Using PPM to install modules
How to install and upgrade modules using PPM
The Programmer's Package Manager (PPM), formerly known as the Perl Package Manager, is ActiveState's value-added package manager that provides a command line interface for downloading and installing pre-compiled versions of most CPAN modules. PPM can access package repositories (collections of packages) through the Internet. It is also used to update previously installed packages with the latest versions and to remove unused packages from your system.
The PPM 3.0 release introduces a complete rewrite of PPM, featuring many additions and improvements.
PPM (ppm) is installed when you install ActivePerl. On Windows
systems there are certain prerequisites for using PPM:
nmake, which is available
from:Before you run PPM, you must either be connected to the Internet or have access to a local repository, like a hard drive or the ActiveState ActiveCD. If your Internet connection is via a firewall or proxy, you must set the environment variable "HTTP_proxy" to the name of the proxy server. If your proxy server requires a username and password, use the environment variables "HTTP_proxy_user" and "HTTP_proxy_pass". See PPM, Proxies and Firewalls for more information.
To run PPM, type the following at the command line:
ppm
This puts you into a ppm shell, which is indicated by the ppm>
prompt. Within this shell, run PPM commands to manage your Perl packages.
Some of the most commonly used commands are as follows:
ppm> search *search-listed package, type: ppm> describe <package name><package name> is the name of a package as listed
by the search * command. ppm> install <package name><package name> is the name of a specific package as
listed by the search * command. ppm> query *query-listed package, type: ppm> prop <package name><package name> is the name of a package as listed
by the query * command. ppm> upgrade <package name><package name> is the name of a specific package as
listed by the query * command. ppm> remove <package name><package name> is the name of a specific package as
listed by the query * command. ppm> help ppm> exitThe first time you run PPM, the ActiveState package repository will be your default repository. If you change your default repository, that change will be saved. You can can select a different repository using the repository command.
Note: Most of the above listed commands have numerous
options not described here. Also, there are several commands not described in
the preceding list. For a complete description of all of the PPM commands, see
the PPM Commands section
below.
This section provides a complete list of the usage and options of the following PPM commands:
Items in <angle brackets> are arguments that can be used with the commands, while items in [square brackets] are optional elements. PPM will recognize and accept shortened versions of the commands, as long as enough letters are typed to be recognized by PPM. For example, "des" can be typed instead of "describe".
describe
Describes default/current package
describe <number>
Describes package <number> in the current search set
describe <range>
Describes packages in the given <range> from the current search set
describe <package name>
Describes named package
describe <url>
Describes package located at <url>
describe <glob pattern>
Performs a new search using <glob pattern>
When used, describe returns information about a package,
including the name of the package, the author's name and a brief description
(called an "Abstract") about the package. For example:
describe libnet
returns:
===============================
Package 1
Name: libnet
Version: 1.07.03
Author: Graham Barr
Abstract: Collection of Network protocol modules
Implementations:
1.sun4-solaris-thread-multi
2.i686-linux-thread-multi
3.MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
===============================
There are two modifiers to the describe command:
-ppd
Displays the raw PPD of the package.
-dump
The same as -ppd.
When the describe command is called without arguments, it returns information about the first
package in the current search. If there is no default search set, you'll be
prompted to use search to find a package.
If describe is called with a numeric argument, that number is set as the default package
and the information about that package is returned. If the number given doesn't exist, you'll be prompted
to use search to find a package. Also, you can use describe to give
descriptions of several packages. For example:
describe 4-7
will give you descriptions of packages 4 through 7, in the current search request. You can also enter:
describe 3-4,10
to get information on packages 3, 4 and 10.
If you specify a URL as the argument to describe, PPM will describe the package located at the URL. The URL must point to a PPD file. The URL can also point to a PPD file on your computer.
When the describe command is given a name with a wildcard (such as "*" or "?")
it executes the search command with the given argument. With this, you can type
something like describe Tk* will return the name(s) of any packages that match
your search parameters.
See Also: Properties
The exit and quit commands can be used
interchangably.
exit
Exit PPM
quit
Exit PPM
q
Exit PPM
Note: When followed by an argument (ie. glob pattern), the
qabbreviation performs a query.
When you leave the PPM environment, the current settings are saved.
help
Lists available commands and help topics
help <command>
Lists detailed help about a specific command
The help command provides a brief description of the commands available
within PPM. For help on a specific command, enter help followed by the command name.
For example, enter help settings or help set for a detailed description of the
settings command.
There are some extra help topics built into PPM. They can be accessed within the PPM environment as follows:
HELP COMMAND
DESCRIPTION
help ppm_migration
shows more details about the changes from previous versions of PPM
help quickstart
an easy-to-follow guide to getting started with PPM
help prompt
provides a detailed explanation about the PPM prompt
install
Installs default package
install <number>
Installs packages by a specific <number>
install <range>
Installs packages in the given numeric range <range>.
install <name>
Installs named package
install <url>
Installs the package located at <url>
The install command is used to install packages from the
repository. You can install packages by name or number (the number is given by
the repository or search request), or a default package can be established
through use of the describe command. There is also a set of
modifiers that can be used with the install command:
The install command is used to install packages from
the repository. Install packages by name or number (the number is
given by the repository or search request), or set a default package
using the describe command. You can specify a full URL to
a PPD file; the URL may point to a PPD file on your computer.
If you have profile tracking enabled, (see 'help profile') the current profile will be updated to include the newly installed package(s).
The following modifiers can be used with the install command:
-force -noforce -follow -nofollow
The force and follow commands determine how
packages are installed:
FORCE
FOLLOW
RESULT
false
false
Checks to see if the package is installed and if it is, installation stops. If there are any missing prerequisites, the installation will fail.
false
true
Checks to see if the package is installed and if it is, installation stops. If there are any missing prerequisites, they are automatically installed. NOTE: this is the default setting when PPM is first installed.
true
false
If the package is installed, PPM will reinstall the package. If there are any missing prerequisites, the installation will fail.
true
true
If the package is installed, PPM will reinstall the package. All prerequisites are installed, missing or not.
If you do not specify any options, install uses the default settings. Set or view the current defaults using the settings command.
For example:
install foo
will install the package named "foo", using the default settings. Override the defaults using the install modifiers described above.
For example:
install foo -force
will install the "foo" package, even if it has already been
installed. If both -force and -follow are
set to "true", all the prerequisites for any package you install will
also be installed. For example, the installation of a Tk-related
package, like "tk-ach" which is 8.4 kB will be preceded by the
installation of Tk, which is 1.7 MB.
You can also install by package number. Package numbers are based on the current repository or current search request. For example:
install 6
installs package number 6. You can install more than one package at one time:
install 3-5
installs packages 3, 4 and 5. You can also type install 3-6,8 to receive packages 3,4,5,6 and 8.
profile
Lists profiles available on the repository
profile <num>
Switches to the given profile
profile add <name>
Creates a new profile on the repository
profile delete <name or num>
Deletes the given profile
profile describe [name or num]
Describes the current or given profile
profile save
Saves the client state to the current profile
profile restore
Restores the current profile
profile rename <name or num> <name>
Renames the given profile to <name>
Profiles store information about packages that are installed on
your system. If the profile-track setting is enabled,
your ASPN Profile will be updated with information about installed
packages. Profiles allow you to easily migrate, reinstall, upgrade or
restore PPM packages in one or more locations.
To use profiles, you must have a license for ActivePerl Pro Studio.
For license information, see the ActivePerl Pro Studio web site.
Disable profile tracking by setting
profile-track=0.
prop
Describes default installed package
prop <number>
Describes installed package <number>
prop <range>
Describes a <range> of installed package
prop <package name>
Describes named installed package
prop <url>
Describes installed package located at <url>
prop <glob pattern>
Performs a new query using <glob pattern>
The properties command is an verbose form of the describe command. In addition to
summary information, properties will display the installation date and
a URL showing the location of the package within the repository.
If you specify the package as a URL, PPM determines the package name from the URL and searches for that.
When the properties command is used with wildcard
arguments, the text entered at the PPM prompt is passed to the query command.
For example, typing properties libnet will give you:
Name: libnet
Version: 1.07.03
Author: Graham Barr
Abstract: Collection of Network protocol modules
InstDate: Fri Oct 2 16:15:15 1998
Location: http://ppm.ActiveState.com/cgibin/PPM/ppmserver.pl?urn:/PPMServer
See Also: Describe
query
Displays list of previous queries
query <number>
Displays results of previous query
query <glob pattern>
Performs a new query using <glob pattern>
query *
Displays a list of all installed packages
q <glob pattern>
Shortcut for
query <glob pattern>Note: Without an argument, the
qshortcut performs a Quit.
The query command displays a list of all installed packages, or a list based on the <glob pattern> switch. You can also check the list of past queries, or the results of a past query.
With PPM 3.1, you can now perform much more powerful queries. The syntax is identical to the search command, and almost all the search switches are also available for querying installed packages.
Recall previous queries with the query <number>
command. PPM3 stores all queries from the current PPM session.
Note: Depending on the value of the "case-sensitivity" setting, the query may or may not be case-sensitive. See "help settings" for instructions on setting the default case sensitivity.
See Also: Settings
The remove and uninstall commands can be used
interchangably.
remove
Deletes default installed package
remove <number>
Deletes installed package <number>
remove <range>
Deletes a <range> of installed packages
remove <name>
Deletes a package by a specific name
remove <url>
Deletes the package located at <url>
If profile tracking is enabled (see profile),
then use of the remove command updates the current PPM profile.
Packages can be removed by package name, by their numerical listing, or by specifying a URL to a PPD file. For example:
remove XML-DOM
will delete the XML-DOM package from the target.
To remove package by number:
remove 6
and the sixth package in your current query will be removed. If no
queries have been run in the current PPM session, you will be prompted
to use a query to find a package before deleting
it. Remember that removing packages clears all previous query
requests, since the numerical sequence stored in any query will no
longer be true once package(s) have been removed.
will delete packages 4, 5, 6, and 7 from your target. You can also skip packages:remove 4-7
remove 3-5, 7
this will delete packages 3, 4, 5 and 7, but will leave 6 intact. Remember to run a new query whenever you remove a package from your target.
If you specify the package as a URL, PPM determines the package name from the URL and removes that.
Please note that wildcards like "*" or "?" cannot be used with the
remove command.
rep
Displays all repositories
rep add [name] <location>
Adds a new repository; makes it active
rep delete <name or num>
Deletes specified repository
rep describe <name or num>
Displays information about the specified repository
rep rename <name or num> <name>
Renames the specified repository to the given name
rep on <name>
Activates the specified repository
rep off <name or num>
Removes the repository from the active list
rep up <name or num>
Moves the specified repository up one
rep down <name or num>
Moves the specified repository down one
The <name> needs to be put inside doublequotes if it contains any spaces.
The repository (or rep) command controls two
lists or repositories:
The list of "active" repositories. This is the list of repositories used by search, install, and upgrade.
The list of all known repositories. You can designate a repository "inactive", which means PPM will not use it in any commands.
If no arguments are given, the rep command will list
the active repositories defined in the PPM settings. The order is
significant: when installing a package, PPM will try the first
repository, then the second, and so on, until it find the package you
asked for. When searching, PPM merges the results of all the
repositories together, so the order is less important (see the search command).
For example, when you enter:
rep
PPM3 will return something resembling this:
Repositories: [1] ActiveCD [2] ActiveState Package Repository [ ] An inactive repository
In the example above, entering rep off 2 will disable
the second repository (the ActiveState Package Repository). To add
another repository:
rep add [options]
The following options are available for the add
command:
-username -password
These options allow you to specify a username and password to be used when logging into a repository. Currently, these are only used for FTP and WWW repositories.
For example:
rep add "EZE" http://foo.com/MyPPMPackages
with "EZE" being the name of the repository (for easy reference) and the location noted by the http location. If you were to enter the rep command again, you would see:
ppm> rep Repositories: [1] ActiveCD [2] ActiveState Package Repository [3] EZE [ ] An inactive repository
For a list of some of the other repositories that are available, see the section Where are the package repositories? below.
To move the new repository to the top of the Active list, you would type:
ppm> rep up EZE Repositories: [1] ActiveCD [2] EZE [3] ActiveState Package Repository [ ] An inactive repository ppm> rep up EZE Repositories: [1] EZE [2] ActiveCD [3] ActiveState Package Repository [ ] An inactive repository
To disable the ActiveCD repository temporarily, enter the following:
ppm> rep off ActiveCD Repositories: [1] EZE [2] ActiveState Package Repository [ ] ActiveCD [ ] An inactive repository
To describe a repository, refer to it either by name, or by the number displayed next to the repository in the Active Repositories list. You must refer to inactive repositories by their full name.
ppm> rep describe 2
Describing Active Repository 2:
Name: ActiveState Package Repository
Location: http://ppm.ActiveState.com/cgibin/PPM/...
Type: PPMServer 2.00
ppm> rep describe ActiveCD
Describing Inactive Repository:
Name: ActiveCD
Location: F:\PPMPackages\5.8plus
Type: Local Directory
To re-activate the ActiveCD repository, use the rep on
command. You must refer to inactive repositories by name, not
number.
ppm> rep on ActiveCD Active Repositories: [1] EZE [2] ActiveState Package Repository [3] ActiveCD [ ] An inactive repository
PPM3 supports several types of package repositories:
PPM Server 3
ActiveState's SOAP-driven package server. Because all searches are done server-side, the server can deliver much richer information about packages than other repositories.
PPM Server 2
The SOAP server designed for PPM version 2. PPM 3.1 ships with the PPM2 repository as well as the PPM3 repository, so you can use either. Simple searches are performed server-side. If your search is too complicated for the server, PPM 3.1 will download the package summary and search by itself.
Web Repositories
Older versions of PPM used non-SOAP repositories (directories full of PPD files accessible using a web browser). Over the history of PPM, there have been several different ways of organising the files so that PPM can search for packages properly. PPM3 tries to download a summary file first -- if that fails, it gets the directory index. It parses the summary or the index, and caches it. Searches are done from the cache.
FTP Repositories
FTP is another way of exposing a directory full of PPD files. PPM3 considers FTP repositories a subset of Web repositories. Treat them as identical: PPM3 downloads the summary or the "index" (file listing in this case), parses it, and then searches from it.
Local Repositories
To support installing packages from the ActiveCD, a local directory can be a repository. PPM searches the files in the directory. All valid path formats are supported, including UNC paths.
For a list of some of the other repositories that are available, see the section Where are the package repositories? below.
search
Displays list of previous searches
search <number>
Displays results of search <number>
search <glob pattern>
Performs a new search
search <field>=<glob pattern>
Searches for all packages matching the field
search *
Displays all packages in the current repository
The available fields are ABSTRACT, NAME,
TITLE, AUTHOR, and VERSION.
NAME is used when you do not specify a field.
Use the search command to look through the repository
for packages. PPM provides powerful search functionality. For
example:
COMMAND
MEANING
SAMPLE RESULTS
search CGISearch for 'CGI' anywhere in the name
Apache-CGI
CGI-Application
CGI-ArgChecker
search CGI*Search for 'CGI' at beginning of name
CGI-Application
CGI-ArgChecker
search AUTHOR=smithSearch for all modules authored by someone with 'smith' in their name or email
Apache-ProxyPass
Business-ISBN
search ABSTRACT=compressSearch for 'compress' anywhere in the abstract
Apache-GzipChain
IO-Zlib
search CGI or ABSTRACT=webSearch for 'CGI' in the name, or 'web' in the abstract
CGI-XMLForm
HTML-Clean
search XML and (parser or ABSTRACT=pars) and not XPathSearch for 'XML' in the name and either 'parser' in the name or 'pars' in the abstract, but not with 'XPath' in the name
XML-Node
XML-Parser-EasyTree
search Data::GrovePPM Server 3.0 repositories only: Search by module name, even if unrelated to the containing package
libxml-perl
search *Browse all packages in the repository
Affix-Infix2Postfix[many more ...]
AI-Fuzzy
AI-NeuralNet-BackProp
Recall previous searches using the search
command. PPM stores searches for each session until you exit PPM.
Some package names or versions are too long to be displayed in the
search results. If a name is too long, you will see a ~
(Tilde) as the last visible character in the column. You can use describe to view detailed information
about such packages.
Search Results
When you type a command like search XML, PPM searches
in each of the Active Repositories (see the repository command) for your package. The
results are merged into one list, and duplicates (packages found in
more than one repository) are hidden.
You can control what fields PPM shows for each package. The fields
each have a built-in weight, which is used to calculate how wide to
make each field based on the width of your screen. Information that
doesn't fit into a field is truncated, and a tilde (~)
character is displayed in the last column of the field.
Let's get down to an example:
ppm> search XML
Searching in Active Repositories
1. CGI-XMLForm [0.10] Extension to CGI.pm which
2. Data-DumpXML [1.01] Dump arbitrary data structures
3. DBIx-XML_RDB [0.05] Perl extension for creating XML
4. DBIx-XMLMessage [0.03] XML Message exchange between DBI
5. GoXML-XQI [1.1.4] Perl extension for the XML Query
6. Language-DATR-DATR2~ [0.901] manipulate DATR .dtr, XML, HTML,
7. libxml-perl [0.07] support for deeply nested
8. Mail-FilterXML [0.1] Undetermined
9. Mail-XML [0.03] Adds a toXML() method to
10. Pod-XML [0.93] Module to convert POD to XML
As you can see, the three fields being displayed are:
NAME
The package name
VERSION
The package version
ABSTRACT
The package abstract
You can customize the view somewhat. If you want to view the authors, but not the abstract, you can run the same search command after using set to change the fields:
ppm> set fields="NAME VERSION AUTHOR"
Setting 'fields' set to 'name version author'.
ppm> search XML
Using cached search result set 1.
1. CGI-XMLForm [0.10] Matt Sergeant (matt@sergeant.org)
2. Data-DumpXML [1.01] Gisle Aas (gisle@aas.no)
3. DBIx-XML_RDB [0.05] Matt Sergeant (matt@sergeant.org)
4. DBIx-XMLMessage [0.03] Andrei Nossov (andrein@andrein.com)
5. GoXML-XQI [1.1.4] Matthew MacKenzie (matt@goxml.com)
6. Language-DATR-DAT~ [0.901] Lee Goddard (lgoddard@cpan.org)
7. libxml-perl [0.07] Ken MacLeod (ken@bitsko.slc.ut.us)
8. Mail-FilterXML [0.1] Matthew MacKenzie (matt@goxml.com)
9. Mail-XML [0.03] Matthew MacKenzie (matt@goxml.com)
10. Pod-XML [0.93] Matt Sergeant (matt@sergeant.org)
You can change the order in which the results are sorted, and what
columns are displayed. The settings fields and
sort-field changes this. You can sort by any valid field
name (even fields which are not displayed). See the settings command for the valid field names.
PPM always hides "duplicate" results. It decides whether a result
is duplicated based on the fields being displayed. If the same package
is found in more than one repository, but you don't have the
REPOSITORY field showing, PPM will only list the package
once.
set
displays current options
set <name>
displays the current setting of the given <name>
set <name> <value>
sets <name> to <value>
unset <name>
Sets <name> to a "false" value: '0' for boolean settings, '' for others.
The settings command is used to configure the default PPM environment. Settings such as the number of lines displayed per page, case-sensitivity, and the log file are configured using the settings command.
Setting names may be abbreviated to uniqueness. For example,
instead of typing case-sensitivity, you may type
case.
Available settings:
NAME
VALUE
DESCRIPTION
case-sensitivity"0" or "1"
If set to "1", searches and queries are case-sensitive.
download-chunksizeinteger
If this is set to a positive, non-zero integer, PPM updates the status after each "integer" of bytes transferred during an install or upgrade.
fieldsfields
A space-separated list of fields to display in the search results. Valid fields are:
ABSTRACT AUTHOR NAME REPOSITORY TITLE VERSION
Usually, NAME and TITLE have the same content.
follow-install"0" or "1"
See install for details.
force-install"0" or "1"
See install for details.
install-verbose"0" or "1"
If "0", suppresses most output when installing packages. If "1", PPM prints each file as it is installed.
pagerpath
The path to an external pager program used to page long displays. If blank, or set to "internal", the internal pager is used. If "none", paging is disabled.
profile-track"0" or "1"
If "1", PPM arranges to have the ASPN server track your PPM profile. This means that every time your install or remove a package, your profile is updated on the server. If "0", you must manually save your profile using
profile save.
prompt-context"0" or "1"
If "1", enables the prompt to change based on the current state of PPM, i.e. showing current target, query, etc.
prompt-slotsizeinteger
If
prompt-verboseis "1", this defines the width of each slot in the prompt. For instance, "4" means to use 4 character-wide slots.
prompt-verbose"0" or "1"
If "0", uses numbers to represent the context in the prompt; much shorter. If
prompt-contextis set to "0", there will be no visible difference in theprompt-verbosesettings.
rebuild-html"0" or "1"
If "0", suppresses regeneration of HTML documentation when packages are installed. If "1", enables HTML to be generated from POD documentation. Enabling this option may slow down package installation.
remove-verbose"0" or "1"
If "0", suppresses most output when removing packages. If "1", prints the name of each file as it is removed.
sort-fieldfield
The field by which to sort search and query results. Valid fields are ABSTRACT, AUTHOR, NAME, TITLE and VERSION.
tempdirpath
A temporary directory into which packages are downloaded and expanded during install and upgrade.
trace-filepath
A file to which PPM will write tracing information.
trace-levelinteger
If "0" or negative, tracing is disabled. Positive, non-zero integers result in tracing information being written to
trace-file. Higher settings oftrace-levelresult in more trace information.
upgrade-verbose"0" or "1"
If "0", suppresses most output when upgrading packages. If "1", prints the name of each file as it is upgraded.
For information about migrating options used by previous versions
of PPM, see help ppm_migration.
When you assign a value to a setting, PPM saves the configuration. Therefore, setting values persist across sessions.
target/td>
isplays a list of backend targets
target <number>
ets <number> as default backend target
target [select] <name or num>
ets <name or num> as default backend target
target set <key> <val>
Sets the target's <key> to <val>
target rename <name or num> <name>
Renames the given target to <name>
The target is the destination location of the install routine, such as the directory where the packages are installed when they're downloaded from the repository. For example:
target
returns:
Targets:
1. ActivePerl 618
* 2. ActivePerl 629
This shows that there are two available targets, and that the second target (ActivePerl 629) is currently the default (as shown by the asterisk). Using multiple targets, you can manage multiple installations of Perl from a single command-line.
tree
Displays the dependency-tree of the default package
tree <number>
Displays the dependency-tree of the given <number>
tree <range>
Displays a <range> of dependency trees
tree <package name>
Displays the dependency-tree of the named package
tree <url>
Displays the dependency-tree for the package at <url>
tree <glob pattern>
Performs a new search using <glob pattern>
The tree command is used to show the "dependency tree"
of a given package (additional packages that are required by the
current package). For example:
tree SOAP-lite
returns:
==================== SOAP-Lite 0.51 |__MIME-tools 5.316 | |__MailTools 1.15 | \__IO-stringy 1.216 | \__MIME-Lite 2.105 ====================
SOAP-Lite requires four other packages.
When tree is called without a <name> or <number> switch, the command will return the dependency tree of the first package in the default search result. If there is no default search, you will be requested to use search to find a package.
unset <name>
Sets <name> to a "false" value: '0' for boolean settings, '' for others.
See Settings for a list of available settings.
upgrade [*]
Lists upgrades available for all installed packages
upgrade <number>
Lists upgrades for installed package <number>
upgrade <range>
Lists upgrades for a <range> of installed packages
upgrade <package>
Lists upgrades for the named <package>
The upgrade command lists package upgrades that are available on
the active repositories for packages installed on your system. To
install available upgrades, use the -install option.
If profile tracking is enabled, (see profile), your profile will be updated to reflect changes to any packages which are upgraded.
There are several modifiers to the upgrade command:
OPTION
DESCRIPTION
Install
Installs, rather than lists, available upgrades
Precious
Allows upgrading of "precious" packages
Force
See install
Follow
See install
By default, upgrade typed by itself only lists the available upgrades.
To actually install all available upgrades, enter
upgrade -install
To enable upgrading "precious" packages, enter
upgrade -install -precious
version
Prints the name and version of PPM3.
http://www.ActiveState.com/cgibin/PPM/ppmserver.plex?urn:/PPMServer ActiveState's PPM 2 repository http://ppm-ia.ActiveState.com/PPM/ppmserver.plex?urn:/PPM/Server/SQL ActiveState's PPM 3 Repository
http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/cgi-bin/ppmserver?urn:/PPMServer The University of Winnipeg's 5.6 PPM repository http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/cgi-bin/ppmserver?urn:/PPMServer58 The University of Winnipeg's 5.8 PPM repository http://bioperl.org/DIST A repository of Bioperl packages http://www.roth.net/perl/packages/ Roth Consulting's package repository http://crazyinsomniac.perlmonk.org/perl/ppm the crazyinsomniac Perl 5.6 repository http://crazyinsomniac.perlmonk.org/perl/ppm/5.8 the crazyinsomniac Perl 5.8 repository http://www.bribes.org/perl/ppm/ the "Bribes de Perl" (Scraps of Perl) repository (en Français et Anglais)
http://www.fastnetltd.ndirect.co.uk/Perl/zips/ Fastnet Software Ltd's packages - not directly accessible from PPM at present. See Using Zip Files. http://cpan.uwinnipeg.ca/htdocs/faqs/cpan-search.html Randy Kobes' excellent package search engine, with browsable categories of the packages at the University of Winnipeg's CPAN site, allows you to search for modules and displays the availability of Win32 ppm packages from a number of repositories.
Note: All additional repositories listed are for Windows only. Some of these repositories are for ActivePerl 5xx builds only; the packages may not be compatible with ActivePerl 6xx or 8xx builds.
To use these package repositories you start PPM v3 and at the prompt type:
repository add NAME URL
where NAME is a name by which you want to reference the repository from PPM and URL is the URL to the repository. Please note that NAME is optional, as PPM will assign a name to the repository for you. For example, entering:
repository add JENDA http://Jenda.Krynicky.cz/perl
will create a repository for you, by the name of JENDA and give you access to the modules available there.
For full details on using and managing repositories, see the repository command part of the PPM Commands section above.
As an alternate method for installing packages, you can download zip files for the packages that you need from http://ppm.activestate.com/PPMPackages/zips/. To use these files:
ppm install c:\tmp\module-name.ppdPlease note that some modules have dependencies that may cause them to fail to install. If you are on an internet-connected machine, you can use the ppm tree command to see what dependencies the package has.
Cryptographic Packages Unlike the United States, the Export Control List of Canada places no significant restriction on the export of cryptographic software; however, the Canadian Federal Government does require that companies, organizations or individuals that wish to distribute cryptographic software get a permit in order to do so. ActiveState does not currently have this permission, so you must currently access other repositories for the following modules:
Crypt-Blowfish, Crypt-Blowfish_PP
Crypt-CAST5, Crypt-CAST5_PP
Crypt-DH
Crypt-DSA, Crypt-RSA
Crypt-GPG
Crypt-GOST, Crypt-GOST_PP
Crypt-IDEA
Crypt-OpenPGP, Crypt-PGP2, Crypt-PGP5, Crypt-PGPSimple
Crypt-OpenSSL-DSA, Crypt-OpenSSL-RSA, Crypt-OpenSSL-SMIME
Crypt-RC4, Crypt-RC5, Crypt-RC6
Crypt-RIPEMD160
Crypt-Rijndael, Crypt-Rijndael_PP
Crypt-Serpent
Crypt-Twofish, Crypt-Twofish2, TwoFish
Crypt-SSLeay, Net_SSLeay
DBD::Oracle Oracle no longer provides the Oracle client libraries for free, so we can no longer provide DBD Oracle as a PPM/PPM3 module. The DBD-Oracle package for ActivePerl 5.6 is the last package compiled before the licensing changed that is still available on our site. If you wish to compile this module locally, the source may be obtained from www.cpan.org. Instructions on using CPAN are at: http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Reference/Products/ActivePerl/lib/CPAN.html. If you are using Windows, an easy workaround for you might be just to use DBD-ODBC instead.
GD module The GD module currently is not available from the ActiveState ppm server because of the difficulty of incorporating it into our automated build process. The GD module is available from the University of Winnipeg's repository.
ActiveState does not maintain or own the vast majority of available PPM modules. We only pre-package those modules available from www.cpan.org for use with PPM/PPM3 that can be built automatically. As a result, not all PPM packages in the repository are completely up-to-date or available for every platform. If you encounter the following message:
<Module_name> is currently failing ActiveState's automated CPAN build process and is therefore not available on ActiveState's ppm server. The specific error generated is "<ERROR>".
Please contact the module's author for information on why this specific module might have issues. You can always get the latest packages from CPAN. Instructions on querying, downloading and building perl modules from CPAN sites can be found at: http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Reference/Products/ActivePerl/lib/CPAN.html.
If you want to make a PPM package for use on other machine you can do it like this:
Specify the AUTHOR and ABSTRACT parameters in the Makefile.PL. However you should only pass them to WriteMakefile if the version of the perl is greater than 5.005 - older perls do not have these parameters added and do not expect to see them. This is an example Makefile.PL:
use ExtUtils::MakeMaker;
# See lib/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.pm for details of how to influence
# the contents of the Makefile that is written.
WriteMakefile(
'NAME' => 'Term::Control',
'VERSION_FROM' => 'Control.pm', # finds $VERSION
($] ge '5.005') ? (
'AUTHOR' => 'Johnny Doel (johnny@doel.org)',
'ABSTRACT' => 'Control the IO for terminals',
) : (),
);
Then you make the archive with the commands
perl Makefile.PL
nmake
The resulting files are placed in the blib directory that is created when you run nmake. These files should be packed into an archive like this:
tar cvf package.tar blib
gzip --best package.tar
You now have an archive called package.tar.gz. Then you generate the PPD file by:
nmake ppd
You have to edit the resulting PPD file and add the location of the package archive into <CODEBASE HREF="" />. The location is relative to the PPD file.
You can get nmake from http://download.microsoft.com/download/vc15/Patch/1.52/W95/EN-US/Nmake15.exe.
If you use a proxy server or firewall, you might have trouble running PPM. A common error message seen in such a situation is:
"
Can't call method "name" without a package or object reference at C:/Perl/site/lib/PPM/UI.pm line 1077."
Here is the solution.
Up to three environment variables need to be set.
Under Windows XP
- Open the Control Panel and click the System icon.
The System Properties dialog is displayed.- On the Advanced tab, click on Environment Variables.
The Environment Variables dialog is displayed.- Click New in the System variables panel.
The New Sytem Variable dialog is displayed.- Add the setting
HTTP_proxy, with your proxy name as the value. You must include "http://" and the proxy port, if applicable; for example, "http://proxy:8080/".- If you require a user name and/or password to access your proxy, click New again to add each of the settings
HTTP_proxy_userandHTTP_proxy_pass, with your user name and password as the respective values.Under Windows 200x
- Right click on My Computer.
- Click on Properties and select the Advanced tab.
- Click "Environment Variables".
The "System Variables" dialog appears.- Click New, and add the setting HTTP_proxy, with your proxy name as the value (you must include "
http://"), followed by a colon and the proxy port, if applicable; e.g., "http://proxy:8080/"- If you require a user name and/or password to access your proxy, click New again to add each of the settings HTTP_proxy_user and HTTP_proxy_pass, with your user name and password as the respective values.
Under Windows NT
- Right click on My Computer.
- Click on Properties, select the Environment tab.
- Add the setting
HTTP_proxy, with your proxy name as the value (you must include "http://"), followed by a colon and the proxy port, if applicable; for example, "http://proxy:8080/"- If you require a user name and/or password to access your proxy, add the settings HTTP_proxy_user and HTTP_proxy_pass, with your user name and password as the respective values.
Under Windows 98/ME
- Select Start > Run to open the Run dialog, enter
msconfigin the Open field and then click OK.
The System Configuration Utility dialog is displayed.- Click on the Autoexec.bat tab, and add the following entries:
- SET HTTP_proxy=<your proxy server (you must include "
http://", followed by a colon and the proxy port, if applicable; e.g.,SET HTTP_proxy=http://proxy:8080/- SET HTTP_proxy_user=<your user name> (if required)
- SET HTTP_proxy_pass=<your password> (if required)
- Click OK to save these settings.
The System Settings Change dialog is displayed.- Click Yes to restart your computer so that the changes take effect.
Under Windows 95
In your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, place the following lines then reboot so the changes can take effect:
- SET HTTP_proxy=<your proxy server (you must include "
http://", followed by a colon and the proxy port, if applicable; e.g.,SET HTTP_proxy=http://proxy:8080/- SET HTTP_proxy_user=<your user name> (if required)
- SET HTTP_proxy_pass=<your password> (if required)
With your internet connection active, try using PPM again. Try to install a small package, like File-Slurp. You'll know that it still fails if you see an error stating that it can't find a ppd file for the specified package.
If there were problems with any of the above hints, please see Troubleshooting for information regarding further help.
NOTE: If none of the changes in this document work for you, you may download individual packages from here [ActivePerl 801 and later] or here [ActivePerl 613 and later] or here [ActivePerl 522 and earlier] and install them according to the directions in the README file contained within the ZIP file. If you want, you can also keep a local repository, with several .ppd files in a permanent repository directory, and their .tar.gz files in an x86 directory beneath that.
This FAQ was originally assembled and maintained by Evangelo Prodromou. It has been revised and updated by Brian Jepson of O'Reilly & Associates, David Grove, David Dmytryshyn, and Murray Nesbitt of ActiveState, Henning Michael Møller-Nielsen of RTO, Kevin Meltzer, and David Sparks of ActiveState.
This FAQ is in the public domain. If you use it, however, please ensure that you give credit to the original authors.
|
ActivePerl FAQ - PPM |