I just started trying to use CPAN.
So far, nothing works.
I'm using cygwin under Windows XP.
What typically happens is, I try to use CPAN to install something.
CPAN retrieves files for it, then says that there is no Makefile.PL in the package and that it will try to make its own. Then it says that it has installed the package, but when I go and look under /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8/cygwin/auto, I find it's created a directory for the package, which contains nothing but a ".packlist" file of 0 bytes. The package hasn't been installed. Here's an example:


$ cpan

cpan shell -- CPAN exploration and modules installation (v1.7601)
ReadLine support enabled

cpan> install SOAP::Lite
CPAN: Storable loaded ok
Going to read /cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/goetzp/.cpan/Metadata
Database was generated on Fri, 22 Sep 2006 16:40:17 GMT
Running install for module SOAP::Lite
Running make for B/BY/BYRNE/SOAP-Lite-0.69.tar.gz
CPAN: Digest::MD5 loaded ok
CPAN: Compress::Zlib loaded ok
Checksum for /cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/goetzp/.cpan/sources/authors/id/
B/BY/BYRNE/SOAP-Lite-0.69.tar.gz ok
Scanning cache /cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/goetzp/.cpan/build for sizes
gzip: and.gz: No such file or directory
gzip: Settings/goetzp/.cpan/sources/authors/id/B/BY/BYRNE/SOAP-Lite-0.69.tar.gz:
No such file or directory
Package seems to come without Makefile.PL.
(The test -f "/cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/goetzp/.cpan/build/BYRNE002/M
akefile.PL" returned false.)
Writing one on our own (setting NAME to SOAPLite)

CPAN.pm: Going to build B/BY/BYRNE/SOAP-Lite-0.69.tar.gz

Writing Makefile for SOAPLite
/usr/bin/make -- OK
Running make test
No tests defined for SOAPLite extension.
/usr/bin/make test -- OK
Running make install
Writing /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8/cygwin/auto/SOAPLite/.packlist
Appending installation info to /usr/lib/perl5/5.8/cygwin/perllocal.pod
/usr/bin/make install -- OK

cpan> quit
Lockfile removed.

goetzp@goetz-pc /d/data/code/sci/bio/binf/web/SOAP/WSFasta
$ perl WSFastaClient.pl
Can't locate SOAP/Lite.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /usr/lib/perl5/5.8/cygwin /usr
/lib/perl5/5.8 /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8/cygwin /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8
/usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8/cygwin /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8 /usr/lib/perl5/
vendor_perl/5.8/cygwin /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8 /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl
/5.8/cygwin /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8 .) at WSFastaClient.pl line 3.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at WSFastaClient.pl line 3.

I'm using perl v5.8.7 built for cygwin-thread-multi-64int
Not ActivePerl.

The initial problem was that Cygwin had made my home directory be under "Documents and Settings". The accursed spaces in the directory name made CPAN fail.

I changed HOMEPATH to /home/goetzp .
Now I am getting a much wider variety of errors from CPAN, but it still isn't installing most things correctly. It did install HTML::Template . However, it doesn't find Makefile.PL files even when they exist, and gives messages like this:

Untarred /home/goetzp/.cpan/sources/authors/id/D/DS/DSKOLL/MIME-tools-5.420.tar
successfully
Package seems to come without Makefile.PL.
(The test -f "/home/goetzp/.cpan/build/DSKOLL003/Makefile.PL" returned false.)

Writing one on our own (setting NAME to MIMEParser)


cpan> o conf
CPAN::Config options from /usr/lib/perl5/5.8/CPAN/Config.pm:
       commit Commit changes to disk
       defaults Reload defaults from disk
       init Interactive setting of all options

       build_cache 10
       build_dir /home/goetzp/.cpan/build
       cache_metadata 1
       cpan_home /home/goetzp/.cpan
       ftp
       ftp_proxy
       getcwd cwd
       gpg
       gzip /usr/bin/gzip
       histfile /home/goetzp/.cpan/histfile
       histsize 100
       http_proxy
       inactivity_timeout 0
       index_expire 1
       inhibit_startup_message 0
       keep_source_where /home/goetzp/.cpan/sources
       lynx
       make /usr/bin/make
       make_arg
       make_install_arg
       makepl_arg
       ncftp
       ncftpget
       no_proxy
       pager /usr/bin/less
       prerequisites_policy ask
       scan_cache atstart
       shell
       tar /usr/bin/tar
       term_is_latin 1
       unzip
       urllist
       wget /usr/bin/wget