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You're right Michael. That is a fairly stock BX system. And I was simply attempting to perform a "yum upgrade". Perl is the only package that will not upgrade.
<br />
<br />But this system does have the Nuonce MailScanner/Spamassassin/MailWatch installed on it. I had no idea that it so brutally installed packages when it was installed - its worked OK from day one. But now, the Perl upgrade problem.
<br />
<br />Do you think that Perl not upgrading will cause any future problems? I've got a second system that is identical, except has been loaded more recently (just two/three weeks ago). It doesn't have the Perl upgrade problem (but may have already had the newer Perl version on it when MailScanner was installed).
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Chuck
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<br /><b>---------- Original Message
-----------</b>
<br />
From: Michael Stauber <mstauber@blueonyx.it>
<br />
To: BlueOnyx General Mailing List <blueonyx@blueonyx.it>
<br />
Sent: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:41:26 +0200
<br />
Subject: [BlueOnyx:02037] Re: Perl conflicts in upgrade attempt
<br />
<br />> Hi Chuck,
<br />>
<br />>
> I've run into a problem updating one of our BX servers. Perl and its
<br />>
> dependancies won't upgrade.
<br />>
<br />>
Quick question from my end: When you mean "Perl doesn't upgrade" ...
do you
<br />>
mean you want to do a "yum update" against the BlueOnyx and CentOS
<br />>
repositories and Perl fails to update?
<br />>
<br />>
Or do you mean that you want to install a Perl from a third party, or one you
<br />>
build yourself?
<br />>
<br />>
In general I would advise against upgrading Perl on BlueOnyx with anything but
<br />>
a CentOS supplied Perl. It's fine to upgrade some Perl modules from CPAN (or
<br />>
through third party RPMs), but ripping out Perl itself and shoving in a Perl
<br />>
that wasn't specifically compiled for CentOS5 in "the RedHat way" may
cause
<br />>
issues all over the place.
<br />>
<br />>
It starts with such small things as man pages which the third party perl may
<br />>
store in different places than the CentOS Perl. Or it could be that your third
<br />>
party Perl contains manpages which - on CentOS - are already aboard as they
<br />>
were supplied by another RPM.
<br />>
<br />>
Next there are the things that may appear to be less obvious. When you replace
<br />>
the onboard Perl with one that's radically newer, then future YUM updates of
<br />>
course still update the RPM supplied Perl modules. That may be fine, or it may
<br />>
not, as those are "expecting" to find the CentOS Perl and may not
"play
<br />>
nicely" with your updated custom Perl. That is especially true for the
<br />>
BlueOnyx GUI interface, which also heavily relies on Perl based handlers and
<br />>
constructors and bring their own Perl module aboard which contains those
<br />>
aspects.
<br />>
<br />>
Personally and professionally I do a lot of things with Perl and in my
<br />>
opionion there are not enough things wrong with the CentOS5 Perl that would
<br />>
warrant an upgrade to the latest available Perl. Or any newer Perl than the
<br />>
one aboard on CentOS5. Most of the cripes I have with it can be settled by
<br />>
small work arounds or by upgrading some Perl modules to the latest versions.
<br />>
<br />>
At the worst and if you really need your custom Perl, you could leave the
<br />>
onboard Perl alone and compile a custom one with a modified prefix, so that it
<br />>
installs somewhere else. Like /usr/local instead of /usr. Then simply execute
<br />>
your Perl scripts which need the new Perl with the custom Perl and everything
<br />>
else that's fine with the onboard Perl can still use that one instead.
<br />>
<br />>
> Most of it appears to be conflict with the package
<br />>
> perl-ExtUtils-MakeMaker-6.30-1.noarch. Does anyone recognize that package
<br />>
> name, or know what its used for?
<br />>
<br />>
<a target="_blank" href="http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat/4/idpl/3628185/com/perl-ExtUtils">http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat/4/idpl/3628185/com/perl-ExtUtils</a>-
<br />>
MakeMaker-6.30-1.noarch.rpm.html
<br />>
<br />>
That RPM is not present on a stock BlueOnyx and it's not available in the
<br />>
CentOS Yum repository either. But I seem to remember that MailScanner installs
<br />>
usually forced it aboard with a brutal --force --nodeps. Both let my hairs
<br />>
stand on end (MailScanner and what it does to my beloved Perl. :o).
<br />>
<br />>
Are you by chance trying to install MailScanner?
<br />>
<br />>
--
<br />>
With best regards
<br />>
<br />>
Michael Stauber
<br />>
<br />>
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<br />>
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<br />>
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<br />>
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<br /><b>------- End of Original Message
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