Re: Bug#158179: perl: Perl 5.6 and 5.8 should be able to coexist
On Mon, Aug 26, 2002 at 12:32:18AM +0200, Luca Barbieri wrote:
>> We've been down the road of having multiple versions of the perl
>> packages. It doesn't work.
>Why not?
>
>All perl directories seem to be versioned and afaik there is a use
>directive to specify the minimum perl version so wrappers can be written
>to run the appropriate perl version.
While perl's directories are versioned, those for module packages are
intentionally not, to provide for cases where perl does provide binary
compatibility for prior releases.
The main reason why it doesn't work is because it adds needless
complexity. More complexity increases the chances of mistakes, and
quite a few were seen when Debian's perl packages were split into
different versions, with upgrades of the system breaking due to the
symlinks for /usr/bin/perl being incorrect.
Having multiple versions of perl installed breaks the module
dependencies unless you choose also to add version numbers to each and
every binary module:
libfoo-perl-5.8.0
The fact that there is a transitional breakage of some perl modules
until they're upgraded to work with the new perl is what the unstable
distribution is *for*: preparing for the next stable release.
The entire point of a Linux distribution is to provide a way to deliver
a consistent set of packages which work together.
By the time sarge is stable perl 5.8.x will be relatively well tested,
hopefully bug-free and all dependent module packages/programs will work
with it.
In the mean time, please be assured that I won't be packaging multiple
versions of perl*.
* At least not of perl5, see the notes in perl-policy about a possible
strategy for perl6.
--bod
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