CPAN build error: UNKNOWN

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

I have a CPAN module where a CPAN test on solaris which has returned a status of UNKNOWN. The error is as follows:

TEST RESULTS:

Below is the error stack from stage 'fetch':

[ERROR] [Sat Feb 13 01:41:12 2010] Dir '' does not exist
[ERROR] [Sat Feb 13 01:41:13 2010] Build.PL failed: 


Perl module toolchain versions installed:
    Module Name                        Have
    CPANPLUS                         0.9001
    CPANPLUS::Dist::Build              0.46
    Cwd                                3.31
    ExtUtils::CBuilder                 0.27
    ExtUtils::Command                  1.16
    ExtUtils::Install                  1.55
    ExtUtils::MakeMaker                6.56
    ExtUtils::Manifest                 1.58
    ExtUtils::ParseXS                2.2203
    File::Spec                         3.31
    Module::Build                    0.3603
    Test::Harness                      3.21
    Test::More                         0.94
    version                            0.81
[download]

I have no access to a solaris machine. I have tried looking the Module::Build, Module::Build::Base, Module::Build::Platform::Unix but I can find no clue.

Edit: I have spotted one clue. The error comes from CPANPLUS.

Comment on CPAN build error: UNKNOWN Download Code

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Re: CPAN build error: UNKNOWN by Khen1950fx (Canon) on Feb 14, 2010 at 10:19 UTC
I had the same thing happen to me on my last module. I went back, debugged the test, and corrected the mistakes:-).	[reply]
Re^2: CPAN build error: UNKNOWN by SilasTheMonk (Chaplain) on Feb 14, 2010 at 10:38 UTC
Okay debugging might help me understand the 'CPANPLUS' module, and it might be an error somewhere in my dist - perhaps a stray new line. But it is clear that it did not get as far as running any tests. Being an error in the 'fetch' method it might not have even downloaded the code. The thing is I don't know and I cannot even attempt to replicate the scenario. There are over 30 PASS or FAIL results and those I can work with, but I don't know what this one means. Could you post the errors messages you got so I can compare, and what was the issue?	[reply]
Re^3: CPAN build error: UNKNOWN by Khen1950fx (Canon) on Feb 14, 2010 at 12:39 UTC
Since you have over 30 pass or fail results, then one UNKNOWN on Solaris isn't worth losing sleep over:-). I built mine using ExtUtils::MakeMaker mostly because I"ve had problems with CPANPLUS and Module::Build in the past when it comes to installing dependencies. Maybe you could post your Build.PL and a small snippet of a failure?	[reply]
Re: CPAN build error: UNKNOWN by Anonymous Monk on Feb 14, 2010 at 13:42 UTC
Looks like what happens when broken versions of tar/solaris-tar interact ... seems solaris doesnt like some ptarballs either	[reply]
Re^2: CPAN build error: UNKNOWN by SilasTheMonk (Chaplain) on Feb 14, 2010 at 16:32 UTC
The point about "tar" rings some bells. A previous version (not mine) had a pretty broken tar file. I thought that has been fixed but it could well still be the root of the problem as once you unzip and untar the dist file some of the filenames are longer than 100. There are a number of tickets on the subject including rt://50669. If I could find someone with a solaris machine, I could see if I could reproduce the issue. Also the dist action of Module::Build can override the gzip and tar but I cannot see how to hard code it in the Build.PL file.	[reply]