mingw/html/pod/perl570delta.html

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  13 <big><strong><span class="block">&nbsp;perl570delta - what's new for perl v5.7.0</span></strong></big>
  14 </td></tr>
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  16
  17 <p><a name="__index__"></a></p>
  18 <!-- INDEX BEGIN -->
  19
  20 <ul>
  21
  22         <li><a href="#name">NAME</a></li>
  23         <li><a href="#description">DESCRIPTION</a></li>
  24         <li><a href="#security_vulnerability_closed">Security Vulnerability Closed</a></li>
  25         <li><a href="#incompatible_changes">Incompatible Changes</a></li>
  26         <li><a href="#core_enhancements">Core Enhancements</a></li>
  27         <li><a href="#modules_and_pragmata">Modules and Pragmata</a></li>
  28         <ul>
  29
  30                 <li><a href="#new_modules">New Modules</a></li>
  31                 <li><a href="#updated_and_improved_modules_and_pragmata">Updated And Improved Modules and Pragmata</a></li>
  32         </ul>
  33
  34         <li><a href="#utility_changes">Utility Changes</a></li>
  35         <li><a href="#new_documentation">New Documentation</a></li>
  36         <li><a href="#performance_enhancements">Performance Enhancements</a></li>
  37         <li><a href="#installation_and_configuration_improvements">Installation and Configuration Improvements</a></li>
  38         <ul>
  39
  40                 <li><a href="#generic_improvements">Generic Improvements</a></li>
  41         </ul>
  42
  43         <li><a href="#selected_bug_fixes">Selected Bug Fixes</a></li>
  44         <ul>
  45
  46                 <li><a href="#platform_specific_changes_and_fixes">Platform Specific Changes and Fixes</a></li>
  47         </ul>
  48
  49         <li><a href="#new_or_changed_diagnostics">New or Changed Diagnostics</a></li>
  50         <li><a href="#changed_internals">Changed Internals</a></li>
  51         <li><a href="#known_problems">Known Problems</a></li>
  52         <ul>
  53
  54                 <li><a href="#unicode_support_still_far_from_perfect">Unicode Support Still Far From Perfect</a></li>
  55                 <li><a href="#ebcdic_still_a_lost_platform">EBCDIC Still A Lost Platform</a></li>
  56                 <li><a href="#building_extensions_can_fail_because_of_largefiles">Building Extensions Can Fail Because Of Largefiles</a></li>
  57                 <li><a href="#ftmpsecurity_tests_warn__system_possibly_insecure_">ftmp-security tests warn 'system possibly insecure'</a></li>
  58                 <li><a href="#test_lib_posix_subtest_9_fails_in_lp64configured_hpux">Test lib/posix Subtest 9 Fails In LP64-Configured HP-UX</a></li>
  59                 <li><a href="#long_doubles_still_don_t_work_in_solaris">Long Doubles Still Don't Work In Solaris</a></li>
  60                 <li><a href="#linux_with_sfio_fails_op_misc_test_48">Linux With Sfio Fails op/misc Test 48</a></li>
  61                 <li><a href="#storable_tests_fail_in_some_platforms">Storable tests fail in some platforms</a></li>
  62                 <li><a href="#threads_are_still_experimental">Threads Are Still Experimental</a></li>
  63                 <li><a href="#the_compiler_suite_is_still_experimental">The Compiler Suite Is Still Experimental</a></li>
  64         </ul>
  65
  66         <li><a href="#reporting_bugs">Reporting Bugs</a></li>
  67         <li><a href="#see_also">SEE ALSO</a></li>
  68         <li><a href="#history">HISTORY</a></li>
  69 </ul>
  70 <!-- INDEX END -->
  71
  72 <hr />
  73 <p>
  74 </p>
  75 <h1><a name="name">NAME</a></h1>
  76 <p>perl570delta - what's new for perl v5.7.0</p>
  77 <p>
  78 </p>
  79 <hr />
  80 <h1><a name="description">DESCRIPTION</a></h1>
  81 <p>This document describes differences between the 5.6.0 release and
  82 the 5.7.0 release.</p>
  83 <p>
  84 </p>
  85 <hr />
  86 <h1><a name="security_vulnerability_closed">Security Vulnerability Closed</a></h1>
  87 <p>A potential security vulnerability in the optional suidperl component
  88 of Perl has been identified.  suidperl is neither built nor installed
  89 by default.  As of September the 2nd, 2000, the only known vulnerable
  90 platform is Linux, most likely all Linux distributions.  CERT and
  91 various vendors have been alerted about the vulnerability.</p>
  92 <p>The problem was caused by Perl trying to report a suspected security
  93 exploit attempt using an external program, /bin/mail.  On Linux
  94 platforms the /bin/mail program had an undocumented feature which
  95 when combined with suidperl gave access to a root shell, resulting in
  96 a serious compromise instead of reporting the exploit attempt.  If you
  97 don't have /bin/mail, or if you have 'safe setuid scripts', or if
  98 suidperl is not installed, you are safe.</p>
  99 <p>The exploit attempt reporting feature has been completely removed from
 100 the Perl 5.7.0 release, so that particular vulnerability isn't there
 101 anymore.  However, further security vulnerabilities are,
 102 unfortunately, always possible.  The suidperl code is being reviewed
 103 and if deemed too risky to continue to be supported, it may be
 104 completely removed from future releases.  In any case, suidperl should
 105 only be used by security experts who know exactly what they are doing
 106 and why they are using suidperl instead of some other solution such as
 107 sudo ( see <a href="http://www.courtesan.com/sudo/">http://www.courtesan.com/sudo/</a> ).</p>
 108 <p>
 109 </p>
 110 <hr />
 111 <h1><a name="incompatible_changes">Incompatible Changes</a></h1>
 112 <ul>
 113 <li>
 114 <p>Arrays now always interpolate into double-quoted strings:
 115 constructs like ``foo@bar'' now always assume <code>@bar</code> is an array,
 116 whether or not the compiler has seen use of <code>@bar</code>.</p>
 117 </li>
 118 <li>
 119 <p>The semantics of bless(REF, REF) were unclear and until someone proves
 120 it to make some sense, it is forbidden.</p>
 121 </li>
 122 <li>
 123 <p>A reference to a reference now stringify as ``REF(0x81485ec)'' instead
 124 of ``SCALAR(0x81485ec)'' in order to be more consistent with the return
 125 value of ref().</p>
 126 </li>
 127 <li>
 128 <p>The very dusty examples in the eg/ directory have been removed.
 129 Suggestions for new shiny examples welcome but the main issue is that
 130 the examples need to be documented, tested and (most importantly)
 131 maintained.</p>
 132 </li>
 133 <li>
 134 <p>The obsolete chat2 library that should never have been allowed
 135 to escape the laboratory has been decommissioned.</p>
 136 </li>
 137 <li>
 138 <p>The unimplemented POSIX regex features [[.cc.]] and [[=c=]] are still
 139 recognised but now cause fatal errors.  The previous behaviour of
 140 ignoring them by default and warning if requested was unacceptable
 141 since it, in a way, falsely promised that the features could be used.</p>
 142 </li>
 143 <li>
 144 <p>The (bogus) escape sequences \8 and \9 now give an optional warning
 145 (``Unrecognized escape passed through'').  There is no need to \-escape
 146 any <code>\w</code> character.</p>
 147 </li>
 148 <li>
 149 <p><a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_lstat"><code>lstat(FILEHANDLE)</code></a> now gives a warning because the operation makes no sense.
 150 In future releases this may become a fatal error.</p>
 151 </li>
 152 <li>
 153 <p>The long deprecated uppercase aliases for the string comparison
 154 operators (EQ, NE, LT, LE, GE, GT) have now been removed.</p>
 155 </li>
 156 <li>
 157 <p>The regular expression captured submatches ($1, $2, ...) are now
 158 more consistently unset if the match fails, instead of leaving false
 159 data lying around in them.</p>
 160 </li>
 161 <li>
 162 <p>The tr///C and tr///U features have been removed and will not return;
 163 the interface was a mistake.  Sorry about that.  For similar
 164 functionality, see pack('U0', ...) and pack('C0', ...).</p>
 165 </li>
 166 </ul>
 167 <p>
 168 </p>
 169 <hr />
 170 <h1><a name="core_enhancements">Core Enhancements</a></h1>
 171 <ul>
 172 <li>
 173 <p><code>perl -d:Module=arg,arg,arg</code> now works (previously one couldn't pass
 174 in multiple arguments.)</p>
 175 </li>
 176 <li>
 177 <p>my __PACKAGE__ $obj now works.</p>
 178 </li>
 179 <li>
 180 <p><code>no Module;</code> now works even if there is no ``sub unimport'' in the Module.</p>
 181 </li>
 182 <li>
 183 <p>The numerical comparison operators return <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_undef"><code>undef</code></a> if either operand
 184 is a NaN.  Previously the behaviour was unspecified.</p>
 185 </li>
 186 <li>
 187 <p><code>pack('U0a*', ...)</code> can now be used to force a string to UTF-8.</p>
 188 </li>
 189 <li>
 190 <p><code>prototype(\&amp;)</code> is now available.</p>
 191 </li>
 192 <li>
 193 <p>There is now an UNTIE method.</p>
 194 </li>
 195 </ul>
 196 <p>
 197 </p>
 198 <hr />
 199 <h1><a name="modules_and_pragmata">Modules and Pragmata</a></h1>
 200 <p>
 201 </p>
 202 <h2><a name="new_modules">New Modules</a></h2>
 203 <ul>
 204 <li>
 205 <p>File::Temp allows one to create temporary files and directories in an
 206 easy, portable, and secure way.</p>
 207 </li>
 208 <li>
 209 <p>Storable gives persistence to Perl data structures by allowing the
 210 storage and retrieval of Perl data to and from files in a fast and
 211 compact binary format.</p>
 212 </li>
 213 </ul>
 214 <p>
 215 </p>
 216 <h2><a name="updated_and_improved_modules_and_pragmata">Updated And Improved Modules and Pragmata</a></h2>
 217 <ul>
 218 <li>
 219 <p>The following independently supported modules have been updated to
 220 newer versions from CPAN: CGI, CPAN, DB_File, File::Spec, Getopt::Long,
 221 the podlators bundle, Pod::LaTeX, Pod::Parser, Term::ANSIColor, Test.</p>
 222 </li>
 223 <li>
 224 <p>Bug fixes and minor enhancements have been applied to B::Deparse,
 225 Data::Dumper, IO::Poll, IO::Socket::INET, Math::BigFloat,
 226 Math::Complex, Math::Trig, Net::protoent, the re pragma, SelfLoader,
 227 Sys::SysLog, Test::Harness, Text::Wrap, UNIVERSAL, and the warnings
 228 pragma.</p>
 229 </li>
 230 <li>
 231 <p>The attributes::reftype() now works on tied arguments.</p>
 232 </li>
 233 <li>
 234 <p>AutoLoader can now be disabled with <code>no AutoLoader;</code>,</p>
 235 </li>
 236 <li>
 237 <p>The English module can now be used without the infamous performance
 238 hit by saying</p>
 239 <pre>
 240         use English '-no_performance_hit';</pre>
 241 <p>(Assuming, of course, that one doesn't need the troublesome variables
 242 <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlvar.html#item___"><code>$`</code></a>, <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlvar.html#item___"><code>$&amp;</code></a>, or <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlvar.html#item___"><code>$'</code></a>.)  Also, introduced <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlvar.html#item__last_match_start"><code>@LAST_MATCH_START</code></a> and
 243 <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlvar.html#item__last_match_end"><code>@LAST_MATCH_END</code></a> English aliases for <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlvar.html#item__"><code>@-</code></a> and <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlvar.html#item___"><code>@+</code></a>.</p>
 244 </li>
 245 <li>
 246 <p>File::Find now has pre- and post-processing callbacks.  It also
 247 correctly changes directories when chasing symbolic links.  Callbacks
 248 (naughtily) exiting with ``next;'' instead of ``return;'' now work.</p>
 249 </li>
 250 <li>
 251 <p>File::Glob::glob() renamed to File::Glob::bsd_glob() to avoid
 252 prototype mismatch with CORE::glob().</p>
 253 </li>
 254 <li>
 255 <p>IPC::Open3 now allows the use of numeric file descriptors.</p>
 256 </li>
 257 <li>
 258 <p>use lib now works identically to @INC.  Removing directories
 259 with 'no lib' now works.</p>
 260 </li>
 261 <li>
 262 <p><a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlvar.html#item__inc"><code>%INC</code></a> now localised in a Safe compartment so that use/require work.</p>
 263 </li>
 264 <li>
 265 <p>The Shell module now has an OO interface.</p>
 266 </li>
 267 </ul>
 268 <p>
 269 </p>
 270 <hr />
 271 <h1><a name="utility_changes">Utility Changes</a></h1>
 272 <ul>
 273 <li>
 274 <p>The Emacs perl mode (emacs/cperl-mode.el) has been updated to version
 275 4.31.</p>
 276 </li>
 277 <li>
 278 <p>Perlbug is now much more robust.  It also sends the bug report to
 279 perl.org, not perl.com.</p>
 280 </li>
 281 <li>
 282 <p>The perlcc utility has been rewritten and its user interface (that is,
 283 command line) is much more like that of the UNIX C compiler, cc.</p>
 284 </li>
 285 <li>
 286 <p>The xsubpp utility for extension writers now understands POD
 287 documentation embedded in the *.xs files.</p>
 288 </li>
 289 </ul>
 290 <p>
 291 </p>
 292 <hr />
 293 <h1><a name="new_documentation">New Documentation</a></h1>
 294 <ul>
 295 <li>
 296 <p>perl56delta details the changes between the 5.005 release and the
 297 5.6.0 release.</p>
 298 </li>
 299 <li>
 300 <p>perldebtut is a Perl debugging tutorial.</p>
 301 </li>
 302 <li>
 303 <p>perlebcdic contains considerations for running Perl on EBCDIC platforms.
 304 Note that unfortunately EBCDIC platforms that used to supported back in
 305 Perl 5.005 are still unsupported by Perl 5.7.0; the plan, however, is to
 306 bring them back to the fold.</p>
 307 </li>
 308 <li>
 309 <p>perlnewmod tells about writing and submitting a new module.</p>
 310 </li>
 311 <li>
 312 <p>perlposix-bc explains using Perl on the POSIX-BC platform
 313 (an EBCDIC mainframe platform).</p>
 314 </li>
 315 <li>
 316 <p>perlretut is a regular expression tutorial.</p>
 317 </li>
 318 <li>
 319 <p>perlrequick is a regular expressions quick-start guide.
 320 Yes, much quicker than perlretut.</p>
 321 </li>
 322 <li>
 323 <p>perlutil explains the command line utilities packaged with the Perl
 324 distribution.</p>
 325 </li>
 326 </ul>
 327 <p>
 328 </p>
 329 <hr />
 330 <h1><a name="performance_enhancements">Performance Enhancements</a></h1>
 331 <ul>
 332 <li>
 333 <p><a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_map"><code>map()</code></a> that changes the size of the list should now work faster.</p>
 334 </li>
 335 <li>
 336 <p><a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_sort"><code>sort()</code></a> has been changed to use mergesort internally as opposed to the
 337 earlier quicksort.  For very small lists this may result in slightly
 338 slower sorting times, but in general the speedup should be at least
 339 20%.  Additional bonuses are that the worst case behaviour of <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_sort"><code>sort()</code></a>
 340 is now better (in computer science terms it now runs in time O(N log N),
 341 as opposed to quicksort's <code>Theta(N**2)</code> worst-case run time behaviour),
 342 and that <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_sort"><code>sort()</code></a> is now stable (meaning that elements with identical
 343 keys will stay ordered as they were before the sort).</p>
 344 </li>
 345 </ul>
 346 <p>
 347 </p>
 348 <hr />
 349 <h1><a name="installation_and_configuration_improvements">Installation and Configuration Improvements</a></h1>
 350 <p>
 351 </p>
 352 <h2><a name="generic_improvements">Generic Improvements</a></h2>
 353 <ul>
 354 <li>
 355 <p>INSTALL now explains how you can configure Perl to use 64-bit
 356 integers even on non-64-bit platforms.</p>
 357 </li>
 358 <li>
 359 <p>Policy.sh policy change: if you are reusing a Policy.sh file
 360 (see INSTALL) and you use Configure -Dprefix=/foo/bar and in the old
 361 Policy $prefix eq $siteprefix and $prefix eq $vendorprefix, all of
 362 them will now be changed to the new prefix, /foo/bar.  (Previously
 363 only $prefix changed.)  If you do not like this new behaviour,
 364 specify prefix, siteprefix, and vendorprefix explicitly.</p>
 365 </li>
 366 <li>
 367 <p>A new optional location for Perl libraries, otherlibdirs, is available.
 368 It can be used for example for vendor add-ons without disturbing Perl's
 369 own library directories.</p>
 370 </li>
 371 <li>
 372 <p>In many platforms the vendor-supplied 'cc' is too stripped-down to
 373 build Perl (basically, 'cc' doesn't do ANSI C).  If this seems
 374 to be the case and 'cc' does not seem to be the GNU C compiler
 375 'gcc', an automatic attempt is made to find and use 'gcc' instead.</p>
 376 </li>
 377 <li>
 378 <p>gcc needs to closely track the operating system release to avoid
 379 build problems. If Configure finds that gcc was built for a different
 380 operating system release than is running, it now gives a clearly visible
 381 warning that there may be trouble ahead.</p>
 382 </li>
 383 <li>
 384 <p>If binary compatibility with the 5.005 release is not wanted, Configure
 385 no longer suggests including the 5.005 modules in @INC.</p>
 386 </li>
 387 <li>
 388 <p>Configure <code>-S</code> can now run non-interactively.</p>
 389 </li>
 390 <li>
 391 <p>configure.gnu now works with options with whitespace in them.</p>
 392 </li>
 393 <li>
 394 <p>installperl now outputs everything to STDERR.</p>
 395 </li>
 396 <li>
 397 <p>$Config{byteorder} is now computed dynamically (this is more robust
 398 with ``fat binaries'' where an executable image contains binaries for
 399 more than one binary platform.)</p>
 400 </li>
 401 </ul>
 402 <p>
 403 </p>
 404 <hr />
 405 <h1><a name="selected_bug_fixes">Selected Bug Fixes</a></h1>
 406 <ul>
 407 <li>
 408 <p>Several debugger fixes: exit code now reflects the script exit code,
 409 condition <code>&quot;0&quot;</code> now treated correctly, the <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlguts.html#item_d"><code>d</code></a> command now checks
 410 line number, the <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlvar.html#item___"><code>$.</code></a> no longer gets corrupted, all debugger output now
 411 goes correctly to the socket if RemotePort is set.</p>
 412 </li>
 413 <li>
 414 <p><code>*foo{FORMAT}</code> now works.</p>
 415 </li>
 416 <li>
 417 <p>Lexical warnings now propagating correctly between scopes.</p>
 418 </li>
 419 <li>
 420 <p>Line renumbering with eval and <code>#line</code> now works.</p>
 421 </li>
 422 <li>
 423 <p>Fixed numerous memory leaks, especially in eval ``''.</p>
 424 </li>
 425 <li>
 426 <p>Modulus of unsigned numbers now works (4063328477 % 65535 used to
 427 return 27406, instead of 27047).</p>
 428 </li>
 429 <li>
 430 <p>Some ``not a number'' warnings introduced in 5.6.0 eliminated to be
 431 more compatible with 5.005.  Infinity is now recognised as a number.</p>
 432 </li>
 433 <li>
 434 <p><a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_our"><code>our()</code></a> variables will not cause ``will not stay shared'' warnings.</p>
 435 </li>
 436 <li>
 437 <p>pack ``Z'' now correctly terminates the string with ``\0''.</p>
 438 </li>
 439 <li>
 440 <p>Fix password routines which in some shadow password platforms
 441 (e.g. HP-UX) caused <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_getpwent"><code>getpwent()</code></a> to return every other entry.</p>
 442 </li>
 443 <li>
 444 <p><a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_printf"><code>printf()</code></a> no longer resets the numeric locale to ``C''.</p>
 445 </li>
 446 <li>
 447 <p><code>q(a\\b)</code> now parses correctly as <code>'a\\b'</code>.</p>
 448 </li>
 449 <li>
 450 <p>Printing quads (64-bit integers) with printf/sprintf now works
 451 without the q L ll prefixes (assuming you are on a quad-capable platform).</p>
 452 </li>
 453 <li>
 454 <p>Regular expressions on references and overloaded scalars now work.</p>
 455 </li>
 456 <li>
 457 <p><code>scalar()</code> now forces scalar context even when used in void context.</p>
 458 </li>
 459 <li>
 460 <p><a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_sort"><code>sort()</code></a> arguments are now compiled in the right wantarray context
 461 (they were accidentally using the context of the <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_sort"><code>sort()</code></a> itself).</p>
 462 </li>
 463 <li>
 464 <p>Changed the POSIX character class <code>[[:space:]]</code> to include the (very
 465 rare) vertical tab character.  Added a new POSIX-ish character class
 466 <code>[[:blank:]]</code> which stands for horizontal whitespace (currently,
 467 the space and the tab).</p>
 468 </li>
 469 <li>
 470 <p>$AUTOLOAD, sort(), lock(), and spawning subprocesses
 471 in multiple threads simultaneously are now thread-safe.</p>
 472 </li>
 473 <li>
 474 <p>Allow read-only string on left hand side of non-modifying tr///.</p>
 475 </li>
 476 <li>
 477 <p>Several Unicode fixes (but still not perfect).</p>
 478 <ul>
 479 <li>
 480 <p>BOMs (byte order marks) in the beginning of Perl files
 481 (scripts, modules) should now be transparently skipped.
 482 UTF-16 (UCS-2) encoded Perl files should now be read correctly.</p>
 483 </li>
 484 <li>
 485 <p>The character tables have been updated to Unicode 3.0.1.</p>
 486 </li>
 487 <li>
 488 <p><a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_chr"><code>chr()</code></a> for values greater than 127 now create utf8 when under use
 489 utf8.</p>
 490 </li>
 491 <li>
 492 <p>Comparing with utf8 data does not magically upgrade non-utf8 data into
 493 utf8.</p>
 494 </li>
 495 <li>
 496 <p><code>IsAlnum</code>, <code>IsAlpha</code>, and <code>IsWord</code> now match titlecase.</p>
 497 </li>
 498 <li>
 499 <p>Concatenation with the <code>.</code> operator or via variable interpolation,
 500 <code>eq</code>, <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlvar.html#item_substr"><code>substr</code></a>, <code>reverse</code>, <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_quotemeta"><code>quotemeta</code></a>, the <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlguts.html#item_x"><code>x</code></a> operator,
 501 substitution with <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_s_"><code>s///</code></a>, single-quoted UTF-8, should now work--in
 502 theory.</p>
 503 </li>
 504 <li>
 505 <p>The <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_tr_"><code>tr///</code></a> operator now works <em>slightly</em> better but is still rather
 506 broken.  Note that the <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_tr_"><code>tr///CU</code></a> functionality has been removed (but
 507 see pack('U0', ...)).</p>
 508 </li>
 509 <li>
 510 <p><code>vec()</code> now refuses to deal with characters &gt;255.</p>
 511 </li>
 512 <li>
 513 <p>Zero entries were missing from the Unicode classes like <code>IsDigit</code>.</p>
 514 </li>
 515 </ul>
 516 <li>
 517 <p>UNIVERSAL::isa no longer caches methods incorrectly.  (This broke
 518 the Tk extension with 5.6.0.)</p>
 519 </li>
 520 </ul>
 521 <p>
 522 </p>
 523 <h2><a name="platform_specific_changes_and_fixes">Platform Specific Changes and Fixes</a></h2>
 524 <ul>
 525 <li>
 526 <p>BSDI 4.*</p>
 527 <p>Perl now works on post-4.0 BSD/OSes.</p>
 528 </li>
 529 <li>
 530 <p>All BSDs</p>
 531 <p>Setting <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlvar.html#item__0"><code>$0</code></a> now works (as much as possible; see perlvar for details).</p>
 532 </li>
 533 <li>
 534 <p>Cygwin</p>
 535 <p>Numerous updates; currently synchronised with Cygwin 1.1.4.</p>
 536 </li>
 537 <li>
 538 <p>EPOC</p>
 539 <p>EPOC update after Perl 5.6.0.  See README.epoc.</p>
 540 </li>
 541 <li>
 542 <p>FreeBSD 3.*</p>
 543 <p>Perl now works on post-3.0 FreeBSDs.</p>
 544 </li>
 545 <li>
 546 <p>HP-UX</p>
 547 <p>README.hpux updated; <code>Configure -Duse64bitall</code> now almost works.</p>
 548 </li>
 549 <li>
 550 <p>IRIX</p>
 551 <p>Numerous compilation flag and hint enhancements; accidental mixing
 552 of 32-bit and 64-bit libraries (a doomed attempt) made much harder.</p>
 553 </li>
 554 <li>
 555 <p>Linux</p>
 556 <p>Long doubles should now work (see INSTALL).</p>
 557 </li>
 558 <li>
 559 <p>Mac OS Classic</p>
 560 <p>Compilation of the standard Perl distribution in Mac OS Classic should
 561 now work if you have the Metrowerks development environment and the
 562 missing Mac-specific toolkit bits.  Contact the macperl mailing list
 563 for details.</p>
 564 </li>
 565 <li>
 566 <p>MPE/iX</p>
 567 <p>MPE/iX update after Perl 5.6.0.  See README.mpeix.</p>
 568 </li>
 569 <li>
 570 <p>NetBSD/sparc</p>
 571 <p>Perl now works on NetBSD/sparc.</p>
 572 </li>
 573 <li>
 574 <p>OS/2</p>
 575 <p>Now works with usethreads (see INSTALL).</p>
 576 </li>
 577 <li>
 578 <p>Solaris</p>
 579 <p>64-bitness using the Sun Workshop compiler now works.</p>
 580 </li>
 581 <li>
 582 <p>Tru64 (aka Digital UNIX, aka DEC OSF/1)</p>
 583 <p>The operating system version letter now recorded in $Config{osvers}.
 584 Allow compiling with gcc (previously explicitly forbidden).  Compiling
 585 with gcc still not recommended because buggy code results, even with
 586 gcc 2.95.2.</p>
 587 </li>
 588 <li>
 589 <p>Unicos</p>
 590 <p>Fixed various alignment problems that lead into core dumps either
 591 during build or later; no longer dies on math errors at runtime;
 592 now using full quad integers (64 bits), previously was using
 593 only 46 bit integers for speed.</p>
 594 </li>
 595 <li>
 596 <p>VMS</p>
 597 <p><a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_chdir"><code>chdir()</code></a> now works better despite a CRT bug; now works with MULTIPLICITY
 598 (see INSTALL); now works with Perl's malloc.</p>
 599 </li>
 600 <li>
 601 <p>Windows</p>
 602 <ul>
 603 <li>
 604 <p><code>accept()</code> no longer leaks memory.</p>
 605 </li>
 606 <li>
 607 <p>Better <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_chdir"><code>chdir()</code></a> return value for a non-existent directory.</p>
 608 </li>
 609 <li>
 610 <p>New %ENV entries now propagate to subprocesses.</p>
 611 </li>
 612 <li>
 613 <p>$ENV{LIB} now used to search for libs under Visual C.</p>
 614 </li>
 615 <li>
 616 <p>A failed (pseudo)fork now returns undef and sets errno to EAGAIN.</p>
 617 </li>
 618 <li>
 619 <p>Allow REG_EXPAND_SZ keys in the registry.</p>
 620 </li>
 621 <li>
 622 <p>Can now <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_send"><code>send()</code></a> from all threads, not just the first one.</p>
 623 </li>
 624 <li>
 625 <p>Fake signal handling reenabled, bugs and all.</p>
 626 </li>
 627 <li>
 628 <p>Less stack reserved per thread so that more threads can run
 629 concurrently. (Still 16M per thread.)</p>
 630 </li>
 631 <li>
 632 <p><code>File::Spec-&gt;tmpdir()</code> now prefers C:/temp over /tmp
 633 (works better when perl is running as service).</p>
 634 </li>
 635 <li>
 636 <p>Better UNC path handling under ithreads.</p>
 637 </li>
 638 <li>
 639 <p><code>wait()</code> and <code>waitpid()</code> now work much better.</p>
 640 </li>
 641 <li>
 642 <p>winsock handle leak fixed.</p>
 643 </li>
 644 </ul>
 645 </ul>
 646 <p>
 647 </p>
 648 <hr />
 649 <h1><a name="new_or_changed_diagnostics">New or Changed Diagnostics</a></h1>
 650 <p>All regular expression compilation error messages are now hopefully
 651 easier to understand both because the error message now comes before
 652 the failed regex and because the point of failure is now clearly
 653 marked.</p>
 654 <p>The various ``opened only for'', ``on closed'', ``never opened'' warnings
 655 drop the <code>main::</code> prefix for filehandles in the <code>main</code> package,
 656 for example <code>STDIN</code> instead of &lt;main::STDIN&gt;.</p>
 657 <p>The ``Unrecognized escape'' warning has been extended to include <code>\8</code>,
 658 <code>\9</code>, and <code>\_</code>.  There is no need to escape any of the <code>\w</code> characters.</p>
 659 <p>
 660 </p>
 661 <hr />
 662 <h1><a name="changed_internals">Changed Internals</a></h1>
 663 <ul>
 664 <li>
 665 <p>perlapi.pod (a companion to perlguts) now attempts to document the
 666 internal API.</p>
 667 </li>
 668 <li>
 669 <p>You can now build a really minimal perl called microperl.
 670 Building microperl does not require even running Configure;
 671 <code>make -f Makefile.micro</code> should be enough.  Beware: microperl makes
 672 many assumptions, some of which may be too bold; the resulting
 673 executable may crash or otherwise misbehave in wondrous ways.
 674 For careful hackers only.</p>
 675 </li>
 676 <li>
 677 <p>Added rsignal(), whichsig(), <code>do_join()</code> to the publicised API.</p>
 678 </li>
 679 <li>
 680 <p>Made possible to propagate customised exceptions via croak()ing.</p>
 681 </li>
 682 <li>
 683 <p>Added is_utf8_char(), is_utf8_string(), bytes_to_utf8(), and utf8_to_bytes().</p>
 684 </li>
 685 <li>
 686 <p>Now xsubs can have attributes just like subs.</p>
 687 </li>
 688 </ul>
 689 <p>
 690 </p>
 691 <hr />
 692 <h1><a name="known_problems">Known Problems</a></h1>
 693 <p>
 694 </p>
 695 <h2><a name="unicode_support_still_far_from_perfect">Unicode Support Still Far From Perfect</a></h2>
 696 <p>We're working on it.  Stay tuned.</p>
 697 <p>
 698 </p>
 699 <h2><a name="ebcdic_still_a_lost_platform">EBCDIC Still A Lost Platform</a></h2>
 700 <p>The plan is to bring them back.</p>
 701 <p>
 702 </p>
 703 <h2><a name="building_extensions_can_fail_because_of_largefiles">Building Extensions Can Fail Because Of Largefiles</a></h2>
 704 <p>Certain extensions like mod_perl and BSD::Resource are known to have
 705 issues with `largefiles', a change brought by Perl 5.6.0 in which file
 706 offsets default to 64 bits wide, where supported.  Modules may fail to
 707 compile at all or compile and work incorrectly.  Currently there is no
 708 good solution for the problem, but Configure now provides appropriate
 709 non-largefile ccflags, ldflags, libswanted, and libs in the %Config
 710 hash (e.g., $Config{ccflags_nolargefiles}) so the extensions that are
 711 having problems can try configuring themselves without the
 712 largefileness.  This is admittedly not a clean solution, and the
 713 solution may not even work at all.  One potential failure is whether
 714 one can (or, if one can, whether it's a good idea) link together at
 715 all binaries with different ideas about file offsets, all this is
 716 platform-dependent.</p>
 717 <p>
 718 </p>
 719 <h2><a name="ftmpsecurity_tests_warn__system_possibly_insecure_">ftmp-security tests warn 'system possibly insecure'</a></h2>
 720 <p>Don't panic.  Read INSTALL 'make test' section instead.</p>
 721 <p>
 722 </p>
 723 <h2><a name="test_lib_posix_subtest_9_fails_in_lp64configured_hpux">Test lib/posix Subtest 9 Fails In LP64-Configured HP-UX</a></h2>
 724 <p>If perl is configured with -Duse64bitall, the successful result of the
 725 subtest 10 of lib/posix may arrive before the successful result of the
 726 subtest 9, which confuses the test harness so much that it thinks the
 727 subtest 9 failed.</p>
 728 <p>
 729 </p>
 730 <h2><a name="long_doubles_still_don_t_work_in_solaris">Long Doubles Still Don't Work In Solaris</a></h2>
 731 <p>The experimental long double support is still very much so in Solaris.
 732 (Other platforms like Linux and Tru64 are beginning to solidify in
 733 this area.)</p>
 734 <p>
 735 </p>
 736 <h2><a name="linux_with_sfio_fails_op_misc_test_48">Linux With Sfio Fails op/misc Test 48</a></h2>
 737 <p>No known fix.</p>
 738 <p>
 739 </p>
 740 <h2><a name="storable_tests_fail_in_some_platforms">Storable tests fail in some platforms</a></h2>
 741 <p>If any Storable tests fail the use of Storable is not advisable.</p>
 742 <ul>
 743 <li>
 744 <p>Many Storable tests fail on AIX configured with 64 bit integers.</p>
 745 <p>So far unidentified problems break Storable in AIX if Perl is
 746 configured to use 64 bit integers.  AIX in 32-bit mode works and
 747 other 64-bit platforms work with Storable.</p>
 748 </li>
 749 <li>
 750 <p>DOS DJGPP may hang when testing Storable.</p>
 751 </li>
 752 <li>
 753 <p>st-06compat fails in UNICOS and UNICOS/mk.</p>
 754 <p>This means that you cannot read old (pre-Storable-0.7) Storable images
 755 made in other platforms.</p>
 756 </li>
 757 <li>
 758 <p>st-store.t and st-retrieve may fail with Compaq C 6.2 on OpenVMS Alpha 7.2.</p>
 759 </li>
 760 </ul>
 761 <p>
 762 </p>
 763 <h2><a name="threads_are_still_experimental">Threads Are Still Experimental</a></h2>
 764 <p>Multithreading is still an experimental feature.  Some platforms
 765 emit the following message for lib/thr5005</p>
 766 <pre>
 767     #
 768     # This is a KNOWN FAILURE, and one of the reasons why threading
 769     # is still an experimental feature.  It is here to stop people
 770     # from deploying threads in production. ;-)
 771     #</pre>
 772 <p>and another known thread-related warning is</p>
 773 <pre>
 774    pragma/overload......Unbalanced saves: 3 more saves than restores
 775    panic: magic_mutexfree during global destruction.
 776    ok
 777    lib/selfloader.......Unbalanced saves: 3 more saves than restores
 778    panic: magic_mutexfree during global destruction.
 779    ok
 780    lib/st-dclone........Unbalanced saves: 3 more saves than restores
 781    panic: magic_mutexfree during global destruction.
 782    ok</pre>
 783 <p>
 784 </p>
 785 <h2><a name="the_compiler_suite_is_still_experimental">The Compiler Suite Is Still Experimental</a></h2>
 786 <p>The compiler suite is slowly getting better but is nowhere near
 787 working order yet.  The backend part that has seen perhaps the most
 788 progress is the bytecode compiler.</p>
 789 <p>
 790 </p>
 791 <hr />
 792 <h1><a name="reporting_bugs">Reporting Bugs</a></h1>
 793 <p>If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles
 794 recently posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl
 795 bug database at <a href="http://bugs.perl.org/">http://bugs.perl.org/</a>  There may also be
 796 information at <a href="http://www.perl.com/perl/">http://www.perl.com/perl/</a> , the Perl Home Page.</p>
 797 <p>If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the <strong>perlbug</strong>
 798 program included with your release.  Be sure to trim your bug down
 799 to a tiny but sufficient test case.  Your bug report, along with the
 800 output of <code>perl -V</code>, will be sent off to <a href="mailto:perlbug@perl.org">perlbug@perl.org</a> to be
 801 analysed by the Perl porting team.</p>
 802 <p>
 803 </p>
 804 <hr />
 805 <h1><a name="see_also">SEE ALSO</a></h1>
 806 <p>The <em>Changes</em> file for exhaustive details on what changed.</p>
 807 <p>The <em>INSTALL</em> file for how to build Perl.</p>
 808 <p>The <em>README</em> file for general stuff.</p>
 809 <p>The <em>Artistic</em> and <em>Copying</em> files for copyright information.</p>
 810 <p>
 811 </p>
 812 <hr />
 813 <h1><a name="history">HISTORY</a></h1>
 814 <p>Written by Jarkko Hietaniemi &lt;<em><a href="mailto:jhi@iki.fi">jhi@iki.fi</a></em>&gt;, with many contributions
 815 from The Perl Porters and Perl Users submitting feedback and patches.</p>
 816 <p>Send omissions or corrections to &lt;<em><a href="mailto:perlbug@perl.org">perlbug@perl.org</a></em>&gt;.</p>
 817 <table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
 818 <tr><td class="block" style="background-color: #cccccc" valign="middle">
 819 <big><strong><span class="block">&nbsp;perl570delta - what's new for perl v5.7.0</span></strong></big>
 820 </td></tr>
 821 </table>
 822
 823 </body>
 824
 825 </html>