[ic] Threaded perl (re: debian bug #203579)

[Jamie Neil]

Karl Schmidt wrote:
> I just ran the test listed in this deb bug report code using perl 5.8.4 
> and got a seg fault. I'm confused - I read in a few places that this was 
> no longer a problem? I wanted to run Interchange with stock debian perl 
> code if I can, but I'm not sure if this is still an issue?
> 
> This bug is getting close to 2 years old -seems like perl should default 
> to non threaded or this bug should get fixed?
> 
> I ran the test code listed in the debian bug and got a seg fault with 
> the testing version of perl.
> 
> But this:
> http://www.perl.com/lpt/a/2003/01/16/whatsnew.html
> 
> --seems to imply that it is fixed????? (see under the "Perl Threads" 
> section.)
> 
> Has anyone in perl upstream ever looked at this?:
> 
> http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=203579
> 
> Isn't this the same bug that causes(d) problems in interchange?
> 
> How can I test for the perl thread bug in interchange?
> 
> Can someone provide an authoritative update of the status of the 
> threaded issue?

My understanding of the problem with IC and threaded Perl is that it is 
to do with certain Perl modules (particularly DBD) having thread 
problems rather than Perl itself.

<rant>

DBD::MySQL claims that it is thread safe, provided it is linked to a 
thread safe sql client library, but looking at the module provided with 
Debian (sarge), it appears to be linked against the standard client 
which is not thread safe. Now I don't know whether this is related to 
the problem or not, because it's frankly beyond my expertise, but I 
really wish that someone who _does_ have the expertise would take 
ownership of this issue and at least identify what needs to be done to 
actually fix it.

The general attitude at the moment seems to be "it's a Perl problem - 
nothing to do with IC" and the solution is always "install a non 
threaded Perl". To which I would answer "It may not be IC's fault, but 
it _is_ an IC problem, because most Perl distributions are now threaded" 
and "What's the point in having packaged versions of IC if all the 
dependancies have to be installed from source?".

</rant>

-- 
Jamie Neil | <jamie at versado.net> | 0870 7777 454
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