FAREWELL NOTE

I believe that after epic BSD-battle I leave F::AF in good shape. What you see on cpan-testers (well, before this release) is manifestation of APT-methods changing underground. At the time I believed that I absolutely must know what's happening on other end of the pipe (and I still hold to this belief). So the test-suite is doing all terrible things I can implement (admitedly, it's copy and file only, everything else is networking). Then APT-methods have changed.

Updating the test-suite (that's what's de-synchronized) is easy, I just have to upgrade to something more current. And here comes the problem. I have no resources to build RedHat for third time (I did it twice already). And I have to move on. And I won't see Debian for any foreseeable future. Here we are.

OVERVIEW

File::AptFetch provides API for APT (Advanced Package Tool, that's the Debian package management system) methods. APT methods aren't libraries, they are executables (placed, by default, in /var/lib/apt/methods). So it's not XS (and can't be), F::AF forks. However one doesn't need fork for each file or session. The IPC is pipe (and can't be anything else). As you can see there's a limit of number of methods available simultaneously posed by the maximum number of open filehandles (APT methods aren't that numerous anyway).

The module is named File::AptFetch because it always fetches. I think that's possible to develop a method that would bring away files, but, at present, there's none. And I doubt there would be any.

Further reading:

File::AptFetch

POD of the module. Covers API and provides examples of intended usage. It's development is kind of dead (unless APT methods API would change dramatically) -- any additions are in support for File::AptFetch::Simple.

File::AptFetch::Cookbook

Provides some useful, I believe, findings on each method behaviour and an overview, of my understanding, how that stuff works. Look, APT methods API documentation is quite outdated. Each method is undocumented completely. (bug) My knowledge of APT methods is very irregular, so is F::AF::C.

File::AptFetch::Simple

That's what you should look into for doing all kinds of stuff. (bug) It still lacks some functionality.

RUN-TIME REQUIREMENTS

Perl

v5.8.0 or later. Look, v5.6.2 is woody, 20031114. You must be kidding.

base

Carp

Cwd

Any version. Distributed with Perl itself.

IO::Pipe

Any version. It's distributed with Perl itself too. In core since v5.3.7, predates debian, BTW.

List::Util

Required by File::AptFetch::Simple for doing some gibberish. v1.03 shall be enough. Distributed with Perl itself.

String::Truncate

Required by File::AptFetch::Simple. v0.5 looks OK.

version

v0.77. CPAN doesn't remember when v0.50 has been released. Required version has been upgraded in fruitles attempt to fix some FTBFSes. Introduced more breakage. Stayed.

BUILD-TIME REQUIREMENTS

File::Temp

POSIX

Test::More

Any version. Should be distributed with Perl itself.

BUILD-TIME CONFIGURATION

lib_method

That sets location of APT methods. It's unrequired, it will be set any time APT configuration is sourced. "_cache_configuration()" in File::AptFetch and "_uncache_configuration()" in File::AptFetch have more.

config_source

Required. ARRAY ref that will be execed. "_cache_configuration()" in File::AptFetch has more.

signal

Required. Names a signal that will be sent to method. "DESTROY" in File::AptFetch has more.

timeout

tick

(v0.0.8) Required. I've believed, that could stay hardcoded. I was wrong. "_read()" in File::AptFetch has more.

(v0.1.6) These are closely related. From now on, timeout keeps the same semantics as before (it's time to cut-off) but is handled differently. F::AF object sleeped (literally) for time set. Now it selects (with magic) in ticks. (It's introduced for sake of F::AF::S.)

Also. Both must be naturals; They're in seconds; tick is supposed to be couple of seconds (default: 5sec); While timeout is supposed to be large enough (default: 2min) in respect to network introduced delays.

beat

wink

(v0.1.9) (F::AF::S -- v0.1.4) Those two are for File::AptFetch::Simple (what has more) -- control progress indication.

TEST-SUITE

Two things should be tested in regard with F::AF:

methods and structures

I wouldn't say I'm happy with this part (t/void/*.t). It's mostly a crash-type testing. And a problem here is that I'm not completely sure what an input (from methods side) here could be.

APT methods itself

Only local methods are tested. And cdrom method, among them, is no way touched. Remote methods are missing from the test-suite. This problem is easily fixable -- some kind Perlist could upload on CPAN some modules, in Test namespace, what would provide fake servers of http://, ftp://, rsh:// etc protocols. Anyone?

And one note. F::AF is absolutely useles outside APT based world (I'm not about *.deb, I'm about APT). Then t/file/*.t and t/copy/*.t skip completely. Meanwhile t/void/*.t enables some cute workaround, that would provide all needed apt-config(1) functionality without that executable itself. (Just in case on that platform there will be Debian some day.) But we still stay within POSIX world -- no future outside.

AVAILABILITY

pure distribution

<http://search.cpan.org/dist/File-AptFetch/>

and debianization stuff too

# TODO

subversion (root)

# TODO

BUGS

please report here

<http://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=File-AptFetch/>

please don't report there

# TODO

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSING

• Copyright 2009, 2010, 2014 by Eric Pozharski <whynot@cpan.org>

• AS-IS, NO-WARRANTY, HOPE-TO-BE-USEFUL

• GNU Lesser General Public License v3 <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.txt>