New here?I want to ask a question of the Perl Monks. Where do I start?

Notices:

hippoepoptai's answer Re: how do I set a cookie and redirect was blessed by hippo!
erzuuliAnonymous Monks are no longer allowed to use Super Search, due to an excessive use of this resource by robots.

If you're new here, please read PerlMonks FAQ
and Create a new user!

Quests
poll ideas quest 2026
Starts at: Jan 01, 2026 at 00:00
Ends at: Dec 31, 2026 at 23:59
Current Status: Active
0 replies by pollsters
    First, read How do I create a Poll?. Then suggest your poll here. Complete ideas are more likely to be used.

    Note that links may be used in choices but not in the title.

Perl News
London Perl and Raku Workshop 2026 goes from Maybe to Likely
on Apr 27, 2026 at 09:01
0 replies by choroba
    The announcement

    Our love of Perl and Raku, means another London Perl and Raku Workshop is presently in the works for November 2026, with an exact date and venue to be confirmed in due course.

    map{substr$_->[0],$_->[1]||0,1}[\*||{},3],[[]],[ref qr-1,-,-1],[{}],[sub{}^*ARGV,3]
Linuxlinks on Perl Static Site Generators
on Feb 20, 2026 at 05:14
0 replies by mldvx4
Supplications
Where is the new perlootut?
3 direct replies — Read more / Contribute
by InfiniteSilence
on May 04, 2026 at 09:57
    shell> perldoc perlootut

    "...This document was created in February, 2011, and the last major revision was in February, 2013....

    I check metacpan...same document. I want to learn the latest techniques for OO in Perl. I remember reading that there were native classes added in 5.38. Is someone updating perlootut? Is is being superseded by another POD?

    Celebrate Intellectual Diversity

Regex question - identify which pattern comes first
2 direct replies — Read more / Contribute
by harangzsolt33
on May 01, 2026 at 20:12
    I feel like I have learned a lot in the past 10 years since I started learning Perl, but I still probably don't know more than half of what's possible using regex. I have often come across situations where I needed to identify which pattern occurs first in a string. So, I am not trying to capture a part of the pattern nor am I trying to identify if it occurs at all or where. I am just trying to figure our which of the possible patterns is FIRST in the string. For example:

    Sample string: "AB ABDA DCACCB AAA BSAA CAAB ACS ABA DBA BA DASSABACA A"

    I'm looking for either: BA[ABC]{2} OR CA[CD]{2} OR DA[SC]{2}

    So, I would write: /BA[ABC]{2}|CA[CD]{2}|DA[SC]{2}/

    Is there a way to get a return value of 1, 2, or 3 depending on which pattern was matched first? How would I do that?

Meditations
Healing Debian Perl (and whatever else is broken out there)
1 direct reply — Read more / Contribute
by Anonymous Monk
on May 01, 2026 at 07:15
    Apparently some package installers on some systems like Debian fail to create .packlist files for installed modules! This policy oversight breaks critical parts of the perl toolchain that depend on core utilities like ExtUtils::Installed. Has anyone in the past ~25 years this has been the case written a program that heals these broken installations by traversing @INC and automagically manufacturing any missing .packlist files? Seems like a neat project for me or one of you Perl professionals but I wouldn't want to reinvent any wheels. Thanks

    Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2002 17:06:17 +0100
    Debian-Perl-Policy and .packlist?
    lists.debian.org/debian-policy/2002/12/msg00009.html

    Date 2012-01-17T18:06:02
    Debian Bug report logs #656242 perl: .packlist file missing
    bugs-devel.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=656242

    PS - Also wonder if they fail to install MYMETA.json and install.json and the bundle files?

    # archlib: The core .packlist perl -MConfig -e 'print `ls -la "$Config{archlib}/.packlist"`' perl -MConfig -e 'print `cat "$Config{archlib}/.packlist"`' # archlib/auto: dist/bundle perl -MConfig -e 'open $pipe, qq[ls -la "$Config{archlib}/auto" |];pri +nt while <$pipe>' # sitearch/auto: dist/.packlist perl -MConfig -e 'open $pipe, qq[ls -la "$Config{sitearch}/auto" |];pr +int while <$pipe>' # sitearch/.meta: dist/install.json and dist/MYMETA.json perl -MConfig -e 'open $pipe, qq[ls -la "$Config{sitearch}/.meta" |];p +rint while <$pipe>'