jkeenan1 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Lately I've been having sub-optimal results using the cpan shell on my laptop. The problem is all up front: the inability of cpan to quickly access files on the mirror. The following now typically takes a full 3 to 5 minutes: 

$ cpan
CPAN: File::HomeDir loaded ok (v0.58)
CPAN: Term::ANSIColor loaded ok (v1.12)
Sorry, we have to rerun the configuration dialog for CPAN.pm due to
some missing parameters...

Normally CPAN.pm keeps config variables in memory and changes need to
be saved in a separate 'o conf commit' command to make them permanent
between sessions. If you set the 'auto_commit' option to true, changes
to a config variable are always automatically committed to disk.

 <auto_commit>
Always commit changes to config variables to disk? [no] 



Please remember to call 'o conf commit' to make the config permanent!


cpan shell -- CPAN exploration and modules installation (v1.9205)
ReadLine support enabled

                                                                      
+          cpan[1]> install Perl::Critic
CPAN: Storable loaded ok (v2.18)
Going to read /Users/jimk/.cpan/Metadata
  Database was generated on Sun, 06 Apr 2008 05:30:09 GMT
CPAN: LWP::UserAgent loaded ok (v2.033)
CPAN: Time::HiRes loaded ok (v1.9711)
Fetching with LWP:
  ftp://cpan.cse.msu.edu/authors/01mailrc.txt.gz
LWP failed with code[404] message[Can't chdir to authors]
Fetching with Net::FTP:
  ftp://cpan.cse.msu.edu/authors/01mailrc.txt.gz
  Couldn't cwd authors: authors: No such file or directory
Fetching with Net::FTP
  ftp://cpan.cse.msu.edu/authors/01mailrc.txt.gz.gz
  Couldn't cwd authors: authors: No such file or directory

Trying with "/usr/bin/curl -L -f -s -S --netrc-optional" to get
    ftp://cpan.cse.msu.edu/authors/01mailrc.txt.gz
curl: (9) Server denied you to change to the given directory

    System call "/usr/bin/curl -L -f -s -S --netrc-optional "ftp://cpa
+n.cse.msu.edu/authors/01mailrc.txt.gz"  > /Users/jimk/.cpan/sources/a
+uthors/01mailrc.txt.tmp25321"
    returned status 9 (wstat 2304)
Warning: expected file [/Users/jimk/.cpan/sources/authors/01mailrc.txt
+.gz.tmp25321] doesn't exist
    
Trying with "/usr/local/bin/wget -O /Users/jimk/.cpan/sources/authors/
+01mailrc.txt.tmp25321" to get
    ftp://cpan.cse.msu.edu/authors/01mailrc.txt.gz
--18:46:11--  ftp://cpan.cse.msu.edu/authors/01mailrc.txt.gz
           => `/Users/jimk/.cpan/sources/authors/01mailrc.txt.tmp25321
+'
Resolving cpan.cse.msu.edu... 35.9.25.25
Connecting to cpan.cse.msu.edu[35.9.25.25]:21... connected.
Logging in as anonymous ... Logged in!
==> SYST ... done.    ==> PWD ... done.
==> TYPE I ... done.  ==> CWD /authors ... 
No such directory `authors'.


    System call "/usr/local/bin/wget -O /Users/jimk/.cpan/sources/auth
+ors/01mailrc.txt.tmp25321 "ftp://cpan.cse.msu.edu/authors/01mailrc.tx
+t.gz" "
    returned status 1 (wstat 256)
Warning: expected file [/Users/jimk/.cpan/sources/authors/01mailrc.txt
+.gz.tmp25321] doesn't exist
    
Trying with "/usr/local/bin/lynx -source" to get
    ftp://cpan.cse.msu.edu/authors/01mailrc.txt.gz

Looking up cpan.cse.msu.edu
Making FTP connection to cpan.cse.msu.edu
Looking up 35.9.25.25:52755
Making FTP data connection to 35.9.25.25:52755
Looking up cpan.cse.msu.edu
Making FTP connection to cpan.cse.msu.edu
Can't Access `ftp://cpan.cse.msu.edu/authors/01mailrc.txt.gz'
Alert!: Unable to access document.

lynx: Can't access startfile 

No success, the file that lynx has downloaded is an empty file.
Fetching with LWP:
  ftp://cpan.pair.com/pub/CPAN/authors/01mailrc.txt.gz
LWP failed with code[404] message[Can't chdir to pub]
Fetching with Net::FTP:
  ftp://cpan.pair.com/pub/CPAN/authors/01mailrc.txt.gz
CPAN: YAML loaded ok (v0.66)
Going to read /Users/jimk/.cpan/sources/authors/01mailrc.txt.gz
CPAN: Compress::Zlib loaded ok (v2.008)
......................................................................
+......DONE
Fetching with LWP:
  ftp://cpan.cse.msu.edu/modules/02packages.details.txt.gz
LWP failed with code[404] message[Can't chdir to modules]
Fetching with Net::FTP:
  ftp://cpan.cse.msu.edu/modules/02packages.details.txt.gz
  Couldn't cwd modules: modules: No such file or directory
Fetching with Net::FTP
  ftp://cpan.cse.msu.edu/modules/02packages.details.txt.gz.gz
  Couldn't cwd modules: modules: No such file or directory

Trying with "/usr/bin/curl -L -f -s -S --netrc-optional" to get
    ftp://cpan.cse.msu.edu/modules/02packages.details.txt.gz
curl: (9) Server denied you to change to the given directory

    System call "/usr/bin/curl -L -f -s -S --netrc-optional "ftp://cpa
+n.cse.msu.edu/modules/02packages.details.txt.gz"  > /Users/jimk/.cpan
+/sources/modules/02packages.details.txt.tmp25321"
    returned status 9 (wstat 2304)
Warning: expected file [/Users/jimk/.cpan/sources/modules/02packages.d
+etails.txt.gz.tmp25321] doesn't exist
    
Trying with "/usr/local/bin/wget -O /Users/jimk/.cpan/sources/modules/
+02packages.details.txt.tmp25321" to get
    ftp://cpan.cse.msu.edu/modules/02packages.details.txt.gz
--18:48:03--  ftp://cpan.cse.msu.edu/modules/02packages.details.txt.gz
           => `/Users/jimk/.cpan/sources/modules/02packages.details.tx
+t.tmp25321'
Resolving cpan.cse.msu.edu... 35.9.25.25
Connecting to cpan.cse.msu.edu[35.9.25.25]:21... connected.
Logging in as anonymous ... Logged in!
==> SYST ... done.    ==> PWD ... done.
==> TYPE I ... done.  ==> CWD /modules ... 
No such directory `modules'.


    System call "/usr/local/bin/wget -O /Users/jimk/.cpan/sources/modu
+les/02packages.details.txt.tmp25321 "ftp://cpan.cse.msu.edu/modules/0
+2packages.details.txt.gz" "
    returned status 1 (wstat 256)
Warning: expected file [/Users/jimk/.cpan/sources/modules/02packages.d
+etails.txt.gz.tmp25321] doesn't exist
    
Trying with "/usr/local/bin/lynx -source" to get
    ftp://cpan.cse.msu.edu/modules/02packages.details.txt.gz

Looking up cpan.cse.msu.edu
Making FTP connection to cpan.cse.msu.edu
Looking up 35.9.25.25:52866
Making FTP data connection to 35.9.25.25:52866
Looking up cpan.cse.msu.edu
Making FTP connection to cpan.cse.msu.edu
Can't Access `ftp://cpan.cse.msu.edu/modules/02packages.details.txt.gz
+'
Alert!: Unable to access document.

lynx: Can't access startfile 

No success, the file that lynx has downloaded is an empty file.
Fetching with LWP:
  ftp://cpan.pair.com/pub/CPAN/modules/02packages.details.txt.gz
LWP failed with code[404] message[Can't chdir to pub]
Fetching with Net::FTP:
  ftp://cpan.pair.com/pub/CPAN/modules/02packages.details.txt.gz
Going to read /Users/jimk/.cpan/sources/modules/02packages.details.txt
+.gz
  Database was generated on Tue, 08 Apr 2008 18:29:50 GMT
......................................................................
+......DONE
Fetching with LWP:
  ftp://cpan.cse.msu.edu/modules/03modlist.data.gz
LWP failed with code[404] message[Can't chdir to modules]
Fetching with Net::FTP:
  ftp://cpan.cse.msu.edu/modules/03modlist.data.gz
  Couldn't cwd modules: modules: No such file or directory
Fetching with Net::FTP
  ftp://cpan.cse.msu.edu/modules/03modlist.data.gz.gz
  Couldn't cwd modules: modules: No such file or directory

Trying with "/usr/bin/curl -L -f -s -S --netrc-optional" to get
    ftp://cpan.cse.msu.edu/modules/03modlist.data.gz
curl: (9) Server denied you to change to the given directory

    System call "/usr/bin/curl -L -f -s -S --netrc-optional "ftp://cpa
+n.cse.msu.edu/modules/03modlist.data.gz"  > /Users/jimk/.cpan/sources
+/modules/03modlist.data.tmp25321"
    returned status 9 (wstat 2304)
Warning: expected file [/Users/jimk/.cpan/sources/modules/03modlist.da
+ta.gz.tmp25321] doesn't exist
    
Trying with "/usr/local/bin/wget -O /Users/jimk/.cpan/sources/modules/
+03modlist.data.tmp25321" to get
    ftp://cpan.cse.msu.edu/modules/03modlist.data.gz
--18:50:05--  ftp://cpan.cse.msu.edu/modules/03modlist.data.gz
           => `/Users/jimk/.cpan/sources/modules/03modlist.data.tmp253
+21'
Resolving cpan.cse.msu.edu... 35.9.25.25
Connecting to cpan.cse.msu.edu[35.9.25.25]:21... connected.
Logging in as anonymous ... Logged in!
==> SYST ... done.    ==> PWD ... done.
==> TYPE I ... done.  ==> CWD /modules ... 
No such directory `modules'.


    System call "/usr/local/bin/wget -O /Users/jimk/.cpan/sources/modu
+les/03modlist.data.tmp25321 "ftp://cpan.cse.msu.edu/modules/03modlist
+.data.gz" "
    returned status 1 (wstat 256)
Warning: expected file [/Users/jimk/.cpan/sources/modules/03modlist.da
+ta.gz.tmp25321] doesn't exist
    
Trying with "/usr/local/bin/lynx -source" to get
    ftp://cpan.cse.msu.edu/modules/03modlist.data.gz

Looking up cpan.cse.msu.edu
Making FTP connection to cpan.cse.msu.edu
Looking up 35.9.25.25:53008
Making FTP data connection to 35.9.25.25:53008
Looking up cpan.cse.msu.edu
Making FTP connection to cpan.cse.msu.edu
Can't Access `ftp://cpan.cse.msu.edu/modules/03modlist.data.gz'
Alert!: Unable to access document.

lynx: Can't access startfile 

No success, the file that lynx has downloaded is an empty file.
Fetching with LWP:
  ftp://cpan.pair.com/pub/CPAN/modules/03modlist.data.gz
LWP failed with code[404] message[Can't chdir to pub]
Fetching with Net::FTP:
  ftp://cpan.pair.com/pub/CPAN/modules/03modlist.data.gz
Going to read /Users/jimk/.cpan/sources/modules/03modlist.data.gz
......................................................................
+......DONE
Going to write /Users/jimk/.cpan/Metadata
Running install for module 'Perl::Critic'

[download]

Note: I do not have cpan.cse.msu.edu selected in my CPAN/MyConfig.pm: 

$ grep -A 3 -B 3 urllist .cpan/CPAN/MyConfig.pm
  'tar' => q[/usr/bin/tar],
  'term_is_latin' => q[1],
  'unzip' => q[/usr/bin/unzip],
  'urllist' => [q[http://www.cpan.org/], q[ftp://ftp.cpan.org/pub/CPAN
+/], q[ftp://mirror.cc.columbia.edu/pub/software/cpan/], q[ftp://ftp.d
+uke.edu/pub/perl/], 
  'wget' => q[/usr/local/bin/wget],
};

[download]

I know that long ago I had that msu.edu server in my list, but I definitely recall removing it. But I can't seem to get rid of it, and all the failures are associated with that mirror.

Can anyone diagnose?

Thanks in advance.

Jim Keenan

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: cpan shell: Big startup delays at non-chosen mirror
by mhearse (Chaplain) on Apr 09, 2008 at 00:15 UTC
    Hmmm.... I'm unable to access the ftp://cpan.cse.msu.edu url. My suggestion is to reconfigure and select a bunch of cpan mirrors. This will allow for backup sources. 
    perl -MCPAN -e shell
cpan> o conf init

    [download]
    I'm not sure why the mirror is still being used after you removed it. I believe the mirrow list is in the config file: 
    ${HOME}/.cpan/sources/MIRRORED.BY

    [download]
    You may want to try passive ftp. It didn't look like that was the problem but you could try by exporting this variable before you invoke the CPAN installer: 
    export FTP_PASSIVE=1

    [download]
[reply]
[d/l]
[select]
Re: cpan shell: Big startup delays at non-chosen mirror
by Khen1950fx (Canon) on Apr 09, 2008 at 03:22 UTC
    I had the same problem recently, but I solved the problem by going retro to v1.8058 and redoing o conf init. You might have to redo conf more than once...
[reply]
Re: cpan shell: Big startup delays at non-chosen mirror
by cipactli (Initiate) on Mar 26, 2009 at 21:01 UTC

    Just had this same problem, so I'll try to save some time to someone else.

    When you try o config init, do not say "yes" to "Would you like me to configure as much as possible automatically?", you'll end up with the same problem. Instead, say "no" and answer the following questions, paying attention to the point where you'll be asked what sites to use.

[reply]
[d/l]

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