perldoc perlmodlib lists what's core (i.e. what ships with perl itself). Past that you need to bug your sysadmin about integration with your OS' package managment software (see FreeBSD's bsdpan that makes CPAN modules appear as ports, for example) and read perldoc CPAN for information on the autobundle command.

Update: Also look at PAR for a mechanism for packaging up all your dependencies into a single file which will run regardless of what's installed on the other end.

Yeah, I went the PAR route for deploying Perl apps on multiple Win32 desktops. The code I inherited had some rather yucky 'auto-install-if-the-module-is-missing' code tucked away in a BEGIN block.

I don't remember exactly how the code went but it was something like this

BEGIN {
   eval { require FOO::Bar };
   if ($@) {
      system("ppm install FOO::Bar");
   }
}
[download]

PAR is by far the better way to go :-)

-- vek --

I agree with what you're saying here, in that it often becomes so easy for us to respond to a newbie with "just use Some::Thing". Often I feel that folks want a pure Perl answer, because some of the questions are about exploration of the language, not necessarily about implementation on a deadline, or within budget.

I said something like this in Standard Perl Modules ~ Overkill, namely that if an answer can be specified using Perl core modules, that is just as good, then perhaps it should be. I don't think it was a particularly widely held opinion.