[tex-live] Errors messages installing/updating TL2013

Karl Berry karl at freefriends.org
Fri Aug 16 19:56:55 CEST 2013


Hi Angelo,

BTW, just to finish up on this point from a month ago about your
messages:

    TLDownload::get_file: response error:
    500 Can't use an undefined value as a symbol reference
    (for ftp://ftp.tug.org/texlive/tlnet/archive/tap.doc.tar.xz)

That weird-looking "can't use an undefined value ..." looks to be a bug
in your version of Perl::LWP.  The code that prints that message is:

     tlwarn("TLDownload::get_file: response error: "
            . $response->status_line . " (for $url)\n");

Thus, it is LWP's status_line method which is erroneously using undef
"as a symbol reference", not our code (as I originally thought).  What
status_line is supposed to return is as follows:

       $r->status_line
           Returns the string "<code> <message>".  If the message attribute is
           not set then the official name of <code> (see HTTP::Status) is
           substituted.

So it's returning the <code> (500), and then falling down finding the
<message>.  I see nothing sensible we can do about such an internal bug.

I suggest updating your Perl and/or Perl::LWP.  I would not be surprised
if other bugs inside LWP are the cause for its repeated download
failures in the first place.

Alternatively, if you're tired of seeing the messages, you can use
--no-persistent-downloads on the cmdline or the equivalent in the tlmgr
config file.  See the tlmgr documentation for more if you want it.

Hope this helps,
Karl


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