3 Install - Build and Installation guide for perl5.
7 First, make sure you are installing an up-to-date version of Perl. If
8 you didn't get your Perl source from CPAN, check the latest version at
9 <URL:http://www.cpan.org/src/>.
11 The basic steps to build and install perl5 on a Unix system
12 with all the defaults are:
14 rm -f config.sh Policy.sh
20 # You may also wish to add these:
21 (cd /usr/include && h2ph *.h sys/*.h)
23 (cd pod && make tex && <process the latex files>)
25 Each of these is explained in further detail below.
27 B<NOTE>: starting from the release 5.6.0, Perl uses a version
28 scheme where even-numbered subreleases (like 5.6 and 5.8) are stable
29 maintenance releases and odd-numbered subreleases (like 5.7) are
30 unstable development releases. Development releases should not be
31 used in production environments. Fixes and new features are first
32 carefully tested in development releases and only if they prove
33 themselves to be worthy will they be migrated to the maintenance
36 The above commands will install Perl to /usr/local (or some other
37 platform-specific directory -- see the appropriate file in hints/.)
38 If that's not okay with you, use
40 rm -f config.sh Policy.sh
46 For information on non-Unix systems, see the section on L<"Porting
49 If "make install" just says "`install' is up to date" or something
50 similar, you may be on a case-insensitive filesystems such as Mac's HFS+,
51 and you should say "make install-all". (This confusion is brought to you
52 by the Perl distribution having a file called INSTALL.)
54 If you have problems, corrections, or questions, please see
55 L<"Reporting Problems"> below.
57 For information on what's new in this release, see the
58 pod/perldelta.pod file. For more detailed information about specific
59 changes, see the Changes file.
63 This document is written in pod format as an easy way to indicate its
64 structure. The pod format is described in pod/perlpod.pod, but you can
65 read it as is with any pager or editor. Headings and items are marked
66 by lines beginning with '='. The other mark-up used is
68 B<text> embolden text, used for switches, programs or commands
70 L<name> A link (cross reference) to name
72 Although most of the defaults are probably fine for most users,
73 you should probably at least skim through this entire document before
76 If you're building Perl on a non-Unix system, you should also read
77 the README file specific to your operating system, since this may
78 provide additional or different instructions for building Perl. There
79 are also README files for several flavors of Unix systems, such as
80 Solaris, HP-UX, and AIX; if you have one of those systems, you should
81 also read the README file specific to that system.
83 If there is a hint file for your system (in the hints/ directory) you
84 should also read that hint file for specific information for your
85 system. (Unixware users should use the svr4.sh hint file.)
86 Additional information is in the Porting/ directory.
88 =head1 WARNING: This version requires an extra step to build old extensions.
90 5.005_53 and later releases do not export unadorned
91 global symbols anymore. This means you may need to build rather old
92 extensions that have not been updated for the current naming convention
95 perl Makefile.PL POLLUTE=1
97 Alternatively, you can enable CPP symbol pollution wholesale by
98 building perl itself with:
100 sh Configure -Accflags=-DPERL_POLLUTE
102 pod/perl56delta.pod contains more details about this.
104 =head1 WARNING: This version is not binary compatible with releases of
107 If you have built extensions (i.e. modules that include C code)
108 using an earlier version of Perl, you will need to rebuild and reinstall
111 Pure perl modules without XS or C code should continue to work fine
112 without reinstallation. See the discussions below on
113 L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> and
114 L<"Upgrading from 5.005 or 5.6 to 5.8.0"> for more details.
116 The standard extensions supplied with Perl will be handled automatically.
118 On a related issue, old modules may possibly be affected by the
119 changes in the Perl language in the current release. Please see
120 pod/perldelta.pod (and the earlier pod/perl5Xdelta.pod) for a description of
121 what's changed. See your installed copy of the perllocal.pod
122 file for a (possibly incomplete) list of locally installed modules.
123 Also see CPAN::autobundle for one way to make a "bundle" of your
124 currently installed modules.
126 =head1 WARNING: This version requires a compiler that supports ANSI C.
128 Most C compilers are now ANSI-compliant. However, a few current
129 computers are delivered with an older C compiler expressly for
130 rebuilding the system kernel, or for some other historical reason.
131 Alternatively, you may have an old machine which was shipped before
132 ANSI compliance became widespread. Such compilers are not suitable
135 If you find that your default C compiler is not ANSI-capable, but you
136 know that an ANSI-capable compiler is installed on your system, you
137 can tell F<Configure> to use the correct compiler by means of the
138 C<-Dcc=> command-line option -- see L<"gcc">.
140 If do not have an ANSI-capable compiler there are a couple of avenues
147 You may try obtaining GCC, available from GNU mirrors worldwide,
148 listed at <URL:http://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html>. If, rather than
149 building gcc from source code, you locate a binary version configured
150 for your platform, be sure that it is compiled for the version of the
151 operating system that you are using.
155 You may purchase a commercial ANSI C compiler from your system
156 supplier or elsewhere. (Or your organization may already have
157 licensed such software -- ask your colleagues to find out how to
158 access it.) If there is a README file for your system in the Perl
159 distribution (for example, F<README.hpux>), it may contain advice on
164 Although Perl can be compiled using a C++ compiler, the Configure script
165 does not work with some C++ compilers.
167 =head1 Space Requirements
169 The complete perl5 source tree takes up about 50 MB of disk space.
170 After completing make, it takes up roughly 100 MB, though the actual
171 total is likely to be quite system-dependent. The installation
172 directories need something on the order of 45 MB, though again that
173 value is system-dependent.
175 =head1 Start with a Fresh Distribution
177 If you have built perl before, you should clean out the build directory
186 The only difference between the two is that make distclean also removes
187 your old config.sh and Policy.sh files.
189 The results of a Configure run are stored in the config.sh and Policy.sh
190 files. If you are upgrading from a previous version of perl, or if you
191 change systems or compilers or make other significant changes, or if
192 you are experiencing difficulties building perl, you should probably
193 not re-use your old config.sh. Simply remove it
197 If you wish to use your old config.sh, be especially attentive to the
198 version and architecture-specific questions and answers. For example,
199 the default directory for architecture-dependent library modules
200 includes the version name. By default, Configure will reuse your old
201 name (e.g. /opt/perl/lib/i86pc-solaris/5.003) even if you're running
202 Configure for a different version, e.g. 5.004. Yes, Configure should
203 probably check and correct for this, but it doesn't.
204 Similarly, if you used a shared libperl.so (see below) with version
205 numbers, you will probably want to adjust them as well.
207 Also, be careful to check your architecture name. For example, some
208 Linux distributions use i386, while others may use i486. If you build
209 it yourself, Configure uses the output of the arch command, which
210 might be i586 or i686 instead. If you pick up a precompiled binary, or
211 compile extensions on different systems, they might not all agree on
212 the architecture name.
214 In short, if you wish to use your old config.sh, I recommend running
215 Configure interactively rather than blindly accepting the defaults.
217 If your reason to reuse your old config.sh is to save your particular
218 installation choices, then you can probably achieve the same effect by
219 using the Policy.sh file. See the section on L<"Site-wide Policy
220 settings"> below. If you wish to start with a fresh distribution, you
221 also need to remove any old Policy.sh files you may have with
227 Configure will figure out various things about your system. Some
228 things Configure will figure out for itself, other things it will ask
229 you about. To accept the default, just press RETURN. The default is
230 almost always okay. It is normal for some things to be "NOT found",
231 since Configure often searches for many different ways of performing
234 At any Configure prompt, you can type &-d and Configure will use the
235 defaults from then on.
237 After it runs, Configure will perform variable substitution on all the
238 *.SH files and offer to run make depend.
240 =head2 Altering config.sh variables for C compiler switches etc.
242 For most users, all of the Configure defaults are fine. Configure
243 also has several convenient options which are described below.
244 However, if Configure doesn't have an option to do what you want,
245 you can change Configure variables after the platform hints have been
246 run, by using Configure's -A switch. For example, here's how to add
247 a couple of extra flags to C compiler invocations:
249 sh Configure -Accflags="-DPERL_Y2KWARN -DPERL_POLLUTE_MALLOC"
251 For more help on Configure switches, run:
255 =head2 Building Perl outside of the source directory
257 Sometimes it is desirable to build Perl in a directory different from
258 where the sources are, for example if you want to keep your sources
259 read-only, or if you want to share the sources between different binary
260 architectures. You can do this (if your file system supports symbolic
263 mkdir /tmp/perl/build/directory
264 cd /tmp/perl/build/directory
265 sh /path/to/perl/source/Configure -Dmksymlinks ...
267 This will create in /tmp/perl/build/directory a tree of symbolic links
268 pointing to files in /path/to/perl/source. The original files are left
269 unaffected. After Configure has finished you can just say
273 and Perl will be built and tested, all in /tmp/perl/build/directory.
275 =head2 Common Configure options
277 Configure supports a number of useful options. Run B<Configure -h> to
278 get a listing. See the Porting/Glossary file for a complete list of
279 Configure variables you can set and their definitions.
285 To compile with gcc you should run
287 sh Configure -Dcc=gcc
289 This is the preferred way to specify gcc (or another alternative
290 compiler) so that the hints files can set appropriate defaults.
292 =item Installation prefix
294 By default, for most systems, perl will be installed in
295 /usr/local/{bin, lib, man}. (See L<"Installation Directories">
296 and L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> below for
299 You can specify a different 'prefix' for the default installation
300 directory, when Configure prompts you or by using the Configure command
301 line option -Dprefix='/some/directory', e.g.
303 sh Configure -Dprefix=/opt/perl
305 If your prefix contains the string "perl", then the suggested
306 directory structure is simplified. For example, if you use
307 prefix=/opt/perl, then Configure will suggest /opt/perl/lib instead of
308 /opt/perl/lib/perl5/. Again, see L<"Installation Directories"> below
309 for more details. Do not include a trailing slash, (i.e. /opt/perl/)
310 or you may experience odd test failures.
312 NOTE: You must not specify an installation directory that is the same
313 as or below your perl source directory. If you do, installperl will
314 attempt infinite recursion.
318 It may seem obvious, but Perl is useful only when users can easily
319 find it. It's often a good idea to have both /usr/bin/perl and
320 /usr/local/bin/perl be symlinks to the actual binary. Be especially
321 careful, however, not to overwrite a version of perl supplied by your
322 vendor unless you are sure you know what you are doing.
324 By default, Configure will arrange for /usr/bin/perl to be linked to
325 the current version of perl. You can turn off that behavior by running
327 Configure -Uinstallusrbinperl
329 or by answering 'no' to the appropriate Configure prompt.
331 In any case, system administrators are strongly encouraged to
332 put (symlinks to) perl and its accompanying utilities, such as perldoc,
333 into a directory typically found along a user's PATH, or in another
334 obvious and convenient place.
336 =item Overriding an old config.sh
338 If you want to use your old config.sh but override some of the items
339 with command line options, you need to use B<Configure -O>.
343 If you are willing to accept all the defaults, and you want terse
348 Note: for development releases (odd subreleases, like 5.9, as opposed
349 to maintenance releases which have even subreleases, like 5.6 and 5.8)
350 if you want to use Configure -d, you will also need to supply -Dusedevel
351 to Configure, because the default answer to the question "do you really
352 want to Configure a development version?" is "no". The -Dusedevel
353 skips that sanity check.
355 For example for my Solaris system, I usually use
357 sh Configure -Dprefix=/opt/perl -Doptimize='-xpentium -xO4' -des
359 =head2 GNU-style configure
361 If you prefer the GNU-style configure command line interface, you can
362 use the supplied configure.gnu command, e.g.
364 CC=gcc ./configure.gnu
366 The configure.gnu script emulates a few of the more common configure
369 ./configure.gnu --help
373 (The file is called configure.gnu to avoid problems on systems
374 that would not distinguish the files "Configure" and "configure".)
376 See L<Cross-compilation> below for information on cross-compiling.
378 =head2 Installation Directories
380 The installation directories can all be changed by answering the
381 appropriate questions in Configure. For convenience, all the
382 installation questions are near the beginning of Configure.
383 Do not include trailing slashes on directory names.
385 I highly recommend running Configure interactively to be sure it puts
386 everything where you want it. At any point during the Configure
387 process, you can answer a question with &-d and Configure will use
388 the defaults from then on. Alternatively, you can
390 grep '^install' config.sh
392 after Configure has run to verify the installation paths.
394 The defaults are intended to be reasonable and sensible for most
395 people building from sources. Those who build and distribute binary
396 distributions or who export perl to a range of systems will probably
397 need to alter them. If you are content to just accept the defaults,
398 you can safely skip the next section.
400 The directories set up by Configure fall into three broad categories.
404 =item Directories for the perl distribution
406 By default, Configure will use the following directories for 5.8.0.
407 $version is the full perl version number, including subversion, e.g.
408 5.8.0 or 5.8.1, and $archname is a string like sun4-sunos,
409 determined by Configure. The full definitions of all Configure
410 variables are in the file Porting/Glossary.
412 Configure variable Default value
415 $scriptdir $prefix/bin
416 $privlib $prefix/lib/perl5/$version
417 $archlib $prefix/lib/perl5/$version/$archname
418 $man1dir $prefix/man/man1
419 $man3dir $prefix/man/man3
423 Actually, Configure recognizes the SVR3-style
424 /usr/local/man/l_man/man1 directories, if present, and uses those
425 instead. Also, if $prefix contains the string "perl", the library
426 directories are simplified as described below. For simplicity, only
427 the common style is shown here.
429 =item Directories for site-specific add-on files
431 After perl is installed, you may later wish to add modules (e.g. from
432 CPAN) or scripts. Configure will set up the following directories to
433 be used for installing those add-on modules and scripts.
435 Configure variable Default value
437 $sitebin $siteprefix/bin
438 $sitescript $siteprefix/bin
439 $sitelib $siteprefix/lib/perl5/site_perl/$version
440 $sitearch $siteprefix/lib/perl5/site_perl/$version/$archname
441 $siteman1 $siteprefix/man/man1
442 $siteman3 $siteprefix/man/man3
446 By default, ExtUtils::MakeMaker will install architecture-independent
447 modules into $sitelib and architecture-dependent modules into $sitearch.
449 =item Directories for vendor-supplied add-on files
451 Lastly, if you are building a binary distribution of perl for
452 distribution, Configure can optionally set up the following directories
453 for you to use to distribute add-on modules.
455 Configure variable Default value
457 (The next ones are set only if vendorprefix is set.)
458 $vendorbin $vendorprefix/bin
459 $vendorscript $vendorprefix/bin
460 $vendorlib $vendorprefix/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/$version
461 $vendorarch $vendorprefix/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/$version/$archname
462 $vendorman1 $vendorprefix/man/man1
463 $vendorman3 $vendorprefix/man/man3
467 These are normally empty, but may be set as needed. For example,
468 a vendor might choose the following settings:
471 $siteprefix /usr/local
474 This would have the effect of setting the following:
478 $privlib /usr/lib/perl5/$version
479 $archlib /usr/lib/perl5/$version/$archname
480 $man1dir /usr/man/man1
481 $man3dir /usr/man/man3
483 $sitebin /usr/local/bin
484 $sitescript /usr/local/bin
485 $sitelib /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/$version
486 $sitearch /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/$version/$archname
487 $siteman1 /usr/local/man/man1
488 $siteman3 /usr/local/man/man3
491 $vendorscript /usr/bin
492 $vendorlib /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/$version
493 $vendorarch /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/$version/$archname
494 $vendorman1 /usr/man/man1
495 $vendorman3 /usr/man/man3
497 Note how in this example, the vendor-supplied directories are in the
498 /usr hierarchy, while the directories reserved for the end-user are in
499 the /usr/local hierarchy.
501 The entire installed library hierarchy is installed in locations with
502 version numbers, keeping the installations of different versions distinct.
503 However, later installations of Perl can still be configured to search the
504 installed libraries corresponding to compatible earlier versions.
505 See L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> below for more details
506 on how Perl can be made to search older version directories.
508 Of course you may use these directories however you see fit. For
509 example, you may wish to use $siteprefix for site-specific files that
510 are stored locally on your own disk and use $vendorprefix for
511 site-specific files that are stored elsewhere on your organization's
512 network. One way to do that would be something like
514 sh Configure -Dsiteprefix=/usr/local -Dvendorprefix=/usr/share/perl
518 As a final catch-all, Configure also offers an $otherlibdirs
519 variable. This variable contains a colon-separated list of additional
520 directories to add to @INC. By default, it will be empty.
521 Perl will search these directories (including architecture and
522 version-specific subdirectories) for add-on modules and extensions.
524 For example, if you have a bundle of perl libraries from a previous
525 installation, perhaps in a strange place:
527 Configure -Dotherlibdirs=/usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.1
531 There is one other way of adding paths to @INC at perl build time, and
532 that is by setting the APPLLIB_EXP C pre-processor token to a colon-
533 separated list of directories, like this
535 sh Configure -Accflags='-DAPPLLIB_EXP=\"/usr/libperl\"'
537 The directories defined by APPLLIB_EXP get added to @INC I<first>,
538 ahead of any others, and so provide a way to override the standard perl
539 modules should you, for example, want to distribute fixes without
540 touching the perl distribution proper. And, like otherlib dirs,
541 version and architecture specific subdirectories are also searched, if
542 present, at run time. Of course, you can still search other @INC
543 directories ahead of those in APPLLIB_EXP by using any of the standard
544 run-time methods: $PERLLIB, $PERL5LIB, -I, use lib, etc.
548 In versions 5.005_57 and earlier, the default was to store module man
549 pages in a version-specific directory, such as
550 /usr/local/lib/perl5/$version/man/man3. The default for 5.005_58 and
551 after is /usr/local/man/man3 so that most users can find the man pages
552 without resetting MANPATH.
554 You can continue to use the old default from the command line with
556 sh Configure -Dman3dir=/usr/local/lib/perl5/5.8.0/man/man3
558 Some users also prefer to use a .3pm suffix. You can do that with
560 sh Configure -Dman3ext=3pm
562 Again, these are just the defaults, and can be changed as you run
567 Currently, the standard perl installation does not do anything with
568 HTML documentation, but that may change in the future. Further, some
569 add-on modules may wish to install HTML documents. The html Configure
570 variables listed above are provided if you wish to specify where such
571 documents should be placed. The default is "none", but will likely
572 eventually change to something useful based on user feedback.
576 Some users prefer to append a "/share" to $privlib and $sitelib
577 to emphasize that those directories can be shared among different
580 Note that these are just the defaults. You can actually structure the
581 directories any way you like. They don't even have to be on the same
584 Further details about the installation directories, maintenance and
585 development subversions, and about supporting multiple versions are
586 discussed in L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> below.
588 If you specify a prefix that contains the string "perl", then the
589 library directory structure is slightly simplified. Instead of
590 suggesting $prefix/lib/perl5/, Configure will suggest $prefix/lib.
592 Thus, for example, if you Configure with
593 -Dprefix=/opt/perl, then the default library directories for 5.8.0 are
595 Configure variable Default value
596 $privlib /opt/perl/lib/5.8.0
597 $archlib /opt/perl/lib/5.8.0/$archname
598 $sitelib /opt/perl/lib/site_perl/5.8.0
599 $sitearch /opt/perl/lib/site_perl/5.8.0/$archname
601 =head2 Changing the installation directory
603 Configure distinguishes between the directory in which perl (and its
604 associated files) should be installed and the directory in which it
605 will eventually reside. For most sites, these two are the same; for
606 sites that use AFS, this distinction is handled automatically.
607 However, sites that use software such as depot to manage software
608 packages, or users building binary packages for distribution may also
609 wish to install perl into a different directory and use that
610 management software to move perl to its final destination. This
611 section describes how to do that.
613 Suppose you want to install perl under the /tmp/perl5 directory. You
614 could edit config.sh and change all the install* variables to point to
615 /tmp/perl5 instead of /usr/local, or you could simply use the
616 following command line:
618 sh Configure -Dinstallprefix=/tmp/perl5
620 (replace /tmp/perl5 by a directory of your choice).
622 Beware, though, that if you go to try to install new add-on
623 modules, they too will get installed in under '/tmp/perl5' if you
624 follow this example. The next section shows one way of dealing with
627 =head2 Creating an installable tar archive
629 If you need to install perl on many identical systems, it is
630 convenient to compile it once and create an archive that can be
631 installed on multiple systems. Suppose, for example, that you want to
632 create an archive that can be installed in /opt/perl.
633 Here's one way to do that:
635 # Set up to install perl into a different directory,
636 # e.g. /tmp/perl5 (see previous part).
637 sh Configure -Dinstallprefix=/tmp/perl5 -Dprefix=/opt/perl -des
640 make install # This will install everything into /tmp/perl5.
642 # Edit $archlib/Config.pm and $archlib/.packlist to change all the
643 # install* variables back to reflect where everything will
644 # really be installed. (That is, change /tmp/perl5 to /opt/perl
645 # everywhere in those files.)
646 # Check the scripts in $scriptdir to make sure they have the correct
647 # #!/wherever/perl line.
648 tar cvf ../perl5-archive.tar .
649 # Then, on each machine where you want to install perl,
650 cd /opt/perl # Or wherever you specified as $prefix
651 tar xvf perl5-archive.tar
653 =head2 Site-wide Policy settings
655 After Configure runs, it stores a number of common site-wide "policy"
656 answers (such as installation directories and the local perl contact
657 person) in the Policy.sh file. If you want to build perl on another
658 system using the same policy defaults, simply copy the Policy.sh file
659 to the new system and Configure will use it along with the appropriate
660 hint file for your system.
662 Alternatively, if you wish to change some or all of those policy
667 to ensure that Configure doesn't re-use them.
669 Further information is in the Policy_sh.SH file itself.
671 If the generated Policy.sh file is unsuitable, you may freely edit it
672 to contain any valid shell commands. It will be run just after the
673 platform-specific hints files.
675 =head2 Configure-time Options
677 There are several different ways to Configure and build perl for your
678 system. For most users, the defaults are sensible and will work.
679 Some users, however, may wish to further customize perl. Here are
680 some of the main things you can change.
684 On some platforms, perl can be compiled with
685 support for threads. To enable this, run
687 sh Configure -Dusethreads
689 Currently, you need to specify -Dusethreads on the Configure command
690 line so that the hint files can make appropriate adjustments.
692 The default is to compile without thread support.
694 Perl has two different internal threads implementations. The current
695 model (available internally since 5.6, and as a user-level module
696 since 5.8) is called interpreter-based implementation (ithreads),
697 with one interpreter per thread, and explicit sharing of data.
699 The 5.005 version (5005threads) is considered obsolete, buggy, and
702 By default, Configure selects ithreads if -Dusethreads is specified.
704 (You need to also use the PerlIO layer, explained later, if you decide
705 to use ithreads, to guarantee the good interworking of threads and I/O.)
707 However, if you wish, you can select the unsupported old 5005threads behavior
709 sh Configure -Dusethreads -Duse5005threads
711 If you decide to use ithreads, the 'threads' module allows their use,
712 and the 'Thread' module offers an interface to both 5005threads and
713 ithreads (whichever has been configured).
715 When building threaded for certain library calls like the getgr*() and
716 the getpw*() there is a dynamically sized result buffer: the buffer
717 starts small but Perl will keep growing the buffer until the result fits.
718 To get a fixed upper limit you will have to recompile Perl with
719 PERL_REENTRANT_MAXSIZE defined to be the number of bytes you want.
720 One way to do this is to run Configure with
721 C<-Accflags=-DPERL_REENTRANT_MAXSIZE=65536>
723 =head2 Large file support.
725 Since Perl 5.6.0, Perl has supported large files (files larger than
726 2 gigabytes), and in many common platforms like Linux or Solaris this
727 support is on by default.
729 This is both good and bad. It is good in that you can use large files,
730 seek(), stat(), and -s them. It is bad in that if you are interfacing Perl
731 using some extension, the components you are connecting to must also
732 be large file aware: if Perl thinks files can be large but the other
733 parts of the software puzzle do not understand the concept, bad things
734 will happen. One popular extension suffering from this ailment is the
735 Apache extension mod_perl.
737 There's also one known limitation with the current large files
738 implementation: unless you also have 64-bit integers (see the next
739 section), you cannot use the printf/sprintf non-decimal integer
740 formats like C<%x> to print filesizes. You can use C<%d>, though.
742 =head2 64 bit support.
744 If your platform does not have 64 bits natively, but can simulate them
745 with compiler flags and/or C<long long> or C<int64_t>, you can build a
746 perl that uses 64 bits.
748 There are actually two modes of 64-bitness: the first one is achieved
749 using Configure -Duse64bitint and the second one using Configure
750 -Duse64bitall. The difference is that the first one is minimal and
751 the second one maximal. The first works in more places than the second.
753 The C<use64bitint> does only as much as is required to get 64-bit
754 integers into Perl (this may mean, for example, using "long longs")
755 while your memory may still be limited to 2 gigabytes (because your
756 pointers could still be 32-bit). Note that the name C<64bitint> does
757 not imply that your C compiler will be using 64-bit C<int>s (it might,
758 but it doesn't have to): the C<use64bitint> means that you will be
759 able to have 64 bits wide scalar values.
761 The C<use64bitall> goes all the way by attempting to switch also
762 integers (if it can), longs (and pointers) to being 64-bit. This may
763 create an even more binary incompatible Perl than -Duse64bitint: the
764 resulting executable may not run at all in a 32-bit box, or you may
765 have to reboot/reconfigure/rebuild your operating system to be 64-bit
768 Natively 64-bit systems like Alpha and Cray need neither -Duse64bitint
771 NOTE: 64-bit support is still experimental on most platforms.
772 Existing support only covers the LP64 data model. In particular, the
773 LLP64 data model is not yet supported. 64-bit libraries and system
774 APIs on many platforms have not stabilized--your mileage may vary.
778 In some systems you may be able to use long doubles to enhance the
779 range and precision of your double precision floating point numbers
780 (that is, Perl's numbers). Use Configure -Duselongdouble to enable
781 this support (if it is available).
785 You can "Configure -Dusemorebits" to turn on both the 64-bit support
786 and the long double support.
788 =head2 Selecting File IO mechanisms
790 Executive summary: in Perl 5.8, you should use the default "PerlIO"
791 as the IO mechanism unless you have a good reason not to.
793 In more detail: previous versions of perl used the standard IO
794 mechanisms as defined in stdio.h. Versions 5.003_02 and later of perl
795 introduced alternate IO mechanisms via a "PerlIO" abstraction, but up
796 until and including Perl 5.6, the stdio mechanism was still the default
797 and the only supported mechanism.
799 Starting from Perl 5.8, the default mechanism is to use the PerlIO
800 abstraction, because it allows better control of I/O mechanisms,
801 instead of having to work with (often, work around) vendors' I/O
804 This PerlIO abstraction can be (but again, unless you know what you
805 are doing, should not be) disabled either on the Configure command
808 sh Configure -Uuseperlio
810 or interactively at the appropriate Configure prompt.
812 With the PerlIO abstraction layer, there is another possibility for
813 the underlying IO calls, AT&T's "sfio". This has superior performance
814 to stdio.h in many cases, and is extensible by the use of "discipline"
815 modules ("Native" PerlIO has them too). Sfio currently only builds on
816 a subset of the UNIX platforms perl supports. Because the data
817 structures are completely different from stdio, perl extension modules
818 or external libraries may not work. This configuration exists to
819 allow these issues to be worked on.
821 This option requires the 'sfio' package to have been built and installed.
822 The latest sfio is available from http://www.research.att.com/sw/tools/sfio/
824 You select this option by
826 sh Configure -Duseperlio -Dusesfio
828 If you have already selected -Duseperlio, and if Configure detects
829 that you have sfio, then sfio will be the default suggested by
832 Note: On some systems, sfio's iffe configuration script fails to
833 detect that you have an atexit function (or equivalent). Apparently,
834 this is a problem at least for some versions of Linux and SunOS 4.
835 Configure should detect this problem and warn you about problems with
836 _exit vs. exit. If you have this problem, the fix is to go back to
837 your sfio sources and correct iffe's guess about atexit.
841 Perl can be configured to be 'socksified', that is, to use the SOCKS
842 TCP/IP proxy protocol library. SOCKS is used to give applications
843 access to transport layer network proxies. Perl supports only SOCKS
844 Version 5. You can find more about SOCKS from http://www.socks.nec.com/
846 =head2 Dynamic Loading
848 By default, Configure will compile perl to use dynamic loading if
849 your system supports it. If you want to force perl to be compiled
850 statically, you can either choose this when Configure prompts you or
851 you can use the Configure command line option -Uusedl.
853 =head2 Building a shared Perl library
855 Currently, for most systems, the main perl executable is built by
856 linking the "perl library" libperl.a with perlmain.o, your static
857 extensions (usually just DynaLoader.a) and various extra libraries,
860 On some systems that support dynamic loading, it may be possible to
861 replace libperl.a with a shared libperl.so. If you anticipate building
862 several different perl binaries (e.g. by embedding libperl into
863 different programs, or by using the optional compiler extension), then
864 you might wish to build a shared libperl.so so that all your binaries
865 can share the same library.
867 The disadvantages are that there may be a significant performance
868 penalty associated with the shared libperl.so, and that the overall
869 mechanism is still rather fragile with respect to different versions
872 In terms of performance, on my test system (Solaris 2.5_x86) the perl
873 test suite took roughly 15% longer to run with the shared libperl.so.
874 Your system and typical applications may well give quite different
877 The default name for the shared library is typically something like
878 libperl.so.3.2 (for Perl 5.003_02) or libperl.so.302 or simply
879 libperl.so. Configure tries to guess a sensible naming convention
880 based on your C library name. Since the library gets installed in a
881 version-specific architecture-dependent directory, the exact name
882 isn't very important anyway, as long as your linker is happy.
884 For some systems (mostly SVR4), building a shared libperl is required
885 for dynamic loading to work, and hence is already the default.
887 You can elect to build a shared libperl by
889 sh Configure -Duseshrplib
891 To build a shared libperl, the environment variable controlling shared
892 library search (LD_LIBRARY_PATH in most systems, DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH for
893 NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP/Darwin, LIBRARY_PATH for BeOS, LD_LIBRARY_PATH/SHLIB_PATH
894 for HP-UX, LIBPATH for AIX, PATH for Cygwin) must be set up to include
895 the Perl build directory because that's where the shared libperl will
896 be created. Configure arranges makefile to have the correct shared
897 library search settings. You can find the name of the environment
898 variable Perl thinks works in your your system by
900 grep ldlibpthname config.sh
902 However, there are some special cases where manually setting the
903 shared library path might be required. For example, if you want to run
904 something like the following with the newly-built but not-yet-installed
907 cd t; ./perl misc/failing_test.t
909 ./perl -Ilib ~/my_mission_critical_test
911 then you need to set up the shared library path explicitly.
914 LD_LIBRARY_PATH=`pwd`:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH; export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
916 for Bourne-style shells, or
918 setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH `pwd`
920 for Csh-style shells. (This procedure may also be needed if for some
921 unexpected reason Configure fails to set up makefile correctly.) (And
922 again, it may be something other than LD_LIBRARY_PATH for you, see above.)
924 You can often recognize failures to build/use a shared libperl from error
925 messages complaining about a missing libperl.so (or libperl.sl in HP-UX),
927 18126:./miniperl: /sbin/loader: Fatal Error: cannot map libperl.so
929 There is also an potential problem with the shared perl library if you
930 want to have more than one "flavor" of the same version of perl (e.g.
931 with and without -DDEBUGGING). For example, suppose you build and
932 install a standard Perl 5.8.0 with a shared library. Then, suppose you
933 try to build Perl 5.8.0 with -DDEBUGGING enabled, but everything else
934 the same, including all the installation directories. How can you
935 ensure that your newly built perl will link with your newly built
936 libperl.so.8 rather with the installed libperl.so.8? The answer is
937 that you might not be able to. The installation directory is encoded
938 in the perl binary with the LD_RUN_PATH environment variable (or
939 equivalent ld command-line option). On Solaris, you can override that
940 with LD_LIBRARY_PATH; on Linux, you can only override at runtime via
941 LD_PRELOAD, specifying the exact filename you wish to be used; and on
942 Digital Unix, you can override LD_LIBRARY_PATH by setting the
943 _RLD_ROOT environment variable to point to the perl build directory.
945 The only reliable answer is that you should specify a different
946 directory for the architecture-dependent library for your -DDEBUGGING
947 version of perl. You can do this by changing all the *archlib*
948 variables in config.sh to point to your new architecture-dependent library.
952 Perl relies heavily on malloc(3) to grow data structures as needed,
953 so perl's performance can be noticeably affected by the performance of
954 the malloc function on your system. The perl source is shipped with a
955 version of malloc that has been optimized for the typical requests from
956 perl, so there's a chance that it may be both faster and use less memory
957 than your system malloc.
959 However, if your system already has an excellent malloc, or if you are
960 experiencing difficulties with extensions that use third-party libraries
961 that call malloc, then you should probably use your system's malloc.
962 (Or, you might wish to explore the malloc flags discussed below.)
966 =item Using the system malloc
968 To build without perl's malloc, you can use the Configure command
970 sh Configure -Uusemymalloc
972 or you can answer 'n' at the appropriate interactive Configure prompt.
974 =item -DPERL_POLLUTE_MALLOC
976 NOTE: This flag is enabled automatically on some platforms if you just
977 run Configure to accept all the defaults on those platforms.
979 Perl's malloc family of functions are normally called Perl_malloc(),
980 Perl_realloc(), Perl_calloc() and Perl_mfree().
981 These names do not clash with the system versions of these functions.
983 If this flag is enabled, however, Perl's malloc family of functions
984 will have the same names as the system versions. This may be required
985 sometimes if you have libraries that like to free() data that may have
986 been allocated by Perl_malloc() and vice versa.
988 Note that enabling this option may sometimes lead to duplicate symbols
989 from the linker for malloc et al. In such cases, the system probably
990 does not allow its malloc functions to be fully replaced with custom
995 =head2 Building a debugging perl
997 You can run perl scripts under the perl debugger at any time with
998 B<perl -d your_script>. If, however, you want to debug perl itself,
999 you probably want to do
1001 sh Configure -Doptimize='-g'
1003 This will do two independent things: First, it will force compilation
1004 to use cc -g so that you can use your system's debugger on the
1005 executable. (Note: Your system may actually require something like
1006 cc -g2. Check your man pages for cc(1) and also any hint file for
1007 your system.) Second, it will add -DDEBUGGING to your ccflags
1008 variable in config.sh so that you can use B<perl -D> to access perl's
1009 internal state. (Note: Configure will only add -DDEBUGGING by default
1010 if you are not reusing your old config.sh. If you want to reuse your
1011 old config.sh, then you can just edit it and change the optimize and
1012 ccflags variables by hand and then propagate your changes as shown in
1013 L<"Propagating your changes to config.sh"> below.)
1015 You can actually specify -g and -DDEBUGGING independently, but usually
1016 it's convenient to have both.
1018 If you are using a shared libperl, see the warnings about multiple
1019 versions of perl under L<Building a shared libperl.so Perl library>.
1023 Perl ships with a number of standard extensions. These are contained
1024 in the ext/ subdirectory.
1026 By default, Configure will offer to build every extension which appears
1027 to be supported. For example, Configure will offer to build GDBM_File
1028 only if it is able to find the gdbm library. (See examples below.)
1029 Configure does not contain code to test for POSIX compliance, so POSIX
1030 is always built by default as well. If you wish to skip POSIX, you can
1031 set the Configure variable useposix=false either in a hint file or from
1032 the Configure command line.
1034 If you unpack any additional extensions in the ext/ directory before
1035 running Configure, then Configure will offer to build those additional
1036 extensions as well. Most users probably shouldn't have to do this --
1037 it is usually easier to build additional extensions later after perl
1038 has been installed. However, if you wish to have those additional
1039 extensions statically linked into the perl binary, then this offers a
1040 convenient way to do that in one step. (It is not necessary, however;
1041 you can build and install extensions just fine even if you don't have
1042 dynamic loading. See lib/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.pm for more details.)
1044 You can learn more about each of the supplied extensions by consulting the
1045 documentation in the individual .pm modules, located under the
1048 Even if you do not have dynamic loading, you must still build the
1049 DynaLoader extension; you should just build the stub dl_none.xs
1050 version. (Configure will suggest this as the default.)
1052 In summary, here are the Configure command-line variables you can set
1053 to turn off various extensions. All others are included by default.
1056 DynaLoader (Must always be included as a static extension)
1063 Threads use5005threads
1065 Thus to skip the NDBM_File extension, you can use
1067 sh Configure -Ui_ndbm
1069 Again, this is taken care of automatically if you don't have the ndbm
1072 Of course, you may always run Configure interactively and select only
1073 the extensions you want.
1075 Note: The DB_File module will only work with version 1.x of Berkeley
1076 DB or newer releases of version 2. Configure will automatically detect
1077 this for you and refuse to try to build DB_File with earlier
1078 releases of version 2.
1080 If you re-use your old config.sh but change your system (e.g. by
1081 adding libgdbm) Configure will still offer your old choices of extensions
1082 for the default answer, but it will also point out the discrepancy to
1085 Finally, if you have dynamic loading (most modern systems do)
1086 remember that these extensions do not increase the size of your perl
1087 executable, nor do they impact start-up time, so you probably might as
1088 well build all the ones that will work on your system.
1090 =head2 Including locally-installed libraries
1092 Perl5 comes with interfaces to number of database extensions, including
1093 dbm, ndbm, gdbm, and Berkeley db. For each extension, if
1094 Configure can find the appropriate header files and libraries, it will
1095 automatically include that extension. The gdbm and db libraries
1096 are not included with perl. See the library documentation for
1097 how to obtain the libraries.
1099 If your database header (.h) files are not in a directory normally
1100 searched by your C compiler, then you will need to include the
1101 appropriate -I/your/directory option when prompted by Configure. If
1102 your database library (.a) files are not in a directory normally
1103 searched by your C compiler and linker, then you will need to include
1104 the appropriate -L/your/directory option when prompted by Configure.
1105 See the examples below.
1111 =item gdbm in /usr/local
1113 Suppose you have gdbm and want Configure to find it and build the
1114 GDBM_File extension. This example assumes you have gdbm.h
1115 installed in /usr/local/include/gdbm.h and libgdbm.a installed in
1116 /usr/local/lib/libgdbm.a. Configure should figure all the
1117 necessary steps out automatically.
1119 Specifically, when Configure prompts you for flags for
1120 your C compiler, you should include -I/usr/local/include.
1122 When Configure prompts you for linker flags, you should include
1125 If you are using dynamic loading, then when Configure prompts you for
1126 linker flags for dynamic loading, you should again include
1129 Again, this should all happen automatically. This should also work if
1130 you have gdbm installed in any of (/usr/local, /opt/local, /usr/gnu,
1131 /opt/gnu, /usr/GNU, or /opt/GNU).
1133 =item gdbm in /usr/you
1135 Suppose you have gdbm installed in some place other than /usr/local/,
1136 but you still want Configure to find it. To be specific, assume you
1137 have /usr/you/include/gdbm.h and /usr/you/lib/libgdbm.a. You
1138 still have to add -I/usr/you/include to cc flags, but you have to take
1139 an extra step to help Configure find libgdbm.a. Specifically, when
1140 Configure prompts you for library directories, you have to add
1141 /usr/you/lib to the list.
1143 It is possible to specify this from the command line too (all on one
1147 -Dlocincpth="/usr/you/include" \
1148 -Dloclibpth="/usr/you/lib"
1150 locincpth is a space-separated list of include directories to search.
1151 Configure will automatically add the appropriate -I directives.
1153 loclibpth is a space-separated list of library directories to search.
1154 Configure will automatically add the appropriate -L directives. If
1155 you have some libraries under /usr/local/ and others under
1156 /usr/you, then you have to include both, namely
1159 -Dlocincpth="/usr/you/include /usr/local/include" \
1160 -Dloclibpth="/usr/you/lib /usr/local/lib"
1164 =head2 Building DB, NDBM, and ODBM interfaces with Berkeley DB 3
1166 Perl interface for DB3 is part of Berkeley DB, but if you want to
1167 compile standard Perl DB/ODBM/NDBM interfaces, you must follow
1168 following instructions.
1170 Berkeley DB3 from Sleepycat Software is by default installed without
1171 DB1 compatibility code (needed for DB_File interface) and without
1172 links to compatibility files. So if you want to use packages written
1173 for DB/ODBM/NDBM interfaces, you need to configure DB3 with
1174 --enable-compat185 (and optionally with --enable-dump185) and create
1175 additional references (suppose you are installing DB3 with
1178 ln -s libdb-3.so /usr/lib/libdbm.so
1179 ln -s libdb-3.so /usr/lib/libndbm.so
1180 echo '#define DB_DBM_HSEARCH 1' >dbm.h
1181 echo '#include <db.h>' >>dbm.h
1182 install -m 0644 dbm.h /usr/include/dbm.h
1183 install -m 0644 dbm.h /usr/include/ndbm.h
1185 Optionally, if you have compiled with --enable-compat185 (not needed
1188 ln -s libdb-3.so /usr/lib/libdb1.so
1189 ln -s libdb-3.so /usr/lib/libdb.so
1191 ODBM emulation seems not to be perfect, but is quite usable,
1194 lib/odbm.............FAILED at test 9
1195 Failed 1/64 tests, 98.44% okay
1197 =head2 What if it doesn't work?
1199 If you run into problems, try some of the following ideas.
1200 If none of them help, then see L<"Reporting Problems"> below.
1204 =item Running Configure Interactively
1206 If Configure runs into trouble, remember that you can always run
1207 Configure interactively so that you can check (and correct) its
1210 All the installation questions have been moved to the top, so you don't
1211 have to wait for them. Once you've handled them (and your C compiler and
1212 flags) you can type &-d at the next Configure prompt and Configure
1213 will use the defaults from then on.
1215 If you find yourself trying obscure command line incantations and
1216 config.over tricks, I recommend you run Configure interactively
1217 instead. You'll probably save yourself time in the long run.
1221 The perl distribution includes a number of system-specific hints files
1222 in the hints/ directory. If one of them matches your system, Configure
1223 will offer to use that hint file.
1225 Several of the hint files contain additional important information.
1226 If you have any problems, it is a good idea to read the relevant hint file
1227 for further information. See hints/solaris_2.sh for an extensive example.
1228 More information about writing good hints is in the hints/README.hints
1231 =item *** WHOA THERE!!! ***
1233 Occasionally, Configure makes a wrong guess. For example, on SunOS
1234 4.1.3, Configure incorrectly concludes that tzname[] is in the
1235 standard C library. The hint file is set up to correct for this. You
1238 *** WHOA THERE!!! ***
1239 The recommended value for $d_tzname on this machine was "undef"!
1240 Keep the recommended value? [y]
1242 You should always keep the recommended value unless, after reading the
1243 relevant section of the hint file, you are sure you want to try
1246 If you are re-using an old config.sh, the word "previous" will be
1247 used instead of "recommended". Again, you will almost always want
1248 to keep the previous value, unless you have changed something on your
1251 For example, suppose you have added libgdbm.a to your system
1252 and you decide to reconfigure perl to use GDBM_File. When you run
1253 Configure again, you will need to add -lgdbm to the list of libraries.
1254 Now, Configure will find your gdbm include file and library and will
1257 *** WHOA THERE!!! ***
1258 The previous value for $i_gdbm on this machine was "undef"!
1259 Keep the previous value? [y]
1261 In this case, you do not want to keep the previous value, so you
1262 should answer 'n'. (You'll also have to manually add GDBM_File to
1263 the list of dynamic extensions to build.)
1265 =item Changing Compilers
1267 If you change compilers or make other significant changes, you should
1268 probably not re-use your old config.sh. Simply remove it or
1269 rename it, e.g. mv config.sh config.sh.old. Then rerun Configure
1270 with the options you want to use.
1272 This is a common source of problems. If you change from cc to
1273 gcc, you should almost always remove your old config.sh.
1275 =item Propagating your changes to config.sh
1277 If you make any changes to config.sh, you should propagate
1278 them to all the .SH files by running
1282 You will then have to rebuild by running
1287 =item config.over and config.arch
1289 You can also supply a shell script config.over to over-ride
1290 Configure's guesses. It will get loaded up at the very end, just
1291 before config.sh is created. You have to be careful with this,
1292 however, as Configure does no checking that your changes make sense.
1293 This file is usually good for site-specific customizations.
1295 There is also another file that, if it exists, is loaded before the
1296 config.over, called config.arch. This file is intended to be per
1297 architecture, not per site, and usually it's the architecture-specific
1298 hints file that creates the config.arch.
1302 Many of the system dependencies are contained in config.h.
1303 Configure builds config.h by running the config_h.SH script.
1304 The values for the variables are taken from config.sh.
1306 If there are any problems, you can edit config.h directly. Beware,
1307 though, that the next time you run Configure, your changes will be
1312 If you have any additional changes to make to the C compiler command
1313 line, they can be made in cflags.SH. For instance, to turn off the
1314 optimizer on toke.c, find the line in the switch structure for
1315 toke.c and put the command optimize='-g' before the ;; . You
1316 can also edit cflags directly, but beware that your changes will be
1317 lost the next time you run Configure.
1319 To explore various ways of changing ccflags from within a hint file,
1320 see the file hints/README.hints.
1322 To change the C flags for all the files, edit config.sh and change either
1323 $ccflags or $optimize, and then re-run
1330 If you don't have sh, you'll have to copy the sample file
1331 Porting/config.sh to config.sh and edit your config.sh to reflect your
1332 system's peculiarities. See Porting/pumpkin.pod for more information.
1333 You'll probably also have to extensively modify the extension building
1336 =item Digital UNIX/Tru64 UNIX and BIN_SH
1338 In Digital UNIX/Tru64 UNIX, Configure might abort with
1340 Build a threading Perl? [n]
1341 Configure[2437]: Syntax error at line 1 : `config.sh' is not expected.
1343 This indicates that Configure is being run with a broken Korn shell
1344 (even though you think you are using a Bourne shell by using
1345 "sh Configure" or "./Configure"). The Korn shell bug has been reported
1346 to Compaq as of February 1999 but in the meanwhile, the reason ksh is
1347 being used is that you have the environment variable BIN_SH set to
1348 'xpg4'. This causes /bin/sh to delegate its duties to /bin/posix/sh
1349 (a ksh). Unset the environment variable and rerun Configure.
1351 =item HP-UX 11, pthreads, and libgdbm
1353 If you are running Configure with -Dusethreads in HP-UX 11, be warned
1354 that POSIX threads and libgdbm (the GNU dbm library) compiled before
1355 HP-UX 11 do not mix. This will cause a basic test run by Configure to
1358 Pthread internal error: message: __libc_reinit() failed, file: ../pthreads/pthread.c, line: 1096
1359 Return Pointer is 0xc082bf33
1360 sh: 5345 Quit(coredump)
1362 and Configure will give up. The cure is to recompile and install
1363 libgdbm under HP-UX 11.
1365 =item Porting information
1367 Specific information for the OS/2, Plan 9, VMS and Win32 ports is in the
1368 corresponding README files and subdirectories. Additional information,
1369 including a glossary of all those config.sh variables, is in the Porting
1370 subdirectory. Especially Porting/Glossary should come in handy.
1372 Ports for other systems may also be available. You should check out
1373 http://www.cpan.org/ports for current information on ports to
1374 various other operating systems.
1376 If you plan to port Perl to a new architecture study carefully the
1377 section titled "Philosophical Issues in Patching and Porting Perl"
1378 in the file Porting/pumpkin.pod and the file Porting/patching.pod.
1379 Study also how other non-UNIX ports have solved problems.
1383 =head1 Adding extra modules to the build
1385 You can specify extra modules or module bundles to be fetched from the
1386 CPAN and installed as part of the Perl build. Either use the -Dextras=...
1387 command line parameter to Configure, for example like this:
1389 Configure -Dextras="Compress::Zlib Bundle::LWP DBI"
1391 or answer first 'y' to the question 'Install any extra modules?' and
1392 then answer "Compress::Zlib Bundle::LWP DBI" to the 'Extras?' question.
1393 The module or the bundle names are as for the CPAN module 'install' command.
1395 Notice that because the CPAN module will be used to fetch the extra
1396 modules, you will need access to the CPAN, either via the Internet,
1397 or via a local copy such as a CD-ROM or a local CPAN mirror. If you
1398 do not, using the extra modules option will die horribly.
1400 Also notice that you yourself are responsible for satisfying any extra
1401 dependencies such as external headers or libraries BEFORE trying the build.
1402 For example: you will need to have the zlib.h header and the libz
1403 library installed for the Compress::Zlib, or the Foo database specific
1404 headers and libraries installed for the DBD::Foo module. The Configure
1405 process or the Perl build process will not help you with these.
1409 suidperl is an optional component, which is built or installed by default.
1412 On some systems, setuid and setgid scripts (scripts written
1413 in the C shell, Bourne shell, or Perl, for example, with the
1414 set user or group ID permissions enabled) are insecure due to
1415 a race condition in the kernel. For those systems, Perl versions
1416 5 and 4 attempt to work around this vulnerability with an optional
1417 component, a special program named suidperl, also known as sperl.
1418 This program attempts to emulate the set-user-ID and set-group-ID
1419 features of the kernel.
1421 Because of the buggy history of suidperl, and the difficulty
1422 of properly security auditing as large and complex piece of
1423 software as Perl, we cannot recommend using suidperl and the feature
1424 should be considered deprecated.
1425 Instead use for example 'sudo': http://www.courtesan.com/sudo/
1429 This will look for all the includes. The output is stored in makefile.
1430 The only difference between Makefile and makefile is the dependencies at
1431 the bottom of makefile. If you have to make any changes, you should edit
1432 makefile, not Makefile since the Unix make command reads makefile first.
1433 (On non-Unix systems, the output may be stored in a different file.
1434 Check the value of $firstmakefile in your config.sh if in doubt.)
1436 Configure will offer to do this step for you, so it isn't listed
1441 This will attempt to make perl in the current directory.
1443 =head2 What if it doesn't work?
1445 If you can't compile successfully, try some of the following ideas.
1446 If none of them help, and careful reading of the error message and
1447 the relevant manual pages on your system doesn't help,
1448 then see L<"Reporting Problems"> below.
1454 If you used a hint file, try reading the comments in the hint file
1455 for further tips and information.
1459 If you can successfully build miniperl, but the process crashes
1460 during the building of extensions, you should run
1464 to test your version of miniperl.
1468 If you have any locale-related environment variables set, try unsetting
1469 them. I have some reports that some versions of IRIX hang while
1470 running B<./miniperl configpm> with locales other than the C locale.
1471 See the discussion under L<"make test"> below about locales and the
1472 whole L<"Locale problems"> section in the file pod/perllocale.pod.
1473 The latter is especially useful if you see something like this
1475 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
1476 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
1479 are supported and installed on your system.
1480 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
1486 If you get varargs problems with gcc, be sure that gcc is installed
1487 correctly and that you are not passing -I/usr/include to gcc. When using
1488 gcc, you should probably have i_stdarg='define' and i_varargs='undef'
1489 in config.sh. The problem is usually solved by running fixincludes
1490 correctly. If you do change config.sh, don't forget to propagate
1491 your changes (see L<"Propagating your changes to config.sh"> below).
1492 See also the L<"vsprintf"> item below.
1496 If you get error messages such as the following (the exact line
1497 numbers and function name may vary in different versions of perl):
1499 util.c: In function `Perl_form':
1500 util.c:1107: number of arguments doesn't match prototype
1501 proto.h:125: prototype declaration
1503 it might well be a symptom of the gcc "varargs problem". See the
1504 previous L<"varargs"> item.
1506 =item LD_LIBRARY_PATH
1508 If you run into dynamic loading problems, check your setting of
1509 the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable. If you're creating a static
1510 Perl library (libperl.a rather than libperl.so) it should build
1511 fine with LD_LIBRARY_PATH unset, though that may depend on details
1512 of your local set-up.
1516 If Configure seems to be having trouble finding library functions,
1517 try not using nm extraction. You can do this from the command line
1520 sh Configure -Uusenm
1522 or by answering the nm extraction question interactively.
1523 If you have previously run Configure, you should not reuse your old
1526 =item umask not found
1528 If the build processes encounters errors relating to umask(), the problem
1529 is probably that Configure couldn't find your umask() system call.
1530 Check your config.sh. You should have d_umask='define'. If you don't,
1531 this is probably the L<"nm extraction"> problem discussed above. Also,
1532 try reading the hints file for your system for further information.
1536 If you run into problems with vsprintf in compiling util.c, the
1537 problem is probably that Configure failed to detect your system's
1538 version of vsprintf(). Check whether your system has vprintf().
1539 (Virtually all modern Unix systems do.) Then, check the variable
1540 d_vprintf in config.sh. If your system has vprintf, it should be:
1544 If Configure guessed wrong, it is likely that Configure guessed wrong
1545 on a number of other common functions too. This is probably
1546 the L<"nm extraction"> problem discussed above.
1550 If you run into problems relating to do_aspawn or do_spawn, the
1551 problem is probably that Configure failed to detect your system's
1552 fork() function. Follow the procedure in the previous item
1553 on L<"nm extraction">.
1555 =item __inet_* errors
1557 If you receive unresolved symbol errors during Perl build and/or test
1558 referring to __inet_* symbols, check to see whether BIND 8.1 is
1559 installed. It installs a /usr/local/include/arpa/inet.h that refers to
1560 these symbols. Versions of BIND later than 8.1 do not install inet.h
1561 in that location and avoid the errors. You should probably update to a
1562 newer version of BIND (and remove the files the old one left behind).
1563 If you can't, you can either link with the updated resolver library provided
1564 with BIND 8.1 or rename /usr/local/bin/arpa/inet.h during the Perl build and
1565 test process to avoid the problem.
1567 =item *_r() prototype NOT found
1569 On a related note, if you see a bunch of complaints like the above about
1570 reentrant functions - specifically networking-related ones - being present
1571 but without prototypes available, check to see if BIND 8.1 (or possibly
1572 other BIND 8 versions) is (or has been) installed. They install
1573 header files such as netdb.h into places such as /usr/local/include (or into
1574 another directory as specified at build/install time), at least optionally.
1575 Remove them or put them in someplace that isn't in the C preprocessor's
1576 header file include search path (determined by -I options plus defaults,
1577 normally /usr/include).
1579 =item #error "No DATAMODEL_NATIVE specified"
1581 This is a common error when trying to build perl on Solaris 2.6 with a
1582 gcc installation from Solaris 2.5 or 2.5.1. The Solaris header files
1583 changed, so you need to update your gcc installation. You can either
1584 rerun the fixincludes script from gcc or take the opportunity to
1585 update your gcc installation.
1589 If you can't compile successfully, try turning off your compiler's
1590 optimizer. Edit config.sh and change the line
1598 then propagate your changes with B<sh Configure -S> and rebuild
1599 with B<make depend; make>.
1601 =item Missing functions
1603 If you have missing routines, you probably need to add some library or
1604 other, or you need to undefine some feature that Configure thought was
1605 there but is defective or incomplete. Look through config.h for
1606 likely suspects. If Configure guessed wrong on a number of functions,
1607 you might have the L<"nm extraction"> problem discussed above.
1611 Some compilers will not compile or optimize the larger files (such as
1612 toke.c) without some extra switches to use larger jump offsets or
1613 allocate larger internal tables. You can customize the switches for
1614 each file in cflags. It's okay to insert rules for specific files into
1615 makefile since a default rule only takes effect in the absence of a
1618 =item Missing dbmclose
1620 SCO prior to 3.2.4 may be missing dbmclose(). An upgrade to 3.2.4
1621 that includes libdbm.nfs (which includes dbmclose()) may be available.
1623 =item Note (probably harmless): No library found for -lsomething
1625 If you see such a message during the building of an extension, but
1626 the extension passes its tests anyway (see L<"make test"> below),
1627 then don't worry about the warning message. The extension
1628 Makefile.PL goes looking for various libraries needed on various
1629 systems; few systems will need all the possible libraries listed.
1630 For example, a system may have -lcposix or -lposix, but it's
1631 unlikely to have both, so most users will see warnings for the one
1632 they don't have. The phrase 'probably harmless' is intended to
1633 reassure you that nothing unusual is happening, and the build
1634 process is continuing.
1636 On the other hand, if you are building GDBM_File and you get the
1639 Note (probably harmless): No library found for -lgdbm
1641 then it's likely you're going to run into trouble somewhere along
1642 the line, since it's hard to see how you can use the GDBM_File
1643 extension without the -lgdbm library.
1645 It is true that, in principle, Configure could have figured all of
1646 this out, but Configure and the extension building process are not
1647 quite that tightly coordinated.
1649 =item sh: ar: not found
1651 This is a message from your shell telling you that the command 'ar'
1652 was not found. You need to check your PATH environment variable to
1653 make sure that it includes the directory with the 'ar' command. This
1654 is a common problem on Solaris, where 'ar' is in the /usr/ccs/bin
1657 =item db-recno failure on tests 51, 53 and 55
1659 Old versions of the DB library (including the DB library which comes
1660 with FreeBSD 2.1) had broken handling of recno databases with modified
1661 bval settings. Upgrade your DB library or OS.
1663 =item Bad arg length for semctl, is XX, should be ZZZ
1665 If you get this error message from the ext/IPC/SysV/t/sem test, your System
1666 V IPC may be broken. The XX typically is 20, and that is what ZZZ
1667 also should be. Consider upgrading your OS, or reconfiguring your OS
1668 to include the System V semaphores.
1670 =item ext/IPC/SysV/t/sem........semget: No space left on device
1672 Either your account or the whole system has run out of semaphores. Or
1673 both. Either list the semaphores with "ipcs" and remove the unneeded
1674 ones (which ones these are depends on your system and applications)
1675 with "ipcrm -s SEMAPHORE_ID_HERE" or configure more semaphores to your
1680 If you mix GNU binutils (nm, ld, ar) with equivalent vendor-supplied
1681 tools you may be in for some trouble. For example creating archives
1682 with an old GNU 'ar' and then using a new current vendor-supplied 'ld'
1683 may lead into linking problems. Either recompile your GNU binutils
1684 under your current operating system release, or modify your PATH not
1685 to include the GNU utils before running Configure, or specify the
1686 vendor-supplied utilities explicitly to Configure, for example by
1687 Configure -Dar=/bin/ar.
1689 =item THIS PACKAGE SEEMS TO BE INCOMPLETE
1691 The F<Configure> program has not been able to find all the files which
1692 make up the complete Perl distribution. You may have a damaged source
1693 archive file (in which case you may also have seen messages such as
1694 C<gzip: stdin: unexpected end of file> and C<tar: Unexpected EOF on
1695 archive file>), or you may have obtained a structurally-sound but
1696 incomplete archive. In either case, try downloading again from the
1697 official site named at the start of this document. If you do find
1698 that any site is carrying a corrupted or incomplete source code
1699 archive, please report it to the site's maintainer.
1701 =item invalid token: ##
1703 You are using a non-ANSI-compliant C compiler. See L<WARNING: This
1704 version requires a compiler that supports ANSI C>.
1708 Some additional things that have been reported for either perl4 or perl5:
1710 Genix may need to use libc rather than libc_s, or #undef VARARGS.
1712 NCR Tower 32 (OS 2.01.01) may need -W2,-Sl,2000 and #undef MKDIR.
1714 UTS may need one or more of -K or -g, and undef LSTAT.
1716 FreeBSD can fail the ext/IPC/SysV/t/sem.t test if SysV IPC has not been
1717 configured in the kernel. Perl tries to detect this, though, and
1718 you will get a message telling what to do.
1720 HP-UX 11 Y2K patch "Y2K-1100 B.11.00.B0125 HP-UX Core OS Year 2000
1721 Patch Bundle" has been reported to break the io/fs test #18 which
1722 tests whether utime() can change timestamps. The Y2K patch seems to
1723 break utime() so that over NFS the timestamps do not get changed
1724 (on local filesystems utime() still works).
1726 Building Perl on a system that has also BIND (headers and libraries)
1727 installed may run into troubles because BIND installs its own netdb.h
1728 and socket.h, which may not agree with the operating system's ideas of
1729 the same files. Similarly, including -lbind may conflict with libc's
1730 view of the world. You may have to tweak -Dlocincpth and -Dloclibpth
1735 =head2 Cross-compilation
1737 Starting from Perl 5.8 Perl has the beginnings of cross-compilation
1738 support. What is known to work is running Configure in a
1739 cross-compilation environment and building the miniperl executable.
1740 What is known not to work is building the perl executable because
1741 that would require building extensions: Dynaloader statically and
1742 File::Glob dynamically, for extensions one needs MakeMaker and
1743 MakeMaker is not yet cross-compilation aware, and neither is
1746 Since the functionality is so lacking, it must be considered
1747 highly experimental. It is so experimental that it is not even
1748 mentioned during an interactive Configure session, a direct command
1749 line invocation (detailed shortly) is required to access the
1752 NOTE: Perl is routinely built using cross-compilation
1753 in the EPOC environment but the solutions from there
1754 can't directly be used elsewhere.
1756 The one environment where cross-compilation has successfully been used
1757 as of this writing is the Compaq iPAQ running ARM Linux. The build
1758 host was Intel Linux, the networking setup was PPP + SSH. The exact
1759 setup details are beyond the scope of this document, see
1760 http://www.handhelds.org/ for more information.
1762 To run Configure in cross-compilation mode the basic switch is
1763 C<-Dusecrosscompile>.
1765 sh ./Configure -des -Dusecrosscompile -D...
1767 This will make the cpp symbol USE_CROSS_COMPILE and the %Config
1768 symbol C<usecrosscompile> available.
1770 During the Configure and build, certain helper scripts will be created
1771 into the Cross/ subdirectory. The scripts are used to execute a
1772 cross-compiled executable, and to transfer files to and from the
1773 target host. The execution scripts are named F<run-*> and the
1774 transfer scripts F<to-*> and F<from-*>. The part after the dash is
1775 the method to use for remote execution and transfer: by default the
1776 methods are B<ssh> and B<scp>, thus making the scripts F<run-ssh>,
1777 F<to-scp>, and F<from-scp>.
1779 To configure the scripts for a target host and a directory (in which
1780 the execution will happen and which is to and from where the transfer
1781 happens), supply Configure with
1783 -Dtargethost=so.me.ho.st -Dtargetdir=/tar/get/dir
1785 The targethost is what e.g. ssh will use as the hostname, the targetdir
1786 must exist (the scripts won't create it), the targetdir defaults to /tmp.
1787 You can also specify a username to use for ssh/rsh logins
1791 but in case you don't, "root" will be used.
1793 Because this is a cross-compilation effort, you will also need to specify
1794 which target environment and which compilation environment to use.
1795 This includes the compiler, the header files, and the libraries.
1796 In the below we use the usual settings for the iPAQ cross-compilation
1799 -Dtargetarch=arm-linux
1801 -Dusrinc=/skiff/local/arm-linux/include
1802 -Dincpth=/skiff/local/arm-linux/include
1803 -Dlibpth=/skiff/local/arm-linux/lib
1805 If the name of the C<cc> has the usual GNU C semantics for cross
1806 compilers, that is, CPU-OS-gcc, the names of the C<ar>, C<nm>, and
1807 C<ranlib> will also be automatically chosen to be CPU-OS-ar and so on.
1808 (The C<ld> requires more thought and will be chosen later by Configure
1809 as appropriate.) Also, in this case the incpth, libpth, and usrinc
1810 will be guessed by Configure (unless explicitly set to something else,
1811 in which case Configure's guesses with be appended).
1813 In addition to the default execution/transfer methods you can also
1814 choose B<rsh> for execution, and B<rcp> or B<cp> for transfer,
1817 -Dtargetrun=rsh -Dtargetto=rcp -Dtargetfrom=cp
1819 Putting it all together:
1821 sh ./Configure -des -Dusecrosscompile \
1822 -Dtargethost=so.me.ho.st \
1823 -Dtargetdir=/tar/get/dir \
1825 -Dtargetarch=arm-linux \
1826 -Dcc=arm-linux-gcc \
1827 -Dusrinc=/skiff/local/arm-linux/include \
1828 -Dincpth=/skiff/local/arm-linux/include \
1829 -Dlibpth=/skiff/local/arm-linux/lib \
1832 or if you are happy with the defaults
1834 sh ./Configure -des -Dusecrosscompile \
1835 -Dtargethost=so.me.ho.st \
1836 -Dcc=arm-linux-gcc \
1841 This will run the regression tests on the perl you just made. If
1842 'make test' doesn't say "All tests successful" then something went
1843 wrong. See the file t/README in the t subdirectory.
1845 Note that you can't run the tests in background if this disables
1846 opening of /dev/tty. You can use 'make test-notty' in that case but
1847 a few tty tests will be skipped.
1849 =head2 What if make test doesn't work?
1851 If make test bombs out, just cd to the t directory and run ./TEST
1852 by hand to see if it makes any difference. If individual tests
1853 bomb, you can run them by hand, e.g.,
1857 Another way to get more detailed information about failed tests and
1858 individual subtests is to cd to the t directory and run
1862 (this assumes that most basic tests succeed, since harness uses
1863 complicated constructs). For extension and library tests you
1864 need a little bit more: you need to setup your environment variable
1865 PERL_CORE to a true value (like "1"), and you need to supply the
1866 right Perl library path:
1869 ./perl -I../lib ../ext/Socket/Socket.t
1870 ./perl -I../lib ../lib/less.t
1872 (For csh-like shells on UNIX; adjust appropriately for other platforms.)
1873 You should also read the individual tests to see if there are any helpful
1874 comments that apply to your system. You may also need to setup your
1875 shared library path if you get errors like:
1877 /sbin/loader: Fatal Error: cannot map libperl.so
1879 See L</"Building a shared Perl library"> earlier in this document.
1885 Note: One possible reason for errors is that some external programs
1886 may be broken due to the combination of your environment and the way
1887 B<make test> exercises them. For example, this may happen if you have
1888 one or more of these environment variables set: LC_ALL LC_CTYPE
1889 LC_COLLATE LANG. In some versions of UNIX, the non-English locales
1890 are known to cause programs to exhibit mysterious errors.
1892 If you have any of the above environment variables set, please try
1898 LC_ALL=C;export LC_ALL
1900 for Bourne or Korn shell) from the command line and then retry
1901 make test. If the tests then succeed, you may have a broken program that
1902 is confusing the testing. Please run the troublesome test by hand as
1903 shown above and see whether you can locate the program. Look for
1904 things like: exec, `backquoted command`, system, open("|...") or
1905 open("...|"). All these mean that Perl is trying to run some
1908 =item Timing problems
1910 Several tests in the test suite check timing functions, such as
1911 sleep(), and see if they return in a reasonable amount of time.
1912 If your system is quite busy and doesn't respond quickly enough,
1913 these tests might fail. If possible, try running the tests again
1914 with the system under a lighter load. These timing-sensitive
1915 and load-sensitive tests include F<t/op/alarm.t>,
1916 F<ext/Time/HiRes/HiRes.t>, F<lib/Benchmark.t>,
1917 F<lib/Memoize/t/expmod_t.t>, and F<lib/Memoize/t/speed.t>.
1921 On some systems, particularly those with smaller amounts of RAM, some
1922 of the tests in t/op/pat.t may fail with an "Out of memory" message.
1923 For example, on my SparcStation IPC with 12 MB of RAM, in perl5.5.670,
1924 test 85 will fail if run under either t/TEST or t/harness.
1926 Try stopping other jobs on the system and then running the test by itself:
1928 cd t; ./perl op/pat.t
1930 to see if you have any better luck. If your perl still fails this
1931 test, it does not necessarily mean you have a broken perl. This test
1932 tries to exercise the regular expression subsystem quite thoroughly,
1933 and may well be far more demanding than your normal usage.
1935 =item Test failures from lib/ftmp-security saying "system possibly insecure"
1937 Firstly, test failures from the ftmp-security are not necessarily
1938 serious or indicative of a real security threat. That being said,
1939 they bear investigating.
1941 The tests may fail for the following reasons. Note that each of the
1942 tests is run both in the building directory and the temporary
1943 directory, as returned by File::Spec->tmpdir().
1945 (1) If the directory the tests are being run is owned by somebody else
1946 than the user running the tests, or root (uid 0). This failure can
1947 happen if the Perl source code distribution is unpacked in a way that
1948 the user ids in the distribution package are used as-is. Some tar
1951 (2) If the directory the tests are being run in is writable by group
1952 or by others (remember: with UNIX/POSIX semantics, write access to
1953 a directory means the right to add/remove files in that directory),
1954 and there is no sticky bit set in the directory. 'Sticky bit' is
1955 a feature used in some UNIXes to give extra protection to files: if
1956 the bit is on a directory, no one but the owner (or the root) can remove
1957 that file even if the permissions of the directory would allow file
1958 removal by others. This failure can happen if the permissions in the
1959 directory simply are a bit too liberal for the tests' liking. This
1960 may or may not be a real problem: it depends on the permissions policy
1961 used on this particular directory/project/system/site. This failure
1962 can also happen if the system either doesn't support the sticky bit
1963 (this is the case with many non-UNIX platforms: in principle
1964 File::Temp should know about these platforms and skip the tests), or
1965 if the system supports the sticky bit but for some reason or reasons
1966 it is not being used. This is for example the case with HP-UX: as of
1967 HP-UX release 11.00, the sticky bit is very much supported, but HP-UX
1968 doesn't use it on its /tmp directory as shipped. Also, as with the
1969 permissions, some local policy might dictate that the stickiness is
1972 (3) If the system supports the POSIX 'chown giveaway' feature and if
1973 any of the parent directories of the temporary file back to the root
1974 directory are 'unsafe', using the definitions given above in (1) and
1977 See the documentation for the File::Temp module for more information
1978 about the various security aspects.
1984 This will put perl into the public directory you specified to
1985 Configure; by default this is /usr/local/bin. It will also try
1986 to put the man pages in a reasonable place. It will not nroff the man
1987 pages, however. You may need to be root to run B<make install>. If you
1988 are not root, you must own the directories in question and you should
1989 ignore any messages about chown not working.
1991 =head2 Installing perl under different names
1993 If you want to install perl under a name other than "perl" (for example,
1994 when installing perl with special features enabled, such as debugging),
1995 indicate the alternate name on the "make install" line, such as:
1997 make install PERLNAME=myperl
1999 You can separately change the base used for versioned names (like
2000 "perl5.005") by setting PERLNAME_VERBASE, like
2002 make install PERLNAME=perl5 PERLNAME_VERBASE=perl
2004 This can be useful if you have to install perl as "perl5" (e.g. to
2005 avoid conflicts with an ancient version in /usr/bin supplied by your vendor).
2006 Without this the versioned binary would be called "perl55.005".
2008 =head2 Installed files
2010 If you want to see exactly what will happen without installing
2011 anything, you can run
2013 ./perl installperl -n
2014 ./perl installman -n
2016 make install will install the following:
2021 perl5.nnn where nnn is the current release number. This
2022 will be a link to perl.
2024 sperl5.nnn If you requested setuid emulation.
2025 a2p awk-to-perl translator
2029 cppstdin This is used by perl -P, if your cc -E can't
2031 c2ph, pstruct Scripts for handling C structures in header files.
2032 s2p sed-to-perl translator
2033 find2perl find-to-perl translator
2034 h2ph Extract constants and simple macros from C headers
2035 h2xs Converts C .h header files to Perl extensions.
2036 perlbug Tool to report bugs in Perl.
2037 perldoc Tool to read perl's pod documentation.
2038 pl2pm Convert Perl 4 .pl files to Perl 5 .pm modules
2039 pod2html, Converters from perl's pod documentation format
2040 pod2latex, to other useful formats.
2046 splain Describe Perl warnings and errors
2047 dprofpp Perl code profile post-processor
2051 in $privlib and $archlib specified to
2052 Configure, usually under /usr/local/lib/perl5/.
2056 man pages in $man1dir, usually /usr/local/man/man1.
2058 pages in $man3dir, usually /usr/local/man/man3.
2059 pod/*.pod in $privlib/pod/.
2061 Installperl will also create the directories listed above
2062 in L<"Installation Directories">.
2064 Perl's *.h header files and the libperl library are also installed
2065 under $archlib so that any user may later build new modules, run the
2066 optional Perl compiler, or embed the perl interpreter into another
2067 program even if the Perl source is no longer available.
2069 Sometimes you only want to install the version-specific parts of the perl
2070 installation. For example, you may wish to install a newer version of
2071 perl alongside an already installed production version of perl without
2072 disabling installation of new modules for the production version.
2073 To only install the version-specific parts of the perl installation, run
2075 Configure -Dversiononly
2077 or answer 'y' to the appropriate Configure prompt. Alternatively,
2078 you can just manually run
2080 ./perl installperl -v
2082 and skip installman altogether.
2083 See also L<"Maintaining completely separate versions"> for another
2086 =head1 Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5
2088 Perl 5.8 is not binary compatible with earlier versions of Perl.
2089 In other words, you will have to recompile your XS modules.
2091 In general, you can usually safely upgrade from one version of Perl (e.g.
2092 5.004_04) to another similar version (e.g. 5.004_05) without re-compiling
2093 all of your add-on extensions. You can also safely leave the old version
2094 around in case the new version causes you problems for some reason.
2095 For example, if you want to be sure that your script continues to run
2096 with 5.004_04, simply replace the '#!/usr/local/bin/perl' line at the
2097 top of the script with the particular version you want to run, e.g.
2098 #!/usr/local/bin/perl5.00404.
2100 Usually, most extensions will probably not need to be recompiled to
2101 use with a newer version of Perl (the Perl 5.6 to Perl 5.8 transition
2102 being an exception). Here is how it is supposed to work. (These
2103 examples assume you accept all the Configure defaults.)
2105 Suppose you already have version 5.005_03 installed. The directories
2106 searched by 5.005_03 are
2108 /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.00503/$archname
2109 /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.00503
2110 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/$archname
2111 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005
2113 Beginning with 5.6.0 the version number in the site libraries are
2114 fully versioned. Now, suppose you install version 5.6.0. The directories
2115 searched by version 5.6.0 will be
2117 /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.0/$archname
2118 /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.0
2119 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0/$archname
2120 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0
2122 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/$archname
2123 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005
2124 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/
2126 Notice the last three entries -- Perl understands the default structure
2127 of the $sitelib directories and will look back in older, compatible
2128 directories. This way, modules installed under 5.005_03 will continue
2129 to be usable by 5.005_03 but will also accessible to 5.6.0. Further,
2130 suppose that you upgrade a module to one which requires features
2131 present only in 5.6.0. That new module will get installed into
2132 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0 and will be available to 5.6.0,
2133 but will not interfere with the 5.005_03 version.
2135 The last entry, /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/, is there so that
2136 5.6.0 and above will look for 5.004-era pure perl modules.
2138 Lastly, suppose you now install 5.8.0, which is not binary compatible
2139 with 5.6.0. The directories searched by 5.8.0 (if you don't change the
2140 Configure defaults) will be:
2142 /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.8.0/$archname
2143 /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.8.0
2144 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.0/$archname
2145 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.0
2147 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0
2149 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005
2151 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/
2153 Note that the earlier $archname entries are now gone, but pure perl
2154 modules from earlier versions will still be found.
2156 Assuming the users in your site are still actively using perl 5.6.0 and
2157 5.005 after you installed 5.8.0, you can continue to install add-on
2158 extensions using any of perl 5.8.0, 5.6.0, or 5.005. The installations
2159 of these different versions remain distinct, but remember that the
2160 newer versions of perl are automatically set up to search the
2161 compatible site libraries of the older ones. This means that
2162 installing a new XS extension with 5.005 will make it visible to both
2163 5.005 and 5.6.0, but not to 5.8.0. Installing a pure perl module with
2164 5.005 will make it visible to all three versions. Later, if you
2165 install the same extension using, say, perl 5.8.0, it will override the
2166 5.005-installed version, but only for perl 5.8.0.
2168 This way, you can choose to share compatible extensions, but also upgrade
2169 to a newer version of an extension that may be incompatible with earlier
2170 versions, without breaking the earlier versions' installations.
2172 =head2 Maintaining completely separate versions
2174 Many users prefer to keep all versions of perl in completely
2175 separate directories. This guarantees that an update to one version
2176 won't interfere with another version. (The defaults guarantee this for
2177 libraries after 5.6.0, but not for executables. TODO?) One convenient
2178 way to do this is by using a separate prefix for each version, such as
2180 sh Configure -Dprefix=/opt/perl5.004
2182 and adding /opt/perl5.004/bin to the shell PATH variable. Such users
2183 may also wish to add a symbolic link /usr/local/bin/perl so that
2184 scripts can still start with #!/usr/local/bin/perl.
2186 Others might share a common directory for maintenance sub-versions
2187 (e.g. 5.8 for all 5.8.x versions), but change directory with
2190 If you are installing a development subversion, you probably ought to
2191 seriously consider using a separate directory, since development
2192 subversions may not have all the compatibility wrinkles ironed out
2195 =head2 Upgrading from 5.005 or 5.6 to 5.8.0
2197 B<Perl 5.8.0 is binary incompatible with Perl 5.6.1, 5.6.0, 5.005,
2198 and any earlier Perl release.> Perl modules having binary parts
2199 (meaning that a C compiler is used) will have to be recompiled to be
2200 used with 5.8.0. If you find you do need to rebuild an extension with
2201 5.8.0, you may safely do so without disturbing the 5.005 or 5.6.0
2202 installations. (See L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5">
2205 See your installed copy of the perllocal.pod file for a (possibly
2206 incomplete) list of locally installed modules. Note that you want
2207 perllocal.pod, not perllocale.pod, for installed module information.
2209 =head1 Coexistence with perl4
2211 You can safely install perl5 even if you want to keep perl4 around.
2213 By default, the perl5 libraries go into /usr/local/lib/perl5/, so
2214 they don't override the perl4 libraries in /usr/local/lib/perl/.
2216 In your /usr/local/bin directory, you should have a binary named
2217 perl4.036. That will not be touched by the perl5 installation
2218 process. Most perl4 scripts should run just fine under perl5.
2219 However, if you have any scripts that require perl4, you can replace
2220 the #! line at the top of them by #!/usr/local/bin/perl4.036 (or
2221 whatever the appropriate pathname is). See pod/perltrap.pod for
2222 possible problems running perl4 scripts under perl5.
2224 =head1 cd /usr/include; h2ph *.h sys/*.h
2226 Some perl scripts need to be able to obtain information from the
2227 system header files. This command will convert the most commonly used
2228 header files in /usr/include into files that can be easily interpreted
2229 by perl. These files will be placed in the architecture-dependent
2230 library ($archlib) directory you specified to Configure.
2232 Note: Due to differences in the C and perl languages, the conversion
2233 of the header files is not perfect. You will probably have to
2234 hand-edit some of the converted files to get them to parse correctly.
2235 For example, h2ph breaks spectacularly on type casting and certain
2238 =head1 installhtml --help
2240 Some sites may wish to make perl documentation available in HTML
2241 format. The installhtml utility can be used to convert pod
2242 documentation into linked HTML files and install them.
2244 Currently, the supplied ./installhtml script does not make use of the
2245 html Configure variables. This should be fixed in a future release.
2247 The following command-line is an example of one used to convert
2252 --podpath=lib:ext:pod:vms \
2254 --htmldir=/perl/nmanual \
2255 --htmlroot=/perl/nmanual \
2256 --splithead=pod/perlipc \
2257 --splititem=pod/perlfunc \
2258 --libpods=perlfunc:perlguts:perlvar:perlrun:perlop \
2261 See the documentation in installhtml for more details. It can take
2262 many minutes to execute a large installation and you should expect to
2263 see warnings like "no title", "unexpected directive" and "cannot
2264 resolve" as the files are processed. We are aware of these problems
2265 (and would welcome patches for them).
2267 You may find it helpful to run installhtml twice. That should reduce
2268 the number of "cannot resolve" warnings.
2270 =head1 cd pod && make tex && (process the latex files)
2272 Some sites may also wish to make the documentation in the pod/ directory
2273 available in TeX format. Type
2275 (cd pod && make tex && <process the latex files>)
2277 =head1 Minimizing the Perl installation
2279 The following section is meant for people worrying about squeezing the
2280 Perl installation into minimal systems (for example when installing
2281 operating systems, or in really small filesystems).
2283 Leaving out as many extensions as possible is an obvious way:
2284 Encode, with its big conversion tables, consumes a lot of
2285 space. On the other hand, you cannot throw away everything. The
2286 Fcntl module is pretty essential. If you need to do network
2287 programming, you'll appreciate the Socket module, and so forth: it all
2288 depends on what do you need to do.
2290 In the following we offer two different slimmed down installation
2291 recipes. They are informative, not normative: the choice of files
2292 depends on what you need.
2294 Firstly, the bare minimum to run this script
2298 foreach my $f (</*>) {
2302 in Solaris is as follows (under $Config{prefix}):
2305 ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/sun4-solaris-64int/auto/DynaLoader/autosplit.ix
2306 ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/sun4-solaris-64int/auto/DynaLoader/dl_expandspec.al
2307 ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/sun4-solaris-64int/auto/DynaLoader/dl_find_symbol_anywhere.al
2308 ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/sun4-solaris-64int/auto/DynaLoader/dl_findfile.al
2309 ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/sun4-solaris-64int/auto/File/Glob/Glob.so
2310 ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/sun4-solaris-64int/auto/File/Glob/autosplit.ix
2311 ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/sun4-solaris-64int/Config.pm
2312 ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/sun4-solaris-64int/XSLoader.pm
2313 ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/sun4-solaris-64int/DynaLoader.pm
2314 ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/sun4-solaris-64int/CORE/libperl.so
2315 ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/strict.pm
2316 ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/warnings.pm
2317 ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/Carp.pm
2318 ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/Exporter.pm
2319 ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/File/Glob.pm
2320 ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/AutoLoader.pm
2321 ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/vars.pm
2322 ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/warnings/register.pm
2323 ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/Carp/Heavy.pm
2324 ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/Exporter/Heavy.pm
2326 Secondly, Debian perl-base package contains the following files,
2327 size about 1.2MB in its i386 version:
2329 /usr/share/doc/perl/Documentation
2330 /usr/share/doc/perl/README.Debian
2331 /usr/share/doc/perl/copyright
2332 /usr/share/doc/perl/AUTHORS.gz
2333 /usr/share/doc/perl/changelog.Debian.gz
2334 /usr/share/man/man1/perl.1.gz
2335 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/AutoLoader.pm
2336 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/Carp.pm
2337 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/Carp/Heavy.pm
2338 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/Cwd.pm
2339 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/Exporter.pm
2340 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/Exporter/Heavy.pm
2341 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/File/Spec.pm
2342 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/File/Spec/Unix.pm
2343 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/FileHandle.pm
2344 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/Getopt/Long.pm
2345 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/IO/Socket/INET.pm
2346 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/IO/Socket/UNIX.pm
2347 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/IPC/Open2.pm
2348 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/IPC/Open3.pm
2349 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/SelectSaver.pm
2350 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/Symbol.pm
2351 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/Text/Tabs.pm
2352 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/Text/Wrap.pm
2353 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/attributes.pm
2354 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/auto/Getopt/Long/GetOptions.al
2355 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/auto/Getopt/Long/FindOption.al
2356 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/auto/Getopt/Long/Configure.al
2357 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/auto/Getopt/Long/config.al
2358 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/auto/Getopt/Long/Croak.al
2359 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/auto/Getopt/Long/autosplit.ix
2360 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/base.pm
2361 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/constant.pm
2362 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/fields.pm
2363 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/integer.pm
2364 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/lib.pm
2365 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/locale.pm
2366 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/overload.pm
2367 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/strict.pm
2368 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/vars.pm
2369 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/warnings.pm
2370 /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/warnings/register.pm
2372 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/Config.pm
2373 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/Data/Dumper.pm
2374 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/DynaLoader.pm
2375 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/Errno.pm
2376 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/Fcntl.pm
2377 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/File/Glob.pm
2378 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/IO.pm
2379 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/IO/File.pm
2380 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/IO/Handle.pm
2381 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/IO/Pipe.pm
2382 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/IO/Seekable.pm
2383 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/IO/Select.pm
2384 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/IO/Socket.pm
2385 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/POSIX.pm
2386 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/Socket.pm
2387 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/XSLoader.pm
2388 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/Data/Dumper/Dumper.so
2389 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/Data/Dumper/Dumper.bs
2390 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/DynaLoader/dl_findfile.al
2391 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/DynaLoader/dl_expandspec.al
2392 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/DynaLoader/dl_find_symbol_anywhere.al
2393 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/DynaLoader/autosplit.ix
2394 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/DynaLoader/DynaLoader.a
2395 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/DynaLoader/extralibs.ld
2396 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/Fcntl/Fcntl.so
2397 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/Fcntl/Fcntl.bs
2398 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/File/Glob/Glob.bs
2399 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/File/Glob/Glob.so
2400 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/File/Glob/autosplit.ix
2401 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/IO/IO.so
2402 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/IO/IO.bs
2403 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/POSIX/POSIX.bs
2404 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/POSIX/POSIX.so
2405 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/POSIX/autosplit.ix
2406 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/POSIX/load_imports.al
2407 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/Socket/Socket.so
2408 /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/Socket/Socket.bs
2410 =head1 Reporting Problems
2412 If you have difficulty building perl, and none of the advice in this file
2413 helps, and careful reading of the error message and the relevant manual
2414 pages on your system doesn't help either, then you should send a message
2415 to either the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup or to perlbug@perl.org with
2416 an accurate description of your problem.
2418 Please include the output of the ./myconfig shell script that comes with
2419 the distribution. Alternatively, you can use the perlbug program that
2420 comes with the perl distribution, but you need to have perl compiled
2421 before you can use it. (If you have not installed it yet, you need to
2422 run C<./perl -Ilib utils/perlbug> instead of a plain C<perlbug>.)
2424 Please try to make your message brief but clear. Trim out unnecessary
2425 information. Do not include large files (such as config.sh or a complete
2426 Configure or make log) unless absolutely necessary. Do not include a
2427 complete transcript of your build session. Just include the failing
2428 commands, the relevant error messages, and whatever preceding commands
2429 are necessary to give the appropriate context. Plain text should
2430 usually be sufficient--fancy attachments or encodings may actually
2431 reduce the number of people who read your message. Your message
2432 will get relayed to over 400 subscribers around the world so please
2433 try to keep it brief but clear.
2435 =head1 DOCUMENTATION
2437 Read the manual entries before running perl. The main documentation
2438 is in the pod/ subdirectory and should have been installed during the
2439 build process. Type B<man perl> to get started. Alternatively, you
2440 can type B<perldoc perl> to use the supplied perldoc script. This is
2441 sometimes useful for finding things in the library modules.
2443 Under UNIX, you can produce a documentation book in postscript form,
2444 along with its table of contents, by going to the pod/ subdirectory and
2447 ./roffitall -groff # If you have GNU groff installed
2448 ./roffitall -psroff # If you have psroff
2450 This will leave you with two postscript files ready to be printed.
2451 (You may need to fix the roffitall command to use your local troff
2454 Note that you must have performed the installation already before running
2455 the above, since the script collects the installed files to generate
2460 Original author: Andy Dougherty doughera@lafayette.edu , borrowing very
2461 heavily from the original README by Larry Wall, with lots of helpful
2462 feedback and additions from the perl5-porters@perl.org folks.
2464 If you have problems, corrections, or questions, please see
2465 L<"Reporting Problems"> above.
2467 =head1 REDISTRIBUTION
2469 This document is part of the Perl package and may be distributed under
2470 the same terms as perl itself, with the following additional request:
2471 If you are distributing a modified version of perl (perhaps as part of
2472 a larger package) please B<do> modify these installation instructions
2473 and the contact information to match your distribution.