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1 | =head1 NAME |
2 | ||
3 | perl589delta - what is new for perl v5.8.9 | |
4 | ||
5 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
6 | ||
7 | This document describes differences between the 5.8.8 release and | |
8 | the 5.8.9 release. | |
9 | ||
10 | =head1 Notice | |
11 | ||
12 | The 5.8.9 release will be the last significant release of the 5.8.x | |
13 | series. Any future releases of 5.8.x will likely only be to deal with | |
14 | security issues, and platform build failures. Hence you should look to | |
15 | migrating to 5.10.x, if you have not started already. | |
16 | See L</"Known Problems"> for more information. | |
17 | ||
18 | =head1 Incompatible Changes | |
19 | ||
20 | A particular construction in the source code of extensions written in C++ | |
21 | may need changing. See L</"Changed Internals"> for more details. All | |
22 | extensions written in C, most written in C++, and all existing compiled | |
23 | extensions are unaffected. This was necessary to improve C++ support. | |
24 | ||
25 | Other than this, there are no changes intentionally incompatible with 5.8.8. | |
26 | If any exist, they are bugs and reports are welcome. | |
27 | ||
28 | =head1 Core Enhancements | |
29 | ||
30 | =head2 Unicode Character Database 5.1.0. | |
31 | ||
32 | The copy of the Unicode Character Database included in Perl 5.8 has | |
33 | been updated to 5.1.0 from 4.1.0. See | |
34 | L<http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode5.1.0/#NotableChanges> for the | |
35 | notable changes. | |
36 | ||
37 | =head2 stat and -X on directory handles | |
38 | ||
39 | It is now possible to call C<stat> and the C<-X> filestat operators on | |
40 | directory handles. As both directory and file handles are barewords, there | |
41 | can be ambiguities over which was intended. In these situations the file | |
42 | handle semantics are preferred. Both also treat C<*FILE{IO}> filehandles | |
43 | like C<*FILE> filehandles. | |
44 | ||
45 | =head2 Source filters in @INC | |
46 | ||
47 | It's possible to enhance the mechanism of subroutine hooks in @INC by | |
48 | adding a source filter on top of the filehandle opened and returned by the | |
49 | hook. This feature was planned a long time ago, but wasn't quite working | |
50 | until now. See L<perlfunc/require> for details. (Nicholas Clark) | |
51 | ||
52 | =head2 Exceptions in constant folding | |
53 | ||
54 | The constant folding routine is now wrapped in an exception handler, and | |
55 | if folding throws an exception (such as attempting to evaluate 0/0), perl | |
56 | now retains the current optree, rather than aborting the whole program. | |
57 | Without this change, programs would not compile if they had expressions that | |
58 | happened to generate exceptions, even though those expressions were in code | |
59 | that could never be reached at runtime. (Nicholas Clark, Dave Mitchell) | |
60 | ||
61 | =head2 C<no VERSION> | |
62 | ||
63 | You can now use C<no> followed by a version number to specify that you | |
64 | want to use a version of perl older than the specified one. | |
65 | ||
66 | =head2 Improved internal UTF-8 caching code | |
67 | ||
68 | The code that caches calculated UTF-8 byte offsets for character offsets for | |
69 | a string has been re-written. Several bugs have been located and eliminated, | |
70 | and the code now makes better use of the information it has, so should be | |
71 | faster. In particular, it doesn't scan to the end of a string before | |
72 | calculating an offset within the string, which should speed up some operations | |
73 | on long strings. It is now possible to disable the caching code at run time, | |
74 | to verify that it is not the cause of suspected problems. | |
75 | ||
76 | =head2 Runtime relocatable installations | |
77 | ||
78 | There is now F<Configure> support for creating a perl tree that is relocatable | |
79 | at run time. see L</Relocatable installations>. | |
80 | ||
81 | =head2 New internal variables | |
82 | ||
83 | =over 4 | |
84 | ||
85 | =item C<${^CHILD_ERROR_NATIVE}> | |
86 | ||
87 | This variable gives the native status returned by the last pipe close, | |
88 | backtick command, successful call to C<wait> or C<waitpid>, or from the | |
89 | C<system> operator. See L<perlvar> for details. (Contributed by Gisle Aas.) | |
90 | ||
91 | =item C<${^UTF8CACHE}> | |
92 | ||
93 | This variable controls the state of the internal UTF-8 offset caching code. | |
94 | 1 for on (the default), 0 for off, -1 to debug the caching code by checking | |
c69ca1d4 | 95 | all its results against linear scans, and panicking on any discrepancy. |
7214e7c3 DM |
96 | |
97 | =back | |
98 | ||
99 | =head2 C<readpipe> is now overridable | |
100 | ||
101 | The built-in function C<readpipe> is now overridable. Overriding it permits | |
102 | also to override its operator counterpart, C<qx//> (also known as C<``>). | |
103 | ||
104 | =head2 simple exception handling macros | |
105 | ||
106 | Perl 5.8.9 (and 5.10.0 onwards) now provides a couple of macros to do very | |
107 | basic exception handling in XS modules. You can use these macros if you call | |
108 | code that may C<croak>, but you need to do some cleanup before giving control | |
109 | back to Perl. See L<perlguts/Exception Handling> for more details. | |
110 | ||
111 | =head2 -D option enhancements | |
112 | ||
113 | =over | |
114 | ||
115 | =item * | |
116 | ||
117 | C<-Dq> suppresses the I<EXECUTING...> message when running under C<-D> | |
118 | ||
119 | =item * | |
120 | ||
121 | C<-Dl> logs runops loop entry and exit, and jump level popping. | |
122 | ||
123 | =item * | |
124 | ||
125 | C<-Dv> displays the process id as part of the trace output. | |
126 | ||
127 | =back | |
128 | ||
129 | =head2 XS-assisted SWASHGET | |
130 | ||
131 | Some pure-perl code that the regexp engine was using to retrieve Unicode | |
132 | properties and transliteration mappings has been reimplemented in XS | |
133 | for faster execution. | |
134 | (SADAHIRO Tomoyuki) | |
135 | ||
136 | =head2 Constant subroutines | |
137 | ||
138 | The interpreter internals now support a far more memory efficient form of | |
139 | inlineable constants. Storing a reference to a constant value in a symbol | |
140 | table is equivalent to a full typeglob referencing a constant subroutine, | |
141 | but using about 400 bytes less memory. This proxy constant subroutine is | |
142 | automatically upgraded to a real typeglob with subroutine if necessary. | |
143 | The approach taken is analogous to the existing space optimisation for | |
144 | subroutine stub declarations, which are stored as plain scalars in place | |
145 | of the full typeglob. | |
146 | ||
147 | However, to aid backwards compatibility of existing code, which (wrongly) | |
148 | does not expect anything other than typeglobs in symbol tables, nothing in | |
149 | core uses this feature, other than the regression tests. | |
150 | ||
151 | Stubs for prototyped subroutines have been stored in symbol tables as plain | |
152 | strings, and stubs for unprototyped subroutines as the number -1, since 5.005, | |
153 | so code which assumes that the core only places typeglobs in symbol tables | |
154 | has been making incorrect assumptions for over 10 years. | |
155 | ||
156 | =head1 New Platforms | |
157 | ||
158 | Compile support added for: | |
159 | ||
160 | =over | |
161 | ||
162 | =item * | |
163 | ||
164 | DragonFlyBSD | |
165 | ||
166 | =item * | |
167 | ||
168 | MidnightBSD | |
169 | ||
170 | =item * | |
171 | ||
172 | MirOS BSD | |
173 | ||
174 | =item * | |
175 | ||
176 | RISC OS | |
177 | ||
178 | =item * | |
179 | ||
180 | Cray XT4/Catamount | |
181 | ||
182 | =back | |
183 | ||
184 | =head1 Modules and Pragmata | |
185 | ||
186 | =head2 New Modules | |
187 | ||
188 | =over | |
189 | ||
190 | =item * | |
191 | ||
192 | C<Module::Pluggable> is a simple framework to create modules that accept | |
193 | pluggable sub-modules. The bundled version is 3.8 | |
194 | ||
195 | =item * | |
196 | ||
197 | C<Module::CoreList> is a hash of hashes that is keyed on perl version as | |
198 | indicated in C<$]>. The bundled version is 2.17 | |
199 | ||
200 | =item * | |
201 | ||
202 | C<Win32API::File> now available in core on Microsoft Windows. The bundled | |
203 | version is 0.1001_01 | |
204 | ||
205 | =item * | |
206 | ||
207 | C<Devel::InnerPackage> finds all the packages defined by a single file. It is | |
208 | part of the C<Module::Pluggable> distribution. The bundled version is 0.3 | |
209 | ||
210 | =back | |
211 | ||
212 | =head2 Updated Modules | |
213 | ||
214 | =over | |
215 | ||
216 | =item * | |
217 | ||
218 | C<attributes> upgraded to version 0.09 | |
219 | ||
220 | =item * | |
221 | ||
222 | C<AutoLoader> upgraded to version 5.67 | |
223 | ||
224 | =item * | |
225 | ||
226 | C<AutoSplit> upgraded to 1.06 | |
227 | ||
228 | =item * | |
229 | ||
230 | C<autouse> upgraded to version 1.06 | |
231 | ||
232 | =item * | |
233 | ||
234 | C<B> upgraded from 1.09_01 to 1.19 | |
235 | ||
236 | =over | |
237 | ||
238 | =item * | |
239 | ||
240 | provides new pad related abstraction macros C<B::NV::COP_SEQ_RANGE_LOW>, | |
241 | C<B::NV::COP_SEQ_RANGE_HIGH>, C<B::NV::PARENT_PAD_INDEX>, | |
242 | C<B::NV::PARENT_FAKELEX_FLAGS>, which hides the difference in storage in | |
243 | 5.10.0 and later. | |
244 | ||
245 | =item * | |
246 | ||
247 | provides C<B::sub_generation>, which exposes C<PL_sub_generation> | |
248 | ||
249 | =item * | |
250 | ||
251 | provides C<B::GV::isGV_with_GP>, which on pre-5.10 perls always returns true. | |
252 | ||
253 | =item * | |
254 | ||
255 | New type C<B::HE> added with methods C<VAL>, C<HASH> and C<SVKEY_force> | |
256 | ||
257 | =item * | |
258 | ||
259 | The C<B::GVf_IMPORTED_CV> flag is now set correctly when a proxy | |
260 | constant subroutine is imported. | |
261 | ||
262 | =item * | |
263 | ||
264 | bugs fixed in the handling of C<PMOP>s. | |
265 | ||
266 | =item * | |
267 | ||
268 | C<B::BM::PREVIOUS> returns now C<U32>, not C<U16>. | |
269 | C<B::CV::START> and C<B:CV::ROOT> return now C<NULL> on an XSUB, | |
270 | C<B::CV::XSUB> and C<B::CV::XSUBANY> return 0 on a non-XSUB. | |
271 | ||
272 | =back | |
273 | ||
274 | =item * | |
275 | ||
276 | C<B::C> upgraded to 1.05 | |
277 | ||
278 | =item * | |
279 | ||
280 | C<B::Concise> upgraded to 0.76 | |
281 | ||
282 | =over | |
283 | ||
284 | =item * | |
285 | ||
286 | new option C<-src> causes the rendering of each statement (starting with | |
287 | the nextstate OP) to be preceded by the first line of source code that | |
288 | generates it. | |
289 | ||
290 | =item * | |
291 | ||
292 | new option C<-stash="somepackage">, C<require>s "somepackage", and then renders | |
293 | each function defined in its namespace. | |
294 | ||
295 | =item * | |
296 | ||
297 | now has documentation of detailed hint symbols. | |
298 | ||
299 | =back | |
300 | ||
301 | =item * | |
302 | ||
303 | C<B::Debug> upgraded to version 1.05 | |
304 | ||
305 | =item * | |
306 | ||
307 | C<B::Deparse> upgraded to version 0.87 | |
308 | ||
309 | =over 4 | |
310 | ||
311 | =item * | |
312 | ||
313 | properly deparse C<print readpipe $x, $y>. | |
314 | ||
315 | =item * | |
316 | ||
317 | now handles C<''->()>, C<::()>, C<sub :: {}>, I<etc.> correctly [RT #43010]. | |
318 | All bugs in parsing these kinds of syntax are now fixed: | |
319 | ||
320 | perl -MO=Deparse -e '"my %h = "->()' | |
321 | perl -MO=Deparse -e '::->()' | |
322 | perl -MO=Deparse -e 'sub :: {}' | |
323 | perl -MO=Deparse -e 'package a; sub a::b::c {}' | |
324 | perl -MO=Deparse -e 'sub the::main::road {}' | |
325 | ||
326 | =item * | |
327 | ||
328 | does B<not> deparse C<$^H{v_string}>, which is automatically set by the | |
329 | internals. | |
330 | ||
331 | =back | |
332 | ||
333 | =item * | |
334 | ||
335 | C<B::Lint> upgraded to version 1.11 | |
336 | ||
337 | =item * | |
338 | ||
339 | C<B::Terse> upgraded to version 1.05 | |
340 | ||
341 | =item * | |
342 | ||
343 | C<base> upgraded to version 2.13 | |
344 | ||
345 | =over 4 | |
346 | ||
347 | =item * | |
348 | ||
349 | loading a module via base.pm would mask a global C<$SIG{__DIE__}> in that | |
350 | module. | |
351 | ||
352 | =item * | |
353 | ||
354 | push all classes at once in C<@ISA> | |
355 | ||
356 | =back | |
357 | ||
358 | =item * | |
359 | ||
360 | C<Benchmark> upgraded to version 1.10 | |
361 | ||
362 | =item * | |
363 | ||
364 | C<bigint> upgraded to 0.23 | |
365 | ||
366 | =item * | |
367 | ||
368 | C<bignum> upgraded to 0.23 | |
369 | ||
370 | =item * | |
371 | ||
372 | C<bigrat> upgraded to 0.23 | |
373 | ||
374 | =item * | |
375 | ||
376 | C<blib> upgraded to 0.04 | |
377 | ||
378 | =item * | |
379 | ||
380 | C<Carp> upgraded to version 1.10 | |
381 | ||
382 | The argument backtrace code now shows C<undef> as C<undef>, | |
383 | instead of a string I<"undef">. | |
384 | ||
385 | =item * | |
386 | ||
387 | C<CGI> upgraded to version 3.42 | |
388 | ||
389 | =item * | |
390 | ||
391 | C<charnames> upgraded to 1.06 | |
392 | ||
393 | =item * | |
394 | ||
395 | C<constant> upgraded to version 1.17 | |
396 | ||
397 | =item * | |
398 | ||
399 | C<CPAN> upgraded to version 1.9301 | |
400 | ||
401 | =item * | |
402 | ||
403 | C<Cwd> upgraded to version 3.29 with some platform specific | |
404 | improvements (including for VMS). | |
405 | ||
406 | =item * | |
407 | ||
408 | C<Data::Dumper> upgraded to version 2.121_17 | |
409 | ||
410 | =over | |
411 | ||
412 | =item * | |
413 | ||
414 | Fixes hash iterator current position with the pure Perl version [RT #40668] | |
415 | ||
416 | =item * | |
417 | ||
418 | Performance enhancements, which will be most evident on platforms where | |
419 | repeated calls to C's C<realloc()> are slow, such as Win32. | |
420 | ||
421 | =back | |
422 | ||
423 | =item * | |
424 | ||
425 | C<DB_File> upgraded to version 1.817 | |
426 | ||
427 | =item * | |
428 | ||
429 | C<DB_Filter> upgraded to version 0.02 | |
430 | ||
431 | =item * | |
432 | ||
433 | C<Devel::DProf> upgraded to version 20080331.00 | |
434 | ||
435 | =item * | |
436 | ||
437 | C<Devel::Peek> upgraded to version 1.04 | |
438 | ||
439 | =item * | |
440 | ||
441 | C<Devel::PPPort> upgraded to version 3.14 | |
442 | ||
443 | =item * | |
444 | ||
445 | C<diagnostics> upgraded to version 1.16 | |
446 | ||
447 | =item * | |
448 | ||
449 | C<Digest> upgraded to version 1.15 | |
450 | ||
451 | =item * | |
452 | ||
453 | C<Digest::MD5> upgraded to version 2.37 | |
454 | ||
455 | =item * | |
456 | ||
457 | C<DirHandle> upgraded to version 1.02 | |
458 | ||
459 | =over | |
460 | ||
461 | =item * | |
462 | ||
463 | now localises C<$.>, C<$@>, C<$!>, C<$^E>, and C<$?> before closing the | |
464 | directory handle to suppress leaking any side effects of warnings about it | |
465 | already being closed. | |
466 | ||
467 | =back | |
468 | ||
469 | =item * | |
470 | ||
471 | C<DynaLoader> upgraded to version 1.09 | |
472 | ||
473 | C<DynaLoader> can now dynamically load a loadable object from a file with a | |
474 | non-default file extension. | |
475 | ||
476 | =item * | |
477 | ||
478 | C<Encode> upgraded to version 2.26 | |
479 | ||
480 | C<Encode::Alias> includes a fix for encoding "646" on Solaris (better known as | |
481 | ASCII). | |
482 | ||
483 | =item * | |
484 | ||
485 | C<English> upgraded to version 1.03 | |
486 | ||
487 | =item * | |
488 | ||
489 | C<Errno> upgraded to version 1.10 | |
490 | ||
491 | =item * | |
492 | ||
493 | C<Exporter> upgraded to version 5.63 | |
494 | ||
495 | =item * | |
496 | ||
497 | C<ExtUtils::Command> upgraded to version 1.15 | |
498 | ||
499 | =item * | |
500 | ||
501 | C<ExtUtils::Constant> upgraded to version 0.21 | |
502 | ||
503 | =item * | |
504 | ||
505 | C<ExtUtils::Embed> upgraded to version 1.28 | |
506 | ||
507 | =item * | |
508 | ||
509 | C<ExtUtils::Install> upgraded to version 1.50_01 | |
510 | ||
511 | =item * | |
512 | ||
513 | C<ExtUtils::Installed> upgraded to version 1.43 | |
514 | ||
515 | =item * | |
516 | ||
517 | C<ExtUtils::MakeMaker> upgraded to version 6.48 | |
518 | ||
519 | =over | |
520 | ||
521 | =item * | |
522 | ||
523 | support for C<INSTALLSITESCRIPT> and C<INSTALLVENDORSCRIPT> | |
524 | configuration. | |
525 | ||
526 | =back | |
527 | ||
528 | =item * | |
529 | ||
530 | C<ExtUtils::Manifest> upgraded to version 1.55 | |
531 | ||
532 | =item * | |
533 | ||
534 | C<ExtUtils::ParseXS> upgraded to version 2.19 | |
535 | ||
536 | =item * | |
537 | ||
538 | C<Fatal> upgraded to version 1.06 | |
539 | ||
540 | =over | |
541 | ||
542 | =item * | |
543 | ||
544 | allows built-ins in C<CORE::GLOBAL> to be made fatal. | |
545 | ||
546 | =back | |
547 | ||
548 | =item * | |
549 | ||
550 | C<Fcntl> upgraded to version 1.06 | |
551 | ||
552 | =item * | |
553 | ||
554 | C<fields> upgraded to version 2.12 | |
555 | ||
556 | =item * | |
557 | ||
558 | C<File::Basename> upgraded to version 2.77 | |
559 | ||
560 | =item * | |
561 | ||
562 | C<FileCache> upgraded to version 1.07 | |
563 | ||
564 | =item * | |
565 | ||
566 | C<File::Compare> upgraded to 1.1005 | |
567 | ||
568 | =item * | |
569 | ||
570 | C<File::Copy> upgraded to 2.13 | |
571 | ||
572 | =over 4 | |
573 | ||
574 | =item * | |
575 | ||
576 | now uses 3-arg open. | |
577 | ||
578 | =back | |
579 | ||
580 | =item * | |
581 | ||
582 | C<File::DosGlob> upgraded to 1.01 | |
583 | ||
584 | =item * | |
585 | ||
586 | C<File::Find> upgraded to version 1.13 | |
587 | ||
588 | =item * | |
589 | ||
590 | C<File::Glob> upgraded to version 1.06 | |
591 | ||
592 | =over | |
593 | ||
594 | =item * | |
595 | ||
596 | fixes spurious results with brackets inside braces. | |
597 | ||
598 | =back | |
599 | ||
600 | =item * | |
601 | ||
602 | C<File::Path> upgraded to version 2.07_02 | |
603 | ||
604 | =item * | |
605 | ||
606 | C<File::Spec> upgraded to version 3.29 | |
607 | ||
608 | =over 4 | |
609 | ||
610 | =item * | |
611 | ||
612 | improved handling of bad arguments. | |
613 | ||
614 | =item * | |
615 | ||
616 | some platform specific improvements (including for VMS and Cygwin), with | |
617 | an optimisation on C<abs2rel> when handling both relative arguments. | |
618 | ||
619 | =back | |
620 | ||
621 | =item * | |
622 | ||
623 | C<File::stat> upgraded to version 1.01 | |
624 | ||
625 | =item * | |
626 | ||
627 | C<File::Temp> upgraded to version 0.20 | |
628 | ||
629 | =item * | |
630 | ||
631 | C<filetest> upgraded to version 1.02 | |
632 | ||
633 | =item * | |
634 | ||
635 | C<Filter::Util::Call> upgraded to version 1.07 | |
636 | ||
637 | =item * | |
638 | ||
639 | C<Filter::Simple> upgraded to version 0.83 | |
640 | ||
641 | =item * | |
642 | ||
643 | C<FindBin> upgraded to version 1.49 | |
644 | ||
645 | =item * | |
646 | ||
647 | C<GDBM_File> upgraded to version 1.09 | |
648 | ||
649 | =item * | |
650 | ||
651 | C<Getopt::Long> upgraded to version 2.37 | |
652 | ||
653 | =item * | |
654 | ||
655 | C<Getopt::Std> upgraded to version 1.06 | |
656 | ||
657 | =item * | |
658 | ||
659 | C<Hash::Util> upgraded to version 0.06 | |
660 | ||
661 | =item * | |
662 | ||
663 | C<if> upgraded to version 0.05 | |
664 | ||
665 | =item * | |
666 | ||
667 | C<IO> upgraded to version 1.23 | |
668 | ||
669 | Reduced number of calls to C<getpeername> in C<IO::Socket> | |
670 | ||
671 | =item * | |
672 | ||
673 | C<IPC::Open> upgraded to version 1.03 | |
674 | ||
675 | =item * | |
676 | ||
677 | C<IPC::Open3> upgraded to version 1.03 | |
678 | ||
679 | =item * | |
680 | ||
681 | C<IPC::SysV> upgraded to version 2.00 | |
682 | ||
683 | =item * | |
684 | ||
685 | C<lib> upgraded to version 0.61 | |
686 | ||
687 | =over | |
688 | ||
689 | =item * | |
690 | ||
691 | avoid warning about loading F<.par> files. | |
692 | ||
693 | =back | |
694 | ||
695 | =item * | |
696 | ||
697 | C<libnet> upgraded to version 1.22 | |
698 | ||
699 | =item * | |
700 | ||
701 | C<List::Util> upgraded to 1.19 | |
702 | ||
703 | =item * | |
704 | ||
705 | C<Locale::Maketext> upgraded to 1.13 | |
706 | ||
707 | =item * | |
708 | ||
709 | C<Math::BigFloat> upgraded to version 1.60 | |
710 | ||
711 | =item * | |
712 | ||
713 | C<Math::BigInt> upgraded to version 1.89 | |
714 | ||
715 | =item * | |
716 | ||
717 | C<Math::BigRat> upgraded to version 0.22 | |
718 | ||
719 | =over 4 | |
720 | ||
721 | =item * | |
722 | ||
723 | implements new C<as_float> method. | |
724 | ||
725 | =back | |
726 | ||
727 | =item * | |
728 | ||
729 | C<Math::Complex> upgraded to version 1.54. | |
730 | ||
731 | =item * | |
732 | ||
733 | C<Math::Trig> upgraded to version 1.18. | |
734 | ||
735 | =item * | |
736 | ||
737 | C<NDBM_File> upgraded to version 1.07 | |
738 | ||
739 | =over | |
740 | ||
741 | =item * | |
742 | ||
743 | improve F<g++> handling for systems using GDBM compatibility headers. | |
744 | ||
745 | =back | |
746 | ||
747 | =item * | |
748 | ||
749 | C<Net::Ping> upgraded to version 2.35 | |
750 | ||
751 | =item * | |
752 | ||
753 | C<NEXT> upgraded to version 0.61 | |
754 | ||
755 | =over | |
756 | ||
757 | =item * | |
758 | ||
759 | fix several bugs with C<NEXT> when working with C<AUTOLOAD>, C<eval> block, and | |
760 | within overloaded stringification. | |
761 | ||
762 | =back | |
763 | ||
764 | =item * | |
765 | ||
766 | C<ODBM_File> upgraded to 1.07 | |
767 | ||
768 | =item * | |
769 | ||
770 | C<open> upgraded to 1.06 | |
771 | ||
772 | =item * | |
773 | ||
774 | C<ops> upgraded to 1.02 | |
775 | ||
776 | =item * | |
777 | ||
778 | C<PerlIO::encoding> upgraded to version 0.11 | |
779 | ||
780 | =item * | |
781 | ||
782 | C<PerlIO::scalar> upgraded to version 0.06 | |
783 | ||
784 | =over 4 | |
785 | ||
786 | =item * | |
787 | ||
788 | [RT #40267] C<PerlIO::scalar> doesn't respect readonly-ness. | |
789 | ||
790 | =back | |
791 | ||
792 | =item * | |
793 | ||
794 | C<PerlIO::via> upgraded to version 0.05 | |
795 | ||
796 | =item * | |
797 | ||
798 | C<Pod::Html> upgraded to version 1.09 | |
799 | ||
800 | =item * | |
801 | ||
802 | C<Pod::Parser> upgraded to version 1.35 | |
803 | ||
804 | =item * | |
805 | ||
806 | C<Pod::Usage> upgraded to version 1.35 | |
807 | ||
808 | =item * | |
809 | ||
810 | C<POSIX> upgraded to version 1.15 | |
811 | ||
812 | =over | |
813 | ||
814 | =item * | |
815 | ||
816 | C<POSIX> constants that duplicate those in C<Fcntl> are now imported from | |
817 | C<Fcntl> and re-exported, rather than being duplicated by C<POSIX> | |
818 | ||
819 | =item * | |
820 | ||
821 | C<POSIX::remove> can remove empty directories. | |
822 | ||
823 | =item * | |
824 | ||
825 | C<POSIX::setlocale> safer to call multiple times. | |
826 | ||
827 | =item * | |
828 | ||
829 | C<POSIX::SigRt> added, which provides access to POSIX realtime signal | |
830 | functionality on systems that support it. | |
831 | ||
832 | =back | |
833 | ||
834 | =item * | |
835 | ||
836 | C<re> upgraded to version 0.06_01 | |
837 | ||
838 | =item * | |
839 | ||
840 | C<Safe> upgraded to version 2.16 | |
841 | ||
842 | =item * | |
843 | ||
844 | C<Scalar::Util> upgraded to 1.19 | |
845 | ||
846 | =item * | |
847 | ||
848 | C<SDBM_File> upgraded to version 1.06 | |
849 | ||
850 | =item * | |
851 | ||
852 | C<SelfLoader> upgraded to version 1.17 | |
853 | ||
854 | =item * | |
855 | ||
856 | C<Shell> upgraded to version 0.72 | |
857 | ||
858 | =item * | |
859 | ||
860 | C<sigtrap> upgraded to version 1.04 | |
861 | ||
862 | =item * | |
863 | ||
864 | C<Socket> upgraded to version 1.81 | |
865 | ||
866 | =over | |
867 | ||
868 | =item * | |
869 | ||
870 | this fixes an optimistic use of C<gethostbyname> | |
871 | ||
872 | =back | |
873 | ||
874 | =item * | |
875 | ||
876 | C<Storable> upgraded to 2.19 | |
877 | ||
878 | =item * | |
879 | ||
880 | C<Switch> upgraded to version 2.13 | |
881 | ||
882 | =item * | |
883 | ||
884 | C<Sys::Syslog> upgraded to version 0.27 | |
885 | ||
886 | =item * | |
887 | ||
888 | C<Term::ANSIColor> upgraded to version 1.12 | |
889 | ||
890 | =item * | |
891 | ||
892 | C<Term::Cap> upgraded to version 1.12 | |
893 | ||
894 | =item * | |
895 | ||
896 | C<Term::ReadLine> upgraded to version 1.03 | |
897 | ||
898 | =item * | |
899 | ||
900 | C<Test::Builder> upgraded to version 0.80 | |
901 | ||
902 | =item * | |
903 | ||
904 | C<Test::Harness> upgraded version to 2.64 | |
905 | ||
906 | =over | |
907 | ||
908 | =item * | |
909 | ||
910 | this makes it able to handle newlines. | |
911 | ||
912 | =back | |
913 | ||
914 | =item * | |
915 | ||
916 | C<Test::More> upgraded to version 0.80 | |
917 | ||
918 | =item * | |
919 | ||
920 | C<Test::Simple> upgraded to version 0.80 | |
921 | ||
922 | =item * | |
923 | ||
924 | C<Text::Balanced> upgraded to version 1.98 | |
925 | ||
926 | =item * | |
927 | ||
928 | C<Text::ParseWords> upgraded to version 3.27 | |
929 | ||
930 | =item * | |
931 | ||
932 | C<Text::Soundex> upgraded to version 3.03 | |
933 | ||
934 | =item * | |
935 | ||
936 | C<Text::Tabs> upgraded to version 2007.1117 | |
937 | ||
938 | =item * | |
939 | ||
940 | C<Text::Wrap> upgraded to version 2006.1117 | |
941 | ||
942 | =item * | |
943 | ||
944 | C<Thread> upgraded to version 2.01 | |
945 | ||
946 | =item * | |
947 | ||
948 | C<Thread::Semaphore> upgraded to version 2.09 | |
949 | ||
950 | =item * | |
951 | ||
952 | C<Thread::Queue> upgraded to version 2.11 | |
953 | ||
954 | =over | |
955 | ||
956 | =item * | |
957 | ||
958 | added capability to add complex structures (e.g., hash of hashes) to queues. | |
959 | ||
960 | =item * | |
961 | ||
962 | added capability to dequeue multiple items at once. | |
963 | ||
964 | =item * | |
965 | ||
966 | added new methods to inspect and manipulate queues: C<peek>, C<insert> and | |
967 | C<extract> | |
968 | ||
969 | =back | |
970 | ||
971 | =item * | |
972 | ||
973 | C<Tie::Handle> upgraded to version 4.2 | |
974 | ||
975 | =item * | |
976 | ||
977 | C<Tie::Hash> upgraded to version 1.03 | |
978 | ||
979 | =item * | |
980 | ||
981 | C<Tie::Memoize> upgraded to version 1.1 | |
982 | ||
983 | =over | |
984 | ||
985 | =item * | |
986 | ||
987 | C<Tie::Memoize::EXISTS> now correctly caches its results. | |
988 | ||
989 | =back | |
990 | ||
991 | =item * | |
992 | ||
993 | C<Tie::RefHash> upgraded to version 1.38 | |
994 | ||
995 | =item * | |
996 | ||
997 | C<Tie::Scalar> upgraded to version 1.01 | |
998 | ||
999 | =item * | |
1000 | ||
1001 | C<Tie::StdHandle> upgraded to version 4.2 | |
1002 | ||
1003 | =item * | |
1004 | ||
1005 | C<Time::gmtime> upgraded to version 1.03 | |
1006 | ||
1007 | =item * | |
1008 | ||
1009 | C<Time::Local> upgraded to version 1.1901 | |
1010 | ||
1011 | =item * | |
1012 | ||
1013 | C<Time::HiRes> upgraded to version 1.9715 with various build improvements | |
1014 | (including VMS) and minor platform-specific bug fixes (including | |
1015 | for HP-UX 11 ia64). | |
1016 | ||
1017 | =item * | |
1018 | ||
1019 | C<threads> upgraded to 1.71 | |
1020 | ||
1021 | =over | |
1022 | ||
1023 | =item * | |
1024 | ||
1025 | new thread state information methods: C<is_running>, C<is_detached> | |
1026 | and C<is_joinable>. C<list> method enhanced to return running or joinable | |
1027 | threads. | |
1028 | ||
1029 | =item * | |
1030 | ||
1031 | new thread signal method: C<kill> | |
1032 | ||
1033 | =item * | |
1034 | ||
1035 | added capability to specify thread stack size. | |
1036 | ||
1037 | =item * | |
1038 | ||
1039 | added capability to control thread exiting behavior. Added a new C<exit> | |
1040 | method. | |
1041 | ||
1042 | =back | |
1043 | ||
1044 | =item * | |
1045 | ||
1046 | C<threads::shared> upgraded to version 1.27 | |
1047 | ||
1048 | =over | |
1049 | ||
1050 | =item * | |
1051 | ||
1052 | smaller and faster implementation that eliminates one internal structure and | |
1053 | the consequent level of indirection. | |
1054 | ||
1055 | =item * | |
1056 | ||
1057 | user locks are now stored in a safer manner. | |
1058 | ||
1059 | =item * | |
1060 | ||
1061 | new function C<shared_clone> creates a copy of an object leaving | |
1062 | shared elements as-is and deep-cloning non-shared elements. | |
1063 | ||
1064 | =item * | |
1065 | ||
1066 | added new C<is_shared> method. | |
1067 | ||
1068 | =back | |
1069 | ||
1070 | =item * | |
1071 | ||
1072 | C<Unicode::Normalize> upgraded to version 1.02 | |
1073 | ||
1074 | =item * | |
1075 | ||
1076 | C<Unicode::UCD> upgraded to version 0.25 | |
1077 | ||
1078 | =item * | |
1079 | ||
1080 | C<warnings> upgraded to version 1.05_01 | |
1081 | ||
1082 | =item * | |
1083 | ||
1084 | C<Win32> upgraded to version 0.38 | |
1085 | ||
1086 | =over 4 | |
1087 | ||
1088 | =item * | |
1089 | ||
1090 | added new function C<GetCurrentProcessId> which returns the regular Windows | |
1091 | process identifier of the current process, even when called from within a fork. | |
1092 | ||
1093 | =back | |
1094 | ||
1095 | =item * | |
1096 | ||
1097 | C<XSLoader> upgraded to version 0.10 | |
1098 | ||
1099 | =item * | |
1100 | ||
1101 | C<XS::APItest> and C<XS::Typemap> are for internal use only and hence | |
1102 | no longer installed. Many more tests have been added to C<XS::APItest>. | |
1103 | ||
1104 | =back | |
1105 | ||
1106 | =head1 Utility Changes | |
1107 | ||
1108 | =head2 debugger upgraded to version 1.31 | |
1109 | ||
1110 | =over 4 | |
1111 | ||
1112 | =item * | |
1113 | ||
1114 | Andreas KE<ouml>nig contributed two functions to save and load the debugger | |
1115 | history. | |
1116 | ||
1117 | =item * | |
1118 | ||
1119 | C<NEXT::AUTOLOAD> no longer emits warnings under the debugger. | |
1120 | ||
1121 | =item * | |
1122 | ||
1123 | The debugger should now correctly find tty the device on OS X 10.5 and VMS | |
1124 | when the program C<fork>s. | |
1125 | ||
1126 | =item * | |
1127 | ||
1128 | LVALUE subs now work inside the debugger. | |
1129 | ||
1130 | =back | |
1131 | ||
1132 | =head2 F<perlthanks> | |
1133 | ||
1134 | Perl 5.8.9 adds a new utility F<perlthanks>, which is a variant of F<perlbug>, | |
1135 | but for sending non-bug-reports to the authors and maintainers of Perl. | |
1136 | Getting nothing but bug reports can become a bit demoralising - we'll see if | |
1137 | this changes things. | |
1138 | ||
1139 | =head2 F<perlbug> | |
1140 | ||
1141 | F<perlbug> now checks if you're reporting about a non-core module and suggests | |
1142 | you report it to the CPAN author instead. | |
1143 | ||
1144 | =head2 F<h2xs> | |
1145 | ||
1146 | =over | |
1147 | ||
1148 | =item * | |
1149 | ||
1150 | won't define an empty string as a constant [RT #25366] | |
1151 | ||
1152 | =item * | |
1153 | ||
1154 | has examples for C<h2xs -X> | |
1155 | ||
1156 | =back | |
1157 | ||
1158 | =head2 F<h2ph> | |
1159 | ||
1160 | =over 4 | |
1161 | ||
1162 | =item * | |
1163 | ||
1164 | now attempts to deal sensibly with the difference in path implications | |
1165 | between C<""> and C<< E<lt>E<gt> >> quoting in C<#include> statements. | |
1166 | ||
1167 | =item * | |
1168 | ||
e1020413 | 1169 | now generates correct code for C<#if defined A || defined B> |
7214e7c3 DM |
1170 | [RT #39130] |
1171 | ||
1172 | =back | |
1173 | ||
1174 | =head1 New Documentation | |
1175 | ||
1176 | As usual, the documentation received its share of corrections, clarifications | |
1177 | and other nitfixes. More C<< X<...> >> tags were added for indexing. | |
1178 | ||
1179 | L<perlunitut> is a tutorial written by Juerd Waalboer on Unicode-related | |
1180 | terminology and how to correctly handle Unicode in Perl scripts. | |
1181 | ||
1182 | L<perlunicode> is updated in section user defined properties. | |
1183 | ||
1184 | L<perluniintro> has been updated in the example of detecting data that is not | |
1185 | valid in particular encoding. | |
1186 | ||
1187 | L<perlcommunity> provides an overview of the Perl Community along with further | |
1188 | resources. | |
1189 | ||
1190 | L<CORE> documents the pseudo-namespace for Perl's core routines. | |
1191 | ||
1192 | =head1 Changes to Existing Documentation | |
1193 | ||
1194 | L<perlglossary> adds I<deprecated modules and features> and I<to be dropped modules>. | |
1195 | ||
1196 | L<perlhack> has been updated and added resources on smoke testing. | |
1197 | ||
1198 | The Perl FAQs (F<perlfaq1>..F<perlfaq9>) have been updated. | |
1199 | ||
1200 | L<perlcheat> is updated with better details on C<\w>, C<\d>, and C<\s>. | |
1201 | ||
1202 | L<perldebug> is updated with information on how to call the debugger. | |
1203 | ||
1204 | L<perldiag> documentation updated with I<subroutine with an ampersand> on the | |
1205 | argument to C<exists> and C<delete> and also several terminology updates on | |
1206 | warnings. | |
1207 | ||
1208 | L<perlfork> documents the limitation of C<exec> inside pseudo-processes. | |
1209 | ||
1210 | L<perlfunc>: | |
1211 | ||
1212 | =over | |
1213 | ||
1214 | =item * | |
1215 | ||
1216 | Documentation is fixed in section C<caller> and C<pop>. | |
1217 | ||
1218 | =item * | |
1219 | ||
1220 | Function C<alarm> now mentions C<Time::HiRes::ualarm> in preference | |
1221 | to C<select>. | |
1222 | ||
1223 | =item * | |
1224 | ||
1225 | Regarding precedence in C<-X>, filetest operators are the same as unary | |
1226 | operators, but not regarding parsing and parentheses (spotted by Eirik Berg | |
1227 | Hanssen). | |
1228 | ||
1229 | =item * | |
1230 | ||
c35f3909 | 1231 | C<reverse> function documentation received scalar context examples. |
7214e7c3 DM |
1232 | |
1233 | =back | |
1234 | ||
1235 | L<perllocale> documentation is adjusted for number localization and | |
1236 | C<POSIX::setlocale> to fix Debian bug #379463. | |
1237 | ||
1238 | L<perlmodlib> is updated with C<CPAN::API::HOWTO> and | |
1239 | C<Sys::Syslog::win32::Win32> | |
1240 | ||
1241 | L<perlre> documentation updated to reflect the differences between | |
1242 | C<[[:xxxxx:]]> and C<\p{IsXxxxx}> matches. Also added section on C</g> and | |
1243 | C</c> modifiers. | |
1244 | ||
1245 | L<perlreguts> describe the internals of the regular expressions engine. It has | |
1246 | been contributed by Yves Orton. | |
1247 | ||
1248 | L<perlrebackslash> describes all perl regular expression backslash and escape | |
1249 | sequences. | |
1250 | ||
1251 | L<perlrecharclass> describes the syntax and use of character classes in | |
1252 | Perl Regular Expressions. | |
1253 | ||
1254 | L<perlrun> is updated to clarify on the hash seed I<PERL_HASH_SEED>. Also more | |
1255 | information in options C<-x> and C<-u>. | |
1256 | ||
1257 | L<perlsub> example is updated to use a lexical variable for C<opendir> syntax. | |
1258 | ||
1259 | L<perlvar> fixes confusion about real GID C<$(> and effective GID C<$)>. | |
1260 | ||
1261 | Perl thread tutorial example is fixed in section | |
c35f3909 | 1262 | L<perlthrtut/Queues: Passing Data Around> and L<perlthrtut>. |
7214e7c3 DM |
1263 | |
1264 | L<perlhack> documentation extensively improved by Jarkko Hietaniemi and others. | |
1265 | ||
1266 | L<perltoot> provides information on modifying C<@UNIVERSAL::ISA>. | |
1267 | ||
1268 | L<perlport> documentation extended to include different C<kill(-9, ...)> | |
1269 | semantics on Windows. It also clearly states C<dump> is not supported on Win32 | |
1270 | and cygwin. | |
1271 | ||
1272 | F<INSTALL> has been updated and modernised. | |
1273 | ||
1274 | =head1 Performance Enhancements | |
1275 | ||
1276 | =over | |
1277 | ||
1278 | =item * | |
1279 | ||
1280 | The default since perl 5.000 has been for perl to create an empty scalar | |
1281 | with every new typeglob. The increased use of lexical variables means that | |
1282 | most are now unused. Thanks to Nicholas Clark's efforts, Perl can now be | |
1283 | compiled with C<-DPERL_DONT_CREATE_GVSV> to avoid creating these empty scalars. | |
1284 | This will significantly decrease the number of scalars allocated for all | |
1285 | configurations, and the number of scalars that need to be copied for ithread | |
1286 | creation. Whilst this option is binary compatible with existing perl | |
1287 | installations, it does change a long-standing assumption about the | |
1288 | internals, hence it is not enabled by default, as some third party code may | |
1289 | rely on the old behaviour. | |
1290 | ||
1291 | We would recommend testing with this configuration on new deployments of | |
1292 | perl, particularly for multi-threaded servers, to see whether all third party | |
1293 | code is compatible with it, as this configuration may give useful performance | |
1294 | improvements. For existing installations we would not recommend changing to | |
1295 | this configuration unless thorough testing is performed before deployment. | |
1296 | ||
1297 | =item * | |
1298 | ||
1299 | C<diagnostics> no longer uses C<$&>, which results in large speedups | |
1300 | for regexp matching in all code using it. | |
1301 | ||
1302 | =item * | |
1303 | ||
1304 | Regular expressions classes of a single character are now treated the same as | |
1305 | if the character had been used as a literal, meaning that code that uses | |
1306 | char-classes as an escaping mechanism will see a speedup. (Yves Orton) | |
1307 | ||
1308 | =item * | |
1309 | ||
1310 | Creating anonymous array and hash references (ie. C<[]> and C<{}>) now incurs | |
1311 | no more overhead than creating an anonymous list or hash. Nicholas Clark | |
1312 | provided changes with a saving of two ops and one stack push, which was measured | |
1313 | as a slightly better than 5% improvement for these operations. | |
1314 | ||
1315 | =item * | |
1316 | ||
1317 | Many calls to C<strlen()> have been eliminated, either because the length was | |
1318 | already known, or by adopting or enhancing APIs that pass lengths. This has | |
1319 | been aided by the adoption of a C<my_sprintf()> wrapper, which returns the | |
1320 | correct C89 value - the length of the formatted string. Previously we could | |
1321 | not rely on the return value of C<sprintf()>, because on some ancient but | |
1322 | extant platforms it still returns C<char *>. | |
1323 | ||
1324 | =item * | |
1325 | ||
1326 | C<index> is now faster if the search string is stored in UTF-8 but only contains | |
1327 | characters in the Latin-1 range. | |
1328 | ||
1329 | =item * | |
1330 | ||
1331 | The Unicode swatch cache inside the regexp engine is now used. (the lookup had | |
1332 | a key mismatch, present since the initial implementation). [RT #42839] | |
1333 | ||
1334 | =back | |
1335 | ||
1336 | =head1 Installation and Configuration Improvements | |
1337 | ||
1338 | =head2 Relocatable installations | |
1339 | ||
1340 | There is now F<Configure> support for creating a relocatable perl tree. If | |
1341 | you F<Configure> with C<-Duserelocatableinc>, then the paths in C<@INC> (and | |
1342 | everything else in C<%Config>) can be optionally located via the path of the | |
1343 | F<perl> executable. | |
1344 | ||
1345 | At start time, if any paths in C<@INC> or C<Config> that F<Configure> marked | |
1346 | as relocatable (by starting them with C<".../">), then they are prefixed the | |
1347 | directory of C<$^X>. This allows the relocation can be configured on a | |
1348 | per-directory basis, although the default with C<-Duserelocatableinc> is that | |
1349 | everything is relocated. The initial install is done to the original configured | |
1350 | prefix. | |
1351 | ||
1352 | =head2 Configuration improvements | |
1353 | ||
1354 | F<Configure> is now better at removing temporary files. Tom Callaway | |
1355 | (from RedHat) also contributed patches that complete the set of flags | |
1356 | passed to the compiler and the linker, in particular that C<-fPIC> is now | |
1357 | enabled on Linux. It will also croak when your F</dev/null> isn't a device. | |
1358 | ||
1359 | A new configuration variable C<d_pseudofork> has been to F<Configure>, and is | |
1360 | available as C<$Config{d_pseudofork}> in the C<Config> module. This | |
1361 | distinguishes real C<fork> support from the pseudofork emulation used on | |
1362 | Windows platforms. | |
1363 | ||
1364 | F<Config.pod> and F<config.sh> are now placed correctly for cross-compilation. | |
1365 | ||
1366 | C<$Config{useshrplib}> is now 'true' rather than 'yes' when using a shared perl | |
1367 | library. | |
1368 | ||
1369 | =head2 Compilation improvements | |
1370 | ||
1371 | Parallel makes should work properly now, although there may still be problems | |
1372 | if C<make test> is instructed to run in parallel. | |
1373 | ||
1374 | Many compilation warnings have been cleaned up. A very stubborn compiler | |
1375 | warning in C<S_emulate_eaccess()> was killed after six attempts. | |
1376 | F<g++> support has been tuned, especially for FreeBSD. | |
1377 | ||
1378 | F<mkppport> has been integrated, and all F<ppport.h> files in the core will now | |
1379 | be autogenerated at build time (and removed during cleanup). | |
1380 | ||
1381 | =head2 Installation improvements. | |
1382 | ||
1383 | F<installman> now works with C<-Duserelocatableinc> and C<DESTDIR>. | |
1384 | ||
1385 | F<installperl> no longer installs: | |
1386 | ||
1387 | =over 4 | |
1388 | ||
1389 | =item * | |
1390 | ||
1391 | static library files of statically linked extensions when a shared perl library | |
1392 | is being used. (They are not needed. See L</Windows> below). | |
1393 | ||
1394 | =item * | |
1395 | ||
1396 | F<SIGNATURE> and F<PAUSE*.pub> (CPAN files) | |
1397 | ||
1398 | =item * | |
1399 | ||
1400 | F<NOTES> and F<PATCHING> (ExtUtils files) | |
1401 | ||
1402 | =item * | |
1403 | ||
1404 | F<perlld> and F<ld2> (Cygwin files) | |
1405 | ||
1406 | =back | |
1407 | ||
1408 | =head2 Platform Specific Changes | |
1409 | ||
1410 | There are improved hints for AIX, Cygwin, DEC/OSF, FreeBSD, HP/UX, Irix 6 | |
1411 | Linux, MachTen, NetBSD, OS/390, QNX, SCO, Solaris, SunOS, System V Release 5.x | |
1412 | (UnixWare 7, OpenUNIX 8), Ultrix, UMIPS, uts and VOS. | |
1413 | ||
1414 | =head3 FreeBSD | |
1415 | ||
1416 | =over 4 | |
1417 | ||
1418 | =item * | |
1419 | ||
1420 | Drop C<-std=c89> and C<-ansi> if using C<long long> as the main integral type, | |
1421 | else in FreeBSD 6.2 (and perhaps other releases), system headers do not | |
1422 | declare some functions required by perl. | |
1423 | ||
1424 | =back | |
1425 | ||
1426 | =head3 Solaris | |
1427 | ||
1428 | =over 4 | |
1429 | ||
1430 | =item * | |
1431 | ||
1432 | Starting with Solaris 10, we do not want versioned shared libraries, because | |
1433 | those often indicate a private use only library. These problems could often | |
1434 | be triggered when L<SUNWbdb> (Berkeley DB) was installed. Hence if Solaris 10 | |
1435 | is detected set C<ignore_versioned_solibs=y>. | |
1436 | ||
1437 | =back | |
1438 | ||
1439 | =head3 VMS | |
1440 | ||
1441 | =over 4 | |
1442 | ||
1443 | =item * | |
1444 | ||
1445 | Allow IEEE math to be deselected on OpenVMS I64 (but it remains the default). | |
1446 | ||
1447 | =item * | |
1448 | ||
1449 | Record IEEE usage in C<config.h> | |
1450 | ||
1451 | =item * | |
1452 | ||
1453 | Help older VMS compilers by using C<ccflags> when building C<munchconfig.exe>. | |
1454 | ||
1455 | =item * | |
1456 | ||
1457 | Don't try to build old C<Thread> extension on VMS when C<-Duseithreads> has | |
1458 | been chosen. | |
1459 | ||
1460 | =item * | |
1461 | ||
1462 | Passing a raw string of "NaN" to F<nawk> causes a core dump - so the string | |
1463 | has been changed to "*NaN*" | |
1464 | ||
1465 | =item * | |
1466 | ||
1467 | F<t/op/stat.t> tests will now test hard links on VMS if they are supported. | |
1468 | ||
1469 | =back | |
1470 | ||
1471 | =head3 Windows | |
1472 | ||
1473 | =over 4 | |
1474 | ||
1475 | =item * | |
1476 | ||
1477 | When using a shared perl library F<installperl> no longer installs static | |
1478 | library files, import library files and export library files (of statically | |
1479 | linked extensions) and empty bootstrap files (of dynamically linked | |
1480 | extensions). This fixes a problem building PAR-Packer on Win32 with a debug | |
1481 | build of perl. | |
1482 | ||
1483 | =item * | |
1484 | ||
1485 | Various improvements to the win32 build process, including support for Visual | |
1486 | C++ 2005 Express Edition (aka Visual C++ 8.x). | |
1487 | ||
1488 | =item * | |
1489 | ||
1490 | F<perl.exe> will now have an icon if built with MinGW or Borland. | |
1491 | ||
1492 | =item * | |
1493 | ||
1494 | Improvements to the perl-static.exe build process. | |
1495 | ||
1496 | =item * | |
1497 | ||
1498 | Add Win32 makefile option to link all extensions statically. | |
1499 | ||
1500 | =item * | |
1501 | ||
1502 | The F<WinCE> directory has been merged into the F<Win32> directory. | |
1503 | ||
1504 | =item * | |
1505 | ||
1506 | C<setlocale> tests have been re-enabled for Windows XP onwards. | |
1507 | ||
1508 | =back | |
1509 | ||
1510 | =head1 Selected Bug Fixes | |
1511 | ||
1512 | =head2 Unicode | |
1513 | ||
1514 | Many many bugs related to the internal Unicode implementation (UTF-8) have | |
1515 | been fixed. In particular, long standing bugs related to returning Unicode | |
1516 | via C<tie>, overloading or C<$@> are now gone, some of which were never | |
1517 | reported. | |
1518 | ||
1519 | C<unpack> will internally convert the string back from UTF-8 on numeric types. | |
1520 | This is a compromise between the full consistency now in 5.10, and the current | |
1521 | behaviour, which is often used as a "feature" on string types. | |
1522 | ||
1523 | Using C<:crlf> and C<UTF-16> IO layers together will now work. | |
1524 | ||
1525 | Fixed problems with C<split>, Unicode C</\s+/> and C</ \0/>. | |
1526 | ||
1527 | Fixed bug RT #40641 - encoding of Unicode characters in regular expressions. | |
1528 | ||
1529 | Fixed a bug where using certain patterns in a regexp led to a panic. | |
1530 | [RT #45337] | |
1531 | ||
1532 | Perl no longer segfaults (due to infinite internal recursion) if the locale's | |
1533 | character is not UTF-8 [RT #41442]: | |
1534 | ||
1535 | use open ':locale'; | |
1536 | print STDERR "\x{201e}"; # „ | |
1537 | ||
1538 | =head2 PerlIO | |
1539 | ||
1540 | Inconsistencies have been fixed in the reference counting PerlIO uses to keep | |
1541 | track of Unix file descriptors, and the API used by XS code to manage getting | |
1542 | and releasing C<FILE *>s | |
1543 | ||
1544 | =head2 Magic | |
1545 | ||
1546 | Several bugs have been fixed in Magic, the internal system used to implement | |
1547 | features such as C<tie>, tainting and threads sharing. | |
1548 | ||
1549 | C<undef @array> on a tied array now correctly calls the C<CLEAR> method. | |
1550 | ||
1551 | Some of the bitwise ops were not checking whether their arguments were magical | |
1552 | before using them. [RT #24816] | |
1553 | ||
1554 | Magic is no longer invoked twice by the expression C<\&$x> | |
1555 | ||
1556 | A bug with assigning large numbers and tainting has been resolved. | |
1557 | [RT #40708] | |
1558 | ||
1559 | A new entry has been added to the MAGIC vtable - C<svt_local>. This is used | |
1560 | when copying magic to the new value during C<local>, allowing certain problems | |
1561 | with localising shared variables to be resolved. | |
1562 | ||
1563 | For the implementation details, see L<perlguts/Magic Virtual Tables>. | |
1564 | ||
1565 | =head2 Reblessing overloaded objects now works | |
1566 | ||
1567 | Internally, perl object-ness is on the referent, not the reference, even | |
1568 | though methods can only be called via a reference. However, the original | |
1569 | implementation of overloading stored flags related to overloading on the | |
1570 | reference, relying on the flags being copied when the reference was copied, | |
1571 | or set at the creation of a new reference. This manifests in a bug - if you | |
1572 | rebless an object from a class that has overloading, into one that does not, | |
1573 | then any other existing references think that they (still) point to an | |
1574 | overloaded object, choose these C code paths, and then throw errors. | |
1575 | Analogously, blessing into an overloaded class when other references exist will | |
1576 | result in them not using overloading. | |
1577 | ||
1578 | The implementation has been fixed for 5.10, but this fix changes the semantics | |
1579 | of flag bits, so is not binary compatible, so can't be applied to 5.8.9. | |
1580 | However, 5.8.9 has a work-around that implements the same bug fix. If the | |
1581 | referent has multiple references, then all the other references are located and | |
1582 | corrected. A full search is avoided whenever possible by scanning lexicals | |
1583 | outwards from the current subroutine, and the argument stack. | |
1584 | ||
1585 | A certain well known Linux vendor applied incomplete versions of this bug fix | |
1586 | to their F</usr/bin/perl> and then prematurely closed bug reports about | |
1587 | performance issues without consulting back upstream. This not being enough, | |
1588 | they then proceeded to ignore the necessary fixes to these unreleased changes | |
1589 | for 11 months, until massive pressure was applied by their long-suffering | |
1590 | paying customers, catalysed by the failings being featured on a prominent blog | |
1591 | and Slashdot. | |
1592 | ||
1593 | =head2 C<strict> now propagates correctly into string evals | |
1594 | ||
1595 | Under 5.8.8 and earlier: | |
1596 | ||
1597 | $ perl5.8.8 -e 'use strict; eval "use foo bar" or die $@' | |
1598 | Can't locate foo.pm in @INC (@INC contains: ... .) at (eval 1) line 2. | |
1599 | BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at (eval 1) line 2. | |
1600 | ||
1601 | Under 5.8.9 and later: | |
1602 | ||
1603 | $ perl5.8.9 -e 'use strict; eval "use foo bar" or die $@' | |
1604 | Bareword "bar" not allowed while "strict subs" in use at (eval 1) line 1. | |
1605 | ||
1606 | This may cause problems with programs that parse the error message and rely | |
1607 | on the buggy behaviour. | |
1608 | ||
1609 | =head2 Other fixes | |
1610 | ||
1611 | =over | |
1612 | ||
1613 | =item * | |
1614 | ||
1615 | The tokenizer no longer treats C<=cute> (and other words beginning | |
1616 | with C<=cut>) as a synonym for C<=cut>. | |
1617 | ||
1618 | =item * | |
1619 | ||
1620 | Calling C<CORE::require> | |
1621 | ||
1622 | C<CORE::require> and C<CORE::do> were always parsed as C<require> and C<do> | |
1623 | when they were overridden. This is now fixed. | |
1624 | ||
1625 | =item * | |
1626 | ||
1627 | Stopped memory leak on long F</etc/groups> entries. | |
1628 | ||
1629 | =item * | |
1630 | ||
1631 | C<while (my $x ...) { ...; redo }> shouldn't C<undef $x>. | |
1632 | ||
1633 | In the presence of C<my> in the conditional of a C<while()>, C<until()>, | |
1634 | or C<for(;;)> loop, we now add an extra scope to the body so that C<redo> | |
1635 | doesn't C<undef> the lexical. | |
1636 | ||
1637 | =item * | |
1638 | ||
1639 | The C<encoding> pragma now correctly ignores anything following an C<@> | |
1640 | character in the C<LC_ALL> and C<LANG> environment variables. [RT # 49646] | |
1641 | ||
1642 | =item * | |
1643 | ||
1644 | A segfault observed with some F<gcc> 3.3 optimisations is resolved. | |
1645 | ||
1646 | =item * | |
1647 | ||
1648 | A possible segfault when C<unpack> used in scalar context with C<()> groups | |
1649 | is resolved. [RT #50256] | |
1650 | ||
1651 | =item * | |
1652 | ||
1653 | Resolved issue where C<$!> could be changed by a signal handler interrupting | |
1654 | a C<system> call. | |
1655 | ||
1656 | =item * | |
1657 | ||
c69ca1d4 | 1658 | Fixed bug RT #37886, symbolic dereferencing was allowed in the argument of |
7214e7c3 DM |
1659 | C<defined> even under the influence of C<use strict 'refs'>. |
1660 | ||
1661 | =item * | |
1662 | ||
1663 | Fixed bug RT #43207, where C<lc>/C<uc> inside C<sort> affected the return | |
1664 | value. | |
1665 | ||
1666 | =item * | |
1667 | ||
1668 | Fixed bug RT #45607, where C<*{"BONK"} = \&{"BONK"}> didn't work correctly. | |
1669 | ||
1670 | =item * | |
1671 | ||
1672 | Fixed bug RT #35878, croaking from a XSUB called via C<goto &xsub> corrupts perl | |
1673 | internals. | |
1674 | ||
1675 | =item * | |
1676 | ||
1677 | Fixed bug RT #32539, F<DynaLoader.o> is moved into F<libperl.so> to avoid the | |
1678 | need to statically link DynaLoader into the stub perl executable. With this | |
1679 | F<libperl.so> provides everything needed to get a functional embedded perl | |
1680 | interpreter to run. | |
1681 | ||
1682 | =item * | |
1683 | ||
1684 | Fix bug RT #36267 so that assigning to a tied hash doesn't change the | |
1685 | underlying hash. | |
1686 | ||
1687 | =item * | |
1688 | ||
1689 | Fix bug RT #6006, regexp replaces using large replacement variables | |
1690 | fail some of the time, I<i.e.> when substitution contains something | |
1691 | like C<${10}> (note the bracket) instead of just C<$10>. | |
1692 | ||
1693 | =item * | |
1694 | ||
1695 | Fix bug RT #45053, C<Perl_newCONSTSUB()> is now thread safe. | |
1696 | ||
1697 | =back | |
1698 | ||
1699 | =head2 Platform Specific Fixes | |
1700 | ||
1701 | =head3 Darwin / MacOS X | |
1702 | ||
1703 | =over 4 | |
1704 | ||
1705 | =item * | |
1706 | ||
1707 | Various improvements to 64 bit builds. | |
1708 | ||
1709 | =item * | |
1710 | ||
1711 | Mutex protection added in C<PerlIOStdio_close()> to avoid race conditions. | |
1712 | Hopefully this fixes failures in the threads tests F<free.t> and F<blocks.t>. | |
1713 | ||
1714 | =item * | |
1715 | ||
1716 | Added forked terminal support to the debugger, with the ability to update the | |
1717 | window title. | |
1718 | ||
1719 | =back | |
1720 | ||
1721 | =head3 OS/2 | |
1722 | ||
1723 | =over 4 | |
1724 | ||
1725 | =item * | |
1726 | ||
1727 | A build problem with specifying C<USE_MULTI> and C<USE_ITHREADS> but without | |
1728 | C<USE_IMP_SYS> has been fixed. | |
1729 | ||
1730 | =item * | |
1731 | ||
1732 | C<OS2::REXX> upgraded to version 1.04 | |
1733 | ||
1734 | =back | |
1735 | ||
1736 | =head3 Tru64 | |
1737 | ||
1738 | =over 4 | |
1739 | ||
1740 | =item * | |
1741 | ||
1742 | Aligned floating point build policies for F<cc> and F<gcc>. | |
1743 | ||
1744 | =back | |
1745 | ||
1746 | =head3 RedHat Linux | |
1747 | ||
1748 | =over 4 | |
1749 | ||
1750 | =item * | |
1751 | ||
1752 | Revisited a patch from 5.6.1 for RH7.2 for Intel's F<icc> [RT #7916], added an | |
1753 | additional check for C<$Config{gccversion}>. | |
1754 | ||
1755 | =back | |
1756 | ||
1757 | =head3 Solaris/i386 | |
1758 | ||
1759 | =over 4 | |
1760 | ||
1761 | =item * | |
1762 | ||
1763 | Use C<-DPTR_IS_LONG> when using 64 bit integers | |
1764 | ||
1765 | =back | |
1766 | ||
1767 | =head3 VMS | |
1768 | ||
1769 | =over 4 | |
1770 | ||
1771 | =item * | |
1772 | ||
1773 | Fixed C<PerlIO::Scalar> in-memory file record-style reads. | |
1774 | ||
1775 | =item * | |
1776 | ||
1777 | pipe shutdown at process exit should now be more robust. | |
1778 | ||
1779 | =item * | |
1780 | ||
1781 | Bugs in VMS exit handling tickled by C<Test::Harness> 2.64 have been fixed. | |
1782 | ||
1783 | =item * | |
1784 | ||
1785 | Fix C<fcntl()> locking capability test in F<configure.com>. | |
1786 | ||
1787 | =item * | |
1788 | ||
1789 | Replaced C<shrplib='define'> with C<useshrplib='true'> on VMS. | |
1790 | ||
1791 | =back | |
1792 | ||
1793 | =head3 Windows | |
1794 | ||
1795 | =over 4 | |
1796 | ||
1797 | =item * | |
1798 | ||
1799 | C<File::Find> used to fail when the target directory is a bare drive letter and | |
1800 | C<no_chdir> is 1 (the default is 0). [RT #41555] | |
1801 | ||
1802 | =item * | |
1803 | ||
1804 | A build problem with specifying C<USE_MULTI> and C<USE_ITHREADS> but without | |
1805 | C<USE_IMP_SYS> has been fixed. | |
1806 | ||
1807 | =item * | |
1808 | ||
1809 | The process id is no longer truncated to 16 bits on some Windows platforms | |
1810 | ( http://bugs.activestate.com/show_bug.cgi?id=72443 ) | |
1811 | ||
1812 | =item * | |
1813 | ||
c69ca1d4 | 1814 | Fixed bug RT #54828 in F<perlio.c> where calling C<binmode> on Win32 and Cygwin |
7214e7c3 DM |
1815 | may cause a segmentation fault. |
1816 | ||
1817 | =back | |
1818 | ||
1819 | =head2 Smaller fixes | |
1820 | ||
1821 | =over 4 | |
1822 | ||
1823 | =item * | |
1824 | ||
1825 | It is now possible to overload C<eq> when using C<nomethod>. | |
1826 | ||
1827 | =item * | |
1828 | ||
1829 | Various problems using C<overload> with 64 bit integers corrected. | |
1830 | ||
1831 | =item * | |
1832 | ||
1833 | The reference count of C<PerlIO> file descriptors is now correctly handled. | |
1834 | ||
1835 | =item * | |
1836 | ||
e1020413 | 1837 | On VMS, escaped dots will be preserved when converted to Unix syntax. |
7214e7c3 DM |
1838 | |
1839 | =item * | |
1840 | ||
1841 | C<keys %+> no longer throws an C<'ambiguous'> warning. | |
1842 | ||
1843 | =item * | |
1844 | ||
1845 | Using C<#!perl -d> could trigger an assertion, which has been fixed. | |
1846 | ||
1847 | =item * | |
1848 | ||
1849 | Don't stringify tied code references in C<@INC> when calling C<require>. | |
1850 | ||
1851 | =item * | |
1852 | ||
1853 | Code references in C<@INC> report the correct file name when C<__FILE__> is | |
1854 | used. | |
1855 | ||
1856 | =item * | |
1857 | ||
1858 | Width and precision in sprintf didn't handle characters above 255 correctly. | |
1859 | [RT #40473] | |
1860 | ||
1861 | =item * | |
1862 | ||
1863 | List slices with indices out of range now work more consistently. | |
1864 | [RT #39882] | |
1865 | ||
1866 | =item * | |
1867 | ||
1868 | A change introduced with perl 5.8.1 broke the parsing of arguments of the form | |
1869 | C<-foo=bar> with the C<-s> on the <#!> line. This has been fixed. See | |
1870 | http://bugs.activestate.com/show_bug.cgi?id=43483 | |
1871 | ||
1872 | =item * | |
1873 | ||
1874 | C<tr///> is now threadsafe. Previously it was storing a swash inside its OP, | |
1875 | rather than in a pad. | |
1876 | ||
1877 | =item * | |
1878 | ||
1879 | F<pod2html> labels anchors more consistently and handles nested definition | |
1880 | lists better. | |
1881 | ||
1882 | =item * | |
1883 | ||
1884 | C<threads> cleanup veto has been extended to include C<perl_free()> and | |
1885 | C<perl_destruct()> | |
1886 | ||
1887 | =item * | |
1888 | ||
1889 | On some systems, changes to C<$ENV{TZ}> would not always be | |
1890 | respected by the underlying calls to C<localtime_r()>. Perl now | |
1891 | forces the inspection of the environment on these systems. | |
1892 | ||
1893 | =item * | |
1894 | ||
1895 | The special variable C<$^R> is now more consistently set when executing | |
1896 | regexps using the C<(?{...})> construct. In particular, it will still | |
1897 | be set even if backreferences or optional sub-patterns C<(?:...)?> are | |
1898 | used. | |
1899 | ||
1900 | =back | |
1901 | ||
1902 | =head1 New or Changed Diagnostics | |
1903 | ||
1904 | =head2 panic: sv_chop %s | |
1905 | ||
1906 | This new fatal error occurs when the C routine C<Perl_sv_chop()> was passed a | |
1907 | position that is not within the scalar's string buffer. This is caused by | |
1908 | buggy XS code, and at this point recovery is not possible. | |
1909 | ||
1910 | =head2 Maximal count of pending signals (%s) exceeded | |
1911 | ||
1912 | This new fatal error occurs when the perl process has to abort due to | |
1913 | too many pending signals, which is bound to prevent perl from being | |
1914 | able to handle further incoming signals safely. | |
1915 | ||
1916 | =head2 panic: attempt to call %s in %s | |
1917 | ||
1918 | This new fatal error occurs when the ACL version file test operator is used | |
1919 | where it is not available on the current platform. Earlier checks mean that | |
1920 | it should never be possible to get this. | |
1921 | ||
1922 | =head2 FETCHSIZE returned a negative value | |
1923 | ||
1924 | New error indicating that a tied array has claimed to have a negative | |
1925 | number of elements. | |
1926 | ||
1927 | =head2 Can't upgrade %s (%d) to %d | |
1928 | ||
1929 | Previously the internal error from the SV upgrade code was the less informative | |
1930 | I<Can't upgrade that kind of scalar>. It now reports the current internal type, | |
1931 | and the new type requested. | |
1932 | ||
1933 | =head2 %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or a subroutine | |
1934 | ||
1935 | This error, thrown if an invalid argument is provided to C<exists> now | |
1936 | correctly includes "or a subroutine". [RT #38955] | |
1937 | ||
1938 | =head2 Cannot make the non-overridable builtin %s fatal | |
1939 | ||
1940 | This error in C<Fatal> previously did not show the name of the builtin in | |
1941 | question (now represented by %s above). | |
1942 | ||
1943 | =head2 Unrecognized character '%s' in column %d | |
1944 | ||
1945 | This error previously did not state the column. | |
1946 | ||
1947 | =head2 Offset outside string | |
1948 | ||
1949 | This can now also be generated by a C<seek> on a file handle using | |
1950 | C<PerlIO::scalar>. | |
1951 | ||
1952 | =head2 Invalid escape in the specified encoding in regexp; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/ | |
1953 | ||
1954 | New error, introduced as part of the fix to RT #40641 to handle encoding | |
1955 | of Unicode characters in regular expression comments. | |
1956 | ||
1957 | =head2 Your machine doesn't support dump/undump. | |
1958 | ||
1959 | A more informative fatal error issued when calling C<dump> on Win32 and | |
1960 | Cygwin. (Given that the purpose of C<dump> is to abort with a core dump, | |
1961 | and core dumps can't be produced on these platforms, this is more useful than | |
1962 | silently exiting.) | |
1963 | ||
1964 | =head1 Changed Internals | |
1965 | ||
1966 | The perl sources can now be compiled with a C++ compiler instead of a C | |
1967 | compiler. A necessary implementation details is that under C++, the macro | |
1968 | C<XS> used to define XSUBs now includes an C<extern "C"> definition. A side | |
1969 | effect of this is that B<C++> code that used the construction | |
1970 | ||
1971 | typedef XS(SwigPerlWrapper); | |
1972 | ||
1973 | now needs to be written | |
1974 | ||
1975 | typedef XSPROTO(SwigPerlWrapper); | |
1976 | ||
1977 | using the new C<XSPROTO> macro, in order to compile. C extensions are | |
1978 | unaffected, although C extensions are encouraged to use C<XSPROTO> too. | |
1979 | This change was present in the 5.10.0 release of perl, so any actively | |
1980 | maintained code that happened to use this construction should already have | |
1981 | been adapted. Code that needs changing will fail with a compilation error. | |
1982 | ||
1983 | C<set> magic on localizing/assigning to a magic variable will now only | |
1984 | trigger for I<container magics>, i.e. it will for C<%ENV> or C<%SIG> | |
1985 | but not for C<$#array>. | |
1986 | ||
1987 | The new API macro C<newSVpvs()> can be used in place of constructions such as | |
1988 | C<newSVpvn("ISA", 3)>. It takes a single string constant, and at C compile | |
1989 | time determines its length. | |
1990 | ||
1991 | The new API function C<Perl_newSV_type()> can be used as a more efficient | |
1992 | replacement of the common idiom | |
1993 | ||
1994 | sv = newSV(0); | |
1995 | sv_upgrade(sv, type); | |
1996 | ||
1997 | Similarly C<Perl_newSVpvn_flags()> can be used to combine | |
1998 | C<Perl_newSVpv()> with C<Perl_sv_2mortal()> or the equivalent | |
1999 | C<Perl_sv_newmortal()> with C<Perl_sv_setpvn()> | |
2000 | ||
2001 | Two new macros C<mPUSHs()> and C<mXPUSHs()> are added, to make it easier to | |
2002 | push mortal SVs onto the stack. They were then used to fix several bugs where | |
2003 | values on the stack had not been mortalised. | |
2004 | ||
2005 | A C<Perl_signbit()> function was added to test the sign of an C<NV>. It | |
2006 | maps to the system one when available. | |
2007 | ||
2008 | C<Perl_av_reify()>, C<Perl_lex_end()>, C<Perl_mod()>, C<Perl_op_clear()>, | |
2009 | C<Perl_pop_return()>, C<Perl_qerror()>, C<Perl_setdefout()>, | |
2010 | C<Perl_vivify_defelem()> and C<Perl_yylex()> are now visible to extensions. | |
2011 | This was required to allow C<Data::Alias> to work on Windows. | |
2012 | ||
2013 | C<Perl_find_runcv()> is now visible to perl core extensions. This was required | |
2014 | to allow C<Sub::Current> to work on Windows. | |
2015 | ||
2016 | C<ptr_table*> functions are now available in unthreaded perl. C<Storable> | |
2017 | takes advantage of this. | |
2018 | ||
2019 | There have been many small cleanups made to the internals. In particular, | |
2020 | C<Perl_sv_upgrade()> has been simplified considerably, with a straight-through | |
2021 | code path that uses C<memset()> and C<memcpy()> to initialise the new body, | |
2022 | rather than assignment via multiple temporary variables. It has also | |
2023 | benefited from simplification and de-duplication of the arena management | |
2024 | code. | |
2025 | ||
2026 | A lot of small improvements in the code base were made due to reports from | |
2027 | the Coverity static code analyzer. | |
2028 | ||
2029 | Corrected use and documentation of C<Perl_gv_stashpv()>, C<Perl_gv_stashpvn()>, | |
2030 | C<Perl_gv_stashsv()> functions (last parameter is a bitmask, not boolean). | |
2031 | ||
2032 | C<PERL_SYS_INIT>, C<PERL_SYS_INIT3> and C<PERL_SYS_TERM> macros have been | |
2033 | changed into functions. | |
2034 | ||
2035 | C<PERLSYS_TERM> no longer requires a context. C<PerlIO_teardown()> | |
2036 | is now called without a context, and debugging output in this function has | |
2037 | been disabled because that required that an interpreter was present, an invalid | |
2038 | assumption at termination time. | |
2039 | ||
2040 | All compile time options which affect binary compatibility have been grouped | |
2041 | together into a global variable (C<PL_bincompat_options>). | |
2042 | ||
2043 | The values of C<PERL_REVISION>, C<PERL_VERSION> and C<PERL_SUBVERSION> are | |
2044 | now baked into global variables (and hence into any shared perl library). | |
2045 | Additionally under C<MULTIPLICITY>, the perl executable now records the size of | |
2046 | the interpreter structure (total, and for this version). Coupled with | |
2047 | C<PL_bincompat_options> this will allow 5.8.10 (and later), when compiled with a | |
2048 | shared perl library, to perform sanity checks in C<main()> to verify that the | |
2049 | shared library is indeed binary compatible. | |
2050 | ||
2051 | Symbolic references can now have embedded NULs. The new public function | |
2052 | C<Perl_get_cvn_flags()> can be used in extensions if you have to handle them. | |
2053 | ||
2054 | =head2 Macro cleanups | |
2055 | ||
2056 | The core code, and XS code in F<ext> that is not dual-lived on CPAN, no longer | |
2057 | uses the macros C<PL_na>, C<NEWSV()>, C<Null()>, C<Nullav>, C<Nullcv>, | |
2058 | C<Nullhv>, C<Nullhv> I<etc>. Their use is discouraged in new code, | |
2059 | particularly C<PL_na>, which is a small performance hit. | |
2060 | ||
2061 | =head1 New Tests | |
2062 | ||
2063 | Many modules updated from CPAN incorporate new tests. Some core specific | |
2064 | tests have been added: | |
2065 | ||
2066 | =over 4 | |
2067 | ||
2068 | =item ext/DynaLoader/t/DynaLoader.t | |
2069 | ||
2070 | Tests for the C<DynaLoader> module. | |
2071 | ||
2072 | =item t/comp/fold.t | |
2073 | ||
2074 | Tests for compile-time constant folding. | |
2075 | ||
2076 | =item t/io/pvbm.t | |
2077 | ||
2078 | Tests incorporated from 5.10.0 which check that there is no unexpected | |
2079 | interaction between the internal types C<PVBM> and C<PVGV>. | |
2080 | ||
2081 | =item t/lib/proxy_constant_subs.t | |
2082 | ||
2083 | Tests for the new form of constant subroutines. | |
2084 | ||
2085 | =item t/op/attrhand.t | |
2086 | ||
2087 | Tests for C<Attribute::Handlers>. | |
2088 | ||
2089 | =item t/op/dbm.t | |
2090 | ||
2091 | Tests for C<dbmopen>. | |
2092 | ||
2093 | =item t/op/inccode-tie.t | |
2094 | ||
2095 | Calls all tests in F<t/op/inccode.t> after first tying C<@INC>. | |
2096 | ||
2097 | =item t/op/incfilter.t | |
2098 | ||
e1020413 | 2099 | Tests for source filters returned from code references in C<@INC>. |
7214e7c3 DM |
2100 | |
2101 | =item t/op/kill0.t | |
2102 | ||
2103 | Tests for RT #30970. | |
2104 | ||
2105 | =item t/op/qrstack.t | |
2106 | ||
2107 | Tests for RT #41484. | |
2108 | ||
2109 | =item t/op/qr.t | |
2110 | ||
2111 | Tests for the C<qr//> construct. | |
2112 | ||
2113 | =item t/op/regexp_qr_embed.t | |
2114 | ||
2115 | Tests for the C<qr//> construct within another regexp. | |
2116 | ||
2117 | =item t/op/regexp_qr.t | |
2118 | ||
2119 | Tests for the C<qr//> construct. | |
2120 | ||
2121 | =item t/op/rxcode.t | |
2122 | ||
2123 | Tests for RT #32840. | |
2124 | ||
2125 | =item t/op/studytied.t | |
2126 | ||
2127 | Tests for C<study> on tied scalars. | |
2128 | ||
2129 | =item t/op/substT.t | |
2130 | ||
2131 | Tests for C<subst> run under C<-T> mode. | |
2132 | ||
2133 | =item t/op/symbolcache.t | |
2134 | ||
2135 | Tests for C<undef> and C<delete> on stash entries that are bound to | |
2136 | subroutines or methods. | |
2137 | ||
2138 | =item t/op/upgrade.t | |
2139 | ||
2140 | Tests for C<Perl_sv_upgrade()>. | |
2141 | ||
2142 | =item t/mro/package_aliases.t | |
2143 | ||
2144 | MRO tests for C<isa> and package aliases. | |
2145 | ||
2146 | =item t/pod/twice.t | |
2147 | ||
2148 | Tests for calling C<Pod::Parser> twice. | |
2149 | ||
2150 | =item t/run/cloexec.t | |
2151 | ||
2152 | Tests for inheriting file descriptors across C<exec> (close-on-exec). | |
2153 | ||
2154 | =item t/uni/cache.t | |
2155 | ||
2156 | Tests for the UTF-8 caching code. | |
2157 | ||
2158 | =item t/uni/chr.t | |
2159 | ||
2160 | Test that strange encodings do not upset C<Perl_pp_chr()>. | |
2161 | ||
2162 | =item t/uni/greek.t | |
2163 | ||
2164 | Tests for RT #40641. | |
2165 | ||
2166 | =item t/uni/latin2.t | |
2167 | ||
2168 | Tests for RT #40641. | |
2169 | ||
2170 | =item t/uni/overload.t | |
2171 | ||
2172 | Tests for returning Unicode from overloaded values. | |
2173 | ||
2174 | =item t/uni/tie.t | |
2175 | ||
2176 | Tests for returning Unicode from tied variables. | |
2177 | ||
2178 | =back | |
2179 | ||
2180 | =head1 Known Problems | |
2181 | ||
2182 | There are no known new bugs. | |
2183 | ||
2184 | However, programs that rely on bugs that have been fixed will have problems. | |
2185 | Also, many bug fixes present in 5.10.0 can't be back-ported to the 5.8.x | |
2186 | branch, because they require changes that are binary incompatible, or because | |
2187 | the code changes are too large and hence too risky to incorporate. | |
2188 | ||
2189 | We have only limited volunteer labour, and the maintenance burden is | |
2190 | getting increasingly complex. Hence this will be the last significant | |
2191 | release of the 5.8.x series. Any future releases of 5.8.x will likely | |
2192 | only be to deal with security issues, and platform build | |
2193 | failures. Hence you should look to migrating to 5.10.x, if you have | |
2194 | not started already. Alternatively, if business requirements constrain | |
2195 | you to continue to use 5.8.x, you may wish to consider commercial | |
2196 | support from firms such as ActiveState. | |
2197 | ||
2198 | =head1 Platform Specific Notes | |
2199 | ||
2200 | =head2 Win32 | |
2201 | ||
2202 | C<readdir()>, C<cwd()>, C<$^X> and C<@INC> now use the alternate (short) | |
2203 | filename if the long name is outside the current codepage (Jan Dubois). | |
2204 | ||
2205 | =head3 Updated Modules | |
2206 | ||
2207 | =over 4 | |
2208 | ||
2209 | =item * | |
2210 | ||
2211 | C<Win32> upgraded to version 0.38. Now has a documented 'WinVista' response | |
2212 | from C<GetOSName> and support for Vista's privilege elevation in C<IsAdminUser>. | |
2213 | Support for Unicode characters in path names. Improved cygwin and Win64 | |
2214 | compatibility. | |
2215 | ||
2216 | =item * | |
2217 | ||
2218 | C<Win32API> updated to 0.1001_01 | |
2219 | ||
2220 | =item * | |
2221 | ||
2222 | C<killpg()> support added to C<MSWin32> (Jan Dubois). | |
2223 | ||
2224 | =item * | |
2225 | ||
2226 | C<File::Spec::Win32> upgraded to version 3.2701 | |
2227 | ||
2228 | =back | |
2229 | ||
2230 | =head2 OS/2 | |
2231 | ||
2232 | =head3 Updated Modules | |
2233 | ||
2234 | =over 4 | |
2235 | ||
2236 | =item * | |
2237 | ||
2238 | C<OS2::Process> upgraded to 1.03 | |
2239 | ||
2240 | Ilya Zakharevich has added and documented several C<Window*> and C<Clipbrd*> | |
2241 | functions. | |
2242 | ||
2243 | =item * | |
2244 | ||
2245 | C<OS2::REXX::DLL>, C<OS2::REXX> updated to version 1.03 | |
2246 | ||
2247 | =back | |
2248 | ||
2249 | =head2 VMS | |
2250 | ||
2251 | =head3 Updated Modules | |
2252 | ||
2253 | =over 4 | |
2254 | ||
2255 | =item * | |
2256 | ||
2257 | C<DCLsym> upgraded to version 1.03 | |
2258 | ||
2259 | =item * | |
2260 | ||
2261 | C<Stdio> upgraded to version 2.4 | |
2262 | ||
2263 | =item * | |
2264 | ||
2265 | C<VMS::XSSymSet> upgraded to 1.1. | |
2266 | ||
2267 | =back | |
2268 | ||
2269 | =head1 Obituary | |
2270 | ||
2271 | Nick Ing-Simmons, long time Perl hacker, author of the C<Tk> and C<Encode> | |
2272 | modules, F<perlio.c> in the core, and 5.003_02 pumpking, died of a heart | |
2273 | attack on 25th September 2006. He will be missed. | |
2274 | ||
2275 | =head1 Acknowledgements | |
2276 | ||
2277 | Some of the work in this release was funded by a TPF grant. | |
2278 | ||
2279 | Steve Hay worked behind the scenes working out the causes of the differences | |
2280 | between core modules, their CPAN releases, and previous core releases, and | |
2281 | the best way to rectify them. He doesn't want to do it again. I know this | |
2282 | feeling, and I'm very glad he did it this time, instead of me. | |
2283 | ||
2284 | Paul Fenwick assembled a team of 18 volunteers, who broke the back of writing | |
2285 | this document. In particular, Bradley Dean, Eddy Tan, and Vincent Pit | |
2286 | provided half the team's contribution. | |
2287 | ||
2288 | Schwern verified the list of updated module versions, correcting quite a few | |
2289 | errors that I (and everyone else) had missed, both wrongly stated module | |
2290 | versions, and changed modules that had not been listed. | |
2291 | ||
2292 | The crack Berlin-based QA team of Andreas KE<ouml>nig and Slaven Rezic | |
2293 | tirelessly re-built snapshots, tested most everything CPAN against | |
2294 | them, and then identified the changes responsible for any module regressions, | |
2295 | ensuring that several show-stopper bugs were stomped before the first release | |
2296 | candidate was cut. | |
2297 | ||
2298 | The other core committers contributed most of the changes, and applied most | |
2299 | of the patches sent in by the hundreds of contributors listed in F<AUTHORS>. | |
2300 | ||
2301 | And obviously, Larry Wall, without whom we wouldn't have Perl. | |
2302 | ||
2303 | =head1 Reporting Bugs | |
2304 | ||
2305 | If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles | |
2306 | recently posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl | |
2307 | bug database at http://bugs.perl.org. There may also be | |
2308 | information at http://www.perl.org, the Perl Home Page. | |
2309 | ||
2310 | If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the B<perlbug> | |
2311 | program included with your release. Be sure to trim your bug down | |
2312 | to a tiny but sufficient test case. Your bug report, along with the | |
2313 | output of C<perl -V>, will be sent off to perlbug@perl.org to be | |
2314 | analysed by the Perl porting team. You can browse and search | |
2315 | the Perl 5 bugs at http://bugs.perl.org/ | |
2316 | ||
2317 | If the bug you are reporting has security implications, which make it | |
2318 | inappropriate to send to a publicly archived mailing list, then please send | |
2319 | it to perl5-security-report@perl.org. This points to a closed subscription | |
1a1f8781 FC |
2320 | unarchived mailing list, which includes |
2321 | all the core committers, who will be able | |
7214e7c3 DM |
2322 | to help assess the impact of issues, figure out a resolution, and help |
2323 | co-ordinate the release of patches to mitigate or fix the problem across all | |
2324 | platforms on which Perl is supported. Please only use this address for security | |
2325 | issues in the Perl core, not for modules independently distributed on CPAN. | |
2326 | ||
2327 | =head1 SEE ALSO | |
2328 | ||
2329 | The F<Changes> file for exhaustive details on what changed. | |
2330 | ||
2331 | The F<INSTALL> file for how to build Perl. | |
2332 | ||
2333 | The F<README> file for general stuff. | |
2334 | ||
2335 | The F<Artistic> and F<Copying> files for copyright information. | |
2336 | ||
2337 | =cut |