[gentoo-user] XML-Parser missing -- is it bad perl?

[gentoo-user] XML-Parser missing -- is it bad perl?

[maxim wexler]

Hello everyone,

Seems like trying to emerge firefox, xmms, others?
leads to

XML::Parser
configure:1711: error: XML::Parser perl module is
required for intltool

Some say re-emerge XML-Parser. Nope.

Some say eliminate it. Nope.

Another says emerge libxml-perl. Another says rebuild
perl.

While I'm off attempting the former will someone
please explain how to do the latter?

-mw


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Re: [gentoo-user] XML-Parser missing -- is it bad perl?

[Holly Bostick]

maxim wexler schreef:
> Another says emerge libxml-perl. Another says rebuild
> perl.
> 
> While I'm off attempting the former will someone
> please explain how to do the latter?
> 

eix perl-cleaner
* app-admin/perl-cleaner
     Available versions:  1.01
     Installed:           1.01
     Homepage:            http://dev.gentoo.org/~mcummings/
     Description:         User land tool for cleaning up old perl installs


perl-cleaner --help
Usage: /usr/bin/perl-cleaner [options] [ask]
	modules - rebuild perl modules for old installs of perl
	allmodules - rebuild perl modules for any install of perl
	libperl - rebuild anything linked against libperl
	ph-clean - clean out old ph files from a previous perl
	phupdate - update existing ph files, useful after an upgrade to system
parts like the kernel
	phall - clean out old ph files and run phupdate
	all - rebuild modules, libperl linkages, clean ph files, and rebuild them
	reallyall - rebuild modules for any install of perl, libperl linkages,
clean ph files, and rebuild them

	ask - ask for confirmation on each emerge

That's one way. Perl-cleaner can also be found in
/usr/portage/dev-lang/perl/files.

I find it odd that re-emerging XML-Parser didn't work for you; it always
did for me (although I haven't encountered this error recently,
certainly not with Firefox... and I do compile it), and I have surely
had this ...annoying.. issue with XML::Parser often enough to say that.


HTH,
Holly
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Re: [gentoo-user] XML-Parser missing -- is it bad perl? IT WAS

[maxim wexler]

> That's one way. Perl-cleaner can also be found in
> /usr/portage/dev-lang/perl/files.

#perl-cleaner allmodules

did the deed. Thanks Holly. BTW, where are these
modules and how do they differ from the ones residing
under /lib/modules?

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Re: [gentoo-user] XML-Parser missing -- is it bad perl? IT WAS

[Holly Bostick]

maxim wexler schreef:
>>That's one way. Perl-cleaner can also be found in
>>/usr/portage/dev-lang/perl/files.
> 
> 
> #perl-cleaner allmodules
> 
> did the deed. Thanks Holly. BTW, where are these
> modules and how do they differ from the ones residing
> under /lib/modules?
> 

The modules in /lib/modules belong to the kernel for those 'drivers'
specified to be compiled as modules (rather than statically compiled
into the kernel itself), as well as those outside kernel modules that
may be compiled later-- like the ATI video drivers used on my system,
which are not compiled as part of the kernel compilation process (being
a separate, proprietary download), but are compiled *against* the kernel
afterwards, then inserted into /lib/modules/kernel-version (because they
are ultimately kernel drivers, responsible for detecting and supporting
a piece of system hardware).

The Perl modules are found in /usr/lib/perl5/perl.versi.on, and have
nothing to do with the kernel, but similarly expand the capabilities of
Perl and Perl-based operations in the same way that kernel modules
expand (or restrict) the capabilities of the kernel to detect specific
hardware.

But that's what a module is all about, anyway. The 'problem' in this
case is that (imo based on my experience):

1) certain "unrelated" programs that depend on/use Perl operations (as
opposed to Python or Java or some other language) for their functioning
further require that Perl have certain modules installed for the
program's Perl-dependent functioning to work (you can see why Firefox
would need Perl to be able to read and parse XML if Firefox was going to
use Perl in some respect, given that XML is used frequently in web-pages
of various sorts), and

2) certain Perl modules (notably the XML Parser, in my experience) tend
strongly towards "breakage" when Perl is upgraded (meaning not that any
given module itself actually 'breaks', but that said module is not
successfully transferred/registered to associate itself with the new
version as the majority of other previously-installed modules are).

I found this to occur most often during 'moderate' upgrades of Perl
(from 5.x.whatever to 5.y.whatever), rather than for 'minor' upgrades
(5.8.x to 5.8.y), but it can occur at any time. Therefore-- since I
refuse at this time to become expert in the workings of the mind of
Perl-- I've just trained myself to run perl-cleaner after any upgrade to
Perl (which doesn't happen that often, really), as advised by the emerge
process itself:

> 	eerror "You have had multiple versions of perl. It is recommended"
> 	eerror "that you run perl-cleaner now. perl-cleaner will"
> 	eerror "assist with this transition. This script is capable"
> 	eerror "of cleaning out old .ph files, rebuilding modules for "
> 	eerror "your new version of perl, as well as re-emerging"
> 	eerror "applications that compiled against your old libperl.so"


It's a pain (because perl-cleaner does take a while, but it's still
faster than the previous 'perl-rebuilder' or whatever it was called, and
also seems more reliable and 'professional' than that script), but hey,
that's life with Linux (some things are a pain), and $DEITY bless Gentoo
for having a tool to handle this with the minimum disturbance possible
(the agonizing wait is unavoidable, but everything else is automated...
and that would be Gentoo, in a nutshell :-D).

HTH,
Holly
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