Please note: This file provides a summary of significant changes between versions and sub-versions of Perl, not a complete list of each modification. If you'd like more detailed information, please consult the comments in the patches on which the relevant release of Perl is based. (Patches can be found on any CPAN site, in the .../src/5.0 directory for full version releases, or in the .../src/5/0/unsupported directory for sub-version releases.) ---------------- Version 5.003_03 ---------------- Most of the changes in 5.003_03 are to make the build and installation process more robust. The details are described below. A very brief summary is: o Visible Changes to Core Functionality -Support for tied filehandles. o Configure enhancements -How to build and install a shared libperl.so is now documented and supported, though it's not the default for most platforms. o Bug fixes -Support bit operations on strings longer than 15 bytes. -If a regex supplied to split() contains paranthesized subpatterns that can result in null matches, perl no longer coredumps. -Fix problems with each() on tied hashes. -Make h2ph architecture-independent by using Config at run-time rather than extraction time. o Specific Changes Here are the specific file-by-file changes. # This is my patch perl5.003_03.pat to perl5.003_02 # The full description is below. # Please execute the following commands before applying this patch. # (You can feed this patch to 'sh' to do so.) # Andy Dougherty # Absorbed into Changes5.002 rm -f Changes.Conf # Not needed. rm -f ext/POSIX/mkposixman.pl # Moved to README.os2. I'm not sure why the README files are # here rather than in the appropriate subdirectories. rm -f os2/README # Not needed. rm -f pod/Makefile.PL # New test for bit ops. touch t/op/bob.t # Patches that create new tests don't always make them executable. chmod +x t/*/*.t # Create a new directory for Porting and Patching info. mkdir Porting exit 0 This is patch perl5.003_03.pat to perl version 5.003_02. This takes you from 5.003_02 to 5.003_03. To apply this patch, run the above commands, cd to your perl source directory and then type patch -p1 -N < perl5.003_03.pat The changes are described after each /^Index/ line below. This is designed so you can examine each change with a command such as csplit -k perl5.003_03.pat '/^Index:/' '{99}' Patch and enjoy, Andy Dougherty doughera@lafcol.lafayette.edu Dept. of Physics Lafayette College, Easton PA 18042 Index: Changes Include 5.003_03 change notes. Move older change notes to separate files. Index: Changes5.000 New file. Changes from perl4.036 to 5.000. Index: Changes5.001 New file. Changes from 5.000 to 5.001 Index: Changes5.002 New file. Changes from 5.001 to 5.002 Index: Changes5.003 New file. Changes from 5.002 to 5.003 Index: Configure Relaxed warning about ksh on exotic machines. Changed usesafe to useopcode. Add search for gzip and zip. Look more carefully for $sh (the Bourne-ish shell). Use that info to set $startsh correctly. Change prompts for PerlIO interface. See INSTALL for how this is supposed to work. The default is still the same as in 5.003_02, namely don't use any fancy new PerlIO stuff. Don't look for sigvec() since we don't actually use it. (Plus, it used to print an alarming misleading message about race conditions.) Look for stdio's _filbuf under the possible names of _filbuf, __filbuf, and _fill. New $useshrplib variable to control whether we build a shared libperl.so. The name of the library is in $libperl. Always install it in $installarchlib/CORE/$libperl. Check for and for NetBSD. Replace old $altmake stuff with newer autoconf-ish $make_set_make, which checks if $make sets $(MAKE). Now you choose an alternate make with sh Configure -Dmake=gmake (or whatever). Remove 'ln' for the list of essential commands. Simulate it with 'cp' if necessary. Change `logname` prompts to handle extra gratuitous spaces in Ultrix output. Autodetect os2. Fix silly bug in checking for fully-qualified names in /etc/hosts. Generalize Gconvert tests. Give correct and more useful error messages. Use $obj_ext instead of literal '.o' in the dynaloader test. Include appropriate header files in bcopy() and memcpy() tests. Note whether memmove is available. Check whether struct sigaction works (needed for Solaris 2.5 with -Xc). Include appropriate header files for randbits test. Index: INSTALL Add note about space requirements. Update to match Configure changes (Opcode vs. Safe, useperlio, useshrplib, etc.) Reorganize the structure of some of the hints. Miscellaneous clarifications. Index: MANIFEST Updated. 5.003_02 introduced some massive patches, mostly due to spacing changes. I didn't bother to sort them all out; I just started with 5.003's MANIEFST. Index: Makefile.SH Support the new simplified shared libperl mechanism. Use new $make_set_make directive. Remove redundant libperl Make variable. Remove unnecessary MAB variable. Remove dependency of minitest on lib/Config.pm, since it could well have been a failure of configpm that inspired testing miniperl in the first place! Index: Porting/Glossary New file describing all the config.sh variables. Eventually, I hope to fill this directory with other useful stuff. Index: README.os2 Replace old README.os2 with more up-to-date os2/README. Index: config_H Updated to match current Configure and config_h.SH. Some rearrangement of parts has occurred due to new dependencies in the metaconfig units. Index: config_h.SH Updated to match current Configure and config_h.SH. Some rearrangement of parts has occurred due to new dependencies in the metaconfig units. Include full descriptions of ARCHLIB, OLDARCHLIB, PRIVLIB, SITEARCH, and SITELIB. Previous versions just included the ~-expanded names (with unhelpful descriptions). No functionality is changed, but maybe it's a little better documented now. Index: doio.c Possibly Include and Index: doop.c No longer prefer bcmp over memcmp when order doesn't matter. Support bit operations on strings longer than 15 bytes. Index: embed.h Auto-generated. Index: embed.pl Expand warning at the top. Index: ext/IO/IO.pm Clean up docmentation installation errors. Index: ext/IO/lib/IO/Seekable.pm Clean up docmentation installation errors. Index: ext/IO/lib/IO/Select.pm Clean up docmentation installation errors. Index: ext/Opcode/Opcode.xs Add support for tied filehandles. Index: ext/SDBM_File/sdbm/sdbm.h Change the Mymalloc to match Perl_malloc in perl.h. Index: ext/util/make_ext Typo change. Get rid of unused altmake. Index: global.sym Fix problems with each() on tied hashes. Index: handy.h Change safe*alloc functions to have prototypes that match the system's malloc and free types. That is, use Malloc_t instead of char *, and Free_t instead of void. This is necessary so . . . Safefree cast matches type of free() whether it's perl's malloc/free or the system's malloc/free. Index: hints/README.hints Remove out-of-date info. Document a bit about how hint files work. Index: hints/aix.sh qmaxmem hint doesn't apply to gcc. Index: hints/dgux.sh Configure will now automatically detect shared libperl stuff. Index: hints/dynixptx.sh Fix typo in comment. Configure will now automatically detect shared libperl stuff. Index: hints/epix.sh Use glibpth instead of libpth. This allows Configure to add local directories, such as /opt/local/lib, etc. Index: hints/irix_6_2.sh Include some info on cc -n32 compile. Index: hints/linux.sh Configure now tests gcvt() more thoroughly. Index: hints/machten_2.sh Update where to find dld. Index: hints/mips.sh Use glibpth instead of libpth. Index: hints/next_3.sh Build up $mab dynamically. Since $mab isn't used anywhere anymore, this is useless. However, $mab was never used for next_3.sh anyway, so there's been no change in functionality. Index: hints/next_4.sh Get rid of extraneous isnext_4 variable. Configure and Makefile.SH will use $osname and $osvers instead. Build up $mab dynamically based on available architectures. Absorb $mab into ccflags and ccdlflags. I hope that will cover everything. (Configure should automatically remove the -arch stuff from cppflags.) Configure now knows next4 needs to use a shared libperl.5.so. Allow users to use -Dprefix. Index: hints/os2.sh Try to update to reflect newer shared libperl stuff. I probably goofed :-). Index: hints/sco.sh Additional notes on using icc. Additional flags for dynamic loading. Index: hints/solaris_2.sh Perl.h no longer prefers bcmp, so it's again ok if Configure finds them, since perl will prefer the mem* versions anyway. Index: hints/sunos_4_0.sh Don't include Index: hints/sunos_4_1.sh Add brief note about GNU as and ld. Don't include Add notes about WHOA THERE messages. Index: hints/titanos.sh Include sfio in libswanted. Don't set libpth any more. Index: hints/umips.sh New hint file. Index: hv.c Use memcmp even in cases where ordering doesn't matter. Fix problems with each() on tied hashes. Index: installperl Simplify installation of shared libperl.so. Avoid reaching Command Failed!!! with /usr/bin/perl. Index: lib/AutoSplit.pm Clean up docmentation installation errors. Index: lib/ExtUtils/MM_Unix.pm Remove MAB references. Use 'useshrplib' instead of 'd_shrplib' Index: lib/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.pm Remove mab references. Index: lib/FindBin.pm Clean up docmentation installation errors. Index: lib/Symbol.pm Put back in the BEGIN { require 5.002; }. The version in 5.003_02 wouldn't work in 5.002 anyway. Further, the whole point of the construct is to catch 5.001m, so we can't use syntax introduced after 5.001m to do that. Index: lib/Text/Wrap.pm Remove double 'use strict'. Index: lib/perl5db.pl Add explicit '&' to avoid warnings under strict refs. Index: lib/sigtrap.pm Clean up docmentation installation errors. Index: makedepend.SH Use Configure's $sh and $make_set_make variables. Index: mg.c Include Use Safefree() macro instead of safefree() function with a (possibly) incorrect cast. The whole point of the Safefree() macro is that it does the correct cast for you. Index: patchlevel.h Change to SUBVERSION 3. Index: perl.c Include Index: perl.h No longer prefer bcmp slightly for comparisons that don't care about ordering. Rely on Configure setting SH_PATH. Change the function name to Pause() instead of pause() to avoid potential prototype problems. (This naming convention is similar to the Fwrite and Fflush macros.) Fix problems with each() on tied hashes. Work around crypt prototype problem on NeXT. Index: perlio.c Fixes to support non-std stdio. Index: perlio.h Try to document the various #defines a bit. This is far from finished. Remove a lot of trailing whitespace. (It's of no consequence, but but I'm not going to redo the patch just to put back in the trailing whitespace either.) Index: perlsdio.h Fixes to support non-std stdio. Index: perly.c Restore use of Safefree() macro. Index: perly.c.diff Restore use of Safefree() macro. Index: perly.h Delete duplicate line. Index: plan9/buildinfo Update. Index: pod/perlapio.pod Clean up docmentation installation errors. Index: pod/perlipc.pod Fix typo. Untaint port number. Index: pod/perlmod.pod Fix a minor nit regarding Exporter. Index: pod/perlre.pod Clean up docmentation installation errors. Index: pod/perltie.pod Add support for tied filehandles. Index: pod/perltrap.pod Clean up docmentation installation errors. Index: pod/perlxstut.pod Clean up docmentation installation errors. Index: pod/pod2man.PL Clean up docmentation installation errors. Index: pp.c Add support for tied filehandles. If a regex supplied to split() contains paranthesized subpatterns that can result in null matches, perl coredumps. Index: pp_hot.c Use memcmp instead of bcmp even when we don't care about order. Add support for tied filehandles. Index: pp_sys.c Include , , and . (The latter two are especially for NetBSD.) Don't assume sys/time.h and sys/select.h can't coexist. Use Pause macro. Index: proto.h Fix safe*alloc and safefree prototypes. Index: regexec.c Use memcmp instead of bcmp even when we don't care about order. Index: sv.c Use memcmp instead of bcmp even when we don't care about order. Index: t/lib/opcode.t Add support for tied filehandles. Index: t/op/bop.t Support bit operations on strings longer than 15 bytes. Index: t/op/misc.t Add support for tied filehandles. Index: t/op/split.t If a regex supplied to split() contains paranthesized subpatterns that can result in null matches, perl coredumps. Index: toke.c Include . Use memcmp instead of bcmp even when we don't care about order. Index: util.c Include . Use correct types for safe*alloc and safefree functions. Index: utils/h2ph.PL Make h2ph architecture-independent by using Config at run-time rather than extraction time. Index: writemain.SH Remove unnecessary curlies. (They are a leftover from an older auto_init mechanism.) Index: x2p/Makefile.SH Use Configure's $sh and $make_set_make. Remove MAB stuff, since it's now in ccflags. Keep 5.003's RCS info. Index: x2p/a2p.h Keep 5.003's RCS info. Index: x2p/str.c Use Configure's FILE_filbuf macro instead of a raw _filbuf. ---------------- Version 5.003_02 ---------------- o Visible Changes to Core Functionality - Redefining constant subs, or changing sub's prototype now give warnings. - Fixes for ++/-- of values close to max/min size of an integer - Warning for un-qualified bareword as handler in $SIG{}. - UNIVERSAL::isa can now be called as static method. o Changes in Core Internals - PerlIO abstraction added. Perl core and standard extensions no longer assume ANSI C's stdio is IO mechanism, Default Configure mode is still to use stdio via set of C macros. Alternate modes are to use stdio via one perlio.c module, or to use sfio if available. - Several bug fixs from perl5-porters - Make sources non-ANSI C correct again. - SUPER in gv.c - Last of shared-hash-key patches - eval '(0,1..3)'; # --> SegFault - coredumps after simple subsitutes. - Correction to UNIVERSAL::VERSION docs. - Fixed io_udp test. - Fixed another abuse of malloc'ed memory. - Enabled DEBUGING_MSTATS whenever perl's malloc() is used. - Reverted to default of not hiding perl's malloc (if used). o Changes in the Standard Library and Utilities - Fixed MakeMaker for static SDBM and builing in a link tree. - Upgraded to IO-1.09, and includes latest (still experimental) IO::Select. - Documentation/test tweak to DB_File - h2xs upgrade to allow use C::Scan module o Changes in OS-specific and Build-time Support - Attempted to re-created 5.003_01's NeXT support with metaconfig units. - Updated MANIFEST - make minitest now depends on lib/Config.pm, as some of tests require it. - Included latest plan9 sub-directory - Applied OS/2 patches. - Typo patch for VMS. ---------------- Version 5.003_01 ---------------- Version 5.003_01 contains bugfixes and additions accumulated since version 5.002_01, since the patch to version 5.003 was deliberately kept simple. In addition to numerous small bugfixes in the core, library files, and documentation, this patch contains several significant revisions, summarized below: o Visible Changes to Core Functionality - A port to Plan9 has been started, and changes are integrated into the standard distribution. As of this release, the Perl core and several common extensions are working. - A set of basic methods in the UNIVERSAL class have been added to the Perl core. Since UNIVERSAL is an implicit member of every class's @ISA, the methods can be called via any object. - A mandatory warning has been added for 'declarations' of lexical variables using the "my" operator which mask an existing lexical variable declared in the same scope, making the previous variable inaccessible by its name. - The "use" and "require" operators have been extended to allow checking of the required module's version. The "use" operator can now be used for an immediate version check of Perl itself. - A new "strict" pragma, "strict untie", has been added, which produces an error if a tied value is untied when other references exist to the internal object implementing the tie. - Barewords used as associative array keys (i.e. when specifying an associative array element like $foo{__BAR} or on the left side of the => operator) may now begin with an underscore as well as an alphabetic character. - Some of the configuration information previously produced by the -v switch has been moved to the -V switch, in order to keep -v output concise. o Changes in Core Internals - Symbol table and method lookups have been made faster. - Perl subroutines which just return a constant value are now optimized at compile time into inline constants. - Management of keys for associative arrays has been improved to conserve space when the same keys are reused frequently, and to pass true Perl values to tie functions, instead of stringified representations. - Messages normally output to stderr may be directed to another stream when Perl is built. This allows some platforms to present diagnostic output in a separate window from normal program results. - A bug which caused suiperl to fail silently, albeit securely, in version 5.003 on some systems has been fixed. - Management of Unix-style signal handlers via the %SIG associative array has been made safer. - Several global C symbols have been renamed to eliminate collisions with system C header files or libraries on some platforms. Unfortunately, this means that dynamic extensions compiled under previous versions of Perl will need to be rebuilt for Perl 5.003_01. We're in the process of cleaning up Perl's C namespace to make it easier to link Perl with other binaries, so this will probably happen again between now and version 5.004. After that, we'll do our best to maintain binary compatibility between versions. - An alternate allocation strategy has been added to Perl's optional private memory management routines. This strategy, which may be selected when Perl is built, is designed to conserve memory in programs which allocate many small chunks of memory with sizes near a power of 2, as is often the case in Perl programs. - Several memory leaks in the creation and destruction of multiple interpreters have been fixed. o Changes in the Standard Library and Utilities - The Opcode extension, which allows you to control a program's access to Perl operations, has been added to the standard distribution. This extends the work begun in the original Safe extension, and subsumes it. The Safe interface is still available. - The IO extension, which provides a set of classes for object- oriented handling of common I/O tasks, has been added to the standard distribution. The IO classes will form the basis for future development of Perl's I/O interface, and will subsume the FileHandle class in the near future. The default class to which all Perl I/O handles belong is now IO::Handle, rather than FileHandle. - The ExtUtils::Embed library module, which provides a set of utility function to help in embedding Perl in other applications, has been added to the standard distribution. - The Fatal library module, which provides a simple interface for creating "do-or-die" equivalents of existing functions, has been added to the standard distribution. - The FindBin library module, which determines the full path to the currently executing program, has been added to the standard distribution. - The DB_File extension, and the Getopt::Long, Test::Harness, Text::Tabs, Text::Wrap, Time::Local and sigtrap library modules have been updated to the authors' latest versions. - The Carp library module now considers the @ISA chain when determining the caller's package for inclusion in error messages. - The h2xs, perlbug, and xsubpp utilities have been updated. - The standard Perl debugger has been updated, and the information provided to the debugger when an XSUB is called has been improved, making it possible for alternate debuggers (such as Devel::DProf) to do a better job of tracking XSUB calls. - The pod documentation formatting tools in the standard distribution can now handle characters in the input stream whose high bit is set. - The cperl-mode EMACS editing mode has been updated. o Changes in Documentation - Typographic and formatting errors have been corrected in the pod documentation for the core and standard library files - Explanations of several core operators have been improved - The perldebug, perlembed, perlipc, perlsec, and perltrap documents extensively revised. o Changes in OS-specific and Build-time Support - Support for the NeXT platform has been extended through NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP 4.0, and now includes the ability to create MABs. - Support for OS/2 has been extended as well, and now includes options for building a.out binaries. - Support for VMS has also been extended, incorporating improved processing of file specification strings, optional suppression of carriage control interpretation for record-structured files, improved support for the -S command line switch, a number of VMS-specific bugfixes, and significantly improved performance in line-oriented reading of files. - Several hints files have been added or updated: aux.sh (updated), convexos.sh (updated), irix_4.sh (updated), irix_5.sh (updated), irix_6_2.sh (updated), next_3.sh (updated), next_3_2.sh (new), next_3_3.sh (new), next_4.sh (new), os2/sh (updated), sco.sh (updated), and solaris_2.sh (updated). - The test driver for the regression tests now reports when a set of tests have been skipped (presumable because the operation they're designed to test isn't supported on the current system).