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PPM (version 3.1, if that matters) is being particularly hateful today.
We've got a windows server which has Email::Send 1.45 on it, which is
broken. I wish to upgrade it to 1.46, which isn't broken.
C:\>ppm install Email::Send
Searching for 'Email::Send' returned multiple results. Using 'search'
instead...
Searching in Active Repositories
1. Email-Send [1.46] Simply Sending Email
2. Email-Send [1.4] Simply Sending Email
3. Email-Send [1.41] Simply Sending Email
4. Email-Send [1.43] Simply Sending Email
5. Email-Send [1.45] Simply Sending Email
6. Email-Send [1.46] Simply Sending Email
Hmmm, a list of "multiple" results, all for the same package. Guess
what, it's the _latest_ version of that package I wish to install.
Actually, _either_ of the latest versions would do, given that items 1
and 6 in the above list are hatefully displayed the same, giving me no
clue at all as to in what way they might differ.
Let's give installation another go, remembering that PPM is stateful (as
well as hateful) and that once one command has emitted a numbered list a
following command can use those numbers to refer particular itmes:
C:\>ppm install 1
No search results to install -- use 'search' to find a package.
Yes, but I've just used 'search' -- or rather it used it for me!
Presumably PPM is only stateful when run as a shell, rather than with
sub-commands directly on the command line. But it's hateful that the
error messages don't mention that point, and, even worse, try to goad
you into doing something that won't work. Let's try again:
C:\>ppm
...
ppm> search Email::Send
Searching in Active Repositories
1. Email-Send [1.46] Simply Sending Email
2. Email-Send [1.4] Simply Sending Email
3. Email-Send [1.41] Simply Sending Email
4. Email-Send [1.43] Simply Sending Email
5. Email-Send [1.45] Simply Sending Email
6. Email-Send [1.46] Simply Sending Email
ppm> install 1
Package 1:
Note: Package 'Email-Send' is already installed.
Yes, I know Email-Send is already installed, but package 1 in the above
list is most definitely version 1.46, which is newer than the version
I've installed. Look, it'll even tell me that:
ppm> q Email::Send
Querying target 1 (ActivePerl 5.8.4.810)
No matches for 'Email::Send'; see 'help query'.
At least it would if it kept track of which packages supply which
modules, so that users could refer to modules, things they program with
and actually want to use, in all PPM commands -- rather than hatefully
and tantalizingly letting us use modules in some commands and forcing us
to use packages in others:
ppm> q Email-Send
Querying target 1 (ActivePerl 5.8.4.810)
1. Email-Send [1.45] Simply Sending Email
So that's what I want to upgrade. Let's try the upgrade command:
ppm> upgrade Email::Send
Error: package 'Email::Send' is not installed.
So install can cope with a module name but even upgrade can't? Hate!
ppm> upgrade Email-Send
Email-Send 1.45: up to date.
Yes, I know that Email-Send 1.45 is up to date; what I'm wanting you to
install is Email-Send 1.46 which you listed for me earlier! Let's go
back to that list and try to upgrade it from there:
ppm> search Email::Send
Searching in Active Repositories
1. Email-Send [1.46] Simply Sending Email
2. Email-Send [1.4] Simply Sending Email
3. Email-Send [1.41] Simply Sending Email
4. Email-Send [1.43] Simply Sending Email
5. Email-Send [1.45] Simply Sending Email
6. Email-Send [1.46] Simply Sending Email
ppm> upgrade 1
Email-Send 1.45: up to date.
Huh? What? Now, really, there's no excuse for that.
Oh, from reading the help it transpires that upgrade only _lists_
potential upgrades; it hatefully doesn't try to install an upgrade
unless you give it the -install flag (not to be confused with the
install command, above, which hatefully won't install upgrades either):
ppm> upgrade -install Email-Send
Email-Send 1.45: up to date.
Noooo!!!
Let's try that list again.
ppm> search Email::Send
Searching in Active Repositories
1. Email-Send [1.46] Simply Sending Email
2. Email-Send [1.4] Simply Sending Email
3. Email-Send [1.41] Simply Sending Email
4. Email-Send [1.43] Simply Sending Email
5. Email-Send [1.45] Simply Sending Email
6. Email-Send [1.46] Simply Sending Email
ppm> upgrade -install 1
Error: package '1' is not installed.
So the install command can take numbers from a search list instead of
package names; the upgrade command can take such numbers when searching
for a package; but give the upgrade the -install flag and it suddenly
forgets how to use these numbers? Yer-what???
Let's try removing the ambiguity in the above list. PPM comes
configured to search 2 repositories by default. The above list looks
suspiciously like one of those repositories has lots of versions of
Email-Send and one only has the version I want, so if I disable the
repository with lots there should be just the one I want left.
ppm> rep
Repositories:
[1] ActiveState PPM2 Repository
[2] ActiveState Package Repository
Wow, those are sure good names for making absolutely clear the
distinction between the two them. Let's disable the first one:
ppm> rep off 1
Repositories:
[1] ActiveState Package Repository
[ ] ActiveState PPM2 Repository
and try that search again:
ppm> search Email::Send
Searching in Active Repositories
1. Email-Send [1.4] Simply Sending Email
2. Email-Send [1.41] Simply Sending Email
3. Email-Send [1.43] Simply Sending Email
4. Email-Send [1.45] Simply Sending Email
5. Email-Send [1.46] Simply Sending Email
Ooops, chose wrong. Let's disable that repository and enable the other
one:
ppm> rep off 1
Repositories:
[ ] ActiveState Package Repository
[ ] ActiveState PPM2 Repository
Hmmm, it indicates that a repository is disabled by removing its number.
So now there's no handy way of indicating which of the disabled
repositories I wish to enable; its name has to be typed in full. I'm
_so_ glad somebody redundantly put "Repository" at the end of the name
of a package repository, in a list of package repositories, just so that
I could type it in again:
ppm> rep on ActiveState PPM2 Repository
[1] ActiveState PPM2 Repository
[ ] ActiveState Package Repository
Search again:
ppm> search Email::Send
1. Email-Send [1.46] Simply Sending Email
Hurrah! No ambiguity there, let's try that upgrade:
ppm> upgrade -install Email-Send
ppm>
That's right: nothing. Just the PPM prompt back again.
And no, this isn't the 'no news is good news' sense of nothing that you
get with Unix commands, where a lack of error message indicates success.
The installed package is still at version 1.45.
I'm completely stumped. I've got a package manager which can tell me
about a package that I want, but I can't find a way of actually
persuading it to install it. This is ridiculous! What on earth is the
point of a package manager that declines to install packages that it's
told you are available for installation?
So What I actually did to fix Email::Send on this server is use Cpan
Search's diff feature to view the 2 lines that have changed between 1.45
and 1.46, then use 'WordPad' to hack those changes directly on to the
installed module. As a technique it doesn't scale well, but it has the
advantage of actually working.
Smylers
--
May God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we can make a
difference in this world, so that we can do what others claim cannot be done.
Generated at 17:00 on 23 Aug 2005 by mariachi 0.52