The Perl on MacOS Sonoma

Apple continues to include /usr/bin/perl in the macOS installation. Sequoia v15.2 and Sonoma v14.7.2 have Perl v5.34.1. Although as far back as macOS Catalina, Apple had indicated that they would vanquish Python, Ruby, and Perl, they have only removed Python from macOS installations.

If you plan to add additional Perl modules, a newer version of Perl 5, or Raku/Rakudō (Perl 6), then you will need to incorporate a Perl version manager. I happen to stay current with Ruby and thus use the asdf version manager. It supports Ruby, Perl, and many other language plugins. Then you can install and maintain the language version using asdf and switch between your version and the System Perl.

I installed asdf via homebrew:

# homebrew requires the Apple Command Line tools and will install them as part of its installation
brew info asdf
brew deps --tree --installed asdf
brew install asdf

Now you can install the Perl plugin for asdf:

# perl or raku
asdf plugin add perl 
asdf plugin list
# all non-Raku Perl versions (Requires Perl plug-in installed)
asdf list-all perl | more
# install latest or specific Perl version
asdf install perl latest
# make this Perl active not the System Perl
asdf global perl latest
asdf current
asdf info
perl --version

NOTE: It is possible to install a virtual machine and run Linux, however, assuming you have an Apple Silicon Mac (M1, M2, M3, M4, ...), then you should find an ARM64 (Aarch64) version of Linux to run in the virtual machine.

UTM (https://getutm.app) free

VMware Fusion has a free for personal use license

VirtualBox latest release will run an ARM64 (Aarch64) version of Linux

Parallels (paid app), but is the most popular and full featured virtual machine.

But to run Perl, you do not need Linux, and using Homebrew, you can install most of the open source utilities you would normally find on a Linux system, including the most recent version of Perl 5.38.2_1, and get cpan libraries.

/usr/bin/perl -V

Summary of my perl5 (revision 5 version 34 subversion 1) configuration:

  Platform:
    osname=darwin
    osvers=24.0
    archname=darwin-thread-multi-2level
    uname='darwin 5dgj7.p1s.plx.sd.apple.com 24.0 darwin kernel version 22.1.0: thu dec 15 17:42:24 pst 2022; root:xnu-8792.41.9.100.2~1development_x86_64 x86_64 '
    config_args='-ds -e -Dprefix=/usr -Dccflags=-g  -pipe  -Dldflags= -Dman3ext=3pm -Duseithreads -Duseshrplib -Dinc_version_list=none -Dcc=cc'
    hint=recommended
    useposix=true
    d_sigaction=define
    useithreads=define
    usemultiplicity=define
    use64bitint=define
    use64bitall=define
    uselongdouble=undef
    usemymalloc=n
    default_inc_excludes_dot=define
  Compiler:
    cc='cc'
    ccflags =' -g -pipe -DPERL_USE_SAFE_PUTENV'
    optimize='-Os'
    cppflags='-g -pipe'
    ccversion=''
    gccversion='Apple LLVM 16.0.0 (clang-1600.0.25.3) [+internal-os]'
    gccosandvers=''
    intsize=4
    longsize=8
    ptrsize=8
    doublesize=8
    byteorder=12345678
    doublekind=3
    d_longlong=define
    longlongsize=8
    d_longdbl=define
    longdblsize=16
    longdblkind=3
    ivtype='long'
    ivsize=8
    nvtype='double'
    nvsize=8
    Off_t='off_t'
    lseeksize=8
    alignbytes=8
    prototype=define
  Linker and Libraries:
    ld='cc'
    ldflags =' '
    libpth=/AppleInternal/Library/BuildRoots/4b66fb3c-7dd0-11ef-b4fb-4a83e32a47e1/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX15.1.Internal.sdk/usr/local/lib /AppleInternal/Library/BuildRoots/4b66fb3c-7dd0-11ef-b4fb-4a83e32a47e1/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/OSX15.1.xctoolchain/usr/lib/clang/16/lib /AppleInternal/Library/BuildRoots/4b66fb3c-7dd0-11ef-b4fb-4a83e32a47e1/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX15.1.Internal.sdk/usr/lib /AppleInternal/Library/BuildRoots/4b66fb3c-7dd0-11ef-b4fb-4a83e32a47e1/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/lib /usr/lib /usr/local/lib
    libs=
    perllibs=
    libc=
    so=dylib
    useshrplib=true
    libperl=libperl.dylib
    gnulibc_version=''
  Dynamic Linking:
    dlsrc=dl_dlopen.xs
    dlext=bundle
    d_dlsymun=undef
    ccdlflags=' '
    cccdlflags=' '
    lddlflags=' -bundle -undefined dynamic_lookup'


Characteristics of this binary (from libperl):
  Compile-time options:
    HAS_TIMES
    MULTIPLICITY
    PERLIO_LAYERS
    PERL_COPY_ON_WRITE
    PERL_DONT_CREATE_GVSV
    PERL_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT
    PERL_MALLOC_WRAP
    PERL_OP_PARENT
    PERL_PRESERVE_IVUV
    PERL_USE_SAFE_PUTENV
    USE_64_BIT_ALL
    USE_64_BIT_INT
    USE_ITHREADS
    USE_LARGE_FILES
    USE_LOCALE
    USE_LOCALE_COLLATE
    USE_LOCALE_CTYPE
    USE_LOCALE_NUMERIC
    USE_LOCALE_TIME
    USE_PERLIO
    USE_PERL_ATOF
    USE_REENTRANT_API
    USE_THREAD_SAFE_LOCALE
  Locally applied patches:
    /Library/Perl/Updates/<version> comes before system perl directories
    installprivlib and installarchlib points to the Updates directory
  Built under darwin
  Compiled at Sep 28 2024 16:20:11
  @INC:
    /Library/Perl/5.34/darwin-thread-multi-2level
    /Library/Perl/5.34
    /Network/Library/Perl/5.34/darwin-thread-multi-2level
    /Network/Library/Perl/5.34
    /Library/Perl/Updates/5.34.1
    /System/Library/Perl/5.34/darwin-thread-multi-2level
    /System/Library/Perl/5.34
    /System/Library/Perl/Extras/5.34/darwin-thread-multi-2level
    /System/Library/Perl/Extras/5.34

There is a version of Perl installed on macOS. I use it frequently.

If you need a newer version or you need a Perl module not currently on macOS, you could use Homebrew to install what you need

https://brew.sh