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68dc0745 1=head1 NAME
2
881bdbd4 3perlfaq2 - Obtaining and Learning about Perl ($Revision: 1.9 $, $Date: 2002/03/09 21:01:13 $)
68dc0745 4
5=head1 DESCRIPTION
6
7This section of the FAQ answers questions about where to find
92c2ed05 8source and documentation for Perl, support, and
68dc0745 9related matters.
10
11=head2 What machines support Perl? Where do I get it?
12
13The standard release of Perl (the one maintained by the perl
5e3006a4 14development team) is distributed only in source code form. You
c355f4f4 15can find this at http://www.cpan.org/src/latest.tar.gz , which
7ed4b849 16is in a standard Internet format (a gzipped archive in POSIX tar format).
5e3006a4 17
18Perl builds and runs on a bewildering number of platforms. Virtually
19all known and current Unix derivatives are supported (Perl's native
87275199 20platform), as are other systems like VMS, DOS, OS/2, Windows,
c355f4f4 21QNX, BeOS, OS X, MPE/iX and the Amiga.
5e3006a4 22
23Binary distributions for some proprietary platforms, including
c355f4f4 24Apple systems, can be found http://www.cpan.org/ports/ directory.
5e3006a4 25Because these are not part of the standard distribution, they may
26and in fact do differ from the base Perl port in a variety of ways.
27You'll have to check their respective release notes to see just
28what the differences are. These differences can be either positive
29(e.g. extensions for the features of the particular platform that
30are not supported in the source release of perl) or negative (e.g.
31might be based upon a less current source release of perl).
92c2ed05 32
68dc0745 33=head2 How can I get a binary version of Perl?
34
65acb1b1 35If you don't have a C compiler because your vendor for whatever
36reasons did not include one with your system, the best thing to do is
68dc0745 37grab a binary version of gcc from the net and use that to compile perl
38with. CPAN only has binaries for systems that are terribly hard to
39get free compilers for, not for Unix systems.
40
65acb1b1 41Some URLs that might help you are:
42
c355f4f4 43 http://www.cpan.org/ports/
5c5bc629 44 http://www.perl.com/pub/language/info/software.html
65acb1b1 45
87275199 46Someone looking for a Perl for Win16 might look to Laszlo Molnar's djgpp
c355f4f4 47port in http://www.cpan.org/ports/#msdos , which comes with clear
d92eb7b0 48installation instructions. A simple installation guide for MS-DOS using
87275199 49Ilya Zakharevich's OS/2 port is available at
50http://www.cs.ruu.nl/%7Epiet/perl5dos.html
51and similarly for Windows 3.1 at http://www.cs.ruu.nl/%7Epiet/perlwin3.html .
3fe9a6f1 52
53=head2 I don't have a C compiler on my system. How can I compile perl?
54
55Since you don't have a C compiler, you're doomed and your vendor
56should be sacrificed to the Sun gods. But that doesn't help you.
57
58What you need to do is get a binary version of gcc for your system
59first. Consult the Usenet FAQs for your operating system for
60information on where to get such a binary version.
61
68dc0745 62=head2 I copied the Perl binary from one machine to another, but scripts don't work.
63
64That's probably because you forgot libraries, or library paths differ.
65You really should build the whole distribution on the machine it will
66eventually live on, and then type C<make install>. Most other
67approaches are doomed to failure.
68
69One simple way to check that things are in the right place is to print out
a6dd486b 70the hard-coded @INC that perl looks through for libraries:
68dc0745 71
65acb1b1 72 % perl -e 'print join("\n",@INC)'
68dc0745 73
a6dd486b 74If this command lists any paths that don't exist on your system, then you
68dc0745 75may need to move the appropriate libraries to these locations, or create
87275199 76symbolic links, aliases, or shortcuts appropriately. @INC is also printed as
65acb1b1 77part of the output of
78
79 % perl -V
68dc0745 80
c355f4f4 81You might also want to check out
13a2d996 82L<perlfaq8/"How do I keep my own module/library directory?">.
3fe9a6f1 83
68dc0745 84=head2 I grabbed the sources and tried to compile but gdbm/dynamic loading/malloc/linking/... failed. How do I make it work?
85
86Read the F<INSTALL> file, which is part of the source distribution.
65acb1b1 87It describes in detail how to cope with most idiosyncrasies that the
68dc0745 88Configure script can't work around for any given system or
89architecture.
90
91=head2 What modules and extensions are available for Perl? What is CPAN? What does CPAN/src/... mean?
92
c355f4f4 93CPAN stands for Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, a ~700mb archive
94replicated on nearly 200 machines all over the world. CPAN contains
46fc3d4c 95source code, non-native ports, documentation, scripts, and many
68dc0745 96third-party modules and extensions, designed for everything from
97commercial database interfaces to keyboard/screen control to web
c355f4f4 98walking and CGI scripts. The master web site for CPAN is
99http://www.cpan.org/ and there is the CPAN Multiplexer at
a93751fa 100http://www.cpan.org/CPAN.html which will choose a mirror near you
c355f4f4 101via DNS. See http://www.perl.com/CPAN (without a slash at the
102end) for how this process works. Also, http://mirror.cpan.org/
103has a nice interface to the http://www.cpan.org/MIRRORED.BY
104mirror directory.
105
106See the CPAN FAQ at http://www.cpan.org/misc/cpan-faq.html for
107answers to the most frequently asked questions about CPAN
108including how to become a mirror.
68dc0745 109
110CPAN/path/... is a naming convention for files available on CPAN
111sites. CPAN indicates the base directory of a CPAN mirror, and the
112rest of the path is the path from that directory to the file. For
113instance, if you're using ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN
7ed4b849 114as your CPAN site, the file CPAN/misc/japh is downloadable as
68dc0745 115ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/misc/japh .
116
c355f4f4 117Considering that there are close to two thousand existing modules in
118the archive, one probably exists to do nearly anything you can think of.
87275199 119Current categories under CPAN/modules/by-category/ include Perl core
68dc0745 120modules; development support; operating system interfaces; networking,
121devices, and interprocess communication; data type utilities; database
122interfaces; user interfaces; interfaces to other languages; filenames,
123file systems, and file locking; internationalization and locale; world
124wide web support; server and daemon utilities; archiving and
125compression; image manipulation; mail and news; control flow
126utilities; filehandle and I/O; Microsoft Windows modules; and
127miscellaneous modules.
128
c355f4f4 129See http://www.cpan.org/modules/00modlist.long.html or
130http://search.cpan.org/ for a more complete list of modules by category.
131
06a5f41f 132CPAN is not affiliated with O'Reilly and Associates.
c355f4f4 133
68dc0745 134=head2 Is there an ISO or ANSI certified version of Perl?
135
136Certainly not. Larry expects that he'll be certified before Perl is.
137
138=head2 Where can I get information on Perl?
139
87275199 140The complete Perl documentation is available with the Perl distribution.
141If you have Perl installed locally, you probably have the documentation
5a964f20 142installed as well: type C<man perl> if you're on a system resembling Unix.
143This will lead you to other important man pages, including how to set your
144$MANPATH. If you're not on a Unix system, access to the documentation
a6dd486b 145will be different; for example, documentation might only be in HTML format. All
87275199 146proper Perl installations have fully-accessible documentation.
68dc0745 147
148You might also try C<perldoc perl> in case your system doesn't
149have a proper man command, or it's been misinstalled. If that doesn't
150work, try looking in /usr/local/lib/perl5/pod for documentation.
151
c355f4f4 152If all else fails, consult http://perldoc.cpan.org/ or
153http://www.perldoc.com/ both offer the complete documentation
154in html format.
68dc0745 155
a6dd486b 156Many good books have been written about Perl--see the section below
68dc0745 157for more details.
158
65acb1b1 159Tutorial documents are included in current or upcoming Perl releases
a6dd486b 160include L<perltoot> for objects or L<perlboot> for a beginner's
161approach to objects, L<perlopentut> for file opening semantics,
162L<perlreftut> for managing references, L<perlretut> for regular
163expressions, L<perlthrtut> for threads, L<perldebtut> for debugging,
164and L<perlxstut> for linking C and Perl together. There may be more
165by the time you read this. The following URLs might also be of
65acb1b1 166assistance:
167
c355f4f4 168 http://perldoc.cpan.org/
169 http://www.perldoc.com/
65acb1b1 170 http://reference.perl.com/query.cgi?tutorials
c355f4f4 171 http://bookmarks.cpan.org/search.cgi?cat=Training%2FTutorials
65acb1b1 172
87275199 173=head2 What are the Perl newsgroups on Usenet? Where do I post questions?
68dc0745 174
175The now defunct comp.lang.perl newsgroup has been superseded by the
176following groups:
177
178 comp.lang.perl.announce Moderated announcement group
179 comp.lang.perl.misc Very busy group about Perl in general
5a964f20 180 comp.lang.perl.moderated Moderated discussion group
68dc0745 181 comp.lang.perl.modules Use and development of Perl modules
182 comp.lang.perl.tk Using Tk (and X) from Perl
183
184 comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi Writing CGI scripts for the Web.
185
881bdbd4 186There is also a Usenet gateway to Perl mailing lists sponsored by perl.org at
83ded9ee 187nntp://nntp.perl.org, or a web interface to the same lists at
188http://nntp.perl.org/group/. Other groups are listed at
189http://lists.perl.org.
68dc0745 190
191=head2 Where should I post source code?
192
65acb1b1 193You should post source code to whichever group is most appropriate, but
194feel free to cross-post to comp.lang.perl.misc. If you want to cross-post
195to alt.sources, please make sure it follows their posting standards,
196including setting the Followup-To header line to NOT include alt.sources;
197see their FAQ (http://www.faqs.org/faqs/alt-sources-intro/) for details.
68dc0745 198
c355f4f4 199If you're just looking for software, first use Google
0bc0ad85 200(http://www.google.com), Google's usenet search interface
201(http://groups.google.com), and CPAN Search (http://search.cpan.org).
202This is faster and more productive than just posting a request.
5a964f20 203
68dc0745 204=head2 Perl Books
205
7b8d334a 206A number of books on Perl and/or CGI programming are available. A few of
87275199 207these are good, some are OK, but many aren't worth your money. Tom
68dc0745 208Christiansen maintains a list of these books, some with extensive
a6dd486b 209reviews, at http://www.perl.com/perl/critiques/index.html .
68dc0745 210
5e3006a4 211The incontestably definitive reference book on Perl, written by
c2e66d9e 212the creator of Perl, is now (July 2000) in its third edition:
68dc0745 213
214 Programming Perl (the "Camel Book"):
c2e66d9e 215 by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Jon Orwant
216 0-596-00027-8 [3rd edition July 2000]
217 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pperl3/
218 (English, translations to several languages are also available)
68dc0745 219
5e3006a4 220The companion volume to the Camel containing thousands
c355f4f4 221of real-world examples, mini-tutorials, and complete programs is:
5e3006a4 222
223 The Perl Cookbook (the "Ram Book"):
c355f4f4 224 by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington,
c2e66d9e 225 with Foreword by Larry Wall
226 ISBN 1-56592-243-3 [1st Edition August 1998]
227 http://perl.oreilly.com/cookbook/
68dc0745 228
8fc9651a 229If you're already a seasoned programmer, then the Camel Book might
230suffice for you to learn Perl from. If you're not, check out the
231Llama book:
5e3006a4 232
8fc9651a 233 Learning Perl (the "Llama Book")
234 by Randal L. Schwartz and Tom Phoenix
235 ISBN 0-596-00132-0 [3rd edition July 2001]
236 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperl3/
237
238If you're not an accidental programmer, but a more serious and
239possibly even degreed computer scientist who doesn't need as much
240hand-holding as we try to provide in the Llama, please check out the
c29ac39d 241delightful book
5e3006a4 242
c29ac39d 243 Perl: The Programmer's Companion
244 by Nigel Chapman
245 ISBN 0-471-97563-X [1997, 3rd printing Spring 1998]
246 http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/catalog/97563-X.htm
247 http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/chapman/perl/perltpc.html (errata etc)
5a964f20 248
c29ac39d 249If you are more at home in Windows the following is available
250(though unfortunately rather dated).
251
252 Learning Perl on Win32 Systems (the "Gecko Book")
8fc9651a 253 by Randal L. Schwartz, Erik Olson, and Tom Christiansen,
254 with foreword by Larry Wall
255 ISBN 1-56592-324-3 [1st edition August 1997]
256 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperlwin/
5a964f20 257
c355f4f4 258Addison-Wesley (http://www.awlonline.com/) and Manning
259(http://www.manning.com/) are also publishers of some fine Perl books
8fc9651a 260such as I<Object Oriented Programming with Perl> by Damian Conway and
261I<Network Programming with Perl> by Lincoln Stein.
c355f4f4 262
263An excellent technical book discounter is Bookpool at
264http://www.bookpool.com/ where a 30% discount or more is not unusual.
5a964f20 265
68dc0745 266What follows is a list of the books that the FAQ authors found personally
267useful. Your mileage may (but, we hope, probably won't) vary.
268
c2e66d9e 269Recommended books on (or mostly on) Perl follow.
68dc0745 270
13a2d996 271=over 4
68dc0745 272
5a964f20 273=item References
68dc0745 274
c2e66d9e 275 Programming Perl
276 by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Jon Orwant
277 ISBN 0-596-00027-8 [3rd edition July 2000]
278 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pperl3/
68dc0745 279
c2e66d9e 280 Perl 5 Pocket Reference
87275199 281 by Johan Vromans
c2e66d9e 282 ISBN 0-596-00032-4 [3rd edition May 2000]
283 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlpr3/
87275199 284
c2e66d9e 285 Perl in a Nutshell
87275199 286 by Ellen Siever, Stephan Spainhour, and Nathan Patwardhan
c2e66d9e 287 ISBN 1-56592-286-7 [1st edition December 1998]
288 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlnut/
68dc0745 289
5a964f20 290=item Tutorials
c47ff5f1 291
c2e66d9e 292 Elements of Programming with Perl
293 by Andrew L. Johnson
294 ISBN 1884777805 [1st edition October 1999]
295 http://www.manning.com/Johnson/
296
297 Learning Perl
8fc9651a 298 by Randal L. Schwartz and Tom Phoenix
299 ISBN 0-596-00132-0 [3rd edition July 2001]
300 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperl3/
68dc0745 301
c2e66d9e 302 Learning Perl on Win32 Systems
5a964f20 303 by Randal L. Schwartz, Erik Olson, and Tom Christiansen,
304 with foreword by Larry Wall
c2e66d9e 305 ISBN 1-56592-324-3 [1st edition August 1997]
306 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperlwin/
68dc0745 307
5a964f20 308 Perl: The Programmer's Companion
309 by Nigel Chapman
c29ac39d 310 ISBN 0-471-97563-X [1997, 3rd printing Spring 1998]
311 http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/catalog/97563-X.htm
312 http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/chapman/perl/perltpc.html (errata etc)
68dc0745 313
c2e66d9e 314 Cross-Platform Perl
315 by Eric Foster-Johnson
316 ISBN 1-55851-483-X [2nd edition September 2000]
317 http://www.pconline.com/~erc/perlbook.htm
68dc0745 318
c2e66d9e 319 MacPerl: Power and Ease
320 by Vicki Brown and Chris Nandor,
321 with foreword by Matthias Neeracher
322 ISBN 1-881957-32-2 [1st edition May 1998]
323 http://www.macperl.com/ptf_book/
68dc0745 324
c355f4f4 325=item Task-Oriented
5a964f20 326
c2e66d9e 327 The Perl Cookbook
5a964f20 328 by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington
329 with foreword by Larry Wall
c2e66d9e 330 ISBN 1-56592-243-3 [1st edition August 1998]
331 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/cookbook/
5a964f20 332
c355f4f4 333 Effective Perl Programming
5a964f20 334 by Joseph Hall
c2e66d9e 335 ISBN 0-201-41975-0 [1st edition 1998]
336 http://www.awl.com/
68dc0745 337
c355f4f4 338
5a964f20 339=item Special Topics
340
c2e66d9e 341 Mastering Regular Expressions
342 by Jeffrey E. F. Friedl
343 ISBN 1-56592-257-3 [1st edition January 1997]
344 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/
5a964f20 345
c355f4f4 346 Network Programming with Perl
5a964f20 347 by Lincoln Stein
c355f4f4 348 ISBN 0-201-61571-1 [1st edition 2001]
349 http://www.awlonline.com/
5a964f20 350
c2e66d9e 351 Object Oriented Perl
352 Damian Conway
353 with foreword by Randal L. Schwartz
354 ISBN 1884777791 [1st edition August 1999]
355 http://www.manning.com/Conway/
356
c355f4f4 357 Data Munging with Perl
358 Dave Cross
359 ISBN 1930110006 [1st edition 2001]
360 http://www.manning.com/cross
361
c2e66d9e 362 Learning Perl/Tk
87275199 363 by Nancy Walsh
c2e66d9e 364 ISBN 1-56592-314-6 [1st edition January 1999]
365 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperltk/
87275199 366
5a964f20 367=back
368
369=head2 Perl in Magazines
370
41eb6b36 371The first and only periodical devoted to All Things Perl,
372I<The Perl Journal> contains tutorials, demonstrations, case studies,
e00b594c 373announcements, contests, and much more. I<TPJ> has columns on web
5a964f20 374development, databases, Win32 Perl, graphical programming, regular
41eb6b36 375expressions, and networking, and sponsors the Obfuscated Perl Contest
376and the Perl Poetry Contests. As of mid-2001, the dead tree version
6c43ff60 377of TPJ will be published as a quarterly supplement of SysAdmin
41eb6b36 378magazine ( http://www.sysadmin.com/ ) For more details on TPJ,
379see http://www.tpj.com/
380
381Beyond this, magazines that frequently carry quality articles on
382Perl are I<Web Techniques> ( http://www.webtechniques.com/ ),
383I<Unix Review> ( http://www.unixreview.com/ ),
384I<Linux Magazine> ( http://www.linuxmagazine.com/ ),
385and Usenix's newsletter/magazine to its members, I<login:>
386( http://www.usenix.org/ )
387
ae6d88cb 388The Perl columns of Randal L. Schwartz are available on the web at
41eb6b36 389http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/WebTechniques/ ,
390http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/UnixReview/ , and
391http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/LinuxMag/ .
68dc0745 392
393=head2 Perl on the Net: FTP and WWW Access
394
a6dd486b 395To get the best performance, pick a site from
c355f4f4 396the list below and use it to grab the complete list of mirror sites
397which is at /CPAN/MIRRORED.BY or at http://mirror.cpan.org/.
87275199 398From there you can find the quickest site for you. Remember, the
c2e66d9e 399following list is I<not> the complete list of CPAN mirrors
c355f4f4 400(the complete list contains 165 sites as of January 2001):
c2e66d9e 401
c355f4f4 402 http://www.cpan.org/
c2e66d9e 403 http://www.perl.com/CPAN/
c2e66d9e 404 http://download.sourceforge.net/mirrors/CPAN/
405 ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/plan/perl/CPAN/
406 ftp://ftp.flirble.org/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/
407 ftp://ftp.uvsq.fr/pub/perl/CPAN/
68dc0745 408 ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/
c2e66d9e 409 ftp://ftp.dti.ad.jp/pub/lang/CPAN/
410 ftp://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/perl/CPAN/
411 ftp://cpan.if.usp.br/pub/mirror/CPAN/
68dc0745 412
c355f4f4 413One may also use xx.cpan.org where "xx" is the 2-letter country code
414for your domain; e.g. Australia would use au.cpan.org.
b0bd3af0 415[Note: This only applies to countries that host at least one mirror.]
c355f4f4 416
87275199 417=head2 What mailing lists are there for Perl?
68dc0745 418
87275199 419Most of the major modules (Tk, CGI, libwww-perl) have their own
68dc0745 420mailing lists. Consult the documentation that came with the module for
c355f4f4 421subscription information.
68dc0745 422
c355f4f4 423 http://lists.cpan.org/
68dc0745 424
65acb1b1 425=head2 Archives of comp.lang.perl.misc
68dc0745 426
b0bd3af0 427The Google search engine now carries archived and searchable newsgroup
428content.
68dc0745 429
83ded9ee 430http://groups.google.com/groups?group=comp.lang.perl.misc
68dc0745 431
b0bd3af0 432If you have a question, you can be sure someone has already asked the
433same question at some point on c.l.p.m. It requires some time and patience
434to sift through all the content but often you will find the answer you
435seek.
68dc0745 436
68dc0745 437=head2 Where can I buy a commercial version of Perl?
438
a6dd486b 439In a real sense, Perl already I<is> commercial software: it has a license
65acb1b1 440that you can grab and carefully read to your manager. It is distributed
441in releases and comes in well-defined packages. There is a very large
442user community and an extensive literature. The comp.lang.perl.*
443newsgroups and several of the mailing lists provide free answers to your
444questions in near real-time. Perl has traditionally been supported by
8305e449 445Larry, scores of software designers and developers, and myriad
65acb1b1 446programmers, all working for free to create a useful thing to make life
447better for everyone.
68dc0745 448
449However, these answers may not suffice for managers who require a
65acb1b1 450purchase order from a company whom they can sue should anything go awry.
451Or maybe they need very serious hand-holding and contractual obligations.
87275199 452Shrink-wrapped CDs with Perl on them are available from several sources if
a6dd486b 453that will help. For example, many Perl books include a distribution of Perl,
454as do the O'Reilly Perl Resource Kits (in both the Unix flavor
65acb1b1 455and in the proprietary Microsoft flavor); the free Unix distributions
456also all come with Perl.
68dc0745 457
a6dd486b 458Alternatively, you can purchase commercial incidence based support
459through the Perl Clinic. The following is a commercial from them:
e28598cb 460
461"The Perl Clinic is a commercial Perl support service operated by
462ActiveState Tool Corp. and The Ingram Group. The operators have many
463years of in-depth experience with Perl applications and Perl internals
464on a wide range of platforms.
465
466"Through our group of highly experienced and well-trained support engineers,
467we will put our best effort into understanding your problem, providing an
468explanation of the situation, and a recommendation on how to proceed."
469
a6dd486b 470Contact The Perl Clinic at
e28598cb 471
472 www.PerlClinic.com
473
474 North America Pacific Standard Time (GMT-8)
475 Tel: 1 604 606-4611 hours 8am-6pm
476 Fax: 1 604 606-4640
477
478 Europe (GMT)
479 Tel: 00 44 1483 862814
480 Fax: 00 44 1483 862801
68dc0745 481
65acb1b1 482See also www.perl.com for updates on tutorials, training, and support.
5e3006a4 483
68dc0745 484=head2 Where do I send bug reports?
485
486If you are reporting a bug in the perl interpreter or the modules
87275199 487shipped with Perl, use the I<perlbug> program in the Perl distribution or
7f2de2d2 488mail your report to perlbug@perl.org .
68dc0745 489
46fc3d4c 490If you are posting a bug with a non-standard port (see the answer to
68dc0745 491"What platforms is Perl available for?"), a binary distribution, or a
46fc3d4c 492non-standard module (such as Tk, CGI, etc), then please see the
68dc0745 493documentation that came with it to determine the correct place to post
494bugs.
495
5a964f20 496Read the perlbug(1) man page (perl5.004 or later) for more information.
68dc0745 497
06a5f41f 498=head2 What is perl.com? Perl Mongers? pm.org? perl.org? cpan.org?
68dc0745 499
5c5bc629 500The Perl Home Page at http://www.perl.com/ is currently hosted by
501The O'Reilly Network, a subsidiary of O'Reilly and Associates.
68dc0745 502
74078192 503Perl Mongers is an advocacy organization for the Perl language which
504maintains the web site http://www.perl.org/ as a general advocacy
c355f4f4 505site for the Perl language.
90bb42f6 506
507Perl Mongers uses the pm.org domain for services related to Perl user
74078192 508groups, including the hosting of mailing lists and web sites. See the
509Perl user group web site at http://www.pm.org/ for more information about
510joining, starting, or requesting services for a Perl user group.
90bb42f6 511
c355f4f4 512Perl Mongers also maintain the perl.org domain to provide general
513support services to the Perl community, including the hosting of mailing
514lists, web sites, and other services. The web site
515http://www.perl.org/ is a general advocacy site for the Perl language,
516and there are many other sub-domains for special topics, such as
90bb42f6 517
c355f4f4 518 http://bugs.perl.org/
519 http://history.perl.org/
520 http://lists.perl.org/
c355f4f4 521 http://use.perl.org/
90bb42f6 522
06a5f41f 523http://www.cpan.org/ is the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network,
524a replicated worlwide repository of Perl software, see
525the I<What is CPAN?> question earlier in this document.
526
68dc0745 527=head1 AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT
528
0bc0ad85 529Copyright (c) 1997-2001 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington.
5a964f20 530All rights reserved.
531
5a7beb56 532This documentation is free; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
533under the same terms as Perl itself.
c8db1d39 534
87275199 535Irrespective of its distribution, all code examples here are in the public
c8db1d39 536domain. You are permitted and encouraged to use this code and any
537derivatives thereof in your own programs for fun or for profit as you
538see fit. A simple comment in the code giving credit to the FAQ would
539be courteous but is not required.