A simpler way to do the same thing is to use Andreas Koenig's wonderful CPAN shell (recent Perl versions come bundled with this module). With it, you can download, build, and install Perl modules from a simple command-line shell. The following illustrates a typical session in which we install the Apache::VMonitor module:

panic% perl -MCPAN -e shell

cpan shell -- CPAN exploration and modules installation (v1.60)
ReadLine support enabled

cpan> install Apache::VMonitor
Running install for module Apache::VMonitor
Running make for S/ST/STAS/Apache-VMonitor-0.6.tar.gz
Fetching with LWP:
  http://cpan.org/authors/id/S/ST/STAS/Apache-VMonitor-0.6.tar.gz
Fetching with LWP:
  http://cpan.org/authors/id/S/ST/STAS/CHECKSUMS
Checksum for /root/.cpan/sources/authors/id/S/ST/STAS/Apache-VMonitor-0.6.tar.gz ok
Apache-VMonitor-0.6/
Apache-VMonitor-0.6/README
Apache-VMonitor-0.6/Makefile.PL
Apache-VMonitor-0.6/MANIFEST
Apache-VMonitor-0.6/CHANGES
Apache-VMonitor-0.6/VMonitor.pm

CPAN.pm: Going to build S/ST/STAS/Apache-VMonitor-0.6.tar.gz

Checking for Apache::Scoreboard...ok
Checking for GTop...ok
Checking for Time::HiRes...ok
Checking for mod_perl...ok
Checking if your kit is complete...
Looks good
Writing Makefile for Apache::VMonitor
cp VMonitor.pm blib/lib/Apache/VMonitor.pm
Manifying blib/man3/Apache::VMonitor.3
  /usr/bin/make  -- OK
Running make test
No tests defined for Apache::VMonitor extension.
  /usr/bin/make test -- OK
Running make install
Installing /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.1/Apache/VMonitor.pm
Installing /usr/lib/perl5/man/man3/Apache::VMonitor.3
Writing /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.1/i386-linux/auto/Apache/VMonitor/.packlist
Appending installation info to /usr/lib/perl5/5.6.1/i386-linux/perllocal.pod
  /usr/bin/make install UNINST=1 -- OK

cpan> exit

Notice that the CPAN shell fetches the CHECKSUMS file and verifies that the package hasn't been tampered with.

The latest CPAN module comes with a small utility called cpan, which you can use to start the CPAN shell:

panic% cpan

cpan shell -- CPAN exploration and modules installation (v1.60)
ReadLine support enabled