Key: fields with "=" are required, fields with ":" are optional.


plugin_name=

	 A single line. The name of the plugin, preferably
	with no shell escape characters in the name ;->
	Otherwise, this field is mostly free form. ie,
	"Billy Bobs Bitmap Munger and Stereoscopic Displacer"
	is fine.
	This field is required.

package_name=

	A single line. Preferably in a format that would make
	for legal filenames in unix and windows. For example,
	"stereo_displacer"

	This would also be the name of the description format
	and the tarball. 

	This field is required.

author=
	
	The name of the author. A sinlge line, also free form.
	This field is required.

author_email_address=

	The email address of the author. A single line. Preferably
	something vaguley resembling a machine parseable email
	address (ie, adrian@gimp.org or yosh@duck.org not
	"billy bob at hot mail dot com". 
	This field is required. 

plugin_url:

	The home url of the plugin. A single line, with a valid
	url. This field is not required.

plugin_type=
	
	The type of plugin, either "file", "image", "extenstion".
	Also maybe "script" or possile "data" ?. 
	This field is required. 

menu_path=

	A comma seperated list of the menu paths the plugin will
	register itself under. In the same format as found in
	the source code. For example:

	menu_path=<Image>/Filters/Blur/Gaussian Blur (IIR)

	For plugins that register themselves in multiple places,
	comma seperate the list:

	menu_path=<Image>/Image/Transforms/Layer/Rotate 90,
		  <Image>/Image/Transforms/Layer/Rotate 270

	For file plugins:

	menu_path=<Load>/Jpeg, <Save>/Jpeg
	
	This field is required. 

description=

	A free form, multiline description of the plugin. Basically
	the same info in the description field of the plugin. For
	example:

version_number:

	a single line, free form string. Whatever version number
	scheme the author prefers or uses themselves. 

	This field is not required.

serial_number:

	a single line, 32 bit signed integer ie (0..32768)
	terminated with a semi-colon.
	This is a unique version number for every released	
	version of the plugin, starting from 1, and incremented
	for every release. ie, a easy to parse, reliable version
	number. The theory being that there is no standard version
	number practice and this has always been a pain for 
	semi-automated package software (ie, rpm/deb/etc). With this
	serial number, it should be easy to tell if the version of
	the plugin on the registry is actually newer than the one the
	user has. Should make automatic package updateing much easier.

	for example, the initial release:

	serial_number= 1;

	for todays gimp-perl release:

	serial_number= 312;

	(And maybe use negative numbers for development releases?
	just an idea...)

	This field should be incremented for every release.

	This field is required.

build_date:

	A single line.

	The date the packaged as released.
	probabaly in default unix `date` format, ie:

	build_date: Mon Mar 22 05:50:52 EST 1999  


build_method=

	a single line, with either "gimptool", "makefile",
	or "configure"

	The idea being able to make it easy for the plugin building
	tool to guess what it needs to do to compile package. 
	
	For the time being, I think we should stick with the above
	build methods. More on that later.

	This field is required.

	see the file plugin_package_misc.txt for more details.


build_flags:

	This field is only for use if a plugin absoultely has to
	pass some options to gimptool/make/configure. 

	Whatever is in this field is passed as arguments to 
	the build tool setup in the build_method line. for example,
	this line could be set to "--noui" for plugins that dont
	link with gtk.

	Or it could be set to "--with-some-weird-lib" to force
	configure to use some weird option.

	This field is not required.


change_log: 
	
	A free form, multiline field. With the intentions of showing
	whats new in the current revision, if that bug was fixed,
	when you added the requirement on motif, etc. 

	Not used by the buildtool at all, but useful info for those
	that are browsing plugins.

	This field is not required.


docs:

	a pointer to a subdir in the tarball with any docs that might
	be distributed with the plugin in it. ie:

	docs: docs/


misc_info:

	A free form, multiline field.

	Any other useful bits of info that might be handy, but dont
	really belong any where else. Special tokens that the plugin
	needs the gimprc for example, or any special paths it
	requires. 

	Warnings about possbile bugs, or useage suggestions.