Installing other variants of perl5 also installs perl5.16 by default

[babak@…]

% sudo port install perl5 +perl5_20
--->  Computing dependencies for perl5
--->  Dependencies to be installed: perl5.20
--->  Fetching archive for perl5.20
--->  Attempting to fetch perl5.20-5.20.2_0.darwin_14.x86_64.tbz2 from http://nue.de.packages.macports.org/macports/packages/perl5.20
--->  Attempting to fetch perl5.20-5.20.2_0.darwin_14.x86_64.tbz2.rmd160 from http://nue.de.packages.macports.org/macports/packages/perl5.20
--->  Installing perl5.20 @5.20.2_0
--->  Activating perl5.20 @5.20.2_0
--->  Cleaning perl5.20
--->  Fetching archive for perl5
--->  Attempting to fetch perl5-5.16.3_0+perl5_20.darwin_14.noarch.tbz2 from http://nue.de.packages.macports.org/macports/packages/perl5
--->  Attempting to fetch perl5-5.16.3_0+perl5_20.darwin_14.noarch.tbz2 from http://lil.fr.packages.macports.org/perl5
--->  Attempting to fetch perl5-5.16.3_0+perl5_20.darwin_14.noarch.tbz2 from http://mse.uk.packages.macports.org/sites/packages.macports.org/perl5
--->  Fetching distfiles for perl5
--->  Verifying checksums for perl5
--->  Extracting perl5
--->  Configuring perl5
--->  Building perl5
--->  Staging perl5 into destroot
--->  Installing perl5 @5.16.3_0+perl5_20
--->  Activating perl5 @5.16.3_0+perl5_20
--->  Cleaning perl5
--->  Updating database of binaries
--->  Scanning binaries for linking errors
--->  No broken files found.

[babak@…]

More info:

% port info perl5
perl5 @5.16.3 (lang)
Variants:             [+]perl5_16, perl5_18, perl5_20, perl5_22

Description:          Wrapper port for perl 5.x
Homepage:             http://www.perl.org/

Library Dependencies: perl5.16
Platforms:            darwin, freebsd, linux
License:              BSD
Maintainers:          nomaintainer@macports.org

also a list of installed perl ports:

% port installed | grep perl
  perl5 @5.16.3_0+perl5_20 (active)
  perl5.20 @5.20.2_0 (active)

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

Your transcript only shows you installing the perl5 port with the +perl5_20 variant, which causes the perl5.20 port to be installed; the transcript doesn't show this being the cause of the perl5.16 port being installed.

If you are concerned that the advertised version of the perl5 port is 5.16.3, ignore that; the perl5 port doesn't install any software; it only serves as a mechanism for installing one of the other perl ports, selectable by its variants. The version number listed in the perl5 port itself is arbitrary and irrelevant.

The perl5.16 port might be installed for other reasons. Until recently, perl5.16 was our default version of perl in MacPorts and many ports probably still depend on it; these ports will eventually be updated to depend on perl5.22 instead; see #48365. You can try uninstalling the perl5.16 port ("sudo port uninstall perl5.16") to see if any of your installed ports require it; if so, MacPorts will prevent the uninstallation.

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

Actually, per your "port installed | grep perl" output, the perl5.16 port isn't installed. So there is no problem.