Downloading the Latest Version of Perl

originally written by Tom Christiansen, maintained by the Perl.com editors

Contents of this document

• Source Code Distribution
  • Latest Perl Source Code
  • Perl 6 (in development)
  • Current Release
  • Maintenance Release
  • Experimental Developer's Release (Upcoming Version)
  • Legacy Releases
    • Source License
• Binary Distributions
  • Unix, Linux
  • Win32
  • Macintosh Classic
• Getting Help

Overview

Perl is Open Source software. You can download it for free as a source code or as a pre-compiled binary distribution.

Perl Source Code Distribution

Since the release 5.6 (March 2000) Perl has followed the commonly used scheme where there is a development branch, which eventually stabilizes into a "point-oh/point-zero" (.0) release, which then branches into a maintenance branch with maintenance releases (.1, .2, ...), while the development branches back to uncharted waters. The development (or devel, as it is called by the Perl 5 developers) releases have an odd (as opposed to even) major release number (5.7, 5.9, 5.11, ...), while the maintenance (or maint) releases have an even major release number (5.6, 5.8, 5.10, 5.12, ...). The "point-oh/point-zero" releases and release candidates are called testing releases.

For stable production use the maint branches are recommended. The "point-oh/point-zero" releases of maintenance releases have of course by definition not been tested for long periods of time, but you should still start using them.

If you want to help out developing new releases of Perl you can use the devel releases, but you should probably not wait for them and instead follow Perl 5 development and hang around in the perl5-porters@perl.org mailing list.

Please note that branches earlier than 5.8 are no more supported (as of 2008), though fixes for urgent issues like for example for severe security problems may still be issued.

(Historical note: there used to be "symbolic" source code releases called "stable", "latest", "maint", "devel", but those caused more confusion than they were worth, they didn't really work with multiple branches, especially not with multiple maintenance branches, and "latest" made absolutely no sense.)

Use the instructions below to download the complete Perl source code distribution via your Web browser. On CPAN, you will find Perl source in the /src directory. The source code is distributed as either a Unix-style tar archive compressed by GNU zip (gz) or as a PC-style ZIP archive. (The only difference is the type of archive; the same source code files are inside the archive.

Once you download the gzip or zip archive, extract the source code files from the distribution and then follow the instructions on how to compile the source code for your system. If you don't have a compiler, or are unclear about compiling source code, then look first for a binary distribution of Perl.

Please note that we merely distribute Perl here. We neither develop it nor support it. Please consult the appropriate README and INSTALLING files if you have trouble configuring, compiling, and installing Perl.

Current Release

The latest version of Perl is 5.11.4.

Maintenance Release

The maintenance version of Perl is 5.10.1.

This version is a stable, production release that compiles out of the box for virtually all flavors of Unix (its native environment), plus VMS, OS/2, and 32-bit Microsoft platforms as well.

Experimental Developer's Release

The developer's release of Perl is currently at version 5.9.4. The developer's release is purely experimental. It is intended for particularly brave developers who want to get close to the front lines of Perl development. (If you want the current development sources, see the "Keeping in sync" section of the file pod/perlhack.pod. Please note that this is bleeding-edge code and requires you to know what you are doing.)

Previous Versions of Perl

For the faint of heart, the previous version of Perl is the 5.6.2 release. Please note that this is unsuppported, and the Perl developers will recommend that you upgrade to a supported release, such as Perl 5.8.9 or Perl 5.10.x if you encounter bugs.

Source Licence

Perl is Open Source software. It's free for you to download and use as you wish. Perl's license is the Artistic license. Read it if you aren't sure what you can or can't do. The bottom line is that this is a kinder and gentler version of the GNU license -- one that doesn't infect your work if you care to borrow from Perl or package up pieces of it as part of a commercial product!

Binary Distributions

Binary distributions of Perl are available for various platforms, including Win32 (Windows NT/95/2000/XP/Vista), Mac OS X, and Unix. Please read all documentation that comes with each package, as one distribution for a given platform may be very different than another for the same platform (for example, it may include different add-ons, be compiled from a different version of Perl etc.)

Generally speaking, CPAN doesn't distribute Perl binaries. It does provide information in the /ports directory that will point you to sites that maintain binary distributions for specific platforms.

Perl for Win32

The Win32 Perl Wiki has copious information about downloading, configuring, and compiling Perl on Win32 machines. It is the best single resource for this topic.

Strawberry Perl is a community-developed distribution of Perl for Windows machines. It includes all of the tools necessary to configure, build, and install additional Perl libraries from the CPAN.

ActivePerl is another binary distribution of Perl with Windows support. ActiveState offers commercial support for ActivePerl, along with its own repository of popular CPAN distributions.

If you have problems installing ActivePerl, please see the ActiveState site for support information.

Perl for the Macintosh

Mac OS X distributes a modern version of Perl, so you already have it. (If you want to upgrade, you can build the Unix source if you have the developer tools installed.)

For Macintosh Classic users, there are two ways to get Perl. MacPerl is the classic Perl port to Mac OS Systems 7 through 9. Lamp is a project to create a Unix-like environment on Mac OS before Mac OS X. It includes a port of Perl 5.6.1 and has frequent updates.

Perl for Unix

Perl was originally envisioned and written for Unix. Perl will build on almost all Unix platforms and its variants, such as Linux. As far as which Unix variants Perl will compile on, Larry says "I'm not sure there are any unsupported versions of Unix, except on machines without adequate address space such as PDP-11 or i286, and perhaps some old versions of Unix that are no longer supported themselves."

Alien Ports

If you want to run Perl on a non-native system, then have a look at the /CPAN/ports/ directory. Note that the standard Perl distribution compiles even on most closed-source systems now, so the ports directory is of somewhat limited utility for them.

Getting Help

If you need help, here are some suggestions.

• If you encounter problems configuring, compiling, or installing Perl from the source kits, please read the README in the source directory. Besides including important tips for various platforms, they also document where to send mail if you still have build difficulties.
• If you have problems downloading via ftp, try our CPAN web mirror instead.
• If you still can't get the download or the unpacking to work, contact your local systems administrator (not Perl.com staff) for help with your local system. Also, try to contact other Perl users in your organization or your community for help.
• If you have issues with the ActiveState port, please contact them directly.

Perl 6

Perl 6 is still under development. As of Parrot 0.5.2 (released in January 2008) the Parrot developers have made it possible to build a perl6 binary for experimentation and testing, based on the Rakudo implementation of Perl 6.

Download the Parrot source code, then build it with:

perl Configure.pl
make
make test
make perl6

(Change that final command to make perl6.exe on Windows platforms).

This is a work in progress with constant improvements expected through 2008.

What Now?

After you have Perl configured and installed, what can you do with it? Perl.com has several articles for novices, including:

• A Beginner's Introduction to Perl 5.10 (first of a series of six)
• Ten Essential Development Practices
• FMTYEWTK About Mass Edits In Perl
• Perl Command-Line Options
• Perl's Special Variables
• Regexp Power
• Power Regexps, Part II
• Maintaining Regular Expressions
• Perl Slurp-Eaze
• Hidden Treasures of the Perl Core
• Hidden Treasures of the Perl Core, part II
• The Many Dates and Times of Perl
• Database Programming with Perl
• Making Sense of Subroutines
• Perl Debugger Quick Reference
• How to Avoid Writing Code