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
=head1 Space Requirements
-The complete perl5 source tree takes up about 35 MB of disk space.
-After completing make, it takes up roughly 50 MB, though the actual
+The complete perl5 source tree takes up about 40 MB of disk space.
+After completing make, it takes up roughly 60 MB, though the actual
total is likely to be quite system-dependent. The installation
-directories need something on the order of 30 MB, though again that
+directories need something on the order of 35 MB, though again that
value is system-dependent.
=head1 Start with a Fresh Distribution
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
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
=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.
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 work work is building the perl executable because
+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
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
(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