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.\" ========================================================================
.\"
.IX Title "PERLFAQ2 1"
.TH PERLFAQ2 1 "2002-11-24" "perl v5.8.0" "Perl Programmers Reference Guide"
.SH "NAME"
perlfaq2 \- Obtaining and Learning about Perl ($Revision: 1.13 $, $Date: 2002/04/26 16:56:35 $)
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.IX Header "DESCRIPTION"
This section of the \s-1FAQ\s0 answers questions about where to find
source and documentation for Perl, support, and
related matters.
.Sh "What machines support Perl?  Where do I get it?"
.IX Subsection "What machines support Perl?  Where do I get it?"
The standard release of Perl (the one maintained by the perl
development team) is distributed only in source code form.  You
can find this at http://www.cpan.org/src/latest.tar.gz , which
is in a standard Internet format (a gzipped archive in \s-1POSIX\s0 tar format).
.PP
Perl builds and runs on a bewildering number of platforms.  Virtually
all known and current Unix derivatives are supported (Perl's native
platform), as are other systems like \s-1VMS\s0, \s-1DOS\s0, \s-1OS/2\s0, Windows,
\&\s-1QNX\s0, BeOS, \s-1OS\s0 X, MPE/iX and the Amiga.
.PP
Binary distributions for some proprietary platforms, including
Apple systems, can be found http://www.cpan.org/ports/ directory.
Because these are not part of the standard distribution, they may
and in fact do differ from the base Perl port in a variety of ways.
You'll have to check their respective release notes to see just
what the differences are.  These differences can be either positive
(e.g. extensions for the features of the particular platform that
are not supported in the source release of perl) or negative (e.g.
might be based upon a less current source release of perl).
.Sh "How can I get a binary version of Perl?"
.IX Subsection "How can I get a binary version of Perl?"
If you don't have a C compiler because your vendor for whatever
reasons did not include one with your system, the best thing to do is
grab a binary version of gcc from the net and use that to compile perl
with.  \s-1CPAN\s0 only has binaries for systems that are terribly hard to
get free compilers for, not for Unix systems.
.PP
Some URLs that might help you are:
.PP
.Vb 2
\&    http://www.cpan.org/ports/
\&    http://www.perl.com/pub/language/info/software.html
.Ve
.PP
Someone looking for a Perl for Win16 might look to Laszlo Molnar's djgpp
port in http://www.cpan.org/ports/#msdos , which comes with clear
installation instructions.  A simple installation guide for MS-DOS using
Ilya Zakharevich's \s-1OS/2\s0 port is available at
http://www.cs.ruu.nl/%7Epiet/perl5dos.html
and similarly for Windows 3.1 at http://www.cs.ruu.nl/%7Epiet/perlwin3.html .
.Sh "I don't have a C compiler on my system.  How can I compile perl?"
.IX Subsection "I don't have a C compiler on my system.  How can I compile perl?"
Since you don't have a C compiler, you're doomed and your vendor
should be sacrificed to the Sun gods.  But that doesn't help you.
.PP
What you need to do is get a binary version of gcc for your system
first.  Consult the Usenet FAQs for your operating system for
information on where to get such a binary version.
.Sh "I copied the Perl binary from one machine to another, but scripts don't work."
.IX Subsection "I copied the Perl binary from one machine to another, but scripts don't work."
That's probably because you forgot libraries, or library paths differ.
You really should build the whole distribution on the machine it will
eventually live on, and then type \f(CW\*(C`make install\*(C'\fR.  Most other
approaches are doomed to failure.
.PP
One simple way to check that things are in the right place is to print out
the hard-coded \f(CW@INC\fR that perl looks through for libraries:
.PP
.Vb 1
\&    % perl -e 'print join("\en",@INC)'
.Ve
.PP
If this command lists any paths that don't exist on your system, then you
may need to move the appropriate libraries to these locations, or create
symbolic links, aliases, or shortcuts appropriately.  \f(CW@INC\fR is also printed as
part of the output of
.PP
.Vb 1
\&    % perl -V
.Ve
.PP
You might also want to check out
\&\*(L"How do I keep my own module/library directory?\*(R" in perlfaq8.
.Sh "I grabbed the sources and tried to compile but gdbm/dynamic loading/malloc/linking/... failed.  How do I make it work?"
.IX Subsection "I grabbed the sources and tried to compile but gdbm/dynamic loading/malloc/linking/... failed.  How do I make it work?"
Read the \fI\s-1INSTALL\s0\fR file, which is part of the source distribution.
It describes in detail how to cope with most idiosyncrasies that the
Configure script can't work around for any given system or
architecture.
.Sh "What modules and extensions are available for Perl?  What is \s-1CPAN\s0?  What does CPAN/src/... mean?"
.IX Subsection "What modules and extensions are available for Perl?  What is CPAN?  What does CPAN/src/... mean?"
\&\s-1CPAN\s0 stands for Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, a ~700mb archive
replicated on nearly 200 machines all over the world.  \s-1CPAN\s0 contains
source code, non-native ports, documentation, scripts, and many
third-party modules and extensions, designed for everything from
commercial database interfaces to keyboard/screen control to web
walking and \s-1CGI\s0 scripts.  The master web site for \s-1CPAN\s0 is
http://www.cpan.org/ and there is the \s-1CPAN\s0 Multiplexer at
http://www.cpan.org/CPAN.html which will choose a mirror near you
via \s-1DNS\s0.  See http://www.perl.com/CPAN (without a slash at the
end) for how this process works. Also, http://mirror.cpan.org/
has a nice interface to the http://www.cpan.org/MIRRORED.BY
mirror directory.
.PP
See the \s-1CPAN\s0 \s-1FAQ\s0 at http://www.cpan.org/misc/cpan\-faq.html for
answers to the most frequently asked questions about \s-1CPAN\s0
including how to become a mirror.
.PP
CPAN/path/... is a naming convention for files available on \s-1CPAN\s0
sites.  \s-1CPAN\s0 indicates the base directory of a \s-1CPAN\s0 mirror, and the
rest of the path is the path from that directory to the file.  For
instance, if you're using ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN
as your \s-1CPAN\s0 site, the file CPAN/misc/japh is downloadable as
ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/misc/japh .
.PP
Considering that there are close to two thousand existing modules in
the archive, one probably exists to do nearly anything you can think of.
Current categories under CPAN/modules/by\-category/ include Perl core
modules; development support; operating system interfaces; networking,
devices, and interprocess communication; data type utilities; database
interfaces; user interfaces; interfaces to other languages; filenames,
file systems, and file locking; internationalization and locale; world
wide web support; server and daemon utilities; archiving and
compression; image manipulation; mail and news; control flow
utilities; filehandle and I/O; Microsoft Windows modules; and
miscellaneous modules.
.PP
See http://www.cpan.org/modules/00modlist.long.html or
http://search.cpan.org/ for a more complete list of modules by category.
.PP
\&\s-1CPAN\s0 is not affiliated with O'Reilly and Associates.
.Sh "Is there an \s-1ISO\s0 or \s-1ANSI\s0 certified version of Perl?"
.IX Subsection "Is there an ISO or ANSI certified version of Perl?"
Certainly not.  Larry expects that he'll be certified before Perl is.
.Sh "Where can I get information on Perl?"
.IX Subsection "Where can I get information on Perl?"
The complete Perl documentation is available with the Perl distribution.
If you have Perl installed locally, you probably have the documentation
installed as well: type \f(CW\*(C`man perl\*(C'\fR if you're on a system resembling Unix.
This will lead you to other important man pages, including how to set your
\&\f(CW$MANPATH\fR.  If you're not on a Unix system, access to the documentation
will be different; for example, documentation might only be in \s-1HTML\s0 format.  All
proper Perl installations have fully-accessible documentation.
.PP
You might also try \f(CW\*(C`perldoc perl\*(C'\fR in case your system doesn't
have a proper man command, or it's been misinstalled.  If that doesn't
work, try looking in /usr/local/lib/perl5/pod for documentation.
.PP
If all else fails, consult http://perldoc.cpan.org/ or
http://www.perldoc.com/ both offer the complete documentation
in html format.
.PP
Many good books have been written about Perl\*(--see the section below
for more details.
.PP
Tutorial documents are included in current or upcoming Perl releases
include perltoot for objects or perlboot for a beginner's
approach to objects, perlopentut for file opening semantics,
perlreftut for managing references, perlretut for regular
expressions, perlthrtut for threads, perldebtut for debugging,
and perlxstut for linking C and Perl together.  There may be more
by the time you read this.  The following URLs might also be of
assistance:
.PP
.Vb 4
\&    http://perldoc.cpan.org/
\&    http://www.perldoc.com/
\&    http://reference.perl.com/query.cgi?tutorials
\&    http://bookmarks.cpan.org/search.cgi?cat=Training%2FTutorials
.Ve
.Sh "What are the Perl newsgroups on Usenet?  Where do I post questions?"
.IX Subsection "What are the Perl newsgroups on Usenet?  Where do I post questions?"
The now defunct comp.lang.perl newsgroup has been superseded by the
following groups:
.PP
.Vb 5
\&    comp.lang.perl.announce             Moderated announcement group
\&    comp.lang.perl.misc                 Very busy group about Perl in general
\&    comp.lang.perl.moderated            Moderated discussion group
\&    comp.lang.perl.modules              Use and development of Perl modules
\&    comp.lang.perl.tk                   Using Tk (and X) from Perl
.Ve
.PP
.Vb 1
\&    comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi  Writing CGI scripts for the Web.
.Ve
.PP
There is also a Usenet gateway to Perl mailing lists sponsored by perl.org at
nntp://nntp.perl.org , a web interface to the same lists at
http://nntp.perl.org/group/ and these lists are also available under the
\&\f(CW\*(C`perl.*\*(C'\fR hierarchy at http://groups.google.com . Other groups are listed at
http://lists.perl.org/ ( also known as http://lists.cpan.org/ ).
.PP
A nice place to ask questions is the PerlMonks site, http://www.perlmonks.org/
.PP
Note that none of the above are supposed to write your code for you:
asking questions about particular problems or general advice is fine,
but asking someone to write your code for free is not very cool.
.Sh "Where should I post source code?"
.IX Subsection "Where should I post source code?"
You should post source code to whichever group is most appropriate, but
feel free to cross-post to comp.lang.perl.misc.  If you want to cross-post
to alt.sources, please make sure it follows their posting standards,
including setting the Followup-To header line to \s-1NOT\s0 include alt.sources;
see their \s-1FAQ\s0 ( http://www.faqs.org/faqs/alt\-sources\-intro/ ) for details.
.PP
If you're just looking for software, first use Google
( http://www.google.com ), Google's usenet search interface
( http://groups.google.com ),  and \s-1CPAN\s0 Search ( http://search.cpan.org ).  
This is faster and more productive than just posting a request.
.Sh "Perl Books"
.IX Subsection "Perl Books"
A number of books on Perl and/or \s-1CGI\s0 programming are available.  A few of
these are good, some are \s-1OK\s0, but many aren't worth your money.  Tom
Christiansen maintains a list of these books, some with extensive
reviews, at http://www.perl.com/perl/critiques/index.html .
.PP
The incontestably definitive reference book on Perl, written by
the creator of Perl, is now (July 2000) in its third edition:
.PP
.Vb 5
\&    Programming Perl (the "Camel Book"):
\&        by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Jon Orwant
\&        0-596-00027-8  [3rd edition July 2000]
\&        http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pperl3/
\&    (English, translations to several languages are also available)
.Ve
.PP
The companion volume to the Camel containing thousands
of real-world examples, mini\-tutorials, and complete programs is:
.PP
.Vb 5
\&    The Perl Cookbook (the "Ram Book"):
\&        by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington,
\&            with Foreword by Larry Wall
\&        ISBN 1-56592-243-3 [1st Edition August 1998]
\&        http://perl.oreilly.com/cookbook/
.Ve
.PP
If you're already a seasoned programmer, then the Camel Book might
suffice for you to learn Perl from.  If you're not, check out the
Llama book:
.PP
.Vb 4
\&    Learning Perl (the "Llama Book")
\&        by Randal L. Schwartz and Tom Phoenix
\&        ISBN 0-596-00132-0 [3rd edition July 2001]
\&        http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperl3/
.Ve
.PP
If you're not an accidental programmer, but a more serious and
possibly even degreed computer scientist who doesn't need as much
hand-holding as we try to provide in the Llama, please check out the
delightful book
.PP
.Vb 5
\&    Perl: The Programmer's Companion
\&        by Nigel Chapman
\&        ISBN 0-471-97563-X [1997, 3rd printing Spring 1998]
\&        http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/catalog/97563-X.htm
\&        http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/chapman/perl/perltpc.html (errata etc)
.Ve
.PP
If you are more at home in Windows the following is available
(though unfortunately rather dated).
.PP
.Vb 5
\&    Learning Perl on Win32 Systems (the "Gecko Book")
\&        by Randal L. Schwartz, Erik Olson, and Tom Christiansen,
\&            with foreword by Larry Wall
\&        ISBN 1-56592-324-3 [1st edition August 1997]
\&        http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperlwin/
.Ve
.PP
Addison-Wesley ( http://www.awlonline.com/ ) and Manning
( http://www.manning.com/ ) are also publishers of some fine Perl books
such as \fIObject Oriented Programming with Perl\fR by Damian Conway and
\&\fINetwork Programming with Perl\fR by Lincoln Stein.
.PP
An excellent technical book discounter is Bookpool at
http://www.bookpool.com/ where a 30% discount or more is not unusual.
.PP
What follows is a list of the books that the \s-1FAQ\s0 authors found personally
useful.  Your mileage may (but, we hope, probably won't) vary.
.PP
Recommended books on (or mostly on) Perl follow.
.IP "References" 4
.IX Item "References"
.Vb 4
\&    Programming Perl
\&        by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen, and Jon Orwant
\&        ISBN 0-596-00027-8 [3rd edition July 2000]
\&        http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pperl3/
.Ve
.Sp
.Vb 4
\&    Perl 5 Pocket Reference
\&    by Johan Vromans
\&        ISBN 0-596-00032-4 [3rd edition May 2000]
\&        http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlpr3/
.Ve
.Sp
.Vb 4
\&    Perl in a Nutshell
\&    by Ellen Siever, Stephan Spainhour, and Nathan Patwardhan
\&        ISBN 1-56592-286-7 [1st edition December 1998]
\&        http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/perlnut/
.Ve
.IP "Tutorials" 4
.IX Item "Tutorials"
.Vb 4
\&    Elements of Programming with Perl
\&        by Andrew L. Johnson
\&        ISBN 1-884777-80-5 [1st edition October 1999]
\&        http://www.manning.com/Johnson/
.Ve
.Sp
.Vb 4
\&    Learning Perl
\&        by Randal L. Schwartz and Tom Phoenix
\&        ISBN 0-596-00132-0 [3rd edition July 2001]
\&        http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperl3/
.Ve
.Sp
.Vb 5
\&    Learning Perl on Win32 Systems
\&        by Randal L. Schwartz, Erik Olson, and Tom Christiansen,
\&            with foreword by Larry Wall
\&        ISBN 1-56592-324-3 [1st edition August 1997]
\&        http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lperlwin/
.Ve
.Sp
.Vb 5
\&    Perl: The Programmer's Companion
\&        by Nigel Chapman
\&        ISBN 0-471-97563-X [1997, 3rd printing Spring 1998]
\&    http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/catalog/97563-X.htm
\&    http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/chapman/perl/perltpc.html (errata etc)
.Ve
.Sp
.Vb 4
\&    Cross-Platform Perl
\&        by Eric Foster-Johnson
\&        ISBN 1-55851-483-X [2nd edition September 2000]
\&        http://www.pconline.com/~erc/perlbook.htm
.Ve
.Sp
.Vb 5
\&    MacPerl: Power and Ease
\&        by Vicki Brown and Chris Nandor,
\&            with foreword by Matthias Neeracher
\&        ISBN 1-881957-32-2 [1st edition May 1998]
\&        http://www.macperl.com/ptf_book/
.Ve
.IP "Task-Oriented" 4
.IX Item "Task-Oriented"
.Vb 5
\&    The Perl Cookbook
\&        by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington
\&            with foreword by Larry Wall
\&        ISBN 1-56592-243-3 [1st edition August 1998]
\&        http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/cookbook/
.Ve
.Sp
.Vb 4
\&    Effective Perl Programming
\&        by Joseph Hall
\&        ISBN 0-201-41975-0 [1st edition 1998]
\&        http://www.awl.com/
.Ve
.IP "Special Topics" 4
.IX Item "Special Topics"
.Vb 4
\&    Mastering Regular Expressions
\&        by Jeffrey E. F. Friedl
\&        ISBN 1-56592-257-3 [1st edition January 1997]
\&        http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/
.Ve
.Sp
.Vb 4
\&    Network Programming with Perl
\&        by Lincoln Stein
\&        ISBN 0-201-61571-1 [1st edition 2001]
\&        http://www.awlonline.com/
.Ve
.Sp
.Vb 5
\&    Object Oriented Perl
\&        Damian Conway
\&            with foreword by Randal L. Schwartz
\&        ISBN 1-884777-79-1 [1st edition August 1999]
\&        http://www.manning.com/Conway/
.Ve
.Sp
.Vb 4
\&    Data Munging with Perl
\&        Dave Cross
\&        ISBN 1-930110-00-6 [1st edition 2001]
\&        http://www.manning.com/cross
.Ve
.Sp
.Vb 4
\&        Mastering Perl/Tk
\&        by Steve Lidie and Nancy Walsh
\&        ISBN 1-56592-716-8 [1st edition January 2002]
\&        http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mastperltk/
.Ve
.Sh "Perl in Magazines"
.IX Subsection "Perl in Magazines"
The first (and for a long time, only) periodical devoted to All Things Perl,
\&\fIThe Perl Journal\fR contains tutorials, demonstrations, case studies,
announcements, contests, and much more.  \fI\s-1TPJ\s0\fR has columns on web
development, databases, Win32 Perl, graphical programming, regular
expressions, and networking, and sponsors the Obfuscated Perl Contest
and the Perl Poetry Contests.  As of mid\-2001, the dead tree version
of \s-1TPJ\s0 will be published as a quarterly supplement of SysAdmin
magazine ( http://www.sysadminmag.com/ ) For more details on \s-1TPJ\s0,
see http://www.tpj.com/
.PP
Beyond this, magazines that frequently carry quality articles on
Perl are \fIThe Perl Review\fR ( http://www.theperlreview.com ),
\&\fIUnix Review\fR ( http://www.unixreview.com/ ),
\&\fILinux Magazine\fR ( http://www.linuxmagazine.com/ ),
and Usenix's newsletter/magazine to its members, \fIlogin:\fR
( http://www.usenix.org/ )
.PP
The Perl columns of Randal L. Schwartz are available on the web at
http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/WebTechniques/ ,
http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/UnixReview/ , and
http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/LinuxMag/ .
.Sh "Perl on the Net: \s-1FTP\s0 and \s-1WWW\s0 Access"
.IX Subsection "Perl on the Net: FTP and WWW Access"
To get the best performance, pick a site from
the list below and use it to grab the complete list of mirror sites
which is at /CPAN/MIRRORED.BY or at http://mirror.cpan.org/ .
From there you can find the quickest site for you.  Remember, the
following list is \fInot\fR the complete list of \s-1CPAN\s0 mirrors
(the complete list contains 165 sites as of January 2001):
.PP
.Vb 9
\&  http://www.cpan.org/
\&  http://www.perl.com/CPAN/
\&  http://download.sourceforge.net/mirrors/CPAN/
\&  ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/plan/perl/CPAN/
\&  ftp://ftp.flirble.org/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/
\&  ftp://ftp.uvsq.fr/pub/perl/CPAN/
\&  ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/languages/perl/CPAN/
\&  ftp://ftp.dti.ad.jp/pub/lang/CPAN/
\&  ftp://cpan.if.usp.br/pub/mirror/CPAN/
.Ve
.PP
One may also use xx.cpan.org where \*(L"xx\*(R" is the 2\-letter country code
for your domain; e.g. Australia would use au.cpan.org.
[Note: This only applies to countries that host at least one mirror.]
.Sh "What mailing lists are there for Perl?"
.IX Subsection "What mailing lists are there for Perl?"
Most of the major modules (Tk, \s-1CGI\s0, libwww\-perl) have their own
mailing lists.  Consult the documentation that came with the module for
subscription information.
.PP
A comprehensive list of Perl related mailing lists can be found at:
.PP
.Vb 1
\&        http://lists.cpan.org/
.Ve
.PP
( also visible as http://lists.perl.org/ )
.Sh "Archives of comp.lang.perl.misc"
.IX Subsection "Archives of comp.lang.perl.misc"
The Google search engine now carries archived and searchable newsgroup
content. 
.PP
http://groups.google.com/groups?group=comp.lang.perl.misc
.PP
If you have a question, you can be sure someone has already asked the
same question at some point on c.l.p.m. It requires some time and patience
to sift through all the content but often you will find the answer you
seek.
.Sh "Where can I buy a commercial version of Perl?"
.IX Subsection "Where can I buy a commercial version of Perl?"
In a real sense, Perl already \fIis\fR commercial software: it has a license
that you can grab and carefully read to your manager. It is distributed
in releases and comes in well-defined packages. There is a very large
user community and an extensive literature.  The comp.lang.perl.*
newsgroups and several of the mailing lists provide free answers to your
questions in near real\-time.  Perl has traditionally been supported by
Larry, scores of software designers and developers, and myriad
programmers, all working for free to create a useful thing to make life
better for everyone.
.PP
However, these answers may not suffice for managers who require a
purchase order from a company whom they can sue should anything go awry.
Or maybe they need very serious hand-holding and contractual obligations.
Shrink-wrapped CDs with Perl on them are available from several sources if
that will help.  For example, many Perl books include a distribution of Perl,
as do the O'Reilly Perl Resource Kits (in both the Unix flavor
and in the proprietary Microsoft flavor); the free Unix distributions
also all come with Perl.
.PP
Alternatively, you can purchase commercial incidence based support
through the Perl Clinic.  The following is a commercial from them:
.PP
"The Perl Clinic is a commercial Perl support service operated by
ActiveState Tool Corp. and The Ingram Group.  The operators have many
years of in-depth experience with Perl applications and Perl internals
on a wide range of platforms.
.PP
\&\*(L"Through our group of highly experienced and well-trained support engineers,
we will put our best effort into understanding your problem, providing an
explanation of the situation, and a recommendation on how to proceed.\*(R"
.PP
Contact The Perl Clinic at
.PP
.Vb 1
\&    www.PerlClinic.com
.Ve
.PP
.Vb 3
\&    North America Pacific Standard Time (GMT-8)
\&    Tel:    1 604 606-4611 hours 8am-6pm
\&    Fax:    1 604 606-4640
.Ve
.PP
.Vb 3
\&    Europe (GMT)
\&    Tel:    00 44 1483 862814
\&    Fax:    00 44 1483 862801
.Ve
.PP
See also www.perl.com for updates on tutorials, training, and support.
.Sh "Where do I send bug reports?"
.IX Subsection "Where do I send bug reports?"
If you are reporting a bug in the perl interpreter or the modules
shipped with Perl, use the \fIperlbug\fR program in the Perl distribution or
mail your report to perlbug@perl.org .
.PP
If you are posting a bug with a non-standard port (see the answer to
\&\*(L"What platforms is Perl available for?\*(R"), a binary distribution, or a
non-standard module (such as Tk, \s-1CGI\s0, etc), then please see the
documentation that came with it to determine the correct place to post
bugs.
.PP
Read the \fIperlbug\fR\|(1) man page (perl5.004 or later) for more information.
.Sh "What is perl.com? Perl Mongers? pm.org? perl.org? cpan.org?"
.IX Subsection "What is perl.com? Perl Mongers? pm.org? perl.org? cpan.org?"
The Perl Home Page at http://www.perl.com/ is currently hosted by
The O'Reilly Network, a subsidiary of O'Reilly and Associates.
.PP
Perl Mongers is an advocacy organization for the Perl language which
maintains the web site http://www.perl.org/ as a general advocacy
site for the Perl language.
.PP
Perl Mongers uses the pm.org domain for services related to Perl user
groups, including the hosting of mailing lists and web sites.  See the
Perl user group web site at http://www.pm.org/ for more information about
joining, starting, or requesting services for a Perl user group.
.PP
Perl Mongers also maintain the perl.org domain to provide general
support services to the Perl community, including the hosting of mailing
lists, web sites, and other services.  The web site
http://www.perl.org/ is a general advocacy site for the Perl language,
and there are many other sub-domains for special topics, such as
.PP
.Vb 4
\&    http://bugs.perl.org/
\&    http://history.perl.org/
\&    http://lists.perl.org/
\&    http://use.perl.org/
.Ve
.PP
http://www.cpan.org/ is the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network,
a replicated worlwide repository of Perl software, see
the \fIWhat is \s-1CPAN\s0?\fR question earlier in this document.
.SH "AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT"
.IX Header "AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT"
Copyright (c) 1997\-2001 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington.
All rights reserved.
.PP
This documentation is free; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself.
.PP
Irrespective of its distribution, all code examples here are in the public
domain.  You are permitted and encouraged to use this code and any
derivatives thereof in your own programs for fun or for profit as you
see fit.  A simple comment in the code giving credit to the \s-1FAQ\s0 would
be courteous but is not required.