X-Git-Url: http://git.shadowcat.co.uk/gitweb/gitweb.cgi?a=blobdiff_plain;f=README.win32;h=b00d04c39588cd8ab16163f47db2bd2182d2959b;hb=42a116590b56a49035a440a6b0f3a679f91e9375;hp=82c9bacfabb7c4052f709c2975df71ace100d631;hpb=3fe9a6f19eb206c685bd7389e54e2838fdfd04b7;p=p5sagit%2Fp5-mst-13.2.git

diff --git a/README.win32 b/README.win32
index 82c9bac..b00d04c 100644
--- a/README.win32
+++ b/README.win32
@@ -4,21 +4,21 @@ specially designed to be readable as is.
 
 =head1 NAME
 
-perlwin32 - Perl under WindowsNT [XXX and perhaps under Windows95]
+perlwin32 - Perl under Windows
 
 =head1 SYNOPSIS
 
-These are instructions for building Perl under WindowsNT (versions
-3.51 or 4.0), using Visual C++.
+These are instructions for building Perl under Windows 9x/NT/2000/XP
+on the Intel x86 and Itanium architectures.
 
 =head1 DESCRIPTION
 
 Before you start, you should glance through the README file
-found in the top-level directory where the Perl distribution
+found in the top-level directory to which the Perl distribution
 was extracted.  Make sure you read and understand the terms under
 which this software is being distributed.
 
-Also make sure you read the L<BUGS AND CAVEATS> section below for the
+Also make sure you read L<BUGS AND CAVEATS> below for the
 known limitations of this port.
 
 The INSTALL file in the perl top-level has much information that is
@@ -26,226 +26,860 @@ only relevant to people building Perl on Unix-like systems.  In
 particular, you can safely ignore any information that talks about
 "Configure".
 
-You should probably also read the README.os2 file, which gives a
-different set of rules to build a Perl that will work on Win32
-platforms.  That method will probably enable you to build a more
-Unix-compatible perl, but you will also need to download and use
-various other support software described in that file.
+You may also want to look at two other options for building
+a perl that will work on Windows NT:  the README.cygwin and
+README.os2 files, each of which give a different set of rules to
+build a Perl that will work on Win32 platforms.  Those two methods
+will probably enable you to build a more Unix-compatible perl, but
+you will also need to download and use various other build-time and
+run-time support software described in those files.
 
 This set of instructions is meant to describe a so-called "native"
-port of Perl to Win32 platforms.  The resulting Perl requires no
+port of Perl to Win32 platforms.  This includes both 32-bit and
+64-bit Windows operating systems.  The resulting Perl requires no
 additional software to run (other than what came with your operating
-system).  Currently, this port is only capable of using Microsoft's
-Visual C++ compiler.  The ultimate goal is to support the other major
-compilers that can be used on the platforms.
+system).  Currently, this port is capable of using one of the
+following compilers on the Intel x86 architecture:
 
-=head2 Setting Up
+      Borland C++           version 5.02 or later
+      Microsoft Visual C++  version 4.2 or later
+      MinGW with gcc        gcc version 2.95.2 or later
+
+The last of these is a high quality freeware compiler.  Use version
+3.2.x or later for the best results with this compiler.
+
+The Microsoft Visual C++ compiler is also now being given away free in
+the "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003", and also as part of the ".NET Framework
+SDK".  This is the same compiler that ships with "Visual Studio .NET 2003
+Professional".
+
+This port can also be built on the Intel IA64 using:
+
+      Microsoft Platform SDK	Nov 2001 (64-bit compiler and tools)
+
+The MS Platform SDK can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/.
+
+This port fully supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that
+is used to build extensions to perl).  Therefore, you should be
+able to build and install most extensions found in the CPAN sites.
+See L<Usage Hints for Perl on Win32> below for general hints about this.
+
+=head2 Setting Up Perl on Win32
 
 =over 4
 
-=item *
+=item Make
 
-Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with NT.  In particular, do
-*not* use the 4DOS/NT shell.  The Makefile has commands that are not
-compatible with that shell.
+You need a "make" program to build the sources.  If you are using
+Visual C++ or the Platform SDK tools under Windows NT/2000/XP, nmake
+will work.  All other builds need dmake.
 
-=item *
+dmake is a freely available make that has very nice macro features
+and parallelability.
+
+A port of dmake for Windows is available from:
+
+    http://search.cpan.org/dist/dmake/
+
+Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path.
+
+There exists a minor coexistence problem with dmake and Borland C++
+compilers.  Namely, if a distribution has C files named with mixed
+case letters, they will be compiled into appropriate .obj-files named
+with all lowercase letters, and every time dmake is invoked
+to bring files up to date, it will try to recompile such files again.
+For example, Tk distribution has a lot of such files, resulting in
+needless recompiles every time dmake is invoked.  To avoid this, you
+may use the script "sync_ext.pl" after a successful build.  It is
+available in the win32 subdirectory of the Perl source distribution.
+
+=item Command Shell
+
+Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with NT.  Some versions of the
+popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause you trouble.
+If the build fails under that shell, try building again with the cmd
+shell.
+
+The nmake Makefile also has known incompatibilities with the
+"command.com" shell that comes with Windows 9x.  You will need to
+use dmake and makefile.mk to build under Windows 9x.
+
+The surest way to build it is on Windows NT/2000/XP, using the cmd shell.
+
+Make sure the path to the build directory does not contain spaces.  The
+build usually works in this circumstance, but some tests will fail.
+
+=item Borland C++
+
+If you are using the Borland compiler, you will need dmake.
+(The make that Borland supplies is seriously crippled and will not
+work for MakeMaker builds.)
 
-Run the VCVARS32.BAT file usually found somewhere like C:\MSDEV4.2\BIN.
+See L</"Make"> above.
+
+=item Microsoft Visual C++
+
+The nmake that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building.
+You will need to run the VCVARS32.BAT file, usually found somewhere
+like C:\MSDEV4.2\BIN or C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\Bin.
 This will set your build environment.
 
-=item *
+You can also use dmake to build using Visual C++; provided, however,
+you set OSRELEASE to "microsft" (or whatever the directory name
+under which the Visual C dmake configuration lives) in your environment
+and edit win32/config.vc to change "make=nmake" into "make=dmake".  The
+latter step is only essential if you want to use dmake as your default
+make for building extensions using MakeMaker.
 
-Depending on how you extracted the distribution, you have to make sure
-all the files are writable by you.  The easiest way to make sure of
-this is to execute:
+=item Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003
 
-	attrib -R *.* /S
+This free toolkit contains the same compiler and linker that ship with
+Visual Studio .NET 2003 Professional, but doesn't contain everything
+necessary to build Perl.
 
-from the perl toplevel directory.  You don't I<have> to do this if you
-used the right tools to extract the files in the standard distribution,
-but it doesn't hurt to do so.
+You will also need to download the "Platform SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
+SDK" components are required) for header files, libraries and rc.exe, and
+".NET Framework SDK" for more libraries and nmake.exe.  Note that the latter
+(which also includes the free compiler and linker) requires the ".NET
+Framework Redistributable" to be installed first.  This can be downloaded and
+installed separately, but is included in the "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" anyway.
 
-=back
+These packages can all be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
+http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en
+
+The Platform SDK packages can also be obtained from the Platform SDK Update
+site: http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/platformsdk/sdkupdate  Note that this
+site requires Internet Explorer 5.0 or later to function, but the site's home
+page currently gives links to two download pages for users of other browsers:
+
+For Windows XP Service Pack 2:
+http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/platformsdk/sdkupdate/XPSP2FULLInstall.htm
+
+For Windows Server 2003:
+http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/platformsdk/sdkupdate/psdk-full.htm
+
+According to the download pages the Toolkit and the .NET Framework SDK are only
+supported on Windows 2000/XP/2003, so trying to use these tools on Windows
+95/98/ME and even Windows NT probably won't work.
+
+Install the Toolkit first, then the Platform SDK, then the .NET Framework SDK.
+Setup your environment as follows (assuming default installation locations
+were chosen):
+
+	SET PATH=%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\Bin;C:\Program Files\Microsoft.NET\SDK\v1.1\Bin
+	SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\include;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\include;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\include
+	SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\lib;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\lib;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\lib
 
-=head2 Building and Installation
+Several required files will still be missing:
 
 =over 4
 
 =item *
 
-The "win32" directory contains *.mak files for use with the NMAKE that
-comes with Visual C++ ver. 4.0 and above.  If you wish to build perl
-using Visual C++ versions between 2.0 and 4.0, do the following two
-additional steps (these steps are not required if you are
-using Visual C++ versions 4.0 and above):
+cvtres.exe is required by link.exe when using a .res file.  It is actually
+installed by the .NET Framework SDK, but into a location such as the
+following:
 
-=over 8
+	C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322
 
-=item 1.
+Copy it from there to C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\Bin
 
-Overwrite the *.mak files in the win32 subdirectory with the versions
-in the win32\VC-2.0 directory.
+=item *
 
-=item 2.
+lib.exe is normally used to build libraries, but link.exe with the /lib
+option also works, so change win32/config.vc to use it instead:
 
-Reset your INCLUDE environment variable to the MSVC include directory.
-For example:
+Change the line reading:
 
-	set INCLUDE=E:\MSVC20\INCLUDE
+	ar='lib'
 
-This must have only one directory (a list of directories will not work).
-VCVARS32.BAT may put multiple locations in there, which is why this step
-is required.
+to:
 
-=back
+	ar='link /lib'
 
-=item * 
-
-Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl toplevel.
+It may also be useful to create a batch file called lib.bat in
+C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin containing:
 
-=item *
+	@echo off
+	link /lib %*
 
-Type "nmake" while in the "win32" subdirectory.  This should build
-everything.  Specifically, it will create perl.exe, perl.dll, and
-perlglob.exe at the perl toplevel, and various other extension dll's
-under the lib\auto directory.  If the make fails for any reason, make
-sure you have done the previous steps correctly.
+for the benefit of any naughty C extension modules that you might want to build
+later which explicitly reference "lib" rather than taking their value from
+$Config{ar}.
 
 =item *
 
-Type "nmake install".  This will put the newly built perl and the
-libraries under C:\PERL.  If you want to alter this location, to say,
-D:\FOO\PERL, you will have to say:
+setargv.obj is required to build perlglob.exe (and perl.exe if the USE_SETARGV
+option is enabled).  The Platform SDK supplies this object file in source form
+in C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\src\crt.  Copy setargv.c, cruntime.h and
+internal.h from there to some temporary location and build setargv.obj using
+
+	cl.exe /c /I. /D_CRTBLD setargv.c
 
-	nmake install INST_TOP=D:\FOO\PERL
+Then copy setargv.obj to C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\lib
 
-instead.  To use the Perl you just installed, make sure you set your
-PATH environment variable to C:\PERL\BIN (or D:\FOO\PERL\BIN).
+Alternatively, if you don't need perlglob.exe and don't need to enable the
+USE_SETARGV option then you can safely just remove all mention of $(GLOBEXE)
+from win32/Makefile and setargv.obj won't be required anyway.
 
 =back
 
-=head2 Testing
+Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile.  You will need to edit that
+file to comment-out CCTYPE = MSVC60 (since that enables delay-loading of the
+Winsock DLL which the free toolkit does not support) and to set CCHOME,
+CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.  You may also want to
+change both mentions of the compiler's "-Gf" switch to "-GF" since the former
+is deprecated in VC7 and will be removed from future versions.
 
-Type "nmake test".  This will run most of the tests from the
-testsuite (many tests will be skipped, and some tests will fail).
-Most failures are due to UNIXisms in the standard perl testsuite.
+=item Microsoft Platform SDK 64-bit Compiler
 
-To get a more detailed breakdown of the tests that failed, say:
+The nmake that comes with the Platform SDK will suffice for building
+Perl.  Make sure you are building within one of the "Build Environment"
+shells available after you install the Platform SDK from the Start Menu.
 
-       cd ..\t
-       .\perl harness
+=item MinGW release 3 with gcc
 
-This should produce a summary very similar to the following:
+The latest release of MinGW at the time of writing is 3.1.0, which contains 
+gcc-3.2.3.  It can be downloaded here:
 
-    Failed Test  Status Wstat Total Fail  Failed  List of failed
-    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-    io/fs.t                      26   16  61.54%  1-5, 7-11, 16-18, 23-25
-    lib/anydbm.t                 12    1   8.33%  2
-    lib/findbin.t                 1    1 100.00%  1
-    lib/sdbm.t                   12    1   8.33%  2
-    op/magic.t                   28    1   3.57%  16
-    op/mkdir.t                    7    2  28.57%  3, 7
-    op/runlevel.t                 8    1  12.50%  4
-    op/stat.t                    56    3   5.36%  2-3, 20
-    op/taint.t                   98   20  20.41%  1-6, 14, 16, 19-21, 24, 26, 35-3
-    pragma/locale.t              98   40  40.82%  1, 13-14, 21-27, 33, 39, 45-53,
-    Failed 10/149 test scripts, 93.29% okay. 86/3871 subtests failed, 97.78% okay.
+    http://www.mingw.org/
 
+Perl also compiles with earlier releases of gcc (2.95.2 and up).  See below
+for notes about using earlier versions of MinGW/gcc.
 
-Check if any additional tests other than the ones shown here
-failed.  The standard testsuite will ultimately be modified so
-that the testsuite avoids running irrelevant tests on Win32.
+You also need dmake.  See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
 
-=head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS
+=item MinGW release 1 with gcc
 
-This is still very much an experimental port, and should be considered
-alpha quality software.  You can expect changes in virtually all of
-these areas: build process, installation structure, supported
-utilities/modules, and supported perl functionality.  Specifically,
-functionality that supports the Win32 environment may ultimately
-be supported as either core modules or extensions.
+The MinGW-1.1 bundle contains gcc-2.95.3.
 
-Many tests from the standard testsuite either fail or produce different
-results under this port.  Most of the problems fall under one of these
-categories
+Make sure you install the binaries that work with MSVCRT.DLL as indicated
+in the README for the GCC bundle.  You may need to set up a few environment
+variables (usually ran from a batch file).
 
-=over 8
+There are a couple of problems with the version of gcc-2.95.2-msvcrt.exe
+released 7 November 1999:
+
+=over
 
 =item *
 
-C<stat()> and C<lstat()> functions may not behave as documented.  They
-may return values that bear no resemblance to those reported on Unix
-platforms, and some fields may be completely bogus.
+It left out a fix for certain command line quotes.  To fix this, be sure
+to download and install the file fixes/quote-fix-msvcrt.exe from the above
+ftp location.
 
 =item *
 
-The following functions are currently unavailable: C<fork()>, C<exec()>,
-C<dump()>, C<kill()>, C<chown()>, C<link()>, C<symlink()>, C<chroot()>,
-C<setpgrp()>, C<getpgrp()>, C<setpriority()>, C<getpriority()>,
-C<syscall()>, C<fcntl()>, C<flock()>.  This list is possibly incomplete.
+The definition of the fpos_t type in stdio.h may be wrong.  If your
+stdio.h has this problem, you will see an exception when running the
+test t/lib/io_xs.t.  To fix this, change the typedef for fpos_t from
+"long" to "long long" in the file i386-mingw32msvc/include/stdio.h,
+and rebuild.
 
-=item *
+=back
 
-Various C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not
-behave as on Unix platforms.
+A potentially simpler to install (but probably soon-to-be-outdated) bundle
+of the above package with the mentioned fixes already applied is available
+here:
 
-=item *
+    http://downloads.ActiveState.com/pub/staff/gsar/gcc-2.95.2-msvcrt.zip
+    ftp://ftp.ActiveState.com/pub/staff/gsar/gcc-2.95.2-msvcrt.zip
+
+=back
+
+=head2 Building
 
-The four-argument C<select()> call is only supported on sockets.
+=over 4
 
 =item *
 
-The behavior of C<system()> or the C<qx[]> operator (a.k.a. "backticks"),
-when used to call interactive commands, is ill-defined.
+Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl toplevel.
+This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with
+versions of nmake that come with Visual C++ or the Platform SDK, and
+a dmake "makefile.mk" that will work for all supported compilers.  The
+defaults in the dmake makefile are setup to build using MinGW/gcc.
 
 =item *
 
-C<$!> doesn't work reliably yet.
+Edit the makefile.mk (or Makefile, if you're using nmake) and change 
+the values of INST_DRV and INST_TOP.   You can also enable various
+build flags.  These are explained in the makefiles.
+
+Note that it is generally not a good idea to try to build a perl with
+INST_DRV and INST_TOP set to a path that already exists from a previous
+build.  In particular, this may cause problems with the
+lib/ExtUtils/t/Embed.t test, which attempts to build a test program and
+may end up building against the installed perl's lib/CORE directory rather
+than the one being tested.
+
+You will have to make sure that CCTYPE is set correctly and that 
+CCHOME points to wherever you installed your compiler.
+
+The default value for CCHOME in the makefiles for Visual C++
+may not be correct for some versions.  Make sure the default exists
+and is valid.
+
+If you have either the source or a library that contains des_fcrypt(),
+enable the appropriate option in the makefile.  A ready-to-use version
+of fcrypt.c, based on the version originally written by Eric Young at
+ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/crypt/mirrors/dsi/libdes/, is bundled with the
+distribution and CRYPT_SRC is set to use it.
+Alternatively, if you have built a library that contains des_fcrypt(),
+you can set CRYPT_LIB to point to the library name.
+Perl will also build without des_fcrypt(), but the crypt() builtin will
+fail at run time.
+
+Be sure to read the instructions near the top of the makefiles carefully.
 
 =item *
 
-Building modules available on CPAN is mostly supported, but this
-hasn't been tested much yet.  Expect strange problems, and be
-prepared to deal with the consequences.
+Type "dmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make).
+
+This should build everything.  Specifically, it will create perl.exe,
+perl59.dll at the perl toplevel, and various other extension dll's
+under the lib\auto directory.  If the build fails for any reason, make
+sure you have done the previous steps correctly.
+
+=back
+
+=head2 Testing Perl on Win32
+
+Type "dmake test" (or "nmake test").  This will run most of the tests from
+the testsuite (many tests will be skipped).
+
+There should be no test failures when running under Windows NT/2000/XP.
+Many tests I<will> fail under Windows 9x due to the inferior command shell.
+
+Some test failures may occur if you use a command shell other than the
+native "cmd.exe", or if you are building from a path that contains
+spaces.  So don't do that.
+
+If you are running the tests from a emacs shell window, you may see
+failures in op/stat.t.  Run "dmake test-notty" in that case.
+
+If you're using the Borland compiler, you may see a failure in op/taint.t
+arising from the inability to find the Borland Runtime DLLs on the system
+default path.  You will need to copy the DLLs reported by the messages
+from where Borland chose to install it, into the Windows system directory
+(usually somewhere like C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32) and rerun the test.
+
+If you're using Borland compiler versions 5.2 and below, you may run into
+problems finding the correct header files when building extensions.  For
+example, building the "Tk" extension may fail because both perl and Tk
+contain a header file called "patchlevel.h".  The latest Borland compiler
+(v5.5) is free of this misbehaviour, and it even supports an
+option -VI- for backward (bugward) compatibility for using the old Borland
+search algorithm  to locate header files.
+
+If you run the tests on a FAT partition, you may see some failures for
+C<link()> related tests (I<op/write.t>, I<op/stat.t> ...). Testing on
+NTFS avoids these errors.
+
+Furthermore, you should make sure that during C<make test> you do not
+have any GNU tool packages in your path: some toolkits like Unixutils
+include some tools (C<type> for instance) which override the Windows
+ones and makes tests fail. Remove them from your path while testing to
+avoid these errors.
+
+Please report any other failures as described under L<BUGS AND CAVEATS>.
+
+=head2 Installation of Perl on Win32
+
+Type "dmake install" (or "nmake install").  This will put the newly
+built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP> points to in the
+Makefile.  It will also install the pod documentation under
+C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same under
+C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod\html>.
+
+To use the Perl you just installed you will need to add a new entry to
+your PATH environment variable: C<$INST_TOP\bin>, e.g.
+
+    set PATH=c:\perl\bin;%PATH%
+
+If you opted to uncomment C<INST_VER> and C<INST_ARCH> in the makefile
+then the installation structure is a little more complicated and you will
+need to add two new PATH components instead: C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin> and
+C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin\$ARCHNAME>, e.g.
+
+    set PATH=c:\perl\5.6.0\bin;c:\perl\5.6.0\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH%
+
+=head2 Usage Hints for Perl on Win32
+
+=over 4
+
+=item Environment Variables
+
+The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled
+into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start
+using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable).
+
+If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB
+to a list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl
+to look for libraries.  Look for descriptions of other environment
+variables you can set in L<perlrun>.
+
+You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and
+backtick commands via PERL5SHELL.  See L<perlrun>.
+
+Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain default
+values if you choose to put them there.  Perl attempts to read entries from
+C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> and C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>.
+Entries in the former override entries in the latter.  One or more of the
+following entries (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may be set:
+
+    lib-$]		version-specific standard library path to add to @INC
+    lib			standard library path to add to @INC
+    sitelib-$]		version-specific site library path to add to @INC
+    sitelib		site library path to add to @INC
+    vendorlib-$]	version-specific vendor library path to add to @INC
+    vendorlib		vendor library path to add to @INC
+    PERL*		fallback for all %ENV lookups that begin with "PERL"
+
+Note the C<$]> in the above is not literal.  Substitute whatever version
+of perl you want to honor that entry, e.g. C<5.6.0>.  Paths must be
+separated with semicolons, as usual on win32.
+
+=item File Globbing
+
+By default, perl handles file globbing using the File::Glob extension,
+which provides portable globbing.
+
+If you want perl to use globbing that emulates the quirks of DOS
+filename conventions, you might want to consider using File::DosGlob
+to override the internal glob() implementation.  See L<File::DosGlob> for
+details.
+
+=item Using perl from the command line
+
+If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line
+shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased
+with what Windows offers by way of a command shell.
+
+The crucial thing to understand about the Windows environment is that
+the command line you type in is processed twice before Perl sees it.
+First, your command shell (usually CMD.EXE on Windows NT, and
+COMMAND.COM on Windows 9x) preprocesses the command line, to handle
+redirection, environment variable expansion, and location of the
+executable to run. Then, the perl executable splits the remaining
+command line into individual arguments, using the C runtime library
+upon which Perl was built.
+
+It is particularly important to note that neither the shell nor the C
+runtime do any wildcard expansions of command-line arguments (so
+wildcards need not be quoted).  Also, the quoting behaviours of the
+shell and the C runtime are rudimentary at best (and may, if you are
+using a non-standard shell, be inconsistent).  The only (useful) quote
+character is the double quote (").  It can be used to protect spaces
+and other special characters in arguments.
+
+The Windows NT documentation has almost no description of how the
+quoting rules are implemented, but here are some general observations
+based on experiments: The C runtime breaks arguments at spaces and
+passes them to programs in argc/argv.  Double quotes can be used to
+prevent arguments with spaces in them from being split up.  You can
+put a double quote in an argument by escaping it with a backslash and
+enclosing the whole argument within double quotes.  The backslash and
+the pair of double quotes surrounding the argument will be stripped by
+the C runtime.
+
+The file redirection characters "E<lt>", "E<gt>", and "|" can be quoted by
+double quotes (although there are suggestions that this may not always
+be true).  Single quotes are not treated as quotes by the shell or
+the C runtime, they don't get stripped by the shell (just to make
+this type of quoting completely useless).  The caret "^" has also
+been observed to behave as a quoting character, but this appears
+to be a shell feature, and the caret is not stripped from the command
+line, so Perl still sees it (and the C runtime phase does not treat
+the caret as a quote character).
+
+Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell:
+
+This prints two doublequotes:
+
+    perl -e "print '\"\"' "
+
+This does the same:
+
+    perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" "
+
+This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch":
+
+    perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch
+
+This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland):
+
+    perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul
+
+This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch":
+
+    perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch
+
+This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the console:
+
+    perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less
+
+This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager:
+
+    perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less
+
+This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file "blurch":
+
+    perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less
+
+
+Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows 9x
+is left as an exercise to the reader :)
+
+One particularly pernicious problem with the 4NT command shell for
+Windows NT is that it (nearly) always treats a % character as indicating
+that environment variable expansion is needed.  Under this shell, it is
+therefore important to always double any % characters which you want
+Perl to see (for example, for hash variables), even when they are
+quoted.
+
+=item Building Extensions
+
+The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth
+of extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build.
+Look in http://www.cpan.org/ for more information on CPAN.
+
+Note that not all of the extensions available from CPAN may work
+in the Win32 environment; you should check the information at
+http://testers.cpan.org/ before investing too much effort into
+porting modules that don't readily build.
+
+Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can
+be built, tested and installed with the standard mantra:
+
+    perl Makefile.PL
+    $MAKE
+    $MAKE test
+    $MAKE install
+
+where $MAKE is whatever 'make' program you have configured perl to
+use.  Use "perl -V:make" to find out what this is.  Some extensions
+may not provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything or
+fail), but most serious ones do.
+
+It is important that you use a supported 'make' program, and
+ensure Config.pm knows about it.  If you don't have nmake, you can
+either get dmake from the location mentioned earlier or get an
+old version of nmake reportedly available from:
+
+ http://download.microsoft.com/download/vc15/Patch/1.52/W95/EN-US/nmake15.exe
+
+Another option is to use the make written in Perl, available from
+CPAN.
+
+    http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Make/
+
+You may also use dmake.  See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
+
+Note that MakeMaker actually emits makefiles with different syntax
+depending on what 'make' it thinks you are using.  Therefore, it is
+important that one of the following values appears in Config.pm:
+
+    make='nmake'	# MakeMaker emits nmake syntax
+    make='dmake'	# MakeMaker emits dmake syntax
+    any other value	# MakeMaker emits generic make syntax
+    			    (e.g GNU make, or Perl make)
+
+If the value doesn't match the 'make' program you want to use,
+edit Config.pm to fix it.
+
+If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported
+C compilers.  You must make sure you have set up the environment for
+the compiler for command-line compilation.
+
+If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for
+why it failed, and report problems to the module author.  If
+it looks like the extension building support is at fault, report
+that with full details of how the build failed using the perlbug
+utility.
+
+=item Command-line Wildcard Expansion
+
+The default command shells on DOS descendant operating systems (such
+as they are) usually do not expand wildcard arguments supplied to
+programs.  They consider it the application's job to handle that.
+This is commonly achieved by linking the application (in our case,
+perl) with startup code that the C runtime libraries usually provide.
+However, doing that results in incompatible perl versions (since the
+behavior of the argv expansion code differs depending on the
+compiler, and it is even buggy on some compilers).  Besides, it may
+be a source of frustration if you use such a perl binary with an
+alternate shell that *does* expand wildcards.
+
+Instead, the following solution works rather well. The nice things
+about it are 1) you can start using it right away; 2) it is more 
+powerful, because it will do the right thing with a pattern like
+*/*/*.c; 3) you can decide whether you do/don't want to use it; and
+4) you can extend the method to add any customizations (or even 
+entirely different kinds of wildcard expansion).
+
+	C:\> copy con c:\perl\lib\Wild.pm
+	# Wild.pm - emulate shell @ARGV expansion on shells that don't
+	use File::DosGlob;
+	@ARGV = map {
+		      my @g = File::DosGlob::glob($_) if /[*?]/;
+		      @g ? @g : $_;
+		    } @ARGV;
+	1;
+	^Z
+	C:\> set PERL5OPT=-MWild
+	C:\> perl -le "for (@ARGV) { print }" */*/perl*.c
+	p4view/perl/perl.c
+	p4view/perl/perlio.c
+	p4view/perl/perly.c
+	perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
+	perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
+	perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
+	perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
+	perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
+	perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
+
+Note there are two distinct steps there: 1) You'll have to create
+Wild.pm and put it in your perl lib directory. 2) You'll need to
+set the PERL5OPT environment variable.  If you want argv expansion
+to be the default, just set PERL5OPT in your default startup
+environment.
+
+If you are using the Visual C compiler, you can get the C runtime's
+command line wildcard expansion built into perl binary.  The resulting
+binary will always expand unquoted command lines, which may not be
+what you want if you use a shell that does that for you.  The expansion
+done is also somewhat less powerful than the approach suggested above.
+
+=item Win32 Specific Extensions
+
+A number of extensions specific to the Win32 platform are available
+from CPAN.  You may find that many of these extensions are meant to
+be used under the Activeware port of Perl, which used to be the only
+native port for the Win32 platform.  Since the Activeware port does not
+have adequate support for Perl's extension building tools, these
+extensions typically do not support those tools either and, therefore,
+cannot be built using the generic steps shown in the previous section.
+
+To ensure smooth transitioning of existing code that uses the
+ActiveState port, there is a bundle of Win32 extensions that contains
+all of the ActiveState extensions and several other Win32 extensions from
+CPAN in source form, along with many added bugfixes, and with MakeMaker
+support.  This bundle is available at:
+
+   http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Win32/libwin32-0.191.zip
+
+See the README in that distribution for building and installation
+instructions.  Look for later versions that may be available at the
+same location.
+
+=item Notes on 64-bit Windows
+
+Windows .NET Server supports the LLP64 data model on the Intel Itanium
+architecture.
+
+The LLP64 data model is different from the LP64 data model that is the
+norm on 64-bit Unix platforms.  In the former, C<int> and C<long> are
+both 32-bit data types, while pointers are 64 bits wide.  In addition,
+there is a separate 64-bit wide integral type, C<__int64>.  In contrast,
+the LP64 data model that is pervasive on Unix platforms provides C<int>
+as the 32-bit type, while both the C<long> type and pointers are of
+64-bit precision.  Note that both models provide for 64-bits of
+addressability.
+
+64-bit Windows running on Itanium is capable of running 32-bit x86
+binaries transparently.  This means that you could use a 32-bit build
+of Perl on a 64-bit system.  Given this, why would one want to build
+a 64-bit build of Perl?  Here are some reasons why you would bother:
+
+=over
 
 =item *
 
-C<utime()>, C<times()> and process-related functions may not
-behave as described in the documentation, and some of the
-returned values or effects may be bogus.
+A 64-bit native application will run much more efficiently on
+Itanium hardware.
 
 =item *
 
-Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms.
+There is no 2GB limit on process size.
 
 =item *
 
-File globbing may not behave as on Unix platforms.
+Perl automatically provides large file support when built under
+64-bit Windows.
 
 =item *
 
-Not all of the utilities that come with the Perl distribution
-are supported yet.
+Embedding Perl inside a 64-bit application.
+
+=back
+
+=back
+
+=head2 Running Perl Scripts
+
+Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to
+indicate to the OS that it should execute the file using perl.
+Win32 has no comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are
+executables.
+
+Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on
+Win32 rely on the file "extension".  There are three methods
+to use this to execute perl scripts:
+
+=over 8
+
+=item 1
+
+There is a facility called "file extension associations" that will
+work in Windows NT 4.0.  This can be manipulated via the two
+commands "assoc" and "ftype" that come standard with Windows NT
+4.0.  Type "ftype /?" for a complete example of how to set this
+up for perl scripts (Say what?  You thought Windows NT wasn't
+perl-ready? :).
+
+=item 2
+
+Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are
+reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the
+old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a
+regular batch file to the OS, may be used.  The install process
+makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to wrap
+perl scripts into batch files.  For example:
+
+	pl2bat foo.pl
+
+will create the file "FOO.BAT".  Note "pl2bat" strips any
+.pl suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file.
+
+If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that
+"pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to
+refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to make
+sure that construct works in batch files.  As of this writing,
+4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *" statement in their
+4NT.INI file or will need to execute "setdos /p*" in the 4DOS/NT
+startup file to enable this to work.
+
+=item 3
+
+Using "pl2bat" has a few problems:  the file name gets changed,
+so scripts that rely on C<$0> to find what they must do may not
+run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the
+original script, and so this process can be maintenance intensive
+if the originals get updated often.  A different approach that
+avoids both problems is possible.
+
+A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied
+to any filename (along with the .bat suffix).  For example,
+if you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is
+executed.  Since you can run batch files on Win32 platforms simply
+by typing the name (without the extension), this effectively
+runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or "foo.bat".
+With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a different location
+than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is available somewhere on
+the PATH.  If your scripts are on a filesystem that allows symbolic
+links, you can even avoid copying "runperl.bat".
+
+Here's a diversion:  copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type
+"runperl".  Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :)
+Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH
 
 =back
 
+=head2 Miscellaneous Things
+
+A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be
+able to use it if you have a web browser installed on your
+system.
+
+C<perldoc> is also a useful tool for browsing information contained
+in the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager
+like C<less> (recent versions of which have Win32 support).  You may
+have to set the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager.
+"perldoc -f foo" will print information about the perl operator
+"foo".
+
+One common mistake when using this port with a GUI library like C<Tk>
+is assuming that Perl's normal behavior of opening a command-line
+window will go away.  This isn't the case.  If you want to start a copy
+of C<perl> without opening a command-line window, use the C<wperl>
+executable built during the installation process.  Usage is exactly
+the same as normal C<perl> on Win32, except that options like C<-h>
+don't work (since they need a command-line window to print to).
+
+If you find bugs in perl, you can run C<perlbug> to create a
+bug report (you may have to send it manually if C<perlbug> cannot
+find a mailer on your system).
+
+=head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS
+
+Norton AntiVirus interferes with the build process, particularly if 
+set to "AutoProtect, All Files, when Opened". Unlike large applications 
+the perl build process opens and modifies a lot of files. Having the  
+the AntiVirus scan each and every one slows build the process significantly.
+Worse, with PERLIO=stdio the build process fails with peculiar messages
+as the virus checker interacts badly with miniperl.exe writing configure 
+files (it seems to either catch file part written and treat it as suspicious,
+or virus checker may have it "locked" in a way which inhibits miniperl
+updating it). The build does complete with 
+
+   set PERLIO=perlio
+
+but that may be just luck. Other AntiVirus software may have similar issues.
+
+Some of the built-in functions do not act exactly as documented in
+L<perlfunc>, and a few are not implemented at all.  To avoid
+surprises, particularly if you have had prior exposure to Perl
+in other operating environments or if you intend to write code
+that will be portable to other environments, see L<perlport>
+for a reasonably definitive list of these differences.
+
+Not all extensions available from CPAN may build or work properly
+in the Win32 environment.  See L</"Building Extensions">.
+
+Most C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not
+behave as on Unix platforms.  See L<perlport> for the full list.
+Perl requires Winsock2 to be installed on the system. If you're
+running Win95, you can download Winsock upgrade from here:
+
+http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/downloads/contents/WUAdminTools/S_WUNetworkingTools/W95Sockets2/Default.asp
+
+Later OS versions already include Winsock2 support.
+
+Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it
+doesn't exactly "behave", either :).  For instance, calling C<die()>
+or C<exit()> from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most
+implementations of C<signal()> on Win32 are severely crippled.
+Thus, signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag
+variable in the handler.  Using signals under this port should
+currently be considered unsupported.
+
 Please send detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that 
-you may find to <F<perlbug@perl.com>>, along with the output produced
-by C<perl -V>.
+you may find to E<lt>F<perlbug@perl.org>E<gt>, along with the output
+produced by C<perl -V>.
+
+=head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
+
+The use of a camel with the topic of Perl is a trademark
+of O'Reilly and Associates, Inc. Used with permission.
 
 =head1 AUTHORS
 
 =over 4
 
-=item Gary Ng <F<71564.1743@CompuServe.COM>>
+=item Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt>
 
-=item Gurusamy Sarathy <F<gsar@umich.edu>>
+=item Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@activestate.comE<gt>
 
-=item Nick Ing-Simmons <F<nick@ni-s.u-net.com>>
+=item Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ing-simmons.netE<gt>
+
+=item Jan Dubois E<lt>jand@activestate.comE<gt>
+
+=item Steve Hay E<lt>steve.hay@uk.radan.comE<gt>
 
 =back
 
+This document is maintained by Jan Dubois.
+
 =head1 SEE ALSO
 
 L<perl>
@@ -254,12 +888,21 @@ L<perl>
 
 This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24,
 and borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available
-at the time.
+at the time.  Various people have made numerous and sundry hacks
+since then.
 
-Nick Ing-Simmons and Gurusamy Sarathy have made numerous and
-sundry hacks since then.
+Borland support was added in 5.004_01 (Gurusamy Sarathy).
 
-Last updated: 19 March 1997
+GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons).
 
-=cut
+Support for PERL_OBJECT was added in 5.005 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
+
+Support for fork() emulation was added in 5.6 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
 
+Win9x support was added in 5.6 (Benjamin Stuhl).
+
+Support for 64-bit Windows added in 5.8 (ActiveState Corp).
+
+Last updated: 15 February 2005
+
+=cut