That's actually "correct" for running "perl Build.PL" since "success" means writing a Build file and metadata for CPAN/CPANPLUS to resolve prerequisites. Having Build.PL (or Makefile.PL) announce missing requirements is just a legacy behavior. It's possible they should be quiet if they detect any of the "CPAN/CPANPLUS is running" environment variables, but stock 5.8.4 wouldn't have them anyway. And the meaning of "requires" is loose. Things *may* pass if they are not satisfied, but authors don't promise anything. :-) David On Dec 7, 2009 11:55 AM, "Andy Dougherty" <doughera@lafayette.edu> wrote: On Sun, 6 Dec 2009, David Golden wrote: > This is Release Candidate 3. Unless something pops up on... I tested on OpenSolaris/x86, which ships with perl-5.8.4 as the default system perl. I noted one odd thing: $ perl Build.PL Checking prerequisites... requires: ! ExtUtils::CBuilder is not installed ! ExtUtils::ParseXS is not installed build_requires: ! File::Temp (0.14) is installed, but we need version >= 0.15 ! Test::Harness (2.40) is installed, but we need version >= 3.16 ! Test::More (0.47) is installed, but we need version >= 0.49 recommends: * ExtUtils::Manifest (1.42) is installed, but we prefer to have 1.54 [ . . . ] ERRORS/WARNINGS FOUND IN PREREQUISITES. You may wish to install the versions of the modules indica... $ echo $? 0 Note that although the textual output complains about missing prerequisites, the script exits with a 0 status. The "requires" things don't seem to really be required. It still "passes" all its tests, though it does skip quite a few. $ ./Build test [ . . . ] All tests successful, 6 tests and 34 subtests skipped. Files=44, Tests=1121, 78 wallclock secs (37.18 cusr + 18.89 csys = 56.07 CPU) In short, even though I'm missing several "required" prerequisites, perl Build.PL && ./Build && ./Build test && ./Build install will happily build and install, and any warnings will have scrolled hopelessly off screen. I would have expected to have to give some sort of --force flag to make it proceed anyway. -- Andy Dougherty doughera@lafayette.edu