NAME

       perl582delta - what is new for perl v5.8.2

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 perl58delta, which describes
       differences between 5.6.0 and 5.8.0, and the perl581delta, which describes differences between 5.8.0 and
       5.8.1.

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.

Core Enhancements

   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 "Algorithmic Complexity Attacks"
       in perlsec for the original rationale behind this change.

   Threading
       Several memory leaks associated with variables shared between threads have been fixed.

Modules and Pragmata

   Updated Modules And Pragmata
       The following modules and pragmata have been updated since Perl 5.8.1:

       Devel::PPPort
       Digest::MD5
       I18N::LangTags
       libnet
       MIME::Base64
       Pod::Perldoc
       strict
           Documentation improved

       Tie::Hash
           Documentation improved

       Time::HiRes
       Unicode::Collate
       Unicode::Normalize
       UNIVERSAL
           Documentation improved

Selected Bug Fixes

       Some syntax errors involving unrecognized filetest operators are now handled correctly by the parser.

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.

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  "setreuid"  and  friends  are  troublesome  - perl will now work around their problems as best
       possible.

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

       •   5.8.3 23:59:59 GMT, Wednesday December 31st 2003

       •   5.8.4 23:59:59 GMT, Wednesday March 31st 2004

       •   5.8.5 23:59:59 GMT, Wednesday June 30th 2004

       with the release following soon after, when testing is complete.

       See "Future Directions" in perl581delta for more soothsaying.

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 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.  You can browse
       and search the Perl 5 bugs at http://bugs.perl.org/

SEE ALSO

       The Changes file for 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.

perl v5.38.2                                       2025-04-08                                    PERL582DELTA(1)