Did I just mess up system Perl? I am currently setting up a backup script on a macOS Sierra machine. In the logs some warnings related to the tool appeared, so I looked them up. Seems like this is caused by a missing Lchown Perl module, so I set out to install it (being a complete newbie to everything Perl related).

Following a guide I found, I started with running sudo cpan and following on screen configuration instructions. This seems to have done quite a lot and now I am unsure if I messed with the OS' Perl installation.

According to the install logs, a directory .cpan and perl5 have been created in my user's directory at Users/me/– this is probably okay. The log also indicates that a lot of files have been copied, like: cp lib/ExtUtils/MakeMaker/version.pm blib/lib/ExtUtils/MakeMaker/version.pm, and I neither know the from nor the to location.


Did I do anything harmful to my system's Perl installation running the above command?
Can I somehow easily reverse the installation process? Should I?
Most probably you did not do anything harmful. It would be easier to tell if you can remember which CPAN commands, you've entered.

It is perfectly normal that the first run of CPAN creates the directories mentioned, downloads various files containing package indexes, etc. It potentially also updates various packages that forms the basis of CPAN itself, as well as packages that are depended on by the Lchown package, you're trying to install.

All in all - you're most probably completely fine.