1 | =head1 NAME
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2 |
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3 | perl572delta - what's new for perl v5.7.2
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4 |
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5 | =head1 DESCRIPTION
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6 |
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7 | This document describes differences between the 5.7.1 release and the
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8 | 5.7.2 release.
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9 |
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10 | (To view the differences between the 5.6.0 release and the 5.7.0
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11 | release, see L<perl570delta>. To view the differences between the
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12 | 5.7.0 release and the 5.7.1 release, see L<perl571delta>.)
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13 |
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14 | =head1 Security Vulnerability Closed
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15 |
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16 | (This change was already made in 5.7.0 but bears repeating here.)
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17 |
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18 | A security vulnerability affecting all Perl versions prior to 5.6.1
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19 | was found in August 2000. The vulnerability does not affect default
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20 | installations and as far as is known affects only the Linux platform.
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21 |
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22 | You should upgrade your Perl to 5.6.1 as soon as possible. Patches
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23 | for earlier releases exist but using the patches require full
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24 | recompilation from the source code anyway, so 5.6.1 is your best
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25 | choice.
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26 |
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27 | See http://www.cpan.org/src/5.0/sperl-2000-08-05/sperl-2000-08-05.txt
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28 | for more information.
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29 |
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30 | =head1 Incompatible Changes
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31 |
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32 | =head2 64-bit platforms and malloc
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33 |
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34 | If your pointers are 64 bits wide, the Perl malloc is no more being
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35 | used because it simply does not work with 8-byte pointers. Also,
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36 | usually the system malloc on such platforms are much better optimized
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37 | for such large memory models than the Perl malloc.
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38 |
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39 | =head2 AIX Dynaloading
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40 |
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41 | The AIX dynaloading now uses in AIX releases 4.3 and newer the native
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42 | dlopen interface of AIX instead of the old emulated interface. This
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43 | change will probably break backward compatibility with compiled
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44 | modules. The change was made to make Perl more compliant with other
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45 | applications like modperl which are using the AIX native interface.
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46 |
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47 | =head2 Socket Extension Dynamic in VMS
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48 |
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49 | The Socket extension is now dynamically loaded instead of being
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50 | statically built in. This may or may not be a problem with ancient
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51 | TCP/IP stacks of VMS: we do not know since we weren't able to test
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52 | Perl in such configurations.
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53 |
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54 | =head2 Different Definition of the Unicode Character Classes \p{In...}
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55 |
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56 | As suggested by the Unicode consortium, the Unicode character classes
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57 | now prefer I<scripts> as opposed to I<blocks> (as defined by Unicode);
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58 | in Perl, when the C<\p{In....}> and the C<\p{In....}> regular expression
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59 | constructs are used. This has changed the definition of some of those
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60 | character classes.
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61 |
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62 | The difference between scripts and blocks is that scripts are the
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63 | glyphs used by a language or a group of languages, while the blocks
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64 | are more artificial groupings of 256 characters based on the Unicode
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65 | numbering.
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66 |
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67 | In general this change results in more inclusive Unicode character
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68 | classes, but changes to the other direction also do take place:
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69 | for example while the script C<Latin> includes all the Latin
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70 | characters and their various diacritic-adorned versions, it
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71 | does not include the various punctuation or digits (since they
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72 | are not solely C<Latin>).
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73 |
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74 | Changes in the character class semantics may have happened if a script
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75 | and a block happen to have the same name, for example C<Hebrew>.
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76 | In such cases the script wins and C<\p{InHebrew}> now means the script
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77 | definition of Hebrew. The block definition in still available,
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78 | though, by appending C<Block> to the name: C<\p{InHebrewBlock}> means
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79 | what C<\p{InHebrew}> meant in perl 5.6.0. For the full list
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80 | of affected character classes, see L<perlunicode/Blocks>.
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81 |
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82 | =head2 Deprecations
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83 |
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84 | The current user-visible implementation of pseudo-hashes (the weird
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85 | use of the first array element) is deprecated starting from Perl 5.8.0
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86 | and will be removed in Perl 5.10.0, and the feature will be
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87 | implemented differently. Not only is the current interface rather
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88 | ugly, but the current implementation slows down normal array and hash
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89 | use quite noticeably. The C<fields> pragma interface will remain
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90 | available.
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91 |
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92 | The syntaxes C<< @a->[...] >> and C<< @h->{...} >> have now been deprecated.
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93 |
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94 | The suidperl is also considered to be too much a risk to continue
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95 | maintaining and the suidperl code is likely to be removed in a future
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96 | release.
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97 |
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98 | The C<package;> syntax (C<package> without an argument has been
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99 | deprecated. Its semantics were never that clear and its
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100 | implementation even less so. If you have used that feature to
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101 | disallow all but fully qualified variables, C<use strict;> instead.
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102 |
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103 | The chdir(undef) and chdir('') behaviors to match chdir() has been
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104 | deprecated. In future versions, chdir(undef) and chdir('') will
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105 | simply fail.
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106 |
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107 | =head1 Core Enhancements
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108 |
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109 | In general a lot of fixing has happened in the area of Perl's
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110 | understanding of numbers, both integer and floating point. Since in
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111 | many systems the standard number parsing functions like C<strtoul()>
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112 | and C<atof()> seem to have bugs, Perl tries to work around their
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113 | deficiencies. This results hopefully in more accurate numbers.
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114 |
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115 | =over 4
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116 |
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117 | =item *
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118 |
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119 | The rules for allowing underscores (underbars) in numeric constants
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120 | have been relaxed and simplified: now you can have an underscore
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121 | B<between digits>.
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122 |
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123 | =item *
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124 |
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125 | GMAGIC (right-hand side magic) could in many cases such as string
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126 | concatenation be invoked too many times.
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127 |
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128 | =item *
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129 |
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130 | Lexicals I: lexicals outside an eval "" weren't resolved
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131 | correctly inside a subroutine definition inside the eval "" if they
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132 | were not already referenced in the top level of the eval""ed code.
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133 |
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134 | =item *
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135 |
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136 | Lexicals II: lexicals leaked at file scope into subroutines that
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137 | were declared before the lexicals.
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138 |
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139 | =item *
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140 |
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141 | Lvalue subroutines can now return C<undef> in list context.
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142 |
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143 | =item *
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144 |
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145 | The C<op_clear> and C<op_null> are now exported.
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146 |
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147 | =item *
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148 |
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149 | A new special regular expression variable has been introduced:
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150 | C<$^N>, which contains the most-recently closed group (submatch).
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151 |
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152 | =item *
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153 |
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154 | L<utime> now supports C<utime undef, undef, @files> to change the
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155 | file timestamps to the current time.
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156 |
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157 | =item *
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158 |
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159 | The Perl parser has been stress tested using both random input and
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160 | Markov chain input.
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161 |
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162 | =item *
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163 |
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164 | C<eval "v200"> now works.
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165 |
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166 | =item *
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167 |
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168 | VMS now works under PerlIO.
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169 |
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170 | =item *
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171 |
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172 | END blocks are now run even if you exit/die in a BEGIN block.
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173 | The execution of END blocks is now controlled by
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174 | PL_exit_flags & PERL_EXIT_DESTRUCT_END. This enables the new
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175 | behaviour for perl embedders. This will default in 5.10. See
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176 | L<perlembed>.
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177 |
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178 | =back
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179 |
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180 | =head1 Modules and Pragmata
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181 |
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182 | =head2 New Modules and Distributions
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183 |
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184 | =over 4
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185 |
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186 | =item *
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187 |
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188 | L<Attribute::Handlers> - Simpler definition of attribute handlers
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189 |
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190 | =item *
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191 |
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192 | L<ExtUtils::Constant> - generate XS code to import C header constants
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193 |
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194 | =item *
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195 |
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196 | L<I18N::Langinfo> - query locale information
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197 |
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198 | =item *
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199 |
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200 | L<I18N::LangTags> - functions for dealing with RFC3066-style language tags
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201 |
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202 | =item *
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203 |
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204 | L<libnet> - a collection of perl5 modules related to network programming
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205 |
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206 | Perl installation leaves libnet unconfigured, use F<libnetcfg> to configure.
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207 |
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208 | =item *
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209 |
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210 | L<List::Util> - selection of general-utility list subroutines
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211 |
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212 | =item *
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213 |
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214 | L<Locale::Maketext> - framework for localization
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215 |
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216 | =item *
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217 |
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218 | L<Memoize> - Make your functions faster by trading space for time
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219 |
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220 | =item *
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221 |
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222 | L<NEXT> - pseudo-class for method redispatch
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223 |
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224 | =item *
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225 |
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226 | L<Scalar::Util> - selection of general-utility scalar subroutines
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227 |
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228 | =item *
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229 |
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230 | L<Test::More> - yet another framework for writing test scripts
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231 |
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232 | =item *
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233 |
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234 | L<Test::Simple> - Basic utilities for writing tests
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235 |
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236 | =item *
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237 |
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238 | L<Time::HiRes> - high resolution ualarm, usleep, and gettimeofday
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239 |
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240 | =item *
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241 |
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242 | L<Time::Piece> - Object Oriented time objects
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243 |
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244 | (Previously known as L<Time::Object>.)
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245 |
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246 | =item *
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247 |
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248 | L<Time::Seconds> - a simple API to convert seconds to other date values
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249 |
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250 | =item *
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251 |
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252 | L<UnicodeCD> - Unicode Character Database
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253 |
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254 | =back
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255 |
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256 | =head2 Updated And Improved Modules and Pragmata
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257 |
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258 | =over 4
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259 |
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260 | =item *
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261 |
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262 | L<B::Deparse> module has been significantly enhanced. It now
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263 | can deparse almost all of the standard test suite (so that the
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264 | tests still succeed). There is a make target "test.deparse"
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265 | for trying this out.
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266 |
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267 | =item *
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268 |
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269 | L<Class::Struct> now assigns the array/hash element if the accessor
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270 | is called with an array/hash element as the B<sole> argument.
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271 |
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272 | =item *
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273 |
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274 | L<Cwd> extension is now (even) faster.
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275 |
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276 | =item *
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277 |
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278 | L<DB_File> extension has been updated to version 1.77.
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279 |
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280 | =item *
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281 |
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282 | L<Fcntl>, L<Socket>, and L<Sys::Syslog> have been rewritten to use the
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283 | new-style constant dispatch section (see L<ExtUtils::Constant>).
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284 |
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285 | =item *
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286 |
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287 | L<File::Find> is now (again) reentrant. It also has been made
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288 | more portable.
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289 |
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290 | =item *
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291 |
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292 | L<File::Glob> now supports C<GLOB_LIMIT> constant to limit the
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293 | size of the returned list of filenames.
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294 |
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295 | =item *
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296 |
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297 | L<IO::Socket::INET> now supports C<LocalPort> of zero (usually meaning
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298 | that the operating system will make one up.)
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299 |
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300 | =item *
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301 |
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302 | The L<vars> pragma now supports declaring fully qualified variables.
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303 | (Something that C<our()> does not and will not support.)
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304 |
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305 | =back
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306 |
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307 | =head1 Utility Changes
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308 |
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309 | =over 4
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310 |
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311 | =item *
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312 |
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313 | The F<emacs/e2ctags.pl> is now much faster.
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314 |
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315 | =item *
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316 |
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317 | L<h2ph> now supports C trigraphs.
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318 |
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319 | =item *
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320 |
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321 | L<h2xs> uses the new L<ExtUtils::Constant> module which will affect
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322 | newly created extensions that define constants. Since the new code is
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323 | more correct (if you have two constants where the first one is a
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324 | prefix of the second one, the first constant B<never> gets defined),
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325 | less lossy (it uses integers for integer constant, as opposed to the
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326 | old code that used floating point numbers even for integer constants),
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327 | and slightly faster, you might want to consider regenerating your
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328 | extension code (the new scheme makes regenerating easy).
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329 | L<h2xs> now also supports C trigraphs.
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330 |
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331 | =item *
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332 |
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333 | L<libnetcfg> has been added to configure the libnet.
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334 |
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335 | =item *
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336 |
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337 | The F<Pod::Html> (and thusly L<pod2html>) now allows specifying
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338 | a cache directory.
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339 |
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340 | =back
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341 |
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342 | =head1 New Documentation
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343 |
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344 | =over 4
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345 |
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346 | =item *
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347 |
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348 | L<Locale::Maketext::TPJ13> is an article about software localization,
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349 | originally published in The Perl Journal #13, republished here with
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350 | kind permission.
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351 |
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352 | =item *
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353 |
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354 | More README.$PLATFORM files have been converted into pod, which also
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355 | means that they also be installed as perl$PLATFORM documentation
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356 | files. The new files are L<perlapollo>, L<perlbeos>, L<perldgux>,
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357 | L<perlhurd>, L<perlmint>, L<perlnetware>, L<perlplan9>, L<perlqnx>,
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358 | and L<perltru64>.
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359 |
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360 | =item *
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361 |
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362 | The F<Todo> and F<Todo-5.6> files have been merged into L<perltodo>.
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363 |
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364 | =item *
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365 |
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366 | Use of the F<gprof> tool to profile Perl has been documented in
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367 | L<perlhack>. There is a make target "perl.gprof" for generating a
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368 | gprofiled Perl executable.
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369 |
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370 | =back
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371 |
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372 | =head1 Installation and Configuration Improvements
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373 |
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374 | =head2 New Or Improved Platforms
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375 |
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376 | =over 4
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377 |
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378 | =item *
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379 |
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380 | AIX should now work better with gcc, threads, and 64-bitness. Also the
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381 | long doubles support in AIX should be better now. See L<perlaix>.
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382 |
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383 | =item *
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384 |
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385 | AtheOS ( http://www.atheos.cx/ ) is a new platform.
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386 |
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387 | =item *
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388 |
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389 | DG/UX platform now supports the 5.005-style threads. See L<perldgux>.
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390 |
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391 | =item *
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392 |
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393 | DYNIX/ptx platform (a.k.a. dynixptx) is supported at or near osvers 4.5.2.
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394 |
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395 | =item *
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396 |
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397 | Several Mac OS (Classic) portability patches have been applied. We
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398 | hope to get a fully working port by 5.8.0. (The remaining problems
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399 | relate to the changed IO model of Perl.) See L<perlmacos>.
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400 |
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401 | =item *
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402 |
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403 | Mac OS X (or Darwin) should now be able to build Perl even on HFS+
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404 | filesystems. (The case-insensitivity confused the Perl build process.)
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405 |
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406 | =item *
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407 |
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408 | NetWare from Novell is now supported. See L<perlnetware>.
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409 |
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410 | =item *
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411 |
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412 | The Amdahl UTS UNIX mainframe platform is now supported.
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413 |
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414 | =back
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415 |
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416 | =head2 Generic Improvements
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417 |
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418 | =over 4
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419 |
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420 | =item *
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421 |
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422 | In AFS installations one can configure the root of the AFS to be
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423 | somewhere else than the default F</afs> by using the Configure
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424 | parameter C<-Dafsroot=/some/where/else>.
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425 |
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426 | =item *
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427 |
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428 | The version of Berkeley DB used when the Perl (and, presumably, the
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429 | DB_File extension) was built is now available as
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430 | C<@Config{qw(db_version_major db_version_minor db_version_patch)}>
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431 | from Perl and as C<DB_VERSION_MAJOR_CFG DB_VERSION_MINOR_CFG
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432 | DB_VERSION_PATCH_CFG> from C.
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433 |
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434 | =item *
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435 |
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436 | The Thread extension is now not built at all under ithreads
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437 | (C<Configure -Duseithreads>) because it wouldn't work anyway (the
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438 | Thread extension requires being Configured with C<-Duse5005threads>).
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439 |
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440 | =item *
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441 |
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442 | The C<B::Deparse> compiler backend has been so significantly improved
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443 | that almost the whole Perl test suite passes after being deparsed. A
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444 | make target has been added to help in further testing: C<make test.deparse>.
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445 |
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446 | =back
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447 |
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448 | =head1 Selected Bug Fixes
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449 |
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450 | =over 5
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451 |
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452 | =item *
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453 |
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454 | The autouse pragma didn't work for Multi::Part::Function::Names.
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455 |
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456 | =item *
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457 |
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458 | The behaviour of non-decimal but numeric string constants such as
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459 | "0x23" was platform-dependent: in some platforms that was seen as 35,
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460 | in some as 0, in some as a floating point number (don't ask). This
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461 | was caused by Perl using the operating system libraries in a situation
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462 | where the result of the string to number conversion is undefined: now
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463 | Perl consistently handles such strings as zero in numeric contexts.
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464 |
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465 | =item *
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466 |
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467 | L<dprofpp> -R didn't work.
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468 |
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469 | =item *
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470 |
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471 | PERL5OPT with embedded spaces didn't work.
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472 |
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473 | =item *
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474 |
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475 | L<Sys::Syslog> ignored the C<LOG_AUTH> constant.
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476 |
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477 | =back
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478 |
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479 | =head2 Platform Specific Changes and Fixes
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480 |
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481 | =over 4
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482 |
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483 | =item *
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484 |
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485 | Some versions of glibc have a broken modfl(). This affects builds
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486 | with C<-Duselongdouble>. This version of Perl detects this brokenness
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487 | and has a workaround for it. The glibc release 2.2.2 is known to have
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488 | fixed the modfl() bug.
|
---|
489 |
|
---|
490 | =back
|
---|
491 |
|
---|
492 | =head1 New or Changed Diagnostics
|
---|
493 |
|
---|
494 | =over 4
|
---|
495 |
|
---|
496 | =item *
|
---|
497 |
|
---|
498 | In the regular expression diagnostics the C<E<lt>E<lt> HERE> marker
|
---|
499 | introduced in 5.7.0 has been changed to be C<E<lt>-- HERE> since too
|
---|
500 | many people found the C<E<lt>E<lt>> to be too similar to here-document
|
---|
501 | starters.
|
---|
502 |
|
---|
503 | =item *
|
---|
504 |
|
---|
505 | If you try to L<perlfunc/pack> a number less than 0 or larger than 255
|
---|
506 | using the C<"C"> format you will get an optional warning. Similarly
|
---|
507 | for the C<"c"> format and a number less than -128 or more than 127.
|
---|
508 |
|
---|
509 | =item *
|
---|
510 |
|
---|
511 | Certain regex modifiers such as C<(?o)> make sense only if applied to
|
---|
512 | the entire regex. You will an optional warning if you try to do otherwise.
|
---|
513 |
|
---|
514 | =item *
|
---|
515 |
|
---|
516 | Using arrays or hashes as references (e.g. C<< %foo->{bar} >> has been
|
---|
517 | deprecated for a while. Now you will get an optional warning.
|
---|
518 |
|
---|
519 | =back
|
---|
520 |
|
---|
521 | =head1 Source Code Enhancements
|
---|
522 |
|
---|
523 | =head2 MAGIC constants
|
---|
524 |
|
---|
525 | The MAGIC constants (e.g. C<'P'>) have been macrofied
|
---|
526 | (e.g. C<PERL_MAGIC_TIED>) for better source code readability
|
---|
527 | and maintainability.
|
---|
528 |
|
---|
529 | =head2 Better commented code
|
---|
530 |
|
---|
531 | F<perly.c>, F<sv.c>, and F<sv.h> have now been extensively commented.
|
---|
532 |
|
---|
533 | =head2 Regex pre-/post-compilation items matched up
|
---|
534 |
|
---|
535 | The regex compiler now maintains a structure that identifies nodes in
|
---|
536 | the compiled bytecode with the corresponding syntactic features of the
|
---|
537 | original regex expression. The information is attached to the new
|
---|
538 | C<offsets> member of the C<struct regexp>. See L<perldebguts> for more
|
---|
539 | complete information.
|
---|
540 |
|
---|
541 | =head2 gcc -Wall
|
---|
542 |
|
---|
543 | The C code has been made much more C<gcc -Wall> clean. Some warning
|
---|
544 | messages still remain, though, so if you are compiling with gcc you
|
---|
545 | will see some warnings about dubious practices. The warnings are
|
---|
546 | being worked on.
|
---|
547 |
|
---|
548 | =head1 New Tests
|
---|
549 |
|
---|
550 | Several new tests have been added, especially for the F<lib> subsection.
|
---|
551 |
|
---|
552 | The tests are now reported in a different order than in earlier Perls.
|
---|
553 | (This happens because the test scripts from under t/lib have been moved
|
---|
554 | to be closer to the library/extension they are testing.)
|
---|
555 |
|
---|
556 | =head1 Known Problems
|
---|
557 |
|
---|
558 | Note that unlike other sections in this document (which describe
|
---|
559 | changes since 5.7.0) this section is cumulative containing known
|
---|
560 | problems for all the 5.7 releases.
|
---|
561 |
|
---|
562 | =head2 AIX
|
---|
563 |
|
---|
564 | =over 4
|
---|
565 |
|
---|
566 | =item *
|
---|
567 |
|
---|
568 | In AIX 4.2 Perl extensions that use C++ functions that use statics
|
---|
569 | may have problems in that the statics are not getting initialized.
|
---|
570 | In newer AIX releases this has been solved by linking Perl with
|
---|
571 | the libC_r library, but unfortunately in AIX 4.2 the said library
|
---|
572 | has an obscure bug where the various functions related to time
|
---|
573 | (such as time() and gettimeofday()) return broken values, and
|
---|
574 | therefore in AIX 4.2 Perl is not linked against the libC_r.
|
---|
575 |
|
---|
576 | =item *
|
---|
577 |
|
---|
578 | vac 5.0.0.0 May Produce Buggy Code For Perl
|
---|
579 |
|
---|
580 | The AIX C compiler vac version 5.0.0.0 may produce buggy code,
|
---|
581 | resulting in few random tests failing, but when the failing tests
|
---|
582 | are run by hand, they succeed. We suggest upgrading to at least
|
---|
583 | vac version 5.0.1.0, that has been known to compile Perl correctly.
|
---|
584 | "lslpp -L|grep vac.C" will tell you the vac version.
|
---|
585 |
|
---|
586 | =back
|
---|
587 |
|
---|
588 | =head2 Amiga Perl Invoking Mystery
|
---|
589 |
|
---|
590 | One cannot call Perl using the C<volume:> syntax, that is, C<perl -v>
|
---|
591 | works, but for example C<bin:perl -v> doesn't. The exact reason is
|
---|
592 | known but the current suspect is the F<ixemul> library.
|
---|
593 |
|
---|
594 | =head2 lib/ftmp-security tests warn 'system possibly insecure'
|
---|
595 |
|
---|
596 | Don't panic. Read INSTALL 'make test' section instead.
|
---|
597 |
|
---|
598 | =head2 Cygwin intermittent failures of lib/Memoize/t/expire_file 11 and 12
|
---|
599 |
|
---|
600 | The subtests 11 and 12 sometimes fail and sometimes work.
|
---|
601 |
|
---|
602 | =head2 HP-UX lib/io_multihomed Fails When LP64-Configured
|
---|
603 |
|
---|
604 | The lib/io_multihomed test may hang in HP-UX if Perl has been
|
---|
605 | configured to be 64-bit. Because other 64-bit platforms do not hang in
|
---|
606 | this test, HP-UX is suspect. All other tests pass in 64-bit HP-UX. The
|
---|
607 | test attempts to create and connect to "multihomed" sockets (sockets
|
---|
608 | which have multiple IP addresses).
|
---|
609 |
|
---|
610 | =head2 HP-UX lib/posix Subtest 9 Fails When LP64-Configured
|
---|
611 |
|
---|
612 | If perl is configured with -Duse64bitall, the successful result of the
|
---|
613 | subtest 10 of lib/posix may arrive before the successful result of the
|
---|
614 | subtest 9, which confuses the test harness so much that it thinks the
|
---|
615 | subtest 9 failed.
|
---|
616 |
|
---|
617 | =head2 Linux With Sfio Fails op/misc Test 48
|
---|
618 |
|
---|
619 | No known fix.
|
---|
620 |
|
---|
621 | =head2 OS/390
|
---|
622 |
|
---|
623 | OS/390 has rather many test failures but the situation is actually
|
---|
624 | better than it was in 5.6.0, it's just that so many new modules and
|
---|
625 | tests have been added.
|
---|
626 |
|
---|
627 | Failed Test Stat Wstat Total Fail Failed List of Failed
|
---|
628 | -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
---|
629 | ../ext/B/Deparse.t 14 1 7.14% 14
|
---|
630 | ../ext/B/Showlex.t 1 1 100.00% 1
|
---|
631 | ../ext/Encode/Encode/Tcl.t 610 13 2.13% 592 594 596 598
|
---|
632 | 600 602 604-610
|
---|
633 | ../ext/IO/lib/IO/t/io_unix.t 113 28928 5 3 60.00% 3-5
|
---|
634 | ../ext/POSIX/POSIX.t 29 1 3.45% 14
|
---|
635 | ../ext/Storable/t/lock.t 255 65280 5 3 60.00% 3-5
|
---|
636 | ../lib/locale.t 129 33024 117 19 16.24% 99-117
|
---|
637 | ../lib/warnings.t 434 1 0.23% 75
|
---|
638 | ../lib/ExtUtils.t 27 1 3.70% 25
|
---|
639 | ../lib/Math/BigInt/t/bigintpm.t 1190 1 0.08% 1145
|
---|
640 | ../lib/Unicode/UCD.t 81 48 59.26% 1-16 49-64 66-81
|
---|
641 | ../lib/User/pwent.t 9 1 11.11% 4
|
---|
642 | op/pat.t 660 6 0.91% 242-243 424-425
|
---|
643 | 626-627
|
---|
644 | op/split.t 0 9 ?? ?? % ??
|
---|
645 | op/taint.t 174 3 1.72% 156 162 168
|
---|
646 | op/tr.t 70 3 4.29% 50 58-59
|
---|
647 | Failed 16/422 test scripts, 96.21% okay. 105/23251 subtests failed, 99.55% okay.
|
---|
648 |
|
---|
649 | =head2 op/sprintf tests 129 and 130
|
---|
650 |
|
---|
651 | The op/sprintf tests 129 and 130 are known to fail on some platforms.
|
---|
652 | Examples include any platform using sfio, and Compaq/Tandem's NonStop-UX.
|
---|
653 | The failing platforms do not comply with the ANSI C Standard, line
|
---|
654 | 19ff on page 134 of ANSI X3.159 1989 to be exact. (They produce
|
---|
655 | something other than "1" and "-1" when formatting 0.6 and -0.6 using
|
---|
656 | the printf format "%.0f", most often they produce "0" and "-0".)
|
---|
657 |
|
---|
658 | =head2 Failure of Thread tests
|
---|
659 |
|
---|
660 | B<Note that support for 5.005-style threading remains experimental.>
|
---|
661 |
|
---|
662 | The following tests are known to fail due to fundamental problems in
|
---|
663 | the 5.005 threading implementation. These are not new failures--Perl
|
---|
664 | 5.005_0x has the same bugs, but didn't have these tests.
|
---|
665 |
|
---|
666 | lib/autouse.t 4
|
---|
667 | t/lib/thr5005.t 19-20
|
---|
668 |
|
---|
669 | =head2 UNICOS
|
---|
670 |
|
---|
671 | =over 4
|
---|
672 |
|
---|
673 | =item *
|
---|
674 |
|
---|
675 | ext/POSIX/sigaction subtests 6 and 13 may fail.
|
---|
676 |
|
---|
677 | =item *
|
---|
678 |
|
---|
679 | lib/ExtUtils may spuriously claim that subtest 28 failed,
|
---|
680 | which is interesting since the test only has 27 tests.
|
---|
681 |
|
---|
682 | =item *
|
---|
683 |
|
---|
684 | Numerous numerical test failures
|
---|
685 |
|
---|
686 | op/numconvert 209,210,217,218
|
---|
687 | op/override 7
|
---|
688 | ext/Time/HiRes/HiRes 9
|
---|
689 | lib/Math/BigInt/t/bigintpm 1145
|
---|
690 | lib/Math/Trig 25
|
---|
691 |
|
---|
692 | These tests fail because of yet unresolved floating point inaccuracies.
|
---|
693 |
|
---|
694 | =back
|
---|
695 |
|
---|
696 | =head2 UTS
|
---|
697 |
|
---|
698 | There are a few known test failures, see L<perluts>.
|
---|
699 |
|
---|
700 | =head2 VMS
|
---|
701 |
|
---|
702 | Rather many tests are failing in VMS but that actually more tests
|
---|
703 | succeed in VMS than they used to, it's just that there are many,
|
---|
704 | many more tests than there used to be.
|
---|
705 |
|
---|
706 | Here are the known failures from some compiler/platform combinations.
|
---|
707 |
|
---|
708 | DEC C V5.3-006 on OpenVMS VAX V6.2
|
---|
709 |
|
---|
710 | [-.ext.list.util.t]tainted..............FAILED on test 3
|
---|
711 | [-.ext.posix]sigaction..................FAILED on test 7
|
---|
712 | [-.ext.time.hires]hires.................FAILED on test 14
|
---|
713 | [-.lib.file.find]taint..................FAILED on test 17
|
---|
714 | [-.lib.math.bigint.t]bigintpm...........FAILED on test 1183
|
---|
715 | [-.lib.test.simple.t]exit...............FAILED on test 1
|
---|
716 | [.lib]vmsish............................FAILED on test 13
|
---|
717 | [.op]sprintf............................FAILED on test 12
|
---|
718 | Failed 8/399 tests, 91.23% okay.
|
---|
719 |
|
---|
720 | DEC C V6.0-001 on OpenVMS Alpha V7.2-1 and
|
---|
721 | Compaq C V6.2-008 on OpenVMS Alpha V7.1
|
---|
722 |
|
---|
723 | [-.ext.list.util.t]tainted..............FAILED on test 3
|
---|
724 | [-.lib.file.find]taint..................FAILED on test 17
|
---|
725 | [-.lib.test.simple.t]exit...............FAILED on test 1
|
---|
726 | [.lib]vmsish............................FAILED on test 13
|
---|
727 | Failed 4/399 tests, 92.48% okay.
|
---|
728 |
|
---|
729 | Compaq C V6.4-005 on OpenVMS Alpha 7.2.1
|
---|
730 |
|
---|
731 | [-.ext.b]showlex........................FAILED on test 1
|
---|
732 | [-.ext.list.util.t]tainted..............FAILED on test 3
|
---|
733 | [-.lib.file.find]taint..................FAILED on test 17
|
---|
734 | [-.lib.test.simple.t]exit...............FAILED on test 1
|
---|
735 | [.lib]vmsish............................FAILED on test 13
|
---|
736 | [.op]misc...............................FAILED on test 49
|
---|
737 | Failed 6/401 tests, 92.77% okay.
|
---|
738 |
|
---|
739 | =head2 Win32
|
---|
740 |
|
---|
741 | In multi-CPU boxes there are some problems with the I/O buffering:
|
---|
742 | some output may appear twice.
|
---|
743 |
|
---|
744 | =head2 Localising a Tied Variable Leaks Memory
|
---|
745 |
|
---|
746 | use Tie::Hash;
|
---|
747 | tie my %tie_hash => 'Tie::StdHash';
|
---|
748 |
|
---|
749 | ...
|
---|
750 |
|
---|
751 | local($tie_hash{Foo}) = 1; # leaks
|
---|
752 |
|
---|
753 | Code like the above is known to leak memory every time the local()
|
---|
754 | is executed.
|
---|
755 |
|
---|
756 | =head2 Self-tying of Arrays and Hashes Is Forbidden
|
---|
757 |
|
---|
758 | Self-tying of arrays and hashes is broken in rather deep and
|
---|
759 | hard-to-fix ways. As a stop-gap measure to avoid people from getting
|
---|
760 | frustrated at the mysterious results (core dumps, most often) it is
|
---|
761 | for now forbidden (you will get a fatal error even from an attempt).
|
---|
762 |
|
---|
763 | =head2 Variable Attributes are not Currently Usable for Tieing
|
---|
764 |
|
---|
765 | This limitation will hopefully be fixed in future. (Subroutine
|
---|
766 | attributes work fine for tieing, see L<Attribute::Handlers>).
|
---|
767 |
|
---|
768 | =head2 Building Extensions Can Fail Because Of Largefiles
|
---|
769 |
|
---|
770 | Some extensions like mod_perl are known to have issues with
|
---|
771 | `largefiles', a change brought by Perl 5.6.0 in which file offsets
|
---|
772 | default to 64 bits wide, where supported. Modules may fail to compile
|
---|
773 | at all or compile and work incorrectly. Currently there is no good
|
---|
774 | solution for the problem, but Configure now provides appropriate
|
---|
775 | non-largefile ccflags, ldflags, libswanted, and libs in the %Config
|
---|
776 | hash (e.g., $Config{ccflags_nolargefiles}) so the extensions that are
|
---|
777 | having problems can try configuring themselves without the
|
---|
778 | largefileness. This is admittedly not a clean solution, and the
|
---|
779 | solution may not even work at all. One potential failure is whether
|
---|
780 | one can (or, if one can, whether it's a good idea) link together at
|
---|
781 | all binaries with different ideas about file offsets, all this is
|
---|
782 | platform-dependent.
|
---|
783 |
|
---|
784 | =head2 The Compiler Suite Is Still Experimental
|
---|
785 |
|
---|
786 | The compiler suite is slowly getting better but is nowhere near
|
---|
787 | working order yet.
|
---|
788 |
|
---|
789 | =head2 The Long Double Support is Still Experimental
|
---|
790 |
|
---|
791 | The ability to configure Perl's numbers to use "long doubles",
|
---|
792 | floating point numbers of hopefully better accuracy, is still
|
---|
793 | experimental. The implementations of long doubles are not yet
|
---|
794 | widespread and the existing implementations are not quite mature
|
---|
795 | or standardised, therefore trying to support them is a rare
|
---|
796 | and moving target. The gain of more precision may also be offset
|
---|
797 | by slowdown in computations (more bits to move around, and the
|
---|
798 | operations are more likely to be executed by less optimised
|
---|
799 | libraries).
|
---|
800 |
|
---|
801 | =head1 Reporting Bugs
|
---|
802 |
|
---|
803 | If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles
|
---|
804 | recently posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl
|
---|
805 | bug database at http://bugs.perl.org/ There may also be
|
---|
806 | information at http://www.perl.com/perl/ , the Perl Home Page.
|
---|
807 |
|
---|
808 | If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the B<perlbug>
|
---|
809 | program included with your release. Be sure to trim your bug down
|
---|
810 | to a tiny but sufficient test case. Your bug report, along with the
|
---|
811 | output of C<perl -V>, will be sent off to [email protected] to be
|
---|
812 | analysed by the Perl porting team.
|
---|
813 |
|
---|
814 | =head1 SEE ALSO
|
---|
815 |
|
---|
816 | The F<Changes> file for exhaustive details on what changed.
|
---|
817 |
|
---|
818 | The F<INSTALL> file for how to build Perl.
|
---|
819 |
|
---|
820 | The F<README> file for general stuff.
|
---|
821 |
|
---|
822 | The F<Artistic> and F<Copying> files for copyright information.
|
---|
823 |
|
---|
824 | =head1 HISTORY
|
---|
825 |
|
---|
826 | Written by Jarkko Hietaniemi <F<[email protected]>>, with many contributions
|
---|
827 | from The Perl Porters and Perl Users submitting feedback and patches.
|
---|
828 |
|
---|
829 | Send omissions or corrections to <F<[email protected]>>.
|
---|
830 |
|
---|
831 | =cut
|
---|