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1 | =head1 NAME |
2 | ||
3 | perl570delta - what's new for perl v5.7.0 | |
4 | ||
5 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
6 | ||
7 | This document describes differences between the 5.6.0 release and | |
8 | the 5.7.0 release. | |
9 | ||
10 | =head1 Security Vulnerability Closed | |
11 | ||
12 | A potential security vulnerability in the optional suidperl component | |
13 | of Perl has been identified. suidperl is neither built nor installed | |
14 | by default. As of September the 2nd, 2000, the only known vulnerable | |
15 | platform is Linux, most likely all Linux distributions. CERT and | |
16 | various vendors have been alerted about the vulnerability. | |
17 | ||
18 | The problem was caused by Perl trying to report a suspected security | |
19 | exploit attempt using an external program, /bin/mail. On Linux | |
20 | platforms the /bin/mail program had an undocumented feature which | |
21 | when combined with suidperl gave access to a root shell, resulting in | |
22 | a serious compromise instead of reporting the exploit attempt. If you | |
23 | don't have /bin/mail, or if you have 'safe setuid scripts', or if | |
24 | suidperl is not installed, you are safe. | |
25 | ||
26 | The exploit attempt reporting feature has been completely removed from | |
27 | the Perl 5.7.0 release, so that particular vulnerability isn't there | |
28 | anymore. However, further security vulnerabilities are, | |
29 | unfortunately, always possible. The suidperl code is being reviewed | |
30 | and if deemed too risky to continue to be supported, it may be | |
31 | completely removed from future releases. In any case, suidperl should | |
32 | only be used by security experts who know exactly what they are doing | |
33 | and why they are using suidperl instead of some other solution such as | |
34 | sudo ( see http://www.courtesan.com/sudo/ ). | |
35 | ||
36 | =head1 Incompatible Changes | |
37 | ||
38 | =over 4 | |
39 | ||
40 | =item * | |
41 | ||
42 | Arrays now always interpolate into double-quoted strings: | |
43 | constructs like "foo@bar" now always assume C<@bar> is an array, | |
44 | whether or not the compiler has seen use of C<@bar>. | |
45 | ||
46 | =item * | |
47 | ||
48 | The semantics of bless(REF, REF) were unclear and until someone proves | |
49 | it to make some sense, it is forbidden. | |
50 | ||
51 | =item * | |
52 | ||
53 | A reference to a reference now stringify as "REF(0x81485ec)" instead | |
54 | of "SCALAR(0x81485ec)" in order to be more consistent with the return | |
55 | value of ref(). | |
56 | ||
57 | =item * | |
58 | ||
59 | The very dusty examples in the eg/ directory have been removed. | |
60 | Suggestions for new shiny examples welcome but the main issue is that | |
61 | the examples need to be documented, tested and (most importantly) | |
62 | maintained. | |
63 | ||
64 | =item * | |
65 | ||
66 | The obsolete chat2 library that should never have been allowed | |
67 | to escape the laboratory has been decommissioned. | |
68 | ||
69 | =item * | |
70 | ||
71 | The unimplemented POSIX regex features [[.cc.]] and [[=c=]] are still | |
72 | recognised but now cause fatal errors. The previous behaviour of | |
73 | ignoring them by default and warning if requested was unacceptable | |
74 | since it, in a way, falsely promised that the features could be used. | |
75 | ||
76 | =item * | |
77 | ||
78 | The (bogus) escape sequences \8 and \9 now give an optional warning | |
79 | ("Unrecognized escape passed through"). There is no need to \-escape | |
80 | any C<\w> character. | |
81 | ||
82 | =item * | |
83 | ||
84 | lstat(FILEHANDLE) now gives a warning because the operation makes no sense. | |
85 | In future releases this may become a fatal error. | |
86 | ||
87 | =item * | |
88 | ||
89 | The long deprecated uppercase aliases for the string comparison | |
90 | operators (EQ, NE, LT, LE, GE, GT) have now been removed. | |
91 | ||
92 | =item * | |
93 | ||
94 | The regular expression captured submatches ($1, $2, ...) are now | |
95 | more consistently unset if the match fails, instead of leaving false | |
96 | data lying around in them. | |
97 | ||
98 | =item * | |
99 | ||
100 | The tr///C and tr///U features have been removed and will not return; | |
101 | the interface was a mistake. Sorry about that. For similar | |
102 | functionality, see pack('U0', ...) and pack('C0', ...). | |
103 | ||
104 | =back | |
105 | ||
106 | =head1 Core Enhancements | |
107 | ||
108 | =over 4 | |
109 | ||
110 | =item * | |
111 | ||
112 | C<perl -d:Module=arg,arg,arg> now works (previously one couldn't pass | |
113 | in multiple arguments.) | |
114 | ||
115 | =item * | |
116 | ||
117 | my __PACKAGE__ $obj now works. | |
118 | ||
119 | =item * | |
120 | ||
121 | C<no Module;> now works even if there is no "sub unimport" in the Module. | |
122 | ||
123 | =item * | |
124 | ||
125 | The numerical comparison operators return C<undef> if either operand | |
126 | is a NaN. Previously the behaviour was unspecified. | |
127 | ||
128 | =item * | |
129 | ||
130 | C<pack('U0a*', ...)> can now be used to force a string to UTF-8. | |
131 | ||
132 | =item * | |
133 | ||
134 | prototype(\&) is now available. | |
135 | ||
136 | =item * | |
137 | ||
138 | There is now an UNTIE method. | |
139 | ||
140 | =back | |
141 | ||
142 | =head1 Modules and Pragmata | |
143 | ||
144 | =head2 New Modules | |
145 | ||
146 | =over 4 | |
147 | ||
148 | =item * | |
149 | ||
150 | File::Temp allows one to create temporary files and directories in an | |
151 | easy, portable, and secure way. | |
152 | ||
153 | =item * | |
154 | ||
155 | Storable gives persistence to Perl data structures by allowing the | |
156 | storage and retrieval of Perl data to and from files in a fast and | |
157 | compact binary format. | |
158 | ||
159 | =back | |
160 | ||
161 | =head2 Updated And Improved Modules and Pragmata | |
162 | ||
163 | =over 4 | |
164 | ||
165 | =item * | |
166 | ||
167 | The following independently supported modules have been updated to | |
168 | newer versions from CPAN: CGI, CPAN, DB_File, File::Spec, Getopt::Long, | |
169 | the podlators bundle, Pod::LaTeX, Pod::Parser, Term::ANSIColor, Test. | |
170 | ||
171 | =item * | |
172 | ||
173 | Bug fixes and minor enhancements have been applied to B::Deparse, | |
174 | Data::Dumper, IO::Poll, IO::Socket::INET, Math::BigFloat, | |
175 | Math::Complex, Math::Trig, Net::protoent, the re pragma, SelfLoader, | |
176 | Sys::SysLog, Test::Harness, Text::Wrap, UNIVERSAL, and the warnings | |
177 | pragma. | |
178 | ||
179 | =item * | |
180 | ||
181 | The attributes::reftype() now works on tied arguments. | |
182 | ||
183 | =item * | |
184 | ||
185 | AutoLoader can now be disabled with C<no AutoLoader;>, | |
186 | ||
187 | =item * | |
188 | ||
189 | The English module can now be used without the infamous performance | |
190 | hit by saying | |
191 | ||
192 | use English '-no_performance_hit'; | |
193 | ||
194 | (Assuming, of course, that one doesn't need the troublesome variables | |
195 | C<$`>, C<$&>, or C<$'>.) Also, introduced C<@LAST_MATCH_START> and | |
196 | C<@LAST_MATCH_END> English aliases for C<@-> and C<@+>. | |
197 | ||
198 | =item * | |
199 | ||
200 | File::Find now has pre- and post-processing callbacks. It also | |
201 | correctly changes directories when chasing symbolic links. Callbacks | |
202 | (naughtily) exiting with "next;" instead of "return;" now work. | |
203 | ||
204 | =item * | |
205 | ||
206 | File::Glob::glob() renamed to File::Glob::bsd_glob() to avoid | |
207 | prototype mismatch with CORE::glob(). | |
208 | ||
209 | =item * | |
210 | ||
211 | IPC::Open3 now allows the use of numeric file descriptors. | |
212 | ||
213 | =item * | |
214 | ||
215 | use lib now works identically to @INC. Removing directories | |
216 | with 'no lib' now works. | |
217 | ||
218 | =item * | |
219 | ||
220 | C<%INC> now localised in a Safe compartment so that use/require work. | |
221 | ||
222 | =item * | |
223 | ||
224 | The Shell module now has an OO interface. | |
225 | ||
226 | =back | |
227 | ||
228 | =head1 Utility Changes | |
229 | ||
230 | =over 4 | |
231 | ||
232 | =item * | |
233 | ||
234 | The Emacs perl mode (emacs/cperl-mode.el) has been updated to version | |
235 | 4.31. | |
236 | ||
237 | =item * | |
238 | ||
239 | Perlbug is now much more robust. It also sends the bug report to | |
240 | perl.org, not perl.com. | |
241 | ||
242 | =item * | |
243 | ||
244 | The perlcc utility has been rewritten and its user interface (that is, | |
245 | command line) is much more like that of the UNIX C compiler, cc. | |
246 | ||
247 | =item * | |
248 | ||
249 | The xsubpp utility for extension writers now understands POD | |
250 | documentation embedded in the *.xs files. | |
251 | ||
252 | =back | |
253 | ||
254 | =head1 New Documentation | |
255 | ||
256 | =over 4 | |
257 | ||
258 | =item * | |
259 | ||
260 | perl56delta details the changes between the 5.005 release and the | |
261 | 5.6.0 release. | |
262 | ||
263 | =item * | |
264 | ||
265 | perldebtut is a Perl debugging tutorial. | |
266 | ||
267 | =item * | |
268 | ||
269 | perlebcdic contains considerations for running Perl on EBCDIC platforms. | |
270 | Note that unfortunately EBCDIC platforms that used to supported back in | |
271 | Perl 5.005 are still unsupported by Perl 5.7.0; the plan, however, is to | |
272 | bring them back to the fold. | |
273 | ||
274 | =item * | |
275 | ||
276 | perlnewmod tells about writing and submitting a new module. | |
277 | ||
278 | =item * | |
279 | ||
280 | perlposix-bc explains using Perl on the POSIX-BC platform | |
281 | (an EBCDIC mainframe platform). | |
282 | ||
283 | =item * | |
284 | ||
285 | perlretut is a regular expression tutorial. | |
286 | ||
287 | =item * | |
288 | ||
289 | perlrequick is a regular expressions quick-start guide. | |
290 | Yes, much quicker than perlretut. | |
291 | ||
292 | =item * | |
293 | ||
294 | perlutil explains the command line utilities packaged with the Perl | |
295 | distribution. | |
296 | ||
297 | =back | |
298 | ||
299 | =head1 Performance Enhancements | |
300 | ||
301 | =over 4 | |
302 | ||
303 | =item * | |
304 | ||
305 | map() that changes the size of the list should now work faster. | |
306 | ||
307 | =item * | |
308 | ||
309 | sort() has been changed to use mergesort internally as opposed to the | |
310 | earlier quicksort. For very small lists this may result in slightly | |
311 | slower sorting times, but in general the speedup should be at least | |
312 | 20%. Additional bonuses are that the worst case behaviour of sort() | |
313 | is now better (in computer science terms it now runs in time O(N log N), | |
314 | as opposed to quicksort's Theta(N**2) worst-case run time behaviour), | |
315 | and that sort() is now stable (meaning that elements with identical | |
316 | keys will stay ordered as they were before the sort). | |
317 | ||
318 | =back | |
319 | ||
320 | =head1 Installation and Configuration Improvements | |
321 | ||
322 | =head2 Generic Improvements | |
323 | ||
324 | =over 4 | |
325 | ||
326 | =item * | |
327 | ||
328 | INSTALL now explains how you can configure Perl to use 64-bit | |
329 | integers even on non-64-bit platforms. | |
330 | ||
331 | =item * | |
332 | ||
333 | Policy.sh policy change: if you are reusing a Policy.sh file | |
334 | (see INSTALL) and you use Configure -Dprefix=/foo/bar and in the old | |
335 | Policy $prefix eq $siteprefix and $prefix eq $vendorprefix, all of | |
336 | them will now be changed to the new prefix, /foo/bar. (Previously | |
337 | only $prefix changed.) If you do not like this new behaviour, | |
338 | specify prefix, siteprefix, and vendorprefix explicitly. | |
339 | ||
340 | =item * | |
341 | ||
342 | A new optional location for Perl libraries, otherlibdirs, is available. | |
343 | It can be used for example for vendor add-ons without disturbing Perl's | |
344 | own library directories. | |
345 | ||
346 | =item * | |
347 | ||
348 | In many platforms the vendor-supplied 'cc' is too stripped-down to | |
349 | build Perl (basically, 'cc' doesn't do ANSI C). If this seems | |
350 | to be the case and 'cc' does not seem to be the GNU C compiler | |
351 | 'gcc', an automatic attempt is made to find and use 'gcc' instead. | |
352 | ||
353 | =item * | |
354 | ||
355 | gcc needs to closely track the operating system release to avoid | |
356 | build problems. If Configure finds that gcc was built for a different | |
357 | operating system release than is running, it now gives a clearly visible | |
358 | warning that there may be trouble ahead. | |
359 | ||
360 | =item * | |
361 | ||
362 | If binary compatibility with the 5.005 release is not wanted, Configure | |
363 | no longer suggests including the 5.005 modules in @INC. | |
364 | ||
365 | =item * | |
366 | ||
367 | Configure C<-S> can now run non-interactively. | |
368 | ||
369 | =item * | |
370 | ||
371 | configure.gnu now works with options with whitespace in them. | |
372 | ||
373 | =item * | |
374 | ||
375 | installperl now outputs everything to STDERR. | |
376 | ||
377 | =item * | |
378 | ||
379 | $Config{byteorder} is now computed dynamically (this is more robust | |
380 | with "fat binaries" where an executable image contains binaries for | |
381 | more than one binary platform.) | |
382 | ||
383 | =back | |
384 | ||
385 | =head1 Selected Bug Fixes | |
386 | ||
387 | =over 4 | |
388 | ||
389 | =item * | |
390 | ||
391 | Several debugger fixes: exit code now reflects the script exit code, | |
392 | condition C<"0"> now treated correctly, the C<d> command now checks | |
393 | line number, the C<$.> no longer gets corrupted, all debugger output now | |
394 | goes correctly to the socket if RemotePort is set. | |
395 | ||
396 | =item * | |
397 | ||
398 | C<*foo{FORMAT}> now works. | |
399 | ||
400 | =item * | |
401 | ||
402 | Lexical warnings now propagating correctly between scopes. | |
403 | ||
404 | =item * | |
405 | ||
406 | Line renumbering with eval and C<#line> now works. | |
407 | ||
408 | =item * | |
409 | ||
410 | Fixed numerous memory leaks, especially in eval "". | |
411 | ||
412 | =item * | |
413 | ||
414 | Modulus of unsigned numbers now works (4063328477 % 65535 used to | |
415 | return 27406, instead of 27047). | |
416 | ||
417 | =item * | |
418 | ||
419 | Some "not a number" warnings introduced in 5.6.0 eliminated to be | |
420 | more compatible with 5.005. Infinity is now recognised as a number. | |
421 | ||
422 | =item * | |
423 | ||
424 | our() variables will not cause "will not stay shared" warnings. | |
425 | ||
426 | =item * | |
427 | ||
428 | pack "Z" now correctly terminates the string with "\0". | |
429 | ||
430 | =item * | |
431 | ||
432 | Fix password routines which in some shadow password platforms | |
433 | (e.g. HP-UX) caused getpwent() to return every other entry. | |
434 | ||
435 | =item * | |
436 | ||
437 | printf() no longer resets the numeric locale to "C". | |
438 | ||
439 | =item * | |
440 | ||
441 | C<q(a\\b)> now parses correctly as C<'a\\b'>. | |
442 | ||
443 | =item * | |
444 | ||
445 | Printing quads (64-bit integers) with printf/sprintf now works | |
446 | without the q L ll prefixes (assuming you are on a quad-capable platform). | |
447 | ||
448 | =item * | |
449 | ||
450 | Regular expressions on references and overloaded scalars now work. | |
451 | ||
452 | =item * | |
453 | ||
454 | scalar() now forces scalar context even when used in void context. | |
455 | ||
456 | =item * | |
457 | ||
458 | sort() arguments are now compiled in the right wantarray context | |
459 | (they were accidentally using the context of the sort() itself). | |
460 | ||
461 | =item * | |
462 | ||
463 | Changed the POSIX character class C<[[:space:]]> to include the (very | |
464 | rare) vertical tab character. Added a new POSIX-ish character class | |
465 | C<[[:blank:]]> which stands for horizontal whitespace (currently, | |
466 | the space and the tab). | |
467 | ||
468 | =item * | |
469 | ||
470 | $AUTOLOAD, sort(), lock(), and spawning subprocesses | |
471 | in multiple threads simultaneously are now thread-safe. | |
472 | ||
473 | =item * | |
474 | ||
475 | Allow read-only string on left hand side of non-modifying tr///. | |
476 | ||
477 | =item * | |
478 | ||
479 | Several Unicode fixes (but still not perfect). | |
480 | ||
481 | =over 8 | |
482 | ||
483 | =item * | |
484 | ||
485 | BOMs (byte order marks) in the beginning of Perl files | |
486 | (scripts, modules) should now be transparently skipped. | |
487 | UTF-16 (UCS-2) encoded Perl files should now be read correctly. | |
488 | ||
489 | =item * | |
490 | ||
491 | The character tables have been updated to Unicode 3.0.1. | |
492 | ||
493 | =item * | |
494 | ||
495 | chr() for values greater than 127 now create utf8 when under use | |
496 | utf8. | |
497 | ||
498 | =item * | |
499 | ||
500 | Comparing with utf8 data does not magically upgrade non-utf8 data into | |
501 | utf8. | |
502 | ||
503 | =item * | |
504 | ||
505 | C<IsAlnum>, C<IsAlpha>, and C<IsWord> now match titlecase. | |
506 | ||
507 | =item * | |
508 | ||
509 | Concatenation with the C<.> operator or via variable interpolation, | |
510 | C<eq>, C<substr>, C<reverse>, C<quotemeta>, the C<x> operator, | |
511 | substitution with C<s///>, single-quoted UTF-8, should now work--in | |
512 | theory. | |
513 | ||
514 | =item * | |
515 | ||
516 | The C<tr///> operator now works I<slightly> better but is still rather | |
517 | broken. Note that the C<tr///CU> functionality has been removed (but | |
518 | see pack('U0', ...)). | |
519 | ||
520 | =item * | |
521 | ||
522 | vec() now refuses to deal with characters >255. | |
523 | ||
524 | =item * | |
525 | ||
526 | Zero entries were missing from the Unicode classes like C<IsDigit>. | |
527 | ||
528 | =back | |
529 | ||
530 | =item * | |
531 | ||
532 | UNIVERSAL::isa no longer caches methods incorrectly. (This broke | |
533 | the Tk extension with 5.6.0.) | |
534 | ||
535 | =back | |
536 | ||
537 | =head2 Platform Specific Changes and Fixes | |
538 | ||
539 | =over 4 | |
540 | ||
541 | =item * | |
542 | ||
543 | BSDI 4.* | |
544 | ||
545 | Perl now works on post-4.0 BSD/OSes. | |
546 | ||
547 | =item * | |
548 | ||
549 | All BSDs | |
550 | ||
551 | Setting C<$0> now works (as much as possible; see perlvar for details). | |
552 | ||
553 | =item * | |
554 | ||
555 | Cygwin | |
556 | ||
557 | Numerous updates; currently synchronised with Cygwin 1.1.4. | |
558 | ||
559 | =item * | |
560 | ||
561 | EPOC | |
562 | ||
563 | EPOC update after Perl 5.6.0. See README.epoc. | |
564 | ||
565 | =item * | |
566 | ||
567 | FreeBSD 3.* | |
568 | ||
569 | Perl now works on post-3.0 FreeBSDs. | |
570 | ||
571 | =item * | |
572 | ||
573 | HP-UX | |
574 | ||
575 | README.hpux updated; C<Configure -Duse64bitall> now almost works. | |
576 | ||
577 | =item * | |
578 | ||
579 | IRIX | |
580 | ||
581 | Numerous compilation flag and hint enhancements; accidental mixing | |
582 | of 32-bit and 64-bit libraries (a doomed attempt) made much harder. | |
583 | ||
584 | =item * | |
585 | ||
586 | Linux | |
587 | ||
588 | Long doubles should now work (see INSTALL). | |
589 | ||
590 | =item * | |
591 | ||
592 | Mac OS Classic | |
593 | ||
594 | Compilation of the standard Perl distribution in Mac OS Classic should | |
595 | now work if you have the Metrowerks development environment and the | |
596 | missing Mac-specific toolkit bits. Contact the macperl mailing list | |
597 | for details. | |
598 | ||
599 | =item * | |
600 | ||
601 | MPE/iX | |
602 | ||
603 | MPE/iX update after Perl 5.6.0. See README.mpeix. | |
604 | ||
605 | =item * | |
606 | ||
607 | NetBSD/sparc | |
608 | ||
609 | Perl now works on NetBSD/sparc. | |
610 | ||
611 | =item * | |
612 | ||
613 | OS/2 | |
614 | ||
615 | Now works with usethreads (see INSTALL). | |
616 | ||
617 | =item * | |
618 | ||
619 | Solaris | |
620 | ||
621 | 64-bitness using the Sun Workshop compiler now works. | |
622 | ||
623 | =item * | |
624 | ||
625 | Tru64 (aka Digital UNIX, aka DEC OSF/1) | |
626 | ||
627 | The operating system version letter now recorded in $Config{osvers}. | |
628 | Allow compiling with gcc (previously explicitly forbidden). Compiling | |
629 | with gcc still not recommended because buggy code results, even with | |
630 | gcc 2.95.2. | |
631 | ||
632 | =item * | |
633 | ||
634 | Unicos | |
635 | ||
636 | Fixed various alignment problems that lead into core dumps either | |
637 | during build or later; no longer dies on math errors at runtime; | |
638 | now using full quad integers (64 bits), previously was using | |
639 | only 46 bit integers for speed. | |
640 | ||
641 | =item * | |
642 | ||
643 | VMS | |
644 | ||
645 | chdir() now works better despite a CRT bug; now works with MULTIPLICITY | |
646 | (see INSTALL); now works with Perl's malloc. | |
647 | ||
648 | =item * | |
649 | ||
650 | Windows | |
651 | ||
652 | =over 8 | |
653 | ||
654 | =item * | |
655 | ||
656 | accept() no longer leaks memory. | |
657 | ||
658 | =item * | |
659 | ||
660 | Better chdir() return value for a non-existent directory. | |
661 | ||
662 | =item * | |
663 | ||
664 | New %ENV entries now propagate to subprocesses. | |
665 | ||
666 | =item * | |
667 | ||
668 | $ENV{LIB} now used to search for libs under Visual C. | |
669 | ||
670 | =item * | |
671 | ||
672 | A failed (pseudo)fork now returns undef and sets errno to EAGAIN. | |
673 | ||
674 | =item * | |
675 | ||
676 | Allow REG_EXPAND_SZ keys in the registry. | |
677 | ||
678 | =item * | |
679 | ||
680 | Can now send() from all threads, not just the first one. | |
681 | ||
682 | =item * | |
683 | ||
684 | Fake signal handling reenabled, bugs and all. | |
685 | ||
686 | =item * | |
687 | ||
688 | Less stack reserved per thread so that more threads can run | |
689 | concurrently. (Still 16M per thread.) | |
690 | ||
691 | =item * | |
692 | ||
693 | C<< File::Spec->tmpdir() >> now prefers C:/temp over /tmp | |
694 | (works better when perl is running as service). | |
695 | ||
696 | =item * | |
697 | ||
698 | Better UNC path handling under ithreads. | |
699 | ||
700 | =item * | |
701 | ||
702 | wait() and waitpid() now work much better. | |
703 | ||
704 | =item * | |
705 | ||
706 | winsock handle leak fixed. | |
707 | ||
708 | =back | |
709 | ||
710 | =back | |
711 | ||
712 | =head1 New or Changed Diagnostics | |
713 | ||
714 | All regular expression compilation error messages are now hopefully | |
715 | easier to understand both because the error message now comes before | |
716 | the failed regex and because the point of failure is now clearly | |
717 | marked. | |
718 | ||
719 | The various "opened only for", "on closed", "never opened" warnings | |
720 | drop the C<main::> prefix for filehandles in the C<main> package, | |
721 | for example C<STDIN> instead of <main::STDIN>. | |
722 | ||
723 | The "Unrecognized escape" warning has been extended to include C<\8>, | |
724 | C<\9>, and C<\_>. There is no need to escape any of the C<\w> characters. | |
725 | ||
726 | =head1 Changed Internals | |
727 | ||
728 | =over 4 | |
729 | ||
730 | =item * | |
731 | ||
732 | perlapi.pod (a companion to perlguts) now attempts to document the | |
733 | internal API. | |
734 | ||
735 | =item * | |
736 | ||
737 | You can now build a really minimal perl called microperl. | |
738 | Building microperl does not require even running Configure; | |
739 | C<make -f Makefile.micro> should be enough. Beware: microperl makes | |
740 | many assumptions, some of which may be too bold; the resulting | |
741 | executable may crash or otherwise misbehave in wondrous ways. | |
742 | For careful hackers only. | |
743 | ||
744 | =item * | |
745 | ||
746 | Added rsignal(), whichsig(), do_join() to the publicised API. | |
747 | ||
748 | =item * | |
749 | ||
750 | Made possible to propagate customised exceptions via croak()ing. | |
751 | ||
752 | =item * | |
753 | ||
754 | Added is_utf8_char(), is_utf8_string(), bytes_to_utf8(), and utf8_to_bytes(). | |
755 | ||
756 | =item * | |
757 | ||
758 | Now xsubs can have attributes just like subs. | |
759 | ||
760 | =back | |
761 | ||
762 | =head1 Known Problems | |
763 | ||
764 | =head2 Unicode Support Still Far From Perfect | |
765 | ||
766 | We're working on it. Stay tuned. | |
767 | ||
768 | =head2 EBCDIC Still A Lost Platform | |
769 | ||
770 | The plan is to bring them back. | |
771 | ||
772 | =head2 Building Extensions Can Fail Because Of Largefiles | |
773 | ||
774 | Certain extensions like mod_perl and BSD::Resource are known to have | |
775 | issues with `largefiles', a change brought by Perl 5.6.0 in which file | |
776 | offsets default to 64 bits wide, where supported. Modules may fail to | |
777 | compile at all or compile and work incorrectly. Currently there is no | |
778 | good solution for the problem, but Configure now provides appropriate | |
779 | non-largefile ccflags, ldflags, libswanted, and libs in the %Config | |
780 | hash (e.g., $Config{ccflags_nolargefiles}) so the extensions that are | |
781 | having problems can try configuring themselves without the | |
782 | largefileness. This is admittedly not a clean solution, and the | |
783 | solution may not even work at all. One potential failure is whether | |
784 | one can (or, if one can, whether it's a good idea) link together at | |
785 | all binaries with different ideas about file offsets, all this is | |
786 | platform-dependent. | |
787 | ||
788 | =head2 ftmp-security tests warn 'system possibly insecure' | |
789 | ||
790 | Don't panic. Read INSTALL 'make test' section instead. | |
791 | ||
792 | =head2 Test lib/posix Subtest 9 Fails In LP64-Configured HP-UX | |
793 | ||
794 | If perl is configured with -Duse64bitall, the successful result of the | |
795 | subtest 10 of lib/posix may arrive before the successful result of the | |
796 | subtest 9, which confuses the test harness so much that it thinks the | |
797 | subtest 9 failed. | |
798 | ||
799 | =head2 Long Doubles Still Don't Work In Solaris | |
800 | ||
801 | The experimental long double support is still very much so in Solaris. | |
802 | (Other platforms like Linux and Tru64 are beginning to solidify in | |
803 | this area.) | |
804 | ||
805 | =head2 Linux With Sfio Fails op/misc Test 48 | |
806 | ||
807 | No known fix. | |
808 | ||
809 | =head2 Storable tests fail in some platforms | |
810 | ||
811 | If any Storable tests fail the use of Storable is not advisable. | |
812 | ||
813 | =over 4 | |
814 | ||
815 | =item * | |
816 | ||
817 | Many Storable tests fail on AIX configured with 64 bit integers. | |
818 | ||
819 | So far unidentified problems break Storable in AIX if Perl is | |
820 | configured to use 64 bit integers. AIX in 32-bit mode works and | |
821 | other 64-bit platforms work with Storable. | |
822 | ||
823 | =item * | |
824 | ||
825 | DOS DJGPP may hang when testing Storable. | |
826 | ||
827 | =item * | |
828 | ||
829 | st-06compat fails in UNICOS and UNICOS/mk. | |
830 | ||
831 | This means that you cannot read old (pre-Storable-0.7) Storable images | |
832 | made in other platforms. | |
833 | ||
834 | =item * | |
835 | ||
836 | st-store.t and st-retrieve may fail with Compaq C 6.2 on OpenVMS Alpha 7.2. | |
837 | ||
838 | =back | |
839 | ||
840 | =head2 Threads Are Still Experimental | |
841 | ||
842 | Multithreading is still an experimental feature. Some platforms | |
843 | emit the following message for lib/thr5005 | |
844 | ||
845 | # | |
846 | # This is a KNOWN FAILURE, and one of the reasons why threading | |
847 | # is still an experimental feature. It is here to stop people | |
848 | # from deploying threads in production. ;-) | |
849 | # | |
850 | ||
851 | and another known thread-related warning is | |
852 | ||
853 | pragma/overload......Unbalanced saves: 3 more saves than restores | |
854 | panic: magic_mutexfree during global destruction. | |
855 | ok | |
856 | lib/selfloader.......Unbalanced saves: 3 more saves than restores | |
857 | panic: magic_mutexfree during global destruction. | |
858 | ok | |
859 | lib/st-dclone........Unbalanced saves: 3 more saves than restores | |
860 | panic: magic_mutexfree during global destruction. | |
861 | ok | |
862 | ||
863 | =head2 The Compiler Suite Is Still Experimental | |
864 | ||
865 | The compiler suite is slowly getting better but is nowhere near | |
866 | working order yet. The backend part that has seen perhaps the most | |
867 | progress is the bytecode compiler. | |
868 | ||
869 | =head1 Reporting Bugs | |
870 | ||
871 | If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles | |
872 | recently posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl | |
873 | bug database at http://bugs.perl.org/ There may also be | |
874 | information at http://www.perl.com/perl/ , the Perl Home Page. | |
875 | ||
876 | If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the B<perlbug> | |
877 | program included with your release. Be sure to trim your bug down | |
878 | to a tiny but sufficient test case. Your bug report, along with the | |
879 | output of C<perl -V>, will be sent off to perlbug@perl.org to be | |
880 | analysed by the Perl porting team. | |
881 | ||
882 | =head1 SEE ALSO | |
883 | ||
884 | The F<Changes> file for exhaustive details on what changed. | |
885 | ||
886 | The F<INSTALL> file for how to build Perl. | |
887 | ||
888 | The F<README> file for general stuff. | |
889 | ||
890 | The F<Artistic> and F<Copying> files for copyright information. | |
891 | ||
892 | =head1 HISTORY | |
893 | ||
894 | Written by Jarkko Hietaniemi <F<jhi@iki.fi>>, with many contributions | |
895 | from The Perl Porters and Perl Users submitting feedback and patches. | |
896 | ||
897 | Send omissions or corrections to <F<perlbug@perl.org>>. | |
898 | ||
899 | =cut |