Re: Perl, cpan Path problems
On Sat, Jan 28, 2023 at 10:47:01PM +0100, Maurizio Caloro wrote:
> also
>
> root: ~/.cpan/build/Perl-Critic-1.148-2# perl -e "use XML::Simple "
I'm only going to focus on this ONE part of your mail, because the whole
thing is just too much for me.
Let's suppose that your goal is to write (or use) a perl script that
needs the XML::Simple package.
Debian provides many perl packages, so you have two paths to choose
from here: you can try to find the package in Debian, and use that,
or you can try to build it yourself.
On a Debian 11 system, I get this result:
unicorn:~$ apt-cache search --names-only perl xml simple
libtest-xml-simple-perl - Perl testing framework for XML data
libxml-atom-simplefeed-perl - Perl module for generation of Atom syndication feeds
libxml-libxml-simple-perl - Perl module that uses the XML::LibXML parser for XML structures
libxml-opml-simplegen-perl - module for creating OPML using XML::Simple
libxml-rss-simplegen-perl - Perl module for easily writing RSS files
libxml-simple-perl - Perl module for reading and writing XML
libxml-simpleobject-enhanced-perl - Perl module which enhances libxml-simpleobject-perl
libxml-simpleobject-libxml-perl - Simple oo representation of an XML::LibXML DOM object
libxml-simpleobject-perl - Objectoriented Perl interface to a parsed XML::Parser tree
libxml-writer-simple-perl - simple API to create XML files
Buried in the middle of that result is the libxml-simple-perl package,
which I'm going to guess is the correct one.
Now that I know its name, I can also check its version:
unicorn:~$ apt-cache show libxml-simple-perl | grep Version
Version: 2.25-1
So, if version 2.25 of XML::Simple is acceptable, then I can simply install
that (using apt or apt-get or aptitude or whichever tool I prefer).
Your Debian 10 system may have a different version of this package, or
it might have the package under a different name, or it might not have
it at all. That's why I showed how I discovered the name. You can
follow the same basic steps.
If you wish to build a package from CPAN yourself (either because Debian
doesn't have the package at all, or because the package in Debian is not
a suitable version), it can get REALLY messy. This is not the path that
I prefer.
When you download the source from CPAN and try to build it, it'll probably
spew a list of missing dependencies. Then you have to look for each of
those missing dependencies, either as Debian packages, or as source code
from CPAN that you have to build by hand.
Each dependent package may have additional dependencies of its own,
recursively, It's not a lot of fun.
So, anyway... long story short? Figure out what you're actually trying
to do, and then do *only* that. Want to run a script that uses XML::Simple?
Install libxml-simple-perl (or whatever it is on Debian 10, though it's
probably the same), and see if that's good enough.
Don't borrow trouble by looking for some all-encompassing knowledge of
all things perl/CPAN on Debian. You don't need to know how to install
every conceivable CPAN package. Just get the one package you need.
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