It used to be an obstacle course: I'd have to get a semi-decent C compiler, use that to compile gcc, use that to compile a decent make, sed, sometimes even a linker or an an assembler. Then there would be all the library dependencies.
Nowadays, I take it for granted that all the Gnu tools are there. Perl is there. Python is probably there. Either they came with the OS or they were installed early on.
I noticed this today. I thought it would be nice to use Perl's DBI to do some data mangling/migration.
perl -MCPAN -e shell cpan> install DBI::DBD [ bla, bla, bla ] /usr/bin/make install -- OK cpan> quit # make sure all the environment variables are set perl -MCPAN -e shell cpan> get DBD::Oracle # cd to the right directory, edit a couple of files and... perl Makefile.PL read ORACLE_USERID # no, I'm not going to write what I typed here export ORACLE_USERID make test # some of the long tests fail, but I don't care make install
After that, it just works! DBI, as easy as pie.
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