in reply to Minimum CPAN modules you should count on?

Why can you only use modules that you find on that box? It's fairly straightforward to go out to CPAN and get anything that you need, and as gri6507 suggests, you can package those modules along with your program if you're installing them on machines that aren't connected to the Internet. If you're concerned about making a mess of their Perl installation somehow, you can create your own library directory, install the modules in there (by setting PREFIX when running perl Makefile.PL), then just reference them from your scripts (with use lib or PERL5LIB).