Documentation

perldoc

Perldoc is the complete language reference for Perl
perldoc perldoc for usage instructions
perldoc perl for an overview of the documentation
perldoc Module for a module's documentation

Look up any function with `perldoc -f`

    $ perldoc -f system

       system LIST
       system PROGRAM LIST
               Does exactly the same thing as "exec LIST", except that a fork
               is done first, and the parent process waits for the child
       ...

Search the Perl FAQ with `perldoc -q`

    $ perldoc -q database

    Found in /System/Library/Perl/5.8.6/pods/perlfaq8.pod
       How do I use an SQL database?

       The DBI module provides an abstract interface to most database servers
       and types, including Oracle, DB2, Sybase, mysql, Postgresql, ODBC, and

Look up module documents with `perldoc modulename`

If a module is installed on your system, you can see the docs for it.

    $ perldoc WWW::Mechanize

    NAME
       WWW::Mechanize -- Handy web browsing in a Perl object

    VERSION
       Version 1.20

    SYNOPSIS
       "WWW::Mechanize", or Mech for short, helps you automate interaction
       with a website. It supports performing a sequence of page fetches

For modules that you haven't installed, you'll need to use http://search.cpan.org.

Online documentation

There are some websites that HTMLify the Perl documentation. The two biggest ones:

http://perldoc.perl.org/
http://search.cpan.org/ for modules

Writing your own documentation

Perl has a strong culture of documenting everything, and you are encouraged to get into this habit early on. You'll write your documentation using a format called POD, which is discussed in its own page.

Want to contribute?

Submit a PR to github.com/petdance/perl101