github + cpan = gitpan

Gitpan is a clone of all the modules on cpan in git form, nearly twenty-two thousand public repositories. This is not a place for development of modules. Instead it is a place to easily pull the current source for a module to make a patch and send to the maintainer, without having to find where she maintains her golden copy.

I read about gitpan a while ago, but then when I wanted to find it last week, I couldn't find the correct search terms. [github cpan] produces a list that doesn't include gitpan in the first page, as it is crowded out by the many perl modules developed on github for release to cpan and of course things like Net::GitHub and GitHub::Import, and an interesting discussion at perlmonks on (informal) perl naming convention for github projects.

Now that I know the name, it is still hard to find information! From the FAQ section of the readme:

What is gitPAN?
---------------
gitPAN is a project to import the entire history of CPAN (known as BackPAN) into a set of git repositories, one per distribution.

Why is gitPAN?
--------------
CPAN (and thus BackPAN) is a pile of tarballs organized by author. It is difficult to get the complete history of a distribution, especially one that has changed authors or is released by multiple authors (for example, Moose). Because releases are regularly deleted from CPAN even sites like search.cpan.org provide an incomplete history. Having the complete history of each distrubtion in its own repository makes the full distribution history easy to access.

gitPAN also hopes to make patching CPAN modules easier. Ideally you simply clone the gitPAN repository and work. New releases can be pulled and merged from gitPAN.

gitPAN hopes to showcase using a repository as an archive format, rather than a pile of tarballs. A repository is far more useful than a pile of tarballs, and contrary to many people's expectations, the repository is turning out smaller.

Finally, gitPAN is being created in the hope that "if you build it they will come". Getting data out of CPAN in an automated fashion has traditionally been difficult.

Where is gitPAN?
----------------
The repositories are on github.com at http://github.com/gitpan (watch out, it may overload your browser).

Code, discussion, and issues can be had at http://github.com/schwern/gitpan.

[...]

How can I contact gitPAN?
-------------------------

Email:   schwern+gitpan@gmail.com
Web:     http://github.com/gitpan/
Dev:     http://github.com/schwern/gitpan
Issues:  http://github.com/schwern/gitpan/issues
Twitter: #gitpan

Links:

google search for [github cpan]

http://google.com/search?q=github+cpan

google search for [gitpan]

http://google.com/search?q=gitpan

gitpan at github -- 21,976 public repositories and counting!

Schwern's announcement of gitpan on his use.perl blog.

http://use.perl.org/~schwern/journal/39972

http://github.com/gitpan

discussion of gitpan and code:

http://github.com/schwern/gitpan

gitpan issues:

http://github.com/schwern/gitpan/issues

a page with 4 links at integra.net

http://gitpan.integra.net/