[perl #132363] Net::Ping 2.61 test failures

[James E Keenan via RT]

On Fri, 27 Oct 2017 09:52:32 GMT, mhasch-...@cozap.com wrote:
>
> This is a bug report for perl from mhasch-...@cozap.com,
> generated with the help of perlbug 1.40 running under perl 5.26.1.
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> [Please describe your issue here]
>
> As of version 2.61, the Net::Ping test suite makes assumptions
> about the IPv4 address 172.29.249.249. This is an RFC 1918
> address that may or may not be reachable in any local area
> network. Making tests fail based on its reachability is
> therefore non-portable and should be avoided.
>

For the record, I note that Net::Ping tests using 172.29.249.249 were introduced long before 2.61. They date at least to commit f569508e in October 2002.

> While replacing the RFC 1918 address by an RFC 5737 address
> might reduce the risk of it actually being connected there
> is no guarantee any address usage convention at all will be
> met within private networks. Therefore, in the test suite,
> (non-)reachability of a particular address should always be
> tolerated.
>
> Interestingly, some tests against "known" internet hosts are
> already skipped if an initial ping of "google.com" fails for
> some reason. Giving up this particular trigger and making all
> connectivity-related checks report skip reasons rather than
> failures could be a way to cope with most private and firewalled
> network situations.
>
> Even better though would be a test strategy aiming for code
> quality criteria independent of outside conditions. This might
> be achieved using mock-up interfaces or at most localhost.
>
> If nothing else, at least provide an opt-out configuration
> parameter for remote network-aware tests. Currently, PERL_CORE
> in the environment will have that effect. Unfortunately, this
> parameter usually is a MakeMaker constant not under control
> of the user (through distroprefs, say). But not only core may
> need to skip those tests.
>
> Regards,
> -Martin
>
> [Please do not change anything below this line]
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> ---
> Flags:
> category=library
> severity=high
> module=Net::Ping
> ---
> Site configuration information for perl 5.26.1:
>
> (stripped by reporter, considered irrelevant)


--
James E Keenan (jke...@cpan.org)

---
via perlbug: queue: perl5 status: new
https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=132363

[Martin Becker]

# New Ticket Created by Martin Becker
# Please include the string: [perl #132363]
# in the subject line of all future correspondence about this issue.
# <URL: https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=132363 >

This is a bug report for perl from mhasch-...@cozap.com,
generated with the help of perlbug 1.40 running under perl 5.26.1.


-----------------------------------------------------------------
[Please describe your issue here]

As of version 2.61, the Net::Ping test suite makes assumptions
about the IPv4 address 172.29.249.249. This is an RFC 1918
address that may or may not be reachable in any local area
network. Making tests fail based on its reachability is
therefore non-portable and should be avoided.