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129 | .\" ======================================================================== | |
130 | .\" | |
131 | .IX Title "PERL 1" | |
132 | .TH PERL 1 "2002-06-08" "perl v5.8.0" "Perl Programmers Reference Guide" | |
133 | .SH "NAME" | |
134 | perl \- Practical Extraction and Report Language | |
135 | .SH "SYNOPSIS" | |
136 | .IX Header "SYNOPSIS" | |
137 | \&\fBperl\fR [\ \fB\-sTuU\fR\ ] [\ \fB\-hv\fR\ ]\ [\ \fB\-V\fR[:\fIconfigvar\fR]\ ] | |
138 | [\ \fB\-cw\fR\ ]\ [\ \fB\-d\fR[:\fIdebugger\fR]\ ]\ [\ \fB\-D\fR[\fInumber/list\fR]\ ] | |
139 | [\ \fB\-pna\fR\ ]\ [\ \fB\-F\fR\fIpattern\fR\ ]\ [\ \fB\-l\fR[\fIoctal\fR]\ ]\ [\ \fB\-0\fR[\fIoctal\fR]\ ] | |
140 | [\ \fB\-I\fR\fIdir\fR\ ]\ [\ \fB\-m\fR[\fB\-\fR]\fImodule\fR\ ]\ [\ \fB\-M\fR[\fB\-\fR]\fI'module...'\fR\ ] | |
141 | [\ \fB\-P\fR\ ] [\ \fB\-S\fR\ ] [\ \fB\-x\fR[\fIdir\fR]\ ] | |
142 | [\ \fB\-i\fR[\fIextension\fR]\ ] [\ \fB\-e\fR\ \fI'command'\fR\ ]\ [\ \fB\-\-\fR\ ]\ [\ \fIprogramfile\fR\ ]\ [\ \fIargument\fR\ ]... | |
143 | .PP | |
144 | If you're new to Perl, you should start with perlintro, which is a | |
145 | general intro for beginners and provides some background to help you | |
146 | navigate the rest of Perl's extensive documentation. | |
147 | .PP | |
148 | For ease of access, the Perl manual has been split up into several sections. | |
149 | .Sh "Overview" | |
150 | .IX Subsection "Overview" | |
151 | .Vb 3 | |
152 | \& perl Perl overview (this section) | |
153 | \& perlintro Perl introduction for beginners | |
154 | \& perltoc Perl documentation table of contents | |
155 | .Ve | |
156 | .Sh "Tutorials" | |
157 | .IX Subsection "Tutorials" | |
158 | .Vb 3 | |
159 | \& perlreftut Perl references short introduction | |
160 | \& perldsc Perl data structures intro | |
161 | \& perllol Perl data structures: arrays of arrays | |
162 | .Ve | |
163 | .PP | |
164 | .Vb 2 | |
165 | \& perlrequick Perl regular expressions quick start | |
166 | \& perlretut Perl regular expressions tutorial | |
167 | .Ve | |
168 | .PP | |
169 | .Vb 4 | |
170 | \& perlboot Perl OO tutorial for beginners | |
171 | \& perltoot Perl OO tutorial, part 1 | |
172 | \& perltooc Perl OO tutorial, part 2 | |
173 | \& perlbot Perl OO tricks and examples | |
174 | .Ve | |
175 | .PP | |
176 | .Vb 1 | |
177 | \& perlstyle Perl style guide | |
178 | .Ve | |
179 | .PP | |
180 | .Vb 2 | |
181 | \& perltrap Perl traps for the unwary | |
182 | \& perldebtut Perl debugging tutorial | |
183 | .Ve | |
184 | .PP | |
185 | .Vb 10 | |
186 | \& perlfaq Perl frequently asked questions | |
187 | \& perlfaq1 General Questions About Perl | |
188 | \& perlfaq2 Obtaining and Learning about Perl | |
189 | \& perlfaq3 Programming Tools | |
190 | \& perlfaq4 Data Manipulation | |
191 | \& perlfaq5 Files and Formats | |
192 | \& perlfaq6 Regexes | |
193 | \& perlfaq7 Perl Language Issues | |
194 | \& perlfaq8 System Interaction | |
195 | \& perlfaq9 Networking | |
196 | .Ve | |
197 | .Sh "Reference Manual" | |
198 | .IX Subsection "Reference Manual" | |
199 | .Vb 20 | |
200 | \& perlsyn Perl syntax | |
201 | \& perldata Perl data structures | |
202 | \& perlop Perl operators and precedence | |
203 | \& perlsub Perl subroutines | |
204 | \& perlfunc Perl built-in functions | |
205 | \& perlopentut Perl open() tutorial | |
206 | \& perlpacktut Perl pack() and unpack() tutorial | |
207 | \& perlpod Perl plain old documentation | |
208 | \& perlpodspec Perl plain old documentation format specification | |
209 | \& perlrun Perl execution and options | |
210 | \& perldiag Perl diagnostic messages | |
211 | \& perllexwarn Perl warnings and their control | |
212 | \& perldebug Perl debugging | |
213 | \& perlvar Perl predefined variables | |
214 | \& perlre Perl regular expressions, the rest of the story | |
215 | \& perlref Perl references, the rest of the story | |
216 | \& perlform Perl formats | |
217 | \& perlobj Perl objects | |
218 | \& perltie Perl objects hidden behind simple variables | |
219 | \& perldbmfilter Perl DBM filters | |
220 | .Ve | |
221 | .PP | |
222 | .Vb 3 | |
223 | \& perlipc Perl interprocess communication | |
224 | \& perlfork Perl fork() information | |
225 | \& perlnumber Perl number semantics | |
226 | .Ve | |
227 | .PP | |
228 | .Vb 2 | |
229 | \& perlthrtut Perl threads tutorial | |
230 | \& perlothrtut Old Perl threads tutorial | |
231 | .Ve | |
232 | .PP | |
233 | .Vb 5 | |
234 | \& perlport Perl portability guide | |
235 | \& perllocale Perl locale support | |
236 | \& perluniintro Perl Unicode introduction | |
237 | \& perlunicode Perl Unicode support | |
238 | \& perlebcdic Considerations for running Perl on EBCDIC platforms | |
239 | .Ve | |
240 | .PP | |
241 | .Vb 1 | |
242 | \& perlsec Perl security | |
243 | .Ve | |
244 | .PP | |
245 | .Vb 5 | |
246 | \& perlmod Perl modules: how they work | |
247 | \& perlmodlib Perl modules: how to write and use | |
248 | \& perlmodstyle Perl modules: how to write modules with style | |
249 | \& perlmodinstall Perl modules: how to install from CPAN | |
250 | \& perlnewmod Perl modules: preparing a new module for distribution | |
251 | .Ve | |
252 | .PP | |
253 | .Vb 1 | |
254 | \& perlutil utilities packaged with the Perl distribution | |
255 | .Ve | |
256 | .PP | |
257 | .Vb 1 | |
258 | \& perlcompile Perl compiler suite intro | |
259 | .Ve | |
260 | .PP | |
261 | .Vb 1 | |
262 | \& perlfilter Perl source filters | |
263 | .Ve | |
264 | .Sh "Internals and C Language Interface" | |
265 | .IX Subsection "Internals and C Language Interface" | |
266 | .Vb 7 | |
267 | \& perlembed Perl ways to embed perl in your C or C++ application | |
268 | \& perldebguts Perl debugging guts and tips | |
269 | \& perlxstut Perl XS tutorial | |
270 | \& perlxs Perl XS application programming interface | |
271 | \& perlclib Internal replacements for standard C library functions | |
272 | \& perlguts Perl internal functions for those doing extensions | |
273 | \& perlcall Perl calling conventions from C | |
274 | .Ve | |
275 | .PP | |
276 | .Vb 4 | |
277 | \& perlapi Perl API listing (autogenerated) | |
278 | \& perlintern Perl internal functions (autogenerated) | |
279 | \& perliol C API for Perl's implementation of IO in Layers | |
280 | \& perlapio Perl internal IO abstraction interface | |
281 | .Ve | |
282 | .PP | |
283 | .Vb 1 | |
284 | \& perlhack Perl hackers guide | |
285 | .Ve | |
286 | .Sh "Miscellaneous" | |
287 | .IX Subsection "Miscellaneous" | |
288 | .Vb 2 | |
289 | \& perlbook Perl book information | |
290 | \& perltodo Perl things to do | |
291 | .Ve | |
292 | .PP | |
293 | .Vb 9 | |
294 | \& perlhist Perl history records | |
295 | \& perldelta Perl changes since previous version | |
296 | \& perl572delta Perl changes in version 5.7.2 | |
297 | \& perl571delta Perl changes in version 5.7.1 | |
298 | \& perl570delta Perl changes in version 5.7.0 | |
299 | \& perl561delta Perl changes in version 5.6.1 | |
300 | \& perl56delta Perl changes in version 5.6 | |
301 | \& perl5005delta Perl changes in version 5.005 | |
302 | \& perl5004delta Perl changes in version 5.004 | |
303 | .Ve | |
304 | .Sh "Language-Specific" | |
305 | .IX Subsection "Language-Specific" | |
306 | .Vb 4 | |
307 | \& perlcn Perl for Simplified Chinese (in EUC-CN) | |
308 | \& perljp Perl for Japanese (in EUC-JP) | |
309 | \& perlko Perl for Korean (in EUC-KR) | |
310 | \& perltw Perl for Traditional Chinese (in Big5) | |
311 | .Ve | |
312 | .Sh "Platform-Specific" | |
313 | .IX Subsection "Platform-Specific" | |
314 | .Vb 30 | |
315 | \& perlaix Perl notes for AIX | |
316 | \& perlamiga Perl notes for AmigaOS | |
317 | \& perlapollo Perl notes for Apollo DomainOS | |
318 | \& perlbeos Perl notes for BeOS | |
319 | \& perlbs2000 Perl notes for POSIX-BC BS2000 | |
320 | \& perlce Perl notes for WinCE | |
321 | \& perlcygwin Perl notes for Cygwin | |
322 | \& perldgux Perl notes for DG/UX | |
323 | \& perldos Perl notes for DOS | |
324 | \& perlepoc Perl notes for EPOC | |
325 | \& perlfreebsd Perl notes for FreeBSD | |
326 | \& perlhpux Perl notes for HP-UX | |
327 | \& perlhurd Perl notes for Hurd | |
328 | \& perlirix Perl notes for Irix | |
329 | \& perlmachten Perl notes for Power MachTen | |
330 | \& perlmacos Perl notes for Mac OS (Classic) | |
331 | \& perlmint Perl notes for MiNT | |
332 | \& perlmpeix Perl notes for MPE/iX | |
333 | \& perlnetware Perl notes for NetWare | |
334 | \& perlos2 Perl notes for OS/2 | |
335 | \& perlos390 Perl notes for OS/390 | |
336 | \& perlplan9 Perl notes for Plan 9 | |
337 | \& perlqnx Perl notes for QNX | |
338 | \& perlsolaris Perl notes for Solaris | |
339 | \& perltru64 Perl notes for Tru64 | |
340 | \& perluts Perl notes for UTS | |
341 | \& perlvmesa Perl notes for VM/ESA | |
342 | \& perlvms Perl notes for VMS | |
343 | \& perlvos Perl notes for Stratus VOS | |
344 | \& perlwin32 Perl notes for Windows | |
345 | .Ve | |
346 | .PP | |
347 | By default, the manpages listed above are installed in the | |
348 | \&\fI/usr/local/man/\fR directory. | |
349 | .PP | |
350 | Extensive additional documentation for Perl modules is available. The | |
351 | default configuration for perl will place this additional documentation | |
352 | in the \fI/usr/local/lib/perl5/man\fR directory (or else in the \fIman\fR | |
353 | subdirectory of the Perl library directory). Some of this additional | |
354 | documentation is distributed standard with Perl, but you'll also find | |
355 | documentation for third-party modules there. | |
356 | .PP | |
357 | You should be able to view Perl's documentation with your \fIman\fR\|(1) | |
358 | program by including the proper directories in the appropriate start-up | |
359 | files, or in the \s-1MANPATH\s0 environment variable. To find out where the | |
360 | configuration has installed the manpages, type: | |
361 | .PP | |
362 | .Vb 1 | |
363 | \& perl -V:man.dir | |
364 | .Ve | |
365 | .PP | |
366 | If the directories have a common stem, such as \fI/usr/local/man/man1\fR | |
367 | and \fI/usr/local/man/man3\fR, you need only to add that stem | |
368 | (\fI/usr/local/man\fR) to your \fIman\fR\|(1) configuration files or your \s-1MANPATH\s0 | |
369 | environment variable. If they do not share a stem, you'll have to add | |
370 | both stems. | |
371 | .PP | |
372 | If that doesn't work for some reason, you can still use the | |
373 | supplied \fIperldoc\fR script to view module information. You might | |
374 | also look into getting a replacement man program. | |
375 | .PP | |
376 | If something strange has gone wrong with your program and you're not | |
377 | sure where you should look for help, try the \fB\-w\fR switch first. It | |
378 | will often point out exactly where the trouble is. | |
379 | .SH "DESCRIPTION" | |
380 | .IX Header "DESCRIPTION" | |
381 | Perl is a language optimized for scanning arbitrary | |
382 | text files, extracting information from those text files, and printing | |
383 | reports based on that information. It's also a good language for many | |
384 | system management tasks. The language is intended to be practical | |
385 | (easy to use, efficient, complete) rather than beautiful (tiny, | |
386 | elegant, minimal). | |
387 | .PP | |
388 | Perl combines (in the author's opinion, anyway) some of the best | |
389 | features of C, \fBsed\fR, \fBawk\fR, and \fBsh\fR, so people familiar with | |
390 | those languages should have little difficulty with it. (Language | |
391 | historians will also note some vestiges of \fBcsh\fR, Pascal, and even | |
392 | \&\s-1BASIC\-PLUS\s0.) Expression syntax corresponds closely to C | |
393 | expression syntax. Unlike most Unix utilities, Perl does not | |
394 | arbitrarily limit the size of your data\*(--if you've got the memory, | |
395 | Perl can slurp in your whole file as a single string. Recursion is of | |
396 | unlimited depth. And the tables used by hashes (sometimes called | |
397 | \&\*(L"associative arrays\*(R") grow as necessary to prevent degraded | |
398 | performance. Perl can use sophisticated pattern matching techniques to | |
399 | scan large amounts of data quickly. Although optimized for | |
400 | scanning text, Perl can also deal with binary data, and can make dbm | |
401 | files look like hashes. Setuid Perl scripts are safer than C programs | |
402 | through a dataflow tracing mechanism that prevents many stupid | |
403 | security holes. | |
404 | .PP | |
405 | If you have a problem that would ordinarily use \fBsed\fR or \fBawk\fR or | |
406 | \&\fBsh\fR, but it exceeds their capabilities or must run a little faster, | |
407 | and you don't want to write the silly thing in C, then Perl may be for | |
408 | you. There are also translators to turn your \fBsed\fR and \fBawk\fR | |
409 | scripts into Perl scripts. | |
410 | .PP | |
411 | But wait, there's more... | |
412 | .PP | |
413 | Begun in 1993 (see perlhist), Perl version 5 is nearly a complete | |
414 | rewrite that provides the following additional benefits: | |
415 | .IP "\(bu" 4 | |
416 | modularity and reusability using innumerable modules | |
417 | .Sp | |
418 | Described in perlmod, perlmodlib, and perlmodinstall. | |
419 | .IP "\(bu" 4 | |
420 | embeddable and extensible | |
421 | .Sp | |
422 | Described in perlembed, perlxstut, perlxs, perlcall, | |
423 | perlguts, and xsubpp. | |
424 | .IP "\(bu" 4 | |
425 | roll-your-own magic variables (including multiple simultaneous \s-1DBM\s0 implementations) | |
426 | .Sp | |
427 | Described in perltie and AnyDBM_File. | |
428 | .IP "\(bu" 4 | |
429 | subroutines can now be overridden, autoloaded, and prototyped | |
430 | .Sp | |
431 | Described in perlsub. | |
432 | .IP "\(bu" 4 | |
433 | arbitrarily nested data structures and anonymous functions | |
434 | .Sp | |
435 | Described in perlreftut, perlref, perldsc, and perllol. | |
436 | .IP "\(bu" 4 | |
437 | object-oriented programming | |
438 | .Sp | |
439 | Described in perlobj, perlboot, perltoot, perltooc, | |
440 | and perlbot. | |
441 | .IP "\(bu" 4 | |
442 | compilability into C code or Perl bytecode | |
443 | .Sp | |
444 | Described in B and B::Bytecode. | |
445 | .IP "\(bu" 4 | |
446 | support for light-weight processes (threads) | |
447 | .Sp | |
448 | Described in perlthrtut and Thread. | |
449 | .IP "\(bu" 4 | |
450 | support for internationalization, localization, and Unicode | |
451 | .Sp | |
452 | Described in perllocale and utf8. | |
453 | .IP "\(bu" 4 | |
454 | lexical scoping | |
455 | .Sp | |
456 | Described in perlsub. | |
457 | .IP "\(bu" 4 | |
458 | regular expression enhancements | |
459 | .Sp | |
460 | Described in perlre, with additional examples in perlop. | |
461 | .IP "\(bu" 4 | |
462 | enhanced debugger and interactive Perl environment, | |
463 | with integrated editor support | |
464 | .Sp | |
465 | Described in perldebtut, perldebug and perldebguts. | |
466 | .IP "\(bu" 4 | |
467 | \&\s-1POSIX\s0 1003.1 compliant library | |
468 | .Sp | |
469 | Described in \s-1POSIX\s0. | |
470 | .PP | |
471 | Okay, that's \fIdefinitely\fR enough hype. | |
472 | .SH "AVAILABILITY" | |
473 | .IX Header "AVAILABILITY" | |
474 | Perl is available for most operating systems, including virtually | |
475 | all Unix-like platforms. See \*(L"Supported Platforms\*(R" in perlport | |
476 | for a listing. | |
477 | .SH "ENVIRONMENT" | |
478 | .IX Header "ENVIRONMENT" | |
479 | See perlrun. | |
480 | .SH "AUTHOR" | |
481 | .IX Header "AUTHOR" | |
482 | Larry Wall <larry@wall.org>, with the help of oodles of other folks. | |
483 | .PP | |
484 | If your Perl success stories and testimonials may be of help to others | |
485 | who wish to advocate the use of Perl in their applications, | |
486 | or if you wish to simply express your gratitude to Larry and the | |
487 | Perl developers, please write to perl\-thanks@perl.org . | |
488 | .SH "FILES" | |
489 | .IX Header "FILES" | |
490 | .Vb 1 | |
491 | \& "@INC" locations of perl libraries | |
492 | .Ve | |
493 | .SH "SEE ALSO" | |
494 | .IX Header "SEE ALSO" | |
495 | .Vb 2 | |
496 | \& a2p awk to perl translator | |
497 | \& s2p sed to perl translator | |
498 | .Ve | |
499 | .PP | |
500 | .Vb 3 | |
501 | \& http://www.perl.com/ the Perl Home Page | |
502 | \& http://www.cpan.org/ the Comprehensive Perl Archive | |
503 | \& http://www.perl.org/ Perl Mongers (Perl user groups) | |
504 | .Ve | |
505 | .SH "DIAGNOSTICS" | |
506 | .IX Header "DIAGNOSTICS" | |
507 | The \f(CW\*(C`use warnings\*(C'\fR pragma (and the \fB\-w\fR switch) produces some | |
508 | lovely diagnostics. | |
509 | .PP | |
510 | See perldiag for explanations of all Perl's diagnostics. The \f(CW\*(C`use | |
511 | diagnostics\*(C'\fR pragma automatically turns Perl's normally terse warnings | |
512 | and errors into these longer forms. | |
513 | .PP | |
514 | Compilation errors will tell you the line number of the error, with an | |
515 | indication of the next token or token type that was to be examined. | |
516 | (In a script passed to Perl via \fB\-e\fR switches, each | |
517 | \&\fB\-e\fR is counted as one line.) | |
518 | .PP | |
519 | Setuid scripts have additional constraints that can produce error | |
520 | messages such as \*(L"Insecure dependency\*(R". See perlsec. | |
521 | .PP | |
522 | Did we mention that you should definitely consider using the \fB\-w\fR | |
523 | switch? | |
524 | .SH "BUGS" | |
525 | .IX Header "BUGS" | |
526 | The \fB\-w\fR switch is not mandatory. | |
527 | .PP | |
528 | Perl is at the mercy of your machine's definitions of various | |
529 | operations such as type casting, \fIatof()\fR, and floating-point | |
530 | output with \fIsprintf()\fR. | |
531 | .PP | |
532 | If your stdio requires a seek or eof between reads and writes on a | |
533 | particular stream, so does Perl. (This doesn't apply to \fIsysread()\fR | |
534 | and \fIsyswrite()\fR.) | |
535 | .PP | |
536 | While none of the built-in data types have any arbitrary size limits | |
537 | (apart from memory size), there are still a few arbitrary limits: a | |
538 | given variable name may not be longer than 251 characters. Line numbers | |
539 | displayed by diagnostics are internally stored as short integers, | |
540 | so they are limited to a maximum of 65535 (higher numbers usually being | |
541 | affected by wraparound). | |
542 | .PP | |
543 | You may mail your bug reports (be sure to include full configuration | |
544 | information as output by the myconfig program in the perl source | |
545 | tree, or by \f(CW\*(C`perl \-V\*(C'\fR) to perlbug@perl.org . If you've succeeded | |
546 | in compiling perl, the \fBperlbug\fR script in the \fIutils/\fR subdirectory | |
547 | can be used to help mail in a bug report. | |
548 | .PP | |
549 | Perl actually stands for Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister, but | |
550 | don't tell anyone I said that. | |
551 | .SH "NOTES" | |
552 | .IX Header "NOTES" | |
553 | The Perl motto is \*(L"There's more than one way to do it.\*(R" Divining | |
554 | how many more is left as an exercise to the reader. | |
555 | .PP | |
556 | The three principal virtues of a programmer are Laziness, | |
557 | Impatience, and Hubris. See the Camel Book for why. |