Cpanel Perl install overwrote CentOS Perl RPM?

[dicen]

My ISP says that the new Perl 5.8.7 version at /usr/bin/perl and /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.7 came from the Cpanel installation.

rpm -qa shows
perl-5.8.5-36.RHEL4

So does Cpanel overwrite the OS Perl RPM package? What happens when the RPM gets upgraded? Any way to tell Cpanel to use /usr/local/perl or something? And/Or, to let me just do the upgrades manually? I would love to try a dynamic perl compile to see if I can lower memory usage.

Thanks...

dicen

[freedman]

My ISP says that the new Perl 5.8.7 version at /usr/bin/perl and /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.7 came from the Cpanel installation.

rpm -qa shows
perl-5.8.5-36.RHEL4

So does Cpanel overwrite the OS Perl RPM package? What happens when the RPM gets upgraded? Any way to tell Cpanel to use /usr/local/perl or something? And/Or, to let me just do the upgrades manually? I would love to try a dynamic perl compile to see if I can lower memory usage.

Thanks...

dicen

cpanel overrides your version of perl because cpanel is certified to work against specific perl versions... they override the version you might have installed to insure that they can understand any bugs you report.... if you're running a different version they wouldnt' know if the bug is related to the other version or to something they've done.

This makes sense, but it's frustrating since we then have to wait for them to find it important enough to do testing on new versions of stuff.

as for perl.. you should, for safe measure update all your cpan addons:

> cpan
upgrade

try to do this during a low volume period on yoru server.. it requires some user involvement and can take a while.

[dicen]

cpanel overrides your version of perl because cpanel is certified to work against specific perl versions... they override the version you might have installed to insure that they can understand any bugs you report.... if you're running a different version they wouldnt' know if the bug is related to the other version or to something they've done.

This makes sense, but it's frustrating since we then have to wait for them to find it important enough to do testing on new versions of stuff.

as for perl.. you should, for safe measure update all your cpan addons:

> cpan
upgrade

try to do this during a low volume period on yoru server.. it requires some user involvement and can take a while.

Thanks for the help but that much I understand. What I don't understand is why the Perl RPM package that comes with CentOS was overwritten. If Cpanel needs its own Perl that is fine. But, it should never overwrite an OS RPM package. If I upgrade the RPM Perl package it will then overwrite the Cpanel Perl installation. Cpanel already contains Perl libraries at /usr/local/cpanel/perl for its compiled perl code. It might as well put an entire Perl installation in /usr/local/cpanel as well. Then just make a link from /usr/bin/perl and /usr/local/bin/perl to that location. Or, just use it directly.

It would also be good if Cpanel would use the same dynamically compiled Perl installation for its compiled Perl code and Perl scripts. That way the Perl shared library would be shared between them and lower memory usage. Right now the Cpanel Perl libraries use memory and the /usr/bin/perl installation uses memory. On a 256MB VPS this is significant.

dicen

[freedman]

It would also be good if Cpanel would use the same dynamically compiled Perl installation for its compiled Perl code and Perl scripts. That way the Perl shared library would be shared between them and lower memory usage. Right now the Cpanel Perl libraries use memory and the /usr/bin/perl installation uses memory. On a 256MB VPS this is significant.

dicen

I dont disagree with you.. I think if they require specialized versions of things for specific puposes, those hsould be distinct from a 'general distribution'

check if perl* is in your /etc/yum.conf exclude line.
it's not in mine.. I kept taking it out and cpanel kept putting it back in, but it seems they've stopped that.

I think it's the differnce between a Control Panel and a WebHostManager.


the WHM theory is generally to assume that someone needs a webhost manager because they aren't comfortable manging their own host... this is probably true for most cpanel customers... people buy cheap servers, throw on cpanel and they're instantly a hosting reseller.. however, for the select small percentage of their customers who know about systems management it becomes frustrating to have these restrictions.

I'm sure, however, it makes life easier for most and reduces trouble tickets for cpanel.