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1 | If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you see. |
2 | It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is specially | |
3 | designed to be readable as is. | |
4 | ||
5 | =head1 NAME | |
6 | ||
7 | README.macosx - Perl under Mac OS X | |
8 | ||
9 | =head1 SYNOPSIS | |
10 | ||
11 | This document briefly describes perl under Mac OS X. | |
12 | ||
13 | ||
14 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
15 | ||
16 | The latest Perl (5.8.1-RC3 as of this writing) builds without changes | |
17 | under Mac OS X. Under the 10.3 "Panther" release, all self-tests pass, | |
18 | and all standard features are supported. | |
19 | ||
20 | Earlier Mac OS X releases did not include a completely thread-safe libc, | |
21 | so threading is not fully supported. Also, earlier releases included a | |
22 | somewhat buggy libdb, so some of the DB_File tests are known to fail on | |
23 | those releases. | |
24 | ||
25 | ||
f7451e23 | 26 | =head2 Installation Prefix |
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27 | |
28 | The default installation location for this release uses the traditional | |
29 | UNIX directory layout under /usr/local. This is the recommended location | |
30 | for most users, and will leave the Apple-supplied Perl and its modules | |
31 | undisturbed. | |
32 | ||
33 | Using an installation prefix of '/usr' will result in a directory layout | |
34 | that mirrors that of Apple's default Perl, with core modules stored in | |
35 | '/System/Library/Perl/${version}', CPAN modules stored in | |
36 | '/Library/Perl/${version}', and the addition of | |
37 | '/Network/Library/Perl/${version}' to @INC for modules that are stored | |
38 | on a file server and used by many Macs. | |
39 | ||
40 | ||
f7451e23 | 41 | =head2 libperl and Prebinding |
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42 | |
43 | Mac OS X ships with a dynamically-loaded libperl, but the default for | |
44 | this release is to compile a static libperl. The reason for this is | |
45 | pre-binding. Dynamic libraries can be pre-bound to a specific address in | |
46 | memory in order to decrease load time. To do this, one needs to be aware | |
47 | of the location and size of all previously-loaded libraries. Apple | |
48 | collects this information as part of their overall OS build process, and | |
49 | thus has easy access to it when building Perl, but ordinary users would | |
50 | need to go to a great deal of effort to obtain the information needed | |
51 | for pre-binding. | |
52 | ||
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53 | You can override the default and build a shared libperl if you wish |
54 | (S<Configure ... -Duseshrlib>), but the load time will be | |
55 | significantly greater than either the static library, or Apple's | |
56 | pre-bound dynamic library. | |
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57 | |
58 | ||
f7451e23 | 59 | =head2 Updating Panther |
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60 | |
61 | As of this writing, the latest Perl release that has been tested and | |
62 | approved for inclusion in the 10.3 "Panther" release of Mac OS X is | |
63 | 5.8.1 RC3. It is currently unknown whether the final 5.8.1 release will | |
64 | be made in time to be tested and included with Panther. | |
65 | ||
66 | If the final release of Perl 5.8.1 is not made in time to be included | |
67 | with Panther, it is recommended that you wait for an official Apple | |
68 | update to the OS, rather than attempting to update it yourself. In most | |
69 | cases, if you need a newer Perl, it is preferable to install it in some | |
70 | other location, such as /usr/local or /opt, rather than overwriting the | |
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71 | system Perl. The default location (no -Dprefix=... specified when running |
72 | Configure) is /usr/local. | |
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73 | |
74 | If you find that you do need to update the system Perl, there is one | |
75 | potential issue. If you upgrade using the default static libperl, you | |
76 | will find that the dynamic libperl supplied by Apple will not be | |
77 | deleted. If both libraries are present when an application that links | |
78 | against libperl is built, ld will link against the dynamic library by | |
79 | default. So, if you need to replace Apple's dynamic libperl with a | |
80 | static libperl, you need to be sure to delete the older dynamic library | |
81 | after you've installed the update. | |
82 | ||
83 | Note that this is only an issue when updating from an older build of the | |
84 | same Perl version. If you're updating from (for example) 5.8.1 to 5.8.2, | |
85 | this issue won't affect you. | |
86 | ||
87 | ||
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88 | =head2 Known problems |
89 | ||
90 | If you have installed extra libraries such as GDBM through Fink | |
91 | (in other words, you have libraries under F</sw/lib>), or libdlcompat | |
92 | to F</usr/local/lib>, you may need to be extra careful when running | |
93 | Configure to not to confuse Configure and Perl about which libraries | |
94 | to use. Being confused will show up for example as "dyld" errors about | |
95 | symbol problems, for example during "make test". The safest bet is to run | |
96 | Configure as | |
97 | ||
98 | Configure ... -Uloclibpth -Dlibpth=/usr/lib | |
99 | ||
100 | to make Configure look only into the system libraries. If you have some | |
101 | extra library directories that you really want to use (such as newer | |
102 | Berkeley DB libraries in pre-Panther systems), add those to the libpth: | |
103 | ||
104 | Configure ... -Uloclibpth -Dlibpth='/usr/lib /opt/lib' | |
105 | ||
106 | The default of building Perl statically may cause problems with complex | |
107 | applications like Tk: in that case consider building shared Perl | |
108 | ||
109 | Configure ... -Duseshrplib | |
110 | ||
111 | but remember that there's a startup cost to pay in that case (see above | |
112 | "libperl and Prebinding"). | |
113 | ||
114 | ||
115 | =head2 MacPerl | |
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116 | |
117 | Quite a bit has been written about MacPerl, the Perl distribution for | |
118 | "Classic MacOS" - that is, versions 9 and earlier of MacOS. Because it | |
119 | runs in environment that's very different from that of UNIX, many things | |
120 | are done differently in MacPerl. Modules are installed using a different | |
121 | procedure, Perl itself is built differently, path names are different, | |
122 | etc. | |
123 | ||
124 | From the perspective of a Perl programmer, Mac OS X is more like a | |
125 | traditional UNIX than Classic MacOS. If you find documentation that | |
126 | refers to a special procedure that's needed for MacOS that's drastically | |
127 | different from the instructions provided for UNIX, the MacOS | |
128 | instructions are quite often intended for MacPerl on Classic MacOS. In | |
129 | that case, the correct procedure on Mac OS X is usually to follow the | |
130 | UNIX instructions, rather than the MacPerl instructions. | |
131 | ||
132 | ||
f7451e23 | 133 | =head2 Carbon |
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134 | |
135 | MacPerl ships with a number of modules that are used to access the | |
136 | classic MacOS toolbox. Many of these modules have been updated to use | |
137 | Mac OS X's newer "Carbon" toolbox, and are available from CPAN in the | |
138 | "Mac::Carbon" module. | |
139 | ||
140 | ||
f7451e23 | 141 | =head2 Cocoa |
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142 | |
143 | There are two ways to use Cocoa from Perl. Apple's PerlObjCBridge | |
144 | module, included with Mac OS X, can be used by standalone scripts to | |
145 | access Foundation (i.e. non-GUI) classes and objects. | |
146 | ||
147 | An alternative is CamelBones, a framework that allows access to both | |
148 | Foundation and AppKit classes and objects, so that full GUI applications | |
149 | can be built in Perl. CamelBones can be found on SourceForge, at | |
150 | L<http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/camelbones/>. | |
151 | ||
152 | ||
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153 | =head1 Starting From Scratch |
154 | ||
155 | Unfortunately it is not that difficult somehow manage to break one's | |
156 | Mac OS X Perl rather severely. If all else fails and you want to | |
157 | really, B<REALLY>, start from scratch and remove even your Apple Perl | |
158 | installation (which has become corrupted somehow), the following | |
159 | instructions should do it. B<Please think twice before following | |
160 | these instructions: they are much like conducting brain surgery to | |
161 | yourself. Without anesthesia.> We will B<not> come to fix your system | |
162 | if you do this. | |
163 | ||
164 | First, get rid of the libperl.dylib: | |
165 | ||
166 | # cd /System/Library/Perl/darwin/CORE | |
167 | # rm libperl.dylib | |
168 | ||
169 | Then delete every .bundle file found anywhere in the folders: | |
170 | ||
171 | /System/Library/Perl | |
172 | /Library/Perl | |
173 | ||
174 | You can find them for example by | |
175 | ||
176 | # find /System/Library/Perl /Library/Perl -name '*.bundle' -print | |
177 | ||
178 | After this you can either copy Perl from your operating system CDs | |
179 | (you will need at least the /System/Library/Perl and /usr/bin/perl), | |
180 | or rebuild Perl from the source code with C<Configure -Dprefix=/usr | |
181 | -Dusershrplib> NOTE: the C<-Dprefix=/usr> to replace the system Perl | |
182 | works much better with Perl 5.8.1 and later, in Perl 5.8.0 the | |
183 | settings were not quite right. | |
184 | ||
185 | ||
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186 | =head1 AUTHOR |
187 | ||
188 | This README was written by Sherm Pendley E<lt>sherm@dot-app.orgE<gt>. | |
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189 | The "Starting From Scratch" recipe was contributed by John Montbriand |
190 | E<lt>montbriand@apple.comE<gt>. | |
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191 | |
192 | =head1 DATE | |
193 | ||
6c8f3f7c | 194 | Last modified 2003-09-08. |