Sounds like you could benefit from some basic debugging:

 % locate /Storable.pm | xargs grep -w VERSION

 % locate /Storable.

 % perl -del
 > use XSLoader
 > l XSLoader::load
 > b 92
 > use Storable
 > x $INC{'Storable.pm'}
 > x $file
 > x @INC
 > q
[download]

Thanks -- that helped:

$ locate /Storable.pm | xargs grep -w VERSION
/usr/lib/perl5/core_perl/Storable.pm:use vars qw($canonical $forgive_m
+e $VERSION);
/usr/lib/perl5/core_perl/Storable.pm:$VERSION = '2.34';
/usr/lib/perl5/core_perl/Storable.pm:XSLoader::load('Storable', $Stora
+ble::VERSION);
/usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/Storable.pm:use vars qw($canonical $forgive_m
+e $VERSION);
/usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/Storable.pm:$VERSION = '2.30';
/usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/Storable.pm:XSLoader::load 'Storable', $Stora
+ble::VERSION;
[download]

So I renamed the site_perl version, and now my script runs.

There are still other problems with site_perl though -- probably because in the past I've used cpanp to install modules. Now I can't re-run cpanp to update things because cpanp itself doesn't run:

$ cpanp
Attempt to reload Module/Load/Conditional.pm aborted.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/share/perl5/site_perl/IPC/Cmd.pm
+ line 50.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/share/perl5/site_perl/IPC/Cm
+d.pm line 50.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/share/perl5/site_perl/CPANPLUS/C
+onfig.pm line 18.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/share/perl5/site_perl/CPANPL
+US/Config.pm line 18.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/share/perl5/site_perl/CPANPLUS/C
+onfigure.pm line 7.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/share/perl5/site_perl/CPANPL
+US/Configure.pm line 7.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/share/perl5/site_perl/CPANPLUS/B
+ackend.pm line 7.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/share/perl5/site_perl/CPANPL
+US/Backend.pm line 7.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/share/perl5/site_perl/CPANPLUS.p
+m line 7.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/share/perl5/site_perl/CPANPL
+US.pm line 7.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/bin/site_perl/cpanp line 11.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/bin/site_perl/cpanp line 11.
[download]

There's lots of stuff in /usr/share/perl5/site_perl -- I'll try getting rid of all of it temporarily to see what else breaks...

cheers, Chris

On the advice of juster on the Arch Linux forum, I deleted all files under /usr/bin/site_perl, /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl and /usr/share/perl5/site_perl to remove the duplicates installed by the cpan shell.

Then I reinstalled CPANPLUS::Dist:Arch and used cpanp to reinstall the modules I needed (i.e. Math::Combinatorics).

Now it's all working again. Thanks for everyone's help.

cheers, Chris

Is the user supposed to type that in form a shell?

How about getting rid of those > so the user can copy/paste that stuff?

Or better yet, why not simply copy/paste your entire session, instead of just the command portions?

Ah, I hadn't considered the idea of making it easier to avoid even thinking during the process. Also would make it easier to avoid learning or even really watching and reading. Oh, wait. I did consider that.

- tye