[Pdx-pm] Why did this "force install" fix Kwiki?

[Keith Lofstrom]

# from Keith Lofstrom on Saturday 10 November 2007 12:48:
> >> Undefined subroutine &Scalar::Util::weaken called at (eval 27) line
> >> ...
> >I found that some automated updates had touched Scalar/Util.pm on Nov
> > 8, but the actual text of the code had not changed from preceding
> > backups.
 
On Sat, Nov 10, 2007 at 02:02:51PM -0800, Eric Wilhelm wrote:
> What are these "automated updates"?  Did they change the List/Util.pm or 
> auto/List/Util/Util.so files?
> 
> Scalar::Util uses the compiled XS code (Util.so) from List::Util for 
> weaken().

Keith responds:
Thanks!

/usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/i386-linux-thread-multi/auto/List/Util/Util.so
did indeed get mangled,  and the "force install" apparently unmangled it:

In the backups:

... 2007-1108-0503 ... Util/Util.so
  -r-xr-xr-x 66 root root 84841 May 18 16:29

... 2007-1109-0504 ... Util/Util.so
   -rwxr-xr-x 2 root root 36168 Nov  8 04:00      # the broken one 

On the server today, after force update:
   -r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 84841 Nov 10 20:15

My server runs nightly yum updates from the CENTOS 5.0 mirror.  The package 
perl-5.8.8-10.el5_0.2.i386.rpm got updated the night in question.  Looking
into that rpm file, I see that it contains the "short" version of Util.so ,
direct from RedHat, apparently.  As this seeps out into the world, it may
break a lot of Kwiki, Spoon, and Spiffy installs .  Now I gotta figure out
who to tell at RedHat so they can fix it, probably by retaining the old
Util.so as an .rpmsave file.

The Util.so file is not listed in the error messages eructated by Kwiki
that I posted earlier.  I'm glad you figured that out, but I am curious
about how you did so.  How would I, a clueless Perl noob attempting to
maintain Kwiki sites, figure out to look at that file without memorizing
thousands of Perl-related factoids?  

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs