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perltrap(1)





NAME

       perltrap - Perl traps for the unwary


DESCRIPTION

       The biggest trap of all is forgetting to "use warnings" or use the -w
       switch; see perllexwarn and perlrun. The second biggest trap is not
       making your entire program runnable under "use strict".  The third big-
       gest trap is not reading the list of changes in this version of Perl;
       see perldelta.

       Awk Traps

       Accustomed awk users should take special note of the following:

       o   A Perl program executes only once, not once for each input line.
           You can do an implicit loop with "-n" or "-p".

       o   The English module, loaded via

               use English;

           allows you to refer to special variables (like $/) with names (like
           $RS), as though they were in awk; see perlvar for details.

       o   Semicolons are required after all simple statements in Perl (except
           at the end of a block).  Newline is not a statement delimiter.

       o   Curly brackets are required on "if"s and "while"s.

       o   Variables begin with "$", "@" or "%" in Perl.

       o   Arrays index from 0.  Likewise string positions in substr() and
           index().

       o   You have to decide whether your array has numeric or string
           indices.

       o   Hash values do not spring into existence upon mere reference.

       o   You have to decide whether you want to use string or numeric com-
           parisons.

       o   Reading an input line does not split it for you.  You get to split
           it to an array yourself.  And the split() operator has different
           arguments than awk's.

       o   The current input line is normally in $_, not $0.  It generally
           does not have the newline stripped.  ($0 is the name of the program
           executed.)  See perlvar.

       o   $<digit> does not refer to fields--it refers to substrings matched
           by the last match pattern.

       o   The print() statement does not add field and record separators
           unless you set $, and "$\".  You can set $OFS and $ORS if you're
           using the English module.

       o   You must open your files before you print to them.

       o   The range operator is "..", not comma.  The comma operator works as
           in C.

       o   The match operator is "=~", not "~".  ("~" is the one's complement
           operator, as in C.)

       o   The exponentiation operator is "**", not "^".  "^" is the XOR oper-
           ator, as in C.  (You know, one could get the feeling that awk is
           basically incompatible with C.)

       o   The concatenation operator is ".", not the null string.  (Using the
           null string would render "/pat/ /pat/" unparsable, because the
           third slash would be interpreted as a division operator--the tok-
           enizer is in fact slightly context sensitive for operators like
           "/", "?", and ">".  And in fact, "." itself can be the beginning of
           a number.)

       o   The "next", "exit", and "continue" keywords work differently.

       o   The following variables work differently:

                 Awk       Perl
                 ARGC      scalar @ARGV (compare with $#ARGV)
                 ARGV[0]   $0
                 FILENAME  $ARGV
                 FNR       $. - something
                 FS        (whatever you like)
                 NF        $#Fld, or some such
                 NR        $.
                 OFMT      $#
                 OFS       $,
                 ORS       $\
                 RLENGTH   length($&)
                 RS        $/
                 RSTART    length($`)
                 SUBSEP    $;

       o   You cannot set $RS to a pattern, only a string.

       o   When in doubt, run the awk construct through a2p and see what it
           gives you.

       C/C++ Traps

       Cerebral C and C++ programmers should take note of the following:

       o   Curly brackets are required on "if"'s and "while"'s.

       o   You must use "elsif" rather than "else if".

       o   The "break" and "continue" keywords from C become in Perl "last"
           and "next", respectively.  Unlike in C, these do not work within a
           "do { } while" construct.  See "Loop Control" in perlsyn.

       o   There's no switch statement.  (But it's easy to build one on the
           fly, see "Basic BLOCKs and Switch Statements" in perlsyn)

       o   Variables begin with "$", "@" or "%" in Perl.

       o   Comments begin with "#", not "/*" or "//".  Perl may interpret
           C/C++ comments as division operators, unterminated regular expres-
           sions or the defined-or operator.

       o   You can't take the address of anything, although a similar operator
           in Perl is the backslash, which creates a reference.

       o   "ARGV" must be capitalized.  $ARGV[0] is C's "argv[1]", and
           "argv[0]" ends up in $0.

       o   System calls such as link(), unlink(), rename(), etc. return
           nonzero for success, not 0. (system(), however, returns zero for
           success.)

       o   Signal handlers deal with signal names, not numbers.  Use "kill -l"
           to find their names on your system.

       Sed Traps

       Seasoned sed programmers should take note of the following:

       o   A Perl program executes only once, not once for each input line.
           You can do an implicit loop with "-n" or "-p".

       o   Backreferences in substitutions use "$" rather than "\".

       o   The pattern matching metacharacters "(", ")", and "|" do not have
           backslashes in front.

       o   The range operator is "...", rather than comma.

       Shell Traps

       Sharp shell programmers should take note of the following:

       o   The backtick operator does variable interpolation without regard to
           the presence of single quotes in the command.

       o   The backtick operator does no translation of the return value,
           unlike csh.

       o   Shells (especially csh) do several levels of substitution on each
           command line.  Perl does substitution in only certain constructs
           such as double quotes, backticks, angle brackets, and search pat-
           terns.

       o   Shells interpret scripts a little bit at a time.  Perl compiles the
           entire program before executing it (except for "BEGIN" blocks,
           which execute at compile time).

       o   The arguments are available via @ARGV, not $1, $2, etc.

       o   The environment is not automatically made available as separate
           scalar variables.

       o   The shell's "test" uses "=", "!=", "<" etc for string comparisons
           and "-eq", "-ne", "-lt" etc for numeric comparisons. This is the
           reverse of Perl, which uses "eq", "ne", "lt" for string compar-
           isons, and "==", "!=" "<" etc for numeric comparisons.

       Perl Traps

       Practicing Perl Programmers should take note of the following:

       o   Remember that many operations behave differently in a list context
           than they do in a scalar one.  See perldata for details.

       o   Avoid barewords if you can, especially all lowercase ones.  You
           can't tell by just looking at it whether a bareword is a function
           or a string.  By using quotes on strings and parentheses on func-
           tion calls, you won't ever get them confused.

       o   You cannot discern from mere inspection which builtins are unary
           operators (like chop() and chdir()) and which are list operators
           (like print() and unlink()).  (Unless prototyped, user-defined sub-
           routines can only be list operators, never unary ones.)  See perlop
           and perlsub.

       o   People have a hard time remembering that some functions default to
           $_, or @ARGV, or whatever, but that others which you might expect
           to do not.

       o   The <FH> construct is not the name of the filehandle, it is a read-
           line operation on that handle.  The data read is assigned to $_
           only if the file read is the sole condition in a while loop:

               while (<FH>)      { }
               while (defined($_ = <FH>)) { }..
               <FH>;  # data discarded!

       o   Remember not to use "=" when you need "=~"; these two constructs
           are quite different:

               $x =  /foo/;
               $x =~ /foo/;

       o   The "do {}" construct isn't a real loop that you can use loop con-
           trol on.

       o   Use "my()" for local variables whenever you can get away with it
           (but see perlform for where you can't).  Using "local()" actually
           gives a local value to a global variable, which leaves you open to
           unforeseen side-effects of dynamic scoping.

       o   If you localize an exported variable in a module, its exported
           value will not change.  The local name becomes an alias to a new
           value but the external name is still an alias for the original.

       Perl4 to Perl5 Traps

       Practicing Perl4 Programmers should take note of the following
       Perl4-to-Perl5 specific traps.

       They're crudely ordered according to the following list:

       Discontinuance, Deprecation, and BugFix traps
           Anything that's been fixed as a perl4 bug, removed as a perl4 fea-
           ture or deprecated as a perl4 feature with the intent to encourage
           usage of some other perl5 feature.

       Parsing Traps
           Traps that appear to stem from the new parser.

       Numerical Traps
           Traps having to do with numerical or mathematical operators.

       General data type traps
           Traps involving perl standard data types.

       Context Traps - scalar, list contexts
           Traps related to context within lists, scalar statements/declara-
           tions.

       Precedence Traps
           Traps related to the precedence of parsing, evaluation, and execu-
           tion of code.

       General Regular Expression Traps using s///, etc.
           Traps related to the use of pattern matching.

       Subroutine, Signal, Sorting Traps
           Traps related to the use of signals and signal handlers, general
           subroutines, and sorting, along with sorting subroutines.

       OS Traps
           OS-specific traps.

       DBM Traps
           Traps specific to the use of "dbmopen()", and specific dbm imple-
           mentations.

       Unclassified Traps
           Everything else.

       If you find an example of a conversion trap that is not listed here,
       please submit it to <perlbug@perl.org> for inclusion.  Also note that
       at least some of these can be caught with the "use warnings" pragma or
       the -w switch.

       Discontinuance, Deprecation, and BugFix traps

       Anything that has been discontinued, deprecated, or fixed as a bug from
       perl4.

       * Symbols starting with "_" no longer forced into main
           Symbols starting with "_" are no longer forced into package main,
           except for $_ itself (and @_, etc.).

               package test;
               $_legacy = 1;

               package main;
               print "\$_legacy is ",$_legacy,"\n";

               # perl4 prints: $_legacy is 1
               # perl5 prints: $_legacy is

       * Double-colon valid package separator in variable name
           Double-colon is now a valid package separator in a variable name.
           Thus these behave differently in perl4 vs. perl5, because the pack-
           ages don't exist.

               $a=1;$b=2;$c=3;$var=4;
               print "$a::$b::$c ";
               print "$var::abc::xyz\n";

               # perl4 prints: 1::2::3 4::abc::xyz
               # perl5 prints: 3

           Given that "::" is now the preferred package delimiter, it is
           debatable whether this should be classed as a bug or not.  (The
           older package delimiter, ' ,is used here)

               $x = 10;
               print "x=${'x}\n";

               # perl4 prints: x=10
               # perl5 prints: Can't find string terminator "'" anywhere before EOF

           You can avoid this problem, and remain compatible with perl4, if
           you always explicitly include the package name:

               $x = 10;
               print "x=${main'x}\n";

           Also see precedence traps, for parsing $:.

       * 2nd and 3rd args to "splice()" are now in scalar context
           The second and third arguments of "splice()" are now evaluated in
           scalar context (as the Camel says) rather than list context.

               sub sub1{return(0,2) }          # return a 2-element list
               sub sub2{ return(1,2,3)}        # return a 3-element list
               @a1 = ("a","b","c","d","e");
               @a2 = splice(@a1,&sub1,&sub2);
               print join(' ',@a2),"\n";

               # perl4 prints: a b
               # perl5 prints: c d e

       * Can't do "goto" into a block that is optimized away
           You can't do a "goto" into a block that is optimized away.  Darn.

               goto marker1;

               for(1){
               marker1:
                   print "Here I is!\n";
               }

               # perl4 prints: Here I is!
               # perl5 errors: Can't "goto" into the middle of a foreach loop

       * Can't use whitespace as variable name or quote delimiter
           It is no longer syntactically legal to use whitespace as the name
           of a variable, or as a delimiter for any kind of quote construct.
           Double darn.

               $a = ("foo bar");
               $b = q baz;
               print "a is $a, b is $b\n";

               # perl4 prints: a is foo bar, b is baz
               # perl5 errors: Bareword found where operator expected

       * "while/if BLOCK BLOCK" gone
           The archaic while/if BLOCK BLOCK syntax is no longer supported.

               if { 1 } {
                   print "True!";
               }
               else {
                   print "False!";
               }

               # perl4 prints: True!
               # perl5 errors: syntax error at test.pl line 1, near "if {"

       * "**" binds tighter than unary minus
           The "**" operator now binds more tightly than unary minus.  It was
           documented to work this way before, but didn't.

               print -4**2,"\n";

               # perl4 prints: 16
               # perl5 prints: -16

       * "foreach" changed when iterating over a list
           The meaning of "foreach{}" has changed slightly when it is iterat-
           ing over a list which is not an array.  This used to assign the
           list to a temporary array, but no longer does so (for efficiency).
           This means that you'll now be iterating over the actual values, not
           over copies of the values.  Modifications to the loop variable can
           change the original values.

               @list = ('ab','abc','bcd','def');
               foreach $var (grep(/ab/,@list)){
                   $var = 1;
               }
               print (join(':',@list));

               # perl4 prints: ab:abc:bcd:def
               # perl5 prints: 1:1:bcd:def

           To retain Perl4 semantics you need to assign your list explicitly
           to a temporary array and then iterate over that.  For example, you
           might need to change

               foreach $var (grep(/ab/,@list)){

           to

               foreach $var (@tmp = grep(/ab/,@list)){

           Otherwise changing $var will clobber the values of @list.  (This
           most often happens when you use $_ for the loop variable, and call
           subroutines in the loop that don't properly localize $_.)

       * "split" with no args behavior changed
           "split" with no arguments now behaves like "split ' '" (which
           doesn't return an initial null field if $_ starts with whitespace),
           it used to behave like "split /\s+/" (which does).

               $_ = ' hi mom';
               print join(':', split);

               # perl4 prints: :hi:mom
               # perl5 prints: hi:mom

       * -e behavior fixed
           Perl 4 would ignore any text which was attached to an -e switch,
           always taking the code snippet from the following arg.  Addition-
           ally, it would silently accept an -e switch without a following
           arg.  Both of these behaviors have been fixed.

               perl -e'print "attached to -e"' 'print "separate arg"'

               # perl4 prints: separate arg
               # perl5 prints: attached to -e

               perl -e

               # perl4 prints:
               # perl5 dies: No code specified for -e.

       * "push" returns number of elements in resulting list
           In Perl 4 the return value of "push" was undocumented, but it was
           actually the last value being pushed onto the target list.  In Perl
           5 the return value of "push" is documented, but has changed, it is
           the number of elements in the resulting list.

               @x = ('existing');
               print push(@x, 'first new', 'second new');

               # perl4 prints: second new
               # perl5 prints: 3

       * Some error messages differ
           Some error messages will be different.

       * "split()" honors subroutine args
           In Perl 4, if in list context the delimiters to the first argument
           of "split()" were "??", the result would be placed in @_ as well as
           being returned.   Perl 5 has more respect for your subroutine argu-
           ments.

       * Bugs removed
           Some bugs may have been inadvertently removed.  :-)

       Parsing Traps

       Perl4-to-Perl5 traps from having to do with parsing.

       * Space between . and = triggers syntax error
           Note the space between . and =

               $string . = "more string";
               print $string;

               # perl4 prints: more string
               # perl5 prints: syntax error at - line 1, near ". ="

       * Better parsing in perl 5
           Better parsing in perl 5

               sub foo {}
               &foo
               print("hello, world\n");

               # perl4 prints: hello, world
               # perl5 prints: syntax error

       * Function parsing
           "if it looks like a function, it is a function" rule.

             print
               ($foo == 1) ? "is one\n" : "is zero\n";

               # perl4 prints: is zero
               # perl5 warns: "Useless use of a constant in void context" if using -w

       * String interpolation of $#array differs
           String interpolation of the $#array construct differs when braces
           are to used around the name.

               @a = (1..3);
               print "${#a}";

               # perl4 prints: 2
               # perl5 fails with syntax error

               @ = (1..3);
               print "$#{a}";

               # perl4 prints: {a}
               # perl5 prints: 2

       * Perl guesses on "map", "grep" followed by "{" if it starts BLOCK or
       hash ref
           When perl sees "map {" (or "grep {"), it has to guess whether the
           "{" starts a BLOCK or a hash reference. If it guesses wrong, it
           will report a syntax error near the "}" and the missing (or unex-
           pected) comma.

           Use unary "+" before "{" on a hash reference, and unary "+" applied
           to the first thing in a BLOCK (after "{"), for perl to guess right
           all the time. (See "map" in perlfunc.)

       Numerical Traps

       Perl4-to-Perl5 traps having to do with numerical operators, operands,
       or output from same.

       * Formatted output and significant digits
            Formatted output and significant digits.  In general, Perl 5 tries
            to be more precise.  For example, on a Solaris Sparc:

                print 7.373504 - 0, "\n";
                printf "%20.18f\n", 7.373504 - 0;

                # Perl4 prints:
                7.3750399999999996141
                7.375039999999999614

                # Perl5 prints:
                7.373504
                7.375039999999999614

            Notice how the first result looks better in Perl 5.

            Your results may vary, since your floating point formatting rou-
            tines and even floating point format may be slightly different.

       * Auto-increment operator over signed int limit deleted
            This specific item has been deleted.  It demonstrated how the
            auto-increment operator would not catch when a number went over
            the signed int limit.  Fixed in version 5.003_04.  But always be
            wary when using large integers.  If in doubt:

               use Math::BigInt;

       * Assignment of return values from numeric equality tests doesn't work
            Assignment of return values from numeric equality tests does not
            work in perl5 when the test evaluates to false (0).  Logical tests
            now return a null, instead of 0

                $p = ($test == 1);
                print $p,"\n";

                # perl4 prints: 0
                # perl5 prints:

            Also see "General Regular Expression Traps using s///, etc."  for
            another example of this new feature...

       * Bitwise string ops
            When bitwise operators which can operate upon either numbers or
            strings ("& | ^ ~") are given only strings as arguments, perl4
            would treat the operands as bitstrings so long as the program con-
            tained a call to the "vec()" function. perl5 treats the string op-
            erands as bitstrings.  (See "Bitwise String Operators" in perlop
            for more details.)

                $fred = "10";
                $barney = "12";
                $betty = $fred & $barney;
                print "$betty\n";
                # Uncomment the next line to change perl4's behavior
                # ($dummy) = vec("dummy", 0, 0);

                # Perl4 prints:
                8

                # Perl5 prints:
                10

                # If vec() is used anywhere in the program, both print:
                10

       General data type traps

       Perl4-to-Perl5 traps involving most data-types, and their usage within
       certain expressions and/or context.

       * Negative array subscripts now count from the end of array
            Negative array subscripts now count from the end of the array.

                @a = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5);
                print "The third element of the array is $a[3] also expressed as $a[-2] \n";

                # perl4 prints: The third element of the array is 4 also expressed as
                # perl5 prints: The third element of the array is 4 also expressed as 4

       * Setting $#array lower now discards array elements
            Setting $#array lower now discards array elements, and makes them
            impossible to recover.

                @a = (a,b,c,d,e);
                print "Before: ",join('',@a);
                $#a =1;
                print ", After: ",join('',@a);
                $#a =3;
                print ", Recovered: ",join('',@a),"\n";

                # perl4 prints: Before: abcde, After: ab, Recovered: abcd
                # perl5 prints: Before: abcde, After: ab, Recovered: ab

       * Hashes get defined before use
            Hashes get defined before use

                local($s,@a,%h);
                die "scalar \$s defined" if defined($s);
                die "array \@a defined" if defined(@a);
                die "hash \%h defined" if defined(%h);

                # perl4 prints:
                # perl5 dies: hash %h defined

            Perl will now generate a warning when it sees defined(@a) and
            defined(%h).

       * Glob assignment from localized variable to variable
            glob assignment from variable to variable will fail if the
            assigned variable is localized subsequent to the assignment

                @a = ("This is Perl 4");
                *b = *a;
                local(@a);
                print @b,"\n";

                # perl4 prints: This is Perl 4
                # perl5 prints:

       * Assigning "undef" to glob
            Assigning "undef" to a glob has no effect in Perl 5.   In Perl 4
            it undefines the associated scalar (but may have other side
            effects including SEGVs). Perl 5 will also warn if "undef" is
            assigned to a typeglob. (Note that assigning "undef" to a typeglob
            is different than calling the "undef" function on a typeglob
            ("undef *foo"), which has quite a few effects.

                $foo = "bar";
                *foo = undef;
                print $foo;

                # perl4 prints:
                # perl4 warns: "Use of uninitialized variable" if using -w
                # perl5 prints: bar
                # perl5 warns: "Undefined value assigned to typeglob" if using -w

       * Changes in unary negation (of strings)
            Changes in unary negation (of strings) This change effects both
            the return value and what it does to auto(magic)increment.

                $x = "aaa";
                print ++$x," : ";
                print -$x," : ";
                print ++$x,"\n";

                # perl4 prints: aab : -0 : 1
                # perl5 prints: aab : -aab : aac

       * Modifying of constants prohibited
            perl 4 lets you modify constants:

                $foo = "x";
                &mod($foo);
                for ($x = 0; $x < 3; $x++) {
                    &mod("a");
                }
                sub mod {
                    print "before: $_[0]";
                    $_[0] = "m";
                    print "  after: $_[0]\n";
                }

                # perl4:
                # before: x  after: m
                # before: a  after: m
                # before: m  after: m
                # before: m  after: m

                # Perl5:
                # before: x  after: m
                # Modification of a read-only value attempted at foo.pl line 12.
                # before: a

       * "defined $var" behavior changed
            The behavior is slightly different for:

                print "$x", defined $x

                # perl 4: 1
                # perl 5: <no output, $x is not called into existence>

       * Variable Suicide
            Variable suicide behavior is more consistent under Perl 5.  Perl5
            exhibits the same behavior for hashes and scalars, that perl4
            exhibits for only scalars.

                $aGlobal{ "aKey" } = "global value";
                print "MAIN:", $aGlobal{"aKey"}, "\n";
                $GlobalLevel = 0;
                &test( *aGlobal );

                sub test {
                    local( *theArgument ) = @_;
                    local( %aNewLocal ); # perl 4 != 5.001l,m
                    $aNewLocal{"aKey"} = "this should never appear";
                    print "SUB: ", $theArgument{"aKey"}, "\n";
                    $aNewLocal{"aKey"} = "level $GlobalLevel";   # what should print
                    $GlobalLevel++;
                    if( $GlobalLevel<4 ) {
                        &test( *aNewLocal );
                    }
                }

                # Perl4:
                # MAIN:global value
                # SUB: global value
                # SUB: level 0
                # SUB: level 1
                # SUB: level 2

                # Perl5:
                # MAIN:global value
                # SUB: global value
                # SUB: this should never appear
                # SUB: this should never appear
                # SUB: this should never appear

       Context Traps - scalar, list contexts

       * Elements of argument lists for formats evaluated in list context
            The elements of argument lists for formats are now evaluated in
            list context.  This means you can interpolate list values now.

                @fmt = ("foo","bar","baz");
                format STDOUT=
                @<<<<< @||||| @>>>>>
                @fmt;
                .
                write;

                # perl4 errors:  Please use commas to separate fields in file
                # perl5 prints: foo     bar      baz

       * "caller()" returns false value in scalar context if no caller present
            The "caller()" function now returns a false value in a scalar con-
            text if there is no caller.  This lets library files determine if
            they're being required.

                caller() ? (print "You rang?\n") : (print "Got a 0\n");

                # perl4 errors: There is no caller
                # perl5 prints: Got a 0

       * Comma operator in scalar context gives scalar context to args
            The comma operator in a scalar context is now guaranteed to give a
            scalar context to its arguments.

                @y= ('a','b','c');
                $x = (1, 2, @y);
                print "x = $x\n";

                # Perl4 prints:  x = c   # Thinks list context interpolates list
                # Perl5 prints:  x = 3   # Knows scalar uses length of list

       * "sprintf()" prototyped as "($;@)"
            "sprintf()" is prototyped as ($;@), so its first argument is given
            scalar context. Thus, if passed an array, it will probably not do
            what you want, unlike Perl 4:

                @z = ('%s%s', 'foo', 'bar');
                $x = sprintf(@z);
                print $x;

                # perl4 prints: foobar
                # perl5 prints: 3

            "printf()" works the same as it did in Perl 4, though:

                @z = ('%s%s', 'foo', 'bar');
                printf STDOUT (@z);

                # perl4 prints: foobar
                # perl5 prints: foobar

       Precedence Traps

       Perl4-to-Perl5 traps involving precedence order.

       Perl 4 has almost the same precedence rules as Perl 5 for the operators
       that they both have.  Perl 4 however, seems to have had some inconsis-
       tencies that made the behavior differ from what was documented.

       * LHS vs. RHS of any assignment operator
            LHS vs. RHS of any assignment operator.  LHS is evaluated first in
            perl4, second in perl5; this can affect the relationship between
            side-effects in sub-expressions.

                @arr = ( 'left', 'right' );
                $a{shift @arr} = shift @arr;
                print join( ' ', keys %a );

                # perl4 prints: left
                # perl5 prints: right

       * Semantic errors introduced due to precedence
            These are now semantic errors because of precedence:

                @list = (1,2,3,4,5);
                %map = ("a",1,"b",2,"c",3,"d",4);
                $n = shift @list + 2;   # first item in list plus 2
                print "n is $n, ";
                $m = keys %map + 2;     # number of items in hash plus 2
                print "m is $m\n";

                # perl4 prints: n is 3, m is 6
                # perl5 errors and fails to compile

       * Precedence of assignment operators same as the precedence of assign-
       ment
            The precedence of assignment operators is now the same as the
            precedence of assignment.  Perl 4 mistakenly gave them the prece-
            dence of the associated operator.  So you now must parenthesize
            them in expressions like

                /foo/ ? ($a += 2) : ($a -= 2);

            Otherwise

                /foo/ ? $a += 2 : $a -= 2

            would be erroneously parsed as

                (/foo/ ? $a += 2 : $a) -= 2;

            On the other hand,

                $a += /foo/ ? 1 : 2;

            now works as a C programmer would expect.

       * "open" requires parentheses around filehandle
                open FOO || die;

            is now incorrect.  You need parentheses around the filehandle.
            Otherwise, perl5 leaves the statement as its default precedence:

                open(FOO || die);

                # perl4 opens or dies
                # perl5 opens FOO, dying only if 'FOO' is false, i.e. never

       * $: precedence over $:: gone
            perl4 gives the special variable, $: precedence, where perl5
            treats $:: as main "package"

                $a = "x"; print "$::a";

                # perl 4 prints: -:a
                # perl 5 prints: x

       * Precedence of file test operators documented
            perl4 had buggy precedence for the file test operators vis-a-vis
            the assignment operators.  Thus, although the precedence table for
            perl4 leads one to believe "-e $foo .= "q"" should parse as "((-e
            $foo) .= "q")", it actually parses as "(-e ($foo .= "q"))".  In
            perl5, the precedence is as documented.

                -e $foo .= "q"

                # perl4 prints: no output
                # perl5 prints: Can't modify -e in concatenation

       * "keys", "each", "values" are regular named unary operators
            In perl4, keys(), each() and values() were special high-precedence
            operators that operated on a single hash, but in perl5, they are
            regular named unary operators.  As documented, named unary opera-
            tors have lower precedence than the arithmetic and concatenation
            operators "+ - .", but the perl4 variants of these operators actu-
            ally bind tighter than "+ - .".  Thus, for:

                %foo = 1..10;
                print keys %foo - 1

                # perl4 prints: 4
                # perl5 prints: Type of arg 1 to keys must be hash (not subtraction)

            The perl4 behavior was probably more useful, if less consistent.

       General Regular Expression Traps using s///, etc.

       All types of RE traps.

       * "s'$lhs'$rhs'" interpolates on either side
            "s'$lhs'$rhs'" now does no interpolation on either side.  It used
            to interpolate $lhs but not $rhs.  (And still does not match a
            literal '$' in string)

                $a=1;$b=2;
                $string = '1 2 $a $b';
                $string =~ s'$a'$b';
                print $string,"\n";

                # perl4 prints: $b 2 $a $b
                # perl5 prints: 1 2 $a $b

       * "m//g" attaches its state to the searched string
            "m//g" now attaches its state to the searched string rather than
            the regular expression.  (Once the scope of a block is left for
            the sub, the state of the searched string is lost)

                $_ = "ababab";
                while(m/ab/g){
                    &doit("blah");
                }
                sub doit{local($_) = shift; print "Got $_ "}

                # perl4 prints: Got blah Got blah Got blah Got blah
                # perl5 prints: infinite loop blah...

       * "m//o" used within an anonymous sub
            Currently, if you use the "m//o" qualifier on a regular expression
            within an anonymous sub, all closures generated from that anony-
            mous sub will use the regular expression as it was compiled when
            it was used the very first time in any such closure.  For
            instance, if you say

                sub build_match {
                    my($left,$right) = @_;
                    return sub { $_[0] =~ /$left stuff $right/o; };
                }
                $good = build_match('foo','bar');
                $bad = build_match('baz','blarch');
                print $good->('foo stuff bar') ? "ok\n" : "not ok\n";
                print $bad->('baz stuff blarch') ? "ok\n" : "not ok\n";
                print $bad->('foo stuff bar') ? "not ok\n" : "ok\n";

            For most builds of Perl5, this will print: ok not ok not ok

            build_match() will always return a sub which matches the contents
            of $left and $right as they were the first time that build_match()
            was called, not as they are in the current call.

       * $+ isn't set to whole match
            If no parentheses are used in a match, Perl4 sets $+ to the whole
            match, just like $&. Perl5 does not.

                "abcdef" =~ /b.*e/;
                print "\$+ = $+\n";

                # perl4 prints: bcde
                # perl5 prints:

       * Substitution now returns null string if it fails
            substitution now returns the null string if it fails

                $string = "test";
                $value = ($string =~ s/foo//);
                print $value, "\n";

                # perl4 prints: 0
                # perl5 prints:

            Also see "Numerical Traps" for another example of this new fea-
            ture.

       * "s`lhs`rhs`" is now a normal substitution
            "s`lhs`rhs`" (using backticks) is now a normal substitution, with
            no backtick expansion

                $string = "";
                $string =~ s`^`hostname`;
                print $string, "\n";

                # perl4 prints: <the local hostname>
                # perl5 prints: hostname

       * Stricter parsing of variables in regular expressions
            Stricter parsing of variables used in regular expressions

                s/^([^$grpc]*$grpc[$opt$plus$rep]?)//o;

                # perl4: compiles w/o error
                # perl5: with Scalar found where operator expected ..., near "$opt$plus"

            an added component of this example, apparently from the same
            script, is the actual value of the s'd string after the substitu-
            tion.  "[$opt]" is a character class in perl4 and an array sub-
            script in perl5

                $grpc = 'a';
                $opt  = 'r';
                $_ = 'bar';
                s/^([^$grpc]*$grpc[$opt]?)/foo/;
                print;

                # perl4 prints: foo
                # perl5 prints: foobar

       * "m?x?" matches only once
            Under perl5, "m?x?" matches only once, like "?x?". Under perl4, it
            matched repeatedly, like "/x/" or "m!x!".

                $test = "once";
                sub match { $test =~ m?once?; }
                &match();
                if( &match() ) {
                    # m?x? matches more then once
                    print "perl4\n";
                } else {
                    # m?x? matches only once
                    print "perl5\n";
                }

                # perl4 prints: perl4
                # perl5 prints: perl5

       * Failed matches don't reset the match variables
            Unlike in Ruby, failed matches in Perl do not reset the match
            variables ($1, $2, ..., $`, ...).

       Subroutine, Signal, Sorting Traps

       The general group of Perl4-to-Perl5 traps having to do with Signals,
       Sorting, and their related subroutines, as well as general subroutine
       traps.  Includes some OS-Specific traps.

       * Barewords that used to look like strings look like subroutine calls
            Barewords that used to look like strings to Perl will now look
            like subroutine calls if a subroutine by that name is defined
            before the compiler sees them.

                sub SeeYa { warn"Hasta la vista, baby!" }
                $SIG{'TERM'} = SeeYa;
                print "SIGTERM is now $SIG{'TERM'}\n";

                # perl4 prints: SIGTERM is now main'SeeYa
                # perl5 prints: SIGTERM is now main::1 (and warns "Hasta la vista, baby!")

            Use -w to catch this one

       * Reverse is no longer allowed as the name of a sort subroutine
            reverse is no longer allowed as the name of a sort subroutine.

                sub reverse{ print "yup "; $a <=> $b }
                print sort reverse (2,1,3);

                # perl4 prints: yup yup 123
                # perl5 prints: 123
                # perl5 warns (if using -w): Ambiguous call resolved as CORE::reverse()

       * "warn()" won't let you specify a filehandle.
            Although it _always_ printed to STDERR, warn() would let you spec-
            ify a filehandle in perl4.  With perl5 it does not.

                warn STDERR "Foo!";

                # perl4 prints: Foo!
                # perl5 prints: String found where operator expected

       OS Traps

       * SysV resets signal handler correctly
            Under HPUX, and some other SysV OSes, one had to reset any signal
            handler, within  the signal handler function, each time a signal
            was handled with perl4.  With perl5, the reset is now done cor-
            rectly.  Any code relying on the handler _not_ being reset will
            have to be reworked.

            Since version 5.002, Perl uses sigaction() under SysV.

                sub gotit {
                    print "Got @_... ";
                }
                $SIG{'INT'} = 'gotit';

                $| = 1;
                $pid = fork;
                if ($pid) {
                    kill('INT', $pid);
                    sleep(1);
                    kill('INT', $pid);
                } else {
                    while (1) {sleep(10);}
                }

                # perl4 (HPUX) prints: Got INT...
                # perl5 (HPUX) prints: Got INT... Got INT...

       * SysV "seek()" appends correctly
            Under SysV OSes, "seek()" on a file opened to append ">>" now does
            the right thing w.r.t. the fopen() manpage. e.g., - When a file is
            opened for append,  it  is  impossible to overwrite information
            already in the file.

                open(TEST,">>seek.test");
                $start = tell TEST;
                foreach(1 .. 9){
                    print TEST "$_ ";
                }
                $end = tell TEST;
                seek(TEST,$start,0);
                print TEST "18 characters here";

                # perl4 (solaris) seek.test has: 18 characters here
                # perl5 (solaris) seek.test has: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 18 characters here

       Interpolation Traps

       Perl4-to-Perl5 traps having to do with how things get interpolated
       within certain expressions, statements, contexts, or whatever.

       * "@" always interpolates an array in double-quotish strings
            @ now always interpolates an array in double-quotish strings.

                print "To: someone@somewhere.com\n";

                # perl4 prints: To:someone@somewhere.com
                # perl < 5.6.1, error : In string, @somewhere now must be written as \@somewhere
                # perl >= 5.6.1, warning : Possible unintended interpolation of @somewhere in string

       * Double-quoted strings may no longer end with an unescaped $
            Double-quoted strings may no longer end with an unescaped $.

                $foo = "foo$";
                print "foo is $foo\n";

                # perl4 prints: foo is foo$
                # perl5 errors: Final $ should be \$ or $name

            Note: perl5 DOES NOT error on the terminating @ in $bar

       * Arbitrary expressions are evaluated inside braces within double
       quotes
            Perl now sometimes evaluates arbitrary expressions inside braces
            that occur within double quotes (usually when the opening brace is
            preceded by "$" or "@").

                @www = "buz";
                $foo = "foo";
                $bar = "bar";
                sub foo { return "bar" };
                print "|@{w.w.w}|${main'foo}|";

                # perl4 prints: |@{w.w.w}|foo|
                # perl5 prints: |buz|bar|

            Note that you can "use strict;" to ward off such trappiness under
            perl5.

       * $$x now tries to dereference $x
            The construct "this is $$x" used to interpolate the pid at that
            point, but now tries to dereference $x.  $$ by itself still works
            fine, however.

                $s = "a reference";
                $x = *s;
                print "this is $$x\n";

                # perl4 prints: this is XXXx   (XXX is the current pid)
                # perl5 prints: this is a reference

       * Creation of hashes on the fly with "eval "EXPR"" requires protection
            Creation of hashes on the fly with "eval "EXPR"" now requires
            either both "$"'s to be protected in the specification of the hash
            name, or both curlies to be protected.  If both curlies are pro-
            tected, the result will be compatible with perl4 and perl5.  This
            is a very common practice, and should be changed to use the block
            form of "eval{}"  if possible.

                $hashname = "foobar";
                $key = "baz";
                $value = 1234;
                eval "\$$hashname{'$key'} = q|$value|";
                (defined($foobar{'baz'})) ?  (print "Yup") : (print "Nope");

                # perl4 prints: Yup
                # perl5 prints: Nope

            Changing

                eval "\$$hashname{'$key'} = q|$value|";

            to

                eval "\$\$hashname{'$key'} = q|$value|";

            causes the following result:

                # perl4 prints: Nope
                # perl5 prints: Yup

            or, changing to

                eval "\$$hashname\{'$key'\} = q|$value|";

            causes the following result:

                # perl4 prints: Yup
                # perl5 prints: Yup
                # and is compatible for both versions

       * Bugs in earlier perl versions
            perl4 programs which unconsciously rely on the bugs in earlier
            perl versions.

                perl -e '$bar=q/not/; print "This is $foo{$bar} perl5"'

                # perl4 prints: This is not perl5
                # perl5 prints: This is perl5

       * Array and hash brackets during interpolation
            You also have to be careful about array and hash brackets during
            interpolation.

                print "$foo["

                perl 4 prints: [
                perl 5 prints: syntax error

                print "$foo{"

                perl 4 prints: {
                perl 5 prints: syntax error

            Perl 5 is expecting to find an index or key name following the
            respective brackets, as well as an ending bracket of the appropri-
            ate type.  In order to mimic the behavior of Perl 4, you must
            escape the bracket like so.

                print "$foo\[";
                print "$foo\{";

       * Interpolation of "\$$foo{bar}"
            Similarly, watch out for: "\$$foo{bar}"

                $foo = "baz";
                print "\$$foo{bar}\n";

                # perl4 prints: $baz{bar}
                # perl5 prints: $

            Perl 5 is looking for $foo{bar} which doesn't exist, but perl 4 is
            happy just to expand $foo to "baz" by itself.  Watch out for this
            especially in "eval"'s.

       * "qq()" string passed to "eval" will not find string terminator
            "qq()" string passed to "eval"

                eval qq(
                    foreach \$y (keys %\$x\) {
                        \$count++;
                    }
                );

                # perl4 runs this ok
                # perl5 prints: Can't find string terminator ")"

       DBM Traps

       General DBM traps.

       * Perl5 must have been linked with same dbm/ndbm as the default for
       "dbmopen()"
            Existing dbm databases created under perl4 (or any other dbm/ndbm
            tool) may cause the same script, run under perl5, to fail.  The
            build of perl5 must have been linked with the same dbm/ndbm as the
            default for "dbmopen()" to function properly without "tie"'ing to
            an extension dbm implementation.

                dbmopen (%dbm, "file", undef);
                print "ok\n";

                # perl4 prints: ok
                # perl5 prints: ok (IFF linked with -ldbm or -lndbm)

       * DBM exceeding limit on the key/value size will cause perl5 to exit
       immediately
            Existing dbm databases created under perl4 (or any other dbm/ndbm
            tool) may cause the same script, run under perl5, to fail.  The
            error generated when exceeding the limit on the key/value size
            will cause perl5 to exit immediately.

                dbmopen(DB, "testdb",0600) || die "couldn't open db! $!";
                $DB{'trap'} = "x" x 1024;  # value too large for most dbm/ndbm
                print "YUP\n";

                # perl4 prints:
                dbm store returned -1, errno 28, key "trap" at - line 3.
                YUP

                # perl5 prints:
                dbm store returned -1, errno 28, key "trap" at - line 3.

       Unclassified Traps

       Everything else.

       * "require"/"do" trap using returned value
            If the file doit.pl has:

                sub foo {
                    $rc = do "./do.pl";
                    return 8;
                }
                print &foo, "\n";

            And the do.pl file has the following single line:

                return 3;

            Running doit.pl gives the following:

                # perl 4 prints: 3 (aborts the subroutine early)
                # perl 5 prints: 8

            Same behavior if you replace "do" with "require".

       * "split" on empty string with LIMIT specified
                $string = '';
                @list = split(/foo/, $string, 2)

            Perl4 returns a one element list containing the empty string but
            Perl5 returns an empty list.

       As always, if any of these are ever officially declared as bugs,
       they'll be fixed and removed.

perl v5.8.8                       2006-06-14                       PERLTRAP(1)

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