What are common pitfalls or gotchas with dual-life modules?

When working with dual-life modules in Perl, developers often encounter specific pitfalls or gotchas that can lead to unexpected behavior. Here are some common issues to be aware of:

  • Confusion over loading: Dual-life modules can be available both as a pure Perl module and a XS module. Developers may inadvertently load the wrong version depending on the environment or how they configure their module paths.
  • Version mismatches: Different environments could end up using different versions of a dual-life module, which can lead to inconsistent behavior across development, testing, and production.
  • Performance differences: The pure Perl implementation is often slower than the XS version, which can cause performance issues if the wrong version is running in performance-critical sections.
  • Namespace conflicts: Dual-life modules may have overlapping namespaces with other modules, leading to potential name clashes that can result in hard-to-debug issues.
  • Dependency issues: Some dual-life modules may rely on specific versions or configurations of their dependencies that might not be compatible across different environments.

Be sure to thoroughly test dual-life modules in all environments to prevent these pitfalls from impacting your application.


Dual-life modules Perl module loading version mismatch performance namespace conflicts dependency issues