| 1 | =encoding utf8 |
| 2 | |
| 3 | =head1 NAME |
| 4 | |
| 5 | perldelta - what is new for perl v5.23.7 |
| 6 | |
| 7 | =head1 DESCRIPTION |
| 8 | |
| 9 | This document describes differences between the 5.23.6 release and the 5.23.7 |
| 10 | release. |
| 11 | |
| 12 | If you are upgrading from an earlier release such as 5.23.5, first read |
| 13 | L<perl5236delta>, which describes differences between 5.23.5 and 5.23.6. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | =head1 Core Enhancements |
| 16 | |
| 17 | =head2 New C<\b{lb}> boundary in regular expressions |
| 18 | |
| 19 | C<lb> stands for Line Break. It is a Unicode property |
| 20 | that determines where a line of text is suitable to break (typically so |
| 21 | that it can be output without overflowing the available horizontal |
| 22 | space). This capability has long been furnished by the |
| 23 | L<Unicode::LineBreak> module, but now a light-weight, non-customizable |
| 24 | version that is suitable for many purposes is in core Perl. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | =head1 Security |
| 27 | |
| 28 | =head2 fix out of boundary access in Win32 path handling |
| 29 | |
| 30 | This is CVE-2015-8608. For more information see |
| 31 | L<[perl #126755]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=126755> |
| 32 | |
| 33 | =head2 fix loss of taint in canonpath |
| 34 | |
| 35 | This is CVE-2015-8607. For more information see |
| 36 | L<[perl #126862]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=126862> |
| 37 | |
| 38 | =head2 Avoid accessing uninitialized memory in win32 C<crypt()> |
| 39 | |
| 40 | Added validation that will detect both a short salt and invalid characters |
| 41 | in the salt. L<[perl #126922]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=126922> |
| 42 | |
| 43 | =head1 Incompatible Changes |
| 44 | |
| 45 | =head2 C<qr/\b{wb}/> is now tailored to Perl expectations |
| 46 | |
| 47 | This is now more suited to be a drop-in replacement for plain C<\b>, but |
| 48 | giving better results for parsing natural language. Previously it |
| 49 | strictly followed the current Unicode rules which calls for it to match |
| 50 | between each white space character. Now it doesn't generally match |
| 51 | within spans of white space, behaving like C<\b> does. See |
| 52 | L<perlrebackslash/\b{wb}> |
| 53 | |
| 54 | =head1 Modules and Pragmata |
| 55 | |
| 56 | =head2 Updated Modules and Pragmata |
| 57 | |
| 58 | =over 4 |
| 59 | |
| 60 | =item * |
| 61 | |
| 62 | The F<cpan/podlators/> bundle has been upgraded from version 2.28 to 4.04. |
| 63 | |
| 64 | =item * |
| 65 | |
| 66 | L<B> has been upgraded from version 1.61 to 1.62. |
| 67 | |
| 68 | =item * |
| 69 | |
| 70 | L<B::Deparse> has been upgraded from version 1.36 to 1.37. |
| 71 | |
| 72 | =item * |
| 73 | |
| 74 | L<Benchmark> has been upgraded from version 1.21 to 1.22. |
| 75 | |
| 76 | =item * |
| 77 | |
| 78 | L<bignum> has been upgraded from version 0.41 to 0.42. |
| 79 | |
| 80 | =item * |
| 81 | |
| 82 | L<Data::Dumper> has been upgraded from version 2.159 to 2.160. |
| 83 | |
| 84 | =item * |
| 85 | |
| 86 | L<ExtUtils::ParseXS> has been upgraded from version 3.30 to 3.31. |
| 87 | |
| 88 | =item * |
| 89 | |
| 90 | L<ExtUtils::Typemaps> has been upgraded from version 3.30 to 3.31. |
| 91 | |
| 92 | =item * |
| 93 | |
| 94 | L<File::Find> has been upgraded from version 1.32 to 1.33. |
| 95 | |
| 96 | =item * |
| 97 | |
| 98 | L<File::Spec> has been upgraded from version 3.60 to 3.62. |
| 99 | |
| 100 | =item * |
| 101 | |
| 102 | L<Math::BigInt> has been upgraded from version 1.999710 to 1.999715. |
| 103 | |
| 104 | =item * |
| 105 | |
| 106 | L<Math::BigInt::FastCalc> has been upgraded from version 0.38 to 0.40. |
| 107 | |
| 108 | =item * |
| 109 | |
| 110 | L<Math::BigRat> has been upgraded from version 0.260801 to 0.260802. |
| 111 | |
| 112 | =item * |
| 113 | |
| 114 | L<Module::CoreList> has been upgraded from version 5.20151220 to 5.20160120. |
| 115 | |
| 116 | =item * |
| 117 | |
| 118 | L<Pod::Usage> has been upgraded from version 1.67 to 1.68. |
| 119 | |
| 120 | =item * |
| 121 | |
| 122 | L<Test::Harness> has been upgraded from version 3.35 to 3.36. |
| 123 | |
| 124 | =item * |
| 125 | |
| 126 | L<Unicode::Normalize> has been upgraded from version 1.24 to 1.25. |
| 127 | |
| 128 | =item * |
| 129 | |
| 130 | L<Unicode::UCD> has been upgraded from version 0.63 to 0.64. |
| 131 | |
| 132 | =item * |
| 133 | |
| 134 | L<utf8> has been upgraded from version 1.18 to 1.19. |
| 135 | |
| 136 | =back |
| 137 | |
| 138 | =head1 Documentation |
| 139 | |
| 140 | =head2 Changes to Existing Documentation |
| 141 | |
| 142 | =head3 L<perlsyn> |
| 143 | |
| 144 | =over 4 |
| 145 | |
| 146 | =item * |
| 147 | |
| 148 | Fixed a broken example where C<=> was used instead of |
| 149 | C<==> in conditional in do/while example. |
| 150 | |
| 151 | =back |
| 152 | |
| 153 | =head3 L<perlfunc> |
| 154 | |
| 155 | =over 4 |
| 156 | |
| 157 | =item * |
| 158 | |
| 159 | Better explain meaning of negative PIDs in C<waitpid>. |
| 160 | L<[perl #127080]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=127080> |
| 161 | |
| 162 | =back |
| 163 | |
| 164 | =head3 L<perlgit> |
| 165 | |
| 166 | =over 4 |
| 167 | |
| 168 | =item * |
| 169 | |
| 170 | Move sample commands into verbatim paragraphs. |
| 171 | |
| 172 | =item * |
| 173 | |
| 174 | Improve hyperlinks for all email addresses, RT tickets |
| 175 | and commit hashes. |
| 176 | |
| 177 | =item * |
| 178 | |
| 179 | Consistently refer to bisect.pl as F<Porting/bisect.pl> |
| 180 | |
| 181 | =item * |
| 182 | |
| 183 | Miscellaneous grammar and POD fixes. |
| 184 | |
| 185 | =back |
| 186 | |
| 187 | =head3 L<perlreftut> |
| 188 | |
| 189 | =over 4 |
| 190 | |
| 191 | =item * |
| 192 | |
| 193 | Fix some examples to be L<strict> clean. |
| 194 | |
| 195 | =back |
| 196 | |
| 197 | =head3 L<perlrebackslash> |
| 198 | |
| 199 | =over 4 |
| 200 | |
| 201 | =item * |
| 202 | |
| 203 | Clarify that in languages like Japanese and Thai, dictionary lookup |
| 204 | is required to determine word boundaries. |
| 205 | |
| 206 | =back |
| 207 | |
| 208 | =head1 Diagnostics |
| 209 | |
| 210 | The following additions or changes have been made to diagnostic output, |
| 211 | including warnings and fatal error messages. For the complete list of |
| 212 | diagnostic messages, see L<perldiag>. |
| 213 | |
| 214 | =head2 Changes to Existing Diagnostics |
| 215 | |
| 216 | =over 4 |
| 217 | |
| 218 | =item * |
| 219 | |
| 220 | Accessing the C<IO> part of a glob as C<FILEHANDLE> instead of C<IO> is no |
| 221 | longer deprecated. It is discouraged to encourage uniformity (so that, for |
| 222 | example, one can grep more easily) but it will not be removed. |
| 223 | L<[perl #127060]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=127060> |
| 224 | |
| 225 | =back |
| 226 | |
| 227 | =head1 Configuration and Compilation |
| 228 | |
| 229 | =over 4 |
| 230 | |
| 231 | =item * |
| 232 | |
| 233 | F<Configure> no longer probes for F<libnm> by default. Originally |
| 234 | this was the "New Math" library, but the name has been re-used by the |
| 235 | GNOME NetworkManager. |
| 236 | L<[perl #127131]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=127131> |
| 237 | |
| 238 | =item * |
| 239 | |
| 240 | No longer generate EBCDIC POSIX-BC tables. We don't believe anyone is |
| 241 | using Perl and POSIX-BC at this time, and by not generating these tables |
| 242 | it saves time during development, and makes the resulting tar ball smaller. |
| 243 | |
| 244 | =item * |
| 245 | |
| 246 | The Win32 miniperl now has a real C<getcwd> which increases build performance |
| 247 | resulting in C<getcwd()> being 605x faster in Win32 miniperl. |
| 248 | |
| 249 | =back |
| 250 | |
| 251 | =head1 Platform Support |
| 252 | |
| 253 | =head2 Platform-Specific Notes |
| 254 | |
| 255 | =over 4 |
| 256 | |
| 257 | =item * |
| 258 | |
| 259 | On VMS, the math function prototypes in C<math.h> are now visible under C++. |
| 260 | Now building the POSIX extension with C++ will no longer crash. |
| 261 | |
| 262 | =item * |
| 263 | |
| 264 | VMS has had C<setenv/unsetenv> since v7.0 (released in 1996), C<Perl_vmssetenv> |
| 265 | now always uses C<setenv/unsetenv>. |
| 266 | |
| 267 | =item * |
| 268 | |
| 269 | Try more crypt algorithms in the tests, for OpenBSD. OpenBSD implements the |
| 270 | Blowfish algorithm, but not the MD5 one used by C<glibc>. Enhance the crypt and |
| 271 | taint tests to try both algorithms. If neither works, fall back to no algorithm. |
| 272 | The Blowfish salt is taken from the OpenBSD C<crypt(3)> page. |
| 273 | |
| 274 | =item * |
| 275 | |
| 276 | Use the C<fdclose()> function from FreeBSD if it is available. |
| 277 | L<[perl #126847]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=126847> |
| 278 | |
| 279 | =back |
| 280 | |
| 281 | =head1 Internal Changes |
| 282 | |
| 283 | =over 4 |
| 284 | |
| 285 | =item * |
| 286 | |
| 287 | The obscure C<PL_timesbuf> variable, effectively a vestige of Perl 1, has |
| 288 | been removed. It was documented as deprecated in Perl 5.20, with a statement |
| 289 | that it would be removed early in the 5.21.x series; that has now finally |
| 290 | happened. |
| 291 | L<[perl #121351]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=121351> |
| 292 | |
| 293 | =item * |
| 294 | |
| 295 | Remove unwarranted assertion in C<Perl_newATTRSUB_x()>. If a stub subroutine |
| 296 | definition with a prototype has been seen, then any subsequent stub (or |
| 297 | definition) of the same subroutine with an attribute was causing an assertion |
| 298 | failure because of a null pointer. |
| 299 | L<[perl #126845]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=126845> |
| 300 | |
| 301 | =item * |
| 302 | |
| 303 | Replace C<::> with C<__> in C<ExtUtils::ParseXS> like it's done for |
| 304 | parameters/return values. This is more consistent, and simplifies writing XS |
| 305 | code wrapping C++ classes into a nested Perl namespace (it requires only |
| 306 | a typedef for C<Foo__Bar> rather than two, one for C<Foo_Bar> and the other |
| 307 | for C<Foo::Bar>). |
| 308 | |
| 309 | =item * |
| 310 | |
| 311 | Deprecate the C<to_utf8_case()> function, see |
| 312 | L<http://nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/233287>. |
| 313 | |
| 314 | =back |
| 315 | |
| 316 | =head1 Selected Bug Fixes |
| 317 | |
| 318 | =over 4 |
| 319 | |
| 320 | =item * |
| 321 | |
| 322 | A regression that allowed undeclared barewords in hash keys to work despite |
| 323 | strictures has been fixed. |
| 324 | L<[perl #126981]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=126981> |
| 325 | |
| 326 | =item * |
| 327 | |
| 328 | Calls to the placeholder C<&PL_sv_yes> used internally when an C<import()> |
| 329 | or C<unimport()> method isn't found now correctly handle scalar context. |
| 330 | L<[perl #126042]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=126042> |
| 331 | |
| 332 | =item * |
| 333 | |
| 334 | Fixed some problems introduced in 5.23.2 with list assignment dealing |
| 335 | with magic and XS functions returning their arguments. |
| 336 | L<[perl #126633]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=126633> |
| 337 | |
| 338 | =item * |
| 339 | |
| 340 | Report more context when we see an array where we expect to see an |
| 341 | operator and avoid an assertion failure. |
| 342 | L<[perl #123737]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=123737> |
| 343 | |
| 344 | =item * |
| 345 | |
| 346 | Modifying an array that was previously a package C<@ISA> no longer |
| 347 | causes assertion failures or crashes. |
| 348 | L<[perl #123788]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=123788> |
| 349 | |
| 350 | =item * |
| 351 | |
| 352 | Retain binary compatibility across plain and DEBUGGING perl builds. |
| 353 | L<[perl #127212]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=127212> |
| 354 | |
| 355 | =item * |
| 356 | |
| 357 | Avoid leaking memory when setting C<$ENV{foo}> on darwin. |
| 358 | L<[perl #126240]|https://rt.perl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=126240> |
| 359 | |
| 360 | =back |
| 361 | |
| 362 | =head1 Known Problems |
| 363 | |
| 364 | =over 4 |
| 365 | |
| 366 | =item * |
| 367 | |
| 368 | Statically building perl is not currently working due to a problem |
| 369 | related to multiple definitions of the C<cp1252_encoding> in the |
| 370 | C<Encode> module. |
| 371 | |
| 372 | =back |
| 373 | |
| 374 | =head1 Acknowledgements |
| 375 | |
| 376 | Perl 5.23.7 represents approximately 4 weeks of development since Perl 5.23.6 |
| 377 | and contains approximately 87,000 lines of changes across 450 files from 21 |
| 378 | authors. |
| 379 | |
| 380 | Excluding auto-generated files, documentation and release tools, there were |
| 381 | approximately 67,000 lines of changes to 320 .pm, .t, .c and .h files. |
| 382 | |
| 383 | Perl continues to flourish into its third decade thanks to a vibrant community |
| 384 | of users and developers. The following people are known to have contributed the |
| 385 | improvements that became Perl 5.23.7: |
| 386 | |
| 387 | Aaron Crane, Andreas König, Andy Dougherty, Chris 'BinGOs' Williams, Craig A. |
| 388 | Berry, Dagfinn Ilmari Mannsåker, Daniel Dragan, David Golden, David Mitchell, |
| 389 | James E Keenan, Jarkko Hietaniemi, Karen Etheridge, Karl Williamson, Lukas Mai, |
| 390 | Mattia Barbon, Ricardo Signes, Stevan Little, Steve Hay, Todd Rinaldo, Tom |
| 391 | Hukins, Tony Cook. |
| 392 | |
| 393 | The list above is almost certainly incomplete as it is automatically generated |
| 394 | from version control history. In particular, it does not include the names of |
| 395 | the (very much appreciated) contributors who reported issues to the Perl bug |
| 396 | tracker. |
| 397 | |
| 398 | Many of the changes included in this version originated in the CPAN modules |
| 399 | included in Perl's core. We're grateful to the entire CPAN community for |
| 400 | helping Perl to flourish. |
| 401 | |
| 402 | For a more complete list of all of Perl's historical contributors, please see |
| 403 | the F<AUTHORS> file in the Perl source distribution. |
| 404 | |
| 405 | =head1 Reporting Bugs |
| 406 | |
| 407 | If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles recently |
| 408 | posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl bug database at |
| 409 | L<https://rt.perl.org/> . There may also be information at |
| 410 | L<http://www.perl.org/> , the Perl Home Page. |
| 411 | |
| 412 | If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the L<perlbug> program |
| 413 | included with your release. Be sure to trim your bug down to a tiny but |
| 414 | sufficient test case. Your bug report, along with the output of C<perl -V>, |
| 415 | will be sent off to perlbug@perl.org to be analysed by the Perl porting team. |
| 416 | |
| 417 | If the bug you are reporting has security implications, which make it |
| 418 | inappropriate to send to a publicly archived mailing list, then please send it |
| 419 | to perl5-security-report@perl.org. This points to a closed subscription |
| 420 | unarchived mailing list, which includes all the core committers, who will be |
| 421 | able to help assess the impact of issues, figure out a resolution, and help |
| 422 | co-ordinate the release of patches to mitigate or fix the problem across all |
| 423 | platforms on which Perl is supported. Please only use this address for |
| 424 | security issues in the Perl core, not for modules independently distributed on |
| 425 | CPAN. |
| 426 | |
| 427 | =head1 SEE ALSO |
| 428 | |
| 429 | The F<Changes> file for an explanation of how to view exhaustive details on |
| 430 | what changed. |
| 431 | |
| 432 | The F<INSTALL> file for how to build Perl. |
| 433 | |
| 434 | The F<README> file for general stuff. |
| 435 | |
| 436 | The F<Artistic> and F<Copying> files for copyright information. |
| 437 | |
| 438 | =cut |