Question

I am simply trying to install some Perl modules. I install Spiffy-0.30 into my local directory using

perl Makefile.PL PREFIX=~/lib LIB=~/lib

and that works fine. Then I try to install Test-Base-6.0 which Spiffy is a prerequisite using the same code and it states I am missing Spiffy. Is there a way to instruct Perl on what directory to look for the prerequisites??

Answer 1

Since ~lib is not the default location for Perl modules, you need to tell Perl where to find it. You can do that with the PERL5LIB environmental variable. Here is the terminal output from my Ubuntu box.

standage@ubuntu:~$ mkdir ~/lib
standage@ubuntu:~$ tar xzf Spiffy-0.30.tar.gz
standage@ubuntu:~$ cd Spiffy-0.30/
standage@ubuntu:~/Spiffy-0.30$ perl Makefile.PL PREFIX=~/lib LIB=~/lib
Checking if your kit is complete...
Looks good
Writing Makefile for Spiffy
standage@ubuntu:~/Spiffy-0.30$ make
cp lib/Spiffy.pm blib/lib/Spiffy.pm
Manifying blib/man3/Spiffy.3pm
standage@ubuntu:~/Spiffy-0.30$ make test
PERL_DL_NONLAZY=1 /usr/bin/perl "-MExtUtils::Command::MM" "-e" "test_harness(0, 'inc', 'blib/lib', 'blib/arch')" t/*.t
t/autoload.t .. ok   
t/base.t ...... ok     
t/base2.t ..... ok   
t/cascade.t ... ok     
t/const.t ..... ok   
t/early.t ..... ok   
t/export1.t ... ok     
t/export2.t ... ok   
t/export3.t ... ok   
t/export4.t ... ok     
t/export5.t ... ok   
t/export6.t ... ok   
t/export7.t ... ok   
t/exporter.t .. ok   
t/field.t ..... ok   
t/field2.t .... ok   
t/field3.t .... ok   
t/filter.t .... ok   
t/filter2.t ... ok   
t/filter3.t ... ok   
t/filter4.t ... ok   
t/filter5.t ... ok   
t/mixin.t ..... ok     
t/mixin2.t .... ok     
t/mixin3.t .... ok   
t/new.t ....... ok   
t/package.t ... ok   
t/parse.t ..... ok   
t/stub.t ...... ok   
t/super.t ..... ok   
t/super2.t .... ok   
All tests successful.
Files=31, Tests=198,  2 wallclock secs ( 0.19 usr  0.30 sys +  0.88 cusr  0.48 csys =  1.85 CPU)
Result: PASS
standage@ubuntu:~/Spiffy-0.30$ make install
Installing /home/standage/lib/Spiffy.pm
Installing /home/standage/lib/man/man3/Spiffy.3pm
Appending installation info to /home/standage/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu-thread-multi/perllocal.pod
standage@ubuntu:~/Spiffy-0.30$ cd ..
standage@ubuntu:~$ tar xzf Test-Base-0.60.tar.gz 
standage@ubuntu:~$ cd Test-Base-0.60/
standage@ubuntu:~/Test-Base-0.60$ perl Makefile.PL PREFIX=~/lib LIB=~/lib
Checking if your kit is complete...
Looks good
Warning: prerequisite Spiffy 0.30 not found.
Writing Makefile for Test::Base
standage@ubuntu:~/Test-Base-0.60$ export PERL5LIB=~/lib:$PERL5LIB
standage@ubuntu:~/Test-Base-0.60$ perl Makefile.PL PREFIX=~/lib LIB=~/lib
Writing Makefile for Test::Base
standage@ubuntu:~/Test-Base-0.60$