[perl5.git] / Changes5.003

-------------
Version 5.003
-------------

		  ***>  IMPORTANT NOTICE:  <***
The main reason for this release was to fix a security bug affecting
suidperl on some systems.  If you build suidperl on your system, it
is strongly recommended that you replace any existing copies with
version 5.003 or later immediately.

The changes in 5.003 have been held to a minimum, in the hope that this
will simplify installation and testing at sites which may be affected
by the security hole in suidperl.  In brief, 5.003 does the following:

- Plugs security hole in suidperl mechanism on affected systems

- MakeMaker was also updated to version 5.34, and extension Makefile.PLs
  were modified to match it.

- The following hints files were updated: bsdos.sh, hpux.sh, linux.sh,
  machten.sh, solaris_2.sh

- A fix was added to installperl to insure that file permissions were
  set correctly for the installed C header files.

- t/op/stat.t was modified to work around MachTen's belief that /dev/null
  is a terminal device.

- Incorporation of Perl version information into the VMS' version of
  config.h was changed to make it compatible with the older VAXC.

- Minor fixes were made to VMS-specific C code, and the routine
  VMS::Filespec::rmsexpand was added.

----------------
Version 5.002_01
----------------

- The EMBED namespace changes are now used by default, in order to better
  segregate Perl's C global symbols from those belonging to embedding
  applications or to libraries.  This makes it necessary to rebuild dynamic
  extensions built under previous versions of Perl without the EMBED option.
  The default use of EMBED can be overridden by placing -DNO_EMBED on the
  cc command line.

  The EMBED change is the beginning of a general cleanup of C global
  symbols used by Perl, so binary compatibility with previously
  compiled dynamic extensions may be broken again in the next few
  releases.

- Several bugs in the core were fixed, including the following:
   - made sure FILE * for -e temp file was closed only once
   - improved form of single-statement macro definitions to keep
     as many ccs as possible happy
   - fixed file tests to insure that signed values were used when
     computing differences between times.
   - fixed toke.c so implicit loop isn't doubled when perl is
     invoked with both the -p and -n switches

- The new SUBVERSION number has been included in the default value for
  architecture-specific library directories, so development and
  production architecture-dependent libraries can coexist.

- Two new magic variables, $^E and $^O, have been added.  $^E contains the
  OS-specific equivalent of $!.  $^O contains the name of the operating
  system, in order to make it easily available to Perl code whose behavior
  differs according to its environment.  The standard library files have
  been converted to use $^O in preference to $Config{'osname'}.

- A mechanism was added to allow listing of locally applied patches
  in the output of perl -v.

- Miscellaneous minor corrections and updates were made to the documentation.

- Extensive updates were made to the OS/2 and VMS ports

- The following hints file were updated: bsdos.sh, dynixptx.sh,
  irix_6_2.sh, linux.sh, os2.sh

- Several changes were made to standard library files:
   - reduced use of English.pm and $`, $', and $& in library modules,
     since these degrade module loading and evaluation of regular expressions,
     respectively.
   - File/Basename.pm: Added path separator to dirname('.')
   - File/Copy.pm: Added support for VMS and OS/2 system-level copy
   - MakeMaker updated to v5.26
   - Symbol.pm now accepts old (') and new (::) package delimiters
   - Sys/Syslog.pm uses Sys::Hostname only when necessary
   - chat2.pl picks up necessary constants from socket.ph
   - syslog.pl: Corrected thinko 'Socket' --> 'Syslog'
   - xsubpp updated to v1.935


- The perlbug utility is now more cautious about sending mail, in order
  to reduce the chance of accidentally send a bug report by giving the
  wrong response to a prompt.

- The -m switch has been added to perldoc, causing it to display the 
  Perl code in target file as well as any documentation.
Commit	Line	Data
b9c9e6c2	1	-------------
	2	Version 5.003
	3	-------------
	4
	5	*> IMPORTANT NOTICE: <*
	6	The main reason for this release was to fix a security bug affecting
	7	suidperl on some systems. If you build suidperl on your system, it
	8	is strongly recommended that you replace any existing copies with
	9	version 5.003 or later immediately.
	10
	11	The changes in 5.003 have been held to a minimum, in the hope that this
	12	will simplify installation and testing at sites which may be affected
	13	by the security hole in suidperl. In brief, 5.003 does the following:
	14
	15	- Plugs security hole in suidperl mechanism on affected systems
	16
	17	- MakeMaker was also updated to version 5.34, and extension Makefile.PLs
	18	were modified to match it.
	19
	20	- The following hints files were updated: bsdos.sh, hpux.sh, linux.sh,
	21	machten.sh, solaris_2.sh
	22
	23	- A fix was added to installperl to insure that file permissions were
	24	set correctly for the installed C header files.
	25
	26	- t/op/stat.t was modified to work around MachTen's belief that /dev/null
	27	is a terminal device.
	28
	29	- Incorporation of Perl version information into the VMS' version of
	30	config.h was changed to make it compatible with the older VAXC.
	31
	32	- Minor fixes were made to VMS-specific C code, and the routine
	33	VMS::Filespec::rmsexpand was added.
	34
	35	----------------
	36	Version 5.002_01
	37	----------------
	38
	39	- The EMBED namespace changes are now used by default, in order to better
	40	segregate Perl's C global symbols from those belonging to embedding
	41	applications or to libraries. This makes it necessary to rebuild dynamic
	42	extensions built under previous versions of Perl without the EMBED option.
	43	The default use of EMBED can be overridden by placing -DNO_EMBED on the
	44	cc command line.
	45
	46	The EMBED change is the beginning of a general cleanup of C global
	47	symbols used by Perl, so binary compatibility with previously
	48	compiled dynamic extensions may be broken again in the next few
	49	releases.
	50
	51	- Several bugs in the core were fixed, including the following:
	52	- made sure FILE * for -e temp file was closed only once
	53	- improved form of single-statement macro definitions to keep
	54	as many ccs as possible happy
	55	- fixed file tests to insure that signed values were used when
	56	computing differences between times.
	57	- fixed toke.c so implicit loop isn't doubled when perl is
	58	invoked with both the -p and -n switches
	59
	60	- The new SUBVERSION number has been included in the default value for
	61	architecture-specific library directories, so development and
	62	production architecture-dependent libraries can coexist.
	63
	64	- Two new magic variables, $^E and $^O, have been added. $^E contains the
65	OS-specific equivalent of $!. $^O contains the name of the operating
66	system, in order to make it easily available to Perl code whose behavior
67	differs according to its environment. The standard library files have
68	been converted to use $^O in preference to $Config{'osname'}.
69
70	- A mechanism was added to allow listing of locally applied patches
71	in the output of perl -v.
72
73	- Miscellaneous minor corrections and updates were made to the documentation.
74
75	- Extensive updates were made to the OS/2 and VMS ports
76
77	- The following hints file were updated: bsdos.sh, dynixptx.sh,
78	irix_6_2.sh, linux.sh, os2.sh
79
80	- Several changes were made to standard library files:
81	- reduced use of English.pm and $`, $', and $& in library modules,
82	since these degrade module loading and evaluation of regular expressions,
83	respectively.
84	- File/Basename.pm: Added path separator to dirname('.')
85	- File/Copy.pm: Added support for VMS and OS/2 system-level copy
86	- MakeMaker updated to v5.26
87	- Symbol.pm now accepts old (') and new (::) package delimiters
88	- Sys/Syslog.pm uses Sys::Hostname only when necessary
89	- chat2.pl picks up necessary constants from socket.ph
90	- syslog.pl: Corrected thinko 'Socket' --> 'Syslog'
91	- xsubpp updated to v1.935
92
93
94	- The perlbug utility is now more cautious about sending mail, in order
95	to reduce the chance of accidentally send a bug report by giving the
96	wrong response to a prompt.
97
98	- The -m switch has been added to perldoc, causing it to display the
99	Perl code in target file as well as any documentation.
100