home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
PERLRUN(1) User Contributed Perl Documentation PERLRUN(1) NNNNAAAAMMMMEEEE perlrun - how to execute the Perl interpreter SSSSYYYYNNNNOOOOPPPPSSSSIIIISSSS ppppeeeerrrrllll [----aaaaccccddddhhhhnnnnppppPPPPssssSSSSTTTTuuuuUUUUvvvvwwww] [----0000[[[[ooooccccttttaaaallll]] [----DDDD[[[[nnnnuuuummmmbbbbeeeerrrr////lllliiiisssstttt]]]]] [----FFFF rrrreeeeggggeeeexxxxpppp] [----iiii[[[[eeeexxxxtttteeeennnnssssiiiioooonnnn]] [B<-_l_tdir<gt>>] [----llll[[[[ooooccccttttaaaallll]]]]] [----xxxx[[[[ddddiiiirrrr]]]]] [programfile | ----eeee ccccoooommmmmmmmaaaannnndddd] [argument ...] DDDDEEEESSSSCCCCRRRRIIIIPPPPTTTTIIIIOOOONNNN Upon startup, Perl looks for your script in one of the following places: 1. Specified line by line via ----eeee switches on the command line. 2. Contained in the file specified by the first filename on the command line. (Note that systems supporting the #! notation invoke interpreters this way.) 3. Passed in implicitly via standard input. This only works if there are no filename arguments--to pass arguments to a STDIN script you must explicitly specify a "-" for the script name. With methods 2 and 3, Perl starts parsing the input file from the beginning, unless you've specified a ----xxxx switch, in which case it scans for the first line starting with #! and containing the word "perl", and starts there instead. This is useful for running a script embedded in a larger message. (In this case you would indicate the end of the script using the __END__ token.) As of Perl 5, the #! line is always examined for switches as the line is being parsed. Thus, if you're on a machine that only allows one argument with the #! line, or worse, doesn't even recognize the #! line, you still can get consistent switch behavior regardless of how Perl was invoked, even if ----xxxx was used to find the beginning of the script. Because many operating systems silently chop off kernel interpretation of the #! line after 32 characters, some switches may be passed in on the command line, and some may not; you could even get a "-" without its letter, if you're not careful. You probably want to make sure that all your switches fall either before or after that 32 character boundary. Most switches don't actually care if they're processed redundantly, but getting a - instead of a complete switch could cause Perl to try to execute standard input instead of your script. And a partial ----IIII switch could also cause odd results. Parsing of the #! switches starts wherever "perl" is 15/Feb/96 perl 5.002 with 1 PERLRUN(1) User Contributed Perl Documentation PERLRUN(1) mentioned in the line. The sequences "-*" and "- " are specifically ignored so that you could, if you were so inclined, say ####!!!!////bbbbiiiinnnn////sssshhhh -------- #### ----****---- ppppeeeerrrrllll ----****---- ----pppp eeeevvvvaaaallll ''''eeeexxxxeeeecccc ppppeeeerrrrllll $$$$0000 ----SSSS $$$${{{{1111++++""""$$$$@@@@""""}}}}'''' iiiiffff 0000;;;; to let Perl see the ----pppp switch. If the #! line does not contain the word "perl", the program named after the #! is executed instead of the Perl interpreter. This is slightly bizarre, but it helps people on machines that don't do #!, because they can tell a program that their SHELL is /usr/bin/perl, and Perl will then dispatch the program to the correct interpreter for them. After locating your script, Perl compiles the entire script to an internal form. If there are any compilation errors, execution of the script is not attempted. (This is unlike the typical shell script, which might run partway through before finding a syntax error.) If the script is syntactically correct, it is executed. If the script runs off the end without hitting an _e_x_i_t_(_) or _d_i_e_(_) operator, an implicit eeeexxxxiiiitttt((((0000)))) is provided to indicate successful completion. SSSSwwwwiiiittttcccchhhheeeessss A single-character switch may be combined with the following switch, if any. ####!!!!////uuuussssrrrr////bbbbiiiinnnn////ppppeeeerrrrllll ----ssssppppiiii....bbbbaaaakkkk #### ssssaaaammmmeeee aaaassss ----ssss ----pppp ----iiii....bbbbaaaakkkk Switches include: ----0000_d_i_g_i_t_s specifies the record separator ($$$$////) as an octal number. If there are no digits, the null character is the separator. Other switches may precede or follow the digits. For example, if you have a version of ffffiiiinnnndddd which can print filenames terminated by the null character, you can say this: ffffiiiinnnndddd .... ----nnnnaaaammmmeeee ''''****....bbbbaaaakkkk'''' ----pppprrrriiiinnnntttt0000 |||| ppppeeeerrrrllll ----nnnn0000eeee uuuunnnnlllliiiinnnnkkkk The special value 00 will cause Perl to slurp files in paragraph mode. The value 0777 will cause Perl to slurp files whole since there is no legal character with that value. 15/Feb/96 perl 5.002 with 2 PERLRUN(1) User Contributed Perl Documentation PERLRUN(1) ----aaaa turns on autosplit mode when used with a ----nnnn or ----pppp. An implicit split command to the @@@@FFFF array is done as the first thing inside the implicit while loop produced by the ----nnnn or ----pppp. ppppeeeerrrrllll ----aaaannnneeee ''''pppprrrriiiinnnntttt ppppoooopppp((((@@@@FFFF)))),,,, """"\\\\nnnn"""";;;;'''' is equivalent to wwwwhhhhiiiilllleeee ((((<<<<>>>>)))) {{{{ @@@@FFFF ==== sssspppplllliiiitttt(((('''' ''''))));;;; pppprrrriiiinnnntttt ppppoooopppp((((@@@@FFFF)))),,,, """"\\\\nnnn"""";;;; }}}} An alternate delimiter may be specified using ----FFFF. ----cccc causes Perl to check the syntax of the script and then exit without executing it. Actually, it _w_i_l_l execute BBBBEEEEGGGGIIIINNNN, EEEENNNNDDDD, and uuuusssseeee blocks, since these are considered as occurring outside the execution of your program. ----dddd runs the script under the Perl debugger. See the _p_e_r_l_d_e_b_u_g manpage. ----dddd::::ffffoooooooo runs the script under the control of a debugging or tracing module installed as Devel::foo. E.g., ----dddd::::DDDDPPPPrrrrooooffff executes the script using the Devel::DProf profiler. See the _p_e_r_l_d_e_b_u_g manpage. ----DDDD_n_u_m_b_e_r ----DDDD_l_i_s_t sets debugging flags. To watch how it executes your script, use ----DDDD11114444. (This only works if debugging is compiled into your Perl.) Another nice value is ----DDDD1111000022224444, which lists your compiled syntax tree. And ----DDDD555511112222 displays compiled regular expressions. As an alternative specify a list of letters instead of numbers (e.g. ----DDDD11114444 is equivalent to ----DDDDttttllllssss): 15/Feb/96 perl 5.002 with 3 PERLRUN(1) User Contributed Perl Documentation PERLRUN(1) 1111 pppp TTTTooookkkkeeeennnniiiizzzziiiinnnngggg aaaannnndddd PPPPaaaarrrrssssiiiinnnngggg 2222 ssss SSSSttttaaaacccckkkk SSSSnnnnaaaappppsssshhhhoooottttssss 4444 llll LLLLaaaabbbbeeeellll SSSSttttaaaacccckkkk PPPPrrrroooocccceeeessssssssiiiinnnngggg 8888 tttt TTTTrrrraaaacccceeee EEEExxxxeeeeccccuuuuttttiiiioooonnnn 11116666 oooo OOOOppppeeeerrrraaaattttoooorrrr NNNNooooddddeeee CCCCoooonnnnssssttttrrrruuuuccccttttiiiioooonnnn 33332222 cccc SSSSttttrrrriiiinnnngggg////NNNNuuuummmmeeeerrrriiiicccc CCCCoooonnnnvvvveeeerrrrssssiiiioooonnnnssss 66664444 PPPP PPPPrrrriiiinnnntttt PPPPrrrreeeepppprrrroooocccceeeessssssssoooorrrr CCCCoooommmmmmmmaaaannnndddd ffffoooorrrr ----PPPP 111122228888 mmmm MMMMeeeemmmmoooorrrryyyy AAAAllllllllooooccccaaaattttiiiioooonnnn 222255556666 ffff FFFFoooorrrrmmmmaaaatttt PPPPrrrroooocccceeeessssssssiiiinnnngggg 555511112222 rrrr RRRReeeegggguuuullllaaaarrrr EEEExxxxpppprrrreeeessssssssiiiioooonnnn PPPPaaaarrrrssssiiiinnnngggg 1111000022224444 xxxx SSSSyyyynnnnttttaaaaxxxx TTTTrrrreeeeeeee DDDDuuuummmmpppp 2222000044448888 uuuu TTTTaaaaiiiinnnnttttiiiinnnngggg CCCChhhheeeecccckkkkssss 4444000099996666 LLLL MMMMeeeemmmmoooorrrryyyy LLLLeeeeaaaakkkkssss ((((nnnnooootttt ssssuuuuppppppppoooorrrrtttteeeedddd aaaannnnyyyymmmmoooorrrreeee)))) 8888111199992222 HHHH HHHHaaaasssshhhh DDDDuuuummmmpppp -------- uuuussssuuuurrrrppppssss vvvvaaaalllluuuueeeessss(((()))) 11116666333388884444 XXXX SSSSccccrrrraaaattttcccchhhhppppaaaadddd AAAAllllllllooooccccaaaattttiiiioooonnnn 33332222777766668888 DDDD CCCClllleeeeaaaannnniiiinnnngggg UUUUpppp ----eeee _c_o_m_m_a_n_d_l_i_n_e may be used to enter one line of script. If ----eeee is given, Perl will not look for a script filename in the argument list. Multiple ----eeee commands may be given to build up a multi-line script. Make sure to use semicolons where you would in a normal program. ----FFFF_r_e_g_e_x_p specifies a regular expression to split on if ----aaaa is also in effect. If regexp has //////// around it, the slashes will be ignored. ----iiii_e_x_t_e_n_s_i_o_n specifies that files processed by the <<<<>>>> construct are to be edited in-place. It does this by renaming the input file, opening the output file by the original name, and selecting that output file as the default for _p_r_i_n_t_(_) statements. The extension, if supplied, is added to the name of the old file to make a backup copy. If no extension is supplied, no backup is made. From the shell, saying $$$$ ppppeeeerrrrllll ----pppp ----iiii....bbbbaaaakkkk ----eeee """"ssss////ffffoooooooo////bbbbaaaarrrr////;;;; ............ """" is the same as using the script: ####!!!!////uuuussssrrrr////bbbbiiiinnnn////ppppeeeerrrrllll ----ppppiiii....bbbbaaaakkkk ssss////ffffoooooooo////bbbbaaaarrrr////;;;; which is equivalent to 15/Feb/96 perl 5.002 with 4 PERLRUN(1) User Contributed Perl Documentation PERLRUN(1) ####!!!!////uuuussssrrrr////bbbbiiiinnnn////ppppeeeerrrrllll wwwwhhhhiiiilllleeee ((((<<<<>>>>)))) {{{{ iiiiffff (((($$$$AAAARRRRGGGGVVVV nnnneeee $$$$oooollllddddaaaarrrrggggvvvv)))) {{{{ rrrreeeennnnaaaammmmeeee(((($$$$AAAARRRRGGGGVVVV,,,, $$$$AAAARRRRGGGGVVVV .... ''''....bbbbaaaakkkk''''))));;;; ooooppppeeeennnn((((AAAARRRRGGGGVVVVOOOOUUUUTTTT,,,, """">>>>$$$$AAAARRRRGGGGVVVV""""))));;;; sssseeeelllleeeecccctttt((((AAAARRRRGGGGVVVVOOOOUUUUTTTT))));;;; $$$$oooollllddddaaaarrrrggggvvvv ==== $$$$AAAARRRRGGGGVVVV;;;; }}}} ssss////ffffoooooooo////bbbbaaaarrrr////;;;; }}}} ccccoooonnnnttttiiiinnnnuuuueeee {{{{ pppprrrriiiinnnntttt;;;; #### tttthhhhiiiissss pppprrrriiiinnnnttttssss ttttoooo oooorrrriiiiggggiiiinnnnaaaallll ffffiiiilllleeeennnnaaaammmmeeee }}}} sssseeeelllleeeecccctttt((((SSSSTTTTDDDDOOOOUUUUTTTT))));;;; except that the ----iiii form doesn't need to compare $$$$AAAARRRRGGGGVVVV to $$$$oooollllddddaaaarrrrggggvvvv to know when the filename has changed. It does, however, use ARGVOUT for the selected filehandle. Note that STDOUT is restored as the default output filehandle after the loop. You can use eeeeooooffff without parenthesis to locate the end of each input file, in case you want to append to each file, or reset line numbering (see example in the eeeeooooffff entry in the _p_e_r_l_f_u_n_c manpage). ----IIII_d_i_r_e_c_t_o_r_y may be used in conjunction with ----PPPP to tell the C preprocessor where to look for include files. By default /usr/include and /usr/lib/perl are searched. ----llll_o_c_t_n_u_m enables automatic line-ending processing. It has two effects: first, it automatically chomps the line terminator when used with ----nnnn or ----pppp, and second, it assigns "$$$$\\\\" to have the value of _o_c_t_n_u_m so that any print statements will have that line terminator added back on. If _o_c_t_n_u_m is omitted, sets "$$$$\\\\" to the current value of "$$$$////". For instance, to trim lines to 80 columns: ppppeeeerrrrllll ----llllppppeeee ''''ssssuuuubbbbssssttttrrrr(((($$$$____,,,, 88880000)))) ==== """"""""'''' Note that the assignment $$$$\\\\ ==== $$$$//// is done when the switch is processed, so the input record separator can be different than the output record separator if the ----llll switch is followed by a ----0000 switch: ggggnnnnuuuuffffiiiinnnndddd //// ----pppprrrriiiinnnntttt0000 |||| ppppeeeerrrrllll ----llllnnnn0000eeee ''''pppprrrriiiinnnntttt """"ffffoooouuuunnnndddd $$$$____"""" iiiiffff ----pppp'''' This sets $\ to newline and then sets $/ to the null character. 15/Feb/96 perl 5.002 with 5 PERLRUN(1) User Contributed Perl Documentation PERLRUN(1) ----mmmm_m_o_d_u_l_e ----MMMM_m_o_d_u_l_e ----mmmm_m_o_d_u_l_e executes uuuusssseeee _m_o_d_u_l_e (((())));;;; before executing your script. ----MMMM_m_o_d_u_l_e executes uuuusssseeee _m_o_d_u_l_e ;;;; before executing your script. You can use quotes to add extra code after the module name, e.g., ----MMMM''''mmmmoooodddduuuulllleeee qqqqwwww((((ffffoooooooo bbbbaaaarrrr))))''''. If the first character after the ----MMMM or ----mmmm is a dash (----) then the 'use' is replaced with 'no'. A little built-in syntactic sugar means you can also say ----mmmmmmmmoooodddduuuulllleeee====ffffoooooooo or ----MMMMmmmmoooodddduuuulllleeee====ffffoooooooo as a shortcut for ----MMMM''''mmmmoooodddduuuulllleeee qqqqwwww((((ffffoooooooo))))''''. Note that using the ==== form removes the distinction between ----mmmm and ----MMMM. To avoid the need to use quotes when importing more that one symbol with the ==== form, the text following the ==== is split into a list on commas (,,,,) rather than whitespace. The actual code generated by ----MMMMmmmmoooodddduuuulllleeee====ffffoooooooo,,,,bbbbaaaarrrr is uuuusssseeee mmmmoooodddduuuulllleeee sssspppplllliiiitttt((((////,,,,////,,,,qqqq{{{{ffffoooooooo,,,,bbbbaaaarrrr}}}})))). ----nnnn causes Perl to assume the following loop around your script, which makes it iterate over filename arguments somewhat like sssseeeedddd ----nnnn or aaaawwwwkkkk: wwwwhhhhiiiilllleeee ((((<<<<>>>>)))) {{{{ ............ #### yyyyoooouuuurrrr ssssccccrrrriiiipppptttt ggggooooeeeessss hhhheeeerrrreeee }}}} Note that the lines are not printed by default. See ----pppp to have lines printed. Here is an efficient way to delete all files older than a week: ffffiiiinnnndddd .... ----mmmmttttiiiimmmmeeee ++++7777 ----pppprrrriiiinnnntttt |||| ppppeeeerrrrllll ----nnnnlllleeee ''''uuuunnnnlllliiiinnnnkkkk;;;;'''' This is faster than using the ----eeeexxxxeeeecccc switch of ffffiiiinnnndddd because you don't have to start a process on every filename found. BBBBEEEEGGGGIIIINNNN and EEEENNNNDDDD blocks may be used to capture control before or after the implicit loop, just as in aaaawwwwkkkk. ----pppp causes Perl to assume the following loop around your script, which makes it iterate over filename arguments somewhat like sssseeeedddd: wwwwhhhhiiiilllleeee ((((<<<<>>>>)))) {{{{ ............ #### yyyyoooouuuurrrr ssssccccrrrriiiipppptttt ggggooooeeeessss hhhheeeerrrreeee }}}} ccccoooonnnnttttiiiinnnnuuuueeee {{{{ pppprrrriiiinnnntttt;;;; }}}} 15/Feb/96 perl 5.002 with 6 PERLRUN(1) User Contributed Perl Documentation PERLRUN(1) Note that the lines are printed automatically. To suppress printing use the ----nnnn switch. A ----pppp overrides a ----nnnn switch. BBBBEEEEGGGGIIIINNNN and EEEENNNNDDDD blocks may be used to capture control before or after the implicit loop, just as in awk. ----PPPP causes your script to be run through the C preprocessor before compilation by Perl. (Since both comments and cpp directives begin with the # character, you should avoid starting comments with any words recognized by the C preprocessor such as "if", "else" or "define".) ----ssss enables some rudimentary switch parsing for switches on the command line after the script name but before any filename arguments (or before a --------). Any switch found there is removed from @@@@AAAARRRRGGGGVVVV and sets the corresponding variable in the Perl script. The following script prints "true" if and only if the script is invoked with a ----xxxxyyyyzzzz switch. ####!!!!////uuuussssrrrr////bbbbiiiinnnn////ppppeeeerrrrllll ----ssss iiiiffff (((($$$$xxxxyyyyzzzz)))) {{{{ pppprrrriiiinnnntttt """"ttttrrrruuuueeee\\\\nnnn"""";;;; }}}} ----SSSS makes Perl use the PATH environment variable to search for the script (unless the name of the script starts with a slash). Typically this is used to emulate #! startup on machines that don't support #!, in the following manner: ####!!!!////uuuussssrrrr////bbbbiiiinnnn////ppppeeeerrrrllll eeeevvvvaaaallll """"eeeexxxxeeeecccc ////uuuussssrrrr////bbbbiiiinnnn////ppppeeeerrrrllll ----SSSS $$$$0000 $$$$****"""" iiiiffff $$$$rrrruuuunnnnnnnniiiinnnngggg____uuuunnnnddddeeeerrrr____ssssoooommmmeeee____sssshhhheeeellllllll;;;; The system ignores the first line and feeds the script to /bin/sh, which proceeds to try to execute the Perl script as a shell script. The shell executes the second line as a normal shell command, and thus starts up the Perl interpreter. On some systems $$$$0000 doesn't always contain the full pathname, so the ----SSSS tells Perl to search for the script if necessary. After Perl locates the script, it parses the lines and ignores them because the variable $$$$rrrruuuunnnnnnnniiiinnnngggg____uuuunnnnddddeeeerrrr____ssssoooommmmeeee____sssshhhheeeellllllll is never true. A better construct than $$$$**** would be $$$${{{{1111++++""""$$$$@@@@""""}}}}, which handles embedded spaces and such in the filenames, but doesn't work if the script is being interpreted by csh. In order to start up sh rather than csh, some systems may have to replace the #! line with a line containing just a colon, which will be politely ignored by Perl. Other systems can't control that, and need a totally devious construct that will work 15/Feb/96 perl 5.002 with 7 PERLRUN(1) User Contributed Perl Documentation PERLRUN(1) under any of csh, sh or Perl, such as the following: eeeevvvvaaaallll ''''((((eeeexxxxiiiitttt $$$$????0000))))'''' &&&&&&&& eeeevvvvaaaallll ''''eeeexxxxeeeecccc ////uuuussssrrrr////bbbbiiiinnnn////ppppeeeerrrrllll ----SSSS $$$$0000 $$$${{{{1111++++""""$$$$@@@@""""}}}}'''' &&&& eeeevvvvaaaallll ''''eeeexxxxeeeecccc ////uuuussssrrrr////bbbbiiiinnnn////ppppeeeerrrrllll ----SSSS $$$$0000 $$$$aaaarrrrggggvvvv::::qqqq'''' iiiiffff 0000;;;; ----TTTT forces "taint" checks to be turned on so you can test them. Ordinarily these checks are done only when running setuid or setgid. It's a good idea to turn them on explicitly for programs run on another's behalf, such as CGI programs. See the _p_e_r_l_s_e_c manpage. ----uuuu causes Perl to dump core after compiling your script. You can then take this core dump and turn it into an executable file by using the uuuunnnndddduuuummmmpppp program (not supplied). This speeds startup at the expense of some disk space (which you can minimize by stripping the executable). (Still, a "hello world" executable comes out to about 200K on my machine.) If you want to execute a portion of your script before dumping, use the _d_u_m_p_(_) operator instead. Note: availability of uuuunnnndddduuuummmmpppp is platform specific and may not be available for a specific port of Perl. ----UUUU allows Perl to do unsafe operations. Currently the only "unsafe" operations are the unlinking of directories while running as superuser, and running setuid programs with fatal taint checks turned into warnings. ----vvvv prints the version and patchlevel of your Perl executable. ----VVVV prints summary of the major perl configuration values and the current value of @@@@IIIINNNNCCCC. ----VVVV::::nnnnaaaammmmeeee Prints to STDOUT the value of the named configuration variable. ----wwww prints warnings about identifiers that are mentioned only once, and scalar variables that are used before being set. Also warns about redefined subroutines, and references to undefined filehandles or filehandles opened readonly that you are attempting to write on. Also warns you if you use values as a number that doesn't look like numbers, using an array as though it were a scalar, if your subroutines recurse more than 100 deep, and innumerable other things. See the _p_e_r_l_d_i_a_g manpage and the _p_e_r_l_t_r_a_p manpage. 15/Feb/96 perl 5.002 with 8 PERLRUN(1) User Contributed Perl Documentation PERLRUN(1) ----xxxx _d_i_r_e_c_t_o_r_y tells Perl that the script is embedded in a message. Leading garbage will be discarded until the first line that starts with #! and contains the string "perl". Any meaningful switches on that line will be applied (but only one group of switches, as with normal #! processing). If a directory name is specified, Perl will switch to that directory before running the script. The ----xxxx switch only controls the the disposal of leading garbage. The script must be terminated with ________EEEENNNNDDDD________ if there is trailing garbage to be ignored (the script can process any or all of the trailing garbage via the DATA filehandle if desired). 15/Feb/96 perl 5.002 with 9 
