Understanding what I am calling the mess that is perl modules

[Joshua Root]

Rainer Müller wrote:
> Scott Haneda wrote:
>> I actually do not even understand why a port has to be made for  
>> anything in CPAN.  I am sure the publish a list of all their modules,  
>> how come that list can not just exist in MacPorts, and we can simply  
>> issue something like `sudo port install cpan-foo::bar::baz and have  
>> MacPorts do the rest.
>>
>> For items that would not build right away, or if someone wants  
>> something tried, true, and tested, there could be a full port file.
> 
> There is cpan2port written by Marc [1] which is meant to create
> Portfiles from CPAN. It is new and I don't know if it works in all
> cases, so any help from someone with a Perl background would be appreciated.
> 
> This should also be moved to our contrib section [2] and then made
> available as a port so it's easier to use for Portfile authors.
> 
> Rainer
> 
> [1]
> http://lists.macosforge.org/pipermail/macports-users/2008-November/012298.html
> [2] http://svn.macports.org/repository/macports/contrib/

Integrating something like cpan2port more directly into MacPorts as
Scott described would be a neat project. There a bunch of implementation
and UI issues, but I don't think they're insurmountable. As usual, it
hasn't been done yet simply because nobody has had the time and
motivation to do it. And of course cpan2port is a great first step.

- Josh