Question

While configuring cpan with o conf init: I’m getting following error:

If you're accessing the net via proxies, you can specify them in the
CPAN configuration or via environment variables. The variable in
the $CPAN::Config takes precedence.

Your ftp_proxy? [n]
Your http_proxy? [n]
Your no_proxy?

If your proxy is an authenticating proxy, you can store your username
permanently. If you do not want that, just press RETURN. You will then
be asked for your username in every future session.

Your proxy user id?
Your /root/.cpan/sources/MIRRORED.BY is older than 60 days,  I'm trying to fetch one
CPAN: LWP::UserAgent loaded ok
Fetching with LWP:
  ftp://ftp.oss.eznetsols.org/cpan/MIRRORED.BY

Use of uninitialized value in hash element at /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8/LWP/Protocol.pm line 55, <STDIN> line 29.

Use of uninitialized value in pattern match (m//) at /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8/LWP/Protocol.pm line 58, <STDIN> line 29.

Use of uninitialized value in concatenation (.) or string at /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8/LWP/Protocol.pm line 38, <STDIN> line 29.

Use of uninitialized value in string eq at /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8/LWP/UserAgent.pm line 195, <STDIN> line 29.

Fetching with LWP: ftp://ftp.oss.eznetsols.org/cpan/MIRRORED.BY.gz
Use of uninitialized value in hash element at /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8/LWP/Protocol.pm line 55, <STDIN> line 29.

Use of uninitialized value in pattern match (m//) at /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8/LWP/Protocol.pm line 58, <STDIN> line 29.

Use of uninitialized value in concatenation (.) or string at /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8/LWP/Protocol.pm line 38, <STDIN> line 29.

Use of uninitialized value in string eq at /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.8/LWP/UserAgent.pm line 195, <STDIN> line 29.

CPAN: Net::FTP loaded ok
Fetching with Net::FTP:
  ftp://ftp.oss.eznetsols.org/cpan/MIRRORED.BY
Fetching with Net::FTP
  ftp://ftp.oss.eznetsols.org/cpan/MIRRORED.BY.gz

Trying with "/usr/bin/links -source" to get
    ftp://ftp.oss.eznetsols.org/cpan/MIRRORED.BY
ELinks: Host not found

Trying with "/usr/bin/links -source" to get
  ftp://ftp.oss.eznetsols.org/cpan/MIRRORED.BY.gz
ELinks: Host not found

Trying with "/usr/bin/wget -O -" to get
    ftp://ftp.oss.eznetsols.org/cpan/MIRRORED.BY
--2013-02-04 00:37:43--  ftp://ftp.oss.eznetsols.org/cpan/MIRRORED.BY
Resolving n... failed: Temporary failure in name resolution.
wget: unable to resolve host address `n'

Trying with "/usr/bin/wget -O -" to get
  ftp://ftp.oss.eznetsols.org/cpan/MIRRORED.BY.gz
--2013-02-04 00:37:43--  ftp://ftp.oss.eznetsols.org/cpan/MIRRORED.BY.gz
Resolving n... failed: Temporary failure in name resolution.
wget: unable to resolve host address `n'

Issuing "/usr/kerberos/bin/ftp -n"
ftp: ftp.oss.eznetsols.org: unknown host
Not connected.
Local directory now /root/.cpan/sources
Not connected.
Not connected.
Not connected.
Not connected.
Bad luck... Still failed!
Can't access URL ftp://ftp.oss.eznetsols.org/cpan/MIRRORED.BY.

Please check, if the URLs I found in your configuration file
(ftp://ftp.oss.eznetsols.org/cpan/) are valid. The urllist can be edited.
E.g. with 'o conf urllist push ftp://myurl/'

Could not fetch MIRRORED.BY
Trying to get away with old file:
1238021  144 -rw-r--r--  1 0        0          135245 Oct  3 02:42 /root/.cpan/sources/MIRRORED.BY

It seems like proxy issue.

I tried following things, but no success.

1. Checked the ping [It works]
2. /etc/resolve.conf entry:
   nameserver my IP address
3. Tried with adding proxy server:
   o conf http_proxy http://proxy.mycorp.com:8080/

Please let me know, How to deal with this. Thanks.

Answer 1

CPAN is (ineffectively) saying that FTP sever appears to be down.

$ wget ftp://ftp.oss.eznetsols.org
--2013-02-03 20:51:09--  ftp://ftp.oss.eznetsols.org/
           => ‘.listing’
Resolving ftp.oss.eznetsols.org (ftp.oss.eznetsols.org)... 111.90.255.253
Connecting to ftp.oss.eznetsols.org (ftp.oss.eznetsols.org)|111.90.255.253|:21... failed: Connection refused.

That FTP server does not exist in the list of CPAN mirrors, but your mirror list was out of date.

Try a different CPAN mirror. o conf urllist shift http://cpan.pair.com/ for example.