perl(1)

NAME

perl, a2p – Practical Extraction and Report Language

SYNOPSIS

perl ...

a2p ...

DESCRIPTION

To support multiple versions, the program named perl now just selects the real version of Perl to run, and the program named a2p now just selects the real version of the awk-to-perl translator to run, depending on various settings. The current supported versions are @VERSION_DEFAULT@ and @VERSION_ALT@, with the default being @VERSION_DEFAULT@ (older alternate versions are provided for backward-compatibility, while newer alternate versions are provided before we are ready to make it the default). Use

% man perl@VERSION_DEFAULT@

% man perl@VERSION_ALT@

% man a2p@VERSION_DEFAULT@

% man a2p@VERSION_ALT@

to see the man page for a specific version. When the version is unspecified, as in:

% man perldoc

the man page for the (unmodified) default version of Perl (@VERSION_DEFAULT@) will be shown.

CHANGING THE DEFAULT PERL VERSION

Using

% defaults write com.apple.versioner.perl Version @VERSION_ALT@

will make version @VERSION_ALT@ the user default when running the both the perl and a2p commands (versioner is the internal name of the version-selection software used).

To set a system-wide default, replace ‘com.apple.versioner.perl’ with ‘/Library/Preferences/com.apple.versioner.perl’ (admin privileges will be required).

The environment variable VERSIONER_PERL_VERSION can also be used to set the perl and a2p version:

% perl ...

This environment variable takes precedence over the setting in any preference file.

USING A SPECIFIC VERSION

Rather than using the perl command, one can use a specific version directly. For example, running perl@VERSION_ALT@ from the command line will run the @VERSION_ALT@ version of Perl, independent of what the default version of Perl is.

One can use a specific version of Perl on the #! line of a script, but that may have portability and future compatibility issues.

Note that the preference files and environment variable that apply to the perl command, do not apply when running a specific version of Perl. In particular, running perl@VERSION_DEFAULT@ will always default to 64-bit execution (unless one uses the arch(1) command to specifically select a 32-bit architecture).

SEE ALSO

perl@VERSION_DEFAULT@(1), perl@VERSION_ALT@(1), a2p@VERSION_DEFAULT@(1), a2p@VERSION_ALT@(1), arch(1)