Re: configure's checks for --enable-tap-tests are insufficient

Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> writes:

> Craig Ringer <craig(at)2ndquadrant(dot)com> writes:
>> On 19 March 2018 at 23:56, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:
>>> ... much excavation finds a complaint about Time::HiRes not being installed
>
>> That's absurd. Time::HiRes is a core module, as is Test::More. Sigh.
>
>> Yes, looks like tests are necessary. I'd argue it's "test for broken Perl"
>> but apparently Fedora think they should split the Perl core dist into tiny
>> pieces.

Note that Fedora aren't the only ones to do this: Debian also splits the
Perl core dist into multiple packages. The crucial difference is that
on Debian installing the 'perl' package gives you the whole lot, while
on Fedora that's just a subset (similar to Debian's 'perl-base'
package); you have to install 'perl-core' to get everything.

> FWIW, the package boundaries are the same on RHEL6, and probably long
> before that. It's possible that Red Hat have trimmed back which packages
> they consider part of a basic Perl installation. I don't have any data
> on whether that's moved over time, but it wouldn't surprise me given
> the long-term shifts in Fedora's orientation.

In Fedora 27 (and thus RHEL 8, whenever that will be) they've finally
rearranged the packages so that installing 'perl' gives you the full
Perl core dist, while the minimal subset has been renamed to
'perl-interpreter'.

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/perl_Package_to_Install_Core_Modules

- ilmari
--
"A disappointingly low fraction of the human race is,
at any given time, on fire." - Stig Sandbeck Mathisen