Perl in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

How Is CPAN Organized?

CPAN materials are grouped into categories, including Perl modules, distributions, documentation, announcements, ports, scripts, and contributing authors. Each category is linked to related categories. For example, links to a graphing module written by an author appear in both the module and the author areas.

Since CPAN provides the same offerings worldwide, the directory structure has been standardized; files are located in the same place in the directory hierarchy at all CPAN sites. All CPAN sites use CPAN as the root directory, from which the user can select a specific Perl item. From the CPAN directory, you have the following choices:

Item	Description
CPAN.html	CPAN info page; some general information about CPAN
ENDINGS	Description of the file extensions, such as .tar, .gz, and .zip
MIRRORED BY	A list of sites mirroring CPAN
MIRRORING.FROM	A list of sites mirrored by CPAN
README	A brief description of what you’ll find on CPAN
README.html	An HTML-formatted version of the README file
RECENT	Recent additions to the CPAN site
RECENT.html	An HTML-formatted list of recent additions
ROADMAP	What you’ll find on CPAN and where
ROADMAP.html	An HTML-formatted version of ROADMAP
SITES	An exhaustive list of CPAN sites
SITES.html	An HTML-formatted version of SITES
authors	A list of CPAN authors
clpa	An archive of comp.land.perl.announce
disclaimer.html	Before you call your lawyer, read these details about CPAN content
doc	Various Perl documentation, FAQs, etc.
index.html	CPAN starting point in you prefer ...