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8c8d6154 SH |
1 | =encoding utf8 |
2 | ||
3 | =head1 NAME | |
4 | ||
5 | perl5214delta - what is new for perl v5.21.4 | |
6 | ||
7 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
8 | ||
9 | This document describes differences between the 5.21.3 release and the 5.21.4 | |
10 | release. | |
11 | ||
12 | If you are upgrading from an earlier release such as 5.21.2, first read | |
13 | L<perl5213delta>, which describes differences between 5.21.2 and 5.21.3. | |
14 | ||
15 | =head1 Core Enhancements | |
16 | ||
17 | =head2 Infinity and NaN (not-a-number) handling improved | |
18 | ||
19 | Floating point values are able to hold the special values infinity (also | |
20 | -infinity), and NaN (not-a-number). Now we more robustly recognize and | |
21 | propagate the value in computations, and on output normalize them to C<Inf> and | |
22 | C<NaN>. | |
23 | ||
24 | See also the L<POSIX> enhancements. | |
25 | ||
9e5bcaec JH |
26 | =head1 Security |
27 | ||
28 | =head2 Perl is now compiled with -fstack-protector-strong if available | |
29 | ||
30 | Perl has been compiled with the anti-stack-smashing option | |
31 | C<-fstack-protector> since 5.10.1. Now Perl uses the newer variant | |
32 | called C<-fstack-protector-strong>, if available. | |
33 | ||
8c8d6154 SH |
34 | =head1 Incompatible Changes |
35 | ||
36 | =head2 Changes to the C<*> prototype | |
37 | ||
38 | The C<*> character in a subroutine's prototype used to allow barewords to take | |
39 | precedence over most, but not all subroutines. It was never consistent and | |
40 | exhibited buggy behaviour. | |
41 | ||
42 | Now it has been changed, so subroutines always take precedence over barewords, | |
43 | which brings it into conformity with similarly prototyped built-in functions: | |
44 | ||
62c2e3c5 | 45 | sub splat(*) { ... } |
8c8d6154 SH |
46 | sub foo { ... } |
47 | splat(foo); # now always splat(foo()) | |
48 | splat(bar); # still splat('bar') as before | |
49 | close(foo); # close(foo()) | |
50 | close(bar); # close('bar') | |
51 | ||
52 | =head1 Performance Enhancements | |
53 | ||
54 | =over 4 | |
55 | ||
56 | =item * | |
57 | ||
58 | Subroutines with an empty prototype and bodies containing just C<undef> are now | |
59 | eligible for inlining. | |
60 | L<[perl #122728]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=122728> | |
61 | ||
62 | =item * | |
63 | ||
64 | Subroutines in packages no longer need to carry typeglobs around with them. | |
65 | Declaring a subroutine will now put a simple sub reference in the stash if | |
66 | possible, saving memory. The typeglobs still notionally exist, so accessing | |
67 | them will cause the subroutine reference to be upgraded to a typeglob. This | |
68 | optimization does not currently apply to XSUBs or exported subroutines, and | |
69 | method calls will undo it, since they cache things in typeglobs. | |
70 | L<[perl #120441]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=120441> | |
71 | ||
72 | =back | |
73 | ||
74 | =head1 Modules and Pragmata | |
75 | ||
76 | =head2 New Modules and Pragmata | |
77 | ||
78 | =over 4 | |
79 | ||
80 | =item * | |
81 | ||
82 | L<B::Op_private> provides detailed information about the flags used in the | |
83 | C<op_private> field of perl opcodes. | |
84 | ||
85 | =back | |
86 | ||
87 | =head2 Updated Modules and Pragmata | |
88 | ||
89 | =over 4 | |
90 | ||
91 | =item * | |
92 | ||
93 | L<Archive::Tar> has been upgraded from version 2.00 to 2.02. | |
94 | ||
95 | Tests can now be run in parallel. | |
96 | ||
97 | =item * | |
98 | ||
99 | L<Attribute::Handlers> has been upgraded from version 0.96 to 0.97. | |
100 | ||
101 | Internal changes to account for the fact that subroutines in packages no longer | |
102 | need to carry typeglobs around with them (see under L</Performance | |
103 | Enhancements>). | |
104 | ||
105 | =item * | |
106 | ||
107 | L<attributes> has been upgraded from version 0.22 to 0.23. | |
108 | ||
109 | The usage of C<memEQs> in the XS has been corrected. | |
110 | L<[perl #122701]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=122701> | |
111 | ||
112 | =item * | |
113 | ||
114 | L<B> has been upgraded from version 1.50 to 1.51. | |
115 | ||
116 | It provides a new C<B::safename> function, based on the existing | |
117 | C<< B::GV->SAFENAME >>, that converts "\cOPEN" to "^OPEN". | |
118 | ||
119 | =item * | |
120 | ||
121 | L<B::Concise> has been upgraded from version 0.992 to 0.993. | |
122 | ||
123 | Internal changes to account for the fact that the defines and labels for the | |
124 | flags in the C<op_private> field of OPs are now auto-generated (see under | |
125 | L</Internal Changes>). | |
126 | ||
127 | =item * | |
128 | ||
129 | L<B::Deparse> has been upgraded from version 1.27 to 1.28. | |
130 | ||
131 | It now deparses C<our(I<LIST>)> and typed lexical (C<my Dog $spot>) correctly. | |
132 | ||
133 | =item * | |
134 | ||
135 | L<bignum> has been upgraded from version 0.37 to 0.38. | |
136 | ||
137 | An C<eval BLOCK> rather than an C<eval EXPR> is now used to see if we can find | |
138 | Math::BigInt::Lite. | |
139 | ||
140 | =item * | |
141 | ||
142 | L<constant> has been upgraded from version 1.31 to 1.32. | |
143 | ||
144 | It now accepts fully-qualified constant names, allowing constants to be defined | |
145 | in packages other than the caller. | |
146 | ||
147 | =item * | |
148 | ||
149 | L<CPAN::Meta::Requirements> has been upgraded from version 2.126 to 2.128. | |
150 | ||
151 | Works around limitations in version::vpp detecting v-string magic and adds | |
152 | support for forthcoming L<ExtUtils::MakeMaker> bootstrap F<version.pm> for | |
153 | Perls older than 5.10.0. | |
154 | ||
155 | =item * | |
156 | ||
157 | L<Data::Dumper> has been upgraded from version 2.152 to 2.154. | |
158 | ||
159 | Fixes CVE-2014-4330 by adding a configuration variable/option to limit | |
160 | recursion when dumping deep data structures. | |
161 | ||
162 | =item * | |
163 | ||
164 | L<experimental> has been upgraded from version 0.008 to 0.010. | |
165 | ||
166 | Hardcodes features for Perls older than 5.15.7. | |
167 | ||
168 | =item * | |
169 | ||
170 | L<ExtUtils::CBuilder> has been upgraded from version 0.280217 to 0.280219. | |
171 | ||
172 | Fixes a regression on Android. | |
173 | L<[perl #122675]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=122675> | |
174 | ||
175 | =item * | |
176 | ||
177 | L<ExtUtils::Install> has been upgraded from version 1.68 to 2.04. | |
178 | ||
179 | No changes to installed files other than version bumps. | |
180 | ||
181 | =item * | |
182 | ||
183 | L<ExtUtils::Manifest> has been upgraded from version 1.65 to 1.68. | |
184 | ||
185 | Fixes a bug with C<maniread()>'s handling of quoted filenames and improves | |
186 | C<manifind()> to follow symlinks. | |
187 | L<[perl #122415]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=122415> | |
188 | ||
189 | =item * | |
190 | ||
191 | L<File::Find> has been upgraded from version 1.27 to 1.28. | |
192 | ||
193 | C<find()> and C<finddepth()> will now warn if passed inappropriate or | |
194 | misspelled options. | |
195 | ||
196 | =item * | |
197 | ||
198 | L<Getopt::Std> has been upgraded from version 1.10 to 1.11. | |
199 | ||
200 | Corrects a typo in the documentation. | |
201 | ||
202 | =item * | |
203 | ||
204 | L<HTTP::Tiny> has been upgraded from version 0.047 to 0.049. | |
205 | ||
206 | C<keep_alive> is now fork-safe and thread-safe. | |
207 | ||
208 | =item * | |
209 | ||
210 | L<IO> has been upgraded from version 1.33 to 1.34. | |
211 | ||
212 | The XS implementation has been fixed for the sake of older Perls. | |
213 | ||
214 | =item * | |
215 | ||
216 | L<IO::Socket::IP> has been upgraded from version 0.31 to 0.32. | |
217 | ||
218 | Implements Timeout for C<connect()>. | |
219 | L<[cpan #92075]|https://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=92075> | |
220 | ||
221 | =item * | |
222 | ||
223 | L<Locale::Codes> has been upgraded from version 3.31 to 3.32. | |
224 | ||
225 | New codes have been added. | |
226 | ||
227 | =item * | |
228 | ||
229 | L<Math::BigInt> has been upgraded from version 1.9996 to 1.9997. | |
230 | ||
231 | The documentation now gives test examples using L<Test::More> rather than | |
232 | L<Test>. | |
233 | ||
234 | =item * | |
235 | ||
236 | L<Module::CoreList> has been upgraded from version 5.021003 to 5.20140920. | |
237 | ||
238 | Updated to cover the latest releases of Perl. | |
239 | ||
240 | =item * | |
241 | ||
242 | L<overload> has been upgraded from version 1.22 to 1.23. | |
243 | ||
244 | A redundant C<ref $sub> check has been removed. | |
245 | ||
246 | =item * | |
247 | ||
248 | PathTools has been upgraded from version 3.49 to 3.50. | |
249 | ||
250 | A warning from the B<gcc> compiler is now avoided when building the XS. | |
251 | ||
252 | =item * | |
253 | ||
254 | L<Pod::Perldoc> has been upgraded from version 3.23 to 3.24. | |
255 | ||
256 | Filehandles opened for reading or writing now have C<:encoding(UTF-8)> set. | |
257 | L<[cpan #98019]|https://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=98019> | |
258 | ||
259 | =item * | |
260 | ||
261 | L<POSIX> has been upgraded from version 1.42 to 1.43. | |
262 | ||
263 | The C99 math functions and constants (for example acosh, isinf, isnan, round, | |
264 | trunc; M_E, M_SQRT2, M_PI) have been added. | |
265 | ||
266 | =item * | |
267 | ||
268 | Scalar-List-Utils has been upgraded from version 1.39 to 1.41. | |
269 | ||
270 | A new module, L<Sub::Util>, has been added, containing functions related to | |
271 | CODE refs, including C<subname> (inspired by Sub::Identity) and C<set_subname> | |
272 | (copied and renamed from Sub::Name). | |
273 | ||
274 | The use of C<GetMagic> in C<List::Util::reduce()> has also been fixed. | |
275 | L<[cpan #63211]|https://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=63211> | |
276 | ||
277 | =item * | |
278 | ||
279 | L<Term::ReadLine> has been upgraded from version 1.14 to 1.15. | |
280 | ||
281 | Faster checks are now made first in some if-statements. | |
282 | ||
283 | =item * | |
284 | ||
285 | L<Test::Harness> has been upgraded from version 3.32 to 3.33. | |
286 | ||
287 | Various documentation fixes. | |
288 | ||
289 | =item * | |
290 | ||
291 | L<Test::Simple> has been upgraded from version 1.001003 to 1.001006. | |
292 | ||
293 | Various documentation fixes. | |
294 | ||
295 | =item * | |
296 | ||
297 | L<threads> has been upgraded from version 1.95 to 1.96. | |
298 | ||
299 | No changes to installed files other than version bumps. | |
300 | ||
301 | =item * | |
302 | ||
303 | L<Time::Piece> has been upgraded from version 1.27 to 1.29. | |
304 | ||
305 | When pretty printing negative Time::Seconds, the "minus" is no longer lost. | |
306 | ||
307 | =item * | |
308 | ||
309 | L<version> has been upgraded from version 0.9908 to 0.9909. | |
310 | ||
311 | Numerous changes. See the F<Changes> file in the CPAN distribution for | |
312 | details. | |
313 | ||
314 | =back | |
315 | ||
316 | =head1 Documentation | |
317 | ||
318 | =head2 Changes to Existing Documentation | |
319 | ||
320 | =head3 L<perlfunc> | |
321 | ||
322 | =over 4 | |
323 | ||
324 | =item * | |
325 | ||
326 | Calling C<delete> or C<exists> on array values is now described as "strongly | |
327 | discouraged" rather than "deprecated". | |
328 | ||
329 | =back | |
330 | ||
331 | =head3 L<perlpolicy> | |
332 | ||
333 | =over 4 | |
334 | ||
335 | =item * | |
336 | ||
337 | The conditions for marking an experimental feature as non-experimental are now | |
338 | set out. | |
339 | ||
340 | =back | |
341 | ||
342 | =head3 L<perlrecharclass> | |
343 | ||
344 | =over 4 | |
345 | ||
346 | =item * | |
347 | ||
348 | The documentation of Bracketed Character Classes has been expanded to cover the | |
349 | improvements in C<qr/[\N{named sequence}]/> (see under L</Selected Bug Fixes>). | |
350 | ||
351 | =back | |
352 | ||
353 | =head3 L<perlsyn> | |
354 | ||
355 | =over 4 | |
356 | ||
357 | =item * | |
358 | ||
359 | An ambiguity in the documentation of the Ellipsis statement has been corrected. | |
360 | L<[perl #122661]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=122661> | |
361 | ||
362 | =back | |
363 | ||
364 | =head3 L<perlxs> | |
365 | ||
366 | =over 4 | |
367 | ||
368 | =item * | |
369 | ||
370 | Added a discussion of locale issues in XS code. | |
371 | ||
372 | =back | |
373 | ||
374 | =head1 Diagnostics | |
375 | ||
376 | The following additions or changes have been made to diagnostic output, | |
377 | including warnings and fatal error messages. For the complete list of | |
378 | diagnostic messages, see L<perldiag>. | |
379 | ||
380 | =head2 New Diagnostics | |
381 | ||
382 | =head3 New Warnings | |
383 | ||
384 | =over 4 | |
385 | ||
386 | =item * | |
387 | ||
388 | L<Character in 'C' format overflow in pack|perldiag/"Character in 'C' format overflow in pack"> | |
389 | ||
390 | (W pack) You tried converting an infinity or not-a-number to an unsigned | |
391 | character, which makes no sense. Perl behaved as if you tried to pack 0xFF. | |
392 | ||
393 | =item * | |
394 | ||
395 | L<Character in 'c' format overflow in pack|perldiag/"Character in 'c' format overflow in pack"> | |
396 | ||
397 | (W pack) You tried converting an infinity or not-a-number to a signed | |
398 | character, which makes no sense. Perl behaved as if you tried to pack 0xFF. | |
399 | ||
400 | =item * | |
401 | ||
402 | L<Invalid number (%f) in chr|perldiag/"Invalid number (%f) in chr"> | |
403 | ||
404 | (W utf8) You passed an invalid number (like an infinity or not-a-number) to | |
405 | C<chr>. Those are not valid character numbers, so it returned the Unicode | |
406 | replacement character (U+FFFD). | |
407 | ||
408 | =back | |
409 | ||
410 | =head2 Changes to Existing Diagnostics | |
411 | ||
412 | =over 4 | |
413 | ||
414 | =item * | |
415 | ||
416 | L<Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name|perldiag/"Global symbol "%s" requires explicit package name (did you forget to declare "my %s"?)"> | |
417 | ||
418 | This message has had '(did you forget to declare "my %s"?)' appended to it, to | |
419 | make it more helpful to new Perl programmers. | |
420 | L<[perl #121638]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=121638> | |
421 | ||
422 | =item * | |
423 | ||
424 | L<\N{} in character class restricted to one character in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in mE<sol>%sE<sol>|perldiag/"\N{} in inverted character class or as a range end-point is restricted to one character in regex; marked by S<<-- HERE> in m/%s/"> | |
425 | ||
426 | This message has had 'character class' changed to 'inverted character class or | |
427 | as a range end-point is' to reflect improvements in C<qr/[\N{named sequence}]/> | |
428 | (see under L</Selected Bug Fixes>). | |
429 | ||
430 | =item * | |
431 | ||
432 | L<panic: frexp|perldiag/"panic: frexp: %f"> | |
433 | ||
434 | This message has had ': %f' appended to it, to show what the offending floating | |
435 | point number is. | |
436 | ||
437 | =back | |
438 | ||
439 | =head2 Diagnostic Removals | |
440 | ||
441 | =over 4 | |
442 | ||
443 | =item * | |
444 | ||
445 | "Constant is not a FOO reference" | |
446 | ||
447 | Compile-time checking of constant dereferencing (e.g., C<< my_constant->() >>) | |
448 | has been removed, since it was not taking overloading into account. | |
449 | L<[perl #69456]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=69456> | |
450 | L<[perl #122607]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=122607> | |
451 | ||
452 | =item * | |
453 | ||
454 | "Ambiguous use of -foo resolved as -&foo()" | |
455 | ||
456 | There is actually no ambiguity here, and this impedes the use of negated | |
457 | constants; e.g., C<-Inf>. | |
458 | ||
459 | =back | |
460 | ||
461 | =head1 Configuration and Compilation | |
462 | ||
463 | =over 4 | |
464 | ||
465 | =item * | |
466 | ||
467 | For long doubles (to get more precision and range for floating point numbers) | |
468 | one can now use the GCC quadmath library which implements the quadruple | |
469 | precision floating point numbers in x86 and ia64 platforms. See F<INSTALL> for | |
470 | details. | |
471 | ||
472 | =back | |
473 | ||
474 | =head1 Testing | |
475 | ||
476 | =over 4 | |
477 | ||
478 | =item * | |
479 | ||
480 | A new test script, F<op/infnan.t>, has been added to test if Inf and NaN are | |
481 | working correctly. See L</Infinity and NaN (not-a-number) handling improved>. | |
482 | ||
483 | =item * | |
484 | ||
485 | A new test script, F<re/rt122747.t>, has been added to test that the fix for | |
486 | L<perl #122747|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=122747> is working. | |
487 | ||
488 | =back | |
489 | ||
490 | =head1 Internal Changes | |
491 | ||
492 | =over 4 | |
493 | ||
494 | =item * | |
495 | ||
496 | C<save_re_context> no longer does anything and has been moved to F<mathoms.c>. | |
497 | ||
498 | =item * | |
499 | ||
500 | C<cv_name> is a new API function that can be passed a CV or GV. It returns an | |
501 | SV containing the name of the subroutine for use in diagnostics. | |
502 | L<[perl #116735]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=116735> | |
503 | L<[perl #120441]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=120441> | |
504 | ||
505 | =item * | |
506 | ||
507 | C<cv_set_call_checker_flags> is a new API function that works like | |
508 | C<cv_set_call_checker>, except that it allows the caller to specify whether the | |
509 | call checker requires a full GV for reporting the subroutine's name, or whether | |
510 | it could be passed a CV instead. Whatever value is passed will be acceptable | |
511 | to C<cv_name>. C<cv_set_call_checker> guarantees there will be a GV, but it | |
512 | may have to create one on the fly, which is inefficient. | |
513 | L<[perl #116735]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=116735> | |
514 | ||
515 | =item * | |
516 | ||
517 | C<CvGV> (which is not part of the API) is now a more complex macro, which may | |
518 | call a function and reify a GV. For those cases where is has been used as a | |
519 | boolean, C<CvHASGV> has been added, which will return true for CVs that | |
520 | notionally have GVs, but without reifying the GV. C<CvGV> also returns a GV | |
521 | now for lexical subs. | |
522 | L<[perl #120441]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=120441> | |
523 | ||
524 | =item * | |
525 | ||
526 | Added L<perlapi/sync_locale>. Changing the program's locale should be avoided | |
527 | by XS code. Nevertheless, certain non-Perl libraries called from XS, such as | |
528 | C<Gtk> do so. When this happens, Perl needs to be told that the locale has | |
529 | changed. Use this function to do so, before returning to Perl. | |
530 | ||
531 | =item * | |
532 | ||
533 | The defines and labels for the flags in the C<op_private> field of OPs are now | |
534 | auto-generated from data in F<regen/op_private>. The noticeable effect of this | |
535 | is that some of the flag output of C<Concise> might differ slightly, and the | |
536 | flag output of C<perl -Dx> may differ considerably (they both use the same set | |
537 | of labels now). Also in debugging builds, there is a new assert in | |
538 | C<op_free()> that checks that the op doesn't have any unrecognized flags set in | |
539 | C<op_private>. | |
540 | ||
541 | =back | |
542 | ||
543 | =head1 Selected Bug Fixes | |
544 | ||
545 | =over 4 | |
546 | ||
547 | =item * | |
548 | ||
549 | Constant dereferencing now works correctly for typeglob constants. Previously | |
550 | the glob was stringified and its name looked up. Now the glob itself is used. | |
551 | L<[perl #69456]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=69456> | |
552 | ||
553 | =item * | |
554 | ||
555 | When parsing a funny character ($ @ % &) followed by braces, the parser no | |
556 | longer tries to guess whether it is a block or a hash constructor (causing a | |
557 | syntax error when it guesses the latter), since it can only be a block. | |
558 | ||
559 | =item * | |
560 | ||
561 | C<undef $reference> now frees the referent immediately, instead of hanging on | |
562 | to it until the next statement. | |
563 | L<[perl #122556]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=122556> | |
564 | ||
565 | =item * | |
566 | ||
567 | Various cases where the name of a sub is used (autoload, overloading, error | |
568 | messages) used to crash for lexical subs, but have been fixed. | |
569 | ||
570 | =item * | |
571 | ||
572 | Bareword lookup now tries to avoid vivifying packages if it turns out the | |
573 | bareword is not going to be a subroutine name. | |
574 | ||
575 | =item * | |
576 | ||
577 | Compilation of anonymous constants (e.g., C<sub () { 3 }>) no longer deletes | |
578 | any subroutine named C<__ANON__> in the current package. Not only was | |
579 | C<*__ANON__{CODE}> cleared, but there was a memory leak, too. This bug goes | |
580 | back to Perl 5.8.0. | |
581 | ||
582 | =item * | |
583 | ||
584 | Stub declarations like C<sub f;> and C<sub f ();> no longer wipe out constants | |
585 | of the same name declared by C<use constant>. This bug was introduced in Perl | |
586 | 5.10.0. | |
587 | ||
588 | =item * | |
589 | ||
590 | Under some conditions a warning raised in compilation of regular expression | |
591 | patterns could be displayed multiple times. This is now fixed. | |
592 | ||
593 | =item * | |
594 | ||
595 | C<qr/[\N{named sequence}]/> now works properly in many instances. Some names | |
596 | known to C<\N{...}> refer to a sequence of multiple characters, instead of the | |
597 | usual single character. Bracketed character classes generally only match | |
598 | single characters, but now special handling has been added so that they can | |
599 | match named sequences, but not if the class is inverted or the sequence is | |
600 | specified as the beginning or end of a range. In these cases, the only | |
601 | behavior change from before is a slight rewording of the fatal error message | |
602 | given when this class is part of a C<?[...])> construct. When the C<[...]> | |
603 | stands alone, the same non-fatal warning as before is raised, and only the | |
604 | first character in the sequence is used, again just as before. | |
605 | ||
606 | =item * | |
607 | ||
608 | Tainted constants evaluated at compile time no longer cause unrelated | |
609 | statements to become tainted. | |
610 | L<[perl #122669]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=122669> | |
611 | ||
612 | =item * | |
613 | ||
614 | C<open $$fh, ...>, which vivifies a handle with a name like "main::_GEN_0", was | |
615 | not giving the handle the right reference count, so a double free could happen. | |
616 | ||
617 | =item * | |
618 | ||
619 | When deciding that a bareword was a method name, the parser would get confused | |
620 | if an "our" sub with the same name existed, and look up the method in the | |
621 | package of the "our" sub, instead of the package of the invocant. | |
622 | ||
623 | =item * | |
624 | ||
625 | The parser no longer gets confused by C<\U=> within a double-quoted string. It | |
626 | used to produce a syntax error, but now compiles it correctly. | |
627 | L<[perl #80368]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=80368> | |
628 | ||
629 | =item * | |
630 | ||
631 | It has always been the intention for the C<-B> and C<-T> file test operators to | |
632 | treat UTF-8 encoded files as text. (L<perlfunc|perlfunc/-X FILEHANDLE> has | |
633 | been updated to say this.) Previously, it was possible for some files to be | |
634 | considered UTF-8 that actually weren't valid UTF-8. This is now fixed. The | |
635 | operators now work on EBCDIC platforms as well. | |
636 | ||
637 | =item * | |
638 | ||
639 | Under some conditions warning messages raised during regular expression pattern | |
640 | compilation were being output more than once. This has now been fixed. | |
641 | ||
642 | =item * | |
643 | ||
644 | A regression has been fixed that was introduced in Perl 5.20.0 (fixed in Perl | |
645 | 5.20.1 as well as here) in which a UTF-8 encoded regular expression pattern | |
646 | that contains a single ASCII lowercase letter does not match its uppercase | |
647 | counterpart. | |
648 | L<[perl #122655]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=122655> | |
649 | ||
650 | =item * | |
651 | ||
652 | Constant folding could incorrectly suppress warnings if lexical warnings (C<use | |
653 | warnings> or C<no warnings>) were not in effect and C<$^W> were false at | |
654 | compile time and true at run time. | |
655 | ||
656 | =item * | |
657 | ||
658 | Loading UTF8 tables during a regular expression match could cause assertion | |
659 | failures under debugging builds if the previous match used the very same | |
660 | regular expression. | |
661 | L<[perl #122747]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=122747> | |
662 | ||
663 | =item * | |
664 | ||
665 | Thread cloning used to work incorrectly for lexical subs, possibly causing | |
666 | crashes or double frees on exit. | |
667 | ||
668 | =item * | |
669 | ||
670 | Since Perl 5.14.0, deleting C<$SomePackage::{__ANON__}> and then undefining an | |
671 | anonymous subroutine could corrupt things internally, resulting in | |
672 | L<Devel::Peek> crashing or L<B.pm|B> giving nonsensical data. This has been | |
673 | fixed. | |
674 | ||
675 | =item * | |
676 | ||
677 | C<(caller $n)[3]> now reports names of lexical subs, instead of treating them | |
678 | as "(unknown)". | |
679 | ||
680 | =item * | |
681 | ||
682 | C<sort subname LIST> now supports lexical subs for the comparison routine. | |
683 | ||
684 | =item * | |
685 | ||
686 | Aliasing (e.g., via C<*x = *y>) could confuse list assignments that mention the | |
687 | two names for the same variable on either side, causing wrong values to be | |
688 | assigned. | |
689 | L<[perl #15667]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=15667> | |
690 | ||
691 | =item * | |
692 | ||
693 | Long here-doc terminators could cause a bad read on short lines of input. This | |
694 | has been fixed. It is doubtful that any crash could have occurred. This bug | |
695 | goes back to when here-docs were introduced in Perl 3.000 twenty-five years | |
696 | ago. | |
697 | ||
698 | =item * | |
699 | ||
700 | An optimization in C<split> to treat C<split/^/> like C<split/^/m> had the | |
701 | unfortunate side-effect of also treating C<split/\A/> like C<split/^/m>, which | |
702 | it should not. This has been fixed. (Note, however, that C<split/^x/> does | |
703 | not behave like C<split/^x/m>, which is also considered to be a bug and will be | |
704 | fixed in a future version.) | |
705 | L<[perl #122761]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=122761> | |
706 | ||
707 | =item * | |
708 | ||
709 | The little-known C<my Class $var> syntax (see L<fields> and L<attributes>) | |
710 | could get confused in the scope of C<use utf8> if C<Class> were a constant | |
711 | whose value contained Latin-1 characters. | |
712 | ||
713 | =back | |
714 | ||
715 | =head1 Acknowledgements | |
716 | ||
717 | Perl 5.21.4 represents approximately 4 weeks of development since Perl 5.21.3 | |
718 | and contains approximately 29,000 lines of changes across 520 files from 30 | |
719 | authors. | |
720 | ||
721 | Excluding auto-generated files, documentation and release tools, there were | |
722 | approximately 15,000 lines of changes to 390 .pm, .t, .c and .h files. | |
723 | ||
724 | Perl continues to flourish into its third decade thanks to a vibrant community | |
725 | of users and developers. The following people are known to have contributed | |
726 | the improvements that became Perl 5.21.4: | |
727 | ||
728 | Alberto Simões, Alexandre (Midnite) Jousset, Andy Dougherty, Anthony Heading, | |
729 | Brian Fraser, Chris 'BinGOs' Williams, Craig A. Berry, Daniel Dragan, David | |
730 | Mitchell, Doug Bell, Father Chrysostomos, George Greer, H.Merijn Brand, James E | |
731 | Keenan, Jarkko Hietaniemi, Jerry D. Hedden, Karen Etheridge, Karl Williamson, | |
732 | Olivier Mengué, Peter Martini, Reini Urban, Ricardo Signes, Steffen Müller, | |
733 | Steve Hay, Sullivan Beck, syber, Tadeusz Sośnierz, Tony Cook, Yves Orton, | |
734 | Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason. | |
735 | ||
736 | The list above is almost certainly incomplete as it is automatically generated | |
737 | from version control history. In particular, it does not include the names of | |
738 | the (very much appreciated) contributors who reported issues to the Perl bug | |
739 | tracker. | |
740 | ||
741 | Many of the changes included in this version originated in the CPAN modules | |
742 | included in Perl's core. We're grateful to the entire CPAN community for | |
743 | helping Perl to flourish. | |
744 | ||
745 | For a more complete list of all of Perl's historical contributors, please see | |
746 | the F<AUTHORS> file in the Perl source distribution. | |
747 | ||
748 | =head1 Reporting Bugs | |
749 | ||
750 | If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles recently | |
751 | posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl bug database at | |
752 | https://rt.perl.org/ . There may also be information at | |
753 | http://www.perl.org/ , the Perl Home Page. | |
754 | ||
755 | If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the L<perlbug> program | |
756 | included with your release. Be sure to trim your bug down to a tiny but | |
757 | sufficient test case. Your bug report, along with the output of C<perl -V>, | |
758 | will be sent off to perlbug@perl.org to be analysed by the Perl porting team. | |
759 | ||
760 | If the bug you are reporting has security implications, which make it | |
761 | inappropriate to send to a publicly archived mailing list, then please send it | |
762 | to perl5-security-report@perl.org. This points to a closed subscription | |
763 | unarchived mailing list, which includes all the core committers, who will be | |
764 | able to help assess the impact of issues, figure out a resolution, and help | |
765 | co-ordinate the release of patches to mitigate or fix the problem across all | |
766 | platforms on which Perl is supported. Please only use this address for | |
767 | security issues in the Perl core, not for modules independently distributed on | |
768 | CPAN. | |
769 | ||
770 | =head1 SEE ALSO | |
771 | ||
772 | The F<Changes> file for an explanation of how to view exhaustive details on | |
773 | what changed. | |
774 | ||
775 | The F<INSTALL> file for how to build Perl. | |
776 | ||
777 | The F<README> file for general stuff. | |
778 | ||
779 | The F<Artistic> and F<Copying> files for copyright information. | |
780 | ||
781 | =cut |