I want to use the cpan tool get a library from CPAN (HTTP::Tiny::Multipart). (Or should I be using something else??) It is written in pure Perl so I hope I don't need make for this. Can this be done?
At first I couldn't get things to download at all, but eventually I found out the issue was proxies, and now with the right environment variables set I can successfully reach CPAN. But now I get error messages about a missing make.
There are three common installers for Perl module distributions. To use these installers, one follows one of the following two sequences of steps:
perl Makefile.PL # ExtUtils::MakeMaker or compatible
make
make test
make install
or
perl Build.PL # Module::Build or compatible
./Build
./Build test
./Build install
cpan handles downloading the distributions and installing prerequisites, but it doesn't replace the distribution's installer. When it comes time to install a download distribution, it uses one of the above sequence (depending on whether the distribution includes a file named Build.PL or not).
HTTP-Tiny-Multipart (the distribution that provides HTTP::Tiny::Multipart) uses ExtUtils::MakeMaker as its installer, so installing it requires make.
The underlying issue is that you are using a gutted environment. It's not the purpose of git to provide perl to you.
If you want the full unix emulation environment for which git and its perl were built[1], install Cygwin. Alternatively, you could also just as easily install a native Perl such as ActivePerl or Strawberry Perl.
git and its perl are built for MSYS, which is a subset of Cygwin.