CPAN

The CPAN module is versatile tool with myriad options and capabilities. While 

in the CPAN shell, you can get a description of the available commands using the 

help command. Also, to learn more about the module itself, you can access the 

CPAN documentation, using the perldoc utility:

$ perldoc CPAN

The Hard Way

The CPAN module may not be right for you. You may be behind a firewall or you 

might prefer more control over the module installation process. Also, some CPAN 

modules, usually older ones, aren't written to work with the CPAN module. If this is 

the case, then you'll need to install modules the hard way. Put on your opaque sun 

glasses and grab your towel.

Location

First, find the module you want to download on the CPAN server near you. An easy 

way to do this is by using the CPAN Search facilities described earlier. The file 

you're looking for will end in either .tar.gz or .zip. CPAN modules have version 

numbers, and there will usually be a list of versions to choose from. You'll generally 

want to choose the highest version number available. Download the module file 

and put it in a working directory on your local machine.

Decompression

These files are compressed, so the first thing you'll need to do is uncompress them 

to get at their contents. Under UNIX systems this is usually done with the tar and 

gzip utilities:

$ gzip  dc ModuleNameHere.tar.gz | tar xvf  

Under Windows you can use tools such as WinZip, available at 

http://www.winzip.com, or install a Windows port of the GNU utilities such as 

CygWin, which includes tar and gzip. CygWin is available at http://cygwin.com.

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