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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 |
50 | Mingw32 with EGCS version 1.0.2 |
51 | Mingw32 with GCC version 2.8.1 |
52 | |
53 | The last two of these are high quality freeware compilers. |
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54 | |
55 | This port currently supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that |
56 | is used to build extensions to perl). Therefore, you should be |
57 | able to build and install most extensions found in the CPAN sites. |
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58 | See L<Usage Hints> below for general hints about this. |
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59 | |
60 | =head2 Setting Up |
61 | |
62 | =over 4 |
63 | |
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64 | =item Command Shell |
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65 | |
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66 | Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with NT. Some versions of the |
67 | popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause you trouble. |
68 | If the build fails under that shell, try building again with the cmd |
69 | shell. The Makefile also has known incompatibilites with the "command.com" |
70 | shell that comes with Windows95, so building under Windows95 should |
71 | be considered "unsupported". However, there have been reports of successful |
72 | build attempts using 4DOS/NT version 3.00 under Windows95, using dmake, but |
73 | your mileage may vary. |
74 | |
75 | The surest way to build it is on WindowsNT, using the cmd shell. |
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76 | |
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77 | =item Borland C++ |
78 | |
79 | If you are using the Borland compiler, you will need dmake, a freely |
80 | available make that has very nice macro features and parallelability. |
81 | (The make that Borland supplies is seriously crippled, and will not |
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82 | work for MakeMaker builds.) |
83 | |
84 | A port of dmake for win32 platforms is available from: |
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85 | |
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86 | http://www-personal.umich.edu/~gsar/dmake-4.1-win32.zip |
87 | |
88 | Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path (follow the instructions |
89 | in the README.NOW file). |
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90 | |
91 | =item Microsoft Visual C++ |
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92 | |
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93 | The NMAKE that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building. |
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94 | You will need to run the VCVARS32.BAT file usually found somewhere |
95 | like C:\MSDEV4.2\BIN. This will set your build environment. |
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96 | |
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97 | You can also use dmake to build using Visual C++, provided: |
98 | you set OSRELEASE to "microsft" (or whatever the directory name |
99 | under which the Visual C dmake configuration lives) in your environment, |
100 | and edit win32/config.vc to change "make=nmake" into "make=dmake". The |
101 | latter step is only essential if you want to use dmake as your default |
102 | make for building extensions using MakeMaker. |
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103 | |
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104 | =item Mingw32 with EGCS or GCC |
105 | |
106 | ECGS-1.0.2 binaries can be downloaded from: |
107 | |
108 | ftp://ftp.xraylith.wisc.edu/pub/khan/gnu-win32/mingw32/ |
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109 | |
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110 | GCC-2.8.1 binaries are available from: |
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111 | |
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112 | http://agnes.dida.physik.uni-essen.de/~janjaap/mingw32/ |
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113 | |
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114 | You only need either one of those, not both. Both bundles come with |
115 | Mingw32 libraries and headers. While both of them work to build perl, |
116 | the EGCS binaries are currently favored by the maintainers, since they |
117 | come with more up-to-date Mingw32 libraries. |
118 | |
119 | Make sure you install the binaries as indicated in the web sites |
120 | above. You will need to set up a few environment variables (usually |
121 | run from a batch file). |
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122 | |
123 | =back |
124 | |
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125 | =head2 Building |
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126 | |
127 | =over 4 |
128 | |
129 | =item * |
130 | |
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131 | Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl toplevel. |
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132 | This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with |
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133 | versions of NMAKE that come with Visual C++, and a dmake "makefile.mk" |
134 | that will work for all supported compilers. The defaults in the dmake |
135 | makefile are setup to build using the Borland compiler. |
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136 | |
137 | =item * |
138 | |
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139 | Edit the makefile.mk (or Makefile, if using nmake) and change the values |
140 | of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. You can also enable various build |
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141 | flags. |
142 | |
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143 | Beginning with version 5.005, there is experimental support for building |
144 | a perl interpreter that supports the Perl Object abstraction (courtesy |
145 | ActiveState Tool Corp.) PERL_OBJECT uses C++, and the binaries are |
146 | therefore incompatible with the regular C build. However, the |
147 | PERL_OBJECT build does provide something called the C-API, for linking |
148 | it with extensions that won't compile under PERL_OBJECT. |
149 | |
150 | Beginning with version 5.005, there is experimental support for building |
151 | a perl interpreter that is capable of native threading. Binaries built |
152 | with thread support enabled are also incompatible with the vanilla C |
153 | build. |
154 | |
155 | At the present time, you cannot enable both threading and PERL_OBJECT. |
156 | You can get only one of them in a Perl interpreter. |
157 | |
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158 | If you have either the source or a library that contains des_fcrypt(), |
159 | enable the appropriate option in the makefile. des_fcrypt() is not |
160 | bundled with the distribution due to US Government restrictions |
161 | on the export of cryptographic software. Nevertheless, this routine |
162 | is part of the "libdes" library (written by Ed Young) which is widely |
163 | available worldwide, usually along with SSLeay (for example: |
164 | "ftp://fractal.mta.ca/pub/crypto/SSLeay/DES/"). Set CRYPT_SRC to the |
165 | name of the file that implements des_fcrypt(). Alternatively, if |
166 | you have built a library that contains des_fcrypt(), you can set |
167 | CRYPT_LIB to point to the library name. |
168 | |
169 | Perl will also build without des_fcrypt(), but the crypt() builtin will |
170 | fail at run time. |
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171 | |
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172 | You will also have to make sure CCHOME points to wherever you installed |
173 | your compiler. |
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174 | |
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175 | Other options are explained in the makefiles. Be sure to read the |
176 | instructions carefully. |
177 | |
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178 | =item * |
179 | |
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180 | Type "dmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make). |
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181 | |
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182 | This should build everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe, |
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183 | perl.dll (or perlcore.dll), and perlglob.exe at the perl toplevel, and |
184 | various other extension dll's under the lib\auto directory. If the build |
185 | fails for any reason, make sure you have done the previous steps correctly. |
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186 | |
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187 | The build process may produce "harmless" compiler warnings (more or |
188 | less copiously, depending on how picky your compiler gets). The |
189 | maintainers are aware of these warnings, thankyouverymuch. :) |
190 | |
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191 | When building using Visual C++, a perl95.exe will also get built. This |
192 | executable is only needed on Windows95, and should be used instead of |
193 | perl.exe, and then only if you want sockets to work properly on Windows95. |
194 | This is necessitated by a bug in the Microsoft C Runtime that cannot be |
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195 | worked around in the "normal" perl.exe. perl95.exe gets built with its |
196 | own private copy of the C Runtime that is not accessible to extensions |
197 | (which see the DLL version of the CRT). Be aware, therefore, that this |
198 | perl95.exe will have esoteric problems with extensions like perl/Tk that |
199 | themselves use the C Runtime heavily, or want to free() pointers |
200 | malloc()-ed by perl. |
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201 | |
202 | You can avoid the perl95.exe problems completely if you use Borland |
203 | C++ for building perl (perl95.exe is not needed and will not be built |
204 | in that case). |
205 | |
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206 | =back |
207 | |
208 | =head2 Testing |
209 | |
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210 | Type "dmake test" (or "nmake test"). This will run most of the tests from |
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211 | the testsuite (many tests will be skipped, and but no test should fail). |
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212 | |
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213 | If some tests do fail, it may be because you are using a different command |
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214 | shell than the native "cmd.exe". |
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215 | |
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216 | If you used the Borland compiler, you may see a failure in op/taint.t |
217 | arising from the inability to find the Borland Runtime DLLs on the system |
218 | default path. You will need to copy the DLLs reported by the messages |
219 | from where Borland chose to install it, into the Windows system directory |
220 | (usually somewhere like C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32), and rerun the test. |
221 | |
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222 | The Visual C runtime apparently has a bug that causes posix.t to fail |
223 | one it test#2. This usually happens only if you extracted the files in |
224 | text mode. |
225 | |
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226 | Please report any other failures as described under L<BUGS AND CAVEATS>. |
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227 | |
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228 | =head2 Installation |
229 | |
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230 | Type "dmake install" (or "nmake install"). This will put the newly |
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231 | built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP> points to in the |
232 | Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation under |
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233 | C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same under |
234 | C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\lib\pod\html>. To use the Perl you just installed, |
235 | you will need to add two components to your PATH environment variable, |
236 | C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\bin>, and C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\bin\$ARCHNAME>. |
237 | For example: |
238 | |
239 | set PATH c:\perl\5.005\bin;c:\perl\5.005\bin\MSWin32-x6;%PATH% |
240 | |
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241 | |
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242 | =head2 Usage Hints |
243 | |
244 | =over 4 |
245 | |
246 | =item Environment Variables |
247 | |
248 | The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled |
249 | into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start |
250 | using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable). |
251 | |
252 | If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB |
253 | to a list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl |
254 | to look for libraries. Look for descriptions of other environment |
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255 | variables you can set in L<perlrun>. |
256 | |
257 | You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and |
258 | backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See L<perlrun>. |
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259 | |
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260 | Currently, Perl does not depend on the registry, but can look up |
261 | values if you choose to put them there. [XXX add registry locations |
262 | that perl looks at here.] |
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263 | |
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264 | =item File Globbing |
265 | |
266 | By default, perl spawns an external program to do file globbing. |
267 | The install process installs both a perlglob.exe and a perlglob.bat |
268 | that perl can use for this purpose. Note that with the default |
269 | installation, perlglob.exe will be found by the system before |
270 | perlglob.bat. |
271 | |
272 | perlglob.exe relies on the argv expansion done by the C Runtime of |
273 | the particular compiler you used, and therefore behaves very |
274 | differently depending on the Runtime used to build it. To preserve |
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275 | compatiblity, perlglob.bat (a perl script that can be used portably) |
276 | is installed. Besides being portable, perlglob.bat also offers |
277 | enhanced globbing functionality. |
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278 | |
279 | If you want perl to use perlglob.bat instead of perlglob.exe, just |
280 | delete perlglob.exe from the install location (or move it somewhere |
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281 | perl cannot find). Using File::DosGlob.pm (which implements the core |
282 | functionality of perlglob.bat) to override the internal CORE::glob() |
283 | works about 10 times faster than spawing perlglob.exe, and you should |
284 | take this approach when writing new modules. See File::DosGlob for |
285 | details. |
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286 | |
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287 | =item Using perl from the command line |
288 | |
289 | If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line |
290 | shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased |
291 | with what Windows NT offers by way of a command shell. |
292 | |
293 | The crucial thing to understand about the "cmd" shell (which is |
294 | the default on Windows NT) is that it does not do any wildcard |
295 | expansions of command-line arguments (so wildcards need not be |
296 | quoted). It also provides only rudimentary quoting. The only |
297 | (useful) quote character is the double quote ("). It can be used to |
298 | protect spaces in arguments and other special characters. The |
299 | Windows NT documentation has almost no description of how the |
300 | quoting rules are implemented, but here are some general observations |
301 | based on experiments: The shell breaks arguments at spaces and |
302 | passes them to programs in argc/argv. Doublequotes can be used |
303 | to prevent arguments with spaces in them from being split up. |
304 | You can put a double quote in an argument by escaping it with |
305 | a backslash and enclosing the whole argument within double quotes. |
306 | The backslash and the pair of double quotes surrounding the |
307 | argument will be stripped by the shell. |
308 | |
309 | The file redirection characters "<", ">", and "|" cannot be quoted |
310 | by double quotes (there are probably more such). Single quotes |
311 | will protect those three file redirection characters, but the |
312 | single quotes don't get stripped by the shell (just to make this |
313 | type of quoting completely useless). The caret "^" has also |
314 | been observed to behave as a quoting character (and doesn't get |
315 | stripped by the shell also). |
316 | |
317 | Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell: |
318 | |
319 | This prints two doublequotes: |
320 | |
321 | perl -e "print '\"\"' " |
322 | |
323 | This does the same: |
324 | |
325 | perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" " |
326 | |
327 | This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch": |
328 | |
329 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch |
330 | |
331 | This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland): |
332 | |
333 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul |
334 | |
335 | This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch": |
336 | |
337 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch |
338 | |
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339 | This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the console: |
340 | |
341 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less |
342 | |
343 | This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager: |
344 | |
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345 | perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less |
346 | |
347 | This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file "blurch": |
348 | |
349 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less |
350 | |
351 | |
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352 | Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows95 |
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353 | is left as an exercise to the reader :) |
354 | |
355 | =item Building Extensions |
356 | |
357 | The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth |
358 | of extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build. |
359 | Look in http://www.perl.com/ for more information on CPAN. |
360 | |
361 | Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can |
362 | be built, tested and installed with the standard mantra: |
363 | |
364 | perl Makefile.PL |
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365 | $MAKE |
366 | $MAKE test |
367 | $MAKE install |
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368 | |
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369 | where $MAKE stands for NMAKE or DMAKE. Some extensions may not |
370 | provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything, or fail), |
371 | but most serious ones do. |
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372 | |
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373 | If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported |
374 | C compilers. You must make sure you have set up the environment for |
375 | the compiler for command-line compilation. |
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376 | |
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377 | If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for |
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378 | why it failed, and report problems to the module author. If |
379 | it looks like the extension building support is at fault, report |
380 | that with full details of how the build failed using the perlbug |
381 | utility. |
382 | |
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383 | =item Win32 Specific Extensions |
384 | |
385 | A number of extensions specific to the Win32 platform are available |
386 | from CPAN. You may find that many of these extensions are meant to |
387 | be used under the Activeware port of Perl, which used to be the only |
388 | native port for the Win32 platform. Since the Activeware port does not |
389 | have adequate support for Perl's extension building tools, these |
390 | extensions typically do not support those tools either, and therefore |
391 | cannot be built using the generic steps shown in the previous section. |
392 | |
393 | To ensure smooth transitioning of existing code that uses the |
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394 | ActiveState port, there is a bundle of Win32 extensions that contains |
395 | all of the ActiveState extensions and most other Win32 extensions from |
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396 | CPAN in source form, along with many added bugfixes, and with MakeMaker |
397 | support. This bundle is available at: |
398 | |
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399 | http://www.perl.com/CPAN/authors/id/GSAR/libwin32-0.12.zip |
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400 | |
401 | See the README in that distribution for building and installation |
402 | instructions. Look for later versions that may be available at the |
403 | same location. |
404 | |
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405 | =item Running Perl Scripts |
406 | |
407 | Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to |
408 | indicate to the OS that it should execute the file using perl. |
409 | Win32 has no comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are |
410 | executables. |
411 | |
412 | Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on |
413 | Win32 rely on the file "extension". There are three methods |
414 | to use this to execute perl scripts: |
415 | |
416 | =over 8 |
417 | |
418 | =item 1 |
419 | |
420 | There is a facility called "file extension associations" that will |
421 | work in Windows NT 4.0. This can be manipulated via the two |
422 | commands "assoc" and "ftype" that come standard with Windows NT |
423 | 4.0. Type "ftype /?" for a complete example of how to set this |
424 | up for perl scripts (Say what? You thought Windows NT wasn't |
425 | perl-ready? :). |
426 | |
427 | =item 2 |
428 | |
429 | Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are |
430 | reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the |
431 | old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a |
432 | regular batch file to the OS, may be used. The install process |
433 | makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to wrap |
434 | perl scripts into batch files. For example: |
435 | |
436 | pl2bat foo.pl |
437 | |
438 | will create the file "FOO.BAT". Note "pl2bat" strips any |
439 | .pl suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file. |
440 | |
441 | If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that |
442 | "pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to |
443 | refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to make |
444 | sure that construct works in batch files. As of this writing, |
445 | 4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *" statement in their |
446 | 4NT.INI file, or will need to execute "setdos /p*" in the 4DOS/NT |
447 | startup file to enable this to work. |
448 | |
449 | =item 3 |
450 | |
451 | Using "pl2bat" has a few problems: the file name gets changed, |
452 | so scripts that rely on C<$0> to find what they must do may not |
453 | run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the |
454 | original script, and so this process can be maintenance intensive |
455 | if the originals get updated often. A different approach that |
456 | avoids both problems is possible. |
457 | |
458 | A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied |
459 | to any filename (along with the .bat suffix). For example, |
460 | if you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is |
461 | executed. Since you can run batch files on Win32 platforms simply |
462 | by typing the name (without the extension), this effectively |
463 | runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or "foo.bat". |
464 | With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a different location |
465 | than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is available somewhere on |
466 | the PATH. If your scripts are on a filesystem that allows symbolic |
467 | links, you can even avoid copying "runperl.bat". |
468 | |
469 | Here's a diversion: copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type |
470 | "runperl". Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :) |
471 | Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH |
472 | |
473 | =back |
474 | |
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475 | =item Miscellaneous Things |
476 | |
477 | A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be |
478 | able to use it if you have a web browser installed on your |
479 | system. |
480 | |
481 | C<perldoc> is also a useful tool for browsing information contained |
482 | in the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager |
483 | like C<less> (recent versions of which have Win32 support). You may |
484 | have to set the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager. |
485 | "perldoc -f foo" will print information about the perl operator |
486 | "foo". |
487 | |
488 | If you find bugs in perl, you can run C<perlbug> to create a |
489 | bug report (you may have to send it manually if C<perlbug> cannot |
490 | find a mailer on your system). |
491 | |
492 | =back |
493 | |
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494 | =head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS |
495 | |
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496 | An effort has been made to ensure that the DLLs produced by the two |
497 | supported compilers are compatible with each other (despite the |
498 | best efforts of the compiler vendors). Extension binaries produced |
499 | by one compiler should also coexist with a perl binary built by |
500 | a different compiler. In order to accomplish this, PERL.DLL provides |
501 | a layer of runtime code that uses the C Runtime that perl was compiled |
502 | with. Extensions which include "perl.h" will transparently access |
503 | the functions in this layer, thereby ensuring that both perl and |
504 | extensions use the same runtime functions. |
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505 | |
8b88ae92 |
506 | If you have had prior exposure to Perl on Unix platforms, you will notice |
507 | this port exhibits behavior different from what is documented. Most of the |
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508 | differences fall under one of these categories. We do not consider |
509 | any of them to be serious limitations (especially when compared to the |
510 | limited nature of some of the Win32 OSes themselves :) |
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511 | |
512 | =over 8 |
513 | |
514 | =item * |
515 | |
516 | C<stat()> and C<lstat()> functions may not behave as documented. They |
517 | may return values that bear no resemblance to those reported on Unix |
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518 | platforms, and some fields (like the the one for inode) may be completely |
519 | bogus. |
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520 | |
521 | =item * |
522 | |
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523 | The following functions are currently unavailable: C<fork()>, |
5aabfad6 |
524 | C<dump()>, C<chown()>, C<link()>, C<symlink()>, C<chroot()>, |
26618a56 |
525 | C<setpgrp()> and related security functions, C<setpriority()>, |
526 | C<getpriority()>, C<syscall()>, C<fcntl()>, C<getpw*()>, |
2d7a9237 |
527 | C<msg*()>, C<shm*()>, C<sem*()>, C<alarm()>, C<socketpair()>, |
528 | C<*netent()>, C<*protoent()>, C<*servent()>, C<*hostent()>, |
529 | C<getnetby*()>. |
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530 | This list is possibly incomplete. |
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531 | |
532 | =item * |
533 | |
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534 | Various C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not |
535 | behave as on Unix platforms. |
536 | |
537 | =item * |
538 | |
539 | The four-argument C<select()> call is only supported on sockets. |
540 | |
541 | =item * |
542 | |
f998180f |
543 | The C<ioctl()> call is only supported on sockets (where it provides the |
544 | functionality of ioctlsocket() in the Winsock API). |
545 | |
546 | =item * |
547 | |
2d7a9237 |
548 | Failure to spawn() a subprocess is indicated by setting $? to "255 << 8". |
549 | C<$?> is set in a way compatible with Unix (i.e. the exitstatus of the |
550 | subprocess is obtained by "$? >> 8", as described in the documentation). |
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551 | |
552 | =item * |
553 | |
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554 | You can expect problems building modules available on CPAN if you |
555 | build perl itself with -DUSE_THREADS. These problems should be resolved |
556 | as we get closer to 5.005. |
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557 | |
558 | =item * |
559 | |
560 | C<utime()>, C<times()> and process-related functions may not |
561 | behave as described in the documentation, and some of the |
562 | returned values or effects may be bogus. |
563 | |
564 | =item * |
565 | |
3e3baf6d |
566 | Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it |
f7c603cb |
567 | doesn't exactly "behave", either :). For instance, calling C<die()> |
568 | or C<exit()> from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most |
569 | implementations of C<signal()> on Win32 are severely crippled. |
570 | Thus, signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag |
571 | variable in the handler. Using signals under this port should |
572 | currently be considered unsupported. |
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573 | |
574 | =item * |
575 | |
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576 | File globbing may not behave as on Unix platforms. In particular, |
3e3baf6d |
577 | if you don't use perlglob.bat for globbing, it will understand |
578 | wildcards only in the filename component (and not in the pathname). |
579 | In other words, something like "print <*/*.pl>" will not print all the |
580 | perl scripts in all the subdirectories one level under the current one |
581 | (like it does on UNIX platforms). perlglob.exe is also dependent on |
582 | the particular implementation of wildcard expansion in the vendor |
583 | libraries used to build it (which varies wildly at the present time). |
584 | Using perlglob.bat (or File::DosGlob) avoids these limitations, but |
585 | still only provides DOS semantics (read "warts") for globbing. |
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586 | |
587 | =back |
588 | |
589 | Please send detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that |
590 | you may find to <F<perlbug@perl.com>>, along with the output produced |
591 | by C<perl -V>. |
592 | |
593 | =head1 AUTHORS |
594 | |
595 | =over 4 |
596 | |
3e3baf6d |
597 | Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt> |
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598 | |
3e3baf6d |
599 | Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@umich.eduE<gt> |
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600 | |
3e3baf6d |
601 | Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ni-s.u-net.comE<gt> |
68dc0745 |
602 | |
603 | =back |
604 | |
f7c603cb |
605 | This document is maintained by Gurusamy Sarathy. |
606 | |
68dc0745 |
607 | =head1 SEE ALSO |
608 | |
609 | L<perl> |
610 | |
611 | =head1 HISTORY |
612 | |
613 | This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24, |
614 | and borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available |
615 | at the time. |
616 | |
617 | Nick Ing-Simmons and Gurusamy Sarathy have made numerous and |
618 | sundry hacks since then. |
619 | |
3e3baf6d |
620 | Borland support was added in 5.004_01 (Gurusamy Sarathy). |
621 | |
9036c72f |
622 | Last updated: 12 July 1998 |
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623 | |
624 | =cut |
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625 | |