Mark certain versions as "developer release" on CPAN

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

On CPAN, some versions of a particular module can (apparently) be marked as "** developer release **". For example, see:

http://search.cpan.org/~byrne/SOAP-Lite-0.65_6/

"SOAP-Lite-0.65_6" is marked as a developer release, while "SOAP-Lite-0.60a" is still considered the "latest" release.

How do I do this for my own CPAN modules? For instance, I have my File::Format::RIFF module, which I finally released as "1.0.0". I want to start a "1.1.x" branch and have it marked as "developer release", so that people would be more inclined to stick with the "1.0.x" release.

Comment on Mark certain versions as "developer release" on CPAN

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Re: Mark certain versions as "developer release" on CPAN by siracusa (Friar) on Aug 08, 2005 at 17:29 UTC
My understanding is that you just put an underscore anywhere in your version number, and CPAN magically treats it as a "developer release." Now I have a question of my own, which I was going to post separately but I'll put here instead: what are the responsibilities of a "developer release"? I don't want to upload something half-finished as version "0.00_01" and then get dinged (and one-star-reviewed) because the documentation is practically non-existent or it's rife with bugs...	[reply]
Re^2: Mark certain versions as "developer release" on CPAN by holli (Abbot) on Aug 08, 2005 at 17:44 UTC
In a production release, the API should be fixed and all (documented) features thoroughly tested. In a developer release the developer adds new experimental features, either for his beta testers, fellow developers or both. At least that's my understanding. holli, /regexed monk/	[reply] [d/l]
Re^3: Mark certain versions as "developer release" on CPAN by exussum0 (Vicar) on Aug 08, 2005 at 18:16 UTC
Much like gmail, which is not for general consumption. It's a joke. Laugh. :) ---- Give me strength for today.. I will not talk it away.. Just for a moment.. It will burn through the clouds.. and shine down on me.	[reply]
Re^2: Mark certain versions as "developer release" on CPAN by itub (Priest) on Aug 09, 2005 at 14:39 UTC
There are no written rules. I don't give bad ratings for new distributions that have a developer version number, but everyone else can do whatever they want. ;-)	[reply]
Re: Mark certain versions as "developer release" on CPAN by creamygoodness (Curate) on Aug 08, 2005 at 18:54 UTC
Two other useful aspects of developer releases: You don't get them when you access command-line CPAN. They don't show up in search results on http://search.cpan.org. Tip: developer releases are great for previewing smoke test results. Marvin Humphrey Rectangular Research — http://www.rectangular.com	[reply]
Re^2: Mark certain versions as "developer release" on CPAN by jkao (Beadle) on Aug 08, 2005 at 20:27 UTC
"don't get them when you access command-line CPAN" -- I assume this means CPAN::Shell won't install a developer release by default... Is it possible to force a developer release to be installed though? (Along with any developer-release dependencies. As opposed to manually downloading the tarball, etc.)	[reply]
Re^3: Mark certain versions as "developer release" on CPAN by creamygoodness (Curate) on Aug 09, 2005 at 01:32 UTC
Yes, it's possible to install a developer's version from the CPAN shell, complete with dependencies. You just need to specify the author's CPAN id in all caps, followed by the exact name of the distro (technically, it's the filepath relative to the authors/id directory). For example, to install the developer's version of Search::Kinosearch, you would type... `install CREAMYG/Search-Kinosearch-0.03_02.tar.gz` ... but I don't recommend it. ;) The docs for the CPAN module cover this in greater detail. -- Marvin Humphrey Rectangular Research ― http://www.rectangular.com	[reply] [d/l]

It's a joke. Laugh. :)