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

Hi, I'm on MacOS X and I have a couple of machines here, one Powerbook and one G5 desktop. Perl (apparently reporting the same version for both) has different @INC for each, and this is causing issues for gd-pm581 (GD.pm) that I have installed via fink (as I can never get it to compile cleanly out of CPAN) 
ashtaroth:~ dswan$ perl -e "print (@INC)"
/sw/lib/perl5/5.8.1/darwin-thread-multi-2level/sw/lib/perl5/5.8.1/sw/l
+ib/perl5/sw/lib/perl5/darwin/System/Library/Perl/5.8.1/darwin-thread-
+multi-2level/System/Library/Perl/5.8.1/Library/Perl/5.8.1/darwin-thre
+ad-multi-2level/Library/Perl/5.8.1/Library/Perl/Network/Library/Perl/
+5.8.1/darwin-thread-multi-2level/Network/Library/Perl/5.8.1/Network/L
+ibrary/Perl.
ashtaroth:~ dswan$

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and 
Embley-m6:/System/Library/Perl/5.8.1/darwin-thread-multi-2level dswan$
+ perl -e "print (@INC)"
/System/Library/Perl/5.8.1/darwin-thread-multi-2level/System/Library/P
+erl/5.8.1/Library/Perl/5.8.1/darwin-thread-multi-2level/Library/Perl/
+5.8.1/Library/Perl/Network/Library/Perl/5.8.1/darwin-thread-multi-2le
+vel/Network/Library/Perl/5.8.1/Network/Library/Perl.Embley-m6:/System
+/Library/Perl/5.8.1/darwin-thread-multi-2level dswan$

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The GD install has gone into /sw/lib/perl5/5.8.1/darwin-thread-multi-2level on both machines.

I know I can push paths into @INC with "use lib" but is there a way I can just get Perl to accept a new @INC permanently without major fiddling?

cheers,

Dan

Bukowski - aka Dan (dan@scot1and.net)
"Coffee for the mind, Pizza for the body, Sushi for the soul" -Userfriendly

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: modifying @INC other than use lib?
by bsdz (Friar) on Apr 18, 2005 at 11:57 UTC
    you can either set the environment variable PERL5LIB or edit your Config.pm
[reply]
      Never edit your Config.pm: that's meant to be a runtime reference to a number of settings that your Perl was compiled with.

      In particular, the initial value for @INC doesn't even come from there: it comes from a hardwired path compiled into the binary. Otherwise, how could Perl find the Config.pm file? Psychic powers?

      -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker
      Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.

[reply]
        Thanks Randal,

        I didn't get around to modifying it anyway before I hit on a lower tech solution: 

        cd /sw/lib/perl5/5.8.1/darwin-thread-multi-2level/
sudo cp -R GD GD.pm /System/Library/Perl/5.8.1/darwin-thread-multi-2le
+vel/
sudo cp -R auto/GD/  /System/Library/Perl/5.8.1/darwin-thread-multi-2l
+evel/auto/

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        I did try this before but failed to copy across the auto/ and it was complaining about not being able to find the loadable object.

        Also for the record I did also try this with symlinks and it didn't appear to work :/

        Dan

        Bukowski - aka Dan (dcs@black.hole-in-the.net)
        "Coffee for the mind, Pizza for the body, Sushi for the soul" -Userfriendly
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[d/l]
        Otherwise, how could Perl find the Config.pm file? Psychic powers?

        I think there's a Perl6 RFC on that one. ;)

[reply]
        Editing your Config.pm can be your only option sometimes; especially when relocating your Perl binary/library tree, and switching between using nmake or dmake in a Windows environment.
[reply]
      This is why I was wondering if there was something more MacOS X specific as the only "Config.pm" I can find on the system is the config for Fink.. not Perl...

      update:

      Scratch that - "find" finds what "finder" cannot on MacOS X - I am a Linux user at heart, this OS X stuff is still a bit alien to me :)

      Bukowski - aka Dan (dcs@black.hole-in-the.net)
      "Coffee for the mind, Pizza for the body, Sushi for the soul" -Userfriendly
[reply]
Re: modifying @INC other than use lib?
by Fletch (Bishop) on Apr 18, 2005 at 12:19 UTC

    Looks like you've sourced Fink's /sw/bin/init.sh script in the first case, as that would alter PERL5LIB just that way.

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Re: modifying @INC other than use lib?
by Taulmarill (Deacon) on Apr 18, 2005 at 12:08 UTC
    i would also highly recomend to build your own perl, it's realy easy and works very well for me. just download, untar, cofigure.sh, make, make test, make install (the usual).
    i build modules via cpan-shell.
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Re: modifying @INC other than use lib?
by polettix (Vicar) on Apr 18, 2005 at 17:51 UTC
    The advantage of using use lib is that it also adds the directory specific to the architecture.

    Quick-and-very-dirty workarounds:

    • Make a dummy "pragma" module which simply lists the include directories you want: 
         # In myInc.pm, located in standard perl lib directory
   package myInc;
   use lib /path/to/my/special/lib;
   1;

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      This only shifts the problem, but you have the advantage of a simpler inclusion and, what's better, the fact that you don't have to change anything in your scripts, only in the local myInc package: 
         # ... in your script
   use myInc;
   use GD; # or whatever in your local lib
   # ...

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    • given the fact that you're always using strict (aren't you?!?), you could put the use lib directly in strict.pm, but I've never suggested you to do that :)
    The first solution seems the one to go if you want to give these headless advices a try. I only hope merlyn's hammer won't be too heavy on me!

    Update: fixed 8-PM typo, thanks to eric256 for signaling!

    Flavio (perl -e "print(scalar(reverse('ti.xittelop@oivalf')))")

    Don't fool yourself.
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      You wrote use base in your examples when I'm sure you meant use lib


      ___________
      Eric Hodges
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