source and documentation for Perl, support, and
related matters.
-=head2 What machines support perl? Where do I get it?
+=head2 What machines support perl? Where do I get it?
The standard release of perl (the one maintained by the perl
-development team) is distributed only in source code form. You
+development team) is distributed only in source code form. You
can find the latest releases at http://www.cpan.org/src/README.html .
-Perl builds and runs on a bewildering number of platforms. Virtually
+Perl builds and runs on a bewildering number of platforms. Virtually
all known and current Unix derivatives are supported (perl's native
platform), as are other systems like VMS, DOS, OS/2, Windows,
QNX, BeOS, OS X, MPE/iX and the Amiga.
http://www.cpan.org/ports/ directory. Because these are not part of
the standard distribution, they may and in fact do differ from the
base perl port in a variety of ways. You'll have to check their
-respective release notes to see just what the differences are. These
+respective release notes to see just what the differences are. These
differences can be either positive (e.g. extensions for the features
of the particular platform that are not supported in the source
release of perl) or negative (e.g. might be based upon a less current
Strawberry Perl: Windows, Perl 5.8.8 and 5.10.0
http://www.strawberryperl.com
-
+
IndigoPerl: Windows
http://indigostar.com/
=head2 I don't have a C compiler. How can I build my own Perl interpreter?
Since you don't have a C compiler, you're doomed and your vendor
-should be sacrificed to the Sun gods. But that doesn't help you.
+should be sacrificed to the Sun gods. But that doesn't help you.
What you need to do is get a binary version of C<gcc> for your system
-first. Consult the Usenet FAQs for your operating system for
+first. Consult the Usenet FAQs for your operating system for
information on where to get such a binary version.
You might look around the net for a pre-built binary of Perl (or a
That's probably because you forgot libraries, or library paths differ.
You really should build the whole distribution on the machine it will
-eventually live on, and then type C<make install>. Most other
+eventually live on, and then type C<make install>. Most other
approaches are doomed to failure.
One simple way to check that things are in the right place is to print out
If this command lists any paths that don't exist on your system, then you
may need to move the appropriate libraries to these locations, or create
-symbolic links, aliases, or shortcuts appropriately. C<@INC> is also printed as
+symbolic links, aliases, or shortcuts appropriately. C<@INC> is also printed as
part of the output of
% perl -V
You might also want to check out
L<perlfaq8/"How do I keep my own module/library directory?">.
-=head2 I grabbed the sources and tried to compile but gdbm/dynamic loading/malloc/linking/... failed. How do I make it work?
+=head2 I grabbed the sources and tried to compile but gdbm/dynamic loading/malloc/linking/... failed. How do I make it work?
Read the F<INSTALL> file, which is part of the source distribution.
It describes in detail how to cope with most idiosyncrasies that the
C<Configure> script can't work around for any given system or
architecture.
-=head2 What modules and extensions are available for Perl? What is CPAN? What does CPAN/src/... mean?
+=head2 What modules and extensions are available for Perl? What is CPAN? What does CPAN/src/... mean?
CPAN stands for Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, a multi-gigabyte
archive replicated on hundreds of machines all over the world. CPAN
walking and CGI scripts. The master web site for CPAN is
http://www.cpan.org/ and there is the CPAN Multiplexer at
http://www.cpan.org/CPAN.html which will choose a mirror near you via
-DNS. See http://www.perl.com/CPAN (without a slash at the end) for
+DNS. See http://www.perl.com/CPAN (without a slash at the end) for
how this process works. Also, http://mirror.cpan.org/ has a nice
interface to the http://www.cpan.org/MIRRORED.BY mirror directory.
become a mirror.
C<CPAN/path/...> is a naming convention for files available on CPAN
-sites. CPAN indicates the base directory of a CPAN mirror, and the
+sites. CPAN indicates the base directory of a CPAN mirror, and the
rest of the path is the path from that directory to the file. For
instance, if you're using ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN
as your CPAN site, the file C<CPAN/misc/japh> is downloadable as
=head2 Is there an ISO or ANSI certified version of Perl?
-Certainly not. Larry expects that he'll be certified before Perl is.
+Certainly not. Larry expects that he'll be certified before Perl is.
=head2 Where can I get information on Perl?
If you have Perl installed locally, you probably have the documentation
installed as well: type C<man perl> if you're on a system resembling Unix.
This will lead you to other important man pages, including how to set your
-C<$MANPATH>. If you're not on a Unix system, access to the documentation
-will be different; for example, documentation might only be in HTML format. All
+C<$MANPATH>. If you're not on a Unix system, access to the documentation
+will be different; for example, documentation might only be in HTML format. All
proper perl installations have fully-accessible documentation.
You might also try C<perldoc perl> in case your system doesn't
-have a proper C<man> command, or it's been misinstalled. If that doesn't
+have a proper C<man> command, or it's been misinstalled. If that doesn't
work, try looking in C</usr/local/lib/perl5/pod> for documentation.
If all else fails, consult http://perldoc.perl.org/ which has the
approach to objects, L<perlopentut> for file opening semantics,
L<perlreftut> for managing references, L<perlretut> for regular
expressions, L<perlthrtut> for threads, L<perldebtut> for debugging,
-and L<perlxstut> for linking C and Perl together. There may be more
-by the time you read this. These URLs might also be useful:
+and L<perlxstut> for linking C and Perl together. There may be more
+by the time you read this. These URLs might also be useful:
http://perldoc.perl.org/
http://bookmarks.cpan.org/search.cgi?cat=Training%2FTutorials
-=head2 What are the Perl newsgroups on Usenet? Where do I post questions?
+=head2 What are the Perl newsgroups on Usenet? Where do I post questions?
Several groups devoted to the Perl language are on Usenet:
comp.lang.perl.tk Using Tk (and X) from Perl
Some years ago, comp.lang.perl was divided into those groups, and
-comp.lang.perl itself officially removed. While that group may still
+comp.lang.perl itself officially removed. While that group may still
be found on some news servers, it is unwise to use it, because
postings there will not appear on news servers which honour the
-official list of group names. Use comp.lang.perl.misc for topics
+official list of group names. Use comp.lang.perl.misc for topics
which do not have a more-appropriate specific group.
There is also a Usenet gateway to Perl mailing lists sponsored by
=head2 Where should I post source code?
You should post source code to whichever group is most appropriate, but
-feel free to cross-post to comp.lang.perl.misc. If you want to cross-post
+feel free to cross-post to comp.lang.perl.misc. If you want to cross-post
to alt.sources, please make sure it follows their posting standards,
including setting the Followup-To header line to NOT include alt.sources;
see their FAQ ( http://www.faqs.org/faqs/alt-sources-intro/ ) for details.
If you're just looking for software, first use Google
( http://www.google.com ), Google's Usenet search interface
-( http://groups.google.com ), and CPAN Search ( http://search.cpan.org ).
+( http://groups.google.com ), and CPAN Search ( http://search.cpan.org ).
This is faster and more productive than just posting a request.
=head2 Perl Books
-A number of books on Perl and/or CGI programming are available. A few
-of these are good, some are OK, but many aren't worth your money.
-There is a list of these books, some with extensive reviews, at
-http://books.perl.org/ . If you don't see your book listed here, you
-can write to perlfaq-workers@perl.org .
-
-The incontestably definitive reference book on Perl, written by
-the creator of Perl, is Programming Perl:
-
- Programming Perl (the "Camel Book"):
- by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Jon Orwant
- ISBN 0-596-00027-8 [3rd edition July 2000]
- http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pperl3/
- (English, translations to several languages are also available)
-
-The companion volume to the Camel containing thousands
-of real-world examples, mini-tutorials, and complete programs is:
-
- The Perl Cookbook (the "Ram Book"):
- by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington,
- with Foreword by Larry Wall
- ISBN 0-596-00313-7 [2nd Edition August 2003]
- http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlckbk2/
-
-If you're already a seasoned programmer, then the Camel Book might
-suffice for you to learn Perl. If you're not, check out the
-Llama book:
-
- Learning Perl
- by Randal L. Schwartz, Tom Phoenix, and brian d foy
- ISBN 0-596-10105-8 [4th edition July 2005]
- http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/learnperl4/
-
-And for more advanced information on writing larger programs,
-presented in the same style as the Llama book, continue your education
-with the Alpaca book:
-
- Intermediate Perl (the "Alpaca Book")
- by Randal L. Schwartz and brian d foy, with Tom Phoenix (foreword by Damian Conway)
- ISBN 0-596-10206-2 [1st edition March 2006]
- http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lrnperlorm/
-
-Addison-Wesley ( http://www.awlonline.com/ ) and Manning
-( http://www.manning.com/ ) are also publishers of some fine Perl books
-such as I<Object Oriented Programming with Perl> by Damian Conway and
-I<Network Programming with Perl> by Lincoln Stein.
-
-An excellent technical book discounter is Bookpool at
-http://www.bookpool.com/ where a 30% discount or more is not unusual.
-
-What follows is a list of the books that the FAQ authors found personally
-useful. Your mileage may (but, we hope, probably won't) vary.
-
-Recommended books on (or mostly on) Perl follow.
-
-=over 4
-
-=item References
-
- Programming Perl
- by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Jon Orwant
- ISBN 0-596-00027-8 [3rd edition July 2000]
- http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pperl3/
-
- Perl 5 Pocket Reference
- by Johan Vromans
- ISBN 0-596-00374-9 [4th edition July 2002]
- http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlpr4/
-
-=item Tutorials
-
- Beginning Perl
- by James Lee
- ISBN 1-59059-391-X [2nd edition August 2004]
- http://apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=344
-
- Elements of Programming with Perl
- by Andrew L. Johnson
- ISBN 1-884777-80-5 [1st edition October 1999]
- http://www.manning.com/johnson/
-
- Learning Perl
- by Randal L. Schwartz, Tom Phoenix, and brian d foy
- ISBN 0-596-52010-7 [5th edition June 2008]
- http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596520106/
-
- Intermediate Perl (the "Alpaca Book")
- by Randal L. Schwartz and brian d foy, with Tom Phoenix (foreword by Damian Conway)
- ISBN 0-596-10206-2 [1st edition March 2006]
- http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/intermediateperl/
-
- Mastering Perl
- by brian d foy
- ISBN 0-596-52724-1 [1st edition July 2007]
- http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596527242/
-
-=item Task-Oriented
-
- Writing Perl Modules for CPAN
- by Sam Tregar
- ISBN 1-59059-018-X [1st edition August 2002]
- http://apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=14
-
- The Perl Cookbook
- by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington
- with foreword by Larry Wall
- ISBN 1-56592-243-3 [1st edition August 1998]
- http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/cookbook/
-
- Effective Perl Programming
- by Joseph Hall
- ISBN 0-201-41975-0 [1st edition 1998]
- http://www.awl.com/
-
- Real World SQL Server Administration with Perl
- by Linchi Shea
- ISBN 1-59059-097-X [1st edition July 2003]
- http://apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=171
-
-=item Special Topics
-
- Perl Best Practices
- by Damian Conway
- ISBN: 0-596-00173-8 [1st edition July 2005]
- http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlbp/
-
- Higher Order Perl
- by Mark-Jason Dominus
- ISBN: 1558607013 [1st edition March 2005]
- http://hop.perl.plover.com/
-
- Perl 6 Now: The Core Ideas Illustrated with Perl 5
- by Scott Walters
- ISBN 1-59059-395-2 [1st edition December 2004]
- http://apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=355
-
- Mastering Regular Expressions
- by Jeffrey E. F. Friedl
- ISBN 0-596-00289-0 [2nd edition July 2002]
- http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex2/
-
- Network Programming with Perl
- by Lincoln Stein
- ISBN 0-201-61571-1 [1st edition 2001]
- http://www.awlonline.com/
-
- Object Oriented Perl
- by Damian Conway
- with foreword by Randal L. Schwartz
- ISBN 1-884777-79-1 [1st edition August 1999]
- http://www.manning.com/conway/
-
- Data Munging with Perl
- by Dave Cross
- ISBN 1-930110-00-6 [1st edition 2001]
- http://www.manning.com/cross
-
- Mastering Perl/Tk
- by Steve Lidie and Nancy Walsh
- ISBN 1-56592-716-8 [1st edition January 2002]
- http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mastperltk/
-
- Extending and Embedding Perl
- by Tim Jenness and Simon Cozens
- ISBN 1-930110-82-0 [1st edition August 2002]
- http://www.manning.com/jenness
-
- Perl Debugger Pocket Reference
- by Richard Foley
- ISBN 0-596-00503-2 [1st edition January 2004]
- http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perldebugpr/
-
- Pro Perl Debugging
- by Richard Foley with Andy Lester
- ISBN 1-59059-454-1 [1st edition July 2005]
- http://www.apress.com/book/view/1590594541
-
-=back
+There are many good books on Perl. See the L<perlbook> documentation or
+( http://books.perl.org ).
=head2 Which magazines have Perl content?
The first (and for a long time, only) periodical devoted to All Things
Perl, I<The Perl Journal> contains tutorials, demonstrations, case
-studies, announcements, contests, and much more. I<TPJ> has columns
+studies, announcements, contests, and much more. I<TPJ> has columns
on web development, databases, Win32 Perl, graphical programming,
regular expressions, and networking, and sponsors the Obfuscated Perl
-Contest and the Perl Poetry Contests. Beginning in November 2002, I<TPJ>
+Contest and the Perl Poetry Contests. Beginning in November 2002, I<TPJ>
moved to a reader-supported monthly e-zine format in which subscribers
can download issues as PDF documents. In 2006, I<TPJ> merged with Dr.
Dobbs Journal (online edition). To read old I<TPJ> articles, see
-http://www.ddj.com/ .
+http://www.ddj.com/ , brian d foy's index of online TPJ content
+( http://www.perlmonks.org/index.pl?node_id=711609 ).
=head2 What mailing lists are there for Perl?
Most of the major modules (C<Tk>, C<CGI>, C<libwww-perl>) have their own
-mailing lists. Consult the documentation that came with the module for
+mailing lists. Consult the documentation that came with the module for
subscription information.
A comprehensive list of Perl related mailing lists can be found at:
In a real sense, perl already I<is> commercial software: it has a license
that you can grab and carefully read to your manager. It is distributed
in releases and comes in well-defined packages. There is a very large
-user community and an extensive literature. The comp.lang.perl.*
+user community and an extensive literature. The comp.lang.perl.*
newsgroups and several of the mailing lists provide free answers to your
-questions in near real-time. Perl has traditionally been supported by
+questions in near real-time. Perl has traditionally been supported by
Larry, scores of software designers and developers, and myriad
programmers, all working for free to create a useful thing to make life
better for everyone.
purchase order from a company whom they can sue should anything go awry.
Or maybe they need very serious hand-holding and contractual obligations.
Shrink-wrapped CDs with perl on them are available from several sources if
-that will help. For example, many Perl books include a distribution of perl,
+that will help. For example, many Perl books include a distribution of perl,
as do the O'Reilly Perl Resource Kits (in both the Unix flavor
and in the proprietary Microsoft flavor); the free Unix distributions
also all come with perl.
If you've found a bug with the perl interpreter or one of the modules
in the standard library (those that come with Perl), you can use the
-
C<perlbug> utility that comes with Perl (>= 5.004). It collects
+
L<perlbug> utility that comes with Perl (>= 5.004). It collects
information about your installation to include with your message, then
sends the message to the right place.
which maintains the web site http://www.perl.org/ as a general
advocacy site for the Perl language. It uses the domain to provide
general support services to the Perl community, including the hosting
-of mailing lists, web sites, and other services. There are also many
+of mailing lists, web sites, and other services. There are also many
other sub-domains for special topics like learning Perl, Perl news, jobs
in Perl, such as:
http://lists.perl.org/
Perl Mongers uses the pm.org domain for services related to Perl user
-groups, including the hosting of mailing lists and web sites. See the
+groups, including the hosting of mailing lists and web sites. See the
Perl user group web site at http://www.pm.org/ for more information about
joining, starting, or requesting services for a Perl user group.
under the same terms as Perl itself.
Irrespective of its distribution, all code examples here are in the public
-domain. You are permitted and encouraged to use this code and any
+domain. You are permitted and encouraged to use this code and any
derivatives thereof in your own programs for fun or for profit as you
-see fit. A simple comment in the code giving credit to the FAQ would
+see fit. A simple comment in the code giving credit to the FAQ would
be courteous but is not required.
https://perl5.git.perl.org / perl5.git / blobdiff