Status of the ActiveState PPM Repositories

Automated Builds

5.6 vs 5.8 PPMs

ActiveState builds version 5.8 PPMs first, then version 5.6 PPMs. This is partially because of the PPD differences between 5.6 and 5.8, which allow 5.8 modules to be upgraded on a platform-by-platform basis; partly this is simply because 5.8 is the current version.

Frequency

Builds for 5.8 PPMs usually happen twice a week; builds for 5.6 PPMs usually happen once a week. There is no set schedule for builds, as sometimes the build system requires maintenance, or updated modules require manual intervention to prevent out-of-sync versions.

Status Tables

The build status tables for PPM packages are located as follows:

These tables display the status of a given distribution version: PASS, FAIL, or CORE. A CORE status means that the distribution is part of ActivePerl. PASS and FAIL are self-explanatory, and will often contain a link to the build log for that distribution. ActiveState pays particular attention to providing build logs for 5.8 PPMs that have failed, so that the cause of the failure can be detected and fixed.

For a distribution to have a PASS status, it must pass the perl Makefile.PL, make, and make test steps. Any failures in these steps, including any failures in the test suite, will prevent the distribution from having a published PPM.

The posted build logs do not show whether the given distribution has an available PPM; they only show whether the distribution built successfully or not. Some PPMs are not published for policy reasons (see Cryptographic Modules below). If the status for a distribution is FAIL, the repository may contain a PPM for an earlier version of the distribution that built successfully.

Cryptographic Modules

The Canadian Federal Government requires that companies and organizations that wish to distribute cryptographic software get a permit in order to do so. ActiveState does not have this permission. This affects the availability of the following CPAN modules:


  Crypt-Anubis
  Crypt-Blowfish
  Crypt-Blowfish_PP
  Crypt-CAST5
  Crypt-CAST5_PP
  Crypt-Camellia
  Crypt-DH
  Crypt-DSA
  Crypt-GPG
  Crypt-GOST
  Crypt-GOST_PP
  Crypt-IDEA
  Crypt-Khazad
  Crypt-Loki97
  Crypt-Noekeon
  Crypt-OpenPGP
  Crypt-OpenSSL-DSA
  Crypt-OpenSSL-RSA
  Crypt-OpenSSL-SMIME
  Crypt-PGP2
  Crypt-PGP5
  Crypt-PGPSimple
  Crypt-RC4
  Crypt-RC5
  Crypt-RC6
  Crypt-RIPEMD160
  Crypt-Rainbow
  Crypt-Rijndael
  Crypt-Rijndael_PP
  Crypt-RSA
  Crypt-SEAL2
  Crypt-Serpent
  Crypt-SSLeay
  Crypt-Serpent
  Crypt-Shark
  Crypt-Skipjack
  Crypt-Square
  Crypt-Twofish
  Crypt-Twofish2
  Net_SSLeay
  TwoFish

The two popular crypto modules Crypt-SSLeay and Net_SSLeay can be found in other repositories, and can be installed using PPM as follows:

    ppm install http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppms/Crypt-SSLeay.ppd

The above command installs the Perl 5.8 PPM of Crypt-SSLeay from the University of Winnipeg's PPM repositories. For the Perl 5.6 PPM, use the following command:


    ppm install http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppmpackages/Crypt-SSLeay.ppd

Modules and Third Party Libraries

In general, modules that rely on underlying third party libraries, such as zlib or libxml2, will not be built automatically. Such modules require custom build instructions which must be manually determined. Therefore, publication of these modules depends on their popularity and the effort required.

DBD-Oracle

Oracle now provides the Oracle Instant Client software, with which ActiveState is testing an integrated, ready-to-use solution for DBD-Oracle. The Windows version is available now, and other platforms will follow later in the summer.

In the meanwhile, if you wish to compile this module locally, the source may be obtained from http://search.cpan.org/dist/DBD-Oracle/. For instructions on using CPAN, see http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Reference/Products/ActivePerl/lib/CPAN.html. If you are using Windows, you could use DBD-ODBC.

GD

The GD module, used for the creation and manipulation of industry standard PNG format images, now works with Windows and can be installed using PPM (the Perl Package Manager).

The package is not currently available in the ActiveState repository because of external library requirements that do not work with ActiveState's automated build system. PPM packages for the GD module can be found in other public repositories and installed as follows.

For a perl 5.8: ppm install http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppms/GD.ppd
For a perl 5.6: ppm install http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppmpackages/GD.ppd