What is the colon : in perl library.

redflammingo has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi Monks,

perl-libs = 4:5.10.1-129.el6 is needed by perl-4:5.10.1-129.el6.x86_64

What does the colon mean, in 4:5.10... in above perl lib line.

I got that message when I executed below command to downgrade perl version:

rpm -ivh --test perl-5.10.1-129.el6.x86_64.rpm 
error: Failed dependencies:
[download]

perl-libs = 4:5.10.1-129.el6 is needed by perl-4:5.10.1-129.el6.x86_64

Thanks.

John

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Re: What is the colon : in perl library. by tobyink (Canon) on Apr 28, 2014 at 12:46 UTC
This "`4:`" part is nothing to do with Perl's version numbering, nor with any Perl modules. It's the rpm's "epoch". Many package managers (RPM is one; Debian packages do much the same) support an optional "epoch" which overrides the software's normal version number when it comes to figuring out whether version A is newer than version B. An example of why package managers do this sort of thing. Consider package "foobar" which has versions "1.0", "1.1", ... "1.9". Now perhaps the developer releases "1.10" and "1.11" next, but the packager realises that RPM will treat "foobar-1.10" as being identical to "foobar-1.1", and "foobar-1.11" as older than "foobar-1.2". So the packager bumps the epoch, calling them "foobar-2:1.10" and "foobar-2:1.11". This ensures that they'll be seen as newer than "foobar-1.9". `use Moops; class Cow :rw { has name => (default => 'Ermintrude') }; say Cow->new->name`	[reply] [d/l]
Re: What is the colon : in perl library. by Bloodnok (Vicar) on Apr 28, 2014 at 11:03 UTC
The problem would appear to be specific to an un-satisfied RPM dependency, not a perl module - I don't have an RPM based distro on which to play, but would suggest that, rather than down-versioning what appears to be the system perl, I'd attempt to add a new perl, at your required version, at a suitably alternative installation root (using the `--prefix path` option) - if that's at all possible using the RPM packages. Otherwise, I'd suggest the use of perlbrew. A user level that continues to overstate my experience :-))	[reply] [d/l]
Re: What is the colon : in perl library. by karlgoethebier (Abbot) on Apr 28, 2014 at 11:27 UTC
Dependency hell, AKA rpm hell. Regards, Karl ŤThe Crux of the Biscuit is the Apostropheť	[reply]
Re^2: What is the colon : in perl library. by LanX (Saint) on Apr 28, 2014 at 13:12 UTC
Why is this a case of LMGTFY? Cheers Rolf ( addicted to the Perl Programming Language)	[reply]
Re^3: What is the colon : in perl library. by karlgoethebier (Abbot) on Apr 28, 2014 at 13:28 UTC
Kindliness, perhaps. Regards, Karl ŤThe Crux of the Biscuit is the Apostropheť	[reply]
Re^4: What is the colon : in perl library. by LanX (Saint) on Apr 28, 2014 at 17:06 UTC
Re^5: What is the colon : in perl library. by karlgoethebier (Abbot) on Apr 28, 2014 at 18:28 UTC
Re: What is the colon : in perl library. (rpm by Anonymous Monk on Apr 28, 2014 at 11:03 UTC
That is some kind of rpmitis :) not specific to perl :)	[reply]