Preface
PART 1: Overview
Chapter 1. An Overview of Perl

   Getting Started

   Natural and Artificial Languages

   An Average Example

   Filehandles

   Operators

   Control Structures

   Regular Expressions

   List Processing

   What You Don't Know Won't Hurt You (Much)
PART 2: The Gory Details
Chapter 2. Bits and Pieces

   Atoms

   Molecules

   Built-in Data Types

   Variables

   Names

   Scalar Values

   Context

   List Values and Arrays

   Hashes

   Typeglobs and Filehandles

   Input Operators
Chapter 3. Unary and Binary Operators

   Terms and List Operators (Leftward)

   The Arrow Operator

   Autoincrement and Autodecrement

   Exponentiation

   Ideographic Unary Operators

   Binding Operators

   Multiplicative Operators

   Additive Operators

   Shift Operators

   Named Unary and File Test Operators

   Relational Operators

   Equality Operators

   Bitwise Operators

   C-Style Logical (Short-Circuit) Operators

   Range Operator

   Conditional Operator

   Assignment Operators

   Comma Operators

   List Operators (Rightward)

   Logical and, or, not, and xor

   C Operators Missing from Perl
Chapter 4. Statements and Declarations

   Simple Statements

   Compound Statements

   if and unless Statements

   Loop Statements

   Bare Blocks

   goto

   Global Declarations

   Scoped Declarations

   Pragmas
Chapter 5. Pattern Matching

   The Regular Expression Bestiary

   Pattern-Matching Operators

   Metacharacters and Metasymbols

   Character Classes

   Quantifiers

   Positions

   Capturing and Clustering

   Alternation

   Staying in Control

   Fancy Patterns
Chapter 6. Subroutines

   Syntax

   Semantics

   Passing References

   Prototypes

   Subroutine Attributes
Chapter 7. Formats

   Format Variables

   Footers
Chapter 8. References

   What Is a Reference?

   Creating References

   Using Hard References

   Symbolic References

   Braces, Brackets, and Quoting
Chapter 9. Data Structures

   Arrays of Arrays

   Hashes of Arrays

   Arrays of Hashes

   Hashes of Hashes

   Hashes of Functions

   More Elaborate Records

   Saving Data Structures
Chapter 10. Packages

   Symbol Tables

   Autoloading
Chapter 11. Modules

   Using Modules

   Creating Modules

   Overriding Built-in Functions
Chapter 12. Objects

   Brief Refresher on Object-Oriented Lingo

   Perl's Object System

   Method Invocation

   Object Construction

   Class Inheritance

   Instance Destructors

   Managing Instance Data

   Managing Class Data

   Summary
Chapter 13. Overloading

   The overload Pragma

   Overload Handlers

   Overloadable Operators

   The Copy Constructor (=)

   When an Overload Handler Is Missing (nomethod and fallback)

   Overloading Constants

   Public Overload Functions

   Inheritance and Overloading

   Run-Time Overloading

   Overloading Diagnostics
Chapter 14. Tied Variables

   Tying Scalars

   Tying Arrays

   Tying Hashes

   Tying Filehandles

   A Subtle Untying Trap

   Tie Modules on CPAN
PART 3: Perl as Technology
Chapter 15. Unicode

   Building Character

   Effects of Character Semantics

   Caution, \[ren2bold] Working
Chapter 16. Interprocess Communication

   Signals

   Files

   Pipes

   System V IPC

   Sockets
Chapter 17. Threads

   The Process Model

   The Thread Model
Chapter 18. Compiling

   The Life Cycle of a Perl Program

   Compiling Your Code

   Executing Your Code

   Compiler Backends

   Code Generators

   Code Development Tools

   Avant-Garde Compiler, Retro Interpreter
Chapter 19. The Command-Line Interface

   Command Processing

   Environment Variables
Chapter 20. The Perl Debugger

   Using the Debugger

   Debugger Commands

   Debugger Customization

   Unattended Execution

   Debugger Support

   The Perl Profiler
Chapter 21. Internals and Externals

   How Perl Works

   Internal Data Types

   Extending Perl (Using C from Perl)

   Embedding Perl (Using Perl from C)

   The Moral of the Story
PART 4: Perl as Culture
Chapter 22. CPAN

   The CPAN modules Directory

   Using CPAN Modules

   Creating CPAN Modules
Chapter 23. Security

   Handling Insecure Data

   Handling Timing Glitches

   Handling Insecure Code
Chapter 24. Common Practices

   Common Goofs for Novices

   Efficiency

   Programming with Style

   Fluent Perl

   Program Generation
Chapter 25. Portable Perl

   Newlines

   Endianness and Number Width

   Files and Filesystems

   System Interaction

   Interprocess Communication (IPC)

   External Subroutines (XS)

   Standard Modules

   Dates and Times

   Internationalization

   Style
Chapter 26. Plain Old Documentation

   Pod in a Nutshell

   Pod Translators and Modules

   Writing Your Own Pod Tools

   Pod Pitfalls

   Documenting Your Perl Programs
Chapter 27. Perl Culture

   History Made Practical

   Perl Poetry
PART 5: Reference Material
Chapter 28. Special Names

   Special Names Grouped by Type

   Special Variables in Alphabetical Order
Chapter 29. Functions

   Perl Functions by Category

   Perl Functions in Alphabetical Order
Chapter 30. The Standard Perl Library

   Library Science

   A Tour of the Perl Library
Chapter 31. Pragmatic Modules

   use attributes

   use autouse

   use base

   use blib

   use bytes

   use charnames

   use constant

   use diagnostics

   use fields

   use filetest

   use integer

   use less

   use lib

   use locale

   use open

   use overload

   use re

   use sigtrap

   use strict

   use subs

   use vars

   use warnings
Chapter 32. Standard Modules

   Listings by Type

   Benchmark

   Carp

   CGI

   CGI::Carp

   Class::Struct

   Config

   CPAN

   Cwd

   Data::Dumper

   DB_File

   Dumpvalue

   English

   Errno

   Exporter

   Fatal

   Fcntl

   File::Basename

   File::Compare

   File::Copy

   File::Find

   File::Glob

   File::Spec

   File::stat

   File::Temp

   FileHandle

   Getopt::Long

   Getopt::Std

   IO::Socket

   IPC::Open2

   IPC::Open3

   Math::BigInt

   Math::Complex

   Math::Trig

   Net::hostent

   POSIX

   Safe

   Socket

   Symbol

   Sys::Hostname

   Sys::Syslog

   Term::Cap

   Text::Wrap

   Time::Local

   Time::localtime

   User::grent

   User::pwent
Chapter 33. Diagnostic Messages
Glossary
Index