Pursuant to Re^3: Can't locate Convert/BER.pm , here is a suggested version for "A guide to installing modules for Win32 (2022 Edition)"

After any suggested updates (I don't pretend to be an expert, so feel free to correct and nitpick), would this go better as a reply to holli's original A guide to installing modules for Win32, or as a new top-level post in the Tutorials section?

I included the case-sensitivity section because that was an issue in the recent thread Can't locate Convert/BER.pm, even though I'm not sure how general-use that note really is, or whether it really belongs in this tutorial.

Updates: Here is a history of the edits made as a result of suggestions.

1. Fix cpan arguments (per brian_d_foy's reply)
2. Add perl Makefile.PL to the "standard recipe" (per syphilis's reply)
3. Switch to a table, to avoid & (avoiding single & per many recommendations)
4. Fix formatting syntax (per Discipulus's reply)
5. Add a note about alternative build recipes (to cover Build.PL and possibly others)
6. Add a note about incompatible modules
7. s/skill/system/ in the last paragraph (per hippo's comment

A guide to installing modules for Win32 (2022 Edition)

Nearly two decades later, holli's excellent A guide to installing modules for Win32 could use some updated information.

ActiveState phased out using PPM in 2021 (¹), so starting with ActivePerl 5.28, PPM is no longer included.

And since 2008 (²), there's been an alternative distribution, Strawberry Perl, which comes with it's own gcc/g++ compiler and build environment. Modern Strawberry Perl versions not require using PPM for installation either (though it still ships with a PPM client, if you can find PPM repositories to use it with), so the original Win32 Guide's PPM instructions are not as useful as they once were.

ActiveState's ActivePerl

The modern method of "installing" modules on ActivePerl, as announced in The ActiveState Platform and Perl 5.32, is to make a binary build with the State Tool, where you tell it all the modules you need, and it will provide a binary build with all of those modules (and their dependencies) already installed.

Strawberry Perl

One of the benefits of Strawberry Perl is that they include a working gcc/g++ compiler and build environment, complete with a variant of make (dmake for older versions, gmake for newer versions; see perl -V:make to find out which your copy of Strawberry Perl uses) that means you can easily build and install modules similarly to how it's done on Linux and other OS:

The default CPAN.pm client comes with Strawberry Perl, so installing Some::Module as easy as cpan Some::Module. Strawberry Perl also comes pre-installed with cpanm, an alternative CPAN client that handles dependencies, allowing installation with cpanm Some::Module. You can install cpanplus or other of the advanced CPAN clients on Strawberry Perl as well.

Finally, if you are a traditionalist and want to manually build using the traditional recipe, you can look at the output of perl -V:make and then pick the appropriate variant of the recipe:

perl Makefile.PL
make
make test
make install
[download]

perl Makefile.PL
dmake
dmake test
dmake install
[download]

perl Makefile.PL
gmake
gmake test
gmake install
[download]

Some modules may specify their own recipe for building and installing. If so, then try following their directions; the Strawberry build environment is pretty good. But if they specify a different recipe, it doesn't work, and the CPAN-client options don't work, you should file a bug report with the author, because any distributed module should be installable using cpan, cpanm, cpanplus and the like.

For any of these installation techniques: If you have an installed copy of Strawberry Perl, your path should point to the Perl and C binaries already; if you have a portable copy of Strawberry Perl, you may need to run portableshell.bat to get the environment set up correctly.

Other Alternatives

If you have built your own Perl, or for Windows Subsystem for Linux, or cygwin, or other Windows tools that provide bash or bash-like environments, you should still be able to follow the instructions in the original A Guide to Installing Modules for installing, or use cpanm or cpanplus or other clients not mentioned in the original guide.

Win32 Caveat: Module Case Sensitivity

File names on Windows are not case-sensitive, so some Windows users are used to typing PATHS IN ALL CAPS. Do not type module names in all caps, even when using a CPAN client from the Windows command line (cmd.exe or powershell), as Perl and the CPAN tools will not treat SOME::MODULE and Some::Module the same, even if they resolve to the same ...\Some\Module.pm file.

Windows Incompatibility

Please note that some modules have been created in such a way that they are incompatible with the Windows operating system. This guide cannot help you install and use a module that is not compatible with your OS. (You can check the CPAN Testers reports linked from the metacpan.org page for each module: if it doesn't show any passing results on the mswin32 platform, you may have difficulty installing the module.)