Re: Determining minimum Perl version for new module

Are there recent stats or census data on Perl versions in use in the wild?

One way to see what people are supporting is to watch the CPAN. Most modules have a use VERSION or use feature 'VERSION' line. The MetaCPAN API provides a lot of information about modules but I couldn't find anything about the supported Perl version (which is found in the source code):

https://metacpan.org/feed/recent
https://metacpan.org/recent?f=n
https://metacpan.org/favorite/leaderboard

Whip up a bot that checks what versions of Perl are supported by which CPAN upload/new dist/fav/etc and plot a graph of CPAN's most supported Perl versions so you can upload it to cool uses?

Comment on Re: Determining minimum Perl version for new module

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Re^2: Determining minimum Perl version for new module by Corion (Patriarch) on Sep 12, 2019 at 07:34 UTC
Another good measure is to look at what version of Perl the long term editions of popular Linux distributions and Apple distribute (and thus, support). Currently, I think these are RHEL 6 - Perl 5.10, EOL 2020 RHEL 7 - Perl 5.18 (I think?), Perl 5.24 available as package, EOL 2024 Debian 9 - Perl 5.18, EOL 2022 Debian 10 - Perl 5.28, EOL 2022 Ubuntu Xenial - Perl 5.20 OSX (Yosemite upwards) - Perl 5.18 Also see Which version of perl comes with ...?.	[reply]
Re^3: Determining minimum Perl version for new module by hippo (Archbishop) on Sep 12, 2019 at 08:15 UTC
RHEL 7 - Perl 5.18 (I think?) Actually it's only 5.16.3 on RHEL7. RHEL8 has 5.26.3. That's quite a jump but then it has been almost 5 years between their major releases.	[reply]
Re^4: Determining minimum Perl version for new module by Tux (Canon) on Sep 12, 2019 at 08:43 UTC
`$ xlsgrep -L -i rhel dist-perl.csv 4 x 1993 redhat \| RHEL-8.0 \| 2019-05-06 \| 5.26.3 redhat \| RHEL-7.7 \| 2019-08-06 \| 5.16.3 redhat \| RHEL-6.9 \| 2017-03-21 \| 5.10.1 redhat \| RHEL-5.11 \| 2014-09-16 \| 5.8.8 redhat \| RHEL-4.8 \| 2009-05-19 \| 5.8.5 redhat \| RHEL-3.9 \| 2007-05-30 \| 5.8.0 redhat \| RHEL-2.1 \| 2002-03-26 \| 5.6.0` [download] Enjoy, Have FUN! H.Merijn	[reply] [d/l]
Re^3: Determining minimum Perl version for new module by Tux (Canon) on Sep 12, 2019 at 08:41 UTC
On distrowatch you can dig through the Linux distributions to make a list of which distro comes with what perl version. (I try to keep a CSV list up-to-date for System::Info). A summary: 5.6 54 # .0: 16, .1: 38 5.8 372 # .0: 39, .1: 7, .2: 11, .3: 11, .4: 42, .5: 26, .6: 21, .7 +: 29, .8:184, .9: 2 5.10 270 # .0:105, .1:165 5.12 110 # .1: 10, .2: 24, .3: 36, .4: 40 5.14 166 # .0: 3, .1: 4, .2:156, .3: 1, .4: 2 5.16 59 # .0: 1, .1: 15, .2: 7, .3: 36 5.18 119 # .0: 8, .1: 31, .2: 77, .4: 3 5.20 145 # .0: 15, .1: 23, .2: 98, .3: 9 5.22 128 # .0: 12, .1: 74, .2: 36, .3: 6 5.24 137 # .0: 19, .1: 95, .2: 3, .3: 19, .4: 1 5.26 135 # .0: 19, .1: 72, .2: 41, .3: 3 5.28 117 # .0: 23, .1: 80, .2: 14 5.30 28 # .0: 28 [download] If I limit that list to dists that got a release since 2017-01-01, I get: `5.8 2 # .8: 2 5.10 10 # .1: 10 5.12 4 # .3: 4 5.14 7 # .2: 6, .3: 1 5.16 15 # .3: 15 5.18 11 # .0: 2, .1: 1, .2: 8 5.20 44 # .0: 2, .2: 38, .3: 4 5.22 60 # .0: 1, .1: 44, .2: 9, .3: 6 5.24 121 # .0: 8, .1: 90, .2: 3, .3: 19, .4: 1 5.26 135 # .0: 19, .1: 72, .2: 41, .3: 3 5.28 117 # .0: 23, .1: 80, .2: 14 5.30 28 # .0: 28` [download] and limiting to 2018 and 2019: `5.8 1 # .8: 1 5.10 4 # .1: 4 5.12 3 # .3: 3 5.14 5 # .2: 4, .3: 1 5.16 12 # .3: 12 5.18 4 # .0: 1, .2: 3 5.20 12 # .0: 1, .2: 10, .3: 1 5.22 30 # .1: 22, .2: 5, .3: 3 5.24 71 # .0: 2, .1: 54, .3: 14, .4: 1 5.26 108 # .0: 2, .1: 62, .2: 41, .3: 3 5.28 117 # .0: 23, .1: 80, .2: 14 5.30 28 # .0: 28` [download] With just one dist (openwall-3.1, which is the most recent openwall distributeded with perl on 2018-07-03) shipping with perl-5.8.8, I'd say having a minimum of 5.10.1 is a very safe choice. If you however really want to use a feature like `s{}{}r`, perlver tells me you'd need 5.14.0. Enjoy, Have FUN! H.Merijn	[reply] [d/l] [select]