Please backport libcoro-perl 6.490-1 (universe) to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

[Jamie Lokier]

Please backport libcoro-perl 6.490-1 (universe) from yakkety to xenial.

Reason for the backport:
========================
This package was removed from Ubuntu 16.04 LTS before release because it failed to build and had no reverse dependencies. The build failure was fixed in May and the package is now back in Ubuntu "yakkety" and Debian testing.

" Deleted on 2016-03-19 by Steve Langasek FTBFS with perl 5.22; Debian bug #787500 "

Testing:
========
Mark off items in the checklist [X] as you test them, but please leave the checklist so that backporters can quickly evaluate the state of testing.

* xenial:
[X] Package builds without modification
[ ] libcoro-perl-dbgsym installs cleanly and runs
[X] libcoro-perl installs cleanly and runs

No reverse dependencies

I don't use this package so all I tested was whether it built and installed. - Jeremy

More info:
==========
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libcoro-perl/+publishinghistory
https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/libcoro-perl
https://bugs.debian.org/787500

https://launchpad.net/~jbicha/+archive/ubuntu/ppa/+sourcepub/6713944/+listing-archive-extra
(test build for xenial. Please don't add this PPA [or at least add, install what you need and promptly disable again] since I push random packages to my personal PPAs and don't want to provide support for them.)

Changes since the removed version in xenial:
============================================
libcoro-perl (6.490-1) unstable; urgency=medium

  * Team upload.

  [ Lucas Kanashiro ]
  * Add debian/upstream/metadata
  * Import upstream version 6.470
  * Add libcanary-stability-perl as build dependency
  * Declare compliance with Debian policy 3.9.6
  * Add autopkgtest-pkg-perl

  [ gregor herrmann ]
  * Update years of upstream copyright.

  [ Salvatore Bonaccorso ]
  * debian/control: Use HTTPS transport protocol for Vcs-Git URI

  [ gregor herrmann ]
  * New upstream release 6.490.
  * Set bindnow linker flag in debian/rules.
  * Fix duplicate word in debian/copyright. Thanks to lintian.
  * Add more corrections to spelling.patch.
  * Add libnet-http-perl to Recommends. Thanks to autopkgtest.
  * Declare compliance with Debian Policy 3.9.8.
  * debian/copyright: change Copyright-Format 1.0 URL to HTTPS.

  [ Dominic Hargreaves ]
  * Add patch to fix compatibility with perl 5.22+.
    Closes: #787500. This patch is not supported by the upstream
    author, who only supports Coro with a fork of perl called 'stableperl'
    (which is not part of Debian).

 -- Dominic Hargreaves Sun, 22 May 2016 14:09:30 +0100

Original bug report
===================
I am surprised nobody reported this as a bug, so I have created it as a placeholder.

Anyone who searches for the present status of Coro with Perl 5.22 will quickly find there are maintenance problems due to differences of opinion. Builds fail, and it is understandable that it would be dropped or deprioritised.

On the other hand, it does have a number of innocent users who have done nothing wrong except use it, and dependent packages that fail to build, and it's not easy to replace its functionality.

It's an unpleasant surprise to upgrade a server to Ubuntu 16.04 and find a load of Perl code stopped working which is difficult to fix (without rearchitecting applications), simply due to the minor version change to Perl 5.22 which isn't supposed to break that much.

There are a few proposed patches around. However this patch by Nicholas Clark is the only one I've seen that makes the claim to avoid affecting the Perl installation or binary compatibility:

    http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/2016/05/msg236195.html

I don't know if that patch is adequate but if it is, given the LTS status of Ubuntu 16.04 meaning it is unlikely to change Perl minor version, if that patch makes libcoro-perl work and the dependent packages build again, it would seem a good thing to do.

[gregor herrmann (gregoa)]

The mentioned patch applies a patch to Perl 5.22 before changing Coro:

> I have commit 73949fca082fe50bf47755c5ffa328259057ae36 cherry-picked onto
> v5.22.0:
> c813842 (HEAD) make PadlistNAMES() lvalue again.

I've already looked at another patch in this thread which touches only Coro, and indeed makes libcoro-perl build with 5.22 (in Debian/unstable) but fails with 5.24 (Debian/experimental).

If I understand the situation correctly, there's still no clear solution out there. If there is, we'll get it fixed in Debian.

Cheers,
gregor

[Jamie Lokier (jamie-shareable)]

Now that Debian has released a fix, any chance of Ubuntu packaging the same fix?

Thanks,
-- Jamie

[Jamie Lokier (jamie-shareable)]

Looks like nobody is going to pick this up any time soon, even though Debian have released a fix.
Is there anything I can do to help?

Thanks,
-- Jamie

[Jeremy Bícha (jbicha)]

Install log attached from Ubuntu GNOME 16.04 LTS