How to use a new version of a module?

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

Hi,

I'm using a shared Freebsd server and it has an older version (3x) of CGI::Session installed. I'm using the newer 4.38 on my computer running XP and my scripts work. I needed to make quite a bit of changes to get them to work on the older CGI::Session version - in particular, this version doesn't support "load" and is quite a pain.

Can I simply copy the entire folder that contains CGI::Session (and its related files) from my computer to a folder on the shared server? Or must I install it from the server itself?

And after it's installed, how do I access the newer version? At this point, I know I've to add:

# Assumeing the folder containing CGI::Session is installed in '/usr/h
+ome/mysite/modules/site/CGI/'
use lib '/usr/home/mysite/modules';
use CGI::Session;
[download]

Does "use CGI::Session" call the older version installed by the hosting company or does it call the newer one I've installed?

Please enlighten me.

Thanks in advance :)

Comment on How to use a new version of a module? Download Code

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Re: How to use a new version of a module? by friedo (Prior) on Dec 25, 2008 at 09:46 UTC
`use lib` will prepend the directory you specify onto the beginning of `@INC`, so the Perl interpreter will look there first. I don't think CGI::Session has any compiled portions (but don't take my word for it) so copying the module to your local directory on the server should work fine.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: How to use a new version of a module? by wfsp (Abbot) on Dec 25, 2008 at 11:08 UTC
I've had similar problems with CGI::Session. Newer versions use Scalar::Util::refaddr. Older version of S::U won't have refaddr. S::Util is not pure Perl you can't just copy it to a local lib. Either ask the hoster to upgrade C::S (which will in turn upgrade S::U) or use the same version of C::S on your local m/c that the hoster has. Good luck!	[reply]
Re: How to use a new version of a module? by Anonymous Monk on Dec 25, 2008 at 11:37 UTC
Hi friedo, Thanks to your enlightenment! I tried it again and finally got it to work. The first time, I missed out one folder name. I had "/usr/home/mysite/site/Session/". It should have been ""/usr/home/mysite/site/CGI/Session/". I discovered it after I went back to try again with your assurance. I recopied the entire folder containing CGI::Session (and its related files) to the server. I needed these lines in my scripts: `use lib '/usr/home/mysite/modules'; use site::CGI::Session;` [download] I had to append "site::" to "CGI::Session". So now everything is working as expected, well, almost. In a few places I added the line below: `$session->flush();` [download] Otherwise, the session data doesn't get stored the way it does on my local computer. To wfsp: Yes, it is quite confusing. I spent a long time getting it to work. Most tutorials or forum help I read about give the syntax CGI::Session->load('driver:File', undef, {Directory=>"/sessions"}). But "load" wouldn't work with anything below CGI::Session 4x (which I read about somewhere but I can't find the source).	[reply] [d/l] [select]