3 perldelta - what's new for perl5.006 (as of 5.005_54)
7 This document describes differences between the 5.005 release and this one.
9 =head1 Incompatible Changes
11 =head2 Perl Source Incompatibilities
13 None known at this time.
15 =head2 C Source Incompatibilities
21 Release 5.005 grandfathered old global symbol names by providing preprocessor
22 macros for extension source compatibility. As of release 5.006, these
23 preprocessor definitions are not available by default. You need to explicitly
24 compile perl with C<-DPERL_POLLUTE> in order to get these definitions.
26 =item C<PL_na> and C<dTHR> Issues
28 The C<PL_na> global is now thread local, so a C<dTHR> declaration is needed
29 in the scope in which it appears. XSUBs should handle this automatically,
30 but if you have used C<PL_na> in support functions, you either need to
31 change the C<PL_na> to a local variable (which is recommended), or put in
36 =head2 Binary Incompatibilities
38 This release is not binary compatible with the 5.005 release and its
43 Binary numbers are now supported as literals, in s?printf formats, and
47 printf "The answer is: %b\n", oct("0b101010");
49 The length argument of C<syswrite()> is now optional.
51 Better 64-bit support -- but full support still a distant goal. One
52 must Configure with -Duse64bits to get Configure to probe for the
53 extent of 64-bit support. Depending on the platform (hints file) more
54 or less 64-awareness becomes available. As of 5.005_54 at least
55 somewhat 64-bit aware platforms are HP-UX 11 or better, Solaris 2.6 or
56 better, IRIX 6.2 or better. Naturally 64-bit platforms like Digital
57 UNIX and UNICOS also have 64-bit support.
59 =head1 Supported Platforms
61 VM/ESA is now supported.
63 Siemens BS200 is now supported.
65 The Mach CThreads (NeXTstep) are now supported by the Thread extension.
73 IO constants (SEEK_*, _IO*).
77 Directory-related IO methods (new, read, close, rewind, tied delete).
79 =item op/io_multihomed
81 INET sockets with multi-homed hosts.
97 Guard against lexicals leaking (internal stuff).
101 =head1 Modules and Pragmata
105 Dumpvalue module provides screen dumps of Perl data.
109 Lexical warnings pragma, "use warning;", to control optional warnings.
111 Filetest pragma, to control the behaviour of filetests (C<-r> C<-w> ...).
112 Currently only one subpragma implemented, "use filetest 'access';",
113 that enables the use of access(2) or equivalent to check the
114 permissions instead of using stat(2) as usual. This matters
115 in filesystems where there are ACLs (access control lists), the
116 stat(2) might lie, while access(2) knows better.
120 =head1 Utility Changes
124 =head1 Documentation Changes
126 perlopentut, tutorial on opening things in Perl, was added.
128 perlreftut, tutorial on references, was added.
130 =head1 New Diagnostics
132 =item /%s/: Unrecognized escape \\%c passed through
134 (W) You used a backslash-character combination which is not recognized
135 by Perl. This combination appears in an interpolated variable or a
136 C<'>-delimited regular expression.
138 =item Unrecognized escape \\%c passed through
140 (W) You used a backslash-character combination which is not recognized
143 =item Missing command in piped open
145 (W) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or C<open(FH, "command |")>
146 construction, but the command was missing or blank.
148 =head1 Obsolete Diagnostics
154 If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the headers of
155 recently posted articles in the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup.
156 There may also be information at http://www.perl.com/perl/, the Perl
159 If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the B<perlbug>
160 program included with your release. Make sure you trim your bug down
161 to a tiny but sufficient test case. Your bug report, along with the
162 output of C<perl -V>, will be sent off to <F<perlbug@perl.com>> to be
163 analysed by the Perl porting team.
167 The F<Changes> file for exhaustive details on what changed.
169 The F<INSTALL> file for how to build Perl.
171 The F<README> file for general stuff.
173 The F<Artistic> and F<Copying> files for copyright information.
177 Written by Gurusamy Sarathy <F<gsar@umich.edu>>, with many contributions
178 from The Perl Porters.
180 Send omissions or corrections to <F<perlbug@perl.com>>.