Perl 5.6.1 - Has anyone had success installing it?

[Bluecanary]

I have tried multiple times to install Perl 5.6.1 on my machine, but every time it seems that the configure program runs fine, but no Makefile is created so I cannot go any further than that. Has anyone had success doing this? If so, what did you do to get the Makefile?

~BC

[pkishor]

Originally posted by Bluecanary
I have tried multiple times to install Perl 5.6.1 on my machine, but every time it seems that the configure program runs fine, but no Makefile is created so I cannot go any further than that. Has anyone had success doing this? If so, what did you do to get the Makefile?

~BC

why are you trying to install Perl... may I ask. Perl 5.6.1 is already installed on OS X (well, you may need to install the developer's tools, which are a free download anyway). Notes on setting up Perl are available at developer.apple.com/internet/macosx/perl

One thing to keep in mind... if you try to run CPAN or update CPAN itself, make sure you are logged in as su, otherwise it will fail.

hth.

[pmccann]

pkishor: that's simply not true, as you can see by entering

% perl -V

in a terminal window. Actually, for a summary, try "perl -v", the first line of which reads "This is perl, v5.6.0 built for darwin" That is, Perl on 10.1.2 is still 5.6.0, and compiling 5.6.1 is still something of a royal pain, but very much possible. Whatever else you might try, *don't* let CPAN try and make it: that'll be a royal mess!

The reason that Bluecanary is not seeing a makefile is the case insensitivity of HFS+, which means that one makefile is being trodden on with a make file of different case during the build phase. Evidently the next major Perl release will be friendlier to build on MacOSX.

Anyway, that's not a lot of help: here's a URL that illustrates that particular problem and one workaround. I don't know anyone who gets 100% test success, but consensus seems to be that the 4 failed tests are harmless.

http://archive.develooper.com/macosx@perl.org/msg00895.html

Cheers,
Paul

[pkishor]

Originally posted by pmccann
"This is perl, v5.6.0 built for darwin" That is, Perl on 10.1.2 is still 5.6.0...

Paul,

You are so very right. I didn't even consider (before replying to bluecanary) that it was the sub-version number that was in question here.

Yes, I do recall reading about the case-insensitivity of HFS+ creating problems vs. UFS, but never even thought of upgrading to Perl 561. There is also a development version 571 or 572, but I guess I don't feel the urge to mess with 560 that works fine on my machine.

Thanks for the link to Ray Zimmerman's post.. will keep that filed away, but for now, I think I will just wait for a major upgrade release that works. Either a fix will come from Perl side or from Apple side in the next six-monthly update to development tools.

Thanks anyway,

pk/

[emmasdad]

make is actually not included in the vanilla OSX--to get make, join the Apple Developer Connection (ADC)--it's free, and download the Developer tools CD--I believe the September 2001 edition-- takes a while, but worth it.

After you install, you'll find you do now have make, along with the rest of the BSD system, which is not included in the vanilla OSX. We're still dealing with Apple, after all.

...and take pmccann's advice, all of it. seriously to heart- -I tried to let CPAN do the compile, and learned the hard way that Darwin isn't Linux...

[pkishor]

Originally posted by pmccann
Anyway, that's not a lot of help: here's a URL that illustrates that particular problem and one workaround. I don't know anyone who gets 100% test success, but consensus seems to be that the 4 failed tests are harmless.

http://archive.develooper.com/macosx@perl.org/msg00895.html


Just to add to this...

using Ray Zimmerman's instructions at the above URL, I was able to replicate what Ray got... an almost successful compile. I too can live without 4 tests. But, I did have a few other problems. I will be posting these to the Perl on MacOS X list as well, but here they are for now --

1. a couple of files, namely the package list and the modules list, were downloaded with bad CRCs (I discovered this after much heartburn). As a result, CPAN was simply unable to determine what was installed on my machine, and kept on spitting out garbage. Eventually, I changed the download URLs and tried several times, and finally got files downloaded correctly. CPAN was fine then on.

2. Mod_perl is still flaky on my iBook. If I enable mod_perl in httpd.conf, Apache doesn't restart at all. If I disable it, then Apache restarts. Then I can go and enable it again. Then Apache restarts. After a while, Apache locks up (can't find localhost, spinnin' away). Same song-and-dance all over again. Never had such a problem with the stock Perl 5.6.0 that came with 10.1.2, so am seriously contemplating going back to it, except I have no clue how to cleanly uninstall 5.6.1 or whether I have to even bother doing that.

Anyone, any ideas why mod_perl is all screwed up with nowhere to go?

pk/

[emmasdad]

Originally posted by pkishor



2. Mod_perl is still flaky on my iBook. If I enable mod_perl in httpd.conf, Apache doesn't restart at all.
pk/

Dunno. I am running Perl 5.6.1 on my G4, (used Ray Z.'s note, many thanks to him) and Apache works like a charm. It's been my experience with Apache, though, that any hangs or crashes are invariably due to some sort of misconfiguration in httpd.conf. I still remember 72 horrible hours in 1999 with irate site owners making ugly threats...

I'm still not ready to take the chance of installing the new Apache build, though. Anyone tried that?

[weber]

Originally posted by pkishor



2. Mod_perl is still flaky on my iBook. If I enable mod_perl in httpd.conf, Apache doesn't restart at all. If I disable it, then Apache restarts. Then I can go and enable it again. Then Apache restarts. After a while, Apache locks up (can't find localhost, spinnin' away). Same song-and-dance all over again.
pk/

I have the exact same problem on my G4... Apache writes "caught SIGTERM, shutting down" to its error log, and it is apparently crashing since it doesn't delete the httpd.pid file. It reports no errors when I run "apachectl configtest".

I just found something a second ago. With apache running without mod_perl I went back into httpd.conf and turned mod_perl back on. Then I ran "apachectl graceful", and much to my surprise it worked!

However, on a cold start it still fails. Still, if you really need it to work it's a start. I suppose you could cook up a script to do it for you, but hopefully someone else will be able to provide further insight.

-adam