I've installed many modules from the CPAN. Now, I need to Know whether all the CPAN Modules have a GPL and PERL Artistic License.

I can't think of any counter-examples right now, but I'm almost certain that there are CPAN modules that aren't licensed under the GPL and/or the Artistic Licence. The process for uploading modules to CPAN doesn't check for licences so it's almost certain that some strange licences have been uploaded. The CPAN FAQ just says this:

Everything on CPAN is free of charge. The reason for this is that CPAN is the product of hundreds of people donating their time and resources for the common good of the Perl community. There are places on the net where one can offer shareware without treading on the generosity of others and this is not that place.

I'm sure I read some research that showed that there were a number of distributions on CPAN that contained no licencing information at all. I can't remember where it was tho'.

So it looks like you're setting yourself an impossible task. A better approach might be to look at the licence for the specific modules that you are interested in and to contact the author if there is any ambiguity.

http://www.cpan.org/misc/cpan-faq.html#How_is_Perl_licensed

"Most, though not all, modules on CPAN are licensed under the GNU Public License (GPL) or the Artistic license and should be stated in the documentation that accompanies the module itself. If the license is not specifically stated in the module, you can always write the author to clarify the issue for you."

I don't know of an easy way to do this, but if you still have the untarred module sources available you could do a search through those (with egrep -ri '(artistic|gpl)' or a more suitable variation thereof), or check the modules perldoc, most of those contain the appropriate licensing notice at the bottom. Otherwise, if you've got the modules installed on your system, check the place were your system usually puts documentation/licensing information (on Debian Linux that would be /usr/share/doc/<package-name>). Or browse the modules files on CPAN.

As a last resort (and really as a last resort, you shouldn't bother people unless you're sure this information is missing) you can email the module author and ask him to clarify the license for you.

with egrep -ri '(artistic|gpl)' or a more suitable variation thereof

I think that:

egrep -ri '(artistic|gpl|same terms as perl itself)'

...would be a very good variation :) I know my modules don't specifically mention Artistic or GPL textually. Nor do many others that I use regularly (but with the above term, they are explicitly available under Artistic or GPL).

• another intruder with the mooring in the heart of the Perl