Removing perl from RPM-based Linux distribution (like RedHat) is VERY bad idea. 999 chanced out of a 1000 are that you will end up with a broken system. As far as I know, even rpm depends on perl (well, rpm-build actually, but still it's a bad idea). Since you are using "--nodeps" rpm flag, you have even fewer chances to survive. :)

I'd suggest that the first thing you do is bring perl back from your distribution CDs. Then, if you need a different version, then install it into some other directory (like /usr/local/). You can have several versions of perl installed on the system at the same time.

Leonid Mamtchenkov aka TVSET