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diff --git a/Master/tlpkg/tlperl/lib/pods/perl589delta.pod b/Master/tlpkg/tlperl/lib/pods/perl589delta.pod new file mode 100755 index 00000000000..d4bafa1d190 --- /dev/null +++ b/Master/tlpkg/tlperl/lib/pods/perl589delta.pod @@ -0,0 +1,2336 @@ +=head1 NAME + +perl589delta - what is new for perl v5.8.9 + +=head1 DESCRIPTION + +This document describes differences between the 5.8.8 release and +the 5.8.9 release. + +=head1 Notice + +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 L</"Known Problems"> for more information. + +=head1 Incompatible Changes + +A particular construction in the source code of extensions written in C++ +may need changing. See L</"Changed Internals"> 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. + +Other than this, there are no changes intentionally incompatible with 5.8.8. +If any exist, they are bugs and reports are welcome. + +=head1 Core Enhancements + +=head2 Unicode Character Database 5.1.0. + +The copy of the Unicode Character Database included in Perl 5.8 has +been updated to 5.1.0 from 4.1.0. See +L<http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode5.1.0/#NotableChanges> for the +notable changes. + +=head2 stat and -X on directory handles + +It is now possible to call C<stat> and the C<-X> 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 C<*FILE{IO}> filehandles +like C<*FILE> filehandles. + +=head2 Source filters in @INC + +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 L<perlfunc/require> for details. (Nicholas Clark) + +=head2 Exceptions in constant folding + +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) + +=head2 C<no VERSION> + +You can now use C<no> followed by a version number to specify that you +want to use a version of perl older than the specified one. + +=head2 Improved internal UTF-8 caching code + +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. + +=head2 Runtime relocatable installations + +There is now F<Configure> support for creating a perl tree that is relocatable +at run time. see L</Relocatable installations>. + +=head2 New internal variables + +=over 4 + +=item C<${^CHILD_ERROR_NATIVE}> + +This variable gives the native status returned by the last pipe close, +backtick command, successful call to C<wait> or C<waitpid>, or from the +C<system> operator. See L<perlvar> for details. (Contributed by Gisle Aas.) + +=item C<${^UTF8CACHE}> + +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 panicing on any discrepancy. + +=back + +=head2 C<readpipe> is now overridable + +The built-in function C<readpipe> is now overridable. Overriding it permits +also to override its operator counterpart, C<qx//> (also known as C<``>). + +=head2 simple exception handling macros + +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 C<croak>, but you need to do some cleanup before giving control +back to Perl. See L<perlguts/Exception Handling> for more details. + +=head2 -D option enhancements + +=over + +=item * + +C<-Dq> suppresses the I<EXECUTING...> message when running under C<-D> + +=item * + +C<-Dl> logs runops loop entry and exit, and jump level popping. + +=item * + +C<-Dv> displays the process id as part of the trace output. + +=back + +=head2 XS-assisted SWASHGET + +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) + +=head2 Constant subroutines + +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. + +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. + +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. + +=head1 New Platforms + +Compile support added for: + +=over + +=item * + +DragonFlyBSD + +=item * + +MidnightBSD + +=item * + +MirOS BSD + +=item * + +RISC OS + +=item * + +Cray XT4/Catamount + +=back + +=head1 Modules and Pragmata + +=head2 New Modules + +=over + +=item * + +C<Module::Pluggable> is a simple framework to create modules that accept +pluggable sub-modules. The bundled version is 3.8 + +=item * + +C<Module::CoreList> is a hash of hashes that is keyed on perl version as +indicated in C<$]>. The bundled version is 2.17 + +=item * + +C<Win32API::File> now available in core on Microsoft Windows. The bundled +version is 0.1001_01 + +=item * + +C<Devel::InnerPackage> finds all the packages defined by a single file. It is +part of the C<Module::Pluggable> distribution. The bundled version is 0.3 + +=back + +=head2 Updated Modules + +=over + +=item * + +C<attributes> upgraded to version 0.09 + +=item * + +C<AutoLoader> upgraded to version 5.67 + +=item * + +C<AutoSplit> upgraded to 1.06 + +=item * + +C<autouse> upgraded to version 1.06 + +=item * + +C<B> upgraded from 1.09_01 to 1.19 + +=over + +=item * + +provides new pad related abstraction macros C<B::NV::COP_SEQ_RANGE_LOW>, +C<B::NV::COP_SEQ_RANGE_HIGH>, C<B::NV::PARENT_PAD_INDEX>, +C<B::NV::PARENT_FAKELEX_FLAGS>, which hides the difference in storage in +5.10.0 and later. + +=item * + +provides C<B::sub_generation>, which exposes C<PL_sub_generation> + +=item * + +provides C<B::GV::isGV_with_GP>, which on pre-5.10 perls always returns true. + +=item * + +New type C<B::HE> added with methods C<VAL>, C<HASH> and C<SVKEY_force> + +=item * + +The C<B::GVf_IMPORTED_CV> flag is now set correctly when a proxy +constant subroutine is imported. + +=item * + +bugs fixed in the handling of C<PMOP>s. + +=item * + +C<B::BM::PREVIOUS> returns now C<U32>, not C<U16>. +C<B::CV::START> and C<B:CV::ROOT> return now C<NULL> on an XSUB, +C<B::CV::XSUB> and C<B::CV::XSUBANY> return 0 on a non-XSUB. + +=back + +=item * + +C<B::C> upgraded to 1.05 + +=item * + +C<B::Concise> upgraded to 0.76 + +=over + +=item * + +new option C<-src> causes the rendering of each statement (starting with +the nextstate OP) to be preceded by the first line of source code that +generates it. + +=item * + +new option C<-stash="somepackage">, C<require>s "somepackage", and then renders +each function defined in its namespace. + +=item * + +now has documentation of detailed hint symbols. + +=back + +=item * + +C<B::Debug> upgraded to version 1.05 + +=item * + +C<B::Deparse> upgraded to version 0.87 + +=over 4 + +=item * + +properly deparse C<print readpipe $x, $y>. + +=item * + +now handles C<''->()>, C<::()>, C<sub :: {}>, I<etc.> correctly [RT #43010]. +All bugs in parsing these kinds of syntax are now fixed: + + perl -MO=Deparse -e '"my %h = "->()' + perl -MO=Deparse -e '::->()' + perl -MO=Deparse -e 'sub :: {}' + perl -MO=Deparse -e 'package a; sub a::b::c {}' + perl -MO=Deparse -e 'sub the::main::road {}' + +=item * + +does B<not> deparse C<$^H{v_string}>, which is automatically set by the +internals. + +=back + +=item * + +C<B::Lint> upgraded to version 1.11 + +=item * + +C<B::Terse> upgraded to version 1.05 + +=item * + +C<base> upgraded to version 2.13 + +=over 4 + +=item * + +loading a module via base.pm would mask a global C<$SIG{__DIE__}> in that +module. + +=item * + +push all classes at once in C<@ISA> + +=back + +=item * + +C<Benchmark> upgraded to version 1.10 + +=item * + +C<bigint> upgraded to 0.23 + +=item * + +C<bignum> upgraded to 0.23 + +=item * + +C<bigrat> upgraded to 0.23 + +=item * + +C<blib> upgraded to 0.04 + +=item * + +C<Carp> upgraded to version 1.10 + +The argument backtrace code now shows C<undef> as C<undef>, +instead of a string I<"undef">. + +=item * + +C<CGI> upgraded to version 3.42 + +=item * + +C<charnames> upgraded to 1.06 + +=item * + +C<constant> upgraded to version 1.17 + +=item * + +C<CPAN> upgraded to version 1.9301 + +=item * + +C<Cwd> upgraded to version 3.29 with some platform specific +improvements (including for VMS). + +=item * + +C<Data::Dumper> upgraded to version 2.121_17 + +=over + +=item * + +Fixes hash iterator current position with the pure Perl version [RT #40668] + +=item * + +Performance enhancements, which will be most evident on platforms where +repeated calls to C's C<realloc()> are slow, such as Win32. + +=back + +=item * + +C<DB_File> upgraded to version 1.817 + +=item * + +C<DB_Filter> upgraded to version 0.02 + +=item * + +C<Devel::DProf> upgraded to version 20080331.00 + +=item * + +C<Devel::Peek> upgraded to version 1.04 + +=item * + +C<Devel::PPPort> upgraded to version 3.14 + +=item * + +C<diagnostics> upgraded to version 1.16 + +=item * + +C<Digest> upgraded to version 1.15 + +=item * + +C<Digest::MD5> upgraded to version 2.37 + +=item * + +C<DirHandle> upgraded to version 1.02 + +=over + +=item * + +now localises C<$.>, C<$@>, C<$!>, C<$^E>, and C<$?> before closing the +directory handle to suppress leaking any side effects of warnings about it +already being closed. + +=back + +=item * + +C<DynaLoader> upgraded to version 1.09 + +C<DynaLoader> can now dynamically load a loadable object from a file with a +non-default file extension. + +=item * + +C<Encode> upgraded to version 2.26 + +C<Encode::Alias> includes a fix for encoding "646" on Solaris (better known as +ASCII). + +=item * + +C<English> upgraded to version 1.03 + +=item * + +C<Errno> upgraded to version 1.10 + +=item * + +C<Exporter> upgraded to version 5.63 + +=item * + +C<ExtUtils::Command> upgraded to version 1.15 + +=item * + +C<ExtUtils::Constant> upgraded to version 0.21 + +=item * + +C<ExtUtils::Embed> upgraded to version 1.28 + +=item * + +C<ExtUtils::Install> upgraded to version 1.50_01 + +=item * + +C<ExtUtils::Installed> upgraded to version 1.43 + +=item * + +C<ExtUtils::MakeMaker> upgraded to version 6.48 + +=over + +=item * + +support for C<INSTALLSITESCRIPT> and C<INSTALLVENDORSCRIPT> +configuration. + +=back + +=item * + +C<ExtUtils::Manifest> upgraded to version 1.55 + +=item * + +C<ExtUtils::ParseXS> upgraded to version 2.19 + +=item * + +C<Fatal> upgraded to version 1.06 + +=over + +=item * + +allows built-ins in C<CORE::GLOBAL> to be made fatal. + +=back + +=item * + +C<Fcntl> upgraded to version 1.06 + +=item * + +C<fields> upgraded to version 2.12 + +=item * + +C<File::Basename> upgraded to version 2.77 + +=item * + +C<FileCache> upgraded to version 1.07 + +=item * + +C<File::Compare> upgraded to 1.1005 + +=item * + +C<File::Copy> upgraded to 2.13 + +=over 4 + +=item * + +now uses 3-arg open. + +=back + +=item * + +C<File::DosGlob> upgraded to 1.01 + +=item * + +C<File::Find> upgraded to version 1.13 + +=item * + +C<File::Glob> upgraded to version 1.06 + +=over + +=item * + +fixes spurious results with brackets inside braces. + +=back + +=item * + +C<File::Path> upgraded to version 2.07_02 + +=item * + +C<File::Spec> upgraded to version 3.29 + +=over 4 + +=item * + +improved handling of bad arguments. + +=item * + +some platform specific improvements (including for VMS and Cygwin), with +an optimisation on C<abs2rel> when handling both relative arguments. + +=back + +=item * + +C<File::stat> upgraded to version 1.01 + +=item * + +C<File::Temp> upgraded to version 0.20 + +=item * + +C<filetest> upgraded to version 1.02 + +=item * + +C<Filter::Util::Call> upgraded to version 1.07 + +=item * + +C<Filter::Simple> upgraded to version 0.83 + +=item * + +C<FindBin> upgraded to version 1.49 + +=item * + +C<GDBM_File> upgraded to version 1.09 + +=item * + +C<Getopt::Long> upgraded to version 2.37 + +=item * + +C<Getopt::Std> upgraded to version 1.06 + +=item * + +C<Hash::Util> upgraded to version 0.06 + +=item * + +C<if> upgraded to version 0.05 + +=item * + +C<IO> upgraded to version 1.23 + +Reduced number of calls to C<getpeername> in C<IO::Socket> + +=item * + +C<IPC::Open> upgraded to version 1.03 + +=item * + +C<IPC::Open3> upgraded to version 1.03 + +=item * + +C<IPC::SysV> upgraded to version 2.00 + +=item * + +C<lib> upgraded to version 0.61 + +=over + +=item * + +avoid warning about loading F<.par> files. + +=back + +=item * + +C<libnet> upgraded to version 1.22 + +=item * + +C<List::Util> upgraded to 1.19 + +=item * + +C<Locale::Maketext> upgraded to 1.13 + +=item * + +C<Math::BigFloat> upgraded to version 1.60 + +=item * + +C<Math::BigInt> upgraded to version 1.89 + +=item * + +C<Math::BigRat> upgraded to version 0.22 + +=over 4 + +=item * + +implements new C<as_float> method. + +=back + +=item * + +C<Math::Complex> upgraded to version 1.54. + +=item * + +C<Math::Trig> upgraded to version 1.18. + +=item * + +C<NDBM_File> upgraded to version 1.07 + +=over + +=item * + +improve F<g++> handling for systems using GDBM compatibility headers. + +=back + +=item * + +C<Net::Ping> upgraded to version 2.35 + +=item * + +C<NEXT> upgraded to version 0.61 + +=over + +=item * + +fix several bugs with C<NEXT> when working with C<AUTOLOAD>, C<eval> block, and +within overloaded stringification. + +=back + +=item * + +C<ODBM_File> upgraded to 1.07 + +=item * + +C<open> upgraded to 1.06 + +=item * + +C<ops> upgraded to 1.02 + +=item * + +C<PerlIO::encoding> upgraded to version 0.11 + +=item * + +C<PerlIO::scalar> upgraded to version 0.06 + +=over 4 + +=item * + +[RT #40267] C<PerlIO::scalar> doesn't respect readonly-ness. + +=back + +=item * + +C<PerlIO::via> upgraded to version 0.05 + +=item * + +C<Pod::Html> upgraded to version 1.09 + +=item * + +C<Pod::Parser> upgraded to version 1.35 + +=item * + +C<Pod::Usage> upgraded to version 1.35 + +=item * + +C<POSIX> upgraded to version 1.15 + +=over + +=item * + +C<POSIX> constants that duplicate those in C<Fcntl> are now imported from +C<Fcntl> and re-exported, rather than being duplicated by C<POSIX> + +=item * + +C<POSIX::remove> can remove empty directories. + +=item * + +C<POSIX::setlocale> safer to call multiple times. + +=item * + +C<POSIX::SigRt> added, which provides access to POSIX realtime signal +functionality on systems that support it. + +=back + +=item * + +C<re> upgraded to version 0.06_01 + +=item * + +C<Safe> upgraded to version 2.16 + +=item * + +C<Scalar::Util> upgraded to 1.19 + +=item * + +C<SDBM_File> upgraded to version 1.06 + +=item * + +C<SelfLoader> upgraded to version 1.17 + +=item * + +C<Shell> upgraded to version 0.72 + +=item * + +C<sigtrap> upgraded to version 1.04 + +=item * + +C<Socket> upgraded to version 1.81 + +=over + +=item * + +this fixes an optimistic use of C<gethostbyname> + +=back + +=item * + +C<Storable> upgraded to 2.19 + +=item * + +C<Switch> upgraded to version 2.13 + +=item * + +C<Sys::Syslog> upgraded to version 0.27 + +=item * + +C<Term::ANSIColor> upgraded to version 1.12 + +=item * + +C<Term::Cap> upgraded to version 1.12 + +=item * + +C<Term::ReadLine> upgraded to version 1.03 + +=item * + +C<Test::Builder> upgraded to version 0.80 + +=item * + +C<Test::Harness> upgraded version to 2.64 + +=over + +=item * + +this makes it able to handle newlines. + +=back + +=item * + +C<Test::More> upgraded to version 0.80 + +=item * + +C<Test::Simple> upgraded to version 0.80 + +=item * + +C<Text::Balanced> upgraded to version 1.98 + +=item * + +C<Text::ParseWords> upgraded to version 3.27 + +=item * + +C<Text::Soundex> upgraded to version 3.03 + +=item * + +C<Text::Tabs> upgraded to version 2007.1117 + +=item * + +C<Text::Wrap> upgraded to version 2006.1117 + +=item * + +C<Thread> upgraded to version 2.01 + +=item * + +C<Thread::Semaphore> upgraded to version 2.09 + +=item * + +C<Thread::Queue> upgraded to version 2.11 + +=over + +=item * + +added capability to add complex structures (e.g., hash of hashes) to queues. + +=item * + +added capability to dequeue multiple items at once. + +=item * + +added new methods to inspect and manipulate queues: C<peek>, C<insert> and +C<extract> + +=back + +=item * + +C<Tie::Handle> upgraded to version 4.2 + +=item * + +C<Tie::Hash> upgraded to version 1.03 + +=item * + +C<Tie::Memoize> upgraded to version 1.1 + +=over + +=item * + +C<Tie::Memoize::EXISTS> now correctly caches its results. + +=back + +=item * + +C<Tie::RefHash> upgraded to version 1.38 + +=item * + +C<Tie::Scalar> upgraded to version 1.01 + +=item * + +C<Tie::StdHandle> upgraded to version 4.2 + +=item * + +C<Time::gmtime> upgraded to version 1.03 + +=item * + +C<Time::Local> upgraded to version 1.1901 + +=item * + +C<Time::HiRes> upgraded to version 1.9715 with various build improvements +(including VMS) and minor platform-specific bug fixes (including +for HP-UX 11 ia64). + +=item * + +C<threads> upgraded to 1.71 + +=over + +=item * + +new thread state information methods: C<is_running>, C<is_detached> +and C<is_joinable>. C<list> method enhanced to return running or joinable +threads. + +=item * + +new thread signal method: C<kill> + +=item * + +added capability to specify thread stack size. + +=item * + +added capability to control thread exiting behavior. Added a new C<exit> +method. + +=back + +=item * + +C<threads::shared> upgraded to version 1.27 + +=over + +=item * + +smaller and faster implementation that eliminates one internal structure and +the consequent level of indirection. + +=item * + +user locks are now stored in a safer manner. + +=item * + +new function C<shared_clone> creates a copy of an object leaving +shared elements as-is and deep-cloning non-shared elements. + +=item * + +added new C<is_shared> method. + +=back + +=item * + +C<Unicode::Normalize> upgraded to version 1.02 + +=item * + +C<Unicode::UCD> upgraded to version 0.25 + +=item * + +C<warnings> upgraded to version 1.05_01 + +=item * + +C<Win32> upgraded to version 0.38 + +=over 4 + +=item * + +added new function C<GetCurrentProcessId> which returns the regular Windows +process identifier of the current process, even when called from within a fork. + +=back + +=item * + +C<XSLoader> upgraded to version 0.10 + +=item * + +C<XS::APItest> and C<XS::Typemap> are for internal use only and hence +no longer installed. Many more tests have been added to C<XS::APItest>. + +=back + +=head1 Utility Changes + +=head2 debugger upgraded to version 1.31 + +=over 4 + +=item * + +Andreas KE<ouml>nig contributed two functions to save and load the debugger +history. + +=item * + +C<NEXT::AUTOLOAD> no longer emits warnings under the debugger. + +=item * + +The debugger should now correctly find tty the device on OS X 10.5 and VMS +when the program C<fork>s. + +=item * + +LVALUE subs now work inside the debugger. + +=back + +=head2 F<perlthanks> + +Perl 5.8.9 adds a new utility F<perlthanks>, which is a variant of F<perlbug>, +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. + +=head2 F<perlbug> + +F<perlbug> now checks if you're reporting about a non-core module and suggests +you report it to the CPAN author instead. + +=head2 F<h2xs> + +=over + +=item * + +won't define an empty string as a constant [RT #25366] + +=item * + +has examples for C<h2xs -X> + +=back + +=head2 F<h2ph> + +=over 4 + +=item * + +now attempts to deal sensibly with the difference in path implications +between C<""> and C<< E<lt>E<gt> >> quoting in C<#include> statements. + +=item * + +now generates correct correct code for C<#if defined A || defined B> +[RT #39130] + +=back + +=head1 New Documentation + +As usual, the documentation received its share of corrections, clarifications +and other nitfixes. More C<< X<...> >> tags were added for indexing. + +L<perlunitut> is a tutorial written by Juerd Waalboer on Unicode-related +terminology and how to correctly handle Unicode in Perl scripts. + +L<perlunicode> is updated in section user defined properties. + +L<perluniintro> has been updated in the example of detecting data that is not +valid in particular encoding. + +L<perlcommunity> provides an overview of the Perl Community along with further +resources. + +L<CORE> documents the pseudo-namespace for Perl's core routines. + +=head1 Changes to Existing Documentation + +L<perlglossary> adds I<deprecated modules and features> and I<to be dropped modules>. + +L<perlhack> has been updated and added resources on smoke testing. + +The Perl FAQs (F<perlfaq1>..F<perlfaq9>) have been updated. + +L<perlcheat> is updated with better details on C<\w>, C<\d>, and C<\s>. + +L<perldebug> is updated with information on how to call the debugger. + +L<perldiag> documentation updated with I<subroutine with an ampersand> on the +argument to C<exists> and C<delete> and also several terminology updates on +warnings. + +L<perlfork> documents the limitation of C<exec> inside pseudo-processes. + +L<perlfunc>: + +=over + +=item * + +Documentation is fixed in section C<caller> and C<pop>. + +=item * + +Function C<alarm> now mentions C<Time::HiRes::ualarm> in preference +to C<select>. + +=item * + +Regarding precedence in C<-X>, filetest operators are the same as unary +operators, but not regarding parsing and parentheses (spotted by Eirik Berg +Hanssen). + +=item * + +L<reverse> function documentation received scalar context examples. + +=back + +L<perllocale> documentation is adjusted for number localization and +C<POSIX::setlocale> to fix Debian bug #379463. + +L<perlmodlib> is updated with C<CPAN::API::HOWTO> and +C<Sys::Syslog::win32::Win32> + +L<perlre> documentation updated to reflect the differences between +C<[[:xxxxx:]]> and C<\p{IsXxxxx}> matches. Also added section on C</g> and +C</c> modifiers. + +L<perlreguts> describe the internals of the regular expressions engine. It has +been contributed by Yves Orton. + +L<perlrebackslash> describes all perl regular expression backslash and escape +sequences. + +L<perlrecharclass> describes the syntax and use of character classes in +Perl Regular Expressions. + +L<perlrun> is updated to clarify on the hash seed I<PERL_HASH_SEED>. Also more +information in options C<-x> and C<-u>. + +L<perlsub> example is updated to use a lexical variable for C<opendir> syntax. + +L<perlvar> fixes confusion about real GID C<$(> and effective GID C<$)>. + +Perl thread tutorial example is fixed in section +L<perlthrtut/Queues: Passing Data Around> and L<perlothrtut>. + +L<perlhack> documentation extensively improved by Jarkko Hietaniemi and others. + +L<perltoot> provides information on modifying C<@UNIVERSAL::ISA>. + +L<perlport> documentation extended to include different C<kill(-9, ...)> +semantics on Windows. It also clearly states C<dump> is not supported on Win32 +and cygwin. + +F<INSTALL> has been updated and modernised. + +=head1 Performance Enhancements + +=over + +=item * + +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 C<-DPERL_DONT_CREATE_GVSV> 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. + +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. + +=item * + +C<diagnostics> no longer uses C<$&>, which results in large speedups +for regexp matching in all code using it. + +=item * + +Regular expressions classes of a single character are now treated the same as +if the character had been used as a literal, meaning that code that uses +char-classes as an escaping mechanism will see a speedup. (Yves Orton) + +=item * + +Creating anonymous array and hash references (ie. C<[]> and C<{}>) now incurs +no more overhead than creating an anonymous list or hash. Nicholas Clark +provided changes with a saving of two ops and one stack push, which was measured +as a slightly better than 5% improvement for these operations. + +=item * + +Many calls to C<strlen()> have been eliminated, either because the length was +already known, or by adopting or enhancing APIs that pass lengths. This has +been aided by the adoption of a C<my_sprintf()> wrapper, which returns the +correct C89 value - the length of the formatted string. Previously we could +not rely on the return value of C<sprintf()>, because on some ancient but +extant platforms it still returns C<char *>. + +=item * + +C<index> is now faster if the search string is stored in UTF-8 but only contains +characters in the Latin-1 range. + +=item * + +The Unicode swatch cache inside the regexp engine is now used. (the lookup had +a key mismatch, present since the initial implementation). [RT #42839] + +=back + +=head1 Installation and Configuration Improvements + +=head2 Relocatable installations + +There is now F<Configure> support for creating a relocatable perl tree. If +you F<Configure> with C<-Duserelocatableinc>, then the paths in C<@INC> (and +everything else in C<%Config>) can be optionally located via the path of the +F<perl> executable. + +At start time, if any paths in C<@INC> or C<Config> that F<Configure> marked +as relocatable (by starting them with C<".../">), then they are prefixed the +directory of C<$^X>. This allows the relocation can be configured on a +per-directory basis, although the default with C<-Duserelocatableinc> is that +everything is relocated. The initial install is done to the original configured +prefix. + +=head2 Configuration improvements + +F<Configure> 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 C<-fPIC> is now +enabled on Linux. It will also croak when your F</dev/null> isn't a device. + +A new configuration variable C<d_pseudofork> has been to F<Configure>, and is +available as C<$Config{d_pseudofork}> in the C<Config> module. This +distinguishes real C<fork> support from the pseudofork emulation used on +Windows platforms. + +F<Config.pod> and F<config.sh> are now placed correctly for cross-compilation. + +C<$Config{useshrplib}> is now 'true' rather than 'yes' when using a shared perl +library. + +=head2 Compilation improvements + +Parallel makes should work properly now, although there may still be problems +if C<make test> is instructed to run in parallel. + +Many compilation warnings have been cleaned up. A very stubborn compiler +warning in C<S_emulate_eaccess()> was killed after six attempts. +F<g++> support has been tuned, especially for FreeBSD. + +F<mkppport> has been integrated, and all F<ppport.h> files in the core will now +be autogenerated at build time (and removed during cleanup). + +=head2 Installation improvements. + +F<installman> now works with C<-Duserelocatableinc> and C<DESTDIR>. + +F<installperl> no longer installs: + +=over 4 + +=item * + +static library files of statically linked extensions when a shared perl library +is being used. (They are not needed. See L</Windows> below). + +=item * + +F<SIGNATURE> and F<PAUSE*.pub> (CPAN files) + +=item * + +F<NOTES> and F<PATCHING> (ExtUtils files) + +=item * + +F<perlld> and F<ld2> (Cygwin files) + +=back + +=head2 Platform Specific Changes + +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. + +=head3 FreeBSD + +=over 4 + +=item * + +Drop C<-std=c89> and C<-ansi> if using C<long long> as the main integral type, +else in FreeBSD 6.2 (and perhaps other releases), system headers do not +declare some functions required by perl. + +=back + +=head3 Solaris + +=over 4 + +=item * + +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 L<SUNWbdb> (Berkeley DB) was installed. Hence if Solaris 10 +is detected set C<ignore_versioned_solibs=y>. + +=back + +=head3 VMS + +=over 4 + +=item * + +Allow IEEE math to be deselected on OpenVMS I64 (but it remains the default). + +=item * + +Record IEEE usage in C<config.h> + +=item * + +Help older VMS compilers by using C<ccflags> when building C<munchconfig.exe>. + +=item * + +Don't try to build old C<Thread> extension on VMS when C<-Duseithreads> has +been chosen. + +=item * + +Passing a raw string of "NaN" to F<nawk> causes a core dump - so the string +has been changed to "*NaN*" + +=item * + +F<t/op/stat.t> tests will now test hard links on VMS if they are supported. + +=back + +=head3 Windows + +=over 4 + +=item * + +When using a shared perl library F<installperl> 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. + +=item * + +Various improvements to the win32 build process, including support for Visual +C++ 2005 Express Edition (aka Visual C++ 8.x). + +=item * + +F<perl.exe> will now have an icon if built with MinGW or Borland. + +=item * + +Improvements to the perl-static.exe build process. + +=item * + +Add Win32 makefile option to link all extensions statically. + +=item * + +The F<WinCE> directory has been merged into the F<Win32> directory. + +=item * + +C<setlocale> tests have been re-enabled for Windows XP onwards. + +=back + +=head1 Selected Bug Fixes + +=head2 Unicode + +Many many bugs related to the internal Unicode implementation (UTF-8) have +been fixed. In particular, long standing bugs related to returning Unicode +via C<tie>, overloading or C<$@> are now gone, some of which were never +reported. + +C<unpack> will internally convert the string back from UTF-8 on numeric types. +This is a compromise between the full consistency now in 5.10, and the current +behaviour, which is often used as a "feature" on string types. + +Using C<:crlf> and C<UTF-16> IO layers together will now work. + +Fixed problems with C<split>, Unicode C</\s+/> and C</ \0/>. + +Fixed bug RT #40641 - encoding of Unicode characters in regular expressions. + +Fixed a bug where using certain patterns in a regexp led to a panic. +[RT #45337] + +Perl no longer segfaults (due to infinite internal recursion) if the locale's +character is not UTF-8 [RT #41442]: + + use open ':locale'; + print STDERR "\x{201e}"; # „ + +=head2 PerlIO + +Inconsistencies have been fixed in the reference counting PerlIO uses to keep +track of Unix file descriptors, and the API used by XS code to manage getting +and releasing C<FILE *>s + +=head2 Magic + +Several bugs have been fixed in Magic, the internal system used to implement +features such as C<tie>, tainting and threads sharing. + +C<undef @array> on a tied array now correctly calls the C<CLEAR> method. + +Some of the bitwise ops were not checking whether their arguments were magical +before using them. [RT #24816] + +Magic is no longer invoked twice by the expression C<\&$x> + +A bug with assigning large numbers and tainting has been resolved. +[RT #40708] + +A new entry has been added to the MAGIC vtable - C<svt_local>. This is used +when copying magic to the new value during C<local>, allowing certain problems +with localising shared variables to be resolved. + +For the implementation details, see L<perlguts/Magic Virtual Tables>. + +=head2 Reblessing overloaded objects now works + +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. + +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. + +A certain well known Linux vendor applied incomplete versions of this bug fix +to their F</usr/bin/perl> 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. + +=head2 C<strict> now propagates correctly into string evals + +Under 5.8.8 and earlier: + + $ perl5.8.8 -e 'use strict; eval "use foo bar" or die $@' + Can't locate foo.pm in @INC (@INC contains: ... .) at (eval 1) line 2. + BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at (eval 1) line 2. + +Under 5.8.9 and later: + + $ perl5.8.9 -e 'use strict; eval "use foo bar" or die $@' + Bareword "bar" not allowed while "strict subs" in use at (eval 1) line 1. + +This may cause problems with programs that parse the error message and rely +on the buggy behaviour. + +=head2 Other fixes + +=over + +=item * + +The tokenizer no longer treats C<=cute> (and other words beginning +with C<=cut>) as a synonym for C<=cut>. + +=item * + +Calling C<CORE::require> + +C<CORE::require> and C<CORE::do> were always parsed as C<require> and C<do> +when they were overridden. This is now fixed. + +=item * + +Stopped memory leak on long F</etc/groups> entries. + +=item * + +C<while (my $x ...) { ...; redo }> shouldn't C<undef $x>. + +In the presence of C<my> in the conditional of a C<while()>, C<until()>, +or C<for(;;)> loop, we now add an extra scope to the body so that C<redo> +doesn't C<undef> the lexical. + +=item * + +The C<encoding> pragma now correctly ignores anything following an C<@> +character in the C<LC_ALL> and C<LANG> environment variables. [RT # 49646] + +=item * + +A segfault observed with some F<gcc> 3.3 optimisations is resolved. + +=item * + +A possible segfault when C<unpack> used in scalar context with C<()> groups +is resolved. [RT #50256] + +=item * + +Resolved issue where C<$!> could be changed by a signal handler interrupting +a C<system> call. + +=item * + +Fixed bug RT #37886, symbolic deferencing was allowed in the argument of +C<defined> even under the influence of C<use strict 'refs'>. + +=item * + +Fixed bug RT #43207, where C<lc>/C<uc> inside C<sort> affected the return +value. + +=item * + +Fixed bug RT #45607, where C<*{"BONK"} = \&{"BONK"}> didn't work correctly. + +=item * + +Fixed bug RT #35878, croaking from a XSUB called via C<goto &xsub> corrupts perl +internals. + +=item * + +Fixed bug RT #32539, F<DynaLoader.o> is moved into F<libperl.so> to avoid the +need to statically link DynaLoader into the stub perl executable. With this +F<libperl.so> provides everything needed to get a functional embedded perl +interpreter to run. + +=item * + +Fix bug RT #36267 so that assigning to a tied hash doesn't change the +underlying hash. + +=item * + +Fix bug RT #6006, regexp replaces using large replacement variables +fail some of the time, I<i.e.> when substitution contains something +like C<${10}> (note the bracket) instead of just C<$10>. + +=item * + +Fix bug RT #45053, C<Perl_newCONSTSUB()> is now thread safe. + +=back + +=head2 Platform Specific Fixes + +=head3 Darwin / MacOS X + +=over 4 + +=item * + +Various improvements to 64 bit builds. + +=item * + +Mutex protection added in C<PerlIOStdio_close()> to avoid race conditions. +Hopefully this fixes failures in the threads tests F<free.t> and F<blocks.t>. + +=item * + +Added forked terminal support to the debugger, with the ability to update the +window title. + +=back + +=head3 OS/2 + +=over 4 + +=item * + +A build problem with specifying C<USE_MULTI> and C<USE_ITHREADS> but without +C<USE_IMP_SYS> has been fixed. + +=item * + +C<OS2::REXX> upgraded to version 1.04 + +=back + +=head3 Tru64 + +=over 4 + +=item * + +Aligned floating point build policies for F<cc> and F<gcc>. + +=back + +=head3 RedHat Linux + +=over 4 + +=item * + +Revisited a patch from 5.6.1 for RH7.2 for Intel's F<icc> [RT #7916], added an +additional check for C<$Config{gccversion}>. + +=back + +=head3 Solaris/i386 + +=over 4 + +=item * + +Use C<-DPTR_IS_LONG> when using 64 bit integers + +=back + +=head3 VMS + +=over 4 + +=item * + +Fixed C<PerlIO::Scalar> in-memory file record-style reads. + +=item * + +pipe shutdown at process exit should now be more robust. + +=item * + +Bugs in VMS exit handling tickled by C<Test::Harness> 2.64 have been fixed. + +=item * + +Fix C<fcntl()> locking capability test in F<configure.com>. + +=item * + +Replaced C<shrplib='define'> with C<useshrplib='true'> on VMS. + +=back + +=head3 Windows + +=over 4 + +=item * + +C<File::Find> used to fail when the target directory is a bare drive letter and +C<no_chdir> is 1 (the default is 0). [RT #41555] + +=item * + +A build problem with specifying C<USE_MULTI> and C<USE_ITHREADS> but without +C<USE_IMP_SYS> has been fixed. + +=item * + +The process id is no longer truncated to 16 bits on some Windows platforms +( http://bugs.activestate.com/show_bug.cgi?id=72443 ) + +=item * + +Fixed bug RT #54828 in F<perlio.c> where calling C<binmode> on Win32 and Cgywin +may cause a segmentation fault. + +=back + +=head2 Smaller fixes + +=over 4 + +=item * + +It is now possible to overload C<eq> when using C<nomethod>. + +=item * + +Various problems using C<overload> with 64 bit integers corrected. + +=item * + +The reference count of C<PerlIO> file descriptors is now correctly handled. + +=item * + +On VMS, escaped dots will be preserved when converted to UNIX syntax. + +=item * + +C<keys %+> no longer throws an C<'ambiguous'> warning. + +=item * + +Using C<#!perl -d> could trigger an assertion, which has been fixed. + +=item * + +Don't stringify tied code references in C<@INC> when calling C<require>. + +=item * + +Code references in C<@INC> report the correct file name when C<__FILE__> is +used. + +=item * + +Width and precision in sprintf didn't handle characters above 255 correctly. +[RT #40473] + +=item * + +List slices with indices out of range now work more consistently. +[RT #39882] + +=item * + +A change introduced with perl 5.8.1 broke the parsing of arguments of the form +C<-foo=bar> with the C<-s> on the <#!> line. This has been fixed. See +http://bugs.activestate.com/show_bug.cgi?id=43483 + +=item * + +C<tr///> is now threadsafe. Previously it was storing a swash inside its OP, +rather than in a pad. + +=item * + +F<pod2html> labels anchors more consistently and handles nested definition +lists better. + +=item * + +C<threads> cleanup veto has been extended to include C<perl_free()> and +C<perl_destruct()> + +=item * + +On some systems, changes to C<$ENV{TZ}> would not always be +respected by the underlying calls to C<localtime_r()>. Perl now +forces the inspection of the environment on these systems. + +=item * + +The special variable C<$^R> is now more consistently set when executing +regexps using the C<(?{...})> construct. In particular, it will still +be set even if backreferences or optional sub-patterns C<(?:...)?> are +used. + +=back + +=head1 New or Changed Diagnostics + +=head2 panic: sv_chop %s + +This new fatal error occurs when the C routine C<Perl_sv_chop()> 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. + +=head2 Maximal count of pending signals (%s) exceeded + +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. + +=head2 panic: attempt to call %s in %s + +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. + +=head2 FETCHSIZE returned a negative value + +New error indicating that a tied array has claimed to have a negative +number of elements. + +=head2 Can't upgrade %s (%d) to %d + +Previously the internal error from the SV upgrade code was the less informative +I<Can't upgrade that kind of scalar>. It now reports the current internal type, +and the new type requested. + +=head2 %s argument is not a HASH or ARRAY element or a subroutine + +This error, thrown if an invalid argument is provided to C<exists> now +correctly includes "or a subroutine". [RT #38955] + +=head2 Cannot make the non-overridable builtin %s fatal + +This error in C<Fatal> previously did not show the name of the builtin in +question (now represented by %s above). + +=head2 Unrecognized character '%s' in column %d + +This error previously did not state the column. + +=head2 Offset outside string + +This can now also be generated by a C<seek> on a file handle using +C<PerlIO::scalar>. + +=head2 Invalid escape in the specified encoding in regexp; marked by <-- HERE in m/%s/ + +New error, introduced as part of the fix to RT #40641 to handle encoding +of Unicode characters in regular expression comments. + +=head2 Your machine doesn't support dump/undump. + +A more informative fatal error issued when calling C<dump> on Win32 and +Cygwin. (Given that the purpose of C<dump> is to abort with a core dump, +and core dumps can't be produced on these platforms, this is more useful than +silently exiting.) + +=head1 Changed Internals + +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 +C<XS> used to define XSUBs now includes an C<extern "C"> definition. A side +effect of this is that B<C++> code that used the construction + + typedef XS(SwigPerlWrapper); + +now needs to be written + + typedef XSPROTO(SwigPerlWrapper); + +using the new C<XSPROTO> macro, in order to compile. C extensions are +unaffected, although C extensions are encouraged to use C<XSPROTO> 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. + +C<set> magic on localizing/assigning to a magic variable will now only +trigger for I<container magics>, i.e. it will for C<%ENV> or C<%SIG> +but not for C<$#array>. + +The new API macro C<newSVpvs()> can be used in place of constructions such as +C<newSVpvn("ISA", 3)>. It takes a single string constant, and at C compile +time determines its length. + +The new API function C<Perl_newSV_type()> can be used as a more efficient +replacement of the common idiom + + sv = newSV(0); + sv_upgrade(sv, type); + +Similarly C<Perl_newSVpvn_flags()> can be used to combine +C<Perl_newSVpv()> with C<Perl_sv_2mortal()> or the equivalent +C<Perl_sv_newmortal()> with C<Perl_sv_setpvn()> + +Two new macros C<mPUSHs()> and C<mXPUSHs()> 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. + +A C<Perl_signbit()> function was added to test the sign of an C<NV>. It +maps to the system one when available. + +C<Perl_av_reify()>, C<Perl_lex_end()>, C<Perl_mod()>, C<Perl_op_clear()>, +C<Perl_pop_return()>, C<Perl_qerror()>, C<Perl_setdefout()>, +C<Perl_vivify_defelem()> and C<Perl_yylex()> are now visible to extensions. +This was required to allow C<Data::Alias> to work on Windows. + +C<Perl_find_runcv()> is now visible to perl core extensions. This was required +to allow C<Sub::Current> to work on Windows. + +C<ptr_table*> functions are now available in unthreaded perl. C<Storable> +takes advantage of this. + +There have been many small cleanups made to the internals. In particular, +C<Perl_sv_upgrade()> has been simplified considerably, with a straight-through +code path that uses C<memset()> and C<memcpy()> 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. + +A lot of small improvements in the code base were made due to reports from +the Coverity static code analyzer. + +Corrected use and documentation of C<Perl_gv_stashpv()>, C<Perl_gv_stashpvn()>, +C<Perl_gv_stashsv()> functions (last parameter is a bitmask, not boolean). + +C<PERL_SYS_INIT>, C<PERL_SYS_INIT3> and C<PERL_SYS_TERM> macros have been +changed into functions. + +C<PERLSYS_TERM> no longer requires a context. C<PerlIO_teardown()> +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. + +All compile time options which affect binary compatibility have been grouped +together into a global variable (C<PL_bincompat_options>). + +The values of C<PERL_REVISION>, C<PERL_VERSION> and C<PERL_SUBVERSION> are +now baked into global variables (and hence into any shared perl library). +Additionally under C<MULTIPLICITY>, the perl executable now records the size of +the interpreter structure (total, and for this version). Coupled with +C<PL_bincompat_options> this will allow 5.8.10 (and later), when compiled with a +shared perl library, to perform sanity checks in C<main()> to verify that the +shared library is indeed binary compatible. + +Symbolic references can now have embedded NULs. The new public function +C<Perl_get_cvn_flags()> can be used in extensions if you have to handle them. + +=head2 Macro cleanups + +The core code, and XS code in F<ext> that is not dual-lived on CPAN, no longer +uses the macros C<PL_na>, C<NEWSV()>, C<Null()>, C<Nullav>, C<Nullcv>, +C<Nullhv>, C<Nullhv> I<etc>. Their use is discouraged in new code, +particularly C<PL_na>, which is a small performance hit. + +=head1 New Tests + +Many modules updated from CPAN incorporate new tests. Some core specific +tests have been added: + +=over 4 + +=item ext/DynaLoader/t/DynaLoader.t + +Tests for the C<DynaLoader> module. + +=item t/comp/fold.t + +Tests for compile-time constant folding. + +=item t/io/pvbm.t + +Tests incorporated from 5.10.0 which check that there is no unexpected +interaction between the internal types C<PVBM> and C<PVGV>. + +=item t/lib/proxy_constant_subs.t + +Tests for the new form of constant subroutines. + +=item t/op/attrhand.t + +Tests for C<Attribute::Handlers>. + +=item t/op/dbm.t + +Tests for C<dbmopen>. + +=item t/op/inccode-tie.t + +Calls all tests in F<t/op/inccode.t> after first tying C<@INC>. + +=item t/op/incfilter.t + +Tests for for source filters returned from code references in C<@INC>. + +=item t/op/kill0.t + +Tests for RT #30970. + +=item t/op/qrstack.t + +Tests for RT #41484. + +=item t/op/qr.t + +Tests for the C<qr//> construct. + +=item t/op/regexp_qr_embed.t + +Tests for the C<qr//> construct within another regexp. + +=item t/op/regexp_qr.t + +Tests for the C<qr//> construct. + +=item t/op/rxcode.t + +Tests for RT #32840. + +=item t/op/studytied.t + +Tests for C<study> on tied scalars. + +=item t/op/substT.t + +Tests for C<subst> run under C<-T> mode. + +=item t/op/symbolcache.t + +Tests for C<undef> and C<delete> on stash entries that are bound to +subroutines or methods. + +=item t/op/upgrade.t + +Tests for C<Perl_sv_upgrade()>. + +=item t/mro/package_aliases.t + +MRO tests for C<isa> and package aliases. + +=item t/pod/twice.t + +Tests for calling C<Pod::Parser> twice. + +=item t/run/cloexec.t + +Tests for inheriting file descriptors across C<exec> (close-on-exec). + +=item t/uni/cache.t + +Tests for the UTF-8 caching code. + +=item t/uni/chr.t + +Test that strange encodings do not upset C<Perl_pp_chr()>. + +=item t/uni/greek.t + +Tests for RT #40641. + +=item t/uni/latin2.t + +Tests for RT #40641. + +=item t/uni/overload.t + +Tests for returning Unicode from overloaded values. + +=item t/uni/tie.t + +Tests for returning Unicode from tied variables. + +=back + +=head1 Known Problems + +There are no known new bugs. + +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. + +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. + +=head1 Platform Specific Notes + +=head2 Win32 + +C<readdir()>, C<cwd()>, C<$^X> and C<@INC> now use the alternate (short) +filename if the long name is outside the current codepage (Jan Dubois). + +=head3 Updated Modules + +=over 4 + +=item * + +C<Win32> upgraded to version 0.38. Now has a documented 'WinVista' response +from C<GetOSName> and support for Vista's privilege elevation in C<IsAdminUser>. +Support for Unicode characters in path names. Improved cygwin and Win64 +compatibility. + +=item * + +C<Win32API> updated to 0.1001_01 + +=item * + +C<killpg()> support added to C<MSWin32> (Jan Dubois). + +=item * + +C<File::Spec::Win32> upgraded to version 3.2701 + +=back + +=head2 OS/2 + +=head3 Updated Modules + +=over 4 + +=item * + +C<OS2::Process> upgraded to 1.03 + +Ilya Zakharevich has added and documented several C<Window*> and C<Clipbrd*> +functions. + +=item * + +C<OS2::REXX::DLL>, C<OS2::REXX> updated to version 1.03 + +=back + +=head2 VMS + +=head3 Updated Modules + +=over 4 + +=item * + +C<DCLsym> upgraded to version 1.03 + +=item * + +C<Stdio> upgraded to version 2.4 + +=item * + +C<VMS::XSSymSet> upgraded to 1.1. + +=back + +=head1 Obituary + +Nick Ing-Simmons, long time Perl hacker, author of the C<Tk> and C<Encode> +modules, F<perlio.c> in the core, and 5.003_02 pumpking, died of a heart +attack on 25th September 2006. He will be missed. + +=head1 Acknowledgements + +Some of the work in this release was funded by a TPF grant. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +The crack Berlin-based QA team of Andreas KE<ouml>nig 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. + +The other core committers contributed most of the changes, and applied most +of the patches sent in by the hundreds of contributors listed in F<AUTHORS>. + +And obviously, Larry Wall, without whom we wouldn't have Perl. + +=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.org, 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. You can browse and search +the Perl 5 bugs at http://bugs.perl.org/ + +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 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. + +=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. + +=cut |