If you are using ActivePerl on Windows, or the Perl/Apache/mod_perl binary distribution discussed in Chapter 2, you will have access to a handy utility called ppm. This program installs Perl modules from archives separate from the CPAN that contain precompiled versions of certain modules.

For first-time configuration, do the following:

C:\> ppm
PPM interactive shell (2.1.5) - type 'help' for available commands.
PPM> set repository theoryx5 http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/cgi-bin/ppmserver?urn:/PPMServer
PPM> set repository oi http://openinteract.sourceforge.net/ppmpackages/
PPM> set save
PPM> quit
C:\>

These steps will allow you to access a number of interesting packages not available from the ActiveState archive (including mod_perl). To see a list of these packages, type search in the PPM interactive shell, or visit http://openinteract.sourceforge.net/ppmpackages/ and http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppmpackages/.

Now, when you want to install a module, issue the following commands:

C:\> ppm
PPM> install Some::Module
PPM> quit
C:\>

It's as easy as that! Alternatively, you might want to do it directly:

C:\> ppm install Some::Module

This will have the same effect.