+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 by Larry Wall and others. All rights reserved.
- Perl Kit, Version 5.0
- Copyright (c) 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994 Larry Wall
- All rights reserved.
- 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
+ABOUT PERL
+==========
- b) the "Artistic License" which comes with this Kit.
+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
- 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) Run Configure. This will figure out various things about your
- system. Some things Configure will figure out for itself, other
- things it will ask you about. If the test scripts and programs
- run ok, the defaults will usually be right. It will then proceed to
- make config.h, config.sh, and Makefile. You may have to explicitly
- say sh Configure to ensure that Configure is run under sh.
- If you're a hotshot, run Configure -d to take all the defaults and
- then edit config.sh to patch up any flaws and run Configure -S.
-
- Configure supports a number of useful options. Run Configure -h
- to get a listing. To compile with gcc, for example, you can run
- Configure -Dcc=gcc, or answer 'gcc' at the cc prompt. If you
- change compilers or make other significant changes, you should
- probably _not_ re-use your old config.sh.
-
- By default, perl will be installed in /usr/local/{bin, lib, man}.
- You can specify a different prefix for the default installation
- directory, when Configure prompts you or by using something like
- Configure -Dprefix=/whatever.
-
- You can also supply a file config.over to over-ride Configure's
- guesses. It will get loaded up at the very end, just before
- config.sh is created.
-
- You might possibly have to trim # comments from the front of Configure
- if your sh doesn't handle them, but all other # comments will be taken
- care of.
-
- (If you don't have sh, you'll have to copy the sample file config.H to
- config.h and edit the config.h to reflect your system's peculiarities.)
-
-2) Glance through config.h to make sure system dependencies are correct.
- Most of them should have been taken care of by running the Configure script.
-
- If you have any additional changes to make to the C definitions, they
- can be done in cflags.SH. For instance, to turn off the optimizer
- on toke.c, find the line in the switch structure for toke.c and
- put the command optimize='-g' before the ;;. To change the C flags
- for all the files, edit config.sh and change either $ccflags or $optimize.
-
-3) make depend
-
- This will look for all the includes and modify Makefile accordingly.
- Configure will offer to do this for you.
-
-4) make
-
- This will attempt to make perl in the current directory.
-
- If you can't compile successfully, try adding a -DCRIPPLED_CC flag.
- (Just because you get no errors doesn't mean it compiled right!)
- This simplifies some complicated expressions for compilers that
- get indigestion easily. If that has no effect, try turning off
- optimization. If you have missing routines, you probably need to
- add some library or other, or you need to undefine some feature that
- Configure thought was there but is defective or incomplete.
-
- Some compilers will not compile or optimize the larger files without
- some extra switches to use larger jump offsets or allocate larger
- internal tables. You can customize the switches for each file in
- cflags.SH. It's okay to insert rules for specific files into
- Makefile.SH, since a default rule only takes effect in the
- absence of a specific rule.
-
- Many of the following hints are now done automatically by Configure.
- Some of the hints here were for Perl 4, and are probably obsolete.
- They're left here for the moment just to give you some ideas for
- what to try if you're having trouble.
-
- AIX/RT may need a -a switch and -DCRIPPLED_CC.
- Ultrix 3.[01] on MIPS needs to undefine WAITPID--the system call is busted.
- MIPS machines may need to undef d_volatile.
- MIPS machines may need to turn off -O on some files.
- Some MIPS machines may need to undefine CASTNEGFLOAT.
- Genix may need to use libc rather than libc_s, or #undef VARARGS.
- NCR Tower 32 (OS 2.01.01) may need -W2,-Sl,2000 and #undef MKDIR.
- A/UX may appear to work with -O -B/usr/lib/big/ optimizer flags.
- A/UX may need -lposix to find rewinddir.
- A/UX may need -ZP -DPOSIX, and -g if big cc is used.
- UTS may need one or more of -DCRIPPLED_CC, -K or -g, and undef LSTAT.
- If you get syntax errors on '(', try -DCRIPPLED_CC.
- Machines with half-implemented dbm routines will need to #undef I_ODBM
- SCO prior to 3.2.4 may be missing dbmclose(). An upgrade to 3.2.4
- that includes libdbm.nfs (which includes dbmclose()) may be available.
- If you get duplicates upon linking for malloc et al, say -DHIDEMYMALLOC.
- If you get duplicate function definitions (a perl function has the
- same name as another function on your system) try -DEMBED.
- If you get varags problems with gcc, be sure that gcc is installed
- correctly. When using gcc, you should probably have i_stdarg='define'
- and i_varags='undef' in config.sh.
-
-5) make test
-
- This will run the regression tests on the perl you just made.
- If it doesn't say "All tests successful" then something went wrong.
- See the README in the t subdirectory. Note that you can't run it
- in background if this disables opening of /dev/tty. If "make test"
- bombs out, just cd to the t directory and run TEST by hand to see if
- it makes any difference. If individual tests bomb, you can run
- them by hand, e.g., ./perl op/groups.t
-
-6) make install
-
- This will put perl into a public directory (such as /usr/local/bin).
- It will also try to put the man pages in a reasonable place. It will not
- nroff the man page, however. You may need to be root to do this. If
- you are not root, you must own the directories in question and you should
- ignore any messages about chown not working.
-
- make install will also install the following:
- perl,
- perl5.nnn where nnn is the current release number. This
- will be a link to perl.
- suidperl,
- sperl5.nnn If you requested setuid emulation.
- a2p awk-to-perl translator
- cppstdin This is used by perl -P, if your cc -E can't
- read from stdin.
- c2ph, pstruct Scripts for handling C structures in header files.
- s2p sed-to-perl translator
- find2perl find-to-perl translator
- h2xs Converts C .h header files to Perl extensions.
-
- library files in $privlib and $archlib specified to
- Configure, usually under /usr/local/lib/perl5/.
- man pages in the location specified to Configure, usually
- something like /usr/local/man/man1.
-
- Perl's *.h header files and the libperl.a library are also
- installed under $archlib so that you may later build new
- extensions even if the Perl source is no longer available.
-
- make install may also offer to install perl in a "standard" location.
-
- Most of the documentation in the pod/ directory is also available
- in HTML format. Type
- cd pod; make html; cd ..
- to generate the html versions.
-
-7) Read the manual entries before running perl.
-
-8) IMPORTANT! Help save the world! Communicate any problems and suggested
- patches to me, lwall@netlabs.com (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.
-
- 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. It's also
- helpful if you send the output of "uname -a".
-
- Watch for perl patches in comp.lang.perl. 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
+using the 'perlbug' tool. For more information about perlbug, either type
+'perldoc perlbug' or just 'perlbug' on a line by itself.
+
+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 http://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
+http://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