But if your server only has "copy & paste" connectivity to "The Internet" what good will Net::SSH be?

I understand the sentiment, and it made for a ++funny reply. But in the OP's defense, it's quite possible (and probably not uncommon) to have a local network isolated from the internet as a whole, where it still makes sense to use SSH to communicate between the nodes in the LAN.

To misteradey's question, trying to add confirmation to what you just said: it does appear that Net::SSH is pure-Perl (and thus could copy/paste) and doesn't have any non-core dependencies that I noticed (so wouldn't require copy/pasting other modules to get Net::SSH to work).

Thank you. In my defence - this server is indeed part of a network with many thousands of devices, which I need to control via SSH (from the server). None of which have access to the Internet.

I work in a similar restrictive environment, and use a local cpan repo using minicpan hosted infernally.

Agreed, at work we have no internet connected systems at all.

So...do you have to use removable media to get CPAN (and other software) modules from the internet onto these isolated systems?

Obviously he'd be copying and pasting the packets back and forth after they're received via avian carrier and typed in / printed out . . .

Well yanno, as drive densities increase and get smaller, this type of transmission is seeing a resurgence in utility :)