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PERL(1)                                  BSD General Commands Manual                                 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 5.8.8 (provided for backward-compat-ibility backward-compatibility
     ibility with the Perl 5.8 family) and 5.10.0, with the default being 5.10.0.  Use

           % man perl5.8.8
           % man perl5.10.0
           % man a2p5.8.8
           % man a2p5.10.0

     to see the man page for a specific version.  Without a version specified,

           % man perldoc

     and the like, will show the man page for the (unmodified) default version of Perl (5.10.0).  To see the
     man page for a specific version, use, for example,

           % man perldoc5.8.8

CHANGING THE DEFAULT PERL
     Using

           % defaults write com.apple.versioner.perl Version 5.8.8

     will make version 5.8.8 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:

           % export VERSIONER_PERL_VERSION=5.8.8 # Bourne-like shells
                or
           % setenv VERSIONER_PERL_VERSION 5.8.8 # C-like shells
           % perl ...

     This environment variable takes precedence over the preference file settings.

64-BIT SUPPORT
     Version 5.10.0 supports 64-bit execution (which is on by default).  Version 5.8.8 only supports 32-bit
     execution.

     Like the version of Perl, the perl command can select between 32 and 64-bit execution (when both are
     available).  Use:

           % defaults write com.apple.versioner.perl Prefer-32-Bit -bool yes

     to make 32-bit execution the user default (using `/Library/Preferences/com.apple.versioner.perl' will
     set the system-wide default).  The environment variable VERSIONER_PERL_PREFER_32_BIT can also be used
     (has precedence over the preference file):

           % export VERSIONER_PERL_PREFER_32_BIT=yes # Bourne-like shells
                or
           % setenv VERSIONER_PERL_PREFER_32_BIT yes # C-like shells

     Again, the preference setting and environmental variable applies to both perl and a2p.

USING A SPECIFIC VERSION
     Rather than using the perl command, one can use a specific version directly.  For example, running
     perl5.8.8 from the command line will run the 5.8.8 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 perl5.10.0 will always default to
     64-bit execution (unless one uses the arch(1) command to specifically select a 32-bit architecture).

SEE ALSO
     perl5.8.8(1), perl5.10.0(1), a2p5.8.8(1), a2p5.10.0(1), arch(1)

BSD                                             Aug 10, 2008                                             BSD