This was explanation by Grant McLean
cpan the CPAN shell has been shipped with Perl since about 1997. When you run it the first time it asks a bunch of questions and saves the answers in a config file. Then you can install a module by running:
cpan -i Module::Name
The shell provides other commands for searching CPAN and looking inside distribution files.
A project to create a newer, better and more featureful CPAN shell called CPANPLUS (cpanp from the command-line) was started by Jos Boumans, but it was never quite completed to the point where the original vision had been realised.
cpanp i Module::Name
Meanwhile MIYAGAWA decided that cpanp was trying to do too much and what the world really needed was a simpler shell that did less and asked fewer questions (ideally none at all). He created App::cpanminus which provides the cpanm command and does exactly what he intended. You can use it to install a module (and all the module's dependencies) with a command like:
cpanm Module::Name
The main difference between the two is that if you have Perl you should already have the cpan command. Whereas you won't have cpanm unless/until you install it.
cpan -i App::cpanminus
System Perl:
curl -L http://cpanmin.us | perl - --sudo App::cpanminus
User Perl (plenv, perlbrew)
curl -L https://cpanmin.us | perl - App::cpanminus
brew install cpanm
- General
- User Perl
- PerlBrew
- PLENV
- https://github.com/tokuhirom/plenv
- https://github.com/miyagawa/plenv-contrib
- http://www.dagolden.com/index.php/2390/setting-up-a-perl-development-environment-with-plenv/
- https://metacpan.org/pod/release/TOKUHIROM/App-plenv-v1.4.0/bin/plenv
- https://weblog.bulknews.net/plenv-alternative-for-perlbrew-7b5bf00a419e
- Mac
- Windows
Of note, CPAN themselves recommends using
cpanmfor module installation. From https://www.cpan.org/modules/INSTALL.html:I'd say that's also a pretty significant difference between
CPANandcpanm. For a user interface,cpanmis far more user friendly.