1 If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you
2 see. It is written in the POD format (see perlpod manpage) which is
3 specially designed to be readable as is.
7 perldos - Perl under DOS, W31, W95.
11 These are instructions for building Perl under DOS (or w??), using
12 DJGPP v2.01 or later. Under w95 long filenames are supported.
16 Before you start, you should glance through the README file
17 found in the top-level directory where the Perl distribution
18 was extracted. Make sure you read and understand the terms under
19 which this software is being distributed.
21 This port currently supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that
22 is used to build extensions to perl). Therefore, you should be
23 able to build and install most extensions found in the CPAN sites.
31 DJGPP is a port of GNU C/C++ compiler and development tools to 32-bit,
32 protected-mode environment on Intel 32-bit CPUs running MS-DOS and compatible
33 operating systems, by DJ Delorie <dj@delorie.com> and friends.
35 For more details (FAQ), check out the home of DJGPP at:
37 http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/
39 If you have questions about DJGPP, try posting to the DJGPP newsgroup:
40 comp.os.msdos.djgpp, or use the email gateway djgpp@delorie.com.
42 You can find the full DJGPP distribution on any SimTel.Net mirror all over
45 ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2*
47 You need the following files to build perl (or add new modules):
63 or possibly any newer version.
67 Thread support is not tested in this version of the djgpp perl.
71 =head2 Shortcomings of Perl under DOS
73 Perl under DOS lacks some features of perl under UNIX because of
74 deficiencies in the UNIX-emulation, most notably:
84 some features of the UNIX filesystem regarding link count and file dates
88 in-place operation is a little bit broken with short filenames
102 Unpack the source package F<perl5.6*.tar.gz> with djtarx. If you want
103 to use long file names under w95 and also to get Perl to pass all its
104 tests, don't forget to use
109 before unpacking the archive.
113 Create a "symlink" or copy your bash.exe to sh.exe in your C<($DJDIR)/bin>
116 ln -s bash.exe sh.exe
118 And make the C<SHELL> environment variable point to this F<sh.exe>:
120 set SHELL=c:/djgpp/bin/sh.exe (use full path name!)
122 You can do this in F<djgpp.env> too. Add this line BEFORE any section
125 +SHELL=%DJDIR%/bin/sh.exe
129 If you have F<split.exe> and F<gsplit.exe> in your path, then rename
130 F<split.exe> to F<djsplit.exe>, and F<gsplit.exe> to F<split.exe>.
131 Copy or link F<gecho.exe> to F<echo.exe> if you don't have F<echo.exe>.
132 Copy or link F<gawk.exe> to F<awk.exe> if you don't have F<awk.exe>.
136 Chdir to the djgpp subdirectory of perl toplevel and type the following
141 This will do some preprocessing then run the Configure script for you.
142 The Configure script is interactive, but in most cases you
143 just need to press ENTER.
145 If the script says that your package is incomplete, and asks whether
146 to continue, just answer with Y (this can only happen if you don't use
149 When Configure asks about the extensions, I suggest IO and Fcntl,
150 and if you want database handling then SDBM_File or GDBM_File
151 (you need to install gdbm for this one). If you want to use the
152 POSIX extension (this is the default), make sure that the stack
153 size of your F<cc1.exe> is at least 512kbyte (you can check this
154 with: C<stubedit cc1.exe>).
156 You can use the Configure script in non-interactive mode too.
157 When I built my F<perl.exe>, I used something like this:
161 You can find more info about Configure's command line switches in
164 When the script ends, and you want to change some values in the
165 generated F<config.sh> file, then run
169 after you made your modifications.
171 IMPORTANT: if you use this C<-S> switch, be sure to delete the CONFIG
172 environment variable before running the script:
178 Now you can compile Perl. Type:
190 If you're lucky you should see "All tests successful". But there can be
191 a few failed subtests (less than 5 hopefully) depending on some external
192 conditions (e.g. some subtests fail under linux/dosemu or plain dos
193 with short filenames only).
201 This will copy the newly compiled perl and libraries into your DJGPP
202 directory structure. Perl.exe and the utilities go into C<($DJDIR)/bin>,
203 and the library goes under C<($DJDIR)/lib/perl5>. The pod documentation
204 goes under C<($DJDIR)/lib/perl5/pod>.
208 Laszlo Molnar, F<laszlo.molnar@eth.ericsson.se>