Test case for #10433/#10424.
[p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git] / README.machten
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da369004 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
3specially designed to be readable as is.
4
5=head1 NAME
6
7README.machten - Perl version 5 on Power MachTen systems
8
9=head1 DESCRIPTION
10
11This document describes how to build Perl 5 on Power MachTen systems,
12and discusses a few wrinkles in the implementation.
13
14=head2 Compiling Perl 5 on MachTen
15
16To compile perl under MachTen 4.1.4 (and probably earlier versions):
17
18 ./Configure -de
19 make
20 make test
21 make install
22
23This builds and installs a statically-linked perl; MachTen's dynamic
24linking facilities are not adequate to support Perl's use of
25dynamically linked libraries. (See F<hints/machten.sh> for more
26information.)
27
28You should have at least 32 megabytes of free memory on your
29system before running the C<make> command.
30
31For much more information on building perl -- for example, on how to
32change the default installation directory -- see F<INSTALL>.
33
34=head2 Failures during C<make test>
35
36=over 4
37
38=item op/lexassign.t
39
40This test may fail when first run after building perl. It does not
41fail subsequently. The cause is unknown.
42
da369004 43=item pragma/warnings.t
44
45Test 257 fails due to a failure to warn about attempts to read from a
46filehandle which is a duplicate of stdout when stdout is attached to a
47pipe. The output of the test contains a block comment which discusses
48a different failure, not applicable to MachTen.
49
50The root of the problem is that Machten does not assign a file type to
51either end of a pipe (see L<stat>), resulting, among other things
52in Perl's C<-p> test failing on file descriptors belonging to pipes.
53As a result, perl becomes confused, and the test for reading from a
54write-only file fails. I am reluctant to patch perl to get around
55this, as it's clearly an OS bug (about which Tenon has been informed),
56and limited in its effect on practical Perl programs.
57
58=back
59
da369004 60=head2 Building external modules
61
62To add an external module to perl, build in the normal way, which
63is documented in L<ExtUtils::MakeMaker>, or which can be driven
64automatically by the CPAN module (see L<CPAN>), which is part of the
4375e838 65standard distribution. If you want to install a module which
66contains XS code (C or C++ source which compiles to object code
da369004 67for linking with perl), you will have to replace your perl binary with
68a new version containing the new statically-linked object module. The
69build process tells you how to do this.
70
71There is a gotcha, however, which users usually encounter immediately
72they respond to CPAN's invitation to C<install Bundle::CPAN>. When
73installing a I<bundle> -- a group of modules which together achieve
74some particular purpose, the installation process for later modules in
75the bundle tends to assume that earlier modules have been fully
76installed and are available for use. This is not true on a
77statically-linked system for earlier modules which contain XS code.
78As a result the installation of the bundle fails. The work-around is
79not to install the bundle as a one-shot operation, but instead to see
80what modules it contains, and install these one-at-a-time by hand in
81the order given.
82
83=head1 AUTHOR
84
85Dominic Dunlop <domo@computer.org>
86
87=head1 DATE
88
4375e838 89Version 1.0.1 2000-03-27