*   Add `Application#message_verifier` method to return a message verifier.

    This verifier can be used to generate and verify signed messages in the application.

        message = Rails.application.message_verifier.generate('my sensible data')
        Rails.application.message_verifier.verify(message)
        # => 'my sensible data'

    It is recommended to not use the same verifier to different things, so you can get different
    verifiers passing the name argument.

        message = Rails.application.message_verifier('cookies').generate('my sensible cookie data')

    By default all the verifiers will share the same salt, so messages generates by one can be
    verifier by another one.

    See the `ActiveSupport::MessageVerifier` documentation to more information.

    *Rafael Mendonça França*

*   The [Spring application
    preloader](https://github.com/jonleighton/spring) is now installed
    by default for new applications. It uses the development group of
    the Gemfile, so will not be installed in production.

    *Jon Leighton*

*   Uses .railsrc while creating new plugin if it is available.
    Fixes #10700.

    *Prathamesh Sonpatki*

*   Remove turbolinks when generating a new application based on a template that skips it.

    Example:

        Skips turbolinks adding `add_gem_entry_filter { |gem| gem.name != "turbolinks" }`
        to the template.

    *Lauro Caetano*

*   Instrument an `load_config_initializer.railties` event on each load of configuration initializer
    from `config/initializers`. Subscribers should be attached before `load_config_initializers`
    initializer completed.

    Registering subscriber examples:

        # config/application.rb
        module RailsApp
          class Application < Rails::Application
            ActiveSupport::Notifications.subscribe('load_config_initializer.railties') do |*args|
              event = ActiveSupport::Notifications::Event.new(*args)
              puts "Loaded initializer #{event.payload[:initializer]} (#{event.duration}ms)"
            end
          end
        end

        # my_engine/lib/my_engine/engine.rb
        module MyEngine
          class Engine < ::Rails::Engine
            config.before_initialize do
              ActiveSupport::Notifications.subscribe('load_config_initializer.railties') do |*args|
                event = ActiveSupport::Notifications::Event.new(*args)
                puts "Loaded initializer #{event.payload[:initializer]} (#{event.duration}ms)"
              end
            end
          end
        end

    *Paul Nikitochkin*

*   Support for Pathnames in eager load paths.

    *Mike Pack*

*   Fixed missing line and shadow on service pages(404, 422, 500).

    *Dmitry Korotkov*

*   `BACKTRACE` environment variable to show unfiltered backtraces for
    test failures.

    Example:

        $ BACKTRACE=1 ruby -Itest ...
        # or with rake
        $ BACKTRACE=1 bin/rake

    *Yves Senn*

*   Removal of all javascript stuff (gems and files) when generating a new
    application using the `--skip-javascript` option.

    *Robin Dupret*

*   Make the application name snake cased when it contains spaces

    The application name is used to fill the `database.yml` and
    `session_store.rb` files ; previously, if the provided name
    contained whitespaces, it led to unexpected names in these files.

    *Robin Dupret*

*   Added `--model-name` option to `ScaffoldControllerGenerator`.

    *yalab*

*   Expose MiddlewareStack#unshift to environment configuration.

    *Ben Pickles*

*   `rails server` will only extend the logger to output to STDOUT
     in development environment.

    *Richard Schneeman*

*   Don't require passing path to app before options in `rails new`
    and `rails plugin new`

    *Piotr Sarnacki*

*   rake notes now searches *.less files

    *Josh Crowder*

*   Generate nested route for namespaced controller generated using
    `rails g controller`.
    Fixes #11532.

    Example:

        rails g controller admin/dashboard index

        # Before:
        get "dashboard/index"

        # After:
        namespace :admin do
          get "dashboard/index"
        end

    *Prathamesh Sonpatki*

*   Fix the event name of action_dispatch requests.

    *Rafael Mendonça França*

*   Make `config.log_level` work with custom loggers.

    *Max Shytikov*

*   Changed stylesheet load order in the stylesheet manifest generator.
    Fixes #11639.

    *Pawel Janiak*

*   Added generated unit test for generator generator using new
    `test:generators` rake task.

    *Josef Šimánek*

*   Removed `update:application_controller` rake task.

    *Josef Šimánek*

*   Fix `rake environment` to do not eager load modules

    *Paul Nikitochkin*

*   Fix `rake notes` to look into `*.sass` files

    *Yuri Artemev*

*   Removed deprecated `Rails.application.railties.engines`.

    *Arun Agrawal*

*   Removed deprecated threadsafe! from Rails Config.

    *Paul Nikitochkin*

*   Remove deprecated `ActiveRecord::Generators::ActiveModel#update_attributes` in
    favor of `ActiveRecord::Generators::ActiveModel#update`

    *Vipul A M*

*   Remove deprecated `config.whiny_nils` option

    *Vipul A M*

*   Rename `commands/plugin_new.rb` to `commands/plugin.rb` and fix references

    *Richard Schneeman*

*   Fix `rails plugin --help` command.

    *Richard Schneeman*

*   Omit turbolinks configuration completely on skip_javascript generator option.

    *Nikita Fedyashev*

*   Removed deprecated rake tasks for running tests: `rake test:uncommitted` and
    `rake test:recent`.

    *John Wang*

*   Clearing autoloaded constants triggers routes reloading.
    Fixes #10685.

    *Xavier Noria*

*   Fixes bug with scaffold generator with `--assets=false --resource-route=false`.
    Fixes #9525.

    *Arun Agrawal*

*   Rails::Railtie no longer forces the Rails::Configurable module on everything
    that subclasses it. Instead, the methods from Rails::Configurable have been
    moved to class methods in Railtie and the Railtie has been made abstract.

    *John Wang*

*   Changes repetitive th tags to use colspan attribute in `index.html.erb` template.

    *Sıtkı Bağdat*

Please check [4-0-stable](https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/4-0-stable/railties/CHANGELOG.md) for previous changes.