"Why it is so hard to install a CPAN module?"

It isn't really

You say you've installed gcc, but are you sure you're not using the sun studio compiler here? cc: unrecognized option `-KPIC' looks suspicious to me. What does perl -V output? You should use the same compiler for perl modules as was used to compiler the version of perl you are running.

Perl 5.8.4 is very old. Consider building yourself a recent version from source, using gcc, installing to somewhere else, eg:

./Configure -des -Dprefix=$home/perl
make test
make install
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So as not to mess around with the system perl which Solaris uses for various bits and bobs. Read the documentation for further installation advice.

You may also be interested in CPAN::Mini which you can use on a machine which does have internet access to create and maintain a portable mirror of CPAN for offline usage.

bash-3.00# perl -V
Summary of my perl5 (revision 5 version 8 subversion 4) configuration:
  Platform:
    osname=solaris, osvers=2.10, archname=i86pc-solaris-64int
    uname='sunos localhost 5.10 i86pc i386 i86pc'
    config_args=''
    hint=recommended, useposix=true, d_sigaction=define
    usethreads=undef use5005threads=undef useithreads=undef usemultipl
+icity=undef
    useperlio=define d_sfio=undef uselargefiles=define usesocks=undef
    use64bitint=define use64bitall=undef uselongdouble=undef
    usemymalloc=n, bincompat5005=undef
  Compiler:
    cc='cc', ccflags ='-D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -D_T
+S_ERRNO',
    optimize='-xO3 -xspace -xildoff',
    cppflags=''
    ccversion='Sun WorkShop', gccversion='', gccosandvers=''
    intsize=4, longsize=4, ptrsize=4, doublesize=8, byteorder=12345678
    d_longlong=define, longlongsize=8, d_longdbl=define, longdblsize=1
+2
    ivtype='long long', ivsize=8, nvtype='double', nvsize=8, Off_t='of
+f_t', lseeksize=8
    alignbytes=4, prototype=define
  Linker and Libraries:
    ld='cc', ldflags =''
    libpth=/lib /usr/lib /usr/ccs/lib
    libs=-lsocket -lnsl -ldl -lm -lc
    perllibs=-lsocket -lnsl -ldl -lm -lc
    libc=/lib/libc.so, so=so, useshrplib=true, libperl=libperl.so
    gnulibc_version=''
  Dynamic Linking:
    dlsrc=dl_dlopen.xs, dlext=so, d_dlsymun=undef, ccdlflags='-R /usr/
+perl5/5.8.4/lib/i86pc-solaris-64int/CORE'
    cccdlflags='-KPIC', lddlflags='-G'


Characteristics of this binary (from libperl):
  Compile-time options: USE_64_BIT_INT USE_LARGE_FILES
  Locally applied patches:
        22667 The optree builder was looping when constructing the ops
+ ...
        22715 Upgrade to FileCache 1.04
        22733 Missing copyright in the README.
        22746 fix a coredump caused by rv2gv not fully converting a PV
+ ...
        22755 Fix 29149 - another UTF8 cache bug hit by substr.
        22774 [perl #28938] split could leave an array without ...
        22775 [perl #29127] scalar delete of empty slice returned garb
+age
        22776 [perl #28986] perl -e "open m" crashes Perl
        22777 add test for change #22776 ("open m" crashes Perl)
        22778 add test for change #22746 ([perl #29102] Crash on assig
+n ...
        22781 [perl #29340] Bizarre copy of ARRAY make sure a pad op's
+ ...
        22796 [perl #29346] Double warning for int(undef) and abs(unde
+f) ...
        22818 BOM-marked and (BOMless) UTF-16 scripts not working
        22823 [perl #29581] glob() misses a lot of matches
        22827 Smoke [5.9.2] 22818 FAIL(F) MSWin32 WinXP/.Net SP1 (x86/
+1 cpu)
        22830 [perl #29637] Thread creation time is hypersensitive
        22831 improve hashing algorithm for ptr tables in perl_clone: 
+...
        22839 [perl #29790] Optimization busted: '@a = "b", sort @a' .
+..
        22850 [PATCH] 'perl -v' fails if local_patches contains code s
+nippets
        22852 TEST needs to ignore SCM files
        22886 Pod::Find should ignore SCM files and dirs
        22888 Remove redundant %SIG assignments from FileCache
        23006 [perl #30509] use encoding and "eq" cause memory leak
        23074 Segfault using HTML::Entities
        23106 Numeric comparison operators mustn't compare addresses o
+f ...
        23320 [perl #30066] Memory leak in nested shared data structur
+es ...
        23321 [perl #31459] Bug in read()
        27722 perlio.c breaks on Solaris/gcc when > 256 FDs are availa
+ble
        SPRINTF0 - fixes for sprintf formatting issues - CVE-2005-3962
        6663288 Upgrade to CGI.pm 3.33
        REGEXP0 - fix for UTF-8 recoding in regexps - CVE-2007-5116
        6758953 Perl Sys::Syslog can log messages with wrong severity
  Built under solaris
  Compiled at May 20 2009 22:16:00
  @INC:
    /usr/perl5/5.8.4/lib/i86pc-solaris-64int
    /usr/perl5/5.8.4/lib
    /usr/perl5/site_perl/5.8.4/i86pc-solaris-64int
    /usr/perl5/site_perl/5.8.4
    /usr/perl5/site_perl
    /usr/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.4/i86pc-solaris-64int
    /usr/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.4
    /usr/perl5/vendor_perl
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It's interesting it shows Compiler: cc='cc', since I've modified it in the perl config files. Before that change I couldn't evem create the makefile as shown below:

bash-3.00# perl Makefile.PL
Now let's see what we can find out about your system
(logfiles of failing tests are available in the conf/ dir)...

ERROR: cannot run the configured compiler 'cc'
(see conf/compilerok.log). Suggestions:
1) The complier 'cc' is not in your PATH. Add it
   to the PATH and try again. OR
2) The compiler isn't installed on your system. Install it. OR
3) You only have a different compiler installed (e.g. 'gcc').
   Either fix the compiler config in the perl Config.pm
   or install a perl that was built with the right compiler
   (you could build perl yourself with the available compiler).

Note: this is a system-administration issue, please ask your local
admin for help. Thank you.
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But ok, at least now I know the source of the errors and a way to fix them.

I'm gonna build a new perl as you advised, but I've one question: after building a new perl with gcc how will the system know which one to use? Trough the sheebang? If I want to use the newer just have to point the sheebang to the newer right?

Thanks for the help marto.

At work I have a perl installed on our solaris servers under /opt/nameofourdepartment/perl which we use. I have a couple of symlinks for perl and cpan so I know I'm calling the ones for the perl we use for our application. If you've made changes to the configuration of the Solaris perl install, I'd suggest undoing them. Hope this helps.

Why it is so hard to install a CPAN module?

Because you are using the wrong compiler!

It seems that your Perl was not compiled with gcc but with SUNOracle compiler. Trying to compile modules with a different compiler does not work because it uses different command line switches and options (... it can be done, but requires fiddling with Config).

Download the Oracle compiler from its web, it is (or used to be) free, gratis.

Alternatively, build a new Perl with gcc from source or download it as a Solaris package from SUN Freeware and use it instead of the old and buggy perl 5.8.4 that comes preinstalled on your system.

Ok, I think I'll give a try to SunStudio first to get CC. Then if it doesn't work I'll build a new Perl.

Thanks for the quick support! ;)

I've installed perl-5.12.0 (needs gdbm-1.8.3) from sunfreeware.com and as it was build with gcc now i'm finally able to compile the modules ;)

IO:Tty was installed correctly, but it give a warning:

warning: TIOCSCTTY failed, slave might not be set as controlling termi
+nal: Inappropriate ioctl for device at /export/test/IO-Tty-1.08/blib/
+lib/IO/Pty.pm line 120.
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Expect failed the 'make test' but was installed 'sucessfully'.

Thank you both!