perldelta5114 updated prior to shipping

[p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git] / pod / perl5114delta.pod

=head1 NAME

perldelta - what is new for perl v5.11.4

=head1 DESCRIPTION

This document describes differences between the 5.11.3 release and
the 5.11.4 release.

If you are upgrading from an earlier release such as 5.11.2, first read
L<perl5113delta>, which describes differences between 5.11.2 and
5.11.3.

=head1 Incompatible Changes

=head2 Version number formats

Acceptable version number formats have been formalized into "strict" and
"lax" rules.  C<package NAME VERSION> takes a strict version number.  C<use
NAME VERSION> takes a lax version number.  C<UNIVERSAL::VERSION> and the
L<version> object constructors take lax version numbers.  Providing an
invalid version will result in a fatal error.

These formats will be documented fully in the L<version> module in a
subsequent release of Perl 5.11.  To a first approximation, a "strict"
version number is a positive decimal number (integer or decimal-fraction)
without exponentiation or else a dotted-decimal v-string with a leading 'v'
character and at least three components.  A "lax" version number allows
v-strings with fewer than three components or without a leading 'v'.  Under
"lax" rules, both decimal and dotted-decimal versions may have a trailing
"alpha" component separated by an underscore character after a fractional
or dotted-decimal component.

The L<version> module adds C<version::is_strict> and C<version::is_lax>
functions to check a scalar against these rules.

=head1 Core Enhancements

=head2 Unicode properties

C<\p{XDigit}> now matches the same characters as C<\p{Hex_Digit}>.  This
means that in addition to the characters it currently matches,
C<[A-Fa-f0-9]>, it will also match their fullwidth equivalent forms, for
example U+FF10: FULLWIDTH DIGIT ZERO.

=head1 Modules and Pragmata

XXX All changes to installed files in F<cpan/>, F<dist/>, F<ext/> and F<lib/>
go here.  If Module::CoreList is updated, generate an initial draft of the
following sections using F<Porting/corelist-perldelta.pl>, which prints stub
entries to STDOUT.  Results can be pasted in place of the '=head2' entries
below.  A paragraph summary for important changes should then be added by hand.
In an ideal world, dual-life modules would have a F<Changes> file that could be
cribbed.

=head2 Pragmata Changes

=over 4

=item C<less>

Upgraded from version 0.03 to 0.03.

This version introduces the C<stash_name> method to allow subclasses of less to
pick where in %^H to store their stash.

=item C<version>

Upgraded from version 0.77 to 0.81.

This version adds support for L</Version number formats> as described earlier
in this document and in its own documentation.

=item C<warnings>

Upgraded from version 1.08 to 1.09.

This version adds the C<illegalproto> warning category.  See also L</New or
Changed Diagnostics> for this change.

=back

=head2 Updated Modules

=over 4

=item C<Archive::Extract>

Upgraded from version 0.36 to 0.38.

=item C<B::Deparse>

Upgraded from version 0.93 to 0.94.

=item C<Compress::Raw::Bzip2>

Upgraded from version 2.021 to 2.024.

=item C<Compress::Raw::Zlib>

Upgraded from version 2.021 to 2.024.

=item C<CPAN>

Upgraded from version 1.94_5301 to 1.94_54.

=item C<File::Fetch>

Upgraded from version 0.22 to 0.24.

=item C<Module::Build>

Upgraded from version 0.36 to 0.3603.

=item C<Safe>

Upgraded from version 2.20 to 2.21.

Anonymous coderefs created in Safe containers no longer get bogus
arguments passed to them, fixing RT #72068.

=back

=head2 Removed Modules and Pragmata

=over 4

=item C<Devel::DProf::V>

Removed from the Perl core.  Prior version was 'undef'.

=back

=head1 Changes to Existing Documentation

A significant fraction of the core documentation has been updated to clarify
the behavior of Perl's Unicode handling.

Much of the remaining core documentation has been reviewed and edited
for clarity, consistent use of language, and to fix the spelling of Tom
Christiansen's name.

=head2 Configuration improvements

USE_ATTRIBUTES_FOR_PERLIO is now reported in the compile-time options
listed by the C<-V> switch.

=head2 Platform Specific Changes

=over 4

=item VMS

The default pipe buffer size on VMS has been updated to 8192 on 64-bit
systems.

=back

=head1 Selected Bug Fixes

XXX Important bug fixes in the core language are summarised here.
Bug fixes in files in F<ext/> and F<lib/> are best summarised in
L</Modules and Pragmata>.

=over 4

=item *

Tie::Hash::NamedCapture::* shouldn't abort if passed bad input (RT #71828)

=item *

@_ and $_ no longer leak under threads (RT #34342 and #41138, also
#70602, #70974)

=back

=head1 New or Changed Diagnostics

=over 4

=item New warning category C<illegalproto>

The two warnings :

  Illegal character in prototype for %s : %s
  Prototype after '%c' for %s : %s

have been moved from the C<syntax> top-level warnings category into a new
first-level category, C<illegalproto>. These two warnings are currently the
only ones emitted during parsing of an invalid/illegal prototype, so one
can now do

  no warnings 'illegalproto';

to suppress only those, but not other syntax-related warnings. Warnings where
prototypes are changed, ignored, or not met are still in the C<prototype>
category as before. (Matt S. Trout)

=item lvalue attribute ignored after the subroutine has been defined

This new warning is issued when one attempts to mark a subroutine as
lvalue after it has been defined.

=back

=head1 Changed Internals

=over 4

=item *

Perl_magic_setmglob now knows about globs, fixing RT #71254.

=back

=head1 Known Problems

Perl 5.11.4 is a development release leading up to Perl 5.12.0.
Some notable known problems found in 5.11.4 are listed as dependencies
of RT #69710, the Perl 5 version 12 meta-ticket.

=head1 Deprecations

The following items are now deprecated.

=over 4

=item C<< UNIVERSAL-E<gt>import() >>

The method C<< UNIVERSAL-E<gt>import() >> is now deprecated.  Attempting to
pass import arguments to a C<use UNIVERSAL> statement will result in a
deprecation warning. (This is a less noisy version of the full deprecation
warning added in 5.11.0.)

=back

=head1 Acknowledgements

Perl 5.11.4 represents approximately one month of development since
Perl 5.11.3 and contains 17682 lines of changes across 318 files
from 40 authors and committers:

Abigail, Andy Dougherty, brian d foy, Chris Williams, Craig A. Berry,
David Golden, David Mitchell, Father Chrysostomos, Gerard Goossen,
H.Merijn Brand, Jesse Vincent, Jim Cromie, Josh ben Jore, Karl
Williamson, kmx, Matt S Trout, Nicholas Clark, Niko Tyni, Paul Marquess,
Philip Hazel, Rafael Garcia-Suarez, Rainer Tammer, Reini Urban, Ricardo
Signes, Shlomi Fish, Tim Bunce, Todd Rinaldo, Tom Christiansen, Tony
Cook, Vincent Pit, and Zefram

Many of the changes included in this version originated in the CPAN
modules included in Perl's core. We're grateful to the entire CPAN
community for helping Perl to flourish.

=head1 Reporting Bugs

If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles
recently posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl
bug database at L<http://rt.perl.org/perlbug/>.  There may also be
information at L<http://www.perl.org/>, the Perl Home Page.

If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the B<perlbug>
program included with your release.  Be sure to trim your bug down
to a tiny but sufficient test case.  Your bug report, along with the
output of C<perl -V>, will be sent off to perlbug@perl.org to be
analysed by the Perl porting team.

If the bug you are reporting has security implications, which make it
inappropriate to send to a publicly archived mailing list, then please send
it to perl5-security-report@perl.org. This points to a closed subscription
unarchived mailing list, which includes all the core committers, who be able
to help assess the impact of issues, figure out a resolution, and help
co-ordinate the release of patches to mitigate or fix the problem across all
platforms on which Perl is supported. Please only use this address for
security issues in the Perl core, not for modules independently
distributed on CPAN.

=head1 SEE ALSO

The F<Changes> file for an explanation of how to view exhaustive details
on what changed.

The F<INSTALL> file for how to build Perl.

The F<README> file for general stuff.

The F<Artistic> and F<Copying> files for copyright information.

=cut