From jjgreen@cisco.com

This doesn't work like I would expect​:

#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w
my $aref = ();
die if defined $aref;
my @​list = map { $_ } @​{ $aref };
die if defined $aref;

Gives​:

Died at - line 4.

Running the script under the debugger, it
appears that after line 3 is complete,
$aref = [];

Site configuration information for perl 5.00502​:

Configured by rnapier at Wed Oct 28 11​:40​:57 EST 1998.

Summary of my perl5 (5.0 patchlevel 5 subversion 2) configuration​:
  Platform​:
  osname=solaris, osvers=2.5.1, archname=sun4-solaris-thread
  uname='sunos tako 5.5.1 generic_103640-14 sun4d sparc sunw,sparccenter-2000 '
  hint=recommended, useposix=true, d_sigaction=define
  usethreads=define useperlio=undef d_sfio=undef
  Compiler​:
  cc='gcc -B/usr/ccs/bin/', optimize='-O', gccversion=2.7-97r1
  cppflags='-D_REENTRANT -I/usr/local/include'
  ccflags ='-D_REENTRANT -I/usr/local/include'
  stdchar='unsigned char', d_stdstdio=define, usevfork=false
  intsize=4, longsize=4, ptrsize=4, doublesize=8
  d_longlong=define, longlongsize=8, d_longdbl=define, longdblsize=16
  alignbytes=8, usemymalloc=y, prototype=define
  Linker and Libraries​:
  ld='gcc -B/usr/ccs/bin/', ldflags =' -L/usr/local/lib'
  libpth=/usr/local/lib /lib /usr/lib /usr/ccs/lib
  libs=-lsocket -lnsl -ldl -lm -lposix4 -lpthread -lc -lcrypt
  libc=, so=so, useshrplib=false, libperl=libperl.a
  Dynamic Linking​:
  dlsrc=dl_dlopen.xs, dlext=so, d_dlsymun=undef, ccdlflags=' '
  cccdlflags='-fPIC', lddlflags='-G -L/usr/local/lib'

Locally applied patches​:
 

@​INC for perl 5.00502​:
  /users/rnapier/lib/perl5/5.00502/sun4-solaris-thread
  /users/rnapier/lib/perl5/5.00502
  /users/rnapier/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/sun4-solaris-thread
  /users/rnapier/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005
  .

Environment for perl 5.00502​:
  HOME=/users/jjgreen
  LANG=C
  LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/users/rnapier/lib​:/users/jjgreen/lib​:/usr/lib/X11​:/usr/openwin/lib
  LOGDIR (unset)
  PATH=/router/bin​:/usr/ucb​:/nfs/sw/current/solaris2bin​:/usr/atria/bin​:/users/rnapier/bin​:/users/jjgreen/bin​:/usr/local/bin​:/usr/local/etc​:/usr/dt/bin​:/usr/openwin/bin​:/usr/openwin/bin/xview​:/usr/frame/bin​:/usr/bin​:/usr/sbin​:/usr/5bin​:/usr/etc​:/bin​:/usr/ccs/bin​:/nfs/ddts/ddtshome/bin​:/sw/contrib/solaris2bin
  PERL_BADLANG (unset)
  SHELL=/usr/local/bin/tcsh

From @cwest

This is not a bug. Perl auto-vivifies and that's a Good Thing.

@cwest - Status changed from 'stalled' to 'resolved'