3 Install - Build and Installation guide for perl5.
7 The basic steps to build and install perl5 on a Unix system are:
9 rm -f config.sh Policy.sh
15 # You may also wish to add these:
16 (cd /usr/include && h2ph *.h sys/*.h)
18 (cd pod && make tex && <process the latex files>)
20 Each of these is explained in further detail below.
22 For information on non-Unix systems, see the section on
23 L<"Porting information"> below.
25 If you have problems, corrections, or questions, please see
26 L<"Reporting Problems"> below.
28 For information on what's new in this release, see the
29 pod/perldelta.pod file. For more detailed information about specific
30 changes, see the Changes file.
32 IMPORTANT NOTE: 5.005_53 and later releases do not export unadorned
33 global symbols anymore. This means most CPAN modules probably won't
34 build under this release without adding '-DPERL_POLLUTE' to ccflags
35 in config.sh. This is not the default because we want the modules
36 to get fixed *before* the 5.6 release. pod/perldelta.pod contains
37 additional notes about this.
41 This document is written in pod format as an easy way to indicate its
42 structure. The pod format is described in pod/perlpod.pod, but you can
43 read it as is with any pager or editor. Headings and items are marked
44 by lines beginning with '='. The other mark-up used is
46 B<text> embolden text, used for switches, programs or commands
48 L<name> A link (cross reference) to name
50 You should probably at least skim through this entire document before
53 If you're building Perl on a non-Unix system, you should also read
54 the README file specific to your operating system, since this may
55 provide additional or different instructions for building Perl.
57 If there is a hint file for your system (in the hints/ directory) you
58 should also read that hint file for specific information for your
59 system. (Unixware users should use the svr4.sh hint file.) If
60 there is a README file for your platform, then you should read
61 that too. Additional information is in the Porting/ directory.
63 =head1 WARNING: This version is not binary compatible with Perl 5.005.
65 If you have dynamically loaded extensions that you built under perl
66 5.005, you will need to rebuild and reinstall those extensions to use
67 them with 5.6. Pure perl modules should continue to work just fine
68 without reinstallation. See the discussions below on L<"Coexistence
69 with earlier versions of perl5"> and L<"Upgrading from 5.005 to
70 5.6"> for more details.
72 The standard extensions supplied with Perl will be handled automatically.
74 In a related issue, old modules may possibly be affected by the
75 changes in the Perl language in the current release. Please see
76 pod/perldelta.pod (and pod/perl500Xdelta.pod) for a description of
77 what's changed. See also your installed copy of the perllocal.pod
78 file for a (possibly incomplete) list of locally installed modules.
79 Also see CPAN::autobundle for one way to make a "bundle" of your
80 currently installed modules.
82 =head1 WARNING: This version requires a compiler that supports ANSI C.
84 If you find that your C compiler is not ANSI-capable, try obtaining
85 GCC, available from GNU mirrors worldwide (e.g. ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu).
86 Another alternative may be to use a tool like ansi2knr to convert the
87 sources back to K&R style, but there is no guarantee this route will get
88 you anywhere, since the prototypes are not the only ANSI features used
89 in the Perl sources. ansi2knr is usually found as part of the freely
90 available Ghostscript distribution. Another similar tool is
91 unprotoize, distributed with GCC. Since unprotoize requires GCC to
92 run, you may have to run it on a platform where GCC is available, and move
93 the sources back to the platform without GCC.
95 If you succeed in automatically converting the sources to a K&R compatible
96 form, be sure to email perlbug@perl.com to let us know the steps you
97 followed. This will enable us to officially support this option.
99 =head1 Space Requirements
101 The complete perl5 source tree takes up about 15 MB of disk space.
102 After completing make, it takes up roughly 20 MB, though the actual
103 total is likely to be quite system-dependent. The installation
104 directories need something on the order of 15 MB, though again that
105 value is system-dependent.
107 =head1 Start with a Fresh Distribution
109 If you have built perl before, you should clean out the build directory
118 The only difference between the two is that make distclean also removes
119 your old config.sh and Policy.sh files.
121 The results of a Configure run are stored in the config.sh and Policy.sh
122 files. If you are upgrading from a previous version of perl, or if you
123 change systems or compilers or make other significant changes, or if
124 you are experiencing difficulties building perl, you should probably
125 not re-use your old config.sh. Simply remove it
129 If you wish to use your old config.sh, be especially attentive to the
130 version and architecture-specific questions and answers. For example,
131 the default directory for architecture-dependent library modules
132 includes the version name. By default, Configure will reuse your old
133 name (e.g. /opt/perl/lib/i86pc-solaris/5.003) even if you're running
134 Configure for a different version, e.g. 5.004. Yes, Configure should
135 probably check and correct for this, but it doesn't, presently.
136 Similarly, if you used a shared libperl.so (see below) with version
137 numbers, you will probably want to adjust them as well.
139 Also, be careful to check your architecture name. For example, some
140 Linux distributions use i386, while others may use i486. If you build
141 it yourself, Configure uses the output of the arch command, which
142 might be i586 or i686 instead. If you pick up a precompiled binary, or
143 compile extensions on different systems, they might not all agree on
144 the architecture name.
146 In short, if you wish to use your old config.sh, I recommend running
147 Configure interactively rather than blindly accepting the defaults.
149 If your reason to reuse your old config.sh is to save your particular
150 installation choices, then you can probably achieve the same effect by
151 using the Policy.sh file. See the section on L<"Site-wide Policy
152 settings"> below. If you wish to start with a fresh distribution, you
153 also need to remove any old Policy.sh files you may have with
159 Configure will figure out various things about your system. Some
160 things Configure will figure out for itself, other things it will ask
161 you about. To accept the default, just press RETURN. The default is
162 almost always okay. It is normal for some things to be "NOT found",
163 since Configure often searches for many different ways of performing
166 At any Configure prompt, you can type &-d and Configure will use the
167 defaults from then on.
169 After it runs, Configure will perform variable substitution on all the
170 *.SH files and offer to run make depend.
172 =head2 Common Configure options
174 Configure supports a number of useful options. Run B<Configure -h> to
175 get a listing. See the Porting/Glossary file for a complete list of
176 Configure variables you can set and their definitions.
182 To compile with gcc you should run
184 sh Configure -Dcc=gcc
186 This is the preferred way to specify gcc (or another alternative
187 compiler) so that the hints files can set appropriate defaults.
189 =item Installation prefix
191 By default, for most systems, perl will be installed in
192 /usr/local/{bin, lib, man}. (See L<"Installation Directories">
193 and L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> below for
196 You can specify a different 'prefix' for the default installation
197 directory, when Configure prompts you or by using the Configure command
198 line option -Dprefix='/some/directory', e.g.
200 sh Configure -Dprefix=/opt/perl
202 If your prefix contains the string "perl", then the suggested
203 directory structure is simplified. For example, if you use
204 prefix=/opt/perl, then Configure will suggest /opt/perl/lib instead of
205 /opt/perl/lib/perl5/. Again, see L<"Installation Directories"> below
208 NOTE: You must not specify an installation directory that is the same
209 as or below your perl source directory. If you do, installperl will
210 attempt infinite recursion.
214 It may seem obvious, but Perl is useful only when users can easily
215 find it. It's often a good idea to have both /usr/bin/perl and
216 /usr/local/bin/perl be symlinks to the actual binary. Be especially
217 careful, however, not to overwrite a version of perl supplied by your
218 vendor unless you are sure you know what you are doing.
220 By default, Configure will arrange for /usr/bin/perl to be linked to
221 the current version of perl. You can turn off that behavior by running
223 Configure -Uinstallusrbinperl
225 or by answering 'no' to the appropriate Configure prompt.
227 In any case, system administrators are strongly encouraged to
228 put (symlinks to) perl and its accompanying utilities, such as perldoc,
229 into a directory typically found along a user's PATH, or in another
230 obvious and convenient place.
232 =item Overriding an old config.sh
234 If you want to use your old config.sh but override some of the items
235 with command line options, you need to use B<Configure -O>.
239 If you are willing to accept all the defaults, and you want terse
244 For my Solaris system, I usually use
246 sh Configure -Dprefix=/opt/perl -Doptimize='-xpentium -xO4' -des
248 =head2 GNU-style configure
250 If you prefer the GNU-style configure command line interface, you can
251 use the supplied configure.gnu command, e.g.
253 CC=gcc ./configure.gnu
255 The configure.gnu script emulates a few of the more common configure
258 ./configure.gnu --help
262 Cross compiling and compiling in a different directory are not supported.
264 (The file is called configure.gnu to avoid problems on systems
265 that would not distinguish the files "Configure" and "configure".)
267 =head2 Installation Directories
269 The installation directories can all be changed by answering the
270 appropriate questions in Configure. For convenience, all the
271 installation questions are near the beginning of Configure.
272 Further, there are a number of additions to the installation
273 directories since 5.005, so reusing your old config.sh may not
274 be sufficient to put everything where you want it.
276 I highly recommend running Configure interactively to be sure it puts
277 everything where you want it. At any point during the Configure
278 process, you can answer a question with &-d and Configure will use
279 the defaults from then on.
281 The defaults are intended to be reasonable and sensible for most
282 people building from sources. Those who build and distribute binary
283 distributions or who export perl to a range of systems will probably
284 need to alter them. If you are content to just accept the defaults,
285 you can safely skip the next section.
287 The directories set up by Configure fall into three broad categories.
291 =item Directories for the perl distribution
293 By default, Configure will use the following directories for 5.6.
294 $version is the full perl version number, including subversion, e.g.
295 5.6 or 5.6.1, and $archname is a string like sun4-sunos,
296 determined by Configure. The full definitions of all Configure
297 variables are in the file Porting/Glossary.
299 Configure variable Default value
302 $scriptdir $prefix/bin
303 $privlib $prefix/lib/perl5/$version
304 $archlib $prefix/lib/perl5/$version/$archname
305 $man1dir $prefix/man/man1
306 $man3dir $prefix/man/man3
310 Actually, Configure recognizes the SVR3-style
311 /usr/local/man/l_man/man1 directories, if present, and uses those
312 instead. Also, if $prefix contains the string "perl", the library
313 directories are simplified as described below. For simplicity, only
314 the common style is shown here.
316 =item Directories for site-specific add-on files
318 After perl is installed, you may later wish to add modules (e.g. from
319 CPAN) or scripts. Configure will set up the following directories to
320 be used for installing those add-on modules and scripts. $apiversion
321 is the perl version number (without subversion), e.g. 5.6.
323 Configure variable Default value
325 $sitebin $siteprefix/bin
326 $sitescriptdir $siteprefix/bin
327 $sitelib $siteprefix/lib/perl5/site_perl/
328 $sitearch $siteprefix/lib/perl5/site_perl/$apiversion/$archname
329 $siteman1dir $siteprefix/man/man1
330 $siteman3dir $siteprefix/man/man3
334 By default, ExtUtils::MakeMaker will install architecture-independent
335 modules into $sitelib/$apiversion and architecture-dependent modules
338 =item Directories for vendor-supplied add-on files
340 Lastly, if you are building a binary distribution of perl for
341 distribution, Configure can optionally set up the following directories
342 for you to use to distribute add-on modules.
344 Configure variable Default value
346 (The next ones are set only if vendorprefix is set.)
347 $vendorbin $vendorprefix/bin
348 $vendorscriptdir $vendorprefix/bin
349 $vendorlib $vendorprefix/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/
350 $vendorarch $vendorprefix/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/$apiversion/$archname
351 $vendorman1dir $vendorprefix/man/man1
352 $vendorman3dir $vendorprefix/man/man3
353 $vendorhtml1dir (none)
354 $vendorhtml3dir (none)
356 These are normally empty, but may be set as needed. For example,
357 a vendor might choose the following settings:
360 $siteprefix /usr/local/bin
361 $vendorprefix /usr/bin
363 This would have the effect of setting the following:
367 $privlib /usr/lib/perl5/$version
368 $archlib /usr/lib/perl5/$version/$archname
369 $man1dir /usr/man/man1
370 $man3dir /usr/man/man3
372 $sitebin /usr/local/bin
373 $sitescriptdir /usr/local/bin
374 $sitelib /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/
375 $sitearch /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/$apiversion/$archname
376 $siteman1dir /usr/local/man/man1
377 $siteman3dir /usr/local/man/man3
380 $vendorscriptdir /usr/bin
381 $vendorlib /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/
382 $vendorarch /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/$apiversion/$archname
383 $vendorman1dir /usr/man/man1
384 $vendorman3dir /usr/man/man3
386 Note how in this example, the vendor-supplied directories are in the
387 /usr hierarchy, while the directories reserved for the end-user are in
388 the /usr/local hierarchy. Note too how the vendor-supplied
389 directories track $apiversion, rather than $version, to ease upgrading
390 between maintenance subversions. See L<"Coexistence with earlier
391 versions of perl5"> below for more details.
393 Of course you may use these directories however you see fit. For
394 example, you may wish to use $siteprefix for site-specific files that
395 are stored locally on your own disk and use $vendorprefix for
396 site-specific files that are stored elsewhere on your organization's
397 network. One way to do that would be something like
399 sh Configure -Dsiteprefix=/usr/local -Dvendorprefix=/usr/share/perl
403 As a final catch-all, Configure also offers an $otherlibdirs
404 variable. This variable contains a colon-separated list of additional
405 directories to add to @INC. By default, it will be set to
406 $prefix/site_perl if Configure detects that you have 5.004-era modules
407 installed there. However, you can set it to anything you like.
411 In versions 5.005_57 and earlier, the default was to store module man
412 pages in a version-specific directory, such as
413 /usr/local/lib/perl5/$version/man/man3. The default for 5.005_58 and
414 after is /usr/local/man/man3 so that most users can find the man pages
415 without resetting MANPATH.
417 You can continue to use the old default from the command line with
419 sh Configure -Dman3dir=/usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6/man/man3
421 Some users also prefer to use a .3pm suffix. You can do that with
423 sh Configure -Dman3ext=3pm
425 Again, these are just the defaults, and can be changed as you run
430 As of perl5.005_57, the standard perl installation does not do
431 anything with HTML documentation, but that may change in the future.
432 Further, some add-on modules may wish to install HTML documents. The
433 html Configure variables listed above are provided if you wish to
434 specify where such documents should be placed. The default is "none",
435 but will likely eventually change to something useful based on user
440 Some users prefer to append a "/share" to $privlib and $sitelib
441 to emphasize that those directories can be shared among different
444 Note that these are just the defaults. You can actually structure the
445 directories any way you like. They don't even have to be on the same
448 Further details about the installation directories, maintenance and
449 development subversions, and about supporting multiple versions are
450 discussed in L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> below.
452 If you specify a prefix that contains the string "perl", then the
453 library directory structure is slightly simplified. Instead of
454 suggesting $prefix/lib/perl5/, Configure will suggest $prefix/lib.
456 Thus, for example, if you Configure with
457 -Dprefix=/opt/perl, then the default library directories for 5.6 are
459 Configure variable Default value
460 $privlib /opt/perl/lib/5.6
461 $archlib /opt/perl/lib/5.6/$archname
462 $sitelib /opt/perl/lib/site_perl/5.6
463 $sitearch /opt/perl/lib/site_perl/5.6/$archname
465 =head2 Changing the installation directory
467 Configure distinguishes between the directory in which perl (and its
468 associated files) should be installed and the directory in which it
469 will eventually reside. For most sites, these two are the same; for
470 sites that use AFS, this distinction is handled automatically.
471 However, sites that use software such as depot to manage software
472 packages, or users building binary packages for distribution may also
473 wish to install perl into a different directory and use that
474 management software to move perl to its final destination. This
475 section describes how to do that.
477 Suppose you want to install perl under the /tmp/perl5 directory. You
478 could edit config.sh and change all the install* variables to point to
479 /tmp/perl5 instead of /usr/local, or you could simply use the
480 following command line:
482 sh Configure -Dinstallprefix=/tmp/perl5
484 (replace /tmp/perl5 by a directory of your choice).
486 Beware, though, that if you go to try to install new add-on
487 modules, they too will get installed in under '/tmp/perl5' if you
488 follow this example. The next section shows one way of dealing with
491 =head2 Creating an installable tar archive
493 If you need to install perl on many identical systems, it is
494 convenient to compile it once and create an archive that can be
495 installed on multiple systems. Suppose, for example, that you want to
496 create an archive that can be installed in /opt/perl.
497 Here's one way to do that:
499 # Set up to install perl into a different directory,
500 # e.g. /tmp/perl5 (see previous part).
501 sh Configure -Dinstallprefix=/tmp/perl5 -Dprefix=/opt/perl -des
504 make install # This will install everything into /tmp/perl5.
506 # Edit $archlib/Config.pm and $archlib/.packlist to change all the
507 # install* variables back to reflect where everything will
508 # really be installed. (That is, change /tmp/perl5 to /opt/perl
509 # everywhere in those files.)
510 # Check the scripts in $scriptdir to make sure they have the correct
511 # #!/wherever/perl line.
512 tar cvf ../perl5-archive.tar .
513 # Then, on each machine where you want to install perl,
514 cd /opt/perl # Or wherever you specified as $prefix
515 tar xvf perl5-archive.tar
517 =head2 Site-wide Policy settings
519 After Configure runs, it stores a number of common site-wide "policy"
520 answers (such as installation directories and the local perl contact
521 person) in the Policy.sh file. If you want to build perl on another
522 system using the same policy defaults, simply copy the Policy.sh file
523 to the new system and Configure will use it along with the appropriate
524 hint file for your system.
526 Alternatively, if you wish to change some or all of those policy
531 to ensure that Configure doesn't re-use them.
533 Further information is in the Policy_sh.SH file itself.
535 If the generated Policy.sh file is unsuitable, you may freely edit it
536 to contain any valid shell commands. It will be run just after the
537 platform-specific hints files.
539 Note: Since the directory hierarchy for 5.6 contains a number of
540 new vendor* and site* entries, your Policy.sh file will probably not
541 set them to your desired values. I encourage you to run Configure
542 interactively to be sure it puts things where you want them.
544 =head2 Configure-time Options
546 There are several different ways to Configure and build perl for your
547 system. For most users, the defaults are sensible and will work.
548 Some users, however, may wish to further customize perl. Here are
549 some of the main things you can change.
553 On some platforms, perl5.005 and later can be compiled with
554 experimental support for threads. To enable this, read the file
555 README.threads, and then try:
557 sh Configure -Dusethreads
559 Currently, you need to specify -Dusethreads on the Configure command
560 line so that the hint files can make appropriate adjustments.
562 The default is to compile without thread support.
564 =head2 Selecting File IO mechanisms
566 Previous versions of perl used the standard IO mechanisms as defined in
567 stdio.h. Versions 5.003_02 and later of perl allow alternate IO
568 mechanisms via a "PerlIO" abstraction, but the stdio mechanism is still
569 the default and is the only supported mechanism.
571 This PerlIO abstraction can be enabled either on the Configure command
574 sh Configure -Duseperlio
576 or interactively at the appropriate Configure prompt.
578 If you choose to use the PerlIO abstraction layer, there are two
579 (experimental) possibilities for the underlying IO calls. These have been
580 tested to some extent on some platforms, but are not guaranteed to work
587 AT&T's "sfio". This has superior performance to stdio.h in many
588 cases, and is extensible by the use of "discipline" modules. Sfio
589 currently only builds on a subset of the UNIX platforms perl supports.
590 Because the data structures are completely different from stdio, perl
591 extension modules or external libraries may not work. This
592 configuration exists to allow these issues to be worked on.
594 This option requires the 'sfio' package to have been built and installed.
595 A (fairly old) version of sfio is in CPAN.
597 You select this option by
599 sh Configure -Duseperlio -Dusesfio
601 If you have already selected -Duseperlio, and if Configure detects
602 that you have sfio, then sfio will be the default suggested by
605 Note: On some systems, sfio's iffe configuration script fails to
606 detect that you have an atexit function (or equivalent). Apparently,
607 this is a problem at least for some versions of Linux and SunOS 4.
608 Configure should detect this problem and warn you about problems with
609 _exit vs. exit. If you have this problem, the fix is to go back to
610 your sfio sources and correct iffe's guess about atexit.
612 There also might be a more recent release of Sfio that fixes your
617 Normal stdio IO, but with all IO going through calls to the PerlIO
618 abstraction layer. This configuration can be used to check that perl and
619 extension modules have been correctly converted to use the PerlIO
622 This configuration should work on all platforms (but might not).
624 You select this option via:
626 sh Configure -Duseperlio -Uusesfio
628 If you have already selected -Duseperlio, and if Configure does not
629 detect sfio, then this will be the default suggested by Configure.
633 =head2 Dynamic Loading
635 By default, Configure will compile perl to use dynamic loading if
636 your system supports it. If you want to force perl to be compiled
637 statically, you can either choose this when Configure prompts you or
638 you can use the Configure command line option -Uusedl.
640 =head2 Building a shared libperl.so Perl library
642 Currently, for most systems, the main perl executable is built by
643 linking the "perl library" libperl.a with perlmain.o, your static
644 extensions (usually just DynaLoader.a) and various extra libraries,
647 On some systems that support dynamic loading, it may be possible to
648 replace libperl.a with a shared libperl.so. If you anticipate building
649 several different perl binaries (e.g. by embedding libperl into
650 different programs, or by using the optional compiler extension), then
651 you might wish to build a shared libperl.so so that all your binaries
652 can share the same library.
654 The disadvantages are that there may be a significant performance
655 penalty associated with the shared libperl.so, and that the overall
656 mechanism is still rather fragile with respect to different versions
659 In terms of performance, on my test system (Solaris 2.5_x86) the perl
660 test suite took roughly 15% longer to run with the shared libperl.so.
661 Your system and typical applications may well give quite different
664 The default name for the shared library is typically something like
665 libperl.so.3.2 (for Perl 5.003_02) or libperl.so.302 or simply
666 libperl.so. Configure tries to guess a sensible naming convention
667 based on your C library name. Since the library gets installed in a
668 version-specific architecture-dependent directory, the exact name
669 isn't very important anyway, as long as your linker is happy.
671 For some systems (mostly SVR4), building a shared libperl is required
672 for dynamic loading to work, and hence is already the default.
674 You can elect to build a shared libperl by
676 sh Configure -Duseshrplib
678 To build a shared libperl, the environment variable controlling shared
679 library search (LD_LIBRARY_PATH in most systems, DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH for
680 NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP/Rhapsody, LIBRARY_PATH for BeOS, SHLIB_PATH for
681 HP-UX, LIBPATH for AIX, PATH for cygwin32) must be set up to include
682 the Perl build directory because that's where the shared libperl will
683 be created. Configure arranges makefile to have the correct shared
684 library search settings.
686 However, there are some special cases where manually setting the
687 shared library path might be required. For example, if you want to run
688 something like the following with the newly-built but not-yet-installed
691 cd t; ./perl misc/failing_test.t
693 ./perl -Ilib ~/my_mission_critical_test
695 then you need to set up the shared library path explicitly.
698 LD_LIBRARY_PATH=`pwd`:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH; export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
700 for Bourne-style shells, or
702 setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH `pwd`
704 for Csh-style shells. (This procedure may also be needed if for some
705 unexpected reason Configure fails to set up makefile correctly.)
707 You can often recognize failures to build/use a shared libperl from error
708 messages complaining about a missing libperl.so (or libperl.sl in HP-UX),
710 18126:./miniperl: /sbin/loader: Fatal Error: cannot map libperl.so
712 There is also an potential problem with the shared perl library if you
713 want to have more than one "flavor" of the same version of perl (e.g.
714 with and without -DDEBUGGING). For example, suppose you build and
715 install a standard Perl 5.004 with a shared library. Then, suppose you
716 try to build Perl 5.004 with -DDEBUGGING enabled, but everything else
717 the same, including all the installation directories. How can you
718 ensure that your newly built perl will link with your newly built
719 libperl.so.4 rather with the installed libperl.so.4? The answer is
720 that you might not be able to. The installation directory is encoded
721 in the perl binary with the LD_RUN_PATH environment variable (or
722 equivalent ld command-line option). On Solaris, you can override that
723 with LD_LIBRARY_PATH; on Linux you can't. On Digital Unix, you can
724 override LD_LIBRARY_PATH by setting the _RLD_ROOT environment variable
725 to point to the perl build directory.
727 The only reliable answer is that you should specify a different
728 directory for the architecture-dependent library for your -DDEBUGGING
729 version of perl. You can do this by changing all the *archlib*
730 variables in config.sh to point to your new architecture-dependent library.
734 Perl relies heavily on malloc(3) to grow data structures as needed,
735 so perl's performance can be noticeably affected by the performance of
736 the malloc function on your system. The perl source is shipped with a
737 version of malloc that has been optimized for the typical requests from
738 perl, so there's a chance that it may be both faster and use less memory
739 than your system malloc.
741 However, if your system already has an excellent malloc, or if you are
742 experiencing difficulties with extensions that use third-party libraries
743 that call malloc, then you should probably use your system's malloc.
744 (Or, you might wish to explore the malloc flags discussed below.)
748 =item Using the system malloc
750 To build without perl's malloc, you can use the Configure command
752 sh Configure -Uusemymalloc
754 or you can answer 'n' at the appropriate interactive Configure prompt.
756 =item -DPERL_POLLUTE_MALLOC
758 Perl's malloc family of functions are called Perl_malloc(),
759 Perl_realloc(), Perl_calloc() and Perl_mfree(). The names do not clash
760 with the system versions of these functions.
762 If you add -DPERL_POLLUTE_MALLOC to your ccflags variable in
763 config.sh, then Perl's malloc family of functions will have the same
764 names as the system versions. This may be sometimes required when you
765 have libraries that like to free() data that may have been allocated
766 by Perl_malloc() and vice versa.
768 Note that enabling this option may sometimes lead to duplicate symbols
769 from the linker for malloc et al. In such cases, the system probably
770 does not allow its malloc functions to be fully replaced with custom
775 =head2 Building a debugging perl
777 You can run perl scripts under the perl debugger at any time with
778 B<perl -d your_script>. If, however, you want to debug perl itself,
779 you probably want to do
781 sh Configure -Doptimize='-g'
783 This will do two independent things: First, it will force compilation
784 to use cc -g so that you can use your system's debugger on the
785 executable. (Note: Your system may actually require something like
786 cc -g2. Check your man pages for cc(1) and also any hint file for
787 your system.) Second, it will add -DDEBUGGING to your ccflags
788 variable in config.sh so that you can use B<perl -D> to access perl's
789 internal state. (Note: Configure will only add -DDEBUGGING by default
790 if you are not reusing your old config.sh. If you want to reuse your
791 old config.sh, then you can just edit it and change the optimize and
792 ccflags variables by hand and then propagate your changes as shown in
793 L<"Propagating your changes to config.sh"> below.)
795 You can actually specify -g and -DDEBUGGING independently, but usually
796 it's convenient to have both.
798 If you are using a shared libperl, see the warnings about multiple
799 versions of perl under L<Building a shared libperl.so Perl library>.
801 =head2 Other Compiler Flags
803 For most users, all of the Configure defaults are fine. However, you
804 can change a number of factors in the way perl is built by adding
805 appropriate -D directives to your ccflags variable in config.sh.
807 You should also run Configure interactively to verify that a hint file
808 doesn't inadvertently override your ccflags setting. (Hints files
809 shouldn't do that, but some might.)
813 By default, Configure will offer to build every extension which appears
814 to be supported. For example, Configure will offer to build GDBM_File
815 only if it is able to find the gdbm library. (See examples below.)
816 B, DynaLoader, Fcntl, IO, and attrs are always built by default.
817 Configure does not contain code to test for POSIX compliance, so POSIX
818 is always built by default as well. If you wish to skip POSIX, you can
819 set the Configure variable useposix=false either in a hint file or from
820 the Configure command line. Similarly, the Opcode extension is always
821 built by default, but you can skip it by setting the Configure variable
822 useopcode=false either in a hint file for from the command line.
824 You can learn more about each of these extensions by consulting the
825 documentation in the individual .pm modules, located under the
828 Even if you do not have dynamic loading, you must still build the
829 DynaLoader extension; you should just build the stub dl_none.xs
830 version. (Configure will suggest this as the default.)
832 In summary, here are the Configure command-line variables you can set
833 to turn off each extension:
835 B (Always included by default)
837 DynaLoader (Must always be included as a static extension)
838 Fcntl (Always included by default)
840 IO (Always included by default)
844 SDBM_File (Always included by default)
848 attrs (Always included by default)
850 Thus to skip the NDBM_File extension, you can use
852 sh Configure -Ui_ndbm
854 Again, this is taken care of automatically if you don't have the ndbm
857 Of course, you may always run Configure interactively and select only
858 the extensions you want.
860 Note: The DB_File module will only work with version 1.x of Berkeley
861 DB or newer releases of version 2. Configure will automatically detect
862 this for you and refuse to try to build DB_File with earlier
863 releases of version 2.
865 If you re-use your old config.sh but change your system (e.g. by
866 adding libgdbm) Configure will still offer your old choices of extensions
867 for the default answer, but it will also point out the discrepancy to
870 Finally, if you have dynamic loading (most modern Unix systems do)
871 remember that these extensions do not increase the size of your perl
872 executable, nor do they impact start-up time, so you probably might as
873 well build all the ones that will work on your system.
875 =head2 Including locally-installed libraries
877 Perl5 comes with interfaces to number of database extensions, including
878 dbm, ndbm, gdbm, and Berkeley db. For each extension, if
879 Configure can find the appropriate header files and libraries, it will
880 automatically include that extension. The gdbm and db libraries
881 are not included with perl. See the library documentation for
882 how to obtain the libraries.
884 If your database header (.h) files are not in a directory normally
885 searched by your C compiler, then you will need to include the
886 appropriate -I/your/directory option when prompted by Configure. If
887 your database library (.a) files are not in a directory normally
888 searched by your C compiler and linker, then you will need to include
889 the appropriate -L/your/directory option when prompted by Configure.
890 See the examples below.
896 =item gdbm in /usr/local
898 Suppose you have gdbm and want Configure to find it and build the
899 GDBM_File extension. This example assumes you have gdbm.h
900 installed in /usr/local/include/gdbm.h and libgdbm.a installed in
901 /usr/local/lib/libgdbm.a. Configure should figure all the
902 necessary steps out automatically.
904 Specifically, when Configure prompts you for flags for
905 your C compiler, you should include -I/usr/local/include.
907 When Configure prompts you for linker flags, you should include
910 If you are using dynamic loading, then when Configure prompts you for
911 linker flags for dynamic loading, you should again include
914 Again, this should all happen automatically. This should also work if
915 you have gdbm installed in any of (/usr/local, /opt/local, /usr/gnu,
916 /opt/gnu, /usr/GNU, or /opt/GNU).
918 =item gdbm in /usr/you
920 Suppose you have gdbm installed in some place other than /usr/local/,
921 but you still want Configure to find it. To be specific, assume you
922 have /usr/you/include/gdbm.h and /usr/you/lib/libgdbm.a. You
923 still have to add -I/usr/you/include to cc flags, but you have to take
924 an extra step to help Configure find libgdbm.a. Specifically, when
925 Configure prompts you for library directories, you have to add
926 /usr/you/lib to the list.
928 It is possible to specify this from the command line too (all on one
932 -Dlocincpth="/usr/you/include" \
933 -Dloclibpth="/usr/you/lib"
935 locincpth is a space-separated list of include directories to search.
936 Configure will automatically add the appropriate -I directives.
938 loclibpth is a space-separated list of library directories to search.
939 Configure will automatically add the appropriate -L directives. If
940 you have some libraries under /usr/local/ and others under
941 /usr/you, then you have to include both, namely
944 -Dlocincpth="/usr/you/include /usr/local/include" \
945 -Dloclibpth="/usr/you/lib /usr/local/lib"
949 =head2 What if it doesn't work?
951 If you run into problems, try some of the following ideas.
952 If none of them help, then see L<"Reporting Problems"> below.
956 =item Running Configure Interactively
958 If Configure runs into trouble, remember that you can always run
959 Configure interactively so that you can check (and correct) its
962 All the installation questions have been moved to the top, so you don't
963 have to wait for them. Once you've handled them (and your C compiler and
964 flags) you can type &-d at the next Configure prompt and Configure
965 will use the defaults from then on.
967 If you find yourself trying obscure command line incantations and
968 config.over tricks, I recommend you run Configure interactively
969 instead. You'll probably save yourself time in the long run.
973 The perl distribution includes a number of system-specific hints files
974 in the hints/ directory. If one of them matches your system, Configure
975 will offer to use that hint file.
977 Several of the hint files contain additional important information.
978 If you have any problems, it is a good idea to read the relevant hint file
979 for further information. See hints/solaris_2.sh for an extensive example.
980 More information about writing good hints is in the hints/README.hints
983 =item *** WHOA THERE!!! ***
985 Occasionally, Configure makes a wrong guess. For example, on SunOS
986 4.1.3, Configure incorrectly concludes that tzname[] is in the
987 standard C library. The hint file is set up to correct for this. You
990 *** WHOA THERE!!! ***
991 The recommended value for $d_tzname on this machine was "undef"!
992 Keep the recommended value? [y]
994 You should always keep the recommended value unless, after reading the
995 relevant section of the hint file, you are sure you want to try
998 If you are re-using an old config.sh, the word "previous" will be
999 used instead of "recommended". Again, you will almost always want
1000 to keep the previous value, unless you have changed something on your
1003 For example, suppose you have added libgdbm.a to your system
1004 and you decide to reconfigure perl to use GDBM_File. When you run
1005 Configure again, you will need to add -lgdbm to the list of libraries.
1006 Now, Configure will find your gdbm include file and library and will
1009 *** WHOA THERE!!! ***
1010 The previous value for $i_gdbm on this machine was "undef"!
1011 Keep the previous value? [y]
1013 In this case, you do not want to keep the previous value, so you
1014 should answer 'n'. (You'll also have to manually add GDBM_File to
1015 the list of dynamic extensions to build.)
1017 =item Changing Compilers
1019 If you change compilers or make other significant changes, you should
1020 probably not re-use your old config.sh. Simply remove it or
1021 rename it, e.g. mv config.sh config.sh.old. Then rerun Configure
1022 with the options you want to use.
1024 This is a common source of problems. If you change from cc to
1025 gcc, you should almost always remove your old config.sh.
1027 =item Propagating your changes to config.sh
1029 If you make any changes to config.sh, you should propagate
1030 them to all the .SH files by running
1034 You will then have to rebuild by running
1041 You can also supply a shell script config.over to over-ride Configure's
1042 guesses. It will get loaded up at the very end, just before config.sh
1043 is created. You have to be careful with this, however, as Configure
1044 does no checking that your changes make sense.
1048 Many of the system dependencies are contained in config.h.
1049 Configure builds config.h by running the config_h.SH script.
1050 The values for the variables are taken from config.sh.
1052 If there are any problems, you can edit config.h directly. Beware,
1053 though, that the next time you run Configure, your changes will be
1058 If you have any additional changes to make to the C compiler command
1059 line, they can be made in cflags.SH. For instance, to turn off the
1060 optimizer on toke.c, find the line in the switch structure for
1061 toke.c and put the command optimize='-g' before the ;; . You
1062 can also edit cflags directly, but beware that your changes will be
1063 lost the next time you run Configure.
1065 To explore various ways of changing ccflags from within a hint file,
1066 see the file hints/README.hints.
1068 To change the C flags for all the files, edit config.sh and change either
1069 $ccflags or $optimize, and then re-run
1076 If you don't have sh, you'll have to copy the sample file Porting/config_H
1077 to config.h and edit the config.h to reflect your system's peculiarities.
1078 You'll probably also have to extensively modify the extension building
1081 =item Environment variable clashes
1083 Configure uses a CONFIG variable that is reported to cause trouble on
1084 ReliantUnix 5.44. If your system sets this variable, you can try
1085 unsetting it before you run Configure. Configure should eventually
1086 be fixed to avoid polluting the namespace of the environment.
1088 =item Digital UNIX/Tru64 UNIX and BIN_SH
1090 In Digital UNIX/Tru64 UNIX, Configure might abort with
1092 Build a threading Perl? [n]
1093 Configure[2437]: Syntax error at line 1 : `config.sh' is not expected.
1095 This indicates that Configure is being run with a broken Korn shell
1096 (even though you think you are using a Bourne shell by using
1097 "sh Configure" or "./Configure"). The Korn shell bug has been reported
1098 to Compaq as of February 1999 but in the meanwhile, the reason ksh is
1099 being used is that you have the environment variable BIN_SH set to
1100 'xpg4'. This causes /bin/sh to delegate its duties to /bin/posix/sh
1101 (a ksh). Unset the environment variable and rerun Configure.
1103 =item HP-UX 11, pthreads, and libgdbm
1105 If you are running Configure with -Dusethreads in HP-UX 11, be warned
1106 that POSIX threads and libgdbm (the GNU dbm library) compiled before
1107 HP-UX 11 do not mix. This will cause a basic test run by Configure to
1110 Pthread internal error: message: __libc_reinit() failed, file: ../pthreads/pthread.c, line: 1096
1111 Return Pointer is 0xc082bf33
1112 sh: 5345 Quit(coredump)
1114 and Configure will give up. The cure is to recompile and install
1115 libgdbm under HP-UX 11.
1117 =item Porting information
1119 Specific information for the OS/2, Plan9, VMS and Win32 ports is in the
1120 corresponding README files and subdirectories. Additional information,
1121 including a glossary of all those config.sh variables, is in the Porting
1124 Ports for other systems may also be available. You should check out
1125 http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ports for current information on ports to
1126 various other operating systems.
1132 This will look for all the includes. The output is stored in makefile.
1133 The only difference between Makefile and makefile is the dependencies at
1134 the bottom of makefile. If you have to make any changes, you should edit
1135 makefile, not Makefile since the Unix make command reads makefile first.
1136 (On non-Unix systems, the output may be stored in a different file.
1137 Check the value of $firstmakefile in your config.sh if in doubt.)
1139 Configure will offer to do this step for you, so it isn't listed
1144 This will attempt to make perl in the current directory.
1146 =head2 What if it doesn't work?
1148 If you can't compile successfully, try some of the following ideas.
1149 If none of them help, and careful reading of the error message and
1150 the relevant manual pages on your system doesn't help,
1151 then see L<"Reporting Problems"> below.
1157 If you used a hint file, try reading the comments in the hint file
1158 for further tips and information.
1162 If you can successfully build miniperl, but the process crashes
1163 during the building of extensions, you should run
1167 to test your version of miniperl.
1171 If you have any locale-related environment variables set, try unsetting
1172 them. I have some reports that some versions of IRIX hang while
1173 running B<./miniperl configpm> with locales other than the C locale.
1174 See the discussion under L<"make test"> below about locales and the
1175 whole L<"Locale problems"> section in the file pod/perllocale.pod.
1176 The latter is especially useful if you see something like this
1178 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
1179 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
1182 are supported and installed on your system.
1183 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
1189 If you get varargs problems with gcc, be sure that gcc is installed
1190 correctly and that you are not passing -I/usr/include to gcc. When using
1191 gcc, you should probably have i_stdarg='define' and i_varargs='undef'
1192 in config.sh. The problem is usually solved by running fixincludes
1193 correctly. If you do change config.sh, don't forget to propagate
1194 your changes (see L<"Propagating your changes to config.sh"> below).
1195 See also the L<"vsprintf"> item below.
1199 If you get error messages such as the following (the exact line
1200 numbers and function name may vary in different versions of perl):
1202 util.c: In function `Perl_form':
1203 util.c:1107: number of arguments doesn't match prototype
1204 proto.h:125: prototype declaration
1206 it might well be a symptom of the gcc "varargs problem". See the
1207 previous L<"varargs"> item.
1209 =item Solaris and SunOS dynamic loading
1211 If you have problems with dynamic loading using gcc on SunOS or
1212 Solaris, and you are using GNU as and GNU ld, you may need to add
1213 -B/bin/ (for SunOS) or -B/usr/ccs/bin/ (for Solaris) to your
1214 $ccflags, $ldflags, and $lddlflags so that the system's versions of as
1215 and ld are used. Note that the trailing '/' is required.
1216 Alternatively, you can use the GCC_EXEC_PREFIX
1217 environment variable to ensure that Sun's as and ld are used. Consult
1218 your gcc documentation for further information on the -B option and
1219 the GCC_EXEC_PREFIX variable.
1221 One convenient way to ensure you are not using GNU as and ld is to
1222 invoke Configure with
1224 sh Configure -Dcc='gcc -B/usr/ccs/bin/'
1226 for Solaris systems. For a SunOS system, you must use -B/bin/
1229 Alternatively, recent versions of GNU ld reportedly work if you
1230 include C<-Wl,-export-dynamic> in the ccdlflags variable in
1233 =item ld.so.1: ./perl: fatal: relocation error:
1235 If you get this message on SunOS or Solaris, and you're using gcc,
1236 it's probably the GNU as or GNU ld problem in the previous item
1237 L<"Solaris and SunOS dynamic loading">.
1239 =item LD_LIBRARY_PATH
1241 If you run into dynamic loading problems, check your setting of
1242 the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable. If you're creating a static
1243 Perl library (libperl.a rather than libperl.so) it should build
1244 fine with LD_LIBRARY_PATH unset, though that may depend on details
1245 of your local set-up.
1247 =item dlopen: stub interception failed
1249 The primary cause of the 'dlopen: stub interception failed' message is
1250 that the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable includes a directory
1251 which is a symlink to /usr/lib (such as /lib).
1253 The reason this causes a problem is quite subtle. The file libdl.so.1.0
1254 actually *only* contains functions which generate 'stub interception
1255 failed' errors! The runtime linker intercepts links to
1256 "/usr/lib/libdl.so.1.0" and links in internal implementation of those
1257 functions instead. [Thanks to Tim Bunce for this explanation.]
1261 If Configure seems to be having trouble finding library functions,
1262 try not using nm extraction. You can do this from the command line
1265 sh Configure -Uusenm
1267 or by answering the nm extraction question interactively.
1268 If you have previously run Configure, you should not reuse your old
1271 =item umask not found
1273 If the build processes encounters errors relating to umask(), the problem
1274 is probably that Configure couldn't find your umask() system call.
1275 Check your config.sh. You should have d_umask='define'. If you don't,
1276 this is probably the L<"nm extraction"> problem discussed above. Also,
1277 try reading the hints file for your system for further information.
1281 If you run into problems with vsprintf in compiling util.c, the
1282 problem is probably that Configure failed to detect your system's
1283 version of vsprintf(). Check whether your system has vprintf().
1284 (Virtually all modern Unix systems do.) Then, check the variable
1285 d_vprintf in config.sh. If your system has vprintf, it should be:
1289 If Configure guessed wrong, it is likely that Configure guessed wrong
1290 on a number of other common functions too. This is probably
1291 the L<"nm extraction"> problem discussed above.
1295 If you run into problems relating to do_aspawn or do_spawn, the
1296 problem is probably that Configure failed to detect your system's
1297 fork() function. Follow the procedure in the previous item
1298 on L<"nm extraction">.
1300 =item __inet_* errors
1302 If you receive unresolved symbol errors during Perl build and/or test
1303 referring to __inet_* symbols, check to see whether BIND 8.1 is
1304 installed. It installs a /usr/local/include/arpa/inet.h that refers to
1305 these symbols. Versions of BIND later than 8.1 do not install inet.h
1306 in that location and avoid the errors. You should probably update to a
1307 newer version of BIND. If you can't, you can either link with the
1308 updated resolver library provided with BIND 8.1 or rename
1309 /usr/local/bin/arpa/inet.h during the Perl build and test process to
1312 =item #error "No DATAMODEL_NATIVE specified"
1314 This is a common error when trying to build perl on Solaris 2.6 with a
1315 gcc installation from Solaris 2.5 or 2.5.1. The Solaris header files
1316 changed, so you need to update your gcc installation. You can either
1317 rerun the fixincludes script from gcc or take the opportunity to
1318 update your gcc installation.
1322 If you can't compile successfully, try turning off your compiler's
1323 optimizer. Edit config.sh and change the line
1331 then propagate your changes with B<sh Configure -S> and rebuild
1332 with B<make depend; make>.
1336 If you still can't compile successfully, try adding a -DCRIPPLED_CC
1337 flag. (Just because you get no errors doesn't mean it compiled right!)
1338 This simplifies some complicated expressions for compilers that get
1341 =item Missing functions
1343 If you have missing routines, you probably need to add some library or
1344 other, or you need to undefine some feature that Configure thought was
1345 there but is defective or incomplete. Look through config.h for
1346 likely suspects. If Configure guessed wrong on a number of functions,
1347 you might have the L<"nm extraction"> problem discussed above.
1351 Some compilers will not compile or optimize the larger files (such as
1352 toke.c) without some extra switches to use larger jump offsets or
1353 allocate larger internal tables. You can customize the switches for
1354 each file in cflags. It's okay to insert rules for specific files into
1355 makefile since a default rule only takes effect in the absence of a
1358 =item Missing dbmclose
1360 SCO prior to 3.2.4 may be missing dbmclose(). An upgrade to 3.2.4
1361 that includes libdbm.nfs (which includes dbmclose()) may be available.
1363 =item Note (probably harmless): No library found for -lsomething
1365 If you see such a message during the building of an extension, but
1366 the extension passes its tests anyway (see L<"make test"> below),
1367 then don't worry about the warning message. The extension
1368 Makefile.PL goes looking for various libraries needed on various
1369 systems; few systems will need all the possible libraries listed.
1370 For example, a system may have -lcposix or -lposix, but it's
1371 unlikely to have both, so most users will see warnings for the one
1372 they don't have. The phrase 'probably harmless' is intended to
1373 reassure you that nothing unusual is happening, and the build
1374 process is continuing.
1376 On the other hand, if you are building GDBM_File and you get the
1379 Note (probably harmless): No library found for -lgdbm
1381 then it's likely you're going to run into trouble somewhere along
1382 the line, since it's hard to see how you can use the GDBM_File
1383 extension without the -lgdbm library.
1385 It is true that, in principle, Configure could have figured all of
1386 this out, but Configure and the extension building process are not
1387 quite that tightly coordinated.
1389 =item sh: ar: not found
1391 This is a message from your shell telling you that the command 'ar'
1392 was not found. You need to check your PATH environment variable to
1393 make sure that it includes the directory with the 'ar' command. This
1394 is a common problem on Solaris, where 'ar' is in the /usr/ccs/bin
1397 =item db-recno failure on tests 51, 53 and 55
1399 Old versions of the DB library (including the DB library which comes
1400 with FreeBSD 2.1) had broken handling of recno databases with modified
1401 bval settings. Upgrade your DB library or OS.
1403 =item Bad arg length for semctl, is XX, should be ZZZ
1405 If you get this error message from the lib/ipc_sysv test, your System
1406 V IPC may be broken. The XX typically is 20, and that is what ZZZ
1407 also should be. Consider upgrading your OS, or reconfiguring your OS
1408 to include the System V semaphores.
1410 =item lib/ipc_sysv........semget: No space left on device
1412 Either your account or the whole system has run out of semaphores. Or
1413 both. Either list the semaphores with "ipcs" and remove the unneeded
1414 ones (which ones these are depends on your system and applications)
1415 with "ipcrm -s SEMAPHORE_ID_HERE" or configure more semaphores to your
1420 If you mix GNU binutils (nm, ld, ar) with equivalent vendor-supplied
1421 tools you may be in for some trouble. For example creating archives
1422 with an old GNU 'ar' and then using a new current vendor-supplied 'ld'
1423 may lead into linking problems. Either recompile your GNU binutils
1424 under your current operating system release, or modify your PATH not
1425 to include the GNU utils before running Configure, or specify the
1426 vendor-supplied utilities explicitly to Configure, for example by
1427 Configure -Dar=/bin/ar.
1431 Some additional things that have been reported for either perl4 or perl5:
1433 Genix may need to use libc rather than libc_s, or #undef VARARGS.
1435 NCR Tower 32 (OS 2.01.01) may need -W2,-Sl,2000 and #undef MKDIR.
1437 UTS may need one or more of -DCRIPPLED_CC, -K or -g, and undef LSTAT.
1439 FreeBSD can fail the lib/ipc_sysv.t test if SysV IPC has not been
1440 configured to the kernel. Perl tries to detect this, though, and
1441 you will get a message telling what to do.
1443 If you get syntax errors on '(', try -DCRIPPLED_CC.
1445 Machines with half-implemented dbm routines will need to #undef I_ODBM
1447 HP-UX 11 Y2K patch "Y2K-1100 B.11.00.B0125 HP-UX Core OS Year 2000
1448 Patch Bundle" has been reported to break the io/fs test #18 which
1449 tests whether utime() can change timestamps. The Y2K patch seems to
1450 break utime() so that over NFS the timestamps do not get changed
1451 (on local filesystems utime() still works).
1457 This will run the regression tests on the perl you just made. If
1458 'make test' doesn't say "All tests successful" then something went
1459 wrong. See the file t/README in the t subdirectory.
1461 Note that you can't run the tests in background if this disables
1462 opening of /dev/tty. You can use 'make test-notty' in that case but
1463 a few tty tests will be skipped.
1465 =head2 What if make test doesn't work?
1467 If make test bombs out, just cd to the t directory and run ./TEST
1468 by hand to see if it makes any difference. If individual tests
1469 bomb, you can run them by hand, e.g.,
1473 Another way to get more detailed information about failed tests and
1474 individual subtests is to cd to the t directory and run
1478 (this assumes that most basic tests succeed, since harness uses
1479 complicated constructs).
1481 You should also read the individual tests to see if there are any helpful
1482 comments that apply to your system.
1488 Note: One possible reason for errors is that some external programs
1489 may be broken due to the combination of your environment and the way
1490 B<make test> exercises them. For example, this may happen if you have
1491 one or more of these environment variables set: LC_ALL LC_CTYPE
1492 LC_COLLATE LANG. In some versions of UNIX, the non-English locales
1493 are known to cause programs to exhibit mysterious errors.
1495 If you have any of the above environment variables set, please try
1501 LC_ALL=C;export LC_ALL
1503 for Bourne or Korn shell) from the command line and then retry
1504 make test. If the tests then succeed, you may have a broken program that
1505 is confusing the testing. Please run the troublesome test by hand as
1506 shown above and see whether you can locate the program. Look for
1507 things like: exec, `backquoted command`, system, open("|...") or
1508 open("...|"). All these mean that Perl is trying to run some
1513 On some systems, particularly those with smaller amounts of RAM, some
1514 of the tests in t/op/pat.t may fail with an "Out of memory" message.
1515 Specifically, in perl5.004_64, tests 74 and 78 have been reported to
1516 fail on some systems. On my SparcStation IPC with 8 MB of RAM, test 78
1517 will fail if the system is running any other significant tasks at the
1520 Try stopping other jobs on the system and then running the test by itself:
1522 cd t; ./perl op/pat.t
1524 to see if you have any better luck. If your perl still fails this
1525 test, it does not necessarily mean you have a broken perl. This test
1526 tries to exercise the regular expression subsystem quite thoroughly,
1527 and may well be far more demanding than your normal usage.
1533 This will put perl into the public directory you specified to
1534 Configure; by default this is /usr/local/bin. It will also try
1535 to put the man pages in a reasonable place. It will not nroff the man
1536 pages, however. You may need to be root to run B<make install>. If you
1537 are not root, you must own the directories in question and you should
1538 ignore any messages about chown not working.
1540 =head2 Installing perl under different names
1542 If you want to install perl under a name other than "perl" (for example,
1543 when installing perl with special features enabled, such as debugging),
1544 indicate the alternate name on the "make install" line, such as:
1546 make install PERLNAME=myperl
1548 You can separately change the base used for versioned names (like
1549 "perl5.005") by setting PERLNAME_VERBASE, like
1551 make install PERLNAME=perl5 PERLNAME_VERBASE=perl
1553 This can be useful if you have to install perl as "perl5" (due to an
1554 ancient version in /usr/bin supplied by your vendor, eg). Without this
1555 the versioned binary would be called "perl55.005".
1557 =head2 Installed files
1559 If you want to see exactly what will happen without installing
1560 anything, you can run
1562 ./perl installperl -n
1563 ./perl installman -n
1565 make install will install the following:
1568 perl5.nnn where nnn is the current release number. This
1569 will be a link to perl.
1571 sperl5.nnn If you requested setuid emulation.
1572 a2p awk-to-perl translator
1573 cppstdin This is used by perl -P, if your cc -E can't
1575 c2ph, pstruct Scripts for handling C structures in header files.
1576 s2p sed-to-perl translator
1577 find2perl find-to-perl translator
1578 h2ph Extract constants and simple macros from C headers
1579 h2xs Converts C .h header files to Perl extensions.
1580 perlbug Tool to report bugs in Perl.
1581 perldoc Tool to read perl's pod documentation.
1582 pl2pm Convert Perl 4 .pl files to Perl 5 .pm modules
1583 pod2html, Converters from perl's pod documentation format
1584 pod2latex, to other useful formats.
1587 splain Describe Perl warnings and errors
1588 dprofpp Perl code profile post-processor
1590 library files in $privlib and $archlib specified to
1591 Configure, usually under /usr/local/lib/perl5/.
1592 man pages in $man1dir, usually /usr/local/man/man1.
1594 pages in $man3dir, usually /usr/local/man/man3.
1595 pod/*.pod in $privlib/pod/.
1597 Installperl will also create the directories listed above
1598 in L<"Installation Directories">.
1600 Perl's *.h header files and the libperl.a library are also installed
1601 under $archlib so that any user may later build new modules, run the
1602 optional Perl compiler, or embed the perl interpreter into another
1603 program even if the Perl source is no longer available.
1605 =head1 Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5
1607 In general, you can usually safely upgrade from one version of Perl (e.g.
1608 5.004_04) to another similar version (e.g. 5.004_05) without re-compiling
1609 all of your add-on extensions. You can also safely leave the old version
1610 around in case the new version causes you problems for some reason.
1611 For example, if you want to be sure that your script continues to run
1612 with 5.004_04, simply replace the '#!/usr/local/bin/perl' line at the
1613 top of the script with the particular version you want to run, e.g.
1614 #!/usr/local/bin/perl5.00404.
1616 Most extensions will probably not need to be recompiled to use
1617 with a newer version of perl. Here is how it is supposed to work.
1618 (These examples assume you accept all the Configure defaults.)
1620 Suppose you already have version 5.005_03 installed. The directories
1621 searched by 5.005_03 are
1623 /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.00503/$archname
1624 /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.00503
1625 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/$archname
1626 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005
1628 Now, suppose you install version 5.6. The directories searched by
1631 /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6/$archname
1632 /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6
1633 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6/$archname
1634 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6
1636 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/$archname
1637 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005
1639 Notice the last two entries -- Perl understands the default structure
1640 of the $sitelib directories and will look back in older, compatible
1641 directories. This way, modules installed under 5.005_03 will continue
1642 to be usable by 5.005_03 but will also accessible to 5.6. Further,
1643 suppose that you upgrade a module to one which requires features
1644 present only in 5.6. That new module will get installed into
1645 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6 and will be available to 5.6,
1646 but will not interfere with the 5.005_03 version.
1648 Also, by default, 5.6 will look in
1650 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/
1652 for 5.004-era pure perl modules.
1654 Lastly, suppose you now install version 5.6.1. The directories
1655 searched by 5.6.1 will be
1657 /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.1/$archname
1658 /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.1
1659 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6/$archname
1660 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6
1662 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/$archname
1663 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005
1664 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/
1666 When you install an add-on extension, it gets installed into $sitelib (or
1667 $sitearch if it is architecture-specific). This directory deliberately
1668 does NOT include the sub-version number (01) so that both 5.6 and
1669 5.6.1 can use the extension.
1671 However, if you do run into problems, and you want to continue to use the
1672 old version of perl along with your extension, move those extension files
1673 to the appropriate version directory, such as $privlib (or $archlib).
1674 (The extension's .packlist file lists the files installed with that
1675 extension. For the Tk extension, for example, the list of files installed
1676 is in $sitearch/auto/Tk/.packlist.) Then use your newer version of perl
1677 to rebuild and re-install the extension into $sitelib. This way, Perl
1678 5.6 will find your files in the 5.6 directory, and newer versions
1679 of perl will find your newer extension in the $sitelib directory.
1680 (This is also why perl searches the site-specific libraries last.)
1682 Alternatively, if you are willing to reinstall all your modules
1683 every time you upgrade perl, then you can include the subversion
1684 number in $sitearch and $sitelib when you run Configure.
1686 =head2 Maintaining completely separate versions
1688 Many users prefer to keep all versions of perl in completely
1689 separate directories. This guarantees that an update to one version
1690 won't interfere with another version. One convenient way to do this
1691 is by using a separate prefix for each version, such as
1693 sh Configure -Dprefix=/opt/perl5.004
1695 and adding /opt/perl5.004/bin to the shell PATH variable. Such users
1696 may also wish to add a symbolic link /usr/local/bin/perl so that
1697 scripts can still start with #!/usr/local/bin/perl.
1699 Others might share a common directory for maintenance sub-versions
1700 (e.g. 5.004 for all 5.004_0x versions), but change directory with
1703 If you are installing a development subversion, you probably ought to
1704 seriously consider using a separate directory, since development
1705 subversions may not have all the compatibility wrinkles ironed out
1708 =head2 Upgrading from 5.005 to 5.6
1710 Extensions built and installed with versions of perl prior to 5.005_50
1711 will need to be recompiled to be used with 5.005_50 and later. You will,
1712 however, be able to continue using 5.005 even after you install 5.6.
1713 The 5.005 binary will still be able to find the modules built under
1714 5.005; the 5.6 binary will look in the new $sitearch and $sitelib
1715 directories, and will not find them. See also your installed copy
1716 of the perllocal.pod file for a (possibly incomplete) list of locally
1717 installed modules. Note that you want perllocal.pod not perllocale.pod
1718 for installed module information.
1720 =head1 Coexistence with perl4
1722 You can safely install perl5 even if you want to keep perl4 around.
1724 By default, the perl5 libraries go into /usr/local/lib/perl5/, so
1725 they don't override the perl4 libraries in /usr/local/lib/perl/.
1727 In your /usr/local/bin directory, you should have a binary named
1728 perl4.036. That will not be touched by the perl5 installation
1729 process. Most perl4 scripts should run just fine under perl5.
1730 However, if you have any scripts that require perl4, you can replace
1731 the #! line at the top of them by #!/usr/local/bin/perl4.036 (or
1732 whatever the appropriate pathname is). See pod/perltrap.pod for
1733 possible problems running perl4 scripts under perl5.
1735 =head1 cd /usr/include; h2ph *.h sys/*.h
1737 Some perl scripts need to be able to obtain information from the
1738 system header files. This command will convert the most commonly used
1739 header files in /usr/include into files that can be easily interpreted
1740 by perl. These files will be placed in the architecture-dependent
1741 library ($archlib) directory you specified to Configure.
1743 Note: Due to differences in the C and perl languages, the conversion
1744 of the header files is not perfect. You will probably have to
1745 hand-edit some of the converted files to get them to parse correctly.
1746 For example, h2ph breaks spectacularly on type casting and certain
1749 =head1 installhtml --help
1751 Some sites may wish to make perl documentation available in HTML
1752 format. The installhtml utility can be used to convert pod
1753 documentation into linked HTML files and install them.
1755 Currently, the supplied ./installhtml script does not make use of the
1756 html Configure variables. This should be fixed in a future release.
1758 The following command-line is an example of one used to convert
1763 --podpath=lib:ext:pod:vms \
1765 --htmldir=/perl/nmanual \
1766 --htmlroot=/perl/nmanual \
1767 --splithead=pod/perlipc \
1768 --splititem=pod/perlfunc \
1769 --libpods=perlfunc:perlguts:perlvar:perlrun:perlop \
1772 See the documentation in installhtml for more details. It can take
1773 many minutes to execute a large installation and you should expect to
1774 see warnings like "no title", "unexpected directive" and "cannot
1775 resolve" as the files are processed. We are aware of these problems
1776 (and would welcome patches for them).
1778 You may find it helpful to run installhtml twice. That should reduce
1779 the number of "cannot resolve" warnings.
1781 =head1 cd pod && make tex && (process the latex files)
1783 Some sites may also wish to make the documentation in the pod/ directory
1784 available in TeX format. Type
1786 (cd pod && make tex && <process the latex files>)
1788 =head1 Reporting Problems
1790 If you have difficulty building perl, and none of the advice in this file
1791 helps, and careful reading of the error message and the relevant manual
1792 pages on your system doesn't help either, then you should send a message
1793 to either the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup or to perlbug@perl.com with
1794 an accurate description of your problem.
1796 Please include the output of the ./myconfig shell script that comes with
1797 the distribution. Alternatively, you can use the perlbug program that
1798 comes with the perl distribution, but you need to have perl compiled
1799 before you can use it. (If you have not installed it yet, you need to
1800 run C<./perl -Ilib utils/perlbug> instead of a plain C<perlbug>.)
1802 Please try to make your message brief but clear. Trim out unnecessary
1803 information. Do not include large files (such as config.sh or a complete
1804 Configure or make log) unless absolutely necessary. Do not include a
1805 complete transcript of your build session. Just include the failing
1806 commands, the relevant error messages, and whatever preceding commands
1807 are necessary to give the appropriate context. Plain text should
1808 usually be sufficient--fancy attachments or encodings may actually
1809 reduce the number of people who read your message. Your message
1810 will get relayed to over 400 subscribers around the world so please
1811 try to keep it brief but clear.
1813 =head1 DOCUMENTATION
1815 Read the manual entries before running perl. The main documentation
1816 is in the pod/ subdirectory and should have been installed during the
1817 build process. Type B<man perl> to get started. Alternatively, you
1818 can type B<perldoc perl> to use the supplied perldoc script. This is
1819 sometimes useful for finding things in the library modules.
1821 Under UNIX, you can produce a documentation book in postscript form,
1822 along with its table of contents, by going to the pod/ subdirectory and
1825 ./roffitall -groff # If you have GNU groff installed
1826 ./roffitall -psroff # If you have psroff
1828 This will leave you with two postscript files ready to be printed.
1829 (You may need to fix the roffitall command to use your local troff
1832 Note that you must have performed the installation already before running
1833 the above, since the script collects the installed files to generate
1838 Original author: Andy Dougherty doughera@lafayette.edu , borrowing very
1839 heavily from the original README by Larry Wall, with lots of helpful
1840 feedback and additions from the perl5-porters@perl.org folks.
1842 If you have problems, corrections, or questions, please see
1843 L<"Reporting Problems"> above.
1845 =head1 REDISTRIBUTION
1847 This document is part of the Perl package and may be distributed under
1848 the same terms as perl itself, with the following additional request:
1849 If you are distributing a modified version of perl (perhaps as part of
1850 a larger package) please B<do> modify these installation instructions
1851 and the contact information to match your distribution.
1853 =head1 LAST MODIFIED
1855 $Id: INSTALL,v 1.58 1999/07/23 14:43:00 doughera Exp $