http://qs321.pair.com?node_id=886576

sg has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hello,

After installing the latest ActivePerl 5.12.x, I tried the command cpan -h This immediately started the process of installing MinGW and dmake. This unexpected action was unnerving, and I killed the attempt. I do plan to install MinGW on my own, and tried to find out what MinGW cpan wanted to install, and about potential conflicts, duplication, etc. I might run into when I installed the regular MinGW.

The commands ppm search mingw and ppm search dmake provides links http://search.cpan.org/dist/MinGW-5.1.4.1/ and http://search.cpan.org/dist/dmake-4.11.20080107/ but both links are broken.

I found two documentations for cpan (cpan - easily interact with CPAN from the command line and CPAN - query, download and build perl modules from CPAN sites) but neither documentation mentions MinGW and dmake and why a request for help immediately starts a download and install process.

Anyway,

  1. What is the MinGW-5.1.4.1 and dmake that cpan wants to install?
  2. Since I plan to install MinGW on my own, should I do so before running cpan or are the two MinGWs different?
  3. The MinGW I install will have make; will cpan still want to install dmake?
  4. Regarding the broken links provided by ppm, what is the proper links?

Thanks

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: The MinGW and dmake cpan starts to install
by syphilis (Archbishop) on Feb 07, 2011 at 01:44 UTC
    What is the MinGW-5.1.4.1 and dmake that cpan wants to install?

    MinGW-5.1.4.1 is just the version of the MinGW package. It will give you gcc-3.4.5 (as well as all the other stuff needed to make it functional).
    I would expect the dmake that gets installed to be version 4.12-20090907-SHAY.

    It's not difficult to use a different dmake and/or MinGW than installed by CPAN, should you ever want to.

    Cheers,
    Rob
Re: The MinGW and dmake cpan starts to install
by Anonymous Monk on Feb 07, 2011 at 00:50 UTC
Re: The MinGW and dmake cpan starts to install
by biohisham (Priest) on Feb 07, 2011 at 07:22 UTC
    On Win OS I often opt for UnxUtils that in addition to porting make capabilities it also ports different *nix utilities that you can use on Windows machines.


    Excellence is an Endeavor of Persistence. A Year-Old Monk :D .