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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 | perlplan9 - Plan 9-specific documentation for Perl | |
8 | ||
9 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
10 | ||
11 | These are a few notes describing features peculiar to | |
12 | Plan 9 Perl. As such, it is not intended to be a replacement | |
13 | for the rest of the Perl 5 documentation (which is both | |
14 | copious and excellent). If you have any questions to | |
15 | which you can't find answers in these man pages, contact | |
16 | Luther Huffman at lutherh@stratcom.com and we'll try to | |
17 | answer them. | |
18 | ||
19 | =head2 Invoking Perl | |
20 | ||
21 | Perl is invoked from the command line as described in | |
22 | L<perl>. Most perl scripts, however, do have a first line | |
23 | such as "#!/usr/local/bin/perl". This is known as a shebang | |
24 | (shell-bang) statement and tells the OS shell where to find | |
25 | the perl interpreter. In Plan 9 Perl this statement should be | |
26 | "#!/bin/perl" if you wish to be able to directly invoke the | |
27 | script by its name. | |
28 | Alternatively, you may invoke perl with the command "Perl" | |
29 | instead of "perl". This will produce Acme-friendly error | |
30 | messages of the form "filename:18". | |
31 | ||
32 | Some scripts, usually identified with a *.PL extension, are | |
33 | self-configuring and are able to correctly create their own | |
34 | shebang path from config information located in Plan 9 | |
35 | Perl. These you won't need to be worried about. | |
36 | ||
37 | =head2 What's in Plan 9 Perl | |
38 | ||
39 | Although Plan 9 Perl currently only provides static | |
40 | loading, it is built with a number of useful extensions. | |
41 | These include Opcode, FileHandle, Fcntl, and POSIX. Expect | |
42 | to see others (and DynaLoading!) in the future. | |
43 | ||
44 | =head2 What's not in Plan 9 Perl | |
45 | ||
46 | As mentioned previously, dynamic loading isn't currently | |
47 | available nor is MakeMaker. Both are high-priority items. | |
48 | ||
49 | =head2 Perl5 Functions not currently supported in Plan 9 Perl | |
50 | ||
51 | Some, such as C<chown> and C<umask> aren't provided | |
52 | because the concept does not exist within Plan 9. Others, | |
53 | such as some of the socket-related functions, simply | |
54 | haven't been written yet. Many in the latter category | |
55 | may be supported in the future. | |
56 | ||
57 | The functions not currently implemented include: | |
58 | ||
59 | chown, chroot, dbmclose, dbmopen, getsockopt, | |
60 | setsockopt, recvmsg, sendmsg, getnetbyname, | |
61 | getnetbyaddr, getnetent, getprotoent, getservent, | |
62 | sethostent, setnetent, setprotoent, setservent, | |
63 | endservent, endnetent, endprotoent, umask | |
64 | ||
65 | There may be several other functions that have undefined | |
66 | behavior so this list shouldn't be considered complete. | |
67 | ||
68 | =head2 Signals in Plan 9 Perl | |
69 | ||
70 | For compatibility with perl scripts written for the Unix | |
71 | environment, Plan 9 Perl uses the POSIX signal emulation | |
72 | provided in Plan 9's ANSI POSIX Environment (APE). Signal stacking | |
73 | isn't supported. The signals provided are: | |
74 | ||
75 | SIGHUP, SIGINT, SIGQUIT, SIGILL, SIGABRT, | |
76 | SIGFPE, SIGKILL, SIGSEGV, SIGPIPE, SIGPIPE, SIGALRM, | |
77 | SIGTERM, SIGUSR1, SIGUSR2, SIGCHLD, SIGCONT, | |
78 | SIGSTOP, SIGTSTP, SIGTTIN, SIGTTOU | |
79 | ||
80 | =head1 COMPILING AND INSTALLING PERL ON PLAN 9 | |
81 | ||
d3c495ad | 82 | WELCOME to Plan 9 Perl, brave soul! |
d3c495ad | 83 | |
a83b6f46 JH |
84 | This is a preliminary alpha version of Plan 9 Perl. Still to be |
85 | implemented are MakeMaker and DynaLoader. Many perl commands are | |
86 | missing or currently behave in an inscrutable manner. These gaps will, | |
87 | with perserverance and a modicum of luck, be remedied in the near | |
88 | future.To install this software: | |
89 | ||
90 | 1. Create the source directories and libraries for perl by running the | |
91 | plan9/setup.rc command (i.e., located in the plan9 subdirectory). | |
92 | Note: the setup routine assumes that you haven't dearchived these | |
93 | files into /sys/src/cmd/perl. After running setup.rc you may delete | |
94 | the copy of the source you originally detarred, as source code has now | |
95 | been installed in /sys/src/cmd/perl. If you plan on installing perl | |
96 | binaries for all architectures, run "setup.rc -a". | |
97 | ||
98 | 2. After making sure that you have adequate privileges to build system | |
99 | software, from /sys/src/cmd/perl/5.00301 (adjust version | |
100 | appropriately) run: | |
101 | ||
102 | mk install | |
103 | ||
104 | If you wish to install perl versions for all architectures (68020, | |
105 | mips, sparc and 386) run: | |
106 | ||
107 | mk installall | |
108 | ||
109 | 3. Wait. The build process will take a *long* time because perl | |
110 | bootstraps itself. A 75MHz Pentium, 16MB RAM machine takes roughly 30 | |
111 | minutes to build the distribution from scratch. | |
d3c495ad | 112 | |
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113 | =head2 Installing Perl Documentation on Plan 9 |
114 | ||
115 | This perl distribution comes with a tremendous amount of | |
116 | documentation. To add these to the built-in manuals that come with | |
117 | Plan 9, from /sys/src/cmd/perl/5.00301 (adjust version appropriately) | |
118 | run: | |
119 | ||
120 | mk man | |
d3c495ad | 121 | |
d3c495ad | 122 | To begin your reading, start with: |
a83b6f46 JH |
123 | |
124 | man perl | |
125 | ||
126 | This is a good introduction and will direct you towards other man | |
127 | pages that may interest you. | |
d3c495ad | 128 | |
129 | (Note: "mk man" may produce some extraneous noise. Fear not.) | |
130 | ||
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131 | =head1 BUGS |
132 | ||
133 | "As many as there are grains of sand on all the beaches of the | |
134 | world . . ." - Carl Sagan | |
135 | ||
136 | =head1 Revision date | |
137 | ||
138 | This document was revised 09-October-1996 for Perl 5.003_7. | |
139 | ||
140 | =head1 AUTHOR | |
141 | ||
142 | Direct questions, comments, and the unlikely bug report (ahem) direct | |
143 | comments toward: | |
d3c495ad | 144 | |
a83b6f46 | 145 | Luther Huffman, lutherh@stratcom.com, |
d3c495ad | 146 | Strategic Computer Solutions, Inc. |