Cannot help but laugh and share.
I've been triaging and trying to reproduce some oldish bugs on
pkg-perl's packages. Some bugs are no longer there, some have to be forwarded upstream, and so on. Usual tasks, yes.
Until I stumbled with
#406227. I just
have to laugh and share! Hope nobody feels ashamed - The bug is the result of different people coding maybe under pressure and with quite different mindsets :)
For some reason I fail to understand, the submitter's test case (
rot13 implemented over a HTTP proxy) is invoked in the report as
./rot13 2>/dev/null. Of course, when trying to debug a bug report, the first thing to do is
not to ignore STDERR. So, off goes the 2>/dev/null. What happens next?
0 gwolf@mosca[2]/tmp$ perl ./rot13 &
[1] 4394
0 gwolf@mosca[3]/tmp$ GET -p http://localhost:8080/ http://www.debian.org/
Can't locate object method "filter" via package "UGGC::Cebkl::ObqlSvygre::fvzcyr=UNFU(0k604160)" (perhaps you forgot to load "UGGC::Cebkl::ObqlSvygre::fvzcyr=UNFU(0k604160)"?) at /usr/share/perl5/HTTP/Proxy/FilterStack.pm line 126.
500 EOF when chunk header expected
WTF... Well, at least the program name gives me a clue... Lets try to "decrypt" the error message...
gwolf@mosca[4]/tmp$ echo 'UGGC::Cebkl::ObqlSvygre::fvzcyr=UNFU(0k604160)' rot13
HTTP::Proxy::BodyFilter::simple=HASH(0x604160)
hrm... How comes the filter is filtering its own code and
only then refusing to find
itself!? Ok, time to open up the manpage - Remember, I'm only group-maintaining this pacakge, I am not yet at all familiar with it! Ok, so the core of the filter is when the submitter states:
my $proxy = new HTTP::Proxy();
$proxy->push_filter(response => new HTTP::Proxy::BodyFilter::simple(sub tr/a-zA-z/n-za-mN-ZA-M/; ));
While the manpage states it should be invoked as:
my $filter = HTTP::Proxy::BodyFilter::simple->new( sub $ $_[1] =~ s/foo/bar/g; );
$proxy->push_filter( response => $filter );
Of course, once looking at it, the answer is simple: The submitter left out
which element to act on in the anonymous function body - The
$ $_[1] =~ part. Adding it makes gur svygre jbex nf rkcrpgrq... Err, sorry - makes the filter work as expected.
Now, bonus points: For the non-Perlers out ther: How come we get the namespace translated as well? Oh, that's very simple: In Perl, as in Python (and concievably other languages I'm unaware of), the object is passed to any of its methods as the first argument. Functions in Perl receive their arguments via
@_ (read:
the default array). And, of course, the
tr (regex-based transliteration) takes by default the first thing it sees - the object itself. And what happens when you apply a (string-oriented) regex to an object? Of course, it gets stringified - which, by default, in Perl means converting it to the closest possible description: "a hash reference blessed as an object of the class such-and-such at this memory location". That string gets worked on, and we get UGGC::Cebkl::ObqlSvygre::fvzcyr=UNFU(0k604160). This proxy does not die on very-very-short web pages, where the whole content fits on one iteration of the code (although it does not work correctly - the text remains unaltered, of course, as it was not worked on), but if the request spans several chunks, the second time the filter is called, it will be... just gibberish.
Oh, and what about the extra
$ (...) around
$_[1]? Oh, simple: The string is passed as a
scalar reference, so it can be modified in place. Yes, it's the Perl way of pass-by-reference instead of pass-by-value (the default behaviour):
Of course the parameter is only passed as a value. Only that the value is incidentally a reference - but who cares? ;-)
Anyway... Many oddities. I would implement the module in a completely different way, and it looks quite backwardish in my book. But then again,
TIMTOWTDI.
With the latest flash for Linux update, two of the biggest annoyances have
disappeared. Yay for usability!
I don't think the first trip ever made a mention in either of our blogs.
Funny how an exhausting trip tends to stem the care factor to write about
it afterwards...
Anyway, Sarah was in a fair bit of pain last night when she went to bed,
and despite taking 800mg of Ibuprofen, some amount of Oxycodone, and some
sleeping tablets, she was up again under 2 hours later, in agony.
The main concern was that the staph infection she'd apparently had in the
incision a few weeks prior hadn't been kicked fully by the antibiotics, and
was coming back.
So off we trotted to Stanford's ER, getting there around 1am. Fortunately it
was very quiet (not that it matters when you mention the magic words "chest
pain") and Sarah got straight in.
They did the usual battery of tests and decided to keep her in for
observation, so I trundled off home for some sleep at about 5am.
They told her she could go home at about 1:30pm. Apparently the problem was
muscle spasms, which can happen in some people after having heart surgery
(even this long after the surgery). The solution? Valium. The poor girl's
going to rattle soon with all these pills.
They did some blood work and there's no sign of the staph infection.
Whatever pain medication they gave Sarah intravenously today made her
extremely nauseous, and she was still concerned about the state of the
incision around the area that had been weeping previously, so we trekked back
in to Stanford this afternoon to see the cardiologist, who wasn't concerned
about the incision at all. In fact, he said the surgical doctor had been a
bit generous with pronouncing a staph infection in the incision two weeks
previously, saying that the swab they took at the time probably just picked
it up off Sarah's skin, where it's quite common to be found. So she may
never have had a staph infection in the first place.
Long story short: I'm busy.
These days are quite busy. I'm working (you know, I need to eat so I've a job), to the point that I have many vacation days to take. So I'll be in holidays and offline from friday for 10 days.
I'm still working on 
Today, I orphaned 
I am very fond of Jean-Yves Lefort s 
Cormac and Caoimhe at a patisserie with Chocolate lion in Concarneau, Brittany
.
The weather was fairly good: two wet days (though not overly so, compared to what we're used to in Galway); enough to give the
'authentic camping experience'. And for the children especially, just warm enough. Long drives South were not an option with young kids,
and we wanted to see Carnac and Brittany in general.
We went touring to two places: Mont St. Michel, on the way down, Carnac, and locally around Quimper and Concarneau.
At seven, Cormac is beginning to be old enough to enjoy this, but Sadhbh at 2 is too young, and easily aggravated.
Caoimhe can appreciate some of it, such as the well recommended Breton museum in Quimper, seeing the local costumes and clothing is
just her style at the moment. We're looking forward to going back when the kids are older, or we can enjoy touring on our own.
The camp site is dominated by English / Dutch / Irish. It is still term-time in Britain and Ireland, which meant the children on the site
was full of 2-4 year-olds, with a shortage of playmates for Cormac. Next time, synchronise with English school times, etc.
We went during Cormacs term-time because it was much cheaper (1000 Euro) than high-season. If Cormac was having difficulty in school
things would have been different, as it is, we had no qualms in doing so. Things will probably be different next year with Caoimhe
also in school at the same time, and we would go later. Suffice it to say I think synchonisation of school timetables is a bad idea,
as it has led to these huge price differentials and parents taking their kids from school. As a friend with experience of
the French school system points out, they've spent the last 40 years desynchronising their timetables ...
So would we go again, or buy our own tents, etc? possibly. The brochure for next year arrived already, with large discounts for
booking early ...