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All the Perl that's Practical to Extract and Report

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It's *Major* Releases that Matter 7 Comments More | Login | Reply /

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  • A module that I need to run a script identically via SSH on all hosts via 'perl -I ~/lib/perl ' command will have to be 5.005_03 compliant, sadly.

    Solaris / SunOS 5.8 aka 8 is still widely deployed and supported, even though Solaris 9 and 10 are out there. Sun provides /usr/bin/perl 5.005_03. [On these systems, we set "alias" for perl56 and perl58 to our locally built perl's - installed if the app uses them.]

    Applications can bring their own copy of perl with them (with DBI bindings or other XS modules), but
    --
    Bill
    # I had a sig when sigs were cool
    use Sig;

    • Solaris / SunOS 5.8 aka 8 is still widely deployed and supported, even though Solaris 9 and 10 are out there. Sun provides /usr/bin/perl 5.005_03.

      I had just started to write Perl in March 1999. If Sun wants to support an eight-and-a-half-years-old versions of Perl, talk to them about updates. Presumably you're paying them $$$ for a reason.

      Honestly, sysadmins are as much the problem here as anything.

      • > I had just started to write Perl in March 1999. If Sun wants to
        support an eight-and-a-half-years-old versions of Perl, talk to them about updates. Presumably you're paying them $$$ for a reason.
        >
        > Honestly, sysadmins are as much the problem here as anything.

        You really should get out more often.

        Many environments/setups demand/require/dictate stable software installations. (Yes, I'm aware of my .sig line.) And this has often nothing to do with anyone in particular being lazy and/or resistant to

        • You just CANNOT go around upgrading components since that may have grave consequences in other parts of the environment.

          ... except, apparently, for my CPAN modules, as evidenced by all of the pissing and moaning about how I'm so irresponsible, so inexperienced, and such a misanthropic bad person because I don't care that new code doesn't run on versions of Perl released last millennium.

          That's the part I don't get. If you don't upgrade software, why complain that the software you're not going to upgra

          • This affects new installations of programs or tools using the old Perl. And yes, like Windows, Solaris does not come with a C compiler by default, and more to the point, we have lots of machines where the C compiler is explicitly not installed. Installing a CPAN module there is of course still possible as long as it does not use XS, either with cat >perllib/Some/Module.pm through a terminal session or by doing the traditional perl -w Makefile.PL dance, but compiling your own Perl is out of the question.

            • ... compiling your own Perl is out of the question. So you got to live with the system Perl, whichever that is.

              I left system administration in 2000, but even I still remember sunfreeware.com, and then there's ActiveState and Strawberry Perl, and Merijn's packages, and plenty of other places to get modern versions of Perl without disturbing the system Perl.

              Again, this is the part I just don't understand. Why are you installing new software (or upgrading old software) on a system you consider stable?

              • Contrarily, if you really do need new versions of libraries or tools or whatever, why are you not upgrading the rest of your software to supported versions?

                For the same reason that I don't build a new house just because I need a new light in a room. I use Perl as a tool to get a job done. I think that's where our difference in point of view comes from. You seem to see the Perl program as an end to itself and hence the environment must be made to fit the program. I see the job to be done as the central point, and whatever Perl there is will need to suffice as my tool. If it is more hassle to hunt down the prerequisites and to fix the compatibility breakers with 5.005_03 (or whatever Perl I have available - conveniently Solaris 10 now has 5.8.4, which OSX has too) than to manually fix my data or to write a script myself from scratch, that makes any module unusable for the solution.

                I also know sunfreeware.com and I have a system administrator who kindly installs many things from there on certain machines. But even then, these packages cannot be installed as a normal user, so it's still a major hassle to get something tested and deployed just for a small tool built from some modules.

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