Perl

Fedora Perl SIG Mission

To assist packagers in bringing Perl-related packages to Fedora and assisting in their continued maintenance by providing timely reviews, acting as secondary package owners and assisting with related security issues.

Perl Components in Fedora

Core Perl

perl in Fedora is defined by perl-core package. Some core modules are replaced with packages dual-living on CPAN. See koji build listing for current perl version.

Apps

• Alzabo - Data modelling tool (also in CPAN)
• Bugzilla - Defect Tracking System
• Cluster SSH - Cluster Admin Via SSH
• MojoMojo - Catalyst-based wiki, with live as-you-type AJAX preview of edits
• Padre - The Perl IDE
• RT - Release Tracker - a battle-tested issue tracking system
• SpamAssassin - A spam filter for email

Frameworks

There are a number of the more popular Perl frameworks available in Fedora.

• AnyEvent - A framework for multiple event loops
• Bricolage - Content Management System
• Catalyst - MVC Web Application Framework
• DBIx::Class - a modern, powerful object-relational mapping system
• Moose - Modern perl5 OOP system
• POE - Portable multitasking and networking framework

MoarVM -> NQP -> Rakudo Perl 6

• MoarVM - A VM for NQP and Rakkudo Perl 6
• NQP - NQP is a lightweight Perl 6-like environment for virtual machines.
• Pugs - A Perl 6 Implementation written in Haskell
  • mailing list thread
• Rakudo - A Perl 6 implementation (was F-12 feature)
• microperl

Perl packages in Fedora

Please edit the Perl wishlist if you want something, or package something off it if you're bored :)

Bugzilla is an excellent place to find information about the various perl packages in or being reviewed for inclusion:

• Review queue
• Reviews without reviewer
• Open bugs
• FTBFS bugs
• Perl on server (ideas)

Fedora perl infrastructure

Perl to CPAN Mapping

With most perl modules being in CPAN, mapping table has been created. This table is regenerated on a daily basis, and will be included in the upcoming Perl SIG Infrastructure hosted project.

Problems that need to be addressed

The following topics need to be discussed/improved/corrected. We need to start discussing them in the fedora-perl-list.

• Improve the RPM perl scripts (requirements and provides detection)
  • rpm: handle the ‘v’ in “use v5.6.0″ (#140597) (reportedly fixed in rpm5.org's RPM 4.4.3)
  • fix: perldeps and prov.pl not to emit perl(main) (#177960) (reportedly fixed in rpm5.org's RPM 4.4.5)
  • at least try to handle use statements a litte better (eg: use base Module; use autouse Module; ...)
    • Use PPI?
  • Try to have RPM patched in order to create the debuginfo files after the %check section script is executed and not before (right now the files are created after the %install check script is executed). This breaks the signature tests (there are also other problems related to the signature tests in the building environment: network access to import pgg keys, where should they be stored, ...). More information available here and in bug #167252 .
• How to update core perl modules?
  • tips for updates
• The correct @INC directories are still questionable.
• Have a common dir for noarch modules instead of one for each perl version supported.
• The magic that is perl(:WITH_xxx) needs to be better documented and explained, so packagers -- and reviewers! -- know:
  • What they are and what they mean
  • When to use them
  • When to _not_ use them
  • Common things to check for that would indicate their usage
• explore possibilities or merging RPM2 functionality into RPM namespace #671389

See Perl/Plan for structured plan.

Miscellaneous

• Clarified packaging guidelines - Some of the packaging guidelines (see Packaging/Perl) have conflicted with some common practises.
  • For example, BuildRequires: perl was common but forbidden; that has now been changed. One current issue is the prohibition against including header files in the main package; some perl modules include these deep in the module directory hierarchy, and moving them to a separate -devel package is pointless.
• Notes about "Makefile.PL vs Build.PL" or "ExtUtils::MakeMaker vs Module::Build"
  • http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-review/2006-September/msg00649.html

Packagers/Reviewers/People interested in helping

• Chris Weyl
• Emmanuel Seyman
• GavinHenry
• Iain Arnell (a sponsor)
• JasonTibbitts
• Jitka Plesníková
• Gerd Pokorra
• Lubomir Rintel (a sponsor)
• Marcela Mašláňová
• Paul Howarth (a sponsor)
• Petr Písař
• Rüdiger Landmann
• Steven Pritchard (a sponsor)
• Michal Josef Špaček

You can also see people who have tagged their user pages in the Category:SIG Members/Perl.

References

• CPAN - Comprehensive Perl Archive Network
• CPAN - Recent files
• Perl/updates
• Fedora perl specfile template (available in the rpmdevtools package)
• cpanspec
• maintaining perl.spec
• Packaging/Perl
• Perl/Tips
• Perl packaging tips - archive URL (work in progress)

Communication & help

• perl-devel is our SIG's mailing list
• perl6 is the mailing list particular for Perl 6
• The Fedora Perl room on Fedora Chat

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