Able to put needed path into @INC by coding BEGIN block, but still cannot "use win32::Clipboard;"

Question

My computer is running Windows 7. About a week ago I downloaded and installed Strawberry Perl 5.18.2.2 (64bit) for Windows XP or higher. I had no problem running this new version until I tried to include "use win32::Clipboard;".

The module Clipboard.pm was part of that recent download and is located on my computer at C:\strawberry\win32\Clipboard\Clipboard.pm. Note that in this full path all letters are lower case except for the three instances of "C".

If I print out the existing contents of @INC, the result is these three directories: C:/strawberry/perl/site/lib C:/strawberry/perl/vendor/lib C:/strawberry/perl/lib

Since "C:/strawberry/win32/Clipboard" was not in the original "@INC", I knew that I had to add that directory in order to "Use win32::Clipboard;" and so I employed the "BEGIN" command on the second line of this simple program in order to do that.

#!C:\strawberry\perl\bin\perl - w
BEGIN {unshift @INC, "C:/strawberry/win32/Clipboard"}
use strict;
foreach (@INC)
{
   print "$_\n";
}
<STDIN>;

This simple program runs without error and does move the path "C:/strawberry/win32/Clipboard" into @INC as proved by printing out the contents of @INC after the BEGIN command, which yields this: C:/strawberry/win32/Clipboard C:/strawberry/perl/site/lib C:/strawberry/perl/vendor/lib C:/strawberry/perl/lib

Since I had managed to get "C:/strawberry/win32/Clipboard" into @INC, I thought that I could now "use win32::Clipboard;" and so I added that line to the program to make this new version:

#!C:\strawberry\perl\bin\perl - w
BEGIN {unshift @INC, "C:/strawberry/win32/Clipboard"}
use Win32::Clipboard; # NOTE that in this line I have also tried "use Win32::Clipboard::Clipboard;" and "use Clipboard::Clipboard;" without success.
use strict;
foreach (@INC)
{
  print "$_\n";
}
<STDIN>;

Adding the new line, "use Win32::Clipboard;", caused this error when I ran the program.

"Can't locate Win32/Clipboard.pm in @INC (you may need to install the Win32::Clipboard module) (@INC contains: C:/strawberry/win32/Clipboard C:/strawberry/perl/site/lib C:/strawberry/perl/vendor/lib C:/strawberry/perl/lib .) at print_inc_array.pl line 5. BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at print_inc_array1.pl at line 5."

Even though, I have looked at a lot of examples on the Internet that are claimed to be correct ways to do this, none of them work for me. I have not been able to figure out what is wrong with this simple program, whose purpose is only to find out how to code for the module Clipboard.pm so that I can then code that module in practical programs. Again, I have tried changing the "use" line to "use Win32::Clipboard::Clipboard;" and to "use Clipboard::Clipboard;" without success. Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you,

Reef Alive

cjm cjm · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-18T21:54:21

When you say use Win32::Clipboard; Perl tries to locate Win32\Clipboard.pm in one of the directories in @INC. Since you added C:/strawberry/win32/Clipboard to @INC, it will try to load C:\strawberry\win32\Clipboard\Win32\Clipboard.pm. But that file doesn't exist; it's C:\strawberry\win32\Clipboard\Clipboard.pm instead. So Perl can't find the file.

But Win32::Clipboard is an XS module, meaning that it contains code that must be compiled by a C compiler before it can be used. The directory layout you mention suggests that you just unpacked the archive. That won't work; you need to compile the XS code.

The easiest way to compile the XS code and install the module in the proper path is to use the cpan command that comes with Strawberry Perl. Just type

cpan Win32::Clipboard

at a command prompt.

Able to put needed path into @INC by coding BEGIN block, but still cannot "use win32::Clipboard;"

1 Answers