CHAPTER 5

Submitting Your Module 

to CPAN

A

MONG THE MANY GIFTS

 Larry Wall gave the Perl community is an aversion to rules and 

regulations. This is reflected in the Perl language as well as by the Perl community 

there's always more than one way to do it, and freedom of choice reigns. However, 

CPAN requires a different approach. As a shared resource, it would quickly dissolve 

into anarchy without a few rules to govern submissions.

A modicum of order is maintained on CPAN by a group of Perl elders 

who share a single mailing address modules@perl.org. The group that runs 

modules@perl.org is responsible for two important tasks registering new CPAN 

authors and accepting new CPAN modules for inclusion in the Module List. This 

address isn't a mailing list (you can't subscribe to it), but it does have a Web 

interface where you can read messages sent there: http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/

mailing lists/modules.

This chapter will show you the best way to make requests to modules@perl.org

and what to expect in response. I'll also cover the automated services offered by 

the Perl Author Upload SErver (PAUSE). Once you're registered as a CPAN author 

you'll use PAUSE to upload your modules.

Requesting Comments

The first step in submitting a new CPAN module is to introduce your idea to the 

Perl community. A common way to do this is to post a Request For Comments 

(RFC). An RFC is a message that describes your module and publicly solicits 

responses. It's common to post RFCs for new modules to the comp.lang.perl.modules 

Usenet

1

 newsgroup as well as any e mail mailing lists that are relevant to your 

module. A typical RFC message looks something like:

1. Usenet is a distributed messaging system that's been around almost as long as the Internet itself. 

You might have access to Usenet through your Internet service provider; if not, there are several 

Web sites that provide gateways to Usenet. One good one is http://groups.google.com.

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