{
    "mode": "man",
    "parameter": "perlfaq2",
    "section": "1",
    "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/perlfaq2/1/json",
    "generated": "2026-10-20T12:06:44Z",
    "sections": {
        "NAME": {
            "content": "perlfaq2 - Obtaining and Learning about Perl\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "VERSION": {
            "content": "version 5.20210520\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "DESCRIPTION": {
            "content": "This section of the FAQ answers questions about where to find source and documentation for\nPerl, support, and related matters.\n",
            "subsections": [
                {
                    "name": "What machines support Perl? Where do I get it?",
                    "content": "The standard release of Perl (the one maintained by the Perl development team) is distributed\nonly in source code form. You can find the latest releases at <http://www.cpan.org/src/>.\n\nPerl builds and runs on a bewildering number of platforms. Virtually all known and current\nUnix derivatives are supported (perl's native platform), as are other systems like VMS, DOS,\nOS/2, Windows, QNX, BeOS, OS X, MPE/iX and the Amiga.\n\nBinary distributions for some proprietary platforms can be found <http://www.cpan.org/ports/>\ndirectory. Because these are not part of the standard distribution, they may and in fact do\ndiffer from the base perl port in a variety of ways. You'll have to check their respective\nrelease notes to see just what the differences are. These differences can be either positive\n(e.g. extensions for the features of the particular platform that are not supported in the\nsource release of perl) or negative (e.g. might be based upon a less current source release\nof perl).\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "How can I get a binary version of Perl?",
                    "content": "See CPAN Ports <http://www.cpan.org/ports/>\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "I don't have a C compiler. How can I build my own Perl interpreter?",
                    "content": "For Windows, use a binary version of Perl, Strawberry Perl <http://strawberryperl.com/> and\nActivePerl <http://www.activestate.com/activeperl> come with a bundled C compiler.\n\nOtherwise if you really do want to build Perl, you need to get a binary version of \"gcc\" for\nyour system first. Use a search engine to find out how to do this for your operating system.\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "I copied the Perl binary from one machine to another, but scripts don't work.",
                    "content": "That's probably because you forgot libraries, or library paths differ.  You really should\nbuild the whole distribution on the machine it will eventually live on, and then type \"make\ninstall\". Most other approaches are doomed to failure.\n\nOne simple way to check that things are in the right place is to print out the hard-coded\n@INC that perl looks through for libraries:\n\n% perl -le 'print for @INC'\n\nIf this command lists any paths that don't exist on your system, then you may need to move\nthe appropriate libraries to these locations, or create symbolic links, aliases, or shortcuts\nappropriately. @INC is also printed as part of the output of\n\n% perl -V\n\nYou might also want to check out \"How do I keep my own module/library directory?\" in\nperlfaq8.\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "I grabbed the sources and tried to compile but gdbm/dynamic loading/malloc/linking/... failed.",
                    "content": ""
                },
                {
                    "name": "How do I make it work?",
                    "content": "Read the INSTALL file, which is part of the source distribution.  It describes in detail how\nto cope with most idiosyncrasies that the \"Configure\" script can't work around for any given\nsystem or architecture.\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "What modules and extensions are available for Perl? What is CPAN?",
                    "content": "CPAN stands for Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, a multi-gigabyte archive replicated on\nhundreds of machines all over the world. CPAN contains tens of thousands of modules and\nextensions, source code and documentation, designed for everything from commercial database\ninterfaces to keyboard/screen control and running large web sites.\n\nYou can search CPAN on <http://metacpan.org>.\n\nThe master web site for CPAN is <http://www.cpan.org/>, <http://www.cpan.org/SITES.html>\nlists all mirrors.\n\nSee the CPAN FAQ at <http://www.cpan.org/misc/cpan-faq.html> for answers to the most\nfrequently asked questions about CPAN.\n\nThe Task::Kensho module has a list of recommended modules which you should review as a good\nstarting point.\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "Where can I get information on Perl?",
                    "content": "•   <http://www.perl.org/>\n\n•   <http://perldoc.perl.org/>\n\n•   <http://learn.perl.org/>\n\nThe  complete  Perl  documentation is available with the Perl distribution.  If you have Perl\ninstalled locally, you probably have the documentation installed as well: type \"perldoc perl\"\nin a terminal or view online <http://perldoc.perl.org/perl.html>.\n\n(Some operating system distributions may ship the documentation in a different  package;  for\ninstance, on Debian, you need to install the \"perl-doc\" package.)\n\nMany  good  books  have  been  written about Perl--see the section later in perlfaq2 for more\ndetails.\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "What is perl.com? Perl Mongers? pm.org? perl.org? cpan.org?",
                    "content": "Perl.com <http://www.perl.com/> used to be part of the  O'Reilly  Network,  a  subsidiary  of\nO'Reilly  Media.  Although it retains most of the original content from its O'Reilly Network,\nit is now hosted by The Perl Foundation <http://www.perlfoundation.org/>.\n\nThe Perl Foundation is an advocacy organization for the Perl language which maintains the web\nsite <http://www.perl.org/> as a general advocacy site for the Perl  language.  It  uses  the\ndomain  to  provide  general support services to the Perl community, including the hosting of\nmailing lists, web sites, and other services. There  are  also  many  other  sub-domains  for\nspecial topics like learning Perl and jobs in Perl, such as:\n\n•   <http://www.perl.org/>\n\n•   <http://learn.perl.org/>\n\n•   <http://jobs.perl.org/>\n\n•   <http://lists.perl.org/>\n\nPerl  Mongers  <http://www.pm.org/> uses the pm.org domain for services related to local Perl\nuser groups, including the hosting of mailing lists and web sites. See the Perl  Mongers  web\nsite  <http://www.pm.org/>  for  more  information  about  joining,  starting,  or requesting\nservices for a Perl user group.\n\nCPAN, or the Comprehensive Perl Archive  Network  <http://www.cpan.org/>,  is  a  replicated,\nworldwide repository of Perl software.  See What is CPAN?.\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "Where can I post questions?",
                    "content": "There  are  many  Perl  mailing  lists  for  various  topics, specifically the beginners list\n<http://lists.perl.org/list/beginners.html> may be of use.\n\nOther places to ask questions  are  on  the  PerlMonks  site  <http://www.perlmonks.org/>  or\nstackoverflow <http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/perl>.\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "Perl Books",
                    "content": "There are many good books on Perl <http://www.perl.org/books/library.html>.\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "Which magazines have Perl content?",
                    "content": "There's    also    $foo    Magazin,   a   German   magazine   dedicated   to   Perl,   at   (\n<http://www.foo-magazin.de> ). The Perl-Zeitung is another German-speaking magazine for  Perl\nbeginners (see <http://perl-zeitung.at.tf> ).\n\nSeveral Unix/Linux related magazines frequently include articles on Perl.\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "Which Perl blogs should I read?",
                    "content": "Perl  News  <http://perlnews.org/>  covers  some  of the major events in the Perl world, Perl\nWeekly <http://perlweekly.com/> is a  weekly  e-mail  (and  RSS  feed)  of  hand-picked  Perl\narticles.\n\n<http://blogs.perl.org/>  hosts  many  Perl  blogs,  there are also several blog aggregators:\nPerlsphere <http://perlsphere.net/> and IronMan <http://ironman.enlightenedperl.org/> are two\nof them.\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "What mailing lists are there for Perl?",
                    "content": "A comprehensive list of Perl-related mailing lists can be found at <http://lists.perl.org/>\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "Where can I buy a commercial version of Perl?",
                    "content": "Perl already is commercial software: it has a license that you can grab and carefully read to\nyour manager. It is distributed in releases and comes in well-defined packages.  There  is  a\nvery large and supportive user community and an extensive literature.\n\nIf  you  still  need  commercial  support ActiveState <http://www.activestate.com/activeperl>\noffers this.\n"
                },
                {
                    "name": "Where do I send bug reports?",
                    "content": "(contributed by brian d foy)\n\nFirst, ensure that you've found an actual bug. Second, ensure you've found an actual bug.\n\nIf you've found a bug with the perl interpreter or one of the modules in the standard library\n(those that come with Perl), you can submit a bug report  to  the  GitHub  issue  tracker  at\n<https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>.\n\nTo  determine  if  a  module  came  with  your  version  of Perl, you can install and use the\nModule::CoreList module. It has the information  about  the  modules  (with  their  versions)\nincluded with each release of Perl.\n\nEvery  CPAN module has a bug tracker set up in RT, <http://rt.cpan.org>.  You can submit bugs\nto RT either through its web interface or by email.  To  email  a  bug  report,  send  it  to\nbug-<distribution-name>@rt.cpan.org  .  For  example,  if  you  wanted  to  report  a  bug in\nBusiness::ISBN, you could send a message to bug-Business-ISBN@rt.cpan.org .\n\nSome modules might have special reporting requirements, such  as  a  GitHub  or  Google  Code\ntracking system, so you should check the module documentation too.\n"
                }
            ]
        },
        "AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT": {
            "content": "Copyright  (c) 1997-2010 Tom Christiansen, Nathan Torkington, and other authors as noted. All\nrights reserved.\n\nThis documentation is free; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms  as\nPerl itself.\n\nIrrespective  of  its  distribution, all code examples here are in the public domain. You are\npermitted and encouraged to use this code and any derivatives thereof in  your  own  programs\nfor  fun  or for profit as you see fit. A simple comment in the code giving credit to the FAQ\nwould be courteous but is not required.\n\nperl v5.38.2                                 2026-08-18                                  PERLFAQ2(1)",
            "subsections": []
        }
    },
    "summary": "perlfaq2 - Obtaining and Learning about Perl",
    "flags": [],
    "examples": [],
    "see_also": [],
    "tldr": {
        "source": "not_found",
        "examples": []
    }
}