Bug#707031: Feature Request: chattr +i site perl install path

[Dominic Hargreaves]

On Mon, May 06, 2013 at 08:52:59PM -0400, Hugh Esco wrote:
> Working with colleague at the moment who just reported he hosed his site perl
> installation by forggeting to designate his locallib when installing a package
> he's working with.
> 
> I'd urge that on installation, the site perl install path permissions be
> updated with chattr +i to guard against this possibility.  Other packages
> needing access to the site perl installation would need to chattr -i; install,
> chattr +i.

The site installation path is designed for local administrators, not
(Debian) packages, so making it immutable is something that the local
administrator could do if they choose, but it's not IMO appropriate for
the package to do that.
 
> It would be nice to make locallib and perhaps cpanm core components of a debian
> perl installation as well, with a default local lib designated so that the site
> perl paths need not be polluted by subsequent installations.

Whilst local::lib is a popular and worthwhile strategy, those using it
can install it easily from its package. I don't think installing 'perl'
(which is on nearly every Debian system) should pull in all the extra
packages that we think might be useful; perl core is very definitely going
in the opposite direction.

(I'm not sure what you mean by a 'default local lib'; if you mean 
something which is on @INC by default and intended to be writable by the
system administrator, that's exactly what the site path is...)

Cheers,
Dominic.