The Perl DBI
module provides a generic interface for database access. You can write a DBI script that works with many different database engines without change. To use DBI with MySQL, install the following:
-
The
DBI
module. -
The
DBD::mysql
module. This is the DataBase Driver (DBD) module for Perl. -
Optionally, the DBD module for any other type of database server you want to access.
Perl DBI is the recommended Perl interface. It replaces an older interface called mysqlperl
, which should be considered obsolete.
These sections contain information about using Perl with MySQL and writing MySQL applications in Perl:
-
For installation instructions for Perl DBI support, see Section 2.10, “Perl Installation Notes”.
-
For an example of reading options from option files, see Section 7.8.4, “Using Client Programs in a Multiple-Server Environment”.
-
For secure coding tips, see Section 8.1.1, “Security Guidelines”.
-
For debugging tips, see Section 7.9.1.4, “Debugging mysqld under gdb”.
-
For some Perl-specific environment variables, see Section 6.9, “Environment Variables”.
-
For considerations for running on macOS, see Section 2.4, “Installing MySQL on macOS”.
-
For ways to quote string literals, see Section 11.1.1, “String Literals”.
DBI information is available at the command line, online, or in printed form:
-
Once you have the
DBI
andDBD::mysql
modules installed, you can get information about them at the command line with theperldoc
command:$> perldoc DBI $> perldoc DBI::FAQ $> perldoc DBD::mysql
You can also use
pod2man
,pod2html
, and so on to translate this information into other formats. -
For online information about Perl DBI, visit the DBI website, http://dbi.perl.org/. That site hosts a general DBI mailing list.
-
For printed information, the official DBI book is Programming the Perl DBI (Alligator Descartes and Tim Bunce, O'Reilly & Associates, 2000). Information about the book is available at the DBI website, http://dbi.perl.org/.