cannot find lperl (trying to install xchat)
 

I'm trying to install xchat from the source and, after installing GTK, I managed to get this error message while after ./configure and during make

make[4]: Entering directory `/home/drbeavis/xchat-2.8.8/plugins/perl'
/bin/bash ../../libtool --tag=CC --mode=link gcc -g -O2 -Wall -pipe -Wno-pointer-sign -funsigned-char -avoid-version -module -o perl.la -rpath /usr/local/lib/xchat/plugins perl.lo -Wl,-E -fstack-protector -L/usr/local/lib -L/usr/lib/perl/5.10/CORE -lperl -ldl -lm -lpthread -lcrypt -lX11 -Wl,--export-dynamic -pthread -L/usr/local/lib -lrt -lglib-2.0
libtool: link: gcc -shared .libs/perl.o -L/usr/local/lib -L/usr/lib/perl/5.10/CORE -lperl -ldl -lm -lpthread -lcrypt -lX11 /usr/local/lib/libglib-2.0.so -lrt -Wl,-E -Wl,--export-dynamic -pthread -pthread -Wl,-soname -Wl,perl.so -o .libs/perl.so
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lperl
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make[4]: *** [perl.la] Error 1
make[4]: Leaving directory `/home/drbeavis/xchat-2.8.8/plugins/perl'
make[3]: *** [all] Error 2
make[3]: Leaving directory `/home/drbeavis/xchat-2.8.8/plugins/perl'
make[2]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/drbeavis/xchat-2.8.8/plugins'
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/drbeavis/xchat-2.8.8'
make: *** [all] Error 2

I'm running Ubuntu 10.10 btw

i'm assuming i have to install perl. I figured after spending several hours trying to get GTK installed, I had done everything I needed. I think xchat is a big joke to get us to spend hours and hours to get us to download 20 thousand programs and compile them etc etc.

then use irssi

Welcome to LQ.

'lperl' means libperl.so, which is provided by the package 'libperl-dev'.

'sudo apt-get install perl-dev' will install the development files for perl.
( Or use 'Synaptic' for package install.)

Like perl it is already installed. The "devel" files :
sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-dev : Will install the missing files.

And 'xchat' or / and irssi : sudo apt-get install xchat irssi

P.S. : 30,000 packages are available in Synaptic, or with apt :
No reason to install anything manually.
..

Thank you very much. After installing perl I, finally, got xchat to work. It was fun to learn the very basic commands in linux to compile and whatnot, though