path: root/pod/perldelta.pod

=head1 NAME

perldelta - what's new for perl v5.7.0

=head1 DESCRIPTION

This document describes differences between the 5.6.0 release and
the 5.7.0 release.

=head1 Security Vulnerability Closed

A potential security vulnerability in the optional suidperl component
of Perl has been identified.  The suidperl is neither built nor
installed by default.  As of August the 20th, 2000, the only known
vulnerable platform is Linux, most likely all Linux distributions.
The CERT and various vendors have been alerted about the vulnerability.

The problem was caused by Perl trying to report a suspected security
exploit attempt using an external program, /bin/mail.  In Linux
platforms the /bin/mail program had an undocumented feature which gave
access to a root shell, resulting in a serious compromise, instead of
reporting the exploit attempt.  If you don't have /bin/mail or if you
have 'safe suid scripts' or if you haven't installed the suidperl, you
are safe.

The exploit attempt reporting feature has been completely removed from
the Perl 5.7.0 release, so that particular vulnerability isn't there
anymore.  However, further security vulnerabilities are,
unfortunately, always possible.  The suidperl code is being reviewed
and if deemed too risky to continue being supported, in the extreme
case it may be completely removed in future releases.  In any case,
suidperl should only be used by security experts who know exactly what
they are doing and why they are using suidperl instead of some other solution.
A good tool for similar needs is sudo: http://www.courtesan.com/sudo/

=head1 Incompatible Changes

=head2 Arrays Now Always Interpolate Into Double-Quoted Strings

Constructs like "foo@bar" now always assume the C<@bar> to be an array,
regardless of whether it is known that C<@bar> is an array.

=head2 bless(REF, REF) is now a fatal error

The semantics of bless(REF, REF) were unclear and until someone proves
it to make some sense, it is forbidden.

=head2 The eg/* Directory Removed

The very dusty examples in the eg/ directory have been removed.
Suggestions for new shiny examples welcome but the main issue is that
the examples need to be documented, tested, and--most importantly--maintained.

=head2 The lib/chat2.pl

The obsolete chat2 library that should never have been allowed
to escape the laboratory has been decommissioned.

=head2 Unimplemented (But Recognised) POSIX Regex Features Now Fatal

The unimplemented POSIX regex features [[.cc.]] and [[=c=]] are still
recognised but now cause fatal errors.  The previous behaviour of
ignoring them by default and warning if requested was unacceptable
since it, in a way, falsely promised that the features could be used.

=head2 lstat(FILEHANDLE) now warns

lstat(FILEHANDLE) now gives a warning because the operation makes no sense.
In future releases this may become a fatal error.

=head2 Obsolete String Comparison Operators Removed

The long since deprecated uppercase aliases for the string comparison
operators (EQ, NE, LT, LE, GE, GT) have now been removed.

=head2 The Regular Expression Submatches Are Now Unset When Backtracking 

The regular expression captured submatches ($1, $2, ...) are now
consistently unset if the match fails, instead of leaving false
data lying around in them.

=head2 tr///CU Removed, Not To Return

The tr///C and tr///U features have been removed and will not return;
the interface was a mistake.  Sorry about that.  For similar
functionality, see pack('U0', ...) and pack('C0', ...).

=head1 Core Enhancements

=over 4

=item *

C<perl -d:Module=arg,arg,arg> now works (previously one couldn't pass
in multiple arguments.)

=item *

my __PACKAGE__ now works.

=item *

no Module; now works even if there is no "sub unimport" in the Module.

=item *

The numerical comparison operators return C<undef> if either operand
is a NaN.  Previously the behaviour was unspecified.

=item *

C<pack('U0a*', ...)> can now be used to force a string to UTF8.

=item *

prototype(\&) is now available.

=back

=head1 Modules and Pragmata

=head2 New Modules

=over 4

=item *

File::Temp, version 0.10, allows one to create temporary files
and directories in an easy, portable, and secure way.

=item *

The Storable extension, version 0.7.2, released the 14th of August
2000, has been added to the Perl distribution.  Storable gives
persistence to Perl data structures by allowing the storage and
retrieval of Perl data to and from files in a fast and compact binary
format.

=back

=head2 Updated And Improved Modules and Pragmata

=over 4

=item *

The attributes::reftype() now works on tied arguments.

=item *

AutoLoader can now be `stopped' by

	no AutoLoader; 

=item *

B::Deparse now understands sub attributes.

=item *

Data::Dumper now works on negative number on 32-bit platforms where IV
(the Perl's integer datatype) is greater than 32 bits.  Also, large
unsigned numbers are now dumped as such, not as large negative numbers.

=item *

CGI has been updated to version 2.72, released
the 20th of August 2000.

=item *

CPAN has been updated to version 1.57, released
the 16th of August 2000.

=item *

DB_File has been updated to version 1.73, released the
27th of April 2000.

=item *

The English module can now be used without the infamous performance
hit by saying

	use English '-no_performance_hit';

(Assuming, of course, that one doesn't need the troublesome variables
C<$`>, C<$&>, or C<$'>.)  Also, introduce C<@LAST_MATCH_START> and
C<@LAST_MATCH_END> English aliases for C<@-> and C<@+>.

=item *

File::Find now has pre- and postprocessing callbacks.
It also correctly changes directories when chasing symbolic links.
Callbacks doing (naughtily) "next;" instead of "return;" now work.

=item *

File::Glob::glob() renamed to File::Glob::bsd_glob() to avoid
prototype mismatch with CORE::glob().

=item *

File::Spec has been updated to version 0.82, released the
1st of July 2000.

=item *

Getopt::Long has been updated to version 2.23_05, released the 2nd of
August 2000.

=item *

IO::Poll has been thoroughly fixed.

=item *

IO::Socket::INET now works when given an unknown service name with 
a port number.

=item *

IPC::Open3 now allows the use of numeric file descriptors.

=item *

use lib now works identically to @INC.  Removing directories
with 'no lib' now works.

=item *

Math::BigFloat now more robust (fewer "uninitialized" warnings).

=item *

Math::Complex now handles extreme values (e.g. cplx(1E20, 1E30)) more
gracefully.

=item *

The podlators bundle has been updated to version 1.02, released the
25th of April 2000.  It contains the modules Pod::Man 1.04, Pod::Text
2.04, and modules Pod::Text::Color and Pod::Text::Termcap (no version
numbers).

=item *

Pod::LaTeX has been updated to version 0.52, released the 15th of May
2000.  Note that this is a complete rewrite which translates pod much
better, has many more options and much better documentation.  It also
now uses the Pod::Parser backend, meaning that Pod::LaTeX will stay
abreast other pod translators.

=item *

Pod::Parser has been updated to version 1.17, released the 25th of
July 2000.  It contains the modules Pod::Checker 1.20, Pod::Find 0.21,
Pod::InputObjects 1.13, Pod::ParseUtils 0.22, Pod::Parser 1.12,
Pod::Select 1.13, and Pod::Usage 1.13.

=item *

The 'debug' subpragma the 're' pragma now produces cleaner output.

=item *

C<%INC> now localised in a Safe compartment so that use/require work.

=item *

SelfLoader no longer loses C<$@> in AUTOLOAD.

=item *

The Shell module now has an OO interface.

=item *

Sys::Syslog now works on domain sockets.  Also, a forked child
now exits correctly if it fails to open /dev/console.

=item *

Term::ANSIColor has been updated to version 1.03, released the 6th of
August 2000.

=item *

The Test module has been updated to version 1.14, released the 21st of June
1999.  This is for all practical purposes identical to the previous release
of Test included with the Perl distribution, 1.13, but upgrading the module
stops the CPAN module from suggesting an upgrade.

=item *

Test::Harness output now prettier on failed test.

=item *

Text::Wrap::wtbrap now handles multiline strings properly.

=item *

UNIVERSAL::isa no longer caches methods incorrectly.

=back

=head1 Utility Changes

=head2 cperl-mode version 4.31

The Emacs perl mode (emacs/cperl-mode.el) has been updated to version 4.31.

=head2 perlbc "activated"

The long-dormant perl bytecompiler has been added to the list of
installed utilities since the bytecompiler backend has been improved.
The bytecompiler is still very much experimental, though.

=head2 perlbug

Perlbug is now much more robust.  It also sends the bug report to perl.org,
not perl.com.

=head2 perlcc now more cc-like and more robust

The perlcc utility has been rewritten and its user interface (that is,
command line) is much more like that of the UNIX C compiler, cc.

=head2 xsubpp now understands embedded pod

The xsubpp utility for extension writers now understands POD
documentation embedded in the *.xs files.

=head1 Improved Documentation

=over 4

=item *

In many places say "alphanumeric characters" instead of "word
characters" because that was what was meant.

=item *

Eradicate "array context" from the documentation and diagnostics.

=item *

The return values of failing backticks (`, qx{}) are now documented
in perlop.

=item *

caller() return values now better documented.

=item *

SDBM_File, NDBM_File, ODBM_File, now tell about tying instead of
glossing over.

=item *

Document that the C<$(> special variable does not interpolate
in regular expressions.

=item *

The timeout unit of IO::Select is now documented to be identical
to the timeout unit of the 4-arg select(), that is, (optionally
fractional) seconds, or an undef to wait indefinitely.

=item *

Document the C<D> and C<d> magic types.

=item *

The ordering of PODs in perl.pod is now more sensible.

=item *

perlbook now only mentions the Camel III; all other book references
have been moved to perlfaq2; some good known books added.

=item *

Numerous missing warning/error messages added to perldiag.

=item *

Changed the description of perl6 in perlfaq1.

=item *

perlhack much extended.

=item *

perltrap cleaned up.

=item *

Add perlxstut example for passing/returning refs to arrays.

=item *

POSIX module documentation embellished.

=item *

Clarified the status of shadow password support.

=item *

Reminded that preprocessors and source filters can alter
your code before Perl sees it and therefore debugging
can be somewhat surprising.  ("I didn't write *that*!")

=item *

Removed incorrect documentation about implicit split to @_
in list context, which never really worked in Perl 5 anyway.

=item *

Explain that split /^/ is split /^/m.

=item *

Added many more sprintf() examples in perlfunc.

=item *

Documented the handling of negative indices to tied arrays.

=item *

The C<$yday> in localtime()/gmtime() is 0..364, not 1..365.

=item *

Documented that tr() is not tr(1): that is, do not expect regular expressions.

=item *

Warn about the vagaries of UDP.

=item *

The "uninitialized variable" warnings now say "concat or string" or
"join or string" instead of just "concat" or "join" since many users
found the "concat" a bit surprising when they were doing "just"
variable interpolation.

=item *

Documented that the values() are aliases, not copies.

=back

=head2 New Documentation

=over 4

=item *

perl56delta details the changes between the 5.005 release and the
5.6.0 release.

=item *

perldebtut is a Perl debugging tutorial.

=item *

perlebcdic contains considerations for running Perl on EBCDIC platforms.
Note that unfortunately EBCDIC platforms that used to supported back in
Perl 5.005 are still unsupported by Perl 5.7.0; the plan, however, is to
bring them back to the fold.  

=item *

perlnewmod tells about writing and submitting a new module.

=item *

perlposix-bc explains using Perl on the POSIX-BC platform
(a mainframe platform).

=item *

perlretut is a regular expression tutorial.

=item *

perlrequick is a regular expressions quick-start guide.
Yes, much quicker than perlretut.

=item *

perlutil explains the command line utilities packaged with the Perl
distribution.

=back

=head1 Performance Enhancements

map() that changes the size of the list should now work faster.

=head1 Installation and Configuration Improvements

=head2 INSTALL now explains 64-bit configuration.

In some platforms Perl can be configured to use 64-bit integers,
allowing 4 billion times better... sorry, switched accidentally
to marketdroid mode for a moment in there.  (In platforms which
are natively 64-bit this makes no difference.)

=head2 Policy.sh policy change

If you are reusing a Policy.sh file (see INSTALL) and you use
Configure -Dprefix=/foo/bar and in the old Policy $prefix eq
$siteprefix and $prefix eq $vendorprefix, all of them will now be
changed to the new prefix, /foo/bar.  (Previously only $prefix
changed.)  If you do not like this new behaviour, specify prefix,
siteprefix, and vendorprefix explicitly.

=head2 Additional Library Locations

A new optional location for Perl libraries, otherlibdirs, is available.
It can be used for example for vendor add-ons without disturbing Perl's
own library directories.

=head2 gcc automatically tried if 'cc' does not seem to be working

In many platforms the vendor-supplied 'cc' is too stripped-down to
build Perl (basically, the 'cc' doesn't do ANSI C).  If this seems
to be the case and the 'cc' does not seem to be the GNU C compiler
'gcc', an automatic attempt is made to find and use 'gcc' instead.

=head2 If gcc seems to be from a different operating system release ...

gcc needs to closely track the operating system release because gcc
wants to have its own versions of the operating system header files
fixed to be clean enough for gcc's tastes.  Therefore using a gcc
compiled for a different release of the operating system is often a
bad idea.  If Configure can find out the operating system release that
was used to compile the gcc and that release is different from the one
being used now, gcc gives a clearly visible warning that trouble may
lie ahead.

=head2 If no binary compatibility with 5.005 wanted, no 5.005 modules, either

If no binary compatibility with the 5.005 release is wanted, Configure
does not suggest including the 5.005 modules in the @INC.

=head2 Configuration and Installation Fixes

=over 4

=item *

Configure C<-S> can now run non-interactively

=item *

configure.gnu now works with options with whitespace in them

=item *

installperl now outputs everything to STDERR

=item *

$Config{byteorder} is now computed dynamically (this is more robust
with "fat binaries" where an executable image contains binaries for
more than one binary platform.)

=back

=head1 Platform Specific Changes and Fixes

=head2 BSDI 4.*

Perl now works on post-4.0 BSD/OSes.

=head2 All BSDs

Setting the C<$0> now works (as much as possible; see perlvar for details).

=head2 Cygwin

=over 4

=item *

Numerous updates; currently synchronised with Cygwin 1.1.4.

=back

=head2 EPOC

EPOC update after Perl 5.6.0.  The EPOC port home page is at
http://members.linuxstart.com/~oflebbe/perl/perl5.html

=head2 FreeBSD 3.*

Perl now works on post-3.0 FreeBSDs.

=head2 HP-UX

=over 4

=item *

Document that the C<perl -P> causes problems if one uses C<s/foo//>
(because the HP C compiler does funny things to that // thinking it
to be C++), document also the workaround.

=item *

C<Configure -Duse64bitall> now almost works (one failing test).

=back

=head2 IRIX

=over 4

=item *

Numerous compilation flag and hint enhancements.

=item *

Accidental mixing of 32-bit and 64-bit libraries (a doomed attempt)
made much harder.

=back

=head2 Linux

=over 4

=item *

Long doubles should now work (see INSTALL).

=back

=head2 MacOS Classic

=over 4

=item *

Compilation of the standard Perl distribution in MacOS Classic should
now work--assuming you have the Metrowerks development environment and
the missing Mac-specific toolkit bits, contact the macperl mailing
list for details.

=back

=head2 MPE/iX

MPE/iX update after Perl 5.6.0.  The Perl/iX home page is at
http://www.bixby.org/mark/perlix.html 

=head2 NetBSD/sparc

Perl now works on NetBSD/sparc.

=head2 OS/2

=over 4

=item *

Now works with usethreads (see INSTALL).

=back

=head2 Solaris

=over 4

=item *

64-bitness using the Sun Workshop compiler now works.

=back

=head2 Tru64 (aka Digital UNIX, aka DEC OSF/1)

=over 4

=item *

Allow compiling with gcc (previously explicitly forbidden).  Compiling
with gcc still not recommended because buggy code results, even with
gcc 2.95.2.

=item *

The operating system version letter now recorded in $Config{osvers}.

=back

=head2 Unicos

=over 4

=item *

Fixed various alignment problems that lead into core dumps either
during build or later.

=item *

no longer dying on math errors in runtime.

=item *

Now using full quad integers (64 bits), previously was using 
only 46 bit integers for speed.

=back

=head2 VMS

=over 4

=item *

chdir() now works better despite a CRT bug.

=item *

Now works with MULTIPLICITY (see INSTALL).

=item *

Now works with Perl's malloc.

=back

=head2 Windows

=over 4

=item *

accept() no longer leaks memory.

=item *

Better chdir() return value for a non-existent directory.

=item *

New %ENV entries now propagate to subprocesses.

=item *

$ENV{LIB} now used to search for libs under Visual C.

=item *

A failed (pseudo)fork now returns undef and sets errno to EAGAIN.

=item *

Allow REG_EXPAND_SZ keys in the registry.

=item *

Can now send() from all threads, not just the first one.

=item *

Fake signal handling reenabled, bugs and all.

=item *

Less stack reserved per thread so that more threads can run
concurrently. (still 16M perl thread)

=item *

C<File::Spec->tmpdir()> now prefers C:/temp over /tmp
(works better when perl running as service).

=item *

Better UNC path handling under ithreads.

=item *

wait() and waitpid() now work much better.

=item *

winsock handle leak fixed.

=back

=head1 Selected Bug Fixes

=over 4

=item *

Several debugger fixes: exit code now reflects the script exit code,
condition C<"0"> now treated correctly, the C<d> command now checks
line number, the C<$.> no longer gets corrupted, all debugger output now
goes correctly to the socket if RemotePort is set.

=item *

C<*foo{FORMAT}> now works.

=item *

Lexical warnings now propagating correctly between scopes.

=item *

Line renumbering with eval and C<#line> now works.

=item *

Module name now mandatory after the C<-M> switch.

=item *

Fixed numerous memory leaks, especially in eval "".

=item *

Modulus of unsigned numbers now works (4063328477 % 65535 used to
return 27406, instead of 27047).

=item *

Some "not a number" warnings introduced in 5.6.0 eliminated to be
more compatible with 5.005.  Infinity is now recognised as a number.

=item *

our() variables will not cause "will not stay shared" warnings

=item *

pack "Z" now correctly terminates the string with an "\0".

=item *

Fix password routines which in some shadow password platforms
(e.g. HP-UX) caused getpwent() to return every other entry.

=item *

printf() no longer resets the numeric locale to "C".

=item *

C<q(a\\b)> now parses correctly as C<'a\\b'>.

=item *

Printing quads (64-bit integers) with printf/sprintf works now
without q L ll prefixes (assuming you are on a quad-capable platform).

=item *

Regular expressions on references and overloaded scalars now work.

=item *

scalar() now forces scalar context even when used in void context.

=item *
	
sort() arguments are now compiled in the right wantarray context
(they were accidentally using the context of the sort() itself).

=item *

Changed the POSIX character class C<[[:space:]]> to include the (very
rare) vertical tabulator character.  Added a new POSIX-ish character
class C<[[:blank:]]> which stands for horizontal whitespace (currently,
the space and the tabulator).

=item *

$AUTOLOAD, sort(), lock(), and spawning subprocesses
in multiple thread simultaneously are now thread-safe.

=item *

Allow read-only string on left hand side of non-modifying tr///.

=item *

Several Unicode fixes (but still not perfect).

BOMs (byte order marks) in the beginning of Perl files
(scripts, modules) should now be transparently skipped.
UTF16 encoded Perl files should now be read correctly.

The character tables have been updated to new Unicode 3.0 features.

chr() for values greater than 127 now create utf8 when under use
utf8.

Comparing with utf8 data does not magically upgrade non-utf8 data into
utf8.

C<IsAlnum>, C<IsAlpha>, and C<IsWord> now match titlecase.

Concatenation with the C<.> operator or via variable interpolation,
C<eq>, C<substr>, C<reverse>, C<quotemeta>, the C<x> operator,
substitution with C<s///>, single-quoted UTF8, should now work--in
theory.

The C<tr///> operator now works I<slightly> better but is still rather
broken.  Note that the C<tr///CU> functionality has been removed (but
see pack('U0', ...)).

Zero entries were missing from the Unicode classes like C<IsDigit>.

=back

=head1 New or Changed Diagnostics

All regular expression compilation error messages are now hopefully
easier to understand both because the error message now comes before
the failed regex and because the point of failure is now clearly
marked.

The various "opened only for", "on closed", "never opened" warnings
drop the C<main::> prefix for filehandles in the C<main> package,
for example C<STDIN> instead of <main::STDIN>.

=over 4

=item *

(perhaps you forgot to load "%s"?)

(F) This is an educated guess made in conjunction with the message
"Can't locate object method \"%s\" via package \"%s\"".  It often means
that a method requires a package that has not been loaded.

=item *

Ambiguous range in transliteration operator

(F) You wrote something like C<tr/a-z-0//> which doesn't mean anything at
all.  To include a C<-> character in a transliteration, put it either
first or last.  (In the past, C<tr/a-z-0//> was synonymous with
C<tr/a-y//>, which was probably not what you would have expected.)

=item *

The "Unrecognized escape" warning has been extended to include C<\8>,
C<\9>, and C<\_>.  There is no need to escape any of the C<\w> characters.

=back

=head1 Changed Internals

=head2 apidoc

perlapi.pod (a companion to perlguts) now attempts to document the
internal API.

=head2 microperl

There is now a way to build a really minimal perl called microperl.
Building microperl does not require even running Configure;
C<make -f Makefile.micro> should be enough.  Beware: microperl makes
many assumptions, some of which may be too bold; the resulting
executable may crash or otherwise misbehave in wondrous ways.  For
careful hackers only.

=head2 Publicise More Functions

Added rsignal(), whichsig(), do_join() to the publicised API.

=head2 Propagating Exception Objects via Perl_croak() IN XS code

Made possible to propagate customised exceptions via croak()ing.

=head2 UTF8 Interfaces

Added is_utf8_char(), is_utf8_string(), bytes_to_utf8(), and utf8_to_bytes().

=head2 xsub attributes

Now xsubs can have attributes just like subs.

=head1 Known Problems

=head2 Unicode Support Still Far From Perfect

We're working on it.  Stay tuned.

=head2 EBCDIC Still A Lost Platform

The plan is to bring them back.

=head2 Building Extensions Can Fail Because Of Largefiles

Certain extensions like mod_perl and BSD::Resource are known to have
issues with `largefiles', a change brought by Perl 5.6.0 in where file
offsets are by default 64 bits wide (assuming the platform supports
such large files).  Modules may fail to compile at all or compile and
work incorrectly.  Currently there is no good solution for the problem
but Configure now stores the flags and libraries that affect the
largefileness to the %Config hash, the extensions that are having
problems can try configuring themselves without the largefileness.
This is admittedly not a clean solution.

=head1 Obsolete Diagnostics

=over 4

=item In string, @%s now must be written as \@%s

(F) It used to be that Perl would try to guess whether you wanted an
array interpolated or a literal @.  It did this when the string was
first used at runtime.  Now strings are parsed at compile time, and
ambiguous instances of @ must be disambiguated, either by prepending a
backslash to indicate a literal, or by declaring (or using) the array
within the program before the string (lexically).  (I<Someday it will
simply assume that an unbackslashed @ interpolates an array.>)

=back

That day has arrived.

=head1 Reporting Bugs

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 http://bugs.perl.org.  There may also be
information at http://www.perl.com/perl/, the Perl Home Page.

If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the B<perlbug>
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 C<perl -V>, will be sent off to perlbug@perl.org to be
analysed by the Perl porting team.

=head1 SEE ALSO

The F<Changes> file for exhaustive details on what changed.

The F<INSTALL> file for how to build Perl.

The F<README> file for general stuff.

The F<Artistic> and F<Copying> files for copyright information.

=head1 HISTORY

Written by Jarkko Hietaniemi <F<jhi@iki.fi>>, with many contributions
from The Perl Porters and Perl Users submitting feedback and patches.

Send omissions or corrections to <F<perlbug@perl.org>>.

=cut