Summary of my perl5 (revision 5 version 8 subversion 8) configuration: Platform: osname=linux, osvers=2.6.20-sabayon-r3, archname=i686-linux-thread-multi uname='linux localhost 2.6.20-sabayon-r3 #1 smp sun mar 25 10:28:54 utc 2007 i686 intel(r) pentium(r) 4 cpu 3.00ghz genuineintel gnulinux ' config_args='-Dprefix=/opt/perl' hint=recommended, useposix=true, d_sigaction=define usethreads=define use5005threads=undef useithreads=define usemultiplicity=define useperlio=define d_sfio=undef uselargefiles=define usesocks=undef use64bitint=undef use64bitall=undef uselongdouble=undef usemymalloc=n, bincompat5005=undef Compiler: cc='cc', ccflags ='-D_REENTRANT -D_GNU_SOURCE -DTHREADS_HAVE_PIDS -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe -Wdeclaration-after-statement -I/usr/local/include -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64', optimize='-O2', cppflags='-D_REENTRANT -D_GNU_SOURCE -DTHREADS_HAVE_PIDS -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe -Wdeclaration-after-statement -I/usr/local/include' ccversion='', gccversion='4.1.1 (Gentoo 4.1.1-r3)', gccosandvers='' intsize=4, longsize=4, ptrsize=4, doublesize=8, byteorder=1234 d_longlong=define, longlongsize=8, d_longdbl=define, longdblsize=12 ivtype='long', ivsize=4, nvtype='double', nvsize=8, Off_t='off_t', lseeksize=8 alignbytes=4, prototype=define Linker and Libraries: ld='cc', ldflags =' -L/usr/local/lib' libpth=/usr/local/lib /lib /usr/lib libs=-lnsl -lndbm -lgdbm -ldb -ldl -lm -lcrypt -lutil -lpthread -lc perllibs=-lnsl -ldl -lm -lcrypt -lutil -lpthread -lc libc=/lib/libc-2.5.so, so=so, useshrplib=false, libperl=libperl.a gnulibc_version='2.5' Dynamic Linking: dlsrc=dl_dlopen.xs, dlext=so, d_dlsymun=undef, ccdlflags='-Wl,-E' cccdlflags='-fpic', lddlflags='-shared -L/usr/local/lib' Characteristics of this binary (from libperl): Compile-time options: MULTIPLICITY PERL_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT PERL_MALLOC_WRAP THREADS_HAVE_PIDS USE_ITHREADS USE_LARGE_FILES USE_PERLIO USE_REENTRANT_API Built under linux Compiled at Jun 21 2008 21:26:26 @INC: /opt/perl/lib/5.8.8/i686-linux-thread-multi /opt/perl/lib/5.8.8 /opt/perl/lib/site_perl/5.8.8/i686-linux-thread-multi /opt/perl/lib/site_perl/5.8.8 /opt/perl/lib/site_perl