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<h1>perl589delta</h1>
<!-- -->
<ul><li><a href="#NAME">NAME</a><li><a href="#DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a><li><a href="#Notice">Notice</a><li><a href="#Incompatible-Changes">Incompatible Changes</a><li><a href="#Core-Enhancements">Core Enhancements</a><ul><li><a href="#Unicode-Character-Database-5.1.0.">Unicode Character Database 5.1.0.</a><li><a href="#stat-and--X-on-directory-handles">stat and -X on directory handles</a><li><a href="#Source-filters-in-%40INC">Source filters in @INC</a><li><a href="#Exceptions-in-constant-folding">Exceptions in constant folding</a><li><a href="#no-VERSION">no VERSION</a><li><a href="#Improved-internal-UTF-8-caching-code">Improved internal UTF-8 caching code</a><li><a href="#Runtime-relocatable-installations">Runtime relocatable installations</a><li><a href="#New-internal-variables">New internal variables</a><li><a href="#readpipe-is-now-overridable">readpipe is now overridable</a><li><a href="#simple-exception-handling-macros">simple exception handling macros</a><li><a href="#-D-option-enhancements">-D option enhancements</a><li><a href="#XS-assisted-SWASHGET">XS-assisted SWASHGET</a><li><a href="#Constant-subroutines">Constant subroutines</a></ul><li><a href="#New-Platforms">New Platforms</a><li><a href="#Modules-and-Pragmata">Modules and Pragmata</a><ul><li><a href="#New-Modules">New Modules</a><li><a href="#Updated-Modules">Updated Modules</a></ul><li><a href="#Utility-Changes">Utility Changes</a><ul><li><a href="#debugger-upgraded-to-version-1.31">debugger upgraded to version 1.31</a><li><a href="#_perlthanks_">_perlthanks_</a><li><a href="#_perlbug_">_perlbug_</a><li><a href="#_h2xs_">_h2xs_</a><li><a href="#_h2ph_">_h2ph_</a></ul><li><a href="#New-Documentation">New Documentation</a><li><a href="#Changes-to-Existing-Documentation">Changes to Existing Documentation</a><li><a href="#Performance-Enhancements">Performance Enhancements</a><li><a href="#Installation-and-Configuration-Improvements">Installation and Configuration Improvements</a><ul><li><a href="#Relocatable-installations">Relocatable installations</a><li><a href="#Configuration-improvements">Configuration improvements</a><li><a href="#Compilation-improvements">Compilation improvements</a><li><a href="#Installation-improvements.">Installation improvements.</a><li><a href="#Platform-Specific-Changes">Platform Specific Changes</a></ul><li><a href="#Selected-Bug-Fixes">Selected Bug Fixes</a><ul><li><a href="#Unicode">Unicode</a><li><a href="#PerlIO">PerlIO</a><li><a href="#Magic">Magic</a><li><a href="#Reblessing-overloaded-objects-now-works">Reblessing overloaded objects now works</a><li><a href="#strict-now-propagates-correctly-into-string-evals">strict now propagates correctly into string evals</a><li><a href="#Other-fixes">Other fixes</a><li><a href="#Platform-Specific-Fixes">Platform Specific Fixes</a><li><a href="#Smaller-fixes">Smaller fixes</a></ul><li><a href="#New-or-Changed-Diagnostics">New or Changed Diagnostics</a><ul><li><a href="#panic%3a-sv_chop-%25s">panic: sv_chop %s</a><li><a href="#Maximal-count-of-pending-signals-(%25s)-exceeded">Maximal count of pending signals (%s) exceeded</a><li><a href="#panic%3a-attempt-to-call-%25s-in-%25s">panic: attempt to call %s in %s</a><li><a href="#FETCHSIZE-returned-a-negative-value">FETCHSIZE returned a negative value</a><li><a href="#Can't-upgrade-%25s-(%25d)-to-%25d">Can't upgrade %s (%d) to %d</a><li><a href="#%25s-argument-is-not-a-HASH-or-ARRAY-element-or-a-subroutine">%s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or a subroutine</a><li><a href="#Cannot-make-the-non-overridable-builtin-%25s-fatal">Cannot make the non-overridable builtin %s fatal</a><li><a href="#Unrecognized-character-'%25s'-in-column-%25d">Unrecognized character '%s' in column %d</a><li><a href="#Offset-outside-string">Offset outside string</a><li><a href="#Invalid-escape-in-the-specified-encoding-in-regexp%3b-marked-by-%3c---HERE-in-m%2f%25s%2f">Invalid escape in the specified encoding in regexp; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/</a><li><a href="#Your-machine-doesn't-support-dump%2fundump.">Your machine doesn't support dump/undump.</a></ul><li><a href="#Changed-Internals">Changed Internals</a><ul><li><a href="#Macro-cleanups">Macro cleanups</a></ul><li><a href="#New-Tests">New Tests</a><li><a href="#Known-Problems">Known Problems</a><li><a href="#Platform-Specific-Notes">Platform Specific Notes</a><ul><li><a href="#Win32">Win32</a><li><a href="#OS%2f2">OS/2</a><li><a href="#VMS">VMS</a></ul><li><a href="#Obituary">Obituary</a><li><a href="#Acknowledgements">Acknowledgements</a><li><a href="#Reporting-Bugs">Reporting Bugs</a><li><a href="#SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></ul><a name="NAME"></a><h1>NAME</h1>
<p>perl589delta - what is new for perl v5.8.9</p>
<a name="DESCRIPTION"></a><h1>DESCRIPTION</h1>
<p>This document describes differences between the 5.8.8 release and
the 5.8.9 release.</p>
<a name="Notice"></a><h1>Notice</h1>
<p>The 5.8.9 release will be the last significant release of the 5.8.x
series. Any future releases of 5.8.x will likely only be to deal with
security issues, and platform build failures. Hence you should look to
migrating to 5.10.x, if you have not started already.
See <a href="#Known-Problems">Known Problems</a> for more information.</p>
<a name="Incompatible-Changes"></a><h1>Incompatible Changes</h1>
<p>A particular construction in the source code of extensions written in C++
may need changing. See <a href="#Changed-Internals">Changed Internals</a> for more details. All
extensions written in C, most written in C++, and all existing compiled
extensions are unaffected. This was necessary to improve C++ support.</p>
<p>Other than this, there are no changes intentionally incompatible with 5.8.8.
If any exist, they are bugs and reports are welcome.</p>
<a name="Core-Enhancements"></a><h1>Core Enhancements</h1>
<a name="Unicode-Character-Database-5.1.0."></a><h2>Unicode Character Database 5.1.0.</h2>
<p>The copy of the Unicode Character Database included in Perl 5.8 has
been updated to 5.1.0 from 4.1.0. See
<a href="http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode5.1.0/#NotableChanges">http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode5.1.0/#NotableChanges</a> for the
notable changes.</p>
<a name="stat-and--X-on-directory-handles"></a><h2>stat and -X on directory handles</h2>
<p>It is now possible to call <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/stat.html">stat</a></code> and the <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/-X.html">-X</a></code> filestat operators on
directory handles. As both directory and file handles are barewords, there
can be ambiguities over which was intended. In these situations the file
handle semantics are preferred. Both also treat <code class="inline"><span class="i">*FILE</span>{<span class="w">IO</span>}</code>
filehandles
like <code class="inline"><span class="i">*FILE</span></code>
filehandles.</p>
<a name="Source-filters-in-%40INC"></a><h2>Source filters in @INC</h2>
<p>It's possible to enhance the mechanism of subroutine hooks in @INC by
adding a source filter on top of the filehandle opened and returned by the
hook. This feature was planned a long time ago, but wasn't quite working
until now. See <a href="functions/require.html">require</a> for details. (Nicholas Clark)</p>
<a name="Exceptions-in-constant-folding"></a><h2>Exceptions in constant folding</h2>
<p>The constant folding routine is now wrapped in an exception handler, and
if folding throws an exception (such as attempting to evaluate 0/0), perl
now retains the current optree, rather than aborting the whole program.
Without this change, programs would not compile if they had expressions that
happened to generate exceptions, even though those expressions were in code
that could never be reached at runtime. (Nicholas Clark, Dave Mitchell)</p>
<a name="no-VERSION"></a><h2><code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/no.html">no</a> <span class="w">VERSION</span></code>
</h2>
<p>You can now use <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/no.html">no</a></code> followed by a version number to specify that you
want to use a version of perl older than the specified one.</p>
<a name="Improved-internal-UTF-8-caching-code"></a><h2>Improved internal UTF-8 caching code</h2>
<p>The code that caches calculated UTF-8 byte offsets for character offsets for
a string has been re-written. Several bugs have been located and eliminated,
and the code now makes better use of the information it has, so should be
faster. In particular, it doesn't scan to the end of a string before
calculating an offset within the string, which should speed up some operations
on long strings. It is now possible to disable the caching code at run time,
to verify that it is not the cause of suspected problems.</p>
<a name="Runtime-relocatable-installations"></a><h2>Runtime relocatable installations</h2>
<p>There is now <i>Configure</i> support for creating a perl tree that is relocatable
at run time. see <a href="#Relocatable-installations">Relocatable installations</a>.</p>
<a name="New-internal-variables"></a><h2>New internal variables</h2>
<ul>
<li><a name="%24%7b%5eCHILD_ERROR_NATIVE%7d"></a><b><code class="inline"><span class="i">$</span>{<span class="w">^CHILD_ERROR_NATIVE</span>}</code>
</b>
<p>This variable gives the native status returned by the last pipe close,
backtick command, successful call to <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/wait.html">wait</a></code> or <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/waitpid.html">waitpid</a></code>, or from the
<code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/system.html">system</a></code> operator. See <a href="perlvar.html">perlvar</a> for details. (Contributed by Gisle Aas.)</p>
</li>
<li><a name="%24%7b%5eUTF8CACHE%7d"></a><b><code class="inline"><span class="i">$</span>{<span class="w">^UTF8CACHE</span>}</code>
</b>
<p>This variable controls the state of the internal UTF-8 offset caching code.
1 for on (the default), 0 for off, -1 to debug the caching code by checking
all its results against linear scans, and panicking on any discrepancy.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<a name="readpipe-is-now-overridable"></a><h2><code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/readpipe.html">readpipe</a></code> is now overridable</h2>
<p>The built-in function <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/readpipe.html">readpipe</a></code> is now overridable. Overriding it permits
also to override its operator counterpart, <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/qx.html">qx//</a></code> (also known as <code class="inline"><span class="q">``</span></code>
).</p>
<a name="simple-exception-handling-macros"></a><h2>simple exception handling macros</h2>
<p>Perl 5.8.9 (and 5.10.0 onwards) now provides a couple of macros to do very
basic exception handling in XS modules. You can use these macros if you call
code that may <code class="inline"><span class="w">croak</span></code>
, but you need to do some cleanup before giving control
back to Perl. See <a href="perlguts.html#Exception-Handling">Exception Handling in perlguts</a> for more details.</p>
<a name="-D-option-enhancements"></a><h2>-D option enhancements</h2>
<ul>
<li>
<p><code class="inline">-<span class="w">Dq</span></code>
suppresses the <i>EXECUTING...</i> message when running under <code class="inline">-<span class="w">D</span></code>
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline">-<span class="w">Dl</span></code>
logs runops loop entry and exit, and jump level popping.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline">-<span class="w">Dv</span></code>
displays the process id as part of the trace output.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<a name="XS-assisted-SWASHGET"></a><h2>XS-assisted SWASHGET</h2>
<p>Some pure-perl code that the regexp engine was using to retrieve Unicode
properties and transliteration mappings has been reimplemented in XS
for faster execution.
(SADAHIRO Tomoyuki)</p>
<a name="Constant-subroutines"></a><h2>Constant subroutines</h2>
<p>The interpreter internals now support a far more memory efficient form of
inlineable constants. Storing a reference to a constant value in a symbol
table is equivalent to a full typeglob referencing a constant subroutine,
but using about 400 bytes less memory. This proxy constant subroutine is
automatically upgraded to a real typeglob with subroutine if necessary.
The approach taken is analogous to the existing space optimisation for
subroutine stub declarations, which are stored as plain scalars in place
of the full typeglob.</p>
<p>However, to aid backwards compatibility of existing code, which (wrongly)
does not expect anything other than typeglobs in symbol tables, nothing in
core uses this feature, other than the regression tests.</p>
<p>Stubs for prototyped subroutines have been stored in symbol tables as plain
strings, and stubs for unprototyped subroutines as the number -1, since 5.005,
so code which assumes that the core only places typeglobs in symbol tables
has been making incorrect assumptions for over 10 years.</p>
<a name="New-Platforms"></a><h1>New Platforms</h1>
<p>Compile support added for:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>DragonFlyBSD</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>MidnightBSD</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>MirOS BSD</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>RISC OS</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Cray XT4/Catamount</p>
</li>
</ul>
<a name="Modules-and-Pragmata"></a><h1>Modules and Pragmata</h1>
<a name="New-Modules"></a><h2>New Modules</h2>
<ul>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Module::Pluggable</span></code>
is a simple framework to create modules that accept
pluggable sub-modules. The bundled version is 3.8</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Module::CoreList</span></code>
is a hash of hashes that is keyed on perl version as
indicated in <code class="inline"><span class="i">$]</span></code>
. The bundled version is 2.17</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Win32API::File</span></code>
now available in core on Microsoft Windows. The bundled
version is 0.1001_01</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Devel::InnerPackage</span></code>
finds all the packages defined by a single file. It is
part of the <code class="inline"><span class="w">Module::Pluggable</span></code>
distribution. The bundled version is 0.3</p>
</li>
</ul>
<a name="Updated-Modules"></a><h2>Updated Modules</h2>
<ul>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">attributes</span></code>
upgraded to version 0.09</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">AutoLoader</span></code>
upgraded to version 5.67</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">AutoSplit</span></code>
upgraded to 1.06</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">autouse</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.06</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">B</span></code>
upgraded from 1.09_01 to 1.19</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>provides new pad related abstraction macros <code class="inline"><span class="w">B::NV::COP_SEQ_RANGE_LOW</span></code>
,
<code class="inline"><span class="w">B::NV::COP_SEQ_RANGE_HIGH</span></code>
, <code class="inline"><span class="w">B::NV::PARENT_PAD_INDEX</span></code>
,
<code class="inline"><span class="w">B::NV::PARENT_FAKELEX_FLAGS</span></code>
, which hides the difference in storage in
5.10.0 and later.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>provides <code class="inline"><span class="w">B::sub_generation</span></code>
, which exposes <code class="inline"><span class="w">PL_sub_generation</span></code>
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>provides <code class="inline"><span class="w">B::GV::isGV_with_GP</span></code>
, which on pre-5.10 perls always returns true.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>New type <code class="inline"><span class="w">B::HE</span></code>
added with methods <code class="inline"><span class="w">VAL</span></code>
, <code class="inline"><span class="w">HASH</span></code>
and <code class="inline"><span class="w">SVKEY_force</span></code>
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The <code class="inline"><span class="w">B::GVf_IMPORTED_CV</span></code>
flag is now set correctly when a proxy
constant subroutine is imported.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>bugs fixed in the handling of <code class="inline"><span class="w">PMOP</span></code>
s.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">B::BM::PREVIOUS</span></code>
returns now <code class="inline"><span class="w">U32</span></code>
, not <code class="inline"><span class="w">U16</span></code>
.
<code class="inline"><span class="w">B::CV::START</span></code>
and <code class="inline"><span class="j">B:</span><span class="w">CV::ROOT</span></code>
return now <code class="inline"><span class="w">NULL</span></code>
on an XSUB,
<code class="inline"><span class="w">B::CV::XSUB</span></code>
and <code class="inline"><span class="w">B::CV::XSUBANY</span></code>
return 0 on a non-XSUB.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">B::C</span></code>
upgraded to 1.05</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">B::Concise</span></code>
upgraded to 0.76</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>new option <code class="inline">-<span class="w">src</span></code>
causes the rendering of each statement (starting with
the nextstate OP) to be preceded by the first line of source code that
generates it.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>new option <code class="inline">-<span class="w">stash</span>=<span class="q">"somepackage"</span></code>
, <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/require.html">require</a></code>s "somepackage", and then renders
each function defined in its namespace.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>now has documentation of detailed hint symbols.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">B::Debug</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.05</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">B::Deparse</span></code>
upgraded to version 0.87</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>properly deparse <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/print.html">print</a> <a class="l_k" href="functions/readpipe.html">readpipe</a> <span class="i">$x</span><span class="cm">,</span> <span class="i">$y</span></code>
.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>now handles <code class="inline"><span class="q">''</span>-</code>
()>, <code class="inline"><span class="w">::</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
, <code class="inline"><span class="i">sub </span><span class="w">::</span> <span class="s">{</span><span class="s">}</span></code>
, <i>etc.</i> correctly [RT #43010].
All bugs in parsing these kinds of syntax are now fixed:</p>
<pre class="verbatim"><ol><li> perl -MO=Deparse -e '"my %h = "->()'</li><li> perl -MO=Deparse -e '::->()'</li><li> perl -MO=Deparse -e 'sub :: {}'</li><li> perl -MO=Deparse -e 'package a; sub a::b::c {}'</li><li> perl -MO=Deparse -e 'sub the::main::road {}'</li></ol></pre></li>
<li>
<p>does <b>not</b> deparse <code class="inline"><span class="i">$^H</span>{<span class="w">v_string</span>}</code>
, which is automatically set by the
internals.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">B::Lint</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.11</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">B::Terse</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.05</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">base</span></code>
upgraded to version 2.13</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>loading a module via base.pm would mask a global <code class="inline"><span class="i">$SIG</span>{<span class="w">__DIE__</span>}</code>
in that
module.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>push all classes at once in <code class="inline"><span class="i">@ISA</span></code>
</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Benchmark</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.10</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">bigint</span></code>
upgraded to 0.23</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">bignum</span></code>
upgraded to 0.23</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">bigrat</span></code>
upgraded to 0.23</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">blib</span></code>
upgraded to 0.04</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Carp</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.10</p>
<p>The argument backtrace code now shows <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/undef.html">undef</a></code> as <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/undef.html">undef</a></code>,
instead of a string <i>"undef"</i>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">CGI</span></code>
upgraded to version 3.42</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">charnames</span></code>
upgraded to 1.06</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">constant</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.17</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">CPAN</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.9301</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Cwd</span></code>
upgraded to version 3.29 with some platform specific
improvements (including for VMS).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Data::Dumper</span></code>
upgraded to version 2.121_17</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Fixes hash iterator current position with the pure Perl version [RT #40668]</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Performance enhancements, which will be most evident on platforms where
repeated calls to C's <code class="inline"><span class="i">realloc</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
are slow, such as Win32.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">DB_File</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.817</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">DB_Filter</span></code>
upgraded to version 0.02</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Devel::DProf</span></code>
upgraded to version 20080331.00</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Devel::Peek</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.04</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Devel::PPPort</span></code>
upgraded to version 3.14</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">diagnostics</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.16</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Digest</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.15</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Digest::MD5</span></code>
upgraded to version 2.37</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">DirHandle</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.02</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>now localises <code class="inline"><span class="i">$.</span></code>
, <code class="inline"><span class="i">$@</span></code>
, <code class="inline"><span class="i">$!</span></code>
, <code class="inline"><span class="i">$^E</span></code>
, and <code class="inline"><span class="i">$?</span></code>
before closing the
directory handle to suppress leaking any side effects of warnings about it
already being closed.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">DynaLoader</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.09</p>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">DynaLoader</span></code>
can now dynamically load a loadable object from a file with a
non-default file extension.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Encode</span></code>
upgraded to version 2.26</p>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Encode::Alias</span></code>
includes a fix for encoding "646" on Solaris (better known as
ASCII).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">English</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.03</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Errno</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.10</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Exporter</span></code>
upgraded to version 5.63</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">ExtUtils::Command</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.15</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">ExtUtils::Constant</span></code>
upgraded to version 0.21</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">ExtUtils::Embed</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.28</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">ExtUtils::Install</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.50_01</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">ExtUtils::Installed</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.43</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">ExtUtils::MakeMaker</span></code>
upgraded to version 6.48</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>support for <code class="inline"><span class="w">INSTALLSITESCRIPT</span></code>
and <code class="inline"><span class="w">INSTALLVENDORSCRIPT</span></code>
configuration.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">ExtUtils::Manifest</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.55</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">ExtUtils::ParseXS</span></code>
upgraded to version 2.19</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Fatal</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.06</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>allows built-ins in <code class="inline"><span class="w">CORE::GLOBAL</span></code>
to be made fatal.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Fcntl</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.06</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">fields</span></code>
upgraded to version 2.12</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">File::Basename</span></code>
upgraded to version 2.77</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">FileCache</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.07</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">File::Compare</span></code>
upgraded to 1.1005</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">File::Copy</span></code>
upgraded to 2.13</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>now uses 3-arg open.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">File::DosGlob</span></code>
upgraded to 1.01</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">File::Find</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.13</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">File::Glob</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.06</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>fixes spurious results with brackets inside braces.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">File::Path</span></code>
upgraded to version 2.07_02</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">File::Spec</span></code>
upgraded to version 3.29</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>improved handling of bad arguments.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>some platform specific improvements (including for VMS and Cygwin), with
an optimisation on <code class="inline"><span class="w">abs2rel</span></code>
when handling both relative arguments.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">File::stat</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.01</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">File::Temp</span></code>
upgraded to version 0.20</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">filetest</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.02</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Filter::Util::Call</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.07</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Filter::Simple</span></code>
upgraded to version 0.83</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">FindBin</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.49</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">GDBM_File</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.09</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Getopt::Long</span></code>
upgraded to version 2.37</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Getopt::Std</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.06</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Hash::Util</span></code>
upgraded to version 0.06</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline">if</code>
upgraded to version 0.05</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">IO</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.23</p>
<p>Reduced number of calls to <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/getpeername.html">getpeername</a></code> in <code class="inline"><span class="w">IO::Socket</span></code>
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">IPC::Open</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.03</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">IPC::Open3</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.03</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">IPC::SysV</span></code>
upgraded to version 2.00</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">lib</span></code>
upgraded to version 0.61</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>avoid warning about loading <i>.par</i> files.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">libnet</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.22</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">List::Util</span></code>
upgraded to 1.19</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Locale::Maketext</span></code>
upgraded to 1.13</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Math::BigFloat</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.60</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Math::BigInt</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.89</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Math::BigRat</span></code>
upgraded to version 0.22</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>implements new <code class="inline"><span class="w">as_float</span></code>
method.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Math::Complex</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.54.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Math::Trig</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.18.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">NDBM_File</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.07</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>improve <i>g++</i> handling for systems using GDBM compatibility headers.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Net::Ping</span></code>
upgraded to version 2.35</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">NEXT</span></code>
upgraded to version 0.61</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>fix several bugs with <code class="inline"><span class="w">NEXT</span></code>
when working with <code class="inline">AUTOLOAD</code>
, <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/eval.html">eval</a></code> block, and
within overloaded stringification.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">ODBM_File</span></code>
upgraded to 1.07</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/open.html">open</a></code> upgraded to 1.06</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">ops</span></code>
upgraded to 1.02</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">PerlIO::encoding</span></code>
upgraded to version 0.11</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">PerlIO::scalar</span></code>
upgraded to version 0.06</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>[RT #40267] <code class="inline"><span class="w">PerlIO::scalar</span></code>
doesn't respect readonly-ness.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">PerlIO::via</span></code>
upgraded to version 0.05</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Pod::Html</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.09</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Pod::Parser</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.35</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Pod::Usage</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.35</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">POSIX</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.15</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">POSIX</span></code>
constants that duplicate those in <code class="inline"><span class="w">Fcntl</span></code>
are now imported from
<code class="inline"><span class="w">Fcntl</span></code>
and re-exported, rather than being duplicated by <code class="inline"><span class="w">POSIX</span></code>
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">POSIX::remove</span></code>
can remove empty directories.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">POSIX::setlocale</span></code>
safer to call multiple times.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">POSIX::SigRt</span></code>
added, which provides access to POSIX realtime signal
functionality on systems that support it.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">re</span></code>
upgraded to version 0.06_01</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Safe</span></code>
upgraded to version 2.16</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Scalar::Util</span></code>
upgraded to 1.19</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">SDBM_File</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.06</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">SelfLoader</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.17</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Shell</span></code>
upgraded to version 0.72</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">sigtrap</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.04</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Socket</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.81</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>this fixes an optimistic use of <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/gethostbyname.html">gethostbyname</a></code></p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Storable</span></code>
upgraded to 2.19</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Switch</span></code>
upgraded to version 2.13</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Sys::Syslog</span></code>
upgraded to version 0.27</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Term::ANSIColor</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.12</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Term::Cap</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.12</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Term::ReadLine</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.03</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Test::Builder</span></code>
upgraded to version 0.80</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Test::Harness</span></code>
upgraded version to 2.64</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>this makes it able to handle newlines.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Test::More</span></code>
upgraded to version 0.80</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Test::Simple</span></code>
upgraded to version 0.80</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Text::Balanced</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.98</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Text::ParseWords</span></code>
upgraded to version 3.27</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Text::Soundex</span></code>
upgraded to version 3.03</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Text::Tabs</span></code>
upgraded to version 2007.1117</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Text::Wrap</span></code>
upgraded to version 2006.1117</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Thread</span></code>
upgraded to version 2.01</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Thread::Semaphore</span></code>
upgraded to version 2.09</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Thread::Queue</span></code>
upgraded to version 2.11</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>added capability to add complex structures (e.g., hash of hashes) to queues.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>added capability to dequeue multiple items at once.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>added new methods to inspect and manipulate queues: <code class="inline"><span class="w">peek</span></code>
, <code class="inline"><span class="w">insert</span></code>
and
<code class="inline"><span class="w">extract</span></code>
</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Tie::Handle</span></code>
upgraded to version 4.2</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Tie::Hash</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.03</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Tie::Memoize</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.1</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Tie::Memoize::EXISTS</span></code>
now correctly caches its results.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Tie::RefHash</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.38</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Tie::Scalar</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.01</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Tie::StdHandle</span></code>
upgraded to version 4.2</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Time::gmtime</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.03</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Time::Local</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.1901</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Time::HiRes</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.9715 with various build improvements
(including VMS) and minor platform-specific bug fixes (including
for HP-UX 11 ia64).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">threads</span></code>
upgraded to 1.71</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>new thread state information methods: <code class="inline"><span class="w">is_running</span></code>
, <code class="inline"><span class="w">is_detached</span></code>
and <code class="inline"><span class="w">is_joinable</span></code>
. <code class="inline"><span class="w">list</span></code>
method enhanced to return running or joinable
threads.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>new thread signal method: <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/kill.html">kill</a></code></p>
</li>
<li>
<p>added capability to specify thread stack size.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>added capability to control thread exiting behavior. Added a new <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/exit.html">exit</a></code>
method.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">threads::shared</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.27</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>smaller and faster implementation that eliminates one internal structure and
the consequent level of indirection.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>user locks are now stored in a safer manner.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>new function <code class="inline"><span class="w">shared_clone</span></code>
creates a copy of an object leaving
shared elements as-is and deep-cloning non-shared elements.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>added new <code class="inline"><span class="w">is_shared</span></code>
method.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Unicode::Normalize</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.02</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Unicode::UCD</span></code>
upgraded to version 0.25</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">warnings</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.05_01</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Win32</span></code>
upgraded to version 0.38</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>added new function <code class="inline"><span class="w">GetCurrentProcessId</span></code>
which returns the regular Windows
process identifier of the current process, even when called from within a fork.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">XSLoader</span></code>
upgraded to version 0.10</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">XS::APItest</span></code>
and <code class="inline"><span class="w">XS::Typemap</span></code>
are for internal use only and hence
no longer installed. Many more tests have been added to <code class="inline"><span class="w">XS::APItest</span></code>
.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<a name="Utility-Changes"></a><h1>Utility Changes</h1>
<a name="debugger-upgraded-to-version-1.31"></a><h2>debugger upgraded to version 1.31</h2>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Andreas König contributed two functions to save and load the debugger
history.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">NEXT::AUTOLOAD</span></code>
no longer emits warnings under the debugger.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The debugger should now correctly find tty the device on OS X 10.5 and VMS
when the program <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/fork.html">fork</a></code>s.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>LVALUE subs now work inside the debugger.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<a name="_perlthanks_"></a><h2><i>perlthanks</i></h2>
<p>Perl 5.8.9 adds a new utility <i>perlthanks</i>, which is a variant of <i>perlbug</i>,
but for sending non-bug-reports to the authors and maintainers of Perl.
Getting nothing but bug reports can become a bit demoralising - we'll see if
this changes things.</p>
<a name="_perlbug_"></a><h2><i>perlbug</i></h2>
<p><i>perlbug</i> now checks if you're reporting about a non-core module and suggests
you report it to the CPAN author instead.</p>
<a name="_h2xs_"></a><h2><i>h2xs</i></h2>
<ul>
<li>
<p>won't define an empty string as a constant [RT #25366]</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>has examples for <code class="inline"><span class="w">h2xs</span> <a class="l_k" href="functions/-X.html">-X</a></code>
</p>
</li>
</ul>
<a name="_h2ph_"></a><h2><i>h2ph</i></h2>
<ul>
<li>
<p>now attempts to deal sensibly with the difference in path implications
between <code class="inline"><span class="q">""</span></code>
and <code class="inline"><></code>
quoting in <code class="inline"><span class="c">#include</span></code>
statements.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>now generates correct code for <code class="inline"><span class="c">#if defined A || defined B</span></code>
[RT #39130]</p>
</li>
</ul>
<a name="New-Documentation"></a><h1>New Documentation</h1>
<p>As usual, the documentation received its share of corrections, clarifications
and other nitfixes. More <code class="inline"></code>
tags were added for indexing.</p>
<p><a href="perlunitut.html">perlunitut</a> is a tutorial written by Juerd Waalboer on Unicode-related
terminology and how to correctly handle Unicode in Perl scripts.</p>
<p><a href="perlunicode.html">perlunicode</a> is updated in section user defined properties.</p>
<p><a href="perluniintro.html">perluniintro</a> has been updated in the example of detecting data that is not
valid in particular encoding.</p>
<p><a href="perlcommunity.html">perlcommunity</a> provides an overview of the Perl Community along with further
resources.</p>
<p><a href="CORE.html">CORE</a> documents the pseudo-namespace for Perl's core routines.</p>
<a name="Changes-to-Existing-Documentation"></a><h1>Changes to Existing Documentation</h1>
<p><a href="perlglossary.html">perlglossary</a> adds <i>deprecated modules and features</i> and <i>to be dropped modules</i>.</p>
<p><a href="perlhack.html">perlhack</a> has been updated and added resources on smoke testing.</p>
<p>The Perl FAQs (<i>perlfaq1</i>..<i>perlfaq9</i>) have been updated.</p>
<p><a href="perlcheat.html">perlcheat</a> is updated with better details on <code class="inline">\<span class="w">w</span></code>
, <code class="inline">\<span class="w">d</span></code>
, and <code class="inline">\s</code>.</p>
<p><a href="perldebug.html">perldebug</a> is updated with information on how to call the debugger.</p>
<p><a href="perldiag.html">perldiag</a> documentation updated with <i>subroutine with an ampersand</i> on the
argument to <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/exists.html">exists</a></code> and <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/delete.html">delete</a></code> and also several terminology updates on
warnings.</p>
<p><a href="perlfork.html">perlfork</a> documents the limitation of <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/exec.html">exec</a></code> inside pseudo-processes.</p>
<p><a href="perlfunc.html">perlfunc</a>:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Documentation is fixed in section <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/caller.html">caller</a></code> and <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/pop.html">pop</a></code>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Function <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/alarm.html">alarm</a></code> now mentions <code class="inline"><span class="w">Time::HiRes::ualarm</span></code>
in preference
to <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/select.html">select</a></code>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Regarding precedence in <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/-X.html">-X</a></code>, filetest operators are the same as unary
operators, but not regarding parsing and parentheses (spotted by Eirik Berg
Hanssen).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/reverse.html">reverse</a></code> function documentation received scalar context examples.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="perllocale.html">perllocale</a> documentation is adjusted for number localization and
<code class="inline"><span class="w">POSIX::setlocale</span></code>
to fix Debian bug #379463.</p>
<p><a href="perlmodlib.html">perlmodlib</a> is updated with <code class="inline"><span class="w">CPAN::API::HOWTO</span></code>
and
<code class="inline"><span class="w">Sys::Syslog::win32::Win32</span></code>
</p>
<p><a href="perlre.html">perlre</a> documentation updated to reflect the differences between
<code class="inline">[[:xxxxx:]]</code> and <code class="inline">\<span class="i">p</span><span class="s">{</span><span class="w">IsXxxxx</span><span class="s">}</span></code>
matches. Also added section on <code class="inline">/g</code> and
<code class="inline">/c</code> modifiers.</p>
<p><a href="perlreguts.html">perlreguts</a> describe the internals of the regular expressions engine. It has
been contributed by Yves Orton.</p>
<p><a href="perlrebackslash.html">perlrebackslash</a> describes all perl regular expression backslash and escape
sequences.</p>
<p><a href="perlrecharclass.html">perlrecharclass</a> describes the syntax and use of character classes in
Perl Regular Expressions.</p>
<p><a href="perlrun.html">perlrun</a> is updated to clarify on the hash seed <i>PERL_HASH_SEED</i>. Also more
information in options <code class="inline">-x</code>
and <code class="inline">-u</code>
.</p>
<p><a href="perlsub.html">perlsub</a> example is updated to use a lexical variable for <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/opendir.html">opendir</a></code> syntax.</p>
<p><a href="perlvar.html">perlvar</a> fixes confusion about real GID <code class="inline"><span class="i">$(</span></code>
and effective GID <code class="inline"><span class="i">$)</span></code>
.</p>
<p>Perl thread tutorial example is fixed in section
<a href="perlthrtut.html#Queues%3a-Passing-Data-Around">Queues: Passing Data Around in perlthrtut</a> and <a href="perlthrtut.html">perlthrtut</a>.</p>
<p><a href="perlhack.html">perlhack</a> documentation extensively improved by Jarkko Hietaniemi and others.</p>
<p><a href="perltoot.html">perltoot</a> provides information on modifying <code class="inline"><span class="i">@UNIVERSAL::ISA</span></code>
.</p>
<p><a href="perlport.html">perlport</a> documentation extended to include different <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/kill.html">kill</a><span class="s">(</span><span class="n">-9</span><span class="cm">,</span> ...<span class="s">)</span></code>
semantics on Windows. It also clearly states <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/dump.html">dump</a></code> is not supported on Win32
and cygwin.</p>
<p><i>INSTALL</i> has been updated and modernised.</p>
<a name="Performance-Enhancements"></a><h1>Performance Enhancements</h1>
<ul>
<li>
<p>The default since perl 5.000 has been for perl to create an empty scalar
with every new typeglob. The increased use of lexical variables means that
most are now unused. Thanks to Nicholas Clark's efforts, Perl can now be
compiled with <code class="inline">-<span class="w">DPERL_DONT_CREATE_GVSV</span></code>
to avoid creating these empty scalars.
This will significantly decrease the number of scalars allocated for all
configurations, and the number of scalars that need to be copied for ithread
creation. Whilst this option is binary compatible with existing perl
installations, it does change a long-standing assumption about the
internals, hence it is not enabled by default, as some third party code may
rely on the old behaviour.</p>
<p>We would recommend testing with this configuration on new deployments of
perl, particularly for multi-threaded servers, to see whether all third party
code is compatible with it, as this configuration may give useful performance
improvements. For existing installations we would not recommend changing to
this configuration unless thorough testing is performed before deployment.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">diagnostics</span></code>
no longer uses <code class="inline"><span class="i">$&</span></code>
, which results in large speedups
for regexp matching in all code using it.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Regular expressions classes of a single character are now treated the same as
if the character had been used as a literal, meaning that code that uses
char-classes as an escaping mechanism will see a speedup. (Yves Orton)</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Creating anonymous array and hash references (ie. <code class="inline"><span class="s">[</span><span class="s">]</span></code>
and <code class="inline"><span class="s">{</span><span class="s">}</span></code>
) now incurs
no more overhead than creating an anonymous list or hash. Nicholas Clark
provided changes with a saving of two ops and one stack push, which was measured
as a slightly better than 5% improvement for these operations.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Many calls to <code class="inline"><span class="i">strlen</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
have been eliminated, either because the length was
already known, or by adopting or enhancing APIs that pass lengths. This has
been aided by the adoption of a <code class="inline"><span class="i">my_sprintf</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
wrapper, which returns the
correct C89 value - the length of the formatted string. Previously we could
not rely on the return value of <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/sprintf.html">sprintf()</a></code>, because on some ancient but
extant platforms it still returns <code class="inline"><span class="w">char</span> *</code>
.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/index.html">index</a></code> is now faster if the search string is stored in UTF-8 but only contains
characters in the Latin-1 range.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The Unicode swatch cache inside the regexp engine is now used. (the lookup had
a key mismatch, present since the initial implementation). [RT #42839]</p>
</li>
</ul>
<a name="Installation-and-Configuration-Improvements"></a><h1>Installation and Configuration Improvements</h1>
<a name="Relocatable-installations"></a><h2>Relocatable installations</h2>
<p>There is now <i>Configure</i> support for creating a relocatable perl tree. If
you <i>Configure</i> with <code class="inline">-<span class="w">Duserelocatableinc</span></code>
, then the paths in <code class="inline"><span class="i">@INC</span></code>
(and
everything else in <code class="inline"><span class="i">%Config</span></code>
) can be optionally located via the path of the
<i>perl</i> executable.</p>
<p>At start time, if any paths in <code class="inline"><span class="i">@INC</span></code>
or <code class="inline"><span class="w">Config</span></code>
that <i>Configure</i> marked
as relocatable (by starting them with <code class="inline"><span class="q">".../"</span></code>
), then they are prefixed the
directory of <code class="inline"><span class="i">$^X</span></code>
. This allows the relocation can be configured on a
per-directory basis, although the default with <code class="inline">-<span class="w">Duserelocatableinc</span></code>
is that
everything is relocated. The initial install is done to the original configured
prefix.</p>
<a name="Configuration-improvements"></a><h2>Configuration improvements</h2>
<p><i>Configure</i> is now better at removing temporary files. Tom Callaway
(from RedHat) also contributed patches that complete the set of flags
passed to the compiler and the linker, in particular that <code class="inline">-<span class="w">fPIC</span></code>
is now
enabled on Linux. It will also croak when your <i>/dev/null</i> isn't a device.</p>
<p>A new configuration variable <code class="inline"><span class="w">d_pseudofork</span></code>
has been to <i>Configure</i>, and is
available as <code class="inline"><span class="i">$Config</span>{<span class="w">d_pseudofork</span>}</code>
in the <code class="inline"><span class="w">Config</span></code>
module. This
distinguishes real <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/fork.html">fork</a></code> support from the pseudofork emulation used on
Windows platforms.</p>
<p><i>Config.pod</i> and <i>config.sh</i> are now placed correctly for cross-compilation.</p>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="i">$Config</span>{<span class="w">useshrplib</span>}</code>
is now 'true' rather than 'yes' when using a shared perl
library.</p>
<a name="Compilation-improvements"></a><h2>Compilation improvements</h2>
<p>Parallel makes should work properly now, although there may still be problems
if <code class="inline"><span class="w">make</span> <span class="w">test</span></code>
is instructed to run in parallel.</p>
<p>Many compilation warnings have been cleaned up. A very stubborn compiler
warning in <code class="inline"><span class="i">S_emulate_eaccess</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
was killed after six attempts.
<i>g++</i> support has been tuned, especially for FreeBSD.</p>
<p><i>mkppport</i> has been integrated, and all <i>ppport.h</i> files in the core will now
be autogenerated at build time (and removed during cleanup).</p>
<a name="Installation-improvements."></a><h2>Installation improvements.</h2>
<p><i>installman</i> now works with <code class="inline">-<span class="w">Duserelocatableinc</span></code>
and <code class="inline"><span class="w">DESTDIR</span></code>
.</p>
<p><i>installperl</i> no longer installs:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>static library files of statically linked extensions when a shared perl library
is being used. (They are not needed. See <a href="#Windows">Windows</a> below).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><i>SIGNATURE</i> and <i>PAUSE*.pub</i> (CPAN files)</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><i>NOTES</i> and <i>PATCHING</i> (ExtUtils files)</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><i>perlld</i> and <i>ld2</i> (Cygwin files)</p>
</li>
</ul>
<a name="Platform-Specific-Changes"></a><h2>Platform Specific Changes</h2>
<p>There are improved hints for AIX, Cygwin, DEC/OSF, FreeBSD, HP/UX, Irix 6
Linux, MachTen, NetBSD, OS/390, QNX, SCO, Solaris, SunOS, System V Release 5.x
(UnixWare 7, OpenUNIX 8), Ultrix, UMIPS, uts and VOS.</p>
<a name="FreeBSD"></a><h3>FreeBSD</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Drop <code class="inline">-<span class="w">std</span>=<span class="w">c89</span></code>
and <code class="inline">-<span class="w">ansi</span></code>
if using <code class="inline"><span class="w">long</span> <span class="w">long</span></code>
as the main integral type,
else in FreeBSD 6.2 (and perhaps other releases), system headers do not
declare some functions required by perl.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<a name="Solaris"></a><h3>Solaris</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Starting with Solaris 10, we do not want versioned shared libraries, because
those often indicate a private use only library. These problems could often
be triggered when <a href="http://search.cpan.org/perldoc/SUNWbdb">SUNWbdb</a> (Berkeley DB) was installed. Hence if Solaris 10
is detected set <code class="inline">ignore_versioned_solibs=y</code>.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<a name="VMS"></a><h3>VMS</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Allow IEEE math to be deselected on OpenVMS I64 (but it remains the default).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Record IEEE usage in <code class="inline"><span class="w">config</span>.<span class="w">h</span></code>
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Help older VMS compilers by using <code class="inline"><span class="w">ccflags</span></code>
when building <code class="inline"><span class="w">munchconfig</span>.<span class="w">exe</span></code>
.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Don't try to build old <code class="inline"><span class="w">Thread</span></code>
extension on VMS when <code class="inline">-<span class="w">Duseithreads</span></code>
has
been chosen.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Passing a raw string of "NaN" to <i>nawk</i> causes a core dump - so the string
has been changed to "*NaN*"</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><i>t/op/stat.t</i> tests will now test hard links on VMS if they are supported.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<a name="Windows"></a><h3>Windows</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p>When using a shared perl library <i>installperl</i> no longer installs static
library files, import library files and export library files (of statically
linked extensions) and empty bootstrap files (of dynamically linked
extensions). This fixes a problem building PAR-Packer on Win32 with a debug
build of perl.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Various improvements to the win32 build process, including support for Visual
C++ 2005 Express Edition (aka Visual C++ 8.x).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><i>perl.exe</i> will now have an icon if built with MinGW or Borland.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Improvements to the perl-static.exe build process.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Add Win32 makefile option to link all extensions statically.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The <i>WinCE</i> directory has been merged into the <i>Win32</i> directory.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">setlocale</span></code>
tests have been re-enabled for Windows XP onwards.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<a name="Selected-Bug-Fixes"></a><h1>Selected Bug Fixes</h1>
<a name="Unicode"></a><h2>Unicode</h2>
<p>Many many bugs related to the internal Unicode implementation (UTF-8) have
been fixed. In particular, long standing bugs related to returning Unicode
via <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/tie.html">tie</a></code>, overloading or <code class="inline"><span class="i">$@</span></code>
are now gone, some of which were never
reported.</p>
<p><code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/unpack.html">unpack</a></code> will internally convert the string back from UTF-8 on numeric types.
This is a compromise between the full consistency now in 5.10, and the current
behaviour, which is often used as a "feature" on string types.</p>
<p>Using <code class="inline"><span class="j">:</span><span class="w">crlf</span></code>
and <code class="inline"><span class="w">UTF</span>-<span class="n">16</span></code>
IO layers together will now work.</p>
<p>Fixed problems with <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/split.html">split</a></code>, Unicode <code class="inline"><span class="q">/\s+/</span></code>
and <code class="inline"><span class="q">/ \0/</span></code>
.</p>
<p>Fixed bug RT #40641 - encoding of Unicode characters in regular expressions.</p>
<p>Fixed a bug where using certain patterns in a regexp led to a panic.
[RT #45337]</p>
<p>Perl no longer segfaults (due to infinite internal recursion) if the locale's
character is not UTF-8 [RT #41442]:</p>
<pre class="verbatim"><ol><li> <a class="l_k" href="functions/use.html">use</a> <a class="l_k" href="functions/open.html">open</a> <span class="q">':locale'</span><span class="sc">;</span></li><li> <a class="l_k" href="functions/print.html">print</a> <span class="i">STDERR</span> <span class="q">"\x{201e}"</span><span class="sc">;</span> <span class="c"># &bdquo;</span></li></ol></pre><a name="PerlIO"></a><h2>PerlIO</h2>
<p>Inconsistencies have been fixed in the reference counting PerlIO uses to keep
track of Unix file descriptors, and the API used by XS code to manage getting
and releasing <code class="inline"><span class="w">FILE</span> *</code>
s</p>
<a name="Magic"></a><h2>Magic</h2>
<p>Several bugs have been fixed in Magic, the internal system used to implement
features such as <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/tie.html">tie</a></code>, tainting and threads sharing.</p>
<p><code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/undef.html">undef</a> <span class="i">@array</span></code>
on a tied array now correctly calls the <code class="inline"><span class="w">CLEAR</span></code>
method.</p>
<p>Some of the bitwise ops were not checking whether their arguments were magical
before using them. [RT #24816]</p>
<p>Magic is no longer invoked twice by the expression <code class="inline">\<span class="i">&$x</span></code>
</p>
<p>A bug with assigning large numbers and tainting has been resolved.
[RT #40708]</p>
<p>A new entry has been added to the MAGIC vtable - <code class="inline"><span class="w">svt_local</span></code>
. This is used
when copying magic to the new value during <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/local.html">local</a></code>, allowing certain problems
with localising shared variables to be resolved.</p>
<p>For the implementation details, see <a href="perlguts.html#Magic-Virtual-Tables">Magic Virtual Tables in perlguts</a>.</p>
<a name="Reblessing-overloaded-objects-now-works"></a><h2>Reblessing overloaded objects now works</h2>
<p>Internally, perl object-ness is on the referent, not the reference, even
though methods can only be called via a reference. However, the original
implementation of overloading stored flags related to overloading on the
reference, relying on the flags being copied when the reference was copied,
or set at the creation of a new reference. This manifests in a bug - if you
rebless an object from a class that has overloading, into one that does not,
then any other existing references think that they (still) point to an
overloaded object, choose these C code paths, and then throw errors.
Analogously, blessing into an overloaded class when other references exist will
result in them not using overloading.</p>
<p>The implementation has been fixed for 5.10, but this fix changes the semantics
of flag bits, so is not binary compatible, so can't be applied to 5.8.9.
However, 5.8.9 has a work-around that implements the same bug fix. If the
referent has multiple references, then all the other references are located and
corrected. A full search is avoided whenever possible by scanning lexicals
outwards from the current subroutine, and the argument stack.</p>
<p>A certain well known Linux vendor applied incomplete versions of this bug fix
to their <i>/usr/bin/perl</i> and then prematurely closed bug reports about
performance issues without consulting back upstream. This not being enough,
they then proceeded to ignore the necessary fixes to these unreleased changes
for 11 months, until massive pressure was applied by their long-suffering
paying customers, catalysed by the failings being featured on a prominent blog
and Slashdot.</p>
<a name="strict-now-propagates-correctly-into-string-evals"></a><h2><code class="inline"><span class="w">strict</span></code>
now propagates correctly into string evals</h2>
<p>Under 5.8.8 and earlier:</p>
<pre class="verbatim"><ol><li> $ perl5.8.8 -e 'use strict; eval "use foo bar" or die $@'</li><li> Can't locate foo.pm in @INC (@INC contains: ... .) at (eval 1) line 2.</li><li> BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at (eval 1) line 2.</li></ol></pre><p>Under 5.8.9 and later:</p>
<pre class="verbatim"><ol><li> $ perl5.8.9 -e 'use strict; eval "use foo bar" or die $@'</li><li> Bareword "bar" not allowed while "strict subs" in use at (eval 1) line 1.</li></ol></pre><p>This may cause problems with programs that parse the error message and rely
on the buggy behaviour.</p>
<a name="Other-fixes"></a><h2>Other fixes</h2>
<ul>
<li>
<p>The tokenizer no longer treats <code class="inline"><span class="pd">=cute</span></code>
(and other words beginning
with <code class="inline"><span class="pd">=cut</span></code>
) as a synonym for <code class="inline"><span class="pd">=cut</span></code>
.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Calling <code class="inline"><span class="w">CORE::require</span></code>
</p>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">CORE::require</span></code>
and <code class="inline"><span class="w">CORE::do</span></code>
were always parsed as <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/require.html">require</a></code> and <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/do.html">do</a></code>
when they were overridden. This is now fixed.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Stopped memory leak on long <i>/etc/groups</i> entries.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline">while <span class="s">(</span><a class="l_k" href="functions/my.html">my</a> <span class="i">$x</span> ...<span class="s">)</span> <span class="s">{</span> ...<span class="sc">;</span> <a class="l_k" href="functions/redo.html">redo</a> <span class="s">}</span></code>
shouldn't <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/undef.html">undef</a> <span class="i">$x</span></code>
.</p>
<p>In the presence of <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/my.html">my</a></code> in the conditional of a <code class="inline">while<span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
, <code class="inline">until<span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
,
or <code class="inline">for<span class="s">(</span><span class="sc">;</span><span class="sc">;</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
loop, we now add an extra scope to the body so that <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/redo.html">redo</a></code>
doesn't <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/undef.html">undef</a></code> the lexical.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The <code class="inline"><span class="w">encoding</span></code>
pragma now correctly ignores anything following an <code class="inline"><span class="i">@</span></code>
character in the <code class="inline"><span class="w">LC_ALL</span></code>
and <code class="inline"><span class="w">LANG</span></code>
environment variables. [RT # 49646]</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>A segfault observed with some <i>gcc</i> 3.3 optimisations is resolved.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>A possible segfault when <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/unpack.html">unpack</a></code> used in scalar context with <code class="inline"><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
groups
is resolved. [RT #50256]</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Resolved issue where <code class="inline"><span class="i">$!</span></code>
could be changed by a signal handler interrupting
a <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/system.html">system</a></code> call.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Fixed bug RT #37886, symbolic dereferencing was allowed in the argument of
<code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/defined.html">defined</a></code> even under the influence of <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/use.html">use</a> <span class="w">strict</span> <span class="q">'refs'</span></code>
.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Fixed bug RT #43207, where <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/lc.html">lc</a></code>/<code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/uc.html">uc</a></code> inside <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/sort.html">sort</a></code> affected the return
value.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Fixed bug RT #45607, where <code class="inline"><span class="i">*</span>{<span class="q">"BONK"</span>} = \<span class="i">&</span>{<span class="q">"BONK"</span>}</code>
didn't work correctly.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Fixed bug RT #35878, croaking from a XSUB called via <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/goto.html">goto</a> <span class="i">&xsub</span></code>
corrupts perl
internals.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Fixed bug RT #32539, <i>DynaLoader.o</i> is moved into <i>libperl.so</i> to avoid the
need to statically link DynaLoader into the stub perl executable. With this
<i>libperl.so</i> provides everything needed to get a functional embedded perl
interpreter to run.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Fix bug RT #36267 so that assigning to a tied hash doesn't change the
underlying hash.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Fix bug RT #6006, regexp replaces using large replacement variables
fail some of the time, <i>i.e.</i> when substitution contains something
like <code class="inline"><span class="i">$</span>{<span class="n">10</span>}</code>
(note the bracket) instead of just <code class="inline"><span class="i">$10</span></code>
.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Fix bug RT #45053, <code class="inline"><span class="i">Perl_newCONSTSUB</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
is now thread safe.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<a name="Platform-Specific-Fixes"></a><h2>Platform Specific Fixes</h2>
<a name="Darwin-%2f-MacOS-X"></a><h3>Darwin / MacOS X</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Various improvements to 64 bit builds.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Mutex protection added in <code class="inline"><span class="i">PerlIOStdio_close</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
to avoid race conditions.
Hopefully this fixes failures in the threads tests <i>free.t</i> and <i>blocks.t</i>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Added forked terminal support to the debugger, with the ability to update the
window title.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<a name="OS%2f2"></a><h3>OS/2</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p>A build problem with specifying <code class="inline"><span class="w">USE_MULTI</span></code>
and <code class="inline"><span class="w">USE_ITHREADS</span></code>
but without
<code class="inline"><span class="w">USE_IMP_SYS</span></code>
has been fixed.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">OS2::REXX</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.04</p>
</li>
</ul>
<a name="Tru64"></a><h3>Tru64</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Aligned floating point build policies for <i>cc</i> and <i>gcc</i>.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<a name="RedHat-Linux"></a><h3>RedHat Linux</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Revisited a patch from 5.6.1 for RH7.2 for Intel's <i>icc</i> [RT #7916], added an
additional check for <code class="inline"><span class="i">$Config</span>{<span class="w">gccversion</span>}</code>
.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<a name="Solaris%2fi386"></a><h3>Solaris/i386</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Use <code class="inline">-<span class="w">DPTR_IS_LONG</span></code>
when using 64 bit integers</p>
</li>
</ul>
<a name="VMS"></a><h3>VMS</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Fixed <code class="inline"><span class="w">PerlIO::Scalar</span></code>
in-memory file record-style reads.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>pipe shutdown at process exit should now be more robust.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Bugs in VMS exit handling tickled by <code class="inline"><span class="w">Test::Harness</span></code>
2.64 have been fixed.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Fix <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/fcntl.html">fcntl()</a></code> locking capability test in <i>configure.com</i>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Replaced <code class="inline"><span class="w">shrplib</span>=<span class="q">'define'</span></code>
with <code class="inline"><span class="w">useshrplib</span>=<span class="q">'true'</span></code>
on VMS.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<a name="Windows"></a><h3>Windows</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">File::Find</span></code>
used to fail when the target directory is a bare drive letter and
<code class="inline"><span class="w">no_chdir</span></code>
is 1 (the default is 0). [RT #41555]</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>A build problem with specifying <code class="inline"><span class="w">USE_MULTI</span></code>
and <code class="inline"><span class="w">USE_ITHREADS</span></code>
but without
<code class="inline"><span class="w">USE_IMP_SYS</span></code>
has been fixed.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The process id is no longer truncated to 16 bits on some Windows platforms
( <a href="http://bugs.activestate.com/show_bug.cgi?id=72443">http://bugs.activestate.com/show_bug.cgi?id=72443</a> )</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Fixed bug RT #54828 in <i>perlio.c</i> where calling <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/binmode.html">binmode</a></code> on Win32 and Cygwin
may cause a segmentation fault.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<a name="Smaller-fixes"></a><h2>Smaller fixes</h2>
<ul>
<li>
<p>It is now possible to overload <code class="inline">eq</code>
when using <code class="inline"><span class="w">nomethod</span></code>
.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Various problems using <code class="inline"><span class="w">overload</span></code>
with 64 bit integers corrected.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The reference count of <code class="inline"><span class="w">PerlIO</span></code>
file descriptors is now correctly handled.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>On VMS, escaped dots will be preserved when converted to Unix syntax.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/keys.html">keys</a> <span class="i">%+</span></code>
no longer throws an <code class="inline"><span class="q">'ambiguous'</span></code>
warning.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Using <code class="inline">#!perl -d</code>
could trigger an assertion, which has been fixed.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Don't stringify tied code references in <code class="inline"><span class="i">@INC</span></code>
when calling <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/require.html">require</a></code>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Code references in <code class="inline"><span class="i">@INC</span></code>
report the correct file name when <code class="inline"><span class="w">__FILE__</span></code>
is
used.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Width and precision in sprintf didn't handle characters above 255 correctly.
[RT #40473]</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>List slices with indices out of range now work more consistently.
[RT #39882]</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>A change introduced with perl 5.8.1 broke the parsing of arguments of the form
<code class="inline">-<span class="w">foo</span>=<span class="w">bar</span></code>
with the <code class="inline">-s</code>
on the <#!> line. This has been fixed. See
<a href="http://bugs.activestate.com/show_bug.cgi?id=43483">http://bugs.activestate.com/show_bug.cgi?id=43483</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/tr.html">tr///</a></code> is now threadsafe. Previously it was storing a swash inside its OP,
rather than in a pad.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><i>pod2html</i> labels anchors more consistently and handles nested definition
lists better.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">threads</span></code>
cleanup veto has been extended to include <code class="inline"><span class="i">perl_free</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
and
<code class="inline"><span class="i">perl_destruct</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>On some systems, changes to <code class="inline"><span class="i">$ENV</span>{<span class="w">TZ</span>}</code>
would not always be
respected by the underlying calls to <code class="inline"><span class="i">localtime_r</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
. Perl now
forces the inspection of the environment on these systems.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The special variable <code class="inline"><span class="i">$^R</span></code>
is now more consistently set when executing
regexps using the <code class="inline">(?{...})</code> construct. In particular, it will still
be set even if backreferences or optional sub-patterns <code class="inline">(?:...)?</code> are
used.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<a name="New-or-Changed-Diagnostics"></a><h1>New or Changed Diagnostics</h1>
<a name="panic%3a-sv_chop-%25s"></a><h2>panic: sv_chop %s</h2>
<p>This new fatal error occurs when the C routine <code class="inline"><span class="i">Perl_sv_chop</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
was passed a
position that is not within the scalar's string buffer. This is caused by
buggy XS code, and at this point recovery is not possible.</p>
<a name="Maximal-count-of-pending-signals-(%25s)-exceeded"></a><h2>Maximal count of pending signals (%s) exceeded</h2>
<p>This new fatal error occurs when the perl process has to abort due to
too many pending signals, which is bound to prevent perl from being
able to handle further incoming signals safely.</p>
<a name="panic%3a-attempt-to-call-%25s-in-%25s"></a><h2>panic: attempt to call %s in %s</h2>
<p>This new fatal error occurs when the ACL version file test operator is used
where it is not available on the current platform. Earlier checks mean that
it should never be possible to get this.</p>
<a name="FETCHSIZE-returned-a-negative-value"></a><h2>FETCHSIZE returned a negative value</h2>
<p>New error indicating that a tied array has claimed to have a negative
number of elements.</p>
<a name="Can't-upgrade-%25s-(%25d)-to-%25d"></a><h2>Can't upgrade %s (%d) to %d</h2>
<p>Previously the internal error from the SV upgrade code was the less informative
<i>Can't upgrade that kind of scalar</i>. It now reports the current internal type,
and the new type requested.</p>
<a name="%25s-argument-is-not-a-HASH-or-ARRAY-element-or-a-subroutine"></a><h2>%s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or a subroutine</h2>
<p>This error, thrown if an invalid argument is provided to <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/exists.html">exists</a></code> now
correctly includes "or a subroutine". [RT #38955]</p>
<a name="Cannot-make-the-non-overridable-builtin-%25s-fatal"></a><h2>Cannot make the non-overridable builtin %s fatal</h2>
<p>This error in <code class="inline"><span class="w">Fatal</span></code>
previously did not show the name of the builtin in
question (now represented by %s above).</p>
<a name="Unrecognized-character-'%25s'-in-column-%25d"></a><h2>Unrecognized character '%s' in column %d</h2>
<p>This error previously did not state the column.</p>
<a name="Offset-outside-string"></a><h2>Offset outside string</h2>
<p>This can now also be generated by a <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/seek.html">seek</a></code> on a file handle using
<code class="inline"><span class="w">PerlIO::scalar</span></code>
.</p>
<a name="Invalid-escape-in-the-specified-encoding-in-regexp%3b-marked-by-%3c---HERE-in-m%2f%25s%2f"></a><h2>Invalid escape in the specified encoding in regexp; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/</h2>
<p>New error, introduced as part of the fix to RT #40641 to handle encoding
of Unicode characters in regular expression comments.</p>
<a name="Your-machine-doesn't-support-dump%2fundump."></a><h2>Your machine doesn't support dump/undump.</h2>
<p>A more informative fatal error issued when calling <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/dump.html">dump</a></code> on Win32 and
Cygwin. (Given that the purpose of <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/dump.html">dump</a></code> is to abort with a core dump,
and core dumps can't be produced on these platforms, this is more useful than
silently exiting.)</p>
<a name="Changed-Internals"></a><h1>Changed Internals</h1>
<p>The perl sources can now be compiled with a C++ compiler instead of a C
compiler. A necessary implementation details is that under C++, the macro
<code class="inline"><span class="w">XS</span></code>
used to define XSUBs now includes an <code class="inline"><span class="w">extern</span> <span class="q">"C"</span></code>
definition. A side
effect of this is that <b>C++</b> code that used the construction</p>
<pre class="verbatim"><ol><li> <span class="w">typedef</span> <span class="i">XS</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="w">SwigPerlWrapper</span><span class="s">)</span><span class="sc">;</span></li></ol></pre><p>now needs to be written</p>
<pre class="verbatim"><ol><li> <span class="w">typedef</span> <span class="i">XSPROTO</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="w">SwigPerlWrapper</span><span class="s">)</span><span class="sc">;</span></li></ol></pre><p>using the new <code class="inline"><span class="w">XSPROTO</span></code>
macro, in order to compile. C extensions are
unaffected, although C extensions are encouraged to use <code class="inline"><span class="w">XSPROTO</span></code>
too.
This change was present in the 5.10.0 release of perl, so any actively
maintained code that happened to use this construction should already have
been adapted. Code that needs changing will fail with a compilation error.</p>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">set</span></code>
magic on localizing/assigning to a magic variable will now only
trigger for <i>container magics</i>, i.e. it will for <code class="inline"><span class="i">%ENV</span></code>
or <code class="inline"><span class="i">%SIG</span></code>
but not for <code class="inline"><span class="i">$#array</span></code>
.</p>
<p>The new API macro <code class="inline"><span class="i">newSVpvs</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
can be used in place of constructions such as
<code class="inline"><span class="i">newSVpvn</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="q">"ISA"</span><span class="cm">,</span> <span class="n">3</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
. It takes a single string constant, and at C compile
time determines its length.</p>
<p>The new API function <code class="inline"><span class="i">Perl_newSV_type</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
can be used as a more efficient
replacement of the common idiom</p>
<pre class="verbatim"><ol><li> <span class="w">sv</span> = <span class="i">newSV</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="n">0</span><span class="s">)</span><span class="sc">;</span></li><li> <span class="i">sv_upgrade</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="w">sv</span><span class="cm">,</span> <span class="w">type</span><span class="s">)</span><span class="sc">;</span></li></ol></pre><p>Similarly <code class="inline"><span class="i">Perl_newSVpvn_flags</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
can be used to combine
<code class="inline"><span class="i">Perl_newSVpv</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
with <code class="inline"><span class="i">Perl_sv_2mortal</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
or the equivalent
<code class="inline"><span class="i">Perl_sv_newmortal</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
with <code class="inline"><span class="i">Perl_sv_setpvn</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
</p>
<p>Two new macros <code class="inline"><span class="i">mPUSHs</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
and <code class="inline"><span class="i">mXPUSHs</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
are added, to make it easier to
push mortal SVs onto the stack. They were then used to fix several bugs where
values on the stack had not been mortalised.</p>
<p>A <code class="inline"><span class="i">Perl_signbit</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
function was added to test the sign of an <code class="inline"><span class="w">NV</span></code>
. It
maps to the system one when available.</p>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="i">Perl_av_reify</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
, <code class="inline"><span class="i">Perl_lex_end</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
, <code class="inline"><span class="i">Perl_mod</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
, <code class="inline"><span class="i">Perl_op_clear</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
,
<code class="inline"><span class="i">Perl_pop_return</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
, <code class="inline"><span class="i">Perl_qerror</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
, <code class="inline"><span class="i">Perl_setdefout</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
,
<code class="inline"><span class="i">Perl_vivify_defelem</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
and <code class="inline"><span class="i">Perl_yylex</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
are now visible to extensions.
This was required to allow <code class="inline"><span class="w">Data::Alias</span></code>
to work on Windows.</p>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="i">Perl_find_runcv</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
is now visible to perl core extensions. This was required
to allow <code class="inline"><span class="w">Sub::Current</span></code>
to work on Windows.</p>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">ptr_table</span>*</code>
functions are now available in unthreaded perl. <code class="inline"><span class="w">Storable</span></code>
takes advantage of this.</p>
<p>There have been many small cleanups made to the internals. In particular,
<code class="inline"><span class="i">Perl_sv_upgrade</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
has been simplified considerably, with a straight-through
code path that uses <code class="inline"><span class="i">memset</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
and <code class="inline"><span class="i">memcpy</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
to initialise the new body,
rather than assignment via multiple temporary variables. It has also
benefited from simplification and de-duplication of the arena management
code.</p>
<p>A lot of small improvements in the code base were made due to reports from
the Coverity static code analyzer.</p>
<p>Corrected use and documentation of <code class="inline"><span class="i">Perl_gv_stashpv</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
, <code class="inline"><span class="i">Perl_gv_stashpvn</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
,
<code class="inline"><span class="i">Perl_gv_stashsv</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
functions (last parameter is a bitmask, not boolean).</p>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">PERL_SYS_INIT</span></code>
, <code class="inline"><span class="w">PERL_SYS_INIT3</span></code>
and <code class="inline"><span class="w">PERL_SYS_TERM</span></code>
macros have been
changed into functions.</p>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">PERLSYS_TERM</span></code>
no longer requires a context. <code class="inline"><span class="i">PerlIO_teardown</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
is now called without a context, and debugging output in this function has
been disabled because that required that an interpreter was present, an invalid
assumption at termination time.</p>
<p>All compile time options which affect binary compatibility have been grouped
together into a global variable (<code class="inline"><span class="w">PL_bincompat_options</span></code>
).</p>
<p>The values of <code class="inline"><span class="w">PERL_REVISION</span></code>
, <code class="inline"><span class="w">PERL_VERSION</span></code>
and <code class="inline"><span class="w">PERL_SUBVERSION</span></code>
are
now baked into global variables (and hence into any shared perl library).
Additionally under <code class="inline"><span class="w">MULTIPLICITY</span></code>
, the perl executable now records the size of
the interpreter structure (total, and for this version). Coupled with
<code class="inline"><span class="w">PL_bincompat_options</span></code>
this will allow 5.8.10 (and later), when compiled with a
shared perl library, to perform sanity checks in <code class="inline"><span class="i">main</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
to verify that the
shared library is indeed binary compatible.</p>
<p>Symbolic references can now have embedded NULs. The new public function
<code class="inline"><span class="i">Perl_get_cvn_flags</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
can be used in extensions if you have to handle them.</p>
<a name="Macro-cleanups"></a><h2>Macro cleanups</h2>
<p>The core code, and XS code in <i>ext</i> that is not dual-lived on CPAN, no longer
uses the macros <code class="inline"><span class="w">PL_na</span></code>
, <code class="inline"><span class="i">NEWSV</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
, <code class="inline"><span class="i">Null</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
, <code class="inline"><span class="w">Nullav</span></code>
, <code class="inline"><span class="w">Nullcv</span></code>
,
<code class="inline"><span class="w">Nullhv</span></code>
, <code class="inline"><span class="w">Nullhv</span></code>
<i>etc</i>. Their use is discouraged in new code,
particularly <code class="inline"><span class="w">PL_na</span></code>
, which is a small performance hit.</p>
<a name="New-Tests"></a><h1>New Tests</h1>
<p>Many modules updated from CPAN incorporate new tests. Some core specific
tests have been added:</p>
<ul>
<li><a name="ext%2fDynaLoader%2ft%2fDynaLoader.t"></a><b>ext/DynaLoader/t/DynaLoader.t</b>
<p>Tests for the <code class="inline"><span class="w">DynaLoader</span></code>
module.</p>
</li>
<li><a name="t%2fcomp%2ffold.t"></a><b>t/comp/fold.t</b>
<p>Tests for compile-time constant folding.</p>
</li>
<li><a name="t%2fio%2fpvbm.t"></a><b>t/io/pvbm.t</b>
<p>Tests incorporated from 5.10.0 which check that there is no unexpected
interaction between the internal types <code class="inline"><span class="w">PVBM</span></code>
and <code class="inline"><span class="w">PVGV</span></code>
.</p>
</li>
<li><a name="t%2flib%2fproxy_constant_subs.t"></a><b>t/lib/proxy_constant_subs.t</b>
<p>Tests for the new form of constant subroutines.</p>
</li>
<li><a name="t%2fop%2fattrhand.t"></a><b>t/op/attrhand.t</b>
<p>Tests for <code class="inline"><span class="w">Attribute::Handlers</span></code>
.</p>
</li>
<li><a name="t%2fop%2fdbm.t"></a><b>t/op/dbm.t</b>
<p>Tests for <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/dbmopen.html">dbmopen</a></code>.</p>
</li>
<li><a name="t%2fop%2finccode-tie.t"></a><b>t/op/inccode-tie.t</b>
<p>Calls all tests in <i>t/op/inccode.t</i> after first tying <code class="inline"><span class="i">@INC</span></code>
.</p>
</li>
<li><a name="t%2fop%2fincfilter.t"></a><b>t/op/incfilter.t</b>
<p>Tests for source filters returned from code references in <code class="inline"><span class="i">@INC</span></code>
.</p>
</li>
<li><a name="t%2fop%2fkill0.t"></a><b>t/op/kill0.t</b>
<p>Tests for RT #30970.</p>
</li>
<li><a name="t%2fop%2fqrstack.t"></a><b>t/op/qrstack.t</b>
<p>Tests for RT #41484.</p>
</li>
<li><a name="t%2fop%2fqr.t"></a><b>t/op/qr.t</b>
<p>Tests for the <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/qr.html">qr//</a></code> construct.</p>
</li>
<li><a name="t%2fop%2fregexp_qr_embed.t"></a><b>t/op/regexp_qr_embed.t</b>
<p>Tests for the <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/qr.html">qr//</a></code> construct within another regexp.</p>
</li>
<li><a name="t%2fop%2fregexp_qr.t"></a><b>t/op/regexp_qr.t</b>
<p>Tests for the <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/qr.html">qr//</a></code> construct.</p>
</li>
<li><a name="t%2fop%2frxcode.t"></a><b>t/op/rxcode.t</b>
<p>Tests for RT #32840.</p>
</li>
<li><a name="t%2fop%2fstudytied.t"></a><b>t/op/studytied.t</b>
<p>Tests for <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/study.html">study</a></code> on tied scalars.</p>
</li>
<li><a name="t%2fop%2fsubstT.t"></a><b>t/op/substT.t</b>
<p>Tests for <code class="inline"><span class="w">subst</span></code>
run under <code class="inline">-T</code>
mode.</p>
</li>
<li><a name="t%2fop%2fsymbolcache.t"></a><b>t/op/symbolcache.t</b>
<p>Tests for <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/undef.html">undef</a></code> and <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/delete.html">delete</a></code> on stash entries that are bound to
subroutines or methods.</p>
</li>
<li><a name="t%2fop%2fupgrade.t"></a><b>t/op/upgrade.t</b>
<p>Tests for <code class="inline"><span class="i">Perl_sv_upgrade</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
.</p>
</li>
<li><a name="t%2fmro%2fpackage_aliases.t"></a><b>t/mro/package_aliases.t</b>
<p>MRO tests for <code class="inline"><span class="w">isa</span></code>
and package aliases.</p>
</li>
<li><a name="t%2fpod%2ftwice.t"></a><b>t/pod/twice.t</b>
<p>Tests for calling <code class="inline"><span class="w">Pod::Parser</span></code>
twice.</p>
</li>
<li><a name="t%2frun%2fcloexec.t"></a><b>t/run/cloexec.t</b>
<p>Tests for inheriting file descriptors across <code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/exec.html">exec</a></code> (close-on-exec).</p>
</li>
<li><a name="t%2funi%2fcache.t"></a><b>t/uni/cache.t</b>
<p>Tests for the UTF-8 caching code.</p>
</li>
<li><a name="t%2funi%2fchr.t"></a><b>t/uni/chr.t</b>
<p>Test that strange encodings do not upset <code class="inline"><span class="i">Perl_pp_chr</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
.</p>
</li>
<li><a name="t%2funi%2fgreek.t"></a><b>t/uni/greek.t</b>
<p>Tests for RT #40641.</p>
</li>
<li><a name="t%2funi%2flatin2.t"></a><b>t/uni/latin2.t</b>
<p>Tests for RT #40641.</p>
</li>
<li><a name="t%2funi%2foverload.t"></a><b>t/uni/overload.t</b>
<p>Tests for returning Unicode from overloaded values.</p>
</li>
<li><a name="t%2funi%2ftie.t"></a><b>t/uni/tie.t</b>
<p>Tests for returning Unicode from tied variables.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<a name="Known-Problems"></a><h1>Known Problems</h1>
<p>There are no known new bugs.</p>
<p>However, programs that rely on bugs that have been fixed will have problems.
Also, many bug fixes present in 5.10.0 can't be back-ported to the 5.8.x
branch, because they require changes that are binary incompatible, or because
the code changes are too large and hence too risky to incorporate.</p>
<p>We have only limited volunteer labour, and the maintenance burden is
getting increasingly complex. Hence this will be the last significant
release of the 5.8.x series. Any future releases of 5.8.x will likely
only be to deal with security issues, and platform build
failures. Hence you should look to migrating to 5.10.x, if you have
not started already. Alternatively, if business requirements constrain
you to continue to use 5.8.x, you may wish to consider commercial
support from firms such as ActiveState.</p>
<a name="Platform-Specific-Notes"></a><h1>Platform Specific Notes</h1>
<a name="Win32"></a><h2>Win32</h2>
<p><code class="inline"><a class="l_k" href="functions/readdir.html">readdir()</a></code>, <code class="inline"><span class="i">cwd</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
, <code class="inline"><span class="i">$^X</span></code>
and <code class="inline"><span class="i">@INC</span></code>
now use the alternate (short)
filename if the long name is outside the current codepage (Jan Dubois).</p>
<a name="Updated-Modules"></a><h3>Updated Modules</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Win32</span></code>
upgraded to version 0.38. Now has a documented 'WinVista' response
from <code class="inline"><span class="w">GetOSName</span></code>
and support for Vista's privilege elevation in <code class="inline"><span class="w">IsAdminUser</span></code>
.
Support for Unicode characters in path names. Improved cygwin and Win64
compatibility.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Win32API</span></code>
updated to 0.1001_01</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="i">killpg</span><span class="s">(</span><span class="s">)</span></code>
support added to <code class="inline"><span class="w">MSWin32</span></code>
(Jan Dubois).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">File::Spec::Win32</span></code>
upgraded to version 3.2701</p>
</li>
</ul>
<a name="OS%2f2"></a><h2>OS/2</h2>
<a name="Updated-Modules"></a><h3>Updated Modules</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">OS2::Process</span></code>
upgraded to 1.03</p>
<p>Ilya Zakharevich has added and documented several <code class="inline"><span class="w">Window</span>*</code>
and <code class="inline"><span class="w">Clipbrd</span>*</code>
functions.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">OS2::REXX::DLL</span></code>
, <code class="inline"><span class="w">OS2::REXX</span></code>
updated to version 1.03</p>
</li>
</ul>
<a name="VMS"></a><h2>VMS</h2>
<a name="Updated-Modules"></a><h3>Updated Modules</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">DCLsym</span></code>
upgraded to version 1.03</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">Stdio</span></code>
upgraded to version 2.4</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><code class="inline"><span class="w">VMS::XSSymSet</span></code>
upgraded to 1.1.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<a name="Obituary"></a><h1>Obituary</h1>
<p>Nick Ing-Simmons, long time Perl hacker, author of the <code class="inline"><span class="w">Tk</span></code>
and <code class="inline"><span class="w">Encode</span></code>
modules, <i>perlio.c</i> in the core, and 5.003_02 pumpking, died of a heart
attack on 25th September 2006. He will be missed.</p>
<a name="Acknowledgements"></a><h1>Acknowledgements</h1>
<p>Some of the work in this release was funded by a TPF grant.</p>
<p>Steve Hay worked behind the scenes working out the causes of the differences
between core modules, their CPAN releases, and previous core releases, and
the best way to rectify them. He doesn't want to do it again. I know this
feeling, and I'm very glad he did it this time, instead of me.</p>
<p>Paul Fenwick assembled a team of 18 volunteers, who broke the back of writing
this document. In particular, Bradley Dean, Eddy Tan, and Vincent Pit
provided half the team's contribution.</p>
<p>Schwern verified the list of updated module versions, correcting quite a few
errors that I (and everyone else) had missed, both wrongly stated module
versions, and changed modules that had not been listed.</p>
<p>The crack Berlin-based QA team of Andreas König and Slaven Rezic
tirelessly re-built snapshots, tested most everything CPAN against
them, and then identified the changes responsible for any module regressions,
ensuring that several show-stopper bugs were stomped before the first release
candidate was cut.</p>
<p>The other core committers contributed most of the changes, and applied most
of the patches sent in by the hundreds of contributors listed in <i>AUTHORS</i>.</p>
<p>And obviously, Larry Wall, without whom we wouldn't have Perl.</p>
<a name="Reporting-Bugs"></a><h1>Reporting Bugs</h1>
<p>If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles
recently posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl
bug database at <a href="http://bugs.perl.org">http://bugs.perl.org</a>. There may also be
information at <a href="http://www.perl.org">http://www.perl.org</a>, the Perl Home Page.</p>
<p>If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the <b>perlbug</b>
program included with your release. Be sure to trim your bug down
to a tiny but sufficient test case. Your bug report, along with the
output of <code class="inline"><span class="w">perl</span> -<span class="w">V</span></code>
, will be sent off to perlbug@perl.org to be
analysed by the Perl porting team. You can browse and search
the Perl 5 bugs at <a href="http://bugs.perl.org/">http://bugs.perl.org/</a></p>
<p>If the bug you are reporting has security implications, which make it
inappropriate to send to a publicly archived mailing list, then please send
it to perl5-security-report@perl.org. This points to a closed subscription
unarchived mailing list, which includes
all the core committers, who will be able
to help assess the impact of issues, figure out a resolution, and help
co-ordinate the release of patches to mitigate or fix the problem across all
platforms on which Perl is supported. Please only use this address for security
issues in the Perl core, not for modules independently distributed on CPAN.</p>
<a name="SEE-ALSO"></a><h1>SEE ALSO</h1>
<p>The <i>Changes</i> file for exhaustive details on what changed.</p>
<p>The <i>INSTALL</i> file for how to build Perl.</p>
<p>The <i>README</i> file for general stuff.</p>
<p>The <i>Artistic</i> and <i>Copying</i> files for copyright information.</p>
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<ul><li><a href="#NAME">NAME</a><li><a href="#DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a><li><a href="#Notice">Notice</a><li><a href="#Incompatible-Changes">Incompatible Changes</a><li><a href="#Core-Enhancements">Core Enhancements</a><ul><li><a href="#Unicode-Character-Database-5.1.0.">Unicode Character Database 5.1.0.</a><li><a href="#stat-and--X-on-directory-handles">stat and -X on directory handles</a><li><a href="#Source-filters-in-%40INC">Source filters in @INC</a><li><a href="#Exceptions-in-constant-folding">Exceptions in constant folding</a><li><a href="#no-VERSION">no VERSION</a><li><a href="#Improved-internal-UTF-8-caching-code">Improved internal UTF-8 caching code</a><li><a href="#Runtime-relocatable-installations">Runtime relocatable installations</a><li><a href="#New-internal-variables">New internal variables</a><li><a href="#readpipe-is-now-overridable">readpipe is now overridable</a><li><a href="#simple-exception-handling-macros">simple exception handling macros</a><li><a href="#-D-option-enhancements">-D option enhancements</a><li><a href="#XS-assisted-SWASHGET">XS-assisted SWASHGET</a><li><a href="#Constant-subroutines">Constant subroutines</a></ul><li><a href="#New-Platforms">New Platforms</a><li><a href="#Modules-and-Pragmata">Modules and Pragmata</a><ul><li><a href="#New-Modules">New Modules</a><li><a href="#Updated-Modules">Updated Modules</a></ul><li><a href="#Utility-Changes">Utility Changes</a><ul><li><a href="#debugger-upgraded-to-version-1.31">debugger upgraded to version 1.31</a><li><a href="#_perlthanks_">_perlthanks_</a><li><a href="#_perlbug_">_perlbug_</a><li><a href="#_h2xs_">_h2xs_</a><li><a href="#_h2ph_">_h2ph_</a></ul><li><a href="#New-Documentation">New Documentation</a><li><a href="#Changes-to-Existing-Documentation">Changes to Existing Documentation</a><li><a href="#Performance-Enhancements">Performance Enhancements</a><li><a href="#Installation-and-Configuration-Improvements">Installation and Configuration Improvements</a><ul><li><a href="#Relocatable-installations">Relocatable installations</a><li><a href="#Configuration-improvements">Configuration improvements</a><li><a href="#Compilation-improvements">Compilation improvements</a><li><a href="#Installation-improvements.">Installation improvements.</a><li><a href="#Platform-Specific-Changes">Platform Specific Changes</a></ul><li><a href="#Selected-Bug-Fixes">Selected Bug Fixes</a><ul><li><a href="#Unicode">Unicode</a><li><a href="#PerlIO">PerlIO</a><li><a href="#Magic">Magic</a><li><a href="#Reblessing-overloaded-objects-now-works">Reblessing overloaded objects now works</a><li><a href="#strict-now-propagates-correctly-into-string-evals">strict now propagates correctly into string evals</a><li><a href="#Other-fixes">Other fixes</a><li><a href="#Platform-Specific-Fixes">Platform Specific Fixes</a><li><a href="#Smaller-fixes">Smaller fixes</a></ul><li><a href="#New-or-Changed-Diagnostics">New or Changed Diagnostics</a><ul><li><a href="#panic%3a-sv_chop-%25s">panic: sv_chop %s</a><li><a href="#Maximal-count-of-pending-signals-(%25s)-exceeded">Maximal count of pending signals (%s) exceeded</a><li><a href="#panic%3a-attempt-to-call-%25s-in-%25s">panic: attempt to call %s in %s</a><li><a href="#FETCHSIZE-returned-a-negative-value">FETCHSIZE returned a negative value</a><li><a href="#Can't-upgrade-%25s-(%25d)-to-%25d">Can't upgrade %s (%d) to %d</a><li><a href="#%25s-argument-is-not-a-HASH-or-ARRAY-element-or-a-subroutine">%s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or a subroutine</a><li><a href="#Cannot-make-the-non-overridable-builtin-%25s-fatal">Cannot make the non-overridable builtin %s fatal</a><li><a href="#Unrecognized-character-'%25s'-in-column-%25d">Unrecognized character '%s' in column %d</a><li><a href="#Offset-outside-string">Offset outside string</a><li><a href="#Invalid-escape-in-the-specified-encoding-in-regexp%3b-marked-by-%3c---HERE-in-m%2f%25s%2f">Invalid escape in the specified encoding in regexp; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/</a><li><a href="#Your-machine-doesn't-support-dump%2fundump.">Your machine doesn't support dump/undump.</a></ul><li><a href="#Changed-Internals">Changed Internals</a><ul><li><a href="#Macro-cleanups">Macro cleanups</a></ul><li><a href="#New-Tests">New Tests</a><li><a href="#Known-Problems">Known Problems</a><li><a href="#Platform-Specific-Notes">Platform Specific Notes</a><ul><li><a href="#Win32">Win32</a><li><a href="#OS%2f2">OS/2</a><li><a href="#VMS">VMS</a></ul><li><a href="#Obituary">Obituary</a><li><a href="#Acknowledgements">Acknowledgements</a><li><a href="#Reporting-Bugs">Reporting Bugs</a><li><a href="#SEE-ALSO">SEE ALSO</a></ul>
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