[Bioperl-l] Help with Makefile.PL

[simon andrews (BI)]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Turner, Geoff [mailto:Geoff.Turner at astrazeneca.com]
> Sent: 19 February 2003 10:06
> To: 'bioperl-l at bioperl.org'
> Subject: [Bioperl-l] Help with Makefile.PL
> 
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I am a Unix sys admin who has been asked to install Bioperl 
> 1.2 on one of our unix servers.
> The server is a DEC alpha server running  OSF1 V4.0 
> When I try to run    perl Makefile.PL   I receive an error ....
> 
> 	Missing $ on loop variable at Makefile.PL line 64
> 
> Line 64 reads 
> 
> 	foreach my $file (@files)  {
> 

> We are running  perl 5.003 and I have edited the line 
> 'require 5.004' as we do not require the modules which 
> require 5.005.

Oh but you do! It is your perl version which is the problem.  There have been a lot of changes to perl since 5.003 (7 years worth of changes!) and you really should update it (at least to 5.6.1).  Bioperl is only designed to work with perls >= 5.004.

The particular error you are seeing is caused because that line uses syntax which wasn't valid in 5.003.  The fix for that immediate problem would be to change:

	foreach my $file (@files)...

to

	my $file;
	foreach $file (@files)...

...but the install is almost certainly going to fall over somewhere else.  The require 5.004 is there for a good reason!

Hope this helps

Simon.

--
Simon Andrews PhD
Bioinformatics Dept
The Babraham Institute

simon.andrews at bbsrc.ac.uk
+44 (0)1223 496463