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1 | # vim: syntax=pod |
2 | ||
a83b6f46 JH |
3 | If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you see. |
4 | It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is specially | |
5 | designed to be readable as is. | |
6 | ||
7 | =head1 NAME | |
8 | ||
9 | perlplan9 - Plan 9-specific documentation for Perl | |
10 | ||
11 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
12 | ||
13 | These are a few notes describing features peculiar to | |
14 | Plan 9 Perl. As such, it is not intended to be a replacement | |
15 | for the rest of the Perl 5 documentation (which is both | |
16 | copious and excellent). If you have any questions to | |
17 | which you can't find answers in these man pages, contact | |
18 | Luther Huffman at lutherh@stratcom.com and we'll try to | |
19 | answer them. | |
20 | ||
21 | =head2 Invoking Perl | |
22 | ||
23 | Perl is invoked from the command line as described in | |
24 | L<perl>. Most perl scripts, however, do have a first line | |
25 | such as "#!/usr/local/bin/perl". This is known as a shebang | |
26 | (shell-bang) statement and tells the OS shell where to find | |
27 | the perl interpreter. In Plan 9 Perl this statement should be | |
28 | "#!/bin/perl" if you wish to be able to directly invoke the | |
29 | script by its name. | |
30 | Alternatively, you may invoke perl with the command "Perl" | |
31 | instead of "perl". This will produce Acme-friendly error | |
32 | messages of the form "filename:18". | |
33 | ||
34 | Some scripts, usually identified with a *.PL extension, are | |
35 | self-configuring and are able to correctly create their own | |
36 | shebang path from config information located in Plan 9 | |
37 | Perl. These you won't need to be worried about. | |
38 | ||
39 | =head2 What's in Plan 9 Perl | |
40 | ||
41 | Although Plan 9 Perl currently only provides static | |
42 | loading, it is built with a number of useful extensions. | |
43 | These include Opcode, FileHandle, Fcntl, and POSIX. Expect | |
44 | to see others (and DynaLoading!) in the future. | |
45 | ||
46 | =head2 What's not in Plan 9 Perl | |
47 | ||
48 | As mentioned previously, dynamic loading isn't currently | |
49 | available nor is MakeMaker. Both are high-priority items. | |
50 | ||
51 | =head2 Perl5 Functions not currently supported in Plan 9 Perl | |
52 | ||
53 | Some, such as C<chown> and C<umask> aren't provided | |
54 | because the concept does not exist within Plan 9. Others, | |
55 | such as some of the socket-related functions, simply | |
56 | haven't been written yet. Many in the latter category | |
57 | may be supported in the future. | |
58 | ||
59 | The functions not currently implemented include: | |
60 | ||
61 | chown, chroot, dbmclose, dbmopen, getsockopt, | |
62 | setsockopt, recvmsg, sendmsg, getnetbyname, | |
63 | getnetbyaddr, getnetent, getprotoent, getservent, | |
64 | sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent, | |
65 | endservent, endnetent, endprotoent, umask | |
66 | ||
67 | There may be several other functions that have undefined | |
68 | behavior so this list shouldn't be considered complete. | |
69 | ||
70 | =head2 Signals in Plan 9 Perl | |
71 | ||
72 | For compatibility with perl scripts written for the Unix | |
73 | environment, Plan 9 Perl uses the POSIX signal emulation | |
74 | provided in Plan 9's ANSI POSIX Environment (APE). Signal stacking | |
75 | isn't supported. The signals provided are: | |
76 | ||
77 | SIGHUP, SIGINT, SIGQUIT, SIGILL, SIGABRT, | |
78 | SIGFPE, SIGKILL, SIGSEGV, SIGPIPE, SIGPIPE, SIGALRM, | |
79 | SIGTERM, SIGUSR1, SIGUSR2, SIGCHLD, SIGCONT, | |
80 | SIGSTOP, SIGTSTP, SIGTTIN, SIGTTOU | |
81 | ||
82 | =head1 COMPILING AND INSTALLING PERL ON PLAN 9 | |
83 | ||
d3c495ad | 84 | WELCOME to Plan 9 Perl, brave soul! |
d3c495ad | 85 | |
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86 | This is a preliminary alpha version of Plan 9 Perl. Still to be |
87 | implemented are MakeMaker and DynaLoader. Many perl commands are | |
88 | missing or currently behave in an inscrutable manner. These gaps will, | |
210b36aa | 89 | with perseverance and a modicum of luck, be remedied in the near |
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90 | future.To install this software: |
91 | ||
92 | 1. Create the source directories and libraries for perl by running the | |
93 | plan9/setup.rc command (i.e., located in the plan9 subdirectory). | |
94 | Note: the setup routine assumes that you haven't dearchived these | |
95 | files into /sys/src/cmd/perl. After running setup.rc you may delete | |
96 | the copy of the source you originally detarred, as source code has now | |
97 | been installed in /sys/src/cmd/perl. If you plan on installing perl | |
98 | binaries for all architectures, run "setup.rc -a". | |
99 | ||
100 | 2. After making sure that you have adequate privileges to build system | |
101 | software, from /sys/src/cmd/perl/5.00301 (adjust version | |
102 | appropriately) run: | |
103 | ||
104 | mk install | |
105 | ||
106 | If you wish to install perl versions for all architectures (68020, | |
107 | mips, sparc and 386) run: | |
108 | ||
109 | mk installall | |
110 | ||
111 | 3. Wait. The build process will take a *long* time because perl | |
112 | bootstraps itself. A 75MHz Pentium, 16MB RAM machine takes roughly 30 | |
113 | minutes to build the distribution from scratch. | |
d3c495ad | 114 | |
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115 | =head2 Installing Perl Documentation on Plan 9 |
116 | ||
117 | This perl distribution comes with a tremendous amount of | |
118 | documentation. To add these to the built-in manuals that come with | |
119 | Plan 9, from /sys/src/cmd/perl/5.00301 (adjust version appropriately) | |
120 | run: | |
121 | ||
122 | mk man | |
d3c495ad | 123 | |
d3c495ad | 124 | To begin your reading, start with: |
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125 | |
126 | man perl | |
127 | ||
128 | This is a good introduction and will direct you towards other man | |
129 | pages that may interest you. | |
d3c495ad | 130 | |
131 | (Note: "mk man" may produce some extraneous noise. Fear not.) | |
132 | ||
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133 | =head1 BUGS |
134 | ||
135 | "As many as there are grains of sand on all the beaches of the | |
136 | world . . ." - Carl Sagan | |
137 | ||
138 | =head1 Revision date | |
139 | ||
140 | This document was revised 09-October-1996 for Perl 5.003_7. | |
141 | ||
142 | =head1 AUTHOR | |
143 | ||
144 | Direct questions, comments, and the unlikely bug report (ahem) direct | |
145 | comments toward: | |
d3c495ad | 146 | |
a83b6f46 | 147 | Luther Huffman, lutherh@stratcom.com, |
d3c495ad | 148 | Strategic Computer Solutions, Inc. |