Perl CPAN<->dpkg connectivity?

[amos@gezernet.co.il (Amos Shapira)]

Hello,

Here is an idea I've been pondering about for the last few days.  I'd
love to do this myself but have no time and not enough expertise with
the debian packaging system to do this, not currently.

Basic fact - Perl5 has most (all?) its extra packages very well
organized in an archive call CPAN (Comprehansive Perl Archive
Network).  There is also a CPAN Module which resembles a bit the dpkg
ftp/http methods in that it allows you to choose a CPAN site and
download/install Perl modules from it.  There is also the notion of
"bundles" of packages.

On the Debian side, some Perl modules are packaged in debian packages
of their own.

My idea - combine the two:

1. Install CPAN or something based on it under Debian.
2. Allow debian packages which require specific perl modules to list
   these modules as regular debian packages (e.g. "cpan-net-www" or
   "cpan-net-snmp"?).
3. When a debian package requires such a module, somehow make a
   "module installation" program to run CPAN, download and install the
   module directly from the CPAN archive and add this module to the
   "provides" list of a package specially fabricated for this (e.g.
   have a package call "perl5-modules" and add all modules added this
   way to the list of packages provided by this package).

That way, the entire (or most?) of the Perl5 CPAN archive is at the
fingertips of the debian distirbution without the need to individually
package each perl5 module and with the added benefit of taking
advantage of the advanced package management provided by Debian.

The main problem now is to somehow make dpkg aware of this special
arrengment without making this too specific (or, preferably, do this
without changing the dpkg scheme at all).  Maybe make the CPAN module
provide a program which can be used by the depdent packages "preinst"
script or something like that?

What do you think?  Is this possible?  Desirable?

Cheers,

--Amos

--Amos Shapira                    | "Of course Australia was marked for
133 Shlomo Ben-Yosef st.          |  glory, for its people had been chosen
Jerusalem 93 805                  |  by the finest judges in England."
ISRAEL       amos@gezernet.co.il  |                     -- Anonymous


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