Executing a Perl program

gm40 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi there, a simple problem, probably quickly solved: I cannot execute a Perl program as expected:

gerd@gm2015:~/Programming/Perl> ./FirstTrial
./FirstTrial: line 1: #!/usr/bin/perl: No such file or directory
./FirstTrial: line 2: use: command not found
./FirstTrial: line 6: say: command not found
gerd@gm2015:~/Programming/Perl> which perl
/usr/bin/perl
gerd@gm2015:~/Programming/Perl> echo $PATH
/home/gerd/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/games
gerd@gm2015:~/Programming/Perl> perl FirstTrial
Hello
gerd@gm2015:~/Programming/Perl> more FirstTrial
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.18.2;
#use strict;
#use warnings;
#use utf8;
say "Hello";
gerd@gm2015:~/Programming/Perl>
[download]

I'm grateful for any comment. Thanks!

2017-11-28 Athanasius fixed closing code tag

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Re: Executing a Perl program by NetWallah (Canon) on Nov 27, 2017 at 20:32 UTC
See this stackoverflow post. You probably have a BOM in the file , which is not visible. Try listing your file using: `xxd FirstTrial` [download] to see if it has funny characters. All power corrupts, but we need electricity.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Executing a Perl program by shmem (Chancellor) on Nov 27, 2017 at 20:20 UTC
`#!/usr/bin/perl: No such file or directory` [download] The shell reports the whole shebang line as a non-existent file? Something's wrong with that line. What's there before the shebang? Is there by chance a `<Ctrl>H` or such? Delete that line and write it again. Then, `#!/usr/bin/perl -w use 5.18.2; #use strict; #use warnings; #use utf8; say "Hello";` [download] you should not comment out `use strict;` and `use warnings;` until your program runs and you are dead sure it does what it is meant to do with no ways left to fail. perl -le'print map{pack c,($-++?1:13)+ord}split//,ESEL'	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Executing a Perl program by marto (Cardinal) on Nov 27, 2017 at 19:58 UTC
As mentioned in the chatterbox, How do I post a question effectively? is a good read. Your closing code tag should be `</code` rather than `<\code>`, this can't have looked right when previewing your post. On to your perl problem. What does the following produce when run from the command line: `file /usr/bin/perl` [download] Do you have any weird line endings breaking the shebang line?	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Executing a Perl program by karlgoethebier (Abbot) on Nov 28, 2017 at 09:30 UTC
"...funny characters..." Or inspect it with hexdump, like this: Read more... (2 kB) Best regards, Karl ŤThe Crux of the Biscuit is the Apostropheť `perl -MCrypt::CBC -E 'say Crypt::CBC->new(-key=>'kgb',-cipher=>"Blowfish")->decrypt_hex($ENV{KARL});'`Help	[reply] [d/l] [select]