Perl Cookbook

Building and Installing a CPAN Module

Problem

You want to install a module file that you downloaded from CPAN over the Net or obtained from a CD.

Solution

Type the following commands into your shell. It will build and install version 4.54 of the Some::Module package.

% gunzip Some-Module-4.54.tar.gz
% tar xf Some-Module-4.54
% cd Some-Module-4.54
% perl Makefile.PL
% make
% make test
% make install

Discussion

Like most programs on the Net, Perl modules are available in source kits stored as tar archives in GNU zip format.^[18] If tar warns of "Directory checksum errors", then you downloaded the binary file in text format, mutilating it.

You’ll probably have to become a privileged user with adequate permissions to install the module in the system directories. Standard modules are installed in a directory like /usr/lib/perl5 while third-party modules are installed in /usr/lib/perl5/site_ perl.

Here’s a sample run, showing the installation of the MD5 module:

% gunzip MD5-1.7.tar.gz
% tar xf MD5-1.7.tar
% cd MD5-1.7
% perl Makefile.PL 

                  Checking if your kit is complete...
               
                  Looks good
               
                  Writing Makefile for MD5
% make

                  mkdir ./blib
               
                  mkdir ./blib/lib
               
                  cp MD5.pm ./blib/lib/MD5.pm
               
                  AutoSplitting MD5 (./blib/lib/auto/MD5)
               
                  /usr/bin/perl -I/usr/local/lib/perl5/i386 ...
               
                  ...
               
                  cp MD5.bs ./blib/arch/auto/MD5/MD5.bs
               
                  chmod 644 ./blib/arch/auto/MD5/MD5.bsmkdir ./blib/man3
               
                  Manifying ./blib/man3/MD5.3
% make test

                  PERL_DL_NONLAZY=1 /usr/bin/perl -I./blib/arch -I./blib/lib
               
                  -I/usr/local/lib/perl5/i386-freebsd/5.00404 ...