http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=291241

There are plenty of great tutorials here on installing modules. There are the obvious ways to install modules, CPAN.pm, CPANPLUS.pm, PPM, and of course, from the command prompt. Forgive me if I've forgotton your favorite method, I'm sure there are many other ways to accomplish this task. Remember one of our mottos? TMTOWTDI!

Being new to the Linux world I had discoverd, and was tinkering around with webmin the other day when I noticed that under the "Others" menu was a link to "perl modules". For those of you unfamiliar with webmin, it's a snazy interface to your system's configuration, which actually runs in a nice web GUI ( http://localhost:10000). From the Moudles screen I was prompted to input the name of the module I wanted to install from CPAN. I could even browse CPAN via webmin, allowing me to visually traverse through CPAN's directories of modules. I was amazed! I gave it a test drive and had installed HTML::Template in a matter of minutes.

To me, this was much easier than configuring CPAN.pm (which I've never actually got fully working), but just as simple as PPM's interface, with much less rope to hang oneself.

I still need to do some more investigating, I'm not sure how webmin handles module dependancies, etc... And I've only installed one module so far, so my sample pool of experiences with this app are few. But from my first experience with it I love it.

I'm courious to hear about other's experiences with managing their systmem's perl modules via webmin. Do you use it? Why, or why not?

-silent11

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Installing perl modules via webmin
by phydeauxarff (Priest) on Sep 13, 2003 at 13:04 UTC
    Frankly, webmin has always made me a bit nervous from a security standpoint and since I can do everything it does much quicker from command line I have never even considered installing it.

    Who needs a gui when you can just perl -MCPAN -i 'install my::favorite::module' and go get some coffee? ;-)

    But, it sounds like it fits your needs quite well so as with most things computer related I say, "whatever tool you find best"...I would only suggest you make webmin use SSL to strengthen it just a tad

Re: Installing perl modules via webmin
by Roger (Parson) on Sep 13, 2003 at 13:46 UTC
    I have used webmin for quite some time now, both at home and at work. I think it is a wonderful package for managing the computer, especially for newcomers to linux/unix. It has simplified tedious tasks like dns configuration, version control, database configuration, network configuration, etc. It has a pleasent GUI environment, easy to navigate around, and you can do most of your system admin with it.

    Security wise, I never had any problem about running webmin on the LAN. However I am a bit skeptical about exposing the webmin access port to the internet, even when the webmin is configured to run in HTTPS mode. There are too many brilliant hackers out there, you never know what might happen next.
      One word of caution concerning feeling safe and cozy in our 'local lans'...I have noticed several colleagues putting wireless gateway's on their lans which exposes them to anyone who happens to drive by (not that any of us would ever do that)....in that scenario you have to treat your local lan like a public network and apply appropriate security to your systems....or better yet, firewall off the wireless and only allow authenticated sessions back into your network...but that is another thread ;-)
        This happens, it happens behind your back, and it may *happen* to you.   See County cuts off computer network.

        Now the background behind this is that the computer center people knew *nothing* about this, not having been consulted on how to set up a wireless lan.   They got blind-sided by idiots who all along insisted they could maintain their own network thank-you-very-much.

        One of the security people at another business I work at now periodically turns on the wireless station in his room just to see what might be broadcasting.   I wouldn't be surprised to see him roaming the halls with a laptop open and running...

Re: Installing perl modules via webmin
by jdtoronto (Prior) on Sep 13, 2003 at 13:07 UTC
    I have not used Webmin at all, but a similar, and seemingly just as simple facility is available on WHM/Cpanel http://www.cpanel.net. Whilst I have not looked, I suspect that Cpanel uses the CPAN interface becuase much of Cpanel is coded in Perl.

    jdtoronto

      we had looked at cPanel for our company, but I thought it was more of a a webhosting management platform to allow end users to self manage their sandboxes rather than a system administration tool like Webmin

      After reading this, I might have to go back and give cPanel a second look

        Cpanel is part of a two headed monster - WHM - Web Hosting Manager is the part used by the admin. Now of course, for real sysadmins it is a bit of a joke! But for those, like me, who are not sysadmins but are thrown into the job, it is a godsend. It manages many aspects of Apache, Bind, module provisioning, system security and account management for hosting

        Cpanel IS the user level interface and gives control over the users creation and management of MySQL databases, email, webmail and includes rudimentary file management. It reduces support costs by allowing users to do a lot without having to call tech support and have them do it!

        For general hosting machines I use WHM/Cpanel, it is reasonable cost and certainly does speed up the management of a hosting operation.

        For other machines I use Sugarbox ( http://www.inter7.com ) with vpopmail and vwebmail. This allows me to use my preffered Qmail mail server, but only on machines where there are no other users.

        jdtoronto

        On my several computers running SuSe Linux, I have found everything I wanted worked by doing the following. First, search and see if it is available as RPM on Suse Disks and use Yast. Then, if it is not on Suse, goto CPAN and do the perl -MCPAN -e shell, then Install WhateverModule works great.

        If it ain't broke, I don't believe in fixing it... So I stick with Yast and CPAN. If I was on a different distro, I would start with a similar approach.
Re: Installing perl modules via webmin
by PodMaster (Abbot) on Sep 14, 2003 at 05:49 UTC
    If you ask me, the obvious way to install modules is to unroll the tarball, and read the included INSTALL file. As for a web interface, it's trivial to create one with CPAN(PLUS)?, but I don't think they are a good fit (see IndigoPerl's GPM for another example). If you really think the CGI interface is easier to use, you might like a straight GUI interface like CPANPLUS::Shell::Tk.

    MJD says "you can't just make shit up and expect the computer to know what you mean, retardo!"
    I run a Win32 PPM repository for perl 5.6.x and 5.8.x -- I take requests (README).
    ** The third rule of perl club is a statement of fact: pod is sexy.

      Of course it is obvious! But as always the must surely be more than one way to do it.

      Products such as WEBMIN and CPanel are not meant for real sysadmins. They are meant for people who have to manage systems without being sysadmins. Some web hosting sites could have hundreds of boxes all with a standard install of, say, RH Linux, there is a standard complement of modules installed. But you may have 200 or more websites hosted on one machine and the people running the machine - possibly resellers, need to install modules with little or no knowledge of how to use CPAN - let alone how to admin the machine in detail. Running machines like this I have ofund only one ocassion when a module could not be installed through WHM/Cpanel. In that case I did it the 'real' way. But the other side of it is that such products as Cpanel give you a way of keeping all the mahor system components up to date, a way of installing a standard set of cgi scripts.

      It may not be ideal, it is sure not pure but it is pragmatic. It works, it seems to be as secure as anything else. Of course there have been security exploits discovered. But darkorb (the developer) seem to be a lot faster than many other companies about advising their users and basically any updating that needs to be done, with the exception of a kernel upgrade, can be done from the GUI. Couple the system with very tight firewall screening and it works. In my case it saves me thousands of dollars per year, means all my hosting machines are using a common configuration and gives me an easy way to control them all.

      jdtoronto

        I have installed joomla CMS from webmin->Others->Perl Module, now how can i create a menu like where users can select the program and install from GUI.is that possible or any other way available , i have seen this feature in pro version named Install scrips , but how to configure this manually as i am using GPL version.
Re: Installing perl modules via webmin
by jbbarnes (Novice) on Jun 11, 2009 at 01:17 UTC
    I am also a big webmin fan, but hadn't realized this was a feature. I needed Net::Telnet and this did the trick in under 60 seconds. Thanks.