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

Perl Sages for the Ages,

Is there anyone out there that knows the correct URL for the CPAN Package Repository. I have ActiveState 5.10 Perl installed and am using the Package manager provided. It allows the addition of URLs that point to Package Repositories.

I was advised to use http://cpan.org/modules/by-module/, but this comes back with 0 (zero) modules.

I have searched Google for possible answers and am near wits end. I did not want to trouble you until I had tried to find it on my own, now here I am again.

Thank you for your attention.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: URL for CPAN Package Repository
by roboticus (Chancellor) on Jul 27, 2010 at 13:26 UTC

    Red_Dragon:

    The URL you provided appears to be correct if you're interested in CPAN packages. Note that the URL is to the root of a hierarchy of packages, and the root level doesn't contain any package itself.

    But I think the problem you're having is that you're wanting to use the Active State package manager to install packages. For that, you're not going to want a CPAN repository, but an Active State package repository. A quick googling returns http://ppm4.activestate.com/ which has pointers to several PPM repositories. The PPM repositories may have some of the CPAN modules, but may be out-of-date, patched, etc. So if you want to use CPAN modules, you can do so, but you can't do it with the active state package manager. If you want to use the active state package manager, then you can't use CPAN.

    ...roboticus

      The PPM repositories are not static and are generally up-to-date. Some issues exist with some modules in getting them to compile on Windows. And obviously some won't work on Windows at all for a variety of reasons, the same way there are Windows-specific modules that might end up on CPAN, but won't work on Unix/Linux. But I have rarely encountered a newer version of a module on CPAN that didn't make it into the Activestate, Trouchelle, Bribes de Perl, or U of Winnipeg repositories before long.

      Also, the newer versions of PPM will manage modules that you have installed via the CPAN or CPANPLUS shells, which the OP might be interested in checking out.

      --marmot

      Update: Changed PPM repository URL's to human-readable destinations.

      I'd be more likely to describe ppm as a subset of CPAN, instead of something different.

      Randy Kobes at http://cpan.uwinnipeg.ca/PPMPackages/10xx/ keeps a fairly well updated repository and reference to a few others. He's also usually amenable to posting newly built modules, when requested.

Re: URL for CPAN Package Repository
by Anonymous Monk on Jul 27, 2010 at 13:18 UTC
    I was advised to use http://cpan.org/modules/by-module/, but this comes back with 0 (zero) modules.

    You were advised wrongly. See PPM::Repositories