From 3e33716fff35c87acba10f1d7630d4ad55ad58e8 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Jarkko Hietaniemi Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2001 04:03:10 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] Tell about the downside of safe signals. p4raw-id: //depot/perl@13588 --- pod/perldelta.pod | 12 ++++++++++-- 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/pod/perldelta.pod b/pod/perldelta.pod index dfb71f9..15216d4 100644 --- a/pod/perldelta.pod +++ b/pod/perldelta.pod @@ -300,11 +300,19 @@ the child process. =back -=head2 Signals Are Now Safe +=head2 Safe Signals Perl used to be fragile in that signals arriving at inopportune moments could corrupt Perl's internal state. Now Perl postpones handling of -signals until it's safe. +signals until it's safe (between opcodes). + +This change may have surprising side effects because signals no more +interrupt Perl instantly. Perl will now first finish whatever it was +doing, like finishing an internal operation (like sort()) or an +external operation (like an I/O operation), and only then look at any +arrived signals (and before starting the next operation). No more corrupt +internal state since the current operation is always finished first, +but the signal may take more time to get heard. =head2 Unicode Overhaul -- 2.7.4