Perl GD module won't install -

Question

I'm trying to figure out why I can't get the GD perl module to install on my Debian 7 server. Here is how I installed the core stuff:

sudo apt-get install libgd-gd2-perl

Then running the -MCPAN to install, I get:

root@myserver:~# sudo perl -MCPAN -e 'install GD'
Going to read '/root/.cpan/Metadata'
  Database was generated on Sun, 19 Jul 2015 21:41:02 GMT
Running install for module 'GD'
Running make for L/LD/LDS/GD-2.56.tar.gz
Checksum for /root/.cpan/sources/authors/id/L/LD/LDS/GD-2.56.tar.gz ok

  CPAN.pm: Going to build L/LD/LDS/GD-2.56.tar.gz

Configuring for libgd version 2.0.36.
Checking for stray libgd header files...none found.

Unknown option: installdirs
Usage: perl Build.PL [options]

Configure GD module.

 Options:
     -options       "JPEG,FT,PNG,GIF,XPM,ANIMGIF"   feature options, separated by commas
     -lib_gd_path   path            path to libgd
     -lib_ft_path   path            path to Freetype library
     -lib_png_path  path            path to libpng
     -lib_jpeg_path path            path to libjpeg
     -lib_xpm_path  path            path to libxpm
     -lib_zlib_path path            path to libpng
     -ignore_missing_gd             Ignore missing or old libgd installations and try to compile anyway

If no options are passed on the command line.  The program will
attempt to autoconfigure itself with the gdlib-config program (present
in GD versions 2.0.27 or later).  Otherwise it will prompt for these
values interactively.
Warning: No success on command[/usr/bin/perl Build.PL --installdirs site]
  LDS/GD-2.56.tar.gz
  /usr/bin/perl Build.PL --installdirs site -- NOT OK
Running Build test
  Make had some problems, won't test
Running Build install
  Make had some problems, won't install
Could not read metadata file. Falling back to other methods to determine prerequisites

I've done a load of googling, but nothing seems to fix it. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

The error you are getting is

Unknown option: installdirs
Usage: perl Build.PL [options]

cpan expects Build.PL to pass its arguments to Module::Build, but GD has a funky Build.PL. Let's "fix" it.

Execute the following from a temporary directory:

wget http://search.cpan.org/CPAN/authors/id/L/LD/LDS/GD-2.56.tar.gz
  -or-
curl -L http://search.cpan.org/CPAN/authors/id/L/LD/LDS/GD-2.56.tar.gz >GD-2.56.tar.gz

tar xvzf GD-2.56.tar.gz
cd GD-2.56
perl -i~ -pE'say "Getopt::Long::Configure(qw( pass_through ));" if /GetOptions/;' Build.PL
/usr/bin/perl Build.PL --installdirs site
sudo ./Build.PL installdeps
./Build.PL make
./Build.PL test
sudo ./Build.PL install

Answer 2

In Ubuntu 15.04, a slight modification of the above intelligent answer seemed necessary in order to get it to install GD. This worked so that the 'cpan' program could then install GD then e.g. Image::Resize (which uses GD) afterwards. I did it after

sudo -i

in a Terminal, and after 'cd' into a temporary folder. Whether of value or not, I first did

apt-get install libgd-dev

Then this, which may contain one or more redundant lines, but it works:

wget http://search.cpan.org/CPAN/authors/id/L/LD/LDS/GD-2.56.tar.gz
tar xvzf GD-2.56.tar.gz
cd GD*
perl -i~ -pE'say "Getopt::Long::Configure(qw( pass_through ));" if /GetOptions/;' Build.PL
/usr/bin/perl Build.PL --installdirs site
chmod 755 Build.PL
./Build.PL installdeps
./Build installdeps
./Build test
./Build install