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68dc0745 | 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 | ||
5aabfad6 | 7 | perlwin32 - Perl under Win32 |
68dc0745 | 8 | |
9 | =head1 SYNOPSIS | |
10 | ||
7bac28a0 | 11 | These are instructions for building Perl under Windows NT (versions |
3e3baf6d | 12 | 3.51 or 4.0), using Visual C++ (versions 2.0 through 5.0) or Borland |
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13 | C++ (version 5.02 or later). Currently, this port is reported to build |
14 | under Windows95 using the 4DOS shell--the default shell that infests | |
15 | Windows95 will not work (see below). Note this caveat is only about | |
3e3baf6d TB |
16 | B<building> perl. Once built, you should be able to B<use> it on |
17 | either Win32 platform (modulo the problems arising from the inferior | |
18 | command shell). | |
68dc0745 | 19 | |
20 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
21 | ||
3fe9a6f1 | 22 | Before you start, you should glance through the README file |
68dc0745 | 23 | found in the top-level directory where the Perl distribution |
24 | was extracted. Make sure you read and understand the terms under | |
25 | which this software is being distributed. | |
26 | ||
f7c603cb | 27 | Also make sure you read L<BUGS AND CAVEATS> below for the |
68dc0745 | 28 | known limitations of this port. |
29 | ||
30 | The INSTALL file in the perl top-level has much information that is | |
31 | only relevant to people building Perl on Unix-like systems. In | |
32 | particular, you can safely ignore any information that talks about | |
33 | "Configure". | |
34 | ||
7bac28a0 | 35 | You may also want to look at two other options for building |
36 | a perl that will work on Windows NT: the README.cygwin32 and | |
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37 | README.os2 files, which each give a different set of rules to build |
38 | a Perl that will work on Win32 platforms. Those two methods will | |
7bac28a0 | 39 | probably enable you to build a more Unix-compatible perl, but you |
40 | will also need to download and use various other build-time and | |
41 | run-time support software described in those files. | |
68dc0745 | 42 | |
43 | This set of instructions is meant to describe a so-called "native" | |
44 | port of Perl to Win32 platforms. The resulting Perl requires no | |
45 | additional software to run (other than what came with your operating | |
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46 | system). Currently, this port is capable of using either the |
47 | Microsoft Visual C++ compiler, or the Borland C++ compiler. The | |
48 | ultimate goal is to support the other major compilers that can | |
49 | generally be used to build Win32 applications. | |
5aabfad6 | 50 | |
51 | This port currently supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that | |
52 | is used to build extensions to perl). Therefore, you should be | |
53 | able to build and install most extensions found in the CPAN sites. | |
c90c0ff4 | 54 | See L<Usage Hints> below for general hints about this. |
68dc0745 | 55 | |
56 | =head2 Setting Up | |
57 | ||
58 | =over 4 | |
59 | ||
3e3baf6d | 60 | =item Command Shell |
68dc0745 | 61 | |
26618a56 GS |
62 | Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with NT. Some versions of the |
63 | popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause you trouble. | |
64 | If the build fails under that shell, try building again with the cmd | |
65 | shell. The Makefile also has known incompatibilites with the "command.com" | |
66 | shell that comes with Windows95, so building under Windows95 should | |
67 | be considered "unsupported". However, there have been reports of successful | |
68 | build attempts using 4DOS/NT version 3.00 under Windows95, using dmake, but | |
69 | your mileage may vary. | |
70 | ||
71 | The surest way to build it is on WindowsNT, using the cmd shell. | |
68dc0745 | 72 | |
3e3baf6d TB |
73 | =item Borland C++ |
74 | ||
75 | If you are using the Borland compiler, you will need dmake, a freely | |
76 | available make that has very nice macro features and parallelability. | |
77 | (The make that Borland supplies is seriously crippled, and will not | |
26618a56 GS |
78 | work for MakeMaker builds.) |
79 | ||
80 | A port of dmake for win32 platforms is available from: | |
3e3baf6d | 81 | |
26618a56 GS |
82 | http://www-personal.umich.edu/~gsar/dmake-4.1-win32.zip |
83 | ||
84 | Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path (follow the instructions | |
85 | in the README.NOW file). | |
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86 | |
87 | =item Microsoft Visual C++ | |
68dc0745 | 88 | |
3e3baf6d | 89 | The NMAKE that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building. |
7bac28a0 | 90 | If you did not choose to always initialize the Visual C++ compilation |
91 | environment variables when you installed Visual C++ on your system, you | |
92 | will need to run the VCVARS32.BAT file usually found somewhere like | |
93 | C:\MSDEV4.2\BIN. This will set your build environment. | |
68dc0745 | 94 | |
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95 | You can also use dmake to build using Visual C++, provided: |
96 | you set OSRELEASE to "microsft" (or whatever the directory name | |
97 | under which the Visual C dmake configuration lives) in your environment, | |
98 | and edit win32/config.vc to change "make=nmake" into "make=dmake". The | |
99 | latter step is only essential if you want to use dmake as your default | |
100 | make for building extensions using MakeMaker. | |
3e3baf6d TB |
101 | |
102 | =item Permissions | |
68dc0745 | 103 | |
104 | Depending on how you extracted the distribution, you have to make sure | |
7bac28a0 | 105 | some of the files are writable by you. The easiest way to make sure of |
68dc0745 | 106 | this is to execute: |
107 | ||
108 | attrib -R *.* /S | |
109 | ||
110 | from the perl toplevel directory. You don't I<have> to do this if you | |
111 | used the right tools to extract the files in the standard distribution, | |
112 | but it doesn't hurt to do so. | |
113 | ||
114 | =back | |
115 | ||
137443ea | 116 | =head2 Building |
68dc0745 | 117 | |
118 | =over 4 | |
119 | ||
120 | =item * | |
121 | ||
68dc0745 | 122 | Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl toplevel. |
137443ea | 123 | This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with |
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124 | versions of NMAKE that come with Visual C++ ver. 2.0 and above, and |
125 | a dmake "makefile.mk" that will work for both Borland and Visual C++ | |
126 | builds. The defaults in the dmake makefile are setup to build using the | |
127 | Borland compiler. | |
68dc0745 | 128 | |
129 | =item * | |
130 | ||
3e3baf6d | 131 | Edit the Makefile (or makefile.mk, if using dmake) and change the values |
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132 | of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. If you are using Visual C++ ver. 2.0, uncomment |
133 | the line that sets "CCTYPE=MSVC20". You can also enable various build | |
134 | flags. | |
135 | ||
136 | If you have either the source or a library that contains des_fcrypt(), | |
137 | enable the appropriate option in the makefile. des_fcrypt() is not | |
138 | bundled with the distribution due to US Government restrictions | |
139 | on the export of cryptographic software. Nevertheless, this routine | |
140 | is part of the "libdes" library (written by Ed Young) which is widely | |
141 | available worldwide, usually along with SSLeay (for example: | |
142 | "ftp://fractal.mta.ca/pub/crypto/SSLeay/DES/"). Set CRYPT_SRC to the | |
143 | name of the file that implements des_fcrypt(). Alternatively, if | |
144 | you have built a library that contains des_fcrypt(), you can set | |
145 | CRYPT_LIB to point to the library name. | |
146 | ||
147 | Perl will also build without des_fcrypt(), but the crypt() builtin will | |
148 | fail at run time. | |
c90c0ff4 | 149 | |
3e3baf6d TB |
150 | You will also have to make sure CCHOME points to wherever you installed |
151 | your compiler. | |
c90c0ff4 | 152 | |
68dc0745 | 153 | =item * |
154 | ||
3e3baf6d | 155 | Type "nmake" (or "dmake" if you are using that make). |
68dc0745 | 156 | |
137443ea | 157 | This should build everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe, |
158 | perl.dll, and perlglob.exe at the perl toplevel, and various other | |
7bac28a0 | 159 | extension dll's under the lib\auto directory. If the build fails for |
137443ea | 160 | any reason, make sure you have done the previous steps correctly. |
68dc0745 | 161 | |
156a3eb7 GS |
162 | The build process may produce "harmless" compiler warnings (more or |
163 | less copiously, depending on how picky your compiler gets). The | |
164 | maintainers are aware of these warnings, thankyouverymuch. :) | |
165 | ||
3e3baf6d TB |
166 | When building using Visual C++, a perl95.exe will also get built. This |
167 | executable is only needed on Windows95, and should be used instead of | |
168 | perl.exe, and then only if you want sockets to work properly on Windows95. | |
169 | This is necessitated by a bug in the Microsoft C Runtime that cannot be | |
26618a56 GS |
170 | worked around in the "normal" perl.exe. perl95.exe gets built with its |
171 | own private copy of the C Runtime that is not accessible to extensions | |
172 | (which see the DLL version of the CRT). Be aware, therefore, that this | |
173 | perl95.exe will have esoteric problems with extensions like perl/Tk that | |
174 | themselves use the C Runtime heavily, or want to free() pointers | |
175 | malloc()-ed by perl. | |
3e3baf6d TB |
176 | |
177 | You can avoid the perl95.exe problems completely if you use Borland | |
178 | C++ for building perl (perl95.exe is not needed and will not be built | |
179 | in that case). | |
180 | ||
68dc0745 | 181 | =back |
182 | ||
183 | =head2 Testing | |
184 | ||
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185 | Type "nmake test" (or "dmake test"). This will run most of the tests from |
186 | the testsuite (many tests will be skipped, and but no test should fail). | |
68dc0745 | 187 | |
8b88ae92 | 188 | If some tests do fail, it may be because you are using a different command |
137443ea | 189 | shell than the native "cmd.exe". |
68dc0745 | 190 | |
3e3baf6d TB |
191 | If you used the Borland compiler, you may see a failure in op/taint.t |
192 | arising from the inability to find the Borland Runtime DLLs on the system | |
193 | default path. You will need to copy the DLLs reported by the messages | |
194 | from where Borland chose to install it, into the Windows system directory | |
195 | (usually somewhere like C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32), and rerun the test. | |
196 | ||
197 | Please report any other failures as described under L<BUGS AND CAVEATS>. | |
68dc0745 | 198 | |
137443ea | 199 | =head2 Installation |
200 | ||
3e3baf6d | 201 | Type "nmake install" (or "dmake install"). This will put the newly |
26618a56 GS |
202 | built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP> points to in the |
203 | Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation under | |
204 | C<$INST_TOP\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same under | |
205 | C<$INST_TOP\lib\pod\html>. To use the Perl you just installed, | |
206 | set your PATH environment variable to C<$INST_TOP\bin>. | |
137443ea | 207 | |
7bac28a0 | 208 | =head2 Usage Hints |
209 | ||
210 | =over 4 | |
211 | ||
212 | =item Environment Variables | |
213 | ||
214 | The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled | |
215 | into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start | |
216 | using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable). | |
217 | ||
218 | If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB | |
219 | to a list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl | |
220 | to look for libraries. Look for descriptions of other environment | |
26618a56 GS |
221 | variables you can set in L<perlrun>. |
222 | ||
223 | You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and | |
224 | backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See L<perlrun>. | |
7bac28a0 | 225 | |
226 | Sometime in the future, some of the configuration information | |
227 | for perl will be moved into the Windows registry. | |
228 | ||
3e3baf6d TB |
229 | =item File Globbing |
230 | ||
231 | By default, perl spawns an external program to do file globbing. | |
232 | The install process installs both a perlglob.exe and a perlglob.bat | |
233 | that perl can use for this purpose. Note that with the default | |
234 | installation, perlglob.exe will be found by the system before | |
235 | perlglob.bat. | |
236 | ||
237 | perlglob.exe relies on the argv expansion done by the C Runtime of | |
238 | the particular compiler you used, and therefore behaves very | |
239 | differently depending on the Runtime used to build it. To preserve | |
dfb634a9 GS |
240 | compatiblity, perlglob.bat (a perl script that can be used portably) |
241 | is installed. Besides being portable, perlglob.bat also offers | |
242 | enhanced globbing functionality. | |
3e3baf6d TB |
243 | |
244 | If you want perl to use perlglob.bat instead of perlglob.exe, just | |
245 | delete perlglob.exe from the install location (or move it somewhere | |
dfb634a9 GS |
246 | perl cannot find). Using File::DosGlob.pm (which implements the core |
247 | functionality of perlglob.bat) to override the internal CORE::glob() | |
248 | works about 10 times faster than spawing perlglob.exe, and you should | |
249 | take this approach when writing new modules. See File::DosGlob for | |
250 | details. | |
3e3baf6d | 251 | |
7bac28a0 | 252 | =item Using perl from the command line |
253 | ||
254 | If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line | |
255 | shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased | |
256 | with what Windows NT offers by way of a command shell. | |
257 | ||
258 | The crucial thing to understand about the "cmd" shell (which is | |
259 | the default on Windows NT) is that it does not do any wildcard | |
260 | expansions of command-line arguments (so wildcards need not be | |
261 | quoted). It also provides only rudimentary quoting. The only | |
262 | (useful) quote character is the double quote ("). It can be used to | |
263 | protect spaces in arguments and other special characters. The | |
264 | Windows NT documentation has almost no description of how the | |
265 | quoting rules are implemented, but here are some general observations | |
266 | based on experiments: The shell breaks arguments at spaces and | |
267 | passes them to programs in argc/argv. Doublequotes can be used | |
268 | to prevent arguments with spaces in them from being split up. | |
269 | You can put a double quote in an argument by escaping it with | |
270 | a backslash and enclosing the whole argument within double quotes. | |
271 | The backslash and the pair of double quotes surrounding the | |
272 | argument will be stripped by the shell. | |
273 | ||
274 | The file redirection characters "<", ">", and "|" cannot be quoted | |
275 | by double quotes (there are probably more such). Single quotes | |
276 | will protect those three file redirection characters, but the | |
277 | single quotes don't get stripped by the shell (just to make this | |
278 | type of quoting completely useless). The caret "^" has also | |
279 | been observed to behave as a quoting character (and doesn't get | |
280 | stripped by the shell also). | |
281 | ||
282 | Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell: | |
283 | ||
284 | This prints two doublequotes: | |
285 | ||
286 | perl -e "print '\"\"' " | |
287 | ||
288 | This does the same: | |
289 | ||
290 | perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" " | |
291 | ||
292 | This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch": | |
293 | ||
294 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch | |
295 | ||
296 | This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland): | |
297 | ||
298 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul | |
299 | ||
300 | This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch": | |
301 | ||
302 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch | |
303 | ||
7bac28a0 | 304 | This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the console: |
305 | ||
306 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less | |
307 | ||
308 | This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager: | |
309 | ||
7bac28a0 | 310 | perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less |
311 | ||
312 | This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file "blurch": | |
313 | ||
314 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less | |
315 | ||
316 | ||
84902520 | 317 | Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows95 |
7bac28a0 | 318 | is left as an exercise to the reader :) |
319 | ||
320 | =item Building Extensions | |
321 | ||
322 | The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth | |
323 | of extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build. | |
324 | Look in http://www.perl.com/ for more information on CPAN. | |
325 | ||
326 | Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can | |
327 | be built, tested and installed with the standard mantra: | |
328 | ||
329 | perl Makefile.PL | |
3e3baf6d TB |
330 | $MAKE |
331 | $MAKE test | |
332 | $MAKE install | |
7bac28a0 | 333 | |
3e3baf6d TB |
334 | where $MAKE stands for NMAKE or DMAKE. Some extensions may not |
335 | provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything, or fail), | |
336 | but most serious ones do. | |
7bac28a0 | 337 | |
3e3baf6d TB |
338 | If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported |
339 | C compilers. You must make sure you have set up the environment for | |
340 | the compiler for command-line compilation. | |
7bac28a0 | 341 | |
3e3baf6d | 342 | If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for |
7bac28a0 | 343 | why it failed, and report problems to the module author. If |
344 | it looks like the extension building support is at fault, report | |
345 | that with full details of how the build failed using the perlbug | |
346 | utility. | |
347 | ||
c90c0ff4 | 348 | =item Win32 Specific Extensions |
349 | ||
350 | A number of extensions specific to the Win32 platform are available | |
351 | from CPAN. You may find that many of these extensions are meant to | |
352 | be used under the Activeware port of Perl, which used to be the only | |
353 | native port for the Win32 platform. Since the Activeware port does not | |
354 | have adequate support for Perl's extension building tools, these | |
355 | extensions typically do not support those tools either, and therefore | |
356 | cannot be built using the generic steps shown in the previous section. | |
357 | ||
358 | To ensure smooth transitioning of existing code that uses the | |
359 | Activeware port, there is a bundle of Win32 extensions that contains | |
360 | all of the Activeware extensions and most other Win32 extensions from | |
361 | CPAN in source form, along with many added bugfixes, and with MakeMaker | |
362 | support. This bundle is available at: | |
363 | ||
26618a56 | 364 | http://www.perl.com/CPAN/authors/id/GSAR/libwin32-0.09.tar.gz |
c90c0ff4 | 365 | |
366 | See the README in that distribution for building and installation | |
367 | instructions. Look for later versions that may be available at the | |
368 | same location. | |
369 | ||
370 | It is expected that authors of Win32 specific extensions will begin | |
371 | distributing their work in MakeMaker compatible form subsequent to | |
372 | the 5.004 release of perl, at which point the need for a dedicated | |
373 | bundle such as the above should diminish. | |
374 | ||
156a3eb7 GS |
375 | =item Running Perl Scripts |
376 | ||
377 | Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to | |
378 | indicate to the OS that it should execute the file using perl. | |
379 | Win32 has no comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are | |
380 | executables. | |
381 | ||
382 | Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on | |
383 | Win32 rely on the file "extension". There are three methods | |
384 | to use this to execute perl scripts: | |
385 | ||
386 | =over 8 | |
387 | ||
388 | =item 1 | |
389 | ||
390 | There is a facility called "file extension associations" that will | |
391 | work in Windows NT 4.0. This can be manipulated via the two | |
392 | commands "assoc" and "ftype" that come standard with Windows NT | |
393 | 4.0. Type "ftype /?" for a complete example of how to set this | |
394 | up for perl scripts (Say what? You thought Windows NT wasn't | |
395 | perl-ready? :). | |
396 | ||
397 | =item 2 | |
398 | ||
399 | Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are | |
400 | reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the | |
401 | old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a | |
402 | regular batch file to the OS, may be used. The install process | |
403 | makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to wrap | |
404 | perl scripts into batch files. For example: | |
405 | ||
406 | pl2bat foo.pl | |
407 | ||
408 | will create the file "FOO.BAT". Note "pl2bat" strips any | |
409 | .pl suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file. | |
410 | ||
411 | If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that | |
412 | "pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to | |
413 | refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to make | |
414 | sure that construct works in batch files. As of this writing, | |
415 | 4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *" statement in their | |
416 | 4NT.INI file, or will need to execute "setdos /p*" in the 4DOS/NT | |
417 | startup file to enable this to work. | |
418 | ||
419 | =item 3 | |
420 | ||
421 | Using "pl2bat" has a few problems: the file name gets changed, | |
422 | so scripts that rely on C<$0> to find what they must do may not | |
423 | run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the | |
424 | original script, and so this process can be maintenance intensive | |
425 | if the originals get updated often. A different approach that | |
426 | avoids both problems is possible. | |
427 | ||
428 | A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied | |
429 | to any filename (along with the .bat suffix). For example, | |
430 | if you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is | |
431 | executed. Since you can run batch files on Win32 platforms simply | |
432 | by typing the name (without the extension), this effectively | |
433 | runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or "foo.bat". | |
434 | With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a different location | |
435 | than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is available somewhere on | |
436 | the PATH. If your scripts are on a filesystem that allows symbolic | |
437 | links, you can even avoid copying "runperl.bat". | |
438 | ||
439 | Here's a diversion: copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type | |
440 | "runperl". Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :) | |
441 | Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH | |
442 | ||
443 | =back | |
444 | ||
7bac28a0 | 445 | =item Miscellaneous Things |
446 | ||
447 | A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be | |
448 | able to use it if you have a web browser installed on your | |
449 | system. | |
450 | ||
451 | C<perldoc> is also a useful tool for browsing information contained | |
452 | in the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager | |
453 | like C<less> (recent versions of which have Win32 support). You may | |
454 | have to set the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager. | |
455 | "perldoc -f foo" will print information about the perl operator | |
456 | "foo". | |
457 | ||
458 | If you find bugs in perl, you can run C<perlbug> to create a | |
459 | bug report (you may have to send it manually if C<perlbug> cannot | |
460 | find a mailer on your system). | |
461 | ||
462 | =back | |
463 | ||
68dc0745 | 464 | =head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS |
465 | ||
3e3baf6d TB |
466 | This port should be considered beta quality software at the present |
467 | time because some details are still in flux and there may be | |
468 | changes in any of these areas: build process, installation structure, | |
469 | supported utilities/modules, and supported perl functionality. | |
470 | In particular, functionality specific to the Win32 environment may | |
f7c603cb GS |
471 | ultimately be supported as either core modules or extensions. The |
472 | beta status implies, among other things, that you should be prepared | |
473 | to recompile extensions when binary incompatibilites arise due to | |
474 | changes in the internal structure of the code. | |
475 | ||
476 | An effort has been made to ensure that the DLLs produced by the two | |
477 | supported compilers are compatible with each other (despite the | |
478 | best efforts of the compiler vendors). Extension binaries produced | |
479 | by one compiler should also coexist with a perl binary built by | |
480 | a different compiler. In order to accomplish this, PERL.DLL provides | |
481 | a layer of runtime code that uses the C Runtime that perl was compiled | |
482 | with. Extensions which include "perl.h" will transparently access | |
483 | the functions in this layer, thereby ensuring that both perl and | |
484 | extensions use the same runtime functions. | |
68dc0745 | 485 | |
8b88ae92 NIS |
486 | If you have had prior exposure to Perl on Unix platforms, you will notice |
487 | this port exhibits behavior different from what is documented. Most of the | |
7bac28a0 | 488 | differences fall under one of these categories. We do not consider |
489 | any of them to be serious limitations (especially when compared to the | |
490 | limited nature of some of the Win32 OSes themselves :) | |
68dc0745 | 491 | |
492 | =over 8 | |
493 | ||
494 | =item * | |
495 | ||
496 | C<stat()> and C<lstat()> functions may not behave as documented. They | |
497 | may return values that bear no resemblance to those reported on Unix | |
7bac28a0 | 498 | platforms, and some fields (like the the one for inode) may be completely |
499 | bogus. | |
68dc0745 | 500 | |
501 | =item * | |
502 | ||
6890e559 | 503 | The following functions are currently unavailable: C<fork()>, |
5aabfad6 | 504 | C<dump()>, C<chown()>, C<link()>, C<symlink()>, C<chroot()>, |
26618a56 GS |
505 | C<setpgrp()> and related security functions, C<setpriority()>, |
506 | C<getpriority()>, C<syscall()>, C<fcntl()>, C<getpw*()>, | |
2d7a9237 GS |
507 | C<msg*()>, C<shm*()>, C<sem*()>, C<alarm()>, C<socketpair()>, |
508 | C<*netent()>, C<*protoent()>, C<*servent()>, C<*hostent()>, | |
509 | C<getnetby*()>. | |
26618a56 | 510 | This list is possibly incomplete. |
6890e559 GS |
511 | |
512 | =item * | |
513 | ||
68dc0745 | 514 | Various C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not |
515 | behave as on Unix platforms. | |
516 | ||
517 | =item * | |
518 | ||
519 | The four-argument C<select()> call is only supported on sockets. | |
520 | ||
521 | =item * | |
522 | ||
f998180f GS |
523 | The C<ioctl()> call is only supported on sockets (where it provides the |
524 | functionality of ioctlsocket() in the Winsock API). | |
525 | ||
526 | =item * | |
527 | ||
2d7a9237 GS |
528 | Failure to spawn() a subprocess is indicated by setting $? to "255 << 8". |
529 | C<$?> is set in a way compatible with Unix (i.e. the exitstatus of the | |
530 | subprocess is obtained by "$? >> 8", as described in the documentation). | |
68dc0745 | 531 | |
532 | =item * | |
533 | ||
26618a56 GS |
534 | You can expect problems building modules available on CPAN if you |
535 | build perl itself with -DUSE_THREADS. These problems should be resolved | |
536 | as we get closer to 5.005. | |
68dc0745 | 537 | |
538 | =item * | |
539 | ||
540 | C<utime()>, C<times()> and process-related functions may not | |
541 | behave as described in the documentation, and some of the | |
542 | returned values or effects may be bogus. | |
543 | ||
544 | =item * | |
545 | ||
3e3baf6d | 546 | Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it |
f7c603cb GS |
547 | doesn't exactly "behave", either :). For instance, calling C<die()> |
548 | or C<exit()> from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most | |
549 | implementations of C<signal()> on Win32 are severely crippled. | |
550 | Thus, signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag | |
551 | variable in the handler. Using signals under this port should | |
552 | currently be considered unsupported. | |
68dc0745 | 553 | |
554 | =item * | |
555 | ||
7bac28a0 | 556 | File globbing may not behave as on Unix platforms. In particular, |
3e3baf6d TB |
557 | if you don't use perlglob.bat for globbing, it will understand |
558 | wildcards only in the filename component (and not in the pathname). | |
559 | In other words, something like "print <*/*.pl>" will not print all the | |
560 | perl scripts in all the subdirectories one level under the current one | |
561 | (like it does on UNIX platforms). perlglob.exe is also dependent on | |
562 | the particular implementation of wildcard expansion in the vendor | |
563 | libraries used to build it (which varies wildly at the present time). | |
564 | Using perlglob.bat (or File::DosGlob) avoids these limitations, but | |
565 | still only provides DOS semantics (read "warts") for globbing. | |
68dc0745 | 566 | |
567 | =back | |
568 | ||
569 | Please send detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that | |
570 | you may find to <F<perlbug@perl.com>>, along with the output produced | |
571 | by C<perl -V>. | |
572 | ||
573 | =head1 AUTHORS | |
574 | ||
575 | =over 4 | |
576 | ||
3e3baf6d | 577 | Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt> |
68dc0745 | 578 | |
3e3baf6d | 579 | Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@umich.eduE<gt> |
68dc0745 | 580 | |
3e3baf6d | 581 | Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ni-s.u-net.comE<gt> |
68dc0745 | 582 | |
583 | =back | |
584 | ||
f7c603cb GS |
585 | This document is maintained by Gurusamy Sarathy. |
586 | ||
68dc0745 | 587 | =head1 SEE ALSO |
588 | ||
589 | L<perl> | |
590 | ||
591 | =head1 HISTORY | |
592 | ||
593 | This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24, | |
594 | and borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available | |
595 | at the time. | |
596 | ||
597 | Nick Ing-Simmons and Gurusamy Sarathy have made numerous and | |
598 | sundry hacks since then. | |
599 | ||
3e3baf6d TB |
600 | Borland support was added in 5.004_01 (Gurusamy Sarathy). |
601 | ||
2d7a9237 | 602 | Last updated: 3 January 1998 |
68dc0745 | 603 | |
604 | =cut | |
3e3baf6d | 605 |