Perl CPAN install XML::LibXML::Common, Error: libxml2 not found

I am working on getting Monarch installed on a server to manage Nagios file. Part of the setup includes installing a bunch of items using Perl’s CPAN. One of the packages I needed to install was called “XML::LibXML::Common” but it failed with an error. The error was overcome on CentOS by installing libxml2-devel using yum. Below are details regarding the error, the yum command to resolve the issue, and the end of a successful install of the initial package.

Perl CPAN Error Building XML::LibXML::Common -> libxml2 not found

When attempting to install XML::LibXML::Common using the CPAN shell I received the below error messages.

running xml2-config...
using fallback values for LIBS and INC
options:
LIBS='-L/usr/local/lib -L/usr/lib -lxml2 -lm'
INC='-I/usr/local/include -I/usr/include'
If this is wrong, Re-run as:
$ /usr/bin/perl Makefile.PL LIBS='-L/path/to/lib' INC='-I/path/to/include'
looking for -lxml2... no
looking for -llibxml2... no
libxml2 not found
Try setting LIBS and INC values on the command line
Or get libxml2 from
http://xmlsoft.org/
If you install via RPMs, make sure you also install the -devel
RPMs, as this is where the headers (.h files) are.
Also, you may try to run perl Makefile.PL with the DEBUG=1 parameter
to see the exact reason why the detection of libxml2 installation
failed or why Makefile.PL was not able to compile a test program.
make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found. Stop.
/usr/bin/make -- NOT OK
Running make test
Can't test without successful make
Running make install
make had returned bad status, install seems impossible
cpan>

As you can see from the above CPAN output the error is with libxml2. I checked using yum (yum list *LIBXML2*) and the server did have the libxml2.i386 package installed. Sometimes the development packages are also needed so I noticed that a package titled libxl2-devel was also available. I went ahead and installed that using yum as displayed in the below example.

Install libxml2-devel Using Yum On CentOS Linux:

[root@server ~]# yum install libxml2-devel
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* addons: mirrors.tummy.com
* base: mirrors.tummy.com
* centosplus: mirror.raystedman.net
* epel: mirrors.tummy.com
* extras: mirror.raystedman.net
* rpmforge: apt.sw.be
* updates: mirror.skiplink.com
Setting up Install Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package libxml2-devel.i386 0:2.6.26-2.1.2.8 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: zlib-devel for package: libxml2-devel
--> Running transaction check
---> Package zlib-devel.i386 0:1.2.3-3 set to be updated
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Dependencies Resolved
====================================================================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
====================================================================================================================================
Installing:
libxml2-devel i386 2.6.26-2.1.2.8 base 2.1 M
Installing for dependencies:
zlib-devel i386 1.2.3-3 base 101 k
Transaction Summary
====================================================================================================================================
Install 2 Package(s)
Update 0 Package(s)
Remove 0 Package(s)
Total download size: 2.2 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
(1/2): zlib-devel-1.2.3-3.i386.rpm | 101 kB 00:00
(2/2): libxml2-devel-2.6.26-2.1.2.8.i386.rpm | 2.1 MB 00:01
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 1.0 MB/s | 2.2 MB 00:02
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
Installing : zlib-devel 1/2
Installing : libxml2-devel 2/2
Installed:
libxml2-devel.i386 0:2.6.26-2.1.2.8
Dependency Installed:
zlib-devel.i386 0:1.2.3-3
Complete!

As you can see above the zlib-devel package was also installed as a dependency of libxml2-devel. If you are on a different distribution other than CentOS the package manager available for your Linux distro will more than likely include libxml2-devel. After installing libxml2-devel I restarted the CPAN shell and I was able to install XML::LibXML::Common without issue.