The only cases when the shell is not used is the multi-argument
system() (see L<perlfunc/system>)/exec() (see L<perlfunc/exec>), and
one-argument version thereof without redirection and shell
-meta-characters.
+meta-characters. Perl may also start scripts which start with cookies
+C<extproc> or C<#!> directly, without an intervention of shell.
+
+If starting scripts directly, Perl will use exactly the same algorithm as for
+the search of script given by B<-S> command-line option: it will look in
+the current directory, then on components of C<$ENV{PATH}> using the
+following order of appended extensions: no extension, F<.cmd>, F<.btm>,
+F<.bat>, F<.pl>.
+
+Note that Perl will start to look for scripts only if OS/2 cannot start the
+specified application, thus C<system 'blah'> will not look for a script if
+there is an executable file F<blah.exe> I<anywhere> on C<PATH>.
+
+Note also that executable files on OS/2 can have an arbitrary extension,
+but F<.exe> will be automatically appended if no dot is present in the name.
+The workaround as as simple as that: since F<blah.> and F<blah> denote the
+same file, to start an executable residing in file F<n:/bin/blah> (no
+extension) give an argument C<n:/bin/blah.> to system().
+
+The last note is that currently it is not straightforward to start PM
+programs from VIO (=text-mode) Perl process and visa versa. Either ensure
+that shell will be used, as in C<system 'cmd /c epm'>, or start it using
+optional arguments to system() documented in C<OS2::Process> module. This
+is considered a bug and should be fixed soon.
+
=head1 Frequently asked questions
=head2 Testing
+If you haven't yet moved perl.dll onto LIBPATH, do it now(alternatively, if
+you have a previous perl installation you'd rather not disrupt until this one
+is installed, copy perl.dll to the t directory).
+
Now run
make test
=head2 Installing the built perl
+If you haven't yet moved perl.dll onto LIBPATH, do it now.
+
Run
make install
projects / p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git / blobdiff