[Pidgin] #8106: failure to parse all xml files except prefs.xml at startup

[Pidgin]

#8106: failure to parse all xml files except prefs.xml at startup
----------------------+-----------------------------------------------------
Reporter:  johnlumby  |        Type:  defect   
  Status:  new        |   Component:  libpurple
 Version:  2.5.3      |    Keywords:           
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 on startup, pidgin debug reports
 (18:28:03) util: Reading file accounts.xml from directory
 /home/lumby/.purple
 (18:28:03) util: Error parsing file /home/lumby/.purple/accounts.xml.
 Renaming old file to accounts.xml~
 (18:28:03) util: Writing file accounts.xml~ to directory
 /home/lumby/.purple
 (18:28:03) util: Writing file /home/lumby/.purple/accounts.xml~
 (18:28:03) util: Reading file status.xml from directory
 /home/lumby/.purple
 (18:28:03) util: Error parsing file /home/lumby/.purple/status.xml.
 Renaming old file to status.xml~
 (18:28:03) util: Writing file status.xml~ to directory /home/lumby/.purple
 (18:28:03) util: Writing file /home/lumby/.purple/status.xml~
   ...
 (18:28:03) util: Reading file blist.xml from directory /home/lumby/.purple
 (18:28:03) util: Error parsing file /home/lumby/.purple/blist.xml.
 Renaming old file to blist.xml~
 (18:28:03) util: Writing file blist.xml~ to directory /home/lumby/.purple
 (18:28:03) util: Writing file /home/lumby/.purple/blist.xml~

 and then tells me I have no accounts

 There is no invalid character or character sequence in any of these files.
 They are as created by libpurple itself.   deleting them and starting
 again removes the errors on next startup but then libpurple recreates them
 and on the startup after that, same errors.

 I am fairly sure the problem lies in
 something not configured/installed correctly somewhere down in the guts of
 the perl XML-parse and related perl modules, but what?

  .    pidgin debug tells me nothing about cause
  .    make check returns with clean rc 0 but I guess does not check the
 xml-parsing subsystem  -  it should!

 (I built pidgin 2.5.3 from source).

 Everything else works just fine.

 I did not have this problem on pidgin 2.3.1, which I also built from
 source, so whatever problem this is crept in between those two.

 I know there are other tickets open with similar-looking summaries e.g.
 767 but those seem to be caused by bad content in the xml files and mine
 is not.

 What I am really looking for is some way of diagnosing what the cause is.
 Preferably make check in the pidgin build tree should tell me something
 before I even try to start using my build.

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Ticket URL: <http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/8106>
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