1perlfaq2(3)           User Contributed Perl Documentation          perlfaq2(3)
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NAME

6       perlfaq2 - Obtaining and Learning about Perl
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VERSION

9       version 5.20210520
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DESCRIPTION

12       This section of the FAQ answers questions about where to find source
13       and documentation for Perl, support, and related matters.
14
15   What machines support Perl? Where do I get it?
16       The standard release of Perl (the one maintained by the Perl
17       development team) is distributed only in source code form. You can find
18       the latest releases at <http://www.cpan.org/src/>.
19
20       Perl builds and runs on a bewildering number of platforms. Virtually
21       all known and current Unix derivatives are supported (perl's native
22       platform), as are other systems like VMS, DOS, OS/2, Windows, QNX,
23       BeOS, OS X, MPE/iX and the Amiga.
24
25       Binary distributions for some proprietary platforms can be found
26       <http://www.cpan.org/ports/> directory. Because these are not part of
27       the standard distribution, they may and in fact do differ from the base
28       perl port in a variety of ways. You'll have to check their respective
29       release notes to see just what the differences are. These differences
30       can be either positive (e.g. extensions for the features of the
31       particular platform that are not supported in the source release of
32       perl) or negative (e.g. might be based upon a less current source
33       release of perl).
34
35   How can I get a binary version of Perl?
36       See CPAN Ports <http://www.cpan.org/ports/>
37
38   I don't have a C compiler. How can I build my own Perl interpreter?
39       For Windows, use a binary version of Perl, Strawberry Perl
40       <http://strawberryperl.com/> and ActivePerl
41       <http://www.activestate.com/activeperl> come with a bundled C compiler.
42
43       Otherwise if you really do want to build Perl, you need to get a binary
44       version of "gcc" for your system first. Use a search engine to find out
45       how to do this for your operating system.
46
47   I copied the Perl binary from one machine to another, but scripts don't
48       work.
49       That's probably because you forgot libraries, or library paths differ.
50       You really should build the whole distribution on the machine it will
51       eventually live on, and then type "make install". Most other approaches
52       are doomed to failure.
53
54       One simple way to check that things are in the right place is to print
55       out the hard-coded @INC that perl looks through for libraries:
56
57           % perl -le 'print for @INC'
58
59       If this command lists any paths that don't exist on your system, then
60       you may need to move the appropriate libraries to these locations, or
61       create symbolic links, aliases, or shortcuts appropriately. @INC is
62       also printed as part of the output of
63
64           % perl -V
65
66       You might also want to check out "How do I keep my own module/library
67       directory?" in perlfaq8.
68
69   I grabbed the sources and tried to compile but gdbm/dynamic
70       loading/malloc/linking/... failed. How do I make it work?
71       Read the INSTALL file, which is part of the source distribution.  It
72       describes in detail how to cope with most idiosyncrasies that the
73       "Configure" script can't work around for any given system or
74       architecture.
75
76   What modules and extensions are available for Perl? What is CPAN?
77       CPAN stands for Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, a multi-gigabyte
78       archive replicated on hundreds of machines all over the world. CPAN
79       contains tens of thousands of modules and extensions, source code and
80       documentation, designed for everything from commercial database
81       interfaces to keyboard/screen control and running large web sites.
82
83       You can search CPAN on <http://metacpan.org>.
84
85       The master web site for CPAN is <http://www.cpan.org/>,
86       <http://www.cpan.org/SITES.html> lists all mirrors.
87
88       See the CPAN FAQ at <http://www.cpan.org/misc/cpan-faq.html> for
89       answers to the most frequently asked questions about CPAN.
90
91       The Task::Kensho module has a list of recommended modules which you
92       should review as a good starting point.
93
94   Where can I get information on Perl?
95       •   <http://www.perl.org/>
96
97       •   <http://perldoc.perl.org/>
98
99       •   <http://learn.perl.org/>
100
101       The complete Perl documentation is available with the Perl
102       distribution.  If you have Perl installed locally, you probably have
103       the documentation installed as well: type "perldoc perl" in a terminal
104       or view online <http://perldoc.perl.org/perl.html>.
105
106       (Some operating system distributions may ship the documentation in a
107       different package; for instance, on Debian, you need to install the
108       "perl-doc" package.)
109
110       Many good books have been written about Perl--see the section later in
111       perlfaq2 for more details.
112
113   What is perl.com? Perl Mongers? pm.org? perl.org? cpan.org?
114       Perl.com <http://www.perl.com/> used to be part of the O'Reilly
115       Network, a subsidiary of O'Reilly Media. Although it retains most of
116       the original content from its O'Reilly Network, it is now hosted by The
117       Perl Foundation <http://www.perlfoundation.org/>.
118
119       The Perl Foundation is an advocacy organization for the Perl language
120       which maintains the web site <http://www.perl.org/> as a general
121       advocacy site for the Perl language. It uses the domain to provide
122       general support services to the Perl community, including the hosting
123       of mailing lists, web sites, and other services. There are also many
124       other sub-domains for special topics like learning Perl and jobs in
125       Perl, such as:
126
127       •   <http://www.perl.org/>
128
129       •   <http://learn.perl.org/>
130
131       •   <http://jobs.perl.org/>
132
133       •   <http://lists.perl.org/>
134
135       Perl Mongers <http://www.pm.org/> uses the pm.org domain for services
136       related to local Perl user groups, including the hosting of mailing
137       lists and web sites. See the Perl Mongers web site <http://www.pm.org/>
138       for more information about joining, starting, or requesting services
139       for a Perl user group.
140
141       CPAN, or the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network <http://www.cpan.org/>,
142       is a replicated, worldwide repository of Perl software.  See What is
143       CPAN?.
144
145   Where can I post questions?
146       There are many Perl mailing lists for various topics, specifically the
147       beginners list <http://lists.perl.org/list/beginners.html> may be of
148       use.
149
150       Other places to ask questions are on the PerlMonks site
151       <http://www.perlmonks.org/> or stackoverflow
152       <http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/perl>.
153
154   Perl Books
155       There are many good books on Perl
156       <http://www.perl.org/books/library.html>.
157
158   Which magazines have Perl content?
159       There's also $foo Magazin, a German magazine dedicated to Perl, at (
160       <http://www.foo-magazin.de> ). The Perl-Zeitung is another German-
161       speaking magazine for Perl beginners (see <http://perl-zeitung.at.tf>
162       ).
163
164       Several Unix/Linux related magazines frequently include articles on
165       Perl.
166
167   Which Perl blogs should I read?
168       Perl News <http://perlnews.org/> covers some of the major events in the
169       Perl world, Perl Weekly <http://perlweekly.com/> is a weekly e-mail
170       (and RSS feed) of hand-picked Perl articles.
171
172       <http://blogs.perl.org/> hosts many Perl blogs, there are also several
173       blog aggregators: Perlsphere <http://perlsphere.net/> and IronMan
174       <http://ironman.enlightenedperl.org/> are two of them.
175
176   What mailing lists are there for Perl?
177       A comprehensive list of Perl-related mailing lists can be found at
178       <http://lists.perl.org/>
179
180   Where can I buy a commercial version of Perl?
181       Perl already is commercial software: it has a license that you can grab
182       and carefully read to your manager. It is distributed in releases and
183       comes in well-defined packages. There is a very large and supportive
184       user community and an extensive literature.
185
186       If you still need commercial support ActiveState
187       <http://www.activestate.com/activeperl> offers this.
188
189   Where do I send bug reports?
190       (contributed by brian d foy)
191
192       First, ensure that you've found an actual bug. Second, ensure you've
193       found an actual bug.
194
195       If you've found a bug with the perl interpreter or one of the modules
196       in the standard library (those that come with Perl), you can submit a
197       bug report to the GitHub issue tracker at
198       <https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>.
199
200       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
205       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
211       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
219       This documentation is free; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
220       under the same terms as Perl itself.
221
222       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.
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230perl v5.34.0                      2022-01-21                       perlfaq2(3)
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