This is a live mirror of the Perl 5 development currently hosted at https://github.com/perl/perl5
Fix to threads::shared t/waithires.t
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1If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you see.
2It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is specially
3designed to be readable as is.
4
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5=head1 NAME
6
7Install - Build and Installation guide for perl5.
8
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9=head1 Reporting Problems
10
11Wherever possible please use the perlbug tool supplied with this Perl
12to report problems, as it automatically includes summary configuration
13information about your perl, which may help us track down problems far
14more quickly. But first you should read the advice in this file,
15carefully re-read the error message and check the relevant manual pages
16on your system, as these may help you find an immediate solution. If
17you are not sure whether what you are seeing is a bug, you can send a
18message describing the problem to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup to
19get advice.
20
21The perlbug tool is installed along with perl, so after you have
22completed C<make install> it should be possible to run it with plain
23C<perlbug>. If the install fails, or you want to report problems with
24C<make test> without installing perl, then you can use C<make nok> to
25run perlbug to report the problem, or run it by hand from this source
26directory with C<./perl -Ilib utils/perlbug>
27
28If the build fails too early to run perlbug uninstalled, then please
29B<run> the C<./myconfig> shell script, and mail its output along with
30an accurate description of your problem to perlbug@perl.org
31
ce80d64e 32If Configure itself fails, and does not generate a config.sh file
40dd8381 33(needed to run C<./myconfig>), then please mail perlbug@perl.org the
ce80d64e 34description of how Configure fails along with details of your system
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35- for example the output from running C<uname -a>
36
37Please try to make your message brief but clear. Brief, clear bug
38reports tend to get answered more quickly. Please don't worry if your
39written English is not great - what matters is how well you describe
40the important technical details of the problem you have encountered,
41not whether your grammar and spelling is flawless.
42
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43Trim out unnecessary information. Do not include large files (such as
44config.sh or a complete Configure or make log) unless absolutely
45necessary. Do not include a complete transcript of your build
46session. Just include the failing commands, the relevant error
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47messages, and whatever preceding commands are necessary to give the
48appropriate context. Plain text should usually be sufficient--fancy
49attachments or encodings may actually reduce the number of people who
50read your message. Your message will get relayed to over 400
51subscribers around the world so please try to keep it brief but clear.
52
53If you are unsure what makes a good bug report please read "How to
54report Bugs Effectively" by Simon Tatham:
55http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html
56
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57=head1 SYNOPSIS
58
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59First, make sure you have an up-to-date version of Perl. If you
60didn't get your Perl source from CPAN, check the latest version at
61http://www.cpan.org/src/. Perl uses a version scheme where even-numbered
62subreleases (like 5.6.x and 5.8.x) are stable maintenance releases and
63odd-numbered subreleases (like 5.7.x and 5.9.x) are unstable
64development releases. Development releases should not be used in
65production environments. Fixes and new features are first carefully
66tested in development releases and only if they prove themselves to be
67worthy will they be migrated to the maintenance releases.
3ce0d271 68
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69The basic steps to build and install perl5 on a Unix system with all
70the defaults are:
8e07c86e 71
dc45a647 72 rm -f config.sh Policy.sh
491517e0 73 sh Configure -de
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74 make
75 make test
76 make install
36477c24 77
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78Each of these is explained in further detail below.
79
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80The above commands will install Perl to /usr/local (or some other
81platform-specific directory -- see the appropriate file in hints/.)
ce80d64e 82If that's not okay with you, can run Configure interactively and use
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83
84 rm -f config.sh Policy.sh
85 sh Configure
86 make
87 make test
88 make install
89
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90 # You may also wish to add these:
91 (cd /usr/include && h2ph *.h sys/*.h)
92 (installhtml --help)
93 (cd pod && make tex && <process the latex files>)
adbebc0b 94
ce80d64e 95or you can use some of the Configure options described below.
7f678428 96
8d74ce1c 97If you have problems, corrections, or questions, please see
40dd8381 98L<"Reporting Problems"> above.
8d74ce1c 99
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100For information on what's new in this release, see the
101pod/perldelta.pod file. For more detailed information about specific
102changes, see the Changes file.
c3edaffb 103
1ec51d55 104=head1 DESCRIPTION
edb1cbcb 105
c3edaffb 106This document is written in pod format as an easy way to indicate its
107structure. The pod format is described in pod/perlpod.pod, but you can
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108read it as is with any pager or editor. Headings and items are marked
109by lines beginning with '='. The other mark-up used is
110
111 B<text> embolden text, used for switches, programs or commands
112 C<code> literal code
113 L<name> A link (cross reference) to name
ce80d64e 114 F<file> A filename
1ec51d55 115
c42e3e15 116Although most of the defaults are probably fine for most users,
ce80d64e 117you should probably at least skim through this document before
1ec51d55 118proceeding.
c3edaffb 119
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120In addition to this file, check if there is a README file specific to
121your operating system, since it may provide additional or different
122instructions for building Perl. If there is a hint file for your
123system (in the hints/ directory) you should also read that hint file
124for even more information. (Unixware users should use the svr4.sh or
125the svr5.sh hint file.)
c42e3e15 126
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127For additional information about porting Perl, see the section on
128L<"Porting information"> below, and look at the files in the Porting/
129directory.
d56c5707 130
ce80d64e 131=head1 PRELIMINARIES
c42e3e15 132
ce80d64e 133=head2 Changes and Incompatibilities
c42e3e15 134
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135Please see pod/perldelta.pod for a description of the changes and
136potential incompatibilities introduced with this release. A few of
137the most important issues are listed below, but you should refer
138to pod/perldelta.pod for more detailed information.
c42e3e15 139
ce80d64e 140=head3 WARNING: This version is not binary compatible with releases of
9a664500 141Perl prior to 5.9.0.
1b1c1ae2 142
cc65bb49 143If you have built extensions (i.e. modules that include C code)
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144using an earlier version of Perl, you will need to rebuild and reinstall
145those extensions.
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146
147Pure perl modules without XS or C code should continue to work fine
148without reinstallation. See the discussions below on
149L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> and
fe23a901 150L<"Upgrading from 5.005 or 5.6 to 5.8.0"> for more details.
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151
152The standard extensions supplied with Perl will be handled automatically.
153
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154On a related issue, old modules may possibly be affected by the changes
155in the Perl language in the current release. Please see
156pod/perldelta.pod for a description of what's changed. See your
157installed copy of the perllocal.pod file for a (possibly incomplete)
158list of locally installed modules. Also see CPAN::autobundle for one
159way to make a "bundle" of your currently installed modules.
16dc217a 160
ce80d64e 161=head2 Space Requirements
eed2e782 162
9a664500 163The complete perl5 source tree takes up about 60 MB of disk space.
8756f06c 164After completing make, it takes up roughly 100 MB, though the actual
d6baa268 165total is likely to be quite system-dependent. The installation
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166directories need something on the order of 50 MB, though again that
167value is quite system-dependent.
8e07c86e 168
aa689395 169=head1 Start with a Fresh Distribution
8e07c86e 170
edb1cbcb 171If you have built perl before, you should clean out the build directory
172with the command
173
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174 make distclean
175
176or
177
edb1cbcb 178 make realclean
c3edaffb 179
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180The only difference between the two is that make distclean also removes
181your old config.sh and Policy.sh files.
182
183The results of a Configure run are stored in the config.sh and Policy.sh
184files. If you are upgrading from a previous version of perl, or if you
185change systems or compilers or make other significant changes, or if
186you are experiencing difficulties building perl, you should probably
d6baa268 187not re-use your old config.sh. Simply remove it
8e07c86e 188
d6baa268 189 rm -f config.sh
4633a7c4 190
e57fd563 191If you wish to use your old config.sh, be especially attentive to the
192version and architecture-specific questions and answers. For example,
193the default directory for architecture-dependent library modules
194includes the version name. By default, Configure will reuse your old
195name (e.g. /opt/perl/lib/i86pc-solaris/5.003) even if you're running
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196Configure for a different version, e.g. 5.004. Similarly, if you used
197a shared libperl.so (see below) with version numbers, you will probably
198want to adjust them as well.
e57fd563 199
d6baa268 200Also, be careful to check your architecture name. For example, some
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201Linux distributions use i386, but Configure uses the output of the arch
202command, which might be i686 instead. If you pick up a precompiled
203binary, or compile extensions on different systems, they might not all
204agree on the architecture name.
e57fd563 205
206In short, if you wish to use your old config.sh, I recommend running
207Configure interactively rather than blindly accepting the defaults.
8e07c86e 208
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209If your reason to reuse your old config.sh is to save your particular
210installation choices, then you can probably achieve the same effect by
211using the Policy.sh file. See the section on L<"Site-wide Policy
212settings"> below. If you wish to start with a fresh distribution, you
213also need to remove any old Policy.sh files you may have with
214
215 rm -f Policy.sh
dc45a647 216
aa689395 217=head1 Run Configure
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218
219Configure will figure out various things about your system. Some
220things Configure will figure out for itself, other things it will ask
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221you about. To accept the default, just press RETURN. The default is
222almost always okay. It is normal for some things to be "NOT found",
223since Configure often searches for many different ways of performing
224the same function.
225
ce80d64e 226At any Configure prompt, you can type &-d and Configure will use the
d6baa268 227defaults from then on.
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228
229After it runs, Configure will perform variable substitution on all the
1ec51d55 230*.SH files and offer to run make depend.
8e07c86e 231
ce80d64e 232=head2 Common Configure options
844fc9f4 233
ce80d64e 234Configure supports a number of useful options. Run
844fc9f4 235
ce80d64e 236 Configure -h
d6baa268 237
ce80d64e 238to get a listing. See the Porting/Glossary file for a complete list of
fb73857a 239Configure variables you can set and their definitions.
240
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241=over 4
242
243=item gcc
244
245To compile with gcc you should run
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246
247 sh Configure -Dcc=gcc
248
249This is the preferred way to specify gcc (or another alternative
250compiler) so that the hints files can set appropriate defaults.
251
d6baa268 252=item Installation prefix
4633a7c4 253
8e07c86e 254By default, for most systems, perl will be installed in
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255/usr/local/{bin, lib, man}. (See L<"Installation Directories">
256and L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> below for
257further details.)
258
259You can specify a different 'prefix' for the default installation
ce80d64e 260directory when Configure prompts you, or by using the Configure command
8d74ce1c 261line option -Dprefix='/some/directory', e.g.
8e07c86e 262
25f94b33 263 sh Configure -Dprefix=/opt/perl
4633a7c4 264
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265If your prefix contains the string "perl", then the suggested
266directory structure is simplified. For example, if you use
267prefix=/opt/perl, then Configure will suggest /opt/perl/lib instead of
268/opt/perl/lib/perl5/. Again, see L<"Installation Directories"> below
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269for more details. Do not include a trailing slash, (i.e. /opt/perl/)
270or you may experience odd test failures.
8e07c86e 271
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272NOTE: You must not specify an installation directory that is the same
273as or below your perl source directory. If you do, installperl will
274attempt infinite recursion.
84902520 275
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276=item /usr/bin/perl
277
278It may seem obvious, but Perl is useful only when users can easily
279find it. It's often a good idea to have both /usr/bin/perl and
dd64f1c3 280/usr/local/bin/perl be symlinks to the actual binary. Be especially
d6baa268 281careful, however, not to overwrite a version of perl supplied by your
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282vendor unless you are sure you know what you are doing. If you insist
283on replacing your vendor's perl, useful information on how it was
284configured may be found with
285
286 perl -V:config_args
287
288(Check the output carefully, however, since this doesn't preserve
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289spaces in arguments to Configure. For that, you have to look carefully
290at config_arg1, config_arg2, etc.)
d6baa268 291
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292By default, Configure will not try to link /usr/bin/perl to the current
293version of perl. You can turn on that behavior by running
d6baa268 294
7d56c962 295 Configure -Dinstallusrbinperl
d6baa268 296
7d56c962 297or by answering 'yes' to the appropriate Configure prompt.
d6baa268 298
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299In any case, system administrators are strongly encouraged to put
300(symlinks to) perl and its accompanying utilities, such as perldoc,
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301into a directory typically found along a user's PATH, or in another
302obvious and convenient place.
303
ce80d64e 304=item Building a development release.
04d420f9 305
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306For development releases (odd subreleases, like 5.9.x) if you want to
307use Configure -d, you will also need to supply -Dusedevel to Configure,
308because the default answer to the question "do you really want to
309Configure a development version?" is "no". The -Dusedevel skips that
310sanity check.
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311
312=back
8e07c86e 313
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314If you are willing to accept all the defaults, and you want terse
315output, you can run
316
317 sh Configure -des
318
ce80d64e 319For example for my Solaris/x86 system, I usually use
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320
321 sh Configure -Dprefix=/opt/perl -Doptimize='-xpentium -xO4' -des
322
ce80d64e 323=head2 Altering config.sh variables for C compiler switches etc.
46bb10fb 324
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325For most users, most of the Configure defaults are fine, or can easily
326be set on the Configure command line. However, if Configure doesn't
327have an option to do what you want, you can change Configure variables
328after the platform hints have been run by using Configure's -A switch.
329For example, here's how to add a couple of extra flags to C compiler
330invocations:
46bb10fb 331
2db3864f 332 sh Configure -Accflags="-DPERL_EXTERNAL_GLOB -DPERL_POLLUTE_MALLOC"
46bb10fb 333
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334To clarify, those ccflags values are not Configure options; if passed to
335Configure directly, they won't do anything useful (that will define a config.sh
336variable, but without taking any action based upon it). When passed to the
337compiler, those flags will activate #ifdefd code.
338
ce80d64e 339For more help on Configure switches, run
46bb10fb 340
ce80d64e 341 sh Configure -h
46bb10fb 342
ce80d64e 343=head2 Major Configure-time Build Options
46bb10fb 344
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345There are several different ways to Configure and build perl for your
346system. For most users, the defaults are sensible and will work.
347Some users, however, may wish to further customize perl. Here are
348some of the main things you can change.
46bb10fb 349
ce80d64e 350=head3 Threads
cc65bb49 351
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352On some platforms, perl can be compiled with support for threads. To
353enable this, run
4633a7c4 354
ce80d64e 355 sh Configure -Dusethreads
4633a7c4 356
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357Currently, you need to specify -Dusethreads on the Configure command
358line so that the hint files can make appropriate adjustments.
cc65bb49 359
ce80d64e 360The default is to compile without thread support.
cc65bb49 361
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362Perl has two different internal threads implementations. The current
363model (available internally since 5.6, and as a user-level module since
3645.8) is called interpreter-based implementation (ithreads), with one
365interpreter per thread, and explicit sharing of data. The 5.005
366version (5005threads) is considered obsolete, buggy, and unmaintained.
d6baa268 367
ce80d64e 368By default, Configure selects ithreads if -Dusethreads is specified.
d6baa268 369
ce80d64e 370However, if you insist, you can select the unsupported old 5005threads behavior
d6baa268 371
ce80d64e 372 sh Configure -Dusethreads -Duse5005threads
d6baa268 373
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374The 'threads' module is for use with the ithreads implementation. The
375'Thread' module offers an interface to either 5005threads or ithreads
376(whichever has been configured).
d6baa268 377
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378When using threads, perl uses a dynamically-sized buffer for some of
379the thread-safe library calls, such as those in the getpw*() family.
380This buffer starts small, but it will keep growing until the result
381fits. To get a fixed upper limit, you should compile Perl with
382PERL_REENTRANT_MAXSIZE defined to be the number of bytes you want. One
383way to do this is to run Configure with
384C<-Accflags=-DPERL_REENTRANT_MAXSIZE=65536>
d6baa268 385
ce80d64e 386=head3 Large file support.
b367e8b0 387
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388Since Perl 5.6.0, Perl has supported large files (files larger than
3892 gigabytes), and in many common platforms like Linux or Solaris this
390support is on by default.
d6baa268 391
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392This is both good and bad. It is good in that you can use large files,
393seek(), stat(), and -s them. It is bad in that if you are interfacing Perl
394using some extension, the components you are connecting to must also
395be large file aware: if Perl thinks files can be large but the other
396parts of the software puzzle do not understand the concept, bad things
397will happen. One popular extension suffering from this ailment is the
398Apache extension mod_perl.
d6baa268 399
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400There's also one known limitation with the current large files
401implementation: unless you also have 64-bit integers (see the next
402section), you cannot use the printf/sprintf non-decimal integer formats
403like C<%x> to print filesizes. You can use C<%d>, though.
d6baa268 404
ce80d64e 405=head3 64 bit support.
d6baa268 406
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407If your platform does not have run natively at 64 bits, but can
408simulate them with compiler flags and/or C<long long> or C<int64_t>,
409you can build a perl that uses 64 bits.
d6baa268 410
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411There are actually two modes of 64-bitness: the first one is achieved
412using Configure -Duse64bitint and the second one using Configure
413-Duse64bitall. The difference is that the first one is minimal and
414the second one maximal. The first works in more places than the second.
d6baa268 415
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416The C<use64bitint> option does only as much as is required to get
41764-bit integers into Perl (this may mean, for example, using "long
418longs") while your memory may still be limited to 2 gigabytes (because
419your pointers could still be 32-bit). Note that the name C<64bitint>
420does not imply that your C compiler will be using 64-bit C<int>s (it
421might, but it doesn't have to). The C<use64bitint> simply means that
422you will be able to have 64 bit-wide scalar values.
d6baa268 423
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424The C<use64bitall> option goes all the way by attempting to switch
425integers (if it can), longs (and pointers) to being 64-bit. This may
426create an even more binary incompatible Perl than -Duse64bitint: the
427resulting executable may not run at all in a 32-bit box, or you may
428have to reboot/reconfigure/rebuild your operating system to be 64-bit
429aware.
d6baa268 430
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431Natively 64-bit systems like Alpha and Cray need neither -Duse64bitint
432nor -Duse64bitall.
d6baa268 433
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434 NOTE: 64-bit support is still experimental on most platforms.
435 Existing support only covers the LP64 data model. In particular, the
436 LLP64 data model is not yet supported. 64-bit libraries and system
437 APIs on many platforms have not stabilized--your mileage may vary.
d6baa268 438
ce80d64e 439=head3 Long doubles
d6baa268 440
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441In some systems you may be able to use long doubles to enhance the
442range and precision of your double precision floating point numbers
443(that is, Perl's numbers). Use Configure -Duselongdouble to enable
444this support (if it is available).
d6baa268 445
ce80d64e 446=head3 "more bits"
b367e8b0 447
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448You can "Configure -Dusemorebits" to turn on both the 64-bit support
449and the long double support.
b367e8b0 450
ce80d64e 451=head3 Selecting File IO mechanisms
d6baa268 452
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453Executive summary: as of Perl 5.8, you should use the default "PerlIO"
454as the IO mechanism unless you have a good reason not to.
273cf8d1 455
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456In more detail: previous versions of perl used the standard IO
457mechanisms as defined in stdio.h. Versions 5.003_02 and later of perl
458introduced alternate IO mechanisms via a "PerlIO" abstraction, but up
459until and including Perl 5.6, the stdio mechanism was still the default
460and the only supported mechanism.
d6baa268 461
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462Starting from Perl 5.8, the default mechanism is to use the PerlIO
463abstraction, because it allows better control of I/O mechanisms,
464instead of having to work with (often, work around) vendors' I/O
465implementations.
46bb10fb 466
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467This PerlIO abstraction can be (but again, unless you know what you
468are doing, should not be) disabled either on the Configure command
469line with
46bb10fb 470
6d5328bc 471 sh Configure -Uuseperlio
46bb10fb 472
6d5328bc 473or interactively at the appropriate Configure prompt.
46bb10fb 474
ce80d64e 475=head3 Algorithmic Complexity Attacks on Hashes
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476
477In Perls 5.8.0 and earlier it was easy to create degenerate hashes.
478Processing such hashes would consume large amounts of CPU time,
3debabd9 479enabling a "Denial of Service" attack against Perl. Such hashes may be
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480a problem for example for mod_perl sites, sites with Perl CGI scripts
481and web services, that process data originating from external sources.
482
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483In Perl 5.8.1 a security feature was introduced to make it harder to
484create such degenerate hashes. A visible side effect of this was that
485the keys(), values(), and each() functions may return the hash elements
486in different order between different runs of Perl even with the same
487data. It also had unintended binary incompatibility issues with
488certain modules compiled against Perl 5.8.0.
489
490In Perl 5.8.2 an improved scheme was introduced. Hashes will return
491elements in the same order as Perl 5.8.0 by default. On a hash by hash
492basis, if pathological data is detected during a hash key insertion,
493then that hash will switch to an alternative random hash seed. As
494adding keys can always dramatically change returned hash element order,
495existing programs will not be affected by this, unless they
496specifically test for pre-recorded hash return order for contrived
497data. (eg the list of keys generated by C<map {"\0"x$_} 0..15> trigger
498randomisation) In effect the new implementation means that 5.8.1 scheme
499is only being used on hashes which are under attack.
500
501One can still revert to the old guaranteed repeatable order (and be
502vulnerable to attack by wily crackers) by setting the environment
503variable PERL_HASH_SEED, see L<perlrun/PERL_HASH_SEED>. Another option
504is to add -DUSE_HASH_SEED_EXPLICIT to the compilation flags (for
f80da78e 505example by using C<Configure -Accflags=-DUSE_HASH_SEED_EXPLICIT>), in
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506which case one has to explicitly set the PERL_HASH_SEED environment
507variable to enable the security feature, or by adding -DNO_HASH_SEED to
508the compilation flags to completely disable the randomisation feature.
504f80c1 509
3debabd9 510B<Perl has never guaranteed any ordering of the hash keys>, and the
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511ordering has already changed several times during the lifetime of Perl
5125. Also, the ordering of hash keys has always been, and continues to
513be, affected by the insertion order. It is likely that Perl 5.10 and
514Perl 6 will randomise all hashes. Note that because of this
515randomisation for example the Data::Dumper results will be different
516between different runs of Perl since Data::Dumper by default dumps
517hashes "unordered". The use of the Data::Dumper C<Sortkeys> option is
518recommended.
504f80c1 519
ce80d64e 520=head3 SOCKS
1b9c9cf5
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521
522Perl can be configured to be 'socksified', that is, to use the SOCKS
523TCP/IP proxy protocol library. SOCKS is used to give applications
524access to transport layer network proxies. Perl supports only SOCKS
525Version 5. You can find more about SOCKS from http://www.socks.nec.com/
526
ce80d64e 527=head3 Dynamic Loading
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528
529By default, Configure will compile perl to use dynamic loading if
530your system supports it. If you want to force perl to be compiled
531statically, you can either choose this when Configure prompts you or
532you can use the Configure command line option -Uusedl.
533
ce80d64e 534=head3 Building a shared Perl library
c3edaffb 535
536Currently, for most systems, the main perl executable is built by
537linking the "perl library" libperl.a with perlmain.o, your static
8ba4bff0 538extensions, and various extra libraries, such as -lm.
c3edaffb 539
9d67150a 540On some systems that support dynamic loading, it may be possible to
541replace libperl.a with a shared libperl.so. If you anticipate building
c3edaffb 542several different perl binaries (e.g. by embedding libperl into
543different programs, or by using the optional compiler extension), then
9d67150a 544you might wish to build a shared libperl.so so that all your binaries
c3edaffb 545can share the same library.
546
547The disadvantages are that there may be a significant performance
9d67150a 548penalty associated with the shared libperl.so, and that the overall
aa689395 549mechanism is still rather fragile with respect to different versions
c3edaffb 550and upgrades.
551
552In terms of performance, on my test system (Solaris 2.5_x86) the perl
9d67150a 553test suite took roughly 15% longer to run with the shared libperl.so.
c3edaffb 554Your system and typical applications may well give quite different
555results.
556
557The default name for the shared library is typically something like
ce80d64e 558libperl.so.6.2 (for Perl 5.6.2), or libperl.so.602, or simply
9d67150a 559libperl.so. Configure tries to guess a sensible naming convention
c3edaffb 560based on your C library name. Since the library gets installed in a
561version-specific architecture-dependent directory, the exact name
562isn't very important anyway, as long as your linker is happy.
563
564For some systems (mostly SVR4), building a shared libperl is required
565for dynamic loading to work, and hence is already the default.
566
567You can elect to build a shared libperl by
568
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569 sh Configure -Duseshrplib
570
571To build a shared libperl, the environment variable controlling shared
572library search (LD_LIBRARY_PATH in most systems, DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH for
573NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP/Darwin, LIBRARY_PATH for BeOS, LD_LIBRARY_PATH/SHLIB_PATH
574for HP-UX, LIBPATH for AIX, PATH for Cygwin) must be set up to include
575the Perl build directory because that's where the shared libperl will
576be created. Configure arranges makefile to have the correct shared
577library search settings. You can find the name of the environment
578variable Perl thinks works in your your system by
579
580 grep ldlibpthname config.sh
581
582However, there are some special cases where manually setting the
583shared library path might be required. For example, if you want to run
584something like the following with the newly-built but not-yet-installed
585./perl:
586
587 cd t; ./perl misc/failing_test.t
588or
589 ./perl -Ilib ~/my_mission_critical_test
590
591then you need to set up the shared library path explicitly.
592You can do this with
593
594 LD_LIBRARY_PATH=`pwd`:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH; export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
595
596for Bourne-style shells, or
597
598 setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH `pwd`
599
600for Csh-style shells. (This procedure may also be needed if for some
601unexpected reason Configure fails to set up makefile correctly.) (And
602again, it may be something other than LD_LIBRARY_PATH for you, see above.)
603
604You can often recognize failures to build/use a shared libperl from error
605messages complaining about a missing libperl.so (or libperl.sl in HP-UX),
606for example:
60718126:./miniperl: /sbin/loader: Fatal Error: cannot map libperl.so
608
609There is also an potential problem with the shared perl library if you
610want to have more than one "flavor" of the same version of perl (e.g.
611with and without -DDEBUGGING). For example, suppose you build and
612install a standard Perl 5.8.0 with a shared library. Then, suppose you
613try to build Perl 5.8.0 with -DDEBUGGING enabled, but everything else
614the same, including all the installation directories. How can you
615ensure that your newly built perl will link with your newly built
616libperl.so.8 rather with the installed libperl.so.8? The answer is
617that you might not be able to. The installation directory is encoded
618in the perl binary with the LD_RUN_PATH environment variable (or
619equivalent ld command-line option). On Solaris, you can override that
620with LD_LIBRARY_PATH; on Linux, you can only override at runtime via
621LD_PRELOAD, specifying the exact filename you wish to be used; and on
622Digital Unix, you can override LD_LIBRARY_PATH by setting the
623_RLD_ROOT environment variable to point to the perl build directory.
624
625In other words, it is generally not a good idea to try to build a perl
626with a shared library if $archlib/CORE/$libperl already exists from a
627previous build.
628
629A good workaround is to specify a different directory for the
630architecture-dependent library for your -DDEBUGGING version of perl.
631You can do this by changing all the *archlib* variables in config.sh to
632point to your new architecture-dependent library.
633
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634=head3 Environment access
635
636Perl often needs to write to the program's environment, such as when C<%ENV>
637is assigned to. Many implementations of the C library function C<putenv()>
638leak memory, so where possible perl will manipulate the environment directly
639to avoid these leaks. The default is now to perform direct manipulation
640whenever perl is running as a stand alone interpreter, and to call the safe
641but potentially leaky C<putenv()> function when the perl interpreter is
642embedded in another application. You can force perl to always use C<putenv()>
779ec477 643by compiling with -DPERL_USE_SAFE_PUTENV. You can force an embedded perl to
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644use direct manipulation by setting C<PL_use_safe_putenv = 0;> after the
645C<perl_construct()> call.
646
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647=head2 Installation Directories
648
649The installation directories can all be changed by answering the
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650appropriate questions in Configure. For convenience, all the installation
651questions are near the beginning of Configure. Do not include trailing
652slashes on directory names. At any point during the Configure process,
653you can answer a question with &-d and Configure will use the defaults
654from then on. Alternatively, you can
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655
656 grep '^install' config.sh
657
658after Configure has run to verify the installation paths.
659
660The defaults are intended to be reasonable and sensible for most
661people building from sources. Those who build and distribute binary
662distributions or who export perl to a range of systems will probably
663need to alter them. If you are content to just accept the defaults,
664you can safely skip the next section.
665
666The directories set up by Configure fall into three broad categories.
667
668=over 4
669
670=item Directories for the perl distribution
671
672By default, Configure will use the following directories for 5.9.0.
673$version is the full perl version number, including subversion, e.g.
6745.9.0 or 5.9.1, and $archname is a string like sun4-sunos,
675determined by Configure. The full definitions of all Configure
676variables are in the file Porting/Glossary.
677
678 Configure variable Default value
679 $prefixexp /usr/local
680 $binexp $prefixexp/bin
681 $scriptdirexp $prefixexp/bin
682 $privlibexp $prefixexp/lib/perl5/$version
683 $archlibexp $prefixexp/lib/perl5/$version/$archname
684 $man1direxp $prefixexp/man/man1
685 $man3direxp $prefixexp/man/man3
686 $html1direxp (none)
687 $html3direxp (none)
688
689$prefixexp is generated from $prefix, with ~ expansion done to convert home
690directories into absolute paths. Similarly for the other variables listed. As
691file system calls do not do this, you should always reference the ...exp
692variables, to support users who build perl in their home directory.
693
694Actually, Configure recognizes the SVR3-style
695/usr/local/man/l_man/man1 directories, if present, and uses those
696instead. Also, if $prefix contains the string "perl", the library
697directories are simplified as described below. For simplicity, only
698the common style is shown here.
699
700=item Directories for site-specific add-on files
701
702After perl is installed, you may later wish to add modules (e.g. from
703CPAN) or scripts. Configure will set up the following directories to
704be used for installing those add-on modules and scripts.
705
706 Configure variable Default value
707 $siteprefixexp $prefixexp
708 $sitebinexp $siteprefixexp/bin
709 $sitescriptexp $siteprefixexp/bin
710 $sitelibexp $siteprefixexp/lib/perl5/site_perl/$version
711 $sitearchexp $siteprefixexp/lib/perl5/site_perl/$version/$archname
712 $siteman1direxp $siteprefixexp/man/man1
713 $siteman3direxp $siteprefixexp/man/man3
714 $sitehtml1direxp (none)
715 $sitehtml3direxp (none)
716
717By default, ExtUtils::MakeMaker will install architecture-independent
718modules into $sitelib and architecture-dependent modules into $sitearch.
719
720=item Directories for vendor-supplied add-on files
721
722Lastly, if you are building a binary distribution of perl for
723distribution, Configure can optionally set up the following directories
724for you to use to distribute add-on modules.
725
726 Configure variable Default value
727 $vendorprefixexp (none)
728 (The next ones are set only if vendorprefix is set.)
729 $vendorbinexp $vendorprefixexp/bin
730 $vendorscriptexp $vendorprefixexp/bin
731 $vendorlibexp
732 $vendorprefixexp/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/$version
733 $vendorarchexp
734 $vendorprefixexp/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/$version/$archname
735 $vendorman1direxp $vendorprefixexp/man/man1
736 $vendorman3direxp $vendorprefixexp/man/man3
737 $vendorhtml1direxp (none)
738 $vendorhtml3direxp (none)
739
740These are normally empty, but may be set as needed. For example,
741a vendor might choose the following settings:
742
743 $prefix /usr
744 $siteprefix /usr/local
745 $vendorprefix /usr
746
747This would have the effect of setting the following:
748
749 $binexp /usr/bin
750 $scriptdirexp /usr/bin
751 $privlibexp /usr/lib/perl5/$version
752 $archlibexp /usr/lib/perl5/$version/$archname
753 $man1direxp /usr/man/man1
754 $man3direxp /usr/man/man3
755
756 $sitebinexp /usr/local/bin
757 $sitescriptexp /usr/local/bin
758 $sitelibexp /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/$version
759 $sitearchexp /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/$version/$archname
760 $siteman1direxp /usr/local/man/man1
761 $siteman3direxp /usr/local/man/man3
762
763 $vendorbinexp /usr/bin
764 $vendorscriptexp /usr/bin
765 $vendorlibexp /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/$version
766 $vendorarchexp /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/$version/$archname
767 $vendorman1direxp /usr/man/man1
768 $vendorman3direxp /usr/man/man3
769
770Note how in this example, the vendor-supplied directories are in the
771/usr hierarchy, while the directories reserved for the end-user are in
772the /usr/local hierarchy.
773
774The entire installed library hierarchy is installed in locations with
775version numbers, keeping the installations of different versions distinct.
776However, later installations of Perl can still be configured to search the
777installed libraries corresponding to compatible earlier versions.
778See L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> below for more details
779on how Perl can be made to search older version directories.
780
781Of course you may use these directories however you see fit. For
782example, you may wish to use $siteprefix for site-specific files that
783are stored locally on your own disk and use $vendorprefix for
784site-specific files that are stored elsewhere on your organization's
785network. One way to do that would be something like
786
787 sh Configure -Dsiteprefix=/usr/local -Dvendorprefix=/usr/share/perl
788
789=item otherlibdirs
790
791As a final catch-all, Configure also offers an $otherlibdirs
792variable. This variable contains a colon-separated list of additional
793directories to add to @INC. By default, it will be empty.
794Perl will search these directories (including architecture and
795version-specific subdirectories) for add-on modules and extensions.
796
797For example, if you have a bundle of perl libraries from a previous
798installation, perhaps in a strange place:
799
800 Configure -Dotherlibdirs=/usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.1
801
802=item APPLLIB_EXP
803
804There is one other way of adding paths to @INC at perl build time, and
805that is by setting the APPLLIB_EXP C pre-processor token to a colon-
806separated list of directories, like this
807
808 sh Configure -Accflags='-DAPPLLIB_EXP=\"/usr/libperl\"'
809
810The directories defined by APPLLIB_EXP get added to @INC I<first>,
811ahead of any others, and so provide a way to override the standard perl
812modules should you, for example, want to distribute fixes without
813touching the perl distribution proper. And, like otherlib dirs,
814version and architecture specific subdirectories are also searched, if
815present, at run time. Of course, you can still search other @INC
816directories ahead of those in APPLLIB_EXP by using any of the standard
817run-time methods: $PERLLIB, $PERL5LIB, -I, use lib, etc.
818
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819=item USE_SITECUSTOMIZE
820
821Run-time customization of @INC can be enabled with:
822
36de116d 823 sh Configure -Dusesitecustomize
20ef40cf 824
36de116d 825Which will define USE_SITECUSTOMIZE and $Config{usesitecustomize}.
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826When enabled, make perl run F<$sitelibexp/sitecustomize.pl> before
827anything else. This script can then be set up to add additional
828entries to @INC.
829
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830=item Man Pages
831
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832By default, man pages will be installed in $man1dir and $man3dir, which
833are normally /usr/local/man/man1 and /usr/local/man/man3. If you
834want to use a .3pm suffix for perl man pages, you can do that with
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835
836 sh Configure -Dman3ext=3pm
837
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838=item HTML pages
839
840Currently, the standard perl installation does not do anything with
841HTML documentation, but that may change in the future. Further, some
842add-on modules may wish to install HTML documents. The html Configure
843variables listed above are provided if you wish to specify where such
844documents should be placed. The default is "none", but will likely
845eventually change to something useful based on user feedback.
846
847=back
848
849Some users prefer to append a "/share" to $privlib and $sitelib
850to emphasize that those directories can be shared among different
851architectures.
852
853Note that these are just the defaults. You can actually structure the
854directories any way you like. They don't even have to be on the same
855filesystem.
c3edaffb 856
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857Further details about the installation directories, maintenance and
858development subversions, and about supporting multiple versions are
859discussed in L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> below.
10c7e831 860
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861If you specify a prefix that contains the string "perl", then the
862library directory structure is slightly simplified. Instead of
863suggesting $prefix/lib/perl5/, Configure will suggest $prefix/lib.
2bf2710f 864
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865Thus, for example, if you Configure with
866-Dprefix=/opt/perl, then the default library directories for 5.9.0 are
2bf2710f 867
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868 Configure variable Default value
869 $privlib /opt/perl/lib/5.9.0
870 $archlib /opt/perl/lib/5.9.0/$archname
871 $sitelib /opt/perl/lib/site_perl/5.9.0
872 $sitearch /opt/perl/lib/site_perl/5.9.0/$archname
2bf2710f 873
ce80d64e 874=head2 Changing the installation directory
c3edaffb 875
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876Configure distinguishes between the directory in which perl (and its
877associated files) should be installed and the directory in which it
878will eventually reside. For most sites, these two are the same; for
879sites that use AFS, this distinction is handled automatically.
880However, sites that use software such as depot to manage software
881packages, or users building binary packages for distribution may also
882wish to install perl into a different directory and use that
883management software to move perl to its final destination. This
884section describes how to do that.
c3edaffb 885
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886To install perl under the /tmp/perl5 directory, use the following
887command line:
c3edaffb 888
ce80d64e 889 sh Configure -Dinstallprefix=/tmp/perl5
c3edaffb 890
ce80d64e 891(replace /tmp/perl5 by a directory of your choice).
2bf2710f 892
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893Beware, though, that if you go to try to install new add-on
894modules, they too will get installed in under '/tmp/perl5' if you
895follow this example. The next section shows one way of dealing with
896that problem.
c3edaffb 897
ce80d64e 898=head2 Creating an installable tar archive
9d67150a 899
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900If you need to install perl on many identical systems, it is convenient
901to compile it once and create an archive that can be installed on
902multiple systems. Suppose, for example, that you want to create an
903archive that can be installed in /opt/perl. One way to do that is by
904using the DESTDIR variable during C<make install>. The DESTDIR is
905automatically prepended to all the installation paths. Thus you
906simply do:
830717a7 907
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908 sh Configure -Dprefix=/opt/perl -des
909 make
910 make test
911 make install DESTDIR=/tmp/perl5
912 cd /tmp/perl5/opt/perl
913 tar cvf /tmp/perl5-archive.tar .
9d67150a 914
ce80d64e 915=head2 Site-wide Policy settings
55479bb6 916
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917After Configure runs, it stores a number of common site-wide "policy"
918answers (such as installation directories and the local perl contact
919person) in the Policy.sh file. If you want to build perl on another
920system using the same policy defaults, simply copy the Policy.sh file
921to the new system and Configure will use it along with the appropriate
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922hint file for your system. This will work even if Policy.sh was
923generated for another version of Perl, or on a system with a
da1b4322 924different architecture and/or operating system. However, in such cases,
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925you should review the contents of the file before using it: for
926example, your new target may not keep its man pages in the same place
927as the system on which the file was generated.
55479bb6 928
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929Alternatively, if you wish to change some or all of those policy
930answers, you should
c3edaffb 931
ce80d64e 932 rm -f Policy.sh
aa689395 933
ce80d64e 934to ensure that Configure doesn't re-use them.
2ae324a7 935
ce80d64e 936Further information is in the Policy_sh.SH file itself.
aa689395 937
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938If the generated Policy.sh file is unsuitable, you may freely edit it
939to contain any valid shell commands. It will be run just after the
940platform-specific hints files.
aa689395 941
ce80d64e 942=head2 Disabling older versions of Perl
aa689395 943
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944Configure will search for binary compatible versions of previously
945installed perl binaries in the tree that is specified as target tree
946and these will be used by the perl being built.
947See L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> for more details.
86058a2d 948
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949To disable this use of older perl modules, even completely valid pure perl
950modules, you can specify to not include the paths found:
b2a6d19e 951
ce80d64e 952 sh Configure -Dinc_version_list=none ...
d6baa268 953
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954When using the newer perl, you can add these paths again in the
955$PERL5LIB environment variable or with perl's -I runtime option.
86058a2d 956
ce80d64e 957=head2 Building Perl outside of the source directory
86058a2d 958
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959Sometimes it is desirable to build Perl in a directory different from
960where the sources are, for example if you want to keep your sources
961read-only, or if you want to share the sources between different binary
962architectures. You can do this (if your file system supports symbolic
963links) by
06c896bb 964
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965 mkdir /tmp/perl/build/directory
966 cd /tmp/perl/build/directory
967 sh /path/to/perl/source/Configure -Dmksymlinks ...
06c896bb 968
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969This will create in /tmp/perl/build/directory a tree of symbolic links
970pointing to files in /path/to/perl/source. The original files are left
971unaffected. After Configure has finished you can just say
06c896bb 972
ce80d64e 973 make
06c896bb 974
ce80d64e 975as usual, and Perl will be built in /tmp/perl/build/directory.
aa689395 976
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977=head2 Building a debugging perl
978
979You can run perl scripts under the perl debugger at any time with
3fe9a6f1 980B<perl -d your_script>. If, however, you want to debug perl itself,
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981you probably want to have support for perl internal debugging code
982(activated by adding -DDEBUGGING to ccflags), and/or support for the
983system debugger by adding -g to optimize.
984
985 sh Configure -DDEBUGGING=<mode>
986
987For a more eye appealing call, -DEBUGGING is defined to be an alias
988for -DDEBUGGING. For both, the -U calls are also supported, in order
989to be able to overrule the hints or Policy.sh settings.
990
991=over 4
992
993=item -DEBUGGING=old
994
995Which is the default, and supports the old convention of
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996
997 sh Configure -Doptimize='-g'
998
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999This will do two independent things: First, it will force compilation
1000to use cc -g so that you can use your system's debugger on the
1001executable. (Note: Your system may actually require something like
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1002cc -g2. Check your man pages for cc(1) and also any hint file for
1003your system.) Second, it will add -DDEBUGGING to your ccflags
1004variable in config.sh so that you can use B<perl -D> to access perl's
1005internal state. (Note: Configure will only add -DDEBUGGING by default
1006if you are not reusing your old config.sh. If you want to reuse your
1007old config.sh, then you can just edit it and change the optimize and
1008ccflags variables by hand and then propagate your changes as shown in
1009L<"Propagating your changes to config.sh"> below.)
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1010
1011You can actually specify -g and -DDEBUGGING independently, but usually
1012it's convenient to have both.
3bf462b8 1013
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1014=over 4
1015
1016=item -DDEBUGGING
1017
1018=item -DEBUGGING
1019
1020=item -DEBUGGING=both
1021
1022Sets both -DDEBUGGING in the ccflags, and add -g to optimize.
1023
1024=item -DEBUGGING=-g
1025
1026Adds -g to optimize, but does not set -DDEBUGGING.
1027
1028=item -DEBUGGING=none
1029
1030Removes -g from optimize, and -DDEBUGGING from ccflags.
1031
1032=back
1033
3bf462b8 1034If you are using a shared libperl, see the warnings about multiple
a522f097 1035versions of perl under L<Building a shared Perl library>.
3bf462b8 1036
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1037=head2 Extensions
1038
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1039Perl ships with a number of standard extensions. These are contained
1040in the ext/ subdirectory.
1041
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1042By default, Configure will offer to build every extension which appears
1043to be supported. For example, Configure will offer to build GDBM_File
1044only if it is able to find the gdbm library. (See examples below.)
8d74ce1c 1045Configure does not contain code to test for POSIX compliance, so POSIX
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1046is always built by default. If you wish to skip POSIX, you can
1047set the Configure variable useposix=false from the Configure command line.
8d74ce1c 1048
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1049If you unpack any additional extensions in the ext/ directory before
1050running Configure, then Configure will offer to build those additional
1051extensions as well. Most users probably shouldn't have to do this --
1052it is usually easier to build additional extensions later after perl
1053has been installed. However, if you wish to have those additional
1054extensions statically linked into the perl binary, then this offers a
1055convenient way to do that in one step. (It is not necessary, however;
1056you can build and install extensions just fine even if you don't have
1057dynamic loading. See lib/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.pm for more details.)
1058
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1059If you have dynamic loading, another way of specifying extra modules
1060is described in L<"Adding extra modules to the build"> below.
1061
c42e3e15 1062You can learn more about each of the supplied extensions by consulting the
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1063documentation in the individual .pm modules, located under the
1064ext/ subdirectory.
1065
1066Even if you do not have dynamic loading, you must still build the
1067DynaLoader extension; you should just build the stub dl_none.xs
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1068version. Configure will suggest this as the default.
1069
1070To disable certain extensions so that they are not built, use the
1071-Dnoextensions=... and -Donlyextensions=... options. They both accept
1072a space-separated list of extensions. The extensions listed in
1073C<noextensions> are removed from the list of extensions to build, while
1074the C<onlyextensions> is rather more severe and builds only the listed
1075extensions. The latter should be used with extreme caution since
1076certain extensions are used by many other extensions and modules:
1077examples of such modules include Fcntl and IO. The order of processing
1078these options is first C<only> (if present), then C<no> (if present).
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1079
1080Of course, you may always run Configure interactively and select only
1081the extensions you want.
1082
1083Note: The DB_File module will only work with version 1.x of Berkeley
1084DB or newer releases of version 2. Configure will automatically detect
1085this for you and refuse to try to build DB_File with earlier
1086releases of version 2.
1087
1088If you re-use your old config.sh but change your system (e.g. by
1089adding libgdbm) Configure will still offer your old choices of extensions
1090for the default answer, but it will also point out the discrepancy to
1091you.
1092
80c1f5de 1093Finally, if you have dynamic loading (most modern systems do)
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1094remember that these extensions do not increase the size of your perl
1095executable, nor do they impact start-up time, so you probably might as
1096well build all the ones that will work on your system.
1097
1098=head2 Including locally-installed libraries
1099
1100Perl5 comes with interfaces to number of database extensions, including
1101dbm, ndbm, gdbm, and Berkeley db. For each extension, if
1102Configure can find the appropriate header files and libraries, it will
1103automatically include that extension. The gdbm and db libraries
1104are not included with perl. See the library documentation for
1105how to obtain the libraries.
1106
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1107If your database header (.h) files are not in a directory normally
1108searched by your C compiler, then you will need to include the
1109appropriate -I/your/directory option when prompted by Configure. If
ce80d64e 1110your database libraries are not in a directory normally
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1111searched by your C compiler and linker, then you will need to include
1112the appropriate -L/your/directory option when prompted by Configure.
1113See the examples below.
8d74ce1c 1114
ce80d64e 1115=head3 Examples
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1116
1117=over 4
1118
1119=item gdbm in /usr/local
1120
1121Suppose you have gdbm and want Configure to find it and build the
d6baa268 1122GDBM_File extension. This example assumes you have gdbm.h
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1123installed in /usr/local/include/gdbm.h and libgdbm.a installed in
1124/usr/local/lib/libgdbm.a. Configure should figure all the
1125necessary steps out automatically.
1126
1127Specifically, when Configure prompts you for flags for
1128your C compiler, you should include -I/usr/local/include.
1129
1130When Configure prompts you for linker flags, you should include
1131-L/usr/local/lib.
1132
1133If you are using dynamic loading, then when Configure prompts you for
1134linker flags for dynamic loading, you should again include
1135-L/usr/local/lib.
1136
d6baa268
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1137Again, this should all happen automatically. This should also work if
1138you have gdbm installed in any of (/usr/local, /opt/local, /usr/gnu,
1139/opt/gnu, /usr/GNU, or /opt/GNU).
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1140
1141=item gdbm in /usr/you
1142
1143Suppose you have gdbm installed in some place other than /usr/local/,
1144but you still want Configure to find it. To be specific, assume you
1145have /usr/you/include/gdbm.h and /usr/you/lib/libgdbm.a. You
1146still have to add -I/usr/you/include to cc flags, but you have to take
1147an extra step to help Configure find libgdbm.a. Specifically, when
1148Configure prompts you for library directories, you have to add
1149/usr/you/lib to the list.
1150
1151It is possible to specify this from the command line too (all on one
1152line):
1153
d6baa268 1154 sh Configure -de \
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1155 -Dlocincpth="/usr/you/include" \
1156 -Dloclibpth="/usr/you/lib"
1157
1158locincpth is a space-separated list of include directories to search.
1159Configure will automatically add the appropriate -I directives.
1160
1161loclibpth is a space-separated list of library directories to search.
1162Configure will automatically add the appropriate -L directives. If
1163you have some libraries under /usr/local/ and others under
1164/usr/you, then you have to include both, namely
1165
d6baa268 1166 sh Configure -de \
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1167 -Dlocincpth="/usr/you/include /usr/local/include" \
1168 -Dloclibpth="/usr/you/lib /usr/local/lib"
1169
1170=back
1171
bb636fa4
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1172=head2 Building DB, NDBM, and ODBM interfaces with Berkeley DB 3
1173
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1174A Perl interface for DB3 is part of Berkeley DB, but if you want to
1175compile the standard Perl DB/ODBM/NDBM interfaces, you must follow
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1176following instructions.
1177
1178Berkeley DB3 from Sleepycat Software is by default installed without
ce80d64e 1179DB1 compatibility code (needed for the DB_File interface) and without
bb636fa4 1180links to compatibility files. So if you want to use packages written
ce80d64e 1181for the DB/ODBM/NDBM interfaces, you need to configure DB3 with
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1182--enable-compat185 (and optionally with --enable-dump185) and create
1183additional references (suppose you are installing DB3 with
1184--prefix=/usr):
1185
1186 ln -s libdb-3.so /usr/lib/libdbm.so
1187 ln -s libdb-3.so /usr/lib/libndbm.so
f1300be0 1188 echo '#define DB_DBM_HSEARCH 1' >dbm.h
bb636fa4 1189 echo '#include <db.h>' >>dbm.h
f1300be0 1190 install -m 0644 dbm.h /usr/include/dbm.h
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1191 install -m 0644 dbm.h /usr/include/ndbm.h
1192
1193Optionally, if you have compiled with --enable-compat185 (not needed
1194for ODBM/NDBM):
1195
1196 ln -s libdb-3.so /usr/lib/libdb1.so
1197 ln -s libdb-3.so /usr/lib/libdb.so
1198
1199ODBM emulation seems not to be perfect, but is quite usable,
1200using DB 3.1.17:
1201
1202 lib/odbm.............FAILED at test 9
1203 Failed 1/64 tests, 98.44% okay
1204
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1205=head2 Overriding an old config.sh
1206
1207If you want to use your old config.sh but override some of the items
1208with command line options, you need to use B<Configure -O>.
1209
1210=head2 GNU-style configure
1211
1212If you prefer the GNU-style configure command line interface, you can
1213use the supplied configure.gnu command, e.g.
1214
1215 CC=gcc ./configure.gnu
1216
1217The configure.gnu script emulates a few of the more common configure
1218options. Try
1219
1220 ./configure.gnu --help
1221
1222for a listing.
1223
1224(The file is called configure.gnu to avoid problems on systems
1225that would not distinguish the files "Configure" and "configure".)
1226
1227See L<Cross-compilation> below for information on cross-compiling.
1228
1229=head2 Malloc Issues
1230
1231Perl relies heavily on malloc(3) to grow data structures as needed,
1232so perl's performance can be noticeably affected by the performance of
1233the malloc function on your system. The perl source is shipped with a
1234version of malloc that has been optimized for the typical requests from
1235perl, so there's a chance that it may be both faster and use less memory
1236than your system malloc.
1237
1238However, if your system already has an excellent malloc, or if you are
1239experiencing difficulties with extensions that use third-party libraries
1240that call malloc, then you should probably use your system's malloc.
1241(Or, you might wish to explore the malloc flags discussed below.)
1242
1243=over 4
1244
1245=item Using the system malloc
1246
1247To build without perl's malloc, you can use the Configure command
1248
1249 sh Configure -Uusemymalloc
1250
1251or you can answer 'n' at the appropriate interactive Configure prompt.
1252
1253=item -DPERL_POLLUTE_MALLOC
1254
1255NOTE: This flag is enabled automatically on some platforms if you just
1256run Configure to accept all the defaults on those platforms.
1257
1258Perl's malloc family of functions are normally called Perl_malloc(),
1259Perl_realloc(), Perl_calloc() and Perl_mfree().
1260These names do not clash with the system versions of these functions.
1261
1262If this flag is enabled, however, Perl's malloc family of functions
1263will have the same names as the system versions. This may be required
1264sometimes if you have libraries that like to free() data that may have
1265been allocated by Perl_malloc() and vice versa.
1266
1267Note that enabling this option may sometimes lead to duplicate symbols
1268from the linker for malloc et al. In such cases, the system probably
1269does not allow its malloc functions to be fully replaced with custom
1270versions.
1271
1272=item -DPERL_DEBUGGING_MSTATS
1273
1274This flag enables debugging mstats, which is required to use the
1275Devel::Peek::mstat() function. You cannot enable this unless you are
1276using Perl's malloc, so a typical Configure command would be
1277
1278 sh Configure -Accflags=-DPERL_DEBUGGING_MSTATS -Dusemymalloc='y'
1279
1280to enable this option.
1281
1282=back
1283
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1284=head2 What if it doesn't work?
1285
8d74ce1c 1286If you run into problems, try some of the following ideas.
40dd8381 1287If none of them help, then see L<"Reporting Problems"> above.
8d74ce1c 1288
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1289=over 4
1290
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1291=item Running Configure Interactively
1292
1293If Configure runs into trouble, remember that you can always run
1294Configure interactively so that you can check (and correct) its
1295guesses.
1296
1297All the installation questions have been moved to the top, so you don't
aa689395 1298have to wait for them. Once you've handled them (and your C compiler and
1ec51d55 1299flags) you can type &-d at the next Configure prompt and Configure
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1300will use the defaults from then on.
1301
1302If you find yourself trying obscure command line incantations and
1303config.over tricks, I recommend you run Configure interactively
1304instead. You'll probably save yourself time in the long run.
1305
aa689395 1306=item Hint files
8e07c86e 1307
a0a8d9d3
DD
1308Hint files tell Configure about a number of things:
1309
1310=over 4
1311
1312=item o
1313
1314The peculiarities or conventions of particular platforms -- non-standard
1315library locations and names, default installation locations for binaries,
1316and so on.
1317
1318=item o
1319
1320The deficiencies of the platform -- for example, library functions that,
1321although present, are too badly broken to be usable; or limits on
1322resources that are generously available on most platforms.
1323
1324=item o
1325
1326How best to optimize for the platform, both in terms of binary size and/or
1327speed, and for Perl feature support. Because of wide variations in the
1328implementation of shared libraries and of threading, for example, Configure
1329often needs hints in order to be able to use these features.
1330
1331=back
1332
1333The perl distribution includes many system-specific hints files
1334in the hints/ directory. If one of them matches your system, Configure
1335will offer to use that hint file. Unless you have a very good reason
1336not to, you should accept its offer.
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1337
1338Several of the hint files contain additional important information.
f5b3b617
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1339If you have any problems, it is a good idea to read the relevant hint file
1340for further information. See hints/solaris_2.sh for an extensive example.
1341More information about writing good hints is in the hints/README.hints
a0a8d9d3
DD
1342file, which also explains hint files known as callback-units.
1343
1344Note that any hint file is read before any Policy file, meaning that
1345Policy overrides hints -- see L</Site-wide Policy settings>.
8e07c86e 1346
edb1cbcb 1347=item *** WHOA THERE!!! ***
1348
82c11e95
RGS
1349If you are re-using an old config.sh, it's possible that Configure detects
1350different values from the ones specified in this file. You will almost
1351always want to keep the previous value, unless you have changed something
1352on your system.
edb1cbcb 1353
1354For example, suppose you have added libgdbm.a to your system
1355and you decide to reconfigure perl to use GDBM_File. When you run
1356Configure again, you will need to add -lgdbm to the list of libraries.
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1357Now, Configure will find your gdbm include file and library and will
1358issue a message:
edb1cbcb 1359
1360 *** WHOA THERE!!! ***
1361 The previous value for $i_gdbm on this machine was "undef"!
1362 Keep the previous value? [y]
1363
1ec51d55 1364In this case, you do not want to keep the previous value, so you
c3edaffb 1365should answer 'n'. (You'll also have to manually add GDBM_File to
edb1cbcb 1366the list of dynamic extensions to build.)
1367
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1368=item Changing Compilers
1369
1370If you change compilers or make other significant changes, you should
1ec51d55 1371probably not re-use your old config.sh. Simply remove it or
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1372rename it, e.g. mv config.sh config.sh.old. Then rerun Configure
1373with the options you want to use.
1374
1ec51d55
CS
1375This is a common source of problems. If you change from cc to
1376gcc, you should almost always remove your old config.sh.
8e07c86e 1377
c3edaffb 1378=item Propagating your changes to config.sh
8e07c86e 1379
1ec51d55
CS
1380If you make any changes to config.sh, you should propagate
1381them to all the .SH files by running
1382
1383 sh Configure -S
1384
1385You will then have to rebuild by running
9d67150a 1386
1387 make depend
1388 make
8e07c86e 1389
48370efc
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1390=item config.over and config.arch
1391
1392You can also supply a shell script config.over to over-ride
1393Configure's guesses. It will get loaded up at the very end, just
1394before config.sh is created. You have to be careful with this,
1395however, as Configure does no checking that your changes make sense.
1396This file is usually good for site-specific customizations.
1397
1398There is also another file that, if it exists, is loaded before the
1399config.over, called config.arch. This file is intended to be per
1400architecture, not per site, and usually it's the architecture-specific
1401hints file that creates the config.arch.
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1402
1403=item config.h
1404
1ec51d55
CS
1405Many of the system dependencies are contained in config.h.
1406Configure builds config.h by running the config_h.SH script.
1407The values for the variables are taken from config.sh.
8e07c86e 1408
1ec51d55
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1409If there are any problems, you can edit config.h directly. Beware,
1410though, that the next time you run Configure, your changes will be
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1411lost.
1412
1413=item cflags
1414
1415If you have any additional changes to make to the C compiler command
1ec51d55
CS
1416line, they can be made in cflags.SH. For instance, to turn off the
1417optimizer on toke.c, find the line in the switch structure for
1418toke.c and put the command optimize='-g' before the ;; . You
1419can also edit cflags directly, but beware that your changes will be
1420lost the next time you run Configure.
8e07c86e 1421
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1422To explore various ways of changing ccflags from within a hint file,
1423see the file hints/README.hints.
1424
1425To change the C flags for all the files, edit config.sh and change either
1426$ccflags or $optimize, and then re-run
1ec51d55
CS
1427
1428 sh Configure -S
1429 make depend
8e07c86e 1430
aa689395 1431=item No sh
8e07c86e 1432
c42e3e15
GS
1433If you don't have sh, you'll have to copy the sample file
1434Porting/config.sh to config.sh and edit your config.sh to reflect your
1435system's peculiarities. See Porting/pumpkin.pod for more information.
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1436You'll probably also have to extensively modify the extension building
1437mechanism.
1438
d6baa268
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1439=item Digital UNIX/Tru64 UNIX and BIN_SH
1440
1441In Digital UNIX/Tru64 UNIX, Configure might abort with
1442
1443Build a threading Perl? [n]
1444Configure[2437]: Syntax error at line 1 : `config.sh' is not expected.
1445
1446This indicates that Configure is being run with a broken Korn shell
1447(even though you think you are using a Bourne shell by using
1448"sh Configure" or "./Configure"). The Korn shell bug has been reported
1449to Compaq as of February 1999 but in the meanwhile, the reason ksh is
1450being used is that you have the environment variable BIN_SH set to
1451'xpg4'. This causes /bin/sh to delegate its duties to /bin/posix/sh
1452(a ksh). Unset the environment variable and rerun Configure.
1453
1454=item HP-UX 11, pthreads, and libgdbm
1455
1456If you are running Configure with -Dusethreads in HP-UX 11, be warned
1457that POSIX threads and libgdbm (the GNU dbm library) compiled before
1458HP-UX 11 do not mix. This will cause a basic test run by Configure to
1459fail
1460
1461Pthread internal error: message: __libc_reinit() failed, file: ../pthreads/pthread.c, line: 1096
1462Return Pointer is 0xc082bf33
1463sh: 5345 Quit(coredump)
1464
1465and Configure will give up. The cure is to recompile and install
1466libgdbm under HP-UX 11.
1467
c3edaffb 1468=item Porting information
1469
e6f03d26 1470Specific information for the OS/2, Plan 9, VMS and Win32 ports is in the
1ec51d55
CS
1471corresponding README files and subdirectories. Additional information,
1472including a glossary of all those config.sh variables, is in the Porting
ce80d64e 1473subdirectory. Porting/Glossary should especially come in handy.
c3edaffb 1474
7f678428 1475Ports for other systems may also be available. You should check out
468f45d5 1476http://www.cpan.org/ports for current information on ports to
7f678428 1477various other operating systems.
1478
ce80d64e 1479If you plan to port Perl to a new architecture, study carefully the
491517e0
JA
1480section titled "Philosophical Issues in Patching and Porting Perl"
1481in the file Porting/pumpkin.pod and the file Porting/patching.pod.
1482Study also how other non-UNIX ports have solved problems.
1483
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1484=back
1485
ce80d64e 1486=head2 Adding extra modules to the build
fadf0ef5
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1487
1488You can specify extra modules or module bundles to be fetched from the
1489CPAN and installed as part of the Perl build. Either use the -Dextras=...
1490command line parameter to Configure, for example like this:
1491
1492 Configure -Dextras="Compress::Zlib Bundle::LWP DBI"
1493
1494or answer first 'y' to the question 'Install any extra modules?' and
1495then answer "Compress::Zlib Bundle::LWP DBI" to the 'Extras?' question.
1496The module or the bundle names are as for the CPAN module 'install' command.
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1497This will only work if those modules are to be built as dynamic
1498extensions. If you wish to include those extra modules as static
1499extensions, see L<"Extensions"> above.
fadf0ef5
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1500
1501Notice that because the CPAN module will be used to fetch the extra
1502modules, you will need access to the CPAN, either via the Internet,
1503or via a local copy such as a CD-ROM or a local CPAN mirror. If you
1504do not, using the extra modules option will die horribly.
1505
1506Also notice that you yourself are responsible for satisfying any extra
1507dependencies such as external headers or libraries BEFORE trying the build.
1508For example: you will need to have the zlib.h header and the libz
1509library installed for the Compress::Zlib, or the Foo database specific
1510headers and libraries installed for the DBD::Foo module. The Configure
1511process or the Perl build process will not help you with these.
1512
ce80d64e 1513=head2 suidperl
03739d21 1514
ce80d64e
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1515suidperl is an optional component, which is normally neither built
1516nor installed by default. From perlfaq1:
03739d21
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1517
1518 On some systems, setuid and setgid scripts (scripts written
1519 in the C shell, Bourne shell, or Perl, for example, with the
1520 set user or group ID permissions enabled) are insecure due to
1521 a race condition in the kernel. For those systems, Perl versions
1522 5 and 4 attempt to work around this vulnerability with an optional
1523 component, a special program named suidperl, also known as sperl.
1524 This program attempts to emulate the set-user-ID and set-group-ID
1525 features of the kernel.
1526
1527Because of the buggy history of suidperl, and the difficulty
1528of properly security auditing as large and complex piece of
1529software as Perl, we cannot recommend using suidperl and the feature
1530should be considered deprecated.
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1531Instead, use a tool specifically designed to handle changes in
1532privileges, such as B<sudo>, http://www.courtesan.com/sudo/ .
03739d21 1533
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1534=head1 make depend
1535
bfb7748a
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1536This will look for all the includes. The output is stored in makefile.
1537The only difference between Makefile and makefile is the dependencies at
1538the bottom of makefile. If you have to make any changes, you should edit
ce80d64e 1539makefile, not Makefile, since the Unix make command reads makefile first.
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1540(On non-Unix systems, the output may be stored in a different file.
1541Check the value of $firstmakefile in your config.sh if in doubt.)
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1542
1543Configure will offer to do this step for you, so it isn't listed
1544explicitly above.
1545
1546=head1 make
1547
1548This will attempt to make perl in the current directory.
1549
8d410bc4
YST
1550=head2 Expected errors
1551
1552These errors are normal, and can be ignored:
1553
1554 ...
1555 make: [extra.pods] Error 1 (ignored)
1556 ...
1557 make: [extras.make] Error 1 (ignored)
1558
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1559=head2 What if it doesn't work?
1560
8e07c86e 1561If you can't compile successfully, try some of the following ideas.
7f678428 1562If none of them help, and careful reading of the error message and
8d74ce1c 1563the relevant manual pages on your system doesn't help,
40dd8381 1564then see L<"Reporting Problems"> above.
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1565
1566=over 4
1567
1ec51d55 1568=item hints
8e07c86e
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1569
1570If you used a hint file, try reading the comments in the hint file
1571for further tips and information.
1572
1ec51d55 1573=item extensions
8e07c86e 1574
1ec51d55 1575If you can successfully build miniperl, but the process crashes
ce80d64e 1576during the building of extensions, run
c3edaffb 1577
3a6175e1 1578 make minitest
c3edaffb 1579
1580to test your version of miniperl.
1581
e57fd563 1582=item locale
1583
bfb7748a
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1584If you have any locale-related environment variables set, try unsetting
1585them. I have some reports that some versions of IRIX hang while
1586running B<./miniperl configpm> with locales other than the C locale.
1587See the discussion under L<"make test"> below about locales and the
1588whole L<"Locale problems"> section in the file pod/perllocale.pod.
3e6e419a
JH
1589The latter is especially useful if you see something like this
1590
1591 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
1592 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
1593 LC_ALL = "En_US",
1594 LANG = (unset)
1595 are supported and installed on your system.
1596 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
1597
1598at Perl startup.
e57fd563 1599
7f678428 1600=item varargs
c3edaffb 1601
1602If you get varargs problems with gcc, be sure that gcc is installed
bfb7748a
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1603correctly and that you are not passing -I/usr/include to gcc. When using
1604gcc, you should probably have i_stdarg='define' and i_varargs='undef'
ce80d64e 1605in config.sh. The problem is usually solved by installing gcc
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1606correctly. If you do change config.sh, don't forget to propagate
1607your changes (see L<"Propagating your changes to config.sh"> below).
7f678428 1608See also the L<"vsprintf"> item below.
c3edaffb 1609
bfb7748a 1610=item util.c
c3edaffb 1611
1612If you get error messages such as the following (the exact line
bfb7748a 1613numbers and function name may vary in different versions of perl):
c3edaffb 1614
bfb7748a
AD
1615 util.c: In function `Perl_form':
1616 util.c:1107: number of arguments doesn't match prototype
1617 proto.h:125: prototype declaration
c3edaffb 1618
1619it might well be a symptom of the gcc "varargs problem". See the
7f678428 1620previous L<"varargs"> item.
c3edaffb 1621
1ec51d55 1622=item LD_LIBRARY_PATH
c3edaffb 1623
1624If you run into dynamic loading problems, check your setting of
aa689395 1625the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable. If you're creating a static
1626Perl library (libperl.a rather than libperl.so) it should build
c3edaffb 1627fine with LD_LIBRARY_PATH unset, though that may depend on details
1628of your local set-up.
1629
aa689395 1630=item nm extraction
c3edaffb 1631
1632If Configure seems to be having trouble finding library functions,
1633try not using nm extraction. You can do this from the command line
1634with
1635
1636 sh Configure -Uusenm
1637
1638or by answering the nm extraction question interactively.
1ec51d55 1639If you have previously run Configure, you should not reuse your old
c3edaffb 1640config.sh.
1641
bfb7748a
AD
1642=item umask not found
1643
1644If the build processes encounters errors relating to umask(), the problem
1645is probably that Configure couldn't find your umask() system call.
1646Check your config.sh. You should have d_umask='define'. If you don't,
1647this is probably the L<"nm extraction"> problem discussed above. Also,
1648try reading the hints file for your system for further information.
1649
7f678428 1650=item vsprintf
c3edaffb 1651
1652If you run into problems with vsprintf in compiling util.c, the
1653problem is probably that Configure failed to detect your system's
1654version of vsprintf(). Check whether your system has vprintf().
1655(Virtually all modern Unix systems do.) Then, check the variable
1656d_vprintf in config.sh. If your system has vprintf, it should be:
1657
1658 d_vprintf='define'
1659
1660If Configure guessed wrong, it is likely that Configure guessed wrong
bfb7748a
AD
1661on a number of other common functions too. This is probably
1662the L<"nm extraction"> problem discussed above.
c3edaffb 1663
3fe9a6f1 1664=item do_aspawn
1665
1666If you run into problems relating to do_aspawn or do_spawn, the
1667problem is probably that Configure failed to detect your system's
bfb7748a
AD
1668fork() function. Follow the procedure in the previous item
1669on L<"nm extraction">.
3fe9a6f1 1670
84902520
TB
1671=item __inet_* errors
1672
1673If you receive unresolved symbol errors during Perl build and/or test
1674referring to __inet_* symbols, check to see whether BIND 8.1 is
1675installed. It installs a /usr/local/include/arpa/inet.h that refers to
1676these symbols. Versions of BIND later than 8.1 do not install inet.h
1677in that location and avoid the errors. You should probably update to a
6d240721
JH
1678newer version of BIND (and remove the files the old one left behind).
1679If you can't, you can either link with the updated resolver library provided
1680with BIND 8.1 or rename /usr/local/bin/arpa/inet.h during the Perl build and
1681test process to avoid the problem.
1682
1683=item *_r() prototype NOT found
1684
1685On a related note, if you see a bunch of complaints like the above about
1686reentrant functions - specifically networking-related ones - being present
1687but without prototypes available, check to see if BIND 8.1 (or possibly
1688other BIND 8 versions) is (or has been) installed. They install
1689header files such as netdb.h into places such as /usr/local/include (or into
1690another directory as specified at build/install time), at least optionally.
f1300be0 1691Remove them or put them in someplace that isn't in the C preprocessor's
6d240721
JH
1692header file include search path (determined by -I options plus defaults,
1693normally /usr/include).
84902520 1694
d6baa268
JH
1695=item #error "No DATAMODEL_NATIVE specified"
1696
1697This is a common error when trying to build perl on Solaris 2.6 with a
1698gcc installation from Solaris 2.5 or 2.5.1. The Solaris header files
1699changed, so you need to update your gcc installation. You can either
1700rerun the fixincludes script from gcc or take the opportunity to
1701update your gcc installation.
1702
aa689395 1703=item Optimizer
c3edaffb 1704
9d67150a 1705If you can't compile successfully, try turning off your compiler's
aa689395 1706optimizer. Edit config.sh and change the line
9d67150a 1707
1708 optimize='-O'
1709
bfb7748a 1710to
9d67150a 1711
1712 optimize=' '
1713
1714then propagate your changes with B<sh Configure -S> and rebuild
1715with B<make depend; make>.
1716
4bbc1586 1717=item Missing functions and Undefined symbols
9d67150a 1718
4bbc1586
AD
1719If the build of miniperl fails with a long list of missing functions or
1720undefined symbols, check the libs variable in the config.sh file. It
1721should look something like
1722
1723 libs='-lsocket -lnsl -ldl -lm -lc'
1724
1725The exact libraries will vary from system to system, but you typically
1726need to include at least the math library -lm. Normally, Configure
1727will suggest the correct defaults. If the libs variable is empty, you
1728need to start all over again. Run
1729
1730 make distclean
1731
1732and start from the very beginning. This time, unless you are sure of
1733what you are doing, accept the default list of libraries suggested by
1734Configure.
1735
1736If the libs variable looks correct, you might have the
1737L<"nm extraction"> problem discussed above.
1738
1739If you stil have missing routines or undefined symbols, you probably
1740need to add some library or other, or you need to undefine some feature
1741that Configure thought was there but is defective or incomplete. If
1742you used a hint file, see if it has any relevant advice. You can also
1743look through through config.h for likely suspects.
8e07c86e 1744
1ec51d55 1745=item toke.c
8e07c86e 1746
1ec51d55
CS
1747Some compilers will not compile or optimize the larger files (such as
1748toke.c) without some extra switches to use larger jump offsets or
1749allocate larger internal tables. You can customize the switches for
1750each file in cflags. It's okay to insert rules for specific files into
1751makefile since a default rule only takes effect in the absence of a
8e07c86e
AD
1752specific rule.
1753
7f678428 1754=item Missing dbmclose
8e07c86e 1755
c3edaffb 1756SCO prior to 3.2.4 may be missing dbmclose(). An upgrade to 3.2.4
1757that includes libdbm.nfs (which includes dbmclose()) may be available.
8e07c86e 1758
f3d9a6ba 1759=item Note (probably harmless): No library found for -lsomething
7f678428 1760
1761If you see such a message during the building of an extension, but
1762the extension passes its tests anyway (see L<"make test"> below),
1763then don't worry about the warning message. The extension
1764Makefile.PL goes looking for various libraries needed on various
aa689395 1765systems; few systems will need all the possible libraries listed.
7f678428 1766For example, a system may have -lcposix or -lposix, but it's
1767unlikely to have both, so most users will see warnings for the one
f3d9a6ba
CS
1768they don't have. The phrase 'probably harmless' is intended to
1769reassure you that nothing unusual is happening, and the build
1770process is continuing.
7f678428 1771
1772On the other hand, if you are building GDBM_File and you get the
1773message
1774
f3d9a6ba 1775 Note (probably harmless): No library found for -lgdbm
7f678428 1776
1777then it's likely you're going to run into trouble somewhere along
1778the line, since it's hard to see how you can use the GDBM_File
1779extension without the -lgdbm library.
1780
1781It is true that, in principle, Configure could have figured all of
1782this out, but Configure and the extension building process are not
1783quite that tightly coordinated.
1784
aa689395 1785=item sh: ar: not found
1786
1787This is a message from your shell telling you that the command 'ar'
1788was not found. You need to check your PATH environment variable to
1789make sure that it includes the directory with the 'ar' command. This
1ec51d55 1790is a common problem on Solaris, where 'ar' is in the /usr/ccs/bin
aa689395 1791directory.
1792
1793=item db-recno failure on tests 51, 53 and 55
1794
1795Old versions of the DB library (including the DB library which comes
1796with FreeBSD 2.1) had broken handling of recno databases with modified
1797bval settings. Upgrade your DB library or OS.
1798
6087ac44
JH
1799=item Bad arg length for semctl, is XX, should be ZZZ
1800
11906ba0 1801If you get this error message from the ext/IPC/SysV/t/sem test, your System
6087ac44
JH
1802V IPC may be broken. The XX typically is 20, and that is what ZZZ
1803also should be. Consider upgrading your OS, or reconfiguring your OS
1804to include the System V semaphores.
1805
11906ba0 1806=item ext/IPC/SysV/t/sem........semget: No space left on device
220f3621
GS
1807
1808Either your account or the whole system has run out of semaphores. Or
1809both. Either list the semaphores with "ipcs" and remove the unneeded
1810ones (which ones these are depends on your system and applications)
1811with "ipcrm -s SEMAPHORE_ID_HERE" or configure more semaphores to your
1812system.
1813
d6baa268
JH
1814=item GNU binutils
1815
1816If you mix GNU binutils (nm, ld, ar) with equivalent vendor-supplied
1817tools you may be in for some trouble. For example creating archives
1818with an old GNU 'ar' and then using a new current vendor-supplied 'ld'
1819may lead into linking problems. Either recompile your GNU binutils
1820under your current operating system release, or modify your PATH not
1821to include the GNU utils before running Configure, or specify the
1822vendor-supplied utilities explicitly to Configure, for example by
1823Configure -Dar=/bin/ar.
1824
16dc217a
GS
1825=item THIS PACKAGE SEEMS TO BE INCOMPLETE
1826
1827The F<Configure> program has not been able to find all the files which
1828make up the complete Perl distribution. You may have a damaged source
1829archive file (in which case you may also have seen messages such as
1830C<gzip: stdin: unexpected end of file> and C<tar: Unexpected EOF on
1831archive file>), or you may have obtained a structurally-sound but
1832incomplete archive. In either case, try downloading again from the
1833official site named at the start of this document. If you do find
1834that any site is carrying a corrupted or incomplete source code
1835archive, please report it to the site's maintainer.
1836
16dc217a
GS
1837=item invalid token: ##
1838
ce80d64e
AD
1839You are using a non-ANSI-compliant C compiler. To compile Perl, you
1840need to use a compiler that supports ANSI C. If there is a README
1841file for your system, it may have further details on your compiler
1842options.
16dc217a 1843
1ec51d55 1844=item Miscellaneous
8e07c86e
AD
1845
1846Some additional things that have been reported for either perl4 or perl5:
1847
1848Genix may need to use libc rather than libc_s, or #undef VARARGS.
1849
1850NCR Tower 32 (OS 2.01.01) may need -W2,-Sl,2000 and #undef MKDIR.
1851
9ede5bc8 1852UTS may need one or more of -K or -g, and undef LSTAT.
8e07c86e 1853
11906ba0 1854FreeBSD can fail the ext/IPC/SysV/t/sem.t test if SysV IPC has not been
5cda700b 1855configured in the kernel. Perl tries to detect this, though, and
ce80d64e 1856you will get a message telling you what to do.
6087ac44 1857
d6baa268
JH
1858HP-UX 11 Y2K patch "Y2K-1100 B.11.00.B0125 HP-UX Core OS Year 2000
1859Patch Bundle" has been reported to break the io/fs test #18 which
1860tests whether utime() can change timestamps. The Y2K patch seems to
1861break utime() so that over NFS the timestamps do not get changed
1862(on local filesystems utime() still works).
1863
6c8d78fb
HS
1864Building Perl on a system that has also BIND (headers and libraries)
1865installed may run into troubles because BIND installs its own netdb.h
1866and socket.h, which may not agree with the operating system's ideas of
1867the same files. Similarly, including -lbind may conflict with libc's
1868view of the world. You may have to tweak -Dlocincpth and -Dloclibpth
1869to avoid the BIND.
1870
8e07c86e
AD
1871=back
1872
58a21a9b
JH
1873=head2 Cross-compilation
1874
e7a3c61b
JH
1875Perl can be cross-compiled. It is just not trivial, cross-compilation
1876rarely is. Perl is routinely cross-compiled for many platforms (as of
1877June 2005 at least PocketPC aka WinCE, Open Zaurus, EPOC, Symbian, and
1878the IBM OS/400). These platforms are known as the B<target> platforms,
1879while the systems where the compilation takes place are the B<host>
1880platforms.
1881
1882What makes the situation difficult is that first of all,
1883cross-compilation environments vary significantly in how they are set
1884up and used, and secondly because the primary way of configuring Perl
1885(using the rather large Unix-tool-dependent Configure script) is not
1886awfully well suited for cross-compilation. However, starting from
1887version 5.8.0, the Configure script also knows one way of supporting
1888cross-compilation support, please keep reading.
1889
1890See the following files for more information about compiling Perl for
1891the particular platforms:
1892
1893=over 4
1894
1895=item WinCE/PocketPC
1896
75472953 1897README.ce
e7a3c61b
JH
1898
1899=item Open Zaurus
1900
1901Cross/README
1902
1903=item EPOC
1904
1905README.epoc
1906
1907=item Symbian
1908
1909README.symbian
1910
1911=item OS/400
1912
1913README.os400
1914
1915=back
1916
1917Packaging and transferring either the core Perl modules or CPAN
1918modules to the target platform is also left up to the each
1919cross-compilation environment. Often the cross-compilation target
1920platforms are somewhat limited in diskspace: see the section
1921L<Minimizing the Perl installation> to learn more of the minimal set
1922of files required for a functional Perl installation.
1923
1924For some cross-compilation environments the Configure option
1925C<-Dinstallprefix=...> might be handy, see L<Changing the installation
1926directory>.
1927
1928About the cross-compilation support of Configure: what is known to
1929work is running Configure in a cross-compilation environment and
1930building the miniperl executable. What is known not to work is
1931building the perl executable because that would require building
1932extensions: Dynaloader statically and File::Glob dynamically, for
1933extensions one needs MakeMaker and MakeMaker is not yet
1934cross-compilation aware, and neither is the main Makefile.
1935
1936The cross-compilation setup of Configure has successfully been used in
1937at least two Linux cross-compilation environments. The setups were
1938both such that the host system was Intel Linux with a gcc built for
1939cross-compiling into ARM Linux, and there was a SSH connection to the
1940target system.
1941
1942To run Configure in cross-compilation mode the basic switch that
1943has to be used is C<-Dusecrosscompile>.
58a21a9b
JH
1944
1945 sh ./Configure -des -Dusecrosscompile -D...
1946
1947This will make the cpp symbol USE_CROSS_COMPILE and the %Config
b0f06652
VK
1948symbol C<usecrosscompile> available, and C<xconfig.h> will be used
1949for cross-compilation.
58a21a9b
JH
1950
1951During the Configure and build, certain helper scripts will be created
1952into the Cross/ subdirectory. The scripts are used to execute a
1953cross-compiled executable, and to transfer files to and from the
1954target host. The execution scripts are named F<run-*> and the
1955transfer scripts F<to-*> and F<from-*>. The part after the dash is
1956the method to use for remote execution and transfer: by default the
1957methods are B<ssh> and B<scp>, thus making the scripts F<run-ssh>,
1958F<to-scp>, and F<from-scp>.
1959
1960To configure the scripts for a target host and a directory (in which
1961the execution will happen and which is to and from where the transfer
1962happens), supply Configure with
1963
1964 -Dtargethost=so.me.ho.st -Dtargetdir=/tar/get/dir
1965
1966The targethost is what e.g. ssh will use as the hostname, the targetdir
93bc48fa
JH
1967must exist (the scripts won't create it), the targetdir defaults to /tmp.
1968You can also specify a username to use for ssh/rsh logins
58a21a9b
JH
1969
1970 -Dtargetuser=luser
1971
1972but in case you don't, "root" will be used.
1973
93bc48fa
JH
1974Because this is a cross-compilation effort, you will also need to specify
1975which target environment and which compilation environment to use.
1976This includes the compiler, the header files, and the libraries.
1977In the below we use the usual settings for the iPAQ cross-compilation
1978environment:
58a21a9b
JH
1979
1980 -Dtargetarch=arm-linux
1981 -Dcc=arm-linux-gcc
1982 -Dusrinc=/skiff/local/arm-linux/include
1983 -Dincpth=/skiff/local/arm-linux/include
1984 -Dlibpth=/skiff/local/arm-linux/lib
1985
1986If the name of the C<cc> has the usual GNU C semantics for cross
1987compilers, that is, CPU-OS-gcc, the names of the C<ar>, C<nm>, and
1988C<ranlib> will also be automatically chosen to be CPU-OS-ar and so on.
93bc48fa
JH
1989(The C<ld> requires more thought and will be chosen later by Configure
1990as appropriate.) Also, in this case the incpth, libpth, and usrinc
1991will be guessed by Configure (unless explicitly set to something else,
1992in which case Configure's guesses with be appended).
58a21a9b
JH
1993
1994In addition to the default execution/transfer methods you can also
1995choose B<rsh> for execution, and B<rcp> or B<cp> for transfer,
1996for example:
1997
1998 -Dtargetrun=rsh -Dtargetto=rcp -Dtargetfrom=cp
1999
2000Putting it all together:
2001
2002 sh ./Configure -des -Dusecrosscompile \
93bc48fa
JH
2003 -Dtargethost=so.me.ho.st \
2004 -Dtargetdir=/tar/get/dir \
58a21a9b
JH
2005 -Dtargetuser=root \
2006 -Dtargetarch=arm-linux \
2007 -Dcc=arm-linux-gcc \
2008 -Dusrinc=/skiff/local/arm-linux/include \
2009 -Dincpth=/skiff/local/arm-linux/include \
2010 -Dlibpth=/skiff/local/arm-linux/lib \
2011 -D...
2012
e7a3c61b 2013or if you are happy with the defaults:
93bc48fa
JH
2014
2015 sh ./Configure -des -Dusecrosscompile \
2016 -Dtargethost=so.me.ho.st \
2017 -Dcc=arm-linux-gcc \
2018 -D...
2019
e7a3c61b
JH
2020Another example where the cross-compiler has been installed under
2021F</usr/local/arm/2.95.5>:
2022
2023 sh ./Configure -des -Dusecrosscompile \
2024 -Dtargethost=so.me.ho.st \
2025 -Dcc=/usr/local/arm/2.95.5/bin/arm-linux-gcc \
2026 -Dincpth=/usr/local/arm/2.95.5/include \
2027 -Dusrinc=/usr/local/arm/2.95.5/include \
2028 -Dlibpth=/usr/local/arm/2.95.5/lib
2029
8e07c86e
AD
2030=head1 make test
2031
d6baa268
JH
2032This will run the regression tests on the perl you just made. If
2033'make test' doesn't say "All tests successful" then something went
2034wrong. See the file t/README in the t subdirectory.
84902520 2035
84902520 2036Note that you can't run the tests in background if this disables
fb73857a 2037opening of /dev/tty. You can use 'make test-notty' in that case but
2038a few tty tests will be skipped.
c3edaffb 2039
c4f23d77
AD
2040=head2 What if make test doesn't work?
2041
1ec51d55
CS
2042If make test bombs out, just cd to the t directory and run ./TEST
2043by hand to see if it makes any difference. If individual tests
c3edaffb 2044bomb, you can run them by hand, e.g.,
8e07c86e
AD
2045
2046 ./perl op/groups.t
2047
aa689395 2048Another way to get more detailed information about failed tests and
1ec51d55 2049individual subtests is to cd to the t directory and run
aa689395 2050
2051 ./perl harness
2052
fb73857a 2053(this assumes that most basic tests succeed, since harness uses
10c7e831
JH
2054complicated constructs). For extension and library tests you
2055need a little bit more: you need to setup your environment variable
2056PERL_CORE to a true value (like "1"), and you need to supply the
2057right Perl library path:
2058
2059 setenv PERL_CORE 1
2060 ./perl -I../lib ../ext/Socket/Socket.t
2061 ./perl -I../lib ../lib/less.t
aa689395 2062
5cda700b 2063(For csh-like shells on UNIX; adjust appropriately for other platforms.)
fb73857a 2064You should also read the individual tests to see if there are any helpful
10c7e831
JH
2065comments that apply to your system. You may also need to setup your
2066shared library path if you get errors like:
2067
2068 /sbin/loader: Fatal Error: cannot map libperl.so
2069
2070See L</"Building a shared Perl library"> earlier in this document.
c3edaffb 2071
c4f23d77
AD
2072=over 4
2073
2074=item locale
2075
1ec51d55 2076Note: One possible reason for errors is that some external programs
c07a80fd 2077may be broken due to the combination of your environment and the way
3fe9a6f1 2078B<make test> exercises them. For example, this may happen if you have
1ec51d55
CS
2079one or more of these environment variables set: LC_ALL LC_CTYPE
2080LC_COLLATE LANG. In some versions of UNIX, the non-English locales
e57fd563 2081are known to cause programs to exhibit mysterious errors.
2082
2083If you have any of the above environment variables set, please try
aa689395 2084
2085 setenv LC_ALL C
2086
2087(for C shell) or
2088
2089 LC_ALL=C;export LC_ALL
2090
1ec51d55
CS
2091for Bourne or Korn shell) from the command line and then retry
2092make test. If the tests then succeed, you may have a broken program that
aa689395 2093is confusing the testing. Please run the troublesome test by hand as
e57fd563 2094shown above and see whether you can locate the program. Look for
1ec51d55
CS
2095things like: exec, `backquoted command`, system, open("|...") or
2096open("...|"). All these mean that Perl is trying to run some
e57fd563 2097external program.
eed2e782 2098
0740bb5b
AD
2099=item Timing problems
2100
c29923ff
JH
2101Several tests in the test suite check timing functions, such as
2102sleep(), and see if they return in a reasonable amount of time.
9341413f
JH
2103If your system is quite busy and doesn't respond quickly enough,
2104these tests might fail. If possible, try running the tests again
2105with the system under a lighter load. These timing-sensitive
2106and load-sensitive tests include F<t/op/alarm.t>,
2107F<ext/Time/HiRes/HiRes.t>, F<lib/Benchmark.t>,
2108F<lib/Memoize/t/expmod_t.t>, and F<lib/Memoize/t/speed.t>.
0740bb5b 2109
c4f23d77
AD
2110=item Out of memory
2111
2112On some systems, particularly those with smaller amounts of RAM, some
2113of the tests in t/op/pat.t may fail with an "Out of memory" message.
7970f296
GS
2114For example, on my SparcStation IPC with 12 MB of RAM, in perl5.5.670,
2115test 85 will fail if run under either t/TEST or t/harness.
c4f23d77
AD
2116
2117Try stopping other jobs on the system and then running the test by itself:
2118
2119 cd t; ./perl op/pat.t
2120
2121to see if you have any better luck. If your perl still fails this
2122test, it does not necessarily mean you have a broken perl. This test
2123tries to exercise the regular expression subsystem quite thoroughly,
2124and may well be far more demanding than your normal usage.
2125
4f76e5ba
AD
2126=item Failures from lib/File/Temp/t/security saying "system possibly insecure"
2127
2128First, such warnings are not necessarily serious or indicative of a
2129real security threat. That being said, they bear investigating.
2130
2131Note that each of the tests is run twice. The first time is in the
2132directory returned by File::Spec->tmpdir() (often /tmp on Unix
2133systems), and the second time in the directory from which the test was
2134run (usually the 't' directory, if the test was run as part of 'make
2135test').
2136
2137The tests may fail for the following reasons:
2138
2139(1) If the directory the tests are being run in is owned by somebody
2140other than the user running the tests, or by root (uid 0).
2141
2142This failure can happen if the Perl source code distribution is
2143unpacked in such a way that the user ids in the distribution package
2144are used as-is. Some tar programs do this.
2145
2146(2) If the directory the tests are being run in is writable by group or
2147by others, and there is no sticky bit set for the directory. (With
2148UNIX/POSIX semantics, write access to a directory means the right to
2149add or remove files in that directory. The 'sticky bit' is a feature
2150used in some UNIXes to give extra protection to files: if the bit is
2151set for a directory, no one but the owner (or root) can remove that
2152file even if the permissions would otherwise allow file removal by
2153others.)
2154
2155This failure may or may not be a real problem: it depends on the
2156permissions policy used on this particular system. This failure can
2157also happen if the system either doesn't support the sticky bit (this
2158is the case with many non-UNIX platforms: in principle File::Temp
2159should know about these platforms and skip the tests), or if the system
2160supports the sticky bit but for some reason or reasons it is not being
2161used. This is, for example, the case with HP-UX: as of HP-UX release
216211.00, the sticky bit is very much supported, but HP-UX doesn't use it
2163on its /tmp directory as shipped. Also, as with the permissions, some
2164local policy might dictate that the stickiness is not used.
781948c1 2165
b2b23189
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2166(3) If the system supports the POSIX 'chown giveaway' feature and if
2167any of the parent directories of the temporary file back to the root
2168directory are 'unsafe', using the definitions given above in (1) and
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2169(2). For Unix systems, this is usually not an issue if you are
2170building on a local disk. See the documentation for the File::Temp
2171module for more information about 'chown giveaway'.
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2172
2173See the documentation for the File::Temp module for more information
4f76e5ba 2174about the various security aspects of temporary files.
781948c1 2175
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2176=back
2177
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2178=head1 make install
2179
2180This will put perl into the public directory you specified to
1ec51d55 2181Configure; by default this is /usr/local/bin. It will also try
8e07c86e 2182to put the man pages in a reasonable place. It will not nroff the man
aa689395 2183pages, however. You may need to be root to run B<make install>. If you
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2184are not root, you must still have permission to install into the directories
2185in question and you should ignore any messages about chown not working.
2186
2187If "make install" just says "`install' is up to date" or something
2188similar, you may be on a case-insensitive filesystems such as Mac's HFS+,
2189and you should say "make install-all". (This confusion is brought to you
2190by the Perl distribution having a file called INSTALL.)
8e07c86e 2191
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2192=head2 Installing perl under different names
2193
2194If you want to install perl under a name other than "perl" (for example,
2195when installing perl with special features enabled, such as debugging),
2196indicate the alternate name on the "make install" line, such as:
2197
2198 make install PERLNAME=myperl
2199
beb13193 2200You can separately change the base used for versioned names (like
be8498a1 2201"perl5.8.9") by setting PERLNAME_VERBASE, like
beb13193
RS
2202
2203 make install PERLNAME=perl5 PERLNAME_VERBASE=perl
2204
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2205This can be useful if you have to install perl as "perl5" (e.g. to
2206avoid conflicts with an ancient version in /usr/bin supplied by your vendor).
be8498a1 2207Without this the versioned binary would be called "perl55.8.8".
beb13193 2208
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2209=head2 Installing perl under a different directory
2210
2211You can install perl under a different destination directory by using
2212the DESTDIR variable during C<make install>, with a command like
2213
2214 make install DESTDIR=/tmp/perl5
2215
2216DESTDIR is automatically prepended to all the installation paths. See
2217the example in L<"Creating an installable tar archive"> above.
2218
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2219=head2 Installed files
2220
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2221If you want to see exactly what will happen without installing
2222anything, you can run
4633a7c4 2223
8e07c86e
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2224 ./perl installperl -n
2225 ./perl installman -n
2226
1ec51d55 2227make install will install the following:
8e07c86e 2228
d56c5707
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2229 binaries
2230
8e07c86e 2231 perl,
be8498a1 2232 perl5.n.n where 5.n.n is the current release number. This
8e07c86e
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2233 will be a link to perl.
2234 suidperl,
be8498a1 2235 sperl5.n.n If you requested setuid emulation.
8e07c86e 2236 a2p awk-to-perl translator
d56c5707
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2237
2238 scripts
2239
8e07c86e
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2240 cppstdin This is used by perl -P, if your cc -E can't
2241 read from stdin.
2242 c2ph, pstruct Scripts for handling C structures in header files.
2243 s2p sed-to-perl translator
2244 find2perl find-to-perl translator
aa689395 2245 h2ph Extract constants and simple macros from C headers
8e07c86e 2246 h2xs Converts C .h header files to Perl extensions.
24b3df7f 2247 perlbug Tool to report bugs in Perl.
8e07c86e 2248 perldoc Tool to read perl's pod documentation.
aa689395 2249 pl2pm Convert Perl 4 .pl files to Perl 5 .pm modules
8e07c86e 2250 pod2html, Converters from perl's pod documentation format
aa689395 2251 pod2latex, to other useful formats.
d56c5707
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2252 pod2man,
2253 pod2text,
2254 pod2checker,
2255 pod2select,
2256 pod2usage
aa689395 2257 splain Describe Perl warnings and errors
95667ae4 2258 dprofpp Perl code profile post-processor
8e07c86e 2259
d56c5707
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2260 library files
2261
2262 in $privlib and $archlib specified to
8e07c86e 2263 Configure, usually under /usr/local/lib/perl5/.
d56c5707
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2264
2265 documentation
2266
d6baa268
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2267 man pages in $man1dir, usually /usr/local/man/man1.
2268 module man
2269 pages in $man3dir, usually /usr/local/man/man3.
8e07c86e
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2270 pod/*.pod in $privlib/pod/.
2271
d6baa268
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2272Installperl will also create the directories listed above
2273in L<"Installation Directories">.
4633a7c4 2274
d56c5707 2275Perl's *.h header files and the libperl library are also installed
d6baa268 2276under $archlib so that any user may later build new modules, run the
56c6f531
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2277optional Perl compiler, or embed the perl interpreter into another
2278program even if the Perl source is no longer available.
8e07c86e 2279
d56c5707
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2280Sometimes you only want to install the version-specific parts of the perl
2281installation. For example, you may wish to install a newer version of
2282perl alongside an already installed production version of perl without
2283disabling installation of new modules for the production version.
2284To only install the version-specific parts of the perl installation, run
2285
2286 Configure -Dversiononly
2287
2288or answer 'y' to the appropriate Configure prompt. Alternatively,
2289you can just manually run
2290
2291 ./perl installperl -v
2292
2293and skip installman altogether.
2294See also L<"Maintaining completely separate versions"> for another
2295approach.
2296
aa689395 2297=head1 Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5
4633a7c4 2298
9a664500 2299Perl 5.9 is not binary compatible with earlier versions of Perl.
cc65bb49 2300In other words, you will have to recompile your XS modules.
14eee2f1 2301
693762b4 2302In general, you can usually safely upgrade from one version of Perl (e.g.
9a664500 23035.8.0) to another similar version (e.g. 5.8.2) without re-compiling
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2304all of your add-on extensions. You can also safely leave the old version
2305around in case the new version causes you problems for some reason.
2306For example, if you want to be sure that your script continues to run
9a664500 2307with 5.8.2, simply replace the '#!/usr/local/bin/perl' line at the
693762b4 2308top of the script with the particular version you want to run, e.g.
9a664500 2309#!/usr/local/bin/perl5.8.2.
693762b4 2310
be8498a1
RGS
2311Usually, most extensions will probably not need to be recompiled to be
2312used with a newer version of Perl. Here is how it is supposed to work.
ce80d64e 2313(These examples assume you accept all the Configure defaults.)
693762b4 2314
d6baa268
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2315Suppose you already have version 5.005_03 installed. The directories
2316searched by 5.005_03 are
2317
2318 /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.00503/$archname
2319 /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.00503
2320 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/$archname
2321 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005
2322
0a08c020
GS
2323Beginning with 5.6.0 the version number in the site libraries are
2324fully versioned. Now, suppose you install version 5.6.0. The directories
2325searched by version 5.6.0 will be
d6baa268 2326
0a08c020
GS
2327 /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.0/$archname
2328 /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.0
2329 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0/$archname
2330 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0
d6baa268
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2331
2332 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/$archname
2333 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005
c42e3e15 2334 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/
bfb7748a 2335
c42e3e15 2336Notice the last three entries -- Perl understands the default structure
d6baa268
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2337of the $sitelib directories and will look back in older, compatible
2338directories. This way, modules installed under 5.005_03 will continue
0a08c020 2339to be usable by 5.005_03 but will also accessible to 5.6.0. Further,
d6baa268 2340suppose that you upgrade a module to one which requires features
0a08c020
GS
2341present only in 5.6.0. That new module will get installed into
2342/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0 and will be available to 5.6.0,
d6baa268 2343but will not interfere with the 5.005_03 version.
bfb7748a 2344
c42e3e15 2345The last entry, /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/, is there so that
fe23a901 23465.6.0 and above will look for 5.004-era pure perl modules.
d6baa268 2347
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2348Lastly, suppose you now install 5.8.0, which is not binary compatible
2349with 5.6.0. The directories searched by 5.8.0 (if you don't change the
fe23a901
RF
2350Configure defaults) will be:
2351
2352 /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.8.0/$archname
2353 /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.8.0
2354 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.0/$archname
2355 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.0
d6baa268 2356
0a08c020 2357 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0
d6baa268 2358
d6baa268 2359 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005
fe23a901 2360
d6baa268 2361 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/
bfb7748a 2362
cc65bb49
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2363Note that the earlier $archname entries are now gone, but pure perl
2364modules from earlier versions will still be found.
2365
0a08c020 2366Assuming the users in your site are still actively using perl 5.6.0 and
fe23a901 23675.005 after you installed 5.8.0, you can continue to install add-on
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2368extensions using any of perl 5.8.0, 5.6.0, or 5.005. The installations
2369of these different versions remain distinct, but remember that the
2370newer versions of perl are automatically set up to search the
2371compatible site libraries of the older ones. This means that
2372installing a new XS extension with 5.005 will make it visible to both
23735.005 and 5.6.0, but not to 5.8.0. Installing a pure perl module with
23745.005 will make it visible to all three versions. Later, if you
2375install the same extension using, say, perl 5.8.0, it will override the
23765.005-installed version, but only for perl 5.8.0.
0a08c020
GS
2377
2378This way, you can choose to share compatible extensions, but also upgrade
2379to a newer version of an extension that may be incompatible with earlier
2380versions, without breaking the earlier versions' installations.
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2381
2382=head2 Maintaining completely separate versions
4633a7c4 2383
1ec51d55 2384Many users prefer to keep all versions of perl in completely
d6baa268 2385separate directories. This guarantees that an update to one version
0a08c020
GS
2386won't interfere with another version. (The defaults guarantee this for
2387libraries after 5.6.0, but not for executables. TODO?) One convenient
2388way to do this is by using a separate prefix for each version, such as
d52d4e46 2389
9a664500 2390 sh Configure -Dprefix=/opt/perl5.8.2
d52d4e46 2391
9a664500 2392and adding /opt/perl5.8.2/bin to the shell PATH variable. Such users
d52d4e46 2393may also wish to add a symbolic link /usr/local/bin/perl so that
2394scripts can still start with #!/usr/local/bin/perl.
2395
693762b4 2396Others might share a common directory for maintenance sub-versions
cc65bb49 2397(e.g. 5.8 for all 5.8.x versions), but change directory with
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2398each major version.
2399
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2400If you are installing a development subversion, you probably ought to
2401seriously consider using a separate directory, since development
2402subversions may not have all the compatibility wrinkles ironed out
2403yet.
2404
e655887d 2405=head2 Upgrading from 5.005 or 5.6 to 5.8.0
693762b4 2406
9a664500 2407B<Perl 5.9.0 is binary incompatible with Perl 5.8.x, Perl 5.6.x, 5.005,
e655887d
CB
2408and any earlier Perl release.> Perl modules having binary parts
2409(meaning that a C compiler is used) will have to be recompiled to be
9a664500
AMS
2410used with 5.9.0. If you find you do need to rebuild an extension with
24115.9.0, you may safely do so without disturbing the older
e655887d
CB
2412installations. (See L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5">
2413above.)
c42e3e15
GS
2414
2415See your installed copy of the perllocal.pod file for a (possibly
2416incomplete) list of locally installed modules. Note that you want
cc65bb49 2417perllocal.pod, not perllocale.pod, for installed module information.
693762b4 2418
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2419=head1 Coexistence with perl4
2420
2421You can safely install perl5 even if you want to keep perl4 around.
2422
1ec51d55
CS
2423By default, the perl5 libraries go into /usr/local/lib/perl5/, so
2424they don't override the perl4 libraries in /usr/local/lib/perl/.
8e07c86e
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2425
2426In your /usr/local/bin directory, you should have a binary named
1ec51d55 2427perl4.036. That will not be touched by the perl5 installation
8e07c86e
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2428process. Most perl4 scripts should run just fine under perl5.
2429However, if you have any scripts that require perl4, you can replace
d6baa268 2430the #! line at the top of them by #!/usr/local/bin/perl4.036 (or
4dc3e0af 2431whatever the appropriate pathname is). See L<perltrap> for
d6baa268 2432possible problems running perl4 scripts under perl5.
8e07c86e 2433
aa689395 2434=head1 cd /usr/include; h2ph *.h sys/*.h
2435
d6baa268
JH
2436Some perl scripts need to be able to obtain information from the
2437system header files. This command will convert the most commonly used
1ec51d55 2438header files in /usr/include into files that can be easily interpreted
d6baa268
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2439by perl. These files will be placed in the architecture-dependent
2440library ($archlib) directory you specified to Configure.
aa689395 2441
d6baa268
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2442Note: Due to differences in the C and perl languages, the conversion
2443of the header files is not perfect. You will probably have to
2444hand-edit some of the converted files to get them to parse correctly.
2445For example, h2ph breaks spectacularly on type casting and certain
2446structures.
aa689395 2447
fb73857a 2448=head1 installhtml --help
aa689395 2449
3e3baf6d
TB
2450Some sites may wish to make perl documentation available in HTML
2451format. The installhtml utility can be used to convert pod
fb73857a 2452documentation into linked HTML files and install them.
aa689395 2453
d6baa268
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2454Currently, the supplied ./installhtml script does not make use of the
2455html Configure variables. This should be fixed in a future release.
2456
fb73857a 2457The following command-line is an example of one used to convert
3e3baf6d 2458perl documentation:
aa689395 2459
3e3baf6d
TB
2460 ./installhtml \
2461 --podroot=. \
2462 --podpath=lib:ext:pod:vms \
2463 --recurse \
2464 --htmldir=/perl/nmanual \
2465 --htmlroot=/perl/nmanual \
2466 --splithead=pod/perlipc \
2467 --splititem=pod/perlfunc \
2468 --libpods=perlfunc:perlguts:perlvar:perlrun:perlop \
2469 --verbose
2470
2471See the documentation in installhtml for more details. It can take
2472many minutes to execute a large installation and you should expect to
2473see warnings like "no title", "unexpected directive" and "cannot
2474resolve" as the files are processed. We are aware of these problems
2475(and would welcome patches for them).
aa689395 2476
fb73857a 2477You may find it helpful to run installhtml twice. That should reduce
2478the number of "cannot resolve" warnings.
2479
aa689395 2480=head1 cd pod && make tex && (process the latex files)
2481
2482Some sites may also wish to make the documentation in the pod/ directory
2483available in TeX format. Type
2484
2485 (cd pod && make tex && <process the latex files>)
2486
8ebf57cf
JH
2487=head1 Minimizing the Perl installation
2488
2489The following section is meant for people worrying about squeezing the
2490Perl installation into minimal systems (for example when installing
2491operating systems, or in really small filesystems).
2492
c8214fdf 2493Leaving out as many extensions as possible is an obvious way:
5cda700b
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2494Encode, with its big conversion tables, consumes a lot of
2495space. On the other hand, you cannot throw away everything. The
2496Fcntl module is pretty essential. If you need to do network
c8214fdf
JH
2497programming, you'll appreciate the Socket module, and so forth: it all
2498depends on what do you need to do.
2499
8ebf57cf
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2500In the following we offer two different slimmed down installation
2501recipes. They are informative, not normative: the choice of files
2502depends on what you need.
2503
2504Firstly, the bare minimum to run this script
2505
2506 use strict;
2507 use warnings;
2508 foreach my $f (</*>) {
2509 print("$f\n");
2510 }
2511
bfe08c74 2512in Linux is as follows (under $Config{prefix}):
8ebf57cf
JH
2513
2514 ./bin/perl
bfe08c74
RGS
2515 ./lib/perl5/5.9.3/strict.pm
2516 ./lib/perl5/5.9.3/warnings.pm
2517 ./lib/perl5/5.9.3/i686-linux/File/Glob.pm
2518 ./lib/perl5/5.9.3/i686-linux/XSLoader.pm
2519 ./lib/perl5/5.9.3/i686-linux/auto/File/Glob/Glob.so
8ebf57cf
JH
2520
2521Secondly, Debian perl-base package contains the following files,
bfe08c74 2522size about 1.9MB in its i386 version:
8ebf57cf 2523
bfe08c74
RGS
2524 /usr/bin/perl
2525 /usr/bin/perl5.8.4
2526 /usr/lib/perl/5.8
2527 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/B.pm
2528 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/B/Deparse.pm
2529 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/Config.pm
2530 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/Cwd.pm
2531 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/Data/Dumper.pm
2532 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/DynaLoader.pm
2533 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/Errno.pm
2534 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/Fcntl.pm
2535 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/File/Glob.pm
2536 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/IO.pm
2537 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/IO/File.pm
2538 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/IO/Handle.pm
2539 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/IO/Pipe.pm
2540 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/IO/Seekable.pm
2541 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/IO/Select.pm
2542 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/IO/Socket.pm
2543 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/POSIX.pm
2544 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/Socket.pm
2545 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/XSLoader.pm
2546 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/Cwd/Cwd.bs
2547 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/Cwd/Cwd.so
2548 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/Data/Dumper/Dumper.bs
2549 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/Data/Dumper/Dumper.so
2550 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/DynaLoader/DynaLoader.a
2551 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/DynaLoader/autosplit.ix
2552 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/DynaLoader/dl_expandspec.al
2553 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/DynaLoader/dl_find_symbol_anywhere.al
2554 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/DynaLoader/dl_findfile.al
2555 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/DynaLoader/extralibs.ld
2556 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/Fcntl/Fcntl.bs
2557 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/Fcntl/Fcntl.so
2558 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/File/Glob/Glob.bs
2559 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/File/Glob/Glob.so
2560 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/IO/IO.bs
2561 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/IO/IO.so
2562 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/POSIX/POSIX.bs
2563 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/POSIX/POSIX.so
2564 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/POSIX/autosplit.ix
2565 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/POSIX/load_imports.al
2566 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/Socket/Socket.bs
2567 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/Socket/Socket.so
2568 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/lib.pm
2569 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/re.pm
2570 /usr/share/doc/perl-base
8ebf57cf 2571 /usr/share/doc/perl/AUTHORS.gz
bfe08c74
RGS
2572 /usr/share/doc/perl/Documentation
2573 /usr/share/doc/perl/README.Debian.gz
8ebf57cf 2574 /usr/share/doc/perl/changelog.Debian.gz
bfe08c74 2575 /usr/share/doc/perl/copyright
8ebf57cf 2576 /usr/share/man/man1/perl.1.gz
bfe08c74
RGS
2577 /usr/share/perl/5.8
2578 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/AutoLoader.pm
2579 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/Carp.pm
2580 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/Carp/Heavy.pm
2581 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/Exporter.pm
2582 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/Exporter/Heavy.pm
2583 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/File/Spec.pm
2584 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/File/Spec/Unix.pm
2585 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/FileHandle.pm
2586 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/Getopt/Long.pm
2587 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/IO/Socket/INET.pm
2588 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/IO/Socket/UNIX.pm
2589 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/IPC/Open2.pm
2590 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/IPC/Open3.pm
2591 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/List/Util.pm
2592 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/Scalar/Util.pm
2593 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/SelectSaver.pm
2594 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/Symbol.pm
2595 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/Text/ParseWords.pm
2596 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/Text/Tabs.pm
2597 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/Text/Wrap.pm
2598 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/attributes.pm
2599 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/base.pm
2600 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/bytes.pm
2601 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/bytes_heavy.pl
2602 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/constant.pm
2603 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/fields.pm
2604 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/integer.pm
2605 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/locale.pm
2606 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/overload.pm
2607 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/strict.pm
2608 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/utf8.pm
2609 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/utf8_heavy.pl
2610 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/vars.pm
2611 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/warnings.pm
2612 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/warnings/register.pm
8ebf57cf 2613
e7a3c61b
JH
2614A nice trick to find out the minimal set of Perl library files you will
2615need to run a Perl program is
2616
a0a8d9d3 2617 perl -e 'do "prog.pl"; END { print "$_\n" for sort keys %INC }'
e7a3c61b
JH
2618
2619(this will not find libraries required in runtime, unfortunately, but
2620it's a minimal set) and if you want to find out all the files you can
2621use something like the below
2622
2623 strace perl -le 'do "x.pl"' 2>&1 | perl -nle '/^open\(\"(.+?)"/ && print $1'
2624
2625(The 'strace' is Linux-specific, other similar utilities include 'truss'
2626and 'ktrace'.)
2627
8e07c86e
AD
2628=head1 DOCUMENTATION
2629
bfb7748a
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2630Read the manual entries before running perl. The main documentation
2631is in the pod/ subdirectory and should have been installed during the
8e07c86e 2632build process. Type B<man perl> to get started. Alternatively, you
bfb7748a
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2633can type B<perldoc perl> to use the supplied perldoc script. This is
2634sometimes useful for finding things in the library modules.
8e07c86e 2635
1ec51d55 2636Under UNIX, you can produce a documentation book in postscript form,
bfb7748a
AD
2637along with its table of contents, by going to the pod/ subdirectory and
2638running (either):
34a2a22e
RM
2639
2640 ./roffitall -groff # If you have GNU groff installed
aa689395 2641 ./roffitall -psroff # If you have psroff
34a2a22e
RM
2642
2643This will leave you with two postscript files ready to be printed.
aa689395 2644(You may need to fix the roffitall command to use your local troff
2645set-up.)
34a2a22e 2646
bfb7748a
AD
2647Note that you must have performed the installation already before running
2648the above, since the script collects the installed files to generate
2649the documentation.
34a2a22e 2650
8e07c86e
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2651=head1 AUTHOR
2652
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2653Original author: Andy Dougherty doughera@lafayette.edu , borrowing very
2654heavily from the original README by Larry Wall, with lots of helpful
2655feedback and additions from the perl5-porters@perl.org folks.
fb73857a 2656
f5b3b617
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2657If you have problems, corrections, or questions, please see
2658L<"Reporting Problems"> above.
2659
2660=head1 REDISTRIBUTION
2661
2662This document is part of the Perl package and may be distributed under
d6baa268 2663the same terms as perl itself, with the following additional request:
f5b3b617 2664If you are distributing a modified version of perl (perhaps as part of
d6baa268
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2665a larger package) please B<do> modify these installation instructions
2666and the contact information to match your distribution.