change CPAN config

[hmerrill]

I'd like to change my CPAN config - by CPAN I mean the cpan utility you can use to automatically install modules from

http://www.cpan.org.

The problem is when I do

perl -MCPAN -e shell

cpan> install Some::Module

it goes through each of my selected mirror sites, first trying to use LWP to download the file, and then trying Net::FTP - and when it's gone through the whole list of sites trying those 2 options, only then will it start going through the list of sites again using "ncftpget". Probably because of some corporate firewall stuff, ncftpget is the only option that works. Is there a way to change my CPAN config file so that cpan will only try ncftpget? Trying LWP and Net::FTP wastes a lot of time.

Thanks. Hardy Merrill

 

[justice41]

start up the cpan shell then type

o conf init

This will take you through the cpan interactive config again. When it prompts you for a download method that you don't want to use hit spacebar and then enter. This will disable their use.

jaa

 

[hmerrill]

I thought you had it, but even after doing that, it still tries LWP first, and Net::FTP next.

It seems to "learn" for the *current* cpan session - 1st it goes through the whole list of sites trying LWP and Net::FTP, and then it tries ncftpget. After that install is finished, while I'm still in that cpan session, every install after that it goes right to ncftpget.

Any idea how to make it go to ncftpget *every* time - even the 1st time for a cpan session? Hardy Merrill

 

[hmerrill]

The answer turned out to be

export FTP_PASSIVE=1

in a session as the "root" user, and then starting up the
CPAN session by

perl -MCPAN -e shell

That seems to enable "passive" ftp's, which allows LWP to work properly. The issue is a firewall issue - this solves it. Hardy Merrill