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 | |
6b43eec4 DG |
18 | =head1 GETTING HELP |
19 | ||
20 | The F<perldoc> program gives you access to all the documentation that comes | |
21 | with Perl. You can get more documentation, tutorials and community support | |
22 | online at L<http://www.perl.org/>. | |
23 | ||
24 | If you're new to Perl, you should start by running C<perldoc perlintro>, | |
25 | which is a general intro for beginners and provides some background to help | |
26 | you navigate the rest of Perl's extensive documentation. Run C<perldoc | |
27 | perldoc> to learn more things you can do with F<perldoc>. | |
10151d09 JH |
28 | |
29 | For ease of access, the Perl manual has been split up into several sections. | |
a0d0e21e | 30 | |
fd7b6849 MJD |
31 | =head2 Overview |
32 | ||
fb9cefb4 | 33 | perl Perl overview (this section) |
10151d09 | 34 | perlintro Perl introduction for beginners |
fb9cefb4 | 35 | perltoc Perl documentation table of contents |
760ac839 | 36 | |
fd7b6849 MJD |
37 | =head2 Tutorials |
38 | ||
7a2320f0 AMS |
39 | perlreftut Perl references short introduction |
40 | perldsc Perl data structures intro | |
41 | perllol Perl data structures: arrays of arrays | |
7a2320f0 | 42 | |
41630250 | 43 | perlrequick Perl regular expressions quick start |
7a2320f0 AMS |
44 | perlretut Perl regular expressions tutorial |
45 | ||
46 | perlboot Perl OO tutorial for beginners | |
47 | perltoot Perl OO tutorial, part 1 | |
48 | perltooc Perl OO tutorial, part 2 | |
49 | perlbot Perl OO tricks and examples | |
50 | ||
da096611 RGS |
51 | perlperf Perl Performance and Optimization Techniques |
52 | ||
7a2320f0 AMS |
53 | perlstyle Perl style guide |
54 | ||
41630250 | 55 | perlcheat Perl cheat sheet |
7a2320f0 AMS |
56 | perltrap Perl traps for the unwary |
57 | perldebtut Perl debugging tutorial | |
58 | ||
fd7b6849 MJD |
59 | perlfaq Perl frequently asked questions |
60 | perlfaq1 General Questions About Perl | |
61 | perlfaq2 Obtaining and Learning about Perl | |
62 | perlfaq3 Programming Tools | |
63 | perlfaq4 Data Manipulation | |
64 | perlfaq5 Files and Formats | |
65 | perlfaq6 Regexes | |
66 | perlfaq7 Perl Language Issues | |
67 | perlfaq8 System Interaction | |
68 | perlfaq9 Networking | |
0f542199 | 69 | |
fd7b6849 | 70 | =head2 Reference Manual |
413510b3 | 71 | |
fb9cefb4 | 72 | perlsyn Perl syntax |
4755096e | 73 | perldata Perl data structures |
fb9cefb4 | 74 | perlop Perl operators and precedence |
c2e66d9e | 75 | perlsub Perl subroutines |
fd7b6849 | 76 | perlfunc Perl built-in functions |
413510b3 | 77 | perlopentut Perl open() tutorial |
41630250 | 78 | perlpacktut Perl pack() and unpack() tutorial |
c2e66d9e | 79 | perlpod Perl plain old documentation |
41630250 | 80 | perlpodspec Perl plain old documentation format specification |
f4d47668 | 81 | perlpodstyle Perl POD style guide |
c2e66d9e GS |
82 | perlrun Perl execution and options |
83 | perldiag Perl diagnostic messages | |
41630250 | 84 | perllexwarn Perl warnings and their control |
4755096e | 85 | perldebug Perl debugging |
fb9cefb4 | 86 | perlvar Perl predefined variables |
4755096e | 87 | perlre Perl regular expressions, the rest of the story |
8a118206 RGS |
88 | perlrebackslash Perl regular expression backslash sequences |
89 | perlrecharclass Perl regular expression character classes | |
30487ceb | 90 | perlreref Perl regular expressions quick reference |
d396a558 | 91 | perlref Perl references, the rest of the story |
fb9cefb4 | 92 | perlform Perl formats |
d396a558 | 93 | perlobj Perl objects |
d396a558 | 94 | perltie Perl objects hidden behind simple variables |
fd7b6849 | 95 | perldbmfilter Perl DBM filters |
760ac839 | 96 | |
c2e66d9e GS |
97 | perlipc Perl interprocess communication |
98 | perlfork Perl fork() information | |
99 | perlnumber Perl number semantics | |
53d7eaa8 | 100 | |
c2e66d9e GS |
101 | perlthrtut Perl threads tutorial |
102 | ||
103 | perlport Perl portability guide | |
d396a558 | 104 | perllocale Perl locale support |
07fcf8ff | 105 | perluniintro Perl Unicode introduction |
41630250 | 106 | perlunicode Perl Unicode support |
3426ea3d | 107 | perlunifaq Perl Unicode FAQ |
ba634883 | 108 | perluniprops Index of Unicode Version 6.0.0 properties in Perl |
aadaa455 | 109 | perlunitut Perl Unicode tutorial |
d396a558 | 110 | perlebcdic Considerations for running Perl on EBCDIC platforms |
c2e66d9e | 111 | |
d396a558 | 112 | perlsec Perl security |
4755096e | 113 | |
c2e66d9e | 114 | perlmod Perl modules: how they work |
35bf961c JH |
115 | perlmodlib Perl modules: how to write and use |
116 | perlmodstyle Perl modules: how to write modules with style | |
fd7b6849 | 117 | perlmodinstall Perl modules: how to install from CPAN |
c2e66d9e | 118 | perlnewmod Perl modules: preparing a new module for distribution |
a550ee30 | 119 | perlpragma Perl modules: writing a user pragma |
760ac839 | 120 | |
fd7b6849 | 121 | perlutil utilities packaged with the Perl distribution |
760ac839 | 122 | |
41630250 | 123 | perlcompile Perl compiler suite intro |
760ac839 | 124 | |
fd7b6849 MJD |
125 | perlfilter Perl source filters |
126 | ||
97a1d740 YST |
127 | perlglossary Perl Glossary |
128 | ||
fd7b6849 MJD |
129 | =head2 Internals and C Language Interface |
130 | ||
fb9cefb4 | 131 | perlembed Perl ways to embed perl in your C or C++ application |
41630250 | 132 | perldebguts Perl debugging guts and tips |
fb9cefb4 | 133 | perlxstut Perl XS tutorial |
4755096e | 134 | perlxs Perl XS application programming interface |
f40a6c71 | 135 | perlclib Internal replacements for standard C library functions |
fb9cefb4 GS |
136 | perlguts Perl internal functions for those doing extensions |
137 | perlcall Perl calling conventions from C | |
15932acc | 138 | perlmroapi Perl method resolution plugin interface |
108003db | 139 | perlreapi Perl regular expression plugin interface |
b23a565d | 140 | perlreguts Perl regular expression engine internals |
fd7b6849 | 141 | |
954c1994 GS |
142 | perlapi Perl API listing (autogenerated) |
143 | perlintern Perl internal functions (autogenerated) | |
dc5c060f | 144 | perliol C API for Perl's implementation of IO in Layers |
4755096e | 145 | perlapio Perl internal IO abstraction interface |
fd7b6849 | 146 | |
e8cd7eae | 147 | perlhack Perl hackers guide |
04c692a8 DR |
148 | perlsource Guide to the Perl source tree |
149 | perlinterp Overview of the Perl intepreter source and how it works | |
150 | perlhacktut Walk through the creation of a simple C code patch | |
151 | perlhacktips Tips for Perl core C code hacking | |
cb8a010e | 152 | perlpolicy Perl development policies |
04c692a8 | 153 | perlgit Using git with the Perl repository |
4755096e | 154 | |
fd7b6849 MJD |
155 | =head2 Miscellaneous |
156 | ||
157 | perlbook Perl book information | |
cbd87e7e | 158 | perlcommunity Perl community information |
fd7b6849 MJD |
159 | perltodo Perl things to do |
160 | ||
2a551100 JH |
161 | perldoc Look up Perl documentation in Pod format |
162 | ||
fb9cefb4 | 163 | perlhist Perl history records |
bdfb6cc8 | 164 | perldelta Perl changes since previous version |
03f96b76 | 165 | perl5139delta Perl changes in version 5.13.9 |
2c515f74 | 166 | perl5138delta Perl changes in version 5.13.8 |
ba634883 | 167 | perl5137delta Perl changes in version 5.13.7 |
f4d47668 | 168 | perl5136delta Perl changes in version 5.13.6 |
ee0887a9 | 169 | perl5135delta Perl changes in version 5.13.5 |
587354ab | 170 | perl5134delta Perl changes in version 5.13.4 |
cea2f1cb | 171 | perl5133delta Perl changes in version 5.13.3 |
855e1b21 | 172 | perl5132delta Perl changes in version 5.13.2 |
f83c51e5 | 173 | perl5131delta Perl changes in version 5.13.1 |
d4438f94 | 174 | perl5130delta Perl changes in version 5.13.0 |
6c5f5efa | 175 | perl5123delta Perl changes in version 5.12.3 |
e71d1a7d | 176 | perl5122delta Perl changes in version 5.12.2 |
bdfb6cc8 | 177 | perl5121delta Perl changes in version 5.12.1 |
20d57231 | 178 | perl5120delta Perl changes in version 5.12.0 |
655da5cf | 179 | perl5115delta Perl changes in version 5.11.5 |
3be84f1f | 180 | perl5114delta Perl changes in version 5.11.4 |
e06a4ec4 | 181 | perl5113delta Perl changes in version 5.11.3 |
2e8102e6 | 182 | perl5112delta Perl changes in version 5.11.2 |
d5114285 | 183 | perl5111delta Perl changes in version 5.11.1 |
11545435 | 184 | perl5110delta Perl changes in version 5.11.0 |
7cdf958d | 185 | perl5101delta Perl changes in version 5.10.1 |
7120b314 | 186 | perl5100delta Perl changes in version 5.10.0 |
cf6c151c | 187 | perl595delta Perl changes in version 5.9.5 |
f6eae373 | 188 | perl594delta Perl changes in version 5.9.4 |
6c7deadb | 189 | perl593delta Perl changes in version 5.9.3 |
496c75d0 | 190 | perl592delta Perl changes in version 5.9.2 |
e0eb806d | 191 | perl591delta Perl changes in version 5.9.1 |
1400179b | 192 | perl590delta Perl changes in version 5.9.0 |
fc5be808 | 193 | perl589delta Perl changes in version 5.8.9 |
c11a53c6 | 194 | perl588delta Perl changes in version 5.8.8 |
315ba985 | 195 | perl587delta Perl changes in version 5.8.7 |
e4bb216d | 196 | perl586delta Perl changes in version 5.8.6 |
07e9b5fe | 197 | perl585delta Perl changes in version 5.8.5 |
5f15c94e | 198 | perl584delta Perl changes in version 5.8.4 |
2e038148 NC |
199 | perl583delta Perl changes in version 5.8.3 |
200 | perl582delta Perl changes in version 5.8.2 | |
b6235c4f | 201 | perl581delta Perl changes in version 5.8.1 |
2e038148 | 202 | perl58delta Perl changes in version 5.8.0 |
77b096b5 | 203 | perl573delta Perl changes in version 5.7.3 |
245d750e | 204 | perl572delta Perl changes in version 5.7.2 |
1db9e106 JH |
205 | perl571delta Perl changes in version 5.7.1 |
206 | perl570delta Perl changes in version 5.7.0 | |
493a87da | 207 | perl561delta Perl changes in version 5.6.1 |
41630250 | 208 | perl56delta Perl changes in version 5.6 |
4755096e GS |
209 | perl5005delta Perl changes in version 5.005 |
210 | perl5004delta Perl changes in version 5.004 | |
d516a115 | 211 | |
2a551100 JH |
212 | perlartistic Perl Artistic License |
213 | perlgpl GNU General Public License | |
214 | ||
d8416318 JH |
215 | =head2 Language-Specific |
216 | ||
217 | perlcn Perl for Simplified Chinese (in EUC-CN) | |
218 | perljp Perl for Japanese (in EUC-JP) | |
219 | perlko Perl for Korean (in EUC-KR) | |
220 | perltw Perl for Traditional Chinese (in Big5) | |
221 | ||
fd7b6849 MJD |
222 | =head2 Platform-Specific |
223 | ||
37d4d706 | 224 | perlaix Perl notes for AIX |
a83b6f46 | 225 | perlamiga Perl notes for AmigaOS |
a83b6f46 | 226 | perlbeos Perl notes for BeOS |
dc5c060f | 227 | perlbs2000 Perl notes for POSIX-BC BS2000 |
a1f19229 | 228 | perlce Perl notes for WinCE |
49877630 | 229 | perlcygwin Perl notes for Cygwin |
245d750e | 230 | perldgux Perl notes for DG/UX |
49877630 | 231 | perldos Perl notes for DOS |
9a997319 | 232 | perlepoc Perl notes for EPOC |
41630250 | 233 | perlfreebsd Perl notes for FreeBSD |
f6706af3 | 234 | perlhaiku Perl notes for Haiku |
49877630 | 235 | perlhpux Perl notes for HP-UX |
a83b6f46 | 236 | perlhurd Perl notes for Hurd |
469e7be4 | 237 | perlirix Perl notes for Irix |
991e8403 | 238 | perllinux Perl notes for Linux |
26d9b02f | 239 | perlmacos Perl notes for Mac OS (Classic) |
0d53b15f | 240 | perlmacosx Perl notes for Mac OS X |
ab648d5e | 241 | perlmpeix Perl notes for MPE/iX |
41630250 | 242 | perlnetware Perl notes for NetWare |
b0846812 | 243 | perlopenbsd Perl notes for OpenBSD |
49877630 GS |
244 | perlos2 Perl notes for OS/2 |
245 | perlos390 Perl notes for OS/390 | |
522b859a | 246 | perlos400 Perl notes for OS/400 |
a83b6f46 JH |
247 | perlplan9 Perl notes for Plan 9 |
248 | perlqnx Perl notes for QNX | |
2f08ed66 | 249 | perlriscos Perl notes for RISC OS |
d420ca49 | 250 | perlsolaris Perl notes for Solaris |
27da23d5 | 251 | perlsymbian Perl notes for Symbian |
772ff3b9 | 252 | perltru64 Perl notes for Tru64 |
41630250 | 253 | perluts Perl notes for UTS |
cbe1151c | 254 | perlvmesa Perl notes for VM/ESA |
49877630 | 255 | perlvms Perl notes for VMS |
9a997319 | 256 | perlvos Perl notes for Stratus VOS |
49877630 GS |
257 | perlwin32 Perl notes for Windows |
258 | ||
35dec5db | 259 | |
6b43eec4 DG |
260 | On a Unix-like system, these documentation files will usually also be |
261 | available as manpages for use with the F<man> program. | |
a0d0e21e | 262 | |
6b43eec4 DG |
263 | In general, if something strange has gone wrong with your program and you're |
264 | not sure where you should look for help, try the B<-w> switch first. It will | |
265 | often point out exactly where the trouble is. | |
a0d0e21e LW |
266 | |
267 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
268 | ||
d27f2b2f DG |
269 | Perl officially stands for Practical Extraction and Report Language, |
270 | except when it doesn't. | |
271 | ||
72033c14 | 272 | Perl was originally a language optimized for scanning arbitrary |
a0d0e21e | 273 | text files, extracting information from those text files, and printing |
72033c14 JV |
274 | reports based on that information. It quickly became a good language |
275 | for many system management tasks. Over the years, Perl has grown into | |
276 | a general-purpose progammming language. It's widely used for everything | |
277 | from quick "one-liners" to full-scale application development. | |
278 | ||
279 | The language is intended to be practical (easy to use, efficient, | |
280 | complete) rather than beautiful (tiny, elegant, minimal). | |
94d58c47 | 281 | |
aa689395 | 282 | Perl combines (in the author's opinion, anyway) some of the best |
283 | features of C, B<sed>, B<awk>, and B<sh>, so people familiar with | |
284 | those languages should have little difficulty with it. (Language | |
285 | historians will also note some vestiges of B<csh>, Pascal, and even | |
14218588 | 286 | BASIC-PLUS.) Expression syntax corresponds closely to C |
a0d0e21e LW |
287 | expression syntax. Unlike most Unix utilities, Perl does not |
288 | arbitrarily limit the size of your data--if you've got the memory, | |
aa689395 | 289 | Perl can slurp in your whole file as a single string. Recursion is of |
0f31cffe | 290 | unlimited depth. And the tables used by hashes (sometimes called |
aa689395 | 291 | "associative arrays") grow as necessary to prevent degraded |
0f31cffe | 292 | performance. Perl can use sophisticated pattern matching techniques to |
14218588 | 293 | scan large amounts of data quickly. Although optimized for |
a8ebcfe9 JV |
294 | scanning text, Perl also has many excellent tools for slicing |
295 | and dicing binary data. | |
aa689395 | 296 | |
a0d0e21e LW |
297 | But wait, there's more... |
298 | ||
19799a22 GS |
299 | Begun in 1993 (see L<perlhist>), Perl version 5 is nearly a complete |
300 | rewrite that provides the following additional benefits: | |
a0d0e21e | 301 | |
13a2d996 | 302 | =over 4 |
a0d0e21e | 303 | |
551e1d92 RB |
304 | =item * |
305 | ||
306 | modularity and reusability using innumerable modules | |
a0d0e21e | 307 | |
19799a22 | 308 | Described in L<perlmod>, L<perlmodlib>, and L<perlmodinstall>. |
a0d0e21e | 309 | |
551e1d92 RB |
310 | =item * |
311 | ||
312 | embeddable and extensible | |
a0d0e21e | 313 | |
19799a22 GS |
314 | Described in L<perlembed>, L<perlxstut>, L<perlxs>, L<perlcall>, |
315 | L<perlguts>, and L<xsubpp>. | |
a0d0e21e | 316 | |
551e1d92 RB |
317 | =item * |
318 | ||
63de3cb2 JH |
319 | roll-your-own magic variables (including multiple simultaneous DBM |
320 | implementations) | |
a0d0e21e | 321 | |
19799a22 | 322 | Described in L<perltie> and L<AnyDBM_File>. |
a0d0e21e | 323 | |
551e1d92 RB |
324 | =item * |
325 | ||
326 | subroutines can now be overridden, autoloaded, and prototyped | |
a0d0e21e | 327 | |
19799a22 | 328 | Described in L<perlsub>. |
a0d0e21e | 329 | |
551e1d92 RB |
330 | =item * |
331 | ||
332 | arbitrarily nested data structures and anonymous functions | |
a0d0e21e | 333 | |
19799a22 | 334 | Described in L<perlreftut>, L<perlref>, L<perldsc>, and L<perllol>. |
a0d0e21e | 335 | |
551e1d92 RB |
336 | =item * |
337 | ||
338 | object-oriented programming | |
a0d0e21e | 339 | |
f6b3c421 MJD |
340 | Described in L<perlobj>, L<perlboot>, L<perltoot>, L<perltooc>, |
341 | and L<perlbot>. | |
a0d0e21e | 342 | |
551e1d92 RB |
343 | =item * |
344 | ||
551e1d92 | 345 | support for light-weight processes (threads) |
a0d0e21e | 346 | |
63de3cb2 | 347 | Described in L<perlthrtut> and L<threads>. |
a0d0e21e | 348 | |
551e1d92 RB |
349 | =item * |
350 | ||
63de3cb2 | 351 | support for Unicode, internationalization, and localization |
a0d0e21e | 352 | |
63de3cb2 | 353 | Described in L<perluniintro>, L<perllocale> and L<Locale::Maketext>. |
a0d0e21e | 354 | |
551e1d92 RB |
355 | =item * |
356 | ||
357 | lexical scoping | |
a0d0e21e | 358 | |
19799a22 | 359 | Described in L<perlsub>. |
a0d0e21e | 360 | |
551e1d92 RB |
361 | =item * |
362 | ||
363 | regular expression enhancements | |
a0d0e21e | 364 | |
19799a22 | 365 | Described in L<perlre>, with additional examples in L<perlop>. |
a0d0e21e | 366 | |
551e1d92 RB |
367 | =item * |
368 | ||
369 | enhanced debugger and interactive Perl environment, | |
370 | with integrated editor support | |
a0d0e21e | 371 | |
f6b3c421 | 372 | Described in L<perldebtut>, L<perldebug> and L<perldebguts>. |
a0d0e21e | 373 | |
551e1d92 RB |
374 | =item * |
375 | ||
376 | POSIX 1003.1 compliant library | |
5f05dabc | 377 | |
19799a22 | 378 | Described in L<POSIX>. |
5f05dabc | 379 | |
a0d0e21e LW |
380 | =back |
381 | ||
68dc0745 | 382 | Okay, that's I<definitely> enough hype. |
a0d0e21e | 383 | |
8e465e4e JH |
384 | =head1 AVAILABILITY |
385 | ||
14218588 | 386 | Perl is available for most operating systems, including virtually |
055fd3a9 GS |
387 | all Unix-like platforms. See L<perlport/"Supported Platforms"> |
388 | for a listing. | |
8bc4a6bb | 389 | |
a0d0e21e LW |
390 | =head1 ENVIRONMENT |
391 | ||
1e422769 | 392 | See L<perlrun>. |
a0d0e21e LW |
393 | |
394 | =head1 AUTHOR | |
395 | ||
19799a22 | 396 | Larry Wall <larry@wall.org>, with the help of oodles of other folks. |
a0d0e21e | 397 | |
a99b1639 TP |
398 | If your Perl success stories and testimonials may be of help to others |
399 | who wish to advocate the use of Perl in their applications, | |
400 | or if you wish to simply express your gratitude to Larry and the | |
19799a22 | 401 | Perl developers, please write to perl-thanks@perl.org . |
a99b1639 | 402 | |
a0d0e21e LW |
403 | =head1 FILES |
404 | ||
5f05dabc | 405 | "@INC" locations of perl libraries |
a0d0e21e LW |
406 | |
407 | =head1 SEE ALSO | |
408 | ||
c5f69108 | 409 | http://www.perl.org/ the Perl homepage |
da9e6348 | 410 | http://www.perl.com/ Perl articles (O'Reilly) |
f6b3c421 | 411 | http://www.cpan.org/ the Comprehensive Perl Archive |
c5f69108 | 412 | http://www.pm.org/ the Perl Mongers |
19799a22 | 413 | |
a0d0e21e LW |
414 | =head1 DIAGNOSTICS |
415 | ||
9f1b1f2d GS |
416 | The C<use warnings> pragma (and the B<-w> switch) produces some |
417 | lovely diagnostics. | |
a0d0e21e | 418 | |
5a964f20 TC |
419 | See L<perldiag> for explanations of all Perl's diagnostics. The C<use |
420 | diagnostics> pragma automatically turns Perl's normally terse warnings | |
421 | and errors into these longer forms. | |
a0d0e21e LW |
422 | |
423 | Compilation errors will tell you the line number of the error, with an | |
424 | indication of the next token or token type that was to be examined. | |
14218588 | 425 | (In a script passed to Perl via B<-e> switches, each |
a0d0e21e LW |
426 | B<-e> is counted as one line.) |
427 | ||
428 | Setuid scripts have additional constraints that can produce error | |
429 | messages such as "Insecure dependency". See L<perlsec>. | |
430 | ||
431 | Did we mention that you should definitely consider using the B<-w> | |
432 | switch? | |
433 | ||
434 | =head1 BUGS | |
435 | ||
436 | The B<-w> switch is not mandatory. | |
437 | ||
438 | Perl is at the mercy of your machine's definitions of various | |
1b3f7d21 CS |
439 | operations such as type casting, atof(), and floating-point |
440 | output with sprintf(). | |
a0d0e21e | 441 | |
748a9306 | 442 | If your stdio requires a seek or eof between reads and writes on a |
a0d0e21e LW |
443 | particular stream, so does Perl. (This doesn't apply to sysread() |
444 | and syswrite().) | |
445 | ||
446 | While none of the built-in data types have any arbitrary size limits | |
447 | (apart from memory size), there are still a few arbitrary limits: a | |
a30ac152 GS |
448 | given variable name may not be longer than 251 characters. Line numbers |
449 | displayed by diagnostics are internally stored as short integers, | |
450 | so they are limited to a maximum of 65535 (higher numbers usually being | |
451 | affected by wraparound). | |
a0d0e21e | 452 | |
b0607b7a | 453 | You may mail your bug reports (be sure to include full configuration |
19799a22 | 454 | information as output by the myconfig program in the perl source |
7f2de2d2 | 455 | tree, or by C<perl -V>) to perlbug@perl.org . If you've succeeded |
7f89f796 | 456 | in compiling perl, the L<perlbug> script in the F<utils/> subdirectory |
19799a22 | 457 | can be used to help mail in a bug report. |
4633a7c4 | 458 | |
a0d0e21e LW |
459 | Perl actually stands for Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister, but |
460 | don't tell anyone I said that. | |
461 | ||
462 | =head1 NOTES | |
463 | ||
464 | The Perl motto is "There's more than one way to do it." Divining | |
465 | how many more is left as an exercise to the reader. | |
466 | ||
4633a7c4 | 467 | The three principal virtues of a programmer are Laziness, |
a0d0e21e | 468 | Impatience, and Hubris. See the Camel Book for why. |
16d20bd9 | 469 |