Perl broken in 24.10

tievolu · October 31, 2025, 1:44pm

I have lots of perl scripts on my OpenWrt box (yes, I’m old), and I’ve just upgraded to 24.10 to find that the perl 5.40 package for 24.10 is subtly broken.

When a compilation error occurs the line number in the error message is always a % character instead of the actual line number, for example:

Missing right curly or square bracket at test.pl line %, at end of line

Obviously this makes writing and debugging perl scripts on the router pretty tiresome…

Downgrading to 5.28 might be an option for some, but that gets tricky when you’re using lots of additional perl packages because 5.28 will look for its dependencies in the wrong place (/usr/lib/perl5/5.28 instead of /usr/lib/perl5/5.40). I could uninstall all the dependencies and grab the 5.28 packages for those as well, but it starts to feel like I’m going down a rabbit hole and creating horrible maintenance problems for upgrading etc.

The issue was reported back in February but it hasn’t received much attention:

github.com/openwrt/packages

OpenWRT 24.10 Perl 5.40.0 debugger not finding symbols

opened 08:49PM - 06 Feb 25 UTC

lsoltero

the perl debugger is not finding symbols root@PW-Hub:/tmp# perl -v This is per…l 5, version 40, subversion 0 (v5.40.0) built for mipsel-linux-musl root@PW-Hub:/tmp# cat test.pl #!/usr/bin/perl sub a() { print "a\n"; } sub b() { print "b\n"; } a(); b(); root@PW-Hub:/tmp# perl -d test.pl Loading DB routines from perl5db.pl version 1.80 Editor support available. Enter h or 'h h' for help, or 'man perldebug' for more help. main::(test.pl:11): a(); DB<1> b a Subroutine main::a not found. DB<2> b main::a Subroutine main::a not found. DB<3> l 1 1 #!/usr/bin/perl DB<4> l 2 3 sub a() { 4: print "a\n"; 5 } 6 7 sub b() { 8: print "b\n"; 9 } 10 11==> a(); DB<4> b 4 DB<5> S Carp::BEGIN Carp::__ANON__[(eval 3)[/usr/lib/perl5/5.40/Carp.pm:%]:%] Carp::__ANON__[(eval 4)[/usr/lib/perl5/5.40/Carp.pm:%]:%] ... feature::unknown_feature_bundle main::BEGIN main::a main::b overloading::BEGIN overloading::_ops_to_nums ... DB<5> l a Invalid line specification '%'. DB<6>

Also reported here:

github.com/Entware/Entware

perl warning does not show line number

opened 02:18AM - 13 Oct 24 UTC

closed 08:38AM - 10 Jun 25 UTC

dowy

upstream specific

**Describe the bug** [perl - 5.40.0-1]: When perl emits a warning about the cod…e, it does not show the line-number, instead it shows `%` For example: ```shell Entware$ perl -Mwarnings -E 'say $x' Name "main::x" used only once: possible typo at -e line %. Use of uninitialized value $x in say at -e line %. ``` This has the side-effect of causing some CPAN libraries to fail tests because they are expecting a line-number to appear. (On a gentoo system running perl 5.40.0, the same command shows the line-number as expected: ```shell gentoo$ perl -Mwarnings -E 'say $x' Name "main::x" used only once: possible typo at -e line 1. Use of uninitialized value $x in say at -e line 1. ``` ) **Environment (please complete the following information):** - Entware feed: x64-k3.2 - Device QNAP TS-251D NAS - Firmware version QTS 5.2.0.2860 (2024/08/17) **perl.control**: ``` Package: perl Version: 5.40.0-1 Depends: libc, libssp, librt, libpthread, libbsd, libpthread Source: feeds/packages/lang/perl SourceName: perl License: GPL-1.0-or-later Artistic-1.0-Perl LicenseFiles: Copying Artistic README Section: lang SourceDateEpoch: 1721572854 URL: http://www.perl.com/ CPE-ID: cpe:/a:perl:perl Maintainer: Marcel Denia <naoir@gmx.net>, Philip Prindeville <philipp@redfish-solutions.com> Architecture: x64-3.2 Installed-Size: 4157440 Description: Perl is a stable, cross platform programming language. It is used for mission critical projects in the public and private sectors and is widely used to program web applications of all needs. ```

Is there any way to ask someone nicely to take a look at this?

hnyman · November 1, 2025, 6:35am

Well, you might have tagged the perl maintainers like @pprindeville

tievolu · November 1, 2025, 9:44am

Thanks, I would have done that if I knew who the maintainers are

hnyman · November 1, 2025, 10:09am

That is visible in the Makefile:

github.com/openwrt/packages

lang/perl/Makefile

c50103078


      
          PKG_MAINTAINER:=Marcel Denia <naoir@gmx.net>, Philip Prindeville <philipp@redfish-solutions.com>

Ps.
But if the problem originates in the upstream perl, you might take your issue there.

tievolu · November 1, 2025, 4:09pm

I don't think it does. I haven't tested personally but in the second link in my original post the reporter says they don't see the problem with Perl v5.40 on Gentoo Linux.