I don't remember where I found this but it tells me if the installed Perl is 5.12 or higher.

use version;
 ...
sub checkPerlVer {
  my $minVer = shift;   # eg  '5.12'
  my $installVer = `perl -v|grep -E '(v[1-9.]+)'`; 

  if ($installVer =~ /\((v[\d+.]+)\)/){
    #print "match $1\n";
    my $reVer = $1;
    my $iver= version->parse($reVer);
    my $mver= version->parse($minVer);
    printf "Minimum Perl=$mver  Installed Perl=$iver \n";
    if ($mver <= $iver) {
      print "OK \n";
      return 1; #OK
    }else{
      print "NOPE\n";
      return 0; #NOT OK
    }    
    
  }else{
    print "No version found: <$installVer>\n";
    return 0;
  }
   
}
[download]

Ugh. This might return you the version of a different Perl executable than the one your script is run with.

Why not use the $] variable, as documented in perlvar?

print "Running under Perl $]\n";
[download]

You will need to change your version check from '5.12' to '5.012' though, because that's what $] will contain.

Thanks, followed your advice, a few less lines needed and probably more correct.

It is always better to have seen your target for yourself, rather than depend upon someone else's description.