Net::LDAP::LDIF::write_cmd with unchanged entry

[Chris B. <bri...@po...>]

I've noticed some behavior that I didn't expect with
Net::LDAP::LDIF::write_cmd.  I don't know if this is a bug or
planned, but it caught me off guard.

It seems that write_cmd causes a fatal error if called on an entry
that has not been changed.  E.g. I'm iterating over a bunch of
entries, making changes if they are necessary, and writing out an
LDIF file which represents the change with:

    Net::LDAP::LDIF->new(\*LDIF_FINAL)->write_cmd($entry);

If $entry has *not* been changed, my program dies with:

,----
| Can't use an undefined value as an ARRAY reference at /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/Net/LDAP/Entry.pm line 278.
`----

That's the changes subroutine:

,----
| sub changes {
|   @{shift->{'changes'}}
| }
`----

An entry which is returned from a search and not changed does not
have a changes key, and thus the above routine dies.

I can easily work around this by keeping track of whether I modify
the entry or not and only call write_cmd if it's been modified
... but this behavior was very unexpected to me.  Should'nt
write_cmd simply not write anything out if there is nothing to
change?

Thanks.