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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 |
9036c72f | 12 | 3.51 or 4.0). Currently, this port is reported to build |
26618a56 GS |
13 | under Windows95 using the 4DOS shell--the default shell that infests |
14 | Windows95 will not work (see below). Note this caveat is only about | |
3e3baf6d TB |
15 | B<building> perl. Once built, you should be able to B<use> it on |
16 | either Win32 platform (modulo the problems arising from the inferior | |
17 | command shell). | |
68dc0745 | 18 | |
19 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
20 | ||
3fe9a6f1 | 21 | Before you start, you should glance through the README file |
68dc0745 | 22 | found in the top-level directory where the Perl distribution |
23 | was extracted. Make sure you read and understand the terms under | |
24 | which this software is being distributed. | |
25 | ||
f7c603cb | 26 | Also make sure you read L<BUGS AND CAVEATS> below for the |
68dc0745 | 27 | known limitations of this port. |
28 | ||
29 | The INSTALL file in the perl top-level has much information that is | |
30 | only relevant to people building Perl on Unix-like systems. In | |
31 | particular, you can safely ignore any information that talks about | |
32 | "Configure". | |
33 | ||
7bac28a0 | 34 | You may also want to look at two other options for building |
35 | a perl that will work on Windows NT: the README.cygwin32 and | |
3e3baf6d TB |
36 | README.os2 files, which each give a different set of rules to build |
37 | a Perl that will work on Win32 platforms. Those two methods will | |
7bac28a0 | 38 | probably enable you to build a more Unix-compatible perl, but you |
39 | will also need to download and use various other build-time and | |
40 | run-time support software described in those files. | |
68dc0745 | 41 | |
42 | This set of instructions is meant to describe a so-called "native" | |
43 | port of Perl to Win32 platforms. The resulting Perl requires no | |
44 | additional software to run (other than what came with your operating | |
9036c72f GS |
45 | system). Currently, this port is capable of using one of the |
46 | following compilers: | |
47 | ||
48 | Borland C++ version 5.02 or later | |
49 | Microsoft Visual C++ version 4.2 or later | |
50 | Mingw32 with EGCS version 1.0.2 | |
51 | Mingw32 with GCC version 2.8.1 | |
52 | ||
a29d2910 A |
53 | The last two of these are high quality freeware compilers. Support |
54 | for them is still experimental. | |
5aabfad6 | 55 | |
56 | This port currently supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that | |
57 | is used to build extensions to perl). Therefore, you should be | |
58 | able to build and install most extensions found in the CPAN sites. | |
c90c0ff4 | 59 | See L<Usage Hints> below for general hints about this. |
68dc0745 | 60 | |
61 | =head2 Setting Up | |
62 | ||
63 | =over 4 | |
64 | ||
3e3baf6d | 65 | =item Command Shell |
68dc0745 | 66 | |
26618a56 GS |
67 | Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with NT. Some versions of the |
68 | popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause you trouble. | |
69 | If the build fails under that shell, try building again with the cmd | |
70 | shell. The Makefile also has known incompatibilites with the "command.com" | |
71 | shell that comes with Windows95, so building under Windows95 should | |
72 | be considered "unsupported". However, there have been reports of successful | |
73 | build attempts using 4DOS/NT version 3.00 under Windows95, using dmake, but | |
74 | your mileage may vary. | |
75 | ||
76 | The surest way to build it is on WindowsNT, using the cmd shell. | |
68dc0745 | 77 | |
3e3baf6d TB |
78 | =item Borland C++ |
79 | ||
80 | If you are using the Borland compiler, you will need dmake, a freely | |
81 | available make that has very nice macro features and parallelability. | |
82 | (The make that Borland supplies is seriously crippled, and will not | |
26618a56 GS |
83 | work for MakeMaker builds.) |
84 | ||
85 | A port of dmake for win32 platforms is available from: | |
3e3baf6d | 86 | |
26618a56 GS |
87 | http://www-personal.umich.edu/~gsar/dmake-4.1-win32.zip |
88 | ||
89 | Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path (follow the instructions | |
90 | in the README.NOW file). | |
3e3baf6d TB |
91 | |
92 | =item Microsoft Visual C++ | |
68dc0745 | 93 | |
3e3baf6d | 94 | The NMAKE that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building. |
9036c72f GS |
95 | You will need to run the VCVARS32.BAT file usually found somewhere |
96 | like C:\MSDEV4.2\BIN. This will set your build environment. | |
68dc0745 | 97 | |
26618a56 GS |
98 | You can also use dmake to build using Visual C++, provided: |
99 | you set OSRELEASE to "microsft" (or whatever the directory name | |
100 | under which the Visual C dmake configuration lives) in your environment, | |
101 | and edit win32/config.vc to change "make=nmake" into "make=dmake". The | |
102 | latter step is only essential if you want to use dmake as your default | |
103 | make for building extensions using MakeMaker. | |
3e3baf6d | 104 | |
9036c72f GS |
105 | =item Mingw32 with EGCS or GCC |
106 | ||
107 | ECGS-1.0.2 binaries can be downloaded from: | |
108 | ||
109 | ftp://ftp.xraylith.wisc.edu/pub/khan/gnu-win32/mingw32/ | |
68dc0745 | 110 | |
9036c72f | 111 | GCC-2.8.1 binaries are available from: |
68dc0745 | 112 | |
9036c72f | 113 | http://agnes.dida.physik.uni-essen.de/~janjaap/mingw32/ |
68dc0745 | 114 | |
9036c72f GS |
115 | You only need either one of those, not both. Both bundles come with |
116 | Mingw32 libraries and headers. While both of them work to build perl, | |
117 | the EGCS binaries are currently favored by the maintainers, since they | |
118 | come with more up-to-date Mingw32 libraries. | |
119 | ||
120 | Make sure you install the binaries as indicated in the web sites | |
121 | above. You will need to set up a few environment variables (usually | |
122 | run from a batch file). | |
68dc0745 | 123 | |
124 | =back | |
125 | ||
137443ea | 126 | =head2 Building |
68dc0745 | 127 | |
128 | =over 4 | |
129 | ||
130 | =item * | |
131 | ||
68dc0745 | 132 | Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl toplevel. |
137443ea | 133 | This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with |
9036c72f GS |
134 | versions of NMAKE that come with Visual C++, and a dmake "makefile.mk" |
135 | that will work for all supported compilers. The defaults in the dmake | |
136 | makefile are setup to build using the Borland compiler. | |
68dc0745 | 137 | |
138 | =item * | |
139 | ||
9036c72f GS |
140 | Edit the makefile.mk (or Makefile, if using nmake) and change the values |
141 | of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. You can also enable various build | |
26618a56 GS |
142 | flags. |
143 | ||
9036c72f GS |
144 | Beginning with version 5.005, there is experimental support for building |
145 | a perl interpreter that supports the Perl Object abstraction (courtesy | |
146 | ActiveState Tool Corp.) PERL_OBJECT uses C++, and the binaries are | |
147 | therefore incompatible with the regular C build. However, the | |
148 | PERL_OBJECT build does provide something called the C-API, for linking | |
a29d2910 A |
149 | it with extensions that won't compile under PERL_OBJECT. PERL_OBJECT |
150 | cannot be enabled when using GCC or EGCS, yet. | |
9036c72f GS |
151 | |
152 | Beginning with version 5.005, there is experimental support for building | |
153 | a perl interpreter that is capable of native threading. Binaries built | |
154 | with thread support enabled are also incompatible with the vanilla C | |
155 | build. | |
156 | ||
157 | At the present time, you cannot enable both threading and PERL_OBJECT. | |
158 | You can get only one of them in a Perl interpreter. | |
159 | ||
26618a56 GS |
160 | If you have either the source or a library that contains des_fcrypt(), |
161 | enable the appropriate option in the makefile. des_fcrypt() is not | |
162 | bundled with the distribution due to US Government restrictions | |
163 | on the export of cryptographic software. Nevertheless, this routine | |
164 | is part of the "libdes" library (written by Ed Young) which is widely | |
165 | available worldwide, usually along with SSLeay (for example: | |
166 | "ftp://fractal.mta.ca/pub/crypto/SSLeay/DES/"). Set CRYPT_SRC to the | |
167 | name of the file that implements des_fcrypt(). Alternatively, if | |
168 | you have built a library that contains des_fcrypt(), you can set | |
169 | CRYPT_LIB to point to the library name. | |
170 | ||
171 | Perl will also build without des_fcrypt(), but the crypt() builtin will | |
172 | fail at run time. | |
c90c0ff4 | 173 | |
3e3baf6d TB |
174 | You will also have to make sure CCHOME points to wherever you installed |
175 | your compiler. | |
c90c0ff4 | 176 | |
9036c72f GS |
177 | Other options are explained in the makefiles. Be sure to read the |
178 | instructions carefully. | |
179 | ||
68dc0745 | 180 | =item * |
181 | ||
9036c72f | 182 | Type "dmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make). |
68dc0745 | 183 | |
137443ea | 184 | This should build everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe, |
9036c72f GS |
185 | perl.dll (or perlcore.dll), and perlglob.exe at the perl toplevel, and |
186 | various other extension dll's under the lib\auto directory. If the build | |
187 | fails for any reason, make sure you have done the previous steps correctly. | |
68dc0745 | 188 | |
156a3eb7 GS |
189 | The build process may produce "harmless" compiler warnings (more or |
190 | less copiously, depending on how picky your compiler gets). The | |
191 | maintainers are aware of these warnings, thankyouverymuch. :) | |
192 | ||
3e3baf6d TB |
193 | When building using Visual C++, a perl95.exe will also get built. This |
194 | executable is only needed on Windows95, and should be used instead of | |
195 | perl.exe, and then only if you want sockets to work properly on Windows95. | |
196 | This is necessitated by a bug in the Microsoft C Runtime that cannot be | |
26618a56 GS |
197 | worked around in the "normal" perl.exe. perl95.exe gets built with its |
198 | own private copy of the C Runtime that is not accessible to extensions | |
199 | (which see the DLL version of the CRT). Be aware, therefore, that this | |
200 | perl95.exe will have esoteric problems with extensions like perl/Tk that | |
201 | themselves use the C Runtime heavily, or want to free() pointers | |
202 | malloc()-ed by perl. | |
3e3baf6d TB |
203 | |
204 | You can avoid the perl95.exe problems completely if you use Borland | |
205 | C++ for building perl (perl95.exe is not needed and will not be built | |
206 | in that case). | |
207 | ||
68dc0745 | 208 | =back |
209 | ||
210 | =head2 Testing | |
211 | ||
9036c72f | 212 | Type "dmake test" (or "nmake test"). This will run most of the tests from |
3e3baf6d | 213 | the testsuite (many tests will be skipped, and but no test should fail). |
68dc0745 | 214 | |
8b88ae92 | 215 | If some tests do fail, it may be because you are using a different command |
137443ea | 216 | shell than the native "cmd.exe". |
68dc0745 | 217 | |
3e3baf6d TB |
218 | If you used the Borland compiler, you may see a failure in op/taint.t |
219 | arising from the inability to find the Borland Runtime DLLs on the system | |
220 | default path. You will need to copy the DLLs reported by the messages | |
221 | from where Borland chose to install it, into the Windows system directory | |
222 | (usually somewhere like C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32), and rerun the test. | |
223 | ||
9036c72f GS |
224 | The Visual C runtime apparently has a bug that causes posix.t to fail |
225 | one it test#2. This usually happens only if you extracted the files in | |
226 | text mode. | |
227 | ||
3e3baf6d | 228 | Please report any other failures as described under L<BUGS AND CAVEATS>. |
68dc0745 | 229 | |
137443ea | 230 | =head2 Installation |
231 | ||
9036c72f | 232 | Type "dmake install" (or "nmake install"). This will put the newly |
26618a56 GS |
233 | built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP> points to in the |
234 | Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation under | |
9036c72f GS |
235 | C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same under |
236 | C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\lib\pod\html>. To use the Perl you just installed, | |
237 | you will need to add two components to your PATH environment variable, | |
238 | C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\bin>, and C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\bin\$ARCHNAME>. | |
239 | For example: | |
240 | ||
241 | set PATH c:\perl\5.005\bin;c:\perl\5.005\bin\MSWin32-x6;%PATH% | |
242 | ||
137443ea | 243 | |
7bac28a0 | 244 | =head2 Usage Hints |
245 | ||
246 | =over 4 | |
247 | ||
248 | =item Environment Variables | |
249 | ||
250 | The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled | |
251 | into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start | |
252 | using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable). | |
253 | ||
254 | If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB | |
255 | to a list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl | |
256 | to look for libraries. Look for descriptions of other environment | |
26618a56 GS |
257 | variables you can set in L<perlrun>. |
258 | ||
259 | You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and | |
260 | backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See L<perlrun>. | |
7bac28a0 | 261 | |
9036c72f GS |
262 | Currently, Perl does not depend on the registry, but can look up |
263 | values if you choose to put them there. [XXX add registry locations | |
264 | that perl looks at here.] | |
7bac28a0 | 265 | |
3e3baf6d TB |
266 | =item File Globbing |
267 | ||
268 | By default, perl spawns an external program to do file globbing. | |
269 | The install process installs both a perlglob.exe and a perlglob.bat | |
270 | that perl can use for this purpose. Note that with the default | |
271 | installation, perlglob.exe will be found by the system before | |
272 | perlglob.bat. | |
273 | ||
274 | perlglob.exe relies on the argv expansion done by the C Runtime of | |
275 | the particular compiler you used, and therefore behaves very | |
276 | differently depending on the Runtime used to build it. To preserve | |
dfb634a9 GS |
277 | compatiblity, perlglob.bat (a perl script that can be used portably) |
278 | is installed. Besides being portable, perlglob.bat also offers | |
279 | enhanced globbing functionality. | |
3e3baf6d TB |
280 | |
281 | If you want perl to use perlglob.bat instead of perlglob.exe, just | |
282 | delete perlglob.exe from the install location (or move it somewhere | |
dfb634a9 GS |
283 | perl cannot find). Using File::DosGlob.pm (which implements the core |
284 | functionality of perlglob.bat) to override the internal CORE::glob() | |
285 | works about 10 times faster than spawing perlglob.exe, and you should | |
286 | take this approach when writing new modules. See File::DosGlob for | |
287 | details. | |
3e3baf6d | 288 | |
7bac28a0 | 289 | =item Using perl from the command line |
290 | ||
291 | If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line | |
292 | shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased | |
293 | with what Windows NT offers by way of a command shell. | |
294 | ||
295 | The crucial thing to understand about the "cmd" shell (which is | |
296 | the default on Windows NT) is that it does not do any wildcard | |
297 | expansions of command-line arguments (so wildcards need not be | |
298 | quoted). It also provides only rudimentary quoting. The only | |
299 | (useful) quote character is the double quote ("). It can be used to | |
300 | protect spaces in arguments and other special characters. The | |
301 | Windows NT documentation has almost no description of how the | |
302 | quoting rules are implemented, but here are some general observations | |
303 | based on experiments: The shell breaks arguments at spaces and | |
304 | passes them to programs in argc/argv. Doublequotes can be used | |
305 | to prevent arguments with spaces in them from being split up. | |
306 | You can put a double quote in an argument by escaping it with | |
307 | a backslash and enclosing the whole argument within double quotes. | |
308 | The backslash and the pair of double quotes surrounding the | |
309 | argument will be stripped by the shell. | |
310 | ||
311 | The file redirection characters "<", ">", and "|" cannot be quoted | |
312 | by double quotes (there are probably more such). Single quotes | |
313 | will protect those three file redirection characters, but the | |
314 | single quotes don't get stripped by the shell (just to make this | |
315 | type of quoting completely useless). The caret "^" has also | |
316 | been observed to behave as a quoting character (and doesn't get | |
317 | stripped by the shell also). | |
318 | ||
319 | Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell: | |
320 | ||
321 | This prints two doublequotes: | |
322 | ||
323 | perl -e "print '\"\"' " | |
324 | ||
325 | This does the same: | |
326 | ||
327 | perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" " | |
328 | ||
329 | This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch": | |
330 | ||
331 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch | |
332 | ||
333 | This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland): | |
334 | ||
335 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul | |
336 | ||
337 | This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch": | |
338 | ||
339 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch | |
340 | ||
7bac28a0 | 341 | This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the console: |
342 | ||
343 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less | |
344 | ||
345 | This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager: | |
346 | ||
7bac28a0 | 347 | perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less |
348 | ||
349 | This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file "blurch": | |
350 | ||
351 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less | |
352 | ||
353 | ||
84902520 | 354 | Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows95 |
7bac28a0 | 355 | is left as an exercise to the reader :) |
356 | ||
357 | =item Building Extensions | |
358 | ||
359 | The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth | |
360 | of extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build. | |
361 | Look in http://www.perl.com/ for more information on CPAN. | |
362 | ||
363 | Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can | |
364 | be built, tested and installed with the standard mantra: | |
365 | ||
366 | perl Makefile.PL | |
3e3baf6d TB |
367 | $MAKE |
368 | $MAKE test | |
369 | $MAKE install | |
7bac28a0 | 370 | |
3e3baf6d TB |
371 | where $MAKE stands for NMAKE or DMAKE. Some extensions may not |
372 | provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything, or fail), | |
373 | but most serious ones do. | |
7bac28a0 | 374 | |
3e3baf6d TB |
375 | If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported |
376 | C compilers. You must make sure you have set up the environment for | |
377 | the compiler for command-line compilation. | |
7bac28a0 | 378 | |
3e3baf6d | 379 | If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for |
7bac28a0 | 380 | why it failed, and report problems to the module author. If |
381 | it looks like the extension building support is at fault, report | |
382 | that with full details of how the build failed using the perlbug | |
383 | utility. | |
384 | ||
c90c0ff4 | 385 | =item Win32 Specific Extensions |
386 | ||
387 | A number of extensions specific to the Win32 platform are available | |
388 | from CPAN. You may find that many of these extensions are meant to | |
389 | be used under the Activeware port of Perl, which used to be the only | |
390 | native port for the Win32 platform. Since the Activeware port does not | |
391 | have adequate support for Perl's extension building tools, these | |
392 | extensions typically do not support those tools either, and therefore | |
393 | cannot be built using the generic steps shown in the previous section. | |
394 | ||
395 | To ensure smooth transitioning of existing code that uses the | |
9036c72f GS |
396 | ActiveState port, there is a bundle of Win32 extensions that contains |
397 | all of the ActiveState extensions and most other Win32 extensions from | |
c90c0ff4 | 398 | CPAN in source form, along with many added bugfixes, and with MakeMaker |
399 | support. This bundle is available at: | |
400 | ||
9036c72f | 401 | http://www.perl.com/CPAN/authors/id/GSAR/libwin32-0.12.zip |
c90c0ff4 | 402 | |
403 | See the README in that distribution for building and installation | |
404 | instructions. Look for later versions that may be available at the | |
405 | same location. | |
406 | ||
156a3eb7 GS |
407 | =item Running Perl Scripts |
408 | ||
409 | Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to | |
410 | indicate to the OS that it should execute the file using perl. | |
411 | Win32 has no comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are | |
412 | executables. | |
413 | ||
414 | Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on | |
415 | Win32 rely on the file "extension". There are three methods | |
416 | to use this to execute perl scripts: | |
417 | ||
418 | =over 8 | |
419 | ||
420 | =item 1 | |
421 | ||
422 | There is a facility called "file extension associations" that will | |
423 | work in Windows NT 4.0. This can be manipulated via the two | |
424 | commands "assoc" and "ftype" that come standard with Windows NT | |
425 | 4.0. Type "ftype /?" for a complete example of how to set this | |
426 | up for perl scripts (Say what? You thought Windows NT wasn't | |
427 | perl-ready? :). | |
428 | ||
429 | =item 2 | |
430 | ||
431 | Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are | |
432 | reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the | |
433 | old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a | |
434 | regular batch file to the OS, may be used. The install process | |
435 | makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to wrap | |
436 | perl scripts into batch files. For example: | |
437 | ||
438 | pl2bat foo.pl | |
439 | ||
440 | will create the file "FOO.BAT". Note "pl2bat" strips any | |
441 | .pl suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file. | |
442 | ||
443 | If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that | |
444 | "pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to | |
445 | refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to make | |
446 | sure that construct works in batch files. As of this writing, | |
447 | 4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *" statement in their | |
448 | 4NT.INI file, or will need to execute "setdos /p*" in the 4DOS/NT | |
449 | startup file to enable this to work. | |
450 | ||
451 | =item 3 | |
452 | ||
453 | Using "pl2bat" has a few problems: the file name gets changed, | |
454 | so scripts that rely on C<$0> to find what they must do may not | |
455 | run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the | |
456 | original script, and so this process can be maintenance intensive | |
457 | if the originals get updated often. A different approach that | |
458 | avoids both problems is possible. | |
459 | ||
460 | A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied | |
461 | to any filename (along with the .bat suffix). For example, | |
462 | if you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is | |
463 | executed. Since you can run batch files on Win32 platforms simply | |
464 | by typing the name (without the extension), this effectively | |
465 | runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or "foo.bat". | |
466 | With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a different location | |
467 | than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is available somewhere on | |
468 | the PATH. If your scripts are on a filesystem that allows symbolic | |
469 | links, you can even avoid copying "runperl.bat". | |
470 | ||
471 | Here's a diversion: copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type | |
472 | "runperl". Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :) | |
473 | Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH | |
474 | ||
475 | =back | |
476 | ||
7bac28a0 | 477 | =item Miscellaneous Things |
478 | ||
479 | A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be | |
480 | able to use it if you have a web browser installed on your | |
481 | system. | |
482 | ||
483 | C<perldoc> is also a useful tool for browsing information contained | |
484 | in the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager | |
485 | like C<less> (recent versions of which have Win32 support). You may | |
486 | have to set the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager. | |
487 | "perldoc -f foo" will print information about the perl operator | |
488 | "foo". | |
489 | ||
490 | If you find bugs in perl, you can run C<perlbug> to create a | |
491 | bug report (you may have to send it manually if C<perlbug> cannot | |
492 | find a mailer on your system). | |
493 | ||
494 | =back | |
495 | ||
68dc0745 | 496 | =head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS |
497 | ||
f7c603cb GS |
498 | An effort has been made to ensure that the DLLs produced by the two |
499 | supported compilers are compatible with each other (despite the | |
500 | best efforts of the compiler vendors). Extension binaries produced | |
501 | by one compiler should also coexist with a perl binary built by | |
502 | a different compiler. In order to accomplish this, PERL.DLL provides | |
503 | a layer of runtime code that uses the C Runtime that perl was compiled | |
504 | with. Extensions which include "perl.h" will transparently access | |
505 | the functions in this layer, thereby ensuring that both perl and | |
506 | extensions use the same runtime functions. | |
68dc0745 | 507 | |
8b88ae92 NIS |
508 | If you have had prior exposure to Perl on Unix platforms, you will notice |
509 | this port exhibits behavior different from what is documented. Most of the | |
7bac28a0 | 510 | differences fall under one of these categories. We do not consider |
511 | any of them to be serious limitations (especially when compared to the | |
512 | limited nature of some of the Win32 OSes themselves :) | |
68dc0745 | 513 | |
514 | =over 8 | |
515 | ||
516 | =item * | |
517 | ||
518 | C<stat()> and C<lstat()> functions may not behave as documented. They | |
519 | may return values that bear no resemblance to those reported on Unix | |
7bac28a0 | 520 | platforms, and some fields (like the the one for inode) may be completely |
521 | bogus. | |
68dc0745 | 522 | |
523 | =item * | |
524 | ||
6890e559 | 525 | The following functions are currently unavailable: C<fork()>, |
5aabfad6 | 526 | C<dump()>, C<chown()>, C<link()>, C<symlink()>, C<chroot()>, |
26618a56 GS |
527 | C<setpgrp()> and related security functions, C<setpriority()>, |
528 | C<getpriority()>, C<syscall()>, C<fcntl()>, C<getpw*()>, | |
2d7a9237 GS |
529 | C<msg*()>, C<shm*()>, C<sem*()>, C<alarm()>, C<socketpair()>, |
530 | C<*netent()>, C<*protoent()>, C<*servent()>, C<*hostent()>, | |
531 | C<getnetby*()>. | |
26618a56 | 532 | This list is possibly incomplete. |
6890e559 GS |
533 | |
534 | =item * | |
535 | ||
68dc0745 | 536 | Various C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not |
537 | behave as on Unix platforms. | |
538 | ||
539 | =item * | |
540 | ||
541 | The four-argument C<select()> call is only supported on sockets. | |
542 | ||
543 | =item * | |
544 | ||
f998180f GS |
545 | The C<ioctl()> call is only supported on sockets (where it provides the |
546 | functionality of ioctlsocket() in the Winsock API). | |
547 | ||
548 | =item * | |
549 | ||
2d7a9237 GS |
550 | Failure to spawn() a subprocess is indicated by setting $? to "255 << 8". |
551 | C<$?> is set in a way compatible with Unix (i.e. the exitstatus of the | |
552 | subprocess is obtained by "$? >> 8", as described in the documentation). | |
68dc0745 | 553 | |
554 | =item * | |
555 | ||
26618a56 GS |
556 | You can expect problems building modules available on CPAN if you |
557 | build perl itself with -DUSE_THREADS. These problems should be resolved | |
558 | as we get closer to 5.005. | |
68dc0745 | 559 | |
560 | =item * | |
561 | ||
562 | C<utime()>, C<times()> and process-related functions may not | |
563 | behave as described in the documentation, and some of the | |
564 | returned values or effects may be bogus. | |
565 | ||
566 | =item * | |
567 | ||
3e3baf6d | 568 | Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it |
f7c603cb GS |
569 | doesn't exactly "behave", either :). For instance, calling C<die()> |
570 | or C<exit()> from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most | |
571 | implementations of C<signal()> on Win32 are severely crippled. | |
572 | Thus, signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag | |
573 | variable in the handler. Using signals under this port should | |
574 | currently be considered unsupported. | |
68dc0745 | 575 | |
576 | =item * | |
577 | ||
1a159553 GS |
578 | C<kill()> is implemented, but doesn't have the semantics of |
579 | C<raise()>, i.e. it doesn't send a signal to the identified process | |
580 | like it does on Unix platforms. Instead it immediately calls | |
581 | C<TerminateProcess(process,signal)>. Thus the signal argument is | |
582 | used to set the exit-status of the terminated process. This behavior | |
583 | may change in future. | |
584 | ||
585 | =item * | |
586 | ||
7bac28a0 | 587 | File globbing may not behave as on Unix platforms. In particular, |
3e3baf6d TB |
588 | if you don't use perlglob.bat for globbing, it will understand |
589 | wildcards only in the filename component (and not in the pathname). | |
590 | In other words, something like "print <*/*.pl>" will not print all the | |
591 | perl scripts in all the subdirectories one level under the current one | |
592 | (like it does on UNIX platforms). perlglob.exe is also dependent on | |
593 | the particular implementation of wildcard expansion in the vendor | |
594 | libraries used to build it (which varies wildly at the present time). | |
595 | Using perlglob.bat (or File::DosGlob) avoids these limitations, but | |
596 | still only provides DOS semantics (read "warts") for globbing. | |
68dc0745 | 597 | |
598 | =back | |
599 | ||
600 | Please send detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that | |
601 | you may find to <F<perlbug@perl.com>>, along with the output produced | |
602 | by C<perl -V>. | |
603 | ||
604 | =head1 AUTHORS | |
605 | ||
606 | =over 4 | |
607 | ||
3e3baf6d | 608 | Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt> |
68dc0745 | 609 | |
3e3baf6d | 610 | Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@umich.eduE<gt> |
68dc0745 | 611 | |
3e3baf6d | 612 | Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ni-s.u-net.comE<gt> |
68dc0745 | 613 | |
614 | =back | |
615 | ||
f7c603cb GS |
616 | This document is maintained by Gurusamy Sarathy. |
617 | ||
68dc0745 | 618 | =head1 SEE ALSO |
619 | ||
620 | L<perl> | |
621 | ||
622 | =head1 HISTORY | |
623 | ||
624 | This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24, | |
625 | and borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available | |
626 | at the time. | |
627 | ||
628 | Nick Ing-Simmons and Gurusamy Sarathy have made numerous and | |
629 | sundry hacks since then. | |
630 | ||
3e3baf6d TB |
631 | Borland support was added in 5.004_01 (Gurusamy Sarathy). |
632 | ||
9036c72f | 633 | Last updated: 12 July 1998 |
68dc0745 | 634 | |
635 | =cut | |
3e3baf6d | 636 |