We were back from the PTS in Lisbon, and had a shorter meeting than usual, during which we mostly discussed the last remaining release blockers for 5.40.

Following on from day 1

Joel and I spent some more time working out disk provisioning and then decided to upgrade the nodes in the cluster... this is where the problems started...

I shutdown a node to resize it... and the site went down, no healthy backends was then displayed to all users by Fastly (our CDN) for any content that wasn't in their cache. This is not meant to happen!

We also couldn't connect to Argo (web UI for Kuberneties deployment and a view on the K8's API status) or even the kubectl command line tool.

Starting the node backup (after having upgraded) and all came back. We quickly realised that everything was using Round Robin DNS to all 3 node IP's. There was ` Traefik ` setup but it was tied to those IPs and something was not happy. We then looked at alternative tooling and thought it might be worth using rke2 instead of k3s as the underlying flavour of K8s as this would give us a little more flexibility.

These are some answers to the Week 278, Task 1, of the Perl Weekly Challenge organized by Mohammad S. Anwar.

Spoiler Alert: This weekly challenge deadline is due in a few days from now (on July 21, 2024, at 23:59). This blog post provides some solutions to this challenge. Please don’t read on if you intend to complete the challenge on your own.

Task 1: Sort String

You are given a shuffle string, $str.

Write a script to return the sorted string.

A string is shuffled by appending word position to each word.

Example 1

Input: $str = "and2 Raku3 cousins5 Perl1 are4"
Output: "Perl and Raku are cousins"

Example 2

Input: $str = "guest6 Python1 most4 the3 popular5 is2 language7"
Output: "Python is the most popular guest language"

Example 3

Input: $str = "Challenge3 The1 Weekly2"
Output: "The Weekly Challenge"

Show code for TL;DR:

Just Paul and Philippe this week:

• Paul volunteers to do the 5.39.9 release. We still need people for .10 and 5.40. The .10 release will be timed around PTS - so maybe we could do something “live” at the summit?
• Mailing list was otherwise quiet so there weren’t many issues to discuss.

In absence of many other pressing issues, we spent some time thinking ahead to large-scale development work that might take place in the 5.41 series. We talked about “hooks” as a potential long-term thought to making a more powerful Magic-like structure, for implementing new features, attributes, etc..

I am always flattered to be invited to the Perl Toolchain Summit, and reinvigorated in working on MetaCPAN each time.

Currently I am focused on building on the work I and others did last year in setting up Kubernetes for more of MetaCPAN (and other projects) to host on.

Last week I organised the Road map which was the first thing we ran through this morning. I was very fortunate to spend the day with Joel and between us we managed to setup:

- Hetzner (hosting company) volumes auto provisioning in the k8s cluster
- Postgres cluster version (e.g. with replication between nodes)

I had a few discussions with other projects interested in hosting and this has helped us start work on what we need to be able to provision and how.. especially with attached storage which has been some what of a challenge but we are heading towards a solution.

These are some answers to the Week 258, Task 2, of the Perl Weekly Challenge organized by Mohammad S. Anwar.

Spoiler Alert: This weekly challenge deadline is due in a couple of days from now (on March 3, 2024 at 23:59). This blog post provides some solutions to this challenge. Please don’t read on if you intend to complete the challenge on your own.

Task 2: Sum of Values

You are given an array of integers, @int and an integer $k.

Write a script to find the sum of values whose index binary representation has exactly $k number of 1-bit set.

Example 1

CALL FOR PAPERS NOW OPEN!

• Science Track at The Perl & Raku Conference
• June 25 - 27, 2024 (talk dates)
• Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

click here to submit your abstract

You may submit your Science Track abstracts here! Don't wait, do this today! Prior registration to the Perl Conference is not a condition for acceptance, however individuals with accepted papers and posters are expected to register for and attend the Conference in person*. You may register for the Perl & Raku Conference here. (Note: in the past, the Conference registration fee has been waived for speakers; it is expected that this will be the case again this year, but at this time there are no guarantees.)

• let us know if this is impossible, exceptions may be considered in some extenuating circumstances

Deadlines:

• Abstract submission deadline: April 05, 2024 (23:59:59 UTC)
• Full paper deadline: May 15th, 2024 (23:59:59 UTC)

• We’ll chase up current implementors of outstanding PPCs to see what progress is
• Reviewed the new bugs since last review. One new potential blocker - 22121
• Reviewed a first draft of a “Perl Roadmap” presentation that might be given at PTS

I attended YAPC::Hiroshima 2024 in Japan.

A few people asked me about the distinctions between YAPC::Japan and other Perl events worldwide, prompting me to write below. Before delving into the specifics, I must preface that my experience is primarily rooted in YAPC::Hiroshima 2024, the only YAPC::Japan event I attended. It's important to say that comparing Perl events across different regions isn't about establishing superiority or inferiority; organizing conferences requires considerable resources and effort irrespective of location. Each conference has its unique approach and metrics for success. The observations I offer are purely subjective and reflect my personal views.

Size

These are some answers to the Week 257, Task 1, of the Perl Weekly Challenge organized by Mohammad S. Anwar.

Spoiler Alert: This weekly challenge deadline is due in a few days from now (on February 25, 2024 at 23:59). This blog post provides some solutions to this challenge. Please don’t read on if you intend to complete the challenge on your own.

Task 1: Smaller than Current

You are given a array of integers, @ints.

Write a script to find out how many integers are smaller than current i.e. foreach ints[i], count ints[j] < ints[i] where i != j.

Example 1

If you have been following along with the efforts to add a Science Track to the TPRC, now is the time to seriously consider submitting a peer reviewed paper. The TPRC Call for Papers has opened with information on submitting to any of the 3 tracks. Note that the science papers are submitted to the Perl Community's Science Perl website, which is linked in the TPRC's announcement.

Repost from, https://news.perlfoundation.org/post/cfp2024

You can submit your talk Ideas at https://tprc.us/talks Talk submission deadline is April 5th, Midnight UTC. Talks must be given live and in-person. If you are looking for any talk ideas, try out the conference wiki.

New this year, we are accepting submissions for a peer reviewed Science track. Those talks should be submitted at https://science.perlcommunity.org/

Visit the TPRC 2024 website at https://tprc.us/ Follow us on Twitter: @PerlConferences Like us on Facebook: The Perl Foundation (@tpf.perl) Subscribe to the mailing list: https://tprc.us/subscribe

Any questions about the Science Track should be directed to "science at perlcommunity.org" or visit us at #science on irc.perl.org.

Looking forward to seeing all the submissions!

Cheers,

Brett Estrade (OODLER)

Chairman, Science Perl Committee

This week, we:

• Talked about some ideas for discussion at the upcoming PTS
• Discussed the current blocked state of bleadperl following the 5.39.9 release and how to unblock it
• Finished reviewing the release blocker bugs
• Discussed how MetaCPAN should better handle perl releases and permissions

Crypt::Passphrase

Crypt::Passphrase is a module for managing passwords. It allows you to separate policy and mechanism, meaning that the code that polices authorization doesn’t have to know anything about what algorithms are used behind the screen, and vice-versa; thus making for a cryptographically agile system.

It’s not only handling the technical details of password hashes for you but also it deals with a variety of schemes. It’s especially useful for transitioning between them.

A configuration might look like this (Koha):

These are some answers to the Week 277, Task 2, of the Perl Weekly Challenge organized by Mohammad S. Anwar.

Spoiler Alert: This weekly challenge deadline is due in a few days from now (on July 14, 2024, known in France as Bastille Day, at 23:59). This blog post provides some solutions to this challenge. Please don’t read on if you intend to complete the challenge on your own.

Task 2: Strong Pair

You are given an array of integers, @ints.

Write a script to return the count of all strong pairs in the given array.

A pair of integers x and y is called strong pair if it satisfies: 0 < |x - y| < min(x, y).

Example 1

Input: @ints = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
Ouput: 4

Strong Pairs: (2, 3), (3, 4), (3, 5), (4, 5)

Example 2

日本のYAPCに参加したのは18年ぶり2度目。

イベント参加者として

• 世界一成功しているYAPCであるYAPC::Japanの運営を見習うためにボランティアで参加させてもらった。一般参加者の切符を買いますと言ったのだが、主催のkobakenさんに固辞された。神のようなお方
• YAPCという名前はやはり良い

ボランティアとして

• 朝7:30に集合だった。早めの行動をしようと7:25に着いたらほとんどのスタッフがすでに到着していた。アメリカではありえない
• メインは部屋の進行係。さらに登壇者向けの受付という重大な任務もまかされて光栄です

TPFの人間として

• 運営の方がTPFへの寄付を繰り返し呼びかけてくれて、さらに受付でも寄付コーナーを設置してくれてお礼の申しようもない https://blog.yapcjapan.org/entry/2024/02/10/100000
• もちろん、寄付をしてくださった方にも本当に感謝している

トークについて

• ボランティアをしていたのでほとんど聞いていない。あとで録画を見る
• 広島のYAPCのキーノートを誰にしてもらうかという疑問に対して、とほほさんというパーフェクトな答えを出した運営チームは偉すぎる
• 私がこのコミュニティに入る前から登壇していてまぶしい存在だったcharsbarさんとtakesakoさんのトークをまた見られてありがたかった。かるぱねるらさんが同じようなことを書いている。https://x.com/karupanerura/status/1756575196369260893
• ずっと前から有名人という点ではmalaさんのトークが聞けてよかった。タイムリーでYAPCにぴったりな内容。弾さんのトークは聞き逃した
• もちろん新しい登壇者が半分以上で、それもいいこと
• YAYAPCはYAPC以上に良かった。録画とSNS公開が禁止のトークは実に面白い
• 私のトークは過去に20分でやったものを5分に圧縮した。ボーナススライドは時間が余れば見せようかと思っていたところまったく無理だった。内容は「日本発のPerlのスローガンを提案する」だった

アメリカのカンファレンス主催側の者として

• 日本のYAPCが米国のYAPC（最近はTPRCという）より規模が大きいのは、人口が世界一の都市である東京で開催するからだというのがかつての通説だった。その後YAPC::Japanチームは東京から飛び出して他の都市でも世界一大きいなYAPCができるのだということを証明した
• YAPC::Japanがなぜこれだけ人が集められるかというというのは別記事で長い考察が必要だが、毎年来る人でも10年に一度しか来ない人でも初参加者でも楽しめるイベントであるのは事実
• スケジュール通りにトークが進行するのは素晴らしい。あれは、参加者が開始前に着席していないと無理。日本人がどうやって5分の休憩時間で遅れなく部屋を移動するのかは謎
• YAPC::Hiroshimaの広報は優秀
• YAYAPCでkobakenさんが少しだけ言っていたように、自分は客だという気持ちの入場者がいるのは残念。チケットの売り上げでは全然赤字なのがYAPCなので、一般入場者はお客様ではないのです（これは私の意見）

まとめ

• 家から広島の会場まで最短でも24時間かかるので移動は大変だったがその価値はあった
• また来たい

A longer version of this post, including the full timeline as we know it, is available at security.metacpan.org

Between Dec 2023 and Jan 2024, vulnerabilities in Spreadsheet::ParseExcel and Spreadsheet::ParseXLSX were reported to the CPAN Security Group (CPANSec).  This document describes the timeline and analysis of events.

CVE-2023-7101: Spreadsheet::ParseExcel arbitrary code execution vulnerability

Đình Hải Lê discovered an arbitrary code execution (ACE) vulnerability in the Perl module Spreadsheet::ParseExcel, version 0.65 and earlier.

An attacker, exploiting this vulnerability, would craft an Excel file containing malicious code encoded as a number format string, which is executed when the file is parsed by Spreadsheet::ParseExcel.  Basically, untrusted data is passed to the Perl eval function enabling arbitrary code execution. A detailed write up of the vulnerability and Proof of Concept (PoC) is available at https://github.com/haile01/perl_spreadsheet_excel_rce_poc

After three years of not organising and one successful PTS in Lyon last year, we might have become a bit complacent and forgotten how taxing organizing an event is... After a very slow preparation, we are very pleased to announce the fourteenth edition of the Perl Toolchain Summit!

In 2024, we will be meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, from Wednesday April 25 to Sunday April 28. As has become customary, participants will stay at the hotel, and work in the meeting rooms dedicated for the event.

These are some answers to the Week 277, Task 1, of the Perl Weekly Challenge organized by Mohammad S. Anwar.

Spoiler Alert: This weekly challenge deadline is due in a few days from now (on July 14, 2024, known in France as Bastille Day, at 23:59). This blog post provides some solutions to this challenge. Please don’t read on if you intend to complete the challenge on your own.

Task 1: Count Common

You are given two arrays of strings, @words1 and @words2.

Write a script to return the count of words that appears in both arrays exactly once.

Example 1

Input: @words1 = ("Perl", "is", "my", "friend")
       @words2 = ("Perl", "and", "Raku", "are", "friend")
Output: 2

The words "Perl" and "friend" appear once in each array.

Example 2

This week, we discussed:

• Further look down open bugs to tag some as being release-blocker
• Do we want to revert PR21915? - discussed in its own email thread
• Thought of a couple of issues to discuss with the wider group at the upcoming PTS
  • How to handle “important author is AWOL” for upstream CPAN issues
  • How to not break CPAN tests when adding new warnings to core