Perl fixed; Apt hangs on unlocked directory

["Adam Bogacki" <afb@paradise.net.nz>]

Thanks. In a nutshell ..

Tux:/usr/bin# ./perl5.8.0 -V
Can't locate Export.pm in @INC
(but it gave me the files making up @INC)

I copied Exporter.pm to /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.0 and

Tux:/usr/bin# ./perl5.8.0 -V
[heaps of stuff]
@INC
/etc/perl
/usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.0
/usr/local/share/perl/5.8.0
/usr/lib/perl5
/usr/share/perl5
/usr/lib/perl/5.8.0
/usr/share/perl/5/8/0
/usr/local/lib/site_perl

and a similar format with
Tux:/usr/local/bin perl -V

I tried
apt-get install -q <package> &> apt.log
but it always hung. I might be missing something...

apt-get -f -u dist-upgrade --fix-broken

now gives me ~130 pkgs, probably due to the 'unstable' rate of change.
The error message was 

"Preparing to replace coreutils_5.0.90-2 (using ...
coreutils_5.0.90-3_i386.deb) ... 
install-info (/usr/share/info/coreutils.info): no file
/usr/share/info/dir, 
retrieving backup file /var/backups/infodir.bak
cp: cannot create regular file '/usr/share/info/dir': No such file or
directory
install-info(/usr/share/info/coreutils.info):copying
/var/backups/infodir.bak to /usr/share/info/dir failed, giving up: No
such file or directory
dpkg: warning old pre-removal script returned error exit status 1"

I created /usr/share/info/dir and copied /var/backups/infodir.bak
there but still could not install coreutils.

I deleted 'infodir.bak' from /usr/share/info/dir but apt-install
failed with the error message

"Preparing to replace coreutils_5.0.90-2 (using
.../coreutils_5.0.90-3_i386.deb) ...
install-info(/usr/share/info/coreutils.info): failed to lock dir for
editing! Operation not permitted.
E: ...)"

which leaves me stumped.

Any constructive ideas appreciated.

Adam Bogacki.
afb@paradise.net.nz