Downloading the Perl Source Code

If you're looking to live on the cutting edge of Perl for Windows, you'll want to get the Perl source code instead of the binary version. Alternately, if you know something about C code, sometimes having the source around can help you figure out what's going on when your Perl scripts are not behaving the way you want them to. In either of these cases, you'll want to download the actual Perl source code as well as, or instead of, the ActiveState version of Perl.

Perl's source code is available at http://www.perl.com/pub/a/language/info/software.html. A number of versions are available to choose from. The latest stable version is always available as stable.tar.gz (as I write this, that's version 5.6.1). Alter natively, the experimental development version is at devel.tar.gz (that's version 5.7.2 as I write this, but most likely will have changed by the time you're reading it). This book covers the stable.tar.gz version.

Perl source code is stored in Unix-format tar archives, compressed with GNU zip. They are binary files, so download them in binary format. After you have the archive stored on your system, WinZip can decompress and unarchive the Perl source files just fine.

The file README.win32 provides detailed documentation for compiling the source into a workable Perl installation.