On Thu, Jun 9, 2011 at 13:22, Sherm Pendley <sherm.pend...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Thu, Jun 9, 2011 at 11:54 AM, Charlie Garrison <garri...@zeta.org.au> > wrote: >> Good morning, >> >> I haven't followed all of this thread (it was digressing there for a while). >> Would perlbrew be a solution for the OP. I've only been using it a short >> while but it makes installing and using a custom perl very simple. > > I've been meaning to check that out. It must do more than what I think > it does, because installing a new Perl is already pretty simple: > > ./Configure -des --prefix=/where/ever > make > make test > sudo make install > > I'll have to read up on it (thanks for the link) to see what else it does... snip
The main feature is that it downloads and installs whatever version you ask it to install. The second feature is that it manages more than one copy of perl for you. So, say you have a work version of perl that is at 5.8.8 and a home version that is at 5.14.0. You can say perlbrew install perl-5.8.8 perlbrew install perl-5.14.0 perlbrew switch perl-5.14.0 At this point the version of perl found in the PATH will be 5.14.0 perlbrew switch perl-5.8.8 Now, the version of perl found in the PATH will be 5.8.8 Let's go further and say your work has a web code and backend code. Different modules are installed in each environment. You can say perlbrew install perl-5.8.8 --as web perlbrew install perl-5.8.8 --as backend You can then switch between them like this perlbrew switch web perlbrew switch backend Any modules you install with cpan, cpanp, or cpanm (hint: use "perlbrew install-cpanm" to get cpanm easily and globally for all of the managed perls) will only get installed in the current version. If patchperl is installed (and it gets installed by the install script from the POD), it will allow you to build older versions of perl that break on newer machines. That is about all it does, but that can be incredibly useful. -- Chas. Owens wonkden.net The most important skill a programmer can have is the ability to read.
