Bug 88573

Created attachment 91069 [details]
Perl source demonstrating bug

This is a cut and paste of a section of code from
mysql-3.23.54a/bin/mysqlaccess, which you can find in the tgz of MySQL here

http://www.mysql.com/downloads/download.php?file=Downloads%2FMySQL-3.23%2Fmysql-3.23.56.tar.gz&mirror=http%3A%2F%2Fmysql.he.net%2F

Try the perl.req from rpm-4.1. I'm pretty sure
this problem is fixed there.

Still broken.

% cd /var/tmp
% rpm -q redhat-release
redhat-release-8.0-8
% rpm -qf /usr/lib/rpm/perl.req
rpm-build-4.1-1.06
% wget -q -O test.pl \
  "http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/attachment.cgi?id=91069&action=view"
% /usr/lib/rpm/perl.req test.pl
perl(strict)
perl(the)
%

Then you will need to filter the offending dependencies
manually. See many CPAN package, look for %__find_requires
override in spec file.

FWIW, there's also a replacement for perl.{prov,req} scripts
in rp[m-4.1.1 and later.

This bug has nothign to do with CPAN. This is a bug when perl.req parses ANY
here doc. In this case, it's scrwing up with parsing stuff in a mysql build.

It'd be really helpful if you could send a url to one of those spec files. I'm
sure it's in many modules, but there are many * 2 modules, so it's kinda like
the old needle and haystack deal.

Secondly, I am using 4.1.1 so I'm not sure what you mean about the replacement deal.

Look at perl-DBD-MySQL spec file from Red Hat 9.

Don't worry, no one is using /usr/lib/rpm/perldeps.pl, also in rpm-4.1.1.

I started looking into the guts of "perl.req" and this regexp looks fairly wrong
to me...

        (m/^(\s*)         # we hope the inclusion starts the line
         (require|use)\s+(?!\{)     # do not want 'do {' loops
         # quotes around name are always legal
         [\'\"]?([^\;\ \'\"\t]*)[\'\"]?[\t\;\ ]
         # the syntax for 'use' allows version requirements
         \s*([.0-9]*)
         /x)
       ) {
      my ($whitespace, $statement, $module, $version) = ($1, $2, $3,$4);

For starters, it's allowing the ";" to appear prior to the version number  ...
and it doesn't seem like this regexp (or any of the other code after it) is
enforcing that there must eventually be a ";" (after an optional LIST for the
modules impot method).

I also noticed this line...

      # skip if the phrase was "use of" -- shows up in gimp-perl, et al
      next if $module eq 'of';

which makes me wonder if perhaps this bug could be fixed quickly by changing
that line to ...

      # skip if the phrase was "use of" -- shows up in gimp-perl, et al
      next if $module =~ /^(of|the)$/i;

(which could later include any other common prepositions that show up in
documentation)

Lastly: I have to wonder if the best solution wouldn't be to strip "here docs"
the same way that POD is striped?

Yup, perl.req (or new-fangled /usr/lib/rpm/perldeps.pl) is
where final fix for an errant misfiring regex is gonna be needed.

Getting consensus on the fix is harder, requires burn-in on an entire
release cycle these days. Equivalently, rebuild 1500+ packages in distro
to show equivalent automagic dependency generation.

Well, if redhat really plans to fix this, shouldn't the bug be left open? Or
marked as a duplicate/dependency of a bug that tracks the acutal work? It'll be
forgotten, or the same defect filed again if this stays closed.

I'm not trying to be a jackass user, just trying to help redhat make a solid
product. I don't want this to slip through the cracks.

Separately, I want to see if /usr/lib/rpm/perldeps.pl has the same problems.
Which rpm owns this file?

bash$ rpm -qf /usr/lib/rpm/perldeps.pl 
rpm-build-4.2-0.69

I'd love to fix, but correctly generating correct
output for all possible perl scripts is not an easy
problem.

BTW,
    Requires: perl(strict)
is a real dependency.

bash$ rpm -q --provides perl | grep strict
perl(strict)