[Israel.pm] Problem with cpan for regular user

[Omer Zak]

My environment is Linux Debian Etch, using "Perl 5.8.8 built for
i486-linux-gnu-thread-multi".
I want to install, for a single user, Perl modules which are not already
Debian packages, using cpan.

I start with clean slate (after rm -rf ~/.cpan), invoke 'cpan' and
configure it, accepting defaults (the chosen mirror is
http://mirror.mirimar.net/cpan/).

When trying to install modules, I get error messages when trying to
mkdir system directories such as
/usr/local/lib/perl, /usr/local/man/man1, etc.

Neither '?' inside cpan nor 'perldoc cpan' provided me with answers to
the following question:

    How do I configure cpan to create those directories in user's
    home directory (or preferably somewhere inside ~/.cpan), and
    then use them when installing stuff?

I tried also the following, unsuccessfully:
* http://www.perl.com/pub/a/CPAN/misc/cpan-faq.html
* http://perldoc.perl.org/5.8.8/cpan.html

http://perldoc.perl.org/5.8.8/perlfaq8.html#How-do-I-keep-my-own-module/library-directory%3F
expects me to invoke
'perl Makefile.PL PREFIX=/mydir/perl LIB=/mydir/perl/lib'
But it seems to require me to run Makefile.PL separately for each module
to be installed, rather than let cpan manage all this automatically.
Also, it does not document any prefix for /usr/local/man/man1.

So:
Where can I find answer to my question?

                                       Thanks,
                                            --- Omer


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