[Node.js Long Term Support Plan](https://github.com/nodejs/LTS) and
[Node.js Long Term Support Plan](https://github.com/nodejs/LTS) and
will be supported actively until April 2018 and maintained until April 2019.
will be supported actively until April 2018 and maintained until April 2019.
<aid="6.10.1"></a>
## 2017-03-21, Version 6.10.1 'Boron' (LTS), @MylesBorins
This LTS release comes with 297 commits. This includes 124 which are test related,
79 which are doc related, 16 which are build / tool related and 4 commits which are updates to dependencies.
### Notable changes
* **performance**: The performance of several APIs has been improved.
- `Buffer.compare()` is up to 35% faster on average. (Brian White) [#10927](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10927)
- `buffer.toJSON()` is up to 2859% faster on average. (Brian White) [#10895](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10895)
- `fs.*statSync()` functions are now up to 9.3% faster on average. (Brian White) [#11522](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11522)
- `os.loadavg` is up to 151% faster. (Brian White) [#11516](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11516)
- `process.memoryUsage()` is up to 34% faster. (Brian White) [#11497](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11497)
- `querystring.unescape()` for `Buffer`s is 15% faster on average. (Brian White) [#10837](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10837)
- `querystring.stringify()` is up to 7.8% faster on average. (Brian White) [#10852](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10852)
- `querystring.parse()` is up to 21% faster on average. (Brian White) [#10874](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10874)
* **IPC**: Batched writes have been enabled for process IPC on platforms that support Unix Domain Sockets. (Alexey Orlenko) [#10677](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10677)
- Performance gains may be up to 40% for some workloads.
* **child_process**: `spawnSync` now returns a null `status` when child is terminated by a signal. (cjihrig) [#11288](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11288)
- This fixes the behavior to act like `spawn()` does.
* **http**:
- Control characters are now always rejected when using `http.request()`. (Ben Noordhuis) [#8923](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/8923)
- Debug messages have been added for cases when headers contain invalid values. (Evan Lucas) [#9195](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/9195)
* **node**: Heap statistics now support values larger than 4GB. (Ben Noordhuis) [#10186](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10186)
* **timers**: Timer callbacks now always maintain order when interacting with domain error handling. (John Barboza) [#10522](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10522)
### Commits
* [[`fb75bed078`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/fb75bed078)] - **assert**: unlock the assert API (Rich Trott) [#11304](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11304)
* [[`d22d7cce7c`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/d22d7cce7c)] - **benchmark**: move punycode benchmark out of net (Brian White) [#10446](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10446)
* [[`b7c5295437`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/b7c5295437)] - **build**: don't squash signal handlers with --shared (Stewart X Addison) [#10539](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10539)
* [[`2d5cb3b870`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/2d5cb3b870)] - **build**: fail on CI if leftover processes (Rich Trott) [#11269](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11269)
* [[`947d07bd87`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/947d07bd87)] - **child_process**: exit spawnSync with null on signal (cjihrig) [#11288](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11288)
* [[`4179c7050f`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/4179c7050f)] - **child_process**: move anonymous class to top level (Jackson Tian) [#11147](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11147)
* [[`818cef848e`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/818cef848e)] - **child_process**: remove empty if condition (cjihrig) [#11427](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11427)
* [[`1f44922e34`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/1f44922e34)] - **crypto**: use CHECK_NE instead of ABORT or abort (Sam Roberts) [#10413](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10413)
* [[`e5d1e273d7`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/e5d1e273d7)] - **dgram**: fix possibly deoptimizing use of arguments (Vse Mozhet Byt) [#11242](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11242)
* [[`c7257e716f`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/c7257e716f)] - **dgram**: remove this aliases (cjihrig) [#11243](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11243)
* [[`227cc1e810`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/227cc1e810)] - **doc**: restrict the ES.Next features usage in tests (DavidCai) [#11452](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11452)
* [[`ff9a86a73e`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/ff9a86a73e)] - **doc**: remove Chris Dickinson from active releasers (Ben Noordhuis) [#11011](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11011)
* [[`8936814a70`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/8936814a70)] - **doc**: add who to CC list for dgram (cjihrig) [#11035](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11035)
* [[`7c22a52a74`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/7c22a52a74)] - **doc**: clarify msg when doc/api/cli.md not updated (Stewart X Addison) [#10872](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10872)
* [[`d404d8b673`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/d404d8b673)] - **doc**: edit stability text for clarity and style (Rich Trott) [#11112](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11112)
* [[`ff77425eba`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/ff77425eba)] - **doc**: link to readable and writeable stream section (Sebastian Van Sande) [#11517](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11517)
* [[`a045af3b95`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/a045af3b95)] - **doc**: update AUTHORS list to fix name (Noah Rose Ledesma) [#10945](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10945)
* [[`494ee5163f`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/494ee5163f)] - **doc**: fix misleading language in vm docs (Alexey Orlenko) [#10708](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10708)
* [[`8e807f6552`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/8e807f6552)] - **doc**: mention cc-ing nodejs/url team for reviews (Anna Henningsen) [#10652](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10652)
* [[`af991c7a98`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/af991c7a98)] - **doc**: add test naming information to guide (Rich Trott) [#10584](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10584)
* [[`7e5a59e6fc`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/7e5a59e6fc)] - **doc**: "s/git apply/git am -3" in V8 guide (Myles Borins) [#10665](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10665)
* [[`789bafd693`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/789bafd693)] - **doc**: update LTS info for current releases (Evan Lucas) [#10720](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10720)
* [[`f2ddc72b62`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/f2ddc72b62)] - **doc**: document use of Refs: for references (Gibson Fahnestock) [#10670](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10670)
* [[`0a1d15fba6`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/0a1d15fba6)] - **doc**: clarify information about ABI version (Rich Trott) [#10419](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10419)
* [[`22f3813b3e`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/22f3813b3e)] - **doc**: clarify the statement in vm.createContext() (AnnaMag) [#10519](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10519)
* [[`4995a819e0`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/4995a819e0)] - **doc**: fix a wrong note in the buffer.md (Vse Mozhet Byt) [#9795](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/9795)
* [[`6d3c2d6212`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/6d3c2d6212)] - **doc**: fix examples in buffer.md to avoid confusion (Vse Mozhet Byt) [#9795](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/9795)
* [[`020c90eb2d`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/020c90eb2d)] - **doc**: remove a wrong remark in the buffer.md (Vse Mozhet Byt) [#9795](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/9795)
* [[`8af811f90e`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/8af811f90e)] - **doc**: fix copy-paste artifacts in the buffer.md (Vse Mozhet Byt) [#9795](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/9795)
* [[`a2b40ad6a4`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/a2b40ad6a4)] - **doc**: fix wrong function arguments in the buffer.md (Vse Mozhet Byt) [#9795](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/9795)
* [[`e94abaec1c`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/e94abaec1c)] - **doc**: fix a syntax error in the buffer.md (Vse Mozhet Byt) [#9795](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/9795)
* [[`b36c315423`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/b36c315423)] - **doc**: var =\> const/let in the buffer.md (Vse Mozhet Byt) [#9795](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/9795)
* [[`b503824b81`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/b503824b81)] - **doc,test**: args to `buffer.copy` can be Uint8Arrays (Anna Henningsen) [#11486](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11486)
* [[`a3ad63b9b3`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/a3ad63b9b3)] - **lib,src**: support values \> 4GB in heap statistics (Ben Noordhuis) [#10186](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10186)
* [[`8b5dd35ae8`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/8b5dd35ae8)] - **meta**: add explicit deprecation and semver-major policy (James M Snell) [#7964](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/7964)
* [[`4df850ba59`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/4df850ba59)] - **meta**: remove Chris Dickinson from CTC (Chris Dickinson) [#11267](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11267)
* [[`8863360a21`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/8863360a21)] - **meta**: adding Italo A. Casas PGP Fingerprint (Italo A. Casas) [#11202](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11202)
* [[`8287d03adf`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/8287d03adf)] - **meta**: decharter the http working group (James M Snell) [#10604](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10604)
* [[`c7436df889`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/c7436df889)] - **src**: add a missing space in node_os.cc (Alexey Orlenko) [#10931](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10931)
* [[`4358c6096c`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/4358c6096c)] - **src**: enable writev for pipe handles on Unix (Alexey Orlenko) [#10677](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10677)
* [[`1dddfeccb2`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/1dddfeccb2)] - **src**: remove usage of deprecated debug API (Yang Guo) [#11437](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11437)
* [[`7f273c6f6e`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/7f273c6f6e)] - **src**: update http-parser link (Daniel Bevenius) [#11477](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11477)
* [[`214b514efe`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/214b514efe)] - **src**: use ABORT() macro instead of abort() (Evan Lucas) [#9613](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/9613)
* [[`412f380903`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/412f380903)] - **stream**: move legacy to lib/internal dir (yorkie) [#8197](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/8197)
* [[`22d4ed2484`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/22d4ed2484)] - **test**: add an exception test to http-write-head (Yuta Hiroto) [#11034](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11034)
* [[`9edd342e81`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/9edd342e81)] - **test**: add known_issues test for #10223 (AnnaMag) [#11024](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11024)
* [[`646f82520c`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/646f82520c)] - **test**: guarantee test runs in test-readline-keys (Rich Trott) [#11023](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11023)
* [[`8ff15a262d`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/8ff15a262d)] - **test**: allow for slow hosts in spawnSync() test (Rich Trott) [#10998](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10998)
* [[`62f6749cd6`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/62f6749cd6)] - **test**: expand test coverage of fs.js (Vinícius do Carmo) [#10947](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10947)
* [[`5cea2239d8`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/5cea2239d8)] - **test**: expand test coverage of events.js (Vinícius do Carmo) [#10947](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10947)
* [[`0b5f2b45f9`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/0b5f2b45f9)] - **test**: expand test coverage of fs.js (Vinícius do Carmo) [#10972](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10972)
* [[`2a52a68a96`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/2a52a68a96)] - **test**: add dgram.Socket.prototype.bind's test (abouthiroppy) [#10894](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10894)
* [[`2494d8ac68`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/2494d8ac68)] - **test**: update V8 flag in test (Franziska Hinkelmann) [#10917](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10917)
* [[`9ac22cdcaf`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/9ac22cdcaf)] - **test**: increase coverage of string-decoder (abouthiroppy) [#10863](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10863)
* [[`d766f5e0ad`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/d766f5e0ad)] - **test**: improving coverage of dns-lookup (abouthiroppy) [#10844](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10844)
* [[`c740cb6667`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/c740cb6667)] - **test**: add test case to test-http-response-statuscode.js (abouthiroppy) [#10808](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10808)
* [[`e316fafbd4`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/e316fafbd4)] - **test**: delete duplicate test of noAssert in readUInt* (larissayvette) [#10791](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10791)
* [[`896fb63173`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/896fb63173)] - **test**: add http_incoming's matchKnownFields test (abouthiroppy) [#10811](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10811)
* [[`0f3677dd5d`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/0f3677dd5d)] - **test**: use realpath for NODE_TEST_DIR in common.js (Gibson Fahnestock) [#10723](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10723)
* [[`5d0cc617bb`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/5d0cc617bb)] - **test**: move resource intensive test to sequential (Rich Trott) [#10744](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10744)
* [[`cd4bb067ad`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/cd4bb067ad)] - **test**: add test for noAssert option in buf.read*() (larissayvette) [#10713](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10713)
* [[`50ee4e6dad`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/50ee4e6dad)] - **test**: require handler to be run in sigwinch test (Rich Trott) [#11068](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11068)
* [[`8cce29587c`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/8cce29587c)] - **test**: add 2nd argument to throws in test-assert (Marlena Compton) [#11061](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11061)
* [[`87488ba2ff`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/87488ba2ff)] - **test**: add path.join's test (Yuta Hiroto) [#11063](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11063)
* [[`232664a10d`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/232664a10d)] - **test**: fix timing sensitivity in debugger test (Ali Ijaz Sheikh) [#11008](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11008)
* [[`3248cdb2e6`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/3248cdb2e6)] - **test**: improve crypto.setEngine coverage to check for errors (Sebastian Van Sande) [#11143](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11143)
* [[`28111f9eb2`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/28111f9eb2)] - **test**: increase specificity in dgram test (Rich Trott) [#11187](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11187)
* [[`c5e8ccab63`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/c5e8ccab63)] - **test**: remove obsolete comment from dgram test (ALJCepeda) [#8689](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/8689)
* [[`7aebc6907c`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/7aebc6907c)] - **test**: improve checks in test-path-parse-format (cjihrig) [#11223](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11223)
* [[`e7b7d7279c`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/e7b7d7279c)] - **test**: cases to querystring related to empty string (Daijiro Wachi) [#11329](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11329)
* [[`5a92fc25a1`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/5a92fc25a1)] - **test**: consolidate buffer.read() in a file (larissayvette) [#11297](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11297)
* [[`6bf936644e`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/6bf936644e)] - **test**: increase coverage of vm (DavidCai) [#11377](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11377)
* [[`2c4aa39021`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/2c4aa39021)] - **test**: mark test-tty-wrap as flaky for AIX (Michael Dawson) [#10618](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10618)
* [[`b90a141cc7`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/b90a141cc7)] - **timer**: remove duplicated word in comment (asafdav2) [#11323](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11323)
* [[`d71ebb90ec`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/d71ebb90ec)] - **timer,domain**: maintain order of timer callbacks (John Barboza) [#10522](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10522)
* [[`2a168917cb`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/2a168917cb)] - **tls**: do not crash on STARTTLS when OCSP requested (Fedor Indutny) [#10706](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10706)
* [[`fb2f449acc`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/fb2f449acc)] - **tools**: update ESLint to current version (Rich Trott) [#10561](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/10561)
* [[`83a3aef873`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/83a3aef873)] - **tools**: rename eslintrc to an undeprecated format (Sakthipriyan Vairamani) [#7699](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/7699)
* [[`e54b433c8d`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/e54b433c8d)] - **util**: use ES2015+ Object.is to check negative zero (Shinnosuke Watanabe) [#11332](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/11332)
* [[`2e15d48447`](https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/2e15d48447)] - **v8**: drop v8::FunctionCallbackInfo\<T\>::NewTarget() (Ben Noordhuis) [#9293](https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/9293)