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Re: [perl #60738] Something missing in Config(3perl)

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From:
Andy Dougherty
Date:
November 24, 2008 08:22
Subject:
Re: [perl #60738] Something missing in Config(3perl)
Message ID:
Pine.LNX.4.64.0811241110180.5080@fractal.phys.lafayette.edu
On Sat, 22 Nov 2008, rrt@sc3d.org (via RT) wrote:

> This is a bug report for perl from rrt@sc3d.org,
> generated with the help of perlbug 1.36 running under perl 5.10.0.

> Config(3perl) contains the following passage:
> 
>  "mv"
>            From Loc.U:
> 
>            This variable is defined but not used by Configure.  The value is a
>            plain ÿÿÿÿ and is not useful.
> 
> A plain what? (The groff source is equally unhelpful, there really is
> nothing there.)

I'm not sure how this has been rendered by your local version of groff, 
filtered through your mailer and my newsreader.  In the version on my 
system, it looks just fine.  In any case, the original plain text version 
(from Porting/Glossary) is

mv (Loc.U):
	This variable is defined but not used by Configure.
	The value is a plain '' and is not useful.

If you check the variable explicitly, you see

    $ perl -V:mv
    mv='';

so the description is exactly right.

The description is machine-generated by the "mkglossary" script in the 
perl metaconfig distribution (not part of the normal perl distribution).  
I suppose it could be patched as below, though I don't know that it would 
really matter much anyway.  The value is still not useful.  (This patch 
would require regenerating Porting/Glossary).

--- mkglossary	2007-01-16 11:33:26.000000000 -0500
+++ mkglossary.new	2008-11-24 11:05:42.000000000 -0500
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@
 		# for example).
 		print <<EOE;
 	This variable is defined but not used by Configure.
-	The value is a plain '' and is not useful.
+	The value is the empty string and is not useful.
 
 EOE
 		}

-- 
    Andy Dougherty		doughera@lafayette.edu
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