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06.10.09
Mac OS X Update Causes Perl Complications
 By
Doug Caverly
Apple computers are extremely popular in some corners, and you won't find anything approaching an anti-Cupertino rant in this article. Just the same, Macs are known for having compatibility problems (try seeing how a hardcore gamer reacts to the suggestion he use one), and the latest Mac OS X security update can essentially break Perl.
Security Update 2009-001 is supposed to help Perl users because, according to the official description, "A memory corruption issue exists in the handling of certain UTF-8 characters in regular expressions. Parsing maliciously crafted regular expressions may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution. This update addresses the issue by performing additional validation of regular expressions."
Which would be fine, except that under a certain set of circumstances, Perl users are instead just getting confusing error messages.
Tatsuhiko Miyagawa explains that if you're "using Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)," "are using Perl that comes with Mac OS X," and "have upgraded several core modules with CPAN in the past," the security update is probably something that should be avoided. Or, if you've already gone past the point of no return, he also provides advice on how to resolve the issue.
PC users, in the meantime, can simply sit back, play some games, and needle their Mac-loving colleagues.
About
the Author:
Doug is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest eBusiness news.
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