Problems with PPM

I'm trying to install Perl on WinXP and although the installation goes fine, I cannot get PPM working. I've tried both 5.10 and 5.8 but get the same results so I don't think it's a version issue.

When I run PPM, the GUI comes up but never really finishes loading. It says "Synchronizing Database ... done" but there are no packages listed in the main body of the interface, none of the buttons respond and the cursor is an hourglass. I left it running overnight just in case it took a long time the first time in but it was still like that the next morning.

Trying to run ppm at the command line, with ppm-shell, I don't get much farther, although I do get an error message:

ppm search failed: Proxy must be specified as absolute URI; '10.1.' is not

OK, so I issue this:

set http_proxy=http://10.1.137.73:8080

but that doesn't change anything. I get the same error message (with '10.1.' at the end).

Oddly, when I download and unzip a package (DBI, to be precise), I still cannot install it. When I issue the command to install, I get the same error message as above:

C:\Perl\bin>ppm install s:\source\perl\DBI-1.602\DBI.ppd
ppm install failed: Proxy must be specified as absolute URI; '10.1.' is not

Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong? It's been a while since I installed Perl but it never used to be this hard.

--
Henry

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RE: Problems with PPM

I seem to remember Jan saying they were no longer doing the repositories,
maybe it was just for perl 5.10. You can always use the CPAN perl module
on the command line....

-Wayne

--
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InterSystems USA, Inc.
303-858-1000


-----Original Message-----
From: activeperl-bounces@listserv.ActiveState.com
[mailto:activeperl-bounces@listserv.ActiveState.com] On Behalf Of Henry
Hartley
Sent: Friday, October 16, 2009 1:08 PM
To: activeperl@listserv.activestate.com
Subject: Problems with PPM

I'm trying to install Perl on WinXP and although the installation goes fine,
I cannot get PPM working. I've tried both 5.10 and 5.8 but get the same
results so I don't think it's a version issue.

When I run PPM, the GUI comes up but never really finishes loading. It says
"Synchronizing Database ... done" but there are no packages listed in the
main body of the interface, none of the buttons respond and the cursor is an
hourglass. I left it running overnight just in case it took a long time the
first time in but it was still like that the next morning.

Trying to run ppm at the command line, with ppm-shell, I don't get much
farther, although I do get an error message:

ppm search failed: Proxy must be specified as absolute URI; '10.1.' is not

OK, so I issue this:

set http_proxy=http://10.1.137.73:8080

but that doesn't change anything. I get the same error message (with '10.1.'
at the end).

Oddly, when I download and unzip a package (DBI, to be precise), I still
cannot install it. When I issue the command to install, I get the same error
message as above:

C:\Perl\bin>ppm install s:\source\perl\DBI-1.602\DBI.ppd
ppm install failed: Proxy must be specified as absolute URI; '10.1.' is not

Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong? It's been a while since I installed
Perl but it never used to be this hard.

--
Henry

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RE: Problems with PPM

Wayne Simmons [mailto:wsimmons@itsden.com] wrote:

>> I seem to remember Jan saying they were no longer doing the
>> repositories,
>> maybe it was just for perl 5.10. You can always use the CPAN
>> perl module
>> on the command line....

Except that cpan requires a compiler for non-pure-perl modules. Little things like DBI - yes, that's pretty important. If they are "no longer doing the repositories" then I think perl on WinXP will shortly die. I hope that's wrong. I need perl but I'm stuck on Win here at work. Please, save me...

Sorry. I'm frustrated.

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RE: Problems with PPM

From: Howard Tanner [mailto:tanman@optonline.net] wrote:
>>
>> From
>> http://docs.activestate.com/activeperl/5.10/faq/ActivePerl-
>> faq2.html#http_proxy
>>
>> Try:
>>
>> http_proxy=http://username:password@proxy.example.org:8080

Nope. No help.

There is no username or password for our proxy. It doesn't matter what I set http_proxy to (including nothing), I get the same error message. Any why would the http_proxy setting be needed for installing from a local copy of the module, downloaded from the repository here: http://ppm.activestate.com/PPMPackages/zips/8xx-builds-only/ Windows/

I'm no longer even convinced this is a proxy issue.

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RE: Problems with PPM

On Fri, 16 Oct 2009, Henry Hartley wrote:
> Wayne Simmons [mailto:wsimmons@itsden.com] wrote:
>
>>> I seem to remember Jan saying they were no longer doing the
>>> repositories, maybe it was just for perl 5.10. You can always use
>>> the CPAN perl module on the command line....

That is not correct; ActiveState continues to provide PPM repositories
for Perl 5.8 (32-bit only) and Perl 5.10 (32- and 64-bit).

> Except that cpan requires a compiler for non-pure-perl modules. Little

It does, but you can always install one using `ppm install MinGW` to
get a functional CPAN shell (that is, if your PPM is working). ActivePerl
5.10.1.1006 will even automatically download and install MinGW for
you when you invoke the CPAN shell the first time if you don't have
a C compiler on your PATH.

> things like DBI - yes, that's pretty important. If they are "no longer
> doing the repositories" then I think perl on WinXP will shortly die. I
> hope that's wrong. I need perl but I'm stuck on Win here at work.

There is something preventing LWP from seeing your http_proxy environment
variable. The error message doesn't even come from PPM itself, it is
LWP::UserAgent::proxy() that is complaining about "10.1." not being
a valid proxy address.

You may want to write a small test program using LWP::simple to download
a file from the web and see if you run into the same issue.

Cheers,
-Jan


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RE: Problems with PPM

Jan Dubois [mailto:jand@activestate.com] wrote:
>>
>> On Fri, 16 Oct 2009, Henry Hartley wrote:
>> > Wayne Simmons [mailto:wsimmons@itsden.com] wrote:
>> >
>> >>> I seem to remember Jan saying they were no longer doing the
>> >>> repositories, maybe it was just for perl 5.10. You can always
>> >>> use the CPAN perl module on the command line....
>>
>> That is not correct; ActiveState continues to provide PPM
>> repositories for Perl 5.8 (32-bit only) and Perl 5.10 (32-
>> and 64-bit).

I'm very glad to hear this.

>> > Except that cpan requires a compiler for non-pure-perl modules.
>>
>> It does, but you can always install one using `ppm install MinGW`
>> to get a functional CPAN shell (that is, if your PPM is working).
>> ActivePerl 5.10.1.1006 will even automatically download and
>> install MinGW for you when you invoke the CPAN shell the first
>> time if you don't have a C compiler on your PATH.

That's good to know. I'll have to look into that if I can't get PPM working.

>> > things like DBI - yes, that's pretty important. If they are "no
>> > longer doing the repositories" then I think perl on WinXP will
>> > shortly die. I hope that's wrong. I need perl but I'm stuck on
>> > Win here at work.
>>
>> There is something preventing LWP from seeing your http_proxy
>> environment variable. The error message doesn't even come from
>> PPM itself, it is LWP::UserAgent::proxy() that is complaining
>> about "10.1." not being a valid proxy address.
>>
>> You may want to write a small test program using LWP::simple to
>> download a file from the web and see if you run into the same
>> issue.

I just spoke with the guy who manages our corporate proxy. He's pretty sure that's not the issue since use of the proxy is not enforced. Our browsers have their settings changed to use the proxy when we log into the network but it can be turned off manually and they will bypass it. I tried that and it worked fine.

I see the code you point to (and even found that by searching for the error message I was getting). I'll do what you suggest although I haven't used LWP::UserAgent recently and I've never dealt with LWP::UserAgent::proxy(), so I'll have to brush up on that.

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RE: Problems with PPM

Henry Hartley wrote:
>> >> There is something preventing LWP from seeing your http_proxy
>> >> environment variable. The error message doesn't even come from
>> >> PPM itself, it is LWP::UserAgent::proxy() that is complaining
>> >> about "10.1." not being a valid proxy address.
>> >>
>> >> You may want to write a small test program using LWP::simple to
>> >> download a file from the web and see if you run into the same
>> >> issue.
>>
>> I see the code you point to (and even found that by searching for
>> the error message I was getting). I'll do what you suggest
>> although I haven't used LWP::UserAgent recently and I've never
>> dealt with LWP::UserAgent::proxy(), so I'll have to brush up on
>> that.

This four line script will generate the error for me.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use LWP::UserAgent;
$ua = LWP::UserAgent->new();
$ua->env_proxy;

C:\temp>lwp.pl
Proxy must be specified as absolute URI; '10.1.' is not at C:\temp\lwp.pl line 4

The error message is exactly the same (i.e. the 10.1. doesn't change) no matter what I set http_proxy to or if it is not set at all. Does capitalization of the http_proxy matter and if so, what's proper? Otherwise, I'm lost.

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RE: Problems with PPM - SOLVED

Henry Hartley wrote:
>> >> >> There is something preventing LWP from seeing your
>> >> >> http_proxy environment variable. The error message
>> >> >> doesn't even come from PPM itself, it is
>> >> >> LWP::UserAgent::proxy() that is complaining
>> >> >> about "10.1." not being a valid proxy address.
>> >> >>
>> >> >> You may want to write a small test program using
>> >> >> LWP::simple to download a file from the web and see
>> >> >> if you run into the same issue.
>>
>> This four line script will generate the error for me.
>>
>> #!/usr/bin/perl
>> use LWP::UserAgent;
>> $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new();
>> $ua->env_proxy;
>>
>> C:\temp>lwp.pl
>> Proxy must be specified as absolute URI; '10.1.' is not at
>> C:\temp\lwp.pl line 4
>>
>> The error message is exactly the same (i.e. the 10.1. doesn't
>> change) no matter what I set http_proxy to or if it is not set at
>> all. Does capitalization of the http_proxy matter and if so,
>> what's proper? Otherwise, I'm lost.

There was an environment variable called RSYNC_PROXY which was set (for some unknown reason) to "10.1." When I removed that, all became well. Crazy.

Thanks for your time.

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Re: Problems with PPM - SOLVED

On Oct 16, 2009, at 23:01 , Henry Hartley wrote:

> Henry Hartley wrote:
>>>>>>> There is something preventing LWP from seeing your
>>>>>>> http_proxy environment variable. The error message
>>>>>>> doesn't even come from PPM itself, it is
>>>>>>> LWP::UserAgent::proxy() that is complaining
>>>>>>> about "10.1." not being a valid proxy address.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> You may want to write a small test program using
>>>>>>> LWP::simple to download a file from the web and see
>>>>>>> if you run into the same issue.
>>>
>>> This four line script will generate the error for me.
>>>
>>> #!/usr/bin/perl
>>> use LWP::UserAgent;
>>> $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new();
>>> $ua->env_proxy;
>>>
>>> C:\temp>lwp.pl
>>> Proxy must be specified as absolute URI; '10.1.' is not at
>>> C:\temp\lwp.pl line 4
>>>
>>> The error message is exactly the same (i.e. the 10.1. doesn't
>>> change) no matter what I set http_proxy to or if it is not set at
>>> all. Does capitalization of the http_proxy matter and if so,
>>> what's proper? Otherwise, I'm lost.
>
> There was an environment variable called RSYNC_PROXY which was set
> (for some unknown reason) to "10.1." When I removed that, all became
> well. Crazy.

Recent versions of libwww-perl do have a fix[1] for this.
Unfortunately that only made it in libwww-perl-5.832 and ActivePerl
1006 ships with 5.831. If you manage to 'ppm upgrade libwww-perl' you
should not risk having RSYNC_PROXY coming back to haunt you :-)

[1] http://github.com/gisle/libwww-perl/commit/e99048842090d3c7c c03cdb0beb590d5b97b531f

Regards,
Gisle

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