1CPAN(3pm) Perl Programmers Reference Guide CPAN(3pm)
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 $distro); # same thing
43
45 The CPAN module automates or at least simplifies the make and install
46 of perl modules and extensions. It includes some primitive searching
47 capabilities and knows how to use Net::FTP, LWP, and certain external
48 download clients to fetch distributions from the net.
49 These are fetched from one or more mirrored CPAN (Comprehensive Perl
51 Archive Network) sites and unpacked in a dedicated directory.
52 The CPAN module also supports named and versioned bundles of modules.
54 Bundles simplify handling of sets of related modules. See Bundles
55 below.
56 The package contains a session manager and a cache manager. The session
58 manager keeps track of what has been fetched, built, and installed in
59 the current session. The cache manager keeps track of the disk space
60 occupied by the make processes and deletes excess space using a simple
61 FIFO mechanism.
62 All methods provided are accessible in a programmer style and in an
64 interactive shell style.
65 CPAN::shell([$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 CHECKUMS 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. The name of the bundle file is based on the
312 current date and a counter.
313 hosts
315 Note: this feature is still in alpha state and may change in future
316 versions of CPAN.pm
317 This commands provides a statistical overview over recent download
319 activities. The data for this is collected in the YAML file
320 "FTPstats.yml" in your "cpan_home" directory. If no YAML module is
321 configured or YAML not installed, no stats are provided.
322 mkmyconfig
324 mkmyconfig() writes your own CPAN::MyConfig file into your "~/.cpan/"
325 directory so that you can save your own preferences instead of the
326 system-wide ones.
327 recent ***EXPERIMENTAL COMMAND***
329 The "recent" command downloads a list of recent uploads to CPAN and
330 displays them slowly. While the command is running, a $SIG{INT} exits
331 the loop after displaying the current item.
332 Note: This command requires XML::LibXML installed.
334 Note: This whole command currently is just a hack and will probably
336 change in future versions of CPAN.pm, but the general approach will
337 likely remain.
338 Note: See also smoke
340 recompile
342 recompile() is a special command that takes no argument and runs the
343 make/test/install cycle with brute force over all installed dynamically
344 loadable extensions (aka XS modules) with 'force' in effect. The
345 primary purpose of this command is to finish a network installation.
346 Imagine you have a common source tree for two different architectures.
347 You decide to do a completely independent fresh installation. You start
348 on one architecture with the help of a Bundle file produced earlier.
349 CPAN installs the whole Bundle for you, but when you try to repeat the
350 job on the second architecture, CPAN responds with a "Foo up to date"
351 message for all modules. So you invoke CPAN's recompile on the second
352 architecture and you're done.
353 Another popular use for "recompile" is to act as a rescue in case your
355 perl breaks binary compatibility. If one of the modules that CPAN uses
356 is in turn depending on binary compatibility (so you cannot run CPAN
357 commands), then you should try the CPAN::Nox module for recovery.
358 report Bundle|Distribution|Module
360 The "report" command temporarily turns on the "test_report" config
361 variable, then runs the "force test" command with the given arguments.
362 The "force" pragma reruns the tests and repeats every step that might
363 have failed before.
364 smoke ***EXPERIMENTAL COMMAND***
366 *** WARNING: this command downloads and executes software from CPAN to
367 your computer of completely unknown status. You should never do this
368 with your normal account and better have a dedicated well separated and
369 secured machine to do this. ***
370 The "smoke" command takes the list of recent uploads to CPAN as
372 provided by the "recent" command and tests them all. While the command
373 is running $SIG{INT} is defined to mean that the current item shall be
374 skipped.
375 Note: This whole command currently is just a hack and will probably
377 change in future versions of CPAN.pm, but the general approach will
378 likely remain.
379 Note: See also recent
381 upgrade [Module|/Regex/]...
383 The "upgrade" command first runs an "r" command with the given
384 arguments and then installs the newest versions of all modules that
385 were listed by that.
386 The four "CPAN::*" Classes: Author, Bundle, Module, Distribution
388 Although it may be considered internal, the class hierarchy does matter
389 for both users and programmer. CPAN.pm deals with the four classes
390 mentioned above, and those classes all share a set of methods.
391 Classical single polymorphism is in effect. A metaclass object
392 registers all objects of all kinds and indexes them with a string. The
393 strings referencing objects have a separated namespace (well, not
394 completely separated):
395 Namespace Class
397 words containing a "/" (slash) Distribution
399 words starting with Bundle:: Bundle
400 everything else Module or Author
401 Modules know their associated Distribution objects. They always refer
403 to the most recent official release. Developers may mark their releases
404 as unstable development versions (by inserting an underbar into the
405 module version number which will also be reflected in the distribution
406 name when you run 'make dist'), so the really hottest and newest
407 distribution is not always the default. If a module Foo circulates on
408 CPAN in both version 1.23 and 1.23_90, CPAN.pm offers a convenient way
409 to install version 1.23 by saying
410 install Foo
412 This would install the complete distribution file (say
414 BAR/Foo-1.23.tar.gz) with all accompanying material. But if you would
415 like to install version 1.23_90, you need to know where the
416 distribution file resides on CPAN relative to the authors/id/
417 directory. If the author is BAR, this might be BAR/Foo-1.23_90.tar.gz;
418 so you would have to say
419 install BAR/Foo-1.23_90.tar.gz
421 The first example will be driven by an object of the class
423 CPAN::Module, the second by an object of class CPAN::Distribution.
424 Integrating local directories
426 Note: this feature is still in alpha state and may change in future
427 versions of CPAN.pm
428 Distribution objects are normally distributions from the CPAN, but
430 there is a slightly degenerate case for Distribution objects, too, of
431 projects held on the local disk. These distribution objects have the
432 same name as the local directory and end with a dot. A dot by itself is
433 also allowed for the current directory at the time CPAN.pm was used.
434 All actions such as "make", "test", and "install" are applied directly
435 to that directory. This gives the command "cpan ." an interesting
436 touch: while the normal mantra of installing a CPAN module without
437 CPAN.pm is one of
438 perl Makefile.PL perl Build.PL
440 ( go and get prerequisites )
441 make ./Build
442 make test ./Build test
443 make install ./Build install
444 the command "cpan ." does all of this at once. It figures out which of
446 the two mantras is appropriate, fetches and installs all prerequisites,
447 takes care of them recursively, and finally finishes the installation
448 of the module in the current directory, be it a CPAN module or not.
449 The typical usage case is for private modules or working copies of
451 projects from remote repositories on the local disk.
452 Redirection
454 The usual shell redirection symbols " | " and ">" are recognized by the
455 cpan shell only when surrounded by whitespace. So piping to pager or
456 redirecting output into a file works somewhat as in a normal shell,
457 with the stipulation that you must type extra spaces.
458
460 When the CPAN module is used for the first time, a configuration
461 dialogue tries to determine a couple of site specific options. The
462 result of the dialog is stored in a hash reference $CPAN::Config in a
463 file CPAN/Config.pm.
464 Default values defined in the CPAN/Config.pm file can be overridden in
466 a user specific file: CPAN/MyConfig.pm. Such a file is best placed in
467 "$HOME/.cpan/CPAN/MyConfig.pm", because "$HOME/.cpan" is added to the
468 search path of the CPAN module before the use() or require()
469 statements. The mkmyconfig command writes this file for you.
470 The "o conf" command has various bells and whistles:
472 completion support
474 If you have a ReadLine module installed, you can hit TAB at any
475 point of the commandline and "o conf" will offer you completion for
476 the built-in subcommands and/or config variable names.
477 displaying some help: o conf help
479 Displays a short help
480 displaying current values: o conf [KEY]
482 Displays the current value(s) for this config variable. Without
483 KEY, displays all subcommands and config variables.
484 Example:
486 o conf shell
488 If KEY starts and ends with a slash, the string in between is
490 treated as a regular expression and only keys matching this regex
491 are displayed
492 Example:
494 o conf /color/
496 changing of scalar values: o conf KEY VALUE
498 Sets the config variable KEY to VALUE. The empty string can be
499 specified as usual in shells, with '' or ""
500 Example:
502 o conf wget /usr/bin/wget
504 changing of list values: o conf KEY SHIFT|UNSHIFT|PUSH|POP|SPLICE|LIST
506 If a config variable name ends with "list", it is a list. "o conf
507 KEY shift" removes the first element of the list, "o conf KEY pop"
508 removes the last element of the list. "o conf KEYS unshift LIST"
509 prepends a list of values to the list, "o conf KEYS push LIST"
510 appends a list of valued to the list.
511 Likewise, "o conf KEY splice LIST" passes the LIST to the
513 corresponding splice command.
514 Finally, any other list of arguments is taken as a new list value
516 for the KEY variable discarding the previous value.
517 Examples:
519 o conf urllist unshift http://cpan.dev.local/CPAN
521 o conf urllist splice 3 1
522 o conf urllist http://cpan1.local http://cpan2.local ftp://ftp.perl.org
523 reverting to saved: o conf defaults
525 Reverts all config variables to the state in the saved config file.
526 saving the config: o conf commit
528 Saves all config variables to the current config file
529 (CPAN/Config.pm or CPAN/MyConfig.pm that was loaded at start).
530 The configuration dialog can be started any time later again by issuing
532 the command " o conf init " in the CPAN shell. A subset of the
533 configuration dialog can be run by issuing "o conf init WORD" where
534 WORD is any valid config variable or a regular expression.
535 Config Variables
537 The following keys in the hash reference $CPAN::Config are currently
538 defined:
539 applypatch path to external prg
541 auto_commit commit all changes to config variables to disk
542 build_cache size of cache for directories to build modules
543 build_dir locally accessible directory to build modules
544 build_dir_reuse boolean if distros in build_dir are persistent
545 build_requires_install_policy
546 to install or not to install when a module is
547 only needed for building. yes|no|ask/yes|ask/no
548 bzip2 path to external prg
549 cache_metadata use serializer to cache metadata
550 check_sigs if signatures should be verified
551 colorize_debug Term::ANSIColor attributes for debugging output
552 colorize_output boolean if Term::ANSIColor should colorize output
553 colorize_print Term::ANSIColor attributes for normal output
554 colorize_warn Term::ANSIColor attributes for warnings
555 commandnumber_in_prompt
556 boolean if you want to see current command number
557 commands_quote preferred character to use for quoting external
558 commands when running them. Defaults to double
559 quote on Windows, single tick everywhere else;
560 can be set to space to disable quoting
561 connect_to_internet_ok
562 whether to ask if opening a connection is ok before
563 urllist is specified
564 cpan_home local directory reserved for this package
565 curl path to external prg
566 dontload_hash DEPRECATED
567 dontload_list arrayref: modules in the list will not be
568 loaded by the CPAN::has_inst() routine
569 ftp path to external prg
570 ftp_passive if set, the envariable FTP_PASSIVE is set for downloads
571 ftp_proxy proxy host for ftp requests
572 ftpstats_period max number of days to keep download statistics
573 ftpstats_size max number of items to keep in the download statistics
574 getcwd see below
575 gpg path to external prg
576 gzip location of external program gzip
577 halt_on_failure stop processing after the first failure of queued
578 items or dependencies
579 histfile file to maintain history between sessions
580 histsize maximum number of lines to keep in histfile
581 http_proxy proxy host for http requests
582 inactivity_timeout breaks interactive Makefile.PLs or Build.PLs
583 after this many seconds inactivity. Set to 0 to
584 disable timeouts.
585 index_expire refetch index files after this many days
586 inhibit_startup_message
587 if true, suppress the startup message
588 keep_source_where directory in which to keep the source (if we do)
589 load_module_verbosity
590 report loading of optional modules used by CPAN.pm
591 lynx path to external prg
592 make location of external make program
593 make_arg arguments that should always be passed to 'make'
594 make_install_make_command
595 the make command for running 'make install', for
596 example 'sudo make'
597 make_install_arg same as make_arg for 'make install'
598 makepl_arg arguments passed to 'perl Makefile.PL'
599 mbuild_arg arguments passed to './Build'
600 mbuild_install_arg arguments passed to './Build install'
601 mbuild_install_build_command
602 command to use instead of './Build' when we are
603 in the install stage, for example 'sudo ./Build'
604 mbuildpl_arg arguments passed to 'perl Build.PL'
605 ncftp path to external prg
606 ncftpget path to external prg
607 no_proxy don't proxy to these hosts/domains (comma separated list)
608 pager location of external program more (or any pager)
609 password your password if you CPAN server wants one
610 patch path to external prg
611 patches_dir local directory containing patch files
612 perl5lib_verbosity verbosity level for PERL5LIB additions
613 prefer_installer legal values are MB and EUMM: if a module comes
614 with both a Makefile.PL and a Build.PL, use the
615 former (EUMM) or the latter (MB); if the module
616 comes with only one of the two, that one will be
617 used no matter the setting
618 prerequisites_policy
619 what to do if you are missing module prerequisites
620 ('follow' automatically, 'ask' me, or 'ignore')
621 For 'follow', also sets PERL_AUTOINSTALL and
622 PERL_EXTUTILS_AUTOINSTALL for "--defaultdeps" if
623 not already set
624 prefs_dir local directory to store per-distro build options
625 proxy_user username for accessing an authenticating proxy
626 proxy_pass password for accessing an authenticating proxy
627 randomize_urllist add some randomness to the sequence of the urllist
628 scan_cache controls scanning of cache ('atstart' or 'never')
629 shell your favorite shell
630 show_unparsable_versions
631 boolean if r command tells which modules are versionless
632 show_upload_date boolean if commands should try to determine upload date
633 show_zero_versions boolean if r command tells for which modules $version==0
634 tar location of external program tar
635 tar_verbosity verbosity level for the tar command
636 term_is_latin deprecated: if true Unicode is translated to ISO-8859-1
637 (and nonsense for characters outside latin range)
638 term_ornaments boolean to turn ReadLine ornamenting on/off
639 test_report email test reports (if CPAN::Reporter is installed)
640 trust_test_report_history
641 skip testing when previously tested ok (according to
642 CPAN::Reporter history)
643 unzip location of external program unzip
644 urllist arrayref to nearby CPAN sites (or equivalent locations)
645 use_sqlite use CPAN::SQLite for metadata storage (fast and lean)
646 username your username if you CPAN server wants one
647 version_timeout stops version parsing after this many seconds.
648 Default is 15 secs. Set to 0 to disable.
649 wait_list arrayref to a wait server to try (See CPAN::WAIT)
650 wget path to external prg
651 yaml_load_code enable YAML code deserialisation via CPAN::DeferredCode
652 yaml_module which module to use to read/write YAML files
653 You can set and query each of these options interactively in the cpan
655 shell with the "o conf" or the "o conf init" command as specified
656 below.
657 "o conf <scalar option>"
659 prints the current value of the scalar option
660 "o conf <scalar option> <value>"
662 Sets the value of the scalar option to value
663 "o conf <list option>"
665 prints the current value of the list option in MakeMaker's neatvalue
666 format.
667 "o conf <list option> [shift|pop]"
669 shifts or pops the array in the list option variable
670 "o conf <list option> [unshift|push|splice] <list>"
672 works like the corresponding perl commands.
673 interactive editing: o conf init [MATCH|LIST]
675 Runs an interactive configuration dialog for matching variables.
676 Without argument runs the dialog over all supported config variables.
677 To specify a MATCH the argument must be enclosed by slashes.
678 Examples:
680 o conf init ftp_passive ftp_proxy
682 o conf init /color/
683 Note: this method of setting config variables often provides more
685 explanation about the functioning of a variable than the manpage.
686 CPAN::anycwd($path): Note on config variable getcwd
688 CPAN.pm changes the current working directory often and needs to
689 determine its own current working directory. By default it uses
690 Cwd::cwd, but if for some reason this doesn't work on your system,
691 configure alternatives according to the following table:
692 cwd Calls Cwd::cwd
694 getcwd
696 Calls Cwd::getcwd
697 fastcwd
699 Calls Cwd::fastcwd
700 backtickcwd
702 Calls the external command cwd.
703 Note on the format of the urllist parameter
705 urllist parameters are URLs according to RFC 1738. We do a little
706 guessing if your URL is not compliant, but if you have problems with
707 "file" URLs, please try the correct format. Either:
708 file://localhost/whatever/ftp/pub/CPAN/
710 or
712 file:///home/ftp/pub/CPAN/
714 The urllist parameter has CD-ROM support
716 The "urllist" parameter of the configuration table contains a list of
717 URLs used for downloading. If the list contains any "file" URLs, CPAN
718 always tries there first. This feature is disabled for index files. So
719 the recommendation for the owner of a CD-ROM with CPAN contents is:
720 include your local, possibly outdated CD-ROM as a "file" URL at the end
721 of urllist, e.g.
722 o conf urllist push file://localhost/CDROM/CPAN
724 CPAN.pm will then fetch the index files from one of the CPAN sites that
726 come at the beginning of urllist. It will later check for each module
727 to see whether there is a local copy of the most recent version.
728 Another peculiarity of urllist is that the site that we could
730 successfully fetch the last file from automatically gets a preference
731 token and is tried as the first site for the next request. So if you
732 add a new site at runtime it may happen that the previously preferred
733 site will be tried another time. This means that if you want to
734 disallow a site for the next transfer, it must be explicitly removed
735 from urllist.
736 Maintaining the urllist parameter
738 If you have YAML.pm (or some other YAML module configured in
739 "yaml_module") installed, CPAN.pm collects a few statistical data about
740 recent downloads. You can view the statistics with the "hosts" command
741 or inspect them directly by looking into the "FTPstats.yml" file in
742 your "cpan_home" directory.
743 To get some interesting statistics, it is recommended that
745 "randomize_urllist" be set; this introduces some amount of randomness
746 into the URL selection.
747 The "requires" and "build_requires" dependency declarations
749 Since CPAN.pm version 1.88_51 modules declared as "build_requires" by a
750 distribution are treated differently depending on the config variable
751 "build_requires_install_policy". By setting
752 "build_requires_install_policy" to "no", such a module is not
753 installed. It is only built and tested, and then kept in the list of
754 tested but uninstalled modules. As such, it is available during the
755 build of the dependent module by integrating the path to the
756 "blib/arch" and "blib/lib" directories in the environment variable
757 PERL5LIB. If "build_requires_install_policy" is set ti "yes", then both
758 modules declared as "requires" and those declared as "build_requires"
759 are treated alike. By setting to "ask/yes" or "ask/no", CPAN.pm asks
760 the user and sets the default accordingly.
761 Configuration for individual distributions (Distroprefs)
763 (Note: This feature has been introduced in CPAN.pm 1.8854 and is still
764 considered beta quality)
765 Distributions on CPAN usually behave according to what we call the CPAN
767 mantra. Or since the advent of Module::Build we should talk about two
768 mantras:
769 perl Makefile.PL perl Build.PL
771 make ./Build
772 make test ./Build test
773 make install ./Build install
774 But some modules cannot be built with this mantra. They try to get some
776 extra data from the user via the environment, extra arguments, or
777 interactively--thus disturbing the installation of large bundles like
778 Phalanx100 or modules with many dependencies like Plagger.
779 The distroprefs system of "CPAN.pm" addresses this problem by allowing
781 the user to specify extra informations and recipes in YAML files to
782 either
783 · pass additional arguments to one of the four commands,
785 · set environment variables
787 · instantiate an Expect object that reads from the console, waits for
789 some regular expressions and enters some answers
790 · temporarily override assorted "CPAN.pm" configuration variables
792 · specify dependencies the original maintainer forgot
794 · disable the installation of an object altogether
796 See the YAML and Data::Dumper files that come with the "CPAN.pm"
798 distribution in the "distroprefs/" directory for examples.
799 Filenames
801 The YAML files themselves must have the ".yml" extension; all other
802 files are ignored (for two exceptions see Fallback Data::Dumper and
803 Storable below). The containing directory can be specified in "CPAN.pm"
804 in the "prefs_dir" config variable. Try "o conf init prefs_dir" in the
805 CPAN shell to set and activate the distroprefs system.
806 Every YAML file may contain arbitrary documents according to the YAML
808 specification, and every document is treated as an entity that can
809 specify the treatment of a single distribution.
810 Filenames can be picked arbitrarily; "CPAN.pm" always reads all files
812 (in alphabetical order) and takes the key "match" (see below in
813 Language Specs) as a hashref containing match criteria that determine
814 if the current distribution matches the YAML document or not.
815 Fallback Data::Dumper and Storable
817 If neither your configured "yaml_module" nor YAML.pm is installed,
818 CPAN.pm falls back to using Data::Dumper and Storable and looks for
819 files with the extensions ".dd" or ".st" in the "prefs_dir" directory.
820 These files are expected to contain one or more hashrefs. For
821 Data::Dumper generated files, this is expected to be done with by
822 defining $VAR1, $VAR2, etc. The YAML shell would produce these with the
823 command
824 ysh < somefile.yml > somefile.dd
826 For Storable files the rule is that they must be constructed such that
828 "Storable::retrieve(file)" returns an array reference and the array
829 elements represent one distropref object each. The conversion from YAML
830 would look like so:
831 perl -MYAML=LoadFile -MStorable=nstore -e '
833 @y=LoadFile(shift);
834 nstore(\@y, shift)' somefile.yml somefile.st
835 In bootstrapping situations it is usually sufficient to translate only
837 a few YAML files to Data::Dumper for crucial modules like "YAML::Syck",
838 "YAML.pm" and "Expect.pm". If you prefer Storable over Data::Dumper,
839 remember to pull out a Storable version that writes an older format
840 than all the other Storable versions that will need to read them.
841 Blueprint
843 The following example contains all supported keywords and structures
844 with the exception of "eexpect" which can be used instead of "expect".
845 ---
847 comment: "Demo"
848 match:
849 module: "Dancing::Queen"
850 distribution: "^CHACHACHA/Dancing-"
851 not_distribution: "\.zip$"
852 perl: "/usr/local/cariba-perl/bin/perl"
853 perlconfig:
854 archname: "freebsd"
855 not_cc: "gcc"
856 env:
857 DANCING_FLOOR: "Shubiduh"
858 disabled: 1
859 cpanconfig:
860 make: gmake
861 pl:
862 args:
863 - "--somearg=specialcase"
864 env: {}
866 expect:
868 - "Which is your favorite fruit"
869 - "apple\n"
870 make:
872 args:
873 - all
874 - extra-all
875 env: {}
877 expect: []
879 commandline: "echo SKIPPING make"
881 test:
883 args: []
884 env: {}
886 expect: []
888 install:
890 args: []
891 env:
893 WANT_TO_INSTALL: YES
894 expect:
896 - "Do you really want to install"
897 - "y\n"
898 patches:
900 - "ABCDE/Fedcba-3.14-ABCDE-01.patch"
901 depends:
903 configure_requires:
904 LWP: 5.8
905 build_requires:
906 Test::Exception: 0.25
907 requires:
908 Spiffy: 0.30
909 Language Specs
911 Every YAML document represents a single hash reference. The valid keys
912 in this hash are as follows:
913 comment [scalar]
915 A comment
916 cpanconfig [hash]
918 Temporarily override assorted "CPAN.pm" configuration variables.
919 Supported are: "build_requires_install_policy", "check_sigs",
921 "make", "make_install_make_command", "prefer_installer",
922 "test_report". Please report as a bug when you need another one
923 supported.
924 depends [hash] *** EXPERIMENTAL FEATURE ***
926 All three types, namely "configure_requires", "build_requires", and
927 "requires" are supported in the way specified in the META.yml
928 specification. The current implementation merges the specified
929 dependencies with those declared by the package maintainer. In a
930 future implementation this may be changed to override the original
931 declaration.
932 disabled [boolean]
934 Specifies that this distribution shall not be processed at all.
935 features [array] *** EXPERIMENTAL FEATURE ***
937 Experimental implementation to deal with optional_features from
938 META.yml. Still needs coordination with installer software and
939 currently works only for META.yml declaring "dynamic_config=0". Use
940 with caution.
941 goto [string]
943 The canonical name of a delegate distribution to install instead.
944 Useful when a new version, although it tests OK itself, breaks
945 something else or a developer release or a fork is already uploaded
946 that is better than the last released version.
947 install [hash]
949 Processing instructions for the "make install" or "./Build install"
950 phase of the CPAN mantra. See below under Processing Instructions.
951 make [hash]
953 Processing instructions for the "make" or "./Build" phase of the
954 CPAN mantra. See below under Processing Instructions.
955 match [hash]
957 A hashref with one or more of the keys "distribution", "modules",
958 "perl", "perlconfig", and "env" that specify whether a document is
959 targeted at a specific CPAN distribution or installation. Keys
960 prefixed with "not_" negates the corresponding match.
961 The corresponding values are interpreted as regular expressions.
963 The "distribution" related one will be matched against the
964 canonical distribution name, e.g. "AUTHOR/Foo-Bar-3.14.tar.gz".
965 The "module" related one will be matched against all modules
967 contained in the distribution until one module matches.
968 The "perl" related one will be matched against $^X (but with the
970 absolute path).
971 The value associated with "perlconfig" is itself a hashref that is
973 matched against corresponding values in the %Config::Config hash
974 living in the "Config.pm" module. Keys prefixed with "not_"
975 negates the corresponding match.
976 The value associated with "env" is itself a hashref that is matched
978 against corresponding values in the %ENV hash. Keys prefixed with
979 "not_" negates the corresponding match.
980 If more than one restriction of "module", "distribution", etc. is
982 specified, the results of the separately computed match values must
983 all match. If so, the hashref represented by the YAML document is
984 returned as the preference structure for the current distribution.
985 patches [array]
987 An array of patches on CPAN or on the local disk to be applied in
988 order via an external patch program. If the value for the "-p"
989 parameter is 0 or 1 is determined by reading the patch beforehand.
990 The path to each patch is either an absolute path on the local
991 filesystem or relative to a patch directory specified in the
992 "patches_dir" configuration variable or in the format of a
993 canonical distroname. For examples please consult the distroprefs/
994 directory in the CPAN.pm distribution (these examples are not
995 installed by default).
996 Note: if the "applypatch" program is installed and "CPAN::Config"
998 knows about it and a patch is written by the "makepatch" program,
999 then "CPAN.pm" lets "applypatch" apply the patch. Both "makepatch"
1000 and "applypatch" are available from CPAN in the "JV/makepatch-*"
1001 distribution.
1002 pl [hash]
1004 Processing instructions for the "perl Makefile.PL" or "perl
1005 Build.PL" phase of the CPAN mantra. See below under Processing
1006 Instructions.
1007 test [hash]
1009 Processing instructions for the "make test" or "./Build test" phase
1010 of the CPAN mantra. See below under Processing Instructions.
1011 Processing Instructions
1013 args [array]
1014 Arguments to be added to the command line
1015 commandline
1017 A full commandline to run via "system()". During execution, the
1018 environment variable PERL is set to $^X (but with an absolute
1019 path). If "commandline" is specified, "args" is not used.
1020 eexpect [hash]
1022 Extended "expect". This is a hash reference with four allowed keys,
1023 "mode", "timeout", "reuse", and "talk".
1024 You must install the "Expect" module to use "eexpect". CPAN.pm does
1026 not install it for you.
1027 "mode" may have the values "deterministic" for the case where all
1029 questions come in the order written down and "anyorder" for the
1030 case where the questions may come in any order. The default mode is
1031 "deterministic".
1032 "timeout" denotes a timeout in seconds. Floating-point timeouts are
1034 OK. With "mode=deterministic", the timeout denotes the timeout per
1035 question; with "mode=anyorder" it denotes the timeout per byte
1036 received from the stream or questions.
1037 "talk" is a reference to an array that contains alternating
1039 questions and answers. Questions are regular expressions and
1040 answers are literal strings. The Expect module watches the stream
1041 from the execution of the external program ("perl Makefile.PL",
1042 "perl Build.PL", "make", etc.).
1043 For "mode=deterministic", the CPAN.pm injects the corresponding
1045 answer as soon as the stream matches the regular expression.
1046 For "mode=anyorder" CPAN.pm answers a question as soon as the
1048 timeout is reached for the next byte in the input stream. In this
1049 mode you can use the "reuse" parameter to decide what will happen
1050 with a question-answer pair after it has been used. In the default
1051 case (reuse=0) it is removed from the array, avoiding being used
1052 again accidentally. If you want to answer the question "Do you
1053 really want to do that" several times, then it must be included in
1054 the array at least as often as you want this answer to be given.
1055 Setting the parameter "reuse" to 1 makes this repetition
1056 unnecessary.
1057 env [hash]
1059 Environment variables to be set during the command
1060 expect [array]
1062 You must install the "Expect" module to use "expect". CPAN.pm does
1063 not install it for you.
1064 "expect: <array>" is a short notation for this "eexpect":
1066 eexpect:
1068 mode: deterministic
1069 timeout: 15
1070 talk: <array>
1071 Schema verification with "Kwalify"
1073 If you have the "Kwalify" module installed (which is part of the
1074 Bundle::CPANxxl), then all your distroprefs files are checked for
1075 syntactic correctness.
1076 Example Distroprefs Files
1078 "CPAN.pm" comes with a collection of example YAML files. Note that
1079 these are really just examples and should not be used without care
1080 because they cannot fit everybody's purpose. After all, the authors of
1081 the packages that ask questions had a need to ask, so you should watch
1082 their questions and adjust the examples to your environment and your
1083 needs. You have been warned:-)
1084
1086 If you do not enter the shell, shell commands are available both as
1087 methods ("CPAN::Shell->install(...)") and as functions in the calling
1088 package ("install(...)"). Before calling low-level commands, it makes
1089 sense to initialize components of CPAN you need, e.g.:
1090 CPAN::HandleConfig->load;
1092 CPAN::Shell::setup_output;
1093 CPAN::Index->reload;
1094 High-level commands do such initializations automatically.
1096 There's currently only one class that has a stable interface -
1098 CPAN::Shell. All commands that are available in the CPAN shell are
1099 methods of the class CPAN::Shell. Each of the commands that produce
1100 listings of modules ("r", "autobundle", "u") also return a list of the
1101 IDs of all modules within the list.
1102 expand($type,@things)
1104 The IDs of all objects available within a program are strings that
1105 can be expanded to the corresponding real objects with the
1106 "CPAN::Shell->expand("Module",@things)" method. Expand returns a list
1107 of CPAN::Module objects according to the @things arguments given. In
1108 scalar context, it returns only the first element of the list.
1109 expandany(@things)
1111 Like expand, but returns objects of the appropriate type, i.e.
1112 CPAN::Bundle objects for bundles, CPAN::Module objects for modules,
1113 and CPAN::Distribution objects for distributions. Note: it does not
1114 expand to CPAN::Author objects.
1115 Programming Examples
1117 This enables the programmer to do operations that combine
1118 functionalities that are available in the shell.
1119 # install everything that is outdated on my disk:
1121 perl -MCPAN -e 'CPAN::Shell->install(CPAN::Shell->r)'
1122 # install my favorite programs if necessary:
1124 for $mod (qw(Net::FTP Digest::SHA Data::Dumper)) {
1125 CPAN::Shell->install($mod);
1126 }
1127 # list all modules on my disk that have no VERSION number
1129 for $mod (CPAN::Shell->expand("Module","/./")) {
1130 next unless $mod->inst_file;
1131 # MakeMaker convention for undefined $VERSION:
1132 next unless $mod->inst_version eq "undef";
1133 print "No VERSION in ", $mod->id, "\n";
1134 }
1135 # find out which distribution on CPAN contains a module:
1137 print CPAN::Shell->expand("Module","Apache::Constants")->cpan_file
1138 Or if you want to schedule a cron job to watch CPAN, you could list
1140 all modules that need updating. First a quick and dirty way:
1141 perl -e 'use CPAN; CPAN::Shell->r;'
1143 If you don't want any output should all modules be up to date, parse
1145 the output of above command for the regular expression "/modules are
1146 up to date/" and decide to mail the output only if it doesn't match.
1147 If you prefer to do it more in a programmerish style in one single
1149 process, something like this may better suit you:
1150 # list all modules on my disk that have newer versions on CPAN
1152 for $mod (CPAN::Shell->expand("Module","/./")) {
1153 next unless $mod->inst_file;
1154 next if $mod->uptodate;
1155 printf "Module %s is installed as %s, could be updated to %s from CPAN\n",
1156 $mod->id, $mod->inst_version, $mod->cpan_version;
1157 }
1158 If that gives too much output every day, you may want to watch only
1160 for three modules. You can write
1161 for $mod (CPAN::Shell->expand("Module","/Apache|LWP|CGI/")) {
1163 as the first line instead. Or you can combine some of the above
1165 tricks:
1166 # watch only for a new mod_perl module
1168 $mod = CPAN::Shell->expand("Module","mod_perl");
1169 exit if $mod->uptodate;
1170 # new mod_perl arrived, let me know all update recommendations
1171 CPAN::Shell->r;
1172 Methods in the other Classes
1174 CPAN::Author::as_glimpse()
1175 Returns a one-line description of the author
1176 CPAN::Author::as_string()
1178 Returns a multi-line description of the author
1179 CPAN::Author::email()
1181 Returns the author's email address
1182 CPAN::Author::fullname()
1184 Returns the author's name
1185 CPAN::Author::name()
1187 An alias for fullname
1188 CPAN::Bundle::as_glimpse()
1190 Returns a one-line description of the bundle
1191 CPAN::Bundle::as_string()
1193 Returns a multi-line description of the bundle
1194 CPAN::Bundle::clean()
1196 Recursively runs the "clean" method on all items contained in the
1197 bundle.
1198 CPAN::Bundle::contains()
1200 Returns a list of objects' IDs contained in a bundle. The
1201 associated objects may be bundles, modules or distributions.
1202 CPAN::Bundle::force($method,@args)
1204 Forces CPAN to perform a task that it normally would have refused
1205 to do. Force takes as arguments a method name to be called and any
1206 number of additional arguments that should be passed to the called
1207 method. The internals of the object get the needed changes so that
1208 CPAN.pm does not refuse to take the action. The "force" is passed
1209 recursively to all contained objects. See also the section above on
1210 the "force" and the "fforce" pragma.
1211 CPAN::Bundle::get()
1213 Recursively runs the "get" method on all items contained in the
1214 bundle
1215 CPAN::Bundle::inst_file()
1217 Returns the highest installed version of the bundle in either @INC
1218 or "$CPAN::Config->{cpan_home}". Note that this is different from
1219 CPAN::Module::inst_file.
1220 CPAN::Bundle::inst_version()
1222 Like CPAN::Bundle::inst_file, but returns the $VERSION
1223 CPAN::Bundle::uptodate()
1225 Returns 1 if the bundle itself and all its members are uptodate.
1226 CPAN::Bundle::install()
1228 Recursively runs the "install" method on all items contained in the
1229 bundle
1230 CPAN::Bundle::make()
1232 Recursively runs the "make" method on all items contained in the
1233 bundle
1234 CPAN::Bundle::readme()
1236 Recursively runs the "readme" method on all items contained in the
1237 bundle
1238 CPAN::Bundle::test()
1240 Recursively runs the "test" method on all items contained in the
1241 bundle
1242 CPAN::Distribution::as_glimpse()
1244 Returns a one-line description of the distribution
1245 CPAN::Distribution::as_string()
1247 Returns a multi-line description of the distribution
1248 CPAN::Distribution::author
1250 Returns the CPAN::Author object of the maintainer who uploaded this
1251 distribution
1252 CPAN::Distribution::pretty_id()
1254 Returns a string of the form "AUTHORID/TARBALL", where AUTHORID is
1255 the author's PAUSE ID and TARBALL is the distribution filename.
1256 CPAN::Distribution::base_id()
1258 Returns the distribution filename without any archive suffix. E.g
1259 "Foo-Bar-0.01"
1260 CPAN::Distribution::clean()
1262 Changes to the directory where the distribution has been unpacked
1263 and runs "make clean" there.
1264 CPAN::Distribution::containsmods()
1266 Returns a list of IDs of modules contained in a distribution file.
1267 Works only for distributions listed in the
1268 02packages.details.txt.gz file. This typically means that just most
1269 recent version of a distribution is covered.
1270 CPAN::Distribution::cvs_import()
1272 Changes to the directory where the distribution has been unpacked
1273 and runs something like
1274 cvs -d $cvs_root import -m $cvs_log $cvs_dir $userid v$version
1276 there.
1278 CPAN::Distribution::dir()
1280 Returns the directory into which this distribution has been
1281 unpacked.
1282 CPAN::Distribution::force($method,@args)
1284 Forces CPAN to perform a task that it normally would have refused
1285 to do. Force takes as arguments a method name to be called and any
1286 number of additional arguments that should be passed to the called
1287 method. The internals of the object get the needed changes so that
1288 CPAN.pm does not refuse to take the action. See also the section
1289 above on the "force" and the "fforce" pragma.
1290 CPAN::Distribution::get()
1292 Downloads the distribution from CPAN and unpacks it. Does nothing
1293 if the distribution has already been downloaded and unpacked within
1294 the current session.
1295 CPAN::Distribution::install()
1297 Changes to the directory where the distribution has been unpacked
1298 and runs the external command "make install" there. If "make" has
1299 not yet been run, it will be run first. A "make test" is issued in
1300 any case and if this fails, the install is cancelled. The
1301 cancellation can be avoided by letting "force" run the "install"
1302 for you.
1303 This install method only has the power to install the distribution
1305 if there are no dependencies in the way. To install an object along
1306 with all its dependencies, use CPAN::Shell->install.
1307 Note that install() gives no meaningful return value. See
1309 uptodate().
1310 CPAN::Distribution::install_tested()
1312 Install all distributions that have tested sucessfully but not yet
1313 installed. See also "is_tested".
1314 CPAN::Distribution::isa_perl()
1316 Returns 1 if this distribution file seems to be a perl
1317 distribution. Normally this is derived from the file name only,
1318 but the index from CPAN can contain a hint to achieve a return
1319 value of true for other filenames too.
1320 CPAN::Distribution::look()
1322 Changes to the directory where the distribution has been unpacked
1323 and opens a subshell there. Exiting the subshell returns.
1324 CPAN::Distribution::make()
1326 First runs the "get" method to make sure the distribution is
1327 downloaded and unpacked. Changes to the directory where the
1328 distribution has been unpacked and runs the external commands "perl
1329 Makefile.PL" or "perl Build.PL" and "make" there.
1330 CPAN::Distribution::perldoc()
1332 Downloads the pod documentation of the file associated with a
1333 distribution (in HTML format) and runs it through the external
1334 command lynx specified in "$CPAN::Config->{lynx}". If lynx isn't
1335 available, it converts it to plain text with the external command
1336 html2text and runs it through the pager specified in
1337 "$CPAN::Config->{pager}".
1338 CPAN::Distribution::prefs()
1340 Returns the hash reference from the first matching YAML file that
1341 the user has deposited in the "prefs_dir/" directory. The first
1342 succeeding match wins. The files in the "prefs_dir/" are processed
1343 alphabetically, and the canonical distroname (e.g.
1344 AUTHOR/Foo-Bar-3.14.tar.gz) is matched against the regular
1345 expressions stored in the $root->{match}{distribution} attribute
1346 value. Additionally all module names contained in a distribution
1347 are matched against the regular expressions in the
1348 $root->{match}{module} attribute value. The two match values are
1349 ANDed together. Each of the two attributes are optional.
1350 CPAN::Distribution::prereq_pm()
1352 Returns the hash reference that has been announced by a
1353 distribution as the "requires" and "build_requires" elements. These
1354 can be declared either by the "META.yml" (if authoritative) or can
1355 be deposited after the run of "Build.PL" in the file
1356 "./_build/prereqs" or after the run of "Makfile.PL" written as the
1357 "PREREQ_PM" hash in a comment in the produced "Makefile". Note:
1358 this method only works after an attempt has been made to "make" the
1359 distribution. Returns undef otherwise.
1360 CPAN::Distribution::readme()
1362 Downloads the README file associated with a distribution and runs
1363 it through the pager specified in "$CPAN::Config->{pager}".
1364 CPAN::Distribution::reports()
1366 Downloads report data for this distribution from
1367 www.cpantesters.org and displays a subset of them.
1368 CPAN::Distribution::read_yaml()
1370 Returns the content of the META.yml of this distro as a hashref.
1371 Note: works only after an attempt has been made to "make" the
1372 distribution. Returns undef otherwise. Also returns undef if the
1373 content of META.yml is not authoritative. (The rules about what
1374 exactly makes the content authoritative are still in flux.)
1375 CPAN::Distribution::test()
1377 Changes to the directory where the distribution has been unpacked
1378 and runs "make test" there.
1379 CPAN::Distribution::uptodate()
1381 Returns 1 if all the modules contained in the distribution are
1382 uptodate. Relies on containsmods.
1383 CPAN::Index::force_reload()
1385 Forces a reload of all indices.
1386 CPAN::Index::reload()
1388 Reloads all indices if they have not been read for more than
1389 "$CPAN::Config->{index_expire}" days.
1390 CPAN::InfoObj::dump()
1392 CPAN::Author, CPAN::Bundle, CPAN::Module, and CPAN::Distribution
1393 inherit this method. It prints the data structure associated with
1394 an object. Useful for debugging. Note: the data structure is
1395 considered internal and thus subject to change without notice.
1396 CPAN::Module::as_glimpse()
1398 Returns a one-line description of the module in four columns: The
1399 first column contains the word "Module", the second column consists
1400 of one character: an equals sign if this module is already
1401 installed and uptodate, a less-than sign if this module is
1402 installed but can be upgraded, and a space if the module is not
1403 installed. The third column is the name of the module and the
1404 fourth column gives maintainer or distribution information.
1405 CPAN::Module::as_string()
1407 Returns a multi-line description of the module
1408 CPAN::Module::clean()
1410 Runs a clean on the distribution associated with this module.
1411 CPAN::Module::cpan_file()
1413 Returns the filename on CPAN that is associated with the module.
1414 CPAN::Module::cpan_version()
1416 Returns the latest version of this module available on CPAN.
1417 CPAN::Module::cvs_import()
1419 Runs a cvs_import on the distribution associated with this module.
1420 CPAN::Module::description()
1422 Returns a 44 character description of this module. Only available
1423 for modules listed in The Module List
1424 (CPAN/modules/00modlist.long.html or 00modlist.long.txt.gz)
1425 CPAN::Module::distribution()
1427 Returns the CPAN::Distribution object that contains the current
1428 version of this module.
1429 CPAN::Module::dslip_status()
1431 Returns a hash reference. The keys of the hash are the letters "D",
1432 "S", "L", "I", and <P>, for development status, support level,
1433 language, interface and public licence respectively. The data for
1434 the DSLIP status are collected by pause.perl.org when authors
1435 register their namespaces. The values of the 5 hash elements are
1436 one-character words whose meaning is described in the table below.
1437 There are also 5 hash elements "DV", "SV", "LV", "IV", and <PV>
1438 that carry a more verbose value of the 5 status variables.
1439 Where the 'DSLIP' characters have the following meanings:
1441 D - Development Stage (Note: *NO IMPLIED TIMESCALES*):
1443 i - Idea, listed to gain consensus or as a placeholder
1444 c - under construction but pre-alpha (not yet released)
1445 a/b - Alpha/Beta testing
1446 R - Released
1447 M - Mature (no rigorous definition)
1448 S - Standard, supplied with Perl 5
1449 S - Support Level:
1451 m - Mailing-list
1452 d - Developer
1453 u - Usenet newsgroup comp.lang.perl.modules
1454 n - None known, try comp.lang.perl.modules
1455 a - abandoned; volunteers welcome to take over maintainance
1456 L - Language Used:
1458 p - Perl-only, no compiler needed, should be platform independent
1459 c - C and perl, a C compiler will be needed
1460 h - Hybrid, written in perl with optional C code, no compiler needed
1461 + - C++ and perl, a C++ compiler will be needed
1462 o - perl and another language other than C or C++
1463 I - Interface Style
1465 f - plain Functions, no references used
1466 h - hybrid, object and function interfaces available
1467 n - no interface at all (huh?)
1468 r - some use of unblessed References or ties
1469 O - Object oriented using blessed references and/or inheritance
1470 P - Public License
1472 p - Standard-Perl: user may choose between GPL and Artistic
1473 g - GPL: GNU General Public License
1474 l - LGPL: "GNU Lesser General Public License" (previously known as
1475 "GNU Library General Public License")
1476 b - BSD: The BSD License
1477 a - Artistic license alone
1478 2 - Artistic license 2.0 or later
1479 o - open source: appoved by www.opensource.org
1480 d - allows distribution without restrictions
1481 r - restricted distribtion
1482 n - no license at all
1483 CPAN::Module::force($method,@args)
1485 Forces CPAN to perform a task it would normally refuse to do. Force
1486 takes as arguments a method name to be invoked and any number of
1487 additional arguments to pass that method. The internals of the
1488 object get the needed changes so that CPAN.pm does not refuse to
1489 take the action. See also the section above on the "force" and the
1490 "fforce" pragma.
1491 CPAN::Module::get()
1493 Runs a get on the distribution associated with this module.
1494 CPAN::Module::inst_file()
1496 Returns the filename of the module found in @INC. The first file
1497 found is reported, just as perl itself stops searching @INC once it
1498 finds a module.
1499 CPAN::Module::available_file()
1501 Returns the filename of the module found in PERL5LIB or @INC. The
1502 first file found is reported. The advantage of this method over
1503 "inst_file" is that modules that have been tested but not yet
1504 installed are included because PERL5LIB keeps track of tested
1505 modules.
1506 CPAN::Module::inst_version()
1508 Returns the version number of the installed module in readable
1509 format.
1510 CPAN::Module::available_version()
1512 Returns the version number of the available module in readable
1513 format.
1514 CPAN::Module::install()
1516 Runs an "install" on the distribution associated with this module.
1517 CPAN::Module::look()
1519 Changes to the directory where the distribution associated with
1520 this module has been unpacked and opens a subshell there. Exiting
1521 the subshell returns.
1522 CPAN::Module::make()
1524 Runs a "make" on the distribution associated with this module.
1525 CPAN::Module::manpage_headline()
1527 If module is installed, peeks into the module's manpage, reads the
1528 headline, and returns it. Moreover, if the module has been
1529 downloaded within this session, does the equivalent on the
1530 downloaded module even if it hasn't been installed yet.
1531 CPAN::Module::perldoc()
1533 Runs a "perldoc" on this module.
1534 CPAN::Module::readme()
1536 Runs a "readme" on the distribution associated with this module.
1537 CPAN::Module::reports()
1539 Calls the reports() method on the associated distribution object.
1540 CPAN::Module::test()
1542 Runs a "test" on the distribution associated with this module.
1543 CPAN::Module::uptodate()
1545 Returns 1 if the module is installed and up-to-date.
1546 CPAN::Module::userid()
1548 Returns the author's ID of the module.
1549 Cache Manager
1551 Currently the cache manager only keeps track of the build directory
1552 ($CPAN::Config->{build_dir}). It is a simple FIFO mechanism that
1553 deletes complete directories below "build_dir" as soon as the size of
1554 all directories there gets bigger than $CPAN::Config->{build_cache} (in
1555 MB). The contents of this cache may be used for later re-installations
1556 that you intend to do manually, but will never be trusted by CPAN
1557 itself. This is due to the fact that the user might use these
1558 directories for building modules on different architectures.
1559 There is another directory ($CPAN::Config->{keep_source_where}) where
1561 the original distribution files are kept. This directory is not covered
1562 by the cache manager and must be controlled by the user. If you choose
1563 to have the same directory as build_dir and as keep_source_where
1564 directory, then your sources will be deleted with the same fifo
1565 mechanism.
1566 Bundles
1568 A bundle is just a perl module in the namespace Bundle:: that does not
1569 define any functions or methods. It usually only contains
1570 documentation.
1571 It starts like a perl module with a package declaration and a $VERSION
1573 variable. After that the pod section looks like any other pod with the
1574 only difference being that one special pod section exists starting with
1575 (verbatim):
1576 =head1 CONTENTS
1578 In this pod section each line obeys the format
1580 Module_Name [Version_String] [- optional text]
1582 The only required part is the first field, the name of a module (e.g.
1584 Foo::Bar, ie. not the name of the distribution file). The rest of the
1585 line is optional. The comment part is delimited by a dash just as in
1586 the man page header.
1587 The distribution of a bundle should follow the same convention as other
1589 distributions.
1590 Bundles are treated specially in the CPAN package. If you say 'install
1592 Bundle::Tkkit' (assuming such a bundle exists), CPAN will install all
1593 the modules in the CONTENTS section of the pod. You can install your
1594 own Bundles locally by placing a conformant Bundle file somewhere into
1595 your @INC path. The autobundle() command which is available in the
1596 shell interface does that for you by including all currently installed
1597 modules in a snapshot bundle file.
1598
1600 The CPAN program is trying to depend on as little as possible so the
1601 user can use it in hostile enviroment. It works better the more goodies
1602 the environment provides. For example if you try in the CPAN shell
1603 install Bundle::CPAN
1605 or
1607 install Bundle::CPANxxl
1609 you will find the shell more convenient than the bare shell before.
1611 If you have a local mirror of CPAN and can access all files with
1613 "file:" URLs, then you only need a perl later than perl5.003 to run
1614 this module. Otherwise Net::FTP is strongly recommended. LWP may be
1615 required for non-UNIX systems, or if your nearest CPAN site is
1616 associated with a URL that is not "ftp:".
1617 If you have neither Net::FTP nor LWP, there is a fallback mechanism
1619 implemented for an external ftp command or for an external lynx
1620 command.
1621
1623 Finding packages and VERSION
1624 This module presumes that all packages on CPAN
1625 · declare their $VERSION variable in an easy to parse manner. This
1627 prerequisite can hardly be relaxed because it consumes far too much
1628 memory to load all packages into the running program just to
1629 determine the $VERSION variable. Currently all programs that are
1630 dealing with version use something like this
1631 perl -MExtUtils::MakeMaker -le \
1633 'print MM->parse_version(shift)' filename
1634 If you are author of a package and wonder if your $VERSION can be
1636 parsed, please try the above method.
1637 · come as compressed or gzipped tarfiles or as zip files and contain a
1639 "Makefile.PL" or "Build.PL" (well, we try to handle a bit more, but
1640 with little enthusiasm).
1641 Debugging
1643 Debugging this module is more than a bit complex due to interference
1644 from the software producing the indices on CPAN, the mirroring process
1645 on CPAN, packaging, configuration, synchronicity, and even (gasp!) due
1646 to bugs within the CPAN.pm module itself.
1647 For debugging the code of CPAN.pm itself in interactive mode, some
1649 debugging aid can be turned on for most packages within CPAN.pm with
1650 one of
1651 o debug package...
1653 sets debug mode for packages.
1654 o debug -package...
1656 unsets debug mode for packages.
1657 o debug all
1659 turns debugging on for all packages.
1660 o debug number
1662 which sets the debugging packages directly. Note that "o debug 0" turns
1664 debugging off.
1665 What seems a successful strategy is the combination of "reload cpan"
1667 and the debugging switches. Add a new debug statement while running in
1668 the shell and then issue a "reload cpan" and see the new debugging
1669 messages immediately without losing the current context.
1670 "o debug" without an argument lists the valid package names and the
1672 current set of packages in debugging mode. "o debug" has built-in
1673 completion support.
1674 For debugging of CPAN data there is the "dump" command which takes the
1676 same arguments as make/test/install and outputs each object's
1677 Data::Dumper dump. If an argument looks like a perl variable and
1678 contains one of "$", "@" or "%", it is eval()ed and fed to Data::Dumper
1679 directly.
1680 Floppy, Zip, Offline Mode
1682 CPAN.pm works nicely without network access, too. If you maintain
1683 machines that are not networked at all, you should consider working
1684 with "file:" URLs. You'll have to collect your modules somewhere first.
1685 So you might use CPAN.pm to put together all you need on a networked
1686 machine. Then copy the $CPAN::Config->{keep_source_where} (but not
1687 $CPAN::Config->{build_dir}) directory on a floppy. This floppy is kind
1688 of a personal CPAN. CPAN.pm on the non-networked machines works nicely
1689 with this floppy. See also below the paragraph about CD-ROM support.
1690 Basic Utilities for Programmers
1692 has_inst($module)
1693 Returns true if the module is installed. Used to load all modules
1694 into the running CPAN.pm that are considered optional. The config
1695 variable "dontload_list" intercepts the "has_inst()" call such that
1696 an optional module is not loaded despite being available. For
1697 example, the following command will prevent "YAML.pm" from being
1698 loaded:
1699 cpan> o conf dontload_list push YAML
1701 See the source for details.
1703 has_usable($module)
1705 Returns true if the module is installed and in a usable state. Only
1706 useful for a handful of modules that are used internally. See the
1707 source for details.
1708 instance($module)
1710 The constructor for all the singletons used to represent modules,
1711 distributions, authors, and bundles. If the object already exists,
1712 this method returns the object; otherwise, it calls the constructor.
1713
1715 There's no strong security layer in CPAN.pm. CPAN.pm helps you to
1716 install foreign, unmasked, unsigned code on your machine. We compare to
1717 a checksum that comes from the net just as the distribution file
1718 itself. But we try to make it easy to add security on demand:
1719 Cryptographically signed modules
1721 Since release 1.77, CPAN.pm has been able to verify cryptographically
1722 signed module distributions using Module::Signature. The CPAN modules
1723 can be signed by their authors, thus giving more security. The simple
1724 unsigned MD5 checksums that were used before by CPAN protect mainly
1725 against accidental file corruption.
1726 You will need to have Module::Signature installed, which in turn
1728 requires that you have at least one of Crypt::OpenPGP module or the
1729 command-line gpg tool installed.
1730 You will also need to be able to connect over the Internet to the
1732 public keyservers, like pgp.mit.edu, and their port 11731 (the HKP
1733 protocol).
1734 The configuration parameter check_sigs is there to turn signature
1736 checking on or off.
1737
1739 Most functions in package CPAN are exported by default. The reason for
1740 this is that the primary use is intended for the cpan shell or for one-
1741 liners.
1742
1744 When the CPAN shell enters a subshell via the look command, it sets the
1745 environment CPAN_SHELL_LEVEL to 1, or increments that variable if it is
1746 already set.
1747 When CPAN runs, it sets the environment variable PERL5_CPAN_IS_RUNNING
1749 to the ID of the running process. It also sets
1750 PERL5_CPANPLUS_IS_RUNNING to prevent runaway processes which could
1751 happen with older versions of Module::Install.
1752 When running "perl Makefile.PL", the environment variable
1754 "PERL5_CPAN_IS_EXECUTING" is set to the full path of the "Makefile.PL"
1755 that is being executed. This prevents runaway processes with newer
1756 versions of Module::Install.
1757 When the config variable ftp_passive is set, all downloads will be run
1759 with the environment variable FTP_PASSIVE set to this value. This is in
1760 general a good idea as it influences both Net::FTP and LWP based
1761 connections. The same effect can be achieved by starting the cpan shell
1762 with this environment variable set. For Net::FTP alone, one can also
1763 always set passive mode by running libnetcfg.
1764
1766 Populating a freshly installed perl with one's favorite modules is
1767 pretty easy if you maintain a private bundle definition file. To get a
1768 useful blueprint of a bundle definition file, the command autobundle
1769 can be used on the CPAN shell command line. This command writes a
1770 bundle definition file for all modules installed for the current perl
1771 interpreter. It's recommended to run this command once only, and from
1772 then on maintain the file manually under a private name, say
1773 Bundle/my_bundle.pm. With a clever bundle file you can then simply say
1774 cpan> install Bundle::my_bundle
1776 then answer a few questions and go out for coffee (possibly even in a
1778 different city).
1779 Maintaining a bundle definition file means keeping track of two things:
1781 dependencies and interactivity. CPAN.pm sometimes fails on calculating
1782 dependencies because not all modules define all MakeMaker attributes
1783 correctly, so a bundle definition file should specify prerequisites as
1784 early as possible. On the other hand, it's annoying that so many
1785 distributions need some interactive configuring. So what you can try to
1786 accomplish in your private bundle file is to have the packages that
1787 need to be configured early in the file and the gentle ones later, so
1788 you can go out for cofeee after a few minutes and leave CPAN.pm to
1789 churn away untended.
1790
1792 Thanks to Graham Barr for contributing the following paragraphs about
1793 the interaction between perl, and various firewall configurations. For
1794 further information on firewalls, it is recommended to consult the
1795 documentation that comes with the ncftp program. If you are unable to
1796 go through the firewall with a simple Perl setup, it is likely that you
1797 can configure ncftp so that it works through your firewall.
1798 Three basic types of firewalls
1800 Firewalls can be categorized into three basic types.
1801 http firewall
1803 This is when the firewall machine runs a web server, and to access
1804 the outside world, you must do so via that web server. If you set
1805 environment variables like http_proxy or ftp_proxy to values
1806 beginning with http://, or in your web browser you've proxy
1807 information set, then you know you are running behind an http
1808 firewall.
1809 To access servers outside these types of firewalls with perl (even
1811 for ftp), you need LWP.
1812 ftp firewall
1814 This where the firewall machine runs an ftp server. This kind of
1815 firewall will only let you access ftp servers outside the firewall.
1816 This is usually done by connecting to the firewall with ftp, then
1817 entering a username like "user@outside.host.com".
1818 To access servers outside these type of firewalls with perl, you
1820 need Net::FTP.
1821 One-way visibility
1823 One-way visibility means these firewalls try to make themselves
1824 invisible to users inside the firewall. An FTP data connection is
1825 normally created by sending your IP address to the remote server
1826 and then listening for the return connection. But the remote server
1827 will not be able to connect to you because of the firewall. For
1828 these types of firewall, FTP connections need to be done in a
1829 passive mode.
1830 There are two that I can think off.
1832 SOCKS
1834 If you are using a SOCKS firewall, you will need to compile
1835 perl and link it with the SOCKS library. This is what is
1836 normally called a 'socksified' perl. With this executable you
1837 will be able to connect to servers outside the firewall as if
1838 it were not there.
1839 IP Masquerade
1841 This is when the firewall implemented in the kernel (via NAT,
1842 or networking address translation), it allows you to hide a
1843 complete network behind one IP address. With this firewall no
1844 special compiling is needed as you can access hosts directly.
1845 For accessing ftp servers behind such firewalls you usually
1847 need to set the environment variable "FTP_PASSIVE" or the
1848 config variable ftp_passive to a true value.
1849 Configuring lynx or ncftp for going through a firewall
1851 If you can go through your firewall with e.g. lynx, presumably with a
1852 command such as
1853 /usr/local/bin/lynx -pscott:tiger
1855 then you would configure CPAN.pm with the command
1857 o conf lynx "/usr/local/bin/lynx -pscott:tiger"
1859 That's all. Similarly for ncftp or ftp, you would configure something
1861 like
1862 o conf ncftp "/usr/bin/ncftp -f /home/scott/ncftplogin.cfg"
1864 Your mileage may vary...
1866
1868 1) I installed a new version of module X but CPAN keeps saying, I have
1869 the old version installed
1870 Probably you do have the old version installed. This can happen if
1872 a module installs itself into a different directory in the @INC
1873 path than it was previously installed. This is not really a CPAN.pm
1874 problem, you would have the same problem when installing the module
1875 manually. The easiest way to prevent this behaviour is to add the
1876 argument "UNINST=1" to the "make install" call, and that is why
1877 many people add this argument permanently by configuring
1878 o conf make_install_arg UNINST=1
1880 2) So why is UNINST=1 not the default?
1882 Because there are people who have their precise expectations about
1884 who may install where in the @INC path and who uses which @INC
1885 array. In fine tuned environments "UNINST=1" can cause damage.
1886 3) I want to clean up my mess, and install a new perl along with all
1888 modules I have. How do I go about it?
1889 Run the autobundle command for your old perl and optionally rename
1891 the resulting bundle file (e.g. Bundle/mybundle.pm), install the
1892 new perl with the Configure option prefix, e.g.
1893 ./Configure -Dprefix=/usr/local/perl-5.6.78.9
1895 Install the bundle file you produced in the first step with
1897 something like
1898 cpan> install Bundle::mybundle
1900 and you're done.
1902 4) When I install bundles or multiple modules with one command there
1904 is too much output to keep track of.
1905 You may want to configure something like
1907 o conf make_arg "| tee -ai /root/.cpan/logs/make.out"
1909 o conf make_install_arg "| tee -ai /root/.cpan/logs/make_install.out"
1910 so that STDOUT is captured in a file for later inspection.
1912 5) I am not root, how can I install a module in a personal directory?
1914 First of all, you will want to use your own configuration, not the
1916 one that your root user installed. If you do not have permission to
1917 write in the cpan directory that root has configured, you will be
1918 asked if you want to create your own config. Answering "yes" will
1919 bring you into CPAN's configuration stage, using the system config
1920 for all defaults except things that have to do with CPAN's work
1921 directory, saving your choices to your MyConfig.pm file.
1922 You can also manually initiate this process with the following
1924 command:
1925 % perl -MCPAN -e 'mkmyconfig'
1927 or by running
1929 mkmyconfig
1931 from the CPAN shell.
1933 You will most probably also want to configure something like this:
1935 o conf makepl_arg "LIB=~/myperl/lib \
1937 INSTALLMAN1DIR=~/myperl/man/man1 \
1938 INSTALLMAN3DIR=~/myperl/man/man3 \
1939 INSTALLSCRIPT=~/myperl/bin \
1940 INSTALLBIN=~/myperl/bin"
1941 and then the equivalent command for Module::Build, which is
1943 o conf mbuildpl_arg "--lib=~/myperl/lib \
1945 --installman1dir=~/myperl/man/man1 \
1946 --installman3dir=~/myperl/man/man3 \
1947 --installscript=~/myperl/bin \
1948 --installbin=~/myperl/bin"
1949 You can make this setting permanent like all "o conf" settings with
1951 "o conf commit" or by setting "auto_commit" beforehand.
1952 You will have to add ~/myperl/man to the MANPATH environment
1954 variable and also tell your perl programs to look into
1955 ~/myperl/lib, e.g. by including
1956 use lib "$ENV{HOME}/myperl/lib";
1958 or setting the PERL5LIB environment variable.
1960 While we're speaking about $ENV{HOME}, it might be worth
1962 mentioning, that for Windows we use the File::HomeDir module that
1963 provides an equivalent to the concept of the home directory on
1964 Unix.
1965 Another thing you should bear in mind is that the UNINST parameter
1967 can be dangerous when you are installing into a private area
1968 because you might accidentally remove modules that other people
1969 depend on that are not using the private area.
1970 6) How to get a package, unwrap it, and make a change before building
1972 it?
1973 Have a look at the "look" (!) command.
1975 7) I installed a Bundle and had a couple of fails. When I retried,
1977 everything resolved nicely. Can this be fixed to work on first try?
1978 The reason for this is that CPAN does not know the dependencies of
1980 all modules when it starts out. To decide about the additional
1981 items to install, it just uses data found in the META.yml file or
1982 the generated Makefile. An undetected missing piece breaks the
1983 process. But it may well be that your Bundle installs some
1984 prerequisite later than some depending item and thus your second
1985 try is able to resolve everything. Please note, CPAN.pm does not
1986 know the dependency tree in advance and cannot sort the queue of
1987 things to install in a topologically correct order. It resolves
1988 perfectly well if all modules declare the prerequisites correctly
1989 with the PREREQ_PM attribute to MakeMaker or the "requires" stanza
1990 of Module::Build. For bundles which fail and you need to install
1991 often, it is recommended to sort the Bundle definition file
1992 manually.
1993 8) In our intranet, we have many modules for internal use. How can I
1995 integrate these modules with CPAN.pm but without uploading the
1996 modules to CPAN?
1997 Have a look at the CPAN::Site module.
1999 9) When I run CPAN's shell, I get an error message about things in my
2001 "/etc/inputrc" (or "~/.inputrc") file.
2002 These are readline issues and can only be fixed by studying
2004 readline configuration on your architecture and adjusting the
2005 referenced file accordingly. Please make a backup of the
2006 "/etc/inputrc" or "~/.inputrc" and edit them. Quite often harmless
2007 changes like uppercasing or lowercasing some arguments solves the
2008 problem.
2009 10) Some authors have strange characters in their names.
2011 Internally CPAN.pm uses the UTF-8 charset. If your terminal is
2013 expecting ISO-8859-1 charset, a converter can be activated by
2014 setting term_is_latin to a true value in your config file. One way
2015 of doing so would be
2016 cpan> o conf term_is_latin 1
2018 If other charset support is needed, please file a bugreport against
2020 CPAN.pm at rt.cpan.org and describe your needs. Maybe we can extend
2021 the support or maybe UTF-8 terminals become widely available.
2022 Note: this config variable is deprecated and will be removed in a
2024 future version of CPAN.pm. It will be replaced with the conventions
2025 around the family of $LANG and $LC_* environment variables.
2026 11) When an install fails for some reason and then I correct the error
2028 condition and retry, CPAN.pm refuses to install the module, saying
2029 "Already tried without success".
2030 Use the force pragma like so
2032 force install Foo::Bar
2034 Or you can use
2036 look Foo::Bar
2038 and then "make install" directly in the subshell.
2040 12) How do I install a "DEVELOPER RELEASE" of a module?
2042 By default, CPAN will install the latest non-developer release of a
2044 module. If you want to install a dev release, you have to specify
2045 the partial path starting with the author id to the tarball you
2046 wish to install, like so:
2047 cpan> install KWILLIAMS/Module-Build-0.27_07.tar.gz
2049 Note that you can use the "ls" command to get this path listed.
2051 13) How do I install a module and all its dependencies from the
2053 commandline, without being prompted for anything, despite my CPAN
2054 configuration (or lack thereof)?
2055 CPAN uses ExtUtils::MakeMaker's prompt() function to ask its
2057 questions, so if you set the PERL_MM_USE_DEFAULT environment
2058 variable, you shouldn't be asked any questions at all (assuming the
2059 modules you are installing are nice about obeying that variable as
2060 well):
2061 % PERL_MM_USE_DEFAULT=1 perl -MCPAN -e 'install My::Module'
2063 14) How do I create a Module::Build based Build.PL derived from an
2065 ExtUtils::MakeMaker focused Makefile.PL?
2066 http://search.cpan.org/dist/Module-Build-Convert/
2068 15) I'm frequently irritated with the CPAN shell's inability to help me
2070 select a good mirror.
2071 The urllist config parameter is yours. You can add and remove sites
2073 at will. You should find out which sites have the best
2074 uptodateness, bandwidth, reliability, etc. and are topologically
2075 close to you. Some people prefer fast downloads, others
2076 uptodateness, others reliability. You decide which to try in which
2077 order.
2078 Henk P. Penning maintains a site that collects data about CPAN
2080 sites:
2081 http://www.cs.uu.nl/people/henkp/mirmon/cpan.html
2083 Also, feel free to play with experimental features. Run
2085 o conf init randomize_urllist ftpstats_period ftpstats_size
2087 and choose your favorite parameters. After a few downloads running
2089 the "hosts" command will probably assist you in choosing the best
2090 mirror sites.
2091 16) Why do I get asked the same questions every time I start the shell?
2093 You can make your configuration changes permanent by calling the
2095 command "o conf commit". Alternatively set the "auto_commit"
2096 variable to true by running "o conf init auto_commit" and answering
2097 the following question with yes.
2098 17) Older versions of CPAN.pm had the original root directory of all
2100 tarballs in the build directory. Now there are always random
2101 characters appended to these directory names. Why was this done?
2102 The random characters are provided by File::Temp and ensure that
2104 each module's individual build directory is unique. This makes
2105 running CPAN.pm in concurrent processes simultaneously safe.
2106 18) Speaking of the build directory. Do I have to clean it up myself?
2108 You have the choice to set the config variable "scan_cache" to
2110 "never". Then you must clean it up yourself. The other possible
2111 value, "atstart" only cleans up the build directory when you start
2112 the CPAN shell. If you never start up the CPAN shell, you probably
2113 also have to clean up the build directory yourself.
2114
2116 OLD PERL VERSIONS
2117 CPAN.pm is regularly tested to run under 5.004, 5.005, and assorted
2118 newer versions. It is getting more and more difficult to get the
2119 minimal prerequisites working on older perls. It is close to impossible
2120 to get the whole Bundle::CPAN working there. If you're in the position
2121 to have only these old versions, be advised that CPAN is designed to
2122 work fine without the Bundle::CPAN installed.
2123 To get things going, note that GBARR/Scalar-List-Utils-1.18.tar.gz is
2125 compatible with ancient perls and that File::Temp is listed as a
2126 prerequisite but CPAN has reasonable workarounds if it is missing.
2127 CPANPLUS
2129 This module and its competitor, the CPANPLUS module, are both much
2130 cooler than the other. CPAN.pm is older. CPANPLUS was designed to be
2131 more modular, but it was never intended to be compatible with CPAN.pm.
2132
2134 This software enables you to upgrade software on your computer and so
2135 is inherently dangerous because the newly installed software may
2136 contain bugs and may alter the way your computer works or even make it
2137 unusable. Please consider backing up your data before every upgrade.
2138
2140 Please report bugs via <http://rt.cpan.org/>
2141 Before submitting a bug, please make sure that the traditional method
2143 of building a Perl module package from a shell by following the
2144 installation instructions of that package still works in your
2145 environment.
2146
2148 Andreas Koenig "<andk@cpan.org>"
2149
2151 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
2152 under the same terms as Perl itself.
2153 See <http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html>
2155
2157 Kawai,Takanori provides a Japanese translation of a very old version of
2158 this manpage at
2159 <http://homepage3.nifty.com/hippo2000/perltips/CPAN.htm>
2160
2162 Many people enter the CPAN shell by running the cpan utility program
2163 which is installed in the same directory as perl itself. So if you have
2164 this directory in your PATH variable (or some equivalent in your
2165 operating system) then typing "cpan" in a console window will work for
2166 you as well. Above that the utility provides several commandline
2167 shortcuts.
2168perl v5.12.4 2011-06-07 CPAN(3pm)