NAME¶
App::Cpan - easily interact with CPAN from the command line
SYNOPSIS¶
# with arguments and no switches, installs specified modules
cpan module_name [ module_name ... ]
# with switches, installs modules with extra behavior
cpan [-cfFimt] module_name [ module_name ... ]
# use local::lib
cpan -l module_name [ module_name ... ]
# with just the dot, install from the distribution in the
# current directory
cpan .
# without arguments, starts CPAN.pm shell
cpan
# without arguments, but some switches
cpan [-ahruvACDLO]
DESCRIPTION¶
This script provides a command interface (not a shell) to CPAN. At the moment it
uses CPAN.pm to do the work, but it is not a one-shot command runner for
CPAN.pm.
Options¶
- -a
- Creates a CPAN.pm autobundle with
CPAN::Shell->autobundle.
- -A module [ module ... ]
- Shows the primary maintainers for the specified
modules.
- -c module
- Runs a `make clean` in the specified module's
directories.
- -C module [ module ... ]
- Show the Changes files for the specified
modules
- -D module [ module ... ]
- Show the module details. This prints one line for each
out-of-date module (meaning, modules locally installed but have newer
versions on CPAN). Each line has three columns: module name, local
version, and CPAN version.
- -f
- Force the specified action, when it normally would have
failed. Use this to install a module even if its tests fail. When you use
this option, -i is not optional for installing a module when you need to
force it:
% cpan -f -i Module::Foo
- -F
- Turn off CPAN.pm's attempts to lock anything. You should be
careful with this since you might end up with multiple scripts trying to
muck in the same directory. This isn't so much of a concern if you're
loading a special config with "-j", and that config sets up its
own work directories.
- -g module [ module ... ]
- Downloads to the current directory the latest distribution
of the module.
- -G module [ module ... ]
- UNIMPLEMENTED
Download to the current directory the latest distribution of the modules,
unpack each distribution, and create a git repository for each
distribution.
If you want this feature, check out Yanick Champoux's
"Git::CPAN::Patch" distribution.
- -h
- Print a help message and exit. When you specify
"-h", it ignores all of the other options and arguments.
- -i
- Install the specified modules.
- -j Config.pm
- Load the file that has the CPAN configuration data. This
should have the same format as the standard CPAN/Config.pm file,
which defines $CPAN::Config as an anonymous hash.
- -J
- Dump the configuration in the same format that CPAN.pm
uses. This is useful for checking the configuration as well as using the
dump as a starting point for a new, custom configuration.
- -l
- Use "local::lib".
- -L author [ author ... ]
- List the modules by the specified authors.
- -m
- Make the specified modules.
- -O
- Show the out-of-date modules.
- -t
- Run a `make test` on the specified modules.
- -r
- Recompiles dynamically loaded modules with
CPAN::Shell->recompile.
- -u
- Upgrade all installed modules. Blindly doing this can
really break things, so keep a backup.
- -v
- Print the script version and CPAN.pm version then
exit.
Examples¶
# print a help message
cpan -h
# print the version numbers
cpan -v
# create an autobundle
cpan -a
# recompile modules
cpan -r
# upgrade all installed modules
cpan -u
# install modules ( sole -i is optional )
cpan -i Netscape::Booksmarks Business::ISBN
# force install modules ( must use -i )
cpan -fi CGI::Minimal URI
Methods¶
- run()
- Just do it.
The "run" method returns 0 on success and a postive number on
failure. See the section on EXIT CODES for details on the values.
CPAN.pm sends all the good stuff either to STDOUT. I have to intercept that
output so I can find out what happened.
EXIT VALUES¶
The script exits with zero if it thinks that everything worked, or a positive
number if it thinks that something failed. Note, however, that in some cases
it has to divine a failure by the output of things it does not control. For
now, the exit codes are vague:
1 An unknown error
2 The was an external problem
4 There was an internal problem with the script
8 A module failed to install
TO DO¶
* There is initial support for Log4perl if it is available, but I haven't gone
through everything to make the NullLogger work out correctly if Log4perl is
not installed.
* When I capture CPAN.pm output, I need to check for errors and report them to
the user.
BUGS¶
* none noted
SEE ALSO¶
Most behaviour, including environment variables and configuration, comes
directly from CPAN.pm.
SOURCE AVAILABILITY¶
This code is in Github:
git://github.com/briandfoy/cpan_script.git
CREDITS¶
Japheth Cleaver added the bits to allow a forced install (-f).
Jim Brandt suggest and provided the initial implementation for the up-to-date
and Changes features.
Adam Kennedy pointed out that
exit() causes problems on Windows where
this script ends up with a .bat extension
AUTHOR¶
brian d foy, "<bdfoy@cpan.org>"
COPYRIGHT¶
Copyright (c) 2001-2009, brian d foy, All Rights Reserved.
You may redistribute this under the same terms as Perl itself.