Item5194: Highly suspect code in Users.pm

my $othercUID = $cUIDList->[0] if (($cUIDList) && scalar(@$cUIDList));

It appears that despite "use strict", perl creates an entry in the global symbol table for $othercUID if the test fails. It only makes the var "my" if the test passes.

 my $othercUID; $othercUID = $cUIDList->[0]  if (($cUIDList) && scalar(@$cUIDList));

Note that the 4.2.0 tests pass, despite this, for reasons i don't fully understand. Logically it may have an effect when TWiki is used in a mod_perl environment, so setting to urgent.

I only noticed this because the tests started failing in my development env, where I am working on other (extensive) changes that may be highlighting it.

FYI I'm using perl 5.8.8.

-- TWiki:Main/CrawfordCurrie - 03 Jan 2008

Oh, that particular Perl trap is around for quite a couple of years. I found a reference dating back to 2000 in http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2000-05/msg00644.html

Due to the current implementation, Perl indeed is creating sort of a static variable (not an entry in the global symbol table, though) if the test fails.

Unfortunately the -w switch still fails to create a warning in this case

-- TWiki:Main.HaraldJoerg - 04 Jan 2008

When I traced this code in the debugger a few months ago (having noticed the my .. if bizzo) it appeared to make not functional change to the code. I left it figuring that we would clean it post freeze. I the process of fixing Item5185 I've removed it entirely. It could have an effect in mod_perl though, I didn't think of that.

-- SvenDowideit - 07 Jan 2008