X-Git-Url: https://perl5.git.perl.org/perl5.git/blobdiff_plain/8b92df4cf78f0bc4c393bdfa32b4d3b40b9dc6e4..a5763045776ca8ceaf2c78fa074b0f8a1dbe6e9e:/pod/perldelta.pod diff --git a/pod/perldelta.pod b/pod/perldelta.pod index e6a4fe3..aa23407 100644 --- a/pod/perldelta.pod +++ b/pod/perldelta.pod @@ -1,3475 +1,428 @@ -=head1 NAME - -perldelta - what is new for perl v5.8.0 - -=head1 DESCRIPTION - -This document describes differences between the 5.6.0 release and -the 5.8.0 release. - -Many of the bug fixes in 5.8.0 were already seen in the 5.6.1 -maintenance release since the two releases were kept closely -coordinated (while 5.8.0 was still called 5.7.something). - -Changes that were integrated into the 5.6.1 release are marked C<[561]>. -Many of these changes have been further developed since 5.6.1 was released, -those are marked C<[561+]>. - -You can see the list of changes in the 5.6.1 release (both from the -5.005_03 release and the 5.6.0 release) by reading L. - -=head1 Highlights In 5.8.0 - -=over 4 - -=item * - -Better Unicode support - -=item * - -New IO Implementation - -=item * - -New Thread Implementation - -=item * - -Better Numeric Accuracy - -=item * - -Safe Signals - -=item * - -Many New Modules - -=item * - -More Extensive Regression Testing - -=back - -=head1 Incompatible Changes - -=head2 Binary Incompatibility - -B - -B - -(Pure Perl modules should continue to work.) - -The major reason for the discontinuity is the new IO architecture -called PerlIO. PerlIO is the default configuration because without -it many new features of Perl 5.8 cannot be used. In other words: -you just have to recompile your modules containing XS code, sorry -about that. - -In future releases of Perl, non-PerlIO aware XS modules may become -completely unsupported. This shouldn't be too difficult for module -authors, however: PerlIO has been designed as a drop-in replacement -(at the source code level) for the stdio interface. - -Depending on your platform, there are also other reasons why -we decided to break binary compatibility, please read on. - -=head2 64-bit platforms and malloc - -If your pointers are 64 bits wide, the Perl malloc is no longer being -used because it does not work well with 8-byte pointers. Also, -usually the system mallocs on such platforms are much better optimized -for such large memory models than the Perl malloc. Some memory-hungry -Perl applications like the PDL don't work well with Perl's malloc. -Finally, other applications than Perl (such as mod_perl) tend to prefer -the system malloc. Such platforms include Alpha and 64-bit HPPA, -MIPS, PPC, and Sparc. - -=head2 AIX Dynaloading - -The AIX dynaloading now uses in AIX releases 4.3 and newer the native -dlopen interface of AIX instead of the old emulated interface. This -change will probably break backward compatibility with compiled -modules. The change was made to make Perl more compliant with other -applications like mod_perl which are using the AIX native interface. - -=head2 Attributes for C variables now handled at run-time. - -The C syntax now applies variable attributes at -run-time. (Subroutine and C variables still get attributes applied -at compile-time.) See L for additional details. In particular, -however, this allows variable attributes to be useful for C interfaces, -which was a deficiency of earlier releases. Note that the new semantics -doesn't work with the Attribute::Handlers module (as of version 0.76). - -=head2 Socket Extension Dynamic in VMS - -The Socket extension is now dynamically loaded instead of being -statically built in. This may or may not be a problem with ancient -TCP/IP stacks of VMS: we do not know since we weren't able to test -Perl in such configurations. - -=head2 IEEE-format Floating Point Default on OpenVMS Alpha - -Perl now uses IEEE format (T_FLOAT) as the default internal floating -point format on OpenVMS Alpha, potentially breaking binary compatibility -with external libraries or existing data. G_FLOAT is still available as -a configuration option. The default on VAX (D_FLOAT) has not changed. - -=head2 New Unicode Properties - -Unicode I are now supported. Scripts are similar to (and superior -to) Unicode I. The difference between scripts and blocks is that -scripts are the glyphs used by a language or a group of languages, while -the blocks are more artificial groupings of (mostly) 256 characters based -on the Unicode numbering. - -In general, scripts are more inclusive, but not universally so. For -example, while the script C includes all the Latin characters and -their various diacritic-adorned versions, it does not include the various -punctuation or digits (since they are not solely C). - -A number of other properties are now supported, including C<\p{L&}>, -C<\p{Any}> C<\p{Assigned}>, C<\p{Unassigned}>, C<\p{Blank}> [561] and -C<\p{SpacePerl}> [561] (along with their C<\P{...}> versions, of course). -See L for details, and more additions. - -The C or C prefix to names used with the C<\p{...}> and C<\P{...}> -are now almost always optional. The only exception is that a C prefix -is required to signify a Unicode block when a block name conflicts with a -script name. For example, C<\p{Tibetan}> refers to the script, while -C<\p{InTibetan}> refers to the block. When there is no name conflict, you -can omit the C from the block name (e.g. C<\p{BraillePatterns}>), but -to be safe, it's probably best to always use the C). - -=head2 REF(...) Instead Of SCALAR(...) - -A reference to a reference now stringifies as "REF(0x81485ec)" instead -of "SCALAR(0x81485ec)" in order to be more consistent with the return -value of ref(). - -=head2 pack/unpack D/F recycled - -The undocumented pack/unpack template letters D/F have been recycled -for better use: now they stand for long double (if supported by the -platform) and NV (Perl internal floating point type). (They used -to be aliases for d/f, but you never knew that.) - -=head2 Deprecations - -=over 4 - -=item * - -The semantics of bless(REF, REF) were unclear and until someone proves -it to make some sense, it is forbidden. - -=item * - -The obsolete chat2 library that should never have been allowed -to escape the laboratory has been decommissioned. - -=item * - -The builtin dump() function has probably outlived most of its -usefulness. The core-dumping functionality will remain in future -available as an explicit call to C, but in future -releases the behaviour of an unqualified C call may change. - -=item * - -The very dusty examples in the eg/ directory have been removed. -Suggestions for new shiny examples welcome but the main issue is that -the examples need to be documented, tested and (most importantly) -maintained. - -=item * - -The (bogus) escape sequences \8 and \9 now give an optional warning -("Unrecognized escape passed through"). There is no need to \-escape -any C<\w> character. - -=item * - -The list of filenames from glob() (or <...>) is now by default sorted -alphabetically to be csh-compliant (which is what happened before -in most UNIX platforms). (bsd_glob() does still sort platform -natively, ASCII or EBCDIC, unless GLOB_ALPHASORT is specified.) [561] - -=item * - -Spurious syntax errors generated in certain situations, when glob() -caused File::Glob to be loaded for the first time, have been fixed. [561] - -=item * - -Although "you shouldn't do that", it was possible to write code that -depends on Perl's hashed key order (Data::Dumper does this). The new -algorithm "One-at-a-Time" produces a different hashed key order. -More details are in L. - -=item * - -lstat(FILEHANDLE) now gives a warning because the operation makes no sense. -In future releases this may become a fatal error. - -=item * - -The C syntax (C without an argument) has been -deprecated. Its semantics were never that clear and its -implementation even less so. If you have used that feature to -disallow all but fully qualified variables, C instead. - -=item * - -The unimplemented POSIX regex features [[.cc.]] and [[=c=]] are still -recognised but now cause fatal errors. The previous behaviour of -ignoring them by default and warning if requested was unacceptable -since it, in a way, falsely promised that the features could be used. - -=item * - -In future releases, non-PerlIO aware XS modules may become completely -unsupported. Since PerlIO is a drop-in replacement for stdio at the -source code level, this shouldn't be that drastic a change. - -=item * - -The PerlIO C<:raw> discipline (as described in Camel III) is deprecated -because its definition (as either the discipline version of C -or as the opposite of C<:crlf>) didn't really work: most importantly -because turning off "clrfness" is not enough to make a stream truly -binary. Instead of C<:raw> use one of the following: C, -C, C + C. - -=item * - -The current user-visible implementation of pseudo-hashes (the weird -use of the first array element) is deprecated starting from Perl 5.8.0 -and will be removed in Perl 5.10.0, and the feature will be -implemented differently. Not only is the current interface rather -ugly, but the current implementation slows down normal array and hash -use quite noticeably. The C pragma interface will remain -available. The I interface is expected to -be the replacement interface (see L). - -=item * - -The syntaxes C<< @a->[...] >> and C<< %h->{...} >> have now been deprecated. - -=item * - -After years of trying, suidperl is considered to be too complex to -ever be considered truly secure. The suidperl functionality is likely -to be removed in a future release. - -=item * - -The 5.005 threads model (module C) is deprecated and expected -to be removed in Perl 5.10. Multithreaded code should be migrated to -the new ithreads model (see L, L and -L). - -=item * - -The long deprecated uppercase aliases for the string comparison -operators (EQ, NE, LT, LE, GE, GT) have now been removed. - -=item * - -The tr///C and tr///U features have been removed and will not return; -the interface was a mistake. Sorry about that. For similar -functionality, see pack('U0', ...) and pack('C0', ...). [561] - -=item * - -Earlier Perls treated "sub foo (@bar)" as equivalent to "sub foo (@)". -The prototypes are now checked better at compile-time for invalid -syntax. An optional warning is generated ("Illegal character in -prototype...") but this may be upgraded to a fatal error in a future -release. - -=item * - -The C and C operations will produce fatal -errors on tainted data in some future release. - -=item * - -The existing behaviour when localising tied arrays and hashes is wrong, -and will be changed in a future release, so do not rely on the existing -behaviour. See L<"Localising Tied Arrays and Hashes Is Broken">. - -=back - -=head1 Core Enhancements - -=head2 PerlIO is Now The Default - -=over 4 - -=item * - -IO is now by default done via PerlIO rather than system's "stdio". -PerlIO allows "layers" to be "pushed" onto a file handle to alter the -handle's behaviour. Layers can be specified at open time via 3-arg -form of open: - - open($fh,'>:crlf :utf8', $path) || ... - -or on already opened handles via extended C: - - binmode($fh,':encoding(iso-8859-7)'); - -The built-in layers are: unix (low level read/write), stdio (as in -previous Perls), perlio (re-implementation of stdio buffering in a -portable manner), crlf (does CRLF <=> "\n" translation as on Win32, -but available on any platform). A mmap layer may be available if -platform supports it (mostly UNIXes). - -Layers to be applied by default may be specified via the 'open' pragma. - -See L for the effects -of PerlIO on your architecture name. - -=item * - -If your platform supports fork(), you can use the list form of C -for pipes: - - open KID_PS, "-|", "ps", "aux" or die $!; - -forks the ps(1) command (without spawning a shell, as there are more -than three arguments to open()), and reads its standard output via the -C filehandle. - -=item * - -File handles can be marked as accepting Perl's internal encoding of Unicode -(UTF-8 or UTF-EBCDIC depending on platform) by a pseudo layer ":utf8" : - - open($fh,">:utf8","Uni.txt"); - -Note for EBCDIC users: the pseudo layer ":utf8" is erroneously named -for you since it's not UTF-8 what you will be getting but instead -UTF-EBCDIC. See L, L, and -http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr16/ for more information. -In future releases this naming may change. See L -for more information about UTF-8. - -=item * - -If your environment variables (LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LANG, LANGUAGE) look -like you want to use UTF-8 (any of the the variables match C), -your STDIN, STDOUT, STDERR handles and the default open discipline -(see L) are marked as UTF-8. (This feature, like other new -features that combine Unicode and I/O, work only if you are using -PerlIO, but that's is the default.) - -Note that after this Perl really does assume that everything is UTF-8: -for example if some input handle is not, Perl will probably very soon -complain about the input data like this "Malformed UTF-8 ..." since -any old eight-bit data is not legal UTF-8. - -Note for code authors: if you want to enable your users to use UTF-8 -as their default encoding but in your code still have eight-bit I/O streams -(such as images or zip files), you need to explicitly open() or binmode() -with C<:bytes> (see L and L), or you -can just use C (nice for pre-5.8.0 backward compatibility). - -=item * - -File handles can translate character encodings from/to Perl's internal -Unicode form on read/write via the ":encoding()" layer. - -=item * - -File handles can be opened to "in memory" files held in Perl scalars via: - - open($fh,'>', \$variable) || ... - -=item * - -Anonymous temporary files are available without need to -'use FileHandle' or other module via - - open($fh,"+>", undef) || ... - -That is a literal undef, not an undefined value. - -=item * - -The list form of C is now implemented for pipes (at least on UNIX): - - open($fh,"-|", 'cat', '/etc/motd') - -creates a pipe, and runs the equivalent of exec('cat', '/etc/motd') in -the child process. - -=item * - -If your locale environment variables (LANGUAGE, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LANG) -contain the strings 'UTF-8' or 'UTF8' (case-insensitive matching), -the default encoding of your STDIN, STDOUT, and STDERR, and of -B, is UTF-8. - -=back - -=head2 Restricted Hashes - -A restricted hash is restricted to a certain set of keys, no keys -outside the set can be added. Also individual keys can be restricted -so that the key cannot be deleted and the value cannot be changed. -No new syntax is involved: the Hash::Util module is the interface. - -=head2 Safe Signals - -Perl used to be fragile in that signals arriving at inopportune moments -could corrupt Perl's internal state. Now Perl postpones handling of -signals until it's safe (between opcodes). - -This change may have surprising side effects because signals no longer -interrupt Perl instantly. Perl will now first finish whatever it was -doing, like finishing an internal operation (like sort()) or an -external operation (like an I/O operation), and only then look at any -arrived signals (and before starting the next operation). No more corrupt -internal state since the current operation is always finished first, -but the signal may take more time to get heard. Note that breaking -out from potentially blocking operations should still work, though. - -=head2 Unicode Overhaul - -Unicode in general should be now much more usable than in Perl 5.6.0 -(or even in 5.6.1). Unicode can be used in hash keys, Unicode in -regular expressions should work now, Unicode in tr/// should work now, -Unicode in I/O should work now. See L for introduction -and L for details. - -=over 4 - -=item * - -The Unicode Character Database coming with Perl has been upgraded -to Unicode 3.2.0. For more information, see http://www.unicode.org/ . -[561+] (5.6.1 has UCD 3.0.1.) - -=item * - -For developers interested in enhancing Perl's Unicode capabilities: -almost all the UCD files are included with the Perl distribution in -the F subdirectory. The most notable omission, for space -considerations, is the Unihan database. - -=item * - -The properties \p{Blank} and \p{SpacePerl} have been added. "Blank" is like -C isblank(), that is, it contains only "horizontal whitespace" (the space -character is, the newline isn't), and the "SpacePerl" is the Unicode -equivalent of C<\s> (\p{Space} isn't, since that includes the vertical -tabulator character, whereas C<\s> doesn't.) - -See "New Unicode Properties" earlier in this document for additional -information on changes with Unicode properties. - -=back - -=head2 Understanding of Numbers - -In general a lot of fixing has happened in the area of Perl's -understanding of numbers, both integer and floating point. Since in -many systems the standard number parsing functions like C -and C seem to have bugs, Perl tries to work around their -deficiencies. This results hopefully in more accurate numbers. - -Perl now tries internally to use integer values in numeric conversions -and basic arithmetics (+ - * /) if the arguments are integers, and -tries also to keep the results stored internally as integers. -This change leads to often slightly faster and always less lossy -arithmetics. (Previously Perl always preferred floating point numbers -in its math.) - -=head2 Arrays now always interpolate into double-quoted strings [561] - -In double-quoted strings, arrays now interpolate, no matter what. The -behavior in earlier versions of perl 5 was that arrays would interpolate -into strings if the array had been mentioned before the string was -compiled, and otherwise Perl would raise a fatal compile-time error. -In versions 5.000 through 5.003, the error was - - Literal @example now requires backslash - -In versions 5.004_01 through 5.6.0, the error was - - In string, @example now must be written as \@example - -The idea here was to get people into the habit of writing -C<"fred\@example.com"> when they wanted a literal C<@> sign, just as -they have always written C<"Give me back my \$5"> when they wanted a -literal C<$> sign. - -Starting with 5.6.1, when Perl now sees an C<@> sign in a -double-quoted string, it I attempts to interpolate an array, -regardless of whether or not the array has been used or declared -already. The fatal error has been downgraded to an optional warning: - - Possible unintended interpolation of @example in string - -This warns you that C<"fred@example.com"> is going to turn into -C if you don't backslash the C<@>. -See http://www.plover.com/~mjd/perl/at-error.html for more details -about the history here. - -=head2 Miscellaneous Changes - -=over 4 - -=item * - -AUTOLOAD is now lvaluable, meaning that you can add the :lvalue attribute -to AUTOLOAD subroutines and you can assign to the AUTOLOAD return value. - -=item * - -The $Config{byteorder} (and corresponding BYTEORDER in config.h) was -previously wrong in platforms if sizeof(long) was 4, but sizeof(IV) -was 8. The byteorder was only sizeof(long) bytes long (1234 or 4321), -but now it is correctly sizeof(IV) bytes long, (12345678 or 87654321). -(This problem didn't affect Windows platforms.) - -Also, $Config{byteorder} is now computed dynamically--this is more -robust with "fat binaries" where an executable image contains binaries -for more than one binary platform, and when cross-compiling. - -=item * - -C now works (previously one couldn't pass -in multiple arguments.) - -=item * - -C followed by a bareword now ensures that this bareword isn't -a keyword (to avoid a bug where C tried to call a -subroutine called C). This means that for example instead of -C you must write C. - -=item * - -The builtin dump() now gives an optional warning -C, -meaning that by default C is resolved as the builtin -dump() which dumps core and aborts, not as (possibly) user-defined -C. To call the latter, qualify the call as C<&dump(...)>. -(The whole dump() feature is to considered deprecated, and possibly -removed/changed in future releases.) - -=item * - -chomp() and chop() are now overridable. Note, however, that their -prototype (as given by C is undefined, -because it cannot be expressed and therefore one cannot really write -replacements to override these builtins. - -=item * - -END blocks are now run even if you exit/die in a BEGIN block. -Internally, the execution of END blocks is now controlled by -PL_exit_flags & PERL_EXIT_DESTRUCT_END. This enables the new -behaviour for Perl embedders. This will default in 5.10. See -L. - -=item * - -Formats now support zero-padded decimal fields. - -=item * - -Lvalue subroutines can now return C in list context. However, -the lvalue subroutine feature still remains experimental. [561+] - -=item * - -A lost warning "Can't declare ... dereference in my" has been -restored (Perl had it earlier but it became lost in later releases.) - -=item * - -A new special regular expression variable has been introduced: -C<$^N>, which contains the most-recently closed group (submatch). - -=item * - -C does not produce an error even if Module does not have an -unimport() method. This parallels the behavior of C vis-a-vis -C. [561] - -=item * - -The numerical comparison operators return C if either operand -is a NaN. Previously the behaviour was unspecified. - -=item * - -C can now have an experimental optional attribute C that -affects how global variables are shared among multiple interpreters, -see L. - -=item * - -The following builtin functions are now overridable: each(), keys(), -pop(), push(), shift(), splice(), unshift(). [561] - -=item * - -C can now group template letters with C<()> and then -apply repetition/count modifiers on the groups. - -=item * - -C can now process the Perl internal numeric types: -IVs, UVs, NVs-- and also long doubles, if supported by the platform. -The template letters are C, C, C, and C. - -=item * - -C can now be used to force a string to UTF8. - -=item * - -my __PACKAGE__ $obj now works. [561] - -=item * - -POSIX::sleep() now returns the number of I seconds -(as the POSIX standard says), as opposed to CORE::sleep() which -returns the number of slept seconds. - -=item * - -The printf() and sprintf() now support parameter reordering using the -C<%\d+\$> and C<*\d+\$> syntaxes. For example - - print "%2\$s %1\$s\n", "foo", "bar"; - -will print "bar foo\n". This feature helps in writing -internationalised software, and in general when the order -of the parameters can vary. - -=item * - -The (\&) prototype now works properly. [561] - -=item * - -prototype(\[$@%&]) is now available to implicitly create references -(useful for example if you want to emulate the tie() interface). - -=item * - -A new command-line option, C<-t> is available. It is the -little brother of C<-T>: instead of dying on taint violations, -lexical warnings are given. B - -=item * - -In other taint news, the C and C have now been -considered too risky (think C: it can start any program -with any arguments), and now the said forms cause a warning under -lexical warnings. You should carefully launder the arguments to -guarantee their validity. In future releases of Perl the forms will -become fatal errors so consider starting laundering now. - -=item * - -Tied hash interfaces are now required to have the EXISTS and DELETE -methods (either own or inherited). - -=item * - -If tr/// is just counting characters, it doesn't attempt to -modify its target. - -=item * - -untie() will now call an UNTIE() hook if it exists. See L -for details. [561] - -=item * - -L now supports C to change the -file timestamps to the current time. - -=item * - -The rules for allowing underscores (underbars) in numeric constants -have been relaxed and simplified: now you can have an underscore -simply B. - -=item * - -Rather than relying on C's argv[0] (which may not contain a full pathname) -where possible $^X is now set by asking the operating system. -(eg by reading F on Linux, F on FreeBSD) - -=item * - -A new variable, C<${^TAINT}>, indicates whether taint mode is enabled. - -=item * - -You can now override the readline() builtin, and this overrides also -the angle bracket operator. - -=item * - -The command-line options -s and -F are now recognized on the shebang -(#!) line. - -=item * - -Use of the C match modifier without an accompanying C modifier -elicits a new warning: C. - -Use of C in substitutions, even with C, elicits -C. - -Use of C with C elicits C. - -=item * - -Support for the C special subroutine had been added. -With ithreads, when a new thread is created, all Perl data is cloned, -however non-Perl data cannot be cloned automatically. In C you -can do whatever you need to do, like for example handle the cloning of -non-Perl data, if necessary. C will be executed once for every -package that has it defined or inherited. It will be called in the -context of the new thread, so all modifications are made in the new area. - -See L - -=back - -=head1 Modules and Pragmata - -=head2 New Modules and Pragmata - -=over 4 - -=item * - -C, originally by Damian Conway and now maintained -by Arthur Bergman, allows a class to define attribute handlers. - - package MyPack; - use Attribute::Handlers; - sub Wolf :ATTR(SCALAR) { print "howl!\n" } - - # later, in some package using or inheriting from MyPack... - - my MyPack $Fluffy : Wolf; # the attribute handler Wolf will be called - -Both variables and routines can have attribute handlers. Handlers can -be specific to type (SCALAR, ARRAY, HASH, or CODE), or specific to the -exact compilation phase (BEGIN, CHECK, INIT, or END). -See L. - -=item * - -C, by Stephen McCamant, is a new compiler backend for -walking the Perl syntax tree, printing concise info about ops. -The output is highly customisable. See L. [561+] - -=item * - -The new bignum, bigint, and bigrat pragmas, by Tels, implement -transparent bignum support (using the Math::BigInt, Math::BigFloat, -and Math::BigRat backends). - -=item * - -C, by Sean Burke, is a module for reporting the search -path for a class's ISA tree. See L. - -=item * - -C now has a split personality: if possible, an XS extension is -used, (this will hopefully be faster, more secure, and more robust) -but if not possible, the familiar Perl implementation is used. - -=item * - -C, originally by Kenneth Albanowski and now -maintained by Paul Marquess, has been added. It is primarily used -by C to enhance portability of XS modules between different -versions of Perl. See L. - -=item * - -C, frontend module for calculating digests (checksums), from -Gisle Aas, has been added. See L. - -=item * - -C for calculating MD5 digests (checksums) as defined in -RFC 1321, from Gisle Aas, has been added. See L. - - use Digest::MD5 'md5_hex'; - - $digest = md5_hex("Thirsty Camel"); - - print $digest, "\n"; # 01d19d9d2045e005c3f1b80e8b164de1 - -NOTE: the C backward compatibility module is deliberately not -included since its further use is discouraged. - -=item * - -C, originally by Nick Ing-Simmons and now maintained by Dan -Kogai, provides a mechanism to translate between different character -encodings. Support for Unicode, ISO-8859-1, and ASCII are compiled in -to the module. Several other encodings (like the rest of the -ISO-8859, CP*/Win*, Mac, KOI8-R, three variants EBCDIC, Chinese, -Japanese, and Korean encodings) are included and can be loaded at -runtime. (For space considerations, the largest Chinese encodings -have been separated into their own CPAN module, Encode::HanExtra, -which Encode will use if available). See L. - -Any encoding supported by Encode module is also available to the -":encoding()" layer if PerlIO is used. - -=item * - -C is the interface to the new I -feature. (Implemented by Jeffrey Friedl, Nick Ing-Simmons, and -Michael Schwern.) See L. - -=item * - -C can be used to query locale information. -See L. - -=item * - -C, by Sean Burke, has functions for dealing with -RFC3066-style language tags. See L. - -=item * - -C, by Nicholas Clark, is a new tool for extension -writers for generating XS code to import C header constants. -See L. - -=item * - -C, by Damian Conway, is an easy-to-use frontend to -Filter::Util::Call. See L. - - # in MyFilter.pm: - - package MyFilter; - - use Filter::Simple sub { - while (my ($from, $to) = splice @_, 0, 2) { - s/$from/$to/g; - } - }; - - 1; - - # in user's code: - - use MyFilter qr/red/ => 'green'; - - print "red\n"; # this code is filtered, will print "green\n" - print "bored\n"; # this code is filtered, will print "bogreen\n" - - no MyFilter; - - print "red\n"; # this code is not filtered, will print "red\n" - -=item * - -C, by Tim Jenness, allows one to create temporary files -and directories in an easy, portable, and secure way. See L. -[561+] - -=item * - -C, by Paul Marquess, provides you with the -framework to write I in Perl. For most uses, the -frontend Filter::Simple is to be preferred. See L. - -=item * - -C, by Ilya Zakharevich, is a new pragma for conditional inclusion -of modules. - -=item * - -L, by Graham Barr, is a collection of perl5 modules related -to network programming. See L, L, L -(not part of libnet, but related), L, L, -and L. - -Perl installation leaves libnet unconfigured; use F -to configure it. - -=item * - -C, by Graham Barr, is a selection of general-utility -list subroutines, such as sum(), min(), first(), and shuffle(). -See L. - -=item * - -C, C, C -C, and L, by Neil Bowers, have -been added. They provide the codes for various locale standards, such -as "fr" for France, "usd" for US Dollar, and "ja" for Japanese. - - use Locale::Country; - - $country = code2country('jp'); # $country gets 'Japan' - $code = country2code('Norway'); # $code gets 'no' - -See L, L, L, -and L. - -=item * - -C, by Sean Burke, is a localization framework. See -L, and L. The latter is an -article about software localization, originally published in The Perl -Journal #13, and republished here with kind permission. - -=item * - -C for big rational numbers, to accompany Math::BigInt and -Math::BigFloat, from Tels. See L. - -=item * - -C can make your functions faster by trading space for time, -from Mark-Jason Dominus. See L. - -=item * - -C, by Gisle Aas, allows you to encode data in base64, -as defined in RFC 2045 - I. - - use MIME::Base64; - - $encoded = encode_base64('Aladdin:open sesame'); - $decoded = decode_base64($encoded); - - print $encoded, "\n"; # "QWxhZGRpbjpvcGVuIHNlc2FtZQ==" - -See L. - -=item * - -C, by Gisle Aas, allows you to encode data -in quoted-printable encoding, as defined in RFC 2045 - I. - - use MIME::QuotedPrint; - - $encoded = encode_qp("Smiley in Unicode: \x{263a}"); - $decoded = decode_qp($encoded); - - print $encoded, "\n"; # "Smiley in Unicode: =263A" - -MIME::QuotedPrint has been enhanced to provide the basic methods -necessary to use it with PerlIO::Via as in : - - use MIME::QuotedPrint; - open($fh,">Via(MIME::QuotedPrint)",$path); - -See L. - -=item * - -C, by Damian Conway, is a pseudo-class for method redispatch. -See L. - -=item * - -C is a new pragma for setting the default I/O disciplines -for open(). - -=item * - -C, by Nick Ing-Simmons, provides the implementation -of IO to "in memory" Perl scalars as discussed above. It also serves -as an example of a loadable PerlIO layer. Other future possibilities -include PerlIO::Array and PerlIO::Code. See L. - -=item * - -C, by Nick Ing-Simmons, acts as a PerlIO layer and wraps -PerlIO layer functionality provided by a class (typically implemented -in perl code). - - use MIME::QuotedPrint; - open($fh,">Via(MIME::QuotedPrint)",$path); - -This will automatically convert everything output to C<$fh> -to Quoted-Printable. See L. - -=item * - -C, by Russ Allbery, has been added, -to parse LZ<><> links in pods as described in the new -perlpodspec. - -=item * - -C, by Joe Smith, has been added. -It converts POD data to formatted overstrike text. -See L. [561+] - -=item * - -C is a selection of general-utility scalar subroutines, -such as blessed(), reftype(), and tainted(). See L. - -=item * - -C is a new pragma for controlling the behaviour of sort(). - -=item * - -C gives persistence to Perl data structures by allowing the -storage and retrieval of Perl data to and from files in a fast and -compact binary format. Because in effect Storable does serialisation -of Perl data structues, with it you can also clone deep, hierarchical -datastructures. Storable was originally created by Raphael Manfredi, -but it is now maintained by Abhijit Menon-Sen. Storable has been -enhanced to understand the two new hash features, Unicode keys and -restricted hashes. See L. - -=item * - -C, by Damian Conway, has been added. Just by saying - - use Switch; - -you have C and C available in Perl. - - use Switch; - - switch ($val) { - - case 1 { print "number 1" } - case "a" { print "string a" } - case [1..10,42] { print "number in list" } - case (@array) { print "number in list" } - case /\w+/ { print "pattern" } - case qr/\w+/ { print "pattern" } - case (%hash) { print "entry in hash" } - case (\%hash) { print "entry in hash" } - case (\&sub) { print "arg to subroutine" } - else { print "previous case not true" } - } - -See L. - -=item * - -C, by Michael Schwern, is yet another framework for writing -test scripts, more extensive than Test::Simple. See L. - -=item * - -C, by Michael Schwern, has basic utilities for writing -tests. See L. - -=item * - -C, by Damian Conway, has been added, for extracting -delimited text sequences from strings. - - use Text::Balanced 'extract_delimited'; - - ($a, $b) = extract_delimited("'never say never', he never said", "'", ''); - -$a will be "'never say never'", $b will be ', he never said'. - -In addition to extract_delimited(), there are also extract_bracketed(), -extract_quotelike(), extract_codeblock(), extract_variable(), -extract_tagged(), extract_multiple(), gen_delimited_pat(), and -gen_extract_tagged(). With these, you can implement rather advanced -parsing algorithms. See L. - -=item * - -C, by Arthur Bergman, is an interface to interpreter threads. -Interpreter threads (ithreads) is the new thread model introduced in -Perl 5.6 but only available as an internal interface for extension -writers (and for Win32 Perl for C emulation). See L, -L, and L. - -=item * - -C, by Arthur Bergman, allows data sharing for -interpreter threads. In the ithreads model any data sharing between -threads must be explicit, as opposed to the old 5.005 thread model -where data sharing was implicit. See L. - -=item * - -C, by Mark-Jason Dominus, associates a Perl array with the -lines of a file. See L. - -=item * - -C, by Ilya Zakharevich, provides on-demand loaded hashes. -See L. - -=item * - -C, by Edward Avis, allows storing hash -references (unlike the standard Tie::RefHash) The module is contained -within Tie::RefHash. See L. - -=item * - -C, by Douglas E. Wegscheid, provides high resolution -timing (ualarm, usleep, and gettimeofday). See L. - -=item * - -C offers a querying interface to the Unicode Character -Database. See L. - -=item * - -C, by SADAHIRO Tomoyuki, implements the UCA -(Unicode Collation Algorithm) for sorting Unicode strings. -See L. - -=item * - -C, by SADAHIRO Tomoyuki, implements the various -Unicode normalization forms. See L. - -=item * - -C, by Tim Jenness, is a test extension that exercises XS -APIs. Currently only C is tested: how to output various -basic data types from XS. - -=item * - -C, by Tim Jenness, is a test extension that exercises -XS typemaps. Nothing gets installed, but the code is worth studying -for extension writers. - -=back - -=head2 Updated And Improved Modules and Pragmata - -=over 4 - -=item * - -The following independently supported modules have been updated to the -newest versions from CPAN: CGI, CPAN, DB_File, File::Spec, File::Temp, -Getopt::Long, Math::BigFloat, Math::BigInt, the podlators bundle -(Pod::Man, Pod::Text), Pod::LaTeX [561+], Pod::Parser, Storable, -Term::ANSIColor, Test, Text-Tabs+Wrap. - -=item * - -attributes::reftype() now works on tied arguments. - -=item * - -AutoLoader can now be disabled with C. - -=item * - -B::Deparse has been significantly enhanced by Robin Houston. It can -now deparse almost all of the standard test suite (so that the tests -still succeed). There is a make target "test.deparse" for trying this -out. - -=item * - -Carp now has better interface documentation, and the @CARP_NOT -interface has been added to get optional control over where errors -are reported independently of @ISA, by Ben Tilly. - -=item * - -Class::Struct can now define the classes in compile time. - -=item * - -Class::Struct now assigns the array/hash element if the accessor -is called with an array/hash element as the B argument. - -=item * - -The return value of Cwd::fastcwd() is now tainted. - -=item * - -Data::Dumper now has an option to sort hashes. - -=item * - -Data::Dumper now has an option to dump code references -using B::Deparse. - -=item * - -DB_File now supports newer Berkeley DB versions, among -other improvements. - -=item * - -Devel::Peek now has an interface for the Perl memory statistics -(this works only if you are using perl's malloc, and if you have -compiled with debugging). - -=item * - -The English module can now be used without the infamous performance -hit by saying - - use English '-no_match_vars'; - -(Assuming, of course, that you don't need the troublesome variables -C<$`>, C<$&>, or C<$'>.) Also, introduced C<@LAST_MATCH_START> and -C<@LAST_MATCH_END> English aliases for C<@-> and C<@+>. - -=item * - -ExtUtils::MakeMaker has been significantly cleaned up and fixed. -The enhanced version has also been backported to earlier releases -of Perl and submitted to CPAN so that the earlier releases can -enjoy the fixes. - -=item * - -The arguments of WriteMakefile() in Makefile.PL are now checked -for sanity much more carefully than before. This may cause new -warnings when modules are being insalled. See L -for more details. - -=item * - -ExtUtils::MakeMaker now uses File::Spec internally, which hopefully -leads to better portability. - -=item * - -Fcntl, Socket, and Sys::Syslog have been rewritten by Nicholas Clark -to use the new-style constant dispatch section (see L). -This means that they will be more robust and hopefully faster. - -=item * - -File::Find now chdir()s correctly when chasing symbolic links. [561] - -=item * - -File::Find now has pre- and post-processing callbacks. It also -correctly changes directories when chasing symbolic links. Callbacks -(naughtily) exiting with "next;" instead of "return;" now work. - -=item * - -File::Find is now (again) reentrant. It also has been made -more portable. - -=item * - -The warnings issued by File::Find now belong to their own category. -You can enable/disable them with C. - -=item * - -File::Glob::glob() has been renamed to File::Glob::bsd_glob() -because the name clashes with the builtin glob(). The older -name is still available for compatibility, but is deprecated. [561] - -=item * - -File::Glob now supports C constant to limit the size of -the returned list of filenames. - -=item * - -IPC::Open3 now allows the use of numeric file descriptors. - -=item * - -IO::Socket now has an atmark() method, which returns true if the socket -is positioned at the out-of-band mark. The method is also exportable -as a sockatmark() function. - -=item * - -IO::Socket::INET failed to open the specified port if the service name -was not known. It now correctly uses the supplied port number as is. [561] - -=item * - -IO::Socket::INET has support for the ReusePort option (if your -platform supports it). The Reuse option now has an alias, ReuseAddr. -For clarity, you may want to prefer ReuseAddr. - -=item * - -IO::Socket::INET now supports a value of zero for C -(usually meaning that the operating system will make one up.) - -=item * - -'use lib' now works identically to @INC. Removing directories -with 'no lib' now works. - -=item * - -Math::BigFloat and Math::BigInt have undergone a full rewrite by Tels. -They are now magnitudes faster, and they support various bignum -libraries such as GMP and PARI as their backends. - -=item * - -Math::Complex handles inf, NaN etc., better. - -=item * - -Net::Ping has been considerably enhanced by Rob Brown: multihoming is -now supported, Win32 functionality is better, there is now time -measuring functionality (optionally high-resolution using -Time::HiRes), and there is now "external" protocol which uses -Net::Ping::External module which runs your external ping utility and -parses the output. A version of Net::Ping::External is available in -CPAN. - -Note that some of the Net::Ping tests are disabled when running -under the Perl distribution since one cannot assume one or more -of the following: enabled echo port at localhost, full Internet -connectivity, or sympathetic firewalls. You can set the environment -variable PERL_TEST_Net_Ping to "1" (one) before running the Perl test -suite to enable all the Net::Ping tests. - -=item * - -POSIX::sigaction() is now much more flexible and robust. -You can now install coderef handlers, 'DEFAULT', and 'IGNORE' -handlers, installing new handlers was not atomic. - -=item * - -In Safe, C<%INC> is now localised in a Safe compartment so that -use/require work. - -=item * - -In SDBM_File on dosish platforms, some keys went missing because of -lack of support for files with "holes". A workaround for the problem -has been added. - -=item * - -In Search::Dict one can now have a pre-processing hook for the -lines being searched. - -=item * - -The Shell module now has an OO interface. - -=item * - -In Sys::Syslog there is now a failover mechanism that will go -through alternative connection mechanisms until the message -is successfully logged. - -=item * - -The Test module has been significantly enhanced. - -=item * - -Time::Local::timelocal() does not handle fractional seconds anymore. -The rationale is that neither does localtime(), and timelocal() and -localtime() are supposed to be inverses of each other. - -=item * - -The vars pragma now supports declaring fully qualified variables. -(Something that C does not and will not support.) - -=item * - -The C name space (as in the pragma) provides various -Perl-callable functions to provide low level access to Perl's -internal Unicode representation. At the moment only length() -has been implemented. - -=back - -=head1 Utility Changes - -=over 4 - -=item * - -Emacs perl mode (emacs/cperl-mode.el) has been updated to version -4.31. - -=item * - -F is now much faster. - -=item * - -C is a tool for people adding their own encodings to the -Encode module. - -=item * - -C now supports C trigraphs. - -=item * - -C now produces a template README. - -=item * - -C now uses C for better portability between -different versions of Perl. - -=item * - -C uses the new L module -which will affect newly created extensions that define constants. -Since the new code is more correct (if you have two constants where the -first one is a prefix of the second one, the first constant B -got defined), less lossy (it uses integers for integer constant, -as opposed to the old code that used floating point numbers even for -integer constants), and slightly faster, you might want to consider -regenerating your extension code (the new scheme makes regenerating -easy). L now also supports C trigraphs. - -=item * - -C has been added to configure libnet. - -=item * - -C is now much more robust. It also sends the bug report to -perl.org, not perl.com. - -=item * - -C has been rewritten and its user interface (that is, -command line) is much more like that of the UNIX C compiler, cc. -(The perlbc tools has been removed. Use C instead.) -B [561] - -=item * - -C is a new Installation Verification Procedure utility -for running any time after installing Perl. - -=item * - -C is an implementation of the character conversion utility -C, demonstrating the new Encode module. - -=item * - -C now allows specifying a cache directory. - -=item * - -C now produces XHTML 1.0. - -=item * - -C now understands POD written using different line endings -(PC-like CRLF versus UNIX-like LF versus MacClassic-like CR). - -=item * - -C has been completely rewritten in Perl. (It is in fact a full -implementation of sed in Perl: you can use the sed functionality by -using the C utility.) - -=item * - -C now understands POD documentation embedded in the *.xs -files. [561] - -=item * - -C now supports the OUT keyword. - -=back - -=head1 New Documentation - -=over 4 - -=item * - -perl56delta details the changes between the 5.005 release and the -5.6.0 release. - -=item * - -perlclib documents the internal replacements for standard C library -functions. (Interesting only for extension writers and Perl core -hackers.) [561+] - -=item * - -perldebtut is a Perl debugging tutorial. [561+] - -=item * - -perlebcdic contains considerations for running Perl on EBCDIC -platforms. [561+] - -=item * - -perlintro is a gentle introduction to Perl. - -=item * - -perliol documents the internals of PerlIO with layers. - -=item * - -perlmodstyle is a style guide for writing modules. - -=item * - -perlnewmod tells about writing and submitting a new module. [561+] - -=item * - -perlpacktut is a pack() tutorial. - -=item * - -perlpod has been rewritten to be clearer and to record the best -practices gathered over the years. - -=item * - -perlpodspec is a more formal specification of the pod format, -mainly of interest for writers of pod applications, not to -people writing in pod. - -=item * - -perlretut is a regular expression tutorial. [561+] - -=item * - -perlrequick is a regular expressions quick-start guide. -Yes, much quicker than perlretut. [561] - -=item * - -perltodo has been updated. - -=item * - -perltootc has been renamed as perltooc (to not to conflict -with perltoot in filesystems restricted to "8.3" names). - -=item * - -perluniintro is an introduction to using Unicode in Perl. -(perlunicode is more of a detailed reference and background -information) - -=item * - -perlutil explains the command line utilities packaged with the Perl -distribution. [561+] - -=back - -The following platform-specific documents are available before -the installation as README.I, and after the installation -as perlI: - - perlaix perlamiga perlapollo perlbeos perlbs2000 - perlce perlcygwin perldgux perldos perlepoc perlfreebsd perlhpux - perlhurd perlirix perlmachten perlmacos perlmint perlmpeix - perlnetware perlos2 perlos390 perlplan9 perlqnx perlsolaris - perltru64 perluts perlvmesa perlvms perlvos perlwin32 - -These documents usually detail one or more of the following subjects: -configuring, building, testing, installing, and sometimes also using -Perl on the said platform. - -Eastern Asian Perl users are now welcomed in their own languages: -README.jp (Japanese), README.ko (Korean), README.cn (simplified -Chinese) and README.tw (traditional Chinese), which are written in -normal pod but encoded in EUC-JP, EUC-KR, EUC-CN and Big5. These -will get installed as - - perljp perlko perlcn perltw - -=over 4 - -=item * - -The documentation for the POSIX-BC platform is called "BS2000", to avoid -confusion with the Perl POSIX module. - -=item * - -The documentation for the WinCE platform is called perlce (README.ce -in the source code kit), to avoid confusion with the perlwin32 -documentation on 8.3-restricted filesystems. - -=back - -=head1 Performance Enhancements - -=over 4 - -=item * - -map() could get pathologically slow when the result list it generates -is larger than the source list. The performance has been improved for -common scenarios. [561] - -=item * - -sort() is also fully reentrant, in the sense that the sort function -can itself call sort(). This did not work reliably in previous -releases. [561] - -=item * - -sort() has been changed to use primarily mergesort internally as -opposed to the earlier quicksort. For very small lists this may -result in slightly slower sorting times, but in general the speedup -should be at least 20%. Additional bonuses are that the worst case -behaviour of sort() is now better (in computer science terms it now -runs in time O(N log N), as opposed to quicksort's Theta(N**2) -worst-case run time behaviour), and that sort() is now stable -(meaning that elements with identical keys will stay ordered as they -were before the sort). See the C pragma for information. - -The story in more detail: suppose you want to serve yourself a little -slice of Pi. - - @digits = ( 3,1,4,1,5,9 ); - -A numerical sort of the digits will yield (1,1,3,4,5,9), as expected. -Which C<1> comes first is hard to know, since one C<1> looks pretty -much like any other. You can regard this as totally trivial, -or somewhat profound. However, if you just want to sort the even -digits ahead of the odd ones, then what will - - sort { ($a % 2) <=> ($b % 2) } @digits; - -yield? The only even digit, C<4>, will come first. But how about -the odd numbers, which all compare equal? With the quicksort algorithm -used to implement Perl 5.6 and earlier, the order of ties is left up -to the sort. So, as you add more and more digits of Pi, the order -in which the sorted even and odd digits appear will change. -and, for sufficiently large slices of Pi, the quicksort algorithm -in Perl 5.8 won't return the same results even if reinvoked with the -same input. The justification for this rests with quicksort's -worst case behavior. If you run - - sort { $a <=> $b } ( 1 .. $N , 1 .. $N ); - -(something you might approximate if you wanted to merge two sorted -arrays using sort), doubling $N doesn't just double the quicksort time, -it I it. Quicksort has a worst case run time that can -grow like N**2, so-called I behaviour, and it can happen -on patterns that may well arise in normal use. You won't notice this -for small arrays, but you I notice it with larger arrays, -and you may not live long enough for the sort to complete on arrays -of a million elements. So the 5.8 quicksort scrambles large arrays -before sorting them, as a statistical defence against quadratic behaviour. -But that means if you sort the same large array twice, ties may be -broken in different ways. - -Because of the unpredictability of tie-breaking order, and the quadratic -worst-case behaviour, quicksort was I replaced completely with -a stable mergesort. I means that ties are broken to preserve -the original order of appearance in the input array. So - - sort { ($a % 2) <=> ($b % 2) } (3,1,4,1,5,9); - -will yield (4,3,1,1,5,9), guaranteed. The even and odd numbers -appear in the output in the same order they appeared in the input. -Mergesort has worst case O(N log N) behaviour, the best value -attainable. And, ironically, this mergesort does particularly -well where quicksort goes quadratic: mergesort sorts (1..$N, 1..$N) -in O(N) time. But quicksort was rescued at the last moment because -it is faster than mergesort on certain inputs and platforms. -For example, if you really I care about the order of even -and odd digits, quicksort will run in O(N) time; it's very good -at sorting many repetitions of a small number of distinct elements. -The quicksort divide and conquer strategy works well on platforms -with relatively small, very fast, caches. Eventually, the problem gets -whittled down to one that fits in the cache, from which point it -benefits from the increased memory speed. - -Quicksort was rescued by implementing a sort pragma to control aspects -of the sort. The B subpragma forces stable behaviour, -regardless of algorithm. The B<_quicksort> and B<_mergesort> -subpragmas are heavy-handed ways to select the underlying implementation. -The leading C<_> is a reminder that these subpragmas may not survive -beyond 5.8. More appropriate mechanisms for selecting the implementation -exist, but they wouldn't have arrived in time to save quicksort. - -=item * - -Hashes now use Bob Jenkins "One-at-a-Time" hashing key algorithm -( 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 -all 3-char printable ASCII keys comes much closer to passing the -DIEHARD random number generation tests. According to perlbench, this -change has not affected the overall speed of Perl. - -=item * - -unshift() should now be noticeably faster. - -=back - -=head1 Installation and Configuration Improvements - -=head2 Generic Improvements - -=over 4 - -=item * - -INSTALL now explains how you can configure Perl to use 64-bit -integers even on non-64-bit platforms. - -=item * - -Policy.sh policy change: if you are reusing a Policy.sh file -(see INSTALL) and you use Configure -Dprefix=/foo/bar and in the old -Policy $prefix eq $siteprefix and $prefix eq $vendorprefix, all of -them will now be changed to the new prefix, /foo/bar. (Previously -only $prefix changed.) If you do not like this new behaviour, -specify prefix, siteprefix, and vendorprefix explicitly. - -=item * - -A new optional location for Perl libraries, otherlibdirs, is available. -It can be used for example for vendor add-ons without disturbing Perl's -own library directories. - -=item * - -In many platforms, the vendor-supplied 'cc' is too stripped-down to -build Perl (basically, 'cc' doesn't do ANSI C). If this seems -to be the case and 'cc' does not seem to be the GNU C compiler -'gcc', an automatic attempt is made to find and use 'gcc' instead. - -=item * - -gcc needs to closely track the operating system release to avoid -build problems. If Configure finds that gcc was built for a different -operating system release than is running, it now gives a clearly visible -warning that there may be trouble ahead. - -=item * - -Since Perl 5.8 is not binary-compatible with previous releases -of Perl, Configure no longer suggests including the 5.005 -modules in @INC. - -=item * - -Configure C<-S> can now run non-interactively. [561] - -=item * - -Configure support for pdp11-style memory models has been removed due -to obsolescence. [561] - -=item * - -configure.gnu now works with options with whitespace in them. - -=item * - -installperl now outputs everything to STDERR. - -=item * - -Because PerlIO is now the default on most platforms, "-perlio" doesn't -get appended to the $Config{archname} (also known as $^O) anymore. -Instead, if you explicitly choose not to use perlio (Configure command -line option -Uuseperlio), you will get "-stdio" appended. - -=item * - -Another change related to the architecture name is that "-64all" -(-Duse64bitall, or "maximally 64-bit") is appended only if your -pointers are 64 bits wide. (To be exact, the use64bitall is ignored.) - -=item * - -In AFS installations, one can configure the root of the AFS to be -somewhere else than the default F by using the Configure -parameter C<-Dafsroot=/some/where/else>. - -=item * - -APPLLIB_EXP, a lesser-known configuration-time definition, has been -documented. It can be used to prepend site-specific directories -to Perl's default search path (@INC); see INSTALL for information. - -=item * - -The version of Berkeley DB used when the Perl (and, presumably, the -DB_File extension) was built is now available as -C<@Config{qw(db_version_major db_version_minor db_version_patch)}> -from Perl and as C from C. - -=item * - -Building Berkeley DB3 for compatibility modes for DB, NDBM, and ODBM -has been documented in INSTALL. - -=item * - -If you have CPAN access (either network or a local copy such as a -CD-ROM) you can during specify extra modules to Configure to build and -install with Perl using the -Dextras=... option. See INSTALL for -more details. - -=item * - -In addition to config.over, a new override file, config.arch, is -available. This file is supposed to be used by hints file writers -for architecture-wide changes (as opposed to config.over which is -for site-wide changes). - -=item * - -If your file system supports symbolic links, you can build Perl outside -of the source directory by - - mkdir /tmp/perl/build/directory - cd /tmp/perl/build/directory - sh /path/to/perl/source/Configure -Dmksymlinks ... - -This will create in /tmp/perl/build/directory a tree of symbolic links -pointing to files in /path/to/perl/source. The original files are left -unaffected. After Configure has finished, you can just say - - make all test - -and Perl will be built and tested, all in /tmp/perl/build/directory. -[561] - -=item * - -For Perl developers, several new make targets for profiling -and debugging have been added; see L. - -=over 8 - -=item * - -Use of the F tool to profile Perl has been documented in -L. There is a make target called "perl.gprof" for -generating a gprofiled Perl executable. - -=item * - -If you have GCC 3, there is a make target called "perl.gcov" for -creating a gcoved Perl executable for coverage analysis. See -L. - -=item * - -If you are on IRIX or Tru64 platforms, new profiling/debugging options -have been added; see L for more information about pixie and -Third Degree. - -=back - -=item * - -Guidelines of how to construct minimal Perl installations have -been added to INSTALL. - -=item * - -The Thread extension is now not built at all under ithreads -(C) because it wouldn't work anyway (the -Thread extension requires being Configured with C<-Duse5005threads>). - -But note that the Thread.pm interface is now shared by both -thread models. - -=item * - -The Gconvert macro ($Config{d_Gconvert}) used by perl for stringifying -floating-point numbers is now more picky about using sprintf %.*g -rules for the conversion. Some platforms that used to use gcvt may -now resort to the slower sprintf. - -=item * - -The obsolete method of making a special (e.g., debugging) flavor -of perl by saying - - make LIBPERL=libperld.a - -has been removed. Use -DDEBUGGING instead. - -=back - -=head2 New Or Improved Platforms - -For the list of platforms known to support Perl, -see L. - -=over 4 - -=item * - -AIX dynamic loading should be now better supported. - -=item * - -AIX should now work better with gcc, threads, and 64-bitness. Also the -long doubles support in AIX should be better now. See L. - -=item * - -AtheOS ( http://www.atheos.cx/ ) is a new platform. - -=item * - -BeOS has been reclaimed. - -=item * - -The DG/UX platform now supports 5.005-style threads. -See L. - -=item * - -The DYNIX/ptx platform (a.k.a. dynixptx) is supported at or near -osvers 4.5.2. - -=item * - -EBCDIC platforms (z/OS (also known as OS/390), POSIX-BC, and VM/ESA) -have been regained. Many test suite tests still fail and the -co-existence of Unicode and EBCDIC isn't quite settled, but the -situation is much better than with Perl 5.6. See L, -L (for POSIX-BC), and L for more information. - -=item * - -Building perl with -Duseithreads or -Duse5005threads now works under -HP-UX 10.20 (previously it only worked under 10.30 or later). You will -need a thread library package installed. See README.hpux. [561] - -=item * - -Mac OS Classic is now supported in the mainstream source package -(MacPerl has of course been available since perl 5.004 but now the -source code bases of standard Perl and MacPerl have been synchronised) -[561] - -=item * - -Mac OS X (or Darwin) should now be able to build Perl even on HFS+ -filesystems. (The case-insensitivity used to confuse the Perl build -process.) - -=item * - -NCR MP-RAS is now supported. [561] - -=item * - -All the NetBSD specific patches (except for the installation -specific ones) have been merged back to the main distribution. - -=item * - -NetWare from Novell is now supported. See L. - -=item * - -NonStop-UX is now supported. [561] - -=item * - -NEC SUPER-UX is now supported. - -=item * - -All the OpenBSD specific patches (except for the installation -specific ones) have been merged back to the main distribution. - -=item * - -Perl has been tested with the GNU pth userlevel thread package -( http://www.gnu.org/software/pth/pth.html ). All thread tests -of Perl now work, but not without adding some yield()s to the tests, -so while pth (and other userlevel thread implementations) can be -considered to be "working" with Perl ithreads, keep in mind the -possible non-preemptability of the underlying thread implementation. - -=item * - -Stratus VOS is now supported using Perl's native build method -(Configure). This is the recommended method to build Perl on -VOS. The older methods, which build miniperl, are still -available. See L. [561+] - -=item * - -The Amdahl UTS UNIX mainframe platform is now supported. [561] - -=item * - -WinCE is now supported. See L. - -=item * - -z/OS (formerly known as OS/390, formerly known as MVS OE) now has -support for dynamic loading. This is not selected by default, -however, you must specify -Dusedl in the arguments of Configure. [561] - -=back - -=head1 Selected Bug Fixes - -Numerous memory leaks and uninitialized memory accesses have been -hunted down. Most importantly, anonymous subs used to leak quite -a bit. [561] - -=over 4 - -=item * - -The autouse pragma didn't work for Multi::Part::Function::Names. - -=item * - -caller() could cause core dumps in certain situations. Carp was -sometimes affected by this problem. In particular, caller() now -returns a subroutine name of C<(unknown)> for subroutines that have -been removed from the symbol table. - -=item * - -chop(@list) in list context returned the characters chopped in -reverse order. This has been reversed to be in the right order. [561] - -=item * - -Configure no longer includes the DBM libraries (dbm, gdbm, db, ndbm) -when building the Perl binary. The only exception to this is SunOS 4.x, -which needs them. [561] - -=item * - -The behaviour of non-decimal but numeric string constants such as -"0x23" was platform-dependent: in some platforms that was seen as 35, -in some as 0, in some as a floating point number (don't ask). This -was caused by Perl's using the operating system libraries in a situation -where the result of the string to number conversion is undefined: now -Perl consistently handles such strings as zero in numeric contexts. - -=item * - -The order of DESTROYs has been made more predictable. - -=item * - -Perl 5.6.0 could emit spurious warnings about redefinition of -dl_error() when statically building extensions into perl. -This has been corrected. [561] - -=item * - -L -R didn't work. - -=item * - -C<*foo{FORMAT}> now works. - -=item * - -Infinity is now recognized as a number. - -=item * - -UNIVERSAL::isa no longer caches methods incorrectly. (This broke -the Tk extension with 5.6.0.) [561] - -=item * - -Lexicals I: lexicals outside an eval "" weren't resolved -correctly inside a subroutine definition inside the eval "" if they -were not already referenced in the top level of the eval""ed code. - -=item * - -Lexicals II: lexicals leaked at file scope into subroutines that -were declared before the lexicals. - -=item * - -Lexical warnings now propagating correctly between scopes -and into C. - -=item * - -C did not work as intended. This has been -corrected. [561] - -=item * - -warnings::enabled() now reports the state of $^W correctly if the caller -isn't using lexical warnings. [561] - -=item * - -Line renumbering with eval and C<#line> now works. [561] - -=item * - -Fixed numerous memory leaks, especially in eval "". - -=item * - -Localised tied variables no longer leak memory - - use Tie::Hash; - tie my %tied_hash => 'Tie::StdHash'; - - ... - - # Used to leak memory every time local() was called; - # in a loop, this added up. - local($tied_hash{Foo}) = 1; - -=item * - -Localised hash elements (and %ENV) are correctly unlocalised to not -exist, if they didn't before they were localised. - - - use Tie::Hash; - tie my %tied_hash => 'Tie::StdHash'; - - ... - - # Nothing has set the FOO element so far - - { local $tied_hash{FOO} = 'Bar' } - - # This used to print, but not now. - print "exists!\n" if exists $tied_hash{FOO}; - -As a side effect of this fix, tied hash interfaces B define -the EXISTS and DELETE methods. - -=item * - -mkdir() now ignores trailing slashes in the directory name, -as mandated by POSIX. - -=item * - -Some versions of glibc have a broken modfl(). This affects builds -with C<-Duselongdouble>. This version of Perl detects this brokenness -and has a workaround for it. The glibc release 2.2.2 is known to have -fixed the modfl() bug. - -=item * - -Modulus of unsigned numbers now works (4063328477 % 65535 used to -return 27406, instead of 27047). [561] - -=item * - -Some "not a number" warnings introduced in 5.6.0 eliminated to be -more compatible with 5.005. Infinity is now recognised as a number. [561] - -=item * - -Numeric conversions did not recognize changes in the string value -properly in certain circumstances. [561] - -=item * - -Attributes (such as :shared) didn't work with our(). - -=item * - -our() variables will not cause bogus "Variable will not stay shared" -warnings. [561] - -=item * - -"our" variables of the same name declared in two sibling blocks -resulted in bogus warnings about "redeclaration" of the variables. -The problem has been corrected. [561] - -=item * - -pack "Z" now correctly terminates the string with "\0". - -=item * - -Fix password routines which in some shadow password platforms -(e.g. HP-UX) caused getpwent() to return every other entry. - -=item * - -The PERL5OPT environment variable (for passing command line arguments -to Perl) didn't work for more than a single group of options. [561] - -=item * - -PERL5OPT with embedded spaces didn't work. - -=item * - -printf() no longer resets the numeric locale to "C". - -=item * - -C now parses correctly as C<'a\\b'>: that is, as three -characters, not four. [561] - -=item * - -pos() did not return the correct value within s///ge in earlier -versions. This is now handled correctly. [561] - -=item * - -Printing quads (64-bit integers) with printf/sprintf now works -without the q L ll prefixes (assuming you are on a quad-capable platform). - -=item * - -Regular expressions on references and overloaded scalars now work. [561+] - -=item * - -Right-hand side magic (GMAGIC) could in many cases such as string -concatenation be invoked too many times. - -=item * - -scalar() now forces scalar context even when used in void context. - -=item * - -SOCKS support is now much more robust. - -=item * - -sort() arguments are now compiled in the right wantarray context -(they were accidentally using the context of the sort() itself). -The comparison block is now run in scalar context, and the arguments -to be sorted are always provided list context. [561] - -=item * - -Changed the POSIX character class C<[[:space:]]> to include the (very -rarely used) vertical tab character. Added a new POSIX-ish character -class C<[[:blank:]]> which stands for horizontal whitespace -(currently, the space and the tab). - -=item * - -The tainting behaviour of sprintf() has been rationalized. It does -not taint the result of floating point formats anymore, making the -behaviour consistent with that of string interpolation. [561] - -=item * - -Some cases of inconsistent taint propagation (such as within hash -values) have been fixed. - -=item * - -The RE engine found in Perl 5.6.0 accidentally pessimised certain kinds -of simple pattern matches. These are now handled better. [561] - -=item * - -Regular expression debug output (whether through C -or via C<-Dr>) now looks better. [561] - -=item * - -Multi-line matches like C<"a\nxb\n" =~ /(?!\A)x/m> were flawed. The -bug has been fixed. [561] - -=item * - -Use of $& could trigger a core dump under some situations. This -is now avoided. [561] - -=item * - -The regular expression captured submatches ($1, $2, ...) are now -more consistently unset if the match fails, instead of leaving false -data lying around in them. [561] - -=item * - -readline() on files opened in "slurp" mode could return an extra -"" (blank line) at the end in certain situations. This has been -corrected. [561] - -=item * - -Autovivification of symbolic references of special variables described -in L (as in C<${$num}>) was accidentally disabled. This works -again now. [561] - -=item * - -Sys::Syslog ignored the C constant. - -=item * - -$AUTOLOAD, sort(), lock(), and spawning subprocesses -in multiple threads simultaneously are now thread-safe. - -=item * - -Tie::Array's SPLICE method was broken. - -=item * - -Allow a read-only string on the left-hand side of a non-modifying tr///. - -=item * - -If C is tied, warnings caused by C and C now -correctly pass to it. - -=item * - -Several Unicode fixes. - -=over 8 - -=item * - -BOMs (byte order marks) at the beginning of Perl files -(scripts, modules) should now be transparently skipped. -UTF-16 and UCS-2 encoded Perl files should now be read correctly. - -=item * - -The character tables have been updated to Unicode 3.2.0. - -=item * - -Comparing with utf8 data does not magically upgrade non-utf8 data -into utf8. (This was a problem for example if you were mixing data -from I/O and Unicode data: your output might have got magically encoded -as UTF-8.) - -=item * - -Generating illegal Unicode code points such as U+FFFE, or the UTF-16 -surrogates, now also generates an optional warning. - -=item * - -C, C, and C now match titlecase. - -=item * - -Concatenation with the C<.> operator or via variable interpolation, -C, C, C, C, the C operator, -substitution with C, single-quoted UTF8, should now work. - -=item * - -The C operator now works. Note that the C -functionality has been removed (but see pack('U0', ...)). - -=item * - -C now works. - -=item * - -Perl 5.6.0 parsed m/\x{ab}/ incorrectly, leading to spurious warnings. -This has been corrected. [561] - -=item * - -Zero entries were missing from the Unicode classes such as C. - -=back - -=item * - -Large unsigned numbers (those above 2**31) could sometimes lose their -unsignedness, causing bogus results in arithmetic operations. [561] - -=item * - -The Perl parser has been stress tested using both random input and -Markov chain input and the few found crashes and lockups have been -fixed. +=encoding utf8 -=back - -=head2 Platform Specific Changes and Fixes - -=over 4 - -=item * - -BSDI 4.* - -Perl now works on post-4.0 BSD/OSes. - -=item * - -All BSDs - -Setting C<$0> now works (as much as possible; see L for details). - -=item * - -Cygwin - -Numerous updates; currently synchronised with Cygwin 1.3.10. - -=item * - -Previously DYNIX/ptx had problems in its Configure probe for non-blocking I/O. - -=item * - -EPOC - -EPOC now better supported. See README.epoc. [561] - -=item * - -FreeBSD 3.* - -Perl now works on post-3.0 FreeBSDs. - -=item * - -HP-UX - -README.hpux updated; C now works; -now uses HP-UX malloc instead of Perl malloc. - -=item * - -IRIX - -Numerous compilation flag and hint enhancements; accidental mixing -of 32-bit and 64-bit libraries (a doomed attempt) made much harder. - -=item * - -Linux - -=over 8 - -=item * - -Long doubles should now work (see INSTALL). [561] - -=item * - -Linux previously had problems related to sockaddrlen when using -accept(), recvfrom() (in Perl: recv()), getpeername(), and -getsockname(). - -=back - -=item * - -Mac OS Classic - -Compilation of the standard Perl distribution in Mac OS Classic should -now work if you have the Metrowerks development environment and the -missing Mac-specific toolkit bits. Contact the macperl mailing list -for details. - -=item * +=head1 NAME -MPE/iX +[ this is a template for a new perldelta file. Any text flagged as +XXX needs to be processed before release. ] -MPE/iX update after Perl 5.6.0. See README.mpeix. [561] +perldelta - what is new for perl v5.13.6 -=item * +=head1 DESCRIPTION -NetBSD/threads: try installing the GNU pth (should be in the -packages collection, or http://www.gnu.org/software/pth/), -and Configure with -Duseithreads. +This document describes differences between the 5.13.5 release and +the 5.13.6 release. -=item * +If you are upgrading from an earlier release such as 5.13.4, first read +L, which describes differences between 5.13.4 and +5.13.5. -NetBSD/sparc +=head1 Notice -Perl now works on NetBSD/sparc. +XXX Any important notices here -=item * +=head1 Core Enhancements -OS/2 +XXX New core language features go here. Summarise user-visible core language +enhancements. Particularly prominent performance optimisations could go +here, but most should go in the L section. -Now works with usethreads (see INSTALL). [561] +[ List each enhancement as a =head2 entry ] -=item * +=head2 C<(?^...)> regex construct added to signify default modifiers -Solaris +A caret (also called a "cirumflex accent") C<"^"> immediately following +a C<"(?"> in a regular expression now means that the subexpression is to +not inherit the surrounding modifiers such as C, but to revert to the +Perl defaults. Any modifiers following the caret override the defaults. -64-bitness using the Sun Workshop compiler now works. +The stringification of regular expressions now uses this notation. The +main purpose of this is to allow tests that rely on the stringification +to not have to change when new modifiers are added. See +L. -=item * +=head2 C<"d">, C<"l">, and C<"u"> regex modifiers added -Stratus VOS +These modifiers are currently only available within a C<(?...)> construct. -The native build method requires at least VOS Release 14.5.0 -and GNU C++/GNU Tools 2.0.1 or later. The Perl pack function -now maps overflowed values to +infinity and underflowed values -to -infinity. +The C<"l"> modifier says to compile the regular expression as if it were +in the scope of C, even if it is not. -=item * +The C<"u"> modifier currently does nothing. -Tru64 (aka Digital UNIX, aka DEC OSF/1) +The C<"d"> modifier is used in the scope of C to compile the +regular expression as if it were not in that scope. +See L. -The operating system version letter now recorded in $Config{osvers}. -Allow compiling with gcc (previously explicitly forbidden). Compiling -with gcc still not recommended because buggy code results, even with -gcc 2.95.2. +=head1 Security -=item * +XXX Any security-related notices go here. In particular, any security +vulnerabilities closed should be noted here rather than in the +L section. -Unicos +[ List each security issue as a =head2 entry ] -Fixed various alignment problems that lead into core dumps either -during build or later; no longer dies on math errors at runtime; -now using full quad integers (64 bits), previously was using -only 46 bit integers for speed. +=head1 Incompatible Changes -=item * +=head2 Stringification of regexes has changed -VMS +Default regular expression modifiers are now notated by using +C<(?^...)>. Code relying on the old stringification will fail. The +purpose of this is so that when new modifiers are added, such code will +not have to change, as the stringification will automatically +incorporate the new modifiers. -See L and L for important changes not otherwise listed here. +Code that needs to work properly with both old- and new-style regexes +can use something like the following: -chdir() now works better despite a CRT bug; now works with MULTIPLICITY -(see INSTALL); now works with Perl's malloc. + # Accept both old and new-style stringification + my $modifiers = (qr/foobar/ =~ /\Q(?^/) ? '^' : '-xism'; -The tainting of C<%ENV> elements via C or C was previously -unimplemented. It now works as documented. +And then use C<$modifiers> instead of C<-xism>. -The C emulation has been improved. The worst bug (now fixed) -was that a pid of -1 would cause a wildcard search of all processes on -the system. +=head2 Regular expressions retain their localeness when interpolated -POSIX-style signals are now emulated much better on VMS versions prior -to 7.0. +Regular expressions compiled under C<"use locale"> now retain this when +interpolated into a new regular expression compiled outside a +C<"use locale">, and vice-versa. -The C function and backticks operator have improved -functionality and better error handling. [561] +Previously, a regular expression interpolated into another one inherited +the localeness of the surrounding one, losing whatever state it +originally had. This is considered a bug fix, but may trip up code that +has come to rely on the incorrect behavior. -File access tests now use current process privileges rather than the -user's default privileges, which could sometimes result in a mismatch -between reported access and actual access. This improvement is only -available on VMS v6.0 and later. +[ List each incompatible change as a =head2 entry ] -There is a new C implementation based on C that allows -older VMS systems (pre-7.0) to use C to send signals rather than -simply force exit. This implementation also allows later systems to -call C from within a signal handler. +=head1 Deprecations -Iterative logical name translations are now limited to 10 iterations in -imitation of SHOW LOGICAL and other OpenVMS facilities. +XXX Any deprecated features, syntax, modules etc. should be listed here. +In particular, deprecated modules should be listed here even if they are +listed as an updated module in the L section. -=item * +[ List each deprecation as a =head2 entry ] -Windows +=head1 Performance Enhancements -=over 8 +XXX Changes which enhance performance without changing behaviour go here. There +may well be none in a stable release. -=item * +[ List each enhancement as a =item entry ] -Signal handling now works better than it used to. It is now implemented -using a Windows message loop, and is therefore less prone to random -crashes. +=over 4 =item * -fork() emulation is now more robust, but still continues to have a few -esoteric bugs and caveats. See L for details. [561+] - -=item * +XXX -A failed (pseudo)fork now returns undef and sets errno to EAGAIN. [561] +=back -=item * +=head1 Modules and Pragmata -The following modules now work on Windows: +XXX All changes to installed files in F, F, F and F +go here. If Module::CoreList is updated, generate an initial draft of the +following sections using F, which prints stub +entries to STDOUT. Results can be pasted in place of the '=head2' entries +below. A paragraph summary for important changes should then be added by hand. +In an ideal world, dual-life modules would have a F file that could be +cribbed. - ExtUtils::Embed [561] - IO::Pipe - IO::Poll - Net::Ping +[ Within each section, list entries as a =item entry ] -=item * +=head2 New Modules and Pragmata -IO::File::new_tmpfile() is no longer limited to 32767 invocations -per-process. +=over 4 =item * -Better chdir() return value for a non-existent directory. - -=item * +XXX -Compiling perl using the 64-bit Platform SDK tools is now supported. +=back -=item * +=head2 Updated Modules and Pragmata -The Win32::SetChildShowWindow() builtin can be used to control the -visibility of windows created by child processes. See L for -details. +=over 4 =item * -Non-blocking waits for child processes (or pseudo-processes) are -supported via C. +C has been upgraded from version 0.64 to 0.65. =item * -The behavior of system() with multiple arguments has been rationalized. -Each unquoted argument will be automatically quoted to protect whitespace, -and any existing whitespace in the arguments will be preserved. This -improves the portability of system(@args) by avoiding the need for -Windows C shell specific quoting in perl programs. - -Note that this means that some scripts that may have relied on earlier -buggy behavior may no longer work correctly. For example, -C will now attempt to run the file -C and will fail when such a file isn't found. -On the other hand, perl will now execute code such as -C correctly. +C has been upgraded from version 3.31_01 to 3.33. =item * -The perl header files no longer suppress common warnings from the -Microsoft Visual C++ compiler. This means that additional warnings may -now show up when compiling XS code. - -=item * +C has been upgraded from version 1.06 to 1.07 -Borland C++ v5.5 is now a supported compiler that can build Perl. -However, the generated binaries continue to be incompatible with those -generated by the other supported compilers (GCC and Visual C++). [561] +=back -=item * +=head2 Removed Modules and Pragmata -Duping socket handles with open(F, ">&MYSOCK") now works under Windows 9x. -[561] +=over 4 =item * -Current directory entries in %ENV are now correctly propagated to child -processes. [561] +XXX -=item * - -New %ENV entries now propagate to subprocesses. [561] +=back -=item * +=head1 Documentation -Win32::GetCwd() correctly returns C:\ instead of C: when at the drive root. -Other bugs in chdir() and Cwd::cwd() have also been fixed. [561] +XXX Changes to files in F go here. Consider grouping entries by +file and be sure to link to the appropriate page, e.g. L. -=item * +=head2 New Documentation -The makefiles now default to the features enabled in ActiveState ActivePerl -(a popular Win32 binary distribution). [561] +XXX Changes which create B files in F go here. -=item * +=head3 L -HTML files will now be installed in c:\perl\html instead of -c:\perl\lib\pod\html +XXX Description of the purpose of the new file here -=item * +=head2 Changes to Existing Documentation -REG_EXPAND_SZ keys are now allowed in registry settings used by perl. [561] +XXX Changes which significantly change existing files in F go here. +However, any changes to F should go in the L +section. -=item * +=head3 L -Can now send() from all threads, not just the first one. [561] +=over 4 =item * -ExtUtils::MakeMaker now uses $ENV{LIB} to search for libraries. [561] +XXX Description of the change here -=item * +=back -Less stack reserved per thread so that more threads can run -concurrently. (Still 16M per thread.) [561] +=head1 Diagnostics -=item * +The following additions or changes have been made to diagnostic output, +including warnings and fatal error messages. For the complete list of +diagnostic messages, see L. -C<< File::Spec->tmpdir() >> now prefers C:/temp over /tmp -(works better when perl is running as service). +XXX New or changed warnings emitted by the core's C code go here. Also +include any changes in L that reconcile it to the C code. -=item * +[ Within each section, list entries as a =item entry ] -Better UNC path handling under ithreads. [561] +=head2 New Diagnostics -=item * +XXX Newly added diagnostic messages go here -wait(), waitpid(), and backticks now return the correct exit status -under Windows 9x. [561] +=over 4 =item * -A socket handle leak in accept() has been fixed. [561] +XXX =back -=back +=head2 Changes to Existing Diagnostics -=head1 New or Changed Diagnostics +XXX Changes (i.e. rewording) of diagnostic messages go here =over 4 =item * -The lexical warnings category "deprecated" is no longer a sub-category -of the "syntax" category. It is now a top-level category in its own -right. +XXX -=item * - -All regular expression compilation error messages are now hopefully -easier to understand both because the error message now comes before -the failed regex and because the point of failure is now clearly -marked by a C-- HERE> marker. - -=item * - -The various "opened only for", "on closed", "never opened" warnings -drop the C prefix for filehandles in the C
package, -for example C instead of C. - -=item * +=back -The "Unrecognized escape" warning has been extended to include C<\8>, -C<\9>, and C<\_>. There is no need to escape any of the C<\w> characters. +=head1 Utility Changes -=item * +XXX Changes to installed programs such as F and F go +here. Most of these are built within the directories F and F. -Two new debugging options have been added: if you have compiled your -Perl with debugging, you can use the -DT [561] and -DR options to trace -tokenising and to add reference counts to displaying variables, -respectively. +[ List utility changes as a =head3 entry for each utility and =item +entries for each change +Use L with program names to get proper documentation linking. ] -=item * +=head3 L -Several debugger fixes: exit code now reflects the script exit code, -condition C<"0"> now treated correctly, the C command now checks -line number, C<$.> no longer gets corrupted, and all debugger output -now goes correctly to the socket if RemotePort is set. [561] +=over 4 =item * -The debugger (perl5db.pl) has been modified to present a more -consistent commands interface, via (CommandSet=580). perl5db.t was -also added to test the changes, and as a placeholder for further tests. +XXX -See L. - -=item * - -The debugger has a new C option to control the maximum -depth to which nested structures are dumped. The C command has -been extended so that C dumps out the value of I to a -depth of at most I levels. +=back -=item * +=head1 Configuration and Compilation -The debugger can now show lexical variables if you have the CPAN -module PadWalker installed. +XXX Changes to F, F, F, and analogous tools +go here. Any other changes to the Perl build process should be listed here. +However, any platform-specific changes should be listed in the +L section, instead. -=item * +[ List changes as a =item entry ]. -If an attempt to use a (non-blessed) reference as an array index -is made, a warning is given. +=over 4 =item * -C and C (with no values to push or unshift) -now give a warning. This may be a problem for generated and evaled -code. - -=item * +XXX -If you try to L a number less than 0 or larger than 255 -using the C<"C"> format you will get an optional warning. Similarly -for the C<"c"> format and a number less than -128 or more than 127. +=back -=item * +=head1 Testing -Certain regex modifiers such as C<(?o)> make sense only if applied to -the entire regex. You will get an optional warning if you try to do -otherwise. +XXX Any significant changes to the testing of a freshly built perl should be +listed here. Changes which create B files in F go here as do any +large changes to the testing harness (e.g. when parallel testing was added). +Changes to existing files in F aren't worth summarising, although the bugs +that they represent may be covered elsewhere. -=item * +[ List each test improvement as a =item entry ] -Using arrays or hashes as references (e.g. C<< %foo->{bar} >> -has been deprecated for a while. Now you will get an optional warning. +=over 4 =item * -Using C in scalar context now issues an optional warning. -This didn't do anything useful, as the sort was not performed. +XXX =back -=head1 Changed Internals - -=over 4 +=head1 Platform Support -=item * +XXX Any changes to platform support should be listed in the sections below. -perlapi.pod (a companion to perlguts) now attempts to document the -internal API. +[ Within the sections, list each platform as a =item entry with specific +changes as paragraphs below it. ] -=item * +=head2 New Platforms -You can now build a really minimal perl called microperl. -Building microperl does not require even running Configure; -C should be enough. Beware: microperl makes -many assumptions, some of which may be too bold; the resulting -executable may crash or otherwise misbehave in wondrous ways. -For careful hackers only. +XXX List any platforms that this version of perl compiles on, that previous +versions did not. These will either be enabled by new files in the F +directories, or new subdirectories and F files at the top level of the +source tree. -=item * +=over 4 -Added rsignal(), whichsig(), do_join(), op_clear, op_null, -ptr_table_clear(), ptr_table_free(), sv_setref_uv(), and several UTF-8 -interfaces to the publicised API. For the full list of the available -APIs see L. +=item XXX-some-platform -=item * +XXX -Made possible to propagate customised exceptions via croak()ing. +=back -=item * +=head2 Discontinued Platforms -Now xsubs can have attributes just like subs. (Well, at least the -built-in attributes.) +XXX List any platforms that this version of perl no longer compiles on. -=item * +=over 4 -dTHR and djSP have been obsoleted; the former removed (because it's -a no-op) and the latter replaced with dSP. +=item XXX-some-platform -=item * +XXX -PERL_OBJECT has been completely removed. +=back -=item * +=head2 Platform-Specific Notes -The MAGIC constants (e.g. C<'P'>) have been macrofied -(e.g. C) for better source code readability -and maintainability. +XXX List any changes for specific platforms. This could include configuration +and compilation changes or changes in portability/compatibility. However, +changes within modules for platforms should generally be listed in the +L section. -=item * +=over 4 -The regex compiler now maintains a structure that identifies nodes in -the compiled bytecode with the corresponding syntactic features of the -original regex expression. The information is attached to the new -C member of the C. See L for more -complete information. +=item XXX-some-platform -=item * +XXX -The C code has been made much more C clean. Some warning -messages still remain in some platforms, so if you are compiling with -gcc you may see some warnings about dubious practices. The warnings -are being worked on. +=back -=item * +=head1 Internal Changes -F, F, and F have now been extensively commented. +XXX Changes which affect the interface available to C code go here. +Other significant internal changes for future core maintainers should +be noted as well. -=item * +[ List each test improvement as a =item entry ] -Documentation on how to use the Perl source repository has been added -to F. +=over 4 =item * -There are now several profiling make targets. +See L, +above. =back -=head1 Security Vulnerability Closed [561] - -(This change was already made in 5.7.0 but bears repeating here.) -(5.7.0 came out before 5.6.1: the development branch 5.7 released -sooner than the maintenance branch 5.6) - -A potential security vulnerability in the optional suidperl component -of Perl was identified in August 2000. suidperl is neither built nor -installed by default. As of November 2001 the only known vulnerable -platform is Linux, most likely all Linux distributions. CERT and -various vendors and distributors have been alerted about the vulnerability. -See http://www.cpan.org/src/5.0/sperl-2000-08-05/sperl-2000-08-05.txt -for more information. - -The problem was caused by Perl trying to report a suspected security -exploit attempt using an external program, /bin/mail. On Linux -platforms the /bin/mail program had an undocumented feature which -when combined with suidperl gave access to a root shell, resulting in -a serious compromise instead of reporting the exploit attempt. If you -don't have /bin/mail, or if you have 'safe setuid scripts', or if -suidperl is not installed, you are safe. - -The exploit attempt reporting feature has been completely removed from -Perl 5.8.0 (and the maintenance release 5.6.1, and it was removed also -from all the Perl 5.7 releases), so that particular vulnerability -isn't there anymore. However, further security vulnerabilities are, -unfortunately, always possible. The suidperl functionality is most -probably going to be removed in Perl 5.10. 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/ ). - -=head1 New Tests - -Several new tests have been added, especially for the F and F -subsections. There are now about 65 000 individual tests (spread over -about 700 test scripts), in the regression suite (5.6.1 has about -11700 tests, in 258 test scripts) Many of the new tests are of course -introduced by the new modules, but still in general Perl is now more -thoroughly tested. - -Because of the large number of tests, running the regression suite -will take considerably longer time than it used to: expect the suite -to take up to 4-5 times longer to run than in perl 5.6. On a really -fast machine you can hope to finish the suite in about 6-8 minutes -(wallclock time). - -The tests are now reported in a different order than in earlier Perls. -(This happens because the test scripts from under t/lib have been moved -to be closer to the library/extension they are testing.) +=head1 Selected Bug Fixes -=head1 Known Problems +XXX Important bug fixes in the core language are summarised here. +Bug fixes in files in F and F are best summarised in +L. -=head2 AIX +[ List each fix as a =item entry ] =over 4 =item * -If using the AIX native make command, instead of just "make" issue -"make all". In some setups the former has been known to spuriously -also try to run "make install". Alternatively, you may want to use -GNU make. +A regular expression match in the right-hand side of a global substitution +(C) that is in the same scope will no longer cause match variables +to have the wrong values on subsequent iterations. This can happen when an +array or hash subscript is interpolated in the right-hand side, as in +C +L<[perl #19078]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3//Public/Bug/Display.html?id=19078>. =item * -In AIX 4.2, Perl extensions that use C++ functions that use statics -may have problems in that the statics are not getting initialized. -In newer AIX releases, this has been solved by linking Perl with -the libC_r library, but unfortunately in AIX 4.2 the said library -has an obscure bug where the various functions related to time -(such as time() and gettimeofday()) return broken values, and -therefore in AIX 4.2 Perl is not linked against libC_r. +Constant-folding used to cause -=item * - -vac 5.0.0.0 May Produce Buggy Code For Perl + $text =~ ( 1 ? /phoo/ : /bear/) -The AIX C compiler vac version 5.0.0.0 may produce buggy code, -resulting in a few random tests failing when run as part of "make -test", but when the failing tests are run by hand, they succeed. -We suggest upgrading to at least vac version 5.0.1.0, that has been -known to compile Perl correctly. "lslpp -L|grep vac.C" will tell -you the vac version. See README.aix. +to turn into -=item * + $text =~ /phoo/ -If building threaded Perl, you may get compilation warning from pp_sys.c: +at compile time. Now it correctly matches against C<$_> +L<[perl #20444]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3//Public/Bug/Display.html?id=20444>. - "pp_sys.c", line 4651.39: 1506-280 (W) Function argument assignment between types "unsigned char*" and "const void*" is not allowed. +=item * -This is harmless; it is caused by the getnetbyaddr() and getnetbyaddr_r() -having slightly different types for their first argument. +Parsing Perl code (either with string C or by loading modules) from +within a C block no longer causes the interpreter to crash +L<[perl #70614]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3//Public/Bug/Display.html?id=70614>. =back -=head2 Alpha systems with old gccs fail several tests - -If you see op/pack, op/pat, op/regexp, or ext/Storable tests failing -in a Linux/alpha or *BSD/Alpha, it's probably time to upgrade your gcc. -gccs prior to 2.95.3 are definitely not good enough, and gcc 3.1 may -be even better. (RedHat Linux/alpha with gcc 3.1 reported no problems, -as did Linux 2.4.18 with gcc 2.95.4.) (In Tru64, it is preferable to -use the bundled C compiler.) - -=head2 AmigaOS - -Perl 5.8.0 doesn't build in AmigaOS. It broke at some point during -the ithreads work and we could not find Amiga experts to unbreak the -problems. Perl 5.6.1 still works for AmigaOS (as does the the 5.7.2 -development release). - -=head2 BeOS - -The following tests fail on 5.8.0 Perl in BeOS Personal 5.03: - - t/op/lfs............................FAILED at test 17 - t/op/magic..........................FAILED at test 24 - ext/POSIX/t/sigaction...............FAILED at test 13 - ext/POSIX/t/waitpid.................FAILED at test 1 - -See L (README.beos) for more details. - -=head2 Cygwin "unable to remap" - -For example when building the Tk extension for Cygwin, -you may get an error message saying "unable to remap". -This is known problem with Cygwin, and a workaround is -detailed in here: http://sources.redhat.com/ml/cygwin/2001-12/msg00894.html - -=head2 ext/threads/t/libc - -If this test fails, it indicates that your libc (C library) is not -threadsafe. This particular test stress tests the localtime() call to -find out whether it is threadsafe. See L for more information. - -=head2 FreeBSD built with ithreads coredumps reading large directories - -This is a known bug in FreeBSD's readdir_r() (see L -(README.freebsd)), which hopefully will be fixed in FreeBSD 4.6. - -=head2 FreeBSD Failing locale Test 117 For ISO 8859-15 Locales - -The ISO 8859-15 locales may fail the locale test 117 in FreeBSD. -This is caused by the characters \xFF (y with diaeresis) and \xBE -(Y with diaeresis) not behaving correctly when being matched -case-insensitively. Apparently this problem has been fixed in -the latest FreeBSD releases. -( http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=34308 ) - -=head2 IRIX fails ext/List/Util/t/shuffle.t - -IRIX with MIPSpro 7.3.1.3m compiler may fail the said List::Util test -by dumping core. This seems to be a compiler error since if compiled -with gcc no core dump ensues, and no failures on the said test on any -other platform. - -=head2 Modifying $_ Inside for(..) - - for (1..5) { $_++ } - -works without complaint. It shouldn't. (You should be able to -modify only lvalue elements inside the loops.) You can see the -correct behaviour by replacing the 1..5 with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. - -=head2 mod_perl 1.26 Doesn't Build With Threaded Perl - -Use mod_perl 1.27 or higher. - -=head2 lib/ftmp-security tests warn 'system possibly insecure' - -Don't panic. Read the 'make test' section of INSTALL instead. - -=head2 HP-UX lib/posix Subtest 9 Fails When LP64-Configured - -If perl is configured with -Duse64bitall, the successful result of the -subtest 10 of lib/posix may arrive before the successful result of the -subtest 9, which confuses the test harness so much that it thinks the -subtest 9 failed. - -=head2 Linux with glibc 2.2.5 fails t/op/int subtest #6 with -Duse64bitint - -This is a known bug in the glibc 2.2.5 with long long integers. -( http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=65612 ) - -=head2 Linux With Sfio Fails op/misc Test 48 - -No known fix. - -=head2 libwww-perl (LWP) fails base/date #51 - -Use libwww-perl 5.65 or later. - -=head2 Mac OS X - -Please remember to set your environment variable LC_ALL to "C" -(setenv LC_ALL C) before running "make test" to avoid a lot of -warnings about the broken locales of Mac OS X. - -The following tests are known to fail in Mac OS X 10.1.5 because of -buggy (old) implementations of Berkeley DB included in Mac OS X: - - Failed Test Stat Wstat Total Fail Failed List of Failed - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - ../ext/DB_File/t/db-btree.t 0 11 ?? ?? % ?? - ../ext/DB_File/t/db-recno.t 149 3 2.01% 61 63 65 - -If you are building on a UFS partition, you will also probably see -t/op/stat.t subtest #9 fail. This is caused by Darwin's UFS not -supporting inode change time. - -Also the ext/POSIX/t/posix.t subtest #10 fails but it is skipped for -now because the failure is Apple's fault, not Perl's (blocked signals -are lost). - -If you Configure with ithreads, ext/threads/t/libc.t will fail. Again, -this is not Perl's fault-- the libc of Mac OS X is not threadsafe -(in this particular test, the localtime() call is found to be -threadunsafe.) - -=head2 OS/2 Test Failures - -The following tests are known to fail on OS/2 (for clarity -only the failures are shown, not the full error messages): - -t/io/utf8............................FAILED at test 19 -t/op/grent...........................FAILED at test 2 -t/op/pwent...........................FAILED at test 1 -t/lib/os2_base.......................FAILED at test 13 -t/lib/os2_process....................FAILED at test 10 -t/lib/os2_process_kid................FAILED at test 10 -t/lib/rx_cmprt.......................FAILED at test 16 -ext/DB_File/t/db-btree...............FAILED at test 0 -ext/DB_File/t/db-hash................FAILED at test 0 -ext/DB_File/t/db-recno...............FAILED at test 0 -lib/ExtUtils/t/basic.................FAILED at test 14 -lib/ExtUtils/t/Constant..............FAILED at test 4 -lib/Memoize/t/errors.................FAILED at test 4 - -=head2 op/sprintf tests 91, 129, and 130 - -The op/sprintf tests 91, 129, and 130 are known to fail on some platforms. -Examples include any platform using sfio, and Compaq/Tandem's NonStop-UX. - -Test 91 is known to fail on QNX6 (nto), because C -incorrectly produces C<0.000000e+0> instead of C<0.000000e+00>. - -For tests 129 and 130, the failing platforms do not comply with -the ANSI C Standard: lines 19ff on page 134 of ANSI X3.159 1989, to -be exact. (They produce something other than "1" and "-1" when -formatting 0.6 and -0.6 using the printf format "%.0f"; most often, -they produce "0" and "-0".) - -=head2 Solaris 2.5 - -In case you are still using Solaris 2.5 (aka SunOS 5.5), you may -experience failures (the test core dumping) in lib/locale.t. -The suggested cure is to upgrade your Solaris. - -=head2 Solaris x86 Fails Tests With -Duse64bitint - -The following tests are known to fail in Solaris x86 with Perl -configured to use 64 bit integers: - - ext/Data/Dumper/t/dumper.............FAILED at test 268 - ext/Devel/Peek/Peek..................FAILED at test 7 - -=head2 SUPER-UX (NEC SX) - -The following tests are known to fail on SUPER-UX: - - op/64bitint...........................FAILED tests 29-30, 32-33, 35-36 - op/arith..............................FAILED tests 128-130 - op/pack...............................FAILED tests 25-5625 - op/pow................................ - op/taint..............................# msgsnd failed - ../ext/IO/lib/IO/t/io_poll............FAILED tests 3-4 - ../ext/IPC/SysV/ipcsysv...............FAILED tests 2, 5-6 - ../ext/IPC/SysV/t/msg.................FAILED tests 2, 4-6 - ../ext/Socket/socketpair..............FAILED tests 12 - ../lib/IPC/SysV.......................FAILED tests 2, 5-6 - ../lib/warnings.......................FAILED tests 115-116, 118-119 - -The op/pack failure ("Cannot compress negative numbers at op/pack.t line 126") -is serious but as of yet unsolved. It points at some problems with the -signedness handling of the C compiler, as do the 64bitint, arith, and pow -failures. Most of the rest point at problems with SysV IPC. - -=head2 PDL failing some tests - -Use PDL 2.3.4 or later. - -=head2 Term::ReadKey not working on Win32 - -Use Term::ReadKey 2.20 or later. - -=head2 Failure of Thread (5.005-style) tests - -B - -The following tests are known to fail due to fundamental problems in -the 5.005 threading implementation. These are not new failures--Perl -5.005_0x has the same bugs, but didn't have these tests. - - ../ext/B/t/xref.t 255 65280 14 12 85.71% 3-14 - ../ext/List/Util/t/first.t 255 65280 7 4 57.14% 2 5-7 - ../lib/English.t 2 512 54 2 3.70% 2-3 - ../lib/ExtUtils/t/basic.t 1 256 17 1 5.88% 14 - ../lib/FileCache.t 5 1 20.00% 5 - ../lib/Filter/Simple/t/data.t 6 3 50.00% 1-3 - ../lib/Filter/Simple/t/filter_onl 9 3 33.33% 1-2 5 - ../lib/Tie/File/t/31_autodefer.t 255 65280 65 32 49.23% 34-65 - ../lib/autouse.t 10 1 10.00% 4 - op/flip.t 15 1 6.67% 15 - -These failures are unlikely to get fixed as 5.005-style threads -are considered fundamentally broken. (Basically what happens is that -competing threads can corrupt shared global state.) - -=head2 Timing problems - -The following tests may fail intermittently because of timing -problems, for example if the system is heavily loaded. - - t/op/alarm.t - ext/Time/HiRes/HiRes.t - lib/Benchmark.t - lib/Memoize/t/expmod_t.t - lib/Memoize/t/speed.t +=head1 Known Problems -In case of failure please try running them manually, for example +XXX Descriptions of platform agnostic bugs we know we can't fix go here. Any +tests that had to be Ced for the release would be noted here, unless +they were specific to a particular platform (see below). - ./perl -Ilib ext/Time/HiRes/HiRes.t +This is a list of some significant unfixed bugs, which are regressions +from either 5.XXX.XXX or 5.XXX.XXX. -=head2 UNICOS/mk +[ List each fix as a =item entry ] =over 4 =item * -During Configure, the test - - Guessing which symbols your C compiler and preprocessor define... - -will probably fail with error messages like - - CC-20 cc: ERROR File = try.c, Line = 3 - The identifier "bad" is undefined. - - bad switch yylook 79bad switch yylook 79bad switch yylook 79bad switch yylook 79#ifdef A29K - ^ - - CC-65 cc: ERROR File = try.c, Line = 3 - A semicolon is expected at this point. - -This is caused by a bug in the awk utility of UNICOS/mk. You can ignore -the error, but it does cause a slight problem: you cannot fully -benefit from the h2ph utility (see L) that can be used to -convert C headers to Perl libraries, mainly used to be able to access -from Perl the constants defined using C preprocessor, cpp. Because of -the above error, parts of the converted headers will be invisible. -Luckily, these days the need for h2ph is rare. - -=item * - -If building Perl with interpreter threads (ithreads), the -getgrent(), getgrnam(), and getgrgid() functions cannot return the -list of the group members due to a bug in the multithreaded support of -UNICOS/mk. What this means is that in list context the functions will -return only three values, not four. +XXX =back -=head2 UTS - -There are a few known test failures, see L (README.uts). - -=head2 VOS (Stratus) - -When Perl is built using the native build process on VOS Release -14.5.0 and GNU C++/GNU Tools 2.0.1, all attempted tests either -pass or result in TODO (ignored) failures. - -=head2 VMS - -There should be no reported test failures with a default configuration, -though there are a number of tests marked TODO that point to areas -needing further debugging and/or porting work. - -=head2 Win32 - -In multi-CPU boxes, there are some problems with the I/O buffering: -some output may appear twice. +=head1 Obituary -=head2 XML::Parser not working +XXX If any significant core contributor has died, we've added a short obituary +here. -Use XML::Parser 2.31 or later. +=head1 Acknowledgements -=head2 z/OS (OS/390) - -z/OS has rather many test failures but the situation is actually -better than it was in 5.6.0; it's just that so many new modules and -tests have been added. - - Failed Test Stat Wstat Total Fail Failed List of Failed - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- - ../ext/Data/Dumper/t/dumper.t 357 8 2.24% 311 314 325 327 - 331 333 337 339 - ../ext/IO/lib/IO/t/io_unix.t 5 4 80.00% 2-5 - ../ext/Storable/t/downgrade.t 12 3072 169 12 7.10% 14-15 46-47 78-79 - 110-111 150 161 - ../lib/ExtUtils/t/Constant.t 121 30976 48 48 100.00% 1-48 - ../lib/ExtUtils/t/Embed.t 9 9 100.00% 1-9 - op/pat.t 910 7 0.77% 665 776 785 832- - 834 845 - op/sprintf.t 224 3 1.34% 98 100 136 - op/tr.t 97 5 5.15% 63 71-74 - uni/fold.t 780 6 0.77% 61 169 196 661 - 710-711 - -The failures in dumper.t and downgrade.t are problems in the tests, -those in io_unix and sprintf are problems in the USS (UDP sockets -and printf formats). The pat, tr, and fold failures are genuine Perl -problems caused by EBCDIC (and in the pat and fold cases, combining -that with Unicode). The Constant and Embed are probably problems -in the tests (since they test Perl's ability to build extensions, -and that seems to be working reasonably well.) - -=head2 Localising Tied Arrays and Hashes Is Broken - - local %tied_array; - -doesn't work as one would expect: the old value is restored -incorrectly. This will be changed in a future release, but we don't -know yet what the new semantics will exactly be. In any case, the -change will break existing code that relies on the current -(ill-defined) semantics, so just avoid doing this in general. - -=head2 Self-tying Problems - -Self-tying of arrays and hashes is broken in rather deep and -hard-to-fix ways. As a stop-gap measure to avoid people from getting -frustrated at the mysterious results (core dumps, most often), it is -forbidden for now (you will get a fatal error even from an attempt). - -A change to self-tying of globs has caused them to be recursively -referenced (see: L). You -will now need an explicit untie to destroy a self-tied glob. This -behaviour may be fixed at a later date. - -Self-tying of scalars and IO thingies works. - -=head2 Tied/Magical Array/Hash Elements Do Not Autovivify - -For normal arrays C<$foo = \$bar[1]> will assign C to -C<$bar[1]> (assuming that it didn't exist before), but for -tied/magical arrays and hashes such autovivification does not happen -because there is currently no way to catch the reference creation. -The same problem affects slicing over non-existent indices/keys of -a tied/magical array/hash. - -=head2 Building Extensions Can Fail Because Of Largefiles - -Some extensions like mod_perl are known to have issues with -`largefiles', a change brought by Perl 5.6.0 in which file offsets -default to 64 bits wide, where supported. Modules may fail to compile -at all, or they may compile and work incorrectly. Currently, there -is no good solution for the problem, but Configure now provides -appropriate non-largefile ccflags, ldflags, libswanted, and libs -in the %Config hash (e.g., $Config{ccflags_nolargefiles}) so the -extensions that are having problems can try configuring themselves -without the largefileness. This is admittedly not a clean solution, -and the solution may not even work at all. One potential failure is -whether one can (or, if one can, whether it's a good idea to) link -together at all binaries with different ideas about file offsets; -all this is platform-dependent. - -=head2 Unicode Support on EBCDIC Still Spotty - -Though mostly working, Unicode support still has problem spots on -EBCDIC platforms. One such known spot are the C<\p{}> and C<\P{}> -regular expression constructs for code points less than 256: the -C are testing for Unicode code points, not knowing about EBCDIC. - -=head2 The Compiler Suite Is Still Very Experimental - -The compiler suite is slowly getting better but it continues to be -highly experimental. Use in production environments is discouraged. - -=head2 The Long Double Support Is Still Experimental - -The ability to configure Perl's numbers to use "long doubles", -floating point numbers of hopefully better accuracy, is still -experimental. The implementations of long doubles are not yet -widespread and the existing implementations are not quite mature -or standardised, therefore trying to support them is a rare -and moving target. The gain of more precision may also be offset -by slowdown in computations (more bits to move around, and the -operations are more likely to be executed by less optimised -libraries). - -=head2 Seen In Perl 5.7 But Gone Now - -C (previously known as C) was removed -because it was felt that it didn't have enough value in it to be a -core module. It is still a useful module, though, and is available -from the CPAN. - -Perl 5.8 unfortunately does not build anymore on AmigaOS; this broke -accidentally at some point. Since there are not that many Amiga -developers available, we could not get this fixed and tested in time -for 5.8.0. Perl 5.6.1 still works for AmigaOS (as does the the 5.7.2 -development release). +XXX The list of people to thank goes here. =head1 Reporting Bugs 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/ , the Perl Home Page. +bug database at http://rt.perl.org/perlbug/ . There may also be +information at http://www.perl.org/ , the Perl Home Page. If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the B program included with your release. Be sure to trim your bug down @@ -3477,9 +430,20 @@ to a tiny but sufficient test case. Your bug report, along with the output of C, will be sent off to perlbug@perl.org to be analysed by the Perl porting team. +If the bug you are reporting has security implications, which make it +inappropriate to send to a publicly archived mailing list, then please send +it to perl5-security-report@perl.org. This points to a closed subscription +unarchived mailing list, which includes all the core committers, who be able +to help assess the impact of issues, figure out a resolution, and help +co-ordinate the release of patches to mitigate or fix the problem across all +platforms on which Perl is supported. Please only use this address for +security issues in the Perl core, not for modules independently +distributed on CPAN. + =head1 SEE ALSO -The F file for exhaustive details on what changed. +The F file for an explanation of how to view exhaustive details +on what changed. The F file for how to build Perl. @@ -3487,8 +451,4 @@ The F file for general stuff. The F and F files for copyright information. -=head1 HISTORY - -Written by Jarkko Hietaniemi >. - =cut