For ease of access, the Perl manual has been split up into several sections:
perlPerl overview (this section)perlfaqPerl frequently asked questionsperltocPerl documentation table of contentsperlbookPerl book informationperlsynPerl syntaxperldataPerl data structuresperlopPerl operators and precedenceperlsubPerl subroutinesperlfuncPerl builtin functionsperlreftutPerl references short introductionperldscPerl data structures introperlrequickPerl regular expressions quick startperlpodPerl plain old documentationperlstylePerl style guideperltrapPerl traps for the unwaryperlrunPerl execution and optionsperldiagPerl diagnostic messagesperllexwarnPerl warnings and their controlperldebtutPerl debugging tutorialperldebugPerl debuggingperlvarPerl predefined variablesperllolPerl data structures: arrays of arraysperlopentutPerl open() tutorialperlretutPerl regular expressions tutorialperlrePerl regular expressions, the rest of the storyperlrefPerl references, the rest of the storyperlformPerl formatsperlbootPerl OO tutorial for beginnersperltootPerl OO tutorial, part 1perltootcPerl OO tutorial, part 2perlobjPerl objectsperlbotPerl OO tricks and examplesperltiePerl objects hidden behind simple variablesperlipcPerl interprocess communicationperlforkPerl fork() informationperlnumberPerl number semanticsperlthrtutPerl threads tutorialperlportPerl portability guideperllocalePerl locale supportperlunicodePerl unicode supportperlebcdicConsiderations for running Perl on EBCDIC platformsperlsecPerl securityperlmodPerl modules: how they workperlmodlibPerl modules: how to write and useperlmodinstallPerl modules: how to install from CPANperlnewmodPerl modules: preparing a new module for distributionperlfaq1General Questions About Perlperlfaq2Obtaining and Learning about Perlperlfaq3Programming Toolsperlfaq4Data Manipulationperlfaq5Files and Formatsperlfaq6Regexesperlfaq7Perl Language Issuesperlfaq8System Interactionperlfaq9NetworkingperlcompilePerl compiler suite introperlembedPerl ways to embed perl in your C or C++ applicationperldebgutsPerl debugging guts and tipsperlxstutPerl XS tutorialperlxsPerl XS application programming interfaceperlclibInternal replacements for standard C library functionsperlgutsPerl internal functions for those doing extensionsperlcallPerl calling conventions from Cperlutilutilities packaged with the Perl distributionperlfilterPerl source filtersperldbmfilterPerl DBM filtersperlapiPerl API listing (autogenerated)perlinternPerl internal functions (autogenerated)perlapioPerl internal IO abstraction interfaceperltodoPerl things to doperlhackPerl hackers guideperlhistPerl history recordsperldeltaPerl changes since previous versionperl5005deltaPerl changes in version 5.005perl5004deltaPerl changes in version 5.004perlaixPerl notes for AIXperlamigaPerl notes for Amigaperlbs2000Perl notes for POSIX-BC BS2000perlcygwinPerl notes for CygwinperldosPerl notes for DOSperlepocPerl notes for EPOCperlhpuxPerl notes for HP-UXperlmachtenPerl notes for Power MachTenperlmacosPerl notes for Mac OS (Classic)perlmpeixPerl notes for MPE/iXperlos2Perl notes for OS/2perlos390Perl notes for OS/390perlsolaris Perl notes for SolarisperlvmesaPerl notes for VM/ESAperlvmsPerl notes for VMSperlvosPerl notes for Stratus VOSperlwin32Perl notes for Windows(If you're intending to read these straight through for the first time, the suggested order will tend to reduce the number of forward references.)
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 theman subdirectory of the Perl library directory). Some of this additional documentation is distributed standard with Perl, but you'll also find documentation for third-party modules there.
You should be able to view Perl's documentation with your man(1) program 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.dirIf 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 suppliedperldoc 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.
Full perl(1) documentation:perl
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, minimal).
Perl combines (in the author's opinion, anyway) some of the best features of C,sed,awk, andsh, so people familiar with those languages should have little difficulty with it. (Language historians will also note some vestiges ofcsh, 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 usesed orawk orsh, 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 yoursed andawk scripts into Perl scripts.
But wait, there's more...
Begun in 1993 (seeperlhist), Perl version 5 is nearly a complete rewrite that provides the following additional benefits:
modularity and reusability using innumerable modules
Described inperlmod,perlmodlib, andperlmodinstall.
embeddable and extensible
Described inperlembed,perlxstut,perlxs,perlcall,perlguts, andxsubpp.
roll-your-own magic variables (including multiple simultaneous DBM implementations)
Described inperltie andAnyDBM_File.
subroutines can now be overridden, autoloaded, and prototyped
Described inperlsub.
arbitrarily nested data structures and anonymous functions
Described inperlreftut,perlref,perldsc, andperllol.
object-oriented programming
compilability into C code or Perl bytecode
Described inB andB::Bytecode.
support for light-weight processes (threads)
Described inperlthrtut andThread.
support for internationalization, localization, and Unicode
Described inperllocale andutf8.
lexical scoping
Described inperlsub.
regular expression enhancements
enhanced debugger and interactive Perl environment, with integrated editor support
Described inperldebug.
POSIX 1003.1 compliant library
Described inPOSIX.
Okay, that'sdefinitely enough hype.
Perldoc Browser is maintained by Dan Book (DBOOK). Please contact him via theGitHub issue tracker oremail regarding any issues with the site itself, search, or rendering of documentation.
The Perl documentation is maintained by the Perl 5 Porters in the development of Perl. Please contact them via thePerl issue tracker, themailing list, orIRC to report any issues with the contents or format of the documentation.