Use of assignment to $[ is deprecated at /usr/sbin/fcheck line 1366.

[JP Vossen]

Description: Ubuntu precise (development branch)
Release: 12.04

Package: fcheck-2.7.59-17

I upgraded a pretty stock Ubuntu 11.11 to 12.04, and now I'm getting cron emails complaining:

Use of assignment to $[ is deprecated at /usr/sbin/fcheck line 1366.

This is due to new features in Perl 5.12 and is true:
[...]
   1357 ###############################################################################
   1358 # $x=&ctime($y); #
   1359 # This support routine will return the converted time to human readable format#
   1360 # Basically, I'm trying to get away from any functions that may not be in any #
   1361 # very minimal PERL distribution. #
   1362 ###############################################################################
   1363 sub ctime
   1364 {
   1365 local($time) = @_;
> 1366 local($[) = 0;
   1367 local($sec, $min, $hour, $mday, $mon, $year, $wday);
[...]

Hints:
http://perldoc.perl.org/perl5120delta.html#Deprecations
http://www.effectiveperlprogramming.com/blog/463

I'm a little confused as to why it's doing that, since zero-based arrays are the default anyway.

[François Marier (fmarier)]

This is already fixed in Debian sid.

Is it too late to request a sync of that package from Sid to Precise?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[François Marier (fmarier)]

I backported the Debian unstable version of the package to my PPA for Precise:

  https://launchpad.net/~fmarier/+archive/ppa?field.series_filter=precise

[Raoul Bhatia (raoul-bhatia)]

as far as i can see, no update has been release to precise yet. will this happen anytime soon?

[Raoul Bhatia (raoul-bhatia)]

the corresponding patch from debian can be found at http://patch-tracker.debian.org/patch/series/view/fcheck/2.7.59-18/10_fix_deprecation_warning.patch

[Blair Zajac (blair)]

The fix is in 12.10's 2.7.59-18 release which is working fine for me on 12.04. Download it from http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/f/fcheck/ .

[agent 8131 (agent-8131)]

This bug is definitely SRU worthy:

[Impact]
 * Software does not work correctly/at all on 12.04
 * 12.10 version works due to minor fix

[Test Case]
 * fcheck -c should not respond with: "Use of assignment to $[ is deprecated at /usr/sbin/fcheck line 1366."

[Regression Potential]
* extremely unlikely