FAQ 2.6 What modules and extensions are available for Perl? What is CPAN? What does CPAN/src/... m

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2.6: What modules and extensions are available for Perl? What is CPAN? What does CPAN/src/... mean?

CPAN stands for Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, a multi-gigabyte
archive replicated on hundreds of machines all over the world. CPAN
contains source code, non-native ports, documentation, scripts, and many
third-party modules and extensions, designed for everything from
commercial database interfaces to keyboard/screen control to web walking
and CGI scripts. The master web site for CPAN is http://www.cpan.org/
and there is the CPAN Multiplexer at http://www.cpan.org/CPAN.html which
will choose a mirror near you via DNS. See http://www.perl.com/CPAN
(without a slash at the end) for how this process works. Also,
http://mirror.cpan.org/ has a nice interface to the
http://www.cpan.org/MIRRORED.BY mirror directory.

See the CPAN FAQ at http://www.cpan.org/misc/cpan-faq.html for answers
to the most frequently asked questions about CPAN including how to
become a mirror.

CPAN/path/... is a naming convention for files available on CPAN sites.
CPAN indicates the base directory of a CPAN mirror, and the rest of the
path is the path from that directory to the file. For instance, if
you're using ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN as your CPAN
site, the file CPAN/misc/japh is downloadable as
ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/misc/japh .

Considering that, as of 2006, there are over ten thousand existing
modules in the archive, one probably exists to do nearly anything you
can think of. Current categories under CPAN/modules/by-category/ include
Perl core modules; development support; operating system interfaces;
networking, devices, and interprocess communication; data type
utilities; database interfaces; user interfaces; interfaces to other
languages; filenames, file systems, and file locking;
internationalization and locale; world wide web support; server and
daemon utilities; archiving and compression; image manipulation; mail
and news; control flow utilities; filehandle and I/O; Microsoft Windows
modules; and miscellaneous modules.

See http://www.cpan.org/modules/00modlist.long.html or
http://search.cpan.org/ for a more complete list of modules by category.

CPAN is a free service and is not affiliated with O'Reilly Media.



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