Re: How do you install modules in OS X?

[Sherm Pendley]

On Thursday, October 31, 2002, at 12:16 PM, Vic Norton wrote:

easy in MacPerl. I just dropped the module on Chris Nandor's "installme"
droplet.

Easy it was (and is), but "installme" has its drawbacks. It doesn't download anything for you, and it doesn't figure out prerequisites for you.

 (A future question: How do you make droplets in OS X?)

Check out DropScript:

<URL: http://www.mit.edu/people/wsanchez/software/>

The first thing cpan told me was that I didn't have "unzip", "make",
"lynx", "ncftpget", "ncftp" in PATH. Where can I get these? Are they
necessary?

You need make, which is included in the developer tools. To install some modules, you'll also need the C compiler, which is also included in the dev tools.

Don't worry about the others; cpan searches out many alternative ways for accomplishing the same task, but needs only one. For example, lynx, ncftpget, and ncftp can be used to download files - but ftp, which you do have, works just as well.

After writing "/Users/vicnorton/.cpan/CPAN/MyConfig.pm"

You should run the cpan shell as root - otherwise, it won't be able to correctly install modules.

cpan tried to "install Bundle::CPAN".

The cpan shell isn't psychic - it didn't try to "install Bundle::CPAN" on its own. You tried to do that.

Terminology nit-picking aside, that wasn't a bad idea - with one caveat. You should update the CPAN module by itself first, with "install CPAN", and *then* install the CPAN bundle with "install Bundle::CPAN".

The version of CPAN.pm shipped with OS X is over-zealous about installing prerequisites, and will try to install Perl 5.8.0 for you if you use it to install the bundle. Unfortunately, in doing so it overwrites the existing Perl, causing no end of problems.

 First it asked me to "install Net::FTP as soon as possible".

If I recall correctly, that's included in Bundle::CPAN. Anyway, the cpan shell works without it, but it has to use an external tool for downloading files, which is sub-optimal.

 It continued by connecting to "ftp.cpan.ddns.develooper.com".

The "ddns" name leads me to believe that this is a so-called "dynamic dns" site. What that means is, it doesn't have a static IP address, and uses software that automatically updates its dns entry each time its address changes.

I wouldn't use that as my first choice. Dynamic DNS is mostly used for giving cable-modem connected home servers a name, and such systems are notoriously unreliable.

Anyway, most of the problems you had look like network connectivity issues. If you're on dial-up, perhaps your connection dropped.

sherm--

If you listen to a UNIX shell, can you hear the C?