Commit | Line | Data |
da369004 |
1 | If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you |
2 | see. It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is |
3 | specially designed to be readable as is. |
4 | |
5 | =head1 NAME |
6 | |
7 | README.machten - Perl version 5 on Power MachTen systems |
8 | |
9 | =head1 DESCRIPTION |
10 | |
11 | This document describes how to build Perl 5 on Power MachTen systems, |
12 | and discusses a few wrinkles in the implementation. |
13 | |
14 | =head2 Compiling Perl 5 on MachTen |
15 | |
16 | To compile perl under MachTen 4.1.4 (and probably earlier versions): |
17 | |
18 | ./Configure -de |
19 | make |
20 | make test |
21 | make install |
22 | |
23 | This builds and installs a statically-linked perl; MachTen's dynamic |
24 | linking facilities are not adequate to support Perl's use of |
25 | dynamically linked libraries. (See F<hints/machten.sh> for more |
26 | information.) |
27 | |
28 | You should have at least 32 megabytes of free memory on your |
29 | system before running the C<make> command. |
30 | |
31 | For much more information on building perl -- for example, on how to |
32 | change 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 | |
40 | This test may fail when first run after building perl. It does not |
41 | fail subsequently. The cause is unknown. |
42 | |
43 | =item op/taint.t |
44 | |
45 | This test emits various complaints such as "Operation not permitted", |
46 | but passes. The cause is an incomplete implementation of System V |
47 | inter-process communication in MachTen 4.1.4. In versions prior to |
48 | 4.1.4, the implementation was so incomplete that the hints file |
49 | disables its incorporation into perl; in 4.1.4, the facilities are |
50 | useable with care. |
51 | |
52 | =item pragma/warnings.t |
53 | |
54 | Test 257 fails due to a failure to warn about attempts to read from a |
55 | filehandle which is a duplicate of stdout when stdout is attached to a |
56 | pipe. The output of the test contains a block comment which discusses |
57 | a different failure, not applicable to MachTen. |
58 | |
59 | The root of the problem is that Machten does not assign a file type to |
60 | either end of a pipe (see L<stat>), resulting, among other things |
61 | in Perl's C<-p> test failing on file descriptors belonging to pipes. |
62 | As a result, perl becomes confused, and the test for reading from a |
63 | write-only file fails. I am reluctant to patch perl to get around |
64 | this, as it's clearly an OS bug (about which Tenon has been informed), |
65 | and limited in its effect on practical Perl programs. |
66 | |
67 | =back |
68 | |
69 | =head2 Using external modules |
70 | |
71 | If warnings are enabled with Perl's C<-w> command-line flag, you are |
72 | likely to see warnings when using external modules containing XS |
73 | (compiled) code: |
74 | |
75 | Subroutine DynaLoader::dl_error redefined at /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.0/powerpc-machten/DynaLoader.pm line 93. |
76 | |
77 | This is a harmless consequence of the static linking used for MachTen |
78 | perl. You can suppress the warnings by using the more modern |
79 | C<-Mwarnings> instead of the traditional C<-w>. (See L<perllexwarn>.) |
80 | |
81 | =head2 Building external modules |
82 | |
83 | To add an external module to perl, build in the normal way, which |
84 | is documented in L<ExtUtils::MakeMaker>, or which can be driven |
85 | automatically by the CPAN module (see L<CPAN>), which is part of the |
86 | standard distribution. If wou want to install a |
87 | module contains XS code (C or C++ source which compiles to object code |
88 | for linking with perl), you will have to replace your perl binary with |
89 | a new version containing the new statically-linked object module. The |
90 | build process tells you how to do this. |
91 | |
92 | There is a gotcha, however, which users usually encounter immediately |
93 | they respond to CPAN's invitation to C<install Bundle::CPAN>. When |
94 | installing a I<bundle> -- a group of modules which together achieve |
95 | some particular purpose, the installation process for later modules in |
96 | the bundle tends to assume that earlier modules have been fully |
97 | installed and are available for use. This is not true on a |
98 | statically-linked system for earlier modules which contain XS code. |
99 | As a result the installation of the bundle fails. The work-around is |
100 | not to install the bundle as a one-shot operation, but instead to see |
101 | what modules it contains, and install these one-at-a-time by hand in |
102 | the order given. |
103 | |
104 | =head1 AUTHOR |
105 | |
106 | Dominic Dunlop <domo@computer.org> |
107 | |
108 | =head1 DATE |
109 | |
110 | Version 1.0 2000-03-22 |