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1If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you
2see. It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is
3specially designed to be readable as is.
4
5=head1 NAME
6
7perlwin32 - Perl under Windows
8
9=head1 SYNOPSIS
10
b906aaa5 11These are instructions for building Perl under Windows 2000 and later.
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12
13=head1 DESCRIPTION
14
15Before you start, you should glance through the README file
16found in the top-level directory to which the Perl distribution
17was extracted. Make sure you read and understand the terms under
18which this software is being distributed.
19
20Also make sure you read L<BUGS AND CAVEATS> below for the
21known limitations of this port.
22
23The INSTALL file in the perl top-level has much information that is
24only relevant to people building Perl on Unix-like systems. In
25particular, you can safely ignore any information that talks about
26"Configure".
27
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28You may also want to look at one other option for building a perl that
29will work on Windows: the README.cygwin file, which give a different
30set of rules to build a perl for Windows. This method will probably
31enable you to build a more Unix-compatible perl, but you will also
32need to download and use various other build-time and run-time support
33software described in that file.
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34
35This set of instructions is meant to describe a so-called "native"
b906aaa5 36port of Perl to the Windows platform. This includes both 32-bit and
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3764-bit Windows operating systems. The resulting Perl requires no
38additional software to run (other than what came with your operating
39system). Currently, this port is capable of using one of the
40following compilers on the Intel x86 architecture:
41
b906aaa5 42 Borland C++ version 5.02 or later
ffc8a9ad 43 Microsoft Visual C++ version 6.0 or later (*)
ceb0c681 44 Gcc by mingw.org gcc version 3.2 or later
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45 Gcc by mingw-w64.sf.net gcc version 4.4.3 or later
46
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47(*) NOTE: Support for Visual C++ 2010 is not yet complete. This latest
48version of VC++ introduces some new C<errno.h> constants which conflict
49with Perl's current setting of them to match the corresponding WSAE*
50constants' values. Until this issue is resolved you will see several test
51failures (in F<cpan/autodie/t/flock.t>, F<dist/IO/t/io_multihomed.t >,
52F<dist/Net-Ping/t/450_service.t> and F<dist/Net-Ping/t/510_ping_udp.t>)
53and experience other problems in code involving sockets.
54
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55Note that the last two of these are actually competing projects both
56delivering complete gcc toolchain for MS Windows:
b906aaa5 57
fa58a56f 58- http://mingw.org - delivers gcc toolchain targeting 32-bit Windows
ceb0c681 59 platform.
b906aaa5 60
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61- http://mingw-w64.sf.net - delivers gcc toolchain targeting both 64-bit
62 Windows and 32-bit Windows platforms (despite the project name "mingw-w64"
63 they are not only 64-bit oriented). They deliver the native gcc compilers
b906aaa5 64 and cross-compilers that are also supported by perl's makefile.
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66The Borland C++ and Microsoft Visual C++ compilers are also now being given
67away free. The Borland compiler is available as "Borland C++ Compiler Free
68Command Line Tools" and is the same compiler that ships with the full
69"Borland C++ Builder" product. The Microsoft compiler is available as
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70"Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" or "Visual C++ 2005/2008/2010 Express Edition" (and
71also as part of the ".NET Framework SDK") and is the same compiler that ships
72with "Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional" or "Visual C++ 2005/2008/2010
73Professional" respectively.
7241fd28 74
fa58a56f 75This port can also be built on IA64/AMD64 using:
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76
77 Microsoft Platform SDK Nov 2001 (64-bit compiler and tools)
fa58a56f 78 MinGW64 compiler (gcc version 4.4.3 or later)
9baed986 79
b906aaa5 80The Windows SDK can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/.
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81The MinGW64 compiler is available at http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw-w64.
82The latter is actually a cross-compiler targeting Win64. There's also a trimmed
83down compiler (no java, or gfortran) suitable for building perl available at:
e5418c81 84http://strawberryperl.com/package/kmx/64_gcctoolchain/mingw64-w64-20100123-kmx-v2.zip
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85
86NOTE: If you're using a 32-bit compiler to build perl on a 64-bit Windows
87operating system, then you should set the WIN64 environment variable to "undef".
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88Also, the trimmed down compiler only passes tests when USE_ITHREADS *= define
89(as opposed to undef) and when the CFG *= Debug line is commented out.
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90
91This port fully supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that
92is used to build extensions to perl). Therefore, you should be
93able to build and install most extensions found in the CPAN sites.
b906aaa5 94See L<Usage Hints for Perl on Windows> below for general hints about this.
9baed986 95
b906aaa5 96=head2 Setting Up Perl on Windows
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97
98=over 4
99
100=item Make
101
102You need a "make" program to build the sources. If you are using
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103Visual C++ or the Windows SDK tools, nmake will work. Builds using
104the Borland compiler or gcc need dmake.
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105
106dmake is a freely available make that has very nice macro features
107and parallelability.
108
109A port of dmake for Windows is available from:
110
13e18e90 111 http://search.cpan.org/dist/dmake/
9baed986 112
13e18e90 113Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path.
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114
115There exists a minor coexistence problem with dmake and Borland C++
116compilers. Namely, if a distribution has C files named with mixed
117case letters, they will be compiled into appropriate .obj-files named
118with all lowercase letters, and every time dmake is invoked
119to bring files up to date, it will try to recompile such files again.
120For example, Tk distribution has a lot of such files, resulting in
121needless recompiles every time dmake is invoked. To avoid this, you
122may use the script "sync_ext.pl" after a successful build. It is
123available in the win32 subdirectory of the Perl source distribution.
124
125=item Command Shell
126
127Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with NT. Some versions of the
128popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause you trouble.
129If the build fails under that shell, try building again with the cmd
130shell.
131
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132Make sure the path to the build directory does not contain spaces. The
133build usually works in this circumstance, but some tests will fail.
134
135=item Borland C++
136
137If you are using the Borland compiler, you will need dmake.
138(The make that Borland supplies is seriously crippled and will not
139work for MakeMaker builds.)
140
141See L</"Make"> above.
142
143=item Microsoft Visual C++
144
145The nmake that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building.
146You will need to run the VCVARS32.BAT file, usually found somewhere
b906aaa5 147like C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\Bin.
00808b83 148This will set your build environment.
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149
150You can also use dmake to build using Visual C++; provided, however,
151you set OSRELEASE to "microsft" (or whatever the directory name
152under which the Visual C dmake configuration lives) in your environment
153and edit win32/config.vc to change "make=nmake" into "make=dmake". The
154latter step is only essential if you want to use dmake as your default
155make for building extensions using MakeMaker.
156
2a46176f 157=item Microsoft Visual C++ 2008/2010 Express Edition
4a3cf07b 158
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159These free versions of Visual C++ 2008/2010 Professional contain the same
160compilers and linkers that ship with the full versions, and also contain
161everything necessary to build Perl, rather than requiring a separate download
162of the Windows SDK like previous versions did.
4a3cf07b 163
2a46176f 164These packages can be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
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165http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en. (Providing exact
166links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
167changing so often.)
4a3cf07b 168
2a46176f 169Install Visual C++ 2008/2010 Express, then setup your environment using, e.g.
4a3cf07b 170
2a46176f 171 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\Tools\vsvars32.bat
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172
173(assuming the default installation location was chosen).
174
175Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
2a46176f 176file to set CCTYPE to MSVC90FREE or MSVC100FREE first.
4a3cf07b 177
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178=item Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
179
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180This free version of Visual C++ 2005 Professional contains the same compiler
181and linker that ship with the full version, but doesn't contain everything
182necessary to build Perl.
183
b906aaa5 184You will also need to download the "Windows SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
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185SDK" components are required) for more header files and libraries.
186
187These packages can both be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
188http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en. (Providing exact
189links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
190changing so often.)
191
b906aaa5 192Try to obtain the latest version of the Windows SDK. Sometimes these packages
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193contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
194other OS versions too. For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
195also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
196
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197Install Visual C++ 2005 first, then the Platform SDK. Setup your environment
198as follows (assuming default installation locations were chosen):
199
4246aec1 200 SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
1c847d4b 201
4246aec1 202 SET PATH=%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\BIN;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\Tools;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\bin;C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\VCPackages;%PlatformSDKDir%\Bin
1c847d4b 203
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204 SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\INCLUDE;%PlatformSDKDir%\include
205
206 SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\LIB;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib
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207
208 SET LIBPATH=C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727
209
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210(The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on which version
211you are using. Earlier versions installed into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK",
212while the latest versions install into version-specific locations such as
213"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
214
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215Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
216file to set
217
218 CCTYPE = MSVC80FREE
219
220and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
221
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222=item Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003
223
224This free toolkit contains the same compiler and linker that ship with
1c847d4b 225Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional, but doesn't contain everything
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226necessary to build Perl.
227
228You will also need to download the "Platform SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
229SDK" components are required) for header files, libraries and rc.exe, and
230".NET Framework SDK" for more libraries and nmake.exe. Note that the latter
231(which also includes the free compiler and linker) requires the ".NET
232Framework Redistributable" to be installed first. This can be downloaded and
233installed separately, but is included in the "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" anyway.
234
235These packages can all be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
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236http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en. (Providing exact
237links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
238changing so often.)
239
b906aaa5 240Try to obtain the latest version of the Windows SDK. Sometimes these packages
1b4f0359 241contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
1c847d4b 242other OS versions too. For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
1b4f0359 243also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
7241fd28 244
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245Install the Toolkit first, then the Platform SDK, then the .NET Framework SDK.
246Setup your environment as follows (assuming default installation locations
247were chosen):
248
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249 SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
250
251 SET PATH=%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin;%PlatformSDKDir%\Bin;C:\Program Files\Microsoft.NET\SDK\v1.1\Bin
252
253 SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\include;%PlatformSDKDir%\include;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\include
1c847d4b 254
4246aec1 255 SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\lib
1c847d4b 256
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257(The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on which version
258you are using. Earlier versions installed into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK",
259while the latest versions install into version-specific locations such as
260"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
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261
262Several required files will still be missing:
263
264=over 4
265
266=item *
267
268cvtres.exe is required by link.exe when using a .res file. It is actually
269installed by the .NET Framework SDK, but into a location such as the
270following:
271
272 C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322
273
4246aec1 274Copy it from there to %PlatformSDKDir%\Bin
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275
276=item *
277
278lib.exe is normally used to build libraries, but link.exe with the /lib
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279option also works, so change win32/config.vc to use it instead:
280
281Change the line reading:
282
283 ar='lib'
284
285to:
286
287 ar='link /lib'
288
289It may also be useful to create a batch file called lib.bat in
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290C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin containing:
291
292 @echo off
293 link /lib %*
294
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295for the benefit of any naughty C extension modules that you might want to build
296later which explicitly reference "lib" rather than taking their value from
297$Config{ar}.
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298
299=item *
300
301setargv.obj is required to build perlglob.exe (and perl.exe if the USE_SETARGV
302option is enabled). The Platform SDK supplies this object file in source form
4246aec1 303in %PlatformSDKDir%\src\crt. Copy setargv.c, cruntime.h and
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304internal.h from there to some temporary location and build setargv.obj using
305
306 cl.exe /c /I. /D_CRTBLD setargv.c
307
4246aec1 308Then copy setargv.obj to %PlatformSDKDir%\lib
7241fd28 309
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310Alternatively, if you don't need perlglob.exe and don't need to enable the
311USE_SETARGV option then you can safely just remove all mention of $(GLOBEXE)
312from win32/Makefile and setargv.obj won't be required anyway.
313
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314=back
315
316Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
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317file to set
318
319 CCTYPE = MSVC70FREE
320
321and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
7241fd28 322
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323=item Microsoft Platform SDK 64-bit Compiler
324
325The nmake that comes with the Platform SDK will suffice for building
326Perl. Make sure you are building within one of the "Build Environment"
327shells available after you install the Platform SDK from the Start Menu.
328
e2736246 329=item MinGW release 3 with gcc
9baed986 330
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331Perl can be compiled with gcc from MinGW release 3 and later (using gcc 3.2.x
332and later). It can be downloaded here:
9baed986 333
e2736246 334 http://www.mingw.org/
7c5b6093 335
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336You also need dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
337
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338=back
339
340=head2 Building
341
342=over 4
343
344=item *
345
346Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl toplevel.
347This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with
b906aaa5 348versions of nmake that come with Visual C++ or the Windows SDK, and
9baed986 349a dmake "makefile.mk" that will work for all supported compilers. The
00808b83 350defaults in the dmake makefile are setup to build using MinGW/gcc.
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351
352=item *
353
dbd54a9f 354Edit the makefile.mk (or Makefile, if you're using nmake) and change
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355the values of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. You can also enable various
356build flags. These are explained in the makefiles.
357
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358Note that it is generally not a good idea to try to build a perl with
359INST_DRV and INST_TOP set to a path that already exists from a previous
360build. In particular, this may cause problems with the
361lib/ExtUtils/t/Embed.t test, which attempts to build a test program and
362may end up building against the installed perl's lib/CORE directory rather
363than the one being tested.
364
dbd54a9f 365You will have to make sure that CCTYPE is set correctly and that
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366CCHOME points to wherever you installed your compiler. If building with
367gcc-4.x.x, you'll also need to uncomment the assignment to GCC_4XX and
368uncomment the assignment to the appropriate GCCHELPERDLL in the makefile.mk.
369
370If building with the cross-compiler provided by
371mingw-w64.sourceforge.net you'll need to uncomment the line that sets
372GCCCROSS in the makefile.mk. Do this only if it's the cross-compiler - ie
373only if the bin folder doesn't contain a gcc.exe. (The cross-compiler
374does not provide a gcc.exe, g++.exe, ar.exe, etc. Instead, all of these
375executables are prefixed with 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-'.)
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376
377The default value for CCHOME in the makefiles for Visual C++
378may not be correct for some versions. Make sure the default exists
379and is valid.
380
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381You may also need to comment out the C<DELAYLOAD = ...> line in the
382Makefile if you're using VC++ 6.0 without the latest service pack and
383the linker reports an internal error.
dbd54a9f 384
9baed986 385If you have either the source or a library that contains des_fcrypt(),
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386enable the appropriate option in the makefile. A ready-to-use version
387of fcrypt.c, based on the version originally written by Eric Young at
388ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/crypt/mirrors/dsi/libdes/, is bundled with the
00808b83 389distribution and CRYPT_SRC is set to use it.
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390Alternatively, if you have built a library that contains des_fcrypt(),
391you can set CRYPT_LIB to point to the library name.
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392Perl will also build without des_fcrypt(), but the crypt() builtin will
393fail at run time.
394
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395If you want build some core extensions statically into perl's dll, specify
396them in the STATIC_EXT macro.
397
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398Be sure to read the instructions near the top of the makefiles carefully.
399
400=item *
401
402Type "dmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make).
403
404This should build everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe,
cb47d8a5 405perl513.dll at the perl toplevel, and various other extension dll's
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406under the lib\auto directory. If the build fails for any reason, make
407sure you have done the previous steps correctly.
408
409=back
410
b906aaa5 411=head2 Testing Perl on Windows
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412
413Type "dmake test" (or "nmake test"). This will run most of the tests from
414the testsuite (many tests will be skipped).
415
b906aaa5 416There should be no test failures.
9baed986 417
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418(If you're using VC++ 2010 then you will currently see several test failures,
419as noted in the list of supported compilers above.)
420
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421Some test failures may occur if you use a command shell other than the
422native "cmd.exe", or if you are building from a path that contains
423spaces. So don't do that.
424
425If you are running the tests from a emacs shell window, you may see
426failures in op/stat.t. Run "dmake test-notty" in that case.
427
428If you're using the Borland compiler, you may see a failure in op/taint.t
429arising from the inability to find the Borland Runtime DLLs on the system
430default path. You will need to copy the DLLs reported by the messages
431from where Borland chose to install it, into the Windows system directory
432(usually somewhere like C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32) and rerun the test.
433
434If you're using Borland compiler versions 5.2 and below, you may run into
435problems finding the correct header files when building extensions. For
436example, building the "Tk" extension may fail because both perl and Tk
437contain a header file called "patchlevel.h". The latest Borland compiler
438(v5.5) is free of this misbehaviour, and it even supports an
439option -VI- for backward (bugward) compatibility for using the old Borland
440search algorithm to locate header files.
441
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442If you run the tests on a FAT partition, you may see some failures for
443C<link()> related tests (I<op/write.t>, I<op/stat.t> ...). Testing on
444NTFS avoids these errors.
445
446Furthermore, you should make sure that during C<make test> you do not
447have any GNU tool packages in your path: some toolkits like Unixutils
448include some tools (C<type> for instance) which override the Windows
449ones and makes tests fail. Remove them from your path while testing to
450avoid these errors.
451
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452Please report any other failures as described under L<BUGS AND CAVEATS>.
453
b906aaa5 454=head2 Installation of Perl on Windows
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455
456Type "dmake install" (or "nmake install"). This will put the newly
457built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP> points to in the
458Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation under
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459C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same under
460C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod\html>.
9baed986 461
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462To use the Perl you just installed you will need to add a new entry to
463your PATH environment variable: C<$INST_TOP\bin>, e.g.
9baed986 464
00808b83 465 set PATH=c:\perl\bin;%PATH%
9baed986 466
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467If you opted to uncomment C<INST_VER> and C<INST_ARCH> in the makefile
468then the installation structure is a little more complicated and you will
469need to add two new PATH components instead: C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin> and
470C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin\$ARCHNAME>, e.g.
471
472 set PATH=c:\perl\5.6.0\bin;c:\perl\5.6.0\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH%
9baed986 473
b906aaa5 474=head2 Usage Hints for Perl on Windows
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475
476=over 4
477
478=item Environment Variables
479
480The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled
481into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start
482using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable).
483
484If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB
485to a list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl
486to look for libraries. Look for descriptions of other environment
487variables you can set in L<perlrun>.
488
489You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and
490backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See L<perlrun>.
491
492Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain default
493values if you choose to put them there. Perl attempts to read entries from
494C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> and C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>.
495Entries in the former override entries in the latter. One or more of the
496following entries (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may be set:
497
498 lib-$] version-specific standard library path to add to @INC
499 lib standard library path to add to @INC
500 sitelib-$] version-specific site library path to add to @INC
501 sitelib site library path to add to @INC
502 vendorlib-$] version-specific vendor library path to add to @INC
503 vendorlib vendor library path to add to @INC
504 PERL* fallback for all %ENV lookups that begin with "PERL"
505
506Note the C<$]> in the above is not literal. Substitute whatever version
507of perl you want to honor that entry, e.g. C<5.6.0>. Paths must be
b906aaa5 508separated with semicolons, as usual on Windows.
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509
510=item File Globbing
511
512By default, perl handles file globbing using the File::Glob extension,
513which provides portable globbing.
514
515If you want perl to use globbing that emulates the quirks of DOS
516filename conventions, you might want to consider using File::DosGlob
517to override the internal glob() implementation. See L<File::DosGlob> for
518details.
519
520=item Using perl from the command line
521
522If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line
523shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased
524with what Windows offers by way of a command shell.
525
526The crucial thing to understand about the Windows environment is that
527the command line you type in is processed twice before Perl sees it.
528First, your command shell (usually CMD.EXE on Windows NT, and
529COMMAND.COM on Windows 9x) preprocesses the command line, to handle
530redirection, environment variable expansion, and location of the
531executable to run. Then, the perl executable splits the remaining
532command line into individual arguments, using the C runtime library
533upon which Perl was built.
534
535It is particularly important to note that neither the shell nor the C
536runtime do any wildcard expansions of command-line arguments (so
537wildcards need not be quoted). Also, the quoting behaviours of the
538shell and the C runtime are rudimentary at best (and may, if you are
539using a non-standard shell, be inconsistent). The only (useful) quote
540character is the double quote ("). It can be used to protect spaces
541and other special characters in arguments.
542
543The Windows NT documentation has almost no description of how the
544quoting rules are implemented, but here are some general observations
545based on experiments: The C runtime breaks arguments at spaces and
546passes them to programs in argc/argv. Double quotes can be used to
547prevent arguments with spaces in them from being split up. You can
548put a double quote in an argument by escaping it with a backslash and
549enclosing the whole argument within double quotes. The backslash and
550the pair of double quotes surrounding the argument will be stripped by
551the C runtime.
552
00808b83 553The file redirection characters "E<lt>", "E<gt>", and "|" can be quoted by
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554double quotes (although there are suggestions that this may not always
555be true). Single quotes are not treated as quotes by the shell or
556the C runtime, they don't get stripped by the shell (just to make
557this type of quoting completely useless). The caret "^" has also
558been observed to behave as a quoting character, but this appears
559to be a shell feature, and the caret is not stripped from the command
560line, so Perl still sees it (and the C runtime phase does not treat
561the caret as a quote character).
562
563Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell:
564
565This prints two doublequotes:
566
567 perl -e "print '\"\"' "
568
569This does the same:
570
571 perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" "
572
573This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch":
574
575 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch
576
577This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland):
578
579 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul
580
581This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch":
582
583 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch
584
585This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the console:
586
587 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less
588
589This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager:
590
591 perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less
592
593This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file "blurch":
594
595 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less
596
597
598Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows 9x
599is left as an exercise to the reader :)
600
601One particularly pernicious problem with the 4NT command shell for
602Windows NT is that it (nearly) always treats a % character as indicating
603that environment variable expansion is needed. Under this shell, it is
604therefore important to always double any % characters which you want
605Perl to see (for example, for hash variables), even when they are
606quoted.
607
608=item Building Extensions
609
610The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth
611of extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build.
612Look in http://www.cpan.org/ for more information on CPAN.
613
614Note that not all of the extensions available from CPAN may work
b906aaa5 615in the Windows environment; you should check the information at
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616http://testers.cpan.org/ before investing too much effort into
617porting modules that don't readily build.
618
619Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can
620be built, tested and installed with the standard mantra:
621
622 perl Makefile.PL
623 $MAKE
624 $MAKE test
625 $MAKE install
626
627where $MAKE is whatever 'make' program you have configured perl to
628use. Use "perl -V:make" to find out what this is. Some extensions
629may not provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything or
630fail), but most serious ones do.
631
632It is important that you use a supported 'make' program, and
633ensure Config.pm knows about it. If you don't have nmake, you can
634either get dmake from the location mentioned earlier or get an
635old version of nmake reportedly available from:
636
cb9857f1 637 http://download.microsoft.com/download/vc15/Patch/1.52/W95/EN-US/nmake15.exe
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638
639Another option is to use the make written in Perl, available from
640CPAN.
641
642 http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Make/
643
644You may also use dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
645
646Note that MakeMaker actually emits makefiles with different syntax
647depending on what 'make' it thinks you are using. Therefore, it is
648important that one of the following values appears in Config.pm:
649
650 make='nmake' # MakeMaker emits nmake syntax
651 make='dmake' # MakeMaker emits dmake syntax
652 any other value # MakeMaker emits generic make syntax
653 (e.g GNU make, or Perl make)
654
655If the value doesn't match the 'make' program you want to use,
656edit Config.pm to fix it.
657
658If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported
659C compilers. You must make sure you have set up the environment for
660the compiler for command-line compilation.
661
662If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for
663why it failed, and report problems to the module author. If
664it looks like the extension building support is at fault, report
665that with full details of how the build failed using the perlbug
666utility.
667
668=item Command-line Wildcard Expansion
669
670The default command shells on DOS descendant operating systems (such
671as they are) usually do not expand wildcard arguments supplied to
672programs. They consider it the application's job to handle that.
673This is commonly achieved by linking the application (in our case,
674perl) with startup code that the C runtime libraries usually provide.
675However, doing that results in incompatible perl versions (since the
676behavior of the argv expansion code differs depending on the
677compiler, and it is even buggy on some compilers). Besides, it may
678be a source of frustration if you use such a perl binary with an
679alternate shell that *does* expand wildcards.
680
681Instead, the following solution works rather well. The nice things
dbd54a9f 682about it are 1) you can start using it right away; 2) it is more
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683powerful, because it will do the right thing with a pattern like
684*/*/*.c; 3) you can decide whether you do/don't want to use it; and
dbd54a9f 6854) you can extend the method to add any customizations (or even
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686entirely different kinds of wildcard expansion).
687
688 C:\> copy con c:\perl\lib\Wild.pm
689 # Wild.pm - emulate shell @ARGV expansion on shells that don't
690 use File::DosGlob;
691 @ARGV = map {
692 my @g = File::DosGlob::glob($_) if /[*?]/;
693 @g ? @g : $_;
694 } @ARGV;
695 1;
696 ^Z
697 C:\> set PERL5OPT=-MWild
698 C:\> perl -le "for (@ARGV) { print }" */*/perl*.c
699 p4view/perl/perl.c
700 p4view/perl/perlio.c
701 p4view/perl/perly.c
702 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
703 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
704 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
705 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
706 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
707 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
708
709Note there are two distinct steps there: 1) You'll have to create
710Wild.pm and put it in your perl lib directory. 2) You'll need to
711set the PERL5OPT environment variable. If you want argv expansion
712to be the default, just set PERL5OPT in your default startup
713environment.
714
715If you are using the Visual C compiler, you can get the C runtime's
716command line wildcard expansion built into perl binary. The resulting
717binary will always expand unquoted command lines, which may not be
718what you want if you use a shell that does that for you. The expansion
719done is also somewhat less powerful than the approach suggested above.
720
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721=item Notes on 64-bit Windows
722
723Windows .NET Server supports the LLP64 data model on the Intel Itanium
724architecture.
725
726The LLP64 data model is different from the LP64 data model that is the
727norm on 64-bit Unix platforms. In the former, C<int> and C<long> are
728both 32-bit data types, while pointers are 64 bits wide. In addition,
729there is a separate 64-bit wide integral type, C<__int64>. In contrast,
730the LP64 data model that is pervasive on Unix platforms provides C<int>
731as the 32-bit type, while both the C<long> type and pointers are of
73264-bit precision. Note that both models provide for 64-bits of
733addressability.
734
73564-bit Windows running on Itanium is capable of running 32-bit x86
736binaries transparently. This means that you could use a 32-bit build
737of Perl on a 64-bit system. Given this, why would one want to build
738a 64-bit build of Perl? Here are some reasons why you would bother:
739
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740=over
741
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742=item *
743
744A 64-bit native application will run much more efficiently on
745Itanium hardware.
746
747=item *
748
749There is no 2GB limit on process size.
750
751=item *
752
753Perl automatically provides large file support when built under
75464-bit Windows.
755
756=item *
757
758Embedding Perl inside a 64-bit application.
759
760=back
761
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762=back
763
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764=head2 Running Perl Scripts
765
766Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to
767indicate to the OS that it should execute the file using perl.
b906aaa5 768Windows has no comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are
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769executables.
770
771Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on
b906aaa5 772Windows rely on the file "extension". There are three methods
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773to use this to execute perl scripts:
774
775=over 8
776
777=item 1
778
779There is a facility called "file extension associations" that will
780work in Windows NT 4.0. This can be manipulated via the two
781commands "assoc" and "ftype" that come standard with Windows NT
7824.0. Type "ftype /?" for a complete example of how to set this
783up for perl scripts (Say what? You thought Windows NT wasn't
784perl-ready? :).
785
786=item 2
787
788Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are
789reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the
790old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a
791regular batch file to the OS, may be used. The install process
792makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to wrap
793perl scripts into batch files. For example:
794
795 pl2bat foo.pl
796
797will create the file "FOO.BAT". Note "pl2bat" strips any
798.pl suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file.
799
800If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that
801"pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to
802refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to make
803sure that construct works in batch files. As of this writing,
8044DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *" statement in their
8054NT.INI file or will need to execute "setdos /p*" in the 4DOS/NT
806startup file to enable this to work.
807
808=item 3
809
810Using "pl2bat" has a few problems: the file name gets changed,
811so scripts that rely on C<$0> to find what they must do may not
812run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the
813original script, and so this process can be maintenance intensive
814if the originals get updated often. A different approach that
815avoids both problems is possible.
816
817A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied
818to any filename (along with the .bat suffix). For example,
819if you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is
b906aaa5 820executed. Since you can run batch files on Windows platforms simply
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821by typing the name (without the extension), this effectively
822runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or "foo.bat".
823With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a different location
824than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is available somewhere on
825the PATH. If your scripts are on a filesystem that allows symbolic
826links, you can even avoid copying "runperl.bat".
827
828Here's a diversion: copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type
829"runperl". Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :)
830Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH
831
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832=back
833
834=head2 Miscellaneous Things
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835
836A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be
837able to use it if you have a web browser installed on your
838system.
839
840C<perldoc> is also a useful tool for browsing information contained
841in the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager
b906aaa5 842like C<less> (recent versions of which have Windows support). You may
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843have to set the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager.
844"perldoc -f foo" will print information about the perl operator
845"foo".
846
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847One common mistake when using this port with a GUI library like C<Tk>
848is assuming that Perl's normal behavior of opening a command-line
849window will go away. This isn't the case. If you want to start a copy
850of C<perl> without opening a command-line window, use the C<wperl>
851executable built during the installation process. Usage is exactly
b906aaa5 852the same as normal C<perl> on Windows, except that options like C<-h>
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853don't work (since they need a command-line window to print to).
854
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855If you find bugs in perl, you can run C<perlbug> to create a
856bug report (you may have to send it manually if C<perlbug> cannot
857find a mailer on your system).
858
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859=head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS
860
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861Norton AntiVirus interferes with the build process, particularly if
862set to "AutoProtect, All Files, when Opened". Unlike large applications
863the perl build process opens and modifies a lot of files. Having the
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864the AntiVirus scan each and every one slows build the process significantly.
865Worse, with PERLIO=stdio the build process fails with peculiar messages
dbd54a9f 866as the virus checker interacts badly with miniperl.exe writing configure
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867files (it seems to either catch file part written and treat it as suspicious,
868or virus checker may have it "locked" in a way which inhibits miniperl
dbd54a9f 869updating it). The build does complete with
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870
871 set PERLIO=perlio
872
873but that may be just luck. Other AntiVirus software may have similar issues.
874
875Some of the built-in functions do not act exactly as documented in
876L<perlfunc>, and a few are not implemented at all. To avoid
877surprises, particularly if you have had prior exposure to Perl
878in other operating environments or if you intend to write code
00808b83 879that will be portable to other environments, see L<perlport>
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880for a reasonably definitive list of these differences.
881
882Not all extensions available from CPAN may build or work properly
b906aaa5 883in the Windows environment. See L</"Building Extensions">.
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884
885Most C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not
886behave as on Unix platforms. See L<perlport> for the full list.
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887Perl requires Winsock2 to be installed on the system. If you're
888running Win95, you can download Winsock upgrade from here:
889
890http://www.microsoft.com/windows95/downloads/contents/WUAdminTools/S_WUNetworkingTools/W95Sockets2/Default.asp
891
892Later OS versions already include Winsock2 support.
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893
894Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it
895doesn't exactly "behave", either :). For instance, calling C<die()>
896or C<exit()> from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most
b906aaa5 897implementations of C<signal()> on Windows are severely crippled.
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898Thus, signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag
899variable in the handler. Using signals under this port should
900currently be considered unsupported.
901
dbd54a9f 902Please send detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that
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903you may find to E<lt>F<perlbug@perl.org>E<gt>, along with the output
904produced by C<perl -V>.
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906=head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
907
908The use of a camel with the topic of Perl is a trademark
909of O'Reilly and Associates, Inc. Used with permission.
910
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911=head1 AUTHORS
912
913=over 4
914
915=item Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt>
916
917=item Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@activestate.comE<gt>
918
919=item Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ing-simmons.netE<gt>
920
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921=item Jan Dubois E<lt>jand@activestate.comE<gt>
922
2a46176f 923=item Steve Hay E<lt>steve.m.hay@googlemail.comE<gt>
2bfd3252 924
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925=back
926
2bfd3252 927This document is maintained by Jan Dubois.
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928
929=head1 SEE ALSO
930
931L<perl>
932
933=head1 HISTORY
934
935This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24,
936and borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available
937at the time. Various people have made numerous and sundry hacks
938since then.
939
940Borland support was added in 5.004_01 (Gurusamy Sarathy).
941
942GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons).
943
944Support for PERL_OBJECT was added in 5.005 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
945
946Support for fork() emulation was added in 5.6 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
947
948Win9x support was added in 5.6 (Benjamin Stuhl).
949
950Support for 64-bit Windows added in 5.8 (ActiveState Corp).
951
2a46176f 952Last updated: 18 November 2010
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953
954=cut