Package: libdpkg-perl
Version: 1.22.22
Severity: normal
Dear Maintainer,
* What led up to the situation?
- In "trixie" trying to use "Dpkg::Version::version_compare" fails
- The error was very clear:
"Use of uninitialized value $a in string at /usr/share/perl5/Dpkg/Version.pm
line 271, <> line 266."
* The root cause is in commit (appeared before version 1.22.12):
"a9b22de4db4d42417c4cac74e7e537f48284e731 perl: Remove function prototypes"
* Removing prototype of a sort function affects its semantics.
From "sort" documentation in perlfunc man page:
"If the subroutine's prototype is "($$)", the elements to be compared
are passed by reference in @_, as for a normal subroutine."
* But the existing code still expect parameters in @_
(which is empty after prototype removal)
* Minimal fix: re-add the missing prototype to that function
* Alternative fix: use $a and $b directly and don't assign them from @_
* My temporary workaround: wrote a small wrapper that pass $a and $b as explicit
parameters
-- System Information:
Debian Release: 13.4
APT prefers stable-updates
APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable-security'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Kernel: Linux 6.12.48+deb13-amd64 (SMP w/48 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled
Versions of packages libdpkg-perl depends on:
ii dpkg 1.22.22
ii perl 5.40.1-6
Versions of packages libdpkg-perl recommends:
ii bzip2 1.0.8-6
ii libfile-fcntllock-perl 0.22-4+b4
ii liblocale-gettext-perl 1.07-7+b1
ii xz-utils 5.8.1-1
Versions of packages libdpkg-perl suggests:
ii binutils 2.44-3
pn bzr <none>
ii debian-keyring 2025.07.26
ii debian-tag2upload-keyring 1.1
ii gcc [c-compiler] 4:14.2.0-1
ii gcc-14 [c-compiler] 14.2.0-19
ii git 1:2.47.3-0+deb13u1
ii gnupg 2.4.7-21+deb13u1
ii gpgv 2.4.7-21+deb13u1+b2
ii patch 2.8-2
ii sensible-utils 0.0.25
ii sqv 1.3.0-3+b2
-- no debconf information
--
Oron Peled
