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ActivePerl is a quality-assured binary build of Perl, available for
AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris and Windows.
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
- Perl Package Manager - Perl extension installer and manager.
- Complete Online documentation
The Windows version also includes:
- Perl for ISAPI - an IIS plug-in that makes Perl CGI scripts run faster
- PerlScript - an ActiveX scripting engine, like that used for JavaScript or
VBScript, but with a Perl interpreter
- PerlEz - Embedded Perl
Running Perl scripts from the command line
To run your Perl scripts, enter the following command at the command prompt:
perl -w yourscriptname.pl
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.pl (that is, without calling
perl first) 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
(command prompt), navigate to the /eg directory, and type:
perl example.pl
You should see:
"Hello from ActivePerl!"
If you do, you have 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
window. If you continue to have problems, refer to the
Installation Guide.
Note: Typing perl -h will print a screen of all
of the available command line options.
ActivePerl includes a collection of
Frequently Asked Questions about
ActivePerl. The FAQ is a valuable source of distilled information about
using Perl. It is a must read!
The Perl FAQ, which is also
included in the ActivePerl documentation, 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.
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