Commit 966b369c45 for perl
commit 966b369c456f51b2eb58977c95005f096e4e21ef
Author: Eric Herman <eric@freesa.org>
Date: Wed Oct 21 19:42:22 2026 +0000
perldelta edits for 5.45.4
diff --git a/pod/perldelta.pod b/pod/perldelta.pod
index 7be64a76b9..573a58b89c 100644
--- a/pod/perldelta.pod
+++ b/pod/perldelta.pod
@@ -2,9 +2,6 @@
=head1 NAME
-[ this is a template for a new perldelta file. Any text flagged as XXX needs
-to be processed before release. ]
-
perldelta - what is new for perl v5.45.4
=head1 DESCRIPTION
@@ -15,26 +12,8 @@ release.
If you are upgrading from an earlier release such as 5.45.2, first read
L<perl5453delta>, which describes differences between 5.45.2 and 5.45.3.
-=head1 Notice
-
-XXX Any important notices here
-
-=head1 Core Enhancements
-
-XXX New core language features go here. Summarize user-visible core language
-enhancements. Particularly prominent performance optimisations could go
-here, but most should go in the L</Performance Enhancements> section.
-
-[ List each enhancement as a =head2 entry ]
-
=head1 Security
-XXX Any security-related notices go here. In particular, any security
-vulnerabilities closed should be noted here rather than in the
-L</Selected Bug Fixes> section.
-
-[ List each security issue as a =head2 entry ]
-
=head2 CVE-2026-107401 Regex engine incorrectly skipped UTF8 characters
A regular expression performing a greedy match of a UTF8 character could
@@ -43,58 +22,10 @@ Instead of skipping over all consecutive instances of that I<character>
associated with the first attempt, all consecutive characters that had
the same first I<byte> were skipped.
-[GH #24916]
-
-=head1 Incompatible Changes
-
-XXX For a release on a stable branch, this section aspires to be:
-
- There are no changes intentionally incompatible with 5.XXX.XXX
- If any exist, they are bugs, and we request that you submit a
- report. See L</Reporting Bugs> below.
-
-[ List each incompatible change as a =head2 entry ]
-
-=head1 Deprecations
-
-XXX Any deprecated features, syntax, modules etc. should be listed here.
-
-=head2 Module removals
-
-XXX Remove this section if not applicable.
-
-The following modules will be removed from the core distribution in a
-future release, and will at that time need to be installed from CPAN.
-Distributions on CPAN which require these modules will need to list them as
-prerequisites.
-
-The core versions of these modules will now issue C<deprecated>-category
-warnings to alert you to this fact. To silence these deprecation warnings,
-install the modules in question from CPAN.
-
-Note that these are (with rare exceptions) fine modules that you are encouraged
-to continue to use. Their disinclusion from core primarily hinges on their
-necessity to bootstrapping a fully functional, CPAN-capable Perl installation,
-not usually on concerns over their design.
-
-=over
-
-=item XXX
-
-XXX Note that deprecated modules should be listed here even if they are listed
-as an updated module in the L</Modules and Pragmata> section.
-
-=back
-
-[ List each other deprecation as a =head2 entry ]
+[L<GH #24916|https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/24916>]
=head1 Performance Enhancements
-XXX Changes which enhance performance without changing behaviour go here.
-There may well be none in a stable release.
-
-[ List each enhancement as an =item entry ]
-
=over 4
=item *
@@ -108,90 +39,51 @@ reduce the amount of temporary memory used for the cache.
=item *
C<substr()> now updates the UTF-8 position cache correctly, avoiding
-repeated scans when accessing the same part of a string. [GH #24531]
+repeated scans when accessing the same part of a string. [L<GH #24531|https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/24531>]
=back
=head1 Modules and Pragmata
-XXX All changes to installed files in F<cpan/>, F<dist/>, F<ext/> and F<lib/>
-go here. If L<Module::CoreList> is updated, generate an initial draft of the
-following sections using F<Porting/corelist-perldelta.pl>. 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.
-
-The list of new and updated modules is modified automatically as part of
-preparing a Perl release, so the only reason to manually add entries here is if
-you're summarising the important changes in the module update. (Also, if the
-manually-added details don't match the automatically-generated ones, the
-release manager will have to investigate the situation carefully.)
-
-[ Within each section, list entries as an =item entry ]
-
-=head2 New Modules and Pragmata
-
-=over 4
-
-=item *
-
-XXX Remove this section if F<Porting/corelist-perldelta.pl> did not add any content here.
-
-=back
-
=head2 Updated Modules and Pragmata
=over 4
=item *
-L<XXX> has been upgraded from version A.xx to B.yy.
-
-XXX If there was something important to note about this change, include that here.
-
-=back
-
-=head2 Removed Modules and Pragmata
-
-=over 4
+L<Archive::Tar> has been upgraded from version 3.12 to 3.14.
=item *
-XXX Remove this section if F<Porting/corelist-perldelta.pl> did not add any content here.
-
-=back
+L<Compress::Raw::Bzip2> has been upgraded from version 2.224 to 2.225.
-=head1 Documentation
+=item *
-XXX Changes to files in F<pod/> go here. Consider grouping entries by
-file and be sure to link to the appropriate page, e.g. L<perlfunc>.
+L<Compress::Raw::Zlib> has been upgraded from version 2.224 to 2.225.
-=head2 New Documentation
+=item *
-XXX Changes which create B<new> files in F<pod/> go here.
+L<CPAN> has been upgraded from version 2.38 to 2.41.
-=head3 L<XXX>
+=item *
-XXX Description of the purpose of the new file here
+L<Devel::PPPort> has been upgraded from version 3.74 to 3.75.
-=head2 Changes to Existing Documentation
+=item *
-We have attempted to update the documentation to reflect the changes
-listed in this document. If you find any we have missed, open an issue
-at L<https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>.
+L<ExtUtils::PL2Bat> has been upgraded from version 0.005 to 0.006.
-XXX Changes which significantly change existing files in F<pod/> go here.
-However, any changes to F<pod/perldiag.pod> should go in the L</Diagnostics>
-section.
+=item *
-Additionally, the following selected changes have been made:
+L<IO::Compress> has been upgraded from version 2.224 to 2.225.
-=head3 L<XXX>
+=item *
-=over 4
+L<Module::CoreList> has been upgraded from version 5.20260924 to 5.20261022.
=item *
-XXX Description of the change here
+L<POSIX> has been upgraded from version 2.26 to 2.27.
=back
@@ -201,25 +93,8 @@ The following additions or changes have been made to diagnostic output,
including warnings and fatal error messages. For the complete list of
diagnostic messages, see L<perldiag>.
-XXX New or changed warnings emitted by the core's C<C> code go here. Also
-include any changes in L<perldiag> that reconcile it to the C<C> code.
-
-
=head2 New Diagnostics
-XXX Newly added diagnostic messages go under here, separated into L</New Errors>
-and L</New Warnings>
-
-=head3 New Errors
-
-=over 4
-
-=item *
-
-XXX L<message|perldiag/"message">
-
-=back
-
=head3 New Warnings
Two warnings in C<malloc.c> which were not previously documented have been
@@ -233,132 +108,10 @@ added to L<perldiag>.
=back
-=over 4
-
-=item *
-
-XXX L<message|perldiag/"message">
-
-=back
-
-=head2 Changes to Existing Diagnostics
-
-XXX Changes (i.e. rewording) of diagnostic messages go here
-
-=over 4
-
-=item *
-
-XXX Describe change here
-
-=back
-
-=head1 Utility Changes
-
-XXX Changes to installed programs such as F<perldoc> and F<xsubpp> go here.
-Most of these are built within the directory F<utils>.
-
-[ List utility changes as a =head2 entry for each utility and =item
-entries for each change
-Use F<XXX> with program names to get proper documentation linking. ]
-
-=head2 F<XXX>
-
-=over 4
-
-=item *
-
-XXX
-
-=back
-
-=head1 Configuration and Compilation
-
-XXX Changes to F<Configure>, F<installperl>, F<installman>, and analogous tools
-go here. Any other changes to the Perl build process should be listed here.
-However, any platform-specific changes should be listed in the
-L</Platform Support> section, instead.
-
-[ List changes as an =item entry ].
-
-=over 4
-
-=item *
-
-XXX
-
-=back
-
-=head1 Testing
-
-XXX Any significant changes to the testing of a freshly built perl should be
-listed here. Changes which create B<new> files in F<t/> go here as do any
-large changes to the testing harness (e.g. when parallel testing was added).
-Changes to existing files in F<t/> aren't worth summarizing, although the bugs
-that they represent may be covered elsewhere.
-
-XXX If there were no significant test changes, say this:
-
-Tests were added and changed to reflect the other additions and changes
-in this release.
-
-XXX If instead there were significant changes, say this:
-
-Tests were added and changed to reflect the other additions and
-changes in this release. Furthermore, these significant changes were
-made:
-
-[ List each test improvement as an =item entry ]
-
-=over 4
-
-=item *
-
-XXX
-
-=back
-
=head1 Platform Support
-XXX Any changes to platform support should be listed in the sections below.
-
-[ Within the sections, list each platform as an =item entry with specific
-changes as paragraphs below it. ]
-
-=head2 New Platforms
-
-XXX List any platforms that this version of perl compiles on, that previous
-versions did not. These will either be enabled by new files in the F<hints/>
-directories, or new subdirectories and F<README> files at the top level of the
-source tree.
-
-=over 4
-
-=item XXX-some-platform
-
-XXX
-
-=back
-
-=head2 Discontinued Platforms
-
-XXX List any platforms that this version of perl no longer compiles on.
-
-=over 4
-
-=item XXX-some-platform
-
-XXX
-
-=back
-
=head2 Platform-Specific Notes
-XXX List any changes for specific platforms. This could include configuration
-and compilation changes or changes in portability/compatibility. However,
-changes within modules for platforms should generally be listed in the
-L</Modules and Pragmata> section.
-
=over 4
=item VMS
@@ -370,12 +123,6 @@ C<sys$get_entropy> when available (OpenVMS 9.2 and later).
=head1 Internal Changes
-XXX Changes which affect the interface available to C<XS> code go here. Other
-significant internal changes for future core maintainers should be noted as
-well.
-
-[ List each change as an =item entry ]
-
=over 4
=item *
@@ -403,7 +150,7 @@ The inline function C<Perl_newSV_type> now only handles the SV types most
commonly seen at runtime. C<Perl_newSV_type_generic> has been added as
a non-inline function that can handle all SV types. This change reduces
binary bloating and increases the chances of C<Perl_newSV_type> being
-succesfully inlined.
+successfully inlined.
=item *
@@ -419,22 +166,10 @@ applications that repeatedly perform a mixture of C<shift>/C<push> operations
C<Perl_av_extend_guts> will now only reallocate if the array really is out
of space and must be extended.
-=item *
-
-XXX
-
=back
=head1 Selected Bug Fixes
-XXX Important bug fixes in the core language are summarized here. Bug fixes in
-files in F<ext/> and F<lib/> are best summarized in L</Modules and Pragmata>.
-
-XXX Include references to GitHub issues and PRs as: [GH #12345] and the release
-manager will later use a regex to expand these into links.
-
-[ List each fix as an =item entry ]
-
=over 4
=item *
@@ -443,7 +178,7 @@ The regular expression optimizer no longer rejects valid matches when a
positive lookahead can match an empty string. For example,
C</\A(?=a*)[0-9]a\z/> now matches C<"0a">.
-[GH #24943]
+[L<GH #24943|https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/24943>]
=item *
@@ -452,7 +187,7 @@ matching zero repetitions, as optimized repeats do. Adding a no-op
C<(?{})> code block no longer changes whether a backreference to a skipped
optional group matches.
-[GH #8267] [GH #18865]
+[L<GH #8267|https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/8267>] [L<GH #18865|https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/18865>]
=item *
@@ -460,7 +195,7 @@ Negative lookahead and lookbehind assertions restore capture buffers after
evaluating their bodies. Captures from failed assertion attempts no longer
appear in a successful match or affect later backreferences and conditions.
-[GH #14387] [GH #24946]
+[L<GH #14387|https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/14387>] [L<GH #24946|https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/24946>]
=item *
@@ -470,7 +205,7 @@ This prevents failed or backtracked iterations from leaving incorrect
capture values. For example, C<"aa" =~ /(?:(aa){2})*/> now leaves C<$1>
undefined.
-[GH #24945]
+[L<GH #24945|https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/24945>]
=item *
@@ -483,16 +218,16 @@ Note that (i) this change could break any tests that hardcode the
less-accurate line numbers (ii) further improvements to line number
accuracy may follow within this development cycle.
-[GH #24396]
+[L<GH #24396|https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/24396>]
=item *
Regular expression compilation could have mistaken the width of a
quantified subpattern (e.g. C<b{2}>) when a potentially infinite
-qualifier (e.g. C<+>) occured earlier in the pattern. This could lead to
+qualifier (e.g. C<+>) occurred earlier in the pattern. This could lead to
viable match candidates at the start of the target string being missed.
-[GH #24915]
+[L<GH #24915|https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/24915>]
=item *
@@ -500,7 +235,7 @@ Following an unsuccessful earlier non-greedy match, a regular expression
intended to perform a separate I<greedy> match could have instead
performed a I<non-greedy> match because of skipped flag clearance.
-[GH #24926]
+[L<GH #24926|https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/24926>]
=item *
@@ -514,7 +249,7 @@ A anchored regular expression needing zero (or more) characters for a
successful match could have failed because the search space was
incorrectly truncated.
-[GH #24944]
+[L<GH #24944|https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/24944>]
=item *
@@ -530,56 +265,50 @@ The offset of a \K is no longer narrowed on rollback at an offset >2GiB.
=item *
In some cases warnings that occurred while using unpack on an invalid
-UTF-8 marked string would result in an invalid free. [GH #24913]
+UTF-8 marked string would result in an invalid free. [L<GH #24913|https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/24913>]
=item *
Builds with C<PERL_NO_COW> could crash when modifying or freeing boolean
-values. This has been fixed. [GH #19987]
+values. This has been fixed. [L<GH #19987|https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/19987>]
=item *
-C<goto> within a defer block should now work more consistently. [GH #19240]
+C<goto> within a defer block should now work more consistently. [L<GH #19240|https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/19240>]
=back
-=head1 Known Problems
-
-XXX Descriptions of platform agnostic bugs we know we can't fix go here. Any
-tests that had to be C<TODO>ed for the release would be noted here. Unfixed
-platform specific bugs also go here.
-
-[ List each fix as an =item entry ]
-
-=over 4
-
-=item *
-
-XXX
-
-=back
-
-=head1 Errata From Previous Releases
-
-=over 4
-
-=item *
+=head1 Acknowledgements
-XXX Add anything here that we forgot to add, or were mistaken about, in
-the F<perldelta> of a previous release.
+Perl 5.45.4 represents approximately 4 weeks of development since Perl
+5.45.3 and contains approximately 12,000 lines of changes across 210 files
+from 27 authors.
-=back
+Excluding auto-generated files, documentation and release tools, there were
+approximately 5,600 lines of changes to 120 .pm, .t, .c and .h files.
-=head1 Obituary
+Perl continues to flourish into its fourth decade thanks to a vibrant
+community of users and developers. The following people are known to have
+contributed the improvements that became Perl 5.45.4:
-XXX If any significant core contributor or member of the CPAN community has
-died, add a short obituary here.
+Alin Iacob, Andreas König, Andrew Hewus Fresh, Brad Smith, Branislav
+Zahradník, Chris 'BinGOs' Williams, Craig A. Berry, Cyncrovee, Dan Book,
+Darafei Praliaskouski, David Mitchell, Eric Herman, Frank,
+GlobalTechStrategics, James E Keenan, Karl Williamson, Leon Timmermans,
+Lukas Mai, Paul Evans, Paul Marquess, Philippe Bruhat (BooK), Richard Leach,
+Sevan Janiyan, TAKAI Kousuke, Tigranuhy Grigoryan, Tony Cook, Yves Orton.
-=head1 Acknowledgements
+The list above is almost certainly incomplete as it is automatically
+generated from version control history. In particular, it does not include
+the names of the (very much appreciated) contributors who reported issues to
+the Perl bug tracker.
-XXX Generate this with:
+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.
- perl Porting/acknowledgements.pl v5.45.3..HEAD
+For a more complete list of all of Perl's historical contributors, please
+see the F<AUTHORS> file in the Perl source distribution.
=head1 Reporting Bugs