Hello.
I recently experienced a problem building a Perl module that produced
the following errors:
SHELL>make
Makefile out-of-date with respect to Makefile.PL
/usr/libdata/perl/5.00502/mach/Config.pm
/usr/libdata/perl/5.00502/mach/CORE/config.h
Cleaning current config before rebuilding Makefile...
make -f Makefile.old clean > /dev/null 2>&1 || /bin/sh -c true
/usr/bin/perl "-I/usr/libdata/perl/5.00502/mach"
"-I/usr/libdata/perl/5.00502" Makefile.PL
...
and left my build experience in an infinite loop.
In my attempts to locate help, I searched the mailing list archives to
see if anyone else had experienced the same problem. I discovered many logs
in reference to this problem. However, I was not able to locate the
source or solution to the problem in the mailing lists.
I think I have some insight to this problem that many people seem to
have had at one time or other. And so I'd like to share it in hopes
the archives retain it for reference.
In my case, I had just finished installing a fresh installation of
Perl, which I believe also provides the MakeMaker utility, which I
suspect is the module that causes the errors and the infinite loop.
I had had the same problem a few weeks earlier on a different
installation system that caused me 2 hours of frustration before I
decided to let it go till morning. The next morning the problem was
mysteriously gone, the module build went off without a hitch, so I
let it go. But then I had the same problem again on a new install.
Reflecting my past experience, and the many many logs of
this error in the archives, with lacking responses (indicating that
somehow the problem resolves itself) were my clues to the problem.
I guessed that the problem was that the MakeMaker utility does some
kind of a time check that is not granular enough to recognize a delta
time less than 24 hours. I checked the theory by 'touching' the Perl
base files, and the MakeMaker files to be 30 days old. Sure enough,
after doing this, my build worked.
Hope this information helps. If you're not sure how to manipulate the
timestamps of the Perl files, simply wait 24 hours, and try again.
--
Frank Koenen
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Voice: 1-630-264-1921
On the web: WireLess126.PDQLink.COM
