CPAN

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CPAN
logo
www.cpan.org
description Comprehensive Perl Archive Network
languages English
Originator Jarkko Hietaniemi
Published October 25, 1995
Members 11,200 authors

CPAN ( English Comprehensive Perl Archive Network ) is a world mirrored online repository for Perl - modules , - applications and documentaries that on 25 October 1995 following the TeX -Library CTAN was launched and is quickly becoming the de- facto standard. It offers the possibility of a comfortable installation and administration of Perl modules . At the end of 2018, the CPAN comprised around 260 servers on five continents and contained around 29,000 distributions by over 11,000 authors with a volume of around 17  GB .

Emergence

The repository was created from simply linked, private websites that offered free Perl modules for download and whose operators called themselves perl-packrats . The website of the Finn Jarkko Hietaniemi developed into a pioneer, as it was mostly very current and contained most of the modules. It was mirrored more and more naturally by the others until Jarkko combined the contents of the important archives and thus created the CPAN. Andreas König expanded this archive to include PAUSE (Perl Authors Upload Server), which enables authors to publish their modules in the CPAN themselves. Other parts of what is visible today as CPAN, in turn, go back to Jarkko's improvements. Only the search options and the CPAN multiplexer are the work of other Perl veterans.

regulate

Part of the success is also due to the fact that over the years strict standards have been established for the uploaded modules. Each module should at least have a MANIFEST file, a readme file, meta information in the form of a META. yml file and an installation script . In addition, all functions should be provided with POD documentation directly in the source code . In addition, as many test scripts as possible should be included; these are automatically executed during installation and their results (with the consent of the user) are also automatically sent back to CPAN. In this way, the author can receive test results from various systems within a very short time.

CPAN module

With the CPAN module by Andreas König, you can easily search, download, test, install, upgrade or uninstall a Perl module in the CPAN from a command line - regardless of the operating system . This can also be done interactively with the included CPAN shell (not a shell in the strict sense), which can be called up simply by entering cpan . The alternatives CPANPLUS and CPANMINUS were created for these. The latter in particular is often recommended for beginners because of its very simple usage and short, precise outputs, but must be installed as the 'App :: cpanminus' module , whereas CPAN is included from the start.

Install modules

perl Makefile.PL
make
make test
make install

CPAN modules are installed with the classic make tool, similar to Autoconf , but here too the Makefile is only created on the target computer on which the CPAN module is to be installed. Obviously , this is done with a supplied Perl program, which roughly corresponds to calling up ./configure in Autoconf.

An installation then runs like that of a normal program (see right): With makethe source text is compiled if necessary (e.g. operating system-dependent parts that are written in C ), with make testthe supplied test programs and with make installthe CPAN- Module installed in the target directory specified by the Perl installation.

Extensions

In recent years there have been several initiatives that have added new functions to the CPAN or added them to it:

  • Phalanx Project - Initiative to improve documentation and test coverage of Perl and its top 100 modules.
  • CPAN Testing Service (CPANTS) - A service that automatically checks all distributions for possible formal inadequacies.
  • CPAN Testers - checks new module versions for their operability under different operating systems and configurations.
  • CPAN Ratings - Ratings (0 to 5 stars) and reviews of modules.

alternative

ActiveState provides a tool called ppm that is comparable in terms of functionality to its ActivePerl distribution , but which does not get its files directly from the CPAN, but from a repository derived from it, which contains precompiled packages for some operating systems such as Linux, Solaris and Windows.

Web links

Wiktionary: CPAN  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

swell

  1. ↑ CPAN Sites , accessed November 19, 2018.
  2. ↑ CPAN Statistics