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ba8251e8 GS |
1 | =head1 NAME |
2 | ||
651a3225 | 3 | perldelta - what's new for perl v5.6 (as of v5.005_61) |
ba8251e8 GS |
4 | |
5 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
6 | ||
f29c64d6 GS |
7 | This is an unsupported alpha release, meant for intrepid Perl developers |
8 | only. The included sources may not even build correctly on some platforms. | |
9 | Subscribing to perl5-porters is the best way to monitor and contribute | |
10 | to the progress of development releases (see www.perl.org for info). | |
11 | ||
ba8251e8 GS |
12 | This document describes differences between the 5.005 release and this one. |
13 | ||
14 | =head1 Incompatible Changes | |
15 | ||
e02fdbd2 GS |
16 | =head2 Perl Source Incompatibilities |
17 | ||
f29c64d6 | 18 | TODO |
e02fdbd2 GS |
19 | |
20 | =head2 C Source Incompatibilities | |
21 | ||
22 | =over 4 | |
23 | ||
24 | =item C<PERL_POLLUTE> | |
25 | ||
26 | Release 5.005 grandfathered old global symbol names by providing preprocessor | |
87275199 | 27 | macros for extension source compatibility. As of release 5.6, these |
e02fdbd2 | 28 | preprocessor definitions are not available by default. You need to explicitly |
14218588 GS |
29 | compile perl with C<-DPERL_POLLUTE> to get these definitions. For |
30 | extensions still using the old symbols, this option can be | |
2aea4d40 JD |
31 | specified via MakeMaker: |
32 | ||
14218588 | 33 | perl Makefile.PL POLLUTE=1 |
e02fdbd2 | 34 | |
f29c64d6 GS |
35 | =item C<PERL_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT> |
36 | ||
37 | This new build option provides a set of macros for all API functions | |
38 | such that an implicit interpreter/thread context argument is passed to | |
39 | every API function. As a result of this, something like C<sv_setsv(foo,bar)> | |
2c2d71f5 | 40 | amounts to a macro invocation that actually translates to something like |
f29c64d6 GS |
41 | C<Perl_sv_setsv(my_perl,foo,bar)>. While this is generally expected |
42 | to not have any significant source compatibility issues, the difference | |
43 | between a macro and a real function call will need to be considered. | |
44 | ||
2c2d71f5 JH |
45 | This means that there B<is> a source compatibility issue as a result of |
46 | this if your extensions attempt to use pointers to any of the Perl API | |
47 | functions. | |
48 | ||
f29c64d6 GS |
49 | Note that the above issue is not relevant to the default build of |
50 | Perl, whose interfaces continue to match those of prior versions | |
51 | (but subject to the other options described here). | |
52 | ||
651a3225 GS |
53 | PERL_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT is automatically enabled whenever Perl is built |
54 | with one of -Dusethreads, -Dusemultiplicity, or both. | |
f29c64d6 | 55 | |
2c2d71f5 JH |
56 | See L<perlguts/"The Perl API"> for detailed information on the |
57 | ramifications of building Perl using this option. | |
58 | ||
86058a2d GS |
59 | =item C<PERL_POLLUTE_MALLOC> |
60 | ||
14218588 | 61 | Enabling Perl's malloc in release 5.005 and earlier caused |
86058a2d | 62 | the namespace of system versions of the malloc family of functions to |
14218588 GS |
63 | be usurped by the Perl versions, since by default they used the |
64 | same names. | |
86058a2d GS |
65 | |
66 | Besides causing problems on platforms that do not allow these functions to | |
67 | be cleanly replaced, this also meant that the system versions could not | |
68 | be called in programs that used Perl's malloc. Previous versions of Perl | |
14218588 | 69 | have allowed this behaviour to be suppressed with the HIDEMYMALLOC and |
86058a2d GS |
70 | EMBEDMYMALLOC preprocessor definitions. |
71 | ||
87275199 | 72 | As of release 5.6, Perl's malloc family of functions have default names |
86058a2d | 73 | distinct from the system versions. You need to explicitly compile perl with |
14218588 GS |
74 | C<-DPERL_POLLUTE_MALLOC> to get the older behaviour. HIDEMYMALLOC |
75 | and EMBEDMYMALLOC have no effect, since the behaviour they enabled is now | |
86058a2d GS |
76 | the default. |
77 | ||
78 | Note that these functions do B<not> constitute Perl's memory allocation API. | |
79 | See L<perlguts/"Memory Allocation"> for further information about that. | |
80 | ||
e02fdbd2 GS |
81 | =item C<PL_na> and C<dTHR> Issues |
82 | ||
83 | The C<PL_na> global is now thread local, so a C<dTHR> declaration is needed | |
14218588 | 84 | in the scope in which the global appears. XSUBs should handle this automatically, |
e02fdbd2 GS |
85 | but if you have used C<PL_na> in support functions, you either need to |
86 | change the C<PL_na> to a local variable (which is recommended), or put in | |
87 | a C<dTHR>. | |
88 | ||
89 | =back | |
90 | ||
cceca5ed GS |
91 | =head2 Compatible C Source API Changes |
92 | ||
93 | =over | |
94 | ||
95 | =item C<PATCHLEVEL> is now C<PERL_VERSION> | |
96 | ||
14218588 | 97 | The cpp macros C<PERL_REVISION>, C<PERL_VERSION>, and C<PERL_SUBVERSION> |
cceca5ed | 98 | are now available by default from perl.h, and reflect the base revision, |
14218588 | 99 | patchlevel, and subversion respectively. C<PERL_REVISION> had no |
cceca5ed GS |
100 | prior equivalent, while C<PERL_VERSION> and C<PERL_SUBVERSION> were |
101 | previously available as C<PATCHLEVEL> and C<SUBVERSION>. | |
102 | ||
14218588 | 103 | The new names cause less pollution of the B<cpp> namespace and reflect what |
cceca5ed | 104 | the numbers have come to stand for in common practice. For compatibility, |
14218588 | 105 | the old names are still supported when F<patchlevel.h> is explicitly |
cceca5ed | 106 | included (as required before), so there is no source incompatibility |
14218588 | 107 | from the change. |
cceca5ed GS |
108 | |
109 | =back | |
110 | ||
e02fdbd2 GS |
111 | =head2 Binary Incompatibilities |
112 | ||
9c107f78 JH |
113 | The default build of this release is binary compatible with the 5.005 |
114 | release or its maintenance versions. | |
f29c64d6 GS |
115 | |
116 | The usethreads or usemultiplicity builds are B<not> binary compatible | |
117 | with the corresponding builds in 5.005. | |
e02fdbd2 | 118 | |
ba8251e8 GS |
119 | =head1 Core Changes |
120 | ||
9d73390d GS |
121 | =head2 Unicode and UTF-8 support |
122 | ||
123 | Perl can optionally use UTF-8 as its internal representation for character | |
124 | strings. The C<use utf8> pragma enables this support in the current lexical | |
125 | scope. See L<utf8> for more information. | |
126 | ||
127 | =head2 Lexically scoped warning categories | |
128 | ||
129 | You can now control the granularity of warnings emitted by perl at a finer | |
4438c4b7 | 130 | level using the C<use warnings> pragma. See L<warnings> and L<perllexwarn> |
0453d815 | 131 | for details. |
9d73390d | 132 | |
5fdc711f GS |
133 | =head2 Binary numbers supported |
134 | ||
4f19785b WSI |
135 | Binary numbers are now supported as literals, in s?printf formats, and |
136 | C<oct()>: | |
137 | ||
14218588 GS |
138 | $answer = 0b101010; |
139 | printf "The answer is: %b\n", oct("0b101010"); | |
4f19785b | 140 | |
5fdc711f GS |
141 | =head2 syswrite() ease-of-use |
142 | ||
6c67e1bb TC |
143 | The length argument of C<syswrite()> is now optional. |
144 | ||
5fdc711f GS |
145 | =head2 64-bit support |
146 | ||
9c107f78 JH |
147 | All platforms that have 64-bit integers either (a) natively as longs |
148 | or ints (b) via special compiler flags (c) using long long are able to | |
149 | use "quads" (64-integers) as follows: | |
150 | ||
151 | =over 4 | |
152 | ||
1fad5d67 | 153 | =item constants (decimal, hexadecimal, octal, binary) in the code |
9c107f78 JH |
154 | |
155 | =item arguments to oct() and hex() | |
156 | ||
1fad5d67 | 157 | =item arguments to print(), printf() and sprintf() (flag prefixes ll, L, q) |
9c107f78 | 158 | |
1fad5d67 | 159 | =item printed as such |
9c107f78 | 160 | |
3175b8cd | 161 | =item pack() and unpack() "q" and "Q" formats |
1fad5d67 JH |
162 | |
163 | =item in basic arithmetics: + - * / % | |
9c107f78 | 164 | |
d0ba1bd2 | 165 | =item vec() (but see the below note about bit arithmetics) |
c5a0f51a | 166 | |
9c107f78 JH |
167 | =back |
168 | ||
169 | Note that unless you have the case (a) you will have to configure | |
170 | and compile Perl using the -Duse64bits Configure flag. | |
171 | ||
3175b8cd JH |
172 | Unfortunately bit arithmetics (&, |, ^, ~, <<, >>) for numbers are not |
173 | 64-bit clean, they are explictly forced to be 32-bit. Bit arithmetics | |
174 | for bit vectors (created by vec()) are not limited in their width. | |
d0ba1bd2 | 175 | |
2d4389e4 | 176 | Last but not least: note that due to Perl's habit of always using |
d0ba1bd2 JH |
177 | floating point numbers the quads are still not true integers. |
178 | When quads overflow their limits (0...18_446_744_073_709_551_615 unsigned, | |
179 | -9_223_372_036_854_775_808...9_223_372_036_854_775_807 signed), they | |
180 | are silently promoted to floating point numbers, after which they will | |
181 | start losing precision (their lower digits). | |
2d4389e4 JH |
182 | |
183 | =head2 Large file support | |
184 | ||
185 | If you have filesystems that support "large files" (files larger than | |
aa855319 JH |
186 | 2 gigabytes), you may now also be able to create and access them from |
187 | Perl. You have to use Configure -Duselfs. Turning on the large file | |
188 | support turns on also the 64-bit support, for obvious reasons. | |
2d4389e4 | 189 | |
eed7fde4 JH |
190 | Note that in addition to requiring a proper file system to do large |
191 | files you may also need to adjust your per-process (or your | |
192 | per-system, or per-process-group, or per-user-group) maximum filesize | |
193 | limits before running Perl scripts that try to handle large files, | |
194 | especially if you intend to write such files. | |
195 | ||
196 | Finally, in addition to your process/process group maximum filesize | |
197 | limits, you may have quota limits on your filesystems that stop you | |
198 | (your user id or your user group id) from using large files. | |
199 | ||
200 | Adjusting your process/user/group/file system/operating system limits | |
201 | is outside the scope of Perl core language. For process limits, you | |
202 | may try increasing the limits using your shell's limits/limit/ulimit | |
203 | command before running Perl. The BSD::Resource extension (not | |
204 | included with the standard Perl distribution) may also be of use, it | |
205 | offers the getrlimit/setrlimit interface that can be used to adjust | |
206 | process resource usage limits, including the maximum filesize limit. | |
2d4389e4 | 207 | |
aa855319 JH |
208 | =head2 Long doubles |
209 | ||
210 | In some systems you may be able to use long doubles to enhance the | |
211 | range of precision of your double precision floating point numbers | |
212 | (that is, Perl's numbers). Use Configure -Duselongdouble to enable | |
213 | this support (if it is available). | |
214 | ||
215 | =head2 "more bits" | |
216 | ||
217 | You can Configure -Dusemorebits to turn on both the 64-bit support | |
218 | and the long double support. | |
09bef843 | 219 | |
62c18ce2 GS |
220 | =head2 Better syntax checks on parenthesized unary operators |
221 | ||
222 | Expressions such as: | |
223 | ||
14218588 GS |
224 | print defined(&foo,&bar,&baz); |
225 | print uc("foo","bar","baz"); | |
226 | undef($foo,&bar); | |
62c18ce2 | 227 | |
7711098a | 228 | used to be accidentally allowed in earlier versions, and produced |
14218588 GS |
229 | unpredictable behaviour. Some produced ancillary warnings |
230 | when used in this way; others silently did the wrong thing. | |
62c18ce2 GS |
231 | |
232 | The parenthesized forms of most unary operators that expect a single | |
14218588 GS |
233 | argument now ensure that they are not called with more than one |
234 | argument, making the cases shown above syntax errors. The usual | |
235 | behaviour of: | |
62c18ce2 | 236 | |
14218588 GS |
237 | print defined &foo, &bar, &baz; |
238 | print uc "foo", "bar", "baz"; | |
239 | undef $foo, &bar; | |
62c18ce2 GS |
240 | |
241 | remains unchanged. See L<perlop>. | |
242 | ||
3e3318e7 GS |
243 | =head2 POSIX character class syntax [: :] supported |
244 | ||
245 | For example to match alphabetic characters use /[[:alpha:]]/. | |
246 | See L<perlre> for details. | |
247 | ||
5a929a98 | 248 | =head2 Improved C<qw//> operator |
8127e0e3 | 249 | |
26ef7447 GS |
250 | The C<qw//> operator is now evaluated at compile time into a true list |
251 | instead of being replaced with a run time call to C<split()>. This | |
14218588 GS |
252 | removes the confusing misbehaviour of C<qw//> in scalar context, which |
253 | had inherited that behaviour from split(). | |
26ef7447 GS |
254 | |
255 | Thus: | |
256 | ||
257 | $foo = ($bar) = qw(a b c); print "$foo|$bar\n"; | |
258 | ||
259 | now correctly prints "3|a", instead of "2|a". | |
8127e0e3 | 260 | |
5a929a98 VU |
261 | =head2 pack() format 'Z' supported |
262 | ||
263 | The new format type 'Z' is useful for packing and unpacking null-terminated | |
264 | strings. See L<perlfunc/"pack">. | |
265 | ||
4d0c1c44 | 266 | =head2 pack() format modifier '!' supported |
ee3907e2 | 267 | |
14218588 | 268 | The new format type modifier '!' is useful for packing and unpacking |
ee3907e2 JH |
269 | native shorts, ints, and longs. See L<perlfunc/"pack">. |
270 | ||
f29c64d6 GS |
271 | =head2 pack() and unpack() support counted strings |
272 | ||
273 | The template character '#' can be used to specify a counted string | |
274 | type to be packed or unpacked. See L<perlfunc/"pack">. | |
275 | ||
2b92dfce GS |
276 | =head2 $^X variables may now have names longer than one character |
277 | ||
278 | Formerly, $^X was synonymous with ${"\cX"}, but $^XY was a syntax | |
279 | error. Now variable names that begin with a control character may be | |
280 | arbitrarily long. However, for compatibility reasons, these variables | |
281 | I<must> be written with explicit braces, as C<${^XY}> for example. | |
14218588 | 282 | C<${^XYZ}> is synonymous with ${"\cXYZ"}. Variable names with more |
2b92dfce GS |
283 | than one control character, such as C<${^XY^Z}>, are illegal. |
284 | ||
14218588 GS |
285 | The old syntax has not changed. As before, `^X' may be either a |
286 | literal control-X character or the two-character sequence `caret' plus | |
287 | `X'. When braces are omitted, the variable name stops after the | |
2b92dfce | 288 | control character. Thus C<"$^XYZ"> continues to be synonymous with |
7711098a | 289 | C<$^X . "YZ"> as before. |
2b92dfce GS |
290 | |
291 | As before, lexical variables may not have names beginning with control | |
292 | characters. As before, variables whose names begin with a control | |
14218588 GS |
293 | character are always forced to be in package `main'. All such variables |
294 | are reserved for future extensions, except those that begin with | |
09bef843 | 295 | C<^_>, which may be used by user programs and are guaranteed not to |
14218588 | 296 | acquire special meaning in any future version of Perl. |
2b92dfce | 297 | |
09bef843 SB |
298 | =head2 C<use attrs> implicit in subroutine attributes |
299 | ||
300 | Formerly, if you wanted to mark a subroutine as being a method call or | |
301 | as requiring an automatic lock() when it is entered, you had to declare | |
302 | that with a C<use attrs> pragma in the body of the subroutine. | |
303 | That can now be accomplished with a declaration syntax, like this: | |
304 | ||
305 | sub mymethod : locked, method ; | |
306 | ... | |
307 | sub mymethod : locked, method { | |
308 | ... | |
309 | } | |
310 | ||
311 | F<AutoSplit.pm> and F<SelfLoader.pm> have been updated to keep the attributes | |
312 | with the stubs they provide. See L<attributes>. | |
313 | ||
fbad3eb5 GS |
314 | =head1 Significant bug fixes |
315 | ||
316 | =head2 E<lt>HANDLEE<gt> on empty files | |
317 | ||
318 | With C<$/> set to C<undef>, slurping an empty file returns a string of | |
14218588 GS |
319 | zero length (instead of C<undef>, as it used to) the first time the |
320 | HANDLE is read. Further reads yield C<undef>. | |
fbad3eb5 GS |
321 | |
322 | This means that the following will append "foo" to an empty file (it used | |
14218588 | 323 | to do nothing): |
fbad3eb5 GS |
324 | |
325 | perl -0777 -pi -e 's/^/foo/' empty_file | |
326 | ||
14218588 | 327 | The behaviour of: |
fbad3eb5 GS |
328 | |
329 | perl -pi -e 's/^/foo/' empty_file | |
330 | ||
331 | is unchanged (it continues to leave the file empty). | |
332 | ||
0244c3a4 GS |
333 | =head2 C<eval '...'> improvements |
334 | ||
335 | Line numbers (as reflected by caller() and most diagnostics) within | |
336 | C<eval '...'> were often incorrect when here documents were involved. | |
337 | This has been corrected. | |
338 | ||
339 | Lexical lookups for variables appearing in C<eval '...'> within | |
340 | functions that were themselves called within an C<eval '...'> were | |
14218588 GS |
341 | searching the wrong place for lexicals. The lexical search now |
342 | correctly ends at the subroutine's block boundary. | |
0244c3a4 GS |
343 | |
344 | Parsing of here documents used to be flawed when they appeared as | |
345 | the replacement expression in C<eval 's/.../.../e'>. This has | |
346 | been fixed. | |
347 | ||
45bc9206 GS |
348 | =head2 Automatic flushing of output buffers |
349 | ||
14218588 GS |
350 | fork(), exec(), system(), qx//, and pipe open()s now flush buffers |
351 | of all files opened for output when the operation | |
352 | was attempted. This mostly eliminates confusing | |
45bc9206 | 353 | buffering mishaps suffered by users unaware of how Perl internally |
14218588 | 354 | handles I/O. |
45bc9206 | 355 | |
af8c498a GS |
356 | =head2 Better diagnostics on meaningless filehandle operations |
357 | ||
358 | Constructs such as C<open(E<lt>FHE<gt>)> and C<close(E<lt>FHE<gt>)> | |
359 | are compile time errors. Attempting to read from filehandles that | |
360 | were opened only for writing will now produce warnings (just as | |
361 | writing to read-only filehandles does). | |
362 | ||
54195c32 MJD |
363 | =head2 Buffered data discarded from input filehandle when dup'ed. |
364 | ||
365 | C<open(NEW, "E<lt>&OLD")> now discards any data that was previously | |
366 | read and buffered in C<OLD>. The next read operation on C<NEW> will | |
367 | return the same data as the corresponding operation on C<OLD>. | |
368 | Formerly, it would have returned the data from the start of the | |
369 | following disk block instead. | |
370 | ||
ba8251e8 GS |
371 | =head1 Supported Platforms |
372 | ||
5fdc711f GS |
373 | =over 4 |
374 | ||
375 | =item * | |
376 | ||
6c67e1bb TC |
377 | VM/ESA is now supported. |
378 | ||
5fdc711f GS |
379 | =item * |
380 | ||
ee3907e2 JH |
381 | Siemens BS2000 is now supported under the POSIX Shell. |
382 | ||
383 | =item * | |
384 | ||
2bb14304 JH |
385 | The Mach CThreads (NEXTSTEP, OPENSTEP) are now supported by the Thread |
386 | extension. | |
6c67e1bb | 387 | |
5fdc711f GS |
388 | =item * |
389 | ||
ee3907e2 | 390 | GNU/Hurd is now supported. |
6c67e1bb | 391 | |
00ad96e1 JH |
392 | =item * |
393 | ||
394 | Rhapsody is now supported. | |
395 | ||
27806c82 JH |
396 | =item * |
397 | ||
398 | EPOC is is now supported (on Psion 5). | |
399 | ||
5fdc711f GS |
400 | =back |
401 | ||
6c67e1bb TC |
402 | =head1 New tests |
403 | ||
404 | =over 4 | |
405 | ||
09bef843 SB |
406 | =item lib/attrs |
407 | ||
408 | Compatibility tests for C<sub : attrs> vs the older C<use attrs>. | |
409 | ||
410 | =item lib/io_const | |
6c67e1bb TC |
411 | |
412 | IO constants (SEEK_*, _IO*). | |
14218588 | 413 | |
09bef843 | 414 | =item lib/io_dir |
6c67e1bb TC |
415 | |
416 | Directory-related IO methods (new, read, close, rewind, tied delete). | |
417 | ||
09bef843 | 418 | =item lib/io_multihomed |
6c67e1bb TC |
419 | |
420 | INET sockets with multi-homed hosts. | |
421 | ||
09bef843 | 422 | =item lib/io_poll |
6c67e1bb TC |
423 | |
424 | IO poll(). | |
425 | ||
09bef843 | 426 | =item lib/io_unix |
6c67e1bb TC |
427 | |
428 | UNIX sockets. | |
429 | ||
09bef843 SB |
430 | =item op/attrs |
431 | ||
432 | Regression tests for C<my ($x,@y,%z) : attrs> and <sub : attrs>. | |
433 | ||
6c67e1bb TC |
434 | =item op/filetest |
435 | ||
436 | File test operators. | |
437 | ||
438 | =item op/lex_assign | |
439 | ||
5fdc711f | 440 | Verify operations that access pad objects (lexicals and temporaries). |
6c67e1bb TC |
441 | |
442 | =back | |
e02fdbd2 | 443 | |
ba8251e8 GS |
444 | =head1 Modules and Pragmata |
445 | ||
3e8c4fa0 JH |
446 | =head2 Modules |
447 | ||
b7d8191e JH |
448 | =over 4 |
449 | ||
09bef843 SB |
450 | =item attributes |
451 | ||
452 | While used internally by Perl as a pragma, this module also | |
453 | provides a way to fetch subroutine and variable attributes. | |
454 | See L<attributes>. | |
455 | ||
f29c64d6 GS |
456 | =item ByteLoader |
457 | ||
458 | The ByteLoader is a dedication extension to generate and run | |
459 | Perl bytecode. See L<ByteLoader>. | |
460 | ||
461 | =item B | |
462 | ||
463 | The Perl Compiler suite has been extensively reworked for this | |
464 | release. | |
465 | ||
466 | =item Devel::DProf | |
467 | ||
468 | Devel::DProf, a Perl source code profiler has been added. | |
469 | ||
b7d8191e JH |
470 | =item Dumpvalue |
471 | ||
472 | Added Dumpvalue module provides screen dumps of Perl data. | |
473 | ||
474 | =item Benchmark | |
475 | ||
868cb350 | 476 | You can now run tests for I<n> seconds instead of guessing the right |
14218588 GS |
477 | number of tests to run: e.g. timethese(-5, ...) will run each |
478 | code for at least 5 CPU seconds. Zero as the "number of repetitions" | |
155776c0 | 479 | means "for at least 3 CPU seconds". The output format has also |
14218588 | 480 | changed. For example: |
155776c0 JH |
481 | |
482 | use Benchmark;$x=3;timethese(-5,{a=>sub{$x*$x},b=>sub{$x**2}}) | |
483 | ||
484 | will now output something like this: | |
485 | ||
486 | Benchmark: running a, b, each for at least 5 CPU seconds... | |
487 | a: 5 wallclock secs ( 5.77 usr + 0.00 sys = 5.77 CPU) @ 200551.91/s (n=1156516) | |
488 | b: 4 wallclock secs ( 5.00 usr + 0.02 sys = 5.02 CPU) @ 159605.18/s (n=800686) | |
489 | ||
490 | New features: "each for at least N CPU seconds...", "wallclock secs", | |
491 | and the "@ operations/CPU second (n=operations)". | |
b7d8191e | 492 | |
f505c983 GS |
493 | =item Devel::Peek |
494 | ||
495 | The Devel::Peek module provides access to the internal representation | |
14218588 | 496 | of Perl variables and data. It is a data debugging tool for the XS programmer. |
f505c983 | 497 | |
b7d8191e JH |
498 | =item Fcntl |
499 | ||
500 | More Fcntl constants added: F_SETLK64, F_SETLKW64, O_LARGEFILE for | |
14218588 | 501 | large (more than 4G) file access (64-bit support is not yet |
b7d8191e JH |
502 | working, though, so no need to get overly excited), Free/Net/OpenBSD |
503 | locking behaviour flags F_FLOCK, F_POSIX, Linux F_SHLCK, and | |
504 | O_ACCMODE: the mask of O_RDONLY, O_WRONLY, and O_RDWR. | |
505 | ||
f505c983 GS |
506 | =item File::Spec |
507 | ||
508 | New methods have been added to the File::Spec module: devnull() returns | |
19799a22 | 509 | the name of the null device (/dev/null on Unix) and tmpdir() the name of |
14218588 | 510 | the temp directory (normally /tmp on Unix). There are now also methods |
f505c983 | 511 | to convert between absolute and relative filenames: abs2rel() and |
14218588 GS |
512 | rel2abs(). For compatibility with operating systems that specify volume |
513 | names in file paths, the splitpath(), splitdir(), and catdir() methods | |
f505c983 GS |
514 | have been added. |
515 | ||
516 | =item File::Spec::Functions | |
517 | ||
518 | The new File::Spec::Functions modules provides a function interface | |
14218588 | 519 | to the File::Spec module. Allows shorthand |
f505c983 | 520 | |
14218588 | 521 | $fullname = catfile($dir1, $dir2, $file); |
f505c983 GS |
522 | |
523 | instead of | |
524 | ||
14218588 | 525 | $fullname = File::Spec->catfile($dir1, $dir2, $file); |
f505c983 | 526 | |
e16b8f49 WM |
527 | =item Math::BigInt |
528 | ||
14218588 | 529 | The logical operations C<E<lt>E<lt>>, C<E<gt>E<gt>>, C<&>, C<|>, |
e16b8f49 WM |
530 | and C<~> are now supported on bigints. |
531 | ||
b7d8191e | 532 | =item Math::Complex |
7711098a | 533 | |
14218588 | 534 | The accessor methods Re, Im, arg, abs, rho, and theta can now also |
868cb350 | 535 | act as mutators (accessor $z->Re(), mutator $z->Re(3)). |
b7d8191e JH |
536 | |
537 | =item Math::Trig | |
538 | ||
14218588 GS |
539 | A little bit of radial trigonometry (cylindrical and spherical), |
540 | radial coordinate conversions, and the great circle distance were added. | |
b7d8191e | 541 | |
f4b9d880 RA |
542 | =item SDBM_File |
543 | ||
544 | An EXISTS method has been added to this module (and sdbm_exists() has | |
545 | been added to the underlying sdbm library), so one can now call exists | |
14218588 | 546 | on an SDBM_File tied hash and get the correct result, rather than a |
f4b9d880 RA |
547 | runtime error. |
548 | ||
06ef4121 PC |
549 | =item Time::Local |
550 | ||
551 | The timelocal() and timegm() functions used to silently return bogus | |
552 | results when the date exceeded the machine's integer range. They | |
d3a1d564 JH |
553 | now consistently croak() if the date falls in an unsupported range-- |
554 | but on the other hand they now accept "out-of-limits" day-of-month | |
555 | to make "Julian date" conversions easier. | |
06ef4121 | 556 | |
8fe0a5c4 JD |
557 | =item Win32 |
558 | ||
559 | The error return value in list context has been changed for all functions | |
14218588 GS |
560 | that return a list of values. Previously these functions returned a list |
561 | with a single element C<undef> if an error occurred. Now these functions | |
562 | return the empty list in these situations. This applies to the following | |
8fe0a5c4 JD |
563 | functions: |
564 | ||
14218588 GS |
565 | Win32::FsType |
566 | Win32::GetOSVersion | |
8fe0a5c4 JD |
567 | |
568 | The remaining functions are unchanged and continue to return C<undef> on | |
569 | error even in list context. | |
570 | ||
571 | The Win32::SetLastError(ERROR) function has been added as a complement | |
572 | to the Win32::GetLastError() function. | |
573 | ||
574 | The new Win32::GetFullPathName(FILENAME) returns the full absolute | |
14218588 GS |
575 | pathname for FILENAME in scalar context. In list context it returns |
576 | a two-element list containing the fully qualified directory name and | |
8fe0a5c4 JD |
577 | the filename. |
578 | ||
9fe6733a PM |
579 | =item DBM Filters |
580 | ||
581 | A new feature called "DBM Filters" has been added to all the | |
14218588 GS |
582 | DBM modules--DB_File, GDBM_File, NDBM_File, ODBM_File, and SDBM_File. |
583 | DBM Filters add four new methods to each DBM module: | |
9fe6733a PM |
584 | |
585 | filter_store_key | |
586 | filter_store_value | |
587 | filter_fetch_key | |
588 | filter_fetch_value | |
589 | ||
14218588 | 590 | These can be used to filter key-value pairs before the pairs are |
9fe6733a PM |
591 | written to the database or just after they are read from the database. |
592 | See L<perldbmfilter> for further information. | |
593 | ||
b7d8191e | 594 | =back |
3e8c4fa0 JH |
595 | |
596 | =head2 Pragmata | |
597 | ||
09bef843 SB |
598 | C<use attrs> is now obsolescent, and is only provided for |
599 | backward-compatibility. It's been replaced by the C<sub : attributes> | |
600 | syntax. See L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes"> and L<attributes>. | |
601 | ||
14218588 | 602 | C<use utf8> to enable UTF-8 and Unicode support. |
43165c05 GS |
603 | |
604 | C<use caller 'encoding'> allows modules to inherit pragmatic attributes | |
605 | from the caller's context. C<encoding> is currently the only supported | |
606 | attribute. | |
9d73390d | 607 | |
4438c4b7 | 608 | Lexical warnings pragma, C<use warnings;>, to control optional warnings. |
6c67e1bb | 609 | |
14218588 | 610 | C<use filetest> to control the behaviour of filetests (C<-r> C<-w> ...). |
6c67e1bb | 611 | Currently only one subpragma implemented, "use filetest 'access';", |
14218588 | 612 | that enables the use of access(2) or equivalent to check |
6c67e1bb | 613 | permissions instead of using stat(2) as usual. This matters |
14218588 GS |
614 | in filesystems where there are ACLs (access control lists): the |
615 | stat(2) might lie, but access(2) knows better. | |
6c67e1bb | 616 | |
ba8251e8 GS |
617 | =head1 Utility Changes |
618 | ||
e02fdbd2 GS |
619 | Todo. |
620 | ||
ba8251e8 GS |
621 | =head1 Documentation Changes |
622 | ||
5fdc711f GS |
623 | =over 4 |
624 | ||
625 | =item perlopentut.pod | |
f8284313 | 626 | |
5fdc711f GS |
627 | A tutorial on using open() effectively. |
628 | ||
629 | =item perlreftut.pod | |
630 | ||
631 | A tutorial that introduces the essentials of references. | |
632 | ||
14218588 GS |
633 | =item perltootc.pod |
634 | ||
635 | A tutorial on managing class data for object modules. | |
636 | ||
5fdc711f | 637 | =back |
e02fdbd2 | 638 | |
ba8251e8 GS |
639 | =head1 New Diagnostics |
640 | ||
09bef843 SB |
641 | =item "my sub" not yet implemented |
642 | ||
643 | (F) Lexically scoped subroutines are not yet implemented. Don't try that | |
644 | yet. | |
645 | ||
646 | =item %s package attribute may clash with future reserved word: %s | |
647 | ||
648 | (W) A lowercase attribute name was used that had a package-specific handler. | |
649 | That name might have a meaning to Perl itself some day, even though it | |
650 | doesn't yet. Perhaps you should use a mixed-case attribute name, instead. | |
651 | See L<attributes>. | |
652 | ||
6b121555 JH |
653 | =item /%s/: Unrecognized escape \\%c passed through |
654 | ||
655 | (W) You used a backslash-character combination which is not recognized | |
7711098a | 656 | by Perl. This combination appears in an interpolated variable or a |
6b121555 JH |
657 | C<'>-delimited regular expression. |
658 | ||
af8c498a | 659 | =item Filehandle %s opened only for output |
6b121555 | 660 | |
af8c498a GS |
661 | (W) You tried to read from a filehandle opened only for writing. If you |
662 | intended it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with | |
663 | "+E<lt>" or "+E<gt>" or "+E<gt>E<gt>" instead of with "E<lt>" or nothing. If | |
664 | you intended only to read from the file, use "E<lt>". See | |
665 | L<perlfunc/open>. | |
e02fdbd2 | 666 | |
09bef843 SB |
667 | =item Invalid %s attribute: %s |
668 | ||
669 | The indicated attribute for a subroutine or variable was not recognized | |
670 | by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>. | |
671 | ||
672 | =item Invalid %s attributes: %s | |
673 | ||
674 | The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable were not recognized | |
675 | by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>. | |
676 | ||
677 | =item Invalid separator character %s in attribute list | |
678 | ||
679 | (F) Something other than a comma or whitespace was seen between the | |
680 | elements of an attribute list. If the previous attribute | |
681 | had a parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that list was terminated | |
682 | too soon. See L<attributes>. | |
683 | ||
06eaf0bc GS |
684 | =item Missing command in piped open |
685 | ||
686 | (W) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or C<open(FH, "command |")> | |
687 | construction, but the command was missing or blank. | |
688 | ||
09bef843 SB |
689 | =item Missing name in "my sub" |
690 | ||
691 | (F) The reserved syntax for lexically scoped subroutines requires that they | |
692 | have a name with which they can be found. | |
693 | ||
af8c498a GS |
694 | =item Unrecognized escape \\%c passed through |
695 | ||
696 | (W) You used a backslash-character combination which is not recognized | |
697 | by Perl. | |
698 | ||
09bef843 SB |
699 | =item Unterminated attribute parameter in attribute list |
700 | ||
701 | (F) The lexer saw an opening (left) parenthesis character while parsing an | |
702 | attribute list, but the matching closing (right) parenthesis | |
703 | character was not found. You may need to add (or remove) a backslash | |
704 | character to get your parentheses to balance. See L<attributes>. | |
705 | ||
706 | =item Unterminated attribute list | |
707 | ||
708 | (F) The lexer found something other than a simple identifier at the start | |
709 | of an attribute, and it wasn't a semicolon or the start of a | |
710 | block. Perhaps you terminated the parameter list of the previous attribute | |
711 | too soon. See L<attributes>. | |
712 | ||
f10b0346 | 713 | =item defined(@array) is deprecated |
69794302 MJD |
714 | |
715 | (D) defined() is not usually useful on arrays because it checks for an | |
716 | undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the array is empty, | |
717 | just use C<if (@array) { # not empty }> for example. | |
718 | ||
f10b0346 | 719 | =item defined(%hash) is deprecated |
69794302 MJD |
720 | |
721 | (D) defined() is not usually useful on hashes because it checks for an | |
722 | undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the hash is empty, | |
723 | just use C<if (%hash) { # not empty }> for example. | |
724 | ||
09bef843 SB |
725 | =item Invalid separator character %s in subroutine attribute list |
726 | ||
727 | (F) Something other than a comma or whitespace was seen between the | |
728 | elements of a subroutine attribute list. If the previous attribute | |
729 | had a parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that list was terminated | |
730 | too soon. | |
731 | ||
6bc102ca GS |
732 | =item Possible Y2K bug: %s |
733 | ||
734 | (W) You are concatenating the number 19 with another number, which | |
735 | could be a potential Year 2000 problem. | |
736 | ||
09bef843 SB |
737 | =item Unterminated attribute parameter in subroutine attribute list |
738 | ||
739 | (F) The lexer saw an opening (left) parenthesis character while parsing a | |
740 | subroutine attribute list, but the matching closing (right) parenthesis | |
741 | character was not found. You may need to add (or remove) a backslash | |
742 | character to get your parentheses to balance. | |
743 | ||
744 | =item Unterminated subroutine attribute list | |
745 | ||
746 | (F) The lexer found something other than a simple identifier at the start | |
747 | of a subroutine attribute, and it wasn't a semicolon or the start of a | |
748 | block. Perhaps you terminated the parameter list of the previous attribute | |
749 | too soon. | |
750 | ||
eb6e2d6f GS |
751 | =item /%s/ should probably be written as "%s" |
752 | ||
753 | (W) You have used a pattern where Perl expected to find a string, | |
754 | like in the first argument to C<join>. Perl will treat the true | |
755 | or false result of matching the pattern against $_ as the string, | |
756 | which is probably not what you had in mind. | |
757 | ||
ba8251e8 GS |
758 | =head1 Obsolete Diagnostics |
759 | ||
e02fdbd2 GS |
760 | Todo. |
761 | ||
04d420f9 JH |
762 | =head1 Configuration Changes |
763 | ||
27806c82 JH |
764 | =head2 installusrbinperl |
765 | ||
04d420f9 JH |
766 | You can use "Configure -Uinstallusrbinperl" which causes installperl |
767 | to skip installing perl also as /usr/bin/perl. This is useful if you | |
768 | prefer not to modify /usr/bin for some reason or another but harmful | |
769 | because many scripts assume to find Perl in /usr/bin/perl. | |
770 | ||
27806c82 | 771 | =head2 SOCKS support |
555834d1 | 772 | |
27806c82 JH |
773 | You can use "Configure -Dusesocks" which causes Perl to probe |
774 | for the SOCKS proxy protocol library, http://www.socks.nec.com/ | |
04d420f9 | 775 | |
3175b8cd JH |
776 | =head2 -A flag |
777 | ||
778 | You can "post-edit" the Configure variables using the Configure -A | |
779 | flag. The editing happens immediately after the platform specific | |
780 | hints files have been processed but before the actual configuration | |
781 | process starts. Run Configure -h to find out the full -A syntax. | |
782 | ||
ba8251e8 GS |
783 | =head1 BUGS |
784 | ||
785 | If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the headers of | |
14218588 | 786 | articles recently posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup. |
ba8251e8 GS |
787 | There may also be information at http://www.perl.com/perl/, the Perl |
788 | Home Page. | |
789 | ||
790 | If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the B<perlbug> | |
14218588 | 791 | program included with your release. Make sure to trim your bug down |
ba8251e8 | 792 | to a tiny but sufficient test case. Your bug report, along with the |
14218588 | 793 | output of C<perl -V>, will be sent off to perlbug@perl.com to be |
ba8251e8 GS |
794 | analysed by the Perl porting team. |
795 | ||
796 | =head1 SEE ALSO | |
797 | ||
798 | The F<Changes> file for exhaustive details on what changed. | |
799 | ||
800 | The F<INSTALL> file for how to build Perl. | |
801 | ||
802 | The F<README> file for general stuff. | |
803 | ||
804 | The F<Artistic> and F<Copying> files for copyright information. | |
805 | ||
806 | =head1 HISTORY | |
807 | ||
808 | Written by Gurusamy Sarathy <F<gsar@umich.edu>>, with many contributions | |
809 | from The Perl Porters. | |
810 | ||
811 | Send omissions or corrections to <F<perlbug@perl.com>>. | |
812 | ||
813 | =cut |