Issued:
2012-02-20
Updated:
2012-02-20

RHBA-2012:0199 - perl bug fix update

Synopsis

perl bug fix update

Type/Severity

Bug Fix Advisory (none)

Topic

Updated perl packages that fix several bugs are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

Description

Perl is a high-level programming language commonly used for system administration utilities and web programming.

This update fixes the following bugs:

  • Due to an error in the threads module, memory was leaked each time a thread was detached. Over time, this could cause long-running threaded Perl programs to consume a significant amount of memory. With this update, a patch has been applied to ensure the allocated memory is properly freed when a thread is detached, and using threads in Perl applications no longer causes memory leaks. (BZ#548249)

  • If the "-default" parameter contained a plus sign ("+"), the CGI::popup_menu() method failed to generate valid HTML code and the closing tag of a paired tag was sometimes missing. The regular expression that contributes the HTML code in such scenarios has been fixed and the closing tag is now always present. (BZ#523827)

  • Previously, joining or undefining a thread variable in a Perl script resulted in the following error message: "Attempt to free unreferenced scalar: SV 0x7b7dcb0, Perl interpreter: 0x7b4cfb0 during global destruction." A backported upstream patch has been provided and the internal error is no longer returned in the described scenario. (BZ#537777)

  • Previously, the CGI::popup_menu() method generated invalid HTML code; a space character was sometimes missing between two attributes of a tag. With this update, the regular expression responsible for generating such code has been fixed and the space characters are now properly generated in the described scenario. (BZ#590644)

  • When threads were being rapidly created and detached on a multi-processor system with Perl, a variety of unexpected terminations occurred as a result. With this update, the threads module has been updated to version 1.79 and the crashes no longer occur. (BZ#675863)

  • Previously, the NDBM_File module was missing in Perl packages and Perl could not provide support for NDBM files. With this update, NDBM_File has been added back to the Perl RPM packages. (BZ#593752)

  • Previously, string evaluation in Perl threads sometimes resulted in an unexpected termination of the process. To partially fix this bug, handling of these strings has been moved to non-threaded variables. The update of the threads module to version 1.79 also contributed to the fix of this bug. Now, the crashes no longer occur in the described scenario. (BZ#676050)

  • Due to a missing definition in Unicode table 4.0, Perl did not recognize the small letter Palochka (U+04cf). With this update, the Unicode table has been updated to version 5.0.1 and Palochka letters are now supported in Perl. (BZ#621542)

  • When two nested loops were using the same iterator, the interpreter tried to double-free the iterator, resulting in a warning. Moreover, referring such an iterator caused the "Attempt to free unreferenced scalar" run-time error message to be returned. A backported patch from Perl 5.10.1 has been applied to handle shared iterators properly and no warnings or error messages are now returned in the described scenario. (BZ#625746)

  • Previously, the value of a variable used for string evaluation was too small. Consequently, a large number of string evaluations made the interpreter return syntax error messages. Now, the variable for storing strings is using a bigger value and the error messages are no longer returned in the described scenario. (BZ#676547)

Users of perl are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which fix these bugs.

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure all previously-released errata relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via the Red Hat Network. Details on how to use the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at This content is not included.https://access.redhat.com/kb/docs/DOC-11259

Affected Products

ProductVersionArch
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian5ppc
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems5s390x
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation5x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation5i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server5x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server5ia64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server5i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI5x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI5i386
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop5x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop5i386

Updated Packages

  • perl-suidperl-5.8.8-38.el5.i386.rpm
  • perl-5.8.8-38.el5.s390x.rpm
  • perl-5.8.8-38.el5.ia64.rpm
  • perl-suidperl-5.8.8-38.el5.s390x.rpm
  • perl-suidperl-5.8.8-38.el5.ia64.rpm
  • perl-5.8.8-38.el5.ppc.rpm
  • perl-5.8.8-38.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • perl-suidperl-5.8.8-38.el5.x86_64.rpm
  • perl-5.8.8-38.el5.src.rpm
  • perl-5.8.8-38.el5.i386.rpm
  • perl-suidperl-5.8.8-38.el5.ppc.rpm

Fixes

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)

Additional information