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
29 =head2 Prerequisites for Compiling Perl on DOS
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 of the mirrors listed here:
48 http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/getting.html
50 You need the following files to build perl (or add new modules):
66 or possibly any newer version.
70 Thread support is not tested in this version of the djgpp perl.
74 =head2 Shortcomings of Perl under DOS
76 Perl under DOS lacks some features of perl under UNIX because of
77 deficiencies in the UNIX-emulation, most notably:
87 some features of the UNIX filesystem regarding link count and file dates
91 in-place operation is a little bit broken with short filenames
99 =head2 Building Perl on DOS
105 Unpack the source package F<perl5.8*.tar.gz> with djtarx. If you want
106 to use long file names under w95 and also to get Perl to pass all its
107 tests, don't forget to use
112 before unpacking the archive.
116 Create a "symlink" or copy your bash.exe to sh.exe in your C<($DJDIR)/bin>
119 ln -s bash.exe sh.exe
121 [If you have the recommended version of bash for DJGPP, this is already
124 And make the C<SHELL> environment variable point to this F<sh.exe>:
126 set SHELL=c:/djgpp/bin/sh.exe (use full path name!)
128 You can do this in F<djgpp.env> too. Add this line BEFORE any section
131 +SHELL=%DJDIR%/bin/sh.exe
135 If you have F<split.exe> and F<gsplit.exe> in your path, then rename
136 F<split.exe> to F<djsplit.exe>, and F<gsplit.exe> to F<split.exe>.
137 Copy or link F<gecho.exe> to F<echo.exe> if you don't have F<echo.exe>.
138 Copy or link F<gawk.exe> to F<awk.exe> if you don't have F<awk.exe>.
140 [If you have the recommended versions of djdev, shell utilities and
141 gawk, all these are already done for you, and you will not need to do
146 Chdir to the djgpp subdirectory of perl toplevel and type the following
152 This will do some preprocessing then run the Configure script for you.
153 The Configure script is interactive, but in most cases you just need to
154 press ENTER. The "set" command ensures that DJGPP preserves the letter
155 case of file names when reading directories. If you already issued this
156 set command when unpacking the archive, and you are in the same DOS
157 session as when you unpacked the archive, you don't have to issue the
158 set command again. This command is necessary *before* you start to
159 (re)configure or (re)build perl in order to ensure both that perl builds
160 correctly and that building XS-type modules can succeed. See the DJGPP
161 info entry for "_preserve_fncase" for more information:
163 info libc alphabetical _preserve_fncase
165 If the script says that your package is incomplete, and asks whether
166 to continue, just answer with Y (this can only happen if you don't use
167 long filenames or forget to issue "set FNCASE=y" first).
169 When Configure asks about the extensions, I suggest IO and Fcntl,
170 and if you want database handling then SDBM_File or GDBM_File
171 (you need to install gdbm for this one). If you want to use the
172 POSIX extension (this is the default), make sure that the stack
173 size of your F<cc1.exe> is at least 512kbyte (you can check this
174 with: C<stubedit cc1.exe>).
176 You can use the Configure script in non-interactive mode too.
177 When I built my F<perl.exe>, I used something like this:
181 You can find more info about Configure's command line switches in
184 When the script ends, and you want to change some values in the
185 generated F<config.sh> file, then run
189 after you made your modifications.
191 IMPORTANT: if you use this C<-S> switch, be sure to delete the CONFIG
192 environment variable before running the script:
198 Now you can compile Perl. Type:
204 =head2 Testing Perl on DOS
210 If you're lucky you should see "All tests successful". But there can be
211 a few failed subtests (less than 5 hopefully) depending on some external
212 conditions (e.g. some subtests fail under linux/dosemu or plain dos
213 with short filenames only).
215 =head2 Installation of Perl on DOS
221 This will copy the newly compiled perl and libraries into your DJGPP
222 directory structure. Perl.exe and the utilities go into C<($DJDIR)/bin>,
223 and the library goes under C<($DJDIR)/lib/perl5>. The pod documentation
224 goes under C<($DJDIR)/lib/perl5/pod>.
226 =head1 BUILDING AND INSTALLING MODULES ON DOS
228 =head2 Building Prerequisites for Perl on DOS
230 For building and installing non-XS modules, all you need is a working
231 perl under DJGPP. Non-XS modules do not require re-linking the perl
232 binary, and so are simpler to build and install.
234 XS-type modules do require re-linking the perl binary, because part of
235 an XS module is written in "C", and has to be linked together with the
236 perl binary to be executed. This is required because perl under DJGPP
237 is built with the "static link" option, due to the lack of "dynamic
238 linking" in the DJGPP environment.
240 Because XS modules require re-linking of the perl binary, you need both
241 the perl binary distribution and the perl source distribution to build
242 an XS extension module. In addition, you will have to have built your
243 perl binary from the source distribution so that all of the components
244 of the perl binary are available for the required link step.
246 =head2 Unpacking CPAN Modules on DOS
248 First, download the module package from CPAN (e.g., the "Comma Separated
249 Value" text package, Text-CSV-0.01.tar.gz). Then expand the contents of
250 the package into some location on your disk. Most CPAN modules are
251 built with an internal directory structure, so it is usually safe to
252 expand it in the root of your DJGPP installation. Some people prefer to
253 locate source trees under /usr/src (i.e., C<($DJDIR)/usr/src>), but you may
254 put it wherever seems most logical to you, *EXCEPT* under the same
255 directory as your perl source code. There are special rules that apply
256 to modules which live in the perl source tree that do not apply to most
257 of the modules in CPAN.
259 Unlike other DJGPP packages, which are normal "zip" files, most CPAN
260 module packages are "gzipped tarballs". Recent versions of WinZip will
261 safely unpack and expand them, *UNLESS* they have zero-length files. It
262 is a known WinZip bug (as of v7.0) that it will not extract zero-length
265 From the command line, you can use the djtar utility provided with DJGPP
266 to unpack and expand these files. For example:
268 C:\djgpp>djtarx -v Text-CSV-0.01.tar.gz
270 This will create the new directory C<($DJDIR)/Text-CSV-0.01>, filling
271 it with the source for this module.
273 =head2 Building Non-XS Modules on DOS
275 To build a non-XS module, you can use the standard module-building
276 instructions distributed with perl modules.
283 This is sufficient because non-XS modules install only ".pm" files and
284 (sometimes) pod and/or man documentation. No re-linking of the perl
285 binary is needed to build, install or use non-XS modules.
287 =head2 Building XS Modules on DOS
289 To build an XS module, you must use the standard module-building
290 instructions distributed with perl modules *PLUS* three extra
291 instructions specific to the DJGPP "static link" build environment.
298 make -f Makefile.aperl inst_perl MAP_TARGET=perl.exe
301 The first extra instruction sets DJGPP's FNCASE environment variable so
302 that the new perl binary which you must build for an XS-type module will
303 build correctly. The second extra instruction re-builds the perl binary
304 in your module directory before you run "make test", so that you are
305 testing with the new module code you built with "make". The third extra
306 instruction installs the perl binary from your module directory into the
307 standard DJGPP binary directory, C<($DJDIR)/bin>, replacing your
308 previous perl binary.
310 Note that the MAP_TARGET value *must* have the ".exe" extension or you
311 will not create a "perl.exe" to replace the one in C<($DJDIR)/bin>.
313 When you are done, the XS-module install process will have added information
314 to your "perllocal" information telling that the perl binary has been replaced,
315 and what module was installed. You can view this information at any time
316 by using the command:
318 perl -S perldoc perllocal
322 Laszlo Molnar, F<laszlo.molnar@eth.ericsson.se> [Installing/building perl]
324 Peter J. Farley III F<pjfarley@banet.net> [Building/installing modules]