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An [Acronym] for __C__omprehensive [Perl] __A__rchive __N__etwork

[http://www.cpan.org/misc/jpg/cpan-plain.jpg]

A vast collection of [Free] [Perl] software and documentation. If you're a [Perl] programmer, you're the kid and [CPAN] is the candy store. See [the CPAN main page | http://www.cpan.org] for more info and lots of sweets. The quickest way to use [CPAN] to get modules is <tt>perl -MCPAN -eshell</tt>.

However, many of the more popular modules are available as packages for DebianLinux, RedHat and various other LinuxDistribution~s, so you're better off using the PackageManagement if you can. The naming schemes for the packages vary. DebianLinux lowercase the distribution's name, sometimes arbitrarily add dashes to it, and drop it in <tt>lib''dist''-perl</tt>, while RedHat simply use the distribution's name. So the <tt>DBD::Pg</tt> module from the [DBD-Pg | http://search.cpan.org/dist/DBD-Pg/] distribution is contained in the packaged called <tt>libdbd-pg-perl</tt> in DebianLinux and <tt>DBD-Pg</tt> in RedHat.

You can use the [CPAN Search | http://search.cpan.org/] to find out which distribution a module belongs to. F.ex, [looking up GD::Graph::pie | http://search.cpan.org/search?query=GD::Graph::pie;mode=module] will reveal that the module is part of the [GDGraph | http://search.cpan.org/dist/GDGraph/] distribution.

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Last edited on Sunday, November 28, 2004 12:00:40 pm by AristotlePagaltzis

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