I'm using perlbrew right now to manage multiple versions of perl, but perlbrew is global. If I do perlbrew switch perl-5.10.1 in any shell, then all shells and scripts will now be using perl version 5.10.1. There is no isolation. Is there any way to make perlbrew switches local to a shell, or is there a similar tool capable of locally changing the active perl?
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A:
Just don't use perlbrew. All it's doing is changing symlinks for you. It's supposed to save you work, but when it's not, there's no longer a reason to use it.
I talk about how I do it in Make links to per-version tools in The Effective Perler. I always know which perl I'm using because I never have to remember which one I switched to last, and I don't disturb anything else expecting a particular version behind a symlink. You can still use perlbrew to install perls, but it's not saving you that much work there either.
brian d foy
2010-10-08 22:02:14
[Also discussed here](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/398221/how-do-you-manage-perl-modules-when-using-a-package-manager/398397#398397) in more detail.
Ether
2010-10-08 23:30:13
I know I can always install perl 5.10.1 as `perl5.10.1` in my path and then specify versions explicitly, but I guess that the behavior that I'm looking for is that `perl` runs a certain default version of perl. Then if I run `perlbrew switch` in one shell, then `perl` in that shell refers to the new version, but all other shells and programs continue to run the default perl. And ditto for the rest of the perl environment: modules, executables, manpages/perldocs. I suppose I'll have to learn how to use the Furlani Modules package that your article links to in order to get what I want.
Ryan Thompson
2010-10-09 01:05:19
I suggest just redefining what you want. It's less work. :)
brian d foy
2010-10-09 01:41:23
Actually it probably wouldn't be hard to give perlbrew the option to only affect a local shell environment -- since it already writes bashrc/cshrc files that means it can install shell aliases/functions. Write one that modifies PATH instead of switching symlinks and you're golden. I might give it a try.
hobbs
2010-10-09 01:55:55
Doing perlbrew with environment variables is more complicated than just messing with PATH, though. You would also have to change a few other environment variables (e.g. MANPATH to get correct documentation when you do `man Some::Module`).
Ryan Thompson
2010-10-09 02:19:28
@Ryan perlbrew doesn't do anything about those things now -- `man` doesn't find anything inside a perlbrew, for instance. All it does is put a directory into `PATH` and symlink things into that directory.
hobbs
2010-10-09 05:31:29
Does `perldoc` even use `MANPATH`?
Ether
2010-10-12 22:52:05