[tex-live] Observations regarding "perl.exe stopped working"

Lars Madsen daleif at imf.au.dk
Wed Aug 29 16:29:40 CEST 2012


I just had a session with one of our IT guys who can reliably create Win 
7 (virtual) installations where install-tl.bat fails.

To recap we have observed that adding

use Data::Dumper;

to either trans.pl or install-menu-wizard.pl helps

Karl suggested just adding

use 5.006_001;
require Exporter;
require overload;

which did not do any difference.

We did not look further on the other modules possibly loaded by 
Data:Dumper; thus we have no idea if the 'fix' is caused by any of the 
extra modules in Dumper.pm or any overloading done within Dumper.


Instead we attempted to look for the exact moment where the programme 
failed.

We notice the following

install-tl.bat fails in install-menu-wizard.pl at the very first line in

sub run_menu_wizard {

i.e. line 139:

   $mw = Tk::MainWindow->new(-width => $MWIDTH, -height => $MHEIGHT);

(a warn added before it prints its argument to the prompt, placed after 
is never executed)



Ok, then we wondered, why does install-tl-advanced.bat work without 
problems. It loads install-menu-perltk.pl.

in the corresponding

sub run_menu_perltk {

(line 213) we find the following before the initial Tk::MainWindow->new

  if ($::opt_select_repository) {
   } else {
     do_remote_init();
     setup_perltk_local_vars();
     calc_depends();
   }

Interestingly, if we outcomment the three lines in the 'else' part, then 
install-tl-advanced.bat also fails with the "perl.exe stopped working"

So the question is: Is there anything set up by these three lines, that 
it would not hurt to be added to install-menu-wizard.pl such that it 
might run without problems??


BTW: The IT guy might be able to provide a VM ware image of a Win 7 that 
fails if anyone want to play with it for debugging. Drop me an email if 
interested.


-- 

/Lars Madsen
DK-TUG President
Maintainer of memoir and the mh bundle


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