Anonymous Monk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi,
I am using Perl 5.8.0
. I would like to upgrade the perl version
. OS is Linux and i would like to upgrade from perl 5.8.0 to Perl 5.8.3.
Can you please post here the steps required to upgrade the perl.
Thanks
Sur

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Upgrade perl
by pbeckingham (Parson) on Jul 15, 2004 at 06:31 UTC

    First, you probably want to use the stable 5.8.4 (http://www.cpan.org/src/stable.tar.gz) instead of 5.8.3. If you really want 5.8.3, then go find it at http://www.cpan.org/src/5.0/perl-5.8.3.tar.gz:

    1. Download the source.
    2. You should get the checksum file too, and compare it.
    3. unpack it with gunzip stable.tar.gz; tar xf stable.tar
    4. cd perl-5.8.4
    5. Go look at the README file, and the README.xxx file for your OS.
    6. Do what the INSTALL file says to do.
    However, before you take step 6, decide whether you are installing over the existing Perl, or installing a parallel version, and where it might go etc.

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      On Debian, 5.8.4 breaks DynaLoader, so .3 is a better choice. :-(

      But .5 is coming soon, no?
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        Good point. 5.8.5 is expected by September, I heard today.

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Re: Upgrade perl
by castaway (Parson) on Jul 15, 2004 at 06:40 UTC
    If you mentioned which flavour of Linux you had, it would be easier to help. Most systems have some method of upgrading which is particular to them, the well known ones being Debian with .deb packages (installed using apt-get/dpkg) and RedHat/SuSE/others using RPM (.rpm files). The easiest way to upgrade is to get the latest package for your distro.

    The other way is to install a compiler (gcc usually), grab the source, and compile it yourself. (Though that usually involves the installer asking you several questions you need to know the answer to, like where to install it, whether it should include the library paths of the old perl modules, etc.)

    C.

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Re: Upgrade perl
by davidj (Priest) on Jul 15, 2004 at 06:23 UTC
    This is not a Perl question, but a Linux question. Here are the steps you need to make:

    1) get a good book on Linux administration
    2) read it and understand it (especially the part about upgrading software)
    3) follow the instructions

    OR

    1) download the Perl 5.8.3 rpm (if your distro uses RPM)
    2) cd to directory you downloaded the rpm to
    3) su -
    4) rpm -Uvh <rpm>

    Note: You want to be careful doing this. I have heard of situations where upgrading Perl "breaks" other things. So make sure you have your ducks in a row before you upgrade.

    davidj
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      This is as much a perl question as it is a linux question. The most annoying part of upgrading perl is making sure all your installed packages will still work with the new one, especially given the binary compatibility shenanigans that have been going on with the low 5.8.x's

      For instance, had I known about perl -MCPAN -e autobundle earlier, I could've saved myself a lot of headaches involved in these upgrades.

      Your second example assumes that the Linux distribution in question is rpm based, which is not necessarily the case (would've helped if the OP mentioned the specific flavour); even if it is, perl itself could've been installed from source, for a variety of reasons (for example, RedHat has been shipping with an oddly compiled perl for a long time, one of the biggest problems being that large file support was turned off for whatever reason).

      If the installed (and the new) perl wasn't prepackaged by the system vendor, it would help to examine the output of perl -V to match the new environment to the old one.

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