For general ppm debugging, always turn on verbosity, and if that's not helpful, turn on LWP::Debug ( perl -MLWP::Debug=+ -S ppm).

Now to your particular error message, its looks like an error message generated by ipconf. PPM apparently isn't telling you which URL it's trying when it gets that message, but I wouldn't leap to the conclusion that its ExpatXS, especially since it is available from theoryx5. It looks more like a DNS problem than anything else (but you only show the top of the html returned).

Finally, shouldn't there be some kind of mechanism to prevent the publishing of ppds with dependencies that don't play nice with ppm?
No.
Would it be appropriate to notify randy kobes that this ppd causes problems?
Sure, but I'd contact him with more information than you've presented, something reproducible (if theoryx5 is having DNS problems, he might be in a position to fix it).

update: As a general note, since the theoryx5 repository is now being mirrored as part of the apache project, I'd try one of these mirrors (http://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi/perl/win32-bin/ppms/) if its close .

MJD says "you can't just make shit up and expect the computer to know what you mean, retardo!"
I run a Win32 PPM repository for perl 5.6.x and 5.8.x -- I take requests (README).
** The third rule of perl club is a statement of fact: pod is sexy.

In reply to Re: PPM Hell: "PPM::PPD::init: not a PPD and not a file" by PodMaster
in thread PPM Hell: "PPM::PPD::init: not a PPD and not a file" by tphyahoo

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