Re: problems updating CPAN via CPAN

First, I would upgrade your system Perl through your package manager if at all possible. Then I would download the latest CPAN module and try to install it manually, then blow away /root/.cpan and reinstall. If that all doesn't work, then it seems to be one weird misconfiguration. You may have to take more drastic actions such as manually removing all modules installed after the system Perl was installed.

Other questions: Since you are using SLES, don't you have commercial support? Have any Perl modules been installed by your package manager? How is Perl used on your system (e.g., cron or other system scripts, individual users only, number of Perl users)? How many users do you support?

Update: I found that other folks using SLES 11 are having Perl update problems. If you need the Perl modules just for yourself, you should look at Perlbrew. You can also share the environment with others.

[e-ferrari]

Hi, Upgrade is not possible. It's SLES 11 SP4 and SLES tries to keep the versions running as long as possible. That is the idea of an enterprise version. We don't have commercial support. If modules are available through SLES i prefer these, because rpm's can be deleted completely from the system. I don't know how to remove a package cleanly which i installed with CPAN. Is there a way ? Perl is used for a web application. I managed to install Bundle::Cpan with just 2 errors. Everything seem to rune fine although i don't really trust it. What is the difference between Bundle::Cpan and CPAN ? Maybe you have also an answer for these two questions:

#   Database was generated on Tue, 03 Feb 1970 03:17:06 GMT
# Warning: This index file is 16794 days old.
#   Please check the host you chose as your CPAN mirror for staleness.
#   I'll continue but problems seem likely to happen.

What does this mean ? I get it quite often, also on other systems. And what does this mean ?

...
Not in MANIFEST: blib/man3/CPAN::Mirrors.3pm
Not in MANIFEST: blib/man3/CPAN::Nox.3pm
Not in MANIFEST: blib/man3/CPAN::Plugin.3pm
Not in MANIFEST: blib/man3/CPAN::Plugin::Specfile.3pm
Not in MANIFEST: blib/man3/CPAN::Queue.3pm
Not in MANIFEST: blib/man3/CPAN::Tarzip.3pm
Not in MANIFEST: blib/man3/CPAN::Version.3pm
Not in MANIFEST: blib/script/.exists
Not in MANIFEST: blib/script/cpan
Not in MANIFEST: blib/script/cpan-mirrors
Not in MANIFEST: Makefile
Not in MANIFEST: MYMETA.json
Not in MANIFEST: MYMETA.yml
Not in MANIFEST: pm_to_blib
==> MISMATCHED content between MANIFEST and distribution files! <==

I also get it sometimes. Thanks. Bernd

[u65]

I assume that you haven't used CPAN as a non-root user. I would manually edit root's MyConfig.pm file and eliminate all URLs except one good mirror. Then post the contents of that file where we can see it. Later we may have to uninstall all Perl modules installed by your package manager, and then investigate your system to see what modules remain. Many monks here know lots of Perl system magic to help in the cleanup.

Update: One more option is to use cpanm instead of CPAN if we start with a system-clean configuration.

[e-ferrari]

You are right, i always used cpan als root. Here is my config: /usr/lib/perl5/5.10.0/CPAN/Config.pm. I don't have config in my home.

# This is CPAN.pm's systemwide configuration file. This file provides
# defaults for users, and the values can be changed in a per-user
# configuration file.

$CPAN::Config = {
  'applypatch' => q[],
  'auto_commit' => q[0],
  'build_cache' => q[100],
  'build_dir' => q[/root/.cpan/build],
  'build_dir_reuse' => q[1],
  'build_requires_install_policy' => q[ask/yes],
  'bzip2' => q[/usr/bin/bzip2],
  'cache_metadata' => q[1],
  'check_sigs' => q[0],
  'commandnumber_in_prompt' => q[1],
  'connect_to_internet_ok' => q[1],
  'cpan_home' => q[/root/.cpan],
  'curl' => q[/usr/bin/curl],
  'ftp' => q[/usr/bin/ftp],
  'ftp_passive' => q[1],
  'ftp_proxy' => q[],
  'getcwd' => q[cwd],
  'gpg' => q[/usr/bin/gpg],
  'gzip' => q[/usr/bin/gzip],
  'halt_on_failure' => q[0],
  'histfile' => q[/root/.cpan/histfile],
  'histsize' => q[100],
  'http_proxy' => q[],
  'inactivity_timeout' => q[0],
  'index_expire' => q[1],
  'inhibit_startup_message' => q[0],
  'keep_source_where' => q[/root/.cpan/sources],
  'load_module_verbosity' => q[v],
  'lynx' => q[/usr/bin/lynx],
  'make' => q[/usr/bin/make],
  'make_arg' => q[],
  'make_install_arg' => q[],
  'make_install_make_command' => q[/usr/bin/make],
  'makepl_arg' => q[],
  'mbuild_arg' => q[],
  'mbuild_install_arg' => q[],
  'mbuild_install_build_command' => q[./Build],
  'mbuildpl_arg' => q[],
  'ncftp' => q[],
  'ncftpget' => q[],
  'no_proxy' => q[],
  'pager' => q[less],
  'patch' => q[/usr/bin/patch],
  'perl5lib_verbosity' => q[none],
  'prefer_external_tar' => q[1],
  'prefer_installer' => q[MB],
  'prefs_dir' => q[/root/.cpan/prefs],
  'prerequisites_policy' => q[ask],
  'recommends_policy' => q[1],
  'scan_cache' => q[atstart],
  'shell' => q[/bin/bash],
  'show_unparsable_versions' => q[0],
  'show_upload_date' => q[0],
  'show_zero_versions' => q[0],
  'suggests_policy' => q[0],
  'tar' => q[/bin/tar],
  'tar_verbosity' => q[v],
  'term_is_latin' => q[1],
  'term_ornaments' => q[1],
  'test_report' => q[0],
  'trust_test_report_history' => q[0],
  'unzip' => q[/usr/bin/unzip],
  'urllist' => [q[ftp://ftp.mpi-inf.mpg.de/pub/perl/CPAN/]],
  'use_prompt_default' => q[0],
  'use_sqlite' => q[0],
  'version_timeout' => q[15],
  'wget' => q[/usr/bin/wget],
  'yaml_load_code' => q[0],
  'yaml_module' => q[YAML],
};
1;
__END__