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 =head2 Binary numbers supported
45 Binary numbers are now supported as literals, in s?printf formats, and
49 printf "The answer is: %b\n", oct("0b101010");
51 =head2 syswrite() ease-of-use
53 The length argument of C<syswrite()> is now optional.
57 Better 64-bit support -- but full support still a distant goal. One
58 must Configure with -Duse64bits to get Configure to probe for the
59 extent of 64-bit support. Depending on the platform (hints file) more
60 or less 64-awareness becomes available. As of 5.005_54 at least
61 somewhat 64-bit aware platforms are HP-UX 11 or better, Solaris 2.6 or
62 better, IRIX 6.2 or better. Naturally 64-bit platforms like Digital
63 UNIX and UNICOS also have 64-bit support.
65 =head1 Supported Platforms
71 VM/ESA is now supported.
75 Siemens BS200 is now supported.
79 The Mach CThreads (NeXTstep) are now supported by the Thread extension.
89 IO constants (SEEK_*, _IO*).
93 Directory-related IO methods (new, read, close, rewind, tied delete).
95 =item op/io_multihomed
97 INET sockets with multi-homed hosts.
113 Verify operations that access pad objects (lexicals and temporaries).
117 =head1 Modules and Pragmata
121 Dumpvalue module provides screen dumps of Perl data.
125 Lexical warnings pragma, "use warning;", to control optional warnings.
127 Filetest pragma, to control the behaviour of filetests (C<-r> C<-w> ...).
128 Currently only one subpragma implemented, "use filetest 'access';",
129 that enables the use of access(2) or equivalent to check the
130 permissions instead of using stat(2) as usual. This matters
131 in filesystems where there are ACLs (access control lists), the
132 stat(2) might lie, while access(2) knows better.
134 =head1 Utility Changes
138 =head1 Documentation Changes
142 =item perlopentut.pod
144 A tutorial on using open() effectively.
148 A tutorial that introduces the essentials of references.
152 =head1 New Diagnostics
154 =item /%s/: Unrecognized escape \\%c passed through
156 (W) You used a backslash-character combination which is not recognized
157 by Perl. This combination appears in an interpolated variable or a
158 C<'>-delimited regular expression.
160 =item Unrecognized escape \\%c passed through
162 (W) You used a backslash-character combination which is not recognized
165 =item Missing command in piped open
167 (W) You used the C<open(FH, "| command")> or C<open(FH, "command |")>
168 construction, but the command was missing or blank.
170 =head1 Obsolete Diagnostics
174 =head1 Configuration Changes
176 You can use "Configure -Uinstallusrbinperl" which causes installperl
177 to skip installing perl also as /usr/bin/perl. This is useful if you
178 prefer not to modify /usr/bin for some reason or another but harmful
179 because many scripts assume to find Perl in /usr/bin/perl.
183 If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the headers of
184 recently posted articles in the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup.
185 There may also be information at http://www.perl.com/perl/, the Perl
188 If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the B<perlbug>
189 program included with your release. Make sure you trim your bug down
190 to a tiny but sufficient test case. Your bug report, along with the
191 output of C<perl -V>, will be sent off to <F<perlbug@perl.com>> to be
192 analysed by the Perl porting team.
196 The F<Changes> file for exhaustive details on what changed.
198 The F<INSTALL> file for how to build Perl.
200 The F<README> file for general stuff.
202 The F<Artistic> and F<Copying> files for copyright information.
206 Written by Gurusamy Sarathy <F<gsar@umich.edu>>, with many contributions
207 from The Perl Porters.
209 Send omissions or corrections to <F<perlbug@perl.com>>.