Provided by: perl-doc_5.36.0-9ubuntu1.1_all bug

NAME

       perlrun - how to execute the Perl interpreter

SYNOPSIS

       perl-gsTtuUWX ]      [ -h?v ] [ -V[:configvar] ]
            [ -cw ] [ -d[t][:debugger] ] [ -D[number/list] ]
            [ -pna ] [ -Fpattern ] [ -l[octal] ] [ -0[octal/hexadecimal] ]
            [ -Idir ] [ -m[-]module ] [ -M[-]'module...' ] [ -f ]      [ -C [number/list]
            [ -S ]      [ -x[dir] ]      [ -i[extension] ]
            [ [-e|-E'command' ] [ -- ] [ programfile ] [ argument ]...

DESCRIPTION

       The normal way to run a Perl program is by making it directly executable, or else by
       passing the name of the source file as an argument on the command line.  (An interactive
       Perl environment is also possible--see perldebug for details on how to do that.)  Upon
       startup, Perl looks for your program in one of the following places:

       1.  Specified line by line via -e or -E switches on the command line.

       2.  Contained in the file specified by the first filename on the command line.  (Note that
           systems supporting the "#!" notation invoke interpreters this way. See "Location of
           Perl".)

       3.  Passed in implicitly via standard input.  This works only if there are no filename
           arguments--to pass arguments to a STDIN-read program you must explicitly specify a "-"
           for the program name.

       With methods 2 and 3, Perl starts parsing the input file from the beginning, unless you've
       specified a "-x" switch, in which case it scans for the first line starting with "#!" and
       containing the word "perl", and starts there instead.  This is useful for running a
       program embedded in a larger message.  (In this case you would indicate the end of the
       program using the "__END__" token.)

       The "#!" line is always examined for switches as the line is being parsed.  Thus, if
       you're on a machine that allows only one argument with the "#!" line, or worse, doesn't
       even recognize the "#!" line, you still can get consistent switch behaviour regardless of
       how Perl was invoked, even if "-x" was used to find the beginning of the program.

       Because historically some operating systems silently chopped off kernel interpretation of
       the "#!" line after 32 characters, some switches may be passed in on the command line, and
       some may not; you could even get a "-" without its letter, if you're not careful.  You
       probably want to make sure that all your switches fall either before or after that
       32-character boundary.  Most switches don't actually care if they're processed
       redundantly, but getting a "-" instead of a complete switch could cause Perl to try to
       execute standard input instead of your program.  And a partial -I switch could also cause
       odd results.

       Some switches do care if they are processed twice, for instance combinations of -l and -0.
       Either put all the switches after the 32-character boundary (if applicable), or replace
       the use of -0digits by "BEGIN{ $/ = "\0digits"; }".

       Parsing of the "#!" switches starts wherever "perl" is mentioned in the line.  The
       sequences "-*" and "- " are specifically ignored so that you could, if you were so
       inclined, say

           #!/bin/sh
           #! -*- perl -*- -p
           eval 'exec perl -x -wS $0 ${1+"$@"}'
               if 0;

       to let Perl see the "-p" switch.

       A similar trick involves the env program, if you have it.

           #!/usr/bin/env perl

       The examples above use a relative path to the perl interpreter, getting whatever version
       is first in the user's path.  If you want a specific version of Perl, say, perl5.14.1, you
       should place that directly in the "#!" line's path.

       If the "#!" line does not contain the word "perl" nor the word "indir", the program named
       after the "#!" is executed instead of the Perl interpreter.  This is slightly bizarre, but
       it helps people on machines that don't do "#!", because they can tell a program that their
       SHELL is /usr/bin/perl, and Perl will then dispatch the program to the correct interpreter
       for them.

       After locating your program, Perl compiles the entire program to an internal form.  If
       there are any compilation errors, execution of the program is not attempted.  (This is
       unlike the typical shell script, which might run part-way through before finding a syntax
       error.)

       If the program is syntactically correct, it is executed.  If the program runs off the end
       without hitting an exit() or die() operator, an implicit exit(0) is provided to indicate
       successful completion.

   #! and quoting on non-Unix systems
       Unix's "#!" technique can be simulated on other systems:

       OS/2
           Put

               extproc perl -S -your_switches

           as the first line in "*.cmd" file ("-S" due to a bug in cmd.exe's `extproc' handling).

       MS-DOS
           Create a batch file to run your program, and codify it in "ALTERNATE_SHEBANG" (see the
           dosish.h file in the source distribution for more information).

       Win95/NT
           The Win95/NT installation, when using the ActiveState installer for Perl, will modify
           the Registry to associate the .pl extension with the perl interpreter.  If you install
           Perl by other means (including building from the sources), you may have to modify the
           Registry yourself.  Note that this means you can no longer tell the difference between
           an executable Perl program and a Perl library file.

       VMS Put

            $ perl -mysw 'f$env("procedure")' 'p1' 'p2' 'p3' 'p4' 'p5' 'p6' 'p7' 'p8' !
            $ exit++ + ++$status != 0 and $exit = $status = undef;

           at the top of your program, where -mysw are any command line switches you want to pass
           to Perl.  You can now invoke the program directly, by saying "perl program", or as a
           DCL procedure, by saying @program (or implicitly via DCL$PATH by just using the name
           of the program).

           This incantation is a bit much to remember, but Perl will display it for you if you
           say "perl "-V:startperl"".

       Command-interpreters on non-Unix systems have rather different ideas on quoting than Unix
       shells.  You'll need to learn the special characters in your command-interpreter ("*", "\"
       and """ are common) and how to protect whitespace and these characters to run one-liners
       (see -e below).

       On some systems, you may have to change single-quotes to double ones, which you must not
       do on Unix or Plan 9 systems.  You might also have to change a single % to a %%.

       For example:

           # Unix
           perl -e 'print "Hello world\n"'

           # MS-DOS, etc.
           perl -e "print \"Hello world\n\""

           # VMS
           perl -e "print ""Hello world\n"""

       The problem is that none of this is reliable: it depends on the command and it is entirely
       possible neither works.  If 4DOS were the command shell, this would probably work better:

           perl -e "print <Ctrl-x>"Hello world\n<Ctrl-x>""

       CMD.EXE in Windows NT slipped a lot of standard Unix functionality in when nobody was
       looking, but just try to find documentation for its quoting rules.

       There is no general solution to all of this.  It's just a mess.

   Location of Perl
       It may seem obvious to say, but Perl is useful only when users can easily find it.  When
       possible, it's good for both /usr/bin/perl and /usr/local/bin/perl to be symlinks to the
       actual binary.  If that can't be done, system administrators are strongly encouraged to
       put (symlinks to) perl and its accompanying utilities into a directory typically found
       along a user's PATH, or in some other obvious and convenient place.

       In this documentation, "#!/usr/bin/perl" on the first line of the program will stand in
       for whatever method works on your system.  You are advised to use a specific path if you
       care about a specific version.

           #!/usr/local/bin/perl5.14

       or if you just want to be running at least version, place a statement like this at the top
       of your program:

           use v5.14;

   Command Switches
       As with all standard commands, a single-character switch may be clustered with the
       following switch, if any.

           #!/usr/bin/perl -spi.orig   # same as -s -p -i.orig

       A "--" signals the end of options and disables further option processing. Any arguments
       after the "--" are treated as filenames and arguments.

       Switches include:

       -0[octal/hexadecimal]
            specifies the input record separator ($/) as an octal or hexadecimal number.  If
            there are no digits, the null character is the separator.  Other switches may precede
            or follow the digits.  For example, if you have a version of find which can print
            filenames terminated by the null character, you can say this:

                find . -name '*.orig' -print0 | perl -n0e unlink

            The special value 00 will cause Perl to slurp files in paragraph mode.

            Any value 0400 or above will cause Perl to slurp files whole, but by convention the
            value 0777 is the one normally used for this purpose. The "-g" flag is a simpler
            alias for it.

            You can also specify the separator character using hexadecimal notation: -0xHHH...,
            where the "H" are valid hexadecimal digits.  Unlike the octal form, this one may be
            used to specify any Unicode character, even those beyond 0xFF.  So if you really want
            a record separator of 0777, specify it as -0x1FF.  (This means that you cannot use
            the "-x" option with a directory name that consists of hexadecimal digits, or else
            Perl will think you have specified a hex number to -0.)

       -a   turns on autosplit mode when used with a "-n" or "-p".  An implicit split command to
            the @F array is done as the first thing inside the implicit while loop produced by
            the "-n" or "-p".

                perl -ane 'print pop(@F), "\n";'

            is equivalent to

                while (<>) {
                    @F = split(' ');
                    print pop(@F), "\n";
                }

            An alternate delimiter may be specified using -F.

            -a implicitly sets "-n".

       -C [number/list]
            The -C flag controls some of the Perl Unicode features.

            As of 5.8.1, the -C can be followed either by a number or a list of option letters.
            The letters, their numeric values, and effects are as follows; listing the letters is
            equal to summing the numbers.

                I     1   STDIN is assumed to be in UTF-8
                O     2   STDOUT will be in UTF-8
                E     4   STDERR will be in UTF-8
                S     7   I + O + E
                i     8   UTF-8 is the default PerlIO layer for input streams
                o    16   UTF-8 is the default PerlIO layer for output streams
                D    24   i + o
                A    32   the @ARGV elements are expected to be strings encoded
                          in UTF-8
                L    64   normally the "IOEioA" are unconditional, the L makes
                          them conditional on the locale environment variables
                          (the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG, in the order of
                          decreasing precedence) -- if the variables indicate
                          UTF-8, then the selected "IOEioA" are in effect
                a   256   Set ${^UTF8CACHE} to -1, to run the UTF-8 caching
                          code in debugging mode.

            For example, -COE and -C6 will both turn on UTF-8-ness on both STDOUT and STDERR.
            Repeating letters is just redundant, not cumulative nor toggling.

            The "io" options mean that any subsequent open() (or similar I/O operations) in main
            program scope will have the ":utf8" PerlIO layer implicitly applied to them, in other
            words, UTF-8 is expected from any input stream, and UTF-8 is produced to any output
            stream.  This is just the default set via "${^OPEN}", with explicit layers in open()
            and with binmode() one can manipulate streams as usual.  This has no effect on code
            run in modules.

            -C on its own (not followed by any number or option list), or the empty string "" for
            the "PERL_UNICODE" environment variable, has the same effect as -CSDL.  In other
            words, the standard I/O handles and the default "open()" layer are UTF-8-fied but
            only if the locale environment variables indicate a UTF-8 locale.  This behaviour
            follows the implicit (and problematic) UTF-8 behaviour of Perl 5.8.0.  (See "UTF-8 no
            longer default under UTF-8 locales" in perl581delta.)

            You can use -C0 (or "0" for "PERL_UNICODE") to explicitly disable all the above
            Unicode features.

            The read-only magic variable "${^UNICODE}" reflects the numeric value of this
            setting.  This variable is set during Perl startup and is thereafter read-only.  If
            you want runtime effects, use the three-arg open() (see "open" in perlfunc), the two-
            arg binmode() (see "binmode" in perlfunc), and the "open" pragma (see open).

            (In Perls earlier than 5.8.1 the -C switch was a Win32-only switch that enabled the
            use of Unicode-aware "wide system call" Win32 APIs.  This feature was practically
            unused, however, and the command line switch was therefore "recycled".)

            Note: Since perl 5.10.1, if the -C option is used on the "#!" line, it must be
            specified on the command line as well, since the standard streams are already set up
            at this point in the execution of the perl interpreter.  You can also use binmode()
            to set the encoding of an I/O stream.

       -c   causes Perl to check the syntax of the program and then exit without executing it.
            Actually, it will execute any "BEGIN", "UNITCHECK", or "CHECK" blocks and any "use"
            statements: these are considered as occurring outside the execution of your program.
            "INIT" and "END" blocks, however, will be skipped.

       -d
       -dt  runs the program under the Perl debugger.  See perldebug.  If t is specified, it
            indicates to the debugger that threads will be used in the code being debugged.

       -d:MOD[=bar,baz]
       -dt:MOD[=bar,baz]
            runs the program under the control of a debugging, profiling, or tracing module
            installed as "Devel::MOD". E.g., -d:DProf executes the program using the
            "Devel::DProf" profiler.  As with the -M flag, options may be passed to the
            "Devel::MOD" package where they will be received and interpreted by the
            "Devel::MOD::import" routine.  Again, like -M, use --d:-MOD to call
            "Devel::MOD::unimport" instead of import.  The comma-separated list of options must
            follow a "=" character.  If t is specified, it indicates to the debugger that threads
            will be used in the code being debugged.  See perldebug.

       -Dletters
       -Dnumber
            sets debugging flags. This switch is enabled only if your perl binary has been built
            with debugging enabled: normal production perls won't have been.

            For example, to watch how perl executes your program, use -Dtls.  Another nice value
            is -Dx, which lists your compiled syntax tree, and -Dr displays compiled regular
            expressions; the format of the output is explained in perldebguts.

            As an alternative, specify a number instead of list of letters (e.g., -D14 is
            equivalent to -Dtls):

                     1  p  Tokenizing and parsing (with v, displays parse
                           stack)
                     2  s  Stack snapshots (with v, displays all stacks)
                     4  l  Context (loop) stack processing
                     8  t  Trace execution
                    16  o  Method and overloading resolution
                    32  c  String/numeric conversions
                    64  P  Print profiling info, source file input state
                   128  m  Memory and SV allocation
                   256  f  Format processing
                   512  r  Regular expression parsing and execution
                  1024  x  Syntax tree dump
                  2048  u  Tainting checks
                  4096  U  Unofficial, User hacking (reserved for private,
                           unreleased use)
                  8192  h  Show hash randomization debug output (changes to
                           PL_hash_rand_bits and their origin)
                 16384  X  Scratchpad allocation
                 32768  D  Cleaning up
                 65536  S  Op slab allocation
                131072  T  Tokenizing
                262144  R  Include reference counts of dumped variables
                           (eg when using -Ds)
                524288  J  show s,t,P-debug (don't Jump over) on opcodes within
                           package DB
               1048576  v  Verbose: use in conjunction with other flags to
                           increase the verbosity of the output.  Is a no-op on
                           many of the other flags
               2097152  C  Copy On Write
               4194304  A  Consistency checks on internal structures
               8388608  q  quiet - currently only suppresses the "EXECUTING"
                           message
              16777216  M  trace smart match resolution
              33554432  B  dump suBroutine definitions, including special
                           Blocks like BEGIN
              67108864  L  trace Locale-related info; what gets output is very
                           subject to change
             134217728  i  trace PerlIO layer processing.  Set PERLIO_DEBUG to
                           the filename to trace to.
             268435456  y  trace y///, tr/// compilation and execution

            All these flags require -DDEBUGGING when you compile the Perl executable (but see
            ":opd" in Devel::Peek or "'debug' mode" in re which may change this).  See the
            INSTALL file in the Perl source distribution for how to do this.

            If you're just trying to get a print out of each line of Perl code as it executes,
            the way that "sh -x" provides for shell scripts, you can't use Perl's -D switch.
            Instead do this

              # If you have "env" utility
              env PERLDB_OPTS="NonStop=1 AutoTrace=1 frame=2" perl -dS program

              # Bourne shell syntax
              $ PERLDB_OPTS="NonStop=1 AutoTrace=1 frame=2" perl -dS program

              # csh syntax
              % (setenv PERLDB_OPTS "NonStop=1 AutoTrace=1 frame=2"; perl -dS program)

            See perldebug for details and variations.

       -e commandline
            may be used to enter one line of program.  If -e is given, Perl will not look for a
            filename in the argument list.  Multiple -e commands may be given to build up a
            multi-line script.  Make sure to use semicolons where you would in a normal program.

       -E commandline
            behaves just like -e, except that it implicitly enables all optional features (in the
            main compilation unit). See feature.

       -f   Disable executing $Config{sitelib}/sitecustomize.pl at startup.

            Perl can be built so that it by default will try to execute
            $Config{sitelib}/sitecustomize.pl at startup (in a BEGIN block).  This is a hook that
            allows the sysadmin to customize how Perl behaves.  It can for instance be used to
            add entries to the @INC array to make Perl find modules in non-standard locations.

            Perl actually inserts the following code:

                BEGIN {
                    do { local $!; -f "$Config{sitelib}/sitecustomize.pl"; }
                        && do "$Config{sitelib}/sitecustomize.pl";
                }

            Since it is an actual "do" (not a "require"), sitecustomize.pl doesn't need to return
            a true value. The code is run in package "main", in its own lexical scope. However,
            if the script dies, $@ will not be set.

            The value of $Config{sitelib} is also determined in C code and not read from
            "Config.pm", which is not loaded.

            The code is executed very early. For example, any changes made to @INC will show up
            in the output of `perl -V`. Of course, "END" blocks will be likewise executed very
            late.

            To determine at runtime if this capability has been compiled in your perl, you can
            check the value of $Config{usesitecustomize}.

       -Fpattern
            specifies the pattern to split on for "-a". The pattern may be surrounded by "//",
            "", or '', otherwise it will be put in single quotes. You can't use literal
            whitespace or NUL characters in the pattern.

            -F implicitly sets both "-a" and "-n".

       -g   undefines the input record separator ($/) and thus enables the slurp mode. In other
            words, it causes Perl to read whole files at once, instead of line by line.

            This flag is a simpler alias for -0777.

            Mnemonics: gobble, grab, gulp.

       -h   prints a summary of the options.

       -?   synonym for -h: prints a summary of the options.

       -i[extension]
            specifies that files processed by the "<>" construct are to be edited in-place.  It
            does this by renaming the input file, opening the output file by the original name,
            and selecting that output file as the default for print() statements.  The extension,
            if supplied, is used to modify the name of the old file to make a backup copy,
            following these rules:

            If no extension is supplied, and your system supports it, the original file is kept
            open without a name while the output is redirected to a new file with the original
            filename.  When perl exits, cleanly or not, the original file is unlinked.

            If the extension doesn't contain a "*", then it is appended to the end of the current
            filename as a suffix.  If the extension does contain one or more "*" characters, then
            each "*" is replaced with the current filename.  In Perl terms, you could think of
            this as:

                ($backup = $extension) =~ s/\*/$file_name/g;

            This allows you to add a prefix to the backup file, instead of (or in addition to) a
            suffix:

             $ perl -pi'orig_*' -e 's/bar/baz/' fileA  # backup to
                                                       # 'orig_fileA'

            Or even to place backup copies of the original files into another directory (provided
            the directory already exists):

             $ perl -pi'old/*.orig' -e 's/bar/baz/' fileA  # backup to
                                                           # 'old/fileA.orig'

            These sets of one-liners are equivalent:

             $ perl -pi -e 's/bar/baz/' fileA          # overwrite current file
             $ perl -pi'*' -e 's/bar/baz/' fileA       # overwrite current file

             $ perl -pi'.orig' -e 's/bar/baz/' fileA   # backup to 'fileA.orig'
             $ perl -pi'*.orig' -e 's/bar/baz/' fileA  # backup to 'fileA.orig'

            From the shell, saying

                $ perl -p -i.orig -e "s/foo/bar/; ... "

            is the same as using the program:

                #!/usr/bin/perl -pi.orig
                s/foo/bar/;

            which is equivalent to

                #!/usr/bin/perl
                $extension = '.orig';
                LINE: while (<>) {
                    if ($ARGV ne $oldargv) {
                        if ($extension !~ /\*/) {
                            $backup = $ARGV . $extension;
                        }
                        else {
                            ($backup = $extension) =~ s/\*/$ARGV/g;
                        }
                        rename($ARGV, $backup);
                        open(ARGVOUT, ">$ARGV");
                        select(ARGVOUT);
                        $oldargv = $ARGV;
                    }
                    s/foo/bar/;
                }
                continue {
                    print;  # this prints to original filename
                }
                select(STDOUT);

            except that the -i form doesn't need to compare $ARGV to $oldargv to know when the
            filename has changed.  It does, however, use ARGVOUT for the selected filehandle.
            Note that STDOUT is restored as the default output filehandle after the loop.

            As shown above, Perl creates the backup file whether or not any output is actually
            changed.  So this is just a fancy way to copy files:

                $ perl -p -i'/some/file/path/*' -e 1 file1 file2 file3...
            or
                $ perl -p -i'.orig' -e 1 file1 file2 file3...

            You can use "eof" without parentheses to locate the end of each input file, in case
            you want to append to each file, or reset line numbering (see example in "eof" in
            perlfunc).

            If, for a given file, Perl is unable to create the backup file as specified in the
            extension then it will skip that file and continue on with the next one (if it
            exists).

            For a discussion of issues surrounding file permissions and -i, see "Why does Perl
            let me delete read-only files?  Why does -i clobber protected files?  Isn't this a
            bug in Perl?" in perlfaq5.

            You cannot use -i to create directories or to strip extensions from files.

            Perl does not expand "~" in filenames, which is good, since some folks use it for
            their backup files:

                $ perl -pi~ -e 's/foo/bar/' file1 file2 file3...

            Note that because -i renames or deletes the original file before creating a new file
            of the same name, Unix-style soft and hard links will not be preserved.

            Finally, the -i switch does not impede execution when no files are given on the
            command line.  In this case, no backup is made (the original file cannot, of course,
            be determined) and processing proceeds from STDIN to STDOUT as might be expected.

       -Idirectory
            Directories specified by -I are prepended to the search path for modules (@INC).

       -l[octnum]
            enables automatic line-ending processing.  It has two separate effects.  First, it
            automatically chomps $/ (the input record separator) when used with "-n" or "-p".
            Second, it assigns "$\" (the output record separator) to have the value of octnum so
            that any print statements will have that separator added back on.  If octnum is
            omitted, sets "$\" to the current value of $/.  For instance, to trim lines to 80
            columns:

                perl -lpe 'substr($_, 80) = ""'

            Note that the assignment "$\ = $/" is done when the switch is processed, so the input
            record separator can be different than the output record separator if the -l switch
            is followed by a -0 switch:

                gnufind / -print0 | perl -ln0e 'print "found $_" if -p'

            This sets "$\" to newline and then sets $/ to the null character.

       -m[-]module
       -M[-]module
       -M[-]'module ...'
       -[mM][-]module=arg[,arg]...
            -mmodule executes "use" module "();" before executing your program.  This loads the
            module, but does not call its "import" method, so does not import subroutines and
            does not give effect to a pragma.

            -Mmodule executes "use" module ";" before executing your program.  This loads the
            module and calls its "import" method, causing the module to have its default effect,
            typically importing subroutines or giving effect to a pragma.  You can use quotes to
            add extra code after the module name, e.g., '-MMODULE qw(foo bar)'.

            If the first character after the -M or -m is a dash (-) then the 'use' is replaced
            with 'no'.  This makes no difference for -m.

            A little builtin syntactic sugar means you can also say -mMODULE=foo,bar or
            -MMODULE=foo,bar as a shortcut for '-MMODULE qw(foo bar)'.  This avoids the need to
            use quotes when importing symbols.  The actual code generated by -MMODULE=foo,bar is
            "use module split(/,/,q{foo,bar})".  Note that the "=" form removes the distinction
            between -m and -M; that is, -mMODULE=foo,bar is the same as -MMODULE=foo,bar.

            A consequence of the "split" formulation is that -MMODULE=number never does a version
            check, unless "MODULE::import()" itself is set up to do a version check, which could
            happen for example if MODULE inherits from Exporter.

       -n   causes Perl to assume the following loop around your program, which makes it iterate
            over filename arguments somewhat like sed -n or awk:

              LINE:
                while (<>) {
                    ...             # your program goes here
                }

            Note that the lines are not printed by default.  See "-p" to have lines printed.  If
            a file named by an argument cannot be opened for some reason, Perl warns you about it
            and moves on to the next file.

            Also note that "<>" passes command line arguments to "open" in perlfunc, which
            doesn't necessarily interpret them as file names.  See  perlop for possible security
            implications.

            Here is an efficient way to delete all files that haven't been modified for at least
            a week:

                find . -mtime +7 -print | perl -nle unlink

            This is faster than using the -exec switch of find because you don't have to start a
            process on every filename found (but it's not faster than using the -delete switch
            available in newer versions of find.  It does suffer from the bug of mishandling
            newlines in pathnames, which you can fix if you follow the example under -0.

            "BEGIN" and "END" blocks may be used to capture control before or after the implicit
            program loop, just as in awk.

       -p   causes Perl to assume the following loop around your program, which makes it iterate
            over filename arguments somewhat like sed:

              LINE:
                while (<>) {
                    ...             # your program goes here
                } continue {
                    print or die "-p destination: $!\n";
                }

            If a file named by an argument cannot be opened for some reason, Perl warns you about
            it, and moves on to the next file.  Note that the lines are printed automatically.
            An error occurring during printing is treated as fatal.  To suppress printing use the
            "-n" switch.  A -p overrides a -n switch.

            "BEGIN" and "END" blocks may be used to capture control before or after the implicit
            loop, just as in awk.

       -s   enables rudimentary switch parsing for switches on the command line after the program
            name but before any filename arguments (or before an argument of --).  Any switch
            found there is removed from @ARGV and sets the corresponding variable in the Perl
            program, in the main package.  The following program prints "1" if the program is
            invoked with a -xyz switch, and "abc" if it is invoked with -xyz=abc.

                #!/usr/bin/perl -s
                if ($xyz) { print "$xyz\n" }

            Do note that a switch like --help creates the variable "${-help}", which is not
            compliant with "use strict "refs"".  Also, when using this option on a script with
            warnings enabled you may get a lot of spurious "used only once" warnings. For these
            reasons, use of -s is discouraged. See Getopt::Long for much more flexible switch
            parsing.

       -S   makes Perl use the "PATH" environment variable to search for the program unless the
            name of the program contains path separators.

            On some platforms, this also makes Perl append suffixes to the filename while
            searching for it.  For example, on Win32 platforms, the ".bat" and ".cmd" suffixes
            are appended if a lookup for the original name fails, and if the name does not
            already end in one of those suffixes.  If your Perl was compiled with "DEBUGGING"
            turned on, using the -Dp switch to Perl shows how the search progresses.

            Typically this is used to emulate "#!" startup on platforms that don't support "#!".
            It's also convenient when debugging a script that uses "#!", and is thus normally
            found by the shell's $PATH search mechanism.

            This example works on many platforms that have a shell compatible with Bourne shell:

                #!/usr/bin/perl
                eval 'exec /usr/bin/perl -wS $0 ${1+"$@"}'
                        if 0; # ^ Run only under a shell

            The system ignores the first line and feeds the program to /bin/sh, which proceeds to
            try to execute the Perl program as a shell script.  The shell executes the second
            line as a normal shell command, and thus starts up the Perl interpreter.  On some
            systems $0 doesn't always contain the full pathname, so the "-S" tells Perl to search
            for the program if necessary.  After Perl locates the program, it parses the lines
            and ignores them because the check 'if 0' is never true.  If the program will be
            interpreted by csh, you will need to replace "${1+"$@"}" with $*, even though that
            doesn't understand embedded spaces (and such) in the argument list.  To start up sh
            rather than csh, some systems may have to replace the "#!" line with a line
            containing just a colon, which will be politely ignored by Perl.  Other systems can't
            control that, and need a totally devious construct that will work under any of csh,
            sh, or Perl, such as the following:

                    eval '(exit $?0)' && eval 'exec perl -wS $0 ${1+"$@"}'
                    & eval 'exec /usr/bin/perl -wS $0 $argv:q'
                            if 0; # ^ Run only under a shell

            If the filename supplied contains directory separators (and so is an absolute or
            relative pathname), and if that file is not found, platforms that append file
            extensions will do so and try to look for the file with those extensions added, one
            by one.

            On DOS-like platforms, if the program does not contain directory separators, it will
            first be searched for in the current directory before being searched for on the PATH.
            On Unix platforms, the program will be searched for strictly on the PATH.

       -t   Like "-T", but taint checks will issue warnings rather than fatal errors.  These
            warnings can now be controlled normally with "no warnings qw(taint)".

            Note: This is not a substitute for "-T"! This is meant to be used only as a temporary
            development aid while securing legacy code: for real production code and for new
            secure code written from scratch, always use the real "-T".

            This has no effect if your perl was built without taint support.

       -T   turns on "taint" so you can test them.  Ordinarily these checks are done only when
            running setuid or setgid.  It's a good idea to turn them on explicitly for programs
            that run on behalf of someone else whom you might not necessarily trust, such as CGI
            programs or any internet servers you might write in Perl.  See perlsec for details.
            For security reasons, this option must be seen by Perl quite early; usually this
            means it must appear early on the command line or in the "#!" line for systems which
            support that construct.

       -u   This switch causes Perl to dump core after compiling your program.  You can then in
            theory take this core dump and turn it into an executable file by using the undump
            program (not supplied).  This speeds startup at the expense of some disk space (which
            you can minimize by stripping the executable).  (Still, a "hello world" executable
            comes out to about 200K on my machine.)  If you want to execute a portion of your
            program before dumping, use the "CORE::dump()" function instead.  Note: availability
            of undump is platform specific and may not be available for a specific port of Perl.

       -U   allows Perl to do unsafe operations.  Currently the only "unsafe" operations are
            attempting to unlink directories while running as superuser and running setuid
            programs with fatal taint checks turned into warnings.  Note that warnings must be
            enabled along with this option to actually generate the taint-check warnings.

       -v   prints the version and patchlevel of your perl executable.

       -V   prints summary of the major perl configuration values and the current values of @INC.

       -V:configvar
            Prints to STDOUT the value of the named configuration variable(s), with multiples
            when your "configvar" argument looks like a regex (has non-letters).  For example:

                $ perl -V:libc
                    libc='/lib/libc-2.2.4.so';
                $ perl -V:lib.
                    libs='-lnsl -lgdbm -ldb -ldl -lm -lcrypt -lutil -lc';
                    libc='/lib/libc-2.2.4.so';
                $ perl -V:lib.*
                    libpth='/usr/local/lib /lib /usr/lib';
                    libs='-lnsl -lgdbm -ldb -ldl -lm -lcrypt -lutil -lc';
                    lib_ext='.a';
                    libc='/lib/libc-2.2.4.so';
                    libperl='libperl.a';
                    ....

            Additionally, extra colons can be used to control formatting.  A trailing colon
            suppresses the linefeed and terminator ";", allowing you to embed queries into shell
            commands.  (mnemonic: PATH separator ":".)

                $ echo "compression-vars: " `perl -V:z.*: ` " are here !"
                compression-vars:  zcat='' zip='zip'  are here !

            A leading colon removes the "name=" part of the response, this allows you to map to
            the name you need.  (mnemonic: empty label)

                $ echo "goodvfork="`./perl -Ilib -V::usevfork`
                goodvfork=false;

            Leading and trailing colons can be used together if you need positional parameter
            values without the names.  Note that in the case below, the "PERL_API" params are
            returned in alphabetical order.

                $ echo building_on `perl -V::osname: -V::PERL_API_.*:` now
                building_on 'linux' '5' '1' '9' now

       -w   prints warnings about dubious constructs, such as variable names mentioned only once
            and scalar variables used before being set; redefined subroutines; references to
            undefined filehandles; filehandles opened read-only that you are attempting to write
            on; values used as a number that don't look like numbers; using an array as though it
            were a scalar; if your subroutines recurse more than 100 deep; and innumerable other
            things.

            This switch really just enables the global $^W variable; normally, the lexically
            scoped "use warnings" pragma is preferred. You can disable or promote into fatal
            errors specific warnings using "__WARN__" hooks, as described in perlvar and "warn"
            in perlfunc.  See also perldiag and perltrap.  A fine-grained warning facility is
            also available if you want to manipulate entire classes of warnings; see warnings.

       -W   Enables all warnings regardless of "no warnings" or $^W.  See warnings.

       -X   Disables all warnings regardless of "use warnings" or $^W.  See warnings.

            Forbidden in "PERL5OPT".

       -x
       -xdirectory
            tells Perl that the program is embedded in a larger chunk of unrelated text, such as
            in a mail message.  Leading garbage will be discarded until the first line that
            starts with "#!" and contains the string "perl".  Any meaningful switches on that
            line will be applied.

            All references to line numbers by the program (warnings, errors, ...)  will treat the
            "#!" line as the first line.  Thus a warning on the 2nd line of the program, which is
            on the 100th line in the file will be reported as line 2, not as line 100.  This can
            be overridden by using the "#line" directive.  (See "Plain Old Comments (Not!)" in
            perlsyn)

            If a directory name is specified, Perl will switch to that directory before running
            the program.  The -x switch controls only the disposal of leading garbage.  The
            program must be terminated with "__END__" if there is trailing garbage to be ignored;
            the program can process any or all of the trailing garbage via the "DATA" filehandle
            if desired.

            The directory, if specified, must appear immediately following the -x with no
            intervening whitespace.

ENVIRONMENT

       HOME        Used if "chdir" has no argument.

       LOGDIR      Used if "chdir" has no argument and "HOME" is not set.

       PATH        Used in executing subprocesses, and in finding the program if "-S" is used.

       PERL5LIB    A list of directories in which to look for Perl library files before looking
                   in the standard library.  Any architecture-specific and version-specific
                   directories, such as version/archname/, version/, or archname/ under the
                   specified locations are automatically included if they exist, with this lookup
                   done at interpreter startup time.  In addition, any directories matching the
                   entries in $Config{inc_version_list} are added.  (These typically would be for
                   older compatible perl versions installed in the same directory tree.)

                   If PERL5LIB is not defined, "PERLLIB" is used.  Directories are separated
                   (like in PATH) by a colon on Unixish platforms and by a semicolon on Windows
                   (the proper path separator being given by the command "perl -V:path_sep").

                   When running taint checks, either because the program was running setuid or
                   setgid, or the "-T" or "-t" switch was specified, neither PERL5LIB nor
                   "PERLLIB" is consulted. The program should instead say:

                       use lib "/my/directory";

       PERL5OPT    Command-line options (switches).  Switches in this variable are treated as if
                   they were on every Perl command line.  Only the -[CDIMTUWdmtw] switches are
                   allowed.  When running taint checks (either because the program was running
                   setuid or setgid, or because the "-T" or "-t" switch was used), this variable
                   is ignored.  If PERL5OPT begins with -T, tainting will be enabled and
                   subsequent options ignored.  If PERL5OPT begins with -t, tainting will be
                   enabled, a writable dot removed from @INC, and subsequent options honored.

       PERLIO      A space (or colon) separated list of PerlIO layers. If perl is built to use
                   PerlIO system for IO (the default) these layers affect Perl's IO.

                   It is conventional to start layer names with a colon (for example, ":perlio")
                   to emphasize their similarity to variable "attributes". But the code that
                   parses layer specification strings, which is also used to decode the PERLIO
                   environment variable, treats the colon as a separator.

                   An unset or empty PERLIO is equivalent to the default set of layers for your
                   platform; for example, ":unix:perlio" on Unix-like systems and ":unix:crlf" on
                   Windows and other DOS-like systems.

                   The list becomes the default for all Perl's IO. Consequently only built-in
                   layers can appear in this list, as external layers (such as ":encoding()")
                   need IO in order to load them!  See "open pragma" for how to add external
                   encodings as defaults.

                   Layers it makes sense to include in the PERLIO environment variable are
                   briefly summarized below. For more details see PerlIO.

                   :crlf   A layer which does CRLF to "\n" translation distinguishing "text" and
                           "binary" files in the manner of MS-DOS and similar operating systems,
                           and also provides buffering similar to ":perlio" on these
                           architectures.

                   :perlio This is a re-implementation of stdio-like buffering written as a
                           PerlIO layer.  As such it will call whatever layer is below it for its
                           operations, typically ":unix".

                   :stdio  This layer provides a PerlIO interface by wrapping system's ANSI C
                           "stdio" library calls. The layer provides both buffering and IO.  Note
                           that the ":stdio" layer does not do CRLF translation even if that is
                           the platform's normal behaviour. You will need a ":crlf" layer above
                           it to do that.

                   :unix   Low-level layer that calls "read", "write", "lseek", etc.

                   The default set of layers should give acceptable results on all platforms.

                   For Unix platforms that will be the equivalent of ":unix:perlio" or ":stdio".
                   Configure is set up to prefer the ":stdio" implementation if the system's
                   library provides for fast access to the buffer (not common on modern
                   architectures); otherwise, it uses the ":unix:perlio" implementation.

                   On Win32 the default in this release (5.30) is ":unix:crlf". Win32's ":stdio"
                   has a number of bugs/mis-features for Perl IO which are somewhat depending on
                   the version and vendor of the C compiler. Using our own ":crlf" layer as the
                   buffer avoids those issues and makes things more uniform.

                   This release (5.30) uses ":unix" as the bottom layer on Win32, and so still
                   uses the C compiler's numeric file descriptor routines.

                   The PERLIO environment variable is completely ignored when Perl is run in
                   taint mode.

       PERLIO_DEBUG
                   If set to the name of a file or device when Perl is run with the -Di command-
                   line switch, the logging of certain operations of the PerlIO subsystem will be
                   redirected to the specified file rather than going to stderr, which is the
                   default. The file is opened in append mode. Typical uses are in Unix:

                      % env PERLIO_DEBUG=/tmp/perlio.log perl -Di script ...

                   and under Win32, the approximately equivalent:

                      > set PERLIO_DEBUG=CON
                      perl -Di script ...

                   This functionality is disabled for setuid scripts, for scripts run with "-T",
                   and for scripts run on a Perl built without "-DDEBUGGING" support.

       PERLLIB     A list of directories in which to look for Perl library files before looking
                   in the standard library.  If "PERL5LIB" is defined, PERLLIB is not used.

                   The PERLLIB environment variable is completely ignored when Perl is run in
                   taint mode.

       PERL5DB     The command used to load the debugger code.  The default is:

                           BEGIN { require "perl5db.pl" }

                   The PERL5DB environment variable is only used when Perl is started with a bare
                   "-d" switch.

       PERL5DB_THREADED
                   If set to a true value, indicates to the debugger that the code being debugged
                   uses threads.

       PERL5SHELL (specific to the Win32 port)
                   On Win32 ports only, may be set to an alternative shell that Perl must use
                   internally for executing "backtick" commands or system().  Default is "cmd.exe
                   /x/d/c" on WindowsNT and "command.com /c" on Windows95.  The value is
                   considered space-separated.  Precede any character that needs to be protected,
                   like a space or backslash, with another backslash.

                   Note that Perl doesn't use COMSPEC for this purpose because COMSPEC has a high
                   degree of variability among users, leading to portability concerns.  Besides,
                   Perl can use a shell that may not be fit for interactive use, and setting
                   COMSPEC to such a shell may interfere with the proper functioning of other
                   programs (which usually look in COMSPEC to find a shell fit for interactive
                   use).

                   Before Perl 5.10.0 and 5.8.8, PERL5SHELL was not taint checked when running
                   external commands.  It is recommended that you explicitly set (or delete)
                   $ENV{PERL5SHELL} when running in taint mode under Windows.

       PERL_ALLOW_NON_IFS_LSP (specific to the Win32 port)
                   Set to 1 to allow the use of non-IFS compatible LSPs (Layered Service
                   Providers).  Perl normally searches for an IFS-compatible LSP because this is
                   required for its emulation of Windows sockets as real filehandles.  However,
                   this may cause problems if you have a firewall such as McAfee Guardian, which
                   requires that all applications use its LSP but which is not IFS-compatible,
                   because clearly Perl will normally avoid using such an LSP.

                   Setting this environment variable to 1 means that Perl will simply use the
                   first suitable LSP enumerated in the catalog, which keeps McAfee Guardian
                   happy--and in that particular case Perl still works too because McAfee
                   Guardian's LSP actually plays other games which allow applications requiring
                   IFS compatibility to work.

       PERL_DEBUG_MSTATS
                   Relevant only if Perl is compiled with the "malloc" included with the Perl
                   distribution; that is, if "perl -V:d_mymalloc" is "define".

                   If set, this dumps out memory statistics after execution.  If set to an
                   integer greater than one, also dumps out memory statistics after compilation.

       PERL_DESTRUCT_LEVEL
                   Controls the behaviour of global destruction of objects and other references.
                   See "PERL_DESTRUCT_LEVEL" in perlhacktips for more information.

       PERL_DL_NONLAZY
                   Set to "1" to have Perl resolve all undefined symbols when it loads a dynamic
                   library.  The default behaviour is to resolve symbols when they are used.
                   Setting this variable is useful during testing of extensions, as it ensures
                   that you get an error on misspelled function names even if the test suite
                   doesn't call them.

       PERL_ENCODING
                   If using the "use encoding" pragma without an explicit encoding name, the
                   PERL_ENCODING environment variable is consulted for an encoding name.

       PERL_HASH_SEED
                   (Since Perl 5.8.1, new semantics in Perl 5.18.0)  Used to override the
                   randomization of Perl's internal hash function. The value is expressed in
                   hexadecimal, and may include a leading 0x. Truncated patterns are treated as
                   though they are suffixed with sufficient 0's as required.

                   If the option is provided, and "PERL_PERTURB_KEYS" is NOT set, then a value of
                   '0' implies "PERL_PERTURB_KEYS=0"/"PERL_PERTURB_KEYS=NO" and any other value
                   implies "PERL_PERTURB_KEYS=2"/"PERL_PERTURB_KEYS=DETERMINISTIC". See the
                   documentation for PERL_PERTURB_KEYS for important caveats regarding the
                   "DETERMINISTIC" mode.

                   PLEASE NOTE: The hash seed is sensitive information. Hashes are randomized to
                   protect against local and remote attacks against Perl code. By manually
                   setting a seed, this protection may be partially or completely lost.

                   See "Algorithmic Complexity Attacks" in perlsec, "PERL_PERTURB_KEYS", and
                   "PERL_HASH_SEED_DEBUG" for more information.

       PERL_PERTURB_KEYS
                   (Since Perl 5.18.0)  Set to "0" or "NO" then traversing keys will be
                   repeatable from run to run for the same "PERL_HASH_SEED".  Insertion into a
                   hash will not change the order, except to provide for more space in the hash.
                   When combined with setting PERL_HASH_SEED this mode is as close to pre 5.18
                   behavior as you can get.

                   When set to "1" or "RANDOM" then traversing keys will be randomized.  Every
                   time a hash is inserted into the key order will change in a random fashion.
                   The order may not be repeatable in a following program run even if the
                   PERL_HASH_SEED has been specified. This is the default mode for perl when no
                   PERL_HASH_SEED has been explicitly provided.

                   When set to "2" or "DETERMINISTIC" then inserting keys into a hash will cause
                   the key order to change, but in a way that is repeatable from program run to
                   program run, provided that the same hash seed is used, and that the code does
                   not itself perform any non-deterministic operations and also provided exactly
                   the same environment context.  Adding or removing an environment variable may
                   and likely will change the key order. If any part of the code builds a hash
                   using non- deterministic keys, for instance a hash keyed by the stringified
                   form of a reference, or the address of the objects it contains, then this may
                   and likely will have a global effect on the key order of *every* hash in the
                   process. To work properly this setting MUST be coupled with the PERL_HASH_SEED
                   to produce deterministic results, and in fact, if you do set the
                   "PERL_HASH_SEED" explicitly you do not need to set this as well, it will be
                   automatically set to this mode.

                   NOTE: Use of this option is considered insecure, and is intended only for
                   debugging non-deterministic behavior in Perl's hash function. Do not use it in
                   production.

                   See "Algorithmic Complexity Attacks" in perlsec and "PERL_HASH_SEED" and
                   "PERL_HASH_SEED_DEBUG" for more information. You can get and set the key
                   traversal mask for a specific hash by using the "hash_traversal_mask()"
                   function from Hash::Util.

       PERL_HASH_SEED_DEBUG
                   (Since Perl 5.8.1.)  Set to "1" to display (to STDERR) information about the
                   hash function, seed, and what type of key traversal randomization is in effect
                   at the beginning of execution.  This, combined with "PERL_HASH_SEED" and
                   "PERL_PERTURB_KEYS" is intended to aid in debugging nondeterministic behaviour
                   caused by hash randomization.

                   Note that any information about the hash function, especially the hash seed is
                   sensitive information: by knowing it, one can craft a denial-of-service attack
                   against Perl code, even remotely; see "Algorithmic Complexity Attacks" in
                   perlsec for more information. Do not disclose the hash seed to people who
                   don't need to know it. See also "hash_seed()" and "hash_traversal_mask()".

                   An example output might be:

                    HASH_FUNCTION = ONE_AT_A_TIME_HARD HASH_SEED = 0x652e9b9349a7a032 PERTURB_KEYS = 1 (RANDOM)

       PERL_MEM_LOG
                   If your Perl was configured with -Accflags=-DPERL_MEM_LOG, setting the
                   environment variable "PERL_MEM_LOG" enables logging debug messages. The value
                   has the form "<number>[m][s][t]", where "number" is the file descriptor number
                   you want to write to (2 is default), and the combination of letters specifies
                   that you want information about (m)emory and/or (s)v, optionally with
                   (t)imestamps. For example, "PERL_MEM_LOG=1mst" logs all information to stdout.
                   You can write to other opened file descriptors in a variety of ways:

                     $ 3>foo3 PERL_MEM_LOG=3m perl ...

       PERL_ROOT (specific to the VMS port)
                   A translation-concealed rooted logical name that contains Perl and the logical
                   device for the @INC path on VMS only.  Other logical names that affect Perl on
                   VMS include PERLSHR, PERL_ENV_TABLES, and SYS$TIMEZONE_DIFFERENTIAL, but are
                   optional and discussed further in perlvms and in README.vms in the Perl source
                   distribution.

       PERL_SIGNALS
                   Available in Perls 5.8.1 and later.  If set to "unsafe", the pre-Perl-5.8.0
                   signal behaviour (which is immediate but unsafe) is restored.  If set to
                   "safe", then safe (but deferred) signals are used.  See "Deferred Signals
                   (Safe Signals)" in perlipc.

       PERL_UNICODE
                   Equivalent to the -C command-line switch.  Note that this is not a boolean
                   variable. Setting this to "1" is not the right way to "enable Unicode"
                   (whatever that would mean).  You can use "0" to "disable Unicode", though (or
                   alternatively unset PERL_UNICODE in your shell before starting Perl).  See the
                   description of the -C switch for more information.

       PERL_USE_UNSAFE_INC
                   If perl has been configured to not have the current directory in @INC by
                   default, this variable can be set to "1" to reinstate it.  It's primarily
                   intended for use while building and testing modules that have not been updated
                   to deal with "." not being in @INC and should not be set in the environment
                   for day-to-day use.

       SYS$LOGIN (specific to the VMS port)
                   Used if chdir has no argument and "HOME" and "LOGDIR" are not set.

       PERL_INTERNAL_RAND_SEED
                   Set to a non-negative integer to seed the random number generator used
                   internally by perl for a variety of purposes.

                   Ignored if perl is run setuid or setgid.  Used only for some limited startup
                   randomization (hash keys) if "-T" or "-t" perl is started with tainting
                   enabled.

                   Perl may be built to ignore this variable.

       Perl also has environment variables that control how Perl handles data specific to
       particular natural languages; see perllocale.

       Perl and its various modules and components, including its test frameworks, may sometimes
       make use of certain other environment variables.  Some of these are specific to a
       particular platform.  Please consult the appropriate module documentation and any
       documentation for your platform (like perlsolaris, perllinux, perlmacosx, perlwin32, etc)
       for variables peculiar to those specific situations.

       Perl makes all environment variables available to the program being executed, and passes
       these along to any child processes it starts.  However, programs running setuid would do
       well to execute the following lines before doing anything else, just to keep people
       honest:

           $ENV{PATH}  = "/bin:/usr/bin";    # or whatever you need
           $ENV{SHELL} = "/bin/sh" if exists $ENV{SHELL};
           delete @ENV{qw(IFS CDPATH ENV BASH_ENV)};

ORDER OF APPLICATION

       Some options, in particular "-I", "-M", "PERL5LIB" and "PERL5OPT" can interact, and the
       order in which they are applied is important.

       Note that this section does not document what actually happens inside the perl
       interpreter, it documents what effectively happens.

       -I  The effect of multiple "-I" options is to "unshift" them onto @INC from right to left.
           So for example:

               perl -I 1 -I 2 -I 3

           will first prepend 3 onto the front of @INC, then prepend 2, and then prepend 1. The
           result is that @INC begins with:

               qw(1 2 3)

       -M  Multiple "-M" options are processed from left to right. So this:

               perl -Mlib=1 -Mlib=2 -Mlib=3

           will first use the lib pragma to prepend 1 to @INC, then it will prepend 2, then it
           will prepend 3, resulting in an @INC that begins with:

               qw(3 2 1)

       the PERL5LIB environment variable
           This contains a list of directories, separated by colons. The entire list is prepended
           to @INC in one go. This:

               PERL5LIB=1:2:3 perl

           will result in an @INC that begins with:

               qw(1 2 3)

       combinations of -I, -M and PERL5LIB
           "PERL5LIB" is applied first, then all the "-I" arguments, then all the "-M" arguments.
           This:

               PERL5LIB=e1:e2 perl -I i1 -Mlib=m1 -I i2 -Mlib=m2

           will result in an @INC that begins with:

               qw(m2 m1 i1 i2 e1 e2)

       the PERL5OPT environment variable
           This contains a space separated list of switches. We only consider the effects of "-M"
           and "-I" in this section.

           After normal processing of "-I" switches from the command line, all the "-I" switches
           in "PERL5OPT" are extracted. They are processed from left to right instead of from
           right to left. Also note that while whitespace is allowed between a "-I" and its
           directory on the command line, it is not allowed in "PERL5OPT".

           After normal processing of "-M" switches from the command line, all the "-M" switches
           in "PERL5OPT" are extracted. They are processed from left to right, i.e. the same as
           those on the command line.

           An example may make this clearer:

               export PERL5OPT="-Mlib=optm1 -Iopti1 -Mlib=optm2 -Iopti2"
               export PERL5LIB=e1:e2
               perl -I i1 -Mlib=m1 -I i2 -Mlib=m2

           will result in an @INC that begins with:

               qw(
                   optm2
                   optm1

                   m2
                   m1

                   opti2
                   opti1

                   i1
                   i2

                   e1
                   e2
               )

       Other complications
           There are some complications that are ignored in the examples above:

           arch and version subdirs
               All of "-I", "PERL5LIB" and "use lib" will also prepend arch and version subdirs
               if they are present

           sitecustomize.pl