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

Hi All,

I've just bought a new machine for Linux (instead of my old Windows box - I can already hear your collective sigh of relief), and I'm pleasantly surprised to see it already has Perl on it.

Now, I probably want to install ActiveState Perl, Komodo and wxPerl on it too, so can I ask what you guys did? Did you install Perl over the existing path, or did you intall in a new directory.

What do you recommend?

Regards

Steve

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Strategy for Perl and wxPerl on Linux
by MarkovChain (Sexton) on Oct 16, 2009 at 19:03 UTC
    If I were you, I would install it separately so as to leave the "system" perl untouched. This leaves you free to experiment with various other perl distro's out there while having a soft link to the perl that you would like to use. All your programs can then reference the soft link. That way, if your underlying perl breaks up, you don't have to change your programs, just the link.
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      If I just add CPAN modules to the system distro, would that not be more efficent and avoid problems with 'paths' and things?

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Re: Strategy for Perl and wxPerl on Linux
by thunders (Priest) on Oct 16, 2009 at 19:21 UTC

    FWIW, I've installed both wxPerl and Komodo on several Linux system without installing Activestate's perl on it, without issue. Komodo generally detects the version of perl running on your system correctly. As for wx, if you are on a debian based system, that's as easy as:

    $ sudo apt-get install libwx-perl

    If you're on another flavor of linux there are RPMs of Wx or you can install from source with CPAN.

    Almost every disto I've worked with comes with perl installed. Often this is because they include system tools, cron jobs,or utilities that are written in perl, so definitely avoid blowing away the default perl.

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[d/l]

      So I guess that means you don't use PPM?

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        As you're using Kubuntu it seems logical to use its native utilities for managing packages - aptitude, apt, or synaptic. I think you should find them quite convenient, they allow you easy install a lot of different perl modules from repository. The advantage over ppm is that these utilities will automatically install additional binary libraries that required for some perl modules, e.g. if you're installing libwx-perl it will automatically install wx libraries. Upd: Note, that if you want to install from CPAN perl package Package::Name you should look for libpackage-name-perl package in Ubuntu repository. Also try apt-cache search package-name.

        As alternative you can use cpanp to install modules.

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[d/l]

        I did use PPM a while back when I did primarily win32 programming. But I've never used ActiveState's perl distro on Linux. Even on windows I've started using Strawberry Perl, as it comes with useful GNU toolchain for building XS modules

        I have used other AS programs in the past on Linux without isuue, like Komodo and KomodoEdit.

        On Ubuntu almost everything you'll need is available via apt-get, and for everything else there's CPAN.

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Re: Strategy for Perl and wxPerl on Linux
by gsiems (Deacon) on Oct 16, 2009 at 17:57 UTC

    Not wanting to mess up the system perl (as the system uses it), I installed to a new directory.

    Out of curiosity, why Active State? Which Linux distribution?

    --gsiems

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      I just feel that ActiveState is easy to install and update modules (PPM), the only thing I would say is that many modules are not on it, so I need to use CPAN 'makefile.PL' for those. Maybe it would be easier just to assume I need to use makefile.PL for everything.

      I'm using Kubuntu. I don't know how stable it is, but it seems OK. It did crash when I plugged in a Bluetooth card the first time - not quite plug and play, but seems to come with a huge variety of drivers. I've not had to install any drivers yet.

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        I haven't messed with *buntu in a while... IIRC they have a decent sized repository and may already have packages for the perl modules that you want. While it's been a long time since I last used Active State and PPM, I'm guessing that it doesn't have anything on apt-get or synaptic.

        FWIW, I've found that installing perl from source can be pretty easy... the biggest issue I had was getting the threading sorted (which is what prompted writing RFC: Installing perl on CentOS/RedHat)

        Also, cpanp is the treat for installing CPAN modules.

        Update - I should note that if you do install from source it's best to NOT install over the system supplied perl. It does mean tweaking your path but that's no big deal. Oh, and welcome to the land of Tux!

        --gsiems

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Re: Strategy for Perl and wxPerl on Linux
by BioLion (Curate) on Oct 16, 2009 at 17:43 UTC

    Don't think you want to install ActiveState Perl ( http://www.perl.com/download.csp ) as it is meant only for Windows. Not sure about wxPerl or Komodo.

    Just a something something...
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