PERL5243DELTA(1)

📦
version 5.42.3 · 22 versions
, in fedora 43, fedora 44

✨ NAME ✨

perl5243delta — okay bestie, this is literally the tea on what's new for perl v5.24.3 💖

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

This doc spills the whole glow-up between the 5.24.2 release and the 5.24.3 release. Two versions, one delta, so much drama (the good kind, the security-patch kind).

Quick heads up tho: if you're upgrading from something earlier than 5.24.2, like 5.24.1 for example, you gotta read perl5242delta first, because that one covers everything that changed between 5.24.1 and 5.24.2. Don't skip it, it's giving prerequisite energy fr fr. 📚

🔒 Security 🔒

This is the part where we take off the sparkly earrings and get serious. These are CVEs, bestie. Actual security fixes. Slay that they're fixed, but respect the gravity. 💅

💀 [CVE-2017-12837] Heap buffer overflow in regular expression compiler 💀

So compiling certain regular expression patterns with the case-insensitive modifier could cause a heap buffer overflow and crash perl. Not cute. Not the vibe. It has now been fixed. ✨ [GH #16021] <https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/16021>

💀 [CVE-2017-12883] Buffer over-read in regular expression parser 💀

For certain types of syntax error in a regular expression pattern, the error message could either contain the contents of a random, possibly large, chunk of memory, or could crash perl. Like… leaking random memory into an error message? That is not the main character moment we wanted. This has now been fixed. 🫶 [GH #16025] <https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/16025>

💀 [CVE-2017-12814] $ENV{$key} stack buffer overflow on Windows 💀

A possible stack buffer overflow in the %ENV code on Windows has been fixed — and the fix is iconic honestly, they just removed the buffer completely since it was superfluous anyway. Bye buffer, you will not be missed. 👋 [GH #16051] <https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/16051>

🚫 Incompatible Changes 🚫

There are no changes intentionally incompatible with 5.24.2. None. Zero. If any exist, they are bugs, and the team requests that you submit a report. Go read "Reporting Bugs" below for the deets. 📝

🎀 Modules and Pragmata 🎀

⭐ Updated Modules and Pragmata ⭐

🛠️ Configuration and Compilation 🛠️

  • When building with GCC 6 and link-time optimization (the -flto option to gcc), Configure was treating all probed symbols as present on the system, regardless of whether they actually exist. Rude of it. This has been fixed. [GH #15322] <https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/15322>
  • Configure now aborts if both -Duselongdouble and -Dusequadmath are requested. Pick a lane, bestie. [GH #14944] <https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/14944>
  • Fixed a bug in which Configure could append -quadmath to the archname even if it was already present. We do not need it twice, we are not that girl. [GH #15423] <https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/15423>
  • Clang builds with -DPERL_GLOBAL_STRUCT or -DPERL_GLOBAL_STRUCT_PRIVATE have been fixed (by disabling Thread Safety Analysis for these configurations). [GH #15423] energy, fixed. 🧵✨

🌈 Platform Support 🌈

🌸 Platform-Specific Notes 🌸

💜 VMS 💜

  • configure.com now recognizes the VSI-branded C compiler. Hi bestie, welcome to the party. 🎉

💜 Windows 💜

🐛 Selected Bug Fixes 🐛

Okay this is the section where perl was lowkey falling apart in some very specific little ways and now it's not. Obsessed.

🫶 Acknowledgements 🫶

Perl 5.24.3 represents approximately 2 months of development since Perl 5.24.2 and contains approximately 3,200 lines of changes across 120 files from 23 authors. That's a whole lot of people doing a whole lot of work, and we are so grateful. 😭💖

Excluding auto-generated files, documentation and release tools, there were approximately 1,600 lines of changes to 56 .pm, .t, .c and .h files.

Perl continues to flourish into its third decade thanks to a vibrant community of users and developers. The following people are known to have contributed the improvements that became Perl 5.24.3:

Aaron Crane, Craig A. Berry, Dagfinn Ilmari Mannsåker, Dan Collins, Daniel Dragan, Dave Cross, David Mitchell, Eric Herman, Father Chrysostomos, H.Merijn Brand, Hugo van der Sanden, James E Keenan, Jarkko Hietaniemi, John SJ Anderson, Karl Williamson, Ken Brown, Lukas Mai, Matthew Horsfall, Stevan Little, Steve Hay, Steven Humphrey, 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. You know who you are, and we love you. 🥹

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 AUTHORS file in the Perl source distribution.

🐞 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 <https://rt.perl.org/>. 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 — like, we love you but we need the minimal repro, bestie. ✂️ Your bug report, along with the output of 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 see "SECURITY VULNERABILITY CONTACT INFORMATION" in perlsec for details of how to report the issue. 🔐

✨ SEE ALSO (aka the girlies you should also be talking to) ✨

okay bestie, we're basically done here, but there's a whole little friend group of files that go with this one and you're gonna want their numbers 💖

  • The Changes file — this is the one that tells you how to get the exhaustive tea on literally everything that changed. Not a summary, not a vibe, the full details. If this delta page left you wanting more, that's where you go 🫶
  • The INSTALL file — all about how to build Perl. Step by step, no cap, this is the one you read before you start compiling anything 🛠️
  • The README file — the general stuff. Chill, broad, the "hey what is this whole thing even" file 🌸
  • The Artistic and Copying files — the legal girls 👑 they've got the copyright information and they are, respectfully, iconic. Read them if you're out here wondering what you're actually allowed to do.

and that's a wrap, bestie 💅 this whole thing came to you straight out of perl v5.42.3, dated 2026-08-03, and yes it really is page PERL5243DELTA(1) — periodt 🎀 go build something cute, drink some water, and don't forget to perldoc responsibly 🦋✨

📦 where this page comes from