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PERL5113DELTA(1) Perl Programmers Reference Guide PERL5113DELTA(1)
NAME
perl5113delta - what is new for perl v5.11.3
DESCRIPTION
This document describes differences between the 5.11.2 release and the 5.11.3 release.
If you are upgrading from an earlier release such as 5.11.1, first read the perl5112delta, which describes differences
between 5.11.1 and 5.11.2
Incompatible Changes
Filehandles are blessed directly into "IO::Handle", as "FileHandle" is merely a wrapper around "IO::Handle".
The previous behaviour was to bless Filehandles into FileHandle (an empty proxy class) if it was loaded into memory and
otherwise to bless them into "IO::Handle".
Core Enhancements
Unicode version
Perl is shipped with the latest Unicode version, 5.2, dated October 2009. See
<http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode5.2.0>; for details about this release of Unicode. See perlunicode for
instructions on installing and using older versions of Unicode.
Unicode properties
Perl can now handle every Unicode character property. A new pod, perluniprops, lists all available non-Unihan character
properties. By default the Unihan properties and certain others (deprecated and Unicode internal-only ones) are not
exposed. See below for more details on these; there is also a section in the pod listing them, and why they are not
exposed.
Perl now fully supports the Unicode compound-style of using "=" and ":" in writing regular expressions:
"\p{property=value}" and "\p{property:value}" (both of which mean the same thing).
Perl now fully supports the Unicode loose matching rules for text between the braces in "\p{...}" constructs. In
addition, Perl also allows underscores between digits of numbers.
All the Unicode-defined synonyms for properties and property values are now accepted.
"qr/\X/", which matches a Unicode logical character, has been expanded to work better with various Asian languages. It
now is defined as an "extended grapheme cluster". (See <http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr29/>;). Anything matched
previously that made sense will continue to be matched. But in addition:
o "\X" will now not break apart a "CR LF" sequence.
o "\X" will now match a sequence including the "ZWJ" and "ZWNJ" characters.
o "\X" will now always match at least one character, including an initial mark. Marks generally come after a base
character, but it is possible in Unicode to have them in isolation, and "\X" will now handle that case, for example
at the beginning of a line or after a "ZWSP". And this is the part where "\X" doesn't match the things that it used
to that don't make sense. Formerly, for example, you could have the nonsensical case of an accented LF.
o "\X" will now match a (Korean) Hangul syllable sequence, and the Thai and Lao exception cases.
Otherwise, this change should be transparent for the non-affected languages.
"\p{...}" matches using the Canonical_Combining_Class property were completely broken in previous Perls. This is now
fixed.
In previous Perls, the Unicode "Decomposition_Type=Compat" property and a Perl extension had the same name, which led to
neither matching all the correct values (with more than 100 mistakes in one, and several thousand in the other). The
Perl extension has now been renamed to be "Decomposition_Type=Noncanonical" (short: "dt=noncanon"). It has the same
meaning as was previously intended, namely the union of all the non-canonical Decomposition types, with Unicode "Compat"
being just one of those.
"\p{Uppercase}" and "\p{Lowercase}" have been brought into line with the Unicode definitions. This means they each match
a few more characters than previously.
"\p{Cntrl}" now matches the same characters as "\p{Control}". This means it no longer will match Private Use (gc=co),
Surrogates (gc=cs), nor Format (gc=cf) code points. The Format code points represent the biggest possible problem. All
but 36 of them are either officially deprecated or strongly discouraged from being used. Of those 36, likely the most
widely used are the soft hyphen (U+00AD), and BOM, ZWSP, ZWNJ, WJ, and similar, plus Bi-directional controls.
"\p{Alpha}" now matches the same characters as "\p{Alphabetic}". The Perl definition included a number of things that
aren't really alpha (all marks), while omitting many that were. As a direct consequence, the definitions of "\p{Alnum}"
and "\p{Word}" which depend on Alpha also change.
"\p{Word}" also now doesn't match certain characters it wasn't supposed to, such as fractions.
"\p{Print}" no longer matches the line control characters: Tab, LF, CR, FF, VT, and NEL. This brings it in line with the
documentation.
"\p{Decomposition_Type=Canonical}" now includes the Hangul syllables.
The Numeric type property has been extended to include the Unihan characters.
There is a new Perl extension, the 'Present_In', or simply 'In', property. This is an extension of the Unicode Age
property, but "\p{In=5.0}" matches any code point whose usage has been determined as of Unicode version 5.0. The
"\p{Age=5.0}" only matches code points added in precisely version 5.0.
A number of properties did not have the correct values for unassigned code points. This is now fixed. The affected
properties are Bidi_Class, East_Asian_Width, Joining_Type, Decomposition_Type, Hangul_Syllable_Type, Numeric_Type, and
Line_Break.
The Default_Ignorable_Code_Point, ID_Continue, and ID_Start properties have been updated to their current Unicode
definitions.
Certain properties that are supposed to be Unicode internal-only were erroneously exposed by previous Perls. Use of
these in regular expressions will now generate, if enabled, a deprecated warning message. The properties are:
Other_Alphabetic, Other_Default_Ignorable_Code_Point, Other_Grapheme_Extend, Other_ID_Continue, Other_ID_Start,
Other_Lowercase, Other_Math, and Other_Uppercase.
An installation can now fairly easily change which Unicode properties Perl understands. As mentioned above, certain
properties are by default turned off. These include all the Unihan properties (which should be accessible via the CPAN
module Unicode::Unihan) and any deprecated or Unicode internal-only property that Perl has never exposed.
The generated files in the "lib/unicore/To" directory are now more clearly marked as being stable, directly usable by
applications. New hash entries in them give the format of the normal entries, which allows for easier machine parsing.
Perl can generate files in this directory for any property, though most are suppressed. An installation can choose to
change which get written. Instructions are in perluniprops.
Regular Expressions
U+0FFFF is now a legal character in regular expressions.
Modules and Pragmata
Pragmata Changes
"constant"
Upgraded from version 1.19 to 1.20.
"diagnostics"
This pragma no longer suppresses "Use of uninitialized value in range (or flip)" warnings. [perl #71204]
"feature"
Upgraded from 1.13 to 1.14. Added the "unicode_strings" feature:
use feature "unicode_strings";
This pragma turns on Unicode semantics for the case-changing operations (uc/lc/ucfirst/lcfirst) on strings that don't
have the internal UTF-8 flag set, but that contain single-byte characters between 128 and 255.
"legacy"
The experimental "legacy" pragma, introduced in 5.11.2, has been removed, and its functionality replaced by the new
feature pragma, "use feature "unicode_strings"".
"threads"
Upgraded from version 1.74 to 1.75.
"warnings"
Upgraded from 1.07 to 1.08. Added new "warnings::fatal_enabled()" function.
Updated Modules
"Archive::Extract"
Upgraded from version 0.34 to 0.36.
"CPAN"
Upgraded from version 1.94_51 to 1.94_5301, which is 1.94_53 on CPAN plus some local fixes for bleadperl.
Includes better bzip2 support, improved FirstTime experience with auto-selection of CPAN mirrors, proper handling of
modules removed from the Perl core, and an updated 'cpan' utility script
"CPANPLUS"
Upgraded from version 0.89_09 to 0.90.
"Encode"
Upgraded from version 2.38 to 2.39.
"ExtUtils::MakeMaker"
Upgraded from version 6.55_02 to 6.56. Adds new BUILD_REQUIRES key to indicate build-only prerequisites. Also adds
support for mingw64 and the new "package NAME VERSION" syntax.
"File::Path"
Upgraded from version 2.08 to 2.08_01.
"Module::Build"
Upgraded from version 0.35_09 to 0.36. Compared to 0.35, this version has a new 'installdeps' action, supports the
PERL_MB_OPT environment variable, adds a 'share_dir' property for File::ShareDir support, support the "package NAME
VERSION" syntax and has many other enhancements and bug fixes. The 'passthrough' style of Module::Build::Compat has
been deprecated.
"Module::CoreList"
Upgraded from version 2.23 to 2.24.
"POSIX"
Upgraded from version 1.18 to 1.19. Error codes for "getaddrinfo()" and "getnameinfo()" are now available.
"Pod::Simple"
Upgraded from version 3.10 to 3.13.
"Safe"
Upgraded from version 2.19 to 2.20.
Utility Changes
perlbug
No longer reports "Message sent" when it hasn't actually sent the message
Changes to Existing Documentation
The Pod specification (perlpodspec) has been updated to bring the specification in line with modern usage already
supported by most Pod systems. A parameter string may now follow the format name in a "begin/end" region. Links to URIs
with a text description are now allowed. The usage of "L<"section">" has been marked as deprecated.
if.pm has been documented in "use" in perlfunc as a means to get conditional loading of modules despite the implicit
BEGIN block around "use".
Installation and Configuration Improvements
Testing improvements
It's now possible to override "PERL5OPT" and friends in t/TEST
Platform Specific Changes
Win32
o Always add a manifest resource to "perl.exe" to specify the "trustInfo" settings for Windows Vista and later.
Without this setting Windows will treat "perl.exe" as a legacy application and apply various heuristics like
redirecting access to protected file system areas (like the "Program Files" folder) to the users "VirtualStore"
instead of generating a proper "permission denied" error.
For VC8 and VC9 this manifest setting is automatically generated by the compiler/linker (together with the
binding information for their respective runtime libraries); for all other compilers we need to embed the
manifest resource explicitly in the external resource file.
This change also requests the Microsoft Common-Controls version 6.0 (themed controls introduced in Windows XP)
via the dependency list in the assembly manifest. For VC8 and VC9 this is specified using the
"/manifestdependency" linker commandline option instead.
cygwin
Enable IPv6 support on cygwin 1.7 and newer
OpenVMS
Make -UDEBUGGING the default on VMS for 5.12.0.
Like it has been everywhere else for ages and ages. Also make command-line selection of -UDEBUGGING and
-DDEBUGGING work in configure.com; before the only way to turn it off was by saying no in answer to the
interactive question.
Selected Bug Fixes
o Ensure that pp_qr returns a new regexp SV each time. Resolves RT #69852.
Instead of returning a(nother) reference to the (pre-compiled) regexp in the optree, use reg_temp_copy() to create a
copy of it, and return a reference to that. This resolves issues about Regexp::DESTROY not being called in a timely
fashion (the original bug tracked by RT #69852), as well as bugs related to blessing regexps, and of assigning to
regexps, as described in correspondence added to the ticket.
It transpires that we also need to undo the SvPVX() sharing when ithreads cloning a Regexp SV, because mother_re is
set to NULL, instead of a cloned copy of the mother_re. This change might fix bugs with regexps and threads in
certain other situations, but as yet neither tests nor bug reports have indicated any problems, so it might not
actually be an edge case that it's possible to reach.
o Several compilation errors and segfaults when perl was built with "-Dmad" were fixed.
o Fixes for lexer API changes in 5.11.2 which broke NYTProf's savesrc option.
o -t should only return TRUE for file handles connected to a TTY
The Microsoft C version of isatty() returns TRUE for all character mode devices, including the /dev/null style "nul"
device and printers like "lpt1".
o Fixed a regression caused by commit fafafbaf which caused a panic during parameter passing [perl #70171]
o On systems which in-place edits without backup files, -i'*' now works as the documentation says it does [perl #70802]
o Saving and restoring magic flags no longer loses readonly flag.
o The malformed syntax "grep EXPR LIST" (note the missing comma) no longer causes abrupt and total failure.
o Regular expressions compiled with "qr{}" literals properly set "$'" when matching again.
o Using named subroutines with "sort" should no longer lead to bus errors [perl #71076]
o Numerous bugfixes catch small issues caused by the recently-added Lexer API.
o Smart match against @_ sometimes gave false negatives. [perl #71078]
o $@ may now be assigned a read-only value (without error or busting the stack).
o "sort" called recursively from within an active comparison subroutine no longer causes a bus error if run multiple
times. [perl #71076]
New or Changed Diagnostics
o "split" now warns when called in void context
o "printf"-style functions called with too few arguments will now issue the warning "Missing argument in %s" [perl
#71000]
New Tests
Many modules updated from CPAN incorporate new tests.
t/comp/final_line_num.t
See if line numbers are correct at EOF
t/comp/form_scope.t
See if format scoping works
t/comp/line_debug.t
See if @{"_<$file"} works
t/op/filetest_t.t
See if -t file test works
t/op/qr.t
See if qr works
t/op/utf8cache.t
Tests malfunctions of utf8 cache
t/re/uniprops.t
Test unicode \p{} regex constructs
Deprecations
The following items are now deprecated.
Use of "goto" to jump into a construct is deprecated
Using "goto" to jump from an outer scope into an inner scope is now deprecated. This rare use case was causing
problems in the implementation of scopes.
Acknowledgements
Perl 5.11.3 represents approximately one month of development since Perl 5.11.2 and contains 61407 lines of changes
across 396 files from 40 authors and committers:
Abigail, Alex Davies, Alexandr Ciornii, Andrew Rodland, Andy Dougherty, Bram, brian d foy, Chip Salzenberg, Chris
Williams, Craig A. Berry, Daniel Frederick Crisman, David Golden, Dennis Kaarsemaker, Eric Brine, Father Chrysostomos,
Gene Sullivan, Gerard Goossen, H. Merijn Brand, Hugo van der Sanden, Jan Dubois, Jerry D. Hedden, Jesse Vincent, Jim
Cromie, Karl Williamson, Leon Brocard, Max Maischein, Michael Breen, Moritz Lenz, Nicholas Clark, Rafael Garcia-Suarez,
Reini Urban, Ricardo Signes, Stepan Kasal, Steve Hay, Steve Peters, Tim Bunce, 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.
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 http://rt.perl.org/perlbug/ . There may also be information at http://www.perl.org/ , the
Perl Home Page.
If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the 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 "perl -V", will be sent off
to perlbugATperl.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-reportATperl.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.
SEE ALSO
The Changes file for an explanation of how to view exhaustive details on what changed.
The INSTALL file for how to build Perl.
The README file for general stuff.
The Artistic and Copying files for copyright information.
perl v5.12.4 2011-06-01 PERL5113DELTA(1)
