This package requires its patch to be applied before you can install it. Make sure it's unpacked before running the installation commands. Install Perl by running the following commands: patch -Np1 -i ../perl-&perl-patch-version;.patch && ./configure.gnu --prefix=/usr && make && make install If you want more control over the way perl sets itself up to be build, you can run the interactive Configure script and modify the way perl is built. If you think you can live with the (sensible) defaults perl auto-detects, then just use the commands listed above.