CPAN and undef versions (again)
Some time ago I complained that some modules that had a version ended doing it. The problem? I use a lot the 'r' command in the CPAN client to check for outdated modules. Now, I get a lot of failures that are not really failures:
Package namespace installed latest in CPAN file HTML::Mason::Apache::Request undef 0 DROLSKY/HTML-Mason-1.47.tar.gz JSON::PP::Boolean undef 2.27200 MAKAMAKA/JSON-PP-2.27200.tar.gz JSON::XS::Boolean undef 2.32 MLEHMANN/JSON-XS-2.32.tar.gz JSON::backportPP::Boolean undef 2.27200 MAKAMAKA/JSON-2.53.tar.gz Net::Stomp::Frame undef 0 JTANG/Net-Stomp-0.44.tar.gz SVN::Core .. 1.6.12 MSCHWERN/Alien-SVN-v1.6.12.1.tar. Text::MicroTemplate::EncodedString undef 0.18 KAZUHO/Text-MicroTemplate-0.18.tar.gz
So, what are my versions for these modules?
HTML::Mason, version 1.47
JSON::PP, version 2.27200
JSON::XS, version 2.32
JSON, version 2.53
Net::Stomp, version 0.44
SVN::Core, version 1.6.16
Text::MicroTemplate, version 0.18
So, this is kind of weird, having the same versions, but getting them as out of date.
It would be cool if CPAN didn't complain, or that these modules maintainers keep their modules with versions that can be compared.
Thanks :)
I blog about Perl. D'uh!
Yes, I have seen this before, and it can be a real problem, since it can cause you to overwrite a newer version of the distribution with an older version. If you blindly use 'upgrade', you can end up flip-flopping between versions.
But I am not sure that's what is going on here. The most recent release of JSON::PP::Boolean is May 2011, and I don't think this problem has been going on that long. Moreover, this particular module does not have a version number in the previous two or three releases of the distribution. At least, not unless someone is being _really_ tricky about specifying the version.
Could it be a problem with 02packages.details.txt?
Some of these modules are there since Lion was installed (yes, I'm in Mac OS X). Probably Apple fucked up something?
Well, the JSON modules do the same thing for me, and I'm running Leopard. And a custom-built Perl. That seems (to me at least) to exonerate Apple.
There have been incidents that make me shy away from using a system Perl for my own uses. A couple or three years ago an Apple update clobbered user updates to the system Perl. A couple years before that, I think there were problems with a Red Hat patch to core Perl. You yourself have run into the 'git-grep' thing, or whatever Ubuntu calls 'git'.