This is a terse description of the new features added to bash-4.4 since
the release of bash-4.3.  As always, the manual page (doc/bash.1) is
the place to look for complete descriptions.

1.  New Features in Bash

a.  There is now a settable configuration #define that will cause the shell
    to exit if the shell is running setuid without the -p option and setuid
    to the real uid fails.

b.  Command and process substitutions now turn off the `-v' option when
    executing, as other shells seem to do.

c.  The default value for the `checkhash' shell option may now be set at
    compile time with a #define.

d.  The `mapfile' builtin now has a -d option to use an arbitrary character
    as the record delimiter, and a -t option  to strip the delimiter as
    supplied with -d.

e.  The maximum number of nested recursive calls to `eval' is now settable in
    config-top.h; the default is no limit.

f.  The `-p' option to declare and similar builtins will display attributes for
    named variables even when those variables have not been assigned values
    (which are technically unset).

g.  The maximum number of nested recursive calls to `source' is now settable
    in config-top.h; the default is no limit.

h.  All builtin commands recognize the `--help' option and print a usage
    summary.

i.  Bash does not allow function names containing `/' and `=' to be exported.

j.  The `ulimit' builtin has new -k (kqueues) and -P (pseudoterminals) options.

k.  The shell now allows `time ; othercommand' to time null commands.

l.  There is a new `--enable-function-import' configuration option to allow
    importing shell functions from the environment; import is enabled by
    default.

m.  `printf -v var ""' will now set `var' to the empty string, as if `var=""'
    had been executed.

n.  GLOBIGNORE, the pattern substitution word expansion, and programmable
    completion match filtering now honor the value of the `nocasematch' option.

o.  There is a new ${parameter@spec} family of operators to transform the
    value of `parameter'.

p.  Bash no longer attempts to perform compound assignment if a variable on the
    rhs of an assignment statement argument to `declare' has the form of a
    compound assignment (e.g., w='(word)' ; declare foo=$w); compound
    assignments are accepted if the variable was already declared as an array,
    but with a warning.

q.  The declare builtin no longer displays array variables using the compound
    assignment syntax with quotes; that will generate warnings when re-used as
    input, and isn't necessary.

r.  Executing the rhs of && and || will no longer cause the shell to fork if
    it's not necessary.

s.  The `local' builtin takes a new argument: `-', which will cause it to save
    and the single-letter shell options and restore their previous values at
    function return.

t.  `complete' and `compgen' have a new `-o nosort' option, which forces
    readline to not sort the completion matches.

u.  Bash now allows waiting for the most recent process substitution, since it
    appears as $!.

v.  The `unset' builtin now unsets a scalar variable if it is subscripted with
    a `0', analogous to the ${var[0]} expansion.

w.  `set -i' is no longer valid, as in other shells.

x.  BASH_SUBSHELL is now updated for process substitution and group commands
    in pipelines, and is available with the same value when running any exit
    trap.

y.  Bash now checks $INSIDE_EMACS as well as $EMACS when deciding whether or
    not bash is being run in a GNU Emacs shell window.

z.  Bash now treats SIGINT received when running a non-builtin command in a
    loop the way it has traditionally treated running a builtin command:
    running any trap handler and breaking out of the loop.

aa. New variable: EXECIGNORE; a colon-separate list of patterns that will
    cause matching filenames to be ignored when searching for commands.

bb. Aliases whose value ends in a shell metacharacter now expand in a way to
    allow them to be `pasted' to the next token, which can potentially change
    the meaning of a command (e.g., turning `&' into `&&').

2.  New Features in Readline

a.  The history truncation code now uses the same error recovery mechansim as
    the history writing code, and restores the old version of the history file
    on error.  The error recovery mechanism handles symlinked history files.

b.  There is a new bindable variable, `enable-bracketed-paste', which enables
    support for a terminal's bracketed paste mode.

c.  The editing mode indicators can now be strings and are user-settable
    (new `emacs-mode-string', `vi-cmd-mode-string' and `vi-ins-mode-string'
    variables).  Mode strings can contain invisible character sequences.
    Setting mode strings to null strings restores the defaults.

d.  Prompt expansion adds the mode string to the last line of a multi-line
    prompt (one with embedded newlines).

e.  There is a new bindable variable, `colored-completion-prefix', which, if
    set, causes the common prefix of a set of possible completions to be
    displayed in color.

f.  There is a new bindable command `vi-yank-pop', a vi-mode version of emacs-
    mode yank-pop.

g.  The redisplay code underwent several efficiency improvements for multibyte
    locales.

h.  The insert-char function attempts to batch-insert all pending typeahead
    that maps to self-insert, as long as it is coming from the terminal.

i.  rl_callback_sigcleanup: a new application function that can clean up and
    unset any state set by readline's callback mode.  Intended to be used
    after a signal.