perl_select doesn't list any installed perl ports

[danielbair (Daniel Bair)]

$port select --summary
Name       Selected       Options
====       ========       =======
clang      none           mp-clang-3.6 mp-clang-9.0 none
gcc        none           mp-gcc7 none
llvm       none           mp-llvm-3.6 mp-llvm-9.0 none
perl       none           none

$port installed | grep perl5
  perl5 @5.26.1_0+perl5_28 (active)
  perl5.16 @5.16.3_9 (active)
  perl5.18 @5.18.4_8 (active)
  perl5.20 @5.20.3_7 (active)
  perl5.22 @5.22.4_5 (active)
  perl5.24 @5.24.4_4 (active)
  perl5.26 @5.26.3_4 (active)
  perl5.28 @5.28.3_0 (active)
  perl5.30 @5.30.3_0 (active)

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

perl ports do not participate in the port select mechanism. (The perl ports were designed before the port select mechanism existed.)

Instead, you select which perl you want via the variants of the perl5 port.

[kurthindenburg (Kurt Hindenburg)]

When you have multiple perl versions installed, it would be nice to be able to select the default.

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

Kurt, you do so by choosing a variant of the perl5 port.

[ballapete (Peter "Pete" Dyballa)]

And choosing means port activate this or that variant?

[ryandesign (Ryan Carsten Schmidt)]

Sure. Either activate (if you have already installed) or install (whether or not you have already installed) perl5 with the desired variant. For example, sudo port install perl5 +perl5_38 or sudo port activate perl5 +perl5_38.