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KeyWords: SysAdmin, [[Solaris]]


---+ Building Perl CPAN modules on Solaris


The CPAN Perl module has a very convenient shell for downloading and
installing modules, with one simple command.  

Everything works also on Solaris, as long as you are installing "pure
Perl" modules; if the module requires some additional C language
components, you enter a compiler version nightmare:
   * The Perl interpreter embeds the compilation flags used to build it \
     (look at the output of =perl -V=), and _every_ additional module \
     is built with the same configuration flags;
   * The Perl interpreter shipped with Solaris 10 (and the one provided by \
     BlastWave.org's CSW also!) are compiled with the Sun Studio =cc=;
   * Sun does no longer ship Sun Studio =cc= with Solaris 10, they bundle \
     GNU =gcc= instead;
   * =gcc= and =cc= use a different set of command-line options.

The problem has been known for so long on Solaris, that there is even
a CPAN module [[http://search.cpan.org/~aburlison/Solaris-PerlGcc-1.3/pod/perlgcc.pod perlgcc]] 
which installs a new set of Perl configuration files to work with =gcc=, 
but it doesn't work with Perl 5.8 (the one shipped with Solaris 10).

Googling for the issue hasn't been of much help (except for a few
other [[http://hivearchive.com/2007/05/23/solaris-perl-cpan/ rants]]
on this topic - we're not alone :-)), until I found
[[http://prefetch.net/blog/index.php/2006/07/29/building-perl-modules-for-solaris/ this blog post]]
which explains that one can simply remove the conflicting options and get
a working Perl module.

So, I wrote a [[https://twiki.cscs.ch/twiki/bin/viewfile/LCGTier2/PhoenixBlog20081120x1505?filename=perlcc perlcc]] 
script, which removes the offending options and
invokes =gcc= instead.  I installed ==perlcc== as =/usr/bin/cc= on the
Solaris boxes, and -voila- =cpan -i Time::HiRes= is now working...


-- Main.RiccardoMurri - 20 Nov 2008


---++ Readers' comments

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