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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 |
8ec44883 GS |
12 | 3.51 or 4.0). Currently, this port is reported to build under |
13 | Windows95 using the 4DOS shell--the default shell that infests | |
14 | Windows95 may not work fully (but see below). Note that this caveat | |
15 | is only about B<building> perl. Once built, you should be able to | |
16 | B<use> it on either Win32 platform (modulo the problems arising from | |
17 | the inferior 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 |
873b149f | 35 | a perl that will work on Windows NT: the README.cygwin 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 | |
5db10396 | 50 | Mingw32 with GCC version 2.95.2 or better |
9036c72f | 51 | |
5db10396 GS |
52 | The last of these is a high quality freeware compiler. Support |
53 | for it is still experimental. (Older versions of GCC are known | |
54 | not to work.) | |
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 | |
8ec44883 GS |
70 | shell. The nmake Makefile also has known incompatibilites with the |
71 | "command.com" shell that comes with Windows95. | |
26618a56 | 72 | |
8ec44883 GS |
73 | However, there have been reports of successful build attempts using |
74 | 4DOS/NT version 6.01 under Windows95, using dmake, but your mileage | |
75 | may vary. There is also some basic support for building using dmake | |
76 | under command.com. Nevertheless, if building under command.com | |
77 | doesn't work, try 4DOS/NT. | |
78 | ||
79 | The surest way to build it is on Windows NT, using the cmd shell. | |
68dc0745 | 80 | |
a8deba26 GS |
81 | Make sure the path to the build directory does not contain spaces. The |
82 | build usually works in this circumstance, but some tests will fail. | |
83 | ||
3e3baf6d TB |
84 | =item Borland C++ |
85 | ||
86 | If you are using the Borland compiler, you will need dmake, a freely | |
87 | available make that has very nice macro features and parallelability. | |
88 | (The make that Borland supplies is seriously crippled, and will not | |
26618a56 GS |
89 | work for MakeMaker builds.) |
90 | ||
91 | A port of dmake for win32 platforms is available from: | |
3e3baf6d | 92 | |
f38e5b4d | 93 | http://cpan.perl.org/authors/id/GSAR/dmake-4.1pl1-win32.zip |
26618a56 | 94 | |
5db10396 GS |
95 | (This is a fixed version of original dmake sources obtained from |
96 | http://www.wticorp.com/dmake/. As of version 4.1PL1, the original | |
97 | sources did not build as shipped, and had various other problems. | |
98 | A patch is included in the above fixed version.) | |
99 | ||
26618a56 GS |
100 | Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path (follow the instructions |
101 | in the README.NOW file). | |
3e3baf6d TB |
102 | |
103 | =item Microsoft Visual C++ | |
68dc0745 | 104 | |
8ec44883 | 105 | The nmake that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building. |
9036c72f GS |
106 | You will need to run the VCVARS32.BAT file usually found somewhere |
107 | like C:\MSDEV4.2\BIN. This will set your build environment. | |
68dc0745 | 108 | |
26618a56 GS |
109 | You can also use dmake to build using Visual C++, provided: |
110 | you set OSRELEASE to "microsft" (or whatever the directory name | |
111 | under which the Visual C dmake configuration lives) in your environment, | |
112 | and edit win32/config.vc to change "make=nmake" into "make=dmake". The | |
113 | latter step is only essential if you want to use dmake as your default | |
114 | make for building extensions using MakeMaker. | |
3e3baf6d | 115 | |
5db10396 | 116 | =item Mingw32 with GCC |
9036c72f | 117 | |
5db10396 | 118 | GCC-2.95.2 binaries can be downloaded from: |
9036c72f GS |
119 | |
120 | ftp://ftp.xraylith.wisc.edu/pub/khan/gnu-win32/mingw32/ | |
68dc0745 | 121 | |
5db10396 | 122 | The GCC-2.95.2 bundle comes with Mingw32 libraries and headers. |
68dc0745 | 123 | |
7a1f88ac GS |
124 | Make sure you install the binaries that work with MSVCRT.DLL as indicated |
125 | in the README for the GCC bundle. You may need to set up a few environment | |
126 | variables (usually run from a batch file). | |
68dc0745 | 127 | |
ee4d903c GS |
128 | You also need dmake. See L</"Borland C++"> above on how to get it. |
129 | ||
68dc0745 | 130 | =back |
131 | ||
137443ea | 132 | =head2 Building |
68dc0745 | 133 | |
134 | =over 4 | |
135 | ||
136 | =item * | |
137 | ||
68dc0745 | 138 | Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl toplevel. |
137443ea | 139 | This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with |
8ec44883 | 140 | versions of nmake that come with Visual C++, and a dmake "makefile.mk" |
9036c72f GS |
141 | that will work for all supported compilers. The defaults in the dmake |
142 | makefile are setup to build using the Borland compiler. | |
68dc0745 | 143 | |
144 | =item * | |
145 | ||
9036c72f GS |
146 | Edit the makefile.mk (or Makefile, if using nmake) and change the values |
147 | of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. You can also enable various build | |
26618a56 GS |
148 | flags. |
149 | ||
9036c72f GS |
150 | Beginning with version 5.005, there is experimental support for building |
151 | a perl interpreter that supports the Perl Object abstraction (courtesy | |
152 | ActiveState Tool Corp.) PERL_OBJECT uses C++, and the binaries are | |
153 | therefore incompatible with the regular C build. However, the | |
154 | PERL_OBJECT build does provide something called the C-API, for linking | |
80252599 GS |
155 | it with extensions that won't compile under PERL_OBJECT. Using the C_API |
156 | is typically requested through: | |
157 | ||
158 | perl Makefile.PL CAPI=TRUE | |
159 | ||
160 | PERL_OBJECT requires VC++ 5.0 (Service Pack 3 recommended) or later. It | |
5db10396 | 161 | is not yet supported under GCC. WARNING: Binaries built with |
9cde0e7f GS |
162 | PERL_OBJECT enabled are B<not> compatible with binaries built without. |
163 | Perl installs PERL_OBJECT binaries under a distinct architecture name, | |
164 | so they B<can> coexist, though. | |
9036c72f GS |
165 | |
166 | Beginning with version 5.005, there is experimental support for building | |
167 | a perl interpreter that is capable of native threading. Binaries built | |
168 | with thread support enabled are also incompatible with the vanilla C | |
9cde0e7f GS |
169 | build. WARNING: Binaries built with threads enabled are B<not> compatible |
170 | with binaries built without. Perl installs threads enabled binaries under | |
171 | a distinct architecture name, so they B<can> coexist, though. | |
9036c72f GS |
172 | |
173 | At the present time, you cannot enable both threading and PERL_OBJECT. | |
174 | You can get only one of them in a Perl interpreter. | |
175 | ||
26618a56 GS |
176 | If you have either the source or a library that contains des_fcrypt(), |
177 | enable the appropriate option in the makefile. des_fcrypt() is not | |
178 | bundled with the distribution due to US Government restrictions | |
179 | on the export of cryptographic software. Nevertheless, this routine | |
58231d39 | 180 | is part of the "libdes" library (written by Eric Young) which is widely |
26618a56 GS |
181 | available worldwide, usually along with SSLeay (for example: |
182 | "ftp://fractal.mta.ca/pub/crypto/SSLeay/DES/"). Set CRYPT_SRC to the | |
183 | name of the file that implements des_fcrypt(). Alternatively, if | |
184 | you have built a library that contains des_fcrypt(), you can set | |
2d77217b GS |
185 | CRYPT_LIB to point to the library name. The location above contains |
186 | many versions of the "libdes" library, all with slightly different | |
187 | implementations of des_fcrypt(). Older versions have a single, | |
188 | self-contained file (fcrypt.c) that implements crypt(), so they may be | |
189 | easier to use. A patch against the fcrypt.c found in libdes-3.06 is | |
190 | in des_fcrypt.patch. | |
26618a56 GS |
191 | |
192 | Perl will also build without des_fcrypt(), but the crypt() builtin will | |
193 | fail at run time. | |
c90c0ff4 | 194 | |
3e3baf6d | 195 | You will also have to make sure CCHOME points to wherever you installed |
80252599 | 196 | your compiler. |
a8deba26 GS |
197 | |
198 | The default value for CCHOME in the makefiles for Visual C++ | |
ee4d903c GS |
199 | may not be correct for some versions. Make sure the default exists |
200 | and is valid. | |
c90c0ff4 | 201 | |
9036c72f GS |
202 | Other options are explained in the makefiles. Be sure to read the |
203 | instructions carefully. | |
204 | ||
68dc0745 | 205 | =item * |
206 | ||
9036c72f | 207 | Type "dmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make). |
68dc0745 | 208 | |
137443ea | 209 | This should build everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe, |
3075ddba | 210 | perl.dll (or perl56.dll), and perlglob.exe at the perl toplevel, and |
9036c72f GS |
211 | various other extension dll's under the lib\auto directory. If the build |
212 | fails for any reason, make sure you have done the previous steps correctly. | |
68dc0745 | 213 | |
156a3eb7 GS |
214 | The build process may produce "harmless" compiler warnings (more or |
215 | less copiously, depending on how picky your compiler gets). The | |
216 | maintainers are aware of these warnings, thankyouverymuch. :) | |
217 | ||
68dc0745 | 218 | =back |
219 | ||
220 | =head2 Testing | |
221 | ||
9036c72f | 222 | Type "dmake test" (or "nmake test"). This will run most of the tests from |
3e3baf6d | 223 | the testsuite (many tests will be skipped, and but no test should fail). |
68dc0745 | 224 | |
8b88ae92 | 225 | If some tests do fail, it may be because you are using a different command |
a8deba26 GS |
226 | shell than the native "cmd.exe", or because you are building from a path |
227 | that contains spaces. So don't do that. | |
68dc0745 | 228 | |
328c22fc GS |
229 | If you are running the tests from a emacs shell window, you may see |
230 | failures in op/stat.t. Run "dmake test-notty" in that case. | |
231 | ||
a8deba26 | 232 | If you're using the Borland compiler, you may see a failure in op/taint.t |
3e3baf6d TB |
233 | arising from the inability to find the Borland Runtime DLLs on the system |
234 | default path. You will need to copy the DLLs reported by the messages | |
235 | from where Borland chose to install it, into the Windows system directory | |
236 | (usually somewhere like C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32), and rerun the test. | |
237 | ||
238 | Please report any other failures as described under L<BUGS AND CAVEATS>. | |
68dc0745 | 239 | |
137443ea | 240 | =head2 Installation |
241 | ||
9036c72f | 242 | Type "dmake install" (or "nmake install"). This will put the newly |
26618a56 GS |
243 | built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP> points to in the |
244 | Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation under | |
9036c72f GS |
245 | C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same under |
246 | C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\lib\pod\html>. To use the Perl you just installed, | |
247 | you will need to add two components to your PATH environment variable, | |
248 | C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\bin>, and C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\bin\$ARCHNAME>. | |
249 | For example: | |
250 | ||
80252599 | 251 | set PATH c:\perl\5.005\bin;c:\perl\5.005\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH% |
9036c72f | 252 | |
137443ea | 253 | |
7bac28a0 | 254 | =head2 Usage Hints |
255 | ||
256 | =over 4 | |
257 | ||
258 | =item Environment Variables | |
259 | ||
260 | The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled | |
261 | into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start | |
262 | using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable). | |
263 | ||
264 | If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB | |
265 | to a list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl | |
266 | to look for libraries. Look for descriptions of other environment | |
26618a56 GS |
267 | variables you can set in L<perlrun>. |
268 | ||
269 | You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and | |
270 | backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See L<perlrun>. | |
7bac28a0 | 271 | |
9a40db4d GS |
272 | Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain default |
273 | values if you choose to put them there. Perl attempts to read entries from | |
274 | C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> and C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>. | |
275 | Entries in the former override entries in the latter. One or more of the | |
276 | following entries (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may be set: | |
277 | ||
278 | lib-$] version-specific path to add to @INC | |
279 | lib path to add to @INC | |
280 | sitelib-$] version-specific path to add to @INC | |
281 | sitelib path to add to @INC | |
282 | PERL* fallback for all %ENV lookups that begin with "PERL" | |
283 | ||
284 | Note the C<$]> in the above is not literal. Substitute whatever version | |
285 | of perl you want to honor that entry, e.g. C<5.00502>. Paths must be | |
286 | separated with semicolons, as usual on win32. | |
7bac28a0 | 287 | |
3e3baf6d TB |
288 | =item File Globbing |
289 | ||
290 | By default, perl spawns an external program to do file globbing. | |
291 | The install process installs both a perlglob.exe and a perlglob.bat | |
292 | that perl can use for this purpose. Note that with the default | |
293 | installation, perlglob.exe will be found by the system before | |
294 | perlglob.bat. | |
295 | ||
296 | perlglob.exe relies on the argv expansion done by the C Runtime of | |
297 | the particular compiler you used, and therefore behaves very | |
298 | differently depending on the Runtime used to build it. To preserve | |
dfb634a9 GS |
299 | compatiblity, perlglob.bat (a perl script that can be used portably) |
300 | is installed. Besides being portable, perlglob.bat also offers | |
301 | enhanced globbing functionality. | |
3e3baf6d TB |
302 | |
303 | If you want perl to use perlglob.bat instead of perlglob.exe, just | |
304 | delete perlglob.exe from the install location (or move it somewhere | |
dfb634a9 GS |
305 | perl cannot find). Using File::DosGlob.pm (which implements the core |
306 | functionality of perlglob.bat) to override the internal CORE::glob() | |
307 | works about 10 times faster than spawing perlglob.exe, and you should | |
308 | take this approach when writing new modules. See File::DosGlob for | |
309 | details. | |
3e3baf6d | 310 | |
7bac28a0 | 311 | =item Using perl from the command line |
312 | ||
313 | If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line | |
314 | shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased | |
315 | with what Windows NT offers by way of a command shell. | |
316 | ||
317 | The crucial thing to understand about the "cmd" shell (which is | |
318 | the default on Windows NT) is that it does not do any wildcard | |
319 | expansions of command-line arguments (so wildcards need not be | |
320 | quoted). It also provides only rudimentary quoting. The only | |
321 | (useful) quote character is the double quote ("). It can be used to | |
322 | protect spaces in arguments and other special characters. The | |
323 | Windows NT documentation has almost no description of how the | |
324 | quoting rules are implemented, but here are some general observations | |
325 | based on experiments: The shell breaks arguments at spaces and | |
326 | passes them to programs in argc/argv. Doublequotes can be used | |
327 | to prevent arguments with spaces in them from being split up. | |
328 | You can put a double quote in an argument by escaping it with | |
329 | a backslash and enclosing the whole argument within double quotes. | |
330 | The backslash and the pair of double quotes surrounding the | |
331 | argument will be stripped by the shell. | |
332 | ||
333 | The file redirection characters "<", ">", and "|" cannot be quoted | |
334 | by double quotes (there are probably more such). Single quotes | |
335 | will protect those three file redirection characters, but the | |
336 | single quotes don't get stripped by the shell (just to make this | |
337 | type of quoting completely useless). The caret "^" has also | |
338 | been observed to behave as a quoting character (and doesn't get | |
339 | stripped by the shell also). | |
340 | ||
341 | Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell: | |
342 | ||
343 | This prints two doublequotes: | |
344 | ||
345 | perl -e "print '\"\"' " | |
346 | ||
347 | This does the same: | |
348 | ||
349 | perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" " | |
350 | ||
351 | This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch": | |
352 | ||
353 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch | |
354 | ||
355 | This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland): | |
356 | ||
357 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul | |
358 | ||
359 | This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch": | |
360 | ||
361 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch | |
362 | ||
7bac28a0 | 363 | This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the console: |
364 | ||
365 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less | |
366 | ||
367 | This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager: | |
368 | ||
7bac28a0 | 369 | perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less |
370 | ||
371 | This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file "blurch": | |
372 | ||
373 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less | |
374 | ||
375 | ||
84902520 | 376 | Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows95 |
7bac28a0 | 377 | is left as an exercise to the reader :) |
378 | ||
379 | =item Building Extensions | |
380 | ||
381 | The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth | |
382 | of extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build. | |
383 | Look in http://www.perl.com/ for more information on CPAN. | |
384 | ||
385 | Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can | |
386 | be built, tested and installed with the standard mantra: | |
387 | ||
388 | perl Makefile.PL | |
3e3baf6d TB |
389 | $MAKE |
390 | $MAKE test | |
391 | $MAKE install | |
7bac28a0 | 392 | |
ee4d903c GS |
393 | where $MAKE is whatever 'make' program you have configured perl to |
394 | use. Use "perl -V:make" to find out what this is. Some extensions | |
395 | may not provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything, or | |
396 | fail), but most serious ones do. | |
397 | ||
398 | It is important that you use a supported 'make' program, and | |
399 | ensure Config.pm knows about it. If you don't have nmake, you can | |
400 | either get dmake from the location mentioned earlier, or get an | |
401 | old version of nmake reportedly available from: | |
402 | ||
403 | ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/MSLFILES/nmake15.exe | |
404 | ||
405 | Another option is to use the make written in Perl, available from | |
406 | CPAN: | |
407 | ||
408 | http://www.perl.com/CPAN/authors/id/NI-S/Make-0.03.tar.gz | |
409 | ||
410 | Note that MakeMaker actually emits makefiles with different syntax | |
411 | depending on what 'make' it thinks you are using. Therefore, it is | |
412 | important that one of the following values appears in Config.pm: | |
413 | ||
414 | make='nmake' # MakeMaker emits nmake syntax | |
415 | make='dmake' # MakeMaker emits dmake syntax | |
416 | any other value # MakeMaker emits generic make syntax | |
417 | (e.g GNU make, or Perl make) | |
418 | ||
419 | If the value doesn't match the 'make' program you want to use, | |
420 | edit Config.pm to fix it. | |
7bac28a0 | 421 | |
3e3baf6d TB |
422 | If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported |
423 | C compilers. You must make sure you have set up the environment for | |
424 | the compiler for command-line compilation. | |
7bac28a0 | 425 | |
3e3baf6d | 426 | If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for |
7bac28a0 | 427 | why it failed, and report problems to the module author. If |
428 | it looks like the extension building support is at fault, report | |
429 | that with full details of how the build failed using the perlbug | |
430 | utility. | |
431 | ||
9cde0e7f GS |
432 | =item Command-line Wildcard Expansion |
433 | ||
434 | The default command shells on DOS descendant operating systems (such | |
435 | as they are) usually do not expand wildcard arguments supplied to | |
436 | programs. They consider it the application's job to handle that. | |
437 | This is commonly achieved by linking the application (in our case, | |
438 | perl) with startup code that the C runtime libraries usually provide. | |
439 | However, doing that results in incompatible perl versions (since the | |
440 | behavior of the argv expansion code differs depending on the | |
441 | compiler, and it is even buggy on some compilers). Besides, it may | |
442 | be a source of frustration if you use such a perl binary with an | |
443 | alternate shell that *does* expand wildcards. | |
444 | ||
445 | Instead, the following solution works rather well. The nice things | |
446 | about it: 1) you can start using it right away 2) it is more powerful, | |
447 | because it will do the right thing with a pattern like */*/*.c | |
448 | 3) you can decide whether you do/don't want to use it 4) you can | |
449 | extend the method to add any customizations (or even entirely | |
450 | different kinds of wildcard expansion). | |
451 | ||
452 | C:\> copy con c:\perl\lib\Wild.pm | |
453 | # Wild.pm - emulate shell @ARGV expansion on shells that don't | |
454 | use File::DosGlob; | |
455 | @ARGV = map { | |
456 | my @g = File::DosGlob::glob($_) if /[*?]/; | |
457 | @g ? @g : $_; | |
458 | } @ARGV; | |
459 | 1; | |
460 | ^Z | |
461 | C:\> set PERL5OPT=-MWild | |
462 | C:\> perl -le "for (@ARGV) { print }" */*/perl*.c | |
463 | p4view/perl/perl.c | |
464 | p4view/perl/perlio.c | |
465 | p4view/perl/perly.c | |
466 | perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c | |
467 | perl5.005/win32/perllib.c | |
468 | perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c | |
469 | perl5.005/win32/perllib.c | |
470 | perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c | |
471 | perl5.005/win32/perllib.c | |
472 | ||
473 | Note there are two distinct steps there: 1) You'll have to create | |
474 | Wild.pm and put it in your perl lib directory. 2) You'll need to | |
475 | set the PERL5OPT environment variable. If you want argv expansion | |
476 | to be the default, just set PERL5OPT in your default startup | |
477 | environment. | |
478 | ||
479 | If you are using the Visual C compiler, you can get the C runtime's | |
480 | command line wildcard expansion built into perl binary. The resulting | |
481 | binary will always expand unquoted command lines, which may not be | |
482 | what you want if you use a shell that does that for you. The expansion | |
483 | done is also somewhat less powerful than the approach suggested above. | |
484 | ||
c90c0ff4 | 485 | =item Win32 Specific Extensions |
486 | ||
487 | A number of extensions specific to the Win32 platform are available | |
488 | from CPAN. You may find that many of these extensions are meant to | |
489 | be used under the Activeware port of Perl, which used to be the only | |
490 | native port for the Win32 platform. Since the Activeware port does not | |
491 | have adequate support for Perl's extension building tools, these | |
492 | extensions typically do not support those tools either, and therefore | |
493 | cannot be built using the generic steps shown in the previous section. | |
494 | ||
495 | To ensure smooth transitioning of existing code that uses the | |
9036c72f GS |
496 | ActiveState port, there is a bundle of Win32 extensions that contains |
497 | all of the ActiveState extensions and most other Win32 extensions from | |
c90c0ff4 | 498 | CPAN in source form, along with many added bugfixes, and with MakeMaker |
499 | support. This bundle is available at: | |
500 | ||
a8deba26 | 501 | http://www.perl.com/CPAN/authors/id/GSAR/libwin32-0.14.zip |
c90c0ff4 | 502 | |
503 | See the README in that distribution for building and installation | |
504 | instructions. Look for later versions that may be available at the | |
505 | same location. | |
506 | ||
156a3eb7 GS |
507 | =item Running Perl Scripts |
508 | ||
509 | Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to | |
510 | indicate to the OS that it should execute the file using perl. | |
511 | Win32 has no comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are | |
512 | executables. | |
513 | ||
514 | Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on | |
515 | Win32 rely on the file "extension". There are three methods | |
516 | to use this to execute perl scripts: | |
517 | ||
518 | =over 8 | |
519 | ||
520 | =item 1 | |
521 | ||
522 | There is a facility called "file extension associations" that will | |
523 | work in Windows NT 4.0. This can be manipulated via the two | |
524 | commands "assoc" and "ftype" that come standard with Windows NT | |
525 | 4.0. Type "ftype /?" for a complete example of how to set this | |
526 | up for perl scripts (Say what? You thought Windows NT wasn't | |
527 | perl-ready? :). | |
528 | ||
529 | =item 2 | |
530 | ||
531 | Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are | |
532 | reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the | |
533 | old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a | |
534 | regular batch file to the OS, may be used. The install process | |
535 | makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to wrap | |
536 | perl scripts into batch files. For example: | |
537 | ||
538 | pl2bat foo.pl | |
539 | ||
540 | will create the file "FOO.BAT". Note "pl2bat" strips any | |
541 | .pl suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file. | |
542 | ||
543 | If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that | |
544 | "pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to | |
545 | refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to make | |
546 | sure that construct works in batch files. As of this writing, | |
547 | 4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *" statement in their | |
548 | 4NT.INI file, or will need to execute "setdos /p*" in the 4DOS/NT | |
549 | startup file to enable this to work. | |
550 | ||
551 | =item 3 | |
552 | ||
553 | Using "pl2bat" has a few problems: the file name gets changed, | |
554 | so scripts that rely on C<$0> to find what they must do may not | |
555 | run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the | |
556 | original script, and so this process can be maintenance intensive | |
557 | if the originals get updated often. A different approach that | |
558 | avoids both problems is possible. | |
559 | ||
560 | A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied | |
561 | to any filename (along with the .bat suffix). For example, | |
562 | if you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is | |
563 | executed. Since you can run batch files on Win32 platforms simply | |
564 | by typing the name (without the extension), this effectively | |
565 | runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or "foo.bat". | |
566 | With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a different location | |
567 | than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is available somewhere on | |
568 | the PATH. If your scripts are on a filesystem that allows symbolic | |
569 | links, you can even avoid copying "runperl.bat". | |
570 | ||
571 | Here's a diversion: copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type | |
572 | "runperl". Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :) | |
573 | Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH | |
574 | ||
575 | =back | |
576 | ||
7bac28a0 | 577 | =item Miscellaneous Things |
578 | ||
579 | A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be | |
580 | able to use it if you have a web browser installed on your | |
581 | system. | |
582 | ||
583 | C<perldoc> is also a useful tool for browsing information contained | |
584 | in the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager | |
585 | like C<less> (recent versions of which have Win32 support). You may | |
586 | have to set the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager. | |
587 | "perldoc -f foo" will print information about the perl operator | |
588 | "foo". | |
589 | ||
590 | If you find bugs in perl, you can run C<perlbug> to create a | |
591 | bug report (you may have to send it manually if C<perlbug> cannot | |
592 | find a mailer on your system). | |
593 | ||
594 | =back | |
595 | ||
68dc0745 | 596 | =head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS |
597 | ||
f7c603cb GS |
598 | An effort has been made to ensure that the DLLs produced by the two |
599 | supported compilers are compatible with each other (despite the | |
600 | best efforts of the compiler vendors). Extension binaries produced | |
601 | by one compiler should also coexist with a perl binary built by | |
602 | a different compiler. In order to accomplish this, PERL.DLL provides | |
603 | a layer of runtime code that uses the C Runtime that perl was compiled | |
604 | with. Extensions which include "perl.h" will transparently access | |
605 | the functions in this layer, thereby ensuring that both perl and | |
606 | extensions use the same runtime functions. | |
68dc0745 | 607 | |
8b88ae92 NIS |
608 | If you have had prior exposure to Perl on Unix platforms, you will notice |
609 | this port exhibits behavior different from what is documented. Most of the | |
7bac28a0 | 610 | differences fall under one of these categories. We do not consider |
611 | any of them to be serious limitations (especially when compared to the | |
612 | limited nature of some of the Win32 OSes themselves :) | |
68dc0745 | 613 | |
614 | =over 8 | |
615 | ||
616 | =item * | |
617 | ||
618 | C<stat()> and C<lstat()> functions may not behave as documented. They | |
619 | may return values that bear no resemblance to those reported on Unix | |
7bac28a0 | 620 | platforms, and some fields (like the the one for inode) may be completely |
621 | bogus. | |
68dc0745 | 622 | |
623 | =item * | |
624 | ||
6890e559 | 625 | The following functions are currently unavailable: C<fork()>, |
5aabfad6 | 626 | C<dump()>, C<chown()>, C<link()>, C<symlink()>, C<chroot()>, |
26618a56 GS |
627 | C<setpgrp()> and related security functions, C<setpriority()>, |
628 | C<getpriority()>, C<syscall()>, C<fcntl()>, C<getpw*()>, | |
2d7a9237 GS |
629 | C<msg*()>, C<shm*()>, C<sem*()>, C<alarm()>, C<socketpair()>, |
630 | C<*netent()>, C<*protoent()>, C<*servent()>, C<*hostent()>, | |
631 | C<getnetby*()>. | |
26618a56 | 632 | This list is possibly incomplete. |
6890e559 GS |
633 | |
634 | =item * | |
635 | ||
68dc0745 | 636 | Various C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not |
637 | behave as on Unix platforms. | |
638 | ||
639 | =item * | |
640 | ||
641 | The four-argument C<select()> call is only supported on sockets. | |
642 | ||
643 | =item * | |
644 | ||
f998180f GS |
645 | The C<ioctl()> call is only supported on sockets (where it provides the |
646 | functionality of ioctlsocket() in the Winsock API). | |
647 | ||
648 | =item * | |
649 | ||
2d7a9237 GS |
650 | Failure to spawn() a subprocess is indicated by setting $? to "255 << 8". |
651 | C<$?> is set in a way compatible with Unix (i.e. the exitstatus of the | |
652 | subprocess is obtained by "$? >> 8", as described in the documentation). | |
68dc0745 | 653 | |
654 | =item * | |
655 | ||
26618a56 GS |
656 | You can expect problems building modules available on CPAN if you |
657 | build perl itself with -DUSE_THREADS. These problems should be resolved | |
658 | as we get closer to 5.005. | |
68dc0745 | 659 | |
660 | =item * | |
661 | ||
662 | C<utime()>, C<times()> and process-related functions may not | |
663 | behave as described in the documentation, and some of the | |
664 | returned values or effects may be bogus. | |
665 | ||
666 | =item * | |
667 | ||
3e3baf6d | 668 | Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it |
f7c603cb GS |
669 | doesn't exactly "behave", either :). For instance, calling C<die()> |
670 | or C<exit()> from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most | |
671 | implementations of C<signal()> on Win32 are severely crippled. | |
672 | Thus, signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag | |
673 | variable in the handler. Using signals under this port should | |
674 | currently be considered unsupported. | |
68dc0745 | 675 | |
676 | =item * | |
677 | ||
1a159553 GS |
678 | C<kill()> is implemented, but doesn't have the semantics of |
679 | C<raise()>, i.e. it doesn't send a signal to the identified process | |
680 | like it does on Unix platforms. Instead it immediately calls | |
681 | C<TerminateProcess(process,signal)>. Thus the signal argument is | |
b350dd2f GS |
682 | used to set the exit-status of the terminated process. In particular, |
683 | C<kill(0,$pid)> will kill the process identified by C<$pid> (unlike | |
684 | on Unix). This behavior may change in future. | |
1a159553 GS |
685 | |
686 | =item * | |
687 | ||
7bac28a0 | 688 | File globbing may not behave as on Unix platforms. In particular, |
3e3baf6d TB |
689 | if you don't use perlglob.bat for globbing, it will understand |
690 | wildcards only in the filename component (and not in the pathname). | |
691 | In other words, something like "print <*/*.pl>" will not print all the | |
692 | perl scripts in all the subdirectories one level under the current one | |
693 | (like it does on UNIX platforms). perlglob.exe is also dependent on | |
694 | the particular implementation of wildcard expansion in the vendor | |
695 | libraries used to build it (which varies wildly at the present time). | |
696 | Using perlglob.bat (or File::DosGlob) avoids these limitations, but | |
697 | still only provides DOS semantics (read "warts") for globbing. | |
68dc0745 | 698 | |
699 | =back | |
700 | ||
701 | Please send detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that | |
702 | you may find to <F<perlbug@perl.com>>, along with the output produced | |
703 | by C<perl -V>. | |
704 | ||
705 | =head1 AUTHORS | |
706 | ||
707 | =over 4 | |
708 | ||
3e3baf6d | 709 | Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt> |
68dc0745 | 710 | |
6e238990 | 711 | Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@activestate.comE<gt> |
68dc0745 | 712 | |
3e3baf6d | 713 | Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ni-s.u-net.comE<gt> |
68dc0745 | 714 | |
715 | =back | |
716 | ||
f7c603cb GS |
717 | This document is maintained by Gurusamy Sarathy. |
718 | ||
68dc0745 | 719 | =head1 SEE ALSO |
720 | ||
721 | L<perl> | |
722 | ||
723 | =head1 HISTORY | |
724 | ||
725 | This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24, | |
726 | and borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available | |
5db10396 GS |
727 | at the time. Various people have made numerous and sundry hacks |
728 | since then. | |
68dc0745 | 729 | |
3e3baf6d TB |
730 | Borland support was added in 5.004_01 (Gurusamy Sarathy). |
731 | ||
9a40db4d GS |
732 | GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons). |
733 | ||
80252599 GS |
734 | Support for PERL_OBJECT was added in 5.005 (ActiveState Tool Corp). |
735 | ||
5db10396 | 736 | Support for fork() emulation was added in 5.6 (ActiveState Tool Corp). |
68dc0745 | 737 | |
5db10396 GS |
738 | Win9x support was added in 5.6 (Benjamin Stuhl). |
739 | ||
740 | Last updated: 28 December 1999 | |
3e3baf6d | 741 | |
5db10396 | 742 | =cut |