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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 | README.machten - Perl version 5 on Power MachTen systems | |
8 | ||
9 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
10 | ||
11 | This document describes how to build Perl 5 on Power MachTen systems, | |
12 | and discusses a few wrinkles in the implementation. | |
13 | ||
14 | =head2 Compiling Perl 5 on MachTen | |
15 | ||
16 | To compile perl under MachTen 4.1.4 (and probably earlier versions): | |
17 | ||
18 | ./Configure -de | |
19 | make | |
20 | make test | |
21 | make install | |
22 | ||
23 | This builds and installs a statically-linked perl; MachTen's dynamic | |
24 | linking facilities are not adequate to support Perl's use of | |
25 | dynamically linked libraries. (See F<hints/machten.sh> for more | |
26 | information.) | |
27 | ||
28 | You should have at least 32 megabytes of free memory on your | |
29 | system before running the C<make> command. | |
30 | ||
31 | For much more information on building perl -- for example, on how to | |
32 | change the default installation directory -- see F<INSTALL>. | |
33 | ||
34 | =head2 Failures during C<make test> | |
35 | ||
36 | =over 4 | |
37 | ||
38 | =item op/lexassign.t | |
39 | ||
40 | This test may fail when first run after building perl. It does not | |
41 | fail subsequently. The cause is unknown. | |
42 | ||
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43 | =item pragma/warnings.t |
44 | ||
45 | Test 257 fails due to a failure to warn about attempts to read from a | |
46 | filehandle which is a duplicate of stdout when stdout is attached to a | |
47 | pipe. The output of the test contains a block comment which discusses | |
48 | a different failure, not applicable to MachTen. | |
49 | ||
50 | The root of the problem is that Machten does not assign a file type to | |
51 | either end of a pipe (see L<stat>), resulting, among other things | |
52 | in Perl's C<-p> test failing on file descriptors belonging to pipes. | |
53 | As a result, perl becomes confused, and the test for reading from a | |
54 | write-only file fails. I am reluctant to patch perl to get around | |
55 | this, as it's clearly an OS bug (about which Tenon has been informed), | |
56 | and limited in its effect on practical Perl programs. | |
57 | ||
58 | =back | |
59 | ||
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60 | =head2 Building external modules |
61 | ||
62 | To add an external module to perl, build in the normal way, which | |
63 | is documented in L<ExtUtils::MakeMaker>, or which can be driven | |
64 | automatically by the CPAN module (see L<CPAN>), which is part of the | |
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65 | standard distribution. If you want to install a module which |
66 | contains XS code (C or C++ source which compiles to object code | |
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67 | for linking with perl), you will have to replace your perl binary with |
68 | a new version containing the new statically-linked object module. The | |
69 | build process tells you how to do this. | |
70 | ||
71 | There is a gotcha, however, which users usually encounter immediately | |
72 | they respond to CPAN's invitation to C<install Bundle::CPAN>. When | |
73 | installing a I<bundle> -- a group of modules which together achieve | |
74 | some particular purpose, the installation process for later modules in | |
75 | the bundle tends to assume that earlier modules have been fully | |
76 | installed and are available for use. This is not true on a | |
77 | statically-linked system for earlier modules which contain XS code. | |
78 | As a result the installation of the bundle fails. The work-around is | |
79 | not to install the bundle as a one-shot operation, but instead to see | |
80 | what modules it contains, and install these one-at-a-time by hand in | |
81 | the order given. | |
82 | ||
83 | =head1 AUTHOR | |
84 | ||
85 | Dominic Dunlop <domo@computer.org> | |
86 | ||
87 | =head1 DATE | |
88 | ||
4375e838 | 89 | Version 1.0.1 2000-03-27 |