In this post I want to share my chef cookbook called cpan. Chef is the modern platform for deploy automation and configuration. One of chef great feature - one may create custom recipes to deploy/configure specific applications, written on any languages. When I first met with chef, I had already had some experience on deploying perl applications. I used standard build cycle: 
perl Build.PL
./Build 
./Build installdeps
./Build test
./Build install

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So the idea of integrating perl application install come into my mind in natural way.

With cpan cookbook one may do standard perl build/test/install idioms using chef. Here I am putting some use cases, just to give some sense of what it is. If you like it, you may learn more on http://community.opscode.com/cookbooks/cpan.

Cpan cookbook use cases

Installing application, distributed with tar-ball. Let's say you have already fetch and store tar-ball with others chef resources (the following code is self-explanatory). So you may easily install it into given install base: 
remote_file '/tmp/app-0.0.1.tag.gz'
    source 'http://local.server/app-0.0.1.tag.gz'
end

execute 'cd /tmp/ && tar -xzf app.tag.gz'

cpan_client 'my application' do
    user 'root'
    group 'root'
    install_type 'application'
    action 'install'
    install_base '/path/to/your/application/home'
    cwd '/tmp/app-0.0.1'    
end

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The same thing with your perl5lib paths taking into account ('/home/user/alex/perl5lib/'): 
cpan_client 'my application' do
    user 'root'
    group 'root'
    install_type 'application'
    action 'install'
    install_base '/path/to/your/application/home'
    cwd '/tmp/app-0.0.1'
    inc  %w{ /home/user/alex/perl5lib/ }
end

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If you need just installing arbitrary cpan module, here some examples to start. Install by given link: 
cpan_client "http://search.cpan.org/CPAN/authors/id/M/MA/MARKSTOS/CGI.
+pm-3.59.tar.gz" do
    user 'root'
    group 'root'
    module_name 'CGI'
    action 'install'
end

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Or just rely on your cpan mirrors: 
cpan_client 'CGI' do
    user 'root'
    group 'root'
    install_type 'cpan_module'
    action 'install'
end

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With cpan cookbooks you may even play with version requirements. Require minimal version: 
cpan_client 'CGI' do
    user 'root'
    group 'root'
    version '3.55' 
    install_type 'cpan_module'
    action 'install'
end

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Do not install if already installed: 
cpan_client 'CGI' do
    user 'root'
    group 'root'
    version '0' 
    install_type 'cpan_module'
    action 'install'
end

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Try to upgrade to highest possible version: 
cpan_client 'CGI' do
    user 'root'
    group 'root'
    install_type 'cpan_module'
    action 'install'
end

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If you install by distributive, you may even require concrete version: 
cpan_client 'http://search.cpan.org/CPAN/authors/id/M/MA/MARKSTOS/CGI.
+pm-3.59.tar.gz' do
    user 'root'
    group 'root'
    module_name 'CGI'
    version '=3.59'
    action 'install'
end

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Other examples to check out is on http://community.opscode.com/cookbooks/cpan.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: chef cpan cookbook
by Tux (Canon) on Mar 25, 2013 at 16:04 UTC

    Did you know about distroprefs (also being referred to as cpanprefs)?


    Enjoy, Have FUN! H.Merijn
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      If to say about inner layout - mostly CPAN::Shell interface is used. I do not know why should I use CPAN::Distroprefs ? Just give me a hint ((: ...
[reply]

        These are just examples that I. use. There are more example here,

        In your $HOME/.cpan/prefs you can hold .yml files that describe how cpan should act on the distributions describes in the YAML file, which includes answering questions asked by Makefile.PL or Build.PL. You can make sections specific for os, so these preferences can be shipped portable across OS's. These files can also refer to patches that you want to apply to the modules (for various reasons). These patches are usually stored in $HOME/.cpan/patches.

        $ cat ~/.cpan/patches/XML-Twig.patch
--- tools/xml_pp/xml_pp 2010-10-29 13:30:38.000000000 +0200
+++ tools/xml_pp/xml_pp 2010-10-29 13:30:49.000000000 +0200
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ my @styles= XML::Twig->_pretty_print_sty
 my $styles= join '|', @styles;               # for usage
 my %styles= map { $_ => 1} @styles;          # to check option

-my $DEFAULT_STYLE= 'indented';
+my $DEFAULT_STYLE= 'indented_close_tag';

 my $USAGE= "usage: $0 [-v] [-i<extension>] [-s ($styles)] [-p <tag(s)
+>] [-e <encoding>] [-l] [-f <file>] [<files>]";

$ cat ~/.cpan/prefs/MIROD.XML-Twig.yml
---
match:
  distribution: "^MIROD/XML-Twig-"
pl:
  expect:
    - "Do you want to install 'xml_pp'"
    - "y\n"
    - "Do you want to install 'xml_grep'"
    - "y\n"
    - "Do you want to install 'xml_split'"
    - "y\n"
    - "Do you want to install 'xml_merge'"
    - "y\n"
    - "Do you want to install 'xml_spellcheck'"
    - "y\n"
depends:
  requires:
    Test::Pod::Coverage: 0
patches:
  - "../../patches/XML-Twig.patch"
$ cat ~/.cpan/prefs/NANIS.Crypt-SSLeay.yml
---
match:
  distribution: "^(DLAND|NANIS)/Crypt-SSLeay-"
  perlconfig:
    osname: "linux"
pl:
  eexpect:
    mode: anyorder
    talk:
      - "Which OpenSSL build path"
      - "\n"
      - "Which SSL install path"
      - "\n"
      - "Do you want to run the live tests"
      - "n\n"
---
match:
  distribution: "^(DLAND|NANIS)/Crypt-SSLeay-"
  perlconfig:
    osname: "hpux"
pl:
  eexpect:
    mode: anyorder
    talk:
      - "Which OpenSSL build path"
      - "\n"
      - "Which SSL install path"
      - "/usr/local/ssl\n"
      - "Do you want to run the live tests"
      - "n\n"
$

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        Enjoy, Have FUN! H.Merijn
        /div
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Re: chef cpan cookbook
by hoppfrosch (Scribe) on Oct 21, 2015 at 08:23 UTC
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        Yes I noticed that windows is not mentioned there - therfore the question, if windows-support is on the roadmap .... This is the error I have: 
        Compiling Cookbooks...
===========================================================0
Recipe Compile Error in C:\vagrant\cookbooks\windows\libraries\windows
+_privileged.rb
============================================================
LoadError
---------
cannot load such file -- windows/error

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        That's what in my recipe: 
        node[:Perlmodules].each do |modulename, moduleversion|
    cpan_client modulename do
        version moduleversion
        install_type 'cpan_module'
        action 'install'
    end
end

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        I'm aware that "user" and "group" are missing, but I don't know what to put there (esp. for "group".)

        Be aware, I'm a Chef-Newbie

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