=head1 SYNOPSIS
-The basic steps to build and install perl5 on a Unix system are:
+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.cpan.org/src/>.
+
+The basic steps to build and install perl5 on a Unix system
+with all the defaults are:
rm -f config.sh Policy.sh
- sh Configure
+ sh Configure -de
make
make test
make install
Each of these is explained in further detail below.
-For information on non-Unix systems, see the section on
-L<"Porting information"> below.
+B<NOTE>: starting from the release 5.6.0 Perl will use a version
+scheme where even-numbered subreleases (like 5.6) are stable
+maintenance releases and odd-numbered subreleases (like 5.7) are
+unstable development releases. Development releases should not be
+used in production environments. Fixes and new features are first
+carefully tested in development releases and only if they prove
+themselves to be worthy will they be migrated to the maintenance
+releases.
+
+The above commands will install Perl to /usr/local or /opt, depending
+on the platform. If that's not okay with you, use
+
+ rm -f config.sh Policy.sh
+ sh Configure
+ make
+ make test
+ make install
+
+For information on non-Unix systems, see the section on L<"Porting
+information"> below.
+
+If "make install" just says "`install' is up to date" or something
+similar, you may be on case-preserving filesystems such as Mac's HFS+
+and you should say "make install-all". (This confusion brought to you
+by the Perl distribution having a file called INSTALL.)
If you have problems, corrections, or questions, please see
L<"Reporting Problems"> below.
pod/perldelta.pod file. For more detailed information about specific
changes, see the Changes file.
-IMPORTANT NOTE: 5.005_53 and later releases do not export unadorned
-global symbols anymore. This means most CPAN modules probably won't
-build under this release without adding '-DPERL_POLLUTE' to ccflags
-in config.sh. This is not the default because we want the modules
-to get fixed *before* the 5.6 release. pod/perldelta.pod contains
-additional notes about this.
-
=head1 DESCRIPTION
This document is written in pod format as an easy way to indicate its
C<code> literal code
L<name> A link (cross reference) to name
-You should probably at least skim through this entire document before
+Although most of the defaults are probably fine for most users,
+you should probably at least skim through this entire document before
proceeding.
If you're building Perl on a non-Unix system, you should also read
the README file specific to your operating system, since this may
-provide additional or different instructions for building Perl.
+provide additional or different instructions for building Perl. There
+are also README files for several flavors of Unix systems, such as
+Solaris, HP-UX, and AIX; if you have one of those systems, you should
+also read the README file specific to that system.
If there is a hint file for your system (in the hints/ directory) you
should also read that hint file for specific information for your
there is a README file for your platform, then you should read
that too. Additional information is in the Porting/ directory.
-=head1 WARNING: This version is not binary compatible with Perl 5.005.
+=head1 WARNING: This version requires an extra step to build old extensions.
+
+5.005_53 and later releases do not export unadorned
+global symbols anymore. This means you may need to build older
+extensions that have not been updated for the new naming convention
+with:
+
+ perl Makefile.PL POLLUTE=1
+
+Alternatively, you can enable CPP symbol pollution wholesale by
+building perl itself with:
+
+ sh Configure -Accflags=-DPERL_POLLUTE
-If you have dynamically loaded extensions that you built under perl
-5.005, you will need to rebuild and reinstall those extensions to use
-them with 5.6. Pure perl modules should continue to work just fine
-without reinstallation. See the discussions below on L<"Coexistence
-with earlier versions of perl5"> and L<"Upgrading from 5.005 to
-5.6"> for more details.
+pod/perldelta.pod contains more details about this.
+
+=head1 WARNING: This version may not be binary compatible with Perl 5.005.
+
+Using the default Configure options for building perl should get you
+a perl that will be binary compatible with the 5.005 release.
+
+However, if you run Configure with any custom options, such as
+-Dusethreads, -Dusemultiplicity, -Dusemymalloc, -Ubincompat5005 etc.,
+the resulting perl will not be binary compatible. Under these
+circumstances, if you have dynamically loaded extensions that were
+built under perl 5.005, you will need to rebuild and reinstall all
+those extensions to use them with 5.6.
+
+Pure perl modules without XS or C code should continue to work fine
+without reinstallation. See the discussions below on
+L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> and
+L<"Upgrading from 5.005 to 5.6"> for more details.
The standard extensions supplied with Perl will be handled automatically.
-In a related issue, old modules may possibly be affected by the
+On a related issue, old modules may possibly be affected by the
changes in the Perl language in the current release. Please see
pod/perldelta.pod (and pod/perl500Xdelta.pod) for a description of
-what's changed. See also your installed copy of the perllocal.pod
+what's changed. See your installed copy of the perllocal.pod
file for a (possibly incomplete) list of locally installed modules.
Also see CPAN::autobundle for one way to make a "bundle" of your
currently installed modules.
=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
the sources back to the platform without GCC.
If you succeed in automatically converting the sources to a K&R compatible
-form, be sure to email perlbug@perl.com to let us know the steps you
+form, be sure to email perlbug@perl.org 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 15 MB of disk space.
-After completing make, it takes up roughly 20 MB, though the actual
+The complete perl5 source tree takes up about 50 MB of disk space.
+After completing make, it takes up roughly 100 MB, though the actual
total is likely to be quite system-dependent. The installation
-directories need something on the order of 15 MB, though again that
+directories need something on the order of 45 MB, though again that
value is system-dependent.
=head1 Start with a Fresh Distribution
After it runs, Configure will perform variable substitution on all the
*.SH files and offer to run make depend.
+=head2 Altering config.sh variables for C compiler switches etc.
+
+For most users, all of the Configure defaults are fine. Configure
+also has several convenient options which are all described below.
+However, if Configure doesn't have an option to do what you want,
+you can change Configure variables after the platform hints have been
+run, by using Configure's -A switch. For example, here's how to add
+a couple of extra flags to C compiler invocations:
+
+ sh Configure -Accflags="-DPERL_Y2KWARN -DPERL_POLLUTE_MALLOC"
+
+For more help on Configure switches, run:
+
+ sh Configure -h
+
+=head2 Building Perl outside of the source directory
+
+Sometimes it is desirable to build Perl in a directory different from
+where the sources are, for example if you want to keep your sources
+read-only, or if you want to share the sources between different binary
+architectures.
+
+Starting from Perl 5.6.1 you can do this (if your file system supports
+symbolic links) by
+
+ mkdir /tmp/perl/build/directory
+ cd /tmp/perl/build/directory
+ sh /path/to/perl/source/Configure -Dmksymlinks ...
+
+This will create in /tmp/perl/build/directory a tree of symbolic links
+pointing to files in /path/to/perl/source. The original files are left
+unaffected. After Configure has finished you can just say
+
+ make all test
+
+and Perl will be built and tested, all in /tmp/perl/build/directory.
+
=head2 Common Configure options
Configure supports a number of useful options. Run B<Configure -h> to
directory structure is simplified. For example, if you use
prefix=/opt/perl, then Configure will suggest /opt/perl/lib instead of
/opt/perl/lib/perl5/. Again, see L<"Installation Directories"> below
-for more details.
+for more details. Do not include a trailing slash, (i.e. /opt/perl/)
+or you may experience odd test failures.
NOTE: You must not specify an installation directory that is the same
as or below your perl source directory. If you do, installperl will
sh Configure -des
-For my Solaris system, I usually use
+Note: for development releases (odd subreleases, like 5.7, as opposed
+to maintenance releases which have even subreleases, like 5.6)
+if you want to use Configure -d, you will also need to supply -Dusedevel
+to Configure, because the default answer to the question "do you really
+want to Configure a development version?" is "no". The -Dusedevel
+skips that sanity check.
+
+For example for my Solaris system, I usually use
sh Configure -Dprefix=/opt/perl -Doptimize='-xpentium -xO4' -des
installation questions are near the beginning of Configure.
Further, there are a number of additions to the installation
directories since 5.005, so reusing your old config.sh may not
-be sufficient to put everything where you want it.
+be sufficient to put everything where you want it. Do not include
+trailing slashes on directory names.
I highly recommend running Configure interactively to be sure it puts
everything where you want it. At any point during the Configure
=item Directories for the perl distribution
-By default, Configure will use the following directories for 5.6.
+By default, Configure will use the following directories for 5.6.0.
$version is the full perl version number, including subversion, e.g.
-5.6 or 5.6.1, and $archname is a string like sun4-sunos,
+5.6.0 or 5.6.1, and $archname is a string like sun4-sunos,
determined by Configure. The full definitions of all Configure
variables are in the file Porting/Glossary.
After perl is installed, you may later wish to add modules (e.g. from
CPAN) or scripts. Configure will set up the following directories to
-be used for installing those add-on modules and scripts. $apiversion
-is the perl version number (without subversion), e.g. 5.6.
+be used for installing those add-on modules and scripts.
Configure variable Default value
$siteprefix $prefix
$sitebin $siteprefix/bin
- $sitescriptdir $siteprefix/bin
- $sitelib $siteprefix/lib/perl5/site_perl/
- $sitearch $siteprefix/lib/perl5/site_perl/$apiversion/$archname
- $siteman1dir $siteprefix/man/man1
- $siteman3dir $siteprefix/man/man3
- $sitehtml1dir (none)
- $sitehtml3dir (none)
+ $sitescript $siteprefix/bin
+ $sitelib $siteprefix/lib/perl5/site_perl/$version
+ $sitearch $siteprefix/lib/perl5/site_perl/$version/$archname
+ $siteman1 $siteprefix/man/man1
+ $siteman3 $siteprefix/man/man3
+ $sitehtml1 (none)
+ $sitehtml3 (none)
By default, ExtUtils::MakeMaker will install architecture-independent
-modules into $sitelib/$apiversion and architecture-dependent modules
-into $sitearch.
+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
$vendorprefix (none)
(The next ones are set only if vendorprefix is set.)
$vendorbin $vendorprefix/bin
- $vendorscriptdir $vendorprefix/bin
- $vendorlib $vendorprefix/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/
- $vendorarch $vendorprefix/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/$apiversion/$archname
- $vendorman1dir $vendorprefix/man/man1
- $vendorman3dir $vendorprefix/man/man3
- $vendorhtml1dir (none)
- $vendorhtml3dir (none)
+ $vendorscript $vendorprefix/bin
+ $vendorlib $vendorprefix/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/$version
+ $vendorarch $vendorprefix/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/$version/$archname
+ $vendorman1 $vendorprefix/man/man1
+ $vendorman3 $vendorprefix/man/man3
+ $vendorhtml1 (none)
+ $vendorhtml3 (none)
These are normally empty, but may be set as needed. For example,
a vendor might choose the following settings:
- $prefix /usr/bin
- $siteprefix /usr/local/bin
- $vendorprefix /usr/bin
+ $prefix /usr
+ $siteprefix /usr/local
+ $vendorprefix /usr
This would have the effect of setting the following:
$man3dir /usr/man/man3
$sitebin /usr/local/bin
- $sitescriptdir /usr/local/bin
- $sitelib /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/
- $sitearch /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/$apiversion/$archname
- $siteman1dir /usr/local/man/man1
- $siteman3dir /usr/local/man/man3
-
- $vendorbin /usr/bin
- $vendorscriptdir /usr/bin
- $vendorlib /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/
- $vendorarch /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/$apiversion/$archname
- $vendorman1dir /usr/man/man1
- $vendorman3dir /usr/man/man3
+ $sitescript /usr/local/bin
+ $sitelib /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/$version
+ $sitearch /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/$version/$archname
+ $siteman1 /usr/local/man/man1
+ $siteman3 /usr/local/man/man3
+
+ $vendorbin /usr/bin
+ $vendorscript /usr/bin
+ $vendorlib /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/$version
+ $vendorarch /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/$version/$archname
+ $vendorman1 /usr/man/man1
+ $vendorman3 /usr/man/man3
Note how in this example, the vendor-supplied directories are in the
/usr hierarchy, while the directories reserved for the end-user are in
-the /usr/local hierarchy. Note too how the vendor-supplied
-directories track $apiversion, rather than $version, to ease upgrading
-between maintenance subversions. See L<"Coexistence with earlier
-versions of perl5"> below for more details.
+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
+installed libraries corresponding to compatible earlier versions.
+See L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> below for more details
+on how Perl can be made to search older version directories.
Of course you may use these directories however you see fit. For
example, you may wish to use $siteprefix for site-specific files that
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 APPLLIB_EXP
+
+There is one other way of adding paths to @INC at perl build time, and
+that is by setting the APPLLIB_EXP C pre-processor token to a colon-
+separated list of directories, like this
+
+ sh Configure -Accflags='-DAPPLLIB_EXP=\"/usr/libperl\"'
+
+The directories defined by APPLLIB_EXP get added to @INC I<first>,
+ahead of any others, and so provide a way to override the standard perl
+modules should you, for example, want to distribute fixes without
+touching the perl distribution proper. And, like otherlib dirs,
+version and architecture specific subdirectories are also searched, if
+present, at run time. Of course, you can still search other @INC
+directories ahead of those in APPLLIB_EXP by using any of the standard
+run-time methods: $PERLLIB, $PERL5LIB, -I, use lib, etc.
=item Man Pages
You can continue to use the old default from the command line with
- sh Configure -Dman3dir=/usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6/man/man3
+ sh Configure -Dman3dir=/usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.0/man/man3
Some users also prefer to use a .3pm suffix. You can do that with
suggesting $prefix/lib/perl5/, Configure will suggest $prefix/lib.
Thus, for example, if you Configure with
--Dprefix=/opt/perl, then the default library directories for 5.6 are
+-Dprefix=/opt/perl, then the default library directories for 5.6.0 are
Configure variable Default value
- $privlib /opt/perl/lib/5.6
- $archlib /opt/perl/lib/5.6/$archname
- $sitelib /opt/perl/lib/site_perl/5.6
- $sitearch /opt/perl/lib/site_perl/5.6/$archname
+ $privlib /opt/perl/lib/5.6.0
+ $archlib /opt/perl/lib/5.6.0/$archname
+ $sitelib /opt/perl/lib/site_perl/5.6.0
+ $sitearch /opt/perl/lib/site_perl/5.6.0/$archname
=head2 Changing the installation directory
to contain any valid shell commands. It will be run just after the
platform-specific hints files.
-Note: Since the directory hierarchy for 5.6 contains a number of
+Note: Since the directory hierarchy for 5.6.0 contains a number of
new vendor* and site* entries, your Policy.sh file will probably not
set them to your desired values. I encourage you to run Configure
interactively to be sure it puts things where you want them.
The default is to compile without thread support.
+Perl has two different internal threads implementations. The current
+model (available internally since 5.6, and as a user-level module
+since 5.8) is called interpreter-based implementation (ithreads),
+with one interpreter per thread, and explicit sharing of data.
+
+The 5.005 version (5005threads) is considered obsolete, buggy, and
+unmaintained.
+
+By default, Configure selects ithreads if -Dusethreads is specified.
+
+However, you can select the old 5005threads behavior
+
+ sh Configure -Dusethreads -Duse5005threads
+
+If you decide to use ithreads, the 'threads' module allows their use,
+and the 'Thread' module offers an interface to both 5005threads and
+ithreads (whichever has been configured).
+
+=head2 Large file support.
+
+Since Perl 5.6.0 Perl has supported large files (files larger than
+2 gigabytes), and in many common platforms like Linux or Solaris this
+support is on by default.
+
+This is both good and bad. It is good in that you can use large files,
+seek(), stat(), and -s them. It is bad if you are interfacing Perl
+using some extension, also the components you are connecting to must
+be large file aware: if Perl thinks files can be large but the other
+parts of the software puzzle do not understand the concept, bad things
+will happen. One popular extension suffering from this ailment is the
+Apache extension mod_perl.
+
+There's also one known limitation with the current large files
+implementation: unless you also have 64-bit integers (see the next
+section), you cannot use the printf/sprintf non-decimal integer
+formats like C<%x> to print filesizes. You can use C<%d>, though.
+
+=head2 64 bit support.
+
+If your platform does not have 64 bits natively, but can simulate them
+with compiler flags and/or C<long long> or C<int64_t>, you can build a
+perl that uses 64 bits.
+
+There are actually two modes of 64-bitness: the first one is achieved
+using Configure -Duse64bitint and the second one using Configure
+-Duse64bitall. The difference is that the first one is minimal and
+the second one maximal. The first works in more places than the second.
+
+The C<use64bitint> does only as much as is required to get 64-bit
+integers into Perl (this may mean, for example, using "long longs")
+while your memory may still be limited to 2 gigabytes (because your
+pointers could still be 32-bit). Note that the name C<64bitint> does
+not imply that your C compiler will be using 64-bit C<int>s (it might,
+but it doesn't have to): the C<use64bitint> means that you will be
+able to have 64 bits wide scalar values.
+
+The C<use64bitall> goes all the way by attempting to switch also
+integers (if it can), longs (and pointers) to being 64-bit. This may
+create an even more binary incompatible Perl than -Duse64bitint: the
+resulting executable may not run at all in a 32-bit box, or you may
+have to reboot/reconfigure/rebuild your operating system to be 64-bit
+aware.
+
+Natively 64-bit systems like Alpha and Cray need neither -Duse64bitint
+nor -Duse64bitall.
+
+ NOTE: 64-bit support is still experimental on most platforms.
+ Existing support only covers the LP64 data model. In particular, the
+ LLP64 data model is not yet supported. 64-bit libraries and system
+ APIs on many platforms have not stabilized--your mileage may vary.
+
+=head2 Long doubles
+
+In some systems you may be able to use long doubles to enhance the
+range and precision of your double precision floating point numbers
+(that is, Perl's numbers). Use Configure -Duselongdouble to enable
+this support (if it is available).
+
+=head2 "more bits"
+
+You can "Configure -Dusemorebits" to turn on both the 64-bit support
+and the long double support.
+
=head2 Selecting File IO mechanisms
Previous versions of perl used the standard IO mechanisms as defined in
-stdio.h. Versions 5.003_02 and later of perl allow alternate IO
+stdio.h. Versions 5.003_02 and later of perl allowed alternate IO
mechanisms via a "PerlIO" abstraction, but the stdio mechanism is still
the default and is the only supported mechanism.
-This PerlIO abstraction can be enabled either on the Configure command
-line with
+Starting from Perl 5.8 the default mechanism is to use the PerlIO
+abstraction, because it allows better control of I/O mechanisms,
+instead of having to work with (often, work around) vendors' I/O
+implementations.
- sh Configure -Duseperlio
+This PerlIO abstraction can be disabled either on the Configure
+command line with
-or interactively at the appropriate Configure prompt.
-
-If you choose to use the PerlIO abstraction layer, there are two
-(experimental) possibilities for the underlying IO calls. These have been
-tested to some extent on some platforms, but are not guaranteed to work
-everywhere.
+ sh Configure -Uuseperlio
-=over 4
-
-=item 1.
+or interactively at the appropriate Configure prompt.
-AT&T's "sfio". This has superior performance to stdio.h in many
-cases, and is extensible by the use of "discipline" modules. Sfio
-currently only builds on a subset of the UNIX platforms perl supports.
-Because the data structures are completely different from stdio, perl
-extension modules or external libraries may not work. This
-configuration exists to allow these issues to be worked on.
+With the PerlIO abstraction layer, there is another possibility for
+the underlying IO calls, AT&T's "sfio". This has superior performance
+to stdio.h in many cases, and is extensible by the use of "discipline"
+modules ("Native" PerlIO has them too). Sfio currently only builds on
+a subset of the UNIX platforms perl supports. Because the data
+structures are completely different from stdio, perl extension modules
+or external libraries may not work. This configuration exists to
+allow these issues to be worked on.
This option requires the 'sfio' package to have been built and installed.
-A (fairly old) version of sfio is in CPAN.
+The latest sfio is available from http://www.research.att.com/sw/tools/sfio/
You select this option by
_exit vs. exit. If you have this problem, the fix is to go back to
your sfio sources and correct iffe's guess about atexit.
-There also might be a more recent release of Sfio that fixes your
-problem.
-
-=item 2.
-
-Normal stdio IO, but with all IO going through calls to the PerlIO
-abstraction layer. This configuration can be used to check that perl and
-extension modules have been correctly converted to use the PerlIO
-abstraction.
-
-This configuration should work on all platforms (but might not).
-
-You select this option via:
-
- sh Configure -Duseperlio -Uusesfio
+=head2 SOCKS
-If you have already selected -Duseperlio, and if Configure does not
-detect sfio, then this will be the default suggested by Configure.
-
-=back
+Perl can be configured to be 'socksified', that is, to use the SOCKS
+TCP/IP proxy protocol library. SOCKS is used to give applications
+access to transport layer network proxies. Perl supports only SOCKS
+Version 5. You can find more about SOCKS from http://www.socks.nec.com/
=head2 Dynamic Loading
statically, you can either choose this when Configure prompts you or
you can use the Configure command line option -Uusedl.
-=head2 Building a shared libperl.so Perl library
+=head2 Building a shared Perl library
Currently, for most systems, the main perl executable is built by
linking the "perl library" libperl.a with perlmain.o, your static
To build a shared libperl, the environment variable controlling shared
library search (LD_LIBRARY_PATH in most systems, DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH for
-NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP/Rhapsody, LIBRARY_PATH for BeOS, SHLIB_PATH for
-HP-UX, LIBPATH for AIX, PATH for cygwin32) must be set up to include
+NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP/Darwin, LIBRARY_PATH for BeOS, LD_LIBRARY_PATH/SHLIB_PATH
+for HP-UX, LIBPATH for AIX, PATH for Cygwin) must be set up to include
the Perl build directory because that's where the shared libperl will
be created. Configure arranges makefile to have the correct shared
-library search settings.
+library search settings. You can find the name of the environment
+variable Perl thinks works in your your system by
+
+ grep ldlibpthname config.sh
However, there are some special cases where manually setting the
shared library path might be required. For example, if you want to run
setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH `pwd`
for Csh-style shells. (This procedure may also be needed if for some
-unexpected reason Configure fails to set up makefile correctly.)
+unexpected reason Configure fails to set up makefile correctly.) (And
+again, it may be something else than LD_LIBRARY_PATH for you, see above.)
You can often recognize failures to build/use a shared libperl from error
messages complaining about a missing libperl.so (or libperl.sl in HP-UX),
=item -DPERL_POLLUTE_MALLOC
+NOTE: This flag is enabled automatically on some platforms if you
+asked for binary compatibility with version 5.005, or if you just
+run Configure to accept all the defaults on those platforms. You
+can refuse the automatic binary compatibility flags wholesale by
+running:
+
+ sh Configure -Ubincompat5005
+
+or by answering 'n' at the appropriate prompt.
+
Perl's malloc family of functions are called Perl_malloc(),
-Perl_realloc(), Perl_calloc() and Perl_mfree(). The names do not clash
-with the system versions of these functions.
+Perl_realloc(), Perl_calloc() and Perl_mfree(). When this flag is
+not enabled, the names do not clash with the system versions of
+these functions.
-If you add -DPERL_POLLUTE_MALLOC to your ccflags variable in
-config.sh, then Perl's malloc family of functions will have the same
+If enabled, Perl's malloc family of functions will have the same
names as the system versions. This may be sometimes required when you
have libraries that like to free() data that may have been allocated
by Perl_malloc() and vice versa.
If you are using a shared libperl, see the warnings about multiple
versions of perl under L<Building a shared libperl.so Perl library>.
-=head2 Other Compiler Flags
-
-For most users, all of the Configure defaults are fine. However, you
-can change a number of factors in the way perl is built by adding
-appropriate -D directives to your ccflags variable in config.sh.
-
-You should also run Configure interactively to verify that a hint file
-doesn't inadvertently override your ccflags setting. (Hints files
-shouldn't do that, but some might.)
-
=head2 Extensions
+Perl ships with a number of standard extensions. These are contained
+in the ext/ subdirectory.
+
By default, Configure will offer to build every extension which appears
to be supported. For example, Configure will offer to build GDBM_File
only if it is able to find the gdbm library. (See examples below.)
-B, DynaLoader, Fcntl, IO, and attrs are always built by default.
Configure does not contain code to test for POSIX compliance, so POSIX
is always built by default as well. If you wish to skip POSIX, you can
set the Configure variable useposix=false either in a hint file or from
-the Configure command line. Similarly, the Opcode extension is always
-built by default, but you can skip it by setting the Configure variable
-useopcode=false either in a hint file for from the command line.
-
-You can learn more about each of these extensions by consulting the
+the Configure command line.
+
+If you unpack any additional extensions in the ext/ directory before
+running Configure, then Configure will offer to build those additional
+extensions as well. Most users probably shouldn't have to do this --
+it is usually easier to build additional extensions later after perl
+has been installed. However, if you wish to have those additional
+extensions statically linked into the perl binary, then this offers a
+convenient way to do that in one step. (It is not necessary, however;
+you can build and install extensions just fine even if you don't have
+dynamic loading. See lib/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.pm for more details.)
+
+You can learn more about each of the supplied extensions by consulting the
documentation in the individual .pm modules, located under the
ext/ subdirectory.
version. (Configure will suggest this as the default.)
In summary, here are the Configure command-line variables you can set
-to turn off each extension:
+to turn off various extensions. All others are included by default.
- B (Always included by default)
DB_File i_db
DynaLoader (Must always be included as a static extension)
- Fcntl (Always included by default)
GDBM_File i_gdbm
- IO (Always included by default)
NDBM_File i_ndbm
ODBM_File i_dbm
POSIX useposix
- SDBM_File (Always included by default)
Opcode useopcode
Socket d_socket
- Threads usethreads
- attrs (Always included by default)
+ Threads use5005threads
Thus to skip the NDBM_File extension, you can use
for the default answer, but it will also point out the discrepancy to
you.
-Finally, if you have dynamic loading (most modern Unix systems do)
+Finally, if you have dynamic loading (most modern systems do)
remember that these extensions do not increase the size of your perl
executable, nor do they impact start-up time, so you probably might as
well build all the ones that will work on your system.
=back
+=head2 Building DB, NDBM, and ODBM interfaces with Berkeley DB 3
+
+Perl interface for DB3 is part of Berkeley DB, but if you want to
+compile standard Perl DB/ODBM/NDBM interfaces, you must follow
+following instructions.
+
+Berkeley DB3 from Sleepycat Software is by default installed without
+DB1 compatibility code (needed for DB_File interface) and without
+links to compatibility files. So if you want to use packages written
+for DB/ODBM/NDBM interfaces, you need to configure DB3 with
+--enable-compat185 (and optionally with --enable-dump185) and create
+additional references (suppose you are installing DB3 with
+--prefix=/usr):
+
+ ln -s libdb-3.so /usr/lib/libdbm.so
+ ln -s libdb-3.so /usr/lib/libndbm.so
+ echo '#define DB_DBM_HSEARCH 1' >dbm.h
+ echo '#include <db.h>' >>dbm.h
+ install -m 0644 dbm.h /usr/include/dbm.h
+ install -m 0644 dbm.h /usr/include/ndbm.h
+
+Optionally, if you have compiled with --enable-compat185 (not needed
+for ODBM/NDBM):
+
+ ln -s libdb-3.so /usr/lib/libdb1.so
+ ln -s libdb-3.so /usr/lib/libdb.so
+
+ODBM emulation seems not to be perfect, but is quite usable,
+using DB 3.1.17:
+
+ lib/odbm.............FAILED at test 9
+ Failed 1/64 tests, 98.44% okay
+
=head2 What if it doesn't work?
If you run into problems, try some of the following ideas.
make depend
make
-=item config.over
+=item config.over and config.arch
-You can also supply a shell script config.over to over-ride Configure's
-guesses. It will get loaded up at the very end, just before config.sh
-is created. You have to be careful with this, however, as Configure
-does no checking that your changes make sense.
+You can also supply a shell script config.over to over-ride
+Configure's guesses. It will get loaded up at the very end, just
+before config.sh is created. You have to be careful with this,
+however, as Configure does no checking that your changes make sense.
+This file is usually good for site-specific customizations.
+
+There is also another file that, if it exists, is loaded before the
+config.over, called config.arch. This file is intended to be per
+architecture, not per site, and usually it's the architecture-specific
+hints file that creates the config.arch.
=item config.h
=item No sh
-If you don't have sh, you'll have to copy the sample file Porting/config_H
-to config.h and edit the config.h to reflect your system's peculiarities.
+If you don't have sh, you'll have to copy the sample file
+Porting/config.sh to config.sh and edit your config.sh to reflect your
+system's peculiarities. See Porting/pumpkin.pod for more information.
You'll probably also have to extensively modify the extension building
mechanism.
Specific information for the OS/2, Plan9, VMS and Win32 ports is in the
corresponding README files and subdirectories. Additional information,
including a glossary of all those config.sh variables, is in the Porting
-subdirectory.
+subdirectory. Especially Porting/Glossary should come in handy.
Ports for other systems may also be available. You should check out
-http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ports for current information on ports to
+http://www.cpan.org/ports for current information on ports to
various other operating systems.
+If you plan to port Perl to a new architecture study carefully the
+section titled "Philosophical Issues in Patching and Porting Perl"
+in the file Porting/pumpkin.pod and the file Porting/patching.pod.
+Study also how other non-UNIX ports have solved problems.
+
=back
+=head1 Adding extra modules to the build
+
+You can specify extra modules or module bundles to be fetched from the
+CPAN and installed as part of the Perl build. Either use the -Dextras=...
+command line parameter to Configure, for example like this:
+
+ Configure -Dextras="Compress::Zlib Bundle::LWP DBI"
+
+or answer first 'y' to the question 'Install any extra modules?' and
+then answer "Compress::Zlib Bundle::LWP DBI" to the 'Extras?' question.
+The module or the bundle names are as for the CPAN module 'install' command.
+
+Notice that because the CPAN module will be used to fetch the extra
+modules, you will need access to the CPAN, either via the Internet,
+or via a local copy such as a CD-ROM or a local CPAN mirror. If you
+do not, using the extra modules option will die horribly.
+
+Also notice that you yourself are responsible for satisfying any extra
+dependencies such as external headers or libraries BEFORE trying the build.
+For example: you will need to have the zlib.h header and the libz
+library installed for the Compress::Zlib, or the Foo database specific
+headers and libraries installed for the DBD::Foo module. The Configure
+process or the Perl build process will not help you with these.
+
+=head1 suidperl
+
+suidperl is an optional component, which is built or installed by default.
+From perlfaq1:
+
+ On some systems, setuid and setgid scripts (scripts written
+ in the C shell, Bourne shell, or Perl, for example, with the
+ set user or group ID permissions enabled) are insecure due to
+ a race condition in the kernel. For those systems, Perl versions
+ 5 and 4 attempt to work around this vulnerability with an optional
+ component, a special program named suidperl, also known as sperl.
+ This program attempts to emulate the set-user-ID and set-group-ID
+ features of the kernel.
+
+Because of the buggy history of suidperl, and the difficulty
+of properly security auditing as large and complex piece of
+software as Perl, we cannot recommend using suidperl and the feature
+should be considered deprecated.
+Instead use for example 'sudo': http://www.courtesan.com/sudo/
+
=head1 make depend
This will look for all the includes. The output is stored in makefile.
it might well be a symptom of the gcc "varargs problem". See the
previous L<"varargs"> item.
-=item Solaris and SunOS dynamic loading
-
-If you have problems with dynamic loading using gcc on SunOS or
-Solaris, and you are using GNU as and GNU ld, you may need to add
--B/bin/ (for SunOS) or -B/usr/ccs/bin/ (for Solaris) to your
-$ccflags, $ldflags, and $lddlflags so that the system's versions of as
-and ld are used. Note that the trailing '/' is required.
-Alternatively, you can use the GCC_EXEC_PREFIX
-environment variable to ensure that Sun's as and ld are used. Consult
-your gcc documentation for further information on the -B option and
-the GCC_EXEC_PREFIX variable.
-
-One convenient way to ensure you are not using GNU as and ld is to
-invoke Configure with
-
- sh Configure -Dcc='gcc -B/usr/ccs/bin/'
-
-for Solaris systems. For a SunOS system, you must use -B/bin/
-instead.
-
-Alternatively, recent versions of GNU ld reportedly work if you
-include C<-Wl,-export-dynamic> in the ccdlflags variable in
-config.sh.
-
-=item ld.so.1: ./perl: fatal: relocation error:
-
-If you get this message on SunOS or Solaris, and you're using gcc,
-it's probably the GNU as or GNU ld problem in the previous item
-L<"Solaris and SunOS dynamic loading">.
-
=item LD_LIBRARY_PATH
If you run into dynamic loading problems, check your setting of
fine with LD_LIBRARY_PATH unset, though that may depend on details
of your local set-up.
-=item dlopen: stub interception failed
-
-The primary cause of the 'dlopen: stub interception failed' message is
-that the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable includes a directory
-which is a symlink to /usr/lib (such as /lib).
-
-The reason this causes a problem is quite subtle. The file libdl.so.1.0
-actually *only* contains functions which generate 'stub interception
-failed' errors! The runtime linker intercepts links to
-"/usr/lib/libdl.so.1.0" and links in internal implementation of those
-functions instead. [Thanks to Tim Bunce for this explanation.]
-
=item nm extraction
If Configure seems to be having trouble finding library functions,
then propagate your changes with B<sh Configure -S> and rebuild
with B<make depend; make>.
-=item CRIPPLED_CC
-
-If you still can't compile successfully, try adding a -DCRIPPLED_CC
-flag. (Just because you get no errors doesn't mean it compiled right!)
-This simplifies some complicated expressions for compilers that get
-indigestion easily.
-
=item Missing functions
If you have missing routines, you probably need to add some library or
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.
+
+=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 Miscellaneous
Some additional things that have been reported for either perl4 or perl5:
NCR Tower 32 (OS 2.01.01) may need -W2,-Sl,2000 and #undef MKDIR.
-UTS may need one or more of -DCRIPPLED_CC, -K or -g, and undef LSTAT.
+UTS may need one or more of -K or -g, and undef LSTAT.
FreeBSD can fail the lib/ipc_sysv.t test if SysV IPC has not been
configured to the kernel. Perl tries to detect this, though, and
you will get a message telling what to do.
-If you get syntax errors on '(', try -DCRIPPLED_CC.
-
Machines with half-implemented dbm routines will need to #undef I_ODBM
HP-UX 11 Y2K patch "Y2K-1100 B.11.00.B0125 HP-UX Core OS Year 2000
=back
+=head2 Cross-compilation
+
+Starting from Perl 5.8 Perl has the beginnings of cross-compilation
+support. What is known to work is running Configure in a
+cross-compilation environment and building the miniperl executable.
+What is known not to work is building the perl executable because
+that would require building extensions: Dynaloader statically and
+File::Glob dynamically, for extensions one needs MakeMaker and
+MakeMaker is not yet cross-compilation aware, and neither is
+the main Makefile.
+
+Since the functionality is so lacking, it must be considered
+highly experimental. It is so experimental that it is not even
+mentioned during an interactive Configure session, a direct command
+line invocation (detailed shortly) is required to access the
+functionality.
+
+ NOTE: Perl is routinely built using cross-compilation
+ in the EPOC environment but the solutions from there
+ can't directly be used elsewhere.
+
+The one environment where cross-compilation has successfully been used
+as of this writing is the Compaq iPAQ running ARM Linux. The build
+host was Intel Linux, the networking setup was PPP + SSH. The exact
+setup details are beyond the scope of this document, see
+http://www.handhelds.org/ for more information.
+
+To run Configure in cross-compilation mode the basic switch is
+C<-Dusecrosscompile>.
+
+ sh ./Configure -des -Dusecrosscompile -D...
+
+This will make the cpp symbol USE_CROSS_COMPILE and the %Config
+symbol C<usecrosscompile> available.
+
+During the Configure and build, certain helper scripts will be created
+into the Cross/ subdirectory. The scripts are used to execute a
+cross-compiled executable, and to transfer files to and from the
+target host. The execution scripts are named F<run-*> and the
+transfer scripts F<to-*> and F<from-*>. The part after the dash is
+the method to use for remote execution and transfer: by default the
+methods are B<ssh> and B<scp>, thus making the scripts F<run-ssh>,
+F<to-scp>, and F<from-scp>.
+
+To configure the scripts for a target host and a directory (in which
+the execution will happen and which is to and from where the transfer
+happens), supply Configure with
+
+ -Dtargethost=so.me.ho.st -Dtargetdir=/tar/get/dir
+
+The targethost is what e.g. ssh will use as the hostname, the targetdir
+must exist (the scripts won't create it), the targetdir defaults to /tmp.
+You can also specify a username to use for ssh/rsh logins
+
+ -Dtargetuser=luser
+
+but in case you don't, "root" will be used.
+
+Because this is a cross-compilation effort, you will also need to specify
+which target environment and which compilation environment to use.
+This includes the compiler, the header files, and the libraries.
+In the below we use the usual settings for the iPAQ cross-compilation
+environment:
+
+ -Dtargetarch=arm-linux
+ -Dcc=arm-linux-gcc
+ -Dusrinc=/skiff/local/arm-linux/include
+ -Dincpth=/skiff/local/arm-linux/include
+ -Dlibpth=/skiff/local/arm-linux/lib
+
+If the name of the C<cc> has the usual GNU C semantics for cross
+compilers, that is, CPU-OS-gcc, the names of the C<ar>, C<nm>, and
+C<ranlib> will also be automatically chosen to be CPU-OS-ar and so on.
+(The C<ld> requires more thought and will be chosen later by Configure
+as appropriate.) Also, in this case the incpth, libpth, and usrinc
+will be guessed by Configure (unless explicitly set to something else,
+in which case Configure's guesses with be appended).
+
+In addition to the default execution/transfer methods you can also
+choose B<rsh> for execution, and B<rcp> or B<cp> for transfer,
+for example:
+
+ -Dtargetrun=rsh -Dtargetto=rcp -Dtargetfrom=cp
+
+Putting it all together:
+
+ sh ./Configure -des -Dusecrosscompile \
+ -Dtargethost=so.me.ho.st \
+ -Dtargetdir=/tar/get/dir \
+ -Dtargetuser=root \
+ -Dtargetarch=arm-linux \
+ -Dcc=arm-linux-gcc \
+ -Dusrinc=/skiff/local/arm-linux/include \
+ -Dincpth=/skiff/local/arm-linux/include \
+ -Dlibpth=/skiff/local/arm-linux/lib \
+ -D...
+
+or if you are happy with the defaults
+
+ sh ./Configure -des -Dusecrosscompile \
+ -Dtargethost=so.me.ho.st \
+ -Dcc=arm-linux-gcc \
+ -D...
+
=head1 make test
This will run the regression tests on the perl you just made. If
./perl harness
(this assumes that most basic tests succeed, since harness uses
-complicated constructs).
+complicated constructs). For extension and library tests you
+need a little bit more: you need to setup your environment variable
+PERL_CORE to a true value (like "1"), and you need to supply the
+right Perl library path:
+
+ setenv PERL_CORE 1
+ ./perl -I../lib ../ext/Socket/Socket.t
+ ./perl -I../lib ../lib/less.t
+(For csh-like shells on UNIX, adjust appropriately for other platforms.)
You should also read the individual tests to see if there are any helpful
-comments that apply to your system.
+comments that apply to your system. You may also need to setup your
+shared library path if you get errors like:
+
+ /sbin/loader: Fatal Error: cannot map libperl.so
+
+See L</"Building a shared Perl library"> earlier in this document.
=over 4
open("...|"). All these mean that Perl is trying to run some
external program.
+=item Timing problems
+
+Several tests in the test suite check timing functions, such as
+sleep(), and see if they return in a reasonable amount of time.
+If your system is quite busy and doesn't return quickly enough,
+these tests might fail. If possible, try running the tests again with
+the system under a lighter load. These tests include F<t/op/alarm.t>,
+F<ext/Time/HiRes/HiRes.t>, and F<lib/Benchmark.t>.
+
=item Out of memory
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:
tries to exercise the regular expression subsystem quite thoroughly,
and may well be far more demanding than your normal usage.
+=item Test failures from lib/ftmp-security saying "system possibly insecure"
+
+Firstly, test failures from the ftmp-security are not necessarily
+serious or indicative of a real security threat. That being said,
+they bear investigating.
+
+The tests may fail for the following reasons. Note that each of the
+tests is run both in the building directory and the temporary
+directory, as returned by File::Spec->tmpdir().
+
+(1) If the directory the tests are being run is owned by somebody else
+than the user running the tests, or root (uid 0). This failure can
+happen if the Perl source code distribution is unpacked in a way that
+the user ids in the distribution package are used as-is. Some tar
+programs do this.
+
+(2) If the directory the test are being run in is writable by group
+or by other (remember: with UNIX/POSIX semantics, write access to
+a directory means the right to add/remove files in that directory),
+and there is no sticky bit set in the directory. 'Sticky bit' is
+a feature used in some UNIXes to give extra protection to files: if
+the bit is on a directory, no one but the owner (or the root) can remove
+that file even if the permissions of the directory would allow file
+removal by others. This failure can happen if the permissions in the
+directory simply are a bit too liberal for the tests' liking. This
+may or may not be a real problem: it depends on the permissions policy
+used on this particular directory/project/system/site. This failure
+can also happen if the system either doesn't support the sticky bit
+(this is the case with many non-UNIX platforms: in principle the
+File::Temp should know about these platforms and skip the tests), or
+if the system supports the sticky bit but for some reason or reasons
+it is not being used. This is for example the case with HP-UX: as of
+HP-UX release 11.00, the sticky bit is very much supported, but HP-UX
+doesn't use it on its /tmp directory as shipped. Also as with the
+permissions, some local policy might dictate that the stickiness is
+not used.
+
+(3) If the system supports the POSIX 'chown giveaway' feature and if
+any of the parent directories of the temporary file back to the root
+directory are 'unsafe', using the definitions given above in (1) and
+(2).
+
+See the documentation for the File::Temp module for more information
+about the various security aspects.
+
=back
=head1 make install
make install will install the following:
+ binaries
+
perl,
perl5.nnn where nnn is the current release number. This
will be a link to perl.
suidperl,
sperl5.nnn If you requested setuid emulation.
a2p awk-to-perl translator
+
+ scripts
+
cppstdin This is used by perl -P, if your cc -E can't
read from stdin.
c2ph, pstruct Scripts for handling C structures in header files.
pl2pm Convert Perl 4 .pl files to Perl 5 .pm modules
pod2html, Converters from perl's pod documentation format
pod2latex, to other useful formats.
- pod2man, and
- pod2text
+ pod2man,
+ pod2text,
+ pod2checker,
+ pod2select,
+ pod2usage
splain Describe Perl warnings and errors
dprofpp Perl code profile post-processor
- library files in $privlib and $archlib specified to
+ library files
+
+ in $privlib and $archlib specified to
Configure, usually under /usr/local/lib/perl5/.
+
+ documentation
+
man pages in $man1dir, usually /usr/local/man/man1.
module man
pages in $man3dir, usually /usr/local/man/man3.
Installperl will also create the directories listed above
in L<"Installation Directories">.
-Perl's *.h header files and the libperl.a library are also installed
+Perl's *.h header files and the libperl library are also installed
under $archlib so that any user may later build new modules, run the
optional Perl compiler, or embed the perl interpreter into another
program even if the Perl source is no longer available.
+Sometimes you only want to install the version-specific parts of the perl
+installation. For example, you may wish to install a newer version of
+perl alongside an already installed production version of perl without
+disabling installation of new modules for the production version.
+To only install the version-specific parts of the perl installation, run
+
+ Configure -Dversiononly
+
+or answer 'y' to the appropriate Configure prompt. Alternatively,
+you can just manually run
+
+ ./perl installperl -v
+
+and skip installman altogether.
+See also L<"Maintaining completely separate versions"> for another
+approach.
+
=head1 Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5
In general, you can usually safely upgrade from one version of Perl (e.g.
/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/$archname
/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005
-Now, suppose you install version 5.6. The directories searched by
-version 5.6 will be
+Beginning with 5.6.0 the version number in the site libraries are
+fully versioned. Now, suppose you install version 5.6.0. The directories
+searched by version 5.6.0 will be
- /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6/$archname
- /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6
- /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6/$archname
- /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6
+ /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.0/$archname
+ /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.0
+ /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0/$archname
+ /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0
/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/$archname
/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005
+ /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/
-Notice the last two entries -- Perl understands the default structure
+Notice the last three entries -- Perl understands the default structure
of the $sitelib directories and will look back in older, compatible
directories. This way, modules installed under 5.005_03 will continue
-to be usable by 5.005_03 but will also accessible to 5.6. Further,
+to be usable by 5.005_03 but will also accessible to 5.6.0. Further,
suppose that you upgrade a module to one which requires features
-present only in 5.6. That new module will get installed into
-/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6 and will be available to 5.6,
+present only in 5.6.0. That new module will get installed into
+/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0 and will be available to 5.6.0,
but will not interfere with the 5.005_03 version.
-Also, by default, 5.6 will look in
-
- /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/
+The last entry, /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/, is there so that
+5.6.0 will look for 5.004-era pure perl modules.
-for 5.004-era pure perl modules.
-
-Lastly, suppose you now install version 5.6.1. The directories
-searched by 5.6.1 will be
+Lastly, suppose you now install version 5.6.1, which we'll assume is
+binary compatible with 5.6.0 and 5.005. The directories searched
+by 5.6.1 (if you don't change the Configure defaults) will be:
/usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.1/$archname
/usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.1
- /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6/$archname
- /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6
+ /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.1/$archname
+ /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.1
+
+ /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0/$archname
+ /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0
/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/$archname
/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005
/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/
-When you install an add-on extension, it gets installed into $sitelib (or
-$sitearch if it is architecture-specific). This directory deliberately
-does NOT include the sub-version number (01) so that both 5.6 and
-5.6.1 can use the extension.
-
-However, if you do run into problems, and you want to continue to use the
-old version of perl along with your extension, move those extension files
-to the appropriate version directory, such as $privlib (or $archlib).
-(The extension's .packlist file lists the files installed with that
-extension. For the Tk extension, for example, the list of files installed
-is in $sitearch/auto/Tk/.packlist.) Then use your newer version of perl
-to rebuild and re-install the extension into $sitelib. This way, Perl
-5.6 will find your files in the 5.6 directory, and newer versions
-of perl will find your newer extension in the $sitelib directory.
-(This is also why perl searches the site-specific libraries last.)
-
-Alternatively, if you are willing to reinstall all your modules
-every time you upgrade perl, then you can include the subversion
-number in $sitearch and $sitelib when you run Configure.
+Assuming the users in your site are still actively using perl 5.6.0 and
+5.005 after you installed 5.6.1, you can continue to install add-on
+extensions using any of perl 5.6.1, 5.6.0, or 5.005. The installations
+of these different versions remain distinct, but remember that the newer
+versions of perl are automatically set up to search the site libraries of
+the older ones. This means that installing a new extension with 5.005
+will make it visible to all three versions. Later, if you install the
+same extension using, say, perl 5.6.1, it will override the 5.005-installed
+version, but only for perl 5.6.1.
+
+This way, you can choose to share compatible extensions, but also upgrade
+to a newer version of an extension that may be incompatible with earlier
+versions, without breaking the earlier versions' installations.
=head2 Maintaining completely separate versions
Many users prefer to keep all versions of perl in completely
separate directories. This guarantees that an update to one version
-won't interfere with another version. One convenient way to do this
-is by using a separate prefix for each version, such as
+won't interfere with another version. (The defaults guarantee this for
+libraries after 5.6.0, but not for executables. TODO?) One convenient
+way to do this is by using a separate prefix for each version, such as
sh Configure -Dprefix=/opt/perl5.004
subversions may not have all the compatibility wrinkles ironed out
yet.
-=head2 Upgrading from 5.005 to 5.6
+=head2 Upgrading from 5.005 to 5.6.0
+
+Most extensions built and installed with versions of perl
+prior to 5.005_50 will not need to be recompiled to be used with
+5.6.0. If you find you do need to rebuild an extension with 5.6.0,
+you may safely do so without disturbing the 5.005 installation.
+(See L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> above.)
-Extensions built and installed with versions of perl prior to 5.005_50
-will need to be recompiled to be used with 5.005_50 and later. You will,
-however, be able to continue using 5.005 even after you install 5.6.
-The 5.005 binary will still be able to find the modules built under
-5.005; the 5.6 binary will look in the new $sitearch and $sitelib
-directories, and will not find them. See also your installed copy
-of the perllocal.pod file for a (possibly incomplete) list of locally
-installed modules. Note that you want perllocal.pod not perllocale.pod
-for installed module information.
+See your installed copy of the perllocal.pod file for a (possibly
+incomplete) list of locally installed modules. Note that you want
+perllocal.pod not perllocale.pod for installed module information.
=head1 Coexistence with perl4
(cd pod && make tex && <process the latex files>)
+=head1 Minimizing the Perl installation
+
+The following section is meant for people worrying about squeezing the
+Perl installation into minimal systems (for example when installing
+operating systems, or in really small filesystems).
+
+In the following we offer two different slimmed down installation
+recipes. They are informative, not normative: the choice of files
+depends on what you need.
+
+Firstly, the bare minimum to run this script
+
+ use strict;
+ use warnings;
+ foreach my $f (</*>) {
+ print("$f\n");
+ }
+
+in Solaris is as follows (under $Config{prefix}):
+
+ ./bin/perl
+ ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/sun4-solaris-64int/auto/DynaLoader/autosplit.ix
+ ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/sun4-solaris-64int/auto/DynaLoader/dl_expandspec.al
+ ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/sun4-solaris-64int/auto/DynaLoader/dl_find_symbol_anywhere.al
+ ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/sun4-solaris-64int/auto/DynaLoader/dl_findfile.al
+ ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/sun4-solaris-64int/auto/File/Glob/Glob.so
+ ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/sun4-solaris-64int/auto/File/Glob/autosplit.ix
+ ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/sun4-solaris-64int/Config.pm
+ ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/sun4-solaris-64int/XSLoader.pm
+ ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/sun4-solaris-64int/DynaLoader.pm
+ ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/sun4-solaris-64int/CORE/libperl.so
+ ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/strict.pm
+ ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/warnings.pm
+ ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/Carp.pm
+ ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/Exporter.pm
+ ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/File/Glob.pm
+ ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/AutoLoader.pm
+ ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/vars.pm
+ ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/warnings/register.pm
+ ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/Carp/Heavy.pm
+ ./lib/perl5/5.6.1/Exporter/Heavy.pm
+
+Secondly, Debian perl-base package contains the following files,
+size about 1.2MB in its i386 version:
+
+ /usr/share/doc/perl/Documentation
+ /usr/share/doc/perl/README.Debian
+ /usr/share/doc/perl/copyright
+ /usr/share/doc/perl/AUTHORS.gz
+ /usr/share/doc/perl/changelog.Debian.gz
+ /usr/share/man/man1/perl.1.gz
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/AutoLoader.pm
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/Carp.pm
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/Carp/Heavy.pm
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/Cwd.pm
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/Exporter.pm
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/Exporter/Heavy.pm
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/File/Spec.pm
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/File/Spec/Unix.pm
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/FileHandle.pm
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/Getopt/Long.pm
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/IO/Socket/INET.pm
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/IO/Socket/UNIX.pm
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/IPC/Open2.pm
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/IPC/Open3.pm
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/SelectSaver.pm
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/Symbol.pm
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/Text/Tabs.pm
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/Text/Wrap.pm
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/attributes.pm
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/auto/Getopt/Long/GetOptions.al
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/auto/Getopt/Long/FindOption.al
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/auto/Getopt/Long/Configure.al
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/auto/Getopt/Long/config.al
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/auto/Getopt/Long/Croak.al
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/auto/Getopt/Long/autosplit.ix
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/base.pm
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/constant.pm
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/fields.pm
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/integer.pm
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/lib.pm
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/locale.pm
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/overload.pm
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/strict.pm
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/vars.pm
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/warnings.pm
+ /usr/share/perl/5.6.1/warnings/register.pm
+ /usr/bin/perl
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/Config.pm
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/Data/Dumper.pm
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/DynaLoader.pm
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/Errno.pm
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/Fcntl.pm
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/File/Glob.pm
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/IO.pm
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/IO/File.pm
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/IO/Handle.pm
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/IO/Pipe.pm
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/IO/Seekable.pm
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/IO/Select.pm
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/IO/Socket.pm
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/POSIX.pm
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/Socket.pm
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/XSLoader.pm
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/Data/Dumper/Dumper.so
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/Data/Dumper/Dumper.bs
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/DynaLoader/dl_findfile.al
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/DynaLoader/dl_expandspec.al
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/DynaLoader/dl_find_symbol_anywhere.al
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/DynaLoader/autosplit.ix
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/DynaLoader/DynaLoader.a
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/DynaLoader/extralibs.ld
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/Fcntl/Fcntl.so
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/Fcntl/Fcntl.bs
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/File/Glob/Glob.bs
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/File/Glob/Glob.so
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/File/Glob/autosplit.ix
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/IO/IO.so
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/IO/IO.bs
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/POSIX/POSIX.bs
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/POSIX/POSIX.so
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/POSIX/autosplit.ix
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/POSIX/load_imports.al
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/Socket/Socket.so
+ /usr/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/Socket/Socket.bs
+
=head1 Reporting Problems
If you have difficulty building perl, and none of the advice in this file
helps, and careful reading of the error message and the relevant manual
pages on your system doesn't help either, then you should send a message
-to either the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup or to perlbug@perl.com with
+to either the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup or to perlbug@perl.org with
an accurate description of your problem.
Please include the output of the ./myconfig shell script that comes with
If you are distributing a modified version of perl (perhaps as part of
a larger package) please B<do> modify these installation instructions
and the contact information to match your distribution.
-
-=head1 LAST MODIFIED
-
-$Id: INSTALL,v 1.58 1999/07/23 14:43:00 doughera Exp $