1. Overview
2. Module Description - What the module does and why it is useful
3. Setup - The basics of getting started with cpan
   • What cpan affects
   • Beginning with cpan
4. Usage - Configuration options and additional functionality
5. Reference - An under-the-hood peek at what the module is doing and how

Handle installations of cpan modules via puppet.

The cpan module sets up capn on a server

• cpan package.
• cpan configuration file.

All options and configuration can be done through interacting with the parameters on the cpan class and the cpan resource type. These are documented below.

class {'::cpan':
  manage_config  => true,
  manage_package => true,
  package_ensure => 'present',
  installdirs    => 'site',
  local_lib      => false,
  config_hash    => { 'build_requires_install_policy' => 'no' },
  ftp_proxy      => 'http://your_ftp_proxy.com',
  http_proxy     => 'http://your_http_proxy.com',
  environment    => {
  	'OPTIONAL_ENVIRONMENT_VAR_1' => '1',
  	'OPTIONAL_ENVIRONMENT_VAR_2' => '/foo/bar',
  },
}

include '::cpan'
cpan { "Clone::Closure":
  ensure  => present,
  require => Class['::cpan'],
  force   => true,
}

To avoid conflicts with in house package management, use:

class {'::cpan':
  manage_package => false,
}

To control target installation path, use:

class {'::cpan':
  installdirs => 'vendor',
}

Any of site (default), perl and vendor are accepted.

To further control the location of installed modules, you can use local::lib:

cpan { 'Foo::Bar':
  ensure    => present,
  local_lib => '/opt',
}

This will install the module into /opt. Of course you need to adjust @INC of your code in order to use that new location, e.g. by using perl -Mlocal::lib=/opt myapp.pl.

You can also define the default value of local_lib for all cpan resources:

Cpan { local_lib => '/opt' }

class {'::cpan':
  ftp_proxy  => 'http://your_ftp_proxy.com',
  http_proxy => 'http://your_http_proxy.com',
}

Some modules may require additional environment variables to be set e.g. during install, like DBD::Oracle or DBD::DB2.

cpan {'DBD::DB2':
  ensure      => 'latest',
  environment => {
   'DB2_HOME' => '/path/to/DB2,
  }
}

Some modules like Sys::RunAlone don't return a code 0 when invoked with perl -M$MODULE_NAME -e1. This means there's no way for puppet to check if they're installed or not (in an agnostic way). Therefore you'll have to change the exists_strategy:

cpan {'Sys::RunAlone':
  ensure => 'present',
  exists_strategy => 'find',
}

Currently two strategies are implemented:

Tries to include module:

perl -M$MODULE_NAME

Tries to find module in @INC list much like pmpath is doing.

• cpan: Main class for installation and service management.
• cpan::install: Handles package installation.
• cpan::params: Different configuration data for different systems.
• cpan::config: Handles the cpan service.

This module has been built on and tested against Puppet 3.x and Puppet 4.x

The module has been tested on:

• RedHat Enterprise Linux 6/7
• Debian 6/7
• CentOS 6/7

Testing on other platforms has been light and cannot be guaranteed.

• 2019-now CC-IN2P3
• 2012-2017 Meltwater