Re: File::Copy::Recursive broken on FreeBSD and other OSes; working on replacement

On 04/20/2018 08:30 AM, Karen Etheridge wrote:
> A new File::Copy::Recursive has been released -- has the threat now pas=
sed?
>=20
> On Wed, Apr 18, 2018 at 7:25 PM, James E Keenan <[email protected]=20
> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>=20
>     This message is intended for people working on the Perl toolchain
>     and, in particular, for attendees at the Perl Toolchain Summit
>     starting tomorrow in Oslo.
>=20
>     The test-against-dev work I have been conducting for several months
>     has identified at least one CPAN distro, high up in the toolchain,
>     which is broken on non-Linux operating systems.=C2=A0 The reasons f=
or
>     this breakage are sub-optimal code in modules or test suites, not
>     "Blead Breaks CPAN."=C2=A0 Such breakage prevents the distro from b=
eing
>     installed and means that its revdeps are never reached during the
>     following cases:
>=20
>     * Installation via 'cpan' shell:=C2=A0 Distro fails and is graded a=
s FAIL
>     and reported to metabase.=C2=A0 Assuming on 'force install' is atte=
mpted
>     on distro, revdep is graded as DISCARD and no report is sent to
>     metabase or to revdep's maintainers.
>=20
>     * Installation via 'cpanm':=C2=A0 Distro fails and is graded as FAI=
L.=20
>     Revdep is not attempted and is not graded anywhere.=C2=A0 You have =
to
>     examine build.log for messages reporting "Bailing out ...."=C2=A0 N=
o
>     report is sent to metabase or to maintainers.
>=20
>     * Because test-against-dev relies on 'cpanm', if a distro in, say,
>     the top 1000 of the CPAN river fails, its revdeps are never reached=
,
>     meaning their code does not get exercised against the latest monthl=
y
>     development release.
>=20
>     The CPAN distro of greatest concern right now is
>     File-Copy-Recursive(http://search.cpan.org/~dmuey/File-Copy-Recursi=
ve-0.40/
>     <http://search.cpan.org/~dmuey/File-Copy-Recursive-0.40/>),
>     currently ranked about #128 in the CPAN river.=C2=A0 On FreeBSD (an=
d
>     perhaps other OSes), FCR's current version (0.40 as of Apr 17 2018)
>     has an unfixed bug
>     (https://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=3D123964
>     <https://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=3D123964>) leading to t=
est
>     failures and failure to install.=C2=A0 Unless a user chooses to '--=
force'
>     install FCR, that prevents its revdeps from being installed in an
>     automated manner or tested against dev/blead.
>=20
>     Over 6000 CPAN distributions have direct or indirect dependencies o=
n
>     FCR, including CPAN-Reporter, Test-File-ShareDir, DateTime,
>     Dist-Zilla and Catalyst-Devel.=C2=A0 So thousands of CPAN distros c=
annot
>     be installed on FreeBSD and other systems.
>=20
>     The author of FCR is aware of the bug ticket and Tom Hukins provide=
d
>     a patch which I have tested successfully on FreeBSD.=C2=A0 But the =
patch
>     has not been applied as of yesterday.=C2=A0 As we are now in the
>     countdown to perl-5.28.0, we really need to be able to assess the
>     impact of release candidates on CPAN -- and not just on Linux.
>=20
>     Earlier this week I wanted to resume sending CPANtesters reports
>     from FreeBSD-11.1.=C2=A0 I tried to install CPAN-Reporter but could=
 not,
>     due to the bug in its dependency, FCR.=C2=A0 To address that I have
>     uploaded to CPAN a new CPAN distro, File-Copy-Recursive-Reduced
>     (FCR2), which provides stripped-down versions of 2 FCR subroutines,
>     fcopy() and dircopy(), which are used in the CPAN-Reporter test
>     suite.=C2=A0 I then branched CPAN-Reporter to create a version whic=
h uses
>     the FCR2 versions of these functions rather than FCR.=C2=A0 That ma=
kes
>     CPAN-Reporter installable again. I have therefore filed:
>=20
>     https://github.com/cpan-testers/CPAN-Reporter/issues/88
>     <https://github.com/cpan-testers/CPAN-Reporter/issues/88>
>     and
>     https://github.com/cpan-testers/CPAN-Reporter/pull/90
>     <https://github.com/cpan-testers/CPAN-Reporter/pull/90> (a better
>     p.r. than my earlier /89)
>=20
>     I hope that during the PTS you can review and apply this p.r. and
>     upload a new version of CPAN-Reporter.=C2=A0 This will once again p=
ermit
>     automated installation on FreeBSD and other non-Linux operating
>     systems.=C2=A0 It will also help us to assess perl-5.28's possible =
impact
>     on that distro and its revdeps.
>=20

Karen, thanks for alerting me to that.  I am now checking the=20
installation on FreeBSD-11.1 of modules that this was blocking,=20
including Test-File-ShareDir, DateTime and Dist-Zilla.  I should have=20
results in a couple of hours.

Thank you very much.
Jim Keenan