How can I install script distributions from CPAN?

Question

I tried:

cpan> i /xls2csv/
No objects found of any type for argument /xls2csv/

cpan> install xls2csv
Warning: Cannot install xls2csv, don't know what it is.
Try the command

i /xls2csv/

to find objects with matching identifiers.

I haven't had any problems installing registered modules, e.g.

cpan> install DateTime

It is just the xls2csv that is providing problems.

Thank you for any insights provided.

P.S. Constrained To Windows with ActivePerl 5.10 (I think) Also I have the xls2csv-1.06.tar.gz file downloaded and tried cpan> install C:/...path to file locally/xls2csv-1.06.tar.gz

That did not seem to work, and I must install locally.

Answer 1

The indexes used by CPAN.pm are all module-oriented, so they don't see distributions that contain no modules. (xls2csv has only a script.) You can still install them by giving the full path (under authors/id) of the distribution, just as you would to install older or development versions of a distribution:

cpan> install K/KE/KEN/xls2csv-1.06.tar.gz

Answer 2

Its a 5 year old script with few tests (7) none on a Mac, and one bug report (a year old). It appears to not have been updated since it was written so use this script with realistic expectations. In other words, don't be surprised if you can't get it to work.

Answer 3

If you are using my cpan(1) command, you can also install whatever is in the current working directory by telling it to install ".".

% cpan .

That should trigger the normal CPAN.pm process for handling dependencies and so on. You should be able to do that in the CPAN.pm shell too.

If you want to fetch the file from a CPAN mirror, you can do it as ysth suggested. You give it the path under authors/id in the repository and CPAN.pm will find it for you. You're skipping the step where it looks in the PAUSE index because you've already given it the path to download.