I am new to Linux and am attempting to program in Perl. Just finished the infamous "Hello world!" program and don't know how to execute it. All permissions are right, just dont know the right command. I know this must be a very simple question. Can anyone help me?

$ perl XXXXXXXX

where XXXXXXXX is the prog name..

You can create a file with #!/usr/bin/perl -w (assuming that your Perl is in /usr/bin/) as the first line then chmod the file to 700 then just execute it if you want.

I'd advise you to always use -w as it gives you useful warnings that can be really good for spotting typos that would otherwise not causes syntax errors but will cause logical errors that are a nightmare to find in bigger scripts.

If you're after good books check out the O'Reilly series - especially 'Programming Perl' (the "camel" book) and the 'Perl Cookbook'

HTH

Jamie...

Perl...I believe that I can give you a little more to go on.

You need to have the perl executable inorder to run a perl script. The #/usr/bin/perl thingy is the path of the perl executable. The is a 'perl distribution' that you can download, or you can get a binary version and install it, either way you need to have that hunk of code there to do the executing.

Next, look in your server directives and locate the script alias. In apache it is httpd.conf file. In apache a script alias will make the translation where /cgi-bin/ = /usr/local/www/ (or something like that). When the cgi script is executed, the proper path will be inserted, oblivioius to the user.

And once again, the shebang in the top of your perl script will be the path to the perl program that runs the script.

Good luck.
Jimbo