


CPAN::FirstTime(3pP)erl Programmers Reference GuiCdPeAN::FirstTime(3p)


NNAAMMEE
       CPAN::FirstTime - Utility for CPAN::Config file
       Initialization

SSYYNNOOPPSSIISS
       _C_P_A_N_:_:_F_i_r_s_t_T_i_m_e_:_:_i_n_i_t_(_)

DDEESSCCRRIIPPTTIIOONN
       The init routine asks a few questions and writes a
       CPAN/Config.pm or CPAN/MyConfig.pm file (depending on what
       it is currently using).

       In the following all questions and explanations regarding
       config variables are collected.

       auto_commit
         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.

         Always commit changes to config variables to disk?

       build_cache
         CPAN.pm can limit the size of the disk area for keeping
         the build directories with all the intermediate files.

         Cache size for build directory (in MB)?

       build_dir
         Directory where the build process takes place?

       build_dir_reuse
         Until version 1.88 CPAN.pm never trusted the contents of
         the build_dir directory between sessions. Since 1.88_58
         CPAN.pm has a YAML-based mechanism that makes it
         possible to share the contents of the build_dir/
         directory between different sessions with the same
         version of perl. People who prefer to test things
         several days before installing will like this feature
         because it safes a lot of time.

         If you say yes to the following question, CPAN will try
         to store enough information about the build process so
         that it can pick up in future sessions at the same state
         of affairs as it left a previous session.

         Store and re-use state information about distributions
         between CPAN.pm sessions?

       build_requires_install_policy
         When a module declares another one as a 'build_requires'



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         prerequisite this means that the other module is only
         needed for building or testing the module but need not
         be installed permanently. In this case you may wish to
         install that other module nonetheless or just keep it in
         the 'build_dir' directory to have it available only
         temporarily.  Installing saves time on future
         installations but makes the perl installation bigger.

         You can choose if you want to always install (yes),
         never install (no) or be always asked. In the latter
         case you can set the default answer for the question to
         yes (ask/yes) or no (ask/no).

         Policy on installing 'build_requires' modules (yes, no,
         ask/yes, ask/no)?

       cache_metadata
         To considerably speed up the initial CPAN shell startup,
         it is possible to use Storable to create a cache of
         metadata. If Storable is not available, the normal index
         mechanism will be used.

         Note: this mechanism is not used when use_sqlite is on
         and SQLLite is running.

         Cache metadata (yes/no)?

       check_sigs
         CPAN packages can be digitally signed by authors and
         thus verified with the security provided by strong
         cryptography. The exact mechanism is defined in the
         Module::Signature module. While this is generally
         considered a good thing, it is not always convenient to
         the end user to install modules that are signed
         incorrectly or where the key of the author is not
         available or where some prerequisite for
         Module::Signature has a bug and so on.

         With the check_sigs parameter you can turn signature
         checking on and off. The default is off for now because
         the whole tool chain for the functionality is not yet
         considered mature by some. The author of CPAN.pm would
         recommend setting it to true most of the time and
         turning it off only if it turns out to be annoying.

         Note that if you do not have Module::Signature
         installed, no signature checks will be performed at all.

         Always try to check and verify signatures if a SIGNATURE
         file is in the package and Module::Signature is
         installed (yes/no)?

       colorize_output
         When you have Term::ANSIColor installed, you can turn on



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         colorized output to have some visual differences between
         normal CPAN.pm output, warnings, debugging output, and
         the output of the modules being installed. Set your
         favorite colors after some experimenting with the
         Term::ANSIColor module.

         Do you want to turn on colored output?

       colorize_print
         Color for normal output?

       colorize_warn
         Color for warnings?

       colorize_debug
         Color for debugging messages?

       commandnumber_in_prompt
         The prompt of the cpan shell can contain the current
         command number for easier tracking of the session or be
         a plain string.

         Do you want the command number in the prompt (yes/no)?

       connect_to_internet_ok
         If you have never defined your own "urllist" in your
         configuration then "CPAN.pm" will be hesitant to use the
         built in default sites for downloading. It will ask you
         once per session if a connection to the internet is OK
         and only if you say yes, it will try to connect. But to
         avoid this question, you can choose your favorite
         download sites once and get away with it. Or, if you
         have no favorite download sites answer yes to the
         following question.

         If no urllist has been chosen yet, would you prefer
         CPAN.pm to connect to the built-in default sites without
         asking? (yes/no)?

       ftp_passive
         Shall we always set the FTP_PASSIVE environment variable
         when dealing with ftp download (yes/no)?

       ftpstats_period
         Statistics about downloads are truncated by size and
         period simultaneously.

         How many days shall we keep statistics about downloads?

       ftpstats_size
         Statistics about downloads are truncated by size and
         period simultaneously.

         How many items shall we keep in the statistics about



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         downloads?

       getcwd
         CPAN.pm changes the current working directory often and
         needs to determine its own current working directory.
         Per default it uses Cwd::cwd but if this doesn't work on
         your system for some reason, alternatives can be
         configured according to the following table:

             cwd         Cwd::cwd
             getcwd      Cwd::getcwd
             fastcwd     Cwd::fastcwd
             backtickcwd external command cwd

         Preferred method for determining the current working
         directory?

       halt_on_failure
         Normaly, CPAN.pm continues processing the full list of
         targets and dependencies, even if one of them fails.
         However, you can specify that CPAN should halt after the
         first failure.

         Do you want to halt on failure (yes/no)?

       histfile
         If you have one of the readline packages
         (Term::ReadLine::Perl, Term::ReadLine::Gnu, possibly
         others) installed, the interactive CPAN shell will have
         history support. The next two questions deal with the
         filename of the history file and with its size. If you
         do not want to set this variable, please hit SPACE
         RETURN to the following question.

         File to save your history?

       histsize
         Number of lines to save?

       inactivity_timeout
         Sometimes you may wish to leave the processes run by
         CPAN alone without caring about them. Because the
         Makefile.PL or the Build.PL sometimes contains question
         you're expected to answer, you can set a timer that will
         kill a 'perl Makefile.PL' process after the specified
         time in seconds.

         If you set this value to 0, these processes will wait
         forever. This is the default and recommended setting.

         Timeout for inactivity during {Makefile,Build}.PL?

       index_expire
         The CPAN indexes are usually rebuilt once or twice per



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         hour, but the typical CPAN mirror mirrors only once or
         twice per day. Depending on the quality of your mirror
         and your desire to be on the bleeding edge, you may want
         to set the following value to more or less than one day
         (which is the default). It determines after how many
         days CPAN.pm downloads new indexes.

         Let the index expire after how many days?

       inhibit_startup_message
         When the CPAN shell is started it normally displays a
         greeting message that contains the running version and
         the status of readline support.

         Do you want to turn this message off?

       keep_source_where
         Unless you are accessing the CPAN on your filesystem via
         a file: URL, CPAN.pm needs to keep the source files it
         downloads somewhere. Please supply a directory where the
         downloaded files are to be kept.

         Download target directory?

       load_module_verbosity
         When CPAN.pm loads a module it needs for some optional
         feature, it usually reports about module name and
         version. Choose 'v' to get this message, 'none' to
         suppress it.

         Verbosity level for loading modules (none or v)?

       makepl_arg
         Every Makefile.PL is run by perl in a separate process.
         Likewise we run 'make' and 'make install' in separate
         processes. If you have any parameters (e.g. PREFIX,
         UNINST or the like) you want to pass to the calls,
         please specify them here.

         If you don't understand this question, just press ENTER.

         Typical frequently used settings:

             PREFIX=~/perl    # non-root users (please see manual for more hints)

         Parameters for the 'perl Makefile.PL' command?

       make_arg
         Parameters for the 'make' command? Typical frequently
         used setting:

             -j3              # dual processor system (on GNU make)

         Your choice:



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       make_install_arg
         Parameters for the 'make install' command?  Typical
         frequently used setting:

             UNINST=1         # to always uninstall potentially conflicting files

         Your choice:

       make_install_make_command
         Do you want to use a different make command for 'make
         install'?  Cautious people will probably prefer:

             su root -c make
          or
             sudo make
          or
             /path1/to/sudo -u admin_account /path2/to/make

         or some such. Your choice:

       mbuildpl_arg
         A Build.PL is run by perl in a separate process.
         Likewise we run './Build' and './Build install' in
         separate processes. If you have any parameters you want
         to pass to the calls, please specify them here.

         Typical frequently used settings:

             --install_base /home/xxx             # different installation directory

         Parameters for the 'perl Build.PL' command?

       mbuild_arg
         Parameters for the './Build' command? Setting might be:

             --extra_linker_flags -L/usr/foo/lib  # non-standard library location

         Your choice:

       mbuild_install_arg
         Parameters for the './Build install' command? Typical
         frequently used setting:

             --uninst 1                           # uninstall conflicting files

         Your choice:

       mbuild_install_build_command
         Do you want to use a different command for './Build
         install'? Sudo users will probably prefer:







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             su root -c ./Build
          or
             sudo ./Build
          or
             /path1/to/sudo -u admin_account ./Build

         or some such. Your choice:

       pager
         What is your favorite pager program?

       prefer_installer
         When you have Module::Build installed and a module comes
         with both a Makefile.PL and a Build.PL, which shall have
         precedence?

         The main two standard installer modules are the old and
         well established ExtUtils::MakeMaker (for short: EUMM)
         which uses the Makefile.PL. And the next generation
         installer Module::Build (MB) which works with the
         Build.PL (and often comes with a Makefile.PL too). If a
         module comes only with one of the two we will use that
         one but if both are supplied then a decision must be
         made between EUMM and MB. See also
         http://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=29235 for a
         discussion about the right default.

         Or, as a third option you can choose RAND which will
         make a random decision (something regular CPAN testers
         will enjoy).

         In case you can choose between running a Makefile.PL or
         a Build.PL, which installer would you prefer (EUMM or MB
         or RAND)?

       prefs_dir
         CPAN.pm can store customized build environments based on
         regular expressions for distribution names. These are
         YAML files where the default options for CPAN.pm and the
         environment can be overridden and dialog sequences can
         be stored that can later be executed by an Expect.pm
         object. The CPAN.pm distribution comes with some prefab
         YAML files that cover sample distributions that can be
         used as blueprints to store one own prefs. Please check
         out the distroprefs/ directory of the CPAN.pm
         distribution to get a quick start into the prefs system.

         Directory where to store default
         options/environment/dialogs for building modules that
         need some customization?

       prerequisites_policy
         The CPAN module can detect when a module which you are
         trying to build depends on prerequisites. If this



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         happens, it can build the prerequisites for you
         automatically ('follow'), ask you for confirmation
         ('ask'), or just ignore them ('ignore'). Please set your
         policy to one of the three values.

         Policy on building prerequisites (follow, ask or
         ignore)?

       randomize_urllist
         CPAN.pm can introduce some randomness when using hosts
         for download that are configured in the urllist
         parameter. Enter a numeric value between 0 and 1 to
         indicate how often you want to let CPAN.pm try a random
         host from the urllist. A value of one specifies to
         always use a random host as the first try. A value of
         zero means no randomness at all. Anything in between
         specifies how often, on average, a random host should be
         tried first.

         Randomize parameter

       scan_cache
         By default, each time the CPAN module is started, cache
         scanning is performed to keep the cache size in sync. To
         prevent this, answer 'never'.

         Perform cache scanning (atstart or never)?

       shell
         What is your favorite shell?

       show_unparsable_versions
         During the 'r' command CPAN.pm finds modules without
         version number.  When the command finishes, it prints a
         report about this. If you want this report to be very
         verbose, say yes to the following variable.

         Show all individual modules that have no $VERSION?

       show_upload_date
         The 'd' and the 'm' command normally only show you
         information they have in their in-memory database and
         thus will never connect to the internet. If you set the
         'show_upload_date' variable to true, 'm' and 'd' will
         additionally show you the upload date of the module or
         distribution. Per default this feature is off because it
         may require a net connection to get at the upload date.

         Always try to show upload date with 'd' and 'm' command
         (yes/no)?

       show_zero_versions
         During the 'r' command CPAN.pm finds modules with a
         version number of zero. When the command finishes, it



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         prints a report about this. If you want this report to
         be very verbose, say yes to the following variable.

         Show all individual modules that have a $VERSION of
         zero?

       tar_verbosity
         When CPAN.pm uses the tar command, which switch for the
         verbosity shall be used? Choose 'none' for quiet
         operation, 'v' for file name listing, 'vv' for full
         listing.

         Tar command verbosity level (none or v or vv)?

       term_is_latin
         The next option deals with the charset (aka character
         set) your terminal supports. In general, CPAN is English
         speaking territory, so the charset does not matter much
         but some CPAN have names that are outside the ASCII
         range. If your terminal supports UTF-8, you should say
         no to the next question. If it expects ISO-8859-1 (also
         known as LATIN1) then you should say yes. If it supports
         neither, your answer does not matter because you will
         not be able to read the names of some authors anyway. If
         you answer no, names will be output in UTF-8.

         Your terminal expects ISO-8859-1 (yes/no)?

       term_ornaments
         When using Term::ReadLine, you can turn ornaments on so
         that your input stands out against the output from
         CPAN.pm.

         Do you want to turn ornaments on?

       test_report
         The goal of the CPAN Testers project
         (http://testers.cpan.org/) is to test as many CPAN
         packages as possible on as many platforms as possible.
         This provides valuable feedback to module authors and
         potential users to identify bugs or platform
         compatibility issues and improves the overall quality
         and value of CPAN.

         One way you can contribute is to send test results for
         each module that you install.  If you install the
         CPAN::Reporter module, you have the option to
         automatically generate and email test reports to CPAN
         Testers whenever you run tests on a CPAN package.

         See the CPAN::Reporter documentation for additional
         details and configuration settings.  If your firewall
         blocks outgoing email, you will need to configure
         CPAN::Reporter before sending reports.



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         Email test reports if CPAN::Reporter is installed
         (yes/no)?

       perl5lib_verbosity
         When CPAN.pm extends @INC via PERL5LIB, it prints a list
         of directories added (or a summary of how many
         directories are added).  Choose 'v' to get this message,
         'none' to suppress it.

         Verbosity level for PERL5LIB changes (none or v)?

       trust_test_report_history
         When a distribution has already been tested by
         CPAN::Reporter on this machine, CPAN can skip the test
         phase and just rely on the test report history instead.

         Note that this will not apply to distributions that
         failed tests because of missing dependencies.  Also,
         tests can be run regardless of the history using
         "force".

         Do you want to rely on the test report history (yes/no)?

       use_sqlite
         CPAN::SQLite is a layer between the index files that are
         downloaded from the CPAN and CPAN.pm that speeds up
         metadata queries and reduces memory consumption of
         CPAN.pm considerably.

         Use CPAN::SQLite if available? (yes/no)?

       yaml_load_code
         Both YAML.pm and YAML::Syck are capable of deserialising
         code. As this requires a string eval, which might be a
         security risk, you can use this option to enable or
         disable the deserialisation of code via
         CPAN::DeferredCode. (Note: This does not work under perl
         5.6)

         Do you want to enable code deserialisation (yes/no)?

       yaml_module
         At the time of this writing (2009-03) there are three
         YAML implementations working: YAML, YAML::Syck, and
         YAML::XS. The latter two are faster but need a C
         compiler installed on your system. There may be more
         alternative YAML conforming modules. When I tried two
         other players, YAML::Tiny and YAML::Perl, they seemed
         not powerful enough to work with CPAN.pm. This may have
         changed in the meantime.

         Which YAML implementation would you prefer?





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LLIICCEENNSSEE
       This program is free software; you can redistribute it
       and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.






















































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