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Rev Author # Line
1 GlynWebster 1 PERL
2 !!!PERL
3 NAME
4 SYNOPSIS
5 DESCRIPTION
6 AVAILABILITY
7 ENVIRONMENT
8 AUTHOR
9 FILES
10 SEE ALSO
11 DIAGNOSTICS
12 BUGS
13 NOTES
14 ----
15 !!NAME
16
17
18 perl - Practical Extraction and Report Language
19 !!SYNOPSIS
20
21
22 __perl__ [[ __-sTuU__ ] [[ __-hv__ ] [[
23 __-V__[[:''configvar''] ] [[ __-cw__ ] [[
24 __-d__[[:''debugger''] ] [[
25 __-D__[[''number/list''] ] [[ __-pna__ ] [[
26 __-F__''pattern'' ] [[ __-l__[[''octal''] ] [[
27 __-0__[[''octal''] ] [[ __-I__''dir'' ] [[
28 __-m__[[__-__]''module'' ] [[
29 __-M__[[__-__]'''module...''' ] [[ __-P__ ] [[
30 __-S__ ] [[ __-x__[[''dir''] ] [[
31 __-i__[[''extension''] ] [[ __-e__ '''command''' ]
32 [[ __--__ ] [[ ''programfile'' ] [[ ''argument''
33 ]...
34
35
36 For ease of access, the Perl manual has been split up into
37 several sections:
38
39
40 perl Perl overview (this section)
41 perlfaq Perl frequently asked questions
42 perltoc Perl documentation table of contents
43 perlbook Perl book information
44 perlsyn Perl syntax
45 perldata Perl data structures
46 perlop Perl operators and precedence
47 perlsub Perl subroutines
48 perlfunc Perl builtin functions
49 perlreftut Perl references short introduction
50 perldsc Perl data structures intro
51 perlrequick Perl regular expressions quick start
52 perlpod Perl plain old documentation
53 perlstyle Perl style guide
54 perltrap Perl traps for the unwary
55 perlrun Perl execution and options
56 perldiag Perl diagnostic messages
57 perllexwarn Perl warnings and their control
58 perldebtut Perl debugging tutorial
59 perldebug Perl debugging
60 perlvar Perl predefined variables
61 perllol Perl data structures: arrays of arrays
62 perlopentut Perl open() tutorial
63 perlretut Perl regular expressions tutorial
64 perlre Perl regular expressions, the rest of the story
65 perlref Perl references, the rest of the story
66 perlform Perl formats
67 perlboot Perl OO tutorial for beginners
68 perltoot Perl OO tutorial, part 1
69 perltootc Perl OO tutorial, part 2
70 perlobj Perl objects
71 perlbot Perl OO tricks and examples
72 perltie Perl objects hidden behind simple variables
73 perlipc Perl interprocess communication
74 perlfork Perl fork() information
75 perlnumber Perl number semantics
76 perlthrtut Perl threads tutorial
77 perlport Perl portability guide
78 perllocale Perl locale support
79 perlunicode Perl unicode support
80 perlebcdic Considerations for running Perl on EBCDIC platforms
81 perlsec Perl security
82 perlmod Perl modules: how they work
83 perlmodlib Perl modules: how to write and use
84 perlmodinstall Perl modules: how to install from CPAN
85 perlnewmod Perl modules: preparing a new module for distribution
86 perlfaq1 General Questions About Perl
87 perlfaq2 Obtaining and Learning about Perl
88 perlfaq3 Programming Tools
89 perlfaq4 Data Manipulation
90 perlfaq5 Files and Formats
91 perlfaq6 Regexes
92 perlfaq7 Perl Language Issues
93 perlfaq8 System Interaction
94 perlfaq9 Networking
95 perlcompile Perl compiler suite intro
96 perlembed Perl ways to embed perl in your C or C++ application
97 perldebguts Perl debugging guts and tips
98 perlxstut Perl XS tutorial
99 perlxs Perl XS application programming interface
100 perlclib Internal replacements for standard C library functions
101 perlguts Perl internal functions for those doing extensions
102 perlcall Perl calling conventions from C
103 perlutil utilities packaged with the Perl distribution
104 perlfilter Perl source filters (package: libfilter-perl)
105 perldbmfilter Perl DBM filters
106 perlapi Perl API listing (autogenerated)
107 perlintern Perl internal functions (autogenerated)
108 perlapio Perl internal IO abstraction interface
109 perltodo Perl things to do
110 perlhack Perl hackers guide
111 perlhist Perl history records
112 perldelta Perl changes since previous version
113 perl5005delta Perl changes in version 5.005
114 perl5004delta Perl changes in version 5.004
115 perlaix Perl notes for AIX
116 perlamiga Perl notes for Amiga
117 perlbs2000 Perl notes for POSIX-BC BS2000
118 perlcygwin Perl notes for Cygwin
119 perldos Perl notes for DOS
120 perlepoc Perl notes for EPOC
121 perlhpux Perl notes for HP-UX
2 !GlynWebster 122 perlmachten Perl notes for Power !MachTen
1 GlynWebster 123 perlmacos Perl notes for Mac OS (Classic)
124 perlmpeix Perl notes for MPE/iX
125 perlos2 Perl notes for OS/2
126 perlos390 Perl notes for OS/390
127 perlsolaris Perl notes for Solaris
128 perlvmesa Perl notes for VM/ESA
129 perlvms Perl notes for VMS
130 perlvos Perl notes for Stratus VOS
131 perlwin32 Perl notes for Windows
132 (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.)
133
134
135 On Debian systems, you need to install the __perl-doc__
136 package which contains the majority of the standard Perl
137 documentation and the ''perldoc'' program.
138
139
140 Extensive additional documentation for Perl modules is
141 available, both those distributed with Perl and third-party
142 modules which are packaged or locally
143 installed.
144
145
146 You should be able to view Perl's documentation with your
147 man(1) program or perldoc(1).
148
149
150 If something strange has gone wrong with your program and
151 you're not sure where you should look for help, try the
152 __-w__ switch first. It will often point out exactly
153 where the trouble is.
154 !!DESCRIPTION
155
156
157 Perl is a language optimized for scanning arbitrary text
158 files, extracting information from those text files, and
159 printing reports based on that information. It's also a good
160 language for many system management tasks. The language is
161 intended to be practical (easy to use, efficient, complete)
162 rather than beautiful (tiny, elegant, minimal).
163
164
165 Perl combines (in the author's opinion, anyway) some of the
166 best features of C, __sed__, __awk__, and __sh__,
167 so people familiar with those languages should have little
168 difficulty with it. (Language historians will also note some
169 vestiges of __csh__, Pascal, and even
170 BASIC-PLUS .) Expression syntax corresponds
171 closely to C expression syntax. Unlike most Unix utilities,
172 Perl does not arbitrarily limit the size of your data--if
173 you've got the memory, Perl can slurp in your whole file as
174 a single string. Recursion is of unlimited depth. And the
175 tables used by hashes (sometimes called ``associative
176 arrays'') grow as necessary to prevent degraded performance.
177 Perl can use sophisticated pattern matching techniques to
178 scan large amounts of data quickly. Although optimized for
179 scanning text, Perl can also deal with binary data, and can
180 make dbm files look like hashes. Setuid Perl scripts are
181 safer than C programs through a dataflow tracing mechanism
182 that prevents many stupid security holes.
183
184
185 If you have a problem that would ordinarily use __sed__
186 or __awk__ or __sh__, but it exceeds their
187 capabilities or must run a little faster, and you don't want
188 to write the silly thing in C, then Perl may be for you.
189 There are also translators to turn your __sed__ and
190 __awk__ scripts into Perl scripts.
191
192
193 But wait, there's more...
194
195
196 Begun in 1993 (see perlhist), Perl version 5 is nearly a
197 complete rewrite that provides the following additional
198 benefits:
199
200
201 modularity and reusability using innumerable
202 modules
203
204
205 Described in perlmod, perlmodlib, and
206 perlmodinstall.
207
208
209 embeddable and extensible
210
211
212 Described in perlembed, perlxstut, perlxs, perlcall,
213 perlguts, and xsubpp.
214
215
216 roll-your-own magic variables (including multiple
217 simultaneous DBM
218 implementations)
219
220
221 Described in perltie and AnyDBM_File.
222
223
224 subroutines can now be overridden, autoloaded, and
225 prototyped
226
227
228 Described in perlsub.
229
230
231 arbitrarily nested data structures and anonymous
232 functions
233
234
235 Described in perlreftut, perlref, perldsc, and
236 perllol.
237
238
239 object-oriented programming
240
241
242 Described in perlobj, perltoot, and perlbot.
243
244
245 compilability into C code or Perl bytecode
246
247
248 Described in B and B::Bytecode.
249
250
251 support for light-weight processes (threads)
252
253
254 Described in perlthrtut and Thread.
255
256
257 support for internationalization, localization, and
258 Unicode
259
260
261 Described in perllocale and utf8.
262
263
264 lexical scoping
265
266
267 Described in perlsub.
268
269
270 regular expression enhancements
271
272
273 Described in perlre, with additional examples in
274 perlop.
275
276
277 enhanced debugger and interactive Perl environment, with
278 integrated editor support
279
280
281 Described in perldebug.
282
283
284 POSIX 1003.1 compliant library
285
286
287 Described in POSIX .
288
289
290 Okay, that's ''definitely'' enough hype.
291 !!AVAILABILITY
292
293
294 Perl is available for most operating systems, including
295 virtually all Unix-like platforms. See ``Supported
296 Platforms'' in perlport for a listing.
297 !!ENVIRONMENT
298
299
300 See perlrun.
301 !!AUTHOR
302
303
304 Larry Wall
305
306
307 If your Perl success stories and testimonials may be of help
308 to others who wish to advocate the use of Perl in their
309 applications, or if you wish to simply express your
310 gratitude to Larry and the Perl developers, please write to
311 perl-thanks@perl.org .
312 !!FILES
313
314
315
316 !!SEE ALSO
317
318
319 a2p awk to perl translator
320 s2p sed to perl translator
321 http://www.perl.com/ the Perl Home Page
322 http://www.perl.com/CPAN the Comprehensive Perl Archive
323 !!DIAGNOSTICS
324
325
326 The use warnings pragma (and the __-w__ switch)
327 produces some lovely diagnostics.
328
329
330 See perldiag for explanations of all Perl's diagnostics. The
331 use diagnostics pragma automatically turns Perl's
332 normally terse warnings and errors into these longer
333 forms.
334
335
336 Compilation errors will tell you the line number of the
337 error, with an indication of the next token or token type
338 that was to be examined. (In a script passed to Perl via
339 __-e__ switches, each __-e__ is counted as one
340 line.)
341
342
343 Setuid scripts have additional constraints that can produce
344 error messages such as ``Insecure dependency''. See
345 perlsec.
346
347
348 Did we mention that you should definitely consider using the
349 __-w__ switch?
350 !!BUGS
351
352
353 The __-w__ switch is not mandatory.
354
355
356 Perl is at the mercy of your machine's definitions of
357 various operations such as type casting, ''atof()'', and
358 floating-point output with ''sprintf()''.
359
360
361 If your stdio requires a seek or eof between reads and
362 writes on a particular stream, so does Perl. (This doesn't
363 apply to ''sysread()'' and
364 ''syswrite()''.)
365
366
367 While none of the built-in data types have any arbitrary
368 size limits (apart from memory size), there are still a few
369 arbitrary limits: a given variable name may not be longer
370 than 251 characters. Line numbers displayed by diagnostics
371 are internally stored as short integers, so they are limited
372 to a maximum of 65535 (higher numbers usually being affected
373 by wraparound).
374
375
376 You may mail your bug reports (be sure to include full
377 configuration information as output by the myconfig program
378 in the perl source tree, or by perl -V) to
379 perlbug@perl.org . If you've succeeded in compiling perl,
380 the __perlbug__ script in the ''utils/'' subdirectory
381 can be used to help mail in a bug report.
382
383
384 Perl actually stands for Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish
385 Lister, but don't tell anyone I said that.
386 !!NOTES
387
388
389 The Perl motto is ``There's more than one way to do it.''
390 Divining how many more is left as an exercise to the
391 reader.
392
393
394 The three principal virtues of a programmer are Laziness,
395 Impatience, and Hubris. See the Camel Book for
396 why.
397
398 Knowing your camels: the ''dromedary'' has one hump; the ''Bactrian camel'' two; a ''perl'' is any camel with three or more humps, or more than five legs.
399
400 ----
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