Why does installing Number::Format on Win 64 fail?

Question

I'm trying to install Number::Format to use with Padre on Windows:

cpanm Number::Format

I get the following error. How can I fix this?

    cpanm (App::cpanminus) 1.7034 on perl 5.020002 built for MSWin32-x86-multi-thread-64int
Work directory is C:\Users\admin/.cpanm/work/1433356714.11300
You have make C:\STRAWB~1\c\bin\dmake.exe
You have LWP 6.08
Falling back to Archive::Tar 2.04
Searching Number::Format () on cpanmetadb ...
--> Working on Number::Format
Fetching http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/W/WR/WRW/Number-Format-1.73.tar.gz
-> OK
Unpacking Number-Format-1.73.tar.gz
Entering Number-Format-1.73
Checking configure dependencies from META.yml
Configuring Number-Format-1.73
Running Makefile.PL
Checking if your kit is complete...
Looks good
Generating a dmake-style Makefile
Writing Makefile for Number::Format
Writing MYMETA.yml and MYMETA.json
-> OK
Checking dependencies from MYMETA.json ...
Checking if you have POSIX 0 ... Yes (1.38_03)
Checking if you have ExtUtils::MakeMaker 0 ... Yes (6.98)
Checking if you have Test::More 0 ... Yes (1.001014)
Checking if you have Carp 0 ... Yes (1.3301)
Building and testing Number-Format-1.73
cp Format.pm blib\lib\Number\Format.pm
C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe "-MExtUtils::Command::MM" "-MTest::Harness" "-e" "undef *Test::Harness::Switches; test_harness(0, 'blib\lib', 'blib\arch')" t/*.t
t/format_bytes.t ..... ok
t/format_negative.t .. ok
t/format_number.t .... ok
t/format_picture.t ... ok
t/format_price.t ..... ok
Invalid sep_by_space value at t/locale.t line 77.
# Looks like your test exited with 255 just after 5.
t/locale.t ........... 
Dubious, test returned 255 (wstat 65280, 0xff00)
All 5 subtests passed 
    (less 3 skipped subtests: 2 okay)
t/object.t ........... ok
t/round.t ............ ok
t/unformat_number.t .. ok

Test Summary Report
-------------------
t/locale.t         (Wstat: 65280 Tests: 5 Failed: 0)
  Non-zero exit status: 255
Files=9, Tests=147,  1 wallclock secs ( 0.11 usr +  0.03 sys =  0.14 CPU)
Result: FAIL
Failed 1/9 test programs. 0/147 subtests failed.
dmake.exe:  Error code 255, while making 'test_dynamic'
-> FAIL Installing Number::Format failed. See C:\Users\admin\.cpanm\work\1433356714.11300\build.log for details. Retry with --force to force install it.

Answer 1

There's already a bug report for this. The issue hasn't been fixed yet, but somebody uploaded a patch that you can try:

Reason seems to be the POSIX module, which returns many "-1" values where Number::Format->new() expects missing hash keys... I was able to successfully test and install by using the attached patch as a workaround. But it might be smarter to fix this problem in the POSIX module.

Any time a module fails to build, you should check the CPAN Testers report. The tests are failing for Perl 5.20.0 on Window x64, so it's not just you.