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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title>ActivePerl 5.6 Change Log</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="Active.css" type="text/css" />
<link rev="made" href="mailto:" />
</head>
<body>
<p><a name="__index__"></a></p>
<!-- INDEX BEGIN -->
<!--
<ul>
<li><a href="#activeperl_5_6_change_log">ActivePerl 5.6 Change Log</a></li>
<ul>
<li><a href="#build_638_thursday__apr_15__2004">Build 638 Thursday, Apr 15, 2004</a></li>
<li><a href="#build_635_thursday__feb_6__2003">Build 635 Thursday, Feb 6, 2003</a></li>
<li><a href="#build_633_monday__june_17__2002">Build 633 Monday, June 17, 2002</a></li>
<li><a href="#build_632_monday__june_3__2002">Build 632 Monday, June 3, 2002</a></li>
<li><a href="#build_631_monday__december_31__2001">Build 631 Monday, December 31, 2001</a></li>
<li><a href="#build_630_wednesday__october_30__2001">Build 630 Wednesday, October 30, 2001</a></li>
<li><a href="#build_629_thursday__august_23__2001">Build 629 Thursday, August 23, 2001</a></li>
<li><a href="#build_628_thursday__july_5__2001">Build 628 Thursday, July 5, 2001</a></li>
<li><a href="#build_626_thursday__may_1__2001">Build 626 Thursday, May 1, 2001</a></li>
<li><a href="#build_623_sunday__december_12__2000">Build 623 Sunday, December 12, 2000</a></li>
<li><a href="#build_622_sunday__november_5__2000">Build 622 Sunday, November 5, 2000</a></li>
<li><a href="#build_620_sunday__october_29__2000">Build 620 Sunday, October 29, 2000</a></li>
<li><a href="#build_618_tuesday__september_12__2000">Build 618 Tuesday, September 12, 2000</a></li>
<li><a href="#build_617_thursday__august_31__2000">Build 617 Thursday, August 31, 2000</a></li>
<li><a href="#build_616_friday__july_14__2000">Build 616 Friday, July 14, 2000</a></li>
<li><a href="#build_615_thursday__june_29__2000">Build 615 Thursday, June 29, 2000</a></li>
<li><a href="#build_613_thursday__march_23__2000">Build 613 Thursday, March 23, 2000</a></li>
<li><a href="#build_612_wednesday__march_22__2000">Build 612 Wednesday, March 22, 2000</a></li>
<li><a href="#build_611_wednesday__march_15__2000">Build 611 Wednesday, March 15, 2000</a></li>
<li><a href="#build_609_wednesday__march_1__2000">Build 609 Wednesday, March 1, 2000</a></li>
<li><a href="#build_607_friday__february_11__2000">Build 607 Friday, February 11, 2000</a></li>
<li><a href="#build_606_friday__february_4__2000">Build 606 Friday, February 4, 2000</a></li>
<li><a href="#build_604_friday__november_26__1999">Build 604 Friday, November 26, 1999</a></li>
<li><a href="#build_603_tuesday__november_23__1999">Build 603 Tuesday, November 23, 1999</a></li>
<li><a href="#build_602_thursday__august_5__1999">Build 602 Thursday, August 5, 1999</a></li>
<li><a href="#build_601_tuesday__july_13__1999">Build 601 Tuesday, July 13, 1999</a></li>
<li><a href="#what_s_new_in_the_600_series">What's new in the 600 Series</a></li>
</ul>
</ul>
-->
<!-- INDEX END -->
<p>
</p>
<h1><a name="activeperl_5_6_change_log">ActivePerl 5.6 Change Log</a></h1>
<p>For the latest information on ActivePerl, please see:</p>
<pre>
<a href="http://www.ActiveState.com/ActivePerl/">http://www.ActiveState.com/ActivePerl/</a></pre>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="build_638_thursday__apr_15__2004">Build 638 Thursday, Apr 15, 2004</a></h2>
<p><em>PPM2 and PPM3</em></p>
<p>PPM3 has <strong>not</strong> been updated to the latest version PPM 3.1 as shipped
with the ActivePerl 5.8 series. PPM 3.1 assumes that PPM 2.x is no
longer installed and doesn't synchronize package information with it.
Since PPM2 is the default PPM version in ActivePerl 5.6, PPM3 has been
kept at version 3.0.</p>
<p><em>Bug Fixes and Changes</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
On Windows, a potential buffer overrun in the <code>stat()</code> function has been
fixed.
<p></p>
<li></li>
On Windows, a handle leak in <code>kill()</code> has been fixed.
<p></p>
<li></li>
On Windows, a memory leak in <code>fork()</code> has been fixed.
<p></p>
<li></li>
On Windows NT and later, subprocesses are now started via ``cmd /x/d/c''
instead of ``cmd /x/c''. This disables execution of AutoRun command
specified in the registry.
<p></p>
<li></li>
On Windows, the four-argument form of <code>select()</code> did not report the
$! (errno) value properly after errors. This has been corrected.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Win32::GetOSVersion() returns additional information about the system
(when available, Windows NT SP6 and later).
<p></p>
<li></li>
Perl for ISAPI would sometimes close a filehandle twice. This leads
to a race condition where another thread could have reused the
filehandle before the second close would be executed. This usually
happens in high load scenarios. Typical symptoms include error
messages that Perl could not load standard modules, even though they
are installed on the server.
<p>Perl for ISAPI no longer closes filehandles implicitly and relies now
on the application to properly clean up file and socket handle
resources.</p>
<p></p>
<li></li>
Perl for ISAPI now avoids closing the special handles STDIN, STDOUT
and STDERR, even if the script asked for that explicitly.
<p></p>
<li></li>
The following bundled modules have been updated to their latest
versions:
<pre>
Archive-Tar
Compress-Zlib
Digest
Digest-MD2
Digest-MD5
Digest-SHA1
File-CounterFile
HTML-Parser
HTML-Tree
libnet
libwin32
libwww-perl
MD5
MIME-Base64
Storable
Test-Harness
URI</pre>
<p>The following modules have been added to ActivePerl:</p>
<pre>
Data-Dump
IO-Zlib
Test-Simple</pre>
<p></p>
<li></li>
Other minor bug fixes and documentation updates.
<p></p></ul>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="build_635_thursday__feb_6__2003">Build 635 Thursday, Feb 6, 2003</a></h2>
<p><em>Fixes for Security Issues</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
On Linux, the <code>crypt()</code> builtin did not return consistent results.
This has been corrected.
<p></p>
<li></li>
The <code>reval()</code> and <code>rdo()</code> methods in the Safe module could be subverted
into executing unsafe code by the callee. This problem has been
corrected.
<p></p></ul>
<p><em>Other Bug Fixes and Changes</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
Overloading <code>bool</code> could result in core dumps in some situations.
This has been corrected.
<p></p>
<li></li>
On Windows, sockets opened by code running under PerlScript and
Perl for ISAPI were not fully closed internally. The ensuing leak
resulted in failure to open files or sockets after a certain
number of sockets had been opened and closed under these environments.
This problem was particularly severe when running under ActivePerl
5.6.1.632 or 5.6.1.633, and is now fixed.
<p></p>
<li></li>
On Windows, PerlScript and Perl for ISAPI were affected by a reentrancy
problem, which meant that recursive invocation of these two engines
could fail. This problem has been corrected.
<p></p>
<li></li>
PPM3 includes a number of bug fixes for better handling of both PPM2
and PPM3 repositories.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Tk and libwww-perl have been updated to their latest versions.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Win32::EventLog could fail to retrieve messages under some circumstances.
This has been corrected.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Win32::OLE has been updated. Run ``perldoc Win32::OLE::NEWS'' for
a summary.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Win32::Shortcut no longer calls <code>CoUninitialize()</code> within an END block.
This avoids random coredumps from this module when its DESTROY methods
happen to get called after the END block executes.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Win32::Job now propagates environment changes to its subprocesses
correctly.
<p></p>
<li></li>
A Win32::GetFolderPath() builtin is now supported.
Run ``perldoc Win32'' for documentation on this new builtin.
<p></p>
<li></li>
PPM v2 and v3 can now optionally generate HTML documentation when
installing packages if POD documentation is found in the package.
This is controlled by the rebuildhtml option in PPM v2 and the
rebuild-html option in PPM v3.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Other minor bug fixes and documentation updates.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Build 634 was not formally released to the public.
<p></p></ul>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="build_633_monday__june_17__2002">Build 633 Monday, June 17, 2002</a></h2>
<p><em>Bug Fixes and Changes</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
The PPM3 release included in Build 632 had a bug in the package upgrade
functionality. This has been corrected in PPM v3.0.1.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Some modules that autoloaded their constants could reset $! during
autoloading. Such locations now properly localize $! before potentially
modifying it.
<p></p>
<li></li>
IO::Pipe now works on Windows.
<p></p>
<li></li>
libwin32 v0.191 is included on Windows.
<p></p></ul>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="build_632_monday__june_3__2002">Build 632 Monday, June 3, 2002</a></h2>
<p><em>Fixes for Security Issues</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
Compress-Zlib is now linked with zlib v1.1.4, which fixes a buffer overflow
vulnerability in this library.
<p></p>
<li></li>
The version of SOAP-Lite included in ActivePerl 5.6.1.631 and earlier
allowed untrusted data to call any subroutine that is defined in the
program that loads SOAP::Lite, or in any modules used by the program.
SOAP-Lite v0.55, included in this release of ActivePerl, contains a
fix for this issue.
<p></p></ul>
<p><em>Other Bug Fixes and Changes</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
Redirecting STD* handles with <code>open(STDOUT, "</code>&=FOO``)> leaked memory
on all platforms. This leak has been fixed.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Race conditions involving backticks, piped <code>open()</code> have been fixed.
These problems could affect environments where multiple Perl interpreters
execute in concurrent threads.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Use of the range operator on constant numbers, as for example <code>1..20</code>,
could result in compile-time stricture checks being disabled for parts
of the program. The problem has been corrected.
<p></p>
<li></li>
XSUBs can now be undefined using undef().
<p></p>
<li></li>
On Unix platforms, %ENV and %SIG handling could result in race conditions.
Changes to %ENV and %SIG are now only propagated to the underlying system
process context within the top level interpreter.
<p></p>
<li></li>
On Unix platforms, ActivePerl now uses reentrant versions of library
functions, where available. This further improves thread-safety in
multiple-interpreter environments.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Win32::GetLongPathName() did not work correctly if there were ``.'' or
``..'' components in the argument. The implementation has been improved
to handle this better.
<p></p>
<li></li>
On Windows platforms, a Win32::SetChildShowWindow() builtin is now
supported. This can be used to set the visibility of child process
windows. See <em>Win32</em> for more information.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Newer versions of the following modules are included: Digest-MD5,
MIME-Base64, URI, HTML-Parser, libwww-perl, SOAP-Lite, and libnet.
<p></p>
<li></li>
libwin32 has been updated on Windows platforms. There is support for
job objects (available in Windows 2000 and XP) through the new Win32::Job
extension, which can be used to manage a group of processes.
<p></p>
<li></li>
On Windows platforms, the installer ensures that the Microsoft Installer
automatic repair ``feature'' will not be triggered. This ensures that the
repair ``feature'' does not corrupt the ActivePerl installation by ``repairing''
critical files to their unrelocated state.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Documentation for perl programs is now included in the table of contents.
<p></p></ul>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="build_631_monday__december_31__2001">Build 631 Monday, December 31, 2001</a></h2>
<p><em>Bug Fixes and Changes</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
ActivePerl 5.6.1.628 introduced a memory leak in <code>eval "..."</code> expressions
that create anonymous subroutines. This has been fixed.
<p></p>
<li></li>
On Windows, the behavior of <code>system(@list)</code> has been further rationalized to
improve compatibility with the behavior before 5.6.1.630. Automatic quoting of
arguments with whitespace is now skipped if the argument already contains
double quotes anywhere within it. Previously, the double quotes needed
to be at both ends in order for further quoting to be skipped.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Bugs in command.com on Windows 9x/Me prevented the <code>system()</code> enhancements
in ActivePerl 5.6.1.630 from working in some situations. These enhancements
are now disabled under Windows 9x/Me.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Perl for ISAPI and PerlScript had a bug in ActivePerl 5.6.1.630 that
caused <code>system()</code> and backticks to leak handles, resulting in failure of
these functions after a certain number of invocations. This has been
corrected.
<p></p>
<li></li>
ActivePerl 5.6.1.629 and later had a problem in Perl for ISAPI that
caused %ENV modifications done by the script to affect the real
environment, resulting in incompatible behavior of scripts that assumed
the older behavior. The behavior before 5.6.1.629 has been reinstated.
<p></p>
<li></li>
On Windows, the internal memory allocator used by Perl could fail after
around 1 GB of allocations even though more memory may be available on
the system. Allocating up to and beyond 2GB is now possible if the
system has memory available and allows a single process to allocate
that amount of memory. Note that most Windows systems running on
x86 have a 2GB limit on allocations by a single process.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Non-blocking <code>waitpid()</code> on any process (a.k.a. waitpid(-1, WNOHANG)) is now
supported on Windows.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Due to popular demand, the following modules are now included by default:
Storable, Tk, and XML-Simple.
<p></p>
<li></li>
PPM v3 beta 3 is included. A number of bugs in beta 2 have been fixed.
Installing from URLs (http, ftp, and file) and installing through a HTTP
proxy server are now supported.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Compress-Zlib and MIME-Base64 have been updated to their latest versions.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Due to popular demand, HTML documentation has been reintroduced into the
default installation for Windows.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Various other minor bugs have been fixed. See the ActivePerl bug database
at <a href="http://bugs.ActiveState.com/">http://bugs.ActiveState.com/</a> for more information.
<p></p></ul>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="build_630_wednesday__october_30__2001">Build 630 Wednesday, October 30, 2001</a></h2>
<p><em>Bug Fixes and Changes</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
PPM v3 beta 2 is included. This version of PPM is a complete rewrite,
and comes with many new features and improvements, including support
for managing installation profiles through the ASPN web site.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Many of the standard extensions supplied with Perl have been audited
for the use of C ``static'' variables and fixed to avoid such uses, making
these extensions safe to use in multi-threaded environments such as
PerlEx and PerlMx Enterprise. The list includes B, DynaLoader,
File::Glob, DB_File, Opcode, and re.
<p></p>
<li></li>
The <code>readline()</code> (aka ``diamond'') operator now works on ``our'' variables.
<p></p>
<li></li>
On Windows, <code>system()</code> and backticks behave more sanely with respect to
whitespace in arguments. Any whitespace inside quoted arguments are
correctly preserved. <code>system()</code> with multiple arguments also automatically
quotes any arguments that contain whitespace by enclosing them in
double-quotes, as necessary. This improves portability of the standard
idiom of calling <code>system()</code> with multiple arguments.
<p></p>
<li></li>
On Windows, IO::File::new_tmpfile() does not fail after 32767 calls
<p></p>
<li></li>
On Windows, entries in %ENV were sometimes being improperly propagated
to child processes if such entries happened to be at the end of the
internal process environment table. This misbehavior has been corrected.
<p></p>
<li></li>
PerlScript and Perl for ISAPI ignore the \\?\ prefix in new-fangled
file names returned by IIS in Windows XP.
<p></p>
<li></li>
In scripts running under PerlScript or Perl for ISAPI, <code>print()</code> with
more than one argument did not print the second and subsequent arguments.
This has been fixed.
<p></p>
<li></li>
The style and content of the included online documentation has been
extensively revised. On Windows, all the documentation is now provided
in fully searchable HTML Help format. Documentation in conventional
HTML format continues to be included only for Unix platforms, and can
also be downloaded separately.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Some of the bundled modules have been updated to their latest available
versions: libwin32 v0.18, URI v1.17, and SOAP-Lite v0.51 are now included.
<p></p></ul>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="build_629_thursday__august_23__2001">Build 629 Thursday, August 23, 2001</a></h2>
<p><em>Bug Fixes and Changes</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
Perl now uses the reentrant versions of time functions localtime_r(),
gmtime_r(), and <code>asctime_r()</code> on Unix platforms, making the corresponding
builtins and POSIX::asctime() thread-safe.
<p></p>
<li></li>
On Windows, child processes launched with Win32::Spawn() now correctly
inherit any modifications to %ENV done by the script.
<p></p>
<li></li>
On Windows, modifications to $ENV{PATH} in the script correctly affect
the lookup of executables in <code>system()</code> and backticks. Previous versions
did not propagate %ENV modifications completely enough for the underlying
<code>CreateProcess()</code> system call to notice any changes.
<p></p>
<li></li>
A small number of minor bug fixes from the Perl development track have been
incorporated. See the ActivePerl source code diff for the complete list.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Compress-Zlib has been updated to v1.13.
<p></p>
<li></li>
libwin32 v0.173 is included.
<p></p></ul>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="build_628_thursday__july_5__2001">Build 628 Thursday, July 5, 2001</a></h2>
<p><em>Bug Fixes and Changes</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
A few bug fixes from the Perl development track have been incorporated.
See the ActivePerl source code diff for the complete list.
<p></p>
<li></li>
ActivePerl on Solaris does not use Perl's malloc by default. Sufficient
compatibility stubs are included such that binary compatibility with
previous builds will not be affected.
<p></p>
<li></li>
HTML-Parser has been updated to v3.25.
<p></p>
<li></li>
The included HTML documentation has many substantive and cosmetic
improvements.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Build 627 was not formally released to the public.
<p></p></ul>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="build_626_thursday__may_1__2001">Build 626 Thursday, May 1, 2001</a></h2>
<p>Build 626 is based on Perl 5.6.1. This is the first release of ActivePerl
based on this new maintenance release of Perl. This release is meant for
use in production systems. However, owing to the sheer volume of changes
between Perl 5.6.0 and 5.6.1 that have been incorporated, please be sure
to test it thoroughly in a non-critical environment before you upgrade
your production systems.</p>
<p>Please check <em>perl561delta</em> for a list of the major changes in Perl.
Only additional changes specific to ActivePerl are mentioned here.</p>
<p><em>Bug Fixes and Changes</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
Perl 5.6.1 has been incorporated. See <em>perl561delta</em> for a list of changes.
<p></p>
<li></li>
The Solaris pkgadd and Red Hat RPM packages are now relocatable. See the
release notes for how to install them to a location other than the
default one.
<p></p>
<li></li>
The following new modules have been included: HTML-Tagset v3.03
<p></p>
<li></li>
The following modules have been updated to newer versions: SOAP-Lite,
HTML-Parser v3.19, HTML-Tree v3.11, URI v1.11, libwww-perl v5.51.
<p>For additional information on module updates in Perl 5.6.1, see <em>perl561delta</em>.</p>
<p></p>
<li></li>
A number of fixes to PPM have been included. PPM now displays a download
status indicator, and sports a ``getconfig'' command.
<p></p>
<li></li>
A large number of documentation updates are included.
<p></p></ul>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="build_623_sunday__december_12__2000">Build 623 Sunday, December 12, 2000</a></h2>
<p><em>Bug Fixes and Changes</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
<em>Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows Me Installation</em>
<p>Installer now adds Perl/bin directory to the PATH environment variable for
Windows 9x. Windows 9x will need to be rebooted for this to take effect.</p>
<p>The PATH settings are not removed after an uninstallation.</p>
<p></p>
<li></li>
PPM updated to 2.1.2. It now uses SOAP-Lite and has drastically
reduced bandwidth requirements for SUMMARY requests. This is a
prerequisite for supporting the new PPM repository containing most of
CPAN.
<p></p>
<li></li>
OLE Browser has been fixed to work on IE 5.5.
<p></p>
<li></li>
minor bug fixes to <code>fork()</code> emulation and duplication of socket handles
on Windows 9X.
<p></p></ul>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="build_622_sunday__november_5__2000">Build 622 Sunday, November 5, 2000</a></h2>
<p><em>Bug Fixes and Changes</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
Custom build for ActivePerl CDROM
<p></p>
<li></li>
MSI installer addes the CDROM repository to the ppm.xml file (Windows only)
<p></p></ul>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="build_620_sunday__october_29__2000">Build 620 Sunday, October 29, 2000</a></h2>
<p><em>Bug Fixes and Changes</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
bug fixes in environment setup for backticks and <code>system()</code>
<p></p></ul>
<p><em>PerlScript</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
works now with IIS5. Previously ASP would sometimes return
an empty page when the page was accessed simultaneously from multiple clients.
<p></p>
<li></li>
supports OLE objects as parameters (VT_DISPATCH)
<p></p>
<li></li>
various namespace / package setup problems fixed
<p></p>
<li></li>
STDIN/STDOUT/STDERR are now available when run under WSH
<p></p>
<li></li>
JScript and VBScript functions can be called directly (on ASP pages)
<p></p></ul>
<p><em>Documentation</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
Commandline parameters for MSI installer documented (installation notes)
<p></p>
<li></li>
Win32 builtin documentation moved from Pod to Modules
<p></p></ul>
<p><em>Modules</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
CGI.pm updated to 2.74
<p></p>
<li></li>
Win32API::Net updated to version 0.09
<p></p></ul>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="build_618_tuesday__september_12__2000">Build 618 Tuesday, September 12, 2000</a></h2>
<p><em>Bug Fixes and Changes</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
Bug fixes imported from the Perl development track. See the following file
for the detailed log:
<pre>
<a href="http://www.ActiveState.com/download/ActivePerl/src/5.6/AP618_diff.txt">http://www.ActiveState.com/download/ActivePerl/src/5.6/AP618_diff.txt</a></pre>
<p>Individual patches for each of these changes may also be obtained. See
<em>perlhack</em>.</p>
<p></p>
<li></li>
Perl's <code>newSVrv()</code> API function could result in corrupt data when coercing an
already initialized value to the right type, and could also lead to memory
leaks. Win32::OLE v0.14 tickled these bugs. <code>newSVrv()</code> has been fixed to
resolve these issues.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Perl's optimizer could coredump on stacked assignments involving <code>split()</code>,
such as <code>@a = @b = split(...)</code>. This is now fixed.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Windows sockets weren't being initialized correctly in child threads if the
parent already initialized it. This resulted in <code>print()</code> on a socket
created under such conditions not being handled correctly (whereas <code>send()</code>
would do the right thing). The problem has been fixed.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Win32::OLE v0.14 had a bug that could cause strings longer than 256 characters
to be truncated by a single character. This has been corrected.
<p></p></ul>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="build_617_thursday__august_31__2000">Build 617 Thursday, August 31, 2000</a></h2>
<p><em>Bug Fixes and Changes</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
Bug fixes imported from the Perl development track. See the following file
for the detailed log:
<pre>
<a href="http://www.ActiveState.com/download/ActivePerl/src/5.6/AP617_diff.txt">http://www.ActiveState.com/download/ActivePerl/src/5.6/AP617_diff.txt</a></pre>
<p>Individual patches for each of these changes may also be obtained. See
<em>perlhack</em>.</p>
<p></p>
<li></li>
Problems with backticks not returning a proper return code under Windows 9x
have been fixed. Linux, Solaris and Windows NT/2000 weren't affected.
<p></p>
<li></li>
<code>wait()</code> and <code>waitpid()</code> now return the correct pid values for pseudo-pids on
Windows.
<p></p>
<li></li>
New entries added to the end of the environment via <code>%ENV</code> did not get
inherited by child processes on Windows. This has been corrected.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Build 616 introduced a change that could make <code>close(SOCKET)</code> return a bogus
return value. This has been corrected.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Various minor PerlScript incompatibilities under Internet Explorer 5.5
on Windows have been corrected.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Perl for ISAPI and PerlScript do not add entries to the EventLog by default.
<p></p>
<li></li>
libnet v1.06 is now included with ActivePerl. To configure the site-specific
defaults for libnet, run <code>$Config{installprefix}/bin/libnetcfg.pl</code>.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Digest-MD5 v2.11 is now included with ActivePerl.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Several bundled extensions have been upgraded to newer versions. URI v1.09,
libwww-perl v5.48, Compress-Zlib v1.08 and libwin32 v0.17 are now included.
<p></p>
<li></li>
The included HTML documentation has been improved and updated to be current
with the latest modules.
<p></p>
<li></li>
The HtmlHelp.pm module is no longer included with ActivePerl. If you want
this module, please obtain it from a release prior to ActivePerl 617.
<p></p></ul>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="build_616_friday__july_14__2000">Build 616 Friday, July 14, 2000</a></h2>
<p><em>Bug Fixes and Changes</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
Bug fixes imported from the Perl development track. See the following file
for the detailed log:
<pre>
<a href="http://www.ActiveState.com/download/ActivePerl/src/5.6/AP616_diff.txt">http://www.ActiveState.com/download/ActivePerl/src/5.6/AP616_diff.txt</a></pre>
<p>Individual patches for each of these changes may also be obtained. See
<em>perlhack</em>.</p>
<p></p>
<li></li>
A bug in Win32::OLE that prevented PerlScript from working properly
has been fixed.
<p></p>
<li></li>
On Windows, a small memory leak in the <code>accept()</code> builtin function has
been fixed.
<p></p>
<li></li>
On Windows, creating sockets in pseudo-child processes did not work
because Winsock was not initialized in the pseudo-process. This has
been rectified.
<p></p></ul>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="build_615_thursday__june_29__2000">Build 615 Thursday, June 29, 2000</a></h2>
<p><em>Bug Fixes and Changes</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
Bug fixes imported from the Perl development track. See the following file
for the detailed log:
<pre>
<a href="http://www.ActiveState.com/download/ActivePerl/src/5.6/AP615_diff.txt">http://www.ActiveState.com/download/ActivePerl/src/5.6/AP615_diff.txt</a></pre>
<p>Individual patches for each of these changes may also be obtained. See
<em>perlhack</em>.</p>
<p></p>
<li></li>
On Unix platforms, ActivePerl is now built with the <code>-Duseithreads</code>
Configure option, just as on Windows. While this provides a functionally
identical perl, it also makes this build binary incompatible with earlier
builds on Unix platforms. If you had installed any extensions (i.e. modules
with XS code) using earlier builds via PPM or otherwise, you will need
to reinstall them under this build. Future builds will maintain binary
compatibility with this one.
<p>On Windows, this build continues to be binary compatible with build 613.</p>
<p></p>
<li></li>
The installation location for the native installations on Unix (Red Hat
RPM, Debian dpkg, or Solaris pkgadd) have changed. These packages will
now be installed under /usr/local/ActivePerl-5.6/ rather than under
/usr/local/perl-5.6. This one-time change avoids confusion with locally
installed versions built from the sources, and also avoids installing
on top of existing binary-incompatible build 613 installations.
<p>The installation location can be chosen as usual on Windows, and when
installing using the generic installers on Unix.</p>
<p></p>
<li></li>
On Windows, <code>chdir()</code> could sometimes fail to return failure when given a
non-existent directory, and UNC paths didn't work correctly. These
problems have been corrected.
<p></p>
<li></li>
The <code>libwin32</code> v0.16 release from CPAN is included for the Windows
builds.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Various small PPM bugs have been fixed.
<p></p>
<li></li>
A bug in PerlScript that prevented it from working under IIS5 on
Windows 2000 has been fixed.
<p></p></ul>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="build_613_thursday__march_23__2000">Build 613 Thursday, March 23, 2000</a></h2>
<p><em>Bug Fixes and Changes</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
This build corresponds to the Perl 5.6.0 source code release.
<p></p>
<li></li>
This package contains some files that were missing in build 612.
<p></p></ul>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="build_612_wednesday__march_22__2000">Build 612 Wednesday, March 22, 2000</a></h2>
<p><em>Bug Fixes and Changes</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
This build corresponds to the Perl 5.6.0 source code release.
<p></p>
<li></li>
This build incorporates mostly minor bug fixes between 5.6.0 release
candidate 2 and the final 5.6.0 source code release. See <em>perl56delta</em>
for a detailed summary of changes between 5.005 and 5.6.0.
<p></p></ul>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="build_611_wednesday__march_15__2000">Build 611 Wednesday, March 15, 2000</a></h2>
<p><em>Bug Fixes and Changes</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
This build corresponds to the Perl 5.6.0 release candidate 2 sources.
<p></p>
<li></li>
<code>binmode()</code> now supports a second optional argument that can be used
to switch a file handle to ``:crlf'' or ``:raw'' mode. (These correspond
to the traditional text and binary modes.) See <em>perlfunc/binmode</em>.
<p></p>
<li></li>
The new <code>open</code> pragma can be used to set the default mode for
implicitly opened handles in the current lexical scope. This is
useful to set a particular mode for the results of the qx//
operator. See <em>open</em>.
<p></p>
<li></li>
The bundled ActivePerl documentation has been reorganized. Outdated
material has either been reworked to reflect the current status, or
removed when it was no longer applicable.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Many bugs in the beta releases have been fixed.
<p></p></ul>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="build_609_wednesday__march_1__2000">Build 609 Wednesday, March 1, 2000</a></h2>
<p><em>Bug Fixes and Changes</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
This build corresponds to the public Perl 5.6 beta 3 release, otherwise
known as v5.5.670.
<p></p>
<li></li>
The Windows version of the installer now supports installing into paths
that contain spaces.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Linux and Solaris install packages that allow non-privileged users to
install anywhere are supported. The system-specific packaging formats
that typically require root privileges continue to be available.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Support for <code>kill(0,$pid)</code> on Windows to test if process exists.
<p></p>
<li></li>
There is a new tutorial on Object Oriented Perl for beginners. See
`perlboot'.
<p></p>
<li></li>
The PPM repository has been updated with newer versions of modules for
all supported platforms.
<p></p></ul>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="build_607_friday__february_11__2000">Build 607 Friday, February 11, 2000</a></h2>
<p><em>Bug Fixes and Changes</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
This build corresponds to the public Perl 5.6 beta 1 release, otherwise
known as v5.5.650.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Several bugs in the Unicode support have been fixed.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Support for Unicode has changed from previous development versions. See
<em>perlunicode</em> for details.
<p></p>
<li></li>
There is a new -C command-line switch to request that system calls use
the wide-character APIs. This can also be used in the shebang line.
<p></p>
<li></li>
The byte pragma can be used to force byte-semantics on Perl operations.
When not used, character semantics apply if the data is Unicode; otherwise,
byte semantics are used.
<p></p></ul>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="build_606_friday__february_4__2000">Build 606 Friday, February 4, 2000</a></h2>
<p><em>Bug Fixes and Changes</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
PPM can communicate with the package repository via SOAP. Currently PPM's
and SOAP's integration is somewhat limited; however, it serves as proof of
concept.
<p></p>
<li></li>
New modules included with the distribution are:
<pre>
- SOAP
- File::CounterFile
- Font::AFM</pre>
<p></p>
<li></li>
Support for Unicode has changed from previous versions. See
<em>perlunicode</em> for details.
<p></p></ul>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="build_604_friday__november_26__1999">Build 604 Friday, November 26, 1999</a></h2>
<p><em>Bug Fixes and Changes</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
A few bugs in the <code>fork()</code> emulation have been fixed. <em>perlfork</em> reflects
these changes.
<p></p></ul>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="build_603_tuesday__november_23__1999">Build 603 Tuesday, November 23, 1999</a></h2>
<p><em>Bug Fixes and Changes</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
NOTE:Build 603 is not binary compatible with earlier builds. If you have
compiled your own extensions with earlier builds, you will need to recompile
all of them.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Build 603 corresponds to Perl 5.005_62. Additional patches available
since 5.005_62 in the public Perl repository have been incorporated.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Preliminary support for <code>fork()</code> is included. See <em>perlfork</em>
for details about this functionality.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Documentation in fully searchable HTMLHelp format is included.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Many of the included extensions from CPAN have been updated to newer
versions.
<p></p>
<li></li>
A large number of minor bugs in the Perl core have been fixed. See the
Changes file in the included sources for a detailed list.
<p></p></ul>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="build_602_thursday__august_5__1999">Build 602 Thursday, August 5, 1999</a></h2>
<p><em>Bug Fixes and Changes</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
Build 602 corresponds to Perl 5.005_60. Additional patches available
since 5.005_60 in the public Perl repository have been incorporated.
<p></p>
<li></li>
A number of pre-built extensions from CPAN are included in this release.
These may be installed using PPM or VPM (both of which are included).
<p></p></ul>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="build_601_tuesday__july_13__1999">Build 601 Tuesday, July 13, 1999</a></h2>
<p><em>Bug Fixes and Changes</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
Build 601 corresponds to Perl 5.005_57. Additional patches available
since 5.005_57 in the public Perl repository have been incorporated.
<p></p>
<li></li>
This build features a major reworking of the API exposed by the
PERL_OBJECT build option. The result is a well-defined Perl API (restricted to
C syntax) that provides very high degree of compatibility for extensions
available from CPAN.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Perl for ISAPI, PerlScript, PerlEz and PerlMsg have been modified to use
the new PERL_OBJECT API.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Visual Package Manager (VPM) is now available. VPM can be used to install
pre-built binaries from a package repository. One such is available at
<a href="http://www.activestate.com/packages/perl5_6/.">http://www.activestate.com/packages/perl5_6/.</a>
<p></p></ul>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="what_s_new_in_the_600_series">What's new in the 600 Series</a></h2>
<p><em>Major Changes</em></p>
<ul>
<li></li>
This series is built around development versions of Perl 5.006. Build 600
corresponds to Perl 5.005_57.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Significant changes that have occurred in the
5.006 development track are documented in perldelta.
<p></p>
<li></li>
Build 600 includes additional changes for supporting globalization. All
Win32 API calls made by Perl now follow the utf8 mode of the interpreter.
Wide versions of the API calls are made when utf8 is in effect. See utf8
for more information on enabling support for Unicode.
<p></p>
<li></li>
The 600 series is not binary compatible with builds in the 500 series. Any
extensions built using binaries from the ActivePerl 500 series will need
to be recompiled. Note especially that this applies to PPDs that may have
been built for 500 series builds.
<p></p></ul>
</body>
</html>