Release of Perl distribution of Crypt::OpenSSL::PKCS12 1.8
Tags: perl, opensource, release
Published: 2021-11-14 15:19:44

---
title: Release of Perl distribution of Crypt::OpenSSL::PKCS12 1.8
published: true
description: A release of Perl distribution Crypt::OpenSSL::PKCS12 1.8
tags: perl, opensource, release
//cover_image: https://direct_url_to_image.jpg
---
I have recently made a bug fix release of the Perl distribution [Crypt::OpenSSL::PKCS12](https://metacpan.org/dist/Crypt-OpenSSL-PKCS12).

The 1.8 release fixes some issues with string length calculation and were all driven by [@SmartCodeMaker](https://github.com/SmartCodeMaker), I just did reviews, merges and the final release to CPAN.

I know have [written about this before](https://dev.to/jonasbn/blog-post-release-of-cryptopensslx509-189-2fhe), I got involved with [Crypt::OpenSSL::PKCS12](https://metacpan.org/dist/Crypt-OpenSSL-PKCS12) and [Crypt::OpenSSL::X509](https://metacpan.org/dist/Crypt-OpenSSL-X509) out of necessity in that sense that it was a part of my stack at work the original author and maintainer Dan Sully, was no longer quite so active, luckily he allowed for me to be a maintainer and do releases.

At the same time it gave me an option to learn [XS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XS_%28Perl%29), the [foreign function interface](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_function_interface) for C and C++.

My learning of XS has been slow, but once in a while I receive a PR, which require for me to review code, so I am learning the _hard way_.

The repository had accumulated a few PR, so I went over to flesh out a plan on how to get them processed.

The first one I _attacked_ was PR: [#38](https://github.com/dsully/perl-crypt-openssl-pkcs12/pull/38), which was a small cleanup addressing the issue of printed output being mangled. The contributor had added a very nice reference to [documentation](https://perldoc.perl.org/perlguts#Formatted-Printing-of-SVs) describing the de facto approach, so it was quite easy to see what the fix would do.

Next up was PR [#37](https://github.com/dsully/perl-crypt-openssl-pkcs12/pull/37) a more challenging PR. When doing the review I was reading up on aspects I was not familiar with and then I fell over a great article on DEV on one of the constructs.

{% link fgasper/perl-s-svpv-menace-5515 %} by {% user fgasper %}

Not many Perl articles on DEV, so this required a mention. The approach in the article was not applicable it was nice to at least have considered options and having a dialogue about the PR.

I enabled some CI jobs along this since [I have failed in the past](https://dev.to/jonasbn/releases-of-perl-distribution-of-crypt-openssl-x509-1-904-and-1-905-a-story-about-epic-failure-1810) with releasing Perl distributions and it displayed [an issue with the Windows build](https://github.com/dsully/perl-crypt-openssl-pkcs12/runs/4130755402?check_suite_focus=true).

@SmartCodeMaker was quick at addressing this and all the tests where passing in no time and the release got shipped to CPAN.

Thanks to @SmartCodeMaker for the contributions and also thanks to Tim Legge [@timlegge](timlegge) who made [the PR](https://github.com/dsully/perl-crypt-openssl-x509/pull/85) towards Crypt::OpenSSL::X509, which was used to get GitHub Actions working for this project.

There is one PR left in the repository, which is a actually a new feature. The author has been so kind as to rebase with the changes from the above relase and next up is digging into this PR and hopefully getting a release out the door.

## Change log

```text
1.8 Fri Nov 12 20:31:24 CET 2021

- Applied patch via PR #37 from @SmartCodeMaker, calculating of strings and handling Windows files properly

- Applied patch via PR #38 from @SmartCodeMaker, formatting print of SVs displays garbage as documented in the perlguts documentation

  REF: https://perldoc.perl.org/perlguts#Formatted-Printing-of-SVs
```