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 v2.03 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.
25 Detailed instructions on how to build and install perl extension
26 modules, including XS-type modules, is included. See 'BUILDING AND
35 DJGPP is a port of GNU C/C++ compiler and development tools to 32-bit,
36 protected-mode environment on Intel 32-bit CPUs running MS-DOS and compatible
37 operating systems, by DJ Delorie <dj@delorie.com> and friends.
39 For more details (FAQ), check out the home of DJGPP at:
41 http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/
43 If you have questions about DJGPP, try posting to the DJGPP newsgroup:
44 comp.os.msdos.djgpp, or use the email gateway djgpp@delorie.com.
46 You can find the full DJGPP distribution on any SimTel.Net mirror all over
49 ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2*
51 You need the following files to build perl (or add new modules):
67 or possibly any newer version.
71 Thread support is not tested in this version of the djgpp perl.
75 =head2 Shortcomings of Perl under DOS
77 Perl under DOS lacks some features of perl under UNIX because of
78 deficiencies in the UNIX-emulation, most notably:
88 some features of the UNIX filesystem regarding link count and file dates
92 in-place operation is a little bit broken with short filenames
106 Unpack the source package F<perl5.6*.tar.gz> with djtarx. If you want
107 to use long file names under w95 and also to get Perl to pass all its
108 tests, don't forget to use
113 before unpacking the archive.
117 Create a "symlink" or copy your bash.exe to sh.exe in your C<($DJDIR)/bin>
120 ln -s bash.exe sh.exe
122 [If you have the recommended version of bash for DJGPP, this is already
125 And make the C<SHELL> environment variable point to this F<sh.exe>:
127 set SHELL=c:/djgpp/bin/sh.exe (use full path name!)
129 You can do this in F<djgpp.env> too. Add this line BEFORE any section
132 +SHELL=%DJDIR%/bin/sh.exe
136 If you have F<split.exe> and F<gsplit.exe> in your path, then rename
137 F<split.exe> to F<djsplit.exe>, and F<gsplit.exe> to F<split.exe>.
138 Copy or link F<gecho.exe> to F<echo.exe> if you don't have F<echo.exe>.
139 Copy or link F<gawk.exe> to F<awk.exe> if you don't have F<awk.exe>.
141 [If you have the recommended versions of djdev, shell utilities and
142 gawk, all these are already done for you, and you will not need to do
147 Chdir to the djgpp subdirectory of perl toplevel and type the following
153 This will do some preprocessing then run the Configure script for you.
154 The Configure script is interactive, but in most cases you just need to
155 press ENTER. The "set" command ensures that DJGPP preserves the letter
156 case of file names when reading directories. If you already issued this
157 set command when unpacking the archive, and you are in the same DOS
158 session as when you unpacked the archive, you don't have to issue the
159 set command again. This command is necessary *before* you start to
160 (re)configure or (re)build perl in order to ensure both that perl builds
161 correctly and that building XS-type modules can succeed. See the DJGPP
162 info entry for "_preserve_fncase" for more information:
164 info libc alphabetical _preserve_fncase
166 If the script says that your package is incomplete, and asks whether
167 to continue, just answer with Y (this can only happen if you don't use
168 long filenames or forget to issue "set FNCASE=y" first).
170 When Configure asks about the extensions, I suggest IO and Fcntl,
171 and if you want database handling then SDBM_File or GDBM_File
172 (you need to install gdbm for this one). If you want to use the
173 POSIX extension (this is the default), make sure that the stack
174 size of your F<cc1.exe> is at least 512kbyte (you can check this
175 with: C<stubedit cc1.exe>).
177 You can use the Configure script in non-interactive mode too.
178 When I built my F<perl.exe>, I used something like this:
182 You can find more info about Configure's command line switches in
185 When the script ends, and you want to change some values in the
186 generated F<config.sh> file, then run
190 after you made your modifications.
192 IMPORTANT: if you use this C<-S> switch, be sure to delete the CONFIG
193 environment variable before running the script:
199 Now you can compile Perl. Type:
211 If you're lucky you should see "All tests successful". But there can be
212 a few failed subtests (less than 5 hopefully) depending on some external
213 conditions (e.g. some subtests fail under linux/dosemu or plain dos
214 with short filenames only).
222 This will copy the newly compiled perl and libraries into your DJGPP
223 directory structure. Perl.exe and the utilities go into C<($DJDIR)/bin>,
224 and the library goes under C<($DJDIR)/lib/perl5>. The pod documentation
225 goes under C<($DJDIR)/lib/perl5/pod>.
227 =head1 BUILDING AND INSTALLING MODULES
230 =head2 Building Prerequisites
232 For building and installing non-XS modules, all you need is a working
233 perl under DJGPP. Non-XS modules do not require re-linking the perl
234 binary, and so are simpler to build and install.
236 XS-type modules do require re-linking the perl binary, because part of
237 an XS module is written in "C", and has to be linked together with the
238 perl binary to be executed. This is required because perl under DJGPP
239 is built with the "static link" option, due to the lack of "dynamic
240 linking" in the DJGPP environment.
242 Because XS modules require re-linking of the perl binary, you need both
243 the perl binary distribution and the perl source distribution to build
244 an XS extension module. In addition, you will have to have built your
245 perl binary from the source distribution so that all of the components
246 of the perl binary are available for the required link step.
248 =head2 Unpacking CPAN Modules
250 First, download the module package from CPAN (e.g., the "Comma Separated
251 Value" text package, Text-CSV-0.01.tar.gz). Then expand the contents of
252 the package into some location on your disk. Most CPAN modules are
253 built with an internal directory structure, so it is usually safe to
254 expand it in the root of your DJGPP installation. Some people prefer to
255 locate source trees under /usr/src (i.e., C<($DJDIR)/usr/src>), but you may
256 put it wherever seems most logical to you, *EXCEPT* under the same
257 directory as your perl source code. There are special rules that apply
258 to modules which live in the perl source tree that do not apply to most
259 of the modules in CPAN.
261 Unlike other DJGPP packages, which are normal "zip" files, most CPAN
262 module packages are "gzipped tarballs". Recent versions of WinZip will
263 safely unpack and expand them, *UNLESS* they have zero-length files. It
264 is a known WinZip bug (as of v7.0) that it will not extract zero-length
267 From the command line, you can use the djtar utility provided with DJGPP
268 to unpack and expand these files. For example:
270 C:\djgpp>djtarx -v Text-CSV-0.01.tar.gz
272 This will create the new directory C<($DJDIR)/Text-CSV-0.01>, filling
273 it with the source for this module.
275 =head2 Building Non-XS Modules
277 To build a non-XS module, you can use the standard module-building
278 instructions distributed with perl modules.
285 This is sufficient because non-XS modules install only ".pm" files and
286 (sometimes) pod and/or man documentation. No re-linking of the perl
287 binary is needed to build, install or use non-XS modules.
289 =head2 Building XS Modules
291 To build an XS module, you must use the standard module-building
292 instructions distributed with perl modules *PLUS* three extra
293 instructions specific to the DJGPP "static link" build environment.
300 make -f Makefile.aperl inst_perl MAP_TARGET=perl.exe
303 The first extra instruction sets DJGPP's FNCASE environment variable so
304 that the new perl binary which you must build for an XS-type module will
305 build correctly. The second extra instruction re-builds the perl binary
306 in your module directory before you run "make test", so that you are
307 testing with the new module code you built with "make". The third extra
308 instruction installs the perl binary from your module directory into the
309 standard DJGPP binary directory, C<($DJDIR)/bin>, replacing your
310 previous perl binary.
312 Note that the MAP_TARGET value *must* have the ".exe" extension or you
313 will not create a "perl.exe" to replace the one in C<($DJDIR)/bin>.
315 When you are done, the XS-module install process will have added information
316 to yout "perllocal" information telling that the perl binary has been replaced,
317 and what module was installed. you can view this information at any time
318 by using the command:
320 perl -S perldoc perllocal
324 Laszlo Molnar, F<laszlo.molnar@eth.ericsson.se> [Installing/building perl]
326 Peter J. Farley III F<pjfarley@banet.net> [Building/installing modules]