Reference NOT Stringified When Used on Left-Hand-Side of `=~'

[p5pRT]

Migrated from rt.perl.org#3612 (status was 'resolved')

Searchable as RT3612$

[p5pRT]

From garry@zvolve.com

Created by garry@zvolve.com

A reference is not stringified when used on the left-hand-side of the
`=~' operator. I ran into this trying to get the UCD SNMP module to
make test correctly. Here's how to reproduce the error​:

  $ cat test_ref
  #!/usr/local/bin/perl -w
  $ref = { one => 1, two => 2 };
  print 'ref was ', $ref =~ /^HASH/ ? '' : 'not ', "stringified\n";
  print 'ref($ref) => ', ref($ref), "\n";
  print qq("\$ref" => $ref\n);
  $ perl test_ref
  ref was not stringified
  ref($ref) => HASH
  "$ref" => HASH(0x111160)
  $

I cannot reproduce this error under perl 5.004_04 .

Perl Info

Flags:
    category=core
    severity=medium

This perlbug was built using Perl v5.6.0 - Sat Jun 17 18:59:36 EDT 2000
It is being executed now by  Perl v5.6.0 - Tue Aug  1 07:40:52 EDT 2000.

Site configuration information for perl v5.6.0:

Configured by garry at Tue Aug  1 07:40:52 EDT 2000.

Summary of my perl5 (revision 5.0 version 6 subversion 0) configuration:
  Platform:
    osname=solaris, osvers=2.7, archname=sun4-solaris
    uname='sunos repos 5.7 generic_106541-11 sun4u sparc sunw,ultra-60 '
    config_args=''
    hint=recommended, useposix=true, d_sigaction=define
    usethreads=undef use5005threads=undef useithreads=undef usemultiplicity=undef
    useperlio=undef d_sfio=undef uselargefiles=define 
    use64bitint=undef use64bitall=undef uselongdouble=undef usesocks=undef
  Compiler:
    cc='cc', optimize='-O', gccversion=
    cppflags='-I/usr/local/include'
    ccflags ='-I/usr/local/include -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64'
    stdchar='char', d_stdstdio=define, usevfork=false
    intsize=4, longsize=4, ptrsize=4, doublesize=8
    d_longlong=define, longlongsize=8, d_longdbl=define, longdblsize=16
    ivtype='long', ivsize=4, nvtype='double', nvsize=8, Off_t='off_t', lseeksize=8
    alignbytes=8, usemymalloc=y, prototype=define
  Linker and Libraries:
    ld='cc', ldflags ='-L/usr/local/lib '
    libpth=/usr/local/lib /opt/SUNWspro/SC5.0/lib /lib /usr/lib /usr/ccs/lib
    libs=-lsocket -lnsl -ldb -ldl -lm -lc -lcrypt -lsec
    libc=/lib/libc.so, so=so, useshrplib=false, libperl=libperl.a
  Dynamic Linking:
    dlsrc=dl_dlopen.xs, dlext=so, d_dlsymun=undef, ccdlflags=' '
    cccdlflags='-KPIC', lddlflags='-G -L/usr/local/lib'

Locally applied patches:
    


@INC for perl v5.6.0:
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.0/sun4-solaris
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.0
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0/sun4-solaris
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0
    /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl
    .


Environment for perl v5.6.0:
    HOME=/home/garry
    LANG (unset)
    LANGUAGE (unset)
    LC_COLLATE=C
    LC_CTYPE=en_US
    LC_MESSAGES=C
    LC_MONETARY=en_US
    LC_NUMERIC=en_US
    LC_TIME=en_US
    LD_LIBRARY_PATH (unset)
    LOGDIR (unset)
    PATH=/opt/SUNWspro/bin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/ccs/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/ucb:/usr/dt/bin:/home/garry/bin
    PERL_BADLANG (unset)
    SHELL=/bin/ksh

[p5pRT]

From [Unknown Contact. See original ticket]

On Tue, 1 Aug 2000, Garry T. Williams wrote​:

A reference is not stringified when used on the left-hand-side of the
`=~' operator.

This is a known bug in 5.6, fixed in perl-current. The work around is to
add quotes around the reference.