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 a number
-of sections:
+If you're new to Perl, you should start with L<perlintro>, which is a
+general intro for beginners and provides some background to help you
+navigate the rest of Perl's extensive documentation.
+
+For ease of access, the Perl manual has been split up into several sections.
+
+=head2 Overview
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
+ perlintro Perl introduction for beginners
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
+=head2 Tutorials
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
+
+ perlrequick Perl regular expressions quick start
+ perlretut Perl regular expressions tutorial
+
+ perlboot Perl OO tutorial for beginners
perltoot Perl OO tutorial, part 1
- perltootc Perl OO tutorial, part 2
+ perltooc Perl OO tutorial, part 2
+ perlbot Perl OO tricks and examples
+
+ perlstyle Perl style guide
+
+ perlcheat Perl cheat sheet
+ perltrap Perl traps for the unwary
+ perldebtut Perl debugging tutorial
+
+ perlfaq Perl frequently asked questions
+ 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
+
+=head2 Reference Manual
+
+ perlsyn Perl syntax
+ perldata Perl data structures
+ perlop Perl operators and precedence
+ perlsub Perl subroutines
+ perlfunc Perl built-in functions
+ perlopentut Perl open() tutorial
+ perlpacktut Perl pack() and unpack() tutorial
+ perlpod Perl plain old documentation
+ perlpodspec Perl plain old documentation format specification
+ perlrun Perl execution and options
+ perldiag Perl diagnostic messages
+ perllexwarn Perl warnings and their control
+ perldebug Perl debugging
+ perlvar Perl predefined variables
+ perlre Perl regular expressions, the rest of the story
+ perlreref Perl regular expressions quick reference
+ perlref Perl references, the rest of the story
+ perlform Perl formats
perlobj Perl objects
perltie Perl objects hidden behind simple variables
- perlbot Perl OO tricks and examples
+ perldbmfilter Perl DBM filters
+
perlipc Perl interprocess communication
+ perlfork Perl fork() information
+ perlnumber Perl number semantics
+
perlthrtut Perl threads tutorial
- perldbmfilter Perl DBM Filters
+ perlothrtut Old Perl threads tutorial
- perldebug Perl debugging
- perldiag Perl diagnostic messages
- perlsec Perl security
- perltrap Perl traps for the unwary
perlport Perl portability guide
- perlstyle Perl style guide
+ perllocale Perl locale support
+ perluniintro Perl Unicode introduction
+ perlunicode Perl Unicode support
+ perlebcdic Considerations for running Perl on EBCDIC platforms
- perlpod Perl plain old documentation
- perlbook Perl book information
+ perlsec Perl security
+
+ perlmod Perl modules: how they work
+ perlmodlib Perl modules: how to write and use
+ perlmodstyle Perl modules: how to write modules with style
+ perlmodinstall Perl modules: how to install from CPAN
+ perlnewmod Perl modules: preparing a new module for distribution
+
+ perlutil utilities packaged with the Perl distribution
+
+ perlcompile Perl compiler suite intro
+
+ perlfilter Perl source filters
+
+=head2 Internals and C Language Interface
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
+ perlclib Internal replacements for standard C library functions
perlguts Perl internal functions for those doing extensions
perlcall Perl calling conventions from C
+ perlapi Perl API listing (autogenerated)
+ perlintern Perl internal functions (autogenerated)
+ perliol C API for Perl's implementation of IO in Layers
+ perlapio Perl internal IO abstraction interface
+
+ perlhack Perl hackers guide
+
+=head2 Miscellaneous
+
+ perlbook Perl book information
perltodo Perl things to do
+
+ perldoc Look up Perl documentation in Pod format
+
perlhist Perl history records
+ perldelta Perl changes since previous version
+ perl591delta Perl changes in version 5.9.1
+ perl590delta Perl changes in version 5.9.0
+ perl584delta Perl changes in version 5.8.4
+ perl583delta Perl changes in version 5.8.3
+ perl582delta Perl changes in version 5.8.2
+ perl581delta Perl changes in version 5.8.1
+ perl58delta Perl changes in version 5.8.0
+ perl573delta Perl changes in version 5.7.3
+ perl572delta Perl changes in version 5.7.2
+ perl571delta Perl changes in version 5.7.1
+ perl570delta Perl changes in version 5.7.0
+ perl561delta Perl changes in version 5.6.1
+ perl56delta Perl changes in version 5.6
+ perl5005delta Perl changes in version 5.005
+ perl5004delta Perl changes in version 5.004
+
+ perlartistic Perl Artistic License
+ perlgpl GNU General Public License
+
+=head2 Language-Specific
+
+ perlcn Perl for Simplified Chinese (in EUC-CN)
+ perljp Perl for Japanese (in EUC-JP)
+ perlko Perl for Korean (in EUC-KR)
+ perltw Perl for Traditional Chinese (in Big5)
+
+=head2 Platform-Specific
+
+ perlaix Perl notes for AIX
+ perlamiga Perl notes for AmigaOS
+ perlapollo Perl notes for Apollo DomainOS
+ perlbeos Perl notes for BeOS
+ perlbs2000 Perl notes for POSIX-BC BS2000
+ perlce Perl notes for WinCE
+ perlcygwin Perl notes for Cygwin
+ perldgux Perl notes for DG/UX
+ perldos Perl notes for DOS
+ perlepoc Perl notes for EPOC
+ perlfreebsd Perl notes for FreeBSD
+ perlhpux Perl notes for HP-UX
+ perlhurd Perl notes for Hurd
+ perlirix Perl notes for Irix
+ perlmachten Perl notes for Power MachTen
+ perlmacos Perl notes for Mac OS (Classic)
+ perlmacosx Perl notes for Mac OS X
+ perlmint Perl notes for MiNT
+ perlmpeix Perl notes for MPE/iX
+ perlnetware Perl notes for NetWare
+ perlos2 Perl notes for OS/2
+ perlos390 Perl notes for OS/390
+ perlos400 Perl notes for OS/400
+ perlplan9 Perl notes for Plan 9
+ perlqnx Perl notes for QNX
+ perlsolaris Perl notes for Solaris
+ perltru64 Perl notes for Tru64
+ perluts Perl notes for UTS
+ perlvmesa Perl notes for VM/ESA
+ perlvms Perl notes for VMS
+ perlvos Perl notes for Stratus VOS
+ perlwin32 Perl notes for Windows
-(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.
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 quite closely to C
+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 very quickly. Although optimized for
+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 which prevents many stupid
+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
Begun in 1993 (see L<perlhist>), Perl version 5 is nearly a complete
rewrite that provides the following additional benefits:
-=over
+=over 4
-=item * modularity and reusability using innumerable modules
+=item *
+
+modularity and reusability using innumerable modules
Described in L<perlmod>, L<perlmodlib>, and L<perlmodinstall>.
-=item * embeddable and extensible
+=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)
+=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
+=item *
+
+subroutines can now be overridden, autoloaded, and prototyped
Described in L<perlsub>.
-=item * arbitrarily nested data structures and anonymous functions
+=item *
+
+arbitrarily nested data structures and anonymous functions
Described in L<perlreftut>, L<perlref>, L<perldsc>, and L<perllol>.
-=item * object-oriented programming
+=item *
-Described in L<perlobj>, L<perltoot>, and L<perlbot>.
+object-oriented programming
-=item * compilability into C code or Perl bytecode
+Described in L<perlobj>, L<perlboot>, L<perltoot>, L<perltooc>,
+and L<perlbot>.
-Described in L<B> and L<B::Bytecode>.
+=item *
-=item * support for light-weight processes (threads)
+support for light-weight processes (threads)
-Described in L<perlthrtut> and L<Thread>.
+Described in L<perlthrtut> and L<threads>.
-=item * support for internationalization, localization, and Unicode
+=item *
-Described in L<perllocale> and L<utf8>.
+support for Unicode, internationalization, and localization
-=item * lexical scoping
+Described in L<perluniintro>, L<perllocale> and L<Locale::Maketext>.
+
+=item *
+
+lexical scoping
Described in L<perlsub>.
-=item * regular expression enhancements
+=item *
+
+regular expression enhancements
Described in L<perlre>, with additional examples in L<perlop>.
-=item * enhanced debugger and interactive Perl environment, with intregrated editor support
+=item *
+
+enhanced debugger and interactive Perl environment,
+with integrated editor support
+
+Described in L<perldebtut>, L<perldebug> and L<perldebguts>.
-Described in L<perldebug>.
+=item *
-=item * POSIX 1003.1 compliant library
+POSIX 1003.1 compliant library
Described in L<POSIX>.
=head1 AVAILABILITY
-Perl is available for the vast majority of operating system platforms,
-including most Unix-like platforms. The following situation is as of
-February 1999 and Perl 5.005_03.
-
-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, Cygwin32, Mingw32 EGCS/GCC, VC++
-
-The following platforms have been known to build Perl from the source
-but for the Perl release 5.005_03 we haven't been able to verify them,
-either because the hardware/software platforms are rather 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
-
-The following platforms are planned to be supported in the standard
-source code distribution of the Perl release 5.006 but are not
-supported in the Perl release 5.005_03:
-
- 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
+Perl is available for most operating systems, including virtually
+all Unix-like platforms. See L<perlport/"Supported Platforms">
+for a listing.
=head1 ENVIRONMENT
a2p awk to perl translator
s2p sed to perl translator
- http://www.perl.com/ the Perl Home Page
- http://www.perl.com/CPAN the Comphrehensive Perl Archive
+ http://www.perl.com/ the Perl Home Page
+ http://www.cpan.org/ the Comprehensive Perl Archive
+ http://www.perl.org/ Perl Mongers (Perl user groups)
=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
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 the case of a script passed to Perl via B<-e> switches, each
+(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
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
+tree, or by C<perl -V>) to perlbug@perl.org . If you've succeeded
+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
projects / p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git / blobdiff