What to do when CPAN module authors can"t be reached? (Bug + fixfor Frontier::RPC2)

Hi,

I found a bug in Frontier::RPC2. I've sent the author 2 emails (with a
few months between) and never received any reply nor did the email
bounce. This seems to be a common problem with open source software.
What should one do when bugs are found but the authors aren't with CPAN
modules?

In any case this is the bug I found and it's fix:

The automatic encoding of scalars doesn't conform to the specs when a
long string of digits is passed into the _scalar method.

The fix is easy.:

Just replace this line....
if ($value =~ /^[+-]?\d+$/) {
with this line....
if (($value =~ /^[+-]?\d{1,10}$/) && ($value <= 2147483647) && ($value
>= -2147483648)) {

The id of the module I have is: # $Id: RPC2.pm,v 1.18 2002/08/02
18:35:21 ivan420 Exp $

Regards,
Craig Manley

Re: What to do when CPAN module authors can"t be reached? (Bug + fixfor Frontier::RPC2)

In article <445cefcd$0$31638$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl>,
Craig Manley wrote:
>I found a bug in Frontier::RPC2. I've sent the author 2 emails (with a
>few months between) and never received any reply nor did the email
>bounce. This seems to be a common problem with open source software.
>What should one do when bugs are found but the authors aren't with CPAN
>modules?

Submit a new version of the module to CPAN.

--
MfG/Best regards, Kurt Jaeger 14 years to go !
LF.net GmbH fon +49 711 90074-23 pi@LF.net
Ruppmannstr. 27 fax +49 711 90074-33
70565 Stuttgart mob +49 171 3101372

Re: What to do when CPAN module authors can"t be reached? (Bug + fix for Frontier::RPC2)

Kurt Jaeger wrote:
> In article <445cefcd$0$31638$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl>,
> Craig Manley wrote:
>>I found a bug in Frontier::RPC2. I've sent the author 2 emails (with a
>>few months between) and never received any reply nor did the email
>>bounce. This seems to be a common problem with open source software.
>>What should one do when bugs are found but the authors aren't with CPAN
>>modules?
>
> Submit a new version of the module to CPAN.

You can not upload a new version to a registered
namespace.

Re: What to do when CPAN module authors can"t be reached? (Bug + fix for Frontier::RPC2)

"Craig Manley" wrote in message

> What should one do when bugs are found but the authors aren't with CPAN
> modules?

See
http://groups.google.com.au/group/comp.lang.perl.modules/bro wse_thread/thread/dbbf64160d475c55/fc6f74fecd56c9ab?q=%22tak e+over%22&rnum=4#fc6f74fecd56c9ab

Here's a (slightly edited) copy'n'paste of the relevant post:

----------------------------------------------
From: Anthony Peacock - view profile
Date: Mon, Mar 19 2001 10:37 pm
Email: Anthony Peacock
Groups: comp.lang.perl.modules

David Chan wrote:

> On Sat, 17 Mar 2001, David Coppit wrote:


> > On Sat, 17 Mar 2001, Ilya Zakharevich wrote:


> > > And who decides on what is "some minimal level of maintenance"? See
> > > the "slavery" reference above.


> > The author, usually. Although others can hope to influence the author.
> > :)






> There is an issue, though, of deciding what to do when nobody hears from
> an author for a long period of time. Due to the voluntary nature of free
> software contribution, there's often no way of telling what's happened to
> the author. Anything could have happened, including being run over by the
> proverbial bus (not a nice thought).


> I'm not of course speculating that this is what's happened to Graham!
> But generally I think that there needs to be a way to transfer
> responsibilities if a contributor is unpingable for long enough, so to
> speak. Otherwise, the module namespace will eventually become cluttered
> with dead branches.



There is a mechanisim for this, it is what I did when I needed a change
to the HTML::Table module. I got no response from the author, I tried
here and I got a response from somebody that had been trying to reach
the author as well. I approached the people at PAUSE and explained the
situation. I was happy to take over the role of maintainer. I set up
an 'account' as an author, and after a suitable period they transfered
ownership of the module.

I would suggest that anybody happy to take over as maintainer of the
module, get in touch with the people at PAUSE, and explain the
situation. They will try to contact the original maintainer, a message
from them might elicit a response...
---------------------------------------------------

Cheers,
Rob

Re: What to do when CPAN module authors can"t be reached? (Bug + fix for Frontier::RPC2)

Achim Grolms wrote:

> Kurt Jaeger wrote:
>> In article <445cefcd$0$31638$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl>,
>> Craig Manley wrote:
>>>I found a bug in Frontier::RPC2. I've sent the author 2 emails (with a
>>>few months between) and never received any reply nor did the email
>>>bounce. This seems to be a common problem with open source software.
>>>What should one do when bugs are found but the authors aren't with CPAN
>>>modules?
>>
>> Submit a new version of the module to CPAN.
>
> You can not upload a new version to a registered
> namespace.

Not everyone has the "response" gene. Go to here and create your bug
report:
http://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=Frontier-RP C

Re: What to do when CPAN module authors can"t be reached? (Bug + fix for Frontier::RPC2)

Sisyphus wrote:

>
> "Craig Manley" wrote in message
>
>> What should one do when bugs are found but the authors aren't with CPAN
>> modules?
>
> See
>
http://groups.google.com.au/group/comp.lang.perl.modules/bro wse_thread/thread/dbbf64160d475c55/fc6f74fecd56c9ab?q=%22tak e+over%22&rnum=4#fc6f74fecd56c9ab
>
> Here's a (slightly edited) copy'n'paste of the relevant post:
>
> ----------------------------------------------
> From: Anthony Peacock - view profile
> Date: Mon, Mar 19 2001 10:37 pm
> Email: Anthony Peacock
> Groups: comp.lang.perl.modules
>
> David Chan wrote:
>
>> On Sat, 17 Mar 2001, David Coppit wrote:
>
>
>> > On Sat, 17 Mar 2001, Ilya Zakharevich wrote:
>
>
>> > > And who decides on what is "some minimal level of maintenance"? See
>> > > the "slavery" reference above.
>
>
>> > The author, usually. Although others can hope to influence the author.
>> > :)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>> There is an issue, though, of deciding what to do when nobody hears from
>> an author for a long period of time. Due to the voluntary nature of free
>> software contribution, there's often no way of telling what's happened to
>> the author. Anything could have happened, including being run over by
>> the proverbial bus (not a nice thought).
>
>
>> I'm not of course speculating that this is what's happened to Graham!
>> But generally I think that there needs to be a way to transfer
>> responsibilities if a contributor is unpingable for long enough, so to
>> speak. Otherwise, the module namespace will eventually become cluttered
>> with dead branches.
>
>
>
> There is a mechanisim for this, it is what I did when I needed a change
> to the HTML::Table module. I got no response from the author, I tried
> here and I got a response from somebody that had been trying to reach
> the author as well. I approached the people at PAUSE and explained the
> situation. I was happy to take over the role of maintainer. I set up
> an 'account' as an author, and after a suitable period they transfered
> ownership of the module.
>
> I would suggest that anybody happy to take over as maintainer of the
> module, get in touch with the people at PAUSE, and explain the
> situation. They will try to contact the original maintainer, a message
> from them might elicit a response...
> ---------------------------------------------------
>
> Cheers,
> Rob

Go to here for HTML::Table:
http://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=HTML-Table

Re: What to do when CPAN module authors can"t be reached? (Bug + fix for Frontier::RPC2)

Craig Manley wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I found a bug in Frontier::RPC2. I've sent the author 2 emails (with a
> few months between) and never received any reply nor did the email
> bounce. This seems to be a common problem with open source software.
> What should one do when bugs are found but the authors aren't with CPAN
> modules?
>
> In any case this is the bug I found and it's fix:
>
> The automatic encoding of scalars doesn't conform to the specs when a
> long string of digits is passed into the _scalar method.
>
> The fix is easy.:
>
> Just replace this line....
> if ($value =~ /^[+-]?\d+$/) {
> with this line....
> if (($value =~ /^[+-]?\d{1,10}$/) && ($value <= 2147483647) && ($value
> >= -2147483648)) {
>
> The id of the module I have is: # $Id: RPC2.pm,v 1.18 2002/08/02
> 18:35:21 ivan420 Exp $
>
> Regards,
> Craig Manley

Not everyone has the "response" gene. Go to here and create your bug
report:
http://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=Frontier-RP C2

Re: What to do when CPAN module authors can"t be reached? (Bug + fix for Frontier::RPC2)

Achim Grolms wrote:

> Kurt Jaeger wrote:
>> In article <445cefcd$0$31638$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl>,
>> Craig Manley wrote:
>>>I found a bug in Frontier::RPC2. I've sent the author 2 emails (with a
>>>few months between) and never received any reply nor did the email
>>>bounce. This seems to be a common problem with open source software.
>>>What should one do when bugs are found but the authors aren't with CPAN
>>>modules?
>>
>> Submit a new version of the module to CPAN.
>
> You can not upload a new version to a registered
> namespace.

I Formally Appologize to Achim, for making a trivial mistake in Public View.