If you were root when you removed ~/.cpan you should have been asked a series of questions when you tried to install cPAN again. One question should have been to choose one or more URLs for CPAN source. Get a list of mirrors and status here http://mirrors.cpan.org/.

If the ~/.cpan directory now exists, then check the URLs in file ~/.cpan/CPAN/MyConfig.pm and make sure there is one or more valid CPAN sites there.

Hi, i deleted the whole .cpan folder in my home (i'm root), and configured cpan again. Most of the questions i answered automatically, but i configured the urllist manually. I choosed only mirrors in germany (where i reside), and checked them against http://mirrors.cpan.org/. I just choosed those which seem to be stable and recent. But trying to install a newer version of CPAN fails again. With the same errors. E.g. i get again:

# Reading '/root/.cpan/build/CPAN-2.10-U90C7G/t/CPAN/modules/02package
+s.details.txt'
#   Database was generated on Tue, 03 Feb 1970 03:17:06 GMT
# Warning: This index file is 16794 days old.
#   Please check the host you chose as your CPAN mirror for staleness.
#   I'll continue but problems seem likely to happen.
[download]

Is this severe ? Although i tried it three times from different mirrors, i always got this error. Inside the mentioned file is:

Written-By:   Id: mldistwatch 697 1970-01-18 07:33:13Z k
Line-Count:   19
Last-Updated: Tue, 03 Feb 1970 03:17:06 GMT
[download]

Also i got again:

#   Failed test 'cmd[force test CPAN::Test::Dummy::Perl5::Make]'
#   at t/31sessions.t line 560.
[download]

Several times per attempt. Any ideas ? Bernd

Bernd, what version of Perl are you running?