#include <EXTERN.h>               /* from the Perl distribution     */
#include <perl.h>                 /* from the Perl distribution     */

static PerlInterpreter *my_perl;  /***    The Perl interpreter    ***/

int main(int argc, char **argv, char **env)
{
  PERL_SYS_INIT3(&argc,&argv,&env);
  my_perl = perl_alloc();
  perl_construct(my_perl);
  PL_exit_flags |= PERL_EXIT_DESTRUCT_END;
  perl_parse(my_perl, NULL, argc, argv, (char **)NULL);
  perl_run(my_perl);
  perl_destruct(my_perl);
  perl_free(my_perl);
  PERL_SYS_TERM();
}

compile:

gcc -o perlinterp perlinterp.c `perl -MExtUtils::Embed -e ccopts -e ldopts`

run:

patg@arjuna:~/patg_proj$ ./perlinterp
use DBI;
Can't load module DBI, dynamic loading not available in this perl.
  (You may need to build a new perl executable which either supports
  dynamic loading or has the DBI module statically linked into it.)
 at /usr/lib/perl5/DBI.pm line 255
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl5/DBI.pm line 255.

Blah!