Solidify and document META6.json content

[zoffixznet]

We need to solidify what should be inside META6.json file, what format everything is, and what is optional and what is mandatory—and that should be well documented.

Based on this IRC conversation, what goes into META6.json is a bit muddy at the moment.

Based on ugexe's comments, the currently described S22 META6.json is up-to-date, except for what the resources property takes.

The properties we list in the documentation however are different. I think they talk about the old resources format and they still mention no-longer specced source-url key.

The new alternative for source-url is "support: { "source": .... However, only 26 modules out of 680 actually use it. Worse, it's specced as optional, however, panda will die if it cannot find either source-url or support.source and from what I recall, the modules.perl6.org dist builder will also have issues with dists that lack any source URLs in META.

So part of this Issue would be either changing the spec and making some kind of source URL mandatory or fixing our tooling.

My suggestion would be to go with least resistance and remove optional support.source property while adding a mandatory source-url property.

[zoffixznet]

Some potential fixes:

13:58   unmatched}  Then we just need to fix the tools that explode when no URLs are given
13:58   ugexe   the ecosystem could refuse to index them
13:58       source-url could be seen as an ecosystem related meta6 extension
``

[AlexDaniel]

FWIW, all modules without source-url:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zoffixznet/perl6-Pastebin-Shadowcat/master/META6.json – no source-url
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zoffixznet/perl6-Pastebin-Gist/master/META6.json – no source-url
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zoffixznet/perl6-App-Nopaste/master/META6.json – no source-url
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zoffixznet/perl6-Color/master/META6.json – no source-url
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zoffixznet/perl6-IRC-Client/master/META6.json – no source-url
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zoffixznet/perl6-WWW-Google-Time/master/META6.json – no source-url
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zoffixznet/perl6-Lingua-Conjunction/master/META6.json – no source-url
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zoffixznet/perl6-Number-Denominate/master/META6.json – no source-url
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zoffixznet/perl6-IRC-Client-Plugin-HNY/master/META6.json – no source-url
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zoffixznet/perl6-IRC-Client-Plugin-Factoid/master/META6.json – no source-url
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zoffixznet/perl6-Test-Output/master/META6.json – no source-url
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zoffixznet/perl6-IO-MiddleMan/master/META6.json – no source-url
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zoffixznet/perl6-Inline-Brainfuck/master/META6.json – no source-url
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zoffixznet/perl6-String-Quotemeta/master/META6.json – no source-url
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zoffixznet/perl6-Acme-Anguish/master/META6.json – no source-url
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zoffixznet/perl6-Config-From/master/META6.json – no source-url
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zoffixznet/perl6-Quantum-Collapse/master/META6.json – no source-url
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zoffixznet/perl6-Pretty-Topic/master/META6.json – no source-url
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zoffixznet/perl6-RT-REST-Client/master/META6.json – no source-url
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/masak/tardis/master/META.info – no source-url
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/masak/007/master/META.info – no source-url
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/skids/perl6xproto/master/META6.json – no source-url
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/skids/perl6-Control-Bail/master/META6.json – no source-url
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/johnspurr/Lingua-EN-Stem-Porter/master/META6.json – no source-url
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/scovit/perl6-IRC-Async/master/META6.json – no source-url
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Altai-man/perl6-Text-Tabs/master/META6.json – no source-url

[Altai-man]

I've fixed last module. But I personally 👍 the idea about providing a common pattern for META6.json file, since inconsistency is not good.

[AlexDaniel]

Did we already decide what counts as “fixing”?

[AlexDaniel]

Like, there are currently 680 modules. If we decide that "support: { "source": is the way to go, then the amount of new modules will be like 2000 in the next, say, 2 years, meaning that even if existing modules don't switch to the recommended method, the majority of modules will be doing it right.

I don't think that the method of least resistance has any significant benefits on this stage. I'd much rather prefer solution that we can call “right” for many years to come.

[zoffixznet]

Did we already decide what counts as “fixing”?

So far the conversation reached this: support.source is the specced optional field and source-url is the ecosystem extension that is mandatory, unless support.source is specified.

However, the source-url for all currently-added ecosystem modules can be derived from the META file URL, so I'd fix panda (and ufo, if it needs fixing) and that will let us consider source-url as vestigial leftover and when adding a module to our ecosystem no explicit URL will be required in the metafile

[zoffixznet]

Actually, we may not even need to fix panda, but rather ensure the ecosystem generator panda uses fills in a support.source if both it and source-url are missing from the metafile

[JJ]

Can someone check if META6.json is solid enough? Either that, or totally melted. It's been two years...

[AlexDaniel]

I guess it's more about this section: https://docs.perl6.org/language/modules#index-entry-META6.json-META6.json
I don't know if that example is modern enough.

[JJ]

support.source has been eliminated. Looks consistent with what it said it had to be done. On the other hand, compared with modern META6.json it lacks lots of things, like auth or support

[AlexDaniel]

That should be done then to close this issue (perhaps ask on #perl6 if auth and support are actually intended to exist and were not just made up by a particular module author).

[JJ]

auth is definitely here to stay. Don't know about the rest. That particular META6.json is even bigger, also.

[AlexDaniel]

@JJ see also this: https://irclog.perlgeek.de/perl6-dev/2018-03-18#i_15935872

[tisonkun]

https://perl6advent.wordpress.com/2016/12/16/day-16-the-meta-spec-distribution-and-compunitrepository-explained-ish/

though it might somewhat out of date