5.7.1 release.
(To view the differences between the 5.6.0 release and the 5.7.0
-release, see L<perl570delta>).
+release, see L<perl570delta>.)
=head1 Security Vulnerability Closed
to continue to be supported, it may be completely removed from future
releases. In any case, suidperl should only be used by security
experts who know exactly what they are doing and why they are using
-suidperl instead of some other solution such as sudo (see
-http://www.courtesan.com/sudo/).
+suidperl instead of some other solution such as sudo
+( see http://www.courtesan.com/sudo/ ).
=head1 Incompatible Changes
=head1 Core Enhancements
-=over 4
-
-=item *
+=head2 AUTOLOAD Is Now Lvaluable
AUTOLOAD is now lvaluable, meaning that you can add the :lvalue attribute
to AUTOLOAD subroutines and you can assign to the AUTOLOAD return value.
+=head2 PerlIO is Now The Default
+
+=over 4
+
=item *
IO is now by default done via PerlIO rather than system's "stdio".
and basic arithmetics (+ - * /) if the arguments are integers, and
tries also to keep the results stored internally as integers.
This change leads into often slightly faster and always less lossy
-arithmetics (previously Perl always preferred floating point numbers
-in its math)
+arithmetics. (Previously Perl always preferred floating point numbers
+in its math.)
=item *
=item *
The Unicode Character Database coming with Perl has been upgraded
-to Unicode 3.1. For more information, see http://www.unicode.org/,
+to Unicode 3.1. For more information, see http://www.unicode.org/ ,
and http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr27/
For developers interested in enhancing Perl's Unicode capabilities:
=back
+=head2 Signals Are Now Safe
+
+Perl used to be fragile in that signals arriving at inopportune moments
+could corrupt Perl's internal state.
+
=head1 Modules and Pragmata
=head2 New Modules
print $digest, "\n"; # 01d19d9d2045e005c3f1b80e8b164de1
-NOTE: the MD5 backward compatibility module is purposefully not
+NOTE: the MD5 backward compatibility module is deliberately not
included since its use is discouraged.
See L<Digest::MD5> for more information.
=item *
Tie::RefHash::Nestable, by Edward Avis, allows storing hash references
-(unlike the standard Tie::Refhash) The module is contained within
+(unlike the standard Tie::RefHash) The module is contained within
Tie::RefHash.
=item *
Math::BigFloat has undergone much fixing, and in addition the fmod()
function now supports modulus operations.
-(The fixed Math::BigFloat module is also available in CPAN for those
-who can't upgrade their Perl: http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/J/JP/JPEACOCK/)
+( The fixed Math::BigFloat module is also available in CPAN for those
+who can't upgrade their Perl: http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/J/JP/JPEACOCK/ )
=item *
=item *
Hashes now use Bob Jenkins "One-at-a-Time" hashing key algorithm
-(http://burtleburtle.net/bob/hash/doobs.html). This algorithm is
+( http://burtleburtle.net/bob/hash/doobs.html ). This algorithm is
reasonably fast while producing a much better spread of values than
the old hashing algorithm (originally by Chris Torek, later tweaked by
Ilya Zakharevich). Hash values output from the algorithm on a hash of
=item *
-MacOS Classic (MacPerl has of course been available since
+Mac OS Classic (MacPerl has of course been available since
perl 5.004 but now the source code bases of standard Perl
and MacPerl have been synchronised)
=item *
-The order of DESTROYS has been made more predictable.
+The order of DESTROYs has been made more predictable.
=item *
=item *
-Perl now uses system malloc instead of Perl malloc in all 64-bit
+Perl now uses system malloc instead of Perl malloc on all 64-bit
platforms, and even in some not-always-64-bit platforms like AIX,
IRIX, and Solaris. This change breaks backward compatibility but
Perl's malloc has problems with large address spaces and also the
=head2 lib/b test 19
-The test fails in various platforms (PA64 and IA64 are known), but the
+The test fails on various platforms (PA64 and IA64 are known), but the
exact cause is still being investigated.
=head2 Linux With Sfio Fails op/misc Test 48
=head2 sigaction test 13 in VMS
-The test is known to fail, whether it's because of VMS of because
-of faulty test, is not known.
+The test is known to fail; whether it's because of VMS of because
+of faulty test is not known.
=head2 sprintf tests 129 and 130
-The op/sprintf tests 129 and 130 are known to fail in some platforms.
+The op/sprintf tests 129 and 130 are known to fail on some platforms.
Examples include any platform using sfio, and Compaq/Tandem's NonStop-UX.
The failing platforms do not comply with the ANSI C Standard, line
19ff on page 134 of ANSI X3.159 1989 to be exact. (They produce
If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles
recently posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl
-bug database at http://bugs.perl.org. There may also be
-information at http://www.perl.com/perl/, the Perl Home Page.
+bug database at http://bugs.perl.org/ There may also be
+information at http://www.perl.com/perl/ , the Perl Home Page.
If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the B<perlbug>
program included with your release. Be sure to trim your bug down
https://perl5.git.perl.org / perl5.git / blobdiff