cpan problems with 02packages.details.txt.gz

I'm getting complaints about 02packages.details.txt.gz when I'm trying to install a package with cpan. The error is "Warning: Your /root/.cpan/sources/modules/02packages.details.txt.gz does not contain a Line-Count header. "

Apparently, according to cpan, this is not a valid zip file, which it isn't. It's just a web page which I'll paste later. I do not use a proxy and I had five mirrors in my configuration. I've deleted one then the next off the list and I'm still getting the same data back. I have deleted the file and attempted to allow cpan to fetch it again. I have fetched the page with curl and I'm seeing a web page and not anything that looks like a gz file.

I have tried "install cpan" from the cpan command line in case I missed an update but that runs into the exact same problem.

Example fetch:

curl http://noodle.portalus.net/CPAN/modules/02packages.details.txt.gz

Result (parts obsfucated)

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Script-Type" content="text/javascript">
<script type="text/javascript">
function getCookie(c_name) { // Local function for getting a cookie value
    if (document.cookie.length > 0) {
        c_start = document.cookie.indexOf(c_name + "=");
        if (c_start!=-1) {
        c_start=c_start + c_name.length + 1;
        c_end=document.cookie.indexOf(";", c_start);

        if (c_end==-1)
            c_end = document.cookie.length;

        return unescape(document.cookie.substring(c_start,c_end));
        }
    }
    return "";
}
function setCookie(c_name, value, expiredays) { // Local function for setting a value of a cookie
    var exdate = new Date();
    exdate.setDate(exdate.getDate()+expiredays);
    document.cookie = c_name + "=" + escape(value) + ((expiredays==null) ? "" : ";expires=" + exdate.toGMTString()) + ";path=/";
}
function getHostUri() {
    var loc = document.location;
    return loc.toString();
}
setCookie('XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXiw_9289NNNNNNNNJAX666', 'MY.IP.ADDRESS.HERE', 10);
try {
    location.reload(true);
} catch (err1) {
    try {
        location.reload();
    } catch (err2) {
        location.href = getHostUri();
    }
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<noscript>This site requires JavaScript and Cookies to be enabled. Please change your browser settings or upgrade your browser.</noscript>
</body>
</html>

Note that this is the same as the contents as fetched by cpan.

Solution

CPAN stands for Comprehensive Perl Archive Network. The network once consisted of a slew of mirrors, but this has been replaced with a transparent Content Delivery Network (CDN).

The once-valuable service offered by the mirrors is therefore no longer needed, so many sites have ceased mirroring CPAN. It appears to be the case for the mirror your cpan is configured to use.

A simple configuration change is needed to fix the issue. From within the cpan tool, use either

o conf init urllist

o conf urllist http://www.cpan.org/

The first picks a mirror from the "official" list. There is only one URL in the list: http://www.cpan.org/. The second picks that URL directly.

To save the changes, follow up with

o conf commit

(This may not be necessary for everyone, but there's no harm in always using it.)

Example:

C:\Users\ikegami>cpan
Loading internal logger. Log::Log4perl recommended for better logging
Unable to get Terminal Size. The Win32 GetConsoleScreenBufferInfo call didn't work. The COLUMNS and LINES environment variables didn't work. at C:\progs\sp5032001001\perl\vendor\lib/Term/ReadLine/readline.pm line 410.

cpan shell -- CPAN exploration and modules installation (v2.28)
Enter 'h' for help.

cpan> o conf init urllist

Now you need to choose your CPAN mirror sites.  You can let me
pick mirrors for you, you can select them from a list or you
can enter them by hand.

Would you like me to automatically choose some CPAN mirror
sites for you? (This means connecting to the Internet) [yes] y

Trying to fetch a mirror list from the Internet
Fetching with LWP:
init/MIRRORED.BY
Fetching with LWP:
init/MIRRORED.BY.gz
Fetching with LWP:
http://www.perl.org/CPAN/MIRRORED.BY

Looking for CPAN mirrors near you (please be patient)
.. done!

New urllist
  http://www.cpan.org/

commit: wrote 'C:\progs\sp5032001001\perl\lib/CPAN/Config.pm'

cpan> quit
Lockfile removed.

C:\Users\ikegami>

commit: wrote indicates the changes were saved, so I didn't need to use o conf commit.