File::Comments 0.07

File::Comments is a Perl module that ecognizes file formats and extracts format-specific comments.

SYNOPSIS

use File::Comments;

my $snoop = File::Comments->new();

# *----------------
# | program.c:
# | /* comment */
# | main () {}
# *----------------
my $comments = $snoop->comments("program.c");
# => [" comment "]

# *----------------
# | script.pl:
# | # comment
# | print "howdy!n"; # another comment
# *----------------
my $comments = $snoop->comments("script.pl");
# => [" comment", " another comment"]

# or strip comments from a file:
my $stripped = $snoop->stripped("script.pl");
# => "print "howdy!n";"

# or just guess a files type:
my $type = $snoop->guess_type("program.c");
# => "c"

File::Comments guesses the type of a given file, determines the format used for comments, extracts all comments, and returns them as a reference to an array of chunks. Alternatively, it strips all comments from a file.

Currently supported are Perl scripts, C/C++ programs, Java, makefiles, JavaScript, Python and PHP.

The plugin architecture used by File::Comments makes it easy to add new formats. To support a new format, a new plugin module has to be installed. No modifications to the File::Comments codebase are necessary, new plugins will be picked up automatically.

File::Comments can also be used to simply guess a files type. It it somewhat more flexible than File::MMagic and File::Type. File types in File::Comments are typically based on file name suffixes (*.c, *.pl, etc.). If no suffix is available, or a given suffix is ambiguous (e.g. if several plugins have registered a handler for the same suffix), then the files content is used to narrow down the possibilities and arrive at a decision.

WARNING: THIS MODULE IS UNDER DEVELOPMENT, QUALITY IS ALPHA. IF YOU FIND BUGS, OR WANT TO CONTRIBUTE PLUGINS, PLEASE SEND THEM MY WAY.