When releasing a new module, how do you decide which minimum version of the dependencies to require?

I am about to release Business::Stripe::Webhook and it has these dependencies in Makefile.PL:

PREREQ_PM => {
    'JSON::PP'       => '2.00',
    'HTTP::Tiny'     => '0.014',
    'Digest::SHA'    => '5.94',
    'Time::Piece'    => '1.32',
},
[download]

I strongly suspect that I could go for earlier ones but don't want to risk my code breaking because of a broken dependency. That's just annoying and frustrating for everyone. Equally, I don't want to force people to update every module if it is not necessary.

So, how do you select the minimum version number for your dependencies?

More Monastic Wisdom is rubbing off on me...I am uploading (git committing?) AI::Embedding following nudges from hippo and others, but especially GrandFather in Re^3: What is ignore.txt

Questions as usual...

1 - Is there a convention I should be using for naming Perl repositories?
I have looked at others and some start p5-... - I assume that was to distinguish them from Perl 4 but is that a concern now? Others use perl-... and others just the name of the module. Is there a preferred way to do it that I should follow?

2 - Am I right that GitHub and CPAN are not connected?
There is no means for changes within GitHub to be reflected on CPAN other than by uploading a tarball in the usual way. GitHub is "just" (hardly "just" but I hope you understand!) a place to store, collaborate and develop code. CPAN is the repository where it gets installed to.

3 - Should I have different GitHub accounts for different purposes?
In time I will be releasing a JavaScript library for one of my businesses (On Radar) to allow web developers to interact with our CRM product. If this ends up on GitHub does it need a different account? If so, is it because it is for the business or because it is in a different language?

I understand the value but also want to do it right. I've had a few people contact me with suggestions for Business::Stripe::WebCheckout, some have sent useful code snippets that have been included or will be included in a later release. Surprising as I didn't really think anyone would find it useful! If it were on GitHub like it will be, they could have done a pull request and I wouldn't have to insert their code...just approve the PR and build a new release periodically :)

I find a module. I like it. It has a problem. It is a simple problem and so maybe I write a fix for it or perhaps there is an obvious thing that it should do. I find the e-mail address in the POD. I send and e-mail an it gets bounced back because that e-mail address is no good.

I think that CPAN itself should send a confirmatory e-mail to EVERY module author with a code and if that author does not type in that code in some screen the module should AUTOMATICALLY be pushed to some back archive, effectively de-listing it from CPAN.

Note: I am not saying that people have to change their modules due to requests. I am saying that I should *never* get a bounced back e-mail. To me that means the module should no longer be in CPAN.

Share your thoughts, please.

Hello.

I'm using the standard procedure of the Net::SMTP module to send emails from a Windows box with Strawberry, and it works if I use a plain SMTP connection, but when I use SSL it hangs at the dataend method (which is part of the Net::Cmd module).

I searched and found some other reports, but not a solution.

The piece of code is:

  my $smtp = Net::SMTP->new(Host => $mailserver, SSL => 0, Debug => 1,
+ Timeout => 30);

  $smtp->auth($username, $password);

  $smtp->mail($myemail);
  if ($smtp->to($destemail)) {
    $smtp->data();
    $smtp->datasend("From: $myemail\n");
    $smtp->datasend("To: $destemail\n");
    $smtp->datasend("Date: $date\n");
    $smtp->datasend("Subject: A test\n");
    $smtp->datasend("\n");
    warn "(end of header)\n";
    $smtp->datasend("This is a test...\n");
    warn "(end of body)\n";
    $smtp->dataend;
    warn "(dataend completed)\n";
  } else {
     print "ERROR: ", $smtp->message();
  }
  warn "(bye...)\n";
  $smtp->quit;
[download]

With SSL=>1, debug trace shows all the messages from the (successful) authentication up to "end of body" message and hangs for a while, then a timeout message appears.

I also tried without the dataend, but the quit seems to call dataend internally and the problem persists.

What am I missing?

I don't want to hack standard mods...

I am trying to 'properly' build AI::Embedding and publish the next development version to CPAN. So, as kcott suggested, I have turned on RELEASE_TESTING and I am running the tests using prove. My user tests are now passing but I am stuck on the author tests.

Attempting to prove -vb t/manifest.t I get the following error:

not ok 1# The following files are not named in the MANIFEST file: C:\U
+sers\user\Perl\AI-Embedding\AI-Embedding\ignore.txt, C:\Users\user\Pe
+rl\AI-Embedding\AI-Embedding\t\01-openai.t, C:\Users\user\Perl\AI-Emb
+edding\AI-Embedding\xt\boilerplate.t
[download]

What is ignore.txt used for and does it need to be added to the manifest file?

What is a xt directory for? Can I ignore or delete it?

For slightly later, once I've built the module, should I delete the blib directory before make dist?

Also, because I have AI::Embedding v0.1_1 installed, I had to add use lib 'lib'; to the test files to make the tests use the right version of the module. Will this create difficulties if it is left in when the module gets uploaded to CPAN?

Background

I'm doing some testing of Perl::Dist::APPerl on various platforms. I have a test script which currently checks that 'use v5.36;' enables the warnings pragma and features are enabled or disabled as appropriate.

Question

I'm looking for a platform-independent way to determine if the strict pragma is in effect without forcing an abort.

If strict is specifically used, it can be determined from %INC:

ken@titan ~/tmp
$ perl -e 'use strict; print "$_\n" for keys %INC;'
strict.pm

ken@titan ~/tmp
$ perl -e 'use strict; my $x = xyz;'
Bareword "xyz" not allowed while "strict subs" in use at -e line 1.
Execution of -e aborted due to compilation errors.
[download]

However, if strict is enabled automatically via use VERSION (where VERSION >= 5.12), this method doesn't work:

ken@titan ~/tmp
$ perl -e 'use 5.012; print "$_\n" for keys %INC;'

ken@titan ~/tmp
$ perl -e 'use 5.012; my $x = xyz;'
Bareword "xyz" not allowed while "strict subs" in use at -e line 1.
Execution of -e aborted due to compilation errors.
[download]

Any help with this would be appreciated. Thankyou.

A smaller set of files would be much easier to manage in the active dir. Especially for newbies.

I'm thinking of an SQL table with one row per file access, and the access type like edited the file, ran the file, "required" or "used" the file, chmodded, etc. Maybe once a day, code could run that reads access info for each file, and moves them to or from the active code directory depending on when they were last used. Or maybe based on frequency of use, rather than last use.

So I'm wondering are there CPAN modules to assist with this? I can have the repository as part of @INC, and as files are used, a mysql row is added. Starting with 100% in the repository, after weeks of running, source files we need would be in active. The rest would be inactive and maybe even after a long term, removed. And since it sounds like this table has a potential to get large, we might have to cull old rows. A thousand files invoked a thousand times a month could be a BIG table!

I'm thinking modules that I could add to the top of every sourcefile, that signals a write to the access table. And maybe modules that help me tell what classes (pms) are actually invoked or resourced, rather than just "used" , with no real use. Or, a CPAN module that can generate an array of all use or required files in the hierarchy under the initial pl or cgi.

I'm pretty sure I can write all the functionality from scratch, but if CPAN modules exist that facilitate this function, I'm all-in. I guess in-summary I want like a meta library that tells me a bunch of things about what is running, what it's using, where it came from, maybe how many milliseconds it ran, what user ran it, etc etc.. I see potential concurrency issues with a running program that has one of it's "pm's" moved mid-run; not sure how to deal with that since we operate 24x7. And other concerns. I'm still in the dreaming stage..

Best Regards Monks!

We operate a few sites with subscriptions. Until recently, the subscription cost has been fixed with just three plan options - monthly, 6 monthly or annually. However, we now want to increase the cost on one site for new members but not existing members. Existing members will have their current subscription rate locked for life.

Currently, the three subscription rates are declared in a parameters file:

our $stripe_price_1    = 'price_123245';
our $stripe_price_6    = 'price_123267';
our $stripe_price_12   = 'price_123289';
[download]

Having multiple prices in the future means we need to adopt a different approach. Users have the option to change between payment plans so they can swap from monthly or annually, etc. Therefore, we need to know which pricing level they are on as well as the plan. We can (and currently do) easily get the plan from Stripe. But getting the level is more tricky. We'd have to get the price code and work backwards.

So, I am thinking of adding two fields to the Subscription table of the database - priceLevel and pricePlan - and replacing the above declarations with a two dimensional Perl array of hashref:

my @price;
$price[1,1] = {
    'name'     => 'Early Adopter',
    'plan'     => 1,
    'length'   => 1,
    'price'    => 3.49,
    'stripe'   => 'price_123245',
};
$price[1,6] = {
    'name'     => 'Early Adopter',
    'plan'     => 1,
    'length'   => 6,
    'price'    => 18.99,
    'stripe'   => 'price_123267',
};
$price[1,12] = {
    'name'     => 'Early Adopter',
    'plan'     => 1,
    'length'   => 12,
    'price'    => 32.49,
    'stripe'   => 'price_123289',
};
$price[2,1] = {
    'name'     => 'First Increase',
    'plan'     => 2,
    'length'   => 1,
    'price'    => 3.99,
    'stripe'   => 'price_123445',
};
$price[2,6] = {
...
};
$price[2,12] = {
    'name'     => 'First Increase',
    'plan'     => 2,
    'length'   => 12,
    'price'    => 33.99,
    'stripe'   => 'price_123489',
};
$price[3,1] = {
...
};
$price[3,6] = {
...
};
$price[3,12] = {
...
};
[download]

I have two doubts about this approach...

1. There are lots of 'spaces' in the array
2. I seem to recall reading (probably) in The Monastry that multidimensional arrays are not a good idea

Any advice very welcome...

An old script has begun giving trouble reading SVG files using Image::Magick, lately. Below is one example which shows this new kind of error. How would I go about figuring how to get past this?

Edit: I should add that the error arises on both Alpine Linux v3.12 and Linux Mint 21.1

#!/usr/bin/perl

use Image::Magick;

use strict;
use warnings;

my $image = Image::Magick->new;
open(IMAGE, \*DATA);
my $err = $image->Read(file=>\*IMAGE);
close(IMAGE);

if ($err) {
        print "Error b: $err\n";
        exit(1);
}

print qq(OK\n);

exit(0)

__DATA__

<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 454.22 65.577"><p
+ath class="logotype-svg" style="text-align:start" d="M388.22 0c-3.287
+ 0-6.357.717-9.22 2.125a23.81 23.81 0 0 0-7.406 5.562c-2.066 2.348-3.
+686 5.043-4.906 8.094a26.399 26.399 0 0 0-1.782 9.565c0 3.192.592 6.3
+23 1.72 9.375 1.126 3.05 2.715 5.745 4.78 8.092 2.066 2.348 4.496 4.2
+33 7.313 5.688 2.86 1.455 6.024 2.187 9.5 2.187 3.284 0 6.337-.67 9.1
+54-2.03 2.817-1.41 5.278-3.263 7.344-5.563 2.11-2.347 3.73-5.043 4.90
+5-8.094a25.796 25.796 0 0 0 1.844-9.656c0-3.098-.562-6.152-1.69-9.157
+-1.125-3.05-2.715-5.762-4.78-8.156-2.02-2.392-4.48-4.324-7.344-5.78C3
+94.793.75 391.646 0 388.22 0zm48.124 0c-2.676 0-5.09.296-7.25.906-2.1
+13.564-3.95 1.452-5.5 2.625a11.83 11.83 0 0 0-3.53 4.22c-.8 1.644-1.1
+9 3.53-1.19 5.688 0 2.066.375 3.81 1.126 5.22.75 1.36 1.857 2.53 3.31
+3 3.468 1.502.892 3.293 1.64 5.406 2.25 2.157.563 4.634 1.077 7.404 1
+.594 2.863.562 5.356 1.185 7.47 1.842 2.11.658 3.856 1.468 5.217 2.40
+7 1.363.937 2.344 2.06 3 3.373.66 1.267 1 2.84 1 4.718 0 3.757-1.463 
+6.56-4.374 8.44-2.863 1.83-6.774 2.75-11.75 2.75-3.802 0-7.214-.577-1
+0.218-1.75-2.96-1.175-5.685-3.09-8.22-5.72l-1.063.906c2.676 2.676 5.5
+6 4.67 8.657 5.938 3.145 1.22 6.744 1.812 10.78 1.812 5.493 0 9.778-1
+.06 12.876-3.218 3.145-2.16 4.72-5.292 4.72-9.376 0-2.207-.438-4.045-
+1.283-5.5s-2.06-2.67-3.656-3.657c-1.55-.985-3.434-1.81-5.687-2.468-2.
+254-.658-4.762-1.25-7.53-1.814-2.77-.563-5.17-1.124-7.19-1.687-1.97-.
+61-3.607-1.328-4.874-2.126-1.268-.845-2.203-1.858-2.814-3.032-.61-1.2
+2-.906-2.716-.906-4.5 0-1.83.297-3.482.908-4.937.61-1.454 1.59-2.685 
+2.906-3.72 1.314-1.077 2.98-1.903 5-2.467 2.065-.563 4.51-.843 7.375-
+.843 2.955 0 5.51.39 7.623 1.187 2.16.8 4.216 2.28 6.187 4.44l.908-.9
+7c-1.972-2.16-4.138-3.702-6.532-4.594C442.31.466 439.536 0 436.344 0z
+M42.406.594V44.47c0 3.097 2.042 5.75 5.563 5.75h3.185l-.03-1.345c-.07
+ 0-1.162.03-3.063.03-2.747 0-4.22-2.394-4.22-4.436V.592h-1.437zm194.8
+44 0v44c0 3.38 2.933 5.625 6.313 5.625 3.872 0 4.335.07 4.406 0v-1.41
+h-4.408c-2.465 0-4.696-1.472-4.907-4.218V14.75h10.188v-1.406h-10.188V
+.594h-1.406zm150.97.812c3.097 0 5.964.655 8.592 1.97a22.113 22.113 0 
+0 1 6.97 5.343c1.97 2.204 3.513 4.775 4.593 7.685a24.2 24.2 0 0 1 1.6
+88 8.938c0 2.957-.546 5.886-1.625 8.75A24.424 24.424 0 0 1 404 41.748
+c-1.878 2.252-4.184 4.09-6.906 5.5-2.676 1.36-5.636 2.03-8.875 2.03-3
+.194 0-6.108-.654-8.784-1.97a21.838 21.838 0 0 1-6.906-5.28 26.811 26
+.811 0 0 1-4.592-7.656 25.784 25.784 0 0 1-1.625-9.03c0-2.96.53-5.856
+ 1.562-8.72 1.08-2.863 2.575-5.434 4.5-7.688 1.925-2.253 4.23-4.044 6
+.906-5.406 2.725-1.407 5.7-2.124 8.94-2.124zm-74.314 1.28c-.803.05-1.
+614.26-2.312.658a4.932 4.932 0 0 0-2.25 2.812c-.242.802-.233 1.666-.1
+56 2.5.085.928.264 1.826.53 2.72.198.66.457 1.3.72 1.936-1.03.005-2.0
+65.028-3.094.032-.25.004-2.197.022-3.188.312-5.243 1.537-8.483 4.27-1
+0.97 9.125l.002-9.435h-1.407v36.53h1.41V26.782c.914-3.343 2.604-6.266
+ 5-8.405 2.393-2.14 5.485-3.484 9.217-3.625 1.15-.046 2.384-.047 3.56
+3-.063l16.374 35.187c-5.563 12.674-5.773 13.11-6.125 13.53-.495.494-1
+.06.75-3.315.75l-1.25-.03v1.406l1.25.032c2.606 0 4.015-.552 4.72-1.75
+l.5-.843 21.75-49.626h-1.563l-15.282 34.78-15.405-33.468c.745-.01 1.5
+1.037 2.25-.062.8-.107 1.56-.427 2.25-.844.724-.437 1.372-.976 1.875-
+1.656.7-.946 1.062-2.137 1.094-3.313.027-.997-.17-1.986-.625-2.874a5.
+954 5.954 0 0 0-1.47-1.813 6.049 6.049 0 0 0-2.626-1.282 5.79 5.79 0 
+0 0-1.438-.125h-.03zm.438 1.158c.78.008 1.552.298 2.187.75.638.45 1.1
+48 1.087 1.5 1.78.44.862.646 1.85.565 2.813-.082.964-.43 1.895-1.063 
+2.625a4.482 4.482 0 0 1-3.655 1.5h-1.813L311.47 12a13.191 13.191 0 0 
+1-.783-2.625c-.175-.918-.31-1.88-.062-2.78.248-.904.888-1.64 1.688-2.
+126.613-.375 1.313-.635 2.03-.627zM212.688 12.75c-10.28 0-14.188 9.38
+8-14.188 16.78v20.345h1.406V29.53c0-7.674 4.19-15.374 12.78-15.374 8.
+592 0 12.75 7.7 12.75 15.375v20.346h1.408V29.53c0-7.392-3.876-16.78-1
+4.156-16.78zm-195.72.03C6.76 12.78.283 21.93 0 31.72c0 9.364 7.384 18
+.874 17.594 18.874 5.492 0 12.278-3.047 14.53-8.75h-1.53c-2.183 4.788
+-7.65 7.343-13 7.343-8.943 0-15.554-7.91-16.188-16.78h33.438v-.75c-.1
+4-10-7.172-18.876-17.875-18.876zm55.25 0c-10.21 0-16.686 9.15-16.968 
+18.94 0 9.364 7.415 18.874 17.625 18.874 5.492 0 12.247-3.047 14.5-8.
+75h-1.5c-2.183 4.788-7.65 7.343-13 7.343-8.942 0-15.585-7.91-16.22-16
+.78h33.47v-.75c-.14-10-7.203-18.876-17.906-18.876zm37.813 0c-5.983 0-
+10.692 4.583-12.123 10.19-.7 2.738-.937 3.63-.937 26.905h1.405c0-20.4
+86.054-22.017.438-24.813.897-5.91 5.075-10.935 11.218-10.875 6.56 0 1
+2.87 4.226 12.5 15.47 0 2.993.096 8.145.096 11.968 0 4.284-.094 8.25-
+.094 8.25h1.407s.15-13.597 0-20.22c-.245-10.665 5.52-15.455 11.906-15
+.468 6.653.1 11.758 5.12 12.156 12.094.202 3.537.094 17.597.094 23.59
+6h1.406c0-23.335-.228-24.368-.72-26.844-1.046-5.278-6.27-10.25-12.936
+-10.25-6.934 0-11.96 5.04-12.438 10.626-.563-5.633-6.545-10.625-13.37
+5-10.625zm63.658 0c-10.21 0-16.687 9.15-16.968 18.94 0 9.364 7.414 18
+.874 17.624 18.874 5.492 0 12.247-3.047 14.5-8.75h-1.5c-2.183 4.788-7
+.65 7.343-13 7.343-8.943 0-15.585-7.91-16.22-16.78h33.47v-.75c-.14-10
+-7.204-18.876-17.906-18.876zm95.188 0c-4.506 0-8.854 2.177-12.656 4.7
+82l.842 1.125c4.084-2.886 8.292-4.5 11.813-4.5 7.253 0 11.97 5.193 11
+.97 12.657V31c-1.902-.704-6.266-2.03-12.25-2.03-6.338 0-15.064 2.52-1
+5.064 10.405 0 6.267 5.227 11.22 11.846 11.22 5.703 0 11.737-2.12 15.
+47-6.908v3.375c0 1.48.91 2.743 2.53 2.813h1.406V48.47h-1.405c-.775 0-
+.984-.563-1.125-1.408V26.844c0-7.887-4.573-14.063-13.375-14.063zM16.9
+7 14.188c9.364 0 15.77 7.307 16.405 16.813H1.405C1.83 22.975 7.322 14
+.19 16.97 14.19zm55.25 0c9.364 0 15.77 7.307 16.405 16.813h-31.97c.42
+4-8.026 5.917-16.812 15.564-16.812zm101.468 0c9.364 0 15.772 7.307 16
+.406 16.813h-31.97c.423-8.026 5.917-16.812 15.564-16.812zm94.906 16.1
+88c4.084 0 8.236.638 12.25 2.187v7.25c0 .845-.327 1.82-1.03 2.875-2.8
+88 4.507-9.088 6.5-14.44 6.5-5.42 0-10.437-3.897-10.437-9.812 0-6.83 
+7.672-9 13.657-9z" fill="currentColor"/></svg>
[download]

Net::DNS::Packet=HASH(0x560a2c51be98)
   'additional' => ARRAY(0x560a2c643678)
        empty array
   'answer' => ARRAY(0x560a2c4ea600)
      0  Net::DNS::RR::PTR=HASH(0x560a2c650780)
         'class' => 1
         'owner' => Net::DNS::DomainName1035=HASH(0x560a2c6504f8)
            'label' => ARRAY(0x560a2c6506d8)
                 empty array
            'origin' => Net::DNS::DomainName=HASH(0x560a2c6507b0)
               'label' => ARRAY(0x560a2c650798)
                  0  20
                  1  171
                  2  191
                  3  185
                  4  'in-addr'
                  5  'arpa'
         'ptrdname' => Net::DNS::DomainName1035=HASH(0x560a2c650960)
            'label' => ARRAY(0x560a2c650948)
               0  20
               1  'bl'
               2  'bot'
               3  'semrush'
               4  'com'
         'rdlength' => 23
         'ttl' => 273
         'type' => 12
   'authority' => ARRAY(0x560a2c63e350)
        empty array
   'count' => ARRAY(0x560a2c6503c0)
      0  1
      1  1
      2  0
      3  0
   'id' => 31152
   'question' => ARRAY(0x560a2c51c270)
      0  Net::DNS::Question=HASH(0x560a2c6438e8)
         'qclass' => 1
         'qname' => Net::DNS::DomainName1035=HASH(0x560a2c63edd0)
            'label' => ARRAY(0x560a2c650480)
               0  20
               1  171
               2  191
               3  185
               4  'in-addr'
               5  'arpa'
         'qtype' => 12
   'replyfrom' => '127.0.0.1'
   'replysize' => 80
   'status' => 33152
   'xedns' => Net::DNS::RR::OPT=HASH(0x560a2c650a50)
      'owner' => Net::DNS::DomainName1035=HASH(0x560a2c4c81c0)
         'label' => ARRAY(0x560a2c4c8160)
              empty array
      'type' => 41
[download]

@$obj{answer)
[download]