I've noticed that SuSE installs perl in /usr/lib/perl5 directory. However CPAN default directory for a newer 5.6.1 perl is /usr/local Could somebody tell me please what is the best way to upgrade Perl on SuSE7.2 without screwing the whole default perl structure and dependencies.
Well, I still use SuSE-7.1, but what I did was build Perl-5.6.1 in /opt as a regular optional package, then make sure the path to that Perl was higher in my path than the normal one. I then use the 'env' tool to run my Perl scripts. You could also create a link in /usr/local or /usr/bin if you want your existing scripts to use the new binaries - I didn't do that. This gives the best of both worlds - you have and use the new version by default, but can fall back to the old version by using a fully qualified name should you need to.