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PPM Trouble...help please!!

by Billy (Novice)
on Sep 20, 2000 at 15:41 UTC ( [id://33267]=perlquestion: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??

Billy has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi guys.
I'm using Active Perl (v5.618) on my p.c. running Win98 and I'm attempting to install a few modules.
I have set up all the repositories as in the documentation as well as a local one but when I try to install some modules it says it could not locate a PPM binary of the_module for this platform.
It does however allow me to download and install some modules such as DB_File and File-Slurp but not Net-Daemon.
I have also downloaded the zip files for the troublesome modules and ran

ppm install <the module>

in the same directory and it still says it cannot find it!
I am connecting the the web via a proxy server which I have added to my C:\AutoExec.bat file.

Is there a problem with win98 and the PPM?
Is there something I have forgotten to do?
Thanks in advance.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: PPM Trouble...help please!!
by Ugly (Beadle) on Sep 20, 2000 at 17:01 UTC
    There's an excellent article by Jenda Krynicky in an old issue of PerlMonth which covers the whole issue of installing modules into Win32 Perl, its well worth a read. If you follow all the steps listed and you still can get everything to work then you definately have a problem.

    --Ugly

      Cheers Ugly I'll take a look at that!

      Billy.
Re: PPM Trouble...help please!!
by little (Curate) on Sep 20, 2000 at 16:08 UTC
    Hi Billy, I'm using AP as well, but the ppm is trying to connecdt to the modlue repository you have chosen, so please read the the ActivePerlDoc, e.g. "..Perl\html\faq\ActivePerl-faq2.html" for detailed information, especially the section about proxies and firewalls. So the reason seems simply to be, that ppm is looking for the modules in a different location than you do.
    so try following:
    c:\ppm
    PPM>install \location DIR PACKAGE
    where "DIR" specifies the directory on your system, but instead of givibg this "DIR" you can also pass an URL here.
    to read more, use "PPM>help install"
    So far ..
      Hi thanks for the reply.
      I have tried what you suggested but it still does not seem to work. What I did was:

      PPM>install --location=http://www.activestate.co./PPMPackages/5.005/ Net-Daemon.ppd

      and also

      install http://www.activestate.co./PPMPackages/5.005/Net-Daemon.ppd

      Does it work when you execute this command?
      I think I will have a read of the perlmonth article pointed out by Ugly below!

      Thanks.

      Billy.
(Guildenstern) RE: PPM Trouble...help please!!
by Guildenstern (Deacon) on Sep 20, 2000 at 17:56 UTC
    I've noticed the same problem as well, and the only thing that I can come up with is that ActiveState's repository is a much smaller subset of what's available on CPAN. Your best bet is to grab nmake from Microsoft, and use it to install modules that you download directly from CPAN. I haven't had any problems yet, but you'll need to remember that documentation does not get updated automatically this way as it does using PPM. Therefore, you'll most likey have to use pod2html and link it in to the ActiveState online html docs somehow.
    Hope this helps!

    Guildenstern
    Negaterd character class uber alles!

      Don't rely on the ActiveState docs too much, they tend to get corrupted after awhile. I've installed a bunch of modules on my workstation and eventually you end up with duplicate entries, old non-updated entries, and stuff that just didn't get added. And it crashes some older browsers.

      Still a great tool to have around, just a couple problems I've run into...

      Even .ppd files such as http://www.activestate.co./PPMPackages/5.005/Net-Daemon.ppd which I know exist still don't get recognised.
      Is this the same problem you are having?
      By the way what operating system are you using win9* or NT?

      Cheers

      Billy
        I'm running NT4, and I just checked with PPM and I don't show Net-Daemon, either. I did, however, find a link that will let you download the file directly. Try this link, and download the .zip of the package that you're looking for. I went ahead and got Net-Daemon.zip, which includes source and a .ppd file.
        According to the readme, you should be able to just enter "ppm install Net-Daemon.ppd", but it doesn't work on my system. It complains of not being able to find a binary for my platform.

        Update: After some investigating, this is what I discovered: the link above takes you directly to the 5.005 download directory, the contents of which PPM won't install into ActivePerl 5.6. There is another directory at http://www.activestate.com/PPMPackages/5.6/ that contains everything that doing a search under PPM will show you. Net-Daemon does not exist in this directory, so I couldn't test if it would install correctly. Netscape-History does exist in both locations, so I tried it:
        • From 5.005 directory: install failed complaining about no binary found, etc.
        • From 5.6 directory: installed, no problems.
        The only thing I can conclude is that PPM does some version checking, and that if you really want packages that don't show up in the 5.6 directory, you'll have to get them from CPAN instead.

        Guildenstern
        Negaterd character class uber alles!
Re: PPM Trouble...help please!!
by Anonymous Monk on Sep 20, 2000 at 20:25 UTC
    PPM gets the base URL for searching and installing from c:\perl\lib\site\ppm.xml

    In 5.005, it's as follows: <LOCATION>http://www.activestate.com/packages</LOCATION> Within recent history, there've been problems with aliasing on the ActiveState web site that prevented PPM from working unless the LOCATION in ppm.xml was manually editted.

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