$ cpan V
$ perl -MV=JSON::PP
[download]

~ $ export module='JSON::PP'; perl -M$module -e 'print ${$ENV{module}.
+"::VERSION"}'
4.07~ $
~ $
[download]

Next time please use code tags instead of pre .

Edit

Or just use the VERSION method

~ $ export module='JSON::PP'; perl -M$module -e 'print $ENV{module}->V
+ERSION'
4.07~ $
~ $
[download]

This removes code injection^[1] while simplifying the interface^[2]:

perl -e'use if 1, $ARGV[0]; print $ARGV[0]->VERSION' JSON::PP
[download]

---

1. Well, we're still allowing the user to load and execute a module, but it handles bad module names much better.
2. The input is specified once, and it avoids some traps.

UPDATE

Don't use this code, the correct $M is only visible inside the subprocess, hence the use has to happen inside.

---

FWIW: you don't need to export explicitly if you use this special bash syntax. Note the missing ;

~$ M="Data::Dumper" perl -M$M -E'say $ENV{M}->VERSION'
2.188
[download]

Edit

Furthermore, -M doesn't seem to throw an error for unknown modules.

So adding warnings -w to your execution will help you catch typos

~$ M="Data::Dumb" perl -M$M -wE'say $ENV{M}->VERSION'
Use of uninitialized value in say at -e line 1.
[download]

Cheers Rolf
_{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :)
see Wikisyntax for the Monastery}

Furthermore, -M doesn't seem to throw an error for unknown modules.

Yes, it does:

perl -MNotRight -e 0
Can't locate NotRight.pm in @INC (you may need to install the NotRight
+ module) (@INC contains: ...
[download]

Let the shell do the interpolation for you:

$ export module='JSON::PP'; perl -M$module -e "print \$$module::VERSIO
+N . qq/\n/"
4.06
[download]

Just as another answer my personal pmver shell function. Exits with error if any of the named modules aren't available.

pmver () {
        perl -le '$exit=0;for $f (@ARGV) { eval qq{require $f}; if( $@
+ =~ /locate (\S+)\.pm/ ) { print qq{$f not installed}; $exit=1;next} 
+print qq{$f: },${"${f}::VERSION"}||q{undefined}}exit $exit' "$@"
}
[download]

Edit: Apt point below. Historically I've used this checking if/what CPAN stuff's installed so that was my expected failure mode WRT require. A more bullet proof version would probably report $@ in any failure (and/or use Try::Tiny).

If the module cannot be loaded for some other reason, this gobbles up the error message - that's not cool!