3 perl570delta - what's new for perl v5.7.0
7 This document describes differences between the 5.6.0 release and
10 =head1 Security Vulnerability Closed
12 A potential security vulnerability in the optional suidperl component
13 of Perl has been identified. suidperl is neither built nor installed
14 by default. As of September the 2nd, 2000, the only known vulnerable
15 platform is Linux, most likely all Linux distributions. CERT and
16 various vendors have been alerted about the vulnerability.
18 The problem was caused by Perl trying to report a suspected security
19 exploit attempt using an external program, /bin/mail. On Linux
20 platforms the /bin/mail program had an undocumented feature which
21 when combined with suidperl gave access to a root shell, resulting in
22 a serious compromise instead of reporting the exploit attempt. If you
23 don't have /bin/mail, or if you have 'safe setuid scripts', or if
24 suidperl is not installed, you are safe.
26 The exploit attempt reporting feature has been completely removed from
27 the Perl 5.7.0 release, so that particular vulnerability isn't there
28 anymore. However, further security vulnerabilities are,
29 unfortunately, always possible. The suidperl code is being reviewed
30 and if deemed too risky to continue to be supported, it may be
31 completely removed from future releases. In any case, suidperl should
32 only be used by security experts who know exactly what they are doing
33 and why they are using suidperl instead of some other solution such as
34 sudo ( see http://www.courtesan.com/sudo/ ).
36 =head1 Incompatible Changes
42 Arrays now always interpolate into double-quoted strings:
43 constructs like "foo@bar" now always assume C<@bar> is an array,
44 whether or not the compiler has seen use of C<@bar>.
48 The semantics of bless(REF, REF) were unclear and until someone proves
49 it to make some sense, it is forbidden.
53 A reference to a reference now stringify as "REF(0x81485ec)" instead
54 of "SCALAR(0x81485ec)" in order to be more consistent with the return
59 The very dusty examples in the eg/ directory have been removed.
60 Suggestions for new shiny examples welcome but the main issue is that
61 the examples need to be documented, tested and (most importantly)
66 The obsolete chat2 library that should never have been allowed
67 to escape the laboratory has been decommissioned.
71 The unimplemented POSIX regex features [[.cc.]] and [[=c=]] are still
72 recognised but now cause fatal errors. The previous behaviour of
73 ignoring them by default and warning if requested was unacceptable
74 since it, in a way, falsely promised that the features could be used.
78 The (bogus) escape sequences \8 and \9 now give an optional warning
79 ("Unrecognized escape passed through"). There is no need to \-escape
84 lstat(FILEHANDLE) now gives a warning because the operation makes no sense.
85 In future releases this may become a fatal error.
89 The long deprecated uppercase aliases for the string comparison
90 operators (EQ, NE, LT, LE, GE, GT) have now been removed.
94 The regular expression captured submatches ($1, $2, ...) are now
95 more consistently unset if the match fails, instead of leaving false
96 data lying around in them.
100 The tr///C and tr///U features have been removed and will not return;
101 the interface was a mistake. Sorry about that. For similar
102 functionality, see pack('U0', ...) and pack('C0', ...).
106 =head1 Core Enhancements
112 C<perl -d:Module=arg,arg,arg> now works (previously one couldn't pass
113 in multiple arguments.)
117 my __PACKAGE__ $obj now works.
121 C<no Module;> now works even if there is no "sub unimport" in the Module.
125 The numerical comparison operators return C<undef> if either operand
126 is a NaN. Previously the behaviour was unspecified.
130 C<pack('U0a*', ...)> can now be used to force a string to UTF-8.
134 prototype(\&) is now available.
138 There is now an UNTIE method.
142 =head1 Modules and Pragmata
150 File::Temp allows one to create temporary files and directories in an
151 easy, portable, and secure way.
155 Storable gives persistence to Perl data structures by allowing the
156 storage and retrieval of Perl data to and from files in a fast and
157 compact binary format.
161 =head2 Updated And Improved Modules and Pragmata
167 The following independently supported modules have been updated to
168 newer versions from CPAN: CGI, CPAN, DB_File, File::Spec, Getopt::Long,
169 the podlators bundle, Pod::LaTeX, Pod::Parser, Term::ANSIColor, Test.
173 Bug fixes and minor enhancements have been applied to B::Deparse,
174 Data::Dumper, IO::Poll, IO::Socket::INET, Math::BigFloat,
175 Math::Complex, Math::Trig, Net::protoent, the re pragma, SelfLoader,
176 Sys::SysLog, Test::Harness, Text::Wrap, UNIVERSAL, and the warnings
181 The attributes::reftype() now works on tied arguments.
185 AutoLoader can now be disabled with C<no AutoLoader;>,
189 The English module can now be used without the infamous performance
192 use English '-no_performance_hit';
194 (Assuming, of course, that one doesn't need the troublesome variables
195 C<$`>, C<$&>, or C<$'>.) Also, introduced C<@LAST_MATCH_START> and
196 C<@LAST_MATCH_END> English aliases for C<@-> and C<@+>.
200 File::Find now has pre- and post-processing callbacks. It also
201 correctly changes directories when chasing symbolic links. Callbacks
202 (naughtily) exiting with "next;" instead of "return;" now work.
206 File::Glob::glob() renamed to File::Glob::bsd_glob() to avoid
207 prototype mismatch with CORE::glob().
211 IPC::Open3 now allows the use of numeric file descriptors.
215 use lib now works identically to @INC. Removing directories
216 with 'no lib' now works.
220 C<%INC> now localised in a Safe compartment so that use/require work.
224 The Shell module now has an OO interface.
228 =head1 Utility Changes
234 The Emacs perl mode (emacs/cperl-mode.el) has been updated to version
239 Perlbug is now much more robust. It also sends the bug report to
240 perl.org, not perl.com.
244 The perlcc utility has been rewritten and its user interface (that is,
245 command line) is much more like that of the UNIX C compiler, cc.
249 The xsubpp utility for extension writers now understands POD
250 documentation embedded in the *.xs files.
254 =head1 New Documentation
260 perl56delta details the changes between the 5.005 release and the
265 perldebtut is a Perl debugging tutorial.
269 perlebcdic contains considerations for running Perl on EBCDIC platforms.
270 Note that unfortunately EBCDIC platforms that used to supported back in
271 Perl 5.005 are still unsupported by Perl 5.7.0; the plan, however, is to
272 bring them back to the fold.
276 perlnewmod tells about writing and submitting a new module.
280 perlposix-bc explains using Perl on the POSIX-BC platform
281 (an EBCDIC mainframe platform).
285 perlretut is a regular expression tutorial.
289 perlrequick is a regular expressions quick-start guide.
290 Yes, much quicker than perlretut.
294 perlutil explains the command line utilities packaged with the Perl
299 =head1 Performance Enhancements
305 map() that changes the size of the list should now work faster.
309 sort() has been changed to use mergesort internally as opposed to the
310 earlier quicksort. For very small lists this may result in slightly
311 slower sorting times, but in general the speedup should be at least
312 20%. Additional bonuses are that the worst case behaviour of sort()
313 is now better (in computer science terms it now runs in time O(N log N),
314 as opposed to quicksort's Theta(N**2) worst-case run time behaviour),
315 and that sort() is now stable (meaning that elements with identical
316 keys will stay ordered as they were before the sort).
320 =head1 Installation and Configuration Improvements
322 =head2 Generic Improvements
328 INSTALL now explains how you can configure Perl to use 64-bit
329 integers even on non-64-bit platforms.
333 Policy.sh policy change: if you are reusing a Policy.sh file
334 (see INSTALL) and you use Configure -Dprefix=/foo/bar and in the old
335 Policy $prefix eq $siteprefix and $prefix eq $vendorprefix, all of
336 them will now be changed to the new prefix, /foo/bar. (Previously
337 only $prefix changed.) If you do not like this new behaviour,
338 specify prefix, siteprefix, and vendorprefix explicitly.
342 A new optional location for Perl libraries, otherlibdirs, is available.
343 It can be used for example for vendor add-ons without disturbing Perl's
344 own library directories.
348 In many platforms the vendor-supplied 'cc' is too stripped-down to
349 build Perl (basically, 'cc' doesn't do ANSI C). If this seems
350 to be the case and 'cc' does not seem to be the GNU C compiler
351 'gcc', an automatic attempt is made to find and use 'gcc' instead.
355 gcc needs to closely track the operating system release to avoid
356 build problems. If Configure finds that gcc was built for a different
357 operating system release than is running, it now gives a clearly visible
358 warning that there may be trouble ahead.
362 If binary compatibility with the 5.005 release is not wanted, Configure
363 no longer suggests including the 5.005 modules in @INC.
367 Configure C<-S> can now run non-interactively.
371 configure.gnu now works with options with whitespace in them.
375 installperl now outputs everything to STDERR.
379 $Config{byteorder} is now computed dynamically (this is more robust
380 with "fat binaries" where an executable image contains binaries for
381 more than one binary platform.)
385 =head1 Selected Bug Fixes
391 Several debugger fixes: exit code now reflects the script exit code,
392 condition C<"0"> now treated correctly, the C<d> command now checks
393 line number, the C<$.> no longer gets corrupted, all debugger output now
394 goes correctly to the socket if RemotePort is set.
398 C<*foo{FORMAT}> now works.
402 Lexical warnings now propagating correctly between scopes.
406 Line renumbering with eval and C<#line> now works.
410 Fixed numerous memory leaks, especially in eval "".
414 Modulus of unsigned numbers now works (4063328477 % 65535 used to
415 return 27406, instead of 27047).
419 Some "not a number" warnings introduced in 5.6.0 eliminated to be
420 more compatible with 5.005. Infinity is now recognised as a number.
424 our() variables will not cause "will not stay shared" warnings.
428 pack "Z" now correctly terminates the string with "\0".
432 Fix password routines which in some shadow password platforms
433 (e.g. HP-UX) caused getpwent() to return every other entry.
437 printf() no longer resets the numeric locale to "C".
441 C<q(a\\b)> now parses correctly as C<'a\\b'>.
445 Printing quads (64-bit integers) with printf/sprintf now works
446 without the q L ll prefixes (assuming you are on a quad-capable platform).
450 Regular expressions on references and overloaded scalars now work.
454 scalar() now forces scalar context even when used in void context.
458 sort() arguments are now compiled in the right wantarray context
459 (they were accidentally using the context of the sort() itself).
463 Changed the POSIX character class C<[[:space:]]> to include the (very
464 rare) vertical tab character. Added a new POSIX-ish character class
465 C<[[:blank:]]> which stands for horizontal whitespace (currently,
466 the space and the tab).
470 $AUTOLOAD, sort(), lock(), and spawning subprocesses
471 in multiple threads simultaneously are now thread-safe.
475 Allow read-only string on left hand side of non-modifying tr///.
479 Several Unicode fixes (but still not perfect).
485 BOMs (byte order marks) in the beginning of Perl files
486 (scripts, modules) should now be transparently skipped.
487 UTF-16 (UCS-2) encoded Perl files should now be read correctly.
491 The character tables have been updated to Unicode 3.0.1.
495 chr() for values greater than 127 now create utf8 when under use
500 Comparing with utf8 data does not magically upgrade non-utf8 data into
505 C<IsAlnum>, C<IsAlpha>, and C<IsWord> now match titlecase.
509 Concatenation with the C<.> operator or via variable interpolation,
510 C<eq>, C<substr>, C<reverse>, C<quotemeta>, the C<x> operator,
511 substitution with C<s///>, single-quoted UTF-8, should now work--in
516 The C<tr///> operator now works I<slightly> better but is still rather
517 broken. Note that the C<tr///CU> functionality has been removed (but
518 see pack('U0', ...)).
522 vec() now refuses to deal with characters >255.
526 Zero entries were missing from the Unicode classes like C<IsDigit>.
532 UNIVERSAL::isa no longer caches methods incorrectly. (This broke
533 the Tk extension with 5.6.0.)
537 =head2 Platform Specific Changes and Fixes
545 Perl now works on post-4.0 BSD/OSes.
551 Setting C<$0> now works (as much as possible; see perlvar for details).
557 Numerous updates; currently synchronised with Cygwin 1.1.4.
563 EPOC update after Perl 5.6.0. See README.epoc.
569 Perl now works on post-3.0 FreeBSDs.
575 README.hpux updated; C<Configure -Duse64bitall> now almost works.
581 Numerous compilation flag and hint enhancements; accidental mixing
582 of 32-bit and 64-bit libraries (a doomed attempt) made much harder.
588 Long doubles should now work (see INSTALL).
594 Compilation of the standard Perl distribution in Mac OS Classic should
595 now work if you have the Metrowerks development environment and the
596 missing Mac-specific toolkit bits. Contact the macperl mailing list
603 MPE/iX update after Perl 5.6.0. See README.mpeix.
609 Perl now works on NetBSD/sparc.
615 Now works with usethreads (see INSTALL).
621 64-bitness using the Sun Workshop compiler now works.
625 Tru64 (aka Digital UNIX, aka DEC OSF/1)
627 The operating system version letter now recorded in $Config{osvers}.
628 Allow compiling with gcc (previously explicitly forbidden). Compiling
629 with gcc still not recommended because buggy code results, even with
636 Fixed various alignment problems that lead into core dumps either
637 during build or later; no longer dies on math errors at runtime;
638 now using full quad integers (64 bits), previously was using
639 only 46 bit integers for speed.
645 chdir() now works better despite a CRT bug; now works with MULTIPLICITY
646 (see INSTALL); now works with Perl's malloc.
656 accept() no longer leaks memory.
660 Better chdir() return value for a non-existent directory.
664 New %ENV entries now propagate to subprocesses.
668 $ENV{LIB} now used to search for libs under Visual C.
672 A failed (pseudo)fork now returns undef and sets errno to EAGAIN.
676 Allow REG_EXPAND_SZ keys in the registry.
680 Can now send() from all threads, not just the first one.
684 Fake signal handling reenabled, bugs and all.
688 Less stack reserved per thread so that more threads can run
689 concurrently. (Still 16M per thread.)
693 C<< File::Spec->tmpdir() >> now prefers C:/temp over /tmp
694 (works better when perl is running as service).
698 Better UNC path handling under ithreads.
702 wait() and waitpid() now work much better.
706 winsock handle leak fixed.
712 =head1 New or Changed Diagnostics
714 All regular expression compilation error messages are now hopefully
715 easier to understand both because the error message now comes before
716 the failed regex and because the point of failure is now clearly
719 The various "opened only for", "on closed", "never opened" warnings
720 drop the C<main::> prefix for filehandles in the C<main> package,
721 for example C<STDIN> instead of <main::STDIN>.
723 The "Unrecognized escape" warning has been extended to include C<\8>,
724 C<\9>, and C<\_>. There is no need to escape any of the C<\w> characters.
726 =head1 Changed Internals
732 perlapi.pod (a companion to perlguts) now attempts to document the
737 You can now build a really minimal perl called microperl.
738 Building microperl does not require even running Configure;
739 C<make -f Makefile.micro> should be enough. Beware: microperl makes
740 many assumptions, some of which may be too bold; the resulting
741 executable may crash or otherwise misbehave in wondrous ways.
742 For careful hackers only.
746 Added rsignal(), whichsig(), do_join() to the publicised API.
750 Made possible to propagate customised exceptions via croak()ing.
754 Added is_utf8_char(), is_utf8_string(), bytes_to_utf8(), and utf8_to_bytes().
758 Now xsubs can have attributes just like subs.
762 =head1 Known Problems
764 =head2 Unicode Support Still Far From Perfect
766 We're working on it. Stay tuned.
768 =head2 EBCDIC Still A Lost Platform
770 The plan is to bring them back.
772 =head2 Building Extensions Can Fail Because Of Largefiles
774 Certain extensions like mod_perl and BSD::Resource are known to have
775 issues with `largefiles', a change brought by Perl 5.6.0 in which file
776 offsets default to 64 bits wide, where supported. Modules may fail to
777 compile at all or compile and work incorrectly. Currently there is no
778 good solution for the problem, but Configure now provides appropriate
779 non-largefile ccflags, ldflags, libswanted, and libs in the %Config
780 hash (e.g., $Config{ccflags_nolargefiles}) so the extensions that are
781 having problems can try configuring themselves without the
782 largefileness. This is admittedly not a clean solution, and the
783 solution may not even work at all. One potential failure is whether
784 one can (or, if one can, whether it's a good idea) link together at
785 all binaries with different ideas about file offsets, all this is
788 =head2 ftmp-security tests warn 'system possibly insecure'
790 Don't panic. Read INSTALL 'make test' section instead.
792 =head2 Test lib/posix Subtest 9 Fails In LP64-Configured HP-UX
794 If perl is configured with -Duse64bitall, the successful result of the
795 subtest 10 of lib/posix may arrive before the successful result of the
796 subtest 9, which confuses the test harness so much that it thinks the
799 =head2 Long Doubles Still Don't Work In Solaris
801 The experimental long double support is still very much so in Solaris.
802 (Other platforms like Linux and Tru64 are beginning to solidify in
805 =head2 Linux With Sfio Fails op/misc Test 48
809 =head2 Storable tests fail in some platforms
811 If any Storable tests fail the use of Storable is not advisable.
817 Many Storable tests fail on AIX configured with 64 bit integers.
819 So far unidentified problems break Storable in AIX if Perl is
820 configured to use 64 bit integers. AIX in 32-bit mode works and
821 other 64-bit platforms work with Storable.
825 DOS DJGPP may hang when testing Storable.
829 st-06compat fails in UNICOS and UNICOS/mk.
831 This means that you cannot read old (pre-Storable-0.7) Storable images
832 made in other platforms.
836 st-store.t and st-retrieve may fail with Compaq C 6.2 on OpenVMS Alpha 7.2.
840 =head2 Threads Are Still Experimental
842 Multithreading is still an experimental feature. Some platforms
843 emit the following message for lib/thr5005
846 # This is a KNOWN FAILURE, and one of the reasons why threading
847 # is still an experimental feature. It is here to stop people
848 # from deploying threads in production. ;-)
851 and another known thread-related warning is
853 pragma/overload......Unbalanced saves: 3 more saves than restores
854 panic: magic_mutexfree during global destruction.
856 lib/selfloader.......Unbalanced saves: 3 more saves than restores
857 panic: magic_mutexfree during global destruction.
859 lib/st-dclone........Unbalanced saves: 3 more saves than restores
860 panic: magic_mutexfree during global destruction.
863 =head2 The Compiler Suite Is Still Experimental
865 The compiler suite is slowly getting better but is nowhere near
866 working order yet. The backend part that has seen perhaps the most
867 progress is the bytecode compiler.
869 =head1 Reporting Bugs
871 If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles
872 recently posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl
873 bug database at http://bugs.perl.org/ There may also be
874 information at http://www.perl.com/perl/ , the Perl Home Page.
876 If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the B<perlbug>
877 program included with your release. Be sure to trim your bug down
878 to a tiny but sufficient test case. Your bug report, along with the
879 output of C<perl -V>, will be sent off to perlbug@perl.org to be
880 analysed by the Perl porting team.
884 The F<Changes> file for exhaustive details on what changed.
886 The F<INSTALL> file for how to build Perl.
888 The F<README> file for general stuff.
890 The F<Artistic> and F<Copying> files for copyright information.
894 Written by Jarkko Hietaniemi <F<jhi@iki.fi>>, with many contributions
895 from The Perl Porters and Perl Users submitting feedback and patches.
897 Send omissions or corrections to <F<perlbug@perl.org>>.