NAME

purl-tool - Package URL tool

SYNOPSIS

purl-tool [OPTIONS]...STRING
purl-tool --type STRING [--namespace STRING] --name STRING [--version STRING] [--subpath STRING] [--qualifier KEY=VALUE [...]]

purl-tool [--help|--man|-v]

Options:
      --info TYPE               Display information about provided PURL type
      --list                    Display known PURL type
      --help                    Brief help message
      --man                     Full documentation
      -v                        Print version

  -q, --quiet                   Suppress output

"purl" string encode options:

      --type=STRING             Type
      --namespace=STRING        Namespace (optional)
      --name=STRING             Name
      --version=STRING          Version (optional)
      --qualifier KEY=VALUE     Qualifier key-value (optional)

"purl" string decode options:

      --download-url            Download URL
      --repository-url          Repository URL

  -0, --null                    Return NULL char instead of new line

      --format=FORMAT           Output format
      --dumper                  Data::Dumper format (--format=dumper)
      --json                    JSON output format (--format=json)
      --yaml                    YAML output format (--format=yaml)
      --env                     ENV output format (--format=env)

"purl" validation options:

      --validate                Validate a PURL string and return the exit code

Examples:

Parse the given Package URL string and return JSON and send the STDOUT to jq:

    purl-tool pkg:cpan/GDT/URI-PackageURL@2.24 --json | jq

Download the package from the repository using PURL string:

    wget $(purl-tool pkg:cpan/GDT/URI-PackageURL@2.24 --download-url)

Create a canonical PURL string

    purl-tool --type cpan \
              --namespace GDT \
              --name URI-PackageURL \
              --version 2.24

Validate a PURL string:

    if $(purl-tool $PURL_STRING --validate -q); then
        echo "PURL string is valid"
    else
        echo "PURL string is not valid"
    fi

Display information about provided PURL type (allowed components, repository,
examples, etc.):

    purl-tool --info rpm

Display all known PURL types:

    purl-tool --list

DESCRIPTION

purl-tool Package URL tool

A Package URL (aka "purl") is a URL string used to identify and locate a software package in a mostly universal and uniform way across programing languages, package managers, packaging conventions, tools, APIs and databases.

https://github.com/package-url/purl-spec

A purl is a URL composed of seven components:

scheme:type/namespace/name@version?qualifiers#subpath

Components are separated by a specific character for unambiguous parsing.

The definition for each components is:

• "scheme": this is the URL scheme with the constant value of "pkg". One of the primary reason for this single scheme is to facilitate the future official registration of the "pkg" scheme for package URLs. Required.

• "type": the package "type" or package "protocol" such as cpan, maven, npm, nuget, gem, pypi, etc. Required.

• "namespace": some name prefix such as a Maven groupid, a Docker image owner, a GitHub user or organization. Optional and type-specific.

• "name": the name of the package. Required.

• "version": the version of the package. Optional.

• "qualifiers": extra qualifying data for a package such as an OS, architecture, a distro, etc. Optional and type-specific.

• "subpath": extra subpath within a package, relative to the package root. Optional.

EXAMPLES

Parse the given PURL string and return JSON and send the STDOUT to jq:

purl-tool pkg:cpan/GDT/URI-PackageURL@2.24 --json | jq

Download the package from the repository using Package URL string:

wget $(purl-tool pkg:cpan/GDT/URI-PackageURL@2.24 --download-url)

Create a canonical Package URL string:

purl-tool --type cpan \
          --namespace GDT \
          --name URI-PackageURL \
          --version 2.24

Display information about provided PURL type (allowed components, repository, examples, etc.):

purl-tool --info rpm

AUTHOR

Giuseppe Di Terlizzi

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright © 2022-2025 Giuseppe Di Terlizzi

You may use and distribute this module according to the same terms that Perl is distributed under.