Compilation errors when connecting to MongoDB from Perl - perl

Question

I'm trying to run the simple "MongoDB:Tutorial" tutorial:
http://search.cpan.org/dist/MongoDB/lib/MongoDB/Tutorial.pod
My goal is to connect to a MongoDB database from a Perl script. I've installed MongoDB using cpanm:
$ sudo cpanm MongoDB
MongoDB is up to date. (0.501.1)
I created a simple Perl script called loadRaw.pl:
use strict;
use warnings;
use MongoDB;
use MongoDB::Connection;
use MongoDB::OID;
print "hello\n";
When I try to run the script, I get a bunch of errors:
$ perl ./loadRaw.pl
String found where operator expected at /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1/MongoDB/Cursor.pm line 271, near "confess "cannot set fields after querying""
(Do you need to predeclare confess?)
String found where operator expected at /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1/MongoDB/Cursor.pm line 273, near "confess 'not a hash reference'"
(Do you need to predeclare confess?)
String found where operator expected at /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1/MongoDB/Cursor.pm line 294, near "confess "cannot set sort after querying""
(Do you need to predeclare confess?)
String found where operator expected at /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1/MongoDB/Cursor.pm line 296, near "confess 'not a hash reference'"
(Do you need to predeclare confess?)
String found where operator expected at /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1/MongoDB/Cursor.pm line 317, near "confess "cannot set limit after querying""
(Do you need to predeclare confess?)
String found where operator expected at /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1/MongoDB/Cursor.pm line 343, near "confess "Cannot set tailable state""
(Do you need to predeclare confess?)
String found where operator expected at /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1/MongoDB/Cursor.pm line 366, near "confess "cannot set skip after querying""
(Do you need to predeclare confess?)
String found where operator expected at /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1/MongoDB/Cursor.pm line 390, near "confess "cannot set snapshot after querying""
(Do you need to predeclare confess?)
String found where operator expected at /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1/MongoDB/Cursor.pm line 408, near "confess "cannot set hint after querying""
(Do you need to predeclare confess?)
String found where operator expected at /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1/MongoDB/Cursor.pm line 410, near "confess 'not a hash reference'"
(Do you need to predeclare confess?)
syntax error at /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1/MongoDB/Cursor.pm line 90, near "has started_iterating"
syntax error at /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1/MongoDB/Cursor.pm line 271, near "confess "cannot set fields after querying""
syntax error at /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1/MongoDB/Cursor.pm line 294, near "confess "cannot set sort after querying""
syntax error at /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1/MongoDB/Cursor.pm line 317, near "confess "cannot set limit after querying""
syntax error at /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1/MongoDB/Cursor.pm line 343, near "confess "Cannot set tailable state""
syntax error at /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1/MongoDB/Cursor.pm line 366, near "confess "cannot set skip after querying""
syntax error at /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1/MongoDB/Cursor.pm line 390, near "confess "cannot set snapshot after querying""
syntax error at /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1/MongoDB/Cursor.pm line 408, near "confess "cannot set hint after querying""
BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted at /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1/MongoDB/Cursor.pm line 564.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1/MongoDB/Connection.pm line 26.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1/MongoDB/Connection.pm line 26.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1/MongoDB.pm line 30.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1/MongoDB.pm line 30.
Compilation failed in require at ./loadRaw.pl line 7.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at ./loadRaw.pl line 7.
It seems like the MongoDB Perl module (specifically, the Cursor.pm file) has some syntax errors. The first batch of problems (those related to the confess keyword) are solved if I add the line use Carp; to the top of Cursor.pm. However, I don't think I should have to do this, and instead I'm doing something else incorrectly. Also, the second batch of errors (those related to the has keyword) are not solved by including Carp.
Has anyone else experienced this? Any ideas?

Answer 1

I never found out exactly what was going wrong, but it was surely unique to my system and my Perl configuration. Since others were able to execute the provided code without problem, I tried executing the code using Perlbrew (as suggested by friedo):
$ perlbrew install perl-5.16.0
(Output not shown)
$ perlbrew switch perl-5.16.0
(Output not shown)
$ perlbrew install-cpanm
(Output not shown)
$ /home/sthomas/perl5/perlbrew/bin/cpanm MongoDB
(Output not shown)
$ perlbrew exec perl ./loadRaw.pl
perl-5.16.0
==========
hello
Since it works fine with a Perlbrew installation, the problem is not with MongoDB or my sample code; it must be some weird quirk of my Perl environment. I guess I'll try a fresh install of Perl and all my required modules and see if that works.