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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 | |
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7 | perlwin32 - Perl under Win32 |
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8 | |
9 | =head1 SYNOPSIS |
10 | |
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11 | These are instructions for building Perl under Windows NT (versions |
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12 | 3.51 or 4.0). Currently, this port is reported to build |
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13 | under Windows95 using the 4DOS shell--the default shell that infests |
14 | Windows95 will not work (see below). Note this caveat is only about |
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15 | B<building> perl. Once built, you should be able to B<use> it on |
16 | either Win32 platform (modulo the problems arising from the inferior |
17 | command shell). |
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18 | |
19 | =head1 DESCRIPTION |
20 | |
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21 | Before you start, you should glance through the README file |
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22 | found in the top-level directory where the Perl distribution |
23 | was extracted. Make sure you read and understand the terms under |
24 | which this software is being distributed. |
25 | |
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26 | Also make sure you read L<BUGS AND CAVEATS> below for the |
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27 | known limitations of this port. |
28 | |
29 | The INSTALL file in the perl top-level has much information that is |
30 | only relevant to people building Perl on Unix-like systems. In |
31 | particular, you can safely ignore any information that talks about |
32 | "Configure". |
33 | |
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34 | You may also want to look at two other options for building |
35 | a perl that will work on Windows NT: the README.cygwin32 and |
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36 | README.os2 files, which each give a different set of rules to build |
37 | a Perl that will work on Win32 platforms. Those two methods will |
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38 | probably enable you to build a more Unix-compatible perl, but you |
39 | will also need to download and use various other build-time and |
40 | run-time support software described in those files. |
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41 | |
42 | This set of instructions is meant to describe a so-called "native" |
43 | port of Perl to Win32 platforms. The resulting Perl requires no |
44 | additional software to run (other than what came with your operating |
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45 | system). Currently, this port is capable of using one of the |
46 | following compilers: |
47 | |
48 | Borland C++ version 5.02 or later |
49 | Microsoft Visual C++ version 4.2 or later |
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50 | Mingw32 with EGCS versions 1.0.2, 1.1 |
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51 | Mingw32 with GCC version 2.8.1 |
52 | |
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53 | The last two of these are high quality freeware compilers. Support |
54 | for them is still experimental. |
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55 | |
56 | This port currently supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that |
57 | is used to build extensions to perl). Therefore, you should be |
58 | able to build and install most extensions found in the CPAN sites. |
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59 | See L<Usage Hints> below for general hints about this. |
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60 | |
61 | =head2 Setting Up |
62 | |
63 | =over 4 |
64 | |
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65 | =item Command Shell |
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66 | |
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67 | Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with NT. Some versions of the |
68 | popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause you trouble. |
69 | If the build fails under that shell, try building again with the cmd |
70 | shell. The Makefile also has known incompatibilites with the "command.com" |
71 | shell that comes with Windows95, so building under Windows95 should |
72 | be considered "unsupported". However, there have been reports of successful |
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73 | build attempts using 4DOS/NT version 6.01 under Windows95, using dmake, but |
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74 | your mileage may vary. |
75 | |
76 | The surest way to build it is on WindowsNT, using the cmd shell. |
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77 | |
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78 | =item Borland C++ |
79 | |
80 | If you are using the Borland compiler, you will need dmake, a freely |
81 | available make that has very nice macro features and parallelability. |
82 | (The make that Borland supplies is seriously crippled, and will not |
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83 | work for MakeMaker builds.) |
84 | |
85 | A port of dmake for win32 platforms is available from: |
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86 | |
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87 | http://www-personal.umich.edu/~gsar/dmake-4.1-win32.zip |
88 | |
89 | Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path (follow the instructions |
90 | in the README.NOW file). |
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91 | |
92 | =item Microsoft Visual C++ |
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93 | |
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94 | The NMAKE that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building. |
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95 | You will need to run the VCVARS32.BAT file usually found somewhere |
96 | like C:\MSDEV4.2\BIN. This will set your build environment. |
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97 | |
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98 | You can also use dmake to build using Visual C++, provided: |
99 | you set OSRELEASE to "microsft" (or whatever the directory name |
100 | under which the Visual C dmake configuration lives) in your environment, |
101 | and edit win32/config.vc to change "make=nmake" into "make=dmake". The |
102 | latter step is only essential if you want to use dmake as your default |
103 | make for building extensions using MakeMaker. |
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104 | |
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105 | =item Mingw32 with EGCS or GCC |
106 | |
107 | ECGS-1.0.2 binaries can be downloaded from: |
108 | |
109 | ftp://ftp.xraylith.wisc.edu/pub/khan/gnu-win32/mingw32/ |
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110 | |
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111 | GCC-2.8.1 binaries are available from: |
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112 | |
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113 | http://agnes.dida.physik.uni-essen.de/~janjaap/mingw32/ |
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114 | |
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115 | You only need either one of those, not both. Both bundles come with |
116 | Mingw32 libraries and headers. While both of them work to build perl, |
117 | the EGCS binaries are currently favored by the maintainers, since they |
118 | come with more up-to-date Mingw32 libraries. |
119 | |
120 | Make sure you install the binaries as indicated in the web sites |
121 | above. You will need to set up a few environment variables (usually |
122 | run from a batch file). |
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123 | |
124 | =back |
125 | |
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126 | =head2 Building |
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127 | |
128 | =over 4 |
129 | |
130 | =item * |
131 | |
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132 | Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl toplevel. |
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133 | This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with |
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134 | versions of NMAKE that come with Visual C++, and a dmake "makefile.mk" |
135 | that will work for all supported compilers. The defaults in the dmake |
136 | makefile are setup to build using the Borland compiler. |
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137 | |
138 | =item * |
139 | |
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140 | Edit the makefile.mk (or Makefile, if using nmake) and change the values |
141 | of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. You can also enable various build |
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142 | flags. |
143 | |
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144 | Beginning with version 5.005, there is experimental support for building |
145 | a perl interpreter that supports the Perl Object abstraction (courtesy |
146 | ActiveState Tool Corp.) PERL_OBJECT uses C++, and the binaries are |
147 | therefore incompatible with the regular C build. However, the |
148 | PERL_OBJECT build does provide something called the C-API, for linking |
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149 | it with extensions that won't compile under PERL_OBJECT. PERL_OBJECT |
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150 | is not yet supported under GCC or EGCS. WARNING: Binaries built with |
151 | PERL_OBJECT enabled are B<not> compatible with binaries built without. |
152 | Perl installs PERL_OBJECT binaries under a distinct architecture name, |
153 | so they B<can> coexist, though. |
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154 | |
155 | Beginning with version 5.005, there is experimental support for building |
156 | a perl interpreter that is capable of native threading. Binaries built |
157 | with thread support enabled are also incompatible with the vanilla C |
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158 | build. WARNING: Binaries built with threads enabled are B<not> compatible |
159 | with binaries built without. Perl installs threads enabled binaries under |
160 | a distinct architecture name, so they B<can> coexist, though. |
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161 | |
162 | At the present time, you cannot enable both threading and PERL_OBJECT. |
163 | You can get only one of them in a Perl interpreter. |
164 | |
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165 | If you have either the source or a library that contains des_fcrypt(), |
166 | enable the appropriate option in the makefile. des_fcrypt() is not |
167 | bundled with the distribution due to US Government restrictions |
168 | on the export of cryptographic software. Nevertheless, this routine |
169 | is part of the "libdes" library (written by Ed Young) which is widely |
170 | available worldwide, usually along with SSLeay (for example: |
171 | "ftp://fractal.mta.ca/pub/crypto/SSLeay/DES/"). Set CRYPT_SRC to the |
172 | name of the file that implements des_fcrypt(). Alternatively, if |
173 | you have built a library that contains des_fcrypt(), you can set |
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174 | CRYPT_LIB to point to the library name. The location above contains |
175 | many versions of the "libdes" library, all with slightly different |
176 | implementations of des_fcrypt(). Older versions have a single, |
177 | self-contained file (fcrypt.c) that implements crypt(), so they may be |
178 | easier to use. A patch against the fcrypt.c found in libdes-3.06 is |
179 | in des_fcrypt.patch. |
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180 | |
181 | Perl will also build without des_fcrypt(), but the crypt() builtin will |
182 | fail at run time. |
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183 | |
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184 | You will also have to make sure CCHOME points to wherever you installed |
185 | your compiler. |
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186 | |
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187 | Other options are explained in the makefiles. Be sure to read the |
188 | instructions carefully. |
189 | |
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190 | =item * |
191 | |
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192 | Type "dmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make). |
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193 | |
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194 | This should build everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe, |
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195 | perl.dll (or perlcore.dll), and perlglob.exe at the perl toplevel, and |
196 | various other extension dll's under the lib\auto directory. If the build |
197 | fails for any reason, make sure you have done the previous steps correctly. |
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198 | |
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199 | The build process may produce "harmless" compiler warnings (more or |
200 | less copiously, depending on how picky your compiler gets). The |
201 | maintainers are aware of these warnings, thankyouverymuch. :) |
202 | |
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203 | When building using Visual C++, a perl95.exe will also get built. This |
204 | executable is only needed on Windows95, and should be used instead of |
205 | perl.exe, and then only if you want sockets to work properly on Windows95. |
206 | This is necessitated by a bug in the Microsoft C Runtime that cannot be |
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207 | worked around in the "normal" perl.exe. perl95.exe gets built with its |
208 | own private copy of the C Runtime that is not accessible to extensions |
209 | (which see the DLL version of the CRT). Be aware, therefore, that this |
210 | perl95.exe will have esoteric problems with extensions like perl/Tk that |
211 | themselves use the C Runtime heavily, or want to free() pointers |
212 | malloc()-ed by perl. |
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213 | |
214 | You can avoid the perl95.exe problems completely if you use Borland |
215 | C++ for building perl (perl95.exe is not needed and will not be built |
216 | in that case). |
217 | |
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218 | =back |
219 | |
220 | =head2 Testing |
221 | |
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222 | Type "dmake test" (or "nmake test"). This will run most of the tests from |
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223 | the testsuite (many tests will be skipped, and but no test should fail). |
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224 | |
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225 | If some tests do fail, it may be because you are using a different command |
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226 | shell than the native "cmd.exe". |
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227 | |
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228 | If you used the Borland compiler, you may see a failure in op/taint.t |
229 | arising from the inability to find the Borland Runtime DLLs on the system |
230 | default path. You will need to copy the DLLs reported by the messages |
231 | from where Borland chose to install it, into the Windows system directory |
232 | (usually somewhere like C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32), and rerun the test. |
233 | |
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234 | The Visual C runtime apparently has a bug that causes posix.t to fail |
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235 | test#2. This usually happens only if you extracted the files in text |
236 | mode. Enable the USE_PERLCRT option in the Makefile to fix this bug. |
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237 | |
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238 | Please report any other failures as described under L<BUGS AND CAVEATS>. |
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239 | |
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240 | =head2 Installation |
241 | |
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242 | Type "dmake install" (or "nmake install"). This will put the newly |
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243 | built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP> points to in the |
244 | Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation under |
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245 | C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same under |
246 | C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\lib\pod\html>. To use the Perl you just installed, |
247 | you will need to add two components to your PATH environment variable, |
248 | C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\bin>, and C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\bin\$ARCHNAME>. |
249 | For example: |
250 | |
251 | set PATH c:\perl\5.005\bin;c:\perl\5.005\bin\MSWin32-x6;%PATH% |
252 | |
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253 | |
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254 | =head2 Usage Hints |
255 | |
256 | =over 4 |
257 | |
258 | =item Environment Variables |
259 | |
260 | The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled |
261 | into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start |
262 | using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable). |
263 | |
264 | If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB |
265 | to a list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl |
266 | to look for libraries. Look for descriptions of other environment |
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267 | variables you can set in L<perlrun>. |
268 | |
269 | You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and |
270 | backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See L<perlrun>. |
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271 | |
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272 | Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain default |
273 | values if you choose to put them there. Perl attempts to read entries from |
274 | C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> and C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>. |
275 | Entries in the former override entries in the latter. One or more of the |
276 | following entries (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may be set: |
277 | |
278 | lib-$] version-specific path to add to @INC |
279 | lib path to add to @INC |
280 | sitelib-$] version-specific path to add to @INC |
281 | sitelib path to add to @INC |
282 | PERL* fallback for all %ENV lookups that begin with "PERL" |
283 | |
284 | Note the C<$]> in the above is not literal. Substitute whatever version |
285 | of perl you want to honor that entry, e.g. C<5.00502>. Paths must be |
286 | separated with semicolons, as usual on win32. |
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287 | |
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288 | =item File Globbing |
289 | |
290 | By default, perl spawns an external program to do file globbing. |
291 | The install process installs both a perlglob.exe and a perlglob.bat |
292 | that perl can use for this purpose. Note that with the default |
293 | installation, perlglob.exe will be found by the system before |
294 | perlglob.bat. |
295 | |
296 | perlglob.exe relies on the argv expansion done by the C Runtime of |
297 | the particular compiler you used, and therefore behaves very |
298 | differently depending on the Runtime used to build it. To preserve |
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299 | compatiblity, perlglob.bat (a perl script that can be used portably) |
300 | is installed. Besides being portable, perlglob.bat also offers |
301 | enhanced globbing functionality. |
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302 | |
303 | If you want perl to use perlglob.bat instead of perlglob.exe, just |
304 | delete perlglob.exe from the install location (or move it somewhere |
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305 | perl cannot find). Using File::DosGlob.pm (which implements the core |
306 | functionality of perlglob.bat) to override the internal CORE::glob() |
307 | works about 10 times faster than spawing perlglob.exe, and you should |
308 | take this approach when writing new modules. See File::DosGlob for |
309 | details. |
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310 | |
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311 | =item Using perl from the command line |
312 | |
313 | If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line |
314 | shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased |
315 | with what Windows NT offers by way of a command shell. |
316 | |
317 | The crucial thing to understand about the "cmd" shell (which is |
318 | the default on Windows NT) is that it does not do any wildcard |
319 | expansions of command-line arguments (so wildcards need not be |
320 | quoted). It also provides only rudimentary quoting. The only |
321 | (useful) quote character is the double quote ("). It can be used to |
322 | protect spaces in arguments and other special characters. The |
323 | Windows NT documentation has almost no description of how the |
324 | quoting rules are implemented, but here are some general observations |
325 | based on experiments: The shell breaks arguments at spaces and |
326 | passes them to programs in argc/argv. Doublequotes can be used |
327 | to prevent arguments with spaces in them from being split up. |
328 | You can put a double quote in an argument by escaping it with |
329 | a backslash and enclosing the whole argument within double quotes. |
330 | The backslash and the pair of double quotes surrounding the |
331 | argument will be stripped by the shell. |
332 | |
333 | The file redirection characters "<", ">", and "|" cannot be quoted |
334 | by double quotes (there are probably more such). Single quotes |
335 | will protect those three file redirection characters, but the |
336 | single quotes don't get stripped by the shell (just to make this |
337 | type of quoting completely useless). The caret "^" has also |
338 | been observed to behave as a quoting character (and doesn't get |
339 | stripped by the shell also). |
340 | |
341 | Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell: |
342 | |
343 | This prints two doublequotes: |
344 | |
345 | perl -e "print '\"\"' " |
346 | |
347 | This does the same: |
348 | |
349 | perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" " |
350 | |
351 | This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch": |
352 | |
353 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch |
354 | |
355 | This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland): |
356 | |
357 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul |
358 | |
359 | This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch": |
360 | |
361 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch |
362 | |
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363 | This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the console: |
364 | |
365 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less |
366 | |
367 | This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager: |
368 | |
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369 | perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less |
370 | |
371 | This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file "blurch": |
372 | |
373 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less |
374 | |
375 | |
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376 | Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows95 |
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377 | is left as an exercise to the reader :) |
378 | |
379 | =item Building Extensions |
380 | |
381 | The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth |
382 | of extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build. |
383 | Look in http://www.perl.com/ for more information on CPAN. |
384 | |
385 | Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can |
386 | be built, tested and installed with the standard mantra: |
387 | |
388 | perl Makefile.PL |
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389 | $MAKE |
390 | $MAKE test |
391 | $MAKE install |
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392 | |
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393 | where $MAKE stands for NMAKE or DMAKE. Some extensions may not |
394 | provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything, or fail), |
395 | but most serious ones do. |
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396 | |
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397 | If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported |
398 | C compilers. You must make sure you have set up the environment for |
399 | the compiler for command-line compilation. |
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400 | |
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401 | If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for |
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402 | why it failed, and report problems to the module author. If |
403 | it looks like the extension building support is at fault, report |
404 | that with full details of how the build failed using the perlbug |
405 | utility. |
406 | |
9cde0e7f |
407 | =item Command-line Wildcard Expansion |
408 | |
409 | The default command shells on DOS descendant operating systems (such |
410 | as they are) usually do not expand wildcard arguments supplied to |
411 | programs. They consider it the application's job to handle that. |
412 | This is commonly achieved by linking the application (in our case, |
413 | perl) with startup code that the C runtime libraries usually provide. |
414 | However, doing that results in incompatible perl versions (since the |
415 | behavior of the argv expansion code differs depending on the |
416 | compiler, and it is even buggy on some compilers). Besides, it may |
417 | be a source of frustration if you use such a perl binary with an |
418 | alternate shell that *does* expand wildcards. |
419 | |
420 | Instead, the following solution works rather well. The nice things |
421 | about it: 1) you can start using it right away 2) it is more powerful, |
422 | because it will do the right thing with a pattern like */*/*.c |
423 | 3) you can decide whether you do/don't want to use it 4) you can |
424 | extend the method to add any customizations (or even entirely |
425 | different kinds of wildcard expansion). |
426 | |
427 | C:\> copy con c:\perl\lib\Wild.pm |
428 | # Wild.pm - emulate shell @ARGV expansion on shells that don't |
429 | use File::DosGlob; |
430 | @ARGV = map { |
431 | my @g = File::DosGlob::glob($_) if /[*?]/; |
432 | @g ? @g : $_; |
433 | } @ARGV; |
434 | 1; |
435 | ^Z |
436 | C:\> set PERL5OPT=-MWild |
437 | C:\> perl -le "for (@ARGV) { print }" */*/perl*.c |
438 | p4view/perl/perl.c |
439 | p4view/perl/perlio.c |
440 | p4view/perl/perly.c |
441 | perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c |
442 | perl5.005/win32/perllib.c |
443 | perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c |
444 | perl5.005/win32/perllib.c |
445 | perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c |
446 | perl5.005/win32/perllib.c |
447 | |
448 | Note there are two distinct steps there: 1) You'll have to create |
449 | Wild.pm and put it in your perl lib directory. 2) You'll need to |
450 | set the PERL5OPT environment variable. If you want argv expansion |
451 | to be the default, just set PERL5OPT in your default startup |
452 | environment. |
453 | |
454 | If you are using the Visual C compiler, you can get the C runtime's |
455 | command line wildcard expansion built into perl binary. The resulting |
456 | binary will always expand unquoted command lines, which may not be |
457 | what you want if you use a shell that does that for you. The expansion |
458 | done is also somewhat less powerful than the approach suggested above. |
459 | |
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460 | =item Win32 Specific Extensions |
461 | |
462 | A number of extensions specific to the Win32 platform are available |
463 | from CPAN. You may find that many of these extensions are meant to |
464 | be used under the Activeware port of Perl, which used to be the only |
465 | native port for the Win32 platform. Since the Activeware port does not |
466 | have adequate support for Perl's extension building tools, these |
467 | extensions typically do not support those tools either, and therefore |
468 | cannot be built using the generic steps shown in the previous section. |
469 | |
470 | To ensure smooth transitioning of existing code that uses the |
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471 | ActiveState port, there is a bundle of Win32 extensions that contains |
472 | all of the ActiveState extensions and most other Win32 extensions from |
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473 | CPAN in source form, along with many added bugfixes, and with MakeMaker |
474 | support. This bundle is available at: |
475 | |
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476 | http://www.perl.com/CPAN/authors/id/GSAR/libwin32-0.12.zip |
c90c0ff4 |
477 | |
478 | See the README in that distribution for building and installation |
479 | instructions. Look for later versions that may be available at the |
480 | same location. |
481 | |
156a3eb7 |
482 | =item Running Perl Scripts |
483 | |
484 | Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to |
485 | indicate to the OS that it should execute the file using perl. |
486 | Win32 has no comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are |
487 | executables. |
488 | |
489 | Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on |
490 | Win32 rely on the file "extension". There are three methods |
491 | to use this to execute perl scripts: |
492 | |
493 | =over 8 |
494 | |
495 | =item 1 |
496 | |
497 | There is a facility called "file extension associations" that will |
498 | work in Windows NT 4.0. This can be manipulated via the two |
499 | commands "assoc" and "ftype" that come standard with Windows NT |
500 | 4.0. Type "ftype /?" for a complete example of how to set this |
501 | up for perl scripts (Say what? You thought Windows NT wasn't |
502 | perl-ready? :). |
503 | |
504 | =item 2 |
505 | |
506 | Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are |
507 | reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the |
508 | old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a |
509 | regular batch file to the OS, may be used. The install process |
510 | makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to wrap |
511 | perl scripts into batch files. For example: |
512 | |
513 | pl2bat foo.pl |
514 | |
515 | will create the file "FOO.BAT". Note "pl2bat" strips any |
516 | .pl suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file. |
517 | |
518 | If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that |
519 | "pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to |
520 | refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to make |
521 | sure that construct works in batch files. As of this writing, |
522 | 4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *" statement in their |
523 | 4NT.INI file, or will need to execute "setdos /p*" in the 4DOS/NT |
524 | startup file to enable this to work. |
525 | |
526 | =item 3 |
527 | |
528 | Using "pl2bat" has a few problems: the file name gets changed, |
529 | so scripts that rely on C<$0> to find what they must do may not |
530 | run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the |
531 | original script, and so this process can be maintenance intensive |
532 | if the originals get updated often. A different approach that |
533 | avoids both problems is possible. |
534 | |
535 | A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied |
536 | to any filename (along with the .bat suffix). For example, |
537 | if you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is |
538 | executed. Since you can run batch files on Win32 platforms simply |
539 | by typing the name (without the extension), this effectively |
540 | runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or "foo.bat". |
541 | With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a different location |
542 | than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is available somewhere on |
543 | the PATH. If your scripts are on a filesystem that allows symbolic |
544 | links, you can even avoid copying "runperl.bat". |
545 | |
546 | Here's a diversion: copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type |
547 | "runperl". Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :) |
548 | Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH |
549 | |
550 | =back |
551 | |
7bac28a0 |
552 | =item Miscellaneous Things |
553 | |
554 | A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be |
555 | able to use it if you have a web browser installed on your |
556 | system. |
557 | |
558 | C<perldoc> is also a useful tool for browsing information contained |
559 | in the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager |
560 | like C<less> (recent versions of which have Win32 support). You may |
561 | have to set the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager. |
562 | "perldoc -f foo" will print information about the perl operator |
563 | "foo". |
564 | |
565 | If you find bugs in perl, you can run C<perlbug> to create a |
566 | bug report (you may have to send it manually if C<perlbug> cannot |
567 | find a mailer on your system). |
568 | |
569 | =back |
570 | |
68dc0745 |
571 | =head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS |
572 | |
f7c603cb |
573 | An effort has been made to ensure that the DLLs produced by the two |
574 | supported compilers are compatible with each other (despite the |
575 | best efforts of the compiler vendors). Extension binaries produced |
576 | by one compiler should also coexist with a perl binary built by |
577 | a different compiler. In order to accomplish this, PERL.DLL provides |
578 | a layer of runtime code that uses the C Runtime that perl was compiled |
579 | with. Extensions which include "perl.h" will transparently access |
580 | the functions in this layer, thereby ensuring that both perl and |
581 | extensions use the same runtime functions. |
68dc0745 |
582 | |
8b88ae92 |
583 | If you have had prior exposure to Perl on Unix platforms, you will notice |
584 | this port exhibits behavior different from what is documented. Most of the |
7bac28a0 |
585 | differences fall under one of these categories. We do not consider |
586 | any of them to be serious limitations (especially when compared to the |
587 | limited nature of some of the Win32 OSes themselves :) |
68dc0745 |
588 | |
589 | =over 8 |
590 | |
591 | =item * |
592 | |
593 | C<stat()> and C<lstat()> functions may not behave as documented. They |
594 | may return values that bear no resemblance to those reported on Unix |
7bac28a0 |
595 | platforms, and some fields (like the the one for inode) may be completely |
596 | bogus. |
68dc0745 |
597 | |
598 | =item * |
599 | |
6890e559 |
600 | The following functions are currently unavailable: C<fork()>, |
5aabfad6 |
601 | C<dump()>, C<chown()>, C<link()>, C<symlink()>, C<chroot()>, |
26618a56 |
602 | C<setpgrp()> and related security functions, C<setpriority()>, |
603 | C<getpriority()>, C<syscall()>, C<fcntl()>, C<getpw*()>, |
2d7a9237 |
604 | C<msg*()>, C<shm*()>, C<sem*()>, C<alarm()>, C<socketpair()>, |
605 | C<*netent()>, C<*protoent()>, C<*servent()>, C<*hostent()>, |
606 | C<getnetby*()>. |
26618a56 |
607 | This list is possibly incomplete. |
6890e559 |
608 | |
609 | =item * |
610 | |
68dc0745 |
611 | Various C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not |
612 | behave as on Unix platforms. |
613 | |
614 | =item * |
615 | |
616 | The four-argument C<select()> call is only supported on sockets. |
617 | |
618 | =item * |
619 | |
f998180f |
620 | The C<ioctl()> call is only supported on sockets (where it provides the |
621 | functionality of ioctlsocket() in the Winsock API). |
622 | |
623 | =item * |
624 | |
2d7a9237 |
625 | Failure to spawn() a subprocess is indicated by setting $? to "255 << 8". |
626 | C<$?> is set in a way compatible with Unix (i.e. the exitstatus of the |
627 | subprocess is obtained by "$? >> 8", as described in the documentation). |
68dc0745 |
628 | |
629 | =item * |
630 | |
26618a56 |
631 | You can expect problems building modules available on CPAN if you |
632 | build perl itself with -DUSE_THREADS. These problems should be resolved |
633 | as we get closer to 5.005. |
68dc0745 |
634 | |
635 | =item * |
636 | |
637 | C<utime()>, C<times()> and process-related functions may not |
638 | behave as described in the documentation, and some of the |
639 | returned values or effects may be bogus. |
640 | |
641 | =item * |
642 | |
3e3baf6d |
643 | Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it |
f7c603cb |
644 | doesn't exactly "behave", either :). For instance, calling C<die()> |
645 | or C<exit()> from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most |
646 | implementations of C<signal()> on Win32 are severely crippled. |
647 | Thus, signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag |
648 | variable in the handler. Using signals under this port should |
649 | currently be considered unsupported. |
68dc0745 |
650 | |
651 | =item * |
652 | |
1a159553 |
653 | C<kill()> is implemented, but doesn't have the semantics of |
654 | C<raise()>, i.e. it doesn't send a signal to the identified process |
655 | like it does on Unix platforms. Instead it immediately calls |
656 | C<TerminateProcess(process,signal)>. Thus the signal argument is |
657 | used to set the exit-status of the terminated process. This behavior |
658 | may change in future. |
659 | |
660 | =item * |
661 | |
7bac28a0 |
662 | File globbing may not behave as on Unix platforms. In particular, |
3e3baf6d |
663 | if you don't use perlglob.bat for globbing, it will understand |
664 | wildcards only in the filename component (and not in the pathname). |
665 | In other words, something like "print <*/*.pl>" will not print all the |
666 | perl scripts in all the subdirectories one level under the current one |
667 | (like it does on UNIX platforms). perlglob.exe is also dependent on |
668 | the particular implementation of wildcard expansion in the vendor |
669 | libraries used to build it (which varies wildly at the present time). |
670 | Using perlglob.bat (or File::DosGlob) avoids these limitations, but |
671 | still only provides DOS semantics (read "warts") for globbing. |
68dc0745 |
672 | |
673 | =back |
674 | |
675 | Please send detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that |
676 | you may find to <F<perlbug@perl.com>>, along with the output produced |
677 | by C<perl -V>. |
678 | |
679 | =head1 AUTHORS |
680 | |
681 | =over 4 |
682 | |
3e3baf6d |
683 | Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt> |
68dc0745 |
684 | |
3e3baf6d |
685 | Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@umich.eduE<gt> |
68dc0745 |
686 | |
3e3baf6d |
687 | Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ni-s.u-net.comE<gt> |
68dc0745 |
688 | |
689 | =back |
690 | |
f7c603cb |
691 | This document is maintained by Gurusamy Sarathy. |
692 | |
68dc0745 |
693 | =head1 SEE ALSO |
694 | |
695 | L<perl> |
696 | |
697 | =head1 HISTORY |
698 | |
699 | This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24, |
700 | and borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available |
701 | at the time. |
702 | |
703 | Nick Ing-Simmons and Gurusamy Sarathy have made numerous and |
704 | sundry hacks since then. |
705 | |
3e3baf6d |
706 | Borland support was added in 5.004_01 (Gurusamy Sarathy). |
707 | |
9a40db4d |
708 | GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons). |
709 | |
710 | Last updated: 22 September 1998 |
68dc0745 |
711 | |
712 | =cut |
3e3baf6d |
713 | |