Re: CPAN corrupt after perl update

Steffen Mueller wrote:

> Hallo Matthias,
>
> Matthias Keller wrote:
>
>> I'm using SuSE 10.0 and keep all my modules up to date with CPAN
>> Now SuSE released a perl update which smashes my CPAN....
>> When i go into CPAN after the update and look at a module it reports 
>> the installed version as it was before but in reality it was 
>> downgraded by the suse-update.
>
> Do Suse and cpan install the modules into the same directory? You 
> probably know that Perl looks for modules in various locations. The 
> paths to the libs can be found in the @INC variable at run-time. If 
> Suse uses a different directory than CPAN, you could try deleting the 
> modules in question from the Suse directory or remove that directory 
> from the perl @INC alltogether (in Config.pm, I guess). This is a 
> hack, though!

Well I'm not quite sure....
the update overwrites lots of modules in  /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.7/  and  
/usr/lib/perl5/5.8.7/i586-linux-thread-multi/
When i ask CPAN about some modules i get different replies...
Module id = Digest::MD5
    INST_FILE    /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.7/i586-linux-thread-multi/Digest/MD5.pm

Module id = Mail::SpamAssassin
    INST_FILE    /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.7/Mail/SpamAssassin.pm

it might be that NEW modules where installed to site_perl and the ones i 
updated from the suse versions to the other directory?
What's the meaning of the site_perl directory?

>> Is there any way to re-initialize the internal database to reflect 
>> the changes the update did? I tried to make a bundle but it doesn't 
>> work since it decides it is still up2date when in reality it isn't.....
>
> "reload index" might help, but I think that just reloads the three 
> index files from the net.

Already tried that, it only reloads those files. and reload cpan only 
does some internal reloading or whatever, but nothing that helps me

>> I'd love to install the suse update as it is a security patch but 
>> unless i can fix cpan it's no good...
>
> What security hole does it fix? If it's a module, are you confident 
> that it's not fixed by a version from CPAN, too? If it's a hole in the 
> interpreter (there was an issue recently), you're probably out of luck.

If i remember right it fixes that integer overflow hole fixed in December

> Also, you can try "force install MODULENAME" to force cpan to 
> reinstall the module MODULENAME. Note, that if a hypothetical Suse 
> path is in @INC before the lib cpan installs to, the Suse version will 
> be loaded.
>
> Others (like Andreas König) could give you a more thorough 
> explanation, I'm sure.

I hope so.....
I mean i cant be the only one using CPAN on a RPM (or other package 
based!) system... ??!

Thanks

Matt