/ 
App-cpan2arch-v1.0.0
/ cpan2arch

NAME

cpan2arch - generate PKGBUILD from CPAN metadata

SYNOPSIS

cpan2arch [OPTION]... MODULE [VERSION]

Options:

-w, --write       write to PKGBUILD in current dir
    --force       overwrite existing PKGBUILD
-u, --update      rewrite PKGBUILD (show comparison + preserve attribs + bump pkgrel)
-c, --clear       clear all caches before HTTP requests
    --clear-mcpan clear MetaCPAN cache
    --clear-arch  clear Arch Linux cache
-h, --help        show this help and exit
-v, --version     show version info and exit

VERSION is only supported for distribution names, not module names.

Examples:

$ cpan2arch -w Foo::Bar        # Module
$ cpan2arch -w Foo-Bar v1.0.0  # Dist + version

DESCRIPTION

cpan2arch is a command-line utility that generates an Arch Linux PKGBUILD based on module/distribution metadata. It relies on the MetaCPAN API to fetch metadata and the Official repositories web interface + Aurweb RPC interface for Arch Linux packages information, using caching to speed up repeated requests and reduce server load.

Warnings about flagged out-of-date packages, missing packages, license problems, and other issues are added as comments in the PKGBUILD to inform the packager.

The generated PKGBUILD follows Perl package guidelines and is printed to STDOUT by default, unless --update or --write is passed.

NOTE

This tool is intended to ease the maintenance of Perl packages through automation, but blindly relying on it is not recommended since distributions might depend on external libraries or even have wrong metadata, thus manual inspection is always advised.

OPTIONS

-w, --write

Write to a file named PKGBUILD in the current directory.

--force

Overwrite an existing PKGBUILD silently.

-u, --update

Rewrite the PKGBUILD file in the current directory using the generated PKGBUILD:

  • .SRCINFO metadata is compared against the generated PKGBUILD metadata to show differences.

  • Contributor attributions are preserved and pkgrel is bumped whenever pkgver numbers from both metadatas are equal.

  • epoch is added or bumped whenever a newer version breaks pacman's version comparison logic.

Notes

  • Intended to quickly update obsolete PKGBUILDs from adopted AUR Perl packages.

  • Only metadata differences are shown in the comparison table and printed to STDERR, so PKGBUILD syntax and functions are ignored.

    Example:

    +--------------+------------------+---------------------------------+------------------------+
| Variable     | .SRCINFO         | Generated                       | Status                 |
+--------------+------------------+---------------------------------+------------------------+
| checkdepends | -                | N/A                             | Missing from Generated |
| checkdepends | perl-test-simple | -                               | Only in .SRCINFO       |
| depends      | -                | perl-version, perl>=5.10.1      | Only in Generated      |
| pkgdesc      | Bogus abstract   | Visually debug regexes in-place | Differs                |
+--------------+------------------+---------------------------------+------------------------+

  • --write and --force are implied.

  • To only update pkgver, pkgrel, and sha256sums, use pkgctl version upgrade, not this.

-c, --clear
--clear-mcpan
--clear-arch

Clear all caches, or only MetaCPAN or Arch Linux cache, before HTTP requests to refresh stale data.

-h, --help

Display a summary of options and exit.

-v, --version

Display the cpan2arch version number and exit.

COMPLETION

To enable tab completion in bash, put the script in the PATH and run this in the shell or add it to a bash startup file (e.g. /etc/bash.bashrc or ~/.bashrc):

complete -C cpan2arch cpan2arch

Note that Getopt::Long::More is required.

EXIT STATUS

0  success
1  general failure
2  command-line usage error

ENVIRONMENT

C2A_PACKAGER

If set, overrides the default packager attribution info. Default: Your Name <email@domain.tld>.

C2A_USER_AGENT

If set, overrides the default user agent string. Default: App::cpan2arch/$VERSION.

C2A_CACHE_MCPAN_PATH

If set, overrides the default MetaCPAN cache path. Default: /tmp/mcpan_cache.

C2A_CACHE_ARCH_PATH

If set, overrides the default Arch Linux cache path. Default: /tmp/arch_cache.

C2A_CACHE_EXPIRATION

If set, overrides the default cache expiration. Default: 1d.

C2A_CACHE_IGNORE

If true, disables the cache for HTTP requests. Default: false.

C2A_DEBUG

If true, displays debug information to STDERR (Requires Data::Printer). Default: false.

BUGS

Report bugs at https://github.com/author/App-cpan2arch/issues.

AUTHOR

ryoskzypu <ryoskzypu@proton.me>

SEE ALSO

This module ships with a similar utility that generates a PKGBUILD, but it is tied to CPANPLUS and does more stuff like packaging and installing CPAN modules on Arch using makepkg and pacman, without depending on the AUR.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2026 ryoskzypu

MIT-0 License. See LICENSE for details.