NAME
    Archive::Builder - File generation and archiving framework

SYNOPSIS
      # Make a builder with one section, and some files
      my $Builder = Archive::Builder->new;
      my $Section = $Builder->new_section( 'html' );
      $Section->add_file( 'one.html', 'string', qq~<html><body>
            Hello World!
            </body></html>~ );
      $Section->add_file( 'two.html', 'file', './source/file.html' );
      $Section->add_file( 'three.html', 'Custom::function', @args );

      # Generate and save to disk
      $Builder->save( './somewhere' );

      # Create an zip file from it and save it.
      my $Archive = $Builder->archive( 'zip' ).
      $Archive->save( 'foo.zip' );

      # Create a tar.gz file of just one section
      my $Tar = $Section->archive( 'tar.gz' );

DESCRIPTION
    Perl is often used for applications that generate large numbers of
    files, and Archive::Builder is designed to assist in these sorts of
    tasks.

    It provides a framework for defining a set of files, and how they will
    be generated, and a series of methods for turning them into an Archive
    of varying types, or saving directly to disk.

  Structure
    Each "Archive::Builder" object consists of one or more
    "Archive::Builder::Section"s, which contain one or more
    "Archive::Builder::File"s. Each of these files know their location
    within the section, and are given a generation function, with a set of
    arguments specific to each generator. Some simple generators are
    provided built-in, or you can provide an function name as the generator.

  Generating Archives
    Once a Archive::Builder is fully defined, you can "save" it to disk, or
    get an "archive", containing the generated files, in one of several
    formats. You can also "save" and get the "archive" any of the individual
    sections within the builder.

    During the generation process for an entire "Archive::Builder" a
    subdirectory is created for each section matching the name of the
    section. So, for a builder with a Section name 'one', containing a
    single file 'two.txt', and a section 'three', containing files
    'four.html' and 'five.dat', the following file structure would result

      one/two.txt
      three/four.html
      three/five.dat

  Caching
    Caching is dont of the generated files on a per-file basis. Two calls to
    the "content()" method of an "Archive::Builder::File" object will only
    result in the file being generated once, and the same contents returned
    twice.

  Generation on Demand Caveats
    During an output action, such as a "save()" or "archive()" method call,
    the contents of each file are generated only as needed. This means that
    if the generation of a file fails, an action may have already been taken
    ( especially in the case of "save()", where you may end up with only
    part of the files written to disk.

    To avoid this, in most cases you should "test()" the Archive or Section
    first. This will generate all of the files, and cache them. A "save()"
    or "archive()" done after this will be done with the cached generated
    content.

    This should be done whenever you have a large of complex generation
    tree, that you consider has a non-zero chance of one of the files
    failing to generate correctly.

METHODS
    The methods for the three main classes involved in generation trees,
    "Archive::Builder", "Archive::Builder::Section" and
    "Archive::Builder::File" are documented below. For the archive handlers
    the builders generate, see Archive::Builder::Archive. For information on
    the built-in generators, and how to write your own generators, see
    Archive::Builder::Generators.

  Common Error Handlers
    Errors from any object of any type below Archive::Builder are set in the
    global $Archive::Builder::errstr variable. They can also be retrieved
    from the "errstr()" method called on any object.

Archive::Builder
  new
    The "new()" constructor takes no arguments, and returns a new
    "Archive::Builder" object.

  add_section $Archive::Builder::Section
    The "add_section" method takes as an argument an
    "Archive::Builder::Section" object, and adds it to the builder.

    Returns true if the section is added successfully. Returns "undef" on
    error, for example if another Section with the same name has already
    been added.

  new_section $name
    Creates a new "Archive::Builder::Section" object with the name provided,
    and immediately adds it to the builder. Returns the Section created.

    Returns the new Section object on success. Returns undef on error.

  new_sections $name [, $name, ... ]
  new_sections \%names_to_paths
    Primarily used for initial set up of Builder objects, the "new_sections"
    method adds a number of sections at the same time.

    It accepts as argument either the names of the section to be created,
    with the paths of them to be the same as their names, or alternatively,
    a reference to a HASH with the keys as section names, and the values as
    section paths.

  section $name
    Finds and returns a "Archive::Builder::Section" object with the provided
    name within the builder and returns it. Returns undef if passed name
    does not exist.

  sections
    Returns a hash containing all the sections, indexed by name. Returns 0
    if no sections have been created in the builder.

  section_list
    Returns all the sections in the builder as a list, sorted by section
    name. Returns a null list "()" if no sections are defined in the
    builder.

  remove_section $name
    Removes a section of a given name from the builder, if it exists.
    Returns "undef" if no such section exists.

  file_count
    Returns the total number of files in all sections in the builder

  files
    Returns a HASH reference containing all of the Achive::Builder::File
    object in the Archive::Builder, keyed by full path name.

  save $directory
    Generates the file tree for the entire builder and attempts to save it
    below a given directory. The passed directory does not have to exist, it
    will be created on demand.

    Returns true if all files were generated and saved successfully. Returns
    "undef" if an error occurs, or the directory is bad.

  delete
    Because of the structure used to support the parent methods, you should
    probably explicitly delete Builds when you are done with them to avoid
    memory leaks due to circular dependencies.

    The "delete" method always returns true.

  reset
    If the contents of any of the files in the Archive::Builder has been
    generated ( and thus cached ), the "reset" method will remove any cached
    content from the files, forcing them to be generated again.

    The "reset" method always returns true.

  archive $type
    Creates a handle to an archive of a specified type related to the
    builder. Types can only be used if the modules that support them are
    installed. The following types are supported, and their prerequisites
    are listed.

      zip    - Archive::Zip
      tar    - Archive::Tar
      tar.gz - Archive::Tar
      tgz    - Archive::Tar

    The tar.gz and tgz are aliases that produce the same thing with a
    different file extension.

    The "archive" method only returns a "Archive::Builder::Archive" handle
    to the object, not the object itself. Also, the files are not generated
    at the time that the archive is created, so generation errors cannot be
    guarenteed to have occurred by this time.

    To save or otherwise act on the archive, see the
    Archive::Builder::Archive section below.

Archive::Builder::Section
  new name
    Creates a new "Archive::Builder::Section" object of a given name.
    Although meant to be used in an "Archive::Builder" object, they can
    still be used effectively standalone, as they have both "save" and
    "archive" methods.

    Returns undef is an invalid section name is given. A section name must
    contain only word ( \w ) characters and be 1 to 31 characters long.

    As a side note, the reason that Sections exist at all is so that
    Builders can be defined containing multiple sections, where the sections
    will be saved to different locations, but should still be passed around
    as a single entity.

  name
    Returns the name of the Section.

  path [ path ]
    When used within the context of a Builder object, and set to the same
    value as the section's name by default, this method returns the path
    below the Builder root that will be used, or if passed a relative path,
    will set the path to a new value. You are not likely to need this, as in
    general, the same value will suffice for both the name and path.

  Builder
    If the Section has been added to a Builder, the "Builder" method will
    return it.

    Returns a "Archive::Builder" object if added, or "undef" if not.

  add_file $Archive::Builder::File
    Adds an existing "Archive::Builder::File" object to the section.

    Returns true on success. Returns "undef" on error, or if the path of the
    file clashes with an existing file in the Section.

    This could happen if you try to add a file with the same name, of if
    your path contains a directory that is already in the Section as a file.
    For example, the two files could not exist in the same Section.

      first/second
      first/second/third

    Creation of the directory first/second would be blocked by the existing
    file first/second ( or vica versa ). This issue is caught for you now,
    rather than wait until we are halfway through writing the files to disk
    to find out.

  new_file $path, $generator [, @arguments ]
    Creates a new file, using the arguments provided, and immediately adds
    it to the current section. See the "new" method for
    Archive::Builder::File below for more details on the arguments.

    Returns true if the file is created and added successfuly. Returns
    "undef" if an error occurs during either the creation or addition of the
    file.

  file $path
    Finds the "Archive::Builder::File" object with the given path and
    returns it. Returns undef if no such file exists.

  files
    Returns a reference to a hash containing all of the files objects, keyed
    by their paths. Returns 0 if no files exist within the section.

  file_list
    Returns a list of all the file objects, sorted by path. Returns a null
    array "()" if no files exist within the section.

  remove_file $path
    Removes the file object with the given path from the section. Returns
    "undef" if no such path exists within the section.

  file_count
    Returns the number of files contained in the section

  save $directory
    The "save()" method works the same as the "Archive::Builder" "save"
    method, generating the files and saving them below the directory
    provided. Again, the directory is created on demand.

    Returns "undef" if an error during generation or saving occurs.

  delete
    The "delete" method deletes a Section, removing it from its parent
    Builder if applicable, and removing all child Files from the Section.

    The "delete" method always returns true.

  reset
    If the contents of any of the files in the Section has been generated (
    and thus cached ), the "reset" method will remove any cached content
    from the files, forcing them to be generated again.

    The "reset" method always returns true.

  archive $type
    As for the "Archive::Builder" "acrhive" method, creates an archive
    handle of the given type. Returns a "Archive::Builder::Archive" object
    on success. Returns "undef" on error.

Archive::Builder::File
  new $path, $generator [, @arguments ]
    Creates a new "Archive::Builder::File" object and returns it. This
    method is not normally used directly, with the
    "Archive::Builder::Section" method "new_file()" being more typically
    used.

    The path argument should be a valid looking relative path. That is, it
    cannot start with /. For safety, the use of escaping slashes and
    relative '..' paths are restricted for safety.

    The generator should be a string containing the name of the function to
    be used to generate the file contents. A check will be done to ensure
    that the module containing the function is installed, although the
    existance of the function itself will not be tested. For example, for
    the generator function "Foo::Bar::makeme", a test to make sure
    "Foo::Bar" is installed will be done.

    To specify a function in the the main package ( say in a script ), the
    format "main::function" MUST be used. A generator value that does not
    contain a package seperator will be assumed to be one of the default
    generators. The list of default generators, and instructions on how to
    write your own generators, are in the Archive::Builder::Generators
    documentation.

    Anything passed after the generator are assumed to be arguments to the
    generator function, and will be stored and passed as needed. Note that
    the arguments are not copied or cloned, so any objects passed as
    arguments and later modified, will be generated using the modified
    values. This is considered a feature. If you need to freeze a copy of
    the object for the generation, you are recommended to Clone it before
    passing.

  path
    Returns the path for the file. This cannot be changed after creation.

  generator
    Returns the generator for the file. This cannot be changed after
    creation

  arguments
    Returns a reference to an array containing the arguments to be passed to
    the generator, or 0 if there are no arguments. The list of arguments
    cannot be changed after creation ( although of course objects passed can
    be changed outside the scope of this API ).

  binary
    This method will analyse the file contents ( generating if needed ) to
    determine if the file is a binary file. While not 100% accurate, it
    should be good enough for most situations.

  executable
    Calling this method will add a hint to the file that it should be
    considered as an executable file, should the need arise. This is most
    likely used in situations where permissions need to be set after
    generation.

  Section
    If added to a Section, the "Section" method returns the Section to which
    we have been added.

    Returns a Archive::Builder::Section object if the File is added to one,
    or "undef" if not.

  contents
    Generates and returns the contents of the file as a scalar reference.
    Returns "undef" if a generation error occurs.

  save $filename
    Bypassing the normal generation process and path name, the "save" method
    allows you to generate a single file object and save it to a specific
    filename. Any directories need to write the file will be created on
    demand. Returns "undef" if a generation permissions error occurs.

  delete
    If added to a Section, the "delete" method allows us to remove and
    delete the file from the parent Section. Always returns true.

  reset
    If the file has been generated ( and thus cached ), the "reset" method
    will remove any cached content from the files, forcing it to be
    generated again.

    The "reset" method always returns true.

TODO
    Better control over caching, more archive types, pre-generation testing.

SUPPORT
    Bugs should always be submitted via the CPAN bug tracker.

    <http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Archive-Builder>

    For other issues, contact the maintainer.

AUTHOR
    Adam Kennedy <adamk@cpan.org>

SEE ALSO
    Archive::Builder::Archive, Archive::Builder::Generators, Archive::Tar,
    Archive::Zip.

COPYRIGHT
    Copyright 2002 - 2008 Adam Kennedy.

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

    The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file included
    with this module.

