personal perl lib

jfk1admin has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

i always start with a basic question to test the water... :) it would seem that my hosting IP doesn't provide a complete library of perl 5.6.1 modules (not sure why), however.... is there any reason why i can't have my own personal perl lib, client side so to speak, (tho not really)... and are there any issues, security or otherwise, related this idea???

Comment on personal perl lib

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Re: personal perl lib by jbrugger (Parson) on Dec 31, 2005 at 14:38 UTC
Depending on the module you need, you can (use lib) to the dir you want to use. I use it for Statistics::Lite in my own directory. However, this only works for you if you have Perl-only modules, that don't need to be compiled and installed on the system you're using. If you use modules like PDF::API2, your isp has to provide them. "We all agree on the necessity of compromise. We just can't agree on when it's necessary to compromise." - Larry Wall.	[reply]
Re^2: personal perl lib by sgifford (Prior) on Dec 31, 2005 at 17:09 UTC
No, you can install modules that require compilation without any special access, as long as your Web hosting provider has a compiler installed. The standard module installation procedure will do this automatically; see my other post for what to do if you don't have shell access.	[reply]
Re^3: personal perl lib by jbrugger (Parson) on Dec 31, 2005 at 20:44 UTC
Imho, most isp's (i know) don't provide you with a suitable compiler, since they don't want anything installed / build they don't know of. Anyway, you are still able to use Perl-only modules. (But anyway, nice tip from you!) "We all agree on the necessity of compromise. We just can't agree on when it's necessary to compromise." - Larry Wall.	[reply]
Re^4: personal perl lib by sgifford (Prior) on Jan 02, 2006 at 19:05 UTC
Re: personal perl lib by sgifford (Prior) on Dec 31, 2005 at 17:08 UTC
This is a very common thing to do. Try to put the library directory in an area that's neither viewable nor directly executable via the Web; I usually make a `cgi-lib/perl5` directory in my home directory, which will work just fine. See `perldoc -q 'own module'` for details on how to do this. If you don't have shell access, see Re^2: Perl module.	[reply]