CPAN "." is not recognized as an internal or external command - Windows 10

Question

Trying to install PAM module on Windows 10 machine. currently not having much luck. not sure why I'm getting this error.

cpan> install Authen::PAM
Running install for module 'Authen::PAM'
Checksum for C:\STRAWB~1\cpan\sources\authors\id\N\NI\NIKIP\Authen-PAM-0.16.tar.gz ok
Configuring N/NI/NIKIP/Authen-PAM-0.16.tar.gz with Makefile.PL
Checking if your kit is complete...
Looks good
'.' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
Error in configuring the Authen::PAM module.
Warning: No success on command[C:\Strawberry\perl\bin\perl.exe Makefile.PL]
  NIKIP/Authen-PAM-0.16.tar.gz
  C:\Strawberry\perl\bin\perl.exe Makefile.PL -- NOT OK
Stopping: 'install' failed for 'Authen::PAM'.
Failed during this command:
 NIKIP/Authen-PAM-0.16.tar.gz                 : writemakefile NO 'C:\Strawberry\perl\bin\perl.exe Makefile.PL' returned status 512

Answer 1

The module doesn't support Windows.

Specifically, the error results from the module's installer being incompatible with Windows. It tries to executes a Bourne shell command to invoke a Bourne shell script, and there is no such shell on your machine. Even if you could install such a shell, it wouldn't help. The script is very much only intended for unixy systems.^[1]

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1. There are ways of creating unixy environments on Windows. Virtual environments such as those created by Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), Cygwin and MSYS may support the module, but the perl from within those environments would have to be used.