System perl upgrade in MacOS Big Sur 11.4?

Xives wrote:

The upgrade to 11.3 changed the perl version that comes with MacOS to v5.30.2. This was mentioned nowhere and screwed up some of the software I use. I spent days fixing it so I would appreciate if someone could tell me if it Apple decided to do this again (e.g. Terminal: perl --version)?

It is not unusual for Apple to update 3rd party tools like that. Perl scripts should work fine in newer versions. It's not Python.

However, the scripting languages that Apple includes in the operating system are only meant for Apple's own use. You should not rely on them. It is better to install your own version of any scripting languages, especially if you have hard dependencies on specific versions. Please see the macOS 11 release notes:

Scripting language runtimes such as Python, Ruby, and Perl are included in macOS for compatibility with legacy software. In future versions of macOS, scripting language runtimes won’t be available by default, and may require you to install an additional package.

There has long been a Perl package management facility named Perlbrew that allows one to manage multiple versions of Perl without altering the System installed Perl.

Xives wrote:

The upgrade to 11.3 changed the perl version that comes with MacOS to v5.30.2. This was mentioned nowhere and screwed up some of the software I use. I spent days fixing it so I would appreciate if someone could tell me if it Apple decided to do this again (e.g. Terminal: perl --version)?

Best

https://www.perl.org/get.html

Perl in macOS 11.4 is 5.30.2.

You are welcome.