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- =head1 NAME
-
- perl582delta - what is new for perl v5.8.2
-
- =head1 DESCRIPTION
-
- This document describes differences between the 5.8.1 release and
- the 5.8.2 release.
-
- If you are upgrading from an earlier release such as 5.6.1, first read
- the L<perl58delta>, which describes differences between 5.6.0 and
- 5.8.0, and the L<perl581delta>, which describes differences between
- 5.8.0 and 5.8.1.
-
- =head1 Incompatible Changes
-
- For threaded builds for modules calling certain re-entrant system calls,
- binary compatibility was accidentally lost between 5.8.0 and 5.8.1.
- Binary compatibility with 5.8.0 has been restored in 5.8.2, which
- necessitates breaking compatibility with 5.8.1. We see this as the
- lesser of two evils.
-
- This will only affect people who have a threaded perl 5.8.1, and compiled
- modules which use these calls, and now attempt to run the compiled modules
- with 5.8.2. The fix is to re-compile and re-install the modules using 5.8.2.
-
- =head1 Core Enhancements
-
- =head2 Hash Randomisation
-
- The hash randomisation introduced with 5.8.1 has been amended. It
- transpired that although the implementation introduced in 5.8.1 was source
- compatible with 5.8.0, it was not binary compatible in certain cases. 5.8.2
- contains an improved implementation which is both source and binary
- compatible with both 5.8.0 and 5.8.1, and remains robust against the form of
- attack which prompted the change for 5.8.1.
-
- We are grateful to the Debian project for their input in this area.
- See L<perlsec/"Algorithmic Complexity Attacks"> for the original
- rationale behind this change.
-
- =head2 Threading
-
- Several memory leaks associated with variables shared between threads
- have been fixed.
-
- =head1 Modules and Pragmata
-
- =head2 Updated Modules And Pragmata
-
- The following modules and pragmata have been updated since Perl 5.8.1:
-
- =over 4
-
- =item Devel::PPPort
-
- =item Digest::MD5
-
- =item I18N::LangTags
-
- =item libnet
-
- =item MIME::Base64
-
- =item Pod::Perldoc
-
- =item strict
-
- Documentation improved
-
- =item Tie::Hash
-
- Documentation improved
-
- =item Time::HiRes
-
- =item Unicode::Collate
-
- =item Unicode::Normalize
-
- =item UNIVERSAL
-
- Documentation improved
-
- =back
-
- =head1 Selected Bug Fixes
-
- Some syntax errors involving unrecognized filetest operators are now handled
- correctly by the parser.
-
- =head1 Changed Internals
-
- Interpreter initialization is more complete when -DMULTIPLICITY is off.
- This should resolve problems with initializing and destroying the Perl
- interpreter more than once in a single process.
-
- =head1 Platform Specific Problems
-
- Dynamic linker flags have been tweaked for Solaris and OS X, which should
- solve problems seen while building some XS modules.
-
- Bugs in OS/2 sockets and tmpfile have been fixed.
-
- In OS X C<setreuid> and friends are troublesome - perl will now work
- around their problems as best possible.
-
- =head1 Future Directions
-
- Starting with 5.8.3 we intend to make more frequent maintenance releases,
- with a smaller number of changes in each. The intent is to propagate
- bug fixes out to stable releases more rapidly and make upgrading stable
- releases less of an upheaval. This should give end users more
- flexibility in their choice of upgrade timing, and allow them easier
- assessment of the impact of upgrades. The current plan is for code freezes
- as follows
-
- =over 4
-
- =item *
-
- 5.8.3 23:59:59 GMT, Wednesday December 31st 2003
-
- =item *
-
- 5.8.4 23:59:59 GMT, Wednesday March 31st 2004
-
- =item *
-
- 5.8.5 23:59:59 GMT, Wednesday June 30th 2004
-
- =back
-
- with the release following soon after, when testing is complete.
-
- See L<perl581delta/"Future Directions"> for more soothsaying.
-
- =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.com/, 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/
-
- =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
-