Building DBD::Oracle with one version but deploying with another

[A previous version of this question was asked on dbi-users -- I haven't gotten any response there.  Not sure which list to post to.]

Hi, I'd like to find out how to build/install DBD::Oracle with one 
version of Oracle client but then deploy it with a potentially different client version, say on a server without the original client version (or with it installed in a different location).  It seems like the Oracle 
client libraries can be loaded dynamically at runtime, based on 
ORACLE_HOME, so there doesn't need to be a dependency on those exact 
client libraries that were used at build/install time.  

Another 
way of asking:  How does ActiveState deploy DBD::Oracle without needing 
to build it (maybe no C compiler is available), on servers with 
different versions of the Oracle client libraries installed?

I've searched the archives for both dbi-dev and dbi-users and can't find this issue addressed, although I did see a similar issue asked once.  If there's any reference material that I have overlooked, could you please point it out.  The README for DBD::Oracle seems to indicate that this is not possible or not advised, but then what is ActiveState doing to make it work?


Thanks!-- John