NAME
    UNIVERSAL::AUTHORITY - adds an AUTHORITY method to UNIVERSAL

SYNOPSIS
     if (HTML::HTML5::Writer->AUTHORITY ne HTML::HTML5::Builder->AUTHORITY)
     {
       warn "Closely intertwined modules with different authors!\n";
       warn "There may be trouble ahead...";
     }

     # Only trust STEVAN's releases
     Moose->AUTHORITY('cpan:STEVAN'); # dies if doesn't match

DESCRIPTION
    This module adds an "AUTHORITY" function to the "UNIVERSAL" package,
    which works along the same lines as the "VERSION" function. Because it
    is defined in "UNIVERSAL", it becomes instantly available as a method
    for any blessed objects, and as a class method for any package.

    The authority of a package can be defined like this:

     package MyApp;
     BEGIN { $MyApp::AUTHORITY = 'cpan:JOEBLOGGS'; }

    The authority should be a URI identifying the person, team, organisation
    or trained chimp responsible for the release of the package. The
    pseudo-URI scheme "cpan:" is the most commonly used identifier.

  "UNIVERSAL::AUTHORITY"
    Called with no parameters returns the authority of a CPAN release.

  "UNIVERSAL::AUTHORITY($test)"
    If passed a test, will croak if the test fails. The authority is tested
    against the test using something approximating Perl 5.10's smart match
    operator. (Briefly, you can pass a string for "eq" comparison, a regular
    expression, a code reference to use as a callback, or an array reference
    that will be grepped.)

  Utility Function
    "UNIVERSAL::AUTHORITY::reasonably_smart_match($a, $b)"
        UNIVERSAL::AUTHORITY exposes its smart match implementation in case
        classes wish to reuse it for their own custom "AUTHORITY" methods.
        (There are various interesting use cases for custom "AUTHORITY"
        methods, just as there are for custom "can" and "isa" methods.)

        The $a parameter is assumed to be a scalar.

BUGS
    Please report any bugs to
    <http://rt.cpan.org/Dist/Display.html?Queue=UNIVERSAL-AUTHORITY>.

SEE ALSO
    authority, authority::shared, <http://feather.perl6.nl/syn/S11.html>,
    <http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=694377>.

    UNIVERSAL, UNIVERSAL::which, UNIVERSAL::dump, UNIVERSAL::DOES, &c.

AUTHOR
    Toby Inkster <tobyink@cpan.org>.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE
    This software is copyright (c) 2011 by Toby Inkster.

    This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
    the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES
    THIS PACKAGE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED
    WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
    MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

