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 and remember that for the
628 duration of the session
629 colorize_debug Term::ANSIColor attributes for debugging output
630 colorize_output boolean if Term::ANSIColor should colorize output
631 colorize_print Term::ANSIColor attributes for normal output
632 colorize_warn Term::ANSIColor attributes for warnings
633 commandnumber_in_prompt
634 boolean if you want to see current command number
635 commands_quote preferred character to use for quoting external
636 commands when running them. Defaults to double
637 quote on Windows, single tick everywhere else;
638 can be set to space to disable quoting
639 connect_to_internet_ok
640 whether to ask if opening a connection is ok before
641 urllist is specified
642 cpan_home local directory reserved for this package
643 curl path to external prg
644 dontload_hash DEPRECATED
645 dontload_list arrayref: modules in the list will not be
646 loaded by the CPAN::has_inst() routine
647 ftp path to external prg
648 ftp_passive if set, the environment variable FTP_PASSIVE is set
649 for downloads
650 ftp_proxy proxy host for ftp requests
651 ftpstats_period max number of days to keep download statistics
652 ftpstats_size max number of items to keep in the download statistics
653 getcwd see below
654 gpg path to external prg
655 gzip location of external program gzip
656 halt_on_failure stop processing after the first failure of queued
657 items or dependencies
658 histfile file to maintain history between sessions
659 histsize maximum number of lines to keep in histfile
660 http_proxy proxy host for http requests
661 inactivity_timeout breaks interactive Makefile.PLs or Build.PLs
662 after this many seconds inactivity. Set to 0 to
663 disable timeouts.
664 index_expire refetch index files after this many days
665 inhibit_startup_message
666 if true, suppress the startup message
667 keep_source_where directory in which to keep the source (if we do)
668 load_module_verbosity
669 report loading of optional modules used by CPAN.pm
670 lynx path to external prg
671 make location of external make program
672 make_arg arguments that should always be passed to 'make'
673 make_install_make_command
674 the make command for running 'make install', for
675 example 'sudo make'
676 make_install_arg same as make_arg for 'make install'
677 makepl_arg arguments passed to 'perl Makefile.PL'
678 mbuild_arg arguments passed to './Build'
679 mbuild_install_arg arguments passed to './Build install'
680 mbuild_install_build_command
681 command to use instead of './Build' when we are
682 in the install stage, for example 'sudo ./Build'
683 mbuildpl_arg arguments passed to 'perl Build.PL'
684 ncftp path to external prg
685 ncftpget path to external prg
686 no_proxy don't proxy to these hosts/domains (comma separated list)
687 pager location of external program more (or any pager)
688 password your password if you CPAN server wants one
689 patch path to external prg
690 patches_dir local directory containing patch files
691 perl5lib_verbosity verbosity level for PERL5LIB additions
692 plugin_list list of active hooks (see Plugin support above
693 and the CPAN::Plugin module)
694 prefer_external_tar
695 per default all untar operations are done with
696 Archive::Tar; by setting this variable to true
697 the external tar command is used if available
698 prefer_installer legal values are MB and EUMM: if a module comes
699 with both a Makefile.PL and a Build.PL, use the
700 former (EUMM) or the latter (MB); if the module
701 comes with only one of the two, that one will be
702 used no matter the setting
703 prerequisites_policy
704 what to do if you are missing module prerequisites
705 ('follow' automatically, 'ask' me, or 'ignore')
706 For 'follow', also sets PERL_AUTOINSTALL and
707 PERL_EXTUTILS_AUTOINSTALL for "--defaultdeps" if
708 not already set
709 prefs_dir local directory to store per-distro build options
710 proxy_user username for accessing an authenticating proxy
711 proxy_pass password for accessing an authenticating proxy
712 randomize_urllist add some randomness to the sequence of the urllist
713 recommends_policy whether recommended prerequisites should be included
714 scan_cache controls scanning of cache ('atstart', 'atexit' or 'never')
715 shell your favorite shell
716 show_unparsable_versions
717 boolean if r command tells which modules are versionless
718 show_upload_date boolean if commands should try to determine upload date
719 show_zero_versions boolean if r command tells for which modules $version==0
720 suggests_policy whether suggested prerequisites should be included
721 tar location of external program tar
722 tar_verbosity verbosity level for the tar command
723 term_is_latin deprecated: if true Unicode is translated to ISO-8859-1
724 (and nonsense for characters outside latin range)
725 term_ornaments boolean to turn ReadLine ornamenting on/off
726 test_report email test reports (if CPAN::Reporter is installed)
727 trust_test_report_history
728 skip testing when previously tested ok (according to
729 CPAN::Reporter history)
730 unzip location of external program unzip
731 urllist arrayref to nearby CPAN sites (or equivalent locations)
732 use_prompt_default set PERL_MM_USE_DEFAULT for configure/make/test/install
733 use_sqlite use CPAN::SQLite for metadata storage (fast and lean)
734 username your username if you CPAN server wants one
735 version_timeout stops version parsing after this many seconds.
736 Default is 15 secs. Set to 0 to disable.
737 wait_list arrayref to a wait server to try (See CPAN::WAIT)
738 wget path to external prg
739 yaml_load_code enable YAML code deserialisation via CPAN::DeferredCode
740 yaml_module which module to use to read/write YAML files
741 You can set and query each of these options interactively in the cpan
743 shell with the "o conf" or the "o conf init" command as specified
744 below.
745 "o conf <scalar option>"
747 prints the current value of the scalar option
748 "o conf <scalar option> <value>"
750 Sets the value of the scalar option to value
751 "o conf <list option>"
753 prints the current value of the list option in MakeMaker's neatvalue
754 format.
755 "o conf <list option> [shift|pop]"
757 shifts or pops the array in the list option variable
758 "o conf <list option> [unshift|push|splice] <list>"
760 works like the corresponding perl commands.
761 interactive editing: o conf init [MATCH|LIST]
763 Runs an interactive configuration dialog for matching variables.
764 Without argument runs the dialog over all supported config variables.
765 To specify a MATCH the argument must be enclosed by slashes.
766 Examples:
768 o conf init ftp_passive ftp_proxy
770 o conf init /color/
771 Note: this method of setting config variables often provides more
773 explanation about the functioning of a variable than the manpage.
774 CPAN::anycwd($path): Note on config variable getcwd
776 CPAN.pm changes the current working directory often and needs to
777 determine its own current working directory. By default it uses
778 Cwd::cwd, but if for some reason this doesn't work on your system,
779 configure alternatives according to the following table:
780 cwd Calls Cwd::cwd
782 getcwd
784 Calls Cwd::getcwd
785 fastcwd
787 Calls Cwd::fastcwd
788 getdcwd
790 Calls Cwd::getdcwd
791 backtickcwd
793 Calls the external command cwd.
794 Note on the format of the urllist parameter
796 urllist parameters are URLs according to RFC 1738. We do a little
797 guessing if your URL is not compliant, but if you have problems with
798 "file" URLs, please try the correct format. Either:
799 file://localhost/whatever/ftp/pub/CPAN/
801 or
803 file:///home/ftp/pub/CPAN/
805 The urllist parameter has CD-ROM support
807 The "urllist" parameter of the configuration table contains a list of
808 URLs used for downloading. If the list contains any "file" URLs, CPAN
809 always tries there first. This feature is disabled for index files. So
810 the recommendation for the owner of a CD-ROM with CPAN contents is:
811 include your local, possibly outdated CD-ROM as a "file" URL at the end
812 of urllist, e.g.
813 o conf urllist push file://localhost/CDROM/CPAN
815 CPAN.pm will then fetch the index files from one of the CPAN sites that
817 come at the beginning of urllist. It will later check for each module
818 to see whether there is a local copy of the most recent version.
819 Another peculiarity of urllist is that the site that we could
821 successfully fetch the last file from automatically gets a preference
822 token and is tried as the first site for the next request. So if you
823 add a new site at runtime it may happen that the previously preferred
824 site will be tried another time. This means that if you want to
825 disallow a site for the next transfer, it must be explicitly removed
826 from urllist.
827 Maintaining the urllist parameter
829 If you have YAML.pm (or some other YAML module configured in
830 "yaml_module") installed, CPAN.pm collects a few statistical data about
831 recent downloads. You can view the statistics with the "hosts" command
832 or inspect them directly by looking into the "FTPstats.yml" file in
833 your "cpan_home" directory.
834 To get some interesting statistics, it is recommended that
836 "randomize_urllist" be set; this introduces some amount of randomness
837 into the URL selection.
838 The "requires" and "build_requires" dependency declarations
840 Since CPAN.pm version 1.88_51 modules declared as "build_requires" by a
841 distribution are treated differently depending on the config variable
842 "build_requires_install_policy". By setting
843 "build_requires_install_policy" to "no", such a module is not
844 installed. It is only built and tested, and then kept in the list of
845 tested but uninstalled modules. As such, it is available during the
846 build of the dependent module by integrating the path to the
847 "blib/arch" and "blib/lib" directories in the environment variable
848 PERL5LIB. If "build_requires_install_policy" is set to "yes", then both
849 modules declared as "requires" and those declared as "build_requires"
850 are treated alike. By setting to "ask/yes" or "ask/no", CPAN.pm asks
851 the user and sets the default accordingly.
852 Configuration for individual distributions (Distroprefs)
854 (Note: This feature has been introduced in CPAN.pm 1.8854)
855 Distributions on CPAN usually behave according to what we call the CPAN
857 mantra. Or since the advent of Module::Build we should talk about two
858 mantras:
859 perl Makefile.PL perl Build.PL
861 make ./Build
862 make test ./Build test
863 make install ./Build install
864 But some modules cannot be built with this mantra. They try to get some
866 extra data from the user via the environment, extra arguments, or
867 interactively--thus disturbing the installation of large bundles like
868 Phalanx100 or modules with many dependencies like Plagger.
869 The distroprefs system of "CPAN.pm" addresses this problem by allowing
871 the user to specify extra informations and recipes in YAML files to
872 either
873 · pass additional arguments to one of the four commands,
875 · set environment variables
877 · instantiate an Expect object that reads from the console, waits for
879 some regular expressions and enters some answers
880 · temporarily override assorted "CPAN.pm" configuration variables
882 · specify dependencies the original maintainer forgot
884 · disable the installation of an object altogether
886 See the YAML and Data::Dumper files that come with the "CPAN.pm"
888 distribution in the "distroprefs/" directory for examples.
889 Filenames
891 The YAML files themselves must have the ".yml" extension; all other
892 files are ignored (for two exceptions see Fallback Data::Dumper and
893 Storable below). The containing directory can be specified in "CPAN.pm"
894 in the "prefs_dir" config variable. Try "o conf init prefs_dir" in the
895 CPAN shell to set and activate the distroprefs system.
896 Every YAML file may contain arbitrary documents according to the YAML
898 specification, and every document is treated as an entity that can
899 specify the treatment of a single distribution.
900 Filenames can be picked arbitrarily; "CPAN.pm" always reads all files
902 (in alphabetical order) and takes the key "match" (see below in
903 Language Specs) as a hashref containing match criteria that determine
904 if the current distribution matches the YAML document or not.
905 Fallback Data::Dumper and Storable
907 If neither your configured "yaml_module" nor YAML.pm is installed,
908 CPAN.pm falls back to using Data::Dumper and Storable and looks for
909 files with the extensions ".dd" or ".st" in the "prefs_dir" directory.
910 These files are expected to contain one or more hashrefs. For
911 Data::Dumper generated files, this is expected to be done with by
912 defining $VAR1, $VAR2, etc. The YAML shell would produce these with the
913 command
914 ysh < somefile.yml > somefile.dd
916 For Storable files the rule is that they must be constructed such that
918 "Storable::retrieve(file)" returns an array reference and the array
919 elements represent one distropref object each. The conversion from YAML
920 would look like so:
921 perl -MYAML=LoadFile -MStorable=nstore -e '
923 @y=LoadFile(shift);
924 nstore(\@y, shift)' somefile.yml somefile.st
925 In bootstrapping situations it is usually sufficient to translate only
927 a few YAML files to Data::Dumper for crucial modules like "YAML::Syck",
928 "YAML.pm" and "Expect.pm". If you prefer Storable over Data::Dumper,
929 remember to pull out a Storable version that writes an older format
930 than all the other Storable versions that will need to read them.
931 Blueprint
933 The following example contains all supported keywords and structures
934 with the exception of "eexpect" which can be used instead of "expect".
935 ---
937 comment: "Demo"
938 match:
939 module: "Dancing::Queen"
940 distribution: "^CHACHACHA/Dancing-"
941 not_distribution: "\.zip$"
942 perl: "/usr/local/cariba-perl/bin/perl"
943 perlconfig:
944 archname: "freebsd"
945 not_cc: "gcc"
946 env:
947 DANCING_FLOOR: "Shubiduh"
948 disabled: 1
949 cpanconfig:
950 make: gmake
951 pl:
952 args:
953 - "--somearg=specialcase"
954 env: {}
956 expect:
958 - "Which is your favorite fruit"
959 - "apple\n"
960 make:
962 args:
963 - all
964 - extra-all
965 env: {}
967 expect: []
969 commandline: "echo SKIPPING make"
971 test:
973 args: []
974 env: {}
976 expect: []
978 install:
980 args: []
981 env:
983 WANT_TO_INSTALL: YES
984 expect:
986 - "Do you really want to install"
987 - "y\n"
988 patches:
990 - "ABCDE/Fedcba-3.14-ABCDE-01.patch"
991 depends:
993 configure_requires:
994 LWP: 5.8
995 build_requires:
996 Test::Exception: 0.25
997 requires:
998 Spiffy: 0.30
999 Language Specs
1001 Every YAML document represents a single hash reference. The valid keys
1002 in this hash are as follows:
1003 comment [scalar]
1005 A comment
1006 cpanconfig [hash]
1008 Temporarily override assorted "CPAN.pm" configuration variables.
1009 Supported are: "build_requires_install_policy", "check_sigs",
1011 "make", "make_install_make_command", "prefer_installer",
1012 "test_report". Please report as a bug when you need another one
1013 supported.
1014 depends [hash] *** EXPERIMENTAL FEATURE ***
1016 All three types, namely "configure_requires", "build_requires", and
1017 "requires" are supported in the way specified in the META.yml
1018 specification. The current implementation merges the specified
1019 dependencies with those declared by the package maintainer. In a
1020 future implementation this may be changed to override the original
1021 declaration.
1022 disabled [boolean]
1024 Specifies that this distribution shall not be processed at all.
1025 features [array] *** EXPERIMENTAL FEATURE ***
1027 Experimental implementation to deal with optional_features from
1028 META.yml. Still needs coordination with installer software and
1029 currently works only for META.yml declaring "dynamic_config=0". Use
1030 with caution.
1031 goto [string]
1033 The canonical name of a delegate distribution to install instead.
1034 Useful when a new version, although it tests OK itself, breaks
1035 something else or a developer release or a fork is already uploaded
1036 that is better than the last released version.
1037 install [hash]
1039 Processing instructions for the "make install" or "./Build install"
1040 phase of the CPAN mantra. See below under Processing Instructions.
1041 make [hash]
1043 Processing instructions for the "make" or "./Build" phase of the
1044 CPAN mantra. See below under Processing Instructions.
1045 match [hash]
1047 A hashref with one or more of the keys "distribution", "module",
1048 "perl", "perlconfig", and "env" that specify whether a document is
1049 targeted at a specific CPAN distribution or installation. Keys
1050 prefixed with "not_" negates the corresponding match.
1051 The corresponding values are interpreted as regular expressions.
1053 The "distribution" related one will be matched against the
1054 canonical distribution name, e.g. "AUTHOR/Foo-Bar-3.14.tar.gz".
1055 The "module" related one will be matched against all modules
1057 contained in the distribution until one module matches.
1058 The "perl" related one will be matched against $^X (but with the
1060 absolute path).
1061 The value associated with "perlconfig" is itself a hashref that is
1063 matched against corresponding values in the %Config::Config hash
1064 living in the "Config.pm" module. Keys prefixed with "not_"
1065 negates the corresponding match.
1066 The value associated with "env" is itself a hashref that is matched
1068 against corresponding values in the %ENV hash. Keys prefixed with
1069 "not_" negates the corresponding match.
1070 If more than one restriction of "module", "distribution", etc. is
1072 specified, the results of the separately computed match values must
1073 all match. If so, the hashref represented by the YAML document is
1074 returned as the preference structure for the current distribution.
1075 patches [array]
1077 An array of patches on CPAN or on the local disk to be applied in
1078 order via an external patch program. If the value for the "-p"
1079 parameter is 0 or 1 is determined by reading the patch beforehand.
1080 The path to each patch is either an absolute path on the local
1081 filesystem or relative to a patch directory specified in the
1082 "patches_dir" configuration variable or in the format of a
1083 canonical distro name. For examples please consult the distroprefs/
1084 directory in the CPAN.pm distribution (these examples are not
1085 installed by default).
1086 Note: if the "applypatch" program is installed and "CPAN::Config"
1088 knows about it and a patch is written by the "makepatch" program,
1089 then "CPAN.pm" lets "applypatch" apply the patch. Both "makepatch"
1090 and "applypatch" are available from CPAN in the "JV/makepatch-*"
1091 distribution.
1092 pl [hash]
1094 Processing instructions for the "perl Makefile.PL" or "perl
1095 Build.PL" phase of the CPAN mantra. See below under Processing
1096 Instructions.
1097 test [hash]
1099 Processing instructions for the "make test" or "./Build test" phase
1100 of the CPAN mantra. See below under Processing Instructions.
1101 Processing Instructions
1103 args [array]
1104 Arguments to be added to the command line
1105 commandline
1107 A full commandline to run via "system()". During execution, the
1108 environment variable PERL is set to $^X (but with an absolute
1109 path). If "commandline" is specified, "args" is not used.
1110 eexpect [hash]
1112 Extended "expect". This is a hash reference with four allowed keys,
1113 "mode", "timeout", "reuse", and "talk".
1114 You must install the "Expect" module to use "eexpect". CPAN.pm does
1116 not install it for you.
1117 "mode" may have the values "deterministic" for the case where all
1119 questions come in the order written down and "anyorder" for the
1120 case where the questions may come in any order. The default mode is
1121 "deterministic".
1122 "timeout" denotes a timeout in seconds. Floating-point timeouts are
1124 OK. With "mode=deterministic", the timeout denotes the timeout per
1125 question; with "mode=anyorder" it denotes the timeout per byte
1126 received from the stream or questions.
1127 "talk" is a reference to an array that contains alternating
1129 questions and answers. Questions are regular expressions and
1130 answers are literal strings. The Expect module watches the stream
1131 from the execution of the external program ("perl Makefile.PL",
1132 "perl Build.PL", "make", etc.).
1133 For "mode=deterministic", the CPAN.pm injects the corresponding
1135 answer as soon as the stream matches the regular expression.
1136 For "mode=anyorder" CPAN.pm answers a question as soon as the
1138 timeout is reached for the next byte in the input stream. In this
1139 mode you can use the "reuse" parameter to decide what will happen
1140 with a question-answer pair after it has been used. In the default
1141 case (reuse=0) it is removed from the array, avoiding being used
1142 again accidentally. If you want to answer the question "Do you
1143 really want to do that" several times, then it must be included in
1144 the array at least as often as you want this answer to be given.
1145 Setting the parameter "reuse" to 1 makes this repetition
1146 unnecessary.
1147 env [hash]
1149 Environment variables to be set during the command
1150 expect [array]
1152 You must install the "Expect" module to use "expect". CPAN.pm does
1153 not install it for you.
1154 "expect: <array>" is a short notation for this "eexpect":
1156 eexpect:
1158 mode: deterministic
1159 timeout: 15
1160 talk: <array>
1161 Schema verification with "Kwalify"
1163 If you have the "Kwalify" module installed (which is part of the
1164 Bundle::CPANxxl), then all your distroprefs files are checked for
1165 syntactic correctness.
1166 Example Distroprefs Files
1168 "CPAN.pm" comes with a collection of example YAML files. Note that
1169 these are really just examples and should not be used without care
1170 because they cannot fit everybody's purpose. After all, the authors of
1171 the packages that ask questions had a need to ask, so you should watch
1172 their questions and adjust the examples to your environment and your
1173 needs. You have been warned:-)
1174
1176 If you do not enter the shell, shell commands are available both as
1177 methods ("CPAN::Shell->install(...)") and as functions in the calling
1178 package ("install(...)"). Before calling low-level commands, it makes
1179 sense to initialize components of CPAN you need, e.g.:
1180 CPAN::HandleConfig->load;
1182 CPAN::Shell::setup_output;
1183 CPAN::Index->reload;
1184 High-level commands do such initializations automatically.
1186 There's currently only one class that has a stable interface -
1188 CPAN::Shell. All commands that are available in the CPAN shell are
1189 methods of the class CPAN::Shell. The arguments on the commandline are
1190 passed as arguments to the method.
1191 So if you take for example the shell command
1193 notest install A B C
1195 the actually executed command is
1197 CPAN::Shell->notest("install","A","B","C");
1199 Each of the commands that produce listings of modules ("r",
1201 "autobundle", "u") also return a list of the IDs of all modules within
1202 the list.
1203 expand($type,@things)
1205 The IDs of all objects available within a program are strings that
1206 can be expanded to the corresponding real objects with the
1207 "CPAN::Shell->expand("Module",@things)" method. Expand returns a list
1208 of CPAN::Module objects according to the @things arguments given. In
1209 scalar context, it returns only the first element of the list.
1210 expandany(@things)
1212 Like expand, but returns objects of the appropriate type, i.e.
1213 CPAN::Bundle objects for bundles, CPAN::Module objects for modules,
1214 and CPAN::Distribution objects for distributions. Note: it does not
1215 expand to CPAN::Author objects.
1216 Programming Examples
1218 This enables the programmer to do operations that combine
1219 functionalities that are available in the shell.
1220 # install everything that is outdated on my disk:
1222 perl -MCPAN -e 'CPAN::Shell->install(CPAN::Shell->r)'
1223 # install my favorite programs if necessary:
1225 for $mod (qw(Net::FTP Digest::SHA Data::Dumper)) {
1226 CPAN::Shell->install($mod);
1227 }
1228 # list all modules on my disk that have no VERSION number
1230 for $mod (CPAN::Shell->expand("Module","/./")) {
1231 next unless $mod->inst_file;
1232 # MakeMaker convention for undefined $VERSION:
1233 next unless $mod->inst_version eq "undef";
1234 print "No VERSION in ", $mod->id, "\n";
1235 }
1236 # find out which distribution on CPAN contains a module:
1238 print CPAN::Shell->expand("Module","Apache::Constants")->cpan_file
1239 Or if you want to schedule a cron job to watch CPAN, you could list
1241 all modules that need updating. First a quick and dirty way:
1242 perl -e 'use CPAN; CPAN::Shell->r;'
1244 If you don't want any output should all modules be up to date, parse
1246 the output of above command for the regular expression "/modules are
1247 up to date/" and decide to mail the output only if it doesn't match.
1248 If you prefer to do it more in a programmerish style in one single
1250 process, something like this may better suit you:
1251 # list all modules on my disk that have newer versions on CPAN
1253 for $mod (CPAN::Shell->expand("Module","/./")) {
1254 next unless $mod->inst_file;
1255 next if $mod->uptodate;
1256 printf "Module %s is installed as %s, could be updated to %s from CPAN\n",
1257 $mod->id, $mod->inst_version, $mod->cpan_version;
1258 }
1259 If that gives too much output every day, you may want to watch only
1261 for three modules. You can write
1262 for $mod (CPAN::Shell->expand("Module","/Apache|LWP|CGI/")) {
1264 as the first line instead. Or you can combine some of the above
1266 tricks:
1267 # watch only for a new mod_perl module
1269 $mod = CPAN::Shell->expand("Module","mod_perl");
1270 exit if $mod->uptodate;
1271 # new mod_perl arrived, let me know all update recommendations
1272 CPAN::Shell->r;
1273 Methods in the other Classes
1275 CPAN::Author::as_glimpse()
1276 Returns a one-line description of the author
1277 CPAN::Author::as_string()
1279 Returns a multi-line description of the author
1280 CPAN::Author::email()
1282 Returns the author's email address
1283 CPAN::Author::fullname()
1285 Returns the author's name
1286 CPAN::Author::name()
1288 An alias for fullname
1289 CPAN::Bundle::as_glimpse()
1291 Returns a one-line description of the bundle
1292 CPAN::Bundle::as_string()
1294 Returns a multi-line description of the bundle
1295 CPAN::Bundle::clean()
1297 Recursively runs the "clean" method on all items contained in the
1298 bundle.
1299 CPAN::Bundle::contains()
1301 Returns a list of objects' IDs contained in a bundle. The
1302 associated objects may be bundles, modules or distributions.
1303 CPAN::Bundle::force($method,@args)
1305 Forces CPAN to perform a task that it normally would have refused
1306 to do. Force takes as arguments a method name to be called and any
1307 number of additional arguments that should be passed to the called
1308 method. The internals of the object get the needed changes so that
1309 CPAN.pm does not refuse to take the action. The "force" is passed
1310 recursively to all contained objects. See also the section above on
1311 the "force" and the "fforce" pragma.
1312 CPAN::Bundle::get()
1314 Recursively runs the "get" method on all items contained in the
1315 bundle
1316 CPAN::Bundle::inst_file()
1318 Returns the highest installed version of the bundle in either @INC
1319 or "$CPAN::Config->{cpan_home}". Note that this is different from
1320 CPAN::Module::inst_file.
1321 CPAN::Bundle::inst_version()
1323 Like CPAN::Bundle::inst_file, but returns the $VERSION
1324 CPAN::Bundle::uptodate()
1326 Returns 1 if the bundle itself and all its members are up-to-date.
1327 CPAN::Bundle::install()
1329 Recursively runs the "install" method on all items contained in the
1330 bundle
1331 CPAN::Bundle::make()
1333 Recursively runs the "make" method on all items contained in the
1334 bundle
1335 CPAN::Bundle::readme()
1337 Recursively runs the "readme" method on all items contained in the
1338 bundle
1339 CPAN::Bundle::test()
1341 Recursively runs the "test" method on all items contained in the
1342 bundle
1343 CPAN::Distribution::as_glimpse()
1345 Returns a one-line description of the distribution
1346 CPAN::Distribution::as_string()
1348 Returns a multi-line description of the distribution
1349 CPAN::Distribution::author
1351 Returns the CPAN::Author object of the maintainer who uploaded this
1352 distribution
1353 CPAN::Distribution::pretty_id()
1355 Returns a string of the form "AUTHORID/TARBALL", where AUTHORID is
1356 the author's PAUSE ID and TARBALL is the distribution filename.
1357 CPAN::Distribution::base_id()
1359 Returns the distribution filename without any archive suffix. E.g
1360 "Foo-Bar-0.01"
1361 CPAN::Distribution::clean()
1363 Changes to the directory where the distribution has been unpacked
1364 and runs "make clean" there.
1365 CPAN::Distribution::containsmods()
1367 Returns a list of IDs of modules contained in a distribution file.
1368 Works only for distributions listed in the
1369 02packages.details.txt.gz file. This typically means that just most
1370 recent version of a distribution is covered.
1371 CPAN::Distribution::cvs_import()
1373 Changes to the directory where the distribution has been unpacked
1374 and runs something like
1375 cvs -d $cvs_root import -m $cvs_log $cvs_dir $userid v$version
1377 there.
1379 CPAN::Distribution::dir()
1381 Returns the directory into which this distribution has been
1382 unpacked.
1383 CPAN::Distribution::force($method,@args)
1385 Forces CPAN to perform a task that it normally would have refused
1386 to do. Force takes as arguments a method name to be called and any
1387 number of additional arguments that should be passed to the called
1388 method. The internals of the object get the needed changes so that
1389 CPAN.pm does not refuse to take the action. See also the section
1390 above on the "force" and the "fforce" pragma.
1391 CPAN::Distribution::get()
1393 Downloads the distribution from CPAN and unpacks it. Does nothing
1394 if the distribution has already been downloaded and unpacked within
1395 the current session.
1396 CPAN::Distribution::install()
1398 Changes to the directory where the distribution has been unpacked
1399 and runs the external command "make install" there. If "make" has
1400 not yet been run, it will be run first. A "make test" is issued in
1401 any case and if this fails, the install is cancelled. The
1402 cancellation can be avoided by letting "force" run the "install"
1403 for you.
1404 This install method only has the power to install the distribution
1406 if there are no dependencies in the way. To install an object along
1407 with all its dependencies, use CPAN::Shell->install.
1408 Note that install() gives no meaningful return value. See
1410 uptodate().
1411 CPAN::Distribution::isa_perl()
1413 Returns 1 if this distribution file seems to be a perl
1414 distribution. Normally this is derived from the file name only,
1415 but the index from CPAN can contain a hint to achieve a return
1416 value of true for other filenames too.
1417 CPAN::Distribution::look()
1419 Changes to the directory where the distribution has been unpacked
1420 and opens a subshell there. Exiting the subshell returns.
1421 CPAN::Distribution::make()
1423 First runs the "get" method to make sure the distribution is
1424 downloaded and unpacked. Changes to the directory where the
1425 distribution has been unpacked and runs the external commands "perl
1426 Makefile.PL" or "perl Build.PL" and "make" there.
1427 CPAN::Distribution::perldoc()
1429 Downloads the pod documentation of the file associated with a
1430 distribution (in HTML format) and runs it through the external
1431 command lynx specified in "$CPAN::Config->{lynx}". If lynx isn't
1432 available, it converts it to plain text with the external command
1433 html2text and runs it through the pager specified in
1434 "$CPAN::Config->{pager}".
1435 CPAN::Distribution::prefs()
1437 Returns the hash reference from the first matching YAML file that
1438 the user has deposited in the "prefs_dir/" directory. The first
1439 succeeding match wins. The files in the "prefs_dir/" are processed
1440 alphabetically, and the canonical distro name (e.g.
1441 AUTHOR/Foo-Bar-3.14.tar.gz) is matched against the regular
1442 expressions stored in the $root->{match}{distribution} attribute
1443 value. Additionally all module names contained in a distribution
1444 are matched against the regular expressions in the
1445 $root->{match}{module} attribute value. The two match values are
1446 ANDed together. Each of the two attributes are optional.
1447 CPAN::Distribution::prereq_pm()
1449 Returns the hash reference that has been announced by a
1450 distribution as the "requires" and "build_requires" elements. These
1451 can be declared either by the "META.yml" (if authoritative) or can
1452 be deposited after the run of "Build.PL" in the file
1453 "./_build/prereqs" or after the run of "Makfile.PL" written as the
1454 "PREREQ_PM" hash in a comment in the produced "Makefile". Note:
1455 this method only works after an attempt has been made to "make" the
1456 distribution. Returns undef otherwise.
1457 CPAN::Distribution::readme()
1459 Downloads the README file associated with a distribution and runs
1460 it through the pager specified in "$CPAN::Config->{pager}".
1461 CPAN::Distribution::reports()
1463 Downloads report data for this distribution from
1464 www.cpantesters.org and displays a subset of them.
1465 CPAN::Distribution::read_yaml()
1467 Returns the content of the META.yml of this distro as a hashref.
1468 Note: works only after an attempt has been made to "make" the
1469 distribution. Returns undef otherwise. Also returns undef if the
1470 content of META.yml is not authoritative. (The rules about what
1471 exactly makes the content authoritative are still in flux.)
1472 CPAN::Distribution::test()
1474 Changes to the directory where the distribution has been unpacked
1475 and runs "make test" there.
1476 CPAN::Distribution::uptodate()
1478 Returns 1 if all the modules contained in the distribution are up-
1479 to-date. Relies on containsmods.
1480 CPAN::Index::force_reload()
1482 Forces a reload of all indices.
1483 CPAN::Index::reload()
1485 Reloads all indices if they have not been read for more than
1486 "$CPAN::Config->{index_expire}" days.
1487 CPAN::InfoObj::dump()
1489 CPAN::Author, CPAN::Bundle, CPAN::Module, and CPAN::Distribution
1490 inherit this method. It prints the data structure associated with
1491 an object. Useful for debugging. Note: the data structure is
1492 considered internal and thus subject to change without notice.
1493 CPAN::Module::as_glimpse()
1495 Returns a one-line description of the module in four columns: The
1496 first column contains the word "Module", the second column consists
1497 of one character: an equals sign if this module is already
1498 installed and up-to-date, a less-than sign if this module is
1499 installed but can be upgraded, and a space if the module is not
1500 installed. The third column is the name of the module and the
1501 fourth column gives maintainer or distribution information.
1502 CPAN::Module::as_string()
1504 Returns a multi-line description of the module
1505 CPAN::Module::clean()
1507 Runs a clean on the distribution associated with this module.
1508 CPAN::Module::cpan_file()
1510 Returns the filename on CPAN that is associated with the module.
1511 CPAN::Module::cpan_version()
1513 Returns the latest version of this module available on CPAN.
1514 CPAN::Module::cvs_import()
1516 Runs a cvs_import on the distribution associated with this module.
1517 CPAN::Module::description()
1519 Returns a 44 character description of this module. Only available
1520 for modules listed in The Module List
1521 (CPAN/modules/00modlist.long.html or 00modlist.long.txt.gz)
1522 CPAN::Module::distribution()
1524 Returns the CPAN::Distribution object that contains the current
1525 version of this module.
1526 CPAN::Module::dslip_status()
1528 Returns a hash reference. The keys of the hash are the letters "D",
1529 "S", "L", "I", and <P>, for development status, support level,
1530 language, interface and public licence respectively. The data for
1531 the DSLIP status are collected by pause.perl.org when authors
1532 register their namespaces. The values of the 5 hash elements are
1533 one-character words whose meaning is described in the table below.
1534 There are also 5 hash elements "DV", "SV", "LV", "IV", and <PV>
1535 that carry a more verbose value of the 5 status variables.
1536 Where the 'DSLIP' characters have the following meanings:
1538 D - Development Stage (Note: *NO IMPLIED TIMESCALES*):
1540 i - Idea, listed to gain consensus or as a placeholder
1541 c - under construction but pre-alpha (not yet released)
1542 a/b - Alpha/Beta testing
1543 R - Released
1544 M - Mature (no rigorous definition)
1545 S - Standard, supplied with Perl 5
1546 S - Support Level:
1548 m - Mailing-list
1549 d - Developer
1550 u - Usenet newsgroup comp.lang.perl.modules
1551 n - None known, try comp.lang.perl.modules
1552 a - abandoned; volunteers welcome to take over maintenance
1553 L - Language Used:
1555 p - Perl-only, no compiler needed, should be platform independent
1556 c - C and perl, a C compiler will be needed
1557 h - Hybrid, written in perl with optional C code, no compiler needed
1558 + - C++ and perl, a C++ compiler will be needed
1559 o - perl and another language other than C or C++
1560 I - Interface Style
1562 f - plain Functions, no references used
1563 h - hybrid, object and function interfaces available
1564 n - no interface at all (huh?)
1565 r - some use of unblessed References or ties
1566 O - Object oriented using blessed references and/or inheritance
1567 P - Public License
1569 p - Standard-Perl: user may choose between GPL and Artistic
1570 g - GPL: GNU General Public License
1571 l - LGPL: "GNU Lesser General Public License" (previously known as
1572 "GNU Library General Public License")
1573 b - BSD: The BSD License
1574 a - Artistic license alone
1575 2 - Artistic license 2.0 or later
1576 o - open source: approved by www.opensource.org
1577 d - allows distribution without restrictions
1578 r - restricted distribution
1579 n - no license at all
1580 CPAN::Module::force($method,@args)
1582 Forces CPAN to perform a task it would normally refuse to do. Force
1583 takes as arguments a method name to be invoked and any number of
1584 additional arguments to pass that method. The internals of the
1585 object get the needed changes so that CPAN.pm does not refuse to
1586 take the action. See also the section above on the "force" and the
1587 "fforce" pragma.
1588 CPAN::Module::get()
1590 Runs a get on the distribution associated with this module.
1591 CPAN::Module::inst_file()
1593 Returns the filename of the module found in @INC. The first file
1594 found is reported, just as perl itself stops searching @INC once it
1595 finds a module.
1596 CPAN::Module::available_file()
1598 Returns the filename of the module found in PERL5LIB or @INC. The
1599 first file found is reported. The advantage of this method over
1600 "inst_file" is that modules that have been tested but not yet
1601 installed are included because PERL5LIB keeps track of tested
1602 modules.
1603 CPAN::Module::inst_version()
1605 Returns the version number of the installed module in readable
1606 format.
1607 CPAN::Module::available_version()
1609 Returns the version number of the available module in readable
1610 format.
1611 CPAN::Module::install()
1613 Runs an "install" on the distribution associated with this module.
1614 CPAN::Module::look()
1616 Changes to the directory where the distribution associated with
1617 this module has been unpacked and opens a subshell there. Exiting
1618 the subshell returns.
1619 CPAN::Module::make()
1621 Runs a "make" on the distribution associated with this module.
1622 CPAN::Module::manpage_headline()
1624 If module is installed, peeks into the module's manpage, reads the
1625 headline, and returns it. Moreover, if the module has been
1626 downloaded within this session, does the equivalent on the
1627 downloaded module even if it hasn't been installed yet.
1628 CPAN::Module::perldoc()
1630 Runs a "perldoc" on this module.
1631 CPAN::Module::readme()
1633 Runs a "readme" on the distribution associated with this module.
1634 CPAN::Module::reports()
1636 Calls the reports() method on the associated distribution object.
1637 CPAN::Module::test()
1639 Runs a "test" on the distribution associated with this module.
1640 CPAN::Module::uptodate()
1642 Returns 1 if the module is installed and up-to-date.
1643 CPAN::Module::userid()
1645 Returns the author's ID of the module.
1646 Cache Manager
1648 Currently the cache manager only keeps track of the build directory
1649 ($CPAN::Config->{build_dir}). It is a simple FIFO mechanism that
1650 deletes complete directories below "build_dir" as soon as the size of
1651 all directories there gets bigger than $CPAN::Config->{build_cache} (in
1652 MB). The contents of this cache may be used for later re-installations
1653 that you intend to do manually, but will never be trusted by CPAN
1654 itself. This is due to the fact that the user might use these
1655 directories for building modules on different architectures.
1656 There is another directory ($CPAN::Config->{keep_source_where}) where
1658 the original distribution files are kept. This directory is not covered
1659 by the cache manager and must be controlled by the user. If you choose
1660 to have the same directory as build_dir and as keep_source_where
1661 directory, then your sources will be deleted with the same fifo
1662 mechanism.
1663 Bundles
1665 A bundle is just a perl module in the namespace Bundle:: that does not
1666 define any functions or methods. It usually only contains
1667 documentation.
1668 It starts like a perl module with a package declaration and a $VERSION
1670 variable. After that the pod section looks like any other pod with the
1671 only difference being that one special pod section exists starting with
1672 (verbatim):
1673 =head1 CONTENTS
1675 In this pod section each line obeys the format
1677 Module_Name [Version_String] [- optional text]
1679 The only required part is the first field, the name of a module (e.g.
1681 Foo::Bar, i.e. not the name of the distribution file). The rest of the
1682 line is optional. The comment part is delimited by a dash just as in
1683 the man page header.
1684 The distribution of a bundle should follow the same convention as other
1686 distributions.
1687 Bundles are treated specially in the CPAN package. If you say 'install
1689 Bundle::Tkkit' (assuming such a bundle exists), CPAN will install all
1690 the modules in the CONTENTS section of the pod. You can install your
1691 own Bundles locally by placing a conformant Bundle file somewhere into
1692 your @INC path. The autobundle() command which is available in the
1693 shell interface does that for you by including all currently installed
1694 modules in a snapshot bundle file.
1695
1697 The CPAN program is trying to depend on as little as possible so the
1698 user can use it in hostile environment. It works better the more
1699 goodies the environment provides. For example if you try in the CPAN
1700 shell
1701 install Bundle::CPAN
1703 or
1705 install Bundle::CPANxxl
1707 you will find the shell more convenient than the bare shell before.
1709 If you have a local mirror of CPAN and can access all files with
1711 "file:" URLs, then you only need a perl later than perl5.003 to run
1712 this module. Otherwise Net::FTP is strongly recommended. LWP may be
1713 required for non-UNIX systems, or if your nearest CPAN site is
1714 associated with a URL that is not "ftp:".
1715 If you have neither Net::FTP nor LWP, there is a fallback mechanism
1717 implemented for an external ftp command or for an external lynx
1718 command.
1719
1721 Finding packages and VERSION
1722 This module presumes that all packages on CPAN
1723 · declare their $VERSION variable in an easy to parse manner. This
1725 prerequisite can hardly be relaxed because it consumes far too much
1726 memory to load all packages into the running program just to
1727 determine the $VERSION variable. Currently all programs that are
1728 dealing with version use something like this
1729 perl -MExtUtils::MakeMaker -le \
1731 'print MM->parse_version(shift)' filename
1732 If you are author of a package and wonder if your $VERSION can be
1734 parsed, please try the above method.
1735 · come as compressed or gzipped tarfiles or as zip files and contain a
1737 "Makefile.PL" or "Build.PL" (well, we try to handle a bit more, but
1738 with little enthusiasm).
1739 Debugging
1741 Debugging this module is more than a bit complex due to interference
1742 from the software producing the indices on CPAN, the mirroring process
1743 on CPAN, packaging, configuration, synchronicity, and even (gasp!) due
1744 to bugs within the CPAN.pm module itself.
1745 For debugging the code of CPAN.pm itself in interactive mode, some
1747 debugging aid can be turned on for most packages within CPAN.pm with
1748 one of
1749 o debug package...
1751 sets debug mode for packages.
1752 o debug -package...
1754 unsets debug mode for packages.
1755 o debug all
1757 turns debugging on for all packages.
1758 o debug number
1760 which sets the debugging packages directly. Note that "o debug 0" turns
1762 debugging off.
1763 What seems a successful strategy is the combination of "reload cpan"
1765 and the debugging switches. Add a new debug statement while running in
1766 the shell and then issue a "reload cpan" and see the new debugging
1767 messages immediately without losing the current context.
1768 "o debug" without an argument lists the valid package names and the
1770 current set of packages in debugging mode. "o debug" has built-in
1771 completion support.
1772 For debugging of CPAN data there is the "dump" command which takes the
1774 same arguments as make/test/install and outputs each object's
1775 Data::Dumper dump. If an argument looks like a perl variable and
1776 contains one of "$", "@" or "%", it is eval()ed and fed to Data::Dumper
1777 directly.
1778 Floppy, Zip, Offline Mode
1780 CPAN.pm works nicely without network access, too. If you maintain
1781 machines that are not networked at all, you should consider working
1782 with "file:" URLs. You'll have to collect your modules somewhere first.
1783 So you might use CPAN.pm to put together all you need on a networked
1784 machine. Then copy the $CPAN::Config->{keep_source_where} (but not
1785 $CPAN::Config->{build_dir}) directory on a floppy. This floppy is kind
1786 of a personal CPAN. CPAN.pm on the non-networked machines works nicely
1787 with this floppy. See also below the paragraph about CD-ROM support.
1788 Basic Utilities for Programmers
1790 has_inst($module)
1791 Returns true if the module is installed. Used to load all modules
1792 into the running CPAN.pm that are considered optional. The config
1793 variable "dontload_list" intercepts the "has_inst()" call such that
1794 an optional module is not loaded despite being available. For
1795 example, the following command will prevent "YAML.pm" from being
1796 loaded:
1797 cpan> o conf dontload_list push YAML
1799 See the source for details.
1801 use_inst($module)
1803 Similary to has_inst() tries to load optional library but also dies
1804 if library is not available
1805 has_usable($module)
1807 Returns true if the module is installed and in a usable state. Only
1808 useful for a handful of modules that are used internally. See the
1809 source for details.
1810 instance($module)
1812 The constructor for all the singletons used to represent modules,
1813 distributions, authors, and bundles. If the object already exists,
1814 this method returns the object; otherwise, it calls the constructor.
1815 frontend()
1817 frontend($new_frontend)
1818 Getter/setter for frontend object. Method just allows to subclass
1819 CPAN.pm.
1820
1822 There's no strong security layer in CPAN.pm. CPAN.pm helps you to
1823 install foreign, unmasked, unsigned code on your machine. We compare to
1824 a checksum that comes from the net just as the distribution file
1825 itself. But we try to make it easy to add security on demand:
1826 Cryptographically signed modules
1828 Since release 1.77, CPAN.pm has been able to verify cryptographically
1829 signed module distributions using Module::Signature. The CPAN modules
1830 can be signed by their authors, thus giving more security. The simple
1831 unsigned MD5 checksums that were used before by CPAN protect mainly
1832 against accidental file corruption.
1833 You will need to have Module::Signature installed, which in turn
1835 requires that you have at least one of Crypt::OpenPGP module or the
1836 command-line gpg tool installed.
1837 You will also need to be able to connect over the Internet to the
1839 public key servers, like pgp.mit.edu, and their port 11731 (the HKP
1840 protocol).
1841 The configuration parameter check_sigs is there to turn signature
1843 checking on or off.
1844
1846 Most functions in package CPAN are exported by default. The reason for
1847 this is that the primary use is intended for the cpan shell or for one-
1848 liners.
1849
1851 When the CPAN shell enters a subshell via the look command, it sets the
1852 environment CPAN_SHELL_LEVEL to 1, or increments that variable if it is
1853 already set.
1854 When CPAN runs, it sets the environment variable PERL5_CPAN_IS_RUNNING
1856 to the ID of the running process. It also sets
1857 PERL5_CPANPLUS_IS_RUNNING to prevent runaway processes which could
1858 happen with older versions of Module::Install.
1859 When running "perl Makefile.PL", the environment variable
1861 "PERL5_CPAN_IS_EXECUTING" is set to the full path of the "Makefile.PL"
1862 that is being executed. This prevents runaway processes with newer
1863 versions of Module::Install.
1864 When the config variable ftp_passive is set, all downloads will be run
1866 with the environment variable FTP_PASSIVE set to this value. This is in
1867 general a good idea as it influences both Net::FTP and LWP based
1868 connections. The same effect can be achieved by starting the cpan shell
1869 with this environment variable set. For Net::FTP alone, one can also
1870 always set passive mode by running libnetcfg.
1871
1873 Populating a freshly installed perl with one's favorite modules is
1874 pretty easy if you maintain a private bundle definition file. To get a
1875 useful blueprint of a bundle definition file, the command autobundle
1876 can be used on the CPAN shell command line. This command writes a
1877 bundle definition file for all modules installed for the current perl
1878 interpreter. It's recommended to run this command once only, and from
1879 then on maintain the file manually under a private name, say
1880 Bundle/my_bundle.pm. With a clever bundle file you can then simply say
1881 cpan> install Bundle::my_bundle
1883 then answer a few questions and go out for coffee (possibly even in a
1885 different city).
1886 Maintaining a bundle definition file means keeping track of two things:
1888 dependencies and interactivity. CPAN.pm sometimes fails on calculating
1889 dependencies because not all modules define all MakeMaker attributes
1890 correctly, so a bundle definition file should specify prerequisites as
1891 early as possible. On the other hand, it's annoying that so many
1892 distributions need some interactive configuring. So what you can try to
1893 accomplish in your private bundle file is to have the packages that
1894 need to be configured early in the file and the gentle ones later, so
1895 you can go out for coffee after a few minutes and leave CPAN.pm to
1896 churn away unattended.
1897
1899 Thanks to Graham Barr for contributing the following paragraphs about
1900 the interaction between perl, and various firewall configurations. For
1901 further information on firewalls, it is recommended to consult the
1902 documentation that comes with the ncftp program. If you are unable to
1903 go through the firewall with a simple Perl setup, it is likely that you
1904 can configure ncftp so that it works through your firewall.
1905 Three basic types of firewalls
1907 Firewalls can be categorized into three basic types.
1908 http firewall
1910 This is when the firewall machine runs a web server, and to access
1911 the outside world, you must do so via that web server. If you set
1912 environment variables like http_proxy or ftp_proxy to values
1913 beginning with http://, or in your web browser you've proxy
1914 information set, then you know you are running behind an http
1915 firewall.
1916 To access servers outside these types of firewalls with perl (even
1918 for ftp), you need LWP or HTTP::Tiny.
1919 ftp firewall
1921 This where the firewall machine runs an ftp server. This kind of
1922 firewall will only let you access ftp servers outside the firewall.
1923 This is usually done by connecting to the firewall with ftp, then
1924 entering a username like "user@outside.host.com".
1925 To access servers outside these type of firewalls with perl, you
1927 need Net::FTP.
1928 One-way visibility
1930 One-way visibility means these firewalls try to make themselves
1931 invisible to users inside the firewall. An FTP data connection is
1932 normally created by sending your IP address to the remote server
1933 and then listening for the return connection. But the remote server
1934 will not be able to connect to you because of the firewall. For
1935 these types of firewall, FTP connections need to be done in a
1936 passive mode.
1937 There are two that I can think off.
1939 SOCKS
1941 If you are using a SOCKS firewall, you will need to compile
1942 perl and link it with the SOCKS library. This is what is
1943 normally called a 'socksified' perl. With this executable you
1944 will be able to connect to servers outside the firewall as if
1945 it were not there.
1946 IP Masquerade
1948 This is when the firewall implemented in the kernel (via NAT,
1949 or networking address translation), it allows you to hide a
1950 complete network behind one IP address. With this firewall no
1951 special compiling is needed as you can access hosts directly.
1952 For accessing ftp servers behind such firewalls you usually
1954 need to set the environment variable "FTP_PASSIVE" or the
1955 config variable ftp_passive to a true value.
1956 Configuring lynx or ncftp for going through a firewall
1958 If you can go through your firewall with e.g. lynx, presumably with a
1959 command such as
1960 /usr/local/bin/lynx -pscott:tiger
1962 then you would configure CPAN.pm with the command
1964 o conf lynx "/usr/local/bin/lynx -pscott:tiger"
1966 That's all. Similarly for ncftp or ftp, you would configure something
1968 like
1969 o conf ncftp "/usr/bin/ncftp -f /home/scott/ncftplogin.cfg"
1971 Your mileage may vary...
1973
1975 1) I installed a new version of module X but CPAN keeps saying, I have
1976 the old version installed
1977 Probably you do have the old version installed. This can happen if
1979 a module installs itself into a different directory in the @INC
1980 path than it was previously installed. This is not really a CPAN.pm
1981 problem, you would have the same problem when installing the module
1982 manually. The easiest way to prevent this behaviour is to add the
1983 argument "UNINST=1" to the "make install" call, and that is why
1984 many people add this argument permanently by configuring
1985 o conf make_install_arg UNINST=1
1987 2) So why is UNINST=1 not the default?
1989 Because there are people who have their precise expectations about
1991 who may install where in the @INC path and who uses which @INC
1992 array. In fine tuned environments "UNINST=1" can cause damage.
1993 3) I want to clean up my mess, and install a new perl along with all
1995 modules I have. How do I go about it?
1996 Run the autobundle command for your old perl and optionally rename
1998 the resulting bundle file (e.g. Bundle/mybundle.pm), install the
1999 new perl with the Configure option prefix, e.g.
2000 ./Configure -Dprefix=/usr/local/perl-5.6.78.9
2002 Install the bundle file you produced in the first step with
2004 something like
2005 cpan> install Bundle::mybundle
2007 and you're done.
2009 4) When I install bundles or multiple modules with one command there
2011 is too much output to keep track of.
2012 You may want to configure something like
2014 o conf make_arg "| tee -ai /root/.cpan/logs/make.out"
2016 o conf make_install_arg "| tee -ai /root/.cpan/logs/make_install.out"
2017 so that STDOUT is captured in a file for later inspection.
2019 5) I am not root, how can I install a module in a personal directory?
2021 As of CPAN 1.9463, if you do not have permission to write the
2023 default perl library directories, CPAN's configuration process will
2024 ask you whether you want to bootstrap <local::lib>, which makes
2025 keeping a personal perl library directory easy.
2026 Another thing you should bear in mind is that the UNINST parameter
2028 can be dangerous when you are installing into a private area
2029 because you might accidentally remove modules that other people
2030 depend on that are not using the private area.
2031 6) How to get a package, unwrap it, and make a change before building
2033 it?
2034 Have a look at the "look" (!) command.
2036 7) I installed a Bundle and had a couple of fails. When I retried,
2038 everything resolved nicely. Can this be fixed to work on first try?
2039 The reason for this is that CPAN does not know the dependencies of
2041 all modules when it starts out. To decide about the additional
2042 items to install, it just uses data found in the META.yml file or
2043 the generated Makefile. An undetected missing piece breaks the
2044 process. But it may well be that your Bundle installs some
2045 prerequisite later than some depending item and thus your second
2046 try is able to resolve everything. Please note, CPAN.pm does not
2047 know the dependency tree in advance and cannot sort the queue of
2048 things to install in a topologically correct order. It resolves
2049 perfectly well if all modules declare the prerequisites correctly
2050 with the PREREQ_PM attribute to MakeMaker or the "requires" stanza
2051 of Module::Build. For bundles which fail and you need to install
2052 often, it is recommended to sort the Bundle definition file
2053 manually.
2054 8) In our intranet, we have many modules for internal use. How can I
2056 integrate these modules with CPAN.pm but without uploading the
2057 modules to CPAN?
2058 Have a look at the CPAN::Site module.
2060 9) When I run CPAN's shell, I get an error message about things in my
2062 "/etc/inputrc" (or "~/.inputrc") file.
2063 These are readline issues and can only be fixed by studying
2065 readline configuration on your architecture and adjusting the
2066 referenced file accordingly. Please make a backup of the
2067 "/etc/inputrc" or "~/.inputrc" and edit them. Quite often harmless
2068 changes like uppercasing or lowercasing some arguments solves the
2069 problem.
2070 10) Some authors have strange characters in their names.
2072 Internally CPAN.pm uses the UTF-8 charset. If your terminal is
2074 expecting ISO-8859-1 charset, a converter can be activated by
2075 setting term_is_latin to a true value in your config file. One way
2076 of doing so would be
2077 cpan> o conf term_is_latin 1
2079 If other charset support is needed, please file a bug report
2081 against CPAN.pm at rt.cpan.org and describe your needs. Maybe we
2082 can extend the support or maybe UTF-8 terminals become widely
2083 available.
2084 Note: this config variable is deprecated and will be removed in a
2086 future version of CPAN.pm. It will be replaced with the conventions
2087 around the family of $LANG and $LC_* environment variables.
2088 11) When an install fails for some reason and then I correct the error
2090 condition and retry, CPAN.pm refuses to install the module, saying
2091 "Already tried without success".
2092 Use the force pragma like so
2094 force install Foo::Bar
2096 Or you can use
2098 look Foo::Bar
2100 and then "make install" directly in the subshell.
2102 12) How do I install a "DEVELOPER RELEASE" of a module?
2104 By default, CPAN will install the latest non-developer release of a
2106 module. If you want to install a dev release, you have to specify
2107 the partial path starting with the author id to the tarball you
2108 wish to install, like so:
2109 cpan> install KWILLIAMS/Module-Build-0.27_07.tar.gz
2111 Note that you can use the "ls" command to get this path listed.
2113 13) How do I install a module and all its dependencies from the
2115 commandline, without being prompted for anything, despite my CPAN
2116 configuration (or lack thereof)?
2117 CPAN uses ExtUtils::MakeMaker's prompt() function to ask its
2119 questions, so if you set the PERL_MM_USE_DEFAULT environment
2120 variable, you shouldn't be asked any questions at all (assuming the
2121 modules you are installing are nice about obeying that variable as
2122 well):
2123 % PERL_MM_USE_DEFAULT=1 perl -MCPAN -e 'install My::Module'
2125 14) How do I create a Module::Build based Build.PL derived from an
2127 ExtUtils::MakeMaker focused Makefile.PL?
2128 http://search.cpan.org/dist/Module-Build-Convert/
2130 15) I'm frequently irritated with the CPAN shell's inability to help me
2132 select a good mirror.
2133 CPAN can now help you select a "good" mirror, based on which ones
2135 have the lowest 'ping' round-trip times. From the shell, use the
2136 command 'o conf init urllist' and allow CPAN to automatically
2137 select mirrors for you.
2138 Beyond that help, the urllist config parameter is yours. You can
2140 add and remove sites at will. You should find out which sites have
2141 the best up-to-dateness, bandwidth, reliability, etc. and are
2142 topologically close to you. Some people prefer fast downloads,
2143 others up-to-dateness, others reliability. You decide which to try
2144 in which order.
2145 Henk P. Penning maintains a site that collects data about CPAN
2147 sites:
2148 http://mirrors.cpan.org/
2150 Also, feel free to play with experimental features. Run
2152 o conf init randomize_urllist ftpstats_period ftpstats_size
2154 and choose your favorite parameters. After a few downloads running
2156 the "hosts" command will probably assist you in choosing the best
2157 mirror sites.
2158 16) Why do I get asked the same questions every time I start the shell?
2160 You can make your configuration changes permanent by calling the
2162 command "o conf commit". Alternatively set the "auto_commit"
2163 variable to true by running "o conf init auto_commit" and answering
2164 the following question with yes.
2165 17) Older versions of CPAN.pm had the original root directory of all
2167 tarballs in the build directory. Now there are always random
2168 characters appended to these directory names. Why was this done?
2169 The random characters are provided by File::Temp and ensure that
2171 each module's individual build directory is unique. This makes
2172 running CPAN.pm in concurrent processes simultaneously safe.
2173 18) Speaking of the build directory. Do I have to clean it up myself?
2175 You have the choice to set the config variable "scan_cache" to
2177 "never". Then you must clean it up yourself. The other possible
2178 values, "atstart" and "atexit" clean up the build directory when
2179 you start (or more precisely, after the first extraction into the
2180 build directory) or exit the CPAN shell, respectively. If you never
2181 start up the CPAN shell, you probably also have to clean up the
2182 build directory yourself.
2183
2185 OLD PERL VERSIONS
2186 CPAN.pm is regularly tested to run under 5.005 and assorted newer
2187 versions. It is getting more and more difficult to get the minimal
2188 prerequisites working on older perls. It is close to impossible to get
2189 the whole Bundle::CPAN working there. If you're in the position to have
2190 only these old versions, be advised that CPAN is designed to work fine
2191 without the Bundle::CPAN installed.
2192 To get things going, note that GBARR/Scalar-List-Utils-1.18.tar.gz is
2194 compatible with ancient perls and that File::Temp is listed as a
2195 prerequisite but CPAN has reasonable workarounds if it is missing.
2196 CPANPLUS
2198 This module and its competitor, the CPANPLUS module, are both much
2199 cooler than the other. CPAN.pm is older. CPANPLUS was designed to be
2200 more modular, but it was never intended to be compatible with CPAN.pm.
2201 CPANMINUS
2203 In the year 2010 App::cpanminus was launched as a new approach to a
2204 cpan shell with a considerably smaller footprint. Very cool stuff.
2205
2207 This software enables you to upgrade software on your computer and so
2208 is inherently dangerous because the newly installed software may
2209 contain bugs and may alter the way your computer works or even make it
2210 unusable. Please consider backing up your data before every upgrade.
2211
2213 Please report bugs via <http://rt.cpan.org/>
2214 Before submitting a bug, please make sure that the traditional method
2216 of building a Perl module package from a shell by following the
2217 installation instructions of that package still works in your
2218 environment.
2219
2221 Andreas Koenig "<andk@cpan.org>"
2222
2224 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
2225 under the same terms as Perl itself.
2226 See <http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html>
2228
2230 Kawai,Takanori provides a Japanese translation of a very old version of
2231 this manpage at
2232 <http://homepage3.nifty.com/hippo2000/perltips/CPAN.htm>
2233
2235 Many people enter the CPAN shell by running the cpan utility program
2236 which is installed in the same directory as perl itself. So if you have
2237 this directory in your PATH variable (or some equivalent in your
2238 operating system) then typing "cpan" in a console window will work for
2239 you as well. Above that the utility provides several commandline
2240 shortcuts.
2241 melezhik (Alexey) sent me a link where he published a chef recipe to
2243 work with CPAN.pm: http://community.opscode.com/cookbooks/cpan.
2244perl v5.28.1 2019-03-19 CPAN(3)