=head1 SYNOPSIS
-B<perl> [B<-acdhnpPsSTuUvw>] [B<-0[octal>]] [B<-D[number/list]>]
- [B<-F regexp>] [B<-i[extension>]] [B<-I<lt>dir<gt>>]
- [B<-l[octal]>] [B<-x[dir]>]
- [programfile | B<-e command>] [argument ...]
+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> ]...>
=head1 DESCRIPTION
=item 2.
Contained in the file specified by the first filename on the command line.
-(Note that systems supporting the #! notation invoke interpreters this way.)
+(Note that systems supporting the #! notation invoke interpreters this
+way. See L<Location of Perl>.)
=item 3.
-Passed in implicitly via standard input. This only works if there are
+Passed in implicitly via standard input. This works only if there are
no filename arguments--to pass arguments to a STDIN script you
must explicitly specify a "-" for the script name.
scans for the first line starting with #! and containing the word
"perl", and starts there instead. This is useful for running a script
embedded in a larger message. (In this case you would indicate the end
-of the script using the __END__ token.)
+of the script using the C<__END__> token.)
-As of Perl 5, the #! line is always examined for switches as the line is
-being parsed. Thus, if you're on a machine that only allows one argument
-with the #! line, or worse, doesn't even recognize the #! line, you still
-can get consistent switch behavior regardless of how Perl was invoked,
-even if B<-x> was used to find the beginning of the script.
+The #! line is always examined for switches as the line is being
+parsed. Thus, if you're on a machine that allows only one argument
+with the #! line, or worse, doesn't even recognize the #! line, you
+still can get consistent switch behavior regardless of how Perl was
+invoked, even if B<-x> was used to find the beginning of the script.
Because many operating systems silently chop off kernel interpretation of
the #! line after 32 characters, some switches may be passed in on the
execute standard input instead of your script. And a partial B<-I> switch
could also cause odd results.
+Some switches do care if they are processed twice, for instance combinations
+of B<-l> and B<-0>. Either put all the switches after the 32 character
+boundary (if applicable), or replace the use of B<-0>I<digits> by
+C<BEGIN{ $/ = "\0digits"; }>.
+
Parsing of the #! switches starts wherever "perl" is mentioned in the line.
The sequences "-*" and "- " are specifically ignored so that you could,
if you were so inclined, say
#!/bin/sh -- # -*- perl -*- -p
- eval 'exec perl $0 -S ${1+"$@"}'
- if 0;
+ eval 'exec /usr/bin/perl -wS $0 ${1+"$@"}'
+ if $running_under_some_shell;
to let Perl see the B<-p> switch.
After locating your script, Perl compiles the entire script to an
internal form. If there are any compilation errors, execution of the
script is not attempted. (This is unlike the typical shell script,
-which might run partway through before finding a syntax error.)
+which might run part-way through before finding a syntax error.)
If the script is syntactically correct, it is executed. If the script
runs off the end without hitting an exit() or die() operator, an implicit
C<exit(0)> is provided to indicate successful completion.
+=head2 #! and quoting on non-Unix systems
+
+Unix's #! technique can be simulated on other systems:
+
+=over 4
+
+=item OS/2
+
+Put
+
+ extproc perl -S -your_switches
+
+as the first line in C<*.cmd> file (C<-S> due to a bug in cmd.exe's
+`extproc' handling).
+
+=item MS-DOS
+
+Create a batch file to run your script, and codify it in
+C<ALTERNATIVE_SHEBANG> (see the F<dosish.h> file in the source
+distribution for more information).
+
+=item Win95/NT
+
+The Win95/NT installation, when using the Activeware port of Perl,
+will modify the Registry to associate the .pl extension with the perl
+interpreter. If you install another port of Perl, including the one
+in the Win32 directory of the Perl distribution, then you'll have to
+modify the Registry yourself.
+
+=item Macintosh
+
+Macintosh perl scripts will have the appropriate Creator and
+Type, so that double-clicking them will invoke the perl application.
+
+=back
+
+Command-interpreters on non-Unix systems have rather different ideas
+on quoting than Unix shells. You'll need to learn the special
+characters in your command-interpreter (C<*>, C<\> and C<"> are
+common) and how to protect whitespace and these characters to run
+one-liners (see C<-e> below).
+
+On some systems, you may have to change single-quotes to double ones,
+which you must I<NOT> do on Unix or Plan9 systems. You might also
+have to change a single % to a %%.
+
+For example:
+
+ # Unix
+ perl -e 'print "Hello world\n"'
+
+ # MS-DOS, etc.
+ perl -e "print \"Hello world\n\""
+
+ # Macintosh
+ print "Hello world\n"
+ (then Run "Myscript" or Shift-Command-R)
+
+ # VMS
+ perl -e "print ""Hello world\n"""
+
+The problem is that none of this is reliable: it depends on the command
+and it is entirely possible neither works. If 4DOS was the command shell, this would
+probably work better:
+
+ perl -e "print <Ctrl-x>"Hello world\n<Ctrl-x>""
+
+CMD.EXE in Windows NT slipped a lot of standard Unix functionality in
+when nobody was looking, but just try to find documentation for its
+quoting rules.
+
+Under the Macintosh, it depends which environment you are using. The MacPerl
+shell, or MPW, is much like Unix shells in its support for several
+quoting variants, except that it makes free use of the Macintosh's non-ASCII
+characters as control characters.
+
+There is no general solution to all of this. It's just a mess.
+
+=head2 Location of Perl
+
+It may seem obvious to say, but Perl is useful only when users can
+easily find it. When possible, it's good for both B</usr/bin/perl> and
+B</usr/local/bin/perl> to be symlinks to the actual binary. If that
+can't be done, system administrators are strongly encouraged to put
+(symlinks to) perl and its accompanying utilities, such as perldoc, into
+a directory typically found along a user's PATH, or in another obvious
+and convenient place.
+
+In this documentation, C<#!/usr/bin/perl> on the first line of the script
+will stand in for whatever method works on your system.
+
=head2 Switches
A single-character switch may be combined with the following switch, if
=over 5
-=item B<-0>I<digits>
+=item B<-0>[I<digits>]
-specifies the record separator (C<$/>) as an octal number. If there are
+specifies the input record separator (C<$/>) as an octal number. If there are
no digits, the null character is the separator. Other switches may
precede or follow the digits. For example, if you have a version of
B<find> which can print filenames terminated by the null character, you
find . -name '*.bak' -print0 | perl -n0e unlink
The special value 00 will cause Perl to slurp files in paragraph mode.
-The value 0777 will cause Perl to slurp files whole since there is no
+The value 0777 will cause Perl to slurp files whole because there is no
legal character with that value.
=item B<-a>
causes Perl to check the syntax of the script and then exit without
executing it. Actually, it I<will> execute C<BEGIN>, C<END>, and C<use> blocks,
-since these are considered as occurring outside the execution of
+because these are considered as occurring outside the execution of
your program.
=item B<-d>
runs the script under the Perl debugger. See L<perldebug>.
-=item B<-d:foo>
+=item B<-d:>I<foo>
runs the script under the control of a debugging or tracing module
installed as Devel::foo. E.g., B<-d:DProf> executes the script using the
Devel::DProf profiler. See L<perldebug>.
-=item B<-D>I<number>
+=item B<-D>I<letters>
-=item B<-D>I<list>
+=item B<-D>I<number>
sets debugging flags. To watch how it executes your script, use
-B<-D14>. (This only works if debugging is compiled into your
-Perl.) Another nice value is B<-D1024>, which lists your compiled
-syntax tree. And B<-D512> displays compiled regular expressions. As an
-alternative specify a list of letters instead of numbers (e.g. B<-D14> is
+B<-Dtls>. (This works only if debugging is compiled into your
+Perl.) Another nice value is B<-Dx>, which lists your compiled
+syntax tree. And B<-Dr> displays compiled regular expressions. As an
+alternative, specify a number instead of list of letters (e.g., B<-D14> is
equivalent to B<-Dtls>):
- 1 p Tokenizing and Parsing
- 2 s Stack Snapshots
- 4 l Label Stack Processing
- 8 t Trace Execution
- 16 o Operator Node Construction
- 32 c String/Numeric Conversions
- 64 P Print Preprocessor Command for -P
- 128 m Memory Allocation
- 256 f Format Processing
- 512 r Regular Expression Parsing
- 1024 x Syntax Tree Dump
- 2048 u Tainting Checks
- 4096 L Memory Leaks (not supported anymore)
- 8192 H Hash Dump -- usurps values()
- 16384 X Scratchpad Allocation
- 32768 D Cleaning Up
+ 1 p Tokenizing and parsing
+ 2 s Stack snapshots
+ 4 l Context (loop) stack processing
+ 8 t Trace execution
+ 16 o Method and overloading resolution
+ 32 c String/numeric conversions
+ 64 P Print preprocessor command for -P
+ 128 m Memory allocation
+ 256 f Format processing
+ 512 r Regular expression parsing and execution
+ 1024 x Syntax tree dump
+ 2048 u Tainting checks
+ 4096 L Memory leaks (needs C<-DLEAKTEST> when compiling Perl)
+ 8192 H Hash dump -- usurps values()
+ 16384 X Scratchpad allocation
+ 32768 D Cleaning up
+
+All these flags require C<-DDEBUGGING> when you compile the Perl
+executable. This flag is automatically set if you include C<-g>
+option when C<Configure> asks you about optimizer/debugger flags.
=item B<-e> I<commandline>
-may be used to enter one line of script.
+may be used to enter one line of script.
If B<-e> is given, Perl
-will not look for a script filename in the argument list.
+will not look for a script filename in the argument list.
Multiple B<-e> commands may
-be given to build up a multi-line script.
+be given to build up a multi-line script.
Make sure to use semicolons where you would in a normal program.
-=item B<-F>I<regexp>
+=item B<-F>I<pattern>
+
+specifies the pattern to split on if B<-a> is also in effect. The
+pattern may be surrounded by C<//>, C<"">, or C<''>, otherwise it will be
+put in single quotes.
+
+=item B<-h>
-specifies a regular expression to split on if B<-a> is also in effect.
-If regexp has C<//> around it, the slashes will be ignored.
+prints a summary of the options.
-=item B<-i>I<extension>
+=item B<-i>[I<extension>]
specifies that files processed by the C<E<lt>E<gt>> construct are to be edited
in-place. It does this by renaming the input file, opening the output
the selected filehandle. Note that STDOUT is restored as the
default output filehandle after the loop.
-You can use C<eof> without parenthesis to locate the end of each input file,
-in case you want to append to each file, or reset line numbering (see
+You can use C<eof> without parenthesis to locate the end of each input file,
+in case you want to append to each file, or reset line numbering (see
example in L<perlfunc/eof>).
=item B<-I>I<directory>
-may be used in conjunction with B<-P> to tell the C preprocessor where
-to look for include files. By default /usr/include and /usr/lib/perl
-are searched.
+Directories specified by B<-I> are prepended to the search path for
+modules (C<@INC>), and also tells the C preprocessor where to search for
+include files. The C preprocessor is invoked with B<-P>; by default it
+searches /usr/include and /usr/lib/perl.
-=item B<-l>I<octnum>
+=item B<-l>[I<octnum>]
enables automatic line-ending processing. It has two effects: first,
-it automatically chomps the line terminator when used with B<-n> or
-B<-p>, and second, it assigns "C<$\>" to have the value of I<octnum> so that
-any print statements will have that line terminator added back on. If
+it automatically chomps "C<$/>" (the input record separator) when used
+with B<-n> or B<-p>, and second, it assigns "C<$\>"
+(the output record separator) to have the value of I<octnum> so that
+any print statements will have that separator added back on. If
I<octnum> is omitted, sets "C<$\>" to the current value of "C<$/>". For
instance, to trim lines to 80 columns:
gnufind / -print0 | perl -ln0e 'print "found $_" if -p'
-This sets $\ to newline and then sets $/ to the null character.
+This sets C<$\> to newline and then sets C<$/> to the null character.
-=item B<-m>I<module>
+=item B<-m>[B<->]I<module>
-=item B<-M>I<module>
+=item B<-M>[B<->]I<module>
+
+=item B<-M>[B<->]I<'module ...'>
+
+=item B<-[mM]>[B<->]I<module=arg[,arg]...>
C<-m>I<module> executes C<use> I<module> C<();> before executing your
script.
If the first character after the C<-M> or C<-m> is a dash (C<->)
then the 'use' is replaced with 'no'.
-A little built-in syntactic sugar means you can also say
-C<-mmodule=foo> or C<-Mmodule=foo> as a shortcut for
-C<-M'module qw(foo)'>. Note that using the C<=> form
+A little builtin syntactic sugar means you can also say
+C<-mmodule=foo,bar> or C<-Mmodule=foo,bar> as a shortcut for
+C<-M'module qw(foo bar)'>. This avoids the need to use quotes when
+importing symbols. The actual code generated by C<-Mmodule=foo,bar> is
+C<use module split(/,/,q{foo,bar})>. Note that the C<=> form
removes the distinction between C<-m> and C<-M>.
-To avoid the need to use quotes when importing more that one symbol
-with the C<=> form, the text following the C<=> is split into a list
-on commas (C<,>) rather than whitespace. The actual code generated
-by C<-Mmodule=foo,bar> is C<use module split(/,/,q{foo,bar})>.
-
=item B<-n>
causes Perl to assume the following loop around your script, which
}
Note that the lines are not printed by default. See B<-p> to have
-lines printed. Here is an efficient way to delete all files older than
-a week:
+lines printed. If a file named by an argument cannot be opened for
+some reason, Perl warns you about it, and moves on to the next file.
+
+Here is an efficient way to delete all files older than a week:
find . -mtime +7 -print | perl -nle 'unlink;'
while (<>) {
... # your script goes here
} continue {
- print;
+ print or die "-p destination: $!\n";
}
-Note that the lines are printed automatically. To suppress printing
-use the B<-n> switch. A B<-p> overrides a B<-n> switch.
+If a file named by an argument cannot be opened for some reason, Perl
+warns you about it, and moves on to the next file. Note that the
+lines are printed automatically. An error occuring during printing is
+treated as fatal. To suppress printing use the B<-n> switch. A B<-p>
+overrides a B<-n> switch.
C<BEGIN> and C<END> blocks may be used to capture control before or after
the implicit loop, just as in awk.
=item B<-P>
causes your script to be run through the C preprocessor before
-compilation by Perl. (Since both comments and cpp directives begin
+compilation by Perl. (Because both comments and cpp directives begin
with the # character, you should avoid starting comments with any words
-recognized by the C preprocessor such as "if", "else" or "define".)
+recognized by the C preprocessor such as "if", "else", or "define".)
=item B<-s>
=item B<-S>
makes Perl use the PATH environment variable to search for the
-script (unless the name of the script starts with a slash). Typically
-this is used to emulate #! startup on machines that don't support #!,
-in the following manner:
+script (unless the name of the script contains directory separators).
+On some platforms, this also makes Perl append suffixes to the
+filename while searching for it. For example, on Win32 platforms,
+the ".bat" and ".cmd" suffixes are appended if a lookup for the
+original name fails, and if the name does not already end in one
+of those suffixes. If your Perl was compiled with DEBUGGING turned
+on, using the -Dp switch to Perl shows how the search progresses.
+
+If the filename supplied contains directory separators (i.e. it is an
+absolute or relative pathname), and if the file is not found,
+platforms that append file extensions will do so and try to look
+for the file with those extensions added, one by one.
+
+On DOS-like platforms, if the script does not contain directory
+separators, it will first be searched for in the current directory
+before being searched for on the PATH. On Unix platforms, the
+script will be searched for strictly on the PATH.
+
+Typically this is used to emulate #! startup on platforms that
+don't support #!. This example works on many platforms that
+have a shell compatible with Bourne shell:
#!/usr/bin/perl
- eval "exec /usr/bin/perl -S $0 $*"
+ eval 'exec /usr/bin/perl -wS $0 ${1+"$@"}'
if $running_under_some_shell;
The system ignores the first line and feeds the script to /bin/sh,
contain the full pathname, so the B<-S> tells Perl to search for the
script if necessary. After Perl locates the script, it parses the
lines and ignores them because the variable $running_under_some_shell
-is never true. A better construct than C<$*> would be C<${1+"$@"}>, which
-handles embedded spaces and such in the filenames, but doesn't work if
-the script is being interpreted by csh. In order to start up sh rather
+is never true. If the script will be interpreted by csh, you will need
+to replace C<${1+"$@"}> with C<$*>, even though that doesn't understand
+embedded spaces (and such) in the argument list. To start up sh rather
than csh, some systems may have to replace the #! line with a line
containing just a colon, which will be politely ignored by Perl. Other
systems can't control that, and need a totally devious construct that
-will work under any of csh, sh or Perl, such as the following:
+will work under any of csh, sh, or Perl, such as the following:
- eval '(exit $?0)' && eval 'exec /usr/bin/perl -S $0 ${1+"$@"}'
- & eval 'exec /usr/bin/perl -S $0 $argv:q'
- if 0;
+ eval '(exit $?0)' && eval 'exec /usr/bin/perl -wS $0 ${1+"$@"}'
+ & eval 'exec /usr/bin/perl -wS $0 $argv:q'
+ if $running_under_some_shell;
=item B<-T>
-forces "taint" checks to be turned on so you can test them. Ordinarily these checks are
-done only when running setuid or setgid. It's a good idea to turn
-them on explicitly for programs run on another's behalf, such as CGI
-programs. See L<perlsec>.
+forces "taint" checks to be turned on so you can test them. Ordinarily
+these checks are done only when running setuid or setgid. It's a good
+idea to turn them on explicitly for programs run on another's behalf,
+such as CGI programs. See L<perlsec>. Note that (for security reasons)
+this option must be seen by Perl quite early; usually this means it must
+appear early on the command line or in the #! line (for systems which
+support that).
=item B<-u>
allows Perl to do unsafe operations. Currently the only "unsafe"
operations are the unlinking of directories while running as superuser,
and running setuid programs with fatal taint checks turned into
-warnings.
+warnings. Note that the B<-w> switch (or the C<$^W> variable) must
+be used along with this option to actually B<generate> the
+taint-check warnings.
=item B<-v>
prints summary of the major perl configuration values and the current
value of @INC.
-=item B<-V:name>
+=item B<-V:>I<name>
Prints to STDOUT the value of the named configuration variable.
=item B<-w>
-prints warnings about identifiers that are mentioned only once, and
+prints warnings about variable names that are mentioned only once, and
scalar variables that are used before being set. Also warns about
redefined subroutines, and references to undefined filehandles or
-filehandles opened readonly that you are attempting to write on. Also
-warns you if you use values as a number that doesn't look like numbers, using
-an array as though it were a scalar, if
-your subroutines recurse more than 100 deep, and innumerable other things.
-See L<perldiag> and L<perltrap>.
+filehandles opened read-only that you are attempting to write on. Also
+warns you if you use values as a number that doesn't look like numbers,
+using an array as though it were a scalar, if your subroutines recurse
+more than 100 deep, and innumerable other things.
+
+You can disable specific warnings using C<__WARN__> hooks, as described
+in L<perlvar> and L<perlfunc/warn>. See also L<perldiag> and L<perltrap>.
=item B<-x> I<directory>
tells Perl that the script is embedded in a message. Leading
garbage will be discarded until the first line that starts with #! and
contains the string "perl". Any meaningful switches on that line will
-be applied (but only one group of switches, as with normal #!
-processing). If a directory name is specified, Perl will switch to
-that directory before running the script. The B<-x> switch only
-controls the the disposal of leading garbage. The script must be
+be applied. If a directory name is specified, Perl will switch to
+that directory before running the script. The B<-x> switch controls
+only the disposal of leading garbage. The script must be
terminated with C<__END__> if there is trailing garbage to be ignored (the
script can process any or all of the trailing garbage via the DATA
filehandle if desired).
+=back
+
+=head1 ENVIRONMENT
+
+=over 12
+
+=item HOME
+
+Used if chdir has no argument.
+
+=item LOGDIR
+
+Used if chdir has no argument and HOME is not set.
+
+=item PATH
+
+Used in executing subprocesses, and in finding the script if B<-S> is
+used.
+
+=item PERL5LIB
+
+A colon-separated list of directories in which to look for Perl library
+files before looking in the standard library and the current
+directory. If PERL5LIB is not defined, PERLLIB is used. When running
+taint checks (because the script was running setuid or setgid, or the
+B<-T> switch was used), neither variable is used. The script should
+instead say
+
+ use lib "/my/directory";
+
+=item PERL5OPT
+
+Command-line options (switches). Switches in this variable are taken
+as if they were on every Perl command line. Only the B<-[DIMUdmw]>
+switches are allowed. When running taint checks (because the script
+was running setuid or setgid, or the B<-T> switch was used), this
+variable is ignored.
+
+=item PERLLIB
+
+A colon-separated list of directories in which to look for Perl library
+files before looking in the standard library and the current directory.
+If PERL5LIB is defined, PERLLIB is not used.
+
+=item PERL5DB
+
+The command used to load the debugger code. The default is:
+
+ BEGIN { require 'perl5db.pl' }
+
+=item PERL5SHELL (specific to WIN32 port)
+
+May be set to an alternative shell that perl must use internally for
+executing "backtick" commands or system(). Default is C<cmd.exe /x/c>
+on WindowsNT and C<command.com /c> on Windows95. The value is considered
+to be space delimited. Precede any character that needs to be protected
+(like a space or backslash) with a backslash.
+
+Note that Perl doesn't use COMSPEC for this purpose because
+COMSPEC has a high degree of variability among users, leading to
+portability concerns. Besides, perl can use a shell that may not be
+fit for interactive use, and setting COMSPEC to such a shell may
+interfere with the proper functioning of other programs (which usually
+look in COMSPEC to find a shell fit for interactive use).
+
+=item PERL_DEBUG_MSTATS
+
+Relevant only if perl is compiled with the malloc included with the perl
+distribution (that is, if C<perl -V:d_mymalloc> is 'define').
+If set, this causes memory statistics to be dumped after execution. If set
+to an integer greater than one, also causes memory statistics to be dumped
+after compilation.
+
+=item PERL_DESTRUCT_LEVEL
+
+Relevant only if your perl executable was built with B<-DDEBUGGING>,
+this controls the behavior of global destruction of objects and other
+references.
=back
+
+Perl also has environment variables that control how Perl handles data
+specific to particular natural languages. See L<perllocale>.
+
+Apart from these, Perl uses no other environment variables, except
+to make them available to the script being executed, and to child
+processes. However, scripts running setuid would do well to execute
+the following lines before doing anything else, just to keep people
+honest:
+
+ $ENV{PATH} = '/bin:/usr/bin'; # or whatever you need
+ $ENV{SHELL} = '/bin/sh' if exists $ENV{SHELL};
+ delete @ENV{qw(IFS CDPATH ENV BASH_ENV)};
+
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