ppm - Perl Package Manager, version 4
Invoke the graphical user interface:
ppm ppm gui
Install, upgrade and remove packages:
ppm install [--area <area>] [--force] <pkg> ppm install [--area <area>] [--force] <module> ppm install [--area <area>] <url> ppm install [--area <area>] <file>.ppmx ppm install [--area <area>] <file>.ppd ppm install [--area <area>] <num> ppm upgrade [--install] ppm upgrade <pkg> ppm upgrade <module> ppm remove [--area <area>] [--force] <pkg>
Manage and search install areas:
ppm area list [--csv] [--no-header] ppm area sync ppm list [--fields <fieldnames>] [--csv] ppm list <area> [--fields <fieldnames>] [--csv] ppm files <pkg> ppm verify [<pkg>]
Manage and search repositories:
ppm repo list [--csv] [--no-header] ppm repo sync [--force] [<num>] ppm repo on <num> ppm repo off <num> ppm repo describe <num> ppm repo add <name> ppm repo add <url> [<name>] [--username <user> [--password <passwd>]] ppm repo rename <num> <name> ppm repo location <num> <url> ppm repo suggest ppm search <pattern> ppm describe <num> ppm tree <package> ppm tree <num>
Obtain version and copyright information about this program:
ppm --version ppm version
The ppm
program is the package manager for ActivePerl. It
simplifies the task of locating, installing, upgrading and removing
Perl packages.
Invoking ppm
without arguments brings up the graphical user interface,
but ppm can also be used as a command line tool where the first argument
provide the name of the sub-command to invoke. The following sub-commands
are recognized:
Will initialize the given area so that PPM starts tracking the packages it contains.
PPM allows for the addition of new install areas, which is useful for
shared ActivePerl installations where the user does not have write
permissions for the site and perl areas. New install areas are
added by simply setting up new library directories for perl to search,
and PPM will set up install areas to match. The easiest way to add
library directories for perl is to specify them in the PERL5LIB
environment variable, see the perlrun manpage for details. PPM will create
etc, bin, html directories as needed when installing
packages. If the last segment of the library directory path is lib
then the other directories will be created as siblings of the lib
directory, otherwise they will be subdirectories.
Lists the available install areas. The list displays the name, number
of installed packages and lib
directory location for each install
area. If that area is read-only, the name appears in parenthesis. You
will not be able to install packages or remove packages in these areas.
The default install area is marked with a *
after its name.
The order of the listed install areas is the order perl uses when searching for modules. Modules installed in earlier areas override modules installed in later ones.
The --csv option selects CSV (comma-separated values) format for the output. The default field separator can be overridden by the argument following --csv.
The --no-header option suppresses column headings.
Synchronizes installed packages, including those installed by means other than PPM (e.g. the CPAN shell), with the ppm database. PPM searches the install area(s) for packages, making PPM database entries if they do not already exist, or dropping entries for packages that no longer exist. When used without an area argument, all install areas are synced.
Get or set various PPM configuration values.
List all configuration options currently set.
Shows all properties for a particular package from the last search result.
Lists the full path name of the files belonging to the given package, one line per file.
Prints the documentation for ppm (this file).
Install a package and its dependencies.
The argument to ppm install can be the name of a package, the name of
a module provided by the package, the file name or the URL of a PPMX or PPD file,
or the associated number for the package returned by the last ppm
search
command.
If the package or module requested is already installed, PPM installs nothing. The --force option can be used to make PPM install a package even if it's already present. With --force PPM resolves file conflicts during package installation or upgrade by allowing files already installed by other packages to be overwritten and ownership transferred to the new package. This may break the package that originally owned the file.
By default, new packages are installed in the site
area, but if the
site
area is read only, and there are user-defined areas set up, the
first user-defined area is used as the default instead. Use the
--area option to install the package into an alternative location.
The --nodeps option makes PPM attempt to install the package without resolving any dependencies the package might have.
List installed packages. If the area argument is not provided, list the content of all install areas.
The --matching option limits the output to only include packages matching the given pattern. See ppm search for pattern syntax.
The --csv option selects CSV (comma-separated values) format for the output. The default field separator can be overridden by the argument following --csv.
The --no-header option suppress printing of the column headings.
The --fields argument can be used to select what fields to show. The argument is a comma separated list of the following field names:
The package name. This field is always shown, but if specified alone get rid of the decorative box.
The version number of the package.
The release date of the package.
A one sentence description of the purpose of the package.
The package author or maintainer.
Where the package is installed.
The number of files installed for the package.
The combined disk space used for the package.
The location of the package description file.
Print entries from the log for the last few minutes. By default print log lines for the last minute. With --errors option suppress warnings, trace and debug events.
Install the packages listed in the given profile file. If no file is given try to read the profile from standard input.
Write profile of configured repositories and installed packages to the given file. If no file is given then print the profile XML to standard output.
Alias for ppm list --matching pattern. Provided for PPM version 3 compatibility.
Uninstalls the specified package. If area is provided unininstall from the specified area only. With --force uninstall even if there are other packages that depend on features provided by the given package.
Alias for ppm repo. Provided for PPM version 3 compatibility.
Alias for ppm repo list.
Add the named resposity for PPM to fetch packages from. The names recognized are shown by the ppm repo suggest command. Use ppm repo add activestate if you want to restore the default ActiveState repo after deleting it.
Set up a new repository for PPM to fetch packages from.
Remove repository number num.
Show all properties for repository number num.
List the repositories that PPM is currently configured to use. Use this to identify which number specifies a particular repository.
The --csv option selects comma-separated values format for the output. The default field separator can be overridden by the argument following --csv.
The --no-header option suppress printing of the column headings.
Alias for ppm repo describe num.
Alias for ppm repo cmd num.
Disable repository number num for ppm install or ppm search.
Enable repository number num if it has been previously disabled with ppm repo off.
Change name by which the given repo is known.
Change the location of the given repo. This will make PPM forget all cached data from the old repository and try to refetch it from the new location.
Alias for ppm search.
List some known repositories that can be added with ppm add. The list only include repositories that are usable by this perl installation.
Synchronize local cache of packages found in the enabled repositories. With the --force option, download state from remote repositories even if the local state has not expired yet. If num is provided, only sync the given repository.
PPM will need to download every PPD file for repositories that don't provide a summary file (package.xml). This can be very slow for large repositories. Thus PPM refuses to start the downloads with repositores linking to more that 100 PPD files unless the --max-ppd option provides a higher limit.
Search for packages matching pattern in all enabled repositories.
For pattern, use the wildcard *
to match any number of characters
and the wildcard ?
to match a single character. For example, to find
packages starting with the string "List" search for list*
. Searches
are case insensitive.
If pattern contains ::
, PPM will search for packages that provide
modules matching the pattern.
If pattern matches the name of a package exactly (case-sensitively), only that package is shown. A pattern without wildcards that does not match any package names exactly is used for a substring search against available package names (i.e. treated the same as "*pattern*").
The output format depends on how many packages match. If there is only one match, the ppm describe format is used. If only a few packages match, limited information is displayed. If many packages match, only the package names and version numbers are displayed, one per line.
The number prefixing each entry in search output can be used to look up full information with ppm describe num, dependencies with ppm tree num or to install the package with ppm install num.
Shows all the dependencies (recusively) for a particular package. The
package can be identified by a package name or the associated number
for the package returned by the last ppm search
command.
Alias for ppm remove.
Alias for ppm upgrade.
List packages that there are upgrades available for. With --install option install the upgrades as well.
Upgrades the specified package or module if an upgrade is available in one of the currently enabled repositories.
Checks that the installed files are still present and unmodified. If the package name is given, only that packages is verified.
Will print the version of PPM and a copyright notice.
The following lists files and directories that PPM uses and creates:
Directory where PPM keeps its state. On Windows this directory is $LOCAL_APPDATA/ActiveState/ActivePerl/$VERSION. The $VERSION is a string like "818".
SQLite database where ppm keeps its configuration and caches meta information about the content of the enabled repositories.
Log file created to record actions that PPM takes. On Windows this is logged to $TEMPDIR/ppm4.log. On Mac OS X this is logged to $HOME/Library/Logs/ppm4.log.
SQLite database where PPM tracks packages installed in the install area
under $PREFIX
.
Temporary directories used during install. Packages to be installed are unpacked here.
These files contains a single package that can be installed by PPM. They are compressed tarballs containing the PPD file for the package and the blib tree to be installed.
XML files containing meta information about packages. Each package has its own .ppd file. See the ActivePerl::PPM::PPD manpage for additional information.
Meta information about repositories. When a repository is added, PPM looks for this file and if present, monitors it too stay in sync with the state of the repository.
Same as package.xml but PPM 3 compatible. PPM will use this file if package.xml is not available.
The following environment variables affect how PPM behaves:
ACTIVEPERL_PPM_DEBUG
If set to a TRUE value, makes PPM print more internal diagnostics.
ACTIVEPERL_PPM_BOX_CHARS
Select what kind of box drawing characters to use for the ppm *
list
outputs. Valid values are ascii
, dos
and unicode
. The
default varies.
ACTIVEPERL_PPM_HOME
If set, use this directory to store state and configuration information for PPM. This defaults to $LOCAL_APPDATA/ActiveState/ActivePerl/$VERSION on Windows and $HOME/.ActivePerl/$VERSION/ on Unix systems.
ACTIVEPERL_PPM_LOG_CONS
If set to a TRUE value, make PPM print any log output to the console as well.
DBI_TRACE
PPM uses the DBI manpage to access the internal SQLite databases. Setting DBI_TRACE allow you to see what queries are performed. Output goes to STDERR. See the DBI manpage for further details.
http_proxy
PPM uses the LWP manpage to access remote repositories. If you need HTTP
traffic pass via a proxy server to reach the repository, you must set
the http_proxy
environment variable. Some examples:
Using bash: export http_proxy=http://proxy.mycompany.com
Using cmd.exe: set http_proxy=http://username:password@proxy.mycompany.com:8008
See env_proxy in the LWP::UserAgent manpage for more.
PPM version 4 is a complete rewrite. The main changes since PPM version 3 are:
The command line shell has been replaced with a graphical user interface.
Support for *.ppmx files (since PPM version 4.3)
PPM can now manage different installation areas.
No more 'precious' packages. PPM can upgrade itself as well other bundled and core modules.
Installation of packages and their dependencies happen as atomic transactions.
PPM tracks what files it has installed and can notice if files have been modified or deleted. The command 'ppm verify' will report on mismatches.
State is kept in local SQLite databases. All repository state is kept local which makes searching much faster.
PPM will pick up and manage packages installed by other means (e.g. manually or with the CPAN shell).
No more SOAP.
Underlying modules moved to the ActivePerl::PPM::
namespace.
http://search.cpan.org/dist/PPM-Repositories/
Copyright (C) 2009 ActiveState Software Inc. All rights reserved.