4 This has been completed up to 7cb18e1b02, except for:
5 04777d295957ad270188e4debf51b523e07cc5b0
6 c565ab54dc649bb62cd4d57149d7b2abb21df5f3
7 1c8d11ca3d0ce8bc11562f159b94c2c7e62dea6c
11 [ this is a template for a new perldelta file. Any text flagged as
12 XXX needs to be processed before release. ]
14 perldelta - what is new for perl v5.13.7
18 This document describes differences between the 5.13.6 release and
21 If you are upgrading from an earlier release such as 5.13.5, first read
22 L<perl5136delta>, which describes differences between 5.13.5 and
27 XXX Any important notices here
29 =head1 Core Enhancements
31 XXX New core language features go here. Summarise user-visible core language
32 enhancements. Particularly prominent performance optimisations could go
33 here, but most should go in the L</Performance Enhancements> section.
35 [ List each enhancement as a =head2 entry ]
37 =head2 Single term prototype
39 The C<+> prototype is a special alternative to C<$> that will act like
40 C<\[@%]> when given a literal array or hash variable, but will otherwise
41 force scalar context on the argument. This is useful for functions which
42 should accept either a literal array or an array reference as the argument:
46 die "Not an array or arrayref" unless ref $aref eq 'ARRAY';
50 When using the C<+> prototype, your function must check that the argument
51 is of an acceptable type.
53 =head2 C<use re '/flags';>
55 The C<re> pragma now has the ability to turn on regular expression flags
56 till the end of the lexical scope:
59 "foo" =~ / (.+) /; # /x implied
61 See L<re/'/flags' mode> for details.
63 =head2 Statement labels can appear in more places
65 Statement labels can now occur before any type of statement or declaration,
68 =head2 C<use feature "unicode_strings"> now applies to more regex matching
70 Another chunk of the L<perlunicode/The "Unicode Bug"> is fixed in this
71 release. Now, regular expressions compiled within the scope of the
72 "unicode_strings" feature (or under the "u" regex modifier (specifiable
73 currently only with infix notation C<(?u:...)> or via C<use re '/u'>)
74 will match the same whether or not the target string is encoded in utf8,
75 with regard to C<[[:posix:]]> character classes
77 Work is underway to add the case sensitive matching to the control of
78 this feature, but was not complete in time for this dot release.
82 XXX Any security-related notices go here. In particular, any security
83 vulnerabilities closed should be noted here rather than in the
84 L</Selected Bug Fixes> section.
86 [ List each security issue as a =head2 entry ]
88 =head1 Incompatible Changes
90 XXX For a release on a stable branch, this section aspires to be:
92 There are no changes intentionally incompatible with 5.XXX.XXX. If any
93 exist, they are bugs and reports are welcome.
95 [ List each incompatible change as a =head2 entry ]
97 =head2 Dereferencing typeglobs
99 If you assign a typeglob to a scalar variable:
103 the glob that is copied to C<$glob> is marked with a special flag
104 indicating that the glob is just a copy. This allows subsequent assignments
105 to C<$glob> to overwrite the glob. The original glob, however, is
108 Many Perl operators did not distinguish between these two types of globs.
109 This would result in strange behaviour in edge cases: C<untie $scalar>
110 would do nothing if the last thing assigned to the scalar was a glob
111 (because it treated it as C<untie *$scalar>, which unties a handle).
112 Assignment to a glob slot (e.g., C<(*$glob) = \@some_array>) would simply
113 assign C<\@some_array> to C<$glob>.
115 To fix this, the C<*{}> operator (including the C<*foo> and C<*$foo> forms)
116 has been modified to make a new immutable glob if its operand is a glob
117 copy. Various operators that make a distinction between globs and scalars
118 have been modified to treat only immutable globs as globs.
120 This causes an incompatible change in code that assigns a glob to the
121 return value of C<*{}> when that operator was passed a glob copy. Take the
122 following code, for instance:
127 The C<*$glob> on the second line returns a new immutable glob. That new
128 glob is made an alias to C<*bar>. Then it is discarded.
130 The upside to this incompatible change is that bugs
131 L<[perl #77496]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=77496>,
132 L<[perl #77502]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=77502>,
133 L<[perl #77508]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=77508>,
134 L<[perl #77688]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=77688>,
136 L<[perl #77812]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=77812>,
137 and maybe others, too, have been fixed.
139 See L<http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=77810> for even
144 XXX Any deprecated features, syntax, modules etc. should be listed here.
145 In particular, deprecated modules should be listed here even if they are
146 listed as an updated module in the L</Modules and Pragmata> section.
148 [ List each deprecation as a =head2 entry ]
150 =head1 Performance Enhancements
152 XXX Changes which enhance performance without changing behaviour go here. There
153 may well be none in a stable release.
155 [ List each enhancement as a =item entry ]
165 =head1 Modules and Pragmata
167 XXX All changes to installed files in F<cpan/>, F<dist/>, F<ext/> and F<lib/>
168 go here. If Module::CoreList is updated, generate an initial draft of the
169 following sections using F<Porting/corelist-perldelta.pl>, which prints stub
170 entries to STDOUT. Results can be pasted in place of the '=head2' entries
171 below. A paragraph summary for important changes should then be added by hand.
172 In an ideal world, dual-life modules would have a F<Changes> file that could be
175 [ Within each section, list entries as a =item entry ]
177 =head2 New Modules and Pragmata
183 C<Unicode::Collate::CJK::JISX0208> module was added by the C<Unicode::Collate>
184 upgrade from 0.63 to 0.64. See below.
188 =head2 Updated Modules and Pragmata
194 C<Archive::Extract> has been upgraded from 0.44 to 0.46
196 Resolves an issue with NetBSD-current and its new unzip
201 C<B> has been upgraded from 1.24 to 1.25.
205 C<B::Deparse> has been upgraded from 0.99 to 1.01.
207 It fixes deparsing of C<our> followed by a variable with funny characters
208 (as permitted under the C<utf8> pragma)
209 L<[perl #33752]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=33752>.
213 C<CPAN> has been upgraded from 1.94_61 to 1.94_62
217 C<CPANPLUS> has been upgraded from 0.9007 to 0.9010
219 Fixes for the SQLite source engine and resolving of issues with the
220 testsuite when run under local::lib and/or cpanminus
224 C<CPANPLUS::Dist::Build> has been upgraded from 0.48 to 0.50
228 C<ExtUtils::Constant> has been upgraded from 0.22 to 0.23.
232 C<Fcntl> has been upgraded from 1.09 to 1.10.
236 C<File::Glob> has been upgraded from 1.09 to 1.10.
240 C<GDBM_File> has been upgraded from 1.11 to 1.12.
242 This fixes a memory leak when DBM filters are used.
246 C<Hash::Util> has been upgraded from 0.09 to 0.10.
250 C<Hash::Util::FieldHash> has been upgraded from 1.05 to 1.06.
254 C<I18N::Langinfo> has been upgraded from 0.06 to 0.07.
258 C<Locale::Maketext> has been upgraded from 1.16 to 1.17
262 C<Math::BigInt::FastCalc> has been upgraded from 0.22 to 0.23.
266 C<mro> has been upgraded from 1.04 to 1.05.
270 C<NDBM_File> has been upgraded from 1.09 to 1.10.
272 This fixes a memory leak when DBM filters are used.
276 C<ODBM_File> has been upgraded from 1.08 to 1.09.
278 This fixes a memory leak when DBM filters are used.
282 C<parent> has been upgraded from 0.223 to 0.224
286 C<POSIX> has been upgraded from 1.21 to 1.22.
290 C<re> has been upgraded from 0.13 to 0.14, for the sake of the new
291 C<use re "/flags"> pragma.
295 C<Safe> has been upgraded from 2.28 to 2.29.
297 It adds C<&version::vxs::VCMP> to the default share.
301 C<SDBM_File> has been upgraded from 1.07 to 1.08.
305 C<SelfLoader> has been upgraded from 1.17 to 1.18.
307 It now works in taint mode
308 L<[perl #72062]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=72062>.
312 C<Socket> has been upgraded from 1.90 to 1.91.
316 C<Sys::Hostname> has been upgraded from 1.13 to 1.14.
320 C<Unicode::Collate> has been upgraded from 0.63 to 0.64
322 This release newly adds locale C<ja> and the module
323 C<Unicode::Collate::CJK::JISX0208> which makes tailoring of 6355 kanji
324 (CJK Unified Ideographs) in the JIS X 0208 order.
328 =head2 Removed Modules and Pragmata
340 XXX Changes to files in F<pod/> go here. Consider grouping entries by
341 file and be sure to link to the appropriate page, e.g. L<perlfunc>.
343 =head2 New Documentation
345 XXX Changes which create B<new> files in F<pod/> go here.
349 XXX Description of the purpose of the new file here
351 =head2 Changes to Existing Documentation
353 XXX Changes which significantly change existing files in F<pod/> go here.
354 However, any changes to F<pod/perldiag.pod> should go in the L</Diagnostics>
361 Array and hash slices in scalar context are now documented in L<perldata>.
365 L<perlform> and L<perllocale> have been corrected to state that
366 C<use locale> affects formats.
376 XXX Description of the change here
382 The following additions or changes have been made to diagnostic output,
383 including warnings and fatal error messages. For the complete list of
384 diagnostic messages, see L<perldiag>.
386 XXX New or changed warnings emitted by the core's C<C> code go here. Also
387 include any changes in L<perldiag> that reconcile it to the C<C> code.
389 [ Within each section, list entries as a =item entry ]
391 =head2 New Diagnostics
393 XXX Newly added diagnostic messages go here
403 =head2 Changes to Existing Diagnostics
405 XXX Changes (i.e. rewording) of diagnostic messages go here
415 =head1 Utility Changes
417 XXX Changes to installed programs such as F<perlbug> and F<xsubpp> go
418 here. Most of these are built within the directories F<utils> and F<x2p>.
420 [ List utility changes as a =head3 entry for each utility and =item
421 entries for each change
422 Use L<XXX> with program names to get proper documentation linking. ]
434 =head1 Configuration and Compilation
436 XXX Changes to F<Configure>, F<installperl>, F<installman>, and analogous tools
437 go here. Any other changes to the Perl build process should be listed here.
438 However, any platform-specific changes should be listed in the
439 L</Platform Support> section, instead.
441 [ List changes as a =item entry ].
453 XXX Any significant changes to the testing of a freshly built perl should be
454 listed here. Changes which create B<new> files in F<t/> go here as do any
455 large changes to the testing harness (e.g. when parallel testing was added).
456 Changes to existing files in F<t/> aren't worth summarising, although the bugs
457 that they represent may be covered elsewhere.
459 [ List each test improvement as a =item entry ]
469 =head1 Platform Support
471 XXX Any changes to platform support should be listed in the sections below.
473 [ Within the sections, list each platform as a =item entry with specific
474 changes as paragraphs below it. ]
478 XXX List any platforms that this version of perl compiles on, that previous
479 versions did not. These will either be enabled by new files in the F<hints/>
480 directories, or new subdirectories and F<README> files at the top level of the
485 =item XXX-some-platform
491 =head2 Discontinued Platforms
493 XXX List any platforms that this version of perl no longer compiles on.
497 =item XXX-some-platform
503 =head2 Platform-Specific Notes
505 XXX List any changes for specific platforms. This could include configuration
506 and compilation changes or changes in portability/compatibility. However,
507 changes within modules for platforms should generally be listed in the
508 L</Modules and Pragmata> section.
514 Directory handles are now properly cloned when threads are created. In perl
515 5.13.6, child threads simply stopped inheriting directory handles. In
516 previous versions, threads would share handles, resulting in crashes.
520 =head1 Internal Changes
522 XXX Changes which affect the interface available to C<XS> code go here.
523 Other significant internal changes for future core maintainers should
526 [ List each test improvement as a =item entry ]
532 C<lex_start> has been added to the API, but is considered experimental.
536 A new C<parse_block> function has been added to the API
537 L<[perl #78222]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=78222>.
541 A new, experimental API has been added for accessing the internal
542 structure that Perl uses for C<%^H>. See the functions beginning with
543 C<cophh_> in L<perlapi>.
547 A stash can now have a list of effective names in addition to its usual
548 name. The first effective name can be accessed via the C<HvENAME> macro,
549 which is now the recommended name to use in MRO linearisations (C<HvNAME>
550 being a fallback if there is no C<HvENAME>).
552 These names are added and deleted via C<hv_ename_add> and
553 C<hv_ename_delete>. These two functions are I<not> part of the API.
557 The way the parser handles labels has been cleaned up and refactored. As a
558 result, the C<newFOROP()> constructor function no longer takes a parameter
559 stating what label is to go in the state op.
563 The C<newWHILEOP()> and C<newFOROP()> functions no longer accept a line
564 number as a parameter.
568 A new C<parse_barestmt()> function has been added, for parsing a statement
573 A new C<parse_label()> function has been added, that parses a statement
574 labels, separate from statements.
578 The C<CvSTASH()> macro can now only be used as an rvalue. C<CvSTASH_set()>
579 has been added to replace assignment to C<CvSTASH()>. This is to ensure
580 that backreferences are handled properly. These macros are not part of the
585 The C<op_scope()> and C<op_lvalue()> functions have been added to the API,
586 but are considered experimental.
590 =head1 Selected Bug Fixes
592 XXX Important bug fixes in the core language are summarised here.
593 Bug fixes in files in F<ext/> and F<lib/> are best summarised in
594 L</Modules and Pragmata>.
596 [ List each fix as a =item entry ]
602 The C<parse_stmt> C function added in earlier in the 5.13.x series has been
603 fixed to work with statements ending with C<}>
604 L<[perl #78222]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=78222>.
608 The C<parse_fullstmt> C function added in 5.13.5 has been fixed to work
609 when called while an expression is being parsed.
613 Characters in the Latin-1 non-ASCII range (0x80 to 0xFF) used not to match
614 themselves if the string happened to be UTF8-encoded internally, the
615 regular expression was not, and the character in the regular expression was
616 inside a repeated group (e.g.,
617 C<Encode::decode_utf8("\303\200") =~ /(\xc0)+/>)
618 L<[perl #78464]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=78464>.
622 The C<(?d)> regular expression construct now overrides a previous C<(?u)>
623 or C<use feature "unicode_string">
624 L<[perl #78508]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=78508>.
628 A memory leak in C<do "file">, introduced in perl 5.13.6, has been fixed
629 L<[perl #78488]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=78488>.
633 Various bugs related to typeglob dereferencing have been fixed. See
634 L</Dereferencing typeglobs>, above.
638 The C<SvPVbyte> function available to XS modules now calls magic before
639 downgrading the SV, to avoid warnings about wide characters
640 L<[perl #72398]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=72398>.
644 The C<=> operator used to ignore magic (e.g., tie methods) on its
645 right-hand side if the scalar happened to hold a typeglob. This could
646 happen if a typeglob was the last thing returned from or assigned to a tied
648 L<[perl #77498]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=77498>.
652 C<sprintf> was ignoring locales when called with constant arguments
653 L<[perl #78632]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=78632>.
657 A non-ASCII character in the Latin-1 range could match both a Posix
658 class, such as C<[[:alnum:]]>, and its inverse C<[[:^alnum:]]>. This is
659 now fixed for regular expressions compiled under the C<"u"> modifier.
660 See L</C<use feature "unicode_strings"> now applies to more regex matching>.
661 L<[perl #18281]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=18281>.
665 Concatenating long strings under C<use encoding> no longer causes perl to
667 L<[perl #78674]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=78674>.
671 Typeglob assignments would crash if the glob's stash no longer existed, if
672 the glob assigned to was named 'ISA' or the glob on either side of the
673 assignment contained a subroutine.
677 Calling C<< ->import >> on a class lacking an import method could corrupt the stack result in strange behaviour. For instance,
679 push @a, "foo", $b = bar->import;
681 would assign 'foo' to C<$b>
682 L<[perl #63790]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=63790>.
686 Creating an alias to a package when that package had been detached from the
687 symbol table would result in corrupted isa caches
688 L<[perl #77358]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=77358>.
692 C<.=> followed by C<< <> >> or C<readline> would leak memory if C<$/>
693 contained characters beyond the octet range and the scalar assigned to
694 happened to be encoded as UTF8 internally
695 L<[perl #72246]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=72246>.
699 The C<recv> function could crash when called with the MSG_TRUNC flag
700 L<[perl #75082]|http://rt.perl.org/rt3/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=75082>.
704 =head1 Known Problems
706 XXX Descriptions of platform agnostic bugs we know we can't fix go here. Any
707 tests that had to be C<TODO>ed for the release would be noted here, unless
708 they were specific to a particular platform (see below).
710 This is a list of some significant unfixed bugs, which are regressions
711 from either 5.XXX.XXX or 5.XXX.XXX.
713 [ List each fix as a =item entry ]
725 XXX If any significant core contributor has died, we've added a short obituary
728 =head1 Acknowledgements
730 XXX The list of people to thank goes here.
732 =head1 Reporting Bugs
734 If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles
735 recently posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl
736 bug database at http://rt.perl.org/perlbug/ . There may also be
737 information at http://www.perl.org/ , the Perl Home Page.
739 If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the B<perlbug>
740 program included with your release. Be sure to trim your bug down
741 to a tiny but sufficient test case. Your bug report, along with the
742 output of C<perl -V>, will be sent off to perlbug@perl.org to be
743 analysed by the Perl porting team.
745 If the bug you are reporting has security implications, which make it
746 inappropriate to send to a publicly archived mailing list, then please send
747 it to perl5-security-report@perl.org. This points to a closed subscription
748 unarchived mailing list, which includes all the core committers, who be able
749 to help assess the impact of issues, figure out a resolution, and help
750 co-ordinate the release of patches to mitigate or fix the problem across all
751 platforms on which Perl is supported. Please only use this address for
752 security issues in the Perl core, not for modules independently
757 The F<Changes> file for an explanation of how to view exhaustive details
760 The F<INSTALL> file for how to build Perl.
762 The F<README> file for general stuff.
764 The F<Artistic> and F<Copying> files for copyright information.