NAME

       perlsource - A guide to the Perl source tree

DESCRIPTION

       This document describes the layout of the Perl source tree. If you're hacking on the Perl
       core, this will help you find what you're looking for.

FINDING YOUR WAY AROUND

       The Perl source tree is big. Here's some of the thing you'll find in it:

   C code
       The C source code and header files mostly live in the root of the source tree. There are a
       few platform-specific directories which contain C code. In addition, some of the modules
       shipped with Perl include C or XS code.

       See perlinterp for more details on the files that make up the Perl interpreter, as well as
       details on how it works.

   Core modules
       Modules shipped as part of the Perl core live in four subdirectories.  Two of these
       directories contain modules that live in the core, and two contain modules that can also
       be released separately on CPAN. Modules which can be released on cpan are known as "dual-
       life" modules.

       •   lib/

           This directory contains pure-Perl modules which are only released as part of the core.
           This directory contains all of the modules and their tests, unlike other core modules.

       •   ext/

           This directory contains XS-using modules which are only released as part of the core.
           These modules generally have their Makefile.PL and are laid out more like a typical
           CPAN module.

       •   dist/

           This directory is for dual-life modules where the blead source is canonical. Note that
           some modules in this directory may not yet have been released separately on CPAN.

       •   cpan/

           This directory contains dual-life modules where the CPAN module is canonical. Do not
           patch these modules directly! Changes to these modules should be submitted to the
           maintainer of the CPAN module. Once those changes are applied and released, the new
           version of the module will be incorporated into the core.

       For some dual-life modules, it has not yet been determined if the CPAN version or the
       blead source is canonical. Until that is done, those modules should be in cpan/.

   Tests
       The Perl core has an extensive test suite. If you add new tests (or new modules with
       tests), you may need to update the t/TEST file so that the tests are run.

       •   Module tests

           Tests for core modules in the lib/ directory are right next to the module itself. For
           example, we have lib/strict.pm and lib/strict.t.

           Tests for modules in ext/ and the dual-life modules are in t/ subdirectories for each
           module, like a standard CPAN distribution.

       •   t/base/

           Tests for the absolute basic functionality of Perl. This includes "if", basic file
           reads and writes, simple regexes, etc. These are run first in the test suite and if
           any of them fail, something is really broken.

       •   t/cmd/

           Tests for basic control structures, "if/else", "while", subroutines, etc.

       •   t/comp/

           Tests for basic issues of how Perl parses and compiles itself.

       •   t/io/

           Tests for built-in IO functions, including command line arguments.

       •   t/mro/

           Tests for perl's method resolution order implementations (see mro).

       •   t/op/

           Tests for perl's built in functions that don't fit into any of the other directories.

       •   t/opbasic/

           Tests for perl's built in functions which, like those in t/op/, do not fit into any of
           the other directories, but which, in addition, cannot use t/test.pl,as that program
           depends on functionality which the test file itself is testing.

       •   t/re/

           Tests for regex related functions or behaviour. (These used to live in t/op).

       •   t/run/

           Tests for features of how perl actually runs, including exit codes and handling of
           PERL* environment variables.

       •   t/uni/

           Tests for the core support of Unicode.

       •   t/win32/

           Windows-specific tests.

       •   t/porting/

           Tests the state of the source tree for various common errors. For example, it tests
           that everyone who is listed in the git log has a corresponding entry in the AUTHORS
           file.

       •   t/lib/

           The old home for the module tests, you shouldn't put anything new in here. There are
           still some bits and pieces hanging around in here that need to be moved. Perhaps you
           could move them?  Thanks!

       •   t/x2p

           A test suite for the s2p converter.

   Documentation
       All of the core documentation intended for end users lives in pod/.  Individual modules in
       lib/, ext/, dist/, and cpan/ usually have their own documentation, either in the Module.pm
       file or an accompanying Module.pod file.

       Finally, documentation intended for core Perl developers lives in the Porting/ directory.

   Hacking tools and documentation
       The Porting directory contains a grab bag of code and documentation intended to help
       porters work on Perl. Some of the highlights include:

       •   check*

           These are scripts which will check the source things like ANSI C violations, POD
           encoding issues, etc.

       •   Maintainers, Maintainers.pl, and Maintainers.pm

           These files contain information on who maintains which modules. Run "perl
           Porting/Maintainers -M Module::Name" to find out more information about a dual-life
           module.

       •   podtidy

           Tidies a pod file. It's a good idea to run this on a pod file you've patched.

   Build system
       The Perl build system starts with the Configure script in the root directory.

       Platform-specific pieces of the build system also live in platform-specific directories
       like win32/, vms/, etc.

       The Configure script is ultimately responsible for generating a Makefile.

       The build system that Perl uses is called metaconfig. This system is maintained separately
       from the Perl core.

       The metaconfig system has its own git repository. Please see its README file in
       <http://perl5.git.perl.org/metaconfig.git/> for more details.

       The Cross directory contains various files related to cross-compiling Perl. See
       Cross/README for more details.

   AUTHORS
       This file lists everyone who's contributed to Perl. If you submit a patch, you should add
       your name to this file as part of the patch.

   MANIFEST
       The MANIFEST file in the root of the source tree contains a list of every file in the Perl
       core, as well as a brief description of each file.

       You can get an overview of all the files with this command:

         % perl -lne 'print if /^[^\/]+\.[ch]\s+/' MANIFEST