I have come across a problem in my use of Net::SMTP under a threaded version of Perl 5.8.2 which I cannot fully explain. In essence, identical code under 5.6.1 works without issue, whilst that under the test build of 5.8.2 is returning an "Invalid argument" error. This is most basically demonstrated by the following one line of code:

root@development:~# /opt/bin/perl5.8.2 -MData::Dumper=Dumper -MNet::SM
+TP -le '$smtp = Net::SMTP->new("localhost"); print $! unless defined 
+$smtp'
Invalid argument

root@development:~# /usr/bin/perl5.6.1 -MData::Dumper=Dumper -MNet::SM
+TP -le '$smtp = Net::SMTP->new("localhost"); print $! unless defined 
+$smtp'
[download]

The following is the output of /opt/bin/perl -V - Has anyone come across a similar problem to this under 5.8.2?

root@development:~# /opt/bin/perl -V
Summary of my perl5 (revision 5.0 version 8 subversion 2) configuratio
+n:
  Platform:
    osname=linux, osvers=2.2.20-idepci, archname=i686-linux-thread-mul
+ti-64int-ld
    uname='linux development 2.2.20-idepci #1 sat apr 20 12:45:19 est 
+2002 i686 unknown '
    config_args=''
    hint=previous, useposix=true, d_sigaction=define
    usethreads=define use5005threads=undef useithreads=define usemulti
+plicity=define
    useperlio=define d_sfio=undef uselargefiles=define usesocks=undef
    use64bitint=undef use64bitall=undef uselongdouble=undef
    usemymalloc=n, bincompat5005=undef
  Compiler:
    cc='cc', ccflags ='',
    optimize='-Os',
    cppflags='-D_REENTRANT -D_GNU_SOURCE -DTHREADS_HAVE_PIDS -fno-stri
+ct-aliasing -I/usr/local/include -D_REENTRANT -D_GNU_SOURCE -DTHREADS
+_HAVE_PIDS -fno-strict-aliasing -I/usr/local/include -D_LARGEFILE_SOU
+RCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -D_POSIX_SOURCE'
    ccversion='', gccversion='2.95.4 20011002 (Debian prerelease)', gc
+cosandvers=''
    intsize=4, longsize=4, ptrsize=4, doublesize=8, byteorder=1234
    d_longlong=define, longlongsize=8, d_longdbl=define, longdblsize=1
+2
    ivtype='long', ivsize=4, nvtype='double', nvsize=8, Off_t='off_t',
+ lseeksize=4
    alignbytes=4, prototype=define
  Linker and Libraries:
    ld='cc', ldflags =' -L/usr/local/lib'
    libpth=/usr/local/lib /lib /usr/lib
    libs=-lbind -lnsl -lgdbm -ldbm -ldl -lm -lcrypt -lutil -lpthread -
+lc
    perllibs=-lbind -lnsl -ldl -lm -lcrypt -lutil -lpthread -lc
    libc=/lib/libc-2.2.5.so, so=so, useshrplib=false, libperl=libperl.
+a
    gnulibc_version='2.2.5'
  Dynamic Linking:
    dlsrc=dl_dlopen.xs, dlext=so, d_dlsymun=undef, ccdlflags='-rdynami
+c'
    cccdlflags='-fpic', lddlflags='-shared -L/usr/local/lib'


Characteristics of this binary (from libperl): 
  Compile-time options: MULTIPLICITY USE_ITHREADS USE_LARGE_FILES PERL
+_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT
  Built under linux
  Compiled at Dec  5 2003 21:59:46
  @INC:
    /opt/lib/perl5/5.8.2/i686-linux-thread-multi
    /opt/lib/perl5/5.8.2
    /opt/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.2/i686-linux-thread-multi
    /opt/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.2
    /opt/lib/perl5/site_perl
    .
[download]