X-Git-Url: http://git.shadowcat.co.uk/gitweb/gitweb.cgi?a=blobdiff_plain;f=INSTALL;h=0a22dcbd4c3a0a003ff900d15b7bb4af5092c74e;hb=126bf8bf58586ea492cb7f67d52adfd017de5fcc;hp=dbb757afc26b1dc89682106a0ebf75e6d1fc4a1d;hpb=d6b7ef8642dbff7f74dde11fd4995a37e8f38c04;p=p5sagit%2Fp5-mst-13.2.git diff --git a/INSTALL b/INSTALL index dbb757a..0a22dcb 100644 --- a/INSTALL +++ b/INSTALL @@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ with all the defaults are: Each of these is explained in further detail below. -B: starting from the release 5.6.0 Perl will use a version +B: 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 @@ -107,7 +107,7 @@ 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., +-Dusethreads, -Dusemultiplicity, -Dusemymalloc, 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 @@ -186,10 +186,10 @@ does not work with some C++ compilers. =head1 Space Requirements -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 +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 35 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 @@ -328,7 +328,8 @@ If your prefix contains the string "perl", then the suggested 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 @@ -403,7 +404,8 @@ appropriate questions in Configure. For convenience, all the 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 @@ -804,18 +806,23 @@ 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 allowed alternate IO -mechanisms via a "PerlIO" abstraction, but the stdio mechanism is still -the default and is the only supported mechanism. +Executive summary: in Perl 5.8, you should use the default "PerlIO" +as the IO mechanism unless you have a good reason not to. -Starting from Perl 5.8 the default mechanism is to use the PerlIO +In more detail: previous versions of perl used the standard IO +mechanisms as defined in stdio.h. Versions 5.003_02 and later of perl +introduced alternate IO mechanisms via a "PerlIO" abstraction, but up +until and including Perl 5.6, the stdio mechanism was still the default +and the only supported mechanism. + +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. -This PerlIO abstraction can be disabled either on the Configure -command line with +This PerlIO abstraction can be (but again, unless you know what you +are doing, should not be) disabled either on the Configure command +line with sh Configure -Uuseperlio @@ -984,15 +991,8 @@ or you can answer 'n' at the appropriate interactive Configure prompt. =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. +NOTE: This flag is enabled automatically on some platforms if you just +run Configure to accept all the defaults on those platforms. Perl's malloc family of functions are called Perl_malloc(), Perl_realloc(), Perl_calloc() and Perl_mfree(). When this flag is @@ -1612,16 +1612,6 @@ to then propagate your changes with B and rebuild with B. -=item CRIPPLED_CC - -If you still can't compile successfully, try: - - sh Configure -Accflags=-DCRIPPLED_CC - -This flag simplifies some complicated expressions for compilers that get -indigestion easily. (Just because you get no errors doesn't mean it -compiled right!) - =item Missing functions If you have missing routines, you probably need to add some library or @@ -1735,14 +1725,12 @@ Genix may need to use libc rather than libc_s, or #undef VARARGS. 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 @@ -1930,10 +1918,12 @@ external program. 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, -F, and F. +If your system is quite busy and doesn't respond quickly enough, +these tests might fail. If possible, try running the tests again +with the system under a lighter load. These timing-sensitive +and load-sensitive tests include F, +F, F, +F, and F. =item Out of memory @@ -2104,6 +2094,9 @@ approach. =head1 Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5 +Perl 5.8 is not binary compatible with earlier versions of Perl. +In other words, you 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 all of your add-on extensions. You can also safely leave the old version @@ -2289,6 +2282,13 @@ 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). +Leaving out as many extensions as possible is an obvious way: +especially the Encode with its big conversion tables consumes a lot of +space. On the other hand, you cannot throw away everything, especially +the Fcntl module is pretty essential. If you need to do network +programming, you'll appreciate the Socket module, and so forth: it all +depends on what do you need to do. + 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.