Several perl packages (including cpan and re.pl) not working after upgrade from 12.04 to 14.04

Question

Several perl packages stopped working after upgrade from 12.04 to 14.04.

For example, cpan gives me:

Attempt to reload Scalar/Util.pm aborted.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/local/share/perl/5.18.2/CPAN/Meta/Requirements.pm line 35.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/local/share/perl/5.18.2/CPAN/Meta/Requirements.pm line 35.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/share/perl/5.18/CPAN/Distribution.pm line 7.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/share/perl/5.18/CPAN/Distribution.pm line 7.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/share/perl/5.18/CPAN.pm line 25.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/share/perl/5.18/CPAN.pm line 25.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/share/perl/5.18/App/Cpan.pm line 219.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/share/perl/5.18/App/Cpan.pm line 219.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/local/bin/cpan line 9.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/local/bin/cpan line 9.

and re.pl gives me:

Perl API version v5.14.0 of List::Util does not match v5.18.0 at /usr/share/perl/5.18/XSLoader.pm line 92.
Compilation failed in require at /home/abc/perl5/lib/perl5/x86_64-linux-gnu-thread-multi/Scalar/Util.pm line 11.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/local/lib/perl/5.18.2/Moose.pm line 9.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/local/lib/perl/5.18.2/Moose.pm line 9.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/local/share/perl/5.18.2/Devel/REPL/Script.pm line 6.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/local/share/perl/5.18.2/Devel/REPL/Script.pm line 6.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/local/bin/re.pl line 6.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/local/bin/re.pl line 6.

Is there anyone to simply get a fresh install of perl and all of its packages?

Solution

As said in my comments above, there's a conflict between 5.14 and 5.18.

The proposed solution was renaming ~/perl5 to ~/perl5_old so that both cpan and re.pl works again.

To answer your last question, I would manage ~/perl5 to run 5.18 using perlbrew.

See How can I install a newer Perl without damaging the system install?

Comments

[Sylvain Pineau]

there's a conflict between 5.14 and 5.18. I suspect that you have a local version of perl. Could you attach to your question the output of type perl? I think you probably just need to update your perl lib in /usr/local/. You probably also have a PERLLIB that includes incompatible modules from /home/abc/perl5/lib

[Sylvain Pineau]

Are you able to use Scalar::Util if you rename /home/abc/perl5 to /home/abc/perl5_old?

[DJG]

@SylvainPineau type perl returns perl is /usr/bin/perl. Renaming ~/perl5 to ~/perl5_old successfully allowed me to use Scalar::Util and run both cpan and re.pl! Should I go ahead and start installing cpan packages again, or is there something else that needs to be fixed so that the local ~/perl5 does what it's supposed to?