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diff --git a/README.win32 b/README.win32 index 5a1ee2cc50..bb76bfc716 100644 --- a/README.win32 +++ b/README.win32 @@ -1,773 +1,774 @@ -If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you
-see. It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is
-specially designed to be readable as is.
-
-=head1 NAME
-
-perlwin32 - Perl under Windows
-
-=head1 SYNOPSIS
-
-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 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 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
-only relevant to people building Perl on Unix-like systems. In
-particular, you can safely ignore any information that talks about
-"Configure".
-
-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. 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 capable of using one of the
-following compilers on the Intel x86 architecture:
-
- Borland C++ version 5.02 or later
- Microsoft Visual C++ version 4.2 or later
- Mingw32 with GCC version 2.95.2 or better
-
-The last of these is a high quality freeware compiler. Support
-for it is still experimental. (Older versions of GCC are known
-not to work.)
-
-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 Make
-
-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.
-
-dmake is a freely available make that has very nice macro features
-and parallelability.
-
-A port of dmake for Windows is available from:
-
- http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/GSAR/dmake-4.1pl1-win32.zip
-
-(This is a fixed version of the original dmake sources obtained from
-http://www.wticorp.com/ As of version 4.1PL1, the original
-sources did not build as shipped and had various other problems.
-A patch is included in the above fixed version.)
-
-Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path (follow the instructions
-in the README.NOW file).
-
-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.)
-
-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. This will set your build environment.
-
-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.
-
-=item Microsoft Platform SDK 64-bit Compiler
-
-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.
-
-=item Mingw32 with GCC
-
-GCC-2.95.2 binaries can be downloaded from:
-
- ftp://ftp.xraylith.wisc.edu/pub/khan/gnu-win32/mingw32/
-
-You also need dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
-
-The GCC-2.95.2 bundle comes with Mingw32 libraries and headers.
-
-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).
-
-There are a couple of problems with the version of gcc-2.95.2-msvcrt.exe
-released 7 November 1999:
-
-=over
-
-=item *
-
-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 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.
-
-=back
-
-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:
-
- 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
-
-=over 4
-
-=item *
-
-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 the GCC compiler.
-
-=item *
-
-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.
-
-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. des_fcrypt() is not
-bundled with the distribution due to US Government restrictions
-on the export of cryptographic software. Nevertheless, this routine
-is part of the "libdes" library (written by Eric Young) which is widely
-available worldwide, usually along with SSLeay ( for example,
-ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/crypt/mirrors/dsi/libdes/ ). Set CRYPT_SRC to the
-name of the file that implements des_fcrypt(). Alternatively, if
-you have built a library that contains des_fcrypt(), you can set
-CRYPT_LIB to point to the library name. The location above contains
-many versions of the "libdes" library, all with slightly different
-implementations of des_fcrypt(). Older versions have a single,
-self-contained file (fcrypt.c) that implements crypt(), so they may be
-easier to use. A patch against the fcrypt.c found in libdes-3.06 is
-in des_fcrypt.patch.
-
-An easier alternative may be to get the pre-patched and ready-to-use
-fcrypt.c that can be found here:
-
- http://downloads.ActiveState.com/pub/staff/gsar/fcrypt.c
- ftp://ftp.ActiveState.com/pub/staff/gsar/fcrypt.c
-
-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 *
-
-Type "dmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make).
-
-This should build everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe,
-perl58.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.
-
-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<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same under
-C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\lib\pod\html>. To use the Perl you just installed,
-you will need to add two components to your PATH environment variable,
-C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\bin> and C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\bin\$ARCHNAME>.
-For example:
-
- set PATH c:\perl\5.6.0\bin;c:\perl\5.6.0\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH%
-
-If you opt to comment out INST_VER and INST_ARCH in the makefiles, the
-installation structure is much simpler. In that case, it will be
-sufficient to add a single entry to the path, for instance:
-
- set PATH c:\perl\bin;%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 "<", ">", 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:
-
- ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/MSLFILES/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 most 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/authors/id/GSAR/libwin32-0.18.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:
-
-=item *
-
-A 64-bit native application will run much more efficiently on
-Itanium hardware.
-
-=item *
-
-There is no 2GB limit on process size.
-
-=item *
-
-Perl automatically provides large file support when built under
-64-bit Windows.
-
-=item *
-
-Embedding Perl inside a 64-bit application.
-
-=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
-
-=item 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".
-
-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).
-
-=back
-
-=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.
-
-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>.
-
-=head1 AUTHORS
-
-=over 4
-
-=item Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt>
-
-=item Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@activestate.comE<gt>
-
-=item Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ing-simmons.netE<gt>
-
-=back
-
-This document is maintained by Gurusamy Sarathy.
-
-=head1 SEE ALSO
-
-L<perl>
-
-=head1 HISTORY
-
-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. Various people have made numerous and sundry hacks
-since then.
-
-Borland support was added in 5.004_01 (Gurusamy Sarathy).
-
-GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons).
-
-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: 20 April 2002
-
-=cut
+If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you +see. It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is +specially designed to be readable as is. + +=head1 NAME + +perlwin32 - Perl under Windows + +=head1 SYNOPSIS + +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 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 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 +only relevant to people building Perl on Unix-like systems. In +particular, you can safely ignore any information that talks about +"Configure". + +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. 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 capable of using one of the +following compilers on the Intel x86 architecture: + + Borland C++ version 5.02 or later + Microsoft Visual C++ version 4.2 or later + Mingw32 with GCC version 2.95.2 or better + +The last of these is a high quality freeware compiler. Support +for it is still experimental. (Older versions of GCC are known +not to work.) + +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 Make + +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. + +dmake is a freely available make that has very nice macro features +and parallelability. + +A port of dmake for Windows is available from: + + http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/GSAR/dmake-4.1pl1-win32.zip + +(This is a fixed version of the original dmake sources obtained from +http://www.wticorp.com/ As of version 4.1PL1, the original +sources did not build as shipped and had various other problems. +A patch is included in the above fixed version.) + +Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path (follow the instructions +in the README.NOW file). + +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.) + +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. This will set your build environment. + +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. + +=item Microsoft Platform SDK 64-bit Compiler + +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. + +=item Mingw32 with GCC + +GCC-2.95.2 binaries can be downloaded from: + + ftp://ftp.xraylith.wisc.edu/pub/khan/gnu-win32/mingw32/ + +You also need dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it. + +The GCC-2.95.2 bundle comes with Mingw32 libraries and headers. + +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). + +There are a couple of problems with the version of gcc-2.95.2-msvcrt.exe +released 7 November 1999: + +=over + +=item * + +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 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. + +=back + +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: + + 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 + +=over 4 + +=item * + +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 Microsoft Visual +C++ 6.0 or newer. + +=item * + +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. + +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. des_fcrypt() is not +bundled with the distribution due to US Government restrictions +on the export of cryptographic software. Nevertheless, this routine +is part of the "libdes" library (written by Eric Young) which is widely +available worldwide, usually along with SSLeay ( for example, +ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/crypt/mirrors/dsi/libdes/ ). Set CRYPT_SRC to the +name of the file that implements des_fcrypt(). Alternatively, if +you have built a library that contains des_fcrypt(), you can set +CRYPT_LIB to point to the library name. The location above contains +many versions of the "libdes" library, all with slightly different +implementations of des_fcrypt(). Older versions have a single, +self-contained file (fcrypt.c) that implements crypt(), so they may be +easier to use. A patch against the fcrypt.c found in libdes-3.06 is +in des_fcrypt.patch. + +An easier alternative may be to get the pre-patched and ready-to-use +fcrypt.c that can be found here: + + http://downloads.ActiveState.com/pub/staff/gsar/fcrypt.c + ftp://ftp.ActiveState.com/pub/staff/gsar/fcrypt.c + +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 * + +Type "dmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make). + +This should build everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe, +perl58.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. + +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\$VERSION\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same under +C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\lib\pod\html>. To use the Perl you just installed, +you will need to add two components to your PATH environment variable, +C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\bin> and C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\bin\$ARCHNAME>. +For example: + + set PATH c:\perl\5.6.0\bin;c:\perl\5.6.0\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH% + +If you opt to comment out INST_VER and INST_ARCH in the makefiles, the +installation structure is much simpler. In that case, it will be +sufficient to add a single entry to the path, for instance: + + set PATH c:\perl\bin;%PATH% + +=head2 Usage Hints for Perl on Win32 + +=over 4 + +=item Environment Variables + +The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled +into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start +using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable). + +If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB +to a list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl +to look for libraries. Look for descriptions of other environment +variables you can set in L<perlrun>. + +You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and +backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See L<perlrun>. + +Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain default +values if you choose to put them there. Perl attempts to read entries from +C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> and C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>. +Entries in the former override entries in the latter. One or more of the +following entries (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may be set: + + lib-$] 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 "<", ">", 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: + + ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/MSLFILES/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 most 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/authors/id/GSAR/libwin32-0.18.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: + +=item * + +A 64-bit native application will run much more efficiently on +Itanium hardware. + +=item * + +There is no 2GB limit on process size. + +=item * + +Perl automatically provides large file support when built under +64-bit Windows. + +=item * + +Embedding Perl inside a 64-bit application. + +=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 + +=item 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". + +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). + +=back + +=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. + +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>. + +=head1 AUTHORS + +=over 4 + +=item Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt> + +=item Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@activestate.comE<gt> + +=item Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ing-simmons.netE<gt> + +=back + +This document is maintained by Gurusamy Sarathy. + +=head1 SEE ALSO + +L<perl> + +=head1 HISTORY + +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. Various people have made numerous and sundry hacks +since then. + +Borland support was added in 5.004_01 (Gurusamy Sarathy). + +GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons). + +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: 20 April 2002 + +=cut |