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1 | If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you |
2 | see. It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is | |
3 | specially designed to be readable as is. | |
4 | ||
5 | =head1 NAME | |
6 | ||
7 | README.machten - Perl version 5 on Power MachTen systems | |
8 | ||
9 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
10 | ||
11 | This document describes how to build Perl 5 on Power MachTen systems, | |
12 | and discusses a few wrinkles in the implementation. | |
13 | ||
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14 | =head2 Perl version 5.8.x and greater not supported |
15 | ||
16 | B<Power MachTen is not supported by versions of Perl later than | |
17 | 5.6.x.> | |
18 | If you wish to build a version from the 5.6 track, please | |
19 | obtain a source distribution from the archive at | |
20 | L<http://cpan.org/src/5.0/> and follow the instructions in its | |
21 | README.machten file. | |
22 | ||
23 | MachTen is no longer supported by its developers, Tenon Intersystems. | |
24 | A UNIX environment hosted on Mac OS Classic, MachTen has been | |
25 | superseded by Mac OS X and by BSD and Linux implementations for Macintosh | |
26 | hardware. | |
27 | The final version of Power MachTen, 4.1.4, lacks many features found in | |
28 | modern implementations of UNIX, and has a number of bugs. | |
29 | These shortcomings prevent recent versions of Perl from being able to use | |
30 | extensions on MachTen, and cause numerous test suite failures in the | |
31 | perl core. | |
32 | ||
33 | In September 2003, a discussion on the MachTen mailing list determined | |
34 | that there was no interest in making a later version of Perl build | |
35 | successfully on MachTen. | |
36 | Consequently, support for building Perl under MachTen has been suppressed | |
37 | in Perl distributions published after February 2004. | |
38 | The hints file, F<hints/machten.sh>, remains a part of the | |
39 | distributions for reference purposes. | |
40 | ||
41 | =head2 Compiling Perl 5.6.x on MachTen | |
42 | ||
43 | To compile perl 5.6.x under MachTen 4.1.4 (and probably earlier versions): | |
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44 | |
45 | ./Configure -de | |
46 | make | |
47 | make test | |
48 | make install | |
49 | ||
50 | This builds and installs a statically-linked perl; MachTen's dynamic | |
51 | linking facilities are not adequate to support Perl's use of | |
52 | dynamically linked libraries. (See F<hints/machten.sh> for more | |
53 | information.) | |
54 | ||
55 | You should have at least 32 megabytes of free memory on your | |
56 | system before running the C<make> command. | |
57 | ||
58 | For much more information on building perl -- for example, on how to | |
59 | change the default installation directory -- see F<INSTALL>. | |
60 | ||
a83b6f46 | 61 | =head2 Failures during C<make test> on MachTen |
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62 | |
63 | =over 4 | |
64 | ||
65 | =item op/lexassign.t | |
66 | ||
67 | This test may fail when first run after building perl. It does not | |
68 | fail subsequently. The cause is unknown. | |
69 | ||
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70 | =item pragma/warnings.t |
71 | ||
72 | Test 257 fails due to a failure to warn about attempts to read from a | |
73 | filehandle which is a duplicate of stdout when stdout is attached to a | |
74 | pipe. The output of the test contains a block comment which discusses | |
75 | a different failure, not applicable to MachTen. | |
76 | ||
77 | The root of the problem is that Machten does not assign a file type to | |
78 | either end of a pipe (see L<stat>), resulting, among other things | |
79 | in Perl's C<-p> test failing on file descriptors belonging to pipes. | |
80 | As a result, perl becomes confused, and the test for reading from a | |
81 | write-only file fails. I am reluctant to patch perl to get around | |
82 | this, as it's clearly an OS bug (about which Tenon has been informed), | |
83 | and limited in its effect on practical Perl programs. | |
84 | ||
85 | =back | |
86 | ||
a83b6f46 | 87 | =head2 Building external modules on MachTen |
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88 | |
89 | To add an external module to perl, build in the normal way, which | |
90 | is documented in L<ExtUtils::MakeMaker>, or which can be driven | |
91 | automatically by the CPAN module (see L<CPAN>), which is part of the | |
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92 | standard distribution. If you want to install a module which |
93 | contains XS code (C or C++ source which compiles to object code | |
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94 | for linking with perl), you will have to replace your perl binary with |
95 | a new version containing the new statically-linked object module. The | |
96 | build process tells you how to do this. | |
97 | ||
98 | There is a gotcha, however, which users usually encounter immediately | |
99 | they respond to CPAN's invitation to C<install Bundle::CPAN>. When | |
100 | installing a I<bundle> -- a group of modules which together achieve | |
101 | some particular purpose, the installation process for later modules in | |
102 | the bundle tends to assume that earlier modules have been fully | |
103 | installed and are available for use. This is not true on a | |
104 | statically-linked system for earlier modules which contain XS code. | |
105 | As a result the installation of the bundle fails. The work-around is | |
106 | not to install the bundle as a one-shot operation, but instead to see | |
107 | what modules it contains, and install these one-at-a-time by hand in | |
108 | the order given. | |
109 | ||
110 | =head1 AUTHOR | |
111 | ||
112 | Dominic Dunlop <domo@computer.org> | |
113 | ||
114 | =head1 DATE | |
115 | ||
d0c3e6d6 | 116 | Version 1.1.0 2004-02-13 |