This software parses CPAN meta files and stores the data in a cache for quick access.
With this software, subsequent calls are loaded from this storable file rather than being re-parsed from the original cpan metadata file, provided the cache hasn't expired. If the cache has expired, we re-parse the source. Although this may seem redundant, it is especially useful if you repeatedly open these files in different processes.
It's important to note that 02packages.details.txt.gz (circa 2009-03) is approximately 730KB on disk, but 13MB as an (App::Cached generated) storable file. Essentially, we're trading disk and memory for speed.
To take advantage of this software, you'll need to ensure you already have a CPAN::Mini mirror setup. Then, using Parse::CPAN::Cached is easy. Declare the software with use Parse::CPAN::Cached;, and create a new $parsers object.
From there, you can parse the CPAN meta data files with the parse_cpan method. For example, $authors is a Parse::CPAN::Authors (or Parse::CPAN::Whois) object, and $distributions is a Parse::CPAN::Packages object.
In summary, if you want to quickly parse the CPAN meta data files, Parse::CPAN::Cached is an excellent option. It saves a significant amount of time and resources by creating storable files, and makes future parsing requests even faster.
Version 0.02: N/A