Now this has bothered me for a while.

In the past I have used the CPAN module to install other Perl modules, 'perl -MCPAN -eshell'.
I have root access to the machine so its not a problem
(if you've not heard of it give it a go, it will keep your hair black)  

However, on my own webspace I have only a user account, can I use the CPAN module to install without root access, perhaps to a local directory?

What I like about it is its ability to load all the dependencies thus making life easier, or will I have to do this all by hand and 'use lib ()' ?

jfp

Good question, John.   The Install module needs some extra variables if you want to place things in non-standard places;  I have got the following from the reference material for running the CPAN modulke (-M CPAN) in an interactive mode,  but I suspect that if you set the things up as environment variables it might be useable in a batch mode too ...

from ... http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/CPAN/perl/CPAN.html

Quote:

I am not root, how can I install a module in a personal directory?      You will most probably like something like this:        o conf makepl_arg "LIB=~/myperl/lib \                          INSTALLMAN1DIR=~/myperl/man/man1 \                          INSTALLMAN3DIR=~/myperl/man/man3"        install Sybase::Sybperl      You can make this setting permanent like all o conf settings with o conf commit.

to use modules installed in private directories, you have a choice:
- setenv PERL5LIB /path/to/module
- use lib qw(/path/to/module)
- perl -l/path/to/module

All of these will append /path/to/module to @INC. You should keep in mind that having private/non-standard libraries may cause problems if you wish to have portable code.

Personal experience of this little corner very limited - please do post how you get on / whether the above helps

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