style locators will work) the script
    automatically downloads the given module (when CPAN module names are
    specified, the latest distribution is used), putting it in the SOURCES
    directory. If <module> is a local filename reference (e.g.
    /tmp/XML-Simple-1.05.tar.gz), the tarball gets copied to the SOURCES
    directory.

    Headers in the spec will generally assume any values configured in the
    RPM macro files as described above. Use of any particular option will
    override the internally calculated or configured values. Whenever a
    header is neither configured in the RPM macro files nor is passed at the
    command line, the script will seek to calculate a proper value and
    supplies a default as stated for each option below. It is thus typicall
    sufficient to provide only the <module>.

    The `options' available are as follows:

    *--pkgname=`string-value'*
      The RPM package name. This is the `Name' header in the RPM's spec
      file. Please note that the string `perl-' will be prepended to any
      value passed here. If no value is supplied, the script will use the
      NAME field found in the module's Makefile.PL

    *--version=`float-value'*
      The script determines the version number of the module by parsing the
      tarball name.

    *--release=`integer-value'*
      The package release number. Defaults to 1.

    *--summary=`string-value'*
      A one-line description of the package. If left unspecified the script
      will use the module name, appending an abstract whenever available.

    *--description=`string-value'*
      This text describes the package/module. This value is picked up from
      the POD in the module. Defaults to "None.".

    *--url=`string-value'*
      The home url for the package. Defaults to http://www.cpan.org.

    *--group=`string-value'*
      This is the RPM group. For further information on available groups
      please see your RPM documentation. Defaults to `Applications/CPAN'.

    *--author=`string-value'*
      This is the name and address of the person who authored the module.
      Typically it should be in the format: *Name <e-mail-address>*. If left
      unspecified, the script will attempt to extract it from the tarball's
      MakeMaker file, failing to build the package otherwise. There is no
      default for this option.

    *--packager=`string-value'*
      This is you (if you're packaging someone else's module). The string
      should be in the same format as for --author and defaults to: `Arix
      International <cpan2rpm@arix.com>' unless the RPM macro files provide
      a value.

    *--license=`string-value'*
      The license header specified in the spec file. This field is also
      sometimes referred to as *Copyright*, but *License* is a more suitable
      name and has become more common. Defaults to `Artistic', Perl's own
      license.

    *--distribution=`string-value'*
      The script will use the %{distribution} tag defined in the RPM macros
      file. If this tag is not set, the script will attempt to determine the
      distribution name by looking at the /etc/issue file. If this file does
      not exist, the distribution will be left blank.

    *--buildarch=`string-value'*
      Allows specification of an architecture for building the RPM.
      Currently defaults to `i386'.

    *--buildroot=`string-value'*
      Allows specifying a directory to use as a BuildRoot. Don't mess with
      this is you don't know what it is. Defaults to:
      `%{_tmppath}/%{name}-%{version}'.

    *--provides=`string-value'*
      Indicates that a package should be provided by the module being built.
      RPM will generate an appropriate list of provided dependencies and any
      passed here will be *in addition* to those calculated.

    *--requires=`string-value'*
      Indicates packages that should be required for installation. This
      option works precisely as --requires above.

    *--no-requires=`string-value'*
      Suppresses generation of a given required dependency. Sometimes
      authors create dependencies on modules the packager can't find,
      sometimes RPM generates spurious dependencies. This option allows the
      packager to arbitrarily supress a given requirement. The value may be
      a comma-separated list.

    *--spec-only*
      This option instructs the script to not build the RPM package but
      instead to oly display the generated spec file on stdout.

    *--make-maker=`string-value'*
      This option allows passing a string to the MakeMaker process (i.e.
      perl Makefile.PL <your-arguments-here>)

    *--nopkgprfx*
      Suppresses prefixing the package name with the string `perl-'.

    *--force*
      By default the script will do as little work as possible i.e. if it
      has alreaddy previously retrieved a module from CPAN, it will not
      retrieve it again. If it has already generated a spec file it will not
      generate it again. This option allows the packager to force all
      actions, starting from scratch.

    *--debug[=n]*
      This option produces debugging output. An optional integer increases
      the level of verbosity for this output. If no integer is given, 1 is
      assumed.

    *--help, -h*
      Displays a terse syntax message.

NOTES
    This script requires that RPM be installed. Both rpm and rpm-build must
    be installed on the local machine. Please see the RPM documentation (man
    rpm) for further information.

    Additionally, the Perl module will be needed :) and the CPAN module
    (which is bundled with the Perl distribution) will need to be
    configured. For further information please refer to the CPAN manpage.

TODO
    I'm happy to work on any feature requests you may send me :) but in the
    meantime these are the things waiting for attention:

BUGS
    Same goes for bugs.

AUTHOR & LICENSE
    Written by Erick Calder <perl@arix.com>. This utility is free and
    distributed under GPL, the Gnu Public License.

    The script was inspired by cpanflute which is distributed with the
    rpm-build package from RedHat. Many thanks to Robert Brown
    <bbb@cpan.org> for all his cool tricks, advice and patient support.

AVAILABILITY
    The latest version may always be found at:

    http://perl.arix.com/

CHANGES
    $Log: cpan2rpm,v $ Revision 1.46 2002/05/31 23:59:33 ekkis - changed
    shebang line to make MakeMaker happy (thx Hook BOT)

    Revision 1.45 2002/05/31 23:35:40 ekkis - redesigned the %files section
    (at the suggestion of Eric Kolve [ekolve@corp.classmates.com]) to fix
    problems with modules that contain XS e.g. DBI - added a smart %doc
    section which picks up documentation from the tarball (with help from
    Hook-BOT (Bob Brown <bbb@cpan.org>) for file regexp) - now uses
    %{_prefix} to list files which is better than /usr since it allows
    redefinition e.g. _prefix=/usr/local (Hook-BOT) - trimmed descriptions
    and reformatted ad banner - improved %clean section with code that wipes
    the extracted source tree structure after building (which can bloat disk
    badly when doing a lot of rpms) - thx Hook-BOT! - fixed --spec-only (thx
    Eric Kolve)

    Revision 1.44 2002/05/29 16:32:10 bbb ~/.rpmmacros

    Revision 1.43 2002/05/28 23:32:29 ekkis changed e-mail addresses

    Revision 1.42 2002/05/28 23:13:28 bbb Same as second round "1.3" but in
    the right place now.

    Revision 1.5 2002/05/23 02:55:37 ekkis adding "use strict" forces
    Makefile.PL to be eval()uated that way so had to add "no strict" to eval
    string. Also added warning in case eval fails.

    Revision 1.4 2002/05/23 02:43:43 ekkis added use strict

    Revision 1.3 2002/05/23 02:14:04 ekkis oops, small patch

    Revision 1.2 2002/05/23 02:13:07 ekkis added --nopkgprfx in case we want
    to build RPMs without a prepended "perl-" (as in the case of
    cpan2rpm<g>)

    Revision 1.1 2002/05/22 23:47:59 ekkis Moved from dist to .

    Revision 1.40 2002/05/22 23:03:35 ekkis since we're no longer including
    the package version number in the spec filename when building multiple
    versions of the same package we're force to --force. this makes no sense
    to the script will now _always_ build the spec file

    Revision 1.39 2002/05/19 01:04:44 ekkis still haveing problem with DBI -
    couldn't figure out how to eval() Makefile.PL so assuming pkgname from
    module (or passed)

    Revision 1.38 2002/05/18 22:55:00 ekkis - patched to allow calls like
    "use ExtUtils::MakeMaker qw(WriteMakefile)"... note this currently only
    works with () and will fail with qw//. Due to DBI calls. - also changed
    MyExit() to die() instead since we really do need for the script to exit
    but without exiting us! - patched to allow for calls like
    ExtUtils::MakeMaker::WriteMakefile() as found in DBD::mysql

    Revision 1.37 2002/05/07 04:21:49 ekkis added --make-maker parameter

    Revision 1.36 2002/04/23 00:29:24 ekkis - implemented protection of my
    variables from Makefile.PL being eval()d by surrounding that code with a
    package. Considered the Safe module but decided against another
    dependency.

    Revision 1.35 2002/04/22 23:19:13 ekkis --provides and --requires
    weren't working

    Revision 1.34 2002/04/18 08:32:53 ekkis - put back code to generate
    name/e-mail addr of packager (uses hostname()) - added END {} code to
    make sure we clean up. $SIG{__DIE__} works only for die() calls - now
    picks up AUTHOR from tarball POD when possible - modified version
    parsing code to allow versions with alpha - redesigned tarls(). now
    context sensitive, much better way to determine embedded directory -
    writefile() now checks for existence

    Revision 1.33 2002/04/17 08:52:43 ekkis - some bug fixes - {force}
    implementation for get_url()

    Revision 1.32 2002/04/17 08:40:50 ekkis - added --no-requires,
    --find-provides, --find-requires and --install options - now can receive
    a URL to download from - reimplemented MyExit for eval()ing Makefile.PL
    - enhancements to writefile()

    Revision 1.31 2002/04/16 04:06:53 ekkis ripped out all dependency
    (provides,requires) generation code as the newer rpm-buid generates this
    correctly

    Revision 1.30 2002/04/12 17:22:35 ekkis - filelist is now abstracted -
    cool new method for extracting CVS version without breaking emacs - new
    regexp for splitting path/filename from given $info{module}

    Revision 1.29 2002/04/09 23:00:16 ekkis took out %define version and
    release as it causes recursive behaviour

    Revision 1.28 2002/04/09 22:20:41 ekkis - better relative path handling
    - now prepends url to Source: field when available via CPAN - BuildRoot
    more automated now

    Revision 1.27 2002/04/09 08:25:00 ekkis - now requires version 0.59 or
    greater of CPAN as previous versions are problema tic - implemented use
    of RPM macros to figure outdirectory structures. script now p arses the
    various macro definition files and does recursive expansions to figure
    out correct values... see docs. - added support for a full-path tarball
    specification. this allows the user to call cpan2rpm with any tarball
    anywhere. The tarball will be copied to SOURCES. - defined %version,
    %release - added Rob Brown's perlver %defines - BuildRoot now defaults
    to the standard %{_tmpdir} - removed version number from spec filename -
    now scans only usr/lib in tmpdir for modules (should give better
    Provides headers since we don't pick up .pm files in other directories
    like examples/) - added code to figure out real module dependencies
    (PREREQ_PM is unreliable) - now attempts to read VERSION_FROM if neither
    ABSTRACT nor ABSTRACT_FROM is provided. failing that it will take the
    module name (minus any parent info, plus appropriate extension e.g.
    Ping.pm from Net::Ping), and if that file exists will scan it for POD

    Revision 1.26 2002/04/08 22:30:35 ekkis now requires CPAN version 0.59
    as previous versions seem broken added to TODO list

    Revision 1.25 2002/04/07 09:18:19 ekkis hijacked exit() for the
    Makefile.PL eval since certain modules exit on us (not very exciting)
    e.g. POE

    Revision 1.24 2002/04/07 02:31:00 ekkis fixed generation of dependencies
    on Perl core modules (not allowed)

    Revision 1.23 2002/04/07 01:15:33 ekkis removed dashed lines from
    CHANGES section... don't konw thy CVS does use this in keyword
    expansion!

    Revision 1.22 2002/04/07 01:12:24 ekkis added old Log info

    Revision 1.21 2002/04/07 01:09:01 ekkis tarball maker now calls system()
    instead of qx// so user can see prompts added CHANGES section

    revision 1.20 date: 2002/04/07 00:06:20; author: ekkis; state: Exp;
    lines: +4 -1 added back author info retrieval from CPAN when possible

    revision 1.19 date: 2002/04/06 23:45:25; author: ekkis; state: Exp;
    lines: +4 -2 added availability section to pod

    revision 1.18 date: 2002/04/06 23:43:00; author: ekkis; state: Exp;
    lines: +6 -8 changed default for license to "Artistic" as most modules
    are released under Perl's own license.

    revision 1.17 date: 2002/04/06 23:13:31; author: ekkis; state: Exp;
    lines: +2 -2 removed spaces before =head1 NAME - he cares!!

    revision 1.16 date: 2002/04/06 23:03:28; author: ekkis; state: Exp;
    lines: +2 -2 a fix for a fix

    revision 1.15 date: 2002/04/06 22:51:36; author: ekkis; state: Exp;
    lines: +2 -2 fixed docs

    revision 1.14 date: 2002/04/06 22:47:40; author: ekkis; state: Exp;
    lines: +33 -19 added --debug added -n in calls to silence questions from
    Makefile.PL (may not always work) now makes sure /tmp/cpan2rpm exists,
    creates as needed

    revision 1.13 date: 2002/04/06 02:34:15; author: ekkis; state: Exp;
    lines: +18 -1 status info

    revision 1.12 date: 2002/04/06 01:57:31; author: ekkis; state: Exp;
    lines: +8 -5 enhancement for f2mod() to generate RPM dependencies

    revision 1.11 date: 2002/04/06 01:51:22; author: ekkis; state: Exp;
    lines: +71 -68 various fixes incorporated provides() into get_meta()
    correctly generates Provides header

    revision 1.10 date: 2002/04/06 00:01:15; author: ekkis; state: Exp;
    lines: +55 -22 added f2mod() enhancements to untar() now generates
    Provides headers

    revision 1.9 date: 2002/04/05 22:37:05; author: ekkis; state: Exp;
    lines: +167 -102 major code reorg now uses ExtUtils::Installed for
    platform independent module listings added --provides and --spec-only

    revision 1.8 date: 2002/04/05 05:29:57; author: ekkis; state: Exp;
    lines: +2 -2 fixed regexp for tardir

    revision 1.7 date: 2002/04/05 02:07:25; author: ekkis; state: Exp;
    lines: +33 -20 now eval()s Makefile.PL instead of parsing it also looks
    up DESCRIPTION from module file for spec file

    revision 1.6 date: 2002/04/04 03:55:27; author: ekkis; state: Exp;
    lines: +2 -2 fixed embedded >s in tags

    revision 1.5 date: 2002/04/04 03:47:34; author: ekkis; state: Exp;
    lines: +15 -5 added author support

    revision 1.4 date: 2002/04/04 02:20:32; author: ekkis; state: Exp;
    lines: +105 -83 general cleanup now excepts core Perl modules from RPM
    dependencies now supports ABSTRACT_FROM improved PREREQ_PM handling
    (with Provides: clause)

    revision 1.3 date: 2002/04/03 12:33:14; author: ekkis; state: Exp;
    lines: +38 -18 various bug fixes

    revision 1.2 date: 2002/04/03 11:08:32; author: ekkis; state: Exp;
    lines: +144 -142 now retrieves metadata from tarball

    revision 1.1 date: 2002/04/03 10:57:00; author: ekkis; state: Exp;
    branches: 1.1.1; Initial revision

    revision 1.1.1.1 date: 2002/04/03 10:57:00; author: ekkis; state: Exp;
    lines: +0 -0 Initial import

