Naive question about perl versions (LaTeXML)

[Bruce Miller]

On 02/18/2015 03:50 AM, Mojca Miklavec wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 17, 2015 at 9:36 PM, Bruce Miller wrote:
>> Hi all;
>>    The portfile for LaTeXML (with the help
>> of mojca and others on this list) now has lines
>> to the effect:
>>
>> PortGroup           perl5 1.0
>> perl5.branches      5.8 5.10 5.12 5.14 5.16 5.18 5.20
>>
>> and
>>
>> if {${perl5.major} ne ""} {
>>      depends_lib-append \
>>          port:p${perl5.major}-archive-zip \
>>          port:p${perl5.major}-file-which \
>>    ...
>
> - Perl 5.8-5.14 is no longer supported and those variants need to be removed
> - The Portfile is somewhat misconfigured and the variants don't work at all.
>
>> My understanding is that LaTeXML is thus
>> ready to run under "any" version of perl5.
>>
>> But:
>> (1) the listing under available ports for LaTeXML
>>    shows dependencies on p5.16-archive-zip, etc.
>> and
>> (2) a user reported a problem when trying to install
>> LaTeXML that it depended on p5.12-archive-zip which was
>> obsolete, recommending p5.16-archive-zip.
>>
>> Is the reason for (1) that 5.16 is currently the "default" perl,
>> and the reason for (2) that that user currently has perl 5.12
>> installed? (and thus should upgrade to perl 5.16)
>
> The reason for (1) is that port isn't setup properly. I can easily
> configure it to list dependencies on 5.20, but it will still run
>
> DEBUG: Executing command line:  cd
> "/opt/local/var/macports/build/__path__/LaTeXML/work/LaTeXML-0.8.0" &&
> /opt/local/bin/perl5.16 Makefile.PL INSTALLDIRS=vendor
> CC="/usr/bin/clang" LD="/usr/bin/clang"
> TEXMF='/usr/local/texlive/texmf-local'
>
> and thus use default Perl I guess. So someone would have to tweak it a
> bit further.
>
> The slightly strange thing is that the port still tried to use perl
> 5.12. Did the user update MacPorts? I think I removed perl5.12 from
> allowed variants of perl, so the user's Perl should long be replaced
> with 5.16 and 5.12 should be defunct for about two months now
> (http://trac.macports.org/changeset/130129).

I haven't queried the user about this (yet); I wanted
to have already upgraded LaTeXML to 0.8.1 before sending
him back to retry...

>> Just checking that I understand what's going on;
>> I'm preparing to make a release 0.8.1 of LaTeXML
>> and want to get it right...
>
> Can you please open a ticket on Trac, so that we can discuss the issue there?

Yes, I've opened #46896 (https://trac.macports.org/ticket/46896)
to sort this out, and also to upgrade LaTeXML.

Thanks;
bruce