How do I install a module from CPAN?

The easiest way is to have a module also named CPAN do it for you. This module comes with perl version 5.004 and later.

    $ perl -MCPAN -e shell

    cpan shell -- CPAN exploration and modules installation (v1.59_54)
    ReadLine support enabled

    cpan> install Some::Module

To manually install the CPAN module, or any well-behaved CPAN module for that matter, follow these steps:

Unpack the source into a temporary area.

    perl Makefile.PL

    make

    make test

    make install

If your version of perl is compiled without dynamic loading, then you just need to replace step 3 (make) with make perl and you will get a new perl binary with your extension linked in.

See ExtUtils::MakeMaker for more details on building extensions. See also the next question, ``What's the difference between require and use?''.

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