KNOWN_ISSUES.rdoc

Path: KNOWN_ISSUES.rdoc
Last Update: Thu Nov 19 15:47:02 +0000 2009

KNOWN_ISSUES.rdoc - Known issues and bugs in BioRuby

Copyright:Copyright (C) 2009 Naohisa Goto <ng@bioruby.org>
License:The Ruby License

Known issues and bugs in BioRuby

Below are known issues and bugs in BioRuby. They will be fixed in the future, except items with (WONT_FIX) tags.

1. Ruby version specific issues

Ruby 1.9.1 or later

Some classes/modules/methods still may not work or may return incorrect results in Ruby 1.9.1, especially those not covered by the unit tests.

String encodings

Currently, BioRuby do not care string encodings. In some cases, Encoding::CompatibilityError may be raised.

Ruby 1.9.0

(WONT_FIX) Ruby 1.9.0 is NOT supported because it isn‘t a stable release. Use Ruby 1.9.1 or later.

Ruby 1.8.2 or earlier

(WONT_FIX) In some cases, temporary files and directories may not be removed because of the lack of FileUtils.remove_entry_secure.

(WONT_FIX) We will soon end support for Ruby 1.8.2. Note that Ruby 1.8.1 or earlier is no longer supported, as described in README.rdoc.

Issues about SOAP/WSDL

SOAP4R (SOAP and WSDL implementation) is no longer bundled with Ruby 1.9. In addition, because of the API changes in recent SOAP4R, some classes/modules using SOAP4R may not work.

Problem with REXML DoS vulnerability patch before 09-Nov-2008

(WONT_FIX) If you have applied a patch taken from www.ruby-lang.org/en/news/2008/08/23/dos-vulnerability-in-rexml/ before 09 Nov 2008 12:40 +0900, because of the bug in the patch, parsing of Blast XML results with REXML parser may fail. The bug is already fixed and new patch is available on the above URL. Note that some Linux distributions would have incorporated the patch in their manners, and may have the same problem.

2. OS and/or architecture-dependent issues

Microsoft Windows

Text mode issues

Following 4 tests failed on mswin32 (and maybe on mingw32 and bccwin32) because of the conversion of line feed codes in the text mode.

  • test_ended_pos and test_start_pos in test/unit/bio/io/test_flatfile.rb
  • test_pos in test/unit/bio/io/flatfile/test_buffer.rb
  • test_entry_pos in test/unit/bio/appl/blast/test_rpsblast.rb

This indicates that br_bioflat.rb and Bio::FlatFileIndex may create incorrect indexes on mswin32, mingw32, and bccwin32. In addition, Bio::FlatFile may return incorrect data.

Windows 95/98/98SE/ME

(WONT_FIX) Some methods that call external programs may not work in Windows 95/98/98SE/ME because of the limitation of COMMAND.COM.

OpenVMS, BeOS, OS/2, djgpp, Windows CE

(WONT_FIX) BioRuby may not work on these platforms.

3. Known issues and bugs in BioRuby

Bio::Ensembl

Due to the renewal of Ensembl web site, Bio::Ensembl does not work for the latest Ensembl. For a workaround, use an archive server. For example, "jul2008.archive.ensembl.org" seems to be the last server before the renewal.

  human = Bio::Ensembl.new("Homo_sapiens", "jul2008.archive.ensembl.org")

Alternatively, consider using Ruby Ensembl API.

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