Make -l always treat non-bareword arguments as file names

Here is some suspicious code in Perl_my_lstat_flags:

     if (SvROK(sv) && isGV_with_GP(SvRV(sv)) && ckWARN(WARN_IO)) {
 	Perl_warner(aTHX_ packWARN(WARN_IO), "Use of -l on filehandle %s",
 		GvENAME((const GV *)SvRV(sv)));
 	return (PL_laststatval = -1);
     }

The behaviour differs depending on whether warnings are enabled.

That -1 turns into undef in pp_ftlink.  So we get an undef return
value with warnings on, but a file test on a file name otherwise.

In 5.6.2, -l $foo always treated $foo as a file name.

In 5.8+, if it is a reference (ignoring magic) and the reference
points to a typeglob (ignoring magic) and io warnings are on, it warns
and returns undef.

So the only time that undef return is reached is when a warning has
been emitted, so it’s code that will likely be corrected before it
goes into production.  Hence I think it unlikely that anyone could be
relying on the behaviour of -l \*foo (under warnings).

So this commit restores the 5.6 behaviour for that case.

1 files changed, 0 insertions, 5 deletions

diff --git a/doio.c b/doio.c
index f03db274c4..e6e9016785 100644
--- a/doio.c
+++ b/doio.c
@@ -1352,11 +1352,6 @@ Perl_my_lstat_flags(pTHX_ const U32 flags)
     PL_statgv = NULL;
     sv = POPs;
     PUTBACK;
-    if (SvROK(sv) && isGV_with_GP(SvRV(sv)) && ckWARN(WARN_IO)) {
-	Perl_warner(aTHX_ packWARN(WARN_IO), "Use of -l on filehandle %s",
-		GvENAME((const GV *)SvRV(sv)));
-	return (PL_laststatval = -1);
-    }
     file = SvPV_flags_const_nolen(sv, flags);
     sv_setpv(PL_statname,file);
     PL_laststatval = PerlLIO_lstat(file,&PL_statcache);