PACPAN(1)							     PACPAN(1)



NAME
       pacpan - CPAN packaging tool for Pacman


SYNOPSIS
       pacpan [options] [packages]


DESCRIPTION
       Pacpan  is a Perl packaging tool for Pacman. It is able to retrieve and
       organize information about  modules  and	 ditributions  on  CPAN.  This
       information can be used to generate default PKGBUILDs for CPAN packages
       which  include  full  depends,  makedepends,  optdepends	 and  provides
       arrays.	It  also  intelligently maps modules to their distribution and
       automatically selects the correct pkgname for a requested package.

       Pacpan can also print out a report containing information  about	 local
       Perl packages installed with pacman. This report will check things such
       the conformity of package names to standard  packaging  guidelines  and
       the completeness of the "provides" array.

       If  the	latter	is deterimined to be incomplete, it is possible to use
       pacpan to update the local Pacman  database  to	correct	 the  provides
       array  without  rebuilding the package. This will ensure that pacman is
       able to correctly handle all CPAN package dependencies.


SPECIFYING PACKAGES
       A packages can be specified by its Pacman package name (e.g.  perl-foo-
       bar) or its CPAN distribution name (e.g. Foo-Bar), You can also specify
       any module contained within a distribution the same way and it will map
       to the correct CPAN package (e.g. perl-foo-bar-baz, Foo::Bar::Baz).


INSTALLING PACKAGES
       The original version of pacpan and several revisions thereof were capa‐
       ble of generating a bash script which would build all missing dependen‐
       cies  of a target package in order and install them along with the tar‐
       get package. This functionality has been removed from pacpan and	 added
       to bauerbill, which is better suited for that purpose.

       Please use bauerbill if you want transparent handling of CPAN packages,
       including the ability to upgrade all installed  CPAN  modules  directly
       from CPAN via a pacman interface.


PKGBUILDS
       The PKGBUILDs generated by pacpan should work for most packages but the
       user should always inspect them for potential errors. Pacpan relies  on
       information included in the META.yml and CHECKSUMS files for each pack‐
       age on CPAN. If these files are absent, incomplete or erroneous, pacman
       will  not  be  able to generate a working PKGBUILD. This is beyond pac‐
       pan's control and the user should contact the package's author on  CPAN
       to  request  that  the correct and necessary information be included in
       these files.

       In most cases the generated PKGBUILD will work as expected and  in  the
       few that it doesn't only minor changes should be required. Occasionally
       though it may fail miserably so the user should never blindly trust it.


OPTIONS
       Pacpan recognizes the following options:



       --cachedir <path>
	      Specify the cache directory in which  pacpan  will  mirror  CPAN
	      metadata	files and create the package database. By default this
	      uses the same directory as bauerbill to  avoid  redundant	 down‐
	      loads.


       --check-local
	      Inspect local Perl packages and print out a report which details
	      their conformity to the Perl packaging guidelines.


       --fix-provides
	      Append missing CPAN package entries to the "provides"  array  of
	      local  packages. The output of "--check-local" will be displayed
	      along with the database file path and file contents  before  and
	      after  the  changes  are	applied.  The user will be prompted to
	      accept the changes after inspecting them. Use the	 "--noconfirm"
	      option to avoid the interactive prompt.



	      This  should  never  be  necessary  with correctly packaged CPAN
	      packages. Please request that  the  packager  include  the  full
	      "provides" array in the PKGBUILD.


       --get-local-provides
	      Print out the "provides" lists of local packages.


       --get-pkgbuilds
	      Print  PKGBUILDs for the specified packages to STDOUT. PKGBUILDs
	      will be separated by two empty lines.



	      Packages may be specified either as pacman packages (e.g.	 perl-
	      foo-bar) or as Perl modules (e.g. Foo::Bar).


       --help Display the help message and exit.


       --man  Print the man page.


       --man-nroff
	      Print the man page in nroff format.


       --noconfirm
	      Suppress confirmation prompts.


       --refresh
	      Refresh the CPAN database.


       --save-pkgbuilds
	      Save  PKGBUILDs for the specified packages in separate subdirec‐
	      tories of the current working directory.



	      Packages may be specified either as pacman packages (e.g.	 perl-
	      foo-bar) or as Perl modules (e.g. Foo::Bar).




AUTHORS
       Xyne




				 January 2010			     PACPAN(1)