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Perl-Review-0.03
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/ Perl::Review

NAME

Perl::Review - Engine to critique Perl souce code

SYNOPSIS

  use Perl::Review;

  #Create Review and load Policies from config file
  $r = Perl::Review->new(-profile => $file);

  #Create Review from scratch and add Policy
  $r = Perl::Review->new();
  $r->add_policy('MyPolicyModule');

  #Analyze code for policy violations
  @violations = $r->review_code($source_code);

DESCRIPTION

Perl::Review is an extensible framework for creating and applying coding standards to Perl source code. It is, essentially, an automated code review. Perl::Review is distributed with a number of Perl::Review::Policy modules that enforce the guidelines in Damian Conway's book Perl Best Practices. You can choose and customize those Polices through the Perl::Review interface. You can also create new and use new Policy modules that suit your own tastes.

For a convenient command-line interface to Perl::Review, see the documentation for perlreview.

CONSTRUCTOR

new( -profile => $FILE, -priority => $N )

Returns a reference to a Perl::Review object. All arguments are optional key-value pairs.

-profile is the path to a configuration file that dictates which policies should be loaded and how to configure each one. If the $FILE is not defined, Perl::Review attempts to find a configuration file in several places. If a configuration file can't be found, or if $FILE is empty string, then Perl::Review reverts to its factory setup and all Policy modules that are distributed with Perl::Review will be loaded. See "CONFIGURATION" for more information.

-priority is the maximum priority value of Policies that should be loaded from the configuration file. 1 is the "highest" priority, and all numbers larger than 1 have "lower" priority. Only Policies that have been configured with a priority value less than or equal to $N will not be applied. For a given -profile, increasing $N will result in more violations. See "CONFIGURATION" for more information.

METHODS

add_policy( $module_name, %args )

Registers a policy with this Review engine. The policy name should be a string that matches the name of a Perl::Review::Policy subclass module. The 'Perl::Review::Policy' portion of the name can be omitted for brevity. The engine will attmept to load the module and instantiate the subclass, passing %args to the constructor. See the documentation for the relevant Policy module for a description of the arguments it supports.

If it the module fails to load or cannot be instantiated, it will throw a warning and return a false value. Otherwise, it returns a reference to this Review engine.

review_code( $source_code || $filename )

Runs the $source_code (as SCALAR ref) or $filename through the Perl::Review engine using all the policies that have been registered with this engine. Returns a list of Perl::Review::Violation objects for each violation of the registered policies. If there are no violations, returns an empty list.

CONFIGURATION

The default configuration file is called .perlreviewrc and it lives in your home directory. If this file does not exist and the -profile option is not given to the constructor, Perl::Review defaults to its factory setup, which means that all the policies that are distributed with Perl::Review will be applied.

The format of the configuration file is a series of named sections that contain key-value pairs separated by ':' or '='. Comments should start with '#' and can be placed on a separate line or after the name-value pairing if you desire. The general recipe is a series of sections like this:

    [PolicyModuleName]
    priority = 1
    arg1 = value1
    arg2 = value2

The PolicyModuleName should be the name of module that implements the policy you want to use. The module should be a subclass of Perl::Review::Policy. For brevity, you can ommit the 'Perl::Review::Policy' part of the module name.

The priority should be the level of importance you wish to assign this policy. 1 is the "highest" priority level, and all numbers greater than 1 have increasingly "lower" priority. Only those policies with a priority less than or equal to the priority value given to the Perl::Review constructor will be applied. The priority can be an arbitrarily large positive integer. If the priority is not defined, it defaults to 1.

The remaining key-value pairs are configuration parameters for that specific Policy and will be passed into the constructor of the Perl::Review::Policy subclass. The constructors for most Policy modules do not support arguments, and those that do should have reasonable defaults. See the documentation on the appropriate Policy module for more details.

By default, all the policies that are distributed with Perl::Review are applied. Rather than assign priority levels to each one, you can simply "turn off" a Policy by appending a '-' to the name of the module in the config file. In this manner, the Policy will never be applied, regardless of the -priority given to the Perl::Review constructor.

A simple configuration might look like this:

    #--------------------------------------------------------------
    # These are really important, so always apply them

    [RequirePackageStricture]
    priority = 1

    [RequirePackageWarnings]
    priority = 1

    #--------------------------------------------------------------
    # These are less important, so only apply when asked

    [ProhibitOneArgumentBless]
    priority = 2

    [ProhibitDoWhileLoops]
    priority = 2

    #--------------------------------------------------------------
    # I don't agree with these, so never apply them

    [-ProhibitMixedCaseVars]
    [-ProhibitMixedCaseSubs]

THE POLICIES

The following Policy modules are distributed with Perl::Review. The Policy modules have been categorized according to the table of contents in Damian Conway's book Perl Best Practices. Since most coding standards take the form "do this..." or "don't do that...", I have adopted the convention of naming each module RequireSomething or ProhibitSomething. See the documentation of each module for it's specific details.

Perl::Review::Policy::BuiltinFunctions::ProhibitStringyEval

Perl::Review::Policy::BuiltinFunctions::ProhibitStringyGrep

Perl::Review::Policy::BuiltinFunctions::ProhibitStringyMap

Perl::Review::Policy::CodeLayout::RequireTidyCode

Perl::Review::Policy::ControlStructures::ProhibitPostfixControls

Perl::Review::Policy::InputOutput::ProhibitBacktickOperators

Perl::Review::Policy::Modules::ProhibitMultiplePackages

Perl::Review::Policy::Modules::ProhibitRequireStatements

Perl::Review::Policy::Modules::ProhibitSpecificModules

Perl::Review::Policy::Modules::ProhibitUnpackagedCode

Perl::Review::Policy::NamingConventions::ProhibitMixedCaseSubs

Perl::Review::Policy::NamingConventions::ProhibitMixedCaseVars

Perl::Review::Policy::Subroutines::ProhibitSubroutinePrototypes

Perl::Review::Policy::TestingAndDebugging::RequirePackageStricture

Perl::Review::Policy::TestingAndDebugging::RequirePackageWarnings

Perl::Review::Policy::ValuesAndExpressions::ProhibitConstantPragma

Perl::Review::Policy::ValuesAndExpressions::ProhibitEmptyQuotes

Perl::Review::Policy::ValuesAndExpressions::ProhibitInterpolationOfLiterals

Perl::Review::Policy::ValuesAndExpressions::ProhibitNoisyQuotes

Perl::Review::Policy::ValuesAndExpressions::RequireInterpolationOfMetachars

Perl::Review::Policy::ValuesAndExpressions::RequireQuotedHeredocTerminator

Perl::Review::Policy::ValuesAndExpressions::RequireUpperCaseHeredocTerminator

Perl::Review::Policy::Variables::ProhibitLocalVars

Perl::Review::Policy::Variables::ProhibitPackageVars

Perl::Review::Policy::Variables::ProhibitPunctuationVars

BUGS

Scrutinizing Perl code is hard for humans, let alone machines. If you find any bugs, particularly false-positives or false-negatives from a Perl::Review::Policy, please submit them to http://rt.cpan.org. Thanks.

CREDITS

Adam Kennedy - For creating PPI, the heart and soul of Perl::Review.

Damian Conway - For writing Perl Best Practices

Sharon, my wife - For putting up with my all-night code sessions

AUTHOR

Jeffrey Ryan Thalhammer <thaljef@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2005 Jeffrey Ryan Thalhammer. All rights reserved.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. The full text of this license can be found in the LICENSE file included with this module.