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

Dear Monks,

PPM
If i search any module it shows error as below:

ppm> search tk Searching in Active Repositories Error: No valid repositories: Error: 500 Can't connect to ppm.ActiveState.com:80 (Bad hostname 'ppm. +ActiveState.com') Error: 500 Can't connect to ppm.ActiveState.com:80 (Bad hostname 'ppm. +ActiveState.com') ppm>

But directly browse the hostname 'ppp.ActiveState.com', i got the web page.

PMM
I try to install some modules using PMM, but some of the modules are install successfully and some of the modules shows 'Error Executing nmake'. For example, Win32::GUI module.

Please provide suggestion for these problems.

Thanks in Advance.

Regards,
RIO

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: PPM & PMM problems
by pg (Canon) on Aug 03, 2005 at 04:53 UTC

    Do you access internet through proxy? If so, you have to set up environment variables (HTTP_proxy, HTTP_proxy_user, HTTP_proxy_pass) to make PPM go through the proxy (the later two are only required if your proxy requires user name and password). There is a section in PPM document about this.

    Or it could be that your internet access timed out, for example you were downloading something big at that time.

Re: PPM & PMM problems
by ikegami (Patriarch) on Aug 03, 2005 at 05:08 UTC

    It's sounds like your web browser uses a proxy, but you didn't tell PPM about it. The docs mention setting the environment var HTTP_proxy to the URL of the proxy. In addition, it apparently checks for values in env vars HTTP_proxy_user and HTTP_proxy_pass. Set these if the proxy requires authentication.

    Update: bah, the other post didn't use to say how to configure PPM to use the proxy. This post is rather redundant now.

Re: PPM & PMM problems
by holli (Abbot) on Aug 03, 2005 at 06:31 UTC
Re: PPM & PMM problems
by inman (Curate) on Aug 03, 2005 at 07:42 UTC
    The problem is likely to be proxy related as mentioned previously. If you continue to have problems installing from a repository then you can download and install the PPDs manually.

    The zipped PPDs can be downloaded from ActiveState at http://ppm.activestate.com/PPMPackages/zips/. All you need to do is download and unzip the PPDs that you want and install from the command line. Have a look at your ActiveState documentation for details.

    Downloading the PPDs is also useful for distribution. You can download the PPDs that you need to installation a target machine and then do the install from the command line (or via a batch file). The installer then doesn't need to worry about Internet connectivity or using the ppm command line.

    ppm3 install config-inifiles\Config-IniFiles.ppd ppm3 install mail-sender\Mail-Sender.ppd

      Monks, I have run the ppm line in the command prompt. But it shows an error as follows:

      ppm> rep add Local "D:\VelusamyR\Down\PPM Downloaded" Repositories: [1] ActiveState PPM2 Repository [2] ActiveState Package Repository [3] Local ppm> quit D:\VelusamyR\Down\PPM Downloaded>ppm3 install Win32-GUI\Win32-GUI.ppd Error: no suitable installation target found for package Win32-GUI. D:\VelusamyR\Down\PPM Downloaded>

      And also i am set the repositary for that particular path shown as above.

      Give sugestion in this regards.

      Regards,
      RIO

        My guess is that you have downloaded the zipped package and then unzipped it without recreating the directory structure or you downloaded a PPD for a different version of perl.

        You should end up with a ppd file and a sub-directory that reflects your perl version and operating system. If you are using Windows and Perl 5.8.x then the subdirectory will be called MSWin32-x86-multi-thread-5.8

        You may also want to check that the ppd targets the version of perl that you have. e.g. 5.6.x or 5.8.x

        You don't need to add the local disk as a repository. You can just specify the file path.