1PERLFAQ2(1) Perl Programmers Reference Guide PERLFAQ2(1)
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6 perlfaq2 - Obtaining and Learning about Perl
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9 This section of the FAQ answers questions about where to find source
10 and documentation for Perl, support, and related matters.
11 What machines support Perl? Where do I get it?
13 The standard release of Perl (the one maintained by the Perl
14 development team) is distributed only in source code form. You can find
15 the latest releases at <http://www.cpan.org/src/>.
16 Perl builds and runs on a bewildering number of platforms. Virtually
18 all known and current Unix derivatives are supported (perl's native
19 platform), as are other systems like VMS, DOS, OS/2, Windows, QNX,
20 BeOS, OS X, MPE/iX and the Amiga.
21 Binary distributions for some proprietary platforms can be found
23 <http://www.cpan.org/ports/> directory. Because these are not part of
24 the standard distribution, they may and in fact do differ from the base
25 perl port in a variety of ways. You'll have to check their respective
26 release notes to see just what the differences are. These differences
27 can be either positive (e.g. extensions for the features of the
28 particular platform that are not supported in the source release of
29 perl) or negative (e.g. might be based upon a less current source
30 release of perl).
31 How can I get a binary version of Perl?
33 See CPAN Ports <http://www.cpan.org/ports/>
34 I don't have a C compiler. How can I build my own Perl interpreter?
36 For Windows, use a binary version of Perl, Strawberry Perl
37 <http://strawberryperl.com/> and ActivePerl
38 <http://www.activestate.com/activeperl> come with a bundled C compiler.
39 Otherwise if you really do want to build Perl, you need to get a binary
41 version of "gcc" for your system first. Use a search engine to find out
42 how to do this for your operating system.
43 I copied the Perl binary from one machine to another, but scripts don't
45 work.
46 That's probably because you forgot libraries, or library paths differ.
47 You really should build the whole distribution on the machine it will
48 eventually live on, and then type "make install". Most other approaches
49 are doomed to failure.
50 One simple way to check that things are in the right place is to print
52 out the hard-coded @INC that perl looks through for libraries:
53 % perl -le 'print for @INC'
55 If this command lists any paths that don't exist on your system, then
57 you may need to move the appropriate libraries to these locations, or
58 create symbolic links, aliases, or shortcuts appropriately. @INC is
59 also printed as part of the output of
60 % perl -V
62 You might also want to check out "How do I keep my own module/library
64 directory?" in perlfaq8.
65 I grabbed the sources and tried to compile but gdbm/dynamic
67 loading/malloc/linking/... failed. How do I make it work?
68 Read the INSTALL file, which is part of the source distribution. It
69 describes in detail how to cope with most idiosyncrasies that the
70 "Configure" script can't work around for any given system or
71 architecture.
72 What modules and extensions are available for Perl? What is CPAN?
74 CPAN stands for Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, a multi-gigabyte
75 archive replicated on hundreds of machines all over the world. CPAN
76 contains tens of thousands of modules and extensions, source code and
77 documentation, designed for everything from commercial database
78 interfaces to keyboard/screen control and running large web sites.
79 You can search CPAN on <http://metacpan.org> or
81 <http://search.cpan.org/>.
82 The master web site for CPAN is <http://www.cpan.org/>,
84 <http://www.cpan.org/SITES.html> lists all mirrors.
85 See the CPAN FAQ at http://www.cpan.org/misc/cpan-faq.html
87 <http://www.cpan.org/misc/cpan-faq.html> for answers to the most
88 frequently asked questions about CPAN.
89 The Task::Kensho module has a list of recommended modules which you
91 should review as a good starting point.
92 Where can I get information on Perl?
94 · <http://www.perl.org/>
95 · <http://perldoc.perl.org/>
97 · <http://learn.perl.org/>
99 The complete Perl documentation is available with the Perl
101 distribution. If you have Perl installed locally, you probably have
102 the documentation installed as well: type "perldoc perl" in a terminal
103 or view online <http://perldoc.perl.org/perl.html>.
104 (Some operating system distributions may ship the documentation in a
106 different package; for instance, on Debian, you need to install the
107 "perl-doc" package.)
108 Many good books have been written about Perl--see the section later in
110 perlfaq2 for more details.
111 What is perl.com? Perl Mongers? pm.org? perl.org? cpan.org?
113 Perl.com <http://www.perl.com/> used to be part of the O'Reilly
114 Network, a subsidiary of O'Reilly Media. Although it retains most of
115 the original content from its O'Reilly Network, it is now hosted by The
116 Perl Foundation <http://www.perlfoundation.org/>.
117 The Perl Foundation is an advocacy organization for the Perl language
119 which maintains the web site <http://www.perl.org/> as a general
120 advocacy site for the Perl language. It uses the domain to provide
121 general support services to the Perl community, including the hosting
122 of mailing lists, web sites, and other services. There are also many
123 other sub-domains for special topics like learning Perl and jobs in
124 Perl, such as:
125 · <http://www.perl.org/>
127 · <http://learn.perl.org/>
129 · <http://jobs.perl.org/>
131 · <http://lists.perl.org/>
133 Perl Mongers <http://www.pm.org/> uses the pm.org domain for services
135 related to local Perl user groups, including the hosting of mailing
136 lists and web sites. See the Perl Mongers web site <http://www.pm.org/>
137 for more information about joining, starting, or requesting services
138 for a Perl user group.
139 CPAN, or the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network <http://www.cpan.org/>,
141 is a replicated, worldwide repository of Perl software. See What is
142 CPAN?.
143 Where can I post questions?
145 There are many Perl mailing lists for various topics, specifically the
146 beginners list <http://lists.perl.org/list/beginners.html> may be of
147 use.
148 Other places to ask questions are on the PerlMonks site
150 <http://www.perlmonks.org/> or stackoverflow
151 <http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/perl>.
152 Perl Books
154 There are many good books on Perl
155 <http://www.perl.org/books/library.html>.
156 Which magazines have Perl content?
158 There's also $foo Magazin, a German magazine dedicated to Perl, at (
159 http://www.foo-magazin.de <http://www.foo-magazin.de> ). The Perl-
160 Zeitung is another German-speaking magazine for Perl beginners (see
161 http://perl-zeitung.at.tf <http://perl-zeitung.at.tf> ).
162 Several unix/linux releated magazines frequently includes articles on
164 Perl.
165 Which Perl blogs should I read?
167 Perl News <http://perlnews.org/> covers some of the major events in the
168 Perl world, Perl Weekly <http://perlweekly.com/> is a weekly e-mail
169 (and RSS feed) of hand-picked Perl articles.
170 <http://blogs.perl.org/> hosts many Perl blogs, there are also several
172 blog aggregators: Perlsphere <http://perlsphere.net/> and IronMan
173 <http://ironman.enlightenedperl.org/> are two of them.
174 What mailing lists are there for Perl?
176 A comprehensive list of Perl-related mailing lists can be found at
177 <http://lists.perl.org/>
178 Where can I buy a commercial version of Perl?
180 Perl already is commercial software: it has a license that you can grab
181 and carefully read to your manager. It is distributed in releases and
182 comes in well-defined packages. There is a very large and supportive
183 user community and an extensive literature.
184 If you still need commercial support ActiveState
186 <http://www.activestate.com/activeperl> offers this.
187 Where do I send bug reports?
189 (contributed by brian d foy)
190 First, ensure that you've found an actual bug. Second, ensure you've
192 found an actual bug.
193 If you've found a bug with the perl interpreter or one of the modules
195 in the standard library (those that come with Perl), you can use the
196 perlbug utility that comes with Perl (>= 5.004). It collects
197 information about your installation to include with your message, then
198 sends the message to the right place.
199 To determine if a module came with your version of Perl, you can
201 install and use the Module::CoreList module. It has the information
202 about the modules (with their versions) included with each release of
203 Perl.
204 Every CPAN module has a bug tracker set up in RT, <http://rt.cpan.org>.
206 You can submit bugs to RT either through its web interface or by email.
207 To email a bug report, send it to bug-<distribution-name>@rt.cpan.org .
208 For example, if you wanted to report a bug in Business::ISBN, you could
209 send a message to bug-Business-ISBN@rt.cpan.org .
210 Some modules might have special reporting requirements, such as a
212 Github or Google Code tracking system, so you should check the module
213 documentation too.
214
216 Copyright (c) 1997-2010 Tom Christiansen, Nathan Torkington, and other
217 authors as noted. All rights reserved.
218 This documentation is free; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
220 under the same terms as Perl itself.
221 Irrespective of its distribution, all code examples here are in the
223 public domain. You are permitted and encouraged to use this code and
224 any derivatives thereof in your own programs for fun or for profit as
225 you see fit. A simple comment in the code giving credit to the FAQ
226 would be courteous but is not required.
227perl v5.16.3 2013-03-04 PERLFAQ2(1)