Commit | Line | Data |
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a0d0e21e LW |
1 | =head1 NAME |
2 | ||
3 | perlrun - how to execute the Perl interpreter | |
4 | ||
5 | =head1 SYNOPSIS | |
6 | ||
e0ebc809 | 7 | B<perl> S<[ B<-sTuU> ]> |
8 | S<[ B<-hv> ] [ B<-V>[:I<configvar>] ]> | |
9 | S<[ B<-cw> ] [ B<-d>[:I<debugger>] ] [ B<-D>[I<number/list>] ]> | |
10 | S<[ B<-pna> ] [ B<-F>I<pattern> ] [ B<-l>[I<octal>] ] [ B<-0>[I<octal>] ]> | |
11 | S<[ B<-I>I<dir> ] [ B<-m>[B<->]I<module> ] [ B<-M>[B<->]I<'module...'> ]> | |
12 | S<[ B<-P> ]> | |
13 | S<[ B<-S> ]> | |
14 | S<[ B<-x>[I<dir>] ]> | |
15 | S<[ B<-i>[I<extension>] ]> | |
16 | S<[ B<-e> I<'command'> ] [ B<--> ] [ I<programfile> ] [ I<argument> ]...> | |
a0d0e21e LW |
17 | |
18 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
19 | ||
20 | Upon startup, Perl looks for your script in one of the following | |
21 | places: | |
22 | ||
23 | =over 4 | |
24 | ||
25 | =item 1. | |
26 | ||
27 | Specified line by line via B<-e> switches on the command line. | |
28 | ||
29 | =item 2. | |
30 | ||
31 | Contained in the file specified by the first filename on the command line. | |
a3cb178b GS |
32 | (Note that systems supporting the #! notation invoke interpreters this |
33 | way. See L<Location of Perl>.) | |
a0d0e21e LW |
34 | |
35 | =item 3. | |
36 | ||
5f05dabc | 37 | Passed in implicitly via standard input. This works only if there are |
a0d0e21e LW |
38 | no filename arguments--to pass arguments to a STDIN script you |
39 | must explicitly specify a "-" for the script name. | |
40 | ||
41 | =back | |
42 | ||
43 | With methods 2 and 3, Perl starts parsing the input file from the | |
44 | beginning, unless you've specified a B<-x> switch, in which case it | |
45 | scans for the first line starting with #! and containing the word | |
46 | "perl", and starts there instead. This is useful for running a script | |
47 | embedded in a larger message. (In this case you would indicate the end | |
54310121 | 48 | of the script using the C<__END__> token.) |
a0d0e21e | 49 | |
5f05dabc | 50 | The #! line is always examined for switches as the line is being |
51 | parsed. Thus, if you're on a machine that allows only one argument | |
52 | with the #! line, or worse, doesn't even recognize the #! line, you | |
53 | still can get consistent switch behavior regardless of how Perl was | |
54 | invoked, even if B<-x> was used to find the beginning of the script. | |
a0d0e21e LW |
55 | |
56 | Because many operating systems silently chop off kernel interpretation of | |
57 | the #! line after 32 characters, some switches may be passed in on the | |
58 | command line, and some may not; you could even get a "-" without its | |
59 | letter, if you're not careful. You probably want to make sure that all | |
60 | your switches fall either before or after that 32 character boundary. | |
61 | Most switches don't actually care if they're processed redundantly, but | |
62 | getting a - instead of a complete switch could cause Perl to try to | |
63 | execute standard input instead of your script. And a partial B<-I> switch | |
64 | could also cause odd results. | |
65 | ||
fb73857a | 66 | Some switches do care if they are processed twice, for instance combinations |
67 | of B<-l> and B<-0>. Either put all the switches after the 32 character | |
68 | boundary (if applicable), or replace the use of B<-0>I<digits> by | |
69 | C<BEGIN{ $/ = "\0digits"; }>. | |
70 | ||
a0d0e21e LW |
71 | Parsing of the #! switches starts wherever "perl" is mentioned in the line. |
72 | The sequences "-*" and "- " are specifically ignored so that you could, | |
73 | if you were so inclined, say | |
74 | ||
75 | #!/bin/sh -- # -*- perl -*- -p | |
a3cb178b | 76 | eval 'exec /usr/bin/perl -wS $0 ${1+"$@"}' |
5f05dabc | 77 | if $running_under_some_shell; |
a0d0e21e LW |
78 | |
79 | to let Perl see the B<-p> switch. | |
80 | ||
81 | If the #! line does not contain the word "perl", the program named after | |
82 | the #! is executed instead of the Perl interpreter. This is slightly | |
83 | bizarre, but it helps people on machines that don't do #!, because they | |
84 | can tell a program that their SHELL is /usr/bin/perl, and Perl will then | |
85 | dispatch the program to the correct interpreter for them. | |
86 | ||
87 | After locating your script, Perl compiles the entire script to an | |
88 | internal form. If there are any compilation errors, execution of the | |
89 | script is not attempted. (This is unlike the typical shell script, | |
54310121 | 90 | which might run part-way through before finding a syntax error.) |
a0d0e21e LW |
91 | |
92 | If the script is syntactically correct, it is executed. If the script | |
93 | runs off the end without hitting an exit() or die() operator, an implicit | |
94 | C<exit(0)> is provided to indicate successful completion. | |
95 | ||
68dc0745 | 96 | =head2 #! and quoting on non-Unix systems |
97 | ||
98 | Unix's #! technique can be simulated on other systems: | |
99 | ||
100 | =over 4 | |
101 | ||
102 | =item OS/2 | |
103 | ||
104 | Put | |
105 | ||
106 | extproc perl -S -your_switches | |
107 | ||
108 | as the first line in C<*.cmd> file (C<-S> due to a bug in cmd.exe's | |
109 | `extproc' handling). | |
110 | ||
54310121 | 111 | =item MS-DOS |
68dc0745 | 112 | |
113 | Create a batch file to run your script, and codify it in | |
114 | C<ALTERNATIVE_SHEBANG> (see the F<dosish.h> file in the source | |
115 | distribution for more information). | |
116 | ||
117 | =item Win95/NT | |
118 | ||
119 | The Win95/NT installation, when using the Activeware port of Perl, | |
c8db1d39 | 120 | will modify the Registry to associate the F<.pl> extension with the perl |
68dc0745 | 121 | interpreter. If you install another port of Perl, including the one |
4a6725af | 122 | in the Win32 directory of the Perl distribution, then you'll have to |
c8db1d39 TC |
123 | modify the Registry yourself. Note that this means you can no |
124 | longer tell the difference between an executable Perl program | |
125 | and a Perl library file. | |
68dc0745 | 126 | |
127 | =item Macintosh | |
128 | ||
10a676f8 | 129 | Macintosh perl scripts will have the appropriate Creator and |
68dc0745 | 130 | Type, so that double-clicking them will invoke the perl application. |
131 | ||
132 | =back | |
133 | ||
134 | Command-interpreters on non-Unix systems have rather different ideas | |
135 | on quoting than Unix shells. You'll need to learn the special | |
136 | characters in your command-interpreter (C<*>, C<\> and C<"> are | |
137 | common) and how to protect whitespace and these characters to run | |
138 | one-liners (see C<-e> below). | |
139 | ||
140 | On some systems, you may have to change single-quotes to double ones, | |
141 | which you must I<NOT> do on Unix or Plan9 systems. You might also | |
142 | have to change a single % to a %%. | |
143 | ||
144 | For example: | |
145 | ||
146 | # Unix | |
147 | perl -e 'print "Hello world\n"' | |
148 | ||
54310121 | 149 | # MS-DOS, etc. |
68dc0745 | 150 | perl -e "print \"Hello world\n\"" |
151 | ||
54310121 | 152 | # Macintosh |
68dc0745 | 153 | print "Hello world\n" |
154 | (then Run "Myscript" or Shift-Command-R) | |
155 | ||
156 | # VMS | |
157 | perl -e "print ""Hello world\n""" | |
158 | ||
159 | The problem is that none of this is reliable: it depends on the command | |
54310121 | 160 | and it is entirely possible neither works. If 4DOS was the command shell, this would |
68dc0745 | 161 | probably work better: |
162 | ||
163 | perl -e "print <Ctrl-x>"Hello world\n<Ctrl-x>"" | |
164 | ||
165 | CMD.EXE in Windows NT slipped a lot of standard Unix functionality in | |
166 | when nobody was looking, but just try to find documentation for its | |
167 | quoting rules. | |
168 | ||
54310121 | 169 | Under the Macintosh, it depends which environment you are using. The MacPerl |
68dc0745 | 170 | shell, or MPW, is much like Unix shells in its support for several |
54310121 | 171 | quoting variants, except that it makes free use of the Macintosh's non-ASCII |
68dc0745 | 172 | characters as control characters. |
173 | ||
174 | There is no general solution to all of this. It's just a mess. | |
175 | ||
a3cb178b GS |
176 | =head2 Location of Perl |
177 | ||
178 | It may seem obvious to say, but Perl is useful only when users can | |
179 | easily find it. When possible, it's good for both B</usr/bin/perl> and | |
180 | B</usr/local/bin/perl> to be symlinks to the actual binary. If that | |
181 | can't be done, system administrators are strongly encouraged to put | |
182 | (symlinks to) perl and its accompanying utilities, such as perldoc, into | |
183 | a directory typically found along a user's PATH, or in another obvious | |
184 | and convenient place. | |
185 | ||
186 | In this documentation, C<#!/usr/bin/perl> on the first line of the script | |
187 | will stand in for whatever method works on your system. | |
188 | ||
a0d0e21e LW |
189 | =head2 Switches |
190 | ||
191 | A single-character switch may be combined with the following switch, if | |
192 | any. | |
193 | ||
194 | #!/usr/bin/perl -spi.bak # same as -s -p -i.bak | |
195 | ||
196 | Switches include: | |
197 | ||
198 | =over 5 | |
199 | ||
e0ebc809 | 200 | =item B<-0>[I<digits>] |
a0d0e21e | 201 | |
55497cff | 202 | specifies the input record separator (C<$/>) as an octal number. If there are |
a0d0e21e LW |
203 | no digits, the null character is the separator. Other switches may |
204 | precede or follow the digits. For example, if you have a version of | |
205 | B<find> which can print filenames terminated by the null character, you | |
206 | can say this: | |
207 | ||
208 | find . -name '*.bak' -print0 | perl -n0e unlink | |
209 | ||
210 | The special value 00 will cause Perl to slurp files in paragraph mode. | |
5f05dabc | 211 | The value 0777 will cause Perl to slurp files whole because there is no |
a0d0e21e LW |
212 | legal character with that value. |
213 | ||
214 | =item B<-a> | |
215 | ||
216 | turns on autosplit mode when used with a B<-n> or B<-p>. An implicit | |
217 | split command to the @F array is done as the first thing inside the | |
218 | implicit while loop produced by the B<-n> or B<-p>. | |
219 | ||
220 | perl -ane 'print pop(@F), "\n";' | |
221 | ||
222 | is equivalent to | |
223 | ||
224 | while (<>) { | |
225 | @F = split(' '); | |
226 | print pop(@F), "\n"; | |
227 | } | |
228 | ||
229 | An alternate delimiter may be specified using B<-F>. | |
230 | ||
231 | =item B<-c> | |
232 | ||
233 | causes Perl to check the syntax of the script and then exit without | |
cb1a09d0 | 234 | executing it. Actually, it I<will> execute C<BEGIN>, C<END>, and C<use> blocks, |
54310121 | 235 | because these are considered as occurring outside the execution of |
cb1a09d0 | 236 | your program. |
a0d0e21e LW |
237 | |
238 | =item B<-d> | |
239 | ||
240 | runs the script under the Perl debugger. See L<perldebug>. | |
241 | ||
e0ebc809 | 242 | =item B<-d:>I<foo> |
3c81428c | 243 | |
244 | runs the script under the control of a debugging or tracing module | |
a77489aa | 245 | installed as Devel::foo. E.g., B<-d:DProf> executes the script using the |
3c81428c | 246 | Devel::DProf profiler. See L<perldebug>. |
247 | ||
db2ba183 | 248 | =item B<-D>I<letters> |
a0d0e21e | 249 | |
db2ba183 | 250 | =item B<-D>I<number> |
a0d0e21e LW |
251 | |
252 | sets debugging flags. To watch how it executes your script, use | |
db2ba183 TB |
253 | B<-Dtls>. (This works only if debugging is compiled into your |
254 | Perl.) Another nice value is B<-Dx>, which lists your compiled | |
255 | syntax tree. And B<-Dr> displays compiled regular expressions. As an | |
256 | alternative, specify a number instead of list of letters (e.g., B<-D14> is | |
a0d0e21e LW |
257 | equivalent to B<-Dtls>): |
258 | ||
db2ba183 TB |
259 | 1 p Tokenizing and parsing |
260 | 2 s Stack snapshots | |
261 | 4 l Context (loop) stack processing | |
262 | 8 t Trace execution | |
263 | 16 o Method and overloading resolution | |
264 | 32 c String/numeric conversions | |
265 | 64 P Print preprocessor command for -P | |
266 | 128 m Memory allocation | |
267 | 256 f Format processing | |
268 | 512 r Regular expression parsing and execution | |
269 | 1024 x Syntax tree dump | |
270 | 2048 u Tainting checks | |
8c52afec | 271 | 4096 L Memory leaks (needs C<-DLEAKTEST> when compiling Perl) |
db2ba183 TB |
272 | 8192 H Hash dump -- usurps values() |
273 | 16384 X Scratchpad allocation | |
274 | 32768 D Cleaning up | |
a0d0e21e | 275 | |
8c52afec IZ |
276 | All these flags require C<-DDEBUGGING> when you compile the Perl |
277 | executable. This flag is automatically set if you include C<-g> | |
278 | option when C<Configure> asks you about optimizer/debugger flags. | |
279 | ||
a0d0e21e LW |
280 | =item B<-e> I<commandline> |
281 | ||
54310121 | 282 | may be used to enter one line of script. |
a0d0e21e | 283 | If B<-e> is given, Perl |
54310121 | 284 | will not look for a script filename in the argument list. |
a0d0e21e | 285 | Multiple B<-e> commands may |
4a6725af | 286 | be given to build up a multi-line script. |
a0d0e21e LW |
287 | Make sure to use semicolons where you would in a normal program. |
288 | ||
e0ebc809 | 289 | =item B<-F>I<pattern> |
a0d0e21e | 290 | |
e0ebc809 | 291 | specifies the pattern to split on if B<-a> is also in effect. The |
5f05dabc | 292 | pattern may be surrounded by C<//>, C<"">, or C<''>, otherwise it will be |
e0ebc809 | 293 | put in single quotes. |
a0d0e21e | 294 | |
e0ebc809 | 295 | =item B<-h> |
296 | ||
297 | prints a summary of the options. | |
298 | ||
299 | =item B<-i>[I<extension>] | |
a0d0e21e | 300 | |
2d259d92 CK |
301 | specifies that files processed by the C<E<lt>E<gt>> construct are to be |
302 | edited in-place. It does this by renaming the input file, opening the | |
303 | output file by the original name, and selecting that output file as the | |
304 | default for print() statements. The extension, if supplied, is used to | |
305 | modify the name of the old file to make a backup copy, following these | |
306 | rules: | |
307 | ||
308 | If no extension is supplied, no backup is made and the current file is | |
309 | overwritten. | |
310 | ||
311 | If the extension doesn't contain a C<*> then it is appended to the end | |
312 | of the current filename as a suffix. | |
313 | ||
314 | If the extension does contain one or more C<*> characters, then each C<*> | |
315 | is replaced with the current filename. In perl terms you could think of | |
316 | this as: | |
317 | ||
318 | ($old_file_name = $extension) =~ s/\*/$file_name/g; | |
319 | ||
320 | This allows you to add a prefix to the backup file, instead of (or in | |
321 | addition to) a suffix: | |
322 | ||
323 | $ perl -pi'bak_*' -e 's/bar/baz/' fileA # backup to 'bak_fileA' | |
324 | ||
325 | Or even to place backup copies of the original files into another | |
326 | directory (provided the directory already exists): | |
327 | ||
328 | $ perl -pi'old/*.bak' -e 's/bar/baz/' fileA # backup to 'old/fileA.bak' | |
329 | ||
330 | From the shell, saying | |
a0d0e21e LW |
331 | |
332 | $ perl -p -i.bak -e "s/foo/bar/; ... " | |
333 | ||
334 | is the same as using the script: | |
335 | ||
336 | #!/usr/bin/perl -pi.bak | |
337 | s/foo/bar/; | |
338 | ||
339 | which is equivalent to | |
340 | ||
341 | #!/usr/bin/perl | |
342 | while (<>) { | |
343 | if ($ARGV ne $oldargv) { | |
344 | rename($ARGV, $ARGV . '.bak'); | |
345 | open(ARGVOUT, ">$ARGV"); | |
346 | select(ARGVOUT); | |
347 | $oldargv = $ARGV; | |
348 | } | |
349 | s/foo/bar/; | |
350 | } | |
351 | continue { | |
352 | print; # this prints to original filename | |
353 | } | |
354 | select(STDOUT); | |
355 | ||
356 | except that the B<-i> form doesn't need to compare $ARGV to $oldargv to | |
357 | know when the filename has changed. It does, however, use ARGVOUT for | |
358 | the selected filehandle. Note that STDOUT is restored as the | |
359 | default output filehandle after the loop. | |
360 | ||
7b8d334a | 361 | You can use C<eof> without parentheses to locate the end of each input file, |
54310121 | 362 | in case you want to append to each file, or reset line numbering (see |
a0d0e21e LW |
363 | example in L<perlfunc/eof>). |
364 | ||
a2008d6d GS |
365 | Finally, note that the B<-i> switch does not impede execution when no |
366 | files are given on the command line. In this case, no backup is made | |
367 | (the original file cannot, of course, be determined) and processing | |
368 | proceeds from STDIN to STDOUT as might be expected. | |
369 | ||
a0d0e21e LW |
370 | =item B<-I>I<directory> |
371 | ||
e0ebc809 | 372 | Directories specified by B<-I> are prepended to the search path for |
1fef88e7 | 373 | modules (C<@INC>), and also tells the C preprocessor where to search for |
e0ebc809 | 374 | include files. The C preprocessor is invoked with B<-P>; by default it |
375 | searches /usr/include and /usr/lib/perl. | |
a0d0e21e | 376 | |
e0ebc809 | 377 | =item B<-l>[I<octnum>] |
a0d0e21e LW |
378 | |
379 | enables automatic line-ending processing. It has two effects: first, | |
55497cff | 380 | it automatically chomps "C<$/>" (the input record separator) when used |
381 | with B<-n> or B<-p>, and second, it assigns "C<$\>" | |
382 | (the output record separator) to have the value of I<octnum> so that | |
383 | any print statements will have that separator added back on. If | |
a0d0e21e LW |
384 | I<octnum> is omitted, sets "C<$\>" to the current value of "C<$/>". For |
385 | instance, to trim lines to 80 columns: | |
386 | ||
387 | perl -lpe 'substr($_, 80) = ""' | |
388 | ||
389 | Note that the assignment C<$\ = $/> is done when the switch is processed, | |
390 | so the input record separator can be different than the output record | |
391 | separator if the B<-l> switch is followed by a B<-0> switch: | |
392 | ||
393 | gnufind / -print0 | perl -ln0e 'print "found $_" if -p' | |
394 | ||
1fef88e7 | 395 | This sets C<$\> to newline and then sets C<$/> to the null character. |
a0d0e21e | 396 | |
e0ebc809 | 397 | =item B<-m>[B<->]I<module> |
398 | ||
399 | =item B<-M>[B<->]I<module> | |
c07a80fd | 400 | |
e0ebc809 | 401 | =item B<-M>[B<->]I<'module ...'> |
402 | ||
403 | =item B<-[mM]>[B<->]I<module=arg[,arg]...> | |
3c81428c | 404 | |
c07a80fd | 405 | C<-m>I<module> executes C<use> I<module> C<();> before executing your |
406 | script. | |
3c81428c | 407 | |
c07a80fd | 408 | C<-M>I<module> executes C<use> I<module> C<;> before executing your |
409 | script. You can use quotes to add extra code after the module name, | |
410 | e.g., C<-M'module qw(foo bar)'>. | |
3c81428c | 411 | |
a5f75d66 AD |
412 | If the first character after the C<-M> or C<-m> is a dash (C<->) |
413 | then the 'use' is replaced with 'no'. | |
414 | ||
54310121 | 415 | A little builtin syntactic sugar means you can also say |
e0ebc809 | 416 | C<-mmodule=foo,bar> or C<-Mmodule=foo,bar> as a shortcut for |
417 | C<-M'module qw(foo bar)'>. This avoids the need to use quotes when | |
418 | importing symbols. The actual code generated by C<-Mmodule=foo,bar> is | |
419 | C<use module split(/,/,q{foo,bar})>. Note that the C<=> form | |
a77489aa | 420 | removes the distinction between C<-m> and C<-M>. |
3c81428c | 421 | |
a0d0e21e LW |
422 | =item B<-n> |
423 | ||
424 | causes Perl to assume the following loop around your script, which | |
425 | makes it iterate over filename arguments somewhat like B<sed -n> or | |
426 | B<awk>: | |
427 | ||
428 | while (<>) { | |
429 | ... # your script goes here | |
430 | } | |
431 | ||
432 | Note that the lines are not printed by default. See B<-p> to have | |
08e9d68e DD |
433 | lines printed. If a file named by an argument cannot be opened for |
434 | some reason, Perl warns you about it, and moves on to the next file. | |
435 | ||
436 | Here is an efficient way to delete all files older than a week: | |
a0d0e21e LW |
437 | |
438 | find . -mtime +7 -print | perl -nle 'unlink;' | |
439 | ||
440 | This is faster than using the C<-exec> switch of B<find> because you don't | |
441 | have to start a process on every filename found. | |
442 | ||
443 | C<BEGIN> and C<END> blocks may be used to capture control before or after | |
444 | the implicit loop, just as in B<awk>. | |
445 | ||
446 | =item B<-p> | |
447 | ||
448 | causes Perl to assume the following loop around your script, which | |
449 | makes it iterate over filename arguments somewhat like B<sed>: | |
450 | ||
451 | ||
452 | while (<>) { | |
453 | ... # your script goes here | |
454 | } continue { | |
08e9d68e | 455 | print or die "-p destination: $!\n"; |
a0d0e21e LW |
456 | } |
457 | ||
08e9d68e DD |
458 | If a file named by an argument cannot be opened for some reason, Perl |
459 | warns you about it, and moves on to the next file. Note that the | |
460 | lines are printed automatically. An error occuring during printing is | |
461 | treated as fatal. To suppress printing use the B<-n> switch. A B<-p> | |
462 | overrides a B<-n> switch. | |
a0d0e21e LW |
463 | |
464 | C<BEGIN> and C<END> blocks may be used to capture control before or after | |
465 | the implicit loop, just as in awk. | |
466 | ||
467 | =item B<-P> | |
468 | ||
469 | causes your script to be run through the C preprocessor before | |
5f05dabc | 470 | compilation by Perl. (Because both comments and cpp directives begin |
a0d0e21e | 471 | with the # character, you should avoid starting comments with any words |
5f05dabc | 472 | recognized by the C preprocessor such as "if", "else", or "define".) |
a0d0e21e LW |
473 | |
474 | =item B<-s> | |
475 | ||
476 | enables some rudimentary switch parsing for switches on the command | |
477 | line after the script name but before any filename arguments (or before | |
478 | a B<-->). Any switch found there is removed from @ARGV and sets the | |
479 | corresponding variable in the Perl script. The following script | |
480 | prints "true" if and only if the script is invoked with a B<-xyz> switch. | |
481 | ||
482 | #!/usr/bin/perl -s | |
483 | if ($xyz) { print "true\n"; } | |
484 | ||
485 | =item B<-S> | |
486 | ||
487 | makes Perl use the PATH environment variable to search for the | |
2a92aaa0 GS |
488 | script (unless the name of the script contains directory separators). |
489 | On some platforms, this also makes Perl append suffixes to the | |
490 | filename while searching for it. For example, on Win32 platforms, | |
491 | the ".bat" and ".cmd" suffixes are appended if a lookup for the | |
492 | original name fails, and if the name does not already end in one | |
493 | of those suffixes. If your Perl was compiled with DEBUGGING turned | |
494 | on, using the -Dp switch to Perl shows how the search progresses. | |
495 | ||
a3cb178b | 496 | If the filename supplied contains directory separators (i.e. it is an |
2a92aaa0 GS |
497 | absolute or relative pathname), and if the file is not found, |
498 | platforms that append file extensions will do so and try to look | |
499 | for the file with those extensions added, one by one. | |
500 | ||
501 | On DOS-like platforms, if the script does not contain directory | |
502 | separators, it will first be searched for in the current directory | |
503 | before being searched for on the PATH. On Unix platforms, the | |
504 | script will be searched for strictly on the PATH. | |
505 | ||
506 | Typically this is used to emulate #! startup on platforms that | |
507 | don't support #!. This example works on many platforms that | |
508 | have a shell compatible with Bourne shell: | |
a0d0e21e LW |
509 | |
510 | #!/usr/bin/perl | |
a3cb178b | 511 | eval 'exec /usr/bin/perl -wS $0 ${1+"$@"}' |
a0d0e21e LW |
512 | if $running_under_some_shell; |
513 | ||
514 | The system ignores the first line and feeds the script to /bin/sh, | |
515 | which proceeds to try to execute the Perl script as a shell script. | |
516 | The shell executes the second line as a normal shell command, and thus | |
517 | starts up the Perl interpreter. On some systems $0 doesn't always | |
518 | contain the full pathname, so the B<-S> tells Perl to search for the | |
519 | script if necessary. After Perl locates the script, it parses the | |
520 | lines and ignores them because the variable $running_under_some_shell | |
a3cb178b GS |
521 | is never true. If the script will be interpreted by csh, you will need |
522 | to replace C<${1+"$@"}> with C<$*>, even though that doesn't understand | |
523 | embedded spaces (and such) in the argument list. To start up sh rather | |
a0d0e21e LW |
524 | than csh, some systems may have to replace the #! line with a line |
525 | containing just a colon, which will be politely ignored by Perl. Other | |
526 | systems can't control that, and need a totally devious construct that | |
5f05dabc | 527 | will work under any of csh, sh, or Perl, such as the following: |
a0d0e21e | 528 | |
a3cb178b GS |
529 | eval '(exit $?0)' && eval 'exec /usr/bin/perl -wS $0 ${1+"$@"}' |
530 | & eval 'exec /usr/bin/perl -wS $0 $argv:q' | |
5f05dabc | 531 | if $running_under_some_shell; |
a0d0e21e LW |
532 | |
533 | =item B<-T> | |
534 | ||
a3cb178b GS |
535 | forces "taint" checks to be turned on so you can test them. Ordinarily |
536 | these checks are done only when running setuid or setgid. It's a good | |
537 | idea to turn them on explicitly for programs run on another's behalf, | |
538 | such as CGI programs. See L<perlsec>. Note that (for security reasons) | |
539 | this option must be seen by Perl quite early; usually this means it must | |
540 | appear early on the command line or in the #! line (for systems which | |
541 | support that). | |
a0d0e21e LW |
542 | |
543 | =item B<-u> | |
544 | ||
545 | causes Perl to dump core after compiling your script. You can then | |
5a964f20 | 546 | in theory take this core dump and turn it into an executable file by using the |
a0d0e21e LW |
547 | B<undump> program (not supplied). This speeds startup at the expense of |
548 | some disk space (which you can minimize by stripping the executable). | |
549 | (Still, a "hello world" executable comes out to about 200K on my | |
550 | machine.) If you want to execute a portion of your script before dumping, | |
551 | use the dump() operator instead. Note: availability of B<undump> is | |
552 | platform specific and may not be available for a specific port of | |
5a964f20 TC |
553 | Perl. It has been superseded by the new perl-to-C compiler, which is more |
554 | portable, even though it's still only considered beta. | |
a0d0e21e LW |
555 | |
556 | =item B<-U> | |
557 | ||
558 | allows Perl to do unsafe operations. Currently the only "unsafe" | |
559 | operations are the unlinking of directories while running as superuser, | |
560 | and running setuid programs with fatal taint checks turned into | |
fb73857a | 561 | warnings. Note that the B<-w> switch (or the C<$^W> variable) must |
562 | be used along with this option to actually B<generate> the | |
563 | taint-check warnings. | |
a0d0e21e LW |
564 | |
565 | =item B<-v> | |
566 | ||
567 | prints the version and patchlevel of your Perl executable. | |
568 | ||
3c81428c | 569 | =item B<-V> |
570 | ||
571 | prints summary of the major perl configuration values and the current | |
572 | value of @INC. | |
573 | ||
e0ebc809 | 574 | =item B<-V:>I<name> |
3c81428c | 575 | |
576 | Prints to STDOUT the value of the named configuration variable. | |
577 | ||
a0d0e21e LW |
578 | =item B<-w> |
579 | ||
049cd8b0 | 580 | prints warnings about variable names that are mentioned only once, and |
a0d0e21e LW |
581 | scalar variables that are used before being set. Also warns about |
582 | redefined subroutines, and references to undefined filehandles or | |
5f05dabc | 583 | filehandles opened read-only that you are attempting to write on. Also |
774d564b | 584 | warns you if you use values as a number that doesn't look like numbers, |
585 | using an array as though it were a scalar, if your subroutines recurse | |
586 | more than 100 deep, and innumerable other things. | |
587 | ||
588 | You can disable specific warnings using C<__WARN__> hooks, as described | |
589 | in L<perlvar> and L<perlfunc/warn>. See also L<perldiag> and L<perltrap>. | |
a0d0e21e LW |
590 | |
591 | =item B<-x> I<directory> | |
592 | ||
593 | tells Perl that the script is embedded in a message. Leading | |
594 | garbage will be discarded until the first line that starts with #! and | |
595 | contains the string "perl". Any meaningful switches on that line will | |
ff0cee69 | 596 | be applied. If a directory name is specified, Perl will switch to |
5f05dabc | 597 | that directory before running the script. The B<-x> switch controls |
598 | only the disposal of leading garbage. The script must be | |
a0d0e21e LW |
599 | terminated with C<__END__> if there is trailing garbage to be ignored (the |
600 | script can process any or all of the trailing garbage via the DATA | |
601 | filehandle if desired). | |
602 | ||
1e422769 | 603 | =back |
604 | ||
605 | =head1 ENVIRONMENT | |
606 | ||
607 | =over 12 | |
608 | ||
609 | =item HOME | |
610 | ||
611 | Used if chdir has no argument. | |
612 | ||
613 | =item LOGDIR | |
614 | ||
615 | Used if chdir has no argument and HOME is not set. | |
616 | ||
617 | =item PATH | |
618 | ||
619 | Used in executing subprocesses, and in finding the script if B<-S> is | |
620 | used. | |
621 | ||
622 | =item PERL5LIB | |
623 | ||
624 | A colon-separated list of directories in which to look for Perl library | |
625 | files before looking in the standard library and the current | |
626 | directory. If PERL5LIB is not defined, PERLLIB is used. When running | |
627 | taint checks (because the script was running setuid or setgid, or the | |
628 | B<-T> switch was used), neither variable is used. The script should | |
629 | instead say | |
630 | ||
631 | use lib "/my/directory"; | |
632 | ||
54310121 | 633 | =item PERL5OPT |
634 | ||
635 | Command-line options (switches). Switches in this variable are taken | |
636 | as if they were on every Perl command line. Only the B<-[DIMUdmw]> | |
637 | switches are allowed. When running taint checks (because the script | |
638 | was running setuid or setgid, or the B<-T> switch was used), this | |
639 | variable is ignored. | |
640 | ||
1e422769 | 641 | =item PERLLIB |
642 | ||
643 | A colon-separated list of directories in which to look for Perl library | |
644 | files before looking in the standard library and the current directory. | |
645 | If PERL5LIB is defined, PERLLIB is not used. | |
646 | ||
647 | =item PERL5DB | |
648 | ||
649 | The command used to load the debugger code. The default is: | |
650 | ||
651 | BEGIN { require 'perl5db.pl' } | |
652 | ||
174c211a GS |
653 | =item PERL5SHELL (specific to WIN32 port) |
654 | ||
655 | May be set to an alternative shell that perl must use internally for | |
ce1da67e GS |
656 | executing "backtick" commands or system(). Default is C<cmd.exe /x/c> |
657 | on WindowsNT and C<command.com /c> on Windows95. The value is considered | |
658 | to be space delimited. Precede any character that needs to be protected | |
659 | (like a space or backslash) with a backslash. | |
660 | ||
661 | Note that Perl doesn't use COMSPEC for this purpose because | |
662 | COMSPEC has a high degree of variability among users, leading to | |
663 | portability concerns. Besides, perl can use a shell that may not be | |
664 | fit for interactive use, and setting COMSPEC to such a shell may | |
665 | interfere with the proper functioning of other programs (which usually | |
666 | look in COMSPEC to find a shell fit for interactive use). | |
174c211a | 667 | |
1e422769 | 668 | =item PERL_DEBUG_MSTATS |
669 | ||
67ce8856 | 670 | Relevant only if perl is compiled with the malloc included with the perl |
a3cb178b GS |
671 | distribution (that is, if C<perl -V:d_mymalloc> is 'define'). |
672 | If set, this causes memory statistics to be dumped after execution. If set | |
1e422769 | 673 | to an integer greater than one, also causes memory statistics to be dumped |
674 | after compilation. | |
675 | ||
676 | =item PERL_DESTRUCT_LEVEL | |
677 | ||
678 | Relevant only if your perl executable was built with B<-DDEBUGGING>, | |
679 | this controls the behavior of global destruction of objects and other | |
680 | references. | |
a0d0e21e LW |
681 | |
682 | =back | |
1e422769 | 683 | |
684 | Perl also has environment variables that control how Perl handles data | |
685 | specific to particular natural languages. See L<perllocale>. | |
686 | ||
687 | Apart from these, Perl uses no other environment variables, except | |
688 | to make them available to the script being executed, and to child | |
689 | processes. However, scripts running setuid would do well to execute | |
690 | the following lines before doing anything else, just to keep people | |
691 | honest: | |
692 | ||
7bac28a0 | 693 | $ENV{PATH} = '/bin:/usr/bin'; # or whatever you need |
694 | $ENV{SHELL} = '/bin/sh' if exists $ENV{SHELL}; | |
c90c0ff4 | 695 | delete @ENV{qw(IFS CDPATH ENV BASH_ENV)}; |
1e422769 | 696 |