Perl release summary

The most significant features introduced for recent versions of the Perl scripting language.

Core security support is provided for 3 years, so typical users should run at least 5.36. Stable distributions such as Debian 11 maintain 5.32+. Enterprise platforms retain versions up to 5.10.

5.40 2024-06-09: latest stable release

use v5.40
import builtin functions and enable the try feature
__CLASS__
keyword to reference to the current class name, similar to __PACKAGE__ (feature)
:reader
attribute for field variables to create corresponding accessor methods (feature)
^^
higher precedence logical xor operator, as || is to or
builtin::inf, builtin::nan
constants equivalent to special floating point values infinity and Not a Number
use Test2::Suite
comprehensive set of test tools for writing unit tests, providing a drop in replacement to Test::More

5.38 2023-07-02: active core support

use feature "module_true"
packages implicitly return true, enabled along with no feature "bareword_filehandles" (bundled)
sub ($var ||= default)
assign values when false (or undefined on //=) instead of omitted
/(*{ … })/
optimistic eval: (?{ … }) with regex optimisations enabled
class
define object classes: packages with field variables and method subroutines (feature, experimental)
${^LAST_SUCCESSFUL_PATTERN}
explicit variable to access the previous match as in s//…/
%{^HOOK}
perform tasks require__before and require__after when calling require
Unicode
v15.0

5.36 2022-05-28: official security patches

use v5.36
use warnings; use feature qw'signatures isa'; no feature qw'indirect multidimensional switch'
use builtin
namespace for interpreter functions, such as weaken and blessed from Scalar::Util, ceil/floor from POSIX, and trim like String::Util (experimental until 5.40 then bundled)
is_bool(!0)
distinguish scalar variable types (by builtin functions) for data interoperability
for my ($k, $v) (%hash)
iterate over multiple values at a time (including builtin::indexed for arrays) (feature, experimental until 5.40)
defer {}
queue code to be executed when going out of scope (feature, experimental)
try {} finally {}
run code at the end of a try construct regardless of failure (feature, experimental)
q«…»
unicode delimiters for quoting operators (experimental)
sub ($var) {!pop}
signatured subs are stable, but mixing with the arguments array @_ remains experimental (feature, experimental)
$SIG{FPE}
floating-point exceptions no longer deferred but delivered immediately like other signals
perl -g
disable input record separator (slurp mode), alias for -0777
Unicode
v14.0

5.34 2021-05-20

try {} catch
exception handling similar to eval blocks (feature, experimental until 5.40 then bundled)
/{,n}/
empty lower bound quantifier is accepted as shorthand for 0
\x{ … }
insignificant space within curly braces, also for \b{}, \g{}, \k{}, \N{}, \o{} as well as /{m,n}/ quantifiers
0o0
octal prefix 0o alternative to 0… and oct
re::optimization(​qr//)
debug regular expression optimization information discovered at compile time
no feature …
disable discouraged practices of multidimensional and bareword_filehandles array emulation (bundled in 5.36 and 5.38)

5.32 2020-06-20: still maintained by common vendors

isa
infix operator to check class instance (feature, experimental until 5.36 then bundled)
$min < $_ <= $max
chained comparison repeats inner part as $min < $_ and $_ <= $max
/\p{Name=$var}/
match Unicode Name property like \N{} but with interpolation and subpatterns
open F, '+>>', undef
respect append mode on temporary files with mixed access
no feature 'indirect'
disable indirect object notation such as new Class instead of Class->new (bundled in 5.36)
streamzip
program distributed with core IO::Compress::Base to compress stdin into a zip container
Unicode
v13.0

5.30 2019-05-22

/(?<=var+)
variable length lookbehind assertions (experimental until 5.36)
m(\p{nv=/.*/})
match unicode properties by regular expressions (experimental)
my $state if 0
workaround for state (deprecated since v5.10!) is now prohibited
qr'\N'
Delimiters must be graphemes; unescaped { illegal; \N in single quotes
Unicode
v12.1

5.28 2018-06-22

delete %hash{…}
hash slices can be deleted with key+value pairs
/(*…)/
alphabetic synonyms for assertions, e.g. (*atomic:…) for (?>…) and (*nlb:…) for (?<!…) (experimental until 5.31.6)
/(*script_run:)/
enforces all characters to be from the same script (experimental until 5.31.6)
state @a
persistent lexical array or hash variables (in addition to scalars)
perl -i -pe die
safe in-place editing: files are replaced only after successful completion
${^SAFE_LOCALES}
locales are thread-safe on supported systems, indicated by this variable
Unicode
v10.0

5.26 2017-05-30

use lib '.'
current directory no longer included in default module search path @INC
<<~EOT
indented here-docs, strips same whitespace before delimiter in each line
@{^CAPTURE}
array of last match's captures, so ${^CAPTURE}[0] is $1
//xx
extended modifier to also ignore whitespace in bracketed character classes
use Test2::V0
generic testing framework to replace Test::* and TAP::*
Unicode
v9.0

5.24 2016-05-09

printf '%.*2$x'
reordered precision arguments
/\b{lb}/
line break boundary type (position suitable for hyphenation)
/faster/
various significant speedups, notably matching fixed substrings, /i on caseless languages, 64-bit arithmetic, scope overhead
Unicode
v8.0

5.22 2015-06-01

\$alias =
aliasing via reference (scoped as of v5.25.3) (experimental)
<<…>>
safe readline ignoring open flags in arguments
/()/n
flag to disable numbered capturing, turning () into (?:)
/\b{}/
boundary types: gcb (grapheme cluster), sb (sentence), wb (word)
&.
& | ^ ~ consistently numeric, dotted operators for strings (feature, experimental until 5.28 then bundled)
use re 'strict'
apply stricter syntax rules to regular expression patterns (experimental)
0x.beep+0
hexadecimal floating point notation with binary power; printf '%a' to display
??
single match shorthand (deprecated since v5.14) requires the operator m?PATTERN?
use CGI
deprecated interface for serving http requests removed from core, see CGI::Alternatives
Unicode
v7.0

5.20 2014-05-27: extended vendor support 202X

sub ($var)
subroutine signatures (feature, experimental until 5.36 then bundled)
%hash{…}
hash slices return key+value pairs
[]->@*
postfix dereferencing (also e.g. $scalar->$* for $$scalar) (feature, experimental until 5.24 then bundled)
use warnings 'once'; $a
variables $a and $b are exempt from used once warnings
Unicode
v6.3

5.18 2013-05-18

PERL_PERTURB_KEYS=1
hash overhaul; order is randomised instead of being semi-repeatable {each %{{%hash}} ne each %{{%hash}}}
${^LAST_FH}
last read filehandle (used by $.)
/(?[ a + b ])/
regex set operations (character subtraction -, union +, intersection &, xor ^) (experimental until 5.36)
my sub
lexical subroutines (also state, our); buggy before v5.22 (experimental until 5.26)
next $expression
loop controls allow runtime expressions
no warnings 'experimental::…'
mechanism for experimental features, as of now required for smartmatch
Unicode
v6.2

5.16 2012-05-20

__SUB__
current subroutine reference (feature, bundled)
fc, "\F"
unicode foldcase to compare case-insensitively (feature, bundled)
"\N{}"
automatic use charnames qw( :full :short )
Unicode
v6.1

5.14 2011-05-14

s///r
non-destructive substitution
/(?{ m() })/
regular expressions can be nested in /(?{})/ and /(??{})/ (experimental until 5.20)
/dalu
regexp modifiers to restrict character classes: either default, ascii, locale, or unicode semantics.
use re '/flags'
customise default modifiers
/(?^)/
construct to reset to default modifiers
FH->method
filehandle method calls load IO::File on demand (eg. STDOUT->flush)
\o{}
escape sequence for octal values beyond 0777
package {}
package declaration in scope of code block only
multiple: labels:
statement labels allowed in all places, even before other labels
use JSON
interface with data in JavaScript Object Notation {decode_json <>}
Unicode
v6.0+#8

5.12 2010-04-12

package version
package NAME VERSION shorthand for our $VERSION
...
yada-yada operator: code placeholder
use 5.012
implicit strict if use VERSION >= v5.12
… when
when is now allowed to be used as a statement modifier
use overload 'qr'
customisable conversion to regular expressions
/\N/
inverse \n to match any character except newline regardless of /s (experimental until 5.18)
Unicode
v5.2

5.10 2007-12-18: supported commercially until 2024

use v5.10
minimal perl version with bundled features (pragma to lexically enable backwards-incompatible syntax)
//
defined-or operator
~~
smart-match operator to compare different data types (updated in v5.10.1) (experimental)
say
print with newline, equivalent to print @_, "\n" (feature, bundled)
given
switch statement to smart-match with when/default (feature, experimental, bundled)
/(?<name>)/
named capture buffers into %+
/(?1)/
recursive regular expression patterns
/(?|)/
resets capture numbering for each contained branch
/.++/
possessive quantifiers ?+, *+, ++ to match greedily
s/keep\K//
floating positive lookbehind, efficient alternative for s/(keep)/$1/
/p
optionally preserve ${^MATCH} variables (avoiding $& penalty until COW in v5.20)
/\v/, /\h/
vertical and horizontal whitespace escapes (\V \H to invert); also /\R/ for newlines
state
persistent my variables (scalars only until 5.28) (feature, bundled)
use autodie
replace builtin functions to throw exceptions instead of returning failure {eval {open ...} or $@->matches("open") || die}
use IO::Compress::Zip
various file compression standards {zip IO::Uncompress::Gunzip->new("test.gz") => "recompressed.zip"}
use Time::Piece
timestamps as objects {localtime->year > 1900}
use File::Fetch
generic data retrieval/download {File::Fetch->new(uri => "http://localhost/")->fetch(to => \$slurp)}
Unicode
v5.0.0

5.8 2002-07-18: stable minimum upto 2021

no utf8
full unicode support, utf8 pragma only for script encoding
use open
file handle behaviour altered by PerlIO layers {binmode $fh, ":bytes"}
open $fh, '-|', @cmd
open list to fork a command without spawning a shell
open $fh, '>', \$var
perl scalars as virtual files
printf '%1$s', @args
syntax to use parameters out of order
1_2_3 == 123
underscores between digits allowed in numeric constants
use bignum
transparent big number support {length 1e100 == 101}
use if
conditional module inclusion {no if $] >= 5.022, "warnings", "redundant"}
use Digest
calculate various message digests (data hashes) {$hash = sha256_hex($data)}
use Encode
character set conversion {encode("utf8", decode("iso-8859-1", $octets))}
use File::Temp
create a temporary file or directory safely {$fh = tempfile();}
use List::Util
general-utility list subroutines {@cards = shuffle 0..51}
use Locale::Maketext
various localization and internationalization in Locale::* and L18N::*
use Memoize
remember function results, trading space for time {memoize "stat"}
use MIME::Base64
base64 encoded strings as in email attachments
use Test::More
modern framework for unit testing {is $got, $expected}
use Time::HiRes
high resolution timers {$μs = [gettimeofday]; sleep .1; $elapsed = tv_interval $μs}
Unicode
v3.2.0

5.6 2000-03-23: start of modern compatibility

use warnings
pragma to enable warnings in lexical scope
use utf8
experimental unicode semantics (completed in v5.8) (experimental until 5.8)
use charnames
string escape \N{} to insert named character
our
declare global variables
v1.2.3
represent strings as vector of ordinals, useful in version numbers (printf '%vd' to display)
0b0
binary numbers in literals, printf '%b', and oct
sub :lvalue
subroutine attribute to return a modifiable value (experimental until 5.20)
open my $fh, $mode, $expr
file handles in scoped scalars, third argument for unambiguous file name
pack 'q'
64-bit integer support (also large files >2GiB) (experimental until 5.8.1)
sort $coderef ()
comparison function can be a subroutine reference; prototype ($$) to pass elements as normal @_
CHECK {}
special block called at end of compilation
/[[:…:]]/
POSIX character class syntax such as /[[:alpha:]]/
Unicode
v3.0.1