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1 | =head1 NAME |
2 | |
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3 | perlfaq3 - Programming Tools ($Revision: 1.10 $, $Date: 2001/11/19 17:09:37 $) |
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4 | |
5 | =head1 DESCRIPTION |
6 | |
7 | This section of the FAQ answers questions related to programmer tools |
8 | and programming support. |
9 | |
10 | =head2 How do I do (anything)? |
11 | |
12 | Have you looked at CPAN (see L<perlfaq2>)? The chances are that |
13 | someone has already written a module that can solve your problem. |
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14 | Have you read the appropriate manpages? Here's a brief index: |
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15 | |
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16 | Basics perldata, perlvar, perlsyn, perlop, perlsub |
17 | Execution perlrun, perldebug |
18 | Functions perlfunc |
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19 | Objects perlref, perlmod, perlobj, perltie |
20 | Data Structures perlref, perllol, perldsc |
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21 | Modules perlmod, perlmodlib, perlsub |
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22 | Regexes perlre, perlfunc, perlop, perllocale |
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23 | Moving to perl5 perltrap, perl |
24 | Linking w/C perlxstut, perlxs, perlcall, perlguts, perlembed |
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25 | Various http://www.cpan.org/doc/FMTEYEWTK/index.html |
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26 | (not a man-page but still useful) |
27 | |
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28 | A crude table of contents for the Perl manpage set is found in L<perltoc>. |
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29 | |
30 | =head2 How can I use Perl interactively? |
31 | |
32 | The typical approach uses the Perl debugger, described in the |
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33 | perldebug(1) manpage, on an ``empty'' program, like this: |
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34 | |
35 | perl -de 42 |
36 | |
37 | Now just type in any legal Perl code, and it will be immediately |
38 | evaluated. You can also examine the symbol table, get stack |
39 | backtraces, check variable values, set breakpoints, and other |
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40 | operations typically found in symbolic debuggers. |
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41 | |
42 | =head2 Is there a Perl shell? |
43 | |
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44 | In general, not yet. There is psh available at |
45 | |
46 | http://www.focusresearch.com/gregor/psh |
47 | |
48 | Which includes the following description: |
49 | |
50 | The Perl Shell is a shell that combines the interactive nature |
51 | of a Unix shell with the power of Perl. The goal is to eventually |
52 | have a full featured shell that behaves as expected for normal |
53 | shell activity. But, the Perl Shell will use Perl syntax and |
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54 | functionality for control-flow statements and other things. |
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55 | |
56 | The Shell.pm module (distributed with Perl) makes Perl try commands |
57 | which aren't part of the Perl language as shell commands. perlsh |
58 | from the source distribution is simplistic and uninteresting, but |
59 | may still be what you want. |
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60 | |
61 | =head2 How do I debug my Perl programs? |
62 | |
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63 | Have you tried C<use warnings> or used C<-w>? They enable warnings |
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64 | to detect dubious practices. |
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65 | |
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66 | Have you tried C<use strict>? It prevents you from using symbolic |
67 | references, makes you predeclare any subroutines that you call as bare |
68 | words, and (probably most importantly) forces you to predeclare your |
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69 | variables with C<my>, C<our>, or C<use vars>. |
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70 | |
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71 | Did you check the return values of each and every system call? The operating |
72 | system (and thus Perl) tells you whether they worked, and if not |
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73 | why. |
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74 | |
92c2ed05 |
75 | open(FH, "> /etc/cantwrite") |
76 | or die "Couldn't write to /etc/cantwrite: $!\n"; |
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77 | |
92c2ed05 |
78 | Did you read L<perltrap>? It's full of gotchas for old and new Perl |
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79 | programmers and even has sections for those of you who are upgrading |
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80 | from languages like I<awk> and I<C>. |
81 | |
82 | Have you tried the Perl debugger, described in L<perldebug>? You can |
83 | step through your program and see what it's doing and thus work out |
84 | why what it's doing isn't what it should be doing. |
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85 | |
86 | =head2 How do I profile my Perl programs? |
87 | |
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88 | You should get the Devel::DProf module from the standard distribution |
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89 | (or separately on CPAN) and also use Benchmark.pm from the standard |
90 | distribution. The Benchmark module lets you time specific portions of |
91 | your code, while Devel::DProf gives detailed breakdowns of where your |
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92 | code spends its time. |
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93 | |
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94 | Here's a sample use of Benchmark: |
95 | |
96 | use Benchmark; |
97 | |
98 | @junk = `cat /etc/motd`; |
99 | $count = 10_000; |
100 | |
101 | timethese($count, { |
102 | 'map' => sub { my @a = @junk; |
103 | map { s/a/b/ } @a; |
104 | return @a |
105 | }, |
106 | 'for' => sub { my @a = @junk; |
107 | local $_; |
108 | for (@a) { s/a/b/ }; |
109 | return @a }, |
110 | }); |
111 | |
112 | This is what it prints (on one machine--your results will be dependent |
113 | on your hardware, operating system, and the load on your machine): |
114 | |
115 | Benchmark: timing 10000 iterations of for, map... |
116 | for: 4 secs ( 3.97 usr 0.01 sys = 3.98 cpu) |
117 | map: 6 secs ( 4.97 usr 0.00 sys = 4.97 cpu) |
118 | |
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119 | Be aware that a good benchmark is very hard to write. It only tests the |
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120 | data you give it and proves little about the differing complexities |
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121 | of contrasting algorithms. |
122 | |
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123 | =head2 How do I cross-reference my Perl programs? |
124 | |
125 | The B::Xref module, shipped with the new, alpha-release Perl compiler |
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126 | (not the general distribution prior to the 5.005 release), can be used |
127 | to generate cross-reference reports for Perl programs. |
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128 | |
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129 | perl -MO=Xref[,OPTIONS] scriptname.plx |
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130 | |
131 | =head2 Is there a pretty-printer (formatter) for Perl? |
132 | |
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133 | Perltidy is a Perl script which indents and reformats Perl scripts |
134 | to make them easier to read by trying to follow the rules of the |
135 | L<perlstyle>. If you write Perl scripts, or spend much time reading |
136 | them, you will probably find it useful. It is available at |
137 | http://perltidy.sourceforge.net |
138 | |
139 | Of course, if you simply follow the guidelines in L<perlstyle>, |
140 | you shouldn't need to reformat. The habit of formatting your code |
141 | as you write it will help prevent bugs. Your editor can and should |
142 | help you with this. The perl-mode or newer cperl-mode for emacs |
143 | can provide remarkable amounts of help with most (but not all) |
144 | code, and even less programmable editors can provide significant |
145 | assistance. Tom Christiansen and many other VI users swear by |
146 | the following settings in vi and its clones: |
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147 | |
148 | set ai sw=4 |
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149 | map! ^O {^M}^[O^T |
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150 | |
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151 | Put that in your F<.exrc> file (replacing the caret characters |
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152 | with control characters) and away you go. In insert mode, ^T is |
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153 | for indenting, ^D is for undenting, and ^O is for blockdenting-- |
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154 | as it were. A more complete example, with comments, can be found at |
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155 | http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/TOMC/scripts/toms.exrc.gz |
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156 | |
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157 | If you are used to using the I<vgrind> program for printing out nice code |
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158 | to a laser printer, you can take a stab at this using |
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159 | http://www.cpan.org/doc/misc/tips/working.vgrind.entry, but the |
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160 | results are not particularly satisfying for sophisticated code. |
161 | |
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162 | The a2ps at http://www.infres.enst.fr/%7Edemaille/a2ps/ does lots of things |
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163 | related to generating nicely printed output of documents. |
164 | |
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165 | =head2 Is there a ctags for Perl? |
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166 | |
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167 | Recent versions of ctags do much more than older versions did. |
168 | EXUBERANT CTAGS is available from http://ctags.sourceforge.net/ |
169 | and does a good job of making tags files for perl code. |
170 | |
171 | There is also a simple one at |
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172 | http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/TOMC/scripts/ptags.gz which may do |
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173 | the trick. It can be easy to hack this into what you want. |
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174 | |
175 | =head2 Is there an IDE or Windows Perl Editor? |
176 | |
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177 | Perl programs are just plain text, so any editor will do. |
178 | |
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179 | If you're on Unix, you already have an IDE--Unix itself. The UNIX |
180 | philosophy is the philosophy of several small tools that each do one |
181 | thing and do it well. It's like a carpenter's toolbox. |
182 | |
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183 | If you want an IDE, check the following: |
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184 | |
185 | =over 4 |
186 | |
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187 | =item Komodo |
188 | |
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189 | ActiveState's cross-platform (as of April 2001 Windows and Linux), |
190 | multi-language IDE has Perl support, including a regular expression |
191 | debugger and remote debugging |
192 | (http://www.ActiveState.com/Products/Komodo/index.html). (Visual |
193 | Perl, a Visual Studio.NET plug-in is currently (early 2001) in beta |
194 | (http://www.ActiveState.com/Products/VisualPerl/index.html)). |
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195 | |
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196 | =item The Object System |
197 | |
198 | (http://www.castlelink.co.uk/object_system/) is a Perl web |
199 | applications development IDE, apparently for any platform |
200 | that runs Perl. |
201 | |
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202 | =item Open Perl IDE |
203 | |
204 | ( http://open-perl-ide.sourceforge.net/ ) |
205 | Open Perl IDE is an integrated development environment for writing |
206 | and debugging Perl scripts with ActiveState's ActivePerl distribution |
207 | under Windows 95/98/NT/2000. |
208 | |
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209 | =item PerlBuilder |
210 | |
211 | (http://www.solutionsoft.com/perl.htm) is an integrated development |
212 | environment for Windows that supports Perl development. |
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213 | |
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214 | =item visiPerl+ |
215 | |
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216 | ( http://helpconsulting.net/visiperl/ ) |
217 | From Help Consulting, for Windows. |
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218 | |
219 | =back |
220 | |
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221 | For Windows there's also the |
222 | |
223 | =over 4 |
224 | |
225 | =item CodeMagicCD |
226 | |
227 | ( http://www.codemagiccd.com/ ) Collection of various programming |
228 | tools for Windows: Perl (5.005_03), TclTk, Python, GNU programming |
229 | tools, REBOL, wxWindows toolkit, the MinGW GNU C/C++ compiler, DJGPP |
230 | GNU C/C++ compiler, Cint C interpreter, YaBasic. |
231 | |
232 | =back |
233 | |
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234 | For editors: if you're on Unix you probably have vi or a vi clone already, |
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235 | and possibly an emacs too, so you may not need to download anything. |
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236 | In any emacs the cperl-mode (M-x cperl-mode) gives you perhaps the |
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237 | best available Perl editing mode in any editor. |
238 | |
cc30d1a7 |
239 | If you are using Windows, you can use any editor that lets |
240 | you work with plain text, such as NotePad or WordPad. Word |
241 | processors, such as Microsoft Word or WordPerfect, typically |
242 | do not work since they insert all sorts of behind-the-scenes |
243 | information, although some allow you to save files as "Text |
244 | Only". You can also download text editors designed |
245 | specifically for programming, such as Textpad |
246 | (http://www.textpad.com/) and UltraEdit |
247 | (http://www.ultraedit.com), among others. |
248 | |
249 | If you are using MacOS, the same concerns apply. MacPerl |
250 | (for Classic environments) comes with a simple editor. |
251 | Popular external editors are BBEdit (http://www.bbedit.com) |
252 | or Alpha (http://alpha.olm.net/). MacOS X users can use Unix |
253 | editors as well. |
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254 | |
255 | =over 4 |
256 | |
257 | =item GNU Emacs |
258 | |
259 | http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/ntemacs.html |
260 | |
261 | =item MicroEMACS |
262 | |
263 | http://members.nbci.com/uemacs/ |
264 | |
265 | =item XEmacs |
266 | |
267 | http://www.xemacs.org/Download/index.html |
268 | |
269 | =back |
270 | |
271 | or a vi clone such as |
272 | |
273 | =over 4 |
274 | |
275 | =item Elvis |
276 | |
277 | ftp://ftp.cs.pdx.edu/pub/elvis/ http://www.fh-wedel.de/elvis/ |
278 | |
279 | =item Vile |
280 | |
281 | http://vile.cx/ |
282 | |
283 | =item Vim |
284 | |
285 | http://www.vim.org/ |
286 | |
287 | win32: http://www.cs.vu.nl/%7Etmgil/vi.html |
288 | |
289 | =back |
290 | |
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291 | For vi lovers in general, Windows or elsewhere: |
292 | http://www.thomer.com/thomer/vi/vi.html. |
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293 | |
294 | nvi (http://www.bostic.com/vi/, available from CPAN in src/misc/) is |
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295 | yet another vi clone, unfortunately not available for Windows, but in |
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296 | UNIX platforms you might be interested in trying it out, firstly because |
297 | strictly speaking it is not a vi clone, it is the real vi, or the new |
298 | incarnation of it, and secondly because you can embed Perl inside it |
299 | to use Perl as the scripting language. nvi is not alone in this, |
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300 | though: at least also vim and vile offer an embedded Perl. |
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301 | |
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302 | The following are Win32 multilanguage editor/IDESs that support Perl: |
303 | |
304 | =over 4 |
305 | |
306 | =item Codewright |
307 | |
308 | http://www.starbase.com/ |
309 | |
310 | =item MultiEdit |
311 | |
312 | http://www.MultiEdit.com/ |
313 | |
314 | =item SlickEdit |
315 | |
316 | http://www.slickedit.com/ |
317 | |
318 | =back |
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319 | |
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320 | There is also a toyedit Text widget based editor written in Perl |
321 | that is distributed with the Tk module on CPAN. The ptkdb |
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322 | (http://world.std.com/~aep/ptkdb/) is a Perl/tk based debugger that |
323 | acts as a development environment of sorts. Perl Composer |
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324 | (http://perlcomposer.sourceforge.net/vperl.html) is an IDE for Perl/Tk |
325 | GUI creation. |
326 | |
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327 | In addition to an editor/IDE you might be interested in a more |
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328 | powerful shell environment for Win32. Your options include |
329 | |
330 | =over 4 |
331 | |
332 | =item Bash |
333 | |
334 | from the Cygwin package (http://sources.redhat.com/cygwin/) |
335 | |
336 | =item Ksh |
337 | |
338 | from the MKS Toolkit (http://www.mks.com/), or the Bourne shell of |
339 | the U/WIN environment (http://www.research.att.com/sw/tools/uwin/) |
340 | |
341 | =item Tcsh |
342 | |
343 | ftp://ftp.astron.com/pub/tcsh/, see also |
344 | http://www.primate.wisc.edu/software/csh-tcsh-book/ |
345 | |
346 | =item Zsh |
347 | |
348 | ftp://ftp.blarg.net/users/amol/zsh/, see also http://www.zsh.org/ |
349 | |
350 | =back |
351 | |
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352 | MKS and U/WIN are commercial (U/WIN is free for educational and |
353 | research purposes), Cygwin is covered by the GNU Public License (but |
354 | that shouldn't matter for Perl use). The Cygwin, MKS, and U/WIN all |
355 | contain (in addition to the shells) a comprehensive set of standard |
356 | UNIX toolkit utilities. |
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357 | |
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358 | If you're transferring text files between Unix and Windows using FTP |
359 | be sure to transfer them in ASCII mode so the ends of lines are |
360 | appropriately converted. |
361 | |
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362 | On Mac OS the MacPerl Application comes with a simple 32k text editor |
363 | that behaves like a rudimentary IDE. In contrast to the MacPerl Application |
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364 | the MPW Perl tool can make use of the MPW Shell itself as an editor (with |
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365 | no 32k limit). |
366 | |
367 | =over 4 |
368 | |
369 | =item BBEdit and BBEdit Lite |
370 | |
371 | are text editors for Mac OS that have a Perl sensitivity mode |
372 | (http://web.barebones.com/). |
373 | |
374 | =item Alpha |
375 | |
376 | is an editor, written and extensible in Tcl, that nonetheless has |
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377 | built in support for several popular markup and programming languages |
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378 | including Perl and HTML (http://alpha.olm.net/). |
379 | |
380 | =back |
381 | |
382 | Pepper and Pe are programming language sensitive text editors for Mac |
383 | OS X and BeOS respectively (http://www.hekkelman.com/). |
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384 | |
385 | =head2 Where can I get Perl macros for vi? |
386 | |
387 | For a complete version of Tom Christiansen's vi configuration file, |
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388 | see http://www.cpan.org/authors/Tom_Christiansen/scripts/toms.exrc.gz , |
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389 | the standard benchmark file for vi emulators. The file runs best with nvi, |
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390 | the current version of vi out of Berkeley, which incidentally can be built |
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391 | with an embedded Perl interpreter--see http://www.cpan.org/src/misc. |
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392 | |
393 | =head2 Where can I get perl-mode for emacs? |
394 | |
395 | Since Emacs version 19 patchlevel 22 or so, there have been both a |
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396 | perl-mode.el and support for the Perl debugger built in. These should |
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397 | come with the standard Emacs 19 distribution. |
398 | |
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399 | In the Perl source directory, you'll find a directory called "emacs", |
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400 | which contains a cperl-mode that color-codes keywords, provides |
401 | context-sensitive help, and other nifty things. |
402 | |
92c2ed05 |
403 | Note that the perl-mode of emacs will have fits with C<"main'foo"> |
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404 | (single quote), and mess up the indentation and highlighting. You |
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405 | are probably using C<"main::foo"> in new Perl code anyway, so this |
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406 | shouldn't be an issue. |
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407 | |
408 | =head2 How can I use curses with Perl? |
409 | |
410 | The Curses module from CPAN provides a dynamically loadable object |
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411 | module interface to a curses library. A small demo can be found at the |
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412 | directory http://www.cpan.org/authors/Tom_Christiansen/scripts/rep; |
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413 | this program repeats a command and updates the screen as needed, rendering |
414 | B<rep ps axu> similar to B<top>. |
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415 | |
416 | =head2 How can I use X or Tk with Perl? |
417 | |
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418 | Tk is a completely Perl-based, object-oriented interface to the Tk toolkit |
419 | that doesn't force you to use Tcl just to get at Tk. Sx is an interface |
420 | to the Athena Widget set. Both are available from CPAN. See the |
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421 | directory http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-category/08_User_Interfaces/ |
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422 | |
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423 | Invaluable for Perl/Tk programming are the Perl/Tk FAQ at |
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424 | http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/%7Epvhp/ptk/ptkTOC.html , the Perl/Tk Reference |
92c2ed05 |
425 | Guide available at |
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426 | http://www.cpan.org/authors/Stephen_O_Lidie/ , and the |
92c2ed05 |
427 | online manpages at |
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428 | http://www-users.cs.umn.edu/%7Eamundson/perl/perltk/toc.html . |
92c2ed05 |
429 | |
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430 | =head2 How can I generate simple menus without using CGI or Tk? |
431 | |
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432 | The http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/SKUNZ/perlmenu.v4.0.tar.gz |
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433 | module, which is curses-based, can help with this. |
434 | |
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435 | =head2 How can I make my Perl program run faster? |
436 | |
92c2ed05 |
437 | The best way to do this is to come up with a better algorithm. This |
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438 | can often make a dramatic difference. Jon Bentley's book |
92c2ed05 |
439 | ``Programming Pearls'' (that's not a misspelling!) has some good tips |
440 | on optimization, too. Advice on benchmarking boils down to: benchmark |
441 | and profile to make sure you're optimizing the right part, look for |
442 | better algorithms instead of microtuning your code, and when all else |
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443 | fails consider just buying faster hardware. You will probably want to |
444 | read the answer to the earlier question ``How do I profile my Perl programs?'' |
445 | if you haven't done so already. |
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446 | |
92c2ed05 |
447 | A different approach is to autoload seldom-used Perl code. See the |
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448 | AutoSplit and AutoLoader modules in the standard distribution for |
449 | that. Or you could locate the bottleneck and think about writing just |
450 | that part in C, the way we used to take bottlenecks in C code and |
a6dd486b |
451 | write them in assembler. Similar to rewriting in C, |
452 | modules that have critical sections can be written in C (for instance, the |
68dc0745 |
453 | PDL module from CPAN). |
454 | |
455 | In some cases, it may be worth it to use the backend compiler to |
456 | produce byte code (saving compilation time) or compile into C, which |
457 | will certainly save compilation time and sometimes a small amount (but |
458 | not much) execution time. See the question about compiling your Perl |
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459 | programs for more on the compiler--the wins aren't as obvious as you'd |
460 | hope. |
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461 | |
92c2ed05 |
462 | If you're currently linking your perl executable to a shared I<libc.so>, |
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463 | you can often gain a 10-25% performance benefit by rebuilding it to |
464 | link with a static libc.a instead. This will make a bigger perl |
465 | executable, but your Perl programs (and programmers) may thank you for |
466 | it. See the F<INSTALL> file in the source distribution for more |
467 | information. |
468 | |
469 | Unsubstantiated reports allege that Perl interpreters that use sfio |
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470 | outperform those that don't (for I/O intensive applications). To try |
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471 | this, see the F<INSTALL> file in the source distribution, especially |
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472 | the ``Selecting File I/O mechanisms'' section. |
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473 | |
474 | The undump program was an old attempt to speed up your Perl program |
475 | by storing the already-compiled form to disk. This is no longer |
476 | a viable option, as it only worked on a few architectures, and |
477 | wasn't a good solution anyway. |
478 | |
479 | =head2 How can I make my Perl program take less memory? |
480 | |
481 | When it comes to time-space tradeoffs, Perl nearly always prefers to |
482 | throw memory at a problem. Scalars in Perl use more memory than |
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483 | strings in C, arrays take more than that, and hashes use even more. While |
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484 | there's still a lot to be done, recent releases have been addressing |
485 | these issues. For example, as of 5.004, duplicate hash keys are |
486 | shared amongst all hashes using them, so require no reallocation. |
487 | |
488 | In some cases, using substr() or vec() to simulate arrays can be |
489 | highly beneficial. For example, an array of a thousand booleans will |
490 | take at least 20,000 bytes of space, but it can be turned into one |
a6dd486b |
491 | 125-byte bit vector--a considerable memory savings. The standard |
68dc0745 |
492 | Tie::SubstrHash module can also help for certain types of data |
493 | structure. If you're working with specialist data structures |
494 | (matrices, for instance) modules that implement these in C may use |
495 | less memory than equivalent Perl modules. |
496 | |
497 | Another thing to try is learning whether your Perl was compiled with |
54310121 |
498 | the system malloc or with Perl's builtin malloc. Whichever one it |
68dc0745 |
499 | is, try using the other one and see whether this makes a difference. |
500 | Information about malloc is in the F<INSTALL> file in the source |
501 | distribution. You can find out whether you are using perl's malloc by |
502 | typing C<perl -V:usemymalloc>. |
503 | |
24f1ba9b |
504 | Of course, the best way to save memory is to not do anything to waste |
505 | it in the first place. Good programming practices can go a long way |
506 | toward this: |
507 | |
508 | =over 4 |
509 | |
510 | =item * Don't slurp! |
511 | |
512 | Don't read an entire file into memory if you can process it line |
513 | by line. Or more concretely, use a loop like this: |
514 | |
515 | # |
516 | # Good Idea |
517 | # |
518 | while (<FILE>) { |
519 | # ... |
520 | } |
521 | |
522 | instead of this: |
523 | |
524 | # |
525 | # Bad Idea |
526 | # |
527 | @data = <FILE>; |
528 | foreach (@data) { |
529 | # ... |
530 | } |
531 | |
532 | When the files you're processing are small, it doesn't much matter which |
533 | way you do it, but it makes a huge difference when they start getting |
534 | larger. |
535 | |
bc06af74 |
536 | =item * Use map and grep selectively |
537 | |
538 | Remember that both map and grep expect a LIST argument, so doing this: |
539 | |
540 | @wanted = grep {/pattern/} <FILE>; |
541 | |
542 | will cause the entire file to be slurped. For large files, it's better |
543 | to loop: |
544 | |
545 | while (<FILE>) { |
546 | push(@wanted, $_) if /pattern/; |
547 | } |
548 | |
549 | =item * Avoid unnecessary quotes and stringification |
550 | |
551 | Don't quote large strings unless absolutely necessary: |
552 | |
553 | my $copy = "$large_string"; |
554 | |
555 | makes 2 copies of $large_string (one for $copy and another for the |
556 | quotes), whereas |
557 | |
558 | my $copy = $large_string; |
559 | |
560 | only makes one copy. |
561 | |
562 | Ditto for stringifying large arrays: |
563 | |
564 | { |
565 | local $, = "\n"; |
566 | print @big_array; |
567 | } |
568 | |
569 | is much more memory-efficient than either |
570 | |
571 | print join "\n", @big_array; |
572 | |
573 | or |
574 | |
575 | { |
576 | local $" = "\n"; |
577 | print "@big_array"; |
578 | } |
579 | |
580 | |
24f1ba9b |
581 | =item * Pass by reference |
582 | |
583 | Pass arrays and hashes by reference, not by value. For one thing, it's |
584 | the only way to pass multiple lists or hashes (or both) in a single |
585 | call/return. It also avoids creating a copy of all the contents. This |
586 | requires some judgment, however, because any changes will be propagated |
587 | back to the original data. If you really want to mangle (er, modify) a |
588 | copy, you'll have to sacrifice the memory needed to make one. |
589 | |
590 | =item * Tie large variables to disk. |
591 | |
592 | For "big" data stores (i.e. ones that exceed available memory) consider |
593 | using one of the DB modules to store it on disk instead of in RAM. This |
594 | will incur a penalty in access time, but that's probably better that |
595 | causing your hard disk to thrash due to massive swapping. |
596 | |
597 | =back |
598 | |
68dc0745 |
599 | =head2 Is it unsafe to return a pointer to local data? |
600 | |
601 | No, Perl's garbage collection system takes care of this. |
602 | |
603 | sub makeone { |
604 | my @a = ( 1 .. 10 ); |
605 | return \@a; |
606 | } |
607 | |
608 | for $i ( 1 .. 10 ) { |
609 | push @many, makeone(); |
610 | } |
611 | |
612 | print $many[4][5], "\n"; |
613 | |
614 | print "@many\n"; |
615 | |
616 | =head2 How can I free an array or hash so my program shrinks? |
617 | |
c8db1d39 |
618 | You can't. On most operating systems, memory allocated to a program |
619 | can never be returned to the system. That's why long-running programs |
65acb1b1 |
620 | sometimes re-exec themselves. Some operating systems (notably, |
621 | FreeBSD and Linux) allegedly reclaim large chunks of memory that is no |
622 | longer used, but it doesn't appear to happen with Perl (yet). The Mac |
623 | appears to be the only platform that will reliably (albeit, slowly) |
624 | return memory to the OS. |
625 | |
626 | We've had reports that on Linux (Redhat 5.1) on Intel, C<undef |
627 | $scalar> will return memory to the system, while on Solaris 2.6 it |
628 | won't. In general, try it yourself and see. |
68dc0745 |
629 | |
630 | However, judicious use of my() on your variables will help make sure |
a6dd486b |
631 | that they go out of scope so that Perl can free up that space for |
92c2ed05 |
632 | use in other parts of your program. A global variable, of course, never |
68dc0745 |
633 | goes out of scope, so you can't get its space automatically reclaimed, |
634 | although undef()ing and/or delete()ing it will achieve the same effect. |
46fc3d4c |
635 | In general, memory allocation and de-allocation isn't something you can |
68dc0745 |
636 | or should be worrying about much in Perl, but even this capability |
637 | (preallocation of data types) is in the works. |
638 | |
639 | =head2 How can I make my CGI script more efficient? |
640 | |
641 | Beyond the normal measures described to make general Perl programs |
642 | faster or smaller, a CGI program has additional issues. It may be run |
643 | several times per second. Given that each time it runs it will need |
46fc3d4c |
644 | to be re-compiled and will often allocate a megabyte or more of system |
68dc0745 |
645 | memory, this can be a killer. Compiling into C B<isn't going to help |
46fc3d4c |
646 | you> because the process start-up overhead is where the bottleneck is. |
68dc0745 |
647 | |
92c2ed05 |
648 | There are two popular ways to avoid this overhead. One solution |
649 | involves running the Apache HTTP server (available from |
68dc0745 |
650 | http://www.apache.org/) with either of the mod_perl or mod_fastcgi |
92c2ed05 |
651 | plugin modules. |
652 | |
653 | With mod_perl and the Apache::Registry module (distributed with |
654 | mod_perl), httpd will run with an embedded Perl interpreter which |
655 | pre-compiles your script and then executes it within the same address |
656 | space without forking. The Apache extension also gives Perl access to |
657 | the internal server API, so modules written in Perl can do just about |
658 | anything a module written in C can. For more on mod_perl, see |
659 | http://perl.apache.org/ |
660 | |
65acb1b1 |
661 | With the FCGI module (from CPAN) and the mod_fastcgi |
87275199 |
662 | module (available from http://www.fastcgi.com/) each of your Perl |
663 | programs becomes a permanent CGI daemon process. |
68dc0745 |
664 | |
665 | Both of these solutions can have far-reaching effects on your system |
87275199 |
666 | and on the way you write your CGI programs, so investigate them with |
68dc0745 |
667 | care. |
668 | |
a93751fa |
669 | See http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-category/15_World_Wide_Web_HTML_HTTP_CGI/ . |
5a964f20 |
670 | |
65acb1b1 |
671 | A non-free, commercial product, ``The Velocity Engine for Perl'', |
a6dd486b |
672 | (http://www.binevolve.com/ or http://www.binevolve.com/velocigen/ ) |
673 | might also be worth looking at. It will allow you to increase the |
674 | performance of your Perl programs, running programs up to 25 times |
675 | faster than normal CGI Perl when running in persistent Perl mode or 4 |
676 | to 5 times faster without any modification to your existing CGI |
677 | programs. Fully functional evaluation copies are available from the |
678 | web site. |
c8db1d39 |
679 | |
68dc0745 |
680 | =head2 How can I hide the source for my Perl program? |
681 | |
682 | Delete it. :-) Seriously, there are a number of (mostly |
92c2ed05 |
683 | unsatisfactory) solutions with varying levels of ``security''. |
68dc0745 |
684 | |
685 | First of all, however, you I<can't> take away read permission, because |
686 | the source code has to be readable in order to be compiled and |
687 | interpreted. (That doesn't mean that a CGI script's source is |
a6dd486b |
688 | readable by people on the web, though--only by people with access to |
689 | the filesystem.) So you have to leave the permissions at the socially |
92c2ed05 |
690 | friendly 0755 level. |
68dc0745 |
691 | |
692 | Some people regard this as a security problem. If your program does |
a6dd486b |
693 | insecure things and relies on people not knowing how to exploit those |
68dc0745 |
694 | insecurities, it is not secure. It is often possible for someone to |
695 | determine the insecure things and exploit them without viewing the |
696 | source. Security through obscurity, the name for hiding your bugs |
697 | instead of fixing them, is little security indeed. |
698 | |
83df6a1d |
699 | You can try using encryption via source filters (Starting from Perl |
700 | 5.8 the Filter::Simple and Filter::Util::Call modules are included in |
701 | the standard distribution), but any decent programmer will be able to |
702 | decrypt it. You can try using the byte code compiler and interpreter |
703 | described below, but the curious might still be able to de-compile it. |
704 | You can try using the native-code compiler described below, but |
705 | crackers might be able to disassemble it. These pose varying degrees |
706 | of difficulty to people wanting to get at your code, but none can |
707 | definitively conceal it (true of every language, not just Perl). |
68dc0745 |
708 | |
709 | If you're concerned about people profiting from your code, then the |
d92eb7b0 |
710 | bottom line is that nothing but a restrictive license will give you |
68dc0745 |
711 | legal security. License your software and pepper it with threatening |
92c2ed05 |
712 | statements like ``This is unpublished proprietary software of XYZ Corp. |
68dc0745 |
713 | Your access to it does not give you permission to use it blah blah |
92c2ed05 |
714 | blah.'' We are not lawyers, of course, so you should see a lawyer if |
d92eb7b0 |
715 | you want to be sure your license's wording will stand up in court. |
68dc0745 |
716 | |
54310121 |
717 | =head2 How can I compile my Perl program into byte code or C? |
68dc0745 |
718 | |
719 | Malcolm Beattie has written a multifunction backend compiler, |
5e3006a4 |
720 | available from CPAN, that can do both these things. It is included |
721 | in the perl5.005 release, but is still considered experimental. |
722 | This means it's fun to play with if you're a programmer but not |
723 | really for people looking for turn-key solutions. |
68dc0745 |
724 | |
92c2ed05 |
725 | Merely compiling into C does not in and of itself guarantee that your |
726 | code will run very much faster. That's because except for lucky cases |
727 | where a lot of native type inferencing is possible, the normal Perl |
a6dd486b |
728 | run-time system is still present and so your program will take just as |
92c2ed05 |
729 | long to run and be just as big. Most programs save little more than |
730 | compilation time, leaving execution no more than 10-30% faster. A few |
a6dd486b |
731 | rare programs actually benefit significantly (even running several times |
92c2ed05 |
732 | faster), but this takes some tweaking of your code. |
68dc0745 |
733 | |
68dc0745 |
734 | You'll probably be astonished to learn that the current version of the |
735 | compiler generates a compiled form of your script whose executable is |
736 | just as big as the original perl executable, and then some. That's |
737 | because as currently written, all programs are prepared for a full |
738 | eval() statement. You can tremendously reduce this cost by building a |
92c2ed05 |
739 | shared I<libperl.so> library and linking against that. See the |
87275199 |
740 | F<INSTALL> podfile in the Perl source distribution for details. If |
d92eb7b0 |
741 | you link your main perl binary with this, it will make it minuscule. |
92c2ed05 |
742 | For example, on one author's system, F</usr/bin/perl> is only 11k in |
68dc0745 |
743 | size! |
744 | |
5a964f20 |
745 | In general, the compiler will do nothing to make a Perl program smaller, |
a6dd486b |
746 | faster, more portable, or more secure. In fact, it can make your |
747 | situation worse. The executable will be bigger, your VM system may take |
5a964f20 |
748 | longer to load the whole thing, the binary is fragile and hard to fix, |
749 | and compilation never stopped software piracy in the form of crackers, |
750 | viruses, or bootleggers. The real advantage of the compiler is merely |
751 | packaging, and once you see the size of what it makes (well, unless |
752 | you use a shared I<libperl.so>), you'll probably want a complete |
5e3006a4 |
753 | Perl install anyway. |
5a964f20 |
754 | |
65acb1b1 |
755 | =head2 How can I compile Perl into Java? |
756 | |
a6dd486b |
757 | You can also integrate Java and Perl with the |
65acb1b1 |
758 | Perl Resource Kit from O'Reilly and Associates. See |
a6dd486b |
759 | http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/prkunix/ . |
760 | |
761 | Perl 5.6 comes with Java Perl Lingo, or JPL. JPL, still in |
762 | development, allows Perl code to be called from Java. See jpl/README |
763 | in the Perl source tree. |
65acb1b1 |
764 | |
92c2ed05 |
765 | =head2 How can I get C<#!perl> to work on [MS-DOS,NT,...]? |
68dc0745 |
766 | |
767 | For OS/2 just use |
768 | |
769 | extproc perl -S -your_switches |
770 | |
771 | as the first line in C<*.cmd> file (C<-S> due to a bug in cmd.exe's |
46fc3d4c |
772 | `extproc' handling). For DOS one should first invent a corresponding |
a6dd486b |
773 | batch file and codify it in C<ALTERNATIVE_SHEBANG> (see the |
68dc0745 |
774 | F<INSTALL> file in the source distribution for more information). |
775 | |
92c2ed05 |
776 | The Win95/NT installation, when using the ActiveState port of Perl, |
777 | will modify the Registry to associate the C<.pl> extension with the |
d92eb7b0 |
778 | perl interpreter. If you install another port, perhaps even building |
779 | your own Win95/NT Perl from the standard sources by using a Windows port |
d702ae42 |
780 | of gcc (e.g., with cygwin or mingw32), then you'll have to modify |
d92eb7b0 |
781 | the Registry yourself. In addition to associating C<.pl> with the |
782 | interpreter, NT people can use: C<SET PATHEXT=%PATHEXT%;.PL> to let them |
783 | run the program C<install-linux.pl> merely by typing C<install-linux>. |
68dc0745 |
784 | |
87275199 |
785 | Macintosh Perl programs will have the appropriate Creator and |
786 | Type, so that double-clicking them will invoke the Perl application. |
68dc0745 |
787 | |
788 | I<IMPORTANT!>: Whatever you do, PLEASE don't get frustrated, and just |
789 | throw the perl interpreter into your cgi-bin directory, in order to |
87275199 |
790 | get your programs working for a web server. This is an EXTREMELY big |
68dc0745 |
791 | security risk. Take the time to figure out how to do it correctly. |
792 | |
87275199 |
793 | =head2 Can I write useful Perl programs on the command line? |
68dc0745 |
794 | |
795 | Yes. Read L<perlrun> for more information. Some examples follow. |
796 | (These assume standard Unix shell quoting rules.) |
797 | |
798 | # sum first and last fields |
5a964f20 |
799 | perl -lane 'print $F[0] + $F[-1]' * |
68dc0745 |
800 | |
801 | # identify text files |
802 | perl -le 'for(@ARGV) {print if -f && -T _}' * |
803 | |
5a964f20 |
804 | # remove (most) comments from C program |
68dc0745 |
805 | perl -0777 -pe 's{/\*.*?\*/}{}gs' foo.c |
806 | |
807 | # make file a month younger than today, defeating reaper daemons |
808 | perl -e '$X=24*60*60; utime(time(),time() + 30 * $X,@ARGV)' * |
809 | |
810 | # find first unused uid |
811 | perl -le '$i++ while getpwuid($i); print $i' |
812 | |
813 | # display reasonable manpath |
814 | echo $PATH | perl -nl -072 -e ' |
815 | s![^/+]*$!man!&&-d&&!$s{$_}++&&push@m,$_;END{print"@m"}' |
816 | |
87275199 |
817 | OK, the last one was actually an Obfuscated Perl Contest entry. :-) |
68dc0745 |
818 | |
87275199 |
819 | =head2 Why don't Perl one-liners work on my DOS/Mac/VMS system? |
68dc0745 |
820 | |
821 | The problem is usually that the command interpreters on those systems |
822 | have rather different ideas about quoting than the Unix shells under |
823 | which the one-liners were created. On some systems, you may have to |
824 | change single-quotes to double ones, which you must I<NOT> do on Unix |
825 | or Plan9 systems. You might also have to change a single % to a %%. |
826 | |
827 | For example: |
828 | |
829 | # Unix |
830 | perl -e 'print "Hello world\n"' |
831 | |
46fc3d4c |
832 | # DOS, etc. |
68dc0745 |
833 | perl -e "print \"Hello world\n\"" |
834 | |
46fc3d4c |
835 | # Mac |
68dc0745 |
836 | print "Hello world\n" |
837 | (then Run "Myscript" or Shift-Command-R) |
838 | |
839 | # VMS |
840 | perl -e "print ""Hello world\n""" |
841 | |
a6dd486b |
842 | The problem is that none of these examples are reliable: they depend on the |
92c2ed05 |
843 | command interpreter. Under Unix, the first two often work. Under DOS, |
a6dd486b |
844 | it's entirely possible that neither works. If 4DOS was the command shell, |
92c2ed05 |
845 | you'd probably have better luck like this: |
68dc0745 |
846 | |
847 | perl -e "print <Ctrl-x>"Hello world\n<Ctrl-x>"" |
848 | |
46fc3d4c |
849 | Under the Mac, it depends which environment you are using. The MacPerl |
68dc0745 |
850 | shell, or MPW, is much like Unix shells in its support for several |
46fc3d4c |
851 | quoting variants, except that it makes free use of the Mac's non-ASCII |
68dc0745 |
852 | characters as control characters. |
853 | |
65acb1b1 |
854 | Using qq(), q(), and qx(), instead of "double quotes", 'single |
855 | quotes', and `backticks`, may make one-liners easier to write. |
856 | |
92c2ed05 |
857 | There is no general solution to all of this. It is a mess, pure and |
858 | simple. Sucks to be away from Unix, huh? :-) |
68dc0745 |
859 | |
860 | [Some of this answer was contributed by Kenneth Albanowski.] |
861 | |
862 | =head2 Where can I learn about CGI or Web programming in Perl? |
863 | |
864 | For modules, get the CGI or LWP modules from CPAN. For textbooks, |
865 | see the two especially dedicated to web stuff in the question on |
92c2ed05 |
866 | books. For problems and questions related to the web, like ``Why |
867 | do I get 500 Errors'' or ``Why doesn't it run from the browser right |
8305e449 |
868 | when it runs fine on the command line'', see the troubleshooting |
869 | guides and references in L<perlfaq9> or in the CGI MetaFAQ: |
68dc0745 |
870 | |
8305e449 |
871 | http://www.perl.org/CGI_MetaFAQ.html |
0f542199 |
872 | |
68dc0745 |
873 | =head2 Where can I learn about object-oriented Perl programming? |
874 | |
a6dd486b |
875 | A good place to start is L<perltoot>, and you can use L<perlobj>, |
876 | L<perlboot>, and L<perlbot> for reference. Perltoot didn't come out |
877 | until the 5.004 release; you can get a copy (in pod, html, or |
a93751fa |
878 | postscript) from http://www.cpan.org/doc/FMTEYEWTK/ . |
68dc0745 |
879 | |
880 | =head2 Where can I learn about linking C with Perl? [h2xs, xsubpp] |
881 | |
882 | If you want to call C from Perl, start with L<perlxstut>, |
883 | moving on to L<perlxs>, L<xsubpp>, and L<perlguts>. If you want to |
884 | call Perl from C, then read L<perlembed>, L<perlcall>, and |
885 | L<perlguts>. Don't forget that you can learn a lot from looking at |
886 | how the authors of existing extension modules wrote their code and |
887 | solved their problems. |
888 | |
889 | =head2 I've read perlembed, perlguts, etc., but I can't embed perl in |
a6dd486b |
890 | my C program; what am I doing wrong? |
68dc0745 |
891 | |
892 | Download the ExtUtils::Embed kit from CPAN and run `make test'. If |
893 | the tests pass, read the pods again and again and again. If they |
87275199 |
894 | fail, see L<perlbug> and send a bug report with the output of |
68dc0745 |
895 | C<make test TEST_VERBOSE=1> along with C<perl -V>. |
896 | |
897 | =head2 When I tried to run my script, I got this message. What does it |
898 | mean? |
899 | |
87275199 |
900 | A complete list of Perl's error messages and warnings with explanatory |
901 | text can be found in L<perldiag>. You can also use the splain program |
902 | (distributed with Perl) to explain the error messages: |
68dc0745 |
903 | |
904 | perl program 2>diag.out |
905 | splain [-v] [-p] diag.out |
906 | |
907 | or change your program to explain the messages for you: |
908 | |
909 | use diagnostics; |
910 | |
911 | or |
912 | |
913 | use diagnostics -verbose; |
914 | |
915 | =head2 What's MakeMaker? |
916 | |
87275199 |
917 | This module (part of the standard Perl distribution) is designed to |
68dc0745 |
918 | write a Makefile for an extension module from a Makefile.PL. For more |
919 | information, see L<ExtUtils::MakeMaker>. |
920 | |
921 | =head1 AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT |
922 | |
65acb1b1 |
923 | Copyright (c) 1997-1999 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington. |
5a964f20 |
924 | All rights reserved. |
925 | |
5a7beb56 |
926 | This documentation is free; you can redistribute it and/or modify it |
927 | under the same terms as Perl itself. |
c8db1d39 |
928 | |
87275199 |
929 | Irrespective of its distribution, all code examples here are in the public |
c8db1d39 |
930 | domain. You are permitted and encouraged to use this code and any |
931 | derivatives thereof in your own programs for fun or for profit as you |
932 | see fit. A simple comment in the code giving credit to the FAQ would |
933 | be courteous but is not required. |