Hi all,
I am running custom applications on a Linux platform which essentially have Perl and Postgres as prerequisites. In the past, we used an arcane Linux distro which left me with no other option than to build Perl + 50 odd CPAN modules + Postgres myself. I prefixed the stack under a common path like this:
/osstack/perl/5.12.1
/osstack/postgresql/9.0.4
Yet, now, we switch to a more modern distro (OpenSuse 12.1), which does have the RPM for Perl 5.14.2 pre-installed with the option to install more RPMs such as
perl-DBI-1.616-7.1.3
perl-DBD-Pg-2.18.0-3.1.4
postgresql-9.1.1-3.1.4
Once our custom applications are tested and behave, the idea is to freeze all prerequisites until we go to a different generation (potentially different distro altogether in >= 5 years).
Before I try to obtain a handful of CPAN modules which are missing or 'unsupported' in OpenSuse, my question to this admin forum is what pro's and con's to consider when deciding whether to use a pre-configured postgresql versus building it ourselves.
Best,
-ar