Unable to install bioperl on Mac OS X - macos

Question

I'm trying to get biotools working on my Mac so that I can run some Perl5 code that uses Bio::DB::Sam, but am stymied.
Mac OS X 10.10.4
perl 5.18.2
upgraded CPAN as per INSTALL instructions
'brew install expat' tells me that expat-2.1.0_1 is already installed
'sudo perl -MCPAN -e shell'
'install CJFIELDS/BioPerl-1.6.924.tar.gz'
'Do you want to run the Bio::DB::GFF or Bio::DB::SeqFeature::Store live database tests?' => 'n'
Install all
'Do you want to run tests that require connection to servers across the internet' => 'n'
Eventually get (with some lines deleted):
Running Build test
t/Align/AlignStats.t ................... ok
t/Align/AlignUtil.t .................... ok
t/Align/Graphics.t ..................... skipped: The optional module GD (or dependencies thereof) was not installed
...
t/AlignIO/msf.t ........................ ok
t/AlignIO/nexml.t ...................... skipped: The optional module Bio::Phylo (or dependencies thereof) was not installed
t/AlignIO/nexus.t ...................... ok
...
t/Assembly/ContigSpectrum.t ............ ok
t/Assembly/IO/bowtie.t ................. skipped: The optional module Bio::DB::Sam (or dependencies thereof) was not installed
t/Assembly/IO/sam.t .................... skipped: The optional module Bio::DB::Sam (or dependencies thereof) was not installed
t/Assembly/core.t ...................... ok
t/Cluster/UniGene.t .................... ok
Afterwards, I test with:
perl -e "use Bio::DB::Sam;"
and get:
Can't locate Bio/DB/Sam.pm in #INC (you may need to install the Bio::DB::Sam module) (#INC contains: /Library/Perl/5.18/darwin-thread-multi-2level /Library/Perl/5.18 /Network/Library/Perl/5.18/darwin-thread-multi-2level /Network/Library/Perl/5.18 /Library/Perl/Updates/5.18.2/darwin-thread-multi-2level /Library/Perl/Updates/5.18.2 /System/Library/Perl/5.18/darwin-thread-multi-2level /System/Library/Perl/5.18 /System/Library/Perl/Extras/5.18/darwin-thread-multi-2level /System/Library/Perl/Extras/5.18 .) at -e line 1.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at -e line 1.
I get the same results when cloning bioperl-live from GitHub (sync'd to revision 73c446c69a77) and trying to install that way.
Note that I have installed samtools 0.1.18 (to match the version on our cluster) by:
downloading the .tar.gz
running 'make'
copying 'samtools', 'bcftools/bcftools', and 'misc/*.pl' to ~/debarcer-packages/bin, which is on my path
Afterward, I get this:
$ which samtools
/Users/gvwilson/debarcer-packages/bin/samtools
This build did not produce a '.so' file, even though there is a rule in the samtools-0.1.18 Makefile that looks like it (maybe?) ought to produce one.

Answer 1

The module Bio::DB::Sam provides bindings to an older version of samtools that did not rely htslib. This is an important point because you may run into issues using SAM/BAM files generated with samtools or other aligners because most tools use htslib these days.
For building the module, you are on the right track with the version you are using but it is difficult to build if you do not know the correct flags. I previously provided a solution to do this and I'll show a better way here (just use a package manager for the Perl module).
wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/samtools/files/samtools/0.1.18/samtools-0.1.18.tar.bz2
tar xjf samtools-0.1.18.tar.bz2 && cd samtools-0.1.18
make CFLAGS=-fPIC
export SAMTOOLS=`pwd`
The last command will allow you to install the Perl module without looking for the PATH to samtools and being prompted for it. Note, the extra CFLAGS argument may not be needed on your Mac, so try without it first. It is required on Linux, and since the module uses so much memory you will likely only be using this on a Linux machine. Now, install the Perl module.
cpanm Bio::DB::Sam
or cpan if you prefer. That should get you a working Bio::DB::Sam. I don't know what you are trying to do but I will mention that the fine folks over at EBI have developed bindings to htslib called Bio::DB::HTS based on Lincoln Stein's XS code in the Bio::DB::Sam module. This is really what you should be using because the version of SAMtools mentioned above is really old and not being developed. That is my opinion and a word of caution though, nothing wrong with Bio::DB::Sam.
edit:
You find it easier to manage Perl without using the "system" Perl, and here is one solution. Other people may have their preferred method, but perlbrew (combined with cpanminus) will make this type of work fun and much less of a pain (and they are popular choices). That would be my first step: set up perlbrew, install Perl 5.22, then install cpanminus. That might sound challenging but it is just a few commands. Something along the lines of:
curl -L http://install.perlbrew.pl | bash
source ~/perl5/perlbrew/etc/bashrc
perlbrew install perl-5.22.1
perlbrew switch perl-5.22.1
perlbrew install-cpanm
should do the trick. That will give you a kick-ass Perl with some nice features not available with your "system" Perl. This is a good idea because using /usr/bin/perl requires sudo, it involves messing with the system libraries which might cause an issue, and the recent Apple changes mean that working with root directories/libraries is completely unstable.

Answer 2

You need to install an additional (optional) module to use samtools. That's what the The optional module Bio::DB::Sam message is about. You don't need it for the rest of BioPerl, so it's not a hard dependency.
For Bio::DB::Sam, you need samtools-0.1.17 (the latest version the module works with according to its docs). I downloaded the source and ran make. There were some warnings, but it appears to work. From your question, I don't think you had a problem here.
I then installed Bio::DB::Sam:
$ cpan Bio::DB::Sam
There were some compiler warnings, but the module passed its tests and installed. The cpan command took care of dependencies too, so it also installed BioPerl for me.
If you need some environment variables, you can set them for a one-off run of the command:
$ CFLAGS=... SAMTOOLS=... cpan Bio::DB::Sam
Note that installing Bio::DB::Sam prompted me for the location of samtools. I pointed it at the build directory:
$ cpan5.22.0 Bio::DB::Sam
Running install for module 'Bio::DB::Sam'
Configuring L/LD/LDS/Bio-SamTools-1.43.tar.gz with Build.PL
This module requires samtools 0.1.10 or higher (samtools.sourceforge.net).
Please enter the location of the bam.h and compiled libbam.a files: /Users/brian/Downloads/samtools-0.1.17
I'm betting there's not something complicated like the answer SES gave. You just need an optional module. The README for Bio::DB::Sam notes some problems that people might have and offers so workarounds, but I didn't run into these problems and my setup is close to yours.
Note that Alien::SamTools is a Perl package that installs the non-Perl samtools, but it says it installs 0.1.19. Maybe that works too, but that's not what Bio::DB::Sam says on the tin.