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   1  =head1 NAME
   2  
   3  perlutil - utilities packaged with the Perl distribution
   4  
   5  =head1 DESCRIPTION
   6  
   7  Along with the Perl interpreter itself, the Perl distribution installs a
   8  range of utilities on your system. There are also several utilities
   9  which are used by the Perl distribution itself as part of the install
  10  process. This document exists to list all of these utilities, explain
  11  what they are for and provide pointers to each module's documentation,
  12  if appropriate.
  13  
  14  =head1 LIST OF UTILITIES
  15  
  16  =head2 Documentation
  17  
  18  =over 3
  19  
  20  =item L<perldoc|perldoc>
  21  
  22  The main interface to Perl's documentation is C<perldoc>, although
  23  if you're reading this, it's more than likely that you've already found
  24  it. F<perldoc> will extract and format the documentation from any file
  25  in the current directory, any Perl module installed on the system, or
  26  any of the standard documentation pages, such as this one. Use 
  27  C<perldoc E<lt>nameE<gt>> to get information on any of the utilities
  28  described in this document.
  29  
  30  =item L<pod2man|pod2man> and L<pod2text|pod2text>
  31  
  32  If it's run from a terminal, F<perldoc> will usually call F<pod2man> to
  33  translate POD (Plain Old Documentation - see L<perlpod> for an
  34  explanation) into a manpage, and then run F<man> to display it; if
  35  F<man> isn't available, F<pod2text> will be used instead and the output
  36  piped through your favourite pager.
  37  
  38  =item L<pod2html|pod2html> and L<pod2latex|pod2latex>
  39  
  40  As well as these two, there are two other converters: F<pod2html> will
  41  produce HTML pages from POD, and F<pod2latex>, which produces LaTeX
  42  files.
  43  
  44  =item L<pod2usage|pod2usage>
  45  
  46  If you just want to know how to use the utilities described here,
  47  F<pod2usage> will just extract the "USAGE" section; some of
  48  the utilities will automatically call F<pod2usage> on themselves when
  49  you call them with C<-help>.
  50  
  51  =item L<podselect|podselect>
  52  
  53  F<pod2usage> is a special case of F<podselect>, a utility to extract
  54  named sections from documents written in POD. For instance, while
  55  utilities have "USAGE" sections, Perl modules usually have "SYNOPSIS"
  56  sections: C<podselect -s "SYNOPSIS" ...> will extract this section for
  57  a given file.
  58  
  59  =item L<podchecker|podchecker>
  60  
  61  If you're writing your own documentation in POD, the F<podchecker>
  62  utility will look for errors in your markup.
  63  
  64  =item L<splain|splain>
  65  
  66  F<splain> is an interface to L<perldiag> - paste in your error message
  67  to it, and it'll explain it for you.
  68  
  69  =item L<roffitall|roffitall>
  70  
  71  The C<roffitall> utility is not installed on your system but lives in
  72  the F<pod/> directory of your Perl source kit; it converts all the
  73  documentation from the distribution to F<*roff> format, and produces a
  74  typeset PostScript or text file of the whole lot.
  75  
  76  =back
  77  
  78  =head2 Convertors
  79  
  80  To help you convert legacy programs to Perl, we've included three
  81  conversion filters:
  82  
  83  =over 3
  84  
  85  =item L<a2p|a2p>
  86  
  87  F<a2p> converts F<awk> scripts to Perl programs; for example, C<a2p -F:>
  88  on the simple F<awk> script C<{print $2}> will produce a Perl program
  89  based around this code:
  90  
  91      while (<>) {
  92          ($Fld1,$Fld2) = split(/[:\n]/, $_, 9999);
  93          print $Fld2;
  94      }
  95  
  96  =item L<s2p|s2p> and L<psed>
  97  
  98  Similarly, F<s2p> converts F<sed> scripts to Perl programs. F<s2p> run
  99  on C<s/foo/bar> will produce a Perl program based around this:
 100  
 101      while (<>) {
 102          chomp;
 103          s/foo/bar/g;
 104          print if $printit;
 105      }
 106  
 107  When invoked as F<psed>, it behaves as a F<sed> implementation, written in
 108  Perl.
 109  
 110  =item L<find2perl|find2perl>
 111  
 112  Finally, F<find2perl> translates C<find> commands to Perl equivalents which 
 113  use the L<File::Find|File::Find> module. As an example, 
 114  C<find2perl . -user root -perm 4000 -print> produces the following callback
 115  subroutine for C<File::Find>:
 116  
 117      sub wanted {
 118          my ($dev,$ino,$mode,$nlink,$uid,$gid);
 119          (($dev,$ino,$mode,$nlink,$uid,$gid) = lstat($_)) &&
 120          $uid == $uid{'root'}) &&
 121          (($mode & 0777) == 04000);
 122          print("$name\n");
 123      }
 124  
 125  =back
 126  
 127  As well as these filters for converting other languages, the
 128  L<pl2pm|pl2pm> utility will help you convert old-style Perl 4 libraries to 
 129  new-style Perl5 modules.
 130  
 131  =head2 Administration
 132  
 133  =over 3
 134  
 135  =item L<config_data|config_data>
 136  
 137  Query or change configuration of Perl modules that use Module::Build-based
 138  configuration files for features and config data.
 139  
 140  =item L<libnetcfg|libnetcfg>
 141  
 142  To display and change the libnet configuration run the libnetcfg command.
 143  
 144  =item L<perlivp>
 145  
 146  The F<perlivp> program is set up at Perl source code build time to test
 147  the Perl version it was built under.  It can be used after running C<make
 148  install> (or your platform's equivalent procedure) to verify that perl
 149  and its libraries have been installed correctly.
 150  
 151  =back
 152  
 153  =head2 Development
 154  
 155  There are a set of utilities which help you in developing Perl programs, 
 156  and in particular, extending Perl with C.
 157  
 158  =over 3
 159  
 160  =item L<perlbug|perlbug>
 161  
 162  F<perlbug> is the recommended way to report bugs in the perl interpreter
 163  itself or any of the standard library modules back to the developers;
 164  please read through the documentation for F<perlbug> thoroughly before
 165  using it to submit a bug report.
 166  
 167  =item L<h2ph|h2ph>
 168  
 169  Back before Perl had the XS system for connecting with C libraries,
 170  programmers used to get library constants by reading through the C
 171  header files. You may still see C<require 'syscall.ph'> or similar
 172  around - the F<.ph> file should be created by running F<h2ph> on the
 173  corresponding F<.h> file. See the F<h2ph> documentation for more on how
 174  to convert a whole bunch of header files at once.
 175  
 176  =item L<c2ph|c2ph> and L<pstruct|pstruct>
 177  
 178  F<c2ph> and F<pstruct>, which are actually the same program but behave
 179  differently depending on how they are called, provide another way of
 180  getting at C with Perl - they'll convert C structures and union declarations
 181  to Perl code. This is deprecated in favour of F<h2xs> these days.
 182  
 183  =item L<h2xs|h2xs>
 184  
 185  F<h2xs> converts C header files into XS modules, and will try and write
 186  as much glue between C libraries and Perl modules as it can. It's also
 187  very useful for creating skeletons of pure Perl modules.
 188  
 189  =item L<enc2xs>
 190  
 191  F<enc2xs> builds a Perl extension for use by Encode from either
 192  Unicode Character Mapping files (.ucm) or Tcl Encoding Files (.enc).
 193  Besides being used internally during the build process of the Encode
 194  module, you can use F<enc2xs> to add your own encoding to perl.
 195  No knowledge of XS is necessary.
 196  
 197  =item L<xsubpp>
 198  
 199  F<xsubpp> is a compiler to convert Perl XS code into C code.
 200  It is typically run by the makefiles created by L<ExtUtils::MakeMaker>.
 201  
 202  F<xsubpp> will compile XS code into C code by embedding the constructs
 203  necessary to let C functions manipulate Perl values and creates the glue
 204  necessary to let Perl access those functions.
 205  
 206  =item L<dprofpp|dprofpp>
 207  
 208  Perl comes with a profiler, the F<Devel::DProf> module. The
 209  F<dprofpp> utility analyzes the output of this profiler and tells you
 210  which subroutines are taking up the most run time. See L<Devel::DProf>
 211  for more information.
 212  
 213  =item L<prove>
 214  
 215  F<prove> is a command-line interface to the test-running functionality of
 216  of F<Test::Harness>.  It's an alternative to C<make test>.
 217  
 218  =item L<corelist>
 219  
 220  A command-line front-end to C<Module::CoreList>, to query what modules
 221  were shipped with given versions of perl.
 222  
 223  =back
 224  
 225  =head2 General tools
 226  
 227  A few general-purpose tools are shipped with perl, mostly because they
 228  came along modules included in the perl distribution.
 229  
 230  =over 3
 231  
 232  =item L<piconv>
 233  
 234  B<piconv> is a Perl version of B<iconv>, a character encoding converter
 235  widely available for various Unixen today.  This script was primarily a
 236  technology demonstrator for Perl 5.8.0, but you can use piconv in the
 237  place of iconv for virtually any case.
 238  
 239  =item L<ptar>
 240  
 241  F<ptar> is a tar-like program, written in pure Perl.
 242  
 243  =item L<ptardiff>
 244  
 245  F<ptardiff> is a small utility that produces a diff between an extracted
 246  archive and an unextracted one. (Note that this utility requires the
 247  C<Text::Diff> module to function properly; this module isn't distributed
 248  with perl, but is available from the CPAN.)
 249  
 250  =item L<shasum>
 251  
 252  This utility, that comes with the C<Digest::SHA> module, is used to print
 253  or verify SHA checksums.
 254  
 255  =back
 256  
 257  =head2 Installation
 258  
 259  These utilities help manage extra Perl modules that don't come with the perl
 260  distribution.
 261  
 262  =over 3
 263  
 264  =item L<cpan>
 265  
 266  F<cpan> is a command-line interface to CPAN.pm.  It allows you to install
 267  modules or distributions from CPAN, or just get information about them, and
 268  a lot more.  It is similar to the command line mode of the L<CPAN> module,
 269  
 270      perl -MCPAN -e shell
 271  
 272  =item L<cpanp>
 273  
 274  F<cpanp> is, like F<cpan>, a command-line interface to the CPAN, using
 275  the C<CPANPLUS> module as a back-end. It can be used interactively or
 276  imperatively.
 277  
 278  =item L<cpan2dist>
 279  
 280  F<cpan2dist> is a tool to create distributions (or packages) from CPAN
 281  modules, then suitable for your package manager of choice. Support for
 282  specific formats are available from CPAN as C<CPANPLUS::Dist::*> modules.
 283  
 284  =item L<instmodsh>
 285  
 286  A little interface to ExtUtils::Installed to examine installed modules,
 287  validate your packlists and even create a tarball from an installed module.
 288  
 289  =back
 290  
 291  =head1 SEE ALSO
 292  
 293  L<perldoc|perldoc>, L<pod2man|pod2man>, L<perlpod>,
 294  L<pod2html|pod2html>, L<pod2usage|pod2usage>, L<podselect|podselect>,
 295  L<podchecker|podchecker>, L<splain|splain>, L<perldiag>,
 296  L<roffitall|roffitall>, L<a2p|a2p>, L<s2p|s2p>, L<find2perl|find2perl>,
 297  L<File::Find|File::Find>, L<pl2pm|pl2pm>, L<perlbug|perlbug>,
 298  L<h2ph|h2ph>, L<c2ph|c2ph>, L<h2xs|h2xs>, L<dprofpp|dprofpp>,
 299  L<Devel::DProf>, L<enc2xs>, L<xsubpp>, L<cpan>, L<cpanp>, L<cpan2dist>,
 300  L<instmodsh>, L<piconv>, L<prove>, L<corelist>, L<ptar>, L<ptardiff>,
 301  L<shasum>
 302  
 303  =cut