Maybe I'm a little slow on the uptake or something but I don't see how an interactive cpan client this solves the problem. I was saying that a good solution would be something that would work automatically -- that is, without human intervention -- to download and compile some specified list of modules and log all errors on a particular target system.

All you have to do is not run cpan/cpanp/cpanm in interactive mode :)

Now, specifically, how could I accomplish that?

You configure cpan/cpanp/cpanm to
run non-interactive
keep logs
install modules in a certain perfix
...
then you run it, something like this: 
set PERL_MM_USE_DEFAULT=1
set PERL5_CPANPLUS_TEST_VERBOSE=1
set TEST_VERBOSE=1
set PERL5LIB=/home/user/stuff/lib/perl5
set PERL_MB_OPT=--install_base /home/user/stuff
set PERL_MM_OPT=INSTALL_BASE=/home/user/stuff
set PERL_CPANM_HOME=/home/user/stuff/.cpanm

cpan-outdated -p | cpanm

cat /home/user/stuff/.cpanm/build.log

[download]

In reply to Re^8: Why is it in some other popular languages fewer steps and potential issues when installing libraries no testing needed and no compilation of C/C++ code done by Anonymous Monk
in thread Why are other popular languages very different from Perl when installing libraries, e.g. no testing needed and no compilation of C/C++ code done by hermida

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