First, make sure you are installing an up-to-date version of Perl. If
you didn't get your Perl source from CPAN, check the latest version at
-<URL:http://www.perl.com/CPAN/src/>.
+<URL:http://www.cpan.org/src/>.
The basic steps to build and install perl5 on a Unix system
with all the defaults are:
=head1 WARNING: This version requires a compiler that supports ANSI C.
-If you find that your C compiler is not ANSI-capable, try obtaining
-GCC, available from GNU mirrors worldwide (e.g. ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu).
+Most C compilers are now ANSI-compliant. However, a few current
+computers are delivered with an older C compiler expressly for
+rebuilding the system kernel, or for some other historical reason.
+Alternatively, you may have an old machine which was shipped before
+ANSI compliance became widespread. Such compilers are not suitable
+for building Perl.
+
+If you find that your default C compiler is not ANSI-capable, but you
+know that an ANSI-capable compiler is installed on your system, you
+can tell F<Configure> to use the correct compiler by means of the
+C<-Dcc=> command-line option -- see L<"gcc">.
+
+If do not have an ANSI-capable compiler there are several avenues open
+to you:
+
+=over 4
+
+=item *
+
+You may try obtaining GCC, available from GNU mirrors worldwide,
+listed at <URL:http://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html>. If, rather than
+building gcc from source code, you locate a binary version configured
+for your platform, be sure that it is compiled for the version of the
+operating system that you are using.
+
+=item *
+
+You may purchase a commercial ANSI C compiler from your system
+supplier or elsewhere. (Or your organization may already have
+licensed such software -- ask your colleagues to find out how to
+access it.) If there is a README file for your system in the Perl
+distribution (for example, F<README.hpux>), it may contain advice on
+suitable compilers.
+
+=item *
+
Another alternative may be to use a tool like ansi2knr to convert the
sources back to K&R style, but there is no guarantee this route will get
you anywhere, since the prototypes are not the only ANSI features used
form, be sure to email perlbug@perl.com to let us know the steps you
followed. This will enable us to officially support this option.
+=back
+
+Although Perl can be compiled using a C++ compiler, the Configure script
+does not work with some C++ compilers.
+
=head1 Space Requirements
The complete perl5 source tree takes up about 20 MB of disk space.
By default, ExtUtils::MakeMaker will install architecture-independent
modules into $sitelib and architecture-dependent modules into $sitearch.
+NOTE: As of 5.6.0, ExtUtils::MakeMaker will use $sitelib and $sitearch,
+but will not use the other site-specific directories. Volunteers to
+fix this are needed.
+
=item Directories for vendor-supplied add-on files
Lastly, if you are building a binary distribution of perl for
/usr hierarchy, while the directories reserved for the end-user are in
the /usr/local hierarchy.
+NOTE: As of 5.6.0, ExtUtils::MakeMaker does not use these directories.
+Volunteers to fix this are needed.
+
The entire installed library hierarchy is installed in locations with
version numbers, keeping the installations of different versions distinct.
However, later installations of Perl can still be configured to search the
As a final catch-all, Configure also offers an $otherlibdirs
variable. This variable contains a colon-separated list of additional
-directories to add to @INC. By default, it will be set to
-$prefix/site_perl if Configure detects that you have 5.004-era modules
-installed there. However, you can set it to anything you like.
+directories to add to @INC. By default, it will be empty.
+Perl will search these directories (including architecture and
+version-specific subdirectories) for add-on modules and extensions.
=item Man Pages
vendor-supplied utilities explicitly to Configure, for example by
Configure -Dar=/bin/ar.
+=item THIS PACKAGE SEEMS TO BE INCOMPLETE
+
+The F<Configure> program has not been able to find all the files which
+make up the complete Perl distribution. You may have a damaged source
+archive file (in which case you may also have seen messages such as
+C<gzip: stdin: unexpected end of file> and C<tar: Unexpected EOF on
+archive file>), or you may have obtained a structurally-sound but
+incomplete archive. In either case, try downloading again from the
+official site named at the start of this document. If you do find
+that any site is carrying a corrupted or incomplete source code
+archive, please report it to the site's maintainer.
+
+This message can also be a symptom of using (say) a GNU tar compiled
+for SunOS4 on Solaris. When you run SunOS4 binaries on Solaris the
+run-time system magically alters pathnames matching m#lib/locale# - so
+when tar tries to create lib/locale.pm a differently-named file gets
+created instead.
+
+You may find the file under its assumed name and be able to rename it
+back. Or use Sun's tar to do the extract.
+
+=item invalid token: ##
+
+You are using a non-ANSI-compliant C compiler. See L<WARNING: This
+version requires a compiler that supports ANSI C>.
+
+=item lib/locale.pm: No such file or directory
+
+See L<THIS PACKAGE SEEMS TO BE INCOMPLETE>.
+
=item Miscellaneous
Some additional things that have been reported for either perl4 or perl5:
On some systems, particularly those with smaller amounts of RAM, some
of the tests in t/op/pat.t may fail with an "Out of memory" message.
-Specifically, in perl5.004_64, tests 74 and 78 have been reported to
-fail on some systems. On my SparcStation IPC with 8 MB of RAM, test 78
-will fail if the system is running any other significant tasks at the
-same time.
+For example, on my SparcStation IPC with 12 MB of RAM, in perl5.5.670,
+test 85 will fail if run under either t/TEST or t/harness.
Try stopping other jobs on the system and then running the test by itself:
projects / p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git / blobdiff