=head1 NAME
-perl - Practical Extraction and Report Language
+perl - The Perl 5 language interpreter
=head1 SYNOPSIS
-B<perl> S<[ B<-sTuU> ]> S<[ B<-hv> ] [ B<-V>[:I<configvar>] ]>
- S<[ B<-cw> ] [ B<-d>[:I<debugger>] ] [ B<-D>[I<number/list>] ]>
- S<[ B<-pna> ] [ B<-F>I<pattern> ] [ B<-l>[I<octal>] ] [ B<-0>[I<octal>] ]>
- S<[ B<-I>I<dir> ] [ B<-m>[B<->]I<module> ] [ B<-M>[B<->]I<'module...'> ]>
- S<[ B<-P> ]> S<[ B<-S> ]> S<[ B<-x>[I<dir>] ]>
- S<[ B<-i>[I<extension>] ]> S<[ B<-e> I<'command'> ]
- [ B<--> ] [ I<programfile> ] [ I<argument> ]...>
+B<perl> S<[ B<-sTtuUWX> ]>
+ S<[ B<-hv> ] [ B<-V>[:I<configvar>] ]>
+ S<[ B<-cw> ] [ B<-d>[B<t>][:I<debugger>] ] [ B<-D>[I<number/list>] ]>
+ S<[ B<-pna> ] [ B<-F>I<pattern> ] [ B<-l>[I<octal>] ] [ B<-0>[I<octal/hexadecimal>] ]>
+ S<[ B<-I>I<dir> ] [ B<-m>[B<->]I<module> ] [ B<-M>[B<->]I<'module...'> ] [ B<-f> ]>
+ S<[ B<-C [I<number/list>] >]>
+ S<[ B<-S> ]>
+ S<[ B<-x>[I<dir>] ]>
+ S<[ B<-i>[I<extension>] ]>
+ S<[ [B<-e>|B<-E>] I<'command'> ] [ B<--> ] [ I<programfile> ] [ I<argument> ]...>
-If you're new to Perl, you should start with L<perlintro>, which is a
-general intro for beginners and provides some background to help you
-navigate the rest of Perl's extensive documentation.
+=head1 GETTING HELP
+
+The F<perldoc> program gives you access to all the documentation that comes
+with Perl. You can get more documentation, tutorials and community support
+online at L<http://www.perl.org/>.
+
+If you're new to Perl, you should start by running C<perldoc perlintro>,
+which is a general intro for beginners and provides some background to help
+you navigate the rest of Perl's extensive documentation. Run C<perldoc
+perldoc> to learn more things you can do with F<perldoc>.
For ease of access, the Perl manual has been split up into several sections.
perldsc Perl data structures intro
perllol Perl data structures: arrays of arrays
- perlrequick Perl regular expressions quick start
+ perlrequick Perl regular expressions quick start
perlretut Perl regular expressions tutorial
perlboot Perl OO tutorial for beginners
perltooc Perl OO tutorial, part 2
perlbot Perl OO tricks and examples
+ perlperf Perl Performance and Optimization Techniques
+
perlstyle Perl style guide
+ perlcheat Perl cheat sheet
perltrap Perl traps for the unwary
perldebtut Perl debugging tutorial
perlsub Perl subroutines
perlfunc Perl built-in functions
perlopentut Perl open() tutorial
+ perlpacktut Perl pack() and unpack() tutorial
perlpod Perl plain old documentation
- perlpodspec Perl plain old documentation format specification
+ perlpodspec Perl plain old documentation format specification
+ perlpodstyle Perl POD style guide
perlrun Perl execution and options
perldiag Perl diagnostic messages
- perllexwarn Perl warnings and their control
+ perllexwarn Perl warnings and their control
perldebug Perl debugging
perlvar Perl predefined variables
perlre Perl regular expressions, the rest of the story
+ perlrebackslash Perl regular expression backslash sequences
+ perlrecharclass Perl regular expression character classes
+ perlreref Perl regular expressions quick reference
perlref Perl references, the rest of the story
perlform Perl formats
perlobj Perl objects
perlnumber Perl number semantics
perlthrtut Perl threads tutorial
- perlothrtut Old Perl threads tutorial
perlport Perl portability guide
perllocale Perl locale support
perluniintro Perl Unicode introduction
- perlunicode Perl Unicode support
+ perlunicode Perl Unicode support
+ perlunifaq Perl Unicode FAQ
+ perluniprops Index of Unicode Version 6.0.0 properties in Perl
+ perlunitut Perl Unicode tutorial
perlebcdic Considerations for running Perl on EBCDIC platforms
perlsec Perl security
perlmodstyle Perl modules: how to write modules with style
perlmodinstall Perl modules: how to install from CPAN
perlnewmod Perl modules: preparing a new module for distribution
+ perlpragma Perl modules: writing a user pragma
perlutil utilities packaged with the Perl distribution
- perlcompile Perl compiler suite intro
+ perlcompile Perl compiler suite intro
perlfilter Perl source filters
+ perlglossary Perl Glossary
+
=head2 Internals and C Language Interface
perlembed Perl ways to embed perl in your C or C++ application
- perldebguts Perl debugging guts and tips
+ perldebguts Perl debugging guts and tips
perlxstut Perl XS tutorial
perlxs Perl XS application programming interface
perlclib Internal replacements for standard C library functions
perlguts Perl internal functions for those doing extensions
perlcall Perl calling conventions from C
+ perlmroapi Perl method resolution plugin interface
+ perlreapi Perl regular expression plugin interface
+ perlreguts Perl regular expression engine internals
perlapi Perl API listing (autogenerated)
perlintern Perl internal functions (autogenerated)
perlapio Perl internal IO abstraction interface
perlhack Perl hackers guide
+ perlpolicy Perl development policies
+ perlrepository Perl source repository
=head2 Miscellaneous
perlbook Perl book information
+ perlcommunity Perl community information
perltodo Perl things to do
+ perldoc Look up Perl documentation in Pod format
+
perlhist Perl history records
perldelta Perl changes since previous version
+ perl5137delta Perl changes in version 5.13.7
+ perl5136delta Perl changes in version 5.13.6
+ perl5135delta Perl changes in version 5.13.5
+ perl5134delta Perl changes in version 5.13.4
+ perl5133delta Perl changes in version 5.13.3
+ perl5132delta Perl changes in version 5.13.2
+ perl5131delta Perl changes in version 5.13.1
+ perl5130delta Perl changes in version 5.13.0
+ perl5122delta Perl changes in version 5.12.2
+ perl5121delta Perl changes in version 5.12.1
+ perl5120delta Perl changes in version 5.12.0
+ perl5115delta Perl changes in version 5.11.5
+ perl5114delta Perl changes in version 5.11.4
+ perl5113delta Perl changes in version 5.11.3
+ perl5112delta Perl changes in version 5.11.2
+ perl5111delta Perl changes in version 5.11.1
+ perl5110delta Perl changes in version 5.11.0
+ perl5101delta Perl changes in version 5.10.1
+ perl5100delta Perl changes in version 5.10.0
+ perl595delta Perl changes in version 5.9.5
+ perl594delta Perl changes in version 5.9.4
+ perl593delta Perl changes in version 5.9.3
+ perl592delta Perl changes in version 5.9.2
+ perl591delta Perl changes in version 5.9.1
+ perl590delta Perl changes in version 5.9.0
+ perl589delta Perl changes in version 5.8.9
+ perl588delta Perl changes in version 5.8.8
+ perl587delta Perl changes in version 5.8.7
+ perl586delta Perl changes in version 5.8.6
+ perl585delta Perl changes in version 5.8.5
+ perl584delta Perl changes in version 5.8.4
+ perl583delta Perl changes in version 5.8.3
+ perl582delta Perl changes in version 5.8.2
+ perl581delta Perl changes in version 5.8.1
+ perl58delta Perl changes in version 5.8.0
+ perl573delta Perl changes in version 5.7.3
perl572delta Perl changes in version 5.7.2
perl571delta Perl changes in version 5.7.1
perl570delta Perl changes in version 5.7.0
- perl56delta Perl changes in version 5.6
+ perl561delta Perl changes in version 5.6.1
+ perl56delta Perl changes in version 5.6
perl5005delta Perl changes in version 5.005
perl5004delta Perl changes in version 5.004
+ perlartistic Perl Artistic License
+ perlgpl GNU General Public License
+
+=head2 Language-Specific
+
+ perlcn Perl for Simplified Chinese (in EUC-CN)
+ perljp Perl for Japanese (in EUC-JP)
+ perlko Perl for Korean (in EUC-KR)
+ perltw Perl for Traditional Chinese (in Big5)
+
=head2 Platform-Specific
perlaix Perl notes for AIX
perldgux Perl notes for DG/UX
perldos Perl notes for DOS
perlepoc Perl notes for EPOC
+ perlfreebsd Perl notes for FreeBSD
+ perlhaiku Perl notes for Haiku
perlhpux Perl notes for HP-UX
perlhurd Perl notes for Hurd
- perlmachten Perl notes for Power MachTen
+ perlirix Perl notes for Irix
+ perllinux Perl notes for Linux
perlmacos Perl notes for Mac OS (Classic)
- perlmint Perl notes for MiNT
+ perlmacosx Perl notes for Mac OS X
perlmpeix Perl notes for MPE/iX
- perlnetware Perl notes for NetWare
+ perlnetware Perl notes for NetWare
+ perlopenbsd Perl notes for OpenBSD
perlos2 Perl notes for OS/2
perlos390 Perl notes for OS/390
+ perlos400 Perl notes for OS/400
perlplan9 Perl notes for Plan 9
perlqnx Perl notes for QNX
+ perlriscos Perl notes for RISC OS
perlsolaris Perl notes for Solaris
+ perlsymbian Perl notes for Symbian
perltru64 Perl notes for Tru64
- perluts Perl notes for UTS
+ perluts Perl notes for UTS
perlvmesa Perl notes for VM/ESA
perlvms Perl notes for VMS
perlvos Perl notes for Stratus VOS
perlwin32 Perl notes for Windows
-By default, the manpages listed above are installed in the
-F</usr/local/man/> directory.
-
-Extensive additional documentation for Perl modules is available. The
-default configuration for perl will place this additional documentation
-in the F</usr/local/lib/perl5/man> directory (or else in the F<man>
-subdirectory of the Perl library directory). Some of this additional
-documentation is distributed standard with Perl, but you'll also find
-documentation for third-party modules there.
-
-You should be able to view Perl's documentation with your man(1)
-program by including the proper directories in the appropriate start-up
-files, or in the MANPATH environment variable. To find out where the
-configuration has installed the manpages, type:
+On a Unix-like system, these documentation files will usually also be
+available as manpages for use with the F<man> program.
- perl -V:man.dir
-
-If the directories have a common stem, such as F</usr/local/man/man1>
-and F</usr/local/man/man3>, you need only to add that stem
-(F</usr/local/man>) to your man(1) configuration files or your MANPATH
-environment variable. If they do not share a stem, you'll have to add
-both stems.
-
-If that doesn't work for some reason, you can still use the
-supplied F<perldoc> script to view module information. You might
-also look into getting a replacement man program.
-
-If something strange has gone wrong with your program and you're not
-sure where you should look for help, try the B<-w> switch first. It
-will often point out exactly where the trouble is.
+In general, if something strange has gone wrong with your program and you're
+not sure where you should look for help, try the B<-w> switch first. It will
+often point out exactly where the trouble is.
=head1 DESCRIPTION
+Perl officially stands for Practical Extraction and Report Language,
+except when it doesn't.
+
Perl is a language optimized for scanning arbitrary
text files, extracting information from those text files, and printing
reports based on that information. It's also a good language for many
"associative arrays") grow as necessary to prevent degraded
performance. Perl can use sophisticated pattern matching techniques to
scan large amounts of data quickly. Although optimized for
-scanning text, Perl can also deal with binary data, and can make dbm
-files look like hashes. Setuid Perl scripts are safer than C programs
-through a dataflow tracing mechanism that prevents many stupid
-security holes.
-
-If you have a problem that would ordinarily use B<sed> or B<awk> or
-B<sh>, but it exceeds their capabilities or must run a little faster,
-and you don't want to write the silly thing in C, then Perl may be for
-you. There are also translators to turn your B<sed> and B<awk>
-scripts into Perl scripts.
+scanning text, Perl also has many excellent tools for slicing
+and dicing binary data.
But wait, there's more...
=item *
-roll-your-own magic variables (including multiple simultaneous DBM implementations)
+roll-your-own magic variables (including multiple simultaneous DBM
+implementations)
Described in L<perltie> and L<AnyDBM_File>.
=item *
-compilability into C code or Perl bytecode
-
-Described in L<B> and L<B::Bytecode>.
-
-=item *
-
support for light-weight processes (threads)
-Described in L<perlthrtut> and L<Thread>.
+Described in L<perlthrtut> and L<threads>.
=item *
-support for internationalization, localization, and Unicode
+support for Unicode, internationalization, and localization
-Described in L<perllocale> and L<utf8>.
+Described in L<perluniintro>, L<perllocale> and L<Locale::Maketext>.
=item *
=head1 SEE ALSO
- a2p awk to perl translator
- s2p sed to perl translator
-
- http://www.perl.com/ the Perl Home Page
+ http://www.perl.org/ the Perl homepage
+ http://www.perl.com/ Perl articles (O'Reilly)
http://www.cpan.org/ the Comprehensive Perl Archive
- http://www.perl.org/ Perl Mongers (Perl user groups)
+ http://www.pm.org/ the Perl Mongers
=head1 DIAGNOSTICS
You may mail your bug reports (be sure to include full configuration
information as output by the myconfig program in the perl source
tree, or by C<perl -V>) to perlbug@perl.org . If you've succeeded
-in compiling perl, the
B<perlbug> script in the F<utils/> subdirectory
+in compiling perl, the
L<perlbug> script in the F<utils/> subdirectory
can be used to help mail in a bug report.
Perl actually stands for Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister, but
https://perl5.git.perl.org / perl5.git / blobdiff