PERLFAQ(1)
NNAAMMEE
perlfaq - frequently asked questions about Perl ($Date:
1997/04/24 22:46:06 $)
DDEESSCCRRIIPPTTIIOONN
This document is structured into the following sections:
perlfaq: Structural overview of the FAQ.
This document.
the perlfaq1 manpage: General Questions About Perl
Very general, high-level information about Perl.
the perlfaq2 manpage: Obtaining and Learning about Perl
Where to find source and documentation to Perl,
support and training, and related matters.
the perlfaq3 manpage: Programming Tools
Programmer tools and programming support.
the perlfaq4 manpage: Data Manipulation
Manipulating numbers, dates, strings, arrays, hashes,
and miscellaneous data issues.
the perlfaq5 manpage: Files and Formats
I/O and the "f" issues: filehandles, flushing,
formats and footers.
the perlfaq6 manpage: Regexps
Pattern matching and regular expressions.
the perlfaq7 manpage: General Perl Language Issues
General Perl language issues that don't clearly fit
into any of the other sections.
the perlfaq8 manpage: System Interaction
Interprocess communication (IPC), control over the
user-interface (keyboard, screen and pointing
devices).
the perlfaq9 manpage: Networking
Networking, the Internet, and a few on the web.
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This document is posted regularly to
comp.lang.perl.announce and several other related
newsgroups. It is available in a variety of formats from
CPAN in the /CPAN/doc/FAQs/FAQ/ directory, or on the web
at http://www.perl.com/perl/faq/ .
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You may mail corrections, additions, and suggestions to
perlfaq-suggestions@perl.com . Mail sent to the old
perlfaq alias will merely cause the FAQ to be sent to you.
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pprroobblleemmss ttoo tthhee aauutthhoorrss
Your questions will probably go unread, unless they're
suggestions of new questions to add to the FAQ, in which
case they should have gone to the perlfaq-
suggestions@perl.com instead.
You should have read section 2 of this faq. There you
would have learned that comp.lang.perl.misc is the
appropriate place to go for free advice. If your question
is really important and you require a prompt and correct
answer, you should hire a consultant.
CCrreeddiittss
When I first began the Perl FAQ in the late 80s, I never
realized it would have grown to over a hundred pages, nor
that Perl would ever become so popular and widespread.
This document could not have been written without the
tremendous help provided by Larry Wall and the rest of the
Perl Porters.
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Copyright (c) 1997 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington.
All rights reserved.
NNoonnccoommmmeerrcciiaall RReepprroodduuccttiioonn
Permission is granted to distribute this document, in part
or in full, via electronic means or printed copy providing
that (1) that all credits and copyright notices be
retained, (2) that no charges beyond reproduction be
involved, and (3) that a reasonable attempt be made to use
the most current version available.
Furthermore, you may include this document in any
distribution of the full Perl source or binaries, in its
verbatim documentation, or on a complete dump of the CPAN
archive, providing that the three stipulations given above
continue to be met.
CCoommmmeerrcciiaall RReepprroodduuccttiioonn
Requests for all other distribution rights, including the
incorporation in part or in full of this text or its code
into commercial products such as but not limited to books,
magazine articles, or CD-ROMs, must be made to perlfaq-
legal@perl.com. Any commercial use of any portion of this
document without prior written authorization by its
authors will be subject to appropriate action.
DDiissccllaaiimmeerr
This information is offered in good faith and in the hope
that it may be of use, but is not guaranteed to be
correct, up to date, or suitable for any particular
purpose whatsoever. The authors accept no liability in
respect of this information or its use.
CChhaannggeess
24/April/97
Style and whitespace changes from Chip, new question
on reading one character at a time from a terminal
using POSIX from Tom.
23/April/97
Added http://www.oasis.leo.org/perl/ to the perlfaq2
manpage. Style fix to the perlfaq3 manpage. Added
floating point precision, fixed complex number
arithmetic, cross-references, caveat for Text::Wrap,
alternative answer for initial capitalizing, fixed
incorrect regexp, added example of Tie::IxHash to the
perlfaq4 manpage. Added example of passing and
storing filehandles, added commify to the perlfaq5
manpage. Restored variable suicide, and added mass
commenting to the perlfaq7 manpage. Added
Net::Telnet, fixed backticks, added reader/writer pair
to telnet question, added FindBin, grouped module
questions together in the perlfaq8 manpage. Expanded
caveats for the simple URL extractor, gave LWP
example, added CGI security question, expanded on the
email address answer in the perlfaq9 manpage.
25/March/97
Added more info to the binary distribution section of
the perlfaq2 manpage. Added Net::Telnet to the
perlfaq6 manpage. Fixed typos in the perlfaq8
manpage. Added mail sending example to the perlfaq9
manpage. Added Merlyn's columns to the perlfaq2
manpage.
18/March/97
Added the DATE to the NAME section, indicating which
sections have changed.
Mentioned SIGPIPE and the perlipc manpage in the
forking open answer in the perlfaq8 manpage.
Fixed description of a regular expression in the
perlfaq4 manpage.
17/March/97 Version
Various typos fixed throughout.
Added new question on Perl BNF on the perlfaq7
manpage.
Initial Release: 11/March/97
This is the initial release of version 3 of the FAQ;
consequently there have been no changes since its
initial release.