=head1 NAME
-perlfaq2 - Obtaining and Learning about Perl ($Revision: 1.32 $, $Date: 1999/10/14 18:46:09 $)
+perlfaq2 - Obtaining and Learning about Perl ($Revision: 1.3 $, $Date: 2001/11/09 08:06:04 $)
=head1 DESCRIPTION
The standard release of Perl (the one maintained by the perl
development team) is distributed only in source code form. You
-can find this at http://www.perl.com/CPAN/src/latest.tar.gz , which
+can find this at http://www.cpan.org/src/latest.tar.gz , which
is in a standard Internet format (a gzipped archive in POSIX tar format).
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, and the Amiga. There are also the beginnings of support
-for MPE/iX.
+QNX, BeOS, OS X, MPE/iX and the Amiga.
Binary distributions for some proprietary platforms, including
-Apple systems, can be found http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ports/ directory.
+Apple systems, can be found 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
Some URLs that might help you are:
- http://language.perl.com/info/software.html
- http://www.perl.com/pub/language/info/software.html#binary
- http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ports/
+ http://www.cpan.org/ports/
+ http://www.perl.com/pub/language/info/software.html
Someone looking for a Perl for Win16 might look to Laszlo Molnar's djgpp
-port in http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ports/msdos/ , which comes with clear
+port in http://www.cpan.org/ports/#msdos , which comes with clear
installation instructions. A simple installation guide for MS-DOS using
Ilya Zakharevich's OS/2 port is available at
http://www.cs.ruu.nl/%7Epiet/perl5dos.html
% perl -V
-You might also want to check out
+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 What modules and extensions are available for Perl? What is CPAN? What does CPAN/src/... mean?
-CPAN stands for Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, a huge archive
-replicated on dozens of machines all over the world. CPAN contains
+CPAN stands for Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, a ~700mb archive
+replicated on nearly 200 machines all over the world. CPAN contains
source code, non-native ports, documentation, scripts, and many
third-party modules and extensions, designed for everything from
commercial database interfaces to keyboard/screen control to web
-walking and CGI scripts. The master machine for CPAN is
-ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/, but you can use the
-address http://www.perl.com/CPAN/CPAN.html to fetch a copy from a
-"site near you". See http://www.perl.com/CPAN (without a slash at the
-end) for how this process works.
+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 how this process works. Also, http://mirror.cpan.org/
+has a nice interface to the http://www.cpan.org/MIRRORED.BY
+mirror directory.
+
+See the CPAN FAQ at http://www.cpan.org/misc/cpan-faq.html for
+answers to the most frequently asked questions about CPAN
+including how to become a mirror.
CPAN/path/... is a naming convention for files available on CPAN
sites. CPAN indicates the base directory of a CPAN mirror, and the
as your CPAN site, the file CPAN/misc/japh is downloadable as
ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/misc/japh .
-Considering that there are hundreds of existing modules in the
-archive, one probably exists to do nearly anything you can think of.
+Considering that there are close to two thousand existing modules in
+the archive, one probably exists to do nearly anything you can think of.
Current categories under CPAN/modules/by-category/ include Perl core
modules; development support; operating system interfaces; networking,
devices, and interprocess communication; data type utilities; database
utilities; filehandle and I/O; Microsoft Windows modules; and
miscellaneous modules.
+See http://www.cpan.org/modules/00modlist.long.html or
+http://search.cpan.org/ for a more complete list of modules by category.
+
+
=head2 Is there an ISO or ANSI certified version of Perl?
Certainly not. Larry expects that he'll be certified before Perl is.
have a proper man command, or it's been misinstalled. If that doesn't
work, try looking in /usr/local/lib/perl5/pod for documentation.
-If all else fails, consult the CPAN/doc directory, which contains the
-complete documentation in various formats, including native pod,
-troff, html, and plain text. There's also a web page at
-http://www.perl.com/perl/info/documentation.html that might help.
+If all else fails, consult http://perldoc.cpan.org/ or
+http://www.perldoc.com/ both offer the complete documentation
+in html format.
Many good books have been written about Perl--see the section below
for more details.
by the time you read this. The following URLs might also be of
assistance:
- http://language.perl.com/info/documentation.html
+ http://perldoc.cpan.org/
+ http://www.perldoc.com/
http://reference.perl.com/query.cgi?tutorials
+ http://bookmarks.cpan.org/search.cgi?cat=Training%2FTutorials
=head2 What are the Perl newsgroups on Usenet? Where do I post questions?
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 AltaVista
-(http://www.altavista.com), Deja (http://www.deja.com), and
-search CPAN. This is faster and more productive than just posting
-a request.
+If you're just looking for software, first use Google
+(http://www.google.com), Deja (http://www.deja.com), and
+CPAN Search (http://search.cpan.org). This is faster and more
+productive than just posting a request.
=head2 Perl Books
(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
-(first premiered at the 1998 Perl Conference), is:
+of real-world examples, mini-tutorials, and complete programs is:
The Perl Cookbook (the "Ram Book"):
- by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington,
+ by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington,
with Foreword by Larry Wall
ISBN 1-56592-243-3 [1st Edition August 1998]
http://perl.oreilly.com/cookbook/
-If you're already a hard-core systems programmer, then the Camel Book
-might suffice for you to learn Perl from. If you're not, check
-out
+If you're already a seasoned programmer, then the Camel Book might
+suffice for you to learn Perl from. If you're not, check out the
+Llama book:
- Learning Perl (the "Llama Book"):
- by Randal Schwartz and Tom Christiansen
- with Foreword by Larry Wall
- ISBN 1-56592-284-0 [2nd Edition July 1997]
- http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperl2/
+ Learning Perl (the "Llama Book")
+ by Randal L. Schwartz and Tom Phoenix
+ ISBN 0-596-00132-0 [3rd edition July 2001]
+ http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperl3/
-Despite the picture at the URL above, the second edition of "Llama
-Book" really has a blue cover and was updated for the 5.004 release
-of Perl. Various foreign language editions are available, including
-I<Learning Perl on Win32 Systems> (the "Gecko Book").
+If you're not an accidental programmer, but a more serious and
+possibly even degreed computer scientist who doesn't need as much
+hand-holding as we try to provide in the Llama, please check out the
+delightful book
+
+ Perl: The Programmer's Companion
+ by Nigel Chapman
+ ISBN 0-471-97563-X [1997, 3rd printing Spring 1998]
+ http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/catalog/97563-X.htm
+ http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/chapman/perl/perltpc.html (errata etc)
+
+If you are more at home in Windows the following is available
+(though unfortunately rather dated).
+
+ Learning Perl on Win32 Systems (the "Gecko Book")
+ by Randal L. Schwartz, Erik Olson, and Tom Christiansen,
+ with foreword by Larry Wall
+ ISBN 1-56592-324-3 [1st edition August 1997]
+ http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperlwin/
-If you're not an accidental programmer, but a more serious and possibly
-even degreed computer scientist who doesn't need as much hand-holding as
-we try to provide in the Llama or its defurred cousin the Gecko, please
-check out the delightful book, I<Perl: The Programmer's Companion>,
-written by Nigel Chapman.
+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.
-You can order O'Reilly books directly from O'Reilly & Associates,
-1-800-998-9938. Local/overseas is 1-707-829-0515. If you can
-locate an O'Reilly order form, you can also fax to 1-707-829-0104.
-See http://www.ora.com/ on the Web.
+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.
http://www.manning.com/Johnson/
Learning Perl
- by Randal L. Schwartz and Tom Christiansen
- with foreword by Larry Wall
- ISBN 1-56592-284-0 [2nd edition July 1997]
- http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperl2/
+ by Randal L. Schwartz and Tom Phoenix
+ ISBN 0-596-00132-0 [3rd edition July 2001]
+ http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperl3/
Learning Perl on Win32 Systems
by Randal L. Schwartz, Erik Olson, and Tom Christiansen,
Perl: The Programmer's Companion
by Nigel Chapman
- ISBN 0-471-97563-X [1st edition October 1997]
- http://catalog.wiley.com/title.cgi?isbn=047197563X
+ ISBN 0-471-97563-X [1997, 3rd printing Spring 1998]
+ http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/catalog/97563-X.htm
+ http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/chapman/perl/perltpc.html (errata etc)
Cross-Platform Perl
by Eric Foster-Johnson
ISBN 1-881957-32-2 [1st edition May 1998]
http://www.macperl.com/ptf_book/
-=item Task-Oriented
+=item Task-Oriented
The Perl Cookbook
by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington
ISBN 1-56592-243-3 [1st edition August 1998]
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/cookbook/
- Perl5 Interactive Course
- by Jon Orwant
- ISBN 1571690646 [1st edition June 1997]
-
- Advanced Perl Programming
- by Sriram Srinivasan
- ISBN 1-56592-220-4 [1st edition August 1997]
- http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/advperl/
-
- Effective Perl Programming
+ Effective Perl Programming
by Joseph Hall
ISBN 0-201-41975-0 [1st edition 1998]
http://www.awl.com/
+
=item Special Topics
Mastering Regular Expressions
ISBN 1-56592-257-3 [1st edition January 1997]
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/
- How to Set up and Maintain a World Wide Web Site
+ Network Programming with Perl
by Lincoln Stein
- ISBN 0-201-63389-2 [1st edition 1995]
- http://www.awl.com/
+ ISBN 0-201-61571-1 [1st edition 2001]
+ http://www.awlonline.com/
Object Oriented Perl
Damian Conway
ISBN 1884777791 [1st edition August 1999]
http://www.manning.com/Conway/
+ Data Munging with Perl
+ Dave Cross
+ ISBN 1930110006 [1st edition 2001]
+ http://www.manning.com/cross
+
Learning Perl/Tk
by Nancy Walsh
ISBN 1-56592-314-6 [1st edition January 1999]
=head2 Perl in Magazines
-The first and only periodical devoted to All Things Perl, I<The
-Perl Journal> contains tutorials, demonstrations, case studies,
+The first and 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 on web
development, databases, Win32 Perl, graphical programming, regular
-expressions, and networking, and sponsors the Obfuscated Perl
-Contest. It is published quarterly under the gentle hand of its
-editor, Jon Orwant. See http://www.tpj.com/ or send mail to
-subscriptions@tpj.com .
-
-Beyond this, magazines that frequently carry high-quality articles
-on Perl are I<Web Techniques> (see http://www.webtechniques.com/),
-I<Performance Computing> (http://www.performance-computing.com/), and Usenix's
-newsletter/magazine to its members, I<login:>, at http://www.usenix.org/.
-Randal's Web Technique's columns are available on the web at
-http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/WebTechniques/ .
+expressions, and networking, and sponsors the Obfuscated Perl Contest
+and the Perl Poetry Contests. As of mid-2001, the dead tree version
+of TPJ will be published as a quarterly supplement of SysAdmin
+magazine ( http://www.sysadmin.com/ ) For more details on TPJ,
+see http://www.tpj.com/
+
+Beyond this, magazines that frequently carry quality articles on
+Perl are I<Web Techniques> ( http://www.webtechniques.com/ ),
+I<Unix Review> ( http://www.unixreview.com/ ),
+I<Linux Magazine> ( http://www.linuxmagazine.com/ ),
+and Usenix's newsletter/magazine to its members, I<login:>
+( http://www.usenix.org/ )
+
+The Perl columns of Randal L. Schwartz are available on the web at
+http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/WebTechniques/ ,
+http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/UnixReview/ , and
+http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/LinuxMag/ .
=head2 Perl on the Net: FTP and WWW Access
To get the best performance, pick a site from
-the list below and use it to grab the complete list of mirror sites.
+the list below and use it to grab the complete list of mirror sites
+which is at /CPAN/MIRRORED.BY or at http://mirror.cpan.org/.
From there you can find the quickest site for you. Remember, the
following list is I<not> the complete list of CPAN mirrors
-(the complete list contains 161 sites as of January 2001):
+(the complete list contains 165 sites as of January 2001):
+ http://www.cpan.org/
http://www.perl.com/CPAN/
- http://www.cpan.org/CPAN/
http://download.sourceforge.net/mirrors/CPAN/
ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/plan/perl/CPAN/
ftp://ftp.flirble.org/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/
ftp://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/perl/CPAN/
ftp://cpan.if.usp.br/pub/mirror/CPAN/
+One may also use xx.cpan.org where "xx" is the 2-letter country code
+for your domain; e.g. Australia would use au.cpan.org.
+[Note: This only applies to countries that host at least one mirror.]
+
=head2 What mailing lists are there for Perl?
Most of the major modules (Tk, CGI, libwww-perl) have their own
mailing lists. Consult the documentation that came with the module for
-subscription information. The Perl Mongers attempt to maintain a
-list of mailing lists at:
+subscription information.
- http://www.perl.org/support/online_support.html#mail
+ http://lists.cpan.org/
=head2 Archives of comp.lang.perl.misc
-Have you tried Deja or AltaVista? Those are the
-best archives. Just look up "*perl*" as a newsgroup.
-
- http://www.deja.com/dnquery.xp?QRY=&DBS=2&ST=PS&defaultOp=AND&LNG=ALL&format=terse&showsort=date&maxhits=25&subjects=&groups=*perl*&authors=&fromdate=&todate=
+The Google search engine now carries archived and searchable newsgroup
+content.
-You might want to trim that down a bit, though.
+http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&group=comp.lang.perl.misc
-You'll probably want more a sophisticated query and retrieval mechanism
-than a file listing, preferably one that allows you to retrieve
-articles using a fast-access indices, keyed on at least author, date,
-subject, thread (as in "trn") and probably keywords. The best
-solution the FAQ authors know of is the MH pick command, but it is
-very slow to select on 18000 articles.
-
-If you have, or know where can be found, the missing sections, please
-let perlfaq-suggestions@perl.com know.
+If you have a question, you can be sure someone has already asked the
+same question at some point on c.l.p.m. It requires some time and patience
+to sift through all the content but often you will find the answer you
+seek.
=head2 Where can I buy a commercial version of 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
-Larry, scores of software designers and developers, and myriads of
+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.
=head2 What is perl.com? Perl Mongers? pm.org? perl.org?
-The perl.com domain is owned by Tom Christiansen, who created it as a
-public service long before perl.org came about. Despite the name, it's a
-pretty non-commercial site meant to be a clearinghouse for information
-about all things Perlian, accepting no paid advertisements, bouncy
-happy GIFs, or silly Java applets on its pages. The Perl Home Page at
-http://www.perl.com/ is currently hosted on a T3 line courtesy of Songline
-Systems, a software-oriented subsidiary of O'Reilly and Associates.
-Other starting points include
-
- http://language.perl.com/
- http://conference.perl.com/
- http://reference.perl.com/
+The Perl Home Page at http://www.perl.com/ is currently hosted by
+The O'Reilly Network, a subsidiary of O'Reilly and Associates.
Perl Mongers is an advocacy organization for the Perl language which
maintains the web site http://www.perl.org/ as a general advocacy
-site for the Perl language, with many sub-domains for special topics,
-including
-
- http://history.perl.org/
- http://bugs.perl.org/
- http://use.perl.org/
+site for the Perl language.
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
Perl user group web site at http://www.pm.org/ for more information about
joining, starting, or requesting services for a Perl user group.
+Perl Mongers also maintain the perl.org domain to provide general
+support services to the Perl community, including the hosting of mailing
+lists, web sites, and other services. The web site
+http://www.perl.org/ is a general advocacy site for the Perl language,
+and there are many other sub-domains for special topics, such as
+ http://bugs.perl.org/
+ http://history.perl.org/
+ http://lists.perl.org/
+ http://news.perl.org/
+ http://use.perl.org/
=head1 AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT
-Copyright (c) 1997-1999 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington.
+Copyright (c) 1997-2001 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington.
All rights reserved.
-When included as an integrated part of the Standard Distribution
-of Perl or of its documentation (printed or otherwise), this works is
-covered under Perl's Artistic License. For separate distributions of
-all or part of this FAQ outside of that, see L<perlfaq>.
+This documentation is free; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+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
https://perl5.git.perl.org / perl5.git / blobdiff