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App-EPAN-0.001
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/ epan

NAME

epan - Exclusive Perl Archive Nook

VERSION

Ask the version number to the script itself, calling:

   shell$ epan --version

USAGE

   epan [--usage] [--help] [--man] [--version]

   # "create" insists on *not* finding dirname and creating it
   epan create [-t|--target dirname] Module1 [Module2...]

   # "idx" is how "index" was supposed to be specified
   epan idx [-o|--output filename] [-t|--target dirname]

   # "inject" adds local distribution archives
   epan inject [-t|--target dirname] File1 [File2...]

   # "list-actions" is also "list_actions"
   epan list-actions

   # "list-obsoletes" is also "list_obsoletes"
   epan list-obsoletes [-t|--target dirname]

   # "purge-obsoletes" is also "purge_obsoletes"
   epan purge-obsoletes [-t|--target dirname]

   # "update" is also "add" and "install"
   epan update [-t|--target dirname] Module1 [Module2...]



   # deprecated, don't use this but idx instead
   epan index [-o|--output filename] [directory]

EXAMPLES

   # collects all what's needed to install Dancer somewhere
   shell$ epan create -t dancer-stuff Dancer

   # regenerate index in ./modules/02packages.details.txt.gz
   shell$ epan idx -t dancer-stuff

   # prints index on standard output, works on /path/to/minicpan
   shell$ epan idx -o - -t /path/to/minicpan

DESCRIPTION

This program helps you creating and managing an EPAN - a version of the CPAN that is trimmed down to your needs for installing specific stuff.

To start with an example, suppose you have to install Dancer and a couple of its plugins in a machine that - for good reasons - is not connected to the Internet. It's easy to get the distribution files for Dancer and the plugins... but what about the dependencies? It can easily become a nightmare, forcing you to go back and forth with new modules as soon as you discover the need to install them.

Thanks to cpanm, this is quite easier these days: it can actually do what's needed with a single command:

   # on the machine connected to the Internet or to a minicpan
   $ cpanm -L xxx --scandeps --save-dists dists \
        Dancer Dancer::Plugin::FlashNote ...

which places all the modules in subdirectory dists (thanks to option --save-dists) with an arrangement similar to what you would expect from a CPAN mirror.

On the target machine, you still have to make some work - e.g. you should collect the output from the invocation of cpanm above to figure out the order to use for installing the distribution files. Additionally, the directory structure that is generated lacks a proper index file (located in modules/02package.details.txt.gz) so it would be difficult to use the normal toolchain.

epan aims at filling up the last mile to get the job done, providing you with a subdirectory that is ready for deployment, with all the bits in place to push automation as much as possible. So you can do this:

   # on the machine connected to the Internet or to a minicpan
   $ epan create Dancer Dancer::Plugin::FlashNote ...
   $ tar cvzf epan.tar.gz epan

transfer dists.tar.gz to the target machine and...

   # on the target machine
   $ tar xvzf epan.tar.gz
   $ cd epan
   $ ./install.sh

optionally providing an installation target directory:

   $ ./install.sh /path/to/local/perl

The program epan is actually a unified access point to several different tools for manipulating your exclusive Perl archive nook. Most of these commands operate upon a target directory that is where your EPAN is stored; this can be specified via option -t or its longer version --target. By default, the target directory is assumed to be epan in the current directory.

add, install and update

These commands are synonimous in epan, and all help you pull a module and its dependencies from a CPAN mirror right into your EPAN, regenerating the index at the end of the process. The syntax is:

   epan add # or install or update \
      [-t|--target directory]
      Module1 [Module2...]

So, in addition to the common option -t for setting the right target directory, it accepts a list of module names to install (with their dependencies).

create

This command is almost the same as add and its aliases, with the exception that the target directory MUST NOT already exist when called.

index

Regenerate the index so that tools like cpanm are happy about what they find and treat your target directory as a real CPAN sort-of mirror. The syntax is the following:

   epan index [-t|--target dirname]

Note that other commands (e.g. add or create) already do the indexing. This command can be useful when you have a starting base (i.e. a compound of modules coming from CPAN and your own distribution) already arranged in the right directory tree, but you need to generate an index. For example, this happens when you collect some distribution files using cpanm:

   shell$ cpanminus -L xxx --save-dists dists Mod1 Mod2...

because it saves the needed distributions in dists but it does not generate the index. The same happens when using carton.

In these cases, if you want to prepare a pack of modules to carry with your application, you can do like this:

   $ figure_out_modules > modlist
   $ cpanm -L xxx --save-dists dists $(<modlist)
   $ epan idx -t dists
   $ tar cvf dists.tar dists

then carry dists.tar with you, at which point you can:

   $ cpanm --mirror file://$YOURPATH --mirror-only Mod1 Mod2 ...

inject

If you have some local distribution files, e.g. generated by yourself and not (yet) uploaded to CPAN, you can inject them into a local EPAN. The syntax is straightforward:

   epan inject \ 
      [-a|--author author-name] \
      [-t|--target dirname] File1 [File2...]

list-actions and list_actions

Prints out the list of available commands.

list-obsoletes and list_obsoletes

   epan list-obsoletes [-t|--target dirname]

Prints out a list of obsolete distributions in the EPAN. A distribution is considered obsolete if there is a newer corresponding version in the EPAN. E.g. suppose that you work on Acme::Whatever and inject version 0.2:

   epan inject Acme-Whatever-0.2.tar.gz
   # ...

then you work on it some more time, and inject version 0.3:

   epan inject Acme-Whatever-0.2.tar.gz
   # ...

Now your EPAN contains two distribution packages for Acme::Whatever, one for release 0.2 (which is the obsolete one) and one for the newest version 0.3.

purge-obsoletes and purge_obsoletes

   epan purge-obsoletes [-t|--target dirname]

Remove (purge) obsolete distribution packages from the EPAN.

OPTIONS

The following options are supported, even though not all actions use them all:

-1 | -m | --mailrc

path to the file 01mailrc.txt.gz, defaults to authors/01mailrc.txt.gz inside the target directory

-2 | -o | --output | --package-details

path to the file for 02packages.details.txt.gz, defaults to modules/02packages.details.txt.gz inside the target directory. Yes, you can use - with the usual meaning.

-3 | -l | --modlist | --modlist-data

path to the file 03modlist.data.gz, defaults to modules/03modlist.data.gz inside the target directory.

-a | --author author-name

module author to use when doing injection of local distribution packages

--help

print a somewhat more verbose help, showing usage, this description of the options and some examples from the synopsis.

--man

print out the full documentation for the script.

-t | --target dirname

set the directory of the root for the EPAN to work on. Defaults to the sub-directory epan in the current directory. This option applies to all commands except list-actions and index.

--usage

print a concise usage line and exit.

--version

print the version of the script.

CONFIGURATION AND ENVIRONMENT

epan requires no configuration files. The following environment variable is honored:

EPAN_AUTHOR

set the name of the pause account to use for indexing. Defaults to LOCAL. It is overridden by --author.

DEPENDENCIES

Runs on perl 5.012, adapt it if you want to run on something older :-)

The following non-core modules are used:

  • Dist::Metadata

  • Path::Class

  • File::Find::Rule

  • Log::Log4perl::Tiny

BUGS AND LIMITATIONS

No bugs have been reported.

Please report any bugs or feature requests through http://rt.cpan.org/

AUTHOR

Flavio Poletti polettix@cpan.org

LICENCE AND COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2011-2021 by Flavio Poletti polettix@cpan.org.

This script is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the Artistic License 2.0.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.