Sorry about the crosspost, but this is probably of interest to three groups of people for different reasons.
1. Users: I have just written CPAN::Debian, a perl module that allows you to download and build fairly good Debian packages automatically of (almost) anything in CPAN. A sample run is probably the best explination. Warning, CPAN is pretty verbose, and so is building a debian package; the result is pretty spammy. [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~>perl -mCPAN::Debian -e shell cpan shell -- CPAN exploration and modules installation (v1.52) ReadLine support enabled cpan> makedeb Coy Going to read /home/joey/.cpan/sources/authors/01mailrc.txt.gz Going to read /home/joey/.cpan/sources/modules/02packages.details.txt.gz Scanning cache /home/joey/.cpan/build for sizes There's a new CPAN.pm version (v1.59) available! [Current version is v1.52] You might want to try install Bundle::CPAN reload cpan without quitting the current session. It should be a seamless upgrade while we are running... Going to read /home/joey/.cpan/sources/modules/03modlist.data.gz CPAN: MD5 loaded ok Checksum for /home/joey/.cpan/sources/authors/id/D/DC/DCONWAY/Coy-0.05.tar.gz ok Coy-0.05/ Coy-0.05/lib/ Coy-0.05/lib/Lingua/ Coy-0.05/lib/Lingua/EN/ Coy-0.05/lib/Lingua/EN/Hyphenate.pm Coy-0.05/lib/Lingua/EN/Inflect.pm Coy-0.05/lib/Coy.pm Coy-0.05/demo/ Coy-0.05/demo/demo.pl Coy-0.05/Changes Coy-0.05/Makefile.PL Coy-0.05/README Coy-0.05/MANIFEST Removing previously used /home/joey/.cpan/build/Coy-0.05 dh_testdir perl Makefile.PL INSTALLDIRS=vendor Checking if your kit is complete... Looks good Writing Makefile for Coy /usr/bin/make OPTIMIZE="-O2 -g -Wall" make[1]: Entering directory `/home/joey/.cpan/build/Coy-0.05' mkdir blib mkdir blib/lib mkdir blib/arch mkdir blib/arch/auto mkdir blib/arch/auto/Coy mkdir blib/lib/auto mkdir blib/lib/auto/Coy mkdir blib/man3 cp lib/Coy.pm blib/lib/Coy.pm cp lib/Lingua/EN/Hyphenate.pm blib/lib/Lingua/EN/Hyphenate.pm cp lib/Lingua/EN/Inflect.pm blib/lib/Lingua/EN/Inflect.pm Manifying blib/man3/Coy.3pm Manifying blib/man3/Lingua::EN::Hyphenate.3pm make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/joey/.cpan/build/Coy-0.05' /usr/bin/make test make[1]: Entering directory `/home/joey/.cpan/build/Coy-0.05' No tests defined for Coy extension. make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/joey/.cpan/build/Coy-0.05' touch build-stamp dh_testdir dh_testroot dh_clean -k /usr/bin/make install PREFIX=/home/joey/.cpan/build/Coy-0.05/debian/libcoy-perl/usr make[1]: Entering directory `/home/joey/.cpan/build/Coy-0.05' Installing /home/joey/.cpan/build/Coy-0.05/debian/libcoy-perl/usr/share/perl5/Coy.pm Installing /home/joey/.cpan/build/Coy-0.05/debian/libcoy-perl/usr/share/perl5/Lingua/EN/Hyphenate.pm Installing /home/joey/.cpan/build/Coy-0.05/debian/libcoy-perl/usr/share/perl5/Lingua/EN/Inflect.pm Installing /home/joey/.cpan/build/Coy-0.05/debian/libcoy-perl/usr/share/man/man3/Coy.3pm Installing /home/joey/.cpan/build/Coy-0.05/debian/libcoy-perl/usr/share/man/man3/Lingua::EN::Hyphenate.3pm ## Differing version of ./Coy.pm found. You might like to rm /usr/lib/perl5/Coy.pm ## Differing version of Lingua/EN/Hyphenate.pm found. You might like to rm /usr/lib/perl5/Lingua/EN/Hyphenate.pm ## Differing version of Lingua/EN/Inflect.pm found. You might like to rm /usr/lib/perl5/Lingua/EN/Inflect.pm ## Running 'make install UNINST=1' will unlink all those files for you. make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/joey/.cpan/build/Coy-0.05' dh_installdocs README dh_installchangelogs Changes dh_strip dh_compress dh_fixperms dh_installdeb dh_perl dh_shlibdeps dh_gencontrol dpkg-gencontrol: warning: unknown substitution variable ${shlibs:Depends} perl -i -pe 's/(Depends: .*), $/$1/' debian/libcoy-perl/DEBIAN/control dh_md5sums dh_builddeb --destdir=/home/joey dpkg-deb: building package `libcoy-perl' in `/home/joey/libcoy-perl_0-1_i386.deb'. cpan> exit Lockfile removed. [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~>dpkg --info libcoy-perl_0-1_i386.deb new debian package, version 2.0. size 29340 bytes: control archive= 908 bytes. 299 bytes, 12 lines control 637 bytes, 9 lines md5sums 269 bytes, 8 lines * postinst #!/bin/sh 200 bytes, 6 lines * prerm #!/bin/sh Package: libcoy-perl Version: 0-1 Section: interpreters Priority: optional Architecture: i386 Depends: perl Installed-Size: 90 Maintainer: Joey Hess <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Description: Like Carp - only prettier The Coy perl module from CPAN. . This package was automatically created by CPAN::Debian. [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~>lintian libcoy-perl_0-1_i386.deb W: libcoy-perl: executable-not-elf-or-script ./usr/share/perl5/Lingua/EN/Inflect.pm W: libcoy-perl: executable-not-elf-or-script ./usr/share/perl5/Lingua/EN/Hyphenate.pm W: libcoy-perl: executable-not-elf-or-script ./usr/share/perl5/Coy.pm The lintian warnings are actually bogus, lintian is just not aware of the newest perl policy yet. This libcoy-perl is _almost_ as good a package as the one I maintain in the Debian archive, but I don't think I'm out of a job quite yet :-) -- having a human make the package adds so many nice little touches that my program cannot do. It's great if you need a perl module package quick though, and want to keep everything in .deb form. Oh, and it utterly depends on the latest perl packages in unstable. Nothing else will do. Bod has done great things with MakeMaker, which was really what made this possible. 2. Developers: It's also possible to just debianize a module, yeilding a debianized source tree and not building a deb. Developers may find this to be a decent starting point at making a debian package of something in CPAN, for release into Debian. For example: perl -m CPAN::Debian -le 'CPAN::Shell->expand("Module",shift)->debianize' Term::Slang 3. Perlers: So I'd like to get this module into Debian, but the question is: where? I think getting it properly integrated into CPAN.pm, where it really belongs, is doubtful. (Unless Bod wants to maintain a large patch to CPAN.pm? Hahaha.) It could be dropped right into the debian perl package and work as-is, if Bod wants to do that. Or I could make a standalone package of it, which seems overkill for one file. The module can be downloaded for now from http://cvs.kitenet.net/joey-cvs/src/CPAN/Debian.pm -- see shy jo, who is ready to throttle CPAN for its insessient "There's a new CPAN.pm version (v1.59) available!"