This may not be the correct place to pose my questions, but it is the best place I have found. If there is a better place, please advise me where.

As a sysadmin, I have a burning question about PERL.

I am trying to understand why every upgrade of PERL installs a completely new directory tree under /usr/lib/perl5 and usr/lib/perl5/site_perl? I can definitely understand it for a major release, and partially for each minor release, but for every point release seams like major overkill.

Part of my problem with this is disk space, but that is minor compared with the fact that it then requires re-installing every CPAN module or third party add0on that we use. This would not even be quite as big a problem except that 1) it means that some of our applications are down until we can get every module re-installed, and 2) It is very difficult to keep track of every module that is installed so we can make sure that we get them all re-installed.

If CPAN had a function similar to PEAR that wwill tell us what modules are installed, and even do semi-automatic updates, it would aleviate at least a substantial amount of the pain.

Any insights or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

20050124 Edit by castaway: Changed title from 'Sysadmin seeking wisdom'

In reply to Sysadmin questions on efficient installation of new Perl versions by Anonymous Monk

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