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PERL(1)								       PERL(1)

NAME
       perl - practical extraction and report language

SYNOPSIS
       perl [options] filename args

DESCRIPTION
       Perl  is	 an interpreted 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, ele‐
       gant, minimal).	It combines (in the author's opinion, anyway) some  of
       the best features 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 quite 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 hash
       tables used by associative arrays grow as necessary to prevent degraded
       performance.   Perl  uses  sophisticated pattern matching techniques to
       scan large amounts of data very quickly.	 Although optimized for	 scan‐
       ning  text, perl can also deal with binary data, and can make dbm files
       look like associative arrays (where dbm	is  available).	  Setuid  perl
       scripts	are safer than C programs through a dataflow tracing mechanism
       which prevents many stupid security holes.  If you have a problem  that
       would  ordinarily  use sed or awk or sh, but it exceeds their capabili‐
       ties 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.

       Upon startup, perl looks for  your  script  in  one  of	the  following
       places:	Specified  line	 by  line via -e switches on the command line.
       Contained in the file specified by the first filename  on  the  command
       line.   (Note  that  systems  supporting	 the #! notation invoke inter‐
       preters this way.)  Passed in implicitly via standard input.  This only
       works  if  there are no filename arguments—to pass arguments to a stdin
       script you must explicitly specify a - for the script name.

       After locating your script, perl compiles it to an internal  form.   If
       the script is syntactically correct, it is executed.

       A single-character option may be combined with the following option, if
       any.  This is particularly useful when invoking a script using  the  #!
       construct which only allows one argument.  Example:

	    #!/usr/bin/perl -spi.bak # same as -s -p -i.bak
	    ...

       Options include:

       -0digits
	    specifies  the record separator ($/) as an octal number.  If there
	    are no  digits,  the  null	character  is  the  separator.	 Other
	    switches  may  precede  or follow the digits.  For example, if you
	    have a version of find which can print filenames terminated by the
	    null character, you can say this:

		find . -name '*.bak' -print0 | perl -n0e unlink

	    The	 special  value 00 will cause Perl to slurp files in paragraph
	    mode.  The value 0777 will cause Perl to slurp files  whole	 since
	    there is no legal character with that value.

       -a   turns  on  autosplit  mode when used with a -n or -p.  An implicit
	    split command to the @F array is done as the  first	 thing	inside
	    the implicit while loop produced by the -n or -p.

		 perl -ane ´print pop(@F), "\n";´

	    is equivalent to

		 while (<>) {
		      @F = split(´ ´);
		      print pop(@F), "\n";
		 }

       -c   causes  perl to check the syntax of the script and then exit with‐
	    out executing it.

       -d   runs the script under the  perl  debugger.	 See  the  section  on
	    Debugging.

       -Dnumber
	    sets  debugging  flags.  To watch how it executes your script, use
	    -D14.  (This only works if debugging is compiled into your	perl.)
	    Another  nice  value  is  -D1024, which lists your compiled syntax
	    tree.  And -D512 displays compiled regular expressions.

       -e commandline
	    may be used to enter one line of script.  Multiple -e commands may
	    be	given  to  build up a multi-line script.  If -e is given, perl
	    will not look for a script filename in the argument list.

       -iextension
	    specifies that files processed by  the  <>	construct  are	to  be
	    edited in-place.  It does this by renaming the input file, opening
	    the output file by the same name, and selecting that  output  file
	    as	the default for print statements.  The extension, if supplied,
	    is added to the name of the old file to make a backup copy.	 If no
	    extension  is  supplied, no backup is made.	 Saying perl -p -i.bak
	    -e "s/foo/bar/;" ...  is the same as using the script:

		 #!/usr/bin/perl -pi.bak
		 s/foo/bar/;

	    which is equivalent to

		 #!/usr/bin/perl
		 while (<>) {
		      if ($ARGV ne $oldargv) {
			   rename($ARGV, $ARGV . ´.bak´);
			   open(ARGVOUT, ">$ARGV");
			   select(ARGVOUT);
			   $oldargv = $ARGV;
		      }
		      s/foo/bar/;
		 }
		 continue {
		     print;	# this prints to original filename
		 }
		 select(STDOUT);

	    except that the -i form doesn't need to compare $ARGV to  $oldargv
	    to	know  when  the	 filename  has changed.	 It does, however, use
	    ARGVOUT for the selected filehandle.  Note that STDOUT is restored
	    as	the default output filehandle after the loop.  You can use eof
	    to locate the end of each input file, in case you want  to	append
	    to each file, or reset line numbering (see example under eof).

       -Idirectory
	    may	 be  used  in  conjunction  with -P to tell the C preprocessor
	    where to look for include  files.	By  default  /usr/include  and
	    /usr/lib/perl are searched.

       -loctnum
	    enables  automatic	line-ending  processing.   It has two effects:
	    first, it automatically chops the line terminator when  used  with
	    -n	or  -p , and second, it assigns $\ to have the value of octnum
	    so that any print statements will have that line terminator	 added
	    back  on.	If  octnum is omitted, sets $\ to the current value of
	    $/.	 For instance, to trim lines to 80 columns:

		 perl -lpe ´substr($_, 80) = ""´

	    Note that the assignment $\ = $/ is done when the switch  is  pro‐
	    cessed,  so	 the  input record separator can be different than the
	    output record separator if the -l  switch  is  followed  by	 a  -0
	    switch:

		 gnufind / -print0 | perl -ln0e 'print "found $_" if -p'

	    This sets $\ to newline and then sets $/ to the null character.

       -n   causes perl to assume the following loop around your script, which
	    makes it iterate over filename arguments somewhat like sed	-n  or
	    awk:

		 while (<>) {
		      ...	# your script goes here
		 }

	    Note  that	the  lines are not printed by default.	See -p to have
	    lines printed.  Here is an efficient way to delete all files older
	    than a week:

		 find . -mtime +7 -print | perl -nle ´unlink;´

	    This  is  faster  than  using the -exec switch of find because you
	    don't have to start a process on every filename found.

       -p   causes perl to assume the following loop around your script, which
	    makes it iterate over filename arguments somewhat like sed:

		 while (<>) {
		      ...	# your script goes here
		 } continue {
		      print;
		 }

	    Note that the lines are printed automatically.  To suppress print‐
	    ing use the -n switch.  A -p overrides a -n switch.

       -P   causes your script to be run through  the  C  preprocessor	before
	    compilation	 by  perl.   (Since  both  comments and cpp directives
	    begin with the # character, you  should  avoid  starting  comments
	    with  any  words recognized by the C preprocessor such as if, else
	    or define.)

       -s   enables some rudimentary switch parsing for switches on  the  com‐
	    mand  line after the script name but before any filename arguments
	    (or before a --).  Any switch found there is  removed  from	 @ARGV
	    and	 sets the corresponding variable in the perl script.  The fol‐
	    lowing script prints true if and only if  the  script  is  invoked
	    with a -xyz switch.

		 #!/usr/bin/perl -s
		 if ($xyz) { print "true\n"; }

       -S   makes  perl	 use  the  PATH environment variable to search for the
	    script (unless the name of the script starts with a slash).	 Typi‐
	    cally  this	 is  used to emulate #! startup on machines that don't
	    support #!, in the following manner:

		 #!/usr/bin/perl
		 eval "exec /usr/bin/perl -S $0 $*"
		      if $running_under_some_shell;

	    The system ignores the first line and feeds the script to /bin/sh,
	    which  proceeds  to	 try  to  execute  the	perl script as a shell
	    script.  The shell executes the second line as a normal shell com‐
	    mand, and thus starts up the perl interpreter.  On some systems $0
	    doesn't always contain the full pathname, so the -S tells perl  to
	    search  for	 the  script  if  necessary.   After  perl locates the
	    script, it parses the lines and ignores them because the  variable
	    $running_under_some_shell  is never true.  A better construct than
	    $* would be ${1+"$@"}, which handles embedded spaces and  such  in
	    the filenames, but doesn't work if the script is being interpreted
	    by csh.  In order to start up sh rather than csh, some systems may
	    have  to  replace the #! line with a line containing just a colon,
	    which will be politely ignored by perl.  Other systems can't  con‐
	    trol  that,	 and  need  a totally devious construct that will work
	    under any of csh, sh or perl, such as the following:

		 eval '(exit $?0)' && eval 'exec /usr/bin/perl -S $0 ${1+"$@"}'
		 & eval 'exec /usr/bin/perl -S $0 $argv:q'
		      if 0;

       -u   causes perl to dump core after compiling  your  script.   You  can
	    then  take	this  core dump and turn it into an executable file by
	    using the undump program (not supplied).  This speeds  startup  at
	    the	 expense  of some disk space (which you can minimize by strip‐
	    ping the executable).  (Still, a "hello  world"  executable	 comes
	    out	 to  about  200K on my machine.)  If you are going to run your
	    executable as a set-id program then you should probably compile it
	    using taintperl rather than normal perl.  If you want to execute a
	    portion of your script  before  dumping,  use  the	dump  operator
	    instead.   Note:  availability  of undump is platform specific and
	    may not be available for a specific port of perl.

       -U   allows perl to do unsafe operations.  Currently  the  only	unsafe
	    operations are the unlinking of directories while running as supe‐
	    ruser, and running setuid programs with fatal taint checks	turned
	    into warnings.

       -v   prints the version and patchlevel of your perl executable.

       -w   prints  warnings  about  identifiers that are mentioned only once,
	    and scalar variables that are used before being set.   Also	 warns
	    about  redefined subroutines, and references to undefined filehan‐
	    dles or filehandles opened readonly that  you  are	attempting  to
	    write  on.	Also warns you if you use == on values that don't look
	    like numbers, and if your subroutines recurse more than 100 deep.

       -xdirectory
	    tells perl that the script is  embedded  in	 a  message.   Leading
	    garbage will be discarded until the first line that starts with #!
	    and contains the string "perl".  Any meaningful switches  on  that
	    line will be applied (but only one group of switches, as with nor‐
	    mal #! processing).	 If a directory name is specified,  Perl  will
	    switch to that directory before running the script.	 The -x switch
	    only controls the the disposal of  leading	garbage.   The	script
	    must be terminated with __END__ if there is trailing garbage to be
	    ignored (the script can process any or all of the trailing garbage
	    via the DATA filehandle if desired).

ENVIRONMENT
       Used  if chdir has no argument.	Used if chdir has no argument and HOME
       is not set.  Used in executing subprocesses, and in finding the	script
       if  -S is used.	A colon-separated list of directories in which to look
       for Perl library files before looking in the standard library  and  the
       current	directory.   The  command  used	 to get the debugger code.  If
       unset, uses

	    require 'perldb.pl'

       Apart from these, perl uses no other environment variables,  except  to
       make  them  available  to  the script being executed, and to child pro‐
       cesses.	However, scripts running setuid would do well to  execute  the
       following lines before doing anything else, just to keep people honest:

	   $ENV{´PATH´} = ´/bin:/usr/bin´;    # or whatever you need
	   $ENV{´SHELL´} = ´/bin/sh´ if $ENV{´SHELL´} ne ´´;
	   $ENV{´IFS´} = ´´ if $ENV{´IFS´} ne ´´;

FILES
       /tmp/perl-eXXXXXX   temporary file for -e commands.

SEE ALSO
       The  complete  perl  documentation can be found in the UNIX System man‐
       ager's Manual (SMM:19).
       a2p  awk to perl translator
       s2p  sed to perl translator

DIAGNOSTICS
       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 the case of 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 the section on setuid scripts.

TRAPS
       Accustomed awk users should take special note of the  following:	 Semi‐
       colons  are required after all simple statements in perl (except at the
       end of a block).	 Newline is not a statement delimiter.	Curly brackets
       are  required  on ifs and whiles.  Variables begin with $ or @ in perl.
       Arrays index from 0 unless you set $[.  Likewise	 string	 positions  in
       substr()	 and  index().	 You  have  to	decide	whether your array has
       numeric or string indices.  Associative array values do not spring into
       existence  upon mere reference.	You have to decide whether you want to
       use string or numeric comparisons.  Reading  an	input  line  does  not
       split  it  for you.  You get to split it yourself to an array.  And the
       split operator has different arguments.	The current input line is nor‐
       mally  in $_, not $0.  It generally does not have the newline stripped.
       ($0 is the name of the program executed.)  $<digit> does not  refer  to
       fields—it  refers to substrings matched by the last match pattern.  The
       print statement does not add field and record separators unless you set
       $,  and	$\.   You  must open your files before you print to them.  The
       range operator is .., not comma.	 (The comma operator works as  in  C.)
       The  match operator is =~, not ~.  (~ is the one's complement operator,
       as in C.)  The exponentiation operator is **, not ^.   (^  is  the  XOR
       operator,  as  in  C.)	The  concatenation operator is ., not the null
       string.	(Using the null string would render  /pat/  /pat/  unparsable,
       since  the  third slash would be interpreted as a division operator—the
       tokener is in fact slightly context sensitive for operators like /,  ?,
       and <.  And in fact, . itself can be the beginning of a number.)	 Next,
       exit and continue work differently.  The following variables work  dif‐
       ferently

	      Awk		Perl
	      ARGC		$#ARGV
	      ARGV[0]		$0
	      FILENAME		$ARGV
	      FNR		$. - something
	      FS		(whatever you like)
	      NF		$#Fld, or some such
	      NR		$.
	      OFMT		$#
	      OFS		$,
	      ORS		$\
	      RLENGTH		length($&)
	      RS		$/
	      RSTART		length($`)
	      SUBSEP		$;

       When  in doubt, run the awk construct through a2p and see what it gives
       you.

       Cerebral C programmers should take note of the following: Curly	brack‐
       ets  are	 required on ifs and whiles.  You should use elsif rather than
       else if Break and continue become last and next, respectively.  There's
       no switch statement.  Variables begin with $ or @ in perl.  Printf does
       not implement *.	 Comments begin with #, not /*.	 You  can't  take  the
       address of anything.  ARGV must be capitalized.	The system calls link,
       unlink, rename, etc. return nonzero for success, not  0.	  Signal  han‐
       dlers deal with signal names, not numbers.

       Seasoned	 sed programmers should take note of the following: Backrefer‐
       ences in substitutions use $  rather  than  \.	The  pattern  matching
       metacharacters (, ), and | do not have backslashes in front.  The range
       operator is .. rather than comma.

       Sharp shell programmers should take note of the following: The backtick
       operator does variable interpretation without regard to the presence of
       single quotes in the command.  The backtick operator does  no  transla‐
       tion  of the return value, unlike csh.  Shells (especially csh) do sev‐
       eral levels of substitution on each command line.  Perl does  substitu‐
       tion only in certain constructs such as double quotes, backticks, angle
       brackets and search patterns.  Shells interpret scripts a little bit at
       a  time.	  Perl	compiles  the  whole program before executing it.  The
       arguments are available via @ARGV, not $1, $2, etc.  The environment is
       not automatically made available as variables.

BUGS
       Perl  is	 at  the mercy of your machine's definitions of various opera‐
       tions such as type casting, atof() and 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 identifier may not be longer than 255 characters, and  no	compo‐
       nent  of	 your  PATH  may  be longer than 255 if you use -S.  A regular
       expression may not compile to more than 32767 bytes internally.

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

AUTHOR
       Larry Wall <lwall@netlabs.com>
       MS-DOS port by Diomidis Spinellis <dds@cc.ic.ac.uk>

4.3 Berkeley Distribution	 June 30, 1993			       PERL(1)
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