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8e07c86e 1=head1 NAME
2
3Install - Build and Installation guide for perl5.
4
5=head1 SYNOPSIS
6
7f678428 7The basic steps to build and install perl5 on a Unix system are:
8e07c86e 8
dc45a647 9 rm -f config.sh Policy.sh
491517e0 10 sh Configure -de
8e07c86e 11 make
12 make test
13 make install
36477c24 14
aa689395 15 # You may also wish to add these:
16 (cd /usr/include && h2ph *.h sys/*.h)
3e3baf6d 17 (installhtml --help)
aa689395 18 (cd pod && make tex && <process the latex files>)
8e07c86e 19
20Each of these is explained in further detail below.
21
491517e0 22The above commands will install Perl to /usr/local or /opt, depending
23on the platform. If that's not okay with you, use
24
25 rm -f config.sh Policy.sh
26 sh Configure
27 make
28 make test
29 make install
30
31Full configuration instructions can be found in the INSTALL file.
32
7beaa944 33For information on non-Unix systems, see the section on
34L<"Porting information"> below.
7f678428 35
8d74ce1c 36If you have problems, corrections, or questions, please see
37L<"Reporting Problems"> below.
38
7beaa944 39For information on what's new in this release, see the
40pod/perldelta.pod file. For more detailed information about specific
41changes, see the Changes file.
c3edaffb 42
e02fdbd2 43IMPORTANT NOTE: 5.005_53 and later releases do not export unadorned
44global symbols anymore. This means most CPAN modules probably won't
45build under this release without adding '-DPERL_POLLUTE' to ccflags
46in config.sh. This is not the default because we want the modules
265f5c4a 47to get fixed *before* the 5.6 release. pod/perldelta.pod contains
e02fdbd2 48additional notes about this.
49
1ec51d55 50=head1 DESCRIPTION
edb1cbcb 51
c3edaffb 52This document is written in pod format as an easy way to indicate its
53structure. The pod format is described in pod/perlpod.pod, but you can
1ec51d55 54read it as is with any pager or editor. Headings and items are marked
55by lines beginning with '='. The other mark-up used is
56
57 B<text> embolden text, used for switches, programs or commands
58 C<code> literal code
59 L<name> A link (cross reference) to name
60
61You should probably at least skim through this entire document before
62proceeding.
c3edaffb 63
eed2e782 64If you're building Perl on a non-Unix system, you should also read
65the README file specific to your operating system, since this may
66provide additional or different instructions for building Perl.
67
203c3eec 68If there is a hint file for your system (in the hints/ directory) you
69should also read that hint file for specific information for your
694a7e45 70system. (Unixware users should use the svr4.sh hint file.) If
71there is a README file for your platform, then you should read
72that too. Additional information is in the Porting/ directory.
203c3eec 73
d6baa268 74=head1 WARNING: This version is not binary compatible with Perl 5.005.
693762b4 75
d6baa268 76If you have dynamically loaded extensions that you built under perl
775.005, you will need to rebuild and reinstall those extensions to use
265f5c4a 78them with 5.6. Pure perl modules should continue to work just fine
d6baa268 79without reinstallation. See the discussions below on L<"Coexistence
80with earlier versions of perl5"> and L<"Upgrading from 5.005 to
265f5c4a 815.6"> for more details.
693762b4 82
83The standard extensions supplied with Perl will be handled automatically.
84
d6baa268 85In a related issue, old modules may possibly be affected by the
693762b4 86changes in the Perl language in the current release. Please see
e02fdbd2 87pod/perldelta.pod (and pod/perl500Xdelta.pod) for a description of
d6baa268 88what's changed. See also your installed copy of the perllocal.pod
89file for a (possibly incomplete) list of locally installed modules.
90Also see CPAN::autobundle for one way to make a "bundle" of your
91currently installed modules.
693762b4 92
5effff0b 93=head1 WARNING: This version requires a compiler that supports ANSI C.
94
95If you find that your C compiler is not ANSI-capable, try obtaining
96GCC, available from GNU mirrors worldwide (e.g. ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu).
d6baa268 97Another alternative may be to use a tool like ansi2knr to convert the
5effff0b 98sources back to K&R style, but there is no guarantee this route will get
99you anywhere, since the prototypes are not the only ANSI features used
d6baa268 100in the Perl sources. ansi2knr is usually found as part of the freely
101available Ghostscript distribution. Another similar tool is
102unprotoize, distributed with GCC. Since unprotoize requires GCC to
5effff0b 103run, you may have to run it on a platform where GCC is available, and move
104the sources back to the platform without GCC.
105
106If you succeed in automatically converting the sources to a K&R compatible
107form, be sure to email perlbug@perl.com to let us know the steps you
108followed. This will enable us to officially support this option.
109
aa689395 110=head1 Space Requirements
eed2e782 111
d6baa268 112The complete perl5 source tree takes up about 15 MB of disk space.
113After completing make, it takes up roughly 20 MB, though the actual
114total is likely to be quite system-dependent. The installation
8d74ce1c 115directories need something on the order of 15 MB, though again that
1ec51d55 116value is system-dependent.
8e07c86e 117
aa689395 118=head1 Start with a Fresh Distribution
8e07c86e 119
edb1cbcb 120If you have built perl before, you should clean out the build directory
121with the command
122
dc45a647 123 make distclean
124
125or
126
edb1cbcb 127 make realclean
c3edaffb 128
dc45a647 129The only difference between the two is that make distclean also removes
130your old config.sh and Policy.sh files.
131
132The results of a Configure run are stored in the config.sh and Policy.sh
133files. If you are upgrading from a previous version of perl, or if you
134change systems or compilers or make other significant changes, or if
135you are experiencing difficulties building perl, you should probably
d6baa268 136not re-use your old config.sh. Simply remove it
8e07c86e 137
d6baa268 138 rm -f config.sh
4633a7c4 139
e57fd563 140If you wish to use your old config.sh, be especially attentive to the
141version and architecture-specific questions and answers. For example,
142the default directory for architecture-dependent library modules
143includes the version name. By default, Configure will reuse your old
144name (e.g. /opt/perl/lib/i86pc-solaris/5.003) even if you're running
145Configure for a different version, e.g. 5.004. Yes, Configure should
146probably check and correct for this, but it doesn't, presently.
147Similarly, if you used a shared libperl.so (see below) with version
148numbers, you will probably want to adjust them as well.
149
d6baa268 150Also, be careful to check your architecture name. For example, some
151Linux distributions use i386, while others may use i486. If you build
152it yourself, Configure uses the output of the arch command, which
153might be i586 or i686 instead. If you pick up a precompiled binary, or
154compile extensions on different systems, they might not all agree on
155the architecture name.
e57fd563 156
157In short, if you wish to use your old config.sh, I recommend running
158Configure interactively rather than blindly accepting the defaults.
8e07c86e 159
d6baa268 160If your reason to reuse your old config.sh is to save your particular
161installation choices, then you can probably achieve the same effect by
162using the Policy.sh file. See the section on L<"Site-wide Policy
163settings"> below. If you wish to start with a fresh distribution, you
164also need to remove any old Policy.sh files you may have with
165
166 rm -f Policy.sh
dc45a647 167
aa689395 168=head1 Run Configure
8e07c86e 169
170Configure will figure out various things about your system. Some
171things Configure will figure out for itself, other things it will ask
d6baa268 172you about. To accept the default, just press RETURN. The default is
173almost always okay. It is normal for some things to be "NOT found",
174since Configure often searches for many different ways of performing
175the same function.
176
177At any Configure prompt, you can type &-d and Configure will use the
178defaults from then on.
8e07c86e 179
180After it runs, Configure will perform variable substitution on all the
1ec51d55 181*.SH files and offer to run make depend.
8e07c86e 182
d6baa268 183=head2 Common Configure options
184
fb73857a 185Configure supports a number of useful options. Run B<Configure -h> to
186get a listing. See the Porting/Glossary file for a complete list of
187Configure variables you can set and their definitions.
188
d6baa268 189=over 4
190
191=item gcc
192
193To compile with gcc you should run
8e07c86e 194
195 sh Configure -Dcc=gcc
196
197This is the preferred way to specify gcc (or another alternative
198compiler) so that the hints files can set appropriate defaults.
199
d6baa268 200=item Installation prefix
4633a7c4 201
8e07c86e 202By default, for most systems, perl will be installed in
8d74ce1c 203/usr/local/{bin, lib, man}. (See L<"Installation Directories">
204and L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> below for
205further details.)
206
207You can specify a different 'prefix' for the default installation
208directory, when Configure prompts you or by using the Configure command
209line option -Dprefix='/some/directory', e.g.
8e07c86e 210
25f94b33 211 sh Configure -Dprefix=/opt/perl
4633a7c4 212
d6baa268 213If your prefix contains the string "perl", then the suggested
214directory structure is simplified. For example, if you use
215prefix=/opt/perl, then Configure will suggest /opt/perl/lib instead of
216/opt/perl/lib/perl5/. Again, see L<"Installation Directories"> below
217for more details.
8e07c86e 218
8d74ce1c 219NOTE: You must not specify an installation directory that is the same
220as or below your perl source directory. If you do, installperl will
221attempt infinite recursion.
84902520 222
d6baa268 223=item /usr/bin/perl
224
225It may seem obvious, but Perl is useful only when users can easily
226find it. It's often a good idea to have both /usr/bin/perl and
dd64f1c3 227/usr/local/bin/perl be symlinks to the actual binary. Be especially
d6baa268 228careful, however, not to overwrite a version of perl supplied by your
229vendor unless you are sure you know what you are doing.
230
231By default, Configure will arrange for /usr/bin/perl to be linked to
232the current version of perl. You can turn off that behavior by running
233
234 Configure -Uinstallusrbinperl
235
236or by answering 'no' to the appropriate Configure prompt.
237
238In any case, system administrators are strongly encouraged to
dd64f1c3 239put (symlinks to) perl and its accompanying utilities, such as perldoc,
4682965a 240into a directory typically found along a user's PATH, or in another
241obvious and convenient place.
242
d6baa268 243=item Overriding an old config.sh
04d420f9 244
d6baa268 245If you want to use your old config.sh but override some of the items
246with command line options, you need to use B<Configure -O>.
247
248=back
8e07c86e 249
203c3eec 250If you are willing to accept all the defaults, and you want terse
251output, you can run
252
253 sh Configure -des
254
255For my Solaris system, I usually use
256
257 sh Configure -Dprefix=/opt/perl -Doptimize='-xpentium -xO4' -des
258
46bb10fb 259=head2 GNU-style configure
260
1ec51d55 261If you prefer the GNU-style configure command line interface, you can
dc45a647 262use the supplied configure.gnu command, e.g.
46bb10fb 263
693762b4 264 CC=gcc ./configure.gnu
46bb10fb 265
dc45a647 266The configure.gnu script emulates a few of the more common configure
46bb10fb 267options. Try
268
693762b4 269 ./configure.gnu --help
46bb10fb 270
271for a listing.
272
d6baa268 273Cross compiling and compiling in a different directory are not supported.
46bb10fb 274
dc45a647 275(The file is called configure.gnu to avoid problems on systems
693762b4 276that would not distinguish the files "Configure" and "configure".)
46bb10fb 277
aa689395 278=head2 Installation Directories
4633a7c4 279
280The installation directories can all be changed by answering the
281appropriate questions in Configure. For convenience, all the
282installation questions are near the beginning of Configure.
d6baa268 283Further, there are a number of additions to the installation
284directories since 5.005, so reusing your old config.sh may not
285be sufficient to put everything where you want it.
4633a7c4 286
7beaa944 287I highly recommend running Configure interactively to be sure it puts
288everything where you want it. At any point during the Configure
d6baa268 289process, you can answer a question with &-d and Configure will use
290the defaults from then on.
291
292The defaults are intended to be reasonable and sensible for most
293people building from sources. Those who build and distribute binary
294distributions or who export perl to a range of systems will probably
295need to alter them. If you are content to just accept the defaults,
296you can safely skip the next section.
297
298The directories set up by Configure fall into three broad categories.
299
300=over 4
301
302=item Directories for the perl distribution
303
265f5c4a 304By default, Configure will use the following directories for 5.6.
d6baa268 305$version is the full perl version number, including subversion, e.g.
265f5c4a 3065.6 or 5.6.1, and $archname is a string like sun4-sunos,
d6baa268 307determined by Configure. The full definitions of all Configure
308variables are in the file Porting/Glossary.
309
310 Configure variable Default value
311 $prefix /usr/local
312 $bin $prefix/bin
313 $scriptdir $prefix/bin
314 $privlib $prefix/lib/perl5/$version
315 $archlib $prefix/lib/perl5/$version/$archname
316 $man1dir $prefix/man/man1
317 $man3dir $prefix/man/man3
318 $html1dir (none)
319 $html3dir (none)
320
321Actually, Configure recognizes the SVR3-style
322/usr/local/man/l_man/man1 directories, if present, and uses those
323instead. Also, if $prefix contains the string "perl", the library
324directories are simplified as described below. For simplicity, only
325the common style is shown here.
326
327=item Directories for site-specific add-on files
328
329After perl is installed, you may later wish to add modules (e.g. from
330CPAN) or scripts. Configure will set up the following directories to
331be used for installing those add-on modules and scripts. $apiversion
265f5c4a 332is the perl version number (without subversion), e.g. 5.6.
d6baa268 333
334 Configure variable Default value
335 $siteprefix $prefix
336 $sitebin $siteprefix/bin
337 $sitescriptdir $siteprefix/bin
338 $sitelib $siteprefix/lib/perl5/site_perl/
339 $sitearch $siteprefix/lib/perl5/site_perl/$apiversion/$archname
340 $siteman1dir $siteprefix/man/man1
341 $siteman3dir $siteprefix/man/man3
342 $sitehtml1dir (none)
343 $sitehtml3dir (none)
344
345By default, ExtUtils::MakeMaker will install architecture-independent
346modules into $sitelib/$apiversion and architecture-dependent modules
347into $sitearch.
348
349=item Directories for vendor-supplied add-on files
350
351Lastly, if you are building a binary distribution of perl for
352distribution, Configure can optionally set up the following directories
353for you to use to distribute add-on modules.
354
355 Configure variable Default value
356 $vendorprefix (none)
357 (The next ones are set only if vendorprefix is set.)
358 $vendorbin $vendorprefix/bin
359 $vendorscriptdir $vendorprefix/bin
360 $vendorlib $vendorprefix/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/
361 $vendorarch $vendorprefix/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/$apiversion/$archname
362 $vendorman1dir $vendorprefix/man/man1
363 $vendorman3dir $vendorprefix/man/man3
364 $vendorhtml1dir (none)
365 $vendorhtml3dir (none)
366
367These are normally empty, but may be set as needed. For example,
368a vendor might choose the following settings:
369
370 $prefix /usr/bin
371 $siteprefix /usr/local/bin
372 $vendorprefix /usr/bin
373
374This would have the effect of setting the following:
375
376 $bin /usr/bin
377 $scriptdir /usr/bin
378 $privlib /usr/lib/perl5/$version
379 $archlib /usr/lib/perl5/$version/$archname
380 $man1dir /usr/man/man1
381 $man3dir /usr/man/man3
382
383 $sitebin /usr/local/bin
384 $sitescriptdir /usr/local/bin
385 $sitelib /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/
386 $sitearch /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/$apiversion/$archname
387 $siteman1dir /usr/local/man/man1
388 $siteman3dir /usr/local/man/man3
389
390 $vendorbin /usr/bin
391 $vendorscriptdir /usr/bin
392 $vendorlib /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/
393 $vendorarch /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/$apiversion/$archname
394 $vendorman1dir /usr/man/man1
395 $vendorman3dir /usr/man/man3
396
397Note how in this example, the vendor-supplied directories are in the
398/usr hierarchy, while the directories reserved for the end-user are in
399the /usr/local hierarchy. Note too how the vendor-supplied
400directories track $apiversion, rather than $version, to ease upgrading
401between maintenance subversions. See L<"Coexistence with earlier
402versions of perl5"> below for more details.
403
404Of course you may use these directories however you see fit. For
405example, you may wish to use $siteprefix for site-specific files that
406are stored locally on your own disk and use $vendorprefix for
407site-specific files that are stored elsewhere on your organization's
408network. One way to do that would be something like
409
410 sh Configure -Dsiteprefix=/usr/local -Dvendorprefix=/usr/share/perl
411
412=item otherlibdirs
413
414As a final catch-all, Configure also offers an $otherlibdirs
415variable. This variable contains a colon-separated list of additional
416directories to add to @INC. By default, it will be set to
417$prefix/site_perl if Configure detects that you have 5.004-era modules
418installed there. However, you can set it to anything you like.
419
420=item Man Pages
1ec51d55 421
d6baa268 422In versions 5.005_57 and earlier, the default was to store module man
423pages in a version-specific directory, such as
424/usr/local/lib/perl5/$version/man/man3. The default for 5.005_58 and
425after is /usr/local/man/man3 so that most users can find the man pages
426without resetting MANPATH.
4633a7c4 427
d6baa268 428You can continue to use the old default from the command line with
4633a7c4 429
265f5c4a 430 sh Configure -Dman3dir=/usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6/man/man3
8d74ce1c 431
d6baa268 432Some users also prefer to use a .3pm suffix. You can do that with
433
434 sh Configure -Dman3ext=3pm
435
436Again, these are just the defaults, and can be changed as you run
437Configure.
438
439=item HTML pages
440
441As of perl5.005_57, the standard perl installation does not do
442anything with HTML documentation, but that may change in the future.
443Further, some add-on modules may wish to install HTML documents. The
444html Configure variables listed above are provided if you wish to
445specify where such documents should be placed. The default is "none",
446but will likely eventually change to something useful based on user
447feedback.
8d74ce1c 448
d6baa268 449=back
8d74ce1c 450
3a6175e1 451Some users prefer to append a "/share" to $privlib and $sitelib
452to emphasize that those directories can be shared among different
453architectures.
4633a7c4 454
8d74ce1c 455Note that these are just the defaults. You can actually structure the
456directories any way you like. They don't even have to be on the same
457filesystem.
458
459Further details about the installation directories, maintenance and
460development subversions, and about supporting multiple versions are
461discussed in L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> below.
462
463If you specify a prefix that contains the string "perl", then the
d6baa268 464library directory structure is slightly simplified. Instead of
465suggesting $prefix/lib/perl5/, Configure will suggest $prefix/lib.
8d74ce1c 466
d6baa268 467Thus, for example, if you Configure with
265f5c4a 468-Dprefix=/opt/perl, then the default library directories for 5.6 are
3a6175e1 469
d6baa268 470 Configure variable Default value
265f5c4a 471 $privlib /opt/perl/lib/5.6
472 $archlib /opt/perl/lib/5.6/$archname
473 $sitelib /opt/perl/lib/site_perl/5.6
474 $sitearch /opt/perl/lib/site_perl/5.6/$archname
4633a7c4 475
aa689395 476=head2 Changing the installation directory
477
478Configure distinguishes between the directory in which perl (and its
479associated files) should be installed and the directory in which it
480will eventually reside. For most sites, these two are the same; for
481sites that use AFS, this distinction is handled automatically.
1ec51d55 482However, sites that use software such as depot to manage software
d6baa268 483packages, or users building binary packages for distribution may also
484wish to install perl into a different directory and use that
485management software to move perl to its final destination. This
486section describes how to do that.
aa689395 487
0dcb58f4 488Suppose you want to install perl under the /tmp/perl5 directory. You
d6baa268 489could edit config.sh and change all the install* variables to point to
490/tmp/perl5 instead of /usr/local, or you could simply use the
491following command line:
492
493 sh Configure -Dinstallprefix=/tmp/perl5
494
495(replace /tmp/perl5 by a directory of your choice).
aa689395 496
693762b4 497Beware, though, that if you go to try to install new add-on
d6baa268 498modules, they too will get installed in under '/tmp/perl5' if you
693762b4 499follow this example. The next section shows one way of dealing with
500that problem.
501
aa689395 502=head2 Creating an installable tar archive
503
504If you need to install perl on many identical systems, it is
505convenient to compile it once and create an archive that can be
d6c1b5d3 506installed on multiple systems. Suppose, for example, that you want to
507create an archive that can be installed in /opt/perl.
508Here's one way to do that:
aa689395 509
d6baa268 510 # Set up to install perl into a different directory,
aa689395 511 # e.g. /tmp/perl5 (see previous part).
d6baa268 512 sh Configure -Dinstallprefix=/tmp/perl5 -Dprefix=/opt/perl -des
aa689395 513 make
514 make test
d6c1b5d3 515 make install # This will install everything into /tmp/perl5.
aa689395 516 cd /tmp/perl5
d6c1b5d3 517 # Edit $archlib/Config.pm and $archlib/.packlist to change all the
fb73857a 518 # install* variables back to reflect where everything will
d6c1b5d3 519 # really be installed. (That is, change /tmp/perl5 to /opt/perl
520 # everywhere in those files.)
521 # Check the scripts in $scriptdir to make sure they have the correct
bfb7748a 522 # #!/wherever/perl line.
aa689395 523 tar cvf ../perl5-archive.tar .
524 # Then, on each machine where you want to install perl,
d6c1b5d3 525 cd /opt/perl # Or wherever you specified as $prefix
aa689395 526 tar xvf perl5-archive.tar
527
dc45a647 528=head2 Site-wide Policy settings
693762b4 529
530After Configure runs, it stores a number of common site-wide "policy"
531answers (such as installation directories and the local perl contact
532person) in the Policy.sh file. If you want to build perl on another
533system using the same policy defaults, simply copy the Policy.sh file
534to the new system and Configure will use it along with the appropriate
535hint file for your system.
536
dc45a647 537Alternatively, if you wish to change some or all of those policy
538answers, you should
539
540 rm -f Policy.sh
541
542to ensure that Configure doesn't re-use them.
543
544Further information is in the Policy_sh.SH file itself.
545
8d74ce1c 546If the generated Policy.sh file is unsuitable, you may freely edit it
547to contain any valid shell commands. It will be run just after the
548platform-specific hints files.
549
265f5c4a 550Note: Since the directory hierarchy for 5.6 contains a number of
d6baa268 551new vendor* and site* entries, your Policy.sh file will probably not
552set them to your desired values. I encourage you to run Configure
553interactively to be sure it puts things where you want them.
554
aa689395 555=head2 Configure-time Options
556
557There are several different ways to Configure and build perl for your
558system. For most users, the defaults are sensible and will work.
559Some users, however, may wish to further customize perl. Here are
560some of the main things you can change.
561
693762b4 562=head2 Threads
aa689395 563
d6baa268 564On some platforms, perl5.005 and later can be compiled with
565experimental support for threads. To enable this, read the file
566README.threads, and then try:
f7542a9d 567
693762b4 568 sh Configure -Dusethreads
aa689395 569
693762b4 570Currently, you need to specify -Dusethreads on the Configure command
571line so that the hint files can make appropriate adjustments.
572
573The default is to compile without thread support.
3fe9a6f1 574
46bb10fb 575=head2 Selecting File IO mechanisms
576
577Previous versions of perl used the standard IO mechanisms as defined in
1ec51d55 578stdio.h. Versions 5.003_02 and later of perl allow alternate IO
46bb10fb 579mechanisms via a "PerlIO" abstraction, but the stdio mechanism is still
580the default and is the only supported mechanism.
581
582This PerlIO abstraction can be enabled either on the Configure command
583line with
584
585 sh Configure -Duseperlio
586
587or interactively at the appropriate Configure prompt.
588
589If you choose to use the PerlIO abstraction layer, there are two
590(experimental) possibilities for the underlying IO calls. These have been
591tested to some extent on some platforms, but are not guaranteed to work
592everywhere.
593
594=over 4
595
596=item 1.
597
1ec51d55 598AT&T's "sfio". This has superior performance to stdio.h in many
aa689395 599cases, and is extensible by the use of "discipline" modules. Sfio
46bb10fb 600currently only builds on a subset of the UNIX platforms perl supports.
601Because the data structures are completely different from stdio, perl
602extension modules or external libraries may not work. This
603configuration exists to allow these issues to be worked on.
604
605This option requires the 'sfio' package to have been built and installed.
bfb7748a 606A (fairly old) version of sfio is in CPAN.
46bb10fb 607
608You select this option by
609
610 sh Configure -Duseperlio -Dusesfio
611
612If you have already selected -Duseperlio, and if Configure detects
613that you have sfio, then sfio will be the default suggested by
614Configure.
615
d6baa268 616Note: On some systems, sfio's iffe configuration script fails to
617detect that you have an atexit function (or equivalent). Apparently,
618this is a problem at least for some versions of Linux and SunOS 4.
619Configure should detect this problem and warn you about problems with
620_exit vs. exit. If you have this problem, the fix is to go back to
621your sfio sources and correct iffe's guess about atexit.
33e6ee5f 622
623There also might be a more recent release of Sfio that fixes your
624problem.
625
46bb10fb 626=item 2.
627
628Normal stdio IO, but with all IO going through calls to the PerlIO
629abstraction layer. This configuration can be used to check that perl and
630extension modules have been correctly converted to use the PerlIO
631abstraction.
632
633This configuration should work on all platforms (but might not).
634
aa689395 635You select this option via:
46bb10fb 636
637 sh Configure -Duseperlio -Uusesfio
638
639If you have already selected -Duseperlio, and if Configure does not
640detect sfio, then this will be the default suggested by Configure.
641
642=back
643
d6baa268 644=head2 Dynamic Loading
645
646By default, Configure will compile perl to use dynamic loading if
647your system supports it. If you want to force perl to be compiled
648statically, you can either choose this when Configure prompts you or
649you can use the Configure command line option -Uusedl.
650
aa689395 651=head2 Building a shared libperl.so Perl library
c3edaffb 652
653Currently, for most systems, the main perl executable is built by
654linking the "perl library" libperl.a with perlmain.o, your static
655extensions (usually just DynaLoader.a) and various extra libraries,
656such as -lm.
657
9d67150a 658On some systems that support dynamic loading, it may be possible to
659replace libperl.a with a shared libperl.so. If you anticipate building
c3edaffb 660several different perl binaries (e.g. by embedding libperl into
661different programs, or by using the optional compiler extension), then
9d67150a 662you might wish to build a shared libperl.so so that all your binaries
c3edaffb 663can share the same library.
664
665The disadvantages are that there may be a significant performance
9d67150a 666penalty associated with the shared libperl.so, and that the overall
aa689395 667mechanism is still rather fragile with respect to different versions
c3edaffb 668and upgrades.
669
670In terms of performance, on my test system (Solaris 2.5_x86) the perl
9d67150a 671test suite took roughly 15% longer to run with the shared libperl.so.
c3edaffb 672Your system and typical applications may well give quite different
673results.
674
675The default name for the shared library is typically something like
a6006777 676libperl.so.3.2 (for Perl 5.003_02) or libperl.so.302 or simply
9d67150a 677libperl.so. Configure tries to guess a sensible naming convention
c3edaffb 678based on your C library name. Since the library gets installed in a
679version-specific architecture-dependent directory, the exact name
680isn't very important anyway, as long as your linker is happy.
681
682For some systems (mostly SVR4), building a shared libperl is required
683for dynamic loading to work, and hence is already the default.
684
685You can elect to build a shared libperl by
686
687 sh Configure -Duseshrplib
688
2bf2710f 689To build a shared libperl, the environment variable controlling shared
690library search (LD_LIBRARY_PATH in most systems, DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH for
c99d408a 691NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP/Rhapsody, LIBRARY_PATH for BeOS, SHLIB_PATH for
2c2d71f5 692HP-UX, LIBPATH for AIX, PATH for cygwin) must be set up to include
2bf2710f 693the Perl build directory because that's where the shared libperl will
d6baa268 694be created. Configure arranges makefile to have the correct shared
2bf2710f 695library search settings.
696
697However, there are some special cases where manually setting the
698shared library path might be required. For example, if you want to run
699something like the following with the newly-built but not-yet-installed
700./perl:
701
702 cd t; ./perl misc/failing_test.t
703or
704 ./perl -Ilib ~/my_mission_critical_test
705
706then you need to set up the shared library path explicitly.
707You can do this with
c3edaffb 708
709 LD_LIBRARY_PATH=`pwd`:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH; export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
710
711for Bourne-style shells, or
712
713 setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH `pwd`
714
2bf2710f 715for Csh-style shells. (This procedure may also be needed if for some
d6baa268 716unexpected reason Configure fails to set up makefile correctly.)
2bf2710f 717
718You can often recognize failures to build/use a shared libperl from error
719messages complaining about a missing libperl.so (or libperl.sl in HP-UX),
720for example:
72118126:./miniperl: /sbin/loader: Fatal Error: cannot map libperl.so
c3edaffb 722
9d67150a 723There is also an potential problem with the shared perl library if you
724want to have more than one "flavor" of the same version of perl (e.g.
725with and without -DDEBUGGING). For example, suppose you build and
a6006777 726install a standard Perl 5.004 with a shared library. Then, suppose you
727try to build Perl 5.004 with -DDEBUGGING enabled, but everything else
9d67150a 728the same, including all the installation directories. How can you
729ensure that your newly built perl will link with your newly built
7f678428 730libperl.so.4 rather with the installed libperl.so.4? The answer is
9d67150a 731that you might not be able to. The installation directory is encoded
56c6f531 732in the perl binary with the LD_RUN_PATH environment variable (or
733equivalent ld command-line option). On Solaris, you can override that
7beaa944 734with LD_LIBRARY_PATH; on Linux you can't. On Digital Unix, you can
0dcb58f4 735override LD_LIBRARY_PATH by setting the _RLD_ROOT environment variable
7beaa944 736to point to the perl build directory.
9d67150a 737
738The only reliable answer is that you should specify a different
739directory for the architecture-dependent library for your -DDEBUGGING
fb73857a 740version of perl. You can do this by changing all the *archlib*
d6baa268 741variables in config.sh to point to your new architecture-dependent library.
9d67150a 742
55479bb6 743=head2 Malloc Issues
744
d6baa268 745Perl relies heavily on malloc(3) to grow data structures as needed,
746so perl's performance can be noticeably affected by the performance of
747the malloc function on your system. The perl source is shipped with a
748version of malloc that has been optimized for the typical requests from
749perl, so there's a chance that it may be both faster and use less memory
750than your system malloc.
55479bb6 751
d6baa268 752However, if your system already has an excellent malloc, or if you are
753experiencing difficulties with extensions that use third-party libraries
754that call malloc, then you should probably use your system's malloc.
755(Or, you might wish to explore the malloc flags discussed below.)
c3edaffb 756
aa689395 757=over 4
758
d6baa268 759=item Using the system malloc
2ae324a7 760
d6baa268 761To build without perl's malloc, you can use the Configure command
aa689395 762
d6baa268 763 sh Configure -Uusemymalloc
aa689395 764
d6baa268 765or you can answer 'n' at the appropriate interactive Configure prompt.
aa689395 766
86058a2d 767=item -DPERL_POLLUTE_MALLOC
768
d6baa268 769Perl's malloc family of functions are called Perl_malloc(),
770Perl_realloc(), Perl_calloc() and Perl_mfree(). The names do not clash
771with the system versions of these functions.
772
773If you add -DPERL_POLLUTE_MALLOC to your ccflags variable in
774config.sh, then Perl's malloc family of functions will have the same
775names as the system versions. This may be sometimes required when you
776have libraries that like to free() data that may have been allocated
777by Perl_malloc() and vice versa.
86058a2d 778
d6baa268 779Note that enabling this option may sometimes lead to duplicate symbols
780from the linker for malloc et al. In such cases, the system probably
781does not allow its malloc functions to be fully replaced with custom
782versions.
86058a2d 783
aa689395 784=back
785
3bf462b8 786=head2 Building a debugging perl
787
788You can run perl scripts under the perl debugger at any time with
3fe9a6f1 789B<perl -d your_script>. If, however, you want to debug perl itself,
3bf462b8 790you probably want to do
791
792 sh Configure -Doptimize='-g'
793
203c3eec 794This will do two independent things: First, it will force compilation
795to use cc -g so that you can use your system's debugger on the
796executable. (Note: Your system may actually require something like
d6baa268 797cc -g2. Check your man pages for cc(1) and also any hint file for
798your system.) Second, it will add -DDEBUGGING to your ccflags
799variable in config.sh so that you can use B<perl -D> to access perl's
800internal state. (Note: Configure will only add -DDEBUGGING by default
801if you are not reusing your old config.sh. If you want to reuse your
802old config.sh, then you can just edit it and change the optimize and
803ccflags variables by hand and then propagate your changes as shown in
804L<"Propagating your changes to config.sh"> below.)
203c3eec 805
806You can actually specify -g and -DDEBUGGING independently, but usually
807it's convenient to have both.
3bf462b8 808
809If you are using a shared libperl, see the warnings about multiple
810versions of perl under L<Building a shared libperl.so Perl library>.
811
aa689395 812=head2 Other Compiler Flags
813
d6baa268 814For most users, all of the Configure defaults are fine. However, you
815can change a number of factors in the way perl is built by adding
816appropriate -D directives to your ccflags variable in config.sh.
203c3eec 817
818You should also run Configure interactively to verify that a hint file
819doesn't inadvertently override your ccflags setting. (Hints files
820shouldn't do that, but some might.)
c3edaffb 821
8d74ce1c 822=head2 Extensions
823
824By default, Configure will offer to build every extension which appears
825to be supported. For example, Configure will offer to build GDBM_File
826only if it is able to find the gdbm library. (See examples below.)
827B, DynaLoader, Fcntl, IO, and attrs are always built by default.
828Configure does not contain code to test for POSIX compliance, so POSIX
829is always built by default as well. If you wish to skip POSIX, you can
830set the Configure variable useposix=false either in a hint file or from
831the Configure command line. Similarly, the Opcode extension is always
832built by default, but you can skip it by setting the Configure variable
833useopcode=false either in a hint file for from the command line.
834
835You can learn more about each of these extensions by consulting the
836documentation in the individual .pm modules, located under the
837ext/ subdirectory.
838
839Even if you do not have dynamic loading, you must still build the
840DynaLoader extension; you should just build the stub dl_none.xs
841version. (Configure will suggest this as the default.)
842
843In summary, here are the Configure command-line variables you can set
844to turn off each extension:
845
846 B (Always included by default)
847 DB_File i_db
848 DynaLoader (Must always be included as a static extension)
849 Fcntl (Always included by default)
850 GDBM_File i_gdbm
851 IO (Always included by default)
852 NDBM_File i_ndbm
853 ODBM_File i_dbm
854 POSIX useposix
855 SDBM_File (Always included by default)
856 Opcode useopcode
857 Socket d_socket
858 Threads usethreads
859 attrs (Always included by default)
860
861Thus to skip the NDBM_File extension, you can use
862
863 sh Configure -Ui_ndbm
864
865Again, this is taken care of automatically if you don't have the ndbm
866library.
867
868Of course, you may always run Configure interactively and select only
869the extensions you want.
870
871Note: The DB_File module will only work with version 1.x of Berkeley
872DB or newer releases of version 2. Configure will automatically detect
873this for you and refuse to try to build DB_File with earlier
874releases of version 2.
875
876If you re-use your old config.sh but change your system (e.g. by
877adding libgdbm) Configure will still offer your old choices of extensions
878for the default answer, but it will also point out the discrepancy to
879you.
880
881Finally, if you have dynamic loading (most modern Unix systems do)
882remember that these extensions do not increase the size of your perl
883executable, nor do they impact start-up time, so you probably might as
884well build all the ones that will work on your system.
885
886=head2 Including locally-installed libraries
887
888Perl5 comes with interfaces to number of database extensions, including
889dbm, ndbm, gdbm, and Berkeley db. For each extension, if
890Configure can find the appropriate header files and libraries, it will
891automatically include that extension. The gdbm and db libraries
892are not included with perl. See the library documentation for
893how to obtain the libraries.
894
d6baa268 895If your database header (.h) files are not in a directory normally
896searched by your C compiler, then you will need to include the
897appropriate -I/your/directory option when prompted by Configure. If
898your database library (.a) files are not in a directory normally
899searched by your C compiler and linker, then you will need to include
900the appropriate -L/your/directory option when prompted by Configure.
901See the examples below.
8d74ce1c 902
903=head2 Examples
904
905=over 4
906
907=item gdbm in /usr/local
908
909Suppose you have gdbm and want Configure to find it and build the
d6baa268 910GDBM_File extension. This example assumes you have gdbm.h
8d74ce1c 911installed in /usr/local/include/gdbm.h and libgdbm.a installed in
912/usr/local/lib/libgdbm.a. Configure should figure all the
913necessary steps out automatically.
914
915Specifically, when Configure prompts you for flags for
916your C compiler, you should include -I/usr/local/include.
917
918When Configure prompts you for linker flags, you should include
919-L/usr/local/lib.
920
921If you are using dynamic loading, then when Configure prompts you for
922linker flags for dynamic loading, you should again include
923-L/usr/local/lib.
924
d6baa268 925Again, this should all happen automatically. This should also work if
926you have gdbm installed in any of (/usr/local, /opt/local, /usr/gnu,
927/opt/gnu, /usr/GNU, or /opt/GNU).
8d74ce1c 928
929=item gdbm in /usr/you
930
931Suppose you have gdbm installed in some place other than /usr/local/,
932but you still want Configure to find it. To be specific, assume you
933have /usr/you/include/gdbm.h and /usr/you/lib/libgdbm.a. You
934still have to add -I/usr/you/include to cc flags, but you have to take
935an extra step to help Configure find libgdbm.a. Specifically, when
936Configure prompts you for library directories, you have to add
937/usr/you/lib to the list.
938
939It is possible to specify this from the command line too (all on one
940line):
941
d6baa268 942 sh Configure -de \
8d74ce1c 943 -Dlocincpth="/usr/you/include" \
944 -Dloclibpth="/usr/you/lib"
945
946locincpth is a space-separated list of include directories to search.
947Configure will automatically add the appropriate -I directives.
948
949loclibpth is a space-separated list of library directories to search.
950Configure will automatically add the appropriate -L directives. If
951you have some libraries under /usr/local/ and others under
952/usr/you, then you have to include both, namely
953
d6baa268 954 sh Configure -de \
8d74ce1c 955 -Dlocincpth="/usr/you/include /usr/local/include" \
956 -Dloclibpth="/usr/you/lib /usr/local/lib"
957
958=back
959
8e07c86e 960=head2 What if it doesn't work?
961
8d74ce1c 962If you run into problems, try some of the following ideas.
963If none of them help, then see L<"Reporting Problems"> below.
964
8e07c86e 965=over 4
966
25f94b33 967=item Running Configure Interactively
968
969If Configure runs into trouble, remember that you can always run
970Configure interactively so that you can check (and correct) its
971guesses.
972
973All the installation questions have been moved to the top, so you don't
aa689395 974have to wait for them. Once you've handled them (and your C compiler and
1ec51d55 975flags) you can type &-d at the next Configure prompt and Configure
25f94b33 976will use the defaults from then on.
977
978If you find yourself trying obscure command line incantations and
979config.over tricks, I recommend you run Configure interactively
980instead. You'll probably save yourself time in the long run.
981
aa689395 982=item Hint files
8e07c86e 983
984The perl distribution includes a number of system-specific hints files
985in the hints/ directory. If one of them matches your system, Configure
986will offer to use that hint file.
987
988Several of the hint files contain additional important information.
f5b3b617 989If you have any problems, it is a good idea to read the relevant hint file
990for further information. See hints/solaris_2.sh for an extensive example.
991More information about writing good hints is in the hints/README.hints
992file.
8e07c86e 993
edb1cbcb 994=item *** WHOA THERE!!! ***
995
996Occasionally, Configure makes a wrong guess. For example, on SunOS
9974.1.3, Configure incorrectly concludes that tzname[] is in the
998standard C library. The hint file is set up to correct for this. You
999will see a message:
1000
1001 *** WHOA THERE!!! ***
1002 The recommended value for $d_tzname on this machine was "undef"!
1003 Keep the recommended value? [y]
1004
1005You should always keep the recommended value unless, after reading the
1006relevant section of the hint file, you are sure you want to try
1007overriding it.
1008
1009If you are re-using an old config.sh, the word "previous" will be
1010used instead of "recommended". Again, you will almost always want
1011to keep the previous value, unless you have changed something on your
1012system.
1013
1014For example, suppose you have added libgdbm.a to your system
1015and you decide to reconfigure perl to use GDBM_File. When you run
1016Configure again, you will need to add -lgdbm to the list of libraries.
bfb7748a 1017Now, Configure will find your gdbm include file and library and will
1018issue a message:
edb1cbcb 1019
1020 *** WHOA THERE!!! ***
1021 The previous value for $i_gdbm on this machine was "undef"!
1022 Keep the previous value? [y]
1023
1ec51d55 1024In this case, you do not want to keep the previous value, so you
c3edaffb 1025should answer 'n'. (You'll also have to manually add GDBM_File to
edb1cbcb 1026the list of dynamic extensions to build.)
1027
8e07c86e 1028=item Changing Compilers
1029
1030If you change compilers or make other significant changes, you should
1ec51d55 1031probably not re-use your old config.sh. Simply remove it or
8e07c86e 1032rename it, e.g. mv config.sh config.sh.old. Then rerun Configure
1033with the options you want to use.
1034
1ec51d55 1035This is a common source of problems. If you change from cc to
1036gcc, you should almost always remove your old config.sh.
8e07c86e 1037
c3edaffb 1038=item Propagating your changes to config.sh
8e07c86e 1039
1ec51d55 1040If you make any changes to config.sh, you should propagate
1041them to all the .SH files by running
1042
1043 sh Configure -S
1044
1045You will then have to rebuild by running
9d67150a 1046
1047 make depend
1048 make
8e07c86e 1049
1050=item config.over
1051
1052You can also supply a shell script config.over to over-ride Configure's
1053guesses. It will get loaded up at the very end, just before config.sh
1054is created. You have to be careful with this, however, as Configure
d6baa268 1055does no checking that your changes make sense.
8e07c86e 1056
1057=item config.h
1058
1ec51d55 1059Many of the system dependencies are contained in config.h.
1060Configure builds config.h by running the config_h.SH script.
1061The values for the variables are taken from config.sh.
8e07c86e 1062
1ec51d55 1063If there are any problems, you can edit config.h directly. Beware,
1064though, that the next time you run Configure, your changes will be
8e07c86e 1065lost.
1066
1067=item cflags
1068
1069If you have any additional changes to make to the C compiler command
1ec51d55 1070line, they can be made in cflags.SH. For instance, to turn off the
1071optimizer on toke.c, find the line in the switch structure for
1072toke.c and put the command optimize='-g' before the ;; . You
1073can also edit cflags directly, but beware that your changes will be
1074lost the next time you run Configure.
8e07c86e 1075
f5b3b617 1076To explore various ways of changing ccflags from within a hint file,
1077see the file hints/README.hints.
1078
1079To change the C flags for all the files, edit config.sh and change either
1080$ccflags or $optimize, and then re-run
1ec51d55 1081
1082 sh Configure -S
1083 make depend
8e07c86e 1084
aa689395 1085=item No sh
8e07c86e 1086
dfe9444c 1087If you don't have sh, you'll have to copy the sample file Porting/config_H
1088to config.h and edit the config.h to reflect your system's peculiarities.
8e07c86e 1089You'll probably also have to extensively modify the extension building
1090mechanism.
1091
d6baa268 1092=item Environment variable clashes
1093
1094Configure uses a CONFIG variable that is reported to cause trouble on
1095ReliantUnix 5.44. If your system sets this variable, you can try
1096unsetting it before you run Configure. Configure should eventually
1097be fixed to avoid polluting the namespace of the environment.
1098
1099=item Digital UNIX/Tru64 UNIX and BIN_SH
1100
1101In Digital UNIX/Tru64 UNIX, Configure might abort with
1102
1103Build a threading Perl? [n]
1104Configure[2437]: Syntax error at line 1 : `config.sh' is not expected.
1105
1106This indicates that Configure is being run with a broken Korn shell
1107(even though you think you are using a Bourne shell by using
1108"sh Configure" or "./Configure"). The Korn shell bug has been reported
1109to Compaq as of February 1999 but in the meanwhile, the reason ksh is
1110being used is that you have the environment variable BIN_SH set to
1111'xpg4'. This causes /bin/sh to delegate its duties to /bin/posix/sh
1112(a ksh). Unset the environment variable and rerun Configure.
1113
1114=item HP-UX 11, pthreads, and libgdbm
1115
1116If you are running Configure with -Dusethreads in HP-UX 11, be warned
1117that POSIX threads and libgdbm (the GNU dbm library) compiled before
1118HP-UX 11 do not mix. This will cause a basic test run by Configure to
1119fail
1120
1121Pthread internal error: message: __libc_reinit() failed, file: ../pthreads/pthread.c, line: 1096
1122Return Pointer is 0xc082bf33
1123sh: 5345 Quit(coredump)
1124
1125and Configure will give up. The cure is to recompile and install
1126libgdbm under HP-UX 11.
1127
c3edaffb 1128=item Porting information
1129
2ae324a7 1130Specific information for the OS/2, Plan9, VMS and Win32 ports is in the
1ec51d55 1131corresponding README files and subdirectories. Additional information,
1132including a glossary of all those config.sh variables, is in the Porting
491517e0 1133subdirectory. Especially Porting/Glossary should come in handy.
c3edaffb 1134
7f678428 1135Ports for other systems may also be available. You should check out
1ec51d55 1136http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ports for current information on ports to
7f678428 1137various other operating systems.
1138
491517e0 1139If you plan to port Perl to a new architecture study carefully the
1140section titled "Philosophical Issues in Patching and Porting Perl"
1141in the file Porting/pumpkin.pod and the file Porting/patching.pod.
1142Study also how other non-UNIX ports have solved problems.
1143
8e07c86e 1144=back
1145
1146=head1 make depend
1147
bfb7748a 1148This will look for all the includes. The output is stored in makefile.
1149The only difference between Makefile and makefile is the dependencies at
1150the bottom of makefile. If you have to make any changes, you should edit
1151makefile, not Makefile since the Unix make command reads makefile first.
1152(On non-Unix systems, the output may be stored in a different file.
1153Check the value of $firstmakefile in your config.sh if in doubt.)
8e07c86e 1154
1155Configure will offer to do this step for you, so it isn't listed
1156explicitly above.
1157
1158=head1 make
1159
1160This will attempt to make perl in the current directory.
1161
8d74ce1c 1162=head2 What if it doesn't work?
1163
8e07c86e 1164If you can't compile successfully, try some of the following ideas.
7f678428 1165If none of them help, and careful reading of the error message and
8d74ce1c 1166the relevant manual pages on your system doesn't help,
1167then see L<"Reporting Problems"> below.
8e07c86e 1168
1169=over 4
1170
1ec51d55 1171=item hints
8e07c86e 1172
1173If you used a hint file, try reading the comments in the hint file
1174for further tips and information.
1175
1ec51d55 1176=item extensions
8e07c86e 1177
1ec51d55 1178If you can successfully build miniperl, but the process crashes
c3edaffb 1179during the building of extensions, you should run
1180
3a6175e1 1181 make minitest
c3edaffb 1182
1183to test your version of miniperl.
1184
e57fd563 1185=item locale
1186
bfb7748a 1187If you have any locale-related environment variables set, try unsetting
1188them. I have some reports that some versions of IRIX hang while
1189running B<./miniperl configpm> with locales other than the C locale.
1190See the discussion under L<"make test"> below about locales and the
1191whole L<"Locale problems"> section in the file pod/perllocale.pod.
3e6e419a 1192The latter is especially useful if you see something like this
1193
1194 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
1195 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
1196 LC_ALL = "En_US",
1197 LANG = (unset)
1198 are supported and installed on your system.
1199 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
1200
1201at Perl startup.
e57fd563 1202
7f678428 1203=item varargs
c3edaffb 1204
1205If you get varargs problems with gcc, be sure that gcc is installed
bfb7748a 1206correctly and that you are not passing -I/usr/include to gcc. When using
1207gcc, you should probably have i_stdarg='define' and i_varargs='undef'
1208in config.sh. The problem is usually solved by running fixincludes
1209correctly. If you do change config.sh, don't forget to propagate
1210your changes (see L<"Propagating your changes to config.sh"> below).
7f678428 1211See also the L<"vsprintf"> item below.
c3edaffb 1212
bfb7748a 1213=item util.c
c3edaffb 1214
1215If you get error messages such as the following (the exact line
bfb7748a 1216numbers and function name may vary in different versions of perl):
c3edaffb 1217
bfb7748a 1218 util.c: In function `Perl_form':
1219 util.c:1107: number of arguments doesn't match prototype
1220 proto.h:125: prototype declaration
c3edaffb 1221
1222it might well be a symptom of the gcc "varargs problem". See the
7f678428 1223previous L<"varargs"> item.
c3edaffb 1224
9d67150a 1225=item Solaris and SunOS dynamic loading
c3edaffb 1226
1227If you have problems with dynamic loading using gcc on SunOS or
1228Solaris, and you are using GNU as and GNU ld, you may need to add
1ec51d55 1229-B/bin/ (for SunOS) or -B/usr/ccs/bin/ (for Solaris) to your
c3edaffb 1230$ccflags, $ldflags, and $lddlflags so that the system's versions of as
6877a1cf 1231and ld are used. Note that the trailing '/' is required.
1232Alternatively, you can use the GCC_EXEC_PREFIX
c3edaffb 1233environment variable to ensure that Sun's as and ld are used. Consult
1ec51d55 1234your gcc documentation for further information on the -B option and
c3edaffb 1235the GCC_EXEC_PREFIX variable.
1236
7beaa944 1237One convenient way to ensure you are not using GNU as and ld is to
1238invoke Configure with
1239
1240 sh Configure -Dcc='gcc -B/usr/ccs/bin/'
1241
1242for Solaris systems. For a SunOS system, you must use -B/bin/
1243instead.
1244
84902520 1245Alternatively, recent versions of GNU ld reportedly work if you
1246include C<-Wl,-export-dynamic> in the ccdlflags variable in
1247config.sh.
1248
9d67150a 1249=item ld.so.1: ./perl: fatal: relocation error:
1250
1251If you get this message on SunOS or Solaris, and you're using gcc,
7f678428 1252it's probably the GNU as or GNU ld problem in the previous item
1253L<"Solaris and SunOS dynamic loading">.
9d67150a 1254
1ec51d55 1255=item LD_LIBRARY_PATH
c3edaffb 1256
1257If you run into dynamic loading problems, check your setting of
aa689395 1258the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable. If you're creating a static
1259Perl library (libperl.a rather than libperl.so) it should build
c3edaffb 1260fine with LD_LIBRARY_PATH unset, though that may depend on details
1261of your local set-up.
1262
1263=item dlopen: stub interception failed
1264
1265The primary cause of the 'dlopen: stub interception failed' message is
1266that the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable includes a directory
1267which is a symlink to /usr/lib (such as /lib).
1268
aa689395 1269The reason this causes a problem is quite subtle. The file libdl.so.1.0
c3edaffb 1270actually *only* contains functions which generate 'stub interception
1271failed' errors! The runtime linker intercepts links to
1272"/usr/lib/libdl.so.1.0" and links in internal implementation of those
1273functions instead. [Thanks to Tim Bunce for this explanation.]
1274
aa689395 1275=item nm extraction
c3edaffb 1276
1277If Configure seems to be having trouble finding library functions,
1278try not using nm extraction. You can do this from the command line
1279with
1280
1281 sh Configure -Uusenm
1282
1283or by answering the nm extraction question interactively.
1ec51d55 1284If you have previously run Configure, you should not reuse your old
c3edaffb 1285config.sh.
1286
bfb7748a 1287=item umask not found
1288
1289If the build processes encounters errors relating to umask(), the problem
1290is probably that Configure couldn't find your umask() system call.
1291Check your config.sh. You should have d_umask='define'. If you don't,
1292this is probably the L<"nm extraction"> problem discussed above. Also,
1293try reading the hints file for your system for further information.
1294
7f678428 1295=item vsprintf
c3edaffb 1296
1297If you run into problems with vsprintf in compiling util.c, the
1298problem is probably that Configure failed to detect your system's
1299version of vsprintf(). Check whether your system has vprintf().
1300(Virtually all modern Unix systems do.) Then, check the variable
1301d_vprintf in config.sh. If your system has vprintf, it should be:
1302
1303 d_vprintf='define'
1304
1305If Configure guessed wrong, it is likely that Configure guessed wrong
bfb7748a 1306on a number of other common functions too. This is probably
1307the L<"nm extraction"> problem discussed above.
c3edaffb 1308
3fe9a6f1 1309=item do_aspawn
1310
1311If you run into problems relating to do_aspawn or do_spawn, the
1312problem is probably that Configure failed to detect your system's
bfb7748a 1313fork() function. Follow the procedure in the previous item
1314on L<"nm extraction">.
3fe9a6f1 1315
84902520 1316=item __inet_* errors
1317
1318If you receive unresolved symbol errors during Perl build and/or test
1319referring to __inet_* symbols, check to see whether BIND 8.1 is
1320installed. It installs a /usr/local/include/arpa/inet.h that refers to
1321these symbols. Versions of BIND later than 8.1 do not install inet.h
1322in that location and avoid the errors. You should probably update to a
1323newer version of BIND. If you can't, you can either link with the
1324updated resolver library provided with BIND 8.1 or rename
1325/usr/local/bin/arpa/inet.h during the Perl build and test process to
1326avoid the problem.
1327
d6baa268 1328=item #error "No DATAMODEL_NATIVE specified"
1329
1330This is a common error when trying to build perl on Solaris 2.6 with a
1331gcc installation from Solaris 2.5 or 2.5.1. The Solaris header files
1332changed, so you need to update your gcc installation. You can either
1333rerun the fixincludes script from gcc or take the opportunity to
1334update your gcc installation.
1335
aa689395 1336=item Optimizer
c3edaffb 1337
9d67150a 1338If you can't compile successfully, try turning off your compiler's
aa689395 1339optimizer. Edit config.sh and change the line
9d67150a 1340
1341 optimize='-O'
1342
bfb7748a 1343to
9d67150a 1344
1345 optimize=' '
1346
1347then propagate your changes with B<sh Configure -S> and rebuild
1348with B<make depend; make>.
1349
1ec51d55 1350=item CRIPPLED_CC
9d67150a 1351
1ec51d55 1352If you still can't compile successfully, try adding a -DCRIPPLED_CC
56c6f531 1353flag. (Just because you get no errors doesn't mean it compiled right!)
1354This simplifies some complicated expressions for compilers that get
1355indigestion easily.
9d67150a 1356
1357=item Missing functions
1358
1359If you have missing routines, you probably need to add some library or
1360other, or you need to undefine some feature that Configure thought was
1361there but is defective or incomplete. Look through config.h for
bfb7748a 1362likely suspects. If Configure guessed wrong on a number of functions,
1363you might have the L<"nm extraction"> problem discussed above.
8e07c86e 1364
1ec51d55 1365=item toke.c
8e07c86e 1366
1ec51d55 1367Some compilers will not compile or optimize the larger files (such as
1368toke.c) without some extra switches to use larger jump offsets or
1369allocate larger internal tables. You can customize the switches for
1370each file in cflags. It's okay to insert rules for specific files into
1371makefile since a default rule only takes effect in the absence of a
8e07c86e 1372specific rule.
1373
7f678428 1374=item Missing dbmclose
8e07c86e 1375
c3edaffb 1376SCO prior to 3.2.4 may be missing dbmclose(). An upgrade to 3.2.4
1377that includes libdbm.nfs (which includes dbmclose()) may be available.
8e07c86e 1378
f3d9a6ba 1379=item Note (probably harmless): No library found for -lsomething
7f678428 1380
1381If you see such a message during the building of an extension, but
1382the extension passes its tests anyway (see L<"make test"> below),
1383then don't worry about the warning message. The extension
1384Makefile.PL goes looking for various libraries needed on various
aa689395 1385systems; few systems will need all the possible libraries listed.
7f678428 1386For example, a system may have -lcposix or -lposix, but it's
1387unlikely to have both, so most users will see warnings for the one
f3d9a6ba 1388they don't have. The phrase 'probably harmless' is intended to
1389reassure you that nothing unusual is happening, and the build
1390process is continuing.
7f678428 1391
1392On the other hand, if you are building GDBM_File and you get the
1393message
1394
f3d9a6ba 1395 Note (probably harmless): No library found for -lgdbm
7f678428 1396
1397then it's likely you're going to run into trouble somewhere along
1398the line, since it's hard to see how you can use the GDBM_File
1399extension without the -lgdbm library.
1400
1401It is true that, in principle, Configure could have figured all of
1402this out, but Configure and the extension building process are not
1403quite that tightly coordinated.
1404
aa689395 1405=item sh: ar: not found
1406
1407This is a message from your shell telling you that the command 'ar'
1408was not found. You need to check your PATH environment variable to
1409make sure that it includes the directory with the 'ar' command. This
1ec51d55 1410is a common problem on Solaris, where 'ar' is in the /usr/ccs/bin
aa689395 1411directory.
1412
1413=item db-recno failure on tests 51, 53 and 55
1414
1415Old versions of the DB library (including the DB library which comes
1416with FreeBSD 2.1) had broken handling of recno databases with modified
1417bval settings. Upgrade your DB library or OS.
1418
6087ac44 1419=item Bad arg length for semctl, is XX, should be ZZZ
1420
1421If you get this error message from the lib/ipc_sysv test, your System
1422V IPC may be broken. The XX typically is 20, and that is what ZZZ
1423also should be. Consider upgrading your OS, or reconfiguring your OS
1424to include the System V semaphores.
1425
220f3621 1426=item lib/ipc_sysv........semget: No space left on device
1427
1428Either your account or the whole system has run out of semaphores. Or
1429both. Either list the semaphores with "ipcs" and remove the unneeded
1430ones (which ones these are depends on your system and applications)
1431with "ipcrm -s SEMAPHORE_ID_HERE" or configure more semaphores to your
1432system.
1433
d6baa268 1434=item GNU binutils
1435
1436If you mix GNU binutils (nm, ld, ar) with equivalent vendor-supplied
1437tools you may be in for some trouble. For example creating archives
1438with an old GNU 'ar' and then using a new current vendor-supplied 'ld'
1439may lead into linking problems. Either recompile your GNU binutils
1440under your current operating system release, or modify your PATH not
1441to include the GNU utils before running Configure, or specify the
1442vendor-supplied utilities explicitly to Configure, for example by
1443Configure -Dar=/bin/ar.
1444
1ec51d55 1445=item Miscellaneous
8e07c86e 1446
1447Some additional things that have been reported for either perl4 or perl5:
1448
1449Genix may need to use libc rather than libc_s, or #undef VARARGS.
1450
1451NCR Tower 32 (OS 2.01.01) may need -W2,-Sl,2000 and #undef MKDIR.
1452
1ec51d55 1453UTS may need one or more of -DCRIPPLED_CC, -K or -g, and undef LSTAT.
8e07c86e 1454
220f3621 1455FreeBSD can fail the lib/ipc_sysv.t test if SysV IPC has not been
1456configured to the kernel. Perl tries to detect this, though, and
1457you will get a message telling what to do.
6087ac44 1458
8e07c86e 1459If you get syntax errors on '(', try -DCRIPPLED_CC.
1460
1461Machines with half-implemented dbm routines will need to #undef I_ODBM
1462
d6baa268 1463HP-UX 11 Y2K patch "Y2K-1100 B.11.00.B0125 HP-UX Core OS Year 2000
1464Patch Bundle" has been reported to break the io/fs test #18 which
1465tests whether utime() can change timestamps. The Y2K patch seems to
1466break utime() so that over NFS the timestamps do not get changed
1467(on local filesystems utime() still works).
1468
8e07c86e 1469=back
1470
1471=head1 make test
1472
d6baa268 1473This will run the regression tests on the perl you just made. If
1474'make test' doesn't say "All tests successful" then something went
1475wrong. See the file t/README in the t subdirectory.
84902520 1476
84902520 1477Note that you can't run the tests in background if this disables
fb73857a 1478opening of /dev/tty. You can use 'make test-notty' in that case but
1479a few tty tests will be skipped.
c3edaffb 1480
c4f23d77 1481=head2 What if make test doesn't work?
1482
1ec51d55 1483If make test bombs out, just cd to the t directory and run ./TEST
1484by hand to see if it makes any difference. If individual tests
c3edaffb 1485bomb, you can run them by hand, e.g.,
8e07c86e 1486
1487 ./perl op/groups.t
1488
aa689395 1489Another way to get more detailed information about failed tests and
1ec51d55 1490individual subtests is to cd to the t directory and run
aa689395 1491
1492 ./perl harness
1493
fb73857a 1494(this assumes that most basic tests succeed, since harness uses
aa689395 1495complicated constructs).
1496
fb73857a 1497You should also read the individual tests to see if there are any helpful
c3edaffb 1498comments that apply to your system.
1499
c4f23d77 1500=over 4
1501
1502=item locale
1503
1ec51d55 1504Note: One possible reason for errors is that some external programs
c07a80fd 1505may be broken due to the combination of your environment and the way
3fe9a6f1 1506B<make test> exercises them. For example, this may happen if you have
1ec51d55 1507one or more of these environment variables set: LC_ALL LC_CTYPE
1508LC_COLLATE LANG. In some versions of UNIX, the non-English locales
e57fd563 1509are known to cause programs to exhibit mysterious errors.
1510
1511If you have any of the above environment variables set, please try
aa689395 1512
1513 setenv LC_ALL C
1514
1515(for C shell) or
1516
1517 LC_ALL=C;export LC_ALL
1518
1ec51d55 1519for Bourne or Korn shell) from the command line and then retry
1520make test. If the tests then succeed, you may have a broken program that
aa689395 1521is confusing the testing. Please run the troublesome test by hand as
e57fd563 1522shown above and see whether you can locate the program. Look for
1ec51d55 1523things like: exec, `backquoted command`, system, open("|...") or
1524open("...|"). All these mean that Perl is trying to run some
e57fd563 1525external program.
eed2e782 1526
c4f23d77 1527=item Out of memory
1528
1529On some systems, particularly those with smaller amounts of RAM, some
1530of the tests in t/op/pat.t may fail with an "Out of memory" message.
1531Specifically, in perl5.004_64, tests 74 and 78 have been reported to
1532fail on some systems. On my SparcStation IPC with 8 MB of RAM, test 78
1533will fail if the system is running any other significant tasks at the
1534same time.
1535
1536Try stopping other jobs on the system and then running the test by itself:
1537
1538 cd t; ./perl op/pat.t
1539
1540to see if you have any better luck. If your perl still fails this
1541test, it does not necessarily mean you have a broken perl. This test
1542tries to exercise the regular expression subsystem quite thoroughly,
1543and may well be far more demanding than your normal usage.
1544
c4f23d77 1545=back
1546
8e07c86e 1547=head1 make install
1548
1549This will put perl into the public directory you specified to
1ec51d55 1550Configure; by default this is /usr/local/bin. It will also try
8e07c86e 1551to put the man pages in a reasonable place. It will not nroff the man
aa689395 1552pages, however. You may need to be root to run B<make install>. If you
8e07c86e 1553are not root, you must own the directories in question and you should
1554ignore any messages about chown not working.
1555
dd64f1c3 1556=head2 Installing perl under different names
1557
1558If you want to install perl under a name other than "perl" (for example,
1559when installing perl with special features enabled, such as debugging),
1560indicate the alternate name on the "make install" line, such as:
1561
1562 make install PERLNAME=myperl
1563
beb13193 1564You can separately change the base used for versioned names (like
1565"perl5.005") by setting PERLNAME_VERBASE, like
1566
1567 make install PERLNAME=perl5 PERLNAME_VERBASE=perl
1568
1569This can be useful if you have to install perl as "perl5" (due to an
1570ancient version in /usr/bin supplied by your vendor, eg). Without this
1571the versioned binary would be called "perl55.005".
1572
dd64f1c3 1573=head2 Installed files
1574
8e07c86e 1575If you want to see exactly what will happen without installing
1576anything, you can run
4633a7c4 1577
8e07c86e 1578 ./perl installperl -n
1579 ./perl installman -n
1580
1ec51d55 1581make install will install the following:
8e07c86e 1582
1583 perl,
1584 perl5.nnn where nnn is the current release number. This
1585 will be a link to perl.
1586 suidperl,
1587 sperl5.nnn If you requested setuid emulation.
1588 a2p awk-to-perl translator
1589 cppstdin This is used by perl -P, if your cc -E can't
1590 read from stdin.
1591 c2ph, pstruct Scripts for handling C structures in header files.
1592 s2p sed-to-perl translator
1593 find2perl find-to-perl translator
aa689395 1594 h2ph Extract constants and simple macros from C headers
8e07c86e 1595 h2xs Converts C .h header files to Perl extensions.
24b3df7f 1596 perlbug Tool to report bugs in Perl.
8e07c86e 1597 perldoc Tool to read perl's pod documentation.
aa689395 1598 pl2pm Convert Perl 4 .pl files to Perl 5 .pm modules
8e07c86e 1599 pod2html, Converters from perl's pod documentation format
aa689395 1600 pod2latex, to other useful formats.
1601 pod2man, and
1602 pod2text
1603 splain Describe Perl warnings and errors
95667ae4 1604 dprofpp Perl code profile post-processor
8e07c86e 1605
1606 library files in $privlib and $archlib specified to
1607 Configure, usually under /usr/local/lib/perl5/.
d6baa268 1608 man pages in $man1dir, usually /usr/local/man/man1.
1609 module man
1610 pages in $man3dir, usually /usr/local/man/man3.
8e07c86e 1611 pod/*.pod in $privlib/pod/.
1612
d6baa268 1613Installperl will also create the directories listed above
1614in L<"Installation Directories">.
4633a7c4 1615
56c6f531 1616Perl's *.h header files and the libperl.a library are also installed
d6baa268 1617under $archlib so that any user may later build new modules, run the
56c6f531 1618optional Perl compiler, or embed the perl interpreter into another
1619program even if the Perl source is no longer available.
8e07c86e 1620
aa689395 1621=head1 Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5
4633a7c4 1622
693762b4 1623In general, you can usually safely upgrade from one version of Perl (e.g.
16245.004_04) to another similar version (e.g. 5.004_05) without re-compiling
1625all of your add-on extensions. You can also safely leave the old version
1626around in case the new version causes you problems for some reason.
1627For example, if you want to be sure that your script continues to run
dc45a647 1628with 5.004_04, simply replace the '#!/usr/local/bin/perl' line at the
693762b4 1629top of the script with the particular version you want to run, e.g.
1630#!/usr/local/bin/perl5.00404.
1631
693762b4 1632Most extensions will probably not need to be recompiled to use
1633with a newer version of perl. Here is how it is supposed to work.
1634(These examples assume you accept all the Configure defaults.)
1635
d6baa268 1636Suppose you already have version 5.005_03 installed. The directories
1637searched by 5.005_03 are
1638
1639 /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.00503/$archname
1640 /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.00503
1641 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/$archname
1642 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005
1643
265f5c4a 1644Now, suppose you install version 5.6. The directories searched by
1645version 5.6 will be
d6baa268 1646
265f5c4a 1647 /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6/$archname
1648 /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6
1649 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6/$archname
1650 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6
d6baa268 1651
1652 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/$archname
1653 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005
bfb7748a 1654
d6baa268 1655Notice the last two entries -- Perl understands the default structure
1656of the $sitelib directories and will look back in older, compatible
1657directories. This way, modules installed under 5.005_03 will continue
265f5c4a 1658to be usable by 5.005_03 but will also accessible to 5.6. Further,
d6baa268 1659suppose that you upgrade a module to one which requires features
265f5c4a 1660present only in 5.6. That new module will get installed into
1661/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6 and will be available to 5.6,
d6baa268 1662but will not interfere with the 5.005_03 version.
bfb7748a 1663
265f5c4a 1664Also, by default, 5.6 will look in
bfb7748a 1665
d6baa268 1666 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/
1667
1668for 5.004-era pure perl modules.
1669
265f5c4a 1670Lastly, suppose you now install version 5.6.1. The directories
1671searched by 5.6.1 will be
d6baa268 1672
265f5c4a 1673 /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.1/$archname
1674 /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.1
1675 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6/$archname
1676 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6
d6baa268 1677
1678 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/$archname
1679 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005
1680 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/
bfb7748a 1681
1682When you install an add-on extension, it gets installed into $sitelib (or
1683$sitearch if it is architecture-specific). This directory deliberately
265f5c4a 1684does NOT include the sub-version number (01) so that both 5.6 and
16855.6.1 can use the extension.
bfb7748a 1686
1687However, if you do run into problems, and you want to continue to use the
1688old version of perl along with your extension, move those extension files
1689to the appropriate version directory, such as $privlib (or $archlib).
1690(The extension's .packlist file lists the files installed with that
1691extension. For the Tk extension, for example, the list of files installed
1692is in $sitearch/auto/Tk/.packlist.) Then use your newer version of perl
1693to rebuild and re-install the extension into $sitelib. This way, Perl
265f5c4a 16945.6 will find your files in the 5.6 directory, and newer versions
bfb7748a 1695of perl will find your newer extension in the $sitelib directory.
1696(This is also why perl searches the site-specific libraries last.)
1697
d6baa268 1698Alternatively, if you are willing to reinstall all your modules
bfb7748a 1699every time you upgrade perl, then you can include the subversion
1700number in $sitearch and $sitelib when you run Configure.
693762b4 1701
1702=head2 Maintaining completely separate versions
4633a7c4 1703
1ec51d55 1704Many users prefer to keep all versions of perl in completely
d6baa268 1705separate directories. This guarantees that an update to one version
1706won't interfere with another version. One convenient way to do this
1707is by using a separate prefix for each version, such as
d52d4e46 1708
46bb10fb 1709 sh Configure -Dprefix=/opt/perl5.004
d52d4e46 1710
46bb10fb 1711and adding /opt/perl5.004/bin to the shell PATH variable. Such users
d52d4e46 1712may also wish to add a symbolic link /usr/local/bin/perl so that
1713scripts can still start with #!/usr/local/bin/perl.
1714
693762b4 1715Others might share a common directory for maintenance sub-versions
1716(e.g. 5.004 for all 5.004_0x versions), but change directory with
1717each major version.
1718
6877a1cf 1719If you are installing a development subversion, you probably ought to
1720seriously consider using a separate directory, since development
1721subversions may not have all the compatibility wrinkles ironed out
1722yet.
1723
265f5c4a 1724=head2 Upgrading from 5.005 to 5.6
693762b4 1725
d6baa268 1726Extensions built and installed with versions of perl prior to 5.005_50
1727will need to be recompiled to be used with 5.005_50 and later. You will,
265f5c4a 1728however, be able to continue using 5.005 even after you install 5.6.
d6baa268 1729The 5.005 binary will still be able to find the modules built under
265f5c4a 17305.005; the 5.6 binary will look in the new $sitearch and $sitelib
d6baa268 1731directories, and will not find them. See also your installed copy
1732of the perllocal.pod file for a (possibly incomplete) list of locally
1733installed modules. Note that you want perllocal.pod not perllocale.pod
1734for installed module information.
693762b4 1735
8e07c86e 1736=head1 Coexistence with perl4
1737
1738You can safely install perl5 even if you want to keep perl4 around.
1739
1ec51d55 1740By default, the perl5 libraries go into /usr/local/lib/perl5/, so
1741they don't override the perl4 libraries in /usr/local/lib/perl/.
8e07c86e 1742
1743In your /usr/local/bin directory, you should have a binary named
1ec51d55 1744perl4.036. That will not be touched by the perl5 installation
8e07c86e 1745process. Most perl4 scripts should run just fine under perl5.
1746However, if you have any scripts that require perl4, you can replace
d6baa268 1747the #! line at the top of them by #!/usr/local/bin/perl4.036 (or
1748whatever the appropriate pathname is). See pod/perltrap.pod for
1749possible problems running perl4 scripts under perl5.
8e07c86e 1750
aa689395 1751=head1 cd /usr/include; h2ph *.h sys/*.h
1752
d6baa268 1753Some perl scripts need to be able to obtain information from the
1754system header files. This command will convert the most commonly used
1ec51d55 1755header files in /usr/include into files that can be easily interpreted
d6baa268 1756by perl. These files will be placed in the architecture-dependent
1757library ($archlib) directory you specified to Configure.
aa689395 1758
d6baa268 1759Note: Due to differences in the C and perl languages, the conversion
1760of the header files is not perfect. You will probably have to
1761hand-edit some of the converted files to get them to parse correctly.
1762For example, h2ph breaks spectacularly on type casting and certain
1763structures.
aa689395 1764
fb73857a 1765=head1 installhtml --help
aa689395 1766
3e3baf6d 1767Some sites may wish to make perl documentation available in HTML
1768format. The installhtml utility can be used to convert pod
fb73857a 1769documentation into linked HTML files and install them.
aa689395 1770
d6baa268 1771Currently, the supplied ./installhtml script does not make use of the
1772html Configure variables. This should be fixed in a future release.
1773
fb73857a 1774The following command-line is an example of one used to convert
3e3baf6d 1775perl documentation:
aa689395 1776
3e3baf6d 1777 ./installhtml \
1778 --podroot=. \
1779 --podpath=lib:ext:pod:vms \
1780 --recurse \
1781 --htmldir=/perl/nmanual \
1782 --htmlroot=/perl/nmanual \
1783 --splithead=pod/perlipc \
1784 --splititem=pod/perlfunc \
1785 --libpods=perlfunc:perlguts:perlvar:perlrun:perlop \
1786 --verbose
1787
1788See the documentation in installhtml for more details. It can take
1789many minutes to execute a large installation and you should expect to
1790see warnings like "no title", "unexpected directive" and "cannot
1791resolve" as the files are processed. We are aware of these problems
1792(and would welcome patches for them).
aa689395 1793
fb73857a 1794You may find it helpful to run installhtml twice. That should reduce
1795the number of "cannot resolve" warnings.
1796
aa689395 1797=head1 cd pod && make tex && (process the latex files)
1798
1799Some sites may also wish to make the documentation in the pod/ directory
1800available in TeX format. Type
1801
1802 (cd pod && make tex && <process the latex files>)
1803
1804=head1 Reporting Problems
1805
bfb7748a 1806If you have difficulty building perl, and none of the advice in this file
1807helps, and careful reading of the error message and the relevant manual
1808pages on your system doesn't help either, then you should send a message
1809to either the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup or to perlbug@perl.com with
1810an accurate description of your problem.
aa689395 1811
bfb7748a 1812Please include the output of the ./myconfig shell script that comes with
1813the distribution. Alternatively, you can use the perlbug program that
1814comes with the perl distribution, but you need to have perl compiled
1815before you can use it. (If you have not installed it yet, you need to
f5b3b617 1816run C<./perl -Ilib utils/perlbug> instead of a plain C<perlbug>.)
aa689395 1817
694a7e45 1818Please try to make your message brief but clear. Trim out unnecessary
1819information. Do not include large files (such as config.sh or a complete
1820Configure or make log) unless absolutely necessary. Do not include a
1821complete transcript of your build session. Just include the failing
d6baa268 1822commands, the relevant error messages, and whatever preceding commands
694a7e45 1823are necessary to give the appropriate context. Plain text should
1824usually be sufficient--fancy attachments or encodings may actually
1825reduce the number of people who read your message. Your message
1826will get relayed to over 400 subscribers around the world so please
1827try to keep it brief but clear.
aa689395 1828
8e07c86e 1829=head1 DOCUMENTATION
1830
bfb7748a 1831Read the manual entries before running perl. The main documentation
1832is in the pod/ subdirectory and should have been installed during the
8e07c86e 1833build process. Type B<man perl> to get started. Alternatively, you
bfb7748a 1834can type B<perldoc perl> to use the supplied perldoc script. This is
1835sometimes useful for finding things in the library modules.
8e07c86e 1836
1ec51d55 1837Under UNIX, you can produce a documentation book in postscript form,
bfb7748a 1838along with its table of contents, by going to the pod/ subdirectory and
1839running (either):
34a2a22e 1840
1841 ./roffitall -groff # If you have GNU groff installed
aa689395 1842 ./roffitall -psroff # If you have psroff
34a2a22e 1843
1844This will leave you with two postscript files ready to be printed.
aa689395 1845(You may need to fix the roffitall command to use your local troff
1846set-up.)
34a2a22e 1847
bfb7748a 1848Note that you must have performed the installation already before running
1849the above, since the script collects the installed files to generate
1850the documentation.
34a2a22e 1851
8e07c86e 1852=head1 AUTHOR
1853
bfb7748a 1854Original author: Andy Dougherty doughera@lafayette.edu , borrowing very
1855heavily from the original README by Larry Wall, with lots of helpful
1856feedback and additions from the perl5-porters@perl.org folks.
fb73857a 1857
f5b3b617 1858If you have problems, corrections, or questions, please see
1859L<"Reporting Problems"> above.
1860
1861=head1 REDISTRIBUTION
1862
1863This document is part of the Perl package and may be distributed under
d6baa268 1864the same terms as perl itself, with the following additional request:
f5b3b617 1865If you are distributing a modified version of perl (perhaps as part of
d6baa268 1866a larger package) please B<do> modify these installation instructions
1867and the contact information to match your distribution.
8e07c86e 1868
a5f75d66 1869=head1 LAST MODIFIED
24b3df7f 1870
d6baa268 1871$Id: INSTALL,v 1.58 1999/07/23 14:43:00 doughera Exp $