If you want Perl 5 for MS-DOS you have three choices.

1) The perl5 'bindist', binary distributions made by Laszlo Molnar.
   Try the subdirectory LMOLNAR.  From there you can find the latest bindist
   as something called perl5.00402-bindist01-dos-djgpp.zip (this means
   the Perl version 5.004_02, this will of course change as time goes by),
   or by its short name, perl542b.zip.  If you download directly to a DOS
   filesystem you probably appreciate the short version.  The readme file
   is available separately as for example
   perl5.00402-bindist01-dos-djgpp.readme.

2) You can use the OS/2 port.  Yes, this works perfectly fine.
   Please read the file dosperlp.txt and follow its instructions.

3) You can grab the file dosperl.zip.  This is a package that
   is supposed to be all that is needed.  The author of this
   package prefers to stay anonymous, though, just because he
   does not have the time to GIVE ANY SUPPORT FOR IT.  There you
   have it: the dosperl.zip should work for you.  If it does not,
   tough.  Try the methods 1) and 2).  Version 5.004_01 or thereabouts,
   not likely to be updated because both the 1) and 2) work.

If you want for some weird reason Perl 4 please read the dosperl2.txt.
You will need the old/perl4 directory, the "big" perl is in there,
the README.bperl* and the bperl* files.  Note: it is really very hard
to imagine a good reason to use Perl 4. *)

NOTE: the item in dosperl2.txt that says "Perl version 5 is not
available for DOS: the author appears to have abandoned the project."
is no more true.  Well, yes, the author that originally did that gave
up -- but see three points above, this is no more true.

*) Well, there is one reason: Perl 4 did fit in a single floppy.
The Perl 5 for MS-DOS doesn't any more.

-- 
cpan@perl.org