[Dxspider-support] SHOW/CONTEST shuts down Spider

[Dirk Koopman]

John Buttery wrote:
> Hi
> 
> A number of days ago I posted a message to say that SHOW/CONTEST caused
> Spider, on GB7WDX, to shut down
> 
> I am running 1.54.173 on a linux server.

And so am I. I get:-

<- I G1TLH-2 sh/contest sep2007
cmd: sh/contest
command: /spider/local_cmd sh/contest
got dir: /spider/local_cmd/show
command: /spider/cmd sh/contest
got dir: /spider/cmd/show
got path: /spider/cmd cmd: show/contest
path: sh/contest cmd: show/contest
Redefining cmd_show_contest
package: cmd_show_contest
-> D G1TLH-2 ----------------------------------------------------------
-> D G1TLH-2 Text-only page
-> D G1TLH-2 Edited by SM3CER - sm3cer(at)contesting.com - 9 April 2007
-> D G1TLH-2 Find rules/links to rules, results and much more at:
-> D G1TLH-2 SM3CER Contest Service - http://www.sk3bg.se/contest/
-> D G1TLH-2 ----------------------------------------------------------
-> D G1TLH-2 Contest Calendar SEPTEMBER 2007
-> D G1TLH-2 -------------------------------
-> D G1TLH-2 *?* = The date is not confirmed
-> D G1TLH-2 ------- (From-to) -------- 
---------------------------------------

etc...

> 
> The debug info is:
> 
> 1191498988^<- I G7OPJ sh/contest
> 1191498988^-> D G7OPJ Can't use subscript on split at (eval 42) line 25,
> near "$m]"
> 1191498988^-> D G7OPJ G7OPJ de GB7WDX  4-Oct-2007 1156Z dxspider >
> 
> 1191499015^<- I G7OPJ sh/contest sep2007 
> 1191499015^Use of inherited AUTOLOAD for non-method
> DXCommandmode::cmd_show_contest() is deprecated at
> /spider/perl/DXCommandmode.pm line 532.
> 1191499015^ at /spider/perl/cluster.pl line 512 
> 1191499015^Non-existant field 'DXCommandmode::cmd_show_contest' at
> /spider/perl/cluster.pl line 512 

And the line on which this fails, should, and in my case does, parse 
'sep2007' correctly.

On GB7BAA which uses  perl 5.005_03 (perl -v) which IIRC is the same as 
yours (redhat 6.2) it also comes up with the same "Can't use subscript" 
error, but it does not crash. Possibly because someone has done a plain 
"sh/contest" without a date first.

This is an old perl bug which is probably only in 5.00503.

I can't help feeling that the time is rapidly approaching where I start 
to say that people *must* upgrade to 5.8.x rather than merely *should*...

Perhaps now might be the time upgrade your redhat 6.2 to something more 
modern like ubuntu? I tend to recommend the ubuntu 6.06LTS range for 
people that don't want to keep up with the bleeding edge of linux distros.

Dirk