![]() ![]() I recalled reading in the ActiveState documentation that the PPM program supports the creation and use of local repositories. The challenges began to compound I knew there had to be an easier way. If the system that the installation package is running on did not have Nmake installed and available in the system path, then I became responsible for locating it on each individual system. In this case I would have needed Nmake, which is the Windows equivalent of the Unix Make program, to build and install modules. As I quickly found out, the less I needed to do in a batch file the better! This also raised another issue: the availability of programs outside of my installation package. Because my installation package was completely automated, I needed to accomplish this from a Windows batch file. Having approximately seven modules that I needed to install, this solution required building all of them individually. The further I attempted to develop this solution, the more problems I encountered. After unzipping and untaring them, I needed to use Nmake to build and install each one. The first solution I looked at involved downloading the source code of the modules. I eventually came up with a couple of viable solutions. Other repositories can link to it to search for modules. This type of repository does not even need the PPM program available to function as long as its’ sole purpose is to simply serve modules. A web server can host a repository that allows wider access to its modules. It can provide the modules locally or reference another repository located on a server. It’s possible to create a local repository that accessible only on the local machine. Each PC that PPM runs on has to have a repository configured on it in order to search for modules. The use of the word repository tends to get a little confusing. Therefore, I needed to develop a way to install Perl modules during an automated installation without access to the Internet.Ī repository is essentially a collection of files that provides the necessary information for the PPM program to find, download, and install Perl modules. PPM’s default configuration accesses repositories maintained by ActiveState. Because I had to assume that the user would not have access to the Internet, my installation package needed to be self-sufficient. My installation package relies heavily on modules not included with the standard ActivePerl distribution. However, this is the point during development where I began to run into problems. Installing modules with PPM and Internet access is typically straight-forward therefore I will not cover those details in-depth. ![]() Try executing a search on CPAN and you will typically receive a modest sized list of modules for whatever you are searching. ![]() A visit to MetaCPAN will give you an idea of the tremendous amount of modules available. The ActivePerl distribution comes bundled with many popular Perl modules such as LWP, which is a module that provides an API to the World Wide Web, and DBI, which is an API for database interaction. PPM is only available with the Windows distributions of ActivePerl hence this article will focus on a Windows environment. PPM is a command-line driven tool that allows programmers to search for and install Perl modules from a wide variety of locations. The choice of Perl had a nice complement in the nearly seamless installation of many of these modules by using a small program provided with ActivePerl called the Perl Package Manager (PPM). These modules help make Perl a very capable solution to many of the programming obstacles I faced. ![]() This versatility is largely due to the continued development and support of the numerous modules available on the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN). I chose Perl for its versatility in the automation of system maintenance. One of the primary components of this installation package is the installation of ActiveState’s distribution of Perl, known as ActivePerl 5.6, and supporting Perl modules. I have recently been working on an installation package for the Microsoft Windows series of operating systems (Windows 2000 and newer). Painless Windows Module Installation with PPM ![]()
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