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Moo role composition loses lexical-sub closures

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Assessment

Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Newbie friendliness
45/100
Issue type
Bug
Clarity
Clearly specified
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
java, perl
Domain
compilers

Research direction

The issue is in the JVM backend's handling of lexical closures during Moo role composition. Start by examining the minimal reproducer in the issue body to understand the failure. Look at how PerlOnJava implements subroutine aliasing and environment preservation, particularly in the Moo::Role composition path. The fix must ensure lexical pads are retained when methods are copied. Run the provided CPAN test for CXC::Form::Tiny::Plugin::OptArgs2 to verify the resolution.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

area:backend area:runtime bug

Summary

PerlOnJava loses the lexical-sub closure when a Moo role copies a method into a consuming class. This breaks Form::Tiny plugin metaclasses and causes CXC::Form::Tiny::Plugin::OptArgs2 0.12 to fail during class construction.

Minimal reproducer

The following program prints 42 under system Perl:

package R; use Moo::Role; my sub helper { 41 }; sub role_method { helper()+1 }; package C; use Moo; with "R"; package main; print C->new->role_method, "\\n";

On the JVM backend it prints the expected 42 but also emits:

Subroutine "&helper" is not available

The warning is emitted from the role-composed method after it has been installed in C. This demonstrates that the method body retained its call to the lexical helper but lost the lexical environment that should contain helper. System Perl exits successfully without the warning.

CPAN evidence

The CPAN regression run 20260924-085657-82687 reported CXC::Form::Tiny::Plugin::OptArgs2 0.12 failing in t/OptArgs.t, t/inherit.t, t/nested.t, and t/required.t. The failure is:

Can.t locate object method "new" via package "My::Form"

The same run emitted unavailable-lexical-sub diagnostics for CXC::Form::Tiny::Plugin::OptArgs2::Meta methods referencing croak, _match_inherit_optargs, and parse_inherit_matches. t/optargs_opts.t passed.

With the exact dependency blibs and load order, the five substantive upstream test files pass under system Perl: 15 tests, all successful. Therefore this is attributable to PerlOnJava rather than upstream behavior or missing prerequisites.

Backend results

  • JVM backend: minimal reproducer emits the unavailable lexical-sub diagnostic; the CPAN test reaches My::Form->new and fails.
  • Interpreter backend: the same dependency stack currently fails earlier while loading the Moo/Role::Tiny implementation with a strict-refs error involving Form::Tiny::Error::with. It does not invalidate the JVM reproducer; interpreter parity should be checked separately.

Likely ownership

The primary defect is in closure/environment preservation when role composition aliases or installs a subroutine into another package. A method containing a lexical-sub call must retain the defining lexical pad after Moo::Role composition. The downstream missing constructor is a consequence of the Form::Tiny metaclass/class role setup failing after these composed methods cannot resolve their lexical helpers.

Acceptance criteria

  • The minimal Moo role reproducer passes on the JVM backend without an unavailable-lexical-sub diagnostic.
  • CXC::Form::Tiny::Plugin::OptArgs2 0.12 passes its five substantive test files on the JVM backend.
  • The interpreter backend has an explicit parity result for the same lexical-role-closure case.
  • Add a permanent project-owned regression test; verify it with system Perl first and on both PerlOnJava backends after the fix.

No upstream tests were modified.

Dominant language
Perl
Stars
64
Forks
6
Avg merge
5h 38m
Merged PRs (30d)
170

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