Notable changes:

* buffer: (Breaking) Removed both 'raw' and 'raws' encoding types from Buffer,
  these have been deprecated for a long time (Sakthipriyan Vairamani) nodejs#2859.
* console: (Breaking) Values reported by console.time() now have 3 decimals of
  accuracy added (Michaël Zasso) nodejs#3166.
* fs:
  - fs.readFile*(), fs.writeFile*(), and fs.appendFile*() now also accept a file
    descriptor as their first argument (Johannes Wüller) nodejs#3163.
  - (Breaking) In fs.readFile(), if an encoding is specified and the internal
    toString() fails the error is no longer thrown but is passed to the callback
    (Evan Lucas) nodejs#3485.
  - (Breaking) In fs.read() (using the fs.read(fd, length, position, encoding,
    callback) form), if the internal toString() fails the error is no longer
    thrown but is passed to the callback (Evan Lucas) nodejs#3503.
* http:
  - Fixed a bug where pipelined http requests would stall (Fedor Indutny) nodejs#3342.
  - (Breaking) When parsing HTTP, don't add duplicates of the following headers:
    Retry-After, ETag, Last-Modified, Server, Age, Expires. This is in addition
    to the following headers which already block duplicates: Content-Type,
    Content-Length, User-Agent, Referer, Host, Authorization,
    Proxy-Authorization, If-Modified-Since, If-Unmodified-Since, From, Location,
    Max-Forwards (James M Snell) nodejs#3090.
  - (Breaking) The callback argument to OutgoingMessage#setTimeout() must be a
    function or a TypeError is thrown (James M Snell) nodejs#3090.
  - (Breaking) HTTP methods and header names must now conform to the RFC 2616
    "token" rule, a list of allowed characters that excludes control characters
    and a number of separator characters. Specifically, methods and header names
    must now match /^[a-zA-Z0-9_!#$%&'*+.^`|~-]+$/ or a TypeError will be thrown
    (James M Snell) nodejs#2526.
* node:
  - (Breaking) Deprecated the _linklist module (Rich Trott) nodejs#3078.
  - (Breaking) Removed require.paths and require.registerExtension(), both had
    been previously set to throw Error when accessed
    (Sakthipriyan Vairamani) nodejs#2922.
* npm: Upgraded to version 3.3.6 from 2.14.7, see
  https://github.com/npm/npm/releases/tag/v3.3.6 for more details. This is a
  major version bump for npm and it has seen a significant amount of change.
  Please see the original npm v3.0.0 release notes for a list of major changes
  (Rebecca Turner) nodejs#3310.
* src: (Breaking) Bumped NODE_MODULE_VERSION to 47 from 46, this is necessary
  due to the V8 upgrade. Native add-ons will need to be recompiled
  (Rod Vagg) nodejs#3400.
* timers: Attempt to reuse the timer handle for setTimeout().unref(). This fixes
  a long-standing known issue where unrefed timers would perviously hold
  beforeExit open (Fedor Indutny) nodejs#3407.
* tls:
  - Added ALPN Support (Shigeki Ohtsu) nodejs#2564.
  - TLS options can now be passed in an object to createSecurePair()
    (Коренберг Марк) nodejs#2441.
  - (Breaking) The default minimum DH key size for tls.connect() is now 1024
    bits and a warning is shown when DH key size is less than 2048 bits. This a security consideration to prevent "logjam" attacks. A new minDHSize TLS
    option can be used to override the default. (Shigeki Ohtsu) nodejs#1831.
* util:
  - (Breaking) util.p() was deprecated for years, and has now been removed
    (Wyatt Preul) nodejs#3432.
  - (Breaking) util.inherits() can now work with ES6 classes. This is considered
    a breaking change because of potential subtle side-effects caused by a
    change from directly reassigning the prototype of the constructor using
    `ctor.prototype = Object.create(superCtor.prototype, { constructor: { ... } })`
    to using `Object.setPrototypeOf(ctor.prototype, superCtor.prototype)`
    (Michaël Zasso) nodejs#3455.
* v8: (Breaking) Upgraded to 4.6.85.25 from 4.5.103.35 (Ali Ijaz Sheikh) nodejs#3351.
  - Implements the spread operator, see
    https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Operators/Spread_operator
    for further information.
  - Implements new.target, see
    https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Operators/new.target
    for further information.
* zlib: Decompression now throws on truncated input (e.g. unexpected end of
  file) (Yuval Brik) nodejs#2595.

PR-URL: nodejs#3466

Notable changes:

* buffer: (Breaking) Removed both 'raw' and 'raws' encoding types from Buffer,
  these have been deprecated for a long time (Sakthipriyan Vairamani) #2859.
* console: (Breaking) Values reported by console.time() now have 3 decimals of
  accuracy added (Michaël Zasso) #3166.
* fs:
  - fs.readFile*(), fs.writeFile*(), and fs.appendFile*() now also accept a file
    descriptor as their first argument (Johannes Wüller) #3163.
  - (Breaking) In fs.readFile(), if an encoding is specified and the internal
    toString() fails the error is no longer thrown but is passed to the callback
    (Evan Lucas) #3485.
  - (Breaking) In fs.read() (using the fs.read(fd, length, position, encoding,
    callback) form), if the internal toString() fails the error is no longer
    thrown but is passed to the callback (Evan Lucas) #3503.
* http:
  - Fixed a bug where pipelined http requests would stall (Fedor Indutny) #3342.
  - (Breaking) When parsing HTTP, don't add duplicates of the following headers:
    Retry-After, ETag, Last-Modified, Server, Age, Expires. This is in addition
    to the following headers which already block duplicates: Content-Type,
    Content-Length, User-Agent, Referer, Host, Authorization,
    Proxy-Authorization, If-Modified-Since, If-Unmodified-Since, From, Location,
    Max-Forwards (James M Snell) #3090.
  - (Breaking) The callback argument to OutgoingMessage#setTimeout() must be a
    function or a TypeError is thrown (James M Snell) #3090.
  - (Breaking) HTTP methods and header names must now conform to the RFC 2616
    "token" rule, a list of allowed characters that excludes control characters
    and a number of separator characters. Specifically, methods and header names
    must now match /^[a-zA-Z0-9_!#$%&'*+.^`|~-]+$/ or a TypeError will be thrown
    (James M Snell) #2526.
* node:
  - (Breaking) Deprecated the _linklist module (Rich Trott) #3078.
  - (Breaking) Removed require.paths and require.registerExtension(), both had
    been previously set to throw Error when accessed
    (Sakthipriyan Vairamani) #2922.
* npm: Upgraded to version 3.3.6 from 2.14.7, see
  https://github.com/npm/npm/releases/tag/v3.3.6 for more details. This is a
  major version bump for npm and it has seen a significant amount of change.
  Please see the original npm v3.0.0 release notes for a list of major changes
  (Rebecca Turner) #3310.
* src: (Breaking) Bumped NODE_MODULE_VERSION to 47 from 46, this is necessary
  due to the V8 upgrade. Native add-ons will need to be recompiled
  (Rod Vagg) #3400.
* timers: Attempt to reuse the timer handle for setTimeout().unref(). This fixes
  a long-standing known issue where unrefed timers would perviously hold
  beforeExit open (Fedor Indutny) #3407.
* tls:
  - Added ALPN Support (Shigeki Ohtsu) #2564.
  - TLS options can now be passed in an object to createSecurePair()
    (Коренберг Марк) #2441.
  - (Breaking) The default minimum DH key size for tls.connect() is now 1024
    bits and a warning is shown when DH key size is less than 2048 bits. This a security consideration to prevent "logjam" attacks. A new minDHSize TLS
    option can be used to override the default. (Shigeki Ohtsu) #1831.
* util:
  - (Breaking) util.p() was deprecated for years, and has now been removed
    (Wyatt Preul) #3432.
  - (Breaking) util.inherits() can now work with ES6 classes. This is considered
    a breaking change because of potential subtle side-effects caused by a
    change from directly reassigning the prototype of the constructor using
    `ctor.prototype = Object.create(superCtor.prototype, { constructor: { ... } })`
    to using `Object.setPrototypeOf(ctor.prototype, superCtor.prototype)`
    (Michaël Zasso) #3455.
* v8: (Breaking) Upgraded to 4.6.85.25 from 4.5.103.35 (Ali Ijaz Sheikh) #3351.
  - Implements the spread operator, see
    https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Operators/Spread_operator
    for further information.
  - Implements new.target, see
    https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Operators/new.target
    for further information.
* zlib: Decompression now throws on truncated input (e.g. unexpected end of
  file) (Yuval Brik) #2595.

PR-URL: #3466

Helps in implementation of #6204, where some options passed to
`createSecurePair()` are ignored before this patch.

These options are very helpful if someone wants to pass
`options.servername` or `options.SNICallback` to securepair.

PR-URL: #2441
Reviewed-By: Fedor Indutny <fedor@indutny.com>

Helps in implementation of #6204, where some options passed to
`createSecurePair()` are ignored before this patch.

These options are very helpful if someone wants to pass
`options.servername` or `options.SNICallback` to securepair.

PR-URL: #2441
Reviewed-By: Fedor Indutny <fedor@indutny.com>

Notable changes:

This update to the LTS line includes a number of semver minor changes
that have been staged for a number of months. This includes:

  * deps: backport 9da3ab6 from V8 upstream (Ali Ijaz Sheikh)
    - #3609
  * http: handle errors on idle sockets (José F. Romaniello)
    - #4482
  * src: add BE support to StringBytes::Encode() (Bryon Leung)
    - #3410
  * tls: add `options` argument to createSecurePair (Коренберг Марк)
    - #2441

There are also quite a large number of semver patch changes
including over 20 doc fixes and almost 50 test fixes.

Notable semver patch changes include:

  * deps: upgrade to npm 2.14.18 (Kat Marchán)
    - #5245
  * https: evict cached sessions on error (Fedor Indutny)
    - #4982
  * process: support symbol events (cjihrig)
    - #4798
  * querystring: improve parse() performance (Brian White)
    - #4675

PR-URL: #5301

In December we announced that we would be doing a minor release in
order to get a number of voted on SEMVER-MINOR changes into LTS.
Our ability to release this was delayed due to the unforeseen security
release v4.3. We are quickly bumping to v4.4 in order to bring you the
features that we had committed to releasing.

Notable changes:

The SEMVER-MINOR changes include:
  * **deps**:
    - An update to v8 that introduces a new flag
      --perf_basic_prof_only_functions (Ali Ijaz Sheikh)
      #3609
  * **http**:
    - A new feature in http(s) agent that catches errors on
      *keep alived* connections (José F. Romaniello)
      #4482
  * **src**:
    - Better support for Big-Endian systems (Bryon Leung)
      #3410
  * **tls**:
    - A new feature that allows you to pass common SSL options to
      `tls.createSecurePair` (Коренберг Марк)
      #2441

Notable semver patch changes include:

  * **npm**
    - upgrade to npm 2.14.19 (Kat Marchán)
      #5335
  * **https**:
    - A potential fix for #3692)
      HTTP/HTTPS client requests throwing EPROTO (Fedor Indutny)
      #4982
  * **process**:
    - Add support for symbols in event emitters. Symbols didn't exist
      when it was written ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (cjihrig)
      #4798
  * **querystring**:
    - querystring.parse() is now 13-22% faster! (Brian White)
      #4675

PR-URL: #5301

In December we announced that we would be doing a minor release in order to
get a number of voted on SEMVER-MINOR changes into LTS. Our ability to release this
was delayed due to the unforeseen security release v4.3. We are quickly bumping to
v4.4 in order to bring you the features that we had committed to releasing.

This release also includes security updates to openssl. More information can be found [on nodejs.org](https://nodejs.org/en/blog/vulnerability/openssl-march-2016/)

This release also includes over 70 fixes to our docs and over 50 fixes to tests.

The SEMVER-MINOR changes include:
  * deps:
    - An update to v8 that introduces a new flag --perf_basic_prof_only_functions (Ali Ijaz Sheikh) #3609
  * http:
    - A new feature in http(s) agent that catches errors on *keep alived* connections (José F. Romaniello) #4482
  * src:
    - Better support for Big-Endian systems (Bryon Leung) #3410
  * tls:
    - A new feature that allows you to pass common SSL options to `tls.createSecurePair` (Коренберг Марк) #2441
  * tools
    - a new flag `--prof-process` which will execute the tick processor on the provided isolate files (Matt Loring) #4021

Notable semver patch changes include:

  * buld:
    - Support python path that includes spaces. This should be of particular interest to our Windows users who may have python living in `c:/Program Files` (Felix Becker) #4841
  * https:
    - A potential fix for #3692 HTTP/HTTPS client requests throwing EPROTO (Fedor Indutny) #4982
  * installer:
    - More readable profiling information from isolate tick logs (Matt Loring) #3032
  * *npm:
    - upgrade to npm 2.14.20 (Kat Marchán) #5510
  * *openssl:
    - upgrade openssl to 1.0.2g (Ben Noordhuis) #5507
  * process:
    - Add support for symbols in event emitters. Symbols didn't exist when it was written ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (cjihrig) #4798
  * querystring:
    - querystring.parse() is now 13-22% faster! (Brian White) #4675
  * streams:
    - performance improvements for moving small buffers that shows a 5% throughput gain. IoT projects have been seen to be as much as 10% faster with this change! (Matteo Collina) #4354
  * tools:
    - eslint has been updated to version 2.1.0 (Rich Trott) #5214

PR-URL: #5301

In December we announced that we would be doing a minor release in order to
get a number of voted on SEMVER-MINOR changes into LTS. Our ability to release this
was delayed due to the unforeseen security release v4.3. We are quickly bumping to
v4.4 in order to bring you the features that we had committed to releasing.

This release also includes security updates to openssl. More information can be found [on nodejs.org](https://nodejs.org/en/blog/vulnerability/openssl-march-2016/)

This release also includes over 70 fixes to our docs and over 50 fixes to tests.

The SEMVER-MINOR changes include:
  * deps:
    - An update to v8 that introduces a new flag --perf_basic_prof_only_functions (Ali Ijaz Sheikh) nodejs#3609
  * http:
    - A new feature in http(s) agent that catches errors on *keep alived* connections (José F. Romaniello) nodejs#4482
  * src:
    - Better support for Big-Endian systems (Bryon Leung) nodejs#3410
  * tls:
    - A new feature that allows you to pass common SSL options to `tls.createSecurePair` (Коренберг Марк) nodejs#2441
  * tools
    - a new flag `--prof-process` which will execute the tick processor on the provided isolate files (Matt Loring) nodejs#4021

Notable semver patch changes include:

  * buld:
    - Support python path that includes spaces. This should be of particular interest to our Windows users who may have python living in `c:/Program Files` (Felix Becker) nodejs#4841
  * https:
    - A potential fix for nodejs#3692 HTTP/HTTPS client requests throwing EPROTO (Fedor Indutny) nodejs#4982
  * installer:
    - More readable profiling information from isolate tick logs (Matt Loring) nodejs#3032
  * *npm:
    - upgrade to npm 2.14.20 (Kat Marchán) nodejs#5510
  * *openssl:
    - upgrade openssl to 1.0.2g (Ben Noordhuis) nodejs#5507
  * process:
    - Add support for symbols in event emitters. Symbols didn't exist when it was written ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (cjihrig) nodejs#4798
  * querystring:
    - querystring.parse() is now 13-22% faster! (Brian White) nodejs#4675
  * streams:
    - performance improvements for moving small buffers that shows a 5% throughput gain. IoT projects have been seen to be as much as 10% faster with this change! (Matteo Collina) nodejs#4354
  * tools:
    - eslint has been updated to version 2.1.0 (Rich Trott) nodejs#5214

PR-URL: nodejs#5301

Helps in implementation of #6204, where some options passed to
`createSecurePair()` are ignored before this patch.

These options are very helpful if someone wants to pass
`options.servername` or `options.SNICallback` to securepair.

PR-URL: #2441
Reviewed-By: Fedor Indutny <fedor@indutny.com>

In December we announced that we would be doing a minor release in order to
get a number of voted on SEMVER-MINOR changes into LTS. Our ability to release this
was delayed due to the unforeseen security release v4.3. We are quickly bumping to
v4.4 in order to bring you the features that we had committed to releasing.

This release also includes over 70 fixes to our docs and over 50 fixes to tests.

The SEMVER-MINOR changes include:
  * deps:
    - An update to v8 that introduces a new flag --perf_basic_prof_only_functions (Ali Ijaz Sheikh) #3609
  * http:
    - A new feature in http(s) agent that catches errors on *keep alived* connections (José F. Romaniello) #4482
  * src:
    - Better support for Big-Endian systems (Bryon Leung) #3410
  * tls:
    - A new feature that allows you to pass common SSL options to `tls.createSecurePair` (Коренберг Марк) #2441
  * tools
    - a new flag `--prof-process` which will execute the tick processor on the provided isolate files (Matt Loring) #4021

Notable semver patch changes include:

  * buld:
    - Support python path that includes spaces. This should be of particular interest to our Windows users who may have python living in `c:/Program Files` (Felix Becker) #4841
  * https:
    - A potential fix for #3692 HTTP/HTTPS client requests throwing EPROTO (Fedor Indutny) #4982
  * installer:
    - More readable profiling information from isolate tick logs (Matt Loring) #3032
  * *npm:
    - upgrade to npm 2.14.20 (Kat Marchán) #5510
  * process:
    - Add support for symbols in event emitters. Symbols didn't exist when it was written ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (cjihrig) #4798
  * querystring:
    - querystring.parse() is now 13-22% faster! (Brian White) #4675
  * streams:
    - performance improvements for moving small buffers that shows a 5% throughput gain. IoT projects have been seen to be as much as 10% faster with this change! (Matteo Collina) #4354
  * tools:
    - eslint has been updated to version 2.1.0 (Rich Trott) #5214

PR-URL: #5301

In December we announced that we would be doing a minor release in order to
get a number of voted on SEMVER-MINOR changes into LTS. Our ability to release this
was delayed due to the unforeseen security release v4.3. We are quickly bumping to
v4.4 in order to bring you the features that we had committed to releasing.

This release also includes over 70 fixes to our docs and over 50 fixes to tests.

The SEMVER-MINOR changes include:
  * deps:
    - An update to v8 that introduces a new flag --perf_basic_prof_only_functions (Ali Ijaz Sheikh) #3609
  * http:
    - A new feature in http(s) agent that catches errors on *keep alived* connections (José F. Romaniello) #4482
  * src:
    - Better support for Big-Endian systems (Bryon Leung) #3410
  * tls:
    - A new feature that allows you to pass common SSL options to `tls.createSecurePair` (Коренберг Марк) #2441
  * tools
    - a new flag `--prof-process` which will execute the tick processor on the provided isolate files (Matt Loring) #4021

Notable semver patch changes include:

  * buld:
    - Support python path that includes spaces. This should be of particular interest to our Windows users who may have python living in `c:/Program Files` (Felix Becker) #4841
  * https:
    - A potential fix for #3692 HTTP/HTTPS client requests throwing EPROTO (Fedor Indutny) #4982
  * installer:
    - More readable profiling information from isolate tick logs (Matt Loring) #3032
  * *npm:
    - upgrade to npm 2.14.20 (Kat Marchán) #5510
  * process:
    - Add support for symbols in event emitters. Symbols didn't exist when it was written ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (cjihrig) #4798
  * querystring:
    - querystring.parse() is now 13-22% faster! (Brian White) #4675
  * streams:
    - performance improvements for moving small buffers that shows a 5% throughput gain. IoT projects have been seen to be as much as 10% faster with this change! (Matteo Collina) #4354
  * tools:
    - eslint has been updated to version 2.1.0 (Rich Trott) #5214

PR-URL: #5301

In December we announced that we would be doing a minor release in order to
get a number of voted on SEMVER-MINOR changes into LTS. Our ability to release this
was delayed due to the unforeseen security release v4.3. We are quickly bumping to
v4.4 in order to bring you the features that we had committed to releasing.

This release also includes over 70 fixes to our docs and over 50 fixes to tests.

The SEMVER-MINOR changes include:
  * deps:
    - An update to v8 that introduces a new flag --perf_basic_prof_only_functions (Ali Ijaz Sheikh) #3609
  * http:
    - A new feature in http(s) agent that catches errors on *keep alived* connections (José F. Romaniello) #4482
  * src:
    - Better support for Big-Endian systems (Bryon Leung) #3410
  * tls:
    - A new feature that allows you to pass common SSL options to `tls.createSecurePair` (Коренберг Марк) #2441
  * tools
    - a new flag `--prof-process` which will execute the tick processor on the provided isolate files (Matt Loring) #4021

Notable semver patch changes include:

  * buld:
    - Support python path that includes spaces. This should be of particular interest to our Windows users who may have python living in `c:/Program Files` (Felix Becker) #4841
  * https:
    - A potential fix for #3692 HTTP/HTTPS client requests throwing EPROTO (Fedor Indutny) #4982
  * installer:
    - More readable profiling information from isolate tick logs (Matt Loring) #3032
  * *npm:
    - upgrade to npm 2.14.20 (Kat Marchán) #5510
  * process:
    - Add support for symbols in event emitters. Symbols didn't exist when it was written ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (cjihrig) #4798
  * querystring:
    - querystring.parse() is now 13-22% faster! (Brian White) #4675
  * streams:
    - performance improvements for moving small buffers that shows a 5% throughput gain. IoT projects have been seen to be as much as 10% faster with this change! (Matteo Collina) #4354
  * tools:
    - eslint has been updated to version 2.1.0 (Rich Trott) #5214

PR-URL: #5301

In December we announced that we would be doing a minor release in order to
get a number of voted on SEMVER-MINOR changes into LTS. Our ability to release this
was delayed due to the unforeseen security release v4.3. We are quickly bumping to
v4.4 in order to bring you the features that we had committed to releasing.

This release also includes over 70 fixes to our docs and over 50 fixes to tests.

The SEMVER-MINOR changes include:
  * deps:
    - An update to v8 that introduces a new flag --perf_basic_prof_only_functions (Ali Ijaz Sheikh) #3609
  * http:
    - A new feature in http(s) agent that catches errors on *keep alived* connections (José F. Romaniello) #4482
  * src:
    - Better support for Big-Endian systems (Bryon Leung) #3410
  * tls:
    - A new feature that allows you to pass common SSL options to `tls.createSecurePair` (Коренберг Марк) #2441
  * tools
    - a new flag `--prof-process` which will execute the tick processor on the provided isolate files (Matt Loring) #4021

Notable semver patch changes include:

  * buld:
    - Support python path that includes spaces. This should be of particular interest to our Windows users who may have python living in `c:/Program Files` (Felix Becker) #4841
  * https:
    - A potential fix for #3692 HTTP/HTTPS client requests throwing EPROTO (Fedor Indutny) #4982
  * installer:
    - More readable profiling information from isolate tick logs (Matt Loring) #3032
  * *npm:
    - upgrade to npm 2.14.20 (Kat Marchán) #5510
  * process:
    - Add support for symbols in event emitters. Symbols didn't exist when it was written ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (cjihrig) #4798
  * querystring:
    - querystring.parse() is now 13-22% faster! (Brian White) #4675
  * streams:
    - performance improvements for moving small buffers that shows a 5% throughput gain. IoT projects have been seen to be as much as 10% faster with this change! (Matteo Collina) #4354
  * tools:
    - eslint has been updated to version 2.1.0 (Rich Trott) #5214

PR-URL: #5301