1 If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you
2 see. It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is
3 specially designed to be readable as is.
7 README.cygwin - Perl for Cygwin
11 This document will help you configure, make, test and install Perl
12 on Cygwin. This document also describes features of Cygwin that will
13 affect how Perl behaves at runtime.
15 B<NOTE:> There are pre-built Perl packages available for Cygwin and a
16 version of Perl is provided on the Cygwin CD. If you have no need to
17 customize the configuration, consider using one of these packages:
19 http://cygutils.netpedia.net/
23 =head2 Cygwin = GNU+Cygnus+Windows (Don't leave UNIX without it)
25 The Cygwin tools are ports of the popular GNU development tools for Win32
26 platforms. They run thanks to the Cygwin library which provides the UNIX
27 system calls and environment these programs expect. More information
28 about this project can be found at:
30 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/cygwin/
32 A recent net or commercial release of Cygwin is required.
34 At the time this document was written, the port required recent
35 development snapshots that were expected to stabilize early in 2000 and
36 be released to the net as B21 and commercially as v1.1.
38 B<NOTE:> At this point, minimal effort has been made to provide
39 compatibility with old (beta) Cygwin releases. The focus has been to
40 provide a high quality release and not worry about working around old
41 Cygwin bugs. If you wish to use Perl with Cygwin B20.1 or earlier,
42 consider using either perl5.005_03 or perl5.005_62, which are available
43 in source and binary form at C<http://cygutils.netpedia.net/> or on the
44 Cygwin CD. If there is significant demand, a patch kit can be developed
45 to port back to earlier Cygwin versions.
49 A recent net or commercial release of I<gcc> is required.
51 At the time this document was written, I<gcc-2.95.2> was current and
52 could be downloaded from:
54 ftp://ftp.xraylith.wisc.edu/pub/khan/gnu-win32/cygwin/gcc-2.95.2/
56 =head2 Cygwin Configuration
58 While building Perl some changes may be necessary to your Cygwin setup so
59 that Perl builds cleanly. These changes are B<not> required for normal
62 B<NOTE:> The binaries that are built will run on all Win32 versions.
63 They do not depend on your host system (Win9x, WinNT) or your Cygwin
64 configuration (I<ntea>, I<ntsec>, binary/text mounts). The only
65 dependencies come from hardcoded pathnames like C</usr/local>. However,
66 your host system and Cygwin configuration will affect Perl's runtime
67 behavior (see L</"TEST">). Some regression tests may fail in different
68 ways depending on your setup. For now, the test suite does not skip
69 tests that do not make sense given a particular setup. If a test can
70 pass in some Cygwin setup, it is left in and explainable test failures
77 Set the C<PATH> environment variable so that Configure finds the Cygwin
78 versions of programs. Any Windows directories should be removed or
79 moved to the end of your C<PATH>.
81 =item * F</bin/cat.exe>
83 There should be an instance of I<cat> in F</bin> (or F</usr/bin>).
84 Configure tests C<#!/bin/cat> and if it is not found, you will see
87 Configure: ./try: No such file or directory
91 If you do not have a F</usr/bin> directory, Configure will B<not> prompt
92 you to install I<perl> into F</usr/bin>.
96 If you do not have I<nroff> (which is part of the I<groff> package),
97 Configure will B<not> prompt you to install man pages.
101 On WinNT with either the I<ntea> or I<ntsec> C<CYGWIN> settings, directory
102 and file permissions may not be set correctly. Since the build process
103 creates files and directories, to be safe you may want to run a `C<chmod
104 -R +w *>' on the entire Perl source tree.
106 Also, it is a well known WinNT "feature" that files created by a login
107 that is a member of the I<Administrators> group will be owned by the
108 I<Administrators> group. Depending on your umask, you may find that you
109 can not write to files that you just created (because you are no longer
110 the owner). When using the I<ntsec> C<CYGWIN> setting, this is not an
111 issue because it "corrects" the ownership to what you would expect on
118 The default options gathered by Configure with the assistance of
119 F<hints/cygwin.sh> will build a Perl that supports dynamic loading
120 (which requires a shared F<libperl.dll>).
122 This will run Configure and keep a record:
124 ./Configure 2>&1 | tee log.configure
126 If you are willing to accept all the defaults add a B<-d> option.
127 However, several useful customizations are available.
129 =head2 Strip Binaries
131 It is possible to strip the EXEs and DLLs created by the build process.
132 The resulting binaries will be significantly smaller. If you want the
133 binaries to be stripped, you can either add a B<-s> option when Configure
136 Any additional ld flags (NOT including libraries)? [none] -s
137 Any special flags to pass to gcc to use dynamic linking? [none] -s
138 Any special flags to pass to ld2 to create a dynamically loaded library?
141 or you can edit F<hints/cygwin.sh> and uncomment the relevant variables
142 near the end of the file.
144 =head2 Optional Libraries
146 Several Perl functions and modules depend on the existence of
147 some optional libraries. Configure will find them if they are
148 installed in one of the directories listed as being used for library
149 searches. Pre-built packages for most of these are available at
150 C<http://cygutils.netpedia.net/>.
156 The crypt libraries in GNU libc have been ported to Cygwin.
158 The DES based Ultra Fast Crypt port was done by Alexey Truhan:
160 http://dome.weeg.uiowa.edu/pub/domestic/sos/cw32crypt-dist-0.tgz
162 NOTE: There are various export restrictions on DES implementations,
163 see the glibc README for more details.
165 The MD5 port was done by Andy Piper:
167 http://dome.weeg.uiowa.edu/pub/domestic/sos/libcrypt.tgz
169 More information can also be found at:
171 http://miracle.geol.msu.ru/sos/
173 =item * C<-lgdbm> (C<use GDBM_File>)
175 GDBM is available for Cygwin. GDBM's ndbm/dbm compatibility feature
176 also makes C<NDBM_File> and C<ODBM_File> possible (although they add
179 =item * C<-ldb> (C<use DB_File>)
181 BerkeleyDB is available for Cygwin. Some details can be found in
182 F<ext/DB_File/DB_File.pm>.
184 =item * C<-lcygipc> (C<use IPC::SysV>)
186 A port of SysV IPC is available for Cygwin. It has not been extensively
187 tested. In particular, C<d_semctl_semun> does not configure properly
188 because the configure test fails and on Win9x the shm*() functions hang.
192 =head2 Configure-time Options
194 The F<INSTALL> document describes several Configure-time options.
195 Some of these will work with Cygwin, others are not yet possible. Also,
196 some of these are experimental.
202 If you want to force Perl to be compiled statically, you can either
203 choose this when Configure prompts you or you can use the Configure
206 =item * C<-Uusemymalloc>
208 By default Perl uses the malloc() included with the Perl source. If you
209 want to force Perl to build with the system malloc(), you can either
210 choose this when Configure prompts you or you can use the Configure
213 =item * C<-Dusemultiplicty>
215 Multiplicity is required when embedding Perl in a C program and using
216 more than one interpreter instance. This works with the Cygwin port.
218 =item * C<-Duseperlio>
220 The PerlIO abstraction works with the Cygwin port.
222 =item * C<-Duse64bits>
224 I<gcc> supports 64-bit integers. However, several additional long long
225 functions are necessary to use them within Perl (I<{strtol,strtoul}l>).
226 These are B<not> yet available with Cygwin.
228 =item * C<-Duselongdouble>
230 I<gcc> supports long doubles (12 bytes). However, several additional
231 long double math functions are necessary to use them within Perl
232 (I<{atan2,cos,exp,floor,fmod,frexp,log,modf,pow,sin,sqrt}l,strtold>).
233 These are B<not> yet available with Cygwin.
235 =item * C<-Dusethreads>
237 POSIX threads are B<not> yet implemented in Cygwin.
239 =item * C<-Duselargefiles>
241 Although Win32 supports large files, Cygwin currently uses 32-bit ints
242 for internal size and position calculations.
246 =head2 Suspicious Warnings
248 You may see some messages during Configure that seem suspicious.
254 Cygwin does not yet implement chroot(), setegid() or seteuid()
255 functionality, but has stub functions that return C<ENOSYS>. You will
256 see a message when Configure detects that its guess conflicts with the
259 *** WHOA THERE!!! ***
260 The recommended value for $d_chroot on this machine was "undef"!
261 Keep the recommended value? [y]
263 You should keep the recommended value.
265 =item * Win9x and d_eofnblk
267 Win9x does not correctly report C<EOF> with a non-blocking read on a
268 closed pipe. You will see the following messages:
270 But it also returns -1 to signal EOF, so be careful!
271 WARNING: you can't distinguish between EOF and no data!
273 *** WHOA THERE!!! ***
274 The recommended value for $d_eofnblk on this machine was "define"!
275 Keep the recommended value? [y]
277 At least for consistency with WinNT, you should keep the recommended
280 =item * Checking how std your stdio is...
284 Your stdio doesn't appear very std.
292 Simply run make and wait:
294 make 2>&1 | tee log.make
298 Warnings like these are normal:
300 warning: overriding commands for target <file>
301 warning: ignoring old commands for target <file>
303 Warning: no export definition file provided
304 dllwrap will create one, but may not be what you want
308 During `C<make>', I<ld2> will be created and installed in your $installbin
309 directory (where you said to put public executables). It does not
310 wait until the `C<make install>' process to install the I<ld2> script,
311 this is because the remainder of the `C<make>' refers to I<ld2> without
312 fully specifying its path and does this from multiple subdirectories.
313 The assumption is that $installbin is in your current C<PATH>. If this
314 is not the case or if you do not have an I<install> program, `C<make>'
315 will fail at some point. If this happens, just manually copy I<ld2>
316 from the source directory to someplace in your C<PATH>.
320 There are two steps to running the test suite:
322 make test 2>&1 | tee log.make-test
324 cd t;./perl harness 2>&1 | tee ../log.harness
326 The same tests are run both times, but more information is provided when
327 running as `C<./perl harness>'.
329 Test results vary depending on your host system and your Cygwin
330 configuration. It is possible that Cygwin will pass all the tests,
331 but it is more likely that some tests will fail for one of these reasons.
333 =head2 File Permissions
335 UNIX file permissions are based on sets of mode bits for
336 {read,write,execute} for each {user,group,other}. By default Cygwin only
337 tracks the Win32 readonly attribute represented as the UNIX file user
338 write bit (files are always readable, files are executable if they have
339 a F<.{com,bat,exe}> extension or begin with C<#!>, directories are always
340 readable and executable). On WinNT with the I<ntea> C<CYGWIN> setting,
341 the remaining mode bits are stored as extended attributes. On WinNT
342 with the I<ntsec> C<CYGWIN> setting, permissions use the standard WinNT
343 security descriptors and access control lists. Without one of these
344 options, these tests will fail:
346 Failed Test List of failed
347 ------------------------------------
357 op/stat.t 9, 20 (.tmp not an executable extension)
361 FAT partitions do not support hard links (whereas NTFS does), in which
362 case Cygwin implements link() by copying the file. These tests will fail:
364 Failed Test List of failed
365 ------------------------------------
369 =head2 Filetime Granularity
371 On FAT partitions the filetime granularity is 2 seconds. The following
374 Failed Test List of failed
375 ------------------------------------
378 =head2 Tainting Checks
380 When Perl is running in taint mode, C<$ENV{PATH}> is considered tainted
381 and not used, so DLLs not in the default system directories will not
382 be found. While the tests are running you will see warnings popup from
383 the system with messages like:
386 Error Starting Program
387 A required .DLL file, CYGWIN1.DLL, was not found
390 perl.exe or sh.exe - Unable to Locate DLL
391 The dynamic link library cygwin1.dll could not be found in the
394 Just click OK and ignore them. When running `C<make test>', 2 popups
395 occur. During `C<./perl harness>', 4 popups occur. Also, these tests
398 Failed Test List of failed
399 ------------------------------------
400 op/taint.t 1, 3, 31, 37
402 Alternatively, you can copy F<cygwin1.dll> into one of the Windows system
403 directories (although, this is B<not> recommended).
407 Cygwin does not require F</etc/group>, in which case the F<op/grent.t>
408 test will be skipped. The check performed by F<op/grent.t> expects to
409 see entries that use the members field, otherwise this test will fail:
411 Failed Test List of failed
412 ------------------------------------
415 =head2 Unexplained Failures
417 Any additional tests that fail are likely due to bugs in Cygwin or the
418 optional libraries. It is expected that by the time of the next net
419 release most of these will be solved so they are not described here.
421 =head2 Script Portability
423 Cygwin does an outstanding job of providing UNIX-like semantics on
424 top of Win32 systems. However, in addition to the items noted above,
425 there are some differences that you should know about. This is only a
426 very brief guide to portability, more information can be found in the
427 Cygwin documentation.
433 Cygwin pathnames can be separated by forward (F</>) or backward (F<\>)
434 slashes. They may also begin with drive letters (F<C:>) or Universal
435 Naming Codes (F<//UNC>). DOS device names (F<aux>, F<con>, F<prn>,
436 F<com*>, F<lpt?>) are invalid as base filenames. However, they can be
437 used in extensions (e.g., F<hello.aux>). Names may not contain these
442 File names are case insensitive, but case preserving. With the I<mixed>
443 C<CYGWIN> setting, file names are mixed-case (although, directory names
444 remain case insensitive).
446 The I<mixed> setting is only available with the "coolview" version of
447 F<cygwin1.dll> provided by Sergey Okhapkin at:
449 ftp://ftp.franken.de/pub/win32/develop/gnuwin32/cygwin/porters/Okhapkin_Sergey/
453 When a file is opened it is in either text or binary mode. In text mode
454 a file is subject to CR/LF/Ctrl-Z translations. With Cygwin, the default
455 mode for an open() is determined by the mode of the mount that underlies
456 the file. Perl provides a binmode() function to set binary mode on files
457 that otherwise would be treated as text. sysopen() with the C<O_TEXT>
458 flag sets text mode on files that otherwise would be treated as binary:
460 sysopen(FOO, "bar", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TEXT)
462 lseek(), tell() and sysseek() only work with files opened in binary mode.
464 The text/binary issue is covered at length in the Cygwin documentation.
468 The Cygwin stat() makes the F<.exe> extension transparent by looking for
469 a F<foo.exe> when you ask for F<foo> (unless a F<foo> also exists).
470 Cygwin does not require a F<.exe> extension, but I<gcc> adds it
471 automatically when building a program. However, when accessing an
472 executable as a normal file (e.g., I<install> or I<cp> in a makefile)
473 the F<.exe> is not transparent.
475 NOTE: There is a version of I<install> that understands the F<.exe>
476 semantics, it can be found at:
478 ftp://ftp.franken.de/pub/win32/develop/gnuwin32/cygwin/porters/Humblet_Pierre_A/
482 On WinNT with the I<ntsec> C<CYGWIN> setting, chown() can change a file's
483 user and group IDs. In all other configurations chown() is a no-op,
484 although this is appropriate on Win9x since there is no security model.
486 =item * Miscellaneous
488 File locking using the C<F_GETLK> command to fcntl() is a stub that
491 Win9x can not rename() an open file (although WinNT can).
497 This will install Perl, including man pages.
499 make install | tee log.make-install
501 NOTE: If C<STDERR> is redirected `C<make install>' will B<not> prompt
502 you to install I<perl> into F</usr/bin>.
504 You may need to be I<Administrator> to run `C<make install>'. If you
505 are not, you must have write access to the directories in question.
507 Information on installing the Perl documentation in HTML format can be
508 found in the F<INSTALL> document.
512 These are the files in the Perl release that contain references to Cygwin.
513 These very brief notes attempt to explain the reason for all conditional
514 code. Hopefully, keeping this up to date will allow the Cygwin port to
515 be kept as clean as possible.
522 Changes Changes5.005 Changes5.004
523 AUTHORS MAINTAIN MANIFEST
524 README.cygwin README.win32
525 pod/perl.pod pod/perlfaq3.pod pod/perlhist.pod pod/perlmodlib.pod
526 pod/perlport.pod pod/perltoc.pod pod/perl5004delta.pod
528 =item Build, Configure, Make, Install
533 ext/IPC/SysV/hints/cygwin.pl
534 ext/NDBM_File/hints/cygwin.pl
535 ext/ODBM_File/hints/cygwin.pl
537 Porting/patchls - cygwin in port list
538 Makefile.SH - linklibperl
539 makedepend.SH - uwinfix
540 Configure - help finding hints from uname,
541 shared libperl required for dynamic loading
542 installman - man pages with :: translated to .
543 installperl - install dll/ld2/perlld, install to pods
547 t/io/tell.t - binmode
548 t/lib/glob-basic.t - Win32 directory list access differs from read mode
549 t/op/magic.t - $^X/symlink WORKAROUND, s/.exe//
550 t/op/stat.t - no /dev, skip Win32 ftCreationTime quirk
551 (cache manager sometimes preserves ctime of file
552 previously created and deleted), no -u (setuid)
554 =item Compiled Perl Source
556 cygwin/cygwin.c - os_extras (getcwd)
557 doio.c - win9x can not rename a file when it is open
558 EXTERN.h - __declspec(dllimport)
559 XSUB.h - __declspec(dllexport)
561 mg.c - environ WORKAROUND
562 util.c - environ WORKAROUND
563 unixish.h - environ WORKAROUND
565 =item Compiled Module Source
567 ext/POSIX/POSIX.xs - tzname defined externally
568 ext/SDBM_File/sdbm/pair.c
569 - EXTCONST needs to be redefined from EXTERN.h
570 ext/SDBM_File/sdbm/sdbm.c
573 =item Perl Modules/Scripts
575 lib/perl5db.pl - use stdin not /dev/tty
576 utils/perlcc.PL - DynaLoader.a in compile, -DUSEIMPORTLIB
577 utils/perldoc.PL - version comment
578 lib/File/Spec/Unix.pm - preserve //unc
579 lib/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.pm
580 - require MM_Cygwin.pm
581 lib/ExtUtils/MM_Cygwin.pm
582 - canonpath, cflags, manifypods, perl_archive
589 Upon each start, I<make> warns that a rule for F<perlmain.o> is overridden
590 (but there seems to be no better solution than adding an explicit define).
592 `C<make clean>' does not remove library F<.def> and F<.exe.stackdump>
595 The I<ld2> script contains references to the source directory. You should
596 change these to C</usr/local/bin> (or whatever) after install.
600 Charles Wilson E<lt>cwilson@ece.gatech.eduE<gt>,
601 Eric Fifer E<lt>efifer@sanwaint.comE<gt>,
602 alexander smishlajev E<lt>als@turnhere.comE<gt>,
603 Steven Morlock E<lt>newspost@morlock.netE<gt>,
604 Sebastien Barre E<lt>Sebastien.Barre@utc.frE<gt>,
605 Teun Burgers E<lt>burgers@ecn.nlE<gt>.
609 Last updated: 24 February 2000