Provided by: perl-doc_5.26.1-6ubuntu0.7_all bug

NAME

       CPAN::FirstTime - Utility for CPAN::Config file Initialization

SYNOPSIS

       CPAN::FirstTime::init()

DESCRIPTION

       The init routine asks a few questions and writes a CPAN/Config.pm or CPAN/MyConfig.pm file
       (depending on what it is currently using).

       In the following all questions and explanations regarding config variables are collected.

       auto_commit
         Normally CPAN.pm keeps config variables in memory and changes need to be saved in a
         separate 'o conf commit' command to make them permanent between sessions. If you set the
         'auto_commit' option to true, changes to a config variable are always automatically
         committed to disk.

         Always commit changes to config variables to disk?

       build_cache
         CPAN.pm can limit the size of the disk area for keeping the build directories with all
         the intermediate files.

         Cache size for build directory (in MB)?

       build_dir
         Directory where the build process takes place?

       build_dir_reuse
         Until version 1.88 CPAN.pm never trusted the contents of the build_dir directory between
         sessions. Since 1.88_58 CPAN.pm has a YAML-based mechanism that makes it possible to
         share the contents of the build_dir/ directory between different sessions with the same
         version of perl. People who prefer to test things several days before installing will
         like this feature because it saves a lot of time.

         If you say yes to the following question, CPAN will try to store enough information
         about the build process so that it can pick up in future sessions at the same state of
         affairs as it left a previous session.

         Store and re-use state information about distributions between CPAN.pm sessions?

       build_requires_install_policy
         When a module declares another one as a 'build_requires' prerequisite this means that
         the other module is only needed for building or testing the module but need not be
         installed permanently. In this case you may wish to install that other module
         nonetheless or just keep it in the 'build_dir' directory to have it available only
         temporarily.  Installing saves time on future installations but makes the perl
         installation bigger.

         You can choose if you want to always install (yes), never install (no) or be always
         asked. In the latter case you can set the default answer for the question to yes
         (ask/yes) or no (ask/no).

         Policy on installing 'build_requires' modules (yes, no, ask/yes, ask/no)?

       cache_metadata
         To considerably speed up the initial CPAN shell startup, it is possible to use Storable
         to create a cache of metadata. If Storable is not available, the normal index mechanism
         will be used.

         Note: this mechanism is not used when use_sqlite is on and SQLLite is running.

         Cache metadata (yes/no)?

       check_sigs
         CPAN packages can be digitally signed by authors and thus verified with the security
         provided by strong cryptography. The exact mechanism is defined in the Module::Signature
         module. While this is generally considered a good thing, it is not always convenient to
         the end user to install modules that are signed incorrectly or where the key of the
         author is not available or where some prerequisite for Module::Signature has a bug and
         so on.

         With the check_sigs parameter you can turn signature checking on and off. The default is
         off for now because the whole tool chain for the functionality is not yet considered
         mature by some. The author of CPAN.pm would recommend setting it to true most of the
         time and turning it off only if it turns out to be annoying.

         Note that if you do not have Module::Signature installed, no signature checks will be
         performed at all.

         Always try to check and verify signatures if a SIGNATURE file is in the package and
         Module::Signature is installed (yes/no)?

       cleanup_after_install
         Users who install modules and do not intend to look back, can free occupied disk space
         quickly by letting CPAN.pm cleanup each build directory immediately after a successful
         install.

         Remove build directory after a successful install? (yes/no)?

       colorize_output
         When you have Term::ANSIColor installed, you can turn on colorized output to have some
         visual differences between normal CPAN.pm output, warnings, debugging output, and the
         output of the modules being installed. Set your favorite colors after some experimenting
         with the Term::ANSIColor module.

         Please note that on Windows platforms colorized output also requires the
         Win32::Console::ANSI module.

         Do you want to turn on colored output?

       colorize_print
         Color for normal output?

       colorize_warn
         Color for warnings?

       colorize_debug
         Color for debugging messages?

       commandnumber_in_prompt
         The prompt of the cpan shell can contain the current command number for easier tracking
         of the session or be a plain string.

         Do you want the command number in the prompt (yes/no)?

       connect_to_internet_ok
         If you have never defined your own "urllist" in your configuration then "CPAN.pm" will
         be hesitant to use the built in default sites for downloading. It will ask you once per
         session if a connection to the internet is OK and only if you say yes, it will try to
         connect. But to avoid this question, you can choose your favorite download sites once
         and get away with it. Or, if you have no favorite download sites answer yes to the
         following question.

         If no urllist has been chosen yet, would you prefer CPAN.pm to connect to the built-in
         default sites without asking? (yes/no)?

       ftp_passive
         Shall we always set the FTP_PASSIVE environment variable when dealing with ftp download
         (yes/no)?

       ftpstats_period
         Statistics about downloads are truncated by size and period simultaneously.

         How many days shall we keep statistics about downloads?

       ftpstats_size
         Statistics about downloads are truncated by size and period simultaneously.

         How many items shall we keep in the statistics about downloads?

       getcwd
         CPAN.pm changes the current working directory often and needs to determine its own
         current working directory. Per default it uses Cwd::cwd but if this doesn't work on your
         system for some reason, alternatives can be configured according to the following table:

             cwd         Cwd::cwd
             getcwd      Cwd::getcwd
             fastcwd     Cwd::fastcwd
             getdcwd     Cwd::getdcwd
             backtickcwd external command cwd

         Preferred method for determining the current working directory?

       halt_on_failure
         Normally, CPAN.pm continues processing the full list of targets and dependencies, even
         if one of them fails.  However, you can specify that CPAN should halt after the first
         failure.  (Note that optional recommended or suggested modules that fail will not cause
         a halt.)

         Do you want to halt on failure (yes/no)?

       histfile
         If you have one of the readline packages (Term::ReadLine::Perl, Term::ReadLine::Gnu,
         possibly others) installed, the interactive CPAN shell will have history support. The
         next two questions deal with the filename of the history file and with its size. If you
         do not want to set this variable, please hit SPACE ENTER to the following question.

         File to save your history?

       histsize
         Number of lines to save?

       inactivity_timeout
         Sometimes you may wish to leave the processes run by CPAN alone without caring about
         them. Because the Makefile.PL or the Build.PL sometimes contains question you're
         expected to answer, you can set a timer that will kill a 'perl Makefile.PL' process
         after the specified time in seconds.

         If you set this value to 0, these processes will wait forever. This is the default and
         recommended setting.

         Timeout for inactivity during {Makefile,Build}.PL?

       index_expire
         The CPAN indexes are usually rebuilt once or twice per hour, but the typical CPAN mirror
         mirrors only once or twice per day. Depending on the quality of your mirror and your
         desire to be on the bleeding edge, you may want to set the following value to more or
         less than one day (which is the default). It determines after how many days CPAN.pm
         downloads new indexes.

         Let the index expire after how many days?

       inhibit_startup_message
         When the CPAN shell is started it normally displays a greeting message that contains the
         running version and the status of readline support.

         Do you want to turn this message off?

       keep_source_where
         Unless you are accessing the CPAN on your filesystem via a file: URL, CPAN.pm needs to
         keep the source files it downloads somewhere. Please supply a directory where the
         downloaded files are to be kept.

         Download target directory?

       load_module_verbosity
         When CPAN.pm loads a module it needs for some optional feature, it usually reports about
         module name and version. Choose 'v' to get this message, 'none' to suppress it.

         Verbosity level for loading modules (none or v)?

       makepl_arg
         Every Makefile.PL is run by perl in a separate process. Likewise we run 'make' and 'make
         install' in separate processes. If you have any parameters (e.g. PREFIX, UNINST or the
         like) you want to pass to the calls, please specify them here.

         If you don't understand this question, just press ENTER.

         Typical frequently used settings:

             PREFIX=~/perl    # non-root users (please see manual for more hints)

         Parameters for the 'perl Makefile.PL' command?

       make_arg
         Parameters for the 'make' command? Typical frequently used setting:

             -j3              # dual processor system (on GNU make)

         Your choice:

       make_install_arg
         Parameters for the 'make install' command?  Typical frequently used setting:

             UNINST=1         # to always uninstall potentially conflicting files
                              # (but do NOT use with local::lib or INSTALL_BASE)

         Your choice:

       make_install_make_command
         Do you want to use a different make command for 'make install'?  Cautious people will
         probably prefer:

             su root -c make
          or
             sudo make
          or
             /path1/to/sudo -u admin_account /path2/to/make

         or some such. Your choice:

       mbuildpl_arg
         A Build.PL is run by perl in a separate process. Likewise we run './Build' and './Build
         install' in separate processes. If you have any parameters you want to pass to the
         calls, please specify them here.

         Typical frequently used settings:

             --install_base /home/xxx             # different installation directory

         Parameters for the 'perl Build.PL' command?

       mbuild_arg
         Parameters for the './Build' command? Setting might be:

             --extra_linker_flags -L/usr/foo/lib  # non-standard library location

         Your choice:

       mbuild_install_arg
         Parameters for the './Build install' command? Typical frequently used setting:

             --uninst 1       # uninstall conflicting files
                              # (but do NOT use with local::lib or INSTALL_BASE)

         Your choice:

       mbuild_install_build_command
         Do you want to use a different command for './Build install'? Sudo users will probably
         prefer:

             su root -c ./Build
          or
             sudo ./Build
          or
             /path1/to/sudo -u admin_account ./Build

         or some such. Your choice:

       pager
         What is your favorite pager program?

       prefer_installer
         When you have Module::Build installed and a module comes with both a Makefile.PL and a
         Build.PL, which shall have precedence?

         The main two standard installer modules are the old and well established
         ExtUtils::MakeMaker (for short: EUMM) which uses the Makefile.PL. And the next
         generation installer Module::Build (MB) which works with the Build.PL (and often comes
         with a Makefile.PL too). If a module comes only with one of the two we will use that one
         but if both are supplied then a decision must be made between EUMM and MB. See also
         http://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=29235 for a discussion about the right
         default.

         Or, as a third option you can choose RAND which will make a random decision (something
         regular CPAN testers will enjoy).

         In case you can choose between running a Makefile.PL or a Build.PL, which installer
         would you prefer (EUMM or MB or RAND)?

       prefs_dir
         CPAN.pm can store customized build environments based on regular expressions for
         distribution names. These are YAML files where the default options for CPAN.pm and the
         environment can be overridden and dialog sequences can be stored that can later be
         executed by an Expect.pm object. The CPAN.pm distribution comes with some prefab YAML
         files that cover sample distributions that can be used as blueprints to store your own
         prefs. Please check out the distroprefs/ directory of the CPAN.pm distribution to get a
         quick start into the prefs system.

         Directory where to store default options/environment/dialogs for building modules that
         need some customization?

       prerequisites_policy
         The CPAN module can detect when a module which you are trying to build depends on
         prerequisites. If this happens, it can build the prerequisites for you automatically
         ('follow'), ask you for confirmation ('ask'), or just ignore them ('ignore').  Choosing
         'follow' also sets PERL_AUTOINSTALL and PERL_EXTUTILS_AUTOINSTALL for "--defaultdeps" if
         not already set.

         Please set your policy to one of the three values.

         Policy on building prerequisites (follow, ask or ignore)?

       randomize_urllist
         CPAN.pm can introduce some randomness when using hosts for download that are configured
         in the urllist parameter. Enter a numeric value between 0 and 1 to indicate how often
         you want to let CPAN.pm try a random host from the urllist. A value of one specifies to
         always use a random host as the first try. A value of zero means no randomness at all.
         Anything in between specifies how often, on average, a random host should be tried
         first.

         Randomize parameter

       recommends_policy
         (Experimental feature!) Some CPAN modules recommend additional, optional dependencies.
         These should generally be installed except in resource constrained environments.  When
         this policy is true, recommended modules will be included with required modules.

         Included recommended modules?

       scan_cache
         By default, each time the CPAN module is started, cache scanning is performed to keep
         the cache size in sync ('atstart'). Alternatively, scanning and cleanup can happen when
         CPAN exits ('atexit'). To prevent any cache cleanup, answer 'never'.

         Perform cache scanning ('atstart', 'atexit' or 'never')?

       shell
         What is your favorite shell?

       show_unparsable_versions
         During the 'r' command CPAN.pm finds modules without version number.  When the command
         finishes, it prints a report about this. If you want this report to be very verbose, say
         yes to the following variable.

         Show all individual modules that have no $VERSION?

       show_upload_date
         The 'd' and the 'm' command normally only show you information they have in their in-
         memory database and thus will never connect to the internet. If you set the
         'show_upload_date' variable to true, 'm' and 'd' will additionally show you the upload
         date of the module or distribution. Per default this feature is off because it may
         require a net connection to get at the upload date.

         Always try to show upload date with 'd' and 'm' command (yes/no)?

       show_zero_versions
         During the 'r' command CPAN.pm finds modules with a version number of zero. When the
         command finishes, it prints a report about this. If you want this report to be very
         verbose, say yes to the following variable.

         Show all individual modules that have a $VERSION of zero?

       suggests_policy
         (Experimental feature!) Some CPAN modules suggest additional, optional dependencies.
         These 'suggest' dependencies provide enhanced operation.  When this policy is true,
         suggested modules will be included with required modules.

         Included suggested modules?

       tar_verbosity
         When CPAN.pm uses the tar command, which switch for the verbosity shall be used? Choose
         'none' for quiet operation, 'v' for file name listing, 'vv' for full listing.

         Tar command verbosity level (none or v or vv)?

       term_is_latin
         The next option deals with the charset (a.k.a. character set) your terminal supports. In
         general, CPAN is English speaking territory, so the charset does not matter much but
         some CPAN have names that are outside the ASCII range. If your terminal supports UTF-8,
         you should say no to the next question. If it expects ISO-8859-1 (also known as LATIN1)
         then you should say yes. If it supports neither, your answer does not matter because you
         will not be able to read the names of some authors anyway. If you answer no, names will
         be output in UTF-8.

         Your terminal expects ISO-8859-1 (yes/no)?

       term_ornaments
         When using Term::ReadLine, you can turn ornaments on so that your input stands out
         against the output from CPAN.pm.

         Do you want to turn ornaments on?

       test_report
         The goal of the CPAN Testers project (http://testers.cpan.org/) is to test as many CPAN
         packages as possible on as many platforms as possible.  This provides valuable feedback
         to module authors and potential users to identify bugs or platform compatibility issues
         and improves the overall quality and value of CPAN.

         One way you can contribute is to send test results for each module that you install.  If
         you install the CPAN::Reporter module, you have the option to automatically generate and
         deliver test reports to CPAN Testers whenever you run tests on a CPAN package.

         See the CPAN::Reporter documentation for additional details and configuration settings.
         If your firewall blocks outgoing traffic, you may need to configure CPAN::Reporter
         before sending reports.

         Generate test reports if CPAN::Reporter is installed (yes/no)?

       perl5lib_verbosity
         When CPAN.pm extends @INC via PERL5LIB, it prints a list of directories added (or a
         summary of how many directories are added).  Choose 'v' to get this message, 'none' to
         suppress it.

         Verbosity level for PERL5LIB changes (none or v)?

       prefer_external_tar
         Per default all untar operations are done with the perl module Archive::Tar; by setting
         this variable to true the external tar command is used if available; on Unix this is
         usually preferred because they have a reliable and fast gnutar implementation.

         Use the external tar program instead of Archive::Tar?

       trust_test_report_history
         When a distribution has already been tested by CPAN::Reporter on this machine, CPAN can
         skip the test phase and just rely on the test report history instead.

         Note that this will not apply to distributions that failed tests because of missing
         dependencies.  Also, tests can be run regardless of the history using "force".

         Do you want to rely on the test report history (yes/no)?

       use_prompt_default
         When this is true, CPAN will set PERL_MM_USE_DEFAULT to a true value.  This causes
         ExtUtils::MakeMaker (and compatible) prompts to use default values instead of stopping
         to prompt you to answer questions. It also sets NONINTERACTIVE_TESTING to a true value
         to signal more generally that distributions should not try to interact with you.

         Do you want to use prompt defaults (yes/no)?

       use_sqlite
         CPAN::SQLite is a layer between the index files that are downloaded from the CPAN and
         CPAN.pm that speeds up metadata queries and reduces memory consumption of CPAN.pm
         considerably.

         Use CPAN::SQLite if available? (yes/no)?

       version_timeout
         This timeout prevents CPAN from hanging when trying to parse a pathologically coded
         $VERSION from a module.

         The default is 15 seconds.  If you set this value to 0, no timeout will occur, but this
         is not recommended.

         Timeout for parsing module versions?

       yaml_load_code
         Both YAML.pm and YAML::Syck are capable of deserialising code. As this requires a string
         eval, which might be a security risk, you can use this option to enable or disable the
         deserialisation of code via CPAN::DeferredCode. (Note: This does not work under perl
         5.6)

         Do you want to enable code deserialisation (yes/no)?

       yaml_module
         At the time of this writing (2009-03) there are three YAML implementations working:
         YAML, YAML::Syck, and YAML::XS. The latter two are faster but need a C compiler
         installed on your system. There may be more alternative YAML conforming modules. When I
         tried two other players, YAML::Tiny and YAML::Perl, they seemed not powerful enough to
         work with CPAN.pm. This may have changed in the meantime.

         Which YAML implementation would you prefer?

LICENSE

       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same
       terms as Perl itself.