svk cannot be built anymore - EDIT: svk will build with reduced features

while rebuilding perl packages for mageia, i found out that svn::mirror cannot be built anymore with subversion 1.6.x. said like this, one may think "wtf, i don't give a damn to svn::mirror". and lots of other cpan modules are bit-rotting, so what's the point? well, the thing is, svn::mirror is a prereq for svk, the decentralized subversion...

granted, svk has been end-of-lifed in 2009, yet it's still widely in use. but as long as svn-mirror won't get fixed, mageia won't include svk support.

EDIT (20110301): in fact, svn::mirror is an optional prereq for svk - mageia will therefore ship with svk, albeit with a reduced feature set

magpie update now waaaaaaay faster!

"magpie update", used to update automatically a perl module rpm to its latest version, was a bit slow. the culprit was parse::cpan::packages, taking a whole 10 seconds to parse 02packages.details.txt.gz

fortunately, i found parse::cpan::packages::fast (from slaven++), which does exactly the same job in less than a second...

so, with a 16-line patch (-2/+2), magpie update now is almost instant. cpan is definitely the home of nice gems, and *the* advantage of perl.

new magpie command: update

i'm happy to report yet another magpie release, version 1.110410

this release brings a new subcommand: update (aka refresh)

it will automatically update a perl module package being checked out to the latest version, update buildrequires (with fixspec), try to build it locally, commit if successful, wait according to build-system hints, then submit it.

it's easy to use:

$ eval $( magpie co -s perl-Foo-Bar )
$ magpie update -v

note: it requires a minicpan installation on your computer...

now, you too can join the fun of updating perl modules packages for mageia! but it's not yet over, automation will go one step further - stay tuned...

new magpie command: fixspec

i just released magpie 1.110390, which brings a new subcommand: magpie fixspec

as you can guess, this command will try to sanitize a rpm spec file a bit. to use it, you must be in a package checkout, and run it without any argument.

$ eval $( magpie co perl-Foo-Bar )
$ magpie fixspec -v

# to see the list of options
$ magpie help fix

among the things that fixspec does:

• it updates %doc depending on the existing files, including meta files
• it splits multiple bundled build-/requires to have only one per line
• it lines up vertically the summary / etc
• it extracts perl buildrequires from meta.json/meta.yml if present
• it removes buildroot definition
• it removes mdv macros

note that the code is not really clean, it might gain from being in its
own module, with real rpm parsing instead of big regexes. also, it
assumes that we're cleaning a perl module spec file, so you're on your
own if you're using it on other spec file: it might remove the whole
svn, eat your babies, or even convert your rpm database to rpm5. you've
been warned. :-)

new dist::zilla command: pot

i just released dist::zilla::app::command::pot, providing dist::zilla with a new pot command (not the plant, you hippy!).

this command allows to (re-)generate a messages.pot file holding all strings to be translated from your module. If a messages.pot file is found, it will update it. otherwise, you will be prompted for a file location, with a default matching Locale::TextDomain settings:

$dzil pot
[...]
[DZ] Trying to find a messages.pot file...
[DZ] No messages.pot found - enter your own.
messages.pot to use [lib/LocaleData/Foo-Bar-messages.pot]:
[DZ] Running xgettext...

yup, underneath it just runs xgettext. and currently, it only finds calls to T() - but i'll add an option to provide your own convention such as _(), gettext(), etc.

magpie - MAGeia Perl Integration Easy

in my mandriva to mageia switch, i promised to myself that i'd collect the various scripts that i'm using on a day to day basis to maintain the myriad of perl rpm packages.

therefore, i've created magpie (MAGeia Perl Integration Easy) and uploaded it to cpan. the tool is not yet complete, but i'm incorporating new commands now and then.

it currently supports 2 commands:

• magpie bswait - this command pauses according to the recommendation of mageia build-system. it indeed provides some recommendation on how much time to pause between 2 packages submission to not overload it - (this is known as throttling).
• magpie co - this brand new command (in version 1.110320) allows to check-out a given package from mageia repository.

some details about magpie checkout: it is not meant to replace "mgarepo co", it does in fact use mgarepo underneath. so what does this command add?

• the possibility to check out in a given directory
  

  $ magpie co -d ~/rpm/cauldron perl

• the fact that it will either check out *or* update the local check-out if it already exists:
  

  $ magpie co -d ~/rpm/cauldron perl
  # check-out if 1st run, update otherwise

• finally, the possibility to dump a shell command to execute to change directory in the fresh check-out:
  

  # add this in your ~/.bashrc
  function cco() { eval $(magpie co -d ~/rpm/cauldron -q -s $*); }
  # then, one can do a fresh checkout/update + cd by issuing:
  $ cco perl

nothing revolutionary, but it saves some keystrokes here and there.