Re: [Module::Build] Re: [perl #39098] Pod::Html error stops CPAN install/test of Pod::Readme

[Ken W. <ke...@ma...>]

On May 9, 2006, at 3:04 AM, Randy W. Sims wrote:

> [ X-List-Archive: <http://nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/ 
> 112653> ]
>
> Rafael Garcia-Suarez wrote:
>> On 07/05/06, via RT Eric R. Meyers <per...@pe...> wrote:
>>> Perl Pod::Html error stops CPAN make Pod::Readme
>>>
>>> Abstract:
>>> ./Build: blib/lib/Pod/Readme.pm: unexpected =item directive in  
>>> paragraph 38.
>>> ignoring.
>>> Use of uninitialized value in string ne at /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/ 
>>> Pod/Html.pm
>>> line 1281.
>>> Unmatched begin/end at chunk 40
>>>   ./Build  -- NOT OK
>> I'd say the problem is with Module::Build, which should probably
>> proceed if pod2html can't build HTML docs. Anyway this is a M::B bug,
>> not a Pod::Html one. The original POD document is actually malformed.
>
> I guess I'm not one for failing silently. What should be the  
> correct behavior here?
>
> 1) Silently fail. Install everything but html docs.
> 2) Silently fail. Install everything including all the html docs  
> except the one that fails.
> 3) Fail completely.
>
> The problem with failing silently or even emitting a warning is  
> that it will disappear amoung other output when installing from  
> CPAN.pm or similar, giving no clue to the user that installation is  
> "incomplete".

I agree.  If the user has their system set up to build things a  
certain way (i.e. with HTML pages), and we can't do that, we need to  
fail.  I don't know of any build system that will just give up and  
proceed without one of its targets.

We could indeed improve the failure message, though, as long as we  
don't obscure the original cause.

  -Ken