Perl Bulk Modules Installer

Install perl modules in bulk with some logic to make this more efficient.

VISION / PURPOSE

1. get a portable Windows-Perl from Strawberry

2. open Perl-Location with portableshell.bat

3. update all current (base) modules

   cmd.exe /c cpanm App::cpanoutdated
   cmd.exe /c cpan-outdated -p
   cmd.exe /c cpan-outdated -p | cpanm
   

4. install required modules

   cmd.exe /c cpanm Carp Carp::Always Data::Dumper
   

5. run bulk-installer to add all wanted modules

   perl InstallCpanModules.pl [ --only-updates | --no-updates ] filepath
   perl InstallCpanModules.pl test-module-lists/SmallModuleExample.txt
   

6. have a portable Windows-Perl with all wanted modules :)

DESCRIPTION

One problem with cpanm is that it don't save/cache a failed installation state. If a module needs a module which was already tried cpanm will try it again If you install many modules, and not all are working correctly it will waste much time, and the installation of modules is already not fast :(

So the main enhancement of this script should be this cache of failed or not-found dependencies to speed up a bootstrap installation of many modules.

For every external process call (perl/cpanm) there will be a logfile in the log-subfolder with the call information, start/end time, exitcode and the complete output.

Logfiles:

• DATE_TIME_perl_detail_info.log
  • Perl-System-Information perl -V
• DATE_TIME_installed_modules_found.log
  • Perl-Modules found via cpan -l
• DATE_TIME_modules_to_install_from_file.log
  • Modules listed in the given file to install.
• DATE_TIME_modules_install_already.log
  • Modules from file already installed.
• DATE_TIME_modules_need_to_install.log
  • Modules from files needs to be installed.
• DATE_TIME_modules_to_install_with_deps_extended.log
  • analyze result - modules need to install/update with their direct dependencies.
• DATE_TIME_modules_with_available_updates.log
  • list of modules with an update available, analyzed by cpan-outdated --exclude-core -p
• DATE_TIME_modules_install_not_found.log
  • list of modules which are not found, via cpan.
• DATE_TIME_modules_install_failed.log
  • list of modules where the installation failed.
• DATE_TIME_fetch_dependency__MODULENAME.log
  • output of list dependency call cpanm --no-interactive --showdeps MODULENAME
• DATE_TIME_install_module__MODULENAME__install|update-success|failed|failed-start.log
  • output of install/update call. Type and result are in filename.
  • Installed via cpanm --verbose --no-interactive MODULENAME

Script process:

1. import module list - if not update-only
2. check installed modules
3. search for installed modules
4. search for missing dependency modules
5. search for available update of installed modules - if not no-updates
6. now the installation loop
   1. get the next module which has no found dependency, or abort of there is none.
   2. re-check dependencies - but there should be noting.
   3. try to install module
   4. if ok remove this module from the dependency list of each module, if listed
   5. if not ok mark all modules which depend on this als failed, and all which depend on them - and so on - recursion
   6. mark this module als installed or failed.
   7. repeat loop

BUG REPORTS

Please report bugs on GitHub.

The source code repository can be found at https://github.com/mardem1/perl-bulk-module-installer

AUTHOR

Markus Demml, mardem@cpan.com

LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2025, Markus Demml

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself. The full text of this license can be found in the LICENSE file included with this module.

DISCLAIMER

This package is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.