[p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git] / pod / perl.pod

=head1 NAME

perl - Practical Extraction and Report Language

=head1 SYNOPSIS

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> ]...>

For ease of access, the Perl manual has been split up into several
sections:

    perl		Perl overview (this section)
    perldelta		Perl changes since previous version
    perl5005delta	Perl changes in version 5.005
    perl5004delta	Perl changes in version 5.004
    perlfaq		Perl frequently asked questions
    perltoc		Perl documentation table of contents

    perldata		Perl data structures
    perlsyn		Perl syntax
    perlop		Perl operators and precedence
    perlre		Perl regular expressions
    perlrun		Perl execution and options
    perlfunc		Perl builtin functions
    perlopentut		Perl open() tutorial
    perlvar		Perl predefined variables
    perlsub		Perl subroutines
    perlmod		Perl modules: how they work
    perlmodlib		Perl modules: how to write and use
    perlmodinstall	Perl modules: how to install from CPAN
    perlform		Perl formats
    perllocale		Perl locale support

    perlreftut		Perl references short introduction
    perlref		Perl references, the rest of the story
    perldsc		Perl data structures intro
    perllol		Perl data structures: arrays of arrays
    perltoot		Perl OO tutorial, part 1
    perltootc		Perl OO tutorial, part 2
    perlobj		Perl objects
    perltie		Perl objects hidden behind simple variables
    perlbot		Perl OO tricks and examples
    perlipc		Perl interprocess communication
    perlfork		Perl fork() information
    perlthrtut		Perl threads tutorial
    perldbmfilter	Perl DBM Filters

    perlcompile		Perl compiler suite intro
    perldebug		Perl debugging
    perldiag		Perl diagnostic messages
    perlsec		Perl security
    perltrap		Perl traps for the unwary
    perlport		Perl portability guide
    perlstyle		Perl style guide

    perlpod		Perl plain old documentation
    perlbook		Perl book information

    perlembed		Perl ways to embed perl in your C or C++ application
    perlapio		Perl internal IO abstraction interface
    perlxs		Perl XS application programming interface
    perlxstut		Perl XS tutorial
    perlguts		Perl internal functions for those doing extensions
    perlcall		Perl calling conventions from C
    perlapi		Perl API listing (autogenerated)
    perlintern		Perl internal functions (autogenerated)

    perltodo		Perl things to do
    perlhack		Perl hackers guide
    perlhist		Perl history records

(If you're intending to read these straight through for the first time,
the suggested order will tend to reduce the number of forward references.)

By default, the manpages listed above are installed in the 
F</usr/local/man/> directory.  

Extensive additional documentation for Perl modules is available.  The
default configuration for perl will place this additional documentation
in the F</usr/local/lib/perl5/man> directory (or else in the F<man>
subdirectory of the Perl library directory).  Some of this additional
documentation is distributed standard with Perl, but you'll also find
documentation for third-party modules there.

You should be able to view Perl's documentation with your man(1)
program by including the proper directories in the appropriate start-up
files, or in the MANPATH environment variable.  To find out where the
configuration has installed the manpages, type:

    perl -V:man.dir

If the directories have a common stem, such as F</usr/local/man/man1>
and F</usr/local/man/man3>, you need only to add that stem
(F</usr/local/man>) to your man(1) configuration files or your MANPATH
environment variable.  If they do not share a stem, you'll have to add
both stems.

If that doesn't work for some reason, you can still use the
supplied F<perldoc> script to view module information.  You might
also look into getting a replacement man program.

If something strange has gone wrong with your program and you're not
sure where you should look for help, try the B<-w> switch first.  It
will often point out exactly where the trouble is.

=head1 DESCRIPTION

Perl is a language optimized for scanning arbitrary
text files, extracting information from those text files, and printing
reports based on that information.  It's also a good language for many
system management tasks.  The language is intended to be practical
(easy to use, efficient, complete) rather than beautiful (tiny,
elegant, minimal).

Perl combines (in the author's opinion, anyway) some of the best
features of C, B<sed>, B<awk>, and B<sh>, so people familiar with
those languages should have little difficulty with it.  (Language
historians will also note some vestiges of B<csh>, Pascal, and even
BASIC-PLUS.)  Expression syntax corresponds closely to C
expression syntax.  Unlike most Unix utilities, Perl does not
arbitrarily limit the size of your data--if you've got the memory,
Perl can slurp in your whole file as a single string.  Recursion is of
unlimited depth.  And the tables used by hashes (sometimes called
"associative arrays") grow as necessary to prevent degraded
performance.  Perl can use sophisticated pattern matching techniques to
scan large amounts of data quickly.  Although optimized for
scanning text, Perl can also deal with binary data, and can make dbm
files look like hashes.  Setuid Perl scripts are safer than C programs
through a dataflow tracing mechanism that prevents many stupid
security holes.

If you have a problem that would ordinarily use B<sed> or B<awk> or
B<sh>, but it exceeds their capabilities or must run a little faster,
and you don't want to write the silly thing in C, then Perl may be for
you.  There are also translators to turn your B<sed> and B<awk>
scripts into Perl scripts.

But wait, there's more...

Begun in 1993 (see L<perlhist>), Perl version 5 is nearly a complete
rewrite that provides the following additional benefits:

=over

=item * modularity and reusability using innumerable modules 

Described in L<perlmod>, L<perlmodlib>, and L<perlmodinstall>.

=item * embeddable and extensible 

Described in L<perlembed>, L<perlxstut>, L<perlxs>, L<perlcall>,
L<perlguts>, and L<xsubpp>.

=item * roll-your-own magic variables (including multiple simultaneous DBM implementations)

Described in L<perltie> and L<AnyDBM_File>.

=item * subroutines can now be overridden, autoloaded, and prototyped

Described in L<perlsub>.

=item * arbitrarily nested data structures and anonymous functions

Described in L<perlreftut>, L<perlref>, L<perldsc>, and L<perllol>.

=item * object-oriented programming

Described in L<perlobj>, L<perltoot>, and L<perlbot>.

=item * compilability into C code or Perl bytecode

Described in L<B> and L<B::Bytecode>.

=item * support for light-weight processes (threads)

Described in L<perlthrtut> and L<Thread>.

=item * support for internationalization, localization, and Unicode 

Described in L<perllocale> and L<utf8>.

=item * lexical scoping

Described in L<perlsub>.

=item * regular expression enhancements

Described in L<perlre>, with additional examples in L<perlop>.

=item * enhanced debugger and interactive Perl environment, with integrated editor support

Described in L<perldebug>.

=item * POSIX 1003.1 compliant library

Described in L<POSIX>.

=back

Okay, that's I<definitely> enough hype.

=head1 AVAILABILITY

Perl is available for most operating systems, including virtually
all Unix-like platforms.

As of May 1999, the following platforms are able to build Perl
from the standard source code distribution available at
http://www.perl.com/CPAN/src/index.html

        AIX             Linux           SCO ODT/OSR
        A/UX            MachTen         Solaris
        BeOS            MPE/iX          SunOS
        BSD/OS          NetBSD          SVR4
        DG/UX           NextSTEP        Tru64 UNIX      3)
        DomainOS        OpenBSD         Ultrix                  
        DOS DJGPP 1)    OpenSTEP        UNICOS                  
        DYNIX/ptx       OS/2            VMS                     
        FreeBSD         OS390     2)    VOS 
        HP-UX           PowerMAX        Windows 3.1     1)      
        Hurd            QNX             Windows 95      1) 4)   
        IRIX                            Windows 98      1) 4)   
                                        Windows NT      1) 4)

        1) in DOS mode either the DOS or OS/2 ports can be used
        2) formerly known as MVS
        3) formerly known as Digital UNIX and before that DEC OSF/1     
        4) compilers: Borland, Cygwin, Mingw32 EGCS/GCC, VC++
                                        
The following platforms have been known to build Perl from source,
but we haven't been able to verify their status for the current release,
either because the hardware/software platforms are rare or
because we don't have an active champion on these platforms--or both.
					
        3b1             FPS             Plan 9
        AmigaOS         GENIX           PowerUX
        ConvexOS        Greenhills      RISC/os         
        CX/UX           ISC             Stellar         
        DC/OSx          MachTen 68k     SVR2            
        DDE SMES        MiNT            TI1500          
        DOS EMX         MPC             TitanOS         
        Dynix           NEWS-OS         UNICOS/mk       
        EP/IX           Opus            Unisys Dynix    
        ESIX    			Unixware        

Support for the following platforms is planned for the next major
Perl release.

        BS2000
	Netware
	Rhapsody
        VM/ESA

The following platforms have their own source code distributions and
binaries available via http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ports/index.html.

				Perl release

	AS/400			5.003
	MacOS			5.004
	Netware			5.003_07
	Tandem Guardian		5.004

The following platforms have only binaries available via
http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ports/index.html.

				Perl release

	Acorn RISCOS		5.005_02
	AOS			5.002
	LynxOS			5.004_02

=head1 ENVIRONMENT

See L<perlrun>.

=head1 AUTHOR

Larry Wall <larry@wall.org>, with the help of oodles of other folks.

If your Perl success stories and testimonials may be of help to others 
who wish to advocate the use of Perl in their applications, 
or if you wish to simply express your gratitude to Larry and the 
Perl developers, please write to perl-thanks@perl.org .

=head1 FILES

 "@INC"			locations of perl libraries

=head1 SEE ALSO

 a2p	awk to perl translator
 s2p	sed to perl translator

 http://www.perl.com/	    the Perl Home Page
 http://www.perl.com/CPAN   the Comprehensive Perl Archive

=head1 DIAGNOSTICS

The B<-w> switch produces some lovely diagnostics.

See L<perldiag> for explanations of all Perl's diagnostics.  The C<use
diagnostics> pragma automatically turns Perl's normally terse warnings
and errors into these longer forms.

Compilation errors will tell you the line number of the error, with an
indication of the next token or token type that was to be examined.
(In a script passed to Perl via B<-e> switches, each
B<-e> is counted as one line.)

Setuid scripts have additional constraints that can produce error
messages such as "Insecure dependency".  See L<perlsec>.

Did we mention that you should definitely consider using the B<-w>
switch?

=head1 BUGS

The B<-w> switch is not mandatory.

Perl is at the mercy of your machine's definitions of various
operations such as type casting, atof(), and floating-point
output with sprintf().

If your stdio requires a seek or eof between reads and writes on a
particular stream, so does Perl.  (This doesn't apply to sysread()
and syswrite().)

While none of the built-in data types have any arbitrary size limits
(apart from memory size), there are still a few arbitrary limits:  a
given variable name may not be longer than 251 characters.  Line numbers
displayed by diagnostics are internally stored as short integers,
so they are limited to a maximum of 65535 (higher numbers usually being
affected by wraparound).

You may mail your bug reports (be sure to include full configuration
information as output by the myconfig program in the perl source
tree, or by C<perl -V>) to perlbug@perl.com .  If you've succeeded
in compiling perl, the perlbug script in the utils/ subdirectory
can be used to help mail in a bug report.

Perl actually stands for Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister, but
don't tell anyone I said that.

=head1 NOTES

The Perl motto is "There's more than one way to do it."  Divining
how many more is left as an exercise to the reader.

The three principal virtues of a programmer are Laziness,
Impatience, and Hubris.  See the Camel Book for why.
Commit	Line	Data
a0d0e21e	1	=head1 NAME
	2
	3	perl - Practical Extraction and Report Language
	4
	5	=head1 SYNOPSIS
	6
19799a22	7	B<perl> S<[ B<-sTuU> ]> S<[ B<-hv> ] [ B<-V>[:I<configvar>] ]>
	8	S<[ B<-cw> ] [ B<-d>[:I<debugger>] ] [ B<-D>[I<number/list>] ]>
	9	S<[ B<-pna> ] [ B<-F>I<pattern> ] [ B<-l>[I<octal>] ] [ B<-0>[I<octal>] ]>
	10	S<[ B<-I>I<dir> ] [ B<-m>[B<->]I<module> ] [ B<-M>[B<->]I<'module...'> ]>
	11	S<[ B<-P> ]> S<[ B<-S> ]> S<[ B<-x>[I<dir>] ]>
	12	S<[ B<-i>[I<extension>] ]> S<[ B<-e> I<'command'> ]
	13	[ B<--> ] [ I<programfile> ] [ I<argument> ]...>
c07a80fd	14
14218588	15	For ease of access, the Perl manual has been split up into several
14218588	16	sections:
a0d0e21e	17
fb9cefb4	18	perl Perl overview (this section)
fb9cefb4	19	perldelta Perl changes since previous version
9bc80687	20	perl5005delta Perl changes in version 5.005
9bc80687	21	perl5004delta Perl changes in version 5.004
fb9cefb4	22	perlfaq Perl frequently asked questions
fb9cefb4	23	perltoc Perl documentation table of contents
760ac839	24
fb9cefb4	25	perldata Perl data structures
	26	perlsyn Perl syntax
	27	perlop Perl operators and precedence
	28	perlre Perl regular expressions
	29	perlrun Perl execution and options
	30	perlfunc Perl builtin functions
2605996a	31	perlopentut Perl open() tutorial
fb9cefb4	32	perlvar Perl predefined variables
	33	perlsub Perl subroutines
	34	perlmod Perl modules: how they work
	35	perlmodlib Perl modules: how to write and use
	36	perlmodinstall Perl modules: how to install from CPAN
	37	perlform Perl formats
	38	perllocale Perl locale support
760ac839	39
a1e2a320	40	perlreftut Perl references short introduction
19799a22	41	perlref Perl references, the rest of the story
fb9cefb4	42	perldsc Perl data structures intro
19799a22	43	perllol Perl data structures: arrays of arrays
	44	perltoot Perl OO tutorial, part 1
	45	perltootc Perl OO tutorial, part 2
fb9cefb4	46	perlobj Perl objects
	47	perltie Perl objects hidden behind simple variables
	48	perlbot Perl OO tricks and examples
	49	perlipc Perl interprocess communication
7766f137	50	perlfork Perl fork() information
2605996a	51	perlthrtut Perl threads tutorial
9fe6733a	52	perldbmfilter Perl DBM Filters
760ac839	53
54a137f5	54	perlcompile Perl compiler suite intro
fb9cefb4	55	perldebug Perl debugging
	56	perldiag Perl diagnostic messages
	57	perlsec Perl security
	58	perltrap Perl traps for the unwary
	59	perlport Perl portability guide
	60	perlstyle Perl style guide
760ac839	61
fb9cefb4	62	perlpod Perl plain old documentation
fb9cefb4	63	perlbook Perl book information
760ac839	64
fb9cefb4	65	perlembed Perl ways to embed perl in your C or C++ application
	66	perlapio Perl internal IO abstraction interface
	67	perlxs Perl XS application programming interface
	68	perlxstut Perl XS tutorial
	69	perlguts Perl internal functions for those doing extensions
	70	perlcall Perl calling conventions from C
954c1994	71	perlapi Perl API listing (autogenerated)
954c1994	72	perlintern Perl internal functions (autogenerated)
a0d0e21e	73
e50bb9a1	74	perltodo Perl things to do
e8cd7eae	75	perlhack Perl hackers guide
fb9cefb4	76	perlhist Perl history records
d516a115	77
a0d0e21e	78	(If you're intending to read these straight through for the first time,
	79	the suggested order will tend to reduce the number of forward references.)
	80
19799a22	81	By default, the manpages listed above are installed in the
fc952dec	82	F</usr/local/man/> directory.
	83
	84	Extensive additional documentation for Perl modules is available. The
	85	default configuration for perl will place this additional documentation
	86	in the F</usr/local/lib/perl5/man> directory (or else in the F<man>
	87	subdirectory of the Perl library directory). Some of this additional
	88	documentation is distributed standard with Perl, but you'll also find
	89	documentation for third-party modules there.
	90
	91	You should be able to view Perl's documentation with your man(1)
	92	program by including the proper directories in the appropriate start-up
	93	files, or in the MANPATH environment variable. To find out where the
	94	configuration has installed the manpages, type:
16d20bd9	95
760ac839	96	perl -V:man.dir
16d20bd9	97
fc952dec	98	If the directories have a common stem, such as F</usr/local/man/man1>
	99	and F</usr/local/man/man3>, you need only to add that stem
	100	(F</usr/local/man>) to your man(1) configuration files or your MANPATH
	101	environment variable. If they do not share a stem, you'll have to add
	102	both stems.
16d20bd9	103
16d20bd9	104	If that doesn't work for some reason, you can still use the
4633a7c4	105	supplied F<perldoc> script to view module information. You might
4633a7c4	106	also look into getting a replacement man program.
16d20bd9	107
a0d0e21e	108	If something strange has gone wrong with your program and you're not
	109	sure where you should look for help, try the B<-w> switch first. It
	110	will often point out exactly where the trouble is.
	111
	112	=head1 DESCRIPTION
	113
5f05dabc	114	Perl is a language optimized for scanning arbitrary
a0d0e21e	115	text files, extracting information from those text files, and printing
	116	reports based on that information. It's also a good language for many
	117	system management tasks. The language is intended to be practical
	118	(easy to use, efficient, complete) rather than beautiful (tiny,
94d58c47	119	elegant, minimal).
94d58c47	120
aa689395	121	Perl combines (in the author's opinion, anyway) some of the best
	122	features of C, B<sed>, B<awk>, and B<sh>, so people familiar with
	123	those languages should have little difficulty with it. (Language
	124	historians will also note some vestiges of B<csh>, Pascal, and even
14218588	125	BASIC-PLUS.) Expression syntax corresponds closely to C
a0d0e21e	126	expression syntax. Unlike most Unix utilities, Perl does not
a0d0e21e	127	arbitrarily limit the size of your data--if you've got the memory,
aa689395	128	Perl can slurp in your whole file as a single string. Recursion is of
0f31cffe	129	unlimited depth. And the tables used by hashes (sometimes called
aa689395	130	"associative arrays") grow as necessary to prevent degraded
0f31cffe	131	performance. Perl can use sophisticated pattern matching techniques to
14218588	132	scan large amounts of data quickly. Although optimized for
aa689395	133	scanning text, Perl can also deal with binary data, and can make dbm
aa689395	134	files look like hashes. Setuid Perl scripts are safer than C programs
14218588	135	through a dataflow tracing mechanism that prevents many stupid
aa689395	136	security holes.
	137
	138	If you have a problem that would ordinarily use B<sed> or B<awk> or
	139	B<sh>, but it exceeds their capabilities or must run a little faster,
	140	and you don't want to write the silly thing in C, then Perl may be for
	141	you. There are also translators to turn your B<sed> and B<awk>
	142	scripts into Perl scripts.
a0d0e21e	143
	144	But wait, there's more...
	145
19799a22	146	Begun in 1993 (see L<perlhist>), Perl version 5 is nearly a complete
19799a22	147	rewrite that provides the following additional benefits:
a0d0e21e	148
19799a22	149	=over
a0d0e21e	150
19799a22	151	=item * modularity and reusability using innumerable modules
a0d0e21e	152
19799a22	153	Described in L<perlmod>, L<perlmodlib>, and L<perlmodinstall>.
a0d0e21e	154
19799a22	155	=item * embeddable and extensible
a0d0e21e	156
19799a22	157	Described in L<perlembed>, L<perlxstut>, L<perlxs>, L<perlcall>,
19799a22	158	L<perlguts>, and L<xsubpp>.
a0d0e21e	159
19799a22	160	=item * roll-your-own magic variables (including multiple simultaneous DBM implementations)
a0d0e21e	161
19799a22	162	Described in L<perltie> and L<AnyDBM_File>.
a0d0e21e	163
19799a22	164	=item * subroutines can now be overridden, autoloaded, and prototyped
a0d0e21e	165
19799a22	166	Described in L<perlsub>.
a0d0e21e	167
19799a22	168	=item * arbitrarily nested data structures and anonymous functions
a0d0e21e	169
19799a22	170	Described in L<perlreftut>, L<perlref>, L<perldsc>, and L<perllol>.
a0d0e21e	171
19799a22	172	=item * object-oriented programming
a0d0e21e	173
19799a22	174	Described in L<perlobj>, L<perltoot>, and L<perlbot>.
a0d0e21e	175
19799a22	176	=item * compilability into C code or Perl bytecode
a0d0e21e	177
19799a22	178	Described in L<B> and L<B::Bytecode>.
a0d0e21e	179
19799a22	180	=item * support for light-weight processes (threads)
a0d0e21e	181
19799a22	182	Described in L<perlthrtut> and L<Thread>.
a0d0e21e	183
19799a22	184	=item * support for internationalization, localization, and Unicode
a0d0e21e	185
19799a22	186	Described in L<perllocale> and L<utf8>.
a0d0e21e	187
19799a22	188	=item * lexical scoping
a0d0e21e	189
19799a22	190	Described in L<perlsub>.
a0d0e21e	191
19799a22	192	=item * regular expression enhancements
a0d0e21e	193
19799a22	194	Described in L<perlre>, with additional examples in L<perlop>.
a0d0e21e	195
14218588	196	=item * enhanced debugger and interactive Perl environment, with integrated editor support
a0d0e21e	197
19799a22	198	Described in L<perldebug>.
a0d0e21e	199
19799a22	200	=item * POSIX 1003.1 compliant library
5f05dabc	201
19799a22	202	Described in L<POSIX>.
5f05dabc	203
a0d0e21e	204	=back
a0d0e21e	205
68dc0745	206	Okay, that's I<definitely> enough hype.
a0d0e21e	207
8e465e4e	208	=head1 AVAILABILITY
8e465e4e	209
14218588	210	Perl is available for most operating systems, including virtually
14218588	211	all Unix-like platforms.
8e465e4e	212
14218588	213	As of May 1999, the following platforms are able to build Perl
14218588	214	from the standard source code distribution available at
19799a22	215	http://www.perl.com/CPAN/src/index.html
8e465e4e	216
58493fc4	217	AIX Linux SCO ODT/OSR
	218	A/UX MachTen Solaris
	219	BeOS MPE/iX SunOS
	220	BSD/OS NetBSD SVR4
	221	DG/UX NextSTEP Tru64 UNIX 3)
	222	DomainOS OpenBSD Ultrix
	223	DOS DJGPP 1) OpenSTEP UNICOS
	224	DYNIX/ptx OS/2 VMS
	225	FreeBSD OS390 2) VOS
	226	HP-UX PowerMAX Windows 3.1 1)
	227	Hurd QNX Windows 95 1) 4)
	228	IRIX Windows 98 1) 4)
	229	Windows NT 1) 4)
8e465e4e	230
8e465e4e	231	1) in DOS mode either the DOS or OS/2 ports can be used
58493fc4	232	2) formerly known as MVS
58493fc4	233	3) formerly known as Digital UNIX and before that DEC OSF/1
873b149f	234	4) compilers: Borland, Cygwin, Mingw32 EGCS/GCC, VC++
58493fc4	235
14218588	236	The following platforms have been known to build Perl from source,
	237	but we haven't been able to verify their status for the current release,
	238	either because the hardware/software platforms are rare or
19799a22	239	because we don't have an active champion on these platforms--or both.
8e465e4e	240
8e465e4e	241	3b1 FPS Plan 9
04251ce8	242	AmigaOS GENIX PowerUX
	243	ConvexOS Greenhills RISC/os
	244	CX/UX ISC Stellar
	245	DC/OSx MachTen 68k SVR2
	246	DDE SMES MiNT TI1500
82cda36e	247	DOS EMX MPC TitanOS
	248	Dynix NEWS-OS UNICOS/mk
	249	EP/IX Opus Unisys Dynix
	250	ESIX Unixware
8e465e4e	251
14218588	252	Support for the following platforms is planned for the next major
14218588	253	Perl release.
8e465e4e	254
8e465e4e	255	BS2000
00ad96e1	256	Netware
00ad96e1	257	Rhapsody
8e465e4e	258	VM/ESA
	259
	260	The following platforms have their own source code distributions and
19799a22	261	binaries available via http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ports/index.html.
8e465e4e	262
	263	Perl release
	264
	265	AS/400 5.003
2e04d155	266	MacOS 5.004
04251ce8	267	Netware 5.003_07
8e465e4e	268	Tandem Guardian 5.004
	269
	270	The following platforms have only binaries available via
19799a22	271	http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ports/index.html.
8e465e4e	272
	273	Perl release
	274
d845c4a6	275	Acorn RISCOS 5.005_02
8e465e4e	276	AOS 5.002
8e465e4e	277	LynxOS 5.004_02
8e465e4e	278
a0d0e21e	279	=head1 ENVIRONMENT
a0d0e21e	280
1e422769	281	See L<perlrun>.
a0d0e21e	282
	283	=head1 AUTHOR
	284
19799a22	285	Larry Wall <larry@wall.org>, with the help of oodles of other folks.
a0d0e21e	286
a99b1639	287	If your Perl success stories and testimonials may be of help to others
	288	who wish to advocate the use of Perl in their applications,
	289	or if you wish to simply express your gratitude to Larry and the
19799a22	290	Perl developers, please write to perl-thanks@perl.org .
a99b1639	291
a0d0e21e	292	=head1 FILES
a0d0e21e	293
5f05dabc	294	"@INC" locations of perl libraries
a0d0e21e	295
	296	=head1 SEE ALSO
	297
	298	a2p awk to perl translator
	299	s2p sed to perl translator
	300
19799a22	301	http://www.perl.com/ the Perl Home Page
5a3e7812	302	http://www.perl.com/CPAN the Comprehensive Perl Archive
19799a22	303
a0d0e21e	304	=head1 DIAGNOSTICS
	305
	306	The B<-w> switch produces some lovely diagnostics.
	307
5a964f20	308	See L<perldiag> for explanations of all Perl's diagnostics. The C<use
	309	diagnostics> pragma automatically turns Perl's normally terse warnings
	310	and errors into these longer forms.
a0d0e21e	311
	312	Compilation errors will tell you the line number of the error, with an
	313	indication of the next token or token type that was to be examined.
14218588	314	(In a script passed to Perl via B<-e> switches, each
a0d0e21e	315	B<-e> is counted as one line.)
	316
	317	Setuid scripts have additional constraints that can produce error
	318	messages such as "Insecure dependency". See L<perlsec>.
	319
	320	Did we mention that you should definitely consider using the B<-w>
	321	switch?
	322
	323	=head1 BUGS
	324
	325	The B<-w> switch is not mandatory.
	326
	327	Perl is at the mercy of your machine's definitions of various
1b3f7d21	328	operations such as type casting, atof(), and floating-point
1b3f7d21	329	output with sprintf().
a0d0e21e	330
748a9306	331	If your stdio requires a seek or eof between reads and writes on a
a0d0e21e	332	particular stream, so does Perl. (This doesn't apply to sysread()
	333	and syswrite().)
	334
	335	While none of the built-in data types have any arbitrary size limits
	336	(apart from memory size), there are still a few arbitrary limits: a
a30ac152	337	given variable name may not be longer than 251 characters. Line numbers
	338	displayed by diagnostics are internally stored as short integers,
	339	so they are limited to a maximum of 65535 (higher numbers usually being
	340	affected by wraparound).
a0d0e21e	341
b0607b7a	342	You may mail your bug reports (be sure to include full configuration
19799a22	343	information as output by the myconfig program in the perl source
	344	tree, or by C<perl -V>) to perlbug@perl.com . If you've succeeded
	345	in compiling perl, the perlbug script in the utils/ subdirectory
	346	can be used to help mail in a bug report.
4633a7c4	347
a0d0e21e	348	Perl actually stands for Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister, but
	349	don't tell anyone I said that.
	350
	351	=head1 NOTES
	352
	353	The Perl motto is "There's more than one way to do it." Divining
	354	how many more is left as an exercise to the reader.
	355
4633a7c4	356	The three principal virtues of a programmer are Laziness,
a0d0e21e	357	Impatience, and Hubris. See the Camel Book for why.
16d20bd9	358