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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 | perlwin32 - Perl under Windows | |
8 | ||
9 | =head1 SYNOPSIS | |
10 | ||
11 | These are instructions for building Perl under Windows 9x/NT/2000/XP | |
12 | on the Intel x86 and Itanium architectures. | |
13 | ||
14 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
15 | ||
16 | Before you start, you should glance through the README file | |
17 | found in the top-level directory to which the Perl distribution | |
18 | was extracted. Make sure you read and understand the terms under | |
19 | which this software is being distributed. | |
20 | ||
21 | Also make sure you read L<BUGS AND CAVEATS> below for the | |
22 | known limitations of this port. | |
23 | ||
24 | The INSTALL file in the perl top-level has much information that is | |
25 | only relevant to people building Perl on Unix-like systems. In | |
26 | particular, you can safely ignore any information that talks about | |
27 | "Configure". | |
28 | ||
29 | You may also want to look at two other options for building | |
30 | a perl that will work on Windows NT: the README.cygwin and | |
31 | README.os2 files, each of which give a different set of rules to | |
32 | build a Perl that will work on Win32 platforms. Those two methods | |
33 | will probably enable you to build a more Unix-compatible perl, but | |
34 | you will also need to download and use various other build-time and | |
35 | run-time support software described in those files. | |
36 | ||
37 | This set of instructions is meant to describe a so-called "native" | |
38 | port of Perl to Win32 platforms. This includes both 32-bit and | |
39 | 64-bit Windows operating systems. The resulting Perl requires no | |
40 | additional software to run (other than what came with your operating | |
41 | system). Currently, this port is capable of using one of the | |
42 | following compilers on the Intel x86 architecture: | |
43 | ||
44 | Borland C++ version 5.02 or later | |
45 | Microsoft Visual C++ version 4.2 or later | |
46 | Mingw32 with GCC version 2.95.2 or better | |
47 | ||
48 | The last of these is a high quality freeware compiler. Support | |
49 | for it is still experimental. (Older versions of GCC are known | |
50 | not to work.) | |
51 | ||
52 | This port can also be built on the Intel IA64 using: | |
53 | ||
54 | Microsoft Platform SDK Nov 2001 (64-bit compiler and tools) | |
55 | ||
56 | The MS Platform SDK can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/. | |
57 | ||
58 | This port fully supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that | |
59 | is used to build extensions to perl). Therefore, you should be | |
60 | able to build and install most extensions found in the CPAN sites. | |
61 | See L<Usage Hints for Perl on Win32> below for general hints about this. | |
62 | ||
63 | =head2 Setting Up Perl on Win32 | |
64 | ||
65 | =over 4 | |
66 | ||
67 | =item Make | |
68 | ||
69 | You need a "make" program to build the sources. If you are using | |
70 | Visual C++ or the Platform SDK tools under Windows NT/2000/XP, nmake | |
71 | will work. All other builds need dmake. | |
72 | ||
73 | dmake is a freely available make that has very nice macro features | |
74 | and parallelability. | |
75 | ||
76 | A port of dmake for Windows is available from: | |
77 | ||
78 | http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/GSAR/dmake-4.1pl1-win32.zip | |
79 | ||
80 | (This is a fixed version of the original dmake sources obtained from | |
81 | http://www.wticorp.com/ As of version 4.1PL1, the original | |
82 | sources did not build as shipped and had various other problems. | |
83 | A patch is included in the above fixed version.) | |
84 | ||
85 | Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path (follow the instructions | |
86 | in the README.NOW file). | |
87 | ||
88 | There exists a minor coexistence problem with dmake and Borland C++ | |
89 | compilers. Namely, if a distribution has C files named with mixed | |
90 | case letters, they will be compiled into appropriate .obj-files named | |
91 | with all lowercase letters, and every time dmake is invoked | |
92 | to bring files up to date, it will try to recompile such files again. | |
93 | For example, Tk distribution has a lot of such files, resulting in | |
94 | needless recompiles every time dmake is invoked. To avoid this, you | |
95 | may use the script "sync_ext.pl" after a successful build. It is | |
96 | available in the win32 subdirectory of the Perl source distribution. | |
97 | ||
98 | =item Command Shell | |
99 | ||
100 | Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with NT. Some versions of the | |
101 | popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause you trouble. | |
102 | If the build fails under that shell, try building again with the cmd | |
103 | shell. | |
104 | ||
105 | The nmake Makefile also has known incompatibilities with the | |
106 | "command.com" shell that comes with Windows 9x. You will need to | |
107 | use dmake and makefile.mk to build under Windows 9x. | |
108 | ||
109 | The surest way to build it is on Windows NT/2000/XP, using the cmd shell. | |
110 | ||
111 | Make sure the path to the build directory does not contain spaces. The | |
112 | build usually works in this circumstance, but some tests will fail. | |
113 | ||
114 | =item Borland C++ | |
115 | ||
116 | If you are using the Borland compiler, you will need dmake. | |
117 | (The make that Borland supplies is seriously crippled and will not | |
118 | work for MakeMaker builds.) | |
119 | ||
120 | See L</"Make"> above. | |
121 | ||
122 | =item Microsoft Visual C++ | |
123 | ||
124 | The nmake that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building. | |
125 | You will need to run the VCVARS32.BAT file, usually found somewhere | |
126 | like C:\MSDEV4.2\BIN. This will set your build environment. | |
127 | ||
128 | You can also use dmake to build using Visual C++; provided, however, | |
129 | you set OSRELEASE to "microsft" (or whatever the directory name | |
130 | under which the Visual C dmake configuration lives) in your environment | |
131 | and edit win32/config.vc to change "make=nmake" into "make=dmake". The | |
132 | latter step is only essential if you want to use dmake as your default | |
133 | make for building extensions using MakeMaker. | |
134 | ||
135 | =item Microsoft Platform SDK 64-bit Compiler | |
136 | ||
137 | The nmake that comes with the Platform SDK will suffice for building | |
138 | Perl. Make sure you are building within one of the "Build Environment" | |
139 | shells available after you install the Platform SDK from the Start Menu. | |
140 | ||
7c5b6093 | 141 | =item MinGW32 with gcc |
9baed986 | 142 | |
7c5b6093 AB |
143 | The latest release of MinGW (at the time of writing) is 2.0.0, which comes |
144 | with gcc-3.2, and can be downloaded here: | |
9baed986 | 145 | |
7c5b6093 AB |
146 | http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw |
147 | ||
148 | Perl compiles with earlier releases of gcc (2.95 and up) that can be | |
149 | downloaded from the same place. If you use gcc-3.2, comment out the | |
150 | line: | |
151 | ||
152 | USE_GCC_V3_2 *= define | |
153 | ||
154 | in win32\makefile.mk | |
9baed986 LC |
155 | |
156 | You also need dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it. | |
157 | ||
7c5b6093 AB |
158 | =item MinGW release 1 |
159 | ||
160 | The MinGW-1.1 bundle comes with gcc-2.95.3. | |
9baed986 LC |
161 | |
162 | Make sure you install the binaries that work with MSVCRT.DLL as indicated | |
163 | in the README for the GCC bundle. You may need to set up a few environment | |
164 | variables (usually ran from a batch file). | |
165 | ||
166 | There are a couple of problems with the version of gcc-2.95.2-msvcrt.exe | |
167 | released 7 November 1999: | |
168 | ||
169 | =over | |
170 | ||
171 | =item * | |
172 | ||
173 | It left out a fix for certain command line quotes. To fix this, be sure | |
174 | to download and install the file fixes/quote-fix-msvcrt.exe from the above | |
175 | ftp location. | |
176 | ||
177 | =item * | |
178 | ||
179 | The definition of the fpos_t type in stdio.h may be wrong. If your | |
180 | stdio.h has this problem, you will see an exception when running the | |
181 | test t/lib/io_xs.t. To fix this, change the typedef for fpos_t from | |
182 | "long" to "long long" in the file i386-mingw32msvc/include/stdio.h, | |
183 | and rebuild. | |
184 | ||
185 | =back | |
186 | ||
187 | A potentially simpler to install (but probably soon-to-be-outdated) bundle | |
188 | of the above package with the mentioned fixes already applied is available | |
189 | here: | |
190 | ||
191 | http://downloads.ActiveState.com/pub/staff/gsar/gcc-2.95.2-msvcrt.zip | |
192 | ftp://ftp.ActiveState.com/pub/staff/gsar/gcc-2.95.2-msvcrt.zip | |
193 | ||
194 | =back | |
195 | ||
196 | =head2 Building | |
197 | ||
198 | =over 4 | |
199 | ||
200 | =item * | |
201 | ||
202 | Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl toplevel. | |
203 | This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with | |
204 | versions of nmake that come with Visual C++ or the Platform SDK, and | |
205 | a dmake "makefile.mk" that will work for all supported compilers. The | |
206 | defaults in the dmake makefile are setup to build using Microsoft Visual | |
207 | C++ 6.0 or newer. | |
208 | ||
209 | =item * | |
210 | ||
211 | Edit the makefile.mk (or Makefile, if you're using nmake) and change | |
212 | the values of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. You can also enable various | |
213 | build flags. These are explained in the makefiles. | |
214 | ||
215 | You will have to make sure that CCTYPE is set correctly and that | |
216 | CCHOME points to wherever you installed your compiler. | |
217 | ||
218 | The default value for CCHOME in the makefiles for Visual C++ | |
219 | may not be correct for some versions. Make sure the default exists | |
220 | and is valid. | |
221 | ||
222 | If you have either the source or a library that contains des_fcrypt(), | |
223 | enable the appropriate option in the makefile. des_fcrypt() is not | |
224 | bundled with the distribution due to US Government restrictions | |
225 | on the export of cryptographic software. Nevertheless, this routine | |
226 | is part of the "libdes" library (written by Eric Young) which is widely | |
227 | available worldwide, usually along with SSLeay ( for example, | |
228 | ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/crypt/mirrors/dsi/libdes/ ). Set CRYPT_SRC to the | |
229 | name of the file that implements des_fcrypt(). Alternatively, if | |
230 | you have built a library that contains des_fcrypt(), you can set | |
231 | CRYPT_LIB to point to the library name. The location above contains | |
232 | many versions of the "libdes" library, all with slightly different | |
233 | implementations of des_fcrypt(). Older versions have a single, | |
234 | self-contained file (fcrypt.c) that implements crypt(), so they may be | |
235 | easier to use. A patch against the fcrypt.c found in libdes-3.06 is | |
236 | in des_fcrypt.patch. | |
237 | ||
238 | An easier alternative may be to get the pre-patched and ready-to-use | |
239 | fcrypt.c that can be found here: | |
240 | ||
241 | http://downloads.ActiveState.com/pub/staff/gsar/fcrypt.c | |
242 | ftp://ftp.ActiveState.com/pub/staff/gsar/fcrypt.c | |
243 | ||
244 | Perl will also build without des_fcrypt(), but the crypt() builtin will | |
245 | fail at run time. | |
246 | ||
247 | Be sure to read the instructions near the top of the makefiles carefully. | |
248 | ||
249 | =item * | |
250 | ||
251 | Type "dmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make). | |
252 | ||
253 | This should build everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe, | |
78a7c709 | 254 | perl59.dll at the perl toplevel, and various other extension dll's |
9baed986 LC |
255 | under the lib\auto directory. If the build fails for any reason, make |
256 | sure you have done the previous steps correctly. | |
257 | ||
258 | =back | |
259 | ||
260 | =head2 Testing Perl on Win32 | |
261 | ||
262 | Type "dmake test" (or "nmake test"). This will run most of the tests from | |
263 | the testsuite (many tests will be skipped). | |
264 | ||
265 | There should be no test failures when running under Windows NT/2000/XP. | |
266 | Many tests I<will> fail under Windows 9x due to the inferior command shell. | |
267 | ||
268 | Some test failures may occur if you use a command shell other than the | |
269 | native "cmd.exe", or if you are building from a path that contains | |
270 | spaces. So don't do that. | |
271 | ||
272 | If you are running the tests from a emacs shell window, you may see | |
273 | failures in op/stat.t. Run "dmake test-notty" in that case. | |
274 | ||
275 | If you're using the Borland compiler, you may see a failure in op/taint.t | |
276 | arising from the inability to find the Borland Runtime DLLs on the system | |
277 | default path. You will need to copy the DLLs reported by the messages | |
278 | from where Borland chose to install it, into the Windows system directory | |
279 | (usually somewhere like C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32) and rerun the test. | |
280 | ||
281 | If you're using Borland compiler versions 5.2 and below, you may run into | |
282 | problems finding the correct header files when building extensions. For | |
283 | example, building the "Tk" extension may fail because both perl and Tk | |
284 | contain a header file called "patchlevel.h". The latest Borland compiler | |
285 | (v5.5) is free of this misbehaviour, and it even supports an | |
286 | option -VI- for backward (bugward) compatibility for using the old Borland | |
287 | search algorithm to locate header files. | |
288 | ||
a6a21311 PEE |
289 | If you run the tests on a FAT partition, you may see some failures for |
290 | C<link()> related tests (I<op/write.t>, I<op/stat.t> ...). Testing on | |
291 | NTFS avoids these errors. | |
292 | ||
293 | Furthermore, you should make sure that during C<make test> you do not | |
294 | have any GNU tool packages in your path: some toolkits like Unixutils | |
295 | include some tools (C<type> for instance) which override the Windows | |
296 | ones and makes tests fail. Remove them from your path while testing to | |
297 | avoid these errors. | |
298 | ||
9baed986 LC |
299 | Please report any other failures as described under L<BUGS AND CAVEATS>. |
300 | ||
301 | =head2 Installation of Perl on Win32 | |
302 | ||
303 | Type "dmake install" (or "nmake install"). This will put the newly | |
304 | built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP> points to in the | |
305 | Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation under | |
306 | C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same under | |
307 | C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\lib\pod\html>. To use the Perl you just installed, | |
308 | you will need to add two components to your PATH environment variable, | |
309 | C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\bin> and C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\bin\$ARCHNAME>. | |
310 | For example: | |
311 | ||
312 | set PATH c:\perl\5.6.0\bin;c:\perl\5.6.0\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH% | |
313 | ||
314 | If you opt to comment out INST_VER and INST_ARCH in the makefiles, the | |
315 | installation structure is much simpler. In that case, it will be | |
316 | sufficient to add a single entry to the path, for instance: | |
317 | ||
318 | set PATH c:\perl\bin;%PATH% | |
319 | ||
320 | =head2 Usage Hints for Perl on Win32 | |
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 | |
339 | values if you choose to put them there. Perl attempts to read entries from | |
340 | C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> and C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>. | |
341 | Entries in the former override entries in the latter. One or more of the | |
342 | following entries (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may be set: | |
343 | ||
344 | lib-$] version-specific standard library path to add to @INC | |
345 | lib standard library path to add to @INC | |
346 | sitelib-$] version-specific site library path to add to @INC | |
347 | sitelib site library path to add to @INC | |
348 | vendorlib-$] version-specific vendor library path to add to @INC | |
349 | vendorlib vendor library path to add to @INC | |
350 | PERL* fallback for all %ENV lookups that begin with "PERL" | |
351 | ||
352 | Note the C<$]> in the above is not literal. Substitute whatever version | |
353 | of perl you want to honor that entry, e.g. C<5.6.0>. Paths must be | |
354 | separated with semicolons, as usual on win32. | |
355 | ||
356 | =item File Globbing | |
357 | ||
358 | By default, perl handles file globbing using the File::Glob extension, | |
359 | which provides portable globbing. | |
360 | ||
361 | If you want perl to use globbing that emulates the quirks of DOS | |
362 | filename conventions, you might want to consider using File::DosGlob | |
363 | to override the internal glob() implementation. See L<File::DosGlob> for | |
364 | details. | |
365 | ||
366 | =item Using perl from the command line | |
367 | ||
368 | If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line | |
369 | shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased | |
370 | with what Windows offers by way of a command shell. | |
371 | ||
372 | The crucial thing to understand about the Windows environment is that | |
373 | the command line you type in is processed twice before Perl sees it. | |
374 | First, your command shell (usually CMD.EXE on Windows NT, and | |
375 | COMMAND.COM on Windows 9x) preprocesses the command line, to handle | |
376 | redirection, environment variable expansion, and location of the | |
377 | executable to run. Then, the perl executable splits the remaining | |
378 | command line into individual arguments, using the C runtime library | |
379 | upon which Perl was built. | |
380 | ||
381 | It is particularly important to note that neither the shell nor the C | |
382 | runtime do any wildcard expansions of command-line arguments (so | |
383 | wildcards need not be quoted). Also, the quoting behaviours of the | |
384 | shell and the C runtime are rudimentary at best (and may, if you are | |
385 | using a non-standard shell, be inconsistent). The only (useful) quote | |
386 | character is the double quote ("). It can be used to protect spaces | |
387 | and other special characters in arguments. | |
388 | ||
389 | The Windows NT documentation has almost no description of how the | |
390 | quoting rules are implemented, but here are some general observations | |
391 | based on experiments: The C runtime breaks arguments at spaces and | |
392 | passes them to programs in argc/argv. Double quotes can be used to | |
393 | prevent arguments with spaces in them from being split up. You can | |
394 | put a double quote in an argument by escaping it with a backslash and | |
395 | enclosing the whole argument within double quotes. The backslash and | |
396 | the pair of double quotes surrounding the argument will be stripped by | |
397 | the C runtime. | |
398 | ||
399 | The file redirection characters "<", ">", and "|" can be quoted by | |
400 | double quotes (although there are suggestions that this may not always | |
401 | be true). Single quotes are not treated as quotes by the shell or | |
402 | the C runtime, they don't get stripped by the shell (just to make | |
403 | this type of quoting completely useless). The caret "^" has also | |
404 | been observed to behave as a quoting character, but this appears | |
405 | to be a shell feature, and the caret is not stripped from the command | |
406 | line, so Perl still sees it (and the C runtime phase does not treat | |
407 | the caret as a quote character). | |
408 | ||
409 | Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell: | |
410 | ||
411 | This prints two doublequotes: | |
412 | ||
413 | perl -e "print '\"\"' " | |
414 | ||
415 | This does the same: | |
416 | ||
417 | perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" " | |
418 | ||
419 | This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch": | |
420 | ||
421 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch | |
422 | ||
423 | This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland): | |
424 | ||
425 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul | |
426 | ||
427 | This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch": | |
428 | ||
429 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch | |
430 | ||
431 | This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the console: | |
432 | ||
433 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less | |
434 | ||
435 | This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager: | |
436 | ||
437 | perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less | |
438 | ||
439 | This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file "blurch": | |
440 | ||
441 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less | |
442 | ||
443 | ||
444 | Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows 9x | |
445 | is left as an exercise to the reader :) | |
446 | ||
447 | One particularly pernicious problem with the 4NT command shell for | |
448 | Windows NT is that it (nearly) always treats a % character as indicating | |
449 | that environment variable expansion is needed. Under this shell, it is | |
450 | therefore important to always double any % characters which you want | |
451 | Perl to see (for example, for hash variables), even when they are | |
452 | quoted. | |
453 | ||
454 | =item Building Extensions | |
455 | ||
456 | The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth | |
457 | of extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build. | |
458 | Look in http://www.cpan.org/ for more information on CPAN. | |
459 | ||
460 | Note that not all of the extensions available from CPAN may work | |
461 | in the Win32 environment; you should check the information at | |
462 | http://testers.cpan.org/ before investing too much effort into | |
463 | porting modules that don't readily build. | |
464 | ||
465 | Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can | |
466 | be built, tested and installed with the standard mantra: | |
467 | ||
468 | perl Makefile.PL | |
469 | $MAKE | |
470 | $MAKE test | |
471 | $MAKE install | |
472 | ||
473 | where $MAKE is whatever 'make' program you have configured perl to | |
474 | use. Use "perl -V:make" to find out what this is. Some extensions | |
475 | may not provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything or | |
476 | fail), but most serious ones do. | |
477 | ||
478 | It is important that you use a supported 'make' program, and | |
479 | ensure Config.pm knows about it. If you don't have nmake, you can | |
480 | either get dmake from the location mentioned earlier or get an | |
481 | old version of nmake reportedly available from: | |
482 | ||
483 | ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/MSLFILES/nmake15.exe | |
484 | ||
485 | Another option is to use the make written in Perl, available from | |
486 | CPAN. | |
487 | ||
488 | http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Make/ | |
489 | ||
490 | You may also use dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it. | |
491 | ||
492 | Note that MakeMaker actually emits makefiles with different syntax | |
493 | depending on what 'make' it thinks you are using. Therefore, it is | |
494 | important that one of the following values appears in Config.pm: | |
495 | ||
496 | make='nmake' # MakeMaker emits nmake syntax | |
497 | make='dmake' # MakeMaker emits dmake syntax | |
498 | any other value # MakeMaker emits generic make syntax | |
499 | (e.g GNU make, or Perl make) | |
500 | ||
501 | If the value doesn't match the 'make' program you want to use, | |
502 | edit Config.pm to fix it. | |
503 | ||
504 | If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported | |
505 | C compilers. You must make sure you have set up the environment for | |
506 | the compiler for command-line compilation. | |
507 | ||
508 | If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for | |
509 | why it failed, and report problems to the module author. If | |
510 | it looks like the extension building support is at fault, report | |
511 | that with full details of how the build failed using the perlbug | |
512 | utility. | |
513 | ||
514 | =item Command-line Wildcard Expansion | |
515 | ||
516 | The default command shells on DOS descendant operating systems (such | |
517 | as they are) usually do not expand wildcard arguments supplied to | |
518 | programs. They consider it the application's job to handle that. | |
519 | This is commonly achieved by linking the application (in our case, | |
520 | perl) with startup code that the C runtime libraries usually provide. | |
521 | However, doing that results in incompatible perl versions (since the | |
522 | behavior of the argv expansion code differs depending on the | |
523 | compiler, and it is even buggy on some compilers). Besides, it may | |
524 | be a source of frustration if you use such a perl binary with an | |
525 | alternate shell that *does* expand wildcards. | |
526 | ||
527 | Instead, the following solution works rather well. The nice things | |
528 | about it are 1) you can start using it right away; 2) it is more | |
529 | powerful, because it will do the right thing with a pattern like | |
530 | */*/*.c; 3) you can decide whether you do/don't want to use it; and | |
531 | 4) you can extend the method to add any customizations (or even | |
532 | entirely different kinds of wildcard expansion). | |
533 | ||
534 | C:\> copy con c:\perl\lib\Wild.pm | |
535 | # Wild.pm - emulate shell @ARGV expansion on shells that don't | |
536 | use File::DosGlob; | |
537 | @ARGV = map { | |
538 | my @g = File::DosGlob::glob($_) if /[*?]/; | |
539 | @g ? @g : $_; | |
540 | } @ARGV; | |
541 | 1; | |
542 | ^Z | |
543 | C:\> set PERL5OPT=-MWild | |
544 | C:\> perl -le "for (@ARGV) { print }" */*/perl*.c | |
545 | p4view/perl/perl.c | |
546 | p4view/perl/perlio.c | |
547 | p4view/perl/perly.c | |
548 | perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c | |
549 | perl5.005/win32/perllib.c | |
550 | perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c | |
551 | perl5.005/win32/perllib.c | |
552 | perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c | |
553 | perl5.005/win32/perllib.c | |
554 | ||
555 | Note there are two distinct steps there: 1) You'll have to create | |
556 | Wild.pm and put it in your perl lib directory. 2) You'll need to | |
557 | set the PERL5OPT environment variable. If you want argv expansion | |
558 | to be the default, just set PERL5OPT in your default startup | |
559 | environment. | |
560 | ||
561 | If you are using the Visual C compiler, you can get the C runtime's | |
562 | command line wildcard expansion built into perl binary. The resulting | |
563 | binary will always expand unquoted command lines, which may not be | |
564 | what you want if you use a shell that does that for you. The expansion | |
565 | done is also somewhat less powerful than the approach suggested above. | |
566 | ||
567 | =item Win32 Specific Extensions | |
568 | ||
569 | A number of extensions specific to the Win32 platform are available | |
570 | from CPAN. You may find that many of these extensions are meant to | |
571 | be used under the Activeware port of Perl, which used to be the only | |
572 | native port for the Win32 platform. Since the Activeware port does not | |
573 | have adequate support for Perl's extension building tools, these | |
574 | extensions typically do not support those tools either and, therefore, | |
575 | cannot be built using the generic steps shown in the previous section. | |
576 | ||
577 | To ensure smooth transitioning of existing code that uses the | |
578 | ActiveState port, there is a bundle of Win32 extensions that contains | |
579 | all of the ActiveState extensions and most other Win32 extensions from | |
580 | CPAN in source form, along with many added bugfixes, and with MakeMaker | |
581 | support. This bundle is available at: | |
582 | ||
583 | http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/GSAR/libwin32-0.18.zip | |
584 | ||
585 | See the README in that distribution for building and installation | |
586 | instructions. Look for later versions that may be available at the | |
587 | same location. | |
588 | ||
589 | =item Notes on 64-bit Windows | |
590 | ||
591 | Windows .NET Server supports the LLP64 data model on the Intel Itanium | |
592 | architecture. | |
593 | ||
594 | The LLP64 data model is different from the LP64 data model that is the | |
595 | norm on 64-bit Unix platforms. In the former, C<int> and C<long> are | |
596 | both 32-bit data types, while pointers are 64 bits wide. In addition, | |
597 | there is a separate 64-bit wide integral type, C<__int64>. In contrast, | |
598 | the LP64 data model that is pervasive on Unix platforms provides C<int> | |
599 | as the 32-bit type, while both the C<long> type and pointers are of | |
600 | 64-bit precision. Note that both models provide for 64-bits of | |
601 | addressability. | |
602 | ||
603 | 64-bit Windows running on Itanium is capable of running 32-bit x86 | |
604 | binaries transparently. This means that you could use a 32-bit build | |
605 | of Perl on a 64-bit system. Given this, why would one want to build | |
606 | a 64-bit build of Perl? Here are some reasons why you would bother: | |
607 | ||
608 | =item * | |
609 | ||
610 | A 64-bit native application will run much more efficiently on | |
611 | Itanium hardware. | |
612 | ||
613 | =item * | |
614 | ||
615 | There is no 2GB limit on process size. | |
616 | ||
617 | =item * | |
618 | ||
619 | Perl automatically provides large file support when built under | |
620 | 64-bit Windows. | |
621 | ||
622 | =item * | |
623 | ||
624 | Embedding Perl inside a 64-bit application. | |
625 | ||
626 | =back | |
627 | ||
628 | =head2 Running Perl Scripts | |
629 | ||
630 | Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to | |
631 | indicate to the OS that it should execute the file using perl. | |
632 | Win32 has no comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are | |
633 | executables. | |
634 | ||
635 | Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on | |
636 | Win32 rely on the file "extension". There are three methods | |
637 | to use this to execute perl scripts: | |
638 | ||
639 | =over 8 | |
640 | ||
641 | =item 1 | |
642 | ||
643 | There is a facility called "file extension associations" that will | |
644 | work in Windows NT 4.0. This can be manipulated via the two | |
645 | commands "assoc" and "ftype" that come standard with Windows NT | |
646 | 4.0. Type "ftype /?" for a complete example of how to set this | |
647 | up for perl scripts (Say what? You thought Windows NT wasn't | |
648 | perl-ready? :). | |
649 | ||
650 | =item 2 | |
651 | ||
652 | Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are | |
653 | reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the | |
654 | old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a | |
655 | regular batch file to the OS, may be used. The install process | |
656 | makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to wrap | |
657 | perl scripts into batch files. For example: | |
658 | ||
659 | pl2bat foo.pl | |
660 | ||
661 | will create the file "FOO.BAT". Note "pl2bat" strips any | |
662 | .pl suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file. | |
663 | ||
664 | If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that | |
665 | "pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to | |
666 | refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to make | |
667 | sure that construct works in batch files. As of this writing, | |
668 | 4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *" statement in their | |
669 | 4NT.INI file or will need to execute "setdos /p*" in the 4DOS/NT | |
670 | startup file to enable this to work. | |
671 | ||
672 | =item 3 | |
673 | ||
674 | Using "pl2bat" has a few problems: the file name gets changed, | |
675 | so scripts that rely on C<$0> to find what they must do may not | |
676 | run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the | |
677 | original script, and so this process can be maintenance intensive | |
678 | if the originals get updated often. A different approach that | |
679 | avoids both problems is possible. | |
680 | ||
681 | A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied | |
682 | to any filename (along with the .bat suffix). For example, | |
683 | if you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is | |
684 | executed. Since you can run batch files on Win32 platforms simply | |
685 | by typing the name (without the extension), this effectively | |
686 | runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or "foo.bat". | |
687 | With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a different location | |
688 | than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is available somewhere on | |
689 | the PATH. If your scripts are on a filesystem that allows symbolic | |
690 | links, you can even avoid copying "runperl.bat". | |
691 | ||
692 | Here's a diversion: copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type | |
693 | "runperl". Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :) | |
694 | Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH | |
695 | ||
696 | =item Miscellaneous Things | |
697 | ||
698 | A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be | |
699 | able to use it if you have a web browser installed on your | |
700 | system. | |
701 | ||
702 | C<perldoc> is also a useful tool for browsing information contained | |
703 | in the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager | |
704 | like C<less> (recent versions of which have Win32 support). You may | |
705 | have to set the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager. | |
706 | "perldoc -f foo" will print information about the perl operator | |
707 | "foo". | |
708 | ||
13ee867e BD |
709 | One common mistake when using this port with a GUI library like C<Tk> |
710 | is assuming that Perl's normal behavior of opening a command-line | |
711 | window will go away. This isn't the case. If you want to start a copy | |
712 | of C<perl> without opening a command-line window, use the C<wperl> | |
713 | executable built during the installation process. Usage is exactly | |
714 | the same as normal C<perl> on Win32, except that options like C<-h> | |
715 | don't work (since they need a command-line window to print to). | |
716 | ||
9baed986 LC |
717 | If you find bugs in perl, you can run C<perlbug> to create a |
718 | bug report (you may have to send it manually if C<perlbug> cannot | |
719 | find a mailer on your system). | |
720 | ||
721 | =back | |
722 | ||
723 | =head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS | |
724 | ||
725 | Norton AntiVirus interferes with the build process, particularly if | |
726 | set to "AutoProtect, All Files, when Opened". Unlike large applications | |
727 | the perl build process opens and modifies a lot of files. Having the | |
728 | the AntiVirus scan each and every one slows build the process significantly. | |
729 | Worse, with PERLIO=stdio the build process fails with peculiar messages | |
730 | as the virus checker interacts badly with miniperl.exe writing configure | |
731 | files (it seems to either catch file part written and treat it as suspicious, | |
732 | or virus checker may have it "locked" in a way which inhibits miniperl | |
733 | updating it). The build does complete with | |
734 | ||
735 | set PERLIO=perlio | |
736 | ||
737 | but that may be just luck. Other AntiVirus software may have similar issues. | |
738 | ||
739 | Some of the built-in functions do not act exactly as documented in | |
740 | L<perlfunc>, and a few are not implemented at all. To avoid | |
741 | surprises, particularly if you have had prior exposure to Perl | |
742 | in other operating environments or if you intend to write code | |
743 | that will be portable to other environments. See L<perlport> | |
744 | for a reasonably definitive list of these differences. | |
745 | ||
746 | Not all extensions available from CPAN may build or work properly | |
747 | in the Win32 environment. See L</"Building Extensions">. | |
748 | ||
749 | Most C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not | |
750 | behave as on Unix platforms. See L<perlport> for the full list. | |
751 | ||
752 | Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it | |
753 | doesn't exactly "behave", either :). For instance, calling C<die()> | |
754 | or C<exit()> from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most | |
755 | implementations of C<signal()> on Win32 are severely crippled. | |
756 | Thus, signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag | |
757 | variable in the handler. Using signals under this port should | |
758 | currently be considered unsupported. | |
759 | ||
760 | Please send detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that | |
761 | you may find to <F<perlbug@perl.com>>, along with the output produced | |
762 | by C<perl -V>. | |
763 | ||
764 | =head1 AUTHORS | |
765 | ||
766 | =over 4 | |
767 | ||
768 | =item Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt> | |
769 | ||
770 | =item Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@activestate.comE<gt> | |
771 | ||
772 | =item Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ing-simmons.netE<gt> | |
773 | ||
774 | =back | |
775 | ||
776 | This document is maintained by Gurusamy Sarathy. | |
777 | ||
778 | =head1 SEE ALSO | |
779 | ||
780 | L<perl> | |
781 | ||
782 | =head1 HISTORY | |
783 | ||
784 | This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24, | |
785 | and borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available | |
786 | at the time. Various people have made numerous and sundry hacks | |
787 | since then. | |
788 | ||
789 | Borland support was added in 5.004_01 (Gurusamy Sarathy). | |
790 | ||
791 | GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons). | |
792 | ||
793 | Support for PERL_OBJECT was added in 5.005 (ActiveState Tool Corp). | |
794 | ||
795 | Support for fork() emulation was added in 5.6 (ActiveState Tool Corp). | |
796 | ||
797 | Win9x support was added in 5.6 (Benjamin Stuhl). | |
798 | ||
799 | Support for 64-bit Windows added in 5.8 (ActiveState Corp). | |
800 | ||
801 | Last updated: 20 April 2002 | |
802 | ||
803 | =cut |