How to tell PostgreSQL to use other Perl-Version? - perl

Im working on a Ubuntu 14.04 64bit machine.
I need to use Perl 5.14 to work with certain modules which wont install with the newest version of perl (5.18). My postgresql-9.3 server needs to install perl 5.18 while installing postgres-plperl.
Therefore i want to tell Postgres to use the 5.14 version but i havent found a way to do that.
Is there a way to do that?

You must recompile the plperl extension against 5.14 if you really need this. PostgreSQL links against Perl as a library, and Perl libraries aren't ABI-compatible across releases, so you can't just substitute 5.14 for 5.18 at runtime.
You can change the Perl version used by performing an install of PostgreSQL from source and specifying the correct Perl install path to configure using --with-perl or the PATH env var.
Or you can apt-get source postgresql-9.3 and edit debian/rules to use the desired Perl, edit debian/control to specify the correct Perl dependency, and rebuild the package.
It makes a lot more sense to instead fix the modules.

Related

In-place Perl upgrade from source

Is there a standard way to upgrade to a new, minor version (and binary compatible) of Perl without a full recompile from source?
For example, if I have Perl v5.24.0 installed with a bunch of CPAN modules, can I upgrade this installation to v5.24.1 without recompiling a whole new build and doing the same for all of the CPAN modules installed under v5.24.0? Or do I have to create a list of all installed CPAN modules, compile a new Perl, and reinstall those CPAN modules using the newly compiled version?
I'm not seeing an easy way to "patch" the current system, using the source code from the latest release. (Note: I'm wondering if there is a native way to do this (i.e., not using perlbrew)).
if I have Perl v5.24.0 installed with a bunch of CPAN modules, can I upgrade this installation to v5.24.1 without recompiling a whole new build
As far as I know, no. You have to configure/compile/install the new perl from scratch.
and doing the same for all of the CPAN modules installed under v5.24.0?
Yes: Configure asks you about existing perl versions and whether it should include their directories in #INC. If you say yes (which I believe is the default), all already installed modules are available in your new perl.
That said:
Or do I have to create a list of all installed CPAN modules
This is easy with cpan -a:
$ cpan -a
... lots of modules listed here ...
Wrote bundle file
/home/user/.cpan/Bundle/Snapshot_2017_04_25_00.pm
and reinstall those CPAN modules using the newly compiled version?
After installing the new Perl, run
$ cpan Bundle::Snapshot_2017_04_25_00
(or whatever name cpan -a gave the snapshot file in the previous step) and it should install everything you had before.
If you are using perlbrew it has an 'upgrade-perl' command. The downside is that the initial configure parameters still aren't passed to the newly built version.
See also http://www.modernperlbooks.com/mt/2013/03/upgrade-in-place-with-perlbrew.html

perl installation directory specification

I have perl 5.10.1 on my server but I need a higher version of perl than that. I do not have privileges to modify this version so I installed the latest one on my home directory. How do I specify unix to preferentially use the newer version?
The simplest answer is to use perlbrew. This is a tool to install and manage multiple Perl installations in your home directory. You can switch between which one is active.
Follow the instructions on their page to install perlbrew, and then install the latest stable Perl with...
perlbrew install stable
Then tell perlbrew that's the Perl you want to use with...
perlbrew switch stable
If you want to install more modules, use cpanm to install modules to the currently active perl.
cpanm Acme::Pony
If you don't want to use perlbrew, you need to mess with your PATH environment variable. This is a list of directories your shell will search through when finding a program to run. You'd need to put /path/to/where/you/installed/perl/bin at the front. More on this in this article.
I highly recommend you use perlbrew. It takes care of all this for you.

install different version of perl module using perl brew

we are using perlbrew for maintaining the various version of perl.
Along , now we are facing challenges as we need to update the scripts to the latest CPAN module. But we want still some the script to keep make use of old perl module till the compatibility issue is resolved.
Is there any away to install the lastest version of module with impacting the older version
perlbrew keeps each version separate, include its CPAN modules. If you run:
perl -E'say for #INC'
you will see the Perl version in the paths. If you switch the Perl, you will see different paths for #INC.
You can still use PERL5LIB with perlbrew-installed perl. But since you're already using perlbrew, why not just install a second build of that version of Perl for use with your newer scripts? Upgrading modules for one perl install won't affect others.
In some environments, Carton maybe the tool you are looking for. It requires a cpanfile where the dependencies are specified, so each script should be handled as an independent application in order to isolate each of them

Can I have the newest version of perl together with olde

I have on UNIX SunOS 5.9 Generic_122300-61 sun4u sparc SUNW,Sun-Fire-V240 perl v5.6.1, but I want to install the newest version.
Can I install the newest version and have it together with oldest but on different directories?
But my questions is :
now I have perl home on /bin/perl.
The newest perl version will be on different home directory? And also cpan and modules, are they going to be installed?
Since you are on Solaris, don't mess with the Perl that comes with the operating system. It's used by the OS itself, and if you change it things can get weird.
That said, you can absolutely install other Perl versions in parallel with it. If you're compiling manually, all you need to do is to give the flag -Dprefix=/some/nice/directory to the Configure script. Once it's compiled and installed, you only need to put /some/nice/directory/bin earlier in your PATH than /usr/bin.
If you want a system-wide installation of a newer Perl, I'd suggest picking the latest version (currently 5.20.0, but 5.20.1 is at RC2 so it should be out soon) and installing it in /usr/local. If you want a newer Perl for your own personal use, I'd strongly suggest making sure you have enough of an environment that Perl can be compiled, and then install and use perlbrew (http://perlbrew.pl/).

Why can't I find Perl modules after upgrading to Intrepid Ibex Ubuntu?

I upgraded to Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex yesterday and suddenly some of the Perl modules that I installed (on the Hardy Heron) have all gone missing!
I get the usual "Can't locate module in #INC" error. Has any of the CPAN repositories changed or something for Intrepid? Google doesn't help at all.
Thanks in advance.
The standard solution is to generate an "autobundle" with CPAN.pm before upgrading Perl. A search for autobundle yields links to a handful of existing SO questions discussing Perl module management and several that look like they should provide more information. The CPAN.pm manual touches on autobundle, but doesn't include much detail.
Since you've already upgraded Perl, one solution for installing your modules would be to generate an autobundle file and use the entries in the generated file as a guide to write a custom autobundle file with entries for your modules (only). The autobundle file format is just POD, so this should be easy to do.
In the future you should probably make it a habit to generate an autobundle before upgrading Perl. This is not a perfect solution, the autobundle will include entries for core modules that will have to be removed before actually building from it, but at least you'll have a snapshot of installed Perl modules so that you can get your Perl install fixed up after an upgrade.
Your Perl installation has changed from version 5.8 to 5.10. Since many of the modules you want are in perl-version-specific directories, you may want to re-install using the CPAN tools (e.g. the cpan command).
But since you're using Ubuntu, please keep in mind that many many CPAN libraries are also distributed through the Ubuntu package manager, and the CPAN packages install into a different place than Ubuntu installs them (this is transparent to the user, since both are in the #INC paths).
I recommend using the Ubuntu packages when they're available, because they will be updated by the package manager (APT) when new ones are released on the central package servers. The name format is slightly different. Here are two ways to install the same package, from different sources:
$ cpan List::MoreUtils # installs latest from CPAN
$ sudo apt-get install liblist-moreutils-perl # installs latest from Ubuntu universe
the advantage of the latter is that it will be updated by sudo apt-get update.
Perl changed on Intrepid.
Before upgrading, you had Perl 5.8, now you have 5.10.
Probably /usr/lib/perl5/5.10.* is used instead of /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8 since the Perl version has changed