ChrisWeyl/PerlDraft

= Fedora Perl SIG Mission =

To assist packagers in bringing Perl-related packages to Fedora Extras and assisting in their continued maintenance by providing timely reviews, acting as secondary package owners and assisting with related security issues.

= Perl Components in Fedora =

Core Perl
Core perl in Fedora is currently 5.8.8. With 5.10 around the corner (and -RC1 already released), we need to start planning when and how to update perl in devel to 5.10.


 * http://search.cpan.org/~rgarcia/perl-5.10.0-RC1/
 * http://www.slideshare.net/rjbs/perl-510-for-people-who-arent-totally-insane

Apps

 * Bugzilla - Defect Tracking System
 * Bugzilla
 * Some testing on an SELinux-enabled system is still needed (see FE review request)
 * FE review request: #188359
 * Cluster SSH - Cluster Admin Via SSH
 * Alzabo - Data modelling tool (also in CPAN)

Frameworks

 * Catalyst - MVC Web Application Framework (also in CPAN)
 * 
 * Bricolage - Content Management System (CPAN: Bundle::Bricolage)
 * http://www.bricolage.cc/
 * Needs work to make it play nice with Apache2/mod_perl2.
 * POE - Portable multitasking and networking framework
 * 
 * While POE itself is packaged, there are many, many additional POE-based modules, not all of which are packaged, see, e.g., POE Distributions.
 * Moose - Modern perl5 OOP system

Perl/Parrot/Pugs
mailling list thread mailing list thread
 * Parrot - Parrot Virtual Machine
 * Pugs - A Perl 6 Implementation written in Haskell
 * microperl

= Perl packages in Fedora =

Please edit the  wishlist  if you want something, or package something off it if you're bored :)

Bugzilla is an excellent place to find information about the various perl packages in or being reviewed for inclusion:


 * Review queue
 * Open bugs

= Fedora perl infrastructure =

Perl to CPAN Mapping
With most perl modules being in CPAN, preliminary "mapping" table has been created. This table is regenerated on a daily basis, and will be included in the upcoming  Perl SIG Infrastructure hosted project.


 * CPAN to Fedora master list
 * index to perl-owner mapping

= Problems that need to be addressed =

The following topics need to be discussed/improved/corrected. We need to start discussing them in the fedora-perl-list.

conflicts, version provides clashes (can cause strange problems during package upgrades), .... Already being discussed here: Bug 142837 – Need site-specific man page directory
 * Improve the RPM perl scripts (requirements and provides detection)
 * at least try to handle use statements a litte better (eg: use base Module; use autouse Module; ...)
 * RPM 4.4.3 perl: handle the ‘v’ in “use v5.6.0″ (#140597)
 * RPM 4.4.3 resurrect a rpm-perl subpackage from perl-RPM2-0.66
 * RPM 4.4.4 complete forking perl-RPM2/* to perl/* module name “RPM”
 * RPM 4.4.5 fix: perldeps and prov.pl not to emit perl(main) (#177960)
 * Try to have RPM patched in order to create the debuginfo files after the %check section script is executed and not before (right now the files are created after the %install check script is executed). This breaks the signature tests (there are also other problems related to the signature tests in the building environment: network access to import pgg keys, where should they be stored, ...). More information available here and in bug  #167252.
 * How to update core perl modules? Use the site_perl dirs? /usr/local dirs? Problems with man pages
 * Try to reduce the number of @INC directories.
 * Have a common dir for noarch modules instead of one for each perl version supported.
 * The magic that is perl(:WITH_xxx) needs to be better documented and explained, so packagers -- and reviewers! -- know:
 * What they are and what they mean
 * When to use them
 * When to _not_ use them
 * Common things to check for that would indicate their usage

Miscellaneous
For example, BuildRequires: perl was common but forbidden; that has now been changed. One current issue is the prohibition against including header files in the main package; some perl modules include these deep in the module directory hierarchy, and moving them to a separate -devel package is pointless.
 * Clarified packaging guidelines - Some of the packaging guidelines have conflicted with some common practises.


 * Notes about "Makefile.PL vs Build.PL" or "ExtUtils::MakeMaker vs Module::Build"

= Packagers/Reviewers/People interested in helping =


 * JasonTibbitts
 * JoseOliveira (jpo)
 * PaulHowarth
 * StevenPritchard
 * ChrisWeyl
 * GavinHenry
 * ParagNemade

= References =


 * CPAN - Comprehensive Perl Archive Network
 * CPAN - Recent files
 * Fedora Extras' perl specfile template (available in the rpmdevtools package)
 * Fedora Perl mailing list
 * Notes about perl specfiles (old)
 * cpanspec (available in Extras)
 * ["Packaging/Perl"]
 * Perl packaging tips (work in progress)