The weird character sequences are ansi escape sequences used to highlight or color the text on a *nix console. cmd.exe doesn't do ansi escape sequences so it displayes them literally.

Why CPAN.pm should be producing them I don't know. It didn't the last time I used it (a long while since). Maybe a new enhancement, and they got the test for OS wrong?

It could be 'fixed' by using Win32::Console::ANSI within cpan.pm itself. This converts the ANSI escape sequences into appropriate Console API calls effectively emulating a ANSI complient terminal. But I wouldn't advise a user to make that modification.

You need to work out why this happens for you, if nobody else is seeing the same problem?

The first thing you need to do is tell whomever is listening the details of your system: Which OS (exact version)? Which CPAN.pm (exact version)? Which Perl (exact version)? Perl source: AS, home build, other supplier? If home build, which compiler (and version(s))? Do you use cygwin? Was your perl built under cygwin?

Ie. a whole lot more than you have currently told us.

My guess is that you are using a cygwin built perl install, but trying to use it from a non-sygwin shell. And CPAN.pm has been built expecting a *nix-like environment and so is producing the escape sequences. But that's total speculation.

Sorry for long time out. I'm newbie and i don't know how to setup notification by mail - there is so strange site intarface... My info: Win32 XP SP2 PRO, ActivePerl 5.8.820, GUI PPM, Perl installed by default ActiveState installer. CPAN - v 1.76_02

My info: Win32 XP SP2 PRO, ActivePerl 5.8.820, GUI PPM, Perl installed by default ActiveState installer. CPAN - v 1.76_02

Intriguing. Could you post the output from the command: set in a cmd.exe window?

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I think BrowserUk's guess is correct that you're using a cygwin built Perl / CPAN.pm on a terminal without support for ANSI escape sequences. In particular, I suspect it's Term::ReadLine (used under the hood) that's generating the escape sequences...

So, as a workaround (if you can't or don't want to use a version "made for Windows"), you could try to disable Term::ReadLine's ornaments feature. One way to do so would be to set the environment variable PERL_RL to " o=0" (note that the last char is zero, not a captital O, and that - according to the manpage - there's supposed to be a space at the beginning (for me it also works without...)).

I couldn't test it on Windows (because my Windows CPAN.pm doesn't have that problem...), but at least on my Linux box, the following succeeds in turning off any special rendering of the prompt, etc.:

PERL_RL=" o=0" perl -MCPAN -e shell
[download]

On Windows, I suppose that would be:

set PERL_RL= o=0
perl -MCPAN -e shell
[download]

If that doesn't help, you could also try turning off readline support entirely:

perl -MCPAN -e "$CPAN::Suppress_readline=1; shell"
[download]

But then, you'd of course no longer have readline support... ;)