Tag: perl

Gentoo – updating perl and problems like perl-core/ is blocking virtual/perl-

When upgrading Perl under Gentoo it’s almost typical to have blocks of the kind:

[blocks B      ] <perl-core/File-Path-2.160.0 ("<perl-core/File-Path-2.160.0" is blocking virtual/perl-File-Path-2.160.0)
[blocks B      ] <perl-core/Module-CoreList-5.201.905.220 ("<perl-core/Module-CoreList-5.201.905.220" is blocking virtual/perl-Module-CoreList-5.201.905.220)
[blocks B      ] <perl-core/Archive-Tar-2.320.0 ("<perl-core/Archive-Tar-2.320.0" is blocking virtual/perl-Archive-Tar-2.320.0)

These blocks appeared when we tried updaring the Perl 5.26 to 5.30 (dev-lang/perl-5.30.0:0/5.30::gentoo from dev-lang/perl-5.26.2:0). This update is a major update.
So what does it mean?
The virtual package and the perl-core package should be the same version, but it appears there are no corresponding same versions to the virtual package versions (). The problem is that the update depends on a newer version of File-Path, Module-CoreList, and Archive-Tar but there are only virtual packages with the required versions. Virtual packages are just meta-packages and they do not install any module. First, what are the virtual/[perl-module] and perl-core/[perl-module]:

  • perl-core/[perl-module] – perl independent modules. In fact, the same module may be independent and it may be part of the build-in packages from the Perl main package – dev-lang/perl. Sometimes you may choose the independent package, because of a newer version than the version included in the dev-lang/perl package.
  • virtual/[perl-module] – perl meta-package, which ensures the installation of the module. The module could be an independent package from above or module, which is included in the main Perl package (in dev-lang/perl)

To solve the blocks of this kind “perl-core/ is blocking virtual/perl-” you must check for a newer version of perl-core/* if there is no newer version, just to remove the package and let the setup (emerge) use the module included in dev-lang/perl.

In our case, there are no newer versions of the three packages and we remove them with:

emerge -Cv perl-core/File-Path perl-core/Module-CoreList perl-core/Archive-Tar

And then emerge with no problems the new version of Perl with:

emerge --verbose --verbose-conflicts --backtrack=200000 $(qlist -IC|grep perl|sort|uniq) media-gfx/inkscape media-gfx/imagemagick dev-php/pecl-imagick

For detail explaination of why we use verbose-conflicts, backtrack, qlist and three excplicitly added packages you may read our article on similar subject – Gentoo updating perl with many masked and blocked packages
You may read the offcial documentation for more information – https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Perl#Introduction

Updating our Perl from dev-lang/perl-5.26.2:0 to dev-lang/perl-5.30.0:0/5.30

Keep on reading!

Gentoo updating perl with many masked and blocked packages

After our previous howto Gentoo – update dev-libs/icu on a desktop box with KDE GUI and many masked packages we want to show you another example of how to update perl, which could have hundreds dependencies installed as perl modules. You can check for more details above howto, details about what to do when there are masked and blocked packages, because here we use only some of the options we have the proper ones for this case.
Just to note when updating perl you must reinstall (recompile, rebuild) all the external modules (additional packages) and all perl modules installed with CPAN module (if you do not know what is this, you probably have not used it so no worries).

How we managed to update in our current situation:

  • use qlist to update/re(build) to pull currently installed packages with some name or category (categories)
  • Add or remove USE flags if needed – emerge will show you information about it. Use package.use, package.mask, package.unmask and so on.
  • Use verbose,verbose-conflicts and backtrack with emerge
  • Include explicitly packages, which block our updates in the emerge line! You could specify packages with the versions.

More on the subject of Perl update tips here: Gentoo update tips when updating packages with blocks and masked files
And a new article on the subject – Gentoo – updating perl and problems like perl-core/ is blocking virtual/perl-
Keep on reading!

glibc 2.26 and failure to compile because of xlocale.h

Since release of glibc 2.26 there is no xlocale.h file any more, because there was never intended to be as separate file! According to the Release notes of glibc 2.26 this file

was a strict subset of the standard header locale.h

Apparently this file had had to be used only internally for the glibc, but many programs used it directly and now they fail to compile with:

In file included from /usr/include/mlt/framework/mlt_animation.h:27:0,
                    from /usr/include/mlt/framework/mlt.h:39,
                    from /usr/include/mlt++/MltAnimation.h:26,
                    from /usr/include/mlt++/Mlt.h:24,
                    from /var/tmp/portage/kde-apps/kdenlive-17.12.1/work/kdenlive-17.12.1/thumbnailer/mltpreview.h:2 ,
                    from /var/tmp/portage/kde-apps/kdenlive-17.12.1/work/kdenlive-17.12.1/thumbnailer/mltpreview.cpp:21:
    /usr/include/mlt/framework/mlt_property.h:34:10: fatal error: xlocale.h: No such file or directory
    #include <xlocale.h>
            ^~~~~~~~~~~
    compilation terminated.
    distcc[19778] ERROR: compile /var/tmp/portage/kde-apps/kdenlive-17.12.1/work/kdenlive-17.12.1/thumbnailer/mltpreview.cpp on localhost failed
    make[2]: *** [thumbnailer/CMakeFiles/mltpreview.dir/build.make:63: thumbnailer/CMakeFiles/mltpreview.dir/mltpreview.cpp.o] Error 1
    make[2]: Leaving directory '/var/tmp/portage/kde-apps/kdenlive-17.12.1/work/kdenlive-17.12.1_build'
    make[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/Makefile2:1434: thumbnailer/CMakeFiles/mltpreview.dir/all] Error 2
    make[1]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
    make[2]: Leaving directory '/var/tmp/portage/kde-apps/kdenlive-17.12.1/work/kdenlive-17.12.1_build'
    make -f renderer/CMakeFiles/kdenlive_render.dir/build.make renderer/CMakeFiles/kdenlive_render.dir/build
    make[2]: Entering directory '/var/tmp/portage/kde-apps/kdenlive-17.12.1/work/kdenlive-17.12.1_build'

The above output is from a Gentoo linux distro trying to compile the kde-apps/kdenlive (kde-apps/kdenlive-17.12.1), but it is a known fact that many programs used the file and you may see another program to fail with the same or similar compilation error. You may encounter such errors when compiling perl or perl modules.
The workaround till the maintainer (if the project is alive, of course) fixes it is so simple, just link the missing file with a symbolic link:

ln -s /usr/include/locale.h /usr/include/xlocale.h