Note (probably harmless): No library found for -lexpat Expat must be installed prior to building XML::SAX::ExpatXS and I can't find it in the standard library directories. You can download expat from: http://expat.sourceforge.net/ If expat is installed, but in a non-standard directory, then use the following options to Makefile.PL: EXPATLIBPATH=... To set the directory in which to find libexpat EXPATINCPATH=... To set the directory in which to find expat.h For example: perl Makefile.PL EXPATLIBPATH=/home/me/lib EXPATINCPATH=/home/me/include Note that if you build against a shareable library in a non-standard location you may (on some platforms) also have to set your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable at run time for perl to find the library.