NAME

uploads.pl - creates, updates and/or backs up the uploads database.

SYNOPSIS

  perl uploads.pl --config=<file> (-generate | -update | -backup | -h | -v)

DESCRIPTION

This program allows the user to create, update and backup the uploads database, either as separate commands, or a combination of all three. The process order will always be CREATE->UPDATE->BACKUP, regardless of the order the options appear on the command line.

The Uploads database contains basic information about the history of CPAN. It records the release dates of everything that is uploaded to CPAN, both within a BACKPAN repository, a current CPAN repository and the latest uploads posted by PAUSE, which may not have yet reached the CPAN mirrors.

A simple schema for the MySQL database is below:

  CREATE TABLE `uploads` (
    `type`      varchar(10)     NOT NULL,
    `author`    varchar(32)     NOT NULL,
    `dist`      varchar(100)    NOT NULL,
    `version`   varchar(100)    NOT NULL,
    `filename`  varchar(255)    NOT NULL,
    `released`  int(16)         NOT NULL,
    PRIMARY KEY  (`author`,`dist`,`version`)
  ) ENGINE=MyISAM;

The 'type' field can be one of three values, 'backpan', 'cpan' or 'upload', which incates whether the release has been archived to BACKPAN, currently on CPAN or has recently been uploaded and may not have reached the CPAN mirrors yet.

The 'author', 'dist', 'version' and 'filename' fields contain the breakdown of the distribution component parts used to locate the distribution. Although in most cases the filename could be considered a primary key, it is possible that two or more authors could upload a distribution with the same name.

The 'released' field holds the date of the distribution release as the number of seconds since the epoch. This is extremely useful for sorting distributions based on their release date rather than the version string. Due to many authors having different version schemes, this is perhaps the only reliable method with which to sort distribution releases.

BUGS, PATCHES & FIXES

There are no known bugs at the time of this release. However, if you spot a bug or are experiencing difficulties, that is not explained within the POD documentation, please send an email to barbie@cpan.org. However, it would help greatly if you are able to pinpoint problems or even supply a patch.

Fixes are dependent upon their severity and my availability. Should a fix not be forthcoming, please feel free to (politely) remind me.

SEE ALSO

CPAN::WWW::Testers, CPAN::Testers::WWW::Statistics

http://www.cpantesters.org/, http://stats.cpantesters.org/, http://wiki.cpantesters.org/

AUTHOR

  Barbie, <barbie@cpan.org>
  for Miss Barbell Productions <http://www.missbarbell.co.uk>.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

  Copyright (C) 2008-2010 Barbie for Miss Barbell Productions.

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