mingw/html/pod/perl588delta.html

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  13 <big><strong><span class="block">&nbsp;perldelta - what is new for perl v5.8.8</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="#incompatible_changes">Incompatible Changes</a></li>
  25         <li><a href="#core_enhancements">Core Enhancements</a></li>
  26         <li><a href="#modules_and_pragmata">Modules and Pragmata</a></li>
  27         <li><a href="#utility_changes">Utility Changes</a></li>
  28         <ul>
  29
  30                 <li><a href="#h2xs_enhancements"><code>h2xs</code> enhancements</a></li>
  31                 <li><a href="#perlivp_enhancements"><code>perlivp</code> enhancements</a></li>
  32         </ul>
  33
  34         <li><a href="#new_documentation">New Documentation</a></li>
  35         <li><a href="#performance_enhancements">Performance Enhancements</a></li>
  36         <li><a href="#installation_and_configuration_improvements">Installation and Configuration Improvements</a></li>
  37         <li><a href="#selected_bug_fixes">Selected Bug Fixes</a></li>
  38         <ul>
  39
  40                 <li><a href="#no_warnings__category__works_correctly_with_w">no warnings 'category' works correctly with -w</a></li>
  41                 <li><a href="#remove_overoptimisation">Remove over-optimisation</a></li>
  42                 <li><a href="#sprintf___fixes"><code>sprintf()</code> fixes</a></li>
  43                 <li><a href="#debugger_and_unicode_slowdown">Debugger and Unicode slowdown</a></li>
  44                 <li><a href="#smaller_fixes">Smaller fixes</a></li>
  45         </ul>
  46
  47         <li><a href="#new_or_changed_diagnostics">New or Changed Diagnostics</a></li>
  48         <ul>
  49
  50                 <li><a href="#attempt_to_set_length_of_freed_array">Attempt to set length of freed array</a></li>
  51                 <li><a href="#nonstring_passed_as_bitmask">Non-string passed as bitmask</a></li>
  52                 <li><a href="#search_pattern_not_terminated_or_ternary_operator_parsed_as_search_pattern">Search pattern not terminated or ternary operator parsed as search pattern</a></li>
  53         </ul>
  54
  55         <li><a href="#changed_internals">Changed Internals</a></li>
  56         <li><a href="#platform_specific_problems">Platform Specific Problems</a></li>
  57         <li><a href="#reporting_bugs">Reporting Bugs</a></li>
  58         <li><a href="#see_also">SEE ALSO</a></li>
  59 </ul>
  60 <!-- INDEX END -->
  61
  62 <hr />
  63 <p>
  64 </p>
  65 <h1><a name="name">NAME</a></h1>
  66 <p>perldelta - what is new for perl v5.8.8</p>
  67 <p>
  68 </p>
  69 <hr />
  70 <h1><a name="description">DESCRIPTION</a></h1>
  71 <p>This document describes differences between the 5.8.7 release and
  72 the 5.8.8 release.</p>
  73 <p>
  74 </p>
  75 <hr />
  76 <h1><a name="incompatible_changes">Incompatible Changes</a></h1>
  77 <p>There are no changes intentionally incompatible with 5.8.7. If any exist,
  78 they are bugs and reports are welcome.</p>
  79 <p>
  80 </p>
  81 <hr />
  82 <h1><a name="core_enhancements">Core Enhancements</a></h1>
  83 <ul>
  84 <li>
  85 <p><a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_chdir"><code>chdir</code></a>, <code>chmod</code> and <code>chown</code> can now work on filehandles as well as
  86 filenames, if the system supports respectively <code>fchdir</code>, <code>fchmod</code> and
  87 <code>fchown</code>, thanks to a patch provided by Gisle Aas.</p>
  88 </li>
  89 </ul>
  90 <p>
  91 </p>
  92 <hr />
  93 <h1><a name="modules_and_pragmata">Modules and Pragmata</a></h1>
  94 <ul>
  95 <li>
  96 <p><code>Attribute::Handlers</code> upgraded to version 0.78_02</p>
  97 <ul>
  98 <li>
  99 <p>Documentation typo fix</p>
 100 </li>
 101 </ul>
 102 <li>
 103 <p><code>attrs</code> upgraded to version 1.02</p>
 104 <ul>
 105 <li>
 106 <p>Internal cleanup only</p>
 107 </li>
 108 </ul>
 109 <li>
 110 <p><code>autouse</code> upgraded to version 1.05</p>
 111 <ul>
 112 <li>
 113 <p>Simplified implementation</p>
 114 </li>
 115 </ul>
 116 <li>
 117 <p><code>B</code> upgraded to version 1.09_01</p>
 118 <ul>
 119 <li>
 120 <p>The inheritance hierarchy of the <code>B::</code> modules has been corrected;
 121 <code>B::NV</code> now inherits from <code>B::SV</code> (instead of <code>B::IV</code>).</p>
 122 </li>
 123 </ul>
 124 <li>
 125 <p><code>blib</code> upgraded to version 1.03</p>
 126 <ul>
 127 <li>
 128 <p>Documentation typo fix</p>
 129 </li>
 130 </ul>
 131 <li>
 132 <p><code>ByteLoader</code> upgraded to version 0.06</p>
 133 <ul>
 134 <li>
 135 <p>Internal cleanup</p>
 136 </li>
 137 </ul>
 138 <li>
 139 <p><code>CGI</code> upgraded to version 3.15</p>
 140 <ul>
 141 <li>
 142 <p>Extraneous ``?'' from <code>self_url()</code> removed</p>
 143 </li>
 144 <li>
 145 <p><code>scrolling_list()</code> select attribute fixed</p>
 146 </li>
 147 <li>
 148 <p><code>virtual_port</code> now works properly with the https protocol</p>
 149 </li>
 150 <li>
 151 <p><code>upload_hook()</code> and <code>append()</code> now works in function-oriented mode</p>
 152 </li>
 153 <li>
 154 <p><code>POST_MAX</code> doesn't cause the client to hang any more</p>
 155 </li>
 156 <li>
 157 <p>Automatic tab indexes are now disabled and new <code>-tabindex</code> pragma has
 158 been added to turn automatic indexes back on</p>
 159 </li>
 160 <li>
 161 <p><code>end_form()</code> doesn't emit empty (and non-validating) <code>&lt;div&gt;</code></p>
 162 </li>
 163 <li>
 164 <p><code>CGI::Carp</code> works better in certain mod_perl configurations</p>
 165 </li>
 166 <li>
 167 <p>Setting <code>$CGI::TMPDIRECTORY</code> is now effective</p>
 168 </li>
 169 <li>
 170 <p>Enhanced documentation</p>
 171 </li>
 172 </ul>
 173 <li>
 174 <p><code>charnames</code> upgraded to version 1.05</p>
 175 <ul>
 176 <li>
 177 <p><code>viacode()</code> now accept hex strings and has been optimized.</p>
 178 </li>
 179 </ul>
 180 <li>
 181 <p><code>CPAN</code> upgraded to version 1.76_02</p>
 182 <ul>
 183 <li>
 184 <p>1 minor bug fix for Win32</p>
 185 </li>
 186 </ul>
 187 <li>
 188 <p><code>Cwd</code> upgraded to version 3.12</p>
 189 <ul>
 190 <li>
 191 <p><code>canonpath()</code> on Win32 now collapses <em>foo\..</em> sections correctly.</p>
 192 </li>
 193 <li>
 194 <p>Improved behaviour on Symbian OS.</p>
 195 </li>
 196 <li>
 197 <p>Enhanced documentation and typo fixes</p>
 198 </li>
 199 <li>
 200 <p>Internal cleanup</p>
 201 </li>
 202 </ul>
 203 <li>
 204 <p><code>Data::Dumper</code> upgraded to version 2.121_08</p>
 205 <ul>
 206 <li>
 207 <p>A problem where <code>Data::Dumper</code> would sometimes update the iterator state
 208 of hashes has been fixed</p>
 209 </li>
 210 <li>
 211 <p>Numeric labels now work</p>
 212 </li>
 213 <li>
 214 <p>Internal cleanup</p>
 215 </li>
 216 </ul>
 217 <li>
 218 <p><code>DB</code> upgraded to version 1.01</p>
 219 <ul>
 220 <li>
 221 <p>A problem where the state of the regexp engine would sometimes get clobbered when running
 222 under the debugger has been fixed.</p>
 223 </li>
 224 </ul>
 225 <li>
 226 <p><code>DB_File</code> upgraded to version 1.814</p>
 227 <ul>
 228 <li>
 229 <p>Adds support for Berkeley DB 4.4.</p>
 230 </li>
 231 </ul>
 232 <li>
 233 <p><code>Devel::DProf</code> upgraded to version 20050603.00</p>
 234 <ul>
 235 <li>
 236 <p>Internal cleanup</p>
 237 </li>
 238 </ul>
 239 <li>
 240 <p><code>Devel::Peek</code> upgraded to version 1.03</p>
 241 <ul>
 242 <li>
 243 <p>Internal cleanup</p>
 244 </li>
 245 </ul>
 246 <li>
 247 <p><code>Devel::PPPort</code> upgraded to version 3.06_01</p>
 248 <ul>
 249 <li>
 250 <p><code>--compat-version</code> argument checking has been improved</p>
 251 </li>
 252 <li>
 253 <p>Files passed on the command line are filtered by default</p>
 254 </li>
 255 <li>
 256 <p><code>--nofilter</code> option to override the filtering has been added</p>
 257 </li>
 258 <li>
 259 <p>Enhanced documentation</p>
 260 </li>
 261 </ul>
 262 <li>
 263 <p><code>diagnostics</code> upgraded to version 1.15</p>
 264 <ul>
 265 <li>
 266 <p>Documentation typo fix</p>
 267 </li>
 268 </ul>
 269 <li>
 270 <p><code>Digest</code> upgraded to version 1.14</p>
 271 <ul>
 272 <li>
 273 <p>The constructor now knows which module implements SHA-224</p>
 274 </li>
 275 <li>
 276 <p>Documentation tweaks and typo fixes</p>
 277 </li>
 278 </ul>
 279 <li>
 280 <p><code>Digest::MD5</code> upgraded to version 2.36</p>
 281 <ul>
 282 <li>
 283 <p><code>XSLoader</code> is now used for faster loading</p>
 284 </li>
 285 <li>
 286 <p>Enhanced documentation including MD5 weaknesses discovered lately</p>
 287 </li>
 288 </ul>
 289 <li>
 290 <p><code>Dumpvalue</code> upgraded to version 1.12</p>
 291 <ul>
 292 <li>
 293 <p>Documentation fix</p>
 294 </li>
 295 </ul>
 296 <li>
 297 <p><code>DynaLoader</code> upgraded but unfortunately we're not able to increment its version number :-(</p>
 298 <ul>
 299 <li>
 300 <p>Implements <code>dl_unload_file</code> on Win32</p>
 301 </li>
 302 <li>
 303 <p>Internal cleanup</p>
 304 </li>
 305 <li>
 306 <p><code>XSLoader</code> 0.06 incorporated; small optimisation for calling
 307 <code>bootstrap_inherit()</code> and documentation enhancements.</p>
 308 </li>
 309 </ul>
 310 <li>
 311 <p><code>Encode</code> upgraded to version 2.12</p>
 312 <ul>
 313 <li>
 314 <p>A coderef is now acceptable for <code>CHECK</code>!</p>
 315 </li>
 316 <li>
 317 <p>3 new characters added to the ISO-8859-7 encoding</p>
 318 </li>
 319 <li>
 320 <p>New encoding <code>MIME-Header-ISO_2022_JP</code> added</p>
 321 </li>
 322 <li>
 323 <p>Problem with partial characters and <code>encoding(utf-8-strict)</code> fixed.</p>
 324 </li>
 325 <li>
 326 <p>Documentation enhancements and typo fixes</p>
 327 </li>
 328 </ul>
 329 <li>
 330 <p><code>English</code> upgraded to version 1.02</p>
 331 <ul>
 332 <li>
 333 <p>the <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlvar.html#item__compiling"><code>$COMPILING</code></a> variable has been added</p>
 334 </li>
 335 </ul>
 336 <li>
 337 <p><code>ExtUtils::Constant</code> upgraded to version 0.17</p>
 338 <ul>
 339 <li>
 340 <p>Improved compatibility with older versions of perl</p>
 341 </li>
 342 </ul>
 343 <li>
 344 <p><code>ExtUtils::MakeMaker</code> upgraded to version 6.30 (was 6.17)</p>
 345 <ul>
 346 <li>
 347 <p>Too much to list here;  see <a href="http://search.cpan.org/src/MSCHWERN/ExtUtils-MakeMaker-6.30/Changes">http://search.cpan.org/src/MSCHWERN/ExtUtils-MakeMaker-6.30/Changes</a></p>
 348 </li>
 349 </ul>
 350 <li>
 351 <p><code>File::Basename</code> upgraded to version 2.74, with changes contributed by Michael Schwern.</p>
 352 <ul>
 353 <li>
 354 <p>Documentation clarified and errors corrected.</p>
 355 </li>
 356 <li>
 357 <p><code>basename</code> now strips trailing path separators before processing the name.</p>
 358 </li>
 359 <li>
 360 <p><code>basename</code> now returns <code>/</code> for parameter <code>/</code>, to make <code>basename</code>
 361 consistent with the shell utility of the same name.</p>
 362 </li>
 363 <li>
 364 <p>The suffix is no longer stripped if it is identical to the remaining characters
 365 in the name, again for consistency with the shell utility.</p>
 366 </li>
 367 <li>
 368 <p>Some internal code cleanup.</p>
 369 </li>
 370 </ul>
 371 <li>
 372 <p><code>File::Copy</code> upgraded to version 2.09</p>
 373 <ul>
 374 <li>
 375 <p>Copying a file onto itself used to fail.</p>
 376 </li>
 377 <li>
 378 <p>Moving a file between file systems now preserves the access and
 379 modification time stamps</p>
 380 </li>
 381 </ul>
 382 <li>
 383 <p><code>File::Find</code> upgraded to version 1.10</p>
 384 <ul>
 385 <li>
 386 <p>Win32 portability fixes</p>
 387 </li>
 388 <li>
 389 <p>Enhanced documentation</p>
 390 </li>
 391 </ul>
 392 <li>
 393 <p><code>File::Glob</code> upgraded to version 1.05</p>
 394 <ul>
 395 <li>
 396 <p>Internal cleanup</p>
 397 </li>
 398 </ul>
 399 <li>
 400 <p><code>File::Path</code> upgraded to version 1.08</p>
 401 <ul>
 402 <li>
 403 <p><code>mkpath</code> now preserves <code>errno</code> when <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_mkdir"><code>mkdir</code></a> fails</p>
 404 </li>
 405 </ul>
 406 <li>
 407 <p><code>File::Spec</code> upgraded to version 3.12</p>
 408 <ul>
 409 <li>
 410 <p><code>File::Spec-</code>rootdir()&gt; now returns <code>\</code> on Win32, instead of <code>/</code></p>
 411 </li>
 412 <li>
 413 <p><a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlvar.html#item___o"><code>$^O</code></a> could sometimes become tainted. This has been fixed.</p>
 414 </li>
 415 <li>
 416 <p><code>canonpath</code> on Win32 now collapses <code>foo/..</code> (or <code>foo\..</code>) sections
 417 correctly, rather than doing the ``misguided'' work it was previously doing.
 418 Note that <code>canonpath</code> on Unix still does <strong>not</strong> collapse these sections, as
 419 doing so would be incorrect.</p>
 420 </li>
 421 <li>
 422 <p>Some documentation improvements</p>
 423 </li>
 424 <li>
 425 <p>Some internal code cleanup</p>
 426 </li>
 427 </ul>
 428 <li>
 429 <p><code>FileCache</code> upgraded to version 1.06</p>
 430 <ul>
 431 <li>
 432 <p>POD formatting errors in the documentation fixed</p>
 433 </li>
 434 </ul>
 435 <li>
 436 <p><code>Filter::Simple</code> upgraded to version 0.82</p>
 437 </li>
 438 <li>
 439 <p><code>FindBin</code> upgraded to version 1.47</p>
 440 <ul>
 441 <li>
 442 <p>Now works better with directories where access rights are more
 443 restrictive than usual.</p>
 444 </li>
 445 </ul>
 446 <li>
 447 <p><code>GDBM_File</code> upgraded to version 1.08</p>
 448 <ul>
 449 <li>
 450 <p>Internal cleanup</p>
 451 </li>
 452 </ul>
 453 <li>
 454 <p><code>Getopt::Long</code> upgraded to version 2.35</p>
 455 <ul>
 456 <li>
 457 <p><code>prefix_pattern</code> has now been complemented by a new configuration
 458 option <code>long_prefix_pattern</code> that allows the user to specify what
 459 prefix patterns should have long option style semantics applied.</p>
 460 </li>
 461 <li>
 462 <p>Options can now take multiple values at once (experimental)</p>
 463 </li>
 464 <li>
 465 <p>Various bug fixes</p>
 466 </li>
 467 </ul>
 468 <li>
 469 <p><code>if</code> upgraded to version 0.05</p>
 470 <ul>
 471 <li>
 472 <p>Give more meaningful error messages from <code>if</code> when invoked with a
 473 condition in list context.</p>
 474 </li>
 475 <li>
 476 <p>Restore backwards compatibility with earlier versions of perl</p>
 477 </li>
 478 </ul>
 479 <li>
 480 <p><code>IO</code> upgraded to version 1.22</p>
 481 <ul>
 482 <li>
 483 <p>Enhanced documentation</p>
 484 </li>
 485 <li>
 486 <p>Internal cleanup</p>
 487 </li>
 488 </ul>
 489 <li>
 490 <p><code>IPC::Open2</code> upgraded to version 1.02</p>
 491 <ul>
 492 <li>
 493 <p>Enhanced documentation</p>
 494 </li>
 495 </ul>
 496 <li>
 497 <p><code>IPC::Open3</code> upgraded to version 1.02</p>
 498 <ul>
 499 <li>
 500 <p>Enhanced documentation</p>
 501 </li>
 502 </ul>
 503 <li>
 504 <p><code>List::Util</code> upgraded to version 1.18 (was 1.14)</p>
 505 <ul>
 506 <li>
 507 <p>Fix pure-perl version of <code>refaddr</code> to avoid blessing an un-blessed reference</p>
 508 </li>
 509 <li>
 510 <p>Use <code>XSLoader</code> for faster loading</p>
 511 </li>
 512 <li>
 513 <p>Fixed various memory leaks</p>
 514 </li>
 515 <li>
 516 <p>Internal cleanup and portability fixes</p>
 517 </li>
 518 </ul>
 519 <li>
 520 <p><code>Math::Complex</code> upgraded to version 1.35</p>
 521 <ul>
 522 <li>
 523 <p><code>atan2(0, i)</code> now works, as do all the (computable) complex argument cases</p>
 524 </li>
 525 <li>
 526 <p>Fixes for certain bugs in <code>make</code> and <code>emake</code></p>
 527 </li>
 528 <li>
 529 <p>Support returning the <em>k</em>th root directly</p>
 530 </li>
 531 <li>
 532 <p>Support <code>[2,-3pi/8]</code> in <code>emake</code></p>
 533 </li>
 534 <li>
 535 <p>Support <code>inf</code> for <code>make</code>/<code>emake</code></p>
 536 </li>
 537 <li>
 538 <p>Document <code>make</code>/<code>emake</code> more visibly</p>
 539 </li>
 540 </ul>
 541 <li>
 542 <p><code>Math::Trig</code> upgraded to version 1.03</p>
 543 <ul>
 544 <li>
 545 <p>Add more great circle routines: <code>great_circle_waypoint</code> and
 546 <code>great_circle_destination</code></p>
 547 </li>
 548 </ul>
 549 <li>
 550 <p><code>MIME::Base64</code> upgraded to version 3.07</p>
 551 <ul>
 552 <li>
 553 <p>Use <code>XSLoader</code> for faster loading</p>
 554 </li>
 555 <li>
 556 <p>Enhanced documentation</p>
 557 </li>
 558 <li>
 559 <p>Internal cleanup</p>
 560 </li>
 561 </ul>
 562 <li>
 563 <p><code>NDBM_File</code> upgraded to version 1.06</p>
 564 <ul>
 565 <li>
 566 <p>Enhanced documentation</p>
 567 </li>
 568 </ul>
 569 <li>
 570 <p><code>ODBM_File</code> upgraded to version 1.06</p>
 571 <ul>
 572 <li>
 573 <p>Documentation typo fixed</p>
 574 </li>
 575 <li>
 576 <p>Internal cleanup</p>
 577 </li>
 578 </ul>
 579 <li>
 580 <p><code>Opcode</code> upgraded to version 1.06</p>
 581 <ul>
 582 <li>
 583 <p>Enhanced documentation</p>
 584 </li>
 585 <li>
 586 <p>Internal cleanup</p>
 587 </li>
 588 </ul>
 589 <li>
 590 <p><a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_open"><code>open</code></a> upgraded to version 1.05</p>
 591 <ul>
 592 <li>
 593 <p>Enhanced documentation</p>
 594 </li>
 595 </ul>
 596 <li>
 597 <p><code>overload</code> upgraded to version 1.04</p>
 598 <ul>
 599 <li>
 600 <p>Enhanced documentation</p>
 601 </li>
 602 </ul>
 603 <li>
 604 <p><code>PerlIO</code> upgraded to version 1.04</p>
 605 <ul>
 606 <li>
 607 <p><code>PerlIO::via</code> iterate over layers properly now</p>
 608 </li>
 609 <li>
 610 <p><code>PerlIO::scalar</code> understands <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlvar.html#item___"><code>$/ = &quot;&quot;</code></a> now</p>
 611 </li>
 612 <li>
 613 <p><code>encoding(utf-8-strict)</code> with partial characters now works</p>
 614 </li>
 615 <li>
 616 <p>Enhanced documentation</p>
 617 </li>
 618 <li>
 619 <p>Internal cleanup</p>
 620 </li>
 621 </ul>
 622 <li>
 623 <p><code>Pod::Functions</code> upgraded to version 1.03</p>
 624 <ul>
 625 <li>
 626 <p>Documentation typos fixed</p>
 627 </li>
 628 </ul>
 629 <li>
 630 <p><code>Pod::Html</code> upgraded to version 1.0504</p>
 631 <ul>
 632 <li>
 633 <p>HTML output will now correctly link
 634 to <code>=item</code>s on the same page, and should be valid XHTML.</p>
 635 </li>
 636 <li>
 637 <p>Variable names are recognized as intended</p>
 638 </li>
 639 <li>
 640 <p>Documentation typos fixed</p>
 641 </li>
 642 </ul>
 643 <li>
 644 <p><code>Pod::Parser</code> upgraded to version 1.32</p>
 645 <ul>
 646 <li>
 647 <p>Allow files that start with <code>=head</code> on the first line</p>
 648 </li>
 649 <li>
 650 <p>Win32 portability fix</p>
 651 </li>
 652 <li>
 653 <p>Exit status of <code>pod2usage</code> fixed</p>
 654 </li>
 655 <li>
 656 <p>New <code>-noperldoc</code> switch for <code>pod2usage</code></p>
 657 </li>
 658 <li>
 659 <p>Arbitrary URL schemes now allowed</p>
 660 </li>
 661 <li>
 662 <p>Documentation typos fixed</p>
 663 </li>
 664 </ul>
 665 <li>
 666 <p><code>POSIX</code> upgraded to version 1.09</p>
 667 <ul>
 668 <li>
 669 <p>Documentation typos fixed</p>
 670 </li>
 671 <li>
 672 <p>Internal cleanup</p>
 673 </li>
 674 </ul>
 675 <li>
 676 <p><code>re</code> upgraded to version 0.05</p>
 677 <ul>
 678 <li>
 679 <p>Documentation typo fixed</p>
 680 </li>
 681 </ul>
 682 <li>
 683 <p><code>Safe</code> upgraded to version 2.12</p>
 684 <ul>
 685 <li>
 686 <p>Minor documentation enhancement</p>
 687 </li>
 688 </ul>
 689 <li>
 690 <p><code>SDBM_File</code> upgraded to version 1.05</p>
 691 <ul>
 692 <li>
 693 <p>Documentation typo fixed</p>
 694 </li>
 695 <li>
 696 <p>Internal cleanup</p>
 697 </li>
 698 </ul>
 699 <li>
 700 <p><code>Socket</code> upgraded to version 1.78</p>
 701 <ul>
 702 <li>
 703 <p>Internal cleanup</p>
 704 </li>
 705 </ul>
 706 <li>
 707 <p><code>Storable</code> upgraded to version 2.15</p>
 708 <ul>
 709 <li>
 710 <p>This includes the <code>STORABLE_attach</code> hook functionality added by
 711 Adam Kennedy, and more frugal memory requirements when storing under <code>ithreads</code>, by
 712 using the <code>ithreads</code> cloning tracking code.</p>
 713 </li>
 714 </ul>
 715 <li>
 716 <p><code>Switch</code> upgraded to version 2.10_01</p>
 717 <ul>
 718 <li>
 719 <p>Documentation typos fixed</p>
 720 </li>
 721 </ul>
 722 <li>
 723 <p><code>Sys::Syslog</code> upgraded to version 0.13</p>
 724 <ul>
 725 <li>
 726 <p>Now provides numeric macros and meaningful <code>Exporter</code> tags.</p>
 727 </li>
 728 <li>
 729 <p>No longer uses <code>Sys::Hostname</code> as it may provide useless values in
 730 unconfigured network environments, so instead uses <code>INADDR_LOOPBACK</code> directly.</p>
 731 </li>
 732 <li>
 733 <p><code>syslog()</code> now uses local timestamp.</p>
 734 </li>
 735 <li>
 736 <p><code>setlogmask()</code> now behaves like its C counterpart.</p>
 737 </li>
 738 <li>
 739 <p><code>setlogsock()</code> will now <code>croak()</code> as documented.</p>
 740 </li>
 741 <li>
 742 <p>Improved error and warnings messages.</p>
 743 </li>
 744 <li>
 745 <p>Improved documentation.</p>
 746 </li>
 747 </ul>
 748 <li>
 749 <p><code>Term::ANSIColor</code> upgraded to version 1.10</p>
 750 <ul>
 751 <li>
 752 <p>Fixes a bug in <code>colored</code> when <code>$EACHLINE</code> is set that caused it to not color
 753 lines consisting solely of 0 (literal zero).</p>
 754 </li>
 755 <li>
 756 <p>Improved tests.</p>
 757 </li>
 758 </ul>
 759 <li>
 760 <p><code>Term::ReadLine</code> upgraded to version 1.02</p>
 761 <ul>
 762 <li>
 763 <p>Documentation tweaks</p>
 764 </li>
 765 </ul>
 766 <li>
 767 <p><code>Test::Harness</code> upgraded to version 2.56 (was 2.48)</p>
 768 <ul>
 769 <li>
 770 <p>The <code>Test::Harness</code> timer is now off by default.</p>
 771 </li>
 772 <li>
 773 <p>Now shows elapsed time in milliseconds.</p>
 774 </li>
 775 <li>
 776 <p>Various bug fixes</p>
 777 </li>
 778 </ul>
 779 <li>
 780 <p><code>Test::Simple</code> upgraded to version 0.62 (was 0.54)</p>
 781 <ul>
 782 <li>
 783 <p><code>is_deeply()</code> no longer fails to work for many cases</p>
 784 </li>
 785 <li>
 786 <p>Various minor bug fixes</p>
 787 </li>
 788 <li>
 789 <p>Documentation enhancements</p>
 790 </li>
 791 </ul>
 792 <li>
 793 <p><code>Text::Tabs</code> upgraded to version 2005.0824</p>
 794 <ul>
 795 <li>
 796 <p>Provides a faster implementation of <code>expand</code></p>
 797 </li>
 798 </ul>
 799 <li>
 800 <p><code>Text::Wrap</code> upgraded to version 2005.082401</p>
 801 <ul>
 802 <li>
 803 <p>Adds <code>$Text::Wrap::separator2</code>, which allows you to preserve existing newlines
 804 but add line-breaks with some other string.</p>
 805 </li>
 806 </ul>
 807 <li>
 808 <p><code>threads</code> upgraded to version 1.07</p>
 809 <ul>
 810 <li>
 811 <p><code>threads</code> will now honour <code>no warnings 'threads'</code></p>
 812 </li>
 813 <li>
 814 <p>A thread's interpreter is now freed after <code>$t-&gt;join()</code> rather than after
 815 <code>undef $t</code>, which should fix some <code>ithreads</code> memory leaks. (Fixed by Dave
 816 Mitchell)</p>
 817 </li>
 818 <li>
 819 <p>Some documentation typo fixes.</p>
 820 </li>
 821 </ul>
 822 <li>
 823 <p><code>threads::shared</code> upgraded to version 0.94</p>
 824 <ul>
 825 <li>
 826 <p>Documentation changes only</p>
 827 </li>
 828 <li>
 829 <p>Note: An improved implementation of <code>threads::shared</code> is available on
 830 CPAN - this will be merged into 5.8.9 if it proves stable.</p>
 831 </li>
 832 </ul>
 833 <li>
 834 <p><code>Tie::Hash</code> upgraded to version 1.02</p>
 835 <ul>
 836 <li>
 837 <p>Documentation typo fixed</p>
 838 </li>
 839 </ul>
 840 <li>
 841 <p><code>Time::HiRes</code> upgraded to version 1.86 (was 1.66)</p>
 842 <ul>
 843 <li>
 844 <p><code>clock_nanosleep()</code> and <code>clock()</code> functions added</p>
 845 </li>
 846 <li>
 847 <p>Support for the POSIX <code>clock_gettime()</code> and <code>clock_getres()</code> has been added</p>
 848 </li>
 849 <li>
 850 <p>Return <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_undef"><code>undef</code></a> or an empty list if the C <code>gettimeofday()</code> function fails</p>
 851 </li>
 852 <li>
 853 <p>Improved <code>nanosleep</code> detection</p>
 854 </li>
 855 <li>
 856 <p>Internal cleanup</p>
 857 </li>
 858 <li>
 859 <p>Enhanced documentation</p>
 860 </li>
 861 </ul>
 862 <li>
 863 <p><code>Unicode::Collate</code> upgraded to version 0.52</p>
 864 <ul>
 865 <li>
 866 <p>Now implements UCA Revision 14 (based on Unicode 4.1.0).</p>
 867 </li>
 868 <li>
 869 <p><code>Unicode::Collate-</code>new&gt; method no longer overwrites user's <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlvar.html#item___"><code>$_</code></a></p>
 870 </li>
 871 <li>
 872 <p>Enhanced documentation</p>
 873 </li>
 874 </ul>
 875 <li>
 876 <p><code>Unicode::UCD</code> upgraded to version 0.24</p>
 877 <ul>
 878 <li>
 879 <p>Documentation typos fixed</p>
 880 </li>
 881 </ul>
 882 <li>
 883 <p><code>User::grent</code> upgraded to version 1.01</p>
 884 <ul>
 885 <li>
 886 <p>Documentation typo fixed</p>
 887 </li>
 888 </ul>
 889 <li>
 890 <p><code>utf8</code> upgraded to version 1.06</p>
 891 <ul>
 892 <li>
 893 <p>Documentation typos fixed</p>
 894 </li>
 895 </ul>
 896 <li>
 897 <p><code>vmsish</code> upgraded to version 1.02</p>
 898 <ul>
 899 <li>
 900 <p>Documentation typos fixed</p>
 901 </li>
 902 </ul>
 903 <li>
 904 <p><code>warnings</code> upgraded to version 1.05</p>
 905 <ul>
 906 <li>
 907 <p>Gentler messing with <code>Carp::</code> internals</p>
 908 </li>
 909 <li>
 910 <p>Internal cleanup</p>
 911 </li>
 912 <li>
 913 <p>Documentation update</p>
 914 </li>
 915 </ul>
 916 <li>
 917 <p><code>Win32</code> upgraded to version 0.2601</p>
 918 <ul>
 919 <li>
 920 <p>Provides Windows Vista support to <code>Win32::GetOSName</code></p>
 921 </li>
 922 <li>
 923 <p>Documentation enhancements</p>
 924 </li>
 925 </ul>
 926 <li>
 927 <p><code>XS::Typemap</code> upgraded to version 0.02</p>
 928 <ul>
 929 <li>
 930 <p>Internal cleanup</p>
 931 </li>
 932 </ul>
 933 </ul>
 934 <p>
 935 </p>
 936 <hr />
 937 <h1><a name="utility_changes">Utility Changes</a></h1>
 938 <p>
 939 </p>
 940 <h2><a name="h2xs_enhancements"><code>h2xs</code> enhancements</a></h2>
 941 <p><code>h2xs</code> implements new option <code>--use-xsloader</code> to force use of
 942 <code>XSLoader</code> even in backwards compatible modules.</p>
 943 <p>The handling of authors' names that had apostrophes has been fixed.</p>
 944 <p>Any enums with negative values are now skipped.</p>
 945 <p>
 946 </p>
 947 <h2><a name="perlivp_enhancements"><code>perlivp</code> enhancements</a></h2>
 948 <p><code>perlivp</code> implements new option <code>-a</code> and will not check for <em>*.ph</em>
 949 files by default any more.  Use the <code>-a</code> option to run <em>all</em> tests.</p>
 950 <p>
 951 </p>
 952 <hr />
 953 <h1><a name="new_documentation">New Documentation</a></h1>
 954 <p>The <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlglossary.html">the perlglossary manpage</a> manpage is a glossary of terms used in the Perl
 955 documentation, technical and otherwise, kindly provided by O'Reilly Media,
 956 inc.</p>
 957 <p>
 958 </p>
 959 <hr />
 960 <h1><a name="performance_enhancements">Performance Enhancements</a></h1>
 961 <ul>
 962 <li>
 963 <p>Weak reference creation is now <em>O(1)</em> rather than <em>O(n)</em>, courtesy of
 964 Nicholas Clark. Weak reference deletion remains <em>O(n)</em>, but if deletion only
 965 happens at program exit, it may be skipped completely.</p>
 966 </li>
 967 <li>
 968 <p>Salvador Fandiño provided improvements to reduce the memory usage of <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_sort"><code>sort</code></a>
 969 and to speed up some cases.</p>
 970 </li>
 971 <li>
 972 <p>Jarkko Hietaniemi and Andy Lester worked to mark as much data as possible in
 973 the C source files as <code>static</code>, to increase the proportion of the executable
 974 file that the operating system can share between process, and thus reduce
 975 real memory usage on multi-user systems.</p>
 976 </li>
 977 </ul>
 978 <p>
 979 </p>
 980 <hr />
 981 <h1><a name="installation_and_configuration_improvements">Installation and Configuration Improvements</a></h1>
 982 <p>Parallel makes should work properly now, although there may still be problems
 983 if <code>make test</code> is instructed to run in parallel.</p>
 984 <p>Building with Borland's compilers on Win32 should work more smoothly. In
 985 particular Steve Hay has worked to side step many warnings emitted by their
 986 compilers and at least one C compiler internal error.</p>
 987 <p><code>Configure</code> will now detect <code>clearenv</code> and <code>unsetenv</code>, thanks to a patch
 988 from Alan Burlison. It will also probe for <code>futimes</code> and whether <code>sprintf</code>
 989 correctly returns the length of the formatted string, which will both be used
 990 in perl 5.8.9.</p>
 991 <p>There are improved hints for next-3.0, vmesa, IX, Darwin, Solaris, Linux,
 992 DEC/OSF, HP-UX and MPE/iX</p>
 993 <p>Perl extensions on Windows now can be statically built into the Perl DLL,
 994 thanks to a work by Vadim Konovalov. (This improvement was actually in 5.8.7,
 995 but was accidentally omitted from <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perl587delta.html">the perl587delta manpage</a>).</p>
 996 <p>
 997 </p>
 998 <hr />
 999 <h1><a name="selected_bug_fixes">Selected Bug Fixes</a></h1>
1000 <p>
1001 </p>
1002 <h2><a name="no_warnings__category__works_correctly_with_w">no warnings 'category' works correctly with -w</a></h2>
1003 <p>Previously when running with warnings enabled globally via <code>-w</code>, selective
1004 disabling of specific warning categories would actually turn off all warnings.
1005 This is now fixed; now <code>no warnings 'io';</code> will only turn off warnings in the
1006 <code>io</code> class. Previously it would erroneously turn off all warnings.</p>
1007 <p>This bug fix may cause some programs to start correctly issuing warnings.</p>
1008 <p>
1009 </p>
1010 <h2><a name="remove_overoptimisation">Remove over-optimisation</a></h2>
1011 <p>Perl 5.8.4 introduced a change so that assignments of <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_undef"><code>undef</code></a> to a
1012 scalar, or of an empty list to an array or a hash, were optimised away. As
1013 this could cause problems when <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_goto"><code>goto</code></a> jumps were involved, this change
1014 has been backed out.</p>
1015 <p>
1016 </p>
1017 <h2><a name="sprintf___fixes"><code>sprintf()</code> fixes</a></h2>
1018 <p>Using the <code>sprintf()</code> function with some formats could lead to a buffer
1019 overflow in some specific cases. This has been fixed, along with several
1020 other bugs, notably in bounds checking.</p>
1021 <p>In related fixes, it was possible for badly written code that did not follow
1022 the documentation of <code>Sys::Syslog</code> to have formatting vulnerabilities.
1023 <code>Sys::Syslog</code> has been changed to protect people from poor quality third
1024 party code.</p>
1025 <p>
1026 </p>
1027 <h2><a name="debugger_and_unicode_slowdown">Debugger and Unicode slowdown</a></h2>
1028 <p>It had been reported that running under perl's debugger when processing
1029 Unicode data could cause unexpectedly large slowdowns. The most likely cause
1030 of this was identified and fixed by Nicholas Clark.</p>
1031 <p>
1032 </p>
1033 <h2><a name="smaller_fixes">Smaller fixes</a></h2>
1034 <ul>
1035 <li>
1036 <p><code>FindBin</code> now works better with directories where access rights are more
1037 restrictive than usual.</p>
1038 </li>
1039 <li>
1040 <p>Several memory leaks in ithreads were closed. An improved implementation of
1041 <code>threads::shared</code> is available on CPAN - this will be merged into 5.8.9 if
1042 it proves stable.</p>
1043 </li>
1044 <li>
1045 <p>Trailing spaces are now trimmed from <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlvar.html#item___"><code>$!</code></a> and <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlvar.html#item___e"><code>$^E</code></a>.</p>
1046 </li>
1047 <li>
1048 <p>Operations that require perl to read a process' list of groups, such as reads
1049 of <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>, now dynamically allocate memory rather than using a
1050 fixed sized array. The fixed size array could cause C stack exhaustion on
1051 systems configured to use large numbers of groups.</p>
1052 </li>
1053 <li>
1054 <p><code>PerlIO::scalar</code> now works better with non-default <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlvar.html#item___"><code>$/</code></a> settings.</p>
1055 </li>
1056 <li>
1057 <p>You can now use the <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlguts.html#item_x"><code>x</code></a> operator to repeat a <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_qw_"><code>qw//</code></a> list. This used
1058 to raise a syntax error.</p>
1059 </li>
1060 <li>
1061 <p>The debugger now traces correctly execution in eval(``'')uated code that
1062 contains #line directives.</p>
1063 </li>
1064 <li>
1065 <p>The value of the <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_open"><code>open</code></a> pragma is no longer ignored for three-argument
1066 opens.</p>
1067 </li>
1068 <li>
1069 <p>The optimisation of <code>for (reverse @a)</code> introduced in perl 5.8.6 could
1070 misbehave when the array had undefined elements and was used in LVALUE
1071 context. Dave Mitchell provided a fix.</p>
1072 </li>
1073 <li>
1074 <p>Some case insensitive matches between UTF-8 encoded data and 8 bit regexps,
1075 and vice versa, could give malformed character warnings. These have been
1076 fixed by Dave Mitchell and Yves Orton.</p>
1077 </li>
1078 <li>
1079 <p><a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_lcfirst"><code>lcfirst</code></a> and <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlfunc.html#item_ucfirst"><code>ucfirst</code></a> could corrupt the string for certain cases where
1080 the length UTF-8 encoding of the string in lower case, upper case or title
1081 case differed. This was fixed by Nicholas Clark.</p>
1082 </li>
1083 <li>
1084 <p>Perl will now use the C library calls <code>unsetenv</code> and <code>clearenv</code> if present
1085 to delete keys from <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlvar.html#item__env"><code>%ENV</code></a> and delete <a href="file://C|\msysgit\mingw\html/pod/perlvar.html#item__env"><code>%ENV</code></a> entirely, thanks to a patch
1086 from Alan Burlison.</p>
1087 </li>
1088 </ul>
1089 <p>
1090 </p>
1091 <hr />
1092 <h1><a name="new_or_changed_diagnostics">New or Changed Diagnostics</a></h1>
1093 <p>
1094 </p>
1095 <h2><a name="attempt_to_set_length_of_freed_array">Attempt to set length of freed array</a></h2>
1096 <p>This is a new warning, produced in situations such as this:</p>
1097 <pre>
1098     $r = do {my @a; \$#a};
1099     $$r = 503;</pre>
1100 <p>
1101 </p>
1102 <h2><a name="nonstring_passed_as_bitmask">Non-string passed as bitmask</a></h2>
1103 <p>This is a new warning, produced when number has been passed as a argument to
1104 select(), instead of a bitmask.</p>
1105 <pre>
1106     # Wrong, will now warn
1107     $rin = fileno(STDIN);
1108     ($nfound,$timeleft) = select($rout=$rin, undef, undef, $timeout);
1109
1110     # Should be
1111     $rin = '';
1112     vec($rin,fileno(STDIN),1) = 1;
1113     ($nfound,$timeleft) = select($rout=$rin, undef, undef, $timeout);</pre>
1114 <p>
1115 </p>
1116 <h2><a name="search_pattern_not_terminated_or_ternary_operator_parsed_as_search_pattern">Search pattern not terminated or ternary operator parsed as search pattern</a></h2>
1117 <p>This syntax error indicates that the lexer couldn't find the final
1118 delimiter of a <code>?PATTERN?</code> construct. Mentioning the ternary operator in
1119 this error message makes it easier to diagnose syntax errors.</p>
1120 <p>
1121 </p>
1122 <hr />
1123 <h1><a name="changed_internals">Changed Internals</a></h1>
1124 <p>There has been a fair amount of refactoring of the <code>C</code> source code, partly to
1125 make it tidier and more maintainable. The resulting object code and the
1126 <code>perl</code> binary may well be smaller than 5.8.7, in particular due to a change
1127 contributed by Dave Mitchell which reworked the warnings code to be
1128 significantly smaller. Apart from being smaller and possibly faster, there
1129 should be no user-detectable changes.</p>
1130 <p>Andy Lester supplied many improvements to determine which function
1131 parameters and local variables could actually be declared <code>const</code> to the C
1132 compiler. Steve Peters provided new <code>*_set</code> macros and reworked the core to
1133 use these rather than assigning to macros in LVALUE context.</p>
1134 <p>Dave Mitchell improved the lexer debugging output under <code>-DT</code></p>
1135 <p>Nicholas Clark changed the string buffer allocation so that it is now rounded
1136 up to the next multiple of 4 (or 8 on platforms with 64 bit pointers). This
1137 should reduce the number of calls to <code>realloc</code> without actually using any
1138 extra memory.</p>
1139 <p>The <code>HV</code>'s array of <code>HE*</code>s is now allocated at the correct (minimal) size,
1140 thanks to another change by Nicholas Clark. Compile with
1141 <code>-DPERL_USE_LARGE_HV_ALLOC</code> to use the old, sloppier, default.</p>
1142 <p>For XS or embedding debugging purposes, if perl is compiled with
1143 <code>-DDEBUG_LEAKING_SCALARS_FORK_DUMP</code> in addition to
1144 <code>-DDEBUG_LEAKING_SCALARS</code> then a child process is <code>fork</code>ed just before
1145 global destruction, which is used to display the values of any scalars
1146 found to have leaked at the end of global destruction. Without this, the
1147 scalars have already been freed sufficiently at the point of detection that
1148 it is impossible to produce any meaningful dump of their contents.  This
1149 feature was implemented by the indefatigable Nicholas Clark, based on an idea
1150 by Mike Giroux.</p>
1151 <p>
1152 </p>
1153 <hr />
1154 <h1><a name="platform_specific_problems">Platform Specific Problems</a></h1>
1155 <p>The optimiser on HP-UX 11.23 (Itanium 2) is currently partly disabled (scaled
1156 down to +O1) when using HP C-ANSI-C; the cause of problems at higher
1157 optimisation levels is still unclear.</p>
1158 <p>There are a handful of remaining test failures on VMS, mostly due to
1159 test fixes and minor module tweaks with too many dependencies to
1160 integrate into this release from the development stream, where they have
1161 all been corrected.  The following is a list of expected failures with
1162 the patch number of the fix where that is known:</p>
1163 <pre>
1164     ext/Devel/PPPort/t/ppphtest.t  #26913
1165     ext/List/Util/t/p_tainted.t    #26912
1166     lib/ExtUtils/t/PL_FILES.t      #26813
1167     lib/ExtUtils/t/basic.t         #26813
1168     t/io/fs.t
1169     t/op/cmp.t</pre>
1170 <p>
1171 </p>
1172 <hr />
1173 <h1><a name="reporting_bugs">Reporting Bugs</a></h1>
1174 <p>If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles
1175 recently posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl
1176 bug database at <a href="http://bugs.perl.org.">http://bugs.perl.org.</a>  There may also be
1177 information at <a href="http://www.perl.org,">http://www.perl.org,</a> the Perl Home Page.</p>
1178 <p>If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the <strong>perlbug</strong>
1179 program included with your release.  Be sure to trim your bug down
1180 to a tiny but sufficient test case.  Your bug report, along with the
1181 output of <code>perl -V</code>, will be sent off to <a href="mailto:perlbug@perl.org">perlbug@perl.org</a> to be
1182 analysed by the Perl porting team.  You can browse and search
1183 the Perl 5 bugs at <a href="http://bugs.perl.org/">http://bugs.perl.org/</a></p>
1184 <p>
1185 </p>
1186 <hr />
1187 <h1><a name="see_also">SEE ALSO</a></h1>
1188 <p>The <em>Changes</em> file for exhaustive details on what changed.</p>
1189 <p>The <em>INSTALL</em> file for how to build Perl.</p>
1190 <p>The <em>README</em> file for general stuff.</p>
1191 <p>The <em>Artistic</em> and <em>Copying</em> files for copyright information.</p>
1192 <table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
1193 <tr><td class="block" style="background-color: #cccccc" valign="middle">
1194 <big><strong><span class="block">&nbsp;perldelta - what is new for perl v5.8.8</span></strong></big>
1195 </td></tr>
1196 </table>
1197
1198 </body>
1199
1200 </html>