| 1 | =head1 NAME
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| 2 |
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| 3 | perl582delta - what is new for perl v5.8.2
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| 4 |
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| 5 | =head1 DESCRIPTION
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| 6 |
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| 7 | This document describes differences between the 5.8.1 release and
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| 8 | the 5.8.2 release.
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| 9 |
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| 10 | If you are upgrading from an earlier release such as 5.6.1, first read
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| 11 | the L<perl58delta>, which describes differences between 5.6.0 and
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| 12 | 5.8.0, and the L<perl581delta>, which describes differences between
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| 13 | 5.8.0 and 5.8.1.
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| 14 |
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| 15 | =head1 Incompatible Changes
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| 16 |
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| 17 | For threaded builds for modules calling certain re-entrant system calls,
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| 18 | binary compatibility was accidentally lost between 5.8.0 and 5.8.1.
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| 19 | Binary compatibility with 5.8.0 has been restored in 5.8.2, which
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| 20 | necessitates breaking compatibility with 5.8.1. We see this as the
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| 21 | lesser of two evils.
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| 22 |
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| 23 | This will only affect people who have a threaded perl 5.8.1, and compiled
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| 24 | modules which use these calls, and now attempt to run the compiled modules
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| 25 | with 5.8.2. The fix is to re-compile and re-install the modules using 5.8.2.
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| 26 |
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| 27 | =head1 Core Enhancements
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| 28 |
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| 29 | =head2 Hash Randomisation
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| 30 |
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| 31 | The hash randomisation introduced with 5.8.1 has been amended. It
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| 32 | transpired that although the implementation introduced in 5.8.1 was source
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| 33 | compatible with 5.8.0, it was not binary compatible in certain cases. 5.8.2
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| 34 | contains an improved implementation which is both source and binary
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| 35 | compatible with both 5.8.0 and 5.8.1, and remains robust against the form of
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| 36 | attack which prompted the change for 5.8.1.
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| 37 |
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| 38 | We are grateful to the Debian project for their input in this area.
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| 39 | See L<perlsec/"Algorithmic Complexity Attacks"> for the original
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| 40 | rationale behind this change.
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| 41 |
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| 42 | =head2 Threading
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| 43 |
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| 44 | Several memory leaks associated with variables shared between threads
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| 45 | have been fixed.
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| 46 |
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| 47 | =head1 Modules and Pragmata
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| 48 |
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| 49 | =head2 Updated Modules And Pragmata
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| 50 |
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| 51 | The following modules and pragmata have been updated since Perl 5.8.1:
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| 52 |
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| 53 | =over 4
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| 54 |
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| 55 | =item Devel::PPPort
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| 56 |
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| 57 | =item Digest::MD5
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| 58 |
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| 59 | =item I18N::LangTags
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| 60 |
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| 61 | =item libnet
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| 62 |
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| 63 | =item MIME::Base64
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| 64 |
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| 65 | =item Pod::Perldoc
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| 66 |
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| 67 | =item strict
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| 68 |
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| 69 | Documentation improved
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| 70 |
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| 71 | =item Tie::Hash
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| 72 |
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| 73 | Documentation improved
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| 74 |
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| 75 | =item Time::HiRes
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| 76 |
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| 77 | =item Unicode::Collate
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| 78 |
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| 79 | =item Unicode::Normalize
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| 80 |
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| 81 | =item UNIVERSAL
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| 82 |
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| 83 | Documentation improved
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| 84 |
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| 85 | =back
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| 86 |
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| 87 | =head1 Selected Bug Fixes
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| 88 |
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| 89 | Some syntax errors involving unrecognized filetest operators are now handled
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| 90 | correctly by the parser.
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| 91 |
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| 92 | =head1 Changed Internals
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| 93 |
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| 94 | Interpreter initialization is more complete when -DMULTIPLICITY is off.
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| 95 | This should resolve problems with initializing and destroying the Perl
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| 96 | interpreter more than once in a single process.
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| 97 |
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| 98 | =head1 Platform Specific Problems
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| 99 |
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| 100 | Dynamic linker flags have been tweaked for Solaris and OS X, which should
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| 101 | solve problems seen while building some XS modules.
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| 102 |
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| 103 | Bugs in OS/2 sockets and tmpfile have been fixed.
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| 104 |
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| 105 | In OS X C<setreuid> and friends are troublesome - perl will now work
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| 106 | around their problems as best possible.
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| 107 |
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| 108 | =head1 Future Directions
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| 109 |
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| 110 | Starting with 5.8.3 we intend to make more frequent maintenance releases,
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| 111 | with a smaller number of changes in each. The intent is to propagate
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| 112 | bug fixes out to stable releases more rapidly and make upgrading stable
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| 113 | releases less of an upheaval. This should give end users more
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| 114 | flexibility in their choice of upgrade timing, and allow them easier
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| 115 | assessment of the impact of upgrades. The current plan is for code freezes
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| 116 | as follows
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| 117 |
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| 118 | =over 4
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| 119 |
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| 120 | =item *
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| 121 |
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| 122 | 5.8.3 23:59:59 GMT, Wednesday December 31st 2003
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| 123 |
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| 124 | =item *
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| 125 |
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| 126 | 5.8.4 23:59:59 GMT, Wednesday March 31st 2004
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| 127 |
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| 128 | =item *
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| 129 |
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| 130 | 5.8.5 23:59:59 GMT, Wednesday June 30th 2004
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| 131 |
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| 132 | =back
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| 133 |
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| 134 | with the release following soon after, when testing is complete.
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| 135 |
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| 136 | See L<perl581delta/"Future Directions"> for more soothsaying.
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| 137 |
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| 138 | =head1 Reporting Bugs
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| 139 |
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| 140 | If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles
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| 141 | recently posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl
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| 142 | bug database at http://bugs.perl.org/. There may also be
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| 143 | information at http://www.perl.com/, the Perl Home Page.
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| 144 |
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| 145 | If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the B<perlbug>
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| 146 | program included with your release. Be sure to trim your bug down
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| 147 | to a tiny but sufficient test case. Your bug report, along with the
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| 148 | output of C<perl -V>, will be sent off to [email protected] to be
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| 149 | analysed by the Perl porting team. You can browse and search
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| 150 | the Perl 5 bugs at http://bugs.perl.org/
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| 151 |
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| 152 | =head1 SEE ALSO
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| 153 |
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| 154 | The F<Changes> file for exhaustive details on what changed.
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| 155 |
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| 156 | The F<INSTALL> file for how to build Perl.
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| 157 |
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| 158 | The F<README> file for general stuff.
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| 159 |
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| 160 | The F<Artistic> and F<Copying> files for copyright information.
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| 161 |
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| 162 | =cut
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