What you will find here:
    Source code for current and past production versions of perl.
    Most people need either stable.tar.gz or devel.tar.gz (or the
    corresponding ZIP files).

What you will not find here:
    Binary distributions of perl (executable programs) for particular
    platforms.  See the ports directory at the top level of CPAN.
    If your system does not have a C compiler, you should probably be
    looking at that directory; if it does have a C compiler, stick
    around here.  As a special case, if you have a Macintosh, go
    straight to the ports directory anyway.

    Source code for Perl modules.  (See the modules directory at the
    top level of CPAN.)

Main files:

stable.tar.gz
    Source code for a production release of perl which has seen heavy
    use over at least a few months, or which has only minimal changes
    relative to such a release.  This means it is very unlikely to
    have serious problems.  If you would rather be running a perl with
    stable features and probably fewer bugs than the latest version,
    then this version is the one you need.  A UNIX-style tar archive
    compressed by GNU zip (gzip).
devel.tar.gz
    Source code for the latest development release of perl. This code has
    new features and bug fixes relative to the version in stable.tar.gz;
    however, it has not been in use for so long, and so has more bugs that
    we do not know about.  If this does not worry you, this is the version
    for you.  If it does worry you, then you need stable.tar.gz.

stable.zip
    The same thing as stable.tar.gz, except in the form of a PC-style
    ZIP archive.  That means CR-LF line endings.
devel.zip
    The same thing as devel.tar.gz, except in the form of a PC-style
    ZIP archive.  That means CR-LF line endings.

Once you've downloaded one of these archives and unpacked it, you need to
use it to build a binary for your system, then test and install it.  The
file README in the distribution gives license information and brief
instructions; the file INSTALL gives comprehensive instructions.  If you
have a non-UNIX system, see also README.yoursystem -- for example,
README.win32.

Other files and directories:
latest.tar.gz
    Tar archive containing the file you are reading.  Formerly
    (before Perl 5.005) this file used to contain the latest maintenance
    release of Perl (very much like the stable.tar.gz described above).
    The development cycle of the Perl changed, however, so that there are
    more than one "latest" release (at least one maintenance track
    and at least one development track).  Because of these multiple
    tracks a single "latest" would be too ambiguous.  We apologize for
    the confusion and suggest that you grab either the "stable" release
    or the "devel" release, depending on how adventurous you feel.
latest.zip
    The same thing as latest.tar.gz, except in the form of a PC-style
    ZIP archive.
5.0/
    Source archives for all production releases of perl5.  You should
    only need to look here if you have an application which, for some
    reason or another, does not run with the current release of perl5.
    Be aware that only 5.004 and later versions of perl are maintained.
    If you report a genuine bug in such a version, you will probably
    be informed either that it is fixed in the current maintenance
    release, or will be fixed in a subsequent one.  If you report a bug
    in an unmaintained version, you are likely to be advised to upgrade
    to a maintained version which fixes the bug, or to await a fix in a
    maintained version.  No fix will be provided for the unmaintained
    version.
5.0/devel
    Source archives for development versions of perl.  Don't touch
    these unless you enjoy being at the bleeding edge of technology.
5.0/maint
    Source archives for all maintenance releases of perl5.004 and
    later.  (There was no maintenance release mechanism for earlier
    releases of perl.)
5.0/jperl
    Path to patch files needed to adapt particular perl releases for
    use with Japanese character sets.
ENDINGS
    Discussion of the meanings of the endings of filenames (.gz, .ZIP
    and so on).  Read this file if you want to know how to handle a
    source code archive after you've downloaded it.
README
    This file.
misc/
    Third-party and other add-on source packages needed in order to build
    certain perl configurations.  You do not need any of this stuff to
    build a default configuration.
perl5_*.tar.gz
    Source code archives for several recent production releases of perl.
unsupported/
    This is where we hid the source for perl4, which was superseded by
    perl5 years ago.  We would really much rather that you didn't use it.
    It is definitely obsolete and has security and other bugs.
    And, since it's unsupported, it will continue to have them.
CA-97.17.sperl
fixsperl-0
fixsuid5-0.pat
    Files relevant to the CERT Advisory CA-97.17.sperl, a security problem
    found in 'suidperl' back in 1997.  The problem was found both in Perl
    4.036 (the final) (and last) release of Perl 4 and in early versions
    of Perl 5 (pre-5.003).  The bug affects you only if you use an executable
    called 'suidperl', not if you use 'perl'.  These files will help you in
    the (very unlikely) case you need to use (the obsolete and unsupported)
    Perl 4 or the early Perl 5s.

-- 
cpan@perl.org