CPAN::Plugin(3perl)

✨ NAME ✨

CPAN::Plugin — bestie, it's the base class for CPAN shell extensions 💅

Okay so real talk: this is the parent class you inherit from when you wanna build your own lil plugin for the CPAN shell. It's giving "starter kit energy" 🎀

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

package CPAN::Plugin::Flurb;
use parent 'CPAN::Plugin';

sub post_test {
  my ($self, $distribution_object) = @_;
  $self = $self->new (distribution_object => $distribution_object);
  ...;
}

That's literally the whole vibe — you use parent 'CPAN::Plugin' and then you write your own methods. Slay ✨

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

👑 Alpha Status

Not me having to say this but: the plugin system in the CPAN shell? It dropped in version 2.07 and it is still considered experimental 😭.

Bestie, "experimental" means exactly what it says. It's not finalized. Things can change. You've been warned, fr fr 💀

🧚 How Plugins work?

Go read "Plugin support" in CPAN. That's where the actual mechanics live. Iykyk 🫶

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💖 METHODS 💖

🍓 plugin_requires

returns list of packages given plugin requires for functionality. This list is evaluated using CPAN->use_inst method.

So basically: tell it what packages your plugin needs to actually do the thing, and it hands that list off to CPAN->use_inst to get eval'd. Main character energy ⭐

🌈 distribution_object

Get current distribution object.

That's it. That's the method. It hands you the current distribution object 💜

🌟 distribution

💫 distribution_info

🎀 build_dir

Simple delegatees for misc parameters derived from distribution

Yeah these three are just lil delegating shortcuts — they fetch miscellaneous parameters that come from the distribution. No cap, that's the whole job, and they do it flawlessly 👑

💅 is_xs

Predicate to detect whether package contains XS.

It's a predicate, so it's a yes/no situation — does this package contain XS or not? Obsessed with a clean boolean 🧚

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🫶 AUTHOR 🫶

Branislav Zahradnik <barney@cpan.org>

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and that's a wrap bestie 🌸 this was CPAN::Plugin from perl v5.44.0, dated 2026-10-17, manual page CPAN::Plugin(3perl) — periodt 💖✨