The Perl source code is currently kept in a Perforce repository. Generally, only the developers with write access to the repository access it via the Perforce tools.

If you want to get a copy of the latest Perl source code, the easiest way to do this is to use rsync:

rsync -avz rsync://public.activestate.com/perl-current/ .

If you want to get the maintenance branch of perl (currently 5.8.x) instead of the development branch, the appropriate rsync URL is:

rsync -avz rsync://public.activestate.com/perl-5.8.x/ .

This takes care of updating every single item in the source tree to the latest applied patch level, creating files that are new (to your distribution) and setting date/time stamps of existing files to reflect the bleadperl status.

Note that this will not delete any files that were in '.' before the rsync. Once you are sure that the rsync is running correctly, run it with the --delete and the --dry-run options like this:

rsync -avz --delete --dry-run rsync://public.activestate.com/perl-current/ .

This will simulate an rsync run that also deletes files not present in the bleadperl master copy. Observe the results from this run closely. If you are sure that the actual run would delete no files precious to you, you could remove the --dry-run option.

You can than check what patch was the latest that was applied by looking in the file .patch, which will show the number of the latest patch.

If you'd simply like to browse changes online, you can use the Perl Repository Browser.

You may also find the Perl::Repository::APC module, and the scripts it comes with, helpful when working on the Perl source code.

Chia-liang Kao has developed a distributed version control system called SVK, which allows one to mirror remote repositories locally and then work with them using standard version control procedures. Currently, it only supports remote Subversion repositories, but work is being done to include support for others, including Perforce. By the time you read this, that support may be implemented. This will provide yet another way of working with the Perl source code.

For more details on working with the Perl source code, please see the perlhack documentation.