4. What/Where is CPAN?

"CPAN" = Comprehensive Perl Archive Network a worldwide collection of anonymous ftp sites for Perl et al (not to be confused with CTAN which is for TeX). The files of particular interest to a perl/Tk programmer include:

Here are the 40 CPAN sites/directories (with dotted quads [IP numbers] given on the right for those without name-servers):

Updated: Thu May 16 01:13:37 EDT 1996

Africa
  South Africa     
    ftp://ftp.is.co.za/programming/perl/CPAN/           196.4.160.8
Asia
  Hong Kong        
    ftp://ftp.hkstar.com/pub/CPAN/                      202.82.0.80
  Japan            
    ftp://ftp.lab.kdd.co.jp/lang/perl/CPAN/             192.26.91.3
  Taiwan           
    ftp://dongpo.math.ncu.edu.tw/perl/CPAN/             140.115.25.3
Australasia
  Australia        
    ftp://coombs.anu.edu.au/pub/perl/CPAN/              150.203.76.2
    ftp://ftp.mame.mu.oz.au/pub/perl/CPAN/              128.250.209.2
  New Zealand      
    ftp://ftp.tekotago.ac.nz/pub/perl/CPAN/             202.49.6.24
Europe
  Austria          
    ftp://ftp.tuwien.ac.at/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/     128.130.66.11
  Czech Republic   
    ftp://sunsite.mff.cuni.cz/MIRRORS/ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/  194.50.16.66
  Denmark          
    ftp://sunsite.auc.dk/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/       130.225.51.30
  Finland          
    ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/         128.214.248.6
  France           
    ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/perl/CPAN/                     132.227.77.2
    ftp://ftp.pasteur.fr/pub/computing/unix/perl/CPAN/  157.99.64.12
  Germany          
    ftp://ftp.leo.org/pub/comp/programming/languages/perl/CPAN/  131.159.0.252
    ftp://ftp.rz.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/pub/CPAN/           134.147.32.42
  Greece           
    ftp://ftp.ntua.gr/pub/lang/perl/                    147.102.222.210
  Hungary          
    ftp://ftp.kfki.hu/pub/packages/perl/CPAN/           148.6.0.5
  the Netherlands  
    ftp://ftp.cs.ruu.nl/pub/PERL/CPAN/                  131.211.80.17
  Poland           
    ftp://ftp.pk.edu.pl/pub/lang/perl/CPAN/             149.156.132.152
    ftp://sunsite.icm.edu.pl/pub/CPAN/                  148.81.209.2
  Portugal         
    ftp://ftp.ci.uminho.pt/pub/lang/perl/               193.136.16.247
  Slovenia         
    ftp://ftp.arnes.si/software/perl/CPAN/              193.2.1.72
  Spain            
    ftp://ftp.rediris.es/mirror/CPAN/                   130.206.1.2
  Sweden           
    ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/lang/perl/CPAN/              130.238.127.3
  Switzerland      
    ftp://ftp.switch.ch/mirror/CPAN/                    130.59.1.40
  UK               
    ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/mirrors/perl/CPAN/        158.152.1.44
    ftp://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/CPAN/           146.169.17.5
    ftp://unix.hensa.ac.uk/mirrors/perl-CPAN/           129.12.200.129
North America
  British Columbia 
    ftp://mango.pinc.com/pub/mirrors/CPAN/              204.174.113.53
  California       
    ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/plan/perl/CPAN/           204.123.2.4
    ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/perl/CPAN/                  165.113.58.253
  Colorado         
    ftp://ftp.cs.colorado.edu/pub/perl/CPAN/            128.138.243.20
  Florida          
    ftp://ftp.cis.ufl.edu/pub/perl/CPAN/                128.227.162.34
  Illinois         
    ftp://uiarchive.cso.uiuc.edu/pub/lang/perl/CPAN/    128.174.5.14
  Massachusetts    
    ftp://ftp.iguide.com/pub/mirrors/packages/perl/CPAN/  206.15.105.99
  Oklahoma         
    ftp://ftp.uoknor.edu/mirrors/CPAN/                  129.15.2.40
  Texas            
    ftp://ftp.sedl.org/pub/mirrors/CPAN/                198.213.9.194
    ftp://ftp.metronet.com/pub/perl/                    192.245.137.6
    ftp://ftp.sterling.com/CPAN/                        198.4.58.3
South America
  Chile            
    ftp://sunsite.dcc.uchile.cl/pub/Lang/perl/CPAN/     146.83.4.11
For those equipped with multi-protocol browsers you might pay a visit to Tom Christiansen's CPAN multiplexer whose relevant Tk URLs are:
    http://perl.com/cgi-bin/cpan_mod?module=Tk
    http://perl.com/cgi-bin/cpan_mod?module=Tk&readme=1
According to Stephen P. Potter some of the CPAN sites have decompression on the fly for people who do not have programs like gunzip. For example, at the ufl site (Florida USA) type this into your ftp session to download a gunzipped version of Tk:
    ftp> get Tk-b11.02.tar.gz Tk-b11.02.tar
If you have the appropriate CPAN and FTP modules already installed you can retrieve a module from CPAN and carry out a complete installation with a perl one-liner like this:
    perl -MCPAN -e 'install "Tk"'
For more information on CPAN you can send e-mail to the CPAN administrators, <cpan-adm@ftp.funet.fi>. If you know of some Perl resources that seem not to be in the CPAN (you did check the contents listings in indices/, didn't you?) please tell the CPAN administrators. If you have some modules/scripts/documentation yourself that you would like to contribute to CPAN, please read the file authors/00upload.howto and let the CPAN administrators know about it.

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