X-Git-Url: http://git.shadowcat.co.uk/gitweb/gitweb.cgi?a=blobdiff_plain;f=pod%2Fperlfunc.pod;h=0d09e855e8b472f847f471801ac0188395b0f711;hb=fbad3eb55c1f8c84d1dfd0e484ecddeffc891e79;hp=1a5e0e6846d64528dd1be840a67ac5fd04b247e0;hpb=6ee623d521a149edc6574c512fa951a192cd086a;p=p5sagit%2Fp5-mst-13.2.git

diff --git a/pod/perlfunc.pod b/pod/perlfunc.pod
index 1a5e0e6..0d09e85 100644
--- a/pod/perlfunc.pod
+++ b/pod/perlfunc.pod
@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-
 =head1 NAME
 
 perlfunc - Perl builtin functions
@@ -16,7 +15,7 @@ operator.  A unary operator generally provides a scalar context to its
 argument, while a list operator may provide either scalar and list
 contexts for its arguments.  If it does both, the scalar arguments will
 be first, and the list argument will follow.  (Note that there can ever
-be only one list argument.)  For instance, splice() has three scalar
+be only one such list argument.)  For instance, splice() has three scalar
 arguments followed by a list.
 
 In the syntax descriptions that follow, list operators that expect a
@@ -53,26 +52,36 @@ nonabortive failure is generally indicated in a scalar context by
 returning the undefined value, and in a list context by returning the
 null list.
 
-Remember the following rule:
-
-=over 8
-
-=item  I<THERE IS NO GENERAL RULE FOR CONVERTING A LIST INTO A SCALAR!>
-
-=back
-
+Remember the following important rule: There is B<no rule> that relates
+the behavior of an expression in list context to its behavior in scalar
+context, or vice versa.  It might do two totally different things.
 Each operator and function decides which sort of value it would be most
 appropriate to return in a scalar context.  Some operators return the
-length of the list that would have been returned in a list context.  Some
+length of the list that would have been returned in list context.  Some
 operators return the first value in the list.  Some operators return the
 last value in the list.  Some operators return a count of successful
 operations.  In general, they do what you want, unless you want
 consistency.
 
+An named array in scalar context is quite different from what would at
+first glance appear to be a list in scalar context.  You can't get a list
+like C<(1,2,3)> into being in scalar context, because the compiler knows
+the context at compile time.  It would generate the scalar comma operator
+there, not the list construction version of the comma.  That means it
+was never a list to start with.
+
+In general, functions in Perl that serve as wrappers for system calls
+of the same name (like chown(2), fork(2), closedir(2), etc.) all return
+true when they succeed and C<undef> otherwise, as is usually mentioned
+in the descriptions below.  This is different from the C interfaces,
+which return C<-1> on failure.  Exceptions to this rule are C<wait()>,
+C<waitpid()>, and C<syscall()>.  System calls also set the special C<$!>
+variable on failure.  Other functions do not, except accidentally.
+
 =head2 Perl Functions by Category
 
 Here are Perl's functions (including things that look like
-functions, like some of the keywords and named operators)
+functions, like some keywords and named operators)
 arranged by category.  Some functions appear in more
 than one place.
 
@@ -81,12 +90,12 @@ than one place.
 =item Functions for SCALARs or strings
 
 C<chomp>, C<chop>, C<chr>, C<crypt>, C<hex>, C<index>, C<lc>, C<lcfirst>,
-C<length>, C<oct>, C<ord>, C<pack>, C<q>/STRING/, C<qq>/STRING/, C<reverse>,
-C<rindex>, C<sprintf>, C<substr>, C<tr///>, C<uc>, C<ucfirst>, C<y>///
+C<length>, C<oct>, C<ord>, C<pack>, C<q/STRING/>, C<qq/STRING/>, C<reverse>,
+C<rindex>, C<sprintf>, C<substr>, C<tr///>, C<uc>, C<ucfirst>, C<y///>
 
 =item Regular expressions and pattern matching
 
-C<m>//, C<pos>, C<quotemeta>, C<s>///, C<split>, C<study>
+C<m//>, C<pos>, C<quotemeta>, C<s///>, C<split>, C<study>, C<qr//>
 
 =item Numeric functions
 
@@ -99,7 +108,7 @@ C<pop>, C<push>, C<shift>, C<splice>, C<unshift>
 
 =item Functions for list data
 
-C<grep>, C<join>, C<map>, C<qw>/STRING/, C<reverse>, C<sort>, C<unpack>
+C<grep>, C<join>, C<map>, C<qw/STRING/>, C<reverse>, C<sort>, C<unpack>
 
 =item Functions for real %HASHes
 
@@ -120,8 +129,9 @@ C<pack>, C<read>, C<syscall>, C<sysread>, C<syswrite>, C<unpack>, C<vec>
 =item Functions for filehandles, files, or directories
 
 C<-I<X>>, C<chdir>, C<chmod>, C<chown>, C<chroot>, C<fcntl>, C<glob>,
-C<ioctl>, C<link>, C<lstat>, C<mkdir>, C<open>, C<opendir>, C<readlink>,
-C<rename>, C<rmdir>, C<stat>, C<symlink>, C<umask>, C<unlink>, C<utime>
+C<ioctl>, C<link>, C<lstat>, C<mkdir>, C<open>, C<opendir>,
+C<readlink>, C<rename>, C<rmdir>, C<stat>, C<symlink>, C<umask>,
+C<unlink>, C<utime>
 
 =item Keywords related to the control flow of your perl program
 
@@ -140,7 +150,7 @@ C<scalar>, C<undef>, C<wantarray>
 =item Functions for processes and process groups
 
 C<alarm>, C<exec>, C<fork>, C<getpgrp>, C<getppid>, C<getpriority>, C<kill>,
-C<pipe>, C<qx>/STRING/, C<setpgrp>, C<setpriority>, C<sleep>, C<system>,
+C<pipe>, C<qx/STRING/>, C<setpgrp>, C<setpriority>, C<sleep>, C<system>,
 C<times>, C<wait>, C<waitpid>
 
 =item Keywords related to perl modules
@@ -189,7 +199,7 @@ C<qw>, C<readline>, C<readpipe>, C<ref>, C<sub*>, C<sysopen>, C<tie>,
 C<tied>, C<uc>, C<ucfirst>, C<untie>, C<use>
 
 * - C<sub> was a keyword in perl4, but in perl5 it is an
-operator which can be used in expressions.
+operator, which can be used in expressions.
 
 =item Functions obsoleted in perl5
 
@@ -197,6 +207,34 @@ C<dbmclose>, C<dbmopen>
 
 =back
 
+=head2 Portability
+
+Perl was born in UNIX and therefore it can access all the common UNIX
+system calls.  In non-UNIX environments the functionality of many
+UNIX system calls may not be available or the details of the available
+functionality may be slightly different.  The Perl functions affected
+by this are:
+
+C<-X>, C<binmode>, C<chmod>, C<chown>, C<chroot>, C<crypt>,
+C<dbmclose>, C<dbmopen>, C<dump>, C<endgrent>, C<endhostent>,
+C<endnetent>, C<endprotoent>, C<endpwent>, C<endservent>, C<exec>,
+C<fcntl>, C<flock>, C<fork>, C<getgrent>, C<getgrgid>, C<gethostent>,
+C<getlogin>, C<getnetbyaddr>, C<getnetbyname>, C<getnetent>,
+C<getppid>, C<getprgp>, C<getpriority>, C<getprotobynumber>,
+C<getprotoent>, C<getpwent>, C<getpwnam>, C<getpwuid>,
+C<getservbyport>, C<getservent>, C<getsockopt>, C<glob>, C<ioctl>,
+C<kill>, C<link>, C<lstat>, C<msgctl>, C<msgget>, C<msgrcv>,
+C<msgsnd>, C<open>, C<pipe>, C<readlink>, C<select>, C<semctl>,
+C<semget>, C<semop>, C<setgrent>, C<sethostent>, C<setnetent>,
+C<setpgrp>, C<setpriority>, C<setprotoent>, C<setpwent>,
+C<setservent>, C<setsockopt>, C<shmctl>, C<shmget>, C<shmread>,
+C<shmwrite>, C<socketpair>, C<stat>, C<symlink>, C<syscall>,
+C<sysopen>, C<system>, C<times>, C<truncate>, C<umask>, C<utime>,
+C<wait>, C<waitpid>
+
+For more information about the portability of these functions, see
+L<perlport> and other available platform-specific documentation.
+
 =head2 Alphabetical Listing of Perl Functions
 
 =over 8
@@ -210,12 +248,14 @@ C<dbmclose>, C<dbmopen>
 A file test, where X is one of the letters listed below.  This unary
 operator takes one argument, either a filename or a filehandle, and
 tests the associated file to see if something is true about it.  If the
-argument is omitted, tests $_, except for C<-t>, which tests STDIN.
+argument is omitted, tests C<$_>, except for C<-t>, which tests STDIN.
 Unless otherwise documented, it returns C<1> for TRUE and C<''> for FALSE, or
 the undefined value if the file doesn't exist.  Despite the funny
 names, precedence is the same as any other named unary operator, and
 the argument may be parenthesized like any other unary operator.  The
 operator may be any of:
+X<-r>X<-w>X<-x>X<-o>X<-R>X<-W>X<-X>X<-O>X<-e>X<-z>X<-s>X<-f>X<-d>X<-l>X<-p>
+X<-S>X<-b>X<-c>X<-t>X<-u>X<-g>X<-k>X<-T>X<-B>X<-M>X<-A>X<-C>
 
     -r	File is readable by effective uid/gid.
     -w	File is writable by effective uid/gid.
@@ -234,7 +274,7 @@ operator may be any of:
     -f	File is a plain file.
     -d	File is a directory.
     -l	File is a symbolic link.
-    -p	File is a named pipe (FIFO).
+    -p	File is a named pipe (FIFO), or Filehandle is a pipe.
     -S	File is a socket.
     -b	File is a block special file.
     -c	File is a character special file.
@@ -251,30 +291,46 @@ operator may be any of:
     -A	Same for access time.
     -C	Same for inode change time.
 
-The interpretation of the file permission operators C<-r>, C<-R>, C<-w>,
-C<-W>, C<-x>, and C<-X> is based solely on the mode of the file and the
-uids and gids of the user.  There may be other reasons you can't actually
-read, write or execute the file.  Also note that, for the superuser,
-C<-r>, C<-R>, C<-w>, and C<-W> always return 1, and C<-x> and C<-X> return
-1 if any execute bit is set in the mode.  Scripts run by the superuser may
-thus need to do a stat() to determine the actual mode of the
-file, or temporarily set the uid to something else.
-
 Example:
 
     while (<>) {
 	chop;
 	next unless -f $_;	# ignore specials
-	...
+	#...
     }
 
+The interpretation of the file permission operators C<-r>, C<-R>,
+C<-w>, C<-W>, C<-x>, and C<-X> is by default based solely on the mode
+of the file and the uids and gids of the user.  There may be other
+reasons you can't actually read, write, or execute the file.  Such
+reasons may be for example network filesystem access controls, ACLs
+(access control lists), read-only filesystems, and unrecognized
+executable formats.
+
+Also note that, for the superuser on the local filesystems, C<-r>,
+C<-R>, C<-w>, and C<-W> always return 1, and C<-x> and C<-X> return 1
+if any execute bit is set in the mode.  Scripts run by the superuser
+may thus need to do a stat() to determine the actual mode of the file,
+or temporarily set the uid to something else.
+
+If you are using ACLs, there is a pragma called C<filetest> that may
+produce more accurate results than the bare stat() mode bits.
+
+When under the C<use filetest 'access'> the above-mentioned filetests
+will test whether the permission can (not) be granted using the
+access() family of system calls.  Also note that the C<-x> and C<-X> may
+under this pragma return true even if there are no execute permission
+bits set (nor any extra execute permission ACLs).  This strangeness is
+due to the underlying system calls' definitions.  Read the
+documentation for the C<filetest> pragma for more information.
+
 Note that C<-s/a/b/> does not do a negated substitution.  Saying
 C<-exp($foo)> still works as expected, however--only single letters
 following a minus are interpreted as file tests.
 
 The C<-T> and C<-B> switches work as follows.  The first block or so of the
 file is examined for odd characters such as strange control codes or
-characters with the high bit set.  If too many odd characters (E<gt>30%)
+characters with the high bit set.  If too many strange characters (E<gt>30%)
 are found, it's a C<-B> file, otherwise it's a C<-T> file.  Also, any file
 containing null in the first block is considered a binary file.  If C<-T>
 or C<-B> is used on a filehandle, the current stdio buffer is examined
@@ -283,7 +339,7 @@ file, or a file at EOF when testing a filehandle.  Because you have to
 read a file to do the C<-T> test, on most occasions you want to use a C<-f>
 against the file first, as in C<next unless -f $file && -T $file>.
 
-If any of the file tests (or either the stat() or lstat() operators) are given
+If any of the file tests (or either the C<stat()> or C<lstat()> operators) are given
 the special filehandle consisting of a solitary underline, then the stat
 structure of the previous file test (or stat operator) is used, saving
 a system call.  (This doesn't work with C<-t>, and you need to remember
@@ -307,7 +363,7 @@ symbolic link, not the real file.)  Example:
 =item abs
 
 Returns the absolute value of its argument.
-If VALUE is omitted, uses $_.
+If VALUE is omitted, uses C<$_>.
 
 =item accept NEWSOCKET,GENERICSOCKET
 
@@ -321,32 +377,33 @@ See example in L<perlipc/"Sockets: Client/Server Communication">.
 
 Arranges to have a SIGALRM delivered to this process after the
 specified number of seconds have elapsed.  If SECONDS is not specified,
-the value stored in $_ is used. (On some machines,
+the value stored in C<$_> is used. (On some machines,
 unfortunately, the elapsed time may be up to one second less than you
 specified because of how seconds are counted.)  Only one timer may be
 counting at once.  Each call disables the previous timer, and an
-argument of 0 may be supplied to cancel the previous timer without
+argument of C<0> may be supplied to cancel the previous timer without
 starting a new one.  The returned value is the amount of time remaining
 on the previous timer.
 
 For delays of finer granularity than one second, you may use Perl's
-syscall() interface to access setitimer(2) if your system supports it,
-or else see L</select()>.  It is usually a mistake to intermix alarm()
-and sleep() calls.
+C<syscall()> interface to access setitimer(2) if your system supports it,
+or else see L</select()>.  It is usually a mistake to intermix C<alarm()>
+and C<sleep()> calls.
 
-If you want to use alarm() to time out a system call you need to use an
-eval/die pair.  You can't rely on the alarm causing the system call to
-fail with $! set to EINTR because Perl sets up signal handlers to
-restart system calls on some systems.  Using eval/die always works.
+If you want to use C<alarm()> to time out a system call you need to use an
+C<eval()>/C<die()> pair.  You can't rely on the alarm causing the system call to
+fail with C<$!> set to C<EINTR> because Perl sets up signal handlers to
+restart system calls on some systems.  Using C<eval()>/C<die()> always works,
+modulo the caveats given in L<perlipc/"Signals">.
 
     eval {
-	local $SIG{ALRM} = sub { die "alarm\n" };	# NB \n required
+	local $SIG{ALRM} = sub { die "alarm\n" }; # NB: \n required
 	alarm $timeout;
 	$nread = sysread SOCKET, $buffer, $size;
 	alarm 0;
     };
-    die if $@ && $@ ne "alarm\n";	# propagate errors
     if ($@) {
+	die unless $@ eq "alarm\n";   # propagate unexpected errors
     	# timed out
     }
     else {
@@ -357,7 +414,7 @@ restart system calls on some systems.  Using eval/die always works.
 
 Returns the arctangent of Y/X in the range -PI to PI.
 
-For the tangent operation, you may use the POSIX::tan()
+For the tangent operation, you may use the C<POSIX::tan()>
 function, or use the familiar relation:
 
     sub tan { sin($_[0]) / cos($_[0])  }
@@ -377,10 +434,10 @@ not in binary mode have CR LF sequences translated to LF on input and LF
 translated to CR LF on output.  Binmode has no effect under Unix; in MS-DOS
 and similarly archaic systems, it may be imperative--otherwise your
 MS-DOS-damaged C library may mangle your file.  The key distinction between
-systems that need binmode and those that don't is their text file
-formats.  Systems like Unix and Plan9 that delimit lines with a single
-character, and that encode that character in C as '\n', do not need
-C<binmode>.  The rest need it.  If FILEHANDLE is an expression, the value
+systems that need C<binmode()> and those that don't is their text file
+formats.  Systems like Unix, MacOS, and Plan9 that delimit lines with a single
+character, and that encode that character in C as C<"\n">, do not need
+C<binmode()>.  The rest need it.  If FILEHANDLE is an expression, the value
 is taken as the name of the filehandle.
 
 =item bless REF,CLASSNAME
@@ -390,19 +447,26 @@ is taken as the name of the filehandle.
 This function tells the thingy referenced by REF that it is now
 an object in the CLASSNAME package--or the current package if no CLASSNAME
 is specified, which is often the case.  It returns the reference for
-convenience, because a bless() is often the last thing in a constructor.
+convenience, because a C<bless()> is often the last thing in a constructor.
 Always use the two-argument version if the function doing the blessing
-might be inherited by a derived class.  See L<perlobj> for more about the
-blessing (and blessings) of objects.
+might be inherited by a derived class.  See L<perltoot> and L<perlobj>
+for more about the blessing (and blessings) of objects.
+
+Consider always blessing objects in CLASSNAMEs that are mixed case.
+Namespaces with all lowercase names are considered reserved for Perl
+pragmata.  Builtin types have all uppercase names, so to prevent confusion,
+it is best to avoid such package names as well.
+
+See L<perlmod/"Perl Modules">.
 
 =item caller EXPR
 
 =item caller
 
-Returns the context of the current subroutine call.  In a scalar context,
+Returns the context of the current subroutine call.  In scalar context,
 returns the caller's package name if there is a caller, that is, if
-we're in a subroutine or eval() or require(), and the undefined value
-otherwise.  In a list context, returns
+we're in a subroutine or C<eval()> or C<require()>, and the undefined value
+otherwise.  In list context, returns
 
     ($package, $filename, $line) = caller;
 
@@ -413,24 +477,30 @@ to go back before the current one.
     ($package, $filename, $line, $subroutine,
      $hasargs, $wantarray, $evaltext, $is_require) = caller($i);
 
-Here $subroutine may be C<"(eval)"> if the frame is not a subroutine
-call, but an C<eval>.  In such a case additional elements $evaltext and
-$is_require are set: $is_require is true if the frame is created by a
-C<require> or C<use> statement, $evaltext contains the text of the
+Here C<$subroutine> may be C<"(eval)"> if the frame is not a subroutine
+call, but an C<eval()>.  In such a case additional elements C<$evaltext> and
+C<$is_require> are set: C<$is_require> is true if the frame is created by a
+C<require> or C<use> statement, C<$evaltext> contains the text of the
 C<eval EXPR> statement.  In particular, for a C<eval BLOCK> statement,
-$filename is C<"(eval)">, but $evaltext is undefined.  (Note also that
+C<$filename> is C<"(eval)">, but C<$evaltext> is undefined.  (Note also that
 each C<use> statement creates a C<require> frame inside an C<eval EXPR>)
 frame.
 
 Furthermore, when called from within the DB package, caller returns more
-detailed information: it sets the list variable @DB::args to be the
+detailed information: it sets the list variable C<@DB::args> to be the
 arguments with which the subroutine was invoked.
 
+Be aware that the optimizer might have optimized call frames away before
+C<caller()> had a chance to get the information. That means that C<caller(N)>
+might not return information about the call frame you expect it do, for
+C<N E<gt> 1>. In particular, C<@DB::args> might have information from the 
+previous time C<caller()> was called.
+
 =item chdir EXPR
 
 Changes the working directory to EXPR, if possible.  If EXPR is
 omitted, changes to home directory.  Returns TRUE upon success, FALSE
-otherwise.  See example under die().
+otherwise.  See example under C<die()>.
 
 =item chmod LIST
 
@@ -442,7 +512,8 @@ successfully changed.  See also L</oct>, if all you have is a string.
 
     $cnt = chmod 0755, 'foo', 'bar';
     chmod 0755, @executables;
-    $mode = '0644'; chmod $mode, 'foo';      # !!! sets mode to --w----r-T
+    $mode = '0644'; chmod $mode, 'foo';      # !!! sets mode to
+                                             # --w----r-T
     $mode = '0644'; chmod oct($mode), 'foo'; # this is better
     $mode = 0644;   chmod $mode, 'foo';      # this is best
 
@@ -459,12 +530,12 @@ number of characters removed from all its arguments.  It's often used to
 remove the newline from the end of an input record when you're worried
 that the final record may be missing its newline.  When in paragraph mode
 (C<$/ = "">), it removes all trailing newlines from the string.  If
-VARIABLE is omitted, it chomps $_.  Example:
+VARIABLE is omitted, it chomps C<$_>.  Example:
 
     while (<>) {
 	chomp;	# avoid \n on last field
 	@array = split(/:/);
-	...
+	# ...
     }
 
 You can actually chomp anything that's an lvalue, including an assignment:
@@ -484,13 +555,13 @@ characters removed is returned.
 Chops off the last character of a string and returns the character
 chopped.  It's used primarily to remove the newline from the end of an
 input record, but is much more efficient than C<s/\n//> because it neither
-scans nor copies the string.  If VARIABLE is omitted, chops $_.
+scans nor copies the string.  If VARIABLE is omitted, chops C<$_>.
 Example:
 
     while (<>) {
 	chop;	# avoid \n on last field
 	@array = split(/:/);
-	...
+	#...
     }
 
 You can actually chop anything that's an lvalue, including an assignment:
@@ -499,9 +570,9 @@ You can actually chop anything that's an lvalue, including an assignment:
     chop($answer = <STDIN>);
 
 If you chop a list, each element is chopped.  Only the value of the
-last chop is returned.
+last C<chop()> is returned.
 
-Note that chop returns the last character.  To return all but the last
+Note that C<chop()> returns the last character.  To return all but the last
 character, use C<substr($string, 0, -1)>.
 
 =item chown LIST
@@ -517,13 +588,13 @@ Here's an example that looks up nonnumeric uids in the passwd file:
 
     print "User: ";
     chop($user = <STDIN>);
-    print "Files: "
+    print "Files: ";
     chop($pattern = <STDIN>);
 
     ($login,$pass,$uid,$gid) = getpwnam($user)
 	or die "$user not in passwd file";
 
-    @ary = <${pattern}>;	# expand filenames
+    @ary = glob($pattern);	# expand filenames
     chown $uid, $gid, @ary;
 
 On most systems, you are not allowed to change the ownership of the
@@ -536,55 +607,66 @@ restrictions may be relaxed, but this is not a portable assumption.
 =item chr
 
 Returns the character represented by that NUMBER in the character set.
-For example, C<chr(65)> is "A" in ASCII.  For the reverse, use L</ord>.
+For example, C<chr(65)> is C<"A"> in either ASCII or Unicode, and
+chr(0x263a) is a Unicode smiley face (but only within the scope of a
+C<use utf8>).  For the reverse, use L</ord>.
 
-If NUMBER is omitted, uses $_.
+If NUMBER is omitted, uses C<$_>.
 
 =item chroot FILENAME
 
 =item chroot
 
-This function works as the system call by the same name: it makes the
+This function works like the system call by the same name: it makes the
 named directory the new root directory for all further pathnames that
-begin with a "/" by your process and all of its children.  (It doesn't
+begin with a C<"/"> by your process and all its children.  (It doesn't
 change your current working directory, which is unaffected.)  For security
 reasons, this call is restricted to the superuser.  If FILENAME is
-omitted, does chroot to $_.
+omitted, does a C<chroot()> to C<$_>.
 
 =item close FILEHANDLE
 
+=item close
+
 Closes the file or pipe associated with the file handle, returning TRUE
 only if stdio successfully flushes buffers and closes the system file
-descriptor.
+descriptor. Closes the currently selected filehandle if the argument
+is omitted.
 
 You don't have to close FILEHANDLE if you are immediately going to do
-another open() on it, because open() will close it for you.  (See
-open().)  However, an explicit close on an input file resets the line
-counter ($.), while the implicit close done by open() does not.
+another C<open()> on it, because C<open()> will close it for you.  (See
+C<open()>.)  However, an explicit C<close()> on an input file resets the line
+counter (C<$.>), while the implicit close done by C<open()> does not.
 
-If the file handle came from a piped open C<close> will additionally
+If the file handle came from a piped open C<close()> will additionally
 return FALSE if one of the other system calls involved fails or if the
 program exits with non-zero status.  (If the only problem was that the
-program exited non-zero $! will be set to 0.) Also, closing a pipe will
-wait for the process executing on the pipe to complete, in case you
+program exited non-zero C<$!> will be set to C<0>.)  Also, closing a pipe 
+waits for the process executing on the pipe to complete, in case you
 want to look at the output of the pipe afterwards.  Closing a pipe
 explicitly also puts the exit status value of the command into C<$?>.
+
 Example:
 
     open(OUTPUT, '|sort >foo')  # pipe to sort
         or die "Can't start sort: $!";
-    ...				# print stuff to output
+    #...			# print stuff to output
     close OUTPUT		# wait for sort to finish
         or warn $! ? "Error closing sort pipe: $!"
                    : "Exit status $? from sort";
     open(INPUT, 'foo')		# get sort's results
         or die "Can't open 'foo' for input: $!";
 
-FILEHANDLE may be an expression whose value gives the real filehandle name.
+FILEHANDLE may be an expression whose value can be used as an indirect
+filehandle, usually the real filehandle name.
 
 =item closedir DIRHANDLE
 
-Closes a directory opened by opendir().
+Closes a directory opened by C<opendir()> and returns the success of that
+system call.
+
+DIRHANDLE may be an expression whose value can be used as an indirect
+dirhandle, usually the real dirhandle name.
 
 =item connect SOCKET,NAME
 
@@ -603,12 +685,31 @@ it can be used to increment a loop variable, even when the loop has been
 continued via the C<next> statement (which is similar to the C C<continue>
 statement).
 
+C<last>, C<next>, or C<redo> may appear within a C<continue>
+block. C<last> and C<redo> will behave as if they had been executed within
+the main block. So will C<next>, but since it will execute a C<continue>
+block, it may be more entertaining.
+
+    while (EXPR) {
+	### redo always comes here
+	do_something;
+    } continue {
+	### next always comes here
+	do_something_else;
+	# then back the top to re-check EXPR
+    }
+    ### last always comes here
+
+Omitting the C<continue> section is semantically equivalent to using an
+empty one, logically enough. In that case, C<next> goes directly back
+to check the condition at the top of the loop.
+
 =item cos EXPR
 
-Returns the cosine of EXPR (expressed in radians).  If EXPR is omitted
-takes cosine of $_.
+Returns the cosine of EXPR (expressed in radians).  If EXPR is omitted,
+takes cosine of C<$_>.
 
-For the inverse cosine operation, you may use the POSIX::acos()
+For the inverse cosine operation, you may use the C<POSIX::acos()>
 function, or use this relation:
 
     sub acos { atan2( sqrt(1 - $_[0] * $_[0]), $_[0] ) }
@@ -621,24 +722,30 @@ extirpated as a potential munition).  This can prove useful for checking
 the password file for lousy passwords, amongst other things.  Only the
 guys wearing white hats should do this.
 
-Note that crypt is intended to be a one-way function, much like breaking
+Note that C<crypt()> is intended to be a one-way function, much like breaking
 eggs to make an omelette.  There is no (known) corresponding decrypt
 function.  As a result, this function isn't all that useful for
 cryptography.  (For that, see your nearby CPAN mirror.)
 
+When verifying an existing encrypted string you should use the encrypted
+text as the salt (like C<crypt($plain, $crypted) eq $crypted>).  This
+allows your code to work with the standard C<crypt()> and with more
+exotic implementations.  When choosing a new salt create a random two
+character string whose characters come from the set C<[./0-9A-Za-z]>
+(like C<join '', ('.', '/', 0..9, 'A'..'Z', 'a'..'z')[rand 64, rand 64]>).
+
 Here's an example that makes sure that whoever runs this program knows
 their own password:
 
     $pwd = (getpwuid($<))[1];
-    $salt = substr($pwd, 0, 2);
 
     system "stty -echo";
     print "Password: ";
-    chop($word = <STDIN>);
+    chomp($word = <STDIN>);
     print "\n";
     system "stty echo";
 
-    if (crypt($word, $salt) ne $pwd) {
+    if (crypt($word, $pwd) ne $pwd) {
 	die "Sorry...\n";
     } else {
 	print "ok\n";
@@ -649,32 +756,32 @@ for it is unwise.
 
 =item dbmclose HASH
 
-[This function has been superseded by the untie() function.]
+[This function has been superseded by the C<untie()> function.]
 
 Breaks the binding between a DBM file and a hash.
 
 =item dbmopen HASH,DBNAME,MODE
 
-[This function has been superseded by the tie() function.]
+[This function has been superseded by the C<tie()> function.]
 
-This binds a dbm(3), ndbm(3), sdbm(3), gdbm(), or Berkeley DB file to a
-hash.  HASH is the name of the hash.  (Unlike normal open, the first
+This binds a dbm(3), ndbm(3), sdbm(3), gdbm(3), or Berkeley DB file to a
+hash.  HASH is the name of the hash.  (Unlike normal C<open()>, the first
 argument is I<NOT> a filehandle, even though it looks like one).  DBNAME
 is the name of the database (without the F<.dir> or F<.pag> extension if
 any).  If the database does not exist, it is created with protection
-specified by MODE (as modified by the umask()).  If your system supports
-only the older DBM functions, you may perform only one dbmopen() in your
+specified by MODE (as modified by the C<umask()>).  If your system supports
+only the older DBM functions, you may perform only one C<dbmopen()> in your
 program.  In older versions of Perl, if your system had neither DBM nor
-ndbm, calling dbmopen() produced a fatal error; it now falls back to
+ndbm, calling C<dbmopen()> produced a fatal error; it now falls back to
 sdbm(3).
 
 If you don't have write access to the DBM file, you can only read hash
 variables, not set them.  If you want to test whether you can write,
-either use file tests or try setting a dummy hash entry inside an eval(),
+either use file tests or try setting a dummy hash entry inside an C<eval()>,
 which will trap the error.
 
-Note that functions such as keys() and values() may return huge array
-values when used on large DBM files.  You may prefer to use the each()
+Note that functions such as C<keys()> and C<values()> may return huge lists
+when used on large DBM files.  You may prefer to use the C<each()>
 function to iterate over large DBM files.  Example:
 
     # print out history file offsets
@@ -700,16 +807,16 @@ Many operations return C<undef> to indicate failure, end of file,
 system error, uninitialized variable, and other exceptional
 conditions.  This function allows you to distinguish C<undef> from
 other values.  (A simple Boolean test will not distinguish among
-C<undef>, zero, the empty string, and "0", which are all equally
+C<undef>, zero, the empty string, and C<"0">, which are all equally
 false.)  Note that since C<undef> is a valid scalar, its presence
-doesn't I<necessarily> indicate an exceptional condition: pop()
+doesn't I<necessarily> indicate an exceptional condition: C<pop()>
 returns C<undef> when its argument is an empty array, I<or> when the
 element to return happens to be C<undef>.
 
-You may also use defined() to check whether a subroutine exists.  On
-the other hand, use of defined() upon aggregates (hashes and arrays)
-is not guaranteed to produce intuitive results, and should probably be
-avoided.
+You may also use C<defined()> to check whether a subroutine exists, by
+saying C<defined &func> without parentheses.  On the other hand, use
+of C<defined()> upon aggregates (hashes and arrays) is not guaranteed to
+produce intuitive results, and should probably be avoided.
 
 When used on a hash element, it tells you whether the value is defined,
 not whether the key exists in the hash.  Use L</exists> for the latter
@@ -724,22 +831,22 @@ Examples:
     sub foo { defined &$bar ? &$bar(@_) : die "No bar"; }
     $debugging = 0 unless defined $debugging;
 
-Note:  Many folks tend to overuse defined(), and then are surprised to
-discover that the number 0 and "" (the zero-length string) are, in fact,
+Note:  Many folks tend to overuse C<defined()>, and then are surprised to
+discover that the number C<0> and C<""> (the zero-length string) are, in fact,
 defined values.  For example, if you say
 
     "ab" =~ /a(.*)b/;
 
-the pattern match succeeds, and $1 is defined, despite the fact that it
+The pattern match succeeds, and C<$1> is defined, despite the fact that it
 matched "nothing".  But it didn't really match nothing--rather, it
-matched something that happened to be 0 characters long.  This is all
+matched something that happened to be C<0> characters long.  This is all
 very above-board and honest.  When a function returns an undefined value,
 it's an admission that it couldn't give you an honest answer.  So you
-should use defined() only when you're questioning the integrity of what
-you're trying to do.  At other times, a simple comparison to 0 or "" is
+should use C<defined()> only when you're questioning the integrity of what
+you're trying to do.  At other times, a simple comparison to C<0> or C<""> is
 what you want.
 
-Currently, using defined() on an entire array or hash reports whether
+Currently, using C<defined()> on an entire array or hash reports whether
 memory for that aggregate has ever been allocated.  So an array you set
 to the empty list appears undefined initially, and one that once was full
 and that you then set to the empty list still appears defined.  You
@@ -748,12 +855,13 @@ should instead use a simple test for size:
     if (@an_array) { print "has array elements\n" }
     if (%a_hash)   { print "has hash members\n"   }
 
-Using undef() on these, however, does clear their memory and then report
-them as not defined anymore, but you shoudln't do that unless you don't
+Using C<undef()> on these, however, does clear their memory and then report
+them as not defined anymore, but you shouldn't do that unless you don't
 plan to use them again, because it saves time when you load them up
-again to have memory already ready to be filled.
+again to have memory already ready to be filled.  The normal way to 
+free up space used by an aggregate is to assign the empty list.
 
-This counterintuitive behaviour of defined() on aggregates may be
+This counterintuitive behavior of C<defined()> on aggregates may be
 changed, fixed, or broken in a future release of Perl.
 
 See also L</undef>, L</exists>, L</ref>.
@@ -764,7 +872,7 @@ Deletes the specified key(s) and their associated values from a hash.
 For each key, returns the deleted value associated with that key, or
 the undefined value if there was no such key.  Deleting from C<$ENV{}>
 modifies the environment.  Deleting from a hash tied to a DBM file
-deletes the entry from the DBM file.  (But deleting from a tie()d hash
+deletes the entry from the DBM file.  (But deleting from a C<tie()>d hash
 doesn't necessarily return anything.)
 
 The following deletes all the values of a hash:
@@ -777,21 +885,21 @@ And so does this:
 
     delete @HASH{keys %HASH}
 
-(But both of these are slower than the undef() command.)  Note that the
-EXPR can be arbitrarily complicated as long as the final operation is a
-hash element lookup or hash slice:
+(But both of these are slower than just assigning the empty list, or
+using C<undef()>.)  Note that the EXPR can be arbitrarily complicated as
+long as the final operation is a hash element lookup or hash slice:
 
     delete $ref->[$x][$y]{$key};
     delete @{$ref->[$x][$y]}{$key1, $key2, @morekeys};
 
 =item die LIST
 
-Outside of an eval(), prints the value of LIST to C<STDERR> and exits with
-the current value of C<$!> (errno).  If C<$!> is 0, exits with the value of
+Outside an C<eval()>, prints the value of LIST to C<STDERR> and exits with
+the current value of C<$!> (errno).  If C<$!> is C<0>, exits with the value of
 C<($? E<gt>E<gt> 8)> (backtick `command` status).  If C<($? E<gt>E<gt> 8)>
-is 0, exits with 255.  Inside an eval(), the error message is stuffed into
-C<$@>, and the eval() is terminated with the undefined value; this makes
-die() the way to raise an exception.
+is C<0>, exits with C<255>.  Inside an C<eval(),> the error message is stuffed into
+C<$@> and the C<eval()> is terminated with the undefined value.  This makes
+C<die()> the way to raise an exception.
 
 Equivalent examples:
 
@@ -800,8 +908,8 @@ Equivalent examples:
 
 If the value of EXPR does not end in a newline, the current script line
 number and input line number (if any) are also printed, and a newline
-is supplied.  Hint: sometimes appending ", stopped" to your message
-will cause it to make better sense when the string "at foo line 123" is
+is supplied.  Hint: sometimes appending C<", stopped"> to your message
+will cause it to make better sense when the string C<"at foo line 123"> is
 appended.  Suppose you are running script "canasta".
 
     die "/etc/games is no good";
@@ -812,21 +920,21 @@ produce, respectively
     /etc/games is no good at canasta line 123.
     /etc/games is no good, stopped at canasta line 123.
 
-See also exit() and warn().
+See also C<exit()> and C<warn()>.
 
-If LIST is empty and $@ already contains a value (typically from a
-previous eval) that value is reused after appending "\t...propagated".
+If LIST is empty and C<$@> already contains a value (typically from a
+previous eval) that value is reused after appending C<"\t...propagated">.
 This is useful for propagating exceptions:
 
     eval { ... };
     die unless $@ =~ /Expected exception/;
 
-If $@ is empty then the string "Died" is used.
+If C<$@> is empty then the string C<"Died"> is used.
 
-You can arrange for a callback to be called just before the die() does
+You can arrange for a callback to be run just before the C<die()> does
 its deed, by setting the C<$SIG{__DIE__}> hook.  The associated handler
 will be called with the error text and can change the error message, if
-it sees fit, by calling die() again.  See L<perlvar/$SIG{expr}> for details on
+it sees fit, by calling C<die()> again.  See L<perlvar/$SIG{expr}> for details on
 setting C<%SIG> entries, and L<"eval BLOCK"> for some examples.
 
 Note that the C<$SIG{__DIE__}> hook is called even inside eval()ed
@@ -844,6 +952,9 @@ sequence of commands indicated by BLOCK.  When modified by a loop
 modifier, executes the BLOCK once before testing the loop condition.
 (On other statements the loop modifiers test the conditional first.)
 
+C<do BLOCK> does I<not> count as a loop, so the loop control statements
+C<next>, C<last> or C<redo> cannot be used to leave or restart the block.
+
 =item do SUBROUTINE(LIST)
 
 A deprecated form of subroutine call.  See L<perlsub>.
@@ -860,7 +971,7 @@ is just like
 
     scalar eval `cat stat.pl`;
 
-except that it's more efficient, more concise, keeps track of the
+except that it's more efficient and concise, keeps track of the
 current filename for error messages, and searches all the B<-I>
 libraries if the file isn't in the current directory (see also the @INC
 array in L<perlvar/Predefined Names>).  It is also different in how
@@ -869,19 +980,40 @@ scope like C<eval STRING> does.  It's the same, however, in that it does
 reparse the file every time you call it, so you probably don't want to
 do this inside a loop.
 
+If C<do> cannot read the file, it returns undef and sets C<$!> to the
+error.    If C<do> can read the file but cannot compile it, it
+returns undef and sets an error message in C<$@>.   If the file is
+successfully compiled, C<do> returns the value of the last expression
+evaluated.
+
 Note that inclusion of library modules is better done with the
-use() and require() operators, which also do error checking
+C<use()> and C<require()> operators, which also do automatic error checking
 and raise an exception if there's a problem.
 
+You might like to use C<do> to read in a program configuration
+file.  Manual error checking can be done this way:
+
+    # read in config files: system first, then user 
+    for $file ("/share/prog/defaults.rc",
+               "$ENV{HOME}/.someprogrc") {
+	unless ($return = do $file) {
+	    warn "couldn't parse $file: $@" if $@;
+	    warn "couldn't do $file: $!"    unless defined $return;
+	    warn "couldn't run $file"       unless $return;
+	}
+    }
+
 =item dump LABEL
 
+=item dump
+
 This causes an immediate core dump.  Primarily this is so that you can
 use the B<undump> program to turn your core dump into an executable binary
 after having initialized all your variables at the beginning of the
 program.  When the new binary is executed it will begin by executing a
 C<goto LABEL> (with all the restrictions that C<goto> suffers).  Think of
-it as a goto with an intervening core dump and reincarnation.  If LABEL
-is omitted, restarts the program from the top.  WARNING: any files
+it as a goto with an intervening core dump and reincarnation.  If C<LABEL>
+is omitted, restarts the program from the top.  WARNING: Any files
 opened at the time of the dump will NOT be open any more when the
 program is reincarnated, with possible resulting confusion on the part
 of Perl.  See also B<-u> option in L<perlrun>.
@@ -906,21 +1038,29 @@ Example:
     QUICKSTART:
     Getopt('f');
 
+This operator is largely obsolete, partly because it's very hard to 
+convert a core file into an executable, and because the real perl-to-C
+compiler has superseded it.
+
 =item each HASH
 
-When called in a list context, returns a 2-element array consisting of the
+When called in list context, returns a 2-element list consisting of the
 key and value for the next element of a hash, so that you can iterate over
-it.  When called in a scalar context, returns the key for only the next
-element in the hash.  (Note: Keys may be "0" or "", which are logically
+it.  When called in scalar context, returns the key for only the "next"
+element in the hash.  (Note: Keys may be C<"0"> or C<"">, which are logically
 false; you may wish to avoid constructs like C<while ($k = each %foo) {}>
 for this reason.)
 
-Entries are returned in an apparently random order.  When the hash is
-entirely read, a null array is returned in list context (which when
-assigned produces a FALSE (0) value), and C<undef> is returned in a
-scalar context.  The next call to each() after that will start iterating
-again.  There is a single iterator for each hash, shared by all each(),
-keys(), and values() function calls in the program; it can be reset by
+Entries are returned in an apparently random order.  The actual random
+order is subject to change in future versions of perl, but it is guaranteed
+to be in the same order as either the C<keys()> or C<values()> function
+would produce on the same (unmodified) hash.
+
+When the hash is entirely read, a null array is returned in list context
+(which when assigned produces a FALSE (C<0>) value), and C<undef> in
+scalar context.  The next call to C<each()> after that will start iterating
+again.  There is a single iterator for each hash, shared by all C<each()>,
+C<keys()>, and C<values()> function calls in the program; it can be reset by
 reading all the elements from the hash, or by evaluating C<keys HASH> or
 C<values HASH>.  If you add or delete elements of a hash while you're
 iterating over it, you may get entries skipped or duplicated, so don't.
@@ -932,7 +1072,7 @@ only in a different order:
 	print "$key=$value\n";
     }
 
-See also keys() and values().
+See also C<keys()>, C<values()> and C<sort()>.
 
 =item eof FILEHANDLE
 
@@ -942,14 +1082,14 @@ See also keys() and values().
 
 Returns 1 if the next read on FILEHANDLE will return end of file, or if
 FILEHANDLE is not open.  FILEHANDLE may be an expression whose value
-gives the real filehandle name.  (Note that this function actually
-reads a character and then ungetc()s it, so it is not very useful in an
+gives the real filehandle.  (Note that this function actually
+reads a character and then C<ungetc()>s it, so isn't very useful in an
 interactive context.)  Do not read from a terminal file (or call
 C<eof(FILEHANDLE)> on it) after end-of-file is reached.  Filetypes such
 as terminals may lose the end-of-file condition if you do.
 
 An C<eof> without an argument uses the last file read as argument.
-Empty parentheses () may be used to indicate the pseudo file formed of
+Using C<eof()> with empty parentheses is very different.  It indicates the pseudo file formed of
 the files listed on the command line, i.e., C<eof()> is reasonable to
 use inside a C<while (E<lt>E<gt>)> loop to detect the end of only the
 last file.  Use C<eof(ARGV)> or eof without the parentheses to test
@@ -957,13 +1097,15 @@ I<EACH> file in a while (E<lt>E<gt>) loop.  Examples:
 
     # reset line numbering on each input file
     while (<>) {
+	next if /^\s*#/;	# skip comments 
 	print "$.\t$_";
-	close(ARGV) if (eof);	# Not eof().
+    } continue {
+	close ARGV  if eof;	# Not eof()!
     }
 
     # insert dashes just before last line of last file
     while (<>) {
-	if (eof()) {
+	if (eof()) {		# check for end of current file
 	    print "--------------\n";
 	    close(ARGV);	# close or break; is needed if we
 				# are reading from the terminal
@@ -972,7 +1114,8 @@ I<EACH> file in a while (E<lt>E<gt>) loop.  Examples:
     }
 
 Practical hint: you almost never need to use C<eof> in Perl, because the
-input operators return undef when they run out of data.
+input operators return false values when they run out of data, or if there
+was an error.
 
 =item eval EXPR
 
@@ -980,7 +1123,7 @@ input operators return undef when they run out of data.
 
 In the first form, the return value of EXPR is parsed and executed as if it
 were a little Perl program.  The value of the expression (which is itself
-determined within a scalar context) is first parsed, and if there are no
+determined within scalar context) is first parsed, and if there weren't any
 errors, executed in the context of the current Perl program, so that any
 variable settings or subroutine and format definitions remain afterwards.
 Note that the value is parsed every time the eval executes.  If EXPR is
@@ -998,21 +1141,21 @@ The final semicolon, if any, may be omitted from the value of EXPR or within
 the BLOCK.
 
 In both forms, the value returned is the value of the last expression
-evaluated inside the mini-program, or a return statement may be used, just
+evaluated inside the mini-program; a return statement may be also used, just
 as with subroutines.  The expression providing the return value is evaluated
-in void, scalar or array context, depending on the context of the eval itself.
+in void, scalar, or list context, depending on the context of the eval itself.
 See L</wantarray> for more on how the evaluation context can be determined.
 
-If there is a syntax error or runtime error, or a die() statement is
-executed, an undefined value is returned by eval(), and C<$@> is set to the
+If there is a syntax error or runtime error, or a C<die()> statement is
+executed, an undefined value is returned by C<eval()>, and C<$@> is set to the
 error message.  If there was no error, C<$@> is guaranteed to be a null
-string.  Beware that using eval() neither silences perl from printing
+string.  Beware that using C<eval()> neither silences perl from printing
 warnings to STDERR, nor does it stuff the text of warning messages into C<$@>.
 To do either of those, you have to use the C<$SIG{__WARN__}> facility.  See
 L</warn> and L<perlvar>.
 
-Note that, because eval() traps otherwise-fatal errors, it is useful for
-determining whether a particular feature (such as socket() or symlink())
+Note that, because C<eval()> traps otherwise-fatal errors, it is useful for
+determining whether a particular feature (such as C<socket()> or C<symlink()>)
 is implemented.  It is also Perl's exception trapping mechanism, where
 the die operator is used to raise exceptions.
 
@@ -1028,30 +1171,32 @@ Examples:
     eval '$answer = $a / $b'; warn $@ if $@;
 
     # a compile-time error
-    eval { $answer = };
+    eval { $answer = };			# WRONG
 
     # a run-time error
     eval '$answer =';	# sets $@
 
-When using the eval{} form as an exception trap in libraries, you may
+When using the C<eval{}> form as an exception trap in libraries, you may
 wish not to trigger any C<__DIE__> hooks that user code may have
 installed.  You can use the C<local $SIG{__DIE__}> construct for this
 purpose, as shown in this example:
 
     # a very private exception trap for divide-by-zero
-    eval { local $SIG{'__DIE__'}; $answer = $a / $b; }; warn $@ if $@;
+    eval { local $SIG{'__DIE__'}; $answer = $a / $b; };
+    warn $@ if $@;
 
 This is especially significant, given that C<__DIE__> hooks can call
-die() again, which has the effect of changing their error messages:
+C<die()> again, which has the effect of changing their error messages:
 
     # __DIE__ hooks may modify error messages
     {
-       local $SIG{'__DIE__'} = sub { (my $x = $_[0]) =~ s/foo/bar/g; die $x };
+       local $SIG{'__DIE__'} =
+              sub { (my $x = $_[0]) =~ s/foo/bar/g; die $x };
        eval { die "foo lives here" };
        print $@ if $@;                # prints "bar lives here"
     }
 
-With an eval(), you should be especially careful to remember what's
+With an C<eval()>, you should be especially careful to remember what's
 being looked at when:
 
     eval $x;		# CASE 1
@@ -1060,13 +1205,13 @@ being looked at when:
     eval '$x';		# CASE 3
     eval { $x };	# CASE 4
 
-    eval "\$$x++"	# CASE 5
+    eval "\$$x++";	# CASE 5
     $$x++;		# CASE 6
 
 Cases 1 and 2 above behave identically: they run the code contained in
-the variable $x.  (Although case 2 has misleading double quotes making
+the variable C<$x>.  (Although case 2 has misleading double quotes making
 the reader wonder what else might be happening (nothing is).)  Cases 3
-and 4 likewise behave in the same way: they run the code '$x', which
+and 4 likewise behave in the same way: they run the code C<'$x'>, which
 does nothing but return the value of C<$x>.  (Case 4 is preferred for
 purely visual reasons, but it also has the advantage of compiling at
 compile-time instead of at run-time.)  Case 5 is a place where
@@ -1074,25 +1219,38 @@ normally you I<WOULD> like to use double quotes, except that in this
 particular situation, you can just use symbolic references instead, as
 in case 6.
 
+C<eval BLOCK> does I<not> count as a loop, so the loop control statements
+C<next>, C<last> or C<redo> cannot be used to leave or restart the block.
+
+
 =item exec LIST
 
 =item exec PROGRAM LIST
 
-The exec() function executes a system command I<AND NEVER RETURNS> -
-use system() instead of exec() if you want it to return. It fails and
+The C<exec()> function executes a system command I<AND NEVER RETURNS> -
+use C<system()> instead of C<exec()> if you want it to return. It fails and
 returns FALSE only if the command does not exist I<and> it is executed
 directly instead of via your system's command shell (see below).
 
-If there is more than one argument in LIST, or if LIST is an array with
-more than one value, calls execvp(3) with the arguments in LIST.  If
-there is only one scalar argument, the argument is checked for shell
-metacharacters, and if there are any, the entire argument is passed to
-the system's command shell for parsing (this is C</bin/sh -c> on Unix
-platforms, but varies on other platforms).  If there are no shell
-metacharacters in the argument, it is split into words and passed
-directly to execvp(), which is more efficient.  Note: exec() and
-system() do not flush your output buffer, so you may need to set C<$|>
-to avoid lost output.  Examples:
+Since it's a common mistake to use C<exec()> instead of C<system()>, Perl
+warns you if there is a following statement which isn't C<die()>, C<warn()>,
+or C<exit()> (if C<-w> is set  -  but you always do that).   If you
+I<really> want to follow an C<exec()> with some other statement, you
+can use one of these styles to avoid the warning:
+
+    exec ('foo')   or print STDERR "couldn't exec foo: $!";
+    { exec ('foo') }; print STDERR "couldn't exec foo: $!";
+
+If there is more than one argument in LIST, or if LIST is an array
+with more than one value, calls execvp(3) with the arguments in LIST.
+If there is only one scalar argument or an array with one element in it,
+the argument is checked for shell metacharacters, and if there are any,
+the entire argument is passed to the system's command shell for parsing
+(this is C</bin/sh -c> on Unix platforms, but varies on other platforms).
+If there are no shell metacharacters in the argument, it is split into
+words and passed directly to C<execvp()>, which is more efficient.  Note:
+C<exec()> and C<system()> do not flush your output buffer, so you may need to
+set C<$|> to avoid lost output.  Examples:
 
     exec '/bin/echo', 'Your arguments are: ', @ARGV;
     exec "sort $outfile | uniq";
@@ -1115,6 +1273,25 @@ When the arguments get executed via the system shell, results will
 be subject to its quirks and capabilities.  See L<perlop/"`STRING`">
 for details.
 
+Using an indirect object with C<exec()> or C<system()> is also more secure.
+This usage forces interpretation of the arguments as a multivalued list,
+even if the list had just one argument.  That way you're safe from the
+shell expanding wildcards or splitting up words with whitespace in them.
+
+    @args = ( "echo surprise" );
+
+    system @args;               # subject to shell escapes
+                                # if @args == 1
+    system { $args[0] } @args;  # safe even with one-arg list
+
+The first version, the one without the indirect object, ran the I<echo>
+program, passing it C<"surprise"> an argument.  The second version
+didn't--it tried to run a program literally called I<"echo surprise">,
+didn't find it, and set C<$?> to a non-zero value indicating failure.
+
+Note that C<exec()> will not call your C<END> blocks, nor will it call
+any C<DESTROY> methods in your objects.
+
 =item exists EXPR
 
 Returns TRUE if the specified hash key exists in its hash array, even
@@ -1130,7 +1307,13 @@ it exists, but the reverse doesn't necessarily hold true.
 Note that the EXPR can be arbitrarily complicated as long as the final
 operation is a hash key lookup:
 
-    if (exists $ref->[$x][$y]{$key}) { ... }
+    if (exists $ref->{"A"}{"B"}{$key}) { ... }
+
+Although the last element will not spring into existence just because its
+existence was tested, intervening ones will.  Thus C<$ref-E<gt>{"A"}>
+C<$ref-E<gt>{"B"}> will spring into existence due to the existence
+test for a $key element.  This autovivification may be fixed in a later
+release.
 
 =item exit EXPR
 
@@ -1142,14 +1325,16 @@ are called before exit.)  Example:
     $ans = <STDIN>;
     exit 0 if $ans =~ /^[Xx]/;
 
-See also die().  If EXPR is omitted, exits with 0 status.  The only
-universally portable values for EXPR are 0 for success and 1 for error;
+See also C<die()>.  If EXPR is omitted, exits with C<0> status.  The only
+universally portable values for EXPR are C<0> for success and C<1> for error;
 all other values are subject to unpredictable interpretation depending
 on the environment in which the Perl program is running.
 
-You shouldn't use exit() to abort a subroutine if there's any chance that
-someone might want to trap whatever error happened.  Use die() instead,
-which can be trapped by an eval().
+You shouldn't use C<exit()> to abort a subroutine if there's any chance that
+someone might want to trap whatever error happened.  Use C<die()> instead,
+which can be trapped by an C<eval()>.
+
+All C<END{}> blocks are run at exit time.  See L<perlsub> for details.
 
 =item exp EXPR
 
@@ -1164,33 +1349,52 @@ Implements the fcntl(2) function.  You'll probably have to say
 
     use Fcntl;
 
-first to get the correct function definitions.  Argument processing and
-value return works just like ioctl() below.  Note that fcntl() will produce
-a fatal error if used on a machine that doesn't implement fcntl(2).
+first to get the correct constant definitions.  Argument processing and
+value return works just like C<ioctl()> below.  
 For example:
 
     use Fcntl;
-    fcntl($filehandle, F_GETLK, $packed_return_buffer);
+    fcntl($filehandle, F_GETFL, $packed_return_buffer)
+	or die "can't fcntl F_GETFL: $!";
+
+You don't have to check for C<defined()> on the return from 
+C<fnctl()>.  Like C<ioctl()>, it maps a C<0> return from the system
+call into "C<0> but true" in Perl.  This string is true in 
+boolean context and C<0> in numeric context.  It is also 
+exempt from the normal B<-w> warnings on improper numeric
+conversions.
+
+Note that C<fcntl()> will produce a fatal error if used on a machine that
+doesn't implement fcntl(2).
 
 =item fileno FILEHANDLE
 
 Returns the file descriptor for a filehandle.  This is useful for
-constructing bitmaps for select().  If FILEHANDLE is an expression, the
-value is taken as the name of the filehandle.
+constructing bitmaps for C<select()> and low-level POSIX tty-handling
+operations.  If FILEHANDLE is an expression, the value is taken as 
+an indirect filehandle, generally its name. 
+
+You can use this to find out whether two handles refer to the 
+same underlying descriptor:
+
+    if (fileno(THIS) == fileno(THAT)) {
+	print "THIS and THAT are dups\n";
+    } 
 
 =item flock FILEHANDLE,OPERATION
 
 Calls flock(2), or an emulation of it, on FILEHANDLE.  Returns TRUE for
 success, FALSE on failure.  Produces a fatal error if used on a machine
-that doesn't implement flock(2), fcntl(2) locking, or lockf(3).  flock()
+that doesn't implement flock(2), fcntl(2) locking, or lockf(3).  C<flock()>
 is Perl's portable file locking interface, although it locks only entire
 files, not records.
 
 On many platforms (including most versions or clones of Unix), locks
-established by flock() are B<merely advisory>.  This means that files
-locked with flock() may be modified by programs which do not also use
-flock().  Windows NT and OS/2, however, are among the platforms which
-supply mandatory locking.  See your local documentation for details.
+established by C<flock()> are B<merely advisory>.  Such discretionary locks
+are more flexible, but offer fewer guarantees.  This means that files
+locked with C<flock()> may be modified by programs that do not also use
+C<flock()>.  Windows NT and OS/2 are among the platforms which
+enforce mandatory locking.  See your local documentation for details.
 
 OPERATION is one of LOCK_SH, LOCK_EX, or LOCK_UN, possibly combined with
 LOCK_NB.  These constants are traditionally valued 1, 2, 8 and 4, but
@@ -1198,7 +1402,7 @@ you can use the symbolic names if import them from the Fcntl module,
 either individually, or as a group using the ':flock' tag.  LOCK_SH
 requests a shared lock, LOCK_EX requests an exclusive lock, and LOCK_UN
 releases a previously requested lock.  If LOCK_NB is added to LOCK_SH or
-LOCK_EX then flock() will return immediately rather than blocking
+LOCK_EX then C<flock()> will return immediately rather than blocking
 waiting for the lock (check the return status to see if you got it).
 
 To avoid the possibility of mis-coordination, Perl flushes FILEHANDLE
@@ -1210,8 +1414,8 @@ are the semantics that lockf(3) implements.  Most (all?) systems
 implement lockf(3) in terms of fcntl(2) locking, though, so the
 differing semantics shouldn't bite too many people.
 
-Note also that some versions of flock() cannot lock things over the
-network; you would need to use the more system-specific fcntl() for
+Note also that some versions of C<flock()> cannot lock things over the
+network; you would need to use the more system-specific C<fcntl()> for
 that.  If you like you can force Perl to ignore your system's flock(2)
 function, and so provide its own fcntl(2)-based emulation, by passing
 the switch C<-Ud_flock> to the F<Configure> program when you configure
@@ -1243,19 +1447,20 @@ See also L<DB_File> for other flock() examples.
 
 =item fork
 
-Does a fork(2) system call.  Returns the child pid to the parent process
-and 0 to the child process, or C<undef> if the fork is unsuccessful.
+Does a fork(2) system call.  Returns the child pid to the parent process,
+C<0> to the child process, or C<undef> if the fork is unsuccessful.
+
 Note: unflushed buffers remain unflushed in both processes, which means
-you may need to set C<$|> ($AUTOFLUSH in English) or call the autoflush()
-method of IO::Handle to avoid duplicate output.
+you may need to set C<$|> ($AUTOFLUSH in English) or call the C<autoflush()>
+method of C<IO::Handle> to avoid duplicate output.
 
-If you fork() without ever waiting on your children, you will accumulate
+If you C<fork()> without ever waiting on your children, you will accumulate
 zombies:
 
     $SIG{CHLD} = sub { wait };
 
 There's also the double-fork trick (error checking on
-fork() returns omitted);
+C<fork()> returns omitted);
 
     unless ($pid = fork) {
 	unless (fork) {
@@ -1274,12 +1479,12 @@ moribund children.
 
 Note that if your forked child inherits system file descriptors like
 STDIN and STDOUT that are actually connected by a pipe or socket, even
-if you exit, the remote server (such as, say, httpd or rsh) won't think
-you're done.  You should reopen those to /dev/null if it's any issue.
+if you exit, then the remote server (such as, say, httpd or rsh) won't think
+you're done.  You should reopen those to F</dev/null> if it's any issue.
 
 =item format
 
-Declare a picture format with use by the write() function.  For
+Declare a picture format for use by the C<write()> function.  For
 example:
 
     format Something =
@@ -1294,17 +1499,16 @@ example:
 
 See L<perlform> for many details and examples.
 
-
 =item formline PICTURE,LIST
 
-This is an internal function used by C<format>s, though you may call it
+This is an internal function used by C<format>s, though you may call it,
 too.  It formats (see L<perlform>) a list of values according to the
 contents of PICTURE, placing the output into the format output
-accumulator, C<$^A> (or $ACCUMULATOR in English).
-Eventually, when a write() is done, the contents of
+accumulator, C<$^A> (or C<$ACCUMULATOR> in English).
+Eventually, when a C<write()> is done, the contents of
 C<$^A> are written to some filehandle, but you could also read C<$^A>
-yourself and then set C<$^A> back to "".  Note that a format typically
-does one formline() per line of form, but the formline() function itself
+yourself and then set C<$^A> back to C<"">.  Note that a format typically
+does one C<formline()> per line of form, but the C<formline()> function itself
 doesn't care how many newlines are embedded in the PICTURE.  This means
 that the C<~> and C<~~> tokens will treat the entire PICTURE as a single line.
 You may therefore need to use multiple formlines to implement a single
@@ -1312,16 +1516,17 @@ record format, just like the format compiler.
 
 Be careful if you put double quotes around the picture, because an "C<@>"
 character may be taken to mean the beginning of an array name.
-formline() always returns TRUE.  See L<perlform> for other examples.
+C<formline()> always returns TRUE.  See L<perlform> for other examples.
 
 =item getc FILEHANDLE
 
 =item getc
 
 Returns the next character from the input file attached to FILEHANDLE,
-or a null string at end of file.  If FILEHANDLE is omitted, reads from STDIN.
-This is not particularly efficient.  It cannot be used to get unbuffered
-single-characters, however.  For that, try something more like:
+or the undefined value at end of file, or if there was an error.  If
+FILEHANDLE is omitted, reads from STDIN.  This is not particularly
+efficient.  It cannot be used to get unbuffered single-characters,
+however.  For that, try something more like:
 
     if ($BSD_STYLE) {
 	system "stty cbreak </dev/tty >/dev/tty 2>&1";
@@ -1343,20 +1548,21 @@ single-characters, however.  For that, try something more like:
 Determination of whether $BSD_STYLE should be set
 is left as an exercise to the reader.
 
-The POSIX::getattr() function can do this more portably on systems
-alleging POSIX compliance.
+The C<POSIX::getattr()> function can do this more portably on systems
+purporting POSIX compliance.
 See also the C<Term::ReadKey> module from your nearest CPAN site;
-details on CPAN can be found on L<perlmod/CPAN>.
+details on CPAN can be found on L<perlmodlib/CPAN>.
 
 =item getlogin
 
-Returns the current login from F</etc/utmp>, if any.  If null, use
-getpwuid().
+Implements the C library function of the same name, which on most
+systems returns the current login from F</etc/utmp>, if any.  If null,
+use C<getpwuid()>.
 
     $login = getlogin || getpwuid($<) || "Kilroy";
 
-Do not consider getlogin() for authentication: it is not as
-secure as getpwuid().
+Do not consider C<getlogin()> for authentication: it is not as
+secure as C<getpwuid()>.
 
 =item getpeername SOCKET
 
@@ -1371,11 +1577,11 @@ Returns the packed sockaddr address of other end of the SOCKET connection.
 =item getpgrp PID
 
 Returns the current process group for the specified PID.  Use
-a PID of 0 to get the current process group for the
+a PID of C<0> to get the current process group for the
 current process.  Will raise an exception if used on a machine that
 doesn't implement getpgrp(2).  If PID is omitted, returns process
-group of current process.  Note that the POSIX version of getpgrp()
-does not accept a PID argument, so only PID==0 is truly portable.
+group of current process.  Note that the POSIX version of C<getpgrp()>
+does not accept a PID argument, so only C<PID==0> is truly portable.
 
 =item getppid
 
@@ -1448,7 +1654,7 @@ machine that doesn't implement getpriority(2).
 =item endservent
 
 These routines perform the same functions as their counterparts in the
-system library.  Within a list context, the return values from the
+system library.  In list context, the return values from the
 various get routines are as follows:
 
     ($name,$passwd,$uid,$gid,
@@ -1461,46 +1667,60 @@ various get routines are as follows:
 
 (If the entry doesn't exist you get a null list.)
 
-Within a scalar context, you get the name, unless the function was a
+In scalar context, you get the name, unless the function was a
 lookup by name, in which case you get the other thing, whatever it is.
 (If the entry doesn't exist you get the undefined value.)  For example:
 
-    $uid = getpwnam
-    $name = getpwuid
-    $name = getpwent
-    $gid = getgrnam
-    $name = getgrgid
-    $name = getgrent
-    etc.
+    $uid   = getpwnam($name);
+    $name  = getpwuid($num);
+    $name  = getpwent();
+    $gid   = getgrnam($name);
+    $name  = getgrgid($num;
+    $name  = getgrent();
+    #etc.
 
-In I<getpw*()> the fields $quota, $comment, and $expire are special
+In I<getpw*()> the fields C<$quota>, C<$comment>, and C<$expire> are special
 cases in the sense that in many systems they are unsupported.  If the
-$quota is unsupported, it is an empty scalar.  If it is supported, it
-usually encodes the disk quota.  If the $comment field is unsupported,
+C<$quota> is unsupported, it is an empty scalar.  If it is supported, it
+usually encodes the disk quota.  If the C<$comment> field is unsupported,
 it is an empty scalar.  If it is supported it usually encodes some
 administrative comment about the user.  In some systems the $quota
-field may be $change or $age, fields that have to do with password
-aging.  In some systems the $comment field may be $class.  The $expire
+field may be C<$change> or C<$age>, fields that have to do with password
+aging.  In some systems the C<$comment> field may be C<$class>.  The C<$expire>
 field, if present, encodes the expiration period of the account or the
 password.  For the availability and the exact meaning of these fields
 in your system, please consult your getpwnam(3) documentation and your
-<pwd.h> file.  You can also find out from within Perl which meaning
-your $quota and $comment fields have and whether you have the $expire
-field by using the Config module and the values d_pwquota, d_pwage,
-d_pwchange, d_pwcomment, and d_pwexpire.
+F<pwd.h> file.  You can also find out from within Perl which meaning
+your C<$quota> and C<$comment> fields have and whether you have the C<$expire>
+field by using the C<Config> module and the values C<d_pwquota>, C<d_pwage>,
+C<d_pwchange>, C<d_pwcomment>, and C<d_pwexpire>.
 
-The $members value returned by I<getgr*()> is a space separated list of
+The C<$members> value returned by I<getgr*()> is a space separated list of
 the login names of the members of the group.
 
 For the I<gethost*()> functions, if the C<h_errno> variable is supported in
 C, it will be returned to you via C<$?> if the function call fails.  The
-@addrs value returned by a successful call is a list of the raw
+C<@addrs> value returned by a successful call is a list of the raw
 addresses returned by the corresponding system library call.  In the
 Internet domain, each address is four bytes long and you can unpack it
 by saying something like:
 
     ($a,$b,$c,$d) = unpack('C4',$addr[0]);
 
+If you get tired of remembering which element of the return list contains
+which return value, by-name interfaces are also provided in modules:
+C<File::stat>, C<Net::hostent>, C<Net::netent>, C<Net::protoent>, C<Net::servent>,
+C<Time::gmtime>, C<Time::localtime>, and C<User::grent>.  These override the
+normal built-in, replacing them with versions that return objects with
+the appropriate names for each field.  For example:
+
+   use File::stat;
+   use User::pwent;
+   $is_his = (stat($filename)->uid == pwent($whoever)->uid);
+
+Even though it looks like they're the same method calls (uid), 
+they aren't, because a C<File::stat> object is different from a C<User::pwent> object.
+
 =item getsockname SOCKET
 
 Returns the packed sockaddr address of this end of the SOCKET connection.
@@ -1511,15 +1731,15 @@ Returns the packed sockaddr address of this end of the SOCKET connection.
 
 =item getsockopt SOCKET,LEVEL,OPTNAME
 
-Returns the socket option requested, or undefined if there is an error.
+Returns the socket option requested, or undef if there is an error.
 
 =item glob EXPR
 
 =item glob
 
-Returns the value of EXPR with filename expansions such as a shell would
+Returns the value of EXPR with filename expansions such as the standard Unix shell F</bin/sh> would
 do.  This is the internal function implementing the C<E<lt>*.cE<gt>>
-operator, but you can use it directly.  If EXPR is omitted, $_ is used.
+operator, but you can use it directly.  If EXPR is omitted, C<$_> is used.
 The C<E<lt>*.cE<gt>> operator is discussed in more detail in
 L<perlop/"I/O Operators">.
 
@@ -1534,47 +1754,60 @@ Typically used as follows:
 					    gmtime(time);
 
 All array elements are numeric, and come straight out of a struct tm.
-In particular this means that $mon has the range 0..11 and $wday has
-the range 0..6 with sunday as day 0.  Also, $year is the number of
-years since 1900, I<not> simply the last two digits of the year.
+In particular this means that C<$mon> has the range C<0..11> and C<$wday> has
+the range C<0..6> with sunday as day C<0>.  Also, C<$year> is the number of
+years since 1900, that is, C<$year> is C<123> in year 2023, I<not> simply the last two digits of the year.
 
 If EXPR is omitted, does C<gmtime(time())>.
 
-In a scalar context, returns the ctime(3) value:
+In scalar context, returns the ctime(3) value:
 
     $now_string = gmtime;  # e.g., "Thu Oct 13 04:54:34 1994"
 
-Also see the timegm() function provided by the Time::Local module,
+Also see the C<timegm()> function provided by the C<Time::Local> module,
 and the strftime(3) function available via the POSIX module.
 
+This scalar value is B<not> locale dependent, see L<perllocale>, but
+instead a Perl builtin.  Also see the C<Time::Local> module, and the
+strftime(3) and mktime(3) function available via the POSIX module.  To
+get somewhat similar but locale dependent date strings, set up your
+locale environment variables appropriately (please see L<perllocale>)
+and try for example:
+
+    use POSIX qw(strftime);
+	$now_string = strftime "%a %b %e %H:%M:%S %Y", gmtime;
+
+Note that the C<%a> and C<%b>, the short forms of the day of the week
+and the month of the year, may not necessarily be three characters wide.
+
 =item goto LABEL
 
 =item goto EXPR
 
 =item goto &NAME
 
-The goto-LABEL form finds the statement labeled with LABEL and resumes
+The C<goto-LABEL> form finds the statement labeled with LABEL and resumes
 execution there.  It may not be used to go into any construct that
-requires initialization, such as a subroutine or a foreach loop.  It
+requires initialization, such as a subroutine or a C<foreach> loop.  It
 also can't be used to go into a construct that is optimized away,
-or to get out of a block or subroutine given to sort().
+or to get out of a block or subroutine given to C<sort()>.
 It can be used to go almost anywhere else within the dynamic scope,
 including out of subroutines, but it's usually better to use some other
-construct such as last or die.  The author of Perl has never felt the
-need to use this form of goto (in Perl, that is--C is another matter).
+construct such as C<last> or C<die()>.  The author of Perl has never felt the
+need to use this form of C<goto> (in Perl, that is--C is another matter).
 
-The goto-EXPR form expects a label name, whose scope will be resolved
-dynamically.  This allows for computed gotos per FORTRAN, but isn't
+The C<goto-EXPR> form expects a label name, whose scope will be resolved
+dynamically.  This allows for computed C<goto>s per FORTRAN, but isn't
 necessarily recommended if you're optimizing for maintainability:
 
     goto ("FOO", "BAR", "GLARCH")[$i];
 
-The goto-&NAME form is highly magical, and substitutes a call to the
+The C<goto-&NAME> form is highly magical, and substitutes a call to the
 named subroutine for the currently running subroutine.  This is used by
-AUTOLOAD subroutines that wish to load another subroutine and then
+C<AUTOLOAD> subroutines that wish to load another subroutine and then
 pretend that the other subroutine had been called in the first place
-(except that any modifications to @_ in the current subroutine are
-propagated to the other subroutine.)  After the goto, not even caller()
+(except that any modifications to C<@_> in the current subroutine are
+propagated to the other subroutine.)  After the C<goto>, not even C<caller()>
 will be able to tell that this routine was called first.
 
 =item grep BLOCK LIST
@@ -1586,7 +1819,7 @@ and its relatives.  In particular, it is not limited to using
 regular expressions.
 
 Evaluates the BLOCK or EXPR for each element of LIST (locally setting
-$_ to each element) and returns the list value consisting of those
+C<$_> to each element) and returns the list value consisting of those
 elements for which the expression evaluated to TRUE.  In a scalar
 context, returns the number of times the expression was TRUE.
 
@@ -1596,13 +1829,13 @@ or equivalently,
 
     @foo = grep {!/^#/} @bar;    # weed out comments
 
-Note that, because $_ is a reference into the list value, it can be used
+Note that, because C<$_> is a reference into the list value, it can be used
 to modify the elements of the array.  While this is useful and
 supported, it can cause bizarre results if the LIST is not a named
 array.  Similarly, grep returns aliases into the original list,
-much like the way that L<Foreach Loops>'s index variable aliases the list
+much like the way that a for loop's index variable aliases the list
 elements.  That is, modifying an element of a list returned by grep
-(for example, in a C<foreach>, C<map> or another C<grep>)
+(for example, in a C<foreach>, C<map()> or another C<grep()>)
 actually modifies the element in the original list.
 
 See also L</map> for an array composed of the results of the BLOCK or EXPR.
@@ -1613,16 +1846,16 @@ See also L</map> for an array composed of the results of the BLOCK or EXPR.
 
 Interprets EXPR as a hex string and returns the corresponding
 value.  (To convert strings that might start with either 0 or 0x
-see L</oct>.)  If EXPR is omitted, uses $_.
+see L</oct>.)  If EXPR is omitted, uses C<$_>.
 
     print hex '0xAf'; # prints '175'
     print hex 'aF';   # same
 
 =item import
 
-There is no builtin import() function.  It is merely an ordinary
+There is no builtin C<import()> function.  It is just an ordinary
 method (subroutine) defined (or inherited) by modules that wish to export
-names to another module.  The use() function calls the import() method
+names to another module.  The C<use()> function calls the C<import()> method
 for the package used.  See also L</use()>, L<perlmod>, and L<Exporter>.
 
 =item index STR,SUBSTR,POSITION
@@ -1631,15 +1864,19 @@ for the package used.  See also L</use()>, L<perlmod>, and L<Exporter>.
 
 Returns the position of the first occurrence of SUBSTR in STR at or after
 POSITION.  If POSITION is omitted, starts searching from the beginning of
-the string.  The return value is based at 0 (or whatever you've set the C<$[>
+the string.  The return value is based at C<0> (or whatever you've set the C<$[>
 variable to--but don't do that).  If the substring is not found, returns
-one less than the base, ordinarily -1.
+one less than the base, ordinarily C<-1>.
 
 =item int EXPR
 
 =item int
 
-Returns the integer portion of EXPR.  If EXPR is omitted, uses $_.
+Returns the integer portion of EXPR.  If EXPR is omitted, uses C<$_>.
+You should not use this for rounding, because it truncates
+towards C<0>, and because machine representations of floating point
+numbers can sometimes produce counterintuitive results.  Usually C<sprintf()> or C<printf()>,
+or the C<POSIX::floor> or C<POSIX::ceil> functions, would serve you better.
 
 =item ioctl FILEHANDLE,FUNCTION,SCALAR
 
@@ -1650,15 +1887,15 @@ Implements the ioctl(2) function.  You'll probably have to say
 first to get the correct function definitions.  If F<ioctl.ph> doesn't
 exist or doesn't have the correct definitions you'll have to roll your
 own, based on your C header files such as F<E<lt>sys/ioctl.hE<gt>>.
-(There is a Perl script called B<h2ph> that comes with the Perl kit which
+(There is a Perl script called B<h2ph> that comes with the Perl kit that
 may help you in this, but it's nontrivial.)  SCALAR will be read and/or
 written depending on the FUNCTION--a pointer to the string value of SCALAR
-will be passed as the third argument of the actual ioctl call.  (If SCALAR
+will be passed as the third argument of the actual C<ioctl()> call.  (If SCALAR
 has no string value but does have a numeric value, that value will be
 passed rather than a pointer to the string value.  To guarantee this to be
-TRUE, add a 0 to the scalar before using it.)  The pack() and unpack()
+TRUE, add a C<0> to the scalar before using it.)  The C<pack()> and C<unpack()>
 functions are useful for manipulating the values of structures used by
-ioctl().  The following example sets the erase character to DEL.
+C<ioctl()>.  The following example sets the erase character to DEL.
 
     require 'ioctl.ph';
     $getp = &TIOCGETP;
@@ -1672,7 +1909,7 @@ ioctl().  The following example sets the erase character to DEL.
 	    || die "Can't ioctl: $!";
     }
 
-The return value of ioctl (and fcntl) is as follows:
+The return value of C<ioctl()> (and C<fcntl()>) is as follows:
 
 	if OS returns:		then Perl returns:
 	    -1	  		  undefined value
@@ -1686,6 +1923,9 @@ system:
     ($retval = ioctl(...)) || ($retval = -1);
     printf "System returned %d\n", $retval;
 
+The special string "C<0> but true" is excempt from B<-w> complaints
+about improper numeric conversions.
+
 =item join EXPR,LIST
 
 Joins the separate strings of LIST into a single string with
@@ -1694,15 +1934,17 @@ Example:
 
     $_ = join(':', $login,$passwd,$uid,$gid,$gcos,$home,$shell);
 
-See L<perlfunc/split>.
+See L</split>.
 
 =item keys HASH
 
-Returns a normal array consisting of all the keys of the named hash.  (In
-a scalar context, returns the number of keys.)  The keys are returned in
-an apparently random order, but it is the same order as either the
-values() or each() function produces (given that the hash has not been
-modified).  As a side effect, it resets HASH's iterator.
+Returns a list consisting of all the keys of the named hash.  (In a
+scalar context, returns the number of keys.)  The keys are returned in
+an apparently random order.  The actual random order is subject to
+change in future versions of perl, but it is guaranteed to be the same
+order as either the C<values()> or C<each()> function produces (given
+that the hash has not been modified).  As a side effect, it resets
+HASH's iterator.
 
 Here is yet another way to print your environment:
 
@@ -1718,27 +1960,30 @@ or how about sorted by key:
 	print $key, '=', $ENV{$key}, "\n";
     }
 
-To sort an array by value, you'll need to use a C<sort> function.
+To sort a hash by value, you'll need to use a C<sort()> function.
 Here's a descending numeric sort of a hash by its values:
 
-    foreach $key (sort { $hash{$b} <=> $hash{$a} } keys %hash)) {
+    foreach $key (sort { $hash{$b} <=> $hash{$a} } keys %hash) {
 	printf "%4d %s\n", $hash{$key}, $key;
     }
 
-As an lvalue C<keys> allows you to increase the number of hash buckets
+As an lvalue C<keys()> allows you to increase the number of hash buckets
 allocated for the given hash.  This can gain you a measure of efficiency if
 you know the hash is going to get big.  (This is similar to pre-extending
 an array by assigning a larger number to $#array.)  If you say
 
     keys %hash = 200;
 
-then C<%hash> will have at least 200 buckets allocated for it.  These
+then C<%hash> will have at least 200 buckets allocated for it--256 of them,
+in fact, since it rounds up to the next power of two.  These
 buckets will be retained even if you do C<%hash = ()>, use C<undef
 %hash> if you want to free the storage while C<%hash> is still in scope.
 You can't shrink the number of buckets allocated for the hash using
-C<keys> in this way (but you needn't worry about doing this by accident,
+C<keys()> in this way (but you needn't worry about doing this by accident,
 as trying has no effect).
 
+See also C<each()>, C<values()> and C<sort()>.
+
 =item kill LIST
 
 Sends a signal to a list of processes.  The first element of
@@ -1765,40 +2010,46 @@ C<continue> block, if any, is not executed:
 
     LINE: while (<STDIN>) {
 	last LINE if /^$/;	# exit when done with header
-	...
+	#...
     }
 
+C<last> cannot be used to exit a block which returns a value such as
+C<eval {}>, C<sub {}> or C<do {}>.
+
+See also L</continue> for an illustration of how C<last>, C<next>, and
+C<redo> work.
+
 =item lc EXPR
 
 =item lc
 
 Returns an lowercased version of EXPR.  This is the internal function
-implementing the \L escape in double-quoted strings.
+implementing the C<\L> escape in double-quoted strings.
 Respects current LC_CTYPE locale if C<use locale> in force.  See L<perllocale>.
 
-If EXPR is omitted, uses $_.
+If EXPR is omitted, uses C<$_>.
 
 =item lcfirst EXPR
 
 =item lcfirst
 
 Returns the value of EXPR with the first character lowercased.  This is
-the internal function implementing the \l escape in double-quoted strings.
+the internal function implementing the C<\l> escape in double-quoted strings.
 Respects current LC_CTYPE locale if C<use locale> in force.  See L<perllocale>.
 
-If EXPR is omitted, uses $_.
+If EXPR is omitted, uses C<$_>.
 
 =item length EXPR
 
 =item length
 
 Returns the length in characters of the value of EXPR.  If EXPR is
-omitted, returns length of $_.
+omitted, returns length of C<$_>.
 
 =item link OLDFILE,NEWFILE
 
-Creates a new filename linked to the old filename.  Returns 1 for
-success, 0 otherwise.
+Creates a new filename linked to the old filename.  Returns TRUE for
+success, FALSE otherwise.
 
 =item listen SOCKET,QUEUESIZE
 
@@ -1807,13 +2058,13 @@ it succeeded, FALSE otherwise.  See example in L<perlipc/"Sockets: Client/Server
 
 =item local EXPR
 
-A local modifies the listed variables to be local to the enclosing block,
-subroutine, C<eval{}>, or C<do>.  If more than one value is listed, the
-list must be placed in parentheses.  See L<perlsub/"Temporary Values via
-local()"> for details, including issues with tied arrays and hashes.
+A local modifies the listed variables to be local to the enclosing
+block, file, or eval.  If more than one value is listed, the list must
+be placed in parentheses.  See L<perlsub/"Temporary Values via local()">
+for details, including issues with tied arrays and hashes.
 
-But you really probably want to be using my() instead, because local() isn't
-what most people think of as "local").  See L<perlsub/"Private Variables
+You really probably want to be using C<my()> instead, because C<local()> isn't
+what most people think of as "local".  See L<perlsub/"Private Variables
 via my()"> for details.
 
 =item localtime EXPR
@@ -1827,24 +2078,24 @@ follows:
 						localtime(time);
 
 All array elements are numeric, and come straight out of a struct tm.
-In particular this means that $mon has the range 0..11 and $wday has
-the range 0..6 with sunday as day 0.  Also, $year is the number of
-years since 1900, that is, $year is 123 in year 2023.
+In particular this means that C<$mon> has the range C<0..11> and C<$wday> has
+the range C<0..6> with sunday as day C<0>.  Also, C<$year> is the number of
+years since 1900, that is, C<$year> is C<123> in year 2023, and I<not> simply the last two digits of the year.
 
 If EXPR is omitted, uses the current time (C<localtime(time)>).
 
-In a scalar context, returns the ctime(3) value:
+In scalar context, returns the ctime(3) value:
 
     $now_string = localtime;  # e.g., "Thu Oct 13 04:54:34 1994"
 
 This scalar value is B<not> locale dependent, see L<perllocale>, but
-instead a Perl builtin.  Also see the Time::Local module, and the
+instead a Perl builtin.  Also see the C<Time::Local> module, and the
 strftime(3) and mktime(3) function available via the POSIX module.  To
 get somewhat similar but locale dependent date strings, set up your
 locale environment variables appropriately (please see L<perllocale>)
-and try for example
+and try for example:
 
-	use POSIX qw(strftime)
+    use POSIX qw(strftime);
 	$now_string = strftime "%a %b %e %H:%M:%S %Y", localtime;
 
 Note that the C<%a> and C<%b>, the short forms of the day of the week
@@ -1854,8 +2105,8 @@ and the month of the year, may not necessarily be three characters wide.
 
 =item log
 
-Returns logarithm (base I<e>) of EXPR.  If EXPR is omitted, returns log
-of $_.
+Returns the natural logarithm (base I<e>) of EXPR.  If EXPR is omitted, returns log
+of C<$_>.
 
 =item lstat FILEHANDLE
 
@@ -1863,11 +2114,12 @@ of $_.
 
 =item lstat
 
-Does the same thing as the stat() function, but stats a symbolic link
-instead of the file the symbolic link points to.  If symbolic links are
-unimplemented on your system, a normal stat() is done.
+Does the same thing as the C<stat()> function (including setting the
+special C<_> filehandle) but stats a symbolic link instead of the file
+the symbolic link points to.  If symbolic links are unimplemented on
+your system, a normal C<stat()> is done.
 
-If EXPR is omitted, stats $_.
+If EXPR is omitted, stats C<$_>.
 
 =item m//
 
@@ -1877,7 +2129,7 @@ The match operator.  See L<perlop>.
 
 =item map EXPR,LIST
 
-Evaluates the BLOCK or EXPR for each element of LIST (locally setting $_ to each
+Evaluates the BLOCK or EXPR for each element of LIST (locally setting C<$_> to each
 element) and returns the list value composed of the results of each such
 evaluation.  Evaluates BLOCK or EXPR in a list context, so each element of LIST
 may produce zero, one, or more elements in the returned value.
@@ -1895,7 +2147,7 @@ is just a funny way to write
 	$hash{getkey($_)} = $_;
     }
 
-Note that, because $_ is a reference into the list value, it can be used
+Note that, because C<$_> is a reference into the list value, it can be used
 to modify the elements of the array.  While this is useful and
 supported, it can cause bizarre results if the LIST is not a named
 array.  See also L</grep> for an array composed of those items of the 
@@ -1903,42 +2155,56 @@ original list for which the BLOCK or EXPR evaluates to true.
 
 =item mkdir FILENAME,MODE
 
-Creates the directory specified by FILENAME, with permissions specified
-by MODE (as modified by umask).  If it succeeds it returns 1, otherwise
-it returns 0 and sets C<$!> (errno).
+Creates the directory specified by FILENAME, with permissions
+specified by MODE (as modified by C<umask>).  If it succeeds it
+returns TRUE, otherwise it returns FALSE and sets C<$!> (errno).
+
+In general, it is better to create directories with permissive MODEs,
+and let the user modify that with their C<umask>, than it is to supply
+a restrictive MODE and give the user no way to be more permissive.
+The exceptions to this rule are when the file or directory should be
+kept private (mail files, for instance).  The perlfunc(1) entry on
+C<umask> discusses the choice of MODE in more detail.
 
 =item msgctl ID,CMD,ARG
 
-Calls the System V IPC function msgctl(2).  If CMD is &IPC_STAT, then ARG
-must be a variable which will hold the returned msqid_ds structure.
-Returns like ioctl: the undefined value for error, "0 but true" for
-zero, or the actual return value otherwise.
+Calls the System V IPC function msgctl(2).  You'll probably have to say
+
+    use IPC::SysV;
+
+first to get the correct constant definitions.  If CMD is C<IPC_STAT>,
+then ARG must be a variable which will hold the returned C<msqid_ds>
+structure.  Returns like C<ioctl()>: the undefined value for error, "C<0> but
+true" for zero, or the actual return value otherwise.  See also
+C<IPC::SysV> and C<IPC::Semaphore::Msg> documentation.
 
 =item msgget KEY,FLAGS
 
-Calls the System V IPC function msgget(2).  Returns the message queue id,
-or the undefined value if there is an error.
+Calls the System V IPC function msgget(2).  Returns the message queue
+id, or the undefined value if there is an error.  See also C<IPC::SysV>
+and C<IPC::SysV::Msg> documentation.
 
 =item msgsnd ID,MSG,FLAGS
 
 Calls the System V IPC function msgsnd to send the message MSG to the
 message queue ID.  MSG must begin with the long integer message type,
 which may be created with C<pack("l", $type)>.  Returns TRUE if
-successful, or FALSE if there is an error.
+successful, or FALSE if there is an error.  See also C<IPC::SysV>
+and C<IPC::SysV::Msg> documentation.
 
 =item msgrcv ID,VAR,SIZE,TYPE,FLAGS
 
 Calls the System V IPC function msgrcv to receive a message from
 message queue ID into variable VAR with a maximum message size of
-SIZE.  Note that if a message is received, the message type will be the
-first thing in VAR, and the maximum length of VAR is SIZE plus the size
-of the message type.  Returns TRUE if successful, or FALSE if there is
-an error.
+SIZE.  Note that if a message is received, the message type will be
+the first thing in VAR, and the maximum length of VAR is SIZE plus the
+size of the message type.  Returns TRUE if successful, or FALSE if
+there is an error.  See also C<IPC::SysV> and C<IPC::SysV::Msg> documentation.
 
 =item my EXPR
 
-A "my" declares the listed variables to be local (lexically) to the
-enclosing block, subroutine, C<eval>, or C<do/require/use>'d file.  If
+A C<my()> declares the listed variables to be local (lexically) to the
+enclosing block, file, or C<eval()>.  If
 more than one value is listed, the list must be placed in parentheses.  See
 L<perlsub/"Private Variables via my()"> for details.
 
@@ -1951,30 +2217,37 @@ the next iteration of the loop:
 
     LINE: while (<STDIN>) {
 	next LINE if /^#/;	# discard comments
-	...
+	#...
     }
 
 Note that if there were a C<continue> block on the above, it would get
 executed even on discarded lines.  If the LABEL is omitted, the command
 refers to the innermost enclosing loop.
 
+C<next> cannot be used to exit a block which returns a value such as
+C<eval {}>, C<sub {}> or C<do {}>.
+
+See also L</continue> for an illustration of how C<last>, C<next>, and
+C<redo> work.
+
 =item no Module LIST
 
-See the "use" function, which "no" is the opposite of.
+See the L</use> function, which C<no> is the opposite of.
 
 =item oct EXPR
 
 =item oct
 
 Interprets EXPR as an octal string and returns the corresponding
-value.  (If EXPR happens to start off with 0x, interprets it as
-a hex string instead.)  The following will handle decimal, octal, and
+value.  (If EXPR happens to start off with C<0x>, interprets it as a
+hex string.  If EXPR starts off with C<0b>, it is interpreted as a
+binary string.)  The following will handle decimal, binary, octal, and
 hex in the standard Perl or C notation:
 
     $val = oct($val) if $val =~ /^0/;
 
-If EXPR is omitted, uses $_.  This function is commonly used when
-a string such as "644" needs to be converted into a file mode, for
+If EXPR is omitted, uses C<$_>.  This function is commonly used when
+a string such as C<644> needs to be converted into a file mode, for
 example. (Although perl will automatically convert strings into
 numbers as needed, this automatic conversion assumes base 10.)
 
@@ -1986,46 +2259,52 @@ Opens the file whose filename is given by EXPR, and associates it with
 FILEHANDLE.  If FILEHANDLE is an expression, its value is used as the
 name of the real filehandle wanted.  If EXPR is omitted, the scalar
 variable of the same name as the FILEHANDLE contains the filename.
-(Note that lexical variables--those declared with C<my>--will not work
-for this purpose; so if you're using C<my>, specify EXPR in your call
+(Note that lexical variables--those declared with C<my()>--will not work
+for this purpose; so if you're using C<my()>, specify EXPR in your call
 to open.)
 
-If the filename begins with '<' or nothing, the file is opened for input.
-If the filename begins with '>', the file is truncated and opened for
-output.  If the filename begins with '>>', the file is opened for
-appending.  You can put a '+' in front of the '>' or '<' to indicate that
-you want both read and write access to the file; thus '+<' is almost
-always preferred for read/write updates--the '+>' mode would clobber the
-file first.  The prefix and the filename may be separated with spaces.
-These various prefixes correspond to the fopen(3) modes of 'r', 'r+', 'w',
-'w+', 'a', and 'a+'.
-
-If the filename begins with "|", the filename is interpreted as a command
-to which output is to be piped, and if the filename ends with a "|", the
-filename is interpreted See L<perlipc/"Using open() for IPC"> for more
-examples of this.  as command which pipes input to us.  (You may not have
-a raw open() to a command that pipes both in I<and> out, but see
-L<IPC::Open2>, L<IPC::Open3>, and L<perlipc/"Bidirectional Communication">
-for alternatives.)
-
-Opening '-' opens STDIN and opening 'E<gt>-' opens STDOUT.  Open returns
-nonzero upon success, the undefined value otherwise.  If the open
+If the filename begins with C<'E<lt>'> or nothing, the file is opened for input.
+If the filename begins with C<'E<gt>'>, the file is truncated and opened for
+output, being created if necessary. If the filename begins with C<'E<gt>E<gt>'>,
+the file is opened for appending, again being created if necessary. 
+You can put a C<'+'> in front of the C<'E<gt>'> or C<'E<lt>'> to indicate that
+you want both read and write access to the file; thus C<'+E<lt>'> is almost
+always preferred for read/write updates--the C<'+E<gt>'> mode would clobber the
+file first.  You can't usually use either read-write mode for updating
+textfiles, since they have variable length records.  See the B<-i>
+switch in L<perlrun> for a better approach.  The file is created with
+permissions of C<0666> modified by the process' C<umask> value.
+
+The prefix and the filename may be separated with spaces.
+These various prefixes correspond to the fopen(3) modes of C<'r'>, C<'r+'>, C<'w'>,
+C<'w+'>, C<'a'>, and C<'a+'>.
+
+If the filename begins with C<'|'>, the filename is interpreted as a
+command to which output is to be piped, and if the filename ends with a
+C<'|'>, the filename is interpreted as a command which pipes output to
+us.  See L<perlipc/"Using open() for IPC">
+for more examples of this.  (You are not allowed to C<open()> to a command
+that pipes both in I<and> out, but see L<IPC::Open2>, L<IPC::Open3>,
+and L<perlipc/"Bidirectional Communication"> for alternatives.)
+
+Opening C<'-'> opens STDIN and opening C<'E<gt>-'> opens STDOUT.  Open returns
+nonzero upon success, the undefined value otherwise.  If the C<open()>
 involved a pipe, the return value happens to be the pid of the
 subprocess.
 
 If you're unfortunate enough to be running Perl on a system that
 distinguishes between text files and binary files (modern operating
 systems don't care), then you should check out L</binmode> for tips for
-dealing with this.  The key distinction between systems that need binmode
-and those that don't is their text file formats.  Systems like Unix and
-Plan9 that delimit lines with a single character, and that encode that
-character in C as '\n', do not need C<binmode>.  The rest need it.
+dealing with this.  The key distinction between systems that need C<binmode()>
+and those that don't is their text file formats.  Systems like Unix, MacOS, and
+Plan9, which delimit lines with a single character, and which encode that
+character in C as C<"\n">, do not need C<binmode()>.  The rest need it.
 
 When opening a file, it's usually a bad idea to continue normal execution
-if the request failed, so C<open> is frequently used in connection with
-C<die>. Even if C<die> won't do what you want (say, in a CGI script,
+if the request failed, so C<open()> is frequently used in connection with
+C<die()>. Even if C<die()> won't do what you want (say, in a CGI script,
 where you want to make a nicely formatted error message (but there are
-modules which can help with that problem)) you should always check
+modules that can help with that problem)) you should always check
 the return value from opening a file. The infrequent exception is when
 working with an unopened filehandle is actually what you want to do.
 
@@ -2054,27 +2333,28 @@ Examples:
     }
 
     sub process {
-	local($filename, $input) = @_;
+	my($filename, $input) = @_;
 	$input++;		# this is a string increment
 	unless (open($input, $filename)) {
 	    print STDERR "Can't open $filename: $!\n";
 	    return;
 	}
 
+	local $_;
 	while (<$input>) {		# note use of indirection
 	    if (/^#include "(.*)"/) {
 		process($1, $input);
 		next;
 	    }
-	    ...		# whatever
+	    #...		# whatever
 	}
     }
 
 You may also, in the Bourne shell tradition, specify an EXPR beginning
-with "E<gt>&", in which case the rest of the string is interpreted as the
-name of a filehandle (or file descriptor, if numeric) which is to be
-duped and opened.  You may use & after E<gt>, E<gt>E<gt>, E<lt>, +E<gt>,
-+E<gt>E<gt>, and +E<lt>.  The
+with C<'E<gt>&'>, in which case the rest of the string is interpreted as the
+name of a filehandle (or file descriptor, if numeric) to be
+duped and opened.  You may use C<&> after C<E<gt>>, C<E<gt>E<gt>>, C<E<lt>>, C<+E<gt>>,
+C<+E<gt>E<gt>>, and C<+E<lt>>.  The
 mode you specify should match the mode of the original filehandle.
 (Duping a filehandle does not take into account any existing contents of
 stdio buffers.)
@@ -2082,8 +2362,8 @@ Here is a script that saves, redirects, and restores STDOUT and
 STDERR:
 
     #!/usr/bin/perl
-    open(SAVEOUT, ">&STDOUT");
-    open(SAVEERR, ">&STDERR");
+    open(OLDOUT, ">&STDOUT");
+    open(OLDERR, ">&STDERR");
 
     open(STDOUT, ">foo.out") || die "Can't redirect stdout";
     open(STDERR, ">&STDOUT") || die "Can't dup stdout";
@@ -2097,22 +2377,22 @@ STDERR:
     close(STDOUT);
     close(STDERR);
 
-    open(STDOUT, ">&SAVEOUT");
-    open(STDERR, ">&SAVEERR");
+    open(STDOUT, ">&OLDOUT");
+    open(STDERR, ">&OLDERR");
 
     print STDOUT "stdout 2\n";
     print STDERR "stderr 2\n";
 
 
-If you specify "E<lt>&=N", where N is a number, then Perl will do an
-equivalent of C's fdopen() of that file descriptor; this is more
+If you specify C<'E<lt>&=N'>, where C<N> is a number, then Perl will do an
+equivalent of C's C<fdopen()> of that file descriptor; this is more
 parsimonious of file descriptors.  For example:
 
     open(FILEHANDLE, "<&=$fd")
 
-If you open a pipe on the command "-", i.e., either "|-" or "-|", then
+If you open a pipe on the command C<'-'>, i.e., either C<'|-'> or C<'-|'>, then
 there is an implicit fork done, and the return value of open is the pid
-of the child within the parent process, and 0 within the child
+of the child within the parent process, and C<0> within the child
 process.  (Use C<defined($pid)> to determine whether the open was successful.)
 The filehandle behaves normally for the parent, but i/o to that
 filehandle is piped from/to the STDOUT/STDIN of the child process.
@@ -2131,21 +2411,49 @@ The following pairs are more or less equivalent:
 
 See L<perlipc/"Safe Pipe Opens"> for more examples of this.
 
-NOTE: On any operation which may do a fork, unflushed buffers remain
+NOTE: On any operation that may do a fork, any unflushed buffers remain
 unflushed in both processes, which means you may need to set C<$|> to
-avoid duplicate output.
+avoid duplicate output.  On systems that support a close-on-exec flag on
+files, the flag will be set for the newly opened file descriptor as
+determined by the value of $^F.  See L<perlvar/$^F>.
 
 Closing any piped filehandle causes the parent process to wait for the
 child to finish, and returns the status value in C<$?>.
 
-Using the constructor from the IO::Handle package (or one of its
-subclasses, such as IO::File or IO::Socket),
-you can generate anonymous filehandles which have the scope of whatever
-variables hold references to them, and automatically close whenever
-and however you leave that scope:
+The filename passed to open will have leading and trailing
+whitespace deleted, and the normal redirection characters
+honored.  This property, known as "magic open", 
+can often be used to good effect.  A user could specify a filename of
+F<"rsh cat file |">, or you could change certain filenames as needed:
+
+    $filename =~ s/(.*\.gz)\s*$/gzip -dc < $1|/;
+    open(FH, $filename) or die "Can't open $filename: $!";
+
+However, to open a file with arbitrary weird characters in it, it's
+necessary to protect any leading and trailing whitespace:
+
+    $file =~ s#^(\s)#./$1#;
+    open(FOO, "< $file\0");
+
+If you want a "real" C C<open()> (see L<open(2)> on your system), then you
+should use the C<sysopen()> function, which involves no such magic.  This is
+another way to protect your filenames from interpretation.  For example:
+
+    use IO::Handle;
+    sysopen(HANDLE, $path, O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_EXCL)
+	or die "sysopen $path: $!";
+    $oldfh = select(HANDLE); $| = 1; select($oldfh);
+    print HANDLE "stuff $$\n");
+    seek(HANDLE, 0, 0);
+    print "File contains: ", <HANDLE>;
+
+Using the constructor from the C<IO::Handle> package (or one of its
+subclasses, such as C<IO::File> or C<IO::Socket>), you can generate anonymous
+filehandles that have the scope of whatever variables hold references to
+them, and automatically close whenever and however you leave that scope:
 
     use IO::File;
-    ...
+    #...
     sub read_myfile_munged {
 	my $ALL = shift;
 	my $handle = new IO::File;
@@ -2157,40 +2465,20 @@ and however you leave that scope:
 	$first;					# Or here.
     }
 
-The filename that is passed to open will have leading and trailing
-whitespace deleted.  To open a file with arbitrary weird
-characters in it, it's necessary to protect any leading and trailing
-whitespace thusly:
-
-    $file =~ s#^(\s)#./$1#;
-    open(FOO, "< $file\0");
-
-If you want a "real" C open() (see L<open(2)> on your system), then
-you should use the sysopen() function.  This is another way to
-protect your filenames from interpretation.  For example:
-
-    use IO::Handle;
-    sysopen(HANDLE, $path, O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_EXCL, 0700)
-	or die "sysopen $path: $!";
-    HANDLE->autoflush(1);
-    HANDLE->print("stuff $$\n");
-    seek(HANDLE, 0, 0);
-    print "File contains: ", <HANDLE>;
-
-See L</seek()> for some details about mixing reading and writing.
+See L</seek> for some details about mixing reading and writing.
 
 =item opendir DIRHANDLE,EXPR
 
-Opens a directory named EXPR for processing by readdir(), telldir(),
-seekdir(), rewinddir(), and closedir().  Returns TRUE if successful.
+Opens a directory named EXPR for processing by C<readdir()>, C<telldir()>,
+C<seekdir()>, C<rewinddir()>, and C<closedir()>.  Returns TRUE if successful.
 DIRHANDLEs have their own namespace separate from FILEHANDLEs.
 
 =item ord EXPR
 
 =item ord
 
-Returns the numeric ascii value of the first character of EXPR.  If
-EXPR is omitted, uses $_.  For the reverse, see L</chr>.
+Returns the numeric (ASCII or Unicode) value of the first character of EXPR.  If
+EXPR is omitted, uses C<$_>.  For the reverse, see L</chr>.
 
 =item pack TEMPLATE,LIST
 
@@ -2199,15 +2487,17 @@ returning the string containing the structure.  The TEMPLATE is a
 sequence of characters that give the order and type of values, as
 follows:
 
+    a	A string with arbitrary binary data, will be null padded.
     A	An ascii string, will be space padded.
-    a	An ascii string, will be null padded.
+    Z	A null terminated (asciz) string, will be null padded.
+
     b	A bit string (ascending bit order, like vec()).
     B	A bit string (descending bit order).
     h	A hex string (low nybble first).
     H	A hex string (high nybble first).
 
     c	A signed char value.
-    C	An unsigned char value.
+    C	An unsigned char value.  Only does bytes.  See U for Unicode.
 
     s	A signed short value.
     S	An unsigned short value.
@@ -2216,9 +2506,10 @@ follows:
 
     i	A signed integer value.
     I	An unsigned integer value.
-	  (This 'integer' is _at_least_ 32 bits wide.  Its exact size
-	   depends on what a local C compiler calls 'int', and may
-	   even be larger than the 'long' described in the next item.)
+	  (This 'integer' is _at_least_ 32 bits wide.  Its exact
+           size depends on what a local C compiler calls 'int',
+           and may even be larger than the 'long' described in
+           the next item.)
 
     l	A signed long value.
     L	An unsigned long value.
@@ -2232,6 +2523,12 @@ follows:
 	  (These 'shorts' and 'longs' are _exactly_ 16 bits and
 	   _exactly_ 32 bits, respectively.)
 
+    q	A signed quad (64-bit) value.
+    Q	An unsigned quad value.
+	  (Available only if your system supports 64-bit integer values
+	   _and_ if Perl has been compiled to support those.
+           Causes a fatal error otherwise.)
+
     f	A single-precision float in the native format.
     d	A double-precision float in the native format.
 
@@ -2239,47 +2536,79 @@ follows:
     P	A pointer to a structure (fixed-length string).
 
     u	A uuencoded string.
+    U	A Unicode character number.  Encodes to UTF-8 internally.
+	Works even if C<use utf8> is not in effect.
 
     w	A BER compressed integer.  Its bytes represent an unsigned
-	integer in base 128, most significant digit first, with as few
-	digits as possible.  Bit eight (the high bit) is set on each
-	byte except the last.
+	integer in base 128, most significant digit first, with as
+        few digits as possible.  Bit eight (the high bit) is set
+        on each byte except the last.
 
     x	A null byte.
     X	Back up a byte.
     @	Null fill to absolute position.
 
-Each letter may optionally be followed by a number which gives a repeat
-count.  With all types except "a", "A", "b", "B", "h", "H", and "P" the
-pack function will gobble up that many values from the LIST.  A * for the
-repeat count means to use however many items are left.  The "a" and "A"
-types gobble just one value, but pack it as a string of length count,
-padding with nulls or spaces as necessary.  (When unpacking, "A" strips
-trailing spaces and nulls, but "a" does not.)  Likewise, the "b" and "B"
-fields pack a string that many bits long.  The "h" and "H" fields pack a
-string that many nybbles long.  The "p" type packs a pointer to a null-
-terminated string.  You are responsible for ensuring the string is not a
-temporary value (which can potentially get deallocated before you get
-around to using the packed result).  The "P" packs a pointer to a structure
-of the size indicated by the length. A NULL pointer is created if the 
-corresponding value for "p" or "P" is C<undef>.
-Real numbers (floats and doubles) are
-in the native machine format only; due to the multiplicity of floating
-formats around, and the lack of a standard "network" representation, no
-facility for interchange has been made.  This means that packed floating
-point data written on one machine may not be readable on another - even if
-both use IEEE floating point arithmetic (as the endian-ness of the memory
-representation is not part of the IEEE spec).  Note that Perl uses doubles
-internally for all numeric calculation, and converting from double into
-float and thence back to double again will lose precision (i.e.,
-C<unpack("f", pack("f", $foo)>) will not in general equal $foo).
+The following rules apply:
+
+=over 8
+
+=item *
+
+Each letter may optionally be followed by a number giving a repeat
+count.  With all types except C<"a">, C<"A">, C<"Z">, C<"b">, C<"B">, C<"h">,
+C<"H">, and C<"P"> the pack function will gobble up that many values from
+the LIST.  A C<*> for the repeat count means to use however many items are
+left.
+
+=item *
+
+The C<"a">, C<"A"> and C<"Z"> types gobble just one value, but pack it as a
+string of length count, padding with nulls or spaces as necessary.  When
+unpacking, C<"A"> strips trailing spaces and nulls, C<"Z"> strips everything
+after the first null, and C<"a"> returns data verbatim.
+
+=item *
+
+Likewise, the C<"b"> and C<"B"> fields pack a string that many bits long.
+
+=item *
+
+The C<"h"> and C<"H"> fields pack a string that many nybbles long.
+
+=item *
+
+The C<"p"> type packs a pointer to a null-terminated string.  You are
+responsible for ensuring the string is not a temporary value (which can
+potentially get deallocated before you get around to using the packed result).
+The C<"P"> type packs a pointer to a structure of the size indicated by the
+length. A NULL pointer is created if the corresponding value for C<"p"> or
+C<"P"> is C<undef>.
+
+=item *
+
+Real numbers (floats and doubles) are in the native machine format only;
+due to the multiplicity of floating formats around, and the lack of a
+standard "network" representation, no facility for interchange has been
+made.  This means that packed floating point data written on one machine
+may not be readable on another - even if both use IEEE floating point
+arithmetic (as the endian-ness of the memory representation is not part
+of the IEEE spec).
+
+Note that Perl uses doubles internally for all numeric calculation, and
+converting from double into float and thence back to double again will
+lose precision (i.e., C<unpack("f", pack("f", $foo)>) will not in general
+equal C<$foo>).
+
+=back
 
 Examples:
 
-    $foo = pack("cccc",65,66,67,68);
+    $foo = pack("CCCC",65,66,67,68);
     # foo eq "ABCD"
-    $foo = pack("c4",65,66,67,68);
+    $foo = pack("C4",65,66,67,68);
     # same thing
+    $foo = pack("U4",0x24b6,0x24b7,0x24b8,0x24b9);
+    # same thing with Unicode circled letters
 
     $foo = pack("ccxxcc",65,66,67,68);
     # foo eq "AB\0\0CD"
@@ -2300,28 +2629,41 @@ Examples:
     $foo = pack("i9pl", gmtime);
     # a real struct tm (on my system anyway)
 
+    $utmp_template = "Z8 Z8 Z16 L";
+    $utmp = pack($utmp_template, @utmp1);
+    # a struct utmp (BSDish)
+
+    @utmp2 = unpack($utmp_template, $utmp);
+    # "@utmp1" eq "@utmp2"
+
     sub bintodec {
 	unpack("N", pack("B32", substr("0" x 32 . shift, -32)));
     }
 
-The same template may generally also be used in the unpack function.
+The same template may generally also be used in unpack().
+
+=item package 
 
 =item package NAMESPACE
 
 Declares the compilation unit as being in the given namespace.  The scope
 of the package declaration is from the declaration itself through the end of
-the enclosing block (the same scope as the local() operator).  All further
+the enclosing block (the same scope as the C<local()> operator).  All further
 unqualified dynamic identifiers will be in this namespace.  A package
 statement affects only dynamic variables--including those you've used
-local() on--but I<not> lexical variables created with my().  Typically it
+C<local()> on--but I<not> lexical variables created with C<my()>.  Typically it
 would be the first declaration in a file to be included by the C<require>
 or C<use> operator.  You can switch into a package in more than one place;
-it influences merely which symbol table is used by the compiler for the
+it merely influences which symbol table is used by the compiler for the
 rest of that block.  You can refer to variables and filehandles in other
 packages by prefixing the identifier with the package name and a double
 colon:  C<$Package::Variable>.  If the package name is null, the C<main>
 package as assumed.  That is, C<$::sail> is equivalent to C<$main::sail>.
 
+If NAMESPACE is omitted, then there is no current package, and all
+identifiers must be fully qualified or lexicals.  This is stricter
+than C<use strict>, since it also extends to function names.
+
 See L<perlmod/"Packages"> for more information about packages, modules,
 and classes.  See L<perlsub> for other scoping issues.
 
@@ -2336,6 +2678,10 @@ after each command, depending on the application.
 See L<IPC::Open2>, L<IPC::Open3>, and L<perlipc/"Bidirectional Communication">
 for examples of such things.
 
+On systems that support a close-on-exec flag on files, the flag will be set
+for the newly opened file descriptors as determined by the value of $^F.
+See L<perlvar/$^F>.
+
 =item pop ARRAY
 
 =item pop
@@ -2347,15 +2693,15 @@ Pops and returns the last value of the array, shortening the array by
 
 If there are no elements in the array, returns the undefined value.
 If ARRAY is omitted, pops the
-@ARGV array in the main program, and the @_ array in subroutines, just
-like shift().
+C<@ARGV> array in the main program, and the C<@_> array in subroutines, just
+like C<shift()>.
 
 =item pos SCALAR
 
 =item pos
 
 Returns the offset of where the last C<m//g> search left off for the variable
-is in question ($_ is used when the variable is not specified).  May be
+is in question (C<$_> is used when the variable is not specified).  May be
 modified to change that offset.  Such modification will also influence
 the C<\G> zero-width assertion in regular expressions.  See L<perlre> and
 L<perlop>.
@@ -2371,16 +2717,16 @@ if successful.  FILEHANDLE may be a scalar variable name, in which case
 the variable contains the name of or a reference to the filehandle, thus introducing one
 level of indirection.  (NOTE: If FILEHANDLE is a variable and the next
 token is a term, it may be misinterpreted as an operator unless you
-interpose a + or put parentheses around the arguments.)  If FILEHANDLE is
+interpose a C<+> or put parentheses around the arguments.)  If FILEHANDLE is
 omitted, prints by default to standard output (or to the last selected
-output channel--see L</select>).  If LIST is also omitted, prints $_ to
-STDOUT.  To set the default output channel to something other than
+output channel--see L</select>).  If LIST is also omitted, prints C<$_> to
+the currently selected output channel.  To set the default output channel to something other than
 STDOUT use the select operation.  Note that, because print takes a
-LIST, anything in the LIST is evaluated in a list context, and any
+LIST, anything in the LIST is evaluated in list context, and any
 subroutine that you call will have one or more of its expressions
-evaluated in a list context.  Also be careful not to follow the print
+evaluated in list context.  Also be careful not to follow the print
 keyword with a left parenthesis unless you want the corresponding right
-parenthesis to terminate the arguments to the print--interpose a + or
+parenthesis to terminate the arguments to the print--interpose a C<+> or
 put parentheses around all the arguments.
 
 Note that if you're storing FILEHANDLES in an array or other expression,
@@ -2393,14 +2739,14 @@ you will have to use a block returning its value instead:
 
 =item printf FORMAT, LIST
 
-Equivalent to C<print FILEHANDLE sprintf(FORMAT, LIST)>, except that $\
+Equivalent to C<print FILEHANDLE sprintf(FORMAT, LIST)>, except that C<$\>
 (the output record separator) is not appended.  The first argument
-of the list will be interpreted as the printf format.  If C<use locale> is
+of the list will be interpreted as the C<printf()> format.  If C<use locale> is
 in effect, the character used for the decimal point in formatted real numbers
 is affected by the LC_NUMERIC locale.  See L<perllocale>.
 
-Don't fall into the trap of using a printf() when a simple
-print() would do.  The print() is more efficient, and less
+Don't fall into the trap of using a C<printf()> when a simple
+C<print()> would do.  The C<print()> is more efficient and less
 error prone.
 
 =item prototype FUNCTION
@@ -2411,8 +2757,8 @@ the function whose prototype you want to retrieve.
 
 If FUNCTION is a string starting with C<CORE::>, the rest is taken as
 a name for Perl builtin.  If builtin is not I<overridable> (such as
-C<qw>) or its arguments cannot be expressed by a prototype (such as
-C<system>) - in other words, the builtin does not behave like a Perl
+C<qw//>) or its arguments cannot be expressed by a prototype (such as
+C<system()>) - in other words, the builtin does not behave like a Perl
 function - returns C<undef>.  Otherwise, the string describing the
 equivalent prototype is returned.
 
@@ -2432,11 +2778,13 @@ but is more efficient.  Returns the new number of elements in the array.
 
 =item qq/STRING/
 
+=item qr/STRING/
+
 =item qx/STRING/
 
 =item qw/STRING/
 
-Generalized quotes.  See L<perlop>.
+Generalized quotes.  See L<perlop/"Regexp Quote-Like Operators">.
 
 =item quotemeta EXPR
 
@@ -2447,18 +2795,18 @@ characters backslashed.  (That is, all characters not matching
 C</[A-Za-z_0-9]/> will be preceded by a backslash in the
 returned string, regardless of any locale settings.)
 This is the internal function implementing
-the \Q escape in double-quoted strings.
+the C<\Q> escape in double-quoted strings.
 
-If EXPR is omitted, uses $_.
+If EXPR is omitted, uses C<$_>.
 
 =item rand EXPR
 
 =item rand
 
-Returns a random fractional number greater than or equal to 0 and less
+Returns a random fractional number greater than or equal to C<0> and less
 than the value of EXPR.  (EXPR should be positive.)  If EXPR is
-omitted, the value 1 is used.  Automatically calls srand() unless
-srand() has already been called.  See also srand().
+omitted, the value C<1> is used.  Automatically calls C<srand()> unless
+C<srand()> has already been called.  See also C<srand()>.
 
 (Note: If your rand function consistently returns numbers that are too
 large or too small, then your version of Perl was probably compiled
@@ -2469,23 +2817,23 @@ with the wrong number of RANDBITS.)
 =item read FILEHANDLE,SCALAR,LENGTH
 
 Attempts to read LENGTH bytes of data into variable SCALAR from the
-specified FILEHANDLE.  Returns the number of bytes actually read, or
-undef if there was an error.  SCALAR will be grown or shrunk to the
-length actually read.  An OFFSET may be specified to place the read
-data at some other place than the beginning of the string.  This call
-is actually implemented in terms of stdio's fread call.  To get a true
-read system call, see sysread().
+specified FILEHANDLE.  Returns the number of bytes actually read,
+C<0> at end of file, or undef if there was an error.  SCALAR will be grown
+or shrunk to the length actually read.  An OFFSET may be specified to
+place the read data at some other place than the beginning of the
+string.  This call is actually implemented in terms of stdio's fread(3)
+call.  To get a true read(2) system call, see C<sysread()>.
 
 =item readdir DIRHANDLE
 
-Returns the next directory entry for a directory opened by opendir().
-If used in a list context, returns all the rest of the entries in the
+Returns the next directory entry for a directory opened by C<opendir()>.
+If used in list context, returns all the rest of the entries in the
 directory.  If there are no more entries, returns an undefined value in
-a scalar context or a null list in a list context.
+scalar context or a null list in list context.
 
-If you're planning to filetest the return values out of a readdir(), you'd
+If you're planning to filetest the return values out of a C<readdir()>, you'd
 better prepend the directory in question.  Otherwise, because we didn't
-chdir() there, it would have been testing the wrong file.
+C<chdir()> there, it would have been testing the wrong file.
 
     opendir(DIR, $some_dir) || die "can't opendir $some_dir: $!";
     @dots = grep { /^\./ && -f "$some_dir/$_" } readdir(DIR);
@@ -2493,14 +2841,24 @@ chdir() there, it would have been testing the wrong file.
 
 =item readline EXPR
 
-Reads from the file handle EXPR.  In scalar context, a single line
-is read and returned.  In list context, reads until end-of-file is
-reached and returns a list of lines (however you've defined lines
-with $/ or $INPUT_RECORD_SEPARATOR).
+Reads from the filehandle whose typeglob is contained in EXPR.  In scalar
+context, each call reads and returns the next line, until end-of-file is
+reached, whereupon the subsequent call returns undef.  In list context,
+reads until end-of-file is reached and returns a list of lines.  Note that
+the notion of "line" used here is however you may have defined it
+with C<$/> or C<$INPUT_RECORD_SEPARATOR>).  See L<perlvar/"$/">.
+
+When C<$/> is set to C<undef> and when readline() is in a scalar
+context (i.e. file slurp mode), it returns C<''> the first time,
+followed by C<undef> subsequently.
+
 This is the internal function implementing the C<E<lt>EXPRE<gt>>
 operator, but you can use it directly.  The C<E<lt>EXPRE<gt>>
 operator is discussed in more detail in L<perlop/"I/O Operators">.
 
+    $line = <STDIN>;
+    $line = readline(*STDIN);		# same thing
+
 =item readlink EXPR
 
 =item readlink
@@ -2508,15 +2866,15 @@ operator is discussed in more detail in L<perlop/"I/O Operators">.
 Returns the value of a symbolic link, if symbolic links are
 implemented.  If not, gives a fatal error.  If there is some system
 error, returns the undefined value and sets C<$!> (errno).  If EXPR is
-omitted, uses $_.
+omitted, uses C<$_>.
 
 =item readpipe EXPR
 
-EXPR is interpolated and then executed as a system command.
+EXPR is executed as a system command.
 The collected standard output of the command is returned.
 In scalar context, it comes back as a single (potentially
 multi-line) string.  In list context, returns a list of lines
-(however you've defined lines with $/ or $INPUT_RECORD_SEPARATOR).
+(however you've defined lines with C<$/> or C<$INPUT_RECORD_SEPARATOR>).
 This is the internal function implementing the C<qx/EXPR/>
 operator, but you can use it directly.  The C<qx/EXPR/>
 operator is discussed in more detail in L<perlop/"I/O Operators">.
@@ -2525,7 +2883,7 @@ operator is discussed in more detail in L<perlop/"I/O Operators">.
 
 Receives a message on a socket.  Attempts to receive LENGTH bytes of
 data into variable SCALAR from the specified SOCKET filehandle.
-Actually does a C recvfrom(), so that it can return the address of the
+Actually does a C C<recvfrom()>, so that it can return the address of the
 sender.  Returns the undefined value if there's an error.  SCALAR will
 be grown or shrunk to the length actually read.  Takes the same flags
 as the system call of the same name.
@@ -2550,7 +2908,7 @@ themselves about what was just input:
 	    $front = $_;
 	    while (<STDIN>) {
 		if (/}/) {	# end of comment?
-		    s|^|$front{|;
+		    s|^|$front\{|;
 		    redo LINE;
 		}
 	    }
@@ -2558,12 +2916,18 @@ themselves about what was just input:
 	print;
     }
 
+C<redo> cannot be used to retry a block which returns a value such as
+C<eval {}>, C<sub {}> or C<do {}>.
+
+See also L</continue> for an illustration of how C<last>, C<next>, and
+C<redo> work.
+
 =item ref EXPR
 
 =item ref
 
 Returns a TRUE value if EXPR is a reference, FALSE otherwise.  If EXPR
-is not specified, $_ will be used.  The value returned depends on the
+is not specified, C<$_> will be used.  The value returned depends on the
 type of thing the reference is a reference to.
 Builtin types include:
 
@@ -2575,12 +2939,12 @@ Builtin types include:
     GLOB
 
 If the referenced object has been blessed into a package, then that package
-name is returned instead.  You can think of ref() as a typeof() operator.
+name is returned instead.  You can think of C<ref()> as a C<typeof()> operator.
 
     if (ref($r) eq "HASH") {
 	print "r is a reference to a hash.\n";
     }
-    if (!ref ($r) {
+    if (!ref($r)) {
 	print "r is not a reference at all.\n";
     }
 
@@ -2588,26 +2952,26 @@ See also L<perlref>.
 
 =item rename OLDNAME,NEWNAME
 
-Changes the name of a file.  Returns 1 for success, 0 otherwise.  Will
+Changes the name of a file.  Returns C<1> for success, C<0> otherwise.  Will
 not work across file system boundaries.
 
 =item require EXPR
 
 =item require
 
-Demands some semantics specified by EXPR, or by $_ if EXPR is not
+Demands some semantics specified by EXPR, or by C<$_> if EXPR is not
 supplied.  If EXPR is numeric, demands that the current version of Perl
 (C<$]> or $PERL_VERSION) be equal or greater than EXPR.
 
 Otherwise, demands that a library file be included if it hasn't already
 been included.  The file is included via the do-FILE mechanism, which is
-essentially just a variety of eval().  Has semantics similar to the following
+essentially just a variety of C<eval()>.  Has semantics similar to the following
 subroutine:
 
     sub require {
-	local($filename) = @_;
+	my($filename) = @_;
 	return 1 if $INC{$filename};
-	local($realfilename,$result);
+	my($realfilename,$result);
 	ITER: {
 	    foreach $prefix (@INC) {
 		$realfilename = "$prefix/$filename";
@@ -2621,13 +2985,13 @@ subroutine:
 	die $@ if $@;
 	die "$filename did not return true value" unless $result;
 	$INC{$filename} = $realfilename;
-	$result;
+	return $result;
     }
 
 Note that the file will not be included twice under the same specified
 name.  The file must return TRUE as the last statement to indicate
 successful execution of any initialization code, so it's customary to
-end such a file with "1;" unless you're sure it'll return TRUE
+end such a file with "C<1;>" unless you're sure it'll return TRUE
 otherwise.  But it's better just to put the "C<1;>", in case you add more
 statements.
 
@@ -2636,19 +3000,37 @@ replaces "F<::>" with "F</>" in the filename for you,
 to make it easy to load standard modules.  This form of loading of
 modules does not risk altering your namespace.
 
-For a yet-more-powerful import facility, see L</use> and
-L<perlmod>.
+In other words, if you try this:
+
+        require Foo::Bar;    # a splendid bareword 
+
+The require function will actually look for the "F<Foo/Bar.pm>" file in the 
+directories specified in the C<@INC> array.
+
+But if you try this:
+
+        $class = 'Foo::Bar';
+        require $class;	     # $class is not a bareword
+    #or
+        require "Foo::Bar";  # not a bareword because of the ""
+
+The require function will look for the "F<Foo::Bar>" file in the @INC array and 
+will complain about not finding "F<Foo::Bar>" there. In this case you can do:
+
+        eval "require $class";
+
+For a yet-more-powerful import facility, see L</use> and L<perlmod>.
 
 =item reset EXPR
 
 =item reset
 
 Generally used in a C<continue> block at the end of a loop to clear
-variables and reset ?? searches so that they work again.  The
+variables and reset C<??> searches so that they work again.  The
 expression is interpreted as a list of single characters (hyphens
 allowed for ranges).  All variables and arrays beginning with one of
 those letters are reset to their pristine state.  If the expression is
-omitted, one-match searches (?pattern?) are reset to match again.  Resets
+omitted, one-match searches (C<?pattern?>) are reset to match again.  Resets
 only variables or searches in the current package.  Always returns
 1.  Examples:
 
@@ -2656,8 +3038,8 @@ only variables or searches in the current package.  Always returns
     reset 'a-z';	# reset lower case variables
     reset;		# just reset ?? searches
 
-Resetting "A-Z" is not recommended because you'll wipe out your
-ARGV and ENV arrays.  Resets only package variables--lexical variables
+Resetting C<"A-Z"> is not recommended because you'll wipe out your
+C<@ARGV> and C<@INC> arrays and your C<%ENV> hash.  Resets only package variables--lexical variables
 are unaffected, but they clean themselves up on scope exit anyway,
 so you'll probably want to use them instead.  See L</my>.
 
@@ -2665,27 +3047,27 @@ so you'll probably want to use them instead.  See L</my>.
 
 =item return
 
-Returns from a subroutine, eval(), or do FILE with the value of the
-given EXPR.  Evaluation of EXPR may be in a list, scalar, or void
+Returns from a subroutine, C<eval()>, or C<do FILE> with the value 
+given in EXPR.  Evaluation of EXPR may be in list, scalar, or void
 context, depending on how the return value will be used, and the context
-may vary from one execution to the next (see wantarray()).  If no EXPR
-is given, returns an empty list in a list context, an undefined value in
-a scalar context, or nothing in a void context.
+may vary from one execution to the next (see C<wantarray()>).  If no EXPR
+is given, returns an empty list in list context, an undefined value in
+scalar context, or nothing in a void context.
 
 (Note that in the absence of a return, a subroutine, eval, or do FILE
 will automatically return the value of the last expression evaluated.)
 
 =item reverse LIST
 
-In a list context, returns a list value consisting of the elements
-of LIST in the opposite order.  In a scalar context, concatenates the
-elements of LIST, and returns a string value consisting of those bytes,
-but in the opposite order.
+In list context, returns a list value consisting of the elements
+of LIST in the opposite order.  In scalar context, concatenates the
+elements of LIST, and returns a string value with all the characters
+in the opposite order.
 
     print reverse <>;		# line tac, last line first
 
     undef $/;			# for efficiency of <>
-    print scalar reverse <>;	# byte tac, last line tsrif
+    print scalar reverse <>;	# character tac, last line tsrif
 
 This operator is also handy for inverting a hash, although there are some
 caveats.  If a value is duplicated in the original hash, only one of those
@@ -2698,7 +3080,7 @@ on a large hash.
 =item rewinddir DIRHANDLE
 
 Sets the current position to the beginning of the directory for the
-readdir() routine on DIRHANDLE.
+C<readdir()> routine on DIRHANDLE.
 
 =item rindex STR,SUBSTR,POSITION
 
@@ -2712,9 +3094,9 @@ last occurrence at or before that position.
 
 =item rmdir
 
-Deletes the directory specified by FILENAME if it is empty.  If it
-succeeds it returns 1, otherwise it returns 0 and sets C<$!> (errno).  If
-FILENAME is omitted, uses $_.
+Deletes the directory specified by FILENAME if that directory is empty.  If it
+succeeds it returns TRUE, otherwise it returns FALSE and sets C<$!> (errno).  If
+FILENAME is omitted, uses C<$_>.
 
 =item s///
 
@@ -2722,41 +3104,58 @@ The substitution operator.  See L<perlop>.
 
 =item scalar EXPR
 
-Forces EXPR to be interpreted in a scalar context and returns the value
+Forces EXPR to be interpreted in scalar context and returns the value
 of EXPR.
 
     @counts = ( scalar @a, scalar @b, scalar @c );
 
 There is no equivalent operator to force an expression to
-be interpolated in a list context because it's in practice never
+be interpolated in list context because it's in practice never
 needed.  If you really wanted to do so, however, you could use
 the construction C<@{[ (some expression) ]}>, but usually a simple
 C<(some expression)> suffices.
 
+Though C<scalar> can be considered in general to be a unary operator,
+EXPR is also allowed to be a parenthesized list.  The list in fact
+behaves as a scalar comma expression, evaluating all but the last
+element in void context and returning the final element evaluated in
+a scalar context.
+
+The following single statement:
+
+	print uc(scalar(&foo,$bar)),$baz;
+
+is the moral equivalent of these two:
+
+	&foo;
+	print(uc($bar),$baz);
+
+See L<perlop> for more details on unary operators and the comma operator.
+
 =item seek FILEHANDLE,POSITION,WHENCE
 
-Sets FILEHANDLE's position, just like the fseek() call of stdio.
+Sets FILEHANDLE's position, just like the C<fseek()> call of C<stdio()>.
 FILEHANDLE may be an expression whose value gives the name of the
-filehandle.  The values for WHENCE are 0 to set the new position to
-POSITION, 1 to set it to the current position plus POSITION, and 2 to
+filehandle.  The values for WHENCE are C<0> to set the new position to
+POSITION, C<1> to set it to the current position plus POSITION, and C<2> to
 set it to EOF plus POSITION (typically negative).  For WHENCE you may
-use the constants SEEK_SET, SEEK_CUR, and SEEK_END from either the
-IO::Seekable or the POSIX module.  Returns 1 upon success, 0 otherwise.
+use the constants C<SEEK_SET>, C<SEEK_CUR>, and C<SEEK_END> from either the
+C<IO::Seekable> or the POSIX module.  Returns C<1> upon success, C<0> otherwise.
 
-If you want to position file for sysread() or syswrite(), don't use
-seek() -- buffering makes its effect on the file's system position
-unpredictable and non-portable.  Use sysseek() instead.
+If you want to position file for C<sysread()> or C<syswrite()>, don't use
+C<seek()> -- buffering makes its effect on the file's system position
+unpredictable and non-portable.  Use C<sysseek()> instead.
 
 On some systems you have to do a seek whenever you switch between reading
 and writing.  Amongst other things, this may have the effect of calling
-stdio's clearerr(3).  A WHENCE of 1 (SEEK_CUR) is useful for not moving
+stdio's clearerr(3).  A WHENCE of C<1> (C<SEEK_CUR>) is useful for not moving
 the file position:
 
     seek(TEST,0,1);
 
 This is also useful for applications emulating C<tail -f>.  Once you hit
 EOF on your read, and then sleep for a while, you might have to stick in a
-seek() to reset things.  The seek() doesn't change the current position,
+seek() to reset things.  The C<seek()> doesn't change the current position,
 but it I<does> clear the end-of-file condition on the handle, so that the
 next C<E<lt>FILEE<gt>> makes Perl try again to read something.  We hope.
 
@@ -2764,7 +3163,8 @@ If that doesn't work (some stdios are particularly cantankerous), then
 you may need something more like this:
 
     for (;;) {
-	for ($curpos = tell(FILE); $_ = <FILE>; $curpos = tell(FILE)) {
+	for ($curpos = tell(FILE); $_ = <FILE>;
+             $curpos = tell(FILE)) {
 	    # search for some stuff and put it into files
 	}
 	sleep($for_a_while);
@@ -2773,8 +3173,8 @@ you may need something more like this:
 
 =item seekdir DIRHANDLE,POS
 
-Sets the current position for the readdir() routine on DIRHANDLE.  POS
-must be a value returned by telldir().  Has the same caveats about
+Sets the current position for the C<readdir()> routine on DIRHANDLE.  POS
+must be a value returned by C<telldir()>.  Has the same caveats about
 possible directory compaction as the corresponding system library
 routine.
 
@@ -2784,7 +3184,7 @@ routine.
 
 Returns the currently selected filehandle.  Sets the current default
 filehandle for output, if FILEHANDLE is supplied.  This has two
-effects: first, a C<write> or a C<print> without a filehandle will
+effects: first, a C<write()> or a C<print()> without a filehandle will
 default to this FILEHANDLE.  Second, references to variables related to
 output will refer to this output channel.  For example, if you have to
 set the top of form format for more than one output channel, you might
@@ -2809,7 +3209,7 @@ methods, preferring to write the last example as:
 =item select RBITS,WBITS,EBITS,TIMEOUT
 
 This calls the select(2) system call with the bit masks specified, which
-can be constructed using fileno() and vec(), along these lines:
+can be constructed using C<fileno()> and C<vec()>, along these lines:
 
     $rin = $win = $ein = '';
     vec($rin,fileno(STDIN),1) = 1;
@@ -2820,8 +3220,8 @@ If you want to select on many filehandles you might wish to write a
 subroutine:
 
     sub fhbits {
-	local(@fhlist) = split(' ',$_[0]);
-	local($bits);
+	my(@fhlist) = split(' ',$_[0]);
+	my($bits);
 	for (@fhlist) {
 	    vec($bits,fileno($_),1) = 1;
 	}
@@ -2838,33 +3238,39 @@ or to block until something becomes ready just do this
 
     $nfound = select($rout=$rin, $wout=$win, $eout=$ein, undef);
 
-Most systems do not bother to return anything useful in $timeleft, so
-calling select() in a scalar context just returns $nfound.
+Most systems do not bother to return anything useful in C<$timeleft>, so
+calling select() in scalar context just returns C<$nfound>.
 
 Any of the bit masks can also be undef.  The timeout, if specified, is
 in seconds, which may be fractional.  Note: not all implementations are
-capable of returning the $timeleft.  If not, they always return
-$timeleft equal to the supplied $timeout.
+capable of returning theC<$timeleft>.  If not, they always return
+C<$timeleft> equal to the supplied C<$timeout>.
 
 You can effect a sleep of 250 milliseconds this way:
 
     select(undef, undef, undef, 0.25);
 
-B<WARNING>: Do not attempt to mix buffered I/O (like read() or E<lt>FHE<gt>)
-with select().  You have to use sysread() instead.
+B<WARNING>: One should not attempt to mix buffered I/O (like C<read()>
+or E<lt>FHE<gt>) with C<select()>, except as permitted by POSIX, and even
+then only on POSIX systems.  You have to use C<sysread()> instead.
 
 =item semctl ID,SEMNUM,CMD,ARG
 
-Calls the System V IPC function semctl.  If CMD is &IPC_STAT or
-&GETALL, then ARG must be a variable which will hold the returned
-semid_ds structure or semaphore value array.  Returns like ioctl: the
-undefined value for error, "0 but true" for zero, or the actual return
-value otherwise.
+Calls the System V IPC function C<semctl()>.  You'll probably have to say
+
+    use IPC::SysV;
+
+first to get the correct constant definitions.  If CMD is IPC_STAT or
+GETALL, then ARG must be a variable which will hold the returned
+semid_ds structure or semaphore value array.  Returns like C<ioctl()>: the
+undefined value for error, "C<0> but true" for zero, or the actual return
+value otherwise.  See also C<IPC::SysV> and C<IPC::Semaphore> documentation.
 
 =item semget KEY,NSEMS,FLAGS
 
 Calls the System V IPC function semget.  Returns the semaphore id, or
-the undefined value if there is an error.
+the undefined value if there is an error.  See also C<IPC::SysV> and
+C<IPC::SysV::Semaphore> documentation.
 
 =item semop KEY,OPSTRING
 
@@ -2874,12 +3280,13 @@ semop structures.  Each semop structure can be generated with
 C<pack("sss", $semnum, $semop, $semflag)>.  The number of semaphore
 operations is implied by the length of OPSTRING.  Returns TRUE if
 successful, or FALSE if there is an error.  As an example, the
-following code waits on semaphore $semnum of semaphore id $semid:
+following code waits on semaphore C<$semnum> of semaphore id C<$semid>:
 
     $semop = pack("sss", $semnum, -1, 0);
     die "Semaphore trouble: $!\n" unless semop($semid, $semop);
 
-To signal the semaphore, replace "-1" with "1".
+To signal the semaphore, replace C<-1> with C<1>.  See also C<IPC::SysV>
+and C<IPC::SysV::Semaphore> documentation.
 
 =item send SOCKET,MSG,FLAGS,TO
 
@@ -2887,18 +3294,18 @@ To signal the semaphore, replace "-1" with "1".
 
 Sends a message on a socket.  Takes the same flags as the system call
 of the same name.  On unconnected sockets you must specify a
-destination to send TO, in which case it does a C sendto().  Returns
+destination to send TO, in which case it does a C C<sendto()>.  Returns
 the number of characters sent, or the undefined value if there is an
 error.
 See L<perlipc/"UDP: Message Passing"> for examples.
 
 =item setpgrp PID,PGRP
 
-Sets the current process group for the specified PID, 0 for the current
+Sets the current process group for the specified PID, C<0> for the current
 process.  Will produce a fatal error if used on a machine that doesn't
 implement setpgrp(2).  If the arguments are omitted, it defaults to
-0,0.  Note that the POSIX version of setpgrp() does not accept any
-arguments, so only setpgrp 0,0 is portable.
+C<0,0>.  Note that the POSIX version of C<setpgrp()> does not accept any
+arguments, so only setpgrp C<0,0> is portable.
 
 =item setpriority WHICH,WHO,PRIORITY
 
@@ -2909,7 +3316,7 @@ that doesn't implement setpriority(2).
 =item setsockopt SOCKET,LEVEL,OPTNAME,OPTVAL
 
 Sets the socket option requested.  Returns undefined if there is an
-error.  OPTVAL may be specified as undef if you don't want to pass an
+error.  OPTVAL may be specified as C<undef> if you don't want to pass an
 argument.
 
 =item shift ARRAY
@@ -2919,24 +3326,30 @@ argument.
 Shifts the first value of the array off and returns it, shortening the
 array by 1 and moving everything down.  If there are no elements in the
 array, returns the undefined value.  If ARRAY is omitted, shifts the
-@_ array within the lexical scope of subroutines and formats, and the
-@ARGV array at file scopes or within the lexical scopes established by
+C<@_> array within the lexical scope of subroutines and formats, and the
+C<@ARGV> array at file scopes or within the lexical scopes established by
 the C<eval ''>, C<BEGIN {}>, C<END {}>, and C<INIT {}> constructs.
-See also unshift(), push(), and pop().  Shift() and unshift() do the
-same thing to the left end of an array that pop() and push() do to the
+See also C<unshift()>, C<push()>, and C<pop()>.  C<Shift()> and C<unshift()> do the
+same thing to the left end of an array that C<pop()> and C<push()> do to the
 right end.
 
 =item shmctl ID,CMD,ARG
 
-Calls the System V IPC function shmctl.  If CMD is &IPC_STAT, then ARG
-must be a variable which will hold the returned shmid_ds structure.
-Returns like ioctl: the undefined value for error, "0 but true" for
-zero, or the actual return value otherwise.
+Calls the System V IPC function shmctl.  You'll probably have to say
+
+    use IPC::SysV;
+
+first to get the correct constant definitions.  If CMD is C<IPC_STAT>,
+then ARG must be a variable which will hold the returned C<shmid_ds>
+structure.  Returns like ioctl: the undefined value for error, "C<0> but
+true" for zero, or the actual return value otherwise.
+See also C<IPC::SysV> documentation.
 
 =item shmget KEY,SIZE,FLAGS
 
 Calls the System V IPC function shmget.  Returns the shared memory
 segment id, or the undefined value if there is an error.
+See also C<IPC::SysV> documentation.
 
 =item shmread ID,VAR,POS,SIZE
 
@@ -2944,24 +3357,35 @@ segment id, or the undefined value if there is an error.
 
 Reads or writes the System V shared memory segment ID starting at
 position POS for size SIZE by attaching to it, copying in/out, and
-detaching from it.  When reading, VAR must be a variable which will
+detaching from it.  When reading, VAR must be a variable that will
 hold the data read.  When writing, if STRING is too long, only SIZE
 bytes are used; if STRING is too short, nulls are written to fill out
 SIZE bytes.  Return TRUE if successful, or FALSE if there is an error.
+See also C<IPC::SysV> documentation.
 
 =item shutdown SOCKET,HOW
 
 Shuts down a socket connection in the manner indicated by HOW, which
 has the same interpretation as in the system call of the same name.
 
+    shutdown(SOCKET, 0);    # I/we have stopped reading data
+    shutdown(SOCKET, 1);    # I/we have stopped writing data
+    shutdown(SOCKET, 2);    # I/we have stopped using this socket
+
+This is useful with sockets when you want to tell the other
+side you're done writing but not done reading, or vice versa.
+It's also a more insistent form of close because it also 
+disables the filedescriptor in any forked copies in other
+processes.
+
 =item sin EXPR
 
 =item sin
 
 Returns the sine of EXPR (expressed in radians).  If EXPR is omitted,
-returns sine of $_.
+returns sine of C<$_>.
 
-For the inverse sine operation, you may use the POSIX::asin()
+For the inverse sine operation, you may use the C<POSIX::asin()>
 function, or use this relation:
 
     sub asin { atan2($_[0], sqrt(1 - $_[0] * $_[0])) }
@@ -2971,25 +3395,28 @@ function, or use this relation:
 =item sleep
 
 Causes the script to sleep for EXPR seconds, or forever if no EXPR.
-May be interrupted by sending the process a SIGALRM.  Returns the
-number of seconds actually slept.  You probably cannot mix alarm() and
-sleep() calls, because sleep() is often implemented using alarm().
+May be interrupted if the process receives a signal such as C<SIGALRM>.
+Returns the number of seconds actually slept.  You probably cannot
+mix C<alarm()> and C<sleep()> calls, because C<sleep()> is often implemented
+using C<alarm()>.
 
 On some older systems, it may sleep up to a full second less than what
 you requested, depending on how it counts seconds.  Most modern systems
-always sleep the full amount.
+always sleep the full amount.  They may appear to sleep longer than that,
+however, because your process might not be scheduled right away in a
+busy multitasking system.
 
 For delays of finer granularity than one second, you may use Perl's
-syscall() interface to access setitimer(2) if your system supports it,
-or else see L</select()> below.
+C<syscall()> interface to access setitimer(2) if your system supports it,
+or else see L</select> above.
 
-See also the POSIX module's sigpause() function.
+See also the POSIX module's C<sigpause()> function.
 
 =item socket SOCKET,DOMAIN,TYPE,PROTOCOL
 
 Opens a socket of the specified kind and attaches it to filehandle
 SOCKET.  DOMAIN, TYPE, and PROTOCOL are specified the same as for the
-system call of the same name.  You should "use Socket;" first to get
+system call of the same name.  You should "C<use Socket;>" first to get
 the proper definitions imported.  See the example in L<perlipc/"Sockets: Client/Server Communication">.
 
 =item socketpair SOCKET1,SOCKET2,DOMAIN,TYPE,PROTOCOL
@@ -2999,6 +3426,16 @@ specified type.  DOMAIN, TYPE, and PROTOCOL are specified the same as
 for the system call of the same name.  If unimplemented, yields a fatal
 error.  Returns TRUE if successful.
 
+Some systems defined C<pipe()> in terms of C<socketpair()>, in which a call
+to C<pipe(Rdr, Wtr)> is essentially:
+
+    use Socket;
+    socketpair(Rdr, Wtr, AF_UNIX, SOCK_STREAM, PF_UNSPEC);
+    shutdown(Rdr, 1);        # no more writing for reader
+    shutdown(Wtr, 0);        # no more reading for writer
+
+See L<perlipc> for an example of socketpair use.
+
 =item sort SUBNAME LIST
 
 =item sort BLOCK LIST
@@ -3006,24 +3443,25 @@ error.  Returns TRUE if successful.
 =item sort LIST
 
 Sorts the LIST and returns the sorted list value.  If SUBNAME or BLOCK
-is omitted, sorts in standard string comparison order.  If SUBNAME is
+is omitted, C<sort()>s in standard string comparison order.  If SUBNAME is
 specified, it gives the name of a subroutine that returns an integer
-less than, equal to, or greater than 0, depending on how the elements
+less than, equal to, or greater than C<0>, depending on how the elements
 of the array are to be ordered.  (The C<E<lt>=E<gt>> and C<cmp>
 operators are extremely useful in such routines.)  SUBNAME may be a
-scalar variable name, in which case the value provides the name of the
-subroutine to use.  In place of a SUBNAME, you can provide a BLOCK as
-an anonymous, in-line sort subroutine.
+scalar variable name (unsubscripted), in which case the value provides
+the name of (or a reference to) the actual subroutine to use.  In place
+of a SUBNAME, you can provide a BLOCK as an anonymous, in-line sort
+subroutine.
 
 In the interests of efficiency the normal calling code for subroutines is
 bypassed, with the following effects: the subroutine may not be a
 recursive subroutine, and the two elements to be compared are passed into
-the subroutine not via @_ but as the package global variables $a and
-$b (see example below).  They are passed by reference, so don't
-modify $a and $b.  And don't try to declare them as lexicals either.
+the subroutine not via C<@_> but as the package global variables C<$a> and
+C<$b> (see example below).  They are passed by reference, so don't
+modify C<$a> and C<$b>.  And don't try to declare them as lexicals either.
 
 You also cannot exit out of the sort block or subroutine using any of the
-loop control operators described in L<perlsyn> or with goto().
+loop control operators described in L<perlsyn> or with C<goto()>.
 
 When C<use locale> is in effect, C<sort LIST> sorts LIST according to the
 current collation locale.  See L<perllocale>.
@@ -3101,8 +3539,8 @@ Examples:
                $a->[2] cmp $b->[2]
         } map { [$_, /=(\d+)/, uc($_)] } @old;
 
-If you're using strict, you I<MUST NOT> declare $a
-and $b as lexicals.  They are package globals.  That means
+If you're using strict, you I<MUST NOT> declare C<$a>
+and C<$b> as lexicals.  They are package globals.  That means
 if you're in the C<main> package, it's
 
     @articles = sort {$main::b <=> $main::a} @files;
@@ -3116,11 +3554,9 @@ but if you're in the C<FooPack> package, it's
     @articles = sort {$FooPack::b <=> $FooPack::a} @files;
 
 The comparison function is required to behave.  If it returns
-inconsistent results (sometimes saying $x[1] is less than $x[2] and
-sometimes saying the opposite, for example) the Perl interpreter will
-probably crash and dump core.  This is entirely due to and dependent
-upon your system's qsort(3) library routine; this routine often avoids
-sanity checks in the interest of speed.
+inconsistent results (sometimes saying C<$x[1]> is less than C<$x[2]> and
+sometimes saying the opposite, for example) the results are not
+well-defined.
 
 =item splice ARRAY,OFFSET,LENGTH,LIST
 
@@ -3129,24 +3565,26 @@ sanity checks in the interest of speed.
 =item splice ARRAY,OFFSET
 
 Removes the elements designated by OFFSET and LENGTH from an array, and
-replaces them with the elements of LIST, if any.  In a list context,
-returns the elements removed from the array.  In a scalar context,
+replaces them with the elements of LIST, if any.  In list context,
+returns the elements removed from the array.  In scalar context,
 returns the last element removed, or C<undef> if no elements are
-removed.  The array grows or shrinks as necessary.  If LENGTH is
-omitted, removes everything from OFFSET onward.  The following
-equivalences hold (assuming C<$[ == 0>):
+removed.  The array grows or shrinks as necessary.
+If OFFSET is negative then it start that far from the end of the array.
+If LENGTH is omitted, removes everything from OFFSET onward.
+If LENGTH is negative, leave that many elements off the end of the array.
+The following equivalences hold (assuming C<$[ == 0>):
 
-    push(@a,$x,$y)	splice(@a,$#a+1,0,$x,$y)
+    push(@a,$x,$y)	splice(@a,@a,0,$x,$y)
     pop(@a)		splice(@a,-1)
     shift(@a)		splice(@a,0,1)
     unshift(@a,$x,$y)	splice(@a,0,0,$x,$y)
-    $a[$x] = $y		splice(@a,$x,1,$y);
+    $a[$x] = $y		splice(@a,$x,1,$y)
 
 Example, assuming array lengths are passed before arrays:
 
     sub aeq {	# compare two list values
-	local(@a) = splice(@_,0,shift);
-	local(@b) = splice(@_,0,shift);
+	my(@a) = splice(@_,0,shift);
+	my(@b) = splice(@_,0,shift);
 	return 0 unless @a == @b;	# same len?
 	while (@a) {
 	    return 0 if pop(@a) ne pop(@b);
@@ -3163,22 +3601,24 @@ Example, assuming array lengths are passed before arrays:
 
 =item split
 
-Splits a string into an array of strings, and returns it.
+Splits a string into an array of strings, and returns it.  By default,
+empty leading fields are preserved, and empty trailing ones are deleted.
 
-If not in a list context, returns the number of fields found and splits into
-the @_ array.  (In a list context, you can force the split into @_ by
-using C<??> as the pattern delimiters, but it still returns the array
-value.)  The use of implicit split to @_ is deprecated, however.
+If not in list context, returns the number of fields found and splits into
+the C<@_> array.  (In list context, you can force the split into C<@_> by
+using C<??> as the pattern delimiters, but it still returns the list
+value.)  The use of implicit split to C<@_> is deprecated, however, because
+it clobbers your subroutine arguments.
 
-If EXPR is omitted, splits the $_ string.  If PATTERN is also omitted,
+If EXPR is omitted, splits the C<$_> string.  If PATTERN is also omitted,
 splits on whitespace (after skipping any leading whitespace).  Anything
 matching PATTERN is taken to be a delimiter separating the fields.  (Note
 that the delimiter may be longer than one character.)
 
-If LIMIT is specified and is not negative, splits into no more than
-that many fields (though it may split into fewer).  If LIMIT is
-unspecified, trailing null fields are stripped (which potential users
-of pop() would do well to remember).  If LIMIT is negative, it is
+If LIMIT is specified and positive, splits into no more than that
+many fields (though it may split into fewer).  If LIMIT is unspecified
+or zero, trailing null fields are stripped (which potential users
+of C<pop()> would do well to remember).  If LIMIT is negative, it is
 treated as if an arbitrarily large LIMIT had been specified.
 
 A pattern matching the null string (not to be confused with
@@ -3209,7 +3649,7 @@ produces the list value
 
     (1, '-', 10, ',', 20)
 
-If you had the entire header of a normal Unix email message in $header,
+If you had the entire header of a normal Unix email message in C<$header>,
 you could split it up into fields and their values this way:
 
     $header =~ s/\n\s+/ /g;  # fix continuation lines
@@ -3220,38 +3660,38 @@ patterns that vary at runtime.  (To do runtime compilation only once,
 use C</$variable/o>.)
 
 As a special case, specifying a PATTERN of space (C<' '>) will split on
-white space just as split with no arguments does.  Thus, split(' ') can
+white space just as C<split()> with no arguments does.  Thus, C<split(' ')> can
 be used to emulate B<awk>'s default behavior, whereas C<split(/ /)>
 will give you as many null initial fields as there are leading spaces.
-A split on /\s+/ is like a split(' ') except that any leading
-whitespace produces a null first field.  A split with no arguments
+A C<split()> on C</\s+/> is like a C<split(' ')> except that any leading
+whitespace produces a null first field.  A C<split()> with no arguments
 really does a C<split(' ', $_)> internally.
 
 Example:
 
-    open(passwd, '/etc/passwd');
-    while (<passwd>) {
-	($login, $passwd, $uid, $gid, $gcos,
-	    $home, $shell) = split(/:/);
-	...
+    open(PASSWD, '/etc/passwd');
+    while (<PASSWD>) {
+	($login, $passwd, $uid, $gid,
+         $gcos, $home, $shell) = split(/:/);
+	#...
     }
 
-(Note that $shell above will still have a newline on it.  See L</chop>,
+(Note that C<$shell> above will still have a newline on it.  See L</chop>,
 L</chomp>, and L</join>.)
 
 =item sprintf FORMAT, LIST
 
-Returns a string formatted by the usual printf conventions of the
-C library function sprintf().  See L<sprintf(3)> or L<printf(3)>
+Returns a string formatted by the usual C<printf()> conventions of the
+C library function C<sprintf()>.  See L<sprintf(3)> or L<printf(3)>
 on your system for an explanation of the general principles.
 
-Perl does all of its own sprintf() formatting -- it emulates the C
-function sprintf(), but it doesn't use it (except for floating-point
+Perl does its own C<sprintf()> formatting -- it emulates the C
+function C<sprintf()>, but it doesn't use it (except for floating-point
 numbers, and even then only the standard modifiers are allowed).  As a
-result, any non-standard extensions in your local sprintf() are not
+result, any non-standard extensions in your local C<sprintf()> are not
 available from Perl.
 
-Perl's sprintf() permits the following universally-known conversions:
+Perl's C<sprintf()> permits the following universally-known conversions:
 
    %%	a percent sign
    %c	a character with the given number
@@ -3269,6 +3709,7 @@ In addition, Perl permits the following widely-supported conversions:
    %X	like %x, but using upper-case letters
    %E	like %e, but using an upper-case "E"
    %G	like %g, but with an upper-case "E" (if applicable)
+   %b	an unsigned integer, in binary
    %p	a pointer (outputs the Perl value's address in hexadecimal)
    %n	special: *stores* the number of characters output so far
         into the next variable in the parameter list 
@@ -3291,8 +3732,9 @@ and the conversion letter:
    0       use zeros, not spaces, to right-justify
    #       prefix non-zero octal with "0", non-zero hex with "0x"
    number  minimum field width
-   .number "precision": digits after decimal point for floating-point,
-           max length for string, minimum length for integer
+   .number "precision": digits after decimal point for
+           floating-point, max length for string, minimum length
+           for integer
    l       interpret integer as C type "long" or "unsigned long"
    h       interpret integer as C type "short" or "unsigned short"
 
@@ -3300,11 +3742,11 @@ There is also one Perl-specific flag:
 
    V       interpret integer as Perl's standard integer type
 
-Where a number would appear in the flags, an asterisk ("*") may be
+Where a number would appear in the flags, an asterisk ("C<*>") may be
 used instead, in which case Perl uses the next item in the parameter
 list as the given number (that is, as the field width or precision).
-If a field width obtained through "*" is negative, it has the same
-effect as the '-' flag: left-justification.
+If a field width obtained through "C<*>" is negative, it has the same
+effect as the "C<->" flag: left-justification.
 
 If C<use locale> is in effect, the character used for the decimal
 point in formatted real numbers is affected by the LC_NUMERIC locale.
@@ -3315,24 +3757,25 @@ See L<perllocale>.
 =item sqrt
 
 Return the square root of EXPR.  If EXPR is omitted, returns square
-root of $_.
+root of C<$_>.
 
 =item srand EXPR
 
 =item srand
 
-Sets the random number seed for the C<rand> operator.  If EXPR is
-omitted, uses a semi-random value based on the current time and process
+Sets the random number seed for the C<rand()> operator.  If EXPR is
+omitted, uses a semi-random value supplied by the kernel (if it supports
+the F</dev/urandom> device) or based on the current time and process
 ID, among other things.  In versions of Perl prior to 5.004 the default
-seed was just the current time().  This isn't a particularly good seed,
+seed was just the current C<time()>.  This isn't a particularly good seed,
 so many old programs supply their own seed value (often C<time ^ $$> or
-C<time ^ ($$ + ($$ << 15))>), but that isn't necessary any more.
+C<time ^ ($$ + ($$ E<lt>E<lt> 15))>), but that isn't necessary any more.
 
-In fact, it's usually not necessary to call srand() at all, because if
+In fact, it's usually not necessary to call C<srand()> at all, because if
 it is not called explicitly, it is called implicitly at the first use of
-the C<rand> operator.  However, this was not the case in version of Perl
+the C<rand()> operator.  However, this was not the case in version of Perl
 before 5.004, so if your script will run under older Perl versions, it
-should call srand().
+should call C<srand()>.
 
 Note that you need something much more random than the default seed for
 cryptographic purposes.  Checksumming the compressed output of one or more
@@ -3341,14 +3784,14 @@ example:
 
     srand (time ^ $$ ^ unpack "%L*", `ps axww | gzip`);
 
-If you're particularly concerned with this, see the Math::TrulyRandom
+If you're particularly concerned with this, see the C<Math::TrulyRandom>
 module in CPAN.
 
-Do I<not> call srand() multiple times in your program unless you know
+Do I<not> call C<srand()> multiple times in your program unless you know
 exactly what you're doing and why you're doing it.  The point of the
-function is to "seed" the rand() function so that rand() can produce
+function is to "seed" the C<rand()> function so that C<rand()> can produce
 a different sequence each time you run your program.  Just do it once at the
-top of your program, or you I<won't> get random numbers out of rand()!
+top of your program, or you I<won't> get random numbers out of C<rand()>!
 
 Frequently called programs (like CGI scripts) that simply use
 
@@ -3366,11 +3809,10 @@ one-third of the time.  So don't do that.
 
 =item stat
 
-Returns a 13-element array giving the status info for a file, either the
-file opened via FILEHANDLE, or named by EXPR.  If EXPR is omitted, it
-stats $_.  Returns a null list if the stat fails.  Typically used as
-follows:
-
+Returns a 13-element list giving the status info for a file, either
+the file opened via FILEHANDLE, or named by EXPR.  If EXPR is omitted,
+it stats C<$_>.  Returns a null list if the stat fails.  Typically used
+as follows:
 
     ($dev,$ino,$mode,$nlink,$uid,$gid,$rdev,$size,
        $atime,$mtime,$ctime,$blksize,$blocks)
@@ -3405,6 +3847,10 @@ last stat or filetest are returned.  Example:
 
 (This works on machines only for which the device number is negative under NFS.)
 
+In scalar context, C<stat()> returns a boolean value indicating success
+or failure, and, if successful, sets the information associated with
+the special filehandle C<_>.
+
 =item study SCALAR
 
 =item study
@@ -3417,15 +3863,15 @@ frequencies in the string to be searched -- you probably want to compare
 run times with and without it to see which runs faster.  Those loops
 which scan for many short constant strings (including the constant
 parts of more complex patterns) will benefit most.  You may have only
-one study active at a time -- if you study a different scalar the first
-is "unstudied".  (The way study works is this: a linked list of every
+one C<study()> active at a time -- if you study a different scalar the first
+is "unstudied".  (The way C<study()> works is this: a linked list of every
 character in the string to be searched is made, so we know, for
-example, where all the 'k' characters are.  From each search string,
+example, where all the C<'k'> characters are.  From each search string,
 the rarest character is selected, based on some static frequency tables
 constructed from some C programs and English text.  Only those places
 that contain this "rarest" character are examined.)
 
-For example, here is a loop which inserts index producing entries
+For example, here is a loop that inserts index producing entries
 before any line containing a certain pattern:
 
     while (<>) {
@@ -3433,20 +3879,20 @@ before any line containing a certain pattern:
 	print ".IX foo\n" if /\bfoo\b/;
 	print ".IX bar\n" if /\bbar\b/;
 	print ".IX blurfl\n" if /\bblurfl\b/;
-	...
+	# ...
 	print;
     }
 
-In searching for /\bfoo\b/, only those locations in $_ that contain "f"
-will be looked at, because "f" is rarer than "o".  In general, this is
+In searching for C</\bfoo\b/>, only those locations in C<$_> that contain C<"f">
+will be looked at, because C<"f"> is rarer than C<"o">.  In general, this is
 a big win except in pathological cases.  The only question is whether
 it saves you more time than it took to build the linked list in the
 first place.
 
 Note that if you have to look for strings that you don't know till
-runtime, you can build an entire loop as a string and eval that to
+runtime, you can build an entire loop as a string and C<eval()> that to
 avoid recompiling all your patterns all the time.  Together with
-undefining $/ to input entire files as one record, this can be very
+undefining C<$/> to input entire files as one record, this can be very
 fast, often faster than specialized programs like fgrep(1).  The following
 scans a list of files (C<@files>) for a list of words (C<@words>), and prints
 out the names of those files that contain a match:
@@ -3476,36 +3922,42 @@ a NAME, it's an anonymous function declaration, and does actually return a
 value: the CODE ref of the closure you just created.  See L<perlsub> and
 L<perlref> for details.
 
+=item substr EXPR,OFFSET,LEN,REPLACEMENT
+
 =item substr EXPR,OFFSET,LEN
 
 =item substr EXPR,OFFSET
 
 Extracts a substring out of EXPR and returns it.  First character is at
-offset 0, or whatever you've set C<$[> to (but don't do that).
+offset C<0>, or whatever you've set C<$[> to (but don't do that).
 If OFFSET is negative (or more precisely, less than C<$[>), starts
 that far from the end of the string.  If LEN is omitted, returns
 everything to the end of the string.  If LEN is negative, leaves that
 many characters off the end of the string.
 
-If you specify a substring which is partly outside the string, the part
+If you specify a substring that is partly outside the string, the part
 within the string is returned.    If the substring is totally outside
 the string a warning is produced.
 
-You can use the substr() function
+You can use the C<substr()> function
 as an lvalue, in which case EXPR must be an lvalue.  If you assign
 something shorter than LEN, the string will shrink, and if you assign
 something longer than LEN, the string will grow to accommodate it.  To
 keep the string the same length you may need to pad or chop your value
-using sprintf().
+using C<sprintf()>.
+
+An alternative to using C<substr()> as an lvalue is to specify the
+replacement string as the 4th argument.  This allows you to replace
+parts of the EXPR and return what was there before in one operation.
 
 =item symlink OLDFILE,NEWFILE
 
 Creates a new filename symbolically linked to the old filename.
-Returns 1 for success, 0 otherwise.  On systems that don't support
+Returns C<1> for success, C<0> otherwise.  On systems that don't support
 symbolic links, produces a fatal error at run time.  To check for that,
 use eval:
 
-    $symlink_exists = (eval {symlink("","")};, $@ eq '');
+    $symlink_exists =  eval { symlink("",""); 1 };
 
 =item syscall LIST
 
@@ -3516,12 +3968,12 @@ as follows: if a given argument is numeric, the argument is passed as
 an int.  If not, the pointer to the string value is passed.  You are
 responsible to make sure a string is pre-extended long enough to
 receive any result that might be written into a string.  You can't use a
-string literal (or other read-only string) as an argument to syscall()
+string literal (or other read-only string) as an argument to C<syscall()>
 because Perl has to assume that any string pointer might be written
 through.  If your
 integer arguments are not literals and have never been interpreted in a
-numeric context, you may need to add 0 to them to force them to look
-like numbers.
+numeric context, you may need to add C<0> to them to force them to look
+like numbers.  This emulates the C<syswrite()> function (or vice versa):
 
     require 'syscall.ph';		# may need to run h2ph
     $s = "hi there\n";
@@ -3531,15 +3983,15 @@ Note that Perl supports passing of up to only 14 arguments to your system call,
 which in practice should usually suffice.
 
 Syscall returns whatever value returned by the system call it calls.
-If the system call fails, syscall returns -1 and sets C<$!> (errno).
-Note that some system calls can legitimately return -1.  The proper
+If the system call fails, C<syscall()> returns C<-1> and sets C<$!> (errno).
+Note that some system calls can legitimately return C<-1>.  The proper
 way to handle such calls is to assign C<$!=0;> before the call and
-check the value of <$!> if syscall returns -1.
+check the value of C<$!> if syscall returns C<-1>.
 
 There's a problem with C<syscall(&SYS_pipe)>: it returns the file
 number of the read end of the pipe it creates.  There is no way
 to retrieve the file number of the other end.  You can avoid this 
-problem by using C<pipe> instead.
+problem by using C<pipe()> instead.
 
 =item sysopen FILEHANDLE,FILENAME,MODE
 
@@ -3548,21 +4000,29 @@ problem by using C<pipe> instead.
 Opens the file whose filename is given by FILENAME, and associates it
 with FILEHANDLE.  If FILEHANDLE is an expression, its value is used as
 the name of the real filehandle wanted.  This function calls the
-underlying operating system's C<open> function with the parameters
+underlying operating system's C<open()> function with the parameters
 FILENAME, MODE, PERMS.
 
 The possible values and flag bits of the MODE parameter are
 system-dependent; they are available via the standard module C<Fcntl>.
-However, for historical reasons, some values are universal: zero means
-read-only, one means write-only, and two means read/write.
-
-If the file named by FILENAME does not exist and the C<open> call
-creates it (typically because MODE includes the O_CREAT flag), then
-the value of PERMS specifies the permissions of the newly created
-file.  If PERMS is omitted, the default value is 0666, which allows
-read and write for all.  This default is reasonable: see C<umask>.
-
-The IO::File module provides a more object-oriented approach, if you're
+For historical reasons, some values work on almost every system
+supported by perl: zero means read-only, one means write-only, and two
+means read/write.  We know that these values do I<not> work under
+OS/390 & VM/ESA Unix and on the Macintosh; you probably don't want to
+use them in new code.
+
+If the file named by FILENAME does not exist and the C<open()> call creates
+it (typically because MODE includes the C<O_CREAT> flag), then the value of
+PERMS specifies the permissions of the newly created file.  If you omit
+the PERMS argument to C<sysopen()>, Perl uses the octal value C<0666>.
+These permission values need to be in octal, and are modified by your
+process's current C<umask>.
+
+Seldom if ever use C<0644> as argument to C<sysopen()> because that
+takes away the user's option to have a more permissive umask.  Better
+to omit it.  See the perlfunc(1) entry on C<umask> for more on this.
+
+The C<IO::File> module provides a more object-oriented approach, if you're
 into that kind of thing.
 
 =item sysread FILEHANDLE,SCALAR,LENGTH,OFFSET
@@ -3570,34 +4030,35 @@ into that kind of thing.
 =item sysread FILEHANDLE,SCALAR,LENGTH
 
 Attempts to read LENGTH bytes of data into variable SCALAR from the
-specified FILEHANDLE, using the system call read(2).  It bypasses
-stdio, so mixing this with other kinds of reads, print(), write(),
-seek(), or tell() can cause confusion because stdio usually buffers
-data.  Returns the number of bytes actually read, or undef if there
-was an error.  SCALAR will be grown or shrunk so that the last byte
-actually read is the last byte of the scalar after the read.
+specified FILEHANDLE, using the system call read(2).  It bypasses stdio,
+so mixing this with other kinds of reads, C<print()>, C<write()>,
+C<seek()>, C<tell()>, or C<eof()> can cause confusion because stdio
+usually buffers data.  Returns the number of bytes actually read, C<0>
+at end of file, or undef if there was an error.  SCALAR will be grown or
+shrunk so that the last byte actually read is the last byte of the
+scalar after the read.
 
 An OFFSET may be specified to place the read data at some place in the
 string other than the beginning.  A negative OFFSET specifies
 placement at that many bytes counting backwards from the end of the
 string.  A positive OFFSET greater than the length of SCALAR results
-in the string being padded to the required size with "\0" bytes before
+in the string being padded to the required size with C<"\0"> bytes before
 the result of the read is appended.
 
 =item sysseek FILEHANDLE,POSITION,WHENCE
 
 Sets FILEHANDLE's system position using the system call lseek(2).  It
-bypasses stdio, so mixing this with reads (other than sysread()),
-print(), write(), seek(), or tell() may cause confusion.  FILEHANDLE may
-be an expression whose value gives the name of the filehandle.  The
-values for WHENCE are 0 to set the new position to POSITION, 1 to set
-the it to the current position plus POSITION, and 2 to set it to EOF
-plus POSITION (typically negative).  For WHENCE, you may use the
-constants SEEK_SET, SEEK_CUR, and SEEK_END from either the IO::Seekable
-or the POSIX module.
+bypasses stdio, so mixing this with reads (other than C<sysread()>),
+C<print()>, C<write()>, C<seek()>, C<tell()>, or C<eof()> may cause
+confusion.  FILEHANDLE may be an expression whose value gives the name
+of the filehandle.  The values for WHENCE are C<0> to set the new
+position to POSITION, C<1> to set the it to the current position plus
+POSITION, and C<2> to set it to EOF plus POSITION (typically negative).
+For WHENCE, you may use the constants C<SEEK_SET>, C<SEEK_CUR>, and
+C<SEEK_END> from either the C<IO::Seekable> or the POSIX module.
 
 Returns the new position, or the undefined value on failure.  A position
-of zero is returned as the string "0 but true"; thus sysseek() returns
+of zero is returned as the string "C<0> but true"; thus C<sysseek()> returns
 TRUE on success and FALSE on failure, yet you can still easily determine
 the new position.
 
@@ -3605,67 +4066,61 @@ the new position.
 
 =item system PROGRAM LIST
 
-Does exactly the same thing as "exec LIST" except that a fork is done
+Does exactly the same thing as "C<exec LIST>" except that a fork is done
 first, and the parent process waits for the child process to complete.
 Note that argument processing varies depending on the number of
-arguments.  The return value is the exit status of the program as
-returned by the wait() call.  To get the actual exit value divide by
+arguments.  If there is more than one argument in LIST, or if LIST is
+an array with more than one value, starts the program given by the
+first element of the list with arguments given by the rest of the list.
+If there is only one scalar argument, the argument is
+checked for shell metacharacters, and if there are any, the entire
+argument is passed to the system's command shell for parsing (this is
+C</bin/sh -c> on Unix platforms, but varies on other platforms).  If
+there are no shell metacharacters in the argument, it is split into
+words and passed directly to C<execvp()>, which is more efficient.
+
+The return value is the exit status of the program as
+returned by the C<wait()> call.  To get the actual exit value divide by
 256.  See also L</exec>.  This is I<NOT> what you want to use to capture
 the output from a command, for that you should use merely backticks or
-qx//, as described in L<perlop/"`STRING`">.
+C<qx//>, as described in L<perlop/"`STRING`">.
 
-Like exec(), system() allows you to lie to a program about its name if
-you use the "system PROGRAM LIST" syntax.  Again, see L</exec>.
+Like C<exec()>, C<system()> allows you to lie to a program about its name if
+you use the "C<system PROGRAM LIST>" syntax.  Again, see L</exec>.
 
-Because system() and backticks block SIGINT and SIGQUIT, killing the
+Because C<system()> and backticks block C<SIGINT> and C<SIGQUIT>, killing the
 program they're running doesn't actually interrupt your program.
 
     @args = ("command", "arg1", "arg2");
     system(@args) == 0
 	 or die "system @args failed: $?"
 
-Here's a more elaborate example of analysing the return value from
-system() on a Unix system to check for all possibilities, including for
-signals and core dumps.
+You can check all the failure possibilities by inspecting
+C<$?> like this:
 
-    $rc = 0xffff & system @args;
-    printf "system(%s) returned %#04x: ", "@args", $rc;
-    if ($rc == 0) {
-	print "ran with normal exit\n";
-    }
-    elsif ($rc == 0xff00) {
-	print "command failed: $!\n";
-    }
-    elsif ($rc > 0x80) {
-	$rc >>= 8;
-	print "ran with non-zero exit status $rc\n";
-    }
-    else {
-	print "ran with ";
-	if ($rc &   0x80) {
-	    $rc &= ~0x80;
-	    print "core dump from ";
-	}
-	print "signal $rc\n"
-    }
-    $ok = ($rc != 0);
+    $exit_value  = $? >> 8;
+    $signal_num  = $? & 127;
+    $dumped_core = $? & 128;
 
-When the arguments get executed via the system shell, results will
-be subject to its quirks and capabilities.  See L<perlop/"`STRING`">
-for details.
+When the arguments get executed via the system shell, results
+and return codes will be subject to its quirks and capabilities.
+See L<perlop/"`STRING`"> and L</exec> for details.
 
 =item syswrite FILEHANDLE,SCALAR,LENGTH,OFFSET
 
 =item syswrite FILEHANDLE,SCALAR,LENGTH
 
+=item syswrite FILEHANDLE,SCALAR
+
 Attempts to write LENGTH bytes of data from variable SCALAR to the
-specified FILEHANDLE, using the system call write(2).  It bypasses
-stdio, so mixing this with reads (other than sysread()), print(),
-write(), seek(), or tell() may cause confusion because stdio usually
-buffers data.  Returns the number of bytes actually written, or undef
-if there was an error.  If the LENGTH is greater than the available
-data in the SCALAR after the OFFSET, only as much data as is available
-will be written.
+specified FILEHANDLE, using the system call write(2).  If LENGTH is
+not specified, writes whole SCALAR. It bypasses
+stdio, so mixing this with reads (other than C<sysread())>, C<print()>,
+C<write()>, C<seek()>, C<tell()>, or C<eof()> may cause confusion
+because stdio usually buffers data.  Returns the number of bytes
+actually written, or C<undef> if there was an error.  If the LENGTH is
+greater than the available data in the SCALAR after the OFFSET, only as
+much data as is available will be written.
 
 An OFFSET may be specified to write the data from some part of the
 string other than the beginning.  A negative OFFSET specifies writing
@@ -3682,8 +4137,8 @@ FILEHANDLE is omitted, assumes the file last read.
 
 =item telldir DIRHANDLE
 
-Returns the current position of the readdir() routines on DIRHANDLE.
-Value may be given to seekdir() to access a particular location in a
+Returns the current position of the C<readdir()> routines on DIRHANDLE.
+Value may be given to C<seekdir()> to access a particular location in a
 directory.  Has the same caveats about possible directory compaction as
 the corresponding system library routine.
 
@@ -3692,16 +4147,16 @@ the corresponding system library routine.
 This function binds a variable to a package class that will provide the
 implementation for the variable.  VARIABLE is the name of the variable
 to be enchanted.  CLASSNAME is the name of a class implementing objects
-of correct type.  Any additional arguments are passed to the "new"
-method of the class (meaning TIESCALAR, TIEARRAY, or TIEHASH).
-Typically these are arguments such as might be passed to the dbm_open()
-function of C.  The object returned by the "new" method is also
-returned by the tie() function, which would be useful if you want to
-access other methods in CLASSNAME.
+of correct type.  Any additional arguments are passed to the "C<new()>"
+method of the class (meaning C<TIESCALAR>, C<TIEHANDLE>, C<TIEARRAY>,
+or C<TIEHASH>).  Typically these are arguments such as might be passed
+to the C<dbm_open()> function of C.  The object returned by the "C<new()>"
+method is also returned by the C<tie()> function, which would be useful
+if you want to access other methods in CLASSNAME.
 
-Note that functions such as keys() and values() may return huge array
-values when used on large objects, like DBM files.  You may prefer to
-use the each() function to iterate over such.  Example:
+Note that functions such as C<keys()> and C<values()> may return huge lists
+when used on large objects, like DBM files.  You may prefer to use the
+C<each()> function to iterate over such.  Example:
 
     # print out history file offsets
     use NDBM_File;
@@ -3714,39 +4169,63 @@ use the each() function to iterate over such.  Example:
 A class implementing a hash should have the following methods:
 
     TIEHASH classname, LIST
-    DESTROY this
     FETCH this, key
     STORE this, key, value
     DELETE this, key
+    CLEAR this
     EXISTS this, key
     FIRSTKEY this
     NEXTKEY this, lastkey
+    DESTROY this
 
 A class implementing an ordinary array should have the following methods:
 
     TIEARRAY classname, LIST
-    DESTROY this
     FETCH this, key
     STORE this, key, value
-    [others TBD]
+    FETCHSIZE this
+    STORESIZE this, count
+    CLEAR this
+    PUSH this, LIST
+    POP this
+    SHIFT this
+    UNSHIFT this, LIST
+    SPLICE this, offset, length, LIST
+    EXTEND this, count
+    DESTROY this
+
+A class implementing a file handle should have the following methods:
+
+    TIEHANDLE classname, LIST
+    READ this, scalar, length, offset
+    READLINE this
+    GETC this
+    WRITE this, scalar, length, offset
+    PRINT this, LIST
+    PRINTF this, format, LIST
+    CLOSE this
+    DESTROY this
 
 A class implementing a scalar should have the following methods:
 
     TIESCALAR classname, LIST
-    DESTROY this
     FETCH this,
     STORE this, value
+    DESTROY this
+
+Not all methods indicated above need be implemented.  See L<perltie>,
+L<Tie::Hash>, L<Tie::Array>, L<Tie::Scalar> and L<Tie::Handle>.
 
-Unlike dbmopen(), the tie() function will not use or require a module
+Unlike C<dbmopen()>, the C<tie()> function will not use or require a module
 for you--you need to do that explicitly yourself.  See L<DB_File>
-or the F<Config> module for interesting tie() implementations.
+or the F<Config> module for interesting C<tie()> implementations.
 
-For further details see L<perltie>, L<tied VARIABLE>.
+For further details see L<perltie>, L<"tied VARIABLE">.
 
 =item tied VARIABLE
 
 Returns a reference to the object underlying VARIABLE (the same value
-that was originally returned by the tie() call which bound the variable
+that was originally returned by the C<tie()> call that bound the variable
 to a package.)  Returns the undefined value if VARIABLE isn't tied to a
 package.
 
@@ -3755,18 +4234,18 @@ package.
 Returns the number of non-leap seconds since whatever time the system
 considers to be the epoch (that's 00:00:00, January 1, 1904 for MacOS,
 and 00:00:00 UTC, January 1, 1970 for most other systems).
-Suitable for feeding to gmtime() and localtime().
+Suitable for feeding to C<gmtime()> and C<localtime()>.
 
 =item times
 
-Returns a four-element array giving the user and system times, in
+Returns a four-element list giving the user and system times, in
 seconds, for this process and the children of this process.
 
     ($user,$system,$cuser,$csystem) = times;
 
 =item tr///
 
-The transliteration operator.  Same as y///. See L<perlop>.
+The transliteration operator.  Same as C<y///>. See L<perlop>.
 
 =item truncate FILEHANDLE,LENGTH
 
@@ -3782,37 +4261,70 @@ otherwise.
 =item uc
 
 Returns an uppercased version of EXPR.  This is the internal function
-implementing the \U escape in double-quoted strings.
+implementing the C<\U> escape in double-quoted strings.
 Respects current LC_CTYPE locale if C<use locale> in force.  See L<perllocale>.
+Under Unicode (C<use utf8>) it uses the standard Unicode uppercase mappings.  (It
+does not attempt to do titlecase mapping on initial letters.  See C<ucfirst()> for that.)
 
-If EXPR is omitted, uses $_.
+If EXPR is omitted, uses C<$_>.
 
 =item ucfirst EXPR
 
 =item ucfirst
 
-Returns the value of EXPR with the first character uppercased.  This is
-the internal function implementing the \u escape in double-quoted strings.
+Returns the value of EXPR with the first character
+in uppercase (titlecase in Unicode).  This is
+the internal function implementing the C<\u> escape in double-quoted strings.
 Respects current LC_CTYPE locale if C<use locale> in force.  See L<perllocale>.
 
-If EXPR is omitted, uses $_.
+If EXPR is omitted, uses C<$_>.
 
 =item umask EXPR
 
 =item umask
 
 Sets the umask for the process to EXPR and returns the previous value.
-If EXPR is omitted, merely returns the current umask.  Remember that a
-umask is a number, usually given in octal; it is I<not> a string of octal
-digits.  See also L</oct>, if all you have is a string.
+If EXPR is omitted, merely returns the current umask.
+
+The Unix permission C<rwxr-x---> is represented as three sets of three
+bits, or three octal digits: C<0750> (the leading 0 indicates octal
+and isn't one of the digits).  The C<umask> value is such a number
+representing disabled permissions bits.  The permission (or "mode")
+values you pass C<mkdir> or C<sysopen> are modified by your umask, so
+even if you tell C<sysopen> to create a file with permissions C<0777>,
+if your umask is C<0022> then the file will actually be created with
+permissions C<0755>.  If your C<umask> were C<0027> (group can't
+write; others can't read, write, or execute), then passing
+C<sysopen()> C<0666> would create a file with mode C<0640> (C<0666 &~
+027> is C<0640>).
+
+Here's some advice: supply a creation mode of C<0666> for regular
+files (in C<sysopen()>) and one of C<0777> for directories (in
+C<mkdir()>) and executable files.  This gives users the freedom of
+choice: if they want protected files, they might choose process umasks
+of C<022>, C<027>, or even the particularly antisocial mask of C<077>.
+Programs should rarely if ever make policy decisions better left to
+the user.  The exception to this is when writing files that should be
+kept private: mail files, web browser cookies, I<.rhosts> files, and
+so on.
+
+If umask(2) is not implemented on your system and you are trying to
+restrict access for I<yourself> (i.e., (EXPR & 0700) > 0), produces a
+fatal error at run time.  If umask(2) is not implemented and you are
+not trying to restrict access for yourself, returns C<undef>.
+
+Remember that a umask is a number, usually given in octal; it is I<not> a
+string of octal digits.  See also L</oct>, if all you have is a string.
+
+
 
 =item undef EXPR
 
 =item undef
 
 Undefines the value of EXPR, which must be an lvalue.  Use only on a
-scalar value, an array (using "@"), a hash (using "%"), a subroutine
-(using "&"), or a typeglob (using "*").  (Saying C<undef $hash{$key}>
+scalar value, an array (using "C<@>"), a hash (using "C<%>"), a subroutine
+(using "C<&>"), or a typeglob (using "<*>").  (Saying C<undef $hash{$key}>
 will probably not do what you expect on most predefined variables or
 DBM list values, so don't do that; see L<delete>.)  Always returns the
 undefined value.  You can omit the EXPR, in which case nothing is
@@ -3821,7 +4333,7 @@ instance, return from a subroutine, assign to a variable or pass as a
 parameter.  Examples:
 
     undef $foo;
-    undef $bar{'blurfl'};             # Compare to: delete $bar{'blurfl'};
+    undef $bar{'blurfl'};      # Compare to: delete $bar{'blurfl'};
     undef @ary;
     undef %hash;
     undef &mysub;
@@ -3830,6 +4342,8 @@ parameter.  Examples:
     select undef, undef, undef, 0.25;
     ($a, $b, undef, $c) = &foo;       # Ignore third value returned
 
+Note that this is a unary operator, not a list operator.
+
 =item unlink LIST
 
 =item unlink
@@ -3841,23 +4355,23 @@ deleted.
     unlink @goners;
     unlink <*.bak>;
 
-Note: unlink will not delete directories unless you are superuser and
+Note: C<unlink()> will not delete directories unless you are superuser and
 the B<-U> flag is supplied to Perl.  Even if these conditions are
 met, be warned that unlinking a directory can inflict damage on your
-filesystem.  Use rmdir instead.
+filesystem.  Use C<rmdir()> instead.
 
-If LIST is omitted, uses $_.
+If LIST is omitted, uses C<$_>.
 
 =item unpack TEMPLATE,EXPR
 
-Unpack does the reverse of pack: it takes a string representing a
+C<Unpack()> does the reverse of C<pack()>: it takes a string representing a
 structure and expands it out into a list value, returning the array
-value.  (In a scalar context, it returns merely the first value
-produced.)  The TEMPLATE has the same format as in the pack function.
+value.  (In scalar context, it returns merely the first value
+produced.)  The TEMPLATE has the same format as in the C<pack()> function.
 Here's a subroutine that does substring:
 
     sub substr {
-	local($what,$where,$howmuch) = @_;
+	my($what,$where,$howmuch) = @_;
 	unpack("x$where a$howmuch", $what);
     }
 
@@ -3871,28 +4385,30 @@ themselves.  Default is a 16-bit checksum.  For example, the following
 computes the same number as the System V sum program:
 
     while (<>) {
-	$checksum += unpack("%16C*", $_);
+	$checksum += unpack("%32C*", $_);
     }
-    $checksum %= 65536;
+    $checksum %= 65535;
 
 The following efficiently counts the number of set bits in a bit vector:
 
     $setbits = unpack("%32b*", $selectmask);
 
+See L</pack> for more examples.
+
 =item untie VARIABLE
 
-Breaks the binding between a variable and a package.  (See tie().)
+Breaks the binding between a variable and a package.  (See C<tie()>.)
 
 =item unshift ARRAY,LIST
 
-Does the opposite of a C<shift>.  Or the opposite of a C<push>,
+Does the opposite of a C<shift()>.  Or the opposite of a C<push()>,
 depending on how you look at it.  Prepends list to the front of the
 array, and returns the new number of elements in the array.
 
     unshift(ARGV, '-e') unless $ARGV[0] =~ /^-/;
 
 Note the LIST is prepended whole, not one element at a time, so the
-prepended elements stay in the same order.  Use reverse to do the
+prepended elements stay in the same order.  Use C<reverse()> to do the
 reverse.
 
 =item use Module LIST
@@ -3915,18 +4431,18 @@ If the first argument to C<use> is a number, it is treated as a version
 number instead of a module name.  If the version of the Perl interpreter
 is less than VERSION, then an error message is printed and Perl exits
 immediately.  This is often useful if you need to check the current
-Perl version before C<use>ing library modules which have changed in
+Perl version before C<use>ing library modules that have changed in
 incompatible ways from older versions of Perl.  (We try not to do
 this more than we have to.)
 
-The BEGIN forces the require and import to happen at compile time.  The
-require makes sure the module is loaded into memory if it hasn't been
-yet.  The import is not a builtin--it's just an ordinary static method
-call into the "Module" package to tell the module to import the list of
+The C<BEGIN> forces the C<require> and C<import()> to happen at compile time.  The
+C<require> makes sure the module is loaded into memory if it hasn't been
+yet.  The C<import()> is not a builtin--it's just an ordinary static method
+call into the "C<Module>" package to tell the module to import the list of
 features back into the current package.  The module can implement its
-import method any way it likes, though most modules just choose to
-derive their import method via inheritance from the Exporter class that
-is defined in the Exporter module.  See L<Exporter>.  If no import
+C<import()> method any way it likes, though most modules just choose to
+derive their C<import()> method via inheritance from the C<Exporter> class that
+is defined in the C<Exporter> module.  See L<Exporter>.  If no C<import()>
 method can be found then the error is currently silently ignored.  This
 may change to a fatal error in a future version.
 
@@ -3936,13 +4452,13 @@ If you don't want your namespace altered, explicitly supply an empty list:
 
 That is exactly equivalent to
 
-    BEGIN { require Module; }
+    BEGIN { require Module }
 
 If the VERSION argument is present between Module and LIST, then the
 C<use> will call the VERSION method in class Module with the given
 version as an argument.  The default VERSION method, inherited from
 the Universal class, croaks if the given version is larger than the
-value of the variable $Module::VERSION.  (Note that there is not a
+value of the variable C<$Module::VERSION>.  (Note that there is not a
 comma after VERSION!)
 
 Because this is a wide-open interface, pragmas (compiler directives)
@@ -3954,17 +4470,18 @@ are also implemented this way.  Currently implemented pragmas are:
     use strict  qw(subs vars refs);
     use subs    qw(afunc blurfl);
 
-These pseudo-modules import semantics into the current block scope, unlike
-ordinary modules, which import symbols into the current package (which are
-effective through the end of the file).
+Some of these these pseudo-modules import semantics into the current
+block scope (like C<strict> or C<integer>, unlike ordinary modules,
+which import symbols into the current package (which are effective
+through the end of the file).
 
-There's a corresponding "no" command that unimports meanings imported
-by use, i.e., it calls C<unimport Module LIST> instead of C<import>.
+There's a corresponding "C<no>" command that unimports meanings imported
+by C<use>, i.e., it calls C<unimport Module LIST> instead of C<import()>.
 
     no integer;
     no strict 'refs';
 
-If no unimport method can be found the call fails with a fatal error.
+If no C<unimport()> method can be found the call fails with a fatal error.
 
 See L<perlmod> for a list of standard modules and pragmas.
 
@@ -3974,7 +4491,7 @@ Changes the access and modification times on each file of a list of
 files.  The first two elements of the list must be the NUMERICAL access
 and modification times, in that order.  Returns the number of files
 successfully changed.  The inode modification time of each file is set
-to the current time.  This code has the same effect as the "touch"
+to the current time.  This code has the same effect as the "C<touch>"
 command if the files already exist:
 
     #!/usr/bin/perl
@@ -3983,57 +4500,83 @@ command if the files already exist:
 
 =item values HASH
 
-Returns a normal array consisting of all the values of the named hash.
-(In a scalar context, returns the number of values.)  The values are
-returned in an apparently random order, but it is the same order as either
-the keys() or each() function would produce on the same hash.  As a side
-effect, it resets HASH's iterator.  See also keys(), each(), and sort().
+Returns a list consisting of all the values of the named hash.  (In a
+scalar context, returns the number of values.)  The values are
+returned in an apparently random order.  The actual random order is
+subject to change in future versions of perl, but it is guaranteed to
+be the same order as either the C<keys()> or C<each()> function would
+produce on the same (unmodified) hash.
+
+As a side effect, it resets HASH's iterator.  See also C<keys()>, C<each()>,
+and C<sort()>.
 
 =item vec EXPR,OFFSET,BITS
 
 Treats the string in EXPR as a vector of unsigned integers, and
 returns the value of the bit field specified by OFFSET.  BITS specifies
 the number of bits that are reserved for each entry in the bit
-vector.  This must be a power of two from 1 to 32. vec() may also be
+vector.  This must be a power of two from 1 to 32. C<vec()> may also be
 assigned to, in which case parentheses are needed to give the expression
 the correct precedence as in
 
     vec($image, $max_x * $x + $y, 8) = 3;
 
-Vectors created with vec() can also be manipulated with the logical
-operators |, &, and ^, which will assume a bit vector operation is
+Vectors created with C<vec()> can also be manipulated with the logical
+operators C<|>, C<&>, and C<^>, which will assume a bit vector operation is
 desired when both operands are strings.
 
+The following code will build up an ASCII string saying C<'PerlPerlPerl'>.
+The comments show the string after each step. Note that this code works
+in the same way on big-endian or little-endian machines.
+
+    my $foo = '';
+    vec($foo,  0, 32) = 0x5065726C;	# 'Perl'
+    vec($foo,  2, 16) = 0x5065;		# 'PerlPe'
+    vec($foo,  3, 16) = 0x726C;		# 'PerlPerl'
+    vec($foo,  8,  8) = 0x50;		# 'PerlPerlP'
+    vec($foo,  9,  8) = 0x65;		# 'PerlPerlPe'
+    vec($foo, 20,  4) = 2;		# 'PerlPerlPe'   . "\x02"
+    vec($foo, 21,  4) = 7;		# 'PerlPerlPer'
+                                        # 'r' is "\x72"
+    vec($foo, 45,  2) = 3;		# 'PerlPerlPer'  . "\x0c"
+    vec($foo, 93,  1) = 1;		# 'PerlPerlPer'  . "\x2c"
+    vec($foo, 94,  1) = 1;		# 'PerlPerlPerl'
+                                        # 'l' is "\x6c"
+
 To transform a bit vector into a string or array of 0's and 1's, use these:
 
     $bits = unpack("b*", $vector);
     @bits = split(//, unpack("b*", $vector));
 
-If you know the exact length in bits, it can be used in place of the *.
+If you know the exact length in bits, it can be used in place of the C<*>.
 
 =item wait
 
 Waits for a child process to terminate and returns the pid of the
-deceased process, or -1 if there are no child processes.  The status is
-returned in C<$?>.
+deceased process, or C<-1> if there are no child processes.  The status is
+returned in C<$?>.  Note that a return value of C<-1> could mean that
+child processes are being automatically reaped, as described in L<perlipc>.
 
 =item waitpid PID,FLAGS
 
 Waits for a particular child process to terminate and returns the pid
-of the deceased process, or -1 if there is no such child process.  The
+of the deceased process, or C<-1> if there is no such child process.  The
 status is returned in C<$?>.  If you say
 
     use POSIX ":sys_wait_h";
-    ...
+    #...
     waitpid(-1,&WNOHANG);
 
 then you can do a non-blocking wait for any process.  Non-blocking wait
 is available on machines supporting either the waitpid(2) or
 wait4(2) system calls.  However, waiting for a particular pid with
-FLAGS of 0 is implemented everywhere.  (Perl emulates the system call
+FLAGS of C<0> is implemented everywhere.  (Perl emulates the system call
 by remembering the status values of processes that have exited but have
 not been harvested by the Perl script yet.)
 
+Note that a return value of C<-1> could mean that child processes are being
+automatically reaped.  See L<perlipc> for details, and for other examples.
+
 =item wantarray
 
 Returns TRUE if the context of the currently executing subroutine is
@@ -4047,28 +4590,28 @@ for no value (void context).
 
 =item warn LIST
 
-Produces a message on STDERR just like die(), but doesn't exit or throw
+Produces a message on STDERR just like C<die()>, but doesn't exit or throw
 an exception.
 
-If LIST is empty and $@ already contains a value (typically from a
-previous eval) that value is used after appending "\t...caught"
-to $@. This is useful for staying almost, but not entirely similar to
-die().
+If LIST is empty and C<$@> already contains a value (typically from a
+previous eval) that value is used after appending C<"\t...caught">
+to C<$@>. This is useful for staying almost, but not entirely similar to
+C<die()>.
 
-If $@ is empty then the string "Warning: Something's wrong" is used.
+If C<$@> is empty then the string C<"Warning: Something's wrong"> is used.
 
 No message is printed if there is a C<$SIG{__WARN__}> handler
 installed.  It is the handler's responsibility to deal with the message
-as it sees fit (like, for instance, converting it into a die()).  Most
+as it sees fit (like, for instance, converting it into a C<die()>).  Most
 handlers must therefore make arrangements to actually display the
-warnings that they are not prepared to deal with, by calling warn()
+warnings that they are not prepared to deal with, by calling C<warn()>
 again in the handler.  Note that this is quite safe and will not
 produce an endless loop, since C<__WARN__> hooks are not called from
 inside one.
 
 You will find this behavior is slightly different from that of
 C<$SIG{__DIE__}> handlers (which don't suppress the error text, but can
-instead call die() again to change it).
+instead call C<die()> again to change it).
 
 Using a C<__WARN__> handler provides a powerful way to silence all
 warnings (even the so-called mandatory ones).  An example:
@@ -4093,10 +4636,10 @@ examples.
 
 =item write
 
-Writes a formatted record (possibly multi-line) to the specified file,
+Writes a formatted record (possibly multi-line) to the specified FILEHANDLE,
 using the format associated with that file.  By default the format for
 a file is the one having the same name as the filehandle, but the
-format for the current output channel (see the select() function) may be set
+format for the current output channel (see the C<select()> function) may be set
 explicitly by assigning the name of the format to the C<$~> variable.
 
 Top of form processing is handled automatically:  if there is
@@ -4107,18 +4650,18 @@ By default the top-of-page format is the name of the filehandle with
 "_TOP" appended, but it may be dynamically set to the format of your
 choice by assigning the name to the C<$^> variable while the filehandle is
 selected.  The number of lines remaining on the current page is in
-variable C<$->, which can be set to 0 to force a new page.
+variable C<$->, which can be set to C<0> to force a new page.
 
 If FILEHANDLE is unspecified, output goes to the current default output
 channel, which starts out as STDOUT but may be changed by the
-C<select> operator.  If the FILEHANDLE is an EXPR, then the expression
+C<select()> operator.  If the FILEHANDLE is an EXPR, then the expression
 is evaluated and the resulting string is used to look up the name of
 the FILEHANDLE at run time.  For more on formats, see L<perlform>.
 
-Note that write is I<NOT> the opposite of read.  Unfortunately.
+Note that write is I<NOT> the opposite of C<read()>.  Unfortunately.
 
 =item y///
 
-The transliteration operator.  Same as tr///.  See L<perlop>.
+The transliteration operator.  Same as C<tr///>.  See L<perlop>.
 
 =back