perl(9)

SYNOPSIS

perl - Practical Extraction and Report Language File.

FILES

hkperl.emf - Practical Extraction and Report Language file hook definition
perl.etf - Practical Extraction and Report Language header template file
perl.eaf - Practical Extraction and Report Language abbreviation file

EXTENSIONS

.pl, .pm - Perl file

MAGIC STRINGS

#![ \t]*/.*perl


MicroEmacs recognizes the magic string on the first line of the file used to locate the executable. The Perl files may be extension-less and are still recognized.

# -*- perl -*-


MicroEmacs recognizes the standard GNU Emacs magic string on the first line of the file. The Perl files may be extension-less and are still recognized.

DESCRIPTION

The perl file type template provides the hilighting, indentation and tools definitions for a perl file.

File recognition is performed using the standard file extension .pl, .pm or by the magic string.

General Editing


On creating a new file, a new header is automatically included into the file. time(2m) is by default enabled, allowing the modification time-stamp to be maintained in the header.

Hilighting


The hilighting features allow commands, variables, logical, comments, strings and characters of the language to be differentiated and rendered in different colors.

Abbreviations


The installation comes with a default abbreviation file for Perl file editing which can be used by writing short abbreviations like "if", "el" (else) or "sub" (subroutine) - and then pressing the key-binding for the expand-abbrev-handle(3) command. The list of abbreviations can be used interactively in the GUI version of MicroEmacs using the abbrev-list(3) command.

Auto Layout


The indentation mechanism is enabled which performs automatic layout of the text. restyle-region(3) and restyle-buffer(3) are available to reformat (re-layout) selected sections of the buffer, or the whole buffer, respectively.

Folding and Information Hiding


Generic folding is enabled within perl files. The folds occur about subroutine definitions located on the left-hand margin and their closing brace which is located at the beginning of a line. collapse-all(3) (un)folds all regions in the file, collapse-current(3) (un)folds the current region.

Navigation via Item List


The Perl mode offers beside folding as well support for displaying an outline of the subroutines for easy navigation using the item-list(3) command.

Tags


A C-tags file may be generated within the editor using the Tools -> Perl-Tools -> Create Tag File. find-tag(2) takes the user to the file using the tag information.

Short Cuts


The short cut keys used within the buffer are:-

C-c C-c - Comment out the current line.
C-c C-d - Uncomment the current line.
C-c esc esc - Command complete.
A-C-i - Restyle the current region.
f2 - (un)fold the current region
f3 - (un)fold all regions
f6 - list items
esc f6 - close item list

Executing, Formatting and Linting Perl Code


The Perl file hook supports the file-exec(3), the file-format(3) and the file-lint(3) macros. The tools which are currently used are the "perl" interpreter, "perltidy" for formatting and "perlcritic" for linting. The latter two should be installable either via your default package manager or using the Perl "cpan" package manager.

Debugging


Debugging a perl script can be done inside MicroEmacs by using the perldb(3) command.

NOTES

The hilighting or the item-list matches are typically extended using a file myperl.emf.

BUGS

The flexibility of the perl language does cause some hilighting anomalies from time to time, typically with unbalanced quote characters. Most of the common exceptions have been caught, however there are a few syntax sequences that involve quotation marks that can cause problems.

SEE ALSO

abbrev-list(3), collapse-all(3), collapse-current(3), expand-abbrev-handle(3), file-exec(3), file-format(3), file-lint(3), indent(2), find-tag(2), item-list(3), perldb(3), perltags(3f), restyle-buffer(3), time(2m).

Supported File Types

(c) Copyright JASSPA 2025
Last Modified: 2025/08/28
Generated On: 2025/09/29