Perl is an open-source programming language whose first version, 1.0, was released in 1987. The following table contains the Perl 5 version history , showing its release versions. Not all versions are covered yet.
Note that additional minor release versions may not be shown in this chart, unless they include notable changes or are the latest supported version. Additional information can be found on the official Perl website .
Version history
Legend:
Current Toolchain Legacy
Release numbers use semantic versioning since 5.6, where even-numbered minor versions (e.g. 5.36) are stable releases, and odd numbers are experimental development versions. The patch number is usually omitted in discussions of Perl versions.
The Perl Maintenance and Support Policy is to "support the two most recent stable release series" although important security fixes may be applied to stable releases from the past three years.
Note that this is separate from the Perl Toolchain (utilities for developing, building and installing Perl modules) Support Policies, which will informally support older releases. The current policy is to support Perl v5.16 or earlier until July 2024, and then to support releases than have been available for at least ten years.
Version
Release date
Links
Changes
5.40.0
June 9, 2024
Full release notes
New `__CLASS__` keyword
Added the `:reader` attribute for field variables
Added builtin `inf` and `nan` functions (experimental)
New logical `^^` xor medium-precedence operator
The `try/catch` feature is no longer experimental
Security fixes
5.38.2
November 29, 2023
Full release notes
Security fixes
Note: 5.38.1 was withdrawn due to a broken release
5.38.0
July 3, 2023
Full release notes
New class feature
Unicode 15
Deprecation warnings now have specific subcategories
API hooks
Ability to set a consistent random seed
Defined-or and logical-or assignment default expressions in subroutine signatures
Regex quantifiers limit increased to I32_MAX
Use of single-quote as a package separator deprecated
Performance enhancements
Flow-control improvements to defer and finally blocks
The Switch and Smart Match added in v5.10 are deprecated
5.36.3
November 29, 2023
Full release notes
Security fixes
Note: 5.36.2 was withdrawn due to a broken release
5.36.1
April 23, 2023
Full release notes
5.36.0
May 28, 2022
Full release notes
isa operator no longer considered experimentalUnicode 14
Regex sets no longer considered experimental
Variable length lookbehind in regexes no longer considered experimental
Boolean tracking
New builtin functions
Subroutine signatures no longer considered experimental
Added `defer` blocks
Experimental try/catch with finally blocks
Experimental n-at-a-time for iterators
5.34.3
November 29, 2023
Full release notes
Security fixes
Note: 5.34.2 was withdrawn due to a broken release
5.34.1
March 13, 2022
Full release notes
5.34.0
May 20, 2021
Full release notes
Experimental try/catch syntax
Empty lower bound in regular expression quantifiers (qr/{,n}/)
New octal syntax with 0o prefixes (e.g., 0o123_456)
5.32.1
January 23, 2021
Full release notes
New documentation perlgov and perlsecpolicy
5.32.0
June 20, 2020
Full release notes
Experimental isa operator
Chained comparisons (e.g. 1 <= $x <= 10)
Unicode 13.0 is supported
Numeric variables cannot be prefixed with 0 .
5.30.3
June 1, 2020
Full release notes
5.30.2
March 14, 2020
Full release notes
Bug fixes and module updates
5.30.1
November 10, 2019
Full release notes
Bug fixes and module updates
5.30.0
May 22, 2019
Full release notes
Unicode 12.1 support
Variable length lookbehind in regular expression patterns
5.28.0
June 22, 2018
Full release notes
Unicode 10.0 is supported
delete on key/value hash slices
alphabetic synonyms for some regular expression assertions (experimental)
Mixed Unicode scripts are now detectable
In-place editing with perl -i is now safer
Initialisation of aggregate state variables
Full-size inode numbers
The sprintf %j format size modifier is now available with pre-C99 compilers
Close-on-exec flag set atomically
String- and number-specific bitwise ops are no longer experimental
Locales are now thread-safe on systems that support them
New read-only predefined variable ${^SAFE_LOCALES}
Security fixes
Subroutine attribute and signature order was flipped to the original order from v5.20
The sort algorithm can no longer be changed. The sort pragma is a no-op.
5.26.0
May 30, 2017
Full release notes
For security reasons, the current directory (".") is no longer included by default at the end of the module search path (@INC)
Lexical subroutines are no longer experimental
Indented Here-documents
New regular expression modifiers and capture groups
Unicode 9.0 is now supportedPerl can now do default collation in UTF-8 locales on platforms that support it
5.24.0
May 8, 2016
Full release notes
Unicode 8.0 is now supported.New line break boundary in regular expressions
Extended Bracketed Character Classes work in UTF-8 locales
More explicit definitions for integer shifting
Reordered precision arguments for printf and sprintf
More fields provided to sigaction callback
The experimental autoderef feature was removed.
Postfix dereferencing is no longer experimental.
5.22.0
June 1, 2015
Full release notes
Unicode 7.0 is now supported.The historical modules CGI.pm and Module::Build were removed from the core distribution.
The double diamond operator
Disambiguated bitwise operators (as an experimental feature)
Variable aliasing (as an experimental feature)
Subroutine attribute and signature order was flipped, but this was flipped back in v5.28
5.20.0
May 27, 2014
Full release notes
Subroutine signatures (as an experimental feature)
Postfix dereferencing (as an experimental feature)
Key/value slice syntax
5.18.0
May 18, 2013
Full release notes
regular expression character set operations (as an experimental feature)
lexical subroutines (as an experimental feature)
5.16.0
May 20, 2012
Full release notes
__SUB__ for currently-executing subroutineencoding-disambiguated eval
fc case-folding function
5.14.0
May 14, 2011
Full release notes
Unicode 6.0 is supportedUnicode semantics applied to all strings
Non-destructive substitution (s///r)
Added /d, /l, /u and /a regular expression modifiers
Re-entrant regular expressions
Automatic dereference (autoderef) by built-ins (experimental feature, removed in v5.24)
5.12.0
April 12, 2010
Full release notes
Unicode 5.2 is supportedNew package NAME VERSION syntax
The ... operator added
Implicit strictures with use 5.12.0 (or later version)
Year 2038 compliance
5.10.1
August 23, 2009[ 1]
Full release notes
Incompatible changes to the range operators and defined-or in boolean context, which affects the new switch feature
Incompatible changes to the smart match operator
Unicode 5.1.0 is supportedA new interface for pluggable Method Resolution Orders
A new overloading pragma
Parallel tests
DTrace supportBug fixes and module updates
setuidperl deprecated
5.10.0
December 18, 2007[ 1]
Full release notes
Unicode 5.0 is supportedNew feature pragma
New defined-or operator (//)
New switch feature and related smart match operator[clarification needed (~~)
Numerous new regular expression features
New say built-in (via feature say)
Ability to declare static variables with state
5.8.1
September 25, 2003[ 1]
Perl 5.8.1 Release Notes
Improved randomization of hash order, for security reasons.
Unicode is not enabled by default based on locale settings.
Version strings on the left of a fat comma are treated as string literals.
Unsafe signals were re-added.
Improved tied arrays with negative indexes
Supports Unicode 4.0.0
Pseudo-hashes are deprecated
Old-style threads are deprecated.
Various module upgrades.
The `strict` pragma checks parameters.
Documentation improvements.
Bug fixes.
5.8.0
July 18, 2002[ 1]
Perl 5.8.0 Release Announcement
Supports Unicode 3.2.0
Regular expressions now work with Unicode
Support for non-Latin encodings via Encode module
Introduction of interpreter threads
New PerlIO implementation
Scalars can be used as file handles
Improved numeric accuracy for string-number conversion via built-in routine
Finalized 64-bit support
New sort pragma to change the sort algorithm. (This was disabled in v5.28.)
New modules: Digest::MD5, File::Temp, Filter::Simple, libnet, List::Util, Memoize, MIME::Base64, Scalar::Util, Storable, Switch, Test::More, Test::Simple, Text::Balanced, Tie::File, etc.
Incompatibilities: Perl 5.8 is not binary compatible with any earlier Perl release
64-bit versions no longer use Perl malloc.
hash order changed
dump() command becomes obsolete.
5.005 threads are deprecated.
user-visible implementation of pseudohashes is deprecated and scheduled for removal
Use of tainted data in exec LIST and system LIST issues warning, and will become fatal error in a future release
For tr///C, tr///U, pack("C0", ...) and pack("U0", ...) can be used instead
5.6.0
March 22, 2000[ 1]
Perl v5.6.0 released
Version numbering changed to 'revision.version.subversion' format
Internal representation for strings is changed to UTF-8, with EBCDIC support discontinued.
Better support for interpreter concurrency.
String literals can be written using character ordinals.
New syntax for subroutine attributes. (The attrs pragma is now deprecated.)
Support for large files, where available.
Support for binary numbers.
JPL ("Java Perl Lingo") distribution comes bundled with Perl.
Much new documentation in the form of tutorials and reference information has been added.
Experimental features: Support for Unicode
Support for threading, and the fork() emulation on Windows.
64-bit support.
Lvalue subroutines.
Weak references.
Pseudo-hash data type.
5.005
July 22, 1998[ 1]
5.005 released (with maintenance update 01)
5.005 is not binary compatible with previous releases.
Source code now in ANSI C.
New supported platforms include BeOS, DOS, MPE/ix.
EXPR foreach EXPR syntax is supported.
Experimental features: C++ Perl Object abstraction supported on Win32.
Precompiled regular expressions.
Enhanced 64-bit support.
Reliable signals, when threading is enabled.
Extended support for exception handling.
EGCS/GCC compilers are now supported on Win32.
5.004
May 15, 1997
perl5004delta - what's new for perl5.004
5.003_1
July 31, 1996
Full release notes
5.003
June 25, 1996
Full release notes
5.002_1
March 25, 1996
Full release notes
EMBED namespace changes are now used by default
Fixed several bugs in the core
Added two new magic variables: $^E and $^O
A mechanism was added to allow listing of locally applied patches in the perl -v output
Miscellaneous minor corrections and updates were made to the documentation
Extensive updates made to the OS/2 and VMS ports
Other miscellaneous changes and bug fixes
5.002
February 29, 1996
Full release notes
Added a new feature: Prototypes
Extensive upgrades to nearly all of Perl's modules
Massive changes to both the configure and build systems
Bug fixes
5.001
March 13, 1995
Full release notes
Added two new hooks: $SIG{__WARN__} and $SIG{__DIE__}
Added closures
Now counts imported routines as "defined" for redef warnings
Bug fixes
5.000
October 17, 1994
Full release notes
4.000
March 21, 1991
3.000
October 18, 1989
2.000
June 5, 1988
1.000
December 18, 1987
References
