base.pm: import stuff

Hi,

Here is a sort-of-problem discovered in several CPAN modules.
The generalized pattern look like this:

-myBase-------------------------
package myBase;

use myConfig;

myConfig->new;

sub new {
	print __PACKAGE__;
}

1;
--------------------------------

-myConfig-----------------------
package myConfig;

use base 'myBase';

sub new {
	print __PACKAGE__;
}

1;
--------------------------------

Now here is what I get and what confuses me a bit:

$ perl -lc myBase.pm
Can't locate object method "new" via package "myConfig" at myBase.pm line 5.
Compilation failed in require at (eval 1) line 3.
        ...propagated at /usr/lib/perl5/base.pm line 71.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at myConfig.pm line 3.
Compilation failed in require at myBase.pm line 3.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at myBase.pm line 3.

$ perl -lc myConfig.pm
myConfig
myConfig.pm syntax OK

$ perl -MmyBase -le1
myConfig

$ perl -MmyConfig -le1
Can't locate object method "new" via package "myConfig" at myBase.pm line 5.
Compilation failed in require at (eval 1) line 3.
        ...propagated at /usr/lib/perl5/base.pm line 71.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at myConfig.pm line 3.
Compilation failed in require.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted.
$

So failures happen in different order.
Anyway, I don't expect them at all.

I hacked base.pm then and failures apparently gone.  But this hack breaks the
documented behaviour of base.pm, and I wonder if it breaks something else.

--- /usr/lib/perl5/base.pm~	2003-09-27 17:10:44 +0400
+++ /usr/lib/perl5/base.pm	2003-09-27 17:32:19 +0400
@@ -65,6 +65,7 @@
         else {
             local $SIG{__DIE__} = 'IGNORE';
             eval "require $base";
+            eval "import $base";
             # Only ignore "Can't locate" errors from our eval require.
             # Other fatal errors (syntax etc) must be reported.
             die if $@ && $@ !~ /^Can't locate .*? at \(eval /;

So I'm just interested: is this a valid perl pattern?


Thanks,
Alexey Tourbin
ALT Linux Team

• base.pm: import stuff by Alexey Tourbin
• Re: base.pm: import stuff by Nick Ing-Simmons