=encoding utf8

=head1 NAME

perl5378delta - what is new for perl v5.37.8

=head1 DESCRIPTION

This document describes differences between the 5.37.7 release and the 5.37.8
release.

If you are upgrading from an earlier release such as 5.37.6, first read
L<perl5377delta>, which describes differences between 5.37.6 and 5.37.7.

=head1 Core Enhancements

=head2 Optimistic Eval in Patterns

The use of C<(?{ ... })> and C<(??{ ... })> in a pattern disables various
optimisations globally in that pattern. This may or may not be desired by the
programmer. This release adds the C<(*{ ... })> and C<(**{ ... })>
equivalents. The only difference is that they do not and will never disable
any optimisations in the regex engine. This may make them more unstable in the
sense that they may be called more or less times in the future, however the
number of times they execute will truly match how the regex engine functions.
For example, certain types of optimisation are disabled when C<(?{ ... })> is
included in a pattern, so that patterns which are O(N) in normal use become
O(N*N) with a C<(?{ ... })> pattern in them. Switching to C<(*{ ... })> means
the pattern will stay O(N).

B<NOTE> the C<(**{ ... })> was removed in 5.37.9 as it didn't quite work out
as planned.

=head1 Modules and Pragmata

=head2 Updated Modules and Pragmata

=over 4

=item *

L<Config::Perl::V> has been upgraded from version 0.34 to 0.35.

=item *

L<ExtUtils::Install> has been upgraded from version 2.20 to 2.22.

=item *

L<ExtUtils::MakeMaker> has been upgraded from version 7.64 to 7.66.

=item *

L<feature> has been upgraded from version 1.78 to 1.79.

=item *

L<File::Find> has been upgraded from version 1.41 to 1.42.

=item *

L<IO::Zlib> has been upgraded from version 1.11 to 1.14.

=item *

L<JSON::PP> has been upgraded from version 4.12 to 4.16.

=item *

L<Math::Complex> has been upgraded from version 1.5903 to 1.6.

Modules in the Math-Complex distribution have been uniformly upgraded to
version 1.60.  L<Math::Complex> has been upgraded from version 1.59_03 (with
no other code changes).

=item *

L<Math::Trig> has been upgraded from version 1.23_01
with documentation improvements and code improvements in the calculation of
C<great_circle_distance()>.

=item *

L<Module::CoreList> has been upgraded from version 5.20221220 to 5.20230120.

=item *

L<podlators> has been upgraded from version 5.00 to 5.01.

=item *

L<POSIX> has been upgraded from version 2.10 to 2.11.

=item *

L<re> has been upgraded from version 0.43 to 0.44.

=item *

L<Storable> has been upgraded from version 3.28 to 3.29.

=item *

L<threads> has been upgraded from version 2.33 to 2.34.

=item *

L<XS::APItest> has been upgraded from version 1.28 to 1.30.

=back

=head1 Documentation

=head2 Changes to Existing Documentation

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>.

=head1 Platform Support

=head2 Platform-Specific Notes

=over 4

=item Windows

=over

=item *

lstat() on Windows now returns the length of the link target as the
size of the file, as it does on POSIX systems.  [github #20476]

=item *

symlink() on Windows now replaces any C</> in the target with C<\>,
since Windows does not recognise C</> in symbolic links.  The reverse
translation is B<not> done by readlink().  [github #20506]

=item *

symlink() where the target was an absolute path to a directory was
incorrectly created as a file symbolic link.  [github #20533]

=back

=back

=head1 Internal Changes

=over 4

=item *

Added HvNAMEf and HvNAMEf_QUOTEDPREFIX special formats. They take an HV *
as an argument and use C<HvNAME()> and related macros to determine the string,
its length, and whether it is utf8.

=back

=head1 Acknowledgements

Perl 5.37.8 represents approximately 4 weeks of development since Perl
5.37.7 and contains approximately 42,000 lines of changes across 350 files
from 25 authors.

Excluding auto-generated files, documentation and release tools, there were
approximately 29,000 lines of changes to 220 .pm, .t, .c and .h files.

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 5.37.8:

Andrew Ruthven, Andy Lester, Benjamin Smith, Bram, Chris 'BinGOs' Williams,
Dagfinn Ilmari Mannsåker, David Cantrell, David Mitchell, Elvin Aslanov,
Ferenc Erki, Florian Weimer, James E Keenan, Karen Etheridge, Karl
Williamson, Li Linjie, Max Maischein, Nicolas R, Paul Evans, Peter John
Acklam, Peter Levine, Renee Baecker, Richard Leach, Tomasz Konojacki, Tony
Cook, Yves Orton.

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.

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.

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

If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the perl bug database
at L<https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>.  There may also be information at
L<http://www.perl.org/>, the Perl Home Page.

If you believe you have an unreported bug, please open an issue at
L<https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>.  Be sure to trim your bug down to a
tiny but sufficient test case.

If the bug you are reporting has security implications which make it
inappropriate to send to a public issue tracker, then see
L<perlsec/SECURITY VULNERABILITY CONTACT INFORMATION>
for details of how to report the issue.

=head1 Give Thanks

If you wish to thank the Perl 5 Porters for the work we had done in Perl 5,
you can do so by running the C<perlthanks> program:

    perlthanks

This will send an email to the Perl 5 Porters list with your show of thanks.

=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
