On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 10:25 AM, Phil Kasten <pskas...@gmail.com> wrote: > I am using the cpan tool to install modules on a FreeBSD system that I do > not have root permission on. I have a provided a PREFIX for the makepl_arg, > to install everything in my local path. Almost everything works fine.
There are two different sets of configuration options in the "cpan" tool, one for dists with Makefile.PL and one for dists with Build.PL. The options are separate because Makefile.PL and Build.PL have different argument names to do similar things. For "cpan" (i.e. CPAN.pm), the arguments are like this (type "o conf" from the cpan prompt to see them): makepl_arg make_arg make_install_arg Those are the arguments respectively for "perl Makefile.PL", "make" and "make install". Likewise, they have Build.PL equivalents: mbuildpl_arg mbuild_arg mbuild_install_arg Those are for "perl Build.PL", "./Build" and "./Build install" You need to set installation directory arguments for *both* makepl_arg and mbuildpl_arg. As others have mentioned, using INSTALL_BASE/install_base is recommended by experts over PREFIX. You should also explore the local::lib module on CPAN, which is designed to automate the kind of configuration that you're doing. See the "bootstrapping" documentation for how to set it up. https://metacpan.org/module/local::lib#The-bootstrapping-technique Good luck! -- David