# pperl 0.6.5

*2026-07-23 to 2026-07-26, 16 commits.*

## JIT and parallelization

- **`next` and `last` in compiled loops**: a `while` loop whose body
  uses `next`, such as the statement parser of DBD::mysql, crashed the
  JIT compiler and left the JIT disabled for the rest of the run; such
  loops now compile, as do `foreach` loops with `next`. A `last` inside
  `do {...} while` leaves the enclosing loop, as in perl, where the
  compiled code ended only the `do` block.

## Modules

- **DBD::Pg and DBD::mysql** are part of pperl, written in Perl over
  PostgreSQL's libpq and the MySQL client library, so
  `DBI->connect("dbi:Pg:...")` and `dbi:mysql:` work with no driver to
  build. DBD::Pg takes `?`, `$1` and `:name` placeholders and binary
  `bytea` parameters (`{pg_type => 17}`) and reports the SQLSTATE;
  DBD::mysql fetches binary data intact. Both are tested against live
  PostgreSQL and MariaDB servers.
- **DBD::Sybase** is included, written in Perl over FreeTDS's ct-lib:
  it connects by server name or by `host=` and `port=`, runs queries
  with `?` placeholders and transactions, and reports errors through
  `err`, `errstr` and `state`. It has not yet been tested against a
  live server.
- **Peta::FFI** 0.02 passes C pointers as opaque values (signature type
  `o`, with `undef` as NULL) and reads, writes, allocates and frees C
  memory with `peek`, `peek_cstr`, `poke`, `alloc`, `free`, `pack_ptr`
  and `unpack_ptr`. That is enough to drive a C library such as SQLite
  from pure Perl.
- **DBI**: in a pperl built without database support, `use DBI` stops
  with a message naming the missing capability instead of loading the
  host perl's DBI and failing inside XSLoader.
- **Magical arguments to native modules** are read correctly:
  `md5_hex($1)`, `sha1_hex(substr(...))`, `encode_base64(substr(...))`
  and `$md5->add(substr($d, $o, $n))` all processed an empty string.
- **Default imports**: `use Socket;` imports Socket's default list again,
  and File::Path no longer dies calling `getcwd`; eleven native modules
  had an `import` that did nothing. A native module's own `import` is no
  longer replaced by the generic one.
- **Time::HiRes**: importing `stat`, `sleep` or `time` from Time::HiRes
  overrides the builtin only in the importing package, as on perl5. It
  overrode it for the whole program, which broke `stat(_)` everywhere
  else; File::Copy imports it, and `require CPAN` died with
  `Bareword "_" not allowed while "strict subs" in use`.
- **File::Temp** exports what perl5's does, with the `:POSIX`, `:mktemp`
  and `:seekable` tags and the `STANDARD`, `MEDIUM`, `HIGH` and `SEEK_*`
  constants, and its objects can `seek`. `tempfile()` without `DIR`
  creates the file in the current directory instead of dying, and a
  forked child that exits no longer removes the parent's temporary
  files.
- **Storable** keeps booleans: a boolean value (perl 5.36 and later)
  comes back from `freeze` and `thaw` or `dclone` as a boolean.
- **Opcode** is native, providing the operator masks that `Safe`
  compartments are built from.
- **IPC::SysV** is native: its constants, `ftok`, `shmat`, `shmdt`,
  `memread` and `memwrite`, and what the `stat` methods of IPC::Msg,
  IPC::Semaphore and IPC::SharedMem need.
- **Warnings when loading modules**: loading `re`, `mro`, `version`,
  `Encode`, `Math::GMP`, `Config`, `attributes` or `Time::HiRes` no
  longer warns that a subroutine was redefined, and `use Config`, `B`,
  `Storable` and `PerlIO::encoding` no longer cause "used only once:
  possible typo" warnings that perl5 does not give. `version` objects
  use perl's built-in implementation for all their methods, as on
  perl5, instead of a mix of two.
- **Scalar::Util**: `readonly` returns the same value as on perl5, the
  flag word (such as 134283264) rather than 1. `readonly`, `tainted`
  and `dualvar` are faster; a benchmark of `readonly` went from 0.66 to
  about 0.95 times perl5's speed.
- **Config**: `$Config::VERSION` is set and equals `$]`, as on perl5,
  and the `d_pw*` keys that User::pwent requires are present, so
  `User::pwent` loads.
- **POSIX**: `strtol` and `strtoul` with one argument use base 0 instead
  of warning `Argument "*main::strtol" isn't numeric`, and
  `POSIX::sprintf` no longer warns "Use of uninitialized value in
  subroutine entry".

## Command line

- **The daemon**: `pperl --daemon` runs a background daemon that holds
  a ready interpreter (`--daemon=start`, `stop` and `status` manage it),
  and `pperl --via-daemon script.pl` or `PPERL_DAEMON=1` runs a script
  in a process forked from it, with the caller's standard streams and
  working directory. When no daemon answers, the script runs normally.
  `--build-id` prints the binary identity the daemon is keyed on. On its
  own this measured about 0.6 ms slower than a normal start, so it is
  opt-in.

## Documentation

- **Translations**: the "Graphics with Perl" guide is translated into
  the remaining 31 languages and so into all 41. In the Arabic, Persian
  and Hebrew translations, 72 arrows that pointed the wrong way are
  corrected.
- **Daemon guide**: a new chapter of the performance guide, "Fast
  start-up: the daemon", describes the daemon, in English and in all 41
  translations.
- **perl 5.44 in the documentation**: the introduction, the
  page of differences from Perl 5, the coming-from guides, the errata and the
  perlfunc pages state compatibility with perl 5.44 instead of 5.42.
- **Getting started and errata**: Getting started lists `-E`, `-I` and
  `-V`, drops `--cache`, and describes the module search path as it
  behaves: `-I` works alongside `PERL5LIB` and `PPERL5LIB`. The errata
  page on identifier length gives perl 5.44's limit of 1019 bytes, which
  pperl matches, and withdraws the claim that pperl differs above 251
  bytes.