Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.6 to 5.9 upgrade broke perl scripts

Solution Unverified - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.8 and later

Issue

  • Perl update breaks Perl scripts using AnyDBM_File module and not having a default fileset defined
  • After the upgrade from rhel5.6 to 5.9 at least one of our script stopped working.
  • The error $ ./script.sh: AnyDBM_File doesn't define an EXISTS method at /foo/bar/script.pl line 123) suggests problem with gdbm package.

Resolution

  • Define default fileset in the script.

    • For NDBM_File:
      • use NDBM_File;
    • For GDBM_File:
      • use GDBM_File;
    • For SDBM_File:
      • use SDBM_File;

Root Cause

  • In Perl version perl-5.8.8-38.el5 NDBM_File was reintroduced and also set as default fileset.
  • In previous Perl version, the default was set to GDBM_File which was supporting the EXISTS method to check whether a key exists in a database or not.
  • NDBM_File does not support EXISTS method and therefore scripts might fail with the above mentioned error message

Diagnostic Steps

  • Run the script on a system with Perl version perl-5.8.8-38.el5 or newer installed.
  • If the following error occurs, ensure a default fileset is defined in the script:
AnyDBM_File doesn't define an EXISTS method at script.pl

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