add missing sv_*_mg() prototypes in proto.h, update perlhist.pod
[p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git] / pod / perldelta.pod
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01784f0d 1=head1 NAME
2
3perldelta - what's new for perl5.005
4
5=head1 DESCRIPTION
6
7This document describes differences between the 5.004 release and this one.
8
429b3afa 9=head1 About the new versioning system
10
9cde0e7f 11Perl is now developed on two tracks: a maintenance track that makes
12small, safe updates to released production versions with emphasis on
13compatibility; and a development track that pursues more aggressive
14evolution. Maintenance releases (which should be considered production
15quality) have subversion numbers that run from C<1> to C<49>, and
16development releases (which should be considered "alpha" quality) run
17from C<50> to C<99>.
18
19Perl 5.005 is the combined product of the new dual-track development
20scheme.
21
01784f0d 22=head1 Incompatible Changes
23
429b3afa 24=head2 WARNING: This version is not binary compatible with Perl 5.004.
25
26Starting with Perl 5.004_50 there were many deep and far-reaching changes
27to the language internals. If you have dynamically loaded extensions
28that you built under perl 5.003 or 5.004, you can continue to use them
29with 5.004, but you will need to rebuild and reinstall those extensions
30to use them 5.005. See L<INSTALL> for detailed instructions on how to
31upgrade.
32
7ea97eb9 33=head2 Default installation structure has changed
429b3afa 34
7ea97eb9 35The new Configure defaults are designed to allow a smooth upgrade from
365.004 to 5.005, but you should read L<INSTALL> for a detailed
37discussion of the changes in order to adapt them to your system.
429b3afa 38
39=head2 Perl Source Compatibility
40
41When none of the experimental features are enabled, there should be
9cde0e7f 42very few user-visible Perl source compatibility issues.
429b3afa 43
44If threads are enabled, then some caveats apply. C<@_> and C<$_> become
45lexical variables. The effect of this should be largely transparent to
46the user, but there are some boundary conditions under which user will
9cde0e7f 47need to be aware of the issues. For example, C<local(@_)> results in
48a "Can't localize lexical variable @_ ..." message. This may be enabled
49in a future version.
429b3afa 50
fe61ab85 51Some new keywords have been introduced. These are generally expected to
9cde0e7f 52have very little impact on compatibility. See L<New C<INIT> keyword>,
53L<New C<lock> keyword>, and L<New C<qr//> operator>.
fe61ab85 54
55Certain barewords are now reserved. Use of these will provoke a warning
56if you have asked for them with the C<-w> switch.
9cde0e7f 57See L<C<our> is now a reserved word>.
fe61ab85 58
429b3afa 59=head2 C Source Compatibility
60
9cde0e7f 61There have been a large number of changes in the internals to support
62the new features in this release.
63
64=over 4
65
429b3afa 66=item Core sources now require ANSI C compiler
67
9cde0e7f 68An ANSI C compiler is now B<required> to build perl. See F<INSTALL>.
69
70=item All Perl global variables must now be referenced with an explicit prefix
71
72All Perl global variables that are visible for use by extensions now
73have a C<PL_> prefix. New extensions should C<not> refer to perl globals
74by their unqualified names. To preserve sanity, we provide limited
75backward compatibility for globals that are being widely used like
76C<sv_undef> and C<na> (which should now be written as C<PL_sv_undef>,
77C<PL_na> etc.)
78
79If you find that your XS extension does not compile anymore because a
80perl global is not visible, try adding a C<PL_> prefix to the global
81and rebuild.
82
83It is strongly recommended that all functions in the Perl API that don't
84begin with C<perl> be referenced with a C<Perl_> prefix. The bare function
85names without the C<Perl_> prefix are supported with macros, but this
86support may cease in a future release.
87
88See L<perlguts/API LISTING>.
89
429b3afa 90=item Enabling threads has source compatibility issues
91
9cde0e7f 92Perl built with threading enabled requires extensions to use the new
93C<dTHR> macro to initialize the handle to access per-thread data.
94If you see a compiler error that talks about the variable C<thr> not
95being declared (when building a module that has XS code), you need
96to add C<dTHR;> at the beginning of the block that elicited the error.
97
98The API function C<perl_get_sv("@",FALSE)> should be used instead of
99directly accessing perl globals as C<GvSV(errgv)>. The API call is
100backward compatible with existing perls and provides source compatibility
101with threading is enabled.
102
103See L<API Changes for more information>.
104
105=back
106
429b3afa 107=head2 Binary Compatibility
108
109This version is NOT binary compatible with older versions. All extensions
9cde0e7f 110will need to be recompiled. Further binaries built with threads enabled
111are incompatible with binaries built without. This should largely be
112transparent to the user, as all binary incompatible configurations have
113their own unique architecture name, and extension binaries get installed at
114unique locations. This allows coexistence of several configurations in
115the same directory hierarchy. See F<INSTALL>.
429b3afa 116
117=head2 Security fixes may affect compatibility
118
119A few taint leaks and taint omissions have been corrected. This may lead
120to "failure" of scripts that used to work with older versions. Compiling
121with -DINCOMPLETE_TAINTS provides a perl with minimal amounts of changes
122to the tainting behavior. But note that the resulting perl will have
123known insecurities.
124
125Oneliners with the C<-e> switch do not create temporary files anymore.
126
127=head2 Relaxed new mandatory warnings introduced in 5.004
128
fe61ab85 129Many new warnings that were introduced in 5.004 have been made
429b3afa 130optional. Some of these warnings are still present, but perl's new
131features make them less often a problem. See L<New Diagnostics>.
132
133=head2 Licensing
134
fe61ab85 135Perl has a new Social Contract for contributors. See F<Porting/Contract>.
429b3afa 136
fe61ab85 137The license included in much of the Perl documentation has changed.
9cde0e7f 138See L<perl> and the individual perl man pages listed therein.
429b3afa 139
01784f0d 140=head1 Core Changes
141
01784f0d 142
429b3afa 143=head2 Threads
144
9cde0e7f 145WARNING: Threading is considered an B<experimental> feature. Details of the
429b3afa 146implementation may change without notice. There are known limitations
9cde0e7f 147and some bugs. These are expected to be fixed in future versions.
429b3afa 148
149See L<README.threads>.
150
151=head2 Compiler
152
9cde0e7f 153WARNING: The Compiler and related tools are considered B<experimental>.
429b3afa 154Features may change without notice, and there are known limitations
9cde0e7f 155and bugs. Since the compiler is fully external to perl, the default
156configuration will build and install it.
429b3afa 157
fe61ab85 158The Compiler produces three different types of transformations of a
159perl program. The C backend generates C code that captures perl's state
160just before execution begins. It eliminates the compile-time overheads
161of the regular perl interpreter, but the run-time performance remains
162comparatively the same. The CC backend generates optimized C code
163equivivalent to the code path at run-time. The CC backend has greater
164potential for big optimizations, but only a few optimizations are
165implemented currently. The Bytecode backend generates a platform
166independent bytecode representation of the interpreter's state
167just before execution. Thus, the Bytecode back end also eliminates
168much of the compilation overhead of the interpreter.
169
170The compiler comes with several valuable utilities.
171
172C<B::Lint> is an experimental module to detect and warn about suspicious
173code, especially the cases that the C<-w> switch does not detect.
174
175C<B::Deparse> can be used to demystify perl code, and understand
176how perl optimizes certain constructs.
177
178C<B::Xref> generates cross reference reports of all definition and use
179of variables, subroutines and formats in a program.
429b3afa 180
fe61ab85 181C<B::Showlex> show the lexical variables used by a subroutine or file
182at a glance.
183
184C<perlcc> is a simple frontend for compiling perl.
429b3afa 185
9cde0e7f 186See C<ext/B/README>, L<B>, and the respective compiler modules.
429b3afa 187
188=head2 Regular Expressions
189
9cde0e7f 190Perl's regular expression engine has been seriously overhauled, and
191many new constructs are supported. Several bugs have been fixed.
192
193Here is an itemized summary:
194
195=over 4
196
197=item Many new and improved optimizations
198
199Changes in the RE engine:
200
201 Unneeded nodes removed;
202 Substrings merged together;
203 New types of nodes to process (SUBEXPR)* and similar expressions
204 quickly, used if the SUBEXPR has no side effects and matches
205 strings of the same length;
206 better optimizations by lookup for constant substrings;
207 Better search for constants substrings anchored by $ ;
208
209Changes in Perl code using RE engine:
210
211 more optimizations to s/longer/short/;
212 study() was not working;
213 /blah/ may be optimized to an analogue of index() if $& $` $' not seen;
214 Unneeded copying of matched-against string removed;
215 Only matched part of the string is copying if $` $' were not seen;
216
217=item Many bug fixes
218
219Note that only the major bug fixes are listed here. See F<Changes> for others.
220
221 Backtracking might not restore start of $3.
222 No feedback if max count for * or + on "complex" subexpression
223 was reached, similarly (but at compile time) for {3,34567}
224 Primitive restrictions on max count introduced to decrease a
225 possibility of a segfault;
226 (ZERO-LENGTH)* could segfault;
227 (ZERO-LENGTH)* was prohibited;
228 Long RE were not allowed;
229 /RE/g could skip matches at the same position after a
230 zero-length match;
231
232=item New regular expression constructs
233
234The following new syntax elements are supported:
235
236 (?<=RE)
237 (?<!RE)
238 (?{ CODE })
239 (?i-x)
240 (?i:RE)
241 (?(COND)YES_RE|NO_RE)
242 (?>RE)
243 \z
244
245=item New operator for precompiled regular expressions
246
247See L<New C<qr//> operator>.
248
249=item Other improvements
250
251 better debugging output (possibly with colors), even from non-debugging Perl;
252 RE engine code now looks like C, not like assembler;
253 behaviour of RE modifiable by `use re' directive;
254 Improved documentation;
255 Test suite significantly extended;
256 Syntax [:^upper:] etc., reserved inside character classes;
257
258=item Incompatible changes
259
260 (?i) localized inside enclosing group;
261 $( is not interpolated into RE any more;
262 /RE/g may match at the same position (with non-zero length)
263 after a zero-length match (bug fix).
264
265=back
266
429b3afa 267See L<perlre> and L<perlop>.
268
269=head2 Improved malloc()
270
271See banner at the beginning of C<malloc.c> for details.
272
273=head2 Quicksort is internally implemented
274
9cde0e7f 275Perl now contains its own highly optimized qsort() routine. The new qsort()
276is resistant to inconsistent comparison functions, so Perl's C<sort()> will
277not provoke coredumps any more when given poorly written sort subroutines.
278(Some C library C<qsort()>s that were being used before used to have this
279problem.) In our testing, the new C<qsort()> required the minimal number
280of pair-wise compares on average, among all known C<qsort()> implementations.
281
429b3afa 282See C<perlfunc/sort>.
283
284=head2 Reliable signals
285
9cde0e7f 286Perl's signal handling is susceptible to random crashes, because signals
287arrive asynchronously, and the Perl runtime is not reentrant at arbitrary
288times.
fe61ab85 289
9cde0e7f 290However, one experimental implementation of reliable signals is available
291when threads are enabled. See C<Thread::Signal>. Also see F<INSTALL> for
292how to build a Perl capable of threads.
429b3afa 293
294=head2 Reliable stack pointers
295
fe61ab85 296The internals now reallocate the perl stack only at predictable times.
429b3afa 297In particular, magic calls never trigger reallocations of the stack,
298because all reentrancy of the runtime is handled using a "stack of stacks".
fe61ab85 299This should improve reliability of cached stack pointers in the internals
300and in XSUBs.
429b3afa 301
637e9122 302=head2 More generous treatment of carriage returns
303
304Perl used to complain if it encountered carriage returns in scripts. Now
305they are treated like whitespace. Literal carriage returns inside
306string literals and here documents are ignored if they are paired with
307newlines, or treated like newlines if they stand alone. This behavior
308means that literal carriage returns in files should be avoided. You
309can get the older, more compatible (but less generous) behavior by
310defining the preprocessor symbol C<TMP_CRLF_PATCH> when building perl.
311
312Note that this doesn't somehow magically allow you to keep all text files
313in DOS format. The generous treatment only applies to files that perl
314itself parses. If your C compiler doesn't allow carriage returns in
315files, you may still be unable to build modules that need a C compiler.
316
317=head2 Memory leaks
318
319C<substr>, C<pos> and C<vec> don't leak memory anymore when used in lvalue
320context. Many small leaks that impacted applications that embed multiple
321interpreters have been fixed.
322
323=head2 Better support for multiple interpreters
324
325The build-time option C<-DMULTIPLICITY> has had many of the details
326reworked. Some previously global variables that should have been
327per-interpreter now are. With care, this allows interpreters to call
328each other. See the C<PerlInterp> extension on CPAN.
329
407eff0f 330=head2 Behavior of local() on array and hash elements is now well-defined
429b3afa 331
407eff0f 332See L<perlsub/"Temporary Values via local()">.
429b3afa 333
334=head2 C<%!> is transparently tied to the L<Errno> module
335
fe61ab85 336See L<perlvar>, and L<Errno>.
429b3afa 337
338=head2 Pseudo-hashes are supported
339
340See L<perlref>.
341
342=head2 C<EXPR foreach EXPR> is supported
343
344See L<perlsyn>.
345
429b3afa 346=head2 Keywords can be globally overridden
347
348See L<perlsub>.
349
350=head2 C<$^E> is meaningful on Win32
351
352See L<perlvar>.
353
354=head2 C<foreach (1..1000000)> optimized
355
356C<foreach (1..1000000)> is now optimized into a counting loop. It does
357not try to allocate a 1000000-size list anymore.
358
359=head2 C<Foo::> can be used as implicitly quoted package name
360
9cde0e7f 361Barewords caused unintuitive behavior when a subroutine with the same
362name as a package happened to be defined. Thus, C<new Foo @args>,
363use the result of the call to C<Foo()> instead of C<Foo> being treated
364as a literal. The recommended way to write barewords in the indirect
365object slot is C<new Foo:: @args>. Note that the method C<new()> is
366called with a first argument of C<Foo>, not C<Foo::> when you do that.
429b3afa 367
368=head2 C<exists $Foo::{Bar::}> tests existence of a package
369
9cde0e7f 370It was impossible to test for the existence of a package without
371actually creating it before. Now C<exists $Foo::{Bar::}> can be
372used to test if the C<Foo::Bar> namespace has been created.
429b3afa 373
374=head2 Better locale support
375
376See L<perllocale>.
377
7ea97eb9 378=head2 Experimental support for 64-bit platforms
429b3afa 379
7ea97eb9 380Perl5 has always had 64-bit support on systems with 64-bit longs.
381Starting with 5.005, the beginnings of experimental support for systems
382with 32-bit long and 64-bit 'long long' integers has been added.
383If you add -DUSE_LONG_LONG to your ccflags in config.sh (or manually
384define it in perl.h) then perl will be built with 'long long' support.
385There will be many compiler warnings, and the resultant perl may not
386work on all systems. There are many other issues related to
387third-party extensions and libraries. This option exists to allow
388people to work on those issues.
429b3afa 389
390=head2 prototype() returns useful results on builtins
391
392See L<perlfunc/prototype>.
393
1a159553 394=head2 Extended support for exception handling
395
396C<die()> now accepts a reference value, and C<$@> gets set to that
397value in exception traps. This makes it possible to propagate
9cde0e7f 398exception objects. This is an undocumented B<experimental> feature.
1a159553 399
429b3afa 400=head2 Re-blessing in DESTROY() supported for chaining DESTROY() methods
401
402See L<perlobj/Destructors>.
403
404=head2 All C<printf> format conversions are handled internally
405
406See L<perlfunc/printf>.
407
408=head2 New C<INIT> keyword
409
fe61ab85 410C<INIT> subs are like C<BEGIN> and C<END>, but they get run just before
411the perl runtime begins execution. e.g., the Perl Compiler makes use of
412C<INIT> blocks to initialize and resolve pointers to XSUBs.
429b3afa 413
429b3afa 414=head2 New C<lock> keyword
415
fe61ab85 416The C<lock> keyword is the fundamental synchronization primitive
417in threaded perl. When threads are not enabled, it is currently a noop.
418
429b3afa 419To minimize impact on source compatibility this keyword is "weak", i.e., any
420user-defined subroutine of the same name overrides it, unless a C<use Thread>
421has been seen.
422
fe61ab85 423=head2 New C<qr//> operator
424
425The C<qr//> operator, which is syntactically similar to the other quote-like
0a92e3a8 426operators, is used to create precompiled regular expressions. This compiled
fe61ab85 427form can now be explicitly passed around in variables, and interpolated in
0a92e3a8 428other regular expressions. See L<perlop>.
fe61ab85 429
430=head2 C<our> is now a reserved word
431
9cde0e7f 432Calling a subroutine with the name C<our> will now provoke a warning when
433using the C<-w> switch.
434
429b3afa 435=head2 Tied arrays are now fully supported
436
437See L<Tie::Array>.
438
439=head2 Tied handles support is better
440
441Several missing hooks have been added. There is also a new base class for
442TIEARRAY implementations. See L<Tie::Array>.
443
6bb4e6d4 444=head2 4th argument to substr
445
446substr() can now both return and replace in one operation. The optional
4474th argument is the replacement string. See L<perlfunc/substr>.
448
449=head2 Negative LENGTH argument to splice
450
451Splice() with a negative LENGTH argument now work similar to what the
452LENGTH did for substr(). Previously a negative LENGTH was treated as
4530. See L<perlfunc/splice>.
454
407eff0f 455=head2 Magic lvalues are now more magical
456
457When you say something like C<substr($x, 5) = "hi">, the scalar returned
458by substr() is special, in that any modifications to it affect $x.
459(This is called a 'magic lvalue' because an 'lvalue' is something on
460the left side of an assignment.) Normally, this is exactly what you
461would expect to happen, but Perl uses the same magic if you use substr(),
462pos(), or vec() in a context where they might be modified, like taking
463a reference with C<\> or as an argument to a sub that modifies C<@_>.
464In previous versions, this 'magic' only went one way, but now changes
465to the scalar the magic refers to ($x in the above example) affect the
466magic lvalue too. For instance, this code now acts differently:
467
468 $x = "hello";
469 sub printit {
470 $x = "g'bye";
471 print $_[0], "\n";
472 }
473 printit(substr($x, 0, 5));
474
475In previous versions, this would print "hello", but it now prints "g'bye".
476
3bf5f72b 477=head2 E<lt>E<gt> now reads in records
478
479If C<$/> is a referenence to an integer, or a scalar that holds an integer,
480E<lt>E<gt> will read in records instead of lines. For more info, see
481L<perlvar/$/>.
429b3afa 482
483=head1 Supported Platforms
484
485Configure has many incremental improvements. Site-wide policy for building
fe61ab85 486perl can now be made persistent, via Policy.sh. Configure also records
7ea97eb9 487the command-line arguments used in F<config.sh>.
429b3afa 488
489=head2 New Platforms
490
491BeOS is now supported. See L<README.beos>.
492
493DOS is now supported under the DJGPP tools. See L<README.dos>.
494
1d84e8df 495MPE/iX is now supported. See L<README.mpeix>.
496
429b3afa 497=head2 Changes in existing support
498
499Win32 support has been vastly enhanced. Support for Perl Object, a C++
500encapsulation of Perl. GCC and EGCS are now supported on Win32.
9cde0e7f 501See F<README.win32>, aka L<perlwin32>.
429b3afa 502
503VMS configuration system has been rewritten. See L<README.vms>.
504
9cde0e7f 505The hints files for most Unix platforms have seen incremental improvements.
429b3afa 506
507=head1 Modules and Pragmata
508
509=head2 New Modules
510
511=over
512
513=item B
514
9cde0e7f 515Perl compiler and tools. See L<B>.
429b3afa 516
517=item Data::Dumper
518
519A module to pretty print Perl data. See L<Data::Dumper>.
520
521=item Errno
522
523A module to look up errors more conveniently. See L<Errno>.
524
525=item File::Spec
526
527A portable API for file operations.
528
529=item ExtUtils::Installed
530
531Query and manage installed modules.
532
533=item ExtUtils::Packlist
534
535Manipulate .packlist files.
536
537=item Fatal
538
539Make functions/builtins succeed or die.
540
541=item IPC::SysV
542
543Constants and other support infrastructure for System V IPC operations
544in perl.
545
546=item Test
547
548A framework for writing testsuites.
01784f0d 549
429b3afa 550=item Tie::Array
551
552Base class for tied arrays.
553
554=item Tie::Handle
555
556Base class for tied handles.
557
558=item Thread
559
560Perl thread creation, manipulation, and support.
561
562=item attrs
563
564Set subroutine attributes.
565
566=item fields
567
568Compile-time class fields.
569
570=item re
571
572Various pragmata to control behavior of regular expressions.
573
574=back
575
576=head2 Changes in existing modules
577
578=over
579
580=item CGI
581
582CGI has been updated to version 2.42.
583
584=item POSIX
585
586POSIX now has its own platform-specific hints files.
587
588=item DB_File
589
590DB_File supports version 2.x of Berkeley DB. See C<ext/DB_File/Changes>.
591
592=item MakeMaker
593
594MakeMaker now supports writing empty makefiles, provides a way to
595specify that site umask() policy should be honored. There is also
596better support for manipulation of .packlist files, and getting
597information about installed modules.
598
7ea97eb9 599Extensions that have both architecture-dependent and
600architecture-independent files are now always installed completely in
601the architecture-dependent locations. Previously, the shareable parts
602were shared both across architectures and across perl versions and were
603therefore liable to be overwritten with newer versions that might have
604subtle incompatibilities.
605
429b3afa 606=item CPAN
607
9cde0e7f 608See <perlmodinstall> and L<CPAN>.
429b3afa 609
610=item Cwd
611
612Cwd::cwd is faster on most platforms.
613
614=item Benchmark
615
616Keeps better time.
617
618=back
01784f0d 619
620=head1 Utility Changes
621
637e9122 622C<h2ph> and related utilities have been vastly overhauled.
623
624C<perlcc>, a new experimental front end for the compiler is available.
429b3afa 625
637e9122 626The crude GNU C<configure> emulator is now called C<configure.gnu> to
627avoid trampling on C<Configure> under case-insensitive filesystems.
429b3afa 628
637e9122 629C<perldoc> used to be rather slow. The slower features are now optional.
630In particular, case-insensitive searches need the C<-i> switch, and
631recursive searches need C<-r>. You can set these switches in the
632C<PERLDOC> environment variable to get the old behavior.
7ea97eb9 633
01784f0d 634=head1 Documentation Changes
635
429b3afa 636Config.pm now has a glossary of variables.
637
9cde0e7f 638F<Porting/patching.pod> has detailed instructions on how to create and
429b3afa 639submit patches for perl.
640
9cde0e7f 641L<perlport> specifies guidelines on how to write portably.
642
643L<perlmodinstall> describes how to fetch and install modules from C<CPAN>
644sites.
645
646Some more Perl traps are documented now. See L<perltrap>.
647
429b3afa 648=head1 New Diagnostics
649
650=over
651
652=item Ambiguous call resolved as CORE::%s(), qualify as such or use &
653
654(W) A subroutine you have declared has the same name as a Perl keyword,
655and you have used the name without qualification for calling one or the
656other. Perl decided to call the builtin because the subroutine is
657not imported.
658
659To force interpretation as a subroutine call, either put an ampersand
660before the subroutine name, or qualify the name with its package.
661Alternatively, you can import the subroutine (or pretend that it's
662imported with the C<use subs> pragma).
663
664To silently interpret it as the Perl operator, use the C<CORE::> prefix
665on the operator (e.g. C<CORE::log($x)>) or by declaring the subroutine
666to be an object method (see L<attrs>).
667
668=item Bad index while coercing array into hash
669
670(F) The index looked up in the hash found as the 0'th element of a
671pseudo-hash is not legal. Index values must be at 1 or greater.
672See L<perlref>.
673
674=item Bareword "%s" refers to nonexistent package
675
676(W) You used a qualified bareword of the form C<Foo::>, but
677the compiler saw no other uses of that namespace before that point.
678Perhaps you need to predeclare a package?
679
680=item Can't call method "%s" on an undefined value
681
682(F) You used the syntax of a method call, but the slot filled by the
683object reference or package name contains an undefined value.
684Something like this will reproduce the error:
685
686 $BADREF = 42;
687 process $BADREF 1,2,3;
688 $BADREF->process(1,2,3);
689
690=item Can't coerce array into hash
691
692(F) You used an array where a hash was expected, but the array has no
693information on how to map from keys to array indices. You can do that
694only with arrays that have a hash reference at index 0.
695
696=item Can't goto subroutine from an eval-string
697
698(F) The "goto subroutine" call can't be used to jump out of an eval "string".
699(You can use it to jump out of an eval {BLOCK}, but you probably don't want to.)
700
0ebe0038 701=item Can't localize pseudo-hash element
702
703(F) You said something like C<local $ar-E<gt>{'key'}>, where $ar is
704a reference to a pseudo-hash. That hasn't been implemented yet, but
705you can get a similar effect by localizing the corresponding array
706element directly -- C<local $ar-E<gt>[$ar-E<gt>[0]{'key'}]>.
707
429b3afa 708=item Can't use %%! because Errno.pm is not available
709
710(F) The first time the %! hash is used, perl automatically loads the
711Errno.pm module. The Errno module is expected to tie the %! hash to
712provide symbolic names for C<$!> errno values.
713
429b3afa 714=item Cannot find an opnumber for "%s"
715
716(F) A string of a form C<CORE::word> was given to prototype(), but
717there is no builtin with the name C<word>.
718
719=item Character class syntax [. .] is reserved for future extensions
720
721(W) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
722with "[." and ending with ".]" is reserved for future extensions.
723If you need to represent those character sequences inside a regular
724expression character class, just quote the square brackets with the
725backslash: "\[." and ".\]".
726
727=item Character class syntax [: :] is reserved for future extensions
728
729(W) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax beginning
730with "[:" and ending with ":]" is reserved for future extensions.
731If you need to represent those character sequences inside a regular
732expression character class, just quote the square brackets with the
733backslash: "\[:" and ":\]".
734
735=item Character class syntax [= =] is reserved for future extensions
736
737(W) Within regular expression character classes ([]) the syntax
738beginning with "[=" and ending with "=]" is reserved for future extensions.
739If you need to represent those character sequences inside a regular
740expression character class, just quote the square brackets with the
741backslash: "\[=" and "=\]".
742
743=item %s: Eval-group in insecure regular expression
744
745(F) Perl detected tainted data when trying to compile a regular expression
746that contains the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion, which is unsafe.
747See L<perlre/(?{ code })>, and L<perlsec>.
748
749=item %s: Eval-group not allowed, use re 'eval'
750
751(F) A regular expression contained the C<(?{ ... })> zero-width assertion,
752but that construct is only allowed when the C<use re 'eval'> pragma is
753in effect. See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
754
755=item %s: Eval-group not allowed at run time
756
757(F) Perl tried to compile a regular expression containing the C<(?{ ... })>
758zero-width assertion at run time, as it would when the pattern contains
759interpolated values. Since that is a security risk, it is not allowed.
760If you insist, you may still do this by explicitly building the pattern
761from an interpolated string at run time and using that in an eval().
762See L<perlre/(?{ code })>.
763
764=item Explicit blessing to '' (assuming package main)
765
766(W) You are blessing a reference to a zero length string. This has
767the effect of blessing the reference into the package main. This is
768usually not what you want. Consider providing a default target
769package, e.g. bless($ref, $p or 'MyPackage');
770
771=item Illegal hex digit ignored
772
773(W) You may have tried to use a character other than 0 - 9 or A - F in a
774hexadecimal number. Interpretation of the hexadecimal number stopped
775before the illegal character.
776
777=item No such array field
778
779(F) You tried to access an array as a hash, but the field name used is
780not defined. The hash at index 0 should map all valid field names to
781array indices for that to work.
782
783=item No such field "%s" in variable %s of type %s
784
785(F) You tried to access a field of a typed variable where the type
786does not know about the field name. The field names are looked up in
787the %FIELDS hash in the type package at compile time. The %FIELDS hash
788is usually set up with the 'fields' pragma.
789
790=item Out of memory during ridiculously large request
791
792(F) You can't allocate more than 2^31+"small amount" bytes. This error
793is most likely to be caused by a typo in the Perl program. e.g., C<$arr[time]>
794instead of C<$arr[$time]>.
795
796=item Range iterator outside integer range
797
798(F) One (or both) of the numeric arguments to the range operator ".."
799are outside the range which can be represented by integers internally.
800One possible workaround is to force Perl to use magical string
801increment by prepending "0" to your numbers.
802
803=item Recursive inheritance detected while looking for method '%s' in package '%s'
804
805(F) More than 100 levels of inheritance were encountered while invoking a
806method. Probably indicates an unintended loop in your inheritance hierarchy.
807
808=item Reference found where even-sized list expected
809
810(W) You gave a single reference where Perl was expecting a list with
811an even number of elements (for assignment to a hash). This
812usually means that you used the anon hash constructor when you meant
813to use parens. In any case, a hash requires key/value B<pairs>.
814
815 %hash = { one => 1, two => 2, }; # WRONG
816 %hash = [ qw/ an anon array / ]; # WRONG
817 %hash = ( one => 1, two => 2, ); # right
818 %hash = qw( one 1 two 2 ); # also fine
819
820=item Undefined value assigned to typeglob
821
822(W) An undefined value was assigned to a typeglob, a la C<*foo = undef>.
823This does nothing. It's possible that you really mean C<undef *foo>.
824
825=item Use of reserved word "%s" is deprecated
826
827(D) The indicated bareword is a reserved word. Future versions of perl
828may use it as a keyword, so you're better off either explicitly quoting
829the word in a manner appropriate for its context of use, or using a
830different name altogether. The warning can be suppressed for subroutine
831names by either adding a C<&> prefix, or using a package qualifier,
832e.g. C<&our()>, or C<Foo::our()>.
833
834=item perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
835
836(S) The whole warning message will look something like:
837
838 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
839 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
840 LC_ALL = "En_US",
841 LANG = (unset)
842 are supported and installed on your system.
843 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
844
845Exactly what were the failed locale settings varies. In the above the
846settings were that the LC_ALL was "En_US" and the LANG had no value.
847This error means that Perl detected that you and/or your system
848administrator have set up the so-called variable system but Perl could
849not use those settings. This was not dead serious, fortunately: there
850is a "default locale" called "C" that Perl can and will use, the
851script will be run. Before you really fix the problem, however, you
852will get the same error message each time you run Perl. How to really
853fix the problem can be found in L<perllocale> section B<LOCALE PROBLEMS>.
854
855=back
856
857
858=head1 Obsolete Diagnostics
859
860=over
6cc33c6d 861
429b3afa 862=item Can't mktemp()
863
864(F) The mktemp() routine failed for some reason while trying to process
865a B<-e> switch. Maybe your /tmp partition is full, or clobbered.
866
867=item Can't write to temp file for B<-e>: %s
868
869(F) The write routine failed for some reason while trying to process
870a B<-e> switch. Maybe your /tmp partition is full, or clobbered.
871
872=item Cannot open temporary file
873
874(F) The create routine failed for some reason while trying to process
875a B<-e> switch. Maybe your /tmp partition is full, or clobbered.
876
429b3afa 877=back
878
01784f0d 879=head1 BUGS
880
881If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the headers of
882recently posted articles in the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup.
883There may also be information at http://www.perl.com/perl/, the Perl
884Home Page.
885
886If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the B<perlbug>
887program included with your release. Make sure you trim your bug down
888to a tiny but sufficient test case. Your bug report, along with the
889output of C<perl -V>, will be sent off to <F<perlbug@perl.com>> to be
890analysed by the Perl porting team.
891
892=head1 SEE ALSO
893
894The F<Changes> file for exhaustive details on what changed.
895
896The F<INSTALL> file for how to build Perl.
897
898The F<README> file for general stuff.
899
900The F<Artistic> and F<Copying> files for copyright information.
901
902=head1 HISTORY
429b3afa 903
9cde0e7f 904Written by Gurusamy Sarathy <F<gsar@umich.edu>>, with many contributions
905from The Perl Porters.
906
907Send omissions or corrections to <F<perlbug@perl.com>>.
908
429b3afa 909=cut