Perl Kit, Version 5.0
- Copyright 1989-1996, Larry Wall
+ Copyright 1989-2000, Larry Wall
All rights reserved.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
Kit, in the file named "Artistic". If not, I'll be glad to provide one.
You should also have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
- along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
- Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
+ along with this program in the file named "Copying". If not, write to the
+ Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA
+ 02111-1307, USA or visit their web page on the internet at
+ http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html.
For those of you that choose to use the GNU General Public License,
my interpretation of the GNU General Public License is that no Perl
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Perl is a language that combines some of the features of C, sed, awk
-and shell. See the manual page for more hype. There are also two Nutshell
-Handbooks published by O'Reilly & Assoc. See pod/perlbook.pod
-for more information.
+and shell. See the manual page for more hype. There are also many Perl
+books available, covering a wide variety of topics, from various publishers.
+See pod/perlbook.pod for more information.
Please read all the directions below before you proceed any further, and
then follow them carefully.
Installation
-1) Detailed instructions are in the file INSTALL. In brief, the
-following should work on most systems:
- rm -f config.sh
- sh Configure
- make
- make test
- make install
-For most systems, it should be safe to accept all the Configure
-defaults.
+1) Detailed instructions are in the file "INSTALL", which you should
+read if you are either installing on a system resembling Unix
+or porting perl to another platform. For non-Unix platforms, see the
+corresponding README.
2) Read the manual entries before running perl.
3) IMPORTANT! Help save the world! Communicate any problems and suggested
-patches to me, lwall@sems.com (Larry Wall), so we can
-keep the world in sync. If you have a problem, there's someone else
-out there who either has had or will have the same problem.
-It's usually helpful if you send the output of the "myconfig" script
-in the main perl directory.
+patches to perlbug@perl.com so we can keep the world in sync.
+If you have a problem, there's someone else out there who either has had
+or will have the same problem. It's usually helpful if you send the
+output of the "myconfig" script in the main perl directory.
-If you've succeeded in compiling perl, the perlbug script in the utils/
+If you've succeeded in compiling perl, the perlbug script in the "utils"
subdirectory can be used to help mail in a bug report.
If possible, send in patches such that the patch program will apply them.
Context diffs are the best, then normal diffs. Don't send ed scripts--
I've probably changed my copy since the version you have.
-Watch for perl patches in comp.lang.perl.announce. Patches will generally
-be in a form usable by the patch program. If you are just now bringing
-up perl and aren't sure how many patches there are, write to me and I'll
-send any you don't have. Your current patch level is shown in
-patchlevel.h.
+The latest versions of perl are always available on the various CPAN
+(Comprehensive Perl Archive Network) sites around the world.
+See <URL:http://www.perl.com/CPAN/src/>.
Just a personal note: I want you to know that I create nice things like this