RE: New perl-apps group

["Jeremiah Foster" <jeremiah.foster@ericsson.com>]

> Jeremiah Foster wrote:
> > Martín Ferrari wrote:
> > > First of all, it is the policy of the group to only 
> package modules.
> > > And yes, I think there are many differences regarding packaging; 
> > > modules are much more straightforward.
> >
> > A module is much easier to package than a large cgi app written in 
> > perl for example, so I think there is a distinction. [...]
> 
> How does code size play into it?  There are large Perl 
> modules as well as small Perl apps.

I don't mean large in terms of lines of code - I mean in the way it is spread throughout the system. 

For example, if you have a "typical" large cgi application you probably are using a database and a templating system. Lets say the perl equivalents are Templating toolkit and DBI. So you need to install two modules to get started, since CGI.pm is part of the standard distribution now. So, you need;

	- Templating toolkit and accompanying mods
	- DBI and accompanying mods (maybe some kind of ORM)

That means you will have files in /usr/lib/cgi-bin (which is often symlinked to /var/www/cgi-bin/), /var/lib/mysql/ (or the db of your choice), an include dir for your templates, lets say /var/www/tt/, you may have files in /var/www/ if you are going to use flat files or additional html files.

Big cgi apps also tend to mix a lot of code: html, javascript and SQL are very common. Then you have to look at permissions - will the web server have to own any files? What about the include dirs? A new user for the database?

A medium size cgi app is a lot more to manage than a perl module with different challenges..

	Jeremiah