98 CHAPTER 3 Introduction to Perl Scripting in Perl follows most of the standard conventions we can find in other scripting or programming languages. We can make use of various data structures, such as variables and arrays to store data in our scripts. We can execute commands in a shell, through the use of backticks, in a very similar way as we do in shell scripting with the bash shell. We can make use of arguments, control statements such as loops and conditionals, as well as regular expressions, file I/O, and many of the other standard programming language features. Endnotes [1] Allen J. Perl 5 Version 12.2 documentation. perldoc.perl.org. [Online] 2011. http:// perldoc.perl.org/perl.html#DESCRIPTION. [2] Richardson M. Larry Wall, the guru of Perl. Linux J. [Online] May 1, 1999. [Cited: April 5, 2011.] www.linuxjournal.com/article/3394. [3] Sheppard, D. Beginner's introduction to Perl. perl.com. [Online] October 16, 2000. [Cited: April 5, 2011.] www.perl.com/pub/2000/10/begperl1.html. [4] What is Unix time? UnixTime.info. [Online] 2011. [Cited: April 11, 2011.] http:// unixtime.info/.