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

[Oliver Brandmueller]

Hello.

On Sat, Jan 29, 2005 at 09:24:25PM +0100, 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.
> 
> CORRECT perl-dependant ports should not be affected.
> 
> In order to keep pkg-install simple, no old symlink chasing and removal
> will be done, although the detailed instructions will be posted in
> ports/UPDATING and in pkg-message for the ports.

At least for -STABLE I see a big impact.

I see no useful gain in that step anyway; I would just have to create 
the link on tens of machines by hand.

If it turns out, that this will be the way to (which the discussion 
doesn't suggest), I would like to see something like this:

- Don't change the behaviour on -STABLE (4.x, 5.x), but make an OPTION
  available, that would turn on the "new" behaviour.

- For -CURRENT (6.x and beyond), if the change comes, make an OPTION
  available, to turn on the "old" behaviour.

Something like "make PERL_POLLUTES_BASE=yes install clean" would just be 
fine. There are many good reasons, to have /usr/bin/perl available at 
just that place. Be it good style or not, the reality ist, that a lot of 
third party stuff depends on exactly that.

- Oliver

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