[inseparable changes from patch from perl5.003_23 to perl5.003_24]perl-5.003_24

 CORE LANGUAGE CHANGES

Subject: glob defaults to $_
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 1997 03:09:13 -0500
From: Gurusamy Sarathy <gsar@engin.umich.edu>
Files: op.c opcode.pl pod/perlfunc.pod t/op/glob.t

    private-msgid: <199701270809.DAA00934@aatma.engin.umich.edu>

Subject: Re: an overloading bug 
Date: Sun, 26 Jan 1997 19:07:45 -0500
From: Gurusamy Sarathy <gsar@engin.umich.edu>
Files: pod/perldiag.pod pod/perlfunc.pod pp_ctl.c

    private-msgid: <199701270007.TAA26525@aatma.engin.umich.edu>

 CORE PORTABILITY

Subject: Win32 port
From: Gary Ng <71564.1743@compuserve.com>
Files: MANIFEST win32/*

Subject: Amiga files
Date: Sun, 26 Jan 1997 17:42:15 +0100
From: Norbert Pueschel <pueschel@imsdd.meb.uni-bonn.de>
Files: MANIFEST README.amiga hints/amigaos.sh

    private-msgid: <77724712@Armageddon.meb.uni-bonn.de>

 DOCUMENTATION

Subject: perldelta Fcntl enhancement
Date: Sat, 25 Jan 1997 17:05:34 +0200 (EET)
From: Jarkko Hietaniemi <jhi@cc.hut.fi>
Files: pod/perldelta.pod

    private-msgid: <199701251505.RAA22159@alpha.hut.fi>

Subject: Updates to perldelta re: Fcntl, DB_File, Net::Ping
From: Paul Marquess <pmarquess@bfsec.bt.co.uk>
Files: pod/perldelta.pod

Subject: Document restrictions on gv_fetchmethod() and perl_call_sv()
From: Chip Salzenberg <chip@atlantic.net>
Files: pod/perldelta.pod pod/perlguts.pod

Subject: perldiag.pod: No comma allowed after %s
Date: Sat, 25 Jan 1997 17:41:53 +0200 (EET)
From: Jarkko Hietaniemi <Jarkko.Hietaniemi@cc.hut.fi>
Files: pod/perldiag.pod

    private-msgid: <199701251541.RAA04120@alpha.hut.fi>

Subject: perlfunc.pod: localtime
Date: Sat, 25 Jan 1997 18:29:37 +0200 (EET)
From: Jarkko Hietaniemi <jhi@cc.hut.fi>
Files: pod/perlfunc.pod

    private-msgid: <199701251629.SAA08114@alpha.hut.fi>

Subject: perlfunc diff: gmtime
Date: Tue, 28 Jan 1997 14:52:08 +0000
From: Peter Haworth <pmh@edison.ioppublishing.com>
Files: pod/perlfunc.pod

    private-msgid: <32EE1298.7B90@edison.ioppublishing.com>

Subject: Updates to guts
Date: Sun, 26 Jan 1997 19:34:18 -0500 (EST)
From: Ilya Zakharevich <ilya@math.ohio-state.edu>
Files: pod/perlguts.pod

    private-msgid: <199701270034.TAA13177@monk.mps.ohio-state.edu>

 TESTS

Subject: New test op/closure.t
From: Tom Phoenix <rootbeer@teleport.com>
Files: MANIFEST t/op/closure.t

1 files changed, 88 insertions, 18 deletions

diff --git a/pod/perldelta.pod b/pod/perldelta.pod
index b33f1ff81f..04e9a45ab8 100644
--- a/pod/perldelta.pod
+++ b/pod/perldelta.pod
@@ -34,21 +34,6 @@ application of opcode masks.  The revised Safe module has a new API
 and is implemented using the new Opcode module.  Please read the new
 Opcode and Safe documentation.
 
-=head2 Extended Fcntl Module
-
-The Fcntl module now supports these new constants
-
-	F_GETOWN F_SETOWN
-	O_ASYNC O_DEFER O_DSYNC O_RSYNC O_SYNC
-	O_EXLOCK O_SHLOCK
-
-provided that your operating system supports these constants. The
-constants are for use with the Perl sysopen() and fcntl(). These
-constants are also visible for the basic database modules like the
-SDBM_File. For the exact meaning of these contants and other Fcntl
-constants please refer to the fcntl() documentation of your operating
-system. Unsupported constants will cause run-time errors.
-
 =head2 Internal Change: FileHandle Deprecated
 
 Filehandles are now stored internally as type IO::Handle.
@@ -243,7 +228,7 @@ before, and is fine now:
 The C<UNIVERSAL> package automatically contains the following methods that
 are inherited by all other classes:
 
-=over 4
+=over
 
 =item isa(CLASS)
 
@@ -429,6 +414,21 @@ provided that your operating system happens to support them:
     O_ASYNC O_DEFER O_DSYNC O_FSYNC O_SYNC 
     O_EXLOCK O_SHLOCK
 
+These constants are intended for use with the Perl operators sysopen()
+and fcntl() and the basic database modules like SDBM_File.  For the
+exact meaning of these and other Fcntl constants please refer to your
+operating system's documentation for fcntl() and open().
+
+In addition, the Fcntl module now provides these constants for use
+with the Perl operator flock():
+
+	LOCK_SH LOCK_EX LOCK_NB LOCK_UN
+
+These constants are defined in all environments (because where there is
+no flock() system call, Perl emulates it).  However, for historical
+reasons, these constants are not exported unless they are explicitly
+requested with the ":flock" tag (e.g. C<use Fcntl ':flock'>).
+
 =head2 Module Information Summary
 
 Brand new modules, arranged by topic rather than strictly
@@ -499,6 +499,52 @@ And these functions are now exported:
     sinh cosh tanh cotanh asinh acosh atanh acotanh
     cplx cplxe
 
+=head2 DB_File
+
+There have been quite a few changes made to DB_File. Here are a few of
+the highlights:
+
+=over
+
+=item *
+
+Fixed a handful of bugs.
+
+=item *
+
+By public demand, added support for the standard hash function exists().
+
+=item *
+
+Made it compatible with Berkeley DB 1.86.
+
+=item *
+
+Made negative subscripts work with RECNO interface.
+
+=item *
+
+Changed the default flags from O_RDWR to O_CREAT|O_RDWR and the default
+mode from 0640 to 0666.
+
+=item *
+
+Made DB_File automatically import the open() constants (O_RDWR,
+O_CREAT etc.) from Fcntl, if available.
+
+=item *
+
+Updated documentation.
+
+=back
+
+Refer to the HISTORY section in DB_File.pm for a complete list of
+changes. Everything after DB_File 1.01 has been added since 5.003.
+
+=head2 Net::Ping
+
+Major rewrite - support added for both udp echo and real icmp pings.
+
 =head2 Overridden Built-ins
 
 Many of the Perl built-ins returning lists now have
@@ -524,6 +570,8 @@ For example, you can now say
 
 =head2 xsubpp
 
+=over
+
 =item C<void> XSUBs now default to returning nothing
 
 Due to a documentation/implementation bug in previous versions of
@@ -543,12 +591,34 @@ It does so by examining the text of the XSUB: if I<xsubpp> finds
 what looks like an assignment to C<ST(0)>, it assumes that the
 XSUB's return type is really C<SV *>.
 
+=back
+
+=head1 C Language API Changes
+
+=over
+
+=item C<gv_fetchmethod> and C<perl_call_sv>
+
+The C<gv_fetchmethod> function finds a method for an object, just like
+in Perl 5.003.  The GV it returns may be a method cache entry.
+However, in Perl 5.004, method cache entries are not visible to users;
+therefore, they can no longer be passed directly to C<perl_call_sv>.
+Instead, you should use the C<GvCV> macro on the GV to extract its CV,
+and pass the CV to C<perl_call_sv>.
+
+The most likely symptom of passing the result of C<gv_fetchmethod> to
+C<perl_call_sv> is Perl's producing an "Undefined subroutine called"
+error on the I<second> call to a given method (since there is no cache
+on the first call).
+
+=back
+
 =head1 Documentation Changes
 
 Many of the base and library pods were updated.  These
 new pods are included in section 1:
 
-=over 4
+=over
 
 =item L<perldelta>
 
@@ -592,7 +662,7 @@ increasing order of desperation):
    (X) A very fatal error (non-trappable).
    (A) An alien error message (not generated by Perl).
 
-=over 4
+=over
 
 =item "my" variable %s masks earlier declaration in same scope