 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
Mac Forum / Programming / Perl / July 2005How to Install Modules Locally?
I usually install modules via cpan, but I've been sent a module to test. I usually install modules via CPAN. I've been googling installing modules locally to see how it works. From what I've found, it seems simple enough to do something like this: % perl5 Makefile.PL % make % make test % make install % make clean Are there any gotchas? How do I make sure this module gets installed into the right directory - ~/.cpan/build?  SignatureLola - mailto:lola@his.com http://www.lolajl.net | Blog at http://www.lolajl.net/blog/ Terrorismus delendus est! (Terrorism must be destroyed utterly!) I'm in Bowie, MD, USA, halfway between DC and Annapolis. > I usually install modules via cpan, but I've been sent a module to > test. I usually install modules via CPAN. I've been googling > installing modules locally to see how it works. From what I've > found, it seems simple enough to do something like this: > > % perl5 Makefile.PL Why "perl5"? Do you also have "perl4" installed? :-\ If you want to install under a specific Perl, spell out the full location, including the path, and pay close attention to the output of the next steps to ensure that it's used. For instance: /usr/local/bin/perl5.8.7 Makefile.PL > % make > % make test > % make install The above will attempt to install the module in the standard location - i.e. for the built-in Perl, in /Library/Perl/5.8.6 (for Tiger). If your system is configured correctly, with no permissions gone awry, it will fail, because /Library/Perl and everything under it should only be writable by root. For it to succeed, you should use "sudo" to run the last step: sudo make install > % make clean You don't need to do that. > Are there any gotchas? How do I make sure this module gets > installed into the right directory - ~/.cpan/build? Um, ~/.cpan/build is *NOT* the right directory to install into. The ~/.cpan tree is used to store temporary files used by CPAN.pm while downloading and installing modules - ~/.cpan/sources/ to hold tarballs, ~/.cpan/build/ to unzip them and run the above commands, etc. Once a module is finished installing, you should *NEVER* need to refer to the temporary copy of it that was created in ~/.cpan/build/ as part of the build process. As I said above, the standard location for user-installed modules for the built-in Perl is under /Library/Perl - for Tiger it's /Library/ Perl/5.8.6. Modules that are included with Perl - aka "core" modules - are found under /System/Library/Perl. If you wish to keep a separate local directory - maybe because you don't have "sudo" access or don't want to use it for code that's still being tested - use the PREFIX option when running Makefile.PL: perl Makefile.PL PREFIX=~/lib Run the other commands normally, keeping in mind that you only need to use "sudo" to run the install step if the directory you've specified needs root access to write into. In your scripts, you'll need to add it to the module search path with the following: use lib '/Users/lola/lib'; # Or whatever your user dir is... sherm-- Cocoa programming in Perl: http://camelbones.sourceforge.net Hire me! My resume: http://www.dot-app.org > Why "perl5"? Do you also have "perl4" installed? :-\ Uhhh . . . no. It's just an example. The module I need to install is WWW-Search - the author has removed the dependency on cat and dos2unix and needs for me to test it on the Mac platform before uploading it to CPAN. Hence, the need to install it locally. SignatureLola - mailto:lola@his.com http://www.lolajl.net | Blog at http://www.lolajl.net/blog/ Terrorismus delendus est! (Terrorism must be destroyed utterly!) I'm in Bowie, MD, USA, halfway between DC and Annapolis. > The module I need to install is WWW-Search - the author has removed > the dependency on cat and dos2unix and needs for me to test it on > the Mac platform before uploading it to CPAN. Hence, the need to > install it locally. I'm still not 100% certain what you mean by "install it locally". The CPAN shell is a convenient way to automate a task that quickly grows repetitive and boring without it, but that's all it is. It's not doing any special "magic", just using the system() function to run the same commands you'd run by hand. Are you concerned about where to unzip it to before running the "perl Makefile.PL; make; make test; sudo make install" commands? That doesn't matter, within reason at least - don't do something silly like unzipping it directly into the directory it will be installed in. You want to use a location that's safely out of the way so it doesn't interfere with other stuff, and isolated enough so that you can easily delete it when you're done. Some folks create a subdirectory under /tmp, others use ~/tmp. For myself, I use ~/build, for no particular reason. The CPAN shell uses ~/.cpan/build by default, but there's nothing particularly special about that choice. In fact, I avoid using that for manual installs, simply to minimize the risk of confusing the CPAN shell with "foreign" files that it didn't create. My concern on that score is probably entirely unwarranted, but I subscribe to the "better safe than sorry" school of thought. sherm-- Cocoa programming in Perl: http://camelbones.sourceforge.net Hire me! My resume: http://www.dot-app.org > I'm still not 100% certain what you mean by "install it locally". The > CPAN shell is a convenient way to automate a task that quickly grows The author sent me the files, all zipped up, instead of posting it to CPAN. > Are you concerned about where to unzip it to before running the "perl > Makefile.PL; make; make test; sudo make install" commands? That doesn't > matter, within reason at least - don't do something silly like > unzipping it directly into the directory it will be installed in. You Yes, that is what I meant. > Some folks create a subdirectory under /tmp, others use ~/tmp. For > myself, I use ~/build, for no particular reason. The CPAN shell uses > ~/.cpan/build by default, but there's nothing particularly special > about that choice. In fact, I avoid using that for manual installs, Just what I needed - will take the same precautions. SignatureLola - mailto:lola@his.com http://www.lolajl.net | Blog at http://www.lolajl.net/blog/ Terrorismus delendus est! (Terrorism must be destroyed utterly!) I'm in Bowie, MD, USA, halfway between DC and Annapolis. |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2008 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.