Commit | Line | Data |
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ba370e9b | 1 | =head1 NAME |
cc0fca54 | 2 | |
f39f21d8 | 3 | perldelta - what is new for perl v5.8.0 |
cc0fca54 GS |
4 | |
5 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
6 | ||
44da0e71 JH |
7 | This document describes differences between the 5.6.0 release |
8 | and the 5.8.0 release. | |
f39f21d8 | 9 | |
44da0e71 JH |
10 | Many of the bug fixes in 5.8.0 were already seen in the 5.6.1 |
11 | maintenance release since the two releases were kept closely | |
12 | coordinated. | |
13 | ||
4f8e5944 JH |
14 | If you are upgrading from Perl 5.005_03, you might also want |
15 | to read L<perl56delta>. | |
16 | ||
44da0e71 | 17 | =head1 Highlights In 5.8.0 |
76663d67 JH |
18 | |
19 | =over 4 | |
20 | ||
21 | =item * | |
22 | ||
23 | Better Unicode support | |
24 | ||
25 | =item * | |
26 | ||
27 | New Thread Implementation | |
28 | ||
29 | =item * | |
30 | ||
31 | Many New Modules | |
32 | ||
33 | =item * | |
34 | ||
35 | Better Numeric Accuracy | |
36 | ||
37 | =item * | |
38 | ||
39 | Safe Signals | |
40 | ||
41 | =item * | |
42 | ||
43 | More Extensive Regression Testing | |
44 | ||
45 | =back | |
46 | ||
f39f21d8 JH |
47 | =head1 Incompatible Changes |
48 | ||
6cc60dfb JH |
49 | =head2 Binary Incompatibility |
50 | ||
764bd7e0 JH |
51 | B<Perl 5.8 is not binary compatible with earlier releases of Perl.> |
52 | ||
53 | B<You have to recompile your XS modules.> | |
54 | ||
55 | (Pure Perl modules should continue to work.) | |
56 | ||
c5af7db2 | 57 | The major reason for the discontinuity is the new IO architecture |
365d6a78 | 58 | called PerlIO. PerlIO is the default configuration because |
764bd7e0 JH |
59 | without it many new features of Perl 5.8 cannot be used. In other |
60 | words: you just have to recompile your modules, sorry about that. | |
6cc60dfb | 61 | |
365d6a78 | 62 | In future releases of Perl, non-PerlIO aware XS modules may become |
6cc60dfb JH |
63 | completely unsupported. This shouldn't be too difficult for module |
64 | authors, however: PerlIO has been designed as a drop-in replacement | |
65 | (at the source code level) for the stdio interface. | |
66 | ||
764bd7e0 JH |
67 | Depending on your platform, there are also other reasons why |
68 | we decided to break binary compatibility, please read on. | |
69 | ||
77c8cf41 JH |
70 | =head2 64-bit platforms and malloc |
71 | ||
057b7f2b | 72 | If your pointers are 64 bits wide, the Perl malloc is no longer being |
c2e23569 | 73 | used because it does not work well with 8-byte pointers. Also, |
61947107 | 74 | usually the system mallocs on such platforms are much better optimized |
c2e23569 JH |
75 | for such large memory models than the Perl malloc. Some memory-hungry |
76 | Perl applications like the PDL don't work well with Perl's malloc. | |
77 | Finally, other applications than Perl (like modperl) tend to prefer | |
78 | the system malloc. Such platforms include Alpha and 64-bit HPPA, | |
79 | MIPS, PPC, and Sparc. | |
77c8cf41 JH |
80 | |
81 | =head2 AIX Dynaloading | |
82 | ||
83 | The AIX dynaloading now uses in AIX releases 4.3 and newer the native | |
84 | dlopen interface of AIX instead of the old emulated interface. This | |
85 | change will probably break backward compatibility with compiled | |
86 | modules. The change was made to make Perl more compliant with other | |
87 | applications like modperl which are using the AIX native interface. | |
88 | ||
95f0a2f1 SB |
89 | =head2 Attributes for C<my> variables now handled at run-time. |
90 | ||
91 | The C<my EXPR : ATTRS> syntax now applies variable attributes at | |
92 | run-time. (Subroutine and C<our> variables still get attributes applied | |
93 | at compile-time.) See L<attributes> for additional details. In particular, | |
94 | however, this allows variable attributes to be useful for C<tie> interfaces, | |
c4f1ce08 JH |
95 | which was a deficiency of earlier releases. Note that the new semantics |
96 | doesn't work with the Attribute::Handlers module (as of version 0.76). | |
95f0a2f1 | 97 | |
77c8cf41 JH |
98 | =head2 Socket Extension Dynamic in VMS |
99 | ||
100 | The Socket extension is now dynamically loaded instead of being | |
101 | statically built in. This may or may not be a problem with ancient | |
102 | TCP/IP stacks of VMS: we do not know since we weren't able to test | |
103 | Perl in such configurations. | |
104 | ||
00bb525a CB |
105 | =head2 IEEE-format Floating Point Default on OpenVMS Alpha |
106 | ||
107 | Perl now uses IEEE format (T_FLOAT) as the default internal floating | |
108 | point format on OpenVMS Alpha, potentially breaking binary compatibility | |
109 | with external libraries or existing data. G_FLOAT is still available as | |
110 | a configuration option. The default on VAX (D_FLOAT) has not changed. | |
111 | ||
eb0cc9e3 JH |
112 | =head2 New Unicode Properties |
113 | ||
114 | Unicode I<scripts> are now supported. Scripts are similar to (and superior | |
115 | to) Unicode I<blocks>. The difference between scripts and blocks is that | |
116 | scripts are the glyphs used by a language or a group of languages, while | |
117 | the blocks are more artificial groupings of (mostly) 256 characters based | |
118 | on the Unicode numbering. | |
119 | ||
120 | In general, scripts are more inclusive, but not universally so. For | |
121 | example, while the script C<Latin> includes all the Latin characters and | |
122 | their various diacritic-adorned versions, it does not include the various | |
123 | punctuation or digits (since they are not solely C<Latin>). | |
124 | ||
125 | A number of other properties are now supported, including C<\p{L&}>, | |
126 | C<\p{Any}> C<\p{Assigned}>, C<\p{Unassigned}>, C<\p{Blank}> and | |
127 | C<\p{SpacePerl}> (along with their C<\P{...}> versions, of course). | |
128 | See L<perlunicode> for details, and more additions. | |
129 | ||
130 | The C<In> or C<Is> prefix to names used with the C<\p{...}> and C<\P{...}> | |
131 | are now almost always optional. The only exception is that a C<In> prefix | |
132 | is required to signify a Unicode block when a block name conflicts with a | |
133 | script name. For example, C<\p{Tibetan}> refers to the script, while | |
134 | C<\p{InTibetan}> refers to the block. When there is no name conflict, you | |
135 | can omit the C<In> from the block name (e.g. C<\p{BraillePatterns}>), but | |
136 | to be safe, it's probably best to always use the C<In>). | |
77c8cf41 | 137 | |
c2e23569 | 138 | =head2 REF(...) Instead Of SCALAR(...) |
77c8cf41 | 139 | |
057b7f2b | 140 | A reference to a reference now stringifies as "REF(0x81485ec)" instead |
c2e23569 JH |
141 | of "SCALAR(0x81485ec)" in order to be more consistent with the return |
142 | value of ref(). | |
77c8cf41 | 143 | |
79f69e33 JH |
144 | =head2 pack/unpack D/F recycled |
145 | ||
66023b77 | 146 | The undocumented pack/unpack template letters D/F have been recycled |
79f69e33 JH |
147 | for better use: now they stand for long double (if supported by the |
148 | platform) and NV (Perl internal floating point type). (They used | |
6123004a | 149 | to be aliases for d/f, but you never knew that.) |
79f69e33 | 150 | |
c2e23569 | 151 | =head2 Deprecations |
77c8cf41 | 152 | |
61947107 | 153 | =over 4 |
77c8cf41 | 154 | |
61947107 | 155 | =item * |
f39f21d8 | 156 | |
61947107 JH |
157 | The semantics of bless(REF, REF) were unclear and until someone proves |
158 | it to make some sense, it is forbidden. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
159 | |
160 | =item * | |
161 | ||
c2e23569 JH |
162 | The obsolete chat2 library that should never have been allowed |
163 | to escape the laboratory has been decommissioned. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
164 | |
165 | =item * | |
166 | ||
58175c9b JH |
167 | The builtin dump() function has probably outlived most of its |
168 | usefulness. The core-dumping functionality will remain in future | |
169 | available as an explicit call to C<CORE::dump()>, but in future | |
170 | releases the behaviour of an unqualified C<dump()> call may change. | |
171 | ||
172 | =item * | |
173 | ||
61947107 JH |
174 | The very dusty examples in the eg/ directory have been removed. |
175 | Suggestions for new shiny examples welcome but the main issue is that | |
176 | the examples need to be documented, tested and (most importantly) | |
177 | maintained. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
178 | |
179 | =item * | |
180 | ||
c2e23569 JH |
181 | The (bogus) escape sequences \8 and \9 now give an optional warning |
182 | ("Unrecognized escape passed through"). There is no need to \-escape | |
183 | any C<\w> character. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
184 | |
185 | =item * | |
186 | ||
c2e23569 | 187 | The list of filenames from glob() (or <...>) is now by default sorted |
44da0e71 JH |
188 | alphabetically to be csh-compliant (which is what happened before |
189 | in most UNIX platforms). (bsd_glob() does still sort platform | |
c2e23569 | 190 | natively, ASCII or EBCDIC, unless GLOB_ALPHASORT is specified.) |
f39f21d8 JH |
191 | |
192 | =item * | |
193 | ||
44da0e71 JH |
194 | Spurious syntax errors generated in certain situations, when glob() |
195 | caused File::Glob to be loaded for the first time, have been fixed. | |
196 | ||
197 | =item * | |
198 | ||
c2e23569 JH |
199 | Although "you shouldn't do that", it was possible to write code that |
200 | depends on Perl's hashed key order (Data::Dumper does this). The new | |
201 | algorithm "One-at-a-Time" produces a different hashed key order. | |
202 | More details are in L</"Performance Enhancements">. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
203 | |
204 | =item * | |
205 | ||
61947107 JH |
206 | lstat(FILEHANDLE) now gives a warning because the operation makes no sense. |
207 | In future releases this may become a fatal error. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
208 | |
209 | =item * | |
210 | ||
057b7f2b | 211 | The C<package;> syntax (C<package> without an argument) has been |
c2e23569 JH |
212 | deprecated. Its semantics were never that clear and its |
213 | implementation even less so. If you have used that feature to | |
214 | disallow all but fully qualified variables, C<use strict;> instead. | |
61947107 JH |
215 | |
216 | =item * | |
217 | ||
c2e23569 JH |
218 | The unimplemented POSIX regex features [[.cc.]] and [[=c=]] are still |
219 | recognised but now cause fatal errors. The previous behaviour of | |
220 | ignoring them by default and warning if requested was unacceptable | |
221 | since it, in a way, falsely promised that the features could be used. | |
61947107 JH |
222 | |
223 | =item * | |
224 | ||
c2e23569 JH |
225 | The current user-visible implementation of pseudo-hashes (the weird |
226 | use of the first array element) is deprecated starting from Perl 5.8.0 | |
227 | and will be removed in Perl 5.10.0, and the feature will be | |
228 | implemented differently. Not only is the current interface rather | |
229 | ugly, but the current implementation slows down normal array and hash | |
230 | use quite noticeably. The C<fields> pragma interface will remain | |
a6d3fe4f JH |
231 | available. The I<restricted hashes> interface is expected to |
232 | be the replacement interface (see L<Hash::Util>). | |
61947107 JH |
233 | |
234 | =item * | |
235 | ||
aecce728 | 236 | The syntaxes C<< @a->[...] >> and C<< %h->{...} >> have now been deprecated. |
61947107 JH |
237 | |
238 | =item * | |
239 | ||
c2e23569 JH |
240 | After years of trying the suidperl is considered to be too complex to |
241 | ever be considered truly secure. The suidperl functionality is likely | |
242 | to be removed in a future release. | |
243 | ||
244 | =item * | |
245 | ||
6ba475fe JH |
246 | The 5.005 threads model (module C<Thread>) is deprecated and expected |
247 | to be removed in Perl 5.10. Multithreaded code should be migrated to | |
248 | the new ithreads model (see L<threads> and L<threads::shared>). | |
249 | ||
250 | =item * | |
251 | ||
c2e23569 JH |
252 | The long deprecated uppercase aliases for the string comparison |
253 | operators (EQ, NE, LT, LE, GE, GT) have now been removed. | |
254 | ||
255 | =item * | |
256 | ||
257 | The tr///C and tr///U features have been removed and will not return; | |
258 | the interface was a mistake. Sorry about that. For similar | |
259 | functionality, see pack('U0', ...) and pack('C0', ...). | |
f39f21d8 | 260 | |
420cdfc1 ST |
261 | =item * |
262 | ||
263 | Earlier Perls treated "sub foo (@bar)" as equivalent to "sub foo (@)". | |
264 | The prototypes are now checked at compile-time for invalid characters. | |
265 | An optional warning is generated ("Illegal character in prototype...") | |
266 | but this may be upgraded to a fatal error in a future release. | |
267 | ||
f39f21d8 JH |
268 | =back |
269 | ||
61947107 JH |
270 | =head1 Core Enhancements |
271 | ||
77c8cf41 | 272 | =head2 PerlIO is Now The Default |
f39f21d8 JH |
273 | |
274 | =over 4 | |
275 | ||
276 | =item * | |
277 | ||
77c8cf41 JH |
278 | IO is now by default done via PerlIO rather than system's "stdio". |
279 | PerlIO allows "layers" to be "pushed" onto a file handle to alter the | |
280 | handle's behaviour. Layers can be specified at open time via 3-arg | |
281 | form of open: | |
f39f21d8 | 282 | |
77c8cf41 | 283 | open($fh,'>:crlf :utf8', $path) || ... |
f39f21d8 | 284 | |
77c8cf41 | 285 | or on already opened handles via extended C<binmode>: |
f39f21d8 | 286 | |
77c8cf41 | 287 | binmode($fh,':encoding(iso-8859-7)'); |
f39f21d8 | 288 | |
77c8cf41 JH |
289 | The built-in layers are: unix (low level read/write), stdio (as in |
290 | previous Perls), perlio (re-implementation of stdio buffering in a | |
291 | portable manner), crlf (does CRLF <=> "\n" translation as on Win32, | |
292 | but available on any platform). A mmap layer may be available if | |
293 | platform supports it (mostly UNIXes). | |
f39f21d8 | 294 | |
77c8cf41 JH |
295 | Layers to be applied by default may be specified via the 'open' pragma. |
296 | ||
297 | See L</"Installation and Configuration Improvements"> for the effects | |
298 | of PerlIO on your architecture name. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
299 | |
300 | =item * | |
301 | ||
77c8cf41 JH |
302 | File handles can be marked as accepting Perl's internal encoding of Unicode |
303 | (UTF-8 or UTF-EBCDIC depending on platform) by a pseudo layer ":utf8" : | |
f39f21d8 | 304 | |
77c8cf41 | 305 | open($fh,">:utf8","Uni.txt"); |
f39f21d8 | 306 | |
77c8cf41 JH |
307 | Note for EBCDIC users: the pseudo layer ":utf8" is erroneously named |
308 | for you since it's not UTF-8 what you will be getting but instead | |
309 | UTF-EBCDIC. See L<perlunicode>, L<utf8>, and | |
310 | http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr16/ for more information. | |
311 | In future releases this naming may change. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
312 | |
313 | =item * | |
314 | ||
77c8cf41 JH |
315 | File handles can translate character encodings from/to Perl's internal |
316 | Unicode form on read/write via the ":encoding()" layer. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
317 | |
318 | =item * | |
319 | ||
77c8cf41 JH |
320 | File handles can be opened to "in memory" files held in Perl scalars via: |
321 | ||
322 | open($fh,'>', \$variable) || ... | |
f39f21d8 JH |
323 | |
324 | =item * | |
325 | ||
77c8cf41 JH |
326 | Anonymous temporary files are available without need to |
327 | 'use FileHandle' or other module via | |
f39f21d8 | 328 | |
77c8cf41 | 329 | open($fh,"+>", undef) || ... |
f39f21d8 | 330 | |
77c8cf41 | 331 | That is a literal undef, not an undefined value. |
f39f21d8 JH |
332 | |
333 | =item * | |
334 | ||
77c8cf41 | 335 | The list form of C<open> is now implemented for pipes (at least on UNIX): |
f39f21d8 | 336 | |
77c8cf41 | 337 | open($fh,"-|", 'cat', '/etc/motd') |
f39f21d8 | 338 | |
77c8cf41 JH |
339 | creates a pipe, and runs the equivalent of exec('cat', '/etc/motd') in |
340 | the child process. | |
f39f21d8 | 341 | |
b310b053 JH |
342 | =item * |
343 | ||
344 | If your locale environment variables (LANGUAGE, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LANG) | |
345 | contain the strings 'UTF-8' or 'UTF8' (case-insensitive matching), | |
346 | the default encoding of your STDIN, STDOUT, and STDERR, and of | |
347 | B<any subsequent file open>, is UTF-8. | |
348 | ||
e1f170bd | 349 | =back |
f39f21d8 | 350 | |
02e156f1 JH |
351 | =head2 Restricted Hashes |
352 | ||
353 | A restricted hash is restricted to a certain set of keys, no keys | |
354 | outside the set can be added. Also individual keys can be restricted | |
355 | so that the key cannot be deleted and the value cannot be changed. | |
356 | No new syntax is involved: the Hash::Util module is the interface. | |
357 | ||
3e33716f | 358 | =head2 Safe Signals |
f39f21d8 | 359 | |
e1f170bd JH |
360 | Perl used to be fragile in that signals arriving at inopportune moments |
361 | could corrupt Perl's internal state. Now Perl postpones handling of | |
3e33716f JH |
362 | signals until it's safe (between opcodes). |
363 | ||
56e5bb57 | 364 | This change may have surprising side effects because signals no longer |
3e33716f JH |
365 | interrupt Perl instantly. Perl will now first finish whatever it was |
366 | doing, like finishing an internal operation (like sort()) or an | |
367 | external operation (like an I/O operation), and only then look at any | |
368 | arrived signals (and before starting the next operation). No more corrupt | |
369 | internal state since the current operation is always finished first, | |
6123004a JH |
370 | but the signal may take more time to get heard. Note that breaking |
371 | out from potentially blocking operations should still work, though. | |
f39f21d8 | 372 | |
e1f170bd | 373 | =head2 Unicode Overhaul |
f39f21d8 | 374 | |
e1f170bd JH |
375 | Unicode in general should be now much more usable than in Perl 5.6.0 |
376 | (or even in 5.6.1). Unicode can be used in hash keys, Unicode in | |
377 | regular expressions should work now, Unicode in tr/// should work now, | |
b310b053 JH |
378 | Unicode in I/O should work now. See L<perluniintro> for introduction |
379 | and L<perlunicode> for details. | |
f39f21d8 | 380 | |
e1f170bd | 381 | =over 4 |
f39f21d8 JH |
382 | |
383 | =item * | |
384 | ||
e1f170bd | 385 | The Unicode Character Database coming with Perl has been upgraded |
822ebcc8 | 386 | to Unicode 3.2.0. For more information, see http://www.unicode.org/ . |
f39f21d8 JH |
387 | |
388 | =item * | |
389 | ||
77c8cf41 JH |
390 | For developers interested in enhancing Perl's Unicode capabilities: |
391 | almost all the UCD files are included with the Perl distribution in | |
58175c9b | 392 | the F<lib/unicore subdirectory>. The most notable omission, for space |
77c8cf41 | 393 | considerations, is the Unihan database. |
f39f21d8 JH |
394 | |
395 | =item * | |
396 | ||
eb0cc9e3 JH |
397 | The properties \p{Blank} and \p{SpacePerl} have been added. "Blank" is like |
398 | C isblank(), that is, it contains only "horizontal whitespace" (the space | |
399 | character is, the newline isn't), and the "SpacePerl" is the Unicode | |
400 | equivalent of C<\s> (\p{Space} isn't, since that includes the vertical | |
401 | tabulator character, whereas C<\s> doesn't.) | |
402 | ||
403 | See "New Unicode Properties" earlier in this document for additional | |
404 | information on changes with Unicode properties. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
405 | |
406 | =back | |
407 | ||
77c8cf41 JH |
408 | =head2 Understanding of Numbers |
409 | ||
410 | In general a lot of fixing has happened in the area of Perl's | |
411 | understanding of numbers, both integer and floating point. Since in | |
412 | many systems the standard number parsing functions like C<strtoul()> | |
413 | and C<atof()> seem to have bugs, Perl tries to work around their | |
414 | deficiencies. This results hopefully in more accurate numbers. | |
f39f21d8 | 415 | |
e1f170bd JH |
416 | Perl now tries internally to use integer values in numeric conversions |
417 | and basic arithmetics (+ - * /) if the arguments are integers, and | |
418 | tries also to keep the results stored internally as integers. | |
057b7f2b | 419 | This change leads to often slightly faster and always less lossy |
e1f170bd JH |
420 | arithmetics. (Previously Perl always preferred floating point numbers |
421 | in its math.) | |
422 | ||
58175c9b | 423 | =head2 Miscellaneous Changes |
e1f170bd | 424 | |
f39f21d8 JH |
425 | =over 4 |
426 | ||
427 | =item * | |
428 | ||
e1f170bd JH |
429 | AUTOLOAD is now lvaluable, meaning that you can add the :lvalue attribute |
430 | to AUTOLOAD subroutines and you can assign to the AUTOLOAD return value. | |
431 | ||
432 | =item * | |
433 | ||
61947107 JH |
434 | C<perl -d:Module=arg,arg,arg> now works (previously one couldn't pass |
435 | in multiple arguments.) | |
f39f21d8 JH |
436 | |
437 | =item * | |
438 | ||
58175c9b | 439 | The builtin dump() now gives an optional warning |
66023b77 | 440 | C<dump() better written as CORE::dump()>, |
58175c9b JH |
441 | meaning that by default C<dump(...)> is resolved as the builtin |
442 | dump() which dumps core and aborts, not as (possibly) user-defined | |
443 | C<sub dump>. To call the latter, qualify the call as C<&dump(...)>. | |
444 | (The whole dump() feature is to considered deprecated, and possibly | |
445 | removed/changed in future releases.) | |
446 | ||
447 | =item * | |
448 | ||
c2d0fb59 RGS |
449 | chomp() and chop() are now overridable. Note, however, that their |
450 | prototype (as given by C<prototype("CORE::chomp")> is undefined, | |
451 | because it cannot be expressed and therefore one cannot really write | |
58175c9b JH |
452 | replacements to override these builtins. |
453 | ||
454 | =item * | |
455 | ||
61947107 JH |
456 | END blocks are now run even if you exit/die in a BEGIN block. |
457 | Internally, the execution of END blocks is now controlled by | |
458 | PL_exit_flags & PERL_EXIT_DESTRUCT_END. This enables the new | |
459 | behaviour for Perl embedders. This will default in 5.10. See | |
460 | L<perlembed>. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
461 | |
462 | =item * | |
463 | ||
e1f170bd | 464 | Formats now support zero-padded decimal fields. |
f39f21d8 JH |
465 | |
466 | =item * | |
467 | ||
77c8cf41 | 468 | Lvalue subroutines can now return C<undef> in list context. |
44da0e71 | 469 | However, the lvalue subroutine feature still remains experimental. |
f39f21d8 JH |
470 | |
471 | =item * | |
472 | ||
58175c9b JH |
473 | A lost warning "Can't declare ... dereference in my" has been |
474 | restored (Perl had it earlier but it became lost in later releases.) | |
475 | ||
476 | =item * | |
477 | ||
61947107 JH |
478 | A new special regular expression variable has been introduced: |
479 | C<$^N>, which contains the most-recently closed group (submatch). | |
f39f21d8 JH |
480 | |
481 | =item * | |
482 | ||
61947107 | 483 | C<no Module;> now works even if there is no "sub unimport" in the Module. |
f39f21d8 JH |
484 | |
485 | =item * | |
486 | ||
61947107 JH |
487 | The numerical comparison operators return C<undef> if either operand |
488 | is a NaN. Previously the behaviour was unspecified. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
489 | |
490 | =item * | |
491 | ||
e1f170bd JH |
492 | The following builtin functions are now overridable: each(), keys(), |
493 | pop(), push(), shift(), splice(), unshift(). | |
494 | ||
495 | =item * | |
496 | ||
a7bac030 JH |
497 | C<pack() / unpack()> now can group template letters with C<()> and then |
498 | apply repetition/count modifiers on the groups. | |
499 | ||
500 | =item * | |
501 | ||
502 | C<pack() / unpack()> can now process the Perl internal numeric types: | |
503 | IVs, UVs, NVs-- and also long doubles, if supported by the platform. | |
79f69e33 | 504 | The template letters are C<j>, C<J>, C<F>, and C<D>. |
a7bac030 JH |
505 | |
506 | =item * | |
507 | ||
61947107 | 508 | C<pack('U0a*', ...)> can now be used to force a string to UTF8. |
f39f21d8 JH |
509 | |
510 | =item * | |
511 | ||
61947107 | 512 | my __PACKAGE__ $obj now works. |
f39f21d8 JH |
513 | |
514 | =item * | |
515 | ||
e1f170bd JH |
516 | The printf() and sprintf() now support parameter reordering using the |
517 | C<%\d+\$> and C<*\d+\$> syntaxes. For example | |
518 | ||
519 | print "%2\$s %1\$s\n", "foo", "bar"; | |
520 | ||
da6838c8 JH |
521 | will print "bar foo\n". This feature helps in writing |
522 | internationalised software, and in general when the order | |
523 | of the parameters can vary. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
524 | |
525 | =item * | |
526 | ||
e1f170bd | 527 | prototype(\&) is now available. |
61947107 JH |
528 | |
529 | =item * | |
530 | ||
e1f170bd JH |
531 | prototype(\[$@%&]) is now available to implicitly create references |
532 | (useful for example if you want to emulate the tie() interface). | |
61947107 JH |
533 | |
534 | =item * | |
535 | ||
58175c9b | 536 | A new command-line option, C<-t> is available. It is the |
b0c3fc92 | 537 | little brother of C<-T>: instead of dying on taint violations, |
58175c9b JH |
538 | lexical warnings are given. B<This is only meant as a temporary |
539 | debugging aid while securing the code of old legacy applications. | |
540 | This is not a substitute for -T.> | |
541 | ||
542 | =item * | |
543 | ||
4956848f JH |
544 | In other taint news, the C<exec LIST> and C<system LIST> have now been |
545 | considered too risky (think C<exec @ARGV>: it can start any program | |
546 | with any arguments), and now the said forms cause a warning. | |
547 | You should carefully launder the arguments to guarantee their | |
548 | validity. In future releases of Perl the forms will become fatal | |
549 | errors so consider starting laundering now. | |
550 | ||
551 | =item * | |
552 | ||
159ad915 DM |
553 | Tied hash interfaces are now required to have the EXISTS and DELETE |
554 | methods (either own or inherited). | |
0b2c215a JH |
555 | |
556 | =item * | |
557 | ||
58175c9b JH |
558 | If tr/// is just counting characters, it doesn't attempt to |
559 | modify its target. | |
560 | ||
561 | =item * | |
562 | ||
44da0e71 JH |
563 | untie() will now call an UNTIE() hook if it exists. See L<perltie> |
564 | for details. | |
61947107 JH |
565 | |
566 | =item * | |
567 | ||
568 | L<utime> now supports C<utime undef, undef, @files> to change the | |
569 | file timestamps to the current time. | |
570 | ||
571 | =item * | |
572 | ||
e1f170bd JH |
573 | The rules for allowing underscores (underbars) in numeric constants |
574 | have been relaxed and simplified: now you can have an underscore | |
575 | simply B<between digits>. | |
f39f21d8 | 576 | |
ef985a5e NC |
577 | =item * |
578 | ||
579 | Rather than relying on C's argv[0] (which may not contain a full pathname) | |
580 | where possible $^X is now set by asking the operating system. | |
581 | (eg by reading F</proc/self/exe> on Linux, F</proc/curproc/file> on FreeBSD) | |
582 | ||
608dbdb1 RGS |
583 | =item * |
584 | ||
585 | A new variable, C<${^TAINT}>, indicates whether taint mode is enabled. | |
586 | ||
587 | =item * | |
588 | ||
589 | You can now override the readline() builtin, and this overrides also | |
590 | the <FILEHANDLE> angle bracket operator. | |
591 | ||
592 | =item * | |
593 | ||
594 | The command-line options -s and -F are now recognized on the shebang | |
595 | (#!) line. | |
596 | ||
4ac733c9 MJD |
597 | =item * |
598 | ||
599 | Use of the C</c> match modifier without an accompanying C</g> modifier | |
600 | elicits a new warning: C<Use of /c modifier is meaningless without /g>. | |
f34840d8 | 601 | |
64e578a2 | 602 | Use of C</c> in substitutions, even with C</g>, elicits |
f34840d8 MJD |
603 | C<Use of /c modifier is meaningless in s///>. |
604 | ||
476a4411 | 605 | Use of C</g> with C<split> elicits C<Use of /g modifier is meaningless |
f34840d8 | 606 | in split>. |
4ac733c9 | 607 | |
f39f21d8 JH |
608 | =back |
609 | ||
77c8cf41 | 610 | =head1 Modules and Pragmata |
f39f21d8 | 611 | |
1e13d81f | 612 | =head2 New Modules and Pragmata |
f39f21d8 JH |
613 | |
614 | =over 4 | |
615 | ||
616 | =item * | |
617 | ||
0e9b9e0c JH |
618 | C<Attribute::Handlers> allows a class to define attribute handlers. |
619 | ||
620 | package MyPack; | |
621 | use Attribute::Handlers; | |
622 | sub Wolf :ATTR(SCALAR) { print "howl!\n" } | |
623 | ||
624 | # later, in some package using or inheriting from MyPack... | |
625 | ||
626 | my MyPack $Fluffy : Wolf; # the attribute handler Wolf will be called | |
627 | ||
628 | Both variables and routines can have attribute handlers. Handlers can | |
629 | be specific to type (SCALAR, ARRAY, HASH, or CODE), or specific to the | |
630 | exact compilation phase (BEGIN, CHECK, INIT, or END). | |
631 | ||
632 | =item * | |
633 | ||
61947107 JH |
634 | B<B::Concise> is a new compiler backend for walking the Perl syntax |
635 | tree, printing concise info about ops, from Stephen McCamant. The | |
636 | output is highly customisable. See L<B::Concise>. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
637 | |
638 | =item * | |
639 | ||
381874f1 JH |
640 | The new bignum, bigint, and bigrat pragmas implement transparent |
641 | bignum support (using the Math::BigInt, Math::BigFloat, and | |
642 | Math::BigRat backends), by Tels. | |
643 | ||
644 | =item * | |
645 | ||
61947107 JH |
646 | C<Class::ISA> for reporting the search path for a class's ISA tree, |
647 | by Sean Burke, has been added. See L<Class::ISA>. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
648 | |
649 | =item * | |
650 | ||
61947107 JH |
651 | C<Cwd> has now a split personality: if possible, an XS extension is |
652 | used, (this will hopefully be faster, more secure, and more robust) | |
653 | but if not possible, the familiar Perl implementation is used. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
654 | |
655 | =item * | |
656 | ||
e1f170bd JH |
657 | C<Devel::PPPort>, originally from Kenneth Albanowski and now |
658 | maintained by Paul Marquess, has been added. It is primarily used | |
66023b77 | 659 | by C<h2xs> to enhance portability of XS modules between different |
e1f170bd | 660 | versions of Perl. |
1e13d81f JH |
661 | |
662 | =item * | |
663 | ||
61947107 JH |
664 | C<Digest>, frontend module for calculating digests (checksums), from |
665 | Gisle Aas, has been added. See L<Digest>. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
666 | |
667 | =item * | |
668 | ||
61947107 JH |
669 | C<Digest::MD5> for calculating MD5 digests (checksums) as defined in |
670 | RFC 1321, from Gisle Aas, has been added. See L<Digest::MD5>. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
671 | |
672 | use Digest::MD5 'md5_hex'; | |
673 | ||
674 | $digest = md5_hex("Thirsty Camel"); | |
675 | ||
676 | print $digest, "\n"; # 01d19d9d2045e005c3f1b80e8b164de1 | |
677 | ||
61947107 | 678 | NOTE: the C<MD5> backward compatibility module is deliberately not |
e1f170bd | 679 | included since its further use is discouraged. |
f39f21d8 | 680 | |
f39f21d8 JH |
681 | =item * |
682 | ||
f14caa53 JH |
683 | C<Encode>, orginally by Nick Ing-Simmons and now maintained by Dan |
684 | Kogai, provides a mechanism to translate between different character | |
685 | encodings. Support for Unicode, ISO-8859-1, and ASCII are compiled in | |
686 | to the module. Several other encodings (like the rest of the | |
687 | ISO-8859, CP*/Win*, Mac, KOI8-R, three variants EBCDIC, Chinese, | |
688 | Japanese, and Korean encodings) are included and can be loaded at | |
689 | runtime. (For space considerations, the largest Chinese encodings | |
690 | have been separated into their own CPAN module, Encode::HanExtra, | |
691 | which Encode will use if available). See L<Encode>. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
692 | |
693 | Any encoding supported by Encode module is also available to the | |
694 | ":encoding()" layer if PerlIO is used. | |
695 | ||
61947107 JH |
696 | =item * |
697 | ||
a6d3fe4f | 698 | C<Hash::Util> is the interface to the new I<restricted hashes> |
02e156f1 | 699 | feature. (Implemented by Jeffrey Friedl, Nick Ing-Simmons, and |
a6d3fe4f JH |
700 | Michael Schwern.) |
701 | ||
702 | =item * | |
703 | ||
61947107 JH |
704 | C<I18N::Langinfo> can be use to query locale information. |
705 | See L<I18N::Langinfo>. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
706 | |
707 | =item * | |
708 | ||
61947107 | 709 | C<I18N::LangTags> has functions for dealing with RFC3066-style |
bea4d472 | 710 | language tags, by Sean Burke. See L<I18N::LangTags>. |
61947107 JH |
711 | |
712 | =item * | |
713 | ||
714 | C<ExtUtils::Constant> is a new tool for extension writers for | |
715 | generating XS code to import C header constants, by Nicholas Clark. | |
716 | See L<ExtUtils::Constant>. | |
717 | ||
718 | =item * | |
719 | ||
720 | C<Filter::Simple> is an easy-to-use frontend to Filter::Util::Call, | |
721 | from Damian Conway. See L<Filter::Simple>. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
722 | |
723 | # in MyFilter.pm: | |
724 | ||
725 | package MyFilter; | |
726 | ||
727 | use Filter::Simple sub { | |
728 | while (my ($from, $to) = splice @_, 0, 2) { | |
729 | s/$from/$to/g; | |
730 | } | |
731 | }; | |
732 | ||
733 | 1; | |
734 | ||
735 | # in user's code: | |
736 | ||
737 | use MyFilter qr/red/ => 'green'; | |
738 | ||
739 | print "red\n"; # this code is filtered, will print "green\n" | |
740 | print "bored\n"; # this code is filtered, will print "bogreen\n" | |
741 | ||
742 | no MyFilter; | |
743 | ||
744 | print "red\n"; # this code is not filtered, will print "red\n" | |
745 | ||
61947107 JH |
746 | =item * |
747 | ||
748 | C<File::Temp> allows one to create temporary files and directories in | |
749 | an easy, portable, and secure way, by Tim Jenness. See L<File::Temp>. | |
750 | ||
751 | =item * | |
752 | ||
753 | C<Filter::Util::Call> provides you with the framework to write | |
754 | I<Source Filters> in Perl, from Paul Marquess. For most uses the | |
755 | frontend Filter::Simple is to be preferred. See L<Filter::Util::Call>. | |
756 | ||
757 | =item * | |
758 | ||
79f69e33 JH |
759 | C<if> is a new pragma for conditional inclusion of modules, from |
760 | Ilya Zakharevich. | |
761 | ||
762 | =item * | |
763 | ||
61947107 JH |
764 | L<libnet> is a collection of perl5 modules related to network |
765 | programming, from Graham Barr. See L<Net::FTP>, L<Net::NNTP>, | |
b929be1d JH |
766 | L<Net::Ping> (not part of libnet, but related), L<Net::POP3>, |
767 | L<Net::SMTP>, and L<Net::Time>. | |
61947107 JH |
768 | |
769 | Perl installation leaves libnet unconfigured, use F<libnetcfg> to configure. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
770 | |
771 | =item * | |
772 | ||
61947107 | 773 | C<List::Util> is a selection of general-utility list subroutines, like |
bea4d472 | 774 | sum(), min(), first(), and shuffle(), by Graham Barr. See L<List::Util>. |
f39f21d8 JH |
775 | |
776 | =item * | |
777 | ||
f14caa53 JH |
778 | C<Locale::Constants>, C<Locale::Country>, C<Locale::Currency> |
779 | C<Locale::Language>, and L<Locale::Script>, from Neil Bowers, have | |
780 | been added. They provide the codes for various locale standards, such | |
9d81ddc1 | 781 | as "fr" for France, "usd" for US Dollar, and "ja" for Japanese. |
f39f21d8 JH |
782 | |
783 | use Locale::Country; | |
784 | ||
785 | $country = code2country('jp'); # $country gets 'Japan' | |
786 | $code = country2code('Norway'); # $code gets 'no' | |
787 | ||
788 | See L<Locale::Constants>, L<Locale::Country>, L<Locale::Currency>, | |
61947107 JH |
789 | and L<Locale::Language>. |
790 | ||
791 | =item * | |
792 | ||
793 | C<Locale::Maketext> is localization framework from Sean Burke. See | |
794 | L<Locale::Maketext>, and L<Locale::Maketext::TPJ13>. The latter is an | |
795 | article about software localization, originally published in The Perl | |
796 | Journal #13, republished here with kind permission. | |
797 | ||
798 | =item * | |
799 | ||
f14caa53 | 800 | C<Math::BigRat> for big rational numbers, to accompany Math::BigInt and |
381874f1 JH |
801 | Math::BigFloat, from Tels. |
802 | ||
803 | =item * | |
804 | ||
61947107 JH |
805 | C<Memoize> can make your functions faster by trading space for time, |
806 | from Mark-Jason Dominus. See L<Memoize>. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
807 | |
808 | =item * | |
809 | ||
61947107 JH |
810 | C<MIME::Base64> allows you to encode data in base64, from Gisle Aas, |
811 | as defined in RFC 2045 - I<MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail | |
812 | Extensions)>. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
813 | |
814 | use MIME::Base64; | |
815 | ||
816 | $encoded = encode_base64('Aladdin:open sesame'); | |
817 | $decoded = decode_base64($encoded); | |
818 | ||
819 | print $encoded, "\n"; # "QWxhZGRpbjpvcGVuIHNlc2FtZQ==" | |
820 | ||
61947107 | 821 | See L<MIME::Base64>. |
f39f21d8 JH |
822 | |
823 | =item * | |
824 | ||
61947107 JH |
825 | C<MIME::QuotedPrint> allows you to encode data in quoted-printable |
826 | encoding, as defined in RFC 2045 - I<MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail | |
827 | Extensions)>, from Gisle Aas. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
828 | |
829 | use MIME::QuotedPrint; | |
830 | ||
831 | $encoded = encode_qp("Smiley in Unicode: \x{263a}"); | |
832 | $decoded = decode_qp($encoded); | |
833 | ||
834 | print $encoded, "\n"; # "Smiley in Unicode: =263A" | |
835 | ||
836 | MIME::QuotedPrint has been enhanced to provide the basic methods | |
837 | necessary to use it with PerlIO::Via as in : | |
838 | ||
839 | use MIME::QuotedPrint; | |
057b7f2b | 840 | open($fh,">Via(MIME::QuotedPrint)",$path); |
f39f21d8 | 841 | |
61947107 | 842 | See L<MIME::QuotedPrint>. |
f39f21d8 JH |
843 | |
844 | =item * | |
845 | ||
61947107 JH |
846 | C<NEXT> is pseudo-class for method redispatch, from Damian Conway. |
847 | See L<NEXT>. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
848 | |
849 | =item * | |
850 | ||
1e13d81f JH |
851 | C<open> is a new pragma for setting the default I/O disciplines |
852 | for open(). | |
853 | ||
854 | =item * | |
855 | ||
61947107 JH |
856 | C<PerlIO::Scalar> provides the implementation of IO to "in memory" |
857 | Perl scalars as discussed above, from Nick Ing-Simmons. It also | |
858 | serves as an example of a loadable PerlIO layer. Other future | |
859 | possibilities include PerlIO::Array and PerlIO::Code. | |
860 | See L<PerlIO::Scalar>. | |
861 | ||
862 | =item * | |
863 | ||
864 | C<PerlIO::Via> acts as a PerlIO layer and wraps PerlIO layer | |
865 | functionality provided by a class (typically implemented in perl | |
866 | code), from Nick Ing-Simmons. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
867 | |
868 | use MIME::QuotedPrint; | |
057b7f2b | 869 | open($fh,">Via(MIME::QuotedPrint)",$path); |
f39f21d8 JH |
870 | |
871 | This will automatically convert everything output to C<$fh> | |
61947107 | 872 | to Quoted-Printable. See L<PerlIO::Via>. |
f39f21d8 JH |
873 | |
874 | =item * | |
875 | ||
1e13d81f | 876 | C<Pod::ParseLink>, by Russ Allbery, has been added, |
95f0a2f1 | 877 | to parse LZ<><> links in pods as described in the new |
1e13d81f JH |
878 | perlpodspec. |
879 | ||
880 | =item * | |
881 | ||
61947107 | 882 | C<Pod::Text::Overstrike>, by Joe Smith, has been added. |
f39f21d8 | 883 | It converts POD data to formatted overstrike text. |
61947107 | 884 | See L<Pod::Text::Overstrike>. |
f39f21d8 JH |
885 | |
886 | =item * | |
887 | ||
61947107 JH |
888 | C<Scalar::Util> is a selection of general-utility scalar subroutines, |
889 | like blessed(), reftype(), and tainted(). See L<Scalar::Util>. | |
890 | ||
891 | =item * | |
892 | ||
1e13d81f JH |
893 | C<sort> is a new pragma for controlling the behaviour of sort(). |
894 | ||
895 | =item * | |
896 | ||
61947107 JH |
897 | C<Storable> gives persistence to Perl data structures by allowing the |
898 | storage and retrieval of Perl data to and from files in a fast and | |
e27159c9 JH |
899 | compact binary format. Because in effect Storable does serialisation |
900 | of Perl data structues, with it you can also clone deep, hierarchical | |
1108aaa7 JH |
901 | datastructures. Storable was originally created by Raphael Manfredi, |
902 | but it is now maintained by Abhijit Menon-Sen. Storable has been | |
e27159c9 JH |
903 | enhanced to understand the two new hash features, Unicode keys and |
904 | restricted hashes. See L<Storable>. | |
61947107 JH |
905 | |
906 | =item * | |
907 | ||
908 | C<Switch>, from Damian Conway, has been added. Just by saying | |
f39f21d8 JH |
909 | |
910 | use Switch; | |
911 | ||
912 | you have C<switch> and C<case> available in Perl. | |
913 | ||
914 | use Switch; | |
915 | ||
916 | switch ($val) { | |
917 | ||
918 | case 1 { print "number 1" } | |
919 | case "a" { print "string a" } | |
920 | case [1..10,42] { print "number in list" } | |
921 | case (@array) { print "number in list" } | |
922 | case /\w+/ { print "pattern" } | |
923 | case qr/\w+/ { print "pattern" } | |
924 | case (%hash) { print "entry in hash" } | |
925 | case (\%hash) { print "entry in hash" } | |
926 | case (\&sub) { print "arg to subroutine" } | |
927 | else { print "previous case not true" } | |
928 | } | |
929 | ||
61947107 JH |
930 | See L<Switch>. |
931 | ||
932 | =item * | |
933 | ||
934 | C<Test::More> is yet another framework for writing test scripts, | |
935 | more extensive than Test::Simple, by Michael Schwern. See L<Test::More>. | |
936 | ||
937 | =item * | |
938 | ||
aecce728 | 939 | C<Test::Simple> has basic utilities for writing tests, by Michael |
61947107 | 940 | Schwern. See L<Test::Simple>. |
77c8cf41 JH |
941 | |
942 | =item * | |
943 | ||
61947107 JH |
944 | C<Text::Balanced> has been added, for extracting delimited text |
945 | sequences from strings, from Damian Conway. | |
77c8cf41 JH |
946 | |
947 | use Text::Balanced 'extract_delimited'; | |
948 | ||
949 | ($a, $b) = extract_delimited("'never say never', he never said", "'", ''); | |
950 | ||
951 | $a will be "'never say never'", $b will be ', he never said'. | |
952 | ||
953 | In addition to extract_delimited() there are also extract_bracketed(), | |
954 | extract_quotelike(), extract_codeblock(), extract_variable(), | |
955 | extract_tagged(), extract_multiple(), gen_delimited_pat(), and | |
956 | gen_extract_tagged(). With these you can implement rather advanced | |
61947107 | 957 | parsing algorithms. See L<Text::Balanced>. |
77c8cf41 JH |
958 | |
959 | =item * | |
960 | ||
c2e23569 | 961 | C<threads> is an interface to interpreter threads, by Arthur Bergman. |
61947107 | 962 | Interpreter threads (ithreads) is the new thread model introduced in |
c2e23569 JH |
963 | Perl 5.6 but only available as an internal interface for extension |
964 | writers (and for Win32 Perl for C<fork()> emulation). See L<threads>. | |
77c8cf41 JH |
965 | |
966 | =item * | |
967 | ||
61947107 JH |
968 | C<threads::shared> allows data sharing for interpreter threads, from |
969 | Arthur Bergman. In the ithreads model any data sharing between | |
970 | threads must be explicit, as opposed to the old 5.005 thread model | |
971 | where data sharing was implicit. See L<threads::shared>. | |
77c8cf41 JH |
972 | |
973 | =item * | |
974 | ||
1f089b22 JH |
975 | C<Tie::File>, by Mark-Jason Dominus, associates a Perl array with the |
976 | lines of a file. | |
b3b08c80 JH |
977 | |
978 | =item * | |
979 | ||
79f69e33 JH |
980 | C<Tie::Memoize>, by Ilya Zakharevich, provides on-demand loaded hashes. |
981 | ||
982 | =item * | |
983 | ||
61947107 | 984 | C<Tie::RefHash::Nestable>, by Edward Avis, allows storing hash |
ba370e9b JH |
985 | references (unlike the standard Tie::RefHash) The module is contained |
986 | within Tie::RefHash, see L<Tie::RefHash>. | |
77c8cf41 JH |
987 | |
988 | =item * | |
989 | ||
61947107 JH |
990 | C<Time::HiRes> provides high resolution timing (ualarm, usleep, |
991 | and gettimeofday), from Douglas E. Wegscheid. See L<Time::HiRes>. | |
77c8cf41 JH |
992 | |
993 | =item * | |
994 | ||
61947107 JH |
995 | C<Unicode::UCD> offers a querying interface to the Unicode Character |
996 | Database. See L<Unicode::UCD>. | |
77c8cf41 JH |
997 | |
998 | =item * | |
999 | ||
61947107 JH |
1000 | C<Unicode::Collate> implements the UCA (Unicode Collation Algorithm) |
1001 | for sorting Unicode strings, by SADAHIRO Tomoyuki. See L<Unicode::Collate>. | |
77c8cf41 JH |
1002 | |
1003 | =item * | |
1004 | ||
61947107 JH |
1005 | C<Unicode::Normalize> implements the various Unicode normalization |
1006 | forms, by SADAHIRO Tomoyuki. See L<Unicode::Normalize>. | |
77c8cf41 JH |
1007 | |
1008 | =item * | |
1009 | ||
61947107 JH |
1010 | C<XS::Typemap>, by Tim Jenness, is a test extension that exercises XS |
1011 | typemaps. Nothing gets installed but for extension writers the code | |
1012 | is worth studying. | |
77c8cf41 JH |
1013 | |
1014 | =back | |
1015 | ||
1016 | =head2 Updated And Improved Modules and Pragmata | |
1017 | ||
1018 | =over 4 | |
1019 | ||
1020 | =item * | |
1021 | ||
61947107 JH |
1022 | The following independently supported modules have been updated to the |
1023 | newest versions from CPAN: CGI, CPAN, DB_File, File::Spec, File::Temp, | |
1024 | Getopt::Long, Math::BigFloat, Math::BigInt, the podlators bundle | |
1025 | (Pod::Man, Pod::Text), Pod::LaTeX, Pod::Parser, Storable, | |
1026 | Term::ANSIColor, Test, Text-Tabs+Wrap. | |
77c8cf41 JH |
1027 | |
1028 | =item * | |
1029 | ||
61947107 | 1030 | The attributes::reftype() now works on tied arguments. |
77c8cf41 JH |
1031 | |
1032 | =item * | |
1033 | ||
057b7f2b | 1034 | AutoLoader can now be disabled with C<no AutoLoader;>. |
77c8cf41 JH |
1035 | |
1036 | =item * | |
1037 | ||
1e13d81f JH |
1038 | B::Deparse has been significantly enhanced. It now can deparse almost |
1039 | all of the standard test suite (so that the tests still succeed). | |
1040 | There is a make target "test.deparse" for trying this out. | |
77c8cf41 JH |
1041 | |
1042 | =item * | |
1043 | ||
1e13d81f | 1044 | Class::Struct can now define the classes in compile time. |
77c8cf41 JH |
1045 | |
1046 | =item * | |
1047 | ||
1e13d81f JH |
1048 | Class::Struct now assigns the array/hash element if the accessor |
1049 | is called with an array/hash element as the B<sole> argument. | |
77c8cf41 JH |
1050 | |
1051 | =item * | |
1052 | ||
797ec949 RGS |
1053 | The return value of Cwd::fastcwd() is now tainted. |
1054 | ||
1055 | =item * | |
1056 | ||
1e13d81f | 1057 | Data::Dumper has now an option to sort hashes. |
77c8cf41 JH |
1058 | |
1059 | =item * | |
1060 | ||
1e13d81f JH |
1061 | Data::Dumper has now an option to dump code references |
1062 | using B::Deparse. | |
77c8cf41 JH |
1063 | |
1064 | =item * | |
1065 | ||
44da0e71 JH |
1066 | DB_File now supports newer Berkeley DB versions, among |
1067 | other improvements. | |
1068 | ||
1069 | =item * | |
1070 | ||
797ec949 RGS |
1071 | Devel::Peek now has an interface for the Perl memory statistics |
1072 | (this works only if you are using perl's malloc, and if you have | |
1073 | compiled with debugging). | |
1074 | ||
1075 | =item * | |
1076 | ||
1e13d81f JH |
1077 | The English module can now be used without the infamous performance |
1078 | hit by saying | |
77c8cf41 | 1079 | |
66023b77 | 1080 | use English '-no_match_vars'; |
77c8cf41 | 1081 | |
1e13d81f JH |
1082 | (Assuming, of course, that one doesn't need the troublesome variables |
1083 | C<$`>, C<$&>, or C<$'>.) Also, introduced C<@LAST_MATCH_START> and | |
1084 | C<@LAST_MATCH_END> English aliases for C<@-> and C<@+>. | |
77c8cf41 JH |
1085 | |
1086 | =item * | |
1087 | ||
797ec949 RGS |
1088 | ExtUtils::MakeMaker now uses File::Spec internally, which hopefully |
1089 | leads into better portability. | |
1090 | ||
1091 | =item * | |
1092 | ||
1e13d81f JH |
1093 | Fcntl, Socket, and Sys::Syslog have been rewritten to use the |
1094 | new-style constant dispatch section (see L<ExtUtils::Constant>). | |
1095 | This means that they will be more robust and hopefully faster. | |
77c8cf41 JH |
1096 | |
1097 | =item * | |
1098 | ||
44da0e71 JH |
1099 | File::Find now chdir()s correctly when chasing symbolic links. |
1100 | ||
1101 | =item * | |
1102 | ||
1e13d81f JH |
1103 | File::Find now has pre- and post-processing callbacks. It also |
1104 | correctly changes directories when chasing symbolic links. Callbacks | |
1105 | (naughtily) exiting with "next;" instead of "return;" now work. | |
61947107 JH |
1106 | |
1107 | =item * | |
1108 | ||
1e13d81f JH |
1109 | File::Find is now (again) reentrant. It also has been made |
1110 | more portable. | |
77c8cf41 | 1111 | |
61947107 JH |
1112 | =item * |
1113 | ||
608dbdb1 RGS |
1114 | The warnings issued by File::Find now belong to their own category. |
1115 | You can enable/disable them with C<use/no warnings 'File::Find';>. | |
1116 | ||
1117 | =item * | |
1118 | ||
1e13d81f JH |
1119 | File::Glob::glob() renamed to File::Glob::bsd_glob() to avoid |
1120 | prototype mismatch with CORE::glob(). | |
61947107 JH |
1121 | |
1122 | =item * | |
1123 | ||
1124 | File::Glob now supports C<GLOB_LIMIT> constant to limit the size of | |
1125 | the returned list of filenames. | |
77c8cf41 JH |
1126 | |
1127 | =item * | |
1128 | ||
1e13d81f JH |
1129 | IPC::Open3 now allows the use of numeric file descriptors. |
1130 | ||
1131 | =item * | |
1132 | ||
77c8cf41 JH |
1133 | IO::Socket has now atmark() method, which returns true if the socket |
1134 | is positioned at the out-of-band mark. The method is also exportable | |
1135 | as a sockatmark() function. | |
1136 | ||
1137 | =item * | |
1138 | ||
1139 | IO::Socket::INET has support for ReusePort option (if your platform | |
1140 | supports it). The Reuse option now has an alias, ReuseAddr. For clarity | |
1141 | you may want to prefer ReuseAddr. | |
1142 | ||
1143 | =item * | |
1144 | ||
61947107 JH |
1145 | IO::Socket::INET now supports C<LocalPort> of zero (usually meaning |
1146 | that the operating system will make one up.) | |
77c8cf41 JH |
1147 | |
1148 | =item * | |
1149 | ||
1e13d81f JH |
1150 | use lib now works identically to @INC. Removing directories |
1151 | with 'no lib' now works. | |
1152 | ||
1153 | =item * | |
1154 | ||
1155 | Math::BigFloat and Math::BigInt have undergone a full rewrite. | |
1156 | They are now magnitudes faster, and they support various | |
61947107 | 1157 | bignum libraries such as GMP and PARI as their backends. |
f39f21d8 JH |
1158 | |
1159 | =item * | |
1160 | ||
44da0e71 JH |
1161 | Math::Complex handles inf, NaN etc., better. |
1162 | ||
1163 | =item * | |
1164 | ||
b929be1d JH |
1165 | Net::Ping has been muchly enhanced: multihoming is now supported, |
1166 | Win32 functionality is better, there is now time measuring | |
1167 | functionality (optionally high-resolution using Time::HiRes), | |
1168 | and there is now "external" protocol which uses Net::Ping::External | |
1169 | module which runs your external ping utility and parses the output. | |
1170 | A version of Net::Ping::External is available in CPAN. | |
1171 | ||
1172 | Note that some of the Net::Ping tests are disabled when running | |
1173 | under the Perl distribution since one cannot assume one or more | |
1174 | of the following: enabled echo port at localhost, full Internet | |
1175 | connectivity, or sympathetic firewalls. You can set the environment | |
1176 | variable PERL_TEST_Net_Ping to "1" (one) before running the Perl test | |
1177 | suite to enable all the Net::Ping tests. | |
f39f21d8 | 1178 | |
77c8cf41 | 1179 | =item * |
f39f21d8 | 1180 | |
da6838c8 | 1181 | POSIX::sigaction() is now much more flexible and robust. |
61947107 JH |
1182 | You can now install coderef handlers, 'DEFAULT', and 'IGNORE' |
1183 | handlers, installing new handlers was not atomic. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
1184 | |
1185 | =item * | |
1186 | ||
da6838c8 | 1187 | In Safe the C<%INC> now localised in a Safe compartment so that |
76663d67 JH |
1188 | use/require work. |
1189 | ||
1190 | =item * | |
1191 | ||
44da0e71 JH |
1192 | In SDBM_File on dosish platforms, some keys went missing because of |
1193 | lack of support for files with "holes". A workaround for the problem | |
1194 | has been added. | |
1195 | ||
1196 | =item * | |
1197 | ||
da6838c8 | 1198 | In Search::Dict one can now have a pre-processing hook for the |
76663d67 | 1199 | lines being searched. |
1e13d81f JH |
1200 | |
1201 | =item * | |
1202 | ||
1203 | The Shell module now has an OO interface. | |
1204 | ||
1205 | =item * | |
1206 | ||
903fdac2 JH |
1207 | In Sys::Syslog there is now a failover mechanism that will go |
1208 | through alternative connection mechanisms until the message | |
1209 | is successfully logged. | |
1210 | ||
1211 | =item * | |
1212 | ||
61947107 | 1213 | The Test module has been significantly enhanced. |
f39f21d8 JH |
1214 | |
1215 | =item * | |
1216 | ||
1cfd00ad SR |
1217 | Time::Local::timelocal() does not handle fractional seconds anymore. |
1218 | The rationale is that neither does localtime(), and timelocal() and | |
1219 | localtime() are supposed to be inverses of each other. | |
1220 | ||
1221 | =item * | |
1222 | ||
da6838c8 | 1223 | The vars pragma now supports declaring fully qualified variables. |
77c8cf41 | 1224 | (Something that C<our()> does not and will not support.) |
f39f21d8 | 1225 | |
888aee59 JH |
1226 | =item * |
1227 | ||
58175c9b | 1228 | The C<utf8::> name space (as in the pragma) provides various |
61947107 JH |
1229 | Perl-callable functions to provide low level access to Perl's |
1230 | internal Unicode representation. At the moment only length() | |
1231 | has been implemented. | |
888aee59 | 1232 | |
f39f21d8 JH |
1233 | =back |
1234 | ||
77c8cf41 | 1235 | =head1 Utility Changes |
f39f21d8 JH |
1236 | |
1237 | =over 4 | |
1238 | ||
1239 | =item * | |
1240 | ||
61947107 | 1241 | Emacs perl mode (emacs/cperl-mode.el) has been updated to version |
77c8cf41 | 1242 | 4.31. |
f39f21d8 JH |
1243 | |
1244 | =item * | |
1245 | ||
61947107 | 1246 | F<emacs/e2ctags.pl> is now much faster. |
f39f21d8 JH |
1247 | |
1248 | =item * | |
1249 | ||
54ba6336 JH |
1250 | C<enc2xs> is a tool for people adding their own encodings to the |
1251 | Encode module. | |
1252 | ||
1253 | =item * | |
1254 | ||
1e13d81f JH |
1255 | C<h2ph> now supports C trigraphs. |
1256 | ||
1257 | =item * | |
1258 | ||
1259 | C<h2xs> now produces a template README. | |
f39f21d8 | 1260 | |
77c8cf41 JH |
1261 | =item * |
1262 | ||
1e13d81f JH |
1263 | C<h2xs> now uses C<Devel::PPort> for better portability between |
1264 | different versions of Perl. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
1265 | |
1266 | =item * | |
1267 | ||
1e13d81f | 1268 | C<h2xs> uses the new L<ExtUtils::Constant> module which will affect |
61947107 JH |
1269 | newly created extensions that define constants. Since the new code is |
1270 | more correct (if you have two constants where the first one is a | |
1271 | prefix of the second one, the first constant B<never> gets defined), | |
1272 | less lossy (it uses integers for integer constant, as opposed to the | |
1273 | old code that used floating point numbers even for integer constants), | |
1274 | and slightly faster, you might want to consider regenerating your | |
1275 | extension code (the new scheme makes regenerating easy). | |
1276 | L<h2xs> now also supports C trigraphs. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
1277 | |
1278 | =item * | |
1279 | ||
1e13d81f | 1280 | C<libnetcfg> has been added to configure the libnet. |
f39f21d8 JH |
1281 | |
1282 | =item * | |
1283 | ||
1e13d81f | 1284 | C<perlbug> is now much more robust. It also sends the bug report to |
61947107 | 1285 | perl.org, not perl.com. |
f39f21d8 JH |
1286 | |
1287 | =item * | |
1288 | ||
1e13d81f | 1289 | C<perlcc> has been rewritten and its user interface (that is, |
61947107 | 1290 | command line) is much more like that of the UNIX C compiler, cc. |
44da0e71 | 1291 | (The perlbc tools has been removed. Use C<perlcc -B> instead.) |
f39f21d8 JH |
1292 | |
1293 | =item * | |
1294 | ||
aecce728 JH |
1295 | C<perlivp> is a new Installation Verification Procedure utility |
1296 | for running any time after installing Perl. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
1297 | |
1298 | =item * | |
1299 | ||
54ba6336 JH |
1300 | C<piconv> is an implementation of the character conversion utility |
1301 | C<iconv>, demonstrating the new Encode module. | |
1302 | ||
1303 | =item * | |
1304 | ||
1e13d81f | 1305 | C<pod2html> now allows specifying a cache directory. |
f39f21d8 JH |
1306 | |
1307 | =item * | |
1308 | ||
bbed45f6 JH |
1309 | C<pod2html> now produces XHTML 1.0. |
1310 | ||
1311 | =item * | |
1312 | ||
9b856ef5 | 1313 | C<pod2html> now understands POD written using different line endings |
bbed45f6 JH |
1314 | (PC-like CRLF versus UNIX-like LF versus MacClassic-like CR). |
1315 | ||
1316 | =item * | |
1317 | ||
1e13d81f JH |
1318 | C<s2p> has been completely rewritten in Perl. (It is in fact a full |
1319 | implementation of sed in Perl: you can use the sed functionality by | |
1320 | using the C<psed> utility.) | |
61947107 JH |
1321 | |
1322 | =item * | |
1323 | ||
1e13d81f | 1324 | C<xsubpp> now understands POD documentation embedded in the *.xs files. |
f39f21d8 JH |
1325 | |
1326 | =item * | |
1327 | ||
1e13d81f | 1328 | C<xsubpp> now supports OUT keyword. |
f39f21d8 JH |
1329 | |
1330 | =back | |
1331 | ||
77c8cf41 | 1332 | =head1 New Documentation |
f39f21d8 JH |
1333 | |
1334 | =over 4 | |
1335 | ||
1336 | =item * | |
1337 | ||
77c8cf41 JH |
1338 | perl56delta details the changes between the 5.005 release and the |
1339 | 5.6.0 release. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
1340 | |
1341 | =item * | |
1342 | ||
61947107 JH |
1343 | perlclib documents the internal replacements for standard C library |
1344 | functions. (Interesting only for extension writers and Perl core | |
1345 | hackers.) | |
1346 | ||
1347 | =item * | |
1348 | ||
77c8cf41 | 1349 | perldebtut is a Perl debugging tutorial. |
f39f21d8 | 1350 | |
77c8cf41 | 1351 | =item * |
f39f21d8 | 1352 | |
77c8cf41 | 1353 | perlebcdic contains considerations for running Perl on EBCDIC platforms. |
f39f21d8 | 1354 | |
77c8cf41 JH |
1355 | =item * |
1356 | ||
888aee59 JH |
1357 | perlintro is a gentle introduction to Perl. |
1358 | ||
1359 | =item * | |
1360 | ||
61947107 JH |
1361 | perliol documents the internals of PerlIO with layers. |
1362 | ||
1363 | =item * | |
1364 | ||
888aee59 JH |
1365 | perlmodstyle is a style guide for writing modules. |
1366 | ||
1367 | =item * | |
1368 | ||
77c8cf41 | 1369 | perlnewmod tells about writing and submitting a new module. |
f39f21d8 JH |
1370 | |
1371 | =item * | |
1372 | ||
34babc16 JH |
1373 | perlpacktut is a pack() tutorial. |
1374 | ||
1375 | =item * | |
1376 | ||
888aee59 JH |
1377 | perlpod has been rewritten to be clearer and to record the best |
1378 | practices gathered over the years. | |
1379 | ||
1380 | =item * | |
1381 | ||
057b7f2b | 1382 | perlpodspec is a more formal specification of the pod format, |
888aee59 JH |
1383 | mainly of interest for writers of pod applications, not to |
1384 | people writing in pod. | |
1385 | ||
1386 | =item * | |
1387 | ||
77c8cf41 | 1388 | perlretut is a regular expression tutorial. |
f39f21d8 JH |
1389 | |
1390 | =item * | |
1391 | ||
77c8cf41 JH |
1392 | perlrequick is a regular expressions quick-start guide. |
1393 | Yes, much quicker than perlretut. | |
f39f21d8 | 1394 | |
77c8cf41 | 1395 | =item * |
f39f21d8 | 1396 | |
61947107 JH |
1397 | perltodo has been updated. |
1398 | ||
1399 | =item * | |
1400 | ||
888aee59 | 1401 | perltootc has been renamed as perltooc (to not to conflict |
61947107 | 1402 | with perltoot in filesystems restricted to "8.3" names) |
888aee59 JH |
1403 | |
1404 | =item * | |
1405 | ||
58175c9b JH |
1406 | perluniintro is an introduction to using Unicode in Perl. |
1407 | (perlunicode is more of a detailed reference and background | |
1408 | information) | |
888aee59 JH |
1409 | |
1410 | =item * | |
1411 | ||
77c8cf41 JH |
1412 | perlutil explains the command line utilities packaged with the Perl |
1413 | distribution. | |
1414 | ||
1415 | =back | |
f39f21d8 | 1416 | |
61947107 JH |
1417 | The following platform-specific documents are available before |
1418 | the installation as README.I<platform>, and after the installation | |
1419 | as perlI<platform>: | |
f39f21d8 | 1420 | |
61947107 JH |
1421 | perlaix perlamiga perlapollo perlbeos perlbs2000 |
1422 | perlce perlcygwin perldgux perldos perlepoc perlhpux | |
1423 | perlhurd perlmachten perlmacos perlmint perlmpeix | |
1424 | perlnetware perlos2 perlos390 perlplan9 perlqnx perlsolaris | |
1425 | perltru64 perluts perlvmesa perlvms perlvos perlwin32 | |
77c8cf41 JH |
1426 | |
1427 | =over 4 | |
1428 | ||
1429 | =item * | |
1430 | ||
61947107 JH |
1431 | The documentation for the POSIX-BC platform is called "BS2000", to avoid |
1432 | confusion with the Perl POSIX module. | |
77c8cf41 JH |
1433 | |
1434 | =item * | |
1435 | ||
6cd7d6d6 JH |
1436 | The documentation for the WinCE platform is called perlce (README.ce |
1437 | in the source code kit), to avoid confusion with the perlwin32 | |
1438 | documentation on 8.3-restricted filesystems. | |
77c8cf41 JH |
1439 | |
1440 | =back | |
1441 | ||
1442 | =head1 Performance Enhancements | |
1443 | ||
1444 | =over 4 | |
1445 | ||
1446 | =item * | |
1447 | ||
44da0e71 JH |
1448 | map() could get pathologically slow when the result list it generates |
1449 | is larger than the source list. The performance has been improved for | |
1450 | common scenarios. | |
77c8cf41 JH |
1451 | |
1452 | =item * | |
1453 | ||
e1f170bd JH |
1454 | sort() has been changed to use primarily mergesort internally as |
1455 | opposed to the earlier quicksort. For very small lists this may | |
1456 | result in slightly slower sorting times, but in general the speedup | |
1457 | should be at least 20%. Additional bonuses are that the worst case | |
1458 | behaviour of sort() is now better (in computer science terms it now | |
1459 | runs in time O(N log N), as opposed to quicksort's Theta(N**2) | |
1460 | worst-case run time behaviour), and that sort() is now stable | |
1461 | (meaning that elements with identical keys will stay ordered as they | |
1462 | were before the sort). See the C<sort> pragma for information. | |
77c8cf41 | 1463 | |
05e25c75 JH |
1464 | The story in more detail: suppose you want to serve yourself a little |
1465 | slice of Pi. | |
1466 | ||
1467 | @digits = ( 3,1,4,1,5,9 ); | |
1468 | ||
1469 | A numerical sort of the digits will yield (1,1,3,4,5,9), as expected. | |
1470 | Which C<1> comes first is hard to know, since one C<1> looks pretty | |
1471 | much like any other. You can regard this as totally trivial, | |
1472 | or somewhat profound. However, if you just want to sort the even | |
1473 | digits ahead of the odd ones, then what will | |
1474 | ||
1475 | sort { ($a % 2) <=> ($b % 2) } @digits; | |
1476 | ||
1477 | yield? The only even digit, C<4>, will come first. But how about | |
1478 | the odd numbers, which all compare equal? With the quicksort algorithm | |
1479 | used to implement Perl 5.6 and earlier, the order of ties is left up | |
1480 | to the sort. So, as you add more and more digits of Pi, the order | |
1481 | in which the sorted even and odd digits appear will change. | |
1482 | and, for sufficiently large slices of Pi, the quicksort algorithm | |
1483 | in Perl 5.8 won't return the same results even if reinvoked with the | |
1484 | same input. The justification for this rests with quicksort's | |
1485 | worst case behavior. If you run | |
1486 | ||
1487 | sort { $a <=> $b } ( 1 .. $N , 1 .. $N ); | |
1488 | ||
1489 | (something you might approximate if you wanted to merge two sorted | |
1490 | arrays using sort), doubling $N doesn't just double the quicksort time, | |
1491 | it I<quadruples> it. Quicksort has a worst case run time that can | |
1492 | grow like N**2, so-called I<quadratic> behaviour, and it can happen | |
1493 | on patterns that may well arise in normal use. You won't notice this | |
1494 | for small arrays, but you I<will> notice it with larger arrays, | |
1495 | and you may not live long enough for the sort to complete on arrays | |
1496 | of a million elements. So the 5.8 quicksort scrambles large arrays | |
1497 | before sorting them, as a statistical defence against quadratic behaviour. | |
1498 | But that means if you sort the same large array twice, ties may be | |
1499 | broken in different ways. | |
1500 | ||
1501 | Because of the unpredictability of tie-breaking order, and the quadratic | |
1502 | worst-case behaviour, quicksort was I<almost> replaced completely with | |
1503 | a stable mergesort. I<Stable> means that ties are broken to preserve | |
1504 | the original order of appearance in the input array. So | |
1505 | ||
1506 | sort { ($a % 2) <=> ($b % 2) } (3,1,4,1,5,9); | |
1507 | ||
1508 | will yield (4,3,1,1,5,9), guaranteed. The even and odd numbers | |
1509 | appear in the output in the same order they appeared in the input. | |
1510 | Mergesort has worst case O(NlogN) behaviour, the best value | |
1511 | attainable. And, ironically, this mergesort does particularly | |
1512 | well where quicksort goes quadratic: mergesort sorts (1..$N, 1..$N) | |
1513 | in O(N) time. But quicksort was rescued at the last moment because | |
1514 | it is faster than mergesort on certain inputs and platforms. | |
1515 | For example, if you really I<don't> care about the order of even | |
1516 | and odd digits, quicksort will run in O(N) time; it's very good | |
1517 | at sorting many repetitions of a small number of distinct elements. | |
1518 | The quicksort divide and conquer strategy works well on platforms | |
1519 | with relatively small, very fast, caches. Eventually, the problem gets | |
1520 | whittled down to one that fits in the cache, from which point it | |
1521 | benefits from the increased memory speed. | |
1522 | ||
1523 | Quicksort was rescued by implementing a sort pragma to control aspects | |
1524 | of the sort. The B<stable> subpragma forces stable behaviour, | |
1525 | regardless of algorithm. The B<_quicksort> and B<_mergesort> | |
1526 | subpragmas are heavy-handed ways to select the underlying implementation. | |
1527 | The leading C<_> is a reminder that these subpragmas may not survive | |
1528 | beyond 5.8. More appropriate mechanisms for selecting the implementation | |
1529 | exist, but they wouldn't have arrived in time to save quicksort. | |
1530 | ||
77c8cf41 JH |
1531 | =item * |
1532 | ||
1533 | Hashes now use Bob Jenkins "One-at-a-Time" hashing key algorithm | |
f224927c | 1534 | ( http://burtleburtle.net/bob/hash/doobs.html ). This algorithm is |
77c8cf41 JH |
1535 | reasonably fast while producing a much better spread of values than |
1536 | the old hashing algorithm (originally by Chris Torek, later tweaked by | |
1537 | Ilya Zakharevich). Hash values output from the algorithm on a hash of | |
1538 | all 3-char printable ASCII keys comes much closer to passing the | |
1539 | DIEHARD random number generation tests. According to perlbench, this | |
1540 | change has not affected the overall speed of Perl. | |
1541 | ||
1542 | =item * | |
1543 | ||
1544 | unshift() should now be noticeably faster. | |
1545 | ||
1546 | =back | |
1547 | ||
1548 | =head1 Installation and Configuration Improvements | |
1549 | ||
1550 | =head2 Generic Improvements | |
1551 | ||
1552 | =over 4 | |
1553 | ||
1554 | =item * | |
1555 | ||
1556 | INSTALL now explains how you can configure Perl to use 64-bit | |
1557 | integers even on non-64-bit platforms. | |
1558 | ||
1559 | =item * | |
1560 | ||
1561 | Policy.sh policy change: if you are reusing a Policy.sh file | |
1562 | (see INSTALL) and you use Configure -Dprefix=/foo/bar and in the old | |
1563 | Policy $prefix eq $siteprefix and $prefix eq $vendorprefix, all of | |
1564 | them will now be changed to the new prefix, /foo/bar. (Previously | |
1565 | only $prefix changed.) If you do not like this new behaviour, | |
1566 | specify prefix, siteprefix, and vendorprefix explicitly. | |
1567 | ||
1568 | =item * | |
1569 | ||
1570 | A new optional location for Perl libraries, otherlibdirs, is available. | |
1571 | It can be used for example for vendor add-ons without disturbing Perl's | |
1572 | own library directories. | |
1573 | ||
1574 | =item * | |
1575 | ||
1576 | In many platforms the vendor-supplied 'cc' is too stripped-down to | |
1577 | build Perl (basically, 'cc' doesn't do ANSI C). If this seems | |
1578 | to be the case and 'cc' does not seem to be the GNU C compiler | |
1579 | 'gcc', an automatic attempt is made to find and use 'gcc' instead. | |
1580 | ||
1581 | =item * | |
1582 | ||
1583 | gcc needs to closely track the operating system release to avoid | |
1584 | build problems. If Configure finds that gcc was built for a different | |
1585 | operating system release than is running, it now gives a clearly visible | |
1586 | warning that there may be trouble ahead. | |
1587 | ||
1588 | =item * | |
1589 | ||
11d33b1d PG |
1590 | Since Perl 5.8 is not binary-compatible with previous releases |
1591 | of Perl, Configure no longer suggests including the 5.005 | |
1592 | modules in @INC. | |
77c8cf41 JH |
1593 | |
1594 | =item * | |
1595 | ||
1596 | Configure C<-S> can now run non-interactively. | |
1597 | ||
1598 | =item * | |
1599 | ||
44da0e71 JH |
1600 | Configure support for pdp11-style memory models has been removed due |
1601 | to obsolescence. | |
1602 | ||
1603 | =item * | |
1604 | ||
77c8cf41 | 1605 | configure.gnu now works with options with whitespace in them. |
f39f21d8 | 1606 | |
77c8cf41 | 1607 | =item * |
f39f21d8 | 1608 | |
77c8cf41 | 1609 | installperl now outputs everything to STDERR. |
f39f21d8 | 1610 | |
77c8cf41 JH |
1611 | =item * |
1612 | ||
1613 | $Config{byteorder} is now computed dynamically (this is more robust | |
1614 | with "fat binaries" where an executable image contains binaries for | |
1615 | more than one binary platform.) | |
f39f21d8 JH |
1616 | |
1617 | =item * | |
1618 | ||
1619 | Because PerlIO is now the default on most platforms, "-perlio" doesn't | |
1620 | get appended to the $Config{archname} (also known as $^O) anymore. | |
1621 | Instead, if you explicitly choose not to use perlio (Configure command | |
1622 | line option -Uuseperlio), you will get "-stdio" appended. | |
1623 | ||
1624 | =item * | |
1625 | ||
1626 | Another change related to the architecture name is that "-64all" | |
1627 | (-Duse64bitall, or "maximally 64-bit") is appended only if your | |
1628 | pointers are 64 bits wide. (To be exact, the use64bitall is ignored.) | |
1629 | ||
1630 | =item * | |
1631 | ||
77c8cf41 JH |
1632 | In AFS installations one can configure the root of the AFS to be |
1633 | somewhere else than the default F</afs> by using the Configure | |
1634 | parameter C<-Dafsroot=/some/where/else>. | |
1635 | ||
1636 | =item * | |
1637 | ||
61947107 JH |
1638 | APPLLIB_EXP, a less-know configuration-time definition, has been |
1639 | documented. It can be used to prepend site-specific directories | |
1640 | to Perl's default search path (@INC), see INSTALL for information. | |
1641 | ||
1642 | =item * | |
1643 | ||
77c8cf41 JH |
1644 | The version of Berkeley DB used when the Perl (and, presumably, the |
1645 | DB_File extension) was built is now available as | |
1646 | C<@Config{qw(db_version_major db_version_minor db_version_patch)}> | |
1647 | from Perl and as C<DB_VERSION_MAJOR_CFG DB_VERSION_MINOR_CFG | |
1648 | DB_VERSION_PATCH_CFG> from C. | |
1649 | ||
1650 | =item * | |
1651 | ||
61947107 JH |
1652 | Building Berkeley DB3 for compatibility modes for DB, NDBM, and ODBM |
1653 | has been documented in INSTALL. | |
77c8cf41 JH |
1654 | |
1655 | =item * | |
1656 | ||
61947107 JH |
1657 | If you have CPAN access (either network or a local copy such as a |
1658 | CD-ROM) you can during specify extra modules to Configure to build and | |
1659 | install with Perl using the -Dextras=... option. See INSTALL for | |
1660 | more details. | |
f39f21d8 | 1661 | |
61947107 | 1662 | =item * |
f39f21d8 | 1663 | |
61947107 JH |
1664 | In addition to config.over a new override file, config.arch, is |
1665 | available. That is supposed to be used by hints file writers for | |
1666 | architecture-wide changes (as opposed to config.over which is for | |
1667 | site-wide changes). | |
f39f21d8 JH |
1668 | |
1669 | =item * | |
1670 | ||
e1f170bd JH |
1671 | If your file system supports symbolic links you can build Perl outside |
1672 | of the source directory by | |
1673 | ||
1674 | mkdir /tmp/perl/build/directory | |
1675 | cd /tmp/perl/build/directory | |
1676 | sh /path/to/perl/source/Configure -Dmksymlinks ... | |
1677 | ||
1678 | This will create in /tmp/perl/build/directory a tree of symbolic links | |
1679 | pointing to files in /path/to/perl/source. The original files are left | |
1680 | unaffected. After Configure has finished you can just say | |
1681 | ||
1682 | make all test | |
1683 | ||
1684 | and Perl will be built and tested, all in /tmp/perl/build/directory. | |
1685 | ||
1686 | =item * | |
1687 | ||
61947107 JH |
1688 | For Perl developers several new make targets for profiling |
1689 | and debugging have been added, see L<perlhack>. | |
1690 | ||
1691 | =over 8 | |
f39f21d8 JH |
1692 | |
1693 | =item * | |
1694 | ||
61947107 JH |
1695 | Use of the F<gprof> tool to profile Perl has been documented in |
1696 | L<perlhack>. There is a make target called "perl.gprof" for | |
1697 | generating a gprofiled Perl executable. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
1698 | |
1699 | =item * | |
1700 | ||
61947107 JH |
1701 | If you have GCC 3, there is a make target called "perl.gcov" for |
1702 | creating a gcoved Perl executable for coverage analysis. See | |
1703 | L<perlhack>. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
1704 | |
1705 | =item * | |
1706 | ||
61947107 JH |
1707 | If you are on IRIX or Tru64 platforms, new profiling/debugging options |
1708 | have been added, see L<perlhack> for more information about pixie and | |
1709 | Third Degree. | |
1710 | ||
1711 | =back | |
f39f21d8 JH |
1712 | |
1713 | =item * | |
1714 | ||
61947107 JH |
1715 | Guidelines of how to construct minimal Perl installations have |
1716 | been added to INSTALL. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
1717 | |
1718 | =item * | |
1719 | ||
61947107 JH |
1720 | The Thread extension is now not built at all under ithreads |
1721 | (C<Configure -Duseithreads>) because it wouldn't work anyway (the | |
1722 | Thread extension requires being Configured with C<-Duse5005threads>). | |
f39f21d8 | 1723 | |
61947107 JH |
1724 | But note that the Thread.pm interface is now shared by both |
1725 | thread models. | |
f39f21d8 | 1726 | |
d1eb8299 YST |
1727 | =item * |
1728 | ||
1729 | The Gconvert macro ($Config{d_Gconvert}) used by perl for stringifying | |
1730 | floating-point numbers is now more picky about using sprintf %.*g | |
1731 | rules for the conversion. Some platforms that used to use gcvt may | |
1732 | now resort to the slower sprintf. | |
1733 | ||
11d33b1d PG |
1734 | =item * |
1735 | ||
1736 | The obsolete method of making a special (e.g., debugging) flavor | |
1737 | of perl by saying | |
1738 | ||
1739 | make LIBPERL=libperld.a | |
1740 | ||
1741 | has been removed. Use -DDEBUGGING instead. | |
1742 | ||
61947107 | 1743 | =back |
f39f21d8 | 1744 | |
61947107 | 1745 | =head2 New Or Improved Platforms |
f39f21d8 | 1746 | |
61947107 JH |
1747 | For the list of platforms known to support Perl, |
1748 | see L<perlport/"Supported Platforms">. | |
1749 | ||
1750 | =over 4 | |
f39f21d8 JH |
1751 | |
1752 | =item * | |
1753 | ||
61947107 | 1754 | AIX dynamic loading should be now better supported. |
f39f21d8 | 1755 | |
f39f21d8 JH |
1756 | =item * |
1757 | ||
77c8cf41 JH |
1758 | AIX should now work better with gcc, threads, and 64-bitness. Also the |
1759 | long doubles support in AIX should be better now. See L<perlaix>. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
1760 | |
1761 | =item * | |
1762 | ||
f224927c | 1763 | AtheOS ( http://www.atheos.cx/ ) is a new platform. |
f39f21d8 | 1764 | |
77c8cf41 | 1765 | =item * |
f39f21d8 | 1766 | |
58175c9b JH |
1767 | BeOS has been reclaimed. |
1768 | ||
1769 | =item * | |
1770 | ||
77c8cf41 | 1771 | DG/UX platform now supports the 5.005-style threads. See L<perldgux>. |
f39f21d8 JH |
1772 | |
1773 | =item * | |
1774 | ||
77c8cf41 | 1775 | DYNIX/ptx platform (a.k.a. dynixptx) is supported at or near osvers 4.5.2. |
f39f21d8 JH |
1776 | |
1777 | =item * | |
1778 | ||
61947107 JH |
1779 | EBCDIC platforms (z/OS, also known as OS/390, POSIX-BC, and VM/ESA) |
1780 | have been regained. Many test suite tests still fail and the | |
1781 | co-existence of Unicode and EBCDIC isn't quite settled, but the | |
1782 | situation is much better than with Perl 5.6. See L<perlos390>, | |
1783 | L<perlbs2000> (for POSIX-BC), and L<perlvmesa> for more information. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
1784 | |
1785 | =item * | |
1786 | ||
61947107 JH |
1787 | Building perl with -Duseithreads or -Duse5005threads now works under |
1788 | HP-UX 10.20 (previously it only worked under 10.30 or later). You will | |
1789 | need a thread library package installed. See README.hpux. | |
f39f21d8 | 1790 | |
77c8cf41 | 1791 | =item * |
f39f21d8 | 1792 | |
61947107 JH |
1793 | MacOS Classic (MacPerl has of course been available since |
1794 | perl 5.004 but now the source code bases of standard Perl | |
1795 | and MacPerl have been synchronised) | |
f39f21d8 | 1796 | |
77c8cf41 | 1797 | =item * |
f39f21d8 | 1798 | |
61947107 JH |
1799 | MacOS X (or Darwin) should now be able to build Perl even on HFS+ |
1800 | filesystems. (The case-insensitivity confused the Perl build process.) | |
f39f21d8 | 1801 | |
888aee59 JH |
1802 | =item * |
1803 | ||
61947107 | 1804 | NCR MP-RAS is now supported. |
888aee59 JH |
1805 | |
1806 | =item * | |
1807 | ||
58175c9b JH |
1808 | All the NetBSD specific patches (except for the installation |
1809 | specific ones) have been merged back to the main distribution. | |
1810 | ||
1811 | =item * | |
1812 | ||
61947107 | 1813 | NetWare from Novell is now supported. See L<perlnetware>. |
888aee59 JH |
1814 | |
1815 | =item * | |
1816 | ||
61947107 | 1817 | NonStop-UX is now supported. |
888aee59 JH |
1818 | |
1819 | =item * | |
1820 | ||
44da0e71 JH |
1821 | NEC SUPER-UX is now supported. |
1822 | ||
1823 | =item * | |
1824 | ||
58175c9b JH |
1825 | All the OpenBSD specific patches (except for the installation |
1826 | specific ones) have been merged back to the main distribution. | |
1827 | ||
1828 | =item * | |
1829 | ||
1830 | Perl has been tested with the GNU pth userlevel thread package | |
1831 | ( http://www.gnu.org/software/pth/pth.html ) . All but one thread | |
1832 | test worked, and that one failure was because of test results arriving | |
1833 | in unexpected order. | |
1834 | ||
1835 | =item * | |
1836 | ||
11d33b1d PG |
1837 | Stratus VOS is now supported using Perl's native build method |
1838 | (Configure). This is the recommended method to build Perl on | |
1839 | VOS. The older methods, which build miniperl, are still | |
1840 | available. See L<perlvos>. | |
1841 | ||
1842 | =item * | |
1843 | ||
61947107 | 1844 | Amdahl UTS UNIX mainframe platform is now supported. |
888aee59 JH |
1845 | |
1846 | =item * | |
1847 | ||
61947107 JH |
1848 | WinCE is now supported. See L<perlce>. |
1849 | ||
1850 | =item * | |
1851 | ||
1852 | z/OS (formerly known as OS/390, formerly known as MVS OE) has now | |
1853 | support for dynamic loading. This is not selected by default, | |
1854 | however, you must specify -Dusedl in the arguments of Configure. | |
888aee59 | 1855 | |
f39f21d8 JH |
1856 | =back |
1857 | ||
1858 | =head1 Selected Bug Fixes | |
1859 | ||
e1f170bd JH |
1860 | Numerous memory leaks and uninitialized memory accesses have been |
1861 | hunted down. Most importantly anonymous subs used to leak quite | |
1862 | a bit. | |
ba370e9b | 1863 | |
f39f21d8 JH |
1864 | =over 4 |
1865 | ||
1866 | =item * | |
1867 | ||
e1f170bd | 1868 | The autouse pragma didn't work for Multi::Part::Function::Names. |
f39f21d8 JH |
1869 | |
1870 | =item * | |
1871 | ||
44da0e71 | 1872 | caller() could cause core dumps in certain situations. Carp was sometimes |
0fc9dec4 RGS |
1873 | affected by this problem. In particular, caller() now returns a |
1874 | subroutine name of C<(unknown)> for subroutines that have been removed | |
1875 | from the symbol table. | |
44da0e71 JH |
1876 | |
1877 | =item * | |
1878 | ||
e1f170bd JH |
1879 | chop(@list) in list context returned the characters chopped in |
1880 | reverse order. This has been reversed to be in the right order. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
1881 | |
1882 | =item * | |
1883 | ||
e1f170bd JH |
1884 | Configure no longer includes the DBM libraries (dbm, gdbm, db, ndbm) |
1885 | when building the Perl binary. The only exception to this is SunOS 4.x, | |
1886 | which needs them. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
1887 | |
1888 | =item * | |
1889 | ||
e1f170bd JH |
1890 | The behaviour of non-decimal but numeric string constants such as |
1891 | "0x23" was platform-dependent: in some platforms that was seen as 35, | |
1892 | in some as 0, in some as a floating point number (don't ask). This | |
1893 | was caused by Perl using the operating system libraries in a situation | |
1894 | where the result of the string to number conversion is undefined: now | |
1895 | Perl consistently handles such strings as zero in numeric contexts. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
1896 | |
1897 | =item * | |
1898 | ||
e1f170bd | 1899 | The order of DESTROYs has been made more predictable. |
f39f21d8 JH |
1900 | |
1901 | =item * | |
1902 | ||
e1f170bd JH |
1903 | Several debugger fixes: exit code now reflects the script exit code, |
1904 | condition C<"0"> now treated correctly, the C<d> command now checks | |
44da0e71 JH |
1905 | line number, the C<$.> no longer gets corrupted, all debugger output |
1906 | now goes correctly to the socket if RemotePort is set. | |
1907 | ||
1908 | =item * | |
1909 | ||
1910 | Perl 5.6.0 could emit spurious warnings about redefinition of dl_error() | |
1911 | when statically building extensions into perl. This has been corrected. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
1912 | |
1913 | =item * | |
1914 | ||
e1f170bd | 1915 | L<dprofpp> -R didn't work. |
f39f21d8 JH |
1916 | |
1917 | =item * | |
1918 | ||
e1f170bd | 1919 | C<*foo{FORMAT}> now works. |
5746cacd | 1920 | |
44da0e71 JH |
1921 | =item * |
1922 | ||
1923 | Infinity is now recognized as a number. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
1924 | |
1925 | =item * | |
1926 | ||
e1f170bd JH |
1927 | UNIVERSAL::isa no longer caches methods incorrectly. (This broke |
1928 | the Tk extension with 5.6.0.) | |
f39f21d8 JH |
1929 | |
1930 | =item * | |
1931 | ||
e1f170bd JH |
1932 | Lexicals I: lexicals outside an eval "" weren't resolved |
1933 | correctly inside a subroutine definition inside the eval "" if they | |
1934 | were not already referenced in the top level of the eval""ed code. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
1935 | |
1936 | =item * | |
1937 | ||
e1f170bd JH |
1938 | Lexicals II: lexicals leaked at file scope into subroutines that |
1939 | were declared before the lexicals. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
1940 | |
1941 | =item * | |
1942 | ||
44da0e71 JH |
1943 | Lexical warnings now propagating correctly between scopes |
1944 | and into C<eval "...">. | |
1945 | ||
1946 | =item * | |
1947 | ||
1948 | C<use warnings qw(FATAL all)> did not work as intended. This has been | |
1949 | corrected. | |
1950 | ||
1951 | =item * | |
1952 | ||
1953 | warnings::enabled() now reports the state of $^W correctly if the caller | |
1954 | isn't using lexical warnings. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
1955 | |
1956 | =item * | |
1957 | ||
e1f170bd | 1958 | Line renumbering with eval and C<#line> now works. |
f39f21d8 JH |
1959 | |
1960 | =item * | |
1961 | ||
e1f170bd | 1962 | Fixed numerous memory leaks, especially in eval "". |
f39f21d8 JH |
1963 | |
1964 | =item * | |
1965 | ||
0b2c215a JH |
1966 | Localised tied variables no more leak memory |
1967 | ||
1968 | use Tie::Hash; | |
1969 | tie my %tied_hash => 'Tie::StdHash'; | |
1970 | ||
1971 | ... | |
1972 | ||
1973 | # Used to leak memory every time local() was called, | |
1974 | # in a loop this added up. | |
1975 | local($tied_hash{Foo}) = 1; | |
1976 | ||
1977 | =item * | |
1978 | ||
159ad915 | 1979 | Localised hash elements (and %ENV) are correctly unlocalised to not to |
136430a4 | 1980 | exist, if that's what they were. |
0b2c215a JH |
1981 | |
1982 | ||
1983 | use Tie::Hash; | |
1984 | tie my %tied_hash => 'Tie::StdHash'; | |
1985 | ||
1986 | ... | |
1987 | ||
1988 | # Nothing has set the FOO element so far | |
1989 | ||
1990 | { local $tied_hash{FOO} = 'Bar' } | |
1991 | ||
1992 | # Here the FOO element would have been C<undef>, | |
1993 | # but no more so. | |
1994 | ||
1995 | As a side effect of this fix, tied hash interfaces B<must> define | |
159ad915 | 1996 | the EXISTS and DELETE methods. |
0b2c215a JH |
1997 | |
1998 | =item * | |
1999 | ||
e1f170bd JH |
2000 | mkdir() now ignores trailing slashes in the directory name, |
2001 | as mandated by POSIX. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
2002 | |
2003 | =item * | |
2004 | ||
e1f170bd JH |
2005 | Some versions of glibc have a broken modfl(). This affects builds |
2006 | with C<-Duselongdouble>. This version of Perl detects this brokenness | |
2007 | and has a workaround for it. The glibc release 2.2.2 is known to have | |
2008 | fixed the modfl() bug. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
2009 | |
2010 | =item * | |
2011 | ||
e1f170bd JH |
2012 | Modulus of unsigned numbers now works (4063328477 % 65535 used to |
2013 | return 27406, instead of 27047). | |
f39f21d8 JH |
2014 | |
2015 | =item * | |
2016 | ||
e1f170bd JH |
2017 | Some "not a number" warnings introduced in 5.6.0 eliminated to be |
2018 | more compatible with 5.005. Infinity is now recognised as a number. | |
f39f21d8 | 2019 | |
77c8cf41 | 2020 | =item * |
f39f21d8 | 2021 | |
44da0e71 JH |
2022 | Numeric conversions did not recognize changes in the string value |
2023 | properly in certain circumstances. | |
2024 | ||
2025 | =item * | |
2026 | ||
e1f170bd | 2027 | Attributes (like :shared) didn't work with our(). |
f39f21d8 JH |
2028 | |
2029 | =item * | |
2030 | ||
e1f170bd | 2031 | our() variables will not cause "will not stay shared" warnings. |
f39f21d8 JH |
2032 | |
2033 | =item * | |
2034 | ||
44da0e71 JH |
2035 | "our" variables of the same name declared in two sibling blocks |
2036 | resulted in bogus warnings about "redeclaration" of the variables. | |
2037 | The problem has been corrected. | |
2038 | ||
2039 | =item * | |
2040 | ||
e1f170bd | 2041 | pack "Z" now correctly terminates the string with "\0". |
f39f21d8 JH |
2042 | |
2043 | =item * | |
2044 | ||
e1f170bd JH |
2045 | Fix password routines which in some shadow password platforms |
2046 | (e.g. HP-UX) caused getpwent() to return every other entry. | |
f39f21d8 | 2047 | |
77c8cf41 | 2048 | =item * |
f39f21d8 | 2049 | |
e1f170bd JH |
2050 | The PERL5OPT environment variable (for passing command line arguments |
2051 | to Perl) didn't work for more than a single group of options. | |
f39f21d8 | 2052 | |
77c8cf41 | 2053 | =item * |
f39f21d8 | 2054 | |
e1f170bd | 2055 | PERL5OPT with embedded spaces didn't work. |
f39f21d8 | 2056 | |
77c8cf41 | 2057 | =item * |
f39f21d8 | 2058 | |
e1f170bd | 2059 | printf() no longer resets the numeric locale to "C". |
f39f21d8 | 2060 | |
77c8cf41 | 2061 | =item * |
f39f21d8 | 2062 | |
44da0e71 JH |
2063 | C<qw(a\\b)> now parses correctly as C<'a\\b'>. |
2064 | ||
2065 | =item * | |
2066 | ||
2067 | pos() did not return the correct value within s///ge in earlier | |
2068 | versions. This is now handled correctly. | |
f39f21d8 | 2069 | |
77c8cf41 | 2070 | =item * |
f39f21d8 | 2071 | |
e1f170bd JH |
2072 | Printing quads (64-bit integers) with printf/sprintf now works |
2073 | without the q L ll prefixes (assuming you are on a quad-capable platform). | |
f39f21d8 | 2074 | |
77c8cf41 | 2075 | =item * |
f39f21d8 | 2076 | |
e1f170bd | 2077 | Regular expressions on references and overloaded scalars now work. |
f39f21d8 | 2078 | |
ba370e9b JH |
2079 | =item * |
2080 | ||
e1f170bd JH |
2081 | Right-hand side magic (GMAGIC) could in many cases such as string |
2082 | concatenation be invoked too many times. | |
ba370e9b JH |
2083 | |
2084 | =item * | |
2085 | ||
e1f170bd | 2086 | scalar() now forces scalar context even when used in void context. |
ba370e9b JH |
2087 | |
2088 | =item * | |
2089 | ||
e1f170bd | 2090 | SOCKS support is now much more robust. |
ba370e9b JH |
2091 | |
2092 | =item * | |
2093 | ||
e1f170bd JH |
2094 | sort() arguments are now compiled in the right wantarray context |
2095 | (they were accidentally using the context of the sort() itself). | |
44da0e71 JH |
2096 | The comparison block is now run in scalar context, and the arguments |
2097 | to be sorted are always provided list context. | |
ba370e9b JH |
2098 | |
2099 | =item * | |
2100 | ||
e1f170bd | 2101 | Changed the POSIX character class C<[[:space:]]> to include the (very |
c2e23569 JH |
2102 | rarely used) vertical tab character. Added a new POSIX-ish character |
2103 | class C<[[:blank:]]> which stands for horizontal whitespace | |
2104 | (currently, the space and the tab). | |
ba370e9b JH |
2105 | |
2106 | =item * | |
2107 | ||
2108 | The tainting behaviour of sprintf() has been rationalized. It does | |
2109 | not taint the result of floating point formats anymore, making the | |
2110 | behaviour consistent with that of string interpolation. | |
2111 | ||
2112 | =item * | |
2113 | ||
44da0e71 JH |
2114 | Some cases of inconsistent taint propagation (such as within hash |
2115 | values) have been fixed. | |
2116 | ||
2117 | =item * | |
2118 | ||
2119 | The RE engine found in Perl 5.6.0 accidentally pessimised certain kinds | |
2120 | of simple pattern matches. These are now handled better. | |
2121 | ||
2122 | =item * | |
2123 | ||
2124 | Regular expression debug output (whether through C<use re 'debug'> | |
2125 | or via C<-Dr>) now looks better. | |
2126 | ||
2127 | =item * | |
2128 | ||
2129 | Multi-line matches like C<"a\nxb\n" =~ /(?!\A)x/m> were flawed. The | |
2130 | bug has been fixed. | |
2131 | ||
2132 | =item * | |
2133 | ||
2134 | Use of $& could trigger a core dump under some situations. This | |
2135 | is now avoided. | |
2136 | ||
2137 | =item * | |
2138 | ||
c2e23569 JH |
2139 | The regular expression captured submatches ($1, $2, ...) are now |
2140 | more consistently unset if the match fails, instead of leaving false | |
2141 | data lying around in them. | |
2142 | ||
2143 | =item * | |
2144 | ||
44da0e71 JH |
2145 | readline() on files opened in "slurp" mode could return an extra "" at |
2146 | the end in certain situations. This has been corrected. | |
2147 | ||
2148 | =item * | |
2149 | ||
2150 | Autovivification of symbolic references of special variables described | |
2151 | in L<perlvar> (as in C<${$num}>) was accidentally disabled. This works | |
2152 | again now. | |
2153 | ||
2154 | =item * | |
2155 | ||
da6838c8 | 2156 | Sys::Syslog ignored the C<LOG_AUTH> constant. |
ba370e9b JH |
2157 | |
2158 | =item * | |
2159 | ||
e1f170bd | 2160 | All but the first argument of the IO syswrite() method are now optional. |
ba370e9b JH |
2161 | |
2162 | =item * | |
2163 | ||
e1f170bd JH |
2164 | $AUTOLOAD, sort(), lock(), and spawning subprocesses |
2165 | in multiple threads simultaneously are now thread-safe. | |
ba370e9b JH |
2166 | |
2167 | =item * | |
2168 | ||
e1f170bd | 2169 | Tie::ARRAY SPLICE method was broken. |
ba370e9b JH |
2170 | |
2171 | =item * | |
2172 | ||
e1f170bd | 2173 | Allow read-only string on left hand side of non-modifying tr///. |
ba370e9b JH |
2174 | |
2175 | =item * | |
2176 | ||
ed788108 AT |
2177 | If C<STDERR> is tied, warnings caused by C<warn> and C<die> now |
2178 | correctly pass to it. | |
2179 | ||
2180 | =item * | |
2181 | ||
e1f170bd | 2182 | Several Unicode fixes. |
ba370e9b JH |
2183 | |
2184 | =over 8 | |
2185 | ||
2186 | =item * | |
2187 | ||
e1f170bd JH |
2188 | BOMs (byte order marks) in the beginning of Perl files |
2189 | (scripts, modules) should now be transparently skipped. | |
2190 | UTF-16 (UCS-2) encoded Perl files should now be read correctly. | |
ba370e9b JH |
2191 | |
2192 | =item * | |
2193 | ||
26f08e12 | 2194 | The character tables have been updated to Unicode 3.2.0. |
ba370e9b JH |
2195 | |
2196 | =item * | |
2197 | ||
e1f170bd | 2198 | Comparing with utf8 data does not magically upgrade non-utf8 data |
58175c9b JH |
2199 | into utf8. (This was a problem for example if you were mixing data |
2200 | from I/O and Unicode data: your output might have got magically encoded | |
2201 | as UTF-8.) | |
2202 | ||
2203 | =item * | |
2204 | ||
2205 | Generating illegal Unicode code points like U+FFFE, or the UTF-16 | |
2206 | surrogates, now also generates an optional warning. | |
ba370e9b JH |
2207 | |
2208 | =item * | |
2209 | ||
e1f170bd | 2210 | C<IsAlnum>, C<IsAlpha>, and C<IsWord> now match titlecase. |
f39f21d8 | 2211 | |
77c8cf41 | 2212 | =item * |
f39f21d8 | 2213 | |
e1f170bd JH |
2214 | Concatenation with the C<.> operator or via variable interpolation, |
2215 | C<eq>, C<substr>, C<reverse>, C<quotemeta>, the C<x> operator, | |
2216 | substitution with C<s///>, single-quoted UTF8, should now work. | |
f39f21d8 | 2217 | |
77c8cf41 | 2218 | =item * |
f39f21d8 | 2219 | |
e1f170bd JH |
2220 | The C<tr///> operator now works. Note that the C<tr///CU> |
2221 | functionality has been removed (but see pack('U0', ...)). | |
f39f21d8 | 2222 | |
77c8cf41 | 2223 | =item * |
f39f21d8 | 2224 | |
e1f170bd | 2225 | C<eval "v200"> now works. |
f39f21d8 | 2226 | |
77c8cf41 | 2227 | =item * |
f39f21d8 | 2228 | |
44da0e71 JH |
2229 | Perl 5.6.0 parsed m/\x{ab}/ incorrectly, leading to spurious warnings. |
2230 | This has been corrected. | |
2231 | ||
2232 | =item * | |
2233 | ||
e1f170bd | 2234 | Zero entries were missing from the Unicode classes like C<IsDigit>. |
f39f21d8 | 2235 | |
e1f170bd | 2236 | =back |
f39f21d8 | 2237 | |
44da0e71 JH |
2238 | =item * |
2239 | ||
2240 | Large unsigned numbers (those above 2**31) could sometimes lose their | |
2241 | unsignedness, causing bogus results in arithmetic operations. | |
2242 | ||
77c8cf41 | 2243 | =back |
f39f21d8 | 2244 | |
77c8cf41 | 2245 | =head2 Platform Specific Changes and Fixes |
f39f21d8 JH |
2246 | |
2247 | =over 4 | |
2248 | ||
2249 | =item * | |
2250 | ||
77c8cf41 | 2251 | BSDI 4.* |
f39f21d8 | 2252 | |
77c8cf41 | 2253 | Perl now works on post-4.0 BSD/OSes. |
f39f21d8 JH |
2254 | |
2255 | =item * | |
2256 | ||
77c8cf41 | 2257 | All BSDs |
f39f21d8 | 2258 | |
057b7f2b | 2259 | Setting C<$0> now works (as much as possible; see L<perlvar> for details). |
f39f21d8 JH |
2260 | |
2261 | =item * | |
2262 | ||
77c8cf41 | 2263 | Cygwin |
f39f21d8 | 2264 | |
439f2f5c | 2265 | Numerous updates; currently synchronised with Cygwin 1.3.10. |
f39f21d8 JH |
2266 | |
2267 | =item * | |
2268 | ||
e1f170bd JH |
2269 | Previously DYNIX/ptx had problems in its Configure probe for non-blocking I/O. |
2270 | ||
2271 | =item * | |
2272 | ||
77c8cf41 | 2273 | EPOC |
f39f21d8 | 2274 | |
77c8cf41 | 2275 | EPOC update after Perl 5.6.0. See README.epoc. |
f39f21d8 JH |
2276 | |
2277 | =item * | |
2278 | ||
77c8cf41 | 2279 | FreeBSD 3.* |
f39f21d8 | 2280 | |
77c8cf41 | 2281 | Perl now works on post-3.0 FreeBSDs. |
f39f21d8 JH |
2282 | |
2283 | =item * | |
2284 | ||
77c8cf41 JH |
2285 | HP-UX |
2286 | ||
439f2f5c | 2287 | README.hpux updated; C<Configure -Duse64bitall> now works. |
f39f21d8 JH |
2288 | |
2289 | =item * | |
2290 | ||
77c8cf41 | 2291 | IRIX |
f39f21d8 | 2292 | |
77c8cf41 JH |
2293 | Numerous compilation flag and hint enhancements; accidental mixing |
2294 | of 32-bit and 64-bit libraries (a doomed attempt) made much harder. | |
f39f21d8 | 2295 | |
77c8cf41 | 2296 | =item * |
f39f21d8 | 2297 | |
77c8cf41 | 2298 | Linux |
f39f21d8 | 2299 | |
e1f170bd JH |
2300 | =over 8 |
2301 | ||
2302 | =item * | |
2303 | ||
77c8cf41 | 2304 | Long doubles should now work (see INSTALL). |
f39f21d8 JH |
2305 | |
2306 | =item * | |
2307 | ||
e1f170bd JH |
2308 | Linux previously had problems related to sockaddrlen when using |
2309 | accept(), revcfrom() (in Perl: recv()), getpeername(), and getsockname(). | |
2310 | ||
2311 | =back | |
2312 | ||
2313 | =item * | |
2314 | ||
77c8cf41 | 2315 | MacOS Classic |
f39f21d8 | 2316 | |
77c8cf41 JH |
2317 | Compilation of the standard Perl distribution in MacOS Classic should |
2318 | now work if you have the Metrowerks development environment and | |
2319 | the missing Mac-specific toolkit bits. Contact the macperl mailing | |
2320 | list for details. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
2321 | |
2322 | =item * | |
2323 | ||
77c8cf41 | 2324 | MPE/iX |
f39f21d8 | 2325 | |
77c8cf41 | 2326 | MPE/iX update after Perl 5.6.0. See README.mpeix. |
f39f21d8 JH |
2327 | |
2328 | =item * | |
2329 | ||
27cc4b77 JH |
2330 | NetBSD/threads: try installing the GNU pth (should be in the |
2331 | packages collection, or http://www.gnu.org/software/pth/), | |
2332 | and Configure with -Duseithreads. | |
2333 | ||
2334 | =item * | |
2335 | ||
77c8cf41 | 2336 | NetBSD/sparc |
f39f21d8 | 2337 | |
77c8cf41 | 2338 | Perl now works on NetBSD/sparc. |
f39f21d8 JH |
2339 | |
2340 | =item * | |
2341 | ||
77c8cf41 | 2342 | OS/2 |
f39f21d8 | 2343 | |
77c8cf41 | 2344 | Now works with usethreads (see INSTALL). |
f39f21d8 JH |
2345 | |
2346 | =item * | |
2347 | ||
77c8cf41 | 2348 | Solaris |
f39f21d8 | 2349 | |
77c8cf41 | 2350 | 64-bitness using the Sun Workshop compiler now works. |
f39f21d8 JH |
2351 | |
2352 | =item * | |
2353 | ||
11d33b1d PG |
2354 | Stratus VOS |
2355 | ||
2356 | The native build method requires at least VOS Release 14.5.0 | |
2357 | and GNU C++/GNU Tools 2.0.1 or later. The Perl pack function | |
2358 | now maps overflowed values to +infinity and underflowed values | |
2359 | to -infinity. | |
2360 | ||
2361 | =item * | |
2362 | ||
77c8cf41 | 2363 | Tru64 (aka Digital UNIX, aka DEC OSF/1) |
f39f21d8 | 2364 | |
77c8cf41 JH |
2365 | The operating system version letter now recorded in $Config{osvers}. |
2366 | Allow compiling with gcc (previously explicitly forbidden). Compiling | |
2367 | with gcc still not recommended because buggy code results, even with | |
2368 | gcc 2.95.2. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
2369 | |
2370 | =item * | |
2371 | ||
77c8cf41 JH |
2372 | Unicos |
2373 | ||
2374 | Fixed various alignment problems that lead into core dumps either | |
2375 | during build or later; no longer dies on math errors at runtime; | |
2376 | now using full quad integers (64 bits), previously was using | |
2377 | only 46 bit integers for speed. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
2378 | |
2379 | =item * | |
2380 | ||
77c8cf41 JH |
2381 | VMS |
2382 | ||
2383 | chdir() now works better despite a CRT bug; now works with MULTIPLICITY | |
2384 | (see INSTALL); now works with Perl's malloc. | |
f39f21d8 | 2385 | |
00bb525a CB |
2386 | The tainting of C<%ENV> elements via C<keys> or C<values> was previously |
2387 | unimplemented. It now works as documented. | |
2388 | ||
2389 | The C<waitpid> emulation has been improved. The worst bug (now fixed) | |
2390 | was that a pid of -1 would cause a wildcard search of all processes on | |
2391 | the system. The most significant enhancement is that we can now | |
2392 | usually get the completion status of a terminated process. | |
2393 | ||
2394 | POSIX-style signals are now emulated much better on VMS versions prior | |
2395 | to 7.0. | |
2396 | ||
2397 | The C<system> function and backticks operator have improved | |
2398 | functionality and better error handling. | |
2399 | ||
161720b2 CB |
2400 | File access tests now use current process privileges rather than the |
2401 | user's default privileges, which could sometimes result in a mismatch | |
2402 | between reported access and actual access. | |
2403 | ||
f39f21d8 JH |
2404 | =item * |
2405 | ||
77c8cf41 | 2406 | Windows |
f39f21d8 | 2407 | |
77c8cf41 | 2408 | =over 8 |
f39f21d8 JH |
2409 | |
2410 | =item * | |
2411 | ||
77c8cf41 | 2412 | accept() no longer leaks memory. |
f39f21d8 JH |
2413 | |
2414 | =item * | |
2415 | ||
e1f170bd JH |
2416 | Borland C++ v5.5 is now a supported compiler that can build Perl. |
2417 | However, the generated binaries continue to be incompatible with those | |
2418 | generated by the other supported compilers (GCC and Visual C++). | |
2419 | ||
2420 | =item * | |
2421 | ||
77c8cf41 | 2422 | Better chdir() return value for a non-existent directory. |
f39f21d8 | 2423 | |
77c8cf41 | 2424 | =item * |
f39f21d8 | 2425 | |
e1f170bd JH |
2426 | Duping socket handles with open(F, ">&MYSOCK") now works under Windows 9x. |
2427 | ||
2428 | =item * | |
2429 | ||
77c8cf41 | 2430 | New %ENV entries now propagate to subprocesses. |
f39f21d8 JH |
2431 | |
2432 | =item * | |
2433 | ||
44da0e71 JH |
2434 | Current directory entries in %ENV are now correctly propagated to child |
2435 | processes. | |
2436 | ||
2437 | =item * | |
2438 | ||
77c8cf41 JH |
2439 | $ENV{LIB} now used to search for libs under Visual C. |
2440 | ||
2441 | =item * | |
2442 | ||
44da0e71 JH |
2443 | fork() emulation has been improved in various ways, but still continues |
2444 | to be experimental. See L<perlfork> for known bugs and caveats. | |
e1f170bd JH |
2445 | |
2446 | =item * | |
2447 | ||
77c8cf41 | 2448 | A failed (pseudo)fork now returns undef and sets errno to EAGAIN. |
f39f21d8 JH |
2449 | |
2450 | =item * | |
2451 | ||
44da0e71 JH |
2452 | Win32::GetCwd() correctly returns C:\ instead of C: when at the drive root. |
2453 | Other bugs in chdir() and Cwd::cwd() have also been fixed. | |
2454 | ||
2455 | =item * | |
2456 | ||
e1f170bd JH |
2457 | HTML files will be installed in c:\perl\html instead of c:\perl\lib\pod\html |
2458 | ||
2459 | =item * | |
2460 | ||
2461 | The makefiles now provide a single switch to bulk-enable all the features | |
2462 | enabled in ActiveState ActivePerl (a popular Win32 binary distribution). | |
2463 | ||
2464 | =item * | |
2465 | ||
77c8cf41 | 2466 | Allow REG_EXPAND_SZ keys in the registry. |
f39f21d8 JH |
2467 | |
2468 | =item * | |
2469 | ||
77c8cf41 | 2470 | Can now send() from all threads, not just the first one. |
f39f21d8 JH |
2471 | |
2472 | =item * | |
2473 | ||
77c8cf41 | 2474 | Fake signal handling reenabled, bugs and all. |
f39f21d8 JH |
2475 | |
2476 | =item * | |
2477 | ||
44da0e71 JH |
2478 | %SIG has been enabled under USE_ITHREADS, but its use is completely |
2479 | unsupported under all configurations. | |
2480 | ||
2481 | =item * | |
2482 | ||
77c8cf41 JH |
2483 | Less stack reserved per thread so that more threads can run |
2484 | concurrently. (Still 16M per thread.) | |
f39f21d8 JH |
2485 | |
2486 | =item * | |
2487 | ||
c2e23569 | 2488 | C<File::Spec->tmpdir()> now prefers C:/temp over /tmp |
77c8cf41 | 2489 | (works better when perl is running as service). |
f39f21d8 JH |
2490 | |
2491 | =item * | |
2492 | ||
77c8cf41 | 2493 | Better UNC path handling under ithreads. |
f39f21d8 JH |
2494 | |
2495 | =item * | |
2496 | ||
44da0e71 JH |
2497 | wait(), waitpid() and backticks now return the correct exit status under |
2498 | Windows 9x. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
2499 | |
2500 | =item * | |
2501 | ||
77c8cf41 | 2502 | winsock handle leak fixed. |
f39f21d8 | 2503 | |
d1eb8299 YST |
2504 | =item * |
2505 | ||
2506 | The Perl parser has been stress tested using both random input and | |
2507 | Markov chain input and the few found crashes and lockups have been | |
2508 | fixed. | |
2509 | ||
f39f21d8 JH |
2510 | =back |
2511 | ||
77c8cf41 | 2512 | =back |
f39f21d8 | 2513 | |
77c8cf41 | 2514 | =head1 New or Changed Diagnostics |
f39f21d8 | 2515 | |
ba370e9b JH |
2516 | =over 4 |
2517 | ||
2518 | =item * | |
2519 | ||
12bcd1a6 PM |
2520 | The lexical warnings category "deprecated" is no longer a sub-category |
2521 | of the "syntax" category. It is now a top-level category in its own | |
2522 | right. | |
2523 | ||
2524 | =item * | |
2525 | ||
77c8cf41 JH |
2526 | All regular expression compilation error messages are now hopefully |
2527 | easier to understand both because the error message now comes before | |
2528 | the failed regex and because the point of failure is now clearly | |
ba370e9b JH |
2529 | marked by a C<E<lt>-- HERE> marker. |
2530 | ||
2531 | =item * | |
f39f21d8 | 2532 | |
77c8cf41 JH |
2533 | The various "opened only for", "on closed", "never opened" warnings |
2534 | drop the C<main::> prefix for filehandles in the C<main> package, | |
bea4d472 | 2535 | for example C<STDIN> instead of C<main::STDIN>. |
f39f21d8 | 2536 | |
ba370e9b JH |
2537 | =item * |
2538 | ||
77c8cf41 JH |
2539 | The "Unrecognized escape" warning has been extended to include C<\8>, |
2540 | C<\9>, and C<\_>. There is no need to escape any of the C<\w> characters. | |
f39f21d8 | 2541 | |
ba370e9b | 2542 | =item * |
f39f21d8 | 2543 | |
77c8cf41 JH |
2544 | Two new debugging options have been added: if you have compiled your |
2545 | Perl with debugging, you can use the -DT and -DR options to trace | |
2546 | tokenising and to add reference counts to displaying variables, | |
2547 | respectively. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
2548 | |
2549 | =item * | |
2550 | ||
2bcb0b45 JH |
2551 | The debugger (perl5db.pl) has been modified to present a more |
2552 | consistent commands interface, via (CommandSet=580). perl5db.t was | |
2553 | also added to test the changes, and as a placeholder for further tests. | |
492652be | 2554 | |
2bcb0b45 | 2555 | See L<perldebug>. |
492652be RF |
2556 | |
2557 | =item * | |
2558 | ||
9000bd02 MJD |
2559 | The debugger has a new C<dumpDepth> option to control the maximum |
2560 | depth to which nested structures are dumped. The C<x> command has | |
2561 | been extended so that C<x N EXPR> dumps out the value of I<EXPR> to a | |
2562 | depth of at most I<N> levels. | |
2563 | ||
2564 | =item * | |
2565 | ||
2bcb0b45 JH |
2566 | The debugger can now show lexical variables if you have the CPAN |
2567 | module PadWalker installed. | |
2568 | ||
2569 | =item * | |
2570 | ||
77c8cf41 JH |
2571 | If an attempt to use a (non-blessed) reference as an array index |
2572 | is made, a warning is given. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
2573 | |
2574 | =item * | |
2575 | ||
77c8cf41 | 2576 | C<push @a;> and C<unshift @a;> (with no values to push or unshift) |
6e6372ba | 2577 | now give a warning. This may be a problem for generated and evaled |
77c8cf41 | 2578 | code. |
f39f21d8 | 2579 | |
ba370e9b JH |
2580 | =item * |
2581 | ||
2582 | If you try to L<perlfunc/pack> a number less than 0 or larger than 255 | |
2583 | using the C<"C"> format you will get an optional warning. Similarly | |
2584 | for the C<"c"> format and a number less than -128 or more than 127. | |
2585 | ||
2586 | =item * | |
2587 | ||
2588 | Certain regex modifiers such as C<(?o)> make sense only if applied to | |
0d4213c3 MJD |
2589 | the entire regex. You will get an optional warning if you try to do |
2590 | otherwise. | |
ba370e9b JH |
2591 | |
2592 | =item * | |
2593 | ||
0d4213c3 | 2594 | Using arrays or hashes as references (e.g. C<< %foo->{bar} >> |
c2e23569 | 2595 | has been deprecated for a while. Now you will get an optional warning. |
ba370e9b | 2596 | |
608dbdb1 RGS |
2597 | =item * |
2598 | ||
2599 | Using C<sort> in scalar context now issues an optional warning. | |
2600 | This didn't do anything useful, as the sort was not performed. | |
2601 | ||
f39f21d8 JH |
2602 | =back |
2603 | ||
77c8cf41 | 2604 | =head1 Changed Internals |
f39f21d8 JH |
2605 | |
2606 | =over 4 | |
2607 | ||
2608 | =item * | |
2609 | ||
77c8cf41 JH |
2610 | perlapi.pod (a companion to perlguts) now attempts to document the |
2611 | internal API. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
2612 | |
2613 | =item * | |
2614 | ||
77c8cf41 JH |
2615 | You can now build a really minimal perl called microperl. |
2616 | Building microperl does not require even running Configure; | |
2617 | C<make -f Makefile.micro> should be enough. Beware: microperl makes | |
2618 | many assumptions, some of which may be too bold; the resulting | |
2619 | executable may crash or otherwise misbehave in wondrous ways. | |
2620 | For careful hackers only. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
2621 | |
2622 | =item * | |
2623 | ||
c2e23569 JH |
2624 | Added rsignal(), whichsig(), do_join(), op_clear, op_null, |
2625 | ptr_table_clear(), ptr_table_free(), sv_setref_uv(), and several UTF-8 | |
2626 | interfaces to the publicised API. For the full list of the available | |
2627 | APIs see L<perlapi>. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
2628 | |
2629 | =item * | |
2630 | ||
77c8cf41 | 2631 | Made possible to propagate customised exceptions via croak()ing. |
f39f21d8 | 2632 | |
77c8cf41 | 2633 | =item * |
f39f21d8 | 2634 | |
95f0a2f1 SB |
2635 | Now xsubs can have attributes just like subs. (Well, at least the |
2636 | built-in attributes.) | |
f39f21d8 JH |
2637 | |
2638 | =item * | |
2639 | ||
77c8cf41 JH |
2640 | dTHR and djSP have been obsoleted; the former removed (because it's |
2641 | a no-op) and the latter replaced with dSP. | |
f39f21d8 JH |
2642 | |
2643 | =item * | |
2644 | ||
61947107 JH |
2645 | PERL_OBJECT has been completely removed. |
2646 | ||
2647 | =item * | |
2648 | ||
ba370e9b JH |
2649 | The MAGIC constants (e.g. C<'P'>) have been macrofied |
2650 | (e.g. C<PERL_MAGIC_TIED>) for better source code readability | |
2651 | and maintainability. | |
2652 | ||
2653 | =item * | |
2654 | ||
2655 | The regex compiler now maintains a structure that identifies nodes in | |
2656 | the compiled bytecode with the corresponding syntactic features of the | |
2657 | original regex expression. The information is attached to the new | |
2658 | C<offsets> member of the C<struct regexp>. See L<perldebguts> for more | |
2659 | complete information. | |
2660 | ||
2661 | =item * | |
2662 | ||
2663 | The C code has been made much more C<gcc -Wall> clean. Some warning | |
2664 | messages still remain in some platforms, so if you are compiling with | |
2665 | gcc you may see some warnings about dubious practices. The warnings | |
2666 | are being worked on. | |
2667 | ||
2668 | =item * | |
2669 | ||
2670 | F<perly.c>, F<sv.c>, and F<sv.h> have now been extensively commented. | |
2671 | ||
2672 | =item * | |
2673 | ||
61947107 JH |
2674 | Documentation on how to use the Perl source repository has been added |
2675 | to F<Porting/repository.pod>. | |
f39f21d8 | 2676 | |
888aee59 JH |
2677 | =item * |
2678 | ||
c2e23569 | 2679 | There are now several profiling make targets. |
888aee59 | 2680 | |
77c8cf41 | 2681 | =back |
f39f21d8 | 2682 | |
77c8cf41 | 2683 | =head1 Security Vulnerability Closed |
f39f21d8 | 2684 | |
77c8cf41 | 2685 | (This change was already made in 5.7.0 but bears repeating here.) |
f39f21d8 | 2686 | |
77c8cf41 JH |
2687 | A potential security vulnerability in the optional suidperl component |
2688 | of Perl was identified in August 2000. suidperl is neither built nor | |
2689 | installed by default. As of November 2001 the only known vulnerable | |
2690 | platform is Linux, most likely all Linux distributions. CERT and | |
2691 | various vendors and distributors have been alerted about the vulnerability. | |
2692 | See http://www.cpan.org/src/5.0/sperl-2000-08-05/sperl-2000-08-05.txt | |
2693 | for more information. | |
f39f21d8 | 2694 | |
77c8cf41 JH |
2695 | The problem was caused by Perl trying to report a suspected security |
2696 | exploit attempt using an external program, /bin/mail. On Linux | |
2697 | platforms the /bin/mail program had an undocumented feature which | |
2698 | when combined with suidperl gave access to a root shell, resulting in | |
2699 | a serious compromise instead of reporting the exploit attempt. If you | |
2700 | don't have /bin/mail, or if you have 'safe setuid scripts', or if | |
2701 | suidperl is not installed, you are safe. | |
f39f21d8 | 2702 | |
77c8cf41 JH |
2703 | The exploit attempt reporting feature has been completely removed from |
2704 | Perl 5.8.0 (and the maintenance release 5.6.1, and it was removed also | |
2705 | from all the Perl 5.7 releases), so that particular vulnerability | |
2706 | isn't there anymore. However, further security vulnerabilities are, | |
ba370e9b JH |
2707 | unfortunately, always possible. The suidperl functionality is most |
2708 | probably going to be removed in Perl 5.10. In any case, suidperl | |
2709 | should only be used by security experts who know exactly what they are | |
2710 | doing and why they are using suidperl instead of some other solution | |
1577cd80 | 2711 | such as sudo ( see http://www.courtesan.com/sudo/ ). |
77c8cf41 JH |
2712 | |
2713 | =head1 New Tests | |
2714 | ||
76663d67 | 2715 | Several new tests have been added, especially for the F<lib> |
d1eb8299 YST |
2716 | subsection. There are now about 56 000 individual tests (spread over |
2717 | about 620 test scripts), in the regression suite (5.6.1 has about | |
76663d67 JH |
2718 | 11700 tests, in 258 test scripts) Many of the new tests are introduced |
2719 | by the new modules, but still in general Perl is now more thoroughly | |
2720 | tested. | |
2721 | ||
2722 | Because of the large number of tests, running the regression suite | |
2723 | will take considerably longer time than it used to: expect the suite | |
2724 | to take up to 4-5 times longer to run than in perl 5.6. In a really | |
d1eb8299 | 2725 | fast machine you can hope to finish the suite in about 6-8 minutes |
76663d67 | 2726 | (wallclock time). |
77c8cf41 JH |
2727 | |
2728 | The tests are now reported in a different order than in earlier Perls. | |
2729 | (This happens because the test scripts from under t/lib have been moved | |
2730 | to be closer to the library/extension they are testing.) | |
2731 | ||
f39f21d8 JH |
2732 | =head1 Known Problems |
2733 | ||
f39f21d8 JH |
2734 | =head2 AIX |
2735 | ||
2736 | =over 4 | |
2737 | ||
2738 | =item * | |
2739 | ||
2740 | In AIX 4.2 Perl extensions that use C++ functions that use statics | |
2741 | may have problems in that the statics are not getting initialized. | |
2742 | In newer AIX releases this has been solved by linking Perl with | |
2743 | the libC_r library, but unfortunately in AIX 4.2 the said library | |
2744 | has an obscure bug where the various functions related to time | |
2745 | (such as time() and gettimeofday()) return broken values, and | |
2746 | therefore in AIX 4.2 Perl is not linked against the libC_r. | |
2747 | ||
2748 | =item * | |
2749 | ||
2750 | vac 5.0.0.0 May Produce Buggy Code For Perl | |
2751 | ||
2752 | The AIX C compiler vac version 5.0.0.0 may produce buggy code, | |
2753 | resulting in few random tests failing, but when the failing tests | |
2754 | are run by hand, they succeed. We suggest upgrading to at least | |
2755 | vac version 5.0.1.0, that has been known to compile Perl correctly. | |
439f2f5c | 2756 | "lslpp -L|grep vac.C" will tell you the vac version. See README.aix. |
f39f21d8 | 2757 | |
0ea5284e JH |
2758 | =item * |
2759 | ||
2760 | If building threaded Perl, you may get compilation warning from pp_sys.c: | |
2761 | ||
2762 | "pp_sys.c", line 4651.39: 1506-280 (W) Function argument assignment between types "unsigned char*" and "const void*" is not allowed. | |
2763 | ||
2764 | This is harmless; it is caused by the getnetbyaddr() and getnetbyaddr_r() | |
2765 | having slightly different types for their first argument. | |
2766 | ||
f39f21d8 JH |
2767 | =back |
2768 | ||
bdcfa4c7 JH |
2769 | =head2 ext/threads/t/libc |
2770 | ||
2771 | If this test fails, it indicates that your libc (C library) is not | |
2772 | threadsafe. This particular test stress tests the localtime() call to | |
2773 | find out whether it is threadsafe. See L<perlthrtut> for more information. | |
2774 | ||
9ffc0d0c JH |
2775 | =head2 FreeBSD Failing locale Test 117 For ISO8859-15 Locales |
2776 | ||
2777 | The ISO8859-15 locales may fail the locale test 117 in FreeBSD. | |
2778 | This is caused by the characters \xFF (y with diaeresis) and \xBE | |
2779 | (Y with diaeresis) not behaving correctly when being matched | |
2780 | case-insensitively. | |
2781 | ||
be61827f JH |
2782 | =head2 Modifying $_ Inside for(..) |
2783 | ||
2784 | for (1..5) { $_++ } | |
2785 | ||
2786 | works without complaint. It shouldn't. (You should be able to | |
2787 | modify only lvalue elements inside the loops.) You can see the | |
2788 | correct behaviour by replacing the 1..5 with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. | |
2789 | ||
696235b6 JH |
2790 | =head2 mod_perl 1.26 Doesn't Build With Threaded Perl |
2791 | ||
2792 | Use mod_perl 1.27 or higher. | |
a08f42e9 | 2793 | |
f39f21d8 JH |
2794 | =head2 lib/ftmp-security tests warn 'system possibly insecure' |
2795 | ||
2796 | Don't panic. Read INSTALL 'make test' section instead. | |
2797 | ||
be61827f | 2798 | =head2 HP-UX lib/posix Subtest 9 Fails When LP64-Configured |
f39f21d8 JH |
2799 | |
2800 | If perl is configured with -Duse64bitall, the successful result of the | |
2801 | subtest 10 of lib/posix may arrive before the successful result of the | |
2802 | subtest 9, which confuses the test harness so much that it thinks the | |
2803 | subtest 9 failed. | |
2804 | ||
2805 | =head2 Linux With Sfio Fails op/misc Test 48 | |
2806 | ||
2807 | No known fix. | |
2808 | ||
a0aae13b JH |
2809 | =head2 Mac OS X |
2810 | ||
6aaad45d JH |
2811 | Please remember to set your environment variable LC_ALL to "C" |
2812 | (setenv LC_ALL C) before running "make test" to avoid a lot of | |
2813 | warnings about the broken locales of Mac OS X. | |
2814 | ||
a0aae13b JH |
2815 | The following tests are known to fail: |
2816 | ||
2817 | Failed Test Stat Wstat Total Fail Failed List of Failed | |
2818 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
2819 | ../ext/DB_File/t/db-btree.t 0 11 ?? ?? % ?? | |
2820 | ../ext/DB_File/t/db-recno.t 149 3 2.01% 61 63 65 | |
a0aae13b | 2821 | |
3f1f789b | 2822 | If you are building on a UFS partition, you will also probably see |
f5dcdc4e JH |
2823 | t/op/stat.t subtest #9 fail. This is caused by Darwin's UFS not |
2824 | supporting inode change time. | |
3f1f789b | 2825 | |
7830a95b JH |
2826 | Also the ext/POSIX/t/posix.t subtest #10 fails but it is skipped for |
2827 | now because the failure is Apple's fault, not Perl's (blocked signals | |
2828 | are lost). | |
2829 | ||
2830 | If you Configure with ithreads, ext/threads/t/libc.t will fail, again | |
2831 | not Perl's fault-- the libc of Mac OS X is not threadsafe (in this | |
2832 | particular test the localtime() call is found to be threadunsafe.) | |
2833 | ||
7fc79a86 | 2834 | =head2 op/sprintf tests 91, 129, and 130 |
f39f21d8 | 2835 | |
7fc79a86 JH |
2836 | The op/sprintf tests 91, 129, and 130 are known to fail on some platforms. |
2837 | Examples include any platform using sfio, and Compaq/Tandem's NonStop-UX. | |
f39f21d8 | 2838 | |
7fc79a86 JH |
2839 | The test 91 is known to fail at QNX6 (nto), because C<sprintf '%e',0> |
2840 | incorrectly produces C<0.000000e+0> instead of C<0.000000e+00>. | |
f39f21d8 | 2841 | |
7fc79a86 JH |
2842 | For the tests 129 and 130 the failing platforms do not comply with |
2843 | the ANSI C Standard, line 19ff on page 134 of ANSI X3.159 1989 to | |
2844 | be exact. (They produce something other than "1" and "-1" when | |
2845 | formatting 0.6 and -0.6 using the printf format "%.0f", most often | |
2846 | they produce "0" and "-0".) | |
f39f21d8 | 2847 | |
0646842f JH |
2848 | =head2 Solaris 2.5 |
2849 | ||
2850 | In case you are still using Solaris 2.5 (aka SunOS 5.5), you may | |
2851 | experience failures (the test core dumping) in lib/locale.t. | |
2852 | The suggested cure is to upgrade your Solaris. | |
2853 | ||
11d33b1d PG |
2854 | =head2 Stratus VOS |
2855 | ||
2856 | When Perl is built using the native build process on VOS Release | |
2857 | 14.5.0 and GNU C++/GNU Tools 2.0.1, all attempted tests either | |
2858 | pass or result in TODO (ignored) failures. | |
2859 | ||
19d05054 JH |
2860 | =head Term::ReadKey not working on Win32 |
2861 | ||
2862 | Use Term::ReadKey 2.20 or later. | |
2863 | ||
7fc79a86 | 2864 | =head2 Failure of Thread (5.005-style) tests |
f39f21d8 | 2865 | |
6ba475fe JH |
2866 | B<Note that support for 5.005-style threading is deprecated, |
2867 | experimental and practically unsupported. In 5.10 it is expected | |
2868 | to be removed.> | |
f39f21d8 JH |
2869 | |
2870 | The following tests are known to fail due to fundamental problems in | |
2871 | the 5.005 threading implementation. These are not new failures--Perl | |
2872 | 5.005_0x has the same bugs, but didn't have these tests. | |
2873 | ||
6123004a JH |
2874 | ../ext/List/Util/t/first.t 255 65280 7 4 57.14% 2 5-7 |
2875 | ../lib/English.t 2 512 54 2 3.70% 2-3 | |
2876 | ../lib/Filter/Simple/t/data.t 6 3 50.00% 1-3 | |
2877 | ../lib/Filter/Simple/t/filter_onl 9 3 33.33% 1-2 5 | |
2878 | ../lib/autouse.t 10 1 10.00% 4 | |
2879 | op/flip.t 15 1 6.67% 15 | |
fedd8cf1 | 2880 | |
9972c7af JH |
2881 | These failures are unlikely to get fixed as the 5.005-style threads |
2882 | are considered fundamentally broken. (Basically what happens is that | |
2883 | competing threads can corrupt shared global state.) | |
f39f21d8 JH |
2884 | |
2885 | =head2 UNICOS | |
2886 | ||
d334a774 JH |
2887 | ../ext/Socket/socketpair.t 1 256 45 1 2.22% 12 |
2888 | ../ext/Storable/t/downgrade.t 92 23552 59 6 10.17% 144-147 | |
2889 | 150-151 | |
2890 | ../lib/Math/Trig.t 26 1 3.85% 25 | |
2891 | ../lib/warnings.t 470 1 0.21% 429 | |
2892 | op/numconvert.t 1440 13 0.90% 208 509-510 | |
2893 | 657-658 665-666 829-830 989-990 1149-1150 | |
f39f21d8 | 2894 | |
9972c7af JH |
2895 | The Trig and numconvert failures are caused by the slighly differing |
2896 | (from IEEE) floating point implementation of UNICOS. The warnings | |
2897 | failure is also related: the test assumes a certain floating point | |
2898 | output format, this assumption fails in UNICOS. | |
2899 | ||
cb3f5972 JH |
2900 | =head2 UNICOS/mk |
2901 | ||
3d7e8424 JH |
2902 | =over 4 |
2903 | ||
2904 | =item * | |
2905 | ||
cb3f5972 JH |
2906 | During Configure the test |
2907 | ||
2908 | Guessing which symbols your C compiler and preprocessor define... | |
2909 | ||
2910 | will probably fail with error messages like | |
2911 | ||
2912 | CC-20 cc: ERROR File = try.c, Line = 3 | |
2913 | The identifier "bad" is undefined. | |
2914 | ||
2915 | bad switch yylook 79bad switch yylook 79bad switch yylook 79bad switch yylook 79#ifdef A29K | |
2916 | ^ | |
2917 | ||
2918 | CC-65 cc: ERROR File = try.c, Line = 3 | |
2919 | A semicolon is expected at this point. | |
2920 | ||
2921 | This is caused by a bug in awk utility of UNICOS/mk. You can ignore | |
2922 | the error, but it does cause a slight problem: you cannot fully | |
2923 | benefit from the h2ph utility (see L<h2ph>) that can be used to | |
2924 | convert C headers to Perl libraries, mainly used to be able to access | |
2925 | from Perl the constants defined using C preprocessor, cpp. Because of | |
2926 | the above error parts of the converted headers will be invisible. | |
2927 | Luckily, these days the need for h2ph is rare. | |
2928 | ||
3d7e8424 JH |
2929 | =item * |
2930 | ||
2931 | If building Perl with the interpreter threads (ithreads), the | |
2932 | getgrent(), getgrnam(), and getgrgid() functions cannot return the | |
2933 | list of the group members due to a bug in the multithreaded support of | |
2934 | UNICOS/mk. What this means that in list context the functions will | |
2935 | return only three values, not four. | |
2936 | ||
2937 | =back | |
2938 | ||
f39f21d8 JH |
2939 | =head2 UTS |
2940 | ||
2941 | There are a few known test failures, see L<perluts>. | |
2942 | ||
2943 | =head2 VMS | |
2944 | ||
161720b2 CB |
2945 | There should be no reported test failures with a default configuration, |
2946 | though there are a number of tests marked TODO that point to areas | |
2947 | needing further debugging and/or porting work. | |
7207e29d | 2948 | |
f39f21d8 JH |
2949 | =head2 Win32 |
2950 | ||
2951 | In multi-CPU boxes there are some problems with the I/O buffering: | |
cd34865e | 2952 | some output may appear twice. |
f39f21d8 | 2953 | |
d34c32a4 JH |
2954 | =head2 XML::Parser not working |
2955 | ||
2956 | Use XML::Parser 2.31 or later. | |
2957 | ||
7fc79a86 JH |
2958 | =head2 z/OS (OS/390) |
2959 | ||
2960 | z/OS has rather many test failures but the situation is actually | |
2961 | better than it was in 5.6.0, it's just that so many new modules and | |
2962 | tests have been added. | |
2963 | ||
dad95037 | 2964 | Failed Test Stat Wstat Total Fail Failed List of Failed |
c151f1b7 JH |
2965 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
2966 | ../ext/Data/Dumper/t/dumper.t 357 8 2.24% 311 314 325 327 | |
84fad863 | 2967 | 331 333 337 339 |
7fc79a86 | 2968 | ../ext/IO/lib/IO/t/io_unix.t 5 4 80.00% 2-5 |
e363f566 | 2969 | ../ext/Storable/t/downgrade.t 12 3072 169 12 7.10% 14-15 46-47 78-79 |
60d6f83c | 2970 | 110-111 150 161 |
84fad863 | 2971 | ../lib/ExtUtils/t/Constant.t 121 30976 48 48 100.00% 1-48 |
7fc79a86 | 2972 | ../lib/ExtUtils/t/Embed.t 9 9 100.00% 1-9 |
e363f566 JH |
2973 | op/pat.t 910 7 0.77% 665 776 785 832- |
2974 | 834 845 | |
7fc79a86 JH |
2975 | op/sprintf.t 224 3 1.34% 98 100 136 |
2976 | op/tr.t 97 5 5.15% 63 71-74 | |
dcdcee7d JH |
2977 | uni/fold.t 780 6 0.77% 61 169 196 661 |
2978 | 710-711 | |
7fc79a86 | 2979 | |
9972c7af JH |
2980 | The dumper.t and downgrade.t are problems in the tests, the io_unix |
2981 | and sprintf are problems in the USS (UDP sockets and printf formats). | |
2982 | The pat, tr, and fold are genuine Perl problems caused by EBCDIC (and | |
2983 | in the pat and fold cases, combining that with Unicode). The Constant | |
2984 | and Embed are probably problems in the tests (since they test Perl's | |
2985 | ability to build extensions, and that seems to be working reasonably well.) | |
2986 | ||
aecce728 JH |
2987 | =head2 Localising Tied Arrays and Hashes Is Broken |
2988 | ||
2989 | local %tied_array; | |
2990 | ||
2991 | doesn't work as one would expect: the old value is restored | |
2992 | incorrectly. | |
2993 | ||
f39f21d8 JH |
2994 | =head2 Self-tying of Arrays and Hashes Is Forbidden |
2995 | ||
2996 | Self-tying of arrays and hashes is broken in rather deep and | |
2997 | hard-to-fix ways. As a stop-gap measure to avoid people from getting | |
2998 | frustrated at the mysterious results (core dumps, most often) it is | |
2999 | for now forbidden (you will get a fatal error even from an attempt). | |
3000 | ||
f39f21d8 JH |
3001 | =head2 Building Extensions Can Fail Because Of Largefiles |
3002 | ||
3003 | Some extensions like mod_perl are known to have issues with | |
3004 | `largefiles', a change brought by Perl 5.6.0 in which file offsets | |
3005 | default to 64 bits wide, where supported. Modules may fail to compile | |
3006 | at all or compile and work incorrectly. Currently there is no good | |
3007 | solution for the problem, but Configure now provides appropriate | |
3008 | non-largefile ccflags, ldflags, libswanted, and libs in the %Config | |
3009 | hash (e.g., $Config{ccflags_nolargefiles}) so the extensions that are | |
3010 | having problems can try configuring themselves without the | |
3011 | largefileness. This is admittedly not a clean solution, and the | |
3012 | solution may not even work at all. One potential failure is whether | |
3013 | one can (or, if one can, whether it's a good idea) link together at | |
3014 | all binaries with different ideas about file offsets, all this is | |
3015 | platform-dependent. | |
3016 | ||
aecce728 JH |
3017 | =head2 Unicode Support on EBCDIC Still Spotty |
3018 | ||
3019 | Though mostly working, Unicode support still has problem spots on | |
3020 | EBCDIC platforms. One such known spot are the C<\p{}> and C<\P{}> | |
3021 | regular expression constructs for code points less than 256: the | |
c5af7db2 | 3022 | C<pP> are testing for Unicode code points, not knowing about EBCDIC. |
aecce728 | 3023 | |
c5af7db2 | 3024 | =head2 The Compiler Suite Is Still Very Experimental |
f39f21d8 | 3025 | |
44da0e71 JH |
3026 | The compiler suite is slowly getting better but it continues to be |
3027 | highly experimental. Use in production environments is discouraged. | |
f39f21d8 | 3028 | |
c4f1ce08 | 3029 | =head2 The Long Double Support Is Still Experimental |
f39f21d8 JH |
3030 | |
3031 | The ability to configure Perl's numbers to use "long doubles", | |
3032 | floating point numbers of hopefully better accuracy, is still | |
3033 | experimental. The implementations of long doubles are not yet | |
3034 | widespread and the existing implementations are not quite mature | |
3035 | or standardised, therefore trying to support them is a rare | |
3036 | and moving target. The gain of more precision may also be offset | |
3037 | by slowdown in computations (more bits to move around, and the | |
3038 | operations are more likely to be executed by less optimised | |
3039 | libraries). | |
33a87e58 | 3040 | |
c4f1ce08 JH |
3041 | =head2 Seen In Perl 5.7 But Gone Now |
3042 | ||
c4f1ce08 JH |
3043 | C<Time::Piece> (previously known as C<Time::Object>) was removed |
3044 | because it was felt that it didn't have enough value in it to be a | |
3045 | core module. It is still a useful module, though, and is available | |
3046 | from the CPAN. | |
3047 | ||
e5f9105d | 3048 | Perl 5.8 unfortunately does not build anymore on AmigaOS, |
c5af7db2 JH |
3049 | this broke at some point accidentally. Since there are not that many |
3050 | Amiga developers available, we could not get this fixed and tested in | |
3051 | time for 5.8.0. | |
3052 | ||
cc0fca54 GS |
3053 | =head1 Reporting Bugs |
3054 | ||
d4ad863d JH |
3055 | If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles |
3056 | recently posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl | |
f224927c JH |
3057 | bug database at http://bugs.perl.org/ There may also be |
3058 | information at http://www.perl.com/ , the Perl Home Page. | |
cc0fca54 GS |
3059 | |
3060 | If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the B<perlbug> | |
3061 | program included with your release. Be sure to trim your bug down | |
3062 | to a tiny but sufficient test case. Your bug report, along with the | |
d4ad863d | 3063 | output of C<perl -V>, will be sent off to perlbug@perl.org to be |
cc0fca54 GS |
3064 | analysed by the Perl porting team. |
3065 | ||
3066 | =head1 SEE ALSO | |
3067 | ||
3068 | The F<Changes> file for exhaustive details on what changed. | |
3069 | ||
3070 | The F<INSTALL> file for how to build Perl. | |
3071 | ||
3072 | The F<README> file for general stuff. | |
3073 | ||
3074 | The F<Artistic> and F<Copying> files for copyright information. | |
3075 | ||
3076 | =head1 HISTORY | |
3077 | ||
d468ca04 | 3078 | Written by Jarkko Hietaniemi <F<jhi@iki.fi>>. |
cc0fca54 GS |
3079 | |
3080 | =cut |