Re^2: multi version perl

[space_monk]

You should not redirect /usr/bin/perl for the reasons explained above, but you CAN reasonably redirect /usr/local/bin/perl to your new version of Perl and put that as the path to Perl in the magic perl start line.

You should also arrange the path search for non-admin users to pick up the local perl instead of the system Perl.

e.g. in /etc/profile or similar
export PATH=/usr/local/bin;$PATH

You may need to add/change other environment variables as well (PERL5INC, PERL5LIBS..)

[salva]

You should also arrange the path search for non-admin users to pick up the local perl instead of the system Perl

Why?

I can see that would make sense in certain environments, but I don't see it as a general rule.

[Utilitarian]

Presumably because other users will be using the scripts written for the local Perl version. (Though given it's Ubuntu I'm betting against there being other users ;)

[space_monk]

Well IIRC /usr/local/bin will normally precede /usr/bin in the path search order for non-admin users anyway, so I'm not proposing anything radical here.

You should be encouraging users to use the installed perl as a default, not the system perl which should be only there to support existing admin tasks