How to read the ~/.cpan/Metadata file

smile4me has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi y'all,

I'm looking for documentation on how to read the $HOME/.cpan/Metadata file. Is it only generated during a "cpan -a" autobundle action? What is the structure of the file?

head -30 snapshot.autobundle.perl5203.11Apr2016.log
CPAN: Storable loaded ok (v2.49_01)
Reading '/root/.cpan/Metadata'
  Database was generated on Mon, 11 Apr 2016 18:17:02 GMT
CPAN: YAML loaded ok (v1.15)
CPAN: Time::HiRes loaded ok (v1.9726)
Reading 14 yaml files from /root/.cpan/build/
......................................................................
+......DONE
Restored the state of none (in 0.1143 secs)

Package namespace         installed    latest  in CPAN file
Algorithm::Diff              1.1903    1.1903  TYEMQ/Algorithm-Diff-1.
+1903.tar.gz
Archive::Tar                   1.96      2.04  BINGOS/Archive-Tar-2.04
+.tar.gz
Attribute::Handlers            0.96      0.99  RJBS/Attribute-Handlers
+-0.99.tar.gz
... etc ...
[download]

So looking at the Metadata file:

file ~/.cpan/Metadata
/root/.cpan/Metadata: perl Storable (v0.7) data (network-ordered) (maj
+or 2) (minor 10)
[download]

I am assuming this is the database that "cpan" uses after interrogating my modules found in @INC, is that correct?

How do I read this file?

Thanks,
Steve

Comment on How to read the ~/.cpan/Metadata file Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: How to read the ~/.cpan/Metadata file by Corion (Patriarch) on Apr 12, 2016 at 06:59 UTC
Also see ~~Parse::CPAN::Meta~~ CPAN::SQLite::Index for the list of modules	[reply]
Re: How to read the ~/.cpan/Metadata file by Anonymous Monk on Apr 12, 2016 at 02:46 UTC
Storable is a perl module	[reply]


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