From: Jarkko Hietaniemi Date: Sun, 18 Nov 2001 17:37:31 +0000 (+0000) Subject: Pass 1 at perldelta.pod: sort the section contents X-Git-Url: http://git.shadowcat.co.uk/gitweb/gitweb.cgi?a=commitdiff_plain;h=77c8cf410d66a85c2c49a1156db76d3221824e47;p=p5sagit%2Fp5-mst-13.2.git Pass 1 at perldelta.pod: sort the section contents together, drop all but the 5.7.2 known problems, leave the 5.7.1 security note since that's the fullest explanation (update the date on that). p4raw-id: //depot/perl@13078 --- diff --git a/pod/perldelta.pod b/pod/perldelta.pod index 689f4bc..f2505e8 100644 --- a/pod/perldelta.pod +++ b/pod/perldelta.pod @@ -7,44 +7,12 @@ perldelta - what is new for perl v5.8.0 This document describes differences between the 5.6.0 release and the 5.8.0 release. -=head1 Security Vulnerability Closed - -A potential security vulnerability in the optional suidperl component -of Perl has been identified. suidperl is neither built nor installed -by default. As of September the 2nd, 2000, the only known vulnerable -platform is Linux, most likely all Linux distributions. CERT and -various vendors have been alerted about the vulnerability. - -The problem was caused by Perl trying to report a suspected security -exploit attempt using an external program, /bin/mail. On Linux -platforms the /bin/mail program had an undocumented feature which -when combined with suidperl gave access to a root shell, resulting in -a serious compromise instead of reporting the exploit attempt. If you -don't have /bin/mail, or if you have 'safe setuid scripts', or if -suidperl is not installed, you are safe. - -The exploit attempt reporting feature has been completely removed from -the Perl 5.7.0 release, so that particular vulnerability isn't there -anymore. However, further security vulnerabilities are, -unfortunately, always possible. The suidperl code is being reviewed -and if deemed too risky to continue to be supported, it may be -completely removed from future releases. In any case, suidperl should -only be used by security experts who know exactly what they are doing -and why they are using suidperl instead of some other solution such as -sudo (see http://www.courtesan.com/sudo/). - =head1 Incompatible Changes =over 4 =item * -Arrays now always interpolate into double-quoted strings: -constructs like "foo@bar" now always assume C<@bar> is an array, -whether or not the compiler has seen use of C<@bar>. - -=item * - The semantics of bless(REF, REF) were unclear and until someone proves it to make some sense, it is forbidden. @@ -101,8 +69,96 @@ The tr///C and tr///U features have been removed and will not return; the interface was a mistake. Sorry about that. For similar functionality, see pack('U0', ...) and pack('C0', ...). +=item * + +Although "you shouldn't do that", it was possible to write code that +depends on Perl's hashed key order (Data::Dumper does this). The new +algorithm "One-at-a-Time" produces a different hashed key order. +More details are in L. + +=item * + +The list of filenames from glob() (or <...>) is now by default sorted +alphabetically to be csh-compliant. (bsd_glob() does still sort platform +natively, ASCII or EBCDIC, unless GLOB_ALPHASORT is specified.) + =back +=head2 64-bit platforms and malloc + +If your pointers are 64 bits wide, the Perl malloc is no more being +used because it simply does not work with 8-byte pointers. Also, +usually the system malloc on such platforms are much better optimized +for such large memory models than the Perl malloc. + +=head2 AIX Dynaloading + +The AIX dynaloading now uses in AIX releases 4.3 and newer the native +dlopen interface of AIX instead of the old emulated interface. This +change will probably break backward compatibility with compiled +modules. The change was made to make Perl more compliant with other +applications like modperl which are using the AIX native interface. + +=head2 Socket Extension Dynamic in VMS + +The Socket extension is now dynamically loaded instead of being +statically built in. This may or may not be a problem with ancient +TCP/IP stacks of VMS: we do not know since we weren't able to test +Perl in such configurations. + +=head2 Different Definition of the Unicode Character Classes \p{In...} + +As suggested by the Unicode consortium, the Unicode character classes +now prefer I as opposed to I (as defined by Unicode); +in Perl, when the C<\p{In....}> and the C<\p{In....}> regular expression +constructs are used. This has changed the definition of some of those +character classes. + +The difference between scripts and blocks is that scripts are the +glyphs used by a language or a group of languages, while the blocks +are more artificial groupings of 256 characters based on the Unicode +numbering. + +In general this change results in more inclusive Unicode character +classes, but changes to the other direction also do take place: +for example while the script C includes all the Latin +characters and their various diacritic-adorned versions, it +does not include the various punctuation or digits (since they +are not solely C). + +Changes in the character class semantics may have happened if a script +and a block happen to have the same name, for example C. +In such cases the script wins and C<\p{InHebrew}> now means the script +definition of Hebrew. The block definition in still available, +though, by appending C to the name: C<\p{InHebrewBlock}> means +what C<\p{InHebrew}> meant in perl 5.6.0. For the full list +of affected character classes, see L. + +=head2 Deprecations + +The current user-visible implementation of pseudo-hashes (the weird +use of the first array element) is deprecated starting from Perl 5.8.0 +and will be removed in Perl 5.10.0, and the feature will be +implemented differently. Not only is the current interface rather +ugly, but the current implementation slows down normal array and hash +use quite noticeably. The C pragma interface will remain +available. + +The syntaxes C<@a->[...]> and C<@h->{...}> have now been deprecated. + +The suidperl is also considered to be too much a risk to continue +maintaining and the suidperl code is likely to be removed in a future +release. + +The C syntax (C without an argument has been +deprecated. Its semantics were never that clear and its +implementation even less so. If you have used that feature to +disallow all but fully qualified variables, C instead. + +The chdir(undef) and chdir('') behaviors to match chdir() has been +deprecated. In future versions, chdir(undef) and chdir('') will +simply fail. + =head1 Core Enhancements =over 4 @@ -139,1271 +195,823 @@ There is now an UNTIE method. =back -=head1 Modules and Pragmata +=head2 AUTOLOAD Is Now Lvaluable -=head2 New Modules +AUTOLOAD is now lvaluable, meaning that you can add the :lvalue attribute +to AUTOLOAD subroutines and you can assign to the AUTOLOAD return value. + +=head2 PerlIO is Now The Default =over 4 =item * -File::Temp allows one to create temporary files and directories in an -easy, portable, and secure way. +IO is now by default done via PerlIO rather than system's "stdio". +PerlIO allows "layers" to be "pushed" onto a file handle to alter the +handle's behaviour. Layers can be specified at open time via 3-arg +form of open: -=item * + open($fh,'>:crlf :utf8', $path) || ... -Storable gives persistence to Perl data structures by allowing the -storage and retrieval of Perl data to and from files in a fast and -compact binary format. +or on already opened handles via extended C: -=back + binmode($fh,':encoding(iso-8859-7)'); -=head2 Updated And Improved Modules and Pragmata +The built-in layers are: unix (low level read/write), stdio (as in +previous Perls), perlio (re-implementation of stdio buffering in a +portable manner), crlf (does CRLF <=> "\n" translation as on Win32, +but available on any platform). A mmap layer may be available if +platform supports it (mostly UNIXes). -=over 4 +Layers to be applied by default may be specified via the 'open' pragma. + +See L for the effects +of PerlIO on your architecture name. =item * -The following independently supported modules have been updated to -newer versions from CPAN: CGI, CPAN, DB_File, File::Spec, Getopt::Long, -the podlators bundle, Pod::LaTeX, Pod::Parser, Term::ANSIColor, Test. +File handles can be marked as accepting Perl's internal encoding of Unicode +(UTF-8 or UTF-EBCDIC depending on platform) by a pseudo layer ":utf8" : -=item * + open($fh,">:utf8","Uni.txt"); -Bug fixes and minor enhancements have been applied to B::Deparse, -Data::Dumper, IO::Poll, IO::Socket::INET, Math::BigFloat, -Math::Complex, Math::Trig, Net::protoent, the re pragma, SelfLoader, -Sys::SysLog, Test::Harness, Text::Wrap, UNIVERSAL, and the warnings -pragma. +Note for EBCDIC users: the pseudo layer ":utf8" is erroneously named +for you since it's not UTF-8 what you will be getting but instead +UTF-EBCDIC. See L, L, and +http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr16/ for more information. +In future releases this naming may change. =item * -The attributes::reftype() now works on tied arguments. +File handles can translate character encodings from/to Perl's internal +Unicode form on read/write via the ":encoding()" layer. =item * -AutoLoader can now be disabled with C, +File handles can be opened to "in memory" files held in Perl scalars via: + + open($fh,'>', \$variable) || ... =item * -The English module can now be used without the infamous performance -hit by saying +Anonymous temporary files are available without need to +'use FileHandle' or other module via - use English '-no_performance_hit'; + open($fh,"+>", undef) || ... -(Assuming, of course, that one doesn't need the troublesome variables -C<$`>, C<$&>, or C<$'>.) Also, introduced C<@LAST_MATCH_START> and -C<@LAST_MATCH_END> English aliases for C<@-> and C<@+>. +That is a literal undef, not an undefined value. =item * -File::Find now has pre- and post-processing callbacks. It also -correctly changes directories when chasing symbolic links. Callbacks -(naughtily) exiting with "next;" instead of "return;" now work. +The list form of C is now implemented for pipes (at least on UNIX): -=item * + open($fh,"-|", 'cat', '/etc/motd') -File::Glob::glob() renamed to File::Glob::bsd_glob() to avoid -prototype mismatch with CORE::glob(). +creates a pipe, and runs the equivalent of exec('cat', '/etc/motd') in +the child process. =item * -IPC::Open3 now allows the use of numeric file descriptors. +The following builtin functions are now overridable: chop(), chomp(), +each(), keys(), pop(), push(), shift(), splice(), unshift(). =item * -use lib now works identically to @INC. Removing directories -with 'no lib' now works. +Formats now support zero-padded decimal fields. =item * -C<%INC> now localised in a Safe compartment so that use/require work. +Perl now tries internally to use integer values in numeric conversions +and basic arithmetics (+ - * /) if the arguments are integers, and +tries also to keep the results stored internally as integers. +This change leads into often slightly faster and always less lossy +arithmetics. (Previously Perl always preferred floating point numbers +in its math.) =item * -The Shell module now has an OO interface. - -=back +The printf() and sprintf() now support parameter reordering using the +C<%\d+\$> and C<*\d+\$> syntaxes. For example -=head1 Utility Changes + print "%2\$s %1\$s\n", "foo", "bar"; -=over 4 +will print "bar foo\n"; This feature helps in writing +internationalised software. =item * -The Emacs perl mode (emacs/cperl-mode.el) has been updated to version -4.31. +Unicode in general should be now much more usable. Unicode can be +used in hash keys, Unicode in regular expressions should work now, +Unicode in tr/// should work now (though tr/// seems to be a +particularly tricky to get right, so you have been warned) =item * -Perlbug is now much more robust. It also sends the bug report to -perl.org, not perl.com. - -=item * +The Unicode Character Database coming with Perl has been upgraded +to Unicode 3.1. For more information, see http://www.unicode.org/, +and http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr27/ -The perlcc utility has been rewritten and its user interface (that is, -command line) is much more like that of the UNIX C compiler, cc. +For developers interested in enhancing Perl's Unicode capabilities: +almost all the UCD files are included with the Perl distribution in +the lib/unicode subdirectory. The most notable omission, for space +considerations, is the Unihan database. =item * -The xsubpp utility for extension writers now understands POD -documentation embedded in the *.xs files. +The Unicode character classes \p{Blank} and \p{SpacePerl} have been +added. "Blank" is like C isblank(), that is, it contains only +"horizontal whitespace" (the space character is, the newline isn't), +and the "SpacePerl" is the Unicode equivalent of C<\s> (\p{Space} +isn't, since that includes the vertical tabulator character, whereas +C<\s> doesn't.) =back -=head1 New Documentation +=head2 Signals Are Now Safe + +Perl used to be fragile in that signals arriving at inopportune moments +could corrupt Perl's internal state. + +=head2 Understanding of Numbers + +In general a lot of fixing has happened in the area of Perl's +understanding of numbers, both integer and floating point. Since in +many systems the standard number parsing functions like C +and C seem to have bugs, Perl tries to work around their +deficiencies. This results hopefully in more accurate numbers. =over 4 =item * -perl56delta details the changes between the 5.005 release and the -5.6.0 release. +The rules for allowing underscores (underbars) in numeric constants +have been relaxed and simplified: now you can have an underscore +B. =item * -perldebtut is a Perl debugging tutorial. +GMAGIC (right-hand side magic) could in many cases such as string +concatenation be invoked too many times. =item * -perlebcdic contains considerations for running Perl on EBCDIC platforms. -Note that unfortunately EBCDIC platforms that used to supported back in -Perl 5.005 are still unsupported by Perl 5.7.0; the plan, however, is to -bring them back to the fold. +Lexicals I: lexicals outside an eval "" weren't resolved +correctly inside a subroutine definition inside the eval "" if they +were not already referenced in the top level of the eval""ed code. =item * -perlnewmod tells about writing and submitting a new module. +Lexicals II: lexicals leaked at file scope into subroutines that +were declared before the lexicals. =item * -perlposix-bc explains using Perl on the POSIX-BC platform -(an EBCDIC mainframe platform). +Lvalue subroutines can now return C in list context. =item * -perlretut is a regular expression tutorial. +The C and C are now exported. =item * -perlrequick is a regular expressions quick-start guide. -Yes, much quicker than perlretut. +A new special regular expression variable has been introduced: +C<$^N>, which contains the most-recently closed group (submatch). =item * -perlutil explains the command line utilities packaged with the Perl -distribution. +L now supports C to change the +file timestamps to the current time. -=back +=item * -=head1 Performance Enhancements +The Perl parser has been stress tested using both random input and +Markov chain input. -=over 4 +=item * + +C now works. =item * -map() that changes the size of the list should now work faster. +VMS now works under PerlIO. =item * -sort() has been changed to use mergesort internally as opposed to the -earlier quicksort. For very small lists this may result in slightly -slower sorting times, but in general the speedup should be at least -20%. Additional bonuses are that the worst case behaviour of sort() -is now better (in computer science terms it now runs in time O(N log N), -as opposed to quicksort's Theta(N**2) worst-case run time behaviour), -and that sort() is now stable (meaning that elements with identical -keys will stay ordered as they were before the sort). +END blocks are now run even if you exit/die in a BEGIN block. +The execution of END blocks is now controlled by +PL_exit_flags & PERL_EXIT_DESTRUCT_END. This enables the new +behaviour for perl embedders. This will default in 5.10. See +L. =back -=head1 Installation and Configuration Improvements +=head1 Modules and Pragmata -=head2 Generic Improvements +=head2 New Modules =over 4 =item * -INSTALL now explains how you can configure Perl to use 64-bit -integers even on non-64-bit platforms. +File::Temp allows one to create temporary files and directories in an +easy, portable, and secure way. =item * -Policy.sh policy change: if you are reusing a Policy.sh file -(see INSTALL) and you use Configure -Dprefix=/foo/bar and in the old -Policy $prefix eq $siteprefix and $prefix eq $vendorprefix, all of -them will now be changed to the new prefix, /foo/bar. (Previously -only $prefix changed.) If you do not like this new behaviour, -specify prefix, siteprefix, and vendorprefix explicitly. +Storable gives persistence to Perl data structures by allowing the +storage and retrieval of Perl data to and from files in a fast and +compact binary format. =item * -A new optional location for Perl libraries, otherlibdirs, is available. -It can be used for example for vendor add-ons without disturbing Perl's -own library directories. - -=item * +B::Concise, by Stephen McCamant, is a new compiler backend for +walking the Perl syntax tree, printing concise info about ops. +The output is highly customisable. -In many platforms the vendor-supplied 'cc' is too stripped-down to -build Perl (basically, 'cc' doesn't do ANSI C). If this seems -to be the case and 'cc' does not seem to be the GNU C compiler -'gcc', an automatic attempt is made to find and use 'gcc' instead. +See L for more information. =item * -gcc needs to closely track the operating system release to avoid -build problems. If Configure finds that gcc was built for a different -operating system release than is running, it now gives a clearly visible -warning that there may be trouble ahead. - -=item * +Class::ISA, by Sean Burke, for reporting the search path for a +class's ISA tree, has been added. -If binary compatibility with the 5.005 release is not wanted, Configure -no longer suggests including the 5.005 modules in @INC. +See L for more information. =item * -Configure C<-S> can now run non-interactively. +Cwd has now a split personality: if possible, an extension is used, +(this will hopefully be both faster and more secure and robust) but +if not possible, the familiar Perl library implementation is used. =item * -configure.gnu now works with options with whitespace in them. - -=item * +Digest, a frontend module for calculating digests (checksums), +from Gisle Aas, has been added. -installperl now outputs everything to STDERR. +See L for more information. =item * -$Config{byteorder} is now computed dynamically (this is more robust -with "fat binaries" where an executable image contains binaries for -more than one binary platform.) +Digest::MD5 for calculating MD5 digests (checksums), by Gisle Aas, +has been added. -=back + use Digest::MD5 'md5_hex'; -=head1 Selected Bug Fixes + $digest = md5_hex("Thirsty Camel"); -=over 4 + print $digest, "\n"; # 01d19d9d2045e005c3f1b80e8b164de1 -=item * +NOTE: the MD5 backward compatibility module is deliberately not +included since its use is discouraged. -Several debugger fixes: exit code now reflects the script exit code, -condition C<"0"> now treated correctly, the C command now checks -line number, the C<$.> no longer gets corrupted, all debugger output now -goes correctly to the socket if RemotePort is set. +See L for more information. =item * -C<*foo{FORMAT}> now works. +Encode, by Nick Ing-Simmons, provides a mechanism to translate +between different character encodings. Support for Unicode, +ISO-8859-*, ASCII, CP*, KOI8-R, and three variants of EBCDIC are +compiled in to the module. Several other encodings (like Japanese, +Chinese, and MacIntosh encodings) are included and will be loaded at +runtime. -=item * +Any encoding supported by Encode module is also available to the +":encoding()" layer if PerlIO is used. -Lexical warnings now propagating correctly between scopes. +See L for more information. =item * -Line renumbering with eval and C<#line> now works. +Filter::Simple is an easy-to-use frontend to Filter::Util::Call, +from Damian Conway. -=item * + # in MyFilter.pm: -Fixed numerous memory leaks, especially in eval "". + package MyFilter; -=item * + use Filter::Simple sub { + while (my ($from, $to) = splice @_, 0, 2) { + s/$from/$to/g; + } + }; -Modulus of unsigned numbers now works (4063328477 % 65535 used to -return 27406, instead of 27047). + 1; -=item * + # in user's code: -Some "not a number" warnings introduced in 5.6.0 eliminated to be -more compatible with 5.005. Infinity is now recognised as a number. + use MyFilter qr/red/ => 'green'; -=item * + print "red\n"; # this code is filtered, will print "green\n" + print "bored\n"; # this code is filtered, will print "bogreen\n" -our() variables will not cause "will not stay shared" warnings. + no MyFilter; -=item * + print "red\n"; # this code is not filtered, will print "red\n" -pack "Z" now correctly terminates the string with "\0". +See L for more information. =item * -Fix password routines which in some shadow password platforms -(e.g. HP-UX) caused getpwent() to return every other entry. +Filter::Util::Call, by Paul Marquess, provides you with the +framework to write I in Perl. For most uses +the frontend Filter::Simple is to be preferred. +See L for more information. =item * -printf() no longer resets the numeric locale to "C". - -=item * +Locale::Constants, Locale::Country, Locale::Currency, and Locale::Language, +from Neil Bowers, have been added. They provide the codes for various +locale standards, such as "fr" for France, "usd" for US Dollar, and +"jp" for Japanese. -C now parses correctly as C<'a\\b'>. + use Locale::Country; -=item * + $country = code2country('jp'); # $country gets 'Japan' + $code = country2code('Norway'); # $code gets 'no' -Printing quads (64-bit integers) with printf/sprintf now works -without the q L ll prefixes (assuming you are on a quad-capable platform). +See L, L, L, +and L for more information. =item * -Regular expressions on references and overloaded scalars now work. +MIME::Base64, by Gisle Aas, allows you to encode data in base64. -=item * + use MIME::Base64; -scalar() now forces scalar context even when used in void context. + $encoded = encode_base64('Aladdin:open sesame'); + $decoded = decode_base64($encoded); -=item * + print $encoded, "\n"; # "QWxhZGRpbjpvcGVuIHNlc2FtZQ==" -sort() arguments are now compiled in the right wantarray context -(they were accidentally using the context of the sort() itself). +See L for more information. =item * -Changed the POSIX character class C<[[:space:]]> to include the (very -rare) vertical tab character. Added a new POSIX-ish character class -C<[[:blank:]]> which stands for horizontal whitespace (currently, -the space and the tab). - -=item * +MIME::QuotedPrint, by Gisle Aas, allows you to encode data in +quoted-printable encoding. -$AUTOLOAD, sort(), lock(), and spawning subprocesses -in multiple threads simultaneously are now thread-safe. + use MIME::QuotedPrint; -=item * + $encoded = encode_qp("Smiley in Unicode: \x{263a}"); + $decoded = decode_qp($encoded); -Allow read-only string on left hand side of non-modifying tr///. + print $encoded, "\n"; # "Smiley in Unicode: =263A" -=item * +MIME::QuotedPrint has been enhanced to provide the basic methods +necessary to use it with PerlIO::Via as in : -Several Unicode fixes (but still not perfect). + use MIME::QuotedPrint; + open($fh,">Via(MIME::QuotedPrint)",$path) -=over 8 +See L for more information. =item * -BOMs (byte order marks) in the beginning of Perl files -(scripts, modules) should now be transparently skipped. -UTF-16 (UCS-2) encoded Perl files should now be read correctly. +PerlIO::Scalar, by Nick Ing-Simmons, provides the implementation of +IO to "in memory" Perl scalars as discussed above. It also serves as +an example of a loadable layer. Other future possibilities include +PerlIO::Array and PerlIO::Code. See L for more +information. =item * -The character tables have been updated to Unicode 3.0.1. +PerlIO::Via, by Nick Ing-Simmons, acts as a PerlIO layer and wraps +PerlIO layer functionality provided by a class (typically implemented +in perl code). -=item * + use MIME::QuotedPrint; + open($fh,">Via(MIME::QuotedPrint)",$path) -chr() for values greater than 127 now create utf8 when under use -utf8. +This will automatically convert everything output to C<$fh> +to Quoted-Printable. See L for more information. =item * -Comparing with utf8 data does not magically upgrade non-utf8 data into -utf8. +Pod::Text::Overstrike, by Joe Smith, has been added. +It converts POD data to formatted overstrike text. +See L for more information. =item * -C, C, and C now match titlecase. +Switch from Damian Conway has been added. Just by saying -=item * + use Switch; -Concatenation with the C<.> operator or via variable interpolation, -C, C, C, C, the C operator, -substitution with C, single-quoted UTF8, should now work--in -theory. +you have C and C available in Perl. -=item * + use Switch; -The C operator now works I better but is still rather -broken. Note that the C functionality has been removed (but -see pack('U0', ...)). + switch ($val) { -=item * + case 1 { print "number 1" } + case "a" { print "string a" } + case [1..10,42] { print "number in list" } + case (@array) { print "number in list" } + case /\w+/ { print "pattern" } + case qr/\w+/ { print "pattern" } + case (%hash) { print "entry in hash" } + case (\%hash) { print "entry in hash" } + case (\&sub) { print "arg to subroutine" } + else { print "previous case not true" } + } -vec() now refuses to deal with characters >255. +See L for more information. =item * -Zero entries were missing from the Unicode classes like C. +Text::Balanced from Damian Conway has been added, for +extracting delimited text sequences from strings. -=back + use Text::Balanced 'extract_delimited'; -=item * + ($a, $b) = extract_delimited("'never say never', he never said", "'", ''); -UNIVERSAL::isa no longer caches methods incorrectly. (This broke -the Tk extension with 5.6.0.) +$a will be "'never say never'", $b will be ', he never said'. -=back +In addition to extract_delimited() there are also extract_bracketed(), +extract_quotelike(), extract_codeblock(), extract_variable(), +extract_tagged(), extract_multiple(), gen_delimited_pat(), and +gen_extract_tagged(). With these you can implement rather advanced +parsing algorithms. See L for more information. -=head2 Platform Specific Changes and Fixes +=item * -=over 4 +Tie::RefHash::Nestable, by Edward Avis, allows storing hash references +(unlike the standard Tie::RefHash) The module is contained within +Tie::RefHash. =item * -BSDI 4.* - -Perl now works on post-4.0 BSD/OSes. +XS::Typemap, by Tim Jenness, is a test extension that exercises XS +typemaps. Nothing gets installed but for extension writers the code +is worth studying. =item * -All BSDs - -Setting C<$0> now works (as much as possible; see perlvar for details). +L - Simpler definition of attribute handlers =item * -Cygwin - -Numerous updates; currently synchronised with Cygwin 1.1.4. +L - generate XS code to import C header constants =item * -EPOC +L - query locale information -EPOC update after Perl 5.6.0. See README.epoc. +=item * + +L - functions for dealing with RFC3066-style language tags =item * -FreeBSD 3.* +L - a collection of perl5 modules related to network programming -Perl now works on post-3.0 FreeBSDs. +Perl installation leaves libnet unconfigured, use F to configure. =item * -HP-UX +L - selection of general-utility list subroutines -README.hpux updated; C now almost works. +=item * + +L - framework for localization =item * -IRIX +L - Make your functions faster by trading space for time -Numerous compilation flag and hint enhancements; accidental mixing -of 32-bit and 64-bit libraries (a doomed attempt) made much harder. +=item * + +L - pseudo-class for method redispatch =item * -Linux +L - selection of general-utility scalar subroutines -Long doubles should now work (see INSTALL). +=item * + +L - yet another framework for writing test scripts =item * -MacOS Classic +L - Basic utilities for writing tests -Compilation of the standard Perl distribution in MacOS Classic should -now work if you have the Metrowerks development environment and -the missing Mac-specific toolkit bits. Contact the macperl mailing -list for details. +=item * + +L - high resolution ualarm, usleep, and gettimeofday =item * -MPE/iX +L - Object Oriented time objects -MPE/iX update after Perl 5.6.0. See README.mpeix. +(Previously known as L.) =item * -NetBSD/sparc - -Perl now works on NetBSD/sparc. +L - a simple API to convert seconds to other date values =item * -OS/2 +L - Unicode Character Database -Now works with usethreads (see INSTALL). +=back + +=head2 Updated And Improved Modules and Pragmata + +=over 4 =item * -Solaris +The following independently supported modules have been updated to +newer versions from CPAN: CGI, CPAN, DB_File, File::Spec, Getopt::Long, +the podlators bundle, Pod::LaTeX, Pod::Parser, Term::ANSIColor, Test. -64-bitness using the Sun Workshop compiler now works. +=item * + +Bug fixes and minor enhancements have been applied to B::Deparse, +Data::Dumper, IO::Poll, IO::Socket::INET, Math::BigFloat, +Math::Complex, Math::Trig, Net::protoent, the re pragma, SelfLoader, +Sys::SysLog, Test::Harness, Text::Wrap, UNIVERSAL, and the warnings +pragma. =item * -Tru64 (aka Digital UNIX, aka DEC OSF/1) +The attributes::reftype() now works on tied arguments. -The operating system version letter now recorded in $Config{osvers}. -Allow compiling with gcc (previously explicitly forbidden). Compiling -with gcc still not recommended because buggy code results, even with -gcc 2.95.2. +=item * + +AutoLoader can now be disabled with C, =item * -Unicos +The English module can now be used without the infamous performance +hit by saying -Fixed various alignment problems that lead into core dumps either -during build or later; no longer dies on math errors at runtime; -now using full quad integers (64 bits), previously was using -only 46 bit integers for speed. + use English '-no_performance_hit'; + +(Assuming, of course, that one doesn't need the troublesome variables +C<$`>, C<$&>, or C<$'>.) Also, introduced C<@LAST_MATCH_START> and +C<@LAST_MATCH_END> English aliases for C<@-> and C<@+>. =item * -VMS +File::Find now has pre- and post-processing callbacks. It also +correctly changes directories when chasing symbolic links. Callbacks +(naughtily) exiting with "next;" instead of "return;" now work. -chdir() now works better despite a CRT bug; now works with MULTIPLICITY -(see INSTALL); now works with Perl's malloc. +=item * + +File::Glob::glob() renamed to File::Glob::bsd_glob() to avoid +prototype mismatch with CORE::glob(). =item * -Windows +IPC::Open3 now allows the use of numeric file descriptors. -=over 8 +=item * + +use lib now works identically to @INC. Removing directories +with 'no lib' now works. =item * -accept() no longer leaks memory. +C<%INC> now localised in a Safe compartment so that use/require work. =item * -Better chdir() return value for a non-existent directory. +The Shell module now has an OO interface. =item * -New %ENV entries now propagate to subprocesses. +B::Deparse should be now more robust. It still far from providing a full +round trip for any random piece of Perl code, though, and is under active +development: expect more robustness in 5.7.2. =item * -$ENV{LIB} now used to search for libs under Visual C. +Class::Struct can now define the classes in compile time. =item * -A failed (pseudo)fork now returns undef and sets errno to EAGAIN. +Math::BigFloat has undergone much fixing, and in addition the fmod() +function now supports modulus operations. + +(The fixed Math::BigFloat module is also available in CPAN for those +who can't upgrade their Perl: http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/J/JP/JPEACOCK/) =item * -Allow REG_EXPAND_SZ keys in the registry. +Devel::Peek now has an interface for the Perl memory statistics +(this works only if you are using perl's malloc, and if you have +compiled with debugging). =item * -Can now send() from all threads, not just the first one. +IO::Socket has now atmark() method, which returns true if the socket +is positioned at the out-of-band mark. The method is also exportable +as a sockatmark() function. =item * -Fake signal handling reenabled, bugs and all. +IO::Socket::INET has support for ReusePort option (if your platform +supports it). The Reuse option now has an alias, ReuseAddr. For clarity +you may want to prefer ReuseAddr. =item * -Less stack reserved per thread so that more threads can run -concurrently. (Still 16M per thread.) +Net::Ping has been enhanced. There is now "external" protocol which +uses Net::Ping::External module which runs external ping(1) and parses +the output. An alpha version of Net::Ping::External is available in +CPAN and in 5.7.2 the Net::Ping::External may be integrated to Perl. =item * -Ctmpdir()> now prefers C:/temp over /tmp -(works better when perl is running as service). +The C pragma allows layers other than ":raw" and ":crlf" when +using PerlIO. =item * -Better UNC path handling under ithreads. +POSIX::sigaction() is now much more flexible and robust. +You can now install coderef handlers, 'DEFAULT', and 'IGNORE' +handlers, installing new handlers was not atomic. =item * -wait() and waitpid() now work much better. +The Test module has been significantly enhanced. Its use is +greatly recommended for module writers. =item * -winsock handle leak fixed. +The utf8:: name space (as in the pragma) provides various +Perl-callable functions to provide low level access to Perl's +internal Unicode representation. At the moment only length() +has been implemented. =back -=back +The following modules have been upgraded from the versions at CPAN: +CPAN, CGI, DB_File, File::Temp, Getopt::Long, Pod::Man, Pod::Text, +Storable, Text-Tabs+Wrap. -=head1 New or Changed Diagnostics +=item * -All regular expression compilation error messages are now hopefully -easier to understand both because the error message now comes before -the failed regex and because the point of failure is now clearly -marked. +L module has been significantly enhanced. It now +can deparse almost all of the standard test suite (so that the +tests still succeed). There is a make target "test.deparse" +for trying this out. -The various "opened only for", "on closed", "never opened" warnings -drop the C prefix for filehandles in the C
package, -for example C instead of . +=item * -The "Unrecognized escape" warning has been extended to include C<\8>, -C<\9>, and C<\_>. There is no need to escape any of the C<\w> characters. +L now assigns the array/hash element if the accessor +is called with an array/hash element as the B argument. -=head1 Changed Internals +=item * -=over 4 +L extension is now (even) faster. =item * -perlapi.pod (a companion to perlguts) now attempts to document the -internal API. +L extension has been updated to version 1.77. =item * -You can now build a really minimal perl called microperl. -Building microperl does not require even running Configure; -C should be enough. Beware: microperl makes -many assumptions, some of which may be too bold; the resulting -executable may crash or otherwise misbehave in wondrous ways. -For careful hackers only. +L, L, and L have been rewritten to use the +new-style constant dispatch section (see L). =item * -Added rsignal(), whichsig(), do_join() to the publicised API. +L is now (again) reentrant. It also has been made +more portable. =item * -Made possible to propagate customised exceptions via croak()ing. +L now supports C constant to limit the +size of the returned list of filenames. =item * -Added is_utf8_char(), is_utf8_string(), bytes_to_utf8(), and utf8_to_bytes(). +L now supports C of zero (usually meaning +that the operating system will make one up.) =item * -Now xsubs can have attributes just like subs. +The L pragma now supports declaring fully qualified variables. +(Something that C does not and will not support.) =back -=head1 Known Problems - -=head2 Unicode Support Still Far From Perfect - -We're working on it. Stay tuned. - -=head2 EBCDIC Still A Lost Platform - -The plan is to bring them back. - -=head2 Building Extensions Can Fail Because Of Largefiles - -Certain extensions like mod_perl and BSD::Resource are known to have -issues with `largefiles', a change brought by Perl 5.6.0 in which file -offsets default to 64 bits wide, where supported. Modules may fail to -compile at all or compile and work incorrectly. Currently there is no -good solution for the problem, but Configure now provides appropriate -non-largefile ccflags, ldflags, libswanted, and libs in the %Config -hash (e.g., $Config{ccflags_nolargefiles}) so the extensions that are -having problems can try configuring themselves without the -largefileness. This is admittedly not a clean solution, and the -solution may not even work at all. One potential failure is whether -one can (or, if one can, whether it's a good idea) link together at -all binaries with different ideas about file offsets, all this is -platform-dependent. - -=head2 ftmp-security tests warn 'system possibly insecure' - -Don't panic. Read INSTALL 'make test' section instead. - -=head2 Test lib/posix Subtest 9 Fails In LP64-Configured HP-UX - -If perl is configured with -Duse64bitall, the successful result of the -subtest 10 of lib/posix may arrive before the successful result of the -subtest 9, which confuses the test harness so much that it thinks the -subtest 9 failed. - -=head2 Long Doubles Still Don't Work In Solaris - -The experimental long double support is still very much so in Solaris. -(Other platforms like Linux and Tru64 are beginning to solidify in -this area.) - -=head2 Linux With Sfio Fails op/misc Test 48 - -No known fix. - -=head2 Storable tests fail in some platforms - -If any Storable tests fail the use of Storable is not advisable. - -=over 4 - -=item * - -Many Storable tests fail on AIX configured with 64 bit integers. - -So far unidentified problems break Storable in AIX if Perl is -configured to use 64 bit integers. AIX in 32-bit mode works and -other 64-bit platforms work with Storable. - -=item * - -DOS DJGPP may hang when testing Storable. - -=item * - -st-06compat fails in UNICOS and UNICOS/mk. - -This means that you cannot read old (pre-Storable-0.7) Storable images -made in other platforms. - -=item * - -st-store.t and st-retrieve may fail with Compaq C 6.2 on OpenVMS Alpha 7.2. - -=back - -=head2 Threads Are Still Experimental - -Multithreading is still an experimental feature. Some platforms -emit the following message for lib/thr5005 - - # - # This is a KNOWN FAILURE, and one of the reasons why threading - # is still an experimental feature. It is here to stop people - # from deploying threads in production. ;-) - # - -and another known thread-related warning is - - pragma/overload......Unbalanced saves: 3 more saves than restores - panic: magic_mutexfree during global destruction. - ok - lib/selfloader.......Unbalanced saves: 3 more saves than restores - panic: magic_mutexfree during global destruction. - ok - lib/st-dclone........Unbalanced saves: 3 more saves than restores - panic: magic_mutexfree during global destruction. - ok - -=head2 The Compiler Suite Is Still Experimental - -The compiler suite is slowly getting better but is nowhere near -working order yet. The backend part that has seen perhaps the most -progress is the bytecode compiler. - -=head1 Security Vulnerability Closed - -(This change was already made in 5.7.0 but bears repeating here.) - -A potential security vulnerability in the optional suidperl component -of Perl was identified in August 2000. suidperl is neither built nor -installed by default. As of April 2001 the only known vulnerable -platform is Linux, most likely all Linux distributions. CERT and -various vendors and distributors have been alerted about the vulnerability. -See http://www.cpan.org/src/5.0/sperl-2000-08-05/sperl-2000-08-05.txt -for more information. - -The problem was caused by Perl trying to report a suspected security -exploit attempt using an external program, /bin/mail. On Linux -platforms the /bin/mail program had an undocumented feature which -when combined with suidperl gave access to a root shell, resulting in -a serious compromise instead of reporting the exploit attempt. If you -don't have /bin/mail, or if you have 'safe setuid scripts', or if -suidperl is not installed, you are safe. - -The exploit attempt reporting feature has been completely removed from -all the Perl 5.7 releases (and will be gone also from the maintenance -release 5.6.1), so that particular vulnerability isn't there anymore. -However, further security vulnerabilities are, unfortunately, always -possible. The suidperl code is being reviewed and if deemed too risky -to continue to be supported, it may be completely removed from future -releases. In any case, suidperl should only be used by security -experts who know exactly what they are doing and why they are using -suidperl instead of some other solution such as sudo (see -http://www.courtesan.com/sudo/). - -=head1 Incompatible Changes - -=over 4 - -=item * - -Although "you shouldn't do that", it was possible to write code that -depends on Perl's hashed key order (Data::Dumper does this). The new -algorithm "One-at-a-Time" produces a different hashed key order. -More details are in L. - -=item * - -The list of filenames from glob() (or <...>) is now by default sorted -alphabetically to be csh-compliant. (bsd_glob() does still sort platform -natively, ASCII or EBCDIC, unless GLOB_ALPHASORT is specified.) - -=back - -=head1 Core Enhancements - -=head2 AUTOLOAD Is Now Lvaluable - -AUTOLOAD is now lvaluable, meaning that you can add the :lvalue attribute -to AUTOLOAD subroutines and you can assign to the AUTOLOAD return value. - -=head2 PerlIO is Now The Default - -=over 4 - -=item * - -IO is now by default done via PerlIO rather than system's "stdio". -PerlIO allows "layers" to be "pushed" onto a file handle to alter the -handle's behaviour. Layers can be specified at open time via 3-arg -form of open: - - open($fh,'>:crlf :utf8', $path) || ... - -or on already opened handles via extended C: - - binmode($fh,':encoding(iso-8859-7)'); - -The built-in layers are: unix (low level read/write), stdio (as in -previous Perls), perlio (re-implementation of stdio buffering in a -portable manner), crlf (does CRLF <=> "\n" translation as on Win32, -but available on any platform). A mmap layer may be available if -platform supports it (mostly UNIXes). - -Layers to be applied by default may be specified via the 'open' pragma. - -See L for the effects -of PerlIO on your architecture name. - -=item * - -File handles can be marked as accepting Perl's internal encoding of Unicode -(UTF-8 or UTF-EBCDIC depending on platform) by a pseudo layer ":utf8" : - - open($fh,">:utf8","Uni.txt"); - -Note for EBCDIC users: the pseudo layer ":utf8" is erroneously named -for you since it's not UTF-8 what you will be getting but instead -UTF-EBCDIC. See L, L, and -http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr16/ for more information. -In future releases this naming may change. - -=item * - -File handles can translate character encodings from/to Perl's internal -Unicode form on read/write via the ":encoding()" layer. - -=item * - -File handles can be opened to "in memory" files held in Perl scalars via: - - open($fh,'>', \$variable) || ... - -=item * - -Anonymous temporary files are available without need to -'use FileHandle' or other module via - - open($fh,"+>", undef) || ... - -That is a literal undef, not an undefined value. - -=item * - -The list form of C is now implemented for pipes (at least on UNIX): - - open($fh,"-|", 'cat', '/etc/motd') - -creates a pipe, and runs the equivalent of exec('cat', '/etc/motd') in -the child process. - -=item * - -The following builtin functions are now overridable: chop(), chomp(), -each(), keys(), pop(), push(), shift(), splice(), unshift(). - -=item * - -Formats now support zero-padded decimal fields. - -=item * - -Perl now tries internally to use integer values in numeric conversions -and basic arithmetics (+ - * /) if the arguments are integers, and -tries also to keep the results stored internally as integers. -This change leads into often slightly faster and always less lossy -arithmetics. (Previously Perl always preferred floating point numbers -in its math.) - -=item * - -The printf() and sprintf() now support parameter reordering using the -C<%\d+\$> and C<*\d+\$> syntaxes. For example - - print "%2\$s %1\$s\n", "foo", "bar"; - -will print "bar foo\n"; This feature helps in writing -internationalised software. - -=item * - -Unicode in general should be now much more usable. Unicode can be -used in hash keys, Unicode in regular expressions should work now, -Unicode in tr/// should work now (though tr/// seems to be a -particularly tricky to get right, so you have been warned) - -=item * - -The Unicode Character Database coming with Perl has been upgraded -to Unicode 3.1. For more information, see http://www.unicode.org/, -and http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr27/ - -For developers interested in enhancing Perl's Unicode capabilities: -almost all the UCD files are included with the Perl distribution in -the lib/unicode subdirectory. The most notable omission, for space -considerations, is the Unihan database. - -=item * - -The Unicode character classes \p{Blank} and \p{SpacePerl} have been -added. "Blank" is like C isblank(), that is, it contains only -"horizontal whitespace" (the space character is, the newline isn't), -and the "SpacePerl" is the Unicode equivalent of C<\s> (\p{Space} -isn't, since that includes the vertical tabulator character, whereas -C<\s> doesn't.) - -=back - -=head2 Signals Are Now Safe - -Perl used to be fragile in that signals arriving at inopportune moments -could corrupt Perl's internal state. - -=head1 Modules and Pragmata - -=head2 New Modules +=head1 Utility Changes =over 4 =item * -B::Concise, by Stephen McCamant, is a new compiler backend for -walking the Perl syntax tree, printing concise info about ops. -The output is highly customisable. - -See L for more information. - -=item * - -Class::ISA, by Sean Burke, for reporting the search path for a -class's ISA tree, has been added. - -See L for more information. - -=item * - -Cwd has now a split personality: if possible, an extension is used, -(this will hopefully be both faster and more secure and robust) but -if not possible, the familiar Perl library implementation is used. - -=item * - -Digest, a frontend module for calculating digests (checksums), -from Gisle Aas, has been added. - -See L for more information. - -=item * - -Digest::MD5 for calculating MD5 digests (checksums), by Gisle Aas, -has been added. - - use Digest::MD5 'md5_hex'; - - $digest = md5_hex("Thirsty Camel"); - - print $digest, "\n"; # 01d19d9d2045e005c3f1b80e8b164de1 - -NOTE: the MD5 backward compatibility module is deliberately not -included since its use is discouraged. - -See L for more information. - -=item * - -Encode, by Nick Ing-Simmons, provides a mechanism to translate -between different character encodings. Support for Unicode, -ISO-8859-*, ASCII, CP*, KOI8-R, and three variants of EBCDIC are -compiled in to the module. Several other encodings (like Japanese, -Chinese, and MacIntosh encodings) are included and will be loaded at -runtime. - -Any encoding supported by Encode module is also available to the -":encoding()" layer if PerlIO is used. - -See L for more information. - -=item * - -Filter::Simple is an easy-to-use frontend to Filter::Util::Call, -from Damian Conway. - - # in MyFilter.pm: - - package MyFilter; - - use Filter::Simple sub { - while (my ($from, $to) = splice @_, 0, 2) { - s/$from/$to/g; - } - }; - - 1; - - # in user's code: - - use MyFilter qr/red/ => 'green'; - - print "red\n"; # this code is filtered, will print "green\n" - print "bored\n"; # this code is filtered, will print "bogreen\n" - - no MyFilter; - - print "red\n"; # this code is not filtered, will print "red\n" - -See L for more information. - -=item * - -Filter::Util::Call, by Paul Marquess, provides you with the -framework to write I in Perl. For most uses -the frontend Filter::Simple is to be preferred. -See L for more information. - -=item * - -Locale::Constants, Locale::Country, Locale::Currency, and Locale::Language, -from Neil Bowers, have been added. They provide the codes for various -locale standards, such as "fr" for France, "usd" for US Dollar, and -"jp" for Japanese. - - use Locale::Country; - - $country = code2country('jp'); # $country gets 'Japan' - $code = country2code('Norway'); # $code gets 'no' - -See L, L, L, -and L for more information. - -=item * - -MIME::Base64, by Gisle Aas, allows you to encode data in base64. - - use MIME::Base64; - - $encoded = encode_base64('Aladdin:open sesame'); - $decoded = decode_base64($encoded); - - print $encoded, "\n"; # "QWxhZGRpbjpvcGVuIHNlc2FtZQ==" - -See L for more information. - -=item * - -MIME::QuotedPrint, by Gisle Aas, allows you to encode data in -quoted-printable encoding. - - use MIME::QuotedPrint; - - $encoded = encode_qp("Smiley in Unicode: \x{263a}"); - $decoded = decode_qp($encoded); - - print $encoded, "\n"; # "Smiley in Unicode: =263A" - -MIME::QuotedPrint has been enhanced to provide the basic methods -necessary to use it with PerlIO::Via as in : - - use MIME::QuotedPrint; - open($fh,">Via(MIME::QuotedPrint)",$path) - -See L for more information. - -=item * - -PerlIO::Scalar, by Nick Ing-Simmons, provides the implementation of -IO to "in memory" Perl scalars as discussed above. It also serves as -an example of a loadable layer. Other future possibilities include -PerlIO::Array and PerlIO::Code. See L for more -information. - -=item * - -PerlIO::Via, by Nick Ing-Simmons, acts as a PerlIO layer and wraps -PerlIO layer functionality provided by a class (typically implemented -in perl code). - - use MIME::QuotedPrint; - open($fh,">Via(MIME::QuotedPrint)",$path) - -This will automatically convert everything output to C<$fh> -to Quoted-Printable. See L for more information. - -=item * - -Pod::Text::Overstrike, by Joe Smith, has been added. -It converts POD data to formatted overstrike text. -See L for more information. - -=item * - -Switch from Damian Conway has been added. Just by saying - - use Switch; - -you have C and C available in Perl. - - use Switch; - - switch ($val) { - - case 1 { print "number 1" } - case "a" { print "string a" } - case [1..10,42] { print "number in list" } - case (@array) { print "number in list" } - case /\w+/ { print "pattern" } - case qr/\w+/ { print "pattern" } - case (%hash) { print "entry in hash" } - case (\%hash) { print "entry in hash" } - case (\&sub) { print "arg to subroutine" } - else { print "previous case not true" } - } - -See L for more information. - -=item * - -Text::Balanced from Damian Conway has been added, for -extracting delimited text sequences from strings. - - use Text::Balanced 'extract_delimited'; - - ($a, $b) = extract_delimited("'never say never', he never said", "'", ''); - -$a will be "'never say never'", $b will be ', he never said'. - -In addition to extract_delimited() there are also extract_bracketed(), -extract_quotelike(), extract_codeblock(), extract_variable(), -extract_tagged(), extract_multiple(), gen_delimited_pat(), and -gen_extract_tagged(). With these you can implement rather advanced -parsing algorithms. See L for more information. - -=item * - -Tie::RefHash::Nestable, by Edward Avis, allows storing hash references -(unlike the standard Tie::RefHash) The module is contained within -Tie::RefHash. - -=item * - -XS::Typemap, by Tim Jenness, is a test extension that exercises XS -typemaps. Nothing gets installed but for extension writers the code -is worth studying. - -=back - -=head2 Updated And Improved Modules and Pragmata - -=over 4 +The Emacs perl mode (emacs/cperl-mode.el) has been updated to version +4.31. =item * -B::Deparse should be now more robust. It still far from providing a full -round trip for any random piece of Perl code, though, and is under active -development: expect more robustness in 5.7.2. +Perlbug is now much more robust. It also sends the bug report to +perl.org, not perl.com. =item * -Class::Struct can now define the classes in compile time. +The perlcc utility has been rewritten and its user interface (that is, +command line) is much more like that of the UNIX C compiler, cc. =item * -Math::BigFloat has undergone much fixing, and in addition the fmod() -function now supports modulus operations. - -(The fixed Math::BigFloat module is also available in CPAN for those -who can't upgrade their Perl: http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/J/JP/JPEACOCK/) +The xsubpp utility for extension writers now understands POD +documentation embedded in the *.xs files. =item * -Devel::Peek now has an interface for the Perl memory statistics -(this works only if you are using perl's malloc, and if you have -compiled with debugging). +h2xs now produces template README. =item * -IO::Socket has now atmark() method, which returns true if the socket -is positioned at the out-of-band mark. The method is also exportable -as a sockatmark() function. - +s2p has been completely rewritten in Perl. (It is in fact a full +implementation of sed in Perl.) + =item * -IO::Socket::INET has support for ReusePort option (if your platform -supports it). The Reuse option now has an alias, ReuseAddr. For clarity -you may want to prefer ReuseAddr. +xsubpp now supports OUT keyword. =item * -Net::Ping has been enhanced. There is now "external" protocol which -uses Net::Ping::External module which runs external ping(1) and parses -the output. An alpha version of Net::Ping::External is available in -CPAN and in 5.7.2 the Net::Ping::External may be integrated to Perl. +The F is now much faster. =item * -The C pragma allows layers other than ":raw" and ":crlf" when -using PerlIO. +L now supports C trigraphs. =item * -POSIX::sigaction() is now much more flexible and robust. -You can now install coderef handlers, 'DEFAULT', and 'IGNORE' -handlers, installing new handlers was not atomic. +L uses the new L module which will affect +newly created extensions that define constants. Since the new code is +more correct (if you have two constants where the first one is a +prefix of the second one, the first constant B gets defined), +less lossy (it uses integers for integer constant, as opposed to the +old code that used floating point numbers even for integer constants), +and slightly faster, you might want to consider regenerating your +extension code (the new scheme makes regenerating easy). +L now also supports C trigraphs. =item * -The Test module has been significantly enhanced. Its use is -greatly recommended for module writers. +L has been added to configure the libnet. =item * -The utf8:: name space (as in the pragma) provides various -Perl-callable functions to provide low level access to Perl's -internal Unicode representation. At the moment only length() -has been implemented. +The F (and thusly L) now allows specifying +a cache directory. =back -The following modules have been upgraded from the versions at CPAN: -CPAN, CGI, DB_File, File::Temp, Getopt::Long, Pod::Man, Pod::Text, -Storable, Text-Tabs+Wrap. - -=head1 Performance Enhancements +=head1 New Documentation =over 4 =item * -Hashes now use Bob Jenkins "One-at-a-Time" hashing key algorithm -(http://burtleburtle.net/bob/hash/doobs.html). This algorithm is -reasonably fast while producing a much better spread of values than -the old hashing algorithm (originally by Chris Torek, later tweaked by -Ilya Zakharevich). Hash values output from the algorithm on a hash of -all 3-char printable ASCII keys comes much closer to passing the -DIEHARD random number generation tests. According to perlbench, this -change has not affected the overall speed of Perl. +perl56delta details the changes between the 5.005 release and the +5.6.0 release. =item * -unshift() should now be noticeably faster. +perldebtut is a Perl debugging tutorial. -=back +=item * -=head1 Utility Changes +perlebcdic contains considerations for running Perl on EBCDIC platforms. +Note that unfortunately EBCDIC platforms that used to supported back in +Perl 5.005 are still unsupported by Perl 5.7.0; the plan, however, is to +bring them back to the fold. -=over 4 +=item * + +perlnewmod tells about writing and submitting a new module. =item * -h2xs now produces template README. +perlposix-bc explains using Perl on the POSIX-BC platform +(an EBCDIC mainframe platform). =item * -s2p has been completely rewritten in Perl. (It is in fact a full -implementation of sed in Perl.) +perlretut is a regular expression tutorial. =item * -xsubpp now supports OUT keyword. +perlrequick is a regular expressions quick-start guide. +Yes, much quicker than perlretut. -=back +=item * -=head1 New Documentation +perlutil explains the command line utilities packaged with the Perl +distribution. + +=back =head2 perlclib @@ -1458,883 +1066,864 @@ will be installed as L. Documentation on how to use the Perl source repository has been added. -=head1 Installation and Configuration Improvements - =over 4 =item * -Because PerlIO is now the default on most platforms, "-perlio" doesn't -get appended to the $Config{archname} (also known as $^O) anymore. -Instead, if you explicitly choose not to use perlio (Configure command -line option -Uuseperlio), you will get "-stdio" appended. - -=item * - -Another change related to the architecture name is that "-64all" -(-Duse64bitall, or "maximally 64-bit") is appended only if your -pointers are 64 bits wide. (To be exact, the use64bitall is ignored.) +L is an article about software localization, +originally published in The Perl Journal #13, republished here with +kind permission. =item * -APPLLIB_EXP, a less-know configuration-time definition, has been -documented. It can be used to prepend site-specific directories -to Perl's default search path (@INC), see INSTALL for information. +More README.$PLATFORM files have been converted into pod, which also +means that they also be installed as perl$PLATFORM documentation +files. The new files are L, L, L, +L, L, L, L, L, +and L. =item * -Building Berkeley DB3 for compatibility modes for DB, NDBM, and ODBM -has been documented in INSTALL. +The F and F files have been merged into L. =item * -If you are on IRIX or Tru64 platforms, new profiling/debugging options -have been added, see L for more information about pixie and -Third Degree. +Use of the F tool to profile Perl has been documented in +L. There is a make target "perl.gprof" for generating a +gprofiled Perl executable. =back -=head2 New Or Improved Platforms - -For the list of platforms known to support Perl, -see L. +=head1 Performance Enhancements =over 4 =item * -AIX dynamic loading should be now better supported. +map() that changes the size of the list should now work faster. =item * -After a long pause, AmigaOS has been verified to be happy with Perl. +sort() has been changed to use mergesort internally as opposed to the +earlier quicksort. For very small lists this may result in slightly +slower sorting times, but in general the speedup should be at least +20%. Additional bonuses are that the worst case behaviour of sort() +is now better (in computer science terms it now runs in time O(N log N), +as opposed to quicksort's Theta(N**2) worst-case run time behaviour), +and that sort() is now stable (meaning that elements with identical +keys will stay ordered as they were before the sort). =item * -EBCDIC platforms (z/OS, also known as OS/390, POSIX-BC, and VM/ESA) -have been regained. Many test suite tests still fail and the -co-existence of Unicode and EBCDIC isn't quite settled, but the -situation is much better than with Perl 5.6. See L, -L (for POSIX-BC), and L for more information. +Hashes now use Bob Jenkins "One-at-a-Time" hashing key algorithm +(http://burtleburtle.net/bob/hash/doobs.html). This algorithm is +reasonably fast while producing a much better spread of values than +the old hashing algorithm (originally by Chris Torek, later tweaked by +Ilya Zakharevich). Hash values output from the algorithm on a hash of +all 3-char printable ASCII keys comes much closer to passing the +DIEHARD random number generation tests. According to perlbench, this +change has not affected the overall speed of Perl. =item * -Building perl with -Duseithreads or -Duse5005threads now works under -HP-UX 10.20 (previously it only worked under 10.30 or later). You will -need a thread library package installed. See README.hpux. +unshift() should now be noticeably faster. + +=back + +=head1 Installation and Configuration Improvements + +=head2 Generic Improvements + +=over 4 =item * -MacOS Classic (MacPerl has of course been available since -perl 5.004 but now the source code bases of standard Perl -and MacPerl have been synchronised) +INSTALL now explains how you can configure Perl to use 64-bit +integers even on non-64-bit platforms. =item * -NCR MP-RAS is now supported. +Policy.sh policy change: if you are reusing a Policy.sh file +(see INSTALL) and you use Configure -Dprefix=/foo/bar and in the old +Policy $prefix eq $siteprefix and $prefix eq $vendorprefix, all of +them will now be changed to the new prefix, /foo/bar. (Previously +only $prefix changed.) If you do not like this new behaviour, +specify prefix, siteprefix, and vendorprefix explicitly. =item * -NonStop-UX is now supported. +A new optional location for Perl libraries, otherlibdirs, is available. +It can be used for example for vendor add-ons without disturbing Perl's +own library directories. =item * -Amdahl UTS is now supported. +In many platforms the vendor-supplied 'cc' is too stripped-down to +build Perl (basically, 'cc' doesn't do ANSI C). If this seems +to be the case and 'cc' does not seem to be the GNU C compiler +'gcc', an automatic attempt is made to find and use 'gcc' instead. =item * -z/OS (formerly known as OS/390, formerly known as MVS OE) has now -support for dynamic loading. This is not selected by default, -however, you must specify -Dusedl in the arguments of Configure. +gcc needs to closely track the operating system release to avoid +build problems. If Configure finds that gcc was built for a different +operating system release than is running, it now gives a clearly visible +warning that there may be trouble ahead. -=back +=item * -=head2 Generic Improvements +If binary compatibility with the 5.005 release is not wanted, Configure +no longer suggests including the 5.005 modules in @INC. -=over 4 +=item * + +Configure C<-S> can now run non-interactively. =item * -Configure no longer includes the DBM libraries (dbm, gdbm, db, ndbm) -when building the Perl binary. The only exception to this is SunOS 4.x, -which needs them. +configure.gnu now works with options with whitespace in them. =item * -Some new Configure symbols, useful for extension writers: +installperl now outputs everything to STDERR. -=over 8 +=item * -=item d_cmsghdr +$Config{byteorder} is now computed dynamically (this is more robust +with "fat binaries" where an executable image contains binaries for +more than one binary platform.) -For struct cmsghdr. +=item * -=item d_fcntl_can_lock +Because PerlIO is now the default on most platforms, "-perlio" doesn't +get appended to the $Config{archname} (also known as $^O) anymore. +Instead, if you explicitly choose not to use perlio (Configure command +line option -Uuseperlio), you will get "-stdio" appended. -Whether fcntl() can be used for file locking. +=item * -=item d_fsync +Another change related to the architecture name is that "-64all" +(-Duse64bitall, or "maximally 64-bit") is appended only if your +pointers are 64 bits wide. (To be exact, the use64bitall is ignored.) -=item d_getitimer +=item * -=item d_getpagsz +APPLLIB_EXP, a less-know configuration-time definition, has been +documented. It can be used to prepend site-specific directories +to Perl's default search path (@INC), see INSTALL for information. -For getpagesize(), though you should prefer POSIX::sysconf(_SC_PAGE_SIZE)) +=item * -=item d_msghdr_s +Building Berkeley DB3 for compatibility modes for DB, NDBM, and ODBM +has been documented in INSTALL. -For struct msghdr. +=item * -=item need_va_copy +If you are on IRIX or Tru64 platforms, new profiling/debugging options +have been added, see L for more information about pixie and +Third Degree. -Whether one needs to use Perl_va_copy() to copy varargs. +=item * -=item d_readv +In AFS installations one can configure the root of the AFS to be +somewhere else than the default F by using the Configure +parameter C<-Dafsroot=/some/where/else>. -=item d_recvmsg +=item * -=item d_sendmsg +The version of Berkeley DB used when the Perl (and, presumably, the +DB_File extension) was built is now available as +C<@Config{qw(db_version_major db_version_minor db_version_patch)}> +from Perl and as C from C. -=item sig_size +=item * -The number of elements in an array needed to hold all the available signals. +The Thread extension is now not built at all under ithreads +(C) because it wouldn't work anyway (the +Thread extension requires being Configured with C<-Duse5005threads>). -=item d_sockatmark +=item * + +The C compiler backend has been so significantly improved +that almost the whole Perl test suite passes after being deparsed. A +make target has been added to help in further testing: C. -=item d_strtoq +=back -=item d_u32align +=head2 New Or Improved Platforms -Whether one needs to access character data aligned by U32 sized pointers. +For the list of platforms known to support Perl, +see L. -=item d_ualarm +=over 4 -=item d_usleep +=item * -=back +AIX dynamic loading should be now better supported. =item * -Removed Configure symbols: the PDP-11 memory model settings: huge, -large, medium, models. +After a long pause, AmigaOS has been verified to be happy with Perl. =item * -SOCKS support is now much more robust. +EBCDIC platforms (z/OS, also known as OS/390, POSIX-BC, and VM/ESA) +have been regained. Many test suite tests still fail and the +co-existence of Unicode and EBCDIC isn't quite settled, but the +situation is much better than with Perl 5.6. See L, +L (for POSIX-BC), and L for more information. =item * -If your file system supports symbolic links you can build Perl outside -of the source directory by +Building perl with -Duseithreads or -Duse5005threads now works under +HP-UX 10.20 (previously it only worked under 10.30 or later). You will +need a thread library package installed. See README.hpux. - mkdir /tmp/perl/build/directory - cd /tmp/perl/build/directory - sh /path/to/perl/source/Configure -Dmksymlinks ... +=item * -This will create in /tmp/perl/build/directory a tree of symbolic links -pointing to files in /path/to/perl/source. The original files are left -unaffected. After Configure has finished you can just say +MacOS Classic (MacPerl has of course been available since +perl 5.004 but now the source code bases of standard Perl +and MacPerl have been synchronised) - make all test +=item * -and Perl will be built and tested, all in /tmp/perl/build/directory. +NCR MP-RAS is now supported. -=back +=item * -=head1 Selected Bug Fixes +NonStop-UX is now supported. -Numerous memory leaks and uninitialized memory accesses have been hunted down. -Most importantly anonymous subs used to leak quite a bit. +=item * -=over 4 +Amdahl UTS is now supported. =item * -chop(@list) in list context returned the characters chopped in -reverse order. This has been reversed to be in the right order. +z/OS (formerly known as OS/390, formerly known as MVS OE) has now +support for dynamic loading. This is not selected by default, +however, you must specify -Dusedl in the arguments of Configure. =item * -The order of DESTROYs has been made more predictable. +AIX should now work better with gcc, threads, and 64-bitness. Also the +long doubles support in AIX should be better now. See L. =item * -mkdir() now ignores trailing slashes in the directory name, -as mandated by POSIX. +AtheOS (http://www.atheos.cx/) is a new platform. =item * -Attributes (like :shared) didn't work with our(). +DG/UX platform now supports the 5.005-style threads. See L. =item * -The PERL5OPT environment variable (for passing command line arguments -to Perl) didn't work for more than a single group of options. +DYNIX/ptx platform (a.k.a. dynixptx) is supported at or near osvers 4.5.2. =item * -The tainting behaviour of sprintf() has been rationalized. It does -not taint the result of floating point formats anymore, making the -behaviour consistent with that of string interpolation. +Several MacOS (Classic) portability patches have been applied. We +hope to get a fully working port by 5.8.0. (The remaining problems +relate to the changed IO model of Perl.) See L. =item * -All but the first argument of the IO syswrite() method are now optional. +MacOS X (or Darwin) should now be able to build Perl even on HFS+ +filesystems. (The case-insensitivity confused the Perl build process.) =item * -Tie::ARRAY SPLICE method was broken. +NetWare from Novell is now supported. See L. =item * -vec() now tries to work with characters <= 255 when possible, but it leaves -higher character values in place. In that case, if vec() was used to modify -the string, it is no longer considered to be utf8-encoded. +The Amdahl UTS UNIX mainframe platform is now supported. =back -=head2 Platform Specific Changes and Fixes +=head1 Selected Bug Fixes =over 4 =item * -Linux previously had problems related to sockaddrlen when using -accept(), revcfrom() (in Perl: recv()), getpeername(), and getsockname(). +Several debugger fixes: exit code now reflects the script exit code, +condition C<"0"> now treated correctly, the C command now checks +line number, the C<$.> no longer gets corrupted, all debugger output now +goes correctly to the socket if RemotePort is set. =item * -Previously DYNIX/ptx had problems in its Configure probe for non-blocking I/O. +C<*foo{FORMAT}> now works. =item * -Windows - -=over 8 +Lexical warnings now propagating correctly between scopes. =item * -Borland C++ v5.5 is now a supported compiler that can build Perl. -However, the generated binaries continue to be incompatible with those -generated by the other supported compilers (GCC and Visual C++). +Line renumbering with eval and C<#line> now works. =item * -Win32::GetCwd() correctly returns C:\ instead of C: when at the drive root. -Other bugs in chdir() and Cwd::cwd() have also been fixed. +Fixed numerous memory leaks, especially in eval "". =item * -Duping socket handles with open(F, ">&MYSOCK") now works under Windows 9x. +Modulus of unsigned numbers now works (4063328477 % 65535 used to +return 27406, instead of 27047). =item * -HTML files will be installed in c:\perl\html instead of c:\perl\lib\pod\html +Some "not a number" warnings introduced in 5.6.0 eliminated to be +more compatible with 5.005. Infinity is now recognised as a number. =item * -The makefiles now provide a single switch to bulk-enable all the features -enabled in ActiveState ActivePerl (a popular binary distribution). - -=back - -=back - -=head1 New or Changed Diagnostics - -Two new debugging options have been added: if you have compiled your -Perl with debugging, you can use the -DT and -DR options to trace -tokenising and to add reference counts to displaying variables, -respectively. - -=over 4 +our() variables will not cause "will not stay shared" warnings. =item * -If an attempt to use a (non-blessed) reference as an array index -is made, a warning is given. +pack "Z" now correctly terminates the string with "\0". =item * -C and C (with no values to push or unshift) -now give a warning. This may be a problem for generated and evaled -code. - -=back - -=head1 Changed Internals - -=over 4 +Fix password routines which in some shadow password platforms +(e.g. HP-UX) caused getpwent() to return every other entry. =item * -Some new APIs: ptr_table_clear(), ptr_table_free(), sv_setref_uv(). -For the full list of the available APIs see L. +printf() no longer resets the numeric locale to "C". =item * -dTHR and djSP have been obsoleted; the former removed (because it's -a no-op) and the latter replaced with dSP. +C now parses correctly as C<'a\\b'>. =item * -Perl now uses system malloc instead of Perl malloc on all 64-bit -platforms, and even in some not-always-64-bit platforms like AIX, -IRIX, and Solaris. This change breaks backward compatibility but -Perl's malloc has problems with large address spaces and also the -speed of vendors' malloc is generally better in large address space -machines (Perl's malloc is mostly tuned for space). - -=back - -=head1 New Tests - -Many new tests have been added. The most notable is probably the -lib/1_compile: it is very notable because running it takes quite a -long time -- it test compiles all the Perl modules in the distribution. -Please be patient. +Printing quads (64-bit integers) with printf/sprintf now works +without the q L ll prefixes (assuming you are on a quad-capable platform). -=head1 Known Problems +=item * -Note that unlike other sections in this document (which describe -changes since 5.7.0) this section is cumulative containing known -problems for all the 5.7 releases. +Regular expressions on references and overloaded scalars now work. -=head2 AIX vac 5.0.0.0 May Produce Buggy Code For Perl +=item * -The AIX C compiler vac version 5.0.0.0 may produce buggy code, -resulting in few random tests failing, but when the failing tests -are run by hand, they succeed. We suggest upgrading to at least -vac version 5.0.1.0, that has been known to compile Perl correctly. -"lslpp -L|grep vac.C" will tell you the vac version. +scalar() now forces scalar context even when used in void context. -=head2 lib/ftmp-security tests warn 'system possibly insecure' +=item * -Don't panic. Read INSTALL 'make test' section instead. +sort() arguments are now compiled in the right wantarray context +(they were accidentally using the context of the sort() itself). -=head2 lib/io_multihomed Fails In LP64-Configured HP-UX +=item * -The lib/io_multihomed test may hang in HP-UX if Perl has been -configured to be 64-bit. Because other 64-bit platforms do not hang in -this test, HP-UX is suspect. All other tests pass in 64-bit HP-UX. The -test attempts to create and connect to "multihomed" sockets (sockets -which have multiple IP addresses). +Changed the POSIX character class C<[[:space:]]> to include the (very +rare) vertical tab character. Added a new POSIX-ish character class +C<[[:blank:]]> which stands for horizontal whitespace (currently, +the space and the tab). -=head2 Test lib/posix Subtest 9 Fails In LP64-Configured HP-UX +=item * -If perl is configured with -Duse64bitall, the successful result of the -subtest 10 of lib/posix may arrive before the successful result of the -subtest 9, which confuses the test harness so much that it thinks the -subtest 9 failed. +$AUTOLOAD, sort(), lock(), and spawning subprocesses +in multiple threads simultaneously are now thread-safe. -=head2 lib/b test 19 +=item * -The test fails on various platforms (PA64 and IA64 are known), but the -exact cause is still being investigated. +Allow read-only string on left hand side of non-modifying tr///. -=head2 Linux With Sfio Fails op/misc Test 48 +=item * -No known fix. +Several Unicode fixes (but still not perfect). -=head2 sigaction test 13 in VMS +=over 8 -The test is known to fail; whether it's because of VMS of because -of faulty test is not known. +=item * -=head2 sprintf tests 129 and 130 +BOMs (byte order marks) in the beginning of Perl files +(scripts, modules) should now be transparently skipped. +UTF-16 (UCS-2) encoded Perl files should now be read correctly. -The op/sprintf tests 129 and 130 are known to fail on some platforms. -Examples include any platform using sfio, and Compaq/Tandem's NonStop-UX. -The failing platforms do not comply with the ANSI C Standard, line -19ff on page 134 of ANSI X3.159 1989 to be exact. (They produce -something else than "1" and "-1" when formatting 0.6 and -0.6 using -the printf format "%.0f", most often they produce "0" and "-0".) +=item * -=head2 Failure of Thread tests +The character tables have been updated to Unicode 3.0.1. -The subtests 19 and 20 of lib/thr5005.t test are known to fail due to -fundamental problems in the 5.005 threading implementation. These are -not new failures--Perl 5.005_0x has the same bugs, but didn't have -these tests. (Note that support for 5.005-style threading remains -experimental.) +=item * -=head2 Localising a Tied Variable Leaks Memory +chr() for values greater than 127 now create utf8 when under use +utf8. - use Tie::Hash; - tie my %tie_hash => 'Tie::StdHash'; +=item * - ... +Comparing with utf8 data does not magically upgrade non-utf8 data into +utf8. - local($tie_hash{Foo}) = 1; # leaks +=item * -Code like the above is known to leak memory every time the local() -is executed. +C, C, and C now match titlecase. -=head2 Self-tying of Arrays and Hashes Is Forbidden +=item * -Self-tying of arrays and hashes is broken in rather deep and -hard-to-fix ways. As a stop-gap measure to avoid people from getting -frustrated at the mysterious results (core dumps, most often) it is -for now forbidden (you will get a fatal error even from an attempt). +Concatenation with the C<.> operator or via variable interpolation, +C, C, C, C, the C operator, +substitution with C, single-quoted UTF8, should now work--in +theory. -=head2 Building Extensions Can Fail Because Of Largefiles +=item * -Some extensions like mod_perl are known to have issues with -`largefiles', a change brought by Perl 5.6.0 in which file offsets -default to 64 bits wide, where supported. Modules may fail to compile -at all or compile and work incorrectly. Currently there is no good -solution for the problem, but Configure now provides appropriate -non-largefile ccflags, ldflags, libswanted, and libs in the %Config -hash (e.g., $Config{ccflags_nolargefiles}) so the extensions that are -having problems can try configuring themselves without the -largefileness. This is admittedly not a clean solution, and the -solution may not even work at all. One potential failure is whether -one can (or, if one can, whether it's a good idea) link together at -all binaries with different ideas about file offsets, all this is -platform-dependent. +The C operator now works I better but is still rather +broken. Note that the C functionality has been removed (but +see pack('U0', ...)). -=head2 The Compiler Suite Is Still Experimental +=item * -The compiler suite is slowly getting better but is nowhere near -working order yet. +vec() now refuses to deal with characters >255. -=head1 Security Vulnerability Closed +=item * -(This change was already made in 5.7.0 but bears repeating here.) +Zero entries were missing from the Unicode classes like C. -A security vulnerability affecting all Perl versions prior to 5.6.1 -was found in August 2000. The vulnerability does not affect default -installations and as far as is known affects only the Linux platform. +=back -You should upgrade your Perl to 5.6.1 as soon as possible. Patches -for earlier releases exist but using the patches require full -recompilation from the source code anyway, so 5.6.1 is your best -choice. +=item * -See http://www.cpan.org/src/5.0/sperl-2000-08-05/sperl-2000-08-05.txt -for more information. +UNIVERSAL::isa no longer caches methods incorrectly. (This broke +the Tk extension with 5.6.0.) -=head1 Incompatible Changes +=item * -=head2 64-bit platforms and malloc +Configure no longer includes the DBM libraries (dbm, gdbm, db, ndbm) +when building the Perl binary. The only exception to this is SunOS 4.x, +which needs them. -If your pointers are 64 bits wide, the Perl malloc is no more being -used because it simply does not work with 8-byte pointers. Also, -usually the system malloc on such platforms are much better optimized -for such large memory models than the Perl malloc. +=item * -=head2 AIX Dynaloading +Some new Configure symbols, useful for extension writers: -The AIX dynaloading now uses in AIX releases 4.3 and newer the native -dlopen interface of AIX instead of the old emulated interface. This -change will probably break backward compatibility with compiled -modules. The change was made to make Perl more compliant with other -applications like modperl which are using the AIX native interface. +=over 8 -=head2 Socket Extension Dynamic in VMS +=item d_cmsghdr -The Socket extension is now dynamically loaded instead of being -statically built in. This may or may not be a problem with ancient -TCP/IP stacks of VMS: we do not know since we weren't able to test -Perl in such configurations. +For struct cmsghdr. -=head2 Different Definition of the Unicode Character Classes \p{In...} +=item d_fcntl_can_lock -As suggested by the Unicode consortium, the Unicode character classes -now prefer I as opposed to I (as defined by Unicode); -in Perl, when the C<\p{In....}> and the C<\p{In....}> regular expression -constructs are used. This has changed the definition of some of those -character classes. +Whether fcntl() can be used for file locking. -The difference between scripts and blocks is that scripts are the -glyphs used by a language or a group of languages, while the blocks -are more artificial groupings of 256 characters based on the Unicode -numbering. +=item d_fsync -In general this change results in more inclusive Unicode character -classes, but changes to the other direction also do take place: -for example while the script C includes all the Latin -characters and their various diacritic-adorned versions, it -does not include the various punctuation or digits (since they -are not solely C). +=item d_getitimer -Changes in the character class semantics may have happened if a script -and a block happen to have the same name, for example C. -In such cases the script wins and C<\p{InHebrew}> now means the script -definition of Hebrew. The block definition in still available, -though, by appending C to the name: C<\p{InHebrewBlock}> means -what C<\p{InHebrew}> meant in perl 5.6.0. For the full list -of affected character classes, see L. +=item d_getpagsz -=head2 Deprecations +For getpagesize(), though you should prefer POSIX::sysconf(_SC_PAGE_SIZE)) -The current user-visible implementation of pseudo-hashes (the weird -use of the first array element) is deprecated starting from Perl 5.8.0 -and will be removed in Perl 5.10.0, and the feature will be -implemented differently. Not only is the current interface rather -ugly, but the current implementation slows down normal array and hash -use quite noticeably. The C pragma interface will remain -available. +=item d_msghdr_s -The syntaxes C<@a->[...]> and C<@h->{...}> have now been deprecated. +For struct msghdr. -The suidperl is also considered to be too much a risk to continue -maintaining and the suidperl code is likely to be removed in a future -release. +=item need_va_copy -The C syntax (C without an argument has been -deprecated. Its semantics were never that clear and its -implementation even less so. If you have used that feature to -disallow all but fully qualified variables, C instead. +Whether one needs to use Perl_va_copy() to copy varargs. -The chdir(undef) and chdir('') behaviors to match chdir() has been -deprecated. In future versions, chdir(undef) and chdir('') will -simply fail. +=item d_readv -=head1 Core Enhancements +=item d_recvmsg -In general a lot of fixing has happened in the area of Perl's -understanding of numbers, both integer and floating point. Since in -many systems the standard number parsing functions like C -and C seem to have bugs, Perl tries to work around their -deficiencies. This results hopefully in more accurate numbers. +=item d_sendmsg -=over 4 +=item sig_size -=item * +The number of elements in an array needed to hold all the available signals. -The rules for allowing underscores (underbars) in numeric constants -have been relaxed and simplified: now you can have an underscore -B. +=item d_sockatmark -=item * +=item d_strtoq -GMAGIC (right-hand side magic) could in many cases such as string -concatenation be invoked too many times. +=item d_u32align -=item * +Whether one needs to access character data aligned by U32 sized pointers. -Lexicals I: lexicals outside an eval "" weren't resolved -correctly inside a subroutine definition inside the eval "" if they -were not already referenced in the top level of the eval""ed code. +=item d_ualarm -=item * +=item d_usleep -Lexicals II: lexicals leaked at file scope into subroutines that -were declared before the lexicals. +=back =item * -Lvalue subroutines can now return C in list context. +Removed Configure symbols: the PDP-11 memory model settings: huge, +large, medium, models. =item * -The C and C are now exported. +SOCKS support is now much more robust. =item * -A new special regular expression variable has been introduced: -C<$^N>, which contains the most-recently closed group (submatch). +If your file system supports symbolic links you can build Perl outside +of the source directory by -=item * + mkdir /tmp/perl/build/directory + cd /tmp/perl/build/directory + sh /path/to/perl/source/Configure -Dmksymlinks ... -L now supports C to change the -file timestamps to the current time. +This will create in /tmp/perl/build/directory a tree of symbolic links +pointing to files in /path/to/perl/source. The original files are left +unaffected. After Configure has finished you can just say -=item * + make all test -The Perl parser has been stress tested using both random input and -Markov chain input. +and Perl will be built and tested, all in /tmp/perl/build/directory. -=item * +=back -C now works. +=head2 Platform Specific Changes and Fixes + +=over 4 =item * -VMS now works under PerlIO. +BSDI 4.* + +Perl now works on post-4.0 BSD/OSes. =item * -END blocks are now run even if you exit/die in a BEGIN block. -The execution of END blocks is now controlled by -PL_exit_flags & PERL_EXIT_DESTRUCT_END. This enables the new -behaviour for perl embedders. This will default in 5.10. See -L. +All BSDs -=back +Setting C<$0> now works (as much as possible; see perlvar for details). -=head1 Modules and Pragmata +=item * -=head2 New Modules and Distributions +Cygwin -=over 4 +Numerous updates; currently synchronised with Cygwin 1.1.4. =item * -L - Simpler definition of attribute handlers +EPOC + +EPOC update after Perl 5.6.0. See README.epoc. =item * -L - generate XS code to import C header constants +FreeBSD 3.* + +Perl now works on post-3.0 FreeBSDs. =item * -L - query locale information +HP-UX + +README.hpux updated; C now almost works. =item * -L - functions for dealing with RFC3066-style language tags +IRIX + +Numerous compilation flag and hint enhancements; accidental mixing +of 32-bit and 64-bit libraries (a doomed attempt) made much harder. =item * -L - a collection of perl5 modules related to network programming +Linux -Perl installation leaves libnet unconfigured, use F to configure. +Long doubles should now work (see INSTALL). =item * -L - selection of general-utility list subroutines +MacOS Classic + +Compilation of the standard Perl distribution in MacOS Classic should +now work if you have the Metrowerks development environment and +the missing Mac-specific toolkit bits. Contact the macperl mailing +list for details. =item * -L - framework for localization +MPE/iX + +MPE/iX update after Perl 5.6.0. See README.mpeix. =item * -L - Make your functions faster by trading space for time +NetBSD/sparc + +Perl now works on NetBSD/sparc. =item * -L - pseudo-class for method redispatch +OS/2 + +Now works with usethreads (see INSTALL). =item * -L - selection of general-utility scalar subroutines +Solaris + +64-bitness using the Sun Workshop compiler now works. =item * -L - yet another framework for writing test scripts +Tru64 (aka Digital UNIX, aka DEC OSF/1) + +The operating system version letter now recorded in $Config{osvers}. +Allow compiling with gcc (previously explicitly forbidden). Compiling +with gcc still not recommended because buggy code results, even with +gcc 2.95.2. =item * -L - Basic utilities for writing tests +Unicos + +Fixed various alignment problems that lead into core dumps either +during build or later; no longer dies on math errors at runtime; +now using full quad integers (64 bits), previously was using +only 46 bit integers for speed. =item * -L - high resolution ualarm, usleep, and gettimeofday +VMS + +chdir() now works better despite a CRT bug; now works with MULTIPLICITY +(see INSTALL); now works with Perl's malloc. =item * -L - Object Oriented time objects +Windows -(Previously known as L.) +=over 8 =item * -L - a simple API to convert seconds to other date values +accept() no longer leaks memory. =item * -L - Unicode Character Database - -=back +Better chdir() return value for a non-existent directory. -=head2 Updated And Improved Modules and Pragmata +=item * -=over 4 +New %ENV entries now propagate to subprocesses. =item * -L module has been significantly enhanced. It now -can deparse almost all of the standard test suite (so that the -tests still succeed). There is a make target "test.deparse" -for trying this out. +$ENV{LIB} now used to search for libs under Visual C. + +=item * + +A failed (pseudo)fork now returns undef and sets errno to EAGAIN. =item * -L now assigns the array/hash element if the accessor -is called with an array/hash element as the B argument. +Allow REG_EXPAND_SZ keys in the registry. =item * -L extension is now (even) faster. +Can now send() from all threads, not just the first one. =item * -L extension has been updated to version 1.77. +Fake signal handling reenabled, bugs and all. =item * -L, L, and L have been rewritten to use the -new-style constant dispatch section (see L). +Less stack reserved per thread so that more threads can run +concurrently. (Still 16M per thread.) =item * -L is now (again) reentrant. It also has been made -more portable. +Ctmpdir()> now prefers C:/temp over /tmp +(works better when perl is running as service). =item * -L now supports C constant to limit the -size of the returned list of filenames. +Better UNC path handling under ithreads. =item * -L now supports C of zero (usually meaning -that the operating system will make one up.) +wait() and waitpid() now work much better. =item * -The L pragma now supports declaring fully qualified variables. -(Something that C does not and will not support.) +winsock handle leak fixed. =back -=head1 Utility Changes - -=over 4 +=back -=item * +=head1 New or Changed Diagnostics -The F is now much faster. +All regular expression compilation error messages are now hopefully +easier to understand both because the error message now comes before +the failed regex and because the point of failure is now clearly +marked. -=item * +The various "opened only for", "on closed", "never opened" warnings +drop the C prefix for filehandles in the C
package, +for example C instead of . -L now supports C trigraphs. +The "Unrecognized escape" warning has been extended to include C<\8>, +C<\9>, and C<\_>. There is no need to escape any of the C<\w> characters. -=item * +=over 4 -L uses the new L module which will affect -newly created extensions that define constants. Since the new code is -more correct (if you have two constants where the first one is a -prefix of the second one, the first constant B gets defined), -less lossy (it uses integers for integer constant, as opposed to the -old code that used floating point numbers even for integer constants), -and slightly faster, you might want to consider regenerating your -extension code (the new scheme makes regenerating easy). -L now also supports C trigraphs. +Two new debugging options have been added: if you have compiled your +Perl with debugging, you can use the -DT and -DR options to trace +tokenising and to add reference counts to displaying variables, +respectively. =item * -L has been added to configure the libnet. +If an attempt to use a (non-blessed) reference as an array index +is made, a warning is given. =item * -The F (and thusly L) now allows specifying -a cache directory. +C and C (with no values to push or unshift) +now give a warning. This may be a problem for generated and evaled +code. =back -=head1 New Documentation +=head1 Changed Internals =over 4 =item * -L is an article about software localization, -originally published in The Perl Journal #13, republished here with -kind permission. +perlapi.pod (a companion to perlguts) now attempts to document the +internal API. =item * -More README.$PLATFORM files have been converted into pod, which also -means that they also be installed as perl$PLATFORM documentation -files. The new files are L, L, L, -L, L, L, L, L, -and L. +You can now build a really minimal perl called microperl. +Building microperl does not require even running Configure; +C should be enough. Beware: microperl makes +many assumptions, some of which may be too bold; the resulting +executable may crash or otherwise misbehave in wondrous ways. +For careful hackers only. =item * -The F and F files have been merged into L. +Added rsignal(), whichsig(), do_join() to the publicised API. =item * -Use of the F tool to profile Perl has been documented in -L. There is a make target "perl.gprof" for generating a -gprofiled Perl executable. +Made possible to propagate customised exceptions via croak()ing. -=back +=item * -=head1 Installation and Configuration Improvements +Added is_utf8_char(), is_utf8_string(), bytes_to_utf8(), and utf8_to_bytes(). -=head2 New Or Improved Platforms +=item * -=over 4 +Now xsubs can have attributes just like subs. =item * -AIX should now work better with gcc, threads, and 64-bitness. Also the -long doubles support in AIX should be better now. See L. +Some new APIs: ptr_table_clear(), ptr_table_free(), sv_setref_uv(). +For the full list of the available APIs see L. =item * -AtheOS (http://www.atheos.cx/) is a new platform. +dTHR and djSP have been obsoleted; the former removed (because it's +a no-op) and the latter replaced with dSP. =item * -DG/UX platform now supports the 5.005-style threads. See L. +Perl now uses system malloc instead of Perl malloc on all 64-bit +platforms, and even in some not-always-64-bit platforms like AIX, +IRIX, and Solaris. This change breaks backward compatibility but +Perl's malloc has problems with large address spaces and also the +speed of vendors' malloc is generally better in large address space +machines (Perl's malloc is mostly tuned for space). -=item * +=back -DYNIX/ptx platform (a.k.a. dynixptx) is supported at or near osvers 4.5.2. +=head1 Security Vulnerability Closed -=item * +(This change was already made in 5.7.0 but bears repeating here.) -Several MacOS (Classic) portability patches have been applied. We -hope to get a fully working port by 5.8.0. (The remaining problems -relate to the changed IO model of Perl.) See L. +A potential security vulnerability in the optional suidperl component +of Perl was identified in August 2000. suidperl is neither built nor +installed by default. As of November 2001 the only known vulnerable +platform is Linux, most likely all Linux distributions. CERT and +various vendors and distributors have been alerted about the vulnerability. +See http://www.cpan.org/src/5.0/sperl-2000-08-05/sperl-2000-08-05.txt +for more information. -=item * +The problem was caused by Perl trying to report a suspected security +exploit attempt using an external program, /bin/mail. On Linux +platforms the /bin/mail program had an undocumented feature which +when combined with suidperl gave access to a root shell, resulting in +a serious compromise instead of reporting the exploit attempt. If you +don't have /bin/mail, or if you have 'safe setuid scripts', or if +suidperl is not installed, you are safe. -MacOS X (or Darwin) should now be able to build Perl even on HFS+ -filesystems. (The case-insensitivity confused the Perl build process.) +The exploit attempt reporting feature has been completely removed from +Perl 5.8.0 (and the maintenance release 5.6.1, and it was removed also +from all the Perl 5.7 releases), so that particular vulnerability +isn't there anymore. However, further security vulnerabilities are, +unfortunately, always possible. The suidperl code is being reviewed +and if deemed too risky to continue to be supported, it may be +completely removed from future releases. In any case, suidperl should +only be used by security experts who know exactly what they are doing +and why they are using suidperl instead of some other solution such as +sudo (see http://www.courtesan.com/sudo/). -=item * +=head1 Selected Bug Fixes -NetWare from Novell is now supported. See L. +Numerous memory leaks and uninitialized memory accesses have been hunted down. +Most importantly anonymous subs used to leak quite a bit. + +=over 4 =item * -The Amdahl UTS UNIX mainframe platform is now supported. +chop(@list) in list context returned the characters chopped in +reverse order. This has been reversed to be in the right order. -=back +=item * -=head2 Generic Improvements +The order of DESTROYs has been made more predictable. -=over 4 +=item * + +mkdir() now ignores trailing slashes in the directory name, +as mandated by POSIX. =item * -In AFS installations one can configure the root of the AFS to be -somewhere else than the default F by using the Configure -parameter C<-Dafsroot=/some/where/else>. +Attributes (like :shared) didn't work with our(). =item * -The version of Berkeley DB used when the Perl (and, presumably, the -DB_File extension) was built is now available as -C<@Config{qw(db_version_major db_version_minor db_version_patch)}> -from Perl and as C from C. +The PERL5OPT environment variable (for passing command line arguments +to Perl) didn't work for more than a single group of options. =item * -The Thread extension is now not built at all under ithreads -(C) because it wouldn't work anyway (the -Thread extension requires being Configured with C<-Duse5005threads>). +The tainting behaviour of sprintf() has been rationalized. It does +not taint the result of floating point formats anymore, making the +behaviour consistent with that of string interpolation. =item * -The C compiler backend has been so significantly improved -that almost the whole Perl test suite passes after being deparsed. A -make target has been added to help in further testing: C. +All but the first argument of the IO syswrite() method are now optional. -=back +=item * -=head1 Selected Bug Fixes +Tie::ARRAY SPLICE method was broken. + +=item * -=over 5 +vec() now tries to work with characters <= 255 when possible, but it leaves +higher character values in place. In that case, if vec() was used to modify +the string, it is no longer considered to be utf8-encoded. =item * @@ -2376,6 +1965,59 @@ fixed the modfl() bug. =back +=head2 Platform Specific Changes and Fixes + +=over 4 + +=item * + +Linux previously had problems related to sockaddrlen when using +accept(), revcfrom() (in Perl: recv()), getpeername(), and getsockname(). + +=item * + +Previously DYNIX/ptx had problems in its Configure probe for non-blocking I/O. + +=item * + +Windows + +=over 8 + +=item * + +Borland C++ v5.5 is now a supported compiler that can build Perl. +However, the generated binaries continue to be incompatible with those +generated by the other supported compilers (GCC and Visual C++). + +=item * + +Win32::GetCwd() correctly returns C:\ instead of C: when at the drive root. +Other bugs in chdir() and Cwd::cwd() have also been fixed. + +=item * + +Duping socket handles with open(F, ">&MYSOCK") now works under Windows 9x. + +=item * + +HTML files will be installed in c:\perl\html instead of c:\perl\lib\pod\html + +=item * + +The makefiles now provide a single switch to bulk-enable all the features +enabled in ActiveState ActivePerl (a popular binary distribution). + +=back + +=head1 New Tests + +Several new tests have been added, especially for the F subsection. + +The tests are now reported in a different order than in earlier Perls. +(This happens because the test scripts from under t/lib have been moved +to be closer to the library/extension they are testing.) + =head1 New or Changed Diagnostics =over 4 @@ -2432,14 +2074,6 @@ messages still remain, though, so if you are compiling with gcc you will see some warnings about dubious practices. The warnings are being worked on. -=head1 New Tests - -Several new tests have been added, especially for the F subsection. - -The tests are now reported in a different order than in earlier Perls. -(This happens because the test scripts from under t/lib have been moved -to be closer to the library/extension they are testing.) - =head1 Known Problems Note that unlike other sections in this document (which describe