NetBSD: Unable to install TimeDate distribution; WriteMakefile() gags

[jkeenan]

Today I had occasion to try to install the TimeDate distribution (as a prerequisite to other modules) on NetBSD-8 against perl 5 blead at a commit between perl-5.31.10 and perl-5.31.11. I used 'cpanm' as the installer. 'cpanm' gagged on TimeDate's Makefile.PL, so the distro's modules and revdeps failed to install.

$ uname -mrs
NetBSD 8.0 amd64

$ bleadperl -v | head -2 | tail -1
This is perl 5, version 32, subversion 0 (v5.32.0 (v5.31.10-26-g45f87e6586)) built for amd64-netbsd-thread-multi

$ bleadperl Makefile.PL
Checking if your kit is complete...
Looks good
Bareword found where operator expected at ./Makefile.PL line 1, near "30 mtime"
        (Missing operator before mtime?)
ERROR from evaluation of /home/jkeenan/.cpanm/work/1588960732.3465/TimeDate-2.32/PaxHeader/Makefile.PL: syntax error at ./Makefile.PL line 1, near "30 mtime"

$ bleadperl -d Makefile.PL

Loading DB routines from perl5db.pl version 1.56
Editor support available.

Enter h or 'h h' for help, or 'man perldebug' for more help.

main::(Makefile.PL:20):   (eval { ExtUtils::MakeMaker->VERSION(6.21) } ? (LICENSE => 'perl') : ()),
main::(Makefile.PL:21): );
  DB<1> c
Checking if your kit is complete...
Looks good
Bareword found where operator expected at ./Makefile.PL line 1, near "30 mtime"
 at ./Makefile.PL line 1.
        require ./Makefile.PL called at /home/jkeenan/testing/blead/lib/perl5/5.32.0/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.pm line 257
        ExtUtils::MakeMaker::eval_in_x(PACK001=HASH(0x7dfe553fd750), "/home/jkeenan/.cpanm/work/1588960732.3465/TimeDate-2.32/PaxHe"...) called at /home/jkeenan/testing/blead/lib/perl5/5.32.0/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.pm line 244
        eval {...} called at /home/jkeenan/testing/blead/lib/perl5/5.32.0/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.pm line 244
        ExtUtils::MakeMaker::eval_in_subdirs(PACK001=HASH(0x7dfe553fd750)) called at /home/jkeenan/testing/blead/lib/perl5/5.32.0/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.pm line 824
        ExtUtils::MakeMaker::new("MM", PACK001=HASH(0x7dfe553fd750)) called at /home/jkeenan/testing/blead/lib/perl5/5.32.0/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.pm line 77
        ExtUtils::MakeMaker::WriteMakefile("NAME", "Date::Parse", "DISTNAME", "TimeDate", "AUTHOR", "Graham Barr <gbarr\@pobox.com>", "VERSION_FROM", "lib/Date/Parse.pm", ...) called at Makefile.PL line 20
        (Missing operator before mtime?)
 at ./Makefile.PL line 1.
        require ./Makefile.PL called at /home/jkeenan/testing/blead/lib/perl5/5.32.0/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.pm line 257
        ExtUtils::MakeMaker::eval_in_x(PACK001=HASH(0x7dfe553fd750), "/home/jkeenan/.cpanm/work/1588960732.3465/TimeDate-2.32/PaxHe"...) called at /home/jkeenan/testing/blead/lib/perl5/5.32.0/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.pm line 244
        eval {...} called at /home/jkeenan/testing/blead/lib/perl5/5.32.0/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.pm line 244
        ExtUtils::MakeMaker::eval_in_subdirs(PACK001=HASH(0x7dfe553fd750)) called at /home/jkeenan/testing/blead/lib/perl5/5.32.0/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.pm line 824
        ExtUtils::MakeMaker::new("MM", PACK001=HASH(0x7dfe553fd750)) called at /home/jkeenan/testing/blead/lib/perl5/5.32.0/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.pm line 77
        ExtUtils::MakeMaker::WriteMakefile("NAME", "Date::Parse", "DISTNAME", "TimeDate", "AUTHOR", "Graham Barr <gbarr\@pobox.com>", "VERSION_FROM", "lib/Date/Parse.pm", ...) called at Makefile.PL line 20
ERROR from evaluation of /home/jkeenan/.cpanm/work/1588960732.3465/TimeDate-2.32/PaxHeader/Makefile.PL: syntax error at ./Makefile.PL line 1, near "30 mtime"
 at /home/jkeenan/testing/blead/lib/perl5/5.32.0/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.pm line 248.
        ExtUtils::MakeMaker::eval_in_subdirs(PACK001=HASH(0x7dfe553fd750)) called at /home/jkeenan/testing/blead/lib/perl5/5.32.0/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.pm line 824
        ExtUtils::MakeMaker::new("MM", PACK001=HASH(0x7dfe553fd750)) called at /home/jkeenan/testing/blead/lib/perl5/5.32.0/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.pm line 77
        ExtUtils::MakeMaker::WriteMakefile("NAME", "Date::Parse", "DISTNAME", "TimeDate", "AUTHOR", "Graham Barr <gbarr\@pobox.com>", "VERSION_FROM", "lib/Date/Parse.pm", ...) called at Makefile.PL line 20
Debugged program terminated.  Use q to quit or R to restart,
use o inhibit_exit to avoid stopping after program termination,
h q, h R or h o to get additional info.
  DB<1> 

The distribution contains a file PaxHeader/Makefile.PL which appears to be confusing WriteMakefile().

$ cat PaxHeader/Makefile.PL 
30 mtime=1579556768.563418891

Can you investigate?

Thank you very much. Jim Keenan

[jkeenan]

1. This problem is showing up in some (but not all) CPANtesters results for the TimeDate distribution on NetBSD. Tests are being graded UNKNOWN, which is typical for configure-time failures.
2. The problem goes away if I rename PaxHeader/Makefile.PL so that it is no longer recognized as a subdirectory Makefile.PL and all trace of "PaxHeader" vanishes from the Makefile. I was able to configure, build, test and install the distribution and then install its important revdeps such as HTTP::Response. But I don't know what that implies for the TimeDate test suite.

Please investigate.

Thank you very much. Jim Keenan

[atoomic]

this needs investigation, will try to spend some time today on it I think the issue is coming from the published tarball containing some PAX Headers need to regenerate the tarball and confirm it's fine then publish

[atoomic]

I think the issue comes from using bsd tar from macOS when building the tarball

╰─> wget https://cpan.metacpan.org/authors/id/A/AT/ATOOMIC/TimeDate-2.32.tar.gz
╰─> zgrep -a -e '[P]axHeader' TimeDate-2.32.tar.gz.1
TimeDate-2.32/lib/000755 000767 000024 00000000000 13630020510 014465 5ustar00nicolasstaff000000 000000 TimeDate-2.32/PaxHeader/Makefile.PL000644 000767 000024 00000000036 13611417640 017656 xustar00nicolasstaff000000 000000 30 mtime=1579556768.563418891
1;TimeDate-2.32/lib/Date/Language/PaxHeader/French.pm000644 000767 000024 00000000036 13611433207 022612 xustar00nicolasstaff000000 000000 30 mtime=1579562631.973328945

[atoomic]

@jkeenan v2.33 should fix the issue, waiting for your confirmation before closing it's currently on its way to PAUSE

[jkeenan]

$ uname -mrs
NetBSD 8.0 amd64
$ bleadperl -v | head -2 | tail -1
This is perl 5, version 32, subversion 0 (v5.32.0 (v5.31.10-26-g45f87e6586)) built for amd64-netbsd-thread-multi
$ bleadperl -MTime::Zone -E 'say $Time::Zone::VERSION;'
2.24

LGTM. Thanks for your investigation. Closing.