=over

=item $PERL_VERSION

=item $^V
X<$^V> X<$PERL_VERSION>

The revision, version, and subversion of the Perl interpreter, represented
as a string composed of characters with those ordinals.  Thus in Perl v5.6.0
it equals C<chr(5) . chr(6) . chr(0)> and will return true for
C<$^V eq v5.6.0>.  Note that the characters in this string value can
potentially be greater than 255.

This variable first appeared in perl 5.6.0; earlier versions of perl will
see an undefined value.

This can be used to determine whether the Perl interpreter executing a
script is in the right range of versions.  (Mnemonic: use ^V for Version
Control.)  Example:

    warn "Hashes not randomized!\n" if !$^V or $^V lt v5.8.1

To convert C<$^V> into its string representation use sprintf()'s
C<"%vd"> conversion:

    printf "version is v%vd\n", $^V;  # Perl's version

See the documentation of C<use VERSION> and C<require VERSION>
for a convenient way to fail if the running Perl interpreter is too old.

See also C<$]> for an older representation of the Perl version.

=back