CPANP(1)

💖 CPANP 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to cpanp — it's The CPANPLUS launcher and it's literally the main character of command-line module management. this is the page for it in the User Contributed Perl Documentation, and yes we're gonna get you fully caught up. periodt. ✨

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

cpanp [-]a [ --[no-]option... ]  author...

cpanp [-]mfitulrcz [ --[no-]option... ]  module...

cpanp [-]d [ --[no-]option... ] [ --fetchdir=... ]  module...

cpanp [-]xb [ --[no-]option... ]

cpanp [-]o [ --[no-]option... ] [ module... ]

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so basically, this script launches the CPANPLUS utility so you can do a whole bunch of operations straight from the command line. and if you invoke it with no arguments at all? it just drops you into an interactive shell by default. iconic behaviour honestly. 💅

optionally — and this is the fun part — it can take a single-letter switch plus one or more arguments, and it'll do the matching action on each argument. here's the whole menu of available commands, bestie. and if you want the detailed version, cpanp -h has you covered. 🎀

h                   # help information
v                   # version information

a AUTHOR ...        # search by author(s)
m MODULE ...        # search by module(s)
f MODULE ...        # list all releases of a module

i MODULE ...        # install module(s)
t MODULE ...        # test module(s)
u MODULE ...        # uninstall module(s)
d MODULE ...        # download module(s)
l MODULE ...        # display detailed information about module(s)
r MODULE ...        # display README files of module(s)
c MODULE ...        # check for module report(s) from cpan-testers
z MODULE ...        # extract module(s) and open command prompt in it

x                   # reload CPAN indices

o [ MODULE ... ]    # list installed module(s) that aren't up to date
b                   # write a bundle file for your configuration

every command can be followed by one or more options. and here's the lil trick — if an option is preceded by "no", that option gets set to 0. otherwise it's set to 1. the way that works is so clean fr fr. 🫶

Example: say you wanna skip a module's tests —

cpanp -i --skiptest MODULE ...

valid options for most commands are cpantest, debug, flush, force, prereqs, storable, verbose, md5, signature, and skiptest. oh and the 'd' command also accepts fetchdir — special lil bonus for the downloaders. 💖 if you wanna know what all of those actually mean, go consult CPANPLUS::Configure, that's where the lore lives. iykyk.

Example: wanna download a module's tarball straight into the current directory?

cpanp -d --fetchdir=. MODULE ...

ngl bestie, that . is doing a LOT of work there. current directory, no cap. 🍓

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and that's the whole vibe check! 👑 this page is from perl v5.42.0, dated 2025-07-25, under the title CPANP(1). go forth and manage your modules, you absolute legend. slay. 💜✨🌈