Absolutely NO perl modules?

I'm trying to install WWW::Mechanize; but of course, something had to go wrong. I purchased a VPS, and whenever I load up CPAN (AKA The quick way), it says I'm missing modules. Such as... HTTP, LWP, Test, HTML, LOADS of things that I thought would come standard with a perl installation. I tried doing a few of them one by one, but they all fell like a stack of dominos. I don't even think my perl installation has most of the core modules.

For example... Trying to install LWP:

HTTP::Status
HTTP::Negotiate
HTML::Entities
HTTP::Daemon
HTML::HeadParser
HTTP::Cookies
HTTP::Request::Common
HTTP::Response
HTTP::Request

Says I need those modules; and then when I i开发者_开发知识库nstall those, it's basically an endless cycle with errors being returned and failed tests.

Installation of HTTP::Message:

IO::Uncompress::Inflate
IO::Uncompress::Gunzip
IO::Compress::Gzip
IO::Uncompress::RawInflate
Compress::Raw::Zlib
IO::Compress::Deflate
HTML::Parser
IO::Compress::Bzip2
IO::Uncompress::Bunzip2

TL;DR: Can't install standard modules, returns fail. Doesn't even have extremely common modules.

Keeping the core distribution as small and light as possible is beneficial, as Perl is used in many situations with varying amounts of space.

You haven't mentioned any modules that are actually core, nor your Perl version, nor your OS version/distribution (which some I have understood don't actually distribute a full Perl installation themselves). If you find out for sure that this is actually the case, it's an issue with your distribution, and you should bring it up with them.

You also haven't actually asked a question anywhere.

Just install what you need, when you need it.

Edited for your edit: The first block of modules you listed is not core. The second block is partially core since 5.9.4, and partially since 5.10.1.

IO::Uncompress::Inflate was first released with perl 5.009004
IO::Uncompress::Gunzip was first released with perl 5.009004
IO::Compress::Gzip was first released with perl 5.009004
IO::Uncompress::RawInflate was first released with perl 5.009004
Compress::Raw::Zlib was first released with perl 5.009004
IO::Compress::Deflate was first released with perl 5.009004
IO::Compress::Bzip2 was first released with perl 5.010001
IO::Uncompress::Bunzip2 was first released with perl 5.010001

You still haven't mentioned an OS distribution/version, a Perl version, or provided the error messages you receive. The cpan command-line or commands you're using would help, too.

What Linux distribution? If Debian/Ubuntu you will want to install the build-essential package via aptitude for make and friends. I'm sure RPM based distros would have similar packages available as well.

What are the actual errors you are getting? Have you tried installing a small no non-core dependencies distribution like Try::Tiny manually to see what fails?