5 [ this is a template for a new perldelta file. Any text flagged as XXX needs
6 to be processed before release. ]
8 perldelta - what is new for perl v5.17.8
12 This document describes differences between the 5.17.7 release and the 5.17.8
15 If you are upgrading from an earlier release such as 5.17.6, first read
16 L<perl5177delta>, which describes differences between 5.17.6 and 5.17.7.
20 XXX Any important notices here
22 =head1 Core Enhancements
24 XXX New core language features go here. Summarize user-visible core language
25 enhancements. Particularly prominent performance optimisations could go
26 here, but most should go in the L</Performance Enhancements> section.
28 [ List each enhancement as a =head2 entry ]
30 =head2 Regular Expression Set Operations
32 This is an experimental feature to allow matching against the the union,
33 intersection, etc., of sets of code points, similar to
34 L<Unicode::Regex::Set>. It can also be used to extend C</x> processing
35 to [bracketed] character classes, and as a replacement of user-defined
36 properties, allowing more complex expressions than they do. See
41 XXX Any security-related notices go here. In particular, any security
42 vulnerabilities closed should be noted here rather than in the
43 L</Selected Bug Fixes> section.
45 [ List each security issue as a =head2 entry ]
47 =head1 Incompatible Changes
49 XXX For a release on a stable branch, this section aspires to be:
51 There are no changes intentionally incompatible with 5.XXX.XXX
52 If any exist, they are bugs, and we request that you submit a
53 report. See L</Reporting Bugs> below.
55 [ List each incompatible change as a =head2 entry ]
59 XXX Any deprecated features, syntax, modules etc. should be listed here. In
60 particular, deprecated modules should be listed here even if they are listed as
61 an updated module in the L</Modules and Pragmata> section.
63 [ List each deprecation as a =head2 entry ]
65 =head2 Various XS-callable functions are now deprecated
67 All the functions used to classify characters will be removed from a
68 future version of Perl, and should not be used. With participating C
69 compilers (e.g., gcc), compiling any file that uses any of these will
70 generate a warning. These were not intended for public use; there are
71 equivalent, faster, macros for most of them.
72 See L<perlapi/Character classes>. The complete list (including some
73 that were deprecated in 5.17.7) is:
74 C<is_uni_alnum>, C<is_uni_alnumc>, C<is_uni_alnumc_lc>,
75 C<is_uni_alnum_lc>, C<is_uni_alpha>, C<is_uni_alpha_lc>,
76 C<is_uni_ascii>, C<is_uni_ascii_lc>, C<is_uni_blank>,
77 C<is_uni_blank_lc>, C<is_uni_cntrl>, C<is_uni_cntrl_lc>,
78 C<is_uni_digit>, C<is_uni_digit_lc>, C<is_uni_graph>,
79 C<is_uni_graph_lc>, C<is_uni_idfirst>, C<is_uni_idfirst_lc>,
80 C<is_uni_lower>, C<is_uni_lower_lc>, C<is_uni_print>,
81 C<is_uni_print_lc>, C<is_uni_punct>, C<is_uni_punct_lc>,
82 C<is_uni_space>, C<is_uni_space_lc>, C<is_uni_upper>,
83 C<is_uni_upper_lc>, C<is_uni_xdigit>, C<is_uni_xdigit_lc>,
84 C<is_utf8_alnum>, C<is_utf8_alnumc>, C<is_utf8_alpha>,
85 C<is_utf8_ascii>, C<is_utf8_blank>, C<is_utf8_char>,
86 C<is_utf8_cntrl>, C<is_utf8_digit>, C<is_utf8_graph>,
87 C<is_utf8_idcont>, C<is_utf8_idfirst>, C<is_utf8_lower>,
88 C<is_utf8_mark>, C<is_utf8_perl_space>, C<is_utf8_perl_word>,
89 C<is_utf8_posix_digit>, C<is_utf8_print>, C<is_utf8_punct>,
90 C<is_utf8_space>, C<is_utf8_upper>, C<is_utf8_xdigit>,
91 C<is_utf8_xidcont>, C<is_utf8_xidfirst>.
93 In addition these three functions that have never worked properly are
95 C<to_uni_lower_lc>, C<to_uni_title_lc>, and C<to_uni_upper_lc>.
97 =head1 Performance Enhancements
99 XXX Changes which enhance performance without changing behaviour go here.
100 There may well be none in a stable release.
102 [ List each enhancement as a =item entry ]
112 =head1 Modules and Pragmata
114 XXX All changes to installed files in F<cpan/>, F<dist/>, F<ext/> and F<lib/>
115 go here. If Module::CoreList is updated, generate an initial draft of the
116 following sections using F<Porting/corelist-perldelta.pl>, which prints stub
117 entries to STDOUT. Results can be pasted in place of the '=head2' entries
118 below. A paragraph summary for important changes should then be added by hand.
119 In an ideal world, dual-life modules would have a F<Changes> file that could be
122 [ Within each section, list entries as a =item entry ]
124 =head2 New Modules and Pragmata
134 =head2 Updated Modules and Pragmata
140 L<XXX> has been upgraded from version A.xx to B.yy.
144 =head2 Removed Modules and Pragmata
156 XXX Changes to files in F<pod/> go here. Consider grouping entries by
157 file and be sure to link to the appropriate page, e.g. L<perlfunc>.
159 =head2 New Documentation
161 XXX Changes which create B<new> files in F<pod/> go here.
165 XXX Description of the purpose of the new file here
167 =head2 Changes to Existing Documentation
169 XXX Changes which significantly change existing files in F<pod/> go here.
170 However, any changes to F<pod/perldiag.pod> should go in the L</Diagnostics>
179 XXX Description of the change here
185 The following additions or changes have been made to diagnostic output,
186 including warnings and fatal error messages. For the complete list of
187 diagnostic messages, see L<perldiag>.
189 XXX New or changed warnings emitted by the core's C<C> code go here. Also
190 include any changes in L<perldiag> that reconcile it to the C<C> code.
192 =head2 New Diagnostics
194 XXX Newly added diagnostic messages go under here, separated into New Errors
203 XXX L<message|perldiag/"message">
213 L<'%s' resolved to '\o{%s}%d'|perldiag/"'%s' resolved to '\o{%s}%d'">
217 XXX L<message|perldiag/"message">
222 =head2 Changes to Existing Diagnostics
224 XXX Changes (i.e. rewording) of diagnostic messages go here
230 XXX Describe change here
234 =head1 Utility Changes
236 XXX Changes to installed programs such as F<perlbug> and F<xsubpp> go here.
237 Most of these are built within the directories F<utils> and F<x2p>.
239 [ List utility changes as a =head3 entry for each utility and =item
240 entries for each change
241 Use L<XXX> with program names to get proper documentation linking. ]
253 =head1 Configuration and Compilation
255 XXX Changes to F<Configure>, F<installperl>, F<installman>, and analogous tools
256 go here. Any other changes to the Perl build process should be listed here.
257 However, any platform-specific changes should be listed in the
258 L</Platform Support> section, instead.
260 [ List changes as a =item entry ].
272 XXX Any significant changes to the testing of a freshly built perl should be
273 listed here. Changes which create B<new> files in F<t/> go here as do any
274 large changes to the testing harness (e.g. when parallel testing was added).
275 Changes to existing files in F<t/> aren't worth summarizing, although the bugs
276 that they represent may be covered elsewhere.
278 [ List each test improvement as a =item entry ]
288 =head1 Platform Support
290 XXX Any changes to platform support should be listed in the sections below.
292 [ Within the sections, list each platform as a =item entry with specific
293 changes as paragraphs below it. ]
297 XXX List any platforms that this version of perl compiles on, that previous
298 versions did not. These will either be enabled by new files in the F<hints/>
299 directories, or new subdirectories and F<README> files at the top level of the
304 =item XXX-some-platform
310 =head2 Discontinued Platforms
316 Support for Rhapsody has been removed.
320 =head2 Platform-Specific Notes
322 XXX List any changes for specific platforms. This could include configuration
323 and compilation changes or changes in portability/compatibility. However,
324 changes within modules for platforms should generally be listed in the
325 L</Modules and Pragmata> section.
331 Perl can now be built using Microsoft's Visual C++ 2012 compiler by specifying
332 CCTYPE=MSVC110 (or MSVC110FREE if you are using the free Express edition for
333 Windows Desktop) in F<win32/Makefile>.
337 =head1 Internal Changes
339 XXX Changes which affect the interface available to C<XS> code go here. Other
340 significant internal changes for future core maintainers should be noted as
343 [ List each change as a =item entry ]
353 =head1 Selected Bug Fixes
355 XXX Important bug fixes in the core language are summarized here. Bug fixes in
356 files in F<ext/> and F<lib/> are best summarized in L</Modules and Pragmata>.
358 [ List each fix as a =item entry ]
364 A bug in the core typemap caused any C types that map to the T_BOOL core
365 typemap entry to not be set, updated, or modified when the T_BOOL variable was
366 used in an OUTPUT: section with an exception for RETVAL. T_BOOL in an INPUT:
367 section was not affected. Using a T_BOOL return type for an XSUB (RETVAL)
368 was not affected. A side effect of fixing this bug is, if a T_BOOL is specified
369 in the OUTPUT: section (which previous did nothing to the SV), and a read only
370 SV (literal) is passed to the XSUB, croaks like "Modification of a read-only
371 value attempted" will happen. [perl #115796]
375 On many platforms, providing a directory name as the script name caused perl
376 to do nothing and report success. It should now universally report an error
377 and exit nonzero. [perl #61362]
381 =head1 Known Problems
383 XXX Descriptions of platform agnostic bugs we know we can't fix go here. Any
384 tests that had to be C<TODO>ed for the release would be noted here. Unfixed
385 platform specific bugs also go here.
387 [ List each fix as a =item entry ]
399 XXX If any significant core contributor has died, we've added a short obituary
402 =head1 Acknowledgements
404 XXX Generate this with:
406 perl Porting/acknowledgements.pl v5.17.7..HEAD
408 =head1 Reporting Bugs
410 If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles recently
411 posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl bug database at
412 http://rt.perl.org/perlbug/ . There may also be information at
413 http://www.perl.org/ , the Perl Home Page.
415 If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the L<perlbug> program
416 included with your release. Be sure to trim your bug down to a tiny but
417 sufficient test case. Your bug report, along with the output of C<perl -V>,
418 will be sent off to perlbug@perl.org to be analysed by the Perl porting team.
420 If the bug you are reporting has security implications, which make it
421 inappropriate to send to a publicly archived mailing list, then please send it
422 to perl5-security-report@perl.org. This points to a closed subscription
423 unarchived mailing list, which includes all the core committers, who will be
424 able to help assess the impact of issues, figure out a resolution, and help
425 co-ordinate the release of patches to mitigate or fix the problem across all
426 platforms on which Perl is supported. Please only use this address for
427 security issues in the Perl core, not for modules independently distributed on
432 The F<Changes> file for an explanation of how to view exhaustive details on
435 The F<INSTALL> file for how to build Perl.
437 The F<README> file for general stuff.
439 The F<Artistic> and F<Copying> files for copyright information.