<Perl>: <missing modules>

[rsauve]

Package Name

Perl

Maintainer

ckorber

OpenWrt Version

OpenWrt 25.12.5 r33051-f5dae5ece4 / LuCI openwrt-25.12 branch 26.187.49110~99464ec

OpenWrt Target/Subtarget

ramips/mt7621

Steps to Reproduce

When I try to use these modules in Perl there are not available:
use Getopt::Std;
use Text::CharWidth;

Actual Behaviour

The modules Getopt::Std and Text::CharWidth are not installed. When I try to use them I receive this:

Can't locate Getopt/Std.pm in @inc (you may need to install the Getopt::Std module) (@inc entries checked: /usr/lib/perl5/5.40)

Can't locate Text/CharWidth.pm in @inc (you may need to install the Text::CharWidth module) (@inc entries checked: /usr/lib/perl5/5.40)

I then went down the rabbit-hole trying to add the modules via cpan:
perl -MCPAN -e 'shell'
install Getopt::Std

I have expanded storage setup on /dev/sda and a 2GB swapfile file on /dev/sda3.
When I try to add the modules from within the perl/cpan shell it fails and eventually crashes the router.

Anyhow, shouldn't these modules be part of the default Perl installation or at least be available via "apk add perlbase-??????"?

Not sure how to address this issue, is it a bug report or a feature request or both?

Here is my /proc/cpuinfo output:

system type : MediaTek MT7621 ver:1 eco:3
machine : SamKnows Whitebox 8
processor : 0
cpu model : MIPS 1004Kc V2.15
BogoMIPS : 586.13
wait instruction : yes
microsecond timers : yes
tlb_entries : 32
extra interrupt vector : yes
hardware watchpoint : yes, count: 4, address/irw mask: [0x0ffc, 0x0ffc, 0x0ffb, 0x0ffb]
isa : mips1 mips2 mips32r1 mips32r2
ASEs implemented : mips16 dsp mt
Options implemented : tlb 4kex 4k_cache prefetch mcheck ejtag llsc pindexed_dcache userlocal vint perf_cntr_intr_bit cdmm perf
shadow register sets : 1
kscratch registers : 0
package : 0
core : 0
VPE : 0
VCED exceptions : not available
VCEI exceptions : not available

processor : 1
cpu model : MIPS 1004Kc V2.15
BogoMIPS : 586.13
wait instruction : yes
microsecond timers : yes
tlb_entries : 32
extra interrupt vector : yes
hardware watchpoint : yes, count: 4, address/irw mask: [0x0ffc, 0x0ffc, 0x0ffb, 0x0ffb]
isa : mips1 mips2 mips32r1 mips32r2
ASEs implemented : mips16 dsp mt
Options implemented : tlb 4kex 4k_cache prefetch mcheck ejtag llsc pindexed_dcache userlocal vint perf_cntr_intr_bit cdmm perf
shadow register sets : 1
kscratch registers : 0
package : 0
core : 0
VPE : 1
VCED exceptions : not available
VCEI exceptions : not available

processor : 2
cpu model : MIPS 1004Kc V2.15
BogoMIPS : 586.13
wait instruction : yes
microsecond timers : yes
tlb_entries : 32
extra interrupt vector : yes
hardware watchpoint : yes, count: 4, address/irw mask: [0x0ffc, 0x0ffc, 0x0ffb, 0x0ffb]
isa : mips1 mips2 mips32r1 mips32r2
ASEs implemented : mips16 dsp mt
Options implemented : tlb 4kex 4k_cache prefetch mcheck ejtag llsc pindexed_dcache userlocal vint perf_cntr_intr_bit cdmm perf
shadow register sets : 1
kscratch registers : 0
package : 0
core : 1
VPE : 0
VCED exceptions : not available
VCEI exceptions : not available

processor : 3
cpu model : MIPS 1004Kc V2.15
BogoMIPS : 586.13
wait instruction : yes
microsecond timers : yes
tlb_entries : 32
extra interrupt vector : yes
hardware watchpoint : yes, count: 4, address/irw mask: [0x0ffc, 0x0ffc, 0x0ffb, 0x0ffb]
isa : mips1 mips2 mips32r1 mips32r2
ASEs implemented : mips16 dsp mt
Options implemented : tlb 4kex 4k_cache prefetch mcheck ejtag llsc pindexed_dcache userlocal vint perf_cntr_intr_bit cdmm perf
shadow register sets : 1
kscratch registers : 0
package : 0
core : 1
VPE : 1
VCED exceptions : not available
VCEI exceptions : not available

Confirmation Checklist

• The package is maintained in this repository.
• I understand that issues related to the base OpenWrt repository or LuCI repository will be closed.
• I am reporting an issue for OpenWrt, not an unsupported fork.

[BKPepe]

Maybe @jw2013 can take a look?

[jw2013]

@rsauve , to keep individual packages and dependencies small in terms of storage footprint, bigger software distributions like Perl were split into smaller pieces. For Getopt::Std, please install the perlbase-getopt package, it is included there.

Text::CharWidth, on the other hand, is not part of Perl itself, so it's not available in a perlbase package.

Debian provides it as libtext-charwidth-perl, and it would of course be possible to create an OpenWrt package for it.
Checking the source, it's not 'pure perl', but requires compilation of an .xs file.

I've never used it myself, and it's not required by many other modules according to https://metacpan.org/module/Text::CharWidth/requires
Last version 0.04 seems to be from 2003. Aren't there alternatives to this module?

[rsauve]

Thank you Jens for the info.
Yes, I was able to install perlbase-getopt (apk add perlbase-getopt).
I downloaded libtext-charwidth-perl:
https://github.com/deepin-community/libtext-charwidth-perl/archive/refs/tags/0.04-11.zip

Tried to compile the source but MAKE failed:

root@OpenWrt:~/download/libtext-charwidth-perl-0.04-11# perl Makefile.PL
Checking if your kit is complete...
Looks good
Generating a Unix-style Makefile
Writing Makefile for Text::CharWidth
Writing MYMETA.yml and MYMETA.json

That went well.

'Make' fell over:

root@OpenWrt:~/download/libtext-charwidth-perl-0.04-11# make
cp CharWidth.pm blib/lib/Text/CharWidth.pm
Running Mkbootstrap for CharWidth ()
chmod 644 "CharWidth.bs"
"/usr/bin/perl5.40.0" -MExtUtils::Command::MM -e 'cp_nonempty' -- CharWidth.bs blib/arch/auto/Text/CharWidth/CharWidth.bs 644
"/usr/bin/perl5.40.0" "/usr/lib/perl5/5.40/ExtUtils/xsubpp" -typemap '/usr/lib/perl5/5.40/ExtUtils/typemap' CharWidth.xs > CharWidth.xsc
Please specify prototyping behavior for CharWidth.xs (see perlxs manual)
mv CharWidth.xsc CharWidth.c
mipsel-openwrt-linux-musl-gcc -c -I. -D_REENTRANT -D_GNU_SOURCE -fwrapv -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe -fstack-protector-strong -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -Os -pipe -mno-branch-likely -mips32r2 -mtune=24kc -fno-caller-saves -fno-plt -fhonour-copts -msoft-float -D_LARGEFILE64_SOURCE -I/builder/shared-workdir/build/sdk/staging_dir/toolchain-mipsel_24kc_gcc-14.3.0_musl/usr/include -I/builder/shared-workdir/build/sdk/staging_dir/toolchain-mipsel_24kc_gcc-14.3.0_musl/include -I/builder/shared-workdir/build/sdk/staging_dir/toolchain-mipsel_24kc_gcc-14.3.0_musl/include/fortify -O2 -DVERSION="0.04" -DXS_VERSION="0.04" -fPIC "-I/usr/lib/perl5/5.40/CORE" CharWidth.c
CharWidth.xs:1:10: fatal error: EXTERN.h: No such file or directory
1 | #include "EXTERN.h"
| ^~~~~~~~~~
compilation terminated.
make: *** [Makefile:310: CharWidth.o] Error 1

More missing files!

EXTERN.h is called from CharWidth.xs. It also calls:
#include "EXTERN.h"
#include "perl.h"
#include "XSUB.h"
#include "ppport.h"
#include <wchar.h>
MODULE = Text::CharWidth PACKAGE = Text::CharWidth

This was part of the rabbit-hole I found myself in previously.
I also tried Text-CharWidth-0.04:
https://cpan.metacpan.org/authors/id/K/KU/KUBOTA/Text-CharWidth-0.04.tar.gz
with the same result as above.

[jw2013]

Never tried to compile Perl packages within OpenWrt; you could try to copy the missing header files from the Perl source code.
But the correct way would be, to create a package definition for perl-text-charwidth, and compile it using the appropriate OpenWrt SDK.

[jw2013]

@BKPepe , imho the label 'bug' is not appropriate for this issue.

[rsauve]

@BKPepe , imho the label 'bug' is not appropriate for this issue.

Nor is it a feature request.

Well I went whole-hog and downloaded perl 5.40.4 source from:
https://www.cpan.org/src/

After about 8 hours of compiling on the router (poor router it really took a beating) perl compiled successfully.
However, the Text:CharWidth module was not included in this release. I went back to my Text-CharWidth-0.04 source and brought in all the missing .h files. Finally it successfully compiled. I added the module to the 5.40.4 library and it worked.

Would OpenWRT be interested to include the Text::CharWidth module in it's apk repository (perlbase-charwidth)?

[jw2013]

@rsauve , Text::CharWidth is NOT part of the Perl Distribution, therefore it does not belong into any perlbase packages.

As mentioned above, the correct package name would be perl-text-charwidth. I doubt that it makes sense adding a module to the repository that has been orphaned in version 0.04 for more than 20 years, but you can still create a package definition for it, and cross-compile via the platform-matching OpenWrt SDK locally.

You have been able to compile the code on the actual device. Even if it took 8 hours, I'm glad to see it worked using the .h files! But many other devices running OpenWrt don't even have sufficient resources to compile locally, so custom packages are usually build using the SDK.

[jw2013]

Please also check the bug tracker of Text::CharWidth: https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=Text-CharWidth
, especially https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=85091

For that functionality, have a look at Unicode::GCString, which seems to be the better solution. It is part of https://metacpan.org/dist/Unicode-LineBreak

In Debian, the package is called libunicode-linebreak-perl, in OpenWrt, it would become perl-unicode-linebreak.

The Perl Unicode tutorial at https://perldoc.perl.org/perlunicook also uses Unicode::GCString.

[rsauve]

root@OpenWrt:~/# echo "$(<salutations.txt )" | cowsay
 _______________________________________
/ Thank you Jens and Josef for all your \
| help getting me up and running on     |
\ OpenWrt                               /
 ---------------------------------------
        \   ^__^
         \  (oo)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\
                ||----w |
                ||     ||

Every installation deserves a talking cow, even on a router!
What frivolous fun!