more tightened spec file produced by mageia cpanplus backend

cpanplus::dist::mageia 1.111720 has just been released, with 2 changes:

• no more %defattr definition
• no more default %clean section

indeed, rpm will handle those automatically, as dexter mentioned (cf here and here). this way, we'll have spec files a bit more tightened, which is always better from a maintainer pov.

keep track of your tk widgets easily

when writing a tk application, it's almost always a good idea to keep track of your widgets: this allows to change their state later on.

most of the time, a simple hash is enough; but it is usually wrapped up in methods to make the hash private to the window object. and of course, those methods are duplicated in all modules, under a form or another...

since duplication is bad, i just released Tk::Role::HasWidgets which is a moose role, and provides with a convenient way to store & retrieve your widgets:

use Moose;
    with 'Tk::Role::HasWidgets';

    # when creating a widget
    $self->_set_w( 'my_button', $button );

    # later on, in one of the methods
    $self->_w( 'my_button' )->configure( ... );

the methods featured in this role begin with "_", that is, they are following perl convention of private methods. this is on purpose: remember that this module is a role, consumed by your class. and you don't want those methods to be available outside of the window class, do you?

a bit of dwimery in magpie

all the pieces were available, binding them together was just a smop. therefore magpie just got a new subcommand: "magpie dwim" which does exactly what i mean...

in the case of magpie, what i mean is of course:

• check which perl packages are not up to date wrt cpan
• check them out
• tighten spec file
• update the package to latest version
• commit result
• wait for build system if needed
• submit result

and all of this is done in parallel, with errors reported at the end.
you too can have some fun:

$ sudo urpmi magpie
$ magpie dwim

maintaining the ~2500 perl module rpm packages in mageia has never been so easy!

magpie: how to list non up-to-date perl modules

the final stone is now built for magpie: it's possible to list on your mageia system the perl modules that have up to date versions upstream. it allows to see at a glance which perl packages need to be updated. it's based on cpanplus, and only tackles perl modules installed on your system.

the new command is:

$ magpie old
** core packages: 11

Devel::DProf                             20080331.00 20110228.00
Devel::SelfStubber                              1.03        1.05
[...]
if                                              0.05      0.0601

** normal packages: 57

DateTime::TimeZone                              1.28        1.29     perl-DateTime-TimeZone                                 1.280.0
Digest::SHA                                     5.50        5.60     perl-Digest-SHA                                        5.500.0
[...]
parent                                         0.224       0.225     perl-parent                                            0.224.0

** orphan packages: 7

KENTNL                                      0.010173Dist::Zilla…
[...]
inc::latest                                   0.3624        0.38

** strange packages: 3

App::cpanminus                                1.2001      1.4002     cpanminus(1.200.100),perl-App-cpanminus(1.200.100)
HTTP::Response                                  6.00        6.01     perl-libwww-perl(5.837.0),perl-Test-Mock-LWP(0.50.0),perl-HTTP-Message(6.0.0)
Perl::MinimumVersion                            1.27        1.28     perl-Perl-MinimumVersion(1.270.0),perl-Perl-Critic-Pulp(47.0.0)

** ignored modules: 12

Boulder::Unigene(28051999.00), File::MimeInfo::Rox(0.20), Getopt::Lucid(0.19), HTML::Table(2.08), Imager::Font::Type1(1.011), Inline::Python(0.38), Lingua::Features(0.30), Parse::RecDescent::FAQ::Original(6.00), Switch(2.16), Tie::Watch(1.301), WebFetch(0.13), XML::Grove(0.46)

the columns are: module, old version, new version, mageia package name, mageia package version.

as you can see, the modules are sorted in various categories:

• core - modules shipped with perl (or perl-base)
• dual-lifed (not shown above) - modules that are both shipped with perl (or perl-base) and as a stand-alone package
• normal - regular modules with their own package
• orphan - modules that do not belong to a mageia package (either inherited from mandriva, or not yet pushed on buildsystem).
• strange - modules that belong to more than one magiea package
• ignore - those are modules that either cannot be built (with an upstream bug) or that confuse cpanplus when comparing versions

with this information, it's therefore very straightforward to update the packages, launching the following command as needed:

$ eval $( magpie co -s $pkg ) && magpie update

of course, since all the building blocks are now available, that's what the last command to be implemented (magpie dwim) will do!

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...