This is Info file pm.info, produced by Makeinfo version 1.68 from the input file bigpm.texi.  File: pm.info, Node: CIsam, Next: CONFIG/Hash, Prev: CIPP/Manual, Up: Module List Perl Object Oriented extension for ISAM files ********************************************* NAME ==== CIsam - Perl Object Oriented extension for ISAM files SYNOPSIS ======== use CIsam; DESCRIPTION =========== CIsam.pm is a thin wrapper to the C-ISAM functions calls. Exported constants ================== AUDGETNAME AUDHEADSIZE AUDINFO AUDSETNAME AUDSTART AUDSTOP CHARTYPE DECIMALTYPE DOUBLETYPE FLOATTYPE INTTYPE LONGTYPE MINTTYPE MLONGTYPE STRINGTYPE ISAUTOLOCK ISCLOSED ISCURR ISD1 ISD2 ISDD ISDESC ISDUPS ISEQUAL ISEXCLLOCK ISFIRST ISFIXLEN ISGREAT ISGTEQ ISINOUT ISINPUT ISLAST ISLCKW ISLOCK ISMANULOCK ISMASKED ISNEXT ISNOCARE ISNODUPS ISNOLOG ISOUTPUT ISPREV ISRDONLY ISSYNCWR ISTRANS ISVARCMP ISVARLEN ISWAIT AUTHOR ====== Ilya Verlinsky, ilya@wsi.net METHODS ======= $obj->new() Parameters: This is the object constructor. If IsamObjects::BUILD is passed to it, it will create the nessasary Isam files for that object to be stored in. If no options are passed it will try to open the Isam files for reading and writing in its default mode ISINOUT + ISMANULOCK. If user desires some other mode than default he must pass the opening mode to the constructor. Example: my $ps = new Person(IsamObjects::BUILD) - this will build the Isam files my $ps = new Person; - this will open the db in the default mode my $ps = new Person(&ISINOUT + &ISMANULOCK) - This will open the db in custom mode $obj->path("indexname") Parameters: indexname as contained in the database layout module of the index to be used when accessing the file (set). Only one path may be active at a time. The paths must be valid paths which are specified in the layout as indexed fields. Example: $obj->path("foo"); $obj->get(ISMODE) Parameters: Informix access mode should be passed. This will tell the DB the way to access the records. Examples of modes are ISFIRST, ISLAST, ISGTEQ, ISEQUAL, ISGREAT, ISNEXT. For all modes except ISFIRST, ISLAST, and ISNEXT the database engine will also perform the search function. The function will return a full record from the db with it will stuff in the appropriate hash positions. Example: $obj->get(&ISGTEQ); $obj->add(); Parameters: No parameters needs to be passed to this function. It will add a non-existant record to the database. WARNING: If the record witht he same unique number is already in the db unpredictable situation can occur. For such a case use update() function. Example: $obj->add(); $obj->update Parameters: No parameters. It will update the existing record in the db. WARNING: Do not use to add new records. Unpredictable errors can occur. Example: $obj->update(); $obj->clear(); Parameters: None. This function will clear the record and set all the values to their defaults - 0 for numeric and ' ' for the character. Example: $obj->clear(); The CIsam module allowes for the user of IsamObjects to access even the lowes CIsam functions throught the Isam Object $obj->{ISAM_OBJ} CIsam.pm module include class methods indicated by CIsam->method and object methods indicated by $fd->method where $fd is a reference to an instance obtained by isopen, isbuild or iscluster eg. my $fd = CIsam->isopen("myfile",&ISINOUT); CIsam->iserrno([INTVALUE]) Returns the value of the global CIsam variable iserrno unless `INTVALUE' is specified, in which case, sets the value of iserrno. CIsam->isrecnum([LONGVALUE]) Returns the value of the global CIsam variable isrecnum unless `LONGVALUE' is specified, in which case, sets the value of isrecnum. CIsam->isreclen([INTVALUE]) Returns the value of the global CIsam variable isreclen unless `INTVALUE' is specified, in which case, sets the value of isreclen. CIsam->iserrio([INTVALUE]) Returns the value of the global CIsam variable iserrio unless `INTVALUE' is specified, in which case, sets the value of iserrio. $fd->fd Returns CIsam file descriptor $fd->name Returns the filename $fd->isaddindex(KEYDESC) Returns TRUE if successfully adds an index to $fd CIsam->isbuild(NAME, LEN, KEYDESC, MODE) Returns a reference to an CIsam object or undef if unsuccessful CIsam->iscleanup Returns TRUE if successful $fd->isclose Returns TRUE if successful $fd->iscluster(KEYDESC) KEYDESC is a reference to a Keydesc object. Returns a reference to an CIsam object or undef if unsuccessful CIsam->iscommit Returns TRUE if successful $fd->isdelcurr Returns TRUE if successful $fd->isdelete(DATA) DATA is a reference to a scalar. Returns TRUE if successful $fd->isdelindex(KEYDESC) KEYDESC is a reference to a Keydesc object. Returns TRUE if successful $fd->isdelrec(RECNUM) RECNUM is a long integer Returns TRUE if successful CIsam->iserase(NAME) NAME is a filename. Returns TRUE if successful $fd->isflush Returns TRUE if successful $fd->isindexinfo(IDX) IDX is an integer. returns undef if unsuccessful. If IDX == 0, returns a reference to a Dictinfo object. If IDX > 0, returns a reference to a Keydesc object $fd->islock Returns TRUE if successful CIsam->islogclose Returns TRUE if successful CIsam->islogopen Returns TRUE if successful CIsam->isopen(NAME, MODE) NAME is a filename, MODE is an integer Returns undef if unsuccessful, otherwise returns a reference to an CIsam object $fd->isread(DATA, MODE) DATA is a reference to a scalar. MODE is an integer. Returns TRUE if successful CIsam->isrecover Returns TRUE if successful $fd->isrelease Returns TRUE if successful CIsam->isrename(OLDNAME, NEWNAME) Returns TRUE if successful $fd->isrewcurr(DATA) DATA is a reference to a scalar. Returns TRUE if successful $fd->isrewrec(RECNUM, DATA) RECNUM is the record number, DATA is a reference to the Data. Returns TRUE if successful $fd->isrewrite(DATA) DATA is a reference to the Data. Returns TRUE if successful CIsam->isrollback Returns TRUE if successful $fd->issetunique(UNIQUEID) UNIQUEID is an integer scalar. Returns TRUE if successful $fd->isstart(KEYDESC, LENGTH, DATA, MODE) KEYDESC is a reference to a Keydesc object, LENGTH is 0 or the number of bytes of the key, DATA is a reference to a scalar, MODE is an integer value. Returns TRUE if successful $fd->isuniqueid Returns undef if unsuccessful or an long value $fd->isunlock Returns TRUE if successful $fd->iswrcurr(DATA) DATA is a reference to a scalar. Returns TRUE if successful $fd->iswrite(DATA) DATA is a reference to a scalar. Returns TRUE if successful perl(1). IsamObjects.  File: pm.info, Node: CONFIG/Hash, Next: CONFIG/Plain, Prev: CIsam, Up: Module List Class to read 2-column files into a hash **************************************** NAME ==== CONFIG::Hash - Class to read 2-column files into a hash SYNOPSIS ======== use CONFIG::Hash; my $file = CONFIG::Hash->new($filename, \%config); $hash_ref = $file->get(); $value = $file->get($key); DESCRIPTION =========== Parses a two-column formated file into a hash. The module uses the CONFIG::Plain class so you can use all features of the Plain module. METHODS ======= new - parse file (read via CONFIG::Plain) into hash --------------------------------------------------- Configuration Options: -> all described in CONFIG::Plain are known KEYREGEXP Scalar holding a regular expression which must match every key. DEFAULT: "^(\\S+)" HINT: Since the first character of a line has to be a non-white-space character it is possible to make multi-line values. Have a look at the examples. HASHREGEXP Scalar holding a regular expression which matches the content. DEFAULT: "\\s+(.*)\$" SUBSTITUTENEWLINE If defined all NewLine characters in the value will be substituted with this scalar. DEFAULT: "\n" REQUIRE Reference to a Array which holds list of required variables. DEFAULT: [] DEFAULT Reference to Hash holding default Values. DEFAULT: {} ALLOWREDEFINE Scalar switch to suppress error messages if the same key is redefined at a later point in file. DEFAULT: 1 CASEINSENSITIVE All keys are convertet into lower case if this option was defined. DEFAULT: undef get - get a reference to the hash or a specified field ------------------------------------------------------ $hash_ref = $file->get(); Returns a reference to the hash holding all data from file. $value = $file->get($key); Returns the value to the specified key. get_line - get the linenumber where this key was found ------------------------------------------------------ $line_nr = $file->get_line($key); Returns a scalar holding the line number. Call often to get include path. get_file - get the filename where this key was found ---------------------------------------------------- $filename = $file->get_file($key); Returns a scalar holding the filename. Call often to get include path. EXAMPLES ======== Assumes default configuration >KEY This is a very stupid text > but it shows the functionality \ > of this module Will get into 'KEY' => "This is a very stupid text\nbut it shows the functionality of this module" With the config setting 'SUBSTITUTENEWLINE' => ' ' >INSERT insert into > table dummy > (col1, col2, col3) > values > (1, "value", "value2"); Will get into 'INSERT' => 'insert into table dummy (col1, col2, col3) values (1, "value", "value2");' SEE ALSO ======== CONFIG::Plain(3pm) The CONFIG:: Guide at http://www.fatalmind.com/programs/CONFIG/ COPYRIGHT ========= Copyright (C) 1999, 2000 by Markus Winand This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.  File: pm.info, Node: CONFIG/Plain, Next: CPAN, Prev: CONFIG/Hash, Up: Module List Base class for cached file reading ********************************** NAME ==== CONFIG::Plain - Base class for cached file reading SYNOPSIS ======== use CONFIG::Plain; my $file = CONFIG::Plain->new($filename, \%config); my $file_content = $file->getfile; while (defined $line = $file->getline) { printf("%s:%d> %s\n", $file->getline_file, $file->getline_number, $line); } # example for error reporting while (defined ($line = $file->getline)) { $error = $file->getline_error; if (defined $error) { printf("ERROR in %s:%d\n", $file->getline_file, $file->getline_number); while ($filename = $file->getline_file) { printf(" included from %s:%d\n", $filename, $file->getline_number); } do { printf(" %s\n", $error); } while (defined ($error = $file->getline_error)); } } ABSTRACT ======== This perl module is highly useful in connection with mod_perl cgi scripts. It caches files (re-reads the files if necessary) to speed up the file reading. It is possible to configure the module to remove comments, trailing blanks, empty lines or to do other useful things only once. DESCRIPTION =========== The methods of this module are very similar to the IO methods to read a file. The two major differences are: Caching ------- If you open/read a file twice (or often) the file will be cached after the first access. So the second (and third, and forth, ...) access is much faster. This feature is very useful in connection with mod_perl CGI scripts. Preparsing ---------- You can configure this class to preparse the input file immediatly after the disk access (NOTE: the preparsed file will be cached). Some default preparse algorithms are available (delete empty lines, remove comments, remove trailing blanks, ...) but it's possible to overload a method to implement special preparse functionality. METHODS ======= Overview: new - opens, reads and preparses a file close - close the file parse_file - empty method, overload this for specific preparse functionality getfile - returns a scalar holding the preparsed file getline - returns a scalar holding a line of the file getline_reset - resets the cursor for getline getline_number - returns the inputfile number of the last line got via getline (cursor handled for includes) getline_file - returns the inputfilename of the last line got via getline (cursor handled for includes) getline_error - returns error messages in for this line (cursor handled) setline_error - stores a errormessage to the last line got via getline get_errors - returns a human readable string holding ALL error messages new - open, read and preparse file ---------------------------------- (1) $ref = CONFIG::Plain->new($filename); (2) $ref = CONFIG::Plain->new($filename, \%CONFIG); (3) $ref = CONFIG::Plain->new(\%CONFIG); This method creates a new object from the class. You can specify the filename as first argument (see syntax (1) or (2)) or include the filename into the options hash (use "FILE" as key). Configuration Options: COMMENT - define comment styles Known comment styles are: sh - shell like comments (from '#' to end of line) C - C like comments (from '/*' to '*/', multi line) C++ - C++ like comments (from '//' to end of line) asm - assembler like comments (from ';' to end of line) pascal - pascal like comments (from '{' to '}', multi line) sql - oracle sql style (from '--' to end of line) regexp - define comments by regular expression for start and end. This style accepts two parameters, the syntax is: "regexp:|" where is the regular expression for the start of the comment, and the regexp for the end. EXAMPLE: "regexp:#|\$" comments goes from "#" to new line (same as "sh" style). DEFAULT: "sh C C++" DATA - use given data instaed of read it from a file Use the data given in this argument instaed of read it from disk. DELEMPTYLINE - delete empty lines Boolsch, if true empty lines will be deleted. DEFAULT: 1 ESCAPE - specifies a escape character Use the ESCAPE character in front of magic sequences (or characters) to make them non magic. EXAMPLE: (escape a comment) >this line includes a hash sign \# but no comment< will get into >this line includes a hash sign # but no comment< of >no \/*comment /* comment \*/ still comment */ no comment< will get into >no /*comment no comment< EXAMPLE: (escape a escape character) >a backslash:\\< will get into >a backslash:\< EXAMPLE: (escape a new line) >line one \ line two< will get into >line one line two< DEFAULT: `\\\\` # -> one backslash FILE - specify the filename If you use the syntax (3) the filename is got from this option. INCLUDE - specify a regexp for includes If this regexp matches, the specified file will be included at this point. This regexp must store the filename in the $1 varaible. DEFAULT: "include <(.*?)>" (filename in <> is stored) REMOVETRAILINGBLANKS - remove trailing blanks Boolsch, if true trailing blanks will be removed. EXAMPLE: > ho ho < will get into >ho ho< (no leading or trailing white spaces) DEFAULT: 1 close - closes a object instance -------------------------------- This method accually does nothing, but this may changed in future releases, so please use it for compatibily. getfile - returns a scalar holding the whole file ------------------------------------------------- $file_contents = $file->getfile; returns the preparsed file. getline - returns a scalar holding a line ----------------------------------------- $line = $file_getline; returns the file line by line until the end of the file is reached. The method will return an undefined value on end of file. NOTE: the first call to this method need not return the first line of the file (e.g. if the line was empty and DELEMPTYLINE was enabled) Use the method getline_number to get the linenumber of the last got line. getline_reset - reset the cursor for getline -------------------------------------------- $file->getline_reset; If you call this method, the next call to the getline method will start the filereading from the top of the file. getline_number - returns the input line number ---------------------------------------------- $line_number = $file->getline_number; Returns the input line number of the last line got via getline. Because of the INCLUDE feature this method may called often to get the include path (see example below). getline_file - returns the input filename ----------------------------------------- $filename = $file->getline_file; Returns the filename of the sourcefile of the last line got via getline. Because of the INCLUDE feature this mathod may called often to get the include path (see example below). getline_error - returns errors of this line ------------------------------------------- $error = $file->getline_error; Returns for every error occurred in this line a human readable error message or an undefined value if no error occures. NOTE: Since one line may contain more then one error, this method may called often to get all error messages. The list will be terminated by an undefined value. NOTE: If you call this method before the first call to getline, you will get the global error messages (such as "file not found"). get_errors - returns ALL error messages --------------------------------------- print $file->get_errors; Returns a scalar holding ALL error messages in a preformated style. setline_error - stores a errormessage ------------------------------------- $file->setline_error(sprintf("File %s not found", $filename)); Stores a error message to a line. Every line may contain more then one error(message). SEE ALSO ======== CONFIG::Hash(3pm) The CONFIG:: Guide at http://www.fatalmind.com/programs/CONFIG TODO ==== Since this module is grown, the design is horrible! I should re-implement the whole module (I'll do this in V2.0). BUGS ==== Many, but in most cases it will work correct ;) Note: the include stuff is very beta AUTHOR ====== Markus Winand COPYRIGHT ========= Copyright (C) 1999, 2000 by Markus Winand This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.  File: pm.info, Node: CPAN, Next: CPAN/Admin, Prev: CONFIG/Plain, Up: Module List query, download and build perl modules from CPAN sites ****************************************************** NAME ==== CPAN - query, download and build perl modules from CPAN sites SYNOPSIS ======== Interactive mode: perl -MCPAN -e shell; Batch mode: use CPAN; autobundle, clean, install, make, recompile, test DESCRIPTION =========== The CPAN module is designed to automate the make and install of perl modules and extensions. It includes some searching capabilities and knows how to use Net::FTP or LWP (or lynx or an external ftp client) to fetch the raw data from the net. Modules are fetched from one or more of the mirrored CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) sites and unpacked in a dedicated directory. The CPAN module also supports the concept of named and versioned *bundles* of modules. Bundles simplify the handling of sets of related modules. See Bundles below. The package contains a session manager and a cache manager. There is no status retained between sessions. The session manager keeps track of what has been fetched, built and installed in the current session. The cache manager keeps track of the disk space occupied by the make processes and deletes excess space according to a simple FIFO mechanism. For extended searching capabilities there's a plugin for CPAN available, *Note CPAN/WAIT: CPAN/WAIT,. `CPAN::WAIT' is a full-text search engine that indexes all documents available in CPAN authors directories. If `CPAN::WAIT' is installed on your system, the interactive shell of will enable the wq, wr, wd, wl, and wh commands which send queries to the WAIT server that has been configured for your installation. All other methods provided are accessible in a programmer style and in an interactive shell style. Interactive Mode ---------------- The interactive mode is entered by running perl -MCPAN -e shell which puts you into a readline interface. You will have the most fun if you install Term::ReadKey and Term::ReadLine to enjoy both history and command completion. Once you are on the command line, type 'h' and the rest should be self-explanatory. The function call `shell' takes two optional arguments, one is the prompt, the second is the default initial command line (the latter only works if a real ReadLine interface module is installed). The most common uses of the interactive modes are Searching for authors, bundles, distribution files and modules There are corresponding one-letter commands a, b, d, and m for each of the four categories and another, i for any of the mentioned four. Each of the four entities is implemented as a class with slightly differing methods for displaying an object. Arguments you pass to these commands are either strings exactly matching the identification string of an object or regular expressions that are then matched case-insensitively against various attributes of the objects. The parser recognizes a regular expression only if you enclose it between two slashes. The principle is that the number of found objects influences how an item is displayed. If the search finds one item, the result is displayed with the rather verbose method as_string, but if we find more than one, we display each object with the terse method . make, test, install, clean modules or distributions These commands take any number of arguments and investigate what is necessary to perform the action. If the argument is a distribution file name (recognized by embedded slashes), it is processed. If it is a module, CPAN determines the distribution file in which this module is included and processes that, following any dependencies named in the module's Makefile.PL (this behavior is controlled by *prerequisites_policy*.) Any make or test are run unconditionally. An install also is run unconditionally. But for install CPAN checks if an install is actually needed for it and prints *module up to date* in the case that the distribution file containing the module doesn't need to be updated. CPAN also keeps track of what it has done within the current session and doesn't try to build a package a second time regardless if it succeeded or not. The force command takes as a first argument the method to invoke (currently: make, test, or install) and executes the command from scratch. Example: cpan> install OpenGL OpenGL is up to date. cpan> force install OpenGL Running make OpenGL-0.4/ OpenGL-0.4/COPYRIGHT [...] A clean command results in a make clean being executed within the distribution file's working directory. get, readme, look module or distribution get downloads a distribution file without further action. `readme' displays the README file of the associated distribution. `Look' gets and untars (if not yet done) the distribution file, changes to the appropriate directory and opens a subshell process in that directory. Signals CPAN.pm installs signal handlers for SIGINT and SIGTERM. While you are in the cpan-shell it is intended that you can press `^C' anytime and return to the cpan-shell prompt. A SIGTERM will cause the cpan-shell to clean up and leave the shell loop. You can emulate the effect of a SIGTERM by sending two consecutive SIGINTs, which usually means by pressing `^C' twice. CPAN.pm ignores a SIGPIPE. If the user sets inactivity_timeout, a SIGALRM is used during the run of the `perl Makefile.PL' subprocess. CPAN::Shell ----------- The commands that are available in the shell interface are methods in the package CPAN::Shell. If you enter the shell command, all your input is split by the Text::ParseWords::shellwords() routine which acts like most shells do. The first word is being interpreted as the method to be called and the rest of the words are treated as arguments to this method. Continuation lines are supported if a line ends with a literal backslash. autobundle ---------- autobundle writes a bundle file into the `$CPAN::Config->{cpan_home}/Bundle' directory. The file contains a list of all modules that are both available from CPAN and currently installed within @INC. The name of the bundle file is based on the current date and a counter. recompile --------- recompile() is a very special command in that it takes no argument and runs the make/test/install cycle with brute force over all installed dynamically loadable extensions (aka XS modules) with 'force' in effect. The primary purpose of this command is to finish a network installation. Imagine, you have a common source tree for two different architectures. You decide to do a completely independent fresh installation. You start on one architecture with the help of a Bundle file produced earlier. CPAN installs the whole Bundle for you, but when you try to repeat the job on the second architecture, CPAN responds with a `"Foo up to date"' message for all modules. So you invoke CPAN's recompile on the second architecture and you're done. Another popular use for recompile is to act as a rescue in case your perl breaks binary compatibility. If one of the modules that CPAN uses is in turn depending on binary compatibility (so you cannot run CPAN commands), then you should try the CPAN::Nox module for recovery. The four `CPAN::*' Classes: Author, Bundle, Module, Distribution ---------------------------------------------------------------- Although it may be considered internal, the class hierarchy does matter for both users and programmer. CPAN.pm deals with above mentioned four classes, and all those classes share a set of methods. A classical single polymorphism is in effect. A metaclass object registers all objects of all kinds and indexes them with a string. The strings referencing objects have a separated namespace (well, not completely separated): Namespace Class words containing a "/" (slash) Distribution words starting with Bundle:: Bundle everything else Module or Author Modules know their associated Distribution objects. They always refer to the most recent official release. Developers may mark their releases as unstable development versions (by inserting an underbar into the visible version number), so the really hottest and newest distribution file is not always the default. If a module Foo circulates on CPAN in both version 1.23 and 1.23_90, CPAN.pm offers a convenient way to install version 1.23 by saying install Foo This would install the complete distribution file (say BAR/Foo-1.23.tar.gz) with all accompanying material. But if you would like to install version 1.23_90, you need to know where the distribution file resides on CPAN relative to the authors/id/ directory. If the author is BAR, this might be BAR/Foo-1.23_90.tar.gz; so you would have to say install BAR/Foo-1.23_90.tar.gz The first example will be driven by an object of the class CPAN::Module, the second by an object of class CPAN::Distribution. Programmer's interface ---------------------- If you do not enter the shell, the available shell commands are both available as methods (`CPAN::Shell->install(...)') and as functions in the calling package (`install(...)'). There's currently only one class that has a stable interface - CPAN::Shell. All commands that are available in the CPAN shell are methods of the class CPAN::Shell. Each of the commands that produce listings of modules (r, autobundle, u) also return a list of the IDs of all modules within the list. expand($type,@things) The IDs of all objects available within a program are strings that can be expanded to the corresponding real objects with the `CPAN::Shell->expand("Module",@things)' method. Expand returns a list of CPAN::Module objects according to the `@things' arguments given. In scalar context it only returns the first element of the list. Programming Examples This enables the programmer to do operations that combine functionalities that are available in the shell. # install everything that is outdated on my disk: perl -MCPAN -e 'CPAN::Shell->install(CPAN::Shell->r)' # install my favorite programs if necessary: for $mod (qw(Net::FTP MD5 Data::Dumper)){ my $obj = CPAN::Shell->expand('Module',$mod); $obj->install; } # list all modules on my disk that have no VERSION number for $mod (CPAN::Shell->expand("Module","/./")){ next unless $mod->inst_file; # MakeMaker convention for undefined $VERSION: next unless $mod->inst_version eq "undef"; print "No VERSION in ", $mod->id, "\n"; } # find out which distribution on CPAN contains a module: print CPAN::Shell->expand("Module","Apache::Constants")->cpan_file Or if you want to write a cronjob to watch The CPAN, you could list all modules that need updating. First a quick and dirty way: perl -e 'use CPAN; CPAN::Shell->r;' If you don't want to get any output in the case that all modules are up to date, you can parse the output of above command for the regular expression //modules are up to date// and decide to mail the output only if it doesn't match. Ick? If you prefer to do it more in a programmer style in one single process, maybe something like this suites you better: # list all modules on my disk that have newer versions on CPAN for $mod (CPAN::Shell->expand("Module","/./")){ next unless $mod->inst_file; next if $mod->uptodate; printf "Module %s is installed as %s, could be updated to %s from CPAN\n", $mod->id, $mod->inst_version, $mod->cpan_version; } If that gives you too much output every day, you maybe only want to watch for three modules. You can write for $mod (CPAN::Shell->expand("Module","/Apache|LWP|CGI/")){ as the first line instead. Or you can combine some of the above tricks: # watch only for a new mod_perl module $mod = CPAN::Shell->expand("Module","mod_perl"); exit if $mod->uptodate; # new mod_perl arrived, let me know all update recommendations CPAN::Shell->r; Methods in the four Classes --------------------------- Cache Manager ------------- Currently the cache manager only keeps track of the build directory ($CPAN::Config->{build_dir}). It is a simple FIFO mechanism that deletes complete directories below `build_dir' as soon as the size of all directories there gets bigger than $CPAN::Config->{build_cache} (in MB). The contents of this cache may be used for later re-installations that you intend to do manually, but will never be trusted by CPAN itself. This is due to the fact that the user might use these directories for building modules on different architectures. There is another directory ($CPAN::Config->{keep_source_where}) where the original distribution files are kept. This directory is not covered by the cache manager and must be controlled by the user. If you choose to have the same directory as build_dir and as keep_source_where directory, then your sources will be deleted with the same fifo mechanism. Bundles ------- A bundle is just a perl module in the namespace Bundle:: that does not define any functions or methods. It usually only contains documentation. It starts like a perl module with a package declaration and a $VERSION variable. After that the pod section looks like any other pod with the only difference being that *one special pod section* exists starting with (verbatim): =head1 CONTENTS In this pod section each line obeys the format Module_Name [Version_String] [- optional text] The only required part is the first field, the name of a module (e.g. Foo::Bar, ie. not the name of the distribution file). The rest of the line is optional. The comment part is delimited by a dash just as in the man page header. The distribution of a bundle should follow the same convention as other distributions. Bundles are treated specially in the CPAN package. If you say 'install Bundle::Tkkit' (assuming such a bundle exists), CPAN will install all the modules in the CONTENTS section of the pod. You can install your own Bundles locally by placing a conformant Bundle file somewhere into your @INC path. The autobundle() command which is available in the shell interface does that for you by including all currently installed modules in a snapshot bundle file. Prerequisites ------------- If you have a local mirror of CPAN and can access all files with "file:" URLs, then you only need a perl better than perl5.003 to run this module. Otherwise Net::FTP is strongly recommended. LWP may be required for non-UNIX systems or if your nearest CPAN site is associated with an URL that is not ftp:. If you have neither Net::FTP nor LWP, there is a fallback mechanism implemented for an external ftp command or for an external lynx command. Finding packages and VERSION ---------------------------- This module presumes that all packages on CPAN * declare their $VERSION variable in an easy to parse manner. This prerequisite can hardly be relaxed because it consumes far too much memory to load all packages into the running program just to determine the $VERSION variable. Currently all programs that are dealing with version use something like this perl -MExtUtils::MakeMaker -le \ 'print MM->parse_version(shift)' filename If you are author of a package and wonder if your $VERSION can be parsed, please try the above method. * come as compressed or gzipped tarfiles or as zip files and contain a Makefile.PL (well, we try to handle a bit more, but without much enthusiasm). Debugging --------- The debugging of this module is a bit complex, because we have interferences of the software producing the indices on CPAN, of the mirroring process on CPAN, of packaging, of configuration, of synchronicity, and of bugs within CPAN.pm. For code debugging in interactive mode you can try "o debug" which will list options for debugging the various parts of the code. You should know that "o debug" has built-in completion support. For data debugging there is the dump command which takes the same arguments as make/test/install and outputs the object's Data::Dumper dump. Floppy, Zip, Offline Mode ------------------------- CPAN.pm works nicely without network too. If you maintain machines that are not networked at all, you should consider working with file: URLs. Of course, you have to collect your modules somewhere first. So you might use CPAN.pm to put together all you need on a networked machine. Then copy the $CPAN::Config->{keep_source_where} (but not $CPAN::Config->{build_dir}) directory on a floppy. This floppy is kind of a personal CPAN. CPAN.pm on the non-networked machines works nicely with this floppy. See also below the paragraph about CD-ROM support. CONFIGURATION ============= When the CPAN module is installed, a site wide configuration file is created as CPAN/Config.pm. The default values defined there can be overridden in another configuration file: CPAN/MyConfig.pm. You can store this file in $HOME/.cpan/CPAN/MyConfig.pm if you want, because $HOME/.cpan is added to the search path of the CPAN module before the use() or require() statements. Currently the following keys in the hash reference $CPAN::Config are defined: build_cache size of cache for directories to build modules build_dir locally accessible directory to build modules index_expire after this many days refetch index files cache_metadata use serializer to cache metadata cpan_home local directory reserved for this package dontload_hash anonymous hash: modules in the keys will not be loaded by the CPAN::has_inst() routine gzip location of external program gzip inactivity_timeout breaks interactive Makefile.PLs after this many seconds inactivity. Set to 0 to never break. inhibit_startup_message if true, does not print the startup message keep_source_where directory in which to keep the source (if we do) make location of external make program make_arg arguments that should always be passed to 'make' make_install_arg same as make_arg for 'make install' makepl_arg arguments passed to 'perl Makefile.PL' pager location of external program more (or any pager) prerequisites_policy what to do if you are missing module prerequisites ('follow' automatically, 'ask' me, or 'ignore') scan_cache controls scanning of cache ('atstart' or 'never') tar location of external program tar term_is_latin if true internal UTF-8 is translated to ISO-8859-1 (and nonsense for characters outside latin range) unzip location of external program unzip urllist arrayref to nearby CPAN sites (or equivalent locations) wait_list arrayref to a wait server to try (See CPAN::WAIT) ftp_proxy, } the three usual variables for configuring http_proxy, } proxy requests. Both as CPAN::Config variables no_proxy } and as environment variables configurable. You can set and query each of these options interactively in the cpan shell with the command set defined within the `o conf' command: `o conf ' prints the current value of the *scalar option* `o conf ' Sets the value of the *scalar option* to value `o conf ' prints the current value of the *list option* in MakeMaker's neatvalue format. `o conf [shift|pop]' shifts or pops the array in the *list option* variable `o conf [unshift|push|splice] ' works like the corresponding perl commands. Note on urllist parameter's format ---------------------------------- urllist parameters are URLs according to RFC 1738. We do a little guessing if your URL is not compliant, but if you have problems with file URLs, please try the correct format. Either: file://localhost/whatever/ftp/pub/CPAN/ or file:///home/ftp/pub/CPAN/ urllist parameter has CD-ROM support ------------------------------------ The urllist parameter of the configuration table contains a list of URLs that are to be used for downloading. If the list contains any file URLs, CPAN always tries to get files from there first. This feature is disabled for index files. So the recommendation for the owner of a CD-ROM with CPAN contents is: include your local, possibly outdated CD-ROM as a file URL at the end of urllist, e.g. o conf urllist push file://localhost/CDROM/CPAN CPAN.pm will then fetch the index files from one of the CPAN sites that come at the beginning of urllist. It will later check for each module if there is a local copy of the most recent version. Another peculiarity of urllist is that the site that we could successfully fetch the last file from automatically gets a preference token and is tried as the first site for the next request. So if you add a new site at runtime it may happen that the previously preferred site will be tried another time. This means that if you want to disallow a site for the next transfer, it must be explicitly removed from urllist. SECURITY ======== There's no strong security layer in CPAN.pm. CPAN.pm helps you to install foreign, unmasked, unsigned code on your machine. We compare to a checksum that comes from the net just as the distribution file itself. If somebody has managed to tamper with the distribution file, they may have as well tampered with the CHECKSUMS file. Future development will go towards strong authentication. EXPORT ====== Most functions in package CPAN are exported per default. The reason for this is that the primary use is intended for the cpan shell or for oneliners. POPULATE AN INSTALLATION WITH LOTS OF MODULES ============================================= To populate a freshly installed perl with my favorite modules is pretty easiest by maintaining a private bundle definition file. To get a useful blueprint of a bundle definition file, the command autobundle can be used on the CPAN shell command line. This command writes a bundle definition file for all modules that are installed for the currently running perl interpreter. It's recommended to run this command only once and from then on maintain the file manually under a private name, say Bundle/my_bundle.pm. With a clever bundle file you can then simply say cpan> install Bundle::my_bundle then answer a few questions and then go out for a coffee. Maintaining a bundle definition file means to keep track of two things: dependencies and interactivity. CPAN.pm sometimes fails on calculating dependencies because not all modules define all MakeMaker attributes correctly, so a bundle definition file should specify prerequisites as early as possible. On the other hand, it's a bit annoying that many distributions need some interactive configuring. So what I try to accomplish in my private bundle file is to have the packages that need to be configured early in the file and the gentle ones later, so I can go out after a few minutes and leave CPAN.pm unattained. WORKING WITH CPAN.pm BEHIND FIREWALLS ===================================== Thanks to Graham Barr for contributing the following paragraphs about the interaction between perl, and various firewall configurations. For further informations on firewalls, it is recommended to consult the documentation that comes with the ncftp program. If you are unable to go through the firewall with a simple Perl setup, it is very likely that you can configure ncftp so that it works for your firewall. Three basic types of firewalls ------------------------------ Firewalls can be categorized into three basic types. http firewall This is where the firewall machine runs a web server and to access the outside world you must do it via the web server. If you set environment variables like http_proxy or ftp_proxy to a values beginning with http:// or in your web browser you have to set proxy information then you know you are running a http firewall. To access servers outside these types of firewalls with perl (even for ftp) you will need to use LWP. ftp firewall This where the firewall machine runs a ftp server. This kind of firewall will only let you access ftp servers outside the firewall. This is usually done by connecting to the firewall with ftp, then entering a username like "user@outside.host.com" To access servers outside these type of firewalls with perl you will need to use Net::FTP. One way visibility I say one way visibility as these firewalls try to make themselve look invisible to the users inside the firewall. An FTP data connection is normally created by sending the remote server your IP address and then listening for the connection. But the remote server will not be able to connect to you because of the firewall. So for these types of firewall FTP connections need to be done in a passive mode. There are two that I can think off. SOCKS If you are using a SOCKS firewall you will need to compile perl and link it with the SOCKS library, this is what is normally called a 'socksified' perl. With this executable you will be able to connect to servers outside the firewall as if it is not there. IP Masquerade This is the firewall implemented in the Linux kernel, it allows you to hide a complete network behind one IP address. With this firewall no special compiling is need as you can access hosts directly. Configuring lynx or ncftp for going through a firewall ------------------------------------------------------ If you can go through your firewall with e.g. lynx, presumably with a command such as /usr/local/bin/lynx -pscott:tiger then you would configure CPAN.pm with the command o conf lynx "/usr/local/bin/lynx -pscott:tiger" That's all. Similarly for ncftp or ftp, you would configure something like o conf ncftp "/usr/bin/ncftp -f /home/scott/ncftplogin.cfg" Your milage may vary... FAQ === 1. I installed a new version of module X but CPAN keeps saying, I have the old version installed Most probably you do have the old version installed. This can happen if a module installs itself into a different directory in the @INC path than it was previously installed. This is not really a CPAN.pm problem, you would have the same problem when installing the module manually. The easiest way to prevent this behaviour is to add the argument `UNINST=1' to the make install call, and that is why many people add this argument permanently by configuring o conf make_install_arg UNINST=1 2. So why is UNINST=1 not the default? Because there are people who have their precise expectations about who may install where in the @INC path and who uses which @INC array. In fine tuned environments `UNINST=1' can cause damage. 3. I want to clean up my mess, and install a new perl along with all modules I have. How do I go about it? Run the autobundle command for your old perl and optionally rename the resulting bundle file (e.g. Bundle/mybundle.pm), install the new perl with the Configure option prefix, e.g. ./Configure -Dprefix=/usr/local/perl-5.6.78.9 Install the bundle file you produced in the first step with something like cpan> install Bundle::mybundle and you're done. 4. When I install bundles or multiple modules with one command there is too much output to keep track of You may want to configure something like o conf make_arg "| tee -ai /root/.cpan/logs/make.out" o conf make_install_arg "| tee -ai /root/.cpan/logs/make_install.out" so that STDOUT is captured in a file for later inspection. 5. I am not root, how can I install a module in a personal directory? You will most probably like something like this: o conf makepl_arg "LIB=~/myperl/lib \ INSTALLMAN1DIR=~/myperl/man/man1 \ INSTALLMAN3DIR=~/myperl/man/man3" install Sybase::Sybperl You can make this setting permanent like all `o conf' settings with `o conf commit'. You will have to add ~/myperl/man to the MANPATH environment variable and also tell your perl programs to look into ~/myperl/lib, e.g. by including use lib "$ENV{HOME}/myperl/lib"; or setting the PERL5LIB environment variable. Another thing you should bear in mind is that the UNINST parameter should never be set if you are not root. 6. How to get a package, unwrap it, and make a change before building it? look Sybase::Sybperl 7. I installed a Bundle and had a couple of fails. When I retried, everything resolved nicely. Can this be fixed to work on first try? The reason for this is that CPAN does not know the dependencies of all modules when it starts out. To decide about the additional items to install, it just uses data found in the generated Makefile. An undetected missing piece breaks the process. But it may well be that your Bundle installs some prerequisite later than some depending item and thus your second try is able to resolve everything. Please note, CPAN.pm does not know the dependency tree in advance and cannot sort the queue of things to install in a topologically correct order. It resolves perfectly well IFF all modules declare the prerequisites correctly with the PREREQ_PM attribute to MakeMaker. For bundles which fail and you need to install often, it is recommended sort the Bundle definition file manually. It is planned to improve the metadata situation for dependencies on CPAN in general, but this will still take some time. 8. In our intranet we have many modules for internal use. How can I integrate these modules with CPAN.pm but without uploading the modules to CPAN? Have a look at the CPAN::Site module. 9. When I run CPAN's shell, I get error msg about line 1 to 4, setting meta input/output via the /etc/inputrc file. Some versions of readline are picky about capitalization in the /etc/inputrc file and specifically RedHat 6.2 comes with a /etc/inputrc that contains the word `on' in lowercase. Change the occurrences of `on' to On and the bug should disappear. 10. Some authors have strange characters in their names. Internally CPAN.pm uses the UTF-8 charset. If your terminal is expecting ISO-8859-1 charset, a converter can be activated by setting term_is_latin to a true value in your config file. One way of doing so would be cpan> ! $CPAN::Config->{term_is_latin}=1 Extended support for converters will be made available as soon as perl becomes stable with regard to charset issues. BUGS ==== We should give coverage for all of the CPAN and not just the PAUSE part, right? In this discussion CPAN and PAUSE have become equal - but they are not. PAUSE is authors/, modules/ and scripts/. CPAN is PAUSE plus the clpa/, doc/, misc/, ports/, and src/. Future development should be directed towards a better integration of the other parts. If a Makefile.PL requires special customization of libraries, prompts the user for special input, etc. then you may find CPAN is not able to build the distribution. In that case, you should attempt the traditional method of building a Perl module package from a shell. AUTHOR ====== Andreas Koenig SEE ALSO ======== perl(1), CPAN::Nox(3)