Perl Programming Documentation
Open-knowledge reference entry

Perl Programming Documentation, also called perldoc, is the name of the user manual for the Perl 5 programming language. It is available in several different formats, including online in HTML and PDF. The documentation is bundled with Perl in its own format, known as Plain Old Documentation (pod). Some distributions, such as Strawberry Perl, include the documentation in HTML, PDF, and pod formats.
perldoc is also the name of the Perl command that provides "access to all the documentation that comes with Perl", from the command line.
See also
Outline of Perl – overview of and topical guide to the Perl programming language
Raku – Perl 5's sister language
man page – form of software documentation usually found on a Unix or Unix-like operating system, invoked by issuing the man command. Perl documentation is sometimes available as man pages.
RTFM – Internet slang for "Read the Frickin' Manual"
External links
Official documentation for Perl 5 – displays the documentation, and also includes links to download the HTML and PDF files for off-line use.
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This entry incorporates text from “Perl Programming Documentation” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.