Re: pgsql: Adjust configure to insist on Perl version >= 5.8.3.

Noah Misch <noah(at)leadboat(dot)com> writes:
> On Thu, Oct 07, 2021 at 03:44:48PM -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
>>> (1) I'm distrustful of the idea that perl 5.8.x will compile
>>> cleanly, or at all, on modern platforms. Certainly Postgres
>>> releases of similar vintage won't.

> perlbrew uses the patchperl system to build old Perl in modern environments.
> This year, I used it to get 5.8.0. Building unpatched 5.8.0 does fail.

Oh, cool.

>> I propose that what might be more useful than the existing last
>> section of src/test/perl/README is something along the lines of:

> -1. This would replace a useful recipe with, essentially, a restatement of
> that recipe in English words. That just leaves the user to rediscover the
> actual recipe.

Well, I think the existing text does the reader a disservice
by stating a specific recipe without any context. Notably,
it says nothing about restricting which Perl modules you use.

What do you think of using my proposed text followed by

One way to test against an old Perl version is to use
perlbrew.
<< more or less the existing text here >>
Bear in mind that you will still need to install IPC::Run,
and what you will get is a current version not the one
distributed with Perl 5.8.3. You will also need to update
Test::More because the version distributed with Perl 5.8.3
is too old to run our TAP tests. So this recipe does not create
a perfect reproduction of a back-in-the-day Perl installation,
but it will probably catch any problems that might surface in
the buildfarm.

regards, tom lane