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9baed986 LC |
1 | If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you |
2 | see. It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is | |
3 | specially designed to be readable as is. | |
4 | ||
5 | =head1 NAME | |
6 | ||
7 | perlwin32 - Perl under Windows | |
8 | ||
9 | =head1 SYNOPSIS | |
10 | ||
4695dc7a | 11 | These are instructions for building Perl under Windows 7 and later. |
9baed986 LC |
12 | |
13 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
14 | ||
15 | Before you start, you should glance through the README file | |
16 | found in the top-level directory to which the Perl distribution | |
17 | was extracted. Make sure you read and understand the terms under | |
18 | which this software is being distributed. | |
19 | ||
016af039 | 20 | Also make sure you read L</BUGS AND CAVEATS> below for the |
9baed986 LC |
21 | known limitations of this port. |
22 | ||
23 | The INSTALL file in the perl top-level has much information that is | |
24 | only relevant to people building Perl on Unix-like systems. In | |
25 | particular, you can safely ignore any information that talks about | |
26 | "Configure". | |
27 | ||
b906aaa5 JD |
28 | You may also want to look at one other option for building a perl that |
29 | will work on Windows: the README.cygwin file, which give a different | |
30 | set of rules to build a perl for Windows. This method will probably | |
31 | enable you to build a more Unix-compatible perl, but you will also | |
32 | need to download and use various other build-time and run-time support | |
33 | software described in that file. | |
9baed986 LC |
34 | |
35 | This set of instructions is meant to describe a so-called "native" | |
b906aaa5 | 36 | port of Perl to the Windows platform. This includes both 32-bit and |
9baed986 LC |
37 | 64-bit Windows operating systems. The resulting Perl requires no |
38 | additional software to run (other than what came with your operating | |
39 | system). Currently, this port is capable of using one of the | |
4695dc7a | 40 | following compilers on the Intel x86 and x86_64 architectures: |
9baed986 | 41 | |
4695dc7a | 42 | Microsoft Visual C++ version 12.0 or later |
a2b08671 | 43 | Intel C++ Compiler (experimental) |
341a561f | 44 | Gcc by mingw.org gcc version 3.4.5-5.3.0 |
2c3d35a4 | 45 | Gcc by mingw-w64.org gcc version 4.4.3 or later |
fa58a56f S |
46 | |
47 | Note that the last two of these are actually competing projects both | |
48 | delivering complete gcc toolchain for MS Windows: | |
b906aaa5 | 49 | |
42d76a89 MS |
50 | =over 4 |
51 | ||
4695dc7a | 52 | =item L<https://osdn.net/projects/mingw/> |
42d76a89 | 53 | |
4695dc7a | 54 | Delivers gcc toolchain building 32-bit executables (which can be used both 32 and 64 bit Windows platforms) |
b906aaa5 | 55 | |
2c3d35a4 | 56 | =item L<http://mingw-w64.org> |
42d76a89 MS |
57 | |
58 | Delivers gcc toolchain targeting both 64-bit Windows and 32-bit Windows | |
59 | platforms (despite the project name "mingw-w64" they are not only 64-bit | |
60 | oriented). They deliver the native gcc compilers and cross-compilers | |
61 | that are also supported by perl's makefile. | |
62 | ||
63 | =back | |
9baed986 | 64 | |
4695dc7a | 65 | The Microsoft Visual C++ compilers are also now being given away free. They |
5e4fe298 TK |
66 | are available as "Visual C++ 2013-2022 Community Edition" and are the same |
67 | compilers that ship with "Visual C++ 2013-2022 Professional". | |
7241fd28 | 68 | |
4695dc7a NC |
69 | Visual C++ 2013 is capable of B<targeting> XP and Windows Server 2003 but the |
70 | build host requirement is Windows 7/Windows Server 2012. For more details see | |
71 | https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/productinfo/vs2013-compatibility-vs | |
72 | and | |
73 | https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/productinfo/vs2013-sysrequirements-vs | |
9baed986 | 74 | |
2c3d35a4 | 75 | The MinGW64 compiler is available at L<http://mingw-w64.org>. |
fa58a56f S |
76 | The latter is actually a cross-compiler targeting Win64. There's also a trimmed |
77 | down compiler (no java, or gfortran) suitable for building perl available at: | |
4cef65c2 | 78 | L<http://strawberryperl.com/package/kmx/64_gcctoolchain/> |
fa58a56f S |
79 | |
80 | NOTE: If you're using a 32-bit compiler to build perl on a 64-bit Windows | |
81 | operating system, then you should set the WIN64 environment variable to "undef". | |
d774b2d8 CJ |
82 | Also, the trimmed down compiler only passes tests when USE_ITHREADS *= define |
83 | (as opposed to undef) and when the CFG *= Debug line is commented out. | |
9baed986 LC |
84 | |
85 | This port fully supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that | |
86 | is used to build extensions to perl). Therefore, you should be | |
87 | able to build and install most extensions found in the CPAN sites. | |
016af039 | 88 | See L</Usage Hints for Perl on Windows> below for general hints about this. |
9baed986 | 89 | |
b906aaa5 | 90 | =head2 Setting Up Perl on Windows |
9baed986 LC |
91 | |
92 | =over 4 | |
93 | ||
94 | =item Make | |
95 | ||
96 | You need a "make" program to build the sources. If you are using | |
eb058c07 SH |
97 | Visual C++, you can use nmake supplied with Visual C++. |
98 | You may also use gmake instead of nmake. Builds using gcc need | |
76b7a975 TK |
99 | gmake. nmake is not supported for gcc builds. Parallel building is only |
100 | supported with gmake, not nmake. | |
9baed986 | 101 | |
9baed986 LC |
102 | =item Command Shell |
103 | ||
8cbe99e5 | 104 | Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with Windows. Some versions of the |
9baed986 LC |
105 | popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause you trouble. |
106 | If the build fails under that shell, try building again with the cmd | |
107 | shell. | |
108 | ||
9baed986 LC |
109 | Make sure the path to the build directory does not contain spaces. The |
110 | build usually works in this circumstance, but some tests will fail. | |
111 | ||
9baed986 LC |
112 | =item Microsoft Visual C++ |
113 | ||
7adf2470 SH |
114 | The nmake that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building. Visual C++ |
115 | requires that certain things be set up in the console before Visual C++ will | |
f1460a66 | 116 | successfully run. To make a console box be able to run the C compiler, you will |
7adf2470 SH |
117 | need to beforehand, run C<vcvarsall.bat x86> to compile for x86-32 and for |
118 | x86-64 C<vcvarsall.bat amd64>. On a typical install of a Microsoft C++ | |
119 | compiler product, these batch files will already be in your C<PATH> | |
8f5839a9 DD |
120 | environment variable so you may just type them without an absolute path into |
121 | your console. If you need to find the absolute path to the batch file, it is | |
7adf2470 SH |
122 | usually found somewhere like |
123 | C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC. | |
f1460a66 | 124 | With some newer Microsoft C products (released after ~2004), the installer will |
8f5839a9 DD |
125 | put a shortcut in the start menu to launch a new console window with the |
126 | console already set up for your target architecture (x86-32 or x86-64 or IA64). | |
127 | With the newer compilers, you may also use the older batch files if you choose | |
128 | so. | |
9baed986 | 129 | |
5e4fe298 | 130 | =item Microsoft Visual C++ 2013-2022 Community Edition |
4a3cf07b | 131 | |
5e4fe298 | 132 | These free versions of Visual C++ 2013-2022 Professional contain the same |
2a46176f | 133 | compilers and linkers that ship with the full versions, and also contain |
eb058c07 | 134 | everything necessary to build Perl. |
4a3cf07b | 135 | |
2a46176f | 136 | These packages can be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at |
71c89d21 | 137 | L<https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>. (Providing exact |
cb644b64 SH |
138 | links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on |
139 | changing so often.) | |
4a3cf07b | 140 | |
5e4fe298 | 141 | Install Visual C++ 2013-2022 Community, then setup your environment |
d8efeb46 | 142 | using, e.g. |
4a3cf07b | 143 | |
f185f654 | 144 | C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\Tools\vsvars32.bat |
4a3cf07b SH |
145 | |
146 | (assuming the default installation location was chosen). | |
147 | ||
148 | Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that | |
eb058c07 | 149 | file to set CCTYPE to one of MSVC120-MSVC142 first. |
9baed986 | 150 | |
8a217c9a | 151 | =item GCC |
9baed986 | 152 | |
8a217c9a SH |
153 | Perl can be compiled with gcc from MinGW (version 3.4.5 or later) or from |
154 | MinGW64 (version 4.4.3 or later). It can be downloaded here: | |
9baed986 | 155 | |
4695dc7a | 156 | L<https://osdn.net/projects/mingw/> |
8a217c9a | 157 | L<http://www.mingw-w64.org/> |
7c5b6093 | 158 | |
76b7a975 TK |
159 | You also need gmake. Usually it comes with MinGW but its executable may have |
160 | a different name, such as mingw32-make.exe. | |
9baed986 | 161 | |
341a561f | 162 | Note that the MinGW build currently fails with version 6.3.0 or later. |
8a217c9a SH |
163 | |
164 | Note also that the C++ mode build currently fails with MinGW 3.4.5 and 4.7.2 | |
165 | or later, and with MinGW64 64-bit 6.3.0 or later. | |
166 | ||
a48cc4c4 DD |
167 | =item Intel C++ Compiler |
168 | ||
a2b08671 SH |
169 | Experimental support for using Intel C++ Compiler has been added. Edit |
170 | win32/Makefile and pick the correct CCTYPE for the Visual C that Intel C was | |
171 | installed into. Also uncomment __ICC to enable Intel C on Visual C support. | |
ab473f03 | 172 | To set up the build environment, from the Start Menu run |
a48cc4c4 DD |
173 | IA-32 Visual Studio 20__ mode or Intel 64 Visual Studio 20__ mode as |
174 | appropriate. Then run nmake as usually in that prompt box. | |
175 | ||
176 | Only Intel C++ Compiler v12.1 has been tested. Other versions probably will | |
312159d9 DD |
177 | work. Using Intel C++ Compiler instead of Visual C has the benefit of C99 |
178 | compatibility which is needed by some CPAN XS modules, while maintaining | |
179 | compatibility with Visual C object code and Visual C debugging infrastructure | |
180 | unlike GCC. | |
a48cc4c4 | 181 | |
9baed986 LC |
182 | =back |
183 | ||
184 | =head2 Building | |
185 | ||
186 | =over 4 | |
187 | ||
188 | =item * | |
189 | ||
190 | Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl toplevel. | |
191 | This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with | |
eb058c07 | 192 | versions of nmake that come with Visual C++, and |
76b7a975 TK |
193 | a GNU make "GNUmakefile" that will work for all supported compilers. |
194 | The defaults in the gmake makefile are setup to build using MinGW/gcc. | |
9baed986 LC |
195 | |
196 | =item * | |
197 | ||
76b7a975 TK |
198 | Edit the GNUmakefile (or Makefile, if you're using nmake) and change the values |
199 | of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. You can also enable various build flags. These are | |
200 | explained in the makefiles. | |
9baed986 | 201 | |
2b1846f4 SH |
202 | Note that it is generally not a good idea to try to build a perl with |
203 | INST_DRV and INST_TOP set to a path that already exists from a previous | |
204 | build. In particular, this may cause problems with the | |
205 | lib/ExtUtils/t/Embed.t test, which attempts to build a test program and | |
206 | may end up building against the installed perl's lib/CORE directory rather | |
207 | than the one being tested. | |
208 | ||
dbd54a9f | 209 | You will have to make sure that CCTYPE is set correctly and that |
8f5d02f0 TC |
210 | CCHOME points to wherever you installed your compiler. For GCC this |
211 | should be the directory that contains the F<bin>, F<include> and | |
212 | F<lib> directories. | |
fa58a56f S |
213 | |
214 | If building with the cross-compiler provided by | |
2c3d35a4 | 215 | mingw-w64.org you'll need to uncomment the line that sets |
76b7a975 | 216 | GCCCROSS in the GNUmakefile. Do this only if it's the cross-compiler - ie |
fa58a56f S |
217 | only if the bin folder doesn't contain a gcc.exe. (The cross-compiler |
218 | does not provide a gcc.exe, g++.exe, ar.exe, etc. Instead, all of these | |
219 | executables are prefixed with 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-'.) | |
9baed986 LC |
220 | |
221 | The default value for CCHOME in the makefiles for Visual C++ | |
222 | may not be correct for some versions. Make sure the default exists | |
223 | and is valid. | |
224 | ||
dbd54a9f VK |
225 | If you want build some core extensions statically into perl's dll, specify |
226 | them in the STATIC_EXT macro. | |
227 | ||
9baed986 LC |
228 | Be sure to read the instructions near the top of the makefiles carefully. |
229 | ||
230 | =item * | |
231 | ||
76b7a975 | 232 | Type "gmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make). |
9baed986 LC |
233 | |
234 | This should build everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe, | |
e0fe22bd | 235 | perl537.dll at the perl toplevel, and various other extension dll's |
9baed986 LC |
236 | under the lib\auto directory. If the build fails for any reason, make |
237 | sure you have done the previous steps correctly. | |
238 | ||
76b7a975 | 239 | To try gmake's parallel mode, type "gmake -j2", where 2, is the maximum number |
3bdc51af DD |
240 | of parallel jobs you want to run. A number of things in the build process will |
241 | run in parallel, but there are serialization points where you will see just 1 | |
242 | CPU maxed out. This is normal. | |
243 | ||
8f5839a9 | 244 | If you are advanced enough with building C code, here is a suggestion to speed |
ab473f03 | 245 | up building perl, and the later C<make test>. Try to keep your PATH environmental |
8f5839a9 DD |
246 | variable with the least number of folders possible (remember to keep your C |
247 | compiler's folders there). C<C:\WINDOWS\system32> or C<C:\WINNT\system32> | |
248 | depending on your OS version should be first folder in PATH, since "cmd.exe" | |
249 | is the most commonly launched program during the build and later testing. | |
250 | ||
9baed986 LC |
251 | =back |
252 | ||
b906aaa5 | 253 | =head2 Testing Perl on Windows |
9baed986 | 254 | |
76b7a975 | 255 | Type "gmake test" (or "nmake test"). This will run most |
15f42aa0 | 256 | of the tests from the testsuite (many tests will be skipped). |
9baed986 | 257 | |
b906aaa5 | 258 | There should be no test failures. |
9baed986 | 259 | |
ea5eb3d3 SH |
260 | If you build with Visual C++ 2013 then three tests currently may fail with |
261 | Daylight Saving Time related problems: F<t/io/fs.t>, | |
cb0ee57a | 262 | F<cpan/HTTP-Tiny/t/110_mirror.t> and F<lib/File/Copy.t>. The failures are |
1f664ef5 SH |
263 | caused by bugs in the CRT in VC++ 2013 which are fixed in VC++2015 and |
264 | later, as explained by Microsoft here: | |
78add018 SH |
265 | L<https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/811534/utime-sometimes-fails-to-set-the-correct-file-times-in-visual-c-2013>. In the meantime, |
266 | if you need fixed C<stat> and C<utime> functions then have a look at the | |
267 | CPAN distribution Win32::UTCFileTime. | |
3e7c2d43 | 268 | |
a8325b42 | 269 | If you build with Visual C++ 2015 or later then F<ext/XS-APItest/t/locale.t> |
71153651 SH |
270 | may crash (after all its tests have passed). This is due to a regression in the |
271 | Universal CRT introduced in the Windows 10 April 2018 Update, and will be fixed | |
272 | in the May 2019 Update, as explained here: L<https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/content/problem/519486/setlocalelc-numeric-iso-latin-16-fails-then-succee.html>. | |
a8325b42 | 273 | |
4695dc7a | 274 | If you build with certain versions (e.g. 4.8.1) of gcc from mingw then |
80ccccdf | 275 | F<ext/POSIX/t/time.t> may fail test 17 due to a known bug in those gcc builds: |
71c89d21 | 276 | see L<https://sourceforge.net/p/mingw/bugs/2152/>. |
80ccccdf | 277 | |
9baed986 LC |
278 | Some test failures may occur if you use a command shell other than the |
279 | native "cmd.exe", or if you are building from a path that contains | |
280 | spaces. So don't do that. | |
281 | ||
282 | If you are running the tests from a emacs shell window, you may see | |
76b7a975 | 283 | failures in op/stat.t. Run "gmake test-notty" in that case. |
9baed986 | 284 | |
a6a21311 PEE |
285 | Furthermore, you should make sure that during C<make test> you do not |
286 | have any GNU tool packages in your path: some toolkits like Unixutils | |
287 | include some tools (C<type> for instance) which override the Windows | |
288 | ones and makes tests fail. Remove them from your path while testing to | |
289 | avoid these errors. | |
290 | ||
a1f354d3 TC |
291 | To see the output of specific failing tests run the harness from the t |
292 | directory: | |
293 | ||
294 | # assuming you're starting from the win32 directory | |
295 | cd ..\win32 | |
296 | .\perl harness <list of tests> | |
297 | ||
016af039 | 298 | Please report any other failures as described under L</BUGS AND CAVEATS>. |
9baed986 | 299 | |
b906aaa5 | 300 | =head2 Installation of Perl on Windows |
9baed986 | 301 | |
76b7a975 | 302 | Type "gmake install" ("nmake install"). This will |
15f42aa0 TC |
303 | put the newly built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP> |
304 | points to in the Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation | |
305 | under C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same | |
306 | under C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod\html>. | |
9baed986 | 307 | |
00808b83 SH |
308 | To use the Perl you just installed you will need to add a new entry to |
309 | your PATH environment variable: C<$INST_TOP\bin>, e.g. | |
9baed986 | 310 | |
00808b83 | 311 | set PATH=c:\perl\bin;%PATH% |
9baed986 | 312 | |
00808b83 SH |
313 | If you opted to uncomment C<INST_VER> and C<INST_ARCH> in the makefile |
314 | then the installation structure is a little more complicated and you will | |
315 | need to add two new PATH components instead: C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin> and | |
316 | C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin\$ARCHNAME>, e.g. | |
317 | ||
318 | set PATH=c:\perl\5.6.0\bin;c:\perl\5.6.0\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH% | |
9baed986 | 319 | |
b906aaa5 | 320 | =head2 Usage Hints for Perl on Windows |
9baed986 LC |
321 | |
322 | =over 4 | |
323 | ||
324 | =item Environment Variables | |
325 | ||
326 | The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled | |
327 | into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start | |
328 | using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable). | |
329 | ||
330 | If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB | |
331 | to a list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl | |
332 | to look for libraries. Look for descriptions of other environment | |
333 | variables you can set in L<perlrun>. | |
334 | ||
335 | You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and | |
336 | backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See L<perlrun>. | |
337 | ||
338 | Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain default | |
6937817d DD |
339 | values if you choose to put them there unless disabled at build time with |
340 | USE_NO_REGISTRY. On Perl process start Perl checks if | |
0517ed38 DD |
341 | C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> and C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl> |
342 | exist. If the keys exists, they will be checked for remainder of the Perl | |
343 | process's run life for certain entries. Entries in | |
344 | C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> override entries in | |
345 | C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>. One or more of the following entries | |
346 | (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may be set in the keys: | |
9baed986 | 347 | |
f185f654 KW |
348 | lib-$] version-specific standard library path to add to @INC |
349 | lib standard library path to add to @INC | |
350 | sitelib-$] version-specific site library path to add to @INC | |
351 | sitelib site library path to add to @INC | |
352 | vendorlib-$] version-specific vendor library path to add to @INC | |
353 | vendorlib vendor library path to add to @INC | |
354 | PERL* fallback for all %ENV lookups that begin with "PERL" | |
9baed986 LC |
355 | |
356 | Note the C<$]> in the above is not literal. Substitute whatever version | |
357 | of perl you want to honor that entry, e.g. C<5.6.0>. Paths must be | |
b906aaa5 | 358 | separated with semicolons, as usual on Windows. |
9baed986 LC |
359 | |
360 | =item File Globbing | |
361 | ||
362 | By default, perl handles file globbing using the File::Glob extension, | |
363 | which provides portable globbing. | |
364 | ||
365 | If you want perl to use globbing that emulates the quirks of DOS | |
366 | filename conventions, you might want to consider using File::DosGlob | |
367 | to override the internal glob() implementation. See L<File::DosGlob> for | |
368 | details. | |
369 | ||
370 | =item Using perl from the command line | |
371 | ||
372 | If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line | |
373 | shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased | |
374 | with what Windows offers by way of a command shell. | |
375 | ||
376 | The crucial thing to understand about the Windows environment is that | |
377 | the command line you type in is processed twice before Perl sees it. | |
8cbe99e5 JD |
378 | First, your command shell (usually CMD.EXE) preprocesses the command |
379 | line, to handle redirection, environment variable expansion, and | |
380 | location of the executable to run. Then, the perl executable splits | |
381 | the remaining command line into individual arguments, using the | |
382 | C runtime library upon which Perl was built. | |
9baed986 LC |
383 | |
384 | It is particularly important to note that neither the shell nor the C | |
385 | runtime do any wildcard expansions of command-line arguments (so | |
386 | wildcards need not be quoted). Also, the quoting behaviours of the | |
387 | shell and the C runtime are rudimentary at best (and may, if you are | |
388 | using a non-standard shell, be inconsistent). The only (useful) quote | |
389 | character is the double quote ("). It can be used to protect spaces | |
390 | and other special characters in arguments. | |
391 | ||
41bfb3b6 | 392 | The Windows documentation describes the shell parsing rules here: |
c1bde759 | 393 | L<https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/cmd> |
41bfb3b6 | 394 | and the C runtime parsing rules here: |
71c89d21 | 395 | L<https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/17w5ykft%28v=VS.100%29.aspx>. |
41bfb3b6 SH |
396 | |
397 | Here are some further observations based on experiments: The C runtime | |
398 | breaks arguments at spaces and passes them to programs in argc/argv. | |
399 | Double quotes can be used to prevent arguments with spaces in them from | |
400 | being split up. You can put a double quote in an argument by escaping | |
401 | it with a backslash and enclosing the whole argument within double quotes. | |
402 | The backslash and the pair of double quotes surrounding the argument will | |
403 | be stripped by the C runtime. | |
9baed986 | 404 | |
00808b83 | 405 | The file redirection characters "E<lt>", "E<gt>", and "|" can be quoted by |
9baed986 LC |
406 | double quotes (although there are suggestions that this may not always |
407 | be true). Single quotes are not treated as quotes by the shell or | |
408 | the C runtime, they don't get stripped by the shell (just to make | |
409 | this type of quoting completely useless). The caret "^" has also | |
410 | been observed to behave as a quoting character, but this appears | |
411 | to be a shell feature, and the caret is not stripped from the command | |
412 | line, so Perl still sees it (and the C runtime phase does not treat | |
413 | the caret as a quote character). | |
414 | ||
415 | Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell: | |
416 | ||
417 | This prints two doublequotes: | |
418 | ||
419 | perl -e "print '\"\"' " | |
420 | ||
421 | This does the same: | |
422 | ||
423 | perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" " | |
424 | ||
425 | This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch": | |
426 | ||
427 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch | |
428 | ||
429 | This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland): | |
430 | ||
431 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul | |
432 | ||
433 | This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch": | |
434 | ||
435 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch | |
436 | ||
437 | This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the console: | |
438 | ||
439 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less | |
440 | ||
441 | This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager: | |
442 | ||
443 | perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less | |
444 | ||
445 | This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file "blurch": | |
446 | ||
447 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less | |
448 | ||
449 | ||
450 | Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows 9x | |
451 | is left as an exercise to the reader :) | |
452 | ||
453 | One particularly pernicious problem with the 4NT command shell for | |
8cbe99e5 | 454 | Windows is that it (nearly) always treats a % character as indicating |
9baed986 LC |
455 | that environment variable expansion is needed. Under this shell, it is |
456 | therefore important to always double any % characters which you want | |
457 | Perl to see (for example, for hash variables), even when they are | |
458 | quoted. | |
459 | ||
460 | =item Building Extensions | |
461 | ||
462 | The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth | |
463 | of extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build. | |
71c89d21 | 464 | Look in L<https://www.cpan.org/> for more information on CPAN. |
9baed986 LC |
465 | |
466 | Note that not all of the extensions available from CPAN may work | |
b906aaa5 | 467 | in the Windows environment; you should check the information at |
71c89d21 | 468 | L<https://www.cpantesters.org/> before investing too much effort into |
9baed986 LC |
469 | porting modules that don't readily build. |
470 | ||
471 | Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can | |
472 | be built, tested and installed with the standard mantra: | |
473 | ||
474 | perl Makefile.PL | |
475 | $MAKE | |
476 | $MAKE test | |
477 | $MAKE install | |
478 | ||
479 | where $MAKE is whatever 'make' program you have configured perl to | |
480 | use. Use "perl -V:make" to find out what this is. Some extensions | |
481 | may not provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything or | |
482 | fail), but most serious ones do. | |
483 | ||
484 | It is important that you use a supported 'make' program, and | |
76b7a975 | 485 | ensure Config.pm knows about it. |
9baed986 LC |
486 | |
487 | Note that MakeMaker actually emits makefiles with different syntax | |
488 | depending on what 'make' it thinks you are using. Therefore, it is | |
489 | important that one of the following values appears in Config.pm: | |
490 | ||
491 | make='nmake' # MakeMaker emits nmake syntax | |
9baed986 LC |
492 | any other value # MakeMaker emits generic make syntax |
493 | (e.g GNU make, or Perl make) | |
494 | ||
495 | If the value doesn't match the 'make' program you want to use, | |
496 | edit Config.pm to fix it. | |
497 | ||
498 | If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported | |
499 | C compilers. You must make sure you have set up the environment for | |
8f5839a9 DD |
500 | the compiler for command-line compilation before running C<perl Makefile.PL> |
501 | or any invocation of make. | |
9baed986 LC |
502 | |
503 | If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for | |
504 | why it failed, and report problems to the module author. If | |
505 | it looks like the extension building support is at fault, report | |
8166b4e0 DB |
506 | that with full details of how the build failed using the GitHub |
507 | issue tracker at L<https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>. | |
9baed986 LC |
508 | |
509 | =item Command-line Wildcard Expansion | |
510 | ||
511 | The default command shells on DOS descendant operating systems (such | |
512 | as they are) usually do not expand wildcard arguments supplied to | |
513 | programs. They consider it the application's job to handle that. | |
514 | This is commonly achieved by linking the application (in our case, | |
515 | perl) with startup code that the C runtime libraries usually provide. | |
516 | However, doing that results in incompatible perl versions (since the | |
517 | behavior of the argv expansion code differs depending on the | |
518 | compiler, and it is even buggy on some compilers). Besides, it may | |
519 | be a source of frustration if you use such a perl binary with an | |
520 | alternate shell that *does* expand wildcards. | |
521 | ||
522 | Instead, the following solution works rather well. The nice things | |
dbd54a9f | 523 | about it are 1) you can start using it right away; 2) it is more |
9baed986 LC |
524 | powerful, because it will do the right thing with a pattern like |
525 | */*/*.c; 3) you can decide whether you do/don't want to use it; and | |
dbd54a9f | 526 | 4) you can extend the method to add any customizations (or even |
9baed986 LC |
527 | entirely different kinds of wildcard expansion). |
528 | ||
f185f654 KW |
529 | C:\> copy con c:\perl\lib\Wild.pm |
530 | # Wild.pm - emulate shell @ARGV expansion on shells that don't | |
531 | use File::DosGlob; | |
532 | @ARGV = map { | |
533 | my @g = File::DosGlob::glob($_) if /[*?]/; | |
534 | @g ? @g : $_; | |
535 | } @ARGV; | |
536 | 1; | |
537 | ^Z | |
538 | C:\> set PERL5OPT=-MWild | |
539 | C:\> perl -le "for (@ARGV) { print }" */*/perl*.c | |
540 | p4view/perl/perl.c | |
541 | p4view/perl/perlio.c | |
542 | p4view/perl/perly.c | |
543 | perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c | |
544 | perl5.005/win32/perllib.c | |
545 | perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c | |
546 | perl5.005/win32/perllib.c | |
547 | perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c | |
548 | perl5.005/win32/perllib.c | |
9baed986 LC |
549 | |
550 | Note there are two distinct steps there: 1) You'll have to create | |
551 | Wild.pm and put it in your perl lib directory. 2) You'll need to | |
552 | set the PERL5OPT environment variable. If you want argv expansion | |
553 | to be the default, just set PERL5OPT in your default startup | |
554 | environment. | |
555 | ||
556 | If you are using the Visual C compiler, you can get the C runtime's | |
557 | command line wildcard expansion built into perl binary. The resulting | |
558 | binary will always expand unquoted command lines, which may not be | |
559 | what you want if you use a shell that does that for you. The expansion | |
560 | done is also somewhat less powerful than the approach suggested above. | |
561 | ||
9baed986 LC |
562 | =item Notes on 64-bit Windows |
563 | ||
564 | Windows .NET Server supports the LLP64 data model on the Intel Itanium | |
565 | architecture. | |
566 | ||
567 | The LLP64 data model is different from the LP64 data model that is the | |
568 | norm on 64-bit Unix platforms. In the former, C<int> and C<long> are | |
569 | both 32-bit data types, while pointers are 64 bits wide. In addition, | |
570 | there is a separate 64-bit wide integral type, C<__int64>. In contrast, | |
571 | the LP64 data model that is pervasive on Unix platforms provides C<int> | |
572 | as the 32-bit type, while both the C<long> type and pointers are of | |
573 | 64-bit precision. Note that both models provide for 64-bits of | |
574 | addressability. | |
575 | ||
576 | 64-bit Windows running on Itanium is capable of running 32-bit x86 | |
577 | binaries transparently. This means that you could use a 32-bit build | |
578 | of Perl on a 64-bit system. Given this, why would one want to build | |
579 | a 64-bit build of Perl? Here are some reasons why you would bother: | |
580 | ||
00808b83 SH |
581 | =over |
582 | ||
9baed986 LC |
583 | =item * |
584 | ||
585 | A 64-bit native application will run much more efficiently on | |
586 | Itanium hardware. | |
587 | ||
588 | =item * | |
589 | ||
590 | There is no 2GB limit on process size. | |
591 | ||
592 | =item * | |
593 | ||
594 | Perl automatically provides large file support when built under | |
595 | 64-bit Windows. | |
596 | ||
597 | =item * | |
598 | ||
599 | Embedding Perl inside a 64-bit application. | |
600 | ||
601 | =back | |
602 | ||
00808b83 SH |
603 | =back |
604 | ||
9baed986 LC |
605 | =head2 Running Perl Scripts |
606 | ||
607 | Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to | |
608 | indicate to the OS that it should execute the file using perl. | |
b906aaa5 | 609 | Windows has no comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are |
9baed986 LC |
610 | executables. |
611 | ||
612 | Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on | |
b906aaa5 | 613 | Windows rely on the file "extension". There are three methods |
9baed986 LC |
614 | to use this to execute perl scripts: |
615 | ||
616 | =over 8 | |
617 | ||
618 | =item 1 | |
619 | ||
8cbe99e5 JD |
620 | There is a facility called "file extension associations". This can be |
621 | manipulated via the two commands "assoc" and "ftype" that come | |
622 | standard with Windows. Type "ftype /?" for a complete example of how | |
623 | to set this up for perl scripts (Say what? You thought Windows | |
624 | wasn't perl-ready? :). | |
9baed986 LC |
625 | |
626 | =item 2 | |
627 | ||
628 | Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are | |
629 | reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the | |
630 | old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a | |
631 | regular batch file to the OS, may be used. The install process | |
632 | makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to wrap | |
633 | perl scripts into batch files. For example: | |
634 | ||
635 | pl2bat foo.pl | |
636 | ||
637 | will create the file "FOO.BAT". Note "pl2bat" strips any | |
638 | .pl suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file. | |
639 | ||
640 | If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that | |
641 | "pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to | |
642 | refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to make | |
643 | sure that construct works in batch files. As of this writing, | |
644 | 4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *" statement in their | |
645 | 4NT.INI file or will need to execute "setdos /p*" in the 4DOS/NT | |
646 | startup file to enable this to work. | |
647 | ||
648 | =item 3 | |
649 | ||
650 | Using "pl2bat" has a few problems: the file name gets changed, | |
651 | so scripts that rely on C<$0> to find what they must do may not | |
652 | run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the | |
653 | original script, and so this process can be maintenance intensive | |
654 | if the originals get updated often. A different approach that | |
655 | avoids both problems is possible. | |
656 | ||
657 | A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied | |
658 | to any filename (along with the .bat suffix). For example, | |
659 | if you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is | |
b906aaa5 | 660 | executed. Since you can run batch files on Windows platforms simply |
9baed986 LC |
661 | by typing the name (without the extension), this effectively |
662 | runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or "foo.bat". | |
663 | With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a different location | |
664 | than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is available somewhere on | |
665 | the PATH. If your scripts are on a filesystem that allows symbolic | |
666 | links, you can even avoid copying "runperl.bat". | |
667 | ||
668 | Here's a diversion: copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type | |
669 | "runperl". Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :) | |
670 | Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH | |
671 | ||
00808b83 SH |
672 | =back |
673 | ||
674 | =head2 Miscellaneous Things | |
9baed986 LC |
675 | |
676 | A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be | |
677 | able to use it if you have a web browser installed on your | |
678 | system. | |
679 | ||
680 | C<perldoc> is also a useful tool for browsing information contained | |
681 | in the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager | |
b906aaa5 | 682 | like C<less> (recent versions of which have Windows support). You may |
9baed986 LC |
683 | have to set the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager. |
684 | "perldoc -f foo" will print information about the perl operator | |
685 | "foo". | |
686 | ||
13ee867e BD |
687 | One common mistake when using this port with a GUI library like C<Tk> |
688 | is assuming that Perl's normal behavior of opening a command-line | |
689 | window will go away. This isn't the case. If you want to start a copy | |
690 | of C<perl> without opening a command-line window, use the C<wperl> | |
691 | executable built during the installation process. Usage is exactly | |
b906aaa5 | 692 | the same as normal C<perl> on Windows, except that options like C<-h> |
13ee867e BD |
693 | don't work (since they need a command-line window to print to). |
694 | ||
8166b4e0 DB |
695 | If you find bugs in perl, you can report them to |
696 | L<https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>. | |
9baed986 | 697 | |
9baed986 LC |
698 | =head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS |
699 | ||
dbd54a9f VK |
700 | Norton AntiVirus interferes with the build process, particularly if |
701 | set to "AutoProtect, All Files, when Opened". Unlike large applications | |
702 | the perl build process opens and modifies a lot of files. Having the | |
a3815e44 | 703 | AntiVirus scan each and every one slows build the process significantly. |
9baed986 | 704 | Worse, with PERLIO=stdio the build process fails with peculiar messages |
dbd54a9f | 705 | as the virus checker interacts badly with miniperl.exe writing configure |
9baed986 LC |
706 | files (it seems to either catch file part written and treat it as suspicious, |
707 | or virus checker may have it "locked" in a way which inhibits miniperl | |
dbd54a9f | 708 | updating it). The build does complete with |
9baed986 LC |
709 | |
710 | set PERLIO=perlio | |
711 | ||
712 | but that may be just luck. Other AntiVirus software may have similar issues. | |
713 | ||
8f5839a9 DD |
714 | A git GUI shell extension for Windows such as TortoiseGit will cause the build |
715 | and later C<make test> to run much slower since every file is checked for its | |
716 | git status as soon as it is created and/or modified. TortoiseGit doesn't cause | |
717 | any test failures or build problems unlike the antivirus software described | |
718 | above, but it does cause similar slowness. It is suggested to use Task Manager | |
719 | to look for background processes which use high CPU amounts during the building | |
720 | process. | |
721 | ||
9baed986 LC |
722 | Some of the built-in functions do not act exactly as documented in |
723 | L<perlfunc>, and a few are not implemented at all. To avoid | |
724 | surprises, particularly if you have had prior exposure to Perl | |
725 | in other operating environments or if you intend to write code | |
00808b83 | 726 | that will be portable to other environments, see L<perlport> |
9baed986 LC |
727 | for a reasonably definitive list of these differences. |
728 | ||
729 | Not all extensions available from CPAN may build or work properly | |
b906aaa5 | 730 | in the Windows environment. See L</"Building Extensions">. |
9baed986 LC |
731 | |
732 | Most C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not | |
733 | behave as on Unix platforms. See L<perlport> for the full list. | |
734 | ||
735 | Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it | |
736 | doesn't exactly "behave", either :). For instance, calling C<die()> | |
737 | or C<exit()> from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most | |
b906aaa5 | 738 | implementations of C<signal()> on Windows are severely crippled. |
9baed986 LC |
739 | Thus, signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag |
740 | variable in the handler. Using signals under this port should | |
741 | currently be considered unsupported. | |
742 | ||
35e21c5b DR |
743 | Please report detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that |
744 | you may find at E<lt>L<https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>E<gt>, | |
8166b4e0 | 745 | along with the output produced by C<perl -V>. |
9baed986 | 746 | |
e84ac4e2 SH |
747 | =head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |
748 | ||
749 | The use of a camel with the topic of Perl is a trademark | |
750 | of O'Reilly and Associates, Inc. Used with permission. | |
751 | ||
9baed986 LC |
752 | =head1 AUTHORS |
753 | ||
754 | =over 4 | |
755 | ||
756 | =item Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt> | |
757 | ||
758 | =item Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@activestate.comE<gt> | |
759 | ||
760 | =item Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ing-simmons.netE<gt> | |
761 | ||
2bfd3252 SH |
762 | =item Jan Dubois E<lt>jand@activestate.comE<gt> |
763 | ||
2a46176f | 764 | =item Steve Hay E<lt>steve.m.hay@googlemail.comE<gt> |
2bfd3252 | 765 | |
9baed986 LC |
766 | =back |
767 | ||
2bfd3252 | 768 | This document is maintained by Jan Dubois. |
9baed986 LC |
769 | |
770 | =head1 SEE ALSO | |
771 | ||
772 | L<perl> | |
773 | ||
774 | =head1 HISTORY | |
775 | ||
776 | This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24, | |
777 | and borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available | |
778 | at the time. Various people have made numerous and sundry hacks | |
779 | since then. | |
780 | ||
9baed986 LC |
781 | GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons). |
782 | ||
783 | Support for PERL_OBJECT was added in 5.005 (ActiveState Tool Corp). | |
784 | ||
785 | Support for fork() emulation was added in 5.6 (ActiveState Tool Corp). | |
786 | ||
787 | Win9x support was added in 5.6 (Benjamin Stuhl). | |
788 | ||
789 | Support for 64-bit Windows added in 5.8 (ActiveState Corp). | |
790 | ||
4695dc7a | 791 | Last updated: 06 October 2021 |
9baed986 LC |
792 | |
793 | =cut |