Copying the Strawberry perl.exe

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

We've been asked to "standardize" our strawberry perl path (make it the same as activestate, "c:\perl64\perl.exe"). The ugly part of this is that moving the contents of c:\strawberry\ one directory higher results in c:\win32 c:\cpan c:\licences and other undesirables.

One option would to simple copy perl.exe to c:\perl64\ as well as leaving it in the normal strawberry directory. A concern is that we will break any scripts using $^X to find prove, wperl.exe or anything else out of the bin directory. Who does this anyway? Does anyone have any other ideas what might go bang if we do this?

We're also weighing up other options: recompiling perl, using a junction, and copying everything from the bin directory

- Boldra

Comment on Copying the Strawberry perl.exe

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Copying the Strawberry perl.exe by GrandFather (Saint) on Jul 04, 2011 at 11:24 UTC
I'm surprised that ActiveState's 64 bit perl.exe is in c:\perl64. I'd expect to find it in c:\perl64\bin in similar fashion to the 32 bit install. Are you sure someone didn't change the default install path for the ActiveState Perl? The default Strawberry layout you imply seems rather like the default ActiveState layout in fact, at least for 32 bit versions of Perl. True laziness is hard work	[reply]
Re^2: Copying the Strawberry perl.exe by Boldra (Curate) on Jul 04, 2011 at 11:33 UTC
You're right, the path being asked of us is not a standard in any meaningful way. This is part of the reason I want to be able to say "That won't work". Currently everything works when I copy the perl.exe, but I don't like that! - Boldra	[reply]
Re: Copying the Strawberry perl.exe by Corion (Patriarch) on Jul 04, 2011 at 11:07 UTC
Copying the `perl.exe` alone will not work, as it won't find the installed libraries that way. What you can do is copy/move the `perl` of Strawberry to `c:\perl64</p>. At least my ActiveState (5.12.x) lives under <c>C:\Program Files\Perl`, having `bin/` and `lib` as subdirectories there, and if your "standard" Perl in `c:\Perl64` doesn't have these subdirectories, your "standard" is not really existent outside of your organization `:)`	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Copying the Strawberry perl.exe by Boldra (Curate) on Jul 04, 2011 at 11:15 UTC
perl.exe does continue to work after we copied it, although I don't know how. It even finds libraries in site/lib. I `strings`d the exe, but found no path. Maybe it's finding a dll from the `PATH` somewhere which contains the rest of the config? Yes "standard" here is just what someone said it is. - Boldra	[reply]
Re^3: Copying the Strawberry perl.exe by Corion (Patriarch) on Jul 04, 2011 at 11:18 UTC
`Perl.exe` usually loads `perl512.dll`, which contains the core of Perl. I believe that all other directories are (on Windows) determined relative to `perl512.dll`. So either the "correct" `perl*.dll` is loaded from the appropriate directory, or you have the appropriate `PERL5INC` set up to make this work. Just copying the `perl.exe` around shouldn't work.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^4: Copying the Strawberry perl.exe by davies (Monsignor) on Jul 04, 2011 at 11:37 UTC
Re: Copying the Strawberry perl.exe by syphilis (Archbishop) on Jul 04, 2011 at 12:09 UTC
We've been asked to "standardize" our strawberry perl path Does grabbing a portable or zip build of Strawberry Perl (which can be put wherever you like) help with this ? Cheers, Rob	[reply]
Re^2: Copying the Strawberry perl.exe by Boldra (Curate) on Jul 04, 2011 at 14:50 UTC
That doesn't really help, because what we really want is perl in `c:\our\favourite\path\perl.exe` and another faction want to use `c:\what\they\think\is\standard\perl.exe`. We also want to avoid installing perl twice. Actually we're pretty flexible about `our\favourite\path`, but `what\they\think\is\standard` is just abominable. Oh, and we're not talking about one single machine, rather hundreds. - Boldra	[reply]
Re^3: Copying the Strawberry perl.exe by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Jul 04, 2011 at 15:38 UTC
The only way to resolve that is with junction.exe. Use the distribution syphilis pointed to and install it in one of the paths and then set up a junction to map that to the other path. Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error. "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority". In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.	[reply]