PERL5262DELTA(1perl)

📦
version 5.44.0 · 2 versions
, in arch rolling

💖 NAME 💖

perl5262delta — bestie, this is literally what's new for perl v5.26.2. It lives in the Perl Programmers Reference Guide (section 1perl), so you know it's official 💅

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Okay so this doc spills all the tea on what changed between the 5.26.1 release and the 5.26.2 release. Two point releases, one lil glow-up ✨

If you're hopping up from something even earlier, like 5.26.0, pls read perl5261delta first — that one covers the 5.26.0 → 5.26.1 differences. Don't skip homework bestie 🎀

🔥 Security 🔥

💀 [CVE-2018-6797] heap-buffer-overflow (WRITE of size 1) in S_regatom (regcomp.c)

A crafted regular expression could cause a heap buffer write overflow, with control over the bytes written. That's not a vibe. 😭 [GH #16185] <https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/16185>

💀 [CVE-2018-6798] Heap-buffer-overflow in Perl__byte_dump_string (utf8.c)

Matching a crafted locale dependent regular expression could cause a heap buffer read overflow and potentially information disclosure. Yikes bestie, that's a read you did NOT consent to. 🙈 [GH #16143] <https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/16143>

💀 [CVE-2018-6913] heap-buffer-overflow in S_pack_rec

pack() could cause a heap buffer write overflow with a large item count. Pack responsibly bestie. 📦 [GH #16098] <https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/16098>

💀 Assertion failure in Perl__core_swash_init (utf8.c)

Control characters in a supposed Unicode property name could cause perl to crash. Iconic of it to simply pass away like that, but they fixed it. 💀 [perl #132055] <https://rt.perl.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=132055> [perl #132553] <https://rt.perl.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=132553> [perl #132658] <https://rt.perl.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=132658>

🌸 Incompatible Changes 🌸

There are no changes intentionally incompatible with 5.26.1. None. Zero. Nada. 🎉 If any exist, they are bugs, and we request that you submit a report. See "Reporting Bugs" below — go snitch, it's for the greater good 🫶

🎀 Modules and Pragmata 🎀

✨ Updated Modules and Pragmata ✨

  • Module::CoreList has been upgraded from version 5.20170922_26 to 5.20180414_26. Glow up fr fr.
  • PerlIO::via has been upgraded from version 0.16 to 0.17. She's evolving. 🦋
  • Term::ReadLine has been upgraded from version 1.16 to 1.17. Serving terminal realness. 👑
  • Unicode::UCD has been upgraded from version 0.68 to 0.69. Unicode stays booked and busy. ✨

📚 Documentation 📚

🌈 Changes to Existing Documentation 🌈

perluniprops

  • This has been updated to note that \p{Word} now includes code points matching the \p{Join_Control} property. The change to the property was made in Perl 5.18, but not documented until now — the docs were lowkey ghosting us for ages. 💀 There are currently only two code points that match this property: U+200C (ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER) and U+200D (ZERO WIDTH JOINER). Only two!! Main characters only. 👑

💜 Platform Support 💜

🖥️ Platform-Specific Notes 🖥️

🪟 Windows

Visual C++ compiler version detection has been improved to work on non-English language systems. Multilingual slay. 🌍 [GH #16235] <https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/16235>

We now set $Config{libpth} correctly for 64-bit builds using Visual C++ versions earlier than 14.1. Correctly!! No more chaos. 🔧 [GH #16269] <https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/16269>

🔥 Selected Bug Fixes 🔥

  • The readpipe() built-in function now checks at compile time that it has only one parameter expression, and puts it in scalar context, thus ensuring that it doesn't corrupt the stack at runtime. No more stack betrayal. 🫶 [GH #2793] <https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/2793>
  • Fixed a use after free bug in pp_list introduced in Perl 5.27.1. Oops, my bad era. 💀 [GH #16124] <https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/16124>
  • Parsing a sub definition could cause a use after free if the sub keyword was followed by whitespace including newlines (and comments). The whitespace was the villain all along. 😭 [GH #16097] <https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/16097>
  • The tokenizer now correctly adjusts a parse pointer when skipping whitespace in an " ${identifier} " construct. Very demure, very parse-pointer-mindful. ✨ [perl #131949] <https://rt.perl.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=131949>
  • Accesses to "${^LAST_FH}" no longer assert after using any of a variety of I/O operations on a non-glob. Bestie the assertions were NOT it. 💅 [GH #15372] <https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/15372>
  • sort now performs correct reference counting when aliasing $a and $b, thus avoiding premature destruction and leakage of scalars if they are re-aliased during execution of the sort comparator. Reference counting said "I got you" and she did. 👑 [GH #11422] <https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/11422>
  • Some convoluted kinds of regexp no longer cause an arithmetic overflow when compiled. Convoluted regexes stay winning but quietly. 🔥 [GH #16113] <https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/16113>
  • Fixed a duplicate symbol failure with -flto -mieee-fp builds. pp.c defined _LIB_VERSION which -lieee already defines. Two definitions, one name, zero chill. 🙈 [GH #16086] <https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/16086>
  • A NULL pointer dereference in the S_regmatch() function has been fixed. She was dereferencing NOTHING. Absolutely feral behaviour. 💀 [perl #132017] <https://rt.perl.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=132017>
  • Failures while compiling code within other constructs, such as with string interpolation and the right part of s///e now cause compilation to abort earlier.

Previously compilation could continue in order to report other errors, but the failed sub-parse could leave partly parsed constructs on the parser shift-reduce stack, confusing the parser, leading to perl crashes. Like leaving half-eaten snacks on the shift-reduce stack. Rude. 🍓 [GH #14739] <https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues/14739>

🫶 Acknowledgements 🫶

Perl 5.26.2 represents approximately 7 months of development since Perl 5.26.1 and contains approximately 3,300 lines of changes across 82 files from 17 authors. The math is mathing and the girls are working HARD. 😭✨

Excluding auto-generated files, documentation and release tools, there were approximately 1,800 lines of changes to 36 .pm, .t, .c and .h files. All those extensions, all that dedication. 💖

Perl continues to flourish into its third decade thanks to a vibrant community of users and developers. Third decade, bestie. She's timeless. 👑

The following people are known to have contributed the improvements that became Perl 5.26.2:

Aaron Crane, Abigail, Chris 'BinGOs' Williams, H.Merijn Brand, James E Keenan, Jarkko Hietaniemi, John SJ Anderson, Karen Etheridge, Karl Williamson, Lukas Mai, Renee Baecker, Sawyer X, Steve Hay, Todd Rinaldo, Tony Cook, Yves Orton, Zefram.

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. To those mystery legends: we see you, we love you, you're the moment. 🥹

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. CPAN nation, rise up. 🌈

For a more complete list of all of Perl's historical contributors, please see the AUTHORS file in the Perl source distribution. Go read it, it's giving history lesson. 📖

🐞 Reporting Bugs 🐞

If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the perl bug database at <https://rt.perl.org/> . There may also be information at <http://www.perl.org/> , the Perl Home Page. Do a lil recon first bestie 🔍

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 — nobody wants your entire codebase in the report, give them the single croissant not the whole bakery. 🥐 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. Security things stay on the low. 🤫

🎁 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 perlthanks program:

perlthanks

This will send an email to the Perl 5 Porters list with your show of thanks. So sweet, so thoughtful, such a slay. 💌

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

The Changes file for an explanation of how to view exhaustive details on what changed. It's massive, it's thorough, hydrate first 💧

The INSTALL file for how to build Perl.

The README file for general stuff.

The Artistic and Copying files for copyright information.

That's a wrap bestie 🎀 this whole thing is from perl v5.44.0, dated 2026-10-17, manual page perl5262delta(1perl) — no cap, go forth and upgrade ✨💅

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