http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=753487


in reply to What is the best way to install CPAN modules on Debian?

4. Use CentOS/RHEL

I'm not trying to be cheeky - I realize it won't be possible for people to just replace a Debian/Ubuntu server at their company.

Using CentOS and RH systems since 2005, though, I have not encountered any of these problems - being a sysadmin - I mix system Perl, CPAN, dag/apt modules all over the place and they all seem to get along fine.. these are mostly all Perl 5.8.8 BTW, so that will probably make a difference as well as Debian's kernels and libs are more recent which might be having some impact on what problems people are seeing in this regard..

Then again I may not have many modules installed where the XS dependency is critical - what are some of those? (so I can test.. thanks..)

FreeBSD removed Perl from the base system requirements and moved it to ports a while ago ... smart.

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Re^2: What is the best way to install CPAN modules on Debian?
by telemachus (Friar) on Mar 26, 2009 at 22:05 UTC

    I'm sorry, and I'm not trying to be difficult either, but Red Hat & Cent are not the poster children for ideal Perl operating systems.

    Then again, neither is Mac OS X. This sort of thing is why I prefer to build my own. At least that way, I know where to find the idiot who screwed things up.

      Hm, that bug was addressed, at least on CentOS 5.2 by Karabir Singh and RH released a fix too - 18 months ago... I saw that blog when it originally came out.

      I just want to emphasize that I (emphasis on "I") have not seen the module compatibility problems mentioned in ELISHEVA's original post here, since 2005 and Centos4.4 ..

        Hm, that bug was addressed, at least on CentOS 5.2 by Karabir Singh and RH released a fix too - 18 months ago... I saw that blog when it originally came out.

        Absolutely: CentOS, Red Hat and company made the necessary fixes (after a blogger raised hell). But my point is that the fixes for the Perl problem were available in November 2007, and the fix only made it into these distros in August 2008 (or later). That's not good enough, and that's why I don't like being dependent on a vendor's Perl.

        I'm not even picking on Red Hat per se - feel free to mention Debian and ssh keys, if you like. I just feel that if I have to do a lot of work with Perl (or Ruby or what-have-you), I want the control of compiling my own. As an added bonus, in my experience, a local Perl plus a very simple cron job involving CPAN::Mini has made my life with modules entirely pain free.

Re^2: What is the best way to install CPAN modules on Debian?
by doom (Deacon) on Mar 30, 2009 at 18:46 UTC

    Using CentOS and RH systems since 2005, though, I have not encountered any of these problems - being a sysadmin - I mix system Perl, CPAN, dag/apt modules all over the place and they all seem to get along fine..
    And I do the same on my Debian and Ubuntu boxes. You really can just ignore this issue and you'll most likely be fine... but there are odd cases where you might be burned which you (and I) haven't run into yet.

    It really is unlikely that CentOS/RH have some magic solution to these problems (after all, the usual state of affairs is for RH to imitate Debian five years later...).