Perl module Config::Augeas with xs won't install on Big Sur

Question

On my iMac with Catalina (10.15.6), I installed the augeas brew package and then installed the perl module "Config::Augeas" without issue. On Big Sur, I have not had the same success. After installing the brew package and then doing "cpanm Config::Augeas", I get the following output in the build log:

 27 Building Config-Augeas
 28 cc -I/Users/me/perl5/perlbrew/perls/perl-5.32.1/lib/5.32.1/darwin-2level/CORE -DVERSION="1.000" -DXS_VERSION="1.000" -I/usr/local/Cellar/augeas/1.12.0/include -Wall -Wformat -Werror=format-security -c -fno-common -DPERL_DARWIN -mmacosx-version-min=11.2 -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe -fstack-protector-strong -I/usr/local/include -DPERL_USE_SAFE_PUTENV -O3 -o lib/Config/Augeas.o lib/Config/Augeas.c
 29 ExtUtils::Mkbootstrap::Mkbootstrap('blib/arch/auto/Config/Augeas/Augeas.bs')
 30 cc -mmacosx-version-min=11.2 -bundle -undefined dynamic_lookup -L/usr/local/lib -fstack-protector-strong -o blib/arch/auto/Config/Augeas/Augeas.bundle lib/Config/Augeas.o -L/usr/local/Cellar/augeas/1.12.0/lib -laugeas
 31 Can't call method "get" on an undefined value at /Users/me/.cpanm/work/1615471944.29922/Config-Augeas-1.000/blib/lib/Config/Augeas.pm line 227.
 32 # Looks like your test exited with 255 just after 2.
 33 t/Config-Augeas.t ...
 34 Dubious, test returned 255 (wstat 65280, 0xff00)
 35 Failed 28/30 subtests
 36
 37 #   Failed test 'Created new Augeas object without backup file'
 38 #   at t/Config-AugeasC.t line 76.
 39 Can't call method "set" on an undefined value at t/Config-AugeasC.t line 78.
 40 # Looks like your test exited with 255 just after 4.
 41 t/Config-AugeasC.t ..
 42 Dubious, test returned 255 (wstat 65280, 0xff00)
 43 Failed 29/32 subtests
 44 Can't stat config-model-edit: No such file or directory
 45  at /Users/me/perl5/perlbrew/perls/perl-5.32.1/lib/site_perl/5.32.1/Test/Pod.pm line 223.
 46 t/pod.t ............. ok

Both machines are running perlbrew (though different versions of perl). I don't think the version of perl is the problem and is more likely that Big Sur made some changes the perl module doesn't like. Any ideas?

Answer 1

The problem is a bug in libtool which causes dynamic libraries to be compiled with a flat namespace. This again leads to a conflict between two symbols with the same name in the shared libraries libSystem.B.dylib and libfa.1.dylib. Both libraries declare a symbol named hash_create(), however the Perl module needs to resolve the symbol to libfa.1.dylib but libSystem.B.dylib is always loaded before libfa.1.dylib and the wrong version of hash_create() is therefore used.

The problem has been encountered before, see this issue. Further explanations can be found here.

Since the fix to the bug in libtool has not been released as a new version of libtool yet, the problem is not simply solved by upgrading xcode command line tools. Instead you could try to download the libaugeas source and compile from source:

$ brew uninstall augeas
$ wget http://download.augeas.net/augeas-1.12.0.tar.gz
$ cd augeas-1.12.0
$ MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.15 ./configure
$ make
$ make install

Note: by specifying MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.15 in the above command, we work around the bug and thus do not have to patch configure.

The Perl module should now install fine.

An alternative workaround: you can use dynamic linking (instead of dynamic loading) for libfa.1.dylib. To achieve this I rewrote the module to ExtUtils::MakeMaker instead of Module::Build. Next to install using dynamic linking, you can do:

git clone https://github.com/hakonhagland/Config-Augeas-MM.git
cd https://github.com/hakonhagland/Config-Augeas-MM.git
perl Makefile.PL
make perl
make -f Makefile.aperl inst_perl MAP_TARGET=perl

Note: The last command overwrites your existing perl binary so be careful, see this link for more information.

Now, the module can be tested and installed successfully:

$ make test
"/Users/hakonhaegland/perl5/perlbrew/perls/perl-5.32.0/bin/perl" -MExtUtils::Command::MM -e 'cp_nonempty' -- Augeas.bs blib/arch/auto/Config/Augeas/Augeas.bs 644
rm -f blib/arch/auto/Config/Augeas/Augeas.bundle
LD_RUN_PATH="/usr/local/lib" cc  -mmacosx-version-min=11.1 -bundle -undefined dynamic_lookup -L/usr/local/lib -fstack-protector-strong  Augeas.o  -o blib/arch/auto/Config/Augeas/Augeas.bundle  \
       -L/usr/local/lib -laugeas   \

chmod 755 blib/arch/auto/Config/Augeas/Augeas.bundle
PERL_DL_NONLAZY=1 "/Users/hakonhaegland/perl5/perlbrew/perls/perl-5.32.0/bin/perl" "-MExtUtils::Command::MM" "-MTest::Harness" "-e" "undef *Test::Harness::Switches; test_harness(0, 'blib/lib', 'blib/arch')" t/*.t
t/Config-Augeas.t ... ok
t/Config-AugeasC.t .. ok
t/pod.t ............. skipped: Test::Pod 1.00 required for testing POD
All tests successful.
Files=3, Tests=62,  7 wallclock secs ( 0.04 usr  0.02 sys +  5.71 cusr  0.50 csys =  6.27 CPU)
Result: PASS

$ make install
"/Users/hakonhaegland/perl5/perlbrew/perls/perl-5.32.0/bin/perl" -MExtUtils::Command::MM -e 'cp_nonempty' -- Augeas.bs blib/arch/auto/Config/Augeas/Augeas.bs 644
Manifying 1 pod document
Files found in blib/arch: installing files in blib/lib into architecture dependent library tree
Installing /Users/hakonhaegland/perl5/perlbrew/perls/perl-5.32.0/lib/site_perl/5.32.0/darwin-2level/auto/Config/Augeas/extralibs.all
Installing /Users/hakonhaegland/perl5/perlbrew/perls/perl-5.32.0/lib/site_perl/5.32.0/darwin-2level/auto/Config/Augeas/Augeas.a
Installing /Users/hakonhaegland/perl5/perlbrew/perls/perl-5.32.0/lib/site_perl/5.32.0/darwin-2level/auto/Config/Augeas/extralibs.ld
Installing /Users/hakonhaegland/perl5/perlbrew/perls/perl-5.32.0/lib/site_perl/5.32.0/darwin-2level/auto/Config/Augeas/Augeas.bundle
Installing /Users/hakonhaegland/perl5/perlbrew/perls/perl-5.32.0/lib/site_perl/5.32.0/darwin-2level/Config/Augeas.pm
Installing /Users/hakonhaegland/perl5/perlbrew/perls/perl-5.32.0/man/man3/Config::Augeas.3
Appending installation info to /Users/hakonhaegland/perl5/perlbrew/perls/perl-5.32.0/lib/5.32.0/darwin-2level/perllocal.pod

$ perl -MConfig::Augeas -E 'say $INC{"Config/Augeas.pm"}'
/Users/hakonhaegland/perl5/perlbrew/perls/perl-5.32.0/lib/site_perl/5.32.0/darwin-2level/Config/Augeas.pm