perl5.000 patch.0m: [various fixes, hint file updates and documentation]

[p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git] / README

[This is an unsupported, pre-release version of Perl 5.0.]

			   Perl Kit, Version 5.0

	    Copyright (c) 1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994  Larry Wall
			    All rights reserved.

    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
    it under the terms of either:
    
	a) the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
	Software Foundation; either version 1, or (at your option) any
	later version, or

	b) the "Artistic License" which comes with this Kit.

    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See either
    the GNU General Public License or the Artistic License for more details.

    You should have received a copy of the Artistic License with this
    Kit, in the file named "Artistic".  If not, I'll be glad to provide one.

    You should also have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
    along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
    Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

    For those of you that choose to use the GNU General Public License,
    my interpretation of the GNU General Public License is that no Perl
    script falls under the terms of the GPL unless you explicitly put
    said script under the terms of the GPL yourself.  Furthermore, any
    object code linked with uperl.o does not automatically fall under the
    terms of the GPL, provided such object code only adds definitions
    of subroutines and variables, and does not otherwise impair the
    resulting interpreter from executing any standard Perl script.  I
    consider linking in C subroutines in this manner to be the moral
    equivalent of defining subroutines in the Perl language itself.  You
    may sell such an object file as proprietary provided that you provide
    or offer to provide the Perl source, as specified by the GNU General
    Public License.  (This is merely an alternate way of specifying input
    to the program.)  You may also sell a binary produced by the dumping of
    a running Perl script that belongs to you, provided that you provide or
    offer to provide the Perl source as specified by the GPL.  (The
    fact that a Perl interpreter and your code are in the same binary file
    is, in this case, a form of mere aggregation.)  This is my interpretation
    of the GPL.  If you still have concerns or difficulties understanding
    my intent, feel free to contact me.  Of course, the Artistic License
    spells all this out for your protection, so you may prefer to use that.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Perl is a language that combines some of the features of C, sed, awk
and shell.  See the manual page for more hype.  There are also two Nutshell
Handbooks published by O'Reilly & Assoc.  See pod/perlbook.pod
for more information.

Please read all the directions below before you proceed any further, and
then follow them carefully.

After you have unpacked your kit, you should have all the files listed
in MANIFEST.

Installation

1)  Run Configure.  This will figure out various things about your
    system.  Some things Configure will figure out for itself, other
    things it will ask you about.  If the test scripts and programs
    run ok, the defaults will usually be right.  It will then proceed to
    make config.h, config.sh, and Makefile.  You may have to explicitly
    say     sh Configure    to ensure that Configure is run under sh.
    If you're a hotshot, run Configure -d to take all the defaults and
    then edit config.sh to patch up any flaws and run Configure -S.

    Configure supports a number of useful options.  Run Configure -h 
    to get a listing.  To compile with gcc, for example, you can run 
    Configure -Dcc=gcc, or answer 'gcc' at the cc prompt.  If you
    change compilers or make other significant changes, you should
    probably _not_ re-use your old config.sh.
    
    By default, perl will be installed in /usr/local/{bin, lib, man}.
    You can specify a different prefix for the default installation
    directory, when Configure prompts you or by using something like
    Configure -Dprefix=/whatever.

    You can also supply a file config.over to over-ride Configure's
    guesses.  It will get loaded up at the very end, just before
    config.sh is created.

    You might possibly have to trim # comments from the front of Configure
    if your sh doesn't handle them, but all other # comments will be taken
    care of.

    (If you don't have sh, you'll have to copy the sample file config.H to
    config.h and edit the config.h to reflect your system's peculiarities.)

2)  Glance through config.h to make sure system dependencies are correct.
    Most of them should have been taken care of by running the Configure script.

    If you have any additional changes to make to the C definitions, they
    can be done in cflags.SH.  For instance, to turn off the optimizer
    on toke.c, find the line in the switch structure for toke.c and
    put the command optimize='-g' before the ;;.  To change the C flags
    for all the files, edit config.sh and change either $ccflags or $optimize.

3)  make depend

    This will look for all the includes and modify Makefile accordingly.
    Configure will offer to do this for you.

4)  make

    This will attempt to make perl in the current directory.

    If you can't compile successfully, try adding a -DCRIPPLED_CC flag.
    (Just because you get no errors doesn't mean it compiled right!)
    This simplifies some complicated expressions for compilers that
    get indigestion easily.  If that has no effect, try turning off
    optimization.  If you have missing routines, you probably need to
    add some library or other, or you need to undefine some feature that
    Configure thought was there but is defective or incomplete.

    Some compilers will not compile or optimize the larger files without
    some extra switches to use larger jump offsets or allocate larger
    internal tables.  You can customize the switches for each file in
    cflags.SH.  It's okay to insert rules for specific files into
    Makefile.SH, since a default rule only takes effect in the
    absence of a specific rule.

    Many of the following hints are now done automatically by Configure.
    Some of the hints here were for Perl 4, and are probably obsolete.
    They're left here for the moment just to give you some ideas for
    what to try if you're having trouble.

    AIX/RT may need a -a switch and -DCRIPPLED_CC.
    Ultrix 3.[01] on MIPS needs to undefine WAITPID--the system call is busted.
    MIPS machines may need to undef d_volatile.
    MIPS machines may need to turn off -O on some files.
    Some MIPS machines may need to undefine CASTNEGFLOAT.
    Genix may need to use libc rather than libc_s, or #undef VARARGS.
    NCR Tower 32 (OS 2.01.01) may need -W2,-Sl,2000 and #undef MKDIR.
    A/UX may appear to work with -O -B/usr/lib/big/ optimizer flags.
    A/UX may need -lposix to find rewinddir.
    A/UX may need -ZP -DPOSIX, and -g if big cc is used.
    UTS may need one or more of -DCRIPPLED_CC, -K or -g, and undef LSTAT.
    If you get syntax errors on '(', try -DCRIPPLED_CC.
    Machines with half-implemented dbm routines will need to #undef I_ODBM 
    SCO prior to 3.2.4 may be missing dbmclose().  An upgrade to 3.2.4
    that includes libdbm.nfs (which includes dbmclose()) may be available.
    If you get duplicates upon linking for malloc et al, say -DHIDEMYMALLOC.
    If you get duplicate function definitions (a perl function has the
    same name as another function on your system) try -DEMBED.
    If you get varags problems with gcc, be sure that gcc is installed
    correctly.  When using gcc, you should probably have i_stdarg='define'
    and i_varags='undef' in config.sh.

5)  make test

    This will run the regression tests on the perl you just made.
    If it doesn't say "All tests successful" then something went wrong.
    See the README in the t subdirectory.  Note that you can't run it
    in background if this disables opening of /dev/tty.  If "make test"
    bombs out, just cd to the t directory and run TEST by hand to see if
    it makes any difference.  If individual tests bomb, you can run
    them by hand, e.g., ./perl op/groups.t

6)  make install

    This will put perl into a public directory (such as /usr/local/bin).
    It will also try to put the man pages in a reasonable place.  It will not
    nroff the man page, however.  You may need to be root to do this.  If
    you are not root, you must own the directories in question and you should
    ignore any messages about chown not working.

    make install will also install the following:
	perl,
	    perl5.nnn	where nnn is the current release number.  This
			will be a link to perl.
	suidperl,
	    sperl5.nnn	If you requested setuid emulation.
	a2p          	awk-to-perl translator
	cppstdin	This is used by perl -P, if your cc -E can't
			read from stdin.
	c2ph, pstruct	Scripts for handling C structures in header files.
	s2p		sed-to-perl translator
	find2perl	find-to-perl translator
	h2xs		Converts C .h header files to Perl extensions.

	library files	in $privlib and $archlib specified to
			Configure, usually under /usr/local/lib/perl5/.
	man pages	in the location specified to Configure, usually
			something like /usr/local/man/man1.

	Perl's *.h header files and the libperl.a library are also
	installed under $archlib so that you may later build new
	extensions even if the Perl source is no longer available.
	
	make install may also offer to install perl in a "standard" location.
	
    Most of the documentation in the pod/ directory is also available 
    in HTML format.  Type
	cd pod; make html; cd ..
    to generate the html versions.

7)  Read the manual entries before running perl.

8)  IMPORTANT!  Help save the world!  Communicate any problems and suggested
    patches to me, lwall@netlabs.com (Larry Wall), so we can
    keep the world in sync.  If you have a problem, there's someone else
    out there who either has had or will have the same problem.

    If possible, send in patches such that the patch program will apply them.
    Context diffs are the best, then normal diffs.  Don't send ed scripts--
    I've probably changed my copy since the version you have.  It's also
    helpful if you send the output of "uname -a".

    Watch for perl patches in comp.lang.perl.  Patches will generally be
    in a form usable by the patch program.  If you are just now bringing up
    perl and aren't sure how many patches there are, write to me and I'll
    send any you don't have.  Your current patch level is shown in patchlevel.h.


Just a personal note:  I want you to know that I create nice things like this
because it pleases the Author of my story.  If this bothers you, then your
notion of Authorship needs some revision.  But you can use perl anyway. :-)

							The author.