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:
+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
+ perlbook Perl book information
- perldata Perl data structures
perlsyn Perl syntax
+ perldata Perl data structures
perlop Perl operators and precedence
- perlre Perl regular expressions
- perlrun Perl execution and options
+ perlsub Perl subroutines
perlfunc Perl builtin functions
- perlopentut Perl open() tutorial
+ perlreftut Perl references short introduction
+ perldsc Perl data structures intro
+ perlrequick Perl regular expressions quick start
+ perlpod Perl plain old documentation
+ perlstyle Perl style guide
+ perltrap Perl traps for the unwary
+
+ perlrun Perl execution and options
+ perldiag Perl diagnostic messages
+ perllexwarn Perl warnings and their control
+ perldebtut Perl debugging tutorial
+ perldebug Perl debugging
+
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
+ perllol Perl data structures: arrays of arrays
+ perlopentut Perl open() tutorial
+ perlretut Perl regular expressions tutorial
+
+ perlref Perl references, the rest of the story
+ perlre Perl regular expressions, the rest of the story
perlform Perl formats
- perlunicode Perl unicode support
perllocale Perl locale support
+ perlunicode Perl unicode support
+
+ perlipc Perl interprocess communication
+ perlfork Perl fork() information
+ perlnumber Perl number semantics
+ perlthrtut Perl threads tutorial
+
+ perlport Perl portability guide
+ perlsec Perl security
- 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
perlboot Perl OO tutorial for beginners
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
- perllexwarn Perl warnings and their control
- perlfilter Perl source filters
- perldbmfilter Perl DBM filters
+ perltie Perl objects hidden behind simple variables
- perlcompile Perl compiler suite intro
- perldebug Perl debugging
- perldiag Perl diagnostic messages
- perlnumber Perl number semantics
- perlsec Perl security
- perltrap Perl traps for the unwary
- perlport Perl portability guide
- perlstyle Perl style guide
+ perlmod Perl modules: how they work
+ perlmodlib Perl modules: how to write and use
+ perlmodinstall Perl modules: how to install from CPAN
+ perlnewmod Perl modules: preparing a new module for distribution
+
+ perlfaq1 General Questions About Perl
+ perlfaq2 Obtaining and Learning about Perl
+ perlfaq3 Programming Tools
+ perlfaq4 Data Manipulation
+ perlfaq5 Files and Formats
+ perlfaq6 Regexes
+ perlfaq7 Perl Language Issues
+ perlfaq8 System Interaction
+ perlfaq9 Networking
- perlpod Perl plain old documentation
- perlbook Perl book information
+ perlcompile Perl compiler suite intro
perlembed Perl ways to embed perl in your C or C++ application
- perlapio Perl internal IO abstraction interface
- perlxs Perl XS application programming interface
+ perldebguts Perl debugging guts and tips
perlxstut Perl XS tutorial
+ perlxs Perl XS application programming interface
perlguts Perl internal functions for those doing extensions
perlcall Perl calling conventions from C
+ perlutil utilities packaged with the Perl distribution
+ perlfilter Perl source filters
+ perldbmfilter Perl DBM filters
perlapi Perl API listing (autogenerated)
perlintern Perl internal functions (autogenerated)
-
+ perlapio Perl internal IO abstraction interface
perltodo Perl things to do
perlhack Perl hackers guide
+
perlhist Perl history records
+ perldelta Perl changes since previous version
+ perl56delta Perl changes in version 5.6
+ perl5005delta Perl changes in version 5.005
+ perl5004delta Perl changes in version 5.004
perlamiga Perl notes for Amiga
perlcygwin Perl notes for Cygwin
perldos Perl notes for DOS
perlhpux Perl notes for HP-UX
+ perlmachten Perl notes for Power MachTen
perlos2 Perl notes for OS/2
perlos390 Perl notes for OS/390
+ perlposix-bc Perl notes for POSIX-BC
perlvms Perl notes for VMS
perlwin32 Perl notes for Windows
=head1 AVAILABILITY
Perl is available for most operating systems, including virtually
-all Unix-like platforms.
-
-As of early March 2000 (the Perl release 5.6.0), 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
- DOS DJGPP 1)
- FreeBSD
- HP-UX
- IRIX
- Linux
- MachTen
- MPE/iX
- NetBSD
- OpenBSD
- OS/2
- Rhapsody/Darwin 2)
- Solaris
- Tru64 UNIX 3)
- UNICOS
- UNICOS/mk
- VMS
- VOS
- Windows 3.1 1)
- Windows 95 1) 4)
- Windows 98 1) 4)
- Windows NT 1) 4)
-
- 1) in DOS mode either the DOS or OS/2 ports can be used
- 2) new in 5.6.0: the BSD/NeXT-based UNIX of Mac OS X
- 3) formerly known as Digital UNIX and before that DEC OSF/1
- 4) compilers: Borland, Cygwin, Mingw32 EGCS/GCC, VC++
-
-The following platforms worked for the previous major release
-(5.005_03 being the latest maintenance release of that, as of early
-March 2000), but be did not manage to test these in time for the 5.6.0
-release of Perl. There is a very good chance that these will work
-just fine with 5.6.0.
-
- A/UX
- BeOS
- BSD/OS
- DG/UX
- DYNIX/ptx
- DomainOS
- Hurd
- NextSTEP
- OpenSTEP
- PowerMAX
- QNX
- SCO ODT/OSR
- SunOS
- SVR4
- Ultrix
-
-The following platform worked for the previous major release (5.005_03
-being the latest maintenance release of that, as of early March 2000).
-However, standardization on UTF-8 as the internal string representation
-in 5.6.0 has introduced incompatibilities in this EBCDIC platform.
-Support for this platform may be enabled in a future release:
-
- OS390 1)
-
- 1) Previously known as MVS, or OpenEdition MVS.
-
-Strongly related to the OS390 platform by also being EBCDIC-based
-mainframe platforms are the following platforms:
-
- BS2000
- VM/ESA
-
-These are also not expected to work under 5.6.0 for the same reasons
-as OS390. Contact the mailing list perl-mvs@perl.org for more details.
-
-MacOS (Classic, pre-X) is almost 5.6.0-ready; building from the source
-does work with 5.6.0, but additional MacOS specific source code is needed
-for a complete port. Contact the mailing list macperl-porters@macperl.org
-for more more information.
-
-The following platforms have been known to build Perl from source in
-the past, 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
- AmigaOS
- ConvexOS
- CX/UX
- DC/OSx
- DDE SMES
- DOS EMX
- Dynix
- EP/IX
- ESIX
- FPS
- GENIX
- Greenhills
- ISC
- MachTen 68k
- MiNT
- MPC
- NEWS-OS
- Opus
- Plan 9
- PowerUX
- RISC/os
- Stellar
- SVR2
- TI1500
- TitanOS
- Unisys Dynix
- Unixware
-
-Support for the following platform is planned for a future Perl release:
-
- Netware
-
-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
- 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
-
-Although we do suggest that you always build your own Perl from
-the source code, both for maximal configurability and for security,
-in case you are in a hurry you can check
-http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ports/index.html for binary distributions.
+all Unix-like platforms. See L<perlport/"Supported Platforms">
+for a listing.
=head1 ENVIRONMENT
=head1 DIAGNOSTICS
-The B<-w> switch produces some lovely diagnostics.
+The C<use warnings> pragma (and 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
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
+in compiling perl, the B<perlbug> script in the F<utils/> subdirectory
can be used to help mail in a bug report.
Perl actually stands for Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister, but