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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 | ||
7241fd28 | 44 | Borland C++ version 5.02 or later |
da2c7419 | 45 | Microsoft Visual C++ version 2.0 or later |
7241fd28 | 46 | MinGW with gcc gcc version 2.95.2 or later |
9baed986 | 47 | |
e2736246 SH |
48 | The last of these is a high quality freeware compiler. Use version |
49 | 3.2.x or later for the best results with this compiler. | |
9baed986 | 50 | |
758e4bce SH |
51 | The Borland C++ and Microsoft Visual C++ compilers are also now being given |
52 | away free. The Borland compiler is available as "Borland C++ Compiler Free | |
53 | Command Line Tools" and is the same compiler that ships with the full | |
54 | "Borland C++ Builder" product. The Microsoft compiler is available as | |
55 | "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003", and also as part of the ".NET Framework SDK", and | |
56 | is the same compiler that ships with "Visual Studio .NET 2003 Professional". | |
84b05a71 SP |
57 | Currently, Perl cannot be compiled with Visual C++ 8.0, which is part of the |
58 | .NET 2.0 Framework SDK and Visual Studio 2005. | |
7241fd28 | 59 | |
9baed986 LC |
60 | This port can also be built on the Intel IA64 using: |
61 | ||
62 | Microsoft Platform SDK Nov 2001 (64-bit compiler and tools) | |
63 | ||
64 | The MS Platform SDK can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/. | |
65 | ||
66 | This port fully supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that | |
67 | is used to build extensions to perl). Therefore, you should be | |
68 | able to build and install most extensions found in the CPAN sites. | |
69 | See L<Usage Hints for Perl on Win32> below for general hints about this. | |
70 | ||
71 | =head2 Setting Up Perl on Win32 | |
72 | ||
73 | =over 4 | |
74 | ||
75 | =item Make | |
76 | ||
77 | You need a "make" program to build the sources. If you are using | |
78 | Visual C++ or the Platform SDK tools under Windows NT/2000/XP, nmake | |
79 | will work. All other builds need dmake. | |
80 | ||
81 | dmake is a freely available make that has very nice macro features | |
82 | and parallelability. | |
83 | ||
84 | A port of dmake for Windows is available from: | |
85 | ||
13e18e90 | 86 | http://search.cpan.org/dist/dmake/ |
9baed986 | 87 | |
13e18e90 | 88 | Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path. |
9baed986 LC |
89 | |
90 | There exists a minor coexistence problem with dmake and Borland C++ | |
91 | compilers. Namely, if a distribution has C files named with mixed | |
92 | case letters, they will be compiled into appropriate .obj-files named | |
93 | with all lowercase letters, and every time dmake is invoked | |
94 | to bring files up to date, it will try to recompile such files again. | |
95 | For example, Tk distribution has a lot of such files, resulting in | |
96 | needless recompiles every time dmake is invoked. To avoid this, you | |
97 | may use the script "sync_ext.pl" after a successful build. It is | |
98 | available in the win32 subdirectory of the Perl source distribution. | |
99 | ||
100 | =item Command Shell | |
101 | ||
102 | Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with NT. Some versions of the | |
103 | popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause you trouble. | |
104 | If the build fails under that shell, try building again with the cmd | |
105 | shell. | |
106 | ||
107 | The nmake Makefile also has known incompatibilities with the | |
108 | "command.com" shell that comes with Windows 9x. You will need to | |
109 | use dmake and makefile.mk to build under Windows 9x. | |
110 | ||
111 | The surest way to build it is on Windows NT/2000/XP, using the cmd shell. | |
112 | ||
113 | Make sure the path to the build directory does not contain spaces. The | |
114 | build usually works in this circumstance, but some tests will fail. | |
115 | ||
116 | =item Borland C++ | |
117 | ||
118 | If you are using the Borland compiler, you will need dmake. | |
119 | (The make that Borland supplies is seriously crippled and will not | |
120 | work for MakeMaker builds.) | |
121 | ||
122 | See L</"Make"> above. | |
123 | ||
124 | =item Microsoft Visual C++ | |
125 | ||
126 | The nmake that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building. | |
127 | You will need to run the VCVARS32.BAT file, usually found somewhere | |
00808b83 SH |
128 | like C:\MSDEV4.2\BIN or C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\Bin. |
129 | This will set your build environment. | |
9baed986 LC |
130 | |
131 | You can also use dmake to build using Visual C++; provided, however, | |
132 | you set OSRELEASE to "microsft" (or whatever the directory name | |
133 | under which the Visual C dmake configuration lives) in your environment | |
134 | and edit win32/config.vc to change "make=nmake" into "make=dmake". The | |
135 | latter step is only essential if you want to use dmake as your default | |
136 | make for building extensions using MakeMaker. | |
137 | ||
7241fd28 SH |
138 | =item Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003 |
139 | ||
140 | This free toolkit contains the same compiler and linker that ship with | |
141 | Visual Studio .NET 2003 Professional, but doesn't contain everything | |
142 | necessary to build Perl. | |
143 | ||
144 | You will also need to download the "Platform SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC | |
145 | SDK" components are required) for header files, libraries and rc.exe, and | |
146 | ".NET Framework SDK" for more libraries and nmake.exe. Note that the latter | |
147 | (which also includes the free compiler and linker) requires the ".NET | |
148 | Framework Redistributable" to be installed first. This can be downloaded and | |
149 | installed separately, but is included in the "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" anyway. | |
150 | ||
151 | These packages can all be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at | |
1b4f0359 SH |
152 | http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en. (Providing exact |
153 | links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on | |
154 | changing so often.) | |
155 | ||
156 | Try to obtain the latest version of the Platform SDK. Sometimes these packages | |
157 | contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on | |
158 | other OS versions too. For example, the "Windows Server 2003 SP1 Platform SDK" | |
159 | also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000. | |
7241fd28 SH |
160 | |
161 | According to the download pages the Toolkit and the .NET Framework SDK are only | |
162 | supported on Windows 2000/XP/2003, so trying to use these tools on Windows | |
163 | 95/98/ME and even Windows NT probably won't work. | |
164 | ||
165 | Install the Toolkit first, then the Platform SDK, then the .NET Framework SDK. | |
166 | Setup your environment as follows (assuming default installation locations | |
167 | were chosen): | |
168 | ||
169 | SET PATH=%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\Bin;C:\Program Files\Microsoft.NET\SDK\v1.1\Bin | |
170 | SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\include;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\include;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\include | |
171 | SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\lib;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\lib;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\lib | |
172 | ||
173 | Several required files will still be missing: | |
174 | ||
175 | =over 4 | |
176 | ||
177 | =item * | |
178 | ||
179 | cvtres.exe is required by link.exe when using a .res file. It is actually | |
180 | installed by the .NET Framework SDK, but into a location such as the | |
181 | following: | |
182 | ||
183 | C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322 | |
184 | ||
185 | Copy it from there to C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\Bin | |
186 | ||
187 | =item * | |
188 | ||
189 | lib.exe is normally used to build libraries, but link.exe with the /lib | |
f21bc467 MM |
190 | option also works, so change win32/config.vc to use it instead: |
191 | ||
192 | Change the line reading: | |
193 | ||
194 | ar='lib' | |
195 | ||
196 | to: | |
197 | ||
198 | ar='link /lib' | |
199 | ||
200 | It may also be useful to create a batch file called lib.bat in | |
7241fd28 SH |
201 | C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin containing: |
202 | ||
203 | @echo off | |
204 | link /lib %* | |
205 | ||
f21bc467 MM |
206 | for the benefit of any naughty C extension modules that you might want to build |
207 | later which explicitly reference "lib" rather than taking their value from | |
208 | $Config{ar}. | |
7241fd28 SH |
209 | |
210 | =item * | |
211 | ||
212 | setargv.obj is required to build perlglob.exe (and perl.exe if the USE_SETARGV | |
213 | option is enabled). The Platform SDK supplies this object file in source form | |
214 | in C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\src\crt. Copy setargv.c, cruntime.h and | |
215 | internal.h from there to some temporary location and build setargv.obj using | |
216 | ||
217 | cl.exe /c /I. /D_CRTBLD setargv.c | |
218 | ||
219 | Then copy setargv.obj to C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\lib | |
220 | ||
f21bc467 MM |
221 | Alternatively, if you don't need perlglob.exe and don't need to enable the |
222 | USE_SETARGV option then you can safely just remove all mention of $(GLOBEXE) | |
223 | from win32/Makefile and setargv.obj won't be required anyway. | |
224 | ||
7241fd28 SH |
225 | =back |
226 | ||
227 | Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that | |
da2c7419 SH |
228 | file to set |
229 | ||
230 | CCTYPE = MSVC70FREE | |
231 | ||
232 | and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above. | |
7241fd28 | 233 | |
9baed986 LC |
234 | =item Microsoft Platform SDK 64-bit Compiler |
235 | ||
236 | The nmake that comes with the Platform SDK will suffice for building | |
237 | Perl. Make sure you are building within one of the "Build Environment" | |
238 | shells available after you install the Platform SDK from the Start Menu. | |
239 | ||
e2736246 | 240 | =item MinGW release 3 with gcc |
9baed986 | 241 | |
dbd54a9f | 242 | The latest release of MinGW at the time of writing is 3.1.0, which contains |
7241fd28 | 243 | gcc-3.2.3. It can be downloaded here: |
9baed986 | 244 | |
e2736246 | 245 | http://www.mingw.org/ |
7c5b6093 | 246 | |
e2736246 SH |
247 | Perl also compiles with earlier releases of gcc (2.95.2 and up). See below |
248 | for notes about using earlier versions of MinGW/gcc. | |
9baed986 LC |
249 | |
250 | You also need dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it. | |
251 | ||
e2736246 | 252 | =item MinGW release 1 with gcc |
7c5b6093 | 253 | |
4a7adf4c | 254 | The MinGW-1.1 bundle contains gcc-2.95.3. |
9baed986 LC |
255 | |
256 | Make sure you install the binaries that work with MSVCRT.DLL as indicated | |
257 | in the README for the GCC bundle. You may need to set up a few environment | |
258 | variables (usually ran from a batch file). | |
259 | ||
260 | There are a couple of problems with the version of gcc-2.95.2-msvcrt.exe | |
261 | released 7 November 1999: | |
262 | ||
263 | =over | |
264 | ||
265 | =item * | |
266 | ||
267 | It left out a fix for certain command line quotes. To fix this, be sure | |
268 | to download and install the file fixes/quote-fix-msvcrt.exe from the above | |
269 | ftp location. | |
270 | ||
271 | =item * | |
272 | ||
273 | The definition of the fpos_t type in stdio.h may be wrong. If your | |
274 | stdio.h has this problem, you will see an exception when running the | |
275 | test t/lib/io_xs.t. To fix this, change the typedef for fpos_t from | |
276 | "long" to "long long" in the file i386-mingw32msvc/include/stdio.h, | |
277 | and rebuild. | |
278 | ||
279 | =back | |
280 | ||
281 | A potentially simpler to install (but probably soon-to-be-outdated) bundle | |
282 | of the above package with the mentioned fixes already applied is available | |
283 | here: | |
284 | ||
285 | http://downloads.ActiveState.com/pub/staff/gsar/gcc-2.95.2-msvcrt.zip | |
286 | ftp://ftp.ActiveState.com/pub/staff/gsar/gcc-2.95.2-msvcrt.zip | |
287 | ||
288 | =back | |
289 | ||
290 | =head2 Building | |
291 | ||
292 | =over 4 | |
293 | ||
294 | =item * | |
295 | ||
296 | Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl toplevel. | |
297 | This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with | |
298 | versions of nmake that come with Visual C++ or the Platform SDK, and | |
299 | a dmake "makefile.mk" that will work for all supported compilers. The | |
00808b83 | 300 | defaults in the dmake makefile are setup to build using MinGW/gcc. |
9baed986 LC |
301 | |
302 | =item * | |
303 | ||
dbd54a9f | 304 | Edit the makefile.mk (or Makefile, if you're using nmake) and change |
9baed986 LC |
305 | the values of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. You can also enable various |
306 | build flags. These are explained in the makefiles. | |
307 | ||
2b1846f4 SH |
308 | Note that it is generally not a good idea to try to build a perl with |
309 | INST_DRV and INST_TOP set to a path that already exists from a previous | |
310 | build. In particular, this may cause problems with the | |
311 | lib/ExtUtils/t/Embed.t test, which attempts to build a test program and | |
312 | may end up building against the installed perl's lib/CORE directory rather | |
313 | than the one being tested. | |
314 | ||
dbd54a9f | 315 | You will have to make sure that CCTYPE is set correctly and that |
9baed986 LC |
316 | CCHOME points to wherever you installed your compiler. |
317 | ||
318 | The default value for CCHOME in the makefiles for Visual C++ | |
319 | may not be correct for some versions. Make sure the default exists | |
320 | and is valid. | |
321 | ||
da2c7419 SH |
322 | You may also need to comment out the C<DELAYLOAD = ...> line in the |
323 | Makefile if you're using VC++ 6.0 without the latest service pack and | |
324 | the linker reports an internal error. | |
dbd54a9f | 325 | |
9baed986 | 326 | If you have either the source or a library that contains des_fcrypt(), |
4ace4afb SH |
327 | enable the appropriate option in the makefile. A ready-to-use version |
328 | of fcrypt.c, based on the version originally written by Eric Young at | |
329 | ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/crypt/mirrors/dsi/libdes/, is bundled with the | |
00808b83 | 330 | distribution and CRYPT_SRC is set to use it. |
4ace4afb SH |
331 | Alternatively, if you have built a library that contains des_fcrypt(), |
332 | you can set CRYPT_LIB to point to the library name. | |
9baed986 LC |
333 | Perl will also build without des_fcrypt(), but the crypt() builtin will |
334 | fail at run time. | |
335 | ||
dbd54a9f VK |
336 | If you want build some core extensions statically into perl's dll, specify |
337 | them in the STATIC_EXT macro. | |
338 | ||
9baed986 LC |
339 | Be sure to read the instructions near the top of the makefiles carefully. |
340 | ||
341 | =item * | |
342 | ||
343 | Type "dmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make). | |
344 | ||
345 | This should build everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe, | |
78a7c709 | 346 | perl59.dll at the perl toplevel, and various other extension dll's |
9baed986 LC |
347 | under the lib\auto directory. If the build fails for any reason, make |
348 | sure you have done the previous steps correctly. | |
349 | ||
350 | =back | |
351 | ||
352 | =head2 Testing Perl on Win32 | |
353 | ||
354 | Type "dmake test" (or "nmake test"). This will run most of the tests from | |
355 | the testsuite (many tests will be skipped). | |
356 | ||
357 | There should be no test failures when running under Windows NT/2000/XP. | |
358 | Many tests I<will> fail under Windows 9x due to the inferior command shell. | |
359 | ||
360 | Some test failures may occur if you use a command shell other than the | |
361 | native "cmd.exe", or if you are building from a path that contains | |
362 | spaces. So don't do that. | |
363 | ||
364 | If you are running the tests from a emacs shell window, you may see | |
365 | failures in op/stat.t. Run "dmake test-notty" in that case. | |
366 | ||
367 | If you're using the Borland compiler, you may see a failure in op/taint.t | |
368 | arising from the inability to find the Borland Runtime DLLs on the system | |
369 | default path. You will need to copy the DLLs reported by the messages | |
370 | from where Borland chose to install it, into the Windows system directory | |
371 | (usually somewhere like C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32) and rerun the test. | |
372 | ||
373 | If you're using Borland compiler versions 5.2 and below, you may run into | |
374 | problems finding the correct header files when building extensions. For | |
375 | example, building the "Tk" extension may fail because both perl and Tk | |
376 | contain a header file called "patchlevel.h". The latest Borland compiler | |
377 | (v5.5) is free of this misbehaviour, and it even supports an | |
378 | option -VI- for backward (bugward) compatibility for using the old Borland | |
379 | search algorithm to locate header files. | |
380 | ||
a6a21311 PEE |
381 | If you run the tests on a FAT partition, you may see some failures for |
382 | C<link()> related tests (I<op/write.t>, I<op/stat.t> ...). Testing on | |
383 | NTFS avoids these errors. | |
384 | ||
385 | Furthermore, you should make sure that during C<make test> you do not | |
386 | have any GNU tool packages in your path: some toolkits like Unixutils | |
387 | include some tools (C<type> for instance) which override the Windows | |
388 | ones and makes tests fail. Remove them from your path while testing to | |
389 | avoid these errors. | |
390 | ||
9baed986 LC |
391 | Please report any other failures as described under L<BUGS AND CAVEATS>. |
392 | ||
393 | =head2 Installation of Perl on Win32 | |
394 | ||
395 | Type "dmake install" (or "nmake install"). This will put the newly | |
396 | built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP> points to in the | |
397 | Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation under | |
00808b83 SH |
398 | C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same under |
399 | C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod\html>. | |
9baed986 | 400 | |
00808b83 SH |
401 | To use the Perl you just installed you will need to add a new entry to |
402 | your PATH environment variable: C<$INST_TOP\bin>, e.g. | |
9baed986 | 403 | |
00808b83 | 404 | set PATH=c:\perl\bin;%PATH% |
9baed986 | 405 | |
00808b83 SH |
406 | If you opted to uncomment C<INST_VER> and C<INST_ARCH> in the makefile |
407 | then the installation structure is a little more complicated and you will | |
408 | need to add two new PATH components instead: C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin> and | |
409 | C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin\$ARCHNAME>, e.g. | |
410 | ||
411 | set PATH=c:\perl\5.6.0\bin;c:\perl\5.6.0\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH% | |
9baed986 LC |
412 | |
413 | =head2 Usage Hints for Perl on Win32 | |
414 | ||
415 | =over 4 | |
416 | ||
417 | =item Environment Variables | |
418 | ||
419 | The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled | |
420 | into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start | |
421 | using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable). | |
422 | ||
423 | If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB | |
424 | to a list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl | |
425 | to look for libraries. Look for descriptions of other environment | |
426 | variables you can set in L<perlrun>. | |
427 | ||
428 | You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and | |
429 | backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See L<perlrun>. | |
430 | ||
431 | Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain default | |
432 | values if you choose to put them there. Perl attempts to read entries from | |
433 | C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> and C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>. | |
434 | Entries in the former override entries in the latter. One or more of the | |
435 | following entries (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may be set: | |
436 | ||
437 | lib-$] version-specific standard library path to add to @INC | |
438 | lib standard library path to add to @INC | |
439 | sitelib-$] version-specific site library path to add to @INC | |
440 | sitelib site library path to add to @INC | |
441 | vendorlib-$] version-specific vendor library path to add to @INC | |
442 | vendorlib vendor library path to add to @INC | |
443 | PERL* fallback for all %ENV lookups that begin with "PERL" | |
444 | ||
445 | Note the C<$]> in the above is not literal. Substitute whatever version | |
446 | of perl you want to honor that entry, e.g. C<5.6.0>. Paths must be | |
447 | separated with semicolons, as usual on win32. | |
448 | ||
449 | =item File Globbing | |
450 | ||
451 | By default, perl handles file globbing using the File::Glob extension, | |
452 | which provides portable globbing. | |
453 | ||
454 | If you want perl to use globbing that emulates the quirks of DOS | |
455 | filename conventions, you might want to consider using File::DosGlob | |
456 | to override the internal glob() implementation. See L<File::DosGlob> for | |
457 | details. | |
458 | ||
459 | =item Using perl from the command line | |
460 | ||
461 | If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line | |
462 | shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased | |
463 | with what Windows offers by way of a command shell. | |
464 | ||
465 | The crucial thing to understand about the Windows environment is that | |
466 | the command line you type in is processed twice before Perl sees it. | |
467 | First, your command shell (usually CMD.EXE on Windows NT, and | |
468 | COMMAND.COM on Windows 9x) preprocesses the command line, to handle | |
469 | redirection, environment variable expansion, and location of the | |
470 | executable to run. Then, the perl executable splits the remaining | |
471 | command line into individual arguments, using the C runtime library | |
472 | upon which Perl was built. | |
473 | ||
474 | It is particularly important to note that neither the shell nor the C | |
475 | runtime do any wildcard expansions of command-line arguments (so | |
476 | wildcards need not be quoted). Also, the quoting behaviours of the | |
477 | shell and the C runtime are rudimentary at best (and may, if you are | |
478 | using a non-standard shell, be inconsistent). The only (useful) quote | |
479 | character is the double quote ("). It can be used to protect spaces | |
480 | and other special characters in arguments. | |
481 | ||
482 | The Windows NT documentation has almost no description of how the | |
483 | quoting rules are implemented, but here are some general observations | |
484 | based on experiments: The C runtime breaks arguments at spaces and | |
485 | passes them to programs in argc/argv. Double quotes can be used to | |
486 | prevent arguments with spaces in them from being split up. You can | |
487 | put a double quote in an argument by escaping it with a backslash and | |
488 | enclosing the whole argument within double quotes. The backslash and | |
489 | the pair of double quotes surrounding the argument will be stripped by | |
490 | the C runtime. | |
491 | ||
00808b83 | 492 | The file redirection characters "E<lt>", "E<gt>", and "|" can be quoted by |
9baed986 LC |
493 | double quotes (although there are suggestions that this may not always |
494 | be true). Single quotes are not treated as quotes by the shell or | |
495 | the C runtime, they don't get stripped by the shell (just to make | |
496 | this type of quoting completely useless). The caret "^" has also | |
497 | been observed to behave as a quoting character, but this appears | |
498 | to be a shell feature, and the caret is not stripped from the command | |
499 | line, so Perl still sees it (and the C runtime phase does not treat | |
500 | the caret as a quote character). | |
501 | ||
502 | Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell: | |
503 | ||
504 | This prints two doublequotes: | |
505 | ||
506 | perl -e "print '\"\"' " | |
507 | ||
508 | This does the same: | |
509 | ||
510 | perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" " | |
511 | ||
512 | This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch": | |
513 | ||
514 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch | |
515 | ||
516 | This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland): | |
517 | ||
518 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul | |
519 | ||
520 | This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch": | |
521 | ||
522 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch | |
523 | ||
524 | This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the console: | |
525 | ||
526 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less | |
527 | ||
528 | This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager: | |
529 | ||
530 | perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less | |
531 | ||
532 | This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file "blurch": | |
533 | ||
534 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less | |
535 | ||
536 | ||
537 | Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows 9x | |
538 | is left as an exercise to the reader :) | |
539 | ||
540 | One particularly pernicious problem with the 4NT command shell for | |
541 | Windows NT is that it (nearly) always treats a % character as indicating | |
542 | that environment variable expansion is needed. Under this shell, it is | |
543 | therefore important to always double any % characters which you want | |
544 | Perl to see (for example, for hash variables), even when they are | |
545 | quoted. | |
546 | ||
547 | =item Building Extensions | |
548 | ||
549 | The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth | |
550 | of extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build. | |
551 | Look in http://www.cpan.org/ for more information on CPAN. | |
552 | ||
553 | Note that not all of the extensions available from CPAN may work | |
554 | in the Win32 environment; you should check the information at | |
555 | http://testers.cpan.org/ before investing too much effort into | |
556 | porting modules that don't readily build. | |
557 | ||
558 | Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can | |
559 | be built, tested and installed with the standard mantra: | |
560 | ||
561 | perl Makefile.PL | |
562 | $MAKE | |
563 | $MAKE test | |
564 | $MAKE install | |
565 | ||
566 | where $MAKE is whatever 'make' program you have configured perl to | |
567 | use. Use "perl -V:make" to find out what this is. Some extensions | |
568 | may not provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything or | |
569 | fail), but most serious ones do. | |
570 | ||
571 | It is important that you use a supported 'make' program, and | |
572 | ensure Config.pm knows about it. If you don't have nmake, you can | |
573 | either get dmake from the location mentioned earlier or get an | |
574 | old version of nmake reportedly available from: | |
575 | ||
cb9857f1 | 576 | http://download.microsoft.com/download/vc15/Patch/1.52/W95/EN-US/nmake15.exe |
9baed986 LC |
577 | |
578 | Another option is to use the make written in Perl, available from | |
579 | CPAN. | |
580 | ||
581 | http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Make/ | |
582 | ||
583 | You may also use dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it. | |
584 | ||
585 | Note that MakeMaker actually emits makefiles with different syntax | |
586 | depending on what 'make' it thinks you are using. Therefore, it is | |
587 | important that one of the following values appears in Config.pm: | |
588 | ||
589 | make='nmake' # MakeMaker emits nmake syntax | |
590 | make='dmake' # MakeMaker emits dmake syntax | |
591 | any other value # MakeMaker emits generic make syntax | |
592 | (e.g GNU make, or Perl make) | |
593 | ||
594 | If the value doesn't match the 'make' program you want to use, | |
595 | edit Config.pm to fix it. | |
596 | ||
597 | If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported | |
598 | C compilers. You must make sure you have set up the environment for | |
599 | the compiler for command-line compilation. | |
600 | ||
601 | If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for | |
602 | why it failed, and report problems to the module author. If | |
603 | it looks like the extension building support is at fault, report | |
604 | that with full details of how the build failed using the perlbug | |
605 | utility. | |
606 | ||
607 | =item Command-line Wildcard Expansion | |
608 | ||
609 | The default command shells on DOS descendant operating systems (such | |
610 | as they are) usually do not expand wildcard arguments supplied to | |
611 | programs. They consider it the application's job to handle that. | |
612 | This is commonly achieved by linking the application (in our case, | |
613 | perl) with startup code that the C runtime libraries usually provide. | |
614 | However, doing that results in incompatible perl versions (since the | |
615 | behavior of the argv expansion code differs depending on the | |
616 | compiler, and it is even buggy on some compilers). Besides, it may | |
617 | be a source of frustration if you use such a perl binary with an | |
618 | alternate shell that *does* expand wildcards. | |
619 | ||
620 | Instead, the following solution works rather well. The nice things | |
dbd54a9f | 621 | about it are 1) you can start using it right away; 2) it is more |
9baed986 LC |
622 | powerful, because it will do the right thing with a pattern like |
623 | */*/*.c; 3) you can decide whether you do/don't want to use it; and | |
dbd54a9f | 624 | 4) you can extend the method to add any customizations (or even |
9baed986 LC |
625 | entirely different kinds of wildcard expansion). |
626 | ||
627 | C:\> copy con c:\perl\lib\Wild.pm | |
628 | # Wild.pm - emulate shell @ARGV expansion on shells that don't | |
629 | use File::DosGlob; | |
630 | @ARGV = map { | |
631 | my @g = File::DosGlob::glob($_) if /[*?]/; | |
632 | @g ? @g : $_; | |
633 | } @ARGV; | |
634 | 1; | |
635 | ^Z | |
636 | C:\> set PERL5OPT=-MWild | |
637 | C:\> perl -le "for (@ARGV) { print }" */*/perl*.c | |
638 | p4view/perl/perl.c | |
639 | p4view/perl/perlio.c | |
640 | p4view/perl/perly.c | |
641 | perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c | |
642 | perl5.005/win32/perllib.c | |
643 | perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c | |
644 | perl5.005/win32/perllib.c | |
645 | perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c | |
646 | perl5.005/win32/perllib.c | |
647 | ||
648 | Note there are two distinct steps there: 1) You'll have to create | |
649 | Wild.pm and put it in your perl lib directory. 2) You'll need to | |
650 | set the PERL5OPT environment variable. If you want argv expansion | |
651 | to be the default, just set PERL5OPT in your default startup | |
652 | environment. | |
653 | ||
654 | If you are using the Visual C compiler, you can get the C runtime's | |
655 | command line wildcard expansion built into perl binary. The resulting | |
656 | binary will always expand unquoted command lines, which may not be | |
657 | what you want if you use a shell that does that for you. The expansion | |
658 | done is also somewhat less powerful than the approach suggested above. | |
659 | ||
660 | =item Win32 Specific Extensions | |
661 | ||
662 | A number of extensions specific to the Win32 platform are available | |
663 | from CPAN. You may find that many of these extensions are meant to | |
664 | be used under the Activeware port of Perl, which used to be the only | |
665 | native port for the Win32 platform. Since the Activeware port does not | |
666 | have adequate support for Perl's extension building tools, these | |
667 | extensions typically do not support those tools either and, therefore, | |
668 | cannot be built using the generic steps shown in the previous section. | |
669 | ||
670 | To ensure smooth transitioning of existing code that uses the | |
671 | ActiveState port, there is a bundle of Win32 extensions that contains | |
00808b83 | 672 | all of the ActiveState extensions and several other Win32 extensions from |
9baed986 | 673 | CPAN in source form, along with many added bugfixes, and with MakeMaker |
758e4bce | 674 | support. The latest version of this bundle is available at: |
9baed986 | 675 | |
758e4bce | 676 | http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwin32/ |
9baed986 LC |
677 | |
678 | See the README in that distribution for building and installation | |
758e4bce | 679 | instructions. |
9baed986 LC |
680 | |
681 | =item Notes on 64-bit Windows | |
682 | ||
683 | Windows .NET Server supports the LLP64 data model on the Intel Itanium | |
684 | architecture. | |
685 | ||
686 | The LLP64 data model is different from the LP64 data model that is the | |
687 | norm on 64-bit Unix platforms. In the former, C<int> and C<long> are | |
688 | both 32-bit data types, while pointers are 64 bits wide. In addition, | |
689 | there is a separate 64-bit wide integral type, C<__int64>. In contrast, | |
690 | the LP64 data model that is pervasive on Unix platforms provides C<int> | |
691 | as the 32-bit type, while both the C<long> type and pointers are of | |
692 | 64-bit precision. Note that both models provide for 64-bits of | |
693 | addressability. | |
694 | ||
695 | 64-bit Windows running on Itanium is capable of running 32-bit x86 | |
696 | binaries transparently. This means that you could use a 32-bit build | |
697 | of Perl on a 64-bit system. Given this, why would one want to build | |
698 | a 64-bit build of Perl? Here are some reasons why you would bother: | |
699 | ||
00808b83 SH |
700 | =over |
701 | ||
9baed986 LC |
702 | =item * |
703 | ||
704 | A 64-bit native application will run much more efficiently on | |
705 | Itanium hardware. | |
706 | ||
707 | =item * | |
708 | ||
709 | There is no 2GB limit on process size. | |
710 | ||
711 | =item * | |
712 | ||
713 | Perl automatically provides large file support when built under | |
714 | 64-bit Windows. | |
715 | ||
716 | =item * | |
717 | ||
718 | Embedding Perl inside a 64-bit application. | |
719 | ||
720 | =back | |
721 | ||
00808b83 SH |
722 | =back |
723 | ||
9baed986 LC |
724 | =head2 Running Perl Scripts |
725 | ||
726 | Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to | |
727 | indicate to the OS that it should execute the file using perl. | |
728 | Win32 has no comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are | |
729 | executables. | |
730 | ||
731 | Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on | |
732 | Win32 rely on the file "extension". There are three methods | |
733 | to use this to execute perl scripts: | |
734 | ||
735 | =over 8 | |
736 | ||
737 | =item 1 | |
738 | ||
739 | There is a facility called "file extension associations" that will | |
740 | work in Windows NT 4.0. This can be manipulated via the two | |
741 | commands "assoc" and "ftype" that come standard with Windows NT | |
742 | 4.0. Type "ftype /?" for a complete example of how to set this | |
743 | up for perl scripts (Say what? You thought Windows NT wasn't | |
744 | perl-ready? :). | |
745 | ||
746 | =item 2 | |
747 | ||
748 | Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are | |
749 | reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the | |
750 | old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a | |
751 | regular batch file to the OS, may be used. The install process | |
752 | makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to wrap | |
753 | perl scripts into batch files. For example: | |
754 | ||
755 | pl2bat foo.pl | |
756 | ||
757 | will create the file "FOO.BAT". Note "pl2bat" strips any | |
758 | .pl suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file. | |
759 | ||
760 | If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that | |
761 | "pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to | |
762 | refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to make | |
763 | sure that construct works in batch files. As of this writing, | |
764 | 4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *" statement in their | |
765 | 4NT.INI file or will need to execute "setdos /p*" in the 4DOS/NT | |
766 | startup file to enable this to work. | |
767 | ||
768 | =item 3 | |
769 | ||
770 | Using "pl2bat" has a few problems: the file name gets changed, | |
771 | so scripts that rely on C<$0> to find what they must do may not | |
772 | run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the | |
773 | original script, and so this process can be maintenance intensive | |
774 | if the originals get updated often. A different approach that | |
775 | avoids both problems is possible. | |
776 | ||
777 | A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied | |
778 | to any filename (along with the .bat suffix). For example, | |
779 | if you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is | |
780 | executed. Since you can run batch files on Win32 platforms simply | |
781 | by typing the name (without the extension), this effectively | |
782 | runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or "foo.bat". | |
783 | With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a different location | |
784 | than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is available somewhere on | |
785 | the PATH. If your scripts are on a filesystem that allows symbolic | |
786 | links, you can even avoid copying "runperl.bat". | |
787 | ||
788 | Here's a diversion: copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type | |
789 | "runperl". Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :) | |
790 | Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH | |
791 | ||
00808b83 SH |
792 | =back |
793 | ||
794 | =head2 Miscellaneous Things | |
9baed986 LC |
795 | |
796 | A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be | |
797 | able to use it if you have a web browser installed on your | |
798 | system. | |
799 | ||
800 | C<perldoc> is also a useful tool for browsing information contained | |
801 | in the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager | |
802 | like C<less> (recent versions of which have Win32 support). You may | |
803 | have to set the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager. | |
804 | "perldoc -f foo" will print information about the perl operator | |
805 | "foo". | |
806 | ||
13ee867e BD |
807 | One common mistake when using this port with a GUI library like C<Tk> |
808 | is assuming that Perl's normal behavior of opening a command-line | |
809 | window will go away. This isn't the case. If you want to start a copy | |
810 | of C<perl> without opening a command-line window, use the C<wperl> | |
811 | executable built during the installation process. Usage is exactly | |
812 | the same as normal C<perl> on Win32, except that options like C<-h> | |
813 | don't work (since they need a command-line window to print to). | |
814 | ||
9baed986 LC |
815 | If you find bugs in perl, you can run C<perlbug> to create a |
816 | bug report (you may have to send it manually if C<perlbug> cannot | |
817 | find a mailer on your system). | |
818 | ||
9baed986 LC |
819 | =head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS |
820 | ||
dbd54a9f VK |
821 | Norton AntiVirus interferes with the build process, particularly if |
822 | set to "AutoProtect, All Files, when Opened". Unlike large applications | |
823 | the perl build process opens and modifies a lot of files. Having the | |
9baed986 LC |
824 | the AntiVirus scan each and every one slows build the process significantly. |
825 | Worse, with PERLIO=stdio the build process fails with peculiar messages | |
dbd54a9f | 826 | as the virus checker interacts badly with miniperl.exe writing configure |
9baed986 LC |
827 | files (it seems to either catch file part written and treat it as suspicious, |
828 | or virus checker may have it "locked" in a way which inhibits miniperl | |
dbd54a9f | 829 | updating it). The build does complete with |
9baed986 LC |
830 | |
831 | set PERLIO=perlio | |
832 | ||
833 | but that may be just luck. Other AntiVirus software may have similar issues. | |
834 | ||
835 | Some of the built-in functions do not act exactly as documented in | |
836 | L<perlfunc>, and a few are not implemented at all. To avoid | |
837 | surprises, particularly if you have had prior exposure to Perl | |
838 | in other operating environments or if you intend to write code | |
00808b83 | 839 | that will be portable to other environments, see L<perlport> |
9baed986 LC |
840 | for a reasonably definitive list of these differences. |
841 | ||
842 | Not all extensions available from CPAN may build or work properly | |
843 | in the Win32 environment. See L</"Building Extensions">. | |
844 | ||
845 | Most C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not | |
846 | behave as on Unix platforms. See L<perlport> for the full list. | |
036c1c1e SH |
847 | Perl requires Winsock2 to be installed on the system. If you're |
848 | running Win95, you can download Winsock upgrade from here: | |
849 | ||
850 | http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/downloads/contents/WUAdminTools/S_WUNetworkingTools/W95Sockets2/Default.asp | |
851 | ||
852 | Later OS versions already include Winsock2 support. | |
9baed986 LC |
853 | |
854 | Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it | |
855 | doesn't exactly "behave", either :). For instance, calling C<die()> | |
856 | or C<exit()> from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most | |
857 | implementations of C<signal()> on Win32 are severely crippled. | |
858 | Thus, signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag | |
859 | variable in the handler. Using signals under this port should | |
860 | currently be considered unsupported. | |
861 | ||
dbd54a9f | 862 | Please send detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that |
00808b83 SH |
863 | you may find to E<lt>F<perlbug@perl.org>E<gt>, along with the output |
864 | produced by C<perl -V>. | |
9baed986 | 865 | |
e84ac4e2 SH |
866 | =head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |
867 | ||
868 | The use of a camel with the topic of Perl is a trademark | |
869 | of O'Reilly and Associates, Inc. Used with permission. | |
870 | ||
9baed986 LC |
871 | =head1 AUTHORS |
872 | ||
873 | =over 4 | |
874 | ||
875 | =item Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt> | |
876 | ||
877 | =item Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@activestate.comE<gt> | |
878 | ||
879 | =item Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ing-simmons.netE<gt> | |
880 | ||
2bfd3252 SH |
881 | =item Jan Dubois E<lt>jand@activestate.comE<gt> |
882 | ||
883 | =item Steve Hay E<lt>steve.hay@uk.radan.comE<gt> | |
884 | ||
9baed986 LC |
885 | =back |
886 | ||
2bfd3252 | 887 | This document is maintained by Jan Dubois. |
9baed986 LC |
888 | |
889 | =head1 SEE ALSO | |
890 | ||
891 | L<perl> | |
892 | ||
893 | =head1 HISTORY | |
894 | ||
895 | This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24, | |
896 | and borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available | |
897 | at the time. Various people have made numerous and sundry hacks | |
898 | since then. | |
899 | ||
900 | Borland support was added in 5.004_01 (Gurusamy Sarathy). | |
901 | ||
902 | GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons). | |
903 | ||
904 | Support for PERL_OBJECT was added in 5.005 (ActiveState Tool Corp). | |
905 | ||
906 | Support for fork() emulation was added in 5.6 (ActiveState Tool Corp). | |
907 | ||
908 | Win9x support was added in 5.6 (Benjamin Stuhl). | |
909 | ||
910 | Support for 64-bit Windows added in 5.8 (ActiveState Corp). | |
911 | ||
cab190d4 | 912 | Last updated: 30 September 2005 |
9baed986 LC |
913 | |
914 | =cut |