XML-LibXML fails to load with Perl 5.36.3 (worked with 5.36.0)

Perl
,
1

I recently upgraded from Perl 5.36.0 to 5.36.3. Since then, “use XML::LibXML” doesn’t work. I suspect the ActiveState distribution is missing files. Here are the details:

C:\Perl\exec\perl.exe -e “use XML::LibXML” yields the following error message:

Can't load 'C:/Perl/site/lib/auto/XML/LibXML/LibXML.dll' for module XML::LibXML: load_file:The specified module could not be found at C:/Perl/lib/XSLoader.pm line 94.
  at C:/Perl/site/lib/XML/LibXML.pm line 150.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at C:/Perl/site/lib/XML/LibXML.pm line 156.
Compilation failed in require at D:\Incoming\Backups\test-libXML.pl line 4.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at D:\Incoming\Backups\test-libXML.pl line 4.

There were no errors in building this project. I had no issues installing it on my Windows 10 computer:

state-remote-installer.exe => State Tool Package Manager has been successfully installed.
state checkout gamin-mb/Perl-5.36-Windows --runtime-path C:/Perl => "All dependencies have been installed and verified"
state use Perl-5.36-Windows => "Switched to project gamin-mb/Perl-5.36-Windows, located at C:\Users\root\Perl-5.36-Windows."
state packages =>
█ Listing Packages

Operating on project gamin-mb/Perl-5.36-Windows, located at C:\Users\root\Perl-5.36-Windows.

  Name                   Version
──────────────────────────────────
  Excel-Writer-XLSX      Auto
  File-Copy-Recursive    Auto
  Image-ExifTool         Auto
  PadWalker              Auto
  Pod-Simple-Wiki        Auto
  Spreadsheet-Read       Auto
  Term-ProgressBar       Auto
  Test-Cmd               Auto
  Text-CSV_XS            Auto
  Win32-API              Auto
  Win32-Console          Auto
  Win32-File             Auto
  XML-LibXML             Auto

The ‘C:/Perl/site/lib/auto/XML/LibXML/LibXML.dll’ file exists and is readable. Knowing that this file usually provides only bindings for the actual libxml.dll, I looked for other files with a similar name under C:\Perl and found only 5 files with that name, regardless of type or extension. In my previous installation of Perl 5.36.0 (which I had fortunately moved elsewhere instead of deleting it), with the same package list (except for Tkx and PAR-Packer, which fail to build on 5.36.3), there are 68 files with a name matching ‘libxml’.

I therefore suspect that the XML-LibXML package that is currently available on the ActiveState platform is missing a significant number of files (notably, usr/bin/libxml2.dll) and that is why it doesn’t load in Perl 5.36.3.

I deleted everything and reinstalled from scratch, and rebooted a few times, with the same results.

I’d like to know if others have this problem, and I hope the above will help provide a resolution.

Thanks!

2

Hi gamin-mb!

I’ve successfully reproduced a similar problem on Linux as well, so I’ve asked our build team to look into how we’re building XML-LibXML.

While we’re looking into a solution, can you find a file named libiconv.dll in your installation? That gave me problems on Linux, and it should be in both of our projects. It’s okay if not–there could be a separate problem, but I can definitely reproduce something not quite right here.

3

Hi ShaneW,

Thanks for reproducing the problem.

On my side, there’s no libiconv in my Perl 5.36.3 installation.
There were three such files in my Perl 5.36.0 installation:

C:\Perl\usr\lib\libiconv.la
C:\Perl\usr\lib\libiconv.dll.a
C:\Perl\usr\bin\libiconv-2.dll
4

Thanks for responding. Good news–I’ve verified that our latest data update has fixed the problem I had on Linux. I think it’ll fix the problem you have too. I think I see that you’ve updated your project, so you’re using the current revision of our catalog.

Please let me know if you still have trouble working with XML-LibXML now. (I see you’re also using PAR-Packer, which we’re also working on now too.)

1 Like
5

Yes, XML-LibXML seems to work now.
Thanks for the quick fix!

1 Like