148:. Similarly, though GitHub is a popular location to store the source for distributions, it may be stored anywhere the author prefers, or may not be publicly accessible at all. Maintainers may grant permissions to others to maintain or take over their modules, and permissions may be granted by admins for those wishing to take over abandoned modules. Previous versions of updated distributions are retained on CPAN until deleted by the uploader, and a secondary mirror network called BackPAN retains distributions even if they are deleted from CPAN. Also, the complete history of the CPAN and all its modules is available as the GitPAN project, allowing to easily see the complete history for all the modules and for easy maintenance of forks. CPAN is also used to distribute new versions of Perl, as well as related projects, such as
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201:, indicating the distribution's name, version, dependencies, and other useful information; however, not all distributions contain metadata. When metadata is not present in a distribution, the PAUSE's software will try to analyze the code in the distribution to look for the same information; this is not necessarily very reliable. In 2010, version 2 of this specification was created to be used via a new file called
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A smaller, leaner modern alternative to these CPAN installers was developed called cpanminus. cpanminus was designed to have a much smaller memory footprint as often required in limited memory environments, and to be usable as a standalone script such that it can even install itself, requiring only
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script. It does not maintain or rely on a persistent configuration, but is configured only by the environment and command-line options. cpanminus does not have an interactive shell component. It recognizes the cpanfile format for specifying prerequisites, useful in ad-hoc Perl projects that may
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used in the module's name has been replaced with a dash, and the version number has been appended to the name), but this is only a convention; many prominent distributions break the convention, especially those that contain multiple modules. Security restrictions prevent a distribution from ever
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CPAN Testers are a group of volunteers, who will download and test distributions as they are uploaded to CPAN. This enables the authors to have their modules tested on many platforms and environments that they would otherwise not have access to, thus helping to promote portability, as well as a
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An effort to replace CPAN.pm with something cleaner and more modern resulted in the CPANPLUS (or CPAN++) set of modules. CPANPLUS separates the back-end work of downloading, compiling, and installing modules from the interactive shell used to issue commands. It also supports several advanced
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includes textual search, a browsable index of modules, and extracted copies of all distributions currently on the CPAN. On 16 May 2018, the Perl
Foundation announced that search.cpan.org would be shut down on 29 June 2018 (after 19 years of operation), due to its aging codebase and maintenance
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Most mirrors update themselves hourly, daily or bidaily from the CPAN master site. Some sites are major FTP servers which mirror lots of other software, but others are simply servers owned by companies that use Perl heavily. There are at least two mirrors on every continent except
Antarctica.
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is also provided in the Perl core, and is the usual way of running CPAN.pm. After a short configuration process and mirror selection, it uses tools available on the user's computer to automatically download, unpack, compile, test, and install modules. It is also capable of updating itself.
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CPAN's main purpose is to help programmers locate modules and programs not included in the Perl standard distribution. Its structure is decentralized. Authors maintain and improve their own modules. Forking, and creating competing modules for the same task or purpose, is common. There is a
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There is also a Perl core module named CPAN; it is usually differentiated from the repository itself by using the name CPAN.pm. CPAN.pm is mainly an interactive shell which can be used to search for, download, and install distributions. An interactive shell called
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features, such as cryptographic signature checking and test result reporting. Finally, CPANPLUS can uninstall a distribution. CPANPLUS was added to the Perl core in version 5.10.0, and removed from it in version 5.20.0.
471:, the JavaScript Archive Network. The JSAN is a near-direct port of the CPAN infrastructure for use with the JavaScript language, which for most of its lifespan did not have a cohesive "community".
187:) and test scripts which can be run to verify the contents of the distribution are functioning properly. New distributions are uploaded to the Perl Authors Upload Server, or PAUSE (see the section
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permission to the uploader), or if the uploader has permission for that name, and if the module is a higher version than any existing entry. This can be specified through PAUSE's web interface.
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degree of quality. Smoke testers send reports, which are then collated and used for a variety of presentation websites, including the main reports site, statistics and dependencies.
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interface to upload files to their directory and delete them. Modules in the upload will only be indexed as canonical if the module name has not been used before (granting
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and recursively install any prerequisites, either automatically or with individual user approval. Each support FTP and HTTP and can work through firewalls and proxies.
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With thousands of distributions, CPAN needs to be structured to be useful. Authors often place their modules in the natural hierarchy of Perl module names (such as
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The distribution infrastructure of CPAN consists of its worldwide network of more than 250 mirrors in more than 60 countries. Each full mirror hosts around 36
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third-party bug tracking system that is automatically set up for any uploaded distribution, but authors may opt to use a different bug tracking system such as
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can denote either the archive network or the Perl program that acts as an interface to the network and as an automated software installer (somewhat like a
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I propose that we cooperate to create a unified structure, much like the CTAN project which has managed to create a collection of canonical sites for TeX
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the expected set of core Perl modules to be available. It is also available from CPAN as the module App::cpanminus, which installs the
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1001:- a document that aims to explain how and why CPAN succeeded and how to duplicate it in similar efforts. (9 January 2003 by
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created the CCAN, the
Comprehensive C Archive Network. The CCAN is a direct port of the CPAN architecture for use with the
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Most, though not all, modules on CPAN are licensed under the GNU General Public
License (GPL) or the Artistic license...
405:. CPAN's use of arbitrated name spaces, a testing regime and a well defined documentation style makes it unique.
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Experienced Perl programmers often comment that half of Perl's power is in the CPAN. It has been called Perl's
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for building and installing other extension modules; others, like List::Util, are merely commonly used.
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Several search engines have been written to help Perl programmers sort through the CPAN. The official
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not be designed for CPAN installation. cpanminus also has the ability to uninstall distributions.
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In 2005, a group of Perl developers who also had an interest in JavaScript got together to create
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of code, making one file contain common routines used by several programs. Perl calls these
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CPAN was conceived in 1993 and has been active online since
October 1995. It is based on the
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Given its importance to the Perl developer community, the CPAN both shapes and is shaped by
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being replaced with an identical filename, so virtually all distribution names do include a
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burden. Users will be transitioned and redirected to the third-party alternative MetaCPAN.
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hierarchy, some modules are still written largely for amusement; one example is
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Comprehensive R Archive Network, is a set of mirrors hosting the
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Some of the distributions on the CPAN are distributed as jokes. The
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function that doesn't run the code given to it (to complement the
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at the Open Source
Developers Conference, Linux kernel developer
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In 2003, distributions started to include metadata files, called
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Authors can upload new distributions to the CPAN through the
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distribution(s), documentation, and contributed extensions.
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CPAN module distributions usually have names in the form of
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280:(PAUSE). To do so, they must request a PAUSE account.
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767:"The end of an era: Saying goodbye to search.cpan.org"
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hierarchy is reserved for joke modules; for instance,
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208:, with the YAML format file often also included for
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999:ZCAN - "The Zen of Comprehensive Archive Networks"
887:"Exploit this formmail.pl for fun and, well, fun"
325:Each of these modules can check a distribution's
283:Once registered, they may use a web interface at
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474:In 2008, after a chance meeting with CPAN admin
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532:"How are Perl and the CPAN modules licensed?"
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98:are typically installed in one of several
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909:"Matt's Script Archive Strikes Again!"
549:"The Timeline of Perl and its Culture"
353:(Python Package Index) repository for
86:, Perl has mechanisms to use external
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164:Files on the CPAN are referred to as
963:Free and open-source software portal
865:"Elements of Programming with Perl"
792:"Saying goodbye to search.cpan.org"
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189:Uploading distributions with PAUSE
29:Comprehensive Perl Archive Network
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60:free and open source software
50:by over 12,000 contributors.
746:"CPAN Status and Statistics"
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58:). Most software on CPAN is
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844:"Re: Killer Apps in PERL"
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817:"PAUSE Operating Model"
121:, common paths include
106:are placed in the Perl
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491:R programming language
210:backward compatibility
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703:"CPAN Mirror Network"
682:"CPAN::Meta::History"
432:Matt's Script Archive
84:programming languages
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724:"How to mirror CPAN"
127:/usr/local/lib/perl5
48:programming language
1333:Perl Best Practices
563:"Grokking the CPAN"
228:CGI-Application-3.1
221:Lingua::EN::Inflect
1354:Randal L. Schwartz
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1328:Intermediate Perl
1003:Jarkko Hietaniemi
994:status of mirrors
867:. 12 October 2000
662:. 2 December 2015
654:"What is Gitpan?"
511:"CPAN front page"
414:Jarkko Hietaniemi
119:operating systems
110:when it is first
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39:of over 250,000
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446:Acme::Don't
230:(where the
217:Apache::DBI
181:Makefile.PL
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100:directories
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1101:Frameworks
726:. CPAN.org
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