Strange problem with Config::General

OfficeLinebacker has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Greetings, esteemed monks!

I have implemented a solution to use a config file to store the database connection credentials so as to make an app I'm building more portable. I chose Config::General because it's pretty neat. When testing on my local box (Windows 7), when I do

my $cfgfile = 'prodsafety.cfg';

my $conf = Config::General->new($cfgfile);
my %config = $conf->getall;

foreach my $k (keys %config){
        print "$k is $config{$k}."
}
[download]

I get the expected values. However, on the web host (GoDaddy Linux for those wondering), I get

7/16 is .
[download]

and that's it. I've tried playing with line endings but to no avail. Any thoughts?

Comment on Strange problem with Config::General Select or Download Code

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Re: Strange problem with Config::General by toolic (Bishop) on Nov 18, 2013 at 15:22 UTC
Tip #4 from the Basic debugging checklist (Data::Dumper): `my %config = $conf->getall; use Data::Dumper; print Dumper(\%config);` [download] The 7/16 looks like perldata... If you evaluate a hash in scalar context, it returns false if the hash is empty. If there are any key/value pairs, it returns true; more precisely, the value returned is a string consisting of the number of used buckets and the number of allocated buckets, separated by a slash. This is pretty much useful only to find out whether Perl's internal hashing algorithm is performing poorly on your data set. For example, you stick 10,000 things in a hash, but evaluating %HASH in scalar context reveals "1/16" , which means only one out of sixteen buckets has been touched, and presumably contains all 10,000 of your items. This isn't supposed to happen. If a tied hash is evaluated in scalar context, the SCALAR method is called (with a fallback to FIRSTKEY ).	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Strange problem with Config::General by OfficeLinebacker (Chaplain) on Nov 18, 2013 at 16:03 UTC
Hi. I agree, it looks like perldata. I tried Data:Dumping the value and I got $VAR1 = { '7/16' => undef }; So is that a dead end?	[reply]
Re^3: Strange problem with Config::General by Eily (Monsignor) on Nov 18, 2013 at 16:33 UTC
Try dumping your $conf object just to be sure the problem isn't on that side (I really don't think so). You could also try making list context even more explicit with : `my (%config,) = ($conf->getall,); # Now that's overdoing it` and see if it changes anything. If you can't get any further, try to reduce your program as much as possible until you reach the minimum conditions to reproduce the defect. And tell us on which versions of Perl you work in both cases	[reply] [d/l]
Re^4: Strange problem with Config::General by OfficeLinebacker (Chaplain) on Nov 18, 2013 at 17:17 UTC
Re^5: Strange problem with Config::General by Eily (Monsignor) on Nov 18, 2013 at 17:50 UTC
Re: Strange problem with Config::General by Eily (Monsignor) on Nov 18, 2013 at 15:20 UTC
Are you running the exact same code in both cases?. Your output looks like you called `$conf->getall` in scalar context before assigning the result to %config. Something roughly like : `my %config = scalar $cong->getall;`, except the problem is probably far less obvious. But then you should have two warnings if they are on: `Odd number of elements in hash assignment at - line X. Use of uninitialized value in print at - line X.` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Strange problem with Config::General by OfficeLinebacker (Chaplain) on Nov 18, 2013 at 16:04 UTC
Hi. Yes I have warnings on and the code is identical. Thanks.	[reply]
Re^3: Strange problem with Config::General by Eily (Monsignor) on Nov 18, 2013 at 16:48 UTC
With warnings activated there should have been at least the second one(and I don't see how the first could have been skipped). Are there other warnings you did not see or forgot to tell us about?	[reply]