PERLFAQ2(1) PERLFAQ2(1)
NAME
perlfaq2 - Obtaining and Learning about Perl ($Revision: 1.16 $, $Date:
1997/04/23 18:04:09 $)
DESCRIPTION
This section of the FAQ answers questions about where to find source and
documentation for Perl, support and training, and related matters.
What machines support Perl? Where do I get it?
The standard release of Perl (the one maintained by the perl development
team) is distributed only in source code form. You can find this at
http://www.perl.com/CPAN/src/latest.tar.gz, which is a gzipped archive in
POSIX tar format. This source builds with no porting whatsoever on most
Unix systems (Perl's native environment), as well as Plan 9, VMS, QNX,
OS/2, and the Amiga.
Although it's rumored that the (imminent) 5.004 release may build on
Windows NT, this is yet to be proven. Binary distributions for 32-bit
Microsoft systems and for Apple systems can be found
http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ports/ directory. Because these are not part of
the standard distribution, they may and in fact do differ from the base
Perl port in a variety of ways. You'll have to check their respective
release notes to see just what the differences are. These differences
can be either positive (e.g. extensions for the features of the
particular platform that are not supported in the source release of perl)
or negative (e.g. might be based upon a less current source release of
perl).
A useful FAQ for Win32 Perl users is
http://www.endcontsw.com/people/evangelo/Perl_for_Win32_FAQ.html
How can I get a binary version of Perl?
If you don't have a C compiler because for whatever reasons your vendor
did not include one with your system, the best thing to do is grab a
binary version of gcc from the net and use that to compile perl with.
CPAN only has binaries for systems that are terribly hard to get free
compilers for, not for Unix systems.
Your first stop should be http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ports to see what
information is already available. A simple installation guide for MS-DOS
is available at http://www.cs.ruu.nl/~piet/perl5dos.html , and similarly
for Windows 3.1 at http://www.cs.ruu.nl/~piet/perlwin3.html .
I don't have a C compiler on my system. How can I compile perl?
Since you don't have a C compiler, you're doomed and your vendor should
be sacrificed to the Sun gods. But that doesn't help you.
Page 1
PERLFAQ2(1) PERLFAQ2(1)
What you need to do is get a binary version of gcc for your system first.
Consult the Usenet FAQs for your operating system for information on
where to get such a binary version.
I copied the Perl binary from one machine to another, but scripts don't
work.
That's probably because you forgot libraries, or library paths differ.
You really should build the whole distribution on the machine it will
eventually live on, and then type make install. Most other approaches
are doomed to failure.
One simple way to check that things are in the right place is to print
out the hard-coded @INC which perl is looking for.
perl -e 'print join("\n",@INC)'
If this command lists any paths which don't exist on your system, then
you may need to move the appropriate libraries to these locations, or
create symlinks, aliases, or shortcuts appropriately.
You might also want to check out the section on How do I keep my own
module/library directory? in the perlfaq8 manpage.
I grabbed the sources and tried to compile but gdbm/dynamic
loading/malloc/linking/... failed. How do I make it work?
Read the INSTALL file, which is part of the source distribution. It
describes in detail how to cope with most idiosyncracies that the
Configure script can't work around for any given system or architecture.
What modules and extensions are available for Perl? What is CPAN? What
does CPAN/src/... mean?
CPAN stands for Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, a huge archive
replicated on dozens of machines all over the world. CPAN contains
source code, non-native ports, documentation, scripts, and many third-
party modules and extensions, designed for everything from commercial
database interfaces to keyboard/screen control to web walking and CGI
scripts. The master machine for CPAN is
ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/, but you can use the address
http://www.perl.com/CPAN/CPAN.html to fetch a copy from a "site near
you". See http://www.perl.com/CPAN (without a slash at the end) for how
this process works.
CPAN/path/... is a naming convention for files available on CPAN sites.
CPAN indicates the base directory of a CPAN mirror, and the rest of the
path is the path from that directory to the file. For instance, if
you're using ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN as your CPAN
site, the file CPAN/misc/japh file is downloadable as
ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/misc/japh .
Page 2
PERLFAQ2(1) PERLFAQ2(1)
Considering that there are hundreds of existing modules in the archive,
one probably exists to do nearly anything you can think of. Current
categories under CPAN/modules/by-category/ include perl core modules;
development support; operating system interfaces; networking, devices,
and interprocess communication; data type utilities; database interfaces;
user interfaces; interfaces to other languages; filenames, file systems,
and file locking; internationalization and locale; world wide web
support; server and daemon utilities; archiving and compression; image
manipulation; mail and news; control flow utilities; filehandle and I/O;
Microsoft Windows modules; and miscellaneous modules.
Is there an ISO or ANSI certified version of Perl?
Certainly not. Larry expects that he'll be certified before Perl is.
Where can I get information on Perl?
The complete Perl documentation is available with the perl distribution.
If you have perl installed locally, you probably have the documentation
installed as well: type man perl if you're on a system resembling Unix.
This will lead you to other important man pages. If you're not on a Unix
system, access to the documentation will be different; for example, it
might be only in HTML format. But all proper perl installations have
fully-accessible documentation.
You might also try perldoc perl in case your system doesn't have a proper
man command, or it's been misinstalled. If that doesn't work, try
looking in /usr/local/lib/perl5/pod for documentation.
If all else fails, consult the CPAN/doc directory, which contains the
complete documentation in various formats, including native pod, troff,
html, and plain text. There's also a web page at
http://www.perl.com/perl/info/documentation.html that might help.
It's also worth noting that there's a PDF version of the complete
documentation for perl available in the CPAN/authors/id/BMIDD directory.
Many good books have been written about Perl -- see the section below for
more details.
What are the Perl newsgroups on USENET? Where do I post questions?
The now defunct comp.lang.perl newsgroup has been superseded by the
following groups:
comp.lang.perl.announce Moderated announcement group
comp.lang.perl.misc Very busy group about Perl in general
comp.lang.perl.modules Use and development of Perl modules
comp.lang.perl.tk Using Tk (and X) from Perl
comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi Writing CGI scripts for the Web.
Page 3
PERLFAQ2(1) PERLFAQ2(1)
There is also USENET gateway to the mailing list used by the crack Perl
development team (perl5-porters) at
news://genetics.upenn.edu/perl.porters-gw/ .
Where should I post source code?
You should post source code to whichever group is most appropriate, but
feel free to cross-post to comp.lang.perl.misc. If you want to cross-
post to alt.sources, please make sure it follows their posting standards,
including setting the Followup-To header line to NOT include alt.sources;
see their FAQ for details.
Perl Books
A number books on Perl and/or CGI programming are available. A few of
these are good, some are ok, but many aren't worth your money. Tom
Christiansen maintains a list of these books, some with extensive
reviews, at http://www.perl.com/perl/critiques/index.html.
The incontestably definitive reference book on Perl, written by the
creator of Perl and his apostles, is now in its second edition and fourth
printing.
Programming Perl (the "Camel Book"):
Authors: Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Randal Schwartz
ISBN 1-56592-149-6 (English)
ISBN 4-89052-384-7 (Japanese)
(French and German translations in progress)
Note that O'Reilly books are color-coded: turquoise (some would call it
teal) covers indicate perl5 coverage, while magenta (some would call it
pink) covers indicate perl4 only. Check the cover color before you buy!
What follows is a list of the books that the FAQ authors found personally
useful. Your mileage may (but, we hope, probably won't) vary.
If you're already a hard-core systems programmer, then the Camel Book
just might suffice for you to learn Perl from. But if you're not, check
out the "Llama Book". It currently doesn't cover perl5, but the 2nd
edition is nearly done and should be out by summer 97:
Learning Perl (the Llama Book):
Author: Randal Schwartz, with intro by Larry Wall
ISBN 1-56592-042-2 (English)
ISBN 4-89502-678-1 (Japanese)
ISBN 2-84177-005-2 (French)
ISBN 3-930673-08-8 (German)
Another stand-out book in the turquoise O'Reilly Perl line is the "Hip
Owls" book. It covers regular expressions inside and out, with quite a
bit devoted exclusively to Perl:
Page 4
PERLFAQ2(1) PERLFAQ2(1)
Mastering Regular Expressions (the Cute Owls Book):
Author: Jeffrey Friedl
ISBN 1-56592-257-3
You can order any of these books from O'Reilly & Associates, 1-800-998-
9938. Local/overseas is 1-707-829-0515. If you can locate an O'Reilly
order form, you can also fax to 1-707-829-0104. See http://www.ora.com/
on the Web.
Recommended Perl books that are not from O'Reilly are the following:
Cross-Platform Perl, (for Unix and Windows NT)
Author: Eric F. Johnson
ISBN: 1-55851-483-X
How to Set up and Maintain a World Wide Web Site, (2nd edition)
Author: Lincoln Stein, M.D., Ph.D.
ISBN: 0-201-63462-7
CGI Programming in C & Perl,
Author: Thomas Boutell
ISBN: 0-201-42219-0
Note that some of these address specific application areas (e.g. the Web)
and are not general-purpose programming books.
Perl in Magazines
The Perl Journal is the first and only magazine dedicated to Perl. It is
published (on paper, not online) quarterly by Jon Orwant
(orwant@tpj.com), editor. Subscription information is at http://tpj.com
or via email to subscriptions@tpj.com.
Beyond this, two other magazines that frequently carry high-quality
articles on Perl are Web Techniques (see http://www.webtechniques.com/)
and Unix Review (http://www.unixreview.com/). Randal Schwartz's Web
Technique's columns are available on the web at
http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/WebTechniques/ .
Perl on the Net: FTP and WWW Access
To get the best (and possibly cheapest) performance, pick a site from the
list below and use it to grab the complete list of mirror sites. From
there you can find the quickest site for you. Remember, the following
list is not the complete list of CPAN mirrors.
http://www.perl.com/CPAN (redirects to another mirror)
http://www.perl.org/CPAN
ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/
http://www.cs.ruu.nl/pub/PERL/CPAN/
ftp://ftp.cs.colorado.edu/pub/perl/CPAN/
Page 5
PERLFAQ2(1) PERLFAQ2(1)
http:/www.oasis.leo.org/perl/ has, amongst other things, source to
versions 1 through 5 of Perl.
What mailing lists are there for perl?
Most of the major modules (tk, CGI, libwww-perl) have their own mailing
lists. Consult the documentation that came with the module for
subscription information. The following are a list of mailing lists
related to perl itself.
If you subscribe to a mailing list, it behooves you to know how to
unsubscribe from it. Strident pleas to the list itself to get you off
will not be favorably received.
MacPerl
There is a mailing list for discussing Macintosh Perl. Contact
"mac-perl-request@iis.ee.ethz.ch".
Also see Matthias Neeracher's (the creator and maintainer of MacPerl)
webpage at http://www.iis.ee.ethz.ch/~neeri/macintosh/perl.html for
many links to interesting MacPerl sites, and the applications/MPW
tools, precompiled.
Perl5-Porters
The core development team have a mailing list for discussing fixes
and changes to the language. Send mail to "perl5-porters-
request@perl.org" with help in the body of the message for
information on subscribing.
NTPerl
This list is used to discuss issues involving Win32 Perl 5 (Windows
NT and Win95). Subscribe by emailing ListManager@ActiveWare.com with
the message body:
subscribe Perl-Win32-Users
The list software, also written in perl, will automatically determine
your address, and subscribe you automatically. To unsubscribe, email
the following in the message body to the same address like so:
unsubscribe Perl-Win32-Users
You can also check http://www.activeware.com/ and select "Mailing
Lists" to join or leave this list.
Perl-Packrats
Discussion related to archiving of perl materials, particularly the
Comprehensive PerlArchive Network (CPAN). Subscribe by emailing
majordomo@cis.ufl.edu:
subscribe perl-packrats
Page 6
PERLFAQ2(1) PERLFAQ2(1)
The list software, also written in perl, will automatically determine
your address, and subscribe you automatically. To unsubscribe,
simple prepend the same command with an "un", and mail to the same
address like so:
unsubscribe perl-packrats
Archives of comp.lang.perl.misc
Have you tried Deja News or Alta Vista?
ftp.cis.ufl.edu:/pub/perl/comp.lang.perl.*/monthly has an almost complete
collection dating back to 12/89 (missing 08/91 through 12/93). They are
kept as one large file for each month.
You'll probably want more a sophisticated query and retrieval mechanism
than a file listing, preferably one that allows you to retrieve articles
using a fast-access indices, keyed on at least author, date, subject,
thread (as in "trn") and probably keywords. The best solution the FAQ
authors know of is the MH pick command, but it is very slow to select on
18000 articles.
If you have, or know where can be found, the missing sections, please let
perlfaq-suggestions@perl.com know.
Perl Training
While some large training companies offer their own courses on Perl, you
may prefer to contact individuals near and dear to the heart of Perl
development. Two well-known members of the Perl development team who
offer such things are Tom Christiansen <perl-classes@perl.com> and Randal
Schwartz <perl-training-info@stonehenge.com>, plus their respective
minions, who offer a variety of professional tutorials and seminars on
Perl. These courses include large public seminars, private corporate
training, and fly-ins to Colorado and Oregon. See
http://www.perl.com/perl/info/training.html for more details.
Where can I buy a commercial version of Perl?
In a sense, Perl already is commercial software: It has a licence that
you can grab and carefully read to your manager. It is distributed in
releases and comes in well-defined packages. There is a very large user
community and an extensive literature. The comp.lang.perl.* newsgroups
and several of the mailing lists provide free answers to your questions
in near real-time. Perl has traditionally been supported by Larry,
dozens of software designers and developers, and thousands of
programmers, all working for free to create a useful thing to make life
better for everyone.
Page 7
PERLFAQ2(1) PERLFAQ2(1)
However, these answers may not suffice for managers who require a
purchase order from a company whom they can sue should anything go wrong.
Or maybe they need very serious hand-holding and contractual obligations.
Shrink-wrapped CDs with perl on them are available from several sources
if that will help.
Or you can purchase a real support contract. Although Cygnus
historically provided this service, they no longer sell support contracts
for Perl. Instead, the Paul Ingram Group will be taking up the slack
through The Perl Clinic. The following is a commercial from them:
"Do you need professional support for Perl and/or Oraperl? Do you need a
support contract with defined levels of service? Do you want to pay only
for what you need?
"The Paul Ingram Group has provided quality software development and
support services to some of the world's largest corporations for ten
years. We are now offering the same quality support services for Perl at
The Perl Clinic. This service is led by Tim Bunce, an active perl porter
since 1994 and well known as the author and maintainer of the DBI,
DBD::Oracle, and Oraperl modules and author/co-maintainer of The Perl 5
Module List. We also offer Oracle users support for Perl5 Oraperl and
related modules (which Oracle is planning to ship as part of Oracle Web
Server 3). 20% of the profit from our Perl support work will be donated
to The Perl Institute."
For more information, contact the The Perl Clinic:
Tel: +44 1483 424424
Fax: +44 1483 419419
Web: http://www.perl.co.uk/
Email: perl-support-info@perl.co.uk or Tim.Bunce@ig.co.uk
Where do I send bug reports?
If you are reporting a bug in the perl interpreter or the modules shipped
with perl, use the perlbug program in the perl distribution or email your
report to perlbug@perl.com.
If you are posting a bug with a non-standard port (see the answer to
"What platforms is Perl available for?"), a binary distribution, or a
non-standard module (such as Tk, CGI, etc), then please see the
documentation that came with it to determine the correct place to post
bugs.
Read the perlbug man page (perl5.004 or later) for more information.
What is perl.com? perl.org? The Perl Institute?
Page 8
PERLFAQ2(1) PERLFAQ2(1)
perl.org is the official vehicle for The Perl Institute. The motto of
TPI is "helping people help Perl help people" (or something like that).
It's a non-profit organization supporting development, documentation, and
dissemination of perl. Current directors of TPI include Larry Wall, Tom
Christiansen, and Randal Schwartz, whom you may have heard of somewhere
else around here.
The perl.com domain is Tom Christiansen's domain. He created it as a
public service long before perl.org came about. It's the original PBS of
the Perl world, a clearinghouse for information about all things Perlian,
accepting no paid advertisements, glossy gifs, or (gasp!) java applets
on its pages.
How do I learn about object-oriented Perl programming?
the perltoot manpage (distributed with 5.004 or later) is a good place to
start. Also, the perlobj manpage, the perlref manpage, and the perlmod
manpage are useful references, while the perlbot manpage has some
excellent tips and tricks.
AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1997 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington. All rights
reserved. See the perlfaq manpage for distribution information.
Page 9
PERLFAQ2(1) PERLFAQ2(1)
Page 10