Until Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, fink binary package and BioPerl binary package for fink were available and it was pretty easy to install BioPerl. However, fink binary package is not available for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or later and it is not easy to install BioPerl on these Macs. Perl (verion 5.6 as of this writing) comes pre-installed with Mac OS X so there really isn't anything to install or configure. You can create a Perl script with any text editor. I use BBEdit from Bare Bones Software since it automatically colors the syntax of your Perl script and is simply the best programmer's text editor available for Mac OS X.
A good setup for Perl on macOS:
- Install 'Command Line Tools for Xcode', either directly or through Xcode, both available from Apple Developer downloads (free registration required). Xcode can also be installed through the App Store application.
- Open the Terminal.app (found in Applications -> Utilities) and copy & paste the command below into it (then press the 'return' key):
- Once this is finished (it takes several minutes), quit the Terminal app.
Perl For Mac Os
If you are interested in the details of the setup above...
Perl For Mac Os X
- To build and install Perl and many of the thousands of useful Perl modules you need to have a compiler. For macOS the easiest way to get a compiler is to install 'Command Line Tools for Xcode' (about 100 Megs), either directly or through Xcode (several Gigs), both available from Apple Developer downloads. Xcode is also available through the App Store application. Some versions of the macOS install DVD or SSD come with the 'developer tools', which contains Xcode. Only the 'unix tools' section of Xcode is actually required, no specific version of Xcode is needed, the latest is available directly through the App Store.
- To interact with the command line and run Perl commands, a terminal application is needed. macOS comes with Terminal.app by default, there are alternatives available as well.
- macOS uses .bash_profile, but most other systems (and instructions) look for .bashrc, this code sets up .bash_profile to also run anything in .bashrc. There are other differences but these are not important to us.
- The Perlbrew website lists many of it's advantages. We recommend it here because it separates your installation from the system Perl, this makes upgrading your OS less likely to cause issues with your own Perl setup. It also means you can use a newer Perl than the default one which comes with your OS.
- App-cpanminus provides the
cpanmtool, which makes installing modules very simple to do.