Re: Catalyst question -- should I build my own perl for running as non-root in a hosted environment

Putting my sysad hat on, if you aren't root and you don't install your own perl, at some point you are likely to be surprised when the perl that you are relying on changes. If this hosted environment is critical to your success, you probably want to control as much of it as you can.

Comment on Re: Catalyst question -- should I build my own perl for running as non-root in a hosted environment

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Re^2: Catalyst question -- should I build my own perl for running as non-root in a hosted environment by tphyahoo (Vicar) on Jun 03, 2006 at 20:35 UTC
An excellent point. There are really two issues here. 1) Make Catalyst easy to install as non-root on a hosted webserver, to encourage adoption by a wider userbase. 2) Make installed catalyst as predicatable/reliable as possible. For 1, perl -MCPAN -e 'install Bundle::CatalystGoodies' or something along those lines is the most attractive option. It should be fast, and it should Just Work. There is a Task::Catalyst that was supposed to have this role, but it seems to have problems in a variety of environments (even if you're root). As a workaround to that, Matt Trout created the "shadowcatInstaller" script, which does more or less the same thing but using magic to handle a variety of exceptions in a smooth and frienly way. Judging by postings in the catalyst newgroup this "just works" if you're root, but not if you're non-root. However, the maintainer, Matt Trout, has said he is working on getting something out that will Just Work for non root as well. For 2, I think yes, it may be better to build one's own perl. When you start requiring that degree of control, though, non-root on a shared server may be only an interim solution while you shop for a paravirtualized xen/uml root solution (cheap, suitable for a lighter load), or your own server (more expensive, can have a heavier load). This has all really got to get integrated into the catalyst wiki somehow...	[reply]

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Re^2: Catalyst question -- should I build my own perl for running as non-root in a hosted environment
by tphyahoo (Vicar) on Jun 03, 2006 at 20:35 UTC

There are really two issues here.

1) Make Catalyst easy to install as non-root on a hosted webserver, to encourage adoption by a wider userbase.

2) Make installed catalyst as predicatable/reliable as possible.

For 1, perl -MCPAN -e 'install Bundle::CatalystGoodies' or something along those lines is the most attractive option. It should be fast, and it should Just Work.

There is a Task::Catalyst that was supposed to have this role, but it seems to have problems in a variety of environments (even if you're root). As a workaround to that, Matt Trout created the "shadowcatInstaller" script, which does more or less the same thing but using magic to handle a variety of exceptions in a smooth and frienly way. Judging by postings in the catalyst newgroup this "just works" if you're root, but not if you're non-root. However, the maintainer, Matt Trout, has said he is working on getting something out that will Just Work for non root as well.

For 2, I think yes, it may be better to build one's own perl. When you start requiring that degree of control, though, non-root on a shared server may be only an interim solution while you shop for a paravirtualized xen/uml root solution (cheap, suitable for a lighter load), or your own server (more expensive, can have a heavier load).

This has all really got to get integrated into the catalyst wiki somehow...

[reply]