Do all Mac OS X 10.6 installations have Perl installed by default?

Question

For the Mac OS X application in which the Perl script (Markdown.pl) will be called, I need to know if all installations of Mac OS X 10.6 and later are installed by default. Otherwise, we will have to pack it using the application.

Is this a confirmation, can I safely assume this?

Answer 1

YES.

Mac OS X already has Perl installed. Open the terminal application (in the Utilities folder of your applications folder) and run perl -v to find out which version. http://www.perl.org/get.html

And according to the official Snow Leopard specifications, it comes with Perl, PHP, Ruby, Rails .

This Apple Discussion mentions Perl (5.8.1) as pre-installed with OS X 10.6.x.
(this last one is apparently incorrect. See comments for this answer)

Answer 2

Given that some packages use perl scripts to uninstall / install and never used a Mac that didn't have one; I think this is a pretty safe bet.

Even the Perl website says this: http://www.perl.org/get.html

Answer 3

Yes, I think Snow Leopard has several versions of Perl.

Answer 4

This is a quick google search that will give you the answer:

http://www.google.com/search?q=mac+os+x+perl+default+install

But yes.

Answer 5

While it’s true that the Mac comes with Perl, they obviously don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it. New Xcode disables CPAN . So you may want to stick with pure Perl modules or a standard distribution until this works out. Even then, those people who are not upgrading will be stuck with crippled Perl.

More details: http://deflatermouse.livejournal.com/149721.html

Answer 6

 $ /usr/bin/perl -V Summary of my perl5 (revision 5 version 10 subversion 0) configuration: Platform: osname=darwin, osvers=10.0, archname=darwin-thread-multi-2level uname='darwin neige.apple.com 10.0 darwin kernel version 10.0.0d8: tue may 5 19:29:59 pdt 2009; root:xnu-1437.2~2release_i386 i386 ' config_args='-ds -e -Dprefix=/usr -Dccflags=-g -pipe -Dldflags= -Dman3ext=3pm -Duseithreads -Duseshrplib -Dinc_version_list=none -Dcc=gcc-4.2' hint=recommended, useposix=true, d_sigaction=define useithreads=define, usemultiplicity=define useperlio=define, d_sfio=undef, uselargefiles=define, usesocks=undef use64bitint=define, use64bitall=define, uselongdouble=undef usemymalloc=n, bincompat5005=undef Compiler: cc='gcc-4.2', ccflags ='-arch x86_64 -arch i386 -arch ppc -g -pipe -fno-common -DPERL_DARWIN -fno-strict-aliasing -I/usr/local/include', optimize='-Os', cppflags='-g -pipe -fno-common -DPERL_DARWIN -fno-strict-aliasing -I/usr/local/include' ccversion='', gccversion='4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5646)', gccosandvers='' intsize=4, longsize=8, ptrsize=8, doublesize=8, byteorder=12345678 d_longlong=define, longlongsize=8, d_longdbl=define, longdblsize=16 ivtype='long', ivsize=8, nvtype='double', nvsize=8, Off_t='off_t', lseeksize=8 alignbytes=8, prototype=define Linker and Libraries: ld='gcc-4.2 -mmacosx-version-min=10.6', ldflags ='-arch x86_64 -arch i386 -arch ppc -L/usr/local/lib' libpth=/usr/local/lib /usr/lib libs=-ldbm -ldl -lm -lutil -lc perllibs=-ldl -lm -lutil -lc libc=/usr/lib/libc.dylib, so=dylib, useshrplib=true, libperl=libperl.dylib gnulibc_version='' Dynamic Linking: dlsrc=dl_dlopen.xs, dlext=bundle, d_dlsymun=undef, ccdlflags=' ' cccdlflags=' ', lddlflags='-arch x86_64 -arch i386 -arch ppc -bundle -undefined dynamic_lookup -L/usr/local/lib' Characteristics of this binary (from libperl): Compile-time options: MULTIPLICITY PERL_DONT_CREATE_GVSV PERL_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT PERL_MALLOC_WRAP USE_64_BIT_ALL USE_64_BIT_INT USE_ITHREADS USE_LARGE_FILES USE_PERLIO USE_REENTRANT_API Locally applied patches: /Library/Perl/Updates/<version> comes before system perl directories installprivlib and installarchlib points to the Updates directory Built under darwin Compiled at Jun 24 2009 00:35:27 @INC: /Library/Perl/Updates/5.10.0 /System/Library/Perl/5.10.0/darwin-thread-multi-2level /System/Library/Perl/5.10.0 /Library/Perl/5.10.0/darwin-thread-multi-2level /Library/Perl/5.10.0 /Network/Library/Perl/5.10.0/darwin-thread-multi-2level /Network/Library/Perl/5.10.0 /Network/Library/Perl /System/Library/Perl/Extras/5.10.0/darwin-thread-multi-2level /System/Library/Perl/Extras/5.10.0