{"id":770,"date":"2017-08-11T14:33:33","date_gmt":"2017-08-11T14:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/icsf\/?page_id=770"},"modified":"2020-10-12T09:36:58","modified_gmt":"2020-10-12T09:36:58","slug":"perl","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ri.itservices.manchester.ac.uk\/icsf\/software\/applications\/perl\/","title":{"rendered":"Perl"},"content":{"rendered":"

Overview<\/h2>\n
\n

Perl is a programming language which is particularly good for text manipulation.<\/p>\n

Versions available: 5.20.2<\/p>\n

Restrictions on use<\/span><\/h2>\n

Perl is open source. All users are able to access and use it.<\/p>\n

Set up procedure<\/span><\/h2>\n

There is an OS default version of Perl on each iCSF node, you may see the version via<\/p>\n

perl -v<\/pre>\n
To load Perl v5.20.2 on the iCSF:<\/p>\n
module load apps\/gcc\/perl\/5.20.2<\/pre>\n
Installing extra modules<\/span><\/h2>\n
If you try to run a Perl script and it fails to find a module, such as<\/p>\n
Can't locate Term\/ReadKey.pm in @INC ...\r\n<\/pre>\n
you can usually install the missing one in your home directory from the CPAN archive (unless what you\u2019re running comes with specific different instructions).<\/p>\n
To set this up conveniently, do the following (assuming you use the default shell):<\/p>\n
eval $(perl -I$HOME\/perl5\/lib\/perl5 -Mlocal::lib)\r\n<\/pre>\n
You might want to add that line to your .bashrc<\/code> file for future use.<\/p>\n
Convert the file name from the error message into a module name by replacing \/<\/code> with ::<\/code>, and then install it similarly to (for the above case):<\/p>\n
cpan Term::ReadKey\r\n<\/pre>\n
Hit the return key at any prompts, and it should eventually install the new module under perl5<\/code> in your home directory. The procedure may take a while and print lots. The environment variable PERL5LIB<\/code> needs to be set to ~\/perl5\/lib\/perl5<\/code> to find it; the eval<\/code> step above does that. You can install multiple modules by passing the names as arguments to cpan<\/code>, or just use cpan<\/code> multiple times.<\/p>\n
The installation procedure will only work on the login nodes, but you can use the result on compute nodes as long as PERL5LIB<\/code> is set correctly. Doing the installation will currently only work with the default Perl version, not the ones requiring modules, but the result should be usable with others if the eval<\/code> step is done before loading the module.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Further info<\/span><\/h2>\n