3 perldelta - what is new for perl v5.11.3
7 This document describes differences between the 5.11.2 release and
10 If you are upgrading from an earlier release such as 5.11.1, first read
11 the L<perl5112delta>, which describes differences between 5.11.1 and
14 =head1 Incompatible Changes
18 =item Filehandles are blessed directly into C<IO::Handle::>, as C<FileHandle> is merely a wrapper around C<IO::Handle>.
20 The previous behaviour was to bless Filehandles into L<FileHandle/>
21 (an empty proxy class) if it was loaded into memory and otherwise
22 to bless them into C<IO::Handle::>.
27 =head1 Core Enhancements
29 =head2 Unicode version
31 Perl is shipped with the latest Unicode version, 5.2, October 2009. See
32 L<http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode5.2.0> for details about this release
33 of Unicode. See L<perlunicode> for instructions on installing and using
34 older versions of Unicode.
36 =head2 Unicode properties
38 Perl can now handle every Unicode character property. A new pod,
39 L<perluniprops>, lists all available non-Unihan character properties. By
40 default the Unihan properties and certain others (deprecated and Unicode
41 internal-only ones) are not exposed. See below for more details on
42 these; there is also a section in the pod listing them, and why they are
45 Perl now fully supports the Unicode compound-style of using C<=> and C<:>
46 in writing regular expressions: C<\p{property=value}> and
47 C<\p{property:value}> (both of which mean the same thing).
49 Perl now fully supports the Unicode loose matching rules for text
50 between the braces in C<\p{...}> constructs. In addition, Perl also allows
51 underscores between digits of numbers.
53 All the Unicode-defined synonyms for properties and property values are
56 C<qr/\X/>, which matches a Unicode logical character, has been expanded to work
57 better with various Asian languages. It now is defined as an C<extended
58 grapheme cluster>. (See L<http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr29/>). One change
59 due to this is that C<\X> will match the whole sequence C<S<CR LF>>. Another
60 change is that C<\X> will match an isolated mark. Marks generally come after a
61 base character, but it is possible in Unicode to have them in isolation, and
62 C<\X> will now handle that case. Otherwise, this change should be transparent
63 for non-affected languages.
65 C<\p{...}> matches using the Canonical_Combining_Class property were
66 completely broken in previous Perls. This is now fixed.
68 In previous Perls, the Unicode Decomposition_Type=Compat property and a
69 Perl extension had the same name, which led to neither matching all the
70 correct values (with more than 100 mistakes in one, and several thousand
71 in the other). The Perl extension has now been renamed to be
72 Decomposition_Type=Noncanonical (short: dt=noncanon). It has the same
73 meaning as was previously intended, namely the union of all the
74 non-canonical Decomposition types, with Unicode Compat being just one of
77 C<\p{Uppercase}> and C<\p{Lowercase}> have been brought into line with the
78 Unicode definitions. This means they each match a few more characters
81 C<\p{Cntrl}> now matches the same characters as C<\p{Control}>. This means it
82 no longer will match Private Use (gc=co), Surrogates (gc=cs), nor Format
83 (gc=cf) code points. The Format code points represent the biggest
84 possible problem. All but 36 of them are either officially deprecated
85 or strongly discouraged from being used. Of those 36, likely the most
86 widely used are the soft hyphen (U+00AD), and BOM, ZWSP, ZWNJ, WJ, and
87 similar, plus Bi-directional controls.
89 C<\p{Alpha}> now matches the same characters as C<\p{Alphabetic}>. The Perl
90 definition included a number of things that aren't really alpha (all
91 marks), while omitting many that were. The Unicode definition is
92 clearly better, so we are switching to it. As a direct consequence, the
93 definitions of C<\p{Alnum}> and C<\p{Word}> which depend on Alpha also change.
95 C<\p{Word}> also now doesn't match certain characters it wasn't supposed
96 to, such as fractions.
98 C<\p{Print}> no longer matches the line control characters: tab, lf, cr,
99 ff, vt, and nel. This brings it in line with the documentation.
101 C<\p{Decomposition_Type=Canonical}> now includes the Hangul syllables
103 The Numeric type property has been extended to include the Unihan
106 There is a new Perl extension, the 'Present_In', or simply 'In'
107 property. This is an extension of the Unicode Age property, but
108 C<\p{In=5.0}> matches any code point whose usage has been determined as of
109 Unicode version 5.0. The C<\p{Age=5.0}> only matches code points added in 5.0.
111 A number of properties did not have the correct values for unassigned
112 code points. This is now fixed. The affected properties are
113 Bidi_Class, East_Asian_Width, Joining_Type, Decomposition_Type,
114 Hangul_Syllable_Type, Numeric_Type, and Line_Break.
116 The Default_Ignorable_Code_Point, ID_Continue, and ID_Start properties
117 have been updated to their current definitions.
119 Certain properties that are supposed to be Unicode internal-only were
120 erroneously exposed by previous Perls. Use of these in regular
121 expressions will now generate a deprecated warning message, if those
122 warnings are enabled. The properties are: Other_Alphabetic,
123 Other_Default_Ignorable_Code_Point, Other_Grapheme_Extend,
124 Other_ID_Continue, Other_ID_Start, Other_Lowercase, Other_Math, and
127 An installation can now fairly easily change which Unicode properties
128 Perl understands. As mentioned above, certain properties are by default
129 turned off. These include all the Unihan properties (which should be
130 accessible via the CPAN module Unicode::Unihan) and any deprecated or
131 Unicode internal-only property that Perl has never exposed.
133 XXX what does "files in the To directory" mean? -- dagolden, 2009-12-20
135 The files in the To directory are now more clearly marked as being
136 stable, directly usable by applications. New hash entries in them give
137 the format of the normal entries which allows for easier machine
138 parsing. Perl can generate files in this directory for any property,
139 though most are suppressed. An installation can choose to change which
140 get written. Instructions are in L<perluniprops>.
142 =head1 Modules and Pragmata
144 =head2 Pragmata Changes
150 Upgraded from version 1.19 to 1.20.
154 This pragma no longer suppresses C<Use of uninitialized value in range (or flip)> warnings. [perl #71204]
158 Upgraded from 1.13 to 1.14. Added the C<unicode_strings> feature:
160 use feature "unicode_strings";
162 This pragma turns on Unicode semantics for the case-changing operations
163 (uc/lc/ucfirst/lcfirst) on strings that don't have the internal UTF-8 flag set,
164 but that contain single-byte characters between 128 and 255.
168 The experimental C<legacy> pragma, introduced in 5.11.2, has been removed,
169 and its functionality replaced by the new feature pragma, C<use feature
174 Upgraded from version 1.74 to 1.75.
178 Upgraded from 1.07 to 1.08. Added new C<warnings::fatal_enabled()> function.
182 =head2 Updated Modules
186 =item C<Archive::Extract>
188 Upgraded from version 0.34 to 0.36.
192 Upgraded from version 1.94_51 to 1.94_53. Includes better bzip2 support,
193 improved FirstTime experience with auto-selection of CPAN mirrors, proper
194 handling of modules removed from the Perl core, and an updated 'cpan'
199 Upgraded from version 0.89_09 to 0.90.
201 =item C<ExtUtils::MakeMaker>
203 Upgraded from version 6.55_02 to 6.56. Adds new BUILD_REQUIRES key to
204 indicate build-only prerequisites. Also adds support for
205 mingw64 and the new "package NAME VERSION" syntax.
209 Upgraded from version 2.08 to 2.08_01.
211 =item C<Module::Build>
213 Upgraded from version 0.35_09 to 0.36. Compared to 0.35, this version has a
214 new 'installdeps' action, supports the PERL_MB_OPT environment variable, adds a
215 'share_dir' property for L<File::ShareDir> support, support the "package NAME
216 VERSION" syntax and has many other enhancements and bug fixes. The
217 'passthrough' style of Module::Build::Compat has been deprecated.
219 =item C<Module::CoreList>
221 Upgraded from version 2.23 to 2.24.
225 Upgraded from version 1.18 to 1.19. Error codes for C<getaddrinfo()> and C<getnameinfo()> are now
230 Upgraded from version 3.10 to 3.13.
234 Upgraded from version 2.19 to 2.20.
238 =head1 Utility Changes
244 No longer reports "Message sent" when it hasn't actually sent the message
248 =head1 Changes to Existing Documentation
250 The Pod specification (L<perlpodspec>) has been updated to bring the
251 specification in line with modern usage already supported by most Pod systems.
252 A parameter string may now follow the format name in a "begin/end" region.
253 Links to URIs with a text description are now allowed. The usage of
254 C<LE<lt>"section"E<gt>> has been marked as deprecated.
256 L<if.pm|if> has been documented in L<perlfunc/use> as a means to get
257 conditional loading of modules despite the implicit BEGIN block around C<use>.
261 =head1 Installation and Configuration Improvements
263 XXX Changes to F<Configure>, F<installperl>, F<installman>, and analogous tools
266 =head2 Configuration improvements
270 =head2 Compilation improvements
272 Make distclean work again
275 =head2 Testing improvements
279 =item It's now possible to override C<PERL5OPT> and friends in F<t/TEST>
283 =head2 Platform Specific Changes
293 Always add a manifest resource to C<perl.exe> to specify the <trustInfo>
294 settings for Windows Vista and later. Without this setting Windows
295 will treat C<perl.exe> as a legacy application and apply various
296 heuristics like redirecting access to protected file system areas
297 (like the "Program Files" folder) to the users "VirtualStore"
298 instead of generating a proper "permission denied" error.
300 For VC8 and VC9 this manifest setting is automatically generated by
301 the compiler/linker (together with the binding information for their
302 respective runtime libraries); for all other compilers we need to
303 embed the manifest resource explicitly in the external resource file.
305 This change also requests the Microsoft Common-Controls version 6.0
306 (themed controls introduced in Windows XP) via the dependency list
307 in the assembly manifest. For VC8 and VC9 this is specified using the
308 C</manifestdependency> linker commandline option instead.
316 =item Enable IPv6 support on cygwin 1.7 and newer
324 =item Make -UDEBUGGING the default on VMS for 5.12.0.
326 Like it has been everywhere else for ages and ages. Also make
327 command-line selection of -UDEBUGGING and -DDEBUGGING work in
328 configure.com; before the only way to turn it off was by saying
329 no in answer to the interactive question.
335 =head1 Selected Bug Fixes
337 XXX Important bug fixes in the core language are summarised here.
338 Bug fixes in files in F<ext/> and F<lib/> are best summarised in
339 L</Modules and Pragmata>.
345 Ensure that pp_qr returns a new regexp SV each time. Resolves RT #69852.
347 Instead of returning a(nother) reference to the (pre-compiled) regexp in the
348 optree, use reg_temp_copy() to create a copy of it, and return a reference to
349 that. This resolves issues about Regexp::DESTROY not being called in a timely
350 fashion (the original bug tracked by RT #69852), as well as bugs related to
351 blessing regexps, and of assigning to regexps, as described in correspondence
354 It transpires that we also need to undo the SvPVX() sharing when ithreads
355 cloning a Regexp SV, because mother_re is set to NULL, instead of a cloned
356 copy of the mother_re. This change might fix bugs with regexps and threads in
357 certain other situations, but as yet neither tests nor bug reports have
358 indicated any problems, so it might not actually be an edge case that it's
363 Several compilation errors and segfaults when perl was built with C<-Dmad> were fixed.
367 Fixes for lexer API changes in 5.11.2 which broke NYTProf's savesrc option.
371 F<-t> should only return TRUE for file handles connected to a TTY
373 The Microsoft C version of isatty() returns TRUE for all
374 character mode devices, including the /dev/null style "nul"
375 device and printers like "lpt1".
379 Fixed a regression caused by commit fafafbaf which caused a panic during parameter passing [perl #70171]
384 On systems which in-place edits without backup files, -i'*' now works as the documentation says it does [perl #70802]
388 Saving and restoring magic flags no longer loses readonly flag.
392 The malformed syntax C<grep EXPR LIST> (note the missing comma) no longer
393 causes abrupt and total failure.
397 Regular expressions compiled with C<qr{}> literals properly set C<$'> when
402 Using named subroutines with C<sort> should no longer lead to bus errors [perl
407 Numerous bugfixes catch small issues caused by the recently-added Lexer API.
411 Smart match against C<@_> sometimes gave false negatives negatives. [perl #71078]
415 C<$@> may now be assigned a read-only value (without error or busting the stack).
419 =head1 New or Changed Diagnostics
425 C<split> now warns when called in void context
430 C<printf>-style functions called with too few arguments will now issue the warning C<"Missing argument in %s"> [perl #71000]
437 Many modules updated from CPAN incorporate new tests.
441 =item t/comp/final_line_num.t
443 See if line numbers are correct at EOF
445 =item t/comp/form_scope.t
447 See if format scoping works
449 =item t/comp/line_debug.t
451 See if @{"_<$file"} works
453 =item t/op/filetest_t.t
455 See if -t file test works
461 =item t/op/utf8cache.t
463 Tests malfunctions of utf8 cache
465 =item t/re/uniprops.t
467 Test unicode \p{} regex constructs
473 The following items are now deprecated.
477 =item Use of "goto" to jump into a construct is deprecated
479 Using C<goto> to jump from an outer scope into an inner
480 scope is now deprecated. This rare use case was causing
481 problems in the implementation of scopes.
485 =head1 Acknowledgements
487 XXX The list of people to thank goes here.
490 =head1 Reporting Bugs
492 If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the articles
493 recently posted to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup and the perl
494 bug database at http://rt.perl.org/perlbug/ . There may also be
495 information at http://www.perl.org/ , the Perl Home Page.
497 If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the B<perlbug>
498 program included with your release. Be sure to trim your bug down
499 to a tiny but sufficient test case. Your bug report, along with the
500 output of C<perl -V>, will be sent off to perlbug@perl.org to be
501 analysed by the Perl porting team.
503 If the bug you are reporting has security implications, which make it
504 inappropriate to send to a publicly archived mailing list, then please send
505 it to perl5-security-report@perl.org. This points to a closed subscription
506 unarchived mailing list, which includes all the core committers, who be able
507 to help assess the impact of issues, figure out a resolution, and help
508 co-ordinate the release of patches to mitigate or fix the problem across all
509 platforms on which Perl is supported. Please only use this address for
510 security issues in the Perl core, not for modules independently
515 The F<Changes> file for an explanation of how to view exhaustive details
518 The F<INSTALL> file for how to build Perl.
520 The F<README> file for general stuff.
522 The F<Artistic> and F<Copying> files for copyright information.
529 All changes through commit b4178430270dbe109e7609d0b50d6d54bf9e95d8
530 One "triage" pass done.
532 A second triage pass is still needed to remove unimportant changes
534 commit 9307c420fad2f6f5bd314f9ed66dd53288703e09
535 Author: Jan Dubois <jand@activestate.com>
536 Date: Thu Dec 17 18:28:16 2009 -0800
538 Export PL_curinterp symbol for MULTIPLICITY without USE_ITHREADS
540 This is necessary for XS extensions that define PERL_CORE. In that
541 situation PERL_GET_CONTEXT will resolve to PL_curinterp, which is
542 normally not exported (extensions call Perl_Gcurinterp_ptr() to get a
543 pointer to PL_curinterp instead). With USE_ITHREADS defined
544 PERL_GET_CONTEXT will expand to Perl_get_context() even inside the
545 core because the context needs to be fetched from threadlocal storage.
547 commit 8a27a13e89107aaf68c0748b68ee71fbd86d774b
549 [perl #71076] sort with active sub (5.10 regression)
551 One of the tests in sort.t causes a bus error (or sometimes â
\80\98Undefined
552 subroutine calledâ
\80\99) if run multiple times. This is because sort
553 decreases the refcount of an active sub used as a comparison routine.
555 commit 576b33a19ccaf98d4dfe201d529c55c3747f0cb6
557 [rt.cpan.org #51574] Safe.pm sort {} bug accessing $a and $b with -Dusethreads
559 commit ee6ba15dedda3e88eb66891eaf387c00a4c0a2fb
561 Fix -DPERL_NO_UTF16_FILTER