[cgiapp] Data::Session/CGI::Session

[Ron Savage]

Hi Nicholas

On Sat, 2010-12-18 at 23:37 +0000, Nicholas Bamber wrote:
> I notice that a 4.43 o CGI::Session has been released. That should get 
> into Debian in due course. Reviewing the Debian bug list I noticed this:
> 
> "Session file not being written for driver:File; serializer:Storable" 
> (http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=315669)
> 
> That appears to be related to #482355
> "Storable.pm segfaults when called during global destruction"
> 
> And from my brief reading of the bug reports this seems to be related to 
> design/backwards compatibility issues
> in both CGI::Session and Storable. Can I conclude from that, that the 
> best thing to do with #315669
> would be to mark it "wontfix" and to suggest that people bother by the 
> bug try Data::Session (which would of course will need to be packaged)?

Yes.

This bug report for Storable

http://rt.cpan.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=36087

indicates that the maintainers of Storable /may/ attempt to rectify the
problem with Storable.

As I see it, since the problem has been identified as being with
Storable, it should not be up to other modules to add special code to
compensate for this.

I do realise various modules have had special code put in them to
compensate for problems with other modules.

My policy is that the module with the bug should be fixed, and that
workarounds should not be used except, perhaps, in exceptional
circumstances. This case is not exceptional, since users can simply
switch away from Storable to something reliable.

We could add a patch to CGI::Session, but I am not going to patch
Data::Session in this manner.

What I will do is patch the docs for Data::Session to warn users about
the issue with Storable.

I suggest the docs for CGI::Session should be likewise updated.

Lastly, since I'm a Debian user myself, I could package Data::Session
(i.e. in Debian format), given some help, since I only have limited
experience with that. If there is someone available, they can email me
directly.

Thanx for following this up.
-- 
Ron Savage
http://savage.net.au/
Ph: 0421 920 622