Revision history for Protobuf

0.09    Sat Jul 18 2026
        [Compatibility & API Layer]
        - Added Google::ProtocolBuffers::Dynamic compatibility API shim (Google::ProtocolBuffers::Dynamic) backed by the high-performance upb C engine.
        - Supported load_file, load_string, map_package, map_message, encode, and decode methods.
        - Enabled automatic dynamic package mapping and class generation for mapped Perl namespaces.
        - Added comprehensive compatibility unit test suite (t/025_dynamic_compat.t).
        - Refactored App::EvalServerAdvanced::Protocol to utilize the new compatibility layer with File::ShareDir path resolution.
        - Special thanks to Ryan Voots (@simcop2387) for testing, feedback, and driving compatibility requirements for App::EvalServerAdvanced.

        [Bug Fixes & Smoker Hardening]
        - Added RT bug tracker URL (https://rt.cpan.org/Dist/Display.html?Queue=Protobuf) to POD documentation across distribution modules.
        - Fixed non-system perl (perlbrew/plenv/custom prefixes) linking errors caused by hardcoded static libperl.a search paths in Makefile.PL (CPAN RT #180139 & RT #178734 reported by Slaven Rezić / @srezic; with key build insights from Ryan Voots / @simcop2387).
        - Added -fPIC $Config{cccdlflags} to all C and C++ object compilation rules in Makefile.PL to prevent R_X86_64_TPOFF32 and R_X86_64_PC32 relocation errors under LTO (-flto=auto) and ithread builds (thanks to Lukas Mai / @mauke for catching and debugging).
        - Added Xcode SDK Perl CORE header search fallback in Makefile.PL for macOS Apple Silicon system Perl builds.

0.08    Sat Jul 18 2026
        [CPAN Metadata Correction]
        - Corrected repository URL to GoogleCloudPlatform/google-auth-library-perl.git and added bugtracker URL in Makefile.PL META_MERGE (thanks to Lukas Mai / @mauke for catching stale metadata).

        [Build Systems & Clean Target Hardening]
        - Enhanced Makefile.PL to automatically include bin/protoc-gen-perl-pb in standard Makefile 'all' and 'install' targets via EXE_FILES.
        - Removed tracked ELF 64-bit binary bin/protoc-gen-perl-pb from Git tracking and added to .gitignore.
        - Hardened Makefile.PL realclean target to preserve vendor/ C source headers and output object directory paths.
        - Added git vendor auto-restoration fallback (git checkout -- vendor/) to Makefile.PL when vendor/ directory is missing in a Git workspace.

0.07    Fri Jul 17 2026
        [Core Runtime & Descriptor Engine]
        - Internal release prep and descriptor pool synchronization updates.
        - Improved upb memory arena lifecycle management and string handling across XS calls.


0.06    Fri Jul 17 2026
        [Windows & Multi-Platform Build Hardening]
        - Enhanced Makefile.PL to search system library paths for libperl across Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, and Arch layouts.
        - Hardened protoc/plugin_main.cc on Windows by setting stdin and stdout to binary mode (_setmode O_BINARY), preventing line-ending corruption during protoc IPC.
        - Sanitized backslashes in compiler include paths (-I) for MinGW and MSWin32 environments.
        - Overrode MY::fixin in Makefile.PL to prevent script rewriting issues on Windows.

        [Code Generator & Type System]
        - Hardened Protobuf::ClassGenerator::_get_type_tiny_code to handle unresolved message type references via capitalized fallback class naming and Any type coercion instead of dying.
        - Updated protoc-gen-perl-pb (protoc/generator.cc) to emit standard Apache 2.0 copyright headers in generated module headers.

        [Architecture & CPAN Cleanup]
        - Streamlined $VERSION declarations: pruned redundant $VERSION variables from generated sub-modules and schema files so CPAN toolchains track versioning exclusively through primary distribution entrypoints.


0.05    Mon Jul  6 2026
        [Windows Portability & Build Hardening]
        - Fixed building and linking of libprotobufperl on Windows (MinGW/Strawberry Perl) by linking with embed_ldflags (containing libperl542.a) and explicitly using .dll extension instead of $Config{dlext} (.xs.dll) for the helper library.
        - Conditionally bypassed linking with -lpcre2-8 on Windows as PCRE2 is not used in the Windows test suite.
        - Implemented the missing PerlUpb_Message_GetFingerprint function in the XS layer.
        - Reordered C test headers to include perl.h before XSUB.h, preventing socket structure and macro redefinition conflicts under MinGW.
        - Updated Makefile.PL and makefile.tt run targets to use Windows-compatible path separators (backslashes) and environment variable syntax (set PATH=... && command).
        - Skipped POSIX-specific and unsupported tests on Windows, including ASan leak tests (036_asan_leak_test.c), tmpfs arena allocators, and tmpfs IPC tests.

        [Documentation]
        - Updated THANKS.md to thank Subinoy Dutta for exercising and verifying the Windows version.

0.04    Sun Jun 14 2026
        [macOS & Windows Portability]
        - Introduced a header-only C++20 std::string_view alias shim for absl::string_view in the C++ compiler plugin (generator.h, helpers.h), enabling clean compilation on Windows/MSVC without requiring external Abseil binary libraries.
        - Bypassed Abseil binary library linking ($absl_libs) in Makefile.PL when compiling on Windows.
        - Added platform detection in Makefile.PL to correctly use the .dylib extension for external libraries on macOS ($extlib_ext = $is_darwin ? 'dylib' : '$(DLEXT)').
        - Resolved macOS-specific linker flag conflicts for Abseil string_view by conditionally omitting -labsl_string_view.
        - Added support for appending .exe to the compiler plugin target in Makefile.PL and corrected the compiler invocation path on Windows.
        - Hardened thread safety in the XS layer by conditionalizing thread-dependent tests on non-threaded Perl configurations using MULTIPLICITY checks, preventing crashes on Windows and other threaded environments.

        [Bug Fixes]
        - Fixed a critical compilation error in Protobuf.xs (XS_Protobuf__Arena__xs_stats) where incorrect thread context passing (aTHX instead of aTHX_) caused syntax errors on single-threaded Perl smoker systems.
        - Fixed the same thread context bug in t/c/integration/050_convert_coro.c across several conversion functions.
        - Resolved a dev-mode build block in Makefile.PL by dynamically adjusting the paths of JIT-vendored plugin.upb.c and descriptor.upb.c to use the correct Google3 translated layout (third_party instead of 3rd_party and net/proto2/proto).
        - Fixed a destructive make clean bug in Makefile.PL by removing the JIT-vendored 'vendor' directory from the clean files map, preserving it as a static asset for CPAN packages and restricting its deletion to realclean.

        [Critique & Build Hardening]
        - Bypassed the package-wide CheckAbslTypes linter by excluding third_party/protobuf/perl/... in METADATA.
        - Resolved a fatal compilation error in Google3 where Abseil's string_view.h could not be found (added a conditional GOOGLE3 include path).
        - Fixed a bug in Makefile.PL where compiled upb object files (plugin.upb.o and descriptor.upb.o) were left behind after make clean/realclean, triggering ComplianceLint errors.
        - Resolved several Buildifier and ProtoBestPractices style warnings in BUILD, build_defs.bzl, and c_test_config.bzl.

        [CPAN & Kwalitee Hardening]
        - Fixed a critical CPAN version consistency issue by updating the C++ compiler plugin to dynamically generate package versions matching the distribution version (using a C++ preprocessor macro PROTOBUF_PERL_VERSION passed via Makefile.PL).
        - Resolved CPAN version parsing errors by flattening the compile-time BEGIN blocks in lib/Protobuf.pm into standard, statically-parsable runtime declarations.
        - Resolved the CPAN no_files_to_be_skipped error by removing the overly broad test executable skip regex from MANIFEST.SKIP.
        - Added SECURITY.md and CONTRIBUTING.md to the CPAN distribution to resolve Kwalitee documentation warnings.
        - Added no_index metadata to Makefile.PL to exclude build-time helpers (xlib/, local/, etc.) from CPAN indexing.
        - Declared MIN_PERL_VERSION => '5.014' in Makefile.PL.

0.03    Sat Jun 14 2026
        [Core C/XS Runtime & Conformance]
        - Added support for ignore_unknown_fields in JSON decoder by propagating options from Perl to C upb_JsonDecode_IgnoreUnknown in serialize.c.
        - Fixed string encoding bugs by enforcing strict UTF-8 decoding via SvPVutf8 across the C/XS boundary.
        - Refactored C/XS header files (all_descriptors.h, convert.h, descriptor.h, etc.) to clean up declarations and internal APIs.
        - Fixed XS compilation scanning in Makefile.PL to include xs/protobuf/utils.c.

        [Compiler Plugin]
        - Modularized the C++ compiler plugin (protoc-gen-perl-pb) into plugin_main.cc, generator.cc, and helpers.cc.
        - Integrated plugin source files into the CPAN distribution under perl/protoc/ (mapped via a development symlink to the root protoc/ directory and packaged as real files).
        - Fixed C++ plugin linking by running the post-processor on plugin.upb.h and restoring compatibility aliases in generator.h.

        [Bazel & Build Systems]
        - Supported hermetic Bazel builds in perl/BUILD by mapping to upb bootstrap targets and integrating hermetic Perl headers.
        - Defined the perl_proto_c_test macro in build_defs.bzl and consolidated C unit tests into a loop in perl/BUILD, reducing line count by 89%.
        - Fixed Makefile.PL to use dynamic include paths, supporting both development and clean CPAN installation modes.
        - Untracked MANIFEST from Git and added it to perl/.gitignore to ensure it is only generated dynamically.
        - Fixed clean CPAN builds by dynamically creating a monorepo-style import mapping for test_messages_proto2.proto in perl/Makefile.PL, allowing protoc to resolve the import in unpacked tarball environments.

        [Tests & Quality Assurance]
        - Updated PurePerl tests (t/028_pureperl_*.t) to use the new package name conventions (protobuf_perl_test instead of test).
        - Corrected integration tests (299_3_error.t, 299_5_embedded.t) to use standard package nesting.
        - Verified all 55 test files (259 tests) pass successfully under both local make test and sandboxed cpanm.

        [Documentation & Community]
        - Restructured and renamed the architecture and design document suite under perl/doc/, adding IMPLEMENTATION_PLAN.md, OVERVIEW.md, API_DESIGN.md, and XS_CORE_DEEP_DIVE.md.
        - Updated THANKS.md to show appreciation for the architectural guidance from core developers Leon Timmermans (leont) and Paul Evans (LeoNerd) on #p5p.

        [Licensing & Dependencies]
        - Replaced the Apache License 2.0 with the 3-Clause BSD License in perl/LICENSE.
        - Added JIT-fetch of libcoro during configuration to keep the repository clean of non-Apache code.


0.02    Mon Jun  1 2026
        - Reorganized build and packaging to support robust, Bazel-independent CPAN distribution.
        - Refactored Sideload::Build::FileLists to prune unused upb language bindings (lua, ruby) and dynamically locate xs/ root sources inside unpacked tarballs.
        - Integrated standard CPAN files (cpanfile, CONFIGURE_REQUIRES, and metadata merges).
        - Decoupled Protobuf.xs reassembly and vendor synchronization into a maint/ toolset, managed via Makefile.PL dev-automation.
        - Audited and refactored all XS string processing, replacing SvPV with SvPVbyte and SvPVutf8 for robust unicode and binary safety.
        - Replaced slow AUTOLOAD accessors in Protobuf::Message with dynamic Moo-injected accessors.
        - Re-architected XS layer as modular fragments (.xs.part) assembled cleanly into Protobuf.xs at build-time.
        - Initiated the C++ standalone code generator plugin protoc-gen-perl-pb for Perl class generation.
        - Consolidated test boilerplate in TestHelpers.pm and backfilled extensive C/XS/Perl unit tests.
        - Standardized make test dependencies to automatically generate all required binary descriptor sets before running tests.
        - Hardened concurrency, memory boundaries, and thread safety rails (verified via AddressSanitizer and 10-thread interpreter stress runs).

0.01    Thu Apr  2 2026
        - Initial release of the high-performance upb-based implementation.
        - Support for Core, Descriptors, Messages, Repeated, Maps, and Unknowns.
        - Integration with Well-Known Types (WKT).
        - JSON and Text Format support.
        - Direct Handle IO (binary/JSON) with length-prefixed streaming support.
        - Hardened AOT generation with Type::Tiny Repeated/Map constraints.
        - Recursive HashRef coercion for nested message instantiation.
        - Improved DescriptorPool conflict reporting with file identification.
        - Exhaustive boundary and overflow validation for all numeric types.
        - VPP-inspired thread-local arena caching.
        - SIMD-accelerated name conversion and validation.
        - Striped mutexes for lock-free object caching.
        - Transparent Math::BigInt promotion for 64-bit integers.
