1CPAN(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation CPAN(3)
2
6 CPAN - query, download and build perl modules from CPAN sites
7
9 Interactive mode:
10 perl -MCPAN -e shell
12 --or--
14 cpan
16 Basic commands:
18 # Modules:
20 cpan> install Acme::Meta # in the shell
22 CPAN::Shell->install("Acme::Meta"); # in perl
24 # Distributions:
26 cpan> install NWCLARK/Acme-Meta-0.02.tar.gz # in the shell
28 CPAN::Shell->
30 install("NWCLARK/Acme-Meta-0.02.tar.gz"); # in perl
31 # module objects:
33 $mo = CPAN::Shell->expandany($mod);
35 $mo = CPAN::Shell->expand("Module",$mod); # same thing
36 # distribution objects:
38 $do = CPAN::Shell->expand("Module",$mod)->distribution;
40 $do = CPAN::Shell->expandany($distro); # same thing
41 $do = CPAN::Shell->expand("Distribution",
42 $distro); # same thing
43
45 The CPAN module automates or at least simplifies the make and install
46 of perl modules and extensions. It includes some primitive searching
47 capabilities and knows how to use LWP, HTTP::Tiny, Net::FTP and certain
48 external download clients to fetch distributions from the net.
49 These are fetched from one or more mirrored CPAN (Comprehensive Perl
51 Archive Network) sites and unpacked in a dedicated directory.
52 The CPAN module also supports named and versioned bundles of modules.
54 Bundles simplify handling of sets of related modules. See Bundles
55 below.
56 The package contains a session manager and a cache manager. The session
58 manager keeps track of what has been fetched, built, and installed in
59 the current session. The cache manager keeps track of the disk space
60 occupied by the make processes and deletes excess space using a simple
61 FIFO mechanism.
62 All methods provided are accessible in a programmer style and in an
64 interactive shell style.
65 CPAN::shell([$prompt, $command]) Starting Interactive Mode
67 Enter interactive mode by running
68 perl -MCPAN -e shell
70 or
72 cpan
74 which puts you into a readline interface. If "Term::ReadKey" and either
76 of "Term::ReadLine::Perl" or "Term::ReadLine::Gnu" are installed,
77 history and command completion are supported.
78 Once at the command line, type "h" for one-page help screen; the rest
80 should be self-explanatory.
81 The function call "shell" takes two optional arguments: one the prompt,
83 the second the default initial command line (the latter only works if a
84 real ReadLine interface module is installed).
85 The most common uses of the interactive modes are
87 Searching for authors, bundles, distribution files and modules
89 There are corresponding one-letter commands "a", "b", "d", and "m"
90 for each of the four categories and another, "i" for any of the
91 mentioned four. Each of the four entities is implemented as a class
92 with slightly differing methods for displaying an object.
93 Arguments to these commands are either strings exactly matching the
95 identification string of an object, or regular expressions matched
96 case-insensitively against various attributes of the objects. The
97 parser only recognizes a regular expression when you enclose it with
98 slashes.
99 The principle is that the number of objects found influences how an
101 item is displayed. If the search finds one item, the result is
102 displayed with the rather verbose method "as_string", but if more
103 than one is found, each object is displayed with the terse method
104 "as_glimpse".
105 Examples:
107 cpan> m Acme::MetaSyntactic
109 Module id = Acme::MetaSyntactic
110 CPAN_USERID BOOK (Philippe Bruhat (BooK) <[...]>)
111 CPAN_VERSION 0.99
112 CPAN_FILE B/BO/BOOK/Acme-MetaSyntactic-0.99.tar.gz
113 UPLOAD_DATE 2006-11-06
114 MANPAGE Acme::MetaSyntactic - Themed metasyntactic variables names
115 INST_FILE /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.0/Acme/MetaSyntactic.pm
116 INST_VERSION 0.99
117 cpan> a BOOK
118 Author id = BOOK
119 EMAIL [...]
120 FULLNAME Philippe Bruhat (BooK)
121 cpan> d BOOK/Acme-MetaSyntactic-0.99.tar.gz
122 Distribution id = B/BO/BOOK/Acme-MetaSyntactic-0.99.tar.gz
123 CPAN_USERID BOOK (Philippe Bruhat (BooK) <[...]>)
124 CONTAINSMODS Acme::MetaSyntactic Acme::MetaSyntactic::Alias [...]
125 UPLOAD_DATE 2006-11-06
126 cpan> m /lorem/
127 Module = Acme::MetaSyntactic::loremipsum (BOOK/Acme-MetaSyntactic-0.99.tar.gz)
128 Module Text::Lorem (ADEOLA/Text-Lorem-0.3.tar.gz)
129 Module Text::Lorem::More (RKRIMEN/Text-Lorem-More-0.12.tar.gz)
130 Module Text::Lorem::More::Source (RKRIMEN/Text-Lorem-More-0.12.tar.gz)
131 cpan> i /berlin/
132 Distribution BEATNIK/Filter-NumberLines-0.02.tar.gz
133 Module = DateTime::TimeZone::Europe::Berlin (DROLSKY/DateTime-TimeZone-0.7904.tar.gz)
134 Module Filter::NumberLines (BEATNIK/Filter-NumberLines-0.02.tar.gz)
135 Author [...]
136 The examples illustrate several aspects: the first three queries
138 target modules, authors, or distros directly and yield exactly one
139 result. The last two use regular expressions and yield several
140 results. The last one targets all of bundles, modules, authors, and
141 distros simultaneously. When more than one result is available, they
142 are printed in one-line format.
143 "get", "make", "test", "install", "clean" modules or distributions
145 These commands take any number of arguments and investigate what is
146 necessary to perform the action. Argument processing is as follows:
147 known module name in format Foo/Bar.pm module
149 other embedded slash distribution
150 - with trailing slash dot directory
151 enclosing slashes regexp
152 known module name in format Foo::Bar module
153 If the argument is a distribution file name (recognized by embedded
155 slashes), it is processed. If it is a module, CPAN determines the
156 distribution file in which this module is included and processes
157 that, following any dependencies named in the module's META.yml or
158 Makefile.PL (this behavior is controlled by the configuration
159 parameter "prerequisites_policy"). If an argument is enclosed in
160 slashes it is treated as a regular expression: it is expanded and if
161 the result is a single object (distribution, bundle or module), this
162 object is processed.
163 Example:
165 install Dummy::Perl # installs the module
167 install AUXXX/Dummy-Perl-3.14.tar.gz # installs that distribution
168 install /Dummy-Perl-3.14/ # same if the regexp is unambiguous
169 "get" downloads a distribution file and untars or unzips it, "make"
171 builds it, "test" runs the test suite, and "install" installs it.
172 Any "make" or "test" is run unconditionally. An
174 install <distribution_file>
176 is also run unconditionally. But for
178 install <module>
180 CPAN checks whether an install is needed and prints module up to date
182 if the distribution file containing the module doesn't need updating.
183 CPAN also keeps track of what it has done within the current session
185 and doesn't try to build a package a second time regardless of
186 whether it succeeded or not. It does not repeat a test run if the
187 test has been run successfully before. Same for install runs.
188 The "force" pragma may precede another command (currently: "get",
190 "make", "test", or "install") to execute the command from scratch and
191 attempt to continue past certain errors. See the section below on the
192 "force" and the "fforce" pragma.
193 The "notest" pragma skips the test part in the build process.
195 Example:
197 cpan> notest install Tk
199 A "clean" command results in a
201 make clean
203 being executed within the distribution file's working directory.
205 "readme", "perldoc", "look" module or distribution
207 "readme" displays the README file of the associated distribution.
208 "Look" gets and untars (if not yet done) the distribution file,
209 changes to the appropriate directory and opens a subshell process in
210 that directory. "perldoc" displays the module's pod documentation in
211 html or plain text format.
212 "ls" author
214 "ls" globbing_expression
215 The first form lists all distribution files in and below an author's
216 CPAN directory as stored in the CHECKSUMS files distributed on CPAN.
217 The listing recurses into subdirectories.
218 The second form limits or expands the output with shell globbing as
220 in the following examples:
221 ls JV/make*
223 ls GSAR/*make*
224 ls */*make*
225 The last example is very slow and outputs extra progress indicators
227 that break the alignment of the result.
228 Note that globbing only lists directories explicitly asked for, for
230 example FOO/* will not list FOO/bar/Acme-Sthg-n.nn.tar.gz. This may
231 be regarded as a bug that may be changed in some future version.
232 "failed"
234 The "failed" command reports all distributions that failed on one of
235 "make", "test" or "install" for some reason in the currently running
236 shell session.
237 Persistence between sessions
239 If the "YAML" or the "YAML::Syck" module is installed a record of the
240 internal state of all modules is written to disk after each step.
241 The files contain a signature of the currently running perl version
242 for later perusal.
243 If the configurations variable "build_dir_reuse" is set to a true
245 value, then CPAN.pm reads the collected YAML files. If the stored
246 signature matches the currently running perl, the stored state is
247 loaded into memory such that persistence between sessions is
248 effectively established.
249 The "force" and the "fforce" pragma
251 To speed things up in complex installation scenarios, CPAN.pm keeps
252 track of what it has already done and refuses to do some things a
253 second time. A "get", a "make", and an "install" are not repeated. A
254 "test" is repeated only if the previous test was unsuccessful. The
255 diagnostic message when CPAN.pm refuses to do something a second time
256 is one of Has already been "unwrapped|made|tested successfully" or
257 something similar. Another situation where CPAN refuses to act is an
258 "install" if the corresponding "test" was not successful.
259 In all these cases, the user can override this stubborn behaviour by
261 prepending the command with the word force, for example:
262 cpan> force get Foo
264 cpan> force make AUTHOR/Bar-3.14.tar.gz
265 cpan> force test Baz
266 cpan> force install Acme::Meta
267 Each forced command is executed with the corresponding part of its
269 memory erased.
270 The "fforce" pragma is a variant that emulates a "force get" which
272 erases the entire memory followed by the action specified,
273 effectively restarting the whole get/make/test/install procedure from
274 scratch.
275 Lockfile
277 Interactive sessions maintain a lockfile, by default "~/.cpan/.lock".
278 Batch jobs can run without a lockfile and not disturb each other.
279 The shell offers to run in downgraded mode when another process is
281 holding the lockfile. This is an experimental feature that is not yet
282 tested very well. This second shell then does not write the history
283 file, does not use the metadata file, and has a different prompt.
284 Signals
286 CPAN.pm installs signal handlers for SIGINT and SIGTERM. While you
287 are in the cpan-shell, it is intended that you can press "^C" anytime
288 and return to the cpan-shell prompt. A SIGTERM will cause the cpan-
289 shell to clean up and leave the shell loop. You can emulate the
290 effect of a SIGTERM by sending two consecutive SIGINTs, which usually
291 means by pressing "^C" twice.
292 CPAN.pm ignores SIGPIPE. If the user sets "inactivity_timeout", a
294 SIGALRM is used during the run of the "perl Makefile.PL" or "perl
295 Build.PL" subprocess. A SIGALRM is also used during module version
296 parsing, and is controlled by "version_timeout".
297 CPAN::Shell
299 The commands available in the shell interface are methods in the
300 package CPAN::Shell. If you enter the shell command, your input is
301 split by the Text::ParseWords::shellwords() routine, which acts like
302 most shells do. The first word is interpreted as the method to be
303 invoked, and the rest of the words are treated as the method's
304 arguments. Continuation lines are supported by ending a line with a
305 literal backslash.
306 autobundle
308 "autobundle" writes a bundle file into the
309 "$CPAN::Config->{cpan_home}/Bundle" directory. The file contains a list
310 of all modules that are both available from CPAN and currently
311 installed within @INC. Duplicates of each distribution are suppressed.
312 The name of the bundle file is based on the current date and a counter,
313 e.g. Bundle/Snapshot_2012_05_21_00.pm. This is installed again by
314 running "cpan Bundle::Snapshot_2012_05_21_00", or installing
315 "Bundle::Snapshot_2012_05_21_00" from the CPAN shell.
316 Return value: path to the written file.
318 hosts
320 Note: this feature is still in alpha state and may change in future
321 versions of CPAN.pm
322 This commands provides a statistical overview over recent download
324 activities. The data for this is collected in the YAML file
325 "FTPstats.yml" in your "cpan_home" directory. If no YAML module is
326 configured or YAML not installed, no stats are provided.
327 install_tested
329 Install all distributions that have been tested successfully but
330 have not yet been installed. See also "is_tested".
331 is_tested
333 List all build directories of distributions that have been tested
334 successfully but have not yet been installed. See also
335 "install_tested".
336 mkmyconfig
338 mkmyconfig() writes your own CPAN::MyConfig file into your "~/.cpan/"
339 directory so that you can save your own preferences instead of the
340 system-wide ones.
341 r [Module|/Regexp/]...
343 scans current perl installation for modules that have a newer version
344 available on CPAN and provides a list of them. If called without
345 argument, all potential upgrades are listed; if called with arguments
346 the list is filtered to the modules and regexps given as arguments.
347 The listing looks something like this:
349 Package namespace installed latest in CPAN file
351 CPAN 1.94_64 1.9600 ANDK/CPAN-1.9600.tar.gz
352 CPAN::Reporter 1.1801 1.1902 DAGOLDEN/CPAN-Reporter-1.1902.tar.gz
353 YAML 0.70 0.73 INGY/YAML-0.73.tar.gz
354 YAML::Syck 1.14 1.17 AVAR/YAML-Syck-1.17.tar.gz
355 YAML::Tiny 1.44 1.50 ADAMK/YAML-Tiny-1.50.tar.gz
356 CGI 3.43 3.55 MARKSTOS/CGI.pm-3.55.tar.gz
357 Module::Build::YAML 1.40 1.41 DAGOLDEN/Module-Build-0.3800.tar.gz
358 TAP::Parser::Result::YAML 3.22 3.23 ANDYA/Test-Harness-3.23.tar.gz
359 YAML::XS 0.34 0.35 INGY/YAML-LibYAML-0.35.tar.gz
360 It suppresses duplicates in the column "in CPAN file" such that
362 distributions with many upgradeable modules are listed only once.
363 Note that the list is not sorted.
365 recent ***EXPERIMENTAL COMMAND***
367 The "recent" command downloads a list of recent uploads to CPAN and
368 displays them slowly. While the command is running, a $SIG{INT} exits
369 the loop after displaying the current item.
370 Note: This command requires XML::LibXML installed.
372 Note: This whole command currently is just a hack and will probably
374 change in future versions of CPAN.pm, but the general approach will
375 likely remain.
376 Note: See also smoke
378 recompile
380 recompile() is a special command that takes no argument and runs the
381 make/test/install cycle with brute force over all installed dynamically
382 loadable extensions (a.k.a. XS modules) with 'force' in effect. The
383 primary purpose of this command is to finish a network installation.
384 Imagine you have a common source tree for two different architectures.
385 You decide to do a completely independent fresh installation. You start
386 on one architecture with the help of a Bundle file produced earlier.
387 CPAN installs the whole Bundle for you, but when you try to repeat the
388 job on the second architecture, CPAN responds with a "Foo up to date"
389 message for all modules. So you invoke CPAN's recompile on the second
390 architecture and you're done.
391 Another popular use for "recompile" is to act as a rescue in case your
393 perl breaks binary compatibility. If one of the modules that CPAN uses
394 is in turn depending on binary compatibility (so you cannot run CPAN
395 commands), then you should try the CPAN::Nox module for recovery.
396 report Bundle|Distribution|Module
398 The "report" command temporarily turns on the "test_report" config
399 variable, then runs the "force test" command with the given arguments.
400 The "force" pragma reruns the tests and repeats every step that might
401 have failed before.
402 smoke ***EXPERIMENTAL COMMAND***
404 *** WARNING: this command downloads and executes software from CPAN to
405 your computer of completely unknown status. You should never do this
406 with your normal account and better have a dedicated well separated and
407 secured machine to do this. ***
408 The "smoke" command takes the list of recent uploads to CPAN as
410 provided by the "recent" command and tests them all. While the command
411 is running $SIG{INT} is defined to mean that the current item shall be
412 skipped.
413 Note: This whole command currently is just a hack and will probably
415 change in future versions of CPAN.pm, but the general approach will
416 likely remain.
417 Note: See also recent
419 upgrade [Module|/Regexp/]...
421 The "upgrade" command first runs an "r" command with the given
422 arguments and then installs the newest versions of all modules that
423 were listed by that.
424 The four "CPAN::*" Classes: Author, Bundle, Module, Distribution
426 Although it may be considered internal, the class hierarchy does matter
427 for both users and programmer. CPAN.pm deals with the four classes
428 mentioned above, and those classes all share a set of methods.
429 Classical single polymorphism is in effect. A metaclass object
430 registers all objects of all kinds and indexes them with a string. The
431 strings referencing objects have a separated namespace (well, not
432 completely separated):
433 Namespace Class
435 words containing a "/" (slash) Distribution
437 words starting with Bundle:: Bundle
438 everything else Module or Author
439 Modules know their associated Distribution objects. They always refer
441 to the most recent official release. Developers may mark their releases
442 as unstable development versions (by inserting an underscore into the
443 module version number which will also be reflected in the distribution
444 name when you run 'make dist'), so the really hottest and newest
445 distribution is not always the default. If a module Foo circulates on
446 CPAN in both version 1.23 and 1.23_90, CPAN.pm offers a convenient way
447 to install version 1.23 by saying
448 install Foo
450 This would install the complete distribution file (say
452 BAR/Foo-1.23.tar.gz) with all accompanying material. But if you would
453 like to install version 1.23_90, you need to know where the
454 distribution file resides on CPAN relative to the authors/id/
455 directory. If the author is BAR, this might be BAR/Foo-1.23_90.tar.gz;
456 so you would have to say
457 install BAR/Foo-1.23_90.tar.gz
459 The first example will be driven by an object of the class
461 CPAN::Module, the second by an object of class CPAN::Distribution.
462 Integrating local directories
464 Note: this feature is still in alpha state and may change in future
465 versions of CPAN.pm
466 Distribution objects are normally distributions from the CPAN, but
468 there is a slightly degenerate case for Distribution objects, too, of
469 projects held on the local disk. These distribution objects have the
470 same name as the local directory and end with a dot. A dot by itself is
471 also allowed for the current directory at the time CPAN.pm was used.
472 All actions such as "make", "test", and "install" are applied directly
473 to that directory. This gives the command "cpan ." an interesting
474 touch: while the normal mantra of installing a CPAN module without
475 CPAN.pm is one of
476 perl Makefile.PL perl Build.PL
478 ( go and get prerequisites )
479 make ./Build
480 make test ./Build test
481 make install ./Build install
482 the command "cpan ." does all of this at once. It figures out which of
484 the two mantras is appropriate, fetches and installs all prerequisites,
485 takes care of them recursively, and finally finishes the installation
486 of the module in the current directory, be it a CPAN module or not.
487 The typical usage case is for private modules or working copies of
489 projects from remote repositories on the local disk.
490 Redirection
492 The usual shell redirection symbols " | " and ">" are recognized by the
493 cpan shell only when surrounded by whitespace. So piping to pager or
494 redirecting output into a file works somewhat as in a normal shell,
495 with the stipulation that you must type extra spaces.
496 Plugin support ***EXPERIMENTAL***
498 Plugins are objects that implement any of currently eight methods:
499 pre_get
501 post_get
502 pre_make
503 post_make
504 pre_test
505 post_test
506 pre_install
507 post_install
508 The "plugin_list" configuration parameter holds a list of strings of
510 the form
511 Modulename=arg0,arg1,arg2,arg3,...
513 eg:
515 CPAN::Plugin::Flurb=dir,/opt/pkgs/flurb/raw,verbose,1
517 At run time, each listed plugin is instantiated as a singleton object
519 by running the equivalent of this pseudo code:
520 my $plugin = <string representation from config>;
522 <generate Modulename and arguments from $plugin>;
523 my $p = $instance{$plugin} ||= Modulename->new($arg0,$arg1,...);
524 The generated singletons are kept around from instantiation until the
526 end of the shell session. <plugin_list> can be reconfigured at any time
527 at run time. While the cpan shell is running, it checks all activated
528 plugins at each of the 8 reference points listed above and runs the
529 respective method if it is implemented for that object. The method is
530 called with the active CPAN::Distribution object passed in as an
531 argument.
532
534 When the CPAN module is used for the first time, a configuration
535 dialogue tries to determine a couple of site specific options. The
536 result of the dialog is stored in a hash reference $CPAN::Config in a
537 file CPAN/Config.pm.
538 Default values defined in the CPAN/Config.pm file can be overridden in
540 a user specific file: CPAN/MyConfig.pm. Such a file is best placed in
541 "$HOME/.cpan/CPAN/MyConfig.pm", because "$HOME/.cpan" is added to the
542 search path of the CPAN module before the use() or require()
543 statements. The mkmyconfig command writes this file for you.
544 The "o conf" command has various bells and whistles:
546 completion support
548 If you have a ReadLine module installed, you can hit TAB at any
549 point of the commandline and "o conf" will offer you completion for
550 the built-in subcommands and/or config variable names.
551 displaying some help: o conf help
553 Displays a short help
554 displaying current values: o conf [KEY]
556 Displays the current value(s) for this config variable. Without
557 KEY, displays all subcommands and config variables.
558 Example:
560 o conf shell
562 If KEY starts and ends with a slash, the string in between is
564 treated as a regular expression and only keys matching this regexp
565 are displayed
566 Example:
568 o conf /color/
570 changing of scalar values: o conf KEY VALUE
572 Sets the config variable KEY to VALUE. The empty string can be
573 specified as usual in shells, with '' or ""
574 Example:
576 o conf wget /usr/bin/wget
578 changing of list values: o conf KEY SHIFT|UNSHIFT|PUSH|POP|SPLICE|LIST
580 If a config variable name ends with "list", it is a list. "o conf
581 KEY shift" removes the first element of the list, "o conf KEY pop"
582 removes the last element of the list. "o conf KEYS unshift LIST"
583 prepends a list of values to the list, "o conf KEYS push LIST"
584 appends a list of valued to the list.
585 Likewise, "o conf KEY splice LIST" passes the LIST to the
587 corresponding splice command.
588 Finally, any other list of arguments is taken as a new list value
590 for the KEY variable discarding the previous value.
591 Examples:
593 o conf urllist unshift http://cpan.dev.local/CPAN
595 o conf urllist splice 3 1
596 o conf urllist http://cpan1.local http://cpan2.local ftp://ftp.perl.org
597 reverting to saved: o conf defaults
599 Reverts all config variables to the state in the saved config file.
600 saving the config: o conf commit
602 Saves all config variables to the current config file
603 (CPAN/Config.pm or CPAN/MyConfig.pm that was loaded at start).
604 The configuration dialog can be started any time later again by issuing
606 the command " o conf init " in the CPAN shell. A subset of the
607 configuration dialog can be run by issuing "o conf init WORD" where
608 WORD is any valid config variable or a regular expression.
609 Config Variables
611 The following keys in the hash reference $CPAN::Config are currently
612 defined:
613 applypatch path to external prg
615 auto_commit commit all changes to config variables to disk
616 build_cache size of cache for directories to build modules
617 build_dir locally accessible directory to build modules
618 build_dir_reuse boolean if distros in build_dir are persistent
619 build_requires_install_policy
620 to install or not to install when a module is
621 only needed for building. yes|no|ask/yes|ask/no
622 bzip2 path to external prg
623 cache_metadata use serializer to cache metadata
624 check_sigs if signatures should be verified
625 cleanup_after_install
626 remove build directory immediately after a
627 successful install
628 colorize_debug Term::ANSIColor attributes for debugging output
629 colorize_output boolean if Term::ANSIColor should colorize output
630 colorize_print Term::ANSIColor attributes for normal output
631 colorize_warn Term::ANSIColor attributes for warnings
632 commandnumber_in_prompt
633 boolean if you want to see current command number
634 commands_quote preferred character to use for quoting external
635 commands when running them. Defaults to double
636 quote on Windows, single tick everywhere else;
637 can be set to space to disable quoting
638 connect_to_internet_ok
639 whether to ask if opening a connection is ok before
640 urllist is specified
641 cpan_home local directory reserved for this package
642 curl path to external prg
643 dontload_hash DEPRECATED
644 dontload_list arrayref: modules in the list will not be
645 loaded by the CPAN::has_inst() routine
646 ftp path to external prg
647 ftp_passive if set, the environment variable FTP_PASSIVE is set
648 for downloads
649 ftp_proxy proxy host for ftp requests
650 ftpstats_period max number of days to keep download statistics
651 ftpstats_size max number of items to keep in the download statistics
652 getcwd see below
653 gpg path to external prg
654 gzip location of external program gzip
655 halt_on_failure stop processing after the first failure of queued
656 items or dependencies
657 histfile file to maintain history between sessions
658 histsize maximum number of lines to keep in histfile
659 http_proxy proxy host for http requests
660 inactivity_timeout breaks interactive Makefile.PLs or Build.PLs
661 after this many seconds inactivity. Set to 0 to
662 disable timeouts.
663 index_expire refetch index files after this many days
664 inhibit_startup_message
665 if true, suppress the startup message
666 keep_source_where directory in which to keep the source (if we do)
667 load_module_verbosity
668 report loading of optional modules used by CPAN.pm
669 lynx path to external prg
670 make location of external make program
671 make_arg arguments that should always be passed to 'make'
672 make_install_make_command
673 the make command for running 'make install', for
674 example 'sudo make'
675 make_install_arg same as make_arg for 'make install'
676 makepl_arg arguments passed to 'perl Makefile.PL'
677 mbuild_arg arguments passed to './Build'
678 mbuild_install_arg arguments passed to './Build install'
679 mbuild_install_build_command
680 command to use instead of './Build' when we are
681 in the install stage, for example 'sudo ./Build'
682 mbuildpl_arg arguments passed to 'perl Build.PL'
683 ncftp path to external prg
684 ncftpget path to external prg
685 no_proxy don't proxy to these hosts/domains (comma separated list)
686 pager location of external program more (or any pager)
687 password your password if you CPAN server wants one
688 patch path to external prg
689 patches_dir local directory containing patch files
690 perl5lib_verbosity verbosity level for PERL5LIB additions
691 plugin_list list of active hooks (see Plugin support above
692 and the CPAN::Plugin module)
693 prefer_external_tar
694 per default all untar operations are done with
695 Archive::Tar; by setting this variable to true
696 the external tar command is used if available
697 prefer_installer legal values are MB and EUMM: if a module comes
698 with both a Makefile.PL and a Build.PL, use the
699 former (EUMM) or the latter (MB); if the module
700 comes with only one of the two, that one will be
701 used no matter the setting
702 prerequisites_policy
703 what to do if you are missing module prerequisites
704 ('follow' automatically, 'ask' me, or 'ignore')
705 For 'follow', also sets PERL_AUTOINSTALL and
706 PERL_EXTUTILS_AUTOINSTALL for "--defaultdeps" if
707 not already set
708 prefs_dir local directory to store per-distro build options
709 proxy_user username for accessing an authenticating proxy
710 proxy_pass password for accessing an authenticating proxy
711 randomize_urllist add some randomness to the sequence of the urllist
712 recommends_policy whether recommended prerequisites should be included
713 scan_cache controls scanning of cache ('atstart', 'atexit' or 'never')
714 shell your favorite shell
715 show_unparsable_versions
716 boolean if r command tells which modules are versionless
717 show_upload_date boolean if commands should try to determine upload date
718 show_zero_versions boolean if r command tells for which modules $version==0
719 suggests_policy whether suggested prerequisites should be included
720 tar location of external program tar
721 tar_verbosity verbosity level for the tar command
722 term_is_latin deprecated: if true Unicode is translated to ISO-8859-1
723 (and nonsense for characters outside latin range)
724 term_ornaments boolean to turn ReadLine ornamenting on/off
725 test_report email test reports (if CPAN::Reporter is installed)
726 trust_test_report_history
727 skip testing when previously tested ok (according to
728 CPAN::Reporter history)
729 unzip location of external program unzip
730 urllist arrayref to nearby CPAN sites (or equivalent locations)
731 use_prompt_default set PERL_MM_USE_DEFAULT for configure/make/test/install
732 use_sqlite use CPAN::SQLite for metadata storage (fast and lean)
733 username your username if you CPAN server wants one
734 version_timeout stops version parsing after this many seconds.
735 Default is 15 secs. Set to 0 to disable.
736 wait_list arrayref to a wait server to try (See CPAN::WAIT)
737 wget path to external prg
738 yaml_load_code enable YAML code deserialisation via CPAN::DeferredCode
739 yaml_module which module to use to read/write YAML files
740 You can set and query each of these options interactively in the cpan
742 shell with the "o conf" or the "o conf init" command as specified
743 below.
744 "o conf <scalar option>"
746 prints the current value of the scalar option
747 "o conf <scalar option> <value>"
749 Sets the value of the scalar option to value
750 "o conf <list option>"
752 prints the current value of the list option in MakeMaker's neatvalue
753 format.
754 "o conf <list option> [shift|pop]"
756 shifts or pops the array in the list option variable
757 "o conf <list option> [unshift|push|splice] <list>"
759 works like the corresponding perl commands.
760 interactive editing: o conf init [MATCH|LIST]
762 Runs an interactive configuration dialog for matching variables.
763 Without argument runs the dialog over all supported config variables.
764 To specify a MATCH the argument must be enclosed by slashes.
765 Examples:
767 o conf init ftp_passive ftp_proxy
769 o conf init /color/
770 Note: this method of setting config variables often provides more
772 explanation about the functioning of a variable than the manpage.
773 CPAN::anycwd($path): Note on config variable getcwd
775 CPAN.pm changes the current working directory often and needs to
776 determine its own current working directory. By default it uses
777 Cwd::cwd, but if for some reason this doesn't work on your system,
778 configure alternatives according to the following table:
779 cwd Calls Cwd::cwd
781 getcwd
783 Calls Cwd::getcwd
784 fastcwd
786 Calls Cwd::fastcwd
787 getdcwd
789 Calls Cwd::getdcwd
790 backtickcwd
792 Calls the external command cwd.
793 Note on the format of the urllist parameter
795 urllist parameters are URLs according to RFC 1738. We do a little
796 guessing if your URL is not compliant, but if you have problems with
797 "file" URLs, please try the correct format. Either:
798 file://localhost/whatever/ftp/pub/CPAN/
800 or
802 file:///home/ftp/pub/CPAN/
804 The urllist parameter has CD-ROM support
806 The "urllist" parameter of the configuration table contains a list of
807 URLs used for downloading. If the list contains any "file" URLs, CPAN
808 always tries there first. This feature is disabled for index files. So
809 the recommendation for the owner of a CD-ROM with CPAN contents is:
810 include your local, possibly outdated CD-ROM as a "file" URL at the end
811 of urllist, e.g.
812 o conf urllist push file://localhost/CDROM/CPAN
814 CPAN.pm will then fetch the index files from one of the CPAN sites that
816 come at the beginning of urllist. It will later check for each module
817 to see whether there is a local copy of the most recent version.
818 Another peculiarity of urllist is that the site that we could
820 successfully fetch the last file from automatically gets a preference
821 token and is tried as the first site for the next request. So if you
822 add a new site at runtime it may happen that the previously preferred
823 site will be tried another time. This means that if you want to
824 disallow a site for the next transfer, it must be explicitly removed
825 from urllist.
826 Maintaining the urllist parameter
828 If you have YAML.pm (or some other YAML module configured in
829 "yaml_module") installed, CPAN.pm collects a few statistical data about
830 recent downloads. You can view the statistics with the "hosts" command
831 or inspect them directly by looking into the "FTPstats.yml" file in
832 your "cpan_home" directory.
833 To get some interesting statistics, it is recommended that
835 "randomize_urllist" be set; this introduces some amount of randomness
836 into the URL selection.
837 The "requires" and "build_requires" dependency declarations
839 Since CPAN.pm version 1.88_51 modules declared as "build_requires" by a
840 distribution are treated differently depending on the config variable
841 "build_requires_install_policy". By setting
842 "build_requires_install_policy" to "no", such a module is not
843 installed. It is only built and tested, and then kept in the list of
844 tested but uninstalled modules. As such, it is available during the
845 build of the dependent module by integrating the path to the
846 "blib/arch" and "blib/lib" directories in the environment variable
847 PERL5LIB. If "build_requires_install_policy" is set ti "yes", then both
848 modules declared as "requires" and those declared as "build_requires"
849 are treated alike. By setting to "ask/yes" or "ask/no", CPAN.pm asks
850 the user and sets the default accordingly.
851 Configuration for individual distributions (Distroprefs)
853 (Note: This feature has been introduced in CPAN.pm 1.8854)
854 Distributions on CPAN usually behave according to what we call the CPAN
856 mantra. Or since the advent of Module::Build we should talk about two
857 mantras:
858 perl Makefile.PL perl Build.PL
860 make ./Build
861 make test ./Build test
862 make install ./Build install
863 But some modules cannot be built with this mantra. They try to get some
865 extra data from the user via the environment, extra arguments, or
866 interactively--thus disturbing the installation of large bundles like
867 Phalanx100 or modules with many dependencies like Plagger.
868 The distroprefs system of "CPAN.pm" addresses this problem by allowing
870 the user to specify extra informations and recipes in YAML files to
871 either
872 · pass additional arguments to one of the four commands,
874 · set environment variables
876 · instantiate an Expect object that reads from the console, waits for
878 some regular expressions and enters some answers
879 · temporarily override assorted "CPAN.pm" configuration variables
881 · specify dependencies the original maintainer forgot
883 · disable the installation of an object altogether
885 See the YAML and Data::Dumper files that come with the "CPAN.pm"
887 distribution in the "distroprefs/" directory for examples.
888 Filenames
890 The YAML files themselves must have the ".yml" extension; all other
891 files are ignored (for two exceptions see Fallback Data::Dumper and
892 Storable below). The containing directory can be specified in "CPAN.pm"
893 in the "prefs_dir" config variable. Try "o conf init prefs_dir" in the
894 CPAN shell to set and activate the distroprefs system.
895 Every YAML file may contain arbitrary documents according to the YAML
897 specification, and every document is treated as an entity that can
898 specify the treatment of a single distribution.
899 Filenames can be picked arbitrarily; "CPAN.pm" always reads all files
901 (in alphabetical order) and takes the key "match" (see below in
902 Language Specs) as a hashref containing match criteria that determine
903 if the current distribution matches the YAML document or not.
904 Fallback Data::Dumper and Storable
906 If neither your configured "yaml_module" nor YAML.pm is installed,
907 CPAN.pm falls back to using Data::Dumper and Storable and looks for
908 files with the extensions ".dd" or ".st" in the "prefs_dir" directory.
909 These files are expected to contain one or more hashrefs. For
910 Data::Dumper generated files, this is expected to be done with by
911 defining $VAR1, $VAR2, etc. The YAML shell would produce these with the
912 command
913 ysh < somefile.yml > somefile.dd
915 For Storable files the rule is that they must be constructed such that
917 "Storable::retrieve(file)" returns an array reference and the array
918 elements represent one distropref object each. The conversion from YAML
919 would look like so:
920 perl -MYAML=LoadFile -MStorable=nstore -e '
922 @y=LoadFile(shift);
923 nstore(\@y, shift)' somefile.yml somefile.st
924 In bootstrapping situations it is usually sufficient to translate only
926 a few YAML files to Data::Dumper for crucial modules like "YAML::Syck",
927 "YAML.pm" and "Expect.pm". If you prefer Storable over Data::Dumper,
928 remember to pull out a Storable version that writes an older format
929 than all the other Storable versions that will need to read them.
930 Blueprint
932 The following example contains all supported keywords and structures
933 with the exception of "eexpect" which can be used instead of "expect".
934 ---
936 comment: "Demo"
937 match:
938 module: "Dancing::Queen"
939 distribution: "^CHACHACHA/Dancing-"
940 not_distribution: "\.zip$"
941 perl: "/usr/local/cariba-perl/bin/perl"
942 perlconfig:
943 archname: "freebsd"
944 not_cc: "gcc"
945 env:
946 DANCING_FLOOR: "Shubiduh"
947 disabled: 1
948 cpanconfig:
949 make: gmake
950 pl:
951 args:
952 - "--somearg=specialcase"
953 env: {}
955 expect:
957 - "Which is your favorite fruit"
958 - "apple\n"
959 make:
961 args:
962 - all
963 - extra-all
964 env: {}
966 expect: []
968 commandline: "echo SKIPPING make"
970 test:
972 args: []
973 env: {}
975 expect: []
977 install:
979 args: []
980 env:
982 WANT_TO_INSTALL: YES
983 expect:
985 - "Do you really want to install"
986 - "y\n"
987 patches:
989 - "ABCDE/Fedcba-3.14-ABCDE-01.patch"
990 depends:
992 configure_requires:
993 LWP: 5.8
994 build_requires:
995 Test::Exception: 0.25
996 requires:
997 Spiffy: 0.30
998 Language Specs
1000 Every YAML document represents a single hash reference. The valid keys
1001 in this hash are as follows:
1002 comment [scalar]
1004 A comment
1005 cpanconfig [hash]
1007 Temporarily override assorted "CPAN.pm" configuration variables.
1008 Supported are: "build_requires_install_policy", "check_sigs",
1010 "make", "make_install_make_command", "prefer_installer",
1011 "test_report". Please report as a bug when you need another one
1012 supported.
1013 depends [hash] *** EXPERIMENTAL FEATURE ***
1015 All three types, namely "configure_requires", "build_requires", and
1016 "requires" are supported in the way specified in the META.yml
1017 specification. The current implementation merges the specified
1018 dependencies with those declared by the package maintainer. In a
1019 future implementation this may be changed to override the original
1020 declaration.
1021 disabled [boolean]
1023 Specifies that this distribution shall not be processed at all.
1024 features [array] *** EXPERIMENTAL FEATURE ***
1026 Experimental implementation to deal with optional_features from
1027 META.yml. Still needs coordination with installer software and
1028 currently works only for META.yml declaring "dynamic_config=0". Use
1029 with caution.
1030 goto [string]
1032 The canonical name of a delegate distribution to install instead.
1033 Useful when a new version, although it tests OK itself, breaks
1034 something else or a developer release or a fork is already uploaded
1035 that is better than the last released version.
1036 install [hash]
1038 Processing instructions for the "make install" or "./Build install"
1039 phase of the CPAN mantra. See below under Processing Instructions.
1040 make [hash]
1042 Processing instructions for the "make" or "./Build" phase of the
1043 CPAN mantra. See below under Processing Instructions.
1044 match [hash]
1046 A hashref with one or more of the keys "distribution", "module",
1047 "perl", "perlconfig", and "env" that specify whether a document is
1048 targeted at a specific CPAN distribution or installation. Keys
1049 prefixed with "not_" negates the corresponding match.
1050 The corresponding values are interpreted as regular expressions.
1052 The "distribution" related one will be matched against the
1053 canonical distribution name, e.g. "AUTHOR/Foo-Bar-3.14.tar.gz".
1054 The "module" related one will be matched against all modules
1056 contained in the distribution until one module matches.
1057 The "perl" related one will be matched against $^X (but with the
1059 absolute path).
1060 The value associated with "perlconfig" is itself a hashref that is
1062 matched against corresponding values in the %Config::Config hash
1063 living in the "Config.pm" module. Keys prefixed with "not_"
1064 negates the corresponding match.
1065 The value associated with "env" is itself a hashref that is matched
1067 against corresponding values in the %ENV hash. Keys prefixed with
1068 "not_" negates the corresponding match.
1069 If more than one restriction of "module", "distribution", etc. is
1071 specified, the results of the separately computed match values must
1072 all match. If so, the hashref represented by the YAML document is
1073 returned as the preference structure for the current distribution.
1074 patches [array]
1076 An array of patches on CPAN or on the local disk to be applied in
1077 order via an external patch program. If the value for the "-p"
1078 parameter is 0 or 1 is determined by reading the patch beforehand.
1079 The path to each patch is either an absolute path on the local
1080 filesystem or relative to a patch directory specified in the
1081 "patches_dir" configuration variable or in the format of a
1082 canonical distro name. For examples please consult the distroprefs/
1083 directory in the CPAN.pm distribution (these examples are not
1084 installed by default).
1085 Note: if the "applypatch" program is installed and "CPAN::Config"
1087 knows about it and a patch is written by the "makepatch" program,
1088 then "CPAN.pm" lets "applypatch" apply the patch. Both "makepatch"
1089 and "applypatch" are available from CPAN in the "JV/makepatch-*"
1090 distribution.
1091 pl [hash]
1093 Processing instructions for the "perl Makefile.PL" or "perl
1094 Build.PL" phase of the CPAN mantra. See below under Processing
1095 Instructions.
1096 test [hash]
1098 Processing instructions for the "make test" or "./Build test" phase
1099 of the CPAN mantra. See below under Processing Instructions.
1100 Processing Instructions
1102 args [array]
1103 Arguments to be added to the command line
1104 commandline
1106 A full commandline to run via "system()". During execution, the
1107 environment variable PERL is set to $^X (but with an absolute
1108 path). If "commandline" is specified, "args" is not used.
1109 eexpect [hash]
1111 Extended "expect". This is a hash reference with four allowed keys,
1112 "mode", "timeout", "reuse", and "talk".
1113 You must install the "Expect" module to use "eexpect". CPAN.pm does
1115 not install it for you.
1116 "mode" may have the values "deterministic" for the case where all
1118 questions come in the order written down and "anyorder" for the
1119 case where the questions may come in any order. The default mode is
1120 "deterministic".
1121 "timeout" denotes a timeout in seconds. Floating-point timeouts are
1123 OK. With "mode=deterministic", the timeout denotes the timeout per
1124 question; with "mode=anyorder" it denotes the timeout per byte
1125 received from the stream or questions.
1126 "talk" is a reference to an array that contains alternating
1128 questions and answers. Questions are regular expressions and
1129 answers are literal strings. The Expect module watches the stream
1130 from the execution of the external program ("perl Makefile.PL",
1131 "perl Build.PL", "make", etc.).
1132 For "mode=deterministic", the CPAN.pm injects the corresponding
1134 answer as soon as the stream matches the regular expression.
1135 For "mode=anyorder" CPAN.pm answers a question as soon as the
1137 timeout is reached for the next byte in the input stream. In this
1138 mode you can use the "reuse" parameter to decide what will happen
1139 with a question-answer pair after it has been used. In the default
1140 case (reuse=0) it is removed from the array, avoiding being used
1141 again accidentally. If you want to answer the question "Do you
1142 really want to do that" several times, then it must be included in
1143 the array at least as often as you want this answer to be given.
1144 Setting the parameter "reuse" to 1 makes this repetition
1145 unnecessary.
1146 env [hash]
1148 Environment variables to be set during the command
1149 expect [array]
1151 You must install the "Expect" module to use "expect". CPAN.pm does
1152 not install it for you.
1153 "expect: <array>" is a short notation for this "eexpect":
1155 eexpect:
1157 mode: deterministic
1158 timeout: 15
1159 talk: <array>
1160 Schema verification with "Kwalify"
1162 If you have the "Kwalify" module installed (which is part of the
1163 Bundle::CPANxxl), then all your distroprefs files are checked for
1164 syntactic correctness.
1165 Example Distroprefs Files
1167 "CPAN.pm" comes with a collection of example YAML files. Note that
1168 these are really just examples and should not be used without care
1169 because they cannot fit everybody's purpose. After all, the authors of
1170 the packages that ask questions had a need to ask, so you should watch
1171 their questions and adjust the examples to your environment and your
1172 needs. You have been warned:-)
1173
1175 If you do not enter the shell, shell commands are available both as
1176 methods ("CPAN::Shell->install(...)") and as functions in the calling
1177 package ("install(...)"). Before calling low-level commands, it makes
1178 sense to initialize components of CPAN you need, e.g.:
1179 CPAN::HandleConfig->load;
1181 CPAN::Shell::setup_output;
1182 CPAN::Index->reload;
1183 High-level commands do such initializations automatically.
1185 There's currently only one class that has a stable interface -
1187 CPAN::Shell. All commands that are available in the CPAN shell are
1188 methods of the class CPAN::Shell. The arguments on the commandline are
1189 passed as arguments to the method.
1190 So if you take for example the shell command
1192 notest install A B C
1194 the actually executed command is
1196 CPAN::Shell->notest("install","A","B","C");
1198 Each of the commands that produce listings of modules ("r",
1200 "autobundle", "u") also return a list of the IDs of all modules within
1201 the list.
1202 expand($type,@things)
1204 The IDs of all objects available within a program are strings that
1205 can be expanded to the corresponding real objects with the
1206 "CPAN::Shell->expand("Module",@things)" method. Expand returns a list
1207 of CPAN::Module objects according to the @things arguments given. In
1208 scalar context, it returns only the first element of the list.
1209 expandany(@things)
1211 Like expand, but returns objects of the appropriate type, i.e.
1212 CPAN::Bundle objects for bundles, CPAN::Module objects for modules,
1213 and CPAN::Distribution objects for distributions. Note: it does not
1214 expand to CPAN::Author objects.
1215 Programming Examples
1217 This enables the programmer to do operations that combine
1218 functionalities that are available in the shell.
1219 # install everything that is outdated on my disk:
1221 perl -MCPAN -e 'CPAN::Shell->install(CPAN::Shell->r)'
1222 # install my favorite programs if necessary:
1224 for $mod (qw(Net::FTP Digest::SHA Data::Dumper)) {
1225 CPAN::Shell->install($mod);
1226 }
1227 # list all modules on my disk that have no VERSION number
1229 for $mod (CPAN::Shell->expand("Module","/./")) {
1230 next unless $mod->inst_file;
1231 # MakeMaker convention for undefined $VERSION:
1232 next unless $mod->inst_version eq "undef";
1233 print "No VERSION in ", $mod->id, "\n";
1234 }
1235 # find out which distribution on CPAN contains a module:
1237 print CPAN::Shell->expand("Module","Apache::Constants")->cpan_file
1238 Or if you want to schedule a cron job to watch CPAN, you could list
1240 all modules that need updating. First a quick and dirty way:
1241 perl -e 'use CPAN; CPAN::Shell->r;'
1243 If you don't want any output should all modules be up to date, parse
1245 the output of above command for the regular expression "/modules are
1246 up to date/" and decide to mail the output only if it doesn't match.
1247 If you prefer to do it more in a programmerish style in one single
1249 process, something like this may better suit you:
1250 # list all modules on my disk that have newer versions on CPAN
1252 for $mod (CPAN::Shell->expand("Module","/./")) {
1253 next unless $mod->inst_file;
1254 next if $mod->uptodate;
1255 printf "Module %s is installed as %s, could be updated to %s from CPAN\n",
1256 $mod->id, $mod->inst_version, $mod->cpan_version;
1257 }
1258 If that gives too much output every day, you may want to watch only
1260 for three modules. You can write
1261 for $mod (CPAN::Shell->expand("Module","/Apache|LWP|CGI/")) {
1263 as the first line instead. Or you can combine some of the above
1265 tricks:
1266 # watch only for a new mod_perl module
1268 $mod = CPAN::Shell->expand("Module","mod_perl");
1269 exit if $mod->uptodate;
1270 # new mod_perl arrived, let me know all update recommendations
1271 CPAN::Shell->r;
1272 Methods in the other Classes
1274 CPAN::Author::as_glimpse()
1275 Returns a one-line description of the author
1276 CPAN::Author::as_string()
1278 Returns a multi-line description of the author
1279 CPAN::Author::email()
1281 Returns the author's email address
1282 CPAN::Author::fullname()
1284 Returns the author's name
1285 CPAN::Author::name()
1287 An alias for fullname
1288 CPAN::Bundle::as_glimpse()
1290 Returns a one-line description of the bundle
1291 CPAN::Bundle::as_string()
1293 Returns a multi-line description of the bundle
1294 CPAN::Bundle::clean()
1296 Recursively runs the "clean" method on all items contained in the
1297 bundle.
1298 CPAN::Bundle::contains()
1300 Returns a list of objects' IDs contained in a bundle. The
1301 associated objects may be bundles, modules or distributions.
1302 CPAN::Bundle::force($method,@args)
1304 Forces CPAN to perform a task that it normally would have refused
1305 to do. Force takes as arguments a method name to be called and any
1306 number of additional arguments that should be passed to the called
1307 method. The internals of the object get the needed changes so that
1308 CPAN.pm does not refuse to take the action. The "force" is passed
1309 recursively to all contained objects. See also the section above on
1310 the "force" and the "fforce" pragma.
1311 CPAN::Bundle::get()
1313 Recursively runs the "get" method on all items contained in the
1314 bundle
1315 CPAN::Bundle::inst_file()
1317 Returns the highest installed version of the bundle in either @INC
1318 or "$CPAN::Config->{cpan_home}". Note that this is different from
1319 CPAN::Module::inst_file.
1320 CPAN::Bundle::inst_version()
1322 Like CPAN::Bundle::inst_file, but returns the $VERSION
1323 CPAN::Bundle::uptodate()
1325 Returns 1 if the bundle itself and all its members are up-to-date.
1326 CPAN::Bundle::install()
1328 Recursively runs the "install" method on all items contained in the
1329 bundle
1330 CPAN::Bundle::make()
1332 Recursively runs the "make" method on all items contained in the
1333 bundle
1334 CPAN::Bundle::readme()
1336 Recursively runs the "readme" method on all items contained in the
1337 bundle
1338 CPAN::Bundle::test()
1340 Recursively runs the "test" method on all items contained in the
1341 bundle
1342 CPAN::Distribution::as_glimpse()
1344 Returns a one-line description of the distribution
1345 CPAN::Distribution::as_string()
1347 Returns a multi-line description of the distribution
1348 CPAN::Distribution::author
1350 Returns the CPAN::Author object of the maintainer who uploaded this
1351 distribution
1352 CPAN::Distribution::pretty_id()
1354 Returns a string of the form "AUTHORID/TARBALL", where AUTHORID is
1355 the author's PAUSE ID and TARBALL is the distribution filename.
1356 CPAN::Distribution::base_id()
1358 Returns the distribution filename without any archive suffix. E.g
1359 "Foo-Bar-0.01"
1360 CPAN::Distribution::clean()
1362 Changes to the directory where the distribution has been unpacked
1363 and runs "make clean" there.
1364 CPAN::Distribution::containsmods()
1366 Returns a list of IDs of modules contained in a distribution file.
1367 Works only for distributions listed in the
1368 02packages.details.txt.gz file. This typically means that just most
1369 recent version of a distribution is covered.
1370 CPAN::Distribution::cvs_import()
1372 Changes to the directory where the distribution has been unpacked
1373 and runs something like
1374 cvs -d $cvs_root import -m $cvs_log $cvs_dir $userid v$version
1376 there.
1378 CPAN::Distribution::dir()
1380 Returns the directory into which this distribution has been
1381 unpacked.
1382 CPAN::Distribution::force($method,@args)
1384 Forces CPAN to perform a task that it normally would have refused
1385 to do. Force takes as arguments a method name to be called and any
1386 number of additional arguments that should be passed to the called
1387 method. The internals of the object get the needed changes so that
1388 CPAN.pm does not refuse to take the action. See also the section
1389 above on the "force" and the "fforce" pragma.
1390 CPAN::Distribution::get()
1392 Downloads the distribution from CPAN and unpacks it. Does nothing
1393 if the distribution has already been downloaded and unpacked within
1394 the current session.
1395 CPAN::Distribution::install()
1397 Changes to the directory where the distribution has been unpacked
1398 and runs the external command "make install" there. If "make" has
1399 not yet been run, it will be run first. A "make test" is issued in
1400 any case and if this fails, the install is cancelled. The
1401 cancellation can be avoided by letting "force" run the "install"
1402 for you.
1403 This install method only has the power to install the distribution
1405 if there are no dependencies in the way. To install an object along
1406 with all its dependencies, use CPAN::Shell->install.
1407 Note that install() gives no meaningful return value. See
1409 uptodate().
1410 CPAN::Distribution::isa_perl()
1412 Returns 1 if this distribution file seems to be a perl
1413 distribution. Normally this is derived from the file name only,
1414 but the index from CPAN can contain a hint to achieve a return
1415 value of true for other filenames too.
1416 CPAN::Distribution::look()
1418 Changes to the directory where the distribution has been unpacked
1419 and opens a subshell there. Exiting the subshell returns.
1420 CPAN::Distribution::make()
1422 First runs the "get" method to make sure the distribution is
1423 downloaded and unpacked. Changes to the directory where the
1424 distribution has been unpacked and runs the external commands "perl
1425 Makefile.PL" or "perl Build.PL" and "make" there.
1426 CPAN::Distribution::perldoc()
1428 Downloads the pod documentation of the file associated with a
1429 distribution (in HTML format) and runs it through the external
1430 command lynx specified in "$CPAN::Config->{lynx}". If lynx isn't
1431 available, it converts it to plain text with the external command
1432 html2text and runs it through the pager specified in
1433 "$CPAN::Config->{pager}".
1434 CPAN::Distribution::prefs()
1436 Returns the hash reference from the first matching YAML file that
1437 the user has deposited in the "prefs_dir/" directory. The first
1438 succeeding match wins. The files in the "prefs_dir/" are processed
1439 alphabetically, and the canonical distro name (e.g.
1440 AUTHOR/Foo-Bar-3.14.tar.gz) is matched against the regular
1441 expressions stored in the $root->{match}{distribution} attribute
1442 value. Additionally all module names contained in a distribution
1443 are matched against the regular expressions in the
1444 $root->{match}{module} attribute value. The two match values are
1445 ANDed together. Each of the two attributes are optional.
1446 CPAN::Distribution::prereq_pm()
1448 Returns the hash reference that has been announced by a
1449 distribution as the "requires" and "build_requires" elements. These
1450 can be declared either by the "META.yml" (if authoritative) or can
1451 be deposited after the run of "Build.PL" in the file
1452 "./_build/prereqs" or after the run of "Makfile.PL" written as the
1453 "PREREQ_PM" hash in a comment in the produced "Makefile". Note:
1454 this method only works after an attempt has been made to "make" the
1455 distribution. Returns undef otherwise.
1456 CPAN::Distribution::readme()
1458 Downloads the README file associated with a distribution and runs
1459 it through the pager specified in "$CPAN::Config->{pager}".
1460 CPAN::Distribution::reports()
1462 Downloads report data for this distribution from
1463 www.cpantesters.org and displays a subset of them.
1464 CPAN::Distribution::read_yaml()
1466 Returns the content of the META.yml of this distro as a hashref.
1467 Note: works only after an attempt has been made to "make" the
1468 distribution. Returns undef otherwise. Also returns undef if the
1469 content of META.yml is not authoritative. (The rules about what
1470 exactly makes the content authoritative are still in flux.)
1471 CPAN::Distribution::test()
1473 Changes to the directory where the distribution has been unpacked
1474 and runs "make test" there.
1475 CPAN::Distribution::uptodate()
1477 Returns 1 if all the modules contained in the distribution are up-
1478 to-date. Relies on containsmods.
1479 CPAN::Index::force_reload()
1481 Forces a reload of all indices.
1482 CPAN::Index::reload()
1484 Reloads all indices if they have not been read for more than
1485 "$CPAN::Config->{index_expire}" days.
1486 CPAN::InfoObj::dump()
1488 CPAN::Author, CPAN::Bundle, CPAN::Module, and CPAN::Distribution
1489 inherit this method. It prints the data structure associated with
1490 an object. Useful for debugging. Note: the data structure is
1491 considered internal and thus subject to change without notice.
1492 CPAN::Module::as_glimpse()
1494 Returns a one-line description of the module in four columns: The
1495 first column contains the word "Module", the second column consists
1496 of one character: an equals sign if this module is already
1497 installed and up-to-date, a less-than sign if this module is
1498 installed but can be upgraded, and a space if the module is not
1499 installed. The third column is the name of the module and the
1500 fourth column gives maintainer or distribution information.
1501 CPAN::Module::as_string()
1503 Returns a multi-line description of the module
1504 CPAN::Module::clean()
1506 Runs a clean on the distribution associated with this module.
1507 CPAN::Module::cpan_file()
1509 Returns the filename on CPAN that is associated with the module.
1510 CPAN::Module::cpan_version()
1512 Returns the latest version of this module available on CPAN.
1513 CPAN::Module::cvs_import()
1515 Runs a cvs_import on the distribution associated with this module.
1516 CPAN::Module::description()
1518 Returns a 44 character description of this module. Only available
1519 for modules listed in The Module List
1520 (CPAN/modules/00modlist.long.html or 00modlist.long.txt.gz)
1521 CPAN::Module::distribution()
1523 Returns the CPAN::Distribution object that contains the current
1524 version of this module.
1525 CPAN::Module::dslip_status()
1527 Returns a hash reference. The keys of the hash are the letters "D",
1528 "S", "L", "I", and <P>, for development status, support level,
1529 language, interface and public licence respectively. The data for
1530 the DSLIP status are collected by pause.perl.org when authors
1531 register their namespaces. The values of the 5 hash elements are
1532 one-character words whose meaning is described in the table below.
1533 There are also 5 hash elements "DV", "SV", "LV", "IV", and <PV>
1534 that carry a more verbose value of the 5 status variables.
1535 Where the 'DSLIP' characters have the following meanings:
1537 D - Development Stage (Note: *NO IMPLIED TIMESCALES*):
1539 i - Idea, listed to gain consensus or as a placeholder
1540 c - under construction but pre-alpha (not yet released)
1541 a/b - Alpha/Beta testing
1542 R - Released
1543 M - Mature (no rigorous definition)
1544 S - Standard, supplied with Perl 5
1545 S - Support Level:
1547 m - Mailing-list
1548 d - Developer
1549 u - Usenet newsgroup comp.lang.perl.modules
1550 n - None known, try comp.lang.perl.modules
1551 a - abandoned; volunteers welcome to take over maintenance
1552 L - Language Used:
1554 p - Perl-only, no compiler needed, should be platform independent
1555 c - C and perl, a C compiler will be needed
1556 h - Hybrid, written in perl with optional C code, no compiler needed
1557 + - C++ and perl, a C++ compiler will be needed
1558 o - perl and another language other than C or C++
1559 I - Interface Style
1561 f - plain Functions, no references used
1562 h - hybrid, object and function interfaces available
1563 n - no interface at all (huh?)
1564 r - some use of unblessed References or ties
1565 O - Object oriented using blessed references and/or inheritance
1566 P - Public License
1568 p - Standard-Perl: user may choose between GPL and Artistic
1569 g - GPL: GNU General Public License
1570 l - LGPL: "GNU Lesser General Public License" (previously known as
1571 "GNU Library General Public License")
1572 b - BSD: The BSD License
1573 a - Artistic license alone
1574 2 - Artistic license 2.0 or later
1575 o - open source: approved by www.opensource.org
1576 d - allows distribution without restrictions
1577 r - restricted distribution
1578 n - no license at all
1579 CPAN::Module::force($method,@args)
1581 Forces CPAN to perform a task it would normally refuse to do. Force
1582 takes as arguments a method name to be invoked and any number of
1583 additional arguments to pass that method. The internals of the
1584 object get the needed changes so that CPAN.pm does not refuse to
1585 take the action. See also the section above on the "force" and the
1586 "fforce" pragma.
1587 CPAN::Module::get()
1589 Runs a get on the distribution associated with this module.
1590 CPAN::Module::inst_file()
1592 Returns the filename of the module found in @INC. The first file
1593 found is reported, just as perl itself stops searching @INC once it
1594 finds a module.
1595 CPAN::Module::available_file()
1597 Returns the filename of the module found in PERL5LIB or @INC. The
1598 first file found is reported. The advantage of this method over
1599 "inst_file" is that modules that have been tested but not yet
1600 installed are included because PERL5LIB keeps track of tested
1601 modules.
1602 CPAN::Module::inst_version()
1604 Returns the version number of the installed module in readable
1605 format.
1606 CPAN::Module::available_version()
1608 Returns the version number of the available module in readable
1609 format.
1610 CPAN::Module::install()
1612 Runs an "install" on the distribution associated with this module.
1613 CPAN::Module::look()
1615 Changes to the directory where the distribution associated with
1616 this module has been unpacked and opens a subshell there. Exiting
1617 the subshell returns.
1618 CPAN::Module::make()
1620 Runs a "make" on the distribution associated with this module.
1621 CPAN::Module::manpage_headline()
1623 If module is installed, peeks into the module's manpage, reads the
1624 headline, and returns it. Moreover, if the module has been
1625 downloaded within this session, does the equivalent on the
1626 downloaded module even if it hasn't been installed yet.
1627 CPAN::Module::perldoc()
1629 Runs a "perldoc" on this module.
1630 CPAN::Module::readme()
1632 Runs a "readme" on the distribution associated with this module.
1633 CPAN::Module::reports()
1635 Calls the reports() method on the associated distribution object.
1636 CPAN::Module::test()
1638 Runs a "test" on the distribution associated with this module.
1639 CPAN::Module::uptodate()
1641 Returns 1 if the module is installed and up-to-date.
1642 CPAN::Module::userid()
1644 Returns the author's ID of the module.
1645 Cache Manager
1647 Currently the cache manager only keeps track of the build directory
1648 ($CPAN::Config->{build_dir}). It is a simple FIFO mechanism that
1649 deletes complete directories below "build_dir" as soon as the size of
1650 all directories there gets bigger than $CPAN::Config->{build_cache} (in
1651 MB). The contents of this cache may be used for later re-installations
1652 that you intend to do manually, but will never be trusted by CPAN
1653 itself. This is due to the fact that the user might use these
1654 directories for building modules on different architectures.
1655 There is another directory ($CPAN::Config->{keep_source_where}) where
1657 the original distribution files are kept. This directory is not covered
1658 by the cache manager and must be controlled by the user. If you choose
1659 to have the same directory as build_dir and as keep_source_where
1660 directory, then your sources will be deleted with the same fifo
1661 mechanism.
1662 Bundles
1664 A bundle is just a perl module in the namespace Bundle:: that does not
1665 define any functions or methods. It usually only contains
1666 documentation.
1667 It starts like a perl module with a package declaration and a $VERSION
1669 variable. After that the pod section looks like any other pod with the
1670 only difference being that one special pod section exists starting with
1671 (verbatim):
1672 =head1 CONTENTS
1674 In this pod section each line obeys the format
1676 Module_Name [Version_String] [- optional text]
1678 The only required part is the first field, the name of a module (e.g.
1680 Foo::Bar, i.e. not the name of the distribution file). The rest of the
1681 line is optional. The comment part is delimited by a dash just as in
1682 the man page header.
1683 The distribution of a bundle should follow the same convention as other
1685 distributions.
1686 Bundles are treated specially in the CPAN package. If you say 'install
1688 Bundle::Tkkit' (assuming such a bundle exists), CPAN will install all
1689 the modules in the CONTENTS section of the pod. You can install your
1690 own Bundles locally by placing a conformant Bundle file somewhere into
1691 your @INC path. The autobundle() command which is available in the
1692 shell interface does that for you by including all currently installed
1693 modules in a snapshot bundle file.
1694
1696 The CPAN program is trying to depend on as little as possible so the
1697 user can use it in hostile environment. It works better the more
1698 goodies the environment provides. For example if you try in the CPAN
1699 shell
1700 install Bundle::CPAN
1702 or
1704 install Bundle::CPANxxl
1706 you will find the shell more convenient than the bare shell before.
1708 If you have a local mirror of CPAN and can access all files with
1710 "file:" URLs, then you only need a perl later than perl5.003 to run
1711 this module. Otherwise Net::FTP is strongly recommended. LWP may be
1712 required for non-UNIX systems, or if your nearest CPAN site is
1713 associated with a URL that is not "ftp:".
1714 If you have neither Net::FTP nor LWP, there is a fallback mechanism
1716 implemented for an external ftp command or for an external lynx
1717 command.
1718
1720 Finding packages and VERSION
1721 This module presumes that all packages on CPAN
1722 · declare their $VERSION variable in an easy to parse manner. This
1724 prerequisite can hardly be relaxed because it consumes far too much
1725 memory to load all packages into the running program just to
1726 determine the $VERSION variable. Currently all programs that are
1727 dealing with version use something like this
1728 perl -MExtUtils::MakeMaker -le \
1730 'print MM->parse_version(shift)' filename
1731 If you are author of a package and wonder if your $VERSION can be
1733 parsed, please try the above method.
1734 · come as compressed or gzipped tarfiles or as zip files and contain a
1736 "Makefile.PL" or "Build.PL" (well, we try to handle a bit more, but
1737 with little enthusiasm).
1738 Debugging
1740 Debugging this module is more than a bit complex due to interference
1741 from the software producing the indices on CPAN, the mirroring process
1742 on CPAN, packaging, configuration, synchronicity, and even (gasp!) due
1743 to bugs within the CPAN.pm module itself.
1744 For debugging the code of CPAN.pm itself in interactive mode, some
1746 debugging aid can be turned on for most packages within CPAN.pm with
1747 one of
1748 o debug package...
1750 sets debug mode for packages.
1751 o debug -package...
1753 unsets debug mode for packages.
1754 o debug all
1756 turns debugging on for all packages.
1757 o debug number
1759 which sets the debugging packages directly. Note that "o debug 0" turns
1761 debugging off.
1762 What seems a successful strategy is the combination of "reload cpan"
1764 and the debugging switches. Add a new debug statement while running in
1765 the shell and then issue a "reload cpan" and see the new debugging
1766 messages immediately without losing the current context.
1767 "o debug" without an argument lists the valid package names and the
1769 current set of packages in debugging mode. "o debug" has built-in
1770 completion support.
1771 For debugging of CPAN data there is the "dump" command which takes the
1773 same arguments as make/test/install and outputs each object's
1774 Data::Dumper dump. If an argument looks like a perl variable and
1775 contains one of "$", "@" or "%", it is eval()ed and fed to Data::Dumper
1776 directly.
1777 Floppy, Zip, Offline Mode
1779 CPAN.pm works nicely without network access, too. If you maintain
1780 machines that are not networked at all, you should consider working
1781 with "file:" URLs. You'll have to collect your modules somewhere first.
1782 So you might use CPAN.pm to put together all you need on a networked
1783 machine. Then copy the $CPAN::Config->{keep_source_where} (but not
1784 $CPAN::Config->{build_dir}) directory on a floppy. This floppy is kind
1785 of a personal CPAN. CPAN.pm on the non-networked machines works nicely
1786 with this floppy. See also below the paragraph about CD-ROM support.
1787 Basic Utilities for Programmers
1789 has_inst($module)
1790 Returns true if the module is installed. Used to load all modules
1791 into the running CPAN.pm that are considered optional. The config
1792 variable "dontload_list" intercepts the "has_inst()" call such that
1793 an optional module is not loaded despite being available. For
1794 example, the following command will prevent "YAML.pm" from being
1795 loaded:
1796 cpan> o conf dontload_list push YAML
1798 See the source for details.
1800 use_inst($module)
1802 Similary to has_inst() tries to load optional library but also dies
1803 if library is not available
1804 has_usable($module)
1806 Returns true if the module is installed and in a usable state. Only
1807 useful for a handful of modules that are used internally. See the
1808 source for details.
1809 instance($module)
1811 The constructor for all the singletons used to represent modules,
1812 distributions, authors, and bundles. If the object already exists,
1813 this method returns the object; otherwise, it calls the constructor.
1814 frontend()
1816 frontend($new_frontend)
1817 Getter/setter for frontend object. Method just allows to subclass
1818 CPAN.pm.
1819
1821 There's no strong security layer in CPAN.pm. CPAN.pm helps you to
1822 install foreign, unmasked, unsigned code on your machine. We compare to
1823 a checksum that comes from the net just as the distribution file
1824 itself. But we try to make it easy to add security on demand:
1825 Cryptographically signed modules
1827 Since release 1.77, CPAN.pm has been able to verify cryptographically
1828 signed module distributions using Module::Signature. The CPAN modules
1829 can be signed by their authors, thus giving more security. The simple
1830 unsigned MD5 checksums that were used before by CPAN protect mainly
1831 against accidental file corruption.
1832 You will need to have Module::Signature installed, which in turn
1834 requires that you have at least one of Crypt::OpenPGP module or the
1835 command-line gpg tool installed.
1836 You will also need to be able to connect over the Internet to the
1838 public key servers, like pgp.mit.edu, and their port 11731 (the HKP
1839 protocol).
1840 The configuration parameter check_sigs is there to turn signature
1842 checking on or off.
1843
1845 Most functions in package CPAN are exported by default. The reason for
1846 this is that the primary use is intended for the cpan shell or for one-
1847 liners.
1848
1850 When the CPAN shell enters a subshell via the look command, it sets the
1851 environment CPAN_SHELL_LEVEL to 1, or increments that variable if it is
1852 already set.
1853 When CPAN runs, it sets the environment variable PERL5_CPAN_IS_RUNNING
1855 to the ID of the running process. It also sets
1856 PERL5_CPANPLUS_IS_RUNNING to prevent runaway processes which could
1857 happen with older versions of Module::Install.
1858 When running "perl Makefile.PL", the environment variable
1860 "PERL5_CPAN_IS_EXECUTING" is set to the full path of the "Makefile.PL"
1861 that is being executed. This prevents runaway processes with newer
1862 versions of Module::Install.
1863 When the config variable ftp_passive is set, all downloads will be run
1865 with the environment variable FTP_PASSIVE set to this value. This is in
1866 general a good idea as it influences both Net::FTP and LWP based
1867 connections. The same effect can be achieved by starting the cpan shell
1868 with this environment variable set. For Net::FTP alone, one can also
1869 always set passive mode by running libnetcfg.
1870
1872 Populating a freshly installed perl with one's favorite modules is
1873 pretty easy if you maintain a private bundle definition file. To get a
1874 useful blueprint of a bundle definition file, the command autobundle
1875 can be used on the CPAN shell command line. This command writes a
1876 bundle definition file for all modules installed for the current perl
1877 interpreter. It's recommended to run this command once only, and from
1878 then on maintain the file manually under a private name, say
1879 Bundle/my_bundle.pm. With a clever bundle file you can then simply say
1880 cpan> install Bundle::my_bundle
1882 then answer a few questions and go out for coffee (possibly even in a
1884 different city).
1885 Maintaining a bundle definition file means keeping track of two things:
1887 dependencies and interactivity. CPAN.pm sometimes fails on calculating
1888 dependencies because not all modules define all MakeMaker attributes
1889 correctly, so a bundle definition file should specify prerequisites as
1890 early as possible. On the other hand, it's annoying that so many
1891 distributions need some interactive configuring. So what you can try to
1892 accomplish in your private bundle file is to have the packages that
1893 need to be configured early in the file and the gentle ones later, so
1894 you can go out for coffee after a few minutes and leave CPAN.pm to
1895 churn away unattended.
1896
1898 Thanks to Graham Barr for contributing the following paragraphs about
1899 the interaction between perl, and various firewall configurations. For
1900 further information on firewalls, it is recommended to consult the
1901 documentation that comes with the ncftp program. If you are unable to
1902 go through the firewall with a simple Perl setup, it is likely that you
1903 can configure ncftp so that it works through your firewall.
1904 Three basic types of firewalls
1906 Firewalls can be categorized into three basic types.
1907 http firewall
1909 This is when the firewall machine runs a web server, and to access
1910 the outside world, you must do so via that web server. If you set
1911 environment variables like http_proxy or ftp_proxy to values
1912 beginning with http://, or in your web browser you've proxy
1913 information set, then you know you are running behind an http
1914 firewall.
1915 To access servers outside these types of firewalls with perl (even
1917 for ftp), you need LWP or HTTP::Tiny.
1918 ftp firewall
1920 This where the firewall machine runs an ftp server. This kind of
1921 firewall will only let you access ftp servers outside the firewall.
1922 This is usually done by connecting to the firewall with ftp, then
1923 entering a username like "user@outside.host.com".
1924 To access servers outside these type of firewalls with perl, you
1926 need Net::FTP.
1927 One-way visibility
1929 One-way visibility means these firewalls try to make themselves
1930 invisible to users inside the firewall. An FTP data connection is
1931 normally created by sending your IP address to the remote server
1932 and then listening for the return connection. But the remote server
1933 will not be able to connect to you because of the firewall. For
1934 these types of firewall, FTP connections need to be done in a
1935 passive mode.
1936 There are two that I can think off.
1938 SOCKS
1940 If you are using a SOCKS firewall, you will need to compile
1941 perl and link it with the SOCKS library. This is what is
1942 normally called a 'socksified' perl. With this executable you
1943 will be able to connect to servers outside the firewall as if
1944 it were not there.
1945 IP Masquerade
1947 This is when the firewall implemented in the kernel (via NAT,
1948 or networking address translation), it allows you to hide a
1949 complete network behind one IP address. With this firewall no
1950 special compiling is needed as you can access hosts directly.
1951 For accessing ftp servers behind such firewalls you usually
1953 need to set the environment variable "FTP_PASSIVE" or the
1954 config variable ftp_passive to a true value.
1955 Configuring lynx or ncftp for going through a firewall
1957 If you can go through your firewall with e.g. lynx, presumably with a
1958 command such as
1959 /usr/local/bin/lynx -pscott:tiger
1961 then you would configure CPAN.pm with the command
1963 o conf lynx "/usr/local/bin/lynx -pscott:tiger"
1965 That's all. Similarly for ncftp or ftp, you would configure something
1967 like
1968 o conf ncftp "/usr/bin/ncftp -f /home/scott/ncftplogin.cfg"
1970 Your mileage may vary...
1972
1974 1) I installed a new version of module X but CPAN keeps saying, I have
1975 the old version installed
1976 Probably you do have the old version installed. This can happen if
1978 a module installs itself into a different directory in the @INC
1979 path than it was previously installed. This is not really a CPAN.pm
1980 problem, you would have the same problem when installing the module
1981 manually. The easiest way to prevent this behaviour is to add the
1982 argument "UNINST=1" to the "make install" call, and that is why
1983 many people add this argument permanently by configuring
1984 o conf make_install_arg UNINST=1
1986 2) So why is UNINST=1 not the default?
1988 Because there are people who have their precise expectations about
1990 who may install where in the @INC path and who uses which @INC
1991 array. In fine tuned environments "UNINST=1" can cause damage.
1992 3) I want to clean up my mess, and install a new perl along with all
1994 modules I have. How do I go about it?
1995 Run the autobundle command for your old perl and optionally rename
1997 the resulting bundle file (e.g. Bundle/mybundle.pm), install the
1998 new perl with the Configure option prefix, e.g.
1999 ./Configure -Dprefix=/usr/local/perl-5.6.78.9
2001 Install the bundle file you produced in the first step with
2003 something like
2004 cpan> install Bundle::mybundle
2006 and you're done.
2008 4) When I install bundles or multiple modules with one command there
2010 is too much output to keep track of.
2011 You may want to configure something like
2013 o conf make_arg "| tee -ai /root/.cpan/logs/make.out"
2015 o conf make_install_arg "| tee -ai /root/.cpan/logs/make_install.out"
2016 so that STDOUT is captured in a file for later inspection.
2018 5) I am not root, how can I install a module in a personal directory?
2020 As of CPAN 1.9463, if you do not have permission to write the
2022 default perl library directories, CPAN's configuration process will
2023 ask you whether you want to bootstrap <local::lib>, which makes
2024 keeping a personal perl library directory easy.
2025 Another thing you should bear in mind is that the UNINST parameter
2027 can be dangerous when you are installing into a private area
2028 because you might accidentally remove modules that other people
2029 depend on that are not using the private area.
2030 6) How to get a package, unwrap it, and make a change before building
2032 it?
2033 Have a look at the "look" (!) command.
2035 7) I installed a Bundle and had a couple of fails. When I retried,
2037 everything resolved nicely. Can this be fixed to work on first try?
2038 The reason for this is that CPAN does not know the dependencies of
2040 all modules when it starts out. To decide about the additional
2041 items to install, it just uses data found in the META.yml file or
2042 the generated Makefile. An undetected missing piece breaks the
2043 process. But it may well be that your Bundle installs some
2044 prerequisite later than some depending item and thus your second
2045 try is able to resolve everything. Please note, CPAN.pm does not
2046 know the dependency tree in advance and cannot sort the queue of
2047 things to install in a topologically correct order. It resolves
2048 perfectly well if all modules declare the prerequisites correctly
2049 with the PREREQ_PM attribute to MakeMaker or the "requires" stanza
2050 of Module::Build. For bundles which fail and you need to install
2051 often, it is recommended to sort the Bundle definition file
2052 manually.
2053 8) In our intranet, we have many modules for internal use. How can I
2055 integrate these modules with CPAN.pm but without uploading the
2056 modules to CPAN?
2057 Have a look at the CPAN::Site module.
2059 9) When I run CPAN's shell, I get an error message about things in my
2061 "/etc/inputrc" (or "~/.inputrc") file.
2062 These are readline issues and can only be fixed by studying
2064 readline configuration on your architecture and adjusting the
2065 referenced file accordingly. Please make a backup of the
2066 "/etc/inputrc" or "~/.inputrc" and edit them. Quite often harmless
2067 changes like uppercasing or lowercasing some arguments solves the
2068 problem.
2069 10) Some authors have strange characters in their names.
2071 Internally CPAN.pm uses the UTF-8 charset. If your terminal is
2073 expecting ISO-8859-1 charset, a converter can be activated by
2074 setting term_is_latin to a true value in your config file. One way
2075 of doing so would be
2076 cpan> o conf term_is_latin 1
2078 If other charset support is needed, please file a bug report
2080 against CPAN.pm at rt.cpan.org and describe your needs. Maybe we
2081 can extend the support or maybe UTF-8 terminals become widely
2082 available.
2083 Note: this config variable is deprecated and will be removed in a
2085 future version of CPAN.pm. It will be replaced with the conventions
2086 around the family of $LANG and $LC_* environment variables.
2087 11) When an install fails for some reason and then I correct the error
2089 condition and retry, CPAN.pm refuses to install the module, saying
2090 "Already tried without success".
2091 Use the force pragma like so
2093 force install Foo::Bar
2095 Or you can use
2097 look Foo::Bar
2099 and then "make install" directly in the subshell.
2101 12) How do I install a "DEVELOPER RELEASE" of a module?
2103 By default, CPAN will install the latest non-developer release of a
2105 module. If you want to install a dev release, you have to specify
2106 the partial path starting with the author id to the tarball you
2107 wish to install, like so:
2108 cpan> install KWILLIAMS/Module-Build-0.27_07.tar.gz
2110 Note that you can use the "ls" command to get this path listed.
2112 13) How do I install a module and all its dependencies from the
2114 commandline, without being prompted for anything, despite my CPAN
2115 configuration (or lack thereof)?
2116 CPAN uses ExtUtils::MakeMaker's prompt() function to ask its
2118 questions, so if you set the PERL_MM_USE_DEFAULT environment
2119 variable, you shouldn't be asked any questions at all (assuming the
2120 modules you are installing are nice about obeying that variable as
2121 well):
2122 % PERL_MM_USE_DEFAULT=1 perl -MCPAN -e 'install My::Module'
2124 14) How do I create a Module::Build based Build.PL derived from an
2126 ExtUtils::MakeMaker focused Makefile.PL?
2127 http://search.cpan.org/dist/Module-Build-Convert/
2129 15) I'm frequently irritated with the CPAN shell's inability to help me
2131 select a good mirror.
2132 CPAN can now help you select a "good" mirror, based on which ones
2134 have the lowest 'ping' round-trip times. From the shell, use the
2135 command 'o conf init urllist' and allow CPAN to automatically
2136 select mirrors for you.
2137 Beyond that help, the urllist config parameter is yours. You can
2139 add and remove sites at will. You should find out which sites have
2140 the best up-to-dateness, bandwidth, reliability, etc. and are
2141 topologically close to you. Some people prefer fast downloads,
2142 others up-to-dateness, others reliability. You decide which to try
2143 in which order.
2144 Henk P. Penning maintains a site that collects data about CPAN
2146 sites:
2147 http://mirrors.cpan.org/
2149 Also, feel free to play with experimental features. Run
2151 o conf init randomize_urllist ftpstats_period ftpstats_size
2153 and choose your favorite parameters. After a few downloads running
2155 the "hosts" command will probably assist you in choosing the best
2156 mirror sites.
2157 16) Why do I get asked the same questions every time I start the shell?
2159 You can make your configuration changes permanent by calling the
2161 command "o conf commit". Alternatively set the "auto_commit"
2162 variable to true by running "o conf init auto_commit" and answering
2163 the following question with yes.
2164 17) Older versions of CPAN.pm had the original root directory of all
2166 tarballs in the build directory. Now there are always random
2167 characters appended to these directory names. Why was this done?
2168 The random characters are provided by File::Temp and ensure that
2170 each module's individual build directory is unique. This makes
2171 running CPAN.pm in concurrent processes simultaneously safe.
2172 18) Speaking of the build directory. Do I have to clean it up myself?
2174 You have the choice to set the config variable "scan_cache" to
2176 "never". Then you must clean it up yourself. The other possible
2177 values, "atstart" and "atexit" clean up the build directory when
2178 you start (or more precisely, after the first extraction into the
2179 build directory) or exit the CPAN shell, respectively. If you never
2180 start up the CPAN shell, you probably also have to clean up the
2181 build directory yourself.
2182
2184 OLD PERL VERSIONS
2185 CPAN.pm is regularly tested to run under 5.005 and assorted newer
2186 versions. It is getting more and more difficult to get the minimal
2187 prerequisites working on older perls. It is close to impossible to get
2188 the whole Bundle::CPAN working there. If you're in the position to have
2189 only these old versions, be advised that CPAN is designed to work fine
2190 without the Bundle::CPAN installed.
2191 To get things going, note that GBARR/Scalar-List-Utils-1.18.tar.gz is
2193 compatible with ancient perls and that File::Temp is listed as a
2194 prerequisite but CPAN has reasonable workarounds if it is missing.
2195 CPANPLUS
2197 This module and its competitor, the CPANPLUS module, are both much
2198 cooler than the other. CPAN.pm is older. CPANPLUS was designed to be
2199 more modular, but it was never intended to be compatible with CPAN.pm.
2200 CPANMINUS
2202 In the year 2010 App::cpanminus was launched as a new approach to a
2203 cpan shell with a considerably smaller footprint. Very cool stuff.
2204
2206 This software enables you to upgrade software on your computer and so
2207 is inherently dangerous because the newly installed software may
2208 contain bugs and may alter the way your computer works or even make it
2209 unusable. Please consider backing up your data before every upgrade.
2210
2212 Please report bugs via <http://rt.cpan.org/>
2213 Before submitting a bug, please make sure that the traditional method
2215 of building a Perl module package from a shell by following the
2216 installation instructions of that package still works in your
2217 environment.
2218
2220 Andreas Koenig "<andk@cpan.org>"
2221
2223 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
2224 under the same terms as Perl itself.
2225 See <http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html>
2227
2229 Kawai,Takanori provides a Japanese translation of a very old version of
2230 this manpage at
2231 <http://homepage3.nifty.com/hippo2000/perltips/CPAN.htm>
2232
2234 Many people enter the CPAN shell by running the cpan utility program
2235 which is installed in the same directory as perl itself. So if you have
2236 this directory in your PATH variable (or some equivalent in your
2237 operating system) then typing "cpan" in a console window will work for
2238 you as well. Above that the utility provides several commandline
2239 shortcuts.
2240 melezhik (Alexey) sent me a link where he published a chef recipe to
2242 work with CPAN.pm: http://community.opscode.com/cookbooks/cpan.
2243perl v5.26.3 2019-05-14 CPAN(3)