| 1 | =encoding utf8 |
| 2 | |
| 3 | =for comment |
| 4 | To do: |
| 5 | 3f40aba3 Merge branch 'ebcdic' into blead |
| 6 | df8c7dee Fix segfault in filehandle duplication |
| 7 | b66f3475 Fix PerlIO_get_cnt and friends |
| 8 | |
| 9 | =head1 NAME |
| 10 | |
| 11 | [ this is a template for a new perldelta file. Any text flagged as XXX needs |
| 12 | to be processed before release. ] |
| 13 | |
| 14 | perldelta - what is new for perl v5.19.4 |
| 15 | |
| 16 | =head1 DESCRIPTION |
| 17 | |
| 18 | This document describes differences between the 5.19.3 release and the 5.19.4 |
| 19 | release. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | If you are upgrading from an earlier release such as 5.19.2, first read |
| 22 | L<perl5193delta>, which describes differences between 5.19.2 and 5.19.3. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | =head1 Notice |
| 25 | |
| 26 | XXX Any important notices here |
| 27 | |
| 28 | =head1 Core Enhancements |
| 29 | |
| 30 | XXX New core language features go here. Summarize user-visible core language |
| 31 | enhancements. Particularly prominent performance optimisations could go |
| 32 | here, but most should go in the L</Performance Enhancements> section. |
| 33 | |
| 34 | [ List each enhancement as a =head2 entry ] |
| 35 | |
| 36 | =head2 C<rand> now uses a consistent random number generator |
| 37 | |
| 38 | Previously perl would use a platform specific random number generator, varying |
| 39 | between the libc rand(), random() or drand48(). |
| 40 | |
| 41 | This meant that the quality of perl's random numbers would vary from platform |
| 42 | to platform, from the 15 bits of rand() on Windows to 48-bits on POSIX |
| 43 | platforms such as Linux with drand48(). |
| 44 | |
| 45 | Perl now uses its own internal drand48() implementation on all platforms. |
| 46 | [perl #115928] |
| 47 | |
| 48 | =head2 Better 64-bit support |
| 49 | |
| 50 | On 64-bit platforms, the internal array functions now use 64-bit offsets, |
| 51 | allowing Perl arrays to hold more than 2**31 elements, if you have the memory |
| 52 | available. |
| 53 | |
| 54 | The regular expression engine now supports strings longer than 2**31 |
| 55 | characters. [perl #112790, #116907] |
| 56 | |
| 57 | =head2 New slice syntax |
| 58 | |
| 59 | The new C<%hash{...}> and C<@array[...]> syntax returns a list of key/value (or |
| 60 | index/value) pairs. |
| 61 | |
| 62 | =head1 Security |
| 63 | |
| 64 | XXX Any security-related notices go here. In particular, any security |
| 65 | vulnerabilities closed should be noted here rather than in the |
| 66 | L</Selected Bug Fixes> section. |
| 67 | |
| 68 | [ List each security issue as a =head2 entry ] |
| 69 | |
| 70 | =head1 Incompatible Changes |
| 71 | |
| 72 | =head2 Locale decimal point character no longer leaks outside of |
| 73 | S<C<use locale>> scope (with the exception of $!) |
| 74 | |
| 75 | This is actually a bug fix, but some code has come to rely on the bug being |
| 76 | present, so this change is listed here. The current locale that the program is |
| 77 | running under is not supposed to be visible to Perl code except within the |
| 78 | scope of a S<C<use locale>>. However, until now under certain circumstances, |
| 79 | the character used for a decimal point (often a comma) leaked outside the |
| 80 | scope. |
| 81 | |
| 82 | This continues the work released in Perl 5.19.1. It turns out that that did |
| 83 | not catch all the leaks, including C<printf> and C<sprintf> not respecting |
| 84 | S<C<use locale>>. If your code is affected by this change, simply add a |
| 85 | S<C<use locale>>. |
| 86 | |
| 87 | Now, the only known place where S<C<use locale>> is not respected is in the |
| 88 | stringification of L<$!|perlvar/$!>. |
| 89 | |
| 90 | =head1 Deprecations |
| 91 | |
| 92 | XXX Any deprecated features, syntax, modules etc. should be listed here. |
| 93 | |
| 94 | =head2 Module removals |
| 95 | |
| 96 | XXX Remove this section if inapplicable. |
| 97 | |
| 98 | The following modules will be removed from the core distribution in a |
| 99 | future release, and will at that time need to be installed from CPAN. |
| 100 | Distributions on CPAN which require these modules will need to list them as |
| 101 | prerequisites. |
| 102 | |
| 103 | The core versions of these modules will now issue C<"deprecated">-category |
| 104 | warnings to alert you to this fact. To silence these deprecation warnings, |
| 105 | install the modules in question from CPAN. |
| 106 | |
| 107 | Note that these are (with rare exceptions) fine modules that you are encouraged |
| 108 | to continue to use. Their disinclusion from core primarily hinges on their |
| 109 | necessity to bootstrapping a fully functional, CPAN-capable Perl installation, |
| 110 | not usually on concerns over their design. |
| 111 | |
| 112 | =over |
| 113 | |
| 114 | XXX Note that deprecated modules should be listed here even if they are listed |
| 115 | as an updated module in the L</Modules and Pragmata> section. |
| 116 | |
| 117 | =back |
| 118 | |
| 119 | [ List each other deprecation as a =head2 entry ] |
| 120 | |
| 121 | =head1 Performance Enhancements |
| 122 | |
| 123 | =over 4 |
| 124 | |
| 125 | =item * |
| 126 | |
| 127 | The trie performance enhancement for regular expressions has now been extended |
| 128 | to those compiled under C</iaa>. |
| 129 | |
| 130 | =back |
| 131 | |
| 132 | =head1 Modules and Pragmata |
| 133 | |
| 134 | XXX All changes to installed files in F<cpan/>, F<dist/>, F<ext/> and F<lib/> |
| 135 | go here. If Module::CoreList is updated, generate an initial draft of the |
| 136 | following sections using F<Porting/corelist-perldelta.pl>, which prints stub |
| 137 | entries to STDOUT. Results can be pasted in place of the '=head2' entries |
| 138 | below. A paragraph summary for important changes should then be added by hand. |
| 139 | In an ideal world, dual-life modules would have a F<Changes> file that could be |
| 140 | cribbed. |
| 141 | |
| 142 | [ Within each section, list entries as a =item entry ] |
| 143 | |
| 144 | =head2 New Modules and Pragmata |
| 145 | |
| 146 | =over 4 |
| 147 | |
| 148 | =item * |
| 149 | |
| 150 | XXX |
| 151 | |
| 152 | =back |
| 153 | |
| 154 | =head2 Updated Modules and Pragmata |
| 155 | |
| 156 | =over 4 |
| 157 | |
| 158 | =item * |
| 159 | |
| 160 | L<autodie> has been upgraded from version 2.20 to 2.21. |
| 161 | |
| 162 | Numerous improvements have been made, many speed-related. See the F<Changes> |
| 163 | file in the CPAN distribution for full details. |
| 164 | |
| 165 | =item * |
| 166 | |
| 167 | L<B> has been upgraded from version 1.45 to 1.46. |
| 168 | |
| 169 | The fix for [perl #118525] introduced a regression in the behaviour of |
| 170 | C<B::CV::GV>, changing the return value from a C<B::SPECIAL> object on a |
| 171 | C<NULL> C<CvGV> to C<undef>. C<B::CV::GV> again returns a C<B::SPECIAL> object |
| 172 | in this case. [perl #119351] |
| 173 | |
| 174 | =item * |
| 175 | |
| 176 | L<B::Concise> has been upgraded from version 0.98 to 0.99. |
| 177 | |
| 178 | The handling of the C<glob> operator, broken since Perl 5.17.6, has been fixed. |
| 179 | |
| 180 | =item * |
| 181 | |
| 182 | L<Carp> has been upgraded from version 1.31 to 1.32. |
| 183 | |
| 184 | =over 4 |
| 185 | |
| 186 | =item * |
| 187 | |
| 188 | In stack traces, subroutine arguments that are strings are now quoted in a |
| 189 | consistent manner, regardless of what characters they contain and how they're |
| 190 | internally represented. |
| 191 | |
| 192 | =item * |
| 193 | |
| 194 | C<Carp> now takes care not to clobber the status variables $! and $^E. |
| 195 | |
| 196 | =item * |
| 197 | |
| 198 | C<Carp> now won't vivify the C<overload::StrVal> glob or subroutine or the |
| 199 | C<overload> stash. |
| 200 | |
| 201 | =item * |
| 202 | |
| 203 | C<Carp> now avoids some unwanted Unicode warnings on older Perls. This doesn't |
| 204 | affect behaviour with current Perls. |
| 205 | |
| 206 | =item * |
| 207 | |
| 208 | C<Carp::Heavy> detects version mismatch with C<Carp>, to give a good error |
| 209 | message if a current (stub) C<Carp::Heavy> gets loaded by an old C<Carp> that |
| 210 | expects C<Carp::Heavy> to provide subroutines. |
| 211 | |
| 212 | =back |
| 213 | |
| 214 | =item * |
| 215 | |
| 216 | L<charnames> has been upgraded from version 1.38 to 1.39. |
| 217 | |
| 218 | This module now works on EBCDIC platforms. |
| 219 | |
| 220 | =item * |
| 221 | |
| 222 | L<CPAN::Meta> has been upgraded from version 2.132140 to 2.132510. |
| 223 | |
| 224 | No changes have been made to the installed code other than the version bump to |
| 225 | keep in sync with the latest CPAN release. |
| 226 | |
| 227 | =item * |
| 228 | |
| 229 | L<CPAN::Meta::Requirements> has been upgraded from version 2.122 to 2.123. |
| 230 | |
| 231 | No changes have been made to the installed code other than the version bump to |
| 232 | keep in sync with the latest CPAN release. |
| 233 | |
| 234 | =item * |
| 235 | |
| 236 | L<Data::Dumper> has been upgraded from version 2.148 to 2.149. |
| 237 | |
| 238 | This upgrade is part of a larger change to make the array interface 64-bit safe |
| 239 | by using SSize_t instead of I32 for array indices. |
| 240 | |
| 241 | In addition, an EBCDIC fix has been applied. |
| 242 | |
| 243 | =item * |
| 244 | |
| 245 | L<Devel::Peek> has been upgraded from version 1.13 to 1.14. |
| 246 | |
| 247 | This upgrade is part of a larger change to preserve referential identity when |
| 248 | passing C<undef> to a subroutine by using NULL rather than &PL_sv_undef for |
| 249 | nonexistent array elements. |
| 250 | |
| 251 | In addition, C<Dump> with no args was broken in Perl 5.19.3, but has now been |
| 252 | fixed. |
| 253 | |
| 254 | =item * |
| 255 | |
| 256 | L<DynaLoader> has been upgraded from version 1.19 to 1.20. |
| 257 | |
| 258 | The documentation now makes it clear, as has always been the case, that |
| 259 | C<dl_unload_file> is only called automatically to unload all loaded shared |
| 260 | objects if the perl interpreter was built with the C macro |
| 261 | DL_UNLOAD_ALL_AT_EXIT defined. Support for GNU DLD has also been removed. |
| 262 | |
| 263 | =item * |
| 264 | |
| 265 | L<Encode> has been upgraded from version 2.52 to 2.55. |
| 266 | |
| 267 | An erroneous early return in C<decode_utf8> has been removed, and a bug in |
| 268 | C<_utf8_on> under COW has been fixed. Encode also now uses L<parent> rather |
| 269 | than L<base> throughout. |
| 270 | |
| 271 | =item * |
| 272 | |
| 273 | L<Exporter> has been upgraded from version 5.69 to 5.70. |
| 274 | |
| 275 | A number of typos have been corrected in the documentation. |
| 276 | |
| 277 | =item * |
| 278 | |
| 279 | L<ExtUtils::CBuilder> has been upgraded from version 0.280205 to 0.280212. |
| 280 | |
| 281 | No changes have been made to the installed code other than the version bump to |
| 282 | keep in sync with the latest CPAN release. |
| 283 | |
| 284 | =item * |
| 285 | |
| 286 | L<ExtUtils::Command> has been upgraded from version 1.17 to 1.18. |
| 287 | |
| 288 | No changes have been made to the installed code other than the version bump to |
| 289 | keep in sync with the latest CPAN release. |
| 290 | |
| 291 | =item * |
| 292 | |
| 293 | L<ExtUtils::MakeMaker> has been upgraded from version 6.72 to 6.76. |
| 294 | |
| 295 | Numerous updates and bug fixes are incorporated. See the F<Changes> file for |
| 296 | full details. |
| 297 | |
| 298 | =item * |
| 299 | |
| 300 | L<ExtUtils::ParseXS> has been upgraded from version 3.21 to 3.23. |
| 301 | |
| 302 | Unquoted "here-doc" markers for typemaps can now be optionally followed by a |
| 303 | semicolon, just like quoted markers. [perl #119761] |
| 304 | |
| 305 | =item * |
| 306 | |
| 307 | L<File::Find> has been upgraded from version 1.24 to 1.25. |
| 308 | |
| 309 | Better diagnostics are now provided in the case of a failed C<chdir>. |
| 310 | |
| 311 | =item * |
| 312 | |
| 313 | L<File::Glob> has been upgraded from version 1.20 to 1.21. |
| 314 | |
| 315 | C<glob> now warns in the context of C<use warnings "syscalls";> if the supplied |
| 316 | pattern has an internal NUL (C<"\0">) character. |
| 317 | |
| 318 | =item * |
| 319 | |
| 320 | L<HTTP::Tiny> has been upgraded from version 0.034 to 0.035. |
| 321 | |
| 322 | Encoded data from C<post_form> now preserves term order if data is provided as |
| 323 | an array reference. (They are still sorted for consistency if provided as a |
| 324 | hash reference.) |
| 325 | |
| 326 | =item * |
| 327 | |
| 328 | L<I18N::LangTags> has been upgraded from version 0.39 to 0.40. |
| 329 | |
| 330 | Bosnian has now joined Croatian and Serbian in the lists of mutually |
| 331 | intelligible Slavic languages. [perl #72594] |
| 332 | |
| 333 | =item * |
| 334 | |
| 335 | L<IO> has been upgraded from version 1.28 to 1.29. |
| 336 | |
| 337 | A minor internals-only change has been made to the XS code. |
| 338 | |
| 339 | =item * |
| 340 | |
| 341 | L<IPC::Open3> has been upgraded from version 1.15 to 1.16. |
| 342 | |
| 343 | This upgrade is part of a larger change to preserve referential identity when |
| 344 | passing C<undef> to a subroutine by using NULL rather than &PL_sv_undef for |
| 345 | nonexistent array elements. |
| 346 | |
| 347 | =item * |
| 348 | |
| 349 | L<Locale::Codes> has been upgraded from version 3.26 to 3.27. |
| 350 | |
| 351 | New codes have been added and the (deprecated) set of FIPS-10 country codes has |
| 352 | been removed. |
| 353 | |
| 354 | =item * |
| 355 | |
| 356 | L<Math::BigInt> has been upgraded from version 1.9992 to 1.9993. |
| 357 | |
| 358 | Cleaned up the L<Math::BigInt> and L<Math::BigFloat> documentation to be more |
| 359 | consistent with other Perl documentation. [perl #86686] |
| 360 | |
| 361 | Added a C<bint> method for rounding towards zero. [perl #85296] |
| 362 | |
| 363 | =item * |
| 364 | |
| 365 | L<Math::BigInt::FastCalc> has been upgraded from version 0.30 to 0.31. |
| 366 | |
| 367 | This upgrade is part of a larger change to make the array interface 64-bit safe |
| 368 | by using SSize_t instead of I32 for array indices. |
| 369 | |
| 370 | =item * |
| 371 | |
| 372 | L<Module::CoreList> has been upgraded from version 2.97 to 2.98. |
| 373 | |
| 374 | The list of Perl versions covered has been updated. |
| 375 | |
| 376 | =item * |
| 377 | |
| 378 | L<Module::Load::Conditional> has been upgraded from version 0.54 to 0.58. |
| 379 | |
| 380 | C<requires> has been made more robust. [cpan #83728] |
| 381 | |
| 382 | =item * |
| 383 | |
| 384 | L<Module::Metadata> has been upgraded from version 1.000014 to 1.000018. |
| 385 | |
| 386 | The module's DESCRIPTION has been re-worded regarding safety/security to |
| 387 | satisfy CVE-2013-1437. Also, versions are now detainted if needed. [cpan |
| 388 | #88576] |
| 389 | |
| 390 | =item * |
| 391 | |
| 392 | L<mro> has been upgraded from version 1.13 to 1.14. |
| 393 | |
| 394 | This upgrade is part of a larger change to make the array interface 64-bit safe |
| 395 | by using SSize_t instead of I32 for array indices. |
| 396 | |
| 397 | =item * |
| 398 | |
| 399 | L<parent> has been upgraded from version 0.226 to 0.227. |
| 400 | |
| 401 | No changes have been made to the installed code other than the version bump to |
| 402 | keep in sync with the latest CPAN release. |
| 403 | |
| 404 | =item * |
| 405 | |
| 406 | L<Parse::CPAN::Meta> has been upgraded from version 1.4405 to 1.4407. |
| 407 | |
| 408 | No changes have been made to the installed code other than the version bump to |
| 409 | keep in sync with the latest CPAN release. |
| 410 | |
| 411 | =item * |
| 412 | |
| 413 | L<Perl::OSType> has been upgraded from version 1.003 to 1.005. |
| 414 | |
| 415 | The Unix OSType 'bitrig' has been added. |
| 416 | |
| 417 | =item * |
| 418 | |
| 419 | L<perlfaq> has been upgraded from version 5.0150043 to 5.0150044. |
| 420 | |
| 421 | The use of C<gensym> in a number of examples has been removed, the use of C<&> |
| 422 | in subroutine calls is now clarified and several new questions have been |
| 423 | answered. |
| 424 | |
| 425 | =item * |
| 426 | |
| 427 | L<re> has been upgraded from version 0.25 to 0.26. |
| 428 | |
| 429 | This upgrade is part of a larger change to support 64-bit string lengths in the |
| 430 | regular expression engine. |
| 431 | |
| 432 | =item * |
| 433 | |
| 434 | L<Scalar::Util> has been upgraded from version 1.31 to 1.32. |
| 435 | |
| 436 | The documentation of C<blessed> has been improved to mention the fact that |
| 437 | package "0" is defined but false. |
| 438 | |
| 439 | =item * |
| 440 | |
| 441 | L<Socket> has been upgraded from version 2.011 to 2.012. |
| 442 | |
| 443 | Syntax errors when building on the WinCE platform have been fixed. [cpan |
| 444 | #87389] |
| 445 | |
| 446 | =item * |
| 447 | |
| 448 | L<Storable> has been upgraded from version 2.46 to 2.47. |
| 449 | |
| 450 | This upgrade is part of a larger change to preserve referential identity when |
| 451 | passing C<undef> to a subroutine by using NULL rather than &PL_sv_undef for |
| 452 | nonexistent array elements. |
| 453 | |
| 454 | =item * |
| 455 | |
| 456 | L<Term::ReadLine> has been upgraded from version 1.10 to 1.14. |
| 457 | |
| 458 | Term::ReadLine::EditLine support has been added. |
| 459 | |
| 460 | =item * |
| 461 | |
| 462 | L<Time::Piece> has been upgraded from version 1.22 to 1.23. |
| 463 | |
| 464 | Day of year parsing (like "%y%j") has been fixed. |
| 465 | |
| 466 | =item * |
| 467 | |
| 468 | L<Unicode::Collate> has been upgraded from version 0.98 to 0.99. |
| 469 | |
| 470 | By default, out-of-range values are replaced with C<U+FFFD> (REPLACEMENT |
| 471 | CHARACTER) when C<UCA_Version> E<gt>= 22, or ignored when C<UCA_Version> E<lt>= |
| 472 | 20. When C<UCA_Version> E<gt>= 22, the weights of out-of-range values can be |
| 473 | overridden. |
| 474 | |
| 475 | =item * |
| 476 | |
| 477 | L<Unicode::UCD> has been upgraded from version 0.53 to 0.54. |
| 478 | |
| 479 | This module now works on EBCDIC platforms. |
| 480 | |
| 481 | =item * |
| 482 | |
| 483 | L<version> has been upgraded from version 0.9903 to 0.9904. |
| 484 | |
| 485 | No changes have been made to the installed code other than the version bump to |
| 486 | keep in sync with the latest CPAN release. |
| 487 | |
| 488 | =item * |
| 489 | |
| 490 | L<warnings> has been upgraded from version 1.18 to 1.19. |
| 491 | |
| 492 | The C<syscalls> warnings category has been added to check for embedded NUL |
| 493 | (C<"\0">) characters in pathnames and string arguments to other system calls. |
| 494 | |
| 495 | =item * |
| 496 | |
| 497 | L<XS::Typemap> has been upgraded from version 0.10 to 0.11. |
| 498 | |
| 499 | XXX TODO |
| 500 | |
| 501 | =back |
| 502 | |
| 503 | =head2 Removed Modules and Pragmata |
| 504 | |
| 505 | =over 4 |
| 506 | |
| 507 | =item * |
| 508 | |
| 509 | XXX |
| 510 | |
| 511 | =back |
| 512 | |
| 513 | =head1 Documentation |
| 514 | |
| 515 | XXX Changes to files in F<pod/> go here. Consider grouping entries by |
| 516 | file and be sure to link to the appropriate page, e.g. L<perlfunc>. |
| 517 | |
| 518 | =head2 New Documentation |
| 519 | |
| 520 | XXX Changes which create B<new> files in F<pod/> go here. |
| 521 | |
| 522 | =head3 L<XXX> |
| 523 | |
| 524 | XXX Description of the purpose of the new file here |
| 525 | |
| 526 | =head2 Changes to Existing Documentation |
| 527 | |
| 528 | XXX Changes which significantly change existing files in F<pod/> go here. |
| 529 | However, any changes to F<pod/perldiag.pod> should go in the L</Diagnostics> |
| 530 | section. |
| 531 | |
| 532 | =head3 L<XXX> |
| 533 | |
| 534 | =over 4 |
| 535 | |
| 536 | =item * |
| 537 | |
| 538 | XXX Description of the change here |
| 539 | |
| 540 | =back |
| 541 | |
| 542 | =head1 Diagnostics |
| 543 | |
| 544 | The following additions or changes have been made to diagnostic output, |
| 545 | including warnings and fatal error messages. For the complete list of |
| 546 | diagnostic messages, see L<perldiag>. |
| 547 | |
| 548 | XXX New or changed warnings emitted by the core's C<C> code go here. Also |
| 549 | include any changes in L<perldiag> that reconcile it to the C<C> code. |
| 550 | |
| 551 | =head2 New Diagnostics |
| 552 | |
| 553 | XXX Newly added diagnostic messages go under here, separated into New Errors |
| 554 | and New Warnings |
| 555 | |
| 556 | =head3 New Errors |
| 557 | |
| 558 | =over 4 |
| 559 | |
| 560 | =item * |
| 561 | |
| 562 | XXX L<message|perldiag/"message"> |
| 563 | |
| 564 | =back |
| 565 | |
| 566 | =head3 New Warnings |
| 567 | |
| 568 | =over 4 |
| 569 | |
| 570 | =item * |
| 571 | |
| 572 | L<Invalid \0 character in %s for %s: %s\0%s|perldiag/"Invalid \0 character in %s for %s: %s\0%s"> |
| 573 | |
| 574 | (W syscalls) Embedded \0 characters in pathnames or other system call arguments |
| 575 | produce a warning as of 5.20. The parts after the \0 were formerly ignored by |
| 576 | system calls. |
| 577 | |
| 578 | =back |
| 579 | |
| 580 | =head2 Changes to Existing Diagnostics |
| 581 | |
| 582 | XXX Changes (i.e. rewording) of diagnostic messages go here |
| 583 | |
| 584 | =over 4 |
| 585 | |
| 586 | =item * |
| 587 | |
| 588 | Warnings and errors from the regexp engine are now UTF-8 clean |
| 589 | |
| 590 | =item * |
| 591 | |
| 592 | The "Unknown switch condition" error message has some slight changes. This |
| 593 | error triggers when there is an unknown condition in a C<(?(foo))> conditional. |
| 594 | The error message used to read: |
| 595 | |
| 596 | Unknown switch condition (?(%s in regex; |
| 597 | |
| 598 | But what %s could be was mostly up to luck. For C<(?(foobar))>, you might have |
| 599 | seen "fo" or "f". For Unicode characters, you would generally get a corrupted |
| 600 | string. The message has been changed to read: |
| 601 | |
| 602 | Unknown switch condition (?(...)) in regex; |
| 603 | |
| 604 | Additionally, the C<'E<lt>-- HERE'> marker in the error will now point to the |
| 605 | correct spot in the regex. |
| 606 | |
| 607 | =back |
| 608 | |
| 609 | =head1 Utility Changes |
| 610 | |
| 611 | XXX Changes to installed programs such as F<perlbug> and F<xsubpp> go here. |
| 612 | Most of these are built within the directories F<utils> and F<x2p>. |
| 613 | |
| 614 | [ List utility changes as a =head3 entry for each utility and =item |
| 615 | entries for each change |
| 616 | Use L<XXX> with program names to get proper documentation linking. ] |
| 617 | |
| 618 | =head3 L<find2perl> |
| 619 | |
| 620 | =over 4 |
| 621 | |
| 622 | =item * |
| 623 | |
| 624 | L<find2perl> now handles C<?> wildcards correctly. [perl #113054] |
| 625 | |
| 626 | =back |
| 627 | |
| 628 | =head1 Configuration and Compilation |
| 629 | |
| 630 | XXX Changes to F<Configure>, F<installperl>, F<installman>, and analogous tools |
| 631 | go here. Any other changes to the Perl build process should be listed here. |
| 632 | However, any platform-specific changes should be listed in the |
| 633 | L</Platform Support> section, instead. |
| 634 | |
| 635 | [ List changes as a =item entry ]. |
| 636 | |
| 637 | =over 4 |
| 638 | |
| 639 | =item * |
| 640 | |
| 641 | The F<Makefile.PL> for C<SDBM_File> now generates a better F<Makefile>, which |
| 642 | avoids a race condition during parallel makes, which could cause the build to |
| 643 | fail. This is the last known parallel make problem (on *nix platforms), and |
| 644 | therefore we believe that a parallel make should now always be error free. |
| 645 | |
| 646 | =for comment |
| 647 | |
| 648 | Strictly only for a build where build files such as F<Makefile.SH> have not |
| 649 | been updated by C<git> in an already configured and built tree. |
| 650 | |
| 651 | =back |
| 652 | |
| 653 | =head1 Testing |
| 654 | |
| 655 | XXX Any significant changes to the testing of a freshly built perl should be |
| 656 | listed here. Changes which create B<new> files in F<t/> go here as do any |
| 657 | large changes to the testing harness (e.g. when parallel testing was added). |
| 658 | Changes to existing files in F<t/> aren't worth summarizing, although the bugs |
| 659 | that they represent may be covered elsewhere. |
| 660 | |
| 661 | [ List each test improvement as a =item entry ] |
| 662 | |
| 663 | =over 4 |
| 664 | |
| 665 | =item * |
| 666 | |
| 667 | The test script F<t/bigmem/regexp.t> has been added to test that regular |
| 668 | expression matches on very large strings now succeed as expected. |
| 669 | |
| 670 | =item * |
| 671 | |
| 672 | Various cases of C<die>, C<last>, C<goto> and C<exit> triggering C<DESTROY> are |
| 673 | now tested by the new test script F<t/op/rt119311.t>. |
| 674 | |
| 675 | =item * |
| 676 | |
| 677 | The new test script F<t/win32/signal.t> tests that $! and $^E are now preserved |
| 678 | across signal handlers by the Win32 signal emulation code. |
| 679 | |
| 680 | =item * |
| 681 | |
| 682 | The test script F<t/x2p/find2perl.t> has been added to test the F<find2perl> |
| 683 | program on platforms where it is practical to do so. |
| 684 | |
| 685 | =back |
| 686 | |
| 687 | =head1 Platform Support |
| 688 | |
| 689 | XXX Any changes to platform support should be listed in the sections below. |
| 690 | |
| 691 | [ Within the sections, list each platform as a =item entry with specific |
| 692 | changes as paragraphs below it. ] |
| 693 | |
| 694 | =head2 New Platforms |
| 695 | |
| 696 | XXX List any platforms that this version of perl compiles on, that previous |
| 697 | versions did not. These will either be enabled by new files in the F<hints/> |
| 698 | directories, or new subdirectories and F<README> files at the top level of the |
| 699 | source tree. |
| 700 | |
| 701 | =over 4 |
| 702 | |
| 703 | =item Bitrig |
| 704 | |
| 705 | Compile support has been added for Bitrig, a fork of OpenBSD. |
| 706 | |
| 707 | =back |
| 708 | |
| 709 | =head2 Discontinued Platforms |
| 710 | |
| 711 | Configure hints and conditional code for several very old platforms has been |
| 712 | removed. We have not received reports for these in many years, typically not |
| 713 | since Perl 5.6.0. |
| 714 | |
| 715 | =over 4 |
| 716 | |
| 717 | =item AT&T 3b1 |
| 718 | |
| 719 | Configure support for the 3b1, also known as the AT&T Unix PC (and the similar |
| 720 | AT&T 7300), has been removed. |
| 721 | |
| 722 | =back |
| 723 | |
| 724 | =head2 Platform-Specific Notes |
| 725 | |
| 726 | XXX List any changes for specific platforms. This could include configuration |
| 727 | and compilation changes or changes in portability/compatibility. However, |
| 728 | changes within modules for platforms should generally be listed in the |
| 729 | L</Modules and Pragmata> section. |
| 730 | |
| 731 | =over 4 |
| 732 | |
| 733 | =item WinCE |
| 734 | |
| 735 | The building of XS modules has largely been restored. Several still cannot |
| 736 | (yet) be built but it is now possible to build Perl on WinCE with only a couple |
| 737 | of further patches (to L<Socket> and L<ExtUtils::MakeMaker>), hopefully to be |
| 738 | incorporated soon. |
| 739 | |
| 740 | =back |
| 741 | |
| 742 | =head1 Internal Changes |
| 743 | |
| 744 | XXX Changes which affect the interface available to C<XS> code go here. Other |
| 745 | significant internal changes for future core maintainers should be noted as |
| 746 | well. |
| 747 | |
| 748 | [ List each change as a =item entry ] |
| 749 | |
| 750 | =over 4 |
| 751 | |
| 752 | =item * |
| 753 | |
| 754 | The internal representation has changed for the match variables $1, $2 etc., |
| 755 | $`, $&, $', ${^PREMATCH}, ${^MATCH} and ${^POSTMATCH}. It uses slightly less |
| 756 | memory, avoids string comparisons and numeric conversions during lookup, and |
| 757 | uses 23 fewer lines of C. This change should not affect any external code. |
| 758 | |
| 759 | =item * |
| 760 | |
| 761 | Arrays now use NULL internally to represent unused slots, instead of |
| 762 | &PL_sv_undef. &PL_sv_undef is no longer treated as a special value, so |
| 763 | av_store(av, 0, &PL_sv_undef) will cause element 0 of that array to hold a |
| 764 | read-only undefined scalar. C<$array[0] = anything> will croak and |
| 765 | C<\$array[0]> will compare equal to C<\undef>. |
| 766 | |
| 767 | =back |
| 768 | |
| 769 | =head1 Selected Bug Fixes |
| 770 | |
| 771 | XXX Important bug fixes in the core language are summarized here. Bug fixes in |
| 772 | files in F<ext/> and F<lib/> are best summarized in L</Modules and Pragmata>. |
| 773 | |
| 774 | [ List each fix as a =item entry ] |
| 775 | |
| 776 | =over 4 |
| 777 | |
| 778 | =item * |
| 779 | |
| 780 | The value of $^E is now saved across signal handlers on Windows. [perl #85104] |
| 781 | |
| 782 | =item * |
| 783 | |
| 784 | A lexical filehandle (as in C<open my $fh...>) is usually given a name based on |
| 785 | the current package and the name of the variable, e.g. "main::$fh". Under |
| 786 | recursion, the filehandle was losing the "$fh" part of the name. This has been |
| 787 | fixed. |
| 788 | |
| 789 | =item * |
| 790 | |
| 791 | Perl 5.19.3 accidentally extended the previous bug to all closures, even when |
| 792 | not called recursively, i.e. lexical handles in closure would always be called |
| 793 | "main::" or "MyPackage::" etc. This has been fixed. |
| 794 | |
| 795 | =item * |
| 796 | |
| 797 | Uninitialized values returned by XSUBs are no longer exempt from uninitialized |
| 798 | warnings. [perl #118693] |
| 799 | |
| 800 | =item * |
| 801 | |
| 802 | C<elsif ("")> no longer erroneously produces a warning about void context. |
| 803 | [perl #118753] |
| 804 | |
| 805 | =item * |
| 806 | |
| 807 | Passing C<undef> to a subroutine now causes @_ to contain the same read-only |
| 808 | undefined scalar that C<undef> returns. Furthermore, C<exists $_[0]> will now |
| 809 | return true if C<undef> was the first argument. [perl #7508, #109726] |
| 810 | |
| 811 | =item * |
| 812 | |
| 813 | Passing a nonexistent array element to a subroutine does not usually autovivify |
| 814 | it unless the subroutine modifies its argument. This did not work correctly |
| 815 | with negative indices and with nonexistent elements within the array. The |
| 816 | element would be vivified immediately. The delayed vivification has been |
| 817 | extended to work with those. [perl #118691] |
| 818 | |
| 819 | =item * |
| 820 | |
| 821 | Assigning references or globs to the scalar returned by $#foo after the @foo |
| 822 | array has been freed no longer causes assertion failures on debugging builds |
| 823 | and memory leaks on regular builds. |
| 824 | |
| 825 | =item * |
| 826 | |
| 827 | Perl 5.19.2 threw line numbers off after some cases of line breaks following |
| 828 | keywords, such as |
| 829 | |
| 830 | 1 unless |
| 831 | 1; |
| 832 | |
| 833 | This has been fixed. [perl #118931] |
| 834 | |
| 835 | =item * |
| 836 | |
| 837 | On 64-bit platforms, large ranges like 1..1000000000000 no longer crash, but |
| 838 | eat up all your memory instead. [perl #119161] |
| 839 | |
| 840 | =item * |
| 841 | |
| 842 | C<__DATA__> now puts the C<DATA> handle in the right package, even if the |
| 843 | current package has been renamed through glob assignment. |
| 844 | |
| 845 | =item * |
| 846 | |
| 847 | The string position set by C<pos> could shift if the string changed |
| 848 | representation internally to or from utf8. This could happen, e.g., with |
| 849 | references to objects with string overloading. |
| 850 | |
| 851 | =item * |
| 852 | |
| 853 | Taking references to the return values of two C<pos> calls with the same |
| 854 | argument, and then assigning a reference to one and C<undef> to the other, |
| 855 | could result in assertion failures or memory leaks. |
| 856 | |
| 857 | =item * |
| 858 | |
| 859 | Elements of @- and @+ now update correctly when they refer to nonexistent |
| 860 | captures. Previously, a referenced element (C<$ref = \$-[1]>) could refer to |
| 861 | the wrong match after subsequent matches. |
| 862 | |
| 863 | =item * |
| 864 | |
| 865 | When C<die>, C<last>, C<next>, C<redo>, C<goto> and C<exit> unwind the scope, |
| 866 | it is possible for C<DESTROY> recursively to call a subroutine or format that |
| 867 | is currently being exited. It that case, sometimes the lexical variables |
| 868 | inside the sub would start out having values from the outer call, instead of |
| 869 | being undefined as they should. This has been fixed. [perl #119311] |
| 870 | |
| 871 | =item * |
| 872 | |
| 873 | ${^MPEN} is no longer treated as a synonym for ${^MATCH}. |
| 874 | |
| 875 | =item * |
| 876 | |
| 877 | Perl now tries a little harder to return the correct line number in |
| 878 | C<(caller)[2]>. [perl #115768] |
| 879 | |
| 880 | =item * |
| 881 | |
| 882 | Line numbers inside multiline quote-like operators are now reported correctly. |
| 883 | [perl #3643] |
| 884 | |
| 885 | =item * |
| 886 | |
| 887 | C<#line> directives inside code embedded in quote-like operators are now |
| 888 | respected. |
| 889 | |
| 890 | =item * |
| 891 | |
| 892 | Line numbers are now correct inside the second here-doc when two here-doc |
| 893 | markers occur on the same line. |
| 894 | |
| 895 | =item * |
| 896 | |
| 897 | Starting with Perl 5.12, line numbers were off by one if the B<-d> switch was |
| 898 | used on the #! line. Now they are correct. |
| 899 | |
| 900 | =item * |
| 901 | |
| 902 | Perl 5.19.2 inadvertently stopped some lines of code from being available to |
| 903 | the debugger if C<=E<gt>> occurred at the beginning of a line and the previous |
| 904 | line ended with a keyword. This is now fixed. |
| 905 | |
| 906 | =item * |
| 907 | |
| 908 | Perl 5.19.2 allowed the PERL5DB environment variable to contain multiple lines |
| 909 | of code, but those lines were not made available to the debugger. Now they are |
| 910 | all stuffed into line number 0, accessible via C<$dbline[0]> in the debugger. |
| 911 | |
| 912 | =item * |
| 913 | |
| 914 | An optimisation in Perl 5.18 made incorrect assumptions causing a bad |
| 915 | interaction with the L<Devel::CallParser> CPAN module. If the module was |
| 916 | loaded then lexical variables declared in separate statements following a |
| 917 | C<my(...)> list might fail to be cleared on scope exit. |
| 918 | |
| 919 | =item * |
| 920 | |
| 921 | C<&xsub> and C<goto &xsub> calls now allow the called subroutine to autovivify |
| 922 | elements of @_. |
| 923 | |
| 924 | =item * |
| 925 | |
| 926 | C<&xsub> and C<goto &xsub> no longer crash if *_ has been undefined and has no |
| 927 | ARRAY entry (i.e. @_ does not exist). |
| 928 | |
| 929 | =item * |
| 930 | |
| 931 | C<&xsub> and C<goto &xsub> now work with tied @_. |
| 932 | |
| 933 | =item * |
| 934 | |
| 935 | Overlong identifiers no longer cause a buffer overflow (and a crash). They |
| 936 | started doing so in Perl 5.18. |
| 937 | |
| 938 | =item * |
| 939 | |
| 940 | The warning "Scalar value @hash{foo} better written as $hash{foo}" now produces |
| 941 | far fewer false positives. In particular, C<@hash{+function_returning_a_list}> |
| 942 | and C<@hash{ qw "foo bar baz" }> no longer warn. The same applies to array |
| 943 | slices. [perl #28380, #114024] |
| 944 | |
| 945 | =back |
| 946 | |
| 947 | =head1 Known Problems |
| 948 | |
| 949 | XXX Descriptions of platform agnostic bugs we know we can't fix go here. Any |
| 950 | tests that had to be C<TODO>ed for the release would be noted here. Unfixed |
| 951 | platform specific bugs also go here. |
| 952 | |
| 953 | [ List each fix as a =item entry ] |
| 954 | |
| 955 | =over 4 |
| 956 | |
| 957 | =item * |
| 958 | |
| 959 | XXX |
| 960 | |
| 961 | =back |
| 962 | |
| 963 | =head1 Obituary |
| 964 | |
| 965 | XXX If any significant core contributor has died, we've added a short obituary |
| 966 | here. |
| 967 | |
| 968 | =head1 Acknowledgements |
| 969 | |
| 970 | XXX Generate this with: |
| 971 | |
| 972 | perl Porting/acknowledgements.pl v5.19.3..HEAD |
| 973 | |
| 974 | =head1 Reporting Bugs |
| 975 | |
| 976 | If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles recently |
| 977 | posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl bug database at |
| 978 | http://rt.perl.org/perlbug/ . There may also be information at |
| 979 | http://www.perl.org/ , the Perl Home Page. |
| 980 | |
| 981 | If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the L<perlbug> program |
| 982 | included with your release. Be sure to trim your bug down to a tiny but |
| 983 | sufficient test case. Your bug report, along with the output of C<perl -V>, |
| 984 | will be sent off to perlbug@perl.org to be analysed by the Perl porting team. |
| 985 | |
| 986 | If the bug you are reporting has security implications, which make it |
| 987 | inappropriate to send to a publicly archived mailing list, then please send it |
| 988 | to perl5-security-report@perl.org. This points to a closed subscription |
| 989 | unarchived mailing list, which includes all the core committers, who will be |
| 990 | able to help assess the impact of issues, figure out a resolution, and help |
| 991 | co-ordinate the release of patches to mitigate or fix the problem across all |
| 992 | platforms on which Perl is supported. Please only use this address for |
| 993 | security issues in the Perl core, not for modules independently distributed on |
| 994 | CPAN. |
| 995 | |
| 996 | =head1 SEE ALSO |
| 997 | |
| 998 | The F<Changes> file for an explanation of how to view exhaustive details on |
| 999 | what changed. |
| 1000 | |
| 1001 | The F<INSTALL> file for how to build Perl. |
| 1002 | |
| 1003 | The F<README> file for general stuff. |
| 1004 | |
| 1005 | The F<Artistic> and F<Copying> files for copyright information. |
| 1006 | |
| 1007 | =cut |