=over =item $PERL_VERSION =item $^V X<$^V> X<$PERL_VERSION> The revision, version, and subversion of the Perl interpreter, represented as a C object. This variable first appeared in perl 5.6.0; earlier versions of perl will see an undefined value. Before perl 5.10.0 C<$^V> was represented as a v-string. C<$^V> can be used to determine whether the Perl interpreter executing a script is in the right range of versions. For example: warn "Hashes not randomized!\n" if !$^V or $^V lt v5.8.1 To convert C<$^V> into its string representation use C's C<"%vd"> conversion: printf "version is v%vd\n", $^V; # Perl's version See the documentation of C and C for a convenient way to fail if the running Perl interpreter is too old. See also C<$]> for an older representation of the Perl version. This variable was added in Perl 5.6. Mnemonic: use ^V for Version Control. =back