Perl Source Code
	CPAN/src

The stable release is 5.8.8. The development release is 5.9.5.

Browse the CPAN src/ directory at ftp.funet.fi using http|ftp

What you will find here

Source code for selected current and past production versions of perl; some older production releases that have been superseded can be found in the 5.0/ directory instead. Most people need either the "stable" or the "devel".

What you will not find here

• Binary distributions of perl (executable programs) for particular platforms. See the ports directory at the top level of CPAN. If your system does not have a C compiler, you should probably be looking at that directory; if you do have a C compiler, stick around in here and keep reading.
• Source code for Perl modules. See the modules directory at the top level of CPAN.

Perl Delta Pods (Perl Release Notes)

The important changes between Perl releases are recorded in the "perl delta pods".

Main files

Note that web browsers quite often get confused by file endings like .tar.bz2, .tar.gz or .tar.gz.md5 so you might want to save the files to disk instead of letting the browser launch a helper application.

• The stable release is 5.8.8.

  • stable.tar.bz2 MD5
  • stable.tar.gz MD5

  Source code for a maintenance release of perl. If you would rather be running a perl with stable features and probably fewer bugs than the latest development version, then this version is the one you need. A UNIX-style tar archive compressed by GNU zip (gzip).

  To use this you do need a C compilation environment. If you want Perl binaries see the ports page.

• The development release is 5.9.5.

  • devel.tar.gz MD5

  Source code for the latest development release of perl. This code has new features and bug fixes relative to the version in stable.tar.gz; however, it has not been in use for so long, and so has more bugs that we do not know about. If this does not worry you, this is the version for you. If it does worry you, then you need stable.tar.gz.

  To use this you do need a C compilation environment. If you want Perl binaries see the ports page.

• There is no stable.zip anymore. You do not need a stable.zip.

  For example WinZip is perfectly capable of unpacking the stable.tar.gz.

  If you want Perl binaries see the ports page.

• There is no devel.zip anymore. You do not need a devel.zip.

  If you want Perl binaries see the ports page.

• There is no "latest" release. Formerly (before Perl 5.005) there was a "latest" maintenance release of Perl (very much like the stable.tar.gz described above). The development cycle of the Perl changed, however, so that now there are more than one "latest" release (at least one maintenance track and at least one development track). Because of these multiple tracks a single "latest" would be too ambiguous. We apologize for the confusion and suggest that you grab either the "stable" release or the "devel" release, depending on how adventurous you feel. (For backward compatibility with published books and the like we do still maintain a "latest" link, which always points to the maintenance release.)
• Not all Perl source releases are visible here. What we have here are links to the most recent ones. We do not link to all of them firstly because that would a lot of releases (which would be messy) and secondly because the newer releases are on the average better (more features, less bugs). But if you are after some earlier release, you need to do a little bit of source code archaeology. Some of the earlier release are still in CPAN, but you need to know who compiled which release (see perlhist) and then go directly to their author directories. For really old releases even CPAN might not help. You might try backCPAN or or Old Perl.

Once you've downloaded one of these archives and unpacked it, you need to use it to build a binary for your system, then test and install it. The file README in the distribution gives license information and brief instructions; the file INSTALL gives comprehensive instructions. If you have a non-UNIX system, see also README.yoursystem -- for example, README.win32.

Other files and directories

• 5.0/

  Source archives for all releases of perl5. You should only need to look here if you have an application which, for some reason or another, does not run with the current release of perl5. Be aware that only 5.004 and later versions of perl are maintained. If you report a genuine bug in such a version, you will probably be informed either that it is fixed in the current maintenance release, or will be fixed in a subsequent one. If you report a bug in an unmaintained version, you are likely to be advised to upgrade to a maintained version which fixes the bug, or to await a fix in a maintained version. No fix will be provided for the unmaintained version.

• Perl 6 or Parrot are not yet in CPAN. In the meanwhile, try here or here.

• 5.0/devel

  Source archives for development versions of Perl 5. Don't touch these unless you enjoy being at the bleeding edge of technology.

• 5.0/maint

  Source archives for all maintenance releases of perl5.004 and later. (There was no maintenance release mechanism for earlier releases of perl.)

• 5.0/jperl

  Path to patch files needed to adapt particular perl releases for use with Japanese character sets.

• ENDINGS

  Discussion of the meanings of the endings of filenames (.gz, .ZIP and so on). Read this file if you want to know how to handle a source code archive after you've downloaded it.

• README

  This file.

• misc/

  Third-party and other add-on source packages needed in order to build certain perl configurations. You do not need any of this stuff to build a default configuration.

• perl-5.*.tar.gz, perl5_*.tar.gz

  Source code archives for several recent production releases of perl.

• unsupported/

  This is where we hid the source for perl4, which was superseded by perl5 years ago. We would really much rather that you didn't use it. It is definitely obsolete and has security and other bugs. And, since it's unsupported, it will continue to have them.

• sperl-2000-08-05

  Files relevant to the security problem found in 'suidperl' in August 2000, reported in the bugtraq mailing list. The problem was found in all Perl release branches: 5.6, 5.005, and 5.004. The 5.6.1 release has a fix for this, as have the 5.8 releases. The (now obsolete) development branch 5.7 was unaffected, except for very early (pre-5.7.0) developer-only snapshots. The bug affects you only if you use an executable called 'suidperl', not if you use 'perl', and it is very likely only to affect UNIX platforms, and even more precisely, as of March 2001, the only platforms known to be affected are Linux platforms (all of them, as far as we know). The 'suidperl' is an optional component which is not installed, or even built, by default. These files will help you in the case you compile Perl yourself from the source and you want to close the security hole.

• CA-97.17.sperl
• fixsperl-0
• fixsuid5-0.pat

  Files relevant to the CERT Advisory CA-97.17.sperl, a security problem found in 'suidperl' back in 1997. The problem was found both in Perl 4.036 (the final) (and last) release of Perl 4 and in early versions of Perl 5 (pre-5.003). The bug affects you only if you use an executable called 'suidperl', not if you use 'perl', and it is very likely only to affect UNIX platform. The 'suidperl' is an optional component which is not installed, or even built, by default. These files will help you in the (very unlikely) case you need to use (the obsolete and unsupported) Perl 4 or the early Perl 5s, Perl releases newer than Perl 5.003 do not have this security problem.

Corrections? Additions? Suggestions? Please contact cpan@perl.org. Other questions? See the CPAN FAQ.

Copyright Jarkko Hietaniemi <jhi@iki.fi> 1998-2003 All Rights Reserved.

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