Re: List of modules I need
So basically you're saying that even if someone fixed LWP::Parallel::UserAgent itself so that the libwww-perl 5.808 dependency was no longer required, there's no way I can build an Ensembl .deb because there's no way of bringing in the other old dependency it needs (bioperl-1.2.3)? Short of changing the Ensembl code itself, that is?
cheers,
Richard
On 11 Aug 2010, at 06:28, Ansgar Burchardt wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Richard Holland <holland@eaglegenomics.com> writes:
>
>>>>>> * LWP::Parallel::UserAgent
>>>>>> (depends on the special case above)
>>>
>>> Is this the only reason why you need the old version of libwww-perl or
>>> are there other incompatibilities?
>>
>> I believe this is the main reason. LWP:: Parallel:::UserAgent is used
>> extensively throughout Ensembl code. (Did some double-checking and
>> apparently libwww-perl 5.812 will also work, but its still very old
>> and also not in Debian).
>>
>> Would it work if I simply packaged LWP::Parallel::UserAgent and the
>> dependent version of libwww-perl into the Ensembl .deb, in a
>> subdirectory of the Ensembl install location (clearly distinguishing
>> the licences and sources of course, and naturally checking the
>> licences of both first to see if this is permissible). This is the
>> same way that BioPerl gets integrated. That way the old code could
>> stay inside the Ensembl install location and only be used by Ensembl
>> itself, as it would be configured to use its own Perl modules, where
>> present, in preference to system ones.
>>
>> Or are there drop-in alternatives to LWP::Parallel::UserAgent in
>> Debian that I could use instead? (without having to modify any Ensembl
>> code.)
>
> Packages embedding other libraries are a problem for Debian in various
> ways. It makes support much harder as all copies have to be located,
> checked, patched (different versions may require different patches) and
> tested. This easily makes much work for the security team and
> complicates transitions (like the one to perl 5.12 mentioned below).
> For this reason this practice is advised against (see Policy 4.13 [1])
> and regarded as a bug (see [2] for a list of known embedded code copies;
> many have an associated bug report).
>
> Furthermore packages using embedded copies do not profit from further
> development, including bug fixes and new features. BioPerl-1.2.3 was
> released almost seven years ago [3], BioPerl-1.4 in December 2003.
>
> In the case of LWP::Parallel::UserAgent, the module needs to be fixed
> anyway as reports on CPAN's Request Tracker [4] indicate that it breaks
> with perl 5.12.1. I don't know of any drop-in replacements, but there
> is at least libpoe-component-client-http-perl which should be able to
> download several files via HTTP in parallel (I have not used it myself
> though, no idea how different this is).
>
> Regards,
> Ansgar
>
> [1] <http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-source.html#s-embeddedfiles>
> [2] <http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/secure-testing/data/embedded-code-copies>
> [3] <http://github.com/bioperl/bioperl-live/tree/bioperl-release-1-2-3>
> [4] <https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=40261>
>
>
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--
Richard Holland, BSc MBCS
Operations and Delivery Director, Eagle Genomics Ltd
T: +44 (0)1223 654481 ext 3 | E: holland@eaglegenomics.com
http://www.eaglegenomics.com/
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