Editing Portal:FreeBSD,OpenBSD,etc (section)

=== Perl and FreeBSD development infrastructure ===

Perl’s removal from the base system did not mean that Perl disappeared from FreeBSD development infrastructure. It changed where Perl was allowed to matter.

The FreeBSD source tree is expected to build without requiring Perl in the base system. That is the practical consequence of the 5.0-era decision. Tools that are required to build and install the core system should not assume a base Perl interpreter.

However, FreeBSD’s wider development infrastructure still includes Perl in several places:

* Perl is heavily represented in the Ports Collection through `p5-*` module ports and Perl-using applications.
* The ports framework contains explicit support for Perl through `USES=perl5` and `USE_PERL5`.
* Developer and maintainer tools may use Perl when they are installed from ports or run in environments where Perl is available.
* FreeBSD’s bug-tracking infrastructure is based on Bugzilla, which is historically a Perl application.

FreeBSD’s Bugzilla customizations are especially notable. The `freebsd/bugzilla` repository describes itself as a set of changes and extensions for Bugzilla used by the FreeBSD project. Its repository listing shows project-specific Perl scripts such as `monthlyexprun.pl`, `sync_freebsd_committers.pl`, and `weeklyreminder.pl`, and GitHub’s language summary lists the repository as mostly Perl.<ref>FreeBSD, “freebsd/bugzilla,” https://github.com/freebsd/bugzilla, accessed July 3, 2026.</ref>

Bugzilla itself has a Perl history. The Bugzilla project says that Bugzilla was originally written in Tcl, but Terry Weissman ported it to Perl in 1998 because Perl seemed more popular and likely to attract contributors.<ref>Bugzilla Project, “About Bugzilla,” https://www.bugzilla.org/about/, accessed July 3, 2026.</ref>

This means Perl remains part of the FreeBSD project’s broader ecosystem even though the operating system base was intentionally made Perl-independent.