Re: minimum perl version

[Jim Meyering]

Eric Blake wrote:
> On 09/01/2010 12:48 PM, Tom G. Christensen wrote:
>>>> +++ update-copyright.test-ex-stderr     2010-08-31 22:20:22.981772600 +0200
>>>> @@ -1,2 +1 @@
>>>> -update-copyright.test-ex.4: warning: FSF copyright statement not found
>>>> -update-copyright.test-ex.5: warning: FSF copyright statement not found
>>>> +./test-update-copyright.sh[95]: update-copyright:  not found
>>>
>>> Regex gone wrong somewhere?  Maybe due to an older perl bug?  What
>>> version of perl are you using?
>>>
>> It picked up the system perl in /usr/sbin which is 5.004_05.
>>
>> Rerunning with nekoware perl (5.8.8) first in the path fixes this.
>
> Sounds like we should be requiring a minimum version of perl in
> build-aux/update-copyright, and teaching test-update-copyright to skip
> if perl is not that new.  Jim, my perl is quite weak, would you mind
> taking this one?

Sure. I've just pushed the following.
Can someone confirm that 5.6.0 works, or even
find what precise version is barely new enough?

>From e2c4d9f8d8e1c87f861e6d62bdfe6c6136945c05 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Jim Meyering <address@hidden>
Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2010 13:51:56 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] test-update-copyright.sh: skip test if Perl is too old

* tests/test-update-copyright.sh: Exit 77 if Perl is too old.
Reported by Tom G. Christensen.
---
 ChangeLog                      |    6 ++++++
 tests/test-update-copyright.sh |    4 ++++
 2 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)

diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index edb5ab5..239d4b2 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+2010-09-02  Jim Meyering  <address@hidden>
+
+       test-update-copyright.sh: skip test if Perl is too old
+       * tests/test-update-copyright.sh: Exit 77 if Perl is too old.
+       Reported by Tom G. Christensen.
+
 2010-09-02  Bruno Haible  <address@hidden>

        wctype: Avoid compilation error on IRIX 6.5.30.
diff --git a/tests/test-update-copyright.sh b/tests/test-update-copyright.sh
index 2d1022a..607928d 100755
--- a/tests/test-update-copyright.sh
+++ b/tests/test-update-copyright.sh
@@ -16,6 +16,10 @@
 # You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 # along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

+# Skip this test if Perl is too old.  FIXME: 5.6.0 is just a guess.
+# We have a report that 5.004_05 is inadequate and that 5.8.8 works.
+perl -e 'require 5.6.0' || exit 77
+
 diffout=`diff -u /dev/null /dev/null 2>&1`
 if test x"$diffout" = x"" && test $? -eq 0; then
   compare() { diff -u "$@"; }
--
1.7.2.2.510.g7180a