#! /usr/bin/perl # Beware: DON'T PERFORM ANY ACTIONS AT TOP LEVEL: this file runs many times under -n! use 5.010; our( $VERSION, $A, @A ); BEGIN { $VERSION = '0.52.1'; *A = *ARGV; my $execed = shift if @A && $A[0] eq '+'; # don't recursively call perl again for -p return unless @A and $A[0] =~ /^-/s; my $onepl = qr/[oOrhv?]|[pP](?:[1-9][0-9]*)?/; # simple pl opts, reflect these in doc/html my $one = qr/[cftTuUwWXan]|$onepl/; # simple opts to pass to perl, which handles them well my( $perl, @perl, @pl1, %seen ); while( @A ) { # no for, may need to shift $_ = $A[0]; last unless /^-/s; shift; last if /^--$/s; if( /^--(?:help|version|color(?:|=never|=always|=auto))$/s ) { push @pl::opts, $_; next; } unshift @A, "-$1" if s/^-$one*[0l][0-7]*$onepl+\K(0.*)//; # avoid -l012o0 -> -l0120 if( /^(-$one*(?:[0l][0-7]*$one*)*)(?:([CdDFiImM0beVz])(.*))?$/s ) { # Perl does 0 & l inline only with oct arg. my( $opts, $opt, $arg ) = ($1, $2, $3); $seen{$_} ||= $opts =~ $_ for qw(a n o O p P r); push @pl1, $1 while $opts =~ s/($onepl)//; if( defined $opt ) { if( ! length $arg and $opt =~ /[IbeVz]/ ) { # These can have arg glued or separated $arg = shift; unless( defined $arg ) { warn "Missing argument to -$opt.\n"; exit 29; } } $seen{z} ||= $opt eq 'z'; if( $opt eq 'V' ) { $perl = "perl$arg"; undef $opt; # treat $opts below } elsif( $opt eq 'I' ) { push @perl, $opts.'I', $arg; # let perl check for empty arg } elsif( $opt =~ /[bez]/ ) { push @pl::opts, join( '', '-', @pl1, $opt ), $arg; @pl1 = (); undef $opt; # treat $opts below } else { $seen{F} ||= $opt eq 'F'; push @perl, $opts.$opt.$arg; } } unless( defined $opt ) { # no else, because of -[bezV] above push @perl, $opts if 1 < length $opts; } } else { s/^-$one*(?:[0l][0-7]*$one*)*(.).*/-$1/; warn "Unrecognized switch: $_ (-h will show valid options).\n"; exit 29; } } $seen{a} ||= push @perl, '-a' if $seen{F}; $seen{n} ||= push @perl, '-n' if ! grep $seen{$_}, qw(o O) and grep $seen{$_}, qw(a p P r z); push @pl::opts, join '', '-', @pl1 if @pl1; #warn join '|', $perl // $^X, @perl, '--', $0, '+', @pl::opts, '--', @A, "\n"; if( ! $execed and $perl || @perl ) { # let perl do perl-opts unshift @A, $perl // $^X, @perl, '--', $0, '+', @pl::opts, '--'; if( $^O !~ /^MSWin/ ) { exec @A; warn $perl // $^X, ": $!\n"; } else { require Win32::ShellQuote; system {$A[0]} Win32::ShellQuote::quote_system_list( @A ); warn $perl // $^X, ": $!\n" if $!; exit; } exit 1; } } use 5.10.0; use strict; { package Data::Dumper; our $Deparse = 1; our $Quotekeys = 0; our $Sortkeys = sub { [&pl::sort_keys] }; our $Terse = 1; } #use warnings; use feature ':'.substr $^V, 1; # Enable latest optional features. use List::Util; use List::Util @List::Util::EXPORT_OK; our( @F, @FIELD, $H, $sort_hex, $I, $ARGIND, %k, %keydiff, %n, %number, $q, $quote, $Q, $Quote, $r, $result, %s, %string, %S, %String, $T, $sort_txt ); # Echo sub e(@) { local( $,, $\ ) = (' ', "\n"); print &pl::pretty } # Echo without newline sub E(@) { local( $,, $\, $| ) = (' ', '', 1); print &pl::pretty } # Format sub f($@) { printf shift() . "\n", &pl::pretty } # Format without newline sub F($@) { local $| = 1; printf shift, &pl::pretty } # Benchmark code sub b(&@) { my( $code, $name, @args ) = @_; local( $a, $b ) = ($a, $b); $name //= 'anonymous'; require Benchmark; local $SIG{__WARN__} = sub { die @_ }; if( @args ) { e Benchmark::timestr( Benchmark::countit( 10, $code )), "$name: $_" for @args; } else { e Benchmark::timestr( Benchmark::countit( 10, $code )), " $name"; } } # Do it 100x for very fast test code (to increase weight compared to Benchmark overhead). sub B(&@) { my( $code, @rest ) = @_; b { for my $i (0..99) { $code->() }} @rest; } # Config sub c(@) { require Config; if( @_ ) { #{map { pairgrep { $a =~ /$_/ } %Config::Config } @_}; # needs 5.20 my %config; while( my( $k, $v ) = each %Config::Config ) { $k =~ $_ and $config{$k} = $v, last for @_; } \%config; } else { \%Config::Config; } } # scalar date time # todo ISO; 5.10 has Time::HiRes sub D(;$$) { my( $s, $us ) = $_[0]; if( ! defined $s || $s < 0 ) { my $o = $s // 0; ( $s, $us ) = eval { require Time::HiRes; Time::HiRes::gettimeofday() }; $s //= time; $s += $o; } elsif( ref $s ) { ( $s, $us ) = @$s; } elsif( $s > 1e14 ) { # so big it must be us? $us = $s % 1000000; $s = $s / 1000000; } elsif( $s > 1e11 ) { # so big it must be ms? $us = ($s % 1000) * 1000; $s = $s / 1000; } elsif( $s - int $s ) { # fractional? $us = ($s - int $s) * 1000000; } $s = $_[1] ? gmtime $s : localtime $s; substr $s, 19, 0, sprintf '.%06d', $us if defined $us; defined wantarray ? $s : e $s; } # turns list of ipv4/6 addresses & hostnames or $_ into /etc/hosts format # todo comment not found sub h(@) { require Socket; package Socket; my( %res, %name ); my $res = sub { my( $v4, $name, $aliases, undef, undef, @addr ) = @_; undef $name{$_} for $name, split ' ', $aliases; for( @addr ) { $_ = unpack 'H*', $_; if( $v4 ) { # make sortable by kind s/^(?=7f)/g/ or # loopback s/^(?=a9fe)/i/ or # link local s/^(?=0a|ac1|c0a8)/k/ or # private substr $_, 0, 0, 'm'; } else { s/^(?=0+1$)/h/ or # loopback s/^(?=fe[89ab])/j/ or # link local s/^(?=fd)/l/ or # private substr $_, 0, 0, 'n'; } @{$res{$_}}{keys %name} = (); # don't just store %name, different names might point to same IP but not vice versa } }; my @unpack = (\&unpack_sockaddr_in6, \&unpack_sockaddr_in); for my $name ( @_ ? @_ : $_ ) { if( exists &getaddrinfo ) { # somewhere > v5.16.3 for( getaddrinfo( $name, undef, {socktype => SOCK_STREAM()} )) { next unless ref; # 1st is return code %name = (); undef $name{$_->{canonname}} if defined $_->{canonname}; my $v4 = $_->{family} == AF_INET(); my $addr = $unpack[$v4]->( $_->{addr} ); my @get = gethostbyaddr( $addr, $_->{family} ); $res->( $v4, @get ? @get : ($name, (undef)x3, $addr) ); } } else { # older perl %name = (); my $addr; my $v6 = $name =~ /:/ || exists &inet_pton; my @get = $v6 ? gethostbyaddr( $addr = inet_pton( AF_INET6(), $name ), AF_INET6()) : $name =~ /[a-z]/i ? gethostbyname( $name ) : gethostbyaddr $addr = inet_aton( $name ), AF_INET(); $res->( ! $v6, @get ? @get : ($name, (undef)x3, $addr) ); } } for( sort keys %res ) { next if 1 == length; # IPv6 on old perl my $ip = pack 'H*', substr $_, 1; ::e 4 == length $ip ? inet_ntoa( $ip ) : inet_ntop( AF_INET6(), $ip ), sort grep ! /^[0-9.]+$|^(?=.*:)[0-9a-f:]+$/i, keys %{$res{$_}}; } } # Fill keydiff arrays sub k(;$$) { my $val; if( @_ > 1 ) { $val = $_[1]; } else { chomp( $val = $_ ); } $k{@_ == 0 ? $1 : $_[0]}[$I] = $val; } sub K(;$$) { my $key = $F[@_ == 0 ? 0 : $_[0]]; if( @_ > 1 ) { k $key, $_[1]; } else { k $key; } } # trim small values from %n sub n(;$) { my $n = $_[0] // 2; $n{$_} < $n and delete $n{$_} for keys %n; } # Pipe command to CODE sub p(&$@) { my $code = shift; open my $fd, "-|", @_ or die "$_[0]: $!\n"; $code->() while <$fd>; } sub help(;$) { if( @_ && ! defined $_[0] ) { print <<\EOF; usage: pl [-b PERLCODE] [-e PERLCODE] [-o] [-VVERSION] [-PERLOPT...] [--] [PERLCODE] [ARG ...] -bprog & -eprog wrap begin/end program around program in same scope, my-vars work. -o assume "for(@A) { ... }" loop around program -O assume "for $A (@A) { ... }" loop around program -p[number] print on each loop (also -o/-O) iteration, at most number times -P[number] like -p, but print only if PERLCODE evaluates to true, like grep -r reset "$." and -p/-P counter for each file -VVERSION rerun with given VERSION, which is just appended to "perl". -zeof-prog add end-of-file program (for -n/-p...) in same scope, my-vars work. --color[=WHEN] colorize the output; WHEN can be 'never', 'always', or 'auto' (the default) These options are handled by perl: EOF p { E if /^\s+-[0acCdDfFiImMntTuUvwWX]/ } $^X, '-h'; } print <<\EOF; Predefined functions: b { } NAME, ARG... benchmark slow CODE for 10s, display NAME, looping over ARGs. B { } NAME, ARG... same, but run CODE 100 times in benchmark, to reduce overhead. c RE... %Config, e.g. c->{sitelib}, optionally only part matching regexps D [ARG][, UTC] Date (from ARG [s, us], us, ms, s or -s), UTC if true e ARG... echo prettified ARGs or $_ with spaces and newline E ARG... same, but no newline f FMT, ARG... format prettified ARGs with newline F FMT, ARG... same, but without newline k [KEY, VALUE] store VALUE or chomped $_ in $k{KEY or $1}[$I] for keydiff K [NUMBER, VALUE] same, but KEY is $F[NUMBER] or $F[0] n [N] trim %n values less than N (default 2) e.g.; -en or -e 'n 5' p { } CMD, ARG... open pipe from CMD and loop over it. Predefined (magic) variables: *A *ARGV $A & @A are aliases to $ARGV & @ARGV $I 0..n index of ARG currently being processed in -o, -n or -p $q ' $Q " %k ()[] at end, sort by keys, print keydiff of $I array elements. Filled by k. %n () at end, sort numerically by values $r undef at end, print it, if defined %s () at end, sort by keys %S () at end, print only values, sorted by keys EOF } # \todo help doc readline test:my { package pl; our %c; # It's annoyingly hard to figure out if all are unique & lexically compatible numbers, or whether to sort textually. sub sort_keys(\%) { my $hash = $_[0]; return () unless keys %$hash; goto TXT if $::T; my( $hex, $perl, $no_oct, %seen, @seen_oct ) = $::H; for( keys %$hash ) { goto TXT if /[^0-9a-fx._+-]/i; $hex = 0, last unless /^[0-9a-f](?:_?[0-9a-f]+)*$/i; goto TXT if exists $seen{hex $_}; undef $seen{hex $_}; } return sort { hex $a <=> hex $b } keys %$hash if $hex; %seen = (); for( keys %$hash ) { unless( $no_oct ||= /^[+-]?0(?=.*[89])/ ) { if( /^[+-]?0(?:b(?:_?[01]+)*|x(?:_?[0-9a-f]+)*)$/i ) { goto TXT if exists $seen{eval $_}; undef $seen{eval $_}; $perl = 1, next; } if( /^[+-]?0(?:_?[0-7]+)*$/ ) { push @seen_oct, $_; # can't decide yet next; } } if( /^[+-]?(?=.)[0-9]*(?:\.[0-9]*)?(?:(?<=.)e[+-]?[0-9]+)?$/i ) { goto TXT if exists $seen{0 + $_}; undef $seen{0 + $_}; next; } goto TXT; } if( $perl ) { goto TXT if $no_oct; for( @seen_oct ) { goto TXT if exists $seen{eval $_}; undef $seen{eval $_}; } return sort { eval $a <=> eval $b } keys %$hash; } else { for( @seen_oct ) { goto TXT if exists $seen{0 + $_}; undef $seen{0 + $_}; } return sort { $a <=> $b } keys %$hash; } TXT: # clearest solution here sort keys %$hash; } sub keydiff() { goto &_keydiff if $c{E} && eval { require Algorithm::Diff }; for my $key ( sort_keys %::k ) { my( $same, $str ) = 1; $#{$::k{$key}} = $I - 1; # lengthen list if needed for( @{$::k{$key}} ) { $str ||= $_ // '$pl::n_a'; $same = $str eq ($_ // '$pl::n_a'); last unless $same; } next if $same; ::e "$c{B}$key$c{E}"; ::e defined() ? "\t$_" : "\t$c{I}n/a$c{E}" for @{$::k{$key}}; } } sub _keydiff() { for my $key ( sort_keys %::k ) { my( $max, $n, $ref ) = (0, 0); for( @{$::k{$key}} ) { next unless defined; $max = length if $max < length; ++$n; if( $ref ) { $ref = Algorithm::Diff::LCS( $ref, [split //] ); } else { $ref = [split //]; } } next if $n == $I && @$ref == $max; ::e "$c{B}$key$c{E}"; $#{$::k{$key}} = $I - 1; # lengthen list if needed for( @{$::k{$key}} ) { if( defined ) { if( ! @$ref ) { substr $_, 0, 0, $c{R}; } elsif( @$ref == length ) { substr $_, 0, 0, $c{G}; } else { my( undef, $idx ) = Algorithm::Diff::LCSidx( $ref, [split //] ); for my $i ( reverse @$idx ) { substr $_, $i + 1, 0, $c{R}; substr $_, $i, 0, $c{G}; } substr $_, 0, 0, $c{R}; s/\e\[3.m(?=\e\[3.m|$)//g; 1 while s/(\e\[3.m)[^\e]+\K\1//; } } else { $_ = "$c{I}n/a"; } ::e "\t$_$c{E}"; } } } sub pretty { map { if( ! defined ) { "$c{I}undef$c{E}"; } elsif( !ref ) { $_; } elsif( eval { $_->can( '(""' ) } ) { "$_"; } else { require Data::Dumper; my $ret = Data::Dumper::Dumper( $_ ); $ret =~ s/;?\n?$//s; $ret; } } @_ ? @_ : $_; } sub getline { { local $\ = ''; print STDERR defined() ? '>> ' : '> ' } my $part = <>; if( defined $part ) { if( defined ) { $_ .= "\n" . $part; } else { $_ = $part; } } else { say ''; exit; } } sub shell { # No my, as that would inject into eval. our $lp = eval { require Lexical::Persistence; Lexical::Persistence->new() }; while( 1 ) { our $lines = undef; for( $lines ) { &getline; &getline while s/\\$//s; if( /\{$/s ) { &getline until /\n\}$/s; } } { package main; $lp ? $lp->do( $lines ) : eval $lines; } warn $@ if $@; } } sub selftest { eval join '', <::DATA>; warn $@ if $@; } } BEGIN { *ARGIND = \$I; *benchmark = \&b; *benchmark100 = \&B; *config = \&c; *Date = \&D; *echo = \&e; *Echo = \&E; *echof = \&f; *Echof = \&F; *FIELD = \@F; *hosts = \&h; *keydiff = *k; *Keydiff = *K; *number = *n; *piped = \&p; *quote = \$q; *Quote = \$Q; *result = \$r, *sort_hex = \$H, *sort_txt = \$T, *string = \%s, *String = \%S, # * = \&; ($I, $q, $Q, $H) = (0, "'", '"', 1); unless( @pl::opts || @A ) { *pl::prog = \&pl::shell; return; } # Assemble a program that works under perl -n, etc., while adding in pl's options. @pl::bit[2, 4, 10, 12, 21] = # Don't pollute eval with my-var ('sub pl::prog { $pl::last = 1;', 'LINE: {', # dummy loop '} continue {', # program didn't do last '$pl::last = 0 }', '}'); while( @pl::opts ) { # no for, need to shift $_ = shift @pl::opts; if( /^--color(?:()|=(a)lways|=(n)ever|=auto)$/s ) { $pl::c = defined( $1 ) || $2 ? 1 : $3 ? 0 : undef; next; } elsif( /[?h]/ ) { help undef; exit; } elsif( /v/ ) { e "This is pl v$VERSION, with perl $^V Copyright 1997-2020, Daniel Pfeiffer Pl may be copied only under the terms of either the Artistic License or the GNU General Public License, which may be found in the Perl 5 source kit."; exit; } if( /([bez])/ ) { my $bit = "\n#line 1 \"-$1 option\"\n" . shift( @pl::opts ) . "\n;"; if( /b/ ) { $pl::bit[0] = $bit; } else { if( /z/ ) { $pl::bit[7] = "\n;INIT { \$pl::Z = sub{$bit} }"; $pl::z = '$pl::Z->(); '; } else { $pl::bit[8] = "\n;END { $bit }"; } } } @pl::bit[3, 13] = (/O/ ? 'for $A (@A) {' : 'for(@A) {', '} continue { ++$I; last if $pl::last }') if /o/i; if( /p([1-9][0-9]*)?/i ) { my $p = $1; $pl::bit[1] = '$pl::p = 0;'; @pl::bit[5, 9] = ('$pl::P = do {', '}') if /P/; $pl::bit[11] = ' ++$pl::p, print or die "-p destination: $!\n"' . (/P/ ? ' if $pl::P;' : ';'); $pl::bit[12] =~ s/0/\$pl::p >= $p/ if $p; } $pl::r = 1 if /r/; } $pl::bit[6] = @A ? "\n#line 1 \"perlcode\"\n" . shift() . ";\n" : ';'; $pl::bit[13] //= # ! -[oO] ' if( $pl::last || eof ) { ++$I; ' . ($pl::r ? 'close A; $pl::p = 0;' : 'if( $pl::last ) { my $d = $.; close A; $. = $d }') . ($pl::z // '') . ' }'; undef $_; @pl::c{qw(B I G R E)} = $pl::c // (-t STDOUT && $^O !~ /^MSWin/) ? map "\e[${_}m", 1, 3, 32, 31, '' : ('')x5; #no warnings 'experimental'; # overridden by -W no strict; #e join '', map $_ // '', @pl::bit; eval join '', map $_ // '', @pl::bit; if( $@ ) { warn $@; exit 255; } } &pl::prog; # will be called repeatedly if -n END { e $r if defined $r; use sort 'stable'; # todo lenint.lenfloat %d/f printf "%8d: %s\n", $n{$_}, $_ for sort { $n{$a} <=> $n{$b} } pl::sort_keys %n; printf "%s: %s\n", $_, pl::pretty $s{$_} for pl::sort_keys %s; e $S{$_} for pl::sort_keys %S; &pl::keydiff if keys %k; } __DATA__ # Code for pl::selftest sub assert($$$) { my( $msg, $exp, $res ) = @_; warn "[[$msg]]\n" if defined $msg; warn pretty " expected: ", $exp, " got: ", $res if defined $exp ? (defined $res ? $exp ne $res : 1) : defined $res; } # Emulate -n from in-memory files. sub n_loop(&@) { my $code = shift; $::I = 0; for my $arg ( @_ ) { open my $fd, '<', \$arg; $::A = "file$::I"; $code->() for <$fd>; ++$::I; } } sub stdout(&) { open my $fd, '>', \my $str; my $orig = select $fd; eval { $_[0]->() }; warn $@ if $@; select $orig; close $fd; $str; } sub test_sort_keys(&$@) { my( $cmp, $msg ) = splice @_, 0, 2; warn "[[sort_$msg]]\n" if defined $msg; my( %x, $prev, $res ); for( 0..9 ) { # Retry, one sorting bug was key order related. @x{@_} = (); if( defined $prev ) { $res = join '|', sort_keys %x; last if $res ne $prev; } else { $prev = join '|', sort_keys %x; } } assert undef, join( '|', $cmp ? sort $cmp @_ : sort @_ ), $res eq $prev ? $res : "$res\n\tand also: $prev"; } warn "Starting tests\n"; # assert assert_ok1 => undef, undef; # assert assert_ok2 => 1, 1; # assert assert_ok3 => '', ''; # assert assert_fail1 => undef, 1; # assert assert_fail2 => 1, undef; # assert assert_fail3 => 0, 1; # assert stdout => "$_\n", stdout \&::e for 'foo', 'bar'; # assert n_loop => "file0 a\n\nfile0 b\nfile1 c\n\nfile2 d\n\nfile2 e\n\nfile2 f\n", # stdout { n_loop { ::e $::A, $_ } "a\nb", "c\n", "d\ne\nf" }; assert D_sec => "Fri Feb 13 23:31:30 2009", ::D 1234567890, 1; assert D_ms => "Fri Feb 13 23:31:30.123000 2009", ::D 1234567890123, 1; assert D_us => "Fri Feb 13 23:31:30.123456 2009", ::D 1234567890123456, 1; assert D_float => "Fri Feb 13 23:31:30.123456 2009", ::D 1234567890.123456, 1; assert D_array => "Fri Feb 13 23:31:30.123456 2009", ::D[1234567890, 123456], 1; assert D_print => "Fri Feb 13 23:31:30.123000 2009\n", stdout { ::D 1234567890123, 1 }; my @l = qw(0 a b c aa bb cc 0b1 0b2 07 08 babe bad be); ( $H, $T ) = 0; test_sort_keys undef, no_hex => @l; $H = 1; test_sort_keys { hex $a <=> hex $b } hex => @l; $T = 1; test_sort_keys undef, hex_txt => @l; $T = 0; test_sort_keys undef, txt => @l, 'z'; test_sort_keys undef, hex_mix => @l, qw(1.1 +2); test_sort_keys undef, hex_dup => @l, 'c_c'; test_sort_keys undef, dupcasehex => @l, 'CC'; test_sort_keys { $a <=> $b } num => qw(-1 -.5 0 1 +2 3 04); @l = qw(-1 0 1 -1.1 .2 +.3 5. -1e-2 +1e-2 -1.e2 -.1e2 1.E2 -0X2 0x0_2 -0b1_1 0B1_1 04 -04); test_sort_keys { eval $a <=> eval $b } pl => @l; test_sort_keys undef, no_oct => @l, '08'; test_sort_keys undef, dupx => @l, '0X2'; test_sort_keys undef, dupn => @l, 100; my $stdin = <<\EOF; e 1 e 2\ , 3 for( 4, 5 ) { e; } EOF #close STDIN; open STDIN, '<', \$stdin; #::e '[[', stdout( \&shell ), ']]'; warn "Ending tests\n"; =head1 NAME pl - Swiss Army Knife of Perl One-Liners =head1 SYNOPSIS There are always those tasks too menial for dedicated script, but still too cumbersome even with the many neat one-liner options of C. This small script fills the gap with many bells & whistles: Various one-letter commands & magic variables (with meaningful aliases too) and more nifty loop options take Perl programming to the command line. List::Util is fully imported. If you pass no program on the command line, starts a simple Perl Shell. How to C values, including from C<@A(RGV)>, with single C<$q(uote)> & double C<$Q(uote)>. Same for hard-to-print values: pl 'echo "${quote}Perl$quote", "$Quote@ARGV$Quote"' one liner pl 'e "${q}Perl$q", "$Q@A$Q"' one liner pl 'echo \"Perl", \@ARGV, undef' one liner pl 'e \"Perl", \@A, undef' one liner Print up to 3 matching lines, resetting count (and C<$.>) for each file: pl -rP3 '/Perl.*one.*liner/' file1 file2 file3 Loop over args, printing each with line ending. And same, SHOUTING: pl -opl '' Perl one liner pl -opl '$_ = uc' Perl one liner Count hits in magic statistics hash C<%n(umber)>: pl -n '++$number{$1} while /(Perl|one|liner)/g' file1 file2 file3 pl -n '++$n{$1} while /(Perl|one|liner)/g' file1 file2 file3 Though they are sometimes slightly, sometimes quite a bit more complicated, most Perl one-liners from the internet work, just by omitting C<-e> or C<-E>. See L for exceptions. =head1 DESCRIPTION I Pl follows Perl's philosophy for one-liners: the one variable solely used in one-liners, C<@F>, is single-lettered. Because not everyone may like that, Pl has it both ways. Everything is aliased both as a word and as a single letter, including Perl's own C<@F> & C<*ARGV>. B<-b> doesn't do a C block. Rather it is in the same scope as your main PERLCODE. So you can use it to initialise C variables. Whereas, if you define a my variable in the main program of a B<-n>, B<-p>, B<-P>, B<-o> or B<-O> loop, it's a new variable each time. This echoes "a c" because B<-e> gives an C block, as a closure of the 1st C<$inner> variable. Perl warns "Variable "$inner" will not stay shared": pl -Ob 'my $outer' -e 'echo $inner, $outer' 'my $inner = $outer = $ARGV' a b c pl -Ob 'my $outer' -e 'e $inner, $outer' 'my $inner = $outer = $A' a b c =head1 EXAMPLES I Only some of these are original. Many have been adapted from the various Perl one-liner pages on the internet. This is no attempt to appropriate ownership, just to show how things are even easier and more concise with pl. All examples, if applicable, use the long names and are repeated for short names. =head2 Dealing with Files =over =item Heads ... I If you want just I, e.g. 10, lines from the head of each file, use the optional number argument to B<-p>, along with B<-r> to reset the count. The program can be empty, but must be present, unless you're reading from stdin: pl -rp10 '' file* If you want the head up to a regexp, use the flip-flop operator, starting with line number 1. Use the print-if-true B<-P> loop option, again with B<-r> to reset the count: pl -rP '1../last/' file* You can combine the two, if you want at most I lines, e.g. 10: pl -rP10 '1../last/' file* =item ... or Tails? I If you want a bigger number of last lines, you need to stuff them in a list; not really worth it. But if you want just 1 last line from each file, the end-of-file B<-z> code (no need to quote, as it has no special characters) can C it for you, capitalized so as to not add another newline (yes, Perl is case sensitive): pl -z Echo '' file* pl -z E '' file* If you want the tail from a line-number (e.g. 99) or a regexp, use the flip-flop operator, starting with your regexp and going till each end-of-file: pl -P '99..eof' file* pl -P '/first/..eof' file* You can even get head and tail (which in programming logic translates to: or), if last line of head comes before 1st line of tail (or actually any number of such disjoint ranges): pl -rP '1../last/ or /first/..eof' file* =item Remove trailing whitespace in each file This print-loops (B<-p>) over each file, replacing it (B<-i>) with the modified output. Line ends are stripped on reading and added on printing (B<-l>), because they are also whitespace (C<\s>). At each end of line, substitute one or more spaces of any kind (incl. DOS newlines) with nothing: pl -pli 's/\s+$//' file* =item Tabify each file This print-loops (B<-p>) over each file, replacing it (B<-i>) with the modified output. At beginning of line and after each tab, 8 spaces or less than 8 followed by a tab are converted to a tab: pl -pi '1 while s/(?:^|\t)\K(?: {1,7}\t| {8})/\t/' file* If you're a fan or half-width tabs, make that: pl -pi '1 while s/(?:^|\t)\K(?: {1,3}\t| {4})/\t/' file* =item Print only 1st occurrence of each line I This counts repetitions of lines in a hash. Print only when the expression is true (B<-P>), i.e. the count was 0: pl -P '!$a{$_}++' file* If you want this per file, you must empty the hash in the end-of-file B<-z> code: pl -Pz '%a = ()' '!$a{$_}++' file* =item Move a line further down in each file Assume we have lines matching "from" followed by lines matching "to". The former shall move after the latter. This loops over each file, replacing it with the modified output. The flip-flop operator becomes true when matching the 1st regexp. Capture something in there to easily recognize it's the first, keep the line in a variable and empty C<$_>. When C<$1> is again true, it must be the last matching line. Append the keep variable to it. pl -pi 'if( /(f)rom/.../(t)o/ ) { if( $1 eq "f" ) { $k = $_; $_ = "" } elsif( $1 ) { $_ .= $k }}' file* =item Delete matching files, except last one If you have many files, which sort chronologically by name, and you want to keep only the last one, it can be quite painful to formulate Shell patterns. So check on each iteration of the B<-o> loop, if the index C<$ARGIND> (or C<$I>) is less than the last, before unlinking (deleting). If you want to test it first, replace C with C: pl -o 'unlink if $ARGIND < $#ARGV' file* pl -o 'unlink if $I < $#A' file* If your resulting list is too long for the Shell, let Perl do it. Beware that the Shell has a clever ordering of files, while Perl does it purely lexically! In the B<-b> begin code the result is assigned to C<@A(RGV)>, as though it had come from the command line. This list is then popped (shortened), instead of checking each time. Since the program doesn't contain special characters, you don't even need to quote it: pl -ob '@ARGV = ; pop' unlink pl -ob '@A = ; pop' unlink You can exclude files by any other criterion as well: pl -ob '@ARGV = grep !/keep-me/, ' unlink pl -ob '@A = grep !/keep-me/, ' unlink =back =head2 File statistics I<42% of statistics are made up! :-)> =over =item Count files per suffix Find and pl both use the B<-0> option to allow funny filenames, including newlines. Sum up encountered suffixes in sort-value-numerically-at-end hash C<%n(umber)>: find -print0 | pl -0ln '++$number{/(\.[^\/.]+)$/ ? $1 : "none"}' find -print0 | pl -0ln '++$n{/(\.[^\/.]+)$/ ? $1 : "none"}' =item Count files per directory per suffix I Match to last C and after a dot following something, i.e. not just a dot-file. C<""> is the suffix for suffixless files. Stores in sort-by-key-and-stringify-at-end C<%s(tring)>. So count in a nested hash of directory & suffix: find -type f -print0 | pl -0ln '/^(.+)\/.+?(?:\.([^.]*))?$/; ++$string{$1}{$2}' find -type f -print0 | pl -0ln '/^(.+)\/.+?(?:\.([^.]*))?$/; ++$s{$1}{$2}' This is the same, but groups by suffix and counts per directory: find -type f -print0 | pl -0ln '/^(.+)\/.+?(?:\.([^.]*))?$/; ++$string{$2}{$1}' find -type f -print0 | pl -0ln '/^(.+)\/.+?(?:\.([^.]*))?$/; ++$s{$2}{$1}' This is similar, but stores in sort-by-number-at-end C<%n(umber)>. Since this matches suffixes optionally, a lone dot indicates no suffix. The downside is that it is neither sorted by directory, nor by suffix: find -type f -print0 | pl -0ln '/^(.+)\/.+?(?:\.([^.]*))?$/; ++$number{"$1 .$2"}' find -type f -print0 | pl -0ln '/^(.+)\/.+?(?:\.([^.]*))?$/; ++$n{"$1 .$2"}' This avoids the lone dot: find -type f -print0 | pl -0ln '/^(.+)\/.+?(?:\.([^.]*))?$/; ++$number{length($2) ? "$1 .$2" : "$1 none"}' find -type f -print0 | pl -0ln '/^(.+)\/.+?(?:\.([^.]*))?$/; ++$n{length($2) ? "$1 .$2" : "$1 none"}' =item Sum up file-sizes per suffix Find separates output with a dot and -F splits on that. The C<\\> is to escape one backslash from the Shell. No matter how many dots the filename contains, 1st element is the size and last is the suffix. Sum it in C<%n(umber)>, which gets sorted numerically at the end: find -name '*.*' -type f -printf "%s.%f\0" | pl -0lF\\. '$number{".$FIELD[-1]"} += $FIELD[0]' find -name '*.*' -type f -printf "%s.%f\0" | pl -0lF\\. '$n{".$F[-1]"} += $F[0]' This is similar, but also deals with suffixless files: find -type f -printf "%s.%f\0" | pl -0lF\\. '$number{@FIELD == 2 ? "none" : ".$FIELD[-1]"} += $FIELD[0]' find -type f -printf "%s.%f\0" | pl -0lF\\. '$n{@F == 2 ? "none" : ".$F[-1]"} += $F[0]' =item Count files per date Incredibly, find has no ready-made ISO date, so specify the 3 parts. If you don't want days, just leave out C<-%Td>. Sum up encountered dates in sort-value-numerically-at-end hash C<%n(umber)>: find -printf '%TY-%Tm-%Td\n' | pl -ln '++$number{$_}' find -printf '%TY-%Tm-%Td\n' | pl -ln '++$n{$_}' =item Count files per date with rollup I Rollup means, additionally to the previous case, sum up dates with the same prefix. The trick here is to count both for the actual year, month and day, as well as replacing once only the day, once also the month with "__", and once also the year with "____". This sorts after numbers and gives a sum for all with the same leading numbers. Use the sort-by-key-at-end hash C<%s(tring)>: find -printf '%TY-%Tm-%Td\n' | pl -ln '++$string{$_}; ++$string{$_} while s/[0-9]+(?=[-_]*$)/"_" x length $&/e' find -printf '%TY-%Tm-%Td\n' | pl -ln '++$s{$_}; ++$s{$_} while s/[0-9]+(?=[-_]*$)/"_" x length $&/e' =back =head2 Diff several inputs by a unique key I The function C stores the 2nd arg or chomped C<$_> in C<%k(eydiff)> keyed by 1st arg or C<$1> and the arg counter C<$ARGIND> (or C<$I>). Its sibling C does the same using 1st arg or 0 as an index into C<@F(IELD)> for the 1st part of the key. At the end only the rows differing between files are shown. If you specify B<--color> and have C the exact difference gets color-highlighted. =over =item Diff several csv, tsv or passwd files by 1st field This assumes no comma in key field and no newline in any field. Else you need a csv-parser package. B<-F> implies B<-a>, which implies B<-n> (even using older than Perl 5.20, which introduced this idea): pl -F, Keydiff *.csv pl -F, K *.csv This is similar, but removes the key from the stored value, so it doesn't get repeated for each file: pl -n 'keydiff if s/(.+?),//' *.csv pl -n 'k if s/(.+?),//' *.csv A variant of csv is tsv, with tab as separator. Tab is C<\t>, which must be escaped from the Shell as C<\\t>: pl -F\\t Keydiff *.tsv pl -F\\t K *.tsv pl -n 'keydiff if s/(.+?)\t//' *.tsv pl -n 'k if s/(.+?)\t//' *.tsv The same, with a colon as separator, if you want to compare passwd files from several hosts: pl -F: Keydiff /etc/passwd passwd* pl -F: K /etc/passwd passwd* pl -n 'keydiff if s/(.+?)://' /etc/passwd passwd* pl -n 'k if s/(.+?)://' /etc/passwd passwd* =item Diff several zip archives by member name This uses the same mechanism as the csv example. Addidionally it reads the output of C for each archive through the C block. That has a fixed format, except for tiny members, which can report -200%, screwing the column by one: pl -o 'piped { keydiff if / Defl:/ && s/^.{56,57}\K (.+)// } "unzip", "-vql", $_' *.zip pl -o 'p { k if / Defl:/ && s/^.{56,57}\K (.+)// } "unzip", "-vql", $_' *.zip If you do a clean build of java, many class files will have the identical crc, but still differ by date. This excludes the date: pl -o 'piped { keydiff $2 if / Defl:/ && s/^.{31,32}\K.{16} ([\da-f]{8}) (.+)/$1/ } "unzip", "-vql", $_' *.jar pl -o 'p { k $2 if / Defl:/ && s/^.{31,32}\K.{16} ([\da-f]{8}) (.+)/$1/ } "unzip", "-vql", $_' *.jar =item Diff several tarballs by member name This is like the zip example. But tar gives no checksum, so this is not very reliable. Each time a wider file size was seen, columns shift right. Reformat the columns, so this doesn't show up as a difference: pl -o 'piped { s/^\S+ \K(.+?) +(\d+) (.{16}) (.+)/sprintf "%-20s %10d %s", $1, $2, $3/e; keydiff $4 } "tar", "-tvf", $_' *.tar *.tgz *.txz pl -o 'p { s/^\S+ \K(.+?) +(\d+) (.{16}) (.+)/sprintf "%-20s %10d %s", $1, $2, $3/e; k $4 } "tar", "-tvf", $_' *.tar *.tgz *.txz Again without the date: pl -o 'piped { s/^\S+ \K(.+?) +(\d+) .{16} (.+)/sprintf "%-20s %10d", $1, $2/e; keydiff $3 } "tar", "-tvf", $_' *.tar *.tgz *.txz pl -o 'p { s/^\S+ \K(.+?) +(\d+) .{16} (.+)/sprintf "%-20s %10d", $1, $2/e; k $3 } "tar", "-tvf", $_' *.tar *.tgz *.txz =item Diff ELF executables by loaded dependencies You get the idea: you can do this for any command that outputs records with a unique key. This one looks at the required libraries and which file they came from. For a change, loop with B<-O> and C<$A(RGV)> to avoid the previous examples' confusion between outer C<$_> which are the cli args, and the inner one, which are the read lines: pl -O 'piped { keydiff if s/^\t(.+\.so.*) => (.*) \(\w+\)/$2/ } ldd => $ARGV' exe1 exe2 lib*.so pl -O 'p { k if s/^\t(.+\.so.*) => (.*) \(\w+\)/$2/ } ldd => $A' exe1 exe2 lib*.so It's even more useful if you use just the basename as a key, because version numbers may change: pl -O 'piped { keydiff $2 if s/^\t((.+)\.so.* => .*) \(\w+\)/$1/ } ldd => $ARGV' exe1 exe2 lib*.so pl -O 'p { k $2 if s/^\t((.+)\.so.* => .*) \(\w+\)/$1/ } ldd => $A' exe1 exe2 lib*.so =back =head2 Looking at Perl I =over =item VERSION of a File Print the first line (B<-P1>) where the substitution was successful. To avoid the hassle of protecting them from (sometimes multiple levels of) Shell quoting, there are variables for single C<$q(uote)> & double C<$Q(uote)>: pl -P1 's/.+\bVERSION\s*=\s*[v$Quote$quote]([0-9.]+).+/$1/' pl pl -P1 's/.+\bVERSION\s*=\s*[v$Q$q]([0-9.]+).+/$1/' pl For multple files, add the filename, and reset (B<-r>) the B<-P> count for each file: pl -rP1 's/.+\bVERSION\s*=\s*[v$Quote$quote]([0-9.]+).+/$ARGV: $1/' *.pm pl -rP1 's/.+\bVERSION\s*=\s*[v$Q$q]([0-9.]+).+/$A: $1/' *.pm =item Only POD or non-POD You can extract either parts of a Perl file, with these commands. Note that they don't take the empty line before into account. If you want that, and you're sure the files adheres strictly to this convention, use the option B<-00P> instead (not exactly as desired, the empty line comes after things, but still, before next thing). If you want only the 1st POD (e.g. NAME & SYNOPSIS) use the option B<-P1> or B<-00P1>: pl -P '/^=\w/../^=cut/' file pl -P 'not /^=\w/../^=cut/' file =item Count Perl Code This makes C<__DATA__> or C<__END__> the last inspected line of (unlike in C!) each file. It strips any comment (not quite reliably, also inside a string). Then it strips leading whitespace and adds the remaining length to print-at-end C<$r(esult)>: pl -ln 'last if /^__(?:DATA|END)__/; s/(?:^|\s+)#.*//s; s/^\s+//; $result += length' *.pm pl -ln 'last if /^__(?:DATA|END)__/; s/(?:^|\s+)#.*//s; s/^\s+//; $r += length' *.pm If you want the count per file, instead of C<$r(esult)> use either sort-lexically C<$string{$ARGV}> (or C<$s{$A}>) or sort-numerically C<$number{$ARGV}> (or C<$n{$A}>). =item Content of a Package Pl's C can print any item. Packages are funny hashes, with two colons at the end. Backslashing the variable passes it as a unit to C, which gets loaded on demand in this case. Otherwise all elements would come out just separated by spaces: pl 'echo \%List::Util::' pl 'e \%List::Util::' =item Library Loading Where does perl load from, and what exactly has it loaded? pl 'echo \@INC, \%INC' pl 'e \@INC, \%INC' Same, for a different Perl version, e.g. if you have F in your path: pl -V5.20.0 'echo \@INC, \%INC' pl -V5.20.0 'e \@INC, \%INC' =item Configuration You get C<%Config::Config> loaded on demand and returned by C: pl 'echo config' pl 'e c' It returns a hash reference, from which you can lookup an entry: pl 'echo config->{sitelib}' pl 'e c->{sitelib}' You can also return a sub-hash, of only the keys matching any regexps you pass: pl 'echo config "random", qr/stream/' pl 'e c "random", qr/stream/' =back =head2 Tables =over =item ISO paper sizes I Can't put the A into the format, because 10 is wider. Uses Perl's lovely list assignment to swap and alternately halve the numbers. Because halving happens before echoing, start with double size: pl '($w, $h) = (1189, 1682); echof "%3s %4dmm x %4dmm", "A$_", ($w, $h) = ($h / 2, $w) for 0..10' pl '($w, $h) = (1189, 1682); f "%3s %4dmm x %4dmm", "A$_", ($w, $h) = ($h / 2, $w) for 0..10' The table could easily be widened to cover B- & C-formats, by extending each list of 2, to an appropriate list of 6, e.g. C<($Aw, $Ah, $Bw, ...)>. But a more algorithmic approach seems better. This fills C<@A(RGV)> in B<-b>, as though it had been given on the command line and prepares a nested list of the 3 initials specs. The format is tripled (with cheat spaces at the beginning). The main PERLCODE loops over C<@A(RGV)>, thanks to B<-O>, doing the same as above, but on anonymous elements of C<@d>: pl -Ob '@ARGV = 0..10; @d = (["A", 1189, 1682], ["B", 1414, 2000], ["C", 1297, 1834])' \ 'echof " %3s %4dmm x %4dmm"x3, map +("$$_[0]$A", ($$_[1], $$_[2]) = ($$_[2] / 2, $$_[1])), @d' pl -Ob '@A = 0..10; @d = (["A", 1189, 1682], ["B", 1414, 2000], ["C", 1297, 1834])' \ 'f " %3s %4dmm x %4dmm"x3, map +("$$_[0]$A", ($$_[1], $$_[2]) = ($$_[2] / 2, $$_[1])), @d' =item ANSI foreground;background color table I What a table, hardly a one-liner... You get numbers to fill into C<"\e[FGm">, C<"\e[BGm"> or C<"\e[FG;BGm"> to get a color and close it with C<"\e[m">. There are twice twice 8 different colors for dim & bright and for foreground & background. Hence the multiplication of escape codes and of values to fill them. This fills C<@A(RGV)> in B<-b>, as though it had been given on the command line. It maps it to the 16fold number format to print the header. Then the main PERLCODE loops over it with C<$A(RGV)>, thanks to B<-O>, to print the body. All numbers are duplicated with C<(N)x2>, once to go into the escape sequence, once to be displayed: pl -Ob '@ARGV = map +($_, $_+8), 1..8; f "co: fg;bg"."%5d"x16, @ARGV' \ 'echof "%2d: \e[%dm%d; ".("\e[%dm%4d "x16)."\e[m", $A, ($A + ($A > 8 ? 81 : 29))x2, map +(($_)x2, ($_+60)x2), 40..47' pl -Ob '@A = map +($_, $_+8), 1..8; f "co: fg;bg"."%5d"x16, @A' \ 'f "%2d: \e[%dm%d; ".("\e[%dm%4d "x16)."\e[m", $A, ($A + ($A > 8 ? 81 : 29))x2, map +(($_)x2, ($_+60)x2), 40..47' This does exactly the same, but explicitly loops over lists C<@co & @bg>: pl '@co = map +($_, $_+8), 1..8; @bg = map +(($_)x2, ($_+60)x2), 40..47; echof "co: fg;bg"."%5d"x16, @co; echof "%2d: \e[%dm%d; ".("\e[%dm%4d "x16)."\e[m", $_, ($_ + ($_ > 8 ? 81 : 29))x2, @bg for @co' pl '@co = map +($_, $_+8), 1..8; @bg = map +(($_)x2, ($_+60)x2), 40..47; f "co: fg;bg"."%5d"x16, @co; f "%2d: \e[%dm%d; ".("\e[%dm%4d "x16)."\e[m", $_, ($_ + ($_ > 8 ? 81 : 29))x2, @bg for @co' =back =head2 Miscellaneous =over =item Triangular Number and Factorial The triangular number is defined as the sum of all numbers from 1 to I, e.g. 1 to 5: pl 'echo sum 1..5' pl 'e sum 1..5' Factorial is the equivalent for products. This requires List::Util as of Perl 5.20 or newer: pl 'echo product 1..5' pl 'e product 1..5' =item Big Math I<2 + 2 = 5 for extremely large values of 2. :-)> With the C modules you can do arbitrary precision math: pl -Mbignum 'echo 123456789012345678901234567890 * 123456789012345678901234567890' pl -Mbignum 'e 123456789012345678901234567890 * 123456789012345678901234567890' pl -Mbignum 'echo 1.23456789012345678901234567890 * 1.23456789012345678901234567890' pl -Mbignum 'e 1.23456789012345678901234567890 * 1.23456789012345678901234567890' pl -Mbigrat 'echo 1/23456789012345678901234567890 * 1/23456789012345678901234567890' pl -Mbigrat 'e 1/23456789012345678901234567890 * 1/23456789012345678901234567890' =item Separate big numbers with commas, ... Loop and print with line-end (B<-opl>) over remaining args in C<$_>. If reading from stdin or files, instead of arguments, use only B<-pl>. After a decimal dot, insert a comma before each 4th comma-less digit. Then do the same backwards from end or decimal dot: pl -opl '1 while s/[,.]\d{3}\K(?=\d)/,/; 1 while s/\d\K(?=\d{3}(?:$|[.,]))/,/' \ 12345678 123456789 1234567890 1234.5678 3.141 3.14159265358 The same for languages with a decimal comma, using either a dot or a space as spacer: pl -opl '1 while s/[,.]\d{3}\K(?=\d)/./; 1 while s/\d\K(?=\d{3}(?:$|[.,]))/./' \ 12345678 12345678 1234567890 1234,5678 3,141 3,141592653589 pl -opl '1 while s/[, ]\d{3}\K(?=\d)/ /; 1 while s/\d\K(?=\d{3}(?:$|[ ,]))/ /' \ 12345678 12345678 1234567890 1234,5678 3,141 3,141592653589 The same for Perl style output with underscores: pl -opl '1 while s/[._]\d{3}\K(?=\d)/_/; 1 while s/\d\K(?=\d{3}(?:$|[._]))/_/' \ 12345678 123456789 1234567890 1234.5678 3.141 3.14159265358 =item Generate a random UUID I This gives a hex number with the characteristic pattern of dashes. The hex format takes only the integral parts of the random numbers: pl '$x = "%04x"; echof "$x$x-$x-$x-$x-$x$x$x", map rand 0x10000, 0..7' pl '$x = "%04x"; f "$x$x-$x-$x-$x-$x$x$x", map rand 0x10000, 0..7' To be RFC 4122 conformant, the 4 version & 2 variant bits need to have standard values. Note that Shell strings can span more than one line: pl '@u = map rand 0x10000, 0..7; ($u[3] /= 16) |= 0x4000; ($u[4] /= 4) |= 0x8000; $x = "%04x"; echof "$x$x-$x-$x-$x-$x$x$x", @u' pl '@u = map rand 0x10000, 0..7; ($u[3] /= 16) |= 0x4000; ($u[4] /= 4) |= 0x8000; $x = "%04x"; f "$x$x-$x-$x-$x-$x$x$x", @u' =item Generate a random password I Use C, which doesn't put spaces between its arguments. Generate twelve random characters between 33 & 127, i.e. printable Ascii characters: pl 'say map chr(33 + rand 94), 1..12' =item DNS lookup I The C function deals with the nerdy details and outputs as a hosts file. The file is sorted by address type (localhost, link local, private, public), version (IPv4, IPv6) and address. You tack on any number of IP-addresses or hostnames, either as Perl arguments or on the command-line via C<@A(RGV)>: pl 'hosts qw(perl.org 127.0.0.1 perldoc.perl.org cpan.org)' pl 'h qw(perl.org 127.0.0.1 perldoc.perl.org cpan.org)' pl 'hosts @ARGV' perl.org 127.0.0.1 perldoc.perl.org cpan.org pl 'h @A' perl.org 127.0.0.1 perldoc.perl.org cpan.org If you don't want it to be sorted, call C for individual addresses: pl 'hosts for qw(perl.org 127.0.0.1 perldoc.perl.org cpan.org)' pl 'h for qw(perl.org 127.0.0.1 perldoc.perl.org cpan.org)' pl -o hosts perl.org 127.0.0.1 perldoc.perl.org cpan.org pl -o h perl.org 127.0.0.1 perldoc.perl.org cpan.org If your input comes from a file, collect it in a list and perform at end (B<-e>): pl -lne 'hosts @list' 'push @list, $_' file pl -lne 'h @list' 'push @list, $_' file =back =head1 COMPATIBILITY Even if it is rarer nowadays, Perl 5.10 is still found out in the wild. Pl tries to accomodate it gracefully, falling back to what works. Dumped data-structures will be formatted with a funny margin and C will find the less IPv6 resolutions, the older your Perl. =head2 Minor Differences with perl -e Known minor differences are: =over =item * don't C, but C is fine =item * in a B<-n> loop C goes straight to the next file instead of behaving like C =item * using C, etc. to implicitly modify C<@A(RGV)> works in B<-b> begin code, but not in your main program (which gets compiled to a function) =item * shenanigans with unbalanced braces won't work =back =head2 Windows Notes Iork Bs Bever Bone Bn Bindows Bystems ;-)> Do yourself a favour and get a real Shell, e.g. from Cygwin or MSYS! If you can't avoid F or F, you will have to first convert all inner quotes to C. Then convert the outer single quotes to double quotes: pl "echo qq{${quote}Perl$quote}, qq{$Quote@ARGV$Quote}" one liner pl "e qq{${q}Perl$q}, qq{$Q@A$Q}" one liner Any help for getting this to work in PowerShell is welcome! While the old Windows 10 terminal understands Ansi escape sequences, it makes it horribly hard to activate them. So they are off by default, requiring B<--color> to override that choice. =for html