[Bioperl-l] need advice

[Lisa Corsetti]

Hi!

I am trying to install bioperl-1 on our systems here at Lawrence Livermore
National laboratory.  We are running on Sun's Solaris 6/7 with an older
version of Perl - perl5.005.  I am running into a snag when I try to
install the IO::String CPAN module.  When I do perl Makefile.PL
on the String module, it says that it requires perl5.00503.
Our version of perl is very close to the version required by the 
IO::String module!  But, close only counts in horse shoes in this case. :)

We have added numerous CPAN modules to our perl over the years.  Lots of
time has been invested in getting our perl environment to the point where
it suits a host of developers needs.  So, I am hesitant to want to build
a brand new version of perl at this point.  Perhaps, it's because I don't
yet understand all that it would involve.  For example, if I build a
perl5.6 would I need to go back and install all of the CPAN modules 
over again?

Is there an easy way to patch our existing 5.005 version of perl to 
bring it up to 5.005_03 so that we could install the modules required
by bioperl?

Sorry if these questions seem trivial or "dumb", I'm trying to be
careful about this since we do have many many person hours invested
in our current perl environment.

Thanks for any help or advice that you can offer!

Lisa Corsetti
UNIX System Administrator
Biology and Biotechnology Research Program
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory