[ic] Perl, debian packages, and the usual issues.

Mike Heins mike at perusion.com
Wed Jan 19 21:02:09 EST 2005


Quoting Jeff Fearn (jefffearn at gmail.com):
> On Wed, 19 Jan 2005 10:31:43 +0000, Jamie Neil <jamie at versado.net> wrote:
> > Cameron G wrote:
> >
> > What I don't understand is why this separate Perl workaround is still
> > necessary. It seems that the problem with IC and threaded Perl is not
> > Perl itself but the DBI or DBD::mysql modules. Now DBI is (AFAIK) a very
> > widely used Perl module, and MySQL is the most popular database out
> > there, so now that almost every current Linux distribution ships with a
> > threaded Perl, why has this issue not been fixed? Is Interchange the
> > _only_ application out there that has issues with threaded Perl? Surely
> > if the problem lies in the DBI modules then many other applications
> > would be affected?
> 
> >From the docs for DBI 1.46 (November 2004): "Using DBI with perl
> threads is not yet recommended for production environments."
> 
> It appears that DBI is thread safe, but that some DBD modules are the problem.
> 
> http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Mail/Message/perl-DBI-Dev/2241844
> 
> DBD:mysql thread safety depends on the way the C libs are compiled.
> 
> http://search.cpan.org/~rudy/DBD-mysql-2.9004/lib/DBD/mysql.pm#MULTITHREADING
> 
> The question seems to be how many DBD modules are thread safe and what
> conditions need to be met to enable this behaviour in each DBD module.
> 
> I'm thinking that writing an installer to check all that out would be
> ... very challenging.

Not to mention we could check it out completely, pass a full battery of
tests, and then fail in one of the border cases that threading software
is famous for.

-- 
Mike Heins
Perusion -- Expert Interchange Consulting    http://www.perusion.com/
phone +1.765.647.1295  tollfree 800-949-1889 <mike at perusion.com>

p.s. sorry for lower case, injured hand

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed. -- Francis Bacon


More information about the interchange-users mailing list