Rakudo compiler, Release #193 (2026.05)

2026-05-23

On behalf of the Rakudo development team, here is the May 2026 release of Rakudo #193. Rakudo is an implementation of the Raku1 language.

The source tarball for this release is available from https://rakudo.org/files/rakudo. Precompiled archives will be available shortly.

New in 2026.05:

  • Improvements:

    • MoarVM debugserver improvements [a8b8c713]
    • Update to mimalloc v2.3.2 [71cb699c]
    • Improve error messaging of Mu values [42ef8973]
    • QuantHash refactor, now allowing key parameterization with coercive types [5c37ccea][d8f907ee][9e6d078e][f5773837][b8f0e1f9][287dfb25]
    • Simplify Int multi for infix:<%> (#6177) [13fcc50e]
    • Many RakuAST improvements and fixes (see RakuAST section) now allowing:
      • Synthetically built RakuAST code to be used in precompiled modules
      • Code.assuming now builds a Callable using RakuAST for better performance and features
      • sprintf on 6.e now builds a Callable for better performance and adherence to standards
      • Building and installing Rakudo with RAKUDO_RAKUAST=1 now works
      • Installing modules with RAKUDO_RAKUAST=1 now works
    • In other words: major steps towards releasing the next Raku language level

  • Fixes:

    • Fix "Missing infix inside R" when using RZ/RX infix form [6baf3735][764a3382]
    • Mu BUILDPLAN walkers: route @/% attr init through STORE :INITIALIZE [76f3f79a][a4ccac2c]
    • Fixes from MoarVM/NQP including: optimizations, avoiding segfaults [af66caff][9e649f70][12e6f4df][07e67462]
    • Make Format.raku subclass safe [0dcdb5c5]
    • Fix Test.rakumod failure-attribution across frontend / Repository combos [aa5abe40][57b9943f]

  • Additions:

    • JITDUMP support [5e09687f]
    • Add obituary for Clifton Wood [b49217d2]

  • RakuAST:

    • drop dead compile-time-value read in package-lookup parse [9620e240][995fdc58]
    • emit lexical lookup for generic 'is T' attribute container initializer [3fc33fda][836f8fcb]
    • nominalize sigilless variable invocant for .= initializers [2cf777b2][3983159b]
    • store explicit container base type as RakuAST::Type AST [2408d059]
    • emit runtime construction for generic Definedness/Coercion types [c4dcb61c][bdb8ee9e]
    • tighten generic detection in Type::Simple via IMPL::Archetypes.is-generic [f9a1a517]
    • Fix .EVAL at BEGIN time losing access to setting symbols [fa177fef][4666cd56]
    • Guard $!block in TraitTarget::Variable for NULL setting compilation [13cfef08][4e8a2c06]
    • Fix build-exception crash on uncomposed exception type stubs [d7295890][8ecf4c4d]
    • propagate $*COMPILING_CORE_SETTING into QAST stage [b2489e8d][07310601]
    • avoid pathologically slow Raku dispatch in add-phasers-handling-code [768819d6][dabe0f4d]
    • nominalize default value for definite-constrained variables [224aa3d8][b59889e7]
    • install instantiation lexicals for nested generic packages in roles [c53eaeea]
    • merge loaded stub package into enclosing same-named class [2af7c683][d69bb16c]
    • Fix multi-part type name lookup when resolved type is generic [7da16e72]
    • Narrow typevar scope to actual type captures in signatures [45d1eade]
    • Fix generic nested packages in parametric roles [a4c712fe]
    • Fix colon invocant syntax with Whatever [6a13156f][386eb023]
    • dedupe @declarations at the source in ast-lexical-declarations [f8b2ac3c][fc7e95d7]
    • Fix .EVAL at BEGIN time breaking module precompilation [46ce0e3f][0b3f0f5f]
    • Extract shared coderef-fixup loop into IMPL-FIXUP-COMPILED-CODEREFS [9885a375]
    • extract Raku module-loader prelude helper [b15a0f87]
    • emit BOOTSTRAP load as pre-deserialize task for CORE. [1dc23fba][1e95be44]
    • align nested-EVAL fixup with legacy frontend so $!do gets unstubbed [7cb5a5bc][e91fa0db]
    • route ContainerDescriptor creation through one Mu-aware helper [64b08ae0][46f12ddf]
    • skip per-compunit implicit decls when compiling CORE setting [a32c4c58][97e5c1bb]
    • don't set Mu refinement on where-free subsets [63b0013f][5e263cb3]
    • nominalize coercive types for descriptor default in pre-6.e [e326ab3e][bbec4369]
    • declare $¢ with a Scalar container, matching legacy [8bf03215]
    • Account for CORE/SETTING differences when built with RakuAST [c6c2cb1f][e20e8cc0]
    • Re-instate the RakuAST based implementation of .assuming [6cb6ac32]
    • Add a rakuast variant to the Azure CI build/test matrix [505c6b4f][1e6da94c]
    • don't rely on magical %_ inside nested blocks of ParameterAST [d8957e54]
    • align @/% resolution with the legacy frontend's de-facto behavior [b2671803][9a66df20]
    • Revert "RakuAST: make sure non-blocks are sunk in start" [d4d146a9]
    • fix subset-typed parameter binding under v6.e [92e003e2][0106c6b8]
    • re-allocate @!compstuff in IMPL-LINK-META-OBJECT if cleanup nulled it [c2db2a1c]
    • report stub grammars in X::Package::Stubbed alongside other stubs [585e93fe][6654591f]
    • retry .& resolution at check time to handle forward references [60ff486a][3b68b4c8]
    • add meta-object to RakuAST::Declaration::Import [e803a394][ec00e3b6]
    • strip colonpairs from subset/enum meta-object names [fc09ce63][c4ed6b48]
    • evaluate non-trivial package colonpair values once, cached [3761996b] [0e03c00c]
    • literalizing subroutine calls will never work [c1d292bb]
    • silent-replace cross-compunit class reload in 'our' scope [eb91c164][9e341da6]
    • suspend precomp-dep recording across $*REPO chain setup [081e4ba0][05c18fa1]
    • fix deparsing of RakuAST::VarDeclaration::Anonymous [b162d0a0]
    • resolve externally-defined types in synthesised closures [82cd9152][4e96aa26]
    • keep parameter target for type-object constraints [b31e255f]
    • stop currying through special-op postfixes (.WHAT etc.) [437a589e]
    • Add test to avoid regression on .assuming in precompiled module loaded via another [45b604d7][a716df8f]
    • sprintf on 6.e now builds a Callable using RakuAST for better performance [1e134814][a8235075][ec26e96f][767a89de][8c5157ae][47b5e306][31076bbc][505e0061][7a0d2661][661ffbb7][b10adfb3] [ea7786dc][6f0f1f5a][6f0f1f5a][81b3d172][6ae9ef82][842b8d2d][36e9e032][456781a5][f4f231be]
    • EVAL: register compiled code refs and drain cleanup for AST EVAL [ce279451]
    • EVAL: bridge AST EVAL to outer Perl6::World during legacy precomp (#6176) [df18dda4]

  • Internal:

    • Add CI job for RAKUDO_RAKUAST=1 built rakudo to run RAKUDO_RAKUAST=1 make spectest [35eb4abb][d0d1b716]

The following people contributed to this release:

Nick Logan, Elizabeth Mattijsen, Will Coleda, Daniel Green, librasteve, Patrick Böker, Timo Paulssen

This release implements 6.c and 6.d versions of the Raku specification. 6.c version of the language is available if you use the use v6.c version pragma, otherwise 6.d is the default.

Upcoming releases in 2026 will include new functionality that is not part of 6.c or 6.d specifications, available with a lexically scoped pragma. Our goal is to ensure that anything that is tested as part of 6.c and 6.d specifications will continue to work unchanged. There may be incremental spec releases this year as well.

If you would like to contribute or get more information, visit https://raku.org, https://rakudo.org/community, or join us on IRC (#raku on Libera), the Discord, or the [email protected] mailing list.

Additionally, we invite you to make a donation to The Raku Foundation to sponsor Raku development: https://rakufoundation.org/donate (put “Raku Core Development Fund” in the ‘Purpose’ text field)

The next release of Rakudo (#194), is tentatively scheduled for 2026-06-27.

The development team appreciates feedback! If you’re using Rakudo, do get back to us. Questions, comments, suggestions for improvements, cool discoveries, incredible hacks, or any other feedback are welcome through the channels listed above.

  1. See https://raku.org/ ↩