perl on win2k

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

dear perlmonks,

this poor pilgrim is at present travailing with the task of building perl on a Win2k box. why not just install ActivePerl or some other binary distro you might ask? the problem with distributions is always the same: the lack of ready-made packages for stuff one needs. - in my particular case, DBD::Sybase and DBD::Oracle.

so the goal is to have a source-based installation that allows me to /perl -MCPAN -e "install whatever"/

as per the instuctions in the perl source distribution, I've compiled and installed perl. when running the tests some stuff failed but in general everything seems to work.

however I'm now trying to build/install DBI. I have MSYS installed and used dmake to make perl.

the first thing that happens is I get:

cpan> install DBI
Running install for module DBI
Running make for T/TI/TIMB/DBI-1.46.tar.gz
LWP not available
Fetching with Net::FTP:
  ftp://ftp.dc.aleron.net/pub/CPAN/authors/id/T/TI/TIMB/DBI-1.46.tar.g
+z
CPAN: Digest::MD5 loaded ok
LWP not available
Fetching with Net::FTP:
  ftp://ftp.dc.aleron.net/pub/CPAN/authors/id/T/TI/TIMB/CHECKSUMS
Checksum for C:\msys\1.0\home\ecalder\.cpan\sources\authors\id\T\TI\TI
+MB\DBI-1.46.tar.gz ok
Scanning cache C:\msys\1.0\home\ecalder\.cpan\build for sizes
DBI-1.46/
DBI-1.46/Driver_xst.h
DBI-1.46/DBI.xs
/usr/bin/tar: Skipping to next header

gzip: stdin: invalid compressed data--crc error
/usr/bin/tar: 352 garbage bytes ignored at end of archive
/usr/bin/tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
Uncompressed C:\msys\1.0\home\ecalder\.cpan\sources\authors\id\T\TI\TI
+MB\DBI-1.46.tar.gz successfully
Using Tar:C:\msys\1.0\bin\tar.EXE xvf C:\msys\1.0\home\ecalder\.cpan\s
+ources\authors\id\T\TI\TIMB\DBI-1.46.tar:
/usr/bin/tar: C\:\\msys\\1.0\\home\\ecalder\\.cpan\\sources\\authors\\
+id\\T\\TI\\TIMB\\DBI-1.46.tar: Cannot open: I/O error
/usr/bin/tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
Couldn't untar C:\msys\1.0\home\ecalder\.cpan\sources\authors\id\T\TI\
+TIMB\DBI-1.46.tar
[download]

however, I can do soemthing like:

# tar xzvf DBI-1.46.tar.gz
[download]

and that works... since that worked I cd into the directory and do /perl Makefile.PL/ and then /make/, which results in:

/bin/sh.exe: C:perlbinperl.exe: command not found
make: *** [blib\lib\DBI\Changes.pm] Error 127
[download]

also /dmake/ yields:

dmake.exe:  Error -- \bin\sh: No such file or directory
[download]

your wisdom is most valued.

- ekkis

Comment on perl on win2k Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: perl on win2k by JSchmitz (Canon) on Nov 30, 2004 at 21:10 UTC
ActiveState has those modules http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/search/searchModules?query=DBD I can't really see the point in what you are trying to do - I mean you are trying to build something meant for a *nix distribution on a windows machine. ActiveState has a package manager that works pretty much like the perl -MCPAN -e shell command..just install ActiveState then from the install dir go to bin then fire up ppm should look like this: `C:\Perl\bin>ppm PPM - Programmer's Package Manager version 3.1. Copyright (c) 2001 ActiveState Corp. All Rights Reserved. ActiveState is a devision of Sophos. Entering interactive shell. Using Term::ReadLine::Stub as readline lib +rary. Type 'help' to get started. ppm> install DBD::Oracle` [download] cheers Jeffery	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: perl on win2k by ekkis (Initiate) on Dec 01, 2004 at 01:37 UTC
`ppm> install DBD::Oracle` [download] if only it were that simple. another module I can't seem to find: Sybase::DBlib	[reply] [d/l]
Re^3: perl on win2k by Anonymous Monk on Dec 02, 2004 at 12:25 UTC
search first, install later	[reply]
Re^2: perl on win2k by ekkis (Initiate) on Dec 01, 2004 at 01:52 UTC
> I can't really see the point in what you are trying to do one other thing that just kills me: `# perl -D -le 'print "ok"' Recompile perl with -DDEBUGGING to use -D switch` [download] grr...	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: perl on win2k by ekkis (Initiate) on Nov 30, 2004 at 23:24 UTC
> I can't really see the point in what you are trying to do it's really more about the freedom to be able to install any module from CPAN I may need without being held hostage by the lack of a package than about compiling perl. I have found package support poor and to date I cannot make DBD::Sybase/Oracle work on anything above 5.6.0 > ppm> install DBD::Oracle I get: `Searching for 'DBD::Oracle' returned no results. Try a broader search +first.` [download] evn after adding the esoftmatic repository that olivierp pointed me to... and if I download the files myself and install them e.g. /ppm install DBD-Sybase.ppd/, trying to use I get errors: `perl -le ' use DBI; use DBD::Sybase; '` [download] yields: `The context allocation routine failed. The following problem caused the failure: Invalid context version.` [download] it is SO painful to work in w2k! ah!!!	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: perl on win2k by DaWolf (Curate) on Dec 01, 2004 at 06:13 UTC
it's really more about the freedom to be able to install any module from CPAN I may need without being held hostage by the lack of a package than about compiling perl. Take a look at these Tutorials on the Monastery: HowTo build and distribute a PPMed module for Win32 A Practical Guide to Compiling C based Modules under ActiveState using Microsoft C++ Hope that helps. Er Galvão Abbott www.galvao.eti.br Porto Alegre Perl Mongers	[reply]
Re: perl on win2k by olivierp (Hermit) on Nov 30, 2004 at 21:16 UTC
While these 2 modules may not be the only ones you want / need, and that having your own source-based distribution has its advantages, I suggest you take a look here for DBI related ppm's for Win32. Those packages are frequently up-to-date with CPAN. There are also lots of other ppm repositories that can be of use, one of them is even run by a monk and accepts "packaging" requests under some conditions. HTH -- Olivier	[reply]
Re^2: perl on win2k by ekkis (Initiate) on Nov 30, 2004 at 23:43 UTC
thanks for the links. I had come across those repositories (the monk's, btw, hasn't been operational in a while... I remember it down a couple months ago when I first tried it). however what I can't seem to find is a working ppd of DBD::Sybase... even http://ppm.activestate.com/PPMPackages/zips/8xx-builds-only/Windows/ doesn't have one. which is why I'd love to be untethered from ActiveState...	[reply]
Re^3: perl on win2k by mpeppler (Vicar) on Dec 01, 2004 at 07:41 UTC
There are some PPDs at http://www.peppler.org/downloads/ActiveState/. An alternative that I've found to be quite nice is to install cygwin - gives you a nice bash shell, and the Unix build/make instructions work out of the box (well, mostly). Michael	[reply]
Re^3: perl on win2k by Anonymous Monk on Dec 02, 2004 at 12:27 UTC
perlmonk.org goes doesn once in a while, it happens with every host. Has worked for me all year http://crazyinsomniac.perlmonk.org/perl/ppm/	[reply]
Re: perl on win2k by osunderdog (Deacon) on Dec 01, 2004 at 03:37 UTC
I agree with doing it from scratch. Have you tried nmake rather than dmake? Also, after you manually unpackaged the tar, have you tried to go back into CPAN and install the package? If you left it where it was it should be picked up by CPAN. Just some thoughts. Hope it helps. *"Look, Shiny Things!"* is not a better business strategy than compatibility and reuse. OSUnderdog	[reply]
Re^2: perl on win2k by Anonymous Monk on Dec 02, 2004 at 12:29 UTC
Why, he's not using microsoft compiler?	[reply]
Re^3: perl on win2k by osunderdog (Deacon) on Dec 02, 2004 at 14:48 UTC
Correct. I jumped the gun on that one. *"Look, Shiny Things!"* is not a better business strategy than compatibility and reuse. OSUnderdog	[reply]
Re: perl on win2k by Anonymous Monk on Dec 02, 2004 at 12:34 UTC
What is your perl -V? MSYS is not windows, so don't confuse the two. Windows `C:\>echo C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe C:\>` [download] MSYS `user@host ~ $ echo C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe C:Perlbinperl.exe user@host ~ $` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]