Perl and CPAN

Stack guide — Perl

Perl 5 and CPAN

Perl 5 is installed with its full core distribution. The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network gives you access to thousands of modules. Start the CPAN shell:

perl -MCPAN -e shell

On first run, CPAN asks a few configuration questions. Accept the defaults unless you need a local mirror. The shell is interactive — you can search for modules, install them, and manage your local CPAN build directory.

To install a module:

cpan> install JSON
cpan> install DBI
cpan> install DBD::MariaDB

Modules install into /usr/local/lib/perl5. This is the /usr/local boundary in practice: the distribution owns /usr/lib/perl5, and CPAN writes to /usr/local. You can mount /usr/local from a separate volume, copy it to another Saphira machine, or back it up independently. As long as the two machines share the same Akadata base, the modules just work.

We do not pre‑package Perl modules because CPAN already delivers exactly what you need. Building every CPAN module as an APK package would duplicate work that the CPAN toolchain handles natively. Install what your application requires, then build it into stage4 when you are ready for production.