From: PerlFAQ Server on
This is an excerpt from the latest version perlfaq2.pod, which
comes with the standard Perl distribution. These postings aim to
reduce the number of repeated questions as well as allow the community
to review and update the answers. The latest version of the complete
perlfaq is at http://faq.perl.org .

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2.1: What machines support perl? Where do I get it?

The standard release of perl (the one maintained by the perl development
team) is distributed only in source code form. You can find the latest
releases at http://www.cpan.org/src/README.html .

Perl builds and runs on a bewildering number of platforms. Virtually all
known and current Unix derivatives are supported (perl's native
platform), as are other systems like VMS, DOS, OS/2, Windows, QNX, BeOS,
OS X, MPE/iX and the Amiga.

Binary distributions for some proprietary platforms can be found
http://www.cpan.org/ports/ directory. Because these are not part of the
standard distribution, they may and in fact do differ from the base perl
port in a variety of ways. You'll have to check their respective release
notes to see just what the differences are. These differences can be
either positive (e.g. extensions for the features of the particular
platform that are not supported in the source release of perl) or
negative (e.g. might be based upon a less current source release of
perl).



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The perlfaq-workers, a group of volunteers, maintain the perlfaq. They
are not necessarily experts in every domain where Perl might show up,
so please include as much information as possible and relevant in any
corrections. The perlfaq-workers also don't have access to every
operating system or platform, so please include relevant details for
corrections to examples that do not work on particular platforms.
Working code is greatly appreciated.

If you'd like to help maintain the perlfaq, see the details in
perlfaq.pod.