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Typically, perl is used to interpret a script. You can run a script
explicitly with perl (the % is your command prompt)

% perl scriptname

or

% cat scriptname | perl

That isn't convenient enough, since you'd rather not have to distinguish
what is a real compiled program and what is a script. Therefore, UNIX
shells have a shortcut. If a text file is executable, and the first line
is of the form

#!program [optional program arguments]

the shell executes

program [optional program arguments] scriptname

Note: While there is some leading whitespace to offset the code examples,
all examples should not use the first <tab> - especially this example of
the shell shortcut.
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Example
To start off our program, edit the file mailform, add the first line:

#!/usr/local/bin/perl

(or whatever the location of your perl binary is), save, exit the editor,
and make the program executable:

% chmod +x mailform

# posted by WebRink @ 2:23 PM