perlfaq(1)

NAME
     perlfaq - frequently asked questions about Perl ($Date: 2002/05/07
     00:07:32 $)

DESCRIPTION
     This document is structured into the following sections:

     perlfaq: Structural overview of the FAQ.
          This document.

     the perlfaq1 manpage: General Questions About Perl
          Very general, high-level information about Perl.

     the perlfaq2 manpage: Obtaining and Learning about Perl
          Where to find source and documentation to Perl, support, and related
          matters.

     the perlfaq3 manpage: Programming Tools
          Programmer tools and programming support.

     the perlfaq4 manpage: Data Manipulation
          Manipulating numbers, dates, strings, arrays, hashes, and
          miscellaneous data issues.

     the perlfaq5 manpage: Files and Formats
          I/O and the "f" issues: filehandles, flushing, formats and footers.

     the perlfaq6 manpage: Regexps
          Pattern matching and regular expressions.

     the perlfaq7 manpage: General Perl Language Issues
          General Perl language issues that don't clearly fit into any of the
          other sections.

     the perlfaq8 manpage: System Interaction
          Interprocess communication (IPC), control over the user-interface
          (keyboard, screen and pointing devices).

     the perlfaq9 manpage: Networking
          Networking, the Internet, and a few on the web.

     Where to get this document

     This document is posted regularly to comp.lang.perl.announce and several
     other related newsgroups.  It is available in a variety of formats from
     CPAN in the /CPAN/doc/FAQs/FAQ/ directory, or on the web at
     http://www.perl.com/perl/faq/ .

     How to contribute to this document

     You may mail corrections, additions, and suggestions to perlfaq-
     suggestions@perl.com .  This alias should not be used to ask FAQs.  It's
     for fixing the current FAQ.

     What will happen if you mail your Perl programming problems to the
     authors

     Your questions will probably go unread, unless they're suggestions of new
     questions to add to the FAQ, in which case they should have gone to the
     perlfaq-suggestions@perl.com instead.

     You should have read section 2 of this faq.  There you would have learned
     that comp.lang.perl.misc is the appropriate place to go for free advice.
     If your question is really important and you require a prompt and correct
     answer, you should hire a consultant.

Credits
     When I first began the Perl FAQ in the late 80s, I never realized it
     would have grown to over a hundred pages, nor that Perl would ever become
     so popular and widespread.  This document could not have been written
     without the tremendous help provided by Larry Wall and the rest of the
     Perl Porters.

Author and Copyright Information
     Copyright (c) 1997, 1998 Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington.  All
     rights reserved.

     Bundled Distributions

     When included as part of the Standard Version of Perl, or as part of its
     complete documentation whether printed or otherwise, this work may be
     distributed only under the terms of Perl's Artistic License.  Any
     distribution of this file or derivatives thereof outside of that package
     require that special arrangements be made with copyright holder.

     Irrespective of its distribution, all code examples in these files are
     hereby placed into the public domain.  You are permitted and encouraged
     to use this code in your own programs for fun or for profit as you see
     fit.  A simple comment in the code giving credit would be courteous but
     is not required.

     Disclaimer

     This information is offered in good faith and in the hope that it may be
     of use, but is not guaranteed to be correct, up to date, or suitable for
     any particular purpose whatsoever.  The authors accept no liability in
     respect of this information or its use.

Changes
     22/June/98
         Significant changes throughout in preparation for the 5.005 release.
     24/April/97
         Style and whitespace changes from Chip, new question on reading one
         character at a time from a terminal using POSIX from Tom.

     23/April/97
         Added http://www.oasis.leo.org/perl/ to the perlfaq2 manpage.  Style
         fix to the perlfaq3 manpage.  Added floating point precision, fixed
         complex number arithmetic, cross-references, caveat for Text::Wrap,
         alternative answer for initial capitalizing, fixed incorrect regexp,
         added example of Tie::IxHash to the perlfaq4 manpage.  Added example
         of passing and storing filehandles, added commify to the perlfaq5
         manpage.  Restored variable suicide, and added mass commenting to the
         perlfaq7 manpage.  Added Net::Telnet, fixed backticks, added
         reader/writer pair to telnet question, added FindBin, grouped module
         questions together in the perlfaq8 manpage.  Expanded caveats for the
         simple URL extractor, gave LWP example, added CGI security question,
         expanded on the mail address answer in the perlfaq9 manpage.

     25/March/97
         Added more info to the binary distribution section of the perlfaq2
         manpage.  Added Net::Telnet to the perlfaq6 manpage.  Fixed typos in
         the perlfaq8 manpage.  Added mail sending example to the perlfaq9
         manpage.  Added Merlyn's columns to the perlfaq2 manpage.

     18/March/97
         Added the DATE to the NAME section, indicating which sections have
         changed.

         Mentioned SIGPIPE and the perlipc manpage in the forking open answer
         in the perlfaq8 manpage.

         Fixed description of a regular expression in the perlfaq4 manpage.

     17/March/97 Version
         Various typos fixed throughout.

         Added new question on Perl BNF on the perlfaq7 manpage.

     Initial Release: 11/March/97
         This is the initial release of version 3 of the FAQ; consequently
         there have been no changes since its initial release.