NAME

VCS - Library for generic Version Control System access in Perl

SYNOPSIS

        use VCS;
        $file = VCS::File->new($ARGV[0]);
        print $file->url, ":\n";
        for $version ($file->versions) {
            print $version->version,
                  ' was checked in by ',
                  $version->author,
                  "\n";
        }

DESCRIPTION

`VCS' is an API for abstracting access to all version control systems from Perl code. This is achieved in a similar fashion to the `DBI' suite of modules. There are "container" classes, `VCS::Dir', `VCS::File', and `VCS::Version', and "implementation" classes, such as `VCS::Cvs::Dir', `VCS::Cvs::File', and `VCS::Cvs::Version', which are subclasses of their respective "container" classes.

The container classes are instantiated with URLs. There is a URL scheme for entities under version control. The format is as follows:

vcs://localhost/VCS::Cvs/fs/path/?query=1

The "query" part is ignored for now. The path must be an absolute path, meaningful to the given class. The class is an implementation class, such as `VCS::Cvs'.

The "container" classes work as follows: when the `new' method of a container class is called, it will parse the given URL, using the `VCS->parse_url' method. It will then call the `new' of the implementation's appropriate container subclass, and return the result. For example,

VCS::Version->new('vcs://localhost/VCS::Cvs/fs/path/file/1.2');

will return a `VCS::Cvs::Version'.

An implementation class is recognised as follows: its name starts with `VCS::', and `require "VCS/Classname.pm"' will load the appropriate implementation classes corresponding to the container classes.

VCS METHODS
VCS->parse_url

This returns a four-element list:

($hostname, $classname, $path, $query)

For example,

VCS->parse_url('vcs://localhost/VCS::Cvs/fs/path/file/1.2');

will return

        (
            'localhost',
            'VCS::Cvs',
            '/fs/path/file/1.2',
            ''
        )

This is mostly intended for use by the container classes, and its interface is subject to change.

VCS->class_load

This loads its given implementation class.

This is mostly intended for use by the container classes, and its interface is subject to change.

VCS::* METHODS

Please refer to the documentation for the VCS::Dir manpage, the VCS::File manpage, and the VCS::Version manpage; as well as the implementation specific documentation as in the VCS::Cvs manpage, the VCS::Rcs manpage.

AVAILABILITY

VCS.pm and its friends are available from CPAN. There is a web page at:

http://www.astray.com/VCS/

as well as a sourceforge project page at:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/vcs/

MAILING LIST

There is currently a mailing list about VCS. Go to the following webpage to subscribe to it:

http://www.astray.com/mailman/listinfo/vcs

There is a web archive of the mailing list at:

http://www.astray.com/pipermail/vcs/

General queries should be made directly to the mailing list.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 1998-2001 Leon Brocard. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

SEE ALSO

the VCS::Cvs manpage, the VCS::Dir manpage, the VCS::File manpage, the VCS::Rcs manpage, the VCS::Version manpage.