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1 | If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you see. |
2 | It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is specially |
3 | designed to be readable as is. |
4 | |
5 | =head1 NAME |
6 | |
7 | README.macosx - Perl under Mac OS X |
8 | |
9 | =head1 SYNOPSIS |
10 | |
11 | This document briefly describes perl under Mac OS X. |
12 | |
13 | |
14 | =head1 DESCRIPTION |
15 | |
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16 | The latest Perl release (5.8.8 as of this writing) builds without changes |
17 | under Mac OS X. Under 10.3 "Panther" and newer OS versions, all self-tests |
18 | pass, and all standard features are supported. |
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19 | |
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20 | Earlier Mac OS X releases (10.2 "Jaguar" and older) did not include a |
21 | completely thread-safe libc, so threading is not fully supported. Also, |
22 | earlier releases included a buggy libdb, so some of the DB_File tests |
23 | are known to fail on those releases. |
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24 | |
25 | |
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26 | =head2 Installation Prefix |
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27 | |
28 | The default installation location for this release uses the traditional |
29 | UNIX directory layout under /usr/local. This is the recommended location |
30 | for most users, and will leave the Apple-supplied Perl and its modules |
31 | undisturbed. |
32 | |
33 | Using an installation prefix of '/usr' will result in a directory layout |
34 | that mirrors that of Apple's default Perl, with core modules stored in |
35 | '/System/Library/Perl/${version}', CPAN modules stored in |
36 | '/Library/Perl/${version}', and the addition of |
37 | '/Network/Library/Perl/${version}' to @INC for modules that are stored |
38 | on a file server and used by many Macs. |
39 | |
40 | |
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41 | =head2 SDK support |
42 | |
43 | First, export the path to the SDK into the build environment: |
44 | |
45 | export SDK=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.3.9.sdk |
46 | |
47 | Use an SDK by exporting some additions to Perl's 'ccflags' and '..flags' |
48 | config variables: |
49 | |
50 | ./Configure -Accflags="-nostdinc -B$SDK/usr/include/gcc \ |
51 | -B$SDK/usr/lib/gcc -isystem$SDK/usr/include \ |
52 | -F$SDK/System/Library/Frameworks" \ |
53 | -Aldflags="-Wl,-syslibroot,$SDK" \ |
54 | -de |
55 | |
56 | =head2 Universal Binary support |
57 | |
58 | To compile perl as a universal binary (built for both ppc and intel), export |
59 | the SDK variable as above, selecting the 10.4u SDK: |
60 | |
61 | export SDK=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk |
62 | |
63 | In addition to the compiler flags used to select the SDK, also add the flags |
64 | for creating a universal binary: |
65 | |
66 | ./Configure -Accflags="-arch i686 -arch ppc -nostdinc -B$SDK/usr/include/gcc \ |
67 | -B$SDK/usr/lib/gcc -isystem$SDK/usr/include \ |
68 | -F$SDK/System/Library/Frameworks" \ |
69 | -Aldflags="-arch i686 -arch ppc -Wl,-syslibroot,$SDK" \ |
70 | -de |
71 | |
72 | Keep in mind that these compiler and linker settings will also be used when |
73 | building CPAN modules. For XS modules to be compiled as a universal binary, any |
74 | libraries it links to must also be universal binaries. The system libraries that |
75 | Apple includes with the 10.4u SDK are all universal, but user-installed libraries |
76 | may need to be re-installed as universal binaries. |
77 | |
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78 | =head2 libperl and Prebinding |
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79 | |
80 | Mac OS X ships with a dynamically-loaded libperl, but the default for |
81 | this release is to compile a static libperl. The reason for this is |
82 | pre-binding. Dynamic libraries can be pre-bound to a specific address in |
83 | memory in order to decrease load time. To do this, one needs to be aware |
84 | of the location and size of all previously-loaded libraries. Apple |
85 | collects this information as part of their overall OS build process, and |
86 | thus has easy access to it when building Perl, but ordinary users would |
87 | need to go to a great deal of effort to obtain the information needed |
88 | for pre-binding. |
89 | |
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90 | You can override the default and build a shared libperl if you wish |
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91 | (S<Configure ... -Duseshrlib>), but the load time on pre-10.4 OS |
92 | releases will be greater than either the static library, or Apple's |
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93 | pre-bound dynamic library. |
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94 | |
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95 | With 10.4 "Tiger" and newer, Apple has all but eliminated the performance |
96 | penalty for non-prebound libraries. |
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97 | |
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98 | |
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99 | =head2 Updating Apple's Perl |
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100 | |
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101 | In a word - don't, at least without a *very* good reason. Your scripts |
102 | can just as easily begin with "#!/usr/local/bin/perl" as with |
103 | "#!/usr/bin/perl". Scripts supplied by Apple and other third parties as |
104 | part of installation packages and such have generally only been tested |
105 | with the /usr/bin/perl that's installed by Apple. |
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106 | |
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107 | If you find that you do need to update the system Perl, one issue worth |
108 | keeping in mind is the question of static vs. dynamic libraries. If you |
109 | upgrade using the default static libperl, you will find that the dynamic |
110 | libperl supplied by Apple will not be deleted. If both libraries are |
111 | present when an application that links against libperl is built, ld will |
112 | link against the dynamic library by default. So, if you need to replace |
113 | Apple's dynamic libperl with a static libperl, you need to be sure to |
114 | delete the older dynamic library after you've installed the update. |
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115 | |
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116 | |
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117 | =head2 Known problems |
118 | |
119 | If you have installed extra libraries such as GDBM through Fink |
120 | (in other words, you have libraries under F</sw/lib>), or libdlcompat |
121 | to F</usr/local/lib>, you may need to be extra careful when running |
122 | Configure to not to confuse Configure and Perl about which libraries |
123 | to use. Being confused will show up for example as "dyld" errors about |
124 | symbol problems, for example during "make test". The safest bet is to run |
125 | Configure as |
126 | |
127 | Configure ... -Uloclibpth -Dlibpth=/usr/lib |
128 | |
129 | to make Configure look only into the system libraries. If you have some |
130 | extra library directories that you really want to use (such as newer |
131 | Berkeley DB libraries in pre-Panther systems), add those to the libpth: |
132 | |
133 | Configure ... -Uloclibpth -Dlibpth='/usr/lib /opt/lib' |
134 | |
135 | The default of building Perl statically may cause problems with complex |
136 | applications like Tk: in that case consider building shared Perl |
137 | |
138 | Configure ... -Duseshrplib |
139 | |
140 | but remember that there's a startup cost to pay in that case (see above |
141 | "libperl and Prebinding"). |
142 | |
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143 | Starting with Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4), Apple shipped broken locale files for |
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144 | the eu_ES locale (Basque-Spain). In previous releases of Perl, this resulted in |
145 | failures in the C<lib/locale> test. These failures have been supressed |
146 | in the current release of Perl by making the test ignore the broken locale. |
147 | If you need to use the eu_ES locale, you should contact Apple support. |
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148 | |
149 | =head2 MacPerl |
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150 | |
151 | Quite a bit has been written about MacPerl, the Perl distribution for |
152 | "Classic MacOS" - that is, versions 9 and earlier of MacOS. Because it |
153 | runs in environment that's very different from that of UNIX, many things |
154 | are done differently in MacPerl. Modules are installed using a different |
155 | procedure, Perl itself is built differently, path names are different, |
156 | etc. |
157 | |
158 | From the perspective of a Perl programmer, Mac OS X is more like a |
159 | traditional UNIX than Classic MacOS. If you find documentation that |
160 | refers to a special procedure that's needed for MacOS that's drastically |
161 | different from the instructions provided for UNIX, the MacOS |
162 | instructions are quite often intended for MacPerl on Classic MacOS. In |
163 | that case, the correct procedure on Mac OS X is usually to follow the |
164 | UNIX instructions, rather than the MacPerl instructions. |
165 | |
166 | |
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167 | =head2 Carbon |
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168 | |
169 | MacPerl ships with a number of modules that are used to access the |
170 | classic MacOS toolbox. Many of these modules have been updated to use |
171 | Mac OS X's newer "Carbon" toolbox, and are available from CPAN in the |
172 | "Mac::Carbon" module. |
173 | |
174 | |
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175 | =head2 Cocoa |
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176 | |
177 | There are two ways to use Cocoa from Perl. Apple's PerlObjCBridge |
178 | module, included with Mac OS X, can be used by standalone scripts to |
179 | access Foundation (i.e. non-GUI) classes and objects. |
180 | |
181 | An alternative is CamelBones, a framework that allows access to both |
182 | Foundation and AppKit classes and objects, so that full GUI applications |
183 | can be built in Perl. CamelBones can be found on SourceForge, at |
184 | L<http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/camelbones/>. |
185 | |
186 | |
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187 | =head1 Starting From Scratch |
188 | |
189 | Unfortunately it is not that difficult somehow manage to break one's |
190 | Mac OS X Perl rather severely. If all else fails and you want to |
191 | really, B<REALLY>, start from scratch and remove even your Apple Perl |
192 | installation (which has become corrupted somehow), the following |
193 | instructions should do it. B<Please think twice before following |
194 | these instructions: they are much like conducting brain surgery to |
195 | yourself. Without anesthesia.> We will B<not> come to fix your system |
196 | if you do this. |
197 | |
198 | First, get rid of the libperl.dylib: |
199 | |
200 | # cd /System/Library/Perl/darwin/CORE |
201 | # rm libperl.dylib |
202 | |
203 | Then delete every .bundle file found anywhere in the folders: |
204 | |
205 | /System/Library/Perl |
206 | /Library/Perl |
207 | |
208 | You can find them for example by |
209 | |
210 | # find /System/Library/Perl /Library/Perl -name '*.bundle' -print |
211 | |
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212 | After this you can either copy Perl from your operating system media |
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213 | (you will need at least the /System/Library/Perl and /usr/bin/perl), |
214 | or rebuild Perl from the source code with C<Configure -Dprefix=/usr |
215 | -Dusershrplib> NOTE: the C<-Dprefix=/usr> to replace the system Perl |
216 | works much better with Perl 5.8.1 and later, in Perl 5.8.0 the |
217 | settings were not quite right. |
218 | |
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219 | "Pacifist" from CharlesSoft (L<http://www.charlessoft.com/>) is a nice |
220 | way to extract the Perl binaries from the OS media, without having to |
221 | reinstall the entire OS. |
222 | |
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223 | |
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224 | =head1 AUTHOR |
225 | |
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226 | This README was written by Sherm Pendley E<lt>sherm@dot-app.orgE<gt>, |
227 | and subsequently updated by Dominic Dunlop E<lt>domo@computer.orgE<gt>. |
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228 | The "Starting From Scratch" recipe was contributed by John Montbriand |
229 | E<lt>montbriand@apple.comE<gt>. |
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230 | |
231 | =head1 DATE |
232 | |
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233 | Last modified 2005-11-07. |