** The Artistic License ( the original Artistic License 1. 0, the one which is still used by Perl and CPAN )

CPAN, the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, is an archive of over 100, 000 modules of software written in Perl, as well as documentation for it.

Most software on CPAN is free and open source software.

There is no formal bug tracking system, but there is a third-party bug tracking system that CPAN designated as the suggested official method of reporting issues with modules.

CPAN has no revision control system, although the source for the modules is often stored on GitHub.

Also, the complete history of the CPAN and all its modules is available as the GitPAN project, allowing to easily see the complete history for all the modules and for easy maintenance of forks.

CPAN is also used to distribute new versions of Perl, as well as related projects, such as Parrot.

CPAN module distributions usually have names in the form of CGI-Application-3. 1 ( where the :: used in the module's name has been replaced with a dash, and the version number has been appended to the name ), but this is only a convention ; many prominent distributions break the convention, especially those that contain multiple modules.

The heart of CPAN is its worldwide network of more than 260 mirrors in more than 60 countries.

The most popular and official is search. cpan. org, which includes textual search, a browsable index of modules, and extracted copies of all distributions currently on the CPAN.

* CPAN Dependencies, which combines data from META. yml files and the CPAN testers to graphically show a module's dependencies and attempt to calculate how likely it is to work on a particular platform.

* CPAN :: Forum is a discussion forum where threads are classified by CPAN distribution

There is also a Perl core module named CPAN ; it's usually differentiated from the repository itself by calling it CPAN. pm.

CPAN. pm is mainly an interactive shell which can be used to search for, download, and install distributions.

An interactive shell called < tt > cpan </ tt > is also provided in the Perl core, and is the usual way of running CPAN. pm.

Experienced Perl programmers often comment that half of Perl's power is in the CPAN.

Other major languages, such as Java and C ++, have nothing similar to the CPAN ( though for Java there is central Maven, and C ++ has the Boost C ++ Libraries ).

As a hive of activity in the Perl world, the CPAN both shapes and is shaped by Perl culture.

The JSAN is a near-direct port of the CPAN infrastructure for use with the JavaScript language, which for most of its lifespan did not have a cohesive " community ".

The Artistic License refers most commonly to the original Artistic License ( version 1. 0 ), a software license used for certain free and open source software packages, most notably the standard Perl implementation and most CPAN modules, which are dual-licensed under the Artistic License and the GNU General Public License ( GPL ).

* CPAN Testers Reports co-ordinates and collects testing results for all CPAN uploads on various platforms.

* CPAN Testers Wiki contains useful help and advice for getting started as a smoke tester, as well as planning for CPAN Testers 2. 0

* AnnoCPAN displays the documentation for all the modules on CPAN, along with user-contributed annotations

* CPANTS, the CPAN Testing Service, evaluates distributions automatically for quality assurance metrics of varying usefulness and assigns them a " kwalitee " rating.

The CPAN has grown so large and comprehensive over the years that many people learning Perl seem to elevate it to a sort of mythical status, and express surprise when they begin to encounter topics for which a CPAN module doesn't exist already.

The CCAN is a direct port of the CPAN architecture for use with the C language.

SpamAssassin is a Perl-based application (< tt > Mail :: SpamAssassin </ tt > in CPAN ) which is usually used to filter all incoming mail for one or several users.

The latest DBI module for Perl from CPAN can run on a range of operating systems.

It provides dependency management for OCaml similar to the way CPAN provides package management for Perl.

CPAN can denote either the archive network itself, or the Perl program that acts as an interface to the network and as an automated software installer ( somewhat like a package manager ).

With over 23, 000 modules ( containing 20, 000, 000 lines of code ) as of July 2011, the CPAN can save programmers weeks of time, and large Perl programs often make use of dozens of modules.

Finally, the natural hierarchy of Perl module names ( such as " Apache :: DBI " or " Lingua :: EN :: Inflect ") can sometimes be used to browse modules in the CPAN.

Several search engines have been written to help Perl programmers sort through the CPAN.

Authors can upload new distributions to the CPAN through the Perl Authors Upload Server ( PAUSE ).

Several Perl modules available from CPAN provide serialization mechanisms, including and.

* Text :: Metaphone Perl module from CPAN

* Text :: DoubleMetaphone Perl module from CPAN

* Perl, via the CPAN modules Class :: Contract ( by Damian Conway ) or Carp :: Datum ( by Raphael Manfredi ).

* Damian Conway's Class :: Contract Perl module from CPAN

* Raphael Manfredi's Carp :: Datum Perl module from CPAN

Files on the CPAN are referred to as distributions.

With thousands of distributions, CPAN needs to be structured to be useful.

Distributions on the CPAN are divided into 24 broad chapters based on their purpose, such as Internationalization and Locale ; Archiving, Compression, And Conversion ; and Mail and Usenet News.

Most mirrors update themselves hourly, daily or bidaily from the CPAN master site.

For more information on CPAN mirrors, see mirrors. cpan. org.