a2p
accept
access
acct
addftinfo
addr2line
adjtime
afmtodit
after
aio_cancel
aio_error
aio_read
aio_return
aio_suspend
aio_waitcomplete
aio_write
alias
aliases
alloc
anvil
append
apply
apropos
ar
array
as
asa
asn1parse
at
atq
atrm
attemptckalloc
attemptckrealloc
authlib
authtest
autopoint
awk
b64decode
b64encode
basename
batch
bc
bdes
bell
bg
bgerror
biff
big5
binary
bind
bindkey
bindtags
bindtextdomain
bio
bitmap
blowfish
bn
bootparams
bootptab
bounce
brandelf
break
breaksw
brk
bsdiff
bsdtar
bsnmpd
bspatch
bthost
btsockstat
buffer
builtin
builtins
bunzip2
button
byacc
bzcat
bzegrep
bzfgrep
bzgrep
bzip2
c2ph
c89
c99
ca
cal
calendar
canvas
cap_mkdb
case
cat
catch
catman
cc
cd
cdcontrol
chdir
checkbutton
checknr
chflags
chfn
chgrp
chio
chkey
chmod
chown
chpass
chroot
chsh
ci
ciphers
ckalloc
ckdist
ckfree
ckrealloc
cksum
cleanup
clear
clipboard
clock
clock_getres
clock_gettime
clock_settime
close
cmp
co
col
colcrt
colldef
colors
colrm
column
comm
command
compile_et
complete
compress
concat
config
connect
console
continue
core
courierlogger
couriertcpd
cp
cpan
cpio
cpp
creat
crl
crontab
crunchgen
crunchide
crypt
crypto
csh
csplit
ctags
ctm
ctm_dequeue
ctm_rmail
ctm_smail
cu
cursor
cursors
cut
cvs
date
dbiprof
dbiproxy
dc
dcgettext
dcngettext
dd
dde
default
defer
deliverquota
des
destroy
devfs
df
dgettext
dgst
dh
dhparam
dialog
diff
diff3
dig
dir
dirent
dirname
dirs
discard
disktab
dngettext
do
domainname
done
dprofpp
dsa
dsaparam
dtmfdecode
du
dup
dup2
eaccess
ec
ecdsa
echo
echotc
ecparam
ed
edit
editrc
ee
egrep
elf
elfdump
elif
else
enc
enc2xs
encoding
end
endif
endsw
engine
enigma
entry
env
envsubst
eof
eqn
err
errno
error
errstr
esac
ethers
euc
eui64
eval
event
evp
ex
exec
execve
exit
expand
export
exports
expr
extattr
extattr_delete_fd
extattr_delete_file
extattr_get_fd
extattr_get_file
extattr_set_fd
extattr_set_file
f77
false
famm
famx
fblocked
fbtab
fc
fchdir
fchflags
fchmod
fchown
fcntl
fconfigure
fcopy
fdescfs
fdformat
fdread
fdwrite
fetch
fg
fgrep
fhopen
fhstat
fhstatfs
fi
file
file2c
fileevent
filename
filetest
find
find2perl
finger
flex
flock
flush
fmt
focus
fold
font
fontedit
for
foreach
fork
format
forward
fpathconf
frame
from
fs
fstab
fstat
fstatfs
fsync
ftp
ftpchroot
ftpusers
ftruncate
futimes
g711conv
gb2312
gb18030
gbk
gcc
gcore
gcov
gdb
gencat
gendsa
genrsa
gensnmptree
getconf
getdents
getdirentries
getdtablesize
getegid
geteuid
getfacl
getfh
getfsstat
getgid
getgroups
getitimer
getlogin
getopt
getopts
getpeername
getpgid
getpgrp
getpid
getppid
getpriority
getresgid
getresuid
getrlimit
getrusage
gets
getsid
getsockname
getsockopt
gettext
gettextize
gettimeofday
gettytab
getuid
glob
global
gmake
goto
gperf
gprof
grab
grep
grid
grn
grodvi
groff
groff_font
groff_out
groff_tmac
grog
grolbp
grolj4
grops
grotty
group
groups
gunzip
gzcat
gzexe
gzip
h2ph
h2xs
hash
hashstat
hd
head
help2man
hesinfo
hexdump
history
host
hostname
hosts
hosts_access
hosts_options
hpftodit
http
hup
i386_get_ioperm
i386_get_ldt
i386_set_ioperm
i386_set_ldt
i386_vm86
iconv
id
ident
idprio
if
ifnames253
ifnames259
image
imapd
incr
indent
indxbib
info
infokey
inode
install
instmodsh
interp
intro
introduction
ioctl
ipcrm
ipcs
ipf
ipftest
ipnat
ippool
ipresend
issetugid
jail
jail_attach
jobid
jobs
join
jot
kbdcontrol
kbdmap
kcon
kdestroy
kdump
kenv
kevent
keycap
keylogin
keylogout
keymap
keysyms
kgdb
kill
killall
killpg
kinit
kldfind
kldfirstmod
kldload
kldnext
kldstat
kldsym
kldunload
klist
kpasswd
kqueue
kse
kse_create
kse_exit
kse_release
kse_switchin
kse_thr_interrupt
kse_wakeup
ktrace
label
labelframe
lam
lappend
last
lastcomm
lastlog
lchflags
lchmod
lchown
ld
ldap
ldapadd
ldapcompare
ldapdelete
ldapmodify
ldapmodrdn
ldappasswd
ldapsearch
ldapwhoami
ldd
leave
less
lesskey
lex
lgetfh
lhash
libnetcfg
library
limit
limits
lindex
link
linprocfs
linsert
lint
lio_listio
list
listbox
listen
lj4_font
lkbib
llength
lmtp
ln
load
loadfont
local
locale
locate
lock
lockf
log
logger
login
logins
logname
logout
look
lookbib
lorder
lower
lp
lpq
lpr
lprm
lptest
lrange
lreplace
ls
lsearch
lseek
lset
lsort
lstat
lsvfs
lutimes
lynx
m4
madvise
magic
mail
maildiracl
maildirkw
maildirmake
mailq
mailx
make
makeinfo
makewhatis
man
manpath
master
mc
mcedit
mcview
md2
md4
md5
mdc2
memory
menu
menubar
menubutton
merge
mesg
message
mincore
minherit
minigzip
mkdep
mkdir
mkfifo
mkimapdcert
mklocale
mknod
mkpop3dcert
mkstr
mktemp
mlock
mlockall
mmap
mmroff
modfind
modfnext
modnext
modstat
moduli
more
motd
mount
mprotect
mptable
msdos
msdosfs
msgattrib
msgcat
msgcmp
msgcomm
msgconv
msgen
msgexec
msgfilter
msgfmt
msggrep
msginit
msgmerge
msgs
msgunfmt
msguniq
mskanji
msql2mysql
msync
mt
munlock
munlockall
munmap
mv
myisamchk
myisamlog
myisampack
mysql
mysqlaccess
mysqladmin
mysqlbinlog
mysqlcheck
mysqld
mysqldump
mysqld_multi
mysqld_safe
mysqlhotcopy
mysqlimport
mysqlshow
mysql_config
mysql_fix_privilege_tables
mysql_zap
namespace
nanosleep
nawk
nc
ncal
ncplist
ncplogin
ncplogout
neqn
netconfig
netgroup
netid
netstat
networks
newaliases
newgrp
nex
nfsstat
nfssvc
ngettext
nice
nl
nm
nmount
nohup
nologin
notify
nroff
nseq
nslookup
ntp_adjtime
ntp_gettime
nvi
nview
objcopy
objdump
objformat
ocsp
od
onintr
open
openssl
opieaccess
opieinfo
opiekey
opiekeys
opiepasswd
option
options
oqmgr
pack
package
packagens
pagesize
palette
pam_auth
panedwindow
parray
passwd
paste
patch
pathchk
pathconf
pawd
pax
pbm
pcre
pcreapi
pcrebuild
pcrecallout
pcrecompat
pcrecpp
pcregrep
pcrematching
pcrepartial
pcrepattern
pcreperform
pcreposix
pcreprecompile
pcresample
pcretest
perl
perl56delta
perl58delta
perl561delta
perl570delta
perl571delta
perl572delta
perl573delta
perl581delta
perl582delta
perl583delta
perl584delta
perl585delta
perl586delta
perl587delta
perl588delta
perl5004delta
perl5005delta
perlaix
perlamiga
perlapi
perlapio
perlapollo
perlartistic
perlbeos
perlbook
perlboot
perlbot
perlbs2000
perlbug
perlcall
perlcc
perlce
perlcheat
perlclib
perlcn
perlcompile
perlcygwin
perldata
perldbmfilter
perldebguts
perldebtut
perldebug
perldelta
perldgux
perldiag
perldoc
perldos
perldsc
perlebcdic
perlembed
perlepoc
perlfaq
perlfaq1
perlfaq2
perlfaq3
perlfaq4
perlfaq5
perlfaq6
perlfaq7
perlfaq8
perlfaq9
perlfilter
perlfork
perlform
perlfreebsd
perlfunc
perlglossary
perlgpl
perlguts
perlhack
perlhist
perlhpux
perlhurd
perlintern
perlintro
perliol
perlipc
perlirix
perlivp
perljp
perlko
perllexwarn
perllinux
perllocale
perllol
perlmachten
perlmacos
perlmacosx
perlmint
perlmod
perlmodinstall
perlmodlib
perlmodstyle
perlmpeix
perlnetware
perlnewmod
perlnumber
perlobj
perlop
perlopenbsd
perlopentut
perlos2
perlos390
perlos400
perlothrtut
perlpacktut
perlplan9
perlpod
perlpodspec
perlport
perlqnx
perlre
perlref
perlreftut
perlrequick
perlreref
perlretut
perlrun
perlsec
perlsolaris
perlstyle
perlsub
perlsyn
perlthrtut
perltie
perltoc
perltodo
perltooc
perltoot
perltrap
perltru64
perltw
perlunicode
perluniintro
perlutil
perluts
perlvar
perlvmesa
perlvms
perlvos
perlwin32
perlxs
perlxstut
perror
pfbtops
pftp
pgrep
phones
photo
pic
pickup
piconv
pid
pipe
pkcs7
pkcs8
pkcs12
pkg_add
pkg_check
pkg_create
pkg_delete
pkg_info
pkg_sign
pkg_version
pkill
pl2pm
place
pod2html
pod2latex
pod2man
pod2text
pod2usage
podchecker
podselect
poll
popd
popup
posix_madvise
postalias
postcat
postconf
postdrop
postfix
postkick
postlock
postlog
postmap
postqueue
postsuper
pr
pread
preadv
printcap
printenv
printf
proc
procfs
profil
protocols
prove
proxymap
ps
psed
psroff
pstruct
ptrace
publickey
pushd
puts
pwd
pwrite
pwritev
qmgr
qmqpd
quota
quotactl
radiobutton
raise
rand
ranlib
rcp
rcs
rcsclean
rcsdiff
rcsfile
rcsfreeze
rcsintro
rcsmerge
read
readelf
readlink
readonly
readv
realpath
reboot
recv
recvfrom
recvmsg
red
ree
refer
regexp
registry
regsub
rehash
remote
rename
repeat
replace
req
reset
resolver
resource
return
rev
revoke
rfcomm_sppd
rfork
rhosts
ripemd
ripemd160
rlog
rlogin
rm
rmd160
rmdir
rpc
rpcgen
rs
rsa
rsautl
rsh
rtld
rtprio
rup
ruptime
rusers
rwall
rwho
s2p
safe
sasl
sasldblistusers2
saslpasswd2
sbrk
scache
scale
scan
sched
sched_getparam
sched_getscheduler
sched_get_priority_max
sched_get_priority_min
sched_rr_get_interval
sched_setparam
sched_setscheduler
sched_yield
scon
scp
script
scrollbar
sdiff
sed
seek
select
selection
semctl
semget
semop
send
sendbug
sendfile
sendmail
sendmsg
sendto
services
sess_id
set
setegid
setenv
seteuid
setfacl
setgid
setgroups
setitimer
setlogin
setpgid
setpgrp
setpriority
setregid
setresgid
setresuid
setreuid
setrlimit
setsid
setsockopt
settc
settimeofday
setty
setuid
setvar
sftp
sh
sha
sha1
sha256
shar
shells
shift
shmat
shmctl
shmdt
shmget
showq
shutdown
sigaction
sigaltstack
sigblock
sigmask
sigpause
sigpending
sigprocmask
sigreturn
sigsetmask
sigstack
sigsuspend
sigvec
sigwait
size
slapadd
slapcat
slapd
slapdn
slapindex
slappasswd
slaptest
sleep
slogin
slurpd
smbutil
smime
smtp
smtpd
socket
socketpair
sockstat
soelim
sort
source
spawn
speed
spinbox
spkac
splain
split
squid
squid_ldap_auth
squid_ldap_group
squid_unix_group
sscop
ssh
sshd_config
ssh_config
stab
startslip
stat
statfs
stop
string
strings
strip
stty
su
subst
sum
suspend
swapoff
swapon
switch
symlink
sync
sysarch
syscall
sysconftool
sysconftoolcheck
systat
s_client
s_server
s_time
tabs
tail
talk
tar
tbl
tclsh
tcltest
tclvars
tcopy
tcpdump
tcpslice
tcsh
tee
tell
telltc
telnet
term
termcap
terminfo
test
texindex
texinfo
text
textdomain
tfmtodit
tftp
then
threads
time
tip
tk
tkerror
tkvars
tkwait
tlsmgr
tmac
top
toplevel
touch
tput
tr
trace
trafshow
trap
troff
true
truncate
truss
tset
tsort
tty
ttys
type
tzfile
ui
ul
ulimit
umask
unalias
uname
uncomplete
uncompress
undelete
unexpand
unhash
unifdef
unifdefall
uniq
units
unknown
unlimit
unlink
unmount
unset
unsetenv
until
unvis
update
uplevel
uptime
upvar
usbhidaction
usbhidctl
users
utf8
utimes
utmp
utrace
uudecode
uuencode
uuidgen
vacation
variable
verify
version
vfork
vgrind
vgrindefs
vi
vidcontrol
vidfont
view
virtual
vis
vt220keys
vwait
w
wait
wait3
wait4
waitpid
wall
wc
wget
what
whatis
where
whereis
which
while
who
whoami
whois
window
winfo
wish
wm
write
writev
wtmp
x509
xargs
xgettext
xmlwf
xstr
xsubpp
yacc
yes
ypcat
ypchfn
ypchpass
ypchsh
ypmatch
yppasswd
ypwhich
yyfix
zcat
zcmp
zdiff
zegrep
zfgrep
zforce
zgrep
zmore
znew
_exit
__syscall
 
FreeBSD/Linux/UNIX General Commands Manual
Hypertext Man Pages
perl
 
PERL(1) 	       Perl Programmers Reference Guide 	       PERL(1)



NAME
       perl - Practical Extraction and Report Language

SYNOPSIS
       perl [ -sTtuUWX ]      [ -hv ] [ -V[:configvar] ]
	    [ -cw ] [ -d[t][:debugger] ] [ -D[number/list] ]
	    [ -pna ] [ -Fpattern ] [ -l[octal] ] [ -0[octal/hexadecimal] ]
	    [ -Idir ] [ -m[-]module ] [ -M[-]'module...' ] [ -f ]
	    [ -C [nnuummbbeerr//lliisstt] ]      [ -P ]	  [ -S ]      [ -x[dir] ]
	    [ -i[extension] ]	   [ -e 'command' ] [ -- ] [ program-
       file ] [ argument ]...

       If you're new to Perl, you should start with perlintro, which is a gen-
       eral intro for beginners and provides some background to help you navi-
       gate the rest of Perl's extensive documentation.

       For ease of access, the Perl manual has been split up into several sec-
       tions.

       Overview

	   perl 	       Perl overview (this section)
	   perlintro	       Perl introduction for beginners
	   perltoc	       Perl documentation table of contents

       Tutorials

	   perlreftut	       Perl references short introduction
	   perldsc	       Perl data structures intro
	   perllol	       Perl data structures: arrays of arrays

	   perlrequick	       Perl regular expressions quick start
	   perlretut	       Perl regular expressions tutorial

	   perlboot	       Perl OO tutorial for beginners
	   perltoot	       Perl OO tutorial, part 1
	   perltooc	       Perl OO tutorial, part 2
	   perlbot	       Perl OO tricks and examples

	   perlstyle	       Perl style guide

	   perlcheat	       Perl cheat sheet
	   perltrap	       Perl traps for the unwary
	   perldebtut	       Perl debugging tutorial

	   perlfaq	       Perl frequently asked questions
	     perlfaq1	       General Questions About Perl
	     perlfaq2	       Obtaining and Learning about Perl
	     perlfaq3	       Programming Tools
	     perlfaq4	       Data Manipulation
	     perlfaq5	       Files and Formats
	     perlfaq6	       Regexes
	     perlfaq7	       Perl Language Issues
	     perlfaq8	       System Interaction
	     perlfaq9	       Networking

       Reference Manual

	   perlsyn	       Perl syntax
	   perldata	       Perl data structures
	   perlop	       Perl operators and precedence
	   perlsub	       Perl subroutines
	   perlfunc	       Perl built-in functions
	     perlopentut       Perl open() tutorial
	     perlpacktut       Perl pack() and unpack() tutorial
	   perlpod	       Perl plain old documentation
	   perlpodspec	       Perl plain old documentation format specification
	   perlrun	       Perl execution and options
	   perldiag	       Perl diagnostic messages
	   perllexwarn	       Perl warnings and their control
	   perldebug	       Perl debugging
	   perlvar	       Perl predefined variables
	   perlre	       Perl regular expressions, the rest of the story
	   perlreref	       Perl regular expressions quick reference
	   perlref	       Perl references, the rest of the story
	   perlform	       Perl formats
	   perlobj	       Perl objects
	   perltie	       Perl objects hidden behind simple variables
	     perldbmfilter     Perl DBM filters

	   perlipc	       Perl interprocess communication
	   perlfork	       Perl fork() information
	   perlnumber	       Perl number semantics

	   perlthrtut	       Perl threads tutorial
	     perlothrtut       Old Perl threads tutorial

	   perlport	       Perl portability guide
	   perllocale	       Perl locale support
	   perluniintro        Perl Unicode introduction
	   perlunicode	       Perl Unicode support
	   perlebcdic	       Considerations for running Perl on EBCDIC platforms

	   perlsec	       Perl security

	   perlmod	       Perl modules: how they work
	   perlmodlib	       Perl modules: how to write and use
	   perlmodstyle        Perl modules: how to write modules with style
	   perlmodinstall      Perl modules: how to install from CPAN
	   perlnewmod	       Perl modules: preparing a new module for distribution

	   perlutil	       utilities packaged with the Perl distribution

	   perlcompile	       Perl compiler suite intro

	   perlfilter	       Perl source filters

	   perlglossary        Perl Glossary

       Internals and C Language Interface

	   perlembed	       Perl ways to embed perl in your C or C++ application
	   perldebguts	       Perl debugging guts and tips
	   perlxstut	       Perl XS tutorial
	   perlxs	       Perl XS application programming interface
	   perlclib	       Internal replacements for standard C library functions
	   perlguts	       Perl internal functions for those doing extensions
	   perlcall	       Perl calling conventions from C

	   perlapi	       Perl API listing (autogenerated)
	   perlintern	       Perl internal functions (autogenerated)
	   perliol	       C API for Perl's implementation of IO in Layers
	   perlapio	       Perl internal IO abstraction interface

	   perlhack	       Perl hackers guide

       Miscellaneous

	   perlbook	       Perl book information
	   perltodo	       Perl things to do

	   perldoc	       Look up Perl documentation in Pod format

	   perlhist	       Perl history records
	   perldelta	       Perl changes since previous version
	   perl587delta        Perl changes in version 5.8.7
	   perl586delta        Perl changes in version 5.8.6
	   perl585delta        Perl changes in version 5.8.5
	   perl584delta        Perl changes in version 5.8.4
	   perl583delta        Perl changes in version 5.8.3
	   perl582delta        Perl changes in version 5.8.2
	   perl581delta        Perl changes in version 5.8.1
	   perl58delta	       Perl changes in version 5.8.0
	   perl573delta        Perl changes in version 5.7.3
	   perl572delta        Perl changes in version 5.7.2
	   perl571delta        Perl changes in version 5.7.1
	   perl570delta        Perl changes in version 5.7.0
	   perl561delta        Perl changes in version 5.6.1
	   perl56delta	       Perl changes in version 5.6
	   perl5005delta       Perl changes in version 5.005
	   perl5004delta       Perl changes in version 5.004

	   perlartistic        Perl Artistic License
	   perlgpl	       GNU General Public License

       Language-Specific

	   perlcn	       Perl for Simplified Chinese (in EUC-CN)
	   perljp	       Perl for Japanese (in EUC-JP)
	   perlko	       Perl for Korean (in EUC-KR)
	   perltw	       Perl for Traditional Chinese (in Big5)

       Platform-Specific

	   perlaix	       Perl notes for AIX
	   perlamiga	       Perl notes for AmigaOS
	   perlapollo	       Perl notes for Apollo DomainOS
	   perlbeos	       Perl notes for BeOS
	   perlbs2000	       Perl notes for POSIX-BC BS2000
	   perlce	       Perl notes for WinCE
	   perlcygwin	       Perl notes for Cygwin
	   perldgux	       Perl notes for DG/UX
	   perldos	       Perl notes for DOS
	   perlepoc	       Perl notes for EPOC
	   perlfreebsd	       Perl notes for FreeBSD
	   perlhpux	       Perl notes for HP-UX
	   perlhurd	       Perl notes for Hurd
	   perlirix	       Perl notes for Irix
	   perllinux	       Perl notes for Linux
	   perlmachten	       Perl notes for Power MachTen
	   perlmacos	       Perl notes for Mac OS (Classic)
	   perlmacosx	       Perl notes for Mac OS X
	   perlmint	       Perl notes for MiNT
	   perlmpeix	       Perl notes for MPE/iX
	   perlnetware	       Perl notes for NetWare
	   perlopenbsd	       Perl notes for OpenBSD
	   perlos2	       Perl notes for OS/2
	   perlos390	       Perl notes for OS/390
	   perlos400	       Perl notes for OS/400
	   perlplan9	       Perl notes for Plan 9
	   perlqnx	       Perl notes for QNX
	   perlsolaris	       Perl notes for Solaris
	   perltru64	       Perl notes for Tru64
	   perluts	       Perl notes for UTS
	   perlvmesa	       Perl notes for VM/ESA
	   perlvms	       Perl notes for VMS
	   perlvos	       Perl notes for Stratus VOS
	   perlwin32	       Perl notes for Windows

       By default, the manpages listed above are installed in the
       /usr/local/man/ directory.

       Extensive additional documentation for Perl modules is available.  The
       default configuration for perl will place this additional documentation
       in the /usr/local/lib/perl5/man directory (or else in the man subdirec-
       tory of the Perl library directory).  Some of this additional documen-
       tation is distributed standard with Perl, but you'll also find documen-
       tation for third-party modules there.

       You should be able to view Perl's documentation with your man(1) pro-
       gram by including the proper directories in the appropriate start-up
       files, or in the MANPATH environment variable.  To find out where the
       configuration has installed the manpages, type:

	   perl -V:man.dir

       If the directories have a common stem, such as /usr/local/man/man1 and
       /usr/local/man/man3, you need only to add that stem (/usr/local/man) to
       your man(1) configuration files or your MANPATH environment variable.
       If they do not share a stem, you'll have to add both stems.

       If that doesn't work for some reason, you can still use the supplied
       perldoc script to view module information.  You might also look into
       getting a replacement man program.

       If something strange has gone wrong with your program and you're not
       sure where you should look for help, try the -w switch first.  It will
       often point out exactly where the trouble is.

DESCRIPTION
       Perl is a language optimized for scanning arbitrary text files,
       extracting information from those text files, and printing reports
       based on that information.  It's also a good language for many system
       management tasks.  The language is intended to be practical (easy to
       use, efficient, complete) rather than beautiful (tiny, elegant, mini-
       mal).

       Perl combines (in the author's opinion, anyway) some of the best fea-
       tures of C, sed, awk, and sh, so people familiar with those languages
       should have little difficulty with it.  (Language historians will also
       note some vestiges of csh, Pascal, and even BASIC-PLUS.)  Expression
       syntax corresponds closely to C expression syntax.  Unlike most Unix
       utilities, Perl does not arbitrarily limit the size of your data--if
       you've got the memory, Perl can slurp in your whole file as a single
       string.	Recursion is of unlimited depth.  And the tables used by
       hashes (sometimes called "associative arrays") grow as necessary to
       prevent degraded performance.  Perl can use sophisticated pattern
       matching techniques to scan large amounts of data quickly.  Although
       optimized for scanning text, Perl can also deal with binary data, and
       can make dbm files look like hashes.  Setuid Perl scripts are safer
       than C programs through a dataflow tracing mechanism that prevents many
       stupid security holes.

       If you have a problem that would ordinarily use sed or awk or sh, but
       it exceeds their capabilities or must run a little faster, and you
       don't want to write the silly thing in C, then Perl may be for you.
       There are also translators to turn your sed and awk scripts into Perl
       scripts.

       But wait, there's more...

       Begun in 1993 (see perlhist), Perl version 5 is nearly a complete re-
       write that provides the following additional benefits:

       o   modularity and reusability using innumerable modules

	   Described in perlmod, perlmodlib, and perlmodinstall.

       o   embeddable and extensible

	   Described in perlembed, perlxstut, perlxs, perlcall, perlguts, and
	   xsubpp.

       o   roll-your-own magic variables (including multiple simultaneous DBM
	   implementations)

	   Described in perltie and AnyDBM_File.

       o   subroutines can now be overridden, autoloaded, and prototyped

	   Described in perlsub.

       o   arbitrarily nested data structures and anonymous functions

	   Described in perlreftut, perlref, perldsc, and perllol.

       o   object-oriented programming

	   Described in perlobj, perlboot, perltoot, perltooc, and perlbot.

       o   support for light-weight processes (threads)

	   Described in perlthrtut and threads.

       o   support for Unicode, internationalization, and localization

	   Described in perluniintro, perllocale and Locale::Maketext.

       o   lexical scoping

	   Described in perlsub.

       o   regular expression enhancements

	   Described in perlre, with additional examples in perlop.

       o   enhanced debugger and interactive Perl environment, with integrated
	   editor support

	   Described in perldebtut, perldebug and perldebguts.

       o   POSIX 1003.1 compliant library

	   Described in POSIX.

       Okay, that's definitely enough hype.

AVAILABILITY
       Perl is available for most operating systems, including virtually all
       Unix-like platforms.  See "Supported Platforms" in perlport for a list-
       ing.

ENVIRONMENT
       See perlrun.

AUTHOR
       Larry Wall , with the help of oodles of other folks.

       If your Perl success stories and testimonials may be of help to others
       who wish to advocate the use of Perl in their applications, or if you
       wish to simply express your gratitude to Larry and the Perl developers,
       please write to perl-thanks@perl.org .

FILES
	"@INC"		       locations of perl libraries

SEE ALSO
	a2p    awk to perl translator
	s2p    sed to perl translator

	http://www.perl.org/	   the Perl homepage
	http://www.perl.com/	   Perl articles (O'Reilly)
	http://www.cpan.org/	   the Comprehensive Perl Archive
	http://www.pm.org/	   the Perl Mongers

DIAGNOSTICS
       The "use warnings" pragma (and the -w switch) produces some lovely
       diagnostics.

       See perldiag for explanations of all Perl's diagnostics.  The "use
       diagnostics" pragma automatically turns Perl's normally terse warnings
       and errors into these longer forms.

       Compilation errors will tell you the line number of the error, with an
       indication of the next token or token type that was to be examined.
       (In a script passed to Perl via -e switches, each -e is counted as one
       line.)

       Setuid scripts have additional constraints that can produce error mes-
       sages such as "Insecure dependency".  See perlsec.

       Did we mention that you should definitely consider using the -w switch?

BUGS
       The -w switch is not mandatory.

       Perl is at the mercy of your machine's definitions of various opera-
       tions such as type casting, atof(), and floating-point output with
       sprintf().

       If your stdio requires a seek or eof between reads and writes on a par-
       ticular stream, so does Perl.  (This doesn't apply to sysread() and
       syswrite().)

       While none of the built-in data types have any arbitrary size limits
       (apart from memory size), there are still a few arbitrary limits:  a
       given variable name may not be longer than 251 characters.  Line num-
       bers displayed by diagnostics are internally stored as short integers,
       so they are limited to a maximum of 65535 (higher numbers usually being
       affected by wraparound).

       You may mail your bug reports (be sure to include full configuration
       information as output by the myconfig program in the perl source tree,
       or by "perl -V") to perlbug@perl.org .  If you've succeeded in compil-
       ing perl, the perlbug script in the utils/ subdirectory can be used to
       help mail in a bug report.

       Perl actually stands for Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister, but
       don't tell anyone I said that.

NOTES
       The Perl motto is "There's more than one way to do it."	Divining how
       many more is left as an exercise to the reader.

       The three principal virtues of a programmer are Laziness, Impatience,
       and Hubris.  See the Camel Book for why.



perl v5.8.8			  2006-01-07			       PERL(1)
=19533
+851
(88)