CPANPLUS on debian headache

[Hobo Salesman]

Trying to set up cpanplus on debian testing. I find this:

http://debian.pkgs.cpan.org/

So I install cpanp using it... or try to until I'm stopped by a bug
that the changelog for cpanplus on cpan describes as:

"Key 'file' is of invalid type
Turns out it's a bug in Module::Build, reported as
#19741, which creates a 'Build' file when running
'perl Makefile.PL' on a M::B generated Makefile.PL"

Ok... so instead I download cpanplus source from cpan, which is a later
version than the debian package anyway. Unfortunately it complains of a
dozen missing dependencies when running Makefile.PL. It suggests using
the bootstrapped version to install them easily and gives an example
command. I attempt and it fails after a long wait with a 500 server
error (timed out), which I don't understand because an unreachable
server isn't a 500??

Default debian distribution doesn't seem to give any way to search for
perl modules, the best it does is (sometimes) mention modules in the
description of a package. My best guess is cpanplus is the best way to
manage modules? I need an easy way to tell one machine to install all
the same modules as another machine.

Anyway, to get this damn module do I have to download and build every
one of it's dependencies seperately? I find it really puzzling that
every other peice of software I've wanted on this system takes no more
than 30 seconds to install, but installing a couple perl modules has so
far been as much as a root canal.

HS

 

[Hobo Salesman]

command. I attempt and it fails after a long wait with a 500 server
error (timed out), which I don't understand because an unreachable
server isn't a 500??

I looked closer, it's using FTP, which means 500 is illegal PORT
command. I'm using iptables NAT and apparently the FTP client is
telling the server it's opening a port to set up a new data connection,
but the NAT router doesn't know this because it doesn't know anything
about application layer protocols. In other words, FTP sucks because it
can't be routed properly based on TCP/IP alone, and cpanp sucks because
I can't tell it to use PASV (which would solve the problem). Boy I love
linux, I have 10+ machines to install each of these 10+ modules on one
at a time.

 

[Hobo Salesman]

I looked closer, it's using FTP, which means 500 is illegal PORT
command. I'm using iptables NAT and apparently the FTP client is

Ok, thanks to ip_nat_ftp I can use non-PASV FTP... except that
ftp.cpan.org is a flaky peice of shit server. Seems like they're using
DNS for load balancing, I get a new IP every time I do an NSLOOKUP,
seems to be at least 4 or 5 servers, HALF of which seem to be down. I
can't get a ping reply or response on port 21 even using my gateway
machine for a lot of these servers.

Bootstrapped CPANPLUS is downloading all these files, failing most of
the time, and I have to manually find them buried 20 levels deep in the
filesystem to delete them so it can try these flaky servers again
(otherwise it just fails a checksum)...

.... is this really the best way to install perl modules? If CPANPLUS is
using ftp.cpan.org to get the actual modules to install then this is a
joke, a very frustrating non-funny joke.

 

[Hobo Salesman]

... is this really the best way to install perl modules? If CPANPLUS is
using ftp.cpan.org to get the actual modules to install then this is a
joke, a very frustrating non-funny joke.

Hahaha... oh lord this is insane. It fails because Archive::Tar isn't
installed, in other words the method they have for satisfying
dependencies fails due to missing dependencies. So I download from cpan
and install, no make errors no problems... except that it still
complains theres no Archive::Tar. Ok.... so use the CPAN debian
respository to get the package that has this module... install that
too. Still can't find Archive::Tar... who the **** knows where it's
looking for it.

I spent less time learning iproute2 and writing a firewall script than
installing CPANPLUS, and this is the tool that makes managing perl
modules easy...? I'm going nuts here, I need the functionality this
program provides but it seems hopelessly unusable?!

 

[Hobo Salesman]

Hahaha... oh lord this is insane. It fails because Archive::Tar isn't
installed, in other words the method they have for satisfying
dependencies fails due to missing dependencies.

And in the end I downloaded the cpan.pm package in 10 seconds.
Apparently it's replaced by cpanplus, which is like 5 years old and
still a worthless peice of shit? I don't get it, do I just have bad
luck, am I missing something...? I'll use cpan.pm I guess.

 

[BZ]

Hobo Salesman wrote in comp.lang.perl.misc:

Default debian distribution doesn't seem to give any way to search for
perl modules, the best it does is (sometimes) mention modules in the
description of a package.

Uhm, Debian packages of perl modules are just consistently named;
there's therefor no need to search.
Just use dpkg -l lib\*-perl or so to list all available modules.

 

[Hobo Salesman]

Hobo Salesman wrote in comp.lang.perl.misc:

Uhm, Debian packages of perl modules are just consistently named;
there's therefor no need to search.
Just use dpkg -l lib\*-perl or so to list all available modules.

Maybe I'm not understanding, but I can't see how that tells me what
package I need if I want to use, say, Config::General. I'd also like to
use one system for managing perl modules, and I don't think I could
find a debian package for, say... Petal. Maybe I could if I used the
CPAN debian packages (maybe, dont know how complete it is), but I'd
imagine it would be like the CPANPLUS package they have - outdated,
buggy, and 100 times more trouble than it's worth.

 

[Mumia W.]

Maybe I'm not understanding, but I can't see how that tells
me what package I need if I want to use, say,
Config::General. I'd also like to use one system for
managing perl modules, and I don't think I could find a
debian package for, say... Petal.

~$ aptitude search '~nconfig~ngeneral'
p libconfig-general-perl - generic configuration
module
~$
~$ aptitude search '~npetal'
p libpetal-perl - Perl Template Attribute
Language - TAL fo
~$

Debian 3.1

Maybe I could if I used
the CPAN debian packages (maybe, dont know how complete it
is), but I'd imagine it would be like the CPANPLUS package
they have - outdated, buggy, and 100 times more trouble
than it's worth.

~$ aptitude search '~n^lib.*-perl$' > outp
~$ wc -l outp
878 outp

Why use the largest collection of free software ever compiled
if you're not going to use the largest collection of free
software ever compiled? Stop pulling your hair out and get
computing