compile perl file, specify current buffer, using help effectively

[David Schneider]

I am trying to use emacs as an IDE for perl development.  I think it
would be useful to have a compile command that runs perl on the
current buffer I am editing.  The compile command defaults to make -k.
I want to change it to perl xx where xx is the name of the current
buffer - is there some variable or special syntax I can use to get the
current filename?  More important then the answer, is how do I figure
this out from the help.  I have been using C-h a to try to search the
help.  This gives me lists of commands or variables which may be
related - but I frequently find my questions are still unanswered.