This document is obsolete. Refer to README.cygwin32. However, if you want to build a statically linked perl binary, then you applied the wrong patch. You want perl5.005_03-static-patch, which will build "Pre-release 1" according to the nomenclature in README.cygwin32. The perl source distribution is available from http://www.cpan.org/src/index.html For the easiest build of perl under Cygwin, do the following: (1) read *(a) README.cygwin from the perl source distribution *(b) read build-instructions.charles-wilson (b) read build-instructions.sebastien-barre (c) read build-instructions.steven-morlock (d) read build-instructions.steven-morlock2 (e) read build-instructions.teun-burgers (2) prepare the source (a) unpack perl source distribution in /usr/local/src (b) copy perl5.005_03-static-patch into /usr/local/src/perl5.005_03/ (c) cd /usr/local/src/perl5.005_03 (d) chmod -R +w * (e) patch -p1 < perl5.005_03-static-patch (3) get ready to build (a) cp cygwin32/cw32imp.h . (b) cp cygwin32/gcc2 . (c) cp cygwin32/ld2 . (d) cp cygwin32/perlgcc . (e) cp cygwin32/perlld . (f) cp gcc2 /usr/local/bin (g) cp ld2 /usr/local/bin (h) cp hints/cygwin32.sh config.sh (i) sh Configure -d (automatically does a make depend) (4) build and install (b) make (c) make test (d) make install To customize, look around in the patchfile or ignore the patch and follow the build-instructions.* directly. If you want to edit the paths in the patchfile to reflect your system, search for "/usr/" within the patchfile. * MUST read.