The first release candidate of bash-5.0 is now available with the URLs
ftp://ftp.cwru.edu/pub/bash/bash-5.0-rc1.tar.gz
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/bash/bash-5.0-rc1.tar.gz
and from the bash-5.0-testing branch in the bash git repository
(http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/bash.git/log/?h=bash-5.0-testing).
This tar file includes the formatted documentation (you should be able to
generate updated versions yourself).
This release fixes several outstanding bugs in bash-4.4 and introduces several
new features. The most significant bug fixes are an overhaul of how
nameref variables resolve and a number of potential out-of-bounds memory
errors discovered via fuzzing. There are a number of changes to the
expansion of $@ and $* in various contexts where word splitting is not
performed to conform to a Posix standard interpretation, and additional
changes to resolve corner cases for Posix conformance.
The most notable new features are several new shell variables: BASH_ARGV0,
EPOCHSECONDS, and EPOCHREALTIME. The `history' builtin can remove ranges of
history entries and understands negative arguments as offsets from the end
of the history list. There is an option to allow local variables to inherit
the value of a variable with the same name at a preceding scope. There is
a new shell option that, when enabled, causes the shell to attempt to
expand associative array subscripts only once (this is an issue when they
are used in arithmetic expressions). The `globasciiranges' shell option
is now enabled by default; it can be set to off by default at configuration
time.
There are a few incompatible changes between bash-4.4 and bash-5.0. The
changes to how nameref variables are resolved means that some uses of
namerefs will behave differently, though I have tried to minimize the
compatibility issues. By default, the shell only sets BASH_ARGC and
BASH_ARGV at startup if extended debugging mode is enabled; it was an
oversight that it was set unconditionally and caused performance issues
when scripts were passed large numbers of arguments.
`bashbug' may be used to report bugs with this version. It will send
mail to chet.ra...@case.edu if the shell's `release status' is alpha or
beta.
As always, thanks for your help.
Chet
+== CHANGES ==+
This document details the changes between this version, bash-5.0-rc1, and
the previous version, bash-5.0-beta2.
1. Changes to Bash
a. Fix to initial word completion detection code.
b. Fixed a bug that caused issues with assignment statements containing ^A in
the value assigned when IFS contains ^A.
c. Added a fallback to fnmatch() when strcoll can't correctly deal with
bracket expression character equivalence classes.
d. Fixed a bug that caused $BASH_COMMAND to contain the trap handler command
when running a trap handler containing [[ or (( commands.
e. Fixed a bug that caused nameref assignments in the temporary environment
to potentially create variables with invalid names.
f. Fixed a bug that caused `local -' to turn off alias expansion in scripts.
g. Fixed a parser issue with a command string containing EOF after an invalid
command as an argument to a special builtin not causing a posix-mode shell
to exit.
h. Made a slight change to the FNV-1 string hash algorithm used for associative
arrays (corrected the initial seed).
2. Changes to Readline
3. New Features in Bash
a. The `select' command now supports command forms without a word list
following `in'.
4. New Features in Readline
--
This document details the changes between this version, bash-5.0-beta2, and
the previous version, bash-5.0-beta.
1. Changes to Bash
a. Fixed a bug that could cause a seg fault while parsing a subshell command
inside a command substitution.
b. Fixed several small memory leaks uncovered by coverity.
c. Fixed a problem with command substitution inside an interactive shell that
could cause the parent to receive a SIGHUP.
d. Fixed a problem with using `*' and `@' as subscripts when assigning values
to an associative array with assoc_expand_once enabled.
e. Fixed a bug that could cause a huge memory allocation when completing a
word beginning with an invalid tilde expansion.
f. Cleaned up some incompatiblities with bash-4.4 when expanding indexed array
subscripts used in arithmetic expansions when assoc_expand_once is enabled.
g. The ${parameter@a} expansion will display attributes even if `parameter' is
unset.
h. Fixed a bug that caused the output of `set' to cut off some variables before
printing the value.
i. Treat a failure to assign a variable when using the ${x:=value} expansion
as an expansion error, so non-interactive posix-mode shells exit
j. Fixed a problem when expanding $* in a context where word splitting is not
performed when IFS is NULL.
k. Temp files used to store here documents are forced readable, no matter what
