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I'm experiencing a problem installing Perl 5.8.7 on Debian Stable that
is similar to a previously reported -- but never fully solved --
problem.

In November 2003, reader King reported the following problem when he
tried to install Perl 5.8.2 on Debian:
[greatly snipped]
> # sh Configure -de
> .
> You need to find a working C compiler.
> Either (purchase and) install the C compiler supplied by your OS
vendor,
> or for a free C compiler try http://gcc.gnu.org/
> I cannot continue any further, aborting.
> #
>

This error continued even after he followed suggestions by other reader
and made sure that gcc was installed. Nothing seemed to work until
finally some magic was tried:

# apt-get install kernel-package libc6-dev tk8.3 libncurses5-dev
fakeroot bin86

But it was not clear why this worked.

Tonight, I tried to install Perl 5.8.7 on Debian stable. (Tried to do
so because it only came with Perl 5.8.4 -- and a very skeletal version
at that.) I got similar errors.

### START Configure error message ###
[snip]
Checking how to test for symbolic links...
Your builtin 'test -h' may be broken.
Trying external '/usr/bin/test -h'.
You can test for symbolic links with '/usr/bin/test -h'.


Good, your tr supports [:lower:] and [:upper:] to convert case.
Using [:upper:] and [:lower:] to convert case.
/usr/bin/ld: crt1.o: No such file: No such file or directory
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
You need to find a working C compiler.
Either (purchase and) install the C compiler supplied by your OS
vendor,
or for a free C compiler try http://gcc.gnu.org/
I cannot continue any further, aborting.
### END Configure error message ###

But I had installed 'gcc' just minutes before trying to run Configure:

apt-get install gcc

reported no problems. 'man gcc' DWIMs.

So: (1) Why am I being told I have no working C compiler?

(2) Can anyone suggest a workaround? (I'm reluctant to try King's magic
unless/until I know why it did the trick.)

Thank you very much.
jimk

Also sprach James E Keenan:

> I'm experiencing a problem installing Perl 5.8.7 on Debian Stable that
> is similar to a previously reported -- but never fully solved --
> problem.
>
> In November 2003, reader King reported the following problem when he
> tried to install Perl 5.8.2 on Debian:
> [greatly snipped]
>> # sh Configure -de
>> .
>> You need to find a working C compiler.
>> Either (purchase and) install the C compiler supplied by your OS
> vendor,
>> or for a free C compiler try http://gcc.gnu.org/
>> I cannot continue any further, aborting.
>> #
>>
>
> This error continued even after he followed suggestions by other reader
> and made sure that gcc was installed. Nothing seemed to work until
> finally some magic was tried:
>
> # apt-get install kernel-package libc6-dev tk8.3 libncurses5-dev
> fakeroot bin86
>
> But it was not clear why this worked.
>
> Tonight, I tried to install Perl 5.8.7 on Debian stable. (Tried to do
> so because it only came with Perl 5.8.4 -- and a very skeletal version
> at that.) I got similar errors.

What do you mean with skeletal? You probably only have perl-base
installed which contains the interpreter and only an essential subset of
the standard modules. You also need the packages perl, perl-modules and
perl-doc to get a complete standard 5.8.4 distribution.

> ### START Configure error message ###
> [snip]
> Checking how to test for symbolic links...
> Your builtin 'test -h' may be broken.
> Trying external '/usr/bin/test -h'.
> You can test for symbolic links with '/usr/bin/test -h'.
>
>
> Good, your tr supports [:lower:] and [:upper:] to convert case.
> Using [:upper:] and [:lower:] to convert case.
> /usr/bin/ld: crt1.o: No such file: No such file or directory

crt1.o is contained in the package libc6-dev. If you don't have that
package installed, the gcc is virtually useless as you cannot compile
anything useful without the header- and object-files of the libc.

Of course, if you're lacking something as essential as that I wouldn't
be surprised if you were also lacking other important packages needed to
compile perl, such as make or so.

> collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
> You need to find a working C compiler.
> Either (purchase and) install the C compiler supplied by your OS
> vendor,
> or for a free C compiler try http://gcc.gnu.org/
> I cannot continue any further, aborting.
> ### END Configure error message ###
>
> But I had installed 'gcc' just minutes before trying to run Configure:
>
> apt-get install gcc
>
> reported no problems. 'man gcc' DWIMs.
>
> So: (1) Why am I being told I have no working C compiler?
>
> (2) Can anyone suggest a workaround? (I'm reluctant to try King's magic
> unless/until I know why it did the trick.)

It probably did the trick because it included 'apt-get install
libc6-dev'.

Tassilo
--
use bigint;
$n=71423350343770280161397026330337371139054411854 220053437565440;
$m=-8,;;$_=$n&(0xff)<<$m,,$_>>=$m,,print+chr,,while(($ m+=<=200);

Tassilo v. Parseval wrote:
> [snip]
> What do you mean with skeletal? You probably only have perl-base
> installed which contains the interpreter and only an essential subset of
> the standard modules. You also need the packages perl, perl-modules and
> perl-doc to get a complete standard 5.8.4 distribution.
>

I gathered that. But I figured that if I was going to have to do more
work to get a functioning 5.8.4, I'd do the work needed to get a
functioning 5.8.7 instead. And since I was simultaneously and
successfully building 5.8.7 on my laptop, I figured I'd have no
problem.

>[snip]
> crt1.o is contained in the package libc6-dev. If you don't have that
> package installed, the gcc is virtually useless as you cannot compile
> anything useful without the header- and object-files of the libc.
>
> Of course, if you're lacking something as essential as that I wouldn't
> be surprised if you were also lacking other important packages needed to
> compile perl, such as make or so.
>
>[snip]

> It probably did the trick because it included 'apt-get install
> libc6-dev'.
>
Your hunch was absolutely correct. I installed libc6-dev and was
thereafter able to run Configure, make, etc. successfully. So now I
have done my first build of Perl on Debian. Thank you very much.

jimk