http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=489106


in reply to Re^4: PPM Hell: "PPM::PPD::init: not a PPD and not a file"
in thread PPM Hell: "PPM::PPD::init: not a PPD and not a file"

One possible explanation for this might be connected with the list of repositories used when following dependencies. For example, using the notation of PPM::Repositories, assuming ActivePerl 8xx, an ordered repository list of

1. theory
2. theory58
3. ActiveState Package Repository
4. ActiveState PPM2 Repository
will cause an error about "no suitable installation target found" when trying to install a package common to both the theory and theory58 repositories; for example,
   ppm> install Crypt-RSA
This is because the theory repository is for ActivePerl 6xx packages, and theory58 is for ActivePerl 8xx packages; however, the ppm utility will stop at the first matching package found, and then abort if it's not for the correct platform, even though a correct platform is available further down in the repository list.

One thing perhaps worth trying is to go through the repository list and remove any repositories that are specific to perl-5.6 (if you're using perl-5.8).