James E Keenan wrote:
[snip]
However, when I was using the 'cpan' shell yesterday, I found that it
was no longer honoring configuration settings in
~/.cpan/CPAN/MyConfig.pm. Instead, it was reverting to settings found
in the "vendor perl" location established when I got this iBook way back
in May 2004: ~/Library/Application\ Support/.cpan/CPAN/MyConfig.pm. I
knew that something was wrong when I started to see 'cpan' try to
download files from mirrors listed in the 'vendor Perl' MyConfig.pm that
have long since ceased to function. Based on those settings, 'cpan'
tried to 'make' modules with '/usr/local/bin/make' -- but I don't have
and 'make' in /usr/local/bin!
Can anyone diagnose this problem and tell me how I can once again govern
my 'cpan' shell configuration from ~/.cpan/CPAN/MyConfig.pm?
Before this post made it to the list yesterday, I had off-list
discussion with Michael Schwern and David Golden. Both inquired whether
I had done an update to File::HomeDir lately -- and File::HomeDir proved
to be the culprit (not CPAN.pm or Perl 5.10.1).
I know that for several years Adam Kennedy has been attempting to
provide more rigorous, OS-specific definitions of 'home directory' in
File::HomeDir. As part of that effort, he had discussions with Chris
Nandor re the best definition of homedir on Mac OS. The result is that,
for the time being, at least, the official location for CPAN
configuration data on Mac OS is indeed ~/Library/Application\
Support/.cpan/CPAN/MyConfig.pm.
On Sept 7 I installed Catalyst on my iBook. Catalyst is one of those
distributions which pulls in half of the CPAN; the latest File::HomeDir
and Mac::Carbon came in the wash. That involuntary and unannounced
redefinition of the concept of homedir on my Mac led to my bad
experience using the 'cpan' shell for the first time after that date.
Jim Keenan
