Corion wrote:

Do never, ever upgrade or change the Perl in /usr/bin. It belongs to your system and is sacred to your system. Always install your own compiled Perls somewhere else.

Not guilty. Both of my compiled perls were installed in /usr/local/bin/.

However, I realize now that my upgrade to 5.8.8 was superfluous in the sense that the system perl at the time of that upgrade already was 5.8.8. Here are the respective perl -Vs.

$ /usr/bin/perl -V
Summary of my perl5 (revision 5 version 8 subversion 8) configuration:
  Platform:
    osname=linux, osvers=2.6.15.7, archname=i486-linux-gnu-thread-mult
+i
    uname='linux rothera 2.6.15.7 #1 smp tue jun 27 18:34:43 utc 2006 
+i686 gnulinux '
    config_args='-Dusethreads -Duselargefiles -Dccflags=-DDEBIAN -Dccc
+dlflags=-fPIC -Darchname=i486-linux-gnu -Dprefix=/usr -Dprivlib=/usr/
+share/perl/5.8 -Darchlib=/usr/lib/perl/5.8 -Dvendorprefix=/usr -Dvend
+orlib=/usr/share/perl5 -Dvendorarch=/usr/lib/perl5 -Dsiteprefix=/usr/
+local -Dsitelib=/usr/local/share/perl/5.8.8 -Dsitearch=/usr/local/lib
+/perl/5.8.8 -Dman1dir=/usr/share/man/man1 -Dman3dir=/usr/share/man/ma
+n3 -Dsiteman1dir=/usr/local/man/man1 -Dsiteman3dir=/usr/local/man/man
+3 -Dman1ext=1 -Dman3ext=3perl -Dpager=/usr/bin/sensible-pager -Uafs -
+Ud_csh -Uusesfio -Uusenm -Duseshrplib -Dlibperl=libperl.so.5.8.8 -Dd_
+dosuid -des'
    hint=recommended, useposix=true, d_sigaction=define
    usethreads=define use5005threads=undef useithreads=define usemulti
+plicity=define    useperlio=define d_sfio=undef uselargefiles=define 
+usesocks=undef
    use64bitint=undef use64bitall=undef uselongdouble=undef
    usemymalloc=n, bincompat5005=undef
  Compiler:
    cc='cc', ccflags ='-D_REENTRANT -D_GNU_SOURCE -DTHREADS_HAVE_PIDS 
+-DDEBIAN -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe -I/usr/local/include -D_LARGEFILE
+_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64',
    optimize='-O2',
    cppflags='-D_REENTRANT -D_GNU_SOURCE -DTHREADS_HAVE_PIDS -DDEBIAN 
+-fno-strict-aliasing -pipe -I/usr/local/include'
    ccversion='', gccversion='4.1.2 20060613 (prerelease) (Ubuntu 4.1.
+1-2ubuntu5)', gccosandvers=''
    intsize=4, longsize=4, ptrsize=4, doublesize=8, byteorder=1234
    d_longlong=define, longlongsize=8, d_longdbl=define, longdblsize=1
+2
    ivtype='long', ivsize=4, nvtype='double', nvsize=8, Off_t='off_t',
+ lseeksize=8
    alignbytes=4, prototype=define
  Linker and Libraries:
    ld='cc', ldflags =' -L/usr/local/lib'
    libpth=/usr/local/lib /lib /usr/lib
    libs=-lgdbm -lgdbm_compat -ldb -ldl -lm -lpthread -lc -lcrypt
    perllibs=-ldl -lm -lpthread -lc -lcrypt
    libc=/lib/libc-2.4.so, so=so, useshrplib=true, libperl=libperl.so.
+5.8.8
    gnulibc_version='2.4'
  Dynamic Linking:
    dlsrc=dl_dlopen.xs, dlext=so, d_dlsymun=undef, ccdlflags='-Wl,-E'
    cccdlflags='-fPIC', lddlflags='-shared -L/usr/local/lib'


Characteristics of this binary (from libperl):
  Compile-time options: MULTIPLICITY PERL_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT
                        PERL_MALLOC_WRAP THREADS_HAVE_PIDS USE_ITHREAD
+S
                        USE_LARGE_FILES USE_PERLIO USE_REENTRANT_API
  Built under linux
  Compiled at Jul  7 2006 18:08:25
  %ENV:
    PERL5LIB="/home/jimk/lib/perl:/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8
+/i686-linux/"
  @INC:
    /home/jimk/lib/perl
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8/i686-linux/
    /etc/perl
    /usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8
    /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.8
    /usr/lib/perl5
    /usr/share/perl5
    /usr/lib/perl/5.8
    /usr/share/perl/5.8
    /usr/local/lib/site_perl
    .
[download]

$ /usr/local/bin/perl5.8.8 -V
Summary of my perl5 (revision 5 version 8 subversion 8) configuration:
  Platform:
    osname=linux, osvers=2.6.12-9-386, archname=i686-linux
    uname='linux ubuntu 2.6.12-9-386 #1 mon oct 10 13:14:36 bst 2005 i
+686 gnulinux '    config_args='-de -Dprefix=/usr/local -Doptimize=-O3
+ -march=i686 -mtune=pentium4 -pipe'
    hint=recommended, useposix=true, d_sigaction=define
    usethreads=undef use5005threads=undef useithreads=undef usemultipl
+icity=undef
    useperlio=define d_sfio=undef uselargefiles=define usesocks=undef
    use64bitint=undef use64bitall=undef uselongdouble=undef
    usemymalloc=n, bincompat5005=undef
  Compiler:
    cc='cc', ccflags ='-fno-strict-aliasing -pipe -Wdeclaration-after-
+statement -I/usr/local/include -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BIT
+S=64',
    optimize='-O3 -march=i686 -mtune=pentium4 -pipe',
    cppflags='-fno-strict-aliasing -pipe -Wdeclaration-after-statement
+ -I/usr/local/include'
    ccversion='', gccversion='4.0.2 20050808 (prerelease) (Ubuntu 4.0.
+1-4ubuntu9)', gccosandvers=''
    intsize=4, longsize=4, ptrsize=4, doublesize=8, byteorder=1234
    d_longlong=define, longlongsize=8, d_longdbl=define, longdblsize=1
+2
    ivtype='long', ivsize=4, nvtype='double', nvsize=8, Off_t='off_t',
+ lseeksize=8
    alignbytes=4, prototype=define
  Linker and Libraries:
    ld='cc', ldflags =' -L/usr/local/lib'
    libpth=/usr/local/lib /lib /usr/lib
    libs=-lnsl -ldl -lm -lcrypt -lutil -lc
    perllibs=-lnsl -ldl -lm -lcrypt -lutil -lc
    libc=/lib/libc-2.3.5.so, so=so, useshrplib=false, libperl=libperl.
+a
    gnulibc_version='2.3.5'
  Dynamic Linking:
    dlsrc=dl_dlopen.xs, dlext=so, d_dlsymun=undef, ccdlflags='-Wl,-E'
    cccdlflags='-fpic', lddlflags='-shared -L/usr/local/lib'


Characteristics of this binary (from libperl):
  Compile-time options: PERL_MALLOC_WRAP USE_LARGE_FILES USE_PERLIO
  Built under linux
  Compiled at Sep 13 2006 16:24:23
  %ENV:
    PERL5LIB="/home/jimk/lib/perl:/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8
+/i686-linux/"
  @INC:
    /home/jimk/lib/perl
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8/i686-linux/
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i686-linux
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.8.8
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8/i686-linux
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl
    .
[download]

Could that be the source of the problem?