What is CPAN (from perl.com)?

CPAN is the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, a large collection of Perl software and documentation. You can begin exploring from either http://www.cpan.org/, http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ or any of the mirrors listed at http://www.cpan.org/SITES.html.

Note that CPAN is also the name of a Perl module, CPAN.pm, which is used to download and install Perl software from the CPAN archive. This FAQ covers only a little about the CPAN module and you may find the documentation for it by using perldoc CPAN via the command line or on the web at http://search.cpan.org/dist/CPAN/lib/CPAN.pm

Type the following in a terminal/command prompt to get into CPAN shell

perl -MCPAN -e shell

Then type this command to install a perl module (ex: XML::Simple module)

install XML::Simple

You can also install a perl module using this command:

perl -MCPAN -e install XML::Simple

for more info about CPAN:

man CPAN