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1 | # vim: syntax=pod |
2 | ||
9baed986 LC |
3 | If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you |
4 | see. It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is | |
5 | specially designed to be readable as is. | |
6 | ||
7 | =head1 NAME | |
8 | ||
9 | perlwin32 - Perl under Windows | |
10 | ||
11 | =head1 SYNOPSIS | |
12 | ||
4695dc7a | 13 | These are instructions for building Perl under Windows 7 and later. |
9baed986 LC |
14 | |
15 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
16 | ||
17 | Before you start, you should glance through the README file | |
18 | found in the top-level directory to which the Perl distribution | |
19 | was extracted. Make sure you read and understand the terms under | |
20 | which this software is being distributed. | |
21 | ||
016af039 | 22 | Also make sure you read L</BUGS AND CAVEATS> below for the |
9baed986 LC |
23 | known limitations of this port. |
24 | ||
25 | The INSTALL file in the perl top-level has much information that is | |
26 | only relevant to people building Perl on Unix-like systems. In | |
27 | particular, you can safely ignore any information that talks about | |
28 | "Configure". | |
29 | ||
b906aaa5 JD |
30 | You may also want to look at one other option for building a perl that |
31 | will work on Windows: the README.cygwin file, which give a different | |
32 | set of rules to build a perl for Windows. This method will probably | |
33 | enable you to build a more Unix-compatible perl, but you will also | |
34 | need to download and use various other build-time and run-time support | |
35 | software described in that file. | |
9baed986 LC |
36 | |
37 | This set of instructions is meant to describe a so-called "native" | |
b906aaa5 | 38 | port of Perl to the Windows platform. This includes both 32-bit and |
9baed986 LC |
39 | 64-bit Windows operating systems. The resulting Perl requires no |
40 | additional software to run (other than what came with your operating | |
41 | system). Currently, this port is capable of using one of the | |
4695dc7a | 42 | following compilers on the Intel x86 and x86_64 architectures: |
9baed986 | 43 | |
6be4da51 | 44 | Microsoft Visual C++ Visual C++ 2015 (version 14.0) or later |
a2b08671 | 45 | Intel C++ Compiler (experimental) |
341a561f | 46 | Gcc by mingw.org gcc version 3.4.5-5.3.0 |
2c3d35a4 | 47 | Gcc by mingw-w64.org gcc version 4.4.3 or later |
fa58a56f S |
48 | |
49 | Note that the last two of these are actually competing projects both | |
50 | delivering complete gcc toolchain for MS Windows: | |
b906aaa5 | 51 | |
42d76a89 MS |
52 | =over 4 |
53 | ||
4695dc7a | 54 | =item L<https://osdn.net/projects/mingw/> |
42d76a89 | 55 | |
4695dc7a | 56 | Delivers gcc toolchain building 32-bit executables (which can be used both 32 and 64 bit Windows platforms) |
b906aaa5 | 57 | |
034a96a9 | 58 | =item L<https://mingw-w64.org> |
42d76a89 MS |
59 | |
60 | Delivers gcc toolchain targeting both 64-bit Windows and 32-bit Windows | |
61 | platforms (despite the project name "mingw-w64" they are not only 64-bit | |
62 | oriented). They deliver the native gcc compilers and cross-compilers | |
63 | that are also supported by perl's makefile. | |
64 | ||
65 | =back | |
9baed986 | 66 | |
4695dc7a | 67 | The Microsoft Visual C++ compilers are also now being given away free. They |
6be4da51 TC |
68 | are available as "Visual C++ 2015-2022 Community Edition" and are the same |
69 | compilers that ship with "Visual C++ 2015-2022 Professional". | |
9baed986 | 70 | |
034a96a9 | 71 | The MinGW64 compiler is available at L<https://mingw-w64.org>. |
fa58a56f S |
72 | The latter is actually a cross-compiler targeting Win64. There's also a trimmed |
73 | down compiler (no java, or gfortran) suitable for building perl available at: | |
034a96a9 | 74 | L<https://strawberryperl.com/package/kmx/64_gcctoolchain/> |
fa58a56f S |
75 | |
76 | NOTE: If you're using a 32-bit compiler to build perl on a 64-bit Windows | |
77 | operating system, then you should set the WIN64 environment variable to "undef". | |
d774b2d8 CJ |
78 | Also, the trimmed down compiler only passes tests when USE_ITHREADS *= define |
79 | (as opposed to undef) and when the CFG *= Debug line is commented out. | |
9baed986 LC |
80 | |
81 | This port fully supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that | |
82 | is used to build extensions to perl). Therefore, you should be | |
83 | able to build and install most extensions found in the CPAN sites. | |
016af039 | 84 | See L</Usage Hints for Perl on Windows> below for general hints about this. |
9baed986 | 85 | |
b906aaa5 | 86 | =head2 Setting Up Perl on Windows |
9baed986 LC |
87 | |
88 | =over 4 | |
89 | ||
90 | =item Make | |
91 | ||
92 | You need a "make" program to build the sources. If you are using | |
eb058c07 SH |
93 | Visual C++, you can use nmake supplied with Visual C++. |
94 | You may also use gmake instead of nmake. Builds using gcc need | |
76b7a975 TK |
95 | gmake. nmake is not supported for gcc builds. Parallel building is only |
96 | supported with gmake, not nmake. | |
9baed986 | 97 | |
9baed986 LC |
98 | =item Command Shell |
99 | ||
8cbe99e5 | 100 | Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with Windows. Some versions of the |
9baed986 LC |
101 | popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause you trouble. |
102 | If the build fails under that shell, try building again with the cmd | |
103 | shell. | |
104 | ||
9baed986 LC |
105 | Make sure the path to the build directory does not contain spaces. The |
106 | build usually works in this circumstance, but some tests will fail. | |
107 | ||
9baed986 LC |
108 | =item Microsoft Visual C++ |
109 | ||
7adf2470 SH |
110 | The nmake that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building. Visual C++ |
111 | requires that certain things be set up in the console before Visual C++ will | |
f1460a66 | 112 | successfully run. To make a console box be able to run the C compiler, you will |
7adf2470 SH |
113 | need to beforehand, run C<vcvarsall.bat x86> to compile for x86-32 and for |
114 | x86-64 C<vcvarsall.bat amd64>. On a typical install of a Microsoft C++ | |
115 | compiler product, these batch files will already be in your C<PATH> | |
8f5839a9 DD |
116 | environment variable so you may just type them without an absolute path into |
117 | your console. If you need to find the absolute path to the batch file, it is | |
7adf2470 SH |
118 | usually found somewhere like |
119 | C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC. | |
f1460a66 | 120 | With some newer Microsoft C products (released after ~2004), the installer will |
8f5839a9 DD |
121 | put a shortcut in the start menu to launch a new console window with the |
122 | console already set up for your target architecture (x86-32 or x86-64 or IA64). | |
123 | With the newer compilers, you may also use the older batch files if you choose | |
124 | so. | |
9baed986 | 125 | |
6be4da51 | 126 | =item Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2022 Community Edition |
4a3cf07b | 127 | |
6be4da51 | 128 | These free versions of Visual C++ 2015-2022 Professional contain the same |
2a46176f | 129 | compilers and linkers that ship with the full versions, and also contain |
eb058c07 | 130 | everything necessary to build Perl. |
4a3cf07b | 131 | |
034a96a9 | 132 | These packages can be downloaded from L<https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/>. |
4a3cf07b | 133 | |
6be4da51 | 134 | Install Visual C++ 2015-2022 Community, then setup your environment |
d8efeb46 | 135 | using, e.g. |
4a3cf07b | 136 | |
6be4da51 | 137 | F<C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\Tools\vsvars32.bat> |
4a3cf07b SH |
138 | |
139 | (assuming the default installation location was chosen). | |
140 | ||
034a96a9 | 141 | Perl should now build using the F<win32/Makefile>. You will need to edit that |
6be4da51 | 142 | file to set C<CCTYPE> to one of C<MSVC140>-C<MSVC143> first. |
034a96a9 EA |
143 | |
144 | =item Microsoft C++ Build Tools | |
145 | ||
146 | There's also a standalone (IDE-less) version of the build tools mentioned | |
147 | above containing the MSVC compiler available for download from | |
148 | L<https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/visual-cpp-build-tools/>. | |
149 | ||
150 | This is also referred to as I<Build Tools for Visual Studio>. | |
9baed986 | 151 | |
8a217c9a | 152 | =item GCC |
9baed986 | 153 | |
8a217c9a SH |
154 | Perl can be compiled with gcc from MinGW (version 3.4.5 or later) or from |
155 | MinGW64 (version 4.4.3 or later). It can be downloaded here: | |
9baed986 | 156 | |
4695dc7a | 157 | L<https://osdn.net/projects/mingw/> |
034a96a9 | 158 | L<https://www.mingw-w64.org/> |
7c5b6093 | 159 | |
76b7a975 TK |
160 | You also need gmake. Usually it comes with MinGW but its executable may have |
161 | a different name, such as mingw32-make.exe. | |
9baed986 | 162 | |
341a561f | 163 | Note that the MinGW build currently fails with version 6.3.0 or later. |
8a217c9a SH |
164 | |
165 | Note also that the C++ mode build currently fails with MinGW 3.4.5 and 4.7.2 | |
166 | or later, and with MinGW64 64-bit 6.3.0 or later. | |
167 | ||
a48cc4c4 DD |
168 | =item Intel C++ Compiler |
169 | ||
a2b08671 | 170 | Experimental support for using Intel C++ Compiler has been added. Edit |
034a96a9 EA |
171 | F<win32/Makefile> and pick the correct C<CCTYPE> for the Visual C that Intel C |
172 | was installed into. Also uncomment C<__ICC> to enable Intel C on Visual C support. | |
ab473f03 | 173 | To set up the build environment, from the Start Menu run |
a48cc4c4 | 174 | IA-32 Visual Studio 20__ mode or Intel 64 Visual Studio 20__ mode as |
034a96a9 | 175 | appropriate. Then run C<nmake> as usual in that prompt box. |
a48cc4c4 DD |
176 | |
177 | Only Intel C++ Compiler v12.1 has been tested. Other versions probably will | |
312159d9 DD |
178 | work. Using Intel C++ Compiler instead of Visual C has the benefit of C99 |
179 | compatibility which is needed by some CPAN XS modules, while maintaining | |
180 | compatibility with Visual C object code and Visual C debugging infrastructure | |
181 | unlike GCC. | |
a48cc4c4 | 182 | |
9baed986 LC |
183 | =back |
184 | ||
185 | =head2 Building | |
186 | ||
187 | =over 4 | |
188 | ||
189 | =item * | |
190 | ||
034a96a9 EA |
191 | Make sure you are in the F<win32> subdirectory under the perl toplevel. |
192 | This directory contains a F<Makefile> that will work with | |
193 | versions of C<nmake> that come with Visual C++, and | |
194 | a GNU make F<GNUmakefile> that will work for all supported compilers. | |
195 | The defaults in the C<gmake> makefile are set up to build with MinGW/gcc. | |
9baed986 LC |
196 | |
197 | =item * | |
198 | ||
034a96a9 EA |
199 | Edit the F<GNUmakefile> (or F<Makefile>, if you're using F<nmake>) and change |
200 | the values of I<INST_DRV> and C<INST_TOP>. You can also enable various build | |
201 | flags. These are explained in the makefiles. | |
9baed986 | 202 | |
034a96a9 EA |
203 | Note that it is generally not a good idea to try to build a C<perl> with |
204 | C<INST_DRV> and C<INST_TOP> set to a path that already exists from a previous | |
2b1846f4 | 205 | build. In particular, this may cause problems with the |
034a96a9 EA |
206 | F<lib/ExtUtils/t/Embed.t> test, which attempts to build a test program and |
207 | may end up building against the installed C<perl>'s F<lib/CORE> directory | |
208 | rather than the one being tested. | |
2b1846f4 | 209 | |
034a96a9 EA |
210 | You will have to make sure that C<CCTYPE> is set correctly and that |
211 | C<CCHOME> points to wherever you installed your compiler. For GCC this | |
8f5d02f0 TC |
212 | should be the directory that contains the F<bin>, F<include> and |
213 | F<lib> directories. | |
fa58a56f S |
214 | |
215 | If building with the cross-compiler provided by | |
2c3d35a4 | 216 | mingw-w64.org you'll need to uncomment the line that sets |
034a96a9 EA |
217 | C<GCCCROSS> in the F<GNUmakefile>. Do this only if it's the cross-compiler, |
218 | ie. only if the F<bin> folder doesn't contain a F<gcc.exe>. (The cross-compiler | |
219 | does not provide a F<gcc.exe>, F<g++.exe>, F<ar.exe>, etc. Instead, all of these | |
220 | executables are prefixed with C<x86_64-w64-mingw32->.) | |
9baed986 | 221 | |
034a96a9 | 222 | The default value for C<CCHOME> in the makefiles for Visual C++ |
9baed986 LC |
223 | may not be correct for some versions. Make sure the default exists |
224 | and is valid. | |
225 | ||
034a96a9 EA |
226 | If you want build some core extensions statically into C<perl>'s DLL, |
227 | specify them in the C<STATIC_EXT> macro. | |
dbd54a9f | 228 | |
9baed986 LC |
229 | Be sure to read the instructions near the top of the makefiles carefully. |
230 | ||
231 | =item * | |
232 | ||
034a96a9 | 233 | Type C<gmake> (or C<nmake> if you are using that version of C<make>). |
9baed986 | 234 | |
034a96a9 | 235 | This should build everything. Specifically, it will create F<perl.exe>, |
2083cfe5 | 236 | F<perl539.dll> at the perl toplevel, and various other extension DLL's |
034a96a9 | 237 | under the F<lib\auto> directory. If the build fails for any reason, make |
9baed986 LC |
238 | sure you have done the previous steps correctly. |
239 | ||
034a96a9 | 240 | To try C<gmake>'s parallel mode, type C<gmake -j2> where C<2> is the maximum number |
3bdc51af DD |
241 | of parallel jobs you want to run. A number of things in the build process will |
242 | run in parallel, but there are serialization points where you will see just 1 | |
243 | CPU maxed out. This is normal. | |
244 | ||
8f5839a9 | 245 | If you are advanced enough with building C code, here is a suggestion to speed |
034a96a9 | 246 | up building C<perl>, and the later C<make test>. Try to keep your C<PATH> environment |
8f5839a9 | 247 | variable with the least number of folders possible (remember to keep your C |
034a96a9 EA |
248 | compiler's folders there). F<C:\WINDOWS\system32> or F<C:\WINNT\system32> |
249 | depending on your OS version should be first folder in C<PATH>, since C<cmd.exe> | |
8f5839a9 DD |
250 | is the most commonly launched program during the build and later testing. |
251 | ||
9baed986 LC |
252 | =back |
253 | ||
b906aaa5 | 254 | =head2 Testing Perl on Windows |
9baed986 | 255 | |
76b7a975 | 256 | Type "gmake test" (or "nmake test"). This will run most |
15f42aa0 | 257 | of the tests from the testsuite (many tests will be skipped). |
9baed986 | 258 | |
b906aaa5 | 259 | There should be no test failures. |
9baed986 | 260 | |
a8325b42 | 261 | If you build with Visual C++ 2015 or later then F<ext/XS-APItest/t/locale.t> |
71153651 SH |
262 | may crash (after all its tests have passed). This is due to a regression in the |
263 | Universal CRT introduced in the Windows 10 April 2018 Update, and will be fixed | |
264 | in the May 2019 Update, as explained here: L<https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/content/problem/519486/setlocalelc-numeric-iso-latin-16-fails-then-succee.html>. | |
a8325b42 | 265 | |
4695dc7a | 266 | If you build with certain versions (e.g. 4.8.1) of gcc from mingw then |
80ccccdf | 267 | F<ext/POSIX/t/time.t> may fail test 17 due to a known bug in those gcc builds: |
71c89d21 | 268 | see L<https://sourceforge.net/p/mingw/bugs/2152/>. |
80ccccdf | 269 | |
9baed986 LC |
270 | Some test failures may occur if you use a command shell other than the |
271 | native "cmd.exe", or if you are building from a path that contains | |
272 | spaces. So don't do that. | |
273 | ||
274 | If you are running the tests from a emacs shell window, you may see | |
76b7a975 | 275 | failures in op/stat.t. Run "gmake test-notty" in that case. |
9baed986 | 276 | |
a6a21311 PEE |
277 | Furthermore, you should make sure that during C<make test> you do not |
278 | have any GNU tool packages in your path: some toolkits like Unixutils | |
279 | include some tools (C<type> for instance) which override the Windows | |
280 | ones and makes tests fail. Remove them from your path while testing to | |
281 | avoid these errors. | |
282 | ||
a1f354d3 TC |
283 | To see the output of specific failing tests run the harness from the t |
284 | directory: | |
285 | ||
286 | # assuming you're starting from the win32 directory | |
287 | cd ..\win32 | |
288 | .\perl harness <list of tests> | |
289 | ||
016af039 | 290 | Please report any other failures as described under L</BUGS AND CAVEATS>. |
9baed986 | 291 | |
b906aaa5 | 292 | =head2 Installation of Perl on Windows |
9baed986 | 293 | |
76b7a975 | 294 | Type "gmake install" ("nmake install"). This will |
15f42aa0 TC |
295 | put the newly built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP> |
296 | points to in the Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation | |
297 | under C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same | |
298 | under C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod\html>. | |
9baed986 | 299 | |
00808b83 SH |
300 | To use the Perl you just installed you will need to add a new entry to |
301 | your PATH environment variable: C<$INST_TOP\bin>, e.g. | |
9baed986 | 302 | |
00808b83 | 303 | set PATH=c:\perl\bin;%PATH% |
9baed986 | 304 | |
00808b83 SH |
305 | If you opted to uncomment C<INST_VER> and C<INST_ARCH> in the makefile |
306 | then the installation structure is a little more complicated and you will | |
307 | need to add two new PATH components instead: C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin> and | |
308 | C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin\$ARCHNAME>, e.g. | |
309 | ||
310 | set PATH=c:\perl\5.6.0\bin;c:\perl\5.6.0\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH% | |
9baed986 | 311 | |
b906aaa5 | 312 | =head2 Usage Hints for Perl on Windows |
9baed986 LC |
313 | |
314 | =over 4 | |
315 | ||
316 | =item Environment Variables | |
317 | ||
318 | The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled | |
319 | into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start | |
320 | using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable). | |
321 | ||
322 | If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB | |
323 | to a list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl | |
324 | to look for libraries. Look for descriptions of other environment | |
325 | variables you can set in L<perlrun>. | |
326 | ||
327 | You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and | |
328 | backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See L<perlrun>. | |
329 | ||
330 | Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain default | |
6937817d DD |
331 | values if you choose to put them there unless disabled at build time with |
332 | USE_NO_REGISTRY. On Perl process start Perl checks if | |
0517ed38 DD |
333 | C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> and C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl> |
334 | exist. If the keys exists, they will be checked for remainder of the Perl | |
335 | process's run life for certain entries. Entries in | |
336 | C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> override entries in | |
337 | C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>. One or more of the following entries | |
338 | (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may be set in the keys: | |
9baed986 | 339 | |
f185f654 KW |
340 | lib-$] version-specific standard library path to add to @INC |
341 | lib standard library path to add to @INC | |
342 | sitelib-$] version-specific site library path to add to @INC | |
343 | sitelib site library path to add to @INC | |
344 | vendorlib-$] version-specific vendor library path to add to @INC | |
345 | vendorlib vendor library path to add to @INC | |
346 | PERL* fallback for all %ENV lookups that begin with "PERL" | |
9baed986 LC |
347 | |
348 | Note the C<$]> in the above is not literal. Substitute whatever version | |
349 | of perl you want to honor that entry, e.g. C<5.6.0>. Paths must be | |
b906aaa5 | 350 | separated with semicolons, as usual on Windows. |
9baed986 LC |
351 | |
352 | =item File Globbing | |
353 | ||
354 | By default, perl handles file globbing using the File::Glob extension, | |
355 | which provides portable globbing. | |
356 | ||
357 | If you want perl to use globbing that emulates the quirks of DOS | |
358 | filename conventions, you might want to consider using File::DosGlob | |
359 | to override the internal glob() implementation. See L<File::DosGlob> for | |
360 | details. | |
361 | ||
362 | =item Using perl from the command line | |
363 | ||
364 | If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line | |
365 | shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased | |
366 | with what Windows offers by way of a command shell. | |
367 | ||
368 | The crucial thing to understand about the Windows environment is that | |
369 | the command line you type in is processed twice before Perl sees it. | |
8cbe99e5 JD |
370 | First, your command shell (usually CMD.EXE) preprocesses the command |
371 | line, to handle redirection, environment variable expansion, and | |
372 | location of the executable to run. Then, the perl executable splits | |
373 | the remaining command line into individual arguments, using the | |
374 | C runtime library upon which Perl was built. | |
9baed986 LC |
375 | |
376 | It is particularly important to note that neither the shell nor the C | |
377 | runtime do any wildcard expansions of command-line arguments (so | |
378 | wildcards need not be quoted). Also, the quoting behaviours of the | |
379 | shell and the C runtime are rudimentary at best (and may, if you are | |
380 | using a non-standard shell, be inconsistent). The only (useful) quote | |
381 | character is the double quote ("). It can be used to protect spaces | |
382 | and other special characters in arguments. | |
383 | ||
41bfb3b6 | 384 | The Windows documentation describes the shell parsing rules here: |
c1bde759 | 385 | L<https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/cmd> |
41bfb3b6 | 386 | and the C runtime parsing rules here: |
71c89d21 | 387 | L<https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/17w5ykft%28v=VS.100%29.aspx>. |
41bfb3b6 SH |
388 | |
389 | Here are some further observations based on experiments: The C runtime | |
390 | breaks arguments at spaces and passes them to programs in argc/argv. | |
391 | Double quotes can be used to prevent arguments with spaces in them from | |
392 | being split up. You can put a double quote in an argument by escaping | |
393 | it with a backslash and enclosing the whole argument within double quotes. | |
394 | The backslash and the pair of double quotes surrounding the argument will | |
395 | be stripped by the C runtime. | |
9baed986 | 396 | |
00808b83 | 397 | The file redirection characters "E<lt>", "E<gt>", and "|" can be quoted by |
9baed986 LC |
398 | double quotes (although there are suggestions that this may not always |
399 | be true). Single quotes are not treated as quotes by the shell or | |
400 | the C runtime, they don't get stripped by the shell (just to make | |
401 | this type of quoting completely useless). The caret "^" has also | |
402 | been observed to behave as a quoting character, but this appears | |
403 | to be a shell feature, and the caret is not stripped from the command | |
404 | line, so Perl still sees it (and the C runtime phase does not treat | |
405 | the caret as a quote character). | |
406 | ||
407 | Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell: | |
408 | ||
409 | This prints two doublequotes: | |
410 | ||
411 | perl -e "print '\"\"' " | |
412 | ||
413 | This does the same: | |
414 | ||
415 | perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" " | |
416 | ||
417 | This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch": | |
418 | ||
419 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch | |
420 | ||
421 | This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland): | |
422 | ||
423 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul | |
424 | ||
425 | This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch": | |
426 | ||
427 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch | |
428 | ||
429 | This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the console: | |
430 | ||
431 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less | |
432 | ||
433 | This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager: | |
434 | ||
435 | perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less | |
436 | ||
437 | This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file "blurch": | |
438 | ||
439 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less | |
440 | ||
441 | ||
442 | Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows 9x | |
443 | is left as an exercise to the reader :) | |
444 | ||
445 | One particularly pernicious problem with the 4NT command shell for | |
8cbe99e5 | 446 | Windows is that it (nearly) always treats a % character as indicating |
9baed986 LC |
447 | that environment variable expansion is needed. Under this shell, it is |
448 | therefore important to always double any % characters which you want | |
449 | Perl to see (for example, for hash variables), even when they are | |
450 | quoted. | |
451 | ||
452 | =item Building Extensions | |
453 | ||
454 | The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth | |
455 | of extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build. | |
71c89d21 | 456 | Look in L<https://www.cpan.org/> for more information on CPAN. |
9baed986 LC |
457 | |
458 | Note that not all of the extensions available from CPAN may work | |
b906aaa5 | 459 | in the Windows environment; you should check the information at |
71c89d21 | 460 | L<https://www.cpantesters.org/> before investing too much effort into |
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461 | porting modules that don't readily build. |
462 | ||
463 | Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can | |
464 | be built, tested and installed with the standard mantra: | |
465 | ||
466 | perl Makefile.PL | |
467 | $MAKE | |
468 | $MAKE test | |
469 | $MAKE install | |
470 | ||
471 | where $MAKE is whatever 'make' program you have configured perl to | |
472 | use. Use "perl -V:make" to find out what this is. Some extensions | |
473 | may not provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything or | |
474 | fail), but most serious ones do. | |
475 | ||
476 | It is important that you use a supported 'make' program, and | |
76b7a975 | 477 | ensure Config.pm knows about it. |
9baed986 LC |
478 | |
479 | Note that MakeMaker actually emits makefiles with different syntax | |
480 | depending on what 'make' it thinks you are using. Therefore, it is | |
481 | important that one of the following values appears in Config.pm: | |
482 | ||
483 | make='nmake' # MakeMaker emits nmake syntax | |
9baed986 LC |
484 | any other value # MakeMaker emits generic make syntax |
485 | (e.g GNU make, or Perl make) | |
486 | ||
487 | If the value doesn't match the 'make' program you want to use, | |
488 | edit Config.pm to fix it. | |
489 | ||
490 | If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported | |
491 | C compilers. You must make sure you have set up the environment for | |
8f5839a9 DD |
492 | the compiler for command-line compilation before running C<perl Makefile.PL> |
493 | or any invocation of make. | |
9baed986 LC |
494 | |
495 | If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for | |
496 | why it failed, and report problems to the module author. If | |
497 | it looks like the extension building support is at fault, report | |
8166b4e0 DB |
498 | that with full details of how the build failed using the GitHub |
499 | issue tracker at L<https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>. | |
9baed986 LC |
500 | |
501 | =item Command-line Wildcard Expansion | |
502 | ||
503 | The default command shells on DOS descendant operating systems (such | |
504 | as they are) usually do not expand wildcard arguments supplied to | |
505 | programs. They consider it the application's job to handle that. | |
506 | This is commonly achieved by linking the application (in our case, | |
507 | perl) with startup code that the C runtime libraries usually provide. | |
508 | However, doing that results in incompatible perl versions (since the | |
509 | behavior of the argv expansion code differs depending on the | |
510 | compiler, and it is even buggy on some compilers). Besides, it may | |
511 | be a source of frustration if you use such a perl binary with an | |
512 | alternate shell that *does* expand wildcards. | |
513 | ||
514 | Instead, the following solution works rather well. The nice things | |
dbd54a9f | 515 | about it are 1) you can start using it right away; 2) it is more |
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516 | powerful, because it will do the right thing with a pattern like |
517 | */*/*.c; 3) you can decide whether you do/don't want to use it; and | |
dbd54a9f | 518 | 4) you can extend the method to add any customizations (or even |
9baed986 LC |
519 | entirely different kinds of wildcard expansion). |
520 | ||
f185f654 KW |
521 | C:\> copy con c:\perl\lib\Wild.pm |
522 | # Wild.pm - emulate shell @ARGV expansion on shells that don't | |
523 | use File::DosGlob; | |
524 | @ARGV = map { | |
525 | my @g = File::DosGlob::glob($_) if /[*?]/; | |
526 | @g ? @g : $_; | |
527 | } @ARGV; | |
528 | 1; | |
529 | ^Z | |
530 | C:\> set PERL5OPT=-MWild | |
531 | C:\> perl -le "for (@ARGV) { print }" */*/perl*.c | |
532 | p4view/perl/perl.c | |
533 | p4view/perl/perlio.c | |
534 | p4view/perl/perly.c | |
535 | perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c | |
536 | perl5.005/win32/perllib.c | |
537 | perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c | |
538 | perl5.005/win32/perllib.c | |
539 | perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c | |
540 | perl5.005/win32/perllib.c | |
9baed986 LC |
541 | |
542 | Note there are two distinct steps there: 1) You'll have to create | |
543 | Wild.pm and put it in your perl lib directory. 2) You'll need to | |
544 | set the PERL5OPT environment variable. If you want argv expansion | |
545 | to be the default, just set PERL5OPT in your default startup | |
546 | environment. | |
547 | ||
548 | If you are using the Visual C compiler, you can get the C runtime's | |
549 | command line wildcard expansion built into perl binary. The resulting | |
550 | binary will always expand unquoted command lines, which may not be | |
551 | what you want if you use a shell that does that for you. The expansion | |
552 | done is also somewhat less powerful than the approach suggested above. | |
553 | ||
9baed986 LC |
554 | =item Notes on 64-bit Windows |
555 | ||
556 | Windows .NET Server supports the LLP64 data model on the Intel Itanium | |
557 | architecture. | |
558 | ||
559 | The LLP64 data model is different from the LP64 data model that is the | |
560 | norm on 64-bit Unix platforms. In the former, C<int> and C<long> are | |
561 | both 32-bit data types, while pointers are 64 bits wide. In addition, | |
562 | there is a separate 64-bit wide integral type, C<__int64>. In contrast, | |
563 | the LP64 data model that is pervasive on Unix platforms provides C<int> | |
564 | as the 32-bit type, while both the C<long> type and pointers are of | |
565 | 64-bit precision. Note that both models provide for 64-bits of | |
566 | addressability. | |
567 | ||
568 | 64-bit Windows running on Itanium is capable of running 32-bit x86 | |
569 | binaries transparently. This means that you could use a 32-bit build | |
570 | of Perl on a 64-bit system. Given this, why would one want to build | |
571 | a 64-bit build of Perl? Here are some reasons why you would bother: | |
572 | ||
00808b83 SH |
573 | =over |
574 | ||
9baed986 LC |
575 | =item * |
576 | ||
577 | A 64-bit native application will run much more efficiently on | |
578 | Itanium hardware. | |
579 | ||
580 | =item * | |
581 | ||
582 | There is no 2GB limit on process size. | |
583 | ||
584 | =item * | |
585 | ||
586 | Perl automatically provides large file support when built under | |
587 | 64-bit Windows. | |
588 | ||
589 | =item * | |
590 | ||
591 | Embedding Perl inside a 64-bit application. | |
592 | ||
593 | =back | |
594 | ||
00808b83 SH |
595 | =back |
596 | ||
9baed986 LC |
597 | =head2 Running Perl Scripts |
598 | ||
599 | Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to | |
600 | indicate to the OS that it should execute the file using perl. | |
b906aaa5 | 601 | Windows has no comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are |
9baed986 LC |
602 | executables. |
603 | ||
604 | Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on | |
b906aaa5 | 605 | Windows rely on the file "extension". There are three methods |
9baed986 LC |
606 | to use this to execute perl scripts: |
607 | ||
608 | =over 8 | |
609 | ||
610 | =item 1 | |
611 | ||
8cbe99e5 JD |
612 | There is a facility called "file extension associations". This can be |
613 | manipulated via the two commands "assoc" and "ftype" that come | |
614 | standard with Windows. Type "ftype /?" for a complete example of how | |
615 | to set this up for perl scripts (Say what? You thought Windows | |
616 | wasn't perl-ready? :). | |
9baed986 LC |
617 | |
618 | =item 2 | |
619 | ||
620 | Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are | |
621 | reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the | |
622 | old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a | |
623 | regular batch file to the OS, may be used. The install process | |
624 | makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to wrap | |
625 | perl scripts into batch files. For example: | |
626 | ||
627 | pl2bat foo.pl | |
628 | ||
629 | will create the file "FOO.BAT". Note "pl2bat" strips any | |
630 | .pl suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file. | |
631 | ||
632 | If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that | |
633 | "pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to | |
634 | refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to make | |
635 | sure that construct works in batch files. As of this writing, | |
636 | 4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *" statement in their | |
637 | 4NT.INI file or will need to execute "setdos /p*" in the 4DOS/NT | |
638 | startup file to enable this to work. | |
639 | ||
640 | =item 3 | |
641 | ||
642 | Using "pl2bat" has a few problems: the file name gets changed, | |
643 | so scripts that rely on C<$0> to find what they must do may not | |
644 | run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the | |
645 | original script, and so this process can be maintenance intensive | |
646 | if the originals get updated often. A different approach that | |
647 | avoids both problems is possible. | |
648 | ||
649 | A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied | |
650 | to any filename (along with the .bat suffix). For example, | |
651 | if you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is | |
b906aaa5 | 652 | executed. Since you can run batch files on Windows platforms simply |
9baed986 LC |
653 | by typing the name (without the extension), this effectively |
654 | runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or "foo.bat". | |
655 | With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a different location | |
656 | than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is available somewhere on | |
657 | the PATH. If your scripts are on a filesystem that allows symbolic | |
658 | links, you can even avoid copying "runperl.bat". | |
659 | ||
660 | Here's a diversion: copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type | |
661 | "runperl". Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :) | |
662 | Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH | |
663 | ||
00808b83 SH |
664 | =back |
665 | ||
666 | =head2 Miscellaneous Things | |
9baed986 LC |
667 | |
668 | A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be | |
669 | able to use it if you have a web browser installed on your | |
670 | system. | |
671 | ||
672 | C<perldoc> is also a useful tool for browsing information contained | |
673 | in the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager | |
b906aaa5 | 674 | like C<less> (recent versions of which have Windows support). You may |
9baed986 LC |
675 | have to set the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager. |
676 | "perldoc -f foo" will print information about the perl operator | |
677 | "foo". | |
678 | ||
13ee867e BD |
679 | One common mistake when using this port with a GUI library like C<Tk> |
680 | is assuming that Perl's normal behavior of opening a command-line | |
681 | window will go away. This isn't the case. If you want to start a copy | |
682 | of C<perl> without opening a command-line window, use the C<wperl> | |
683 | executable built during the installation process. Usage is exactly | |
b906aaa5 | 684 | the same as normal C<perl> on Windows, except that options like C<-h> |
13ee867e BD |
685 | don't work (since they need a command-line window to print to). |
686 | ||
8166b4e0 DB |
687 | If you find bugs in perl, you can report them to |
688 | L<https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>. | |
9baed986 | 689 | |
9baed986 LC |
690 | =head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS |
691 | ||
dbd54a9f VK |
692 | Norton AntiVirus interferes with the build process, particularly if |
693 | set to "AutoProtect, All Files, when Opened". Unlike large applications | |
694 | the perl build process opens and modifies a lot of files. Having the | |
a3815e44 | 695 | AntiVirus scan each and every one slows build the process significantly. |
9baed986 | 696 | Worse, with PERLIO=stdio the build process fails with peculiar messages |
dbd54a9f | 697 | as the virus checker interacts badly with miniperl.exe writing configure |
9baed986 LC |
698 | files (it seems to either catch file part written and treat it as suspicious, |
699 | or virus checker may have it "locked" in a way which inhibits miniperl | |
dbd54a9f | 700 | updating it). The build does complete with |
9baed986 LC |
701 | |
702 | set PERLIO=perlio | |
703 | ||
704 | but that may be just luck. Other AntiVirus software may have similar issues. | |
705 | ||
8f5839a9 DD |
706 | A git GUI shell extension for Windows such as TortoiseGit will cause the build |
707 | and later C<make test> to run much slower since every file is checked for its | |
708 | git status as soon as it is created and/or modified. TortoiseGit doesn't cause | |
709 | any test failures or build problems unlike the antivirus software described | |
710 | above, but it does cause similar slowness. It is suggested to use Task Manager | |
711 | to look for background processes which use high CPU amounts during the building | |
712 | process. | |
713 | ||
9baed986 LC |
714 | Some of the built-in functions do not act exactly as documented in |
715 | L<perlfunc>, and a few are not implemented at all. To avoid | |
716 | surprises, particularly if you have had prior exposure to Perl | |
717 | in other operating environments or if you intend to write code | |
00808b83 | 718 | that will be portable to other environments, see L<perlport> |
9baed986 LC |
719 | for a reasonably definitive list of these differences. |
720 | ||
721 | Not all extensions available from CPAN may build or work properly | |
b906aaa5 | 722 | in the Windows environment. See L</"Building Extensions">. |
9baed986 LC |
723 | |
724 | Most C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not | |
725 | behave as on Unix platforms. See L<perlport> for the full list. | |
726 | ||
727 | Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it | |
728 | doesn't exactly "behave", either :). For instance, calling C<die()> | |
729 | or C<exit()> from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most | |
b906aaa5 | 730 | implementations of C<signal()> on Windows are severely crippled. |
9baed986 LC |
731 | Thus, signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag |
732 | variable in the handler. Using signals under this port should | |
733 | currently be considered unsupported. | |
734 | ||
35e21c5b DR |
735 | Please report detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that |
736 | you may find at E<lt>L<https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>E<gt>, | |
8166b4e0 | 737 | along with the output produced by C<perl -V>. |
9baed986 | 738 | |
e84ac4e2 SH |
739 | =head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |
740 | ||
741 | The use of a camel with the topic of Perl is a trademark | |
742 | of O'Reilly and Associates, Inc. Used with permission. | |
743 | ||
9baed986 LC |
744 | =head1 AUTHORS |
745 | ||
746 | =over 4 | |
747 | ||
748 | =item Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt> | |
749 | ||
750 | =item Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@activestate.comE<gt> | |
751 | ||
752 | =item Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ing-simmons.netE<gt> | |
753 | ||
2bfd3252 SH |
754 | =item Jan Dubois E<lt>jand@activestate.comE<gt> |
755 | ||
2a46176f | 756 | =item Steve Hay E<lt>steve.m.hay@googlemail.comE<gt> |
2bfd3252 | 757 | |
9baed986 LC |
758 | =back |
759 | ||
2bfd3252 | 760 | This document is maintained by Jan Dubois. |
9baed986 LC |
761 | |
762 | =head1 SEE ALSO | |
763 | ||
764 | L<perl> | |
765 | ||
766 | =head1 HISTORY | |
767 | ||
768 | This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24, | |
769 | and borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available | |
770 | at the time. Various people have made numerous and sundry hacks | |
771 | since then. | |
772 | ||
9baed986 LC |
773 | GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons). |
774 | ||
775 | Support for PERL_OBJECT was added in 5.005 (ActiveState Tool Corp). | |
776 | ||
777 | Support for fork() emulation was added in 5.6 (ActiveState Tool Corp). | |
778 | ||
779 | Win9x support was added in 5.6 (Benjamin Stuhl). | |
780 | ||
781 | Support for 64-bit Windows added in 5.8 (ActiveState Corp). | |
782 | ||
4695dc7a | 783 | Last updated: 06 October 2021 |
9baed986 LC |
784 | |
785 | =cut |