Installing Perl 5.10.0: problems with ./Configure

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

Dear Monks,

I'm trying to install Perl 5.10.0 without root permissions. I've downloaded the source and extracted it to a suitable directory: ($HOME/modules_perl).

README, INSTALL and everything I've found on the web so far says that the next step is to cd to that directory, type './Configure -des -Dprefix="$HOME/Perl-5-10"' (or wherever you want to install it..)

However, this doesn't seem to be working for me. Here are the things I've tried, and the results:

./Configure -des -Dprefix="$HOME/Perl-5-10"
-->./Configure: Command not found.
./Configure
-->./Configure: Command not found.
sh ./Configure -des -Dprefix="$HOME/Perl-5-10"
A long (infinite?) loop of:
-->: No such file or directory
-->: command not found:
-->: command not found9:
-->: command not found2:

I've also tried editing the Configure file to remove the comments, rewriting the #! line in the Configure file and (after Googling Configure: command not found) searching for stray ^M characters in the Configure file.. I've tried typing Configure rather than ./Configure in each of the above cases.. I really don't have a clue what's going on here but I expect it's something stupid and obvious, and I'd really appreciate a hint!

I have gcc and I'm working on what I thought was a UNIX server (but printenv shows: OSTYPE=linux; MACHTYPE=x86_64 ..?). Anything else you need to know, please ask, I don't really know what information is appropriate to give

cheers
why_bird

........
Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others.
-- Groucho Marx
.......

Comment on Installing Perl 5.10.0: problems with ./Configure

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Installing Perl 5.10.0: problems with ./Configure by almut (Canon) on May 07, 2008 at 14:06 UTC
This is really weird... Is your `sh` maybe symlinked/aliased to some other interpreter? Can you run any other `sh`-shell script properly?	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Installing Perl 5.10.0: problems with ./Configure by why_bird (Pilgrim) on May 07, 2008 at 15:29 UTC
Maybe this is actually a shell script issue, so I'm sorry if this is the wrong place to ask this (reputation suggests maybe it is?!) I edited the Configure file so that it read: `#! /bin/sh echo hi there` [download] Then created an identical file from scratch, in the same directory, trivial.sh. trivial.sh worked completely as expected (printed "hi there" on the command line), but the Configure file did this: ./Configure ./Configure: command not found sh ./Configure : command not found2: : command not found3: hi there : command not found5: I found this which talks (near the bottom) about 'DOS style line breaks'. Could this be the problem? If this is not a suitable place for this question, then I'll ask elsewhere (any suggestions?) but I'd appreciate some (more) monkish wisdom if anyone has any.. cheers why_bird ........ Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others. -- Groucho Marx .......	[reply] [d/l]
Re^3: Installing Perl 5.10.0: problems with ./Configure by almut (Canon) on May 07, 2008 at 15:34 UTC
... 'DOS style line breaks'. Could this be the problem? Actually, yes, playing some more with this (in particular with a `csh` compatible shell), I do in fact obtain similar effects when the entire script has DOS/Windows style line endings... (just fixing the problem on the shebang line is not sufficient). Not sure how those `\r` got in the file... did you edit `Configure` prior to running it initially? Anyhow, this should fix the problem (at least with this very file...): `perl -i -pe 's/\r//g' ./Configure` [download] (Well, if you already have any perl installed, that is... Otherwise, look for some tool like `dos2unix`, or similar)	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^4: Installing Perl 5.10.0: problems with ./Configure by why_bird (Pilgrim) on May 07, 2008 at 15:47 UTC
Re^5: Installing Perl 5.10.0: problems with ./Configure by ysth (Canon) on May 08, 2008 at 05:07 UTC
Some notes below your chosen depth have not been shown here
Re: Installing Perl 5.10.0: problems with ./Configure by moritz (Cardinal) on May 07, 2008 at 13:43 UTC
I tried it without the -s (just `sh Configure -de -Dusethreads -Dprefix="$HOME/Perl-5-10`), and it worked for me. What operating system are you on? UNIX is a bit vague ;-). There are a few README.operating_system files in the top level directory, read the one that matches your system.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Installing Perl 5.10.0: problems with ./Configure by why_bird (Pilgrim) on May 07, 2008 at 15:42 UTC
cat /proc/version spits out this: Linux version 2.6.9-5.ELsmp (bhcompile@thor.perf.redhat.com) (gcc version 3.4.3 20041212 (Red Hat 3.4.3-9.EL4)) #1 SMP Wed Jan 5 19:29:47 EST 2005 I tried it without the -s also and still no joy :( I've also read through the linux README (the only one that looked suitable) and it didn't mention anything that sounded like it would help. ........ Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others. -- Groucho Marx .......	[reply]