Re: How do you run Perl on _your

I'm apparently the renegade here: I use the system Perl (Debian's) without reservation. I don't even use local::lib because 99% of what I do is system-wide, so anything that depends on having access to customized personal-scope module installs is worthless to me. This has caused me exactly zero problems in the two-plus decades I've been managing things this way. The closest thing to "problems" is needing to reinstall CPAN modules every couple years when a new Debian version goes stable, but I'd have to do that with any Perl version number change, regardless of who initiates the change.

But a big part of the reason why this works for me is that I don't really care what version of Perl I use. I still write Perl 5.10-compliant code and, although I frequently see people talking about the latest new features added to the language like they're the greatest thing since sliced bread, none of them particularly excite me and I don't miss them. If you do care about your Perl version and/or want all the latest and greatest new features, then using perlbrew is the obvious way to go, since the OS provider's preferences may not align with your own. Similarly, if you're mostly working with things that require specific module versions or are only used by a specific user, then local::lib may make more sense than installing things system-wide.

Comment on Re: How do you run Perl on _your_ system?

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Re^2: How do you run Perl on _your_ system? by NERDVANA (Priest) on Jun 15, 2022 at 21:27 UTC
You can do that because you aren't on a rolling release distro. If you are, you can still use system perl as long as all the cpan modules are in the distro catalog, which they usually aren't. That's when you need to switch to perlbrew. For extreme rolling distros like Arch, that isn't even good enough because the system libs change ABI frequently breaking XS modules, but at least perlbrew makes it easy to throw away and re-install a perl version.	[reply]
Re^3: How do you run Perl on _your_ system? by dsheroh (Monsignor) on Jun 16, 2022 at 07:19 UTC
You can do that because you aren't on a rolling release distro. Good point and, yes, that's also a big factor. Not being a rolling release is one of my primary reasons for choosing Debian and, specifically, Debian stable.	[reply]
Re^2: How do you run Perl on _your_ system? by afoken (Chancellor) on Jun 15, 2022 at 20:10 UTC
I'm apparently the renegade here: I use the system Perl (Debian's) without reservation. Same for me, except that I use Slackware. Slackware does not depend on Perl, so I can freely break Perl (never managed to do so). (Not sure about the new Slackware 15.0, it has some drastic changes compared to 14.2, and so I did not upgrade yet.) See also Re^2: Perlbrew issues. Suggest a way out., Re^3: NOT NEW but confused - set cpan paths from the start, Re^4: use strict; before/after use warnings;. Alexander -- Today I will gladly share my knowledge and experience, for there are no sweeter words than "I told you so". ;-)	[reply]