Perl Programming Language :: CPAN Question


	CPAN Question I would like to download and install a package from CPAN but it says ' UNAUTHORIZED RELEASE '. What does this message mean? How did this package obtain this unfortunate label? Is it potentially a bad thing to use this package because of this message? Thanks for any insight J Q@domain.invalid wrote: > I would like to download and install a package from CPAN > but it says ' UNAUTHORIZED RELEASE '. > What does this message mean? How did this package obtain this unfortunate > label? > Is it potentially a bad thing to use this package because of this > message? > Thanks for any insight For which package did this occur? It usually happens when a package that is co-maintained by a group of people gets updated by someone who wasn't assigned all the neccessary permission bits, as it's easy to forget passing permissions back and forth. With some modules this has also happened when the author integrated submodules into the distribution that were previously released standalone by someone else and they forgot to transfer permissions, or when he included some modules for testing purposes that stem from another package and don't get installed, but missed to point that out in the META.yml. I believe one of those is currently the case with GD and Mail::SpamAssassin. But it can also happen if someone, intentionally or by mistake, uploads a different package into an already existing namespace. -Chris - Hide quoted text - Christian Winter <thepoet_nos@arcor.de> wrote in message-id: <46548e08$0$10190$9b4e6@newsspool4.arcor-online.net> >Q@domain.invalid wrote: >> I would like to download and install a package from CPAN >> but it says ' UNAUTHORIZED RELEASE '. >> What does this message mean? How did this package obtain this unfortunate >> label? >> Is it potentially a bad thing to use this package because of this >> message? >> Thanks for any insight >For which package did this occur? It usually happens when a >package that is co-maintained by a group of people gets updated >by someone who wasn't assigned all the neccessary permission bits, >as it's easy to forget passing permissions back and forth. >With some modules this has also happened when the author integrated >submodules into the distribution that were previously released >standalone by someone else and they forgot to transfer permissions, >or when he included some modules for testing purposes that stem >from another package and don't get installed, but missed to point >that out in the META.yml. I believe one of those is currently the >case with GD and Mail::SpamAssassin. >But it can also happen if someone, intentionally or by mistake, >uploads a different package into an already existing namespace. >-Chris Thank you for this information, the package is called Perl::Critic Q@domain.invalid schrieb: - Hide quoted text - > Christian Winter <thepoet_nos@arcor.de> wrote in message-id: <46548e08$0$10190$9b4e6@newsspool4.arcor-online.net> >> Q@domain.invalid wrote: >>> I would like to download and install a package from CPAN >>> but it says ' UNAUTHORIZED RELEASE '. >>> What does this message mean? How did this package obtain this unfortunate >>> label? >>> Is it potentially a bad thing to use this package because of this >>> message? >>> Thanks for any insight >> For which package did this occur? It usually happens when a >> package that is co-maintained by a group of people gets updated >> by someone who wasn't assigned all the neccessary permission bits, >> as it's easy to forget passing permissions back and forth. >> With some modules this has also happened when the author integrated >> submodules into the distribution that were previously released >> standalone by someone else and they forgot to transfer permissions, >> or when he included some modules for testing purposes that stem >>from another package and don't get installed, but missed to point >> that out in the META.yml. I believe one of those is currently the >> case with GD and Mail::SpamAssassin. >> But it can also happen if someone, intentionally or by mistake, >> uploads a different package into an already existing namespace. >> -Chris > Thank you for this information, the package is called Perl::Critic Seems like everything is fine with this package, despite the ominous warning. Something with release 1.04 has obviously triggered the warning. Maybe either the mentioned co-maintainer problem or the filtering on CPAN (it has been tweaked a bit recently to better catch issues such as someone uploading into a namespace like "Perl" itself, after some confusion with Gerard Goosen's "kurila" fork). Maybe you could drop the author a line and make him aware of the warning. -Chris In article <zn_4i.9157$ns.5844@trndny05>, <Q@domain.invalid> wrote: > I would like to download and install a package from CPAN > but it says ' UNAUTHORIZED RELEASE '. That's a particular solution to a bit of nastiness one of the CPAN developers tried to get away with recently. An "Unauthorixed Release" is one by someone not registered to upload to that namespace. Since anyone can upload anything to CPAN, people can try to overwrite the work of other people. CPAN is a bit smarter than that, though, and tracks who's the authoritative source for each package. I can't comment on why you saw that tag because you didn't mention which module it applied to, but sometimes this merely means that there is a problem with the co-maintainer permissions. -- Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com Q@domain.invalid wrote in message-id: <zn_4i.9157$ns.5844@trndny05> >I would like to download and install a package from CPAN >but it says ' UNAUTHORIZED RELEASE '. >What does this message mean? How did this package obtain this unfortunate >label? >Is it potentially a bad thing to use this package because of this >message? >Thanks for any insight >J Thank you for all the interesting background on this topic, and for checking out the Perl::Critic package. I have installed the package and it seems to work fine for me too.