X-Git-Url: http://git.shadowcat.co.uk/gitweb/gitweb.cgi?a=blobdiff_plain;f=INSTALL;h=21eaa0ac7e932a9a2f039924feffacb514114029;hb=922b18888a177879df1569d1969abfcaa0090a6f;hp=25069c91ff25a014c2624033d12d2a1df0096617;hpb=385588b3949e695a02c8ea1dd00fe789d6044de3;p=p5sagit%2Fp5-mst-13.2.git
diff --git a/INSTALL b/INSTALL
index 25069c9..21eaa0a 100644
--- a/INSTALL
+++ b/INSTALL
@@ -4,60 +4,198 @@ Install - Build and Installation guide for perl5.
=head1 SYNOPSIS
-The basic steps to build and install perl5 on a Unix system are:
+First, make sure you are installing an up-to-date version of Perl. If
+you didn't get your Perl source from CPAN, check the latest version at
+.
- rm -f config.sh
- sh Configure
+The basic steps to build and install perl5 on a Unix system
+with all the defaults are:
+
+ rm -f config.sh Policy.sh
+ sh Configure -de
make
make test
make install
# You may also wish to add these:
(cd /usr/include && h2ph *.h sys/*.h)
- (cd pod && make html && mv *.html )
+ (installhtml --help)
(cd pod && make tex && )
Each of these is explained in further detail below.
+The above commands will install Perl to /usr/local or /opt, depending
+on the platform. If that's not okay with you, use
+
+ rm -f config.sh Policy.sh
+ sh Configure
+ make
+ make test
+ make install
+
For information on non-Unix systems, see the section on
-L<"Porting Information"> below.
+L<"Porting information"> below.
-=head1 DESCRIPTION
+If you have problems, corrections, or questions, please see
+L<"Reporting Problems"> below.
-You should probably at least skim through this entire document before
-proceeding. Special notes specific to this release are identified
-by B.
+For information on what's new in this release, see the
+pod/perldelta.pod file. For more detailed information about specific
+changes, see the Changes file.
+
+=head1 DESCRIPTION
This document is written in pod format as an easy way to indicate its
structure. The pod format is described in pod/perlpod.pod, but you can
-read it as is with any pager or editor.
+read it as is with any pager or editor. Headings and items are marked
+by lines beginning with '='. The other mark-up used is
+
+ B embolden text, used for switches, programs or commands
+ C literal code
+ L A link (cross reference) to name
+
+Although most of the defaults are probably fine for most users,
+you should probably at least skim through this entire document before
+proceeding.
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.
+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
+system. (Unixware users should use the svr4.sh hint file.) If
+there is a README file for your platform, then you should read
+that too. Additional information is in the Porting/ directory.
+
+=head1 WARNING: This version requires an extra step to build old extensions.
+
+5.005_53 and later releases do not export unadorned
+global symbols anymore. This means you may need to build older
+extensions that have not been updated for the new naming convention
+with:
+
+ perl Makefile.PL POLLUTE=1
+
+Alternatively, you can enable CPP symbol pollution wholesale by
+building perl itself with:
+
+ sh Configure -Accflags=-DPERL_POLLUTE
+
+pod/perldelta.pod contains more details about this.
+
+=head1 WARNING: This version may not be binary compatible with Perl 5.005.
+
+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.,
+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
+those extensions to use them with 5.6.
+
+Pure perl modules without XS or C code should continue to work fine
+without reinstallation. See the discussions below on
+L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> and
+L<"Upgrading from 5.005 to 5.6"> for more details.
+
+The standard extensions supplied with Perl will be handled automatically.
+
+On a related issue, old modules may possibly be affected by the
+changes in the Perl language in the current release. Please see
+pod/perldelta.pod (and pod/perl500Xdelta.pod) for a description of
+what's changed. See your installed copy of the perllocal.pod
+file for a (possibly incomplete) list of locally installed modules.
+Also see CPAN::autobundle for one way to make a "bundle" of your
+currently installed modules.
+
+=head1 WARNING: This version requires a compiler that supports ANSI C.
+
+Most C compilers are now ANSI-compliant. However, a few current
+computers are delivered with an older C compiler expressly for
+rebuilding the system kernel, or for some other historical reason.
+Alternatively, you may have an old machine which was shipped before
+ANSI compliance became widespread. Such compilers are not suitable
+for building Perl.
+
+If you find that your default C compiler is not ANSI-capable, but you
+know that an ANSI-capable compiler is installed on your system, you
+can tell F to use the correct compiler by means of the
+C<-Dcc=> command-line option -- see L<"gcc">.
+
+If do not have an ANSI-capable compiler there are several avenues open
+to you:
+
+=over 4
+
+=item *
+
+You may try obtaining GCC, available from GNU mirrors worldwide,
+listed at . If, rather than
+building gcc from source code, you locate a binary version configured
+for your platform, be sure that it is compiled for the version of the
+operating system that you are using.
+
+=item *
+
+You may purchase a commercial ANSI C compiler from your system
+supplier or elsewhere. (Or your organization may already have
+licensed such software -- ask your colleagues to find out how to
+access it.) If there is a README file for your system in the Perl
+distribution (for example, F), it may contain advice on
+suitable compilers.
+
+=item *
+
+Another alternative may be to use a tool like ansi2knr to convert the
+sources back to K&R style, but there is no guarantee this route will get
+you anywhere, since the prototypes are not the only ANSI features used
+in the Perl sources. ansi2knr is usually found as part of the freely
+available Ghostscript distribution. Another similar tool is
+unprotoize, distributed with GCC. Since unprotoize requires GCC to
+run, you may have to run it on a platform where GCC is available, and move
+the sources back to the platform without GCC.
+
+If you succeed in automatically converting the sources to a K&R compatible
+form, be sure to email perlbug@perl.com to let us know the steps you
+followed. This will enable us to officially support this option.
+
+=back
+
+Although Perl can be compiled using a C++ compiler, the Configure script
+does not work with some C++ compilers.
+
=head1 Space Requirements
-The complete perl5 source tree takes up about 7 MB of disk space.
-The complete tree after completing C takes roughly
-15 MB, though the actual total is likely to be quite
-system-dependent. The installation directories need something
-on the order of 7 MB, though again that value is system-dependent.
+The complete perl5 source tree takes up about 20 MB of disk space.
+After completing make, it takes up roughly 30 MB, though the actual
+total is likely to be quite system-dependent. The installation
+directories need something on the order of 20 MB, though again that
+value is system-dependent.
=head1 Start with a Fresh Distribution
If you have built perl before, you should clean out the build directory
with the command
+ make distclean
+
+or
+
make realclean
-The results of a Configure run are stored in the config.sh file. If
-you are upgrading from a previous version of perl, or if you change
-systems or compilers or make other significant changes, or if you are
-experiencing difficulties building perl, you should probably I
-re-use your old config.sh. Simply remove it or rename it, e.g.
+The only difference between the two is that make distclean also removes
+your old config.sh and Policy.sh files.
- mv config.sh config.sh.old
+The results of a Configure run are stored in the config.sh and Policy.sh
+files. If you are upgrading from a previous version of perl, or if you
+change systems or compilers or make other significant changes, or if
+you are experiencing difficulties building perl, you should probably
+not re-use your old config.sh. Simply remove it
+
+ rm -f config.sh
If you wish to use your old config.sh, be especially attentive to the
version and architecture-specific questions and answers. For example,
@@ -69,264 +207,355 @@ probably check and correct for this, but it doesn't, presently.
Similarly, if you used a shared libperl.so (see below) with version
numbers, you will probably want to adjust them as well.
-Also, be careful to check your architecture name. Some Linux systems
-call themselves i486, while others use i586. If you pick up a
-precompiled binary, it might not use the same name.
+Also, be careful to check your architecture name. For example, some
+Linux distributions use i386, while others may use i486. If you build
+it yourself, Configure uses the output of the arch command, which
+might be i586 or i686 instead. If you pick up a precompiled binary, or
+compile extensions on different systems, they might not all agree on
+the architecture name.
In short, if you wish to use your old config.sh, I recommend running
Configure interactively rather than blindly accepting the defaults.
+If your reason to reuse your old config.sh is to save your particular
+installation choices, then you can probably achieve the same effect by
+using the Policy.sh file. See the section on L<"Site-wide Policy
+settings"> below. If you wish to start with a fresh distribution, you
+also need to remove any old Policy.sh files you may have with
+
+ rm -f Policy.sh
+
=head1 Run Configure
Configure will figure out various things about your system. Some
things Configure will figure out for itself, other things it will ask
-you about. To accept the default, just press C. The default
-is almost always ok.
+you about. To accept the default, just press RETURN. The default is
+almost always okay. It is normal for some things to be "NOT found",
+since Configure often searches for many different ways of performing
+the same function.
+
+At any Configure prompt, you can type &-d and Configure will use the
+defaults from then on.
After it runs, Configure will perform variable substitution on all the
-F<*.SH> files and offer to run B.
+*.SH files and offer to run make depend.
-Configure supports a number of useful options. Run B
-to get a listing. To compile with gcc, for example, you can run
+=head2 Altering config.sh variables for C compiler switches etc.
- sh Configure -Dcc=gcc
+For most users, all of the Configure defaults are fine. Configure
+also has several convenient options which are all described below.
+However, if Configure doesn't have an option to do what you want,
+you can change Configure variables after the platform hints have been
+run, by using Configure's -A switch. For example, here's how to add
+a couple of extra flags to C compiler invocations:
-This is the preferred way to specify gcc (or another alternative
-compiler) so that the hints files can set appropriate defaults.
+ sh Configure -Accflags="-DPERL_Y2KWARN -DPERL_POLLUTE_MALLOC"
-If you want to use your old config.sh but override some of the items
-with command line options, you need to use B.
+For more help on Configure switches, run:
-If you are willing to accept all the defaults, and you want terse
-output, you can run
+ sh Configure -h
- sh Configure -des
+=head2 Common Configure options
-By default, for most systems, perl will be installed in
-/usr/local/{bin, lib, man}. You can specify a different 'prefix' for
-the default installation directory, when Configure prompts you or by
-using the Configure command line option -Dprefix='/some/directory',
-e.g.
+Configure supports a number of useful options. Run B to
+get a listing. See the Porting/Glossary file for a complete list of
+Configure variables you can set and their definitions.
- sh Configure -Dprefix=/opt/perl
+=over 4
-If your prefix contains the string "perl", then the directories
-are simplified. For example, if you use prefix=/opt/perl,
-then Configure will suggest /opt/perl/lib instead of
-/opt/perl/lib/perl5/.
+=item gcc
-By default, Configure will compile perl to use dynamic loading if
-your system supports it. If you want to force perl to be compiled
-statically, you can either choose this when Configure prompts you or
-you can use the Configure command line option -Uusedl.
+To compile with gcc you should run
-=head2 GNU-style configure
+ sh Configure -Dcc=gcc
-If you prefer the GNU-style B command line interface, you can
-use the supplied B command, e.g.
+This is the preferred way to specify gcc (or another alternative
+compiler) so that the hints files can set appropriate defaults.
- CC=gcc ./configure
+=item Installation prefix
-The B script emulates a few of the more common configure
-options. Try
+By default, for most systems, perl will be installed in
+/usr/local/{bin, lib, man}. (See L<"Installation Directories">
+and L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> below for
+further details.)
- ./configure --help
+You can specify a different 'prefix' for the default installation
+directory, when Configure prompts you or by using the Configure command
+line option -Dprefix='/some/directory', e.g.
-for a listing.
+ sh Configure -Dprefix=/opt/perl
-Cross compiling is not supported.
+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 systems that do not distinguish the files "Configure" and
-"configure", Perl includes a copy of B named
-B.
+NOTE: You must not specify an installation directory that is the same
+as or below your perl source directory. If you do, installperl will
+attempt infinite recursion.
-=head2 Extensions
+=item /usr/bin/perl
-By default, Configure will offer to build every extension which appears
-to be supported. For example, Configure will offer to build GDBM_File
-only if it is able to find the gdbm library. (See examples below.)
-DynaLoader, Fcntl, and IO are always built by default. Configure does
-not contain code to test for POSIX compliance, so POSIX is always built
-by default as well. If you wish to skip POSIX, you can set the
-Configure variable useposix=false either in a hint file or from the
-Configure command line. Similarly, the Opcode extension is always built
-by default, but you can skip it by setting the Configure variable
-useopcode=false either in a hint file for from the command line.
+It may seem obvious, but Perl is useful only when users can easily
+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.
-Even if you do not have dynamic loading, you must still build the
-DynaLoader extension; you should just build the stub dl_none.xs
-version. (Configure will suggest this as the default.)
+By default, Configure will arrange for /usr/bin/perl to be linked to
+the current version of perl. You can turn off that behavior by running
-In summary, here are the Configure command-line variables you can set
-to turn off each extension:
+ Configure -Uinstallusrbinperl
- DB_File i_db
- DynaLoader (Must always be included as a static extension)
- Fcntl (Always included by default)
- GDBM_File i_gdbm
- IO (Always included by default)
- NDBM_File i_ndbm
- ODBM_File i_dbm
- POSIX useposix
- SDBM_File (Always included by default)
- Opcode useopcode
- Socket d_socket
+or by answering 'no' to the appropriate Configure prompt.
-Thus to skip the NDBM_File extension, you can use
+In any case, system administrators are strongly encouraged to
+put (symlinks to) perl and its accompanying utilities, such as perldoc,
+into a directory typically found along a user's PATH, or in another
+obvious and convenient place.
- sh Configure -Ui_ndbm
+=item Overriding an old config.sh
-Again, this is taken care of automatically if you don't have the ndbm
-library.
-
-Of course, you may always run Configure interactively and select only
-the extensions you want.
-
-Finally, if you have dynamic loading (most modern Unix systems do)
-remember that these extensions do not increase the size of your perl
-executable, nor do they impact start-up time, so you probably might as
-well build all the ones that will work on your system.
-
-=head2 Including locally-installed libraries
+If you want to use your old config.sh but override some of the items
+with command line options, you need to use B.
-Perl5 comes with interfaces to number of database extensions, including
-dbm, ndbm, gdbm, and Berkeley db. For each extension, if
-Configure can find the appropriate header files and libraries, it will
-automatically include that extension. The gdbm and db libraries
-are B included with perl. See the library documentation for
-how to obtain the libraries.
+=back
-I If your database header (.h) files are not in a
-directory normally searched by your C compiler, then you will need to
-include the appropriate B<-I/your/directory> option when prompted by
-Configure. If your database library (.a) files are not in a directory
-normally searched by your C compiler and linker, then you will need to
-include the appropriate B<-L/your/directory> option when prompted by
-Configure. See the examples below.
+If you are willing to accept all the defaults, and you want terse
+output, you can run
-=head2 Examples
+ sh Configure -des
-=over 4
+For my Solaris system, I usually use
-=item gdbm in /usr/local
+ sh Configure -Dprefix=/opt/perl -Doptimize='-xpentium -xO4' -des
-Suppose you have gdbm and want Configure to find it and build the
-GDBM_File extension. This examples assumes you have F
-installed in F and F installed in
-F. Configure should figure all the
-necessary steps out automatically.
+=head2 GNU-style configure
-Specifically, when Configure prompts you for flags for
-your C compiler, you should include C<-I/usr/local/include>.
+If you prefer the GNU-style configure command line interface, you can
+use the supplied configure.gnu command, e.g.
-When Configure prompts you for linker flags, you should include
-C<-L/usr/local/lib>.
+ CC=gcc ./configure.gnu
-If you are using dynamic loading, then when Configure prompts you for
-linker flags for dynamic loading, you should again include
-C<-L/usr/local/lib>.
+The configure.gnu script emulates a few of the more common configure
+options. Try
-Again, this should all happen automatically. If you want to accept the
-defaults for all the questions and have Configure print out only terse
-messages, then you can just run
+ ./configure.gnu --help
- sh Configure -des
+for a listing.
-and Configure should include the GDBM_File extension automatically.
+Cross compiling and compiling in a different directory are not supported.
-This should actually work if you have gdbm installed in any of
-(/usr/local, /opt/local, /usr/gnu, /opt/gnu, /usr/GNU, or /opt/GNU).
+(The file is called configure.gnu to avoid problems on systems
+that would not distinguish the files "Configure" and "configure".)
-=item gdbm in /usr/you
+=head2 Installation Directories
-Suppose you have gdbm installed in some place other than /usr/local/,
-but you still want Configure to find it. To be specific, assume you
-have F and F. You
-still have to add B<-I/usr/you/include> to cc flags, but you have to take
-an extra step to help Configure find F. Specifically, when
-Configure prompts you for library directories, you have to add
-F to the list.
+The installation directories can all be changed by answering the
+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.
-It is possible to specify this from the command line too (all on one
-line):
+I highly recommend running Configure interactively to be sure it puts
+everything where you want it. At any point during the Configure
+process, you can answer a question with &-d and Configure will use
+the defaults from then on.
- sh Configure -des \
- -Dlocincpth="/usr/you/include" \
- -Dloclibpth="/usr/you/lib"
+The defaults are intended to be reasonable and sensible for most
+people building from sources. Those who build and distribute binary
+distributions or who export perl to a range of systems will probably
+need to alter them. If you are content to just accept the defaults,
+you can safely skip the next section.
-C is a space-separated list of include directories to search.
-Configure will automatically add the appropriate B<-I> directives.
+The directories set up by Configure fall into three broad categories.
-C is a space-separated list of library directories to search.
-Configure will automatically add the appropriate B<-L> directives. If
-you have some libraries under F and others under
-F, then you have to include both, namely
+=over 4
- sh Configure -des \
- -Dlocincpth="/usr/you/include /usr/local/include" \
- -Dloclibpth="/usr/you/lib /usr/local/lib"
+=item Directories for the perl distribution
+
+By default, Configure will use the following directories for 5.6.0.
+$version is the full perl version number, including subversion, e.g.
+5.6.0 or 5.6.1, and $archname is a string like sun4-sunos,
+determined by Configure. The full definitions of all Configure
+variables are in the file Porting/Glossary.
+
+ Configure variable Default value
+ $prefix /usr/local
+ $bin $prefix/bin
+ $scriptdir $prefix/bin
+ $privlib $prefix/lib/perl5/$version
+ $archlib $prefix/lib/perl5/$version/$archname
+ $man1dir $prefix/man/man1
+ $man3dir $prefix/man/man3
+ $html1dir (none)
+ $html3dir (none)
+
+Actually, Configure recognizes the SVR3-style
+/usr/local/man/l_man/man1 directories, if present, and uses those
+instead. Also, if $prefix contains the string "perl", the library
+directories are simplified as described below. For simplicity, only
+the common style is shown here.
+
+=item Directories for site-specific add-on files
+
+After perl is installed, you may later wish to add modules (e.g. from
+CPAN) or scripts. Configure will set up the following directories to
+be used for installing those add-on modules and scripts.
+
+ Configure variable Default value
+ $siteprefix $prefix
+ $sitebin $siteprefix/bin
+ $sitescript $siteprefix/bin
+ $sitelib $siteprefix/lib/perl5/site_perl/$version
+ $sitearch $siteprefix/lib/perl5/site_perl/$version/$archname
+ $siteman1 $siteprefix/man/man1
+ $siteman3 $siteprefix/man/man3
+ $sitehtml1 (none)
+ $sitehtml3 (none)
+
+By default, ExtUtils::MakeMaker will install architecture-independent
+modules into $sitelib and architecture-dependent modules into $sitearch.
+
+NOTE: As of 5.6.0, ExtUtils::MakeMaker will use $sitelib and $sitearch,
+but will not use the other site-specific directories. Volunteers to
+fix this are needed.
+
+=item Directories for vendor-supplied add-on files
+
+Lastly, if you are building a binary distribution of perl for
+distribution, Configure can optionally set up the following directories
+for you to use to distribute add-on modules.
+
+ Configure variable Default value
+ $vendorprefix (none)
+ (The next ones are set only if vendorprefix is set.)
+ $vendorbin $vendorprefix/bin
+ $vendorscript $vendorprefix/bin
+ $vendorlib $vendorprefix/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/$version
+ $vendorarch $vendorprefix/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/$version/$archname
+ $vendorman1 $vendorprefix/man/man1
+ $vendorman3 $vendorprefix/man/man3
+ $vendorhtml1 (none)
+ $vendorhtml3 (none)
+
+These are normally empty, but may be set as needed. For example,
+a vendor might choose the following settings:
+
+ $prefix /usr/bin
+ $siteprefix /usr/local/bin
+ $vendorprefix /usr/bin
+
+This would have the effect of setting the following:
+
+ $bin /usr/bin
+ $scriptdir /usr/bin
+ $privlib /usr/lib/perl5/$version
+ $archlib /usr/lib/perl5/$version/$archname
+ $man1dir /usr/man/man1
+ $man3dir /usr/man/man3
+
+ $sitebin /usr/local/bin
+ $sitescript /usr/local/bin
+ $sitelib /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/$version
+ $sitearch /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/$version/$archname
+ $siteman1 /usr/local/man/man1
+ $siteman3 /usr/local/man/man3
+
+ $vendorbin /usr/bin
+ $vendorscript /usr/bin
+ $vendorlib /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/$version
+ $vendorarch /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/$version/$archname
+ $vendorman1 /usr/man/man1
+ $vendorman3 /usr/man/man3
+
+Note how in this example, the vendor-supplied directories are in the
+/usr hierarchy, while the directories reserved for the end-user are in
+the /usr/local hierarchy.
+
+NOTE: As of 5.6.0, ExtUtils::MakeMaker does not use these directories.
+Volunteers to fix this are needed.
+
+The entire installed library hierarchy is installed in locations with
+version numbers, keeping the installations of different versions distinct.
+However, later installations of Perl can still be configured to search the
+installed libraries corresponding to compatible earlier versions.
+See L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> below for more details
+on how Perl can be made to search older version directories.
+
+Of course you may use these directories however you see fit. For
+example, you may wish to use $siteprefix for site-specific files that
+are stored locally on your own disk and use $vendorprefix for
+site-specific files that are stored elsewhere on your organization's
+network. One way to do that would be something like
+
+ sh Configure -Dsiteprefix=/usr/local -Dvendorprefix=/usr/share/perl
+
+=item otherlibdirs
+
+As a final catch-all, Configure also offers an $otherlibdirs
+variable. This variable contains a colon-separated list of additional
+directories to add to @INC. By default, it will be empty.
+Perl will search these directories (including architecture and
+version-specific subdirectories) for add-on modules and extensions.
+
+=item Man Pages
+
+In versions 5.005_57 and earlier, the default was to store module man
+pages in a version-specific directory, such as
+/usr/local/lib/perl5/$version/man/man3. The default for 5.005_58 and
+after is /usr/local/man/man3 so that most users can find the man pages
+without resetting MANPATH.
+
+You can continue to use the old default from the command line with
+
+ sh Configure -Dman3dir=/usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.0/man/man3
+
+Some users also prefer to use a .3pm suffix. You can do that with
-=back
+ sh Configure -Dman3ext=3pm
-=head2 Installation Directories
+Again, these are just the defaults, and can be changed as you run
+Configure.
-The installation directories can all be changed by answering the
-appropriate questions in Configure. For convenience, all the
-installation questions are near the beginning of Configure.
+=item HTML pages
-By default, Configure uses the following directories for
-library files (archname is a string like sun4-sunos, determined
-by Configure)
+As of perl5.005_57, the standard perl installation does not do
+anything with HTML documentation, but that may change in the future.
+Further, some add-on modules may wish to install HTML documents. The
+html Configure variables listed above are provided if you wish to
+specify where such documents should be placed. The default is "none",
+but will likely eventually change to something useful based on user
+feedback.
- /usr/local/lib/perl5/archname/5.004
- /usr/local/lib/perl5/
- /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/archname
- /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl
+=back
-and the following directories for manual pages:
+Some users prefer to append a "/share" to $privlib and $sitelib
+to emphasize that those directories can be shared among different
+architectures.
- /usr/local/man/man1
- /usr/local/lib/perl5/man/man3
+Note that these are just the defaults. You can actually structure the
+directories any way you like. They don't even have to be on the same
+filesystem.
-(Actually, Configure recognizes the SVR3-style
-/usr/local/man/l_man/man1 directories, if present, and uses those
-instead.) The module man pages are stuck in that strange spot so that
-they don't collide with other man pages stored in /usr/local/man/man3,
-and so that Perl's man pages don't hide system man pages. On some
-systems, B would end up calling up Perl's less.pm module man
-page, rather than the B program.
+Further details about the installation directories, maintenance and
+development subversions, and about supporting multiple versions are
+discussed in L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> below.
If you specify a prefix that contains the string "perl", then the
-directory structure is simplified. For example, if you Configure with
--Dprefix=/opt/perl, then the defaults are
-
- /opt/perl/lib/archname/5.004
- /opt/perl/lib
- /opt/perl/lib/site_perl/archname
- /opt/perl/lib/site_perl
-
- /opt/perl/man/man1
- /opt/perl/man/man3
-
-The perl executable will search the libraries in the order given
-above.
-
-The directories site_perl and site_perl/archname are empty, but are
-intended to be used for installing local or site-wide extensions. Perl
-will automatically look in these directories. Previously, most sites
-just put their local extensions in with the standard distribution.
-
-In order to support using things like #!/usr/local/bin/perl5.004 after
-a later version is released, architecture-dependent libraries are
-stored in a version-specific directory, such as
-/usr/local/lib/perl5/archname/5.004/. In Perl 5.000 and 5.001, these
-files were just stored in /usr/local/lib/perl5/archname/. If you will
-not be using 5.001 binaries, you can delete the standard extensions from
-the /usr/local/lib/perl5/archname/ directory. Locally-added extensions
-can be moved to the site_perl and site_perl/archname directories.
+library directory structure is slightly simplified. Instead of
+suggesting $prefix/lib/perl5/, Configure will suggest $prefix/lib.
-Again, these are just the defaults, and can be changed as you run
-Configure.
+Thus, for example, if you Configure with
+-Dprefix=/opt/perl, then the default library directories for 5.6.0 are
+
+ Configure variable Default value
+ $privlib /opt/perl/lib/5.6.0
+ $archlib /opt/perl/lib/5.6.0/$archname
+ $sitelib /opt/perl/lib/site_perl/5.6.0
+ $sitearch /opt/perl/lib/site_perl/5.6.0/$archname
=head2 Changing the installation directory
@@ -334,57 +563,79 @@ Configure distinguishes between the directory in which perl (and its
associated files) should be installed and the directory in which it
will eventually reside. For most sites, these two are the same; for
sites that use AFS, this distinction is handled automatically.
-However, sites that use software such as B to manage software
-packages may also wish to install perl into a different directory and
-use that management software to move perl to its final destination.
-This section describes how to do this. Someday, Configure may support
-an option -Dinstallprefix=/foo to simplify this.
-
-Suppose you want to install perl under the F directory.
-You can edit F and change all the install* variables to
-point to F instead of F. You could
-also set them all from the Configure command line. Or, you can
-automate this process by placing the following lines in a file
-F B you run Configure (replace /tmp/perl5 by a
-directory of your choice):
-
- installprefix=/tmp/perl5
- test -d $installprefix || mkdir $installprefix
- test -d $installprefix/bin || mkdir $installprefix/bin
- installarchlib=`echo $installarchlib | sed "s!$prefix!$installprefix!"`
- installbin=`echo $installbin | sed "s!$prefix!$installprefix!"`
- installman1dir=`echo $installman1dir | sed "s!$prefix!$installprefix!"`
- installman3dir=`echo $installman3dir | sed "s!$prefix!$installprefix!"`
- installprivlib=`echo $installprivlib | sed "s!$prefix!$installprefix!"`
- installscript=`echo $installscript | sed "s!$prefix!$installprefix!"`
- installsitelib=`echo $installsitelib | sed "s!$prefix!$installprefix!"`
- installsitearch=`echo $installsitearch | sed "s!$prefix!$installprefix!"`
-
-Then, you can Configure and install in the usual way:
-
- sh Configure -des
- make
- make test
- make install
+However, sites that use software such as depot to manage software
+packages, or users building binary packages for distribution may also
+wish to install perl into a different directory and use that
+management software to move perl to its final destination. This
+section describes how to do that.
+
+Suppose you want to install perl under the /tmp/perl5 directory. You
+could edit config.sh and change all the install* variables to point to
+/tmp/perl5 instead of /usr/local, or you could simply use the
+following command line:
+
+ sh Configure -Dinstallprefix=/tmp/perl5
+
+(replace /tmp/perl5 by a directory of your choice).
+
+Beware, though, that if you go to try to install new add-on
+modules, they too will get installed in under '/tmp/perl5' if you
+follow this example. The next section shows one way of dealing with
+that problem.
=head2 Creating an installable tar archive
If you need to install perl on many identical systems, it is
convenient to compile it once and create an archive that can be
-installed on multiple systems. Here's one way to do that:
+installed on multiple systems. Suppose, for example, that you want to
+create an archive that can be installed in /opt/perl.
+Here's one way to do that:
- # Set up config.over to install perl into a different directory,
+ # Set up to install perl into a different directory,
# e.g. /tmp/perl5 (see previous part).
- sh Configure -des
+ sh Configure -Dinstallprefix=/tmp/perl5 -Dprefix=/opt/perl -des
make
make test
- make install
+ make install # This will install everything into /tmp/perl5.
cd /tmp/perl5
+ # Edit $archlib/Config.pm and $archlib/.packlist to change all the
+ # install* variables back to reflect where everything will
+ # really be installed. (That is, change /tmp/perl5 to /opt/perl
+ # everywhere in those files.)
+ # Check the scripts in $scriptdir to make sure they have the correct
+ # #!/wherever/perl line.
tar cvf ../perl5-archive.tar .
# Then, on each machine where you want to install perl,
- cd /usr/local # Or wherever you specified as $prefix
+ cd /opt/perl # Or wherever you specified as $prefix
tar xvf perl5-archive.tar
+=head2 Site-wide Policy settings
+
+After Configure runs, it stores a number of common site-wide "policy"
+answers (such as installation directories and the local perl contact
+person) in the Policy.sh file. If you want to build perl on another
+system using the same policy defaults, simply copy the Policy.sh file
+to the new system and Configure will use it along with the appropriate
+hint file for your system.
+
+Alternatively, if you wish to change some or all of those policy
+answers, you should
+
+ rm -f Policy.sh
+
+to ensure that Configure doesn't re-use them.
+
+Further information is in the Policy_sh.SH file itself.
+
+If the generated Policy.sh file is unsuitable, you may freely edit it
+to contain any valid shell commands. It will be run just after the
+platform-specific hints files.
+
+Note: Since the directory hierarchy for 5.6.0 contains a number of
+new vendor* and site* entries, your Policy.sh file will probably not
+set them to your desired values. I encourage you to run Configure
+interactively to be sure it puts things where you want them.
+
=head2 Configure-time Options
There are several different ways to Configure and build perl for your
@@ -392,39 +643,83 @@ system. For most users, the defaults are sensible and will work.
Some users, however, may wish to further customize perl. Here are
some of the main things you can change.
-=head2 Binary Compatibility With Earlier Versions of Perl 5
+=head2 Threads
-If you have dynamically loaded extensions that you built under
-perl 5.003 and that you wish to continue to use with perl 5.004, then you
-need to ensure that 5.004 remains binary compatible with 5.003.
+On some platforms, perl5.005 and later can be compiled with
+experimental support for threads. To enable this, read the file
+README.threads, and then try:
-Starting with Perl 5.003, all functions in the Perl C source code have
-been protected by default by the prefix Perl_ (or perl_) so that you
-may link with third-party libraries without fear of namespace
-collisions. This change broke compatibility with version 5.002, so
-installing 5.003 or 5.004 over 5.002 or earlier will force you to
-re-build and install all of your dynamically loadable extensions.
-(The standard extensions supplied with Perl are handled
-automatically). You can turn off this namespace protection by adding
--DNO_EMBED to your ccflags variable in config.sh.
+ sh Configure -Dusethreads
-Perl 5.003's namespace protection was incomplete, but this has
-been fixed in 5.004. However, some sites may need to maintain
-complete binary compatibility with Perl 5.003. If you are building
-Perl for such a site, then when B asks if you want binary
-compatibility, answer "y".
+Currently, you need to specify -Dusethreads on the Configure command
+line so that the hint files can make appropriate adjustments.
-On the other hand, if you are embedding perl into another application
-and want the maximum namespace protection, then you probably ought to
-answer "n" when B asks if you want binary compatibility.
+The default is to compile without thread support.
-The default answer of "y" to maintain binary compatibility is probably
-appropriate for almost everyone.
+As of v5.5.64, perl has two different internal threads implementations.
+The 5.005 version (5005threads) and an interpreter-based implementation
+(ithreads) with one interpreter per thread. By default, Configure selects
+ithreads if -Dusethreads is specified. However, you can select the old
+5005threads behavior instead by either
+
+ sh Configure -Dusethreads -Duse5005threads
+
+or by
+ sh Configure -Dusethreads -Uuseithreads
+
+Eventually (by perl v5.6.0) this internal confusion ought to disappear,
+and these options may disappear as well.
+
+=head2 64 bit support.
+
+If your platform does not have 64 bits natively, but can simulate them with
+compiler flags and/or C or C, you can build a perl that
+uses 64 bits.
+
+There are actually two modes of 64-bitness: the first one is achieved
+using Configure -Duse64bitint and the second one using Configure
+-Duse64bitall. The difference is that the first one is minimal and
+the second one maximal. The first works in more places than the second.
+
+The C does only as much as is required to get 64-bit
+integers into Perl (this may mean, for example, using "long longs")
+while your memory may still be limited to 2 gigabytes (because your
+pointers could still be 32-bit). Note that the name C<64bitint> does
+not imply that your C compiler will be using 64-bit Cs (it might,
+but it doesn't have to): the C means that you will be
+able to have 64 bits wide scalar values.
+
+The C goes all the way by attempting to switch also
+integers (if it can), longs (and pointers) to being 64-bit. This may
+create an even more binary incompatible Perl than -Duse64bitint: the
+resulting executable may not run at all in a 32-bit box, or you may
+have to reboot/reconfigure/rebuild your operating system to be 64-bit
+aware.
+
+Natively 64-bit systems like Alpha and Cray need neither -Duse64bitint
+nor -Duse64bitall.
+
+ NOTE: 64-bit support is still experimental on most platforms.
+ Existing support only covers the LP64 data model. In particular, the
+ LLP64 data model is not yet supported. 64-bit libraries and system
+ APIs on many platforms have not stabilized--your mileage may vary.
+
+=head2 Long doubles
+
+In some systems you may be able to use long doubles to enhance the
+range and precision of your double precision floating point numbers
+(that is, Perl's numbers). Use Configure -Duselongdouble to enable
+this support (if it is available).
+
+=head2 "more bits"
+
+You can "Configure -Dusemorebits" to turn on both the 64-bit support
+and the long double support.
=head2 Selecting File IO mechanisms
Previous versions of perl used the standard IO mechanisms as defined in
-. Versions 5.003_02 and later of perl allow alternate IO
+stdio.h. Versions 5.003_02 and later of perl allow alternate IO
mechanisms via a "PerlIO" abstraction, but the stdio mechanism is still
the default and is the only supported mechanism.
@@ -444,7 +739,7 @@ everywhere.
=item 1.
-AT&T's "sfio". This has superior performance to in many
+AT&T's "sfio". This has superior performance to stdio.h in many
cases, and is extensible by the use of "discipline" modules. Sfio
currently only builds on a subset of the UNIX platforms perl supports.
Because the data structures are completely different from stdio, perl
@@ -452,8 +747,7 @@ extension modules or external libraries may not work. This
configuration exists to allow these issues to be worked on.
This option requires the 'sfio' package to have been built and installed.
-A (fairly old) version of sfio is in CPAN, and work is in progress to make
-it more easily buildable by adding Configure support.
+A (fairly old) version of sfio is in CPAN.
You select this option by
@@ -463,31 +757,12 @@ If you have already selected -Duseperlio, and if Configure detects
that you have sfio, then sfio will be the default suggested by
Configure.
-I On some systems, sfio's B configuration script fails
-to detect that you have an C function (or equivalent).
-Apparently, this is a problem at least for some versions of Linux
-and SunOS 4.
-
-You can test if you have this problem by trying the following shell
-script. (You may have to add some extra cflags and libraries. A
-portable version of this may eventually make its way into Configure.)
-
- #!/bin/sh
- cat > try.c <<'EOCP'
- #include
- main() { printf("42\n"); }
- EOCP
- cc -o try try.c -lsfio
- val=`./try`
- if test X$val = X42; then
- echo "Your sfio looks ok"
- else
- echo "Your sfio has the exit problem."
- fi
-
-If you have this problem, the fix is to go back to your sfio sources
-and correct iffe's guess about atexit (or whatever is appropriate for
-your platform.)
+Note: On some systems, sfio's iffe configuration script fails to
+detect that you have an atexit function (or equivalent). Apparently,
+this is a problem at least for some versions of Linux and SunOS 4.
+Configure should detect this problem and warn you about problems with
+_exit vs. exit. If you have this problem, the fix is to go back to
+your sfio sources and correct iffe's guess about atexit.
There also might be a more recent release of Sfio that fixes your
problem.
@@ -510,6 +785,13 @@ detect sfio, then this will be the default suggested by Configure.
=back
+=head2 Dynamic Loading
+
+By default, Configure will compile perl to use dynamic loading if
+your system supports it. If you want to force perl to be compiled
+statically, you can either choose this when Configure prompts you or
+you can use the Configure command line option -Uusedl.
+
=head2 Building a shared libperl.so Perl library
Currently, for most systems, the main perl executable is built by
@@ -548,9 +830,25 @@ You can elect to build a shared libperl by
sh Configure -Duseshrplib
-To actually build perl, you must add the current working directory to your
-LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable before running make. You can do
-this with
+To build a shared libperl, the environment variable controlling shared
+library search (LD_LIBRARY_PATH in most systems, DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH for
+NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP/Darwin, LIBRARY_PATH for BeOS, SHLIB_PATH for
+HP-UX, LIBPATH for AIX, PATH for Cygwin) must be set up to include
+the Perl build directory because that's where the shared libperl will
+be created. Configure arranges makefile to have the correct shared
+library search settings.
+
+However, there are some special cases where manually setting the
+shared library path might be required. For example, if you want to run
+something like the following with the newly-built but not-yet-installed
+./perl:
+
+ cd t; ./perl misc/failing_test.t
+or
+ ./perl -Ilib ~/my_mission_critical_test
+
+then you need to set up the shared library path explicitly.
+You can do this with
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=`pwd`:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH; export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
@@ -558,9 +856,13 @@ for Bourne-style shells, or
setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH `pwd`
-for Csh-style shells. You *MUST* do this before running make.
-Folks running NeXT OPENSTEP must substitute DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH for
-LD_LIBRARY_PATH above.
+for Csh-style shells. (This procedure may also be needed if for some
+unexpected reason Configure fails to set up makefile correctly.)
+
+You can often recognize failures to build/use a shared libperl from error
+messages complaining about a missing libperl.so (or libperl.sl in HP-UX),
+for example:
+18126:./miniperl: /sbin/loader: Fatal Error: cannot map libperl.so
There is also an potential problem with the shared perl library if you
want to have more than one "flavor" of the same version of perl (e.g.
@@ -573,32 +875,32 @@ libperl.so.4 rather with the installed libperl.so.4? The answer is
that you might not be able to. The installation directory is encoded
in the perl binary with the LD_RUN_PATH environment variable (or
equivalent ld command-line option). On Solaris, you can override that
-with LD_LIBRARY_PATH; on Linux you can't.
+with LD_LIBRARY_PATH; on Linux you can't. On Digital Unix, you can
+override LD_LIBRARY_PATH by setting the _RLD_ROOT environment variable
+to point to the perl build directory.
The only reliable answer is that you should specify a different
directory for the architecture-dependent library for your -DDEBUGGING
-version of perl. You can do this with by changing all the *archlib*
-variables in config.sh, namely archlib, archlib_exp, and
-installarchlib, to point to your new architecture-dependent library.
+version of perl. You can do this by changing all the *archlib*
+variables in config.sh to point to your new architecture-dependent library.
=head2 Malloc Issues
-Perl relies heavily on malloc(3) to grow data structures as needed, so
-perl's performance can be noticeably affected by the performance of
-the malloc function on your system.
+Perl relies heavily on malloc(3) to grow data structures as needed,
+so perl's performance can be noticeably affected by the performance of
+the malloc function on your system. The perl source is shipped with a
+version of malloc that has been optimized for the typical requests from
+perl, so there's a chance that it may be both faster and use less memory
+than your system malloc.
-The perl source is shipped with a version of malloc that is very fast
-but somewhat wasteful of space. On the other hand, your system's
-malloc() function is probably a bit slower but also a bit more frugal.
+However, if your system already has an excellent malloc, or if you are
+experiencing difficulties with extensions that use third-party libraries
+that call malloc, then you should probably use your system's malloc.
+(Or, you might wish to explore the malloc flags discussed below.)
-For many uses, speed is probably the most important consideration, so
-the default behavior (for most systems) is to use the malloc supplied
-with perl. However, if you will be running very large applications
-(e.g. Tk or PDL) or if your system already has an excellent malloc, or
-if you are experiencing difficulties with extensions that use
-third-party libraries that call malloc, then you might wish to use
-your system's malloc. (Or, you might wish to explore the experimental
-malloc flags discussed below.)
+=over 4
+
+=item Using the system malloc
To build without perl's malloc, you can use the Configure command
@@ -606,67 +908,214 @@ To build without perl's malloc, you can use the Configure command
or you can answer 'n' at the appropriate interactive Configure prompt.
-=head2 Malloc Performance Flags
+=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.
+
+Perl's malloc family of functions are called Perl_malloc(),
+Perl_realloc(), Perl_calloc() and Perl_mfree(). When this flag is
+not enabled, the names do not clash with the system versions of
+these functions.
+
+If enabled, Perl's malloc family of functions will have the same
+names as the system versions. This may be sometimes required when you
+have libraries that like to free() data that may have been allocated
+by Perl_malloc() and vice versa.
+
+Note that enabling this option may sometimes lead to duplicate symbols
+from the linker for malloc et al. In such cases, the system probably
+does not allow its malloc functions to be fully replaced with custom
+versions.
+
+=back
+
+=head2 Building a debugging perl
+
+You can run perl scripts under the perl debugger at any time with
+B. If, however, you want to debug perl itself,
+you probably want to do
+
+ sh Configure -Doptimize='-g'
+
+This will do two independent things: First, it will force compilation
+to use cc -g so that you can use your system's debugger on the
+executable. (Note: Your system may actually require something like
+cc -g2. Check your man pages for cc(1) and also any hint file for
+your system.) Second, it will add -DDEBUGGING to your ccflags
+variable in config.sh so that you can use B to access perl's
+internal state. (Note: Configure will only add -DDEBUGGING by default
+if you are not reusing your old config.sh. If you want to reuse your
+old config.sh, then you can just edit it and change the optimize and
+ccflags variables by hand and then propagate your changes as shown in
+L<"Propagating your changes to config.sh"> below.)
+
+You can actually specify -g and -DDEBUGGING independently, but usually
+it's convenient to have both.
+
+If you are using a shared libperl, see the warnings about multiple
+versions of perl under L.
+
+=head2 Extensions
+
+By default, Configure will offer to build every extension which appears
+to be supported. For example, Configure will offer to build GDBM_File
+only if it is able to find the gdbm library. (See examples below.)
+B, DynaLoader, Fcntl, IO, and attrs are always built by default.
+Configure does not contain code to test for POSIX compliance, so POSIX
+is always built by default as well. If you wish to skip POSIX, you can
+set the Configure variable useposix=false either in a hint file or from
+the Configure command line. Similarly, the Opcode extension is always
+built by default, but you can skip it by setting the Configure variable
+useopcode=false either in a hint file for from the command line.
+
+If you unpack any additional extensions in the ext/ directory before
+running Configure, then Configure will offer to build those additional
+extensions as well. Most users probably shouldn't have to do this --
+it is usually easier to build additional extensions later after perl
+has been installed. However, if you wish to have those additional
+extensions statically linked into the perl binary, then this offers a
+convenient way to do that in one step. (It is not necessary, however;
+you can build and install extensions just fine even if you don't have
+dynamic loading. See lib/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.pm for more details.)
+
+You can learn more about each of the supplied extensions by consulting the
+documentation in the individual .pm modules, located under the
+ext/ subdirectory.
-If you are using Perl's malloc, you may add one or
-more of the following items to your C config.sh variable
-to change its behavior in potentially useful ways. You can find out
-more about these flags by reading the F source.
-In a future version of perl, these might be enabled by default.
+Even if you do not have dynamic loading, you must still build the
+DynaLoader extension; you should just build the stub dl_none.xs
+version. (Configure will suggest this as the default.)
+
+In summary, here are the Configure command-line variables you can set
+to turn off each extension:
+
+ B (Always included by default)
+ DB_File i_db
+ DynaLoader (Must always be included as a static extension)
+ Fcntl (Always included by default)
+ GDBM_File i_gdbm
+ IO (Always included by default)
+ NDBM_File i_ndbm
+ ODBM_File i_dbm
+ POSIX useposix
+ SDBM_File (Always included by default)
+ Opcode useopcode
+ Socket d_socket
+ Threads use5005threads
+ attrs (Always included by default)
+
+Thus to skip the NDBM_File extension, you can use
+
+ sh Configure -Ui_ndbm
+
+Again, this is taken care of automatically if you don't have the ndbm
+library.
+
+Of course, you may always run Configure interactively and select only
+the extensions you want.
+
+Note: The DB_File module will only work with version 1.x of Berkeley
+DB or newer releases of version 2. Configure will automatically detect
+this for you and refuse to try to build DB_File with earlier
+releases of version 2.
+
+If you re-use your old config.sh but change your system (e.g. by
+adding libgdbm) Configure will still offer your old choices of extensions
+for the default answer, but it will also point out the discrepancy to
+you.
+
+Finally, if you have dynamic loading (most modern Unix systems do)
+remember that these extensions do not increase the size of your perl
+executable, nor do they impact start-up time, so you probably might as
+well build all the ones that will work on your system.
+
+=head2 Including locally-installed libraries
+
+Perl5 comes with interfaces to number of database extensions, including
+dbm, ndbm, gdbm, and Berkeley db. For each extension, if
+Configure can find the appropriate header files and libraries, it will
+automatically include that extension. The gdbm and db libraries
+are not included with perl. See the library documentation for
+how to obtain the libraries.
+
+If your database header (.h) files are not in a directory normally
+searched by your C compiler, then you will need to include the
+appropriate -I/your/directory option when prompted by Configure. If
+your database library (.a) files are not in a directory normally
+searched by your C compiler and linker, then you will need to include
+the appropriate -L/your/directory option when prompted by Configure.
+See the examples below.
+
+=head2 Examples
=over 4
-=item -DEMERGENCY_SBRK
+=item gdbm in /usr/local
-If this macro is defined, running out of memory need not be a fatal
-error: a memory pool can allocated by assigning to the special
-variable C<$^M>.
+Suppose you have gdbm and want Configure to find it and build the
+GDBM_File extension. This example assumes you have gdbm.h
+installed in /usr/local/include/gdbm.h and libgdbm.a installed in
+/usr/local/lib/libgdbm.a. Configure should figure all the
+necessary steps out automatically.
-=item -DPACK_MALLOC
+Specifically, when Configure prompts you for flags for
+your C compiler, you should include -I/usr/local/include.
-If C is defined, malloc.c uses a slightly different
-algorithm for small allocations (up to 64 bytes long). Such small
-allocations are quite common in typical Perl scripts.
+When Configure prompts you for linker flags, you should include
+-L/usr/local/lib.
-The expected memory savings (with 8-byte alignment in C) is
-about 20% for typical Perl usage. The expected slowdown due to the
-additional malloc overhead is in fractions of a percent. (It is hard
-to measure because of the effect of the saved memory on speed).
+If you are using dynamic loading, then when Configure prompts you for
+linker flags for dynamic loading, you should again include
+-L/usr/local/lib.
-=item -DTWO_POT_OPTIMIZE
+Again, this should all happen automatically. This should also work if
+you have gdbm installed in any of (/usr/local, /opt/local, /usr/gnu,
+/opt/gnu, /usr/GNU, or /opt/GNU).
-If C is defined, malloc.c uses a slightly different
-algorithm for large allocations that are close to a power of two
-(starting with 16K). Such allocations are typical for big hashes and
-special-purpose scripts, especially image processing. If you will be
-manipulating very large blocks with sizes close to powers of two, it
-might be wise to define this macro.
+=item gdbm in /usr/you
-The expected saving of memory is 0-100% (100% in applications which
-require most memory in such 2**n chunks). The expected slowdown is
-negligible.
+Suppose you have gdbm installed in some place other than /usr/local/,
+but you still want Configure to find it. To be specific, assume you
+have /usr/you/include/gdbm.h and /usr/you/lib/libgdbm.a. You
+still have to add -I/usr/you/include to cc flags, but you have to take
+an extra step to help Configure find libgdbm.a. Specifically, when
+Configure prompts you for library directories, you have to add
+/usr/you/lib to the list.
-=back
+It is possible to specify this from the command line too (all on one
+line):
-=head2 Other Compiler Flags
+ sh Configure -de \
+ -Dlocincpth="/usr/you/include" \
+ -Dloclibpth="/usr/you/lib"
-For most users, all of the Configure defaults are fine. However,
-you can change a number of factors in the way perl is built
-by adding appropriate B<-D> directives to your ccflags variable in
-config.sh.
+locincpth is a space-separated list of include directories to search.
+Configure will automatically add the appropriate -I directives.
-For example, you can replace the rand() and srand() functions in the
-perl source by any other random number generator by a trick such as the
-following:
+loclibpth is a space-separated list of library directories to search.
+Configure will automatically add the appropriate -L directives. If
+you have some libraries under /usr/local/ and others under
+/usr/you, then you have to include both, namely
- sh Configure -Dccflags='-Drand=random -Dsrand=srandom'
+ sh Configure -de \
+ -Dlocincpth="/usr/you/include /usr/local/include" \
+ -Dloclibpth="/usr/you/lib /usr/local/lib"
-or by adding C<-Drand=random> and C<-Dsrandom=srandom> to your ccflags
-at the appropriate Configure prompt. (You may also have to adjust
-Configure's guess for 'randbits' as well.)
+=back
=head2 What if it doesn't work?
+If you run into problems, try some of the following ideas.
+If none of them help, then see L<"Reporting Problems"> below.
+
=over 4
=item Running Configure Interactively
@@ -677,7 +1126,7 @@ guesses.
All the installation questions have been moved to the top, so you don't
have to wait for them. Once you've handled them (and your C compiler and
-flags) you can type C<&-d> at the next Configure prompt and Configure
+flags) you can type &-d at the next Configure prompt and Configure
will use the defaults from then on.
If you find yourself trying obscure command line incantations and
@@ -691,9 +1140,10 @@ in the hints/ directory. If one of them matches your system, Configure
will offer to use that hint file.
Several of the hint files contain additional important information.
-If you have any problems, it is a good idea to read the relevant hint
-file for further information. See F for an
-extensive example.
+If you have any problems, it is a good idea to read the relevant hint file
+for further information. See hints/solaris_2.sh for an extensive example.
+More information about writing good hints is in the hints/README.hints
+file.
=item *** WHOA THERE!!! ***
@@ -718,31 +1168,35 @@ system.
For example, suppose you have added libgdbm.a to your system
and you decide to reconfigure perl to use GDBM_File. When you run
Configure again, you will need to add -lgdbm to the list of libraries.
-Now, Configure will find your gdbm library and will issue a message:
+Now, Configure will find your gdbm include file and library and will
+issue a message:
*** WHOA THERE!!! ***
The previous value for $i_gdbm on this machine was "undef"!
Keep the previous value? [y]
-In this case, you do I want to keep the previous value, so you
+In this case, you do not want to keep the previous value, so you
should answer 'n'. (You'll also have to manually add GDBM_File to
the list of dynamic extensions to build.)
=item Changing Compilers
If you change compilers or make other significant changes, you should
-probably I re-use your old config.sh. Simply remove it or
+probably not re-use your old config.sh. Simply remove it or
rename it, e.g. mv config.sh config.sh.old. Then rerun Configure
with the options you want to use.
-This is a common source of problems. If you change from B to
-B, you should almost always remove your old config.sh.
+This is a common source of problems. If you change from cc to
+gcc, you should almost always remove your old config.sh.
=item Propagating your changes to config.sh
-If you make any changes to F, you should propagate
-them to all the .SH files by running B. You will
-then have to rebuild by running
+If you make any changes to config.sh, you should propagate
+them to all the .SH files by running
+
+ sh Configure -S
+
+You will then have to rebuild by running
make depend
make
@@ -752,62 +1206,106 @@ then have to rebuild by running
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. See the section on
-L<"Changing the installation directory"> for an example.
+does no checking that your changes make sense.
=item config.h
-Many of the system dependencies are contained in F.
-F builds F by running the F script.
-The values for the variables are taken from F.
+Many of the system dependencies are contained in config.h.
+Configure builds config.h by running the config_h.SH script.
+The values for the variables are taken from config.sh.
-If there are any problems, you can edit F directly. Beware,
-though, that the next time you run B, your changes will be
+If there are any problems, you can edit config.h directly. Beware,
+though, that the next time you run Configure, your changes will be
lost.
=item cflags
If you have any additional changes to make to the C compiler command
-line, they can be made in F. For instance, to turn off the
-optimizer on F, find the line in the switch structure for
-F and put the command C before the C<;;>. You
-can also edit F directly, but beware that your changes will be
-lost the next time you run B.
+line, they can be made in cflags.SH. For instance, to turn off the
+optimizer on toke.c, find the line in the switch structure for
+toke.c and put the command optimize='-g' before the ;; . You
+can also edit cflags directly, but beware that your changes will be
+lost the next time you run Configure.
-To change the C flags for all the files, edit F
-and change either C<$ccflags> or C<$optimize>,
-and then re-run B.
+To explore various ways of changing ccflags from within a hint file,
+see the file hints/README.hints.
+
+To change the C flags for all the files, edit config.sh and change either
+$ccflags or $optimize, and then re-run
+
+ sh Configure -S
+ make depend
=item No sh
-If you don't have sh, you'll have to copy the sample file config_H to
-config.h and edit the config.h to reflect your system's peculiarities.
+If you don't have sh, you'll have to copy the sample file
+Porting/config.sh to config.sh and edit your config.sh to reflect your
+system's peculiarities. See Porting/pumpkin.pod for more information.
You'll probably also have to extensively modify the extension building
mechanism.
+=item Environment variable clashes
+
+Configure uses a CONFIG variable that is reported to cause trouble on
+ReliantUnix 5.44. If your system sets this variable, you can try
+unsetting it before you run Configure. Configure should eventually
+be fixed to avoid polluting the namespace of the environment.
+
+=item Digital UNIX/Tru64 UNIX and BIN_SH
+
+In Digital UNIX/Tru64 UNIX, Configure might abort with
+
+Build a threading Perl? [n]
+Configure[2437]: Syntax error at line 1 : `config.sh' is not expected.
+
+This indicates that Configure is being run with a broken Korn shell
+(even though you think you are using a Bourne shell by using
+"sh Configure" or "./Configure"). The Korn shell bug has been reported
+to Compaq as of February 1999 but in the meanwhile, the reason ksh is
+being used is that you have the environment variable BIN_SH set to
+'xpg4'. This causes /bin/sh to delegate its duties to /bin/posix/sh
+(a ksh). Unset the environment variable and rerun Configure.
+
+=item HP-UX 11, pthreads, and libgdbm
+
+If you are running Configure with -Dusethreads in HP-UX 11, be warned
+that POSIX threads and libgdbm (the GNU dbm library) compiled before
+HP-UX 11 do not mix. This will cause a basic test run by Configure to
+fail
+
+Pthread internal error: message: __libc_reinit() failed, file: ../pthreads/pthread.c, line: 1096
+Return Pointer is 0xc082bf33
+sh: 5345 Quit(coredump)
+
+and Configure will give up. The cure is to recompile and install
+libgdbm under HP-UX 11.
+
=item Porting information
-Specific information for the OS/2, Plan9, VMS and Win32 ports are in the
-corresponding subdirectories. Additional information, including
-a glossary of all those config.sh variables, is in the Porting
-subdirectory.
+Specific information for the OS/2, Plan9, VMS and Win32 ports is in the
+corresponding README files and subdirectories. Additional information,
+including a glossary of all those config.sh variables, is in the Porting
+subdirectory. Especially Porting/Glossary should come in handy.
Ports for other systems may also be available. You should check out
-L<"http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ports"> for current information on ports to
+http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ports for current information on ports to
various other operating systems.
+If you plan to port Perl to a new architecture study carefully the
+section titled "Philosophical Issues in Patching and Porting Perl"
+in the file Porting/pumpkin.pod and the file Porting/patching.pod.
+Study also how other non-UNIX ports have solved problems.
+
=back
=head1 make depend
-This will look for all the includes.
-The output is stored in F. The only difference between
-F and F is the dependencies at the bottom of
-F. If you have to make any changes, you should edit
-F, not F since the Unix B command reads
-F first. (On non-Unix systems, the output may be stored in
-a different file. Check the value of $firstmakefile in your config.sh
-if in doubt.)
+This will look for all the includes. The output is stored in makefile.
+The only difference between Makefile and makefile is the dependencies at
+the bottom of makefile. If you have to make any changes, you should edit
+makefile, not Makefile since the Unix make command reads makefile first.
+(On non-Unix systems, the output may be stored in a different file.
+Check the value of $firstmakefile in your config.sh if in doubt.)
Configure will offer to do this step for you, so it isn't listed
explicitly above.
@@ -816,59 +1314,65 @@ explicitly above.
This will attempt to make perl in the current directory.
+=head2 What if it doesn't work?
+
If you can't compile successfully, try some of the following ideas.
If none of them help, and careful reading of the error message and
-the relevant manual pages on your system doesn't help, you can
-send a message to either the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup or to
-perlbug@perl.com with an accurate description of your problem.
-See L<"Reporting Problems"> below.
+the relevant manual pages on your system doesn't help,
+then see L<"Reporting Problems"> below.
=over 4
-=item *
+=item hints
If you used a hint file, try reading the comments in the hint file
for further tips and information.
-=item *
+=item extensions
-If you can successfully build F, but the process crashes
+If you can successfully build miniperl, but the process crashes
during the building of extensions, you should run
- make minitest
+ make minitest
to test your version of miniperl.
=item locale
-If you have any locale-related environment variables set, try
-unsetting them. I have some reports that some versions of IRIX hang
-while running B<./miniperl configpm> with locales other than the C
-locale. See the discussion under L below about locales.
+If you have any locale-related environment variables set, try unsetting
+them. I have some reports that some versions of IRIX hang while
+running B<./miniperl configpm> with locales other than the C locale.
+See the discussion under L<"make test"> below about locales and the
+whole L<"Locale problems"> section in the file pod/perllocale.pod.
+The latter is especially useful if you see something like this
-=item *
+ perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
+ perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
+ LC_ALL = "En_US",
+ LANG = (unset)
+ are supported and installed on your system.
+ perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
-If you get duplicates upon linking for malloc et al, add -DHIDEMYMALLOC
-or -DEMBEDMYMALLOC to your ccflags variable in config.sh.
+at Perl startup.
=item varargs
If you get varargs problems with gcc, be sure that gcc is installed
-correctly. When using gcc, you should probably have i_stdarg='define'
-and i_varargs='undef' in config.sh. The problem is usually solved by
-running fixincludes correctly. If you do change config.sh, don't
-forget to propagate your changes (see
-L<"Propagating your changes to config.sh"> below).
+correctly and that you are not passing -I/usr/include to gcc. When using
+gcc, you should probably have i_stdarg='define' and i_varargs='undef'
+in config.sh. The problem is usually solved by running fixincludes
+correctly. If you do change config.sh, don't forget to propagate
+your changes (see L<"Propagating your changes to config.sh"> below).
See also the L<"vsprintf"> item below.
-=item *
+=item util.c
If you get error messages such as the following (the exact line
-numbers will vary in different versions of perl):
+numbers and function name may vary in different versions of perl):
- util.c: In function `Perl_croak':
- util.c:962: number of arguments doesn't match prototype
- proto.h:45: prototype declaration
+ util.c: In function `Perl_form':
+ util.c:1107: number of arguments doesn't match prototype
+ proto.h:125: prototype declaration
it might well be a symptom of the gcc "varargs problem". See the
previous L<"varargs"> item.
@@ -877,20 +1381,33 @@ previous L<"varargs"> item.
If you have problems with dynamic loading using gcc on SunOS or
Solaris, and you are using GNU as and GNU ld, you may need to add
-B<-B/bin/> (for SunOS) or B<-B/usr/ccs/bin/> (for Solaris) to your
+-B/bin/ (for SunOS) or -B/usr/ccs/bin/ (for Solaris) to your
$ccflags, $ldflags, and $lddlflags so that the system's versions of as
-and ld are used. Alternatively, you can use the GCC_EXEC_PREFIX
+and ld are used. Note that the trailing '/' is required.
+Alternatively, you can use the GCC_EXEC_PREFIX
environment variable to ensure that Sun's as and ld are used. Consult
-your gcc documentation for further information on the B<-B> option and
+your gcc documentation for further information on the -B option and
the GCC_EXEC_PREFIX variable.
+One convenient way to ensure you are not using GNU as and ld is to
+invoke Configure with
+
+ sh Configure -Dcc='gcc -B/usr/ccs/bin/'
+
+for Solaris systems. For a SunOS system, you must use -B/bin/
+instead.
+
+Alternatively, recent versions of GNU ld reportedly work if you
+include C<-Wl,-export-dynamic> in the ccdlflags variable in
+config.sh.
+
=item ld.so.1: ./perl: fatal: relocation error:
If you get this message on SunOS or Solaris, and you're using gcc,
it's probably the GNU as or GNU ld problem in the previous item
L<"Solaris and SunOS dynamic loading">.
-=item *
+=item LD_LIBRARY_PATH
If you run into dynamic loading problems, check your setting of
the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable. If you're creating a static
@@ -919,9 +1436,17 @@ with
sh Configure -Uusenm
or by answering the nm extraction question interactively.
-If you have previously run Configure, you should I reuse your old
+If you have previously run Configure, you should not reuse your old
config.sh.
+=item umask not found
+
+If the build processes encounters errors relating to umask(), the problem
+is probably that Configure couldn't find your umask() system call.
+Check your config.sh. You should have d_umask='define'. If you don't,
+this is probably the L<"nm extraction"> problem discussed above. Also,
+try reading the hints file for your system for further information.
+
=item vsprintf
If you run into problems with vsprintf in compiling util.c, the
@@ -933,8 +1458,35 @@ d_vprintf in config.sh. If your system has vprintf, it should be:
d_vprintf='define'
If Configure guessed wrong, it is likely that Configure guessed wrong
-on a number of other common functions too. You are probably better off
-re-running Configure without using nm extraction (see previous item).
+on a number of other common functions too. This is probably
+the L<"nm extraction"> problem discussed above.
+
+=item do_aspawn
+
+If you run into problems relating to do_aspawn or do_spawn, the
+problem is probably that Configure failed to detect your system's
+fork() function. Follow the procedure in the previous item
+on L<"nm extraction">.
+
+=item __inet_* errors
+
+If you receive unresolved symbol errors during Perl build and/or test
+referring to __inet_* symbols, check to see whether BIND 8.1 is
+installed. It installs a /usr/local/include/arpa/inet.h that refers to
+these symbols. Versions of BIND later than 8.1 do not install inet.h
+in that location and avoid the errors. You should probably update to a
+newer version of BIND. If you can't, you can either link with the
+updated resolver library provided with BIND 8.1 or rename
+/usr/local/bin/arpa/inet.h during the Perl build and test process to
+avoid the problem.
+
+=item #error "No DATAMODEL_NATIVE specified"
+
+This is a common error when trying to build perl on Solaris 2.6 with a
+gcc installation from Solaris 2.5 or 2.5.1. The Solaris header files
+changed, so you need to update your gcc installation. You can either
+rerun the fixincludes script from gcc or take the opportunity to
+update your gcc installation.
=item Optimizer
@@ -943,34 +1495,38 @@ optimizer. Edit config.sh and change the line
optimize='-O'
-to something like
+to
optimize=' '
then propagate your changes with B and rebuild
with B.
-=item *
+=item CRIPPLED_CC
+
+If you still can't compile successfully, try:
+
+ sh Configure -Accflags=-DCRIPPLED_CC
-If you still can't compile successfully, try adding a C<-DCRIPPLED_CC>
-flag. (Just because you get no errors doesn't mean it compiled right!)
-This simplifies some complicated expressions for compilers that get
-indigestion easily.
+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
other, or you need to undefine some feature that Configure thought was
there but is defective or incomplete. Look through config.h for
-likely suspects.
+likely suspects. If Configure guessed wrong on a number of functions,
+you might have the L<"nm extraction"> problem discussed above.
-=item *
+=item toke.c
-Some compilers will not compile or optimize the larger files without
-some extra switches to use larger jump offsets or allocate larger
-internal tables. You can customize the switches for each file in
-F. It's okay to insert rules for specific files into
-F since a default rule only takes effect in the absence of a
+Some compilers will not compile or optimize the larger files (such as
+toke.c) without some extra switches to use larger jump offsets or
+allocate larger internal tables. You can customize the switches for
+each file in cflags. It's okay to insert rules for specific files into
+makefile since a default rule only takes effect in the absence of a
specific rule.
=item Missing dbmclose
@@ -978,7 +1534,7 @@ specific rule.
SCO prior to 3.2.4 may be missing dbmclose(). An upgrade to 3.2.4
that includes libdbm.nfs (which includes dbmclose()) may be available.
-=item Warning (will try anyway): No library found for -lposix
+=item Note (probably harmless): No library found for -lsomething
If you see such a message during the building of an extension, but
the extension passes its tests anyway (see L<"make test"> below),
@@ -987,13 +1543,14 @@ Makefile.PL goes looking for various libraries needed on various
systems; few systems will need all the possible libraries listed.
For example, a system may have -lcposix or -lposix, but it's
unlikely to have both, so most users will see warnings for the one
-they don't have. The message 'will try anyway' is intended to
-reassure you that the process is continuing.
+they don't have. The phrase 'probably harmless' is intended to
+reassure you that nothing unusual is happening, and the build
+process is continuing.
On the other hand, if you are building GDBM_File and you get the
message
- Warning (will try anyway): No library found for -lgdbm
+ Note (probably harmless): No library found for -lgdbm
then it's likely you're going to run into trouble somewhere along
the line, since it's hard to see how you can use the GDBM_File
@@ -1008,7 +1565,7 @@ quite that tightly coordinated.
This is a message from your shell telling you that the command 'ar'
was not found. You need to check your PATH environment variable to
make sure that it includes the directory with the 'ar' command. This
-is a common problem on Solaris, where 'ar' is in the F
+is a common problem on Solaris, where 'ar' is in the /usr/ccs/bin
directory.
=item db-recno failure on tests 51, 53 and 55
@@ -1017,7 +1574,63 @@ Old versions of the DB library (including the DB library which comes
with FreeBSD 2.1) had broken handling of recno databases with modified
bval settings. Upgrade your DB library or OS.
-=item *
+=item Bad arg length for semctl, is XX, should be ZZZ
+
+If you get this error message from the lib/ipc_sysv test, your System
+V IPC may be broken. The XX typically is 20, and that is what ZZZ
+also should be. Consider upgrading your OS, or reconfiguring your OS
+to include the System V semaphores.
+
+=item lib/ipc_sysv........semget: No space left on device
+
+Either your account or the whole system has run out of semaphores. Or
+both. Either list the semaphores with "ipcs" and remove the unneeded
+ones (which ones these are depends on your system and applications)
+with "ipcrm -s SEMAPHORE_ID_HERE" or configure more semaphores to your
+system.
+
+=item GNU binutils
+
+If you mix GNU binutils (nm, ld, ar) with equivalent vendor-supplied
+tools you may be in for some trouble. For example creating archives
+with an old GNU 'ar' and then using a new current vendor-supplied 'ld'
+may lead into linking problems. Either recompile your GNU binutils
+under your current operating system release, or modify your PATH not
+to include the GNU utils before running Configure, or specify the
+vendor-supplied utilities explicitly to Configure, for example by
+Configure -Dar=/bin/ar.
+
+=item THIS PACKAGE SEEMS TO BE INCOMPLETE
+
+The F program has not been able to find all the files which
+make up the complete Perl distribution. You may have a damaged source
+archive file (in which case you may also have seen messages such as
+C and C), or you may have obtained a structurally-sound but
+incomplete archive. In either case, try downloading again from the
+official site named at the start of this document. If you do find
+that any site is carrying a corrupted or incomplete source code
+archive, please report it to the site's maintainer.
+
+This message can also be a symptom of using (say) a GNU tar compiled
+for SunOS4 on Solaris. When you run SunOS4 binaries on Solaris the
+run-time system magically alters pathnames matching m#lib/locale# - so
+when tar tries to create lib/locale.pm a differently-named file gets
+created instead.
+
+You may find the file under its assumed name and be able to rename it
+back. Or use Sun's tar to do the extract.
+
+=item invalid token: ##
+
+You are using a non-ANSI-compliant C compiler. See L.
+
+=item lib/locale.pm: No such file or directory
+
+See L.
+
+=item Miscellaneous
Some additional things that have been reported for either perl4 or perl5:
@@ -1025,43 +1638,62 @@ 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, B<-K> or B<-g>, and undef LSTAT.
+UTS may need one or more of -DCRIPPLED_CC, -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
+Patch Bundle" has been reported to break the io/fs test #18 which
+tests whether utime() can change timestamps. The Y2K patch seems to
+break utime() so that over NFS the timestamps do not get changed
+(on local filesystems utime() still works).
+
=back
=head1 make test
-This will run the regression tests on the perl you just made. If it
-doesn't say "All tests successful" then something went wrong. See the
-file F in the F subdirectory. Note that you can't run the
-tests in background if this disables opening of /dev/tty.
+This will run the regression tests on the perl you just made. If
+'make test' doesn't say "All tests successful" then something went
+wrong. See the file t/README in the t subdirectory.
+
+Note that you can't run the tests in background if this disables
+opening of /dev/tty. You can use 'make test-notty' in that case but
+a few tty tests will be skipped.
-If B bombs out, just B to the F directory and run
-F<./TEST> by hand to see if it makes any difference. If individual tests
+=head2 What if make test doesn't work?
+
+If make test bombs out, just cd to the t directory and run ./TEST
+by hand to see if it makes any difference. If individual tests
bomb, you can run them by hand, e.g.,
./perl op/groups.t
Another way to get more detailed information about failed tests and
-individual subtests is to B to the F directory and run
+individual subtests is to cd to the t directory and run
./perl harness
-(this assumes that I tests succeed, since F uses
+(this assumes that most basic tests succeed, since harness uses
complicated constructs).
-You can also read the individual tests to see if there are any helpful
+You should also read the individual tests to see if there are any helpful
comments that apply to your system.
-B: One possible reason for errors is that some external programs
+=over 4
+
+=item locale
+
+Note: One possible reason for errors is that some external programs
may be broken due to the combination of your environment and the way
-C exercises them. For example, this may happen if you have
-one or more of these environment variables set: C. In some versions of UNIX, the non-English locales
+B exercises them. For example, this may happen if you have
+one or more of these environment variables set: LC_ALL LC_CTYPE
+LC_COLLATE LANG. In some versions of UNIX, the non-English locales
are known to cause programs to exhibit mysterious errors.
If you have any of the above environment variables set, please try
@@ -1072,30 +1704,67 @@ If you have any of the above environment variables set, please try
LC_ALL=C;export LC_ALL
-for Bourne or Korn shell) from the command line and then retry C. If the tests then succeed, you may have a broken program that
+for Bourne or Korn shell) from the command line and then retry
+make test. If the tests then succeed, you may have a broken program that
is confusing the testing. Please run the troublesome test by hand as
shown above and see whether you can locate the program. Look for
-things like: C or
-C. All these mean that Perl is trying to run some
+things like: exec, `backquoted command`, system, open("|...") or
+open("...|"). All these mean that Perl is trying to run some
external program.
+=item Out of memory
+
+On some systems, particularly those with smaller amounts of RAM, some
+of the tests in t/op/pat.t may fail with an "Out of memory" message.
+For example, on my SparcStation IPC with 12 MB of RAM, in perl5.5.670,
+test 85 will fail if run under either t/TEST or t/harness.
+
+Try stopping other jobs on the system and then running the test by itself:
+
+ cd t; ./perl op/pat.t
+
+to see if you have any better luck. If your perl still fails this
+test, it does not necessarily mean you have a broken perl. This test
+tries to exercise the regular expression subsystem quite thoroughly,
+and may well be far more demanding than your normal usage.
+
+=back
+
=head1 make install
This will put perl into the public directory you specified to
-B; by default this is F. It will also try
+Configure; by default this is /usr/local/bin. It will also try
to put the man pages in a reasonable place. It will not nroff the man
pages, however. You may need to be root to run B. If you
are not root, you must own the directories in question and you should
ignore any messages about chown not working.
+=head2 Installing perl under different names
+
+If you want to install perl under a name other than "perl" (for example,
+when installing perl with special features enabled, such as debugging),
+indicate the alternate name on the "make install" line, such as:
+
+ make install PERLNAME=myperl
+
+You can separately change the base used for versioned names (like
+"perl5.005") by setting PERLNAME_VERBASE, like
+
+ make install PERLNAME=perl5 PERLNAME_VERBASE=perl
+
+This can be useful if you have to install perl as "perl5" (due to an
+ancient version in /usr/bin supplied by your vendor, eg). Without this
+the versioned binary would be called "perl55.005".
+
+=head2 Installed files
+
If you want to see exactly what will happen without installing
anything, you can run
./perl installperl -n
./perl installman -n
-B will install the following:
+make install will install the following:
perl,
perl5.nnn where nnn is the current release number. This
@@ -1118,60 +1787,108 @@ B will install the following:
pod2man, and
pod2text
splain Describe Perl warnings and errors
+ dprofpp Perl code profile post-processor
library files in $privlib and $archlib specified to
Configure, usually under /usr/local/lib/perl5/.
- man pages in the location specified to Configure, usually
- something like /usr/local/man/man1.
- module in the location specified to Configure, usually
- man pages under /usr/local/lib/perl5/man/man3.
+ man pages in $man1dir, usually /usr/local/man/man1.
+ module man
+ pages in $man3dir, usually /usr/local/man/man3.
pod/*.pod in $privlib/pod/.
-Installperl will also create the library directories $siteperl and
-$sitearch listed in config.sh. Usually, these are something like
- /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/
- /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/$archname
-where $archname is something like sun4-sunos. These directories
-will be used for installing extensions.
+Installperl will also create the directories listed above
+in L<"Installation Directories">.
Perl's *.h header files and the libperl.a library are also installed
-under $archlib so that any user may later build new extensions, run the
+under $archlib so that any user may later build new modules, run the
optional Perl compiler, or embed the perl interpreter into another
program even if the Perl source is no longer available.
=head1 Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5
-You can safely install the current version of perl5 and still run scripts
-under the old binaries for versions 5.003 and later ONLY. Instead of
-starting your script with #!/usr/local/bin/perl, just start it with
-#!/usr/local/bin/perl5.003 (or whatever version you want to run.)
-If you want to retain a version of Perl 5 prior to 5.003, you'll
-need to install the current version in a separate directory tree,
-since some of the architecture-independent library files have changed
-in incompatible ways.
-
-The architecture-dependent files are stored in a version-specific
-directory (such as F) so that
-they are still accessible. I Perl 5.000 and 5.001 did not
-put their architecture-dependent libraries in a version-specific
-directory. They are simply in F. If
-you will not be using 5.000 or 5.001, you may safely remove those
-files.
-
-The standard library files in F
-should be usable by all versions of perl5.
-
-Most extensions will probably not need to be recompiled to use with a newer
-version of perl. If you do run into problems, and you want to continue
-to use the old version of perl along with your extension, simply move
-those extension files to the appropriate version directory, such as
-F. Then Perl 5.003 will find your
-files in the 5.003 directory, and newer versions of perl will find your
-newer extension in the site_perl directory.
-
-Some users may prefer to keep all versions of perl in completely
-separate directories. One convenient way to do this is by
-using a separate prefix for each version, such as
+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
+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
+top of the script with the particular version you want to run, e.g.
+#!/usr/local/bin/perl5.00404.
+
+Most extensions will probably not need to be recompiled to use
+with a newer version of perl. Here is how it is supposed to work.
+(These examples assume you accept all the Configure defaults.)
+
+Suppose you already have version 5.005_03 installed. The directories
+searched by 5.005_03 are
+
+ /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.00503/$archname
+ /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.00503
+ /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/$archname
+ /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005
+
+Beginning with 5.6.0 the version number in the site libraries are
+fully versioned. Now, suppose you install version 5.6.0. The directories
+searched by version 5.6.0 will be
+
+ /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.0/$archname
+ /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.0
+ /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0/$archname
+ /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0
+
+ /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/$archname
+ /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005
+ /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/
+
+Notice the last three entries -- Perl understands the default structure
+of the $sitelib directories and will look back in older, compatible
+directories. This way, modules installed under 5.005_03 will continue
+to be usable by 5.005_03 but will also accessible to 5.6.0. Further,
+suppose that you upgrade a module to one which requires features
+present only in 5.6.0. That new module will get installed into
+/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0 and will be available to 5.6.0,
+but will not interfere with the 5.005_03 version.
+
+The last entry, /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/, is there so that
+5.6.0 will look for 5.004-era pure perl modules.
+
+Lastly, suppose you now install version 5.6.1, which we'll assume is
+binary compatible with 5.6.0 and 5.005. The directories searched
+by 5.6.1 (if you don't change the Configure defaults) will be:
+
+ /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.1/$archname
+ /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.1
+ /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.1/$archname
+ /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.1
+
+ /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0/$archname
+ /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0
+
+ /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/$archname
+ /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005
+ /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/
+
+Assuming the users in your site are still actively using perl 5.6.0 and
+5.005 after you installed 5.6.1, you can continue to install add-on
+extensions using any of perl 5.6.1, 5.6.0, or 5.005. The installations
+of these different versions remain distinct, but remember that the newer
+versions of perl are automatically set up to search the site libraries of
+the older ones. This means that installing a new extension with 5.005
+will make it visible to all three versions. Later, if you install the
+same extension using, say, perl 5.6.1, it will override the 5.005-installed
+version, but only for perl 5.6.1.
+
+This way, you can choose to share compatible extensions, but also upgrade
+to a newer version of an extension that may be incompatible with earlier
+versions, without breaking the earlier versions' installations.
+
+=head2 Maintaining completely separate versions
+
+Many users prefer to keep all versions of perl in completely
+separate directories. This guarantees that an update to one version
+won't interfere with another version. (The defaults guarantee this for
+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
@@ -1179,46 +1896,87 @@ and adding /opt/perl5.004/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.
+Others might share a common directory for maintenance sub-versions
+(e.g. 5.004 for all 5.004_0x versions), but change directory with
+each major version.
+
+If you are installing a development subversion, you probably ought to
+seriously consider using a separate directory, since development
+subversions may not have all the compatibility wrinkles ironed out
+yet.
+
+=head2 Upgrading from 5.005 to 5.6.0
+
+Most extensions built and installed with versions of perl
+prior to 5.005_50 will not need to be recompiled to be used with
+5.6.0. If you find you do need to rebuild an extension with 5.6.0,
+you may safely do so without disturbing the 5.005 installation.
+(See L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> above.)
+
+See your installed copy of the perllocal.pod file for a (possibly
+incomplete) list of locally installed modules. Note that you want
+perllocal.pod not perllocale.pod for installed module information.
+
=head1 Coexistence with perl4
You can safely install perl5 even if you want to keep perl4 around.
-By default, the perl5 libraries go into F, so
-they don't override the perl4 libraries in F.
+By default, the perl5 libraries go into /usr/local/lib/perl5/, so
+they don't override the perl4 libraries in /usr/local/lib/perl/.
In your /usr/local/bin directory, you should have a binary named
-F. That will not be touched by the perl5 installation
+perl4.036. That will not be touched by the perl5 installation
process. Most perl4 scripts should run just fine under perl5.
However, if you have any scripts that require perl4, you can replace
-the C<#!> line at the top of them by C<#!/usr/local/bin/perl4.036>
-(or whatever the appropriate pathname is). See pod/perltrap.pod
-for possible problems running perl4 scripts under perl5.
+the #! line at the top of them by #!/usr/local/bin/perl4.036 (or
+whatever the appropriate pathname is). See pod/perltrap.pod for
+possible problems running perl4 scripts under perl5.
=head1 cd /usr/include; h2ph *.h sys/*.h
-Some perl scripts need to be able to obtain information from
-the system header files. This command will convert the most commonly used
-header files in F into files that can be easily interpreted
-by perl. These files will be placed in the architectural library directory
-you specified to B; by default this is
-F, where B is your architecture
-(such as C) and B is the version of perl you are
-building (for example, C<5.004>).
-
-B Due to differences in the C and perl languages, the
-conversion of the header files is not perfect. You will probably have
-to hand-edit some of the converted files to get them to parse
-correctly. For example, h2ph breaks spectacularly on type casting and
-certain structures.
-
-=head1 cd pod && make html && mv *.html (www home dir)
-
-Some sites may wish to make the documentation in the pod/ directory
-available in HTML format. Type
-
- cd pod && make html && mv *.html
-
-where F is wherever your site keeps HTML files.
+Some perl scripts need to be able to obtain information from the
+system header files. This command will convert the most commonly used
+header files in /usr/include into files that can be easily interpreted
+by perl. These files will be placed in the architecture-dependent
+library ($archlib) directory you specified to Configure.
+
+Note: Due to differences in the C and perl languages, the conversion
+of the header files is not perfect. You will probably have to
+hand-edit some of the converted files to get them to parse correctly.
+For example, h2ph breaks spectacularly on type casting and certain
+structures.
+
+=head1 installhtml --help
+
+Some sites may wish to make perl documentation available in HTML
+format. The installhtml utility can be used to convert pod
+documentation into linked HTML files and install them.
+
+Currently, the supplied ./installhtml script does not make use of the
+html Configure variables. This should be fixed in a future release.
+
+The following command-line is an example of one used to convert
+perl documentation:
+
+ ./installhtml \
+ --podroot=. \
+ --podpath=lib:ext:pod:vms \
+ --recurse \
+ --htmldir=/perl/nmanual \
+ --htmlroot=/perl/nmanual \
+ --splithead=pod/perlipc \
+ --splititem=pod/perlfunc \
+ --libpods=perlfunc:perlguts:perlvar:perlrun:perlop \
+ --verbose
+
+See the documentation in installhtml for more details. It can take
+many minutes to execute a large installation and you should expect to
+see warnings like "no title", "unexpected directive" and "cannot
+resolve" as the files are processed. We are aware of these problems
+(and would welcome patches for them).
+
+You may find it helpful to run installhtml twice. That should reduce
+the number of "cannot resolve" warnings.
=head1 cd pod && make tex && (process the latex files)
@@ -1229,31 +1987,40 @@ available in TeX format. Type
=head1 Reporting Problems
-If you have difficulty building perl, and none of the advice in this
-file helps, and careful reading of the error message and the relevant
-manual pages on your system doesn't help either, then you should send a
-message to either the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup or to
-perlbug@perl.com with an accurate description of your problem.
-
-Please include the I