Bug #115340 for CPAN: Too dumb in handling recursive dependencies

Tue Jun 14 21:04:08 2016 $_ = 'spro^^*%*^6ut# [...] &$%*c>#!^!#&!pan.org'; y/a-z.@//cd; print - Ticket created

Subject:

Too dumb in handling recursive dependencies

Test::More depends on File::Spec. File::Spec depends on Test::More. So I get things like this (running 2.10 on perl 5.8.7): Show quoted text

cpan> test Test::More File::Spec

... Show quoted text

cpan> install Test::More

Recursive dependency detected: Test::More (have: 0.54; want: 1.302026) => EXODIST/Test-Simple-1.302026.tar.gz => File::Spec (have: 3.05; requires: 0) => RJBS/PathTools-3.62.tar.gz => Test::More (have: 0.54; requires: 0.88). Cannot resolve. Karen Etheridge points out in https://github.com/Test-More/test-more/issues/682 that, since File::Spec is already installed and the required version (0) is lower than the installed version, it should not consider this a circular dependency. Personally, I don’t think it’s worth making CPAN.pm more complicated, and I suggested simply dropping the prerequisite declarations from Test::More (it’s sufficiently low-level that that should never be a problem), but I wanted to see what opinions were on the ‘other side’.

Tue Jun 14 21:05:22 2016 $_ = 'spro^^*%*^6ut# [...] &$%*c>#!^!#&!pan.org'; y/a-z.@//cd; print - Correspondence added

On Tue Jun 14 21:04:08 2016, SPROUT wrote: Show quoted text

> Test::More depends on File::Spec. File::Spec depends on Test::More. > So I get things like this (running 2.10 on perl 5.8.7): >

> cpan> test Test::More File::Spec

> ...

> cpan> install Test::More

> > Recursive dependency detected: > Test::More (have: 0.54; want: 1.302026) > => EXODIST/Test-Simple-1.302026.tar.gz > => File::Spec (have: 3.05; requires: 0) > => RJBS/PathTools-3.62.tar.gz > => Test::More (have: 0.54; requires: 0.88). > Cannot resolve. > > Karen Etheridge points out in https://github.com/Test-More/test- > more/issues/682 that, since File::Spec is already installed and the > required version (0) is lower than the installed version, it should > not consider this a circular dependency. > > Personally, I don’t think it’s worth making CPAN.pm more complicated, > and I suggested simply dropping the prerequisite declarations from > Test::More (it’s sufficiently low-level that that should never be a > problem), but I wanted to see what opinions were on the ‘other side’.

That said, if a dependency is recursive, why cannot both modules just get installed at the same time and included in each other’s PERL5LIB when testing? (If they are build or configure prerequisites, then CPAN.pm could continue to freak out.)

Tue Jun 14 21:05:22 2016 The RT System itself - Status changed from 'new' to 'open'

Tue Jun 14 23:03:32 2016 ANDK [...] cpan.org - Correspondence added

I think this should be fixable just by acknowledging that the dependencies are on different version numbers instead of throwing them into one basket with the highest dependency dominating. The reason it is so picky is that the circular dependency detection happens in the planning phase. Changing that seems like more effort than the strategy I describe above.

Mon Jun 27 17:06:30 2016 ANDK [...] cpan.org - Correspondence added

Tentative fix in a6879ac.

Mon Jun 27 17:06:36 2016 ANDK [...] cpan.org - Status changed from 'open' to 'patched'

Mon Dec 24 15:58:19 2018 ANDK [...] cpan.org - Status changed from 'patched' to 'resolved'

Mon Dec 24 15:58:20 2018 ANDK [...] cpan.org - Fixed in 2.16 added