Perl in a Nutshell (Paperback)

This complete guide to the Perl programming language ranges widely through the Perl programmer's universe, gathering together in a convenient form a wealth of information about Perl itself and its application to CGI scripts, XML processing, network programming, database interaction, and graphical user interfaces. The book is an ideal reference for experienced Perl programmers and beginners alike. With more than a million dedicated programmers, Perl is proving to be the best language for the latest trends in computing and business, including network programming and the ability to create and manage web sites. It's a language that every Unix system administrator and serious web developer needs to know. In the past few years, Perl has found its way into complex web applications of multinational banks, the U.S. Federal Reserve, and hundreds of large corporations. In this second edition, Perl in a Nutshell has been expanded to include coverage of Perl 5.8, with information on Unicode processing in Perl, new functions and modules that have been added to the core language, and up-to-date details on running Perl on the Win32 platform. The book also covers Perl modules for recent technologies such as XML and SOAP. Here are just some of the topics contained in this book:

Basic Perl reference Quick reference to built-in functions and standard modules CGI.pm and mod_perl XML:: * modules DBI, the database-independent API for Perl Sockets programming LWP, the library for Web programming in Perl Network programming with the Net modules Perl/Tk, the Tk extension to Perl for graphical interfaces Modules for interfacing with Win32 systems

As part of the successful "in a Nutshell" book series from O'Reilly & Associates, Perl in a Nutshell is for readers who want a single reference for all their needs. "In a nutshell, Perl is designed to make the easy jobs easy, without making the hard jobs impossible." -- Larry Wall, creator of Perl

Preface; How This Book Is Organized; Conventions in This Book; How to Contact Us; Acknowledgments for the First Edition; Acknowledgments for the Second Edition; Part I: Getting Started; Chapter 1: Introduction to Perl; 1.1 What's Perl Good For?; 1.2 Perl Development; 1.3 Which Platforms Support Perl?; 1.4 Perl Resources; Chapter 2: Installing Perl; 2.1 The CPAN Architecture; 2.2 How Is CPAN Organized?; 2.3 Installing Perl; 2.4 Getting and Installing Modules; 2.5 Documentation; Part II: Language Basics; Chapter 3: The Perl Executable; 3.1 Command Processing; 3.2 Command-Line Options; 3.3 Environment Variables; 3.4 The Perl Compiler; 3.5 Threads; Chapter 4: The Perl Language; 4.1 Program Structure; 4.2 Data Types and Variables; 4.3 Statements; 4.4 Special Variables; 4.5 Operators; 4.6 Regular Expressions; 4.7 Subroutines; 4.8 References and Complex Data Structures; 4.9 Filehandles; 4.10 Signals; 4.11 Unicode; 4.12 Formats; 4.13 Pod; Chapter 5: Function Reference; 5.1 Perl Functions by Category; 5.2 abs; 5.3 accept; 5.4 alarm; 5.5 atan2; 5.6 bind; 5.7 binmode; 5.8 bless; 5.9 caller; 5.10 chdir; 5.11 chmod; 5.12 chomp; 5.13 chop; 5.14 chown; 5.15 chr; 5.16 chroot; 5.17 close; 5.18 closedir; 5.19 connect; 5.20 cos; 5.21 crypt; 5.22 dbmclose; 5.23 dbmopen; 5.24 defined; 5.25 delete; 5.26 die; 5.27 do; 5.28 dump; 5.29 each; 5.30 endgrent; 5.31 endhostent; 5.32 endnetent; 5.33 endprotoent; 5.34 endpwent; 5.35 endservent; 5.36 eof; 5.37 eval; 5.38 exec; 5.39 exists; 5.40 exit; 5.41 exp; 5.42 fcntl; 5.43 fileno; 5.44 flock; 5.45 fork; 5.46 formline; 5.47 getc; 5.48 getgrent; 5.49 getgrgid; 5.50 getgrnam; 5.51 gethostbyaddr; 5.52 gethostbyname; 5.53 gethostent; 5.54 getlogin; 5.55 getnetbyaddr; 5.56 getnetbyname; 5.57 getnetent; 5.58 getpeername; 5.59 getpgrp; 5.60 getppid; 5.61 getpriority; 5.62 getprotobyname; 5.63 getprotobynumber; 5.64 getprotoent; 5.65 getpwent; 5.66 getpwnam; 5.67 getpwuid; 5.68 getservbyname; 5.69 getservbyport; 5.70 getservent; 5.71 getsockname; 5.72 getsockopt; 5.73 glob; 5.74 gmtime; 5.75 goto; 5.76 grep; 5.77 hex; 5.78 index; 5.79 int; 5.80 ioctl; 5.81 join; 5.82 keys; 5.83 kill; 5.84 last; 5.85 lc; 5.86 lcfirst; 5.87 length; 5.88 link; 5.89 listen; 5.90 local; 5.91 localtime; 5.92 log; 5.93 lstat; 5.94 map; 5.95 mkdir; 5.96 msgctl; 5.97 msgget; 5.98 msgrcv; 5.99 msgsnd; 5.100 my; 5.101 next; 5.102 no; 5.103 oct; 5.104 open; 5.105 opendir; 5.106 ord; 5.107 our; 5.108 pack; 5.109 package; 5.110 pipe; 5.111 pop; 5.112 pos; 5.113 print; 5.114 printf; 5.115 prototype; 5.116 push; 5.117 q/string/; 5.118 quotemeta; 5.119 rand; 5.120 read; 5.121 readdir; 5.122 readline; 5.123 readlink; 5.124 readpipe; 5.125 recv; 5.126 redo; 5.127 ref; 5.128 rename; 5.129 require; 5.130 reset; 5.131 return; 5.132 reverse; 5.133 rewinddir; 5.134 rindex; 5.135 rmdir; 5.136 scalar; 5.137 seek; 5.138 seekdir; 5.139 select; 5.140 select; 5.141 semctl; 5.142 semget; 5.143 semop; 5.144 send; 5.145 sethostent; 5.146 setgrent; 5.147 setnetent; 5.148 setpgrp; 5.149 setpriority; 5.150 setprotoent; 5.151 setpwent; 5.152 setservent; 5.153 setsockopt; 5.154 shift; 5.155 shmctl; 5.156 shmget; 5.157 shmread; 5.158 shmwrite; 5.159 shutdown; 5.160 sin; 5.161 sleep; 5.162 socket; 5.163 socketpair; 5.164 sort; 5.165 splice; 5.166 split; 5.167 sprintf; 5.168 sqrt; 5.169 srand; 5.170 stat; 5.171 study; 5.172 sub; 5.173 substr; 5.174 symlink; 5.175 syscall; 5.176 sysopen; 5.177 sysread; 5.178 sysseek; 5.179 system; 5.180 syswrite; 5.181 tell; 5.182 telldir; 5.183 tie; 5.184 tied; 5.185 time; 5.186 times; 5.187 truncate; 5.188 uc; 5.189 ucfirst; 5.190 umask; 5.191 undef; 5.192 unlink; 5.193 unpack; 5.194 unshift; 5.195 untie; 5.196 use; 5.197 utime; 5.198 values; 5.199 vec; 5.200 wait; 5.201 waitpid; 5.202 wantarray; 5.203 warn; 5.204 write; Chapter 6: Debugging; 6.1 The Perl Debugger; 6.2 Debugger Commands; 6.3 Using the Debugger; 6.4 Customizing the Debugger; 6.5 The Perl Profiler; 6.6 The perlbug Program; Part III: Modules; Chapter 7: Packages, Modules, and Objects; 7.1 Namespaces and Packages; 7.2 Modules; 7.3 Object-Oriented Perl; 7.4 Object Syntax; Chapter 8: Standard Modules; 8.1 AnyDBM_File; 8.2 Attribute::Handlers; 8.3 attributes; 8.4 attrs; 8.5 AutoLoader; 8.6 AutoSplit; 8.7 autouse; 8.8 B; 8.9 B::Asmdata; 8.10 B::Assembler; 8.11 B::Bblock; 8.12 B::Bytecode; 8.13 B::C; 8.14 B::CC; 8.15 B::Concise; 8.16 B::Debug; 8.17 B::Deparse; 8.18 B::Disassembler; 8.19 B::Lint; 8.20 B::Showlex; 8.21 B::Stackobj; 8.22 B::Terse; 8.23 B::Xref; 8.24 base; 8.25 Benchmark; 8.26 bigint; 8.27 bignum; 8.28 bigrat; 8.29 blib; 8.30 bytes; 8.31 ByteLoader; 8.32 Carp; 8.33 CGI; 8.34 CGI::Apache; 8.35 CGI::Carp; 8.36 CGI::Cookie; 8.37 CGI::Fast; 8.38 CGI::Pretty; 8.39 CGI::Push; 8.40 CGI::Switch; 8.41 charnames; 8.42 Class::ISA; 8.43 Class::Struct; 8.44 Config; 8.45 constant; 8.46 CPAN; 8.47 CPAN::FirstTime; 8.48 CPAN::Nox; 8.49 Cwd; 8.50 Data::Dumper; 8.51 DB; 8.52 DB_File; 8.53 Devel::DProf; 8.54 Devel::PPPort; 8.55 Devel::SelfStubber; 8.56 diagnostics; 8.57 Digest; 8.58 Digest::MD5; 8.59 DirHandle; 8.60 Dumpvalue; 8.61 DynaLoader; 8.62 encoding; 8.63 English; 8.64 Env; 8.65 Errno; 8.66 Exporter; 8.67 ExtUtils::Command; 8.68 ExtUtils::Command::MM; 8.69 ExtUtils::Constant; 8.70 ExtUtils::Embed; 8.71 ExtUtils::Install; 8.72 ExtUtils::Installed; 8.73 ExtUtils::Liblist; 8.74 ExtUtils::MakeMaker; 8.75 ExtUtils::Manifest; 8.76 ExtUtils::Miniperl; 8.77 ExtUtils::Mkbootstrap; 8.78 ExtUtils::Mksymlists; 8.79 ExtUtils::MM; 8.80 ExtUtils::MM_Any; 8.81 ExtUtils::MM_BeOS; 8.82 ExtUtils::MM_DOS; 8.83 ExtUtils::MM_NW5; 8.84 ExtUtils::MM_OS2; 8.85 ExtUtils::MM_Unix; 8.86 ExtUtils::MM_UWIN; 8.87 ExtUtils::MM_VMS; 8.88 ExtUtils::MM_Win32; 8.89 ExtUtils::MY; 8.90 ExtUtils::Packlist; 8.91 ExtUtils::testlib; 8.92 Fatal; 8.93 Fcntl; 8.94 fields; 8.95 File::Basename; 8.96 File::CheckTree; 8.97 File::Compare; 8.98 File::Copy; 8.99 File::DosGlob; 8.100 File::Find; 8.101 File::Path; 8.102 File::Spec; 8.103 File::Spec::Cygwin; 8.104 File::Spec::Mac; 8.105 File::Spec::OS2; 8.106 File::Spec::Unix; 8.107 File::Spec::VMS; 8.108 File::Spec::Win32; 8.109 File::stat; 8.110 File::Temp; 8.111 FileCache; 8.112 FileHandle; 8.113 Filter::Simple; 8.114 Filter::Util::Call; 8.115 FindBin; 8.116 GDBM_File; 8.117 Getopt::Long; 8.118 Getopt::Std; 8.119 Hash::Util; 8.120 I18N::Collate; 8.121 I18N::Langinfo; 8.122 I18N::LangTags; 8.123 I18N::LangTags::List; 8.124 if; 8.125 integer; 8.126 IO; 8.127 IO::File; 8.128 IO::Handle; 8.129 IO::Pipe; 8.130 IO::Seekable; 8.131 IO::Select; 8.132 IO::Socket; 8.133 IPC::Msg; 8.134 IPC::Open2; 8.135 IPC::Open3; 8.136 IPC::Semaphore; 8.137 IPC::SysV; 8.138 less; 8.139 lib; 8.140 List::Util; 8.141 locale; 8.142 Math::BigFloat; 8.143 Math::BigInt; 8.144 Math::BigInt::Calc; 8.145 Math::BigRat; 8.146 Math::Complex; 8.147 Math::Trig; 8.148 MIME::Base64; 8.149 MIME::QuotedPrint; 8.150 NDBM_File; 8.151 Net::Cmd; 8.152 Net::Config; 8.153 Net::Domain; 8.154 Net::FTP; 8.155 Net::hostent; 8.156 Net::netent; 8.157 Net::Netrc; 8.158 Net::NNTP; 8.159 Net::Ping; 8.160 Net::POP3; 8.161 Net::protoent; 8.162 Net::servent; 8.163 Net::SMTP; 8.164 Net::Time; 8.165 O; 8.166 ODBM_File; 8.167 Opcode; 8.168 ops; 8.169 overload; 8.170 PerlIO; 8.171 PerlIO::Scalar; 8.172 PerlIO::Via; 8.173 Pod::Functions; 8.174 Pod::Html; 8.175 Pod::ParseLink; 8.176 Pod::Text; 8.177 POSIX; 8.178 re; 8.179 Safe; 8.180 Scalar::Util; 8.181 SDBM_File; 8.182 Search::Dict; 8.183 SelectSaver; 8.184 SelfLoader; 8.185 Shell; 8.186 sigtrap; 8.187 Socket; 8.188 sort; 8.189 Storable; 8.190 strict; 8.191 subs; 8.192 Switch; 8.193 Symbol; 8.194 Sys::Hostname; 8.195 Sys::Syslog; 8.196 Term::Cap; 8.197 Term::Complete; 8.198 Term::ReadLine; 8.199 Test; 8.200 Test::Builder; 8.201 Test::Harness; 8.202 Test::More; 8.203 Test::Simple; 8.204 Text::Abbrev; 8.205 Text::Balanced; 8.206 Text::ParseWords; 8.207 Text::Soundex; 8.208 Text::Tabs; 8.209 Text::Wrap; 8.210 Thread; 8.211 Thread::Queue; 8.212 Thread::Semaphore; 8.213 Thread::Signal; 8.214 Thread::Specific; 8.215 Tie::Array, Tie::StdArray; 8.216 Tie::File; 8.217 Tie::Handle; 8.218 Tie::Hash; 8.219 Tie::Memoize; 8.220 Tie::RefHash; 8.221 Tie::Scalar; 8.222 Tie::SubstrHash; 8.223 Time::gmtime; 8.224 Time::HiRes; 8.225 Time::Local; 8.226 Time::localtime; 8.227 Time::tm; 8.228 UNIVERSAL; 8.229 User::grent; 8.230 User::pwent; 8.231 utf8; 8.232 vars; 8.233 vmsish; 8.234 XS::Typemap; Part IV: CGI; Chapter 9: CGI Overview; 9.1 A Typical CGI Interaction; 9.2 URL Encoding; 9.3 Extra Path Information; 9.4 CGI Environment Variables; Chapter 10: The CGI.pm Module; 10.1 HTML Tag Generation; 10.2 Importing Method Groups; 10.3 Maintaining State; 10.4 Named Parameters; 10.5 Using JavaScript Features; 10.6 Debugging; 10.7 CGI.pm Reference; Chapter 11: Web Server Programming with mod_perl; 11.1 Design of mod_perl; 11.2 Installing mod_perl; 11.3 mod_perl Handlers; 11.4 Running CGI Scripts with mod_perl; 11.5 Server-Side Includes with mod_perl; 11.6 Sections; 11.7 Apache:: Modules; Part V: Databases; Chapter 12: Databases and Perl; 12.1 DBM Databases and DBM Hashes; 12.2 Design of DBI; 12.3 DBI Methods; 12.4 DBI Environment Variables; Part VI: XML and SOAP; Chapter 13: XML and Perl; 13.1 XML Parsing and Validation; 13.2 XML::Parser Methods; 13.3 Expat Handlers; 13.4 XML::Parser Styles; 13.5 Expat Encodings; 13.6 XML::Parser::ContentModel Methods; Chapter 14: SOAP; 14.1 What Is SOAP?; 14.2 SOAP::Lite; 14.3 SOAP::Data; 14.4 SOAP::Serializer; 14.5 SOAP::Fault; Part VII: Network Programming; Chapter 15: Sockets; 15.1 Built-in Socket Functions; 15.2 The IO::Socket Module; Chapter 16: Email Connectivity; 16.1 The Net Modules; 16.2 The Mail Modules; Chapter 17: Usenet News; 17.1 The NNTP Protocol; 17.2 Net::NNTP; 17.3 The News::Newsrc Module; Chapter 18: FTP; 18.1 The FTP Protocol; 18.2 Net::FTP; 18.3 FTP Configuration with Net::Netrc; Chapter 19: Lightweight Directory Access with Net::LDAP; 19.1 How Data Is Stored in LDAP; 19.2 Searching an LDAP Directory with Net::LDAP; 19.3 Adding an Entry to the Directory with Net::LDAP; 19.4 Net::LDAP Methods; Part VIII: LWP; Chapter 20: The LWP Library; 20.1 LWP Overview; 20.2 The LWP Modules; 20.3 The HTTP Modules; 20.4 The HTML Modules; 20.5 The URI Module; Part IX: Perl/Tk; Chapter 21: Perl/Tk; 21.1 Widgets; 21.2 Geometry Managers; 21.3 Common Widget Configuration Options; 21.4 The Button Widget; 21.5 The Checkbutton Widget; 21.6 The Radiobutton Widget; 21.7 The Label Widget; 21.8 The Entry Widget; 21.9 The Scrollbar Widget; 21.10 The Listbox Widget; 21.11 The Text Widget; 21.12 The Canvas Widget; 21.13 The Scale Widget; 21.14 The Menubutton Widget; 21.15 The Menu Widget; 21.16 The Optionmenu Widget; 21.17 The Frame Widget; 21.18 The Toplevel Widget; Part X: Win32; Chapter 22: Win32 Modules and Extensions; 22.1 Win32::Clipboard; 22.2 Win32::Console; 22.3 Win32::ChangeNotify; 22.4 Win32::Eventlog; 22.5 Win32::File; 22.6 Win32::FileSecurity; 22.7 Win32::Internet; 22.8 Win32::IPC; 22.9 Win32::Mutex; 22.10 Win32::NetAdmin; 22.11 Win32::NetResource; 22.12 Win32::PerfLib; 22.13 Win32::Pipe; 22.14 Win32::Process; 22.15 Win32::Registry; 22.16 Win32::Semaphore; 22.17 Win32::Service; 22.18 Win32::Shortcut; 22.19 Win32 Extensions; Chapter 23: OLE Automation; 23.1 Creating Objects; 23.2 Automation Methods and Properties; 23.3 Win32::OLE::Enum; 23.4 Win32::OLE::Variant; 23.5 Win32::OLE::Const; Chapter 24: ODBC Extension for Win32; 24.1 ODBC Methods and Properties; Colophon;