# New Perl Question



## sandpilot (Apr 29, 2002)

Hello Again-

I got such great response here I thought I would come back with another question.  I'm trying to setup a message board on a internal web server.

When I run the diagnostic script, it says I'm missing the DBI perl module and the DBD mySQL perl module.  So I contated tech support, here is the response I got from them.

Hi, 
Please contact your host and ask them to install DB_File module of Perl for you. 
If this is your own host, please run these commands : 
ppm install DB_File 
ppm install DBI 
ppm install DBD:mySQL 
( ppm is a file in the same directory with Perl.exe ) 
Regards,

But they don't support anything MAC.  So they had no idea how to do this in OSX.  I have tried to go to /usr/bin/, /library/perl/, system/library/perl/ and tried to issue these commands, and I get a command not found error.  Anyone know where I went astray??  Thanks for any help.

John


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## nkuvu (Apr 30, 2002)

Ya, ppm is ActiveState's Perl package manager.  It is considerably easier than installing modules yourself, but I think it only works with AS Perl.

When you do contact tech support in the future make sure you specify that you are not running ActiveState Perl.

The steps to install a module vary from module to module.  Some are pure Perl, in which case you can copy the files into /Library/Perl to be able to use them.  Other modules need to be compiled, which can easily be done using the
make
make install
technique.  Every module I have seen so far has a README or INSTALL file that tells you how to install it.

Hang on while I check CPAN...

OK, I'm back.  Sorry it took so long.  

There is a good usage tutorial for DBI at CPAN here.  The module itself can be found from the main search page, but to make your life easier here's the link to the search.

Without knowing exactly which module is required, I can't point you to the module to download.  But CPAN is a little odd to navigate through until you get used to it, so here are some tips.  Each tar.gz file contains one or more modules.  The text in the blue boxes show the tar file, the text under that show which modules that file provides.  The descriptions under the blue boxes are links to .pm files, and in a browser show the basic documentation for the module in question.  The link in the blue box gives you a page where you can download the tar file, and show more detailed version information, such as author contact information, creation dates, and a manifest of files in the tar file.

Once the tar file is downloaded for the module you need, you can easily extract it by double-clicking from the Finder.  You can tar -xzf _filename.tar.gz_ as well.  But I find the Finder decompression easier.

Once the tar file is uncompressed find the README or INSTALL file and open it in your favorite text editor for installation instructions.

Yowza, this is getting to be a long post.  But remember that CPAN is your friend for 'All Things Perl'.  Oh, and CPAN stands for Comprehensive Perl Archive Network and the main page is (somewhat obviously) at http://www.cpan.org

Let me know if you have more problems or questions.  I just might be able to help...


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