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Re: "Warning: perl appears in your path"

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From:
Sawyer X
Date:
September 28, 2016 18:38
Subject:
Re: "Warning: perl appears in your path"
Message ID:
36084fbf-f784-dc90-5932-3309d95028b0@gmail.com


On 09/27/2016 07:05 AM, Dave Mitchell wrote:
> When installing a non-devel perl, you typically get a message like the
> following on STDERR:
>
>     Warning: perl appears in your path in the following locations beyond where
>     we just installed it:
>         /bin/perl
>         /usr/bin/perl
>
> My thoughts are:
>
> 1) Do we really still need this message? It's very common these days when
> installing perl for the system to already have its own perl.

A situation I imagine in which I would find this useful is if I'm
accidentally installing perl to the system without realizing it, or if
I'm accidentally installing it to a different system directory (as the
example of /bin/perl and /usr/bin/perl). I can see how such a warning
would be useful for me to see so I could either reconfigure with a
--prefix or I could sort out the $PATH and possible system perl
installations.

Does it matter enough that I would care if it's removed? No.
Does it answer your question? Probably not. :)


> 2) If we do need this message, should it be downgraded from 'Warning' to
> 'Note' and be sent to STDOUT rather than STDERR? Because there's nothing
> wrong with having multiple perls installed, and warning implies you're
> doing something wrong.

I reserve STDERR to "I need to see this right away because it means I
need to keep this in mind when this runs or it's an error that requires
halting (even if the process doesn't do it by default)". I try to get
applications to have zero amount of STDERR messages, because if they do,
something is possibly (likely, potentially - take your pick) is wrong. I
would prefer STDOUT for it if it's just a point of consideration.

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