| 1 | =head1 NAME |
| 2 | |
| 3 | perl582delta - what is new for perl v5.8.2 |
| 4 | |
| 5 | =head1 DESCRIPTION |
| 6 | |
| 7 | This document describes differences between the 5.8.1 release and |
| 8 | the 5.8.2 release. |
| 9 | |
| 10 | If you are upgrading from an earlier release such as 5.6.1, first read |
| 11 | the L<perl58delta>, which describes differences between 5.6.0 and |
| 12 | 5.8.0, and the L<perl581delta>, which describes differences between |
| 13 | 5.8.0 and 5.8.1. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | =head1 Incompatible Changes |
| 16 | |
| 17 | For threaded builds for modules calling certain re-entrant system calls, |
| 18 | binary compatibility was accidentally lost between 5.8.0 and 5.8.1. |
| 19 | Binary compatibility with 5.8.0 has been restored in 5.8.2, which |
| 20 | necessitates breaking compatibility with 5.8.1. We see this as the |
| 21 | lesser of two evils. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | This will only affect people who have a threaded perl 5.8.1, and compiled |
| 24 | modules which use these calls, and now attempt to run the compiled modules |
| 25 | with 5.8.2. The fix is to re-compile and re-install the modules using 5.8.2. |
| 26 | |
| 27 | =head1 Core Enhancements |
| 28 | |
| 29 | =head2 Hash Randomisation |
| 30 | |
| 31 | The hash randomisation introduced with 5.8.1 has been amended. It |
| 32 | transpired that although the implementation introduced in 5.8.1 was source |
| 33 | compatible with 5.8.0, it was not binary compatible in certain cases. 5.8.2 |
| 34 | contains an improved implementation which is both source and binary |
| 35 | compatible with both 5.8.0 and 5.8.1, and remains robust against the form of |
| 36 | attack which prompted the change for 5.8.1. |
| 37 | |
| 38 | We are grateful to the Debian project for their input in this area. |
| 39 | See L<perlsec/"Algorithmic Complexity Attacks"> for the original |
| 40 | rationale behind this change. |
| 41 | |
| 42 | =head2 Threading |
| 43 | |
| 44 | Several memory leaks associated with variables shared between threads |
| 45 | have been fixed. |
| 46 | |
| 47 | =head1 Modules and Pragmata |
| 48 | |
| 49 | =head2 Updated Modules And Pragmata |
| 50 | |
| 51 | The following modules and pragmata have been updated since Perl 5.8.1: |
| 52 | |
| 53 | =over 4 |
| 54 | |
| 55 | =item Devel::PPPort |
| 56 | |
| 57 | =item Digest::MD5 |
| 58 | |
| 59 | =item I18N::LangTags |
| 60 | |
| 61 | =item libnet |
| 62 | |
| 63 | =item MIME::Base64 |
| 64 | |
| 65 | =item Pod::Perldoc |
| 66 | |
| 67 | =item strict |
| 68 | |
| 69 | Documentation improved |
| 70 | |
| 71 | =item Tie::Hash |
| 72 | |
| 73 | Documentation improved |
| 74 | |
| 75 | =item Time::HiRes |
| 76 | |
| 77 | =item Unicode::Collate |
| 78 | |
| 79 | =item Unicode::Normalize |
| 80 | |
| 81 | =item UNIVERSAL |
| 82 | |
| 83 | Documentation improved |
| 84 | |
| 85 | =back |
| 86 | |
| 87 | =head1 Selected Bug Fixes |
| 88 | |
| 89 | Some syntax errors involving unrecognized filetest operators are now handled |
| 90 | correctly by the parser. |
| 91 | |
| 92 | =head1 Changed Internals |
| 93 | |
| 94 | Interpreter initialization is more complete when -DMULTIPLICITY is off. |
| 95 | This should resolve problems with initializing and destroying the Perl |
| 96 | interpreter more than once in a single process. |
| 97 | |
| 98 | =head1 Platform Specific Problems |
| 99 | |
| 100 | Dynamic linker flags have been tweaked for Solaris and OS X, which should |
| 101 | solve problems seen while building some XS modules. |
| 102 | |
| 103 | Bugs in OS/2 sockets and tmpfile have been fixed. |
| 104 | |
| 105 | In OS X C<setreuid> and friends are troublesome - perl will now work |
| 106 | around their problems as best possible. |
| 107 | |
| 108 | =head1 Future Directions |
| 109 | |
| 110 | Starting with 5.8.3 we intend to make more frequent maintenance releases, |
| 111 | with a smaller number of changes in each. The intent is to propagate |
| 112 | bug fixes out to stable releases more rapidly and make upgrading stable |
| 113 | releases less of an upheaval. This should give end users more |
| 114 | flexibility in their choice of upgrade timing, and allow them easier |
| 115 | assessment of the impact of upgrades. The current plan is for code freezes |
| 116 | as follows |
| 117 | |
| 118 | =over 4 |
| 119 | |
| 120 | =item * |
| 121 | |
| 122 | 5.8.3 23:59:59 GMT, Wednesday December 31st 2003 |
| 123 | |
| 124 | =item * |
| 125 | |
| 126 | 5.8.4 23:59:59 GMT, Wednesday March 31st 2004 |
| 127 | |
| 128 | =item * |
| 129 | |
| 130 | 5.8.5 23:59:59 GMT, Wednesday June 30th 2004 |
| 131 | |
| 132 | =back |
| 133 | |
| 134 | with the release following soon after, when testing is complete. |
| 135 | |
| 136 | See L<perl581delta/"Future Directions"> for more soothsaying. |
| 137 | |
| 138 | =head1 Reporting Bugs |
| 139 | |
| 140 | If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles |
| 141 | recently posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl |
| 142 | bug database at http://bugs.perl.org/. There may also be |
| 143 | information at http://www.perl.com/, the Perl Home Page. |
| 144 | |
| 145 | If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the B<perlbug> |
| 146 | program included with your release. Be sure to trim your bug down |
| 147 | to a tiny but sufficient test case. Your bug report, along with the |
| 148 | output of C<perl -V>, will be sent off to perlbug@perl.org to be |
| 149 | analysed by the Perl porting team. You can browse and search |
| 150 | the Perl 5 bugs at http://bugs.perl.org/ |
| 151 | |
| 152 | =head1 SEE ALSO |
| 153 | |
| 154 | The F<Changes> file for exhaustive details on what changed. |
| 155 | |
| 156 | The F<INSTALL> file for how to build Perl. |
| 157 | |
| 158 | The F<README> file for general stuff. |
| 159 | |
| 160 | The F<Artistic> and F<Copying> files for copyright information. |
| 161 | |
| 162 | =cut |