backtrace with 'stack level too deep'

[Bryan McLellan]

rcov breaks with '/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/rexml/formatters/pretty.rb:129:in `wrap': stack level too deep (SystemStackError)'.

0.8.1.2-2 contains a bug with the rexml/rcov interaction. There is a workaround in place, in report.rb:

if RUBY_VERSION == "1.8.6" && defined? REXML::Formatters::Transitive

This doesn't help on intrepid out of the box because ruby is 1.8.7, changing '1.8.6' to '1.8.7' fixes it.

[Bryan McLellan (btm)]

http://redmine.ruby-lang.org/issues/show/342

ruby1.8=1.8.7.174-1 in Ubuntu 9.10 (karmic) contains the fix for this particular issue.

rcov=0.9.6-1 in Debian experimental (sid) and testing (squeeze) no longer requires rexml. I have verified that backporting this version of rcov to jaunty resolves this issue.

[Bryan McLellan (btm)]

We could either patch rcov or ruby on jaunty to fix this issue there. I can confirm it still exists. Rcov feels easiest, but I don't know what other software may hit the bug in Ruby, which feels more appropriate albeit much more work for a bug that doesn't appear to affect many users.

[Lucas Nussbaum (lucas)]

Do we really want to fix this in jaunty? Fixing bugs in karmic, I see the point. In hardy, I could see the point. But jaunty, seriously....

[Bryan McLellan (btm)]

Yeah. That's just a frustrating interface and I'm trying too hard to use it.

hardy: should be fine, ruby 1.8.6, but I haven't tested it.
intrepid: untested, not a priority.
jaunty: no, it isn't a high priority to release an update.
karmic: ruby has the relevant rexml code fixed
lucid: getting the upstream rcov patches.

It would be easy to patch if it affected anyone, but it doesn't appear to so it isn't worth the effort.