3 perltrap - Perl traps for the unwary
7 The biggest trap of all is forgetting to use the B<-w> switch; see
8 L<perlrun>. The second biggest trap is not making your entire program
9 runnable under C<use strict>. The third biggest trap is not reading
10 the list of changes in this version of Perl; see L<perldelta>.
14 Accustomed B<awk> users should take special note of the following:
20 The English module, loaded via
24 allows you to refer to special variables (like C<$/>) with names (like
25 $RS), as though they were in B<awk>; see L<perlvar> for details.
29 Semicolons are required after all simple statements in Perl (except
30 at the end of a block). Newline is not a statement delimiter.
34 Curly brackets are required on C<if>s and C<while>s.
38 Variables begin with "$", "@" or "%" in Perl.
42 Arrays index from 0. Likewise string positions in substr() and
47 You have to decide whether your array has numeric or string indices.
51 Hash values do not spring into existence upon mere reference.
55 You have to decide whether you want to use string or numeric
60 Reading an input line does not split it for you. You get to split it
61 to an array yourself. And the split() operator has different
62 arguments than B<awk>'s.
66 The current input line is normally in $_, not $0. It generally does
67 not have the newline stripped. ($0 is the name of the program
68 executed.) See L<perlvar>.
72 $<I<digit>> does not refer to fields--it refers to substrings matched
73 by the last match pattern.
77 The print() statement does not add field and record separators unless
78 you set C<$,> and C<$\>. You can set $OFS and $ORS if you're using
83 You must open your files before you print to them.
87 The range operator is "..", not comma. The comma operator works as in
92 The match operator is "=~", not "~". ("~" is the one's complement
97 The exponentiation operator is "**", not "^". "^" is the XOR
98 operator, as in C. (You know, one could get the feeling that B<awk> is
99 basically incompatible with C.)
103 The concatenation operator is ".", not the null string. (Using the
104 null string would render C</pat/ /pat/> unparsable, because the third slash
105 would be interpreted as a division operator--the tokenizer is in fact
106 slightly context sensitive for operators like "/", "?", and ">".
107 And in fact, "." itself can be the beginning of a number.)
111 The C<next>, C<exit>, and C<continue> keywords work differently.
116 The following variables work differently:
119 ARGC $#ARGV or scalar @ARGV
123 FS (whatever you like)
124 NF $#Fld, or some such
136 You cannot set $RS to a pattern, only a string.
140 When in doubt, run the B<awk> construct through B<a2p> and see what it
147 Cerebral C programmers should take note of the following:
153 Curly brackets are required on C<if>'s and C<while>'s.
157 You must use C<elsif> rather than C<else if>.
161 The C<break> and C<continue> keywords from C become in
162 Perl C<last> and C<next>, respectively.
163 Unlike in C, these do I<not> work within a C<do { } while> construct.
167 There's no switch statement. (But it's easy to build one on the fly.)
171 Variables begin with "$", "@" or "%" in Perl.
175 C<printf()> does not implement the "*" format for interpolating
176 field widths, but it's trivial to use interpolation of double-quoted
177 strings to achieve the same effect.
181 Comments begin with "#", not "/*".
185 You can't take the address of anything, although a similar operator
186 in Perl is the backslash, which creates a reference.
190 C<ARGV> must be capitalized. C<$ARGV[0]> is C's C<argv[1]>, and C<argv[0]>
195 System calls such as link(), unlink(), rename(), etc. return nonzero for
200 Signal handlers deal with signal names, not numbers. Use C<kill -l>
201 to find their names on your system.
207 Seasoned B<sed> programmers should take note of the following:
213 Backreferences in substitutions use "$" rather than "\".
217 The pattern matching metacharacters "(", ")", and "|" do not have backslashes
222 The range operator is C<...>, rather than comma.
228 Sharp shell programmers should take note of the following:
234 The backtick operator does variable interpolation without regard to
235 the presence of single quotes in the command.
239 The backtick operator does no translation of the return value, unlike B<csh>.
243 Shells (especially B<csh>) do several levels of substitution on each
244 command line. Perl does substitution in only certain constructs
245 such as double quotes, backticks, angle brackets, and search patterns.
249 Shells interpret scripts a little bit at a time. Perl compiles the
250 entire program before executing it (except for C<BEGIN> blocks, which
251 execute at compile time).
255 The arguments are available via @ARGV, not $1, $2, etc.
259 The environment is not automatically made available as separate scalar
266 Practicing Perl Programmers should take note of the following:
272 Remember that many operations behave differently in a list
273 context than they do in a scalar one. See L<perldata> for details.
277 Avoid barewords if you can, especially all lowercase ones.
278 You can't tell by just looking at it whether a bareword is
279 a function or a string. By using quotes on strings and
280 parentheses on function calls, you won't ever get them confused.
284 You cannot discern from mere inspection which builtins
285 are unary operators (like chop() and chdir())
286 and which are list operators (like print() and unlink()).
287 (User-defined subroutines can be B<only> list operators, never
288 unary ones.) See L<perlop>.
292 People have a hard time remembering that some functions
293 default to $_, or @ARGV, or whatever, but that others which
294 you might expect to do not.
298 The <FH> construct is not the name of the filehandle, it is a readline
299 operation on that handle. The data read is assigned to $_ only if the
300 file read is the sole condition in a while loop:
303 while (defined($_ = <FH>)) { }..
304 <FH>; # data discarded!
308 Remember not to use C<=> when you need C<=~>;
309 these two constructs are quite different:
316 The C<do {}> construct isn't a real loop that you can use
321 Use C<my()> for local variables whenever you can get away with
322 it (but see L<perlform> for where you can't).
323 Using C<local()> actually gives a local value to a global
324 variable, which leaves you open to unforeseen side-effects
329 If you localize an exported variable in a module, its exported value will
330 not change. The local name becomes an alias to a new value but the
331 external name is still an alias for the original.
335 =head2 Perl4 to Perl5 Traps
337 Practicing Perl4 Programmers should take note of the following
338 Perl4-to-Perl5 specific traps.
340 They're crudely ordered according to the following list:
344 =item Discontinuance, Deprecation, and BugFix traps
346 Anything that's been fixed as a perl4 bug, removed as a perl4 feature
347 or deprecated as a perl4 feature with the intent to encourage usage of
348 some other perl5 feature.
352 Traps that appear to stem from the new parser.
354 =item Numerical Traps
356 Traps having to do with numerical or mathematical operators.
358 =item General data type traps
360 Traps involving perl standard data types.
362 =item Context Traps - scalar, list contexts
364 Traps related to context within lists, scalar statements/declarations.
366 =item Precedence Traps
368 Traps related to the precedence of parsing, evaluation, and execution of
371 =item General Regular Expression Traps using s///, etc.
373 Traps related to the use of pattern matching.
375 =item Subroutine, Signal, Sorting Traps
377 Traps related to the use of signals and signal handlers, general subroutines,
378 and sorting, along with sorting subroutines.
386 Traps specific to the use of C<dbmopen()>, and specific dbm implementations.
388 =item Unclassified Traps
394 If you find an example of a conversion trap that is not listed here,
395 please submit it to <F<perlbug@perl.org>> for inclusion.
396 Also note that at least some of these can be caught with the
397 C<use warnings> pragma or the B<-w> switch.
399 =head2 Discontinuance, Deprecation, and BugFix traps
401 Anything that has been discontinued, deprecated, or fixed as
406 =item * Discontinuance
408 Symbols starting with "_" are no longer forced into package main, except
409 for C<$_> itself (and C<@_>, etc.).
415 print "\$_legacy is ",$_legacy,"\n";
417 # perl4 prints: $_legacy is 1
418 # perl5 prints: $_legacy is
422 Double-colon is now a valid package separator in a variable name. Thus these
423 behave differently in perl4 vs. perl5, because the packages don't exist.
425 $a=1;$b=2;$c=3;$var=4;
427 print "$var::abc::xyz\n";
429 # perl4 prints: 1::2::3 4::abc::xyz
432 Given that C<::> is now the preferred package delimiter, it is debatable
433 whether this should be classed as a bug or not.
434 (The older package delimiter, ' ,is used here)
440 # perl5 prints: Can't find string terminator "'" anywhere before EOF
442 You can avoid this problem, and remain compatible with perl4, if you
443 always explicitly include the package name:
446 print "x=${main'x}\n" ;
448 Also see precedence traps, for parsing C<$:>.
452 The second and third arguments of C<splice()> are now evaluated in scalar
453 context (as the Camel says) rather than list context.
455 sub sub1{return(0,2) } # return a 2-element list
456 sub sub2{ return(1,2,3)} # return a 3-element list
457 @a1 = ("a","b","c","d","e");
458 @a2 = splice(@a1,&sub1,&sub2);
459 print join(' ',@a2),"\n";
462 # perl5 prints: c d e
464 =item * Discontinuance
466 You can't do a C<goto> into a block that is optimized away. Darn.
472 print "Here I is!\n";
475 # perl4 prints: Here I is!
476 # perl5 dumps core (SEGV)
478 =item * Discontinuance
480 It is no longer syntactically legal to use whitespace as the name
481 of a variable, or as a delimiter for any kind of quote construct.
486 print "a is $a, b is $b\n";
488 # perl4 prints: a is foo bar, b is baz
489 # perl5 errors: Bareword found where operator expected
491 =item * Discontinuance
493 The archaic while/if BLOCK BLOCK syntax is no longer supported.
502 # perl4 prints: True!
503 # perl5 errors: syntax error at test.pl line 1, near "if {"
507 The C<**> operator now binds more tightly than unary minus.
508 It was documented to work this way before, but didn't.
515 =item * Discontinuance
517 The meaning of C<foreach{}> has changed slightly when it is iterating over a
518 list which is not an array. This used to assign the list to a
519 temporary array, but no longer does so (for efficiency). This means
520 that you'll now be iterating over the actual values, not over copies of
521 the values. Modifications to the loop variable can change the original
524 @list = ('ab','abc','bcd','def');
525 foreach $var (grep(/ab/,@list)){
528 print (join(':',@list));
530 # perl4 prints: ab:abc:bcd:def
531 # perl5 prints: 1:1:bcd:def
533 To retain Perl4 semantics you need to assign your list
534 explicitly to a temporary array and then iterate over that. For
535 example, you might need to change
537 foreach $var (grep(/ab/,@list)){
541 foreach $var (@tmp = grep(/ab/,@list)){
543 Otherwise changing $var will clobber the values of @list. (This most often
544 happens when you use C<$_> for the loop variable, and call subroutines in
545 the loop that don't properly localize C<$_>.)
547 =item * Discontinuance
549 C<split> with no arguments now behaves like C<split ' '> (which doesn't
550 return an initial null field if $_ starts with whitespace), it used to
551 behave like C<split /\s+/> (which does).
554 print join(':', split);
556 # perl4 prints: :hi:mom
557 # perl5 prints: hi:mom
561 Perl 4 would ignore any text which was attached to an B<-e> switch,
562 always taking the code snippet from the following arg. Additionally, it
563 would silently accept an B<-e> switch without a following arg. Both of
564 these behaviors have been fixed.
566 perl -e'print "attached to -e"' 'print "separate arg"'
568 # perl4 prints: separate arg
569 # perl5 prints: attached to -e
574 # perl5 dies: No code specified for -e.
576 =item * Discontinuance
578 In Perl 4 the return value of C<push> was undocumented, but it was
579 actually the last value being pushed onto the target list. In Perl 5
580 the return value of C<push> is documented, but has changed, it is the
581 number of elements in the resulting list.
584 print push(@x, 'first new', 'second new');
586 # perl4 prints: second new
591 Some error messages will be different.
593 =item * Discontinuance
595 Some bugs may have been inadvertently removed. :-)
601 Perl4-to-Perl5 traps from having to do with parsing.
607 Note the space between . and =
609 $string . = "more string";
612 # perl4 prints: more string
613 # perl5 prints: syntax error at - line 1, near ". ="
617 Better parsing in perl 5
621 print("hello, world\n");
623 # perl4 prints: hello, world
624 # perl5 prints: syntax error
628 "if it looks like a function, it is a function" rule.
631 ($foo == 1) ? "is one\n" : "is zero\n";
633 # perl4 prints: is zero
634 # perl5 warns: "Useless use of a constant in void context" if using -w
638 String interpolation of the C<$#array> construct differs when braces
639 are to used around the name.
645 # perl5 fails with syntax error
655 =head2 Numerical Traps
657 Perl4-to-Perl5 traps having to do with numerical operators,
658 operands, or output from same.
664 Formatted output and significant digits
666 print 7.373504 - 0, "\n";
667 printf "%20.18f\n", 7.373504 - 0;
679 This specific item has been deleted. It demonstrated how the auto-increment
680 operator would not catch when a number went over the signed int limit. Fixed
681 in version 5.003_04. But always be wary when using large integers.
688 Assignment of return values from numeric equality tests
689 does not work in perl5 when the test evaluates to false (0).
690 Logical tests now return an null, instead of 0
698 Also see L<"General Regular Expression Traps using s///, etc.">
699 for another example of this new feature...
701 =item * Bitwise string ops
703 When bitwise operators which can operate upon either numbers or
704 strings (C<& | ^ ~>) are given only strings as arguments, perl4 would
705 treat the operands as bitstrings so long as the program contained a call
706 to the C<vec()> function. perl5 treats the string operands as bitstrings.
707 (See L<perlop/Bitwise String Operators> for more details.)
711 $betty = $fred & $barney;
713 # Uncomment the next line to change perl4's behavior
714 # ($dummy) = vec("dummy", 0, 0);
722 # If vec() is used anywhere in the program, both print:
727 =head2 General data type traps
729 Perl4-to-Perl5 traps involving most data-types, and their usage
730 within certain expressions and/or context.
736 Negative array subscripts now count from the end of the array.
738 @a = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5);
739 print "The third element of the array is $a[3] also expressed as $a[-2] \n";
741 # perl4 prints: The third element of the array is 4 also expressed as
742 # perl5 prints: The third element of the array is 4 also expressed as 4
746 Setting C<$#array> lower now discards array elements, and makes them
747 impossible to recover.
750 print "Before: ",join('',@a);
752 print ", After: ",join('',@a);
754 print ", Recovered: ",join('',@a),"\n";
756 # perl4 prints: Before: abcde, After: ab, Recovered: abcd
757 # perl5 prints: Before: abcde, After: ab, Recovered: ab
761 Hashes get defined before use
764 die "scalar \$s defined" if defined($s);
765 die "array \@a defined" if defined(@a);
766 die "hash \%h defined" if defined(%h);
769 # perl5 dies: hash %h defined
771 Perl will now generate a warning when it sees defined(@a) and
776 glob assignment from variable to variable will fail if the assigned
777 variable is localized subsequent to the assignment
779 @a = ("This is Perl 4");
784 # perl4 prints: This is Perl 4
789 Assigning C<undef> to a glob has no effect in Perl 5. In Perl 4
790 it undefines the associated scalar (but may have other side effects
793 =item * (Scalar String)
795 Changes in unary negation (of strings)
796 This change effects both the return value and what it
797 does to auto(magic)increment.
804 # perl4 prints: aab : -0 : 1
805 # perl5 prints: aab : -aab : aac
809 perl 4 lets you modify constants:
813 for ($x = 0; $x < 3; $x++) {
817 print "before: $_[0]";
819 print " after: $_[0]\n";
830 # Modification of a read-only value attempted at foo.pl line 12.
835 The behavior is slightly different for:
837 print "$x", defined $x
840 # perl 5: <no output, $x is not called into existence>
842 =item * (Variable Suicide)
844 Variable suicide behavior is more consistent under Perl 5.
845 Perl5 exhibits the same behavior for hashes and scalars,
846 that perl4 exhibits for only scalars.
848 $aGlobal{ "aKey" } = "global value";
849 print "MAIN:", $aGlobal{"aKey"}, "\n";
854 local( *theArgument ) = @_;
855 local( %aNewLocal ); # perl 4 != 5.001l,m
856 $aNewLocal{"aKey"} = "this should never appear";
857 print "SUB: ", $theArgument{"aKey"}, "\n";
858 $aNewLocal{"aKey"} = "level $GlobalLevel"; # what should print
860 if( $GlobalLevel<4 ) {
875 # SUB: this should never appear
876 # SUB: this should never appear
877 # SUB: this should never appear
881 =head2 Context Traps - scalar, list contexts
885 =item * (list context)
887 The elements of argument lists for formats are now evaluated in list
888 context. This means you can interpolate list values now.
890 @fmt = ("foo","bar","baz");
897 # perl4 errors: Please use commas to separate fields in file
898 # perl5 prints: foo bar baz
900 =item * (scalar context)
902 The C<caller()> function now returns a false value in a scalar context
903 if there is no caller. This lets library files determine if they're
906 caller() ? (print "You rang?\n") : (print "Got a 0\n");
908 # perl4 errors: There is no caller
909 # perl5 prints: Got a 0
911 =item * (scalar context)
913 The comma operator in a scalar context is now guaranteed to give a
914 scalar context to its arguments.
920 # Perl4 prints: x = c # Thinks list context interpolates list
921 # Perl5 prints: x = 3 # Knows scalar uses length of list
923 =item * (list, builtin)
925 C<sprintf()> funkiness (array argument converted to scalar array count)
926 This test could be added to t/op/sprintf.t
928 @z = ('%s%s', 'foo', 'bar');
930 if ($x eq 'foobar') {print "ok 2\n";} else {print "not ok 2 '$x'\n";}
933 # perl5 prints: not ok 2
935 C<printf()> works fine, though:
940 # perl4 prints: foobar
941 # perl5 prints: foobar
947 =head2 Precedence Traps
949 Perl4-to-Perl5 traps involving precedence order.
951 Perl 4 has almost the same precedence rules as Perl 5 for the operators
952 that they both have. Perl 4 however, seems to have had some
953 inconsistencies that made the behavior differ from what was documented.
959 LHS vs. RHS of any assignment operator. LHS is evaluated first
960 in perl4, second in perl5; this can affect the relationship
961 between side-effects in sub-expressions.
963 @arr = ( 'left', 'right' );
964 $a{shift @arr} = shift @arr;
965 print join( ' ', keys %a );
968 # perl5 prints: right
972 These are now semantic errors because of precedence:
975 %map = ("a",1,"b",2,"c",3,"d",4);
976 $n = shift @list + 2; # first item in list plus 2
978 $m = keys %map + 2; # number of items in hash plus 2
981 # perl4 prints: n is 3, m is 6
982 # perl5 errors and fails to compile
986 The precedence of assignment operators is now the same as the precedence
987 of assignment. Perl 4 mistakenly gave them the precedence of the associated
988 operator. So you now must parenthesize them in expressions like
990 /foo/ ? ($a += 2) : ($a -= 2);
994 /foo/ ? $a += 2 : $a -= 2
996 would be erroneously parsed as
998 (/foo/ ? $a += 2 : $a) -= 2;
1002 $a += /foo/ ? 1 : 2;
1004 now works as a C programmer would expect.
1010 is now incorrect. You need parentheses around the filehandle.
1011 Otherwise, perl5 leaves the statement as its default precedence:
1015 # perl4 opens or dies
1016 # perl5 errors: Precedence problem: open FOO should be open(FOO)
1020 perl4 gives the special variable, C<$:> precedence, where perl5
1021 treats C<$::> as main C<package>
1023 $a = "x"; print "$::a";
1025 # perl 4 prints: -:a
1030 perl4 had buggy precedence for the file test operators vis-a-vis
1031 the assignment operators. Thus, although the precedence table
1032 for perl4 leads one to believe C<-e $foo .= "q"> should parse as
1033 C<((-e $foo) .= "q")>, it actually parses as C<(-e ($foo .= "q"))>.
1034 In perl5, the precedence is as documented.
1038 # perl4 prints: no output
1039 # perl5 prints: Can't modify -e in concatenation
1043 In perl4, keys(), each() and values() were special high-precedence operators
1044 that operated on a single hash, but in perl5, they are regular named unary
1045 operators. As documented, named unary operators have lower precedence
1046 than the arithmetic and concatenation operators C<+ - .>, but the perl4
1047 variants of these operators actually bind tighter than C<+ - .>.
1054 # perl5 prints: Type of arg 1 to keys must be hash (not subtraction)
1056 The perl4 behavior was probably more useful, if less consistent.
1060 =head2 General Regular Expression Traps using s///, etc.
1062 All types of RE traps.
1066 =item * Regular Expression
1068 C<s'$lhs'$rhs'> now does no interpolation on either side. It used to
1069 interpolate $lhs but not $rhs. (And still does not match a literal
1073 $string = '1 2 $a $b';
1074 $string =~ s'$a'$b';
1077 # perl4 prints: $b 2 $a $b
1078 # perl5 prints: 1 2 $a $b
1080 =item * Regular Expression
1082 C<m//g> now attaches its state to the searched string rather than the
1083 regular expression. (Once the scope of a block is left for the sub, the
1084 state of the searched string is lost)
1090 sub doit{local($_) = shift; print "Got $_ "}
1092 # perl4 prints: blah blah blah
1093 # perl5 prints: infinite loop blah...
1095 =item * Regular Expression
1097 Currently, if you use the C<m//o> qualifier on a regular expression
1098 within an anonymous sub, I<all> closures generated from that anonymous
1099 sub will use the regular expression as it was compiled when it was used
1100 the very first time in any such closure. For instance, if you say
1103 my($left,$right) = @_;
1104 return sub { $_[0] =~ /$left stuff $right/o; };
1107 build_match() will always return a sub which matches the contents of
1108 $left and $right as they were the I<first> time that build_match()
1109 was called, not as they are in the current call.
1111 This is probably a bug, and may change in future versions of Perl.
1113 =item * Regular Expression
1115 If no parentheses are used in a match, Perl4 sets C<$+> to
1116 the whole match, just like C<$&>. Perl5 does not.
1121 # perl4 prints: bcde
1124 =item * Regular Expression
1126 substitution now returns the null string if it fails
1129 $value = ($string =~ s/foo//);
1135 Also see L<Numerical Traps> for another example of this new feature.
1137 =item * Regular Expression
1139 C<s`lhs`rhs`> (using backticks) is now a normal substitution, with no
1143 $string =~ s`^`hostname`;
1144 print $string, "\n";
1146 # perl4 prints: <the local hostname>
1147 # perl5 prints: hostname
1149 =item * Regular Expression
1151 Stricter parsing of variables used in regular expressions
1153 s/^([^$grpc]*$grpc[$opt$plus$rep]?)//o;
1155 # perl4: compiles w/o error
1156 # perl5: with Scalar found where operator expected ..., near "$opt$plus"
1158 an added component of this example, apparently from the same script, is
1159 the actual value of the s'd string after the substitution.
1160 C<[$opt]> is a character class in perl4 and an array subscript in perl5
1165 s/^([^$grpc]*$grpc[$opt]?)/foo/;
1169 # perl5 prints: foobar
1171 =item * Regular Expression
1173 Under perl5, C<m?x?> matches only once, like C<?x?>. Under perl4, it matched
1174 repeatedly, like C</x/> or C<m!x!>.
1177 sub match { $test =~ m?once?; }
1180 # m?x? matches more then once
1183 # m?x? matches only once
1187 # perl4 prints: perl4
1188 # perl5 prints: perl5
1193 =head2 Subroutine, Signal, Sorting Traps
1195 The general group of Perl4-to-Perl5 traps having to do with
1196 Signals, Sorting, and their related subroutines, as well as
1197 general subroutine traps. Includes some OS-Specific traps.
1203 Barewords that used to look like strings to Perl will now look like subroutine
1204 calls if a subroutine by that name is defined before the compiler sees them.
1206 sub SeeYa { warn"Hasta la vista, baby!" }
1207 $SIG{'TERM'} = SeeYa;
1208 print "SIGTERM is now $SIG{'TERM'}\n";
1210 # perl4 prints: SIGTERM is main'SeeYa
1211 # perl5 prints: SIGTERM is now main::1
1213 Use B<-w> to catch this one
1215 =item * (Sort Subroutine)
1217 reverse is no longer allowed as the name of a sort subroutine.
1219 sub reverse{ print "yup "; $a <=> $b }
1220 print sort reverse a,b,c;
1222 # perl4 prints: yup yup yup yup abc
1225 =item * warn() won't let you specify a filehandle.
1227 Although it _always_ printed to STDERR, warn() would let you specify a
1228 filehandle in perl4. With perl5 it does not.
1232 # perl4 prints: Foo!
1233 # perl5 prints: String found where operator expected
1243 Under HPUX, and some other SysV OSes, one had to reset any signal handler,
1244 within the signal handler function, each time a signal was handled with
1245 perl4. With perl5, the reset is now done correctly. Any code relying
1246 on the handler _not_ being reset will have to be reworked.
1248 Since version 5.002, Perl uses sigaction() under SysV.
1253 $SIG{'INT'} = 'gotit';
1262 while (1) {sleep(10);}
1265 # perl4 (HPUX) prints: Got INT...
1266 # perl5 (HPUX) prints: Got INT... Got INT...
1270 Under SysV OSes, C<seek()> on a file opened to append C<<< >> >>> now does
1271 the right thing w.r.t. the fopen() manpage. e.g., - When a file is opened
1272 for append, it is impossible to overwrite information already in
1275 open(TEST,">>seek.test");
1276 $start = tell TEST ;
1281 seek(TEST,$start,0);
1282 print TEST "18 characters here";
1284 # perl4 (solaris) seek.test has: 18 characters here
1285 # perl5 (solaris) seek.test has: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 18 characters here
1291 =head2 Interpolation Traps
1293 Perl4-to-Perl5 traps having to do with how things get interpolated
1294 within certain expressions, statements, contexts, or whatever.
1298 =item * Interpolation
1300 @ now always interpolates an array in double-quotish strings.
1302 print "To: someone@somewhere.com\n";
1304 # perl4 prints: To:someone@somewhere.com
1305 # perl5 errors : In string, @somewhere now must be written as \@somewhere
1307 =item * Interpolation
1309 Double-quoted strings may no longer end with an unescaped $ or @.
1313 print "foo is $foo, bar is $bar\n";
1315 # perl4 prints: foo is foo$, bar is bar@
1316 # perl5 errors: Final $ should be \$ or $name
1318 Note: perl5 DOES NOT error on the terminating @ in $bar
1320 =item * Interpolation
1322 Perl now sometimes evaluates arbitrary expressions inside braces that occur
1323 within double quotes (usually when the opening brace is preceded by C<$>
1329 sub foo { return "bar" };
1330 print "|@{w.w.w}|${main'foo}|";
1332 # perl4 prints: |@{w.w.w}|foo|
1333 # perl5 prints: |buz|bar|
1335 Note that you can C<use strict;> to ward off such trappiness under perl5.
1337 =item * Interpolation
1339 The construct "this is $$x" used to interpolate the pid at that
1340 point, but now apparently tries to dereference $x. C<$$> by itself still
1341 works fine, however.
1343 print "this is $$x\n";
1345 # perl4 prints: this is XXXx (XXX is the current pid)
1346 # perl5 prints: this is
1348 =item * Interpolation
1350 Creation of hashes on the fly with C<eval "EXPR"> now requires either both
1351 C<$>'s to be protected in the specification of the hash name, or both curlies
1352 to be protected. If both curlies are protected, the result will be compatible
1353 with perl4 and perl5. This is a very common practice, and should be changed
1354 to use the block form of C<eval{}> if possible.
1356 $hashname = "foobar";
1359 eval "\$$hashname{'$key'} = q|$value|";
1360 (defined($foobar{'baz'})) ? (print "Yup") : (print "Nope");
1363 # perl5 prints: Nope
1367 eval "\$$hashname{'$key'} = q|$value|";
1371 eval "\$\$hashname{'$key'} = q|$value|";
1373 causes the following result:
1375 # perl4 prints: Nope
1380 eval "\$$hashname\{'$key'\} = q|$value|";
1382 causes the following result:
1386 # and is compatible for both versions
1389 =item * Interpolation
1391 perl4 programs which unconsciously rely on the bugs in earlier perl versions.
1393 perl -e '$bar=q/not/; print "This is $foo{$bar} perl5"'
1395 # perl4 prints: This is not perl5
1396 # perl5 prints: This is perl5
1398 =item * Interpolation
1400 You also have to be careful about array references.
1405 perl 5 prints: syntax error
1407 =item * Interpolation
1409 Similarly, watch out for:
1412 print "\$$foo{bar}\n";
1414 # perl4 prints: $array{bar}
1417 Perl 5 is looking for C<$array{bar}> which doesn't exist, but perl 4 is
1418 happy just to expand $foo to "array" by itself. Watch out for this
1419 especially in C<eval>'s.
1421 =item * Interpolation
1423 C<qq()> string passed to C<eval>
1426 foreach \$y (keys %\$x\) {
1431 # perl4 runs this ok
1432 # perl5 prints: Can't find string terminator ")"
1444 Existing dbm databases created under perl4 (or any other dbm/ndbm tool)
1445 may cause the same script, run under perl5, to fail. The build of perl5
1446 must have been linked with the same dbm/ndbm as the default for C<dbmopen()>
1447 to function properly without C<tie>'ing to an extension dbm implementation.
1449 dbmopen (%dbm, "file", undef);
1453 # perl5 prints: ok (IFF linked with -ldbm or -lndbm)
1458 Existing dbm databases created under perl4 (or any other dbm/ndbm tool)
1459 may cause the same script, run under perl5, to fail. The error generated
1460 when exceeding the limit on the key/value size will cause perl5 to exit
1463 dbmopen(DB, "testdb",0600) || die "couldn't open db! $!";
1464 $DB{'trap'} = "x" x 1024; # value too large for most dbm/ndbm
1468 dbm store returned -1, errno 28, key "trap" at - line 3.
1472 dbm store returned -1, errno 28, key "trap" at - line 3.
1476 =head2 Unclassified Traps
1482 =item * C<require>/C<do> trap using returned value
1484 If the file doit.pl has:
1492 And the do.pl file has the following single line:
1496 Running doit.pl gives the following:
1498 # perl 4 prints: 3 (aborts the subroutine early)
1501 Same behavior if you replace C<do> with C<require>.
1503 =item * C<split> on empty string with LIMIT specified
1506 @list = split(/foo/, $string, 2)
1508 Perl4 returns a one element list containing the empty string but Perl5
1509 returns an empty list.
1513 As always, if any of these are ever officially declared as bugs,
1514 they'll be fixed and removed.