MacOS – How to install CPAN modules from the command line on OS X

I think it depends on how many tools/libraries you need to install.

If just git then use Xcode 4 which you will need for any port package. If you are doing pure HTML/Javascripy/CSS then the git installer will work.

For python and perl and similar interpreters the the language install tools can be used unless there are complex C/C++ libraries

If only a few others then build into /usr/local

However if you have several things to install or there are complex dependencies then I would use a ports package like Fink, macports or homebrew (which is best is debatable and should be a separate discussion)

I think that a package manager will do most of what you need. I will show macports as that is the one I know but the others have similar functionality.

If you use the standard packages ie the up to date ones that have been packaged then macports will do all the dependencies for you. e.g. building scipy knows it has to build numpy first and will do it. You can also ninstall a port easily - macports will tell you if any ports depend on it. If a port is chnaged then macports will update the ports depending on it.

You can also manually chnage the port to deal with development versions of numpy for example. You will have to produce a copy of the port file and edit that see macports guide. The minimum would be to change the version and the rules for downloading so you get different code but can include many patches for OSX specific functions.

You can keep track of what you have installed by port list (also more advanced calls to minimise the number of commands you need. The changes you made will be in your local Portfile repository which will need to be backed up and a small change to the defualt macports config made.