Hi, I've read the CPAN.pm FAQ and documentation, but I have a couple of questions that I'd like to get feedback on based on other people's experience.

I configured CPAN to install everything in ~/perl and run CPAN.pm exclusively as "me" (not root) to avoid messing with the default /usr/lib/perl5 installation. My assumption is that I all module packages should use the arguments passed to them by CPAN.pm and not try to override those settings... I know that they can try to do whatever they want to do, but they should all be following the same conventions, right?

Nonetheless, I can't seem to even upgrade Bundle::CPAN without some module failing to install properly. I've noticed that some modules still attempt to install themselves in /usr/lib/perl5 and I'm not sure if it's the module's problem or my system configuration. One example is ExtUtils::AutoInstall.

In general, is it wrong to expect that I should be able to install everything as a non-root user in ~/perl, or are there some cases where a module must be installed by root? (I don't care if other users can't access what I install.)

I've also noticed that some modules are unpacked under .cpan/build with their original ownership (which shows up as a number because it's not in my passwd), thus causing build problems when the install script tries to move/create/delete files in that directory tree. This sounds like a problem with CPAN.pm, but why would it do this with only a few modules? This happened with Class::ErrorHandler and Crypt::DES_EDE3.

Has everyone else had a smooth experience with CPAN.pm? I was expecting to just install Bundle::CPAN and say yes to all the dependency prompts and have it go off without a hitch.

Thanks.

In reply to Looking for CPAN.pm insight/best practice by btr

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