Cache::Repository - a framework for handling repositories of files
Darin McBride
Copyright 2005 Darin McBride
QUICK START:
Finish reading this README. Install by doing:
perl Build.PL
./Build.PL
./Build.PL test
./Build.PL install
At this point, the source tree is no longer needed - you can delete
it if you wish.
DESCRIPTION:
The purpose of this framework is to provide a way to handle a
repository of files. In general, unlike simple data, files can be
too large to fit in available memory, or, more often, too large to
fit in a reasonable amount of memory. For example, a repository of
CD images would be too large to keep in shared memory, or even a
repository of images, CAD files, etc. Even for smaller files, such
as perl code, if you are dealing with them as files, and not as
data, there may be no reason to load them into a scalar in memory
to work with.
Further, files are often grouped together in some manner that they
will stay together in. For example, an image and its thumbnail
will usually be kept together - they either are both required or
neither. Or an ISO image and its .md5 file.
These are both ways that separate this framework from its nearest
look-alike: Cache::Cache. With Cache::Cache, each file would be
treated as data - loaded into memory. There is no grouping of this
"data" since it is geared towards caching actual perlish data, and
you can just cache arrays or hashes to keep your data together.
