I absolutely love virtualenv for Python development. It allows me to develop Buildbot against several versions of Python and several versions of its dependencies, without modifying my system’s Python installation at all!
Now, I need to do the same thing in Perl. So I thought I’d compare the two side-by-side.
virtualenv
# install virtualenv locally
wget http://bitbucket.org/ianb/virtualenv/raw/tip/virtualenv.py
# set up a sandbox
python virtualenv.py sandbox
# activate it
source sandbox/bin/activate
# start installing stuff
easy_install buildbot
local::lib
There is no local::lib gentoo ebuild! I’m sure there’s a good reason, but that’s odd all the same!
# install local::lib locally
wget http://search.cpan.org/CPAN/authors/id/G/GE/GETTY/local-lib-1.006007.tar.gz
tar -zxf local-lib-1.006007.tar.gz
cd local-lib-1.006007
perl Makefile.PL --bootstrap # (accept lots of defaults)
make test && make install
# activate it (permanently)
echo 'eval $(perl -I$HOME/perl5/lib/perl5 -Mlocal::lib)' >>~/.bashrc
eval $(perl -I$HOME/perl5/lib/perl5 -Mlocal::lib)
# start installing stuff
perl -MCPAN -e install Config::General # (I have to accept the same defaults again??)
I think virtualenv is the clear winner here!