# Perl message - any idea what this is about?



## Crotalus (Nov 28, 2016)

On the system monitor I see this message, one line wrapped. I have no idea what started it and what it means. Anybody have an idea?
Message reads:
	
	



```
perl5-5.22.r4: Tag: expiration_date Value: 2017-12-31 perl5.20-5.20.3_15: Tag: expiration_date Value: 2017-06-30
```
From `pkg info`

```
perl5-5.22.3.r4                Practical Extraction and Report Language
perl5.20-5.20.3_15             Practical Extraction and Report Language
```

Is this something that I should be concerned about?


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## marino (Nov 28, 2016)

Personally, I don't see how that message is not clear.  It's a literal message.  Which part of that message is unclear to you?


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## Crotalus (Nov 28, 2016)

What caused it?
Why did it appear when it never appeared before?
Can one speculate that perl will stop working on the display date?


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## marino (Nov 28, 2016)

> What caused it?


The definition of an expiration date


> Why did it appear when it never appeared before?


the expiration date wasn't previously defined and now it is.


> Can one speculate that perl will stop working on the display date?


Do cars stop working when the warranty runs out?
This is a warranty.  It might work past the date but mostly this is about vulnerabilities.  After the date, the s/w is unsupported.

To me the answers to these questions are obvious so I'm having a problem relating.


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## obsigna (Nov 28, 2016)

There are no stupid questions. There are only stupid answers.

The following may be related to the issue, however, I didn't check the log's and therefore I cannot tell whether the expiration blah appeared or not. Anyway, I ran `# pkg update`, and all over a sudden, I had 2 perl installations, namely perl5-5.20, and perl5-5.24. I executed `# pkg delete -f perl5` and then `# pkg install perl5`, and I ended up with only one perl, namely perl5-5.24. With that one, I don't see any stupid expiration messages.


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## SirDice (Nov 29, 2016)

obsigna said:


> There are no stupid questions. There are only stupid answers.


A wise man learns more from asking a stupid question than a stupid man learns from a wise answer


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## Crotalus (Nov 29, 2016)

If I offended someone by asking a dumb question, I didn't intend to do so.
Thanks to the person that sent me the information to set me on the correct path. Thanks!

If any body is interested in this topic I have an explanation. Ignore it if you wish.
If you look at the fresh ports you may see a comment on expiration date. This is designed as the date the port will be deleted or no longer supported. On my system sometime during the night a task is run to check for security vulnerabilities and put the results in a mail message. I do not know why this expiration date message appeared when it did not before. It could be a change to the system or an addition to the port trees. Don't know!

What is interesting is that doing the recommended port update procedure from the handbook a new version of perl does not appear. This is the way I have been updating he system and it has been working.

`freebsd-update fetch`
`freebsd-update install`
reboot if changes to kernel
`portsnap fetch update`
`portmaster -L --index-only | egrep '(ew|ort) version | total install'`
returns a list of all ports that can be updated
`portmaster [I]port[/I]`

There is newer version of perl listed in the fresh ports. This newer version does not appear in the list of ports to be updated after running `portmaster` with the extended parameters. As a result perl was never upgraded.

No longer a mystery! I am happy as frog on a Lilly Pad.


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## SirDice (Nov 29, 2016)

Always read /usr/ports/UPDATING:

```
20161103:
  AFFECTS: users of lang/perl5*
  AUTHOR: mat@FreeBSD.org

  The default Perl version has been switched to Perl 5.24.  If you are using
  binary packages to upgrade your system, you do not have anything to do, pkg
  upgrade will do the right thing.  For the other people, assuming you are
  migrating from 5.20 to 5.24, do:

  First, add to /etc/make.conf:

  DEFAULT_VERSIONS+=  perl5=5.24

  Portupgrade users:
        portupgrade -o lang/perl5.24 -f lang/perl5.20

          You can now remove the DEFAULT_VERSIONS line added earlier
          from /etc/make.conf

          Then you will need to rebuild everything that uses libperl.so, you
          can do so with:

        portupgrade -f `pkg shlib -qR libperl.so.5.20`

  Portmaster users:
        portmaster -o lang/perl5.24 lang/perl5.20

          You can now remove the DEFAULT_VERSIONS line added earlier
          from /etc/make.conf

          Then you will need to rebuild everything that uses libperl.so, you
          can do so with:

        portmaster -f `pkg shlib -qR libperl.so.5.20`
```


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## SpaceCowMan (Nov 30, 2016)

Thank you so much for posting the solution to this for those of us who understood the issue but didn't know how to get rid of the message.  I really appreciate people on this forum like SirDice who don't assume everyone knows everything about ports.


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## vejnovic (Nov 30, 2016)

SpaceCowMan said:


> Thank you so much for posting the solution to this for those of us who understood the issue but didn't know how to get rid of the message.  I really appreciate people on this forum like SirDice who don't assume everyone knows everything about ports.


+1


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## PacketMan (Dec 1, 2016)

SpaceCowMan said:


> I really appreciate people on this forum like SirDice who don't assume everyone knows everything about ports.



And Wblock. 

+2


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## Crotalus (Dec 2, 2016)

Sir Dice,

Thanks for the information. I now have the latest version of perl installed without a single problem. No more messages.

Thank you!


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