Item2006: -w switch on configure script can lead to non-functioning configure

While updating the foswiki for windows installer, using strawberry perl 5.10.6, I found that configure dies due possibly to a minor issue in CGI 3.43

and so for the windows installer, I've scripted it to remove the -w

dunno if its something to do for anyone else, but at least now its doccoed

Software error:
Failed to load the perl module CGI qw(:any). The module could not be found. 

Please ensure that:
   1 CGI qw(:any) is installed,
   2 that the module is available on the @INC path,
   3 that the webserver user (SYSTEM) has permission to read the CGI qw(:any).pm file.
The detailed error seen was:
Use of uninitialized value $_ in -d at C:/strawberry/perl/lib/CGI.pm line 4083.
Compilation failed in require at (eval 12) line 2.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at (eval 12) line 2.


For help, please send mail to the webmaster (sven.org.au), giving this error message and the time and date of the error. 

-- SvenDowideit - 06 Sep 2009

Good thing I found this post. You just confirmed what I've been suspecting all along. This only happened after I upgraded my Strawberry Perl to 5.10.0.6.

Fix is to download the latest CGI module (3.47 currently) and replace the ones in your PERL's lib directory. Alternatively, one can download an older version of Strawberry PERL. 5.10.0.5 worked no problem.

Not a Foswiki issue. Setting status to "No Action Required"

Link - http://search.cpan.org/~lds/CGI.pm-3.47/lib/CGI.pm

-- MiguelCudaihl - 12 Sep 2009

Just found that CPAN CGI 3.47 has some issues of its own. 3.42 works well so far.

-- MiguelCudaihl - 21 Sep 2009

I don't agree that this sort of error can be disregarded. For new installers, hitting a bug right away with a worthless error message will likely result in many people to abandon the product versus struggle through to find this task and eventually remove the -w from the configure script, or to upgrade the CGI version. I suggest that the -w be removed OR additional code be included to detect the presence of the problem and warn the user with a understandable error message. The version issue IS flagged by configure once it runs, (although not highlighted as serious issue), but the user can't see the message if configure crashes. I changed the status back to "confirmed" to flag my opinion on this item.

-- RaymondLutz - 24 Sep 2009

Has had some issues with 3.42 as well that caused configure to error out. I think this started after I secured up Apache to restrict access to configure to certain users. Got past that with 3.48.

-- MiguelCudaihl - 19 Oct 2009

Strawberry Perl 5.10.1.0 comes with CGI 3.48. No issues so far.

-- MiguelCudaihl - 27 Nov 2009

Configure (and CGI) have moved so far since this report that I reckon it can be ignored.

-- CrawfordCurrie - 17 Feb 2015

Sadly, in upgrading my installation to Windows 2008 64-bit, 64-bit Strawberryperl v5.20.2 for x64, Foswiki v1.1.9 (trying to come from v1.09,) I am also encountering this problem. It looks like I will need to move my v1.0.9 to the new server and wait until a v1.2 release comes along. Is there a validated version of Strawberryperl that I should have instead selected?

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The qw(:any) issue is due to a deprecation in version 4.14 of CGI. This is fixed in the patched linked to Item13345. See distro:a663f015a693 and distro:50e45727aa14

-- GeorgeClark - 16 Apr 2015