plenv

plenv is a lightweight version management system for the Perl programming language, modeled on tools such as rbenv and pyenv. It allows developers to install, switch, and manage multiple Perl interpreters on a single machine without interfering with system‐wide packages. The core of plenv is a set of Perl binaries placed in a local .plenv directory and a small set of shell shims that intercept Perl commands. When a user runs perl, perl, or perlcc, the shim consults the .plenv settings to determine which interpreter should be executed, thereby giving per‑project isolation.

Key features of plenv include support for installing Perl releases via the perlbrew or plenv install feature, global and local version configuration, recursive version lookup, and use of plenv exec to run commands with a specified interpreter. It integrates with common shell environments such as Bash, Zsh, and Fish, and provides hooks to automatically update shims when new Perl versions are added.

Installation requires cloning the plenv repository from GitHub, adding the ~/.plenv/bin directory to the PATH, and running the setup script. After installation users can install Perl releases by invoking plenv install <release> and set a local version with plenv local <release>. The tool is released under the Perl Artistic License and is maintained by the open‑source community, with a continuous integration pipeline that ensures compatibility across major operating systems.