Perl Course Modules for In-house Perl Training

Combine Modules for Customised Perl Training

Most of our Perl course modules are outlined below. They can be combined in different ways to produce a wide range of specialist Perl courses. Our own "off the shelf" Perl courses are, for example, built in this way.

The modules cover Perl 5 and has been taught to users on: Unix, Linux & MS Windows. The modules have been updated to Perl 5.16.

With judicious selection, a purchasing company can build itself a bespoke Perl training solution from these modules at a fraction of the usual cost.

The vast majority of modules and their hands-on exercises are delivered in a quarter day. A few exceptional modules last a half day, because cross-dependencies in their content dictate a specific sequence of progress.

Please ring our training advisors for help in assembling a course with appropriate content, speed of progress, prerequisite knowledge, and consistent subject matter, etc.

• N.B. GBdirect write fully-bespoke courses for clients in all of our specialist areas of consultancy. If you have such a requirement and the budget for it, please contact our course developers for advice and support.

Listings of our Perl Modules

Preparing to Learn Perl

• About This Course
• What is Perl?
• Perl History
• Perl the Language
• Perl Programming Environment
• Running Perl Programs
• Running Perl Programs on Unix
• Running Perl Programs on Windows
• Very Basic Syntax
• Getting Perl to Help You
• A Sample Program
• Online Help

Perl: the Absolute Minimum

• Enough to Get Started
• A module designed for complete beginners
• The print Command
• Variables
• Scalars — Numbers and Strings
• Literal Numbers
• User Defined Constants
• Literal Strings
• Interpolation into Strings
• Assignment
• Truth in Perl
• Comparison Operators
• Conditional Tests
• Comparing Values
• A Popular Coding Error
• Smart Matching with ~~
• Alternative Tests
• Multiple Tests
• Switch Statements — given/when
• More on given
• for Loops
• while Loops
• unless and until
• use feature & use version #

Perl: Operators and Loops

• Concatenating Strings
• Fancy Assignment
• Assignment Shortcuts
• The Yada Yada Statement
• Autoincrement and Autodecrement
• Complex Conditions
• Short-Circuit Operators
• The Conditional Operator (Ternary Operator)
• Logical Defined-Or //
• Bitwise Operators
• Operator Precedence and Associativity; Sequence Points
• Operator Precedence and Associativity
• Undefined Values
• Overview of Flow Control
• Statement Modifiers
• Flow Control with or
• Flow Control with and
• More Loops
• Loop Control — next & last
• Example of next and last Statement
• redo in loops

Perl: Beyond the Basics

• Quoting Mechanisms
• Disambiguating Interpolation
• Different Quote Symbols
• q, qq, s///, and m//
• Quoting Lists
• Quoting Really Big Strings
• Changing Between Case
• Splitting Strings into Lists
• Joining Elements of Lists
• Filtering Lists with map
• Combining map and join
• Splitting, Mapping and Rejoining
• Using map to Initialise a Hash
• The sort Function
• Custom Sort Orders
• The grep function
• The Importance of Context
• Arrays in Different Contexts
• File Input in Different Contexts
• Difference Between .. & ... Operators
• Functions in Different Contexts
• Providing the Right Context
• Context Pitfalls
• Boolean Context
• void Context
• Special Variables
• Examples of Special Variables
• More Special Variables
• Input and Output Special Variables
• Scope
• Localizing Special Variables
• Using Command-Line Arguments
• Options Processing

Arrays and Hashes

• Arrays and Hashes
• Lists
• Writing Lists
• Arrays — for Storing Lists
• Using Lists and Arrays
• Iterating Over Lists
• Using foreach
• The push Function
• Indexing into Arrays
• Hashes
• Fat comma and hashes
• Arrays: fat comma and hash initialising
• Accessing Elements of a Hash
• Hash Example
• Iterating Over Hashes
• Iterating Over Hashes — Example
• Size of Arrays and Hashes

Complex Data Structures & References

• Limits of Lists
• Nesting Arrays
• References in Arrays
• Dereferencing Array References
• Accessing a Particular Element of an Array Reference
• Arrays of Arrays
• The Data::Dumper
• Flexibility of Nesting Arrays
• Array References are Scalars
• Array Dereferencing Syntax
• Using the Arrow Operator
• Creating a Reference to a Named Array
• Passing Multiple Arrays to Functions
• Returning Multiple Arrays from Functions
• Hashes of Arrays
• Hash References
• Complex Data Structures
• Arrays of Hashes
• Hashes of Hashes
• Code References
• Invoking Code References
• Dispatch Tables

Perl: Input and Functions

• Simple Input
• Providing Standard Input
• Input Example
• Opening Files
• Reading and Writing Files
• Subroutines
• Subroutine Parameters
• Subroutine Parameters — Other Ways
• Calling Subroutines
• Calling Subroutines Without Arguments
• Returning Values from Subroutines
• Function Miscellany
• Persistent Variables

Advanced File Processing

• Opening Files
• File open modes
• Alternative File-Opening Syntaxes
• Predefined File Handles
• Redirection-Style File Opening
• Input and Output
• Controlling Output Formatting
• Controlling Input Formatting
• Reading Paragraphs
• Reading a Whole File
• Reading Fixed-Sized Blocks
• The Flip-Flop Operator
• Handling Binary Files
• Output from Multiple Processes
• Examining Directories
• Examining File Metadata
• File Test Operators
• Symbolic Links
• File Locks
• Locking Files with flock

Text Manipulation with Regular Expressions

• Regular Expressions
• Other Metacharacters
• Regular Expression Examples
• Alternation and Grouping
• Built-in Character Classes
• Built-in Character Class Examples
• Matching Strings
• Matching the Default Variable
• Case-Sensitivity and Matching
• Capturing
• Regular Expression Examples
• Substitution
• Global Substitutions

Advanced Regular Expressions

• Summary of Using Regular Expressions
• Reminder of Regular Expression Syntax
• Different Quote Symbols Revision
• Quoting Lists Revision
• q, qq, s///, and m//
• Writing Regexps More Clearly
• Further Regexp Syntax
• Word Boundaries
• Grouping
• Line Boundaries
• Zero-Width Lookahead Assertions
• Lookbehind Assertions
• Any Character
• Alternation
• Grouping and Backreferences
• Capturing
• Optional Parts of Patterns
• Matching an Exact Number
• Non-Greedy Quantifiers
• Finding Multiple Matches
• Dynamically Making Replacement Text

Finding Out More for Yourself

• So Far
• Perl is Big
• Look Things Up
• Main Perl Documentation
• Perl Doc Taxonomy
• Functions
• FAQs
• Reading the FAQs
• Searching FAQs
• The Perl Cookbook
• Other Perl Books
• Perl Websites
• Knowing What to Look for

Debugging Perl

• Bugs
• Avoiding Bugs
• Perl's Built-in Debugger
• Debugger Documentation
• Using the Debugger
• Debugger Commands
• Advanced Debugger Commands
• Other Debugger Functionality
• Graphical Debugging
• ptkdb
• DDD
• Komodo
• Shunning the Debugger
• Using warn for Debugging
• Carp Module
• Printing Nested Data Structures
• Using the Debugger as a Perl Shell
• Unix and Linux Specific Tools
• Run X-Windows on MS Windows for Perl on Unix/Linux

Command-Line Perl

• General Principles
• Quoting Command-Line Perl Programs
• Command-Line Perl
• Command-Line Perl Syntax
• Using Modules
• Using Perl as a Filter
• Looping Through Input with -n
• Transforming Input with -p
• Editing Files In-Place with -i
• Backing Up In-Place Edits
• Other Command-Line Flags
• Autosplit Mode
• Example: Locale-Aware Downcasing
• Example: grep in Perl
• Example: Unix-Epoch Times
• Example: Summing Input Lines
• Example: Selecting a Range of Lines
• Example: Find Emphasised HTML Words
• Example: Printing Unique Input Words

A Whistle-Stop Tour of the World of Perl

• Built-in Functions
• General String Manipulation
• Extracting Bits of Strings
• Changing the Case of Letters
• Converting Between Strings and Numbers
• Mathematical Operations
• Formatted Strings
• Handling Binary Data
• General List Manipulation
• Adding and Removing from Arrays
• File-System Functions
• Idiomatic Perl Programming
• Handy Tricks with Variables
• Removing Duplicates
• Formatting Text
• Sending Email
• Sending Email — Unix-Specific

Perl Style

• Style Issues
• Indentation
• Identifier Naming
• Naming Variables
• Naming Functions
• Global Variables
• Using $_ for Readability
• High-Level Comments
• Low-Level Comments
• Parentheses
• Quoting
• Program Logic
• Structuring Data
• Modelling the World
• Object Orientation
• Style Resources

Handling Databases with Perl

• Interacting with SQL Databases Using Perl
• Using DBI
• Opening a Connection with DBI
• Example Query
• Running a Query
• Retrieving Records from SELECT
• Retrieving a Single Record
• Retrieving All the Records at Once
• Queries Which Don't Return Records
• SQL Injection Attacks
• Placeholders and Bind Values
• Two Last Notes
• Using ODBC
• Opening a Connection
• Executing Queries
• Fetching Records
• Reading Values from Records
• Other ODBC Methods
• Database Related Modules
• Tieing Hashes to Files
• Sample Database

System Interaction

• Connecting to Other Programs
• Unsafe Pipes
• Using IO::Pipe
• Grabbing a Programs Output
• Other Ways to Run Programs

Perl Security Issues

• Writing Secure Perl
• Taint Checking
• Using Taint Checking
• Dangerous Environment Variables
• Input from Files
• Set-User-ID Perl Programs
• Permissions and Users

Introduction to CGI Programming

• What is CGI?
• A Simple CGI Program
• Running CGI Programs on a Web Server
• Running CGI Programs on Apache
• Running CGI Programs on Microsofts IIS
• Web pages with User Input
• Form Submission & CGI Parameters
• Parsing CGI Parameters with CGI::Lite
• Using Here-Docs
• Queries Using the GET Method
• GET Query Syntax
• Limitations of the GET Method
• POST Queries
• Limitations of the POST Method
• HTML Forms
• Checkbox Controls
• Radio Button Controls
• Submit Button Controls
• Submit Image Controls
• Creating Hyperlinks
• URL Encoding
• Debugging CGI Programs
• Better Error Messages with CGI::Carp
• Displaying Messages in the Browser
• Running CGI Programs at the Command Line
• A Debugging Checklist for CGI Programs
• The CGI Module

Further CGI Programming

• More CGI Issues
• Accessing HTTP Information
• HTTP Information About the Current Page
• Serving Non-HTML Content
• Generating Non-HTML Content
• Client Redirection
• HTTP Status Codes
• Status Codes with Redirection
• Sending Redirection Status Codes
• Maintaining State Across Requests
• Maintaining State with CGI Parameters
• Cookies
• Setting Cookies
• Parsing Cookies
• Using Cookies and CGI Parameters
• Session Handling
• Security of Session IDs
• Generating a Secure Session ID
• Propagating Session IDs
• Sessions Done Easily
• Example of Session Store
• File Upload Forms
• File Upload HTML
• Receiving Uploaded Files
• File Upload Denial-of-Service Issues
• Limitations of CGI
• Alternatives to CGI

Creating Web-Pages with HTML::Template

• Creating Web-Pages
• Using the CGI Module to Produce Web-Pages
• Embedding Perl in HTML
• Achieving Separation
• A Simple HTML::Template Template
• Advantages of HTML::Template
• HTML Character Entities
• Producing Lists
• Conditionals
• Complex Conditionals
• Nesting Structures
• Complex Loop Formatting
• Loop Context Variables
• Including Other Templates
• Deploying HTML::Template
• Flexibility of Using HTML::Template
• Flexibility of Loops
• Changing Templates Used with a Program
• Optional Parameters
• Permitting Optional Parameters
• Finding Out More
• Using HTML::Template
• One Final Point

Creating Web-Pages with HTML::Mason

• Why HTML::Mason ?
• Configuring Apache
• Apache: .mason Files Only
• Mason: Big Picture
• Mason: Concepts
• Escaping Values
• Conditional Values
• Scripted Values
• Formatting HTML
• Calling in Other Components
• Perl Code to Call in Components
• Named Blocks
• <%perl> Blocks
• <%args> Blocks
• Example <%args> Block
• Using the <%args> Block
• Component Arguments in %ARGS and @_
• Component Arguments Via GET and POST
• Example Decoding Arguments Via GET and POST
• <%once> Blocks
• <%init> Blocks
• <%cleanup> Blocks
• <%text> Blocks
• <%doc> Blocks
• <%flags> Blocks
• <%attr> Blocks
• Autohandlers
• Autohandler Example
• Autohandlers for Initialisation
• Autohandler to Open a Database
• Dhandlers
• Finding and Executing a Dhandler
• Comments in Mason

Web Security Issues

• CGI Scripts and Security
• Putting User Input on the Web
• Guest Book Example
• Interpolation of Dangerous Strings
• Removing Special Characters
• Dangerous Strings as File names
• Unsafe Pipes
• Using IO::Pipe
• The Poisoned NUL Character
• File Uploads
• Safe Communication with Databases
• Permissions for CGI Programs

Advanced Miscellany

• Advanced Miscellaneous Things
• 0 but true
• Trapping Run-Time Errors
• Executing Code Fragments in Strings
• Secret Subroutines
• Static Variables
• Interpolating Expression Evaluation into Strings
• Pre-Sizing Array and Hash Variables
• Named Arguments to a Subroutine
• Named Arguments Example
• Coercing Subroutine Arguments
• Disadvantages of Prototypes
• Determining Argument Types
• Determining Return Types
• Slices of Array and Hashes
• deleteing Array & Hash Elements
• Benchmarking Portions of Code
• Magic Constants

Dates and Times

• Dates and Times in Perl
• Time Keeping Concepts
• Built-in Time Functions
• POSIX Functions
• The Time Zone
• The DateTime Modules
• Creation of DateTime Objects
• Obtaining Dates
• Comparing Dates
• Adding Intervals to Dates
• Execution Time

Handling XML Data in Perl

• Xml as a Data Storage and Transfer Format
• Xml::Simple
• Reading an Xml File Back in
• Xml::Simple Options
• KeyAttr Example
• KeyAttr Result
• XML::DOM
• Reading in a CSV File

Using Perl Modules from CPAN

• Perl Modules
• Using Modules
• Standard Modules
• CPAN Modules
• Why Effective Perl Programmers are Efficient CPAN Users
• Finding Modules on CPAN
• Installing Modules
• The cpan Command
• Finding Installed Modules
• Writing Perl Modules
• Perl Module Boilerplate
• Perl Module Boilerplate Explained
• Defining Functions in Modules
• Exporting Functions
• Exporting Functions - II
• Module Variables
• The Exporter
• Module Initialization
• Versions
• POD Plain Old Documentation
• File::Copy
• File::Find
• Text::Wrap

Creating Classes and Objects

• Object-Oriented Perl
• Example Class Use
• Example Class Use: Explanation
• Example Class Implementation
• Class Implementation: Explanation
• Class Constructor Explanation
• Constructors
• What Defines a Constructor?
• Object Methods
• Implementing Object Methods
• Accessing Object Properties
• Interpolating Object Properties and Methods in Strings
• Class Names and File names
• Destructors
• Static Methods
• Dual-Purpose Class & Object Methods
• Inheriting from Other Classes
• Inheriting from Other Classes II
• Inheritance Details
• Singleton Objects
• Example Class: CGI::Page
• CGI::Page Implementation
• Using CGI::Page
• CGI::Page Class Definition
• CGI::Page emit Method
• CGI::Page cgi Method
• CGI::Page Summary

Advanced Object Orientation

• Multiple Inheritance
• Method Lookup
• The UNIVERSAL Base Class
• Autoloading Methods
• Accessor Methods
• Autoloading Accessor Methods
• AUTOLOAD Caveats
• Method Lookup and AUTOLOAD
• AUTOLOAD for Fast Startup
• Automatic Loading of Modules
• Operator Overloading
• Which Operators to Overload
• Example: MyTime
• Cloning of Objects
• Connecting Methods to Operators
• Comparison Operator
• Tying Variables to Modules
• Making a tie-Compatible Module
• Tieing Hashes to Files
• Example: Caseless Hash
• Implementing Tie Modules

Managing Networks with Perl

• Network Name Services
• Network Name Services: the hosts File
• Parsing the hosts File
• NIS
• Querying NIS with Net::NIS
• Iterating Over NIS Maps with Net::NIS
• Caveats for Net::NIS
• DNS
• DNS Zone Files
• Automating Zone File Generation
• Using Perl to Generate Zone Files
• DNS Queries from Perl
• DNS Server Consistency Checking
• Deciding How to Make DNS Queries
• Using nslookup to Make DNS Queries
• Using Net::DNS to Make DNS Queries
• Directory Services
• WHOIS
• Making WHOIS Queries from Perl
• LDAP: Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
• An LDAP Query with Perl
• ADSI: Active Directory Service Interfaces
• ADSI from Perl with Win32::OLE
• Internet Mail
• Sending Mail
• Sending Mail: sendmail on Unix
• Sending Mail: MAPI on Windows
• Sending Mail: Choosing a Perl Module
• Sending Mail: Using Mail::Mailer
• Related Modules

Network Programming with Perl

• Objectives
• Berkeley Sockets
• Socket Domains and Types
• Addresses and Port Numbers
• Servers and Clients
• A Simple Client
• A Simple Client Explained
• Higher Level Socket Modules
• TCP Servers with IO::Socket
• TCP Server Explained
• UDP Clients and Servers
• Receive UDP Message
• UDP Explained
• Unix Domain Sockets
• Multi Client Servers - Forking
• Multi Client Servers - Forking Example
• Multi Client Servers - Select
• Multi Client Servers - Select Example
• Net::FTP — File Transfer Protocol
• LWP - Library for WWW in Perl
• LWP - Automatic Form Filling

Logging with Perl

• Logging with Perl
• Uses of Logs
• Analyzing Logs
• Parsing Text Logs
• Web Access Logs
• Extended Common Log Format
• Reading utmp Files
• Example of Using User::Utmp
• Reading Windows Event Logs
• Writing Logs
• Example Logging Function
• Using Unix syslog
• Using Sys::Syslog
• Rotating Log Files
• Logging with a Database
• Logging Related Modules

Managing Users and Processes with Perl

• User Identity Concepts
• User Information Under Unix
• Unix User Information from Perl: Lookup
• Unix User Information from Perl: Iteration
• Unix Group Information from Perl
• Unix User Information: Another Way
• User Information Under Windows
• User Groups Under Windows
• Windows User Information from Perl
• User Info from Win32::AdminMisc
• Changing User Information
• Process Control
• Unix Process Concepts
• Process Information Under Unix
• Using Proc::ProcessTable
• Windows Process Concepts
• Process Handles
• Scheduling Events
• Filesystem Quotas
• Monitoring User Activity: Unix
• Monitoring User Activity: Windows
• Modules for Users and Processes
• Modules for Filesystems

Using Perl for Securing Your System

• Spotting Unexpected Activity
• Detecting Attempts to Guess Passwords
• Searching for Suspicious Files
• Example of Finding Suspicious Files
• Detecting Changes in Important Files
• Making MD5 Checksums
• Example of Checking Files
• Using SNMP
• General Advice
• Existing Security Tools
• Security Related

References

• Interesting Web Links