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

Annoying * Annoying * Annoying

I have installed and reinstalled Perl 8.5 so many times and every time I try p.p.m I get this in return: 
Panic: Can't find bfs section

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Does anyone know a remedy for this and why is this happening?

below is the output of perl -V. 
C:\Perl>perl -V
Summary of my perl5 (revision 5 version 8 subversion 0) configuration:
  Platform:
    osname=MSWin32, osvers=4.0, archname=MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
    uname=''
    config_args='undef'
    hint=recommended, useposix=true, d_sigaction=undef
    usethreads=undef use5005threads=undef useithreads=define usemultip
+licity=define
    useperlio=define d_sfio=undef uselargefiles=define usesocks=undef
    use64bitint=undef use64bitall=undef uselongdouble=undef
    usemymalloc=n, bincompat5005=undef
  Compiler:
    cc='cl', ccflags ='-nologo -Gf -W3 -MD -Zi -DNDEBUG -O1 -DWIN32 -D
+_CONSOLE -DNO_STRICT -DHAVE_DES_FCRYPT  -DPERL_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT -DPER
    optimize='-MD -Zi -DNDEBUG -O1',
    cppflags='-DWIN32'
    ccversion='', gccversion='', gccosandvers=''
    intsize=4, longsize=4, ptrsize=4, doublesize=8, byteorder=1234
    d_longlong=undef, longlongsize=8, d_longdbl=define, longdblsize=10
    ivtype='long', ivsize=4, nvtype='double', nvsize=8, Off_t='__int64
+', lseeksize=8
    alignbytes=8, prototype=define
  Linker and Libraries:
    ld='link', ldflags ='-nologo -nodefaultlib -debug -opt:ref,icf  -l
+ibpath:"C:\Perl\lib\CORE"  -machine:x86'
    libpth="C:\Perl\lib\CORE"
    libs=  oldnames.lib kernel32.lib user32.lib gdi32.lib winspool.lib
+  comdlg32.lib advapi32.lib shell32.lib ole32.lib oleaut32.lib  netap
    perllibs=  oldnames.lib kernel32.lib user32.lib gdi32.lib winspool
+.lib  comdlg32.lib advapi32.lib shell32.lib ole32.lib oleaut32.lib  n
    libc=msvcrt.lib, so=dll, useshrplib=yes, libperl=perl58.lib
    gnulibc_version='undef'
  Dynamic Linking:
    dlsrc=dl_win32.xs, dlext=dll, d_dlsymun=undef, ccdlflags=' '
    cccdlflags=' ', lddlflags='-dll -nologo -nodefaultlib -debug -opt:
+ref,icf  -libpath:"C:\Perl\lib\CORE"  -machine:x86'


Characteristics of this binary (from libperl):
  Compile-time options: MULTIPLICITY USE_ITHREADS USE_LARGE_FILES PERL
+_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT PERL_IMPLICIT_SYS
  Locally applied patches:
        ActivePerl Build 806
  Built under MSWin32
  Compiled at Mar 31 2003 00:45:44
  @INC:
    C:/Perl/lib
    C:/Perl/site/lib
    .

C:\Perl>

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Thanks

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Panic: Can't find bfs section
by smitz (Chaplain) on Sep 10, 2003 at 12:56 UTC
    Grepped from Google, enjoy:

    I believe this message comes from an early beta version of PPM3. Before PPM3 was included in ActivePerl it got delivered as a beta. The beta was an executable, built with PerlApp.

    It is most likely not compatible with Perl 5.8, but either way it will be a good idea to get rid of it.

    Check your PATH to see if you have any directory in front of the Perl\bin directory that may contain a ppm.exe or ppm3.exe, and make sure you get rid of it. If this is installed into your Perl\bin directory itself, then I would assume that you also installed Perl 5.8 on top of Perl 5.6. This is a bad idea, as extension modules are not compatible between these version.

    Unfortunately the ActivePerl 5.8 installer doesn't prevent this situation. I would recommend to completely uninstall ActivePerl in this case, manually remove the remaining directory tree and then reinstall. Otherwise you may run into weird problems later, when Perl 5.6 modules that didn't get reinstalled start failing.

    Smitz

[reply]
      Fine,...Thanks and that did work... I was installing it over an earlier version..... Sorry for waisting your time.
[reply]
      I have checked the path and it fine, here it is;  PATH=C:\Perl\bin\;.;C:\perl\bin;C:\WINNT\system32;C:\WINNT;C:\ORANT\BIN;C:\ORAWIN\BIN;C:\PROGRA~1\ULTRAE~1; And I got this version from active state CD purchased and with licence.
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[d/l]
Re: Panic: Can't find bfs section
by liz (Monsignor) on Sep 10, 2003 at 12:33 UTC
    I have installed and reinstalled Perl 8.5 so many times and every time I try p.p.m I get this in return:

    I can see why that would cause a panic ;-) Makes you wonder what Larry and TheDamian have been upto without us noticing ;-)

    Other than that, I can't help you. Maybe someone else will.

    Liz

[reply]
Re: Panic: Can't find bfs section
by asarih (Hermit) on Sep 10, 2003 at 12:40 UTC
[reply]

      Google now points back here.

      I've had this error when trying to run code compiled with perlapp for 32 bit windows on a 64 bit windows machine. One solution is to compile another version for 64 bit windows machines and use that instead.



      - Boldra
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