(Pure Perl modules should continue to work.)
-The major reason for the discontinity is the new IO architecture
+The major reason for the discontinuity is the new IO architecture
called PerlIO. PerlIO is the default configuration because
without it many new features of Perl 5.8 cannot be used. In other
words: you just have to recompile your modules, sorry about that.
=item *
+The 5.005 threads model (module C<Thread>) is deprecated and expected
+to be removed in Perl 5.10. Multithreaded code should be migrated to
+the new ithreads model (see L<threads> and L<threads::shared>).
+
+=item *
+
The long deprecated uppercase aliases for the string comparison
operators (EQ, NE, LT, LE, GE, GT) have now been removed.
=item *
+POSIX::sleep() now returns the number of I<unslept> seconds
+(as the POSIX standard says), as opposed to CORE::sleep() which
+returns the number of slept seconds.
+
+=item *
+
The printf() and sprintf() now support parameter reordering using the
C<%\d+\$> and C<*\d+\$> syntaxes. For example
=item *
-Tied hash interfaces are now required to have the EXISTS method
-(either own or inherited).
+Tied hash interfaces are now required to have the EXISTS and DELETE
+methods (either own or inherited).
=item *
storage and retrieval of Perl data to and from files in a fast and
compact binary format. Because in effect Storable does serialisation
of Perl data structues, with it you can also clone deep, hierarchical
-datastructures. Storable was created by Raphael Manfredi but it is
-now maintained by the Perl development team. Storable has been
+datastructures. Storable was originally created by Raphael Manfredi,
+but it is now maintained by Abhijit Menon-Sen. Storable has been
enhanced to understand the two new hash features, Unicode keys and
restricted hashes. See L<Storable>.
=item *
+The return value of Cwd::fastcwd() is now tainted.
+
+=item *
+
Data::Dumper has now an option to sort hashes.
=item *
=item *
+Devel::Peek now has an interface for the Perl memory statistics
+(this works only if you are using perl's malloc, and if you have
+compiled with debugging).
+
+=item *
+
The English module can now be used without the infamous performance
hit by saying
=item *
+ExtUtils::MakeMaker now uses File::Spec internally, which hopefully
+leads into better portability.
+
+=item *
+
Fcntl, Socket, and Sys::Syslog have been rewritten to use the
new-style constant dispatch section (see L<ExtUtils::Constant>).
This means that they will be more robust and hopefully faster.
=item *
-Devel::Peek now has an interface for the Perl memory statistics
-(this works only if you are using perl's malloc, and if you have
-compiled with debugging).
-
-=item *
-
IPC::Open3 now allows the use of numeric file descriptors.
=item *
=item *
-ExtUtils::MakeMaker now uses File::Spec internally, which hopefully
-leads into better portability.
-
-=item *
-
Math::BigFloat and Math::BigInt have undergone a full rewrite.
They are now magnitudes faster, and they support various
bignum libraries such as GMP and PARI as their backends.
=item *
-If binary compatibility with the 5.005 release is not wanted, Configure
-no longer suggests including the 5.005 modules in @INC.
+Since Perl 5.8 is not binary-compatible with previous releases
+of Perl, Configure no longer suggests including the 5.005
+modules in @INC.
=item *
rules for the conversion. Some platforms that used to use gcvt may
now resort to the slower sprintf.
+=item *
+
+The obsolete method of making a special (e.g., debugging) flavor
+of perl by saying
+
+ make LIBPERL=libperld.a
+
+has been removed. Use -DDEBUGGING instead.
+
=back
=head2 New Or Improved Platforms
=item *
+Stratus VOS is now supported using Perl's native build method
+(Configure). This is the recommended method to build Perl on
+VOS. The older methods, which build miniperl, are still
+available. See L<perlvos>.
+
+=item *
+
Amdahl UTS UNIX mainframe platform is now supported.
=item *
=item *
caller() could cause core dumps in certain situations. Carp was sometimes
-affected by this problem.
+affected by this problem. In particular, caller() now returns a
+subroutine name of C<(unknown)> for subroutines that have been removed
+from the symbol table.
=item *
=item *
C<*foo{FORMAT}> now works.
+
=item *
Infinity is now recognized as a number.
=item *
-Localised hash elements are correctly unlocalised to not to exist,
-if that's what they where.
+Localised hash elements (and %ENV) are correctly unlocalised to not to
+exist, if that's what they were.
use Tie::Hash;
# but no more so.
As a side effect of this fix, tied hash interfaces B<must> define
-the EXISTS method.
+the EXISTS and DELETE methods.
=item *
=item *
+Stratus VOS
+
+The native build method requires at least VOS Release 14.5.0
+and GNU C++/GNU Tools 2.0.1 or later. The Perl pack function
+now maps overflowed values to +infinity and underflowed values
+to -infinity.
+
+=item *
+
Tru64 (aka Digital UNIX, aka DEC OSF/1)
The operating system version letter now recorded in $Config{osvers}.
=back
-=head2 Amiga Perl Invoking Mystery
+=head2 ext/threads/t/libc
-One cannot call Perl using the C<volume:> syntax, that is, C<perl -v>
-works, but for example C<bin:perl -v> doesn't. The exact reason isn't
-known but the current suspect is the F<ixemul> library.
+If this test fails, it indicates that your libc (C library) is not
+threadsafe. This particular test stress tests the localtime() call to
+find out whether it is threadsafe. See L<perlthrtut> for more information.
=head2 FreeBSD Failing locale Test 117 For ISO8859-15 Locales
(Y with diaeresis) not behaving correctly when being matched
case-insensitively.
+=head2 Modifying $_ Inside for(..)
+
+ for (1..5) { $_++ }
+
+works without complaint. It shouldn't. (You should be able to
+modify only lvalue elements inside the loops.) You can see the
+correct behaviour by replacing the 1..5 with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
+
=head2 mod_perl 1.26 Doesn't Build With Threaded Perl
Use mod_perl 1.27 or higher.
Don't panic. Read INSTALL 'make test' section instead.
-=head2 HP-UX lib/posix Subtest 9 Fails When LP64-Configured
+=head2 HP-UX lib/posix Subtest 9 Fails When LP64-Configured
If perl is configured with -Duse64bitall, the successful result of the
subtest 10 of lib/posix may arrive before the successful result of the
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
../ext/DB_File/t/db-btree.t 0 11 ?? ?? % ??
../ext/DB_File/t/db-recno.t 149 3 2.01% 61 63 65
- ../ext/POSIX/t/posix.t 31 1 3.23% 10
If you are building on a UFS partition, you will also probably see
t/op/stat.t subtest #9 fail. This is caused by Darwin's UFS not
supporting inode change time.
+Also the ext/POSIX/t/posix.t subtest #10 fails but it is skipped for
+now because the failure is Apple's fault, not Perl's (blocked signals
+are lost).
+
+If you Configure with ithreads, ext/threads/t/libc.t will fail, again
+not Perl's fault-- the libc of Mac OS X is not threadsafe (in this
+particular test the localtime() call is found to be threadunsafe.)
+
=head2 op/sprintf tests 91, 129, and 130
The op/sprintf tests 91, 129, and 130 are known to fail on some platforms.
experience failures (the test core dumping) in lib/locale.t.
The suggested cure is to upgrade your Solaris.
+=head2 Stratus VOS
+
+When Perl is built using the native build process on VOS Release
+14.5.0 and GNU C++/GNU Tools 2.0.1, all attempted tests either
+pass or result in TODO (ignored) failures.
+
+=head Term::ReadKey not working on Win32
+
+Use Term::ReadKey 2.20 or later.
+
=head2 Failure of Thread (5.005-style) tests
-B<Note that support for 5.005-style threading remains experimental
-and practically unsupported.>
+B<Note that support for 5.005-style threading is deprecated,
+experimental and practically unsupported. In 5.10 it is expected
+to be removed.>
The following tests are known to fail due to fundamental problems in
the 5.005 threading implementation. These are not new failures--Perl
../lib/autouse.t 10 1 10.00% 4
op/flip.t 15 1 6.67% 15
-These failures are unlikely to get fixed as the 5.005-style
-threads are considered fundamentally broken.
+These failures are unlikely to get fixed as the 5.005-style threads
+are considered fundamentally broken. (Basically what happens is that
+competing threads can corrupt shared global state.)
=head2 UNICOS
- Failed Test Stat Wstat Total Fail Failed List of Failed
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------
- ../ext/Socket/socketpair.t 1 256 45 1 2.22% 12
- ../lib/Math/Trig.t 26 1 3.85% 25
- ../lib/warnings.t 460 1 0.22% 425
- io/fs.t 36 1 2.78% 31
- op/numconvert.t 1440 13 0.90% 208 509-510
- 657-658 665-666 829-830 989-990 1149-1150
+ ../ext/Socket/socketpair.t 1 256 45 1 2.22% 12
+ ../ext/Storable/t/downgrade.t 92 23552 59 6 10.17% 144-147
+ 150-151
+ ../lib/Math/Trig.t 26 1 3.85% 25
+ ../lib/warnings.t 470 1 0.21% 429
+ op/numconvert.t 1440 13 0.90% 208 509-510
+ 657-658 665-666 829-830 989-990 1149-1150
+
+The Trig and numconvert failures are caused by the slighly differing
+(from IEEE) floating point implementation of UNICOS. The warnings
+failure is also related: the test assumes a certain floating point
+output format, this assumption fails in UNICOS.
=head2 UNICOS/mk
tests have been added.
Failed Test Stat Wstat Total Fail Failed List of Failed
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- ../ext/Data/Dumper/t/dumper.t 339 8 2.36% 311 314 325 327
+ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ ../ext/Data/Dumper/t/dumper.t 357 8 2.24% 311 314 325 327
331 333 337 339
../ext/IO/lib/IO/t/io_unix.t 5 4 80.00% 2-5
- ../ext/Storable/t/utf8hash.t 10 2560 148 10 6.76% 1 5 72 76 143-148
- ../lib/utf8.t 94 13 13.83% 27 30-31 43 46 73
- 76 79 82 85 88 91
- 94
+ ../ext/Storable/t/downgrade.t 12 3072 169 12 7.10% 14-15 46-47 78-79
+ 110-111 150 161
../lib/ExtUtils/t/Constant.t 121 30976 48 48 100.00% 1-48
../lib/ExtUtils/t/Embed.t 9 9 100.00% 1-9
- op/pat.t 900 9 1.00% 242-243 665 776
- 785 832-834 845
+ op/pat.t 910 7 0.77% 665 776 785 832-
+ 834 845
op/sprintf.t 224 3 1.34% 98 100 136
op/tr.t 97 5 5.15% 63 71-74
- run/fresh_perl.t 94 3 3.19% 92-94
uni/fold.t 780 6 0.77% 61 169 196 661
710-711
+The dumper.t and downgrade.t are problems in the tests, the io_unix
+and sprintf are problems in the USS (UDP sockets and printf formats).
+The pat, tr, and fold are genuine Perl problems caused by EBCDIC (and
+in the pat and fold cases, combining that with Unicode). The Constant
+and Embed are probably problems in the tests (since they test Perl's
+ability to build extensions, and that seems to be working reasonably well.)
+
=head2 Localising Tied Arrays and Hashes Is Broken
local %tied_array;
Though mostly working, Unicode support still has problem spots on
EBCDIC platforms. One such known spot are the C<\p{}> and C<\P{}>
regular expression constructs for code points less than 256: the
-pP are testing for Unicode code points, not knowing about EBCDIC.
+C<pP> are testing for Unicode code points, not knowing about EBCDIC.
-=head2 The Compiler Suite Is Still Experimental
+=head2 The Compiler Suite Is Still Very Experimental
The compiler suite is slowly getting better but it continues to be
highly experimental. Use in production environments is discouraged.
core module. It is still a useful module, though, and is available
from the CPAN.
+Perl 5.8 unfortunately does not build anymore on AmigaOS,
+this broke at some point accidentally. Since there are not that many
+Amiga developers available, we could not get this fixed and tested in
+time for 5.8.0.
+
=head1 Reporting Bugs
If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles
projects / p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git / blobdiff