The version of perl (or apache or mysql) that comes with the OS should be used solely by the OS. The reason RH still ships Perl 5.8.0 (patched heavily) with their OS is because their scripts work with 5.8.0 and upgrading may break that.

This is what quite a lot of people have been claiming in this thread thus far, and you're the last one in order, so I'm replying to you that I may well buy your argument; but then the OS should clearly say so, to the effect that the Perl installation should not be touched in any way, and probably not even be used but possibly as a fallback solution if no other perl is available: its perl executable should not even be in the path, since for installation scripts the precise indication in the shebang line would suffice.

As far as I'm concerned, I think that the System perl should be robust enough not to warrant any major problem, and offer a reliable working environment. But above all, if system initializations scripts depend on it, then they should be written well enough not to break for something as innocent as a module upgrade. Which is what that holds for quite about any other program: if I write one say to use 5.008; then it should be guaranteed to work with any perl version higher or equal than that one, shouldn't it?

--
If you can't understand the incipit, then please check the IPB Campaign.

In reply to Re^2: blaming perl for not using a build policy by blazar
in thread blaming perl for not using a build policy by trwww

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