Friends,
Assuming no significant interference from the polar vortex, later this
week I will be installing either FreeBSD or OpenBSD on a recent model
Asus ultrabook computer. This will be the first time since ... well,
first time in many years that I will be working with a new operating
system on a machine that I own and am completely responsible for. So it
provides me with an opportunity to configure the machine with up-to-date
(and, perhaps, "best") practices.
I would like your guidance on how to proceed once the new OS is
installed. Here are my plans for this machine:
1. I don't intend it to be my primary personal laptop -- at least not
at first. I don't intend it to be the box to which I download my email
or from which I browse the web. At least at first it will not be the
machine on which I do my perl5.porters-related work or go on IRC.
2. I do intend to use it to do smoke-testing of CPAN distributions.
Specifically, those distributions which changes in Perl 5 blead break,
as reported in the tickets Andreas files on rt.perl.org. Andreas does
his testing on Linux, so smoke-testing on a non-Linux system can be
helpful in resolving an RT. For example, if I were able to do a *BSD
smoke test against blead for Devel-SizeMe, I would be confident in
closing https://rt.perl.org/rt3/Ticket/Display.html?id=119295.
I don't currently do testing of CPAN distros *against blead* or *against
dev releases* (e.g., 5.19.*) because, on dromedary at least, I haven't
figured out how to install an easily disposable blead or dev against
which I can test a CPAN distro.
(I don't intend to do general smoke-testing of "all CPAN against blead
or dev release" with this machine. It's just a laptop, after all.)
3. I do intend to use this machine for testing of Perl 5 blead.
Currently I test blead on Linux/x86_64 (the dromedary server) several
times a week and on my 10-year-old iBook G4 (Darwin/PPC) several times a
month. I don't actually submit smoke reports; I merely file RTs when
they occur. I may or may not consider smoke tests against blead on this
*BSD once it's up and running.
4. I do intend to use this machine for learning a new language which
sits on top of the JVM. Both my current laptop and my Linode are not
suitable candidates for installing a JVM.
5. For the past several years, my approach when being presented with a
new box on, say, $job, has been to compile the latest Perl 5 stable
release from source and install it into /usr/local/. I then use 'cpan'
to install Devel::Cover, DateTime, LWP, Moose, etc. I have had some
limited experience with 'perlbrew' at $job, but not for the purpose of
switching between a stable version of Perl and one intended to test
things against the cutting edge.
So, given the above, what would you recommend once the new OS is
installed and I can do 'perl -V'?
Specifically, how should I install and use tools like:
* perlbrew
* cpanm
Note that outside of the considerations listed above, I would like to
rely on the OS's ports/packages system for all other software installation.
Thank you very much.
Jim Keenan
