Chapter 5 - Submitting Your Module to CPAN by?Sam Tregar ? Apress ? 2002 Companion Web Site

Uploading Your Module Distribution

When you have a new version of your module to release, you'll use the PAUSE upload file form (see Figure 5-2), found in the User Menu sidebar at http://www.pause.cpan.org. There are three ways to upload your module distribution to CPAN: using HTTP upload, providing a URL, and via FTP.

Figure 5-2: The PAUSE file upload form

HTTP Upload

Using HTTP upload is the easiest method in most situations. You'll need a modern ^[5] Web browser since many older browsers don't implement file upload correctly. To use this method, simply click the Browse button next to the file upload box and find the module distribution file you wish to upload. Then click the Upload this file from my disk button.

GET URL

The GET URL option allows you to tell PAUSE where to find your module on the Web. PAUSE will then go and retrieve this file for you. This option might be useful for projects that distribute modules on CPAN but also maintain a Web site that contains their module distributions. To use this method, enter the URL in the box and click the Upload this URL button.

FTP PUT

The FTP PUT method allows you to use FTP to upload a file to PAUSE. This is useful when you're doing development on a machine that can't run a modern Web browser. To use this method, first connect to the FTP server at pause.cpan.org via an FTP client. Log in as anonymous and use your e-mail address as your password. Change into the incoming directory and upload your file.

Next, use a Web browser to visit the upload form on the PAUSE Web interface. At the bottom of the form, you'll see a list of module distributions—these are all the distributions waiting in the incoming directory. Select yours and click the Upload the checked file button.

Dealing with a Broken Upload

One way or another you'll eventually upload a broken file to CPAN. Either you'll transfer the file in ASCII mode FTP, or you'll forget to update some key piece of your distribution. There's only one way to deal with this situation—release a new version. This is because PAUSE will never allow you to upload a file with the same filename twice. Once you've uploaded MyModule-0.02.tar.gz , release 0.02 is set in stone. To fix a problem, you'll need to increment the version number and release MyModule-0.03.tar.gz .

^[5] Netscape Navigator 4.0+ or Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0+, but other browsers will certainly work.