Bug#654387: perl debugger dies for PDL scripts with "Can't return a temporary from lvalue subroutine"

[Dominic Hargreaves]

On Tue, Jan 03, 2012 at 11:35:28AM +0100, Bryan Jurish wrote:
> Perl Data Language ("PDL", debian package "pdl") exploits what is normally a
> non-harmful, non-useful case in Perl 5; a roadblock added in Perl 5.10.1 kills
> that case, gutting PDL functionality under the perl debugger, which makes it
> virtually impossible to debug PDL scripts.   Under perl-5.10.1, the perl
> debugger aborts for common PDL constructions with the error message:

...

> A patch which successfully fixes the problem was submitted by Doug Hunt; I have
> attached it here; the original is available at:
> https://rt.perl.org/rt3/Ticket/Attachment/656478/313038/lvalue_71172.patch
> 
> I would be very grateful if this patch could be added to debian's perl package.

In the first instance we will need to fix this in our perl packages in
Debian unstable (and your assistance in confirming the fix there would be
useful). Once that is done, it may be possible consider a fix in 5.10.1,
but I don't think it will be possible to do that for the next point release
as that's scheduled for the next week or so.

Cheers,
Dominic.

-- 
Dominic Hargreaves | http://www.larted.org.uk/~dom/
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