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$PERL_VERSION
$^V

The revision, version, and subversion of the Perl interpreter, represented as a version object.

This variable first appeared in perl 5.6.0; earlier versions of perl will see an undefined value. Before perl 5.10.0 $^V was represented as a v-string.

$^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 $^V into its string representation use sprintf()'s "%vd" conversion:

printf "version is v%vd\n", $^V;  # Perl's version

See the documentation of use VERSION and require VERSION for a convenient way to fail if the running Perl interpreter is too old.

See also $] for an older representation of the Perl version.

This variable was added in Perl 5.6.

Mnemonic: use ^V for Version Control.