Yes declaration of array reference has changed in 5.8. The code below will not compile under 5.8:

my @$ra_ret_save = @$ra_ret;
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You do not have to declare array refence and copy from another array in two separate steps. You can do in one single step -

my $ra_ret_save = [ @$ra_ret ];
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I have created a demo script below -

use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;

my $ra_ret = [ qw/ a b c d / ];
print Dumper($ra_ret);

my $ra_ret_save = [ @$ra_ret ];
print Dumper($ra_ret_save);
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And the output when run from 5.8 and 5.6 -

perl 5.8.0
----------
$VAR1 = [
          'a',
          'b',
          'c',
          'd'
        ];
$VAR1 = [
          'a',
          'b',
          'c',
          'd'
        ];

perl 5.6.1
----------
$VAR1 = [
          'a',
          'b',
          'c',
          'd'
        ];
$VAR1 = [
          'a',
          'b',
          'c',
          'd'
        ];
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