CPAN/ports/README

You are probably looking for a binary distribution of Perl.
If so, go directly to

http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ports/index.html

The rest of this file tells is more detail about the
contents of this directory (http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ports/)
but in principle, the above URL should be all you need.

CONTENTS

This directory contains ports (or pointers to such) of Perl

(1) to platforms that the Perl standard source code distribution (S)
does not (yet) support, such as Tandem Guardian.

(2) to platforms where a C compiler is an exception, not the rule,
like for example the Windows platforms and OS/2.

(3) some of the directories here are empty and just contain pointers
back to (S). These are Perl source code archaeology in action:
once upon a time these platforms were not supported in the (S),
but they are now. Examples include Amiga, BeOS, and MPE/iX.

(S) Either

http://www.perl.com/CPAN/src/stable.tar.gz

or

http://www.perl.com/CPAN/src/stable.zip

Grab that, unpack it, start off by reading the README.

BUILDING PERL FROM SOURCE

To build from the (S) you will need a full C compiler and
some sort of compilation environment ('make' or some similar
build tool). If you have a UNIX-like shell environment
(Bourne shell and the usual UNIX utilities like 'tr', 'sed',
and so on), so much the better.

Because Perl's roots are in the UNIX world in general any
UNIX platform should be supported in the (S). If this isn't
the case, please send email to perlbug@perl.com and tell in
excruciating detail what is your UNIX platform. For example
the output of "uname -a" or similar would be handy.

Beware: some platforms which the vendors call UNIX do not
have a full C compiler -- or if they have a 'bundled' one,
it's severely crippled, supplied mainly for compiling the
kernel/device drivers.

Perl requires more than that.

Such crippled platforms include HP-UX and Solaris. Either
you will have to pay for the full C compiler or find
yourself the GNU C compiler (gcc) as a binary distribution.
If you don't know where to start, locate the FAQ for your
platform. If you don't know what that is or where to get
that, use the search engines. If you don't know what those
are, consult your local information systems support. If
they don't know what all the above means, fire them.

--
cpan@perl.org