To use Perl’s CPAN on Windows with cygwin, you need to install some additional programs in cygwin. Run cygwin’s setup.exe (I like clicking the “View” button to change the listing to Full, so I get an alphabetical list of the packages).

Make sure that you install the following packages:

  • perl (just in case you do not have it)
  • gzip
  • tar
  • unzip
  • make
  • lynx
  • wget
  • ncftp
  • gnupg

Open the Cygwin bash shell and enter:

perl -MCPAN -e shell

Accept the defaults, and you are good to go.

Once in the CPAN shell, you can install modules with commands like:

install Date::Parse