+Perl is Copyright (C) 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000,
+2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012,
+2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 by Larry Wall and others.
+All rights reserved.
- Perl Kit, Version 5.0
- Copyright 1989-1997, Larry Wall
- All rights reserved.
- This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
- it under the terms of either:
+ABOUT PERL
+==========
- a) the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
- Software Foundation; either version 1, or (at your option) any
- later version, or
+Perl is a general-purpose programming language originally developed for
+text manipulation and now used for a wide range of tasks including
+system administration, web development, network programming, GUI
+development, and more.
+
+The language is intended to be practical (easy to use, efficient,
+complete) rather than beautiful (tiny, elegant, minimal). Its major
+features are that it's easy to use, supports both procedural and
+object-oriented (OO) programming, has powerful built-in support for text
+processing, and has one of the world's most impressive collections of
+third-party modules.
+
+For an introduction to the language's features, see pod/perlintro.pod.
+
+For a discussion of the important changes in this release, see
+pod/perldelta.pod.
+
+There are also many Perl books available, covering a wide variety of topics,
+from various publishers. See pod/perlbook.pod for more information.
+
+
+INSTALLATION
+============
+
+If you're using a relatively modern operating system and want to
+install this version of Perl locally, run the following commands:
+
+ ./Configure -des -Dprefix=$HOME/localperl
+ make test
+ make install
+
+This will configure and compile perl for your platform, run the regression
+tests, and install perl in a subdirectory "localperl" of your home directory.
+
+If you run into any trouble whatsoever or you need to install a customized
+version of Perl, you should read the detailed instructions in the "INSTALL"
+file that came with this distribution. Additionally, there are a number of
+"README" files with hints and tips about building and using Perl on a wide
+variety of platforms, some more common than others.
+
+Once you have Perl installed, a wealth of documentation is available to you
+through the 'perldoc' tool. To get started, run this command:
+
+ perldoc perl
- b) the "Artistic License" which comes with this Kit.
- This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
- but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
- MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See either
- the GNU General Public License or the Artistic License for more details.
-
- You should have received a copy of the Artistic License with this
- Kit, in the file named "Artistic". If not, I'll be glad to provide one.
-
- You should also have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
- along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
- Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
-
- For those of you that choose to use the GNU General Public License,
- my interpretation of the GNU General Public License is that no Perl
- script falls under the terms of the GPL unless you explicitly put
- said script under the terms of the GPL yourself. Furthermore, any
- object code linked with perl does not automatically fall under the
- terms of the GPL, provided such object code only adds definitions
- of subroutines and variables, and does not otherwise impair the
- resulting interpreter from executing any standard Perl script. I
- consider linking in C subroutines in this manner to be the moral
- equivalent of defining subroutines in the Perl language itself. You
- may sell such an object file as proprietary provided that you provide
- or offer to provide the Perl source, as specified by the GNU General
- Public License. (This is merely an alternate way of specifying input
- to the program.) You may also sell a binary produced by the dumping of
- a running Perl script that belongs to you, provided that you provide or
- offer to provide the Perl source as specified by the GPL. (The
- fact that a Perl interpreter and your code are in the same binary file
- is, in this case, a form of mere aggregation.) This is my interpretation
- of the GPL. If you still have concerns or difficulties understanding
- my intent, feel free to contact me. Of course, the Artistic License
- spells all this out for your protection, so you may prefer to use that.
-
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Perl is a language that combines some of the features of C, sed, awk
-and shell. See the manual page for more hype. There are also two Nutshell
-Handbooks published by O'Reilly & Assoc. See pod/perlbook.pod
-for more information.
-
-Please read all the directions below before you proceed any further, and
-then follow them carefully.
-
-After you have unpacked your kit, you should have all the files listed
-in MANIFEST.
-
-Installation
-
-1) Detailed instructions are in the file INSTALL which you should read.
-In brief, the following should work on most systems:
- rm -f config.sh
- sh Configure
- make
- make test
- make install
-For most systems, it should be safe to accept all the Configure defaults.
-(It is recommended that you accept the defaults the first time you build
-or if you have any problems building.)
-
-2) Read the manual entries before running perl.
-
-3) IMPORTANT! Help save the world! Communicate any problems and suggested
-patches to me, larry@wall.org (Larry Wall), so we can
-keep the world in sync. If you have a problem, there's someone else
-out there who either has had or will have the same problem.
-It's usually helpful if you send the output of the "myconfig" script
-in the main perl directory.
-
-If you've succeeded in compiling perl, the perlbug script in the utils/
-subdirectory can be used to help mail in a bug report.
-
-If possible, send in patches such that the patch program will apply them.
-Context diffs are the best, then normal diffs. Don't send ed scripts--
-I've probably changed my copy since the version you have.
-
-Watch for perl patches in comp.lang.perl.announce. Patches will generally
-be in a form usable by the patch program. If you are just now bringing
-up perl and aren't sure how many patches there are, write to me and I'll
-send any you don't have. Your current patch level is shown in
-patchlevel.h.
+IF YOU RUN INTO TROUBLE
+=======================
+Perl is a large and complex system that's used for everything from
+knitting to rocket science. If you run into trouble, it's quite
+likely that someone else has already solved the problem you're
+facing. Once you've exhausted the documentation, please report bugs to us
+at the GitHub issue tracker at https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues
+
+While it was current when we made it available, Perl is constantly evolving
+and there may be a more recent version that fixes bugs you've run into or
+adds new features that you might find useful.
+
+You can always find the latest version of perl on a CPAN (Comprehensive Perl
+Archive Network) site near you at https://www.cpan.org/src/
+
+If you want to submit a simple patch to the perl source, see the "SUPER
+QUICK PATCH GUIDE" in pod/perlhack.pod.
Just a personal note: I want you to know that I create nice things like this
because it pleases the Author of my story. If this bothers you, then your
notion of Authorship needs some revision. But you can use perl anyway. :-)
The author.
+
+
+LICENSING
+=========
+
+This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+it under the terms of either:
+
+ a) the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
+ Software Foundation; either version 1, or (at your option) any
+ later version, or
+
+ b) the "Artistic License" which comes with this Kit.
+
+This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See either
+the GNU General Public License or the Artistic License for more details.
+
+You should have received a copy of the Artistic License with this
+Kit, in the file named "Artistic". If not, I'll be glad to provide one.
+
+You should also have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+along with this program in the file named "Copying". If not, write to the
+Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor,
+Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA or visit their web page on the internet at
+https://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html.
+
+For those of you that choose to use the GNU General Public License,
+my interpretation of the GNU General Public License is that no Perl
+script falls under the terms of the GPL unless you explicitly put
+said script under the terms of the GPL yourself. Furthermore, any
+object code linked with perl does not automatically fall under the
+terms of the GPL, provided such object code only adds definitions
+of subroutines and variables, and does not otherwise impair the
+resulting interpreter from executing any standard Perl script. I
+consider linking in C subroutines in this manner to be the moral
+equivalent of defining subroutines in the Perl language itself. You
+may sell such an object file as proprietary provided that you provide
+or offer to provide the Perl source, as specified by the GNU General
+Public License. (This is merely an alternate way of specifying input
+to the program.) You may also sell a binary produced by the dumping of
+a running Perl script that belongs to you, provided that you provide or
+offer to provide the Perl source as specified by the GPL. (The
+fact that a Perl interpreter and your code are in the same binary file
+is, in this case, a form of mere aggregation.) This is my interpretation
+of the GPL. If you still have concerns or difficulties understanding
+my intent, feel free to contact me. Of course, the Artistic License
+spells all this out for your protection, so you may prefer to use that.
+
+
https://perl5.git.perl.org / perl5.git / blobdiff