S<[ B<-pna> ] [ B<-F>I<pattern> ] [ B<-l>[I<octal>] ] [ B<-0>[I<octal/hexadecimal>] ]>
S<[ B<-I>I<dir> ] [ B<-m>[B<->]I<module> ] [ B<-M>[B<->]I<'module...'> ] [ B<-f> ]>
S<[ B<-C [I<number/list>] >]>
- S<[ B<-P> ]>
S<[ B<-S> ]>
S<[ B<-x>[I<dir>] ]>
S<[ B<-i>[I<extension>] ]>
- S<[ B<-eE> I<'command'> ] [ B<--> ] [ I<programfile> ] [ I<argument> ]...>
+ S<[ [B<-e>|B<-E>] I<'command'> ] [ B<--> ] [ I<programfile> ] [ I<argument> ]...>
=head1 DESCRIPTION
The sequences "-*" and "- " are specifically ignored so that you could,
if you were so inclined, say
- #!/bin/sh -- # -*- perl -*- -p
- eval 'exec perl -wS $0 ${1+"$@"}'
- if $running_under_some_shell;
+ #!/bin/sh
+ #! -*-perl-*-
+ eval 'exec perl -x -wS $0 ${1+"$@"}'
+ if 0;
to let Perl see the B<-p> switch.
this means you can no longer tell the difference between an executable
Perl program and a Perl library file.
-=item Macintosh
-
-Under "Classic" MacOS, a perl program will have the appropriate Creator and
-Type, so that double-clicking them will invoke the MacPerl application.
-Under Mac OS X, clickable apps can be made from any C<#!> script using Wil
-Sanchez' DropScript utility: http://www.wsanchez.net/software/ .
-
=item VMS
Put
# 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"""
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
find . -name '*.orig' -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 because there is no
-legal byte with that value.
+Any value 0400 or above will cause Perl to slurp files whole, but by convention
+the value 0777 is the one normally used for this purpose.
-If you want to specify any Unicode character, use the hexadecimal
-format: C<-0xHHH...>, where the C<H> are valid hexadecimal digits.
+You can also specify the separator character using hexadecimal notation:
+C<-0xHHH...>, where the C<H> are valid hexadecimal digits. Unlike the octal
+form, this one may be used to specify any Unicode character, even those beyond
+0xFF.
(This means that you cannot use the C<-x> with a directory name that
consists of hexadecimal digits.)
nor toggling.
The C<io> options mean that any subsequent open() (or similar I/O
-operations) will have the C<:utf8> PerlIO layer implicitly applied
-to them, in other words, UTF-8 is expected from any input stream,
-and UTF-8 is produced to any output stream. This is just the default,
-with explicit layers in open() and with binmode() one can manipulate
-streams as usual.
+operations) in the current file scope will have the C<:utf8> PerlIO layer
+implicitly applied to them, in other words, UTF-8 is expected from any
+input stream, and UTF-8 is produced to any output stream. This is just
+the default, with explicit layers in open() and with binmode() one can
+manipulate streams as usual.
C<-C> on its own (not followed by any number or option list), or the
empty string C<""> for the C<PERL_UNICODE> environment variable, has the
disable all the above Unicode features.
The read-only magic variable C<${^UNICODE}> reflects the numeric value
-of this setting. This is variable is set during Perl startup and is
+of this setting. This variable is set during Perl startup and is
thereafter read-only. If you want runtime effects, use the three-arg
open() (see L<perlfunc/open>), the two-arg binmode() (see L<perlfunc/binmode>),
and the C<open> pragma (see L<open>).
This feature was practically unused, however, and the command line
switch was therefore "recycled".)
+B<Note:> Since perl 5.10.1, if the -C option is used on the #! line, it
+must be specified on the command line as well, since the standard streams
+are already set up at this point in the execution of the perl interpreter.
+You can also use binmode() to set the encoding of an I/O stream.
+
=item B<-c>
X<-c>
8 t Trace execution
16 o Method and overloading resolution
32 c String/numeric conversions
- 64 P Print profiling info, preprocessor command for -P, source file input state
- 128 m Memory allocation
+ 64 P Print profiling info, source file input state
+ 128 m Memory and SV allocation
256 f Format processing
512 r Regular expression parsing and execution
1024 x Syntax tree dump
8192 H Hash dump -- usurps values()
16384 X Scratchpad allocation
32768 D Cleaning up
- 65536 S Thread synchronization
131072 T Tokenising
262144 R Include reference counts of dumped variables (eg when using -Ds)
- 524288 J Do not s,t,P-debug (Jump over) opcodes within package DB
+ 524288 J show s,t,P-debug (don't Jump over) on opcodes within package DB
1048576 v Verbose: use in conjunction with other flags
2097152 C Copy On Write
4194304 A Consistency checks on internal structures
8388608 q quiet - currently only suppresses the "EXECUTING" message
+ 16777216 M trace smart match resolution
+ 33554432 B dump suBroutine definitions, including special Blocks like BEGIN
All these flags require B<-DDEBUGGING> when you compile the Perl
-executable (but see L<Devel::Peek>, L<re> which may change this).
+executable (but see C<:opd> in L<Devel::Peek> or L<re/'debug' mode>
+which may change this).
See the F<INSTALL> file in the Perl source distribution
for how to do this. This flag is automatically set if you include B<-g>
option when C<Configure> asks you about optimizer/debugger flags.
optional features (in the main compilation unit). See L<feature>.
=item B<-f>
-X<-f>
+X<-f> X<sitecustomize> X<sitecustomize.pl>
Disable executing F<$Config{sitelib}/sitecustomize.pl> at startup.
It can for instance be used to add entries to the @INC array to make perl
find modules in non-standard locations.
+Perl actually inserts the following code:
+
+ BEGIN {
+ do { local $!; -f "$Config{sitelib}/sitecustomize.pl"; }
+ && do "$Config{sitelib}/sitecustomize.pl";
+ }
+
+Since it is an actual C<do> (not a C<require>), F<sitecustomize.pl>
+doesn't need to return a true value. The code is run in package C<main>,
+in its own lexical scope. However, if the script dies, C<$@> will not
+be set.
+
+The value of C<$Config{sitelib}> is also determined in C code and not
+read from C<Config.pm>, which is not loaded.
+
+The code is executed B<very> early. For example, any changes made to
+C<@INC> will show up in the output of `perl -V`. Of course, C<END>
+blocks will be likewise executed very late.
+
+To determine at runtime if this capability has been compiled in your
+perl, you can check the value of C<$Config{usesitecustomize}>.
+
=item B<-F>I<pattern>
X<-F>
$ perl -pi~ -e 's/foo/bar/' file1 file2 file3...
Note that because B<-i> renames or deletes the original file before
-creating a new file of the same name, UNIX-style soft and hard links will
+creating a new file of the same name, Unix-style soft and hard links will
not be preserved.
Finally, the B<-i> switch does not impede execution when no
X<-I> X<@INC>
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.
+modules (C<@INC>).
=item B<-l>[I<octnum>]
X<-l> X<$/> X<$\>
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.
+Also note that C<< <> >> passes command line arguments to
+L<perlfunc/open>, which doesn't necessarily interpret them as file names.
+See L<perlop> for possible security implications.
+
Here is an efficient way to delete all files that haven't been modified for
at least a week:
C<BEGIN> and C<END> blocks may be used to capture control before or after
the implicit loop, just as in B<awk>.
-=item B<-P>
-X<-P>
-
-B<NOTE: Use of -P is strongly discouraged because of its inherent
-problems, including poor portability. It is deprecated and will be
-removed in a future version of Perl.>
-
-This option causes your program to be run through the C preprocessor before
-compilation by Perl. Because both comments and B<cpp> directives begin
-with the # character, you should avoid starting comments with any words
-recognized by the C preprocessor such as C<"if">, C<"else">, or C<"define">.
-
-If you're considering using C<-P>, you might also want to look at the
-Filter::cpp module from CPAN.
-
-The problems of -P include, but are not limited to:
-
-=over 10
-
-=item *
-
-The C<#!> line is stripped, so any switches there don't apply.
-
-=item *
-
-A C<-P> on a C<#!> line doesn't work.
-
-=item *
-
-B<All> lines that begin with (whitespace and) a C<#> but
-do not look like cpp commands, are stripped, including anything
-inside Perl strings, regular expressions, and here-docs .
-
-=item *
-
-In some platforms the C preprocessor knows too much: it knows about
-the C++ -style until-end-of-line comments starting with C<"//">.
-This will cause problems with common Perl constructs like
-
- s/foo//;
-
-because after -P this will became illegal code
-
- s/foo
-
-The workaround is to use some other quoting separator than C<"/">,
-like for example C<"!">:
-
- s!foo!!;
-
-
-
-=item *
-
-It requires not only a working C preprocessor but also a working
-F<sed>. If not on UNIX, you are probably out of luck on this.
-
-=item *
-
-Script line numbers are not preserved.
-
-=item *
-
-The C<-x> does not work with C<-P>.
-
-=back
-
=item B<-s>
X<-s>
ASCII text, such as in a mail 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.
+
+All references to line numbers by the program (warnings, errors, ...)
+will treat the #! line as the first line.
+Thus a warning on the 2nd line of the program (which is on the 100th
+line in the file) will be reported as line 2, and not as line 100.
+This can be overridden by using the #line directive.
+(See L<perlsyn/"Plain-Old-Comments-(Not!)">)
+
If a directory name is specified, Perl will switch to that directory
before running the program. The B<-x> switch controls only the
disposal of leading garbage. The program must be terminated with
being done at interpreter startup time.)
If PERL5LIB is not defined, PERLLIB is used. Directories are separated
-(like in PATH) by a colon on unixish platforms and by a semicolon on
+(like in PATH) by a colon on Unixish platforms and by a semicolon on
Windows (the proper path separator being given by the command C<perl
-V:path_sep>).
X<PERL5OPT>
Command-line options (switches). Switches in this variable are taken
-as if they were on every Perl command line. Only the B<-[CDIMUdmtw]>
+as if they were on every Perl command line. Only the B<-[CDIMUdmtwW]>
switches are allowed. When running taint checks (because the program
was running setuid or setgid, or the B<-T> switch was used), this
variable is ignored. If PERL5OPT begins with B<-T>, tainting will be
environment variable) treats the colon as a separator.
An unset or empty PERLIO is equivalent to the default set of layers for
-your platform, for example C<:unix:perlio> on UNIX-like systems
+your platform, for example C<:unix:perlio> on Unix-like systems
and C<:unix:crlf> on Windows and other DOS-like systems.
The list becomes the default for I<all> perl's IO. Consequently only built-in
On all platforms the default set of layers should give acceptable results.
-For UNIX platforms that will equivalent of "unix perlio" or "stdio".
+For Unix platforms that will equivalent of "unix perlio" or "stdio".
Configure is setup to prefer "stdio" implementation if system's library
provides for fast access to the buffer, otherwise it uses the "unix perlio"
implementation.
C<win32> layer which is expected to be enhanced and should eventually be
the default under Win32.
+The PERLIO environment variable is completely ignored when perl
+is run in taint mode.
+
=item PERLIO_DEBUG
X<PERLIO_DEBUG>
If set to the name of a file or device then certain operations of PerlIO
sub-system will be logged to that file (opened as append). Typical uses
-are UNIX:
+are Unix:
PERLIO_DEBUG=/dev/tty perl script ...
files before looking in the standard library and the current directory.
If PERL5LIB is defined, PERLLIB is not used.
+The PERLLIB environment variable is completely ignored when perl
+is run in taint mode.
+
=item PERL5DB
X<PERL5DB>
BEGIN { require 'perl5db.pl' }
+The PERL5DB environment variable only used when perl is started with
+a bare B<-d> switch.
+
=item PERL5DB_THREADED
X<PERL5DB_THREADED>
interfere with the proper functioning of other programs (which usually
look in COMSPEC to find a shell fit for interactive use).
+Before Perl 5.10.0 and 5.8.8, PERL5SHELL was not taint checked
+when running external commands. It is recommended that
+you explicitly set (or delete) C<$ENV{PERL5SHELL}> when running
+in taint mode under Windows.
+
=item PERL_ALLOW_NON_IFS_LSP (specific to the Win32 port)
X<PERL_ALLOW_NON_IFS_LSP>
B<Do not disclose the hash seed> to people who don't need to know it.
See also hash_seed() of L<Hash::Util>.
+=item PERL_MEM_LOG
+X<PERL_MEM_LOG>
+
+If your perl was configured with C<-Accflags=-DPERL_MEM_LOG>, setting
+the environment variable C<PERL_MEM_LOG> enables logging debug
+messages. The value has the form C<< <number>[m][s][t] >>, where
+C<number> is the filedescriptor number you want to write to (2 is
+default), and the combination of letters specifies that you want
+information about (m)emory and/or (s)v, optionally with
+(t)imestamps. For example C<PERL_MEM_LOG=1mst> will log all
+information to stdout. You can write to other opened filedescriptors
+too, in a variety of ways;
+
+ bash$ 3>foo3 PERL_MEM_LOG=3m perl ...
+
=item PERL_ROOT (specific to the VMS port)
X<PERL_ROOT>
X<PERL_UNICODE>
Equivalent to the B<-C> command-line switch. Note that this is not
-a boolean variable-- setting this to C<"1"> is not the right way to
+a boolean variable. Setting this to C<"1"> is not the right way to
"enable Unicode" (whatever that would mean). You can use C<"0"> to
"disable Unicode", though (or alternatively unset PERL_UNICODE in
your shell before starting Perl). See the description of the C<-C>