Ansible Role: Perl

An Ansible role that installs and manages Perl on various Linux distributions, including CPAN module management via cpanm.

Requirements

• Ansible 2.10 or higher
• Target systems must be supported Linux distributions (Ubuntu, Debian, RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/Alma Linux)
• community.general collection (for the cpanm module)

Role Variables

Available variables are listed below, along with default values (see defaults/main.yml):

Variable	Default	Description
perl_cpanm_version	"1.7907"	CPAN Minus version to install
perl_cpanm_path	"/usr/local/bin/cpanm"	Path where cpanm will be installed
perl_cpanm_url	"https://raw.githubusercontent.com/..."	URL to download cpanm script
perl_cpanm_modules	[]	List of Perl modules to install via cpanm
perl_cpanm_installdeps	false	Install dependencies for modules
perl_cpanm_notests	false	Skip tests during module installation
perl_cpanm_force	false	Force installation even if tests fail
perl_cpanm_verbose	false	Enable verbose output during installation

CPAN Module Installation

The perl_cpanm_modules variable accepts a list of module names to install:

perl_cpanm_modules:
  - JSON
  - DBI
  - Mojolicious
  - DateTime

Dependencies

• community.general collection

Install with:

ansible-galaxy collection install community.general

Example Playbook

Basic usage

- hosts: all
  become: true
  roles:
    - blackstar257.perl

Install Perl with specific modules

- hosts: all
  become: true
  vars:
    perl_cpanm_modules:
      - JSON
      - LWP::UserAgent
      - DateTime
      - Mojolicious
  roles:
    - blackstar257.perl

Advanced configuration

- hosts: all
  become: true
  vars:
    perl_cpanm_modules:
      - JSON::XS
      - DBI
      - DBD::mysql
    perl_cpanm_installdeps: true    # Install dependencies
    perl_cpanm_notests: true        # Skip tests for faster installation
    perl_cpanm_verbose: true        # Verbose output
  roles:
    - blackstar257.perl

Use specific cpanm version

- hosts: all
  become: true
  vars:
    perl_cpanm_version: "1.7907"
    perl_cpanm_modules:
      - Carton
      - Plack
  roles:
    - blackstar257.perl

Supported Platforms

• Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal), 22.04 (Jammy), 22.10 (Kinetic)
• Debian 10 (Buster), 11 (Bullseye), 12 (Bookworm)
• RHEL/CentOS 7, 8, 9
• Rocky Linux 8, 9
• AlmaLinux 8, 9
• Fedora 37, 38, 39

Testing

This role is tested using Molecule with Docker.

# Install dependencies
pip install molecule molecule-plugins[docker] docker

# Run tests
molecule test

# Test with specific distro
MOLECULE_DISTRO=ubuntu2204 molecule test

Available Test Distributions

• ubuntu1804
• ubuntu2004
• ubuntu2204
• debian10
• debian11
• centos7
• centos8
• rockylinux8
• rockylinux9

Important Notes

• Privileges Required: This role requires become: true for package installation and cpanm setup
• Internet Access: The role downloads cpanm from GitHub and CPAN modules from the internet
• Performance: Installing many modules or modules with complex dependencies may take time
• Testing: Use perl_cpanm_notests: true to skip module tests for faster installation

License

MIT

Author Information

This role was originally created by Pieterjan Vandaele and is now maintained by blackstar257.

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Run tests: molecule test
5. Submit a pull request

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for detailed release notes and version history.