B<NOTE>: starting from the release 5.6.0, Perl uses a version
scheme where even-numbered subreleases (like 5.6 and 5.8) are stable
-maintenance releases and odd-numbered subreleases (like 5.7) are
+maintenance releases and odd-numbered subreleases (like 5.7 and 5.9) 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
pod/perl56delta.pod contains more details about this.
=head1 WARNING: This version is not binary compatible with releases of
-Perl prior to 5.8.0.
+Perl prior to 5.9.0.
If you have built extensions (i.e. modules that include C code)
using an earlier version of Perl, you will need to rebuild and reinstall
=head1 Space Requirements
-The complete perl5 source tree takes up about 50 MB of disk space.
+The complete perl5 source tree takes up about 60 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 45 MB, though again that
-value is system-dependent.
+value is system-dependent. A perl build with debug symbols and
+-DDEBUGGING will require something on the order of 10 MB extra.
=head1 Start with a Fresh Distribution
find it. It's often a good idea to have both /usr/bin/perl and
/usr/local/bin/perl be symlinks to the actual binary. Be especially
careful, however, not to overwrite a version of perl supplied by your
-vendor unless you are sure you know what you are doing.
+vendor unless you are sure you know what you are doing. If you insist
+on replacing your vendor's perl, useful information on how it was
+configured may be found with
+
+ perl -V:config_args
+
+(Check the output carefully, however, since this doesn't preserve
+spaces in arguments to Configure. For that, you have to look
+carefully at config_arg1, config_arg2, etc.)
By default, Configure will not try to link /usr/bin/perl to
the current version of perl. You can turn on that behavior by running
=item Directories for the perl distribution
-By default, Configure will use the following directories for 5.8.0.
+By default, Configure will use the following directories for 5.9.0.
$version is the full perl version number, including subversion, e.g.
-5.8.0 or 5.8.1, and $archname is a string like sun4-sunos,
+5.9.0 or 5.9.1, and $archname is a string like sun4-sunos,
determined by Configure. The full definitions of all Configure
variables are in the file Porting/Glossary.
For example, if you have a bundle of perl libraries from a previous
installation, perhaps in a strange place:
- Configure -Dotherlibdirs=/usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.1
+ Configure -Dotherlibdirs=/usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.1
=item APPLLIB_EXP
You can continue to use the old default from the command line with
- sh Configure -Dman3dir=/usr/local/lib/perl5/5.8.0/man/man3
+ sh Configure -Dman3dir=/usr/local/lib/perl5/5.9.0/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 5.8.0 are
+-Dprefix=/opt/perl, then the default library directories for 5.9.0 are
Configure variable Default value
- $privlib /opt/perl/lib/5.8.0
- $archlib /opt/perl/lib/5.8.0/$archname
- $sitelib /opt/perl/lib/site_perl/5.8.0
- $sitearch /opt/perl/lib/site_perl/5.8.0/$archname
+ $privlib /opt/perl/lib/5.9.0
+ $archlib /opt/perl/lib/5.9.0/$archname
+ $sitelib /opt/perl/lib/site_perl/5.9.0
+ $sitearch /opt/perl/lib/site_perl/5.9.0/$archname
=head2 Changing the installation directory
=head2 Selecting File IO mechanisms
-Executive summary: in Perl 5.8, you should use the default "PerlIO"
+Executive summary: as of Perl 5.8, you should use the default "PerlIO"
as the IO mechanism unless you have a good reason not to.
In more detail: previous versions of perl used the standard IO
it's convenient to have both.
If you are using a shared libperl, see the warnings about multiple
-versions of perl under L<Building a shared libperl.so Perl library>.
+versions of perl under L<Building a shared Perl library>.
=head2 Extensions
you can build and install extensions just fine even if you don't have
dynamic loading. See lib/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.pm for more details.)
+If you have dynamic loading, another way of specifying extra modules
+is described in L<"Adding extra modules to the build"> below.
+
You can learn more about each of the supplied extensions by consulting the
documentation in the individual .pm modules, located under the
ext/ subdirectory.
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.
+This will only work if those modules are to be built as dynamic
+extensions. If you wish to include those extra modules as static
+extensions, see L<"Extensions"> above.
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,
This will attempt to make perl in the current directory.
+=head2 Expected errors
+
+These errors are normal, and can be ignored:
+
+ ...
+ make: [extra.pods] Error 1 (ignored)
+ ...
+ make: [extras.make] Error 1 (ignored)
+
=head2 What if it doesn't work?
If you can't compile successfully, try some of the following ideas.
=item invalid token: ##
You are using a non-ANSI-compliant C compiler. See L<WARNING: This
-version requires a compiler that supports ANSI C>.
+version requires a compiler that supports ANSI C.>
=item Miscellaneous
=head1 Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5
-Perl 5.8 is not binary compatible with earlier versions of Perl.
+Perl 5.9 is not binary compatible with earlier versions of Perl.
In other words, you will have to recompile your XS modules.
In general, you can usually safely upgrade from one version of Perl (e.g.
-5.004_04) to another similar version (e.g. 5.004_05) without re-compiling
+5.8.0) to another similar version (e.g. 5.8.2) without re-compiling
all of your add-on extensions. You can also safely leave the old version
around in case the new version causes you problems for some reason.
For example, if you want to be sure that your script continues to run
-with 5.004_04, simply replace the '#!/usr/local/bin/perl' line at the
+with 5.8.2, simply replace the '#!/usr/local/bin/perl' line at the
top of the script with the particular version you want to run, e.g.
-#!/usr/local/bin/perl5.00404.
+#!/usr/local/bin/perl5.8.2.
Usually, most extensions will probably not need to be recompiled to
use with a newer version of Perl (the Perl 5.6 to Perl 5.8 transition
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
+ sh Configure -Dprefix=/opt/perl5.8.2
-and adding /opt/perl5.004/bin to the shell PATH variable. Such users
+and adding /opt/perl5.8.2/bin to the shell PATH variable. Such users
may also wish to add a symbolic link /usr/local/bin/perl so that
scripts can still start with #!/usr/local/bin/perl.
=head2 Upgrading from 5.005 or 5.6 to 5.8.0
-B<Perl 5.8.0 is binary incompatible with Perl 5.6.1, 5.6.0, 5.005,
+B<Perl 5.9.0 is binary incompatible with Perl 5.8.x, Perl 5.6.x, 5.005,
and any earlier Perl release.> Perl modules having binary parts
(meaning that a C compiler is used) will have to be recompiled to be
-used with 5.8.0. If you find you do need to rebuild an extension with
-5.8.0, you may safely do so without disturbing the 5.005 or 5.6.0
+used with 5.9.0. If you find you do need to rebuild an extension with
+5.9.0, you may safely do so without disturbing the older
installations. (See L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5">
above.)
projects / p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git / blobdiff