If your script actually needs to run on "an unpredictable system," upon which you do not have the privilege to install modules globally, then your situation becomes identical to that of installing upon "shared hosting." You need to create a local directory, put this first in PERL5LIB, and configure cpan so that it will install modules into that local directory. Then, install every module that you need – and the correct versions thereof – into that place.

In reply to Re: use alternate module if pm is not installed by Anonymous Monk
in thread use alternate module if pm is not installed by agweih

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