[HEADS UP] perl symlinks in /usr/bin will be gone

[Lars Erik Gullerud]

On Sat, 29 Jan 2005, Anton Berezin wrote:

> Unless I hear too many cries "don't do that" (with justification), I
> plan to not create any perl symlinks in /usr/bin in the forthcoming
> upgrade of both lang/perl5.8 (to 5.8.6) and lang/perl5 (to 5.6.2).  This
> will ONLY be true for FreeBSD 5.X and FreeBSD CURRENT;  the existing
> pollution of /usr/bin will still be performed for older versions of
> FreeBSD, if requested via use.perl script.
>
> In practical terms this will mean a one-time sweep of your scripts in
> order to convert them, in a typical case, from #! /usr/bin/perl to
> #! /usr/local/bin/perl.

No, in practical terms this does not mean a one-time sweep at all. It 
means we now have to manually create this symlink on all machines 
instead. There is simply no realistic way to change all scripts to use 
/usr/local/bin/perl (and keep finding/replacing this for all new scripts 
users may install - they usually don't come from the ports collection) - 
while this may be doable on a single user's local workstation, it is just 
not doable in places like an ISP environment, and no doubt many others.

So then we'll be forced to create this symlink manually anyway, on all 
servers, probably for all eternity, and face the screaming users 
everytime someone forgets it on one. It also goes against what every 
other platform does with regards to perl, and it is IMHO a big POLA 
violation.

So please - "don't do that". :(

/leg