1CPAN::FirstTime(3)    User Contributed Perl Documentation   CPAN::FirstTime(3)
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NAME

6       CPAN::FirstTime - Utility for CPAN::Config file Initialization
7

SYNOPSIS

9       CPAN::FirstTime::init()
10

DESCRIPTION

12       The init routine asks a few questions and writes a CPAN/Config.pm or
13       CPAN/MyConfig.pm file (depending on what it is currently using).
14
15       In the following all questions and explanations regarding config
16       variables are collected.
17
18       allow_installing_module_downgrades
19         The CPAN shell can watch the "blib/" directories that are built up
20         before running "make test" to determine whether the current
21         distribution will end up with modules being overwritten with
22         decreasing module version numbers. It can then let the build of this
23         distro fail when it discovers a downgrade.
24
25         Do you want to allow installing distros with decreasing module
26         versions compared to what you have installed (yes, no, ask/yes,
27         ask/no)?
28
29       allow_installing_outdated_dists
30         The CPAN shell can watch the "blib/" directories that are built up
31         before running "make test" to determine whether the current
32         distribution contains modules that are indexed with a distro with a
33         higher distro-version number than the current one. It can then let
34         the build of this distro fail when it would not represent the most
35         up-to-date version of the distro.
36
37         Note: choosing anything but 'yes' for this option will need
38         CPAN::DistnameInfo being installed for taking effect.
39
40         Do you want to allow installing distros that are not indexed as the
41         highest distro-version for all contained modules (yes, no, ask/yes,
42         ask/no)?
43
44       auto_commit
45         Normally CPAN.pm keeps config variables in memory and changes need to
46         be saved in a separate 'o conf commit' command to make them permanent
47         between sessions. If you set the 'auto_commit' option to true,
48         changes to a config variable are always automatically committed to
49         disk.
50
51         Always commit changes to config variables to disk?
52
53       build_cache
54         CPAN.pm can limit the size of the disk area for keeping the build
55         directories with all the intermediate files.
56
57         Cache size for build directory (in MB)?
58
59       build_dir
60         Directory where the build process takes place?
61
62       build_dir_reuse
63         Until version 1.88 CPAN.pm never trusted the contents of the
64         build_dir directory between sessions. Since 1.88_58 CPAN.pm has a
65         YAML-based mechanism that makes it possible to share the contents of
66         the build_dir/ directory between different sessions with the same
67         version of perl. People who prefer to test things several days before
68         installing will like this feature because it saves a lot of time.
69
70         If you say yes to the following question, CPAN will try to store
71         enough information about the build process so that it can pick up in
72         future sessions at the same state of affairs as it left a previous
73         session.
74
75         Store and re-use state information about distributions between
76         CPAN.pm sessions?
77
78       build_requires_install_policy
79         When a module declares another one as a 'build_requires' prerequisite
80         this means that the other module is only needed for building or
81         testing the module but need not be installed permanently. In this
82         case you may wish to install that other module nonetheless or just
83         keep it in the 'build_dir' directory to have it available only
84         temporarily.  Installing saves time on future installations but makes
85         the perl installation bigger.
86
87         You can choose if you want to always install (yes), never install
88         (no) or be always asked. In the latter case you can set the default
89         answer for the question to yes (ask/yes) or no (ask/no).
90
91         Policy on installing 'build_requires' modules (yes, no, ask/yes,
92         ask/no)?
93
94       cache_metadata
95         To considerably speed up the initial CPAN shell startup, it is
96         possible to use Storable to create a cache of metadata. If Storable
97         is not available, the normal index mechanism will be used.
98
99         Note: this mechanism is not used when use_sqlite is on and SQLite is
100         running.
101
102         Cache metadata (yes/no)?
103
104       check_sigs
105         CPAN packages can be digitally signed by authors and thus verified
106         with the security provided by strong cryptography. The exact
107         mechanism is defined in the Module::Signature module. While this is
108         generally considered a good thing, it is not always convenient to the
109         end user to install modules that are signed incorrectly or where the
110         key of the author is not available or where some prerequisite for
111         Module::Signature has a bug and so on.
112
113         With the check_sigs parameter you can turn signature checking on and
114         off. The default is off for now because the whole tool chain for the
115         functionality is not yet considered mature by some. The author of
116         CPAN.pm would recommend setting it to true most of the time and
117         turning it off only if it turns out to be annoying.
118
119         Note that if you do not have Module::Signature installed, no
120         signature checks will be performed at all.
121
122         Always try to check and verify signatures if a SIGNATURE file is in
123         the package and Module::Signature is installed (yes/no)?
124
125       cleanup_after_install
126         Users who install modules and do not intend to look back, can free
127         occupied disk space quickly by letting CPAN.pm cleanup each build
128         directory immediately after a successful install.
129
130         Remove build directory after a successful install? (yes/no)?
131
132       colorize_output
133         When you have Term::ANSIColor installed, you can turn on colorized
134         output to have some visual differences between normal CPAN.pm output,
135         warnings, debugging output, and the output of the modules being
136         installed. Set your favorite colors after some experimenting with the
137         Term::ANSIColor module.
138
139         Please note that on Windows platforms colorized output also requires
140         the Win32::Console::ANSI module.
141
142         Do you want to turn on colored output?
143
144       colorize_print
145         Color for normal output?
146
147       colorize_warn
148         Color for warnings?
149
150       colorize_debug
151         Color for debugging messages?
152
153       commandnumber_in_prompt
154         The prompt of the cpan shell can contain the current command number
155         for easier tracking of the session or be a plain string.
156
157         Do you want the command number in the prompt (yes/no)?
158
159       connect_to_internet_ok
160         If you have never defined your own "urllist" in your configuration
161         then "CPAN.pm" will be hesitant to use the built in default sites for
162         downloading. It will ask you once per session if a connection to the
163         internet is OK and only if you say yes, it will try to connect. But
164         to avoid this question, you can choose your favorite download sites
165         once and get away with it. Or, if you have no favorite download sites
166         answer yes to the following question.
167
168         If no urllist has been chosen yet, would you prefer CPAN.pm to
169         connect to the built-in default sites without asking? (yes/no)?
170
171       ftp_passive
172         Shall we always set the FTP_PASSIVE environment variable when dealing
173         with ftp download (yes/no)?
174
175       ftpstats_period
176         Statistics about downloads are truncated by size and period
177         simultaneously.
178
179         How many days shall we keep statistics about downloads?
180
181       ftpstats_size
182         Statistics about downloads are truncated by size and period
183         simultaneously. Setting this to zero or negative disables download
184         statistics.
185
186         How many items shall we keep in the statistics about downloads?
187
188       getcwd
189         CPAN.pm changes the current working directory often and needs to
190         determine its own current working directory. Per default it uses
191         Cwd::cwd but if this doesn't work on your system for some reason,
192         alternatives can be configured according to the following table:
193
194             cwd         Cwd::cwd
195             getcwd      Cwd::getcwd
196             fastcwd     Cwd::fastcwd
197             getdcwd     Cwd::getdcwd
198             backtickcwd external command cwd
199
200         Preferred method for determining the current working directory?
201
202       halt_on_failure
203         Normally, CPAN.pm continues processing the full list of targets and
204         dependencies, even if one of them fails.  However, you can specify
205         that CPAN should halt after the first failure.  (Note that optional
206         recommended or suggested modules that fail will not cause a halt.)
207
208         Do you want to halt on failure (yes/no)?
209
210       histfile
211         If you have one of the readline packages (Term::ReadLine::Perl,
212         Term::ReadLine::Gnu, possibly others) installed, the interactive CPAN
213         shell will have history support. The next two questions deal with the
214         filename of the history file and with its size. If you do not want to
215         set this variable, please hit SPACE ENTER to the following question.
216
217         File to save your history?
218
219       histsize
220         Number of lines to save?
221
222       inactivity_timeout
223         Sometimes you may wish to leave the processes run by CPAN alone
224         without caring about them. Because the Makefile.PL or the Build.PL
225         sometimes contains question you're expected to answer, you can set a
226         timer that will kill a 'perl Makefile.PL' process after the specified
227         time in seconds.
228
229         If you set this value to 0, these processes will wait forever. This
230         is the default and recommended setting.
231
232         Timeout for inactivity during {Makefile,Build}.PL?
233
234       index_expire
235         The CPAN indexes are usually rebuilt once or twice per hour, but the
236         typical CPAN mirror mirrors only once or twice per day. Depending on
237         the quality of your mirror and your desire to be on the bleeding
238         edge, you may want to set the following value to more or less than
239         one day (which is the default). It determines after how many days
240         CPAN.pm downloads new indexes.
241
242         Let the index expire after how many days?
243
244       inhibit_startup_message
245         When the CPAN shell is started it normally displays a greeting
246         message that contains the running version and the status of readline
247         support.
248
249         Do you want to turn this message off?
250
251       keep_source_where
252         Unless you are accessing the CPAN on your filesystem via a file: URL,
253         CPAN.pm needs to keep the source files it downloads somewhere. Please
254         supply a directory where the downloaded files are to be kept.
255
256         Download target directory?
257
258       load_module_verbosity
259         When CPAN.pm loads a module it needs for some optional feature, it
260         usually reports about module name and version. Choose 'v' to get this
261         message, 'none' to suppress it.
262
263         Verbosity level for loading modules (none or v)?
264
265       makepl_arg
266         Every Makefile.PL is run by perl in a separate process. Likewise we
267         run 'make' and 'make install' in separate processes. If you have any
268         parameters (e.g. PREFIX, UNINST or the like) you want to pass to the
269         calls, please specify them here.
270
271         If you don't understand this question, just press ENTER.
272
273         Typical frequently used settings:
274
275             PREFIX=~/perl    # non-root users (please see manual for more hints)
276
277         Parameters for the 'perl Makefile.PL' command?
278
279       make_arg
280         Parameters for the 'make' command? Typical frequently used setting:
281
282             -j3              # dual processor system (on GNU make)
283
284         Your choice:
285
286       make_install_arg
287         Parameters for the 'make install' command?  Typical frequently used
288         setting:
289
290             UNINST=1         # to always uninstall potentially conflicting files
291                              # (but do NOT use with local::lib or INSTALL_BASE)
292
293         Your choice:
294
295       make_install_make_command
296         Do you want to use a different make command for 'make install'?
297         Cautious people will probably prefer:
298
299             su root -c make
300          or
301             sudo make
302          or
303             /path1/to/sudo -u admin_account /path2/to/make
304
305         or some such. Your choice:
306
307       mbuildpl_arg
308         A Build.PL is run by perl in a separate process. Likewise we run
309         './Build' and './Build install' in separate processes. If you have
310         any parameters you want to pass to the calls, please specify them
311         here.
312
313         Typical frequently used settings:
314
315             --install_base /home/xxx             # different installation directory
316
317         Parameters for the 'perl Build.PL' command?
318
319       mbuild_arg
320         Parameters for the './Build' command? Setting might be:
321
322             --extra_linker_flags -L/usr/foo/lib  # non-standard library location
323
324         Your choice:
325
326       mbuild_install_arg
327         Parameters for the './Build install' command? Typical frequently used
328         setting:
329
330             --uninst 1       # uninstall conflicting files
331                              # (but do NOT use with local::lib or INSTALL_BASE)
332
333         Your choice:
334
335       mbuild_install_build_command
336         Do you want to use a different command for './Build install'? Sudo
337         users will probably prefer:
338
339             su root -c ./Build
340          or
341             sudo ./Build
342          or
343             /path1/to/sudo -u admin_account ./Build
344
345         or some such. Your choice:
346
347       pager
348         What is your favorite pager program?
349
350       prefer_installer
351         When you have Module::Build installed and a module comes with both a
352         Makefile.PL and a Build.PL, which shall have precedence?
353
354         The main two standard installer modules are the old and well
355         established ExtUtils::MakeMaker (for short: EUMM) which uses the
356         Makefile.PL. And the next generation installer Module::Build (MB)
357         which works with the Build.PL (and often comes with a Makefile.PL
358         too). If a module comes only with one of the two we will use that one
359         but if both are supplied then a decision must be made between EUMM
360         and MB. See also http://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=29235 for
361         a discussion about the right default.
362
363         Or, as a third option you can choose RAND which will make a random
364         decision (something regular CPAN testers will enjoy).
365
366         In case you can choose between running a Makefile.PL or a Build.PL,
367         which installer would you prefer (EUMM or MB or RAND)?
368
369       prefs_dir
370         CPAN.pm can store customized build environments based on regular
371         expressions for distribution names. These are YAML files where the
372         default options for CPAN.pm and the environment can be overridden and
373         dialog sequences can be stored that can later be executed by an
374         Expect.pm object. The CPAN.pm distribution comes with some prefab
375         YAML files that cover sample distributions that can be used as
376         blueprints to store your own prefs. Please check out the distroprefs/
377         directory of the CPAN.pm distribution to get a quick start into the
378         prefs system.
379
380         Directory where to store default options/environment/dialogs for
381         building modules that need some customization?
382
383       prerequisites_policy
384         The CPAN module can detect when a module which you are trying to
385         build depends on prerequisites. If this happens, it can build the
386         prerequisites for you automatically ('follow'), ask you for
387         confirmation ('ask'), or just ignore them ('ignore').  Choosing
388         'follow' also sets PERL_AUTOINSTALL and PERL_EXTUTILS_AUTOINSTALL for
389         "--defaultdeps" if not already set.
390
391         Please set your policy to one of the three values.
392
393         Policy on building prerequisites (follow, ask or ignore)?
394
395       pushy_https
396         Boolean. Defaults to true. If this option is true, the cpan shell
397         will use https://cpan.org/ to download stuff from the CPAN. It will
398         fall back to http://cpan.org/ if it can't handle https for some
399         reason (missing modules, missing programs). Whenever it falls back to
400         the http protocol, it will issue a warning.
401
402         If this option is true, the option "urllist" will be ignored.
403         Consequently, if you want to work with local mirrors via your own
404         configured list of URLs, you will have to choose no below.
405
406         Do you want to turn the pushy_https behaviour on?
407
408       randomize_urllist
409         CPAN.pm can introduce some randomness when using hosts for download
410         that are configured in the urllist parameter. Enter a numeric value
411         between 0 and 1 to indicate how often you want to let CPAN.pm try a
412         random host from the urllist. A value of one specifies to always use
413         a random host as the first try. A value of zero means no randomness
414         at all. Anything in between specifies how often, on average, a random
415         host should be tried first.
416
417         Randomize parameter
418
419       recommends_policy
420         (Experimental feature!) Some CPAN modules recommend additional,
421         optional dependencies.  These should generally be installed except in
422         resource constrained environments.  When this policy is true,
423         recommended modules will be included with required modules.
424
425         Include recommended modules?
426
427       scan_cache
428         By default, each time the CPAN module is started, cache scanning is
429         performed to keep the cache size in sync ('atstart'). Alternatively,
430         scanning and cleanup can happen when CPAN exits ('atexit'). To
431         prevent any cache cleanup, answer 'never'.
432
433         Perform cache scanning ('atstart', 'atexit' or 'never')?
434
435       shell
436         What is your favorite shell?
437
438       show_unparsable_versions
439         During the 'r' command CPAN.pm finds modules without version number.
440         When the command finishes, it prints a report about this. If you want
441         this report to be very verbose, say yes to the following variable.
442
443         Show all individual modules that have no $VERSION?
444
445       show_upload_date
446         The 'd' and the 'm' command normally only show you information they
447         have in their in-memory database and thus will never connect to the
448         internet. If you set the 'show_upload_date' variable to true, 'm' and
449         'd' will additionally show you the upload date of the module or
450         distribution. Per default this feature is off because it may require
451         a net connection to get at the upload date.
452
453         Always try to show upload date with 'd' and 'm' command (yes/no)?
454
455       show_zero_versions
456         During the 'r' command CPAN.pm finds modules with a version number of
457         zero. When the command finishes, it prints a report about this. If
458         you want this report to be very verbose, say yes to the following
459         variable.
460
461         Show all individual modules that have a $VERSION of zero?
462
463       suggests_policy
464         (Experimental feature!) Some CPAN modules suggest additional,
465         optional dependencies.  These 'suggest' dependencies provide enhanced
466         operation.  When this policy is true, suggested modules will be
467         included with required modules.
468
469         Include suggested modules?
470
471       tar_verbosity
472         When CPAN.pm uses the tar command, which switch for the verbosity
473         shall be used? Choose 'none' for quiet operation, 'v' for file name
474         listing, 'vv' for full listing.
475
476         Tar command verbosity level (none or v or vv)?
477
478       term_is_latin
479         The next option deals with the charset (a.k.a. character set) your
480         terminal supports. In general, CPAN is English speaking territory, so
481         the charset does not matter much but some CPAN have names that are
482         outside the ASCII range. If your terminal supports UTF-8, you should
483         say no to the next question. If it expects ISO-8859-1 (also known as
484         LATIN1) then you should say yes. If it supports neither, your answer
485         does not matter because you will not be able to read the names of
486         some authors anyway. If you answer no, names will be output in UTF-8.
487
488         Your terminal expects ISO-8859-1 (yes/no)?
489
490       term_ornaments
491         When using Term::ReadLine, you can turn ornaments on so that your
492         input stands out against the output from CPAN.pm.
493
494         Do you want to turn ornaments on?
495
496       test_report
497         The goal of the CPAN Testers project (http://testers.cpan.org/) is to
498         test as many CPAN packages as possible on as many platforms as
499         possible.  This provides valuable feedback to module authors and
500         potential users to identify bugs or platform compatibility issues and
501         improves the overall quality and value of CPAN.
502
503         One way you can contribute is to send test results for each module
504         that you install.  If you install the CPAN::Reporter module, you have
505         the option to automatically generate and deliver test reports to CPAN
506         Testers whenever you run tests on a CPAN package.
507
508         See the CPAN::Reporter documentation for additional details and
509         configuration settings.  If your firewall blocks outgoing traffic,
510         you may need to configure CPAN::Reporter before sending reports.
511
512         Generate test reports if CPAN::Reporter is installed (yes/no)?
513
514       perl5lib_verbosity
515         When CPAN.pm extends @INC via PERL5LIB, it prints a list of
516         directories added (or a summary of how many directories are added).
517         Choose 'v' to get this message, 'none' to suppress it.
518
519         Verbosity level for PERL5LIB changes (none or v)?
520
521       prefer_external_tar
522         Per default all untar operations are done with the perl module
523         Archive::Tar; by setting this variable to true the external tar
524         command is used if available; on Unix this is usually preferred
525         because they have a reliable and fast gnutar implementation.
526
527         Use the external tar program instead of Archive::Tar?
528
529       trust_test_report_history
530         When a distribution has already been tested by CPAN::Reporter on this
531         machine, CPAN can skip the test phase and just rely on the test
532         report history instead.
533
534         Note that this will not apply to distributions that failed tests
535         because of missing dependencies.  Also, tests can be run regardless
536         of the history using "force".
537
538         Do you want to rely on the test report history (yes/no)?
539
540       urllist_ping_external
541         When automatic selection of the nearest cpan mirrors is performed,
542         turn on the use of the external ping via Net::Ping::External. This is
543         recommended in the case the local network has a transparent proxy.
544
545         Do you want to use the external ping command when autoselecting
546         mirrors?
547
548       urllist_ping_verbose
549         When automatic selection of the nearest cpan mirrors is performed,
550         this option can be used to turn on verbosity during the selection
551         process.
552
553         Do you want to see verbosity turned on when autoselecting mirrors?
554
555       use_prompt_default
556         When this is true, CPAN will set PERL_MM_USE_DEFAULT to a true value.
557         This causes ExtUtils::MakeMaker (and compatible) prompts to use
558         default values instead of stopping to prompt you to answer questions.
559         It also sets NONINTERACTIVE_TESTING to a true value to signal more
560         generally that distributions should not try to interact with you.
561
562         Do you want to use prompt defaults (yes/no)?
563
564       use_sqlite
565         CPAN::SQLite is a layer between the index files that are downloaded
566         from the CPAN and CPAN.pm that speeds up metadata queries and reduces
567         memory consumption of CPAN.pm considerably.
568
569         Use CPAN::SQLite if available? (yes/no)?
570
571       version_timeout
572         This timeout prevents CPAN from hanging when trying to parse a
573         pathologically coded $VERSION from a module.
574
575         The default is 15 seconds.  If you set this value to 0, no timeout
576         will occur, but this is not recommended.
577
578         Timeout for parsing module versions?
579
580       yaml_load_code
581         Both YAML.pm and YAML::Syck are capable of deserialising code. As
582         this requires a string eval, which might be a security risk, you can
583         use this option to enable or disable the deserialisation of code via
584         CPAN::DeferredCode. (Note: This does not work under perl 5.6)
585
586         Do you want to enable code deserialisation (yes/no)?
587
588       yaml_module
589         At the time of this writing (2009-03) there are three YAML
590         implementations working: YAML, YAML::Syck, and YAML::XS. The latter
591         two are faster but need a C compiler installed on your system. There
592         may be more alternative YAML conforming modules. When I tried two
593         other players, YAML::Tiny and YAML::Perl, they seemed not powerful
594         enough to work with CPAN.pm. This may have changed in the meantime.
595
596         Which YAML implementation would you prefer?
597

LICENSE

599       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
600       under the same terms as Perl itself.
601
602
603
604perl v5.34.1                      2022-04-20                CPAN::FirstTime(3)
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