Perl Programming/Perl Installation and Setup

Perl Installation and Setup

While Perl is installed on most of the premier open-source server and personal computer operating systems, such as Ubuntu, FreeBSD, Debian and CentOS, and Linux and Mac OS X, respectively, this "native", or system-level, installation of Perl is too critical to the optimal operation these systems' underlying activities for students and aspiring Perl programmers to risk their unintentional interruption.

As with learning any programming language, the practice of designing, creating and executing scripts is imperative to the study of the Perl programming language, so while students of Perl are heartily warned against using their system's native Perl installation for Perl study and practice, students and professional developers can forthright circumvent disrupting their system's Perl operations by installing and configuring lightweight software that provides them with a single or multiple isolated and comprehensive Perl installations, for their use in the study and execution of Perl scripts, for extending Perl modules or for otherwise utilizing the processing and string-parsing power of Perl. These softwares effectively quarantine their operating system from the risk of affecting permanent or unsurmisable changes to their -- or their institution's -- system's native Perl installation.

Many varieties of operating systems and platforms (i.e. remote servers, and personal computers) exist through which students can explore Perl. Follow the guide below that corresponds to your operating system below.

Unix-like Systems (includes Mac OS X, Ubuntu)

• "Perlbrew" Installation

Windows 32- and 64-bit

• "Strawberry Perl" Installation