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.