The First Line of a Perl Script

The First Line of a Perl Script

• Since PERL is an interpreted language, the first thing that a Perl script must do is reference the location of the Perl Interpreter that is used to execute the script

• To do so, you will typically use the following syntax:

  #! /pathname/name_of_perl_executable
  

• The "#!" is a shell scripting command used to say that the file should be considered an executable file and that it should be executed using the specified interpreter.

• Typically, the Perl interpreter will be located in either "/usr/local/bin/" or "/usr/bin".

• Thus, the first line of a Perl CGI script will usually look like one of the following lines

  #! /usr/local/bin/perl
  
  	or
  
  #! /usr/bin/perl
  
  

• Of course, the easiest thing to find out what the first line of your CGI script should look like is to send an email to your sysadmin asking!

Introduction to Perl
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