perl5161delta - what is new for perl v5.16.1
This document describes differences between the 5.16.0 release and the 5.16.1 release. If you are upgrading from an earlier release such as 5.14.0, first read perl5160delta, which describes differences between 5.14.0 and 5.16.0.
an off-by-two error in Scalar-List-Util has been fixed The bugfix was in Scalar-List-Util 1.23_04, and perl 5.16.1 includes Scalar-List-Util 1.25.
There are no changes intentionally incompatible with 5.16.0 If any exist, they are bugs, and we request that you submit a report. See "Reporting Bugs" below.
Updated Modules and Pragmata * Scalar::Util and List::Util have been upgraded from version 1.23 to version 1.25. * B::Deparse has been updated from version 1.14 to 1.14_01. An "uninitialized" warning emitted by B::Deparse has been squashed [perl #113464].
* Building perl with some Windows compilers used to fail due to a problem with miniperl's "glob" operator (which uses the "perlglob" program) deleting the PATH environment variable [perl #113798].
Platform-Specific Notes VMS All C header files from the top-level directory of the distribution are now installed on VMS, providing consistency with a long- standing practice on other platforms. Previously only a subset were installed, which broke non-core extension builds for extensions that depended on the missing include files.
* A regression introduced in Perl v5.16.0 involving "tr/SEARCHLIST/REPLACEMENTLIST/" has been fixed. Only the first instance is supposed to be meaningful if a character appears more than once in "SEARCHLIST". Under some circumstances, the final instance was overriding all earlier ones. [perl #113584] * "B::COP::stashlen" has been added. This provides access to an internal field added in perl 5.16 under threaded builds. It was broken at the last minute before 5.16 was released [perl #113034]. * The re pragma will no longer clobber $_. [perl #113750] * Unicode 6.1 published an incorrect alias for one of the Canonical_Combining_Class property's values (which range between 0 and 254). The alias "CCC133" should have been "CCC132". Perl now overrides the data file furnished by Unicode to give the correct value. * Duplicating scalar filehandles works again. [perl #113764] * Under threaded perls, a runtime code block in a regular expression could corrupt the package name stored in the op tree, resulting in bad reads in "caller", and possibly crashes [perl #113060]. * For efficiency's sake, many operators and built-in functions return the same scalar each time. Lvalue subroutines and subroutines in the CORE:: namespace were allowing this implementation detail to leak through. "print &CORE::uc("a"), &CORE::uc("b")" used to print "BB". The same thing would happen with an lvalue subroutine returning the return value of "uc". Now the value is copied in such cases [perl #113044]. * "__SUB__" now works in special blocks ("BEGIN", "END", etc.). * Formats that reference lexical variables from outside no longer result in crashes.
There are no new known problems, but consult "Known Problems" in perl5160delta to see those identified in the 5.16.0 release.
Perl 5.16.1 represents approximately 2 months of development since Perl 5.16.0 and contains approximately 14,000 lines of changes across 96 files from 8 authors. Perl continues to flourish into its third decade thanks to a vibrant community of users and developers. The following people are known to have contributed the improvements that became Perl 5.16.1: Chris 'BinGOs' Williams, Craig A. Berry, Father Chrysostomos, Karl Williamson, Paul Johnson, Reini Urban, Ricardo Signes, Tony Cook. The list above is almost certainly incomplete as it is automatically generated from version control history. In particular, it does not include the names of the (very much appreciated) contributors who reported issues to the Perl bug tracker. Many of the changes included in this version originated in the CPAN modules included in Perl's core. We're grateful to the entire CPAN community for helping Perl to flourish. For a more complete list of all of Perl's historical contributors, please see the AUTHORS file in the Perl source distribution.
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://rt.perl.org/perlbug/ . There may also be information at http://www.perl.org/ , the Perl Home Page. If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the 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 "perl -V", will be sent off to perlbug@perl.org to be analysed by the Perl porting team. If the bug you are reporting has security implications, which make it inappropriate to send to a publicly archived mailing list, then please send it to perl5-security-report@perl.org. This points to a closed subscription unarchived mailing list, which includes all the core committers, who will be able to help assess the impact of issues, figure out a resolution, and help co-ordinate the release of patches to mitigate or fix the problem across all platforms on which Perl is supported. Please only use this address for security issues in the Perl core, not for modules independently distributed on CPAN.
The Changes file for an explanation of how to view 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.
Personal Opportunity - Free software gives you access to billions of dollars of software at no cost. Use this software for your business, personal use or to develop a profitable skill. Access to source code provides access to a level of capabilities/information that companies protect though copyrights. Open source is a core component of the Internet and it is available to you. Leverage the billions of dollars in resources and capabilities to build a career, establish a business or change the world. The potential is endless for those who understand the opportunity.
Business Opportunity - Goldman Sachs, IBM and countless large corporations are leveraging open source to reduce costs, develop products and increase their bottom lines. Learn what these companies know about open source and how open source can give you the advantage.
Free Software provides computer programs and capabilities at no cost but more importantly, it provides the freedom to run, edit, contribute to, and share the software. The importance of free software is a matter of access, not price. Software at no cost is a benefit but ownership rights to the software and source code is far more significant.
Free Office Software - The Libre Office suite provides top desktop productivity tools for free. This includes, a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation engine, drawing and flowcharting, database and math applications. Libre Office is available for Linux or Windows.
The Free Books Library is a collection of thousands of the most popular public domain books in an online readable format. The collection includes great classical literature and more recent works where the U.S. copyright has expired. These books are yours to read and use without restrictions.
Source Code - Want to change a program or know how it works? Open Source provides the source code for its programs so that anyone can use, modify or learn how to write those programs themselves. Visit the GNU source code repositories to download the source.
Study at Harvard, Stanford or MIT - Open edX provides free online courses from Harvard, MIT, Columbia, UC Berkeley and other top Universities. Hundreds of courses for almost all major subjects and course levels. Open edx also offers some paid courses and selected certifications.
Linux Manual Pages - A man or manual page is a form of software documentation found on Linux/Unix operating systems. Topics covered include computer programs (including library and system calls), formal standards and conventions, and even abstract concepts.