open-ils.storage fails to start with perl >= 5.24

[Graham Billiau]

Platform: Gentoo Hardened
OpenSRF: Master
Evergreen: 2.12.4
PostgreSQL: 9.5.7
Perl: 5.24.1

The open-ils.storage OpenSRF module fails to start when using perl >= 5.24.

Logs report the following error:
[2017-07-31 10:28:57] OpenSRF Listener [open-ils.storage] [ERR :18779:Publisher.pm:405:] ARG! Couldn't load metabib class Publisher: Experimental keys on scalar is now forbidden at /usr/local/lib64/perl5/5.24.1/OpenILS/Application/Storage/Publisher/metabib.pm line 3189.
[2017-07-31 10:28:57] OpenSRF Listener [open-ils.storage] [ERR :18779:EX.pm:66:] Exception: OpenSRF::EX::ERROR 2017-07-31T10:28:57 OpenILS::Application::Storage::Publisher /usr/local/lib64/perl5/5.24.1/OpenILS/Application/Storage/Publisher.pm:406 System ERROR: ARG! Couldn't load metabib class Publisher: Experimental keys on scalar is now forbidden at /usr/local/lib64/perl5/5.24.1/OpenILS/Application/Storage/Publisher/metabib.pm line 3189.
[2017-07-31 10:28:57] OpenSRF Listener [open-ils.storage] [ERR :18779:Storage.pm:47:] FAILURE LOADING Publisher! Exception: OpenSRF::EX::ERROR 2017-07-31T10:28:57 UNIVERSAL /usr/local/lib64/perl5/5.24.1/OpenILS/Application/Storage.pm:45 System ERROR: ARG! Couldn't load metabib class Publisher: Experimental keys on scalar is now forbidden at /usr/local/lib64/perl5/5.24.1/OpenILS/Application/Storage/Publisher/metabib.pm line 3189.
[2017-07-31 10:28:57] OpenSRF Listener [open-ils.storage] [ERR :18779:EX.pm:66:] Exception: OpenSRF::EX::PANIC 2017-07-31T10:28:57 OpenILS::Application::Storage /usr/local/lib64/perl5/5.24.1/OpenILS/Application/Storage.pm:48 System PANIC: FAILURE LOADING Publisher! : Exception: OpenSRF::EX::ERROR 2017-07-31T10:28:57 UNIVERSAL /usr/local/lib64/perl5/5.24.1/OpenILS/Application/Storage.pm:45 System ERROR: ARG! Couldn't load metabib class Publisher: Experimental keys on scalar is now forbidden at /usr/local/lib64/perl5/5.24.1/OpenILS/Application/Storage/Publisher/metabib.pm line 3189.

I found the following extra information with a quick search (though I couldn't find the original source):
"Experimental %s on scalar is now forbidden (F) An experimental feature added in Perl 5.14 allowed each, keys, push, pop, shift, splice, unshift, and values to be called with a scalar argument. This experiment is considered unsuccessful, and has been removed. The postderef feature may meet your needs better."

[Mike Rylander (mrylander)]

Ah, well, at least that's a simple one to fix:

--- a/Open-ILS/src/perlmods/lib/OpenILS/Application/Storage/Publisher/metabib.pm
+++ b/Open-ILS/src/perlmods/lib/OpenILS/Application/Storage/Publisher/metabib.pm
@@ -3186,7 +3186,7 @@ sub query_parser_fts_wrapper {
     $top_org ||= actor::org_unit->search( { parent_ou => undef } )->next;

     my $base_query = $args{query} || '';
- if (scalar(keys($args{searches}))) {
+ if (ref($args{searches}) && scalar(keys(%{$args{searches}}))) {
         $log->debug("Constructing QueryParser query from staged search hash ...", DEBUG);
         for my $sclass ( keys %{$args{searches}} ) {
             $log->debug(" --> staged search key: $sclass --> term: $args{searches}{$sclass}{term}", DEBUG);

Thanks, Graham!

I'll push a branch soon.

[Mike Rylander (mrylander)]

Branch available here: http://git.evergreen-ils.org/?p=working/Evergreen.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/user/miker/lp-1707549-modern-perl-hates-storage

[Galen Charlton (gmc)]

Pushed to master and rel_2_12. Thanks, Graham and Mike!

(Despite an earlier series target I made, this didn't turn out to affect 2.11.x).