Installing Perl modules

rajeshkumar created the topic: Installing Perl modules

Perl modules may be installed using the CPAN module or from source.
CPAN method

perl -MCPAN -e shell (to get an interactive CPAN shell)
perl -MCPAN -e ‘install Time::JulianDay’ (if you know the name of the module, you can install it directly without interacting with the CPAN shell)

Within the CPAN shell:
i /expression/ will search for a Perl module containing expression, and
install module will install the module.

Example:
perl -MCPAN -e shell
i /JulianDay/
install Time::JulianDay

Note: if you are behind a firewall, you may wish to use passive FTP with Perl’s Net::FTP module. Set the environment variable FTP_PASSIVE 1 (or any non-zero value) to use passive FTP when downloading Perl modules through CPAN.

Manual installation

To manually install a Perl module:

1. Download the Perl module from CPAN or other site.
2. Extract the tarball.
3. Run perl Makefile.PL
4. Run make
5. Run make test
6. Run make install

Note: you should use the same compiler to build Perl modules that you used to build Perl. For example, if you are building Perl modules with gcc and are using a version of Perl that was supplied with your distribution (ex. Solaris 8 includes Perl 5.005_03), you may run into errors.

Checking for existence of a Perl module
An easy way to check for the existence of a Perl module on your system (technically, in Perl’s @INC array, a list of directories Perl searches when attempting to load modules) is to run perl -e ‘use module;’

Example:

perl -e ‘use HTML::Parser;’

Regards,
Rajesh Kumar
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Rajesh Kumar

I’m Rajesh Kumar, a DevOps, SRE, DevSecOps, Cloud, and Platform Engineering expert passionate about sharing practical knowledge, real-world experiences, and industry best practices. I have worked at Cotocus and regularly write about technology, travel, investing, health, product reviews, and digital marketing through my various platforms.

I publish technical articles at DevOps School, travel stories at Holiday Landmark, stock market insights at Stocks Mantra, health and fitness guidance at My Medic Plus, product reviews at TrueReviewNow, and SEO and digital marketing strategies at Wizbrand.