perl's compiled-in @INC path searches directories named after the complete version number of the perl binary -- for example, /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.0. Why is the full version number included? I thought multi-part version numbers were used so that you could promise API compatibility across the leading portion. But if that's the case, then why force modules to be installed under a particular patchlevel?

This is partly worked around by making newer minor versions of perl search through all of the older minor versions belonging to the same major version. But that still means that if you install a later version, then every module from that point on will install itself into that later version's directory. Which is a problem if you want to roll back the version of perl you're using.

Where I run into the problem is when I keep my development box more up to date than my production boxes. I build RPMs of modules that I want to release to the production boxes. But because I am running a later version of perl, those RPMs end up getting installed into directories that won't be searched on the production boxes. I am very tempted to recompile the perl that I run on production machines so that it will search eg /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8 or even /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5, and then figure out how to coerce MakeMaker to install things into those directories during my RPM build process. But it feels like I'd be fighting with something that's probably had a lot of thought put into it.

Anyone have advice or experience with this?

In reply to Version-independent installation directories by sfink

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.