NAME

cpan-upload - upload one or more files to CPAN, using PAUSE

SYNOPSIS

cpan-upload [OPTIONS] file1 .. fileN

DESCRIPTION

cpan-upload is a script which automates the process of uploading a file to CPAN using PAUSE, the Perl Authors Upload Server. For example, to upload a recent version of the Net::Dict module I ran:

    % cpan-upload -verbose Net-Dict-1.07.tar.gz

If everything went OK, you'll get two mail messages from the PAUSE monitor: one to acknowledge the upload, and one to let you know if your upload made it through to CPAN.

Given one or more files to upload, cpan-upload carries out the following two steps:

FTP the file or files to the PAUSE ftp server, putting them in the incoming directory.
Register the upload by POSTing to the PAUSE web server.

This is just one of the ways you can upload something to PAUSE. See the PAUSE FAQ for details (referenced in SEE ALSO section below).

Before using cpan-upload you must register with PAUSE, to get a username and password. If you are a regular uploader to PAUSE, you'll probably want to create a ".pause" configuration file, as described in "CONFIGURATION FILE" below. If not, you can just use the command-line options, as described in "OPTIONS" below. If you don't provide your password (via configuration file or command-line), then you will be prompted for it. Echo'ing will be turned off while you type your password. This behaviour can be suppressed with the -non_interactive option, described below.

OPTIONS

-user <string>: Your PAUSE username (which you previously registered with PAUSE).
-password <string>: The password for your PAUSE username.
-directory <string> | -dir <string>: A subdirectory in your CPAN area where the file should be uploaded to.
-mailto <email>: Your email address, to include the HTTP request header. This is also used as the password for the ftp upload to PAUSE.
-ftp_gateway <host>: Specifies the name of the host which has your ftp gateway.
-ftp_proxy <host>: Specifies the name of the host which has your ftp proxy, if you're behind a firewall.
-http_proxy <URL>: Specifies the URL for a proxy to use when making HTTP requests.
-non_interactive | -ni: cpan-upload should not prompt for any missing information (eg password), it should just warn or die, as appropriate.
-help: Displays a short help message with the OPTIONS section from the cpan-upload documentation.
-doc: Display the full documentation for cpan-upload.
-verbose: Turns on verbose information as the script runs.
-debug: Turns on debugging information. Useful mainly for the developer, it displays the HTTP request and response.
-version: Display the version number of the cpan-upload script.

CONFIGURATION FILE

You can provide the configuration information needed via a .pause file in your home directory. If you upload files at all regularly you will want to set up one of these.

user username

This is used to specify your PAUSE username. This just saves you from typing it every time you run the script.

password password

This is used to specify your PAUSE password.

directory path

Specify a subdirectory in your CPAN area.

ftp_gateway HOST

Specifies the hostname of your ftp gateway used to get through a firewall. For example:

    ftp_gateway = ftp-gw

ftp_proxy HOST

Specifies the hostname of your ftp proxy used to get through a firewall. For example:

    ftp_proxy = ftp-proxy

http_proxy URL

The URL for the proxy to use when making HTTP requests to the PAUSE web server. For example:

    http_proxy = http://proxy/

mailto EMAIL

Specifies the email address which is passed in the header of the HTTP request, and as the password for the anonymous ftp upload. You must provide this.

non_interactive

Specifies that cpan-upload should never prompt the user (eg for password), but should take a default action.

The following is a sample .pause file:

    # example .pause for user neilb
    # the user is your registered PAUSE username
    user NEILB
    password thisisnotmyrealpassword

    mailto      = neil@bowers.com
    ftp_gateway = ftp-gw
    http_proxy  = http://proxy.cre.canon.co.uk/

    non_interactive

Note that your .pause must not be readable by others, since it can contain your PAUSE password. The cpan-upload script refuses to run if your config file can be read by others.

POSSIBLE TODO ITEMS

Also, let me know if you ever have occasion to wish that the features below had been implemented. I probably won't do them unless someone would like to see them in.

I'd be happy to hear any more suggestions.

As with the password, prompt for PAUSE username and email address if not provided (by .pause file or on the command-line).
Have a -noftp option or similar - ie don't try and ftp, just do the post, assuming that the file is already in the ftp incoming directory. We could be smart and check that it is. This would be useful if a previous ftp upload succeeded but the POST operation failed for some reason.
Add configuration options for specifying the PAUSE ftp server name, the incoming directory, and the URI we POST to. This would let you deal with any changes without requiring a new release. These aren't likely to change on any regular basis, so seem gratuitous.

VERSION

$Revision: 2.2 $

SCRIPT CATEGORIES

CPAN

PREREQUISITES

AppConfig::Std Net::FTP HTTP::Request::Common LWP::UserAgent HTTP::Status File::Basename Term::ReadKey

AUTHOR

Neil Bowers <neil@bowers.com>

COPYRIGHT

This script is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.