Public ScratchpadDownload, Select Code To D/L

CPAN for non-root users

This recipe is based on Using CPAN with a non-root account by Jeremy Mates. It adds configuration settings for Module::Build and for newer versions of ExtUtils::MakeMaker. As with Jeremy's page, it configures CPAN for a non-root user and it does it from scratch: it is assumed there is no ~/.cpan directory and no previous MyConfig.pm. If there is, please make a backup.

  1. set these environment variables:
    MANPATHprepend with $HOME/perl/man
    PATHprepend with $HOME/perl/bin
    PERL5LIBset to $HOME/perl/lib/perl5
    FTP_PASSIVEset to '1' if needed for your firewall
  2. be sure, also in future, to load these environment variables before running cpan
  3. mkdir -p ~/.cpan/CPAN
  4. create textfile ~/.cpan/CPAN/MyConfig.pm with the contents from MyConfig.pm below
  5. replace HOMEDIR in MyConfig.pm with the full path to your home directory
  6. install the CPAN module: cpan CPAN, and accept 'yes' when asked to install required module Test::Harness
  7. start the cpan shell by typing cpan and choose your own mirrors by typing o conf init /urllist/
  8. install Bundle::CPAN
  9. type o conf makepl_arg INSTALL_BASE=HOMEDIR/perl, replacing HOMEDIR again

In the last step I am making use of the fact that Bundle::CPAN installs a newer version (6.31 or above) of ExtUtils::MakeMaker. See Module::Build::CookBook(3pm) for more information about INSTALL_BASE and --install_base.

MyConfig.pm
Copy this into ~/.cpan/CPAN/MyConfig.pm and replace HOMEDIR with the full path to your home directory: 

$CPAN::Config = {
  'applypatch' => q[],
  'auto_commit' => q[1],
  'build_cache' => q[100],
  'build_dir' => q[HOMEDIR/.cpan/build],
  'build_dir_reuse' => q[1],
  'build_requires_install_policy' => q[ask/yes],
  'bzip2' => q[/bin/bzip2],
  'cache_metadata' => q[1],
  'check_sigs' => q[0],
  'colorize_debug' => q[black on_cyan],
  'colorize_output' => q[0],
  'colorize_print' => q[bold blue on_white],
  'colorize_warn' => q[bold red on_white],
  'commandnumber_in_prompt' => q[1],
  'cpan_home' => q[HOMEDIR/.cpan],
  'curl' => q[],
  'dontload_hash' => {  },
  'ftp' => q[/usr/bin/ftp],
  'ftp_passive' => q[1],
  'ftp_proxy' => q[],
  'getcwd' => q[cwd],
  'gpg' => q[/usr/bin/gpg],
  'gzip' => q[/bin/gzip],
  'histfile' => q[HOMEDIR/.cpan/histfile],
  'histsize' => q[100],
  'http_proxy' => q[],
  'inactivity_timeout' => q[0],
  'index_expire' => q[1],
  'inhibit_startup_message' => q[0],
  'keep_source_where' => q[HOMEDIR/.cpan/sources],
  'load_module_verbosity' => q[v],
  'lynx' => q[/usr/bin/lynx],
  'make' => q[/usr/bin/make],
  'make_arg' => q[],
  'make_install_arg' => q[],
  'make_install_make_command' => q[/usr/bin/make],
  'makepl_arg' => q[PREFIX=~/perl/ SITELIBEXP=~/perl/lib/perl5 LIB=~/p
+erl/lib/perl5 INSTALLMAN1DIR=~/perl/man/man1 INSTALLMAN3DIR=~/perl/ma
+n/man3 INSTALLSITEMAN1DIR=~/perl/man/man1 INSTALLSITEMAN3DIR=~/perl/m
+an/man3],
  'mbuild_arg' => q[],
  'mbuild_install_arg' => q[],
  'mbuild_install_build_command' => q[./Build],
  'mbuildpl_arg' => q[--install_base ~/perl],
  'ncftp' => q[/usr/bin/ncftp],
  'ncftpget' => q[],
  'no_proxy' => q[],
  'pager' => q[less],
  'patch' => q[/usr/bin/patch],
  'prefer_installer' => q[MB],
  'prefs_dir' => q[HOMEDIR/.cpan/prefs],
  'prerequisites_policy' => q[ask],
  'proxy_user' => q[],
  'scan_cache' => q[atstart],
  'shell' => q[/bin/bash],
  'show_unparsable_versions' => q[0],
  'show_upload_date' => q[0],
  'show_zero_versions' => q[0],
  'tar' => q[/bin/tar],
  'tar_verbosity' => q[none],
  'term_is_latin' => q[0],
  'term_ornaments' => q[1],
  'test_report' => q[0],
  'unzip' => q[/usr/bin/unzip],
  'urllist' => [q[ftp://cpan.cs.utah.edu/pub/CPAN/]],
  'use_sqlite' => q[0],
  'wait_list' => [q[wait://ls6.informatik.uni-dortmund.de:1404]],
  'wget' => q[/usr/bin/wget],
  'yaml_load_code' => q[0],
  'yaml_module' => q[YAML],
};
1;
__END__

[download]