[CentOS] Perl Module Question

To safely make Perl modules from CPAN in Solaris, I used this procedure:

mkdir /opt/cpan
chmod 777 /opt/cpan
chown joe:101 /opt/cpan
PERL5LIB=$PERL5LIB:/opt/cpan
export PERL5LIB
/usr/perl5/bin/perlgcc -MCPAN -e shell

Also, ~/.cpan/CPAN/MyConfig.pm specifically had
'makepl_arg' => q[LIB=/opt/cpan PREFIX=/opt/cpan INSTALLMAN3DIR=/opt/cpan/man/man3],

Does this make sense in CentOS as well when the modules just aren't available and using
cpan2rpm has me chasing my tail endlessly on deps?

Thanks!
jlc