=encoding utf8

=head1 NAME

perl5258delta - what is new for perl v5.25.8

=head1 DESCRIPTION

This document describes differences between the 5.25.7 release and the 5.25.8
release.

If you are upgrading from an earlier release such as 5.25.6, first read
L<perl5257delta>, which describes differences between 5.25.6 and 5.25.7.

=head1 Core Enhancements

=head2 New Hash Function For 64-bit Builds

We have switched to a hybrid hash function to better balance
performance for short and long keys.

For short keys, 16 bytes and under, we use an optimised variant of
One At A Time Hard, and for longer keys we use Siphash 1-3. For very
long keys this is a big improvement in performance. For shorter keys
there is a modest improvement.

=head1 Performance Enhancements

=over 4

=item * New Faster Hash Function on 64 bit builds

We use a different hash function for short and long keys. This should
improve performance and security, especially for long keys.

=item * readline is faster

Reading from a file line-by-line with C<readline()> or C<< E<lt>E<gt> >> should
now typically be faster due to a better implementation of the code that
searches for the next newline character.

=back

=head1 Modules and Pragmata

=head2 Updated Modules and Pragmata

=over 4

=item *

L<Archive::Tar> has been upgraded from version 2.18 to 2.24.

=item *

L<B::Debug> has been upgraded from version 1.23 to 1.24.

=item *

L<bignum> has been upgraded from version 0.43_01 to 0.47.

=item *

L<Data::Dumper> has been upgraded from version 2.165 to 2.166.

=item *

L<Encode> has been upgraded from version 2.86 to 2.88.

=item *

L<encoding> has been upgraded from version 2.18 to 2.19.

=item *

L<IO> has been upgraded from version 1.37 to 1.38.

=item *

L<Locale::Codes> has been upgraded from version 3.40 to 3.42.

=item *

L<Math::BigInt> has been upgraded from version 1.999727 to 1.999806.

=item *

L<Math::BigInt::FastCalc> has been upgraded from version 0.42 to 0.5005.

=item *

L<Math::BigRat> has been upgraded from version 0.260804 to 0.2611.

=item *

L<Module::CoreList> has been upgraded from version 5.20161120 to 5.20161220.

=item *

L<PerlIO::scalar> has been upgraded from version 0.24 to 0.25.

=item *

L<Pod::Simple> has been upgraded from version 3.32 to 3.35.

=item *

L<POSIX> has been upgraded from version 1.75 to 1.76.

=item *

L<Test::Simple> has been upgraded from version 1.302062 to 1.302073.

=item *

L<Time::HiRes> has been upgraded from version 1.9740_03 to 1.9741.

=item *

L<Time::Local> has been upgraded from version 1.24 to 1.25.

=item *

L<Unicode::Collate> has been upgraded from version 1.18 to 1.19.

=back

=head1 Configuration and Compilation

=over 4

=item *

Zero out the alignment bytes when calculating the bytes for 80-bit C<NaN>
and C<Inf> to make builds more reproducible. [perl #130133]

=item *

Since 5.18 for testing purposes we have included support for
building perl with a variety of non-standard, and non-recommended
hash functions. Since we do not recommend the use of these functions
we have removed them and their corresponding build options. Specifically
this includes the following build options:

    PERL_HASH_FUNC_SDBM
    PERL_HASH_FUNC_DJB2
    PERL_HASH_FUNC_SUPERFAST
    PERL_HASH_FUNC_MURMUR3
    PERL_HASH_FUNC_ONE_AT_A_TIME
    PERL_HASH_FUNC_ONE_AT_A_TIME_OLD
    PERL_HASH_FUNC_MURMUR_HASH_64A
    PERL_HASH_FUNC_MURMUR_HASH_64B

=back

=head1 Acknowledgements

Perl 5.25.8 represents approximately 4 weeks of development since Perl 5.25.7
and contains approximately 21,000 lines of changes across 500 files from 19
authors.

Excluding auto-generated files, documentation and release tools, there were
approximately 18,000 lines of changes to 340 .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 5.25.8:

Andy Lester, Aristotle Pagaltzis, Chad Granum, Chris 'BinGOs' Williams,
Christian Hansen, Craig A. Berry, David Mitchell, Hugo van der Sanden, James E
Keenan, J. Nick Koston, Karl Williamson, Matthew Horsfall, Niko Tyni, Petr
Písař, Sawyer X, Steve Hay, Sullivan Beck, 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://rt.perl.org/> .  There may also be information at
L<http://www.perl.org/> , the Perl Home Page.

If you believe you have an unreported bug, please run the L<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 C<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
L<perlsec/SECURITY VULNERABILITY CONTACT INFORMATION>
for details of how to report the issue.

=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
