Commit | Line | Data |
---|---|---|
a0d0e21e LW |
1 | =head1 NAME |
2 | ||
095a5c3e | 3 | perl - The Perl 5 language interpreter |
a0d0e21e LW |
4 | |
5 | =head1 SYNOPSIS | |
6 | ||
df451b2a RGS |
7 | B<perl> S<[ B<-sTtuUWX> ]> |
8 | S<[ B<-hv> ] [ B<-V>[:I<configvar>] ]> | |
9 | S<[ B<-cw> ] [ B<-d>[B<t>][:I<debugger>] ] [ B<-D>[I<number/list>] ]> | |
10 | S<[ B<-pna> ] [ B<-F>I<pattern> ] [ B<-l>[I<octal>] ] [ B<-0>[I<octal/hexadecimal>] ]> | |
11 | S<[ B<-I>I<dir> ] [ B<-m>[B<->]I<module> ] [ B<-M>[B<->]I<'module...'> ] [ B<-f> ]> | |
df451b2a | 12 | S<[ B<-C [I<number/list>] >]> |
df451b2a RGS |
13 | S<[ B<-S> ]> |
14 | S<[ B<-x>[I<dir>] ]> | |
15 | S<[ B<-i>[I<extension>] ]> | |
eb1dd64e | 16 | S<[ [B<-e>|B<-E>] I<'command'> ] [ B<--> ] [ I<programfile> ] [ I<argument> ]...> |
c07a80fd | 17 | |
b28fe7ca JL |
18 | For more information on these options, you can run C<perldoc perlrun>. |
19 | ||
6b43eec4 DG |
20 | =head1 GETTING HELP |
21 | ||
22 | The F<perldoc> program gives you access to all the documentation that comes | |
23 | with Perl. You can get more documentation, tutorials and community support | |
24 | online at L<http://www.perl.org/>. | |
25 | ||
26 | If you're new to Perl, you should start by running C<perldoc perlintro>, | |
27 | which is a general intro for beginners and provides some background to help | |
28 | you navigate the rest of Perl's extensive documentation. Run C<perldoc | |
29 | perldoc> to learn more things you can do with F<perldoc>. | |
10151d09 JH |
30 | |
31 | For ease of access, the Perl manual has been split up into several sections. | |
a0d0e21e | 32 | |
0aef0fe5 NC |
33 | =begin buildtoc |
34 | ||
35 | # This section is parsed by Porting/pod_lib.pl for use by pod/buildtoc etc | |
36 | ||
37 | flag =g perluniprops perlmodlib perlapi perlintern | |
38 | flag =go perltoc | |
39 | flag =ro perlcn perljp perlko perltw | |
40 | flag = perlvms | |
41 | ||
0eb29def S |
42 | path perlfaq.* cpan/perlfaq/lib/ |
43 | path perlglossary cpan/perlfaq/lib/ | |
44 | path perlxs(?:tut|typemap)? dist/ExtUtils-ParseXS/lib/ | |
cb1974ba | 45 | path perldoc cpan/Pod-Perldoc/ |
0aef0fe5 NC |
46 | |
47 | aux a2p c2ph h2ph h2xs perlbug pl2pm pod2html pod2man s2p splain xsubpp | |
48 | ||
49 | =end buildtoc | |
50 | ||
fd7b6849 MJD |
51 | =head2 Overview |
52 | ||
fb9cefb4 | 53 | perl Perl overview (this section) |
10151d09 | 54 | perlintro Perl introduction for beginners |
b28fe7ca | 55 | perlrun Perl execution and options |
fb9cefb4 | 56 | perltoc Perl documentation table of contents |
760ac839 | 57 | |
fd7b6849 MJD |
58 | =head2 Tutorials |
59 | ||
7a2320f0 AMS |
60 | perlreftut Perl references short introduction |
61 | perldsc Perl data structures intro | |
62 | perllol Perl data structures: arrays of arrays | |
7a2320f0 | 63 | |
41630250 | 64 | perlrequick Perl regular expressions quick start |
7a2320f0 AMS |
65 | perlretut Perl regular expressions tutorial |
66 | ||
82e1c0d9 | 67 | perlootut Perl OO tutorial for beginners |
7a2320f0 | 68 | |
da096611 RGS |
69 | perlperf Perl Performance and Optimization Techniques |
70 | ||
7a2320f0 AMS |
71 | perlstyle Perl style guide |
72 | ||
41630250 | 73 | perlcheat Perl cheat sheet |
7a2320f0 AMS |
74 | perltrap Perl traps for the unwary |
75 | perldebtut Perl debugging tutorial | |
76 | ||
fd7b6849 MJD |
77 | perlfaq Perl frequently asked questions |
78 | perlfaq1 General Questions About Perl | |
79 | perlfaq2 Obtaining and Learning about Perl | |
80 | perlfaq3 Programming Tools | |
81 | perlfaq4 Data Manipulation | |
82 | perlfaq5 Files and Formats | |
83 | perlfaq6 Regexes | |
84 | perlfaq7 Perl Language Issues | |
85 | perlfaq8 System Interaction | |
86 | perlfaq9 Networking | |
0f542199 | 87 | |
fd7b6849 | 88 | =head2 Reference Manual |
413510b3 | 89 | |
fb9cefb4 | 90 | perlsyn Perl syntax |
4755096e | 91 | perldata Perl data structures |
fb9cefb4 | 92 | perlop Perl operators and precedence |
c2e66d9e | 93 | perlsub Perl subroutines |
fd7b6849 | 94 | perlfunc Perl built-in functions |
413510b3 | 95 | perlopentut Perl open() tutorial |
41630250 | 96 | perlpacktut Perl pack() and unpack() tutorial |
c2e66d9e | 97 | perlpod Perl plain old documentation |
41630250 | 98 | perlpodspec Perl plain old documentation format specification |
f4d47668 | 99 | perlpodstyle Perl POD style guide |
c2e66d9e | 100 | perldiag Perl diagnostic messages |
41630250 | 101 | perllexwarn Perl warnings and their control |
4755096e | 102 | perldebug Perl debugging |
fb9cefb4 | 103 | perlvar Perl predefined variables |
4755096e | 104 | perlre Perl regular expressions, the rest of the story |
8a118206 RGS |
105 | perlrebackslash Perl regular expression backslash sequences |
106 | perlrecharclass Perl regular expression character classes | |
30487ceb | 107 | perlreref Perl regular expressions quick reference |
d396a558 | 108 | perlref Perl references, the rest of the story |
fb9cefb4 | 109 | perlform Perl formats |
d396a558 | 110 | perlobj Perl objects |
d396a558 | 111 | perltie Perl objects hidden behind simple variables |
fd7b6849 | 112 | perldbmfilter Perl DBM filters |
760ac839 | 113 | |
c2e66d9e GS |
114 | perlipc Perl interprocess communication |
115 | perlfork Perl fork() information | |
116 | perlnumber Perl number semantics | |
53d7eaa8 | 117 | |
c2e66d9e GS |
118 | perlthrtut Perl threads tutorial |
119 | ||
120 | perlport Perl portability guide | |
d396a558 | 121 | perllocale Perl locale support |
07fcf8ff | 122 | perluniintro Perl Unicode introduction |
41630250 | 123 | perlunicode Perl Unicode support |
3426ea3d | 124 | perlunifaq Perl Unicode FAQ |
0cb5a9a8 | 125 | perluniprops Index of Unicode properties in Perl |
aadaa455 | 126 | perlunitut Perl Unicode tutorial |
d396a558 | 127 | perlebcdic Considerations for running Perl on EBCDIC platforms |
c2e66d9e | 128 | |
d396a558 | 129 | perlsec Perl security |
4755096e | 130 | |
c2e66d9e | 131 | perlmod Perl modules: how they work |
35bf961c JH |
132 | perlmodlib Perl modules: how to write and use |
133 | perlmodstyle Perl modules: how to write modules with style | |
fd7b6849 | 134 | perlmodinstall Perl modules: how to install from CPAN |
c2e66d9e | 135 | perlnewmod Perl modules: preparing a new module for distribution |
a550ee30 | 136 | perlpragma Perl modules: writing a user pragma |
760ac839 | 137 | |
fd7b6849 | 138 | perlutil utilities packaged with the Perl distribution |
760ac839 | 139 | |
fd7b6849 MJD |
140 | perlfilter Perl source filters |
141 | ||
4000c4db FC |
142 | perldtrace Perl's support for DTrace |
143 | ||
97a1d740 YST |
144 | perlglossary Perl Glossary |
145 | ||
fd7b6849 MJD |
146 | =head2 Internals and C Language Interface |
147 | ||
fb9cefb4 | 148 | perlembed Perl ways to embed perl in your C or C++ application |
41630250 | 149 | perldebguts Perl debugging guts and tips |
fb9cefb4 | 150 | perlxstut Perl XS tutorial |
4755096e | 151 | perlxs Perl XS application programming interface |
0eb29def | 152 | perlxstypemap Perl XS C/Perl type conversion tools |
f40a6c71 | 153 | perlclib Internal replacements for standard C library functions |
fb9cefb4 GS |
154 | perlguts Perl internal functions for those doing extensions |
155 | perlcall Perl calling conventions from C | |
15932acc | 156 | perlmroapi Perl method resolution plugin interface |
108003db | 157 | perlreapi Perl regular expression plugin interface |
b23a565d | 158 | perlreguts Perl regular expression engine internals |
fd7b6849 | 159 | |
954c1994 GS |
160 | perlapi Perl API listing (autogenerated) |
161 | perlintern Perl internal functions (autogenerated) | |
dc5c060f | 162 | perliol C API for Perl's implementation of IO in Layers |
4755096e | 163 | perlapio Perl internal IO abstraction interface |
fd7b6849 | 164 | |
e8cd7eae | 165 | perlhack Perl hackers guide |
04c692a8 | 166 | perlsource Guide to the Perl source tree |
1c2e8cca | 167 | perlinterp Overview of the Perl interpreter source and how it works |
04c692a8 DR |
168 | perlhacktut Walk through the creation of a simple C code patch |
169 | perlhacktips Tips for Perl core C code hacking | |
cb8a010e | 170 | perlpolicy Perl development policies |
04c692a8 | 171 | perlgit Using git with the Perl repository |
4755096e | 172 | |
fd7b6849 MJD |
173 | =head2 Miscellaneous |
174 | ||
175 | perlbook Perl book information | |
cbd87e7e | 176 | perlcommunity Perl community information |
fd7b6849 | 177 | |
2a551100 JH |
178 | perldoc Look up Perl documentation in Pod format |
179 | ||
fb9cefb4 | 180 | perlhist Perl history records |
bdfb6cc8 | 181 | perldelta Perl changes since previous version |
12dcbffb | 182 | perl5192delta Perl changes in version 5.19.2 |
38663f11 | 183 | perl5191delta Perl changes in version 5.19.1 |
583aa5c2 | 184 | perl5190delta Perl changes in version 5.19.0 |
f13a3008 | 185 | perl5180delta Perl changes in version 5.18.0 |
69cb649c | 186 | perl5161delta Perl changes in version 5.16.1 |
50f27400 | 187 | perl5162delta Perl changes in version 5.16.2 |
eaf7bcbf | 188 | perl5163delta Perl changes in version 5.16.3 |
05c8f9ed | 189 | perl5160delta Perl changes in version 5.16.0 |
1e5cc764 | 190 | perl5144delta Perl changes in version 5.14.4 |
70ce046e | 191 | perl5143delta Perl changes in version 5.14.3 |
77efd0f7 | 192 | perl5142delta Perl changes in version 5.14.2 |
10288c7a | 193 | perl5141delta Perl changes in version 5.14.1 |
066dc4d9 | 194 | perl5140delta Perl changes in version 5.14.0 |
a5caed3e | 195 | perl5125delta Perl changes in version 5.12.5 |
0b67f426 | 196 | perl5124delta Perl changes in version 5.12.4 |
6c5f5efa | 197 | perl5123delta Perl changes in version 5.12.3 |
e71d1a7d | 198 | perl5122delta Perl changes in version 5.12.2 |
bdfb6cc8 | 199 | perl5121delta Perl changes in version 5.12.1 |
20d57231 | 200 | perl5120delta Perl changes in version 5.12.0 |
7cdf958d | 201 | perl5101delta Perl changes in version 5.10.1 |
7120b314 | 202 | perl5100delta Perl changes in version 5.10.0 |
fc5be808 | 203 | perl589delta Perl changes in version 5.8.9 |
c11a53c6 | 204 | perl588delta Perl changes in version 5.8.8 |
315ba985 | 205 | perl587delta Perl changes in version 5.8.7 |
e4bb216d | 206 | perl586delta Perl changes in version 5.8.6 |
07e9b5fe | 207 | perl585delta Perl changes in version 5.8.5 |
5f15c94e | 208 | perl584delta Perl changes in version 5.8.4 |
2e038148 NC |
209 | perl583delta Perl changes in version 5.8.3 |
210 | perl582delta Perl changes in version 5.8.2 | |
b6235c4f | 211 | perl581delta Perl changes in version 5.8.1 |
2e038148 | 212 | perl58delta Perl changes in version 5.8.0 |
493a87da | 213 | perl561delta Perl changes in version 5.6.1 |
41630250 | 214 | perl56delta Perl changes in version 5.6 |
4755096e GS |
215 | perl5005delta Perl changes in version 5.005 |
216 | perl5004delta Perl changes in version 5.004 | |
d516a115 | 217 | |
42e73e1c | 218 | perlexperiment A listing of experimental features in Perl |
219 | ||
2a551100 JH |
220 | perlartistic Perl Artistic License |
221 | perlgpl GNU General Public License | |
222 | ||
d8416318 JH |
223 | =head2 Language-Specific |
224 | ||
0aef0fe5 NC |
225 | =for buildtoc flag +r |
226 | ||
d8416318 JH |
227 | perlcn Perl for Simplified Chinese (in EUC-CN) |
228 | perljp Perl for Japanese (in EUC-JP) | |
229 | perlko Perl for Korean (in EUC-KR) | |
230 | perltw Perl for Traditional Chinese (in Big5) | |
231 | ||
fd7b6849 MJD |
232 | =head2 Platform-Specific |
233 | ||
37d4d706 | 234 | perlaix Perl notes for AIX |
a83b6f46 | 235 | perlamiga Perl notes for AmigaOS |
dc5c060f | 236 | perlbs2000 Perl notes for POSIX-BC BS2000 |
a1f19229 | 237 | perlce Perl notes for WinCE |
49877630 GS |
238 | perlcygwin Perl notes for Cygwin |
239 | perldos Perl notes for DOS | |
41630250 | 240 | perlfreebsd Perl notes for FreeBSD |
f6706af3 | 241 | perlhaiku Perl notes for Haiku |
49877630 | 242 | perlhpux Perl notes for HP-UX |
a83b6f46 | 243 | perlhurd Perl notes for Hurd |
469e7be4 | 244 | perlirix Perl notes for Irix |
991e8403 | 245 | perllinux Perl notes for Linux |
26d9b02f | 246 | perlmacos Perl notes for Mac OS (Classic) |
0d53b15f | 247 | perlmacosx Perl notes for Mac OS X |
41630250 | 248 | perlnetware Perl notes for NetWare |
b0846812 | 249 | perlopenbsd Perl notes for OpenBSD |
49877630 GS |
250 | perlos2 Perl notes for OS/2 |
251 | perlos390 Perl notes for OS/390 | |
522b859a | 252 | perlos400 Perl notes for OS/400 |
a83b6f46 JH |
253 | perlplan9 Perl notes for Plan 9 |
254 | perlqnx Perl notes for QNX | |
2f08ed66 | 255 | perlriscos Perl notes for RISC OS |
d420ca49 | 256 | perlsolaris Perl notes for Solaris |
27da23d5 | 257 | perlsymbian Perl notes for Symbian |
772ff3b9 | 258 | perltru64 Perl notes for Tru64 |
49877630 | 259 | perlvms Perl notes for VMS |
9a997319 | 260 | perlvos Perl notes for Stratus VOS |
49877630 GS |
261 | perlwin32 Perl notes for Windows |
262 | ||
0aef0fe5 NC |
263 | =for buildtoc flag -r |
264 | ||
e653ab25 DR |
265 | =head2 Stubs for Deleted Documents |
266 | ||
267 | perlboot | |
268 | perlbot | |
5d0b49e8 | 269 | perltodo |
e653ab25 DR |
270 | perltooc |
271 | perltoot | |
272 | ||
0aef0fe5 | 273 | =for buildtoc __END__ |
35dec5db | 274 | |
6b43eec4 DG |
275 | On a Unix-like system, these documentation files will usually also be |
276 | available as manpages for use with the F<man> program. | |
a0d0e21e | 277 | |
f747cd2a MB |
278 | Some documentation is not available as man pages, so if a |
279 | cross-reference is not found by man, try it with L<perldoc>. Perldoc can | |
280 | also take you directly to documentation for functions (with the B<-f> | |
281 | switch). See C<perldoc --help> (or C<perldoc perldoc> or C<man perldoc>) | |
282 | for other helpful options L<perldoc> has to offer. | |
283 | ||
6b43eec4 | 284 | In general, if something strange has gone wrong with your program and you're |
71b5b092 SF |
285 | not sure where you should look for help, try making your code comply with |
286 | B<use strict> and B<use warnings>. These will often point out exactly | |
287 | where the trouble is. | |
a0d0e21e LW |
288 | |
289 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
290 | ||
d27f2b2f DG |
291 | Perl officially stands for Practical Extraction and Report Language, |
292 | except when it doesn't. | |
293 | ||
72033c14 | 294 | Perl was originally a language optimized for scanning arbitrary |
a0d0e21e | 295 | text files, extracting information from those text files, and printing |
72033c14 JV |
296 | reports based on that information. It quickly became a good language |
297 | for many system management tasks. Over the years, Perl has grown into | |
b6538e4f | 298 | a general-purpose programming language. It's widely used for everything |
72033c14 JV |
299 | from quick "one-liners" to full-scale application development. |
300 | ||
301 | The language is intended to be practical (easy to use, efficient, | |
c1264fa8 RS |
302 | complete) rather than beautiful (tiny, elegant, minimal). It combines |
303 | (in the author's opinion, anyway) some of the best features of B<sed>, | |
0e7bd06d | 304 | B<awk>, and B<sh>, making it familiar and easy to use for Unix users to |
c1264fa8 RS |
305 | whip up quick solutions to annoying problems. Its general-purpose |
306 | programming facilities support procedural, functional, and | |
307 | object-oriented programming paradigms, making Perl a comfortable | |
308 | language for the long haul on major projects, whatever your bent. | |
309 | ||
310 | Perl's roots in text processing haven't been forgotten over the years. | |
311 | It still boasts some of the most powerful regular expressions to be | |
312 | found anywhere, and its support for Unicode text is world-class. It | |
313 | handles all kinds of structured text, too, through an extensive | |
314 | collection of extensions. Those libraries, collected in the CPAN, | |
315 | provide ready-made solutions to an astounding array of problems. When | |
316 | they haven't set the standard themselves, they steal from the best | |
317 | -- just like Perl itself. | |
a0d0e21e | 318 | |
8e465e4e JH |
319 | =head1 AVAILABILITY |
320 | ||
14218588 | 321 | Perl is available for most operating systems, including virtually |
055fd3a9 GS |
322 | all Unix-like platforms. See L<perlport/"Supported Platforms"> |
323 | for a listing. | |
8bc4a6bb | 324 | |
a0d0e21e LW |
325 | =head1 ENVIRONMENT |
326 | ||
1e422769 | 327 | See L<perlrun>. |
a0d0e21e LW |
328 | |
329 | =head1 AUTHOR | |
330 | ||
19799a22 | 331 | Larry Wall <larry@wall.org>, with the help of oodles of other folks. |
a0d0e21e | 332 | |
a99b1639 TP |
333 | If your Perl success stories and testimonials may be of help to others |
334 | who wish to advocate the use of Perl in their applications, | |
335 | or if you wish to simply express your gratitude to Larry and the | |
19799a22 | 336 | Perl developers, please write to perl-thanks@perl.org . |
a99b1639 | 337 | |
a0d0e21e LW |
338 | =head1 FILES |
339 | ||
5f05dabc | 340 | "@INC" locations of perl libraries |
a0d0e21e LW |
341 | |
342 | =head1 SEE ALSO | |
343 | ||
c5f69108 | 344 | http://www.perl.org/ the Perl homepage |
da9e6348 | 345 | http://www.perl.com/ Perl articles (O'Reilly) |
f6b3c421 | 346 | http://www.cpan.org/ the Comprehensive Perl Archive |
c5f69108 | 347 | http://www.pm.org/ the Perl Mongers |
19799a22 | 348 | |
a0d0e21e LW |
349 | =head1 DIAGNOSTICS |
350 | ||
71b5b092 SF |
351 | Using the C<use strict> pragma ensures that all variables are properly |
352 | declared and prevents other misuses of legacy Perl features. | |
353 | ||
6753a9e9 SF |
354 | The C<use warnings> pragma produces some lovely diagnostics. One can |
355 | also use the B<-w> flag, but its use is normally discouraged, because | |
356 | it gets applied to all executed Perl code, including that not under | |
357 | your control. | |
a0d0e21e | 358 | |
5a964f20 TC |
359 | See L<perldiag> for explanations of all Perl's diagnostics. The C<use |
360 | diagnostics> pragma automatically turns Perl's normally terse warnings | |
361 | and errors into these longer forms. | |
a0d0e21e LW |
362 | |
363 | Compilation errors will tell you the line number of the error, with an | |
364 | indication of the next token or token type that was to be examined. | |
14218588 | 365 | (In a script passed to Perl via B<-e> switches, each |
a0d0e21e LW |
366 | B<-e> is counted as one line.) |
367 | ||
368 | Setuid scripts have additional constraints that can produce error | |
369 | messages such as "Insecure dependency". See L<perlsec>. | |
370 | ||
71b5b092 SF |
371 | Did we mention that you should definitely consider using the B<use warnings> |
372 | pragma? | |
a0d0e21e LW |
373 | |
374 | =head1 BUGS | |
375 | ||
71b5b092 | 376 | The behavior implied by the B<use warnings> pragma is not mandatory. |
a0d0e21e LW |
377 | |
378 | Perl is at the mercy of your machine's definitions of various | |
1b3f7d21 CS |
379 | operations such as type casting, atof(), and floating-point |
380 | output with sprintf(). | |
a0d0e21e | 381 | |
748a9306 | 382 | If your stdio requires a seek or eof between reads and writes on a |
a0d0e21e LW |
383 | particular stream, so does Perl. (This doesn't apply to sysread() |
384 | and syswrite().) | |
385 | ||
386 | While none of the built-in data types have any arbitrary size limits | |
387 | (apart from memory size), there are still a few arbitrary limits: a | |
a30ac152 GS |
388 | given variable name may not be longer than 251 characters. Line numbers |
389 | displayed by diagnostics are internally stored as short integers, | |
390 | so they are limited to a maximum of 65535 (higher numbers usually being | |
391 | affected by wraparound). | |
a0d0e21e | 392 | |
b0607b7a | 393 | You may mail your bug reports (be sure to include full configuration |
19799a22 | 394 | information as output by the myconfig program in the perl source |
7f2de2d2 | 395 | tree, or by C<perl -V>) to perlbug@perl.org . If you've succeeded |
7f89f796 | 396 | in compiling perl, the L<perlbug> script in the F<utils/> subdirectory |
19799a22 | 397 | can be used to help mail in a bug report. |
4633a7c4 | 398 | |
a0d0e21e LW |
399 | Perl actually stands for Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister, but |
400 | don't tell anyone I said that. | |
401 | ||
402 | =head1 NOTES | |
403 | ||
404 | The Perl motto is "There's more than one way to do it." Divining | |
405 | how many more is left as an exercise to the reader. | |
406 | ||
4633a7c4 | 407 | The three principal virtues of a programmer are Laziness, |
a0d0e21e | 408 | Impatience, and Hubris. See the Camel Book for why. |
16d20bd9 | 409 |