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 perlwin32 - Perl under Windows
11 These are instructions for building Perl under Windows 9x/NT/2000/XP
12 on the Intel x86 and Itanium architectures.
16 Before you start, you should glance through the README file
17 found in the top-level directory to which the Perl distribution
18 was extracted. Make sure you read and understand the terms under
19 which this software is being distributed.
21 Also make sure you read L<BUGS AND CAVEATS> below for the
22 known limitations of this port.
24 The INSTALL file in the perl top-level has much information that is
25 only relevant to people building Perl on Unix-like systems. In
26 particular, you can safely ignore any information that talks about
29 You may also want to look at two other options for building
30 a perl that will work on Windows NT: the README.cygwin and
31 README.os2 files, each of which give a different set of rules to
32 build a Perl that will work on Win32 platforms. Those two methods
33 will probably enable you to build a more Unix-compatible perl, but
34 you will also need to download and use various other build-time and
35 run-time support software described in those files.
37 This set of instructions is meant to describe a so-called "native"
38 port of Perl to Win32 platforms. This includes both 32-bit and
39 64-bit Windows operating systems. The resulting Perl requires no
40 additional software to run (other than what came with your operating
41 system). Currently, this port is capable of using one of the
42 following compilers on the Intel x86 architecture:
44 Borland C++ version 5.02 or later
45 Microsoft Visual C++ version 2.0 or later
46 MinGW with gcc gcc version 2.95.2 or later
48 The last of these is a high quality freeware compiler. Use version
49 3.2.x or later for the best results with this compiler.
51 The Borland C++ and Microsoft Visual C++ compilers are also now being given
52 away free. The Borland compiler is available as "Borland C++ Compiler Free
53 Command Line Tools" and is the same compiler that ships with the full
54 "Borland C++ Builder" product. The Microsoft compiler is available as
55 "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" or "Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition" (and also as
56 part of the ".NET Framework SDK") and is the same compiler that ships with
57 "Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional" or "Visual C++ 2005 Professional"
60 This port can also be built on the Intel IA64 using:
62 Microsoft Platform SDK Nov 2001 (64-bit compiler and tools)
64 The MS Platform SDK can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/.
66 This port fully supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that
67 is used to build extensions to perl). Therefore, you should be
68 able to build and install most extensions found in the CPAN sites.
69 See L<Usage Hints for Perl on Win32> below for general hints about this.
71 =head2 Setting Up Perl on Win32
77 You need a "make" program to build the sources. If you are using
78 Visual C++ or the Platform SDK tools under Windows NT/2000/XP, nmake
79 will work. All other builds need dmake.
81 dmake is a freely available make that has very nice macro features
84 A port of dmake for Windows is available from:
86 http://search.cpan.org/dist/dmake/
88 Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path.
90 There exists a minor coexistence problem with dmake and Borland C++
91 compilers. Namely, if a distribution has C files named with mixed
92 case letters, they will be compiled into appropriate .obj-files named
93 with all lowercase letters, and every time dmake is invoked
94 to bring files up to date, it will try to recompile such files again.
95 For example, Tk distribution has a lot of such files, resulting in
96 needless recompiles every time dmake is invoked. To avoid this, you
97 may use the script "sync_ext.pl" after a successful build. It is
98 available in the win32 subdirectory of the Perl source distribution.
102 Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with NT. Some versions of the
103 popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause you trouble.
104 If the build fails under that shell, try building again with the cmd
107 The nmake Makefile also has known incompatibilities with the
108 "command.com" shell that comes with Windows 9x. You will need to
109 use dmake and makefile.mk to build under Windows 9x.
111 The surest way to build it is on Windows NT/2000/XP, using the cmd shell.
113 Make sure the path to the build directory does not contain spaces. The
114 build usually works in this circumstance, but some tests will fail.
118 If you are using the Borland compiler, you will need dmake.
119 (The make that Borland supplies is seriously crippled and will not
120 work for MakeMaker builds.)
122 See L</"Make"> above.
124 =item Microsoft Visual C++
126 The nmake that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building.
127 You will need to run the VCVARS32.BAT file, usually found somewhere
128 like C:\MSDEV4.2\BIN or C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\Bin.
129 This will set your build environment.
131 You can also use dmake to build using Visual C++; provided, however,
132 you set OSRELEASE to "microsft" (or whatever the directory name
133 under which the Visual C dmake configuration lives) in your environment
134 and edit win32/config.vc to change "make=nmake" into "make=dmake". The
135 latter step is only essential if you want to use dmake as your default
136 make for building extensions using MakeMaker.
138 =item Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
140 This free version of Visual C++ 2005 Professional contains the same compiler
141 and linker that ship with the full version, but doesn't contain everything
142 necessary to build Perl.
144 You will also need to download the "Platform SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
145 SDK" components are required) for more header files and libraries.
147 These packages can both be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
148 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en. (Providing exact
149 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
152 Try to obtain the latest version of the Platform SDK. Sometimes these packages
153 contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
154 other OS versions too. For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
155 also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
157 According to the download pages these packages are only supported on Windows
158 2000/XP/2003, so trying to use these tools on Windows 95/98/ME and even Windows
159 NT probably won't work.
161 Install Visual C++ 2005 first, then the Platform SDK. Setup your environment
162 as follows (assuming default installation locations were chosen):
164 SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
166 SET PATH=%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\BIN;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\Tools;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\bin;C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\VCPackages;%PlatformSDKDir%\Bin
168 SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\INCLUDE;%PlatformSDKDir%\include
170 SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\LIB;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib
172 SET LIBPATH=C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727
174 (The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on which version
175 you are using. Earlier versions installed into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK",
176 while the latest versions install into version-specific locations such as
177 "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
179 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
184 and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
186 =item Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003
188 This free toolkit contains the same compiler and linker that ship with
189 Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional, but doesn't contain everything
190 necessary to build Perl.
192 You will also need to download the "Platform SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
193 SDK" components are required) for header files, libraries and rc.exe, and
194 ".NET Framework SDK" for more libraries and nmake.exe. Note that the latter
195 (which also includes the free compiler and linker) requires the ".NET
196 Framework Redistributable" to be installed first. This can be downloaded and
197 installed separately, but is included in the "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" anyway.
199 These packages can all be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
200 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en. (Providing exact
201 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
204 Try to obtain the latest version of the Platform SDK. Sometimes these packages
205 contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
206 other OS versions too. For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
207 also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
209 According to the download pages these packages are only supported on Windows
210 2000/XP/2003, so trying to use these tools on Windows 95/98/ME and even Windows
211 NT probably won't work.
213 Install the Toolkit first, then the Platform SDK, then the .NET Framework SDK.
214 Setup your environment as follows (assuming default installation locations
217 SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
219 SET PATH=%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin;%PlatformSDKDir%\Bin;C:\Program Files\Microsoft.NET\SDK\v1.1\Bin
221 SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\include;%PlatformSDKDir%\include;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\include
223 SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\lib
225 (The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on which version
226 you are using. Earlier versions installed into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK",
227 while the latest versions install into version-specific locations such as
228 "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
230 Several required files will still be missing:
236 cvtres.exe is required by link.exe when using a .res file. It is actually
237 installed by the .NET Framework SDK, but into a location such as the
240 C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322
242 Copy it from there to %PlatformSDKDir%\Bin
246 lib.exe is normally used to build libraries, but link.exe with the /lib
247 option also works, so change win32/config.vc to use it instead:
249 Change the line reading:
257 It may also be useful to create a batch file called lib.bat in
258 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin containing:
263 for the benefit of any naughty C extension modules that you might want to build
264 later which explicitly reference "lib" rather than taking their value from
269 setargv.obj is required to build perlglob.exe (and perl.exe if the USE_SETARGV
270 option is enabled). The Platform SDK supplies this object file in source form
271 in %PlatformSDKDir%\src\crt. Copy setargv.c, cruntime.h and
272 internal.h from there to some temporary location and build setargv.obj using
274 cl.exe /c /I. /D_CRTBLD setargv.c
276 Then copy setargv.obj to %PlatformSDKDir%\lib
278 Alternatively, if you don't need perlglob.exe and don't need to enable the
279 USE_SETARGV option then you can safely just remove all mention of $(GLOBEXE)
280 from win32/Makefile and setargv.obj won't be required anyway.
284 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
289 and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
291 =item Microsoft Platform SDK 64-bit Compiler
293 The nmake that comes with the Platform SDK will suffice for building
294 Perl. Make sure you are building within one of the "Build Environment"
295 shells available after you install the Platform SDK from the Start Menu.
297 =item MinGW release 3 with gcc
299 The latest release of MinGW at the time of writing is 3.1.0, which contains
300 gcc-3.2.3. It can be downloaded here:
302 http://www.mingw.org/
304 Perl also compiles with earlier releases of gcc (2.95.2 and up). See below
305 for notes about using earlier versions of MinGW/gcc.
307 You also need dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
309 =item MinGW release 1 with gcc
311 The MinGW-1.1 bundle contains gcc-2.95.3.
313 Make sure you install the binaries that work with MSVCRT.DLL as indicated
314 in the README for the GCC bundle. You may need to set up a few environment
315 variables (usually ran from a batch file).
317 There are a couple of problems with the version of gcc-2.95.2-msvcrt.exe
318 released 7 November 1999:
324 It left out a fix for certain command line quotes. To fix this, be sure
325 to download and install the file fixes/quote-fix-msvcrt.exe from the above
330 The definition of the fpos_t type in stdio.h may be wrong. If your
331 stdio.h has this problem, you will see an exception when running the
332 test t/lib/io_xs.t. To fix this, change the typedef for fpos_t from
333 "long" to "long long" in the file i386-mingw32msvc/include/stdio.h,
338 A potentially simpler to install (but probably soon-to-be-outdated) bundle
339 of the above package with the mentioned fixes already applied is available
342 http://downloads.ActiveState.com/pub/staff/gsar/gcc-2.95.2-msvcrt.zip
343 ftp://ftp.ActiveState.com/pub/staff/gsar/gcc-2.95.2-msvcrt.zip
353 Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl toplevel.
354 This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with
355 versions of nmake that come with Visual C++ or the Platform SDK, and
356 a dmake "makefile.mk" that will work for all supported compilers. The
357 defaults in the dmake makefile are setup to build using MinGW/gcc.
361 Edit the makefile.mk (or Makefile, if you're using nmake) and change
362 the values of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. You can also enable various
363 build flags. These are explained in the makefiles.
365 Note that it is generally not a good idea to try to build a perl with
366 INST_DRV and INST_TOP set to a path that already exists from a previous
367 build. In particular, this may cause problems with the
368 lib/ExtUtils/t/Embed.t test, which attempts to build a test program and
369 may end up building against the installed perl's lib/CORE directory rather
370 than the one being tested.
372 You will have to make sure that CCTYPE is set correctly and that
373 CCHOME points to wherever you installed your compiler.
375 The default value for CCHOME in the makefiles for Visual C++
376 may not be correct for some versions. Make sure the default exists
379 You may also need to comment out the C<DELAYLOAD = ...> line in the
380 Makefile if you're using VC++ 6.0 without the latest service pack and
381 the linker reports an internal error.
383 If you are using VC++ 4.2 or earlier then you'll have to change the /EHsc
384 option in the CXX_FLAG macro to the equivalent /GX option.
386 If you have either the source or a library that contains des_fcrypt(),
387 enable the appropriate option in the makefile. A ready-to-use version
388 of fcrypt.c, based on the version originally written by Eric Young at
389 ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/crypt/mirrors/dsi/libdes/, is bundled with the
390 distribution and CRYPT_SRC is set to use it.
391 Alternatively, if you have built a library that contains des_fcrypt(),
392 you can set CRYPT_LIB to point to the library name.
393 Perl will also build without des_fcrypt(), but the crypt() builtin will
396 If you want build some core extensions statically into perl's dll, specify
397 them in the STATIC_EXT macro.
399 Be sure to read the instructions near the top of the makefiles carefully.
403 Type "dmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make).
405 This should build everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe,
406 perl59.dll at the perl toplevel, and various other extension dll's
407 under the lib\auto directory. If the build fails for any reason, make
408 sure you have done the previous steps correctly.
412 =head2 Testing Perl on Win32
414 Type "dmake test" (or "nmake test"). This will run most of the tests from
415 the testsuite (many tests will be skipped).
417 There should be no test failures when running under Windows NT/2000/XP.
418 Many tests I<will> fail under Windows 9x due to the inferior command shell.
420 Some test failures may occur if you use a command shell other than the
421 native "cmd.exe", or if you are building from a path that contains
422 spaces. So don't do that.
424 If you are running the tests from a emacs shell window, you may see
425 failures in op/stat.t. Run "dmake test-notty" in that case.
427 If you're using the Borland compiler, you may see a failure in op/taint.t
428 arising from the inability to find the Borland Runtime DLLs on the system
429 default path. You will need to copy the DLLs reported by the messages
430 from where Borland chose to install it, into the Windows system directory
431 (usually somewhere like C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32) and rerun the test.
433 If you're using Borland compiler versions 5.2 and below, you may run into
434 problems finding the correct header files when building extensions. For
435 example, building the "Tk" extension may fail because both perl and Tk
436 contain a header file called "patchlevel.h". The latest Borland compiler
437 (v5.5) is free of this misbehaviour, and it even supports an
438 option -VI- for backward (bugward) compatibility for using the old Borland
439 search algorithm to locate header files.
441 If you run the tests on a FAT partition, you may see some failures for
442 C<link()> related tests (I<op/write.t>, I<op/stat.t> ...). Testing on
443 NTFS avoids these errors.
445 Furthermore, you should make sure that during C<make test> you do not
446 have any GNU tool packages in your path: some toolkits like Unixutils
447 include some tools (C<type> for instance) which override the Windows
448 ones and makes tests fail. Remove them from your path while testing to
451 Please report any other failures as described under L<BUGS AND CAVEATS>.
453 =head2 Installation of Perl on Win32
455 Type "dmake install" (or "nmake install"). This will put the newly
456 built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP> points to in the
457 Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation under
458 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same under
459 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod\html>.
461 To use the Perl you just installed you will need to add a new entry to
462 your PATH environment variable: C<$INST_TOP\bin>, e.g.
464 set PATH=c:\perl\bin;%PATH%
466 If you opted to uncomment C<INST_VER> and C<INST_ARCH> in the makefile
467 then the installation structure is a little more complicated and you will
468 need to add two new PATH components instead: C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin> and
469 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin\$ARCHNAME>, e.g.
471 set PATH=c:\perl\5.6.0\bin;c:\perl\5.6.0\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH%
473 =head2 Usage Hints for Perl on Win32
477 =item Environment Variables
479 The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled
480 into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start
481 using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable).
483 If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB
484 to a list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl
485 to look for libraries. Look for descriptions of other environment
486 variables you can set in L<perlrun>.
488 You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and
489 backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See L<perlrun>.
491 Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain default
492 values if you choose to put them there. Perl attempts to read entries from
493 C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> and C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>.
494 Entries in the former override entries in the latter. One or more of the
495 following entries (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may be set:
497 lib-$] version-specific standard library path to add to @INC
498 lib standard library path to add to @INC
499 sitelib-$] version-specific site library path to add to @INC
500 sitelib site library path to add to @INC
501 vendorlib-$] version-specific vendor library path to add to @INC
502 vendorlib vendor library path to add to @INC
503 PERL* fallback for all %ENV lookups that begin with "PERL"
505 Note the C<$]> in the above is not literal. Substitute whatever version
506 of perl you want to honor that entry, e.g. C<5.6.0>. Paths must be
507 separated with semicolons, as usual on win32.
511 By default, perl handles file globbing using the File::Glob extension,
512 which provides portable globbing.
514 If you want perl to use globbing that emulates the quirks of DOS
515 filename conventions, you might want to consider using File::DosGlob
516 to override the internal glob() implementation. See L<File::DosGlob> for
519 =item Using perl from the command line
521 If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line
522 shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased
523 with what Windows offers by way of a command shell.
525 The crucial thing to understand about the Windows environment is that
526 the command line you type in is processed twice before Perl sees it.
527 First, your command shell (usually CMD.EXE on Windows NT, and
528 COMMAND.COM on Windows 9x) preprocesses the command line, to handle
529 redirection, environment variable expansion, and location of the
530 executable to run. Then, the perl executable splits the remaining
531 command line into individual arguments, using the C runtime library
532 upon which Perl was built.
534 It is particularly important to note that neither the shell nor the C
535 runtime do any wildcard expansions of command-line arguments (so
536 wildcards need not be quoted). Also, the quoting behaviours of the
537 shell and the C runtime are rudimentary at best (and may, if you are
538 using a non-standard shell, be inconsistent). The only (useful) quote
539 character is the double quote ("). It can be used to protect spaces
540 and other special characters in arguments.
542 The Windows NT documentation has almost no description of how the
543 quoting rules are implemented, but here are some general observations
544 based on experiments: The C runtime breaks arguments at spaces and
545 passes them to programs in argc/argv. Double quotes can be used to
546 prevent arguments with spaces in them from being split up. You can
547 put a double quote in an argument by escaping it with a backslash and
548 enclosing the whole argument within double quotes. The backslash and
549 the pair of double quotes surrounding the argument will be stripped by
552 The file redirection characters "E<lt>", "E<gt>", and "|" can be quoted by
553 double quotes (although there are suggestions that this may not always
554 be true). Single quotes are not treated as quotes by the shell or
555 the C runtime, they don't get stripped by the shell (just to make
556 this type of quoting completely useless). The caret "^" has also
557 been observed to behave as a quoting character, but this appears
558 to be a shell feature, and the caret is not stripped from the command
559 line, so Perl still sees it (and the C runtime phase does not treat
560 the caret as a quote character).
562 Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell:
564 This prints two doublequotes:
566 perl -e "print '\"\"' "
570 perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" "
572 This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch":
574 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch
576 This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland):
578 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul
580 This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch":
582 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch
584 This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the console:
586 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less
588 This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager:
590 perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less
592 This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file "blurch":
594 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less
597 Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows 9x
598 is left as an exercise to the reader :)
600 One particularly pernicious problem with the 4NT command shell for
601 Windows NT is that it (nearly) always treats a % character as indicating
602 that environment variable expansion is needed. Under this shell, it is
603 therefore important to always double any % characters which you want
604 Perl to see (for example, for hash variables), even when they are
607 =item Building Extensions
609 The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth
610 of extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build.
611 Look in http://www.cpan.org/ for more information on CPAN.
613 Note that not all of the extensions available from CPAN may work
614 in the Win32 environment; you should check the information at
615 http://testers.cpan.org/ before investing too much effort into
616 porting modules that don't readily build.
618 Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can
619 be built, tested and installed with the standard mantra:
626 where $MAKE is whatever 'make' program you have configured perl to
627 use. Use "perl -V:make" to find out what this is. Some extensions
628 may not provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything or
629 fail), but most serious ones do.
631 It is important that you use a supported 'make' program, and
632 ensure Config.pm knows about it. If you don't have nmake, you can
633 either get dmake from the location mentioned earlier or get an
634 old version of nmake reportedly available from:
636 http://download.microsoft.com/download/vc15/Patch/1.52/W95/EN-US/nmake15.exe
638 Another option is to use the make written in Perl, available from
641 http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Make/
643 You may also use dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
645 Note that MakeMaker actually emits makefiles with different syntax
646 depending on what 'make' it thinks you are using. Therefore, it is
647 important that one of the following values appears in Config.pm:
649 make='nmake' # MakeMaker emits nmake syntax
650 make='dmake' # MakeMaker emits dmake syntax
651 any other value # MakeMaker emits generic make syntax
652 (e.g GNU make, or Perl make)
654 If the value doesn't match the 'make' program you want to use,
655 edit Config.pm to fix it.
657 If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported
658 C compilers. You must make sure you have set up the environment for
659 the compiler for command-line compilation.
661 If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for
662 why it failed, and report problems to the module author. If
663 it looks like the extension building support is at fault, report
664 that with full details of how the build failed using the perlbug
667 =item Command-line Wildcard Expansion
669 The default command shells on DOS descendant operating systems (such
670 as they are) usually do not expand wildcard arguments supplied to
671 programs. They consider it the application's job to handle that.
672 This is commonly achieved by linking the application (in our case,
673 perl) with startup code that the C runtime libraries usually provide.
674 However, doing that results in incompatible perl versions (since the
675 behavior of the argv expansion code differs depending on the
676 compiler, and it is even buggy on some compilers). Besides, it may
677 be a source of frustration if you use such a perl binary with an
678 alternate shell that *does* expand wildcards.
680 Instead, the following solution works rather well. The nice things
681 about it are 1) you can start using it right away; 2) it is more
682 powerful, because it will do the right thing with a pattern like
683 */*/*.c; 3) you can decide whether you do/don't want to use it; and
684 4) you can extend the method to add any customizations (or even
685 entirely different kinds of wildcard expansion).
687 C:\> copy con c:\perl\lib\Wild.pm
688 # Wild.pm - emulate shell @ARGV expansion on shells that don't
691 my @g = File::DosGlob::glob($_) if /[*?]/;
696 C:\> set PERL5OPT=-MWild
697 C:\> perl -le "for (@ARGV) { print }" */*/perl*.c
701 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
702 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
703 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
704 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
705 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
706 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
708 Note there are two distinct steps there: 1) You'll have to create
709 Wild.pm and put it in your perl lib directory. 2) You'll need to
710 set the PERL5OPT environment variable. If you want argv expansion
711 to be the default, just set PERL5OPT in your default startup
714 If you are using the Visual C compiler, you can get the C runtime's
715 command line wildcard expansion built into perl binary. The resulting
716 binary will always expand unquoted command lines, which may not be
717 what you want if you use a shell that does that for you. The expansion
718 done is also somewhat less powerful than the approach suggested above.
720 =item Win32 Specific Extensions
722 A number of extensions specific to the Win32 platform are available
723 from CPAN. You may find that many of these extensions are meant to
724 be used under the Activeware port of Perl, which used to be the only
725 native port for the Win32 platform. Since the Activeware port does not
726 have adequate support for Perl's extension building tools, these
727 extensions typically do not support those tools either and, therefore,
728 cannot be built using the generic steps shown in the previous section.
730 To ensure smooth transitioning of existing code that uses the
731 ActiveState port, there is a bundle of Win32 extensions that contains
732 all of the ActiveState extensions and several other Win32 extensions from
733 CPAN in source form, along with many added bugfixes, and with MakeMaker
734 support. The latest version of this bundle is available at:
736 http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwin32/
738 See the README in that distribution for building and installation
741 =item Notes on 64-bit Windows
743 Windows .NET Server supports the LLP64 data model on the Intel Itanium
746 The LLP64 data model is different from the LP64 data model that is the
747 norm on 64-bit Unix platforms. In the former, C<int> and C<long> are
748 both 32-bit data types, while pointers are 64 bits wide. In addition,
749 there is a separate 64-bit wide integral type, C<__int64>. In contrast,
750 the LP64 data model that is pervasive on Unix platforms provides C<int>
751 as the 32-bit type, while both the C<long> type and pointers are of
752 64-bit precision. Note that both models provide for 64-bits of
755 64-bit Windows running on Itanium is capable of running 32-bit x86
756 binaries transparently. This means that you could use a 32-bit build
757 of Perl on a 64-bit system. Given this, why would one want to build
758 a 64-bit build of Perl? Here are some reasons why you would bother:
764 A 64-bit native application will run much more efficiently on
769 There is no 2GB limit on process size.
773 Perl automatically provides large file support when built under
778 Embedding Perl inside a 64-bit application.
784 =head2 Running Perl Scripts
786 Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to
787 indicate to the OS that it should execute the file using perl.
788 Win32 has no comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are
791 Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on
792 Win32 rely on the file "extension". There are three methods
793 to use this to execute perl scripts:
799 There is a facility called "file extension associations" that will
800 work in Windows NT 4.0. This can be manipulated via the two
801 commands "assoc" and "ftype" that come standard with Windows NT
802 4.0. Type "ftype /?" for a complete example of how to set this
803 up for perl scripts (Say what? You thought Windows NT wasn't
808 Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are
809 reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the
810 old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a
811 regular batch file to the OS, may be used. The install process
812 makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to wrap
813 perl scripts into batch files. For example:
817 will create the file "FOO.BAT". Note "pl2bat" strips any
818 .pl suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file.
820 If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that
821 "pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to
822 refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to make
823 sure that construct works in batch files. As of this writing,
824 4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *" statement in their
825 4NT.INI file or will need to execute "setdos /p*" in the 4DOS/NT
826 startup file to enable this to work.
830 Using "pl2bat" has a few problems: the file name gets changed,
831 so scripts that rely on C<$0> to find what they must do may not
832 run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the
833 original script, and so this process can be maintenance intensive
834 if the originals get updated often. A different approach that
835 avoids both problems is possible.
837 A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied
838 to any filename (along with the .bat suffix). For example,
839 if you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is
840 executed. Since you can run batch files on Win32 platforms simply
841 by typing the name (without the extension), this effectively
842 runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or "foo.bat".
843 With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a different location
844 than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is available somewhere on
845 the PATH. If your scripts are on a filesystem that allows symbolic
846 links, you can even avoid copying "runperl.bat".
848 Here's a diversion: copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type
849 "runperl". Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :)
850 Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH
854 =head2 Miscellaneous Things
856 A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be
857 able to use it if you have a web browser installed on your
860 C<perldoc> is also a useful tool for browsing information contained
861 in the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager
862 like C<less> (recent versions of which have Win32 support). You may
863 have to set the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager.
864 "perldoc -f foo" will print information about the perl operator
867 One common mistake when using this port with a GUI library like C<Tk>
868 is assuming that Perl's normal behavior of opening a command-line
869 window will go away. This isn't the case. If you want to start a copy
870 of C<perl> without opening a command-line window, use the C<wperl>
871 executable built during the installation process. Usage is exactly
872 the same as normal C<perl> on Win32, except that options like C<-h>
873 don't work (since they need a command-line window to print to).
875 If you find bugs in perl, you can run C<perlbug> to create a
876 bug report (you may have to send it manually if C<perlbug> cannot
877 find a mailer on your system).
879 =head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS
881 Norton AntiVirus interferes with the build process, particularly if
882 set to "AutoProtect, All Files, when Opened". Unlike large applications
883 the perl build process opens and modifies a lot of files. Having the
884 the AntiVirus scan each and every one slows build the process significantly.
885 Worse, with PERLIO=stdio the build process fails with peculiar messages
886 as the virus checker interacts badly with miniperl.exe writing configure
887 files (it seems to either catch file part written and treat it as suspicious,
888 or virus checker may have it "locked" in a way which inhibits miniperl
889 updating it). The build does complete with
893 but that may be just luck. Other AntiVirus software may have similar issues.
895 Some of the built-in functions do not act exactly as documented in
896 L<perlfunc>, and a few are not implemented at all. To avoid
897 surprises, particularly if you have had prior exposure to Perl
898 in other operating environments or if you intend to write code
899 that will be portable to other environments, see L<perlport>
900 for a reasonably definitive list of these differences.
902 Not all extensions available from CPAN may build or work properly
903 in the Win32 environment. See L</"Building Extensions">.
905 Most C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not
906 behave as on Unix platforms. See L<perlport> for the full list.
907 Perl requires Winsock2 to be installed on the system. If you're
908 running Win95, you can download Winsock upgrade from here:
910 http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/downloads/contents/WUAdminTools/S_WUNetworkingTools/W95Sockets2/Default.asp
912 Later OS versions already include Winsock2 support.
914 Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it
915 doesn't exactly "behave", either :). For instance, calling C<die()>
916 or C<exit()> from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most
917 implementations of C<signal()> on Win32 are severely crippled.
918 Thus, signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag
919 variable in the handler. Using signals under this port should
920 currently be considered unsupported.
922 Please send detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that
923 you may find to E<lt>F<perlbug@perl.org>E<gt>, along with the output
924 produced by C<perl -V>.
926 =head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
928 The use of a camel with the topic of Perl is a trademark
929 of O'Reilly and Associates, Inc. Used with permission.
935 =item Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt>
937 =item Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@activestate.comE<gt>
939 =item Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ing-simmons.netE<gt>
941 =item Jan Dubois E<lt>jand@activestate.comE<gt>
943 =item Steve Hay E<lt>steve.hay@uk.radan.comE<gt>
947 This document is maintained by Jan Dubois.
955 This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24,
956 and borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available
957 at the time. Various people have made numerous and sundry hacks
960 Borland support was added in 5.004_01 (Gurusamy Sarathy).
962 GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons).
964 Support for PERL_OBJECT was added in 5.005 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
966 Support for fork() emulation was added in 5.6 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
968 Win9x support was added in 5.6 (Benjamin Stuhl).
970 Support for 64-bit Windows added in 5.8 (ActiveState Corp).
972 Last updated: 25 May 2007