redsox43 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I've just updated my Mac to 11.0.1, and I had a perl script that ran successfully before doing that. When I run it now I get

"Can't locate Archive/Extract.pm in @INC (you may need to install the Archive::Extract module)"

I thought that during the upgrade Archive/Extract.pm had been removed, or a link to it had been broken, so I figured I would install it, but when I do that I get the below

I read some posts on possible solutions, and I tried removing the "02packages.details.txt.gz" and the "01mailrc.txt.gz", and rebuilding those files with "perl -MCPAN -e shell", but I still get the same error

Other posts where I should run Strawberry Perl instead, and leave the Perl that came with the OS alone, but I wanted to ask if anyone had any thoughts before I started down that path.

Thanks

cpan[1]> install Archive::Extract.pm
Reading '/Users/root/.cpan/Metadata'
  Database was generated on Fri, 14 Dec 2018 11:17:03 GMT
Reading '/Users/root/.cpan/sources/authors/01mailrc.txt.gz'
......................................................................
+......DONE
Reading '/Users/root/.cpan/sources/modules/02packages.details.txt.gz'
Warning: Your /Users/root/.cpan/sources/modules/02packages.details.txt
+.gz does not contain a Line-Count header.
Please check the validity of the index file by comparing it to more
than one CPAN mirror. I'll continue but problems seem likely to
happen.
Warning: Your /Users/root/.cpan/sources/modules/02packages.details.txt
+.gz does not contain a Last-Updated header.
Please check the validity of the index file by comparing it to more
than one CPAN mirror. I'll continue but problems seem likely to
happen.
Could not split line[""]
Could not split line[""]
.Could not split line["    !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)"]
Could not split line["    {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMe
+thod?"]
Giving up parsing your /Users/root/.cpan/sources/modules/02packages.de
+tails.txt.gz, too many errorsReading '/Users/root/.cpan/sources/autho
+rs/01mailrc.txt.gz'
......................................................................
+......DONE
Reading '/Users/root/.cpan/sources/modules/02packages.details.txt.gz'
Warning: Your /Users/root/.cpan/sources/modules/02packages.details.txt
+.gz does not contain a Line-Count header.
Please check the validity of the index file by comparing it to more
than one CPAN mirror. I'll continue but problems seem likely to
happen.
Warning: Your /Users/root/.cpan/sources/modules/02packages.details.txt
+.gz does not contain a Last-Updated header.
Please check the validity of the index file by comparing it to more
than one CPAN mirror. I'll continue but problems seem likely to
happen.
Could not split line[""]
Could not split line[""]
.Could not split line["    !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)"]
Could not split line["    {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMe
+thod?"]
Giving up parsing your /Users/root/.cpan/sources/modules/02packages.de
+tails.txt.gz, too many errorsTerminal does not support GetHistory.
Lockfile removed.

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Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Upgrade to Big Sur perl issue
by kcott (Archbishop) on Dec 03, 2020 at 01:02 UTC

    G'day redsox43,

    Welcome to the Monastery.

    I used macOS (formerly Mac OS X) for many years. I stopped using it a little over a year ago. While I can provide some advice, I'm not in a position to test anything for you (including anything related to your current problem). Also, be aware that any advice runs the risk of being a little out of date.

    "Other posts where I should run Strawberry Perl instead, and leave the Perl that came with the OS alone, but I wanted to ask if anyone had any thoughts before I started down that path."

    Firstly, Strawberry Perl is, as its home page states, "a perl environment for MS Windows"; so you can forget about using that with an Apple Mac environment.

    Apple have indicated that they are dropping default support for Perl: see the Scripting Language Runtimes section (it's roughly in the middle of that rather long page) of "macOS Catalina 10.15 Release Notes" were I first noted that information. You might want to follow various links in "macOS Release Notes" for more up to date information. I had a very quick look but couldn't immediately find anything of specific relevance to Perl.

    In the main, not using a system Perl is generally a very good move and recommended by most. I recommend using Perlbrew; however, there are other options which you may want to investigate. I wrote a fair amount about this in "Re: Understanding Perl / Brew Perl and Cpan on macOS"; including why not to use the system Perl.

    Many people here use Perlbrew. If you choose that option, there's plenty here who can provide help and advice if you run into difficulties. That's not to say that similar help and advice won't be forthcoming if you choose a different option: I'm just not familiar with those other options.

    So, given all of that, I'd suggest you get "started down that path" sooner rather than later.

    — Ken

[reply]

      Thanks for the advise Ken. I'm going to give Perlbrew a shot. It sounds like it would be for the best to separate from the system Perl. The one that's running now was there when I updated to Big Sur, and since Apple isn't keeping perl in the system, some of those pathways I was using with knowing it are probably gone. Ah, ignorance is bliss. Ha Ha.

[reply]
Re: Upgrade to Big Sur perl issue
by Corion (Patriarch) on Dec 02, 2020 at 20:02 UTC

    This looks as if /Users/root/.cpan/sources/modules/02packages.details.txt.gz is actually an HTML page and not a tar archive. What does the file look like if you look at it with a text editor?

    Are you sure that cpan (and perl) can connect to the outside world?

[reply]
[d/l]
[select]

      It does look like an html file. I thought that was kind of weird based on it's dot extensions.

      I can get to Cpan. Or at least I think I can. When I run the "recent" command from the terminal, I get an error from Safari that I need to download an rss app in order to download the file. Firefox had no problem, so I'm beginning to think my problem could be using the perl that came with the version of MacOS. I think I'm going to give perlbrew a shot

      Thanks for your help. It's much appreciated

[reply]
Re: Upgrade to Big Sur perl issue
by perlfan (Parson) on Dec 03, 2020 at 18:03 UTC
    I recommend you use perlbrew + cpanm (perlbrew even has a command to install cpanm for you).
[reply]

      Thanks for the advice. I'm in the process of getting perlbrew going!!!

[reply]

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