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1 | =head1 NAME |
2 | |
3 | perl5120delta - what is new for perl v5.12.0 |
4 | |
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5 | FIX ME BEFORE RELEASE |
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6 | |
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7 | UPDATED MODULE LIST NEEDS TO BE GENERATED |
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8 | |
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9 | =head1 DESCRIPTION |
10 | |
11 | This document describes differences between the 5.10.0 release and |
12 | the 5.12.0 release. |
13 | |
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14 | Many of the bug fixes in 5.12.0 are already included in the 5.10.1 |
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15 | maintenance release. |
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16 | |
17 | You can see the list of those changes in the 5.10.1 release notes (L<perl5101delta>). |
18 | |
19 | |
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20 | =head1 Core Enhancements |
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21 | |
22 | =head2 New C<package NAME VERSION> syntax |
23 | |
24 | This new syntax allows a module author to set the $VERSION of a namespace |
25 | when the namespace is declared with 'package'. It eliminates the need |
26 | for C<our $VERSION = ...> and similar constructs. E.g. |
27 | |
28 | package Foo::Bar 1.23; |
29 | # $Foo::Bar::VERSION == 1.23 |
30 | |
31 | There are several advantages to this: |
32 | |
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33 | =over |
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34 | |
35 | =item * |
36 | |
37 | C<$VERSION> is parsed in exactly the same way as C<use NAME VERSION> |
38 | |
39 | =item * |
40 | |
41 | C<$VERSION> is set at compile time |
42 | |
43 | =item * |
44 | |
45 | C<$VERSION> is a version object that provides proper overloading of |
46 | comparision operators so comparing C<$VERSION> to decimal (1.23) or |
47 | dotted-decimal (v1.2.3) version numbers works correctly. |
48 | |
49 | =item * |
50 | |
51 | Eliminates C<$VERSION = ...> and C<eval $VERSION> clutter |
52 | |
53 | =item * |
54 | |
55 | As it requires VERSION to be a numeric literal or v-string |
56 | literal, it can be statically parsed by toolchain modules |
57 | without C<eval> the way MM-E<gt>parse_version does for C<$VERSION = ...> |
58 | |
59 | =item * |
60 | |
61 | It does not break old code with only C<package NAME>, but code that uses |
62 | C<package NAME VERSION> will need to be restricted to perl 5.12.0 or newer |
63 | This is analogous to the change to C<open> from two-args to three-args. |
64 | Users requiring the latest Perl will benefit, and perhaps after several |
65 | years, it will become a standard practice. |
66 | |
67 | =back |
68 | |
69 | However, C<package NAME VERSION> requires a new, 'strict' version |
70 | number format. See L<"Version number formats"> for details. |
71 | |
72 | |
73 | =head2 The C<...> operator |
74 | |
75 | A new operator, C<...>, nicknamed the Yada Yada operator, has been added. |
76 | It is intended to mark placeholder code that is not yet implemented. |
77 | See L<perlop/"Yada Yada Operator">. (chromatic) |
78 | |
79 | =head2 Implicit strictures |
80 | |
81 | Using the C<use VERSION> syntax with a version number greater or equal |
82 | to 5.11.0 will lexically enable strictures just like C<use strict> |
83 | would do (in addition to enabling features.) The following: |
84 | |
85 | use 5.12.0; |
86 | |
87 | means: |
88 | |
89 | use strict; |
90 | use feature ':5.12'; |
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91 | |
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92 | =head2 Unicode improvements |
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93 | |
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94 | Perl 5.12 comes with Unicode 5.2, the latest version available to |
95 | us at the time of release. This version of Unicode was released in |
96 | October 2009. See L<http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode5.2.0> for |
97 | further details about what's changed in this version of the standard. |
98 | See L<perlunicode> for instructions on installing and using other versions |
99 | of Unicode. |
100 | |
101 | Additionally, Perl's developers have significantly improved Perl's Unicode |
102 | implementation. For full details, see L</Unicode overhaul> below. |
103 | |
104 | =head2 Y2038 compliance |
105 | |
106 | Perl's core time-related functions are now Y2038 compliant. (It may not mean much to you, but your kids will love it!) |
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107 | |
108 | =head2 qr overloading |
109 | |
110 | It is now possible to overload the C<qr//> operator, that is, |
111 | conversion to regexp, like it was already possible to overload |
112 | conversion to boolean, string or number of objects. It is invoked when |
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113 | an object appears on the right hand side of the C<=~> operator or when |
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114 | it is interpolated into a regexp. See L<overload>. |
115 | |
116 | =head2 Pluggable keywords |
117 | |
118 | Extension modules can now cleanly hook into the Perl parser to define |
119 | new kinds of keyword-headed expression and compound statement. The |
120 | syntax following the keyword is defined entirely by the extension. This |
121 | allow a completely non-Perl sublanguage to be parsed inline, with the |
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122 | correct ops cleanly generated. |
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123 | |
124 | See L<perlapi/PL_keyword_plugin> for the mechanism. The Perl core |
125 | source distribution also includes a new module |
126 | L<XS::APItest::KeywordRPN>, which implements reverse Polish notation |
127 | arithmetic via pluggable keywords. This module is mainly used for test |
128 | purposes, and is not normally installed, but also serves as an example |
129 | of how to use the new mechanism. |
130 | |
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131 | Perl's developers consider this feature to be experimental. We may remove |
132 | it or change it in a backwards-incompatible way in Perl 5.14. |
133 | |
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134 | =head2 APIs for more internals |
135 | |
136 | The lowest layers of the lexer and parts of the pad system now have C |
137 | APIs available to XS extensions. These are necessary to support proper |
138 | use of pluggable keywords, but have other uses too. The new APIs are |
139 | experimental, and only cover a small proportion of what would be |
140 | necessary to take full advantage of the core's facilities in these |
141 | areas. It is intended that the Perl 5.13 development cycle will see the |
142 | addition of a full range of clean, supported interfaces. |
143 | |
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144 | Perl's developers consider this feature to be experimental. We may remove |
145 | it or change it in a backwards-incompatible way in Perl 5.14. |
146 | |
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147 | =head2 Overridable function lookup |
148 | |
149 | Where an extension module hooks the creation of rv2cv ops to modify the |
150 | subroutine lookup process, this now works correctly for bareword |
151 | subroutine calls. This means that prototypes on subroutines referenced |
152 | this way will be processed correctly. (Previously bareword subroutine |
153 | names were initially looked up, for parsing purposes, by an unhookable |
154 | mechanism, so extensions could only properly influence subroutine names |
155 | that appeared with an C<&> sigil.) |
156 | |
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157 | =head2 A proper interface for pluggable Method Resolution Orders |
158 | |
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159 | As of Perl 5.12.0 there is a new interface for plugging and using method |
160 | resolution orders other than the default linear depth first search. |
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161 | The C3 method resolution order added in 5.10.0 has been re-implemented as |
162 | a plugin, without changing its Perl-space interface. See L<perlmroapi> for |
163 | more information. |
164 | |
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165 | |
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166 | |
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167 | =head2 C<\N> experimental regex escape |
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168 | |
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169 | Perl now supports C<\N>, a new regex escape which you can think of as |
170 | the inverse of C<\n>. It will match any character that is not a newline, |
171 | independently from the presence or absence of the single line match |
172 | modifier C</s>. It is not usable within a character class. C<\N{3}> |
173 | means to match 3 non-newlines; C<\N{5,}> means to match at least 5. |
174 | C<\N{NAME}> still means the character or sequence named C<NAME>, but |
175 | C<NAME> no longer can be things like C<3>, or C<5,>. |
176 | |
177 | This will break a L<custom charnames translator|charnames/CUSTOM |
178 | TRANSLATORS> which allows numbers for character names, as C<\N{3}> will |
179 | now mean to match 3 non-newline characters, and not the character whose |
180 | name is C<3>. (No name defined by the Unicode standard is a number, |
181 | so only custom translators might be affected.) |
182 | |
183 | Perl's developers are somewhat concerned about possible user confusion |
184 | with the existing C<\N{...}> construct which matches characters by their |
185 | Unicode name. Consequently, this feature is experimental. We may remove |
186 | it or change it in a backwards-incompatible way in Perl 5.14. |
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187 | |
188 | =head2 DTrace support |
189 | |
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190 | Perl now has some support for DTrace. See "DTrace support" in F<INSTALL>. |
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191 | |
192 | =head2 Support for C<configure_requires> in CPAN module metadata |
193 | |
194 | Both C<CPAN> and C<CPANPLUS> now support the C<configure_requires> keyword |
195 | in the F<META.yml> metadata file included in most recent CPAN distributions. |
196 | This allows distribution authors to specify configuration prerequisites that |
197 | must be installed before running F<Makefile.PL> or F<Build.PL>. |
198 | |
199 | See the documentation for C<ExtUtils::MakeMaker> or C<Module::Build> for more |
200 | on how to specify C<configure_requires> when creating a distribution for CPAN. |
201 | |
202 | =head2 C<each> is now more flexible |
203 | |
204 | The C<each> function can now operate on arrays. |
205 | |
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206 | =head2 C<$,> flexibility |
207 | |
208 | The variable C<$,> may now be tied. |
209 | |
210 | =head2 // in where clauses |
211 | |
212 | // now behaves like || in when clauses |
213 | |
214 | =head2 Enabling warnings from your shell environment |
215 | |
216 | You can now set C<-W> from the C<PERL5OPT> environment variable |
217 | |
218 | =head2 C<delete local> |
219 | |
220 | C<delete local> now allows you to locally delete a hash entry. |
221 | |
222 | =head2 New support for Abstract namespace sockets |
223 | |
224 | Abstract namespace sockets are Linux-specific socket type that live in |
225 | AF_UNIX family, slightly abusing it to be able to use arbitrary |
226 | character arrays as addresses: They start with nul byte and are not |
227 | terminated by nul byte, but with the length passed to the socket() |
228 | system call. |
229 | |
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230 | =head2 32-bit limit on substr arguments removed |
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231 | |
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232 | The 32-bit limit on C<substr> arguments has now been removed. The full range |
233 | of the system's signed and unsigned integers is now available for the C<pos> |
234 | and C<len> arguments. |
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235 | |
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236 | =head1 Potentially Incompatible Changes |
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237 | |
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238 | =head2 Deprecations warn by default |
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239 | |
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240 | Perl now defaults to issuing a warning if a deprecated language feature |
241 | is used. |
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242 | |
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243 | To disable this feature in a given lexical scope, you should use C<no |
244 | warnings 'deprecated';> For information about which language features |
245 | are deprecated and explanations of various deprecation warnings, please |
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246 | see L<perldiag.pod>. See L</Deprecations> below for the list of features |
247 | and modules Perl's developers have deprecated as part of this release. |
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248 | |
249 | =head2 Version number formats |
250 | |
251 | Acceptable version number formats have been formalized into "strict" and |
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252 | "lax" rules. C<package NAME VERSION> takes a strict version number. |
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253 | C<UNIVERSAL::VERSION> and the L<version> object constructors take lax |
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254 | version numbers. Providing an invalid version will result in a fatal |
255 | error. The version argument in C<use NAME VERSION> is first parsed as a |
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256 | numeric literal or v-string and then passed to C<UNIVERSAL::VERSION> |
257 | (and must then pass the "lax" format test). |
258 | |
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259 | These formats are documented fully in the L<version> module. To a first |
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260 | approximation, a "strict" version number is a positive decimal number |
261 | (integer or decimal-fraction) without exponentiation or else a |
262 | dotted-decimal v-string with a leading 'v' character and at least three |
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263 | components. A "lax" version number allows v-strings with fewer than |
264 | three components or without a leading 'v'. Under "lax" rules, both |
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265 | decimal and dotted-decimal versions may have a trailing "alpha" |
266 | component separated by an underscore character after a fractional or |
267 | dotted-decimal component. |
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268 | |
269 | The L<version> module adds C<version::is_strict> and C<version::is_lax> |
270 | functions to check a scalar against these rules. |
271 | |
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272 | =head2 @INC reorganization |
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273 | |
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274 | In C<@INC>, C<ARCHLIB> and C<PRIVLIB> now occur after after the current |
275 | version's C<site_perl> and C<vendor_perl>. Modules installed into |
276 | C<site_perl> and C<vendor_perl> will now be loaded in preference to |
277 | those installed in C<ARCHLIB> and C<PRIVLIB>. |
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278 | |
279 | =head2 Switch statement changes |
280 | |
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281 | The C<given>/C<when> switch statement handles complex statements better |
282 | than Perl 5.10.0 did (These enhancements are also available in |
283 | 5.10.1 and subsequent 5.10 releases.) There are two new cases where |
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284 | C<when> now interprets its argument as a boolean, instead of an |
285 | expression to be used in a smart match: |
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286 | |
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287 | =over |
288 | |
289 | =item flip-flop operators |
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290 | |
291 | The C<..> and C<...> flip-flop operators are now evaluated in boolean |
292 | context, following their usual semantics; see L<perlop/"Range Operators">. |
293 | |
294 | Note that, as in perl 5.10.0, C<when (1..10)> will not work to test |
295 | whether a given value is an integer between 1 and 10; you should use |
296 | C<when ([1..10])> instead (note the array reference). |
297 | |
298 | However, contrary to 5.10.0, evaluating the flip-flop operators in boolean |
299 | context ensures it can now be useful in a C<when()>, notably for |
300 | implementing bistable conditions, like in: |
301 | |
302 | when (/^=begin/ .. /^=end/) { |
303 | # do something |
304 | } |
305 | |
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306 | =item defined-or operator |
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307 | |
308 | A compound expression involving the defined-or operator, as in |
309 | C<when (expr1 // expr2)>, will be treated as boolean if the first |
310 | expression is boolean. (This just extends the existing rule that applies |
311 | to the regular or operator, as in C<when (expr1 || expr2)>.) |
312 | |
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313 | =back |
314 | |
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315 | =head2 Smart match changes |
316 | |
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317 | Since Perl 5.10.0, Perl's developers have made a number of changes to |
318 | the smart match operator. These, of course, also alter the behaviour |
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319 | of the switch statements where smart matching is implicitly used. |
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320 | These changes were also made for the 5.10.1 release, and will remain in |
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321 | subsequent 5.10 releases. |
322 | |
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323 | =head3 Changes to type-based dispatch |
324 | |
325 | The smart match operator C<~~> is no longer commutative. The behaviour of |
326 | a smart match now depends primarily on the type of its right hand |
327 | argument. Moreover, its semantics have been adjusted for greater |
328 | consistency or usefulness in several cases. While the general backwards |
329 | compatibility is maintained, several changes must be noted: |
330 | |
331 | =over 4 |
332 | |
333 | =item * |
334 | |
335 | Code references with an empty prototype are no longer treated specially. |
336 | They are passed an argument like the other code references (even if they |
337 | choose to ignore it). |
338 | |
339 | =item * |
340 | |
341 | C<%hash ~~ sub {}> and C<@array ~~ sub {}> now test that the subroutine |
342 | returns a true value for each key of the hash (or element of the |
343 | array), instead of passing the whole hash or array as a reference to |
344 | the subroutine. |
345 | |
346 | =item * |
347 | |
348 | Due to the commutativity breakage, code references are no longer |
349 | treated specially when appearing on the left of the C<~~> operator, |
350 | but like any vulgar scalar. |
351 | |
352 | =item * |
353 | |
354 | C<undef ~~ %hash> is always false (since C<undef> can't be a key in a |
355 | hash). No implicit conversion to C<""> is done (as was the case in perl |
356 | 5.10.0). |
357 | |
358 | =item * |
359 | |
360 | C<$scalar ~~ @array> now always distributes the smart match across the |
361 | elements of the array. It's true if one element in @array verifies |
362 | C<$scalar ~~ $element>. This is a generalization of the old behaviour |
363 | that tested whether the array contained the scalar. |
364 | |
365 | =back |
366 | |
367 | The full dispatch table for the smart match operator is given in |
368 | L<perlsyn/"Smart matching in detail">. |
369 | |
370 | =head3 Smart match and overloading |
371 | |
372 | According to the rule of dispatch based on the rightmost argument type, |
373 | when an object overloading C<~~> appears on the right side of the |
374 | operator, the overload routine will always be called (with a 3rd argument |
375 | set to a true value, see L<overload>.) However, when the object will |
376 | appear on the left, the overload routine will be called only when the |
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377 | rightmost argument is a simple scalar. This way, distributivity of smart |
378 | match across arrays is not broken, as well as the other behaviours with |
379 | complex types (coderefs, hashes, regexes). Thus, writers of overloading |
380 | routines for smart match mostly need to worry only with comparing |
381 | against a scalar, and possibly with stringification overloading; the |
382 | other common cases will be automatically handled consistently. |
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383 | |
384 | C<~~> will now refuse to work on objects that do not overload it (in order |
385 | to avoid relying on the object's underlying structure). (However, if the |
386 | object overloads the stringification or the numification operators, and |
387 | if overload fallback is active, it will be used instead, as usual.) |
388 | |
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389 | =head2 Other potentially incompatible changes |
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390 | |
391 | =over 4 |
392 | |
393 | =item * |
394 | |
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395 | The definitions of a number of Unicode properties have changed to match |
396 | those of the current Unicode standard. These are listed above under |
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397 | L</Unicode overhaul>. This change may break code that expects the old definitions. |
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398 | |
399 | =item * |
400 | |
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401 | The boolkeys op has moved to the group of hash ops. This breaks binary |
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402 | compatibility. |
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403 | |
404 | =item * |
405 | |
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406 | Filehandles are now always blessed into C<IO::File>. |
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407 | |
408 | The previous behaviour was to bless Filehandles into L<FileHandle> |
409 | (an empty proxy class) if it was loaded into memory and otherwise |
410 | to bless them into C<IO::Handle>. |
411 | |
412 | =item * |
413 | |
414 | The semantics of C<use feature :5.10*> have changed slightly. |
415 | See L<"Modules and Pragmata"> for more information. |
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416 | |
417 | =item * |
418 | |
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419 | Perl's developers now use git, rather than Perforce. This should be |
420 | a purely internal change only relevant to people actively working on |
421 | the core. However, you may see minor difference in perl as a consequence |
422 | of the change. For example in some of details of the output of C<perl |
423 | -V>. See L<perlrepository> for more information. |
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424 | |
425 | =item * |
426 | |
427 | As part of the C<Test::Harness> 2.x to 3.x upgrade, the experimental |
428 | C<Test::Harness::Straps> module has been removed. |
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429 | See L</"Modules and Pragmata"> for more details. |
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430 | |
431 | =item * |
432 | |
433 | As part of the C<ExtUtils::MakeMaker> upgrade, the |
434 | C<ExtUtils::MakeMaker::bytes> and C<ExtUtils::MakeMaker::vmsish> modules |
435 | have been removed from this distribution. |
436 | |
437 | =item * |
438 | |
439 | C<Module::CoreList> no longer contains the C<%:patchlevel> hash. |
440 | |
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441 | |
442 | =item * |
443 | |
444 | C<length undef> now returns undef. |
445 | |
446 | =item * |
447 | |
448 | Unsupported private C API functions are now declared "static" to prevent |
449 | leakage to Perl's public API. |
450 | |
451 | =item * |
452 | |
453 | To support the bootstrapping process, F<miniperl> no longer builds with |
454 | UTF-8 support in the regexp engine. |
455 | |
456 | This allows a build to complete with PERL_UNICODE set and a UTF-8 locale. |
457 | Without this there's a bootstrapping problem, as miniperl can't load the UTF-8 |
458 | components of the regexp engine, because they're not yet built. |
459 | |
460 | =item * |
461 | |
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462 | F<miniperl>'s @INC is now restricted to just C<-I...>, the split of |
463 | C<$ENV{PERL5LIB}>, and "C<.>" |
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464 | |
465 | =item * |
466 | |
467 | A space or a newline is now required after a C<"#line XXX"> directive. |
468 | |
469 | =item * |
470 | |
471 | Tied filehandles now have an additional method EOF which provides the EOF type |
472 | |
473 | =item * |
474 | |
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475 | To better match all other flow control statements, C<foreach> may no |
476 | longer be used as an attribute. |
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477 | |
478 | =back |
479 | |
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480 | |
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481 | =head1 Deprecations |
482 | |
483 | From time to time, Perl's developers find it necessary to deprecate |
484 | features or modules we've previously shipped as part of the core |
485 | distribution. We are well aware of the pain and frustration that a |
486 | backwards-incompatible change to Perl can cause for developers building |
487 | or maintaining software in Perl. You can be sure that when we deprecate |
488 | a functionality or syntax, it isn't a choice we make lightly. Sometimes, |
489 | we choose to deprecate functionality or syntax because it was found to |
490 | be poorly designed or implemented. Sometimes, this is because they're |
491 | holding back other features or causing performance problems. Sometimes, |
492 | the reasons are more complex. Wherever possible, we try to keep deprecated |
493 | functionality available to developers in its previous form for at least |
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494 | one major release. So long as a deprecated feature isn't actively |
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495 | disrupting our ability to maintain and extend Perl, we'll try to leave |
496 | it in place as long as possible. |
497 | |
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498 | The following items are now deprecated: |
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499 | |
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500 | =over |
501 | |
502 | =item suidperl |
503 | |
504 | C<suidperl> is no longer part of Perl. It used to provide a mechanism to |
505 | emulate setuid permission bits on systems that don't support it properly. |
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506 | |
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507 | |
508 | =item Use of C<:=> to mean an empty attribute list |
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509 | |
510 | An accident of Perl's parser meant that these constructions were all |
511 | equivalent: |
512 | |
513 | my $pi := 4; |
514 | my $pi : = 4; |
515 | my $pi : = 4; |
516 | |
517 | with the C<:> being treated as the start of an attribute list, which |
518 | ends before the C<=>. As whitespace is not significant here, all are |
519 | parsed as an empty attribute list, hence all the above are equivalent |
520 | to, and better written as |
521 | |
522 | my $pi = 4; |
523 | |
524 | because no attribute processing is done for an empty list. |
525 | |
526 | As is, this meant that C<:=> cannot be used as a new token, without |
527 | silently changing the meaning of existing code. Hence that particular |
528 | form is now deprecated, and will become a syntax error. If it is |
529 | absolutely necessary to have empty attribute lists (for example, |
530 | because of a code generator) then avoid the warning by adding a space |
531 | before the C<=>. |
532 | |
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533 | =item C<< UNIVERSAL->import() >> |
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534 | |
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535 | The method C<< UNIVERSAL->import() >> is now deprecated. Attempting to |
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536 | pass import arguments to a C<use UNIVERSAL> statement will result in a |
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537 | deprecation warning. |
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538 | |
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539 | |
540 | =item Use of "goto" to jump into a construct |
3ab3a109 |
541 | |
c66407fa |
542 | Using C<goto> to jump from an outer scope into an inner scope is now |
543 | deprecated. This rare use case was causing problems in the |
544 | implementation of scopes. |
3ab3a109 |
545 | |
b6381718 |
546 | =item Custom character names in \N{name} that don't look like names |
8c66a230 |
547 | |
72d4e865 |
548 | In C<\N{I<name>}>, I<name> can be just about anything. The standard Unicode |
8c66a230 |
549 | names have a very limited domain, but a custom name translator could create |
72d4e865 |
550 | names that are, for example, made up entirely of punctuation symbols. It is |
8c66a230 |
551 | now deprecated to make names that don't begin with an alphabetic character, and |
552 | aren't alphanumeric or contain other than a very few other characters, |
72d4e865 |
553 | namely spaces, dashes, parentheses and colons. Because of the added meaning of |
8c66a230 |
554 | C<\N> (See L</C<\N> experimental regex escape>), names that look like curly |
72d4e865 |
555 | brace -enclosed quantifiers won't work. For example, C<\N{3,4}> now means to |
8c66a230 |
556 | match 3 to 4 non-newlines; before a custom name C<3,4> could have been created. |
557 | |
3ab3a109 |
558 | =item Deprecated Modules |
559 | |
560 | The following modules will be removed from the core distribution in a future |
561 | release, and should be installed from CPAN instead. Distributions on CPAN |
562 | which require these should add them to their prerequisites. The core versions |
563 | of these modules warnings will issue a deprecation warning. |
564 | |
8df7d2a3 |
565 | If you ship a packaged version of Perl, either alone or as part of a larger |
566 | system, then you should carefully consider the reprecussions of core module |
72d4e865 |
567 | deprecations. You may want to consider shipping your default build of |
8df7d2a3 |
568 | Perl with packages for some or all deprecated modules which install into |
569 | C<vendor> or C<site> perl library directories. This will inhibit the |
570 | deprecation warnings. |
571 | |
572 | Alternatively, you may want to consider patching F<lib/deprecate.pm> |
573 | to provide deprecation warnings specific to your packaging system or |
b951c6bd |
574 | distribution of Perl, consistent with how your packaging system or |
575 | distribution manages a staged transition from a release where the |
576 | installation of a single package provides the given functionality, to a later |
577 | release where the system administrator needs to know to install multiple |
578 | packages to get that same functionality. |
8df7d2a3 |
579 | |
3ab3a109 |
580 | =over |
581 | |
c66407fa |
582 | =item L<Class::ISA> |
583 | |
584 | =item L<Pod::Plainer> |
585 | |
586 | =item L<Shell> |
3ab3a109 |
587 | |
c66407fa |
588 | =item L<Switch> |
3ab3a109 |
589 | |
b6381718 |
590 | Switch is buggy and should be avoided. You may find Perl's new |
591 | C<given>/C<when> feature a suitable replacement. See L<perlsyn/"Switch |
592 | statements"> for more information. |
3ab3a109 |
593 | |
594 | =back |
595 | |
3ab3a109 |
596 | =item Assignment to $[ |
597 | |
b6381718 |
598 | =item Use of the attribute :locked on subroutines |
3ab3a109 |
599 | |
b6381718 |
600 | =item Use of "locked" with the attributes pragma |
3ab3a109 |
601 | |
b6381718 |
602 | =item Use of "unique" with the attributes pragma |
3ab3a109 |
603 | |
b6381718 |
604 | =item Perl_pmflag |
3ab3a109 |
605 | |
b6381718 |
606 | C<Perl_pmflag> is no longer part of Perl's public API. Calling it now |
607 | generates a deprecation warning, and it will be removed in a future |
608 | release. Although listed as part of the API, it was never documented, |
609 | and only ever used in F<toke.c>, and prior to 5.10, F<regcomp.c>. In |
610 | core, it has been replaced by a static function. |
3ab3a109 |
611 | |
b6381718 |
612 | =item Numerous Perl 4-era libraries |
3ab3a109 |
613 | |
614 | F<termcap.pl>, F<tainted.pl>, F<stat.pl>, F<shellwords.pl>, F<pwd.pl>, |
615 | F<open3.pl>, F<open2.pl>, F<newgetopt.pl>, F<look.pl>, F<find.pl>, |
616 | F<finddepth.pl>, F<importenv.pl>, F<hostname.pl>, F<getopts.pl>, |
617 | F<getopt.pl>, F<getcwd.pl>, F<flush.pl>, F<fastcwd.pl>, F<exceptions.pl>, |
618 | F<ctime.pl>, F<complete.pl>, F<cacheout.pl>, F<bigrat.pl>, F<bigint.pl>, |
619 | F<bigfloat.pl>, F<assert.pl>, F<abbrev.pl>, F<dotsh.pl>, and |
620 | F<timelocal.pl> are all now deprecated. Using them will incur a warning. |
621 | |
b6381718 |
622 | |
3ab3a109 |
623 | =back |
624 | |
b6381718 |
625 | =head1 Unicode overhaul |
3ab3a109 |
626 | |
b6381718 |
627 | Perl's developers have made a concerted effort to update Perl to be in |
628 | sync with the latest Unicode standard. Changes for this include: |
3ab3a109 |
629 | |
b6381718 |
630 | Perl can now handle every Unicode character property. New documentation, |
631 | L<perluniprops>, lists all available non-Unihan character properties. By |
632 | default, perl does not expose Unihan, deprecated or Unicode-internal |
633 | properties. See below for more details on these; there is also a section |
634 | in the pod listing them, and explaining why they are not exposed. |
3ab3a109 |
635 | |
b6381718 |
636 | Perl now fully supports the Unicode compound-style of using C<=> and C<:> |
637 | in writing regular expressions: C<\p{property=value}> and |
638 | C<\p{property:value}> (both of which mean the same thing). |
3ab3a109 |
639 | |
b6381718 |
640 | Perl now fully supports the Unicode loose matching rules for text |
641 | between the braces in C<\p{...}> constructs. In addition, Perl allows |
642 | underscores between digits of numbers. |
3ab3a109 |
643 | |
b6381718 |
644 | Perl now accepts all the Unicode-defined synonyms for properties and property values. |
3ab3a109 |
645 | |
b6381718 |
646 | C<qr/\X/>, which matches a Unicode logical character, has been expanded to work |
647 | better with various Asian languages. It now is defined as an I<extended |
648 | grapheme cluster>. (See L<http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr29/>). |
649 | Anything matched previously and that made sense will continue to be |
650 | accepted. Additionally: |
3ab3a109 |
651 | |
b6381718 |
652 | =over |
3ab3a109 |
653 | |
b6381718 |
654 | =item * |
655 | |
656 | C<\X> will not break apart a C<S<CR LF>> sequence. |
3ab3a109 |
657 | |
658 | =item * |
659 | |
b6381718 |
660 | C<\X> will now match a sequence which includes the C<ZWJ> and C<ZWNJ> characters. |
661 | |
662 | =item * |
3ab3a109 |
663 | |
b6381718 |
664 | C<\X> will now always match at least one character, including an initial mark. |
665 | Marks generally come after a base character, but it is possible in Unicode to |
666 | have them in isolation, and C<\X> will now handle that case, for example at the |
667 | beginning of a line, or after a C<ZWSP>. And this is the part where C<\X> |
668 | doesn't match the things that it used to that don't make sense. Formerly, for |
669 | example, you could have the nonsensical case of an accented LF. |
3ab3a109 |
670 | |
671 | =item * |
672 | |
b6381718 |
673 | C<\X> will now match a (Korean) Hangul syllable sequence, and the Thai and Lao |
674 | exception cases. |
3ab3a109 |
675 | |
b6381718 |
676 | =back |
3ab3a109 |
677 | |
b6381718 |
678 | Otherwise, this change should be transparent for the non-affected languages. |
3ab3a109 |
679 | |
b6381718 |
680 | C<\p{...}> matches using the Canonical_Combining_Class property were |
681 | completely broken in previous releases of Perl. They should now work correctly. |
3ab3a109 |
682 | |
b6381718 |
683 | Before Perl 5.12, the Unicode C<Decomposition_Type=Compat> property and a |
684 | Perl extension had the same name, which led to neither matching all the |
685 | correct values (with more than 100 mistakes in one, and several thousand |
686 | in the other). The Perl extension has now been renamed to be |
687 | C<Decomposition_Type=Noncanonical> (short: C<dt=noncanon>). It has the same |
688 | meaning as was previously intended, namely the union of all the |
689 | non-canonical Decomposition types, with Unicode C<Compat> being just one of |
690 | those. |
3ab3a109 |
691 | |
b6381718 |
692 | C<\p{Decomposition_Type=Canonical}> now includes the Hangul syllables. |
3ab3a109 |
693 | |
b6381718 |
694 | C<\p{Uppercase}> and C<\p{Lowercase}> now work as the Unicode standard says they should. |
695 | This means they each match a few more characters than they used to. |
3ab3a109 |
696 | |
b6381718 |
697 | C<\p{Cntrl}> now matches the same characters as C<\p{Control}>. This means it |
698 | no longer will match Private Use (gc=co), Surrogates (gc=cs), nor Format |
699 | (gc=cf) code points. The Format code points represent the biggest |
700 | possible problem. All but 36 of them are either officially deprecated |
701 | or strongly discouraged from being used. Of those 36, likely the most |
702 | widely used are the soft hyphen (U+00AD), and BOM, ZWSP, ZWNJ, WJ, and |
703 | similar characters, plus bidirectional controls. |
3ab3a109 |
704 | |
b6381718 |
705 | C<\p{Alpha}> now matches the same characters as C<\p{Alphabetic}>. Before 5.12, Perl's definition |
706 | definition included a number of things that aren't really alpha (all |
707 | marks) while omitting many that were. The |
708 | definitions of C<\p{Alnum}> and C<\p{Word}> depend on Alpha's definition and have changed accordingly. |
3ab3a109 |
709 | |
b6381718 |
710 | C<\p{Word}> no longer incorrectly matches non-word characters such as fractions. |
3ab3a109 |
711 | |
b6381718 |
712 | C<\p{Print}> no longer matches the line control characters: Tab, LF, CR, |
713 | FF, VT, and NEL. This brings it in line with standards and the documentation. |
3ab3a109 |
714 | |
b6381718 |
715 | C<\p{XDigit}> now matches the same characters as C<\p{Hex_Digit}>. This |
716 | means that in addition to the characters it currently matches, |
717 | C<[A-Fa-f0-9]>, it will also match the 22 fullwidth equivalents, for |
718 | example U+FF10: FULLWIDTH DIGIT ZERO. |
3ab3a109 |
719 | |
b6381718 |
720 | The Numeric type property has been extended to include the Unihan |
721 | characters. |
3ab3a109 |
722 | |
b6381718 |
723 | There is a new Perl extension, the 'Present_In', or simply 'In', |
724 | property. This is an extension of the Unicode Age property, but |
725 | C<\p{In=5.0}> matches any code point whose usage has been determined |
726 | I<as of> Unicode version 5.0. The C<\p{Age=5.0}> only matches code points |
727 | added in I<precisely> version 5.0. |
3ab3a109 |
728 | |
b6381718 |
729 | A number of properties now have the correct values for unassigned |
730 | code points. The affected properties are |
731 | Bidi_Class, East_Asian_Width, Joining_Type, Decomposition_Type, |
732 | Hangul_Syllable_Type, Numeric_Type, and Line_Break. |
3ab3a109 |
733 | |
b6381718 |
734 | The Default_Ignorable_Code_Point, ID_Continue, and ID_Start properties |
735 | are now up to date with current Unicode definitions. |
3ab3a109 |
736 | |
b6381718 |
737 | Earlier versions of Perl erroneously exposed certain properties that are supposed to be Unicode internal-only. |
738 | Use of these in regular expressions will now generate, if enabled, a deprecation warning message. |
739 | The properties are: Other_Alphabetic, Other_Default_Ignorable_Code_Point, |
740 | Other_Grapheme_Extend, Other_ID_Continue, Other_ID_Start, Other_Lowercase, |
741 | Other_Math, and Other_Uppercase. |
3ab3a109 |
742 | |
b6381718 |
743 | It is now possible to change which Unicode properties Perl understands |
744 | on a per-installation basis. As mentioned above, certain properties |
745 | are turned off by default. These include all the Unihan properties |
746 | (which should be accessible via the CPAN module Unicode::Unihan) and any |
747 | deprecated or Unicode internal-only property that Perl has never exposed. |
3ab3a109 |
748 | |
b6381718 |
749 | The generated files in the C<lib/unicore/To> directory are now more |
750 | clearly marked as being stable, directly usable by applications. |
751 | New hash entries in them give the format of the normal entries, |
752 | which allows for easier machine parsing. Perl can generate files |
753 | in this directory for any property, though most are suppressed. |
754 | You can find instructions for changing which are written in L<perluniprops>. |
3ab3a109 |
755 | |
3ab3a109 |
756 | |
3ab3a109 |
757 | |
b6381718 |
758 | =head1 Modules and Pragmata |
3ab3a109 |
759 | |
b6381718 |
760 | =head2 Notable new Modules and Pragmata |
3ab3a109 |
761 | |
b6381718 |
762 | =over 4 |
3ab3a109 |
763 | |
764 | =item * |
765 | |
b6381718 |
766 | C<autodie> is a new lexically-scoped alternative for the C<Fatal> module. |
767 | The bundled version is 2.06_01. Note that in this release, using a string |
768 | eval when C<autodie> is in effect can cause the autodie behaviour to leak |
769 | into the surrounding scope. See L<autodie/"BUGS"> for more details. |
770 | |
771 | =item * |
3ab3a109 |
772 | |
b6381718 |
773 | C<Compress::Raw::Bzip2> |
3ab3a109 |
774 | |
775 | =item * |
776 | |
b6381718 |
777 | C<overloading> allows you to lexically disable or enable overloading |
778 | for some or all operations. (Yuval Kogman) |
3ab3a109 |
779 | |
b6381718 |
780 | =item * |
781 | |
782 | C<parent> establishes an ISA relationship with base classes at compile |
783 | time. It provides the key feature of C<base> without further unwanted |
784 | behaviors. |
3ab3a109 |
785 | |
786 | =item * |
787 | |
b6381718 |
788 | C<Parse::CPAN::Meta> |
3ab3a109 |
789 | |
b6381718 |
790 | =back |
3ab3a109 |
791 | |
b6381718 |
792 | =head2 Notable changes to Modules and Pragmata |
3ab3a109 |
793 | |
b6381718 |
794 | =over 4 |
3ab3a109 |
795 | |
b6381718 |
796 | =item * |
797 | |
798 | C<charnames> now contains the Unicode F<NameAliases.txt> database file. |
799 | This has the effect of adding some extra C<\N> character names that |
800 | formerly wouldn't have been recognised; for example, C<"\N{LATIN CAPITAL |
801 | LETTER GHA}">. |
3ab3a109 |
802 | |
803 | =item * |
804 | |
b6381718 |
805 | In C<feature>, the meaning of the C<:5.10> and C<:5.10.X> feature bundles has |
806 | changed slightly. The last component, if any (i.e. C<X>) is simply ignored. |
807 | This is predicated on the assumption that new features will not, in |
808 | general, be added to maintenance releases. So C<:5.10> and C<:5.10.X> |
809 | have identical effect. This is a change to the behaviour documented for |
810 | 5.10.0. |
3ab3a109 |
811 | |
b6381718 |
812 | C<feature> now includes the C<unicode_strings> feature: |
3ab3a109 |
813 | |
814 | use feature "unicode_strings"; |
815 | |
816 | This pragma turns on Unicode semantics for the case-changing operations |
c66407fa |
817 | (C<uc>, C<lc>, C<ucfirst>, C<lcfirst>) on strings that don't have the |
818 | internal UTF-8 flag set, but that contain single-byte characters between |
819 | 128 and 255. |
3ab3a109 |
820 | |
821 | =item * |
822 | |
b6381718 |
823 | C<mro> is now implemented as an XS extension. The documented interface has not |
824 | changed. Code relying on the implementation detail that some C<mro::> |
825 | methods happened to be available at all times gets to "keep both pieces". |
3ab3a109 |
826 | |
827 | =item * |
828 | |
b6381718 |
829 | C<diagnostics> now supports %.0f formatting internally. |
3ab3a109 |
830 | |
b6381718 |
831 | =item * |
3ab3a109 |
832 | |
b6381718 |
833 | C<overload> now allow overloading of 'qr'. |
3ab3a109 |
834 | |
835 | =item * |
836 | |
b6381718 |
837 | C<diagnostics> no longer suppresses C<Use of uninitialized value in range |
838 | (or flip)> warnings. [perl #71204] |
3ab3a109 |
839 | |
b6381718 |
840 | C<less> now includes the C<stash_name> method to allow subclasses of |
841 | C<less> to pick where in %^H to store their stash. |
3ab3a109 |
842 | |
843 | =item * |
844 | |
b6381718 |
845 | C<version> now has support for L</Version number formats> as described earlier |
846 | in this document and in its own documentation. |
3ab3a109 |
847 | |
b6381718 |
848 | =item * |
3ab3a109 |
849 | |
b6381718 |
850 | C<warnings> has a new C<warnings::fatal_enabled()> function. It also includes a new C<illegalproto> warning category. See also L</New or Changed Diagnostics> for this change. |
3ab3a109 |
851 | |
852 | =back |
853 | |
854 | |
b6381718 |
855 | =head2 Removed Modules and Pragmata |
3ab3a109 |
856 | |
857 | =over 4 |
858 | |
b6381718 |
859 | =item * |
3ab3a109 |
860 | |
b6381718 |
861 | C<attrs> |
3ab3a109 |
862 | |
b6381718 |
863 | The C<attrs> pragma has been removed. It had been marked as deprecated |
864 | since 5.6.0. |
3ab3a109 |
865 | |
866 | =item * |
867 | |
b6381718 |
868 | C<Devel::DProf::V> is no longer part of the Perl core. |
3ab3a109 |
869 | |
870 | =back |
871 | |
b6381718 |
872 | =head2 Deprecated Modules and Pragmata |
873 | |
874 | See L</Deprecated Modules> above. |
875 | |
3ab3a109 |
876 | =head1 Documentation |
877 | |
878 | =head2 New Documentation |
879 | |
880 | =over 4 |
881 | |
882 | =item * |
883 | |
b6381718 |
884 | L<perlhaiku> contains instructions on how to build perl for the Haiku platform. |
3ab3a109 |
885 | |
886 | =item * |
887 | |
b6381718 |
888 | L<perlmroapi> describes the new interface for pluggable Method Resolution Orders. |
3ab3a109 |
889 | |
890 | =item * |
891 | |
b6381718 |
892 | L<perlperf>, by Richard Foley, provides an introduction to the use of |
3ab3a109 |
893 | performance and optimization techniques which can be used with particular |
894 | reference to perl programs. |
895 | |
896 | =item * |
897 | |
b6381718 |
898 | L<perlrepository> describes how to access the perl source using the I<git> version |
3ab3a109 |
899 | control system. |
900 | |
901 | =item * |
902 | |
903 | L<perlpolicy> extends the "Social contract about contributed modules" into |
904 | the beginnings of a document on Perl porting policies. |
905 | |
906 | =back |
907 | |
908 | =head2 Changes to Existing Documentation |
909 | |
b6381718 |
910 | |
72d4e865 |
911 | =over |
912 | |
913 | |
914 | =item * |
915 | |
3ab3a109 |
916 | The various large F<Changes*> files (which listed every change made to perl |
917 | over the last 18 years) have been removed, and replaced by a small file, |
918 | also called F<Changes>, which just explains how that same information may |
919 | be extracted from the git version control system. |
920 | |
72d4e865 |
921 | =item * |
922 | |
b6381718 |
923 | F<Porting/patching.pod> has been deleted, as it mainly described |
3ab3a109 |
924 | interacting with the old Perforce-based repository, which is now obsolete. |
925 | Information still relevant has been moved to L<perlrepository>. |
926 | |
3ab3a109 |
927 | |
72d4e865 |
928 | =item * |
929 | |
930 | The syntax C<unless (EXPR) BLOCK else BLOCK> is now documented as valid, as |
931 | is the syntax C<unless (EXPR) BLOCK elsif (EXPR) BLOCK ... else BLOCK>, |
932 | although actually using the latter may not be the best idea for the |
933 | readability of your source code. |
934 | |
3ab3a109 |
935 | |
936 | =item * |
937 | |
938 | Documented -X overloading. |
939 | |
940 | =item * |
941 | |
942 | Documented that C<when()> treats specially most of the filetest operators |
943 | |
944 | =item * |
945 | |
b6381718 |
946 | Documented C<when> as a syntax modifier. |
3ab3a109 |
947 | |
948 | =item * |
949 | |
c66407fa |
950 | Eliminated "Old Perl threads tutorial", which described 5005 threads. |
3ab3a109 |
951 | |
952 | F<pod/perlthrtut.pod> is the same material reworked for ithreads. |
953 | |
954 | =item * |
955 | |
956 | Correct previous documentation: v-strings are not deprecated |
957 | |
72d4e865 |
958 | With version objects, we need them to use MODULE VERSION syntax. This |
c66407fa |
959 | patch removes the deprecation notice. |
3ab3a109 |
960 | |
961 | =item * |
962 | |
b6381718 |
963 | Security contact information is now part of L<perlsec>. |
964 | |
965 | =item * |
3ab3a109 |
966 | |
967 | A significant fraction of the core documentation has been updated to clarify |
968 | the behavior of Perl's Unicode handling. |
969 | |
970 | Much of the remaining core documentation has been reviewed and edited |
971 | for clarity, consistent use of language, and to fix the spelling of Tom |
972 | Christiansen's name. |
973 | |
b6381718 |
974 | =item * |
975 | |
3ab3a109 |
976 | The Pod specification (L<perlpodspec>) has been updated to bring the |
c66407fa |
977 | specification in line with modern usage already supported by most Pod |
72d4e865 |
978 | systems. A parameter string may now follow the format name in a |
979 | "begin/end" region. Links to URIs with a text description are now |
980 | allowed. The usage of C<LE<lt>"section"E<gt>> has been marked as |
c66407fa |
981 | deprecated. |
3ab3a109 |
982 | |
b6381718 |
983 | =item * |
984 | |
3ab3a109 |
985 | L<if.pm|if> has been documented in L<perlfunc/use> as a means to get |
c66407fa |
986 | conditional loading of modules despite the implicit BEGIN block around |
987 | C<use>. |
3ab3a109 |
988 | |
989 | =item * |
990 | |
c66407fa |
991 | The documentation for C<$1> in perlvar.pod has been clarified. |
3ab3a109 |
992 | |
a620a577 |
993 | =item * |
994 | |
995 | C<\N{U+I<wide hex char>}> is now documented. |
996 | |
3ab3a109 |
997 | =back |
998 | |
b6381718 |
999 | =head1 Selected Performance Enhancements |
3ab3a109 |
1000 | |
1001 | =over 4 |
1002 | |
1003 | =item * |
1004 | |
1005 | A new internal cache means that C<isa()> will often be faster. |
1006 | |
1007 | =item * |
1008 | |
1009 | The implementation of C<C3> Method Resolution Order has been optimised - |
1010 | linearisation for classes with single inheritance is 40% faster. Performance |
1011 | for multiple inheritance is unchanged. |
1012 | |
1013 | =item * |
1014 | |
1015 | Under C<use locale>, the locale-relevant information is now cached on |
1016 | read-only values, such as the list returned by C<keys %hash>. This makes |
1017 | operations such as C<sort keys %hash> in the scope of C<use locale> much |
1018 | faster. |
1019 | |
1020 | =item * |
1021 | |
1022 | Empty C<DESTROY> methods are no longer called. |
1023 | |
1024 | =item * |
1025 | |
b6381718 |
1026 | C<Perl_sv_utf8_upgrade()> is now faster. |
3ab3a109 |
1027 | |
1028 | =item * |
1029 | |
b6381718 |
1030 | C<keys> on empty hash is now faster. |
3ab3a109 |
1031 | |
1032 | =item * |
1033 | |
b6381718 |
1034 | C<if (%foo)> has been optimized to be faster than C<if (keys %foo)>. |
3ab3a109 |
1035 | |
1036 | =item * |
1037 | |
1038 | Reversing an array to itself (as in C<@a = reverse @a>) in void context |
1039 | now happens in-place and is several orders of magnitude faster than it |
1040 | used to be. It will also preserve non-existent elements whenever |
1041 | possible, i.e. for non magical arrays or tied arrays with C<EXISTS> and |
1042 | C<DELETE> methods. |
1043 | |
1044 | =back |
1045 | |
1046 | =head1 Installation and Configuration Improvements |
1047 | |
72d4e865 |
1048 | =over 4 |
1049 | |
1050 | =item * |
1051 | |
1052 | L<perlapi>, L<perlintern>, L<perlmodlib> and L<perltoc> are now all |
1053 | generated at build time, rather than being shipped as part of the release. |
1054 | |
1055 | =item * |
3ab3a109 |
1056 | |
1057 | If C<vendorlib> and C<vendorarch> are the same, then they are only added to |
1058 | C<@INC> once. |
1059 | |
72d4e865 |
1060 | =item * |
1061 | |
3ab3a109 |
1062 | C<$Config{usedevel}> and the C-level C<PERL_USE_DEVEL> are now defined if |
1063 | perl is built with C<-Dusedevel>. |
1064 | |
72d4e865 |
1065 | =item * |
1066 | |
3ab3a109 |
1067 | F<Configure> will enable use of C<-fstack-protector>, to provide protection |
1068 | against stack-smashing attacks, if the compiler supports it. |
1069 | |
72d4e865 |
1070 | =item * |
1071 | |
3ab3a109 |
1072 | F<Configure> will now determine the correct prototypes for re-entrant |
c66407fa |
1073 | functions and for C<gconvert> if you are using a C++ compiler rather |
3ab3a109 |
1074 | than a C compiler. |
1075 | |
72d4e865 |
1076 | =item * |
1077 | |
3ab3a109 |
1078 | On Unix, if you build from a tree containing a git repository, the |
1079 | configuration process will note the commit hash you have checked out, for |
1080 | display in the output of C<perl -v> and C<perl -V>. Unpushed local commits |
1081 | are automatically added to the list of local patches displayed by |
1082 | C<perl -V>. |
1083 | |
72d4e865 |
1084 | =item * |
1085 | |
b6381718 |
1086 | Perl now supports SystemTap's C<dtrace> compatibility layer and an |
72d4e865 |
1087 | issue with linking C<miniperl> has been fixed in the process. |
1088 | |
1089 | =item * |
1090 | |
b6381718 |
1091 | perldoc now uses C<less -R> instead of C<less> for improved behaviour |
1092 | in the face of C<groff>'s new usage of ANSI escape codes. |
72d4e865 |
1093 | |
1094 | =item * |
1095 | |
72d4e865 |
1096 | |
b6381718 |
1097 | C<perl -V> now reports use of the compile-time options C<USE_PERL_ATOF> and |
1098 | C<USE_ATTRIBUTES_FOR_PERLIO>. |
72d4e865 |
1099 | |
b6381718 |
1100 | =item * |
3ab3a109 |
1101 | |
1102 | As part of the flattening of F<ext>, all extensions on all platforms are |
1103 | built by F<make_ext.pl>. This replaces the Unix-specific |
1104 | F<ext/util/make_ext>, VMS-specific F<make_ext.com> and Win32-specific |
1105 | F<win32/buildext.pl>. |
1106 | |
b6381718 |
1107 | =back |
3ab3a109 |
1108 | |
b6381718 |
1109 | =head1 Internal Changes |
1110 | |
1111 | Each release of Perl sees numerous internal changes which shouldn't |
1112 | affect day to day usage but may still be notable for developers working |
1113 | with Perl's source code. |
1114 | |
1115 | =over |
3ab3a109 |
1116 | |
1117 | =item * |
1118 | |
b6381718 |
1119 | The J.R.R. Tolkien quotes at the head of C source file have been checked and |
1120 | proper citations added, thanks to a patch from Tom Christiansen. |
3ab3a109 |
1121 | |
1122 | =item * |
1123 | |
b6381718 |
1124 | The internal structure of the dual-life modules traditionally found in |
1125 | the F<lib/> and F<ext/> directories y in the perl source has changed |
1126 | significantly. Where possible, dual-lifed modules have been extracted |
1127 | from F<lib/> and F<ext/>. |
1128 | |
1129 | Dual-lifed modules maintained by Perl's developers as part of the Perl |
1130 | core now live in F<dist/>. Dual-lifed modules maintained primarily on |
1131 | CPAN now live in F<cpan/>. When reporting a bug in a module located |
1132 | under F<cpan/>, please send your bug report directly to the module's |
1133 | bug tracker or author, rather than Perl's bug tracker. |
3ab3a109 |
1134 | |
1135 | =item * |
1136 | |
b6381718 |
1137 | C<\N{...}> now compiles better, always forces UTF-8 internal representation |
1138 | |
1139 | Perl's developers have fixed several problems with the recognition of C<\N{...}> |
1140 | constructs. As part of this, perl will store any scalar or regex containing |
1141 | C<\N{I<name>}> or C<\N{U+I<wide hex char>}> in its definition in |
1142 | UTF-8 format. (This was true previously for all occurences of C<\N{I<name>}> |
1143 | that did not use a custom translator, but now it's always true.) |
3ab3a109 |
1144 | |
1145 | =item * |
1146 | |
b6381718 |
1147 | Perl_magic_setmglob now knows about globs, fixing RT #71254. |
3ab3a109 |
1148 | |
1149 | =item * |
1150 | |
b6381718 |
1151 | C<SVt_RV> no longer exists. RVs are now stored in IVs. |
3ab3a109 |
1152 | |
1153 | =item * |
1154 | |
b6381718 |
1155 | REGEXPs are now first class. |
3ab3a109 |
1156 | |
1157 | =item * |
1158 | |
1159 | C<Perl_vcroak()> now accepts a null first argument. In addition, a full audit |
1160 | was made of the "not NULL" compiler annotations, and those for several |
1161 | other internal functions were corrected. |
1162 | |
1163 | =item * |
1164 | |
1165 | New macros C<dSAVEDERRNO>, C<dSAVE_ERRNO>, C<SAVE_ERRNO>, C<RESTORE_ERRNO> |
1166 | have been added to formalise the temporary saving of the C<errno> |
1167 | variable. |
1168 | |
1169 | =item * |
1170 | |
1171 | The function C<Perl_sv_insert_flags> has been added to augment |
1172 | C<Perl_sv_insert>. |
1173 | |
1174 | =item * |
1175 | |
1176 | The function C<Perl_newSV_type(type)> has been added, equivalent to |
1177 | C<Perl_newSV()> followed by C<Perl_sv_upgrade(type)>. |
1178 | |
1179 | =item * |
1180 | |
1181 | The function C<Perl_newSVpvn_flags()> has been added, equivalent to |
1182 | C<Perl_newSVpvn()> and then performing the action relevant to the flag. |
1183 | |
1184 | Two flag bits are currently supported. |
1185 | |
1186 | =over 4 |
1187 | |
1188 | =item * |
1189 | |
b6381718 |
1190 | C<SVf_UTF8> will call C<SvUTF8_on()> for you. (Note that this does not convert an |
3ab3a109 |
1191 | sequence of ISO 8859-1 characters to UTF-8). A wrapper, C<newSVpvn_utf8()> |
1192 | is available for this. |
1193 | |
1194 | =item * |
1195 | |
b6381718 |
1196 | C<SVs_TEMP> now calls C<Perl_sv_2mortal()> on the new SV. |
3ab3a109 |
1197 | |
1198 | =back |
1199 | |
1200 | There is also a wrapper that takes constant strings, C<newSVpvs_flags()>. |
1201 | |
1202 | =item * |
1203 | |
1204 | The function C<Perl_croak_xs_usage> has been added as a wrapper to |
1205 | C<Perl_croak>. |
1206 | |
1207 | =item * |
1208 | |
b6381718 |
1209 | Perl now exports the functions C<PerlIO_find_layer> and C<PerlIO_list_alloc>. |
3ab3a109 |
1210 | |
1211 | =item * |
1212 | |
1213 | C<PL_na> has been exterminated from the core code, replaced by local STRLEN |
1214 | temporaries, or C<*_nolen()> calls. Either approach is faster than C<PL_na>, |
17270880 |
1215 | which is a pointer dereference into the interpreter structure under ithreads, |
3ab3a109 |
1216 | and a global variable otherwise. |
1217 | |
1218 | =item * |
1219 | |
1220 | C<Perl_mg_free()> used to leave freed memory accessible via C<SvMAGIC()> on |
1221 | the scalar. It now updates the linked list to remove each piece of magic |
1222 | as it is freed. |
1223 | |
1224 | =item * |
1225 | |
1226 | Under ithreads, the regex in C<PL_reg_curpm> is now reference counted. This |
1227 | eliminates a lot of hackish workarounds to cope with it not being reference |
1228 | counted. |
1229 | |
1230 | =item * |
1231 | |
1232 | C<Perl_mg_magical()> would sometimes incorrectly turn on C<SvRMAGICAL()>. |
1233 | This has been fixed. |
1234 | |
1235 | =item * |
1236 | |
1237 | The I<public> IV and NV flags are now not set if the string value has |
1238 | trailing "garbage". This behaviour is consistent with not setting the |
1239 | public IV or NV flags if the value is out of range for the type. |
1240 | |
1241 | =item * |
1242 | |
3ab3a109 |
1243 | Uses of C<Nullav>, C<Nullcv>, C<Nullhv>, C<Nullop>, C<Nullsv> etc have been |
1244 | replaced by C<NULL> in the core code, and non-dual-life modules, as C<NULL> |
1245 | is clearer to those unfamiliar with the core code. |
1246 | |
1247 | =item * |
1248 | |
1249 | A macro C<MUTABLE_PTR(p)> has been added, which on (non-pedantic) gcc will |
1250 | not cast away C<const>, returning a C<void *>. Macros C<MUTABLE_SV(av)>, |
1251 | C<MUTABLE_SV(cv)> etc build on this, casting to C<AV *> etc without |
1252 | casting away C<const>. This allows proper compile-time auditing of |
1253 | C<const> correctness in the core, and helped picked up some errors (now |
1254 | fixed). |
1255 | |
1256 | =item * |
1257 | |
1258 | Macros C<mPUSHs()> and C<mXPUSHs()> have been added, for pushing SVs on the |
1259 | stack and mortalizing them. |
1260 | |
1261 | =item * |
1262 | |
1263 | Use of the private structure C<mro_meta> has changed slightly. Nothing |
1264 | outside the core should be accessing this directly anyway. |
1265 | |
b6381718 |
1266 | =item * |
1267 | |
1268 | A new tool, F<Porting/expand-macro.pl> has been added, that allows you |
1269 | to view how a C preprocessor macro would be expanded when compiled. |
1270 | This is handy when trying to decode the macro hell that is the perl |
1271 | guts. |
1272 | |
1273 | =back |
1274 | |
1275 | =head1 Testing |
1276 | |
1277 | =head2 Testing improvements |
1278 | |
1279 | =over 4 |
1280 | |
1281 | =item Parallel tests |
1282 | |
1283 | The core distribution can now run its regression tests in parallel on |
1284 | Unix-like platforms. Instead of running C<make test>, set C<TEST_JOBS> in |
1285 | your environment to the number of tests to run in parallel, and run |
1286 | C<make test_harness>. On a Bourne-like shell, this can be done as |
1287 | |
1288 | TEST_JOBS=3 make test_harness # Run 3 tests in parallel |
3ab3a109 |
1289 | |
b6381718 |
1290 | An environment variable is used, rather than parallel make itself, because |
1291 | L<TAP::Harness> needs to be able to schedule individual non-conflicting test |
1292 | scripts itself, and there is no standard interface to C<make> utilities to |
1293 | interact with their job schedulers. |
3ab3a109 |
1294 | |
b6381718 |
1295 | Note that currently some test scripts may fail when run in parallel (most |
1296 | notably C<ext/IO/t/io_dir.t>). If necessary run just the failing scripts |
1297 | again sequentially and see if the failures go away. |
3ab3a109 |
1298 | |
b6381718 |
1299 | =item Test harness flexibility |
3ab3a109 |
1300 | |
b6381718 |
1301 | It's now possible to override C<PERL5OPT> and friends in F<t/TEST> |
1302 | |
1303 | =item Test watchdog |
3ab3a109 |
1304 | |
3ab3a109 |
1305 | Several tests that have the potential to hang forever if they fail now |
1306 | incorporate a "watchdog" functionality that will kill them after a timeout, |
1307 | which helps ensure that C<make test> and C<make test_harness> run to |
1308 | completion automatically. (Jerry Hedden). |
1309 | |
b6381718 |
1310 | |
1311 | =back |
1312 | |
1313 | =head2 New Tests |
1314 | |
1315 | Perl's developers have added a number of new tests to the core. |
1316 | In addition to the items listed below, many modules updated from CPAN |
1317 | incorporate new tests. |
3ab3a109 |
1318 | |
1319 | =over 4 |
1320 | |
1321 | =item * |
1322 | |
1323 | Significant cleanups to core tests to ensure that language and |
1324 | interpreter features are not used before they're tested. |
1325 | |
1326 | =item * |
1327 | |
c66407fa |
1328 | C<make test_porting> now runs a number of important pre-commit checks |
1329 | which might be of use to anyone working on the Perl core. |
3ab3a109 |
1330 | |
1331 | =item * |
1332 | |
1333 | F<t/porting/podcheck.t> automatically checks the well-formedness of |
1334 | POD found in all .pl, .pm and .pod files in the F<MANIFEST>, other than in |
1335 | dual-lifed modules which are primarily maintained outside the Perl core. |
1336 | |
1337 | =item * |
1338 | |
1339 | F<t/porting/manifest.t> now tests that all files listed in MANIFEST are present. |
1340 | |
1341 | =item * |
1342 | |
b6381718 |
1343 | F<t/op/while_readdir.t> tests that a bare readdir in while loop sets $_. |
3ab3a109 |
1344 | |
1345 | =item * |
1346 | |
b6381718 |
1347 | F<t/comp/retainedlines.t> checks that the debugger can retain source lines from C<eval>. |
3ab3a109 |
1348 | |
1349 | =item * |
1350 | |
b6381718 |
1351 | F<t/io/perlio_fail.t> checks that bad layers fail. |
3ab3a109 |
1352 | |
1353 | =item * |
1354 | |
b6381718 |
1355 | F<t/io/perlio_leaks.t> checks that PerlIO layers are not leaking. |
3ab3a109 |
1356 | |
1357 | =item * |
1358 | |
b6381718 |
1359 | F<t/io/perlio_open.t> checks that certain special forms of open work. |
3ab3a109 |
1360 | |
1361 | =item * |
1362 | |
b6381718 |
1363 | F<t/io/perlio.t> includes general PerlIO tests. |
3ab3a109 |
1364 | |
1365 | =item * |
1366 | |
b6381718 |
1367 | F<t/io/pvbm.t> checks that there is no unexpected interaction between the internal types |
3ab3a109 |
1368 | C<PVBM> and C<PVGV>. |
1369 | |
1370 | =item * |
1371 | |
b6381718 |
1372 | F<t/mro/package_aliases.t> checks that mro works properly in the presence of aliased packages. |
3ab3a109 |
1373 | |
1374 | =item * |
1375 | |
b6381718 |
1376 | F<t/op/dbm.t> tests C<dbmopen> and C<dbmclose>. |
3ab3a109 |
1377 | |
1378 | =item * |
1379 | |
b6381718 |
1380 | F<t/op/index_thr.t> tests the interaction of C<index> and threads. |
3ab3a109 |
1381 | |
1382 | =item * |
1383 | |
b6381718 |
1384 | F<t/op/pat_thr.t> tests the interaction of esoteric patterns and threads. |
3ab3a109 |
1385 | |
1386 | =item * |
1387 | |
b6381718 |
1388 | F<t/op/qr_gc.t> tests that C<qr> doesn't leak. |
3ab3a109 |
1389 | |
1390 | =item * |
1391 | |
b6381718 |
1392 | F<t/op/reg_email_thr.t> tests the interaction of regex recursion and threads. |
3ab3a109 |
1393 | |
1394 | =item * |
1395 | |
b6381718 |
1396 | F<t/op/regexp_qr_embed_thr.t> tests the interaction of patterns with embedded C<qr//> and threads. |
3ab3a109 |
1397 | |
1398 | =item * |
1399 | |
b6381718 |
1400 | F<t/op/regexp_unicode_prop.t> tests Unicode properties in regular expressions. |
3ab3a109 |
1401 | |
1402 | =item * |
1403 | |
b6381718 |
1404 | F<t/op/regexp_unicode_prop_thr.t> tests the interaction of Unicode properties and threads. |
3ab3a109 |
1405 | |
1406 | =item * |
1407 | |
b6381718 |
1408 | F<t/op/reg_nc_tie.t> tests the tied methods of C<Tie::Hash::NamedCapture>. |
3ab3a109 |
1409 | |
1410 | =item * |
1411 | |
b6381718 |
1412 | F<t/op/reg_posixcc.t> checks that POSIX character classes behave consistently. |
3ab3a109 |
1413 | |
1414 | =item * |
1415 | |
c66407fa |
1416 | F<t/op/re.t> |
3ab3a109 |
1417 | |
b6381718 |
1418 | checks that exportable C<re> functions in F<universal.c> work. |
3ab3a109 |
1419 | |
1420 | =item * |
1421 | |
b6381718 |
1422 | F<t/op/setpgrpstack.t> checks that C<setpgrp> works. |
3ab3a109 |
1423 | |
1424 | =item * |
1425 | |
b6381718 |
1426 | F<t/op/substr_thr.t> tests the interaction of C<substr> and threads. |
3ab3a109 |
1427 | |
1428 | =item * |
1429 | |
b6381718 |
1430 | F<t/op/upgrade.t> checks that upgrading and assigning scalars works. |
3ab3a109 |
1431 | |
1432 | =item * |
1433 | |
b6381718 |
1434 | F<t/uni/lex_utf8.t> checks that Unicode in the lexer works. |
3ab3a109 |
1435 | |
1436 | =item * |
1437 | |
b6381718 |
1438 | F<t/uni/tie.t> checks that Unicode and C<tie> work. |
3ab3a109 |
1439 | |
1440 | =item * |
1441 | |
b6381718 |
1442 | F<t/comp/final_line_num.t> tests whether line numbers are correct at EOF |
3ab3a109 |
1443 | |
1444 | =item * |
1445 | |
b6381718 |
1446 | F<t/comp/form_scope.t> tests format scoping. |
3ab3a109 |
1447 | |
1448 | =item * |
1449 | |
b6381718 |
1450 | F<t/comp/line_debug.t> tests whether C<< @{"_<$file"} >> works. |
3ab3a109 |
1451 | |
1452 | =item * |
1453 | |
b6381718 |
1454 | F<t/op/filetest_t.t> tests if -t file test works. |
3ab3a109 |
1455 | |
1456 | =item * |
1457 | |
b6381718 |
1458 | F<t/op/qr.t> tests C<qr>. |
3ab3a109 |
1459 | |
1460 | =item * |
1461 | |
b6381718 |
1462 | F<t/op/utf8cache.t> tests malfunctions of the utf8 cache. |
3ab3a109 |
1463 | |
1464 | =item * |
1465 | |
b6381718 |
1466 | F<t/re/uniprops.t> test unicodes C<\p{}> regex constructs. |
3ab3a109 |
1467 | |
b16f1257 |
1468 | =item * |
1469 | |
b6381718 |
1470 | F<t/op/filehandle.t> tests some suitably portable filetest operators |
1471 | to check that they work as expected, particularly in the light of some |
1472 | internal changes made in how filehandles are blessed. |
72d4e865 |
1473 | |
b16f1257 |
1474 | =item * |
1475 | |
b6381718 |
1476 | F<t/op/time_loop.t> tests that unix times greater than C<2**63>, which |
1477 | can now be handed to C<gmtime> and C<localtime>, do not cause an internal |
1478 | overflow or an excessively long loop. |
72d4e865 |
1479 | |
3ab3a109 |
1480 | =back |
1481 | |
3ab3a109 |
1482 | |
b6381718 |
1483 | =head1 New or Changed Diagnostics |
72d4e865 |
1484 | |
b6381718 |
1485 | =head2 New Diagnostics |
72d4e865 |
1486 | |
b6381718 |
1487 | =over |
72d4e865 |
1488 | |
b6381718 |
1489 | =item * |
72d4e865 |
1490 | |
b6381718 |
1491 | SV allocation tracing has been added to the diagnostics enabled by C<-Dm>. |
1492 | The tracing can alternatively output via the C<PERL_MEM_LOG> mechanism, if |
1493 | that was enabled when the F<perl> binary was compiled. |
72d4e865 |
1494 | |
b6381718 |
1495 | =item * |
3ab3a109 |
1496 | |
b6381718 |
1497 | Smartmatch resolution tracing has been added as a new diagnostic. Use C<-DM> to |
1498 | enable it. |
3ab3a109 |
1499 | |
b6381718 |
1500 | =item * |
3ab3a109 |
1501 | |
b6381718 |
1502 | A new debugging flag C<-DB> now dumps subroutine definitions, leaving |
1503 | C<-Dx> for its original purpose of dumping syntax trees. |
3ab3a109 |
1504 | |
b6381718 |
1505 | =item * |
3ab3a109 |
1506 | |
b6381718 |
1507 | Perl 5.12 provides a number of new diagnostic messages to help you write |
1508 | better code. See L<perldiag> for details of these new messages. |
3ab3a109 |
1509 | |
1510 | =over 4 |
1511 | |
1512 | =item * |
1513 | |
1514 | C<Bad plugin affecting keyword '%s'> |
1515 | |
1516 | =item * |
1517 | |
1518 | C<gmtime(%.0f) too large> |
1519 | |
1520 | =item * |
1521 | |
1522 | C<Lexing code attempted to stuff non-Latin-1 character into Latin-1 input> |
1523 | |
1524 | =item * |
1525 | |
1526 | C<Lexing code internal error (%s)> |
1527 | |
1528 | =item * |
1529 | |
1530 | C<localtime(%.0f) too large> |
1531 | |
1532 | =item * |
1533 | |
1534 | C<Overloaded dereference did not return a reference> |
1535 | |
1536 | =item * |
1537 | |
1538 | C<Overloaded qr did not return a REGEXP> |
1539 | |
1540 | =item * |
1541 | |
1542 | C<Perl_pmflag() is deprecated, and will be removed from the XS API> |
1543 | |
1544 | =item * |
1545 | |
b6381718 |
1546 | C<lvalue attribute ignored after the subroutine has been defined> |
3ab3a109 |
1547 | |
1548 | This new warning is issued when one attempts to mark a subroutine as |
1549 | lvalue after it has been defined. |
1550 | |
1551 | =item * |
1552 | |
b6381718 |
1553 | Perl now warns you if C<++> or C<--> are unable to change the value because it's |
1554 | beyond the limit of representation. |
3ab3a109 |
1555 | |
1556 | This uses a new warnings category: "imprecision". |
1557 | |
1558 | =item * |
c66407fa |
1559 | |
1560 | C<lc>, C<uc>, C<lcfirst>, and C<ucfirst> warn when passed undef. |
3ab3a109 |
1561 | |
1562 | =item * |
1563 | |
b6381718 |
1564 | C<Show constant in "Useless use of a constant in void context"> |
3ab3a109 |
1565 | |
1566 | =item * |
1567 | |
b6381718 |
1568 | C<Prototype after '%s'> |
3ab3a109 |
1569 | |
1570 | =item * |
1571 | |
b6381718 |
1572 | C<panic: sv_chop %s> |
1573 | |
1574 | This new fatal error occurs when the C routine C<Perl_sv_chop()> was |
1575 | passed a position that is not within the scalar's string buffer. This |
1576 | could be caused by buggy XS code, and at this point recovery is not |
1577 | possible. |
1578 | |
3ab3a109 |
1579 | |
1580 | =item * |
1581 | |
b6381718 |
1582 | The fatal error C<Malformed UTF-8 returned by \N> is now produced if the |
1583 | C<charnames> handler returns malformed UTF-8. |
3ab3a109 |
1584 | |
1585 | =item * |
1586 | |
b6381718 |
1587 | If an unresolved named character or sequence was encountered when compiling a |
1588 | regex pattern then the fatal error C<\\N{NAME} must be resolved by the lexer> |
1589 | is now produced. This can happen, for example, when using a single-quotish |
1590 | context like C<$re = '\N{SPACE}'; $re;>. See L<perldiag> for more examples of |
1591 | how the lexer can get bypassed. |
3ab3a109 |
1592 | |
1593 | =item * |
1594 | |
b6381718 |
1595 | C<Invalid hexadecimal number in \\N{U+...}> is a new fatal error triggered when |
1596 | the character constant represented by C<...> is not a valid hexadecimal |
1597 | number. |
3ab3a109 |
1598 | |
1599 | =item * |
1600 | |
b6381718 |
1601 | The new meaning of C<\N> as C<[^\n]> is not valid in a bracketed character |
1602 | class, just like C<.> in a character class loses its special meaning, and will |
1603 | cause the fatal error C<\\N in a character class must be a named character: \\N{...}>. |
1604 | |
1605 | =item * |
3ab3a109 |
1606 | |
b6381718 |
1607 | The rules on what is legal for the C<...> in C<\N{...}> have been tightened |
1608 | up so that unless the C<...> begins with an alphabetic character and continues |
1609 | with a combination of alphanumerics, dashes, spaces, parentheses or colons |
1610 | then the warning C<Deprecated character(s) in \\N{...} starting at '%s'> is |
1611 | now issued. |
3ab3a109 |
1612 | |
1613 | =item * |
1614 | |
b6381718 |
1615 | The warning C<Using just the first characters returned by \N{}> will be |
1616 | issued if the C<charnames> handler returns a sequence of characters which |
1617 | exceeds the limit of the number of characters that can be used. The message |
1618 | will indicate which characters were used and which were discarded. |
3ab3a109 |
1619 | |
b6381718 |
1620 | =back |
3ab3a109 |
1621 | |
b6381718 |
1622 | =back |
3ab3a109 |
1623 | |
b6381718 |
1624 | =head2 Changed Diagnostics |
3ab3a109 |
1625 | |
b6381718 |
1626 | A number of existing diagnostic messages have been improved or corrected: |
3ab3a109 |
1627 | |
b6381718 |
1628 | =over |
3ab3a109 |
1629 | |
1630 | =item * |
1631 | |
b6381718 |
1632 | A new warning category C<illegalproto> allows finer-grained control of |
1633 | warnings around function prototypes. |
3ab3a109 |
1634 | |
b6381718 |
1635 | The two warnings: |
3ab3a109 |
1636 | |
b6381718 |
1637 | =over |
3ab3a109 |
1638 | |
b6381718 |
1639 | =item C<Illegal character in prototype for %s : %s> |
1640 | |
1641 | =item C<Prototype after '%c' for %s : %s> |
1642 | |
1643 | =back |
1644 | |
1645 | have been moved from the C<syntax> top-level warnings category into a new |
1646 | first-level category, C<illegalproto>. These two warnings are currently the |
1647 | only ones emitted during parsing of an invalid/illegal prototype, so one |
1648 | can now do |
1649 | |
1650 | no warnings 'illegalproto'; |
1651 | |
1652 | to suppress only those, but not other syntax-related warnings. Warnings where |
1653 | prototypes are changed, ignored, or not met are still in the C<prototype> |
1654 | category as before. (Matt S. Trout) |
3ab3a109 |
1655 | |
1656 | =item * |
1657 | |
3ab3a109 |
1658 | C<Deep recursion on subroutine "%s"> |
1659 | |
1660 | It is now possible to change the depth threshold for this warning from the |
1661 | default of 100, by recompiling the F<perl> binary, setting the C |
1662 | pre-processor macro C<PERL_SUB_DEPTH_WARN> to the desired value. |
1663 | |
1664 | =item * |
1665 | |
b6381718 |
1666 | C<Illegal character in prototype> warning is now more precise |
1667 | when reporting illegal characters after _ |
3ab3a109 |
1668 | |
1669 | =item * |
1670 | |
b6381718 |
1671 | mro merging error messages are now very similar to those produced by L<Algorithm::C3>. |
3ab3a109 |
1672 | |
1673 | =item * |
1674 | |
b6381718 |
1675 | Amelioration of the error message "Unrecognized character %s in column %d" |
1676 | |
1677 | Changes the error message to "Unrecognized character %s; marked by E<lt>-- |
1678 | HERE after %sE<lt>-- HERE near column %d". This should make it a little |
1679 | simpler to spot and correct the suspicious character. |
3ab3a109 |
1680 | |
1681 | =item * |
1682 | |
b6381718 |
1683 | Perl now explicitly points to C<$.> when it causes an uninitialized warning for |
1684 | ranges in scalar context. |
3ab3a109 |
1685 | |
1686 | =item * |
1687 | |
b6381718 |
1688 | C<split> now warns when called in void context. |
3ab3a109 |
1689 | |
1690 | =item * |
1691 | |
b6381718 |
1692 | C<printf>-style functions called with too few arguments will now issue the |
1693 | warning C<"Missing argument in %s"> [perl #71000] |
3ab3a109 |
1694 | |
1695 | =item * |
1696 | |
b6381718 |
1697 | Perl now properly returns a syntax error instead of segfaulting |
1698 | if C<each>, C<keys>, or C<values> is used without an argument. |
3ab3a109 |
1699 | |
1700 | =item * |
1701 | |
b6381718 |
1702 | C<tell()> now fails properly if called without an argument and when no |
1703 | previous file was read. |
3ab3a109 |
1704 | |
b6381718 |
1705 | C<tell()> now returns C<-1>, and sets errno to C<EBADF>, thus restoring |
1706 | the 5.8.x behaviour. |
3ab3a109 |
1707 | |
1708 | =item * |
1709 | |
b6381718 |
1710 | C<overload> no longer implicitly unsets fallback on repeated 'use |
1711 | overload' lines. |
3ab3a109 |
1712 | |
72d4e865 |
1713 | =item * |
1714 | |
b6381718 |
1715 | POSIX::strftime() can now handle Unicode characters in the format string. |
72d4e865 |
1716 | |
1717 | =item * |
1718 | |
b6381718 |
1719 | The Windows select() implementation now supports all empty C<fd_set>s |
1720 | more correctly. |
72d4e865 |
1721 | |
1722 | =item * |
1723 | |
b6381718 |
1724 | The C<syntax> category was removed from 5 warnings that should only be in |
1725 | C<deprecated>. |
72d4e865 |
1726 | |
1727 | =item * |
1728 | |
b6381718 |
1729 | Three fatal C<pack>/C<unpack> error messages have been normalized to |
1730 | C<panic: %s> |
72d4e865 |
1731 | |
1732 | =item * |
1733 | |
b6381718 |
1734 | C<Unicode character is illegal> has been rephrased to be more accurate |
1735 | |
1736 | It now reads C<Unicode non-character is illegal in interchange> and the |
1737 | perldiag documentation has been expanded a bit. |
72d4e865 |
1738 | |
1739 | =item * |
1740 | |
1741 | Currently, all but the first of the several characters that the C<charnames> |
1742 | handler may return are discarded when used in a regular expression pattern |
1743 | bracketed character class. If this happens then the warning C<Using just the |
1744 | first character returned by \N{} in character class> will be issued. |
1745 | |
1746 | =item * |
1747 | |
1748 | The warning C<Missing right brace on \\N{} or unescaped left brace after \\N. |
1749 | Assuming the latter> will be issued if Perl encounters a C<\N{> but doesn't |
1750 | find a matching C<}>. In this case Perl doesn't know if it was mistakenly |
1751 | omitted, or if "match non-newline" followed by "match a C<{>" was desired. |
1752 | It assumes the latter because that is actually a valid interpretation as |
1753 | written, unlike the other case. If you meant the former, you need to add the |
1754 | matching right brace. If you did mean the latter, you can silence this |
1755 | warning by writing instead C<\N\{>. |
1756 | |
1757 | =item * |
1758 | |
1759 | C<gmtime> and C<localtime> called with numbers smaller than they can reliably |
1760 | handle will now issue the warnings C<gmtime(%.0f) too small> and |
1761 | C<localtime(%.0f) too small>. |
1762 | |
1763 | =back |
3ab3a109 |
1764 | |
b6381718 |
1765 | The following diagnostic messages have been removed: |
c66407fa |
1766 | |
1767 | =over 4 |
1768 | |
1769 | =item * |
1770 | |
1771 | C<Runaway format> |
1772 | |
1773 | =item * |
1774 | |
1775 | C<Can't locate package %s for the parents of %s> |
1776 | |
b6381718 |
1777 | In general this warning it only got produced in |
c66407fa |
1778 | conjunction with other warnings, and removing it allowed an ISA lookup |
1779 | optimisation to be added. |
1780 | |
1781 | =item * |
1782 | |
1783 | C<v-string in use/require is non-portable> |
1784 | |
1785 | =back |
1786 | |
3ab3a109 |
1787 | =head1 Utility Changes |
1788 | |
1789 | =over 4 |
1790 | |
1791 | =item * |
1792 | |
b6381718 |
1793 | F<h2ph> now looks in C<include-fixed> too, which is a recent addition to gcc's |
3ab3a109 |
1794 | search path. |
1795 | |
1796 | =item * |
1797 | |
b6381718 |
1798 | F<h2xs> no longer incorrectly treats enum values like macros (Daniel Burr). |
1799 | It also now handles C++ style constants (C<//>) properly in enums. (A patch from |
3ab3a109 |
1800 | Rainer Weikusat was used; Daniel Burr also proposed a similar fix). |
1801 | |
1802 | =item * |
1803 | |
b6381718 |
1804 | F<perl5db.pl> now supports C<LVALUE> subroutines. Additionally, the debugger now correctly handles proxy constant subroutines, and subroutine stubs. |
3ab3a109 |
1805 | |
1806 | =item * |
1807 | |
b6381718 |
1808 | F<perlbug> now uses C<%Module::CoreList::bug_tracker> to print out |
1809 | upstream bug tracker URLs. If a user identifies a particular module |
1810 | as the topic of their bug report and we're able to divine ithe URL for |
1811 | its upstream bug tracker, perlbug now provide a message to the user |
1812 | explaining that the core copies the CPAN version directly, and provide |
1813 | the URL for reporting the bug directly to the upstream author. |
3ab3a109 |
1814 | |
b6381718 |
1815 | F<perlbug> no longer reports "Message sent" when it hasn't actually sent the message |
3ab3a109 |
1816 | |
1817 | =item * |
1818 | |
b6381718 |
1819 | F<perlthanks> is a new utility for sending non-bug-reports to the |
1820 | authors and maintainers of Perl. Getting nothing but bug reports can |
1821 | become a bit demoralising. If Perl 5.12 works well for you, please try |
1822 | out F<perlthanks>. It will make the developers smile. |
3ab3a109 |
1823 | |
1824 | =item * |
1825 | |
b6381718 |
1826 | Perl's developers have fixed bugs in F<a2p> having to do with the |
1827 | C<match()> operator in list context. |
3ab3a109 |
1828 | |
1829 | =back |
1830 | |
1831 | =head1 Selected Bug Fixes |
1832 | |
1833 | =over 4 |
1834 | |
1835 | =item * |
1836 | |
b6381718 |
1837 | U+0FFFF is now a legal character in regular expressions. |
1838 | |
1839 | =item * |
1840 | |
1841 | pp_qr now always returns a new regexp SV. Resolves RT #69852. |
3ab3a109 |
1842 | |
1843 | Instead of returning a(nother) reference to the (pre-compiled) regexp in the |
1844 | optree, use reg_temp_copy() to create a copy of it, and return a reference to |
1845 | that. This resolves issues about Regexp::DESTROY not being called in a timely |
1846 | fashion (the original bug tracked by RT #69852), as well as bugs related to |
1847 | blessing regexps, and of assigning to regexps, as described in correspondence |
1848 | added to the ticket. |
1849 | |
1850 | It transpires that we also need to undo the SvPVX() sharing when ithreads |
1851 | cloning a Regexp SV, because mother_re is set to NULL, instead of a cloned |
1852 | copy of the mother_re. This change might fix bugs with regexps and threads in |
1853 | certain other situations, but as yet neither tests nor bug reports have |
1854 | indicated any problems, so it might not actually be an edge case that it's |
1855 | possible to reach. |
1856 | |
1857 | =item * |
1858 | |
3ab3a109 |
1859 | Several compilation errors and segfaults when perl was built with C<-Dmad> were fixed. |
1860 | |
1861 | =item * |
1862 | |
1863 | Fixes for lexer API changes in 5.11.2 which broke NYTProf's savesrc option. |
1864 | |
1865 | =item * |
1866 | |
c66407fa |
1867 | C<-t> should only return TRUE for file handles connected to a TTY |
3ab3a109 |
1868 | |
c66407fa |
1869 | The Microsoft C version of C<isatty()> returns TRUE for all |
1870 | character mode devices, including the F</dev/null>-style "nul" |
3ab3a109 |
1871 | device and printers like "lpt1". |
1872 | |
1873 | =item * |
1874 | |
1875 | Fixed a regression caused by commit fafafbaf which caused a panic during |
1876 | parameter passing [perl #70171] |
1877 | |
1878 | =item * |
1879 | |
1880 | On systems which in-place edits without backup files, -i'*' now works as |
1881 | the documentation says it does [perl #70802] |
1882 | |
1883 | =item * |
1884 | |
1885 | Saving and restoring magic flags no longer loses readonly flag. |
1886 | |
1887 | =item * |
1888 | |
1889 | The malformed syntax C<grep EXPR LIST> (note the missing comma) no longer |
1890 | causes abrupt and total failure. |
1891 | |
1892 | =item * |
1893 | |
1894 | Regular expressions compiled with C<qr{}> literals properly set C<$'> when |
1895 | matching again. |
1896 | |
1897 | =item * |
1898 | |
1899 | Using named subroutines with C<sort> should no longer lead to bus errors [perl |
1900 | #71076] |
1901 | |
1902 | =item * |
1903 | |
1904 | Numerous bugfixes catch small issues caused by the recently-added Lexer API. |
1905 | |
1906 | =item * |
1907 | |
1908 | Smart match against C<@_> sometimes gave false negatives. [perl #71078] |
1909 | |
1910 | =item * |
1911 | |
c66407fa |
1912 | C<$@> may now be assigned a read-only value (without error or busting |
1913 | the stack). |
3ab3a109 |
1914 | |
1915 | =item * |
1916 | |
1917 | C<sort> called recursively from within an active comparison subroutine no |
1918 | longer causes a bus error if run multiple times. [perl #71076] |
1919 | |
1920 | =item * |
1921 | |
c66407fa |
1922 | Tie::Hash::NamedCapture::* will not abort if passed bad input (RT #71828) |
3ab3a109 |
1923 | |
1924 | =item * |
1925 | |
1926 | @_ and $_ no longer leak under threads (RT #34342 and #41138, also |
1927 | #70602, #70974) |
1928 | |
1929 | =item * |
1930 | |
1931 | C<-I> on shebang line now adds directories in front of @INC |
1932 | as documented, and as does C<-I> when specified on the command-line. |
1933 | |
1934 | =item * |
1935 | |
1936 | C<kill> is now fatal when called on non-numeric process identifiers. |
c66407fa |
1937 | Previously, an C<undef> process identifier would be interpreted as a |
1938 | request to kill process 0, which would terminate the current process |
72d4e865 |
1939 | group on POSIX systems. Since process identifiers are always integers, |
c66407fa |
1940 | killing a non-numeric process is now fatal. |
3ab3a109 |
1941 | |
1942 | =item * |
1943 | |
1944 | 5.10.0 inadvertently disabled an optimisation, which caused a measurable |
1945 | performance drop in list assignment, such as is often used to assign |
1946 | function parameters from C<@_>. The optimisation has been re-instated, and |
72d4e865 |
1947 | the performance regression fixed. (This fix is also present in 5.10.1) |
3ab3a109 |
1948 | |
1949 | =item * |
1950 | |
1951 | Fixed memory leak on C<while (1) { map 1, 1 }> [RT #53038]. |
1952 | |
1953 | =item * |
1954 | |
1955 | Some potential coredumps in PerlIO fixed [RT #57322,54828]. |
1956 | |
1957 | =item * |
1958 | |
1959 | The debugger now works with lvalue subroutines. |
1960 | |
1961 | =item * |
1962 | |
1963 | The debugger's C<m> command was broken on modules that defined constants |
1964 | [RT #61222]. |
1965 | |
1966 | =item * |
1967 | |
1968 | C<crypt> and string complement could return tainted values for untainted |
1969 | arguments [RT #59998]. |
1970 | |
1971 | =item * |
1972 | |
1973 | The C<-i>I<.suffix> command-line switch now recreates the file using |
1974 | restricted permissions, before changing its mode to match the original |
1975 | file. This eliminates a potential race condition [RT #60904]. |
1976 | |
1977 | =item * |
1978 | |
1979 | On some Unix systems, the value in C<$?> would not have the top bit set |
1980 | (C<$? & 128>) even if the child core dumped. |
1981 | |
1982 | =item * |
1983 | |
1984 | Under some circumstances, C<$^R> could incorrectly become undefined |
1985 | [RT #57042]. |
1986 | |
1987 | =item * |
1988 | |
1989 | In the XS API, various hash functions, when passed a pre-computed hash where |
1990 | the key is UTF-8, might result in an incorrect lookup. |
1991 | |
1992 | =item * |
1993 | |
1994 | XS code including F<XSUB.h> before F<perl.h> gave a compile-time error |
1995 | [RT #57176]. |
1996 | |
1997 | =item * |
1998 | |
1999 | C<< $object-E<gt>isa('Foo') >> would report false if the package C<Foo> didn't |
2000 | exist, even if the object's C<@ISA> contained C<Foo>. |
2001 | |
2002 | =item * |
2003 | |
2004 | Various bugs in the new-to 5.10.0 mro code, triggered by manipulating |
2005 | C<@ISA>, have been found and fixed. |
2006 | |
2007 | =item * |
2008 | |
2009 | Bitwise operations on references could crash the interpreter, e.g. |
2010 | C<$x=\$y; $x |= "foo"> [RT #54956]. |
2011 | |
2012 | =item * |
2013 | |
2014 | Patterns including alternation might be sensitive to the internal UTF-8 |
2015 | representation, e.g. |
2016 | |
2017 | my $byte = chr(192); |
2018 | my $utf8 = chr(192); utf8::upgrade($utf8); |
2019 | $utf8 =~ /$byte|X}/i; # failed in 5.10.0 |
2020 | |
2021 | =item * |
2022 | |
2023 | Within UTF8-encoded Perl source files (i.e. where C<use utf8> is in |
2024 | effect), double-quoted literal strings could be corrupted where a C<\xNN>, |
2025 | C<\0NNN> or C<\N{}> is followed by a literal character with ordinal value |
2026 | greater than 255 [RT #59908]. |
2027 | |
2028 | =item * |
2029 | |
2030 | C<B::Deparse> failed to correctly deparse various constructs: |
2031 | C<readpipe STRING> [RT #62428], C<CORE::require(STRING)> [RT #62488], |
2032 | C<sub foo(_)> [RT #62484]. |
2033 | |
2034 | =item * |
2035 | |
2036 | Using C<setpgrp> with no arguments could corrupt the perl stack. |
2037 | |
2038 | =item * |
2039 | |
2040 | The block form of C<eval> is now specifically trappable by C<Safe> and |
72d4e865 |
2041 | C<ops>. Previously it was erroneously treated like string C<eval>. |
3ab3a109 |
2042 | |
2043 | =item * |
2044 | |
2045 | In 5.10.0, the two characters C<[~> were sometimes parsed as the smart |
2046 | match operator (C<~~>) [RT #63854]. |
2047 | |
2048 | =item * |
2049 | |
2050 | In 5.10.0, the C<*> quantifier in patterns was sometimes treated as |
2051 | C<{0,32767}> [RT #60034, #60464]. For example, this match would fail: |
2052 | |
2053 | ("ab" x 32768) =~ /^(ab)*$/ |
2054 | |
2055 | =item * |
2056 | |
2057 | C<shmget> was limited to a 32 bit segment size on a 64 bit OS [RT #63924]. |
2058 | |
2059 | =item * |
2060 | |
2061 | Using C<next> or C<last> to exit a C<given> block no longer produces a |
2062 | spurious warning like the following: |
2063 | |
2064 | Exiting given via last at foo.pl line 123 |
2065 | |
2066 | =item * |
2067 | |
2068 | On Windows, C<'.\foo'> and C<'..\foo'> were treated differently than |
2069 | C<'./foo'> and C<'../foo'> by C<do> and C<require> [RT #63492]. |
2070 | |
2071 | =item * |
2072 | |
2073 | Assigning a format to a glob could corrupt the format; e.g.: |
2074 | |
2075 | *bar=*foo{FORMAT}; # foo format now bad |
2076 | |
2077 | =item * |
2078 | |
2079 | Attempting to coerce a typeglob to a string or number could cause an |
2080 | assertion failure. The correct error message is now generated, |
2081 | C<Can't coerce GLOB to I<$type>>. |
2082 | |
2083 | =item * |
2084 | |
2085 | Under C<use filetest 'access'>, C<-x> was using the wrong access mode. This |
2086 | has been fixed [RT #49003]. |
2087 | |
2088 | =item * |
2089 | |
2090 | C<length> on a tied scalar that returned a Unicode value would not be |
2091 | correct the first time. This has been fixed. |
2092 | |
2093 | =item * |
2094 | |
2095 | Using an array C<tie> inside in array C<tie> could SEGV. This has been |
2096 | fixed. [RT #51636] |
2097 | |
2098 | =item * |
2099 | |
2100 | A race condition inside C<PerlIOStdio_close()> has been identified and |
2101 | fixed. This used to cause various threading issues, including SEGVs. |
2102 | |
2103 | =item * |
2104 | |
2105 | In C<unpack>, the use of C<()> groups in scalar context was internally |
2106 | placing a list on the interpreter's stack, which manifested in various |
72d4e865 |
2107 | ways, including SEGVs. This is now fixed [RT #50256]. |
3ab3a109 |
2108 | |
2109 | =item * |
2110 | |
2111 | Magic was called twice in C<substr>, C<\&$x>, C<tie $x, $m> and C<chop>. |
2112 | These have all been fixed. |
2113 | |
2114 | =item * |
2115 | |
2116 | A 5.10.0 optimisation to clear the temporary stack within the implicit |
2117 | loop of C<s///ge> has been reverted, as it turned out to be the cause of |
2118 | obscure bugs in seemingly unrelated parts of the interpreter [commit |
2119 | ef0d4e17921ee3de]. |
2120 | |
2121 | =item * |
2122 | |
2123 | The line numbers for warnings inside C<elsif> are now correct. |
2124 | |
2125 | =item * |
2126 | |
2127 | The C<..> operator now works correctly with ranges whose ends are at or |
2128 | close to the values of the smallest and largest integers. |
2129 | |
2130 | =item * |
2131 | |
2132 | C<binmode STDIN, ':raw'> could lead to segmentation faults on some platforms. |
2133 | This has been fixed [RT #54828]. |
2134 | |
2135 | =item * |
2136 | |
2137 | An off-by-one error meant that C<index $str, ...> was effectively being |
2138 | executed as C<index "$str\0", ...>. This has been fixed [RT #53746]. |
2139 | |
2140 | =item * |
2141 | |
2142 | Various leaks associated with named captures in regexes have been fixed |
2143 | [RT #57024]. |
2144 | |
2145 | =item * |
2146 | |
2147 | A weak reference to a hash would leak. This was affecting C<DBI> |
2148 | [RT #56908]. |
2149 | |
2150 | =item * |
2151 | |
2152 | Using (?|) in a regex could cause a segfault [RT #59734]. |
2153 | |
2154 | =item * |
2155 | |
2156 | Use of a UTF-8 C<tr//> within a closure could cause a segfault [RT #61520]. |
2157 | |
2158 | =item * |
2159 | |
2160 | Calling C<Perl_sv_chop()> or otherwise upgrading an SV could result in an |
2161 | unaligned 64-bit access on the SPARC architecture [RT #60574]. |
2162 | |
2163 | =item * |
2164 | |
2165 | In the 5.10.0 release, C<inc_version_list> would incorrectly list |
2166 | C<5.10.*> after C<5.8.*>; this affected the C<@INC> search order |
2167 | [RT #67628]. |
2168 | |
2169 | =item * |
2170 | |
2171 | In 5.10.0, C<pack "a*", $tainted_value> returned a non-tainted value |
2172 | [RT #52552]. |
2173 | |
2174 | =item * |
2175 | |
2176 | In 5.10.0, C<printf> and C<sprintf> could produce the fatal error |
2177 | C<panic: utf8_mg_pos_cache_update> when printing UTF-8 strings |
2178 | [RT #62666]. |
2179 | |
2180 | =item * |
2181 | |
2182 | In the 5.10.0 release, a dynamically created C<AUTOLOAD> method might be |
2183 | missed (method cache issue) [RT #60220,60232]. |
2184 | |
2185 | =item * |
2186 | |
2187 | In the 5.10.0 release, a combination of C<use feature> and C<//ee> could |
2188 | cause a memory leak [RT #63110]. |
2189 | |
2190 | =item * |
2191 | |
2192 | C<-C> on the shebang (C<#!>) line is once more permitted if it is also |
2193 | specified on the command line. C<-C> on the shebang line used to be a |
2194 | silent no-op I<if> it was not also on the command line, so perl 5.10.0 |
2195 | disallowed it, which broke some scripts. Now perl checks whether it is |
2196 | also on the command line and only dies if it is not [RT #67880]. |
2197 | |
2198 | =item * |
2199 | |
2200 | In 5.10.0, certain types of re-entrant regular expression could crash, |
2201 | or cause the following assertion failure [RT #60508]: |
2202 | |
2203 | Assertion rx->sublen >= (s - rx->subbeg) + i failed |
2204 | |
2205 | =item * |
2206 | |
b6381718 |
2207 | Perl now includes previously missing files from the Unicode 5.1 Character Database. |
3ab3a109 |
2208 | |
2209 | =item * |
2210 | |
b6381718 |
2211 | Perl now honors C<TMPDIR> when opening an anonymous temporary file. |
3ab3a109 |
2212 | |
2213 | =back |
2214 | |
b6381718 |
2215 | |
3ab3a109 |
2216 | =head1 Platform Specific Changes |
2217 | |
b6381718 |
2218 | Perl is incredibly portable. In general, if a platform has a C compiler, |
2219 | someone has ported Perl to it (or will soon). We're happy to announce |
2220 | that Perl 5.12 includes support for several new platforms. At the same |
2221 | time, it's time to bid farewell to some (very) old friends. |
2222 | |
3ab3a109 |
2223 | =head2 New Platforms |
2224 | |
2225 | =over |
2226 | |
2227 | =item Haiku |
2228 | |
b6381718 |
2229 | Perl's developers have merged patches from Haiku's maintainers. Perl should now |
3ab3a109 |
2230 | build on Haiku. |
2231 | |
2232 | =item MirOS BSD |
2233 | |
2234 | Perl should now build on MirOS BSD. |
2235 | |
3ab3a109 |
2236 | =back |
2237 | |
2238 | =head2 Discontinued Platforms |
2239 | |
b6381718 |
2240 | |
3ab3a109 |
2241 | =over |
2242 | |
2243 | =item DomainOS |
2244 | |
b6381718 |
2245 | =item Tenon MachTen |
3ab3a109 |
2246 | |
2247 | =item MiNT |
2248 | |
3ab3a109 |
2249 | =back |
2250 | |
2251 | =head2 Updated Platforms |
2252 | |
2253 | =over 4 |
2254 | |
2255 | =item Darwin (Mac OS X) |
2256 | |
2257 | =over 4 |
2258 | |
2259 | =item * |
2260 | |
2261 | Skip testing the be_BY.CP1131 locale on Darwin 10 (Mac OS X 10.6), |
2262 | as it's still buggy. |
2263 | |
2264 | =item * |
2265 | |
2266 | Correct infelicities in the regexp used to identify buggy locales |
2267 | on Darwin 8 and 9 (Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5, respectively). |
2268 | |
2269 | =back |
2270 | |
2271 | =item DragonFly BSD |
2272 | |
2273 | =over 4 |
2274 | |
2275 | =item * |
2276 | |
2277 | Fix thread library selection [perl #69686] |
2278 | |
2279 | =back |
2280 | |
2281 | =item Win32 |
2282 | |
2283 | =over 4 |
2284 | |
2285 | =item * |
2286 | |
b6381718 |
2287 | Initial support for mingw64 is now available. |
3ab3a109 |
2288 | |
2289 | =item * |
2290 | |
c66407fa |
2291 | Various bits of Perl's build infrastructure are no longer converted to |
2292 | win32 line endings at release time. If this hurts you, please report the |
2293 | problem with the L<perlbug> program included with perl. |
3ab3a109 |
2294 | |
2295 | =item * |
2296 | |
2297 | Always add a manifest resource to C<perl.exe> to specify the C<trustInfo> |
72d4e865 |
2298 | settings for Windows Vista and later. Without this setting Windows |
3ab3a109 |
2299 | will treat C<perl.exe> as a legacy application and apply various |
2300 | heuristics like redirecting access to protected file system areas |
2301 | (like the "Program Files" folder) to the users "VirtualStore" |
2302 | instead of generating a proper "permission denied" error. |
2303 | |
2304 | For VC8 and VC9 this manifest setting is automatically generated by |
2305 | the compiler/linker (together with the binding information for their |
2306 | respective runtime libraries); for all other compilers we need to |
2307 | embed the manifest resource explicitly in the external resource file. |
2308 | |
2309 | This change also requests the Microsoft Common-Controls version 6.0 |
2310 | (themed controls introduced in Windows XP) via the dependency list |
72d4e865 |
2311 | in the assembly manifest. For VC8 and VC9 this is specified using the |
3ab3a109 |
2312 | C</manifestdependency> linker commandline option instead. |
2313 | |
2314 | =item * |
2315 | |
2316 | Improved message window handling means that C<alarm> and C<kill> messages |
2317 | will no longer be dropped under race conditions. |
2318 | |
2319 | =back |
2320 | |
2321 | =item cygwin |
2322 | |
2323 | =over 4 |
2324 | |
2325 | =item * |
2326 | |
b6381718 |
2327 | Perl now suppoorts IPv6 on cygwin 1.7 and newer. |
3ab3a109 |
2328 | |
2329 | =back |
2330 | |
2331 | =item OpenVMS |
2332 | |
2333 | =over 4 |
2334 | |
2335 | =item * |
2336 | |
b6381718 |
2337 | C<-UDEBUGGING> is now the default on VMS. |
3ab3a109 |
2338 | |
72d4e865 |
2339 | Like it has been everywhere else for ages and ages. Also make |
3ab3a109 |
2340 | command-line selection of -UDEBUGGING and -DDEBUGGING work in |
2341 | configure.com; before the only way to turn it off was by saying |
2342 | no in answer to the interactive question. |
2343 | |
2344 | =item * |
2345 | |
2346 | The default pipe buffer size on VMS has been updated to 8192 on 64-bit |
2347 | systems. |
2348 | |
2349 | =item * |
2350 | |
2351 | Reads from the in-memory temporary files of C<PerlIO::scalar> used to fail |
2352 | if C<$/> was set to a numeric reference (to indicate record-style reads). |
2353 | This is now fixed. |
2354 | |
2355 | =item * |
2356 | |
2357 | VMS now supports C<getgrgid>. |
2358 | |
2359 | =item * |
2360 | |
2361 | Many improvements and cleanups have been made to the VMS file name handling |
2362 | and conversion code. |
2363 | |
2364 | =item * |
2365 | |
2366 | Enabling the C<PERL_VMS_POSIX_EXIT> logical name now encodes a POSIX exit |
2367 | status in a VMS condition value for better interaction with GNV's bash |
72d4e865 |
2368 | shell and other utilities that depend on POSIX exit values. See |
3ab3a109 |
2369 | L<perlvms/"$?"> for details. |
2370 | |
2371 | =item * |
2372 | |
2373 | C<File::Copy> now detects Unix compatibility mode on VMS. |
2374 | |
2375 | =back |
2376 | |
2377 | =item AIX |
2378 | |
2379 | Removed F<libbsd> for AIX 5L and 6.1. Only C<flock()> was used from F<libbsd>. |
2380 | |
2381 | Removed F<libgdbm> for AIX 5L and 6.1. The F<libgdbm> is delivered as an |
2382 | optional package with the AIX Toolbox. Unfortunately the 64 bit version |
2383 | is broken. |
2384 | |
2385 | Hints changes mean that AIX 4.2 should work again. |
2386 | |
2387 | =item Cygwin |
2388 | |
2389 | On Cygwin we now strip the last number from the DLL. This has been the |
2390 | behaviour in the cygwin.com build for years. The hints files have been |
2391 | updated. |
2392 | |
2393 | |
2394 | =item FreeBSD |
2395 | |
2396 | The hints files now identify the correct threading libraries on FreeBSD 7 |
2397 | and later. |
2398 | |
2399 | =item Irix |
2400 | |
2401 | We now work around a bizarre preprocessor bug in the Irix 6.5 compiler: |
2402 | C<cc -E -> unfortunately goes into K&R mode, but C<cc -E file.c> doesn't. |
2403 | |
2404 | =item NetBSD |
2405 | |
2406 | Hints now supports versions 5.*. |
2407 | |
2408 | =item Stratus VOS |
2409 | |
2410 | Various changes from Stratus have been merged in. |
2411 | |
2412 | =item Symbian |
2413 | |
2414 | There is now support for Symbian S60 3.2 SDK and S60 5.0 SDK. |
2415 | |
2416 | =back |
2417 | |
b6381718 |
2418 | |
3ab3a109 |
2419 | =head1 Known Problems |
2420 | |
2421 | This is a list of some significant unfixed bugs, which are regressions |
72d4e865 |
2422 | from either 5.10.x or 5.8.x. |
3ab3a109 |
2423 | |
2424 | =over 4 |
2425 | |
2426 | =item * |
2427 | |
2428 | C<List::Util::first> misbehaves in the presence of a lexical C<$_> |
2429 | (typically introduced by C<my $_> or implicitly by C<given>). The variable |
2430 | which gets set for each iteration is the package variable C<$_>, not the |
2431 | lexical C<$_> [RT #67694]. |
2432 | |
2433 | A similar issue may occur in other modules that provide functions which |
2434 | take a block as their first argument, like |
2435 | |
2436 | foo { ... $_ ...} list |
2437 | |
2438 | =item * |
2439 | |
3ab3a109 |
2440 | Some regexes may run much more slowly when run in a child thread compared |
2441 | with the thread the pattern was compiled into [RT #55600]. |
2442 | |
2443 | =item * |
2444 | |
3d3a8206 |
2445 | Things like C<"\N{LATIN SMALL LIGATURE FF}" =~ /\N{LATIN SMALL LETTER F}+/> |
2446 | will appear to hang as they get into a very long running loop [RT #72998]. |
2447 | |
2448 | =item * |
2449 | |
72d4e865 |
2450 | Several porters have reported mysterious crashes when Perl's entire test suite is run after a build on certain Windows 2000 systems. When run by hand, the individual tests reportedly work fine. |
3ab3a109 |
2451 | |
b6381718 |
2452 | =back |
2453 | |
2454 | =head1 Errata |
2455 | |
2456 | =over |
2457 | |
3ab3a109 |
2458 | =item * |
2459 | |
b6381718 |
2460 | This one is actually a change introduced in 5.10.0, but it was missed |
2461 | from that release's perldelta, so it is mentioned here instead. |
2462 | |
2463 | A bugfix related to the handling of the C</m> modifier and C<qr> resulted |
2464 | in a change of behaviour between 5.8.x and 5.10.0: |
3ab3a109 |
2465 | |
b6381718 |
2466 | # matches in 5.8.x, doesn't match in 5.10.0 |
2467 | $re = qr/^bar/; "foo\nbar" =~ /$re/m; |
3ab3a109 |
2468 | |
3ab3a109 |
2469 | =back |
2470 | |
2471 | =head1 Acknowledgements |
2472 | |
2473 | Perl 5.12.0 represents approximately two years of development since |
2474 | Perl 5.10.0 and contains __ lines of changes across ___ files |
2475 | from __ authors and committers: |
2476 | |
2477 | XXX TODO LIST |
2478 | |
2479 | Many of the changes included in this version originated in the CPAN |
2480 | modules included in Perl's core. We're grateful to the entire CPAN |
2481 | community for helping Perl to flourish. |
2482 | |
2483 | =head1 Reporting Bugs |
2484 | |
2485 | If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles |
2486 | recently posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl |
72d4e865 |
2487 | bug database at L<http://rt.perl.org/perlbug/>. There may also be |
3ab3a109 |
2488 | information at L<http://www.perl.org/>, the Perl Home Page. |
2489 | |
2490 | If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the B<perlbug> |
72d4e865 |
2491 | program included with your release. Be sure to trim your bug down |
2492 | to a tiny but sufficient test case. Your bug report, along with the |
3ab3a109 |
2493 | output of C<perl -V>, will be sent off to perlbug@perl.org to be |
2494 | analyzed by the Perl porting team. |
2495 | |
2496 | If the bug you are reporting has security implications, which make it |
2497 | inappropriate to send to a publicly archived mailing list, then please send |
2498 | it to perl5-security-report@perl.org. This points to a closed subscription |
2499 | unarchived mailing list, which includes all the core committers, who be able |
2500 | to help assess the impact of issues, figure out a resolution, and help |
2501 | co-ordinate the release of patches to mitigate or fix the problem across all |
2502 | platforms on which Perl is supported. Please only use this address for |
2503 | security issues in the Perl core, not for modules independently |
2504 | distributed on CPAN. |
2505 | |
2506 | =head1 SEE ALSO |
2507 | |
2508 | The F<Changes> file for an explanation of how to view exhaustive details |
2509 | on what changed. |
2510 | |
2511 | The F<INSTALL> file for how to build Perl. |
2512 | |
2513 | The F<README> file for general stuff. |
2514 | |
2515 | The F<Artistic> and F<Copying> files for copyright information. |
2516 | |
2517 | =cut |