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Manual Reference Pages  - CPAN (1)

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cpan - easily interact with CPAN from the command line

CONTENTS

        # with arguments and no switches, installs specified modules
        cpan module_name [ module_name ... ]

        # with switches, installs modules with extra behavior
        cpan [-cfimt] module_name [ module_name ... ]

        # without arguments, starts CPAN.pm shell
        cpan

        # without arguments, but some switches
        cpan [-ahrvACDLO]

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.

These options are mutually exclusive, and the script processes them in this order: [hvCAar]. Once the script finds one, it ignores the others, and then exits after it finishes the task. The script ignores any other command line options.

-a	Creates the CPAN.pm autobundle with CPAN::Shell->autobundle.
-A module [ module ... ]	Shows the primary maintainers for the specified modules
-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 This prints one line for each out-of-date module (meaning, modules locally installed but have newer versions on CPAN).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.
-L author [ author ... ]	List the modules by the specified authors.
-h	Prints a help message.
-O	Show the out-of-date modules.
-r	Recompiles dynamically loaded modules with CPAN::Shell->recompile.
-v	Print the script version and CPAN.pm version.

These options are mutually exclusive, and the script processes them in alphabetical order. It only processes the first one it finds.

c	Runs a ‘make clean‘ in the specified module’s directories.
f	Forces the specified action, when it normally would have failed.
i	Installed the specified modules.
m	Makes the specified modules.
t	Runs a ‘make test‘ on the specified modules.

        # print a help message
        cpan -h

        # print the version numbers
        cpan -v

        # create an autobundle
        cpan -a

        # recompile modules
        cpan -r

        # install modules ( sole -i is optional )
        cpan -i Netscape::Booksmarks Business::ISBN

        # force install modules ( must use -i )
        cpan -fi CGI::Minimal URI

* none noted

Most behaviour, including environment variables and configuration, comes directly from CPAN.pm.

This source is part of a SourceForge project which always has the latest sources in CVS, as well as all of the previous releases.

        http://sourceforge.net/projects/brian-d-foy/

If, for some reason, I disappear from the world, one of the other members of the project can shepherd this module appropriately.

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

brian d foy, <bdfoy@cpan.org>

Copyright (c) 2001-2006, brian d foy, All Rights Reserved.

You may redistribute this under the same terms as Perl itself.

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