Windows XP won't register rrdtool with perl

[jim fixit]

Active Perl 5.10; mrtg 2.16.1  These are working. trying to integrate mrtg to use rrdtool.  Downloaded what I thought should be windows versions of rrdtool from rrdtool native windows site 1 (link from rrdtool home page).  That file, "rrdtool-1.2.27-2w2.zip" does not have a rrds.ppd anywhere in it.  So I chucked that and downloaded "rrdtool-1.2.15-win32-perl58.zip"  that's a bit older than the active perl I'm running but at least it has all the files intact.  But when I try to run ppm install rrds.ppd I get the following error:

"ppm install failed:  The PPD doe snot provide code to install for this platform".  I'm assuming somehow this zip distribution for windows has a linux or unix version of the ppd?  

I have spent days pouring over documents even to get this far.  Everything references back to the "easy installation" instructions on the RRDTOOLS main page.  I have read through and find "build" instructions  but not something that says what windows users should do to actually install.  Among the myriad of free info I did find a nice MRTG implementation manual that finally explained step by step how to install RRD on windows...only to run into this brick wall.

Any help to get past this point would be gratefully appreciated.

[jim fixit]

Me again.  I finally figure it out.  I hate it when I'm stupid.

The "platform" it was complaining about was not the OS platform but the version of Perl.

backreved perl to 5.8 and the install of rrdtools ppd ran fine.

While that may seem obvious to folks who use Perl a lot, it was not really obvious to me.  In my journey into the world of "linux ported to windows tools" I'm learning that Linux folks are a lot more litteral than windows folks.  We stupidly tend to assume that any version "equal to or greater than the indicated version" of various support modules will work, and our normal plan of attack is to just grab the most current non-beta stuff.  That mostly works, but not always, as in this case.  

Thanks for the forum, I hope this note will save someone else the days and days of futile research I put in trying to find out why it wouldn't install.  Okay then, off an running into my next brick wall!! :-)

[RafaMarques]

Hi Jim,
Your tip about the platform was very useful for me. I also downgraded to Perl 5.8 and it worked fine.
Thanks,
Rafael

jim fixit wrote:

Me again.  I finally figure it out.  I hate it when I'm stupid.

The "platform" it was complaining about was not the OS platform but the version of Perl.

backreved perl to 5.8 and the install of rrdtools ppd ran fine.

While that may seem obvious to folks who use Perl a lot, it was not really obvious to me.  In my journey into the world of "linux ported to windows tools" I'm learning that Linux folks are a lot more litteral than windows folks.  We stupidly tend to assume that any version "equal to or greater than the indicated version" of various support modules will work, and our normal plan of attack is to just grab the most current non-beta stuff.  That mostly works, but not always, as in this case.  

Thanks for the forum, I hope this note will save someone else the days and days of futile research I put in trying to find out why it wouldn't install.  Okay then, off an running into my next brick wall!! :-)