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 v5.19.4
12 This document describes differences between the 5.19.3 release and the 5.19.4
15 If you are upgrading from an earlier release such as 5.19.2, first read
16 L<perl5193delta>, which describes differences between 5.19.2 and 5.19.3.
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 ]
32 XXX Any security-related notices go here. In particular, any security
33 vulnerabilities closed should be noted here rather than in the
34 L</Selected Bug Fixes> section.
36 [ List each security issue as a =head2 entry ]
38 =head1 Incompatible Changes
40 =head2 Locale decimal point character no longer leaks outside of
41 S<C<use locale>> scope (with the exception of C<$!>)
43 This is actually a bug fix, but some code has come to rely on the bug being
44 present, so this change is listed here. The current locale that the program is
45 running under is not supposed to be visible to Perl code except within the
46 scope of a S<C<use locale>>. However, until now under certain circumstances,
47 the character used for a decimal point (often a comma) leaked outside the
50 This continues the work released in Perl 5.19.1. It turns out that that did
51 not catch all the leaks, including C<printf> and C<sprintf> not respecting
52 S<C<use locale>>. If your code is affected by this change, simply add a
55 Now, the only known place where C<'use locale'> is not respected is in the
56 stringification of L<$!|perlvar/$!>.
60 XXX Any deprecated features, syntax, modules etc. should be listed here.
62 =head2 Module removals
64 XXX Remove this section if inapplicable.
66 The following modules will be removed from the core distribution in a
67 future release, and will at that time need to be installed from CPAN.
68 Distributions on CPAN which require these modules will need to list them as
71 The core versions of these modules will now issue C<"deprecated">-category
72 warnings to alert you to this fact. To silence these deprecation warnings,
73 install the modules in question from CPAN.
75 Note that these are (with rare exceptions) fine modules that you are encouraged
76 to continue to use. Their disinclusion from core primarily hinges on their
77 necessity to bootstrapping a fully functional, CPAN-capable Perl installation,
78 not usually on concerns over their design.
82 XXX Note that deprecated modules should be listed here even if they are listed
83 as an updated module in the L</Modules and Pragmata> section.
87 [ List each other deprecation as a =head2 entry ]
89 =head1 Performance Enhancements
95 The trie performance enhancement for regular expressions has now been extended
96 to those compiled under C</iaa>.
100 =head1 Modules and Pragmata
102 XXX All changes to installed files in F<cpan/>, F<dist/>, F<ext/> and F<lib/>
103 go here. If Module::CoreList is updated, generate an initial draft of the
104 following sections using F<Porting/corelist-perldelta.pl>, which prints stub
105 entries to STDOUT. Results can be pasted in place of the '=head2' entries
106 below. A paragraph summary for important changes should then be added by hand.
107 In an ideal world, dual-life modules would have a F<Changes> file that could be
110 [ Within each section, list entries as a =item entry ]
112 =head2 New Modules and Pragmata
122 =head2 Updated Modules and Pragmata
128 L<B> has been upgraded from version 1.45 to 1.46.
130 The fix for [perl #118525] introduced a regression in the behaviour of
131 C<B::CV::GV>, changing the return value from a C<B::SPECIAL> object on a
132 C<NULL> C<CvGV> to C<undef>. C<B::CV::GV> again returns a C<B::SPECIAL>
133 object in this case. [perl #119351]
137 L<B::Concise> has been upgraded from version 0.98 to 0.99.
139 The handling of the C<glob> operator, broken since Perl 5.17.6, has been fixed.
143 L<Carp> has been upgraded from version 1.31 to 1.32.
149 In stack traces, subroutine arguments that are strings are now quoted in a
150 consistent manner, regardless of what characters they contain and how they're
151 internally represented.
155 C<Carp> now won't vivify the C<overload::StrVal> glob or subroutine or the
160 C<Carp> now avoids some unwanted Unicode warnings on older Perls. This doesn't
161 affect behaviour with current Perl.
165 C<Carp::Heavy> detects version mismatch with C<Carp>, to give a good error
166 message if a current (stub) C<Carp::Heavy> gets loaded by an old C<Carp> that
167 expects C<Carp::Heavy> to provide subroutines.
173 L<charnames> has been upgraded from version 1.38 to 1.39.
175 This module now works on EBCDIC platforms.
179 L<CPAN::Meta> has been upgraded from version 2.132140 to 2.132510.
181 No changes have been made to the installed code other than the version bump to
182 keep in sync with the latest CPAN release.
186 L<CPAN::Meta::Requirements> has been upgraded from version 2.122 to 2.123.
188 No changes have been made to the installed code other than the version bump to
189 keep in sync with the latest CPAN release.
193 L<Data::Dumper> has been upgraded from version 2.148 to 2.149.
195 This upgrade is part of a larger change to make the array interface 64-bit safe
196 by using SSize_t instead of I32 for array indices.
198 In addition, an EBCDIC fix has been applied.
202 L<Devel::Peek> has been upgraded from version 1.13 to 1.14.
204 This upgrade is part of a larger change to preserve referential identity when
205 passing C<undef> to a subroutine by using NULL rather than &PL_sv_undef for
206 nonexistent array elements.
208 In addition, C<Dump> with no args was broken in Perl 5.19.3, but has now been
213 L<DynaLoader> has been upgraded from version 1.19 to 1.20.
215 The documentation now makes it clear, as has always been the case, that
216 C<dl_unload_file> is only called automatically to unload all loaded shared
217 objects if the perl interpreter was built with the C macro
218 DL_UNLOAD_ALL_AT_EXIT defined. Support for GNU DLD has also been removed.
222 L<Encode> has been upgraded from version 2.52 to 2.54.
224 An erroneous early return in C<decode_utf8> has been removed, and a bug in
225 C<_utf8_on> under COW has been fixed.
229 L<Exporter> has been upgraded from version 5.69 to 5.70.
231 A number of typos have been corrected in the documentation.
235 L<ExtUtils::CBuilder> has been upgraded from version 0.280205 to 0.280212.
237 No changes have been made to the installed code other than the version bump to
238 keep in sync with the latest CPAN release.
242 L<ExtUtils::Command> has been upgraded from version 1.17 to 1.18.
244 No changes have been made to the installed code other than the version bump to
245 keep in sync with the latest CPAN release.
249 L<ExtUtils::MakeMaker> has been upgraded from version 6.72 to 6.76.
251 Numerous updates and bug fixes are incorporated. See the F<Changes> file for
256 L<ExtUtils::ParseXS> has been upgraded from version 3.21 to 3.22.
258 No changes have been made to the installed code other than the version bump to
259 keep in sync with the latest CPAN release.
263 L<File::Glob> has been upgraded from version 1.20 to 1.21.
265 C<glob()> now warns in the context of C<use warnings "syscalls";> if the
266 supplied pattern has an internal NUL (C<"\0">) character.
270 L<HTTP::Tiny> has been upgraded from version 0.034 to 0.035.
272 Encoded data from C<post_form> now preserves term order if data is provided as
273 an array reference. (They are still sorted for consistency if provided as a
278 L<I18N::LangTags> has been upgraded from version 0.39 to 0.40.
280 Bosnian has now joined Croatian and Serbian in the lists of mutually
281 intelligible Slavic languages. [perl #72594]
285 L<IPC::Open3> has been upgraded from version 1.15 to 1.16.
287 This upgrade is part of a larger change to preserve referential identity when
288 passing C<undef> to a subroutine by using NULL rather than &PL_sv_undef for
289 nonexistent array elements.
293 L<Locale::Codes> has been upgraded from version 3.26 to 3.27.
295 New codes have been added and the (deprecated) set of FIPS-10 country codes has
300 L<Math::BigInt> has been upgraded from version 1.9992 to 1.9993.
302 Cleaned up the L<Math::BigInt> and L<Math::BigFloat> documentation to be more
303 consistent with other perl documentation. [perl #86686]
305 Added a bint() method for rounding towards zero. [perl #85296]
309 L<Math::BigInt::FastCalc> has been upgraded from version 0.30 to 0.31.
311 This upgrade is part of a larger change to make the array interface 64-bit safe
312 by using SSize_t instead of I32 for array indices.
316 L<Module::CoreList> has been upgraded from version 2.97 to 2.98.
318 The list of Perl versions covered has been updated.
322 L<Module::Load::Conditional> has been upgraded from version 0.54 to 0.58.
324 C<requires> has been made more robust. [cpan #83728]
328 L<Module::Metadata> has been upgraded from version 1.000014 to 1.000018.
330 The module's DESCRIPTION has been re-worded regarding safety/security to
331 satisfy CVE-2013-1437. Also, versions are now detainted if needed. [cpan
336 L<mro> has been upgraded from version 1.13 to 1.14.
338 This upgrade is part of a larger change to make the array interface 64-bit safe
339 by using SSize_t instead of I32 for array indices.
343 L<parent> has been upgraded from version 0.226 to 0.227.
345 No changes have been made to the installed code other than the version bump to
346 keep in sync with the latest CPAN release.
350 L<Parse::CPAN::Meta> has been upgraded from version 1.4405 to 1.4407.
352 No changes have been made to the installed code other than the version bump to
353 keep in sync with the latest CPAN release.
357 L<Perl::OSType> has been upgraded from version 1.003 to 1.005.
359 The Unix OSType 'bitrig' has been added.
363 L<re> has been upgraded from version 0.25 to 0.26.
365 A function signature has been corrected in the XS implementation.
369 L<Scalar::Util> has been upgraded from version 1.31 to 1.32.
371 The documentation of C<blessed> has been improved to mention the fact that
372 package "0" is defined but false.
376 L<Socket> has been upgraded from version 2.011 to 2.012.
378 Syntax errors when building on the WinCE platform have been fixed. [cpan #87389]
382 L<Storable> has been upgraded from version 2.46 to 2.47.
384 This upgrade is part of a larger change to preserve referential identity when
385 passing C<undef> to a subroutine by using NULL rather than &PL_sv_undef for
386 nonexistent array elements.
390 L<Term::ReadLine> has been upgraded from version 1.10 to 1.14.
392 Term::ReadLine::EditLine support has been added.
396 L<Time::Piece> has been upgraded from version 1.22 to 1.23.
398 Day of year parsing (like "%y%j") has been fixed.
402 L<Unicode::Collate> has been upgraded from version 0.98 to 0.99.
404 By default, out-of-range values are replaced with C<U+FFFD> (REPLACEMENT
405 CHARACTER) when C<UCA_Version> E<gt>= 22, or ignored when C<UCA_Version> E<lt>=
406 20. When C<UCA_Version> E<gt>= 22, the weights of out-of-range values can be
411 L<Unicode::UCD> has been upgraded from version 0.53 to 0.54.
413 This module now works on EBCDIC platforms.
417 L<version> has been upgraded from version 0.9903 to 0.9904.
419 No changes have been made to the installed code other than the version bump to
420 keep in sync with the latest CPAN release.
424 L<warnings> has been upgraded from version 1.18 to 1.19.
426 The C<syscalls> warnings category has been added to check for embedded NUL
427 (C<"\0">) characters in pathnames and string arguments to other system calls.
431 L<XS::Typemap> has been upgraded from version 0.10 to 0.11.
435 =head2 Removed Modules and Pragmata
447 XXX Changes to files in F<pod/> go here. Consider grouping entries by
448 file and be sure to link to the appropriate page, e.g. L<perlfunc>.
450 =head2 New Documentation
452 XXX Changes which create B<new> files in F<pod/> go here.
456 XXX Description of the purpose of the new file here
458 =head2 Changes to Existing Documentation
460 XXX Changes which significantly change existing files in F<pod/> go here.
461 However, any changes to F<pod/perldiag.pod> should go in the L</Diagnostics>
470 XXX Description of the change here
476 The following additions or changes have been made to diagnostic output,
477 including warnings and fatal error messages. For the complete list of
478 diagnostic messages, see L<perldiag>.
480 XXX New or changed warnings emitted by the core's C<C> code go here. Also
481 include any changes in L<perldiag> that reconcile it to the C<C> code.
483 =head2 New Diagnostics
485 XXX Newly added diagnostic messages go under here, separated into New Errors
494 XXX L<message|perldiag/"message">
504 L<Invalid \0 character in %s for %s: %s\0%s|perldiag/"Invalid \0 character in %s for %s: %s\0%s">
506 (W syscalls) Embedded \0 characters in pathnames or other system call arguments
507 produce a warning as of 5.20. The parts after the \0 were formerly ignored by
512 =head2 Changes to Existing Diagnostics
514 XXX Changes (i.e. rewording) of diagnostic messages go here
520 Warnings and errors from the regexp engine are now UTF-8 clean
524 The "Unknown switch condition" error message has some slight changes.
525 This error triggers when there is an unknown condition in a (?(foo))
526 conditional; The error message used to read:
528 Unknown switch condition (?(%s in regex;
530 But what %s could be was mostly up to luck; For (?(foobar)), you
531 might've seen "fo" or "f". For Unicode characters, you'd generally
532 get a corrupted string.
533 The message was changed to read:
535 Unknown switch condition (?(...)) in regex;
537 And additionally, the '<-- HERE' marker in the error will now point
538 to the correct spot in the regex.
542 =head1 Utility Changes
544 XXX Changes to installed programs such as F<perlbug> and F<xsubpp> go here.
545 Most of these are built within the directories F<utils> and F<x2p>.
547 [ List utility changes as a =head3 entry for each utility and =item
548 entries for each change
549 Use L<XXX> with program names to get proper documentation linking. ]
557 L<find2perl> now handles C<?> wildcards correctly. [perl #113054]
561 =head1 Configuration and Compilation
563 XXX Changes to F<Configure>, F<installperl>, F<installman>, and analogous tools
564 go here. Any other changes to the Perl build process should be listed here.
565 However, any platform-specific changes should be listed in the
566 L</Platform Support> section, instead.
568 [ List changes as a =item entry ].
574 The F<Makefile.PL> for C<SDBM_File> now generates a better F<Makefile>, which
575 avoids a race condition during parallel makes, which could cause the build to
576 fail. This is the last known parallel make problem (on *nix platforms), and
577 therefore we believe that a parallel make should now always be error free.
581 Strictly only for a build where build files such as F<Makefile.SH> have not
582 been updated by C<git> in an already configured and built tree.
588 XXX Any significant changes to the testing of a freshly built perl should be
589 listed here. Changes which create B<new> files in F<t/> go here as do any
590 large changes to the testing harness (e.g. when parallel testing was added).
591 Changes to existing files in F<t/> aren't worth summarizing, although the bugs
592 that they represent may be covered elsewhere.
594 [ List each test improvement as a =item entry ]
600 The test script F<t/bigmem/regexp.t> has been added to test that regular
601 expression matches on very large strings now succeed as expected.
605 Various cases of C<die>, C<last>, C<goto> and C<exit> triggering C<DESTROY> are
606 now tested by the new test script F<t/op/rt119311.t>.
610 The new test script F<t/win32/signal.t> tests that C<$!> and C<$^E> are now
611 preserved across signal handlers by the Win32 signal emulation code.
615 The test script F<t/x2p/find2perl.t> has been added to test the F<find2perl>
616 program on platforms where it is practical to do so.
620 =head1 Platform Support
622 XXX Any changes to platform support should be listed in the sections below.
624 [ Within the sections, list each platform as a =item entry with specific
625 changes as paragraphs below it. ]
629 XXX List any platforms that this version of perl compiles on, that previous
630 versions did not. These will either be enabled by new files in the F<hints/>
631 directories, or new subdirectories and F<README> files at the top level of the
638 Compile support has been added for Bitrig, a fork of OpenBSD
642 =head2 Discontinued Platforms
644 XXX List any platforms that this version of perl no longer compiles on.
646 Configure hints and conditional code for several very old platforms
647 has been removed. We have not received reports for these in many years,
648 typically not since perl-5.6.0.
654 Configure support for the 3b1, also known as the AT&T Unix PC (and the
655 similar AT&T 7300), has been removed.
659 =head2 Platform-Specific Notes
661 XXX List any changes for specific platforms. This could include configuration
662 and compilation changes or changes in portability/compatibility. However,
663 changes within modules for platforms should generally be listed in the
664 L</Modules and Pragmata> section.
670 The building of XS modules has largely been restored. Several still cannot
671 (yet) be built but it is now possible to build Perl on WinCE with only a couple
672 of further patches (to L<Socket> and L<ExtUtils::MakeMaker>), hopefully to be
677 =head1 Internal Changes
679 XXX Changes which affect the interface available to C<XS> code go here. Other
680 significant internal changes for future core maintainers should be noted as
683 [ List each change as a =item entry ]
689 The internal representation has changed for the match variables C<$1>, C<$2>
690 I<etc.>, C<$`>, C<$&>, C<$'>, C<${^PREMATCH}>, C<${^MATCH}> and
691 C<${^POSTMATCH>. It uses slightly less memory, avoids string comparisons
692 and numeric conversions during lookup, and uses 23 fewer lines of C. This
693 change should not affect any external code.
697 =head1 Selected Bug Fixes
699 XXX Important bug fixes in the core language are summarized here. Bug fixes in
700 files in F<ext/> and F<lib/> are best summarized in L</Modules and Pragmata>.
702 [ List each fix as a =item entry ]
708 The value of C<$^E> is now saved across signal handlers on Win32. [perl #85104]
712 =head1 Known Problems
714 XXX Descriptions of platform agnostic bugs we know we can't fix go here. Any
715 tests that had to be C<TODO>ed for the release would be noted here. Unfixed
716 platform specific bugs also go here.
718 [ List each fix as a =item entry ]
730 XXX If any significant core contributor has died, we've added a short obituary
733 =head1 Acknowledgements
735 XXX Generate this with:
737 perl Porting/acknowledgements.pl v5.19.3..HEAD
739 =head1 Reporting Bugs
741 If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles recently
742 posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl bug database at
743 http://rt.perl.org/perlbug/ . There may also be information at
744 http://www.perl.org/ , the Perl Home Page.
746 If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the L<perlbug> program
747 included with your release. Be sure to trim your bug down to a tiny but
748 sufficient test case. Your bug report, along with the output of C<perl -V>,
749 will be sent off to perlbug@perl.org to be analysed by the Perl porting team.
751 If the bug you are reporting has security implications, which make it
752 inappropriate to send to a publicly archived mailing list, then please send it
753 to perl5-security-report@perl.org. This points to a closed subscription
754 unarchived mailing list, which includes all the core committers, who will be
755 able to help assess the impact of issues, figure out a resolution, and help
756 co-ordinate the release of patches to mitigate or fix the problem across all
757 platforms on which Perl is supported. Please only use this address for
758 security issues in the Perl core, not for modules independently distributed on
763 The F<Changes> file for an explanation of how to view exhaustive details on
766 The F<INSTALL> file for how to build Perl.
768 The F<README> file for general stuff.
770 The F<Artistic> and F<Copying> files for copyright information.