From: eprints-tech-request@ecs.soton.ac.uk <eprints-tech-request@ecs.soton.ac.uk> on behalf of David R Newman <drn@ecs.soton.ac.uk>
Date: Tuesday, 30 January 2024 at 12:38
To: eprints-tech@ecs.soton.ac.uk <eprints-tech@ecs.soton.ac.uk>, John Salter <J.Salter@leeds.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: [EP-tech] Error on BibTeX importer

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Hi John,

Technically you could just run the cpan_modules.pl script [1] and that will install various Perl modules that may not otherwise be available.  That has not been touched for some time as despite it prominent position, as I had somehow failed to realise its purpose. I should review that against my Ansible [2] playbook to make sure that install all the modules I currently need to install using CPAN for various version of Enterprise Linux.

Regards

David Newman

[1] https://github.com/eprints/eprints3.4/blob/master/cpan_modules.pl

[2] https://www.ansible.com/overview/how-ansible-works

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In the past, I’ve used ‘fpm’ to pack CPAN into RPMs:
https://github.com/jordansissel/fpm< /p>

 

It worked in situations like you describe (as long as central service can add it to an RPM repo), and the name always put a childish smile on my face (and was easy to remember).

 

Cheers,

John

 

 

From: eprints-tech-request@ecs.soton.ac.uk <eprints-tech-request@ecs.soton.ac.uk> On Behalf Of Alan.Stiles [He/Him/They]
Sent: 30 January 2024 12:06
To: eprints-tech@ecs.soton.ac.uk
Subject: Re: [EP-tech] Error on BibTeX importer

 

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Thanks – it appears I don’t have that module on these servers.  (previously running somewhat customised 3.3.16)

I have had issues in the past with stuff installed ‘manually’ via CPAN conflicting with the modules installed via yum, which get scheduled updates by our central IT admin.

Often I can find a version that is yum-able though not in this case (with our subscriptions anway).

At least if I install it locally (to eprints user) I should know to manage it in case of future propblems.

With it not being available as part of the OS modules but required by various EPrints functions (Import/export and the ORCID advance plugin) I wouldn’t personally have an issue with it being in the codebase as that would mean someone else was also managing any potential updates, but I can see why you didn’t / don’t want to include it there.

 

Alan

From: eprints-tech-request@ecs.soton.ac.uk <eprints-tech-request@ecs.soton.ac.uk> on behalf of David R Newman <drn@ecs.soton.ac.uk>
Date: Tuesday, 30 January 2024 at 11:45
To: eprints-tech@ecs.soton.ac.uk <eprints-tech@ecs.soton.ac.uk>, Matthew Kerwin <matthew@kerwin.net.au>
Subject: Re: [EP-tech] Error on BibTeX importer

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Hi all,

I am not sure what version of EPrints you were previously running but
there was a change to the BibTeX import/export plugin to better handle
issues if TeX::Encode is not installed (pre 3.4.4 release).  See:

https ://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url="">

This relates to TeX::Encode no longer being able as an OS package (i.e.
perl-TeX-Encode) in RHEL 9.  It seems that even if TeX::Encode is not
installed for the import plugin this can still cause an issue as it is
just the advertise that is not unset and it is not fully disabled.  I
will have a further look at testing this on EL 9 (Rocky Linux 9) with
TeX::Encode installed, which I have currently installed on my test
server via CPAN.  So probably the best plan for now is to run:

cpan TeX::Encode

I normally do this as the root user, so it is available to all users.
However, in theory it only needs to be installed for the eprints user
(depending on what the Apache/httpd user is set as).

EPrints used to package the TeX::Encode library in it core codebase but
I felt this was a bad idea, as it would be liable to get out of date or
need regularly updating before each release. If EL 9+ is going to stop
packaging it, this may need to be reconsidered.  What are people's
thoughts with need to use CPAN to install certain Perl modules required
by the EPrints core codebase?  Is this better than packaging the
libraries in the core codebase where they may get out of date?

Regards

David Newman

On 30/01/2024 11:29, Matthew Kerwin wrote:
> CAUTION: This e-mail originated outside the University of Southampton.
>
> CAUTION: This e-mail originated outside the University of Southampton.
>
> Hi Alan,
>
> On Tue, 30 Jan 2024 at 21:22, Alan.Stiles [He/Him/They]
> <alan.stiles@open.ac.uk> wrote:
>> Looking at a new 3.4.5 install on RHEL 9 and the BibTeX importer is throwing an error at me for
>> Unhandled exception in Import::BibTeX: Unknown encoding 'bibtex' at /opt/eprints/flavours/pub_lib/plugins/EPrints/Plugin/Import/BibTeX.pm line 573, <$fh> line 10.
>>
>> Which is  https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url="">
>>
>> $epdata = decode('bibtex', $epdata);
>>
>> and presumably is using the decode function in the Encode module.
>>
>> Anybody else seen & solved this already?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Alan
>>
> My first instinct is to ensure you have TeX::Encode::BibTeX
> <http s://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url="">> installed and linked.
>
> Cheers
> --
>    Matthew Kerwin
>    https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url="">
>
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