Commit | Line | Data |
7214e7c3 |
1 | =head1 NAME |
2 | |
3 | perl589delta - what is new for perl v5.8.9 |
4 | |
5 | =head1 DESCRIPTION |
6 | |
7 | This document describes differences between the 5.8.8 release and |
8 | the 5.8.9 release. |
9 | |
10 | =head1 Notice |
11 | |
12 | The 5.8.9 release will be the last significant release of the 5.8.x |
13 | series. Any future releases of 5.8.x will likely only be to deal with |
14 | security issues, and platform build failures. Hence you should look to |
15 | migrating to 5.10.x, if you have not started already. |
16 | See L</"Known Problems"> for more information. |
17 | |
18 | =head1 Incompatible Changes |
19 | |
20 | A particular construction in the source code of extensions written in C++ |
21 | may need changing. See L</"Changed Internals"> for more details. All |
22 | extensions written in C, most written in C++, and all existing compiled |
23 | extensions are unaffected. This was necessary to improve C++ support. |
24 | |
25 | Other than this, there are no changes intentionally incompatible with 5.8.8. |
26 | If any exist, they are bugs and reports are welcome. |
27 | |
28 | =head1 Core Enhancements |
29 | |
30 | =head2 Unicode Character Database 5.1.0. |
31 | |
32 | The copy of the Unicode Character Database included in Perl 5.8 has |
33 | been updated to 5.1.0 from 4.1.0. See |
34 | L<http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode5.1.0/#NotableChanges> for the |
35 | notable changes. |
36 | |
37 | =head2 stat and -X on directory handles |
38 | |
39 | It is now possible to call C<stat> and the C<-X> filestat operators on |
40 | directory handles. As both directory and file handles are barewords, there |
41 | can be ambiguities over which was intended. In these situations the file |
42 | handle semantics are preferred. Both also treat C<*FILE{IO}> filehandles |
43 | like C<*FILE> filehandles. |
44 | |
45 | =head2 Source filters in @INC |
46 | |
47 | It's possible to enhance the mechanism of subroutine hooks in @INC by |
48 | adding a source filter on top of the filehandle opened and returned by the |
49 | hook. This feature was planned a long time ago, but wasn't quite working |
50 | until now. See L<perlfunc/require> for details. (Nicholas Clark) |
51 | |
52 | =head2 Exceptions in constant folding |
53 | |
54 | The constant folding routine is now wrapped in an exception handler, and |
55 | if folding throws an exception (such as attempting to evaluate 0/0), perl |
56 | now retains the current optree, rather than aborting the whole program. |
57 | Without this change, programs would not compile if they had expressions that |
58 | happened to generate exceptions, even though those expressions were in code |
59 | that could never be reached at runtime. (Nicholas Clark, Dave Mitchell) |
60 | |
61 | =head2 C<no VERSION> |
62 | |
63 | You can now use C<no> followed by a version number to specify that you |
64 | want to use a version of perl older than the specified one. |
65 | |
66 | =head2 Improved internal UTF-8 caching code |
67 | |
68 | The code that caches calculated UTF-8 byte offsets for character offsets for |
69 | a string has been re-written. Several bugs have been located and eliminated, |
70 | and the code now makes better use of the information it has, so should be |
71 | faster. In particular, it doesn't scan to the end of a string before |
72 | calculating an offset within the string, which should speed up some operations |
73 | on long strings. It is now possible to disable the caching code at run time, |
74 | to verify that it is not the cause of suspected problems. |
75 | |
76 | =head2 Runtime relocatable installations |
77 | |
78 | There is now F<Configure> support for creating a perl tree that is relocatable |
79 | at run time. see L</Relocatable installations>. |
80 | |
81 | =head2 New internal variables |
82 | |
83 | =over 4 |
84 | |
85 | =item C<${^CHILD_ERROR_NATIVE}> |
86 | |
87 | This variable gives the native status returned by the last pipe close, |
88 | backtick command, successful call to C<wait> or C<waitpid>, or from the |
89 | C<system> operator. See L<perlvar> for details. (Contributed by Gisle Aas.) |
90 | |
91 | =item C<${^UTF8CACHE}> |
92 | |
93 | This variable controls the state of the internal UTF-8 offset caching code. |
94 | 1 for on (the default), 0 for off, -1 to debug the caching code by checking |
95 | all its results against linear scans, and panicing on any discrepancy. |
96 | |
97 | =back |
98 | |
99 | =head2 C<readpipe> is now overridable |
100 | |
101 | The built-in function C<readpipe> is now overridable. Overriding it permits |
102 | also to override its operator counterpart, C<qx//> (also known as C<``>). |
103 | |
104 | =head2 simple exception handling macros |
105 | |
106 | Perl 5.8.9 (and 5.10.0 onwards) now provides a couple of macros to do very |
107 | basic exception handling in XS modules. You can use these macros if you call |
108 | code that may C<croak>, but you need to do some cleanup before giving control |
109 | back to Perl. See L<perlguts/Exception Handling> for more details. |
110 | |
111 | =head2 -D option enhancements |
112 | |
113 | =over |
114 | |
115 | =item * |
116 | |
117 | C<-Dq> suppresses the I<EXECUTING...> message when running under C<-D> |
118 | |
119 | =item * |
120 | |
121 | C<-Dl> logs runops loop entry and exit, and jump level popping. |
122 | |
123 | =item * |
124 | |
125 | C<-Dv> displays the process id as part of the trace output. |
126 | |
127 | =back |
128 | |
129 | =head2 XS-assisted SWASHGET |
130 | |
131 | Some pure-perl code that the regexp engine was using to retrieve Unicode |
132 | properties and transliteration mappings has been reimplemented in XS |
133 | for faster execution. |
134 | (SADAHIRO Tomoyuki) |
135 | |
136 | =head2 Constant subroutines |
137 | |
138 | The interpreter internals now support a far more memory efficient form of |
139 | inlineable constants. Storing a reference to a constant value in a symbol |
140 | table is equivalent to a full typeglob referencing a constant subroutine, |
141 | but using about 400 bytes less memory. This proxy constant subroutine is |
142 | automatically upgraded to a real typeglob with subroutine if necessary. |
143 | The approach taken is analogous to the existing space optimisation for |
144 | subroutine stub declarations, which are stored as plain scalars in place |
145 | of the full typeglob. |
146 | |
147 | However, to aid backwards compatibility of existing code, which (wrongly) |
148 | does not expect anything other than typeglobs in symbol tables, nothing in |
149 | core uses this feature, other than the regression tests. |
150 | |
151 | Stubs for prototyped subroutines have been stored in symbol tables as plain |
152 | strings, and stubs for unprototyped subroutines as the number -1, since 5.005, |
153 | so code which assumes that the core only places typeglobs in symbol tables |
154 | has been making incorrect assumptions for over 10 years. |
155 | |
156 | =head1 New Platforms |
157 | |
158 | Compile support added for: |
159 | |
160 | =over |
161 | |
162 | =item * |
163 | |
164 | DragonFlyBSD |
165 | |
166 | =item * |
167 | |
168 | MidnightBSD |
169 | |
170 | =item * |
171 | |
172 | MirOS BSD |
173 | |
174 | =item * |
175 | |
176 | RISC OS |
177 | |
178 | =item * |
179 | |
180 | Cray XT4/Catamount |
181 | |
182 | =back |
183 | |
184 | =head1 Modules and Pragmata |
185 | |
186 | =head2 New Modules |
187 | |
188 | =over |
189 | |
190 | =item * |
191 | |
192 | C<Module::Pluggable> is a simple framework to create modules that accept |
193 | pluggable sub-modules. The bundled version is 3.8 |
194 | |
195 | =item * |
196 | |
197 | C<Module::CoreList> is a hash of hashes that is keyed on perl version as |
198 | indicated in C<$]>. The bundled version is 2.17 |
199 | |
200 | =item * |
201 | |
202 | C<Win32API::File> now available in core on Microsoft Windows. The bundled |
203 | version is 0.1001_01 |
204 | |
205 | =item * |
206 | |
207 | C<Devel::InnerPackage> finds all the packages defined by a single file. It is |
208 | part of the C<Module::Pluggable> distribution. The bundled version is 0.3 |
209 | |
210 | =back |
211 | |
212 | =head2 Updated Modules |
213 | |
214 | =over |
215 | |
216 | =item * |
217 | |
218 | C<attributes> upgraded to version 0.09 |
219 | |
220 | =item * |
221 | |
222 | C<AutoLoader> upgraded to version 5.67 |
223 | |
224 | =item * |
225 | |
226 | C<AutoSplit> upgraded to 1.06 |
227 | |
228 | =item * |
229 | |
230 | C<autouse> upgraded to version 1.06 |
231 | |
232 | =item * |
233 | |
234 | C<B> upgraded from 1.09_01 to 1.19 |
235 | |
236 | =over |
237 | |
238 | =item * |
239 | |
240 | provides new pad related abstraction macros C<B::NV::COP_SEQ_RANGE_LOW>, |
241 | C<B::NV::COP_SEQ_RANGE_HIGH>, C<B::NV::PARENT_PAD_INDEX>, |
242 | C<B::NV::PARENT_FAKELEX_FLAGS>, which hides the difference in storage in |
243 | 5.10.0 and later. |
244 | |
245 | =item * |
246 | |
247 | provides C<B::sub_generation>, which exposes C<PL_sub_generation> |
248 | |
249 | =item * |
250 | |
251 | provides C<B::GV::isGV_with_GP>, which on pre-5.10 perls always returns true. |
252 | |
253 | =item * |
254 | |
255 | New type C<B::HE> added with methods C<VAL>, C<HASH> and C<SVKEY_force> |
256 | |
257 | =item * |
258 | |
259 | The C<B::GVf_IMPORTED_CV> flag is now set correctly when a proxy |
260 | constant subroutine is imported. |
261 | |
262 | =item * |
263 | |
264 | bugs fixed in the handling of C<PMOP>s. |
265 | |
266 | =item * |
267 | |
268 | C<B::BM::PREVIOUS> returns now C<U32>, not C<U16>. |
269 | C<B::CV::START> and C<B:CV::ROOT> return now C<NULL> on an XSUB, |
270 | C<B::CV::XSUB> and C<B::CV::XSUBANY> return 0 on a non-XSUB. |
271 | |
272 | =back |
273 | |
274 | =item * |
275 | |
276 | C<B::C> upgraded to 1.05 |
277 | |
278 | =item * |
279 | |
280 | C<B::Concise> upgraded to 0.76 |
281 | |
282 | =over |
283 | |
284 | =item * |
285 | |
286 | new option C<-src> causes the rendering of each statement (starting with |
287 | the nextstate OP) to be preceded by the first line of source code that |
288 | generates it. |
289 | |
290 | =item * |
291 | |
292 | new option C<-stash="somepackage">, C<require>s "somepackage", and then renders |
293 | each function defined in its namespace. |
294 | |
295 | =item * |
296 | |
297 | now has documentation of detailed hint symbols. |
298 | |
299 | =back |
300 | |
301 | =item * |
302 | |
303 | C<B::Debug> upgraded to version 1.05 |
304 | |
305 | =item * |
306 | |
307 | C<B::Deparse> upgraded to version 0.87 |
308 | |
309 | =over 4 |
310 | |
311 | =item * |
312 | |
313 | properly deparse C<print readpipe $x, $y>. |
314 | |
315 | =item * |
316 | |
317 | now handles C<''->()>, C<::()>, C<sub :: {}>, I<etc.> correctly [RT #43010]. |
318 | All bugs in parsing these kinds of syntax are now fixed: |
319 | |
320 | perl -MO=Deparse -e '"my %h = "->()' |
321 | perl -MO=Deparse -e '::->()' |
322 | perl -MO=Deparse -e 'sub :: {}' |
323 | perl -MO=Deparse -e 'package a; sub a::b::c {}' |
324 | perl -MO=Deparse -e 'sub the::main::road {}' |
325 | |
326 | =item * |
327 | |
328 | does B<not> deparse C<$^H{v_string}>, which is automatically set by the |
329 | internals. |
330 | |
331 | =back |
332 | |
333 | =item * |
334 | |
335 | C<B::Lint> upgraded to version 1.11 |
336 | |
337 | =item * |
338 | |
339 | C<B::Terse> upgraded to version 1.05 |
340 | |
341 | =item * |
342 | |
343 | C<base> upgraded to version 2.13 |
344 | |
345 | =over 4 |
346 | |
347 | =item * |
348 | |
349 | loading a module via base.pm would mask a global C<$SIG{__DIE__}> in that |
350 | module. |
351 | |
352 | =item * |
353 | |
354 | push all classes at once in C<@ISA> |
355 | |
356 | =back |
357 | |
358 | =item * |
359 | |
360 | C<Benchmark> upgraded to version 1.10 |
361 | |
362 | =item * |
363 | |
364 | C<bigint> upgraded to 0.23 |
365 | |
366 | =item * |
367 | |
368 | C<bignum> upgraded to 0.23 |
369 | |
370 | =item * |
371 | |
372 | C<bigrat> upgraded to 0.23 |
373 | |
374 | =item * |
375 | |
376 | C<blib> upgraded to 0.04 |
377 | |
378 | =item * |
379 | |
380 | C<Carp> upgraded to version 1.10 |
381 | |
382 | The argument backtrace code now shows C<undef> as C<undef>, |
383 | instead of a string I<"undef">. |
384 | |
385 | =item * |
386 | |
387 | C<CGI> upgraded to version 3.42 |
388 | |
389 | =item * |
390 | |
391 | C<charnames> upgraded to 1.06 |
392 | |
393 | =item * |
394 | |
395 | C<constant> upgraded to version 1.17 |
396 | |
397 | =item * |
398 | |
399 | C<CPAN> upgraded to version 1.9301 |
400 | |
401 | =item * |
402 | |
403 | C<Cwd> upgraded to version 3.29 with some platform specific |
404 | improvements (including for VMS). |
405 | |
406 | =item * |
407 | |
408 | C<Data::Dumper> upgraded to version 2.121_17 |
409 | |
410 | =over |
411 | |
412 | =item * |
413 | |
414 | Fixes hash iterator current position with the pure Perl version [RT #40668] |
415 | |
416 | =item * |
417 | |
418 | Performance enhancements, which will be most evident on platforms where |
419 | repeated calls to C's C<realloc()> are slow, such as Win32. |
420 | |
421 | =back |
422 | |
423 | =item * |
424 | |
425 | C<DB_File> upgraded to version 1.817 |
426 | |
427 | =item * |
428 | |
429 | C<DB_Filter> upgraded to version 0.02 |
430 | |
431 | =item * |
432 | |
433 | C<Devel::DProf> upgraded to version 20080331.00 |
434 | |
435 | =item * |
436 | |
437 | C<Devel::Peek> upgraded to version 1.04 |
438 | |
439 | =item * |
440 | |
441 | C<Devel::PPPort> upgraded to version 3.14 |
442 | |
443 | =item * |
444 | |
445 | C<diagnostics> upgraded to version 1.16 |
446 | |
447 | =item * |
448 | |
449 | C<Digest> upgraded to version 1.15 |
450 | |
451 | =item * |
452 | |
453 | C<Digest::MD5> upgraded to version 2.37 |
454 | |
455 | =item * |
456 | |
457 | C<DirHandle> upgraded to version 1.02 |
458 | |
459 | =over |
460 | |
461 | =item * |
462 | |
463 | now localises C<$.>, C<$@>, C<$!>, C<$^E>, and C<$?> before closing the |
464 | directory handle to suppress leaking any side effects of warnings about it |
465 | already being closed. |
466 | |
467 | =back |
468 | |
469 | =item * |
470 | |
471 | C<DynaLoader> upgraded to version 1.09 |
472 | |
473 | C<DynaLoader> can now dynamically load a loadable object from a file with a |
474 | non-default file extension. |
475 | |
476 | =item * |
477 | |
478 | C<Encode> upgraded to version 2.26 |
479 | |
480 | C<Encode::Alias> includes a fix for encoding "646" on Solaris (better known as |
481 | ASCII). |
482 | |
483 | =item * |
484 | |
485 | C<English> upgraded to version 1.03 |
486 | |
487 | =item * |
488 | |
489 | C<Errno> upgraded to version 1.10 |
490 | |
491 | =item * |
492 | |
493 | C<Exporter> upgraded to version 5.63 |
494 | |
495 | =item * |
496 | |
497 | C<ExtUtils::Command> upgraded to version 1.15 |
498 | |
499 | =item * |
500 | |
501 | C<ExtUtils::Constant> upgraded to version 0.21 |
502 | |
503 | =item * |
504 | |
505 | C<ExtUtils::Embed> upgraded to version 1.28 |
506 | |
507 | =item * |
508 | |
509 | C<ExtUtils::Install> upgraded to version 1.50_01 |
510 | |
511 | =item * |
512 | |
513 | C<ExtUtils::Installed> upgraded to version 1.43 |
514 | |
515 | =item * |
516 | |
517 | C<ExtUtils::MakeMaker> upgraded to version 6.48 |
518 | |
519 | =over |
520 | |
521 | =item * |
522 | |
523 | support for C<INSTALLSITESCRIPT> and C<INSTALLVENDORSCRIPT> |
524 | configuration. |
525 | |
526 | =back |
527 | |
528 | =item * |
529 | |
530 | C<ExtUtils::Manifest> upgraded to version 1.55 |
531 | |
532 | =item * |
533 | |
534 | C<ExtUtils::ParseXS> upgraded to version 2.19 |
535 | |
536 | =item * |
537 | |
538 | C<Fatal> upgraded to version 1.06 |
539 | |
540 | =over |
541 | |
542 | =item * |
543 | |
544 | allows built-ins in C<CORE::GLOBAL> to be made fatal. |
545 | |
546 | =back |
547 | |
548 | =item * |
549 | |
550 | C<Fcntl> upgraded to version 1.06 |
551 | |
552 | =item * |
553 | |
554 | C<fields> upgraded to version 2.12 |
555 | |
556 | =item * |
557 | |
558 | C<File::Basename> upgraded to version 2.77 |
559 | |
560 | =item * |
561 | |
562 | C<FileCache> upgraded to version 1.07 |
563 | |
564 | =item * |
565 | |
566 | C<File::Compare> upgraded to 1.1005 |
567 | |
568 | =item * |
569 | |
570 | C<File::Copy> upgraded to 2.13 |
571 | |
572 | =over 4 |
573 | |
574 | =item * |
575 | |
576 | now uses 3-arg open. |
577 | |
578 | =back |
579 | |
580 | =item * |
581 | |
582 | C<File::DosGlob> upgraded to 1.01 |
583 | |
584 | =item * |
585 | |
586 | C<File::Find> upgraded to version 1.13 |
587 | |
588 | =item * |
589 | |
590 | C<File::Glob> upgraded to version 1.06 |
591 | |
592 | =over |
593 | |
594 | =item * |
595 | |
596 | fixes spurious results with brackets inside braces. |
597 | |
598 | =back |
599 | |
600 | =item * |
601 | |
602 | C<File::Path> upgraded to version 2.07_02 |
603 | |
604 | =item * |
605 | |
606 | C<File::Spec> upgraded to version 3.29 |
607 | |
608 | =over 4 |
609 | |
610 | =item * |
611 | |
612 | improved handling of bad arguments. |
613 | |
614 | =item * |
615 | |
616 | some platform specific improvements (including for VMS and Cygwin), with |
617 | an optimisation on C<abs2rel> when handling both relative arguments. |
618 | |
619 | =back |
620 | |
621 | =item * |
622 | |
623 | C<File::stat> upgraded to version 1.01 |
624 | |
625 | =item * |
626 | |
627 | C<File::Temp> upgraded to version 0.20 |
628 | |
629 | =item * |
630 | |
631 | C<filetest> upgraded to version 1.02 |
632 | |
633 | =item * |
634 | |
635 | C<Filter::Util::Call> upgraded to version 1.07 |
636 | |
637 | =item * |
638 | |
639 | C<Filter::Simple> upgraded to version 0.83 |
640 | |
641 | =item * |
642 | |
643 | C<FindBin> upgraded to version 1.49 |
644 | |
645 | =item * |
646 | |
647 | C<GDBM_File> upgraded to version 1.09 |
648 | |
649 | =item * |
650 | |
651 | C<Getopt::Long> upgraded to version 2.37 |
652 | |
653 | =item * |
654 | |
655 | C<Getopt::Std> upgraded to version 1.06 |
656 | |
657 | =item * |
658 | |
659 | C<Hash::Util> upgraded to version 0.06 |
660 | |
661 | =item * |
662 | |
663 | C<if> upgraded to version 0.05 |
664 | |
665 | =item * |
666 | |
667 | C<IO> upgraded to version 1.23 |
668 | |
669 | Reduced number of calls to C<getpeername> in C<IO::Socket> |
670 | |
671 | =item * |
672 | |
673 | C<IPC::Open> upgraded to version 1.03 |
674 | |
675 | =item * |
676 | |
677 | C<IPC::Open3> upgraded to version 1.03 |
678 | |
679 | =item * |
680 | |
681 | C<IPC::SysV> upgraded to version 2.00 |
682 | |
683 | =item * |
684 | |
685 | C<lib> upgraded to version 0.61 |
686 | |
687 | =over |
688 | |
689 | =item * |
690 | |
691 | avoid warning about loading F<.par> files. |
692 | |
693 | =back |
694 | |
695 | =item * |
696 | |
697 | C<libnet> upgraded to version 1.22 |
698 | |
699 | =item * |
700 | |
701 | C<List::Util> upgraded to 1.19 |
702 | |
703 | =item * |
704 | |
705 | C<Locale::Maketext> upgraded to 1.13 |
706 | |
707 | =item * |
708 | |
709 | C<Math::BigFloat> upgraded to version 1.60 |
710 | |
711 | =item * |
712 | |
713 | C<Math::BigInt> upgraded to version 1.89 |
714 | |
715 | =item * |
716 | |
717 | C<Math::BigRat> upgraded to version 0.22 |
718 | |
719 | =over 4 |
720 | |
721 | =item * |
722 | |
723 | implements new C<as_float> method. |
724 | |
725 | =back |
726 | |
727 | =item * |
728 | |
729 | C<Math::Complex> upgraded to version 1.54. |
730 | |
731 | =item * |
732 | |
733 | C<Math::Trig> upgraded to version 1.18. |
734 | |
735 | =item * |
736 | |
737 | C<NDBM_File> upgraded to version 1.07 |
738 | |
739 | =over |
740 | |
741 | =item * |
742 | |
743 | improve F<g++> handling for systems using GDBM compatibility headers. |
744 | |
745 | =back |
746 | |
747 | =item * |
748 | |
749 | C<Net::Ping> upgraded to version 2.35 |
750 | |
751 | =item * |
752 | |
753 | C<NEXT> upgraded to version 0.61 |
754 | |
755 | =over |
756 | |
757 | =item * |
758 | |
759 | fix several bugs with C<NEXT> when working with C<AUTOLOAD>, C<eval> block, and |
760 | within overloaded stringification. |
761 | |
762 | =back |
763 | |
764 | =item * |
765 | |
766 | C<ODBM_File> upgraded to 1.07 |
767 | |
768 | =item * |
769 | |
770 | C<open> upgraded to 1.06 |
771 | |
772 | =item * |
773 | |
774 | C<ops> upgraded to 1.02 |
775 | |
776 | =item * |
777 | |
778 | C<PerlIO::encoding> upgraded to version 0.11 |
779 | |
780 | =item * |
781 | |
782 | C<PerlIO::scalar> upgraded to version 0.06 |
783 | |
784 | =over 4 |
785 | |
786 | =item * |
787 | |
788 | [RT #40267] C<PerlIO::scalar> doesn't respect readonly-ness. |
789 | |
790 | =back |
791 | |
792 | =item * |
793 | |
794 | C<PerlIO::via> upgraded to version 0.05 |
795 | |
796 | =item * |
797 | |
798 | C<Pod::Html> upgraded to version 1.09 |
799 | |
800 | =item * |
801 | |
802 | C<Pod::Parser> upgraded to version 1.35 |
803 | |
804 | =item * |
805 | |
806 | C<Pod::Usage> upgraded to version 1.35 |
807 | |
808 | =item * |
809 | |
810 | C<POSIX> upgraded to version 1.15 |
811 | |
812 | =over |
813 | |
814 | =item * |
815 | |
816 | C<POSIX> constants that duplicate those in C<Fcntl> are now imported from |
817 | C<Fcntl> and re-exported, rather than being duplicated by C<POSIX> |
818 | |
819 | =item * |
820 | |
821 | C<POSIX::remove> can remove empty directories. |
822 | |
823 | =item * |
824 | |
825 | C<POSIX::setlocale> safer to call multiple times. |
826 | |
827 | =item * |
828 | |
829 | C<POSIX::SigRt> added, which provides access to POSIX realtime signal |
830 | functionality on systems that support it. |
831 | |
832 | =back |
833 | |
834 | =item * |
835 | |
836 | C<re> upgraded to version 0.06_01 |
837 | |
838 | =item * |
839 | |
840 | C<Safe> upgraded to version 2.16 |
841 | |
842 | =item * |
843 | |
844 | C<Scalar::Util> upgraded to 1.19 |
845 | |
846 | =item * |
847 | |
848 | C<SDBM_File> upgraded to version 1.06 |
849 | |
850 | =item * |
851 | |
852 | C<SelfLoader> upgraded to version 1.17 |
853 | |
854 | =item * |
855 | |
856 | C<Shell> upgraded to version 0.72 |
857 | |
858 | =item * |
859 | |
860 | C<sigtrap> upgraded to version 1.04 |
861 | |
862 | =item * |
863 | |
864 | C<Socket> upgraded to version 1.81 |
865 | |
866 | =over |
867 | |
868 | =item * |
869 | |
870 | this fixes an optimistic use of C<gethostbyname> |
871 | |
872 | =back |
873 | |
874 | =item * |
875 | |
876 | C<Storable> upgraded to 2.19 |
877 | |
878 | =item * |
879 | |
880 | C<Switch> upgraded to version 2.13 |
881 | |
882 | =item * |
883 | |
884 | C<Sys::Syslog> upgraded to version 0.27 |
885 | |
886 | =item * |
887 | |
888 | C<Term::ANSIColor> upgraded to version 1.12 |
889 | |
890 | =item * |
891 | |
892 | C<Term::Cap> upgraded to version 1.12 |
893 | |
894 | =item * |
895 | |
896 | C<Term::ReadLine> upgraded to version 1.03 |
897 | |
898 | =item * |
899 | |
900 | C<Test::Builder> upgraded to version 0.80 |
901 | |
902 | =item * |
903 | |
904 | C<Test::Harness> upgraded version to 2.64 |
905 | |
906 | =over |
907 | |
908 | =item * |
909 | |
910 | this makes it able to handle newlines. |
911 | |
912 | =back |
913 | |
914 | =item * |
915 | |
916 | C<Test::More> upgraded to version 0.80 |
917 | |
918 | =item * |
919 | |
920 | C<Test::Simple> upgraded to version 0.80 |
921 | |
922 | =item * |
923 | |
924 | C<Text::Balanced> upgraded to version 1.98 |
925 | |
926 | =item * |
927 | |
928 | C<Text::ParseWords> upgraded to version 3.27 |
929 | |
930 | =item * |
931 | |
932 | C<Text::Soundex> upgraded to version 3.03 |
933 | |
934 | =item * |
935 | |
936 | C<Text::Tabs> upgraded to version 2007.1117 |
937 | |
938 | =item * |
939 | |
940 | C<Text::Wrap> upgraded to version 2006.1117 |
941 | |
942 | =item * |
943 | |
944 | C<Thread> upgraded to version 2.01 |
945 | |
946 | =item * |
947 | |
948 | C<Thread::Semaphore> upgraded to version 2.09 |
949 | |
950 | =item * |
951 | |
952 | C<Thread::Queue> upgraded to version 2.11 |
953 | |
954 | =over |
955 | |
956 | =item * |
957 | |
958 | added capability to add complex structures (e.g., hash of hashes) to queues. |
959 | |
960 | =item * |
961 | |
962 | added capability to dequeue multiple items at once. |
963 | |
964 | =item * |
965 | |
966 | added new methods to inspect and manipulate queues: C<peek>, C<insert> and |
967 | C<extract> |
968 | |
969 | =back |
970 | |
971 | =item * |
972 | |
973 | C<Tie::Handle> upgraded to version 4.2 |
974 | |
975 | =item * |
976 | |
977 | C<Tie::Hash> upgraded to version 1.03 |
978 | |
979 | =item * |
980 | |
981 | C<Tie::Memoize> upgraded to version 1.1 |
982 | |
983 | =over |
984 | |
985 | =item * |
986 | |
987 | C<Tie::Memoize::EXISTS> now correctly caches its results. |
988 | |
989 | =back |
990 | |
991 | =item * |
992 | |
993 | C<Tie::RefHash> upgraded to version 1.38 |
994 | |
995 | =item * |
996 | |
997 | C<Tie::Scalar> upgraded to version 1.01 |
998 | |
999 | =item * |
1000 | |
1001 | C<Tie::StdHandle> upgraded to version 4.2 |
1002 | |
1003 | =item * |
1004 | |
1005 | C<Time::gmtime> upgraded to version 1.03 |
1006 | |
1007 | =item * |
1008 | |
1009 | C<Time::Local> upgraded to version 1.1901 |
1010 | |
1011 | =item * |
1012 | |
1013 | C<Time::HiRes> upgraded to version 1.9715 with various build improvements |
1014 | (including VMS) and minor platform-specific bug fixes (including |
1015 | for HP-UX 11 ia64). |
1016 | |
1017 | =item * |
1018 | |
1019 | C<threads> upgraded to 1.71 |
1020 | |
1021 | =over |
1022 | |
1023 | =item * |
1024 | |
1025 | new thread state information methods: C<is_running>, C<is_detached> |
1026 | and C<is_joinable>. C<list> method enhanced to return running or joinable |
1027 | threads. |
1028 | |
1029 | =item * |
1030 | |
1031 | new thread signal method: C<kill> |
1032 | |
1033 | =item * |
1034 | |
1035 | added capability to specify thread stack size. |
1036 | |
1037 | =item * |
1038 | |
1039 | added capability to control thread exiting behavior. Added a new C<exit> |
1040 | method. |
1041 | |
1042 | =back |
1043 | |
1044 | =item * |
1045 | |
1046 | C<threads::shared> upgraded to version 1.27 |
1047 | |
1048 | =over |
1049 | |
1050 | =item * |
1051 | |
1052 | smaller and faster implementation that eliminates one internal structure and |
1053 | the consequent level of indirection. |
1054 | |
1055 | =item * |
1056 | |
1057 | user locks are now stored in a safer manner. |
1058 | |
1059 | =item * |
1060 | |
1061 | new function C<shared_clone> creates a copy of an object leaving |
1062 | shared elements as-is and deep-cloning non-shared elements. |
1063 | |
1064 | =item * |
1065 | |
1066 | added new C<is_shared> method. |
1067 | |
1068 | =back |
1069 | |
1070 | =item * |
1071 | |
1072 | C<Unicode::Normalize> upgraded to version 1.02 |
1073 | |
1074 | =item * |
1075 | |
1076 | C<Unicode::UCD> upgraded to version 0.25 |
1077 | |
1078 | =item * |
1079 | |
1080 | C<warnings> upgraded to version 1.05_01 |
1081 | |
1082 | =item * |
1083 | |
1084 | C<Win32> upgraded to version 0.38 |
1085 | |
1086 | =over 4 |
1087 | |
1088 | =item * |
1089 | |
1090 | added new function C<GetCurrentProcessId> which returns the regular Windows |
1091 | process identifier of the current process, even when called from within a fork. |
1092 | |
1093 | =back |
1094 | |
1095 | =item * |
1096 | |
1097 | C<XSLoader> upgraded to version 0.10 |
1098 | |
1099 | =item * |
1100 | |
1101 | C<XS::APItest> and C<XS::Typemap> are for internal use only and hence |
1102 | no longer installed. Many more tests have been added to C<XS::APItest>. |
1103 | |
1104 | =back |
1105 | |
1106 | =head1 Utility Changes |
1107 | |
1108 | =head2 debugger upgraded to version 1.31 |
1109 | |
1110 | =over 4 |
1111 | |
1112 | =item * |
1113 | |
1114 | Andreas KE<ouml>nig contributed two functions to save and load the debugger |
1115 | history. |
1116 | |
1117 | =item * |
1118 | |
1119 | C<NEXT::AUTOLOAD> no longer emits warnings under the debugger. |
1120 | |
1121 | =item * |
1122 | |
1123 | The debugger should now correctly find tty the device on OS X 10.5 and VMS |
1124 | when the program C<fork>s. |
1125 | |
1126 | =item * |
1127 | |
1128 | LVALUE subs now work inside the debugger. |
1129 | |
1130 | =back |
1131 | |
1132 | =head2 F<perlthanks> |
1133 | |
1134 | Perl 5.8.9 adds a new utility F<perlthanks>, which is a variant of F<perlbug>, |
1135 | but for sending non-bug-reports to the authors and maintainers of Perl. |
1136 | Getting nothing but bug reports can become a bit demoralising - we'll see if |
1137 | this changes things. |
1138 | |
1139 | =head2 F<perlbug> |
1140 | |
1141 | F<perlbug> now checks if you're reporting about a non-core module and suggests |
1142 | you report it to the CPAN author instead. |
1143 | |
1144 | =head2 F<h2xs> |
1145 | |
1146 | =over |
1147 | |
1148 | =item * |
1149 | |
1150 | won't define an empty string as a constant [RT #25366] |
1151 | |
1152 | =item * |
1153 | |
1154 | has examples for C<h2xs -X> |
1155 | |
1156 | =back |
1157 | |
1158 | =head2 F<h2ph> |
1159 | |
1160 | =over 4 |
1161 | |
1162 | =item * |
1163 | |
1164 | now attempts to deal sensibly with the difference in path implications |
1165 | between C<""> and C<< E<lt>E<gt> >> quoting in C<#include> statements. |
1166 | |
1167 | =item * |
1168 | |
1169 | now generates correct correct code for C<#if defined A || defined B> |
1170 | [RT #39130] |
1171 | |
1172 | =back |
1173 | |
1174 | =head1 New Documentation |
1175 | |
1176 | As usual, the documentation received its share of corrections, clarifications |
1177 | and other nitfixes. More C<< X<...> >> tags were added for indexing. |
1178 | |
1179 | L<perlunitut> is a tutorial written by Juerd Waalboer on Unicode-related |
1180 | terminology and how to correctly handle Unicode in Perl scripts. |
1181 | |
1182 | L<perlunicode> is updated in section user defined properties. |
1183 | |
1184 | L<perluniintro> has been updated in the example of detecting data that is not |
1185 | valid in particular encoding. |
1186 | |
1187 | L<perlcommunity> provides an overview of the Perl Community along with further |
1188 | resources. |
1189 | |
1190 | L<CORE> documents the pseudo-namespace for Perl's core routines. |
1191 | |
1192 | =head1 Changes to Existing Documentation |
1193 | |
1194 | L<perlglossary> adds I<deprecated modules and features> and I<to be dropped modules>. |
1195 | |
1196 | L<perlhack> has been updated and added resources on smoke testing. |
1197 | |
1198 | The Perl FAQs (F<perlfaq1>..F<perlfaq9>) have been updated. |
1199 | |
1200 | L<perlcheat> is updated with better details on C<\w>, C<\d>, and C<\s>. |
1201 | |
1202 | L<perldebug> is updated with information on how to call the debugger. |
1203 | |
1204 | L<perldiag> documentation updated with I<subroutine with an ampersand> on the |
1205 | argument to C<exists> and C<delete> and also several terminology updates on |
1206 | warnings. |
1207 | |
1208 | L<perlfork> documents the limitation of C<exec> inside pseudo-processes. |
1209 | |
1210 | L<perlfunc>: |
1211 | |
1212 | =over |
1213 | |
1214 | =item * |
1215 | |
1216 | Documentation is fixed in section C<caller> and C<pop>. |
1217 | |
1218 | =item * |
1219 | |
1220 | Function C<alarm> now mentions C<Time::HiRes::ualarm> in preference |
1221 | to C<select>. |
1222 | |
1223 | =item * |
1224 | |
1225 | Regarding precedence in C<-X>, filetest operators are the same as unary |
1226 | operators, but not regarding parsing and parentheses (spotted by Eirik Berg |
1227 | Hanssen). |
1228 | |
1229 | =item * |
1230 | |
1231 | L<reverse> function documentation received scalar context examples. |
1232 | |
1233 | =back |
1234 | |
1235 | L<perllocale> documentation is adjusted for number localization and |
1236 | C<POSIX::setlocale> to fix Debian bug #379463. |
1237 | |
1238 | L<perlmodlib> is updated with C<CPAN::API::HOWTO> and |
1239 | C<Sys::Syslog::win32::Win32> |
1240 | |
1241 | L<perlre> documentation updated to reflect the differences between |
1242 | C<[[:xxxxx:]]> and C<\p{IsXxxxx}> matches. Also added section on C</g> and |
1243 | C</c> modifiers. |
1244 | |
1245 | L<perlreguts> describe the internals of the regular expressions engine. It has |
1246 | been contributed by Yves Orton. |
1247 | |
1248 | L<perlrebackslash> describes all perl regular expression backslash and escape |
1249 | sequences. |
1250 | |
1251 | L<perlrecharclass> describes the syntax and use of character classes in |
1252 | Perl Regular Expressions. |
1253 | |
1254 | L<perlrun> is updated to clarify on the hash seed I<PERL_HASH_SEED>. Also more |
1255 | information in options C<-x> and C<-u>. |
1256 | |
1257 | L<perlsub> example is updated to use a lexical variable for C<opendir> syntax. |
1258 | |
1259 | L<perlvar> fixes confusion about real GID C<$(> and effective GID C<$)>. |
1260 | |
1261 | Perl thread tutorial example is fixed in section |
1262 | L<perlthrtut/Queues: Passing Data Around> and L<perlothrtut>. |
1263 | |
1264 | L<perlhack> documentation extensively improved by Jarkko Hietaniemi and others. |
1265 | |
1266 | L<perltoot> provides information on modifying C<@UNIVERSAL::ISA>. |
1267 | |
1268 | L<perlport> documentation extended to include different C<kill(-9, ...)> |
1269 | semantics on Windows. It also clearly states C<dump> is not supported on Win32 |
1270 | and cygwin. |
1271 | |
1272 | F<INSTALL> has been updated and modernised. |
1273 | |
1274 | =head1 Performance Enhancements |
1275 | |
1276 | =over |
1277 | |
1278 | =item * |
1279 | |
1280 | The default since perl 5.000 has been for perl to create an empty scalar |
1281 | with every new typeglob. The increased use of lexical variables means that |
1282 | most are now unused. Thanks to Nicholas Clark's efforts, Perl can now be |
1283 | compiled with C<-DPERL_DONT_CREATE_GVSV> to avoid creating these empty scalars. |
1284 | This will significantly decrease the number of scalars allocated for all |
1285 | configurations, and the number of scalars that need to be copied for ithread |
1286 | creation. Whilst this option is binary compatible with existing perl |
1287 | installations, it does change a long-standing assumption about the |
1288 | internals, hence it is not enabled by default, as some third party code may |
1289 | rely on the old behaviour. |
1290 | |
1291 | We would recommend testing with this configuration on new deployments of |
1292 | perl, particularly for multi-threaded servers, to see whether all third party |
1293 | code is compatible with it, as this configuration may give useful performance |
1294 | improvements. For existing installations we would not recommend changing to |
1295 | this configuration unless thorough testing is performed before deployment. |
1296 | |
1297 | =item * |
1298 | |
1299 | C<diagnostics> no longer uses C<$&>, which results in large speedups |
1300 | for regexp matching in all code using it. |
1301 | |
1302 | =item * |
1303 | |
1304 | Regular expressions classes of a single character are now treated the same as |
1305 | if the character had been used as a literal, meaning that code that uses |
1306 | char-classes as an escaping mechanism will see a speedup. (Yves Orton) |
1307 | |
1308 | =item * |
1309 | |
1310 | Creating anonymous array and hash references (ie. C<[]> and C<{}>) now incurs |
1311 | no more overhead than creating an anonymous list or hash. Nicholas Clark |
1312 | provided changes with a saving of two ops and one stack push, which was measured |
1313 | as a slightly better than 5% improvement for these operations. |
1314 | |
1315 | =item * |
1316 | |
1317 | Many calls to C<strlen()> have been eliminated, either because the length was |
1318 | already known, or by adopting or enhancing APIs that pass lengths. This has |
1319 | been aided by the adoption of a C<my_sprintf()> wrapper, which returns the |
1320 | correct C89 value - the length of the formatted string. Previously we could |
1321 | not rely on the return value of C<sprintf()>, because on some ancient but |
1322 | extant platforms it still returns C<char *>. |
1323 | |
1324 | =item * |
1325 | |
1326 | C<index> is now faster if the search string is stored in UTF-8 but only contains |
1327 | characters in the Latin-1 range. |
1328 | |
1329 | =item * |
1330 | |
1331 | The Unicode swatch cache inside the regexp engine is now used. (the lookup had |
1332 | a key mismatch, present since the initial implementation). [RT #42839] |
1333 | |
1334 | =back |
1335 | |
1336 | =head1 Installation and Configuration Improvements |
1337 | |
1338 | =head2 Relocatable installations |
1339 | |
1340 | There is now F<Configure> support for creating a relocatable perl tree. If |
1341 | you F<Configure> with C<-Duserelocatableinc>, then the paths in C<@INC> (and |
1342 | everything else in C<%Config>) can be optionally located via the path of the |
1343 | F<perl> executable. |
1344 | |
1345 | At start time, if any paths in C<@INC> or C<Config> that F<Configure> marked |
1346 | as relocatable (by starting them with C<".../">), then they are prefixed the |
1347 | directory of C<$^X>. This allows the relocation can be configured on a |
1348 | per-directory basis, although the default with C<-Duserelocatableinc> is that |
1349 | everything is relocated. The initial install is done to the original configured |
1350 | prefix. |
1351 | |
1352 | =head2 Configuration improvements |
1353 | |
1354 | F<Configure> is now better at removing temporary files. Tom Callaway |
1355 | (from RedHat) also contributed patches that complete the set of flags |
1356 | passed to the compiler and the linker, in particular that C<-fPIC> is now |
1357 | enabled on Linux. It will also croak when your F</dev/null> isn't a device. |
1358 | |
1359 | A new configuration variable C<d_pseudofork> has been to F<Configure>, and is |
1360 | available as C<$Config{d_pseudofork}> in the C<Config> module. This |
1361 | distinguishes real C<fork> support from the pseudofork emulation used on |
1362 | Windows platforms. |
1363 | |
1364 | F<Config.pod> and F<config.sh> are now placed correctly for cross-compilation. |
1365 | |
1366 | C<$Config{useshrplib}> is now 'true' rather than 'yes' when using a shared perl |
1367 | library. |
1368 | |
1369 | =head2 Compilation improvements |
1370 | |
1371 | Parallel makes should work properly now, although there may still be problems |
1372 | if C<make test> is instructed to run in parallel. |
1373 | |
1374 | Many compilation warnings have been cleaned up. A very stubborn compiler |
1375 | warning in C<S_emulate_eaccess()> was killed after six attempts. |
1376 | F<g++> support has been tuned, especially for FreeBSD. |
1377 | |
1378 | F<mkppport> has been integrated, and all F<ppport.h> files in the core will now |
1379 | be autogenerated at build time (and removed during cleanup). |
1380 | |
1381 | =head2 Installation improvements. |
1382 | |
1383 | F<installman> now works with C<-Duserelocatableinc> and C<DESTDIR>. |
1384 | |
1385 | F<installperl> no longer installs: |
1386 | |
1387 | =over 4 |
1388 | |
1389 | =item * |
1390 | |
1391 | static library files of statically linked extensions when a shared perl library |
1392 | is being used. (They are not needed. See L</Windows> below). |
1393 | |
1394 | =item * |
1395 | |
1396 | F<SIGNATURE> and F<PAUSE*.pub> (CPAN files) |
1397 | |
1398 | =item * |
1399 | |
1400 | F<NOTES> and F<PATCHING> (ExtUtils files) |
1401 | |
1402 | =item * |
1403 | |
1404 | F<perlld> and F<ld2> (Cygwin files) |
1405 | |
1406 | =back |
1407 | |
1408 | =head2 Platform Specific Changes |
1409 | |
1410 | There are improved hints for AIX, Cygwin, DEC/OSF, FreeBSD, HP/UX, Irix 6 |
1411 | Linux, MachTen, NetBSD, OS/390, QNX, SCO, Solaris, SunOS, System V Release 5.x |
1412 | (UnixWare 7, OpenUNIX 8), Ultrix, UMIPS, uts and VOS. |
1413 | |
1414 | =head3 FreeBSD |
1415 | |
1416 | =over 4 |
1417 | |
1418 | =item * |
1419 | |
1420 | Drop C<-std=c89> and C<-ansi> if using C<long long> as the main integral type, |
1421 | else in FreeBSD 6.2 (and perhaps other releases), system headers do not |
1422 | declare some functions required by perl. |
1423 | |
1424 | =back |
1425 | |
1426 | =head3 Solaris |
1427 | |
1428 | =over 4 |
1429 | |
1430 | =item * |
1431 | |
1432 | Starting with Solaris 10, we do not want versioned shared libraries, because |
1433 | those often indicate a private use only library. These problems could often |
1434 | be triggered when L<SUNWbdb> (Berkeley DB) was installed. Hence if Solaris 10 |
1435 | is detected set C<ignore_versioned_solibs=y>. |
1436 | |
1437 | =back |
1438 | |
1439 | =head3 VMS |
1440 | |
1441 | =over 4 |
1442 | |
1443 | =item * |
1444 | |
1445 | Allow IEEE math to be deselected on OpenVMS I64 (but it remains the default). |
1446 | |
1447 | =item * |
1448 | |
1449 | Record IEEE usage in C<config.h> |
1450 | |
1451 | =item * |
1452 | |
1453 | Help older VMS compilers by using C<ccflags> when building C<munchconfig.exe>. |
1454 | |
1455 | =item * |
1456 | |
1457 | Don't try to build old C<Thread> extension on VMS when C<-Duseithreads> has |
1458 | been chosen. |
1459 | |
1460 | =item * |
1461 | |
1462 | Passing a raw string of "NaN" to F<nawk> causes a core dump - so the string |
1463 | has been changed to "*NaN*" |
1464 | |
1465 | =item * |
1466 | |
1467 | F<t/op/stat.t> tests will now test hard links on VMS if they are supported. |
1468 | |
1469 | =back |
1470 | |
1471 | =head3 Windows |
1472 | |
1473 | =over 4 |
1474 | |
1475 | =item * |
1476 | |
1477 | When using a shared perl library F<installperl> no longer installs static |
1478 | library files, import library files and export library files (of statically |
1479 | linked extensions) and empty bootstrap files (of dynamically linked |
1480 | extensions). This fixes a problem building PAR-Packer on Win32 with a debug |
1481 | build of perl. |
1482 | |
1483 | =item * |
1484 | |
1485 | Various improvements to the win32 build process, including support for Visual |
1486 | C++ 2005 Express Edition (aka Visual C++ 8.x). |
1487 | |
1488 | =item * |
1489 | |
1490 | F<perl.exe> will now have an icon if built with MinGW or Borland. |
1491 | |
1492 | =item * |
1493 | |
1494 | Improvements to the perl-static.exe build process. |
1495 | |
1496 | =item * |
1497 | |
1498 | Add Win32 makefile option to link all extensions statically. |
1499 | |
1500 | =item * |
1501 | |
1502 | The F<WinCE> directory has been merged into the F<Win32> directory. |
1503 | |
1504 | =item * |
1505 | |
1506 | C<setlocale> tests have been re-enabled for Windows XP onwards. |
1507 | |
1508 | =back |
1509 | |
1510 | =head1 Selected Bug Fixes |
1511 | |
1512 | =head2 Unicode |
1513 | |
1514 | Many many bugs related to the internal Unicode implementation (UTF-8) have |
1515 | been fixed. In particular, long standing bugs related to returning Unicode |
1516 | via C<tie>, overloading or C<$@> are now gone, some of which were never |
1517 | reported. |
1518 | |
1519 | C<unpack> will internally convert the string back from UTF-8 on numeric types. |
1520 | This is a compromise between the full consistency now in 5.10, and the current |
1521 | behaviour, which is often used as a "feature" on string types. |
1522 | |
1523 | Using C<:crlf> and C<UTF-16> IO layers together will now work. |
1524 | |
1525 | Fixed problems with C<split>, Unicode C</\s+/> and C</ \0/>. |
1526 | |
1527 | Fixed bug RT #40641 - encoding of Unicode characters in regular expressions. |
1528 | |
1529 | Fixed a bug where using certain patterns in a regexp led to a panic. |
1530 | [RT #45337] |
1531 | |
1532 | Perl no longer segfaults (due to infinite internal recursion) if the locale's |
1533 | character is not UTF-8 [RT #41442]: |
1534 | |
1535 | use open ':locale'; |
1536 | print STDERR "\x{201e}"; # „ |
1537 | |
1538 | =head2 PerlIO |
1539 | |
1540 | Inconsistencies have been fixed in the reference counting PerlIO uses to keep |
1541 | track of Unix file descriptors, and the API used by XS code to manage getting |
1542 | and releasing C<FILE *>s |
1543 | |
1544 | =head2 Magic |
1545 | |
1546 | Several bugs have been fixed in Magic, the internal system used to implement |
1547 | features such as C<tie>, tainting and threads sharing. |
1548 | |
1549 | C<undef @array> on a tied array now correctly calls the C<CLEAR> method. |
1550 | |
1551 | Some of the bitwise ops were not checking whether their arguments were magical |
1552 | before using them. [RT #24816] |
1553 | |
1554 | Magic is no longer invoked twice by the expression C<\&$x> |
1555 | |
1556 | A bug with assigning large numbers and tainting has been resolved. |
1557 | [RT #40708] |
1558 | |
1559 | A new entry has been added to the MAGIC vtable - C<svt_local>. This is used |
1560 | when copying magic to the new value during C<local>, allowing certain problems |
1561 | with localising shared variables to be resolved. |
1562 | |
1563 | For the implementation details, see L<perlguts/Magic Virtual Tables>. |
1564 | |
1565 | =head2 Reblessing overloaded objects now works |
1566 | |
1567 | Internally, perl object-ness is on the referent, not the reference, even |
1568 | though methods can only be called via a reference. However, the original |
1569 | implementation of overloading stored flags related to overloading on the |
1570 | reference, relying on the flags being copied when the reference was copied, |
1571 | or set at the creation of a new reference. This manifests in a bug - if you |
1572 | rebless an object from a class that has overloading, into one that does not, |
1573 | then any other existing references think that they (still) point to an |
1574 | overloaded object, choose these C code paths, and then throw errors. |
1575 | Analogously, blessing into an overloaded class when other references exist will |
1576 | result in them not using overloading. |
1577 | |
1578 | The implementation has been fixed for 5.10, but this fix changes the semantics |
1579 | of flag bits, so is not binary compatible, so can't be applied to 5.8.9. |
1580 | However, 5.8.9 has a work-around that implements the same bug fix. If the |
1581 | referent has multiple references, then all the other references are located and |
1582 | corrected. A full search is avoided whenever possible by scanning lexicals |
1583 | outwards from the current subroutine, and the argument stack. |
1584 | |
1585 | A certain well known Linux vendor applied incomplete versions of this bug fix |
1586 | to their F</usr/bin/perl> and then prematurely closed bug reports about |
1587 | performance issues without consulting back upstream. This not being enough, |
1588 | they then proceeded to ignore the necessary fixes to these unreleased changes |
1589 | for 11 months, until massive pressure was applied by their long-suffering |
1590 | paying customers, catalysed by the failings being featured on a prominent blog |
1591 | and Slashdot. |
1592 | |
1593 | =head2 C<strict> now propagates correctly into string evals |
1594 | |
1595 | Under 5.8.8 and earlier: |
1596 | |
1597 | $ perl5.8.8 -e 'use strict; eval "use foo bar" or die $@' |
1598 | Can't locate foo.pm in @INC (@INC contains: ... .) at (eval 1) line 2. |
1599 | BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at (eval 1) line 2. |
1600 | |
1601 | Under 5.8.9 and later: |
1602 | |
1603 | $ perl5.8.9 -e 'use strict; eval "use foo bar" or die $@' |
1604 | Bareword "bar" not allowed while "strict subs" in use at (eval 1) line 1. |
1605 | |
1606 | This may cause problems with programs that parse the error message and rely |
1607 | on the buggy behaviour. |
1608 | |
1609 | =head2 Other fixes |
1610 | |
1611 | =over |
1612 | |
1613 | =item * |
1614 | |
1615 | The tokenizer no longer treats C<=cute> (and other words beginning |
1616 | with C<=cut>) as a synonym for C<=cut>. |
1617 | |
1618 | =item * |
1619 | |
1620 | Calling C<CORE::require> |
1621 | |
1622 | C<CORE::require> and C<CORE::do> were always parsed as C<require> and C<do> |
1623 | when they were overridden. This is now fixed. |
1624 | |
1625 | =item * |
1626 | |
1627 | Stopped memory leak on long F</etc/groups> entries. |
1628 | |
1629 | =item * |
1630 | |
1631 | C<while (my $x ...) { ...; redo }> shouldn't C<undef $x>. |
1632 | |
1633 | In the presence of C<my> in the conditional of a C<while()>, C<until()>, |
1634 | or C<for(;;)> loop, we now add an extra scope to the body so that C<redo> |
1635 | doesn't C<undef> the lexical. |
1636 | |
1637 | =item * |
1638 | |
1639 | The C<encoding> pragma now correctly ignores anything following an C<@> |
1640 | character in the C<LC_ALL> and C<LANG> environment variables. [RT # 49646] |
1641 | |
1642 | =item * |
1643 | |
1644 | A segfault observed with some F<gcc> 3.3 optimisations is resolved. |
1645 | |
1646 | =item * |
1647 | |
1648 | A possible segfault when C<unpack> used in scalar context with C<()> groups |
1649 | is resolved. [RT #50256] |
1650 | |
1651 | =item * |
1652 | |
1653 | Resolved issue where C<$!> could be changed by a signal handler interrupting |
1654 | a C<system> call. |
1655 | |
1656 | =item * |
1657 | |
1658 | Fixed bug RT #37886, symbolic deferencing was allowed in the argument of |
1659 | C<defined> even under the influence of C<use strict 'refs'>. |
1660 | |
1661 | =item * |
1662 | |
1663 | Fixed bug RT #43207, where C<lc>/C<uc> inside C<sort> affected the return |
1664 | value. |
1665 | |
1666 | =item * |
1667 | |
1668 | Fixed bug RT #45607, where C<*{"BONK"} = \&{"BONK"}> didn't work correctly. |
1669 | |
1670 | =item * |
1671 | |
1672 | Fixed bug RT #35878, croaking from a XSUB called via C<goto &xsub> corrupts perl |
1673 | internals. |
1674 | |
1675 | =item * |
1676 | |
1677 | Fixed bug RT #32539, F<DynaLoader.o> is moved into F<libperl.so> to avoid the |
1678 | need to statically link DynaLoader into the stub perl executable. With this |
1679 | F<libperl.so> provides everything needed to get a functional embedded perl |
1680 | interpreter to run. |
1681 | |
1682 | =item * |
1683 | |
1684 | Fix bug RT #36267 so that assigning to a tied hash doesn't change the |
1685 | underlying hash. |
1686 | |
1687 | =item * |
1688 | |
1689 | Fix bug RT #6006, regexp replaces using large replacement variables |
1690 | fail some of the time, I<i.e.> when substitution contains something |
1691 | like C<${10}> (note the bracket) instead of just C<$10>. |
1692 | |
1693 | =item * |
1694 | |
1695 | Fix bug RT #45053, C<Perl_newCONSTSUB()> is now thread safe. |
1696 | |
1697 | =back |
1698 | |
1699 | =head2 Platform Specific Fixes |
1700 | |
1701 | =head3 Darwin / MacOS X |
1702 | |
1703 | =over 4 |
1704 | |
1705 | =item * |
1706 | |
1707 | Various improvements to 64 bit builds. |
1708 | |
1709 | =item * |
1710 | |
1711 | Mutex protection added in C<PerlIOStdio_close()> to avoid race conditions. |
1712 | Hopefully this fixes failures in the threads tests F<free.t> and F<blocks.t>. |
1713 | |
1714 | =item * |
1715 | |
1716 | Added forked terminal support to the debugger, with the ability to update the |
1717 | window title. |
1718 | |
1719 | =back |
1720 | |
1721 | =head3 OS/2 |
1722 | |
1723 | =over 4 |
1724 | |
1725 | =item * |
1726 | |
1727 | A build problem with specifying C<USE_MULTI> and C<USE_ITHREADS> but without |
1728 | C<USE_IMP_SYS> has been fixed. |
1729 | |
1730 | =item * |
1731 | |
1732 | C<OS2::REXX> upgraded to version 1.04 |
1733 | |
1734 | =back |
1735 | |
1736 | =head3 Tru64 |
1737 | |
1738 | =over 4 |
1739 | |
1740 | =item * |
1741 | |
1742 | Aligned floating point build policies for F<cc> and F<gcc>. |
1743 | |
1744 | =back |
1745 | |
1746 | =head3 RedHat Linux |
1747 | |
1748 | =over 4 |
1749 | |
1750 | =item * |
1751 | |
1752 | Revisited a patch from 5.6.1 for RH7.2 for Intel's F<icc> [RT #7916], added an |
1753 | additional check for C<$Config{gccversion}>. |
1754 | |
1755 | =back |
1756 | |
1757 | =head3 Solaris/i386 |
1758 | |
1759 | =over 4 |
1760 | |
1761 | =item * |
1762 | |
1763 | Use C<-DPTR_IS_LONG> when using 64 bit integers |
1764 | |
1765 | =back |
1766 | |
1767 | =head3 VMS |
1768 | |
1769 | =over 4 |
1770 | |
1771 | =item * |
1772 | |
1773 | Fixed C<PerlIO::Scalar> in-memory file record-style reads. |
1774 | |
1775 | =item * |
1776 | |
1777 | pipe shutdown at process exit should now be more robust. |
1778 | |
1779 | =item * |
1780 | |
1781 | Bugs in VMS exit handling tickled by C<Test::Harness> 2.64 have been fixed. |
1782 | |
1783 | =item * |
1784 | |
1785 | Fix C<fcntl()> locking capability test in F<configure.com>. |
1786 | |
1787 | =item * |
1788 | |
1789 | Replaced C<shrplib='define'> with C<useshrplib='true'> on VMS. |
1790 | |
1791 | =back |
1792 | |
1793 | =head3 Windows |
1794 | |
1795 | =over 4 |
1796 | |
1797 | =item * |
1798 | |
1799 | C<File::Find> used to fail when the target directory is a bare drive letter and |
1800 | C<no_chdir> is 1 (the default is 0). [RT #41555] |
1801 | |
1802 | =item * |
1803 | |
1804 | A build problem with specifying C<USE_MULTI> and C<USE_ITHREADS> but without |
1805 | C<USE_IMP_SYS> has been fixed. |
1806 | |
1807 | =item * |
1808 | |
1809 | The process id is no longer truncated to 16 bits on some Windows platforms |
1810 | ( http://bugs.activestate.com/show_bug.cgi?id=72443 ) |
1811 | |
1812 | =item * |
1813 | |
1814 | Fixed bug RT #54828 in F<perlio.c> where calling C<binmode> on Win32 and Cgywin |
1815 | may cause a segmentation fault. |
1816 | |
1817 | =back |
1818 | |
1819 | =head2 Smaller fixes |
1820 | |
1821 | =over 4 |
1822 | |
1823 | =item * |
1824 | |
1825 | It is now possible to overload C<eq> when using C<nomethod>. |
1826 | |
1827 | =item * |
1828 | |
1829 | Various problems using C<overload> with 64 bit integers corrected. |
1830 | |
1831 | =item * |
1832 | |
1833 | The reference count of C<PerlIO> file descriptors is now correctly handled. |
1834 | |
1835 | =item * |
1836 | |
1837 | On VMS, escaped dots will be preserved when converted to UNIX syntax. |
1838 | |
1839 | =item * |
1840 | |
1841 | C<keys %+> no longer throws an C<'ambiguous'> warning. |
1842 | |
1843 | =item * |
1844 | |
1845 | Using C<#!perl -d> could trigger an assertion, which has been fixed. |
1846 | |
1847 | =item * |
1848 | |
1849 | Don't stringify tied code references in C<@INC> when calling C<require>. |
1850 | |
1851 | =item * |
1852 | |
1853 | Code references in C<@INC> report the correct file name when C<__FILE__> is |
1854 | used. |
1855 | |
1856 | =item * |
1857 | |
1858 | Width and precision in sprintf didn't handle characters above 255 correctly. |
1859 | [RT #40473] |
1860 | |
1861 | =item * |
1862 | |
1863 | List slices with indices out of range now work more consistently. |
1864 | [RT #39882] |
1865 | |
1866 | =item * |
1867 | |
1868 | A change introduced with perl 5.8.1 broke the parsing of arguments of the form |
1869 | C<-foo=bar> with the C<-s> on the <#!> line. This has been fixed. See |
1870 | http://bugs.activestate.com/show_bug.cgi?id=43483 |
1871 | |
1872 | =item * |
1873 | |
1874 | C<tr///> is now threadsafe. Previously it was storing a swash inside its OP, |
1875 | rather than in a pad. |
1876 | |
1877 | =item * |
1878 | |
1879 | F<pod2html> labels anchors more consistently and handles nested definition |
1880 | lists better. |
1881 | |
1882 | =item * |
1883 | |
1884 | C<threads> cleanup veto has been extended to include C<perl_free()> and |
1885 | C<perl_destruct()> |
1886 | |
1887 | =item * |
1888 | |
1889 | On some systems, changes to C<$ENV{TZ}> would not always be |
1890 | respected by the underlying calls to C<localtime_r()>. Perl now |
1891 | forces the inspection of the environment on these systems. |
1892 | |
1893 | =item * |
1894 | |
1895 | The special variable C<$^R> is now more consistently set when executing |
1896 | regexps using the C<(?{...})> construct. In particular, it will still |
1897 | be set even if backreferences or optional sub-patterns C<(?:...)?> are |
1898 | used. |
1899 | |
1900 | =back |
1901 | |
1902 | =head1 New or Changed Diagnostics |
1903 | |
1904 | =head2 panic: sv_chop %s |
1905 | |
1906 | This new fatal error occurs when the C routine C<Perl_sv_chop()> was passed a |
1907 | position that is not within the scalar's string buffer. This is caused by |
1908 | buggy XS code, and at this point recovery is not possible. |
1909 | |
1910 | =head2 Maximal count of pending signals (%s) exceeded |
1911 | |
1912 | This new fatal error occurs when the perl process has to abort due to |
1913 | too many pending signals, which is bound to prevent perl from being |
1914 | able to handle further incoming signals safely. |
1915 | |
1916 | =head2 panic: attempt to call %s in %s |
1917 | |
1918 | This new fatal error occurs when the ACL version file test operator is used |
1919 | where it is not available on the current platform. Earlier checks mean that |
1920 | it should never be possible to get this. |
1921 | |
1922 | =head2 FETCHSIZE returned a negative value |
1923 | |
1924 | New error indicating that a tied array has claimed to have a negative |
1925 | number of elements. |
1926 | |
1927 | =head2 Can't upgrade %s (%d) to %d |
1928 | |
1929 | Previously the internal error from the SV upgrade code was the less informative |
1930 | I<Can't upgrade that kind of scalar>. It now reports the current internal type, |
1931 | and the new type requested. |
1932 | |
1933 | =head2 %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or a subroutine |
1934 | |
1935 | This error, thrown if an invalid argument is provided to C<exists> now |
1936 | correctly includes "or a subroutine". [RT #38955] |
1937 | |
1938 | =head2 Cannot make the non-overridable builtin %s fatal |
1939 | |
1940 | This error in C<Fatal> previously did not show the name of the builtin in |
1941 | question (now represented by %s above). |
1942 | |
1943 | =head2 Unrecognized character '%s' in column %d |
1944 | |
1945 | This error previously did not state the column. |
1946 | |
1947 | =head2 Offset outside string |
1948 | |
1949 | This can now also be generated by a C<seek> on a file handle using |
1950 | C<PerlIO::scalar>. |
1951 | |
1952 | =head2 Invalid escape in the specified encoding in regexp; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/ |
1953 | |
1954 | New error, introduced as part of the fix to RT #40641 to handle encoding |
1955 | of Unicode characters in regular expression comments. |
1956 | |
1957 | =head2 Your machine doesn't support dump/undump. |
1958 | |
1959 | A more informative fatal error issued when calling C<dump> on Win32 and |
1960 | Cygwin. (Given that the purpose of C<dump> is to abort with a core dump, |
1961 | and core dumps can't be produced on these platforms, this is more useful than |
1962 | silently exiting.) |
1963 | |
1964 | =head1 Changed Internals |
1965 | |
1966 | The perl sources can now be compiled with a C++ compiler instead of a C |
1967 | compiler. A necessary implementation details is that under C++, the macro |
1968 | C<XS> used to define XSUBs now includes an C<extern "C"> definition. A side |
1969 | effect of this is that B<C++> code that used the construction |
1970 | |
1971 | typedef XS(SwigPerlWrapper); |
1972 | |
1973 | now needs to be written |
1974 | |
1975 | typedef XSPROTO(SwigPerlWrapper); |
1976 | |
1977 | using the new C<XSPROTO> macro, in order to compile. C extensions are |
1978 | unaffected, although C extensions are encouraged to use C<XSPROTO> too. |
1979 | This change was present in the 5.10.0 release of perl, so any actively |
1980 | maintained code that happened to use this construction should already have |
1981 | been adapted. Code that needs changing will fail with a compilation error. |
1982 | |
1983 | C<set> magic on localizing/assigning to a magic variable will now only |
1984 | trigger for I<container magics>, i.e. it will for C<%ENV> or C<%SIG> |
1985 | but not for C<$#array>. |
1986 | |
1987 | The new API macro C<newSVpvs()> can be used in place of constructions such as |
1988 | C<newSVpvn("ISA", 3)>. It takes a single string constant, and at C compile |
1989 | time determines its length. |
1990 | |
1991 | The new API function C<Perl_newSV_type()> can be used as a more efficient |
1992 | replacement of the common idiom |
1993 | |
1994 | sv = newSV(0); |
1995 | sv_upgrade(sv, type); |
1996 | |
1997 | Similarly C<Perl_newSVpvn_flags()> can be used to combine |
1998 | C<Perl_newSVpv()> with C<Perl_sv_2mortal()> or the equivalent |
1999 | C<Perl_sv_newmortal()> with C<Perl_sv_setpvn()> |
2000 | |
2001 | Two new macros C<mPUSHs()> and C<mXPUSHs()> are added, to make it easier to |
2002 | push mortal SVs onto the stack. They were then used to fix several bugs where |
2003 | values on the stack had not been mortalised. |
2004 | |
2005 | A C<Perl_signbit()> function was added to test the sign of an C<NV>. It |
2006 | maps to the system one when available. |
2007 | |
2008 | C<Perl_av_reify()>, C<Perl_lex_end()>, C<Perl_mod()>, C<Perl_op_clear()>, |
2009 | C<Perl_pop_return()>, C<Perl_qerror()>, C<Perl_setdefout()>, |
2010 | C<Perl_vivify_defelem()> and C<Perl_yylex()> are now visible to extensions. |
2011 | This was required to allow C<Data::Alias> to work on Windows. |
2012 | |
2013 | C<Perl_find_runcv()> is now visible to perl core extensions. This was required |
2014 | to allow C<Sub::Current> to work on Windows. |
2015 | |
2016 | C<ptr_table*> functions are now available in unthreaded perl. C<Storable> |
2017 | takes advantage of this. |
2018 | |
2019 | There have been many small cleanups made to the internals. In particular, |
2020 | C<Perl_sv_upgrade()> has been simplified considerably, with a straight-through |
2021 | code path that uses C<memset()> and C<memcpy()> to initialise the new body, |
2022 | rather than assignment via multiple temporary variables. It has also |
2023 | benefited from simplification and de-duplication of the arena management |
2024 | code. |
2025 | |
2026 | A lot of small improvements in the code base were made due to reports from |
2027 | the Coverity static code analyzer. |
2028 | |
2029 | Corrected use and documentation of C<Perl_gv_stashpv()>, C<Perl_gv_stashpvn()>, |
2030 | C<Perl_gv_stashsv()> functions (last parameter is a bitmask, not boolean). |
2031 | |
2032 | C<PERL_SYS_INIT>, C<PERL_SYS_INIT3> and C<PERL_SYS_TERM> macros have been |
2033 | changed into functions. |
2034 | |
2035 | C<PERLSYS_TERM> no longer requires a context. C<PerlIO_teardown()> |
2036 | is now called without a context, and debugging output in this function has |
2037 | been disabled because that required that an interpreter was present, an invalid |
2038 | assumption at termination time. |
2039 | |
2040 | All compile time options which affect binary compatibility have been grouped |
2041 | together into a global variable (C<PL_bincompat_options>). |
2042 | |
2043 | The values of C<PERL_REVISION>, C<PERL_VERSION> and C<PERL_SUBVERSION> are |
2044 | now baked into global variables (and hence into any shared perl library). |
2045 | Additionally under C<MULTIPLICITY>, the perl executable now records the size of |
2046 | the interpreter structure (total, and for this version). Coupled with |
2047 | C<PL_bincompat_options> this will allow 5.8.10 (and later), when compiled with a |
2048 | shared perl library, to perform sanity checks in C<main()> to verify that the |
2049 | shared library is indeed binary compatible. |
2050 | |
2051 | Symbolic references can now have embedded NULs. The new public function |
2052 | C<Perl_get_cvn_flags()> can be used in extensions if you have to handle them. |
2053 | |
2054 | =head2 Macro cleanups |
2055 | |
2056 | The core code, and XS code in F<ext> that is not dual-lived on CPAN, no longer |
2057 | uses the macros C<PL_na>, C<NEWSV()>, C<Null()>, C<Nullav>, C<Nullcv>, |
2058 | C<Nullhv>, C<Nullhv> I<etc>. Their use is discouraged in new code, |
2059 | particularly C<PL_na>, which is a small performance hit. |
2060 | |
2061 | =head1 New Tests |
2062 | |
2063 | Many modules updated from CPAN incorporate new tests. Some core specific |
2064 | tests have been added: |
2065 | |
2066 | =over 4 |
2067 | |
2068 | =item ext/DynaLoader/t/DynaLoader.t |
2069 | |
2070 | Tests for the C<DynaLoader> module. |
2071 | |
2072 | =item t/comp/fold.t |
2073 | |
2074 | Tests for compile-time constant folding. |
2075 | |
2076 | =item t/io/pvbm.t |
2077 | |
2078 | Tests incorporated from 5.10.0 which check that there is no unexpected |
2079 | interaction between the internal types C<PVBM> and C<PVGV>. |
2080 | |
2081 | =item t/lib/proxy_constant_subs.t |
2082 | |
2083 | Tests for the new form of constant subroutines. |
2084 | |
2085 | =item t/op/attrhand.t |
2086 | |
2087 | Tests for C<Attribute::Handlers>. |
2088 | |
2089 | =item t/op/dbm.t |
2090 | |
2091 | Tests for C<dbmopen>. |
2092 | |
2093 | =item t/op/inccode-tie.t |
2094 | |
2095 | Calls all tests in F<t/op/inccode.t> after first tying C<@INC>. |
2096 | |
2097 | =item t/op/incfilter.t |
2098 | |
2099 | Tests for for source filters returned from code references in C<@INC>. |
2100 | |
2101 | =item t/op/kill0.t |
2102 | |
2103 | Tests for RT #30970. |
2104 | |
2105 | =item t/op/qrstack.t |
2106 | |
2107 | Tests for RT #41484. |
2108 | |
2109 | =item t/op/qr.t |
2110 | |
2111 | Tests for the C<qr//> construct. |
2112 | |
2113 | =item t/op/regexp_qr_embed.t |
2114 | |
2115 | Tests for the C<qr//> construct within another regexp. |
2116 | |
2117 | =item t/op/regexp_qr.t |
2118 | |
2119 | Tests for the C<qr//> construct. |
2120 | |
2121 | =item t/op/rxcode.t |
2122 | |
2123 | Tests for RT #32840. |
2124 | |
2125 | =item t/op/studytied.t |
2126 | |
2127 | Tests for C<study> on tied scalars. |
2128 | |
2129 | =item t/op/substT.t |
2130 | |
2131 | Tests for C<subst> run under C<-T> mode. |
2132 | |
2133 | =item t/op/symbolcache.t |
2134 | |
2135 | Tests for C<undef> and C<delete> on stash entries that are bound to |
2136 | subroutines or methods. |
2137 | |
2138 | =item t/op/upgrade.t |
2139 | |
2140 | Tests for C<Perl_sv_upgrade()>. |
2141 | |
2142 | =item t/mro/package_aliases.t |
2143 | |
2144 | MRO tests for C<isa> and package aliases. |
2145 | |
2146 | =item t/pod/twice.t |
2147 | |
2148 | Tests for calling C<Pod::Parser> twice. |
2149 | |
2150 | =item t/run/cloexec.t |
2151 | |
2152 | Tests for inheriting file descriptors across C<exec> (close-on-exec). |
2153 | |
2154 | =item t/uni/cache.t |
2155 | |
2156 | Tests for the UTF-8 caching code. |
2157 | |
2158 | =item t/uni/chr.t |
2159 | |
2160 | Test that strange encodings do not upset C<Perl_pp_chr()>. |
2161 | |
2162 | =item t/uni/greek.t |
2163 | |
2164 | Tests for RT #40641. |
2165 | |
2166 | =item t/uni/latin2.t |
2167 | |
2168 | Tests for RT #40641. |
2169 | |
2170 | =item t/uni/overload.t |
2171 | |
2172 | Tests for returning Unicode from overloaded values. |
2173 | |
2174 | =item t/uni/tie.t |
2175 | |
2176 | Tests for returning Unicode from tied variables. |
2177 | |
2178 | =back |
2179 | |
2180 | =head1 Known Problems |
2181 | |
2182 | There are no known new bugs. |
2183 | |
2184 | However, programs that rely on bugs that have been fixed will have problems. |
2185 | Also, many bug fixes present in 5.10.0 can't be back-ported to the 5.8.x |
2186 | branch, because they require changes that are binary incompatible, or because |
2187 | the code changes are too large and hence too risky to incorporate. |
2188 | |
2189 | We have only limited volunteer labour, and the maintenance burden is |
2190 | getting increasingly complex. Hence this will be the last significant |
2191 | release of the 5.8.x series. Any future releases of 5.8.x will likely |
2192 | only be to deal with security issues, and platform build |
2193 | failures. Hence you should look to migrating to 5.10.x, if you have |
2194 | not started already. Alternatively, if business requirements constrain |
2195 | you to continue to use 5.8.x, you may wish to consider commercial |
2196 | support from firms such as ActiveState. |
2197 | |
2198 | =head1 Platform Specific Notes |
2199 | |
2200 | =head2 Win32 |
2201 | |
2202 | C<readdir()>, C<cwd()>, C<$^X> and C<@INC> now use the alternate (short) |
2203 | filename if the long name is outside the current codepage (Jan Dubois). |
2204 | |
2205 | =head3 Updated Modules |
2206 | |
2207 | =over 4 |
2208 | |
2209 | =item * |
2210 | |
2211 | C<Win32> upgraded to version 0.38. Now has a documented 'WinVista' response |
2212 | from C<GetOSName> and support for Vista's privilege elevation in C<IsAdminUser>. |
2213 | Support for Unicode characters in path names. Improved cygwin and Win64 |
2214 | compatibility. |
2215 | |
2216 | =item * |
2217 | |
2218 | C<Win32API> updated to 0.1001_01 |
2219 | |
2220 | =item * |
2221 | |
2222 | C<killpg()> support added to C<MSWin32> (Jan Dubois). |
2223 | |
2224 | =item * |
2225 | |
2226 | C<File::Spec::Win32> upgraded to version 3.2701 |
2227 | |
2228 | =back |
2229 | |
2230 | =head2 OS/2 |
2231 | |
2232 | =head3 Updated Modules |
2233 | |
2234 | =over 4 |
2235 | |
2236 | =item * |
2237 | |
2238 | C<OS2::Process> upgraded to 1.03 |
2239 | |
2240 | Ilya Zakharevich has added and documented several C<Window*> and C<Clipbrd*> |
2241 | functions. |
2242 | |
2243 | =item * |
2244 | |
2245 | C<OS2::REXX::DLL>, C<OS2::REXX> updated to version 1.03 |
2246 | |
2247 | =back |
2248 | |
2249 | =head2 VMS |
2250 | |
2251 | =head3 Updated Modules |
2252 | |
2253 | =over 4 |
2254 | |
2255 | =item * |
2256 | |
2257 | C<DCLsym> upgraded to version 1.03 |
2258 | |
2259 | =item * |
2260 | |
2261 | C<Stdio> upgraded to version 2.4 |
2262 | |
2263 | =item * |
2264 | |
2265 | C<VMS::XSSymSet> upgraded to 1.1. |
2266 | |
2267 | =back |
2268 | |
2269 | =head1 Obituary |
2270 | |
2271 | Nick Ing-Simmons, long time Perl hacker, author of the C<Tk> and C<Encode> |
2272 | modules, F<perlio.c> in the core, and 5.003_02 pumpking, died of a heart |
2273 | attack on 25th September 2006. He will be missed. |
2274 | |
2275 | =head1 Acknowledgements |
2276 | |
2277 | Some of the work in this release was funded by a TPF grant. |
2278 | |
2279 | Steve Hay worked behind the scenes working out the causes of the differences |
2280 | between core modules, their CPAN releases, and previous core releases, and |
2281 | the best way to rectify them. He doesn't want to do it again. I know this |
2282 | feeling, and I'm very glad he did it this time, instead of me. |
2283 | |
2284 | Paul Fenwick assembled a team of 18 volunteers, who broke the back of writing |
2285 | this document. In particular, Bradley Dean, Eddy Tan, and Vincent Pit |
2286 | provided half the team's contribution. |
2287 | |
2288 | Schwern verified the list of updated module versions, correcting quite a few |
2289 | errors that I (and everyone else) had missed, both wrongly stated module |
2290 | versions, and changed modules that had not been listed. |
2291 | |
2292 | The crack Berlin-based QA team of Andreas KE<ouml>nig and Slaven Rezic |
2293 | tirelessly re-built snapshots, tested most everything CPAN against |
2294 | them, and then identified the changes responsible for any module regressions, |
2295 | ensuring that several show-stopper bugs were stomped before the first release |
2296 | candidate was cut. |
2297 | |
2298 | The other core committers contributed most of the changes, and applied most |
2299 | of the patches sent in by the hundreds of contributors listed in F<AUTHORS>. |
2300 | |
2301 | And obviously, Larry Wall, without whom we wouldn't have Perl. |
2302 | |
2303 | =head1 Reporting Bugs |
2304 | |
2305 | If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles |
2306 | recently posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl |
2307 | bug database at http://bugs.perl.org. There may also be |
2308 | information at http://www.perl.org, the Perl Home Page. |
2309 | |
2310 | If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the B<perlbug> |
2311 | program included with your release. Be sure to trim your bug down |
2312 | to a tiny but sufficient test case. Your bug report, along with the |
2313 | output of C<perl -V>, will be sent off to perlbug@perl.org to be |
2314 | analysed by the Perl porting team. You can browse and search |
2315 | the Perl 5 bugs at http://bugs.perl.org/ |
2316 | |
2317 | If the bug you are reporting has security implications, which make it |
2318 | inappropriate to send to a publicly archived mailing list, then please send |
2319 | it to perl5-security-report@perl.org. This points to a closed subscription |
2320 | unarchived mailing list, which includes all the core committers, who be able |
2321 | to help assess the impact of issues, figure out a resolution, and help |
2322 | co-ordinate the release of patches to mitigate or fix the problem across all |
2323 | platforms on which Perl is supported. Please only use this address for security |
2324 | issues in the Perl core, not for modules independently distributed on CPAN. |
2325 | |
2326 | =head1 SEE ALSO |
2327 | |
2328 | The F<Changes> file for exhaustive details on what changed. |
2329 | |
2330 | The F<INSTALL> file for how to build Perl. |
2331 | |
2332 | The F<README> file for general stuff. |
2333 | |
2334 | The F<Artistic> and F<Copying> files for copyright information. |
2335 | |
2336 | =cut |