On Apr 4, 2006, at 11:44 AM, Cheryl Chase wrote:
On Apr 3, 2006, at 3:56 PM, Joel Rees wrote:
Even though it's not as necessary as it was when the system perl
was at v5.6 and we all wanted the Unicode stuff in v5.8, I'm still
inclined to build a separate install of perl for application use.
That way I don't have to worry as much about fine-tuning what gets
installed, and I find it's easier to get cpan to behave, as well.
(Not that you can ever ignore what gets installed, but it's easier
to protect the server if you keep the OS clean.)
Are there OS functions that rely on perl? What sorts of things?
Obviously the low-level kernel stuff like task switching, memory
management, etc. aren't in Perl. But higher-level functions like cron
jobs, startup scripts, installation scripts, etc. are often written
in Perl. Unix admins had been using it for that sort of thing for
years before web developers started using it.
Installing a single perl may seem normal to users who are more
accustomed to MacPerl and/or ActiveState's Perl for Windows, but it's
*not* normal to install *nix perl that way. Sun even ships Solaris
with two versions already installed, the latest version as /usr/bin/
perl, and whatever version they've verified their scripts against as /
opt/sun/perl5.x.y/bin/perl.
Are there nice directions somewhere for setting up a separate install?
They're included with Perl. Actually, doing so is the path of least
resistance, as the default is to install under /usr/local, which will
not disturb Apple's perl.
Also, how does CPAN module determine what's installed?
It looks in @INC.
sherm--
Cocoa programming in Perl: http://camelbones.sourceforge.net
Hire me! My resume: http://www.dot-app.org
