local %ENV not a good plan

running ponie's Configure.pl I get to this:

Good, your tr supports [:lower:] and [:upper:] to convert case.
Using [:upper:] and [:lower:] to convert case.
ccache: failed to create (null)/.ccache (No such file or directory)
You need to find a working C compiler.
Either (purchase and) install the C compiler supplied by your OS vendor,
or for a free C compiler try http://gcc.gnu.org/
I cannot continue any further, aborting.

I infer that ccache is unhappy because $HOME is unset.
It looks like $HOME (and the rest of the environment) is getting nuked
in Configure.pl:

delete($ENV{'PERL5LIB'});
local(%ENV);
print Dumper(\%ENV);

This doesn't seem like a great idea. (eg no $PATH)

Nicholas Clark