releases of Perl are shepherded by a ``pumpking'', a porter
responsible for gathering patches, deciding on a patch-by-patch
feature-by-feature basis what will and will not go into the release.
-For instance, Gurusamy Sarathy is the pumpking for the 5.6 release of
-Perl.
+For instance, Gurusamy Sarathy was the pumpking for the 5.6 release of
+Perl, and Jarkko Hietaniemi is the pumpking for the 5.8 release, and
+Hugo van der Sanden will be the pumpking for the 5.10 release.
In addition, various people are pumpkings for different things. For
instance, Andy Dougherty and Jarkko Hietaniemi share the I<Configure>
-pumpkin, and Tom Christiansen is the documentation pumpking.
+pumpkin.
Larry sees Perl development along the lines of the US government:
there's the Legislature (the porters), the Executive branch (the
unlikely that nonportable additions to the Perl language will be
accepted.
+=item Is the implementation tested?
+
+Patches which change behaviour (fixing bugs or introducing new features)
+must include regression tests to verify that everything works as expected.
+Without tests provided by the original author, how can anyone else changing
+perl in the future be sure that they haven't unwittingly broken the behaviour
+the patch implements? And without tests, how can the patch's author be
+confident that his/her hard work put into the patch won't be accidentally
+thrown away by someone in the future?
+
=item Is there enough documentation?
Patches without documentation are probably ill-thought out or
incomplete. Nothing can be added without documentation, so submitting
a patch for the appropriate manpages as well as the source code is
-always a good idea. If appropriate, patches should add to the test
-suite as well.
+always a good idea.
=item Is there another way to do it?
=head2 Keeping in sync
The source code to the Perl interpreter, in its different versions, is
-kept in a repository managed by a revision control system (which is
-currently the Perforce program, see http://perforce.com/). The
+kept in a repository managed by a revision control system ( which is
+currently the Perforce program, see http://perforce.com/ ). The
pumpkings and a few others have access to the repository to check in
changes. Periodically the pumpking for the development version of Perl
will release a new version, so the rest of the porters can see what's
available to the LAN and sync the other machines against this
directory.
-From http://rsync.samba.org/README.html:
+From http://rsync.samba.org/README.html :
"Rsync uses rsh or ssh for communication. It does not need to be
setuid and requires no special privileges for installation. It
It's then up to you to apply these patches, using something like
- # last=`ls -rt1 *.gz | tail -1`
+ # last=`ls -t *.gz | sed q`
# rsync -avz rsync://ftp.linux.activestate.com/perl-current-diffs/ .
# find . -name '*.gz' -newer $last -exec gzcat {} \; >blead.patch
# cd ../perl-current
=over 4
-There are three (3) remote administrative interfaces for modifying bug status, category, etc. In all cases an admin must be first registered with the Perlbug database by sending an email request to richard@perl.org or bugmongers@perl.org.
+There are three (3) remote administrative interfaces for modifying bug
+status, category, etc. In all cases an admin must be first registered
+with the Perlbug database by sending an email request to
+richard@perl.org or bugmongers@perl.org.
-The main requirement is the willingness to classify, (with the emphasis on closing where possible :), outstanding bugs. Further explanation can be garnered from the web at http://bugs.perl.org/, or by asking on the admin mailing list at: bugmongers@perl.org
+The main requirement is the willingness to classify, (with the
+emphasis on closing where possible :), outstanding bugs. Further
+explanation can be garnered from the web at http://bugs.perl.org/ , or
+by asking on the admin mailing list at: bugmongers@perl.org
For more info on the web see
copy (see L<Patching a core module>). This lets other porters review
your patch, which catches a surprising number of errors in patches.
Either use the diff program (available in source code form from
-I<ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/>), or use Johan Vromans' I<makepatch>
+ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ , or use Johan Vromans' I<makepatch>
(available from I<CPAN/authors/id/JV/>). Unified diffs are preferred,
but context diffs are accepted. Do not send RCS-style diffs or diffs
without context lines. More information is given in the
Perl (if you can't get Perl to work, send mail to the address
I<perlbug@perl.org> or I<perlbug@perl.com>). Reporting bugs through
I<perlbug> feeds into the automated bug-tracking system, access to
-which is provided through the web at I<http://bugs.perl.org/>. It
+which is provided through the web at http://bugs.perl.org/ . It
often pays to check the archives of the perl5-porters mailing list to
see whether the bug you're reporting has been reported before, and if
so whether it was considered a bug. See above for the location of
the searchable archives.
-The CPAN testers (I<http://testers.cpan.org/>) are a group of
+The CPAN testers ( http://testers.cpan.org/ ) are a group of
volunteers who test CPAN modules on a variety of platforms. Perl Labs
-(I<http://labs.perl.org/>) automatically tests Perl source releases on
+( http://labs.perl.org/ ) automatically tests Perl source releases on
platforms and gives feedback to the CPAN testers mailing list. Both
efforts welcome volunteers.
You might also want to look at Gisle Aas's illustrated perlguts -
there's no guarantee that this will be absolutely up-to-date with the
latest documentation in the Perl core, but the fundamentals will be
-right. (http://gisle.aas.no/perl/illguts/)
+right. ( http://gisle.aas.no/perl/illguts/ )
=item L<perlxstut> and L<perlxs>
=item The perl5-porters FAQ
This is posted to perl5-porters at the beginning on every month, and
-should be available from http://perlhacker.org/p5p-faq; alternatively,
+should be available from http://perlhacker.org/p5p-faq ; alternatively,
you can get the FAQ emailed to you by sending mail to
C<perl5-porters-faq@perl.org>. It contains hints on reading
perl5-porters, information on how perl5-porters works and how Perl
to L<perlguts/Background and PERL_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT> for information on
the C<[pad]THX_?> macros.
-
=head2 Poking at Perl
To really poke around with Perl, you'll probably want to build Perl for
to explore all boundary conditions that your new function is expected
to handle. If your new function is used only by one module (e.g. toke),
then it should probably be named S_your_function (for static); on the
-other hand, if you expect it to accessable from other functions in
+other hand, if you expect it to accessible from other functions in
Perl, you should name it Perl_your_function. See L<perlguts/Internal Functions>
for more details.
this when you post your patch to P5P; the pumpking needs to know this.
When you write your new code, please be conscious of existing code
-conventions used in the perl source files. See <perlstyle> for
+conventions used in the perl source files. See L<perlstyle> for
details. Although most of the guidelines discussed seem to focus on
Perl code, rather than c, they all apply (except when they don't ;).
See also I<Porting/patching.pod> file in the Perl source distribution
Test on as many platforms as you can find. Test as many perl
Configure options as you can (e.g. MULTIPLICITY). If you have
profiling or memory tools, see L<EXTERNAL TOOLS FOR DEBUGGING PERL>
-below for how to use them to futher test your code. Remember that
+below for how to use them to further test your code. Remember that
most of the people on P5P are doing this on their own time and
don't have the time to debug your code.
boils down to using File::Spec and avoiding things like C<fork()> and
C<system()> unless absolutely necessary.
+=head2 Special Make Test Targets
+
+There are various special make targets that can be used to test Perl
+slightly differently than the standard "test" target. Not all them
+are expected to give a 100% success rate. Many of them have several
+aliases.
+
+=over 4
+
+=item coretest
+
+Run F<perl> on all but F<lib/*> tests.
+
+=item test.deparse
+
+Run all the tests through the B::Deparse. Not all tests will succeed.
+
+=item minitest
+
+Run F<miniperl> on F<t/base>, F<t/comp>, F<t/cmd>, F<t/run>, F<t/io>,
+F<t/op>, and F<t/uni> tests.
+
+=item test.third check.third utest.third ucheck.third
+
+(Only in Tru64) Run all the tests using the memory leak + naughty
+memory access tool "Third Degree". The log files will be named
+F<perl3.log.testname>.
+
+=item test.torture torturetest
+
+Run all the usual tests and some extra tests. As of Perl 5.8.0 the
+only extra tests are Abigail's JAPHs, t/japh/abigail.t.
+
+You can also run the torture test with F<t/harness> by giving
+C<-torture> argument to F<t/harness>.
+
+=item utest ucheck test.utf8 check.utf8
+
+Run all the tests with -Mutf8. Not all tests will succeed.
+
+=back
=head1 EXTERNAL TOOLS FOR DEBUGGING PERL
This binary is used in place of the standard 'perl' binary
when you want to debug Perl memory problems.
+To minimize the number of memory leak false alarms
+(see L</PERL_DESTRUCT_LEVEL>), set environment variable
+PERL_DESTRUCT_LEVEL to 2.
+
+ setenv PERL_DESTRUCT_LEVEL 2
+
+In Bourne-type shells:
+
+ PERL_DESTRUCT_LEVEL=2
+ export PERL_DESTRUCT_LEVEL
+
As an example, to show any memory leaks produced during the
standard Perl testset you would create and run the Purify'ed
perl as:
setenv PURIFYOPTIONS "-chain-length=25"
+In Bourne-type shells:
+
+ PURIFYOPTIONS="..."
+ export PURIFYOPTIONS
+
+or if you have the "env" utility:
+
+ env PURIFYOPTIONS="..." ../pureperl ...
+
=head2 Purify on NT
Purify on Windows NT instruments the Perl binary 'perl.exe'
which would instrument Perl in memory, run Perl on test.pl,
then finally report any memory problems.
-=head2 Compaq's/Digital's Third Degree
+B<NOTE>: as of Perl 5.8.0, the ext/Encode/t/Unicode.t takes
+extraordinarily long (hours?) to complete under Purify. It has been
+theorized that it would eventually finish, but nobody has so far been
+patient enough :-) (This same extreme slowdown has been seen also with
+the Third Degree tool, so the said test must be doing something that
+is quite unfriendly for memory debuggers.) It is suggested that you
+simply kill away that testing process.
+
+=head2 Compaq's/Digital's/HP's Third Degree
Third Degree is a tool for memory leak detection and memory access checks.
It is one of the many tools in the ATOM toolkit. The toolkit is only
documentation is available in the Compaq "Tru64 UNIX Programmer's
Guide", chapter "Debugging Programs with Third Degree".
-The "test.third" leaves a lot of files named F<perl.3log.*> in the t/
+The "test.third" leaves a lot of files named F<foo_bar.3log> in the t/
subdirectory. There is a problem with these files: Third Degree is so
effective that it finds problems also in the system libraries.
-Therefore there are certain types of errors that you should ignore in
-your debugging. Errors with stack traces matching
-
- __actual_atof|__catgets|_doprnt|__exc_|__exec|_findio|__localtime|setlocale|__sia_|__strxfrm
-
-(all in libc.so) are known to be non-serious. You can also
-ignore the combinations
-
- Perl_gv_fetchfile() calling strcpy()
- S_doopen_pmc() calling strcmp()
-
-causing "rih" (reading invalid heap) errors.
+Therefore you should used the Porting/thirdclean script to cleanup
+the F<*.3log> files.
There are also leaks that for given certain definition of a leak,
aren't. See L</PERL_DESTRUCT_LEVEL> for more information.
environment variable PERL_DESTRUCT_LEVEL to a non-zero value.
The t/TEST wrapper does set this to 2, and this is what you
need to do too, if you don't want to see the "global leaks":
+For example, for "third-degreed" Perl:
+
+ env PERL_DESTRUCT_LEVEL=2 ./perl.third -Ilib t/foo/bar.t
- PERL_DESTRUCT_LEVEL=2 ./perl.third t/foo/bar.t
+(Note: the mod_perl apache module uses also this environment variable
+for its own purposes and extended its semantics. Refer to the mod_perl
+documentation for more information.)
=head2 Profiling
For further information, see your system's manual pages for pixie and prof.
+=head2 Miscellaneous tricks
+
+=over 4
+
+=item *
+
+Those debugging perl with the DDD frontend over gdb may find the
+following useful:
+
+You can extend the data conversion shortcuts menu, so for example you
+can display an SV's IV value with one click, without doing any typing.
+To do that simply edit ~/.ddd/init file and add after:
+
+ ! Display shortcuts.
+ Ddd*gdbDisplayShortcuts: \
+ /t () // Convert to Bin\n\
+ /d () // Convert to Dec\n\
+ /x () // Convert to Hex\n\
+ /o () // Convert to Oct(\n\
+
+the following two lines:
+
+ ((XPV*) (())->sv_any )->xpv_pv // 2pvx\n\
+ ((XPVIV*) (())->sv_any )->xiv_iv // 2ivx
+
+so now you can do ivx and pvx lookups or you can plug there the
+sv_peek "conversion":
+
+ Perl_sv_peek(my_perl, (SV*)()) // sv_peek
+
+(The my_perl is for threaded builds.)
+Just remember that every line, but the last one, should end with \n\
+
+Alternatively edit the init file interactively via:
+3rd mouse button -> New Display -> Edit Menu
+
+Note: you can define up to 20 conversion shortcuts in the gdb
+section.
+
+=item *
+
+If you see in a debugger a memory area mysteriously full of 0xabababab,
+you may be seeing the effect of the Poison() macro, see L<perlclib>.
+
+=back
+
=head2 CONCLUSION
We've had a brief look around the Perl source, an overview of the stages
projects / p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git / blobdiff