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 | |
0aef0fe5 NC |
31 | =begin buildtoc |
32 | ||
33 | # This section is parsed by Porting/pod_lib.pl for use by pod/buildtoc etc | |
34 | ||
35 | flag =g perluniprops perlmodlib perlapi perlintern | |
36 | flag =go perltoc | |
37 | flag =ro perlcn perljp perlko perltw | |
38 | flag = perlvms | |
39 | ||
0eb29def S |
40 | path perlfaq.* cpan/perlfaq/lib/ |
41 | path perlglossary cpan/perlfaq/lib/ | |
42 | path perlxs(?:tut|typemap)? dist/ExtUtils-ParseXS/lib/ | |
43 | path perldoc cpan/Pod-Perldoc/lib/ | |
0aef0fe5 NC |
44 | |
45 | aux a2p c2ph h2ph h2xs perlbug pl2pm pod2html pod2man s2p splain xsubpp | |
46 | ||
47 | =end buildtoc | |
48 | ||
fd7b6849 MJD |
49 | =head2 Overview |
50 | ||
fb9cefb4 | 51 | perl Perl overview (this section) |
10151d09 | 52 | perlintro Perl introduction for beginners |
fb9cefb4 | 53 | perltoc Perl documentation table of contents |
760ac839 | 54 | |
fd7b6849 MJD |
55 | =head2 Tutorials |
56 | ||
7a2320f0 AMS |
57 | perlreftut Perl references short introduction |
58 | perldsc Perl data structures intro | |
59 | perllol Perl data structures: arrays of arrays | |
7a2320f0 | 60 | |
41630250 | 61 | perlrequick Perl regular expressions quick start |
7a2320f0 AMS |
62 | perlretut Perl regular expressions tutorial |
63 | ||
82e1c0d9 | 64 | perlootut Perl OO tutorial for beginners |
7a2320f0 | 65 | |
da096611 RGS |
66 | perlperf Perl Performance and Optimization Techniques |
67 | ||
7a2320f0 AMS |
68 | perlstyle Perl style guide |
69 | ||
41630250 | 70 | perlcheat Perl cheat sheet |
7a2320f0 AMS |
71 | perltrap Perl traps for the unwary |
72 | perldebtut Perl debugging tutorial | |
73 | ||
fd7b6849 MJD |
74 | perlfaq Perl frequently asked questions |
75 | perlfaq1 General Questions About Perl | |
76 | perlfaq2 Obtaining and Learning about Perl | |
77 | perlfaq3 Programming Tools | |
78 | perlfaq4 Data Manipulation | |
79 | perlfaq5 Files and Formats | |
80 | perlfaq6 Regexes | |
81 | perlfaq7 Perl Language Issues | |
82 | perlfaq8 System Interaction | |
83 | perlfaq9 Networking | |
0f542199 | 84 | |
fd7b6849 | 85 | =head2 Reference Manual |
413510b3 | 86 | |
fb9cefb4 | 87 | perlsyn Perl syntax |
4755096e | 88 | perldata Perl data structures |
fb9cefb4 | 89 | perlop Perl operators and precedence |
c2e66d9e | 90 | perlsub Perl subroutines |
fd7b6849 | 91 | perlfunc Perl built-in functions |
413510b3 | 92 | perlopentut Perl open() tutorial |
41630250 | 93 | perlpacktut Perl pack() and unpack() tutorial |
c2e66d9e | 94 | perlpod Perl plain old documentation |
41630250 | 95 | perlpodspec Perl plain old documentation format specification |
f4d47668 | 96 | perlpodstyle Perl POD style guide |
c2e66d9e GS |
97 | perlrun Perl execution and options |
98 | perldiag Perl diagnostic messages | |
41630250 | 99 | perllexwarn Perl warnings and their control |
4755096e | 100 | perldebug Perl debugging |
fb9cefb4 | 101 | perlvar Perl predefined variables |
4755096e | 102 | perlre Perl regular expressions, the rest of the story |
8a118206 RGS |
103 | perlrebackslash Perl regular expression backslash sequences |
104 | perlrecharclass Perl regular expression character classes | |
30487ceb | 105 | perlreref Perl regular expressions quick reference |
d396a558 | 106 | perlref Perl references, the rest of the story |
fb9cefb4 | 107 | perlform Perl formats |
d396a558 | 108 | perlobj Perl objects |
d396a558 | 109 | perltie Perl objects hidden behind simple variables |
fd7b6849 | 110 | perldbmfilter Perl DBM filters |
760ac839 | 111 | |
c2e66d9e GS |
112 | perlipc Perl interprocess communication |
113 | perlfork Perl fork() information | |
114 | perlnumber Perl number semantics | |
53d7eaa8 | 115 | |
c2e66d9e GS |
116 | perlthrtut Perl threads tutorial |
117 | ||
118 | perlport Perl portability guide | |
d396a558 | 119 | perllocale Perl locale support |
07fcf8ff | 120 | perluniintro Perl Unicode introduction |
41630250 | 121 | perlunicode Perl Unicode support |
3426ea3d | 122 | perlunifaq Perl Unicode FAQ |
0cb5a9a8 | 123 | perluniprops Index of Unicode properties in Perl |
aadaa455 | 124 | perlunitut Perl Unicode tutorial |
d396a558 | 125 | perlebcdic Considerations for running Perl on EBCDIC platforms |
c2e66d9e | 126 | |
d396a558 | 127 | perlsec Perl security |
4755096e | 128 | |
c2e66d9e | 129 | perlmod Perl modules: how they work |
35bf961c JH |
130 | perlmodlib Perl modules: how to write and use |
131 | perlmodstyle Perl modules: how to write modules with style | |
fd7b6849 | 132 | perlmodinstall Perl modules: how to install from CPAN |
c2e66d9e | 133 | perlnewmod Perl modules: preparing a new module for distribution |
a550ee30 | 134 | perlpragma Perl modules: writing a user pragma |
760ac839 | 135 | |
fd7b6849 | 136 | perlutil utilities packaged with the Perl distribution |
760ac839 | 137 | |
fd7b6849 MJD |
138 | perlfilter Perl source filters |
139 | ||
4000c4db FC |
140 | perldtrace Perl's support for DTrace |
141 | ||
97a1d740 YST |
142 | perlglossary Perl Glossary |
143 | ||
fd7b6849 MJD |
144 | =head2 Internals and C Language Interface |
145 | ||
fb9cefb4 | 146 | perlembed Perl ways to embed perl in your C or C++ application |
41630250 | 147 | perldebguts Perl debugging guts and tips |
fb9cefb4 | 148 | perlxstut Perl XS tutorial |
4755096e | 149 | perlxs Perl XS application programming interface |
0eb29def | 150 | perlxstypemap Perl XS C/Perl type conversion tools |
f40a6c71 | 151 | perlclib Internal replacements for standard C library functions |
fb9cefb4 GS |
152 | perlguts Perl internal functions for those doing extensions |
153 | perlcall Perl calling conventions from C | |
15932acc | 154 | perlmroapi Perl method resolution plugin interface |
108003db | 155 | perlreapi Perl regular expression plugin interface |
b23a565d | 156 | perlreguts Perl regular expression engine internals |
fd7b6849 | 157 | |
954c1994 GS |
158 | perlapi Perl API listing (autogenerated) |
159 | perlintern Perl internal functions (autogenerated) | |
dc5c060f | 160 | perliol C API for Perl's implementation of IO in Layers |
4755096e | 161 | perlapio Perl internal IO abstraction interface |
fd7b6849 | 162 | |
e8cd7eae | 163 | perlhack Perl hackers guide |
04c692a8 | 164 | perlsource Guide to the Perl source tree |
1c2e8cca | 165 | perlinterp Overview of the Perl interpreter source and how it works |
04c692a8 DR |
166 | perlhacktut Walk through the creation of a simple C code patch |
167 | perlhacktips Tips for Perl core C code hacking | |
cb8a010e | 168 | perlpolicy Perl development policies |
04c692a8 | 169 | perlgit Using git with the Perl repository |
4755096e | 170 | |
fd7b6849 MJD |
171 | =head2 Miscellaneous |
172 | ||
173 | perlbook Perl book information | |
cbd87e7e | 174 | perlcommunity Perl community information |
fd7b6849 | 175 | |
2a551100 JH |
176 | perldoc Look up Perl documentation in Pod format |
177 | ||
fb9cefb4 | 178 | perlhist Perl history records |
bdfb6cc8 | 179 | perldelta Perl changes since previous version |
916c45d9 | 180 | perl5173delta Perl changes in version 5.17.3 |
4eabcf70 | 181 | perl5172delta Perl changes in version 5.17.2 |
e96e0834 | 182 | perl5171delta Perl changes in version 5.17.1 |
61174fb5 | 183 | perl5170delta Perl changes in version 5.17.0 |
69cb649c | 184 | perl5161delta Perl changes in version 5.16.1 |
05c8f9ed | 185 | perl5160delta Perl changes in version 5.16.0 |
77efd0f7 | 186 | perl5142delta Perl changes in version 5.14.2 |
10288c7a | 187 | perl5141delta Perl changes in version 5.14.1 |
066dc4d9 | 188 | perl5140delta Perl changes in version 5.14.0 |
0b67f426 | 189 | perl5124delta Perl changes in version 5.12.4 |
6c5f5efa | 190 | perl5123delta Perl changes in version 5.12.3 |
e71d1a7d | 191 | perl5122delta Perl changes in version 5.12.2 |
bdfb6cc8 | 192 | perl5121delta Perl changes in version 5.12.1 |
20d57231 | 193 | perl5120delta Perl changes in version 5.12.0 |
7cdf958d | 194 | perl5101delta Perl changes in version 5.10.1 |
7120b314 | 195 | perl5100delta Perl changes in version 5.10.0 |
fc5be808 | 196 | perl589delta Perl changes in version 5.8.9 |
c11a53c6 | 197 | perl588delta Perl changes in version 5.8.8 |
315ba985 | 198 | perl587delta Perl changes in version 5.8.7 |
e4bb216d | 199 | perl586delta Perl changes in version 5.8.6 |
07e9b5fe | 200 | perl585delta Perl changes in version 5.8.5 |
5f15c94e | 201 | perl584delta Perl changes in version 5.8.4 |
2e038148 NC |
202 | perl583delta Perl changes in version 5.8.3 |
203 | perl582delta Perl changes in version 5.8.2 | |
b6235c4f | 204 | perl581delta Perl changes in version 5.8.1 |
2e038148 | 205 | perl58delta Perl changes in version 5.8.0 |
493a87da | 206 | perl561delta Perl changes in version 5.6.1 |
41630250 | 207 | perl56delta Perl changes in version 5.6 |
4755096e GS |
208 | perl5005delta Perl changes in version 5.005 |
209 | perl5004delta Perl changes in version 5.004 | |
d516a115 | 210 | |
42e73e1c | 211 | perlexperiment A listing of experimental features in Perl |
212 | ||
2a551100 JH |
213 | perlartistic Perl Artistic License |
214 | perlgpl GNU General Public License | |
215 | ||
d8416318 JH |
216 | =head2 Language-Specific |
217 | ||
0aef0fe5 NC |
218 | =for buildtoc flag +r |
219 | ||
d8416318 JH |
220 | perlcn Perl for Simplified Chinese (in EUC-CN) |
221 | perljp Perl for Japanese (in EUC-JP) | |
222 | perlko Perl for Korean (in EUC-KR) | |
223 | perltw Perl for Traditional Chinese (in Big5) | |
224 | ||
fd7b6849 MJD |
225 | =head2 Platform-Specific |
226 | ||
37d4d706 | 227 | perlaix Perl notes for AIX |
a83b6f46 | 228 | perlamiga Perl notes for AmigaOS |
a83b6f46 | 229 | perlbeos Perl notes for BeOS |
dc5c060f | 230 | perlbs2000 Perl notes for POSIX-BC BS2000 |
a1f19229 | 231 | perlce Perl notes for WinCE |
49877630 | 232 | perlcygwin Perl notes for Cygwin |
245d750e | 233 | perldgux Perl notes for DG/UX |
49877630 | 234 | perldos Perl notes for DOS |
9a997319 | 235 | perlepoc Perl notes for EPOC |
41630250 | 236 | perlfreebsd Perl notes for FreeBSD |
f6706af3 | 237 | perlhaiku Perl notes for Haiku |
49877630 | 238 | perlhpux Perl notes for HP-UX |
a83b6f46 | 239 | perlhurd Perl notes for Hurd |
469e7be4 | 240 | perlirix Perl notes for Irix |
991e8403 | 241 | perllinux Perl notes for Linux |
26d9b02f | 242 | perlmacos Perl notes for Mac OS (Classic) |
0d53b15f | 243 | perlmacosx Perl notes for Mac OS X |
ab648d5e | 244 | perlmpeix Perl notes for MPE/iX |
41630250 | 245 | perlnetware Perl notes for NetWare |
b0846812 | 246 | perlopenbsd Perl notes for OpenBSD |
49877630 GS |
247 | perlos2 Perl notes for OS/2 |
248 | perlos390 Perl notes for OS/390 | |
522b859a | 249 | perlos400 Perl notes for OS/400 |
a83b6f46 JH |
250 | perlplan9 Perl notes for Plan 9 |
251 | perlqnx Perl notes for QNX | |
2f08ed66 | 252 | perlriscos Perl notes for RISC OS |
d420ca49 | 253 | perlsolaris Perl notes for Solaris |
27da23d5 | 254 | perlsymbian Perl notes for Symbian |
772ff3b9 | 255 | perltru64 Perl notes for Tru64 |
49877630 | 256 | perlvms Perl notes for VMS |
9a997319 | 257 | perlvos Perl notes for Stratus VOS |
49877630 GS |
258 | perlwin32 Perl notes for Windows |
259 | ||
0aef0fe5 NC |
260 | =for buildtoc flag -r |
261 | ||
e653ab25 DR |
262 | =head2 Stubs for Deleted Documents |
263 | ||
264 | perlboot | |
265 | perlbot | |
5d0b49e8 | 266 | perltodo |
e653ab25 DR |
267 | perltooc |
268 | perltoot | |
269 | ||
0aef0fe5 | 270 | =for buildtoc __END__ |
35dec5db | 271 | |
6b43eec4 DG |
272 | On a Unix-like system, these documentation files will usually also be |
273 | available as manpages for use with the F<man> program. | |
a0d0e21e | 274 | |
6b43eec4 DG |
275 | In general, if something strange has gone wrong with your program and you're |
276 | not sure where you should look for help, try the B<-w> switch first. It will | |
277 | often point out exactly where the trouble is. | |
a0d0e21e LW |
278 | |
279 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
280 | ||
d27f2b2f DG |
281 | Perl officially stands for Practical Extraction and Report Language, |
282 | except when it doesn't. | |
283 | ||
72033c14 | 284 | Perl was originally a language optimized for scanning arbitrary |
a0d0e21e | 285 | text files, extracting information from those text files, and printing |
72033c14 JV |
286 | reports based on that information. It quickly became a good language |
287 | for many system management tasks. Over the years, Perl has grown into | |
b6538e4f | 288 | a general-purpose programming language. It's widely used for everything |
72033c14 JV |
289 | from quick "one-liners" to full-scale application development. |
290 | ||
291 | The language is intended to be practical (easy to use, efficient, | |
292 | complete) rather than beautiful (tiny, elegant, minimal). | |
94d58c47 | 293 | |
aa689395 | 294 | Perl combines (in the author's opinion, anyway) some of the best |
295 | features of C, B<sed>, B<awk>, and B<sh>, so people familiar with | |
296 | those languages should have little difficulty with it. (Language | |
297 | historians will also note some vestiges of B<csh>, Pascal, and even | |
14218588 | 298 | BASIC-PLUS.) Expression syntax corresponds closely to C |
a0d0e21e LW |
299 | expression syntax. Unlike most Unix utilities, Perl does not |
300 | arbitrarily limit the size of your data--if you've got the memory, | |
aa689395 | 301 | Perl can slurp in your whole file as a single string. Recursion is of |
0f31cffe | 302 | unlimited depth. And the tables used by hashes (sometimes called |
aa689395 | 303 | "associative arrays") grow as necessary to prevent degraded |
0f31cffe | 304 | performance. Perl can use sophisticated pattern matching techniques to |
14218588 | 305 | scan large amounts of data quickly. Although optimized for |
a8ebcfe9 JV |
306 | scanning text, Perl also has many excellent tools for slicing |
307 | and dicing binary data. | |
aa689395 | 308 | |
a0d0e21e LW |
309 | But wait, there's more... |
310 | ||
19799a22 GS |
311 | Begun in 1993 (see L<perlhist>), Perl version 5 is nearly a complete |
312 | rewrite that provides the following additional benefits: | |
a0d0e21e | 313 | |
13a2d996 | 314 | =over 4 |
a0d0e21e | 315 | |
551e1d92 RB |
316 | =item * |
317 | ||
318 | modularity and reusability using innumerable modules | |
a0d0e21e | 319 | |
19799a22 | 320 | Described in L<perlmod>, L<perlmodlib>, and L<perlmodinstall>. |
a0d0e21e | 321 | |
551e1d92 RB |
322 | =item * |
323 | ||
324 | embeddable and extensible | |
a0d0e21e | 325 | |
0eb29def S |
326 | Described in L<perlembed>, L<perlxstut>, L<perlxs>, L<perlxstypemap>, |
327 | L<perlcall>, L<perlguts>, and L<xsubpp>. | |
a0d0e21e | 328 | |
551e1d92 RB |
329 | =item * |
330 | ||
63de3cb2 JH |
331 | roll-your-own magic variables (including multiple simultaneous DBM |
332 | implementations) | |
a0d0e21e | 333 | |
19799a22 | 334 | Described in L<perltie> and L<AnyDBM_File>. |
a0d0e21e | 335 | |
551e1d92 RB |
336 | =item * |
337 | ||
338 | subroutines can now be overridden, autoloaded, and prototyped | |
a0d0e21e | 339 | |
19799a22 | 340 | Described in L<perlsub>. |
a0d0e21e | 341 | |
551e1d92 RB |
342 | =item * |
343 | ||
344 | arbitrarily nested data structures and anonymous functions | |
a0d0e21e | 345 | |
19799a22 | 346 | Described in L<perlreftut>, L<perlref>, L<perldsc>, and L<perllol>. |
a0d0e21e | 347 | |
551e1d92 RB |
348 | =item * |
349 | ||
350 | object-oriented programming | |
a0d0e21e | 351 | |
82e1c0d9 | 352 | Described in L<perlobj> and L<perlootut>. |
a0d0e21e | 353 | |
551e1d92 RB |
354 | =item * |
355 | ||
551e1d92 | 356 | support for light-weight processes (threads) |
a0d0e21e | 357 | |
63de3cb2 | 358 | Described in L<perlthrtut> and L<threads>. |
a0d0e21e | 359 | |
551e1d92 RB |
360 | =item * |
361 | ||
63de3cb2 | 362 | support for Unicode, internationalization, and localization |
a0d0e21e | 363 | |
63de3cb2 | 364 | Described in L<perluniintro>, L<perllocale> and L<Locale::Maketext>. |
a0d0e21e | 365 | |
551e1d92 RB |
366 | =item * |
367 | ||
368 | lexical scoping | |
a0d0e21e | 369 | |
19799a22 | 370 | Described in L<perlsub>. |
a0d0e21e | 371 | |
551e1d92 RB |
372 | =item * |
373 | ||
374 | regular expression enhancements | |
a0d0e21e | 375 | |
19799a22 | 376 | Described in L<perlre>, with additional examples in L<perlop>. |
a0d0e21e | 377 | |
551e1d92 RB |
378 | =item * |
379 | ||
380 | enhanced debugger and interactive Perl environment, | |
381 | with integrated editor support | |
a0d0e21e | 382 | |
f6b3c421 | 383 | Described in L<perldebtut>, L<perldebug> and L<perldebguts>. |
a0d0e21e | 384 | |
551e1d92 RB |
385 | =item * |
386 | ||
387 | POSIX 1003.1 compliant library | |
5f05dabc | 388 | |
19799a22 | 389 | Described in L<POSIX>. |
5f05dabc | 390 | |
a0d0e21e LW |
391 | =back |
392 | ||
68dc0745 | 393 | Okay, that's I<definitely> enough hype. |
a0d0e21e | 394 | |
8e465e4e JH |
395 | =head1 AVAILABILITY |
396 | ||
14218588 | 397 | Perl is available for most operating systems, including virtually |
055fd3a9 GS |
398 | all Unix-like platforms. See L<perlport/"Supported Platforms"> |
399 | for a listing. | |
8bc4a6bb | 400 | |
a0d0e21e LW |
401 | =head1 ENVIRONMENT |
402 | ||
1e422769 | 403 | See L<perlrun>. |
a0d0e21e LW |
404 | |
405 | =head1 AUTHOR | |
406 | ||
19799a22 | 407 | Larry Wall <larry@wall.org>, with the help of oodles of other folks. |
a0d0e21e | 408 | |
a99b1639 TP |
409 | If your Perl success stories and testimonials may be of help to others |
410 | who wish to advocate the use of Perl in their applications, | |
411 | or if you wish to simply express your gratitude to Larry and the | |
19799a22 | 412 | Perl developers, please write to perl-thanks@perl.org . |
a99b1639 | 413 | |
a0d0e21e LW |
414 | =head1 FILES |
415 | ||
5f05dabc | 416 | "@INC" locations of perl libraries |
a0d0e21e LW |
417 | |
418 | =head1 SEE ALSO | |
419 | ||
c5f69108 | 420 | http://www.perl.org/ the Perl homepage |
da9e6348 | 421 | http://www.perl.com/ Perl articles (O'Reilly) |
f6b3c421 | 422 | http://www.cpan.org/ the Comprehensive Perl Archive |
c5f69108 | 423 | http://www.pm.org/ the Perl Mongers |
19799a22 | 424 | |
a0d0e21e LW |
425 | =head1 DIAGNOSTICS |
426 | ||
9f1b1f2d GS |
427 | The C<use warnings> pragma (and the B<-w> switch) produces some |
428 | lovely diagnostics. | |
a0d0e21e | 429 | |
5a964f20 TC |
430 | See L<perldiag> for explanations of all Perl's diagnostics. The C<use |
431 | diagnostics> pragma automatically turns Perl's normally terse warnings | |
432 | and errors into these longer forms. | |
a0d0e21e LW |
433 | |
434 | Compilation errors will tell you the line number of the error, with an | |
435 | indication of the next token or token type that was to be examined. | |
14218588 | 436 | (In a script passed to Perl via B<-e> switches, each |
a0d0e21e LW |
437 | B<-e> is counted as one line.) |
438 | ||
439 | Setuid scripts have additional constraints that can produce error | |
440 | messages such as "Insecure dependency". See L<perlsec>. | |
441 | ||
442 | Did we mention that you should definitely consider using the B<-w> | |
443 | switch? | |
444 | ||
445 | =head1 BUGS | |
446 | ||
447 | The B<-w> switch is not mandatory. | |
448 | ||
449 | Perl is at the mercy of your machine's definitions of various | |
1b3f7d21 CS |
450 | operations such as type casting, atof(), and floating-point |
451 | output with sprintf(). | |
a0d0e21e | 452 | |
748a9306 | 453 | If your stdio requires a seek or eof between reads and writes on a |
a0d0e21e LW |
454 | particular stream, so does Perl. (This doesn't apply to sysread() |
455 | and syswrite().) | |
456 | ||
457 | While none of the built-in data types have any arbitrary size limits | |
458 | (apart from memory size), there are still a few arbitrary limits: a | |
a30ac152 GS |
459 | given variable name may not be longer than 251 characters. Line numbers |
460 | displayed by diagnostics are internally stored as short integers, | |
461 | so they are limited to a maximum of 65535 (higher numbers usually being | |
462 | affected by wraparound). | |
a0d0e21e | 463 | |
b0607b7a | 464 | You may mail your bug reports (be sure to include full configuration |
19799a22 | 465 | information as output by the myconfig program in the perl source |
7f2de2d2 | 466 | tree, or by C<perl -V>) to perlbug@perl.org . If you've succeeded |
7f89f796 | 467 | in compiling perl, the L<perlbug> script in the F<utils/> subdirectory |
19799a22 | 468 | can be used to help mail in a bug report. |
4633a7c4 | 469 | |
a0d0e21e LW |
470 | Perl actually stands for Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister, but |
471 | don't tell anyone I said that. | |
472 | ||
473 | =head1 NOTES | |
474 | ||
475 | The Perl motto is "There's more than one way to do it." Divining | |
476 | how many more is left as an exercise to the reader. | |
477 | ||
4633a7c4 | 478 | The three principal virtues of a programmer are Laziness, |
a0d0e21e | 479 | Impatience, and Hubris. See the Camel Book for why. |
16d20bd9 | 480 |