How to fix: 'YAML' not installed when installing XML::Simple?

Question

I'm trying to install XML::Simple module however I get the following everytime.

cpan install XML::Simple
Going to read '/root/.cpan/Metadata'
Database was generated on Wed, 12 Mar 2014 09:17:02 GMT
Running install for module 'XML::Simple'
Running make for G/GR/GRANTM/XML-Simple-2.20.tar.gz
Checksum for /root/.cpan/sources/authors/id/G/GR/GRANTM/XML-Simple-2.20.tar.gz ok

CPAN.pm: Going to build G/GR/GRANTM/XML-Simple-2.20.tar.gz

Checking if your kit is complete...
Looks good
Writing Makefile for XML::Simple
Writing MYMETA.yml
GRANTM/XML-Simple-2.20.tar.gz
make -- NOT OK
'YAML' not installed, will not store persistent state
Running make test
Can't test without successful make
Running make install
Make had returned bad status, install seems impossible

Can anyone tell me what is problem here? and how to fix it?

Answer 1

Try installing YAML directly via cpan, e.g.:

cpan YAML

^{Source: Re: Installing from CPAN -- YAML}

Answer 2

This is one of those unclear error messages you get. The true problem is almost certainly that you don't have make installed. If this is a Debian-like box, you want to

$ sudo apt-get install build-essential

or local equivalent for other OSes.

On a side note, you don't want to be using XML::Simple either. Try one of the many other variations on XML reading/writing from CPAN.