Re: How to effectively update perl modules which are installed in my homedir

[sundialsvc4]

Start by reading the documentation for cpan, and its various configuration options.   Then, search here (and on Google) for “Perl as a non-root user.”

The best and safest way to build your own configuration, in my opinion, is to not attempt to “update” the Perl modules that are set up by your local configuration, but rather to use facilities like the PERL5LIB environment-variable and the use lib statement to “supersede” them.   You do this by arranging for CPAN to install modules into a directory of your choosing, then putting that directory ahead of the default dirs in the @INC list.   (Which you can examine by the command, perl -V (with a capital “V”).

There a couple of common situations where you would choose to do this.   One is when you’re running a Linux distro that uses Perl for its system-administration and package-installation tools:   you probably don’t want to disrupt those unless you want to learn a lot about Linux in a big hurry.   The other is when you’re running a Perl web-site at a shared hosting facility.   Not only is it impossible to update their system-wide libraries, but you don’t want to be in full control of what your (customer’s | employer’s) website actually uses and sees.