[boulder.pm] Perl FDF Toolkit

[Walter Pienciak]

Hi, Kyle,

Wow, those Adobe installation instructions are sloppy, and wrong.
You think they'd get it straight!

Anyway, I can't quite tell whether you're doing a system-wide or
personal installation, based on your paths.

Here's what I just did to do a system-wide (not private) install of the
module, and it seems to work -- at least, a bobo program consisting of

    #!/opt/bin/perl -wT

    use Acrobat::FDF;
    exit 0;

"ran" without any error output.

1)  Download, uncompress, and untar the files from Adobe.
2)  cd into the source distribution's lib/Perl/Unix   There'll be 
    some directories for differnet platforms (we'll call yours $ARCH)
    and a few files.
3)  Run the command

      perl InstallAdvice.pl

    Ignore the "error" output -- it's part of a "print <<END" 
    statement.  (What the hell are they doing?)

    Everyone's paths will vary some, but you'll see 2 basic patterns
    in their gobbledygook:

    - something shorter like
        /opt/lib/perl5/Acrobat/
        /root/perl5/Acrobat/
      which I'll generalize to $FOO/Acrobat/

    - something long and funky like
        /opt/lib/perl5/sun4-solaris/5.004/auto/Acrobat/FDF/
        /root/perl5/lib/i386-linux/auto/Acrobat/FDF/
      which I'll generalize to $FOO/lib/$BAR/auto/Acrobat/FDF/

4)  Go to the root prompt and install as follows, for your value of $FOO,
    $BAR, and $ARCH:

       mkdir -p $FOO/Acrobat/
       cp fdf.pm $FOO/Acrobat/FDF.pm      (note the case problems!)

       mkdir -p $FOO/lib/$BAR/auto/Acrobat/FDF/
       cp $ARCH/fdf.so $FOO/lib/$BAR/auto/Acrobat/FDF/FDF.so

And that worked for me.

Walter

On Tue, 13 Jun 2000, Kyle Moore wrote:

> NOTE: Sorry for the duplication if any of you belong to the Boulder
> Linux User Group list.
> 
> 
> Anyone want to earn a beer and impress me with how smart you are?
> 
> I tried yesterday to get Adobe's FDF Toolkit for Perl to run on linux.
> This allows you to create pdf files that can be filled out, sent back to
> the perl script and you can generate new pdf or fdf files. I was able to
> get past a couple of problems but still run into problems with it and
> can't get it to load the module. The toolkit comes in two files. There
> is a FDF.pm and a FDF.so. I really need to get this working but think
> I'm stuck.
> 
> I started to get stuck here:
> ************BEGIN ERROR********************
> Can't load '/root/perl5/lib/i386-linux/auto/Acrobat/FDF/FDF.so' for
> module Acrobat::FDF: libm.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such
> file or directory at /usr/lib/perl5/5.00503/i386-linux/DynaLoader.pm
> line 169.
> 
>  at /root/perl5/lib/Acrobat/FDF.pm line 579
> BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at ./kjm.pl line 3.
> ************END ERROR***********************
> 
> After making a link "ln -s /usr/i486-linux-libc5/lib/libm.so.5
> /lib/libm.so.5" I was able to at least get a new message:
> ************BEGIN ERROR********************* 
> Can't load '/root/perl5/lib/i386-linux/auto/Acrobat/FDF/FDF.so' for
> module Acrobat::FDF: /root/perl5/lib/i386-linux/auto/Acrobat/FDF/FDF.so:
> undefined symbol: Perl_markstack_ptr at
> /usr/lib/perl5/5.00503/i386-linux/DynaLoader.pm line 169.
> 
>  at /root/perl5/lib/Acrobat/FDF.pm line 579
> BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at ./kjm.pl line 3.
> ************END ERORR***********************
> 
> I think the problem is libraries aren't where the FDF.so expects them to
> be. The problem is that this toolkit for Perl is supplied "as
> is"...there is no support for it right now. 
> 
> Anyone???
> -- 
> 
> ----
> Kyle Moore
> UNIX Systems Administrator
> ---------------------------------------
> Trust Company of America / Gemisys
> 7103 South Revere Parkway
> Englewood, CO 80112
> ---------------------------------------
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>