[Pdx-pm] CPAN

[Michael G Schwern]

paul rogers wrote:
> My system is one I built under guidance of LFS. It's essentially a user 
> workstation. I'm not developing anything, i.e. don't need SVN, just 
> keeping this "useful". It has perl-5.8.7, and whatever "standard" 
> modules it comes with. I got a digital camera for Xmas, so I'm adding 
> support. GIMP seems necessary, and I can't build that without 
> XML::Parse. Once upon a time, maybe 5 years ago, I had a CPAN "bundle" 
> which I apparently lost on a flakey drive. I took a look at CPAN today, 
> and it's grown out of hand! ;-) I really don't want to hunt and peck 
> downloading modules one at a time, I don't need it all, and I've got a 
> slow dialup, 40Kbps. I see a few "bundles" at OSL, but none seem to be 
> what I need--a collection of ubiquitous source modules that cover most 
> of the common general needs and the prerequisites. Is there such a 
> thing? Can somebody point me to a tarball?

Many have tried, all have failed.  The greatest hurdle is defining what is 
"common" for a general purpose programming language.

The closest anyone has come is this attempt to list recommended modules for 
various uses.
http://www.perlfoundation.org/perl5/index.cgi?recommended_cpan_modules


> I suppose there's a module 
> for dynamically downloading modules. Seems to me I might find that 
> useful or "bits & bobs! " but I'd like to NOT have to use that from this 
> position. Any recommendations? TIA

You have two practical choices:

* Install CPAN modules using the package manager that comes with your 
operating system.  This is the least work for the casual user.

* Install them with the CPAN shell.  Here is a good tutorial.
http://learnperl.scratchcomputing.com/tutorials/configuration/

What you do not want to do is try to install them "by hand".  This is because 
the dependency chains for even for the most trivial CPAN module tend to be 
long.  Let either the CPAN shell or your package manager deal with this.


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