[mrtg] MRTG hangs on W95,98,ME and Perl 5.6.1.633

[Jeff Liebermann]

Recently, I've received an increasing number of reports
that various versions of MRTG (2.9.17 thru 2.9.21) and
Active State Perl 5.6.1 build 633 tend to hang when run
from the command line under Windoze 95, 98 and ME.
I was able to reproduce the problem, assign the blame,
and offer a fix/hint.  Updated destructions posted at:
  http://www.LearnByDestroying.com/mrtg/docs/w95mrtg.htm

With AS Perl 5.6.1.620, MRTG versions 2.9.17 and 2.9.21
operate correctly on my Windoze ME machine.   When
I upgraded to AS Perl 5.6.1.633, but did not impliment
the required fixes to FindBin.pm, MRTG would hang.

In the past, failure to edit FindBin.pm would belch
  "Bad command or filename"
for every target in mrtg.cfg.  Now it hangs MRTG.

Cfgmaker runs normally as:
   cd \mrtg-2.9.21\bin
   perl cfgmaker public at localhost
but MRTG would hang when run from the command line as:
   perl mrtg mrtg.cfg
The presence of RunAsDaemon makes no difference.
The hang is fatal as using the task manager to kill
the perl job isn't sufficient.  The lock file:
   mrtg.cfg_l
is not removed, left open, and cannot be erased.
It also prevents gracefully closing the MSDOS window.
A reboot was necessary to recover.  Nice mess.

The solution is to edit FindBin.pm as demanded by my
instructions.  Literally, every email I've received,
proclaiming that MRTG doesn't work, doesn't belch output,
fails to function, or is otherwise screwed up, was
eventually traced to an inability to properly edit
FindBin.pm (or install it in the proper location).
Therefore, I have posted a pre-edited FindBin.pm at:
   http://www.LearnByDestroying.com/mrtg/docs/FindBin.pm

I could use a bit of help with ASPN.  I have submitted
3 different bug reports to ActiveState to fix this stupid
bug.  2 by web, and 1 by email.  My lack of Perl knowledge
has prevented me from sounding clueful.  Therefore, 
could someone with a working knowledge of Perl, please
submit a coherent bug report to the ActiveState developers
in a manner that will not result in a "fix your own
problems" type of reply?  I am not clueful enough to
generate a short test program that will demonstrate
how FindBin.pm screws up the directory symbols under
Windoze 95/98/ME.
   http://bugs.ActiveState.com/ActivePerl/


-- 
# Jeff Liebermann  Liebermann Design  150 Felker St #D  Santa Cruz  CA  95060
# 831.336.2558 voice   831.426.1240 fax   831.421.6491 digital_pager
# jeffl at comix.santa-cruz.ca.us  http://www.LearnByDestroying.com

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