cpan
The facts below are what the maker publishes about cpan, checked and dated. Our editors have not written about it yet.
Plans and prices
From cpan's own pricing page, checked 11 Oct 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | Command-line interface to CPAN · installs and manages Perl modules |
The facts
Each one read from cpan's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- Build and test
- The client can make modules, run their tests, clean module directories, and recompile dynamically loaded modules.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Dependency resolution
- Yeschecked 22 Sep 2026
- Install modules
- With module names as arguments, cpan installs the specified modules; the install switch is implied by default.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Interactive shell
- Running cpan without arguments starts the CPAN.pm shell.checked 11 Oct 2026
- License
- The script may be redistributed under the same terms as Perl itself.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Limits
- The dry-run option and warning option are marked unimplemented in the documentation.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Local libraries
- The -I option loads local::lib for using local library paths.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Mirrors
- Users can specify mirrors for one run, find faster mirrors, or ping configured mirrors for a report.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Module inspection
- The client can list installed modules, show out-of-date modules, and display module details and maintainers.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Offline installation
- Yeschecked 22 Sep 2026
- Package formats
- Perl modules; Perl distributions,commonly .tar.gz archiveschecked 22 Sep 2026
- Purpose
- The cpan script provides a command interface to CPAN and uses CPAN.pm to do the work.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Risk
- The documentation warns that upgrading all installed modules blindly can break things and recommends keeping a backup.checked 11 Oct 2026
The company
- Founded
- 1995checked 28 Sep 2026
Money
- Free plan
- Yeschecked 22 Sep 2026
Where it runs
- Supported platforms
- Linux,macOS,Windowschecked 22 Sep 2026
