I just tried downloading Sys::Alarm. The .tgz file contains one file: Sys/AlarmCall.pm. There is no Readme file and no Makefile.pl. To install it you should presumably just copy it into a directory that is searched for perl modules. You can get a list of them by running

 perl -e 'print join("\n", @INC);'

or put it in a new directory and put

use lib "/my/directory/name/";

at the top of your program.

Update: Ooops. I just tried following the CPAN link Sys::Alarm that I gave above and got a file which did include a Makefile.PL etc. I somehow found an old version (1.1) before which didn't. It sounds from what you say in your question and your comment about that you did too. It would explain why it was claiming not to find Makefile.PL, and you did say that you just got Sys/AlarmCall.pm out of the tgz file. Try following this link and getting version 1.2.

In reply to Re: Newbie Adding Module to Perl by Bilbo
in thread Newbie Adding Module to Perl by from_laura

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.