Need MMS or MMK, but don't have C compiler

[Ts_hunter]

I need MMS or MMK in order to install various Perl modules from CPAN but I don't have a C compiler to create MMK and can't figure out where or how to get MMS.

Help???

[Steven Schweda]

Generally, to get MMS, one buys a CD or DVD
with an MMS kit on it. License sold
separately. (Hobbyist license cost is
approximately zero. A real, commercial
license costs more.) In fact, the latest
DECset ECO is a complete product kit, so, if
you have the right platform, you could get an
MMS kit by FTP. For example:

ftp://ftp.itrc.hp.com/openvms_patches/layered_products/alpha/

> Help???

You first. If you disclosed some useful
information, like, say, your hardware type
and OS version, you might get some help
obtaining a built MMK kit.

[Ts_hunter]

AlphaServer DS25 / openvms 7.3-2

Thanks.

[Steven Schweda · Accepted solution]

> AlphaServer DS25 / openvms 7.3-2

Hmmm. Upon actual inspection, the MMK kit I
have (V3.9-10) seems to include enough stuff
(Alpha and IA64 MMK.OLB, LINK.COM) to get you
going, even without a C compiler. Later ones
I've found easily seem to be less useful.

If you're desperate enough, try:

http://antinode.info/ftp/misc/mmk_3_9_10.zip

I may delete that in a few days.

I've been using V3.9-10 for a while, and
hadn't noticed/needed anything newer. MMK
kit providers might consider going back to
supplying the [.bin-XXX] directories again.

[Ts_hunter]

Hey, thanks for the MMK files. I appreciate it.

[Ts_hunter]

After I unzip this .zip file, what do I need to do in order to be able to use the MMK?

[Craig A Berry]

For the archives, MMK 4.1 is available at:

ftp://ftp.kednos.com/pub/mmk/mmk041.zip

But I don't think it has binaries.

[Steven Schweda]

> After I unzip this .zip file, what do I
> need to do in order to be able to use the
> MMK?

Do you mean what other than what's in
aaareadme.doc
aaareadme.install
aaareadme.too
mmk_doc.txt
???

[Joseph Huber_1]

Ts,
MMK is a source distribution.
To install CPAN modules, You will need a C compiler for many of them in addition to MMK.
(and open source in general).

But if You are that desparate, get my executable, built under Alpha VMS 7.3-1:
http://wwwvms.mppmu.mpg.de/util_root/exe/mmk.exe

or get access to one of the public access VMS systems to compile.

[Joseph Huber_1]

To say it the other way around:
if You don't need a C compiler to install a perl module, then You can install it without MMS as well.
Many perl modules are just interfaces to libraries written in C (or other languages).
If a module is pure perl, then You can copy the .pm modules simply to the perl_root:[lib] directory and are done without MMS.
The (MMS) makefile just guides You through test and install.
All other modules need a compiler to build the library. Look into the distribution archive for the module (tar or zip) in question: if there are .xs,.c,.h files, then You will need a C compiler.

[Ts_hunter]

I have all of the .pm I need from my other installation of OpenVMS perl (done several years ago). Would I be able to simply copy all of those .pm files from the other machine to this new setup?

[Joseph Huber_1]

>>Would I be able to simply copy all of those .pm files from the other machine to this new setup?

You can copy the whole perl_root directory tree from another machine of course.
It makes not much sense to copy the [lib]*.pm only, they usually call modules/libraries further down the [LIB...]tree.

If You look into the existing setup, You will see a lot of directories containing .pm,.exe, and .olb files mainly. The exe and olb's are the one built using compilers.

[Craig A Berry]

In principle you can copy the files that make up pure-Perl modules into a new installation if you know where they go, what their permissions and ownership should be, etc. But it's generally better to let "MMK install" worry about that. Copying the files manually can get just a bit tricky if autosplitting is involved (see $ perldoc AutoSplit).