'do' no longer loading files from '.' due to '.' being removed from @INC

[Jonathan Kamens]

I just downloaded and compiled stock Perl 5.24.1 without any Ubuntu packages.

Then I put this in a file called foo.pl:

--cut
do 'froodle.conf';
print $froodle, "\n";
--cut

and this in froodle.conf:

--cut
$froodle = 'freedle';
--cut

Then I ran "perl foo.pl" with the stock Perl I had just compiled, and saw this:

--cut
$ perl foo.pl
freedle
$
--cut

However, when I run "perl foo.pl" with the version of Perl included in Zesty, I see this:

--cut
$ perl foo.pl

$
--cut

This is a serious, significant difference in behavior between stock Perl and Ubuntu's Perl, and a regression from Yakkety.

Using "do EXPR" to get variable settings from configuration files is even documented in the Perl documentation (https://perldoc.perl.org/functions/do.html). You can't just break this. :-/

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.04
Package: perl 5.24.1-2ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.10.0-19.21-generic 4.10.8
Uname: Linux 4.10.0-19-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_uvm nvidia_drm nvidia_modeset nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.20.4-0ubuntu4
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity:Unity7
Date: Sun Apr 16 16:11:29 2017
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-01-16 (456 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 15.10 "Wily Werewolf" - Release amd64 (20151021)
SourcePackage: perl
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to zesty on 2017-04-14 (2 days ago)

[Jonathan Kamens (jik)]

Hmm. I see this in the output of perl -V:

 DEBPKG:debian/document_inc_removal - Document in perlvar that we remove '.' from @INC by default

So I guess this is a conscious decision to remove "." from @INC in Perl in Zesty?

Is this documented anywhere other than the perlvar man page? Like in Zesty's release notes or something?

[Dominic Hargreaves (dom)]

Hello, I'm one of the perl maintainers in Debian. In Debian we're still finalising the release notes for this issue for our next release; I suspect noone thought about communicating this change for Ubuntu :( A couple of observations that might be helpful to you and others:

1) you can revert this change (if you need to) by commenting out the relevant line in /etc/perl/sitecustomize.pl

2) I recommend that you in any case check for 'do' returning false, so that you at least don't get a silent failure.

3) This change is being made in the upcoming 5.26.0 release but for release timing reasons we have made it early.