-##########################################################################
-# *** README.mint
-##########################################################################
+If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you see.
+It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is specially
+designed to be readable as is.
+
+=head1 NAME
+
+README.mint - Perl version 5 on Atari MiNT
+
+=head1 DESCRIPTION
+
+There is a binary version of perl available from the FreeMiNT project
+http://freemint.de/ You may wish to use this instead of trying to
+compile yourself.
+
+B<The following advice is from perl 5.004_02 and is probably rather
+out of date.>
If you want to build perl yourself on MiNT (or maybe on an Atari without
MiNT) you may want to accept some advice from somebody who already did it...
standard envariables like $PATH, $HOME, ... are set, there is a
POSIX compliant shell in /bin/sh, and...)
-Known problems
-==============
+=head1 Known problems with Perl on MiNT
The problems you may encounter when building perl on your machine
are most probably due to deficiencies in MiNT resp. the Atari
This doesn't establish a stack of 2 Bytes only as you might
think. It really reserves one half of the available memory
for cc1's stack. A setting of 1 would reserve the entire
-memory for cc1, 3 would reserve three thirds. You will have
+memory for cc1, 3 would reserve three fourths. You will have
to find out the value that suits to your system yourself.
-BTW, cc1 is maybe a little hard to find. It is generally installed
-as
- /usr/local/lib/gcc-lib/<platform>/<gcc-version>/cc1
-
-where <platform> is probably something like "m68k-atari-mint"
-and <version> is the gcc version you use (find out with
-"gcc --version"). Maybe "gcc-lib" is not installed in
-"/usr/local/lib" but "/usr/lib" on your system.
+To find out the location of the program "cc1" simply type
+`gcc --print-prog-name cc1' at your shell prompt.
Now run make (maybe "make -k"). If you get a fatal signal 10
increase cc1's stacksize, if you run out of memory you should
either decrease the stacksize or follow some more hints:
Perl's building process is very handy on machines with a lot
-of virtual memory but may result in a desaster if you are short
+of virtual memory but may result in a disaster if you are short
of memory. If gcc fails to compile many source files you should
reduce the optimization. Grep for "optimize" in the file
config.sh and change the flags.
If only several huge files cause problems (actually it is not a
matter of the file size resp. the amount of code but depends on
-the size of the individual funtions) it is useful to bypass
+the size of the individual functions) it is useful to bypass
the make program and compile these files directly from the
command line. For example if you got something like the
following from make:
(here toke.c) at the end.
If none of this helps, you're helpless. Wait for a binary
-release. If you have succeded you may encounter another problem
+release. If you have succeeded you may encounter another problem
at the linking process. If gcc complains that it can't find
some libraries within the perl distribution you probably have
an old linker. If it complains for example about "file not
This version (5.00402) of perl has passed most of the tests on my system:
-Failed Test Status Wstat Total Fail Failed List of failed
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-io/pipe.t 10 2 20.00% 7, 9
-io/tell.t 13 1 7.69% 12
-lib/complex.t 762 13 1.71% 84-85, 248-251, 257, 272-273,
- 371, 380, 419-420
-lib/io_pipe.t 10 1 10.00% 9
-lib/io_tell.t 13 1 7.69% 12
-op/magic.t 30 2 6.67% 29-30
-Failed 6/152 test scripts, 96.05% okay. 20/4359 subtests failed, 99.54% okay.
+ Failed Test Status Wstat Total Fail Failed List of failed
+ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ io/pipe.t 10 2 20.00% 7, 9
+ io/tell.t 13 1 7.69% 12
+ lib/complex.t 762 13 1.71% 84-85, 248-251, 257, 272-273,
+ 371, 380, 419-420
+ lib/io_pipe.t 10 1 10.00% 9
+ lib/io_tell.t 13 1 7.69% 12
+ op/magic.t 30 2 6.67% 29-30
+ Failed 6/152 test scripts, 96.05% okay. 20/4359 subtests failed, 99.54% okay.
Pipes always cause problems with MiNT, it's actually a surprise that
most of the tests did work. I've got no idea why the "tell" test failed,
##########################################################################
-Another possible problem may arise from the implementation of the "pwd"
+Another possible problem may arise from the implementation of the "pwd"
command. It happened to add a carriage return and newline to its output
no matter what the setting of $UNIXMODE is. This is quite annoying since many
library modules for perl take the output of pwd, chop off the
module somewhere before you succeed.
Anything missing? Yep, I've almost forgotten...
-No file in this distribution without a fine saying. Take this one:
+No file in this distribution without a fine saying. Take this one:
"From a thief you should learn: (1) to work at night;
(2) if one cannot gain what one wants in one night to
Have fun with Perl!
+=head1 AUTHOR
+
Guido Flohr
---
-mailto:gufl0000@stud.uni-sb.de
-http://stud.uni-sb.de/~gufl0000
+
+ mailto:guido@FreeMiNT.de