openldap database backend back_perl has undefined symbols (aka slapd-perl back-perl)

[Joshua Miller]

Error when starting slapd when configured to use the perl backend (/etc/init.d/slapd start):
Starting OpenLDAP: slapd - failed:
/usr/sbin/slapd: symbol lookup error: /usr/lib/perl/5.10/auto/Fcntl/Fcntl.so: undefined symbol: Perl_Istack_sp_ptr

This may be related to bug #90812

When start fails, also verified it was not running with ps.
Removing the "database perl" section allows it to start.

lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 9.10
Release: 9.10

slapd -V
@(#) $OpenLDAP: slapd 2.4.18 (Sep 8 2009 17:47:22) $
        buildd@crested:/build/buildd/openldap-2.4.18/debian/build/servers/slapd

To reproduce:

Changed to use slapd.conf rather than ldif configs.
/etc/defaults/slapd :
SLAPD_CONF=/etc/ldap/slapd.conf
SLAPD_USER="openldap"
SLAPD_GROUP="openldap"
SLAPD_PIDFILE=
SLAPD_SERVICES="ldap:/// ldapi:/// ldaps:///"
SLAPD_SENTINEL_FILE=/etc/ldap/noslapd
SLAPD_OPTIONS=""

My /etc/ldap/slapd.conf:
moduleload back_perl
include /etc/ldap/schema/core.schema
include /etc/ldap/schema/cosine.schema
include /etc/ldap/schema/inetorgperson.schema
loglevel 1320
pidfile /var/run/slapd/slapd.pid
argsfile /var/run/slapd/slapd.args
password-hash {SSHA}
database perl
suffix "dc=company,dc=com"
perlModulePath /etc/ldap/perl
perlModule SampleLDAP

Copied SampleLDAP.pm from source distribution to /etc/ldap/perl/SampleLDAP.pm
chown'd it to openldap:
chmod'd it to 750
opendlap source location:
    openldap-2.4.19/servers/slapd/back-perl/SampleLDAP.pm

Fixed bug in SampleLDAP.pm on line 52:
    < print {*STDERR}, "====$filterStr====\n";
    > print {*STDERR} "====$filterStr====\n";

[note: attached the SampleLDAP.pm]

Attempt to start service, and receive the error.
/etc/init.d/slapd start
Starting OpenLDAP: slapd - failed:
/usr/sbin/slapd: symbol lookup error: /usr/lib/perl/5.10/auto/Fcntl/Fcntl.so: undefined symbol: Perl_Istack_sp_ptr

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sun Nov 8 15:16:42 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Package: slapd 2.4.18-0ubuntu1
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-server
SourcePackage: openldap
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-server x86_64

[Chuck Short (zulcss)]

Thanks for the bug report.

Regards
chuck

[Howard Chu (hyc)]

Seems like exactly the same as bug #90812. And the workaround shown there https://bugs.launchpad.net/openldap/+bug/90812/comments/31 still works. If this is something we should be handling upstream, please submit an ITS. For the moment it doesn't seem like it. The discussion of libltdl implies there may be something we can do to avoid this, I just haven't looked into it any further.