Frustrating results with PerlMagick

TL;DR

I wonder about the state of PerlMagick.

PerlMagick represents the Perl bindings for… well, it’s complicated:

ImageMagick is the “original” software, which is still very popular as it grows and evolves
GraphicsMagick is a fork (21 years ago!) that aimed at interface stability and efficiency.

Both projects include the bindings, which eventually result in the installation of Image::Magick and Graphics::Magick respectively.

Out of curiosity, I tried to compile both modules for a fairly recent version of Perl (v5.36). With… frustrating results.

First of all, there’s no way to install them from CPAN. It’s the other way around: we compile the main thing, and the modules are available (and installable) as a side effect. A sort of Alien, but in reverse. This has its drawbacks, because tools like carton and cpanm are out of the game.

ImageMagick complains a lot. Many errors have to do with input/output, so it might be related to some library that I forgot to include during configuration/compilation.

t/blob.t .......... ok   
t/bzlib/read.t .... Failed 2/2 subtests 
t/bzlib/write.t ... Failed 1/1 subtests 
t/composite.t ..... Failed 1/18 subtests 
t/filter.t ........ Failed 1/58 subtests 
t/getattribute.t .. ok     
t/jng/read.t ...... ok     
t/jng/write.t ..... ok     
t/jpeg/read.t ..... ok   
t/jpeg/write.t .... ok   
t/montage.t ....... ok     
t/ping.t .......... ok   
t/png/read-16.t ... ok   
t/png/read.t ...... ok   
t/png/write-16.t .. ok   
t/png/write.t ..... ok   
t/read.t .......... 1/47 Readimage (gradient:red-blue):
   Exception 395: UnableToOpenConfigureFile `colors.xml'
   @ warning/configure.c/GetConfigureOptions/722
   at t/subroutines.pl line 317.
t/read.t .......... Failed 1/47 subtests 
t/setattribute.t .. ok     
t/tiff/read.t ..... ok     
t/tiff/write.t .... ok     
t/write.t ......... Failed 1/32 subtests 
t/zlib/read.t ..... Failed 1/2 subtests 
t/zlib/write.t .... Failed 1/1 subtests

GraphicsMagick complains too:

t/blob.t .......... ok   
t/composite.t ..... ok     
t/filter.t ........ ok     
t/getattribute.t .. ok     
t/jbig/read.t ..... ok   
t/jbig/write.t .... ok   
t/jng/read.t ...... ok     
t/jng/write.t ..... ok     
t/jpeg/read.t ..... ok   
t/jpeg/write.t .... ok   
t/montage.t ....... Failed 19/19 subtests 
t/ping.t .......... ok   
t/png/read-16.t ... ok   
t/png/read.t ...... ok   
t/png/write-16.t .. ok   
t/png/write.t ..... ok   
t/ps/read.t ....... ok   
t/ps/write.t ...... ok   
t/read.t .......... ok    
t/setattribute.t .. ok     
t/tiff/read.t ..... ok     
t/tiff/write.t .... ok     
t/ttf/read.t ...... ok   
t/write.t ......... 1/? SetImageAttribute:
   Extending attribute value text is deprecated!
   (key="comment")
SetImageAttribute: Extending attribute value text
   is deprecated! (key="comment")
t/write.t ......... ok    
t/zlib/read.t ..... ok   
t/zlib/write.t .... ok

Anyway, this seems to be a bug introduced in the very latest release (as of now, of course), properly tracked in a bug report.

Cheers!

ETOOBUSY 🚀 minimal blogging for the impatient