Perl Programming

Colorado State University

Computer Science Department

CT 320: Network and System Administration

Original slides from Dr. James Walden at Northern Kentucky University.

Language

Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted programming language developed for Unix scripting.
Practical Extraction and Reporting Language developed by a Unisys engineer (Larry Wall) for report processing.
Borrows features from C, shell scripting, awk, and sed, including powerful text processing facilities.
Popular for web server, graphics, system admin, and network programs, among other areas.

Source: https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl

History

Perl 1 released in 1987 via the comp.sources.misc newsgroup, then expanded rapidly.
Perl 2 released in 1988, with improved regular expressions, Perl 3 in 1989 added binary data streams.
Originally documented by a single manpage, when the Camel Book came out version was bumped to Perl 4.
Perl 5.0 released in 1994, since then many incremental releases, version on CSU machines is 5.22.3 as of May 2017.
Perl 6 is available for Ubuntu, if you install the Rakudo compiler.

Source: https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl

Usage (continued)

Web site and web application development
- Internet Movie Database (IMDB)
Test frameworks for web and desktop applications
Configuration management, build, packaging
System administration, periodic tasks
Common Gateway Interface (CGI)
Bioinformatics, Databases, Graphics, etc.

Usage (continued)

Common Gateway Interface (CGI):
- Method for web server software to delegate the generation of web content to executable files.
- A web server that supports CGI can be configured to interpret a URL that it serves as a reference to a CGI script.
- In the case of HTTP PUT or POSTs, the user-submitted data is provided to the program via the standard input.
- The program generates content, writes it to its standard output, and the web server transmits it to the browser.

Source: https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Gateway_Interface

Documentation

Perl Language Reference: https://perldoc.perl.org/index-language.html
Perl Language Tutorials: https://perldoc.perl.org/index-tutorials.html
Perl Community: https://www.perl.org/
Perl Open Source: https://www.cpan.org/
Perl Cheat Sheet: https://perldoc.perl.org/perlcheat.html

Basic Perl

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
say "Hello, world!"

Hello, world!

#! /usr/bin/perl means that this is a Perl script. Always do this.
-w means “enable warnings”. Always do this.
use 5.16.1; requires at least that version, and enables new features, such as say. Always do this.

print vs. say

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
print "a";
print "b";
print "c";
say "d";
say "e";
say "f";

abcd
e
f

print sends all arguments to standard output.
say does the same, then adds a newline.

Scalars

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
my $alpha = 123456;
my $beta = 3.14159;
my $gamma = "String";
say '$alpha = ', $alpha;
say '$beta = ' . $beta;
say "\$gamma = $gamma";

$alpha = 123456
$beta = 3.14159
$gamma = String

Perl has scalar values that can be integer, float, or string.
Perl does not have strong data typing like Java or C++.
Can determine type with a regular expression.
Also there are loadable packages with data type queries.

Quotes

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
my $answer = 42;
print "1: answer is ", $answer, "\n";
print "2: answer is $answer\n";
print '3: answer is $answer\n';

1: answer is 42
2: answer is 42
3: answer is $answer\n

$variable doesn’t work inside single quotes
\n doesn’t work inside single quotes

Math

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
say 1 + 2;
say 3 - 4;
say 5 * 6;
say 7 / 8;
say 3 ** 4;
say 13 % 2;

Unlike some languages, int/int performs floating-point division.

Strings

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
my $alpha = "Foo";
my $beta = 'Bar';
my $gamma= $alpha . $beta;
my $delta = 3;
my $epsilon = $beta x $delta;
say "alpha = $alpha";
say "beta = $beta";
say "gamma = $gamma";
say "delta = $delta";
say "epsilon = $epsilon";

alpha = Foo
beta = Bar
gamma = FooBar
delta = 3
epsilon = BarBarBar

Declarations

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
my $alpha = 42;
print "alpha is $a1pha";

Global symbol "$a1pha" requires explicit package name (did you forget to declare "my $a1pha"?) at .perl-code line 4.
Execution of .perl-code aborted due to compilation errors.

The last line contained a digit one, as opposed to a lower-case L. Oops!

Sigils

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
my $alpha = 5;              # alpha is a scalar
my @beta = (11,22,33);      # beta is an array
$alpha = $beta[1];          # beta[1] is a scalar, however
say $alpha;

$ indicates a scalar
@ indicates an array
% indicates a hash, or associative array

It’s the type of the value, not the type of the variable.

Perl ≠ Bash

Note the differences:

#! /bin/bash
let x=2+2
let x*=10
let y=$x+9;
echo "x=$x y=$y"

x=40 y=49

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.3;
my $x=2+2;
$x*=10;
my $y=$x+9;
say "x=$x y=$y";

x=40 y=49

Arrays

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
# Array Definition
my @stuff = ("apples", "pears", "eels");
my @numbers = (123, 456, 789, 987, 654, 321);
# Array access
say '$stuff[2] = ', $stuff[2];
say '$numbers[4] = ', $numbers[4];

$stuff[2] = eels
$numbers[4] = 654

Arrays (continued)

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
# Array Definition
my @stuff = ("apples", "pears", "eels");
my @numbers = (123, 456, 789, 987, 654, 321);
# Adding and removing elements
push(@stuff, "eggs", "lard");
my @more = ("butter", "milk");
push(@stuff, @more);
print "stuff = @stuff\n";
my $grub = pop(@stuff);
print "grub = $grub\n";
print "stuff = @stuff\n";

stuff = apples pears eels eggs lard butter milk
grub = milk
stuff = apples pears eels eggs lard butter

Arrays (continued)

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
# Length versus contents
my @a = (1,2,3,"cuatro","cinco","seis");
my $x = @a;
say "x = $x";
$x = "@a";
say "x = $x";

x = 6
x = 1 2 3 cuatro cinco seis

List manipulation

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
my @a = (2,3,"cuatro","cinco");
push @a, "seis";
unshift @a, 1;
say "a: @a";
say "pop yields: ", pop(@a);
say "shift yields: ", shift(@a);
say "now, a: @a";

a: 1 2 3 cuatro cinco seis
pop yields: seis
shift yields: 1
now, a: 2 3 cuatro cinco

push and pop manipulate the end of the list, at the right.
unshift and shift manipulate the start of the list, at the left.
The names push and pop are standard CS terms for a stack.
shift comes from shell scripts.
unshift is the opposite of shift.

Hashes

Hashes are also called associative arrays. They’re like regular arrays, except that the subscripts, or indices, can be strings.

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
my %phonebook = ("Jack" => 5551212, "Peter" => 8765329);
$phonebook{"George"} = 1234567;
say $phonebook{"Peter"};
say $phonebook{"George"};
if ($phonebook{"Jack"}) {
    say "Jack’s phone number is ", $phonebook{"Jack"};
}
if ($phonebook{"Mo"}) {
    say "Mo’s phone number is ", $phonebook{"Mo"};
}

8765329
1234567
Jack’s phone number is 5551212

if statements

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
my $x = 42;
if ($x > 19) {
    say "Good!";
}

Good!

The ( … ) and { … } are required.

While-loops are similar.

Postfix if

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
my $x = 42;
say "Good!"
    if $x > 19;

Good!

Note the lack of parens and braces.

Reverse if

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
my $x = 42;
say "Good!"
    unless $x == 99;

Good!

You can also use unless in a non-reversed if.

warn

warn is equivalent to print stderr.

warn "This message goes to standard error.\n";

This message goes to standard error.

die

die is darn handy—it’s like warn + exit.
It terminates the program, with an optional error message sent to standard error.
In addition, if the error message does not end with a newline, the the source file and line number;

if (3/2 > 1) {
    die "I didn’t expect that!";
}

I didn’t expect that! at .perl-code line 2.

open F, "</bogus/noway" or die;

Died at .perl-code line 1.

File I/O

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
# File Input
open(NETS, "/etc/networks") or die "$0: can’t open /etc/networks";
while (<NETS>) {
    print $_;
}
close(NETS);

loopback 		127	loopback-net,localnet
colostate		129.82
cs.colostate		129.82.44

File I/O, take two

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
# File Input
open(NETS, "/etc/networks") or die "$0: can’t open /etc/networks";
my @lines = <NETS>;
close(NETS);
print @lines;

loopback 		127	loopback-net,localnet
colostate		129.82
cs.colostate		129.82.44

File I/O, take three

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
# File Input
open(NETS, "/etc/networks") or die "$0: can’t open /etc/networks";
print <NETS>;
close(NETS);

loopback 		127	loopback-net,localnet
colostate		129.82
cs.colostate		129.82.44

C programmers manipulate arrays element-by-element
Perl programmers manipulate arrays as single entities

File I/O

    # File modes
    open(INFO, "datafile");   # Open for input
    open(INFO, ">datafile");  # Open for output
    open(INFO, ">>datafile"); # Open for append
    open(INFO, "<datafile");  # Open for input

File Output

    open(FILE, ">temp.txt");
    print FILE "This line goes to the file.\n";
    close(FILE);

Diamond Operator

The diamond operator <FOO> returns:
- a single line from the file handle FOO, in a scalar context
- a list of all lines the file handle FOO, in a list context
The special operator <> is like <FOO>, except that it implicitly reads from @ARGV. If @ARGV is empty, then it reads from standard input. It does the “right thing”.

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
# This program imitates the cat command.
use 5.16.1;
while (<>) {
    print;
}

Loops

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
my $i = 0;
do {
    say "do while $i";
} while $i++ < 3;

my $j = 3;
while ($j-- > 0) {
    say "while $j";
}

for my $w (4..6) {
    say "for $w";
}

for (my $z=10; $z<20; $z+=3) {
    say "z=$z";
}

do while 0
do while 1
do while 2
do while 3
while 2
while 1
while 0
for 4
for 5
for 6
z=10
z=13
z=16
z=19

Poetry

Many Perl functions can be called without parentheses:

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
print("How are you?\n");
my @a = (11,22,33);
push(@a, 42, sqrt(10));
say(pop(@a));
say("a: @a");

How are you?
3.16227766016838
a: 11 22 33 42

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
print "How are you?\n";
my @a = (11,22,33);
push @a, 42, sqrt 10;
say pop @a;
say "a: @a";

How are you?
3.16227766016838
a: 11 22 33 42

Functions

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;

# Add all the numbers given as arguments.
sub total {
    my (@numbers) = @_;                 # Copy arguments
    my $sum = 0;
    foreach my $item (@numbers) {
        $sum += $item;
    }
    return $sum;
}

# Main program
my @data1 = (3,1,4,1,5,9);
my $answer = total(@data1);
say "Sum of @data1 is $answer";
say "Sum of (1..15) is ", total(1..15);

Sum of 3 1 4 1 5 9 is 23
Sum of (1..15) is 120

Factorial, take 1

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;

# Return the product of 1…the given argument.
sub factorial {
    my ($n) = @_;
    if ($n <= 1) {
        return $n;
    }
    else {
        return $n*factorial($n-1);
    }
}

say "5! = ", factorial(5);    # 5! = 5×4×3×2×1 = 120
say "69! = ", factorial(69);

5! = 120
69! = 1.71122452428141e+98

Factorial, take 2

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;

# Return the product of 1…the given argument.
sub factorial {
    my ($n) = @_;
    if ($n <= 1) {
        return $n;
    }
    return $n*factorial($n-1);
}

say "5! = ", factorial(5);    # 5! = 5×4×3×2×1 = 120
say "69! = ", factorial(69);

5! = 120
69! = 1.71122452428141e+98

Factorial, take 3

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;

# Return the product of 1…the given argument.
sub factorial {
    my ($n) = @_;
    return $n if $n <= 1;
    return $n*factorial($n-1);
}

say "5! = ", factorial(5);    # 5! = 5×4×3×2×1 = 120
say "69! = ", factorial(69);

5! = 120
69! = 1.71122452428141e+98

Factorial, take 4

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;

# Return the product of 1…the given argument.
sub factorial {
    my ($n) = @_;
    return $n <= 1 ? $n : $n*factorial($n-1);
}

say "5! = ", factorial(5);    # 5! = 5×4×3×2×1 = 120
say "69! = ", factorial(69);

5! = 120
69! = 1.71122452428141e+98

Factorial, take 5

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;

# Return the product of 1…the given argument.
sub factorial {
    my ($n) = @_;
    $n <= 1 ? $n : $n*factorial($n-1);
}

say "5! = ", factorial(5);    # 5! = 5×4×3×2×1 = 120
say "69! = ", factorial(69);

5! = 120
69! = 1.71122452428141e+98

System Calls

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
my $a = `date`;     # Note backquotes
print $a;           # Includes a newline

my @info = `head -4 /etc/resolv.conf`;
print $info[0];     # first line
print $info[1];     # second line

my $status = system('cat /etc/hostname');
say 'The exit code was ', $status;

Fri Nov 22 02:35:57 MST 2024
search cs.colostate edu colostate.edu
nameserver 129.82.45.181
beethoven
The exit code was 0

Admin Example

$ cat /etc/resolv.conf
search cs.colostate edu colostate.edu
nameserver 129.82.45.181
nameserver 129.82.103.78
nameserver 129.82.103.79

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
my $path = "/etc/resolv.conf";
open (CONFIG, $path);
say "Nameservers from $path:";
while (<CONFIG>) {
    chomp;
    my @z = split(' ', $_);
    say $z[1]
        if lc($z[0]) eq "nameserver";
}

Nameservers from /etc/resolv.conf:
129.82.45.181
129.82.103.78
129.82.103.79

Admin Example, take two

$ cat /etc/resolv.conf
search cs.colostate edu colostate.edu
nameserver 129.82.45.181
nameserver 129.82.103.78
nameserver 129.82.103.79

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
my $path = "/etc/resolv.conf";
open (CONFIG, $path);
say "Nameservers from $path:";
while (<CONFIG>) {
    say $1
        if /^nameserver\s+(.+)$/;
}

Nameservers from /etc/resolv.conf:
129.82.45.181
129.82.103.78
129.82.103.79

$_

$_ is the “default” variable. For many Perl actions, if you don’t give a varable, $_ steps up.

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
for my $i (5..9) {
    say $i;
}

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
for (5..9) {
    say $_;
}

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
for (5..9) {
    say;
}

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
say
    for 5..9;

undef

Some operations return the undefined value, undef.
Test for undef using the defined() predicate:

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
my @a = ("alpha", 'beta', undef, "delta");
for my $i (0..5) {
    if (defined($a[$i])) {
        say "a[$i]: $a[$i]";
    }
    else {
        say "There is no a[$i]";
    }
}

a[0]: alpha
a[1]: beta
There is no a[2]
a[3]: delta
There is no a[4]
There is no a[5]

Arguments

The global array @ARGV contains command-line arguments.
Unlike C’s argv, $ARGV[0] does not contain the program name, it contains the first argument.
That’s in $0.

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
say "This program is $0.";

# Display all arguments:
for (my $i=0; $i<@ARGV; $i++) {
    say "arg $i: $ARGV[$i]";
}

This program is .perl-code.

Context

Consider this C program. Why doesn’t it display one-third?

#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
    double d = 1/3;
    printf("%f\n", d);
    return 0;
}

0.000000

Context matters

In Perl, however, context matters:

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
my @alpha = ("Every", "good", "boy", "does", "fine");
my @beta = @alpha;
say "beta is @beta";
my $gamma = @alpha;
say "gamma is $gamma";

beta is Every good boy does fine
gamma is 5

Pattern matching

Regular expressions are big in Perl.
The =~ operator takes a string and a regular expression (like grep) to match against.

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
my $a = "Constantinople";
say "$a ends with an 'e'"
    if $a =~ /e$/;
say "$a starts with a digit"
    if $a =~ /^\d/;

Constantinople ends with an 'e'

More pattern matching

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
my @animals = ("dog", "fish", "bear", "snake", "beaver");
for (1..9) {
    my $a = $animals[rand(@animals)];
    if ($a =~ /[aeiouy].*[aeiouy]/) {
        say "$a has at least two vowels.";
    }
    else {
        say "$a has less than two vowels.";
    }
}

fish has less than two vowels.
bear has at least two vowels.
dog has less than two vowels.
dog has less than two vowels.
bear has at least two vowels.
fish has less than two vowels.
beaver has at least two vowels.
snake has at least two vowels.
fish has less than two vowels.

Implicit pattern matching

If the =~ operator is not present, then the pattern matches against the special variable $_.

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
open INFO, "/proc/cpuinfo" or die;
my $num_procs=0;
while (<INFO>) {
    $num_procs++ if /^processor/;
}
say "This computer has $num_procs processors.";

This computer has 12 processors.

Better implicit pattern matching

Rather than iterate explicitly, let’s use grep:

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
open INFO, "/proc/cpuinfo" or die;
my $num_procs = grep {/^processor/} <INFO>;
say "This computer has $num_procs processors.";

This computer has 12 processors.

grep

grep takes two arguments:

my $num_procs = grep {/^processor/} <INFO>;

{ predicate code }
A list to process

It calls the predicate code once per list item, with $_ as the item, returning either:

the elements that matched (the predicate returned true)
a count of the matching elements.

How is it determined which is returned?

More Implicit pattern matching

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
open M, "/proc/mounts" or die;
my @filesystems;
while (<M>) {
    push @filesystems, "$1 on $2\n"
        if /^(\/dev\/\S+) (\S+)/;
}
print sort(@filesystems);

/dev/md1 on /s/beethoven/b
/dev/sda1 on /boot/efi
/dev/sda3 on /
/dev/sda3 on /var/tmp
/dev/sda4 on /s/beethoven/a

Some regexp syntax

Common regular expression syntax:
- .: any character
- ?: zero or one of what came before
- *: zero or more of what came before
- +: one or more of what came before
- [abcf-j]: any one of those characters
- alpha|beta: either one
- (pattern): grouping, copy it to $1 or $2 …
- ^, $: start of line, end of line
- \d, \D: digits, non-digits
- \s, \S: spaces, non-spaces
- \w, \W: alphanumerics (and _), non-alphanumerics

Changing text: problem statement

I want to write Perl code to display the computer’s name.
However, to avoid offending management, let’s replace all the vowels with asterisks.
- booger will become b**g*r.
How do we accomplish this?

Changing text, pass 1

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
open H, "/etc/hostname" or die;     # Quite casual error message!
my $name = <H>;
print "Original hostname: $name";
for (my $i=0; $i<length($name); $i++) {
    my $l = substr($name, $i, 1);
    if ($l eq 'a' || $l eq 'e' || $l eq 'i' || $l eq 'o' || $l eq 'u') {
        substr($name, $i, 1) = '*';
    }
}
print "New hostname: $name";

Original hostname: beethoven
New hostname: b**th*v*n

This is how a C programmer would do it.

Changing text, pass 2

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
open H, "/etc/hostname" or die;
my $name = <H>;
print "Original hostname: $name";
for (my $i=0; $i<length($name); $i++) {
    my $l = substr($name, $i, 1);
    if ($l =~ /[aeiou]/) {
        substr($name, $i, 1) = '*';
    }
}
print "New hostname: $name";

Original hostname: beethoven
New hostname: b**th*v*n

Better …

Changing text, pass 3

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use 5.16.1;
open H, "/etc/hostname" or die;
my $name = <H>;
print "Original hostname: $name";
$name =~ s/[aeiou]/*/g;             # sed syntax  
print "New hostname: $name";

Original hostname: beethoven
New hostname: b**th*v*n

This is how a Perl programmer would do it.

Why didn’t we need to use say or add a \n?

Packages

Perl offers a set of modules, just as Java has packages, that contain domain-specific functionality:
- Security and Encryption
- Internationalization and Locale
- Database Interfaces
- User Interfaces
- Data Type Utilities
- Archiving and Compresion
- etc., etc., etc.

Source: https://www.cpan.org/modules/

Features

Other Perl language features:
- Arrays: merge, append, sort
- Hashing: create, append, print
- Parameter Passing
- Operator Precedence
- Hexadecimal and Binary Conversion
- Creating Packages
- Database Connectivity
- Object Oriented Perl

Source: https://linuxconfig.org/perl-programming-tutorial/

CT320: Network and System Administration

Fall 2017

Perl

Perl Programming

Language

History

Usage (continued)

Usage (continued)

Documentation

Basic Perl

print vs. say

Scalars

Quotes

Math

Strings

Declarations

Sigils

Perl ≠ Bash

Arrays

Arrays (continued)

Arrays (continued)

List manipulation

Hashes

if statements

Postfix if

Reverse if

warn

die

File I/O

File I/O, take two

File I/O, take three

File I/O

File Output

Diamond Operator

Loops

Poetry

Functions

Factorial, take 1

Factorial, take 2

Factorial, take 3

Factorial, take 4

Factorial, take 5

System Calls

Admin Example

Admin Example, take two

$_

undef

Arguments

Context

Context matters

Pattern matching

More pattern matching

Implicit pattern matching

Better implicit pattern matching

grep

More Implicit pattern matching

Some regexp syntax

Changing text: problem statement

Changing text, pass 1

Changing text, pass 2

Changing text, pass 3

Packages

Features