Rebuild all ports for perl minor version update?

[Jerry]

On Fri, 14 Jun 2013 12:10:17 +0200
Baptiste Daroussin articulated:

> On Fri, Jun 14, 2013 at 05:49:41AM -0400, Jerry wrote:
> > On Fri, 14 Jun 2013 10:18:31 +0200
> > John Marino articulated:
> > 
> > > According to OpenBSD's Marc Espie on a pkgsrc list, a lot of
> > > established scripts will break on perl 5.18.  Apparently it is not
> > > highly backwards compatible.
> > > 
> > > A large % of the perl packages would cease to build if they just
> > > moved to 5.18.  A minor upgrade is definitely better.
> > 
> > So what does that mean for the future of Perl-5.18 & FreeBSD? I
> > haven't seen any unusual chatter in other forums for other OSs
> > regarding a problem with Perl-5.18. Hell, even SlashDot has not had
> > any negative chatter that I am aware of and they are always the
> > first to jump on any software problem, real or imaginary. Is this a
> > FreeBSD "specific" problem and if so, what is being done to
> > eradicate it?
> 
> This is not a FreeBSD "specific" problem given that Marc Espie is
> from OpenBSD and so was speaking of problems found on OpenBSD. using
> google I found the said mail quite quickly:
> http://mail-index.netbsd.org/tech-pkg/2013/06/03/msg011435.html
> 
> Where Marc gives example of changes in perl 5.18 that can lead to
> breakage.

Just so I am understanding this correctly, the problem is not with
Perl-5.18, but rather applications that were written for earlier
versions that may not have in fact been written in tight compliance
with the specifications of the earlier versions and those problems seem
to reside on *BSD platforms more readily than other OSs. Is that a fair
statement?

In my opinion, rather than just issuing a blanket embargo of the newer
version, I would think that issuing a warning of its potential
problems, (and I do stress the use of POTENTIAL as opposed to
GUARANTEED ramifications) to be a more suitable solution to the
situation. Users would be free to make their own decisions. Unless the
intent is to lock *.BSD into versions < 5.18 ad infinitum, at some
point the action must be taken anyway.

-- 
Jerry ♔

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