scripts don't run

[Chuck Jacobson]

Please forgive me because in some ways I am a newbie and in some ways I am not. I have written several perl scripts but I have never admin'd a Perl installation. Now I have it on my iBook and G4.

First, I knew perl was in OS X (I'm using 10.2) and I learned about CPAN and started using it. Apparently, I said yes to something during the setup when I shouldn't have and this is what I get when I try to install things with CPAN (like the newest CPAN version):

LWP not available
Fetching with Net::FTP:
ftp://cpan.pair.com/pub/CPAN/modules/03modlist.data.gz
Going to read no/sources/modules/03modlist.data.gz
Going to write no/Metadata
CPAN: Digest::MD5 loaded ok
Checksum for no/sources/authors/id/A/AN/ANDK/CPAN-1.63.tar.gz ok
Scanning cache no/build for sizes
no/sources/authors/id/A/AN/ANDK/CPAN-1.63.tar.gz: No such file or directory
no/sources/authors/id/A/AN/ANDK/CPAN-1.63.tar.gz: No such file or directory
tar: Failed open to read on no/sources/authors/id/A/AN/ANDK/CPAN-1.63.tar.gz <No such file or directory>
Couldn't opendir no/build/ANDK000: No such file or directory at /Library/Perl/CPAN.pm line 4873

I installed perl 5.8.0 according to Apple's directions and it seemingly went fine but I still had the above problem. That's when I asked and someone said I had setup CPAN wrong.

I'm also having trouble making perl scripts work in my browser and I'm pretty sure its either a permission issue or that perl doesn't know what directory to use. Perl scripts in my home/Sites/cgi-bin directory just show up as text files...and other issues.

What should I be doing to setup my perl properly? Thanks,
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Chuck Jacobson, Technical Systems Specialist
North Central Baptist Church, Gainesville, FL
http://www.northcentralbaptist.org/
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"If bad men cast their ballots, and the good refuse or neglect to vote,
then are good men chargeable with the evils of bad government."
- A. Gellius