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FreeBSD: Perl to be removed

Posted by Hemos on from the killing-the-perl dept.

zmcgrew writes "From Daemon News:
"The decision was made to remove Perl from the FreeBSD -current base system [earlier story ]. Perl will be supported as a port that the user can install after the base installation, however it will no longer be required. Mark Murray put out a call to the -current mailing list asking for volunteers to port all Perl scripts in the base system to another language, such as sh or C. All critical programs are already being ported, with only a few minor ones left to be claimed." Wow..."

2 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The obvious question remains by hawkstone · · Score: 5, Informative

    It appears that having Perl in the base distro has the following problems:

    1. It increases the distro image size.
    2. It forces everyone to use the same version of Perl.
    3. If someone tries to install over that version or just even patch it, it can break stuff in BSD which needed the old version.
    4. Installing multiple copies imposes weird symlink tricks or else breaks other stuff.

  2. Perl from ports is worth it even for -STABLE by Fweeky · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not only is it more up-to-date, more easily upgraded, and able to get as bloated as Perl demands, it also includes the excellent BSDPAN.

    BSDPAN allows you to install CPAN modules and manage them like any other package (pkg_info, pkg_delete, etc), and for weenies like me who set LOCALBASE to /usr/pkg, makes them LOCALBASE clean, \o/

    /usr/ports/lang/perl5 is not just there for completeness. Even if you have Perl installed from base, chances are anyone even remotely interested in Perl will want to replace it with the port anyway.

    Now, if only we can convince core to remove sendmail...