Proposed patch to perl for f8 - remove Requires on perl-devel

[Jose Pedro Oliveira]

Jan Pazdziora wrote:
> On Sat, Jun 02, 2007 at 04:14:15PM +0100, Jose Pedro Oliveira wrote:
>>> This patch will remove the Requires that were placed on perl-devel at
>>> the end of the f7 cycle.  It is proposed for the 'devel' branch (f8).
>>> Comments?
>> If that breaks the assumption that all perl core modules are installed
>> by default, I am against (and you already know the reasons).
> 
> Will the net effect be that the core modules will not be installed, or 

Several core modules - CPAN, ExtUtils::MakeMaker, Test::* - wouldn't
be installed and that would make life miserable for some people.
A couple of examples:

* users wouldn't be able to install perl modules in their homedirs
  as CPAN/ExtUtils::MakeMaker/Test::* aren't there.  This is particular
  critical in computer labs (at least here).

* people that has to maintain/install perl applications in heterogeneous
  systems (several linux distros, macosx, win32, ...) wouldn't
  be able to run their installations scripts, run test code, etc.
  (again in some systems you don't have access to the
  root/system account).

* all perl specfiles would have to be modified/reviewed in order to
  start adding the splitted perl core modules to their build
  requirements list (a big waste of packagers time).

> just the fact that they get installed via independent rpm (and thus 
> upgradable independently)?
> 

Several perl core modules have already been splitted. As you can see
the current perl specfile already generates the following rpms:

  perl-5.8.8-18.fc7.i386.rpm
  perl-CPAN-1.76_02-18.fc7.i386.rpm
  perl-devel-5.8.8-18.fc7.i386.rpm
  perl-ExtUtils-Embed-1.26-18.fc7.i386.rpm
  perl-ExtUtils-MakeMaker-6.30-18.fc7.i386.rpm
  perl-libs-5.8.8-18.fc7.i386.rpm
  perl-suidperl-5.8.8-18.fc7.i386.rpm
  perl-Test-Harness-2.56-18.fc7.i386.rpm
  perl-Test-Simple-0.62-18.fc7.i386.rpm

The splitted core modules should be independently upgradable.

jpo

-- 
José Pedro Oliveira
* mailto:jpo at di.uminho.pt * http://gsd.di.uminho.pt/members/jpo/ *