managing multiple perls with gui apps and fink

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Sergej Zoubok - 16 Jul 2004 14:08 GMT

Hi folks,

Despite running 10.3.4 (with perl 5.8.1-RC3), I'm still using perl
5.8.0, which I installed in /usr/local/bin long before I upgraded to
Panther. I have a couple of configuration questions about managing
the two versions (and no time to re-install dozens of modules against
5.8.1 to dump the older version).

1. how can I get applications (specifically BBEdit's perl support) to
use 5.8 rather than the stock 5.8.1? I know that gui apps run in a
different environment from the terminal (bash shell) and that the
solution has been mentioned before. I just can't seem to lay my hands
on it.

2. I've also just installed Fink (excellent!). In experimenting with
it, I installed Template Toolkit. It seems that it installed it again
5.8.1 despite my use of the older perl for the fink installation. I
would have thought that fink would use the perl that comes first in
my path, but apparently not. I've scoured the fink site but find a
solution. fink.conf does not include a perl path setting. With the
all the fink users/advocate on this list I'm hoping this is an easy
one!

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

Best,
Sergej

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Sherm Pendley - 16 Jul 2004 14:34 GMT

> 1. how can I get applications (specifically BBEdit's perl support) to
> use 5.8 rather than the stock 5.8.1? I know that gui apps run in a
> different environment from the terminal (bash shell) and that the
> solution has been mentioned before. I just can't seem to lay my hands
> on it.

Just write your script with a #! line that points to the Perl you want
it to use. #!/usr/bin/perl, #!/usr/local/bin/perl, #!/usr/bin/perl581,
whatever.

> 2. I've also just installed Fink (excellent!). In experimenting with
> it, I installed Template Toolkit. It seems that it installed it again
> 5.8.1 despite my use of the older perl for the fink installation. I
> would have thought that fink would use the perl that comes first in my
> path, but apparently not.

You're giving Fink far too much credit there. It simply copies the
files in the packages - it doesn't examine your environment or do a
proper module installation. If you're not using the stock Perl, Fink is
useless when it comes to Perl modules. (Even if you are using the stock
Perl, Fink is still damn near useless for modules...)

> I've scoured the fink site but find a solution. fink.conf does not
> include a perl path setting. With the all the fink users/advocate on
> this list I'm hoping this is an easy one!

Best solution: Don't use Fink to install Perl modules. Use Perl to
install Perl modules. The install procedure is well documented in
'perldoc perlmodinstall' and many books and tutorials, and lots of
folks here can help you if you get stuck.

sherm--

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Ken Williams - 18 Jul 2004 04:20 GMT

>> 2. I've also just installed Fink (excellent!). In experimenting with
>> it, I installed Template Toolkit. It seems that it installed it again
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> is useless when it comes to Perl modules. (Even if you are using the
> stock Perl, Fink is still damn near useless for modules...)

I don't think that's true - fink downloads source and compiles packages
itself, after perhaps making some OS-X-specific patches. If you want
to install binary packages, you use apt-get or dselect, not fink
(apt-get and dselect are installed as part of the fink system).

Also, fink can function with several alternative types of perl
installation:

perl560 5.6.0-14 Practical extraction and report
language, v. 5.6.0
perl560-core 5.6.0-14 Core files for perl, v. 5.6.0
perl581-core [virtual package]
i system-perl 5.8.1-1 [virtual package representing perl]
system-perl581 [virtual package]

The "i" in the first column means that's the package I currently have
installed, so fink knows I'm using the perl that shipped with Panther.

That said, I generally install perl modules without using fink, unless
it's some horribly complicated process (PDL used to be this way, though
I haven't tried it in a while) that I'd rather have automated.

-Ken

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Mac Forum / Programming / Perl / July 2004

managing multiple perls with gui apps and fink