diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'README.os2')
| -rw-r--r-- | README.os2 | 305 |
1 files changed, 173 insertions, 132 deletions
diff --git a/README.os2 b/README.os2 index e6782e3dc1..c0a19601f3 100644 --- a/README.os2 +++ b/README.os2 @@ -27,9 +27,9 @@ A copy of a Win* viewer is contained in the "Just add OS/2 Warp" package ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/ps/products/os2/tools/jaow/jaow.zip -in F<?:\JUST_ADD\view.exe>. This gives one an access to B<EMX>'s +in F<?:\JUST_ADD\view.exe>. This gives one an access to EMX's F<.INF> docs as well (text form is available in F</emx/doc> in -B<EMX>'s distribution). +EMX's distribution). =cut @@ -43,12 +43,13 @@ Contents - Target - Other OSes - Prerequisites - - Starting Perl programs under OS/2 - - Starting OS/2 programs under Perl + - Starting Perl programs under OS/2 (and DOS and...) + - Starting OS/2 (and DOS) programs under Perl Frequently asked questions - I cannot run external programs - I cannot embed perl into my program, or use perl.dll from my program. - `` and pipe-open do not work under DOS. + - Cannot start find.exe "pattern" file INSTALLATION - Automatic binary installation - Manual binary installation @@ -77,9 +78,10 @@ Contents - Some problem (forget which ;-) - Library ... not found - Segfault in make - Specific (mis)features of OS/2 port + Specific (mis)features of EMX port - setpriority, getpriority - system() + - extproc on the first line - Additional modules: - Prebuilt methods: - Misfeatures @@ -113,7 +115,8 @@ Contents The target is to make OS/2 the best supported platform for using/building/developing Perl and I<Perl applications>, as well as -make Perl the best language to use under OS/2. +make Perl the best language to use under OS/2. The secondary target is +to try to make this work under DOS and Win* as well (but not B<too> hard). The current state is quite close to this target. Known limitations: @@ -131,10 +134,10 @@ to use PM code in your application (like the forthcoming Perl/Tk). =item * -There is no simple way to access B<WPS> objects. The only way I know +There is no simple way to access WPS objects. The only way I know is via C<OS2::REXX> extension (see L<OS2::REXX>), and we do not have access to -convenience methods of B<Object REXX>. (Is it possible at all? I know -of no B<Object-REXX> API.) +convenience methods of Object-REXX. (Is it possible at all? I know +of no Object-REXX API.) =back @@ -142,7 +145,7 @@ Please keep this list up-to-date by informing me about other items. =head2 Other OSes -Since OS/2 port of perl uses a remarkable B<EMX> environment, it can +Since OS/2 port of perl uses a remarkable EMX environment, it can run (and build extensions, and - possibly - be build itself) under any environment which can run EMX. The current list is DOS, DOS-inside-OS/2, Win0.3*, Win0.95 and WinNT. Out of many perl flavors, @@ -150,7 +153,7 @@ only one works, see L<"perl_.exe">. Note that not all features of Perl are available under these environments. This depends on the features the I<extender> - most -probably C<RSX> - decided to implement. +probably RSX - decided to implement. Cf. L<Prerequisites>. @@ -158,19 +161,20 @@ Cf. L<Prerequisites>. =over 6 -=item B<EMX> +=item EMX -B<EMX> runtime is required (may be substituted by B<RSX>). Note that +EMX runtime is required (may be substituted by RSX). Note that it is possible to make F<perl_.exe> to run under DOS without any external support by binding F<emx.exe>/F<rsx.exe> to it, see L<emxbind>. Note -that under DOS for best results one should use B<RSX> runtime, which +that under DOS for best results one should use RSX runtime, which has much more functions working (like C<fork>, C<popen> and so on). In -fact B<RSX> is required if there is no C<VCPI> present. Note the -B<RSX> requires C<DPMI>. +fact RSX is required if there is no VCPI present. Note the +RSX requires DPMI. -Only the latest runtime is supported, currently C<0.9c>. +Only the latest runtime is supported, currently C<0.9c>. Perl may run +under earlier versions of EMX, but this is not tested. -One can get different parts of B<EMX> from, say +One can get different parts of EMX from, say ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/os2/emx0.9c/ ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/os2/unix/gnu/ @@ -184,19 +188,19 @@ does not need to specify them explicitly (though this will work as well.) -=item B<RSX> +=item RSX -To run Perl on C<DPMI> platforms one needs B<RSX> runtime. This is +To run Perl on DPMI platforms one needs RSX runtime. This is needed under DOS-inside-OS/2, Win0.3*, Win0.95 and WinNT (see -L<"Other OSes">). B<RSX> would not work with C<VCPI> -only, as B<EMX> would, it requires C<DMPI>. +L<"Other OSes">). RSX would not work with VCPI +only, as EMX would, it requires DMPI. -Having B<RSX> and the latest F<sh.exe> one gets a fully functional +Having RSX and the latest F<sh.exe> one gets a fully functional B<*nix>-ish environment under DOS, say, C<fork>, C<``> and pipe-C<open> work. In fact, MakeMaker works (for static build), so one can have Perl development environment under DOS. -One can get B<RSX> from, say +One can get RSX from, say ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/os2/emx0.9c/contrib ftp://ftp.uni-bielefeld.de/pub/systems/msdos/misc @@ -207,18 +211,32 @@ The latest F<sh.exe> with DOS hooks is available at ftp://ftp.math.ohio-state.edu/pub/users/ilya/os2/sh_dos.exe -=item B<HPFS> +=item HPFS Perl does not care about file systems, but to install the whole perl library intact one needs a file system which supports long file names. Note that if you do not plan to build the perl itself, it may be -possible to fool B<EMX> to truncate file names. This is not supported, -read B<EMX> docs to see how to do it. +possible to fool EMX to truncate file names. This is not supported, +read EMX docs to see how to do it. + +=item pdksh + +To start external programs with complicated command lines (like with +pipes in between, and/or quoting of arguments), Perl uses an external +shell. With EMX port such shell should be named <sh.exe>, and located +either in the wired-in-during-compile locations (usually F<F:/bin>), +or in configurable location (see L<"PERL_SH_DIR">). + +For best results use EMX pdksh. The soon-to-be-available standard +binary (5.2.12?) runs under DOS (with L<RSX>) as well, meanwhile use +the binary from + + ftp://ftp.math.ohio-state.edu/pub/users/ilya/os2/sh_dos.exe =back -=head2 Starting Perl programs under OS/2 +=head2 Starting Perl programs under OS/2 (and DOS and...) Start your Perl program F<foo.pl> with arguments C<arg1 arg2 arg3> the same way as on any other platform, by @@ -230,33 +248,28 @@ opposed to to your program), use perl -my_opts foo.pl arg1 arg2 arg3 -Alternately, if you use OS/2-ish shell, like C<CMD> or C<4os2>, put +Alternately, if you use OS/2-ish shell, like CMD or 4os2, put the following at the start of your perl script: - extproc perl -x -S - #!/usr/bin/perl -my_opts + extproc perl -S -my_opts rename your program to F<foo.cmd>, and start it by typing foo arg1 arg2 arg3 -(Note that having *nixish full path to perl F</usr/bin/perl> is not -necessary, F<perl> would be enough, but having full path would make it -easier to use your script under *nix.) - Note that because of stupid OS/2 limitations the full path of the perl script is not available when you use C<extproc>, thus you are forced to use C<-S> perl switch, and your script should be on path. As a plus side, if you know a full path to your script, you may still start it with - perl -x ../../blah/foo.cmd arg1 arg2 arg3 + perl ../../blah/foo.cmd arg1 arg2 arg3 -(note that the argument C<-my_opts> is taken care of by the C<#!> line -in your script). +(note that the argument C<-my_opts> is taken care of by the C<extproc> line +in your script, see L<C<extproc> on the first line>). To understand what the above I<magic> does, read perl docs about C<-S> -and C<-x> switches - see L<perlrun>, and cmdref about C<extproc>: +switch - see L<perlrun>, and cmdref about C<extproc>: view perl perlrun man perlrun @@ -266,11 +279,11 @@ and C<-x> switches - see L<perlrun>, and cmdref about C<extproc>: or whatever method you prefer. There are also endless possibilities to use I<executable extensions> of -B<4OS2>, I<associations> of B<WPS> and so on... However, if you use +4os2, I<associations> of WPS and so on... However, if you use *nixish shell (like F<sh.exe> supplied in the binary distribution), you need to follow the syntax specified in L<perlrun/"Switches">. -=head2 Starting OS/2 programs under Perl +=head2 Starting OS/2 (and DOS) programs under Perl This is what system() (see L<perlfunc/system>), C<``> (see L<perlop/"I/O Operators">), and I<open pipe> (see L<perlfunc/open>) @@ -278,7 +291,7 @@ are for. (Avoid exec() (see L<perlfunc/exec>) unless you know what you do). Note however that to use some of these operators you need to have a -C<sh>-syntax shell installed (see L<"Pdksh">, +sh-syntax shell installed (see L<"Pdksh">, L<"Frequently asked questions">), and perl should be able to find it (see L<"PERL_SH_DIR">). @@ -296,7 +309,7 @@ meta-characters. =item Did you run your programs with C<-w> switch? See -L<Starting OS/2 programs under Perl>. +L<Starting OS/2 (and DOS) programs under Perl>. =item @@ -312,12 +325,12 @@ program. =over 4 -=item Is your program B<EMX>-compiled with C<-Zmt -Zcrtdll>? +=item Is your program EMX-compiled with C<-Zmt -Zcrtdll>? If not, you need to build a stand-alone DLL for perl. Contact me, I did it once. Sockets would not work, as a lot of other stuff. -=item Did you use C<ExtUtils::Embed>? +=item Did you use L<ExtUtils::Embed>? I had reports it does not work. Somebody would need to fix it. @@ -326,12 +339,29 @@ I had reports it does not work. Somebody would need to fix it. =head2 C<``> and pipe-C<open> do not work under DOS. This may a variant of just L<"I cannot run external programs">, or a -deeper problem. Basically: you I<need> B<RSX> (see L<"Prerequisites">) +deeper problem. Basically: you I<need> RSX (see L<"Prerequisites">) for these commands to work, and you may need a port of F<sh.exe> which understands command arguments. One of such ports is listed in -L<"Prerequisites"> under B<RSX>. +L<"Prerequisites"> under RSX. Do not forget to set variable +C<L<"PERL_SH_DIR">> as well. + +DPMI is required for RSX. + +=head2 Cannot start C<find.exe "pattern" file> -C<DPMI> is required for B<RSX>. +Use one of + + system 'cmd', '/c', 'find "pattern" file'; + `cmd /c 'find "pattern" file'` + +This would start F<find.exe> via F<cmd.exe> via C<sh.exe> via +C<perl.exe>, but this is a price to pay if you want to use +non-conforming program. In fact F<find.exe> cannot be started at all +using C library API only. Otherwise the following command-lines were +equivalent: + + find "pattern" file + find pattern file =head1 INSTALLATION @@ -342,9 +372,9 @@ F<install.exe>. Just follow the instructions, and 99% of the installation blues would go away. Note however, that you need to have F<unzip.exe> on your path, and -B<EMX> environment I<running>. The latter means that if you just -installed B<EMX>, and made all the needed changes to F<Config.sys>, -you may need to reboot in between. Check B<EMX> runtime by running +EMX environment I<running>. The latter means that if you just +installed EMX, and made all the needed changes to F<Config.sys>, +you may need to reboot in between. Check EMX runtime by running emxrev @@ -358,7 +388,7 @@ B<Things not taken care of by automatic binary installation:> =item C<PERL_BADLANG> may be needed if you change your codepage I<after> perl installation, -and the new value is not supported by B<EMX>. See L<"PERL_BADLANG">. +and the new value is not supported by EMX. See L<"PERL_BADLANG">. =item C<PERL_BADFREE> @@ -377,19 +407,23 @@ data, please keep me informed if you find one. =back +B<NOTE>. Because of a typo the binary installer of 5.00305 +would install a variable C<PERL_SHPATH> into F<Config.sys>. Please +remove this variable and put C<L<PERL_SH_DIR>> instead. + =head2 Manual binary installation As of version 5.00305, OS/2 perl binary distribution comes split into 11 components. Unfortunately, to enable configurable binary -installation, the file paths in the C<zip> files are not absolute, but +installation, the file paths in the zip files are not absolute, but relative to some directory. Note that the extraction with the stored paths is still necessary -(default with C<unzip>, specify C<-d> to C<pkunzip>). However, you +(default with unzip, specify C<-d> to pkunzip). However, you need to know where to extract the files. You need also to manually change entries in F<Config.sys> to reflect where did you put the files. Note that if you have some primitive unzipper (like -C<pkunzip>), you may get a lot of warnings/errors during +pkunzip), you may get a lot of warnings/errors during unzipping. Upgrade to C<(w)unzip>. Below is the sample of what to do to reproduce the configuration on my @@ -402,20 +436,20 @@ machine: unzip perl_exc.zip *.exe *.ico -d f:/emx.add/bin unzip perl_exc.zip *.dll -d f:/emx.add/dll -(have the directories with C<*.exe> on C<PATH>, and C<*.dll> on -C<LIBPATH>); +(have the directories with C<*.exe> on PATH, and C<*.dll> on +LIBPATH); =item Perl_ VIO executable (statically linked) unzip perl_aou.zip -d f:/emx.add/bin -(have the directory on C<PATH>); +(have the directory on PATH); =item Executables for Perl utilities unzip perl_utl.zip -d f:/emx.add/bin -(have the directory on C<PATH>); +(have the directory on PATH); =item Main Perl library @@ -447,25 +481,25 @@ C<set PERLLIB_PREFIX> in F<Config.sys>, see L<"PERLLIB_PREFIX">. unzip perl_man.zip -d f:/perllib/man This directory should better be on C<MANPATH>. You need to have a -working C<man> to access these files. +working man to access these files. =item Manpages for Perl modules unzip perl_mam.zip -d f:/perllib/man This directory should better be on C<MANPATH>. You need to have a -working C<man> to access these files. +working man to access these files. =item Source for Perl documentation unzip perl_pod.zip -d f:/perllib/lib This is used by by C<perldoc> program (see L<perldoc>), and may be used to -generate B<HTML> documentation usable by WWW browsers, and +generate HTML documentation usable by WWW browsers, and documentation in zillions of other formats: C<info>, C<LaTeX>, C<Acrobat>, C<FrameMaker> and so on. -=item Perl manual in .INF format +=item Perl manual in F<.INF> format unzip perl_inf.zip -d d:/os2/book @@ -482,7 +516,7 @@ metacharacters>. It is also used instead of explicit F</bin/sh>. Set C<PERL_SH_DIR> (see L<"PERL_SH_DIR">) if you move F<sh.exe> from the above location. -B<Note.> It may be possible to use some other C<sh>-compatible shell +B<Note.> It may be possible to use some other sh-compatible shell (I<not tested>). =back @@ -511,7 +545,7 @@ identical) Perl documentation in the following formats: =head2 OS/2 F<.INF> file -Most probably the most convenient form. View it as +Most probably the most convenient form. Under OS/2 view it as view perl view perl perlfunc @@ -519,7 +553,7 @@ Most probably the most convenient form. View it as view perl ExtUtils::MakeMaker (currently the last two may hit a wrong location, but this may improve -soon). +soon). Under Win* see L<"SYNOPSIS">. If you want to build the docs yourself, and have I<OS/2 toolkit>, run @@ -535,7 +569,7 @@ BOOKSHELF path. =head2 Plain text If you have perl documentation in the source form, perl utilities -installed, and B<GNU> C<groff> installed, you may use +installed, and GNU groff installed, you may use perldoc perlfunc perldoc less @@ -548,7 +582,7 @@ Alternately, try running pod2text on F<.pod> files. =head2 Manpages -If you have C<man> installed on your system, and you installed perl +If you have man installed on your system, and you installed perl manpages, use something like this: man perlfunc @@ -568,11 +602,11 @@ on our C<MANPATH>, like this set MANPATH=c:/man;f:/perllib/man -=head2 B<HTML> +=head2 HTML If you have some WWW browser available, installed the Perl documentation in the source form, and Perl utilities, you can build -B<HTML> docs. Cd to directory with F<.pod> files, and do like this +HTML docs. Cd to directory with F<.pod> files, and do like this cd f:/perllib/lib/pod pod2html @@ -582,11 +616,11 @@ directory, and go ahead with reading docs, like this: explore file:///f:/perllib/lib/pod/perl.html -Alternatively you may be able to get these docs prebuilt from C<CPAN>. +Alternatively you may be able to get these docs prebuilt from CPAN. -=head2 B<GNU> C<info> files +=head2 GNU C<info> files -Users of C<Emacs> would appreciate it very much, especially with +Users of Emacs would appreciate it very much, especially with C<CPerl> mode loaded. You need to get latest C<pod2info> from C<CPAN>, or, alternately, prebuilt info pages. @@ -606,8 +640,8 @@ Here we discuss how to build Perl under OS/2. There is an alternative =head2 Prerequisites -You need to have the latest B<EMX> development environment, the full -B<GNU> tool suite (C<gawk> renamed to C<awk>, and B<GNU> F<find.exe> +You need to have the latest EMX development environment, the full +GNU tool suite (gawk renamed to awk, and GNU F<find.exe> earlier on path than the OS/2 F<find.exe>, same with F<sort.exe>, to check use @@ -636,17 +670,17 @@ latter condition by if you use something like F<CMD.EXE> or latest versions of F<4os2.exe>. -Make sure your C<gcc> is good for C<-Zomf> linking: run C<omflibs> +Make sure your gcc is good for C<-Zomf> linking: run C<omflibs> script in F</emx/lib> directory. -Check that you have C<link386> installed. It comes standard with OS/2, +Check that you have link386 installed. It comes standard with OS/2, but may be not installed due to customization. If typing link386 shows you do not have it, do I<Selective install>, and choose C<Link object modules> in I<Optional system utilities/More>. If you get into -C<link386>, press C<Ctrl-C>. +link386, press C<Ctrl-C>. =head2 Getting perl source @@ -675,10 +709,6 @@ Extract it like this You may see a message about errors while extracting F<Configure>. This is because there is a conflict with a similarly-named file F<configure>. -Rename F<configure> to F<configure.gnu>. Extract F<Configure> like this - - tar --case-sensitive -vzxf perl5.00409.tar.gz perl5.00409/Configure - Change to the directory of extraction. =head2 Application of the patches @@ -692,10 +722,10 @@ F<./os2/POSIX.mkfifo> like this: You may also need to apply the patches supplied with the binary distribution of perl. -Note also that the F<db.lib> and F<db.a> from the B<EMX> distribution +Note also that the F<db.lib> and F<db.a> from the EMX distribution are not suitable for multi-threaded compile (note that currently perl -is not multithreaded, but is compiled as multithreaded for -compatibility with B<XFree86>-OS/2). Get a corrected one from +is not multithread-safe, but is compiled as multithreaded for +compatibility with XFree86-OS/2). Get a corrected one from ftp://ftp.math.ohio-state.edu/pub/users/ilya/os2/db_mt.zip @@ -708,12 +738,12 @@ wrong you find there. I do not expect it is needed anywhere. sh Configure -des -D prefix=f:/perllib -Prefix means where to install the resulting perl library. Giving +C<prefix> means: where to install the resulting perl library. Giving correct prefix you may avoid the need to specify C<PERLLIB_PREFIX>, see L<"PERLLIB_PREFIX">. I<Ignore the message about missing C<ln>, and about C<-c> option to -C<tr>>. In fact if you can trace where the latter spurious warning +tr>. In fact if you can trace where the latter spurious warning comes from, please inform me. Now @@ -723,9 +753,11 @@ Now At some moment the built may die, reporting a I<version mismatch> or I<unable to run F<perl>>. This means that most of the build has been finished, and it is the time to move the constructed F<perl.dll> to -some I<absolute> location in C<LIBPATH>. After this done the build -should finish without a lot of fuss. I<One can avoid it if one has the -correct prebuilt version of F<perl.dll> on C<LIBPATH>.> +some I<absolute> location in LIBPATH. After this is done the build +should finish without a lot of fuss. I<One can avoid the interruption +if one has the correct prebuilt version of F<perl.dll> on LIBPATH, but +probably this is not needed anymore, since F<miniperl.exe> is linked +statically now.> Warnings which are safe to ignore: I<mkfifo() redefined> inside F<POSIX.c>. @@ -740,7 +772,7 @@ Some tests (4..6) should fail. Some perl invocations should end in a segfault (system error C<SYS3175>). To get finer error reports, cd t - perl -I ../lib harness + perl harness The report you get may look like @@ -753,11 +785,11 @@ The report you get may look like Failed 4/140 test scripts, 97.14% okay. 27/2937 subtests failed, 99.08% okay. Note that using `make test' target two more tests may fail: C<op/exec:1> -because of (mis)feature of C<pdksh>, and C<lib/posix:15>, which checks +because of (mis)feature of pdksh, and C<lib/posix:15>, which checks that the buffers are not flushed on C<_exit> (this is a bug in the test which assumes that tty output is buffered). -I submitted a patch to B<EMX> which makes it possible to fork() with EMX +I submitted a patch to EMX which makes it possible to fork() with EMX dynamic libraries loaded, which makes F<lib/io*> tests pass. This means that soon the number of failing tests may decrease yet more. @@ -791,12 +823,12 @@ know why this should or should not work. =item F<lib/io_pipe.t> -Checks C<IO::Pipe> module. Some feature of B<EMX> - test fork()s with +Checks C<IO::Pipe> module. Some feature of EMX - test fork()s with dynamic extension loaded - unsupported now. =item F<lib/io_sock.t> -Checks C<IO::Socket> module. Some feature of B<EMX> - test fork()s +Checks C<IO::Socket> module. Some feature of EMX - test fork()s with dynamic extension loaded - unsupported now. =item F<op/stat.t> @@ -869,14 +901,14 @@ Run It would put the generated files into needed locations. Manually put F<perl.exe>, F<perl__.exe> and F<perl___.exe> to a location on your -C<PATH>, F<perl.dll> to a location on your C<LIBPATH>. +PATH, F<perl.dll> to a location on your LIBPATH. Run make cmdscripts INSTALLCMDDIR=d:/ir/on/path to convert perl utilities to F<.cmd> files and put them on -C<PATH>. You need to put F<.EXE>-utilities on path manually. They are +PATH. You need to put F<.EXE>-utilities on path manually. They are installed in C<$prefix/bin>, here C<$prefix> is what you gave to F<Configure>, see L<Making>. @@ -891,7 +923,7 @@ test and install by make aout_test make aout_install -Manually put F<perl_.exe> to a location on your C<PATH>. +Manually put F<perl_.exe> to a location on your PATH. Since C<perl_> has the extensions prebuilt, it does not suffer from the I<dynamic extensions + fork()> syndrome, thus the failing tests @@ -921,13 +953,13 @@ You have a very old pdksh. See L<Prerequisites>. You do not have MT-safe F<db.lib>. See L<Prerequisites>. -=head2 Problems with C<tr> +=head2 Problems with tr -reported with very old version of C<tr>. +reported with very old version of tr. =head2 Some problem (forget which ;-) -You have an older version of F<perl.dll> on your C<LIBPATH>, which +You have an older version of F<perl.dll> on your LIBPATH, which broke the build of extensions. =head2 Library ... not found @@ -936,7 +968,7 @@ You did not run C<omflibs>. See L<Prerequisites>. =head2 Segfault in make -You use an old version of C<GNU> make. See L<Prerequisites>. +You use an old version of GNU make. See L<Prerequisites>. =head1 Specific (mis)features of OS/2 port @@ -952,6 +984,12 @@ Multi-argument form of C<system()> allows an additional numeric argument. The meaning of this argument is described in L<OS2::Process>. +=head2 C<extproc> on the first line + +If the first chars of a script are C<"extproc ">, this line is treated +as C<#!>-line, thus all the switches on this line are processed (twice +if script was started via cmd.exe). + =head2 Additional modules: L<OS2::Process>, L<OS2::REXX>, L<OS2::PrfDB>, L<OS2::ExtAttr>. This @@ -999,7 +1037,7 @@ means changes with current dir. =item C<Cwd::sys_cwd(name)> -Interface to cwd from B<EMX>. Used by C<Cwd::cwd>. +Interface to cwd from EMX. Used by C<Cwd::cwd>. =item C<Cwd::sys_abspath(name, dir)> @@ -1031,7 +1069,7 @@ eventually). =item -Since <flock> is present in B<EMX>, but is not functional, the same is +Since <flock> is present in EMX, but is not functional, the same is true for perl. Here is the list of things which may be "broken" on EMX (from EMX docs): @@ -1054,7 +1092,7 @@ Since F<sh.exe> is used for globing (see L<perlfunc/glob>), the bugs of F<sh.exe> plague perl as well. In particular, uppercase letters do not work in C<[...]>-patterns with -the current C<pdksh>. +the current pdksh. =back @@ -1091,7 +1129,7 @@ C<os2_stat> special-cases F</dev/tty> and F</dev/con>. =head1 Perl flavors Because of idiosyncrasies of OS/2 one cannot have all the eggs in the -same basket (though C<EMX> environment tries hard to overcome this +same basket (though EMX environment tries hard to overcome this limitations, so the situation may somehow improve). There are 4 executables for Perl provided by the distribution: @@ -1099,12 +1137,12 @@ executables for Perl provided by the distribution: The main workhorse. This is a chimera executable: it is compiled as an C<a.out>-style executable, but is linked with C<omf>-style dynamic -library F<perl.dll>, and with dynamic B<CRT> DLL. This executable is a -C<VIO> application. +library F<perl.dll>, and with dynamic CRT DLL. This executable is a +VIO application. It can load perl dynamic extensions, and it can fork(). Unfortunately, -with the current version of B<EMX> it cannot fork() with dynamic -extensions loaded (may be fixed by patches to B<EMX>). +with the current version of EMX it cannot fork() with dynamic +extensions loaded (may be fixed by patches to EMX). B<Note.> Keep in mind that fork() is needed to open a pipe to yourself. @@ -1114,12 +1152,12 @@ This is a statically linked C<a.out>-style executable. It can fork(), but cannot load dynamic Perl extensions. The supplied executable has a lot of extensions prebuilt, thus there are situations when it can perform tasks not possible using F<perl.exe>, like fork()ing when -having some standard extension loaded. This executable is a C<VIO> +having some standard extension loaded. This executable is a VIO application. B<Note.> A better behaviour could be obtained from C<perl.exe> if it were statically linked with standard I<Perl extensions>, but -dynamically linked with the I<Perl DLL> and C<CRT> DLL. Then it would +dynamically linked with the I<Perl DLL> and CRT DLL. Then it would be able to fork() with standard extensions, I<and> would be able to dynamically load arbitrary extensions. Some changes to Makefiles and hint files should be necessary to achieve this. @@ -1131,27 +1169,27 @@ appropriate extender. See L<"Other OSes">. =head2 F<perl__.exe> -This is the same executable as <perl___.exe>, but it is a C<PM> +This is the same executable as F<perl___.exe>, but it is a PM application. -B<Note.> Usually C<STDIN>, C<STDERR>, and C<STDOUT> of a C<PM> +B<Note.> Usually STDIN, STDERR, and STDOUT of a PM application are redirected to C<nul>. However, it is possible to see them if you start C<perl__.exe> from a PM program which emulates a -console window, like I<Shell mode> of C<Emacs> or C<EPM>. Thus it I<is +console window, like I<Shell mode> of Emacs or EPM. Thus it I<is possible> to use Perl debugger (see L<perldebug>) to debug your PM application. -This flavor is required if you load extensions which use C<PM>, like +This flavor is required if you load extensions which use PM, like the forthcoming C<Perl/Tk>. =head2 F<perl___.exe> This is an C<omf>-style executable which is dynamically linked to -F<perl.dll> and C<CRT> DLL. I know no advantages of this executable +F<perl.dll> and CRT DLL. I know no advantages of this executable over C<perl.exe>, but it cannot fork() at all. Well, one advantage is that the build process is not so convoluted as with C<perl.exe>. -It is a C<VIO> application. +It is a VIO application. =head2 Why strange names? @@ -1191,16 +1229,16 @@ this DLL into memory and supplies command-arguments. This I<greatly> increases the load time for the application (as well as the number of problems during compilation). Since interpreter is in a DLL, -the C<CRT> is basically forced to reside in a DLL as well (otherwise -extensions would not be able to use C<CRT>). +the CRT is basically forced to reside in a DLL as well (otherwise +extensions would not be able to use CRT). =head2 Why chimera build? -Current C<EMX> environment does not allow DLLs compiled using Unixish +Current EMX environment does not allow DLLs compiled using Unixish C<a.out> format to export symbols for data. This forces C<omf>-style compile of F<perl.dll>. -Current C<EMX> environment does not allow F<.EXE> files compiled in +Current EMX environment does not allow F<.EXE> files compiled in C<omf> format to fork(). fork() is needed for exactly three Perl operations: @@ -1225,12 +1263,12 @@ F<perl.exe>. =head1 ENVIRONMENT -Here we list environment variables with are either OS/2-specific, or -are more important under OS/2 than under other OSes. +Here we list environment variables with are either OS/2- and DOS- and +Win*-specific, or are more important under OS/2 than under other OSes. =head2 C<PERLLIB_PREFIX> -Specific for OS/2. Should have the form +Specific for EMX port. Should have the form path1;path2 @@ -1258,12 +1296,12 @@ memory handling code is buggy. =head2 C<PERL_SH_DIR> -Specific for OS/2. Gives the directory part of the location for +Specific for EMX port. Gives the directory part of the location for F<sh.exe>. =head2 C<TMP> or C<TEMP> -Specific for OS/2. Used as storage place for temporary files, most +Specific for EMX port. Used as storage place for temporary files, most notably C<-e> scripts. =head1 Evolution @@ -1284,12 +1322,12 @@ caching DLLs. =head2 Threading -As of release 5.003_01 perl is linked to multithreaded C<CRT> +As of release 5.003_01 perl is linked to multithreaded CRT DLL. Perl itself is not multithread-safe, as is not perl malloc(). However, extensions may use multiple thread on their own risk. -Needed to compile C<Perl/Tk> for C<XFreeOS/2> out-of-the-box. +Needed to compile C<Perl/Tk> for XFree86-OS/2 out-of-the-box. =head2 Calls to external programs @@ -1307,9 +1345,11 @@ B<Reasons:> a consensus on C<perl5-porters> was that perl should use one non-overridable shell per platform. The obvious choices for OS/2 are F<cmd.exe> and F<sh.exe>. Having perl build itself would be impossible with F<cmd.exe> as a shell, thus I picked up C<sh.exe>. Thus assures almost -100% compatibility with the scripts coming from *nix. +100% compatibility with the scripts coming from *nix. As an added benefit +this works as well under DOS if you use DOS-enabled port of pdksh +(see L<"Prerequisites">). -B<Disadvantages:> currently F<sh.exe> of C<pdksh> calls external programs +B<Disadvantages:> currently F<sh.exe> of pdksh calls external programs via fork()/exec(), and there is I<no> functioning exec() on OS/2. exec() is emulated by EMX by asyncroneous call while the caller waits for child completion (to pretend that the C<pid> did not change). This @@ -1370,7 +1410,8 @@ there are OS2::ExtAttr, OS2::PrfDB for tied access to EAs and .INI files - and maybe some other extensions at the time you read it. Note that OS2 perl defines 2 pseudo-extension functions -OS2::Copy::copy and DynaLoader::mod2fname. +OS2::Copy::copy and DynaLoader::mod2fname (many more now, see +L<Prebuilt methods>). The -R switch of older perl is deprecated. If you need to call a REXX code which needs access to variables, include the call into a REXX compartment |