How do I find the modules installed on my system?

brian_d_foy on 2002-10-26T05:45:33

[I'm writing a new answer for the perlfaq]

You can use the ExtUtils::Installed module to show all installed distributions, although it can take awhile to do its magic. The standard library which comes with Perl just shows up as "Perl" (although you can get those with Mod::CoreList).

use ExtUtils::Installed;

my $inst    = ExtUtils::Installed->new();
my @modules = $inst->modules();

If you want a list of all of the Perl module filenames, you can use File::Find::Rule.

use File::Find::Rule;

my @files = File::Find::Rule->file()->name( '*.pm' )->in( @INC );

If you simply need to quickly check to see if a module is available, you can check for its documentation. If you can read the documentation the module is most likely installed. If you cannot read the documentation, the module might not have any (in rare cases).

prompt% perldoc Module::Name