Perl Programming Language :: can perl modules be used by various versions of perl?


	can perl modules be used by various versions of perl? Hello - I have an application that will move between two machines. It will normally run on the first machine; if the machine or the application fails, the application and the directory structure that contains it will move to the second machine. In the application I use several PERL modules. I have an installation of PERL on each machine, and at the moment, both installations are version 5.8.8. My worry is that, if at some point the PERL versions inadvertently get out of sync, the PERL modules will stop functioning correctly, because the PERL modules only work with one version of PERL. So my question is 'what is the relation between a PERL module and the PERL it was compiled with?'. Is there a wide range of PERL versions a particular module will work with? or is the PERL module limited to working only with the PERL in whose library it is found? I can't find any documentation that states how this works, probably because the answer is so obvious. But not to me. Any help would be appreciated; Garey Mills In article <1180113194.098789.213@b40g2000prd.googlegroups.com>, garey <garey.mi@gmail.com> wrote: > So my question is 'what is the relation between a PERL module and > the PERL it was compiled with?'. It depends on the module. Pure Perl modules might not have a problem, although syntax varies in minor versions as new features are added. Modules that relied on compiled components (e.g. XS, SWIG, etc) are probably okay on different machines running the same versions of everything (including the same operatiing system) that were compiled in the same way. Perl's within a minor version release (5.8.6, 5.8.8) should be okay. Other than that, I would expect and plan on things not being compatible. -- Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com - Hide quoted text - garey wrote: > Hello - > I have an application that will move between two machines. It > will normally run on the first machine; if the machine or the > application fails, the application and the directory structure that > contains it will move to the second machine. > In the application I use several PERL modules. I have an > installation of PERL on each machine, and at the moment, both > installations are version 5.8.8. > My worry is that, if at some point the PERL versions > inadvertently get out of sync, the PERL modules will stop functioning > correctly, because the PERL modules only work with one version of > PERL. > So my question is 'what is the relation between a PERL module and > the PERL it was compiled with?'. Is there a wide range of PERL > versions a particular module will work with? or is the PERL module > limited to working only with the PERL in whose library it is found? > I can't find any documentation that states how this works, > probably because the answer is so obvious. But not to me. > Any help would be appreciated; > Garey Mills Perl isn't compiled per-se (well not in the way that python is to a .pyc or java to a .class). It is pseudo-compiled to perl bytecode upon every invocation of the script[1]. As to version, with a little care it's not hard to have perl script that is good for 5.6.1 through 5.8.8. You get some funnies like 5.6 doesn't like: use constant { foo => 'bar', bar => 'foo', }; when it's OK for some later version, but: use constant foo => 'bar'; use constant bar => 'foo'; is find on both. Perl has a pretty good record on compatibility. When I was working at Imperial College London, we had scripts that ran off NFS mounts that worked fine across random perl versions on Linux and Solaris covering 5.6.x to 5.8.6. XS modules may be more delicate, but not too dire. This is why sysadmins tend to like perl: CPAN + a certain degree of constancy makes for a reliable and useful language. HTH Tim [1] Perl d00dz are probably going to say: what about B::Bytecode? Don't care, sysadmins don't usually try that trick ;-> garey wrote: > So my question is 'what is the relation between a PERL module and > the PERL it was compiled with?'. Is there a wide range of PERL > versions a particular module will work with? or is the PERL module > limited to working only with the PERL in whose library it is found? For the most part, newer versions of Perl are upward-compatible - the new version runs the old code just fine. Possible exceptions are binary modules. When a new major version comes out (such as going from 5.6.x to 5.8.x), modules written in C (or other language that creates a .so file) might not work until re-compiled for the new version. Take a look at the output from find /usr/lib/perl5 -name '.so' -print to see if any of the modules you're currently using fit into that category. -Joe