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

Hi All

I have compiled Perl on a Solaris and a RHEL machine. The compile is MUCH faster on the RHEL machine; however when I start installing the list of Modules I need, the RHEL machine takes significantly longer to install. It seems to get 'stuck' for a while on each module just after the message 

Checking if your kit is complete...
Looks good

[download]

On the Solaris machine all the same modules fly past this message. The RHEL sits there after the message for about 5 minutes before continuing :(

It has this 5 or more minute 'pause' again during each install just after a line like this 

/opt/app/release/perl/linux/5.18.2-7/bin/perl /opt/app/release/perl/li
+nux/5.18.2-7/lib/5.18.2/ExtUtils/xsubpp  -typemap /opt/app/release/pe
+rl/linux/5.18.2-7/lib/5.18.2/ExtUtils/typemap -typemap typemap  Perl.
+xs > Perl.xsc && mv Perl.xsc Perl.c

[download]

Any ideas why its running so frustratingly slow on these CPAN module installs when doing the same thing on another system (Solaris) is way faster? The RHEL is a much faster server.

thanks!

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: CPAN module install really slow (passive FTP)
by tye (Sage) on Jul 13, 2015 at 13:38 UTC

    The default list of URLs starts with FTP URL(s) which will fail (after a significant time-out) for the vast majority of systems (that are behind some kind of firewall) unless you have "passive FTP" configured (which was not the default for many years).

    - tye        

[reply]
      Hi

      It has nothing to do with downloading the modules as far as I can see. I manually configured CPAN, have added a proxy and set the server to download from.

      Also you can see when something is downloading from the on screen logs and it takes a very short time before it starts the Make process, as in my first post, I was clear that it happens right after the text 

      Checking if your kit is complete...
Looks good

      [download]
      which happens after the module is downloaded.

[reply]
[d/l]
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Re: CPAN module install really slow
by marto (Cardinal) on Jul 13, 2015 at 08:47 UTC

    The OS is different and I guess the hardware will be different also, disk speed etc, so perhaps not a level playing field for comparison. Have you installed CPAN::SQLite and configured your cpan client to use this?

    cpan> o conf use_sqlite 1 push

    [download]

    You may also find using cpanm faster than cpan.

[reply]
[d/l]
      Hi marto thanks for your reply, I will give both of those a try. The RHEL box should be must faster along with all the infrastructure around it. I realise there could be a host of reason for this difference but it does not make any sense to me the length of time it takes to do an install. It should be lightning fast on these servers! Ill report back with my updates on your suggestions in a while
[reply]

        Perhaps there's a difference in the cpan config, but architecture differences can be huge. At work I've experienced far too many problems cause by poor system configuration to rule such things out. Regardless how many times I'm assured "everything is the same" or "everything is configured properly" it usually turns out not to be the case. Yes, our clients employ poor systems architects and administrators.

[reply]
      Hi marto

      I have now installed cpanm and its lightning fast as I would expect. Have no idea what, where or how to configure things to get CPAN working as I would expect but guess I can continue to use cpanm.

      Thanks
[reply]

        Within a cpan session o conf will display the current configuration. I mentioned previously the CPAN::SQLite config change, or you could compare settings across systems, though if you're happy with cpanm I'm pretty sure you'll stick with it.

[reply]
[d/l]

        I think I spoke too soon.

        It appears to be the Makefile.PL that is taking ages and for every module install? 

        ps -ef | grep cpanm
admtst 10665 18671  0 13:01 pts/1    00:00:00 /opt/app/release/perl/li
+nux/5.18.2-7/bin/perl 5.18.2-7/bin/cpanm --verbose LWP::UserAgent

pstree -pa 10665
cpanm,10665 5.18.2-7/bin/cpanm --verbose LWP::UserAgent
  `-perl,11170 Makefile.PL

        [download]
        Yes if I do manual install of any of these modules it pretty instant.
[reply]
[d/l]

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