Re: Debian Perl Modules
On Thu, Mar 23, 2000 at 10:10:00AM -0800, Brian Lavender wrote
> I was taking a look at the perl modules on my debian system, and I
> noticed that there are a couple of Debian perl modules. In fact I
> once built a newer version of perl on my debian system, and I noticed
> that apt, and I believe dpkg stopped working.
>
> My Question:
> Is it possible to build a new version of perl on my debian system and
> install these perl modules? Say I have slink I want to upgrade perl to
> the latest. Can I add in these perl modules, and where would I get the
> source to add them?
>
Slink perl uses a different layout for /usr/lib/perl5 to
that used for later perls; it changed for Potato, I'm guessing
to allow multiple perl versions to co-exist; slink perl has
directories like
/usr/lib/perl5/i386-linux/5.004/auto/
/usr/lib/perl5/i386-linux/5.004/CORE/
and so on, whereas perl5 from potato uses
/usr/lib/perl5/5.005/i386-linux/auto/
I seem to recall that both layouts differ from the
default specified in the perl distribution.
As a result, slink packages that insert files in /usr/lib/perl5
are not compatible with later perl packages.
Your options appear to be:
- Stick to slink perl & related packages;
- Build the version of perl that you want, but ensure that
it uses the 'slink' directory conventions; you may also
have to rebuild perl-dependent packages if the changes to
perl break them in other ways;
- Upgrade to potato (or at least, upgrade perl & related packages)
and be happy with the perl versions that provides;
- Upgrade at least perl & related packages to potato and
then build the perl of your choosing using the potato
conventions or installing into /usr/local/, without replacing
the potato perl that other packages rely on.
If you haven't actually replaced the slink version of perl
(i.e., you simply installed the new perl alongside of the old
one, either in /usr/local/ or replacing /usr/bin/perl) then
you may be able to have the two coexist peacefully by renaming
your new perl binary to (e.g.) 'perl-local' and (if necessary)
replacing /usr/bin/perl by hand from the slink package; it
depends if your new perl clobbered files from the slink perl.
HTH,
John P.
--
huiac@camtech.net.au
john@huiac.apana.org.au
"Oh - I - you know - my job is to fear everything." - Bill Gates in Denmark
Reply to: