a2p
accept
access
acct
addftinfo
addr2line
adjtime
afmtodit
after
aio_cancel
aio_error
aio_read
aio_return
aio_suspend
aio_waitcomplete
aio_write
alias
aliases
alloc
anvil
append
apply
apropos
ar
array
as
asa
asn1parse
at
atq
atrm
attemptckalloc
attemptckrealloc
authlib
authtest
autopoint
awk
b64decode
b64encode
basename
batch
bc
bdes
bell
bg
bgerror
biff
big5
binary
bind
bindkey
bindtags
bindtextdomain
bio
bitmap
blowfish
bn
bootparams
bootptab
bounce
brandelf
break
breaksw
brk
bsdiff
bsdtar
bsnmpd
bspatch
bthost
btsockstat
buffer
builtin
builtins
bunzip2
button
byacc
bzcat
bzegrep
bzfgrep
bzgrep
bzip2
c2ph
c89
c99
ca
cal
calendar
canvas
cap_mkdb
case
cat
catch
catman
cc
cd
cdcontrol
chdir
checkbutton
checknr
chflags
chfn
chgrp
chio
chkey
chmod
chown
chpass
chroot
chsh
ci
ciphers
ckalloc
ckdist
ckfree
ckrealloc
cksum
cleanup
clear
clipboard
clock
clock_getres
clock_gettime
clock_settime
close
cmp
co
col
colcrt
colldef
colors
colrm
column
comm
command
compile_et
complete
compress
concat
config
connect
console
continue
core
courierlogger
couriertcpd
cp
cpan
cpio
cpp
creat
crl
crontab
crunchgen
crunchide
crypt
crypto
csh
csplit
ctags
ctm
ctm_dequeue
ctm_rmail
ctm_smail
cu
cursor
cursors
cut
cvs
date
dbiprof
dbiproxy
dc
dcgettext
dcngettext
dd
dde
default
defer
deliverquota
des
destroy
devfs
df
dgettext
dgst
dh
dhparam
dialog
diff
diff3
dig
dir
dirent
dirname
dirs
discard
disktab
dngettext
do
domainname
done
dprofpp
dsa
dsaparam
dtmfdecode
du
dup
dup2
eaccess
ec
ecdsa
echo
echotc
ecparam
ed
edit
editrc
ee
egrep
elf
elfdump
elif
else
enc
enc2xs
encoding
end
endif
endsw
engine
enigma
entry
env
envsubst
eof
eqn
err
errno
error
errstr
esac
ethers
euc
eui64
eval
event
evp
ex
exec
execve
exit
expand
export
exports
expr
extattr
extattr_delete_fd
extattr_delete_file
extattr_get_fd
extattr_get_file
extattr_set_fd
extattr_set_file
f77
false
famm
famx
fblocked
fbtab
fc
fchdir
fchflags
fchmod
fchown
fcntl
fconfigure
fcopy
fdescfs
fdformat
fdread
fdwrite
fetch
fg
fgrep
fhopen
fhstat
fhstatfs
fi
file
file2c
fileevent
filename
filetest
find
find2perl
finger
flex
flock
flush
fmt
focus
fold
font
fontedit
for
foreach
fork
format
forward
fpathconf
frame
from
fs
fstab
fstat
fstatfs
fsync
ftp
ftpchroot
ftpusers
ftruncate
futimes
g711conv
gb2312
gb18030
gbk
gcc
gcore
gcov
gdb
gencat
gendsa
genrsa
gensnmptree
getconf
getdents
getdirentries
getdtablesize
getegid
geteuid
getfacl
getfh
getfsstat
getgid
getgroups
getitimer
getlogin
getopt
getopts
getpeername
getpgid
getpgrp
getpid
getppid
getpriority
getresgid
getresuid
getrlimit
getrusage
gets
getsid
getsockname
getsockopt
gettext
gettextize
gettimeofday
gettytab
getuid
glob
global
gmake
goto
gperf
gprof
grab
grep
grid
grn
grodvi
groff
groff_font
groff_out
groff_tmac
grog
grolbp
grolj4
grops
grotty
group
groups
gunzip
gzcat
gzexe
gzip
h2ph
h2xs
hash
hashstat
hd
head
help2man
hesinfo
hexdump
history
host
hostname
hosts
hosts_access
hosts_options
hpftodit
http
hup
i386_get_ioperm
i386_get_ldt
i386_set_ioperm
i386_set_ldt
i386_vm86
iconv
id
ident
idprio
if
ifnames253
ifnames259
image
imapd
incr
indent
indxbib
info
infokey
inode
install
instmodsh
interp
intro
introduction
ioctl
ipcrm
ipcs
ipf
ipftest
ipnat
ippool
ipresend
issetugid
jail
jail_attach
jobid
jobs
join
jot
kbdcontrol
kbdmap
kcon
kdestroy
kdump
kenv
kevent
keycap
keylogin
keylogout
keymap
keysyms
kgdb
kill
killall
killpg
kinit
kldfind
kldfirstmod
kldload
kldnext
kldstat
kldsym
kldunload
klist
kpasswd
kqueue
kse
kse_create
kse_exit
kse_release
kse_switchin
kse_thr_interrupt
kse_wakeup
ktrace
label
labelframe
lam
lappend
last
lastcomm
lastlog
lchflags
lchmod
lchown
ld
ldap
ldapadd
ldapcompare
ldapdelete
ldapmodify
ldapmodrdn
ldappasswd
ldapsearch
ldapwhoami
ldd
leave
less
lesskey
lex
lgetfh
lhash
libnetcfg
library
limit
limits
lindex
link
linprocfs
linsert
lint
lio_listio
list
listbox
listen
lj4_font
lkbib
llength
lmtp
ln
load
loadfont
local
locale
locate
lock
lockf
log
logger
login
logins
logname
logout
look
lookbib
lorder
lower
lp
lpq
lpr
lprm
lptest
lrange
lreplace
ls
lsearch
lseek
lset
lsort
lstat
lsvfs
lutimes
lynx
m4
madvise
magic
mail
maildiracl
maildirkw
maildirmake
mailq
mailx
make
makeinfo
makewhatis
man
manpath
master
mc
mcedit
mcview
md2
md4
md5
mdc2
memory
menu
menubar
menubutton
merge
mesg
message
mincore
minherit
minigzip
mkdep
mkdir
mkfifo
mkimapdcert
mklocale
mknod
mkpop3dcert
mkstr
mktemp
mlock
mlockall
mmap
mmroff
modfind
modfnext
modnext
modstat
moduli
more
motd
mount
mprotect
mptable
msdos
msdosfs
msgattrib
msgcat
msgcmp
msgcomm
msgconv
msgen
msgexec
msgfilter
msgfmt
msggrep
msginit
msgmerge
msgs
msgunfmt
msguniq
mskanji
msql2mysql
msync
mt
munlock
munlockall
munmap
mv
myisamchk
myisamlog
myisampack
mysql
mysqlaccess
mysqladmin
mysqlbinlog
mysqlcheck
mysqld
mysqldump
mysqld_multi
mysqld_safe
mysqlhotcopy
mysqlimport
mysqlshow
mysql_config
mysql_fix_privilege_tables
mysql_zap
namespace
nanosleep
nawk
nc
ncal
ncplist
ncplogin
ncplogout
neqn
netconfig
netgroup
netid
netstat
networks
newaliases
newgrp
nex
nfsstat
nfssvc
ngettext
nice
nl
nm
nmount
nohup
nologin
notify
nroff
nseq
nslookup
ntp_adjtime
ntp_gettime
nvi
nview
objcopy
objdump
objformat
ocsp
od
onintr
open
openssl
opieaccess
opieinfo
opiekey
opiekeys
opiepasswd
option
options
oqmgr
pack
package
packagens
pagesize
palette
pam_auth
panedwindow
parray
passwd
paste
patch
pathchk
pathconf
pawd
pax
pbm
pcre
pcreapi
pcrebuild
pcrecallout
pcrecompat
pcrecpp
pcregrep
pcrematching
pcrepartial
pcrepattern
pcreperform
pcreposix
pcreprecompile
pcresample
pcretest
perl
perl56delta
perl58delta
perl561delta
perl570delta
perl571delta
perl572delta
perl573delta
perl581delta
perl582delta
perl583delta
perl584delta
perl585delta
perl586delta
perl587delta
perl588delta
perl5004delta
perl5005delta
perlaix
perlamiga
perlapi
perlapio
perlapollo
perlartistic
perlbeos
perlbook
perlboot
perlbot
perlbs2000
perlbug
perlcall
perlcc
perlce
perlcheat
perlclib
perlcn
perlcompile
perlcygwin
perldata
perldbmfilter
perldebguts
perldebtut
perldebug
perldelta
perldgux
perldiag
perldoc
perldos
perldsc
perlebcdic
perlembed
perlepoc
perlfaq
perlfaq1
perlfaq2
perlfaq3
perlfaq4
perlfaq5
perlfaq6
perlfaq7
perlfaq8
perlfaq9
perlfilter
perlfork
perlform
perlfreebsd
perlfunc
perlglossary
perlgpl
perlguts
perlhack
perlhist
perlhpux
perlhurd
perlintern
perlintro
perliol
perlipc
perlirix
perlivp
perljp
perlko
perllexwarn
perllinux
perllocale
perllol
perlmachten
perlmacos
perlmacosx
perlmint
perlmod
perlmodinstall
perlmodlib
perlmodstyle
perlmpeix
perlnetware
perlnewmod
perlnumber
perlobj
perlop
perlopenbsd
perlopentut
perlos2
perlos390
perlos400
perlothrtut
perlpacktut
perlplan9
perlpod
perlpodspec
perlport
perlqnx
perlre
perlref
perlreftut
perlrequick
perlreref
perlretut
perlrun
perlsec
perlsolaris
perlstyle
perlsub
perlsyn
perlthrtut
perltie
perltoc
perltodo
perltooc
perltoot
perltrap
perltru64
perltw
perlunicode
perluniintro
perlutil
perluts
perlvar
perlvmesa
perlvms
perlvos
perlwin32
perlxs
perlxstut
perror
pfbtops
pftp
pgrep
phones
photo
pic
pickup
piconv
pid
pipe
pkcs7
pkcs8
pkcs12
pkg_add
pkg_check
pkg_create
pkg_delete
pkg_info
pkg_sign
pkg_version
pkill
pl2pm
place
pod2html
pod2latex
pod2man
pod2text
pod2usage
podchecker
podselect
poll
popd
popup
posix_madvise
postalias
postcat
postconf
postdrop
postfix
postkick
postlock
postlog
postmap
postqueue
postsuper
pr
pread
preadv
printcap
printenv
printf
proc
procfs
profil
protocols
prove
proxymap
ps
psed
psroff
pstruct
ptrace
publickey
pushd
puts
pwd
pwrite
pwritev
qmgr
qmqpd
quota
quotactl
radiobutton
raise
rand
ranlib
rcp
rcs
rcsclean
rcsdiff
rcsfile
rcsfreeze
rcsintro
rcsmerge
read
readelf
readlink
readonly
readv
realpath
reboot
recv
recvfrom
recvmsg
red
ree
refer
regexp
registry
regsub
rehash
remote
rename
repeat
replace
req
reset
resolver
resource
return
rev
revoke
rfcomm_sppd
rfork
rhosts
ripemd
ripemd160
rlog
rlogin
rm
rmd160
rmdir
rpc
rpcgen
rs
rsa
rsautl
rsh
rtld
rtprio
rup
ruptime
rusers
rwall
rwho
s2p
safe
sasl
sasldblistusers2
saslpasswd2
sbrk
scache
scale
scan
sched
sched_getparam
sched_getscheduler
sched_get_priority_max
sched_get_priority_min
sched_rr_get_interval
sched_setparam
sched_setscheduler
sched_yield
scon
scp
script
scrollbar
sdiff
sed
seek
select
selection
semctl
semget
semop
send
sendbug
sendfile
sendmail
sendmsg
sendto
services
sess_id
set
setegid
setenv
seteuid
setfacl
setgid
setgroups
setitimer
setlogin
setpgid
setpgrp
setpriority
setregid
setresgid
setresuid
setreuid
setrlimit
setsid
setsockopt
settc
settimeofday
setty
setuid
setvar
sftp
sh
sha
sha1
sha256
shar
shells
shift
shmat
shmctl
shmdt
shmget
showq
shutdown
sigaction
sigaltstack
sigblock
sigmask
sigpause
sigpending
sigprocmask
sigreturn
sigsetmask
sigstack
sigsuspend
sigvec
sigwait
size
slapadd
slapcat
slapd
slapdn
slapindex
slappasswd
slaptest
sleep
slogin
slurpd
smbutil
smime
smtp
smtpd
socket
socketpair
sockstat
soelim
sort
source
spawn
speed
spinbox
spkac
splain
split
squid
squid_ldap_auth
squid_ldap_group
squid_unix_group
sscop
ssh
sshd_config
ssh_config
stab
startslip
stat
statfs
stop
string
strings
strip
stty
su
subst
sum
suspend
swapoff
swapon
switch
symlink
sync
sysarch
syscall
sysconftool
sysconftoolcheck
systat
s_client
s_server
s_time
tabs
tail
talk
tar
tbl
tclsh
tcltest
tclvars
tcopy
tcpdump
tcpslice
tcsh
tee
tell
telltc
telnet
term
termcap
terminfo
test
texindex
texinfo
text
textdomain
tfmtodit
tftp
then
threads
time
tip
tk
tkerror
tkvars
tkwait
tlsmgr
tmac
top
toplevel
touch
tput
tr
trace
trafshow
trap
troff
true
truncate
truss
tset
tsort
tty
ttys
type
tzfile
ui
ul
ulimit
umask
unalias
uname
uncomplete
uncompress
undelete
unexpand
unhash
unifdef
unifdefall
uniq
units
unknown
unlimit
unlink
unmount
unset
unsetenv
until
unvis
update
uplevel
uptime
upvar
usbhidaction
usbhidctl
users
utf8
utimes
utmp
utrace
uudecode
uuencode
uuidgen
vacation
variable
verify
version
vfork
vgrind
vgrindefs
vi
vidcontrol
vidfont
view
virtual
vis
vt220keys
vwait
w
wait
wait3
wait4
waitpid
wall
wc
wget
what
whatis
where
whereis
which
while
who
whoami
whois
window
winfo
wish
wm
write
writev
wtmp
x509
xargs
xgettext
xmlwf
xstr
xsubpp
yacc
yes
ypcat
ypchfn
ypchpass
ypchsh
ypmatch
yppasswd
ypwhich
yyfix
zcat
zcmp
zdiff
zegrep
zfgrep
zforce
zgrep
zmore
znew
_exit
__syscall
 
FreeBSD/Linux/UNIX General Commands Manual
Hypertext Man Pages
perl570delta
 
PERL570DELTA(1)        Perl Programmers Reference Guide        PERL570DELTA(1)



NAME
       perl570delta - what's new for perl v5.7.0

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

Security Vulnerability Closed
       A potential security vulnerability in the optional suidperl component
       of Perl has been identified.  suidperl is neither built nor installed
       by default.  As of September the 2nd, 2000, the only known vulnerable
       platform is Linux, most likely all Linux distributions.	CERT and vari-
       ous 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.  On Linux plat-
       forms the /bin/mail program had an undocumented feature which when com-
       bined with suidperl 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 setuid scripts', or if suidperl is not
       installed, 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 to be supported, it may be completely removed from
       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 such as sudo ( see
       http://www.courtesan.com/sudo/ ).

Incompatible Changes
       o   Arrays now always interpolate into double-quoted strings: con-
	   structs like "foo@bar" now always assume @bar is an array, whether
	   or not the compiler has seen use of @bar.

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

       o   A reference to a reference now stringify as "REF(0x81485ec)"
	   instead of "SCALAR(0x81485ec)" in order to be more consistent with
	   the return value of ref().

       o   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 impor-
	   tantly) maintained.

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

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

       o   The (bogus) escape sequences \8 and \9 now give an optional warning
	   ("Unrecognized escape passed through").  There is no need to
	   \-escape any "\w" character.

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

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

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

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

Core Enhancements
       o   "perl -d:Module=arg,arg,arg" now works (previously one couldn't
	   pass in multiple arguments.)

       o   my __PACKAGE__ $obj now works.

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

       o   The numerical comparison operators return "undef" if either operand
	   is a NaN.  Previously the behaviour was unspecified.

       o   "pack('U0a*', ...)" can now be used to force a string to UTF-8.

       o   prototype(\&) is now available.

       o   There is now an UNTIE method.

Modules and Pragmata
       New Modules


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

       o   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.

       Updated And Improved Modules and Pragmata


       o   The following independently supported modules have been updated to
	   newer versions from CPAN: CGI, CPAN, DB_File, File::Spec,
	   Getopt::Long, the podlators bundle, Pod::LaTeX, Pod::Parser,
	   Term::ANSIColor, Test.

       o   Bug fixes and minor enhancements have been applied to B::Deparse,
	   Data::Dumper, IO::Poll, IO::Socket::INET, Math::BigFloat,
	   Math::Complex, Math::Trig, Net::protoent, the re pragma, Self-
	   Loader, Sys::SysLog, Test::Harness, Text::Wrap, UNIVERSAL, and the
	   warnings pragma.

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

       o   AutoLoader can now be disabled with "no AutoLoader;",

       o   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 vari-
	   ables $`, $&, or $'.)  Also, introduced @LAST_MATCH_START and
	   @LAST_MATCH_END English aliases for "@-" and "@+".

       o   File::Find now has pre- and post-processing callbacks.  It also
	   correctly changes directories when chasing symbolic links.  Call-
	   backs (naughtily) exiting with "next;" instead of "return;" now
	   work.

       o   File::Glob::glob() renamed to File::Glob::bsd_glob() to avoid pro-
	   totype mismatch with CORE::glob().

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

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

       o   %INC now localised in a Safe compartment so that use/require work.

       o   The Shell module now has an OO interface.

Utility Changes
       o   The Emacs perl mode (emacs/cperl-mode.el) has been updated to ver-
	   sion 4.31.

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

       o   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.

       o   The xsubpp utility for extension writers now understands POD docu-
	   mentation embedded in the *.xs files.

New Documentation
       o   perl56delta details the changes between the 5.005 release and the
	   5.6.0 release.

       o   perldebtut is a Perl debugging tutorial.

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

       o   perlnewmod tells about writing and submitting a new module.

       o   perlposix-bc explains using Perl on the POSIX-BC platform (an
	   EBCDIC mainframe platform).

       o   perlretut is a regular expression tutorial.

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

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

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

       o   sort() has been changed to use mergesort internally as opposed to
	   the earlier quicksort.  For very small lists this may result in
	   slightly slower sorting times, but in general the speedup should be
	   at least 20%.  Additional bonuses are that the worst case behaviour
	   of sort() is now better (in computer science terms it now runs in
	   time O(N log N), as opposed to quicksort's Theta(N**2) worst-case
	   run time behaviour), and that sort() is now stable (meaning that
	   elements with identical keys will stay ordered as they were before
	   the sort).

Installation and Configuration Improvements
       Generic Improvements


       o   INSTALL now explains how you can configure Perl to use 64-bit inte-
	   gers even on non-64-bit platforms.

       o   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.

       o   A new optional location for Perl libraries, otherlibdirs, is avail-
	   able.  It can be used for example for vendor add-ons without dis-
	   turbing Perl's own library directories.

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

       o   gcc needs to closely track the operating system release to avoid
	   build problems. If Configure finds that gcc was built for a differ-
	   ent operating system release than is running, it now gives a
	   clearly visible warning that there may be trouble ahead.

       o   If binary compatibility with the 5.005 release is not wanted, Con-
	   figure no longer suggests including the 5.005 modules in @INC.

       o   Configure "-S" can now run non-interactively.

       o   configure.gnu now works with options with whitespace in them.

       o   installperl now outputs everything to STDERR.

       o   $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.)

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

       o   *foo{FORMAT} now works.

       o   Lexical warnings now propagating correctly between scopes.

       o   Line renumbering with eval and "#line" now works.

       o   Fixed numerous memory leaks, especially in eval "".

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

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

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

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

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

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

       o   "q(a\\b)" now parses correctly as 'a\\b'.

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

       o   Regular expressions on references and overloaded scalars now work.

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

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

       o   Changed the POSIX character class "[[:space:]]" to include the
	   (very rare) vertical tab character.	Added a new POSIX-ish charac-
	   ter class "[[:blank:]]" which stands for horizontal whitespace
	   (currently, the space and the tab).

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

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

       o   Several Unicode fixes (but still not perfect).

	   o	   BOMs (byte order marks) in the beginning of Perl files
		   (scripts, modules) should now be transparently skipped.
		   UTF-16 (UCS-2) encoded Perl files should now be read cor-
		   rectly.

	   o	   The character tables have been updated to Unicode 3.0.1.

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

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

	   o	   "IsAlnum", "IsAlpha", and "IsWord" now match titlecase.

	   o	   Concatenation with the "." operator or via variable inter-
		   polation, "eq", "substr", "reverse", "quotemeta", the "x"
		   operator, substitution with "s///", single-quoted UTF-8,
		   should now work--in theory.

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

	   o	   vec() now refuses to deal with characters >255.

	   o	   Zero entries were missing from the Unicode classes like
		   "IsDigit".

       o   UNIVERSAL::isa no longer caches methods incorrectly.  (This broke
	   the Tk extension with 5.6.0.)

       Platform Specific Changes and Fixes


       o   BSDI 4.*

	   Perl now works on post-4.0 BSD/OSes.

       o   All BSDs

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

       o   Cygwin

	   Numerous updates; currently synchronised with Cygwin 1.1.4.

       o   EPOC

	   EPOC update after Perl 5.6.0.  See README.epoc.

       o   FreeBSD 3.*

	   Perl now works on post-3.0 FreeBSDs.

       o   HP-UX

	   README.hpux updated; "Configure -Duse64bitall" now almost works.

       o   IRIX

	   Numerous compilation flag and hint enhancements; accidental mixing
	   of 32-bit and 64-bit libraries (a doomed attempt) made much harder.

       o   Linux

	   Long doubles should now work (see INSTALL).

       o   Mac OS Classic

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

       o   MPE/iX

	   MPE/iX update after Perl 5.6.0.  See README.mpeix.

       o   NetBSD/sparc

	   Perl now works on NetBSD/sparc.

       o   OS/2

	   Now works with usethreads (see INSTALL).

       o   Solaris

	   64-bitness using the Sun Workshop compiler now works.

       o   Tru64 (aka Digital UNIX, aka DEC OSF/1)

	   The operating system version letter now recorded in $Con-
	   fig{osvers}.  Allow compiling with gcc (previously explicitly for-
	   bidden).  Compiling with gcc still not recommended because buggy
	   code results, even with gcc 2.95.2.

       o   Unicos

	   Fixed various alignment problems that lead into core dumps either
	   during build or later; no longer dies on math errors at runtime;
	   now using full quad integers (64 bits), previously was using only
	   46 bit integers for speed.

       o   VMS

	   chdir() now works better despite a CRT bug; now works with MULTI-
	   PLICITY (see INSTALL); now works with Perl's malloc.

       o   Windows

	   o	   accept() no longer leaks memory.

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

	   o	   New %ENV entries now propagate to subprocesses.

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

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

	   o	   Allow REG_EXPAND_SZ keys in the registry.

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

	   o	   Fake signal handling reenabled, bugs and all.

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

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

	   o	   Better UNC path handling under ithreads.

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

	   o	   winsock handle leak fixed.

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 "main::" prefix for filehandles in the "main" package, for
       example "STDIN" instead of .

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

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

       o   You can now build a really minimal perl called microperl.  Building
	   microperl does not require even running Configure; "make -f Make-
	   file.micro" should be enough.  Beware: microperl makes many assump-
	   tions, some of which may be too bold; the resulting executable may
	   crash or otherwise misbehave in wondrous ways.  For careful hackers
	   only.

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

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

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

       o   Now xsubs can have attributes just like subs.

Known Problems
       Unicode Support Still Far From Perfect

       We're working on it.  Stay tuned.

       EBCDIC Still A Lost Platform

       The plan is to bring them back.

       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 which file
       offsets default to 64 bits wide, where supported.  Modules may fail to
       compile at all or compile and work incorrectly.	Currently there is no
       good solution for the problem, but Configure now provides appropriate
       non-largefile ccflags, ldflags, libswanted, and libs in the %Config
       hash (e.g., $Config{ccflags_nolargefiles}) so the extensions that are
       having problems can try configuring themselves without the largefile-
       ness.  This is admittedly not a clean solution, and the solution may
       not even work at all.  One potential failure is whether one can (or, if
       one can, whether it's a good idea) link together at all binaries with
       different ideas about file offsets, all this is platform-dependent.

       ftmp-security tests warn 'system possibly insecure'

       Don't panic.  Read INSTALL 'make test' section instead.

       Test lib/posix Subtest 9 Fails In LP64-Configured HP-UX

       If perl is configured with -Duse64bitall, the successful result of the
       subtest 10 of lib/posix may arrive before the successful result of the
       subtest 9, which confuses the test harness so much that it thinks the
       subtest 9 failed.

       Long Doubles Still Don't Work In Solaris

       The experimental long double support is still very much so in Solaris.
       (Other platforms like Linux and Tru64 are beginning to solidify in this
       area.)

       Linux With Sfio Fails op/misc Test 48

       No known fix.

       Storable tests fail in some platforms

       If any Storable tests fail the use of Storable is not advisable.

       o   Many Storable tests fail on AIX configured with 64 bit integers.

	   So far unidentified problems break Storable in AIX if Perl is con-
	   figured to use 64 bit integers.  AIX in 32-bit mode works and other
	   64-bit platforms work with Storable.

       o   DOS DJGPP may hang when testing Storable.

       o   st-06compat fails in UNICOS and UNICOS/mk.

	   This means that you cannot read old (pre-Storable-0.7) Storable
	   images made in other platforms.

       o   st-store.t and st-retrieve may fail with Compaq C 6.2 on OpenVMS
	   Alpha 7.2.

       Threads Are Still Experimental

       Multithreading is still an experimental feature.  Some platforms emit
       the following message for lib/thr5005

	   #
	   # This is a KNOWN FAILURE, and one of the reasons why threading
	   # is still an experimental feature.	It is here to stop people
	   # from deploying threads in production. ;-)
	   #

       and another known thread-related warning is

	  pragma/overload......Unbalanced saves: 3 more saves than restores
	  panic: magic_mutexfree during global destruction.
	  ok
	  lib/selfloader.......Unbalanced saves: 3 more saves than restores
	  panic: magic_mutexfree during global destruction.
	  ok
	  lib/st-dclone........Unbalanced saves: 3 more saves than restores
	  panic: magic_mutexfree during global destruction.
	  ok

       The Compiler Suite Is Still Experimental

       The compiler suite is slowly getting better but is nowhere near working
       order yet.  The backend part that has seen perhaps the most progress is
       the bytecode compiler.

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 perlbug pro-
       gram 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 "perl -V", will be sent off to perlbug@perl.org to be analysed by
       the Perl porting team.

SEE ALSO
       The Changes file for exhaustive details on what changed.

       The INSTALL file for how to build Perl.

       The README file for general stuff.

       The Artistic and Copying files for copyright information.

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

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



perl v5.8.8			  2006-01-07		       PERL570DELTA(1)
=2109
+460
(235)