[pacman-dev] pacman and perl

[Alessio 'mOLOk' Bolognino]

On 18:18 Wed 11 Oct     , Charles Mauch wrote:
> I just joined this list to ask a few questions about perl modules in arch,
> and to explain (whine) about some of the workarounds I've tried to keep my
> own modules up to date with the CPAN archives.
> 
> First, I'd like to say that for the most part, the perl modules provided by
> the arch devs for the most part work fine.  But there always seems to one
> or two that are out of date.  This isn't a problem unique to arch, I run a
> couple of debian boxes and run across the same situation all the time.
> There are simply so *many* possbile modules it can be an impossible
> situation to keep current.
> 
> Because I can't live without the latest and greatest, over time I've come
> up with a few workarounds that I'd love to eliminate.
> 
> First, I use pacman.conf to block the installation of a few modules, and
> keep my own copies maintained.  Some packages simply INSIST on being
> managed by pacman, so in that case - I usually let arch have it's way an
> download and install what packages I want newer versions of into a ~/perl
> directory.  By setting the PERL5LIB variable, I can ensure my local copy
> gets used instead.
> 
> Unfortuatly, my ~/perl directory is growing at a rapid clip in arch.
> 
> So here are some suggestions I think would make perl hacking in arch
> easier.
> 
> 1.  Dump whatever perl-module naming scheme (if there is one) for arch perl
> modules and simply use the CPAN module name.  I don't know how many times
> I'll lookfor Foo::Bar, only to discover pacman's named it perl-bar-foo or
> some other nonesense.  Is there a current naming scheme for modules?
> 
> 2.  I dont know how reasonable this is, but I would *love* to manage all my
> packages with the cpan tool.  Maybe pacman could act as a wrapper to the
> cpan command?  Or as an alterative, maybe provide an option to install cpan
> modules instead of packages into some other directory.  Yes, I know the
> implications of something like this on PKGBUILD's might be horrendous. :)
> 
> 2a.  Yes, cpan is horrible at times.  An alternative might be cpanplus.
> 
> 3.  Another idea would be to create a small tool which creates pacman style
> tarball bundles out of *all* the cpan modules once every few weeks, and
> stores them on a repo somewhere.  Something like
> http://rpmpan.sourceforge.net/ for arch.  This would eliminate the need for
> cpan at all.  When i dicovered http://perl.arix.com/cpan2rpm/ I just about
> sh*t myself the idea was so cool too :)
> 
> I do not have a webhost that could host or build this kind of repo, but I'd
> be happy to help maintain/run such a system.
> 
> Anyway, some ideas.  Thoughts?  Am I just spinning my wheels?
> 
There is a script (?) called cpan4pacman, I think you can find it in the
bbs.archlinux.org (can't give you a link 'cause here it's 3.24 am and
I'm quite tired :) . It is amazing, and an official support (with
improvements) would be great.
HTH

-- 
Alessio 'mOLOk' Bolognino