perl582delta(1)

1PERL582DELTA(1)        Perl Programmers Reference Guide        PERL582DELTA(1)
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NAME

6       perl582delta - what is new for perl v5.8.2
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DESCRIPTION

9       This document describes differences between the 5.8.1 release and the
10       5.8.2 release.
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12       If you are upgrading from an earlier release such as 5.6.1, first read
13       the perl58delta, which describes differences between 5.6.0 and 5.8.0,
14       and the perl581delta, which describes differences between 5.8.0 and
15       5.8.1.
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Incompatible Changes

18       For threaded builds for modules calling certain re-entrant system
19       calls, binary compatibility was accidentally lost between 5.8.0 and
20       5.8.1.  Binary compatibility with 5.8.0 has been restored in 5.8.2,
21       which necessitates breaking compatibility with 5.8.1. We see this as
22       the lesser of two evils.
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24       This will only affect people who have a threaded perl 5.8.1, and
25       compiled modules which use these calls, and now attempt to run the
26       compiled modules with 5.8.2. The fix is to re-compile and re-install
27       the modules using 5.8.2.
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Core Enhancements

30   Hash Randomisation
31       The hash randomisation introduced with 5.8.1 has been amended. It
32       transpired that although the implementation introduced in 5.8.1 was
33       source compatible with 5.8.0, it was not binary compatible in certain
34       cases. 5.8.2 contains an improved implementation which is both source
35       and binary compatible with both 5.8.0 and 5.8.1, and remains robust
36       against the form of attack which prompted the change for 5.8.1.
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38       We are grateful to the Debian project for their input in this area.
39       See "Algorithmic Complexity Attacks" in perlsec for the original
40       rationale behind this change.
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42   Threading
43       Several memory leaks associated with variables shared between threads
44       have been fixed.
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Modules and Pragmata

47   Updated Modules And Pragmata
48       The following modules and pragmata have been updated since Perl 5.8.1:
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50       Devel::PPPort
51       Digest::MD5
52       I18N::LangTags
53       libnet
54       MIME::Base64
55       Pod::Perldoc
56       strict
57           Documentation improved
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59       Tie::Hash
60           Documentation improved
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62       Time::HiRes
63       Unicode::Collate
64       Unicode::Normalize
65       UNIVERSAL
66           Documentation improved
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Selected Bug Fixes

69       Some syntax errors involving unrecognized filetest operators are now
70       handled correctly by the parser.
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Changed Internals

73       Interpreter initialization is more complete when -DMULTIPLICITY is off.
74       This should resolve problems with initializing and destroying the Perl
75       interpreter more than once in a single process.
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Platform Specific Problems

78       Dynamic linker flags have been tweaked for Solaris and OS X, which
79       should solve problems seen while building some XS modules.
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81       Bugs in OS/2 sockets and tmpfile have been fixed.
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83       In OS X "setreuid" and friends are troublesome - perl will now work
84       around their problems as best possible.
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Future Directions

87       Starting with 5.8.3 we intend to make more frequent maintenance
88       releases, with a smaller number of changes in each. The intent is to
89       propagate bug fixes out to stable releases more rapidly and make
90       upgrading stable releases less of an upheaval. This should give end
91       users more flexibility in their choice of upgrade timing, and allow
92       them easier assessment of the impact of upgrades. The current plan is
93       for code freezes as follows
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95       •   5.8.3 23:59:59 GMT, Wednesday December 31st 2003
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97       •   5.8.4 23:59:59 GMT, Wednesday March 31st 2004
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99       •   5.8.5 23:59:59 GMT, Wednesday June 30th 2004
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101       with the release following soon after, when testing is complete.
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103       See "Future Directions" in perl581delta for more soothsaying.
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Reporting Bugs

106       If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles
107       recently posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl bug
108       database at http://bugs.perl.org/.  There may also be information at
109       http://www.perl.com/, the Perl Home Page.
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111       If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the perlbug
112       program included with your release.  Be sure to trim your bug down to a
113       tiny but sufficient test case.  Your bug report, along with the output
114       of "perl -V", will be sent off to perlbug@perl.org to be analysed by
115       the Perl porting team.  You can browse and search the Perl 5 bugs at
116       http://bugs.perl.org/
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