(?p{}) has been deprecated for a long time.
[p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git] / README.freebsd
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d41150a6 1If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you
2see. It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is
3specifically designed to be readable as is.
4
5=head1 NAME
6
7README.freebsd - Perl version 5 on FreeBSD systems
8
9=head1 DESCRIPTION
10
11This document describes various features of FreeBSD that will affect how Perl
12version 5 (hereafter just Perl) is compiled and/or runs.
13
3df9be30 14=head2 FreeBSD core dumps from readdir_r with ithreads
d41150a6 15
16When perl is configured to use ithreads, it will use re-entrant library calls
17in preference to non-re-entrant versions. There is a bug in FreeBSD's
e8d8eebf 18C<readdir_r> function in versions 4.5 and earlier that can cause a SEGV when
19reading large directories. A patch for FreeBSD libc is available
d41150a6 20(see http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=misc/30631 )
e8d8eebf 21which has been integrated into FreeBSD 4.6.
d41150a6 22
3df9be30 23=head2 $^X doesn't always contain a full path in FreeBSD
d41150a6 24
25perl 5.8.0 sets C<$^X> where possible to a full path by asking the operating
26system. On FreeBSD the full path of the perl interpreter is found by reading
27the symlink F</proc/curproc/file>. There is a bug on FreeBSD, where the
28result of reading this symlink is can be wrong in certain circumstances
29(see http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=35703 ).
30In these cases perl will fall back to the old behaviour of using C's
31argv[0] value for C<$^X>.
32
e8d8eebf 33=head2 Perl will no longer be part of "base FreeBSD"
b261b246 34
e8d8eebf 35Not as bad as it sounds--what this means is that Perl will no longer be
b261b246 36part of the B<kernel build system> of FreeBSD. Perl will still very
37probably be part of the "default install", and in any case the latest
38version will be in the ports system. The first FreeBSD version this
39change will affect is 5.0, all 4.n versions will keep the status quo.
40
d41150a6 41=head1 AUTHOR
42
43Nicholas Clark <nick@ccl4.org>, collating wisdom supplied by Slaven Rezic
44and Tim Bunce.
45
46Please report any errors, updates, or suggestions to F<perlbug@perl.org>.
47