ActivePerl User Guide

Contents

• What is ActivePerl
• Getting Started on Windows
• Troubleshooting ActivePerl

What is ActivePerl?

ActivePerl is a quality-assured binary build of Perl, available for Windows, Linux and Solaris.

New Features in ActivePerl 5.8:

• I/O filters
• Improved Unicode support
• Reliable signals
• New threads package
• Better accuracy in numeric operations
• Support for large file operations on all platforms
• Additional documentation and tutorials

The complete ActivePerl Package contains:

• Perl - binary of core perl distribution
• Complete Online documentation
• Perl Package Manager - Perl extension installer and manager.

The Windows version also includes:

• Perl for ISAPI - IIS plug-in that makes perl CGI faster
• PerlScript - ActiveX scripting engine, like JavaScript or VBScript with a Perl brain
• PerlEz - Embedded Perl

Getting Started on Windows

Running Perl scripts from the command line

To run your Perl scripts, type:

perl -w yourscriptname.pl

at the command prompt, where yourscriptname.pl is the name of the script you want to run. If you are using Windows and have associated the extension of the file with perl, typing yourscriptname (i.e., without the .pl extension) will also launch the script.

Sample Script

In the /eg directory of your Perl install there is a sample script named example.pl To run it, launch a console window, make the /eg directory your current working directory and type:

perl example.pl

You should see:

"Hello from ActivePerl!"

If you do, you've successfully installed ActivePerl! If not, there's something wrong with your installation. Check to make sure that your PATH environment variable includes the directories to which you installed the Perl core binaries. (You can type set at the command prompt to see what's in your Path.) If you chose the defaults during the install, these should be set to the correct values for you when you start a new command prompt.

One last note: typing perl -h will display all of the available command line options available to you.

Troubleshooting ActivePerl

ActivePerl includes a collection of Frequently Asked Questions about ActivePerl. The FAQ is a valuable source of distilled wisdom about using Perl. It is a must read!

The Perl FAQ is included in the ActivePerl documentation, and answers many questions regarding the use of Perl.

Search the ActivePerl Mailing List archives for information about your problem. Before posting to the mailing list, ensure that you have thoroughly read the FAQs and the relevant Perl documentation.

See More Resources for additional sources of information.