---
name: "perlplan9"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "perl-doc"
version: "5.40.1-6+deb13u1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/perlplan9"
---

# perlplan9(1)

Plan 9-specific documentation for Perl

## NAME

perlplan9 - Plan 9-specific documentation for Perl

## DESCRIPTION

These are a few notes describing features peculiar to Plan 9 Perl. As such, it is not intended to be a replacement for the rest of the Perl 5 documentation (which is both  copious and excellent). If you have any questions to  which you can't find answers in these man pages, contact  Luther Huffman at lutherh@stratcom.com and we'll try to  answer them.

### Invoking Perl

Perl is invoked from the command line as described in  perl. Most perl scripts, however, do have a first line  such as "#!/usr/local/bin/perl". This is known as a shebang  (shell-bang) statement and tells the OS shell where to find  the perl interpreter. In Plan 9 Perl this statement should be  "#!/bin/perl" if you wish to be able to directly invoke the  script by its name.\
      Alternatively, you may invoke perl with the command "Perl" instead of "perl". This will produce Acme-friendly error messages of the form "filename:18".

Some scripts, usually identified with a \*.PL extension, are  self-configuring and are able to correctly create their own  shebang path from config information located in Plan 9  Perl. These you won't need to be worried about.

### What's in Plan 9 Perl

Although Plan 9 Perl currently only  provides static  loading, it is built with a number of useful extensions.  These include Opcode, FileHandle, Fcntl, and POSIX. Expect  to see others (and DynaLoading!) in the future.

### What's not in Plan 9 Perl

As mentioned previously, dynamic loading isn't currently  available nor is MakeMaker. Both are high-priority items.

### Perl5 Functions not currently supported in Plan 9 Perl

Some, such as `"chown"` and `"umask"` aren't provided  because the concept does not exist within Plan 9. Others, such as some of the socket-related functions, simply haven't been written yet. Many in the latter category  may be supported in the future.

The functions not currently implemented include:

```
    chown, chroot, dbmclose, dbmopen, getsockopt,
    setsockopt, recvmsg, sendmsg, getnetbyname,
    getnetbyaddr, getnetent, getprotoent, getservent,
    sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent,
    endservent, endnetent, endprotoent, umask
```

There may be several other functions that have undefined  behavior so this list shouldn't be considered complete.

### Signals in Plan 9 Perl

For compatibility with perl scripts written for the Unix  environment, Plan 9 Perl uses the POSIX signal emulation provided in Plan 9's ANSI POSIX Environment (APE). Signal stacking isn't supported. The signals provided are:

```
    SIGHUP, SIGINT, SIGQUIT, SIGILL, SIGABRT,
    SIGFPE, SIGKILL, SIGSEGV, SIGPIPE, SIGPIPE, SIGALRM,
    SIGTERM, SIGUSR1, SIGUSR2, SIGCHLD, SIGCONT,
    SIGSTOP, SIGTSTP, SIGTTIN, SIGTTOU
```

## COMPILING AND INSTALLING PERL ON PLAN 9

WELCOME to Plan 9 Perl, brave soul!

```
   This is a preliminary alpha version of Plan 9 Perl. Still to be
implemented are MakeMaker and DynaLoader. Many perl commands are
missing or currently behave in an inscrutable manner. These gaps will,
with perseverance and a modicum of luck, be remedied in the near
future.To install this software:
```

1\. Create the source directories and libraries for perl by running the plan9/setup.rc command (i.e., located in the plan9 subdirectory). Note: the setup routine assumes that you haven't dearchived these files into /sys/src/cmd/perl. After running setup.rc you may delete the copy of the source you originally detarred, as source code has now been installed in /sys/src/cmd/perl. If you plan on installing perl binaries for all architectures, run "setup.rc -a".

2\. After making sure that you have adequate privileges to build system software, from /sys/src/cmd/perl/5.00301 (adjust version appropriately) run:

```
        mk install
```

If you wish to install perl versions for all architectures (68020, mips, sparc and 386) run:

```
        mk installall
```

3\. Wait. The build process will take a \*long\* time because perl bootstraps itself. A 75MHz Pentium, 16MB RAM machine takes roughly 30 minutes to build the distribution from scratch.

### Installing Perl Documentation on Plan 9

This perl distribution comes with a tremendous amount of documentation. To add these to the built-in manuals that come with Plan 9, from /sys/src/cmd/perl/5.00301 (adjust version appropriately) run:

```
        mk man
```

To begin your reading, start with:

```
        man perl
```

This is a good introduction and will direct you towards other man pages that may interest you.

(Note: "mk man" may produce some extraneous noise. Fear not.)

## BUGS

"As many as there are grains of sand on all the beaches of the  world . . ." - Carl Sagan

## Revision date

This document was revised 09-October-1996 for Perl 5.003\_7.

## AUTHOR

Direct questions, comments, and the unlikely bug report (ahem) direct comments toward:

Luther Huffman, lutherh@stratcom.com,  Strategic Computer Solutions, Inc.