Date: Tue, 09 Dec 2003 16:35:04 -0800 From: Nick Tonkin <nick@tonkinresolutions.com> To: Tony Jones <tony@tonyjones.com> Cc: "freebsd-questions@freebsd.org" <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: how to build Spamassassin Message-ID: <oprzxvwqozkr0fnn@world.tonkinresolutions.com> In-Reply-To: <20031209062926.B3F56579@zebedee.tonyjones.com> References: <20031209062926.B3F56579@zebedee.tonyjones.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Mon, 08 Dec 2003 22:29:26 -0800, Tony Jones <tony@tonyjones.com> wrote:
[ snip ]
>
> So, this not working, I went and grabbed the sources for
> Mail-SpamAssassin-2.60
> and figured I'd try building it manually.
>
> trying: perl -MCPAN -e shell (which is the INSTALL files recommended
> way)
> just generated lots of messages telling me to install Bundle::libnet ASAP
> and when I did, it failed to install and seems to have messed up the perl
> packages on my system.
>
>
> So, two questions:
>
> 1) How can I reinstall perl 5.005_03 (make install from /usr/src)
> 2) Once I have the perl restored, what is the best way to install
> SpamAssassin
> on 4.9 ?
>
> Thanks
>
> Tony (who hates perl)
Hm, well, if you hate perl perhaps you should consider using a spam
filtering package written in some other language!
The problem with FreeBSD and perl is well documented . . . basically the
FreebSD system has perl 5.005_03 which is a very old version nowadays, and
many modules require 5.6.1 at least if not 5.8+.
The simplest and easiest way to clear up these problems is to install a
new perl from source, in a non-standard location, so it creates its own
libraries from scratch. I recommend creating a user perl and installing
everything under /home/perl. Then at the end just change the symlinks to
/usr/bin/perl etc.
Do _not_ try to install a new perl over the 5.005 version that FreeBSD has
installed by default. FreeBSD creates non-standard library locations and
you will have lots of problems.
If you follow this advice you won't have any problem using CPAN to install
libwww, Mail::SpamAssassin and all the other modules you need or currently
use.perl and CPAN are _very_ reliable.
If you upgrade your FreeBSD to 5.1 you will find that the stock perl is
5.6.1 and most stuff Just Works with it. The perl has also been separated
from the base distribution and is now installed as a package (or port) so
it doesn't break when you update it.
On FreeBSD prior to 5.x I always built a new perl from source as I
described, and then built all my applications from source too (including
apache, mod_perl, mysql and a bunch of perl applications like
SpanAssassin). I too have encountered the 'ports or bust' mentality and
while it is good in theory it just doesn't work in practise where perl is
concerned. And there's way too much stuff depends on perl (for me at
least) for it to be flaky.
Hope this helps,
- nick
--
________________
Nick Tonkin {|8^)>
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?oprzxvwqozkr0fnn>