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68dc0745 | 1 | =head1 NAME |
2 | ||
f3b9614f | 3 | perlfaq3 - Programming Tools ($Revision: 1.35 $, $Date: 2003/08/24 05:26:59 $) |
68dc0745 | 4 | |
5 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
6 | ||
7 | This section of the FAQ answers questions related to programmer tools | |
8 | and programming support. | |
9 | ||
10 | =head2 How do I do (anything)? | |
11 | ||
12 | Have you looked at CPAN (see L<perlfaq2>)? The chances are that | |
13 | someone has already written a module that can solve your problem. | |
3958b146 | 14 | Have you read the appropriate manpages? Here's a brief index: |
68dc0745 | 15 | |
5a964f20 TC |
16 | Basics perldata, perlvar, perlsyn, perlop, perlsub |
17 | Execution perlrun, perldebug | |
18 | Functions perlfunc | |
68dc0745 | 19 | Objects perlref, perlmod, perlobj, perltie |
20 | Data Structures perlref, perllol, perldsc | |
f102b883 | 21 | Modules perlmod, perlmodlib, perlsub |
d92eb7b0 | 22 | Regexes perlre, perlfunc, perlop, perllocale |
68dc0745 | 23 | Moving to perl5 perltrap, perl |
24 | Linking w/C perlxstut, perlxs, perlcall, perlguts, perlembed | |
06a5f41f JH |
25 | Various http://www.cpan.org/misc/olddoc/FMTEYEWTK.tgz |
26 | (not a man-page but still useful, a collection | |
27 | of various essays on Perl techniques) | |
68dc0745 | 28 | |
3958b146 | 29 | A crude table of contents for the Perl manpage set is found in L<perltoc>. |
68dc0745 | 30 | |
31 | =head2 How can I use Perl interactively? | |
32 | ||
33 | The typical approach uses the Perl debugger, described in the | |
3958b146 | 34 | perldebug(1) manpage, on an ``empty'' program, like this: |
68dc0745 | 35 | |
36 | perl -de 42 | |
37 | ||
38 | Now just type in any legal Perl code, and it will be immediately | |
39 | evaluated. You can also examine the symbol table, get stack | |
40 | backtraces, check variable values, set breakpoints, and other | |
92c2ed05 | 41 | operations typically found in symbolic debuggers. |
68dc0745 | 42 | |
43 | =head2 Is there a Perl shell? | |
44 | ||
04d666b1 RGS |
45 | The psh (Perl sh) is currently at version 1.8. The Perl Shell is a |
46 | shell that combines the interactive nature of a Unix shell with the | |
47 | power of Perl. The goal is a full featured shell that behaves as | |
48 | expected for normal shell activity and uses Perl syntax and | |
49 | functionality for control-flow statements and other things. | |
50 | You can get psh at http://www.focusresearch.com/gregor/psh/ . | |
55e174a4 | 51 | |
f3b9614f RGS |
52 | Zoidberg is a similar project and provides a shell written in perl, |
53 | configured in perl and operated in perl. It is intended as a login shell | |
54 | and development environment. It can be found at http://zoidberg.sf.net/ | |
55 | or your local CPAN mirror. | |
56 | ||
55e174a4 JH |
57 | The Shell.pm module (distributed with Perl) makes Perl try commands |
58 | which aren't part of the Perl language as shell commands. perlsh | |
59 | from the source distribution is simplistic and uninteresting, but | |
60 | may still be what you want. | |
68dc0745 | 61 | |
49d635f9 RGS |
62 | =head2 How do I find which modules are installed on my system? |
63 | ||
64 | You can use the ExtUtils::Installed module to show all | |
65 | installed distributions, although it can take awhile to do | |
66 | its magic. The standard library which comes with Perl just | |
67 | shows up as "Perl" (although you can get those with | |
68 | Mod::CoreList). | |
69 | ||
70 | use ExtUtils::Installed; | |
197aec24 | 71 | |
49d635f9 RGS |
72 | my $inst = ExtUtils::Installed->new(); |
73 | my @modules = $inst->modules(); | |
74 | ||
75 | If you want a list of all of the Perl module filenames, you | |
76 | can use File::Find::Rule. | |
77 | ||
78 | use File::Find::Rule; | |
197aec24 | 79 | |
49d635f9 RGS |
80 | my @files = File::Find::Rule->file()->name( '*.pm' )->in( @INC ); |
81 | ||
82 | If you do not have that module, you can do the same thing | |
197aec24 | 83 | with File::Find which is part of the standard library. |
49d635f9 RGS |
84 | |
85 | use File::Find; | |
86 | my @files; | |
87 | ||
88 | find sub { push @files, $File::Find::name if -f _ && /\.pm$/ }, | |
89 | @INC; | |
90 | ||
91 | print join "\n", @files; | |
197aec24 | 92 | |
49d635f9 RGS |
93 | If you simply need to quickly check to see if a module is |
94 | available, you can check for its documentation. If you can | |
197aec24 | 95 | read the documentation the module is most likely installed. |
49d635f9 RGS |
96 | If you cannot read the documentation, the module might not |
97 | have any (in rare cases). | |
98 | ||
99 | prompt% perldoc Module::Name | |
100 | ||
101 | You can also try to include the module in a one-liner to see if | |
102 | perl finds it. | |
103 | ||
104 | perl -MModule::Name -e1 | |
197aec24 | 105 | |
68dc0745 | 106 | =head2 How do I debug my Perl programs? |
107 | ||
197aec24 | 108 | Have you tried C<use warnings> or used C<-w>? They enable warnings |
a6dd486b | 109 | to detect dubious practices. |
68dc0745 | 110 | |
92c2ed05 GS |
111 | Have you tried C<use strict>? It prevents you from using symbolic |
112 | references, makes you predeclare any subroutines that you call as bare | |
113 | words, and (probably most importantly) forces you to predeclare your | |
a6dd486b | 114 | variables with C<my>, C<our>, or C<use vars>. |
68dc0745 | 115 | |
a6dd486b JB |
116 | Did you check the return values of each and every system call? The operating |
117 | system (and thus Perl) tells you whether they worked, and if not | |
92c2ed05 | 118 | why. |
68dc0745 | 119 | |
92c2ed05 GS |
120 | open(FH, "> /etc/cantwrite") |
121 | or die "Couldn't write to /etc/cantwrite: $!\n"; | |
68dc0745 | 122 | |
92c2ed05 | 123 | Did you read L<perltrap>? It's full of gotchas for old and new Perl |
a6dd486b | 124 | programmers and even has sections for those of you who are upgrading |
92c2ed05 GS |
125 | from languages like I<awk> and I<C>. |
126 | ||
127 | Have you tried the Perl debugger, described in L<perldebug>? You can | |
128 | step through your program and see what it's doing and thus work out | |
129 | why what it's doing isn't what it should be doing. | |
68dc0745 | 130 | |
131 | =head2 How do I profile my Perl programs? | |
132 | ||
e083a89c | 133 | You should get the Devel::DProf module from the standard distribution |
197aec24 RGS |
134 | (or separately on CPAN) and also use Benchmark.pm from the standard |
135 | distribution. The Benchmark module lets you time specific portions of | |
136 | your code, while Devel::DProf gives detailed breakdowns of where your | |
e083a89c | 137 | code spends its time. |
68dc0745 | 138 | |
92c2ed05 GS |
139 | Here's a sample use of Benchmark: |
140 | ||
141 | use Benchmark; | |
142 | ||
143 | @junk = `cat /etc/motd`; | |
144 | $count = 10_000; | |
145 | ||
146 | timethese($count, { | |
147 | 'map' => sub { my @a = @junk; | |
148 | map { s/a/b/ } @a; | |
6c43ef16 | 149 | return @a }, |
92c2ed05 | 150 | 'for' => sub { my @a = @junk; |
92c2ed05 GS |
151 | for (@a) { s/a/b/ }; |
152 | return @a }, | |
153 | }); | |
154 | ||
155 | This is what it prints (on one machine--your results will be dependent | |
156 | on your hardware, operating system, and the load on your machine): | |
157 | ||
158 | Benchmark: timing 10000 iterations of for, map... | |
159 | for: 4 secs ( 3.97 usr 0.01 sys = 3.98 cpu) | |
160 | map: 6 secs ( 4.97 usr 0.00 sys = 4.97 cpu) | |
161 | ||
65acb1b1 | 162 | Be aware that a good benchmark is very hard to write. It only tests the |
a6dd486b | 163 | data you give it and proves little about the differing complexities |
65acb1b1 TC |
164 | of contrasting algorithms. |
165 | ||
68dc0745 | 166 | =head2 How do I cross-reference my Perl programs? |
167 | ||
197aec24 | 168 | The B::Xref module can be used to generate cross-reference reports |
83ded9ee | 169 | for Perl programs. |
68dc0745 | 170 | |
c8db1d39 | 171 | perl -MO=Xref[,OPTIONS] scriptname.plx |
68dc0745 | 172 | |
173 | =head2 Is there a pretty-printer (formatter) for Perl? | |
174 | ||
55e174a4 JH |
175 | Perltidy is a Perl script which indents and reformats Perl scripts |
176 | to make them easier to read by trying to follow the rules of the | |
177 | L<perlstyle>. If you write Perl scripts, or spend much time reading | |
178 | them, you will probably find it useful. It is available at | |
179 | http://perltidy.sourceforge.net | |
180 | ||
181 | Of course, if you simply follow the guidelines in L<perlstyle>, | |
182 | you shouldn't need to reformat. The habit of formatting your code | |
183 | as you write it will help prevent bugs. Your editor can and should | |
184 | help you with this. The perl-mode or newer cperl-mode for emacs | |
185 | can provide remarkable amounts of help with most (but not all) | |
186 | code, and even less programmable editors can provide significant | |
187 | assistance. Tom Christiansen and many other VI users swear by | |
188 | the following settings in vi and its clones: | |
65acb1b1 TC |
189 | |
190 | set ai sw=4 | |
d92eb7b0 | 191 | map! ^O {^M}^[O^T |
65acb1b1 | 192 | |
55e174a4 | 193 | Put that in your F<.exrc> file (replacing the caret characters |
65acb1b1 | 194 | with control characters) and away you go. In insert mode, ^T is |
a6dd486b | 195 | for indenting, ^D is for undenting, and ^O is for blockdenting-- |
55e174a4 | 196 | as it were. A more complete example, with comments, can be found at |
213329dd | 197 | http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/TOMC/scripts/toms.exrc.gz |
92c2ed05 | 198 | |
49d635f9 | 199 | The a2ps http://www-inf.enst.fr/%7Edemaille/a2ps/black+white.ps.gz does |
06a5f41f | 200 | lots of things related to generating nicely printed output of |
f05bbc40 | 201 | documents, as does enscript at http://people.ssh.fi/mtr/genscript/ . |
65acb1b1 | 202 | |
d92eb7b0 | 203 | =head2 Is there a ctags for Perl? |
68dc0745 | 204 | |
bc06af74 JH |
205 | Recent versions of ctags do much more than older versions did. |
206 | EXUBERANT CTAGS is available from http://ctags.sourceforge.net/ | |
207 | and does a good job of making tags files for perl code. | |
208 | ||
209 | There is also a simple one at | |
a93751fa | 210 | http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/TOMC/scripts/ptags.gz which may do |
bc06af74 | 211 | the trick. It can be easy to hack this into what you want. |
65acb1b1 TC |
212 | |
213 | =head2 Is there an IDE or Windows Perl Editor? | |
214 | ||
6641ed39 JH |
215 | Perl programs are just plain text, so any editor will do. |
216 | ||
6641ed39 JH |
217 | If you're on Unix, you already have an IDE--Unix itself. The UNIX |
218 | philosophy is the philosophy of several small tools that each do one | |
219 | thing and do it well. It's like a carpenter's toolbox. | |
220 | ||
5ca69f12 | 221 | If you want an IDE, check the following: |
68fbfbd7 JH |
222 | |
223 | =over 4 | |
224 | ||
68fbfbd7 JH |
225 | =item Komodo |
226 | ||
5ca69f12 JH |
227 | ActiveState's cross-platform (as of April 2001 Windows and Linux), |
228 | multi-language IDE has Perl support, including a regular expression | |
229 | debugger and remote debugging | |
f224927c | 230 | ( http://www.ActiveState.com/Products/Komodo/index.html ). (Visual |
5ca69f12 | 231 | Perl, a Visual Studio.NET plug-in is currently (early 2001) in beta |
1577cd80 | 232 | ( http://www.ActiveState.com/Products/VisualPerl/index.html )). |
68fbfbd7 | 233 | |
06e809ab JH |
234 | =item The Object System |
235 | ||
bfeeaf1b | 236 | ( http://www.castlelink.co.uk/object_system/ ) is a Perl web |
06e809ab JH |
237 | applications development IDE, apparently for any platform |
238 | that runs Perl. | |
239 | ||
ac1094a1 JH |
240 | =item Open Perl IDE |
241 | ||
242 | ( http://open-perl-ide.sourceforge.net/ ) | |
243 | Open Perl IDE is an integrated development environment for writing | |
244 | and debugging Perl scripts with ActiveState's ActivePerl distribution | |
245 | under Windows 95/98/NT/2000. | |
246 | ||
5ca69f12 JH |
247 | =item PerlBuilder |
248 | ||
f224927c | 249 | ( http://www.solutionsoft.com/perl.htm ) is an integrated development |
5ca69f12 | 250 | environment for Windows that supports Perl development. |
8782d048 | 251 | |
68fbfbd7 JH |
252 | =item visiPerl+ |
253 | ||
ac1094a1 JH |
254 | ( http://helpconsulting.net/visiperl/ ) |
255 | From Help Consulting, for Windows. | |
68fbfbd7 | 256 | |
29b1171f JH |
257 | =item OptiPerl |
258 | ||
259 | ( http://www.optiperl.com/ ) is a Windows IDE with simulated CGI | |
260 | environment, including debugger and syntax highlighting editor. | |
261 | ||
68fbfbd7 JH |
262 | =back |
263 | ||
5a13f98a | 264 | For editors: if you're on Unix you probably have vi or a vi clone already, |
6641ed39 | 265 | and possibly an emacs too, so you may not need to download anything. |
5a13f98a | 266 | In any emacs the cperl-mode (M-x cperl-mode) gives you perhaps the |
6641ed39 JH |
267 | best available Perl editing mode in any editor. |
268 | ||
cc30d1a7 JH |
269 | If you are using Windows, you can use any editor that lets |
270 | you work with plain text, such as NotePad or WordPad. Word | |
271 | processors, such as Microsoft Word or WordPerfect, typically | |
272 | do not work since they insert all sorts of behind-the-scenes | |
273 | information, although some allow you to save files as "Text | |
274 | Only". You can also download text editors designed | |
275 | specifically for programming, such as Textpad | |
f224927c | 276 | ( http://www.textpad.com/ ) and UltraEdit |
bfeeaf1b | 277 | ( http://www.ultraedit.com/ ), among others. |
cc30d1a7 | 278 | |
49d635f9 | 279 | If you are using MacOS, the same concerns apply. MacPerl |
cc30d1a7 | 280 | (for Classic environments) comes with a simple editor. |
bfeeaf1b | 281 | Popular external editors are BBEdit ( http://www.bbedit.com/ ) |
49d635f9 | 282 | or Alpha ( http://www.kelehers.org/alpha/ ). MacOS X users can |
877ae92e | 283 | use Unix editors as well. |
68fbfbd7 JH |
284 | |
285 | =over 4 | |
286 | ||
287 | =item GNU Emacs | |
288 | ||
289 | http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/ntemacs.html | |
290 | ||
291 | =item MicroEMACS | |
292 | ||
49d635f9 | 293 | http://www.microemacs.de/ |
68fbfbd7 JH |
294 | |
295 | =item XEmacs | |
296 | ||
297 | http://www.xemacs.org/Download/index.html | |
298 | ||
49d635f9 RGS |
299 | =item Jed |
300 | ||
301 | http://space.mit.edu/~davis/jed/ | |
302 | ||
68fbfbd7 JH |
303 | =back |
304 | ||
305 | or a vi clone such as | |
306 | ||
307 | =over 4 | |
308 | ||
309 | =item Elvis | |
310 | ||
311 | ftp://ftp.cs.pdx.edu/pub/elvis/ http://www.fh-wedel.de/elvis/ | |
312 | ||
313 | =item Vile | |
314 | ||
49d635f9 | 315 | http://dickey.his.com/vile/vile.html |
68fbfbd7 JH |
316 | |
317 | =item Vim | |
318 | ||
319 | http://www.vim.org/ | |
320 | ||
68fbfbd7 JH |
321 | =back |
322 | ||
5a13f98a | 323 | For vi lovers in general, Windows or elsewhere: |
f05bbc40 JH |
324 | |
325 | http://www.thomer.com/thomer/vi/vi.html | |
6641ed39 | 326 | |
f224927c | 327 | nvi ( http://www.bostic.com/vi/ , available from CPAN in src/misc/) is |
5a13f98a | 328 | yet another vi clone, unfortunately not available for Windows, but in |
6641ed39 JH |
329 | UNIX platforms you might be interested in trying it out, firstly because |
330 | strictly speaking it is not a vi clone, it is the real vi, or the new | |
331 | incarnation of it, and secondly because you can embed Perl inside it | |
332 | to use Perl as the scripting language. nvi is not alone in this, | |
7c82de66 | 333 | though: at least also vim and vile offer an embedded Perl. |
614a1598 | 334 | |
68fbfbd7 JH |
335 | The following are Win32 multilanguage editor/IDESs that support Perl: |
336 | ||
337 | =over 4 | |
338 | ||
339 | =item Codewright | |
340 | ||
341 | http://www.starbase.com/ | |
342 | ||
343 | =item MultiEdit | |
344 | ||
345 | http://www.MultiEdit.com/ | |
346 | ||
347 | =item SlickEdit | |
348 | ||
349 | http://www.slickedit.com/ | |
350 | ||
351 | =back | |
8782d048 | 352 | |
6641ed39 JH |
353 | There is also a toyedit Text widget based editor written in Perl |
354 | that is distributed with the Tk module on CPAN. The ptkdb | |
f224927c | 355 | ( http://world.std.com/~aep/ptkdb/ ) is a Perl/tk based debugger that |
8782d048 | 356 | acts as a development environment of sorts. Perl Composer |
49d635f9 | 357 | ( http://perlcomposer.sourceforge.net/ ) is an IDE for Perl/Tk |
e083a89c JH |
358 | GUI creation. |
359 | ||
8782d048 | 360 | In addition to an editor/IDE you might be interested in a more |
68fbfbd7 JH |
361 | powerful shell environment for Win32. Your options include |
362 | ||
363 | =over 4 | |
364 | ||
365 | =item Bash | |
366 | ||
1577cd80 | 367 | from the Cygwin package ( http://sources.redhat.com/cygwin/ ) |
68fbfbd7 JH |
368 | |
369 | =item Ksh | |
370 | ||
f224927c | 371 | from the MKS Toolkit ( http://www.mks.com/ ), or the Bourne shell of |
1577cd80 | 372 | the U/WIN environment ( http://www.research.att.com/sw/tools/uwin/ ) |
68fbfbd7 JH |
373 | |
374 | =item Tcsh | |
375 | ||
f224927c | 376 | ftp://ftp.astron.com/pub/tcsh/ , see also |
68fbfbd7 JH |
377 | http://www.primate.wisc.edu/software/csh-tcsh-book/ |
378 | ||
379 | =item Zsh | |
380 | ||
f224927c | 381 | ftp://ftp.blarg.net/users/amol/zsh/ , see also http://www.zsh.org/ |
68fbfbd7 JH |
382 | |
383 | =back | |
384 | ||
614a1598 JH |
385 | MKS and U/WIN are commercial (U/WIN is free for educational and |
386 | research purposes), Cygwin is covered by the GNU Public License (but | |
387 | that shouldn't matter for Perl use). The Cygwin, MKS, and U/WIN all | |
388 | contain (in addition to the shells) a comprehensive set of standard | |
389 | UNIX toolkit utilities. | |
8782d048 | 390 | |
5a13f98a JH |
391 | If you're transferring text files between Unix and Windows using FTP |
392 | be sure to transfer them in ASCII mode so the ends of lines are | |
393 | appropriately converted. | |
394 | ||
e083a89c JH |
395 | On Mac OS the MacPerl Application comes with a simple 32k text editor |
396 | that behaves like a rudimentary IDE. In contrast to the MacPerl Application | |
733271b5 | 397 | the MPW Perl tool can make use of the MPW Shell itself as an editor (with |
68fbfbd7 JH |
398 | no 32k limit). |
399 | ||
400 | =over 4 | |
401 | ||
402 | =item BBEdit and BBEdit Lite | |
403 | ||
404 | are text editors for Mac OS that have a Perl sensitivity mode | |
1577cd80 | 405 | ( http://web.barebones.com/ ). |
68fbfbd7 JH |
406 | |
407 | =item Alpha | |
408 | ||
409 | is an editor, written and extensible in Tcl, that nonetheless has | |
733271b5 | 410 | built in support for several popular markup and programming languages |
1577cd80 | 411 | including Perl and HTML ( http://alpha.olm.net/ ). |
68fbfbd7 JH |
412 | |
413 | =back | |
414 | ||
415 | Pepper and Pe are programming language sensitive text editors for Mac | |
1577cd80 | 416 | OS X and BeOS respectively ( http://www.hekkelman.com/ ). |
68dc0745 | 417 | |
418 | =head2 Where can I get Perl macros for vi? | |
419 | ||
420 | For a complete version of Tom Christiansen's vi configuration file, | |
a93751fa | 421 | see http://www.cpan.org/authors/Tom_Christiansen/scripts/toms.exrc.gz , |
a6dd486b | 422 | the standard benchmark file for vi emulators. The file runs best with nvi, |
5a964f20 | 423 | the current version of vi out of Berkeley, which incidentally can be built |
bfeeaf1b | 424 | with an embedded Perl interpreter--see http://www.cpan.org/src/misc/ . |
68dc0745 | 425 | |
426 | =head2 Where can I get perl-mode for emacs? | |
427 | ||
428 | Since Emacs version 19 patchlevel 22 or so, there have been both a | |
87275199 | 429 | perl-mode.el and support for the Perl debugger built in. These should |
68dc0745 | 430 | come with the standard Emacs 19 distribution. |
431 | ||
87275199 | 432 | In the Perl source directory, you'll find a directory called "emacs", |
68dc0745 | 433 | which contains a cperl-mode that color-codes keywords, provides |
434 | context-sensitive help, and other nifty things. | |
435 | ||
92c2ed05 | 436 | Note that the perl-mode of emacs will have fits with C<"main'foo"> |
d92eb7b0 | 437 | (single quote), and mess up the indentation and highlighting. You |
65acb1b1 | 438 | are probably using C<"main::foo"> in new Perl code anyway, so this |
92c2ed05 | 439 | shouldn't be an issue. |
68dc0745 | 440 | |
441 | =head2 How can I use curses with Perl? | |
442 | ||
443 | The Curses module from CPAN provides a dynamically loadable object | |
5a964f20 | 444 | module interface to a curses library. A small demo can be found at the |
49d635f9 | 445 | directory http://www.cpan.org/authors/Tom_Christiansen/scripts/rep.gz ; |
5a964f20 TC |
446 | this program repeats a command and updates the screen as needed, rendering |
447 | B<rep ps axu> similar to B<top>. | |
68dc0745 | 448 | |
449 | =head2 How can I use X or Tk with Perl? | |
450 | ||
5a964f20 TC |
451 | Tk is a completely Perl-based, object-oriented interface to the Tk toolkit |
452 | that doesn't force you to use Tcl just to get at Tk. Sx is an interface | |
453 | to the Athena Widget set. Both are available from CPAN. See the | |
a93751fa | 454 | directory http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-category/08_User_Interfaces/ |
68dc0745 | 455 | |
a6dd486b | 456 | Invaluable for Perl/Tk programming are the Perl/Tk FAQ at |
87275199 | 457 | http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/%7Epvhp/ptk/ptkTOC.html , the Perl/Tk Reference |
92c2ed05 | 458 | Guide available at |
213329dd | 459 | http://www.cpan.org/authors/Stephen_O_Lidie/ , and the |
92c2ed05 | 460 | online manpages at |
87275199 | 461 | http://www-users.cs.umn.edu/%7Eamundson/perl/perltk/toc.html . |
92c2ed05 | 462 | |
68dc0745 | 463 | =head2 How can I generate simple menus without using CGI or Tk? |
464 | ||
a93751fa | 465 | The http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/SKUNZ/perlmenu.v4.0.tar.gz |
68dc0745 | 466 | module, which is curses-based, can help with this. |
467 | ||
68dc0745 | 468 | =head2 How can I make my Perl program run faster? |
469 | ||
92c2ed05 | 470 | The best way to do this is to come up with a better algorithm. This |
b73a15ae | 471 | can often make a dramatic difference. Jon Bentley's book |
5cd0b561 | 472 | I<Programming Pearls> (that's not a misspelling!) has some good tips |
92c2ed05 GS |
473 | on optimization, too. Advice on benchmarking boils down to: benchmark |
474 | and profile to make sure you're optimizing the right part, look for | |
475 | better algorithms instead of microtuning your code, and when all else | |
57b19278 | 476 | fails consider just buying faster hardware. You will probably want to |
5cd0b561 RGS |
477 | read the answer to the earlier question ``How do I profile my Perl |
478 | programs?'' if you haven't done so already. | |
68dc0745 | 479 | |
92c2ed05 | 480 | A different approach is to autoload seldom-used Perl code. See the |
68dc0745 | 481 | AutoSplit and AutoLoader modules in the standard distribution for |
482 | that. Or you could locate the bottleneck and think about writing just | |
483 | that part in C, the way we used to take bottlenecks in C code and | |
5cd0b561 RGS |
484 | write them in assembler. Similar to rewriting in C, modules that have |
485 | critical sections can be written in C (for instance, the PDL module | |
486 | from CPAN). | |
487 | ||
488 | If you're currently linking your perl executable to a shared | |
489 | I<libc.so>, you can often gain a 10-25% performance benefit by | |
490 | rebuilding it to link with a static libc.a instead. This will make a | |
491 | bigger perl executable, but your Perl programs (and programmers) may | |
492 | thank you for it. See the F<INSTALL> file in the source distribution | |
493 | for more information. | |
494 | ||
495 | The undump program was an ancient attempt to speed up Perl program by | |
496 | storing the already-compiled form to disk. This is no longer a viable | |
497 | option, as it only worked on a few architectures, and wasn't a good | |
498 | solution anyway. | |
68dc0745 | 499 | |
500 | =head2 How can I make my Perl program take less memory? | |
501 | ||
502 | When it comes to time-space tradeoffs, Perl nearly always prefers to | |
503 | throw memory at a problem. Scalars in Perl use more memory than | |
65acb1b1 | 504 | strings in C, arrays take more than that, and hashes use even more. While |
68dc0745 | 505 | there's still a lot to be done, recent releases have been addressing |
506 | these issues. For example, as of 5.004, duplicate hash keys are | |
507 | shared amongst all hashes using them, so require no reallocation. | |
508 | ||
509 | In some cases, using substr() or vec() to simulate arrays can be | |
510 | highly beneficial. For example, an array of a thousand booleans will | |
511 | take at least 20,000 bytes of space, but it can be turned into one | |
a6dd486b | 512 | 125-byte bit vector--a considerable memory savings. The standard |
68dc0745 | 513 | Tie::SubstrHash module can also help for certain types of data |
514 | structure. If you're working with specialist data structures | |
515 | (matrices, for instance) modules that implement these in C may use | |
516 | less memory than equivalent Perl modules. | |
517 | ||
518 | Another thing to try is learning whether your Perl was compiled with | |
54310121 | 519 | the system malloc or with Perl's builtin malloc. Whichever one it |
68dc0745 | 520 | is, try using the other one and see whether this makes a difference. |
521 | Information about malloc is in the F<INSTALL> file in the source | |
522 | distribution. You can find out whether you are using perl's malloc by | |
523 | typing C<perl -V:usemymalloc>. | |
524 | ||
24f1ba9b JH |
525 | Of course, the best way to save memory is to not do anything to waste |
526 | it in the first place. Good programming practices can go a long way | |
527 | toward this: | |
528 | ||
529 | =over 4 | |
530 | ||
531 | =item * Don't slurp! | |
532 | ||
533 | Don't read an entire file into memory if you can process it line | |
534 | by line. Or more concretely, use a loop like this: | |
535 | ||
536 | # | |
537 | # Good Idea | |
538 | # | |
539 | while (<FILE>) { | |
540 | # ... | |
541 | } | |
542 | ||
543 | instead of this: | |
544 | ||
545 | # | |
546 | # Bad Idea | |
547 | # | |
548 | @data = <FILE>; | |
549 | foreach (@data) { | |
550 | # ... | |
551 | } | |
552 | ||
553 | When the files you're processing are small, it doesn't much matter which | |
554 | way you do it, but it makes a huge difference when they start getting | |
197aec24 | 555 | larger. |
24f1ba9b | 556 | |
bc06af74 JH |
557 | =item * Use map and grep selectively |
558 | ||
559 | Remember that both map and grep expect a LIST argument, so doing this: | |
560 | ||
561 | @wanted = grep {/pattern/} <FILE>; | |
562 | ||
563 | will cause the entire file to be slurped. For large files, it's better | |
564 | to loop: | |
565 | ||
566 | while (<FILE>) { | |
567 | push(@wanted, $_) if /pattern/; | |
568 | } | |
569 | ||
570 | =item * Avoid unnecessary quotes and stringification | |
571 | ||
572 | Don't quote large strings unless absolutely necessary: | |
573 | ||
574 | my $copy = "$large_string"; | |
575 | ||
576 | makes 2 copies of $large_string (one for $copy and another for the | |
577 | quotes), whereas | |
578 | ||
579 | my $copy = $large_string; | |
580 | ||
581 | only makes one copy. | |
582 | ||
583 | Ditto for stringifying large arrays: | |
584 | ||
585 | { | |
586 | local $, = "\n"; | |
587 | print @big_array; | |
588 | } | |
589 | ||
590 | is much more memory-efficient than either | |
591 | ||
592 | print join "\n", @big_array; | |
593 | ||
594 | or | |
595 | ||
596 | { | |
597 | local $" = "\n"; | |
598 | print "@big_array"; | |
599 | } | |
600 | ||
601 | ||
24f1ba9b JH |
602 | =item * Pass by reference |
603 | ||
604 | Pass arrays and hashes by reference, not by value. For one thing, it's | |
605 | the only way to pass multiple lists or hashes (or both) in a single | |
606 | call/return. It also avoids creating a copy of all the contents. This | |
607 | requires some judgment, however, because any changes will be propagated | |
608 | back to the original data. If you really want to mangle (er, modify) a | |
609 | copy, you'll have to sacrifice the memory needed to make one. | |
610 | ||
611 | =item * Tie large variables to disk. | |
612 | ||
613 | For "big" data stores (i.e. ones that exceed available memory) consider | |
614 | using one of the DB modules to store it on disk instead of in RAM. This | |
ed8cf1fe | 615 | will incur a penalty in access time, but that's probably better than |
24f1ba9b JH |
616 | causing your hard disk to thrash due to massive swapping. |
617 | ||
618 | =back | |
619 | ||
49d635f9 | 620 | =head2 Is it safe to return a reference to local or lexical data? |
68dc0745 | 621 | |
49d635f9 RGS |
622 | Yes. Perl's garbage collection system takes care of this so |
623 | everything works out right. | |
68dc0745 | 624 | |
625 | sub makeone { | |
626 | my @a = ( 1 .. 10 ); | |
627 | return \@a; | |
628 | } | |
629 | ||
197aec24 | 630 | for ( 1 .. 10 ) { |
68dc0745 | 631 | push @many, makeone(); |
632 | } | |
633 | ||
634 | print $many[4][5], "\n"; | |
635 | ||
636 | print "@many\n"; | |
637 | ||
638 | =head2 How can I free an array or hash so my program shrinks? | |
639 | ||
2c646907 JH |
640 | You usually can't. On most operating systems, memory |
641 | allocated to a program can never be returned to the system. | |
642 | That's why long-running programs sometimes re-exec | |
643 | themselves. Some operating systems (notably, systems that | |
644 | use mmap(2) for allocating large chunks of memory) can | |
645 | reclaim memory that is no longer used, but on such systems, | |
646 | perl must be configured and compiled to use the OS's malloc, | |
647 | not perl's. | |
68dc0745 | 648 | |
649 | However, judicious use of my() on your variables will help make sure | |
a6dd486b | 650 | that they go out of scope so that Perl can free up that space for |
92c2ed05 | 651 | use in other parts of your program. A global variable, of course, never |
68dc0745 | 652 | goes out of scope, so you can't get its space automatically reclaimed, |
653 | although undef()ing and/or delete()ing it will achieve the same effect. | |
46fc3d4c | 654 | In general, memory allocation and de-allocation isn't something you can |
68dc0745 | 655 | or should be worrying about much in Perl, but even this capability |
656 | (preallocation of data types) is in the works. | |
657 | ||
658 | =head2 How can I make my CGI script more efficient? | |
659 | ||
660 | Beyond the normal measures described to make general Perl programs | |
661 | faster or smaller, a CGI program has additional issues. It may be run | |
662 | several times per second. Given that each time it runs it will need | |
46fc3d4c | 663 | to be re-compiled and will often allocate a megabyte or more of system |
68dc0745 | 664 | memory, this can be a killer. Compiling into C B<isn't going to help |
46fc3d4c | 665 | you> because the process start-up overhead is where the bottleneck is. |
68dc0745 | 666 | |
92c2ed05 GS |
667 | There are two popular ways to avoid this overhead. One solution |
668 | involves running the Apache HTTP server (available from | |
f224927c | 669 | http://www.apache.org/ ) with either of the mod_perl or mod_fastcgi |
92c2ed05 GS |
670 | plugin modules. |
671 | ||
672 | With mod_perl and the Apache::Registry module (distributed with | |
673 | mod_perl), httpd will run with an embedded Perl interpreter which | |
674 | pre-compiles your script and then executes it within the same address | |
675 | space without forking. The Apache extension also gives Perl access to | |
676 | the internal server API, so modules written in Perl can do just about | |
677 | anything a module written in C can. For more on mod_perl, see | |
678 | http://perl.apache.org/ | |
679 | ||
65acb1b1 | 680 | With the FCGI module (from CPAN) and the mod_fastcgi |
bfeeaf1b | 681 | module (available from http://www.fastcgi.com/ ) each of your Perl |
87275199 | 682 | programs becomes a permanent CGI daemon process. |
68dc0745 | 683 | |
684 | Both of these solutions can have far-reaching effects on your system | |
87275199 | 685 | and on the way you write your CGI programs, so investigate them with |
68dc0745 | 686 | care. |
687 | ||
a93751fa | 688 | See http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-category/15_World_Wide_Web_HTML_HTTP_CGI/ . |
5a964f20 | 689 | |
65acb1b1 | 690 | A non-free, commercial product, ``The Velocity Engine for Perl'', |
a6dd486b JB |
691 | (http://www.binevolve.com/ or http://www.binevolve.com/velocigen/ ) |
692 | might also be worth looking at. It will allow you to increase the | |
693 | performance of your Perl programs, running programs up to 25 times | |
694 | faster than normal CGI Perl when running in persistent Perl mode or 4 | |
695 | to 5 times faster without any modification to your existing CGI | |
696 | programs. Fully functional evaluation copies are available from the | |
697 | web site. | |
c8db1d39 | 698 | |
68dc0745 | 699 | =head2 How can I hide the source for my Perl program? |
700 | ||
701 | Delete it. :-) Seriously, there are a number of (mostly | |
92c2ed05 | 702 | unsatisfactory) solutions with varying levels of ``security''. |
68dc0745 | 703 | |
704 | First of all, however, you I<can't> take away read permission, because | |
705 | the source code has to be readable in order to be compiled and | |
706 | interpreted. (That doesn't mean that a CGI script's source is | |
a6dd486b JB |
707 | readable by people on the web, though--only by people with access to |
708 | the filesystem.) So you have to leave the permissions at the socially | |
92c2ed05 | 709 | friendly 0755 level. |
68dc0745 | 710 | |
711 | Some people regard this as a security problem. If your program does | |
a6dd486b | 712 | insecure things and relies on people not knowing how to exploit those |
68dc0745 | 713 | insecurities, it is not secure. It is often possible for someone to |
714 | determine the insecure things and exploit them without viewing the | |
715 | source. Security through obscurity, the name for hiding your bugs | |
716 | instead of fixing them, is little security indeed. | |
717 | ||
83df6a1d JH |
718 | You can try using encryption via source filters (Starting from Perl |
719 | 5.8 the Filter::Simple and Filter::Util::Call modules are included in | |
720 | the standard distribution), but any decent programmer will be able to | |
721 | decrypt it. You can try using the byte code compiler and interpreter | |
722 | described below, but the curious might still be able to de-compile it. | |
723 | You can try using the native-code compiler described below, but | |
724 | crackers might be able to disassemble it. These pose varying degrees | |
725 | of difficulty to people wanting to get at your code, but none can | |
726 | definitively conceal it (true of every language, not just Perl). | |
68dc0745 | 727 | |
49d635f9 RGS |
728 | It is very easy to recover the source of Perl programs. You simply |
729 | feed the program to the perl interpreter and use the modules in | |
730 | the B:: hierarchy. The B::Deparse module should be able to | |
731 | defeat most attempts to hide source. Again, this is not | |
732 | unique to Perl. | |
733 | ||
68dc0745 | 734 | If you're concerned about people profiting from your code, then the |
d92eb7b0 | 735 | bottom line is that nothing but a restrictive license will give you |
68dc0745 | 736 | legal security. License your software and pepper it with threatening |
92c2ed05 | 737 | statements like ``This is unpublished proprietary software of XYZ Corp. |
68dc0745 | 738 | Your access to it does not give you permission to use it blah blah |
92c2ed05 | 739 | blah.'' We are not lawyers, of course, so you should see a lawyer if |
d92eb7b0 | 740 | you want to be sure your license's wording will stand up in court. |
68dc0745 | 741 | |
54310121 | 742 | =head2 How can I compile my Perl program into byte code or C? |
68dc0745 | 743 | |
744 | Malcolm Beattie has written a multifunction backend compiler, | |
5e3006a4 GS |
745 | available from CPAN, that can do both these things. It is included |
746 | in the perl5.005 release, but is still considered experimental. | |
747 | This means it's fun to play with if you're a programmer but not | |
748 | really for people looking for turn-key solutions. | |
68dc0745 | 749 | |
92c2ed05 GS |
750 | Merely compiling into C does not in and of itself guarantee that your |
751 | code will run very much faster. That's because except for lucky cases | |
752 | where a lot of native type inferencing is possible, the normal Perl | |
a6dd486b | 753 | run-time system is still present and so your program will take just as |
92c2ed05 GS |
754 | long to run and be just as big. Most programs save little more than |
755 | compilation time, leaving execution no more than 10-30% faster. A few | |
a6dd486b | 756 | rare programs actually benefit significantly (even running several times |
92c2ed05 | 757 | faster), but this takes some tweaking of your code. |
68dc0745 | 758 | |
68dc0745 | 759 | You'll probably be astonished to learn that the current version of the |
760 | compiler generates a compiled form of your script whose executable is | |
761 | just as big as the original perl executable, and then some. That's | |
762 | because as currently written, all programs are prepared for a full | |
763 | eval() statement. You can tremendously reduce this cost by building a | |
92c2ed05 | 764 | shared I<libperl.so> library and linking against that. See the |
87275199 | 765 | F<INSTALL> podfile in the Perl source distribution for details. If |
d92eb7b0 | 766 | you link your main perl binary with this, it will make it minuscule. |
92c2ed05 | 767 | For example, on one author's system, F</usr/bin/perl> is only 11k in |
68dc0745 | 768 | size! |
769 | ||
5a964f20 | 770 | In general, the compiler will do nothing to make a Perl program smaller, |
a6dd486b JB |
771 | faster, more portable, or more secure. In fact, it can make your |
772 | situation worse. The executable will be bigger, your VM system may take | |
5a964f20 TC |
773 | longer to load the whole thing, the binary is fragile and hard to fix, |
774 | and compilation never stopped software piracy in the form of crackers, | |
775 | viruses, or bootleggers. The real advantage of the compiler is merely | |
776 | packaging, and once you see the size of what it makes (well, unless | |
777 | you use a shared I<libperl.so>), you'll probably want a complete | |
5e3006a4 | 778 | Perl install anyway. |
5a964f20 | 779 | |
65acb1b1 TC |
780 | =head2 How can I compile Perl into Java? |
781 | ||
a6dd486b | 782 | You can also integrate Java and Perl with the |
65acb1b1 | 783 | Perl Resource Kit from O'Reilly and Associates. See |
a6dd486b JB |
784 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/prkunix/ . |
785 | ||
786 | Perl 5.6 comes with Java Perl Lingo, or JPL. JPL, still in | |
787 | development, allows Perl code to be called from Java. See jpl/README | |
788 | in the Perl source tree. | |
65acb1b1 | 789 | |
92c2ed05 | 790 | =head2 How can I get C<#!perl> to work on [MS-DOS,NT,...]? |
68dc0745 | 791 | |
792 | For OS/2 just use | |
793 | ||
794 | extproc perl -S -your_switches | |
795 | ||
796 | as the first line in C<*.cmd> file (C<-S> due to a bug in cmd.exe's | |
46fc3d4c | 797 | `extproc' handling). For DOS one should first invent a corresponding |
fd1adc71 RGS |
798 | batch file and codify it in C<ALTERNATE_SHEBANG> (see the |
799 | F<dosish.h> file in the source distribution for more information). | |
68dc0745 | 800 | |
92c2ed05 GS |
801 | The Win95/NT installation, when using the ActiveState port of Perl, |
802 | will modify the Registry to associate the C<.pl> extension with the | |
d92eb7b0 GS |
803 | perl interpreter. If you install another port, perhaps even building |
804 | your own Win95/NT Perl from the standard sources by using a Windows port | |
d702ae42 | 805 | of gcc (e.g., with cygwin or mingw32), then you'll have to modify |
d92eb7b0 GS |
806 | the Registry yourself. In addition to associating C<.pl> with the |
807 | interpreter, NT people can use: C<SET PATHEXT=%PATHEXT%;.PL> to let them | |
808 | run the program C<install-linux.pl> merely by typing C<install-linux>. | |
68dc0745 | 809 | |
87275199 GS |
810 | Macintosh Perl programs will have the appropriate Creator and |
811 | Type, so that double-clicking them will invoke the Perl application. | |
68dc0745 | 812 | |
813 | I<IMPORTANT!>: Whatever you do, PLEASE don't get frustrated, and just | |
814 | throw the perl interpreter into your cgi-bin directory, in order to | |
87275199 | 815 | get your programs working for a web server. This is an EXTREMELY big |
68dc0745 | 816 | security risk. Take the time to figure out how to do it correctly. |
817 | ||
87275199 | 818 | =head2 Can I write useful Perl programs on the command line? |
68dc0745 | 819 | |
820 | Yes. Read L<perlrun> for more information. Some examples follow. | |
821 | (These assume standard Unix shell quoting rules.) | |
822 | ||
823 | # sum first and last fields | |
5a964f20 | 824 | perl -lane 'print $F[0] + $F[-1]' * |
68dc0745 | 825 | |
826 | # identify text files | |
827 | perl -le 'for(@ARGV) {print if -f && -T _}' * | |
828 | ||
5a964f20 | 829 | # remove (most) comments from C program |
68dc0745 | 830 | perl -0777 -pe 's{/\*.*?\*/}{}gs' foo.c |
831 | ||
832 | # make file a month younger than today, defeating reaper daemons | |
833 | perl -e '$X=24*60*60; utime(time(),time() + 30 * $X,@ARGV)' * | |
834 | ||
835 | # find first unused uid | |
836 | perl -le '$i++ while getpwuid($i); print $i' | |
837 | ||
838 | # display reasonable manpath | |
839 | echo $PATH | perl -nl -072 -e ' | |
840 | s![^/+]*$!man!&&-d&&!$s{$_}++&&push@m,$_;END{print"@m"}' | |
841 | ||
87275199 | 842 | OK, the last one was actually an Obfuscated Perl Contest entry. :-) |
68dc0745 | 843 | |
87275199 | 844 | =head2 Why don't Perl one-liners work on my DOS/Mac/VMS system? |
68dc0745 | 845 | |
846 | The problem is usually that the command interpreters on those systems | |
847 | have rather different ideas about quoting than the Unix shells under | |
848 | which the one-liners were created. On some systems, you may have to | |
849 | change single-quotes to double ones, which you must I<NOT> do on Unix | |
850 | or Plan9 systems. You might also have to change a single % to a %%. | |
851 | ||
852 | For example: | |
853 | ||
854 | # Unix | |
855 | perl -e 'print "Hello world\n"' | |
856 | ||
46fc3d4c | 857 | # DOS, etc. |
68dc0745 | 858 | perl -e "print \"Hello world\n\"" |
859 | ||
46fc3d4c | 860 | # Mac |
68dc0745 | 861 | print "Hello world\n" |
862 | (then Run "Myscript" or Shift-Command-R) | |
863 | ||
d2321c93 JH |
864 | # MPW |
865 | perl -e 'print "Hello world\n"' | |
866 | ||
68dc0745 | 867 | # VMS |
868 | perl -e "print ""Hello world\n""" | |
869 | ||
a6dd486b | 870 | The problem is that none of these examples are reliable: they depend on the |
92c2ed05 | 871 | command interpreter. Under Unix, the first two often work. Under DOS, |
a6dd486b | 872 | it's entirely possible that neither works. If 4DOS was the command shell, |
92c2ed05 | 873 | you'd probably have better luck like this: |
68dc0745 | 874 | |
875 | perl -e "print <Ctrl-x>"Hello world\n<Ctrl-x>"" | |
876 | ||
46fc3d4c | 877 | Under the Mac, it depends which environment you are using. The MacPerl |
68dc0745 | 878 | shell, or MPW, is much like Unix shells in its support for several |
46fc3d4c | 879 | quoting variants, except that it makes free use of the Mac's non-ASCII |
68dc0745 | 880 | characters as control characters. |
881 | ||
65acb1b1 TC |
882 | Using qq(), q(), and qx(), instead of "double quotes", 'single |
883 | quotes', and `backticks`, may make one-liners easier to write. | |
884 | ||
d2321c93 | 885 | There is no general solution to all of this. It is a mess. |
68dc0745 | 886 | |
887 | [Some of this answer was contributed by Kenneth Albanowski.] | |
888 | ||
889 | =head2 Where can I learn about CGI or Web programming in Perl? | |
890 | ||
891 | For modules, get the CGI or LWP modules from CPAN. For textbooks, | |
892 | see the two especially dedicated to web stuff in the question on | |
92c2ed05 GS |
893 | books. For problems and questions related to the web, like ``Why |
894 | do I get 500 Errors'' or ``Why doesn't it run from the browser right | |
8305e449 JH |
895 | when it runs fine on the command line'', see the troubleshooting |
896 | guides and references in L<perlfaq9> or in the CGI MetaFAQ: | |
68dc0745 | 897 | |
8305e449 | 898 | http://www.perl.org/CGI_MetaFAQ.html |
0f542199 | 899 | |
68dc0745 | 900 | =head2 Where can I learn about object-oriented Perl programming? |
901 | ||
a6dd486b | 902 | A good place to start is L<perltoot>, and you can use L<perlobj>, |
06a5f41f JH |
903 | L<perlboot>, L<perltoot>, L<perltooc>, and L<perlbot> for reference. |
904 | (If you are using really old Perl, you may not have all of these, | |
905 | try http://www.perldoc.com/ , but consider upgrading your perl.) | |
906 | ||
907 | A good book on OO on Perl is the "Object-Oriented Perl" | |
197aec24 | 908 | by Damian Conway from Manning Publications, |
06a5f41f | 909 | http://www.manning.com/Conway/index.html |
68dc0745 | 910 | |
911 | =head2 Where can I learn about linking C with Perl? [h2xs, xsubpp] | |
912 | ||
913 | If you want to call C from Perl, start with L<perlxstut>, | |
914 | moving on to L<perlxs>, L<xsubpp>, and L<perlguts>. If you want to | |
915 | call Perl from C, then read L<perlembed>, L<perlcall>, and | |
916 | L<perlguts>. Don't forget that you can learn a lot from looking at | |
917 | how the authors of existing extension modules wrote their code and | |
918 | solved their problems. | |
919 | ||
920 | =head2 I've read perlembed, perlguts, etc., but I can't embed perl in | |
a6dd486b | 921 | my C program; what am I doing wrong? |
68dc0745 | 922 | |
923 | Download the ExtUtils::Embed kit from CPAN and run `make test'. If | |
924 | the tests pass, read the pods again and again and again. If they | |
87275199 | 925 | fail, see L<perlbug> and send a bug report with the output of |
68dc0745 | 926 | C<make test TEST_VERBOSE=1> along with C<perl -V>. |
927 | ||
83ded9ee | 928 | =head2 When I tried to run my script, I got this message. What does it mean? |
68dc0745 | 929 | |
87275199 GS |
930 | A complete list of Perl's error messages and warnings with explanatory |
931 | text can be found in L<perldiag>. You can also use the splain program | |
932 | (distributed with Perl) to explain the error messages: | |
68dc0745 | 933 | |
934 | perl program 2>diag.out | |
935 | splain [-v] [-p] diag.out | |
936 | ||
937 | or change your program to explain the messages for you: | |
938 | ||
939 | use diagnostics; | |
940 | ||
941 | or | |
942 | ||
943 | use diagnostics -verbose; | |
944 | ||
945 | =head2 What's MakeMaker? | |
946 | ||
87275199 | 947 | This module (part of the standard Perl distribution) is designed to |
68dc0745 | 948 | write a Makefile for an extension module from a Makefile.PL. For more |
949 | information, see L<ExtUtils::MakeMaker>. | |
950 | ||
951 | =head1 AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT | |
952 | ||
0bc0ad85 | 953 | Copyright (c) 1997-2002 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington. |
5a964f20 TC |
954 | All rights reserved. |
955 | ||
5a7beb56 JH |
956 | This documentation is free; you can redistribute it and/or modify it |
957 | under the same terms as Perl itself. | |
c8db1d39 | 958 | |
87275199 | 959 | Irrespective of its distribution, all code examples here are in the public |
c8db1d39 TC |
960 | domain. You are permitted and encouraged to use this code and any |
961 | derivatives thereof in your own programs for fun or for profit as you | |
962 | see fit. A simple comment in the code giving credit to the FAQ would | |
963 | be courteous but is not required. |