Delete/Reinstall Perl

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

Had need to reinstall Ubuntu 12.04. Have Perl programs I have used for a very long time. They use the libdate-calc-perl for Date::Format and Date::Calc apparnatly. Synaptic shows libdate-calc-perl to be installed.

When I run the program I get the following:

Can't locate Date/Format.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/perl/5.14.2 /usr/local/share/perl/5.14.2 /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/perl/5.14 /usr/share/perl/5.14 /usr/local/lib/site_perl .) at GasProg line 9. BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at GasProg line 9.

Date/Format.pm is not present. Should be in /usr/share/perl5.

The program runs fine on another machine.

I compared items in directory items and found many items missing in the following items: /usr/share/perl5 /usr/local/share/perl/5.14.2 (No such file or directory) /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/share/perl5

Would it be wise to remove perl and later do a fresh install?

Comment on Delete/Reinstall Perl

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Re: Delete/Reinstall Perl by rjt (Curate) on Jun 03, 2013 at 01:08 UTC
I wouldn't recommend trying to remove the base Ubuntu Perl. It is used extensively by the system and many other software packages that are part of the base installation. Unfortunately, I don't think current Ubuntu has a package for Date::Format (it would be called `libdate-format-perl`) My recommendation would be to use CPAN (or http://cpanmin.us), and possibly install your own Perl via Perlbrew. This last step is not strictly necessary, but the Ubuntu base Perl tends to lag behind a few versions. Perlbrew is careful not to interfere with the base Perl on the system.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Delete/Reinstall Perl by locked_user sundialsvc4 (Abbot) on Jun 03, 2013 at 13:33 UTC
You should be able to resolve this problem, without Draconian action, once you fully understand it. Use the `set` command to list the environment-variables, and see if `PERL5LIB` is among them, and if so, what does it say. It should be a list of directories, separated by colon `:` characters. Try `cat ~/.bash_profile` (notice the period ...) and see if it contains commands to set a value to that variable. If so, type the same command again, minus the word `cat`, and try again what you did before. If that throws an error, try substituting `source` for `cat`. Or, log off and on again. Try `locate Format\.pm` to see if the file is (or was ...) anywhere at all, and if so, where. If you are using packages to maintain your system, try force-reinstalling the package that contains the module that you seek. A convenient “one-liner” for checking if a module exists is: `perl -MDate::Format -e '0;'` ... or if you prefer ... `perl -e 'use Date::Format;'` ... in both cases using single quotes. The command, `perl -V`, with a capital V, will produce a lot of information including the current and complete set of directories that will be searched (in order) to find any module. It takes into account the `$PERL5LIB` setting along with everything else.
Re^2: Delete/Reinstall Perl by oldcity13 (Initiate) on Jul 12, 2013 at 17:11 UTC
After much thought and re installs of Ubuntu 12.04.2 I compared installed perl items from my laptop that the perl programs worked to the 12.04.2 install and found a number of missing lib functions missing. I installed the some 35 items and lo and behold the programs worked. I would be happy to furnish the list of missing lib items. oldcity13	[reply]