Hi,
I tried to emerge devilspie but I get the following errors. Is this is a dependency related bug?
<error> configure: error: XML::Parser perl module is required for intltool
The error message clearly indicates a dependency related issue.... Well, actually, it's a deep dependency, and not necessarily a bug. Devilspie is dependent on Perl and libxml2, but intltool (Scripts for extracting translatable strings from various sourcefiles) is dependent on XML::Parser to function in this particular instance-- not surprising since devilspie config files are in XML (haven't looked at the source, but clearly XML parsing is very important to the correct functioning of the program). Devilspie itself is not dependent on the XML::Parser perl module (on paper, at least), which could explain why you don't have it installed.
If you don't have the XML::Parser perl module installed emerge it (emerge XML-Parser-- note the case!), if it is installed, re-emerge it, and then devilspie should emerge normally.
This does seem to be incorrect behaviour insofar as I usually have this module already installed and something seems to break it so that I also get this message when attempting to install/upgrade devilspie. However, the problem of "fragile perl modules that appear to break if you breathe on them too hard" (or something)-- if actually a bug, is not a bug in Devilspie, but a problem with Perl generally, or Portage's handling of Perl-based applications, neither of which I know enough about to speak on reliably (or at all, actually :-) --this is based on my observations as a user of applications that depend on various Perl modules).
There might be something to the idea that intltool should be a RDEPEND of devilspie, or that XML:Parser should be an IUSE of devilspie (or something -- I'd have to look at the ebuild writers guide to know which one should be included, or where it should be), in which case it is a bug, but I'm not at all sure that this is fixable via the ebuild, especially if the module in question is already installed but 'broken/disconnected' due to other Perl operations or upgrades unrelated to devilspie.
Hope this helps (and hope someone who knows more about Perl drops by to explain what's going on, as it really is irritating).
Holly
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