p5-* perl module ports question

[raf]

On Tue, Jun 20, 2023 at 09:58:08AM -0400, Bill Cole <macportsusers-20171215 at billmail.scconsult.com> wrote:

> On 2023-06-20 at 03:11:46 UTC-0400 (Tue, 20 Jun 2023 17:11:46 +1000)
> raf via macports-users <macports at raf.org>
> is rumored to have said:
> 
> > Hi. All of the p5-* perl module ports have:
> > 
> >   perl5.branches      5.28 5.30 5.32 5.34
> > 
> > Why is that? There's a perl5.36 port,
> > and there are perl5.16-perl5.26 ports.
> > 
> > I'm curious. I was expecting to see a branch
> > for all available versions of perl5.
> 
> Not all modules are compatible with all Perl versions. Not all ports are
> maintained diligently, so when a new version  of Perl is a available, not
> all ports get updated immediately.
> 
> Sometimes it's just a formality. For example, Mail::SpamAssassin v4.0.0 was
> released before Perl 5.36 and so none of us on the SA dev team tested it
> with  5.36. We do not claim that it works with 5.36, although we expect that
> it will. Some packagers are very picky about such things.
> 
> Historically, Mojca has been the SME and the most heroic heavy-lifter in
> keeping MacPorts' Perl jungle usable.
> 
> -- 
> Bill Cole
> bill at scconsult.com or billcole at apache.org
> (AKA @grumpybozo and many *@billmail.scconsult.com addresses)
> Not Currently Available For Hire

Thanks. That probably also explains why the current
default perl version is still 5.34. 5.36 is only a year
old. I expect that the missing earlier versions are
probably an effort to encourage people to keep upgrading
outdated ports, or maybe just to save space on mirrors.

And yes, Mojca is a hero. There are about 1500 perl
module ports with "nomaintainer", but I bet that Mojca
is the maintainer that they don't have. :-)

cheers,
raf