Bug #5256 for txt2html: Cannot be installed using CPAN.pm

Sun Feb 08 16:47:12 2004 SOMIAN [...] cpan.org - Ticket created

Subject:

Cannot be installed using CPAN.pm

Perl's automatic module installation tools cannot easily handle the make / make test / make install sequence of this package. In particular many users do not have write privileges to "/usr/share" but that is the hardwired default for the location of the "txt2html.dict" file. Having to use CPAN as superuser is a security hazard as well as an inconvenience (it tends to leave behind files both installed and in temp cache / build locations, which an ordinary user cannot clean up -- so even more fussing has to be done as 'root'). So even on single-user UNIX systems this is sub-optimal. On many advanced multiuser UNIX systems there are package management protocols in place which make it an administrative error to allow non-package-managed files to be installed into any sub hierarchy of /usr (excepting etc/, in some cases). Debian GNU/Linux is one such OS. The /usr/local hierarchy is the appropriate pref for non-package-managed local software to be installed. The current txt2html Makefile.PL setup only allows control over install location by the user knowing to (or being able to) argue "PREFIX" when doing "perl Makefile.PL ...", and CPAN does not give that chance. Also it is possible and desirable to allow CPAN to be configured so that without saying "PREFIX" it just "does the Right Thing". This all means that the current strategy for installing the .dict file is going to be wrong and is user-unfriendly, in many cases. On Debian I work as a member of UNIX group "staff" which has write privs to "/usr/local" so that CPAN site installs work fine for me (with compliant modules). This trouble can be addressed by doing more in the Makefile.PL, and a patch is available to show exactly that. HTH. YMMV. Best Regards to Cousin Kathryn et al, <blockquote> Soren Andersen <intrepid *AT* permonk -DOT- org> </blockquote>

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Wed Feb 25 04:10:38 2004 Guest - Correspondence added

From:

RUBYKAT

[SOMIAN - Sun Feb 8 16:47:12 2004]: Show quoted text

> On many advanced multiuser UNIX systems there are > package management protocols in place which make it an > administrative error to allow non-package-managed files > to be installed into any sub hierarchy of /usr > (excepting etc/, in some cases). Debian GNU/Linux is > one such OS.

That's irrelevant to Debian, because there *is* an official Debian txt2html package. Show quoted text

> The /usr/local hierarchy is the > appropriate pref for non-package-managed local software > to be installed. The current txt2html Makefile.PL setup > only allows control over install location by the user > knowing to (or being able to) argue "PREFIX" when doing > "perl Makefile.PL ...", and CPAN does not give that > chance. Also it is possible and desirable to allow CPAN > to be configured so that without saying "PREFIX" it > just "does the Right Thing". This all means that the > current strategy for installing the .dict file is going > to be wrong and is user-unfriendly, in many cases.

I would say that that was a bug in CPAN.pm, not in my package. Using PREFIX is the recognised, standard method of changing the installation location of a module, and should be perfectly adequate, considering that if one doesn't have write access to "/usr/share", one wouldn't have write access to "/usr/share/perl" either. Show quoted text

> This trouble can be addressed by doing more in the > Makefile.PL, and a patch is available to show exactly > that. HTH. YMMV.

I really don't think it is worth the added complication. Maybe you should suggest a patch to CPAN.pm? Show quoted text

> Best Regards to Cousin Kathryn et al,

(grin) Oh, yes, it's fun to find someone with the same surname! Show quoted text

> Soren Andersen <intrepid *AT* permonk -DOT- org>

Kathryn Andersen <perlkat *AT* katspace -DOT- com>

Wed Feb 25 04:25:36 2004 rubykat [...] cpan.org - Taken

Wed Feb 25 04:27:45 2004 rubykat [...] cpan.org - Requestor Soren A <intrepid@perlmonk.org> deleted

Wed Feb 25 04:27:45 2004 rubykat [...] cpan.org - Requestor SOMIAN added

Wed Feb 25 04:29:14 2004 rubykat [...] cpan.org - Correspondence added

[SOMIAN - Sun Feb 8 16:55:21 2004]: Show quoted text

> [SOMIAN - Sun Feb 8 16:47:12 2004]: > > I wish I understood how rt works a little better. I did not intend for > my email address (intrepid AT perlmonk *DOT* org) to be displayed > publicly. I hope that someone takes ownership of this ticket soon and > can modify my ticket so that my email address no longer shows. My rt id > is SOMIAN. That's all that I want to be shown.

I think this is fixed now. I'm new at this too. RUBYKAT

Wed Feb 25 05:01:12 2004 rubykat [...] cpan.org - Status changed from 'new' to 'stalled'

Fri Feb 27 02:39:44 2004 SOMIAN [...] cpan.org - Correspondence added

[guest - Wed Feb 25 04:10:38 2004]: Show quoted text

> [SOMIAN - Sun Feb 8 16:47:12 2004]: > >

> > On many advanced multiuser UNIX systems there are > > package management protocols in place which make it an > > administrative error to allow non-package-managed files > > to be installed into any sub hierarchy of /usr > > (excepting etc/, in some cases). Debian GNU/Linux is > > one such OS.

> That's irrelevant to Debian, because there *is* an official Debian > txt2html package.

What about the others? Sun's Perl package for example? Anyway it isn't really irrelevent, IMHO, to me as a Debian user. I choose to keep my own pace with the upstream maintainer of modules in many cases, installing into /usr/local as per Debian filesystem hierarchy policy. I expect modules to work with CPAN, i.e. to adhere to packaging / design standards sufficiently well that using CPAN.pm, I can install them. The vast majority of modules do install using CPAN. Show quoted text

> > The /usr/local hierarchy is the > > appropriate pref for non-package-managed local software > > to be installed. The current txt2html Makefile.PL setup > > only allows control over install location by the user > > knowing to (or being able to) argue "PREFIX" when doing > > "perl Makefile.PL ...", and CPAN does not give that > > chance. Also it is possible and desirable to allow CPAN > > to be configured so that without saying "PREFIX" it > > just "does the Right Thing". This all means that the > > current strategy for installing the .dict file is going > > to be wrong and is user-unfriendly, in many cases.

> > I would say that that was a bug in CPAN.pm, not in my package.

Quite possibly some would take that as a wee bit arrogant. CPAN.pm has many bugs. I know about quite a few of them, having learned CPAN pretty thoroughly as a user (and a module author). This area isn't a CPAN.pm bug but an arbitrary design decision by a module author - you - in which you decided to install some piece of your package completely outside the perl subhierarchy on disk. You can say "it's a bug and isn't my fault" but in fact it is your ignorance of Perl standards and customs that lies at the root of this hiccup. Sorry, I am a plain speaker, I make enemies of anyone regardless of race, creed, gender, age, or familiar ties. Show quoted text

> Using PREFIX is the recognised, standard method of changing the > installation location of a module, and should be perfectly adequate, > considering that if one doesn't have write access to "/usr/share", > one wouldn't have write access to "/usr/share/perl" either.

This is incorrect. PREFIX is only one of several mechanisms Perl has long had for determining the installation locations of packages. The roles played by SITE* and VENDOR* as opposed to PERL* (which means core or "comes-with-the-source-kit") are what I was referring to as "just Does the Right Thing". CPAN installs the modules (all their pieces) I request into /usr/local without using PREFIX. How can you explain that in your over-simplified version of how things work? Anyway, if I was just complaining about a deficiency but not offering a way to fix it, you'd have had the last word. However the degree of laziness and lack of interest in improving your breadth of knowledge about perl displayed by the brush-off even when I presented a *patch*, makes me think that I ought to reply. So I have. Show quoted text

> > This trouble can be addressed by doing more in the > > Makefile.PL, and a patch is available to show exactly > > that. HTH. YMMV.

I'll post the patch on my Website anyway, maybe along with pieces of this discussion so that people can understand what it is fixing. Regards, Soren Andersen -- Also email <perlspinr=XfrvlLN1Pqtfpb/ySbbPhw@public.gmane.org>.

Fri Feb 27 02:39:45 2004 The RT System itself - Status changed from 'stalled' to 'open'

Fri Aug 27 08:55:31 2004 Guest - Correspondence added

You may or may not be glad to know that I have changed over to using Module::Build for the build and installation process, with extra custom installation for installing the txt2html.dict file in an appropriate spot. This *does* appear to be better-behaved in this regard, but I can't be certain it will satisfy you unless you check it yourself.

Fri Aug 27 08:56:32 2004 Guest - Correspondence added

[guest - Fri Aug 27 08:55:31 2004]: Show quoted text

> You may or may not be glad to know that I have changed over to using > Module::Build for the build and installation process, with extra > custom > installation for installing the txt2html.dict file in an appropriate > spot. This *does* appear to be better-behaved in this regard, but I > can't be certain it will satisfy you unless you check it yourself.

Sorry, this is with version 2.30, just uploaded. RUBYKAT.

Fri Aug 27 09:07:59 2004 rubykat [...] cpan.org - Status changed from 'open' to 'stalled'

Thu Jul 21 16:24:23 2011 MRDVT [...] cpan.org - Correspondence added

I could not find this package in the Fedora 12 yum repos. Presumably since the distribution name is different than the package name. cpanspec made a spec file but with a little tweaking I was able to get a build that appears to work correctly. Since "most" people will not be able to do this I have attached the spec file. download and build rpm with rpmbuild -ba perl-HTML-TextToHTML.spec This builds an RPM package named perl-HTML-TextToHTML which is the standard Fedora convention but I would recommend that you rename the distribution to HTML-TextToHTML-2.51.tar.gz instead of txt2html- 2.51.tar.gz to match typical CPAN conventions as well. Thanks, Mike mrdvt92 $ rpm -ql perl-HTML-TextToHTML /usr/bin/txt2html /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.10.0/HTML /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.10.0/HTML/TextToHTML.pm /usr/share/doc/perl-HTML-TextToHTML-2.51 /usr/share/doc/perl-HTML-TextToHTML-2.51/Changes /usr/share/doc/perl-HTML-TextToHTML-2.51/DEVNOTES /usr/share/doc/perl-HTML-TextToHTML-2.51/README /usr/share/doc/perl-HTML-TextToHTML-2.51/TODO /usr/share/doc/perl-HTML-TextToHTML-2.51/old_version.txt /usr/share/doc/perl-HTML-TextToHTML-2.51/version.txt /usr/share/man/man1/txt2html.1.gz /usr/share/man/man3/HTML::TextToHTML.3pm.gz $ yum info perl-HTML-TextToHTML Installed Packages Name : perl-HTML-TextToHTML Arch : noarch Version : 2.51 Release : 1.fc12 Size : 241 k Repo : installed From repo : XXX Summary : txt2html Perl module URL : http://search.cpan.org/dist/txt2html/ License : GPL+ or Artistic Description : It supports headings, tables, lists, simple character markup, and : hyperlinking, and is highly customizable. It recognizes some of the : apparent structure of the source document (mostly whitespace and : typographic layout), and attempts to mark that structure explicitly using : HTML. The purpose for this tool is to provide an easier way of converting : existing text documents to HTML format, giving something nicer than just : whapping the text into a big PRE block.

Subject:

perl-HTML-TextToHTML.spec

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Thu Jul 21 16:24:24 2011 The RT System itself - Status changed from 'stalled' to 'open'

Sun Dec 04 19:00:44 2011 rubykat [...] cpan.org - Correspondence added

I don't know if the original reporter uses Fedora, but thanks for the spec file.

Sun Dec 04 19:00:46 2011 rubykat [...] cpan.org - Status changed from 'open' to 'stalled'