Went to a GNU mirror and downloaded a tarball of the latest version of gdbm.

Unpacked that tarball, changed into the gdbm-1.8.3 directory, called ./configure and then make.

Unfortunately, the Makefile so created is defective. On both systems on which I tried this, the Makefile contained this code:

# File ownership and group
BINOWN = bin
BINGRP = bin
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This created problems when I later called make install. The install failed at these lines in the Makefile:

install: libgdbm.la gdbm.h gdbm.info
    $(srcdir)/mkinstalldirs $(INSTALL_ROOT)$(libdir) \
        $(INSTALL_ROOT)$(includedir) $(INSTALL_ROOT)$(man3dir) \
        $(INSTALL_ROOT)$(infodir)
    $(LIBTOOL) $(INSTALL) -c libgdbm.la $(INSTALL_ROOT)$(libdir)/libgd
+bm.la
    $(INSTALL_DATA) -o $(BINOWN) -g $(BINGRP) gdbm.h \
        $(INSTALL_ROOT)$(includedir)/gdbm.h
    $(INSTALL_DATA) -o $(BINOWN) -g $(BINGRP) $(srcdir)/gdbm.3 \
        $(INSTALL_ROOT)$(man3dir)/gdbm.3
    $(INSTALL_DATA) -o $(BINOWN) -g $(BINGRP) $(srcdir)/gdbm.info \
        $(INSTALL_ROOT)$(infodir)/gdbm.info
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... which, when the variables were interpolated, came out as:

/usr/bin/install -c -m 644 -o bin -g bin gdbm.h \
        /usr/local/include/gdbm.h
install: bin: Invalid argument
make: *** [install] Error 67
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Since bin was nonexistent as either an owner or group-member, the install failed. I hacked around this by manually editing the Makefile to assign myself to the two variables:

BINOWN = jimk
BINGRP = jimk
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make install then succeeded.

But there's more!

As I reported yesterday, GDBM_File.pm was neither built nor tested when I installed Perl -- even though a test file for this module exists in the perl 5.8.8 distribution! Instead, once Perl was installed, I took up Fletch's suggestion, changed to the ext/GDBM_File directory under .cpan/build/perl-5.8.8, and tried to build GDBM_File from the Makefile.PLfound therein.

perl Makefile.PL
make
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So far, so good!

[GDBM_File] 554 $ make test
PERL_DL_NONLAZY=1 ../../perl "-MExtUtils::Command::MM" "-e" "test_harn
+ess(0, 'blib/lib', 'blib/arch')" t/*.t
t/gdbm....Can't locate Config.pm in @INC (@INC contains: ../lib) at t/
+gdbm.t line 8.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at t/gdbm.t line 13.
t/gdbm....dubious                                                     
+       
        Test returned status 2 (wstat 512, 0x200)
FAILED--1 test script could be run, alas--no output ever seen
make: *** [test_dynamic] Error 2
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Oops! To cut to the quick, t/gdbm.t has a hard-coded assignment to @INC:

BEGIN {
    chdir 't' if -d 't';
    @INC = '../lib';
    require Config; import Config;
    if ($Config{'extensions'} !~ /\bGDBM_File\b/) {
        print "1..0 # Skip: GDBM_File was not built\n";
        exit 0;
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But when I worked around this by providing a successful value for @INC, I got this:

[GDBM_File] 574 $ prove -v t/gdbm.t 
t/gdbm....1..0 # Skip: GDBM_File was not built
skipped
        all skipped: GDBM_File was not built
All tests successful, 1 test skipped.
Files=1, Tests=0,  0 wallclock secs ( 0.01 cusr +  0.02 csys =  0.03 C
+PU)
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I was ready to throw in the towel, but I figured, "What the hell!", and called:

[GDBM_File] 575 $ sudo make install
Installing /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8/darwin-2level/auto/GDB
+M_File/GDBM_File.bs
Installing /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8/darwin-2level/auto/GDB
+M_File/GDBM_File.bundle
Files found in blib/arch: installing files in blib/lib into architectu
+re dependent library tree
Installing /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8/darwin-2level/GDBM_Fil
+e.pm
Writing /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8/darwin-2level/auto/GDBM_F
+ile/.packlist
Appending installation info to /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.8.8/darwin-2leve
+l/perllocal.pod
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... leading at long last to:

[gdbm-1.8.3] 504 $ perl -MGDBM_File -e 'print "Hello world\n";'
Hello world
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Now, is there anyone who can tell me why this process should have been so difficult? Setting aside the problem with GNU gdbm -- for which the Perl community is not responsible -- why is GDBM_File (and its C components) included in the Perl source distribution if it's not going to be installed in a typical installation?

And this is not a problem with the OSes! Last night, in order to get a headstart on solving this problem at work today, I spent two hours trying to get GDBM_File installed on my Mac OS X 10.4 system at home. I decided to take the opportunity to upgrade from 5.8.7 to 5.8.8 and installed, in the default configuration, from source, as I have done several times previously. I again noted that, during make test, t/gdbm.t was passed over.

ext/File/Glob/t/basic.....................ok
ext/File/Glob/t/case......................ok
ext/File/Glob/t/global....................ok
ext/File/Glob/t/taint.....................ok
ext/Filter/t/call.........................ok
ext/I18N/Langinfo/t/Langinfo..............ok
ext/IO/t/io_const.........................ok
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Why? Why? Why?