Modules are wonderful. CPAN is a godsend. We should use them whenever possible.

With that said, modules can also be awesome learning tools for how to do it yourself, should you desire. Just look up a module on CPAN that does what you want to do and click the "Source" link. You can then view the raw guts of the module.

This is what I would do in your situation. Sure, it's faster and easier to use those modules, but since you seem to be learning Perl, it might be of some benefit to view the source of those modules to see how they do it.

Beware though, some of the code you'll see will blow your mind and confuse you for weeks! :)