Security Update 2009-001 (Server Leopard) 'killed' perl

Question

Security Update 2009-001 (Server Leopard) 'killed' perl

I've just done the update using Software update and just about everything I look at is working, except that perl seems to have gone almost AWOL. I seen it pop up occasionally in the Activity Monitor, but, when I try to run perl scripts from the command line or the cron jobs that ran flawlessly before the update, nothing happens. Period.

Anyone have the same experience and/or any suggestions of how to get out of this problem or cleanly back up to the previous server state (i.e. just before installing the update)?

Thanks.

mac mini, 4GB RAM, WD Raptor 10krpm 150GB RAID1, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Feb 13, 2009 9:03 AM

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Answer 1

Sevardin

Level 2

146 points

Feb 13, 2009 10:48 AM in response to Trevor Jacques

I think I've a similar problem—Perl appears to have seriously broken after the security update and taken down emlog.pl and amavisd, both of which are central to my server.

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Answer 2

Feb 13, 2009 11:04 AM in response to Sevardin

I've just homed in on amavisd, too.

CPAN seems to have been nuked, and compiling routines is iffy, at best. I managed to install Time::HiRes, but Compress::Zlib failed miserably.

It would seem that things are pointing at perl.

Now I have to figure out how to get cleanly back to where I was earlier this morning, without losing data created in the interim....

I hope Apple realises that this is very serious for those of us with live servers. If you're going to change things like perl, please make sure that your own products run with the update, let alone those extensions like CPAN continue to work as well as before. This is really disappointing, since there's little way to know what to do, now. This security update seems to have been, at best, insufficiently tested; at worst, badly tested.

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Answer 3

Sevardin

Level 2

146 points

Feb 13, 2009 11:20 AM in response to Trevor Jacques

It's relieving to see that I'm not the only one with this problem. I really hope Apple is listening and will have something to offer soon. Mail will start bouncing soon and I know my customers are already not thrilled. I certainly am not!

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Answer 4

Sevardin

Level 2

146 points

Feb 13, 2009 11:31 AM in response to Trevor Jacques

This blog post: http://bulknews.typepad.com/blog/2009/02/mac-os-x-security-update-2009001-breaks -perl-cpan.html

Seems to identify (part of?) the problem and includes what will hopefully be a fix. I'll give it a shot and post if it's successful.

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Answer 5

Sevardin

Level 2

146 points

Feb 13, 2009 11:40 AM in response to Sevardin

Installing the recommended IO update from the blog post fixes CPAN, but Amavis still complains. I was able to get Time::HiRes installed but cpan insisted that my Compress::Zlib was up to date while Amavis insists it cannot load the module.

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Answer 6

Feb 13, 2009 11:45 AM in response to Sevardin

David O'Donnell wrote:
I was able to get Time::HiRes installed but cpan insisted that my Compress::Zlib was up to date while Amavis insists it cannot load the module.

I had problems with Compress::Zlib, too, but, since I use assp for my spam filter, I can't even get to the Mac OS Server e-mail list. :-/

I have restarted from a backup disk, and now have to go through the transfer of important data and then completely rewrite the usual startup disk. Grrrrr.

T.

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Answer 7

pterobyte

Level 6

11,098 points

Feb 13, 2009 12:20 PM in response to Trevor Jacques

The update only hoses IO and Time::HiRes on modified systems. The problem should not occur on stock installations.

IO prevents CPAN from working and needs to be installed manually (without CPAN).
Compress::Zlib has already caused problems in the past and depending on one's configuration may need to be installed manually (without CPAN).

To install IO, do the following:
---
mkdir -p /SourceCache
cd /SourceCache
curl -O http://cpan.mirror.solnet.ch/authors/id/G/GB/GBARR/IO-1.2301.tar.gz
tar xzf IO-1.2301.tar.gz
cd IO-1.2301
perl Makefile.PL
make
make install
---

Next use CPAN to install Time::HiRes

Finally, if Compress::Zlib cannot be tamed with CPAN, install it manually. Different file, but same procedure as for IO.

HTH,
Alex

P.S. As a rule of thumb, never install an update on a modified system before waiting at least a week to see what issues may crop up. This applies also for stock systems, but in particular for modified systems.

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Answer 8

Sevardin

Level 2

146 points

Feb 13, 2009 12:25 PM in response to Sevardin

Here's the final kicker: After you get CPAN up and running by fixing IO, you need to run

force install Scalar::Util

after that Amavis and emlog should be happy again. My server just chewed through 18 hours' worth of accumulated e-mail and I am SO happy.

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Answer 9

Feb 13, 2009 12:36 PM in response to pterobyte

pterobyte wrote:
P.S. As a rule of thumb, never install an update on a modified system before waiting at least a week to see what issues may crop up. This applies also for stock systems, but in particular for modified systems.

True, but someone has to do the updates, so that all the others get to hear about problems. Sometimes, I wait. Other times, I take a risk. Most of the latter are painless. This one was a surprise.

Oh, well. :-/

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Answer 10

Feb 13, 2009 12:40 PM in response to pterobyte

Does anyone know what aspect of "modification" resulted in this problem. It might help know what to look out for in the future.

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Answer 11

pterobyte

Level 6

11,098 points

Feb 13, 2009 11:21 PM in response to Sevardin

Re-installing Scalar will not be necessary on all servers. Not sure what custom install triggers the problem with scalar, but most servers should only need to fix IO and Time::HiRes.

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Answer 12

Feb 14, 2009 6:22 AM in response to pterobyte

Alex,

Thanks for your help with this problem. 🙂 I will get to it a little later, once I've been able to get back off my backup disk.

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Answer 13

Feb 15, 2009 9:35 AM in response to Sevardin

You can add the Logitech Squeezeserver to the list. Installing this security update kills Squeezeserver, too.

Apple's lagging in updating PERL gets more and more problematic as other necessary software depends on current releases of PERL.

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Answer 14

Feb 15, 2009 9:40 AM in response to Trevor Jacques

I'm bringing up my backup server image now. After 4 hours of fiddling trying to get PERL back to where everything works, I'm giving up. The only thing I know about PERL is that it is needed for other software to run on my server. I did install the PERL modules mentioned earlier in this thread but still couldn't get Squeezecenter (Logitech Squeeze Box software) to compile with the resulting PERL.

Will wait until those that know PERL sort this out. Wish I could help.... at least I'm learning more and more about PERL as each Apple release happens.

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Answer 15

Feb 15, 2009 9:41 AM in response to Paul Derby

I've found that Leopard Server has had many problems from day one. It did seem to get a bit more stable at about 10.5.5. Let's just hope that Snow Leopard fixes all these problems, once and for all.

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