1Perl is Copyright (C) 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 22001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 32013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 by Larry Wall and others. 4All rights reserved. 5 6 7 8ABOUT PERL 9========== 10 11Perl is a general-purpose programming language originally developed for 12text manipulation and now used for a wide range of tasks including 13system administration, web development, network programming, GUI 14development, and more. 15 16The language is intended to be practical (easy to use, efficient, 17complete) rather than beautiful (tiny, elegant, minimal). Its major 18features are that it's easy to use, supports both procedural and 19object-oriented (OO) programming, has powerful built-in support for text 20processing, and has one of the world's most impressive collections of 21third-party modules. 22 23For an introduction to the language's features, see pod/perlintro.pod. 24 25For a discussion of the important changes in this release, see 26pod/perldelta.pod. 27 28There are also many Perl books available, covering a wide variety of topics, 29from various publishers. See pod/perlbook.pod for more information. 30 31 32INSTALLATION 33============ 34 35If you're using a relatively modern operating system and want to 36install this version of Perl locally, run the following commands: 37 38 ./Configure -des -Dprefix=$HOME/localperl 39 make test 40 make install 41 42This will configure and compile perl for your platform, run the regression 43tests, and install perl in a subdirectory "localperl" of your home directory. 44 45If you run into any trouble whatsoever or you need to install a customized 46version of Perl, you should read the detailed instructions in the "INSTALL" 47file that came with this distribution. Additionally, there are a number of 48"README" files with hints and tips about building and using Perl on a wide 49variety of platforms, some more common than others. 50 51Once you have Perl installed, a wealth of documentation is available to you 52through the 'perldoc' tool. To get started, run this command: 53 54 perldoc perl 55 56 57IF YOU RUN INTO TROUBLE 58======================= 59 60Perl is a large and complex system that's used for everything from 61knitting to rocket science. If you run into trouble, it's quite 62likely that someone else has already solved the problem you're 63facing. Once you've exhausted the documentation, please report bugs to us 64at the GitHub issue tracker at https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues 65 66While it was current when we made it available, Perl is constantly evolving 67and there may be a more recent version that fixes bugs you've run into or 68adds new features that you might find useful. 69 70You can always find the latest version of perl on a CPAN (Comprehensive Perl 71Archive Network) site near you at http://www.cpan.org/src/ 72 73If you want to submit a simple patch to the perl source, see the "SUPER 74QUICK PATCH GUIDE" in pod/perlhack.pod. 75 76Just a personal note: I want you to know that I create nice things like this 77because it pleases the Author of my story. If this bothers you, then your 78notion of Authorship needs some revision. But you can use perl anyway. :-) 79 80 The author. 81 82 83LICENSING 84========= 85 86This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify 87it under the terms of either: 88 89 a) the GNU General Public License as published by the Free 90 Software Foundation; either version 1, or (at your option) any 91 later version, or 92 93 b) the "Artistic License" which comes with this Kit. 94 95This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, 96but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of 97MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See either 98the GNU General Public License or the Artistic License for more details. 99 100You should have received a copy of the Artistic License with this 101Kit, in the file named "Artistic". If not, I'll be glad to provide one. 102 103You should also have received a copy of the GNU General Public License 104along with this program in the file named "Copying". If not, write to the 105Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, 106Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA or visit their web page on the internet at 107http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html. 108 109For those of you that choose to use the GNU General Public License, 110my interpretation of the GNU General Public License is that no Perl 111script falls under the terms of the GPL unless you explicitly put 112said script under the terms of the GPL yourself. Furthermore, any 113object code linked with perl does not automatically fall under the 114terms of the GPL, provided such object code only adds definitions 115of subroutines and variables, and does not otherwise impair the 116resulting interpreter from executing any standard Perl script. I 117consider linking in C subroutines in this manner to be the moral 118equivalent of defining subroutines in the Perl language itself. You 119may sell such an object file as proprietary provided that you provide 120or offer to provide the Perl source, as specified by the GNU General 121Public License. (This is merely an alternate way of specifying input 122to the program.) You may also sell a binary produced by the dumping of 123a running Perl script that belongs to you, provided that you provide or 124offer to provide the Perl source as specified by the GPL. (The 125fact that a Perl interpreter and your code are in the same binary file 126is, in this case, a form of mere aggregation.) This is my interpretation 127of the GPL. If you still have concerns or difficulties understanding 128my intent, feel free to contact me. Of course, the Artistic License 129spells all this out for your protection, so you may prefer to use that. 130 131 132