i have just upgraded to redhat 9, and was using 8.0 and the "8.1 beta" before this. i'm trying to install the CDB_File-0.92 module from CPAN. it worked correctly under 8.0, but with the beta version and now with 9, it generates the following:

> tar xvf CDB_File-0.92.tar.gz
> cd CDB_File-0.92
> perl Makefile.PL
Checking if your kit is complete...
Looks good
Writing Makefile for CDB_File
> make
Makefile:82: *** missing separator.  Stop.

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looking at the Makefile it generated, i find the following... 
76 INSTALLARCHLIB = /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.0/i386-linux-thread-multi
77 INSTALLSITEARCH =
78 INSTALLVENDORARCH = /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8
79 INSTALLBIN = /usr/bin'
80 installhtml1dir=''
81 installhtml3dir=''
82 installman1
83 INSTALLSITEBIN = /usr
84 INSTALLVENDORBIN = /usr/bin'
85 installvendorhtml1=''
86 installvendorhtml3=''
87 installvendorlib='/u
88 INSTALLSCRIPT = /usr/bin

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the extraneous lines (80-82, 85-87, etc.) are physically in this order in the /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.0/i386-linux-thread-multi/Config.pm file (as installed by the "perl-5.8.0-88" RPM file included with RedHat 9.) i don't see any obvious problems with the Config.pm file itself (i.e. missing or doubled quotes, etc.)

again, the exact same thing happened with the 8.1 beta, but it worked with 8.0.

searching google finds references to making sure you have tabs instead of spaces in the Makefile itself. however, i think the Makefile itself shows the problem (there's no ":" or "=" on the line, and it doesn't start with a tab, so make doesn't know what to do with it.)

i have also noticed the same thing happening (random three- and four-line blocks of Config.pm appearing in the generated Makefile) when building other modules, such as MD5.pm and CPAN.pm.

is this a redhat-specific issue? is it a bug in ExtUtils::MakeMaker? other ideas?

update (broquaint): title change (was Makefile problem)

In reply to problem building CDB_File-0.92 - Makefile:82: *** missing separator by jms1

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