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43d4bbc8 JH |
1 | =head1 NAME |
2 | ||
d5f2cb03 | 3 | perl572delta - what's new for perl v5.7.2 |
43d4bbc8 JH |
4 | |
5 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
6 | ||
7 | This document describes differences between the 5.7.1 release and the | |
8 | 5.7.2 release. | |
9 | ||
10 | (To view the differences between the 5.6.0 release and the 5.7.0 | |
11 | release, see L<perl570delta>. To view the differences between the | |
12 | 5.7.0 release and the 5.7.1 release, see L<perl571delta>.) | |
13 | ||
14 | =head1 Security Vulnerability Closed | |
15 | ||
16 | (This change was already made in 5.7.0 but bears repeating here.) | |
17 | ||
18 | A security vulnerability affecting all Perl versions prior to 5.6.1 | |
19 | was found in August 2000. The vulnerability does not affect default | |
20 | installations and as far as is known affects only the Linux platform. | |
21 | ||
22 | You should upgrade your Perl to 5.6.1 as soon as possible. Patches | |
267a12e6 JH |
23 | for earlier releases exist but using the patches require full |
24 | recompilation from the source code anyway, so 5.6.1 is your best | |
25 | choice. | |
26 | ||
43d4bbc8 JH |
27 | See http://www.cpan.org/src/5.0/sperl-2000-08-05/sperl-2000-08-05.txt |
28 | for more information. | |
29 | ||
30 | =head1 Incompatible Changes | |
31 | ||
699e893f JH |
32 | =head2 64-bit platforms and malloc |
33 | ||
267a12e6 JH |
34 | If your pointers are 64 bits wide, the Perl malloc is no more being |
35 | used because it simply does not work with 8-byte pointers. Also, | |
36 | usually the system malloc on such platforms are much better optimized | |
37 | for such large memory models than the Perl malloc. | |
38 | ||
d7b629d9 JH |
39 | =head2 AIX Dynaloading |
40 | ||
12f54d27 JH |
41 | The AIX dynaloading now uses in AIX releases 4.3 and newer the native |
42 | dlopen interface of AIX instead of the old emulated interface. This | |
43 | change will probably break backward compatibility with compiled | |
44 | modules. The change was made to make Perl more compliant with other | |
45 | applications like modperl which are using the AIX native interface. | |
d7b629d9 JH |
46 | |
47 | =head2 Socket Extension Dynamic in VMS | |
48 | ||
49 | The Socket extension is now dynamically loaded instead of being | |
50 | statically built in. This may or may not be a problem with ancient | |
51 | TCP/IP stacks of VMS: we do not know since we weren't able to test | |
52 | Perl in such configurations. | |
53 | ||
2796c109 JH |
54 | =head2 Different Definition of the Unicode Character Classes \p{In...} |
55 | ||
56 | As suggested by the Unicode consortium, the Unicode character classes | |
57 | now prefer I<scripts> as opposed to I<blocks> (as defined by Unicode); | |
58 | in Perl, when the C<\p{In....}> and the C<\p{In....}> regular expression | |
59 | constructs are used. This has changed the definition of some of those | |
60 | character classes. | |
61 | ||
62 | The difference between scripts and blocks is that scripts are the | |
63 | glyphs used by a language or a group of languages, while the blocks | |
64 | are more artificial groupings of 256 characters based on the Unicode | |
65 | numbering. | |
66 | ||
67 | In general this change results in more inclusive Unicode character | |
68 | classes, but changes to the other direction also do take place: | |
69 | for example while the script C<Latin> includes all the Latin | |
70 | characters and their various diacritic-adorned versions, it | |
71 | does not include the various punctuation or digits (since they | |
72 | are not solely C<Latin>). | |
73 | ||
74 | Changes in the character class semantics may have happened if a script | |
75 | and a block happen to have the same name, for example C<Hebrew>. | |
76 | In such cases the script wins and C<\p{InHebrew}> now means the script | |
77 | definition of Hebrew. The block definition in still available, | |
78 | though, by appending C<Block> to the name: C<\p{InHebrewBlock}> means | |
79 | what C<\p{InHebrew}> meant in perl 5.6.0. For the full list | |
80 | of affected character classes, see L<perlunicode/Blocks>. | |
81 | ||
d7b629d9 | 82 | =head2 Deprecations |
cbb3fa72 JH |
83 | |
84 | The current user-visible implementation of pseudo-hashes (the weird | |
85 | use of the first array element) is deprecated starting from Perl 5.8.0 | |
d7b629d9 JH |
86 | and will be removed in Perl 5.10.0, and the feature will be |
87 | implemented differently. Not only is the current interface rather | |
88 | ugly, but the current implementation slows down normal array and hash | |
d0c93ae9 | 89 | use quite noticeably. The C<fields> pragma interface will remain |
d7b629d9 JH |
90 | available. |
91 | ||
ad0f383a | 92 | The syntaxes C<< @a->[...] >> and C<< @h->{...} >> have now been deprecated. |
cbb3fa72 | 93 | |
267a12e6 JH |
94 | The suidperl is also considered to be too much a risk to continue |
95 | maintaining and the suidperl code is likely to be removed in a future | |
96 | release. | |
97 | ||
d0c93ae9 JH |
98 | The C<package;> syntax (C<package> without an argument has been |
99 | deprecated. Its semantics were never that clear and its | |
100 | implementation even less so. If you have used that feature to | |
101 | disallow all but fully qualified variables, C<use strict;> instead. | |
102 | ||
35ae6b54 MS |
103 | The chdir(undef) and chdir('') behaviors to match chdir() has been |
104 | deprecated. In future versions, chdir(undef) and chdir('') will | |
105 | simply fail. | |
106 | ||
43d4bbc8 JH |
107 | =head1 Core Enhancements |
108 | ||
d7b629d9 JH |
109 | In general a lot of fixing has happened in the area of Perl's |
110 | understanding of numbers, both integer and floating point. Since in | |
111 | many systems the standard number parsing functions like C<strtoul()> | |
112 | and C<atof()> seem to have bugs, Perl tries to work around their | |
113 | deficiencies. This results hopefully in more accurate numbers. | |
267a12e6 JH |
114 | |
115 | =over 4 | |
116 | ||
117 | =item * | |
118 | ||
119 | The rules for allowing underscores (underbars) in numeric constants | |
120 | have been relaxed and simplified: now you can have an underscore | |
121 | B<between digits>. | |
122 | ||
123 | =item * | |
124 | ||
9108dd47 JH |
125 | GMAGIC (right-hand side magic) could in many cases such as string |
126 | concatenation be invoked too many times. | |
267a12e6 JH |
127 | |
128 | =item * | |
129 | ||
d7b629d9 JH |
130 | Lexicals I: lexicals outside an eval "" weren't resolved |
131 | correctly inside a subroutine definition inside the eval "" if they | |
132 | were not already referenced in the top level of the eval""ed code. | |
133 | ||
134 | =item * | |
135 | ||
136 | Lexicals II: lexicals leaked at file scope into subroutines that | |
137 | were declared before the lexicals. | |
138 | ||
139 | =item * | |
140 | ||
141 | Lvalue subroutines can now return C<undef> in list context. | |
267a12e6 JH |
142 | |
143 | =item * | |
144 | ||
9108dd47 | 145 | The C<op_clear> and C<op_null> are now exported. |
267a12e6 JH |
146 | |
147 | =item * | |
148 | ||
9108dd47 JH |
149 | A new special regular expression variable has been introduced: |
150 | C<$^N>, which contains the most-recently closed group (submatch). | |
267a12e6 JH |
151 | |
152 | =item * | |
153 | ||
699e893f | 154 | L<utime> now supports C<utime undef, undef, @files> to change the |
d7b629d9 | 155 | file timestamps to the current time. |
699e893f JH |
156 | |
157 | =item * | |
158 | ||
267a12e6 JH |
159 | The Perl parser has been stress tested using both random input and |
160 | Markov chain input. | |
161 | ||
d7b629d9 JH |
162 | =item * |
163 | ||
164 | C<eval "v200"> now works. | |
165 | ||
166 | =item * | |
167 | ||
168 | VMS now works under PerlIO. | |
169 | ||
d95b23b2 AB |
170 | =item * |
171 | ||
172 | END blocks are now run even if you exit/die in a BEGIN block. | |
173 | The execution of END blocks is now controlled by | |
174 | PL_exit_flags & PERL_EXIT_DESTRUCT_END. This enables the new | |
175 | behaviour for perl embedders. This will default in 5.10. See | |
176 | L<perlembed>. | |
177 | ||
267a12e6 JH |
178 | =back |
179 | ||
43d4bbc8 JH |
180 | =head1 Modules and Pragmata |
181 | ||
b4d12dfd | 182 | =head2 New Modules and Distributions |
43d4bbc8 | 183 | |
267a12e6 JH |
184 | =over 4 |
185 | ||
186 | =item * | |
187 | ||
699e893f JH |
188 | L<Attribute::Handlers> - Simpler definition of attribute handlers |
189 | ||
190 | =item * | |
191 | ||
192 | L<ExtUtils::Constant> - generate XS code to import C header constants | |
193 | ||
194 | =item * | |
195 | ||
4bbcc6e8 JH |
196 | L<I18N::Langinfo> - query locale information |
197 | ||
198 | =item * | |
199 | ||
699e893f JH |
200 | L<I18N::LangTags> - functions for dealing with RFC3066-style language tags |
201 | ||
202 | =item * | |
203 | ||
204 | L<libnet> - a collection of perl5 modules related to network programming | |
267a12e6 | 205 | |
d7b629d9 JH |
206 | Perl installation leaves libnet unconfigured, use F<libnetcfg> to configure. |
207 | ||
267a12e6 JH |
208 | =item * |
209 | ||
699e893f | 210 | L<List::Util> - selection of general-utility list subroutines |
267a12e6 JH |
211 | |
212 | =item * | |
213 | ||
699e893f | 214 | L<Locale::Maketext> - framework for localization |
267a12e6 JH |
215 | |
216 | =item * | |
217 | ||
699e893f | 218 | L<Memoize> - Make your functions faster by trading space for time |
267a12e6 JH |
219 | |
220 | =item * | |
221 | ||
699e893f | 222 | L<NEXT> - pseudo-class for method redispatch |
267a12e6 JH |
223 | |
224 | =item * | |
225 | ||
699e893f | 226 | L<Scalar::Util> - selection of general-utility scalar subroutines |
267a12e6 JH |
227 | |
228 | =item * | |
229 | ||
7117b917 JH |
230 | L<Test::More> - yet another framework for writing test scripts |
231 | ||
232 | =item * | |
233 | ||
234 | L<Test::Simple> - Basic utilities for writing tests | |
235 | ||
236 | =item * | |
237 | ||
699e893f | 238 | L<Time::HiRes> - high resolution ualarm, usleep, and gettimeofday |
267a12e6 JH |
239 | |
240 | =item * | |
241 | ||
699e893f | 242 | L<Time::Piece> - Object Oriented time objects |
267a12e6 | 243 | |
d7b629d9 JH |
244 | (Previously known as L<Time::Object>.) |
245 | ||
b4d12dfd JH |
246 | =item * |
247 | ||
248 | L<Time::Seconds> - a simple API to convert seconds to other date values | |
249 | ||
250 | =item * | |
251 | ||
1189d1e4 | 252 | L<UnicodeCD> - Unicode Character Database |
b4d12dfd | 253 | |
267a12e6 JH |
254 | =back |
255 | ||
43d4bbc8 JH |
256 | =head2 Updated And Improved Modules and Pragmata |
257 | ||
267a12e6 JH |
258 | =over 4 |
259 | ||
260 | =item * | |
261 | ||
262 | L<B::Deparse> module has been significantly enhanced. It now | |
263 | can deparse almost all of the standard test suite (so that the | |
7ebe6671 JH |
264 | tests still succeed). There is a make target "test.deparse" |
265 | for trying this out. | |
267a12e6 JH |
266 | |
267 | =item * | |
268 | ||
269 | L<Class::Struct> now assigns the array/hash element if the accessor | |
270 | is called with an array/hash element as the B<sole> argument. | |
271 | ||
272 | =item * | |
273 | ||
274 | L<Cwd> extension is now (even) faster. | |
275 | ||
276 | =item * | |
277 | ||
278 | L<DB_File> extension has been updated to version 1.77. | |
279 | ||
280 | =item * | |
281 | ||
282 | L<Fcntl>, L<Socket>, and L<Sys::Syslog> have been rewritten to use the | |
283 | new-style constant dispatch section (see L<ExtUtils::Constant>). | |
284 | ||
285 | =item * | |
286 | ||
699e893f JH |
287 | L<File::Find> is now (again) reentrant. It also has been made |
288 | more portable. | |
289 | ||
290 | =item * | |
291 | ||
267a12e6 JH |
292 | L<File::Glob> now supports C<GLOB_LIMIT> constant to limit the |
293 | size of the returned list of filenames. | |
294 | ||
699e893f | 295 | =item * |
267a12e6 | 296 | |
d7b629d9 JH |
297 | L<IO::Socket::INET> now supports C<LocalPort> of zero (usually meaning |
298 | that the operating system will make one up.) | |
299 | ||
300 | =item * | |
301 | ||
302 | The L<vars> pragma now supports declaring fully qualified variables. | |
303 | (Something that C<our()> does not and will not support.) | |
699e893f JH |
304 | |
305 | =back | |
43d4bbc8 JH |
306 | |
307 | =head1 Utility Changes | |
308 | ||
267a12e6 JH |
309 | =over 4 |
310 | ||
311 | =item * | |
312 | ||
699e893f JH |
313 | The F<emacs/e2ctags.pl> is now much faster. |
314 | ||
315 | =item * | |
316 | ||
d7b629d9 JH |
317 | L<h2ph> now supports C trigraphs. |
318 | ||
319 | =item * | |
320 | ||
267a12e6 JH |
321 | L<h2xs> uses the new L<ExtUtils::Constant> module which will affect |
322 | newly created extensions that define constants. Since the new code is | |
323 | more correct (if you have two constants where the first one is a | |
324 | prefix of the second one, the first constant B<never> gets defined), | |
325 | less lossy (it uses integers for integer constant, as opposed to the | |
326 | old code that used floating point numbers even for integer constants), | |
327 | and slightly faster, you might want to consider regenerating your | |
328 | extension code (the new scheme makes regenerating easy). | |
d5f2cb03 | 329 | L<h2xs> now also supports C trigraphs. |
267a12e6 JH |
330 | |
331 | =item * | |
332 | ||
699e893f | 333 | L<libnetcfg> has been added to configure the libnet. |
267a12e6 JH |
334 | |
335 | =item * | |
336 | ||
337 | The F<Pod::Html> (and thusly L<pod2html>) now allows specifying | |
338 | a cache directory. | |
339 | ||
340 | =back | |
341 | ||
43d4bbc8 JH |
342 | =head1 New Documentation |
343 | ||
267a12e6 JH |
344 | =over 4 |
345 | ||
346 | =item * | |
347 | ||
348 | L<Locale::Maketext::TPJ13> is an article about software localization, | |
349 | originally published in The Perl Journal #13, republished here with | |
350 | kind permission. | |
351 | ||
352 | =item * | |
353 | ||
354 | More README.$PLATFORM files have been converted into pod, which also | |
355 | means that they also be installed as perl$PLATFORM documentation | |
356 | files. The new files are L<perlapollo>, L<perlbeos>, L<perldgux>, | |
699e893f JH |
357 | L<perlhurd>, L<perlmint>, L<perlnetware>, L<perlplan9>, L<perlqnx>, |
358 | and L<perltru64>. | |
267a12e6 JH |
359 | |
360 | =item * | |
361 | ||
362 | The F<Todo> and F<Todo-5.6> files have been merged into L<perltodo>. | |
363 | ||
364 | =item * | |
365 | ||
7ebe6671 JH |
366 | Use of the F<gprof> tool to profile Perl has been documented in |
367 | L<perlhack>. There is a make target "perl.gprof" for generating a | |
368 | gprofiled Perl executable. | |
267a12e6 JH |
369 | |
370 | =back | |
371 | ||
43d4bbc8 JH |
372 | =head1 Installation and Configuration Improvements |
373 | ||
374 | =head2 New Or Improved Platforms | |
375 | ||
267a12e6 JH |
376 | =over 4 |
377 | ||
378 | =item * | |
379 | ||
c033f808 | 380 | AIX should now work better with gcc, threads, and 64-bitness. Also the |
12f54d27 | 381 | long doubles support in AIX should be better now. See L<perlaix>. |
267a12e6 JH |
382 | |
383 | =item * | |
384 | ||
f224927c | 385 | AtheOS ( http://www.atheos.cx/ ) is a new platform. |
267a12e6 JH |
386 | |
387 | =item * | |
388 | ||
7ebe6671 | 389 | DG/UX platform now supports the 5.005-style threads. See L<perldgux>. |
267a12e6 JH |
390 | |
391 | =item * | |
392 | ||
d5f2cb03 PP |
393 | DYNIX/ptx platform (a.k.a. dynixptx) is supported at or near osvers 4.5.2. |
394 | ||
395 | =item * | |
396 | ||
8939ba94 | 397 | Several Mac OS (Classic) portability patches have been applied. We |
7ebe6671 JH |
398 | hope to get a fully working port by 5.8.0. (The remaining problems |
399 | relate to the changed IO model of Perl.) See L<perlmacos>. | |
267a12e6 JH |
400 | |
401 | =item * | |
402 | ||
8939ba94 | 403 | Mac OS X (or Darwin) should now be able to build Perl even on HFS+ |
699e893f | 404 | filesystems. (The case-insensitivity confused the Perl build process.) |
267a12e6 JH |
405 | |
406 | =item * | |
407 | ||
7ebe6671 | 408 | NetWare from Novell is now supported. See L<perlnetware>. |
267a12e6 JH |
409 | |
410 | =item * | |
411 | ||
e1020413 | 412 | The Amdahl UTS Unix mainframe platform is now supported. |
267a12e6 JH |
413 | |
414 | =back | |
415 | ||
43d4bbc8 JH |
416 | =head2 Generic Improvements |
417 | ||
267a12e6 JH |
418 | =over 4 |
419 | ||
420 | =item * | |
421 | ||
267a12e6 JH |
422 | In AFS installations one can configure the root of the AFS to be |
423 | somewhere else than the default F</afs> by using the Configure | |
424 | parameter C<-Dafsroot=/some/where/else>. | |
425 | ||
426 | =item * | |
427 | ||
428 | The version of Berkeley DB used when the Perl (and, presumably, the | |
429 | DB_File extension) was built is now available as | |
430 | C<@Config{qw(db_version_major db_version_minor db_version_patch)}> | |
431 | from Perl and as C<DB_VERSION_MAJOR_CFG DB_VERSION_MINOR_CFG | |
432 | DB_VERSION_PATCH_CFG> from C. | |
433 | ||
434 | =item * | |
435 | ||
699e893f JH |
436 | The Thread extension is now not built at all under ithreads |
437 | (C<Configure -Duseithreads>) because it wouldn't work anyway (the | |
438 | Thread extension requires being Configured with C<-Duse5005threads>). | |
267a12e6 JH |
439 | |
440 | =item * | |
441 | ||
442 | The C<B::Deparse> compiler backend has been so significantly improved | |
443 | that almost the whole Perl test suite passes after being deparsed. A | |
444 | make target has been added to help in further testing: C<make test.deparse>. | |
445 | ||
446 | =back | |
447 | ||
43d4bbc8 JH |
448 | =head1 Selected Bug Fixes |
449 | ||
699e893f JH |
450 | =over 5 |
451 | ||
452 | =item * | |
453 | ||
454 | The autouse pragma didn't work for Multi::Part::Function::Names. | |
455 | ||
456 | =item * | |
457 | ||
458 | The behaviour of non-decimal but numeric string constants such as | |
459 | "0x23" was platform-dependent: in some platforms that was seen as 35, | |
460 | in some as 0, in some as a floating point number (don't ask). This | |
461 | was caused by Perl using the operating system libraries in a situation | |
462 | where the result of the string to number conversion is undefined: now | |
463 | Perl consistently handles such strings as zero in numeric contexts. | |
464 | ||
465 | =item * | |
466 | ||
467 | L<dprofpp> -R didn't work. | |
468 | ||
469 | =item * | |
470 | ||
471 | PERL5OPT with embedded spaces didn't work. | |
472 | ||
473 | =item * | |
474 | ||
475 | L<Sys::Syslog> ignored the C<LOG_AUTH> constant. | |
476 | ||
477 | =back | |
478 | ||
43d4bbc8 JH |
479 | =head2 Platform Specific Changes and Fixes |
480 | ||
267a12e6 JH |
481 | =over 4 |
482 | ||
483 | =item * | |
484 | ||
485 | Some versions of glibc have a broken modfl(). This affects builds | |
486 | with C<-Duselongdouble>. This version of Perl detects this brokenness | |
487 | and has a workaround for it. The glibc release 2.2.2 is known to have | |
488 | fixed the modfl() bug. | |
489 | ||
490 | =back | |
491 | ||
43d4bbc8 JH |
492 | =head1 New or Changed Diagnostics |
493 | ||
267a12e6 JH |
494 | =over 4 |
495 | ||
496 | =item * | |
497 | ||
498 | In the regular expression diagnostics the C<E<lt>E<lt> HERE> marker | |
499 | introduced in 5.7.0 has been changed to be C<E<lt>-- HERE> since too | |
500 | many people found the C<E<lt>E<lt>> to be too similar to here-document | |
501 | starters. | |
502 | ||
503 | =item * | |
504 | ||
505 | If you try to L<perlfunc/pack> a number less than 0 or larger than 255 | |
506 | using the C<"C"> format you will get an optional warning. Similarly | |
507 | for the C<"c"> format and a number less than -128 or more than 127. | |
508 | ||
509 | =item * | |
510 | ||
511 | Certain regex modifiers such as C<(?o)> make sense only if applied to | |
512 | the entire regex. You will an optional warning if you try to do otherwise. | |
513 | ||
514 | =item * | |
515 | ||
ad0f383a | 516 | Using arrays or hashes as references (e.g. C<< %foo->{bar} >> has been |
267a12e6 JH |
517 | deprecated for a while. Now you will get an optional warning. |
518 | ||
519 | =back | |
520 | ||
9108dd47 JH |
521 | =head1 Source Code Enhancements |
522 | ||
523 | =head2 MAGIC constants | |
524 | ||
525 | The MAGIC constants (e.g. C<'P'>) have been macrofied | |
526 | (e.g. C<PERL_MAGIC_TIED>) for better source code readability | |
527 | and maintainability. | |
528 | ||
529 | =head2 Better commented code | |
530 | ||
531 | F<perly.c>, F<sv.c>, and F<sv.h> have now been extensively commented. | |
43d4bbc8 JH |
532 | |
533 | =head2 Regex pre-/post-compilation items matched up | |
534 | ||
535 | The regex compiler now maintains a structure that identifies nodes in | |
536 | the compiled bytecode with the corresponding syntactic features of the | |
537 | original regex expression. The information is attached to the new | |
538 | C<offsets> member of the C<struct regexp>. See L<perldebguts> for more | |
539 | complete information. | |
540 | ||
9108dd47 JH |
541 | =head2 gcc -Wall |
542 | ||
543 | The C code has been made much more C<gcc -Wall> clean. Some warning | |
544 | messages still remain, though, so if you are compiling with gcc you | |
545 | will see some warnings about dubious practices. The warnings are | |
546 | being worked on. | |
547 | ||
43d4bbc8 JH |
548 | =head1 New Tests |
549 | ||
267a12e6 JH |
550 | Several new tests have been added, especially for the F<lib> subsection. |
551 | ||
699e893f JH |
552 | The tests are now reported in a different order than in earlier Perls. |
553 | (This happens because the test scripts from under t/lib have been moved | |
554 | to be closer to the library/extension they are testing.) | |
267a12e6 | 555 | |
43d4bbc8 JH |
556 | =head1 Known Problems |
557 | ||
558 | Note that unlike other sections in this document (which describe | |
559 | changes since 5.7.0) this section is cumulative containing known | |
560 | problems for all the 5.7 releases. | |
561 | ||
81633404 JH |
562 | =head2 AIX |
563 | ||
564 | =over 4 | |
565 | ||
566 | =item * | |
567 | ||
d7d85e39 JH |
568 | In AIX 4.2 Perl extensions that use C++ functions that use statics |
569 | may have problems in that the statics are not getting initialized. | |
570 | In newer AIX releases this has been solved by linking Perl with | |
571 | the libC_r library, but unfortunately in AIX 4.2 the said library | |
572 | has an obscure bug where the various functions related to time | |
573 | (such as time() and gettimeofday()) return broken values, and | |
574 | therefore in AIX 4.2 Perl is not linked against the libC_r. | |
81633404 JH |
575 | |
576 | =item * | |
577 | ||
578 | vac 5.0.0.0 May Produce Buggy Code For Perl | |
43d4bbc8 JH |
579 | |
580 | The AIX C compiler vac version 5.0.0.0 may produce buggy code, | |
581 | resulting in few random tests failing, but when the failing tests | |
582 | are run by hand, they succeed. We suggest upgrading to at least | |
583 | vac version 5.0.1.0, that has been known to compile Perl correctly. | |
584 | "lslpp -L|grep vac.C" will tell you the vac version. | |
585 | ||
81633404 JH |
586 | =back |
587 | ||
d7b629d9 JH |
588 | =head2 Amiga Perl Invoking Mystery |
589 | ||
590 | One cannot call Perl using the C<volume:> syntax, that is, C<perl -v> | |
591 | works, but for example C<bin:perl -v> doesn't. The exact reason is | |
592 | known but the current suspect is the F<ixemul> library. | |
593 | ||
43d4bbc8 JH |
594 | =head2 lib/ftmp-security tests warn 'system possibly insecure' |
595 | ||
596 | Don't panic. Read INSTALL 'make test' section instead. | |
597 | ||
19d94770 | 598 | =head2 Cygwin intermittent failures of lib/Memoize/t/expire_file 11 and 12 |
81633404 JH |
599 | |
600 | The subtests 11 and 12 sometimes fail and sometimes work. | |
601 | ||
210b36aa | 602 | =head2 HP-UX lib/io_multihomed Fails When LP64-Configured |
43d4bbc8 JH |
603 | |
604 | The lib/io_multihomed test may hang in HP-UX if Perl has been | |
605 | configured to be 64-bit. Because other 64-bit platforms do not hang in | |
606 | this test, HP-UX is suspect. All other tests pass in 64-bit HP-UX. The | |
607 | test attempts to create and connect to "multihomed" sockets (sockets | |
608 | which have multiple IP addresses). | |
609 | ||
81633404 | 610 | =head2 HP-UX lib/posix Subtest 9 Fails When LP64-Configured |
43d4bbc8 JH |
611 | |
612 | If perl is configured with -Duse64bitall, the successful result of the | |
613 | subtest 10 of lib/posix may arrive before the successful result of the | |
614 | subtest 9, which confuses the test harness so much that it thinks the | |
615 | subtest 9 failed. | |
616 | ||
43d4bbc8 JH |
617 | =head2 Linux With Sfio Fails op/misc Test 48 |
618 | ||
619 | No known fix. | |
620 | ||
ee9f9f3a JH |
621 | =head2 OS/390 |
622 | ||
623 | OS/390 has rather many test failures but the situation is actually | |
624 | better than it was in 5.6.0, it's just that so many new modules and | |
625 | tests have been added. | |
626 | ||
627 | Failed Test Stat Wstat Total Fail Failed List of Failed | |
628 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
629 | ../ext/B/Deparse.t 14 1 7.14% 14 | |
630 | ../ext/B/Showlex.t 1 1 100.00% 1 | |
631 | ../ext/Encode/Encode/Tcl.t 610 13 2.13% 592 594 596 598 | |
632 | 600 602 604-610 | |
633 | ../ext/IO/lib/IO/t/io_unix.t 113 28928 5 3 60.00% 3-5 | |
634 | ../ext/POSIX/POSIX.t 29 1 3.45% 14 | |
635 | ../ext/Storable/t/lock.t 255 65280 5 3 60.00% 3-5 | |
636 | ../lib/locale.t 129 33024 117 19 16.24% 99-117 | |
637 | ../lib/warnings.t 434 1 0.23% 75 | |
638 | ../lib/ExtUtils.t 27 1 3.70% 25 | |
639 | ../lib/Math/BigInt/t/bigintpm.t 1190 1 0.08% 1145 | |
640 | ../lib/Unicode/UCD.t 81 48 59.26% 1-16 49-64 66-81 | |
641 | ../lib/User/pwent.t 9 1 11.11% 4 | |
642 | op/pat.t 660 6 0.91% 242-243 424-425 | |
643 | 626-627 | |
644 | op/split.t 0 9 ?? ?? % ?? | |
645 | op/taint.t 174 3 1.72% 156 162 168 | |
646 | op/tr.t 70 3 4.29% 50 58-59 | |
647 | Failed 16/422 test scripts, 96.21% okay. 105/23251 subtests failed, 99.55% okay. | |
648 | ||
c4b279ff | 649 | =head2 op/sprintf tests 129 and 130 |
43d4bbc8 JH |
650 | |
651 | The op/sprintf tests 129 and 130 are known to fail on some platforms. | |
652 | Examples include any platform using sfio, and Compaq/Tandem's NonStop-UX. | |
653 | The failing platforms do not comply with the ANSI C Standard, line | |
654 | 19ff on page 134 of ANSI X3.159 1989 to be exact. (They produce | |
d5f2cb03 | 655 | something other than "1" and "-1" when formatting 0.6 and -0.6 using |
43d4bbc8 JH |
656 | the printf format "%.0f", most often they produce "0" and "-0".) |
657 | ||
658 | =head2 Failure of Thread tests | |
659 | ||
45215428 JH |
660 | B<Note that support for 5.005-style threading remains experimental.> |
661 | ||
662 | The following tests are known to fail due to fundamental problems in | |
663 | the 5.005 threading implementation. These are not new failures--Perl | |
664 | 5.005_0x has the same bugs, but didn't have these tests. | |
665 | ||
c4b279ff JH |
666 | lib/autouse.t 4 |
667 | t/lib/thr5005.t 19-20 | |
668 | ||
81633404 JH |
669 | =head2 UNICOS |
670 | ||
671 | =over 4 | |
672 | ||
673 | =item * | |
674 | ||
675 | ext/POSIX/sigaction subtests 6 and 13 may fail. | |
676 | ||
677 | =item * | |
678 | ||
679 | lib/ExtUtils may spuriously claim that subtest 28 failed, | |
680 | which is interesting since the test only has 27 tests. | |
681 | ||
682 | =item * | |
683 | ||
684 | Numerous numerical test failures | |
c4b279ff JH |
685 | |
686 | op/numconvert 209,210,217,218 | |
81633404 | 687 | op/override 7 |
c4b279ff JH |
688 | ext/Time/HiRes/HiRes 9 |
689 | lib/Math/BigInt/t/bigintpm 1145 | |
690 | lib/Math/Trig 25 | |
691 | ||
692 | These tests fail because of yet unresolved floating point inaccuracies. | |
693 | ||
81633404 JH |
694 | =back |
695 | ||
81633404 JH |
696 | =head2 UTS |
697 | ||
91144103 | 698 | There are a few known test failures, see L<perluts>. |
0aa7ccc3 JH |
699 | |
700 | =head2 VMS | |
701 | ||
ee9f9f3a JH |
702 | Rather many tests are failing in VMS but that actually more tests |
703 | succeed in VMS than they used to, it's just that there are many, | |
704 | many more tests than there used to be. | |
705 | ||
706 | Here are the known failures from some compiler/platform combinations. | |
707 | ||
0aa7ccc3 | 708 | DEC C V5.3-006 on OpenVMS VAX V6.2 |
7207e29d | 709 | |
0aa7ccc3 JH |
710 | [-.ext.list.util.t]tainted..............FAILED on test 3 |
711 | [-.ext.posix]sigaction..................FAILED on test 7 | |
50bd9457 | 712 | [-.ext.time.hires]hires.................FAILED on test 14 |
0aa7ccc3 JH |
713 | [-.lib.file.find]taint..................FAILED on test 17 |
714 | [-.lib.math.bigint.t]bigintpm...........FAILED on test 1183 | |
715 | [-.lib.test.simple.t]exit...............FAILED on test 1 | |
716 | [.lib]vmsish............................FAILED on test 13 | |
717 | [.op]sprintf............................FAILED on test 12 | |
718 | Failed 8/399 tests, 91.23% okay. | |
719 | ||
d5f2cb03 PP |
720 | DEC C V6.0-001 on OpenVMS Alpha V7.2-1 and |
721 | Compaq C V6.2-008 on OpenVMS Alpha V7.1 | |
0aa7ccc3 JH |
722 | |
723 | [-.ext.list.util.t]tainted..............FAILED on test 3 | |
724 | [-.lib.file.find]taint..................FAILED on test 17 | |
725 | [-.lib.test.simple.t]exit...............FAILED on test 1 | |
726 | [.lib]vmsish............................FAILED on test 13 | |
727 | Failed 4/399 tests, 92.48% okay. | |
81633404 | 728 | |
210b36aa | 729 | Compaq C V6.4-005 on OpenVMS Alpha 7.2.1 |
20a07785 JH |
730 | |
731 | [-.ext.b]showlex........................FAILED on test 1 | |
732 | [-.ext.list.util.t]tainted..............FAILED on test 3 | |
733 | [-.lib.file.find]taint..................FAILED on test 17 | |
734 | [-.lib.test.simple.t]exit...............FAILED on test 1 | |
735 | [.lib]vmsish............................FAILED on test 13 | |
736 | [.op]misc...............................FAILED on test 49 | |
737 | Failed 6/401 tests, 92.77% okay. | |
738 | ||
d0c93ae9 JH |
739 | =head2 Win32 |
740 | ||
741 | In multi-CPU boxes there are some problems with the I/O buffering: | |
742 | some output may appear twice. | |
743 | ||
43d4bbc8 JH |
744 | =head2 Localising a Tied Variable Leaks Memory |
745 | ||
746 | use Tie::Hash; | |
747 | tie my %tie_hash => 'Tie::StdHash'; | |
748 | ||
749 | ... | |
750 | ||
751 | local($tie_hash{Foo}) = 1; # leaks | |
752 | ||
753 | Code like the above is known to leak memory every time the local() | |
754 | is executed. | |
755 | ||
756 | =head2 Self-tying of Arrays and Hashes Is Forbidden | |
757 | ||
758 | Self-tying of arrays and hashes is broken in rather deep and | |
759 | hard-to-fix ways. As a stop-gap measure to avoid people from getting | |
760 | frustrated at the mysterious results (core dumps, most often) it is | |
761 | for now forbidden (you will get a fatal error even from an attempt). | |
762 | ||
699e893f JH |
763 | =head2 Variable Attributes are not Currently Usable for Tieing |
764 | ||
765 | This limitation will hopefully be fixed in future. (Subroutine | |
766 | attributes work fine for tieing, see L<Attribute::Handlers>). | |
767 | ||
43d4bbc8 JH |
768 | =head2 Building Extensions Can Fail Because Of Largefiles |
769 | ||
770 | Some extensions like mod_perl are known to have issues with | |
771 | `largefiles', a change brought by Perl 5.6.0 in which file offsets | |
772 | default to 64 bits wide, where supported. Modules may fail to compile | |
773 | at all or compile and work incorrectly. Currently there is no good | |
774 | solution for the problem, but Configure now provides appropriate | |
775 | non-largefile ccflags, ldflags, libswanted, and libs in the %Config | |
776 | hash (e.g., $Config{ccflags_nolargefiles}) so the extensions that are | |
777 | having problems can try configuring themselves without the | |
778 | largefileness. This is admittedly not a clean solution, and the | |
779 | solution may not even work at all. One potential failure is whether | |
780 | one can (or, if one can, whether it's a good idea) link together at | |
781 | all binaries with different ideas about file offsets, all this is | |
782 | platform-dependent. | |
783 | ||
784 | =head2 The Compiler Suite Is Still Experimental | |
785 | ||
786 | The compiler suite is slowly getting better but is nowhere near | |
787 | working order yet. | |
788 | ||
81633404 JH |
789 | =head2 The Long Double Support is Still Experimental |
790 | ||
791 | The ability to configure Perl's numbers to use "long doubles", | |
792 | floating point numbers of hopefully better accuracy, is still | |
793 | experimental. The implementations of long doubles are not yet | |
794 | widespread and the existing implementations are not quite mature | |
795 | or standardised, therefore trying to support them is a rare | |
796 | and moving target. The gain of more precision may also be offset | |
797 | by slowdown in computations (more bits to move around, and the | |
798 | operations are more likely to be executed by less optimised | |
799 | libraries). | |
800 | ||
43d4bbc8 JH |
801 | =head1 Reporting Bugs |
802 | ||
803 | If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles | |
804 | recently posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl | |
f224927c JH |
805 | bug database at http://bugs.perl.org/ There may also be |
806 | information at http://www.perl.com/perl/ , the Perl Home Page. | |
43d4bbc8 JH |
807 | |
808 | If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the B<perlbug> | |
809 | program included with your release. Be sure to trim your bug down | |
810 | to a tiny but sufficient test case. Your bug report, along with the | |
811 | output of C<perl -V>, will be sent off to perlbug@perl.org to be | |
812 | analysed by the Perl porting team. | |
813 | ||
814 | =head1 SEE ALSO | |
815 | ||
816 | The F<Changes> file for exhaustive details on what changed. | |
817 | ||
818 | The F<INSTALL> file for how to build Perl. | |
819 | ||
820 | The F<README> file for general stuff. | |
821 | ||
822 | The F<Artistic> and F<Copying> files for copyright information. | |
823 | ||
824 | =head1 HISTORY | |
825 | ||
826 | Written by Jarkko Hietaniemi <F<jhi@iki.fi>>, with many contributions | |
827 | from The Perl Porters and Perl Users submitting feedback and patches. | |
828 | ||
829 | Send omissions or corrections to <F<perlbug@perl.org>>. | |
830 | ||
831 | =cut |