Re: Installing (lotsa) modules

[Zaxo]

You can install Bundles from CPAN:

# perl -MCPAN -e 'shell'
cpan> b
# (get a list of some 130 Bundles)
cpan> install Bundle::LWP
etc...

This will install large numbers of related modules.

After Compline,
Zaxo

[Fletch]

You can also create your own bundles, or if you have a box that's already got what you want installed you can use the autobundle command to get CPAN.pm to make one for you using what's currently installed. See the section "POPULATE AN INSTALLATION WITH LOTS OF MODULES" in perldoc CPAN.

[Bod]

You can also create your own bundles

Would modules that are not pure Perl still need a working compiler on the target machine? Or could they be complied on the donor machine and bundled onto the target machine fully formed?

[afoken]

Would modules that are not pure Perl still need a working compiler on the target machine?

Sure. All that a bundle does is to depend on a lot of other packages (those listed in the bundle), and so CPAN.pm just installs the dependencies as usual.

Or could they be complied on the donor machine and bundled onto the target machine fully formed?

Yes and no. Usually no, except when you build an entire distribution or when "donor" and target machine run exactly identical software. "Binary" modules (those using XS) usually not only depend on the exact perl version and its configuration, but usually also on the exact library versions they were linked against, and on their configurations. So if you can make perl and all libraries on the target the same as on the "donor" machine, copying will very likely work.

If you look at any binary Linux distribution (e.g. Debian, Redhat, Ubuntu, Slackware), you can see why they can distribute compiled perl modules: The distribution development team controls compiler, libraries, perl, and perl modules, both versions and configurations. The packaging system has its own way of dependency tracking, and takes care of either updating a perl package after a library was updated, or keeping an old version of the library around for a perl package.

Alexander