Module::ThirdParty 0.18

Module::ThirdParty is a Perl module which can provide information for 3rd party modules (outside CPAN).
SYNOPSIS
use Module::ThirdParty;
if (is_3rd_party($module)) {
my $info = module_information($module);
print "$module is a known third-party Perl modulen",
" -> included in $info->{name} ($info->{url})n",
" -> made by $info->{author} ($info->{author_url})n"
} else {
print "$module is not a known third-party Perl modulen"
}
Perl modules can be roughly classified in three categories:
- core modules, included with the standard Perl distribution;
- CPAN modules, available from any CPAN mirror;
- third-party modules, including modules publicly available on the Internet (outside CPAN) and "closed" modules available only through commercial licenses.
The list of core modules is provided by Module::CoreList and the list of CPAN modules is in the file http://www.cpan.org/modules/02packages.details.txt.gz and provided by modules like CPANPLUS, but there was no module that listed third-party modules. This module tries to address this need by providing such a list.
Why bother in the first place? Because some CPAN modules specify such third-party software. Therefore installing them may not be as easy as other CPAN modules because one must first find and manually install the prerequisites. The aim of Module::ThirdParty is to provide basic information to installer shells like CPANPLUS and to give hints to the user.
Note that there is also another category of modules regarding dependencies problems: the ghost modules. Those are modules no longer present on the CPAN, but which still haunt it from old PREREQS. They can be found in the BackPAN graveyard, for which the only map is Parse::BACKPAN::Packages.