new perldelta for v5.31.7

11 files changed, 593 insertions, 143 deletions

diff --git a/MANIFEST b/MANIFEST
index ea401cb2bf..46aa9dbe8c 100644
--- a/MANIFEST
+++ b/MANIFEST
@@ -5152,6 +5152,7 @@ pod/perl5312delta.pod		Perl changes in version 5.31.2
 pod/perl5313delta.pod		Perl changes in version 5.31.3
 pod/perl5314delta.pod		Perl changes in version 5.31.4
 pod/perl5315delta.pod		Perl changes in version 5.31.5
+pod/perl5316delta.pod		Perl changes in version 5.31.6
 pod/perl561delta.pod		Perl changes in version 5.6.1
 pod/perl56delta.pod		Perl changes in version 5.6
 pod/perl581delta.pod		Perl changes in version 5.8.1
diff --git a/Makefile.SH b/Makefile.SH
index 1f677add36..27c66bdf3f 100755
--- a/Makefile.SH
+++ b/Makefile.SH
@@ -589,7 +589,7 @@ esac
 
 $spitshell >>$Makefile <<'!NO!SUBS!'
 
-perltoc_pod_prereqs = extra.pods pod/perl5316delta.pod pod/perlapi.pod pod/perlintern.pod pod/perlmodlib.pod pod/perluniprops.pod
+perltoc_pod_prereqs = extra.pods pod/perl5317delta.pod pod/perlapi.pod pod/perlintern.pod pod/perlmodlib.pod pod/perluniprops.pod
 generated_pods = pod/perltoc.pod $(perltoc_pod_prereqs)
 generated_headers = uudmap.h bitcount.h mg_data.h
 
@@ -1153,9 +1153,9 @@ pod/perlintern.pod: $(MINIPERL_EXE) autodoc.pl embed.fnc
 pod/perlmodlib.pod: $(MINIPERL_EXE) pod/perlmodlib.PL MANIFEST
 	$(MINIPERL) pod/perlmodlib.PL -q
 
-pod/perl5316delta.pod: pod/perldelta.pod
-	$(RMS) pod/perl5316delta.pod
-	$(LNS) perldelta.pod pod/perl5316delta.pod
+pod/perl5317delta.pod: pod/perldelta.pod
+	$(RMS) pod/perl5317delta.pod
+	$(LNS) perldelta.pod pod/perl5317delta.pod
 
 extra.pods: $(MINIPERL_EXE)
 	-@test ! -f extra.pods || rm -f `cat extra.pods`
diff --git a/pod/.gitignore b/pod/.gitignore
index a4ef42c4ef..8f9130678b 100644
--- a/pod/.gitignore
+++ b/pod/.gitignore
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@
 /roffitall
 
 # generated
-/perl5316delta.pod
+/perl5317delta.pod
 /perlapi.pod
 /perlintern.pod
 /perlmodlib.pod
diff --git a/pod/perl.pod b/pod/perl.pod
index 89501e5feb..9c2d8fd132 100644
--- a/pod/perl.pod
+++ b/pod/perl.pod
@@ -181,6 +181,7 @@ aux h2ph h2xs perlbug pl2pm pod2html pod2man splain xsubpp
 
     perlhist		Perl history records
     perldelta		Perl changes since previous version
+    perl5316delta	Perl changes in version 5.31.6
     perl5315delta	Perl changes in version 5.31.5
     perl5314delta	Perl changes in version 5.31.4
     perl5313delta	Perl changes in version 5.31.3
diff --git a/pod/perl5316delta.pod b/pod/perl5316delta.pod
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..7b3bdf8b21
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pod/perl5316delta.pod
@@ -0,0 +1,308 @@
+=encoding utf8
+
+=head1 NAME
+
+perl5316delta - what is new for perl v5.31.6
+
+=head1 DESCRIPTION
+
+This document describes differences between the 5.31.5 release and the 5.31.6
+release.
+
+If you are upgrading from an earlier release such as 5.31.4, first read
+L<perl5315delta>, which describes differences between 5.31.4 and 5.31.5.
+
+=head1 Core Enhancements
+
+=head2 Alpha assertions are no longer experimental
+
+See L<perlre/(*pla:pattern)>, L<perlre/(*plb:pattern)>,
+L<perlre/(*nla:pattern)>>, and L<perlre/(*nlb:pattern)>.
+Use of these no longer generates a warning; existing code that disables
+the warning category C<experimental::script_run> will continue to work
+without any changes needed.  Enabling the category has no effect.
+
+=head2 Script runs are no longer experimental
+
+See L<perlre/Script Runs>.  Use of these no longer generates a warning;
+existing code that disables the warning category
+C<experimental::alpha_assertions> will continue to work without any
+changes needed.  Enabling the category has no effect.
+
+=head2 Feature checks are now faster
+
+Previously feature checks in the parser required a hash lookup when
+features we set outside of a feature bundle, this has been optimized
+to a bit mask check.  [#17229]
+
+=head2 Perl is now developed on Github
+
+Perl is now developed on Github, you can find us at
+L<https://github.com/Perl/perl5>.
+
+Non-security bugs should now be reported via Github.
+
+=head1 Modules and Pragmata
+
+=head2 Updated Modules and Pragmata
+
+=over 4
+
+=item *
+
+L<B::Deparse> has been upgraded from version 1.50 to 1.51.
+
+=item *
+
+L<Compress::Raw::Bzip2> has been upgraded from version 2.087 to 2.090.
+
+=item *
+
+L<Compress::Raw::Zlib> has been upgraded from version 2.087 to 2.090.
+
+=item *
+
+L<Devel::PPPort> has been upgraded from version 3.54 to 3.55.
+
+=item *
+
+L<DynaLoader> has been upgraded from version 1.45 to 1.46.
+
+=item *
+
+L<feature> has been upgraded from version 1.55 to 1.56.
+
+=item *
+
+L<IO::Compress::Base> has been upgraded from version 2.087 to 2.090.
+
+=item *
+
+L<Math::BigInt> has been upgraded from version 1.999817_01 to 1.999818.
+
+=item *
+
+L<Module::CoreList> has been upgraded from version 5.20191020 to 5.20191120.
+
+=item *
+
+L<Module::Load::Conditional> has been upgraded from version 0.68 to 0.70.
+
+=item *
+
+L<mro> has been upgraded from version 1.22 to 1.23.
+
+=item *
+
+L<perlfaq> has been upgraded from version 5.20190126 to 5.20191102.
+
+=item *
+
+L<Pod::Simple> has been upgraded from version 3.39 to 3.40.
+
+=item *
+
+L<POSIX> has been upgraded from version 1.89 to 1.90.
+
+=item *
+
+L<Scalar::Util> has been upgraded from version 1.52 to 1.53.
+
+=item *
+
+L<Sys::Syslog> has been upgraded from version 0.35 to 0.36.
+
+=item *
+
+L<Test::Simple> has been upgraded from version 1.302168 to 1.302169.
+
+=item *
+
+L<Tie::StdHandle> has been upgraded from version 4.5 to 4.6.
+
+=item *
+
+L<Unicode::UCD> has been upgraded from version 0.73 to 0.74.
+
+=item *
+
+L<Win32API::File> has been upgraded from version 0.1203 to 0.1203_01.
+
+=back
+
+=head1 Utility Changes
+
+=head2 L<streamzip>
+
+=over 4
+
+=item *
+
+This is a new utility, included as part of an
+L<IO::Compress::Base> upgrade.
+
+L<streamzip> creates a zip file from stdin. The program will read data
+from stdin, compress it into a zip container and, by default, write a
+streamed zip file to stdout.
+
+=back
+
+=head1 Configuration and Compilation
+
+=over 4
+
+=item *
+
+F<Configure> now correctly handles gcc-10. Previously it was interpreting it
+as gcc-1 and turned on C<-fpcc-struct-return>.
+
+=back
+
+=head1 Platform Support
+
+=head2 Platform-Specific Notes
+
+=over 4
+
+=item Windows
+
+The configuration for C<ccflags> and C<optimize> are now separate, as
+with POSIX platforms.  [#17156]
+
+=back
+
+=head1 Internal Changes
+
+=over 4
+
+=item *
+
+The lexer (C<Perl_yylex()> in F<toke.c>) was previously a single 4100-line
+function, relying heavily on C<goto> and a lot of widely-scoped local variables
+to do its work. It has now been pulled apart into a few dozen smaller static
+functions; the largest remaining chunk (C<yyl_word_or_keyword()>) is a little
+over 900 lines, and consists of a single C<switch> statement, all of whose
+C<case> groups are independent. This should be much easier to understand and
+maintain.
+
+=item *
+
+The OS-level signal handlers and type (Sighandler_t) used by the perl core
+were declared as having three parameters, but the OS was always told to
+call them with one argument. This has been fixed by declaring them to have
+one parameter. See the merge commit C<v5.31.5-346-g116e19abbf> for full
+details.
+
+=item *
+
+The code that handles C<tr///> has been extensively revised, fixing
+various bugs, especially when the source and/or replacement strings
+contain characters whose code points are above 255.  Some of the bugs
+were undocumented, one being that under some circumstances (but not all)
+with C</s>, the squeezing was done based on the source, rather than the
+replacement.  A documented bug that got fixed was [perl RT #125493].
+
+=item *
+
+A new macro for XS writers dealing with UTF-8-encoded Unicode strings
+has been created L<perlapi/C<UTF8_CHK_SKIP>> that is safer in the face
+of malformed UTF-8 input than L<perlapi/C<UTF8_SKIP>> (but not as safe
+as L<perlapi/C<UTF8_SAFE_SKIP>>).  It won't read past a NUL character.
+It has been backported in L<Devel::PPPort> 3.55 and later.
+
+=back
+
+=head1 Selected Bug Fixes
+
+=over 4
+
+=item *
+
+printf() or sprintf() with the C<%n> format could cause a panic on
+debugging builds, or report an incorrectly cached length value when
+producing C<SVfUTF8> flagged strings. [#17221]
+
+=item *
+
+The tokenizer has been extensively refactored. [#17241][#17189]
+
+=item *
+
+C<use strict "subs"> is now enforced for bareword constants optimized
+into a C<multiconcat> operator.  [#17254]
+
+=item *
+
+A memory leak in regular expression patterns has been fixed [#17218].
+
+=back
+
+=head1 Acknowledgements
+
+Perl 5.31.6 represents approximately 4 weeks of development since Perl
+5.31.5 and contains approximately 43,000 lines of changes across 490 files
+from 31 authors.
+
+Excluding auto-generated files, documentation and release tools, there were
+approximately 35,000 lines of changes to 300 .pm, .t, .c and .h files.
+
+Perl continues to flourish into its fourth decade thanks to a vibrant
+community of users and developers. The following people are known to have
+contributed the improvements that became Perl 5.31.6:
+
+Aaron Crane, Chad Granum, Chris 'BinGOs' Williams, Craig A. Berry, Dagfinn
+Ilmari Mannsåker, Dan Book, Dave Cross, David Mitchell, E. Choroba, Graham
+Knop, Hauke D, Ichinose Shogo, James E Keenan, Karen Etheridge, Karl
+Williamson, Matt Turner, Max Maischein, Nicholas Clark, Nicolas R., Pali,
+Paul Evans, Petr Písař, Richard Leach, Sergey Aleynikov, Steve Hay, Steve
+Peters, Todd Rinaldo, Tomasz Konojacki, Tom Hukins, 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://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>.  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 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 C<perlthanks> program:
+
+    perlthanks
+
+This will send an email to the Perl 5 Porters list with your show of thanks.
+
+=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
diff --git a/pod/perldelta.pod b/pod/perldelta.pod
index 414c0a4e1e..f09c27c0bf 100644
--- a/pod/perldelta.pod
+++ b/pod/perldelta.pod
@@ -2,277 +2,413 @@
 
 =head1 NAME
 
-perldelta - what is new for perl v5.31.6
+[ this is a template for a new perldelta file.  Any text flagged as XXX needs
+to be processed before release. ]
+
+perldelta - what is new for perl v5.31.7
 
 =head1 DESCRIPTION
 
-This document describes differences between the 5.31.5 release and the 5.31.6
+This document describes differences between the 5.31.6 release and the 5.31.7
 release.
 
-If you are upgrading from an earlier release such as 5.31.4, first read
-L<perl5315delta>, which describes differences between 5.31.4 and 5.31.5.
+If you are upgrading from an earlier release such as 5.31.5, first read
+L<perl5316delta>, which describes differences between 5.31.5 and 5.31.6.
+
+=head1 Notice
+
+XXX Any important notices here
 
 =head1 Core Enhancements
 
-=head2 Alpha assertions are no longer experimental
+XXX New core language features go here.  Summarize user-visible core language
+enhancements.  Particularly prominent performance optimisations could go
+here, but most should go in the L</Performance Enhancements> section.
 
-See L<perlre/(*pla:pattern)>, L<perlre/(*plb:pattern)>,
-L<perlre/(*nla:pattern)>>, and L<perlre/(*nlb:pattern)>.
-Use of these no longer generates a warning; existing code that disables
-the warning category C<experimental::script_run> will continue to work
-without any changes needed.  Enabling the category has no effect.
+[ List each enhancement as a =head2 entry ]
 
-=head2 Script runs are no longer experimental
+=head1 Security
 
-See L<perlre/Script Runs>.  Use of these no longer generates a warning;
-existing code that disables the warning category
-C<experimental::alpha_assertions> will continue to work without any
-changes needed.  Enabling the category has no effect.
+XXX Any security-related notices go here.  In particular, any security
+vulnerabilities closed should be noted here rather than in the
+L</Selected Bug Fixes> section.
 
-=head2 Feature checks are now faster
+[ List each security issue as a =head2 entry ]
 
-Previously feature checks in the parser required a hash lookup when
-features we set outside of a feature bundle, this has been optimized
-to a bit mask check.  [#17229]
+=head1 Incompatible Changes
 
-=head2 Perl is now developed on Github
+XXX For a release on a stable branch, this section aspires to be:
 
-Perl is now developed on Github, you can find us at
-L<https://github.com/Perl/perl5>.
+    There are no changes intentionally incompatible with 5.XXX.XXX
+    If any exist, they are bugs, and we request that you submit a
+    report.  See L</Reporting Bugs> below.
 
-Non-security bugs should now be reported via Github.
+[ List each incompatible change as a =head2 entry ]
 
-=head1 Modules and Pragmata
+=head1 Deprecations
 
-=head2 Updated Modules and Pragmata
+XXX Any deprecated features, syntax, modules etc. should be listed here.
+
+=head2 Module removals
+
+XXX Remove this section if not applicable.
+
+The following modules will be removed from the core distribution in a
+future release, and will at that time need to be installed from CPAN.
+Distributions on CPAN which require these modules will need to list them as
+prerequisites.
+
+The core versions of these modules will now issue C<"deprecated">-category
+warnings to alert you to this fact.  To silence these deprecation warnings,
+install the modules in question from CPAN.
+
+Note that these are (with rare exceptions) fine modules that you are encouraged
+to continue to use.  Their disinclusion from core primarily hinges on their
+necessity to bootstrapping a fully functional, CPAN-capable Perl installation,
+not usually on concerns over their design.
+
+=over
+
+=item XXX
+
+XXX Note that deprecated modules should be listed here even if they are listed
+as an updated module in the L</Modules and Pragmata> section.
+
+=back
+
+[ List each other deprecation as a =head2 entry ]
+
+=head1 Performance Enhancements
+
+XXX Changes which enhance performance without changing behaviour go here.
+There may well be none in a stable release.
+
+[ List each enhancement as an =item entry ]
 
 =over 4
 
 =item *
 
-L<B::Deparse> has been upgraded from version 1.50 to 1.51.
+XXX
 
-=item *
+=back
 
-L<Compress::Raw::Bzip2> has been upgraded from version 2.087 to 2.090.
+=head1 Modules and Pragmata
 
-=item *
+XXX All changes to installed files in F<cpan/>, F<dist/>, F<ext/> and F<lib/>
+go here.  If Module::CoreList is updated, generate an initial draft of the
+following sections using F<Porting/corelist-perldelta.pl>.  A paragraph summary
+for important changes should then be added by hand.  In an ideal world,
+dual-life modules would have a F<Changes> file that could be cribbed.
 
-L<Compress::Raw::Zlib> has been upgraded from version 2.087 to 2.090.
+The list of new and updated modules is modified automatically as part of
+preparing a Perl release, so the only reason to manually add entries here is if
+you're summarising the important changes in the module update. (Also, if the
+manually-added details don't match the automatically-generated ones, the
+release manager will have to investigate the situation carefully.)
 
-=item *
+[ Within each section, list entries as an =item entry ]
+
+=head2 New Modules and Pragmata
 
-L<Devel::PPPort> has been upgraded from version 3.54 to 3.55.
+=over 4
 
 =item *
 
-L<DynaLoader> has been upgraded from version 1.45 to 1.46.
+XXX Remove this section if not applicable.
 
-=item *
+=back
+
+=head2 Updated Modules and Pragmata
 
-L<feature> has been upgraded from version 1.55 to 1.56.
+=over 4
 
 =item *
 
-L<IO::Compress::Base> has been upgraded from version 2.087 to 2.090.
+L<XXX> has been upgraded from version A.xx to B.yy.
 
-=item *
+If there was something important to note about this change, include that here.
 
-L<Math::BigInt> has been upgraded from version 1.999817_01 to 1.999818.
+=back
 
-=item *
+=head2 Removed Modules and Pragmata
 
-L<Module::CoreList> has been upgraded from version 5.20191020 to 5.20191120.
+=over 4
 
 =item *
 
-L<Module::Load::Conditional> has been upgraded from version 0.68 to 0.70.
+XXX
 
-=item *
+=back
 
-L<mro> has been upgraded from version 1.22 to 1.23.
+=head1 Documentation
 
-=item *
+XXX Changes to files in F<pod/> go here.  Consider grouping entries by
+file and be sure to link to the appropriate page, e.g. L<perlfunc>.
 
-L<perlfaq> has been upgraded from version 5.20190126 to 5.20191102.
+=head2 New Documentation
 
-=item *
+XXX Changes which create B<new> files in F<pod/> go here.
 
-L<Pod::Simple> has been upgraded from version 3.39 to 3.40.
+=head3 L<XXX>
 
-=item *
+XXX Description of the purpose of the new file here
 
-L<POSIX> has been upgraded from version 1.89 to 1.90.
+=head2 Changes to Existing Documentation
 
-=item *
+We have attempted to update the documentation to reflect the changes
+listed in this document.  If you find any we have missed, send email
+to L<perlbug@perl.org|mailto:perlbug@perl.org>.
 
-L<Scalar::Util> has been upgraded from version 1.52 to 1.53.
+XXX Changes which significantly change existing files in F<pod/> go here.
+However, any changes to F<pod/perldiag.pod> should go in the L</Diagnostics>
+section.
 
-=item *
+Additionally, the following selected changes have been made:
 
-L<Sys::Syslog> has been upgraded from version 0.35 to 0.36.
+=head3 L<XXX>
+
+=over 4
 
 =item *
 
-L<Test::Simple> has been upgraded from version 1.302168 to 1.302169.
+XXX Description of the change here
+
+=back
+
+=head1 Diagnostics
+
+The following additions or changes have been made to diagnostic output,
+including warnings and fatal error messages.  For the complete list of
+diagnostic messages, see L<perldiag>.
+
+XXX New or changed warnings emitted by the core's C<C> code go here.  Also
+include any changes in L<perldiag> that reconcile it to the C<C> code.
+
+=head2 New Diagnostics
+
+XXX Newly added diagnostic messages go under here, separated into New Errors
+and New Warnings
+
+=head3 New Errors
+
+=over 4
 
 =item *
 
-L<Tie::StdHandle> has been upgraded from version 4.5 to 4.6.
+XXX L<message|perldiag/"message">
+
+=back
+
+=head3 New Warnings
+
+=over 4
 
 =item *
 
-L<Unicode::UCD> has been upgraded from version 0.73 to 0.74.
+XXX L<message|perldiag/"message">
+
+=back
+
+=head2 Changes to Existing Diagnostics
+
+XXX Changes (i.e. rewording) of diagnostic messages go here
+
+=over 4
 
 =item *
 
-L<Win32API::File> has been upgraded from version 0.1203 to 0.1203_01.
+XXX Describe change here
 
 =back
 
 =head1 Utility Changes
 
-=head2 L<streamzip>
+XXX Changes to installed programs such as F<perlbug> and F<xsubpp> go here.
+Most of these are built within the directory F<utils>.
+
+[ List utility changes as a =head2 entry for each utility and =item
+entries for each change
+Use L<XXX> with program names to get proper documentation linking. ]
+
+=head2 L<XXX>
 
 =over 4
 
 =item *
 
-This is a new utility, included as part of an
-L<IO::Compress::Base> upgrade.
-
-L<streamzip> creates a zip file from stdin. The program will read data
-from stdin, compress it into a zip container and, by default, write a
-streamed zip file to stdout.
+XXX
 
 =back
 
 =head1 Configuration and Compilation
 
+XXX Changes to F<Configure>, F<installperl>, F<installman>, and analogous tools
+go here.  Any other changes to the Perl build process should be listed here.
+However, any platform-specific changes should be listed in the
+L</Platform Support> section, instead.
+
+[ List changes as an =item entry ].
+
+=over 4
+
+=item *
+
+XXX
+
+=back
+
+=head1 Testing
+
+XXX Any significant changes to the testing of a freshly built perl should be
+listed here.  Changes which create B<new> files in F<t/> go here as do any
+large changes to the testing harness (e.g. when parallel testing was added).
+Changes to existing files in F<t/> aren't worth summarizing, although the bugs
+that they represent may be covered elsewhere.
+
+XXX If there were no significant test changes, say this:
+
+Tests were added and changed to reflect the other additions and changes
+in this release.
+
+XXX If instead there were significant changes, say this:
+
+Tests were added and changed to reflect the other additions and
+changes in this release.  Furthermore, these significant changes were
+made:
+
+[ List each test improvement as an =item entry ]
+
 =over 4
 
 =item *
 
-F<Configure> now correctly handles gcc-10. Previously it was interpreting it
-as gcc-1 and turned on C<-fpcc-struct-return>.
+XXX
 
 =back
 
 =head1 Platform Support
 
-=head2 Platform-Specific Notes
+XXX Any changes to platform support should be listed in the sections below.
+
+[ Within the sections, list each platform as an =item entry with specific
+changes as paragraphs below it. ]
+
+=head2 New Platforms
+
+XXX List any platforms that this version of perl compiles on, that previous
+versions did not.  These will either be enabled by new files in the F<hints/>
+directories, or new subdirectories and F<README> files at the top level of the
+source tree.
 
 =over 4
 
-=item Windows
+=item XXX-some-platform
 
-The configuration for C<ccflags> and C<optimize> are now separate, as
-with POSIX platforms.  [#17156]
+XXX
 
 =back
 
-=head1 Internal Changes
+=head2 Discontinued Platforms
+
+XXX List any platforms that this version of perl no longer compiles on.
 
 =over 4
 
-=item *
+=item XXX-some-platform
 
-The lexer (C<Perl_yylex()> in F<toke.c>) was previously a single 4100-line
-function, relying heavily on C<goto> and a lot of widely-scoped local variables
-to do its work. It has now been pulled apart into a few dozen smaller static
-functions; the largest remaining chunk (C<yyl_word_or_keyword()>) is a little
-over 900 lines, and consists of a single C<switch> statement, all of whose
-C<case> groups are independent. This should be much easier to understand and
-maintain.
+XXX
 
-=item *
+=back
+
+=head2 Platform-Specific Notes
 
-The OS-level signal handlers and type (Sighandler_t) used by the perl core
-were declared as having three parameters, but the OS was always told to
-call them with one argument. This has been fixed by declaring them to have
-one parameter. See the merge commit C<v5.31.5-346-g116e19abbf> for full
-details.
+XXX List any changes for specific platforms.  This could include configuration
+and compilation changes or changes in portability/compatibility.  However,
+changes within modules for platforms should generally be listed in the
+L</Modules and Pragmata> section.
 
-=item *
+=over 4
+
+=item XXX-some-platform
+
+XXX
+
+=back
+
+=head1 Internal Changes
+
+XXX Changes which affect the interface available to C<XS> code go here.  Other
+significant internal changes for future core maintainers should be noted as
+well.
+
+[ List each change as an =item entry ]
 
-The code that handles C<tr///> has been extensively revised, fixing
-various bugs, especially when the source and/or replacement strings
-contain characters whose code points are above 255.  Some of the bugs
-were undocumented, one being that under some circumstances (but not all)
-with C</s>, the squeezing was done based on the source, rather than the
-replacement.  A documented bug that got fixed was [perl RT #125493].
+=over 4
 
 =item *
 
-A new macro for XS writers dealing with UTF-8-encoded Unicode strings
-has been created L<perlapi/C<UTF8_CHK_SKIP>> that is safer in the face
-of malformed UTF-8 input than L<perlapi/C<UTF8_SKIP>> (but not as safe
-as L<perlapi/C<UTF8_SAFE_SKIP>>).  It won't read past a NUL character.
-It has been backported in L<Devel::PPPort> 3.55 and later.
+XXX
 
 =back
 
 =head1 Selected Bug Fixes
 
+XXX Important bug fixes in the core language are summarized here.  Bug fixes in
+files in F<ext/> and F<lib/> are best summarized in L</Modules and Pragmata>.
+
+[ List each fix as an =item entry ]
+
 =over 4
 
 =item *
 
-printf() or sprintf() with the C<%n> format could cause a panic on
-debugging builds, or report an incorrectly cached length value when
-producing C<SVfUTF8> flagged strings. [#17221]
+XXX
 
-=item *
+=back
 
-The tokenizer has been extensively refactored. [#17241][#17189]
+=head1 Known Problems
 
-=item *
+XXX Descriptions of platform agnostic bugs we know we can't fix go here.  Any
+tests that had to be C<TODO>ed for the release would be noted here.  Unfixed
+platform specific bugs also go here.
 
-C<use strict "subs"> is now enforced for bareword constants optimized
-into a C<multiconcat> operator.  [#17254]
+[ List each fix as an =item entry ]
+
+=over 4
 
 =item *
 
-A memory leak in regular expression patterns has been fixed [#17218].
+XXX
 
 =back
 
-=head1 Acknowledgements
+=head1 Errata From Previous Releases
 
-Perl 5.31.6 represents approximately 4 weeks of development since Perl
-5.31.5 and contains approximately 43,000 lines of changes across 490 files
-from 31 authors.
+=over 4
 
-Excluding auto-generated files, documentation and release tools, there were
-approximately 35,000 lines of changes to 300 .pm, .t, .c and .h files.
+=item *
 
-Perl continues to flourish into its fourth decade thanks to a vibrant
-community of users and developers. The following people are known to have
-contributed the improvements that became Perl 5.31.6:
+XXX Add anything here that we forgot to add, or were mistaken about, in
+the perldelta of a previous release.
 
-Aaron Crane, Chad Granum, Chris 'BinGOs' Williams, Craig A. Berry, Dagfinn
-Ilmari Mannsåker, Dan Book, Dave Cross, David Mitchell, E. Choroba, Graham
-Knop, Hauke D, Ichinose Shogo, James E Keenan, Karen Etheridge, Karl
-Williamson, Matt Turner, Max Maischein, Nicholas Clark, Nicolas R., Pali,
-Paul Evans, Petr Písař, Richard Leach, Sergey Aleynikov, Steve Hay, Steve
-Peters, Todd Rinaldo, Tomasz Konojacki, Tom Hukins, Tony Cook, Yves Orton.
+=back
 
-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.
+=head1 Obituary
+
+XXX If any significant core contributor or member of the CPAN community has
+died, add a short obituary here.
+
+=head1 Acknowledgements
 
-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.
+XXX Generate this with:
 
-For a more complete list of all of Perl's historical contributors, please
-see the F<AUTHORS> file in the Perl source distribution.
+  perl Porting/acknowledgements.pl v5.31.6..HEAD
 
 =head1 Reporting Bugs
 
 If you find what you think is a bug, you might check the perl bug database
-at L<https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>.  There may also be information at
+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
diff --git a/vms/descrip_mms.template b/vms/descrip_mms.template
index 96de3e6bb6..3daa5b4143 100644
--- a/vms/descrip_mms.template
+++ b/vms/descrip_mms.template
@@ -313,7 +313,7 @@ utils : $(utils1) $(utils2) $(utils3) $(utils4) $(utils5)
 extra.pods : miniperl
 	@ @extra_pods.com
 
-PERLDELTA_CURRENT = [.pod]perl5316delta.pod
+PERLDELTA_CURRENT = [.pod]perl5317delta.pod
 
 $(PERLDELTA_CURRENT) : [.pod]perldelta.pod
 	Copy/NoConfirm/Log $(MMS$SOURCE) $(PERLDELTA_CURRENT)
diff --git a/win32/GNUmakefile b/win32/GNUmakefile
index b6b6746bc6..828b4304bc 100644
--- a/win32/GNUmakefile
+++ b/win32/GNUmakefile
@@ -1745,7 +1745,7 @@ utils: $(HAVEMINIPERL) ..\utils\Makefile
 	copy ..\README.tw       ..\pod\perltw.pod
 	copy ..\README.vos      ..\pod\perlvos.pod
 	copy ..\README.win32    ..\pod\perlwin32.pod
-	copy ..\pod\perldelta.pod ..\pod\perl5316delta.pod
+	copy ..\pod\perldelta.pod ..\pod\perl5317delta.pod
 	$(MINIPERL) -I..\lib $(PL2BAT) $(UTILS)
 	$(MINIPERL) -I..\lib ..\autodoc.pl ..
 	$(MINIPERL) -I..\lib ..\pod\perlmodlib.PL -q ..
@@ -1843,7 +1843,7 @@ distclean: realclean
 	-if exist $(LIBDIR)\Win32API rmdir /s /q $(LIBDIR)\Win32API
 	-if exist $(LIBDIR)\XS rmdir /s /q $(LIBDIR)\XS
 	-cd $(PODDIR) && del /f *.html *.bat roffitall \
-	    perl5316delta.pod perlaix.pod perlamiga.pod perlandroid.pod \
+	    perl5317delta.pod perlaix.pod perlamiga.pod perlandroid.pod \
 	    perlapi.pod perlbs2000.pod perlcn.pod perlcygwin.pod \
 	    perldos.pod perlfreebsd.pod perlhaiku.pod perlhpux.pod \
 	    perlhurd.pod perlintern.pod perlirix.pod perljp.pod perlko.pod \
diff --git a/win32/Makefile b/win32/Makefile
index 80ce9e41de..0b92f0cc9a 100644
--- a/win32/Makefile
+++ b/win32/Makefile
@@ -1265,7 +1265,7 @@ utils: $(PERLEXE) ..\utils\Makefile
 	copy ..\README.tw       ..\pod\perltw.pod
 	copy ..\README.vos      ..\pod\perlvos.pod
 	copy ..\README.win32    ..\pod\perlwin32.pod
-	copy ..\pod\perldelta.pod ..\pod\perl5316delta.pod
+	copy ..\pod\perldelta.pod ..\pod\perl5317delta.pod
 	cd ..\win32
 	$(PERLEXE) $(PL2BAT) $(UTILS)
 	$(MINIPERL) -I..\lib ..\autodoc.pl ..
@@ -1364,7 +1364,7 @@ distclean: realclean
 	-if exist $(LIBDIR)\Win32API rmdir /s /q $(LIBDIR)\Win32API
 	-if exist $(LIBDIR)\XS rmdir /s /q $(LIBDIR)\XS
 	-cd $(PODDIR) && del /f *.html *.bat roffitall \
-	    perl5316delta.pod perlaix.pod perlamiga.pod perlandroid.pod \
+	    perl5317delta.pod perlaix.pod perlamiga.pod perlandroid.pod \
 	    perlapi.pod perlbs2000.pod perlcn.pod perlcygwin.pod \
 	    perldos.pod perlfreebsd.pod perlhaiku.pod perlhpux.pod \
 	    perlhurd.pod perlintern.pod perlirix.pod perljp.pod perlko.pod \
diff --git a/win32/makefile.mk b/win32/makefile.mk
index 37763483f4..69426fa02f 100644
--- a/win32/makefile.mk
+++ b/win32/makefile.mk
@@ -1664,7 +1664,7 @@ utils: $(HAVEMINIPERL) ..\utils\Makefile
 	copy ..\README.tw       ..\pod\perltw.pod
 	copy ..\README.vos      ..\pod\perlvos.pod
 	copy ..\README.win32    ..\pod\perlwin32.pod
-	copy ..\pod\perldelta.pod ..\pod\perl5316delta.pod
+	copy ..\pod\perldelta.pod ..\pod\perl5317delta.pod
 	$(MINIPERL) -I..\lib $(PL2BAT) $(UTILS)
 	$(MINIPERL) -I..\lib ..\autodoc.pl ..
 	$(MINIPERL) -I..\lib ..\pod\perlmodlib.PL -q ..
@@ -1762,7 +1762,7 @@ distclean: realclean
 	-if exist $(LIBDIR)\Win32API rmdir /s /q $(LIBDIR)\Win32API
 	-if exist $(LIBDIR)\XS rmdir /s /q $(LIBDIR)\XS
 	-cd $(PODDIR) && del /f *.html *.bat roffitall \
-	    perl5316delta.pod perlaix.pod perlamiga.pod perlandroid.pod \
+	    perl5317delta.pod perlaix.pod perlamiga.pod perlandroid.pod \
 	    perlapi.pod perlbs2000.pod perlcn.pod perlcygwin.pod \
 	    perldos.pod perlfreebsd.pod perlhaiku.pod perlhpux.pod \
 	    perlhurd.pod perlintern.pod perlirix.pod perljp.pod perlko.pod \
diff --git a/win32/pod.mak b/win32/pod.mak
index 8201c91357..b8cd27b9e6 100644
--- a/win32/pod.mak
+++ b/win32/pod.mak
@@ -66,6 +66,7 @@ POD = perl.pod	\
 	perl5314delta.pod	\
 	perl5315delta.pod	\
 	perl5316delta.pod	\
+	perl5317delta.pod	\
 	perl561delta.pod	\
 	perl56delta.pod	\
 	perl581delta.pod	\
@@ -227,6 +228,7 @@ MAN = perl.man	\
 	perl5314delta.man	\
 	perl5315delta.man	\
 	perl5316delta.man	\
+	perl5317delta.man	\
 	perl561delta.man	\
 	perl56delta.man	\
 	perl581delta.man	\
@@ -388,6 +390,7 @@ HTML = perl.html	\
 	perl5314delta.html	\
 	perl5315delta.html	\
 	perl5316delta.html	\
+	perl5317delta.html	\
 	perl561delta.html	\
 	perl56delta.html	\
 	perl581delta.html	\
@@ -549,6 +552,7 @@ TEX = perl.tex	\
 	perl5314delta.tex	\
 	perl5315delta.tex	\
 	perl5316delta.tex	\
+	perl5317delta.tex	\
 	perl561delta.tex	\
 	perl56delta.tex	\
 	perl581delta.tex	\