Hello TomDLux,

You don't say what operating systems you are using, but if it's a *nix version, you should be able to use 'ln -s'.

I support a number of *nix ( AIX, Debian, Suse, etc ) boxes and I leave the default Perl to the operating system. But I install different versions of Perl in the '/usr/local/bin/' directory. I use a separate filesystem (or directory) for all Perl version source code and 'configure' and 'make' etc so that I have completely different directories for each Perl version.

I then go to the '/usr/local/bin/' directory and move the newly installed 'perl' to 'perl5.14.2' or whatever the actual version is. Now if it's a new and untested Perl, I use link 'ln -s -f perl5.14.2 perltest'. You need the force if it is already defined. When the testing is complete and your happy with the Perl version, you use link 'ln -s -f perl5.14.2 perlgood' and now your "official" version on that box is 'perlgood'. ( Note: I don't use 'perlgood', but link the base 'perl' to the tested 'good' version) (Also, any CPAN dependencies have to be installed in the new Perl.)

You can verify which release by: 

   perltest -v

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And you can see all versions you have by: 
   ls -l /usr/local/bin/perl*

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and you get something like this:(just the end column) 
   ... /usr/local/bin/perl -> perl5.12.2
   ... /usr/local/bin/perl5.10.1.threads
   ... /usr/local/bin/perl5.10.1
   ... /usr/local/bin/perl5.12.2
   ... /usr/local/bin/perl5.16.0
   ...
   ... /usr/local/bin/perltest -> perl5.16.0

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Okay, so how does this help you?

Now you have a way to check-point scripts that have a dependency that a newer version of Perl doesn't work/support/etc. For instance you notice that I have a threaded and non-threaded versions of perl5.10.1. If you have a script dependency on threads, you can hard-code the shebang to: 

#!/usr/local/bin/perl5.10.1.threads -w

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Unless I have a need for 'threads' in *nix, I run all scripts with a non-threaded Perl for perfomance. YMMV!

AIX and CPAN are almost mutually exclusive. So I usually have to download and manually install. So scripts on AIX tend to not get updated as much as the Linux systems. I hope you get the idea, and if you improve the process I'd be interested in any and all improvements. ( And don't forget to document the process for your fellow workers. )

Good Luck...Ed

"Well done is better than well said." - Benjamin Franklin

In reply to Re: Managing modules of various versions by flexvault
in thread Managing modules of various versions by TomDLux

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