1CPAN(1) User Contributed Perl Documentation CPAN(1)
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6 cpan - easily interact with CPAN from the command line
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9 # with arguments and no switches, installs specified modules
10 cpan module_name [ module_name ... ]
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12 # with switches, installs modules with extra behavior
13 cpan [-cfFimtTw] module_name [ module_name ... ]
14
15 # use local::lib
16 cpan -I module_name [ module_name ... ]
17
18 # one time mirror override for faster mirrors
19 cpan -p ...
20
21 # with just the dot, install from the distribution in the
22 # current directory
23 cpan .
24
25 # without arguments, starts CPAN.pm shell
26 cpan
27
28 # without arguments, but some switches
29 cpan [-ahpruvACDLOPX]
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32 This script provides a command interface (not a shell) to CPAN. At the
33 moment it uses CPAN.pm to do the work, but it is not a one-shot command
34 runner for CPAN.pm.
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36 Options
37 -a Creates a CPAN.pm autobundle with CPAN::Shell->autobundle.
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39 -A module [ module ... ]
40 Shows the primary maintainers for the specified modules.
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42 -c module
43 Runs a `make clean` in the specified module's directories.
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45 -C module [ module ... ]
46 Show the Changes files for the specified modules
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48 -D module [ module ... ]
49 Show the module details. This prints one line for each out-of-date
50 module (meaning, modules locally installed but have newer versions
51 on CPAN). Each line has three columns: module name, local version,
52 and CPAN version.
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54 -f Force the specified action, when it normally would have failed. Use
55 this to install a module even if its tests fail. When you use this
56 option, -i is not optional for installing a module when you need to
57 force it:
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59 % cpan -f -i Module::Foo
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61 -F Turn off CPAN.pm's attempts to lock anything. You should be careful
62 with this since you might end up with multiple scripts trying to
63 muck in the same directory. This isn't so much of a concern if
64 you're loading a special config with "-j", and that config sets up
65 its own work directories.
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67 -g module [ module ... ]
68 Downloads to the current directory the latest distribution of the
69 module.
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71 -G module [ module ... ]
72 UNIMPLEMENTED
73
74 Download to the current directory the latest distribution of the
75 modules, unpack each distribution, and create a git repository for
76 each distribution.
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78 If you want this feature, check out Yanick Champoux's
79 "Git::CPAN::Patch" distribution.
80
81 -h Print a help message and exit. When you specify "-h", it ignores
82 all of the other options and arguments.
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84 -i module [ module ... ]
85 Install the specified modules. With no other switches, this switch
86 is implied.
87
88 -I Load "local::lib" (think like "-I" for loading lib paths). Too bad
89 "-l" was already taken.
90
91 -j Config.pm
92 Load the file that has the CPAN configuration data. This should
93 have the same format as the standard CPAN/Config.pm file, which
94 defines $CPAN::Config as an anonymous hash.
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96 -J Dump the configuration in the same format that CPAN.pm uses. This
97 is useful for checking the configuration as well as using the dump
98 as a starting point for a new, custom configuration.
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100 -l List all installed modules with their versions
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102 -L author [ author ... ]
103 List the modules by the specified authors.
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105 -m Make the specified modules.
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107 -M mirror1,mirror2,...
108 A comma-separated list of mirrors to use for just this run. The
109 "-P" option can find them for you automatically.
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111 -n Do a dry run, but don't actually install anything. (unimplemented)
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113 -O Show the out-of-date modules.
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115 -p Ping the configured mirrors and print a report
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117 -P Find the best mirrors you could be using and use them for the
118 current session.
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120 -r Recompiles dynamically loaded modules with CPAN::Shell->recompile.
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122 -s Drop in the CPAN.pm shell. This command does this automatically if
123 you don't specify any arguments.
124
125 -t module [ module ... ]
126 Run a `make test` on the specified modules.
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128 -T Do not test modules. Simply install them.
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130 -u Upgrade all installed modules. Blindly doing this can really break
131 things, so keep a backup.
132
133 -v Print the script version and CPAN.pm version then exit.
134
135 -V Print detailed information about the cpan client.
136
137 -w UNIMPLEMENTED
138
139 Turn on cpan warnings. This checks various things, like directory
140 permissions, and tells you about problems you might have.
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142 -x module [ module ... ]
143 Find close matches to the named modules that you think you might
144 have mistyped. This requires the optional installation of
145 Text::Levenshtein or Text::Levenshtein::Damerau.
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147 -X Dump all the namespaces to standard output.
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149 Examples
150 # print a help message
151 cpan -h
152
153 # print the version numbers
154 cpan -v
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156 # create an autobundle
157 cpan -a
158
159 # recompile modules
160 cpan -r
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162 # upgrade all installed modules
163 cpan -u
164
165 # install modules ( sole -i is optional )
166 cpan -i Netscape::Booksmarks Business::ISBN
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168 # force install modules ( must use -i )
169 cpan -fi CGI::Minimal URI
170
171 # install modules but without testing them
172 cpan -Ti CGI::Minimal URI
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174 Environment variables
175 There are several components in CPAN.pm that use environment variables.
176 The build tools, ExtUtils::MakeMaker and Module::Build use some, while
177 others matter to the levels above them. Some of these are specified by
178 the Perl Toolchain Gang:
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180 Lancaster Concensus:
181 <https://github.com/Perl-Toolchain-Gang/toolchain-site/blob/master/lancaster-consensus.md>
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183 Oslo Concensus:
184 <https://github.com/Perl-Toolchain-Gang/toolchain-site/blob/master/oslo-consensus.md>
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186 NONINTERACTIVE_TESTING
187 Assume no one is paying attention and skips prompts for
188 distributions that do that correctly. cpan(1) sets this to 1 unless
189 it already has a value (even if that value is false).
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191 PERL_MM_USE_DEFAULT
192 Use the default answer for a prompted questions. cpan(1) sets this
193 to 1 unless it already has a value (even if that value is false).
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195 CPAN_OPTS
196 As with "PERL5OPT", a string of additional cpan(1) options to add
197 to those you specify on the command line.
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199 CPANSCRIPT_LOGLEVEL
200 The log level to use, with either the embedded, minimal logger or
201 Log::Log4perl if it is installed. Possible values are the same as
202 the "Log::Log4perl" levels: "TRACE", "DEBUG", "INFO", "WARN",
203 "ERROR", and "FATAL". The default is "INFO".
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205 GIT_COMMAND
206 The path to the "git" binary to use for the Git features. The
207 default is "/usr/local/bin/git".
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210 The script exits with zero if it thinks that everything worked, or a
211 positive number if it thinks that something failed. Note, however, that
212 in some cases it has to divine a failure by the output of things it
213 does not control. For now, the exit codes are vague:
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215 1 An unknown error
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217 2 The was an external problem
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219 4 There was an internal problem with the script
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221 8 A module failed to install
222
224 * one shot configuration values from the command line
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227 * none noted
228
230 Most behaviour, including environment variables and configuration,
231 comes directly from CPAN.pm.
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234 This code is in Github in the CPAN.pm repository:
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236 https://github.com/andk/cpanpm
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238 The source used to be tracked separately in another GitHub repo, but
239 the canonical source is now in the above repo.
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242 Japheth Cleaver added the bits to allow a forced install (-f).
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244 Jim Brandt suggest and provided the initial implementation for the up-
245 to-date and Changes features.
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247 Adam Kennedy pointed out that exit() causes problems on Windows where
248 this script ends up with a .bat extension
249
251 brian d foy, "<bdfoy@cpan.org>"
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254 Copyright (c) 2001-2015, brian d foy, All Rights Reserved.
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256 You may redistribute this under the same terms as Perl itself.
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260perl v5.32.0 2020-09-23 CPAN(1)