perlmodlib

• NAME
• THE PERL MODULE LIBRARY
  • Pragmatic Modules
  • Standard Modules
  • Extension Modules
• CPAN
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Central America
  • Europe
  • North America
  • Oceania
  • South America
  • RSYNC Mirrors
• Modules: Creation, Use, and Abuse
  • Guidelines for Module Creation
  • Guidelines for Converting Perl 4 Library Scripts into Modules
  • Guidelines for Reusing Application Code
• NOTE

NAME

perlmodlib - constructing new Perl modules and finding existing ones

THE PERL MODULE LIBRARY

Many modules are included in the Perl distribution. These are described below, and all end in .pm. You may discover compiled library files (usually ending in .so) or small pieces of modules to be autoloaded (ending in .al); these were automatically generated by the installation process. You may also discover files in the library directory that end in either .pl or .ph. These are old libraries supplied so that old programs that use them still run. The .pl files will all eventually be converted into standard modules, and the .ph files made by h2ph will probably end up as extension modules made by h2xs. (Some .ph values may already be available through the POSIX, Errno, or Fcntl modules.) The pl2pm file in the distribution may help in your conversion, but it's just a mechanical process and therefore far from bulletproof.

Pragmatic Modules

They work somewhat like compiler directives (pragmata) in that they tend to affect the compilation of your program, and thus will usually work well only when used within a use, or no. Most of these are lexically scoped, so an inner BLOCK may countermand them by saying:

no integer;
no strict 'refs';
no warnings;

which lasts until the end of that BLOCK.

Some pragmas are lexically scoped--typically those that affect the $^H hints variable. Others affect the current package instead, like use vars and use subs , which allow you to predeclare a variables or subroutines within a particular file rather than just a block. Such declarations are effective for the entire file for which they were declared. You cannot rescind them with no vars or no subs .

The following pragmas are defined (and have their own documentation).

• arybase

  Set indexing base via $[

• attributes

  Get/set subroutine or variable attributes

• autodie

  Replace functions with ones that succeed or die with lexical scope

• autodie::exception

  Exceptions from autodying functions.

• autodie::exception::system

  Exceptions from autodying system().

• autodie::hints

  Provide hints about user subroutines to autodie

• autodie::skip

  Skip a package when throwing autodie exceptions

• autouse

  Postpone load of modules until a function is used

• base

  Establish an ISA relationship with base classes at compile time

• bigint

  Transparent BigInteger support for Perl

• bignum

  Transparent BigNumber support for Perl

• bigrat

  Transparent BigNumber/BigRational support for Perl

• blib

  Use MakeMaker's uninstalled version of a package

• bytes

  Force byte semantics rather than character semantics

• charnames

  Access to Unicode character names and named character sequences; also define character names

• constant

  Declare constants

• deprecate

  Perl pragma for deprecating the core version of a module

• diagnostics

  Produce verbose warning diagnostics

• encoding

  Allows you to write your script in non-ASCII and non-UTF-8

• encoding::warnings

  Warn on implicit encoding conversions

• experimental

  Experimental features made easy

• feature

  Enable new features

• fields

  Compile-time class fields

• filetest

  Control the filetest permission operators

• if

  use a Perl module if a condition holds (also can no a module)

• integer

  Use integer arithmetic instead of floating point

• less

  Request less of something

• lib

  Manipulate @INC at compile time

• locale

  Use or avoid POSIX locales for built-in operations

• mro

  Method Resolution Order

• ok

  Alternative to Test::More::use_ok

• open

  Set default PerlIO layers for input and output

• ops

  Restrict unsafe operations when compiling

• overload

  Package for overloading Perl operations

• overloading

  Lexically control overloading

• parent

  Establish an ISA relationship with base classes at compile time

• re

  Alter regular expression behaviour

• sigtrap

  Enable simple signal handling

• sort

  Control sort() behaviour

• strict

  Restrict unsafe constructs

• subs

  Predeclare sub names

• threads

  Perl interpreter-based threads

• threads::shared

  Perl extension for sharing data structures between threads

• utf8

  Enable/disable UTF-8 (or UTF-EBCDIC) in source code

• vars

  Predeclare global variable names

• version

  Perl extension for Version Objects

• vmsish

  Control VMS-specific language features

• warnings::register

  Warnings import function

Standard Modules

Standard, bundled modules are all expected to behave in a well-defined manner with respect to namespace pollution because they use the Exporter module. See their own documentation for details.

It's possible that not all modules listed below are installed on your system. For example, the GDBM_File module will not be installed if you don't have the gdbm library.

• AnyDBM_File

  Provide framework for multiple DBMs

• App::Cpan

  Easily interact with CPAN from the command line

• App::Prove

  Implements the prove command.

• App::Prove::State

  State storage for the prove command.

• App::Prove::State::Result

  Individual test suite results.

• App::Prove::State::Result::Test

  Individual test results.

• Archive::Tar

  Module for manipulations of tar archives

• Archive::Tar::File

  A subclass for in-memory extracted file from Archive::Tar

• Attribute::Handlers

  Simpler definition of attribute handlers

• AutoLoader

  Load subroutines only on demand

• AutoSplit

  Split a package for autoloading

• B

  The Perl Compiler Backend

• B::Concise

  Walk Perl syntax tree, printing concise info about ops

• B::Debug

  Walk Perl syntax tree, printing debug info about ops

• B::Deparse

  Perl compiler backend to produce perl code

• B::Op_private

  OP op_private flag definitions
  

• B::Showlex

  Show lexical variables used in functions or files

• B::Terse

  Walk Perl syntax tree, printing terse info about ops

• B::Xref

  Generates cross reference reports for Perl programs

• Benchmark

  Benchmark running times of Perl code

• IO::Socket::IP

  Family-neutral IP socket supporting both IPv4 and IPv6

• Socket

  Networking constants and support functions

• CORE

  Namespace for Perl's core routines

• CPAN

  Query, download and build perl modules from CPAN sites

• CPAN::API::HOWTO

  A recipe book for programming with CPAN.pm

• CPAN::Debug

  Internal debugging for CPAN.pm

• CPAN::Distroprefs

  Read and match distroprefs

• CPAN::FirstTime

  Utility for CPAN::Config file Initialization

• CPAN::HandleConfig

  Internal configuration handling for CPAN.pm

• CPAN::Kwalify

  Interface between CPAN.pm and Kwalify.pm

• CPAN::Meta

  The distribution metadata for a CPAN dist

• CPAN::Meta::Converter

  Convert CPAN distribution metadata structures

• CPAN::Meta::Feature

  An optional feature provided by a CPAN distribution

• CPAN::Meta::History

  History of CPAN Meta Spec changes

• CPAN::Meta::History::Meta_1_0

  Version 1.0 metadata specification for META.yml

• CPAN::Meta::History::Meta_1_1

  Version 1.1 metadata specification for META.yml

• CPAN::Meta::History::Meta_1_2

  Version 1.2 metadata specification for META.yml

• CPAN::Meta::History::Meta_1_3

  Version 1.3 metadata specification for META.yml

• CPAN::Meta::History::Meta_1_4

  Version 1.4 metadata specification for META.yml

• CPAN::Meta::Merge

  Merging CPAN Meta fragments

• CPAN::Meta::Prereqs

  A set of distribution prerequisites by phase and type

• CPAN::Meta::Requirements

  A set of version requirements for a CPAN dist

• CPAN::Meta::Spec

  Specification for CPAN distribution metadata

• CPAN::Meta::Validator

  Validate CPAN distribution metadata structures

• CPAN::Meta::YAML

  Read and write a subset of YAML for CPAN Meta files

• CPAN::Nox

  Wrapper around CPAN.pm without using any XS module

• CPAN::Plugin

  Base class for CPAN shell extensions

• CPAN::Plugin::Specfile

  Proof of concept implementation of a trivial CPAN::Plugin

• CPAN::Queue

  Internal queue support for CPAN.pm

• CPAN::Tarzip

  Internal handling of tar archives for CPAN.pm

• CPAN::Version

  Utility functions to compare CPAN versions

• Carp

  Alternative warn and die for modules

• Class::Struct

  Declare struct-like datatypes as Perl classes

• Compress::Raw::Bzip2

  Low-Level Interface to bzip2 compression library

• Compress::Raw::Zlib

  Low-Level Interface to zlib compression library

• Compress::Zlib

  Interface to zlib compression library

• Config

  Access Perl configuration information

• Config::Perl::V

  Structured data retrieval of perl -V output

• Cwd

  Get pathname of current working directory

• DB

  Programmatic interface to the Perl debugging API

• DBM_Filter

  Filter DBM keys/values

• DBM_Filter::compress

  Filter for DBM_Filter

• DBM_Filter::encode

  Filter for DBM_Filter

• DBM_Filter::int32

  Filter for DBM_Filter

• DBM_Filter::null

  Filter for DBM_Filter

• DBM_Filter::utf8

  Filter for DBM_Filter

• DB_File

  Perl5 access to Berkeley DB version 1.x

• Data::Dumper

  Stringified perl data structures, suitable for both printing and eval

• Devel::PPPort

  Perl/Pollution/Portability

• Devel::Peek

  A data debugging tool for the XS programmer

• Devel::SelfStubber

  Generate stubs for a SelfLoading module

• Digest

  Modules that calculate message digests

• Digest::MD5

  Perl interface to the MD5 Algorithm

• Digest::SHA

  Perl extension for SHA-1/224/256/384/512

• Digest::base

  Digest base class

• Digest::file

  Calculate digests of files

• DirHandle

  Supply object methods for directory handles

• Dumpvalue

  Provides screen dump of Perl data.

• DynaLoader

  Dynamically load C libraries into Perl code

• Encode

  Character encodings in Perl

• Encode::Alias

  Alias definitions to encodings

• Encode::Byte

  Single Byte Encodings

• Encode::CJKConstants

  Internally used by Encode::??::ISO_2022_*

• Encode::CN

  China-based Chinese Encodings

• Encode::CN::HZ

  Internally used by Encode::CN

• Encode::Config

  Internally used by Encode

• Encode::EBCDIC

  EBCDIC Encodings

• Encode::Encoder

  Object Oriented Encoder

• Encode::Encoding

  Encode Implementation Base Class

• Encode::GSM0338

  ESTI GSM 03.38 Encoding

• Encode::Guess

  Guesses encoding from data

• Encode::JP

  Japanese Encodings

• Encode::JP::H2Z

  Internally used by Encode::JP::2022_JP*

• Encode::JP::JIS7

  Internally used by Encode::JP

• Encode::KR

  Korean Encodings

• Encode::KR::2022_KR

  Internally used by Encode::KR

• Encode::MIME::Header

  MIME 'B' and 'Q' header encoding

• Encode::MIME::Name

  Internally used by Encode

• Encode::PerlIO

  A detailed document on Encode and PerlIO

• Encode::Supported

  Encodings supported by Encode

• Encode::Symbol

  Symbol Encodings

• Encode::TW

  Taiwan-based Chinese Encodings

• Encode::Unicode

  Various Unicode Transformation Formats

• Encode::Unicode::UTF7

  UTF-7 encoding

• English

  Use nice English (or awk) names for ugly punctuation variables

• Env

  Perl module that imports environment variables as scalars or arrays

• Errno

  System errno constants

• Exporter

  Implements default import method for modules

• Exporter::Heavy

  Exporter guts

• ExtUtils::CBuilder

  Compile and link C code for Perl modules

• ExtUtils::CBuilder::Platform::Windows

  Builder class for Windows platforms

• ExtUtils::Command

  Utilities to replace common UNIX commands in Makefiles etc.

• ExtUtils::Command::MM

  Commands for the MM's to use in Makefiles

• ExtUtils::Constant

  Generate XS code to import C header constants

• ExtUtils::Constant::Base

  Base class for ExtUtils::Constant objects

• ExtUtils::Constant::Utils

  Helper functions for ExtUtils::Constant

• ExtUtils::Constant::XS

  Generate C code for XS modules' constants.

• ExtUtils::Embed

  Utilities for embedding Perl in C/C++ applications

• ExtUtils::Install

  Install files from here to there

• ExtUtils::Installed

  Inventory management of installed modules

• ExtUtils::Liblist

  Determine libraries to use and how to use them

• ExtUtils::MM

  OS adjusted ExtUtils::MakeMaker subclass

• ExtUtils::MM_AIX

  AIX specific subclass of ExtUtils::MM_Unix

• ExtUtils::MM_Any

  Platform-agnostic MM methods

• ExtUtils::MM_BeOS

  Methods to override UN*X behaviour in ExtUtils::MakeMaker

• ExtUtils::MM_Cygwin

  Methods to override UN*X behaviour in ExtUtils::MakeMaker

• ExtUtils::MM_DOS

  DOS specific subclass of ExtUtils::MM_Unix

• ExtUtils::MM_Darwin

  Special behaviors for OS X

• ExtUtils::MM_MacOS

  Once produced Makefiles for MacOS Classic

• ExtUtils::MM_NW5

  Methods to override UN*X behaviour in ExtUtils::MakeMaker

• ExtUtils::MM_OS2

  Methods to override UN*X behaviour in ExtUtils::MakeMaker

• ExtUtils::MM_QNX

  QNX specific subclass of ExtUtils::MM_Unix

• ExtUtils::MM_UWIN

  U/WIN specific subclass of ExtUtils::MM_Unix

• ExtUtils::MM_Unix

  Methods used by ExtUtils::MakeMaker

• ExtUtils::MM_VMS

  Methods to override UN*X behaviour in ExtUtils::MakeMaker

• ExtUtils::MM_VOS

  VOS specific subclass of ExtUtils::MM_Unix

• ExtUtils::MM_Win32

  Methods to override UN*X behaviour in ExtUtils::MakeMaker

• ExtUtils::MM_Win95

  Method to customize MakeMaker for Win9X

• ExtUtils::MY

  ExtUtils::MakeMaker subclass for customization

• ExtUtils::MakeMaker

  Create a module Makefile

• ExtUtils::MakeMaker::Config

  Wrapper around Config.pm

• ExtUtils::MakeMaker::FAQ

  Frequently Asked Questions About MakeMaker

• ExtUtils::MakeMaker::Locale

  Bundled Encode::Locale

• ExtUtils::MakeMaker::Tutorial

  Writing a module with MakeMaker

• ExtUtils::Manifest

  Utilities to write and check a MANIFEST file

• ExtUtils::Miniperl

  Write the C code for perlmain.c

• ExtUtils::Mkbootstrap

  Make a bootstrap file for use by DynaLoader

• ExtUtils::Mksymlists

  Write linker options files for dynamic extension

• ExtUtils::Packlist

  Manage .packlist files

• ExtUtils::ParseXS

  Converts Perl XS code into C code

• ExtUtils::ParseXS::Constants

  Initialization values for some globals

• ExtUtils::ParseXS::Eval

  Clean package to evaluate code in

• ExtUtils::ParseXS::Utilities

  Subroutines used with ExtUtils::ParseXS

• ExtUtils::Typemaps

  Read/Write/Modify Perl/XS typemap files

• ExtUtils::Typemaps::Cmd

  Quick commands for handling typemaps

• ExtUtils::Typemaps::InputMap

  Entry in the INPUT section of a typemap

• ExtUtils::Typemaps::OutputMap

  Entry in the OUTPUT section of a typemap

• ExtUtils::Typemaps::Type

  Entry in the TYPEMAP section of a typemap

• ExtUtils::XSSymSet

  Keep sets of symbol names palatable to the VMS linker

• ExtUtils::testlib

  Add blib/* directories to @INC

• Fatal

  Replace functions with equivalents which succeed or die

• Fcntl

  Load the C Fcntl.h defines

• File::Basename

  Parse file paths into directory, filename and suffix.

• File::Compare

  Compare files or filehandles

• File::Copy

  Copy files or filehandles

• File::DosGlob

  DOS like globbing and then some

• File::Fetch

  A generic file fetching mechanism

• File::Find

  Traverse a directory tree.

• File::Glob

  Perl extension for BSD glob routine

• File::GlobMapper

  Extend File Glob to Allow Input and Output Files

• File::Path

  Create or remove directory trees

• File::Spec

  Portably perform operations on file names

• File::Spec::Cygwin

  Methods for Cygwin file specs

• File::Spec::Epoc

  Methods for Epoc file specs

• File::Spec::Functions

  Portably perform operations on file names

• File::Spec::Mac

  File::Spec for Mac OS (Classic)

• File::Spec::OS2

  Methods for OS/2 file specs

• File::Spec::Unix

  File::Spec for Unix, base for other File::Spec modules

• File::Spec::VMS

  Methods for VMS file specs

• File::Spec::Win32

  Methods for Win32 file specs

• File::Temp

  Return name and handle of a temporary file safely

• File::stat

  By-name interface to Perl's built-in stat() functions

• FileCache

  Keep more files open than the system permits

• FileHandle

  Supply object methods for filehandles

• Filter::Simple

  Simplified source filtering

• Filter::Util::Call

  Perl Source Filter Utility Module

• FindBin

  Locate directory of original perl script

• GDBM_File

  Perl5 access to the gdbm library.

• Getopt::Long

  Extended processing of command line options

• Getopt::Std

  Process single-character switches with switch clustering

• HTTP::Tiny

  A small, simple, correct HTTP/1.1 client

• Hash::Util

  A selection of general-utility hash subroutines

• Hash::Util::FieldHash

  Support for Inside-Out Classes

• I18N::Collate

  Compare 8-bit scalar data according to the current locale

• I18N::LangTags

  Functions for dealing with RFC3066-style language tags

• I18N::LangTags::Detect

  Detect the user's language preferences

• I18N::LangTags::List

  Tags and names for human languages

• I18N::Langinfo

  Query locale information

• IO

  Load various IO modules

• IO::Compress::Base

  Base Class for IO::Compress modules

• IO::Compress::Bzip2

  Write bzip2 files/buffers

• IO::Compress::Deflate

  Write RFC 1950 files/buffers

• IO::Compress::FAQ

  Frequently Asked Questions about IO::Compress

• IO::Compress::Gzip

  Write RFC 1952 files/buffers

• IO::Compress::RawDeflate

  Write RFC 1951 files/buffers

• IO::Compress::Zip

  Write zip files/buffers

• IO::Dir

  Supply object methods for directory handles

• IO::File

  Supply object methods for filehandles

• IO::Handle

  Supply object methods for I/O handles

• IO::Pipe

  Supply object methods for pipes

• IO::Poll

  Object interface to system poll call

• IO::Seekable

  Supply seek based methods for I/O objects

• IO::Select

  OO interface to the select system call

• IO::Socket

  Object interface to socket communications

• IO::Socket::INET

  Object interface for AF_INET domain sockets

• IO::Socket::UNIX

  Object interface for AF_UNIX domain sockets

• IO::Uncompress::AnyInflate

  Uncompress zlib-based (zip, gzip) file/buffer

• IO::Uncompress::AnyUncompress

  Uncompress gzip, zip, bzip2 or lzop file/buffer

• IO::Uncompress::Base

  Base Class for IO::Uncompress modules

• IO::Uncompress::Bunzip2

  Read bzip2 files/buffers

• IO::Uncompress::Gunzip

  Read RFC 1952 files/buffers

• IO::Uncompress::Inflate

  Read RFC 1950 files/buffers

• IO::Uncompress::RawInflate

  Read RFC 1951 files/buffers

• IO::Uncompress::Unzip

  Read zip files/buffers

• IO::Zlib

  IO:: style interface to Compress::Zlib

• IPC::Cmd

  Finding and running system commands made easy

• IPC::Msg

  SysV Msg IPC object class

• IPC::Open2

  Open a process for both reading and writing using open2()

• IPC::Open3

  Open a process for reading, writing, and error handling using open3()

• IPC::Semaphore

  SysV Semaphore IPC object class

• IPC::SharedMem

  SysV Shared Memory IPC object class

• IPC::SysV

  System V IPC constants and system calls

• JSON::PP

  JSON::XS compatible pure-Perl module.

• JSON::PP::Boolean

  Dummy module providing JSON::PP::Boolean

• List::Util

  A selection of general-utility list subroutines

• List::Util::XS

  Indicate if List::Util was compiled with a C compiler

• Locale::Codes

  A distribution of modules to handle locale codes

• Locale::Codes::API

  A description of the callable function in each module

• Locale::Codes::Changes

  Details changes to Locale::Codes

• Locale::Codes::Constants

  Constants for Locale codes

• Locale::Codes::Country

  Standard codes for country identification

• Locale::Codes::Currency

  Standard codes for currency identification

• Locale::Codes::LangExt

  Standard codes for language extension identification

• Locale::Codes::LangFam

  Standard codes for language extension identification

• Locale::Codes::LangFam_Retired

  Retired langfam codes for the Locale::Codes::LangFam module

• Locale::Codes::LangVar

  Standard codes for language variation identification

• Locale::Codes::Language

  Standard codes for language identification

• Locale::Codes::Script

  Standard codes for script identification

• Locale::Country

  Standard codes for country identification

• Locale::Currency

  Standard codes for currency identification

• Locale::Language

  Standard codes for language identification

• Locale::Maketext

  Framework for localization

• Locale::Maketext::Cookbook

  Recipes for using Locale::Maketext

• Locale::Maketext::Guts

  Deprecated module to load Locale::Maketext utf8 code

• Locale::Maketext::GutsLoader

  Deprecated module to load Locale::Maketext utf8 code

• Locale::Maketext::Simple

  Simple interface to Locale::Maketext::Lexicon

• Locale::Maketext::TPJ13

  Article about software localization

• Locale::Script

  Standard codes for script identification

• MIME::Base64

  Encoding and decoding of base64 strings

• MIME::QuotedPrint

  Encoding and decoding of quoted-printable strings

• Math::BigFloat

  Arbitrary size floating point math package

• Math::BigInt

  Arbitrary size integer/float math package

• Math::BigInt::Calc

  Pure Perl module to support Math::BigInt

• Math::BigInt::CalcEmu

  Emulate low-level math with BigInt code

• Math::BigInt::FastCalc

  Math::BigInt::Calc with some XS for more speed

• Math::BigRat

  Arbitrary big rational numbers

• Math::Complex

  Complex numbers and associated mathematical functions

• Math::Trig

  Trigonometric functions

• Memoize

  Make functions faster by trading space for time

• Memoize::AnyDBM_File

  Glue to provide EXISTS for AnyDBM_File for Storable use

• Memoize::Expire

  Plug-in module for automatic expiration of memoized values

• Memoize::ExpireFile

  Test for Memoize expiration semantics

• Memoize::ExpireTest

  Test for Memoize expiration semantics

• Memoize::NDBM_File

  Glue to provide EXISTS for NDBM_File for Storable use

• Memoize::SDBM_File

  Glue to provide EXISTS for SDBM_File for Storable use

• Memoize::Storable

  Store Memoized data in Storable database

• Module::CoreList

  What modules shipped with versions of perl

• Module::CoreList::Utils

  What utilities shipped with versions of perl

• Module::Load

  Runtime require of both modules and files

• Module::Load::Conditional

  Looking up module information / loading at runtime

• Module::Loaded

  Mark modules as loaded or unloaded

• Module::Metadata

  Gather package and POD information from perl module files

• NDBM_File

  Tied access to ndbm files

• NEXT

  Provide a pseudo-class NEXT (et al) that allows method redispatch

• Net::Cmd

  Network Command class (as used by FTP, SMTP etc)

• Net::Config

  Local configuration data for libnet

• Net::Domain

  Attempt to evaluate the current host's internet name and domain

• Net::FTP

  FTP Client class

• Net::FTP::dataconn

  FTP Client data connection class

• Net::NNTP

  NNTP Client class

• Net::Netrc

  OO interface to users netrc file

• Net::POP3

  Post Office Protocol 3 Client class (RFC1939)

• Net::Ping

  Check a remote host for reachability

• Net::SMTP

  Simple Mail Transfer Protocol Client

• Net::Time

  Time and daytime network client interface

• Net::hostent

  By-name interface to Perl's built-in gethost*() functions

• Net::libnetFAQ

  Libnet Frequently Asked Questions

• Net::netent

  By-name interface to Perl's built-in getnet*() functions

• Net::protoent

  By-name interface to Perl's built-in getproto*() functions

• Net::servent

  By-name interface to Perl's built-in getserv*() functions

• O

  Generic interface to Perl Compiler backends

• ODBM_File

  Tied access to odbm files

• Opcode

  Disable named opcodes when compiling perl code

• POSIX

  Perl interface to IEEE Std 1003.1

• Params::Check

  A generic input parsing/checking mechanism.

• Parse::CPAN::Meta

  Parse META.yml and META.json CPAN metadata files

• Perl::OSType

  Map Perl operating system names to generic types

• PerlIO

  On demand loader for PerlIO layers and root of PerlIO::* name space

• PerlIO::encoding

  Encoding layer

• PerlIO::mmap

  Memory mapped IO

• PerlIO::scalar

  In-memory IO, scalar IO

• PerlIO::via

  Helper class for PerlIO layers implemented in perl

• PerlIO::via::QuotedPrint

  PerlIO layer for quoted-printable strings

• Pod::Escapes

  For resolving Pod E<...> sequences

• Pod::Find

  Find POD documents in directory trees

• Pod::Functions

  Group Perl's functions a la perlfunc.pod

• Pod::Html

  Module to convert pod files to HTML

• Pod::InputObjects

  Objects representing POD input paragraphs, commands, etc.

• Pod::Man

  Convert POD data to formatted *roff input

• Pod::ParseLink

  Parse an L<> formatting code in POD text

• Pod::ParseUtils

  Helpers for POD parsing and conversion

• Pod::Parser

  Base class for creating POD filters and translators

• Pod::Perldoc

  Look up Perl documentation in Pod format.

• Pod::Perldoc::BaseTo

  Base for Pod::Perldoc formatters

• Pod::Perldoc::GetOptsOO

  Customized option parser for Pod::Perldoc

• Pod::Perldoc::ToANSI

  Render Pod with ANSI color escapes

• Pod::Perldoc::ToChecker

  Let Perldoc check Pod for errors

• Pod::Perldoc::ToMan

  Let Perldoc render Pod as man pages

• Pod::Perldoc::ToNroff

  Let Perldoc convert Pod to nroff

• Pod::Perldoc::ToPod

  Let Perldoc render Pod as ... Pod!

• Pod::Perldoc::ToRtf

  Let Perldoc render Pod as RTF

• Pod::Perldoc::ToTerm

  Render Pod with terminal escapes

• Pod::Perldoc::ToText

  Let Perldoc render Pod as plaintext

• Pod::Perldoc::ToTk

  Let Perldoc use Tk::Pod to render Pod

• Pod::Perldoc::ToXml

  Let Perldoc render Pod as XML

• Pod::PlainText

  Convert POD data to formatted ASCII text

• Pod::Select

  Extract selected sections of POD from input

• Pod::Simple

  Framework for parsing Pod

• Pod::Simple::Checker

  Check the Pod syntax of a document

• Pod::Simple::Debug

  Put Pod::Simple into trace/debug mode

• Pod::Simple::DumpAsText

  Dump Pod-parsing events as text

• Pod::Simple::DumpAsXML

  Turn Pod into XML

• Pod::Simple::HTML

  Convert Pod to HTML

• Pod::Simple::HTMLBatch

  Convert several Pod files to several HTML files

• Pod::Simple::LinkSection

  Represent "section" attributes of L codes

• Pod::Simple::Methody

  Turn Pod::Simple events into method calls

• Pod::Simple::PullParser

  A pull-parser interface to parsing Pod

• Pod::Simple::PullParserEndToken

  End-tokens from Pod::Simple::PullParser

• Pod::Simple::PullParserStartToken

  Start-tokens from Pod::Simple::PullParser

• Pod::Simple::PullParserTextToken

  Text-tokens from Pod::Simple::PullParser

• Pod::Simple::PullParserToken

  Tokens from Pod::Simple::PullParser

• Pod::Simple::RTF

  Format Pod as RTF

• Pod::Simple::Search

  Find POD documents in directory trees

• Pod::Simple::SimpleTree

  Parse Pod into a simple parse tree

• Pod::Simple::Subclassing

  Write a formatter as a Pod::Simple subclass

• Pod::Simple::Text

  Format Pod as plaintext

• Pod::Simple::TextContent

  Get the text content of Pod

• Pod::Simple::XHTML

  Format Pod as validating XHTML

• Pod::Simple::XMLOutStream

  Turn Pod into XML

• Pod::Text

  Convert POD data to formatted ASCII text

• Pod::Text::Color

  Convert POD data to formatted color ASCII text

• Pod::Text::Termcap

  Convert POD data to ASCII text with format escapes

• Pod::Usage

  Print a usage message from embedded pod documentation

• SDBM_File

  Tied access to sdbm files

• Safe

  Compile and execute code in restricted compartments

• Scalar::Util

  A selection of general-utility scalar subroutines

• Search::Dict

  Look - search for key in dictionary file

• SelectSaver

  Save and restore selected file handle

• SelfLoader

  Load functions only on demand

• Storable

  Persistence for Perl data structures

• Sub::Util

  A selection of utility subroutines for subs and CODE references

• Symbol

  Manipulate Perl symbols and their names

• Sys::Hostname

  Try every conceivable way to get hostname

• Sys::Syslog

  Perl interface to the UNIX syslog(3) calls

• Sys::Syslog::Win32

  Win32 support for Sys::Syslog

• TAP::Base

  Base class that provides common functionality to TAP::Parser

• TAP::Formatter::Base

  Base class for harness output delegates

• TAP::Formatter::Color

  Run Perl test scripts with color

• TAP::Formatter::Console

  Harness output delegate for default console output

• TAP::Formatter::Console::ParallelSession

  Harness output delegate for parallel console output

• TAP::Formatter::Console::Session

  Harness output delegate for default console output

• TAP::Formatter::File

  Harness output delegate for file output

• TAP::Formatter::File::Session

  Harness output delegate for file output

• TAP::Formatter::Session

  Abstract base class for harness output delegate

• TAP::Harness

  Run test scripts with statistics

• TAP::Harness::Env

  Parsing harness related environmental variables where appropriate

• TAP::Object

  Base class that provides common functionality to all TAP::* modules

• TAP::Parser

  Parse TAP output

• TAP::Parser::Aggregator

  Aggregate TAP::Parser results

• TAP::Parser::Grammar

  A grammar for the Test Anything Protocol.

• TAP::Parser::Iterator

  Base class for TAP source iterators

• TAP::Parser::Iterator::Array

  Iterator for array-based TAP sources

• TAP::Parser::Iterator::Process

  Iterator for process-based TAP sources

• TAP::Parser::Iterator::Stream

  Iterator for filehandle-based TAP sources

• TAP::Parser::IteratorFactory

  Figures out which SourceHandler objects to use for a given Source

• TAP::Parser::Multiplexer

  Multiplex multiple TAP::Parsers

• TAP::Parser::Result

  Base class for TAP::Parser output objects

• TAP::Parser::Result::Bailout

  Bailout result token.

• TAP::Parser::Result::Comment

  Comment result token.

• TAP::Parser::Result::Plan

  Plan result token.

• TAP::Parser::Result::Pragma

  TAP pragma token.

• TAP::Parser::Result::Test

  Test result token.

• TAP::Parser::Result::Unknown

  Unknown result token.

• TAP::Parser::Result::Version

  TAP syntax version token.

• TAP::Parser::Result::YAML

  YAML result token.

• TAP::Parser::ResultFactory

  Factory for creating TAP::Parser output objects

• TAP::Parser::Scheduler

  Schedule tests during parallel testing

• TAP::Parser::Scheduler::Job

  A single testing job.

• TAP::Parser::Scheduler::Spinner

  A no-op job.

• TAP::Parser::Source

  A TAP source & meta data about it

• TAP::Parser::SourceHandler

  Base class for different TAP source handlers

• TAP::Parser::SourceHandler::Executable

  Stream output from an executable TAP source

• TAP::Parser::SourceHandler::File

  Stream TAP from a text file.

• TAP::Parser::SourceHandler::Handle

  Stream TAP from an IO::Handle or a GLOB.

• TAP::Parser::SourceHandler::Perl

  Stream TAP from a Perl executable

• TAP::Parser::SourceHandler::RawTAP

  Stream output from raw TAP in a scalar/array ref.

• TAP::Parser::YAMLish::Reader

  Read YAMLish data from iterator

• TAP::Parser::YAMLish::Writer

  Write YAMLish data

• Term::ANSIColor

  Color screen output using ANSI escape sequences

• Term::Cap

  Perl termcap interface

• Term::Complete

  Perl word completion module

• Term::ReadLine

  Perl interface to various readline packages.

• Test

  Provides a simple framework for writing test scripts

• Test::Builder

  Backend for building test libraries

• Test::Builder::IO::Scalar

  A copy of IO::Scalar for Test::Builder

• Test::Builder::Module

  Base class for test modules

• Test::Builder::Tester

  Test testsuites that have been built with

• Test::Builder::Tester::Color

  Turn on colour in Test::Builder::Tester

• Test::Harness

  Run Perl standard test scripts with statistics

• Test::Harness::Beyond

  Beyond make test

• Test::More

  Yet another framework for writing test scripts

• Test::Simple

  Basic utilities for writing tests.

• Test::Tester

  Ease testing test modules built with Test::Builder

• Test::Tester::Capture

  Help testing test modules built with Test::Builder

• Test::Tester::CaptureRunner

  Help testing test modules built with Test::Builder

• Test::Tutorial

  A tutorial about writing really basic tests

• Test::use::ok

  Alternative to Test::More::use_ok

• Text::Abbrev

  Abbrev - create an abbreviation table from a list

• Text::Balanced

  Extract delimited text sequences from strings.

• Text::ParseWords

  Parse text into an array of tokens or array of arrays

• Text::Tabs

  Expand and unexpand tabs like unix expand(1) and unexpand(1)

• Text::Wrap

  Line wrapping to form simple paragraphs

• Thread

  Manipulate threads in Perl (for old code only)

• Thread::Queue

  Thread-safe queues

• Thread::Semaphore

  Thread-safe semaphores

• Tie::Array

  Base class for tied arrays

• Tie::File

  Access the lines of a disk file via a Perl array

• Tie::Handle

  Base class definitions for tied handles

• Tie::Hash

  Base class definitions for tied hashes

• Tie::Hash::NamedCapture

  Named regexp capture buffers

• Tie::Memoize

  Add data to hash when needed

• Tie::RefHash

  Use references as hash keys

• Tie::Scalar

  Base class definitions for tied scalars

• Tie::StdHandle

  Base class definitions for tied handles

• Tie::SubstrHash

  Fixed-table-size, fixed-key-length hashing

• Time::HiRes

  High resolution alarm, sleep, gettimeofday, interval timers

• Time::Local

  Efficiently compute time from local and GMT time

• Time::Piece

  Object Oriented time objects

• Time::Seconds

  A simple API to convert seconds to other date values

• Time::gmtime

  By-name interface to Perl's built-in gmtime() function

• Time::localtime

  By-name interface to Perl's built-in localtime() function

• Time::tm

  Internal object used by Time::gmtime and Time::localtime

• UNIVERSAL

  Base class for ALL classes (blessed references)

• Unicode::Collate

  Unicode Collation Algorithm

• Unicode::Collate::CJK::Big5

  Weighting CJK Unified Ideographs

• Unicode::Collate::CJK::GB2312

  Weighting CJK Unified Ideographs

• Unicode::Collate::CJK::JISX0208

  Weighting JIS KANJI for Unicode::Collate

• Unicode::Collate::CJK::Korean

  Weighting CJK Unified Ideographs

• Unicode::Collate::CJK::Pinyin

  Weighting CJK Unified Ideographs

• Unicode::Collate::CJK::Stroke

  Weighting CJK Unified Ideographs

• Unicode::Collate::CJK::Zhuyin

  Weighting CJK Unified Ideographs

• Unicode::Collate::Locale

  Linguistic tailoring for DUCET via Unicode::Collate

• Unicode::Normalize

  Unicode Normalization Forms

• Unicode::UCD

  Unicode character database

• User::grent

  By-name interface to Perl's built-in getgr*() functions

• User::pwent

  By-name interface to Perl's built-in getpw*() functions

• VMS::DCLsym

  Perl extension to manipulate DCL symbols

• VMS::Filespec

  Convert between VMS and Unix file specification syntax

• VMS::Stdio

  Standard I/O functions via VMS extensions

• Win32

  Interfaces to some Win32 API Functions

• Win32API::File

  Low-level access to Win32 system API calls for files/dirs.

• Win32CORE

  Win32 CORE function stubs

• XS::APItest

  Test the perl C API

• XS::Typemap

  Module to test the XS typemaps distributed with perl

• XSLoader

  Dynamically load C libraries into Perl code

• autodie::Scope::Guard

  Wrapper class for calling subs at end of scope

• autodie::Scope::GuardStack

  Hook stack for managing scopes via %^H
  

• autodie::ScopeUtil

  Utilities for managing %^H scopes

• version::Internals

  Perl extension for Version Objects

To find out all modules installed on your system, including those without documentation or outside the standard release, just use the following command (under the default win32 shell, double quotes should be used instead of single quotes).

% perl -MFile::Find=find -MFile::Spec::Functions -Tlwe \
  'find { wanted => sub { print canonpath $_ if /\.pm\z/ },
        no_chdir => 1 }, @INC'

(The -T is here to prevent '.' from being listed in @INC.) They should all have their own documentation installed and accessible via your system man(1) command. If you do not have a find program, you can use the Perl find2perl program instead, which generates Perl code as output you can run through perl. If you have a man program but it doesn't find your modules, you'll have to fix your manpath. See perl for details. If you have no system man command, you might try the perldoc program.

Note also that the command perldoc perllocal gives you a (possibly incomplete) list of the modules that have been further installed on your system. (The perllocal.pod file is updated by the standard MakeMaker install process.)

Extension Modules

Extension modules are written in C (or a mix of Perl and C). They are usually dynamically loaded into Perl if and when you need them, but may also be linked in statically. Supported extension modules include Socket, Fcntl, and POSIX.

Many popular C extension modules do not come bundled (at least, not completely) due to their sizes, volatility, or simply lack of time for adequate testing and configuration across the multitude of platforms on which Perl was beta-tested. You are encouraged to look for them on CPAN (described below), or using web search engines like Alta Vista or Google.

CPAN

CPAN stands for Comprehensive Perl Archive Network; it's a globally replicated trove of Perl materials, including documentation, style guides, tricks and traps, alternate ports to non-Unix systems and occasional binary distributions for these. Search engines for CPAN can be found at http://www.cpan.org/

Most importantly, CPAN includes around a thousand unbundled modules, some of which require a C compiler to build. Major categories of modules are:

• Language Extensions and Documentation Tools

• Development Support

• Operating System Interfaces

• Networking, Device Control (modems) and InterProcess Communication

• Data Types and Data Type Utilities

• Database Interfaces

• User Interfaces

• Interfaces to / Emulations of Other Programming Languages

• File Names, File Systems and File Locking (see also File Handles)

• String Processing, Language Text Processing, Parsing, and Searching

• Option, Argument, Parameter, and Configuration File Processing

• Internationalization and Locale

• Authentication, Security, and Encryption

• World Wide Web, HTML, HTTP, CGI, MIME

• Server and Daemon Utilities

• Archiving and Compression

• Images, Pixmap and Bitmap Manipulation, Drawing, and Graphing

• Mail and Usenet News

• Control Flow Utilities (callbacks and exceptions etc)

• File Handle and Input/Output Stream Utilities

• Miscellaneous Modules

The list of the registered CPAN sites follows. Please note that the sorting order is alphabetical on fields:

Continent | |-->Country | |-->[state/province] | |-->ftp | |-->[http]

and thus the North American servers happen to be listed between the European and the South American sites.

Registered CPAN sites

Africa

• South Africa

  http://cpan.mirror.ac.za/
  ftp://cpan.mirror.ac.za/
  http://mirror.is.co.za/pub/cpan/
  ftp://ftp.is.co.za/pub/cpan/
  ftp://ftp.saix.net/pub/CPAN/
  

Asia

• China

  http://cpan.wenzk.com/
  

• Hong Kong

  http://ftp.cuhk.edu.hk/pub/packages/perl/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.cuhk.edu.hk/pub/packages/perl/CPAN/
  http://mirrors.geoexpat.com/cpan/
  

• India

  http://perlmirror.indialinks.com/
  

• Indonesia

  http://cpan.biz.net.id/
  http://komo.vlsm.org/CPAN/
  ftp://komo.vlsm.org/CPAN/
  http://cpan.cermin.lipi.go.id/
  ftp://cermin.lipi.go.id/pub/CPAN/
  http://cpan.pesat.net.id/
  

• Japan

  ftp://ftp.u-aizu.ac.jp/pub/CPAN
  ftp://ftp.kddilabs.jp/CPAN/
  http://ftp.nara.wide.ad.jp/pub/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.nara.wide.ad.jp/pub/CPAN/
  http://ftp.jaist.ac.jp/pub/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.jaist.ac.jp/pub/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.dti.ad.jp/pub/lang/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.ring.gr.jp/pub/lang/perl/CPAN/
  http://ftp.riken.jp/lang/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.riken.jp/lang/CPAN/
  http://ftp.yz.yamagata-u.ac.jp/pub/lang/cpan/
  ftp://ftp.yz.yamagata-u.ac.jp/pub/lang/cpan/
  

• Republic of Korea

  http://ftp.kaist.ac.kr/pub/CPAN
  ftp://ftp.kaist.ac.kr/pub/CPAN
  http://cpan.mirror.cdnetworks.com/
  ftp://cpan.mirror.cdnetworks.com/CPAN/
  http://cpan.sarang.net/
  ftp://cpan.sarang.net/CPAN/
  

• Russia

  http://cpan.tomsk.ru/
  ftp://cpan.tomsk.ru/
  

• Singapore

  http://mirror.averse.net/pub/CPAN
  ftp://mirror.averse.net/pub/CPAN
  http://cpan.mirror.choon.net/
  http://cpan.oss.eznetsols.org
  ftp://ftp.oss.eznetsols.org/cpan
  

• Taiwan

  http://ftp.cse.yzu.edu.tw/pub/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.cse.yzu.edu.tw/pub/CPAN/
  http://cpan.nctu.edu.tw/
  ftp://cpan.nctu.edu.tw/
  ftp://ftp.ncu.edu.tw/CPAN/
  http://cpan.cdpa.nsysu.edu.tw/
  ftp://cpan.cdpa.nsysu.edu.tw/Unix/Lang/CPAN/
  http://cpan.stu.edu.tw
  ftp://ftp.stu.edu.tw/CPAN
  http://ftp.stu.edu.tw/CPAN
  ftp://ftp.stu.edu.tw/pub/CPAN
  http://cpan.cs.pu.edu.tw/
  ftp://cpan.cs.pu.edu.tw/pub/CPAN
  

• Thailand

  http://mirrors.issp.co.th/cpan/
  ftp://mirrors.issp.co.th/cpan/
  http://mirror.yourconnect.com/CPAN/
  ftp://mirror.yourconnect.com/CPAN/
  

• Turkey

  http://cpan.gazi.edu.tr/
  

Central America

• Costa Rica

  http://mirrors.ucr.ac.cr/CPAN/
  ftp://mirrors.ucr.ac.cr/CPAN/
  

Europe

• Austria

  http://cpan.inode.at/
  ftp://cpan.inode.at
  http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/languages/perl/CPAN/
  ftp://gd.tuwien.ac.at/pub/CPAN/
  

• Belgium

  http://ftp.belnet.be/mirror/ftp.cpan.org/
  ftp://ftp.belnet.be/mirror/ftp.cpan.org/
  http://ftp.easynet.be/pub/CPAN/
  http://cpan.weepee.org/
  

• Bosnia and Herzegovina

  http://cpan.blic.net/
  

• Bulgaria

  http://cpan.cbox.biz/
  ftp://cpan.cbox.biz/cpan/
  http://cpan.digsys.bg/
  ftp://ftp.digsys.bg/pub/CPAN
  

• Croatia

  http://ftp.carnet.hr/pub/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.carnet.hr/pub/CPAN/
  

• Czech Republic

  ftp://ftp.fi.muni.cz/pub/CPAN/
  http://archive.cpan.cz/
  

• Denmark

  http://mirrors.dotsrc.org/cpan
  ftp://mirrors.dotsrc.org/cpan/
  http://www.cpan.dk/
  http://mirror.uni-c.dk/pub/CPAN/
  

• Finland

  ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/
  http://mirror.eunet.fi/CPAN
  

• France

  http://cpan.enstimac.fr/
  ftp://ftp.inria.fr/pub/CPAN/
  http://distrib-coffee.ipsl.jussieu.fr/pub/mirrors/cpan/
  ftp://distrib-coffee.ipsl.jussieu.fr/pub/mirrors/cpan/
  ftp://ftp.lip6.fr/pub/perl/CPAN/
  http://mir2.ovh.net/ftp.cpan.org
  ftp://mir1.ovh.net/ftp.cpan.org
  ftp://ftp.oleane.net/pub/CPAN/
  http://ftp.crihan.fr/mirrors/ftp.cpan.org/
  ftp://ftp.crihan.fr/mirrors/ftp.cpan.org/
  http://ftp.u-strasbg.fr/CPAN
  ftp://ftp.u-strasbg.fr/CPAN
  http://cpan.cict.fr/
  ftp://cpan.cict.fr/pub/CPAN/
  

• Germany

  ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/unix/languages/perl/
  http://mirrors.softliste.de/cpan/
  ftp://ftp.rub.de/pub/CPAN/
  http://www.planet-elektronik.de/CPAN/
  http://ftp.hosteurope.de/pub/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.hosteurope.de/pub/CPAN/
  http://www.mirrorspace.org/cpan/
  http://mirror.netcologne.de/cpan/
  ftp://mirror.netcologne.de/cpan/
  ftp://ftp.freenet.de/pub/ftp.cpan.org/pub/CPAN/
  http://ftp-stud.hs-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp-stud.hs-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/CPAN/
  http://mirrors.zerg.biz/cpan/
  http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/
  http://dl.ambiweb.de/mirrors/ftp.cpan.org/
  http://cpan.mirror.clusters.kg/
  http://cpan.mirror.iphh.net/
  ftp://cpan.mirror.iphh.net/pub/CPAN/
  http://cpan.mirroring.de/
  http://mirror.informatik.uni-mannheim.de/pub/mirrors/CPAN/
  ftp://mirror.informatik.uni-mannheim.de/pub/mirrors/CPAN/
  http://www.chemmedia.de/mirrors/CPAN/
  http://ftp.cw.net/pub/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.cw.net/pub/CPAN/
  http://cpan.cpantesters.org/
  ftp://cpan.cpantesters.org/CPAN/
  http://cpan.mirrored.de/
  ftp://mirror.petamem.com/CPAN/
  http://cpan.noris.de/
  ftp://cpan.noris.de/pub/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.mpi-sb.mpg.de/pub/perl/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.gmd.de/mirrors/CPAN/
  

• Greece

  ftp://ftp.forthnet.gr/pub/languages/perl/CPAN
  ftp://ftp.ntua.gr/pub/lang/perl/
  http://cpan.cc.uoc.gr/
  ftp://ftp.cc.uoc.gr/mirrors/CPAN/
  

• Hungary

  http://cpan.mirrors.enexis.hu/
  ftp://cpan.mirrors.enexis.hu/mirrors/cpan/
  http://cpan.hu/
  

• Iceland

  http://ftp.rhnet.is/pub/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.rhnet.is/pub/CPAN/
  

• Ireland

  http://ftp.esat.net/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.esat.net/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/
  http://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors/ftp.perl.org/pub/CPAN
  ftp://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors/ftp.perl.org/pub/CPAN
  

• Italy

  http://bo.mirror.garr.it/mirrors/CPAN/
  http://cpan.panu.it/
  ftp://ftp.panu.it/pub/mirrors/perl/CPAN/
  

• Latvia

  http://kvin.lv/pub/CPAN/
  

• Lithuania

  http://ftp.litnet.lt/pub/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.litnet.lt/pub/CPAN/
  

• Malta

  http://cpan.waldonet.net.mt/
  

• Netherlands

  ftp://ftp.quicknet.nl/pub/CPAN/
  http://mirror.hostfuss.com/CPAN/
  ftp://mirror.hostfuss.com/CPAN/
  http://mirrors3.kernel.org/cpan/
  ftp://mirrors3.kernel.org/pub/CPAN/
  http://cpan.mirror.versatel.nl/
  ftp://ftp.mirror.versatel.nl/cpan/
  ftp://download.xs4all.nl/pub/mirror/CPAN/
  http://mirror.leaseweb.com/CPAN/
  ftp://mirror.leaseweb.com/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.cpan.nl/pub/CPAN/
  http://archive.cs.uu.nl/mirror/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.cs.uu.nl/mirror/CPAN/
  http://luxitude.net/cpan/
  

• Norway

  ftp://ftp.uninett.no/pub/languages/perl/CPAN
  ftp://ftp.uit.no/pub/languages/perl/cpan/
  

• Poland

  http://piotrkosoft.net/pub/mirrors/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.piotrkosoft.net/pub/mirrors/CPAN/
  http://ftp.man.poznan.pl/pub/CPAN
  ftp://ftp.man.poznan.pl/pub/CPAN
  ftp://ftp.ps.pl/pub/CPAN/
  ftp://sunsite.icm.edu.pl/pub/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.tpnet.pl/d4/CPAN/
  

• Portugal

  http://cpan.dei.uc.pt/
  ftp://ftp.dei.uc.pt/pub/CPAN
  ftp://ftp.ist.utl.pt/pub/CPAN/
  http://cpan.perl.pt/
  http://cpan.ip.pt/
  ftp://cpan.ip.pt/pub/cpan/
  http://mirrors.nfsi.pt/CPAN/
  ftp://mirrors.nfsi.pt/pub/CPAN/
  http://cpan.dcc.fc.up.pt/
  

• Romania

  http://ftp.astral.ro/pub/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.astral.ro/pub/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.lug.ro/CPAN
  http://mirrors.xservers.ro/CPAN/
  http://mirrors.hostingromania.ro/ftp.cpan.org/
  ftp://ftp.hostingromania.ro/mirrors/ftp.cpan.org/
  ftp://ftp.iasi.roedu.net/pub/mirrors/ftp.cpan.org/
  

• Russia

  ftp://ftp.aha.ru/CPAN/
  http://cpan.rinet.ru/
  ftp://cpan.rinet.ru/pub/mirror/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.SpringDaemons.com/pub/CPAN/
  http://mirror.rol.ru/CPAN/
  http://ftp.silvernet.ru/CPAN/
  http://ftp.spbu.ru/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.spbu.ru/CPAN/
  

• Slovakia

  http://cpan.fyxm.net/
  

• Slovenia

  http://www.klevze.si/cpan
  

• Spain

  http://osl.ugr.es/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.rediris.es/mirror/CPAN/
  http://ftp.gui.uva.es/sites/cpan.org/
  ftp://ftp.gui.uva.es/sites/cpan.org/
  

• Sweden

  http://mirrors4.kernel.org/cpan/
  ftp://mirrors4.kernel.org/pub/CPAN/
  

• Switzerland

  http://cpan.mirror.solnet.ch/
  ftp://ftp.solnet.ch/mirror/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.adwired.ch/CPAN/
  http://mirror.switch.ch/ftp/mirror/CPAN/
  ftp://mirror.switch.ch/mirror/CPAN/
  

• Ukraine

  http://cpan.makeperl.org/
  ftp://cpan.makeperl.org/pub/CPAN
  http://cpan.org.ua/
  http://cpan.gafol.net/
  ftp://ftp.gafol.net/pub/cpan/
  

• United Kingdom

  http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.mirrorservice.org/sites/ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/
  http://mirror.tje.me.uk/pub/mirrors/ftp.cpan.org/
  ftp://mirror.tje.me.uk/pub/mirrors/ftp.cpan.org/
  http://www.mirror.8086.net/sites/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.mirror.8086.net/sites/CPAN/
  http://cpan.mirror.anlx.net/
  ftp://ftp.mirror.anlx.net/CPAN/
  http://mirror.bytemark.co.uk/CPAN/
  ftp://mirror.bytemark.co.uk/CPAN/
  http://cpan.etla.org/
  ftp://cpan.etla.org/pub/CPAN
  ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/CPAN/
  http://mirror.sov.uk.goscomb.net/CPAN/
  ftp://mirror.sov.uk.goscomb.net/pub/CPAN/
  http://ftp.plig.net/pub/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.plig.net/pub/CPAN/
  http://ftp.ticklers.org/pub/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.ticklers.org/pub/CPAN/
  http://cpan.mirrors.uk2.net/
  ftp://mirrors.uk2.net/pub/CPAN/
  http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/www.cpan.org/
  ftp://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/www.cpan.org/
  

North America

• Bahamas

  http://www.securehost.com/mirror/CPAN/
  

• Canada

  http://cpan.arcticnetwork.ca
  ftp://mirror.arcticnetwork.ca/pub/CPAN
  http://cpan.sunsite.ualberta.ca/
  ftp://cpan.sunsite.ualberta.ca/pub/CPAN/
  http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/pub/CPAN/
  ftp://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/pub/CPAN/
  http://arwen.cs.dal.ca/mirror/CPAN/
  ftp://arwen.cs.dal.ca/pub/mirror/CPAN/
  http://CPAN.mirror.rafal.ca/
  ftp://CPAN.mirror.rafal.ca/pub/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.nrc.ca/pub/CPAN/
  http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/pub/CPAN/
  ftp://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/pub/CPAN/
  

• Mexico

  http://www.msg.com.mx/CPAN/
  ftp://ftp.msg.com.mx/pub/CPAN/
  

• United States
  • Alabama

    http://mirror.hiwaay.net/CPAN/
    ftp://mirror.hiwaay.net/CPAN/
    

  • Arizona

    http://cpan.ezarticleinformation.com/
    

  • California

    http://cpan.knowledgematters.net/
    http://cpan.binkerton.com/
    http://cpan.develooper.com/
    http://mirrors.gossamer-threads.com/CPAN
    http://cpan.schatt.com/
    http://mirrors.kernel.org/cpan/
    ftp://mirrors.kernel.org/pub/CPAN
    http://mirrors2.kernel.org/cpan/
    ftp://mirrors2.kernel.org/pub/CPAN/
    http://cpan.mirror.facebook.net/
    http://mirrors1.kernel.org/cpan/
    ftp://mirrors1.kernel.org/pub/CPAN/
    http://cpan-sj.viaverio.com/
    ftp://cpan-sj.viaverio.com/pub/CPAN/
    http://www.perl.com/CPAN/
    

  • Florida

    ftp://ftp.cise.ufl.edu/pub/mirrors/CPAN/
    http://mirror.atlantic.net/pub/CPAN/
    ftp://mirror.atlantic.net/pub/CPAN/
    

  • Idaho

    http://mirror.its.uidaho.edu/pub/cpan/
    ftp://mirror.its.uidaho.edu/cpan/
    

  • Illinois

    http://cpan.mirrors.hoobly.com/
    http://cpan.uchicago.edu/pub/CPAN/
    ftp://cpan.uchicago.edu/pub/CPAN/
    http://mirrors.servercentral.net/CPAN/
    http://www.stathy.com/CPAN/
    ftp://www.stathy.com/CPAN/
    

  • Indiana

    ftp://ftp.uwsg.iu.edu/pub/perl/CPAN/
    http://cpan.netnitco.net/
    ftp://cpan.netnitco.net/pub/mirrors/CPAN/
    http://ftp.ndlug.nd.edu/pub/perl/
    ftp://ftp.ndlug.nd.edu/pub/perl/
    

  • Massachusetts

    http://mirrors.ccs.neu.edu/CPAN/
    

  • Michigan

    http://ftp.wayne.edu/cpan/
    ftp://ftp.wayne.edu/cpan/
    

  • Minnesota

    http://cpan.msi.umn.edu/
    

  • New Jersey

    http://mirror.datapipe.net/CPAN/
    ftp://mirror.datapipe.net/pub/CPAN/
    

  • New York

    http://mirrors.24-7-solutions.net/pub/CPAN/
    ftp://mirrors.24-7-solutions.net/pub/CPAN/
    http://mirror.cc.columbia.edu/pub/software/cpan/
    ftp://mirror.cc.columbia.edu/pub/software/cpan/
    http://cpan.belfry.net/
    http://cpan.erlbaum.net/
    ftp://cpan.erlbaum.net/CPAN/
    http://cpan.hexten.net/
    ftp://cpan.hexten.net/
    ftp://mirror.nyi.net/CPAN/
    http://mirror.rit.edu/CPAN/
    ftp://mirror.rit.edu/CPAN/
    

  • North Carolina

    http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/mirrors/CPAN
    ftp://ftp.ncsu.edu/pub/mirror/CPAN/
    

  • Oregon

    http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/CPAN/
    ftp://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/CPAN/
    

  • Pennsylvania

    http://ftp.epix.net/CPAN/
    ftp://ftp.epix.net/pub/languages/perl/
    http://cpan.pair.com/
    ftp://cpan.pair.com/pub/CPAN/
    

  • South Carolina

    http://cpan.mirror.clemson.edu/
    

  • Tennessee

    http://mira.sunsite.utk.edu/CPAN/
    

  • Texas

    http://mirror.uta.edu/CPAN
    

  • Utah

    ftp://mirror.xmission.com/CPAN/
    

  • Virginia

    http://cpan-du.viaverio.com/
    ftp://cpan-du.viaverio.com/pub/CPAN/
    http://perl.secsup.org/
    ftp://perl.secsup.org/pub/perl/
    ftp://mirror.cogentco.com/pub/CPAN/
    

  • Washington

    http://cpan.llarian.net/
    ftp://cpan.llarian.net/pub/CPAN/
    ftp://ftp-mirror.internap.com/pub/CPAN/
    

  • Wisconsin

    http://cpan.mirrors.tds.net
    ftp://cpan.mirrors.tds.net/pub/CPAN
    http://mirror.sit.wisc.edu/pub/CPAN/
    ftp://mirror.sit.wisc.edu/pub/CPAN/
    

Oceania

• Australia

  http://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/cpan/
  ftp://mirror.internode.on.net/pub/cpan/
  http://cpan.mirror.aussiehq.net.au/
  http://mirror.as24220.net/cpan/
  ftp://mirror.as24220.net/cpan/
  

• New Zealand

  ftp://ftp.auckland.ac.nz/pub/perl/CPAN/
  http://cpan.inspire.net.nz
  ftp://cpan.inspire.net.nz/cpan
  http://cpan.catalyst.net.nz/CPAN/
  ftp://cpan.catalyst.net.nz/pub/CPAN/
  

South America

• Argentina

  http://cpan.patan.com.ar/
  http://cpan.localhost.net.ar
  ftp://mirrors.localhost.net.ar/pub/mirrors/CPAN
  

• Brazil

  ftp://cpan.pop-mg.com.br/pub/CPAN/
  http://ftp.pucpr.br/CPAN
  ftp://ftp.pucpr.br/CPAN
  http://cpan.kinghost.net/
  

• Chile

  http://cpan.dcc.uchile.cl/
  ftp://cpan.dcc.uchile.cl/pub/lang/cpan/
  

• Colombia

  http://www.laqee.unal.edu.co/CPAN/
  

RSYNC Mirrors

mirror.as24220.net::cpan
cpan.inode.at::CPAN
gd.tuwien.ac.at::CPAN
ftp.belnet.be::packages/cpan
rsync.linorg.usp.br::CPAN
rsync.arcticnetwork.ca::CPAN
CPAN.mirror.rafal.ca::CPAN
mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca::CPAN
theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca::CPAN
www.laqee.unal.edu.co::CPAN
mirror.uni-c.dk::CPAN
rsync.nic.funet.fi::CPAN
rsync://distrib-coffee.ipsl.jussieu.fr/pub/mirrors/cpan/
mir1.ovh.net::CPAN
miroir-francais.fr::cpan
ftp.crihan.fr::CPAN
rsync://mirror.cict.fr/cpan/
rsync://mirror.netcologne.de/cpan/
ftp-stud.hs-esslingen.de::CPAN/
ftp.gwdg.de::FTP/languages/perl/CPAN/
cpan.mirror.iphh.net::CPAN
cpan.cpantesters.org::cpan
cpan.hu::CPAN
komo.vlsm.org::CPAN
mirror.unej.ac.id::cpan
ftp.esat.net::/pub/languages/perl/CPAN
ftp.heanet.ie::mirrors/ftp.perl.org/pub/CPAN
rsync.panu.it::CPAN
cpan.fastbull.org::CPAN
ftp.kddilabs.jp::cpan
ftp.nara.wide.ad.jp::cpan/
rsync://ftp.jaist.ac.jp/pub/CPAN/
rsync://ftp.riken.jp/cpan/
mirror.linuxiso.kz::CPAN
rsync://mirrors3.kernel.org/mirrors/CPAN/
rsync://rsync.osmirror.nl/cpan/
mirror.leaseweb.com::CPAN
cpan.nautile.nc::CPAN
mirror.icis.pcz.pl::CPAN
piotrkosoft.net::mirrors/CPAN
rsync://cpan.perl.pt/
ftp.kaist.ac.kr::cpan
cpan.sarang.net::CPAN
mirror.averse.net::cpan
rsync.oss.eznetsols.org
mirror.ac.za::cpan
ftp.is.co.za::IS-Mirror/ftp.cpan.org/
rsync://ftp.gui.uva.es/cpan/
rsync://mirrors4.kernel.org/mirrors/CPAN/
ftp.solnet.ch::CPAN
ftp.ulak.net.tr::CPAN
gafol.net::cpan
rsync.mirrorservice.org::ftp.funet.fi/pub/
rsync://rsync.mirror.8086.net/CPAN/
rsync.mirror.anlx.net::CPAN
mirror.bytemark.co.uk::CPAN
ftp.plig.net::CPAN
rsync://ftp.ticklers.org:CPAN/
mirrors.ibiblio.org::CPAN
cpan-du.viaverio.com::CPAN
mirror.hiwaay.net::CPAN
rsync://mira.sunsite.utk.edu/CPAN/
cpan.mirrors.tds.net::CPAN
mirror.its.uidaho.edu::cpan
rsync://mirror.cc.columbia.edu::cpan/
ftp.fxcorporate.com::CPAN
rsync.atlantic.net::CPAN
mirrors.kernel.org::mirrors/CPAN
rsync://mirrors2.kernel.org/mirrors/CPAN/
cpan.pair.com::CPAN
rsync://mirror.rit.edu/CPAN/
rsync://mirror.facebook.net/cpan/
rsync://mirrors1.kernel.org/mirrors/CPAN/
cpan-sj.viaverio.com::CPAN

For an up-to-date listing of CPAN sites, see http://www.cpan.org/SITES or ftp://www.cpan.org/SITES .

Modules: Creation, Use, and Abuse

(The following section is borrowed directly from Tim Bunce's modules file, available at your nearest CPAN site.)

Perl implements a class using a package, but the presence of a package doesn't imply the presence of a class. A package is just a namespace. A class is a package that provides subroutines that can be used as methods. A method is just a subroutine that expects, as its first argument, either the name of a package (for "static" methods), or a reference to something (for "virtual" methods).

A module is a file that (by convention) provides a class of the same name (sans the .pm), plus an import method in that class that can be called to fetch exported symbols. This module may implement some of its methods by loading dynamic C or C++ objects, but that should be totally transparent to the user of the module. Likewise, the module might set up an AUTOLOAD function to slurp in subroutine definitions on demand, but this is also transparent. Only the .pm file is required to exist. See perlsub, perlobj, and AutoLoader for details about the AUTOLOAD mechanism.

Guidelines for Module Creation

• Do similar modules already exist in some form?

  If so, please try to reuse the existing modules either in whole or by inheriting useful features into a new class. If this is not practical try to get together with the module authors to work on extending or enhancing the functionality of the existing modules. A perfect example is the plethora of packages in perl4 for dealing with command line options.

  If you are writing a module to expand an already existing set of modules, please coordinate with the author of the package. It helps if you follow the same naming scheme and module interaction scheme as the original author.

• Try to design the new module to be easy to extend and reuse.

  Try to use warnings; (or use warnings qw(...); ). Remember that you can add no warnings qw(...); to individual blocks of code that need less warnings.

  Use blessed references. Use the two argument form of bless to bless into the class name given as the first parameter of the constructor, e.g.,:

  sub new {
      my $class = shift;
      return bless {}, $class;
  }
  

  or even this if you'd like it to be used as either a static or a virtual method.

  sub new {
      my $self  = shift;
      my $class = ref($self) || $self;
      return bless {}, $class;
  }
  

  Pass arrays as references so more parameters can be added later (it's also faster). Convert functions into methods where appropriate. Split large methods into smaller more flexible ones. Inherit methods from other modules if appropriate.

  Avoid class name tests like: die "Invalid" unless ref $ref eq 'FOO' . Generally you can delete the eq 'FOO' part with no harm at all. Let the objects look after themselves! Generally, avoid hard-wired class names as far as possible.

  Avoid $r->Class::func() where using @ISA=qw(... Class ...) and $r->func() would work.

  Use autosplit so little used or newly added functions won't be a burden to programs that don't use them. Add test functions to the module after __END__ either using AutoSplit or by saying:

  eval join('',<main::DATA>) || die $@ unless caller();
  

  Does your module pass the 'empty subclass' test? If you say @SUBCLASS::ISA = qw(YOURCLASS); your applications should be able to use SUBCLASS in exactly the same way as YOURCLASS. For example, does your application still work if you change: $obj = YOURCLASS->new(); into: $obj = SUBCLASS->new(); ?

  Avoid keeping any state information in your packages. It makes it difficult for multiple other packages to use yours. Keep state information in objects.

  Always use -w.

  Try to use strict; (or use strict qw(...); ). Remember that you can add no strict qw(...); to individual blocks of code that need less strictness.

  Always use -w.

  Follow the guidelines in perlstyle.

  Always use -w.

• Some simple style guidelines

  The perlstyle manual supplied with Perl has many helpful points.

  Coding style is a matter of personal taste. Many people evolve their style over several years as they learn what helps them write and maintain good code. Here's one set of assorted suggestions that seem to be widely used by experienced developers:

  Use underscores to separate words. It is generally easier to read $var_names_like_this than $VarNamesLikeThis, especially for non-native speakers of English. It's also a simple rule that works consistently with VAR_NAMES_LIKE_THIS.

  Package/Module names are an exception to this rule. Perl informally reserves lowercase module names for 'pragma' modules like integer and strict. Other modules normally begin with a capital letter and use mixed case with no underscores (need to be short and portable).

  You may find it helpful to use letter case to indicate the scope or nature of a variable. For example:

  $ALL_CAPS_HERE   constants only (beware clashes with Perl vars)
  $Some_Caps_Here  package-wide global/static
  $no_caps_here    function scope my() or local() variables
  

  Function and method names seem to work best as all lowercase. e.g., $obj->as_string() .

  You can use a leading underscore to indicate that a variable or function should not be used outside the package that defined it.

• Select what to export.

  Do NOT export method names!

  Do NOT export anything else by default without a good reason!

  Exports pollute the namespace of the module user. If you must export try to use @EXPORT_OK in preference to @EXPORT and avoid short or common names to reduce the risk of name clashes.

  Generally anything not exported is still accessible from outside the module using the ModuleName::item_name (or $blessed_ref->method ) syntax. By convention you can use a leading underscore on names to indicate informally that they are 'internal' and not for public use.

  (It is actually possible to get private functions by saying: my $subref = sub { ... }; &$subref; . But there's no way to call that directly as a method, because a method must have a name in the symbol table.)

  As a general rule, if the module is trying to be object oriented then export nothing. If it's just a collection of functions then @EXPORT_OK anything but use @EXPORT with caution.

• Select a name for the module.

  This name should be as descriptive, accurate, and complete as possible. Avoid any risk of ambiguity. Always try to use two or more whole words. Generally the name should reflect what is special about what the module does rather than how it does it. Please use nested module names to group informally or categorize a module. There should be a very good reason for a module not to have a nested name. Module names should begin with a capital letter.

  Having 57 modules all called Sort will not make life easy for anyone (though having 23 called Sort::Quick is only marginally better :-). Imagine someone trying to install your module alongside many others. If in any doubt ask for suggestions in comp.lang.perl.misc.

  If you are developing a suite of related modules/classes it's good practice to use nested classes with a common prefix as this will avoid namespace clashes. For example: Xyz::Control, Xyz::View, Xyz::Model etc. Use the modules in this list as a naming guide.

  If adding a new module to a set, follow the original author's standards for naming modules and the interface to methods in those modules.

  If developing modules for private internal or project specific use, that will never be released to the public, then you should ensure that their names will not clash with any future public module. You can do this either by using the reserved Local::* category or by using a category name that includes an underscore like Foo_Corp::*.

  To be portable each component of a module name should be limited to 11 characters. If it might be used on MS-DOS then try to ensure each is unique in the first 8 characters. Nested modules make this easier.

• Have you got it right?

  How do you know that you've made the right decisions? Have you picked an interface design that will cause problems later? Have you picked the most appropriate name? Do you have any questions?

  The best way to know for sure, and pick up many helpful suggestions, is to ask someone who knows. Comp.lang.perl.misc is read by just about all the people who develop modules and it's the best place to ask.

  All you need to do is post a short summary of the module, its purpose and interfaces. A few lines on each of the main methods is probably enough. (If you post the whole module it might be ignored by busy people - generally the very people you want to read it!)

  Don't worry about posting if you can't say when the module will be ready - just say so in the message. It might be worth inviting others to help you, they may be able to complete it for you!

• README and other Additional Files.

  It's well known that software developers usually fully document the software they write. If, however, the world is in urgent need of your software and there is not enough time to write the full documentation please at least provide a README file containing:

  • A description of the module/package/extension etc.

  • A copyright notice - see below.

  • Prerequisites - what else you may need to have.

  • How to build it - possible changes to Makefile.PL etc.

  • How to install it.

  • Recent changes in this release, especially incompatibilities

  • Changes / enhancements you plan to make in the future.

  If the README file seems to be getting too large you may wish to split out some of the sections into separate files: INSTALL, Copying, ToDo etc.

  • Adding a Copyright Notice.

    How you choose to license your work is a personal decision. The general mechanism is to assert your Copyright and then make a declaration of how others may copy/use/modify your work.

    Perl, for example, is supplied with two types of licence: The GNU GPL and The Artistic Licence (see the files README, Copying, and Artistic, or perlgpl and perlartistic). Larry has good reasons for NOT just using the GNU GPL.

    My personal recommendation, out of respect for Larry, Perl, and the Perl community at large is to state something simply like:

    Copyright (c) 1995 Your Name. All rights reserved.
    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
    modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
    

    This statement should at least appear in the README file. You may also wish to include it in a Copying file and your source files. Remember to include the other words in addition to the Copyright.

  • Give the module a version/issue/release number.

    To be fully compatible with the Exporter and MakeMaker modules you should store your module's version number in a non-my package variable called $VERSION. This should be a positive floating point number with at least two digits after the decimal (i.e., hundredths, e.g, $VERSION = "0.01" ). Don't use a "1.3.2" style version. See Exporter for details.

    It may be handy to add a function or method to retrieve the number. Use the number in announcements and archive file names when releasing the module (ModuleName-1.02.tar.Z). See perldoc ExtUtils::MakeMaker.pm for details.

  • How to release and distribute a module.

    It's good idea to post an announcement of the availability of your module (or the module itself if small) to the comp.lang.perl.announce Usenet newsgroup. This will at least ensure very wide once-off distribution.

    If possible, register the module with CPAN. You should include details of its location in your announcement.

    Some notes about ftp archives: Please use a long descriptive file name that includes the version number. Most incoming directories will not be readable/listable, i.e., you won't be able to see your file after uploading it. Remember to send your email notification message as soon as possible after uploading else your file may get deleted automatically. Allow time for the file to be processed and/or check the file has been processed before announcing its location.

    FTP Archives for Perl Modules:

    Follow the instructions and links on:

    http://www.cpan.org/modules/00modlist.long.html
    http://www.cpan.org/modules/04pause.html
    

    or upload to one of these sites:

    https://pause.kbx.de/pause/
    http://pause.perl.org/
    

    and notify <[email protected]>.

    By using the WWW interface you can ask the Upload Server to mirror your modules from your ftp or WWW site into your own directory on CPAN!

    Please remember to send me an updated entry for the Module list!

  • Take care when changing a released module.

    Always strive to remain compatible with previous released versions. Otherwise try to add a mechanism to revert to the old behavior if people rely on it. Document incompatible changes.

Guidelines for Converting Perl 4 Library Scripts into Modules

• There is no requirement to convert anything.

  If it ain't broke, don't fix it! Perl 4 library scripts should continue to work with no problems. You may need to make some minor changes (like escaping non-array @'s in double quoted strings) but there is no need to convert a .pl file into a Module for just that.

• Consider the implications.

  All Perl applications that make use of the script will need to be changed (slightly) if the script is converted into a module. Is it worth it unless you plan to make other changes at the same time?

• Make the most of the opportunity.

  If you are going to convert the script to a module you can use the opportunity to redesign the interface. The guidelines for module creation above include many of the issues you should consider.

• The pl2pm utility will get you started.

  This utility will read *.pl files (given as parameters) and write corresponding *.pm files. The pl2pm utilities does the following:

  • Adds the standard Module prologue lines

  • Converts package specifiers from ' to ::

  • Converts die(...) to croak(...)

  • Several other minor changes

  Being a mechanical process pl2pm is not bullet proof. The converted code will need careful checking, especially any package statements. Don't delete the original .pl file till the new .pm one works!

Guidelines for Reusing Application Code

• Complete applications rarely belong in the Perl Module Library.

• Many applications contain some Perl code that could be reused.

  Help save the world! Share your code in a form that makes it easy to reuse.

• Break-out the reusable code into one or more separate module files.

• Take the opportunity to reconsider and redesign the interfaces.

• In some cases the 'application' can then be reduced to a small

  fragment of code built on top of the reusable modules. In these cases the application could invoked as:

       % perl -e 'use Module::Name; method(@ARGV)' ...
  or
       % perl -mModule::Name ...    (in perl5.002 or higher)
  

NOTE

Perl does not enforce private and public parts of its modules as you may have been used to in other languages like C++, Ada, or Modula-17. Perl doesn't have an infatuation with enforced privacy. It would prefer that you stayed out of its living room because you weren't invited, not because it has a shotgun.

The module and its user have a contract, part of which is common law, and part of which is "written". Part of the common law contract is that a module doesn't pollute any namespace it wasn't asked to. The written contract for the module (A.K.A. documentation) may make other provisions. But then you know when you use RedefineTheWorld that you're redefining the world and willing to take the consequences.