Commit | Line | Data |
ba8251e8 |
1 | =head1 NAME |
2 | |
651a3225 |
3 | perldelta - what's new for perl v5.6 (as of v5.005_61) |
ba8251e8 |
4 | |
5 | =head1 DESCRIPTION |
6 | |
f29c64d6 |
7 | This is an unsupported alpha release, meant for intrepid Perl developers |
8 | only. The included sources may not even build correctly on some platforms. |
9 | Subscribing to perl5-porters is the best way to monitor and contribute |
10 | to the progress of development releases (see www.perl.org for info). |
11 | |
ba8251e8 |
12 | This document describes differences between the 5.005 release and this one. |
13 | |
14 | =head1 Incompatible Changes |
15 | |
e02fdbd2 |
16 | =head2 Perl Source Incompatibilities |
17 | |
f29c64d6 |
18 | TODO |
e02fdbd2 |
19 | |
20 | =head2 C Source Incompatibilities |
21 | |
22 | =over 4 |
23 | |
24 | =item C<PERL_POLLUTE> |
25 | |
26 | Release 5.005 grandfathered old global symbol names by providing preprocessor |
87275199 |
27 | macros for extension source compatibility. As of release 5.6, these |
e02fdbd2 |
28 | preprocessor definitions are not available by default. You need to explicitly |
14218588 |
29 | compile perl with C<-DPERL_POLLUTE> to get these definitions. For |
30 | extensions still using the old symbols, this option can be |
2aea4d40 |
31 | specified via MakeMaker: |
32 | |
14218588 |
33 | perl Makefile.PL POLLUTE=1 |
e02fdbd2 |
34 | |
f29c64d6 |
35 | =item C<PERL_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT> |
36 | |
37 | This new build option provides a set of macros for all API functions |
38 | such that an implicit interpreter/thread context argument is passed to |
39 | every API function. As a result of this, something like C<sv_setsv(foo,bar)> |
2c2d71f5 |
40 | amounts to a macro invocation that actually translates to something like |
f29c64d6 |
41 | C<Perl_sv_setsv(my_perl,foo,bar)>. While this is generally expected |
42 | to not have any significant source compatibility issues, the difference |
43 | between a macro and a real function call will need to be considered. |
44 | |
2c2d71f5 |
45 | This means that there B<is> a source compatibility issue as a result of |
46 | this if your extensions attempt to use pointers to any of the Perl API |
47 | functions. |
48 | |
f29c64d6 |
49 | Note that the above issue is not relevant to the default build of |
50 | Perl, whose interfaces continue to match those of prior versions |
51 | (but subject to the other options described here). |
52 | |
651a3225 |
53 | PERL_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT is automatically enabled whenever Perl is built |
54 | with one of -Dusethreads, -Dusemultiplicity, or both. |
f29c64d6 |
55 | |
2c2d71f5 |
56 | See L<perlguts/"The Perl API"> for detailed information on the |
57 | ramifications of building Perl using this option. |
58 | |
86058a2d |
59 | =item C<PERL_POLLUTE_MALLOC> |
60 | |
14218588 |
61 | Enabling Perl's malloc in release 5.005 and earlier caused |
86058a2d |
62 | the namespace of system versions of the malloc family of functions to |
14218588 |
63 | be usurped by the Perl versions, since by default they used the |
64 | same names. |
86058a2d |
65 | |
66 | Besides causing problems on platforms that do not allow these functions to |
67 | be cleanly replaced, this also meant that the system versions could not |
68 | be called in programs that used Perl's malloc. Previous versions of Perl |
14218588 |
69 | have allowed this behaviour to be suppressed with the HIDEMYMALLOC and |
86058a2d |
70 | EMBEDMYMALLOC preprocessor definitions. |
71 | |
87275199 |
72 | As of release 5.6, Perl's malloc family of functions have default names |
86058a2d |
73 | distinct from the system versions. You need to explicitly compile perl with |
14218588 |
74 | C<-DPERL_POLLUTE_MALLOC> to get the older behaviour. HIDEMYMALLOC |
75 | and EMBEDMYMALLOC have no effect, since the behaviour they enabled is now |
86058a2d |
76 | the default. |
77 | |
78 | Note that these functions do B<not> constitute Perl's memory allocation API. |
79 | See L<perlguts/"Memory Allocation"> for further information about that. |
80 | |
e02fdbd2 |
81 | =item C<PL_na> and C<dTHR> Issues |
82 | |
83 | The C<PL_na> global is now thread local, so a C<dTHR> declaration is needed |
14218588 |
84 | in the scope in which the global appears. XSUBs should handle this automatically, |
e02fdbd2 |
85 | but if you have used C<PL_na> in support functions, you either need to |
86 | change the C<PL_na> to a local variable (which is recommended), or put in |
87 | a C<dTHR>. |
88 | |
89 | =back |
90 | |
cceca5ed |
91 | =head2 Compatible C Source API Changes |
92 | |
93 | =over |
94 | |
95 | =item C<PATCHLEVEL> is now C<PERL_VERSION> |
96 | |
14218588 |
97 | The cpp macros C<PERL_REVISION>, C<PERL_VERSION>, and C<PERL_SUBVERSION> |
cceca5ed |
98 | are now available by default from perl.h, and reflect the base revision, |
14218588 |
99 | patchlevel, and subversion respectively. C<PERL_REVISION> had no |
cceca5ed |
100 | prior equivalent, while C<PERL_VERSION> and C<PERL_SUBVERSION> were |
101 | previously available as C<PATCHLEVEL> and C<SUBVERSION>. |
102 | |
14218588 |
103 | The new names cause less pollution of the B<cpp> namespace and reflect what |
cceca5ed |
104 | the numbers have come to stand for in common practice. For compatibility, |
14218588 |
105 | the old names are still supported when F<patchlevel.h> is explicitly |
cceca5ed |
106 | included (as required before), so there is no source incompatibility |
14218588 |
107 | from the change. |
cceca5ed |
108 | |
109 | =back |
110 | |
e02fdbd2 |
111 | =head2 Binary Incompatibilities |
112 | |
9c107f78 |
113 | The default build of this release is binary compatible with the 5.005 |
114 | release or its maintenance versions. |
f29c64d6 |
115 | |
116 | The usethreads or usemultiplicity builds are B<not> binary compatible |
117 | with the corresponding builds in 5.005. |
e02fdbd2 |
118 | |
ba8251e8 |
119 | =head1 Core Changes |
120 | |
9d73390d |
121 | =head2 Unicode and UTF-8 support |
122 | |
123 | Perl can optionally use UTF-8 as its internal representation for character |
124 | strings. The C<use utf8> pragma enables this support in the current lexical |
125 | scope. See L<utf8> for more information. |
126 | |
127 | =head2 Lexically scoped warning categories |
128 | |
129 | You can now control the granularity of warnings emitted by perl at a finer |
4438c4b7 |
130 | level using the C<use warnings> pragma. See L<warnings> and L<perllexwarn> |
0453d815 |
131 | for details. |
9d73390d |
132 | |
5fdc711f |
133 | =head2 Binary numbers supported |
134 | |
4f19785b |
135 | Binary numbers are now supported as literals, in s?printf formats, and |
136 | C<oct()>: |
137 | |
14218588 |
138 | $answer = 0b101010; |
139 | printf "The answer is: %b\n", oct("0b101010"); |
4f19785b |
140 | |
5fdc711f |
141 | =head2 syswrite() ease-of-use |
142 | |
6c67e1bb |
143 | The length argument of C<syswrite()> is now optional. |
144 | |
5fdc711f |
145 | =head2 64-bit support |
146 | |
9c107f78 |
147 | All platforms that have 64-bit integers either (a) natively as longs |
148 | or ints (b) via special compiler flags (c) using long long are able to |
149 | use "quads" (64-integers) as follows: |
150 | |
151 | =over 4 |
152 | |
ea12c2aa |
153 | =item literal numeric constants in the code |
9c107f78 |
154 | |
155 | =item arguments to oct() and hex() |
156 | |
157 | =item arguments to print(), printf() and sprintf() |
158 | |
ea12c2aa |
159 | =item pack() and unpack() "q" and "Q" formats |
9c107f78 |
160 | |
ea12c2aa |
161 | =item in basic arithmetics: +, -, *, /, % |
9c107f78 |
162 | |
ea12c2aa |
163 | =item in bit arithmetics: &, |, ^, ~, <<, >>, vec() |
c5a0f51a |
164 | |
9c107f78 |
165 | =back |
166 | |
167 | Note that unless you have the case (a) you will have to configure |
168 | and compile Perl using the -Duse64bits Configure flag. |
169 | |
2d4389e4 |
170 | Last but not least: note that due to Perl's habit of always using |
ea12c2aa |
171 | floating point numbers (inherently inexact) the quads are still not |
172 | true integers (exact). When the quads overflow their limits |
173 | (0...18_446_744_073_709_551_615 unsigned, -9_223_372_036_854_775_808... |
174 | 9_223_372_036_854_775_807 signed), they are silently promoted to |
175 | floating point numbers, after which they will start losing precision |
176 | (their lower digits). What this means, among other things, is that |
177 | adding/subtracting small numbers doesn't change the large number, |
178 | and that == may return equalness for numbers that are not equal. |
179 | One particular cause of grief is using the ~ operator which when |
180 | used on small numbers produces large numbers. These large numbers |
181 | stay (internally) integers for only as long as bit arithmetics are |
182 | used, but for example + will turn the results into floating point |
183 | numbers. |
2d4389e4 |
184 | |
185 | =head2 Large file support |
186 | |
187 | If you have filesystems that support "large files" (files larger than |
188 | 2 gigabytes), you may now also be able to create and access them from Perl. |
189 | |
190 | Note that in addition to requiring a proper file system to do this you |
ea12c2aa |
191 | may also need to adjust your per-process (or even your per-system, or |
192 | per-user group) maximum filesize limits before running Perl scripts |
193 | that try to handle large files, especially if you intend to write such |
194 | files (reading may work even without adjustments). |
2d4389e4 |
195 | |
196 | Adjusting your file system/system limits is outside the scope of Perl. |
197 | For process limits, you may try to increase the limits using your |
198 | shell's limit/ulimit command before running Perl. The BSD::Resource |
199 | extension (not included with the standard Perl distribution) may also |
200 | be of use. |
201 | |
202 | (Large file support is also related to 64-bit support, for obvious reasons) |
09bef843 |
203 | |
62c18ce2 |
204 | =head2 Better syntax checks on parenthesized unary operators |
205 | |
206 | Expressions such as: |
207 | |
14218588 |
208 | print defined(&foo,&bar,&baz); |
209 | print uc("foo","bar","baz"); |
210 | undef($foo,&bar); |
62c18ce2 |
211 | |
7711098a |
212 | used to be accidentally allowed in earlier versions, and produced |
14218588 |
213 | unpredictable behaviour. Some produced ancillary warnings |
214 | when used in this way; others silently did the wrong thing. |
62c18ce2 |
215 | |
216 | The parenthesized forms of most unary operators that expect a single |
14218588 |
217 | argument now ensure that they are not called with more than one |
218 | argument, making the cases shown above syntax errors. The usual |
219 | behaviour of: |
62c18ce2 |
220 | |
14218588 |
221 | print defined &foo, &bar, &baz; |
222 | print uc "foo", "bar", "baz"; |
223 | undef $foo, &bar; |
62c18ce2 |
224 | |
225 | remains unchanged. See L<perlop>. |
226 | |
3e3318e7 |
227 | =head2 POSIX character class syntax [: :] supported |
228 | |
229 | For example to match alphabetic characters use /[[:alpha:]]/. |
230 | See L<perlre> for details. |
231 | |
5a929a98 |
232 | =head2 Improved C<qw//> operator |
8127e0e3 |
233 | |
26ef7447 |
234 | The C<qw//> operator is now evaluated at compile time into a true list |
235 | instead of being replaced with a run time call to C<split()>. This |
14218588 |
236 | removes the confusing misbehaviour of C<qw//> in scalar context, which |
237 | had inherited that behaviour from split(). |
26ef7447 |
238 | |
239 | Thus: |
240 | |
241 | $foo = ($bar) = qw(a b c); print "$foo|$bar\n"; |
242 | |
243 | now correctly prints "3|a", instead of "2|a". |
8127e0e3 |
244 | |
5a929a98 |
245 | =head2 pack() format 'Z' supported |
246 | |
247 | The new format type 'Z' is useful for packing and unpacking null-terminated |
248 | strings. See L<perlfunc/"pack">. |
249 | |
4d0c1c44 |
250 | =head2 pack() format modifier '!' supported |
ee3907e2 |
251 | |
14218588 |
252 | The new format type modifier '!' is useful for packing and unpacking |
ee3907e2 |
253 | native shorts, ints, and longs. See L<perlfunc/"pack">. |
254 | |
f29c64d6 |
255 | =head2 pack() and unpack() support counted strings |
256 | |
257 | The template character '#' can be used to specify a counted string |
258 | type to be packed or unpacked. See L<perlfunc/"pack">. |
259 | |
2b92dfce |
260 | =head2 $^X variables may now have names longer than one character |
261 | |
262 | Formerly, $^X was synonymous with ${"\cX"}, but $^XY was a syntax |
263 | error. Now variable names that begin with a control character may be |
264 | arbitrarily long. However, for compatibility reasons, these variables |
265 | I<must> be written with explicit braces, as C<${^XY}> for example. |
14218588 |
266 | C<${^XYZ}> is synonymous with ${"\cXYZ"}. Variable names with more |
2b92dfce |
267 | than one control character, such as C<${^XY^Z}>, are illegal. |
268 | |
14218588 |
269 | The old syntax has not changed. As before, `^X' may be either a |
270 | literal control-X character or the two-character sequence `caret' plus |
271 | `X'. When braces are omitted, the variable name stops after the |
2b92dfce |
272 | control character. Thus C<"$^XYZ"> continues to be synonymous with |
7711098a |
273 | C<$^X . "YZ"> as before. |
2b92dfce |
274 | |
275 | As before, lexical variables may not have names beginning with control |
276 | characters. As before, variables whose names begin with a control |
14218588 |
277 | character are always forced to be in package `main'. All such variables |
278 | are reserved for future extensions, except those that begin with |
09bef843 |
279 | C<^_>, which may be used by user programs and are guaranteed not to |
14218588 |
280 | acquire special meaning in any future version of Perl. |
2b92dfce |
281 | |
09bef843 |
282 | =head2 C<use attrs> implicit in subroutine attributes |
283 | |
284 | Formerly, if you wanted to mark a subroutine as being a method call or |
285 | as requiring an automatic lock() when it is entered, you had to declare |
286 | that with a C<use attrs> pragma in the body of the subroutine. |
287 | That can now be accomplished with a declaration syntax, like this: |
288 | |
289 | sub mymethod : locked, method ; |
290 | ... |
291 | sub mymethod : locked, method { |
292 | ... |
293 | } |
294 | |
295 | F<AutoSplit.pm> and F<SelfLoader.pm> have been updated to keep the attributes |
296 | with the stubs they provide. See L<attributes>. |
297 | |
fbad3eb5 |
298 | =head1 Significant bug fixes |
299 | |
300 | =head2 E<lt>HANDLEE<gt> on empty files |
301 | |
302 | With C<$/> set to C<undef>, slurping an empty file returns a string of |
14218588 |
303 | zero length (instead of C<undef>, as it used to) the first time the |
304 | HANDLE is read. Further reads yield C<undef>. |
fbad3eb5 |
305 | |
306 | This means that the following will append "foo" to an empty file (it used |
14218588 |
307 | to do nothing): |
fbad3eb5 |
308 | |
309 | perl -0777 -pi -e 's/^/foo/' empty_file |
310 | |
14218588 |
311 | The behaviour of: |
fbad3eb5 |
312 | |
313 | perl -pi -e 's/^/foo/' empty_file |
314 | |
315 | is unchanged (it continues to leave the file empty). |
316 | |
0244c3a4 |
317 | =head2 C<eval '...'> improvements |
318 | |
319 | Line numbers (as reflected by caller() and most diagnostics) within |
320 | C<eval '...'> were often incorrect when here documents were involved. |
321 | This has been corrected. |
322 | |
323 | Lexical lookups for variables appearing in C<eval '...'> within |
324 | functions that were themselves called within an C<eval '...'> were |
14218588 |
325 | searching the wrong place for lexicals. The lexical search now |
326 | correctly ends at the subroutine's block boundary. |
0244c3a4 |
327 | |
328 | Parsing of here documents used to be flawed when they appeared as |
329 | the replacement expression in C<eval 's/.../.../e'>. This has |
330 | been fixed. |
331 | |
45bc9206 |
332 | =head2 Automatic flushing of output buffers |
333 | |
14218588 |
334 | fork(), exec(), system(), qx//, and pipe open()s now flush buffers |
335 | of all files opened for output when the operation |
336 | was attempted. This mostly eliminates confusing |
45bc9206 |
337 | buffering mishaps suffered by users unaware of how Perl internally |
14218588 |
338 | handles I/O. |
45bc9206 |
339 | |
af8c498a |
340 | =head2 Better diagnostics on meaningless filehandle operations |
341 | |
342 | Constructs such as C<open(E<lt>FHE<gt>)> and C<close(E<lt>FHE<gt>)> |
343 | are compile time errors. Attempting to read from filehandles that |
344 | were opened only for writing will now produce warnings (just as |
345 | writing to read-only filehandles does). |
346 | |
54195c32 |
347 | =head2 Buffered data discarded from input filehandle when dup'ed. |
348 | |
349 | C<open(NEW, "E<lt>&OLD")> now discards any data that was previously |
350 | read and buffered in C<OLD>. The next read operation on C<NEW> will |
351 | return the same data as the corresponding operation on C<OLD>. |
352 | Formerly, it would have returned the data from the start of the |
353 | following disk block instead. |
354 | |
ba8251e8 |
355 | =head1 Supported Platforms |
356 | |
5fdc711f |
357 | =over 4 |
358 | |
359 | =item * |
360 | |
6c67e1bb |
361 | VM/ESA is now supported. |
362 | |
5fdc711f |
363 | =item * |
364 | |
ee3907e2 |
365 | Siemens BS2000 is now supported under the POSIX Shell. |
366 | |
367 | =item * |
368 | |
2bb14304 |
369 | The Mach CThreads (NEXTSTEP, OPENSTEP) are now supported by the Thread |
370 | extension. |
6c67e1bb |
371 | |
5fdc711f |
372 | =item * |
373 | |
ee3907e2 |
374 | GNU/Hurd is now supported. |
6c67e1bb |
375 | |
00ad96e1 |
376 | =item * |
377 | |
378 | Rhapsody is now supported. |
379 | |
27806c82 |
380 | =item * |
381 | |
382 | EPOC is is now supported (on Psion 5). |
383 | |
5fdc711f |
384 | =back |
385 | |
6c67e1bb |
386 | =head1 New tests |
387 | |
388 | =over 4 |
389 | |
09bef843 |
390 | =item lib/attrs |
391 | |
392 | Compatibility tests for C<sub : attrs> vs the older C<use attrs>. |
393 | |
394 | =item lib/io_const |
6c67e1bb |
395 | |
396 | IO constants (SEEK_*, _IO*). |
14218588 |
397 | |
09bef843 |
398 | =item lib/io_dir |
6c67e1bb |
399 | |
400 | Directory-related IO methods (new, read, close, rewind, tied delete). |
401 | |
09bef843 |
402 | =item lib/io_multihomed |
6c67e1bb |
403 | |
404 | INET sockets with multi-homed hosts. |
405 | |
09bef843 |
406 | =item lib/io_poll |
6c67e1bb |
407 | |
408 | IO poll(). |
409 | |
09bef843 |
410 | =item lib/io_unix |
6c67e1bb |
411 | |
412 | UNIX sockets. |
413 | |
09bef843 |
414 | =item op/attrs |
415 | |
416 | Regression tests for C<my ($x,@y,%z) : attrs> and <sub : attrs>. |
417 | |
6c67e1bb |
418 | =item op/filetest |
419 | |
420 | File test operators. |
421 | |
422 | =item op/lex_assign |
423 | |
5fdc711f |
424 | Verify operations that access pad objects (lexicals and temporaries). |
6c67e1bb |
425 | |
426 | =back |
e02fdbd2 |
427 | |
ba8251e8 |
428 | =head1 Modules and Pragmata |
429 | |
3e8c4fa0 |
430 | =head2 Modules |
431 | |
b7d8191e |
432 | =over 4 |
433 | |
09bef843 |
434 | =item attributes |
435 | |
436 | While used internally by Perl as a pragma, this module also |
437 | provides a way to fetch subroutine and variable attributes. |
438 | See L<attributes>. |
439 | |
f29c64d6 |
440 | =item ByteLoader |
441 | |
442 | The ByteLoader is a dedication extension to generate and run |
443 | Perl bytecode. See L<ByteLoader>. |
444 | |
445 | =item B |
446 | |
447 | The Perl Compiler suite has been extensively reworked for this |
448 | release. |
449 | |
450 | =item Devel::DProf |
451 | |
452 | Devel::DProf, a Perl source code profiler has been added. |
453 | |
b7d8191e |
454 | =item Dumpvalue |
455 | |
456 | Added Dumpvalue module provides screen dumps of Perl data. |
457 | |
458 | =item Benchmark |
459 | |
868cb350 |
460 | You can now run tests for I<n> seconds instead of guessing the right |
14218588 |
461 | number of tests to run: e.g. timethese(-5, ...) will run each |
462 | code for at least 5 CPU seconds. Zero as the "number of repetitions" |
155776c0 |
463 | means "for at least 3 CPU seconds". The output format has also |
14218588 |
464 | changed. For example: |
155776c0 |
465 | |
466 | use Benchmark;$x=3;timethese(-5,{a=>sub{$x*$x},b=>sub{$x**2}}) |
467 | |
468 | will now output something like this: |
469 | |
470 | Benchmark: running a, b, each for at least 5 CPU seconds... |
471 | a: 5 wallclock secs ( 5.77 usr + 0.00 sys = 5.77 CPU) @ 200551.91/s (n=1156516) |
472 | b: 4 wallclock secs ( 5.00 usr + 0.02 sys = 5.02 CPU) @ 159605.18/s (n=800686) |
473 | |
474 | New features: "each for at least N CPU seconds...", "wallclock secs", |
475 | and the "@ operations/CPU second (n=operations)". |
b7d8191e |
476 | |
f505c983 |
477 | =item Devel::Peek |
478 | |
479 | The Devel::Peek module provides access to the internal representation |
14218588 |
480 | of Perl variables and data. It is a data debugging tool for the XS programmer. |
f505c983 |
481 | |
b7d8191e |
482 | =item Fcntl |
483 | |
484 | More Fcntl constants added: F_SETLK64, F_SETLKW64, O_LARGEFILE for |
14218588 |
485 | large (more than 4G) file access (64-bit support is not yet |
b7d8191e |
486 | working, though, so no need to get overly excited), Free/Net/OpenBSD |
487 | locking behaviour flags F_FLOCK, F_POSIX, Linux F_SHLCK, and |
488 | O_ACCMODE: the mask of O_RDONLY, O_WRONLY, and O_RDWR. |
489 | |
f505c983 |
490 | =item File::Spec |
491 | |
492 | New methods have been added to the File::Spec module: devnull() returns |
19799a22 |
493 | the name of the null device (/dev/null on Unix) and tmpdir() the name of |
14218588 |
494 | the temp directory (normally /tmp on Unix). There are now also methods |
f505c983 |
495 | to convert between absolute and relative filenames: abs2rel() and |
14218588 |
496 | rel2abs(). For compatibility with operating systems that specify volume |
497 | names in file paths, the splitpath(), splitdir(), and catdir() methods |
f505c983 |
498 | have been added. |
499 | |
500 | =item File::Spec::Functions |
501 | |
502 | The new File::Spec::Functions modules provides a function interface |
14218588 |
503 | to the File::Spec module. Allows shorthand |
f505c983 |
504 | |
14218588 |
505 | $fullname = catfile($dir1, $dir2, $file); |
f505c983 |
506 | |
507 | instead of |
508 | |
14218588 |
509 | $fullname = File::Spec->catfile($dir1, $dir2, $file); |
f505c983 |
510 | |
e16b8f49 |
511 | =item Math::BigInt |
512 | |
14218588 |
513 | The logical operations C<E<lt>E<lt>>, C<E<gt>E<gt>>, C<&>, C<|>, |
e16b8f49 |
514 | and C<~> are now supported on bigints. |
515 | |
b7d8191e |
516 | =item Math::Complex |
7711098a |
517 | |
14218588 |
518 | The accessor methods Re, Im, arg, abs, rho, and theta can now also |
868cb350 |
519 | act as mutators (accessor $z->Re(), mutator $z->Re(3)). |
b7d8191e |
520 | |
521 | =item Math::Trig |
522 | |
14218588 |
523 | A little bit of radial trigonometry (cylindrical and spherical), |
524 | radial coordinate conversions, and the great circle distance were added. |
b7d8191e |
525 | |
f4b9d880 |
526 | =item SDBM_File |
527 | |
528 | An EXISTS method has been added to this module (and sdbm_exists() has |
529 | been added to the underlying sdbm library), so one can now call exists |
14218588 |
530 | on an SDBM_File tied hash and get the correct result, rather than a |
f4b9d880 |
531 | runtime error. |
532 | |
06ef4121 |
533 | =item Time::Local |
534 | |
535 | The timelocal() and timegm() functions used to silently return bogus |
536 | results when the date exceeded the machine's integer range. They |
14218588 |
537 | now consistently croak() if the date falls in an unsupported range. |
06ef4121 |
538 | |
8fe0a5c4 |
539 | =item Win32 |
540 | |
541 | The error return value in list context has been changed for all functions |
14218588 |
542 | that return a list of values. Previously these functions returned a list |
543 | with a single element C<undef> if an error occurred. Now these functions |
544 | return the empty list in these situations. This applies to the following |
8fe0a5c4 |
545 | functions: |
546 | |
14218588 |
547 | Win32::FsType |
548 | Win32::GetOSVersion |
8fe0a5c4 |
549 | |
550 | The remaining functions are unchanged and continue to return C<undef> on |
551 | error even in list context. |
552 | |
553 | The Win32::SetLastError(ERROR) function has been added as a complement |
554 | to the Win32::GetLastError() function. |
555 | |
556 | The new Win32::GetFullPathName(FILENAME) returns the full absolute |
14218588 |
557 | pathname for FILENAME in scalar context. In list context it returns |
558 | a two-element list containing the fully qualified directory name and |
8fe0a5c4 |
559 | the filename. |
560 | |
9fe6733a |
561 | =item DBM Filters |
562 | |
563 | A new feature called "DBM Filters" has been added to all the |
14218588 |
564 | DBM modules--DB_File, GDBM_File, NDBM_File, ODBM_File, and SDBM_File. |
565 | DBM Filters add four new methods to each DBM module: |
9fe6733a |
566 | |
567 | filter_store_key |
568 | filter_store_value |
569 | filter_fetch_key |
570 | filter_fetch_value |
571 | |
14218588 |
572 | These can be used to filter key-value pairs before the pairs are |
9fe6733a |
573 | written to the database or just after they are read from the database. |
574 | See L<perldbmfilter> for further information. |
575 | |
b7d8191e |
576 | =back |
3e8c4fa0 |
577 | |
578 | =head2 Pragmata |
579 | |
09bef843 |
580 | C<use attrs> is now obsolescent, and is only provided for |
581 | backward-compatibility. It's been replaced by the C<sub : attributes> |
582 | syntax. See L<perlsub/"Subroutine Attributes"> and L<attributes>. |
583 | |
14218588 |
584 | C<use utf8> to enable UTF-8 and Unicode support. |
43165c05 |
585 | |
586 | C<use caller 'encoding'> allows modules to inherit pragmatic attributes |
587 | from the caller's context. C<encoding> is currently the only supported |
588 | attribute. |
9d73390d |
589 | |
4438c4b7 |
590 | Lexical warnings pragma, C<use warnings;>, to control optional warnings. |
6c67e1bb |
591 | |
14218588 |
592 | C<use filetest> to control the behaviour of filetests (C<-r> C<-w> ...). |
6c67e1bb |
593 | Currently only one subpragma implemented, "use filetest 'access';", |
14218588 |
594 | that enables the use of access(2) or equivalent to check |
6c67e1bb |
595 | permissions instead of using stat(2) as usual. This matters |
14218588 |
596 | in filesystems where there are ACLs (access control lists): the |
597 | stat(2) might lie, but access(2) knows better. |
6c67e1bb |
598 | |
ba8251e8 |
599 | =head1 Utility Changes |
600 | |
e02fdbd2 |
601 | Todo. |
602 | |
ba8251e8 |
603 | =head1 Documentation Changes |
604 | |
5fdc711f |
605 | =over 4 |
606 | |
607 | =item perlopentut.pod |
f8284313 |
608 | |
5fdc711f |
609 | A tutorial on using open() effectively. |
610 | |
611 | =item perlreftut.pod |
612 | |
613 | A tutorial that introduces the essentials of references. |
614 | |
14218588 |
615 | =item perltootc.pod |
616 | |
617 | A tutorial on managing class data for object modules. |
618 | |
5fdc711f |
619 | =back |
e02fdbd2 |
620 | |
ba8251e8 |
621 | =head1 New Diagnostics |
622 | |
09bef843 |
623 | =item "my sub" not yet implemented |
624 | |
625 | (F) Lexically scoped subroutines are not yet implemented. Don't try that |
626 | yet. |
627 | |
628 | =item %s package attribute may clash with future reserved word: %s |
629 | |
630 | (W) A lowercase attribute name was used that had a package-specific handler. |
631 | That name might have a meaning to Perl itself some day, even though it |
632 | doesn't yet. Perhaps you should use a mixed-case attribute name, instead. |
633 | See L<attributes>. |
634 | |
6b121555 |
635 | =item /%s/: Unrecognized escape \\%c passed through |
636 | |
637 | (W) You used a backslash-character combination which is not recognized |
7711098a |
638 | by Perl. This combination appears in an interpolated variable or a |
6b121555 |
639 | C<'>-delimited regular expression. |
640 | |
af8c498a |
641 | =item Filehandle %s opened only for output |
6b121555 |
642 | |
af8c498a |
643 | (W) You tried to read from a filehandle opened only for writing. If you |
644 | intended it to be a read-write filehandle, you needed to open it with |
645 | "+E<lt>" or "+E<gt>" or "+E<gt>E<gt>" instead of with "E<lt>" or nothing. If |
646 | you intended only to read from the file, use "E<lt>". See |
647 | L<perlfunc/open>. |
e02fdbd2 |
648 | |
09bef843 |
649 | =item Invalid %s attribute: %s |
650 | |
651 | The indicated attribute for a subroutine or variable was not recognized |
652 | by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>. |
653 | |
654 | =item Invalid %s attributes: %s |
655 | |
656 | The indicated attributes for a subroutine or variable were not recognized |
657 | by Perl or by a user-supplied handler. See L<attributes>. |
658 | |
659 | =item Invalid separator character %s in attribute list |
660 | |
661 | (F) Something other than a comma or whitespace was seen between the |
662 | elements of an attribute list. If the previous attribute |
663 | had a parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that list was terminated |
664 | too soon. See L<attributes>. |
665 | |
06eaf0bc |
666 | =item Missing command in piped open |
667 | |
668 | (W) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or C<open(FH, "command |")> |
669 | construction, but the command was missing or blank. |
670 | |
09bef843 |
671 | =item Missing name in "my sub" |
672 | |
673 | (F) The reserved syntax for lexically scoped subroutines requires that they |
674 | have a name with which they can be found. |
675 | |
af8c498a |
676 | =item Unrecognized escape \\%c passed through |
677 | |
678 | (W) You used a backslash-character combination which is not recognized |
679 | by Perl. |
680 | |
09bef843 |
681 | =item Unterminated attribute parameter in attribute list |
682 | |
683 | (F) The lexer saw an opening (left) parenthesis character while parsing an |
684 | attribute list, but the matching closing (right) parenthesis |
685 | character was not found. You may need to add (or remove) a backslash |
686 | character to get your parentheses to balance. See L<attributes>. |
687 | |
688 | =item Unterminated attribute list |
689 | |
690 | (F) The lexer found something other than a simple identifier at the start |
691 | of an attribute, and it wasn't a semicolon or the start of a |
692 | block. Perhaps you terminated the parameter list of the previous attribute |
693 | too soon. See L<attributes>. |
694 | |
f10b0346 |
695 | =item defined(@array) is deprecated |
69794302 |
696 | |
697 | (D) defined() is not usually useful on arrays because it checks for an |
698 | undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the array is empty, |
699 | just use C<if (@array) { # not empty }> for example. |
700 | |
f10b0346 |
701 | =item defined(%hash) is deprecated |
69794302 |
702 | |
703 | (D) defined() is not usually useful on hashes because it checks for an |
704 | undefined I<scalar> value. If you want to see if the hash is empty, |
705 | just use C<if (%hash) { # not empty }> for example. |
706 | |
09bef843 |
707 | =item Invalid separator character %s in subroutine attribute list |
708 | |
709 | (F) Something other than a comma or whitespace was seen between the |
710 | elements of a subroutine attribute list. If the previous attribute |
711 | had a parenthesised parameter list, perhaps that list was terminated |
712 | too soon. |
713 | |
714 | =item Unterminated attribute parameter in subroutine attribute list |
715 | |
716 | (F) The lexer saw an opening (left) parenthesis character while parsing a |
717 | subroutine attribute list, but the matching closing (right) parenthesis |
718 | character was not found. You may need to add (or remove) a backslash |
719 | character to get your parentheses to balance. |
720 | |
721 | =item Unterminated subroutine attribute list |
722 | |
723 | (F) The lexer found something other than a simple identifier at the start |
724 | of a subroutine attribute, and it wasn't a semicolon or the start of a |
725 | block. Perhaps you terminated the parameter list of the previous attribute |
726 | too soon. |
727 | |
eb6e2d6f |
728 | =item /%s/ should probably be written as "%s" |
729 | |
730 | (W) You have used a pattern where Perl expected to find a string, |
731 | like in the first argument to C<join>. Perl will treat the true |
732 | or false result of matching the pattern against $_ as the string, |
733 | which is probably not what you had in mind. |
734 | |
ba8251e8 |
735 | =head1 Obsolete Diagnostics |
736 | |
e02fdbd2 |
737 | Todo. |
738 | |
04d420f9 |
739 | =head1 Configuration Changes |
740 | |
27806c82 |
741 | =head2 installusrbinperl |
742 | |
04d420f9 |
743 | You can use "Configure -Uinstallusrbinperl" which causes installperl |
744 | to skip installing perl also as /usr/bin/perl. This is useful if you |
745 | prefer not to modify /usr/bin for some reason or another but harmful |
746 | because many scripts assume to find Perl in /usr/bin/perl. |
747 | |
27806c82 |
748 | =head2 SOCKS support |
555834d1 |
749 | |
27806c82 |
750 | You can use "Configure -Dusesocks" which causes Perl to probe |
751 | for the SOCKS proxy protocol library, http://www.socks.nec.com/ |
04d420f9 |
752 | |
ba8251e8 |
753 | =head1 BUGS |
754 | |
755 | If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the headers of |
14218588 |
756 | articles recently posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup. |
ba8251e8 |
757 | There may also be information at http://www.perl.com/perl/, the Perl |
758 | Home Page. |
759 | |
760 | If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the B<perlbug> |
14218588 |
761 | program included with your release. Make sure to trim your bug down |
ba8251e8 |
762 | to a tiny but sufficient test case. Your bug report, along with the |
14218588 |
763 | output of C<perl -V>, will be sent off to perlbug@perl.com to be |
ba8251e8 |
764 | analysed by the Perl porting team. |
765 | |
766 | =head1 SEE ALSO |
767 | |
768 | The F<Changes> file for exhaustive details on what changed. |
769 | |
770 | The F<INSTALL> file for how to build Perl. |
771 | |
772 | The F<README> file for general stuff. |
773 | |
774 | The F<Artistic> and F<Copying> files for copyright information. |
775 | |
776 | =head1 HISTORY |
777 | |
778 | Written by Gurusamy Sarathy <F<gsar@umich.edu>>, with many contributions |
779 | from The Perl Porters. |
780 | |
781 | Send omissions or corrections to <F<perlbug@perl.com>>. |
782 | |
783 | =cut |