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DBI: DBD::Sponge cannot initialize under PerlOnJava

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Assessment

Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Newbie friendliness
55/100
Issue type
Bug
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
perl
Domain
databases

Research direction

Start at DBI->install_driver("Sponge") and trace into DBD::Sponge::driver, focusing on how DBD::Sponge::db inherits or resolves install_method. Compare the PerlOnJava compatibility layer with the pure-Perl handle inheritance, then run t/01-connect.t and t/02-reconnect.t on both backends; done means the upstream suite passes under PerlOnJava.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

bug

Summary

MooX::Role::DBIConnection 0.07 fails its connection tests under PerlOnJava because the bundled pure-Perl DBD::Sponge driver cannot initialize.

Reproduction

CPAN random tester run: 20260916-111623-23683

Affected upstream tests:

  • t/01-connect.t
  • t/02-reconnect.t

Both fail on the JVM backend and the interpreter backend when the tests use the dbi:Sponge: DSN.

The failure is reported as:

Can't connect to data source '' because I can't work out what driver to use

The minimal driver initialization path is DBI->install_driver("Sponge"), which reaches DBD::Sponge->driver and fails because DBD::Sponge::db->install_method is unavailable.

Expected result

The upstream suite passes completely under system Perl: 3 test files and 6 tests successful.

Actual result

PerlOnJava fails 2 of 3 test programs; t/00-load.t passes. DBD::Sponge is bundled with PerlOnJava and can be loaded directly, so this is not a missing CPAN dependency or an external database prerequisite.

Suspected cause

The PerlOnJava DBI compatibility layer defines install_method on DBD::_::common, but the pure-Perl database-handle inheritance used by DBD::Sponge::db does not expose that method through its DBD::_::db base. Align the pure-Perl DBI handle inheritance or otherwise provide the upstream-compatible method dispatch.

This affects both execution backends and should have focused regression coverage for connecting through dbi:Sponge: and reconnecting.

Dominant language
Perl
Stars
64
Forks
6
Avg merge
5h 11m
Merged PRs (30d)
168

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