cpan
Zsh completion plugin that provides live remote CPAN package name autocompletion for cpan and cpanm commands.
Overview
zsh-cpan-completion is a Zsh plugin that enables intelligent tab completion for CPAN package names directly from the remote Perl module registry. It eliminates the need for static package lists by querying the live CPAN network in real-time, making Perl module installation workflows faster and more accurate.
Key Features
- Live Remote Completion — Queries CPAN directly via
perl -MCPAN -e 'CPAN::Shell->m("...")'to fetch real package names - Dual Tool Support — Provides completion for both
cpanandcpanmcommands, including flag/option completion - Intelligent Caching — Caches results locally after initial network queries to improve performance
- Overload Protection — Configurable minimum prefix length (
ZPWR_CPAN_MIN_PREFIX) prevents excessive network requests - Tarball Completion — Supports completion for various archive formats (
.tar.gz,.tgz,.tar.bz2,.zip)
Architecture
The plugin integrates with Zsh's completion system through _cpan and _cpanm compdefs, which trigger remote queries to CPAN::Shell when appropriate. Results are then passed to Zsh's _describe completion UI for display.
Philosophy
The project embraces a "live data" philosophy, preferring dynamic network queries over static lists to ensure completions are always current with the CPAN ecosystem.
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