Hi: I am the original poster, who created an account just to ask this question, and then forgot to log in while asking it. (hence, the Anonymous Monk thing.. ) Oops.

First of all, thank you everyone for your help.

Locking filename.lck is a good solution which I did not think of. I would still love to get a newer storable module working, though that would probably be a perfectly fine last resort.

Crazy Insomniac: Your PPM site is a most excellent service, and I am very glad to know about it! I am, unfortunately, using Perl 5.005_03. I would just upgrade to 5.6, but then I have a feeling that some of my existing binary modules might fail (dbi, dbd?), or even to 5.8, but then even more might fail. I am going to experiment with this one night when I have more time. Do you think it will result in having to re-install many modules? If you are able to compile a Storable 2.04 for Perl 5.005_03 on win32 without much trouble, that would be my easiest option, and I'd be very appreciative. This is what happens when I try. Any ideas?

C:\Storable-2.04>perl Makefile.pl
Warning: prerequisite Test::More 0.41 not found at (eval 1) line 220.
Usage: xsubpp [-v] [-C++] [-except] [-prototypes] [-noversioncheck] [-
+nolinenumb
ers] [-s pattern] [-typemap typemap]... file.xs
Writing Makefile for Storable


C:\Storable-2.04>nmake

Microsoft (R) Program Maintenance Utility   Version 1.50
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corp 1988-94. All rights reserved.

mkdir blib
mkdir blib\lib
mkdir blib\arch
mkdir blib\arch\auto
mkdir blib\arch\auto\Storable
mkdir blib\lib\auto
mkdir blib\lib\auto\Storable
cp Storable.pm blib\lib\Storable.pm
AutoSplitting blib\lib\Storable.pm (blib\lib\auto/Storable)
        C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe -IC:\Perl\lib -IC:\Perl\lib C:\Perl\lib\E
+xtUtils/xs
ubpp  -typemap C:\Perl\lib\ExtUtils\typemap Storable.xs >xstmp.c && C:
+\Perl\bin\
perl.exe -IC:\Perl\lib -IC:\Perl\lib -MExtUtils::Command -e mv xstmp.c
+ Storable.
c
Usage: xsubpp [-v] [-C++] [-except] [-prototypes] [-noversioncheck] [-
+nolinenumb
ers] [-s pattern] [-typemap typemap]... file.xs
NMAKE : fatal error U1077: 'C:\PERL\BIN\PERL.EXE' : return code '0xff'
Stop.
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