CPAN is an acronym staning for Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, an archive of over 12,200 modules of software written in Perl, as well as documentation for it. It has a presence on the World Wide Web at www.cpan.org and is mirrored worldwide on more than 250 locations . CPAN can denote either the archive network itself, or the Perl script that acts as an interface to the network and as an automated software installer (somewhat like a package manager). Most software on CPAN is free software.