This is patch.2b1e to perl5.002beta1. This is simply

[perl5.git] / Changes.Conf

-------------
Version 5.002
-------------

Summary of user-visible Configure and build changes since 5.001:

Yet more enhancements and fixes have been made to the Configure and
build process for perl.  Most of these will not be visible to the
ordinary user--they just make the process more robust and likely to
work on a wider range of platforms.

This is a brief summary of the most important changes:

    Slightly changed installation directories.  See INSTALL.

    Include 5.000 - 5.001 upgrage notes :-) (see below).  You might
    want to read through them as well as these notes.

    Install documentation for perl modules and pod2* translators.  You can
    now view perl module documentation with either your system's man(1)
    program or with the supplied perldoc script.

    Many hint file updates.

    Improve and simplify detection of local libraries and header files.

    Expand documentation of installation process in new INSTALL file.

    Try to reduce Unixisms (such as SH file extraction) to enhance
    portability to other platforms.  There's still a long way to go.

Upgrade Traps and Pitfalls:

Since a lot has changed in the build process, you are probably best off
starting with a fresh copy of the perl5.002 sources.  In particular,
your 5.000 or 5.001 config.sh will contain several variables that are no
longer needed.  Further, improvements in the Configure tests may mean
that some of the answers will be different than they were in previous
versions, and which answer to keep can be difficult to sort out. 
Therefore, you are probably better off ignoring your old config.sh, as
in the following:

	make distclean 		# (if you've built perl before)
	rm -f config.sh 	# (in case distclean mysteriously fails)
	sh Configure [whatever options you like]
	make depend
	make
	make test

-------------
Version 5.001
-------------

Summary of user-visible Configure and build changes since 5.000:

A large number of enhancements and fixes have been made to the
Configure and build process for perl.  Most of these will not be
visible to the ordinary user--they just make the process more robust
and likely to work on a wider range of platforms.

This is a brief summary of the most important changes.

Configure changes:
    New and improved Configure command line options.  -O now overrides
    config.sh settings.  -D options can now include spaces, if
    protected in quotes (e.g. -Dcc='gcc -posix').  Type Configure -h
    for a full listing of options.

    Users can now turn on the defaults for the rest of Configure by
    typing &-d at any Configure prompt.  This is useful if you just
    want to change one or two answers.

    Support on (non-Sun) SVR4 systems for dynamic loading and shared 
    libperl.so

    Numerous new or updated hints files: PowerUnix, aix 3.x and 4.x,
    bsd386, convexos, cxux, DEC OSF, Esix, FreeBSD, HP-UX (especially if
    you're using the bundled compiler), irix 4.x, 5.x, and 6.x,  Linux,
    MPE/IX, NeXT 3.0 and 3.2, Solaris, SVR4, Ultrix (especially 4.3),
    and Unicos.

    Improved generation of a suitable name for architecture-dependent
    library files.  NOTE:  This may differ from the name you had from
    your 5.000 installation.

    Many many portability enhancements and fixes.

Build process:

    The process for building extensions has been extensively revised.  See
    lib/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.pm for complete documentation.  Basically, with
    just a simple Makefile.PL (such as the one generated by h2xs), you can
    now build an extension from anywhere on your system, even if you've
    deleted the perl source.

    Improved build/install documentation in README.  A little.

    Improved dynamic loading on HP-UX.  Support dynamic loading on SVR4.

    Installperl now gets the version correct :-)

    Installperl now saves the perl *.h files and the libperl.a library
    in your architecture-dependent library directory so that you can
    later build extensions without having to re-install the perl
    source.

    Include x2p/a2p.c generated by byacc from x2p/a2p.y.

    Many many portability fixes.

Upgrade Traps and Pitfalls:

Since a lot has changed in the build process, you are probably best
off starting with a fresh copy of the perl5.000 sources.  In particular,
your 5.000 config.sh will contain several variables that are no longer
needed.  Further, improvements in the Configure tests may mean that some
of the answers will be different than they were in 5.000, and which answer
to keep can be difficult to sort out.   Therefore, you are probably
better off ignoring your old config.sh.

One big change is that architecture-dependent library files may well
be stored in a different location in 5.001.  This is because the default
name used in the 5.000 release was not sufficiently specific to
distinguish incompatible architectures.  The relevant variable is $archlib
in config.sh.  Before you run ``make install'' you should rename your old
$archlib.  Thus if your $archlib for version 5.000 was
/usr/local/lib/perl5/foo, and your new value for 5.001 is
/usr/local/lib/perl5/foo-bar, then you should
	mv /usr/local/lib/perl5/foo /usr/local/lib/perl5/foo-bar
before running  ``make install''.

Alternatively, you could override Configure's default guess for $archlib
either by  sh Configure -Darchname='foo', or by answering 'foo' when 
prompted by Configure for the architecture name.

The following is the sequence of steps to upgrade to 5.001:
	cd perl5.000
	make realclean
	rm config.sh
	<apply 5.001 patch>
	sh Configure
	make depend
	make
	make test
	<mv old architecture-dependent library to new location, if needed>
	make install