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 through 7.0 (and possibly 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"
58 respectively. Currently, Perl cannot be compiled with Visual C++ 2005 (aka
61 This port can also be built on the Intel IA64 using:
63 Microsoft Platform SDK Nov 2001 (64-bit compiler and tools)
65 The MS Platform SDK can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/.
67 This port fully supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that
68 is used to build extensions to perl). Therefore, you should be
69 able to build and install most extensions found in the CPAN sites.
70 See L<Usage Hints for Perl on Win32> below for general hints about this.
72 =head2 Setting Up Perl on Win32
78 You need a "make" program to build the sources. If you are using
79 Visual C++ or the Platform SDK tools under Windows NT/2000/XP, nmake
80 will work. All other builds need dmake.
82 dmake is a freely available make that has very nice macro features
85 A port of dmake for Windows is available from:
87 http://search.cpan.org/dist/dmake/
89 Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path.
91 There exists a minor coexistence problem with dmake and Borland C++
92 compilers. Namely, if a distribution has C files named with mixed
93 case letters, they will be compiled into appropriate .obj-files named
94 with all lowercase letters, and every time dmake is invoked
95 to bring files up to date, it will try to recompile such files again.
96 For example, Tk distribution has a lot of such files, resulting in
97 needless recompiles every time dmake is invoked. To avoid this, you
98 may use the script "sync_ext.pl" after a successful build. It is
99 available in the win32 subdirectory of the Perl source distribution.
103 Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with NT. Some versions of the
104 popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause you trouble.
105 If the build fails under that shell, try building again with the cmd
108 The nmake Makefile also has known incompatibilities with the
109 "command.com" shell that comes with Windows 9x. You will need to
110 use dmake and makefile.mk to build under Windows 9x.
112 The surest way to build it is on Windows NT/2000/XP, using the cmd shell.
114 Make sure the path to the build directory does not contain spaces. The
115 build usually works in this circumstance, but some tests will fail.
119 If you are using the Borland compiler, you will need dmake.
120 (The make that Borland supplies is seriously crippled and will not
121 work for MakeMaker builds.)
123 See L</"Make"> above.
125 =item Microsoft Visual C++
127 The nmake that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building.
128 You will need to run the VCVARS32.BAT file, usually found somewhere
129 like C:\MSDEV4.2\BIN or C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\Bin.
130 This will set your build environment.
132 You can also use dmake to build using Visual C++; provided, however,
133 you set OSRELEASE to "microsft" (or whatever the directory name
134 under which the Visual C dmake configuration lives) in your environment
135 and edit win32/config.vc to change "make=nmake" into "make=dmake". The
136 latter step is only essential if you want to use dmake as your default
137 make for building extensions using MakeMaker.
139 =item Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
141 B<NOTE: While these instructions are in theory correct, Perl currently cannot
142 be compiled with Visual C++ 2005.>
144 This free version of Visual C++ 2005 Professional contains the same compiler
145 and linker that ship with the full version, but doesn't contain everything
146 necessary to build Perl.
148 You will also need to download the "Platform SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
149 SDK" components are required) for more header files and libraries.
151 These packages can both be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
152 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en. (Providing exact
153 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
156 Try to obtain the latest version of the Platform SDK. Sometimes these packages
157 contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
158 other OS versions too. For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
159 also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
161 According to the download pages these packages are only supported on Windows
162 2000/XP/2003, so trying to use these tools on Windows 95/98/ME and even Windows
163 NT probably won't work.
165 Install Visual C++ 2005 first, then the Platform SDK. Setup your environment
166 as follows (assuming default installation locations were chosen):
168 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;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK\Bin
170 SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\INCLUDE;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK\include
172 SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\LIB;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\lib;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK\lib
174 SET LIBPATH=C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727
176 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
181 and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
183 =item Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003
185 This free toolkit contains the same compiler and linker that ship with
186 Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional, but doesn't contain everything
187 necessary to build Perl.
189 You will also need to download the "Platform SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
190 SDK" components are required) for header files, libraries and rc.exe, and
191 ".NET Framework SDK" for more libraries and nmake.exe. Note that the latter
192 (which also includes the free compiler and linker) requires the ".NET
193 Framework Redistributable" to be installed first. This can be downloaded and
194 installed separately, but is included in the "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" anyway.
196 These packages can all be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
197 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en. (Providing exact
198 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
201 Try to obtain the latest version of the Platform SDK. Sometimes these packages
202 contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
203 other OS versions too. For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
204 also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
206 According to the download pages these packages are only supported on Windows
207 2000/XP/2003, so trying to use these tools on Windows 95/98/ME and even Windows
208 NT probably won't work.
210 Install the Toolkit first, then the Platform SDK, then the .NET Framework SDK.
211 Setup your environment as follows (assuming default installation locations
214 SET PATH=%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\Bin;C:\Program Files\Microsoft.NET\SDK\v1.1\Bin
216 SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\include;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\include;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\include
218 SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\lib;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\lib;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\lib
220 Several required files will still be missing:
226 cvtres.exe is required by link.exe when using a .res file. It is actually
227 installed by the .NET Framework SDK, but into a location such as the
230 C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322
232 Copy it from there to C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\Bin
236 lib.exe is normally used to build libraries, but link.exe with the /lib
237 option also works, so change win32/config.vc to use it instead:
239 Change the line reading:
247 It may also be useful to create a batch file called lib.bat in
248 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin containing:
253 for the benefit of any naughty C extension modules that you might want to build
254 later which explicitly reference "lib" rather than taking their value from
259 setargv.obj is required to build perlglob.exe (and perl.exe if the USE_SETARGV
260 option is enabled). The Platform SDK supplies this object file in source form
261 in C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\src\crt. Copy setargv.c, cruntime.h and
262 internal.h from there to some temporary location and build setargv.obj using
264 cl.exe /c /I. /D_CRTBLD setargv.c
266 Then copy setargv.obj to C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\lib
268 Alternatively, if you don't need perlglob.exe and don't need to enable the
269 USE_SETARGV option then you can safely just remove all mention of $(GLOBEXE)
270 from win32/Makefile and setargv.obj won't be required anyway.
274 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
279 and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
281 =item Microsoft Platform SDK 64-bit Compiler
283 The nmake that comes with the Platform SDK will suffice for building
284 Perl. Make sure you are building within one of the "Build Environment"
285 shells available after you install the Platform SDK from the Start Menu.
287 =item MinGW release 3 with gcc
289 The latest release of MinGW at the time of writing is 3.1.0, which contains
290 gcc-3.2.3. It can be downloaded here:
292 http://www.mingw.org/
294 Perl also compiles with earlier releases of gcc (2.95.2 and up). See below
295 for notes about using earlier versions of MinGW/gcc.
297 You also need dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
299 =item MinGW release 1 with gcc
301 The MinGW-1.1 bundle contains gcc-2.95.3.
303 Make sure you install the binaries that work with MSVCRT.DLL as indicated
304 in the README for the GCC bundle. You may need to set up a few environment
305 variables (usually ran from a batch file).
307 There are a couple of problems with the version of gcc-2.95.2-msvcrt.exe
308 released 7 November 1999:
314 It left out a fix for certain command line quotes. To fix this, be sure
315 to download and install the file fixes/quote-fix-msvcrt.exe from the above
320 The definition of the fpos_t type in stdio.h may be wrong. If your
321 stdio.h has this problem, you will see an exception when running the
322 test t/lib/io_xs.t. To fix this, change the typedef for fpos_t from
323 "long" to "long long" in the file i386-mingw32msvc/include/stdio.h,
328 A potentially simpler to install (but probably soon-to-be-outdated) bundle
329 of the above package with the mentioned fixes already applied is available
332 http://downloads.ActiveState.com/pub/staff/gsar/gcc-2.95.2-msvcrt.zip
333 ftp://ftp.ActiveState.com/pub/staff/gsar/gcc-2.95.2-msvcrt.zip
343 Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl toplevel.
344 This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with
345 versions of nmake that come with Visual C++ or the Platform SDK, and
346 a dmake "makefile.mk" that will work for all supported compilers. The
347 defaults in the dmake makefile are setup to build using MinGW/gcc.
351 Edit the makefile.mk (or Makefile, if you're using nmake) and change
352 the values of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. You can also enable various
353 build flags. These are explained in the makefiles.
355 Note that it is generally not a good idea to try to build a perl with
356 INST_DRV and INST_TOP set to a path that already exists from a previous
357 build. In particular, this may cause problems with the
358 lib/ExtUtils/t/Embed.t test, which attempts to build a test program and
359 may end up building against the installed perl's lib/CORE directory rather
360 than the one being tested.
362 You will have to make sure that CCTYPE is set correctly and that
363 CCHOME points to wherever you installed your compiler.
365 The default value for CCHOME in the makefiles for Visual C++
366 may not be correct for some versions. Make sure the default exists
369 You may also need to comment out the C<DELAYLOAD = ...> line in the
370 Makefile if you're using VC++ 6.0 without the latest service pack and
371 the linker reports an internal error.
373 If you have either the source or a library that contains des_fcrypt(),
374 enable the appropriate option in the makefile. A ready-to-use version
375 of fcrypt.c, based on the version originally written by Eric Young at
376 ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/crypt/mirrors/dsi/libdes/, is bundled with the
377 distribution and CRYPT_SRC is set to use it.
378 Alternatively, if you have built a library that contains des_fcrypt(),
379 you can set CRYPT_LIB to point to the library name.
380 Perl will also build without des_fcrypt(), but the crypt() builtin will
383 If you want build some core extensions statically into perl's dll, specify
384 them in the STATIC_EXT macro.
386 Be sure to read the instructions near the top of the makefiles carefully.
390 Type "dmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make).
392 This should build everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe,
393 perl59.dll at the perl toplevel, and various other extension dll's
394 under the lib\auto directory. If the build fails for any reason, make
395 sure you have done the previous steps correctly.
399 =head2 Testing Perl on Win32
401 Type "dmake test" (or "nmake test"). This will run most of the tests from
402 the testsuite (many tests will be skipped).
404 There should be no test failures when running under Windows NT/2000/XP.
405 Many tests I<will> fail under Windows 9x due to the inferior command shell.
407 Some test failures may occur if you use a command shell other than the
408 native "cmd.exe", or if you are building from a path that contains
409 spaces. So don't do that.
411 If you are running the tests from a emacs shell window, you may see
412 failures in op/stat.t. Run "dmake test-notty" in that case.
414 If you're using the Borland compiler, you may see a failure in op/taint.t
415 arising from the inability to find the Borland Runtime DLLs on the system
416 default path. You will need to copy the DLLs reported by the messages
417 from where Borland chose to install it, into the Windows system directory
418 (usually somewhere like C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32) and rerun the test.
420 If you're using Borland compiler versions 5.2 and below, you may run into
421 problems finding the correct header files when building extensions. For
422 example, building the "Tk" extension may fail because both perl and Tk
423 contain a header file called "patchlevel.h". The latest Borland compiler
424 (v5.5) is free of this misbehaviour, and it even supports an
425 option -VI- for backward (bugward) compatibility for using the old Borland
426 search algorithm to locate header files.
428 If you run the tests on a FAT partition, you may see some failures for
429 C<link()> related tests (I<op/write.t>, I<op/stat.t> ...). Testing on
430 NTFS avoids these errors.
432 Furthermore, you should make sure that during C<make test> you do not
433 have any GNU tool packages in your path: some toolkits like Unixutils
434 include some tools (C<type> for instance) which override the Windows
435 ones and makes tests fail. Remove them from your path while testing to
438 Please report any other failures as described under L<BUGS AND CAVEATS>.
440 =head2 Installation of Perl on Win32
442 Type "dmake install" (or "nmake install"). This will put the newly
443 built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP> points to in the
444 Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation under
445 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same under
446 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod\html>.
448 To use the Perl you just installed you will need to add a new entry to
449 your PATH environment variable: C<$INST_TOP\bin>, e.g.
451 set PATH=c:\perl\bin;%PATH%
453 If you opted to uncomment C<INST_VER> and C<INST_ARCH> in the makefile
454 then the installation structure is a little more complicated and you will
455 need to add two new PATH components instead: C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin> and
456 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin\$ARCHNAME>, e.g.
458 set PATH=c:\perl\5.6.0\bin;c:\perl\5.6.0\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH%
460 =head2 Usage Hints for Perl on Win32
464 =item Environment Variables
466 The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled
467 into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start
468 using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable).
470 If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB
471 to a list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl
472 to look for libraries. Look for descriptions of other environment
473 variables you can set in L<perlrun>.
475 You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and
476 backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See L<perlrun>.
478 Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain default
479 values if you choose to put them there. Perl attempts to read entries from
480 C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> and C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>.
481 Entries in the former override entries in the latter. One or more of the
482 following entries (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may be set:
484 lib-$] version-specific standard library path to add to @INC
485 lib standard library path to add to @INC
486 sitelib-$] version-specific site library path to add to @INC
487 sitelib site library path to add to @INC
488 vendorlib-$] version-specific vendor library path to add to @INC
489 vendorlib vendor library path to add to @INC
490 PERL* fallback for all %ENV lookups that begin with "PERL"
492 Note the C<$]> in the above is not literal. Substitute whatever version
493 of perl you want to honor that entry, e.g. C<5.6.0>. Paths must be
494 separated with semicolons, as usual on win32.
498 By default, perl handles file globbing using the File::Glob extension,
499 which provides portable globbing.
501 If you want perl to use globbing that emulates the quirks of DOS
502 filename conventions, you might want to consider using File::DosGlob
503 to override the internal glob() implementation. See L<File::DosGlob> for
506 =item Using perl from the command line
508 If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line
509 shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased
510 with what Windows offers by way of a command shell.
512 The crucial thing to understand about the Windows environment is that
513 the command line you type in is processed twice before Perl sees it.
514 First, your command shell (usually CMD.EXE on Windows NT, and
515 COMMAND.COM on Windows 9x) preprocesses the command line, to handle
516 redirection, environment variable expansion, and location of the
517 executable to run. Then, the perl executable splits the remaining
518 command line into individual arguments, using the C runtime library
519 upon which Perl was built.
521 It is particularly important to note that neither the shell nor the C
522 runtime do any wildcard expansions of command-line arguments (so
523 wildcards need not be quoted). Also, the quoting behaviours of the
524 shell and the C runtime are rudimentary at best (and may, if you are
525 using a non-standard shell, be inconsistent). The only (useful) quote
526 character is the double quote ("). It can be used to protect spaces
527 and other special characters in arguments.
529 The Windows NT documentation has almost no description of how the
530 quoting rules are implemented, but here are some general observations
531 based on experiments: The C runtime breaks arguments at spaces and
532 passes them to programs in argc/argv. Double quotes can be used to
533 prevent arguments with spaces in them from being split up. You can
534 put a double quote in an argument by escaping it with a backslash and
535 enclosing the whole argument within double quotes. The backslash and
536 the pair of double quotes surrounding the argument will be stripped by
539 The file redirection characters "E<lt>", "E<gt>", and "|" can be quoted by
540 double quotes (although there are suggestions that this may not always
541 be true). Single quotes are not treated as quotes by the shell or
542 the C runtime, they don't get stripped by the shell (just to make
543 this type of quoting completely useless). The caret "^" has also
544 been observed to behave as a quoting character, but this appears
545 to be a shell feature, and the caret is not stripped from the command
546 line, so Perl still sees it (and the C runtime phase does not treat
547 the caret as a quote character).
549 Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell:
551 This prints two doublequotes:
553 perl -e "print '\"\"' "
557 perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" "
559 This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch":
561 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch
563 This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland):
565 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul
567 This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch":
569 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch
571 This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the console:
573 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less
575 This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager:
577 perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less
579 This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file "blurch":
581 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less
584 Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows 9x
585 is left as an exercise to the reader :)
587 One particularly pernicious problem with the 4NT command shell for
588 Windows NT is that it (nearly) always treats a % character as indicating
589 that environment variable expansion is needed. Under this shell, it is
590 therefore important to always double any % characters which you want
591 Perl to see (for example, for hash variables), even when they are
594 =item Building Extensions
596 The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth
597 of extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build.
598 Look in http://www.cpan.org/ for more information on CPAN.
600 Note that not all of the extensions available from CPAN may work
601 in the Win32 environment; you should check the information at
602 http://testers.cpan.org/ before investing too much effort into
603 porting modules that don't readily build.
605 Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can
606 be built, tested and installed with the standard mantra:
613 where $MAKE is whatever 'make' program you have configured perl to
614 use. Use "perl -V:make" to find out what this is. Some extensions
615 may not provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything or
616 fail), but most serious ones do.
618 It is important that you use a supported 'make' program, and
619 ensure Config.pm knows about it. If you don't have nmake, you can
620 either get dmake from the location mentioned earlier or get an
621 old version of nmake reportedly available from:
623 http://download.microsoft.com/download/vc15/Patch/1.52/W95/EN-US/nmake15.exe
625 Another option is to use the make written in Perl, available from
628 http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Make/
630 You may also use dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
632 Note that MakeMaker actually emits makefiles with different syntax
633 depending on what 'make' it thinks you are using. Therefore, it is
634 important that one of the following values appears in Config.pm:
636 make='nmake' # MakeMaker emits nmake syntax
637 make='dmake' # MakeMaker emits dmake syntax
638 any other value # MakeMaker emits generic make syntax
639 (e.g GNU make, or Perl make)
641 If the value doesn't match the 'make' program you want to use,
642 edit Config.pm to fix it.
644 If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported
645 C compilers. You must make sure you have set up the environment for
646 the compiler for command-line compilation.
648 If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for
649 why it failed, and report problems to the module author. If
650 it looks like the extension building support is at fault, report
651 that with full details of how the build failed using the perlbug
654 =item Command-line Wildcard Expansion
656 The default command shells on DOS descendant operating systems (such
657 as they are) usually do not expand wildcard arguments supplied to
658 programs. They consider it the application's job to handle that.
659 This is commonly achieved by linking the application (in our case,
660 perl) with startup code that the C runtime libraries usually provide.
661 However, doing that results in incompatible perl versions (since the
662 behavior of the argv expansion code differs depending on the
663 compiler, and it is even buggy on some compilers). Besides, it may
664 be a source of frustration if you use such a perl binary with an
665 alternate shell that *does* expand wildcards.
667 Instead, the following solution works rather well. The nice things
668 about it are 1) you can start using it right away; 2) it is more
669 powerful, because it will do the right thing with a pattern like
670 */*/*.c; 3) you can decide whether you do/don't want to use it; and
671 4) you can extend the method to add any customizations (or even
672 entirely different kinds of wildcard expansion).
674 C:\> copy con c:\perl\lib\Wild.pm
675 # Wild.pm - emulate shell @ARGV expansion on shells that don't
678 my @g = File::DosGlob::glob($_) if /[*?]/;
683 C:\> set PERL5OPT=-MWild
684 C:\> perl -le "for (@ARGV) { print }" */*/perl*.c
688 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
689 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
690 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
691 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
692 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
693 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
695 Note there are two distinct steps there: 1) You'll have to create
696 Wild.pm and put it in your perl lib directory. 2) You'll need to
697 set the PERL5OPT environment variable. If you want argv expansion
698 to be the default, just set PERL5OPT in your default startup
701 If you are using the Visual C compiler, you can get the C runtime's
702 command line wildcard expansion built into perl binary. The resulting
703 binary will always expand unquoted command lines, which may not be
704 what you want if you use a shell that does that for you. The expansion
705 done is also somewhat less powerful than the approach suggested above.
707 =item Win32 Specific Extensions
709 A number of extensions specific to the Win32 platform are available
710 from CPAN. You may find that many of these extensions are meant to
711 be used under the Activeware port of Perl, which used to be the only
712 native port for the Win32 platform. Since the Activeware port does not
713 have adequate support for Perl's extension building tools, these
714 extensions typically do not support those tools either and, therefore,
715 cannot be built using the generic steps shown in the previous section.
717 To ensure smooth transitioning of existing code that uses the
718 ActiveState port, there is a bundle of Win32 extensions that contains
719 all of the ActiveState extensions and several other Win32 extensions from
720 CPAN in source form, along with many added bugfixes, and with MakeMaker
721 support. The latest version of this bundle is available at:
723 http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwin32/
725 See the README in that distribution for building and installation
728 =item Notes on 64-bit Windows
730 Windows .NET Server supports the LLP64 data model on the Intel Itanium
733 The LLP64 data model is different from the LP64 data model that is the
734 norm on 64-bit Unix platforms. In the former, C<int> and C<long> are
735 both 32-bit data types, while pointers are 64 bits wide. In addition,
736 there is a separate 64-bit wide integral type, C<__int64>. In contrast,
737 the LP64 data model that is pervasive on Unix platforms provides C<int>
738 as the 32-bit type, while both the C<long> type and pointers are of
739 64-bit precision. Note that both models provide for 64-bits of
742 64-bit Windows running on Itanium is capable of running 32-bit x86
743 binaries transparently. This means that you could use a 32-bit build
744 of Perl on a 64-bit system. Given this, why would one want to build
745 a 64-bit build of Perl? Here are some reasons why you would bother:
751 A 64-bit native application will run much more efficiently on
756 There is no 2GB limit on process size.
760 Perl automatically provides large file support when built under
765 Embedding Perl inside a 64-bit application.
771 =head2 Running Perl Scripts
773 Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to
774 indicate to the OS that it should execute the file using perl.
775 Win32 has no comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are
778 Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on
779 Win32 rely on the file "extension". There are three methods
780 to use this to execute perl scripts:
786 There is a facility called "file extension associations" that will
787 work in Windows NT 4.0. This can be manipulated via the two
788 commands "assoc" and "ftype" that come standard with Windows NT
789 4.0. Type "ftype /?" for a complete example of how to set this
790 up for perl scripts (Say what? You thought Windows NT wasn't
795 Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are
796 reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the
797 old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a
798 regular batch file to the OS, may be used. The install process
799 makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to wrap
800 perl scripts into batch files. For example:
804 will create the file "FOO.BAT". Note "pl2bat" strips any
805 .pl suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file.
807 If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that
808 "pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to
809 refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to make
810 sure that construct works in batch files. As of this writing,
811 4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *" statement in their
812 4NT.INI file or will need to execute "setdos /p*" in the 4DOS/NT
813 startup file to enable this to work.
817 Using "pl2bat" has a few problems: the file name gets changed,
818 so scripts that rely on C<$0> to find what they must do may not
819 run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the
820 original script, and so this process can be maintenance intensive
821 if the originals get updated often. A different approach that
822 avoids both problems is possible.
824 A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied
825 to any filename (along with the .bat suffix). For example,
826 if you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is
827 executed. Since you can run batch files on Win32 platforms simply
828 by typing the name (without the extension), this effectively
829 runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or "foo.bat".
830 With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a different location
831 than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is available somewhere on
832 the PATH. If your scripts are on a filesystem that allows symbolic
833 links, you can even avoid copying "runperl.bat".
835 Here's a diversion: copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type
836 "runperl". Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :)
837 Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH
841 =head2 Miscellaneous Things
843 A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be
844 able to use it if you have a web browser installed on your
847 C<perldoc> is also a useful tool for browsing information contained
848 in the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager
849 like C<less> (recent versions of which have Win32 support). You may
850 have to set the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager.
851 "perldoc -f foo" will print information about the perl operator
854 One common mistake when using this port with a GUI library like C<Tk>
855 is assuming that Perl's normal behavior of opening a command-line
856 window will go away. This isn't the case. If you want to start a copy
857 of C<perl> without opening a command-line window, use the C<wperl>
858 executable built during the installation process. Usage is exactly
859 the same as normal C<perl> on Win32, except that options like C<-h>
860 don't work (since they need a command-line window to print to).
862 If you find bugs in perl, you can run C<perlbug> to create a
863 bug report (you may have to send it manually if C<perlbug> cannot
864 find a mailer on your system).
866 =head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS
868 Norton AntiVirus interferes with the build process, particularly if
869 set to "AutoProtect, All Files, when Opened". Unlike large applications
870 the perl build process opens and modifies a lot of files. Having the
871 the AntiVirus scan each and every one slows build the process significantly.
872 Worse, with PERLIO=stdio the build process fails with peculiar messages
873 as the virus checker interacts badly with miniperl.exe writing configure
874 files (it seems to either catch file part written and treat it as suspicious,
875 or virus checker may have it "locked" in a way which inhibits miniperl
876 updating it). The build does complete with
880 but that may be just luck. Other AntiVirus software may have similar issues.
882 Some of the built-in functions do not act exactly as documented in
883 L<perlfunc>, and a few are not implemented at all. To avoid
884 surprises, particularly if you have had prior exposure to Perl
885 in other operating environments or if you intend to write code
886 that will be portable to other environments, see L<perlport>
887 for a reasonably definitive list of these differences.
889 Not all extensions available from CPAN may build or work properly
890 in the Win32 environment. See L</"Building Extensions">.
892 Most C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not
893 behave as on Unix platforms. See L<perlport> for the full list.
894 Perl requires Winsock2 to be installed on the system. If you're
895 running Win95, you can download Winsock upgrade from here:
897 http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/downloads/contents/WUAdminTools/S_WUNetworkingTools/W95Sockets2/Default.asp
899 Later OS versions already include Winsock2 support.
901 Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it
902 doesn't exactly "behave", either :). For instance, calling C<die()>
903 or C<exit()> from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most
904 implementations of C<signal()> on Win32 are severely crippled.
905 Thus, signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag
906 variable in the handler. Using signals under this port should
907 currently be considered unsupported.
909 Please send detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that
910 you may find to E<lt>F<perlbug@perl.org>E<gt>, along with the output
911 produced by C<perl -V>.
913 =head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
915 The use of a camel with the topic of Perl is a trademark
916 of O'Reilly and Associates, Inc. Used with permission.
922 =item Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt>
924 =item Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@activestate.comE<gt>
926 =item Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ing-simmons.netE<gt>
928 =item Jan Dubois E<lt>jand@activestate.comE<gt>
930 =item Steve Hay E<lt>steve.hay@uk.radan.comE<gt>
934 This document is maintained by Jan Dubois.
942 This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24,
943 and borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available
944 at the time. Various people have made numerous and sundry hacks
947 Borland support was added in 5.004_01 (Gurusamy Sarathy).
949 GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons).
951 Support for PERL_OBJECT was added in 5.005 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
953 Support for fork() emulation was added in 5.6 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
955 Win9x support was added in 5.6 (Benjamin Stuhl).
957 Support for 64-bit Windows added in 5.8 (ActiveState Corp).
959 Last updated: 30 September 2005