[Chicago-talk] Getting compile options from old perl install & other admin questions

[Jay Strauss]

I think that is basically what I did.  Here's what I did:


sh Configure -des -Dusethreads -Duselargefiles -Dprefix=/usr/local/perl5.8.5
make && make test && make install

cd /usr/local
ln -s /usr/local/perl /usr/local/perl5.8.5
cd /usr/local/bin
ln -s /usr/local/perl/bin/* .

Thanks
Jay

> 
> 
> -- "Scott T. Hildreth" <shild at sbcglobal.net>
> 
>> The auto-config is pretty good now.  I like to put a new version
>> of Perl in a dir, '/usr/local/perl-5.8.5', then I have a script
>> which configs CPAN and installs all the modules that I need/want.
>> I run some tests, if the new Perl install is working okay, I have
>> a symlink /usr/local/perl which points to the version I want to use.
>> If something is wrong I can always point /usr/local/perl back to the
>> older install.  This works really well, for me at least, at work.  I
>> can have the other developers test production code in without affecting
>> production.  As far as compiling, I let Perl config,
>>
>> sh Configure -de -Dprefix=/usr/local/perl-5.8.x
>>
>> ..not that you care how I install Perl, just thought I would share. :-)
> 
> 
> The autoinstall does a really nice job of getting a
> working perl for your system. One trick that might
> make it easier to upgrade is using subdirectories
> for the perl versions:
> 
>     ./Configure -cd -Dprefix=/opt/perl/5.8.X
> 
> With two symlinks this makes it easier to try out
> new versions without overwriting older ones:
> 
>     cd /opt/perl;
>     ln -fs 5.8.X/* .;
> 
> and
> 
>     cd /opt;
>     mkdir bin;
>     cd bin;
>     ln -fs ../perl/bin/* .;
> 
> You can do the same for any other package (my /opt/bin
> has 15+ packages from gcc through perl to gaim symlinked
> into it). Nice thing about this is that you don't have
> to modify your path to upgrade perl: just install the
> new version in, say, 5.8.Y, test it, and when it seems
> friendly you can:
> 
>     cd /opt/perl;
>     rm *;
>     ln -fs 5.8.Y/* .;
> 
> and you'll be off to the races.
> 
> If you consistently use:
> 
>     #!/opt/bin/perl
> 
> for your executables then you can upgrade perl versions
> without having to modify any of your #! code on the system.
> You can also find out that the currenet version has a bug
> and downgrade the release with a single symlink.
> 
> There are two ways to handle /opt/perl/blah/lib in this case:
> 
>     1. Duplicate the applied modules via autobundle.
>     2. Symlink the perl lib directory from 5.8.X to 5.8.Y
>        on the way in.
> 
> I normally use #1 since it makes downgrading -- or keeping
> threading vs. optmized vs. statically-linked versions
> simpler.
> 
> enjoi
>