Problems with CPAN module installation

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

Hi am trying to install FIle::Basename, I am encountering a problem which I did not have a couple of weeks ago when I did exactly the same. I think there has been a new development of this perl module under an unstable development. I dont know how to help myself, but I really need these modules. I am trying to install

File::Basename
File::Copy
File::Path
File::Spec::Functions
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and I get this f. error message:

Running install for module 'File::Basename'
Running make for J/JE/JESSE/perl-5.13.9.tar.gz
  Has already been unwrapped into directory /Users/cassiopeia/Library/
+Application Support/.cpan/build/perl-5.13.9-fhJNgp
  '/Users/cassiopeia/Library/Application Support/.cpan/build/perl-5.13
+.9-fhJNgp/Configure' returned status -1, won't make
Running make test
  Can't test without successful make
Running make install
  Make had returned bad status, install seems impossible
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Thanks a lot, C

20110126 Janitored by Corion: Added formatting, code tags, as per Writeup Formatting Tips

Comment on Problems with CPAN module installation Select or Download Code

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Re: Problems with CPAN module installation by Corion (Patriarch) on Jan 24, 2011 at 16:44 UTC
File::Basename, File::Path and File::Copy should already be installed with your Perl. There is no need to install them (again) separately. If your distribution of Perl does not include these modules, it is (very) broken and you should ask your vendor to provide you with a full version of Perl.	[reply]
Re^2: Problems with CPAN module installation by cburger (Acolyte) on Jan 24, 2011 at 16:50 UTC
Thanks Corion, well I ran this little perl program to check: use ExtUtils::Installed; my $inst = ExtUtils::Installed->new(); my @modules = $inst->modules(); \n and it gave those modules as installed: Bundle::NetSNMP FCGI File::HomeDir File::Which IPC::Run3 LWP Mac::SystemDirectory Mail Perl Probe::Perl Test::Script URI XML::Parser XML::Quote they should have been among this list- right? Well I'll try to install then a new version of perl. I should be able to get the latest perl version myself? (confused about the vender- if my version is screwed up, can I not fix it myself? ) Thanks again C	[reply]
Re^3: Problems with CPAN module installation by Corion (Patriarch) on Jan 24, 2011 at 17:27 UTC
Whatever that module outputs, it is very unlikely that this is a comprehensive list of all modules. But if that is so, then your installation of Perl lacks many modules shipped with a standard Perl, and you should complain to your package or OS maintainer (commonly called "vendor") that they should fix their distribution. If you're going the route of compiling and installing your own Perl, make sure not to install it over the system Perl. The best way is to not run anything as the superuser. If you install your own version of Perl, you get all those modules and also get full control over what goes where.	[reply]
Re^3: Problems with CPAN module installation by toolic (Bishop) on Jan 24, 2011 at 17:06 UTC
It is very difficult to read your posts. Please read Writeup Formatting Tips, then update your posts to add "code" tags around your code and error messages.	[reply]