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1 | Perl is Copyright (C) 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, |
2 | 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 by Larry Wall | |
3 | and others. All rights reserved. | |
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8d063cd8 | 5 | |
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7 | ABOUT PERL |
8 | ========== | |
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10 | Perl is a general-purpose programming language originally developed for |
11 | text manipulation and now used for a wide range of tasks including | |
12 | system administration, web development, network programming, GUI | |
13 | development, and more. | |
8e07c86e | 14 | |
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15 | The language is intended to be practical (easy to use, efficient, |
16 | complete) rather than beautiful (tiny, elegant, minimal). Its major | |
17 | features are that it's easy to use, supports both procedural and | |
18 | object-oriented (OO) programming, has powerful built-in support for text | |
19 | processing, and has one of the world's most impressive collections of | |
20 | third-party modules. | |
d48672a2 | 21 | |
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22 | For an introduction to the language's features, see pod/perlintro.pod. |
23 | ||
8f03122b | 24 | For a discussion of the important changes in this release, see |
37ee6528 | 25 | pod/perldelta.pod. |
8f03122b | 26 | |
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27 | There are also many Perl books available, covering a wide variety of topics, |
28 | from various publishers. See pod/perlbook.pod for more information. | |
29 | ||
30 | ||
31 | INSTALLATION | |
32 | ============ | |
33 | ||
34 | If you're using a relatively modern operating system and want to | |
35 | install this version of Perl locally, run the following commands: | |
36 | ||
b6e5a715 | 37 | ./Configure -des -Dprefix=$HOME/localperl |
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38 | make test |
39 | make install | |
40 | ||
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41 | This will configure and compile perl for your platform, run the regression |
42 | tests, and install perl in a subdirectory "localperl" of your home directory. | |
43 | ||
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44 | If you run into any trouble whatsoever or you need to install a customized |
45 | version of Perl, you should read the detailed instructions in the "INSTALL" | |
46 | file that came with this distribution. Additionally, there are a number of | |
47 | "README" files with hints and tips about building and using Perl on a wide | |
48 | variety of platforms, some more common than others. | |
49 | ||
50 | Once you have Perl installed, a wealth of documentation is available to you | |
51 | through the 'perldoc' tool. To get started, run this command: | |
52 | ||
53 | perldoc perl | |
54 | ||
55 | ||
56 | IF YOU RUN INTO TROUBLE | |
57 | ======================= | |
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59 | Perl is a large and complex system that's used for everything from |
60 | knitting to rocket science. If you run into trouble, it's quite | |
61 | likely that someone else has already solved the problem you're | |
62 | facing. Once you've exhausted the documentation, please report bugs to us | |
63 | using the 'perlbug' tool. For more information about perlbug, either type | |
64 | 'perldoc perlbug' or just 'perlbug' on a line by itself. | |
65 | ||
66 | While it was current when we made it available, Perl is constantly evolving | |
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67 | and there may be a more recent version that fixes bugs you've run into or |
68 | adds new features that you might find useful. | |
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69 | |
70 | You can always find the latest version of perl on a CPAN (Comprehensive Perl | |
71 | Archive Network) site near you at http://www.cpan.org/src/ | |
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73 | |
74 | Just a personal note: I want you to know that I create nice things like this | |
75 | because it pleases the Author of my story. If this bothers you, then your | |
76 | notion of Authorship needs some revision. But you can use perl anyway. :-) | |
77 | ||
78 | The author. | |
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79 | |
80 | ||
81 | LICENSING | |
82 | ========= | |
83 | ||
84 | This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify | |
85 | it under the terms of either: | |
86 | ||
87 | a) the GNU General Public License as published by the Free | |
88 | Software Foundation; either version 1, or (at your option) any | |
89 | later version, or | |
90 | ||
91 | b) the "Artistic License" which comes with this Kit. | |
92 | ||
93 | This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, | |
94 | but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of | |
95 | MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See either | |
96 | the GNU General Public License or the Artistic License for more details. | |
97 | ||
98 | You should have received a copy of the Artistic License with this | |
99 | Kit, in the file named "Artistic". If not, I'll be glad to provide one. | |
100 | ||
101 | You should also have received a copy of the GNU General Public License | |
102 | along with this program in the file named "Copying". If not, write to the | |
ecd16862 | 103 | Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, |
8d9043d1 | 104 | Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA or visit their web page on the internet at |
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105 | http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html. |
106 | ||
107 | For those of you that choose to use the GNU General Public License, | |
108 | my interpretation of the GNU General Public License is that no Perl | |
109 | script falls under the terms of the GPL unless you explicitly put | |
110 | said script under the terms of the GPL yourself. Furthermore, any | |
111 | object code linked with perl does not automatically fall under the | |
112 | terms of the GPL, provided such object code only adds definitions | |
113 | of subroutines and variables, and does not otherwise impair the | |
114 | resulting interpreter from executing any standard Perl script. I | |
115 | consider linking in C subroutines in this manner to be the moral | |
116 | equivalent of defining subroutines in the Perl language itself. You | |
117 | may sell such an object file as proprietary provided that you provide | |
118 | or offer to provide the Perl source, as specified by the GNU General | |
119 | Public License. (This is merely an alternate way of specifying input | |
120 | to the program.) You may also sell a binary produced by the dumping of | |
121 | a running Perl script that belongs to you, provided that you provide or | |
122 | offer to provide the Perl source as specified by the GPL. (The | |
123 | fact that a Perl interpreter and your code are in the same binary file | |
124 | is, in this case, a form of mere aggregation.) This is my interpretation | |
125 | of the GPL. If you still have concerns or difficulties understanding | |
126 | my intent, feel free to contact me. Of course, the Artistic License | |
127 | spells all this out for your protection, so you may prefer to use that. | |
128 | ||
129 |