Make error installing DBD::Informix module

Question

I am running the make on the DBD::Informix module and I am getting an error that it can't create the Informix.so file. If you take a look at the first step it did for the make it removed the original Informix.so file. But it looks like an environment variable that has a value of "/usr/bin/perl" is being appended to the path so it is not able to create (make) the new Informix.so file.

Has anyone seen this before? It looks like INFORMIXC is the variable that's being appended to it. Can I change this? I tried the suggestion in this article from CPAN and downgraded to that module but no luck.

Error

/opt/informix/bin/esql: line942: /home/pdoug/.cpan/sources/authors/id/J/JO/JOHNL/DBD-Informix-2013.0521/"/usr/bin/perl": No such file or directory
make: *** [blib/arch/auto/DBD/Informix/Informix.so] Error 127



[root@sandbox-support DBD-Informix-2013.0521]# make
rm -f blib/arch/auto/DBD/Informix/Informix.so
INFORMIXC='"/usr/bin/perl" esqlld' ESQLLD='gcc -shared -O2 -g -pipe -Wall   -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -fexceptions -fstack-protector-strong --param=ssp-  buffer-size=4 -grecord-gcc-switches -m64 -mtune=generic -Wl,-z,relro ' esql    -shared -O2 -g -pipe -Wall -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -fexceptions -fstack-    protector-strong --param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -grecord-gcc-switches -m64   -mtune=generic -Wl,-z,relro  Informix.o dbdimp.o dbdattr.o sqltoken.o sqltype.o ixblob.o odbctype.o kludge.o link.o esqlcver.o esqlc_v6.o  -o  blib/arch/auto/DBD/Informix/Informix.so      \

Installed version 6.66 as recommended from a similar issue and it didn't fix the issue

Writing /root/.cpan/Metadata

ExtUtils::MakeMaker

    (no description)
    B/BI/BINGOS/ExtUtils-MakeMaker-7.04.tar.gz
    /root/perl5/lib/perl5/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.pm
    Installed: 6.66
    CPAN:      7.04  Not up to date
    Chris Williams (BINGOS)
    chris@bingosnet.co.uk

`/home/pdoug/.cpan/sources/authors/id/J/JO/JOHNL/DBD-Informix-2013.0521/"/usr/bin/perl"` looks funny. Is that supposed to be a place to look for the perl executable? — mob, Aug 20 '15 at 18:46
Its the location of where the Makefile.pl is I have built my own environment variable in the bash_profile that points to this path. But it shouldn't conflict with the install. — BV45, Aug 20 '15 at 19:00
What environment variables did you set? Typically one does not point to something under the `cpan` tarball source tree, and would instead use the `cpan` shell `look Module::Name` to operate manually on a particular perl module being built. — thrig, Aug 20 '15 at 19:41
Removed the $INFORMIX_MODULE from my bash profile and it is still giving the same error. — BV45, Aug 20 '15 at 20:41

Jonathan Leffler · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-30T13:50:18.083

I'm the maintainer of DBD::Informix. This is a problem I'm (uncomfortably) aware of.

Those who maintain ExtUtils::MakeMaker made a change to the handling of a pathname (I forget exactly which one; I think it is the value of the make macro FULLPATH) and they now enclose it in double quotes which evidently doesn't matter for their expected uses of the value, but it breaks DBD::Informix. When I started with DBD::Informix (sometime towards the end of the last millennium), there were all sorts of weirdnesses that had to be dealt with. There are still, probably, a moderate number of them. So I have a complex system to code around the fact that people use GCC to build Perl but the ESQL/C product expects to use an alternative compiler. Said workaround worked OK from 1997-2014 or thereabouts; it has now been broken. I'm not happy about this. I haven't yet worked out a good solution to the problem.

If you don't mind being a guinea pig, you could make a backup copy of Makefile.PL, and then apply this patch to it:

patch --dry-run --verbose <<'EOF'
--- Makefile.PL 2013/05/22 05:40:27 2013.5
+++ Makefile.PL 2015/08/20 22:40:59
@@ -710,7 +710,7 @@
 # the files list...

 # Default version of $opts{LD}
-$opts{LD} = "INFORMIXC='\$(FULLPERL) esqlld' " .
+$opts{LD} = "INFORMIXC=\"\$(FULLPERL) esqlld\" " .
             "ESQLLD='$Config{ld} \$(LDDLFLAGS)' \$(ESQL)";

 my $esql_nt = "";
EOF

The patch code above does a dry-run; it checks whether the patch could be applied. If that works (no warnings or errors), then remove the --dry-run option. Then run the normal build process:

perl Makefile.PL &&
make &&
make test &&
: make install  # If you're brave; eventually, you do make install

The modified Makefile.PL seems to work for me (Perl 5.22.0 on Mac OS X 10.10.0, with CSDK 3.70.FC4), but I'm not yet sure it is all that kosher. What it does is gives you two adjacent double quotes, which the shell maps to an empty (and quoteless) string.

Update: DBD::Informix version 2015.0826 released

On 2015-08-26, DBD::Informix version 2015.0826 was released and uploaded to CPAN. This incorporates what should be a permanent fix to the problem evaded by the patch above (the change is more significant, but also safer in most respects).

its an honor to have your assistance thank you. Is there a recommended place within the Makefile.PL that I can place this? Append it at the very bottom? — BV45, Aug 21 '15 at 11:20
Take the code shown in the answer (copy and paste) and put it into a file `script.sh` in the directory where `Makefile.PL` for DBD::Informix is. Run `sh script.sh`. If there are no error messages, then edit the script file and delete the `--dry-run` flag and rerun the script. Then try the build again. — Jonathan Leffler, Aug 21 '15 at 11:48
Alternatively, manually edit `Makefile.PL` and change the line shown from what it currently looks like (the line with the minus at the start; ignore the minus) to what it should look like (the line with the plus at the start; ignore the plus). The `patch` program applies that edit automatically, which is why I suggested it. — Jonathan Leffler, Aug 21 '15 at 12:32
Thanks Jonathan, that fixed the error and I am able to go forward and install the Module on our Linux server!!!!! Brilliant! — BV45, Aug 21 '15 at 14:18

Make error installing DBD::Informix module

ExtUtils::MakeMaker

1 Answers1

Update: DBD::Informix version 2015.0826 released