2) How can I clean up the modules installations and install older versions of the same modules?
IMO, unless to tell perl that use the self-made local folder as a lib path, perl will still continue to use its own standard lib path that is there in @INC.
so remove the lib path which indicates your self-made local folder to Perl. It will work as normal and use your older versions of modules. :)

Thanks, that was already VERY informative. That means, if I want to use the exact modules I want I can just temporarily change the lib path to my own folder and do what I need (since apparently I cannot uninstall modules from .cpan). Now, last question. When I print all paths I get:

$ perl -le 'print foreach @INC'
/etc/perl
/usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.0
/usr/local/share/perl/5.10.0
/usr/lib/perl5
/usr/share/perl5
/usr/lib/perl/5.10
/usr/share/perl/5.10
/usr/local/lib/site_perl

Sorry, I am a total newbie. Which of those paths do I need to change...and more importantly..how?
Thanks a lot!

Which of those paths do I need to change...and more importantly..how?
way 1)
unshift(@INC, '<path to your self-made local folder where the perl modules are installed>')

way 2)
use lib '<path to your self-made local folder where the perl modules are installed>'

way 3)
perl -I<path to your self-made local folder where the perl modules are installed>' <your perl program>

see How do I add a directory to my include path (@INC) at runtime?
Tutorials is the best place to start in perlmonks, if you are a newbie.
i started from Categorized Questions and Answers and Tutorials



---

Vivek
-- 'I' am not the body, 'I' am the 'soul', which has no beginning or no end, no attachment or no aversion, nothing to attain or lose.

I'm using Ubuntu myself and I'm new at Perl so I'm not able to comment on the 'cleaning up' process but I can make two observations.

Debian has a perlmodule naming system that tries to match (after a fashion) the module names, by sticking a lib in front of the it. e.g. DBD::mysql is libdbd-mysql-perl

Apt-cache search searches your repositories and you can use this to find what modules are available, e.g.

apt-cache search libdbi
[download]

outputs the following and has allowed me to guess at the modules I needed

libdbi-perl - Perl5 database interface by Tim Bunce
libdbd-freetds - Freetds database server driver for libdbi
libdbd-mysql - MySQL database server driver for libdbi
libdbd-pgsql - PostgreSQL database server driver for libdbi
libdbd-sqlite - SQLite database driver for libdbi
libdbd-sqlite3 - SQLite3 database driver for libdbi
libdbi-doc - DB Independent Abstraction Layer for C  -- documentation
libdbi-ruby - Database Independent Interface for Ruby
libdbi-ruby1.8 - Database Independent Interface for Ruby 1.8
libdbi0 - Database Independent Abstraction Layer for C
libdbi0-dev - DB Independent Abstraction Layer for C  -- development f
+iles
libdbicx-testdatabase-perl - Create a temporary database from a DBIx::
+Class::Schema
libdbix-abstract-perl - DBI SQL abstraction
libdbix-class-datetime-epoch-perl - Automatic inflation/deflation of e
+poch-based DateTime objects for DBIx::Class
libdbix-class-htmlwidget-perl - Like FromForm but with DBIx::Class and
+ HTML::Widget
libdbix-class-perl - Extensible and flexible object <-> relational map
+per
libdbix-class-schema-loader-perl - Dynamic definition of a DBIx::Class
+::Schema
libdbix-contextualfetch-perl - Add context aware fetches to DBI
libdbix-datasource-perl - Database-independent create and drop functio
+ns
libdbix-dbschema-perl - Database-independent schema objects
libdbix-easy-perl - Easy to Use DBI Interface
libdbix-fulltextsearch-perl - Indexing documents with MySQL as storage
libdbix-password-perl - Perl module for creating a global password fil
+e for DB passwords
libdbix-profile-perl - DBI query profiler
libdbix-recordset-perl - Perl extension for DBI recordsets
libdbix-searchbuilder-perl - Encapsulate SQL queries and rows in simpl
+e perl objects
libdbix-sequence-perl - A simple SQL92 ID generator
libdbix-xml-rdb-perl - perl module for creating XML from a DBI datasou
+rce
libdbix-xmlmessage-perl - perl module for exchanging XML messages betw
+een DBI data sources
[download]

The debian team do say if you can't find ask and they'll build. I'm starting to think I might 'roll my own' and learn the CPAN way, but was going to discuss it on Perlmonks first.

As I say, I'm a noob and I had similar issues re modules but feel free to disregard my comments and definitely pay attention to what others suggest here (especially if it contradicts what I've said - chances are it's me that's in error).

I've had this node pointed out to me by Elisheva : http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=753416 it discusses debian/CPAN in detail

I also just started using Perl with Ubuntu. I had been used to installing modules from CPAN, but after a couple of failed builds (involving some modules with C code which reacted badly to my AMD_64 architecture) I decided to give the Ubuntu package manager a shot. It's definitely a nicer interface, rather like Activestate's Perl Package Manager -- you just install the pre-compiled binaries, with no worries about builds failing.

However: those nice pre-compiled binaries are not guaranteed to be built from the latest source available on CPAN, and they are not guaranteed to be compatible with whatever modules you've downloaded from CPAN. I had been using Hardy Heron, and ran into rather painful version compatibility issues with some of the SMTP, IMAP, and SSL modules. Upgrading to Jaunty Jackalope fixed the issues, albeit at some cost.

Bottom Line: The Ubuntu package manager is nice for installing pre-compiled Perl modules, but BE CAREFUL mixing those modules with modules from CPAN -- there may be version compatibility issues.