Storable problem again: Byte order is not compatible

jkeenan1 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I have a module I am developing which, for testing purposes, retrieves several Perl hashes that have been stored on disk via Storable.pm. The stored hashes are found in files whose names end in .sto and are stored in the t/storage/ directory of this distribution. The code is being developed primarily on a Linux server and is being stored in a Subversion repository on that same Linux server. The Storable-ized hash files are stored in that repository as well. The code tests properly; here are its test results, my Perl -V information, and the Storable version.

[linux] 556 $ perl Makefile.PL;make;make test
Writing Makefile for PostingAnalyzer
Skip blib/lib/PerlJobs.pm (unchanged)
cp lib/.PostingAnalyzer.pm.swp blib/lib/.PostingAnalyzer.pm.swp
cp lib/PostingAnalyzer.pm blib/lib/PostingAnalyzer.pm
Manifying blib/man3/PerlJobs.3
PERL_DL_NONLAZY=1 /usr/local/bin/perl "-MExtUtils::Command::MM" "-e" "
+test_harness(0, 'blib/lib', 'blib/arch')" t/*.t
t/01_load.......................ok                                    
+       
t/02_new........................ok                                    
+       
t/03_parse_single_posting.......ok                                    
+       
t/04_parse_multiple_postings....ok                                    
+       
t/05_capture_major_fields.......ok                                    
+       
All tests successful.
Files=5, Tests=71, 19 wallclock secs ( 2.89 cusr +  1.13 csys =  4.02 
+CPU)

[linux] 557 $ perl -V
Summary of my perl5 (revision 5 version 8 subversion 7) configuration:
  Platform:
    osname=linux, osvers=2.4.29-linode39-1um, archname=i686-linux
    uname='linux li11-226 2.4.29-linode39-1um #1 wed jan 19 12:22:14 e
+st 2005 i686 gnulinux '
    config_args='-de'
    hint=recommended, useposix=true, d_sigaction=define
    usethreads=undef use5005threads=undef useithreads=undef usemultipl
+icity=undef
    useperlio=define d_sfio=undef uselargefiles=define usesocks=undef
    use64bitint=undef use64bitall=undef uselongdouble=undef
    usemymalloc=n, bincompat5005=undef
  Compiler:
    cc='cc', ccflags ='-fno-strict-aliasing -pipe -I/usr/local/include
+ -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64',
    optimize='-O2',
    cppflags='-fno-strict-aliasing -pipe -I/usr/local/include'
    ccversion='', gccversion='3.3.5 (Debian 1:3.3.5-13)', gccosandvers
+=''
    intsize=4, longsize=4, ptrsize=4, doublesize=8, byteorder=1234
    d_longlong=define, longlongsize=8, d_longdbl=define, longdblsize=1
+2
    ivtype='long', ivsize=4, nvtype='double', nvsize=8, Off_t='off_t',
+ lseeksize=8
    alignbytes=4, prototype=define
  Linker and Libraries:
    ld='cc', ldflags =' -L/usr/local/lib'
    libpth=/usr/local/lib /lib /usr/lib
    libs=-lnsl -ldl -lm -lcrypt -lutil -lc
    perllibs=-lnsl -ldl -lm -lcrypt -lutil -lc
    libc=/lib/libc-2.3.2.so, so=so, useshrplib=false, libperl=libperl.
+a
    gnulibc_version='2.3.2'
  Dynamic Linking:
    dlsrc=dl_dlopen.xs, dlext=so, d_dlsymun=undef, ccdlflags='-Wl,-E'
    cccdlflags='-fpic', lddlflags='-shared -L/usr/local/lib'


Characteristics of this binary (from libperl): 
  Compile-time options: USE_LARGE_FILES
  Built under linux
  Compiled at Oct 25 2005 11:10:50
  @INC:
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.8.7/i686-linux
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.8.7
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.7/i686-linux
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.7
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl
    .
[linux] 558 $ perl -MStorable -e 'print "$Storable::VERSION\n"'
2.15
[download]

The problem when I check out that code from the repository onto my iBook. When I run make test on this Darwin system, all my tests fail once they encounter code which calls Storable::retrieve() on the Storable files. Example:

t/01_load.......................ok 10/0Byte order is not compatible at
+ blib/lib/Storable.pm (autosplit into blib/lib/auto/Storable/_retriev
+e.al) line 331, at .../blib/lib/PostingAnalyzer.pm line 340
# Looks like your test died just after 12.
t/01_load.......................dubious                               
+       
        Test returned status 255 (wstat 65280, 0xff00)
        after all the subtests completed successfully
[download]

Here are the full test results on Darwin:

[darwin] 536 $ perl Makefile.PL;make;make test
Writing Makefile for PostingAnalyzer
Manifying blib/man3/PerlJobs.3
PERL_DL_NONLAZY=1 /usr/local/bin/perl "-MExtUtils::Command::MM" "-e" "
+test_harness(0, 'blib/lib', 'blib/arch')" t/*.t
t/01_load.......................ok 10/0Byte order is not compatible at
+ blib/lib/Storable.pm (autosplit into blib/lib/auto/Storable/_retriev
+e.al) line 331, at .../blib/lib/PostingAnalyzer.pm line 340
# Looks like your test died just after 12.
t/01_load.......................dubious                               
+       
        Test returned status 255 (wstat 65280, 0xff00)
        after all the subtests completed successfully
t/02_new........................ok 1/0Byte order is not compatible at 
+blib/lib/Storable.pm (autosplit into blib/lib/auto/Storable/_retrieve
+.al) line 331, at .../blib/lib/PostingAnalyzer.pm line 340
# Looks like your test died just after 2.
t/02_new........................dubious                               
+       
        Test returned status 255 (wstat 65280, 0xff00)
        after all the subtests completed successfully
t/03_parse_single_posting.......ok 1/0Byte order is not compatible at 
+blib/lib/Storable.pm (autosplit into blib/lib/auto/Storable/_retrieve
+.al) line 331, at .../blib/lib/PostingAnalyzer.pm line 340
# Looks like your test died just after 2.
t/03_parse_single_posting.......dubious                               
+       
        Test returned status 255 (wstat 65280, 0xff00)
        after all the subtests completed successfully
t/04_parse_multiple_postings....ok 1/0Byte order is not compatible at 
+blib/lib/Storable.pm (autosplit into blib/lib/auto/Storable/_retrieve
+.al) line 331, at .../blib/lib/PostingAnalyzer.pm line 340
# Looks like your test died just after 2.
t/04_parse_multiple_postings....dubious                               
+       
        Test returned status 255 (wstat 65280, 0xff00)
        after all the subtests completed successfully
t/05_capture_major_fields.......ok 1/0Byte order is not compatible at 
+blib/lib/Storable.pm (autosplit into blib/lib/auto/Storable/_retrieve
+.al) line 331, at .../blib/lib/PostingAnalyzer.pm line 340
# Looks like your test died just after 2.
t/05_capture_major_fields.......dubious                               
+       
        Test returned status 255 (wstat 65280, 0xff00)
        after all the subtests completed successfully
Failed Test                    Stat Wstat Total Fail  Failed  List of 
+Failed
----------------------------------------------------------------------
+---------
t/01_load.t                     255 65280    12    0   0.00%  ??
t/02_new.t                      255 65280     2    0   0.00%  ??
t/03_parse_single_posting.t     255 65280     2    0   0.00%  ??
t/04_parse_multiple_postings.t  255 65280     2    0   0.00%  ??
t/05_capture_major_fields.t     255 65280     2    0   0.00%  ??
Failed 5/5 test scripts, 0.00% okay. 0/20 subtests failed, 100.00% oka
+y.
make: *** [test_dynamic] Error 255

[darwin] 537 $ perl -V
Summary of my perl5 (revision 5 version 8 subversion 7) configuration:
  Platform:
    osname=darwin, osvers=7.9.0, archname=darwin-2level
    uname='darwin macintosh.local 7.9.0 darwin kernel version 7.9.0: w
+ed mar 30 20:11:17 pst 2005; root:xnuxnu-517.12.7.obj~1release_ppc po
+wer macintosh powerpc '
    config_args='-de'
    hint=recommended, useposix=true, d_sigaction=define
    usethreads=undef use5005threads=undef useithreads=undef usemultipl
+icity=undef
    useperlio=define d_sfio=undef uselargefiles=define usesocks=undef
    use64bitint=undef use64bitall=undef uselongdouble=undef
    usemymalloc=n, bincompat5005=undef
  Compiler:
    cc='cc', ccflags ='-fno-common -DPERL_DARWIN -no-cpp-precomp -fno-
+strict-aliasing -pipe -I/usr/local/include',
    optimize='-Os',
    cppflags='-no-cpp-precomp -fno-common -DPERL_DARWIN -no-cpp-precom
+p -fno-strict-aliasing -pipe -I/usr/local/include'
    ccversion='', gccversion='3.3 20030304 (Apple Computer, Inc. build
+ 1495)', gccosandvers=''
    intsize=4, longsize=4, ptrsize=4, doublesize=8, byteorder=4321
    d_longlong=define, longlongsize=8, d_longdbl=define, longdblsize=8
    ivtype='long', ivsize=4, nvtype='double', nvsize=8, Off_t='off_t',
+ lseeksize=8
    alignbytes=8, prototype=define
  Linker and Libraries:
    ld='env MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.3 cc', ldflags =' -L/usr/local
+/lib'
    libpth=/usr/local/lib /lib /usr/lib
    libs=-ldbm -ldl -lm -lc
    perllibs=-ldl -lm -lc
    libc=/usr/lib/libc.dylib, so=dylib, useshrplib=false, libperl=libp
+erl.a
    gnulibc_version=''
  Dynamic Linking:
    dlsrc=dl_dyld.xs, dlext=bundle, d_dlsymun=undef, ccdlflags=' '
    cccdlflags=' ', lddlflags=' -bundle -undefined dynamic_lookup -L/u
+sr/local/lib'


Characteristics of this binary (from libperl): 
  Compile-time options: USE_LARGE_FILES
  Built under darwin
  Compiled at Oct 24 2005 21:19:21
  %ENV:
    PERL5LIB="/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl"
  @INC:
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.7/darwin-2level
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.7
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.4/darwin-2level
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.4
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.8.7/darwin-2level
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.8.7
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.7/darwin-2level
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.7
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.4/darwin-2level
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.4
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl
    .
[darwin] 538 $ perl -MStorable -e 'print "$Storable::VERSION\n";'
2.15
[download]

So I have the same Perl code, the same .sto files, the same version of Perl, and the same -- and most recent -- version of Storable.pm (2.15). Only the operating system is different.

In the Storable.pm documentation, the "Byte order is not compatible" error message is said to be likely when using earlier versions of Perl. That is not the case here. Nor do the factors discussed in this October 2003 Perlmonks thread Storable: Byte order is not compatible seem to apply. The problem has been reported in connection with MovableType in postings located by Google here: Byte order is not compatible. And a bug was filed about this a couple of years back http://rt.cpan.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=6951; no response is evident.

My objective is simply that my tests pass on both Linux and Darwin. Can any Monk offer guidance? TIA.

Jim Keenan

Comment on Storable problem again: Byte order is not compatible Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Storable problem again: Byte order is not compatible by perrin (Chancellor) on Mar 14, 2006 at 02:24 UTC
You probably just need to store the data in "network order." See the docs, where it describes nstore().	[reply]
Re^2: Storable problem again: Byte order is not compatible by jkeenan1 (Deacon) on Mar 14, 2006 at 03:15 UTC
Right on the money! Thanks, Perrin! jimk	[reply]