Question posted in 
Will perl 5.8.4 scripts work with perl 5.16.3?
I was trying to install perl in CentOS 7. Default version seems to be 5.16.
Will perl 5.8.4 scripts work correctly in 5.16?
This is what I tried. Looks like default version is 5.16. Hence the question.
sudo yum install perl
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Package Arch Version Repository
Size
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Installing:
perl x86_64 4:5.16.3-294.el7_6 base 8.0 M
Installing for dependencies:
perl-Carp noarch 1.26-244.el7 base 19 k
perl-Encode x86_64 2.51-7.el7 base 1.5 M
perl-Exporter noarch 5.68-3.el7 base 28 k
perl-File-Path noarch 2.09-2.el7 base 26 k
perl-File-Temp noarch 0.23.01-3.el7 base 56 k
perl-Filter x86_64 1.49-3.el7 base 76 k
perl-Getopt-Long noarch 2.40-3.el7 base 56 k
perl-HTTP-Tiny noarch 0.033-3.el7 base 38 k
perl-PathTools x86_64 3.40-5.el7 base 82 k
perl-Pod-Escapes noarch 1:1.04-294.el7_6 base 51 k
perl-Pod-Perldoc noarch 3.20-4.el7 base 87 k
perl-Pod-Simple noarch 1:3.28-4.el7 base 216 k
perl-Pod-Usage noarch 1.63-3.el7 base 27 k
perl-Scalar-List-Utils x86_64 1.27-248.el7 base 36 k
perl-Socket x86_64 2.010-4.el7 base 49 k
perl-Storable x86_64 2.45-3.el7 base 77 k
perl-Text-ParseWords noarch 3.29-4.el7 base 14 k
perl-Time-HiRes x86_64 4:1.9725-3.el7 base 45 k
perl-Time-Local noarch 1.2300-2.el7 base 24 k
perl-constant noarch 1.27-2.el7 base 19 k
perl-libs x86_64 4:5.16.3-294.el7_6 base 688 k
perl-macros x86_64 4:5.16.3-294.el7_6 base 44 k
perl-parent noarch 1:0.225-244.el7 base 12 k
perl-podlators noarch 2.5.1-3.el7 base 112 k
perl-threads x86_64 1.87-4.el7 base 49 k
perl-threads-shared x86_64 1.43-6.el7 base 39 k
Transaction Summary
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Install 1 Package (+26 Dependent packages)
Total download size: 11 M
Installed size: 36 M
Is this ok [y/d/N]: N
2
Answers
Yes. Perl is almost always backwards compatible. That’s its biggest strength and at the same the time its biggest problem.
Probably. Perl puts a lot of effort into maintaining backwards compatibility and most things will probably work. Having said that, there have been things that have changed which will potentially cause problems. The best solution is to set up a test environment with the new version of Perl and to run your test suite there. If you don’t have a test suite, then the best idea is to not change anything at all until you have written a test suite!
I’m a little concerned that you’re running
yum install perl. Centos 7 comes with Perl installed as default. You shouldn’t have to install it. You might, however, like to runyum install perl-coreto ensure that you have a full Perl environment available.