Perl Modules

Getting To The CPAN Prompt

To administer your Perl modules you must use the CPAN prompt. To get to the CPAN prompt, as root type:

cpan

If this is the first time that you have entered the CPAN shell, you will be asked some set-up questions that will allow the shell to access CPAN's servers to get modules. Just read the questions and answer them.

If you ever need to re-run the set-up again, enter the CPAN shell and then type:

o conf init

Listing The Installed Modules

From the BASH prompt:

Easy way

    instmodsh
    l (L)

Hard way use this Perl program:

    #!/usr/bin/perl
    use ExtUtils::Installed;
    my $instmod = ExtUtils::Installed->new();
    foreach my $module ($instmod->modules())
    {
    my $version = $instmod->version($module) || "???";
    print "$module -- $version\n";
    }

Installing New Modules

From the CPAN prompt, type:

    install <Some::Module>

Removing Modules

A clean way is by using this Perl program from the BASH prompt:

    #!/usr/bin/perl -w
    use ExtUtils::Packlist;
    use ExtUtils::Installed;
    $ARGV[0] or die "Usage: $0 Module::Name\n";
    my $mod = $ARGV[0];
    my $inst = ExtUtils::Installed->new();
    foreach my $item (sort($inst->files($mod)))
    {
    print "removing $item\n";
    unlink $item;
    }
    my $packfile = $inst->packlist($mod)->packlist_file();
    print "removing $packfile\n";
    unlink $packfile;

Upgrade Modules

From the CPAN prompt, type:

    upgrade MODULE::NAME (to upgrade an individual module)

or

    upgrade (to upgrade ALL modules)