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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 | ||
7 | perlwin32 - Perl under Win32 | |
8 | ||
9 | =head1 SYNOPSIS | |
10 | ||
11 | These are instructions for building Perl under Windows (9x, NT and | |
12 | 2000). | |
13 | ||
14 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
15 | ||
16 | Before you start, you should glance through the README file | |
17 | found in the top-level directory to which the Perl distribution | |
18 | was extracted. Make sure you read and understand the terms under | |
19 | which this software is being distributed. | |
20 | ||
21 | Also make sure you read L<BUGS AND CAVEATS> below for the | |
22 | known limitations of this port. | |
23 | ||
24 | The INSTALL file in the perl top-level has much information that is | |
25 | only relevant to people building Perl on Unix-like systems. In | |
26 | particular, you can safely ignore any information that talks about | |
27 | "Configure". | |
28 | ||
29 | You may also want to look at two other options for building | |
30 | a perl that will work on Windows NT: the README.cygwin and | |
31 | README.os2 files, each of which give a different set of rules to | |
32 | build a Perl that will work on Win32 platforms. Those two methods | |
33 | will probably enable you to build a more Unix-compatible perl, but | |
34 | you will also need to download and use various other build-time and | |
35 | run-time support software described in those files. | |
36 | ||
37 | This set of instructions is meant to describe a so-called "native" | |
38 | port of Perl to Win32 platforms. The resulting Perl requires no | |
39 | additional software to run (other than what came with your operating | |
40 | system). Currently, this port is capable of using one of the | |
41 | following compilers: | |
42 | ||
43 | Borland C++ version 5.02 or later | |
44 | Microsoft Visual C++ version 4.2 or later | |
45 | Mingw32 with GCC version 2.95.2 or better | |
46 | ||
47 | The last of these is a high quality freeware compiler. Support | |
48 | for it is still experimental. (Older versions of GCC are known | |
49 | not to work.) | |
50 | ||
51 | This port currently supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that | |
52 | is used to build extensions to perl). Therefore, you should be | |
53 | able to build and install most extensions found in the CPAN sites. | |
54 | See L<Usage Hints for Perl on Win32> below for general hints about this. | |
55 | ||
56 | =head2 Setting Up Perl on Win32 | |
57 | ||
58 | =over 4 | |
59 | ||
60 | =item Make | |
61 | ||
62 | You need a "make" program to build the sources. If you are using | |
63 | Visual C++ under Windows NT or 2000, nmake will work. All other | |
64 | builds need dmake. | |
65 | ||
66 | dmake is a freely available make that has very nice macro features | |
67 | and parallelability. | |
68 | ||
69 | A port of dmake for Windows is available from: | |
70 | ||
71 | http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/GSAR/dmake-4.1pl1-win32.zip | |
72 | ||
73 | (This is a fixed version of the original dmake sources obtained from | |
74 | http://www.wticorp.com/dmake/. As of version 4.1PL1, the original | |
75 | sources did not build as shipped and had various other problems. | |
76 | A patch is included in the above fixed version.) | |
77 | ||
78 | Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path (follow the instructions | |
79 | in the README.NOW file). | |
80 | ||
81 | There exists a minor coexistence problem with dmake and Borland C++ | |
82 | compilers. Namely, if a distribution has C files named with mixed | |
83 | case letters, they will be compiled into appropriate .obj-files named | |
84 | with all lowercase letters, and every time dmake is invoked | |
85 | to bring files up to date, it will try to recompile such files again. | |
86 | For example, Tk distribution has a lot of such files, resulting in | |
87 | needless recompiles everytime dmake is invoked. To avoid this, you | |
88 | may use the script "sync_ext.pl" after a successful build. It is | |
89 | available in the win32 subdirectory of the Perl source distribution. | |
90 | ||
91 | =item Command Shell | |
92 | ||
93 | Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with NT. Some versions of the | |
94 | popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause you trouble. | |
95 | If the build fails under that shell, try building again with the cmd | |
96 | shell. | |
97 | ||
98 | The nmake Makefile also has known incompatibilities with the | |
99 | "command.com" shell that comes with Windows 9x. You will need to | |
100 | use dmake and makefile.mk to build under Windows 9x. | |
101 | ||
102 | The surest way to build it is on Windows NT, using the cmd shell. | |
103 | ||
104 | Make sure the path to the build directory does not contain spaces. The | |
105 | build usually works in this circumstance, but some tests will fail. | |
106 | ||
107 | =item Borland C++ | |
108 | ||
109 | If you are using the Borland compiler, you will need dmake. | |
110 | (The make that Borland supplies is seriously crippled and will not | |
111 | work for MakeMaker builds.) | |
112 | ||
113 | See L</"Make"> above. | |
114 | ||
115 | =item Microsoft Visual C++ | |
116 | ||
117 | The nmake that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building. | |
118 | You will need to run the VCVARS32.BAT file, usually found somewhere | |
119 | like C:\MSDEV4.2\BIN. This will set your build environment. | |
120 | ||
121 | You can also use dmake to build using Visual C++; provided, however, | |
122 | you set OSRELEASE to "microsft" (or whatever the directory name | |
123 | under which the Visual C dmake configuration lives) in your environment | |
124 | and edit win32/config.vc to change "make=nmake" into "make=dmake". The | |
125 | latter step is only essential if you want to use dmake as your default | |
126 | make for building extensions using MakeMaker. | |
127 | ||
128 | =item Mingw32 with GCC | |
129 | ||
130 | GCC-2.95.2 binaries can be downloaded from: | |
131 | ||
132 | ftp://ftp.xraylith.wisc.edu/pub/khan/gnu-win32/mingw32/ | |
133 | ||
134 | You also need dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it. | |
135 | ||
136 | The GCC-2.95.2 bundle comes with Mingw32 libraries and headers. | |
137 | ||
138 | Make sure you install the binaries that work with MSVCRT.DLL as indicated | |
139 | in the README for the GCC bundle. You may need to set up a few environment | |
140 | variables (usually ran from a batch file). | |
141 | ||
142 | There are a couple of problems with the version of gcc-2.95.2-msvcrt.exe | |
143 | released 7 November 1999: | |
144 | ||
145 | =over | |
146 | ||
147 | =item * | |
148 | ||
149 | It left out a fix for certain command line quotes. To fix this, be sure | |
150 | to download and install the file fixes/quote-fix-msvcrt.exe from the above | |
151 | ftp location. | |
152 | ||
153 | =item * | |
154 | ||
155 | The definition of the fpos_t type in stdio.h may be wrong. If your | |
156 | stdio.h has this problem, you will see an exception when running the | |
157 | test t/lib/io_xs.t. To fix this, change the typedef for fpos_t from | |
158 | "long" to "long long" in the file i386-mingw32msvc/include/stdio.h, | |
159 | and rebuild. | |
160 | ||
161 | =back | |
162 | ||
163 | A potentially simpler to install (but probably soon-to-be-outdated) bundle | |
164 | of the above package with the mentioned fixes already applied is available | |
165 | here: | |
166 | ||
167 | http://downloads.ActiveState.com/pub/staff/gsar/gcc-2.95.2-msvcrt.zip | |
168 | ftp://ftp.ActiveState.com/pub/staff/gsar/gcc-2.95.2-msvcrt.zip | |
169 | ||
170 | =back | |
171 | ||
172 | =head2 Building | |
173 | ||
174 | =over 4 | |
175 | ||
176 | =item * | |
177 | ||
178 | Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl toplevel. | |
179 | This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with | |
180 | versions of nmake that come with Visual C++, and a dmake "makefile.mk" | |
181 | that will work for all supported compilers. The defaults in the dmake | |
182 | makefile are setup to build using the GCC compiler. | |
183 | ||
184 | =item * | |
185 | ||
186 | Edit the makefile.mk (or Makefile, if you're using nmake) and change | |
187 | the values of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. You can also enable various | |
188 | build flags. These are explained in the makefiles. | |
189 | ||
190 | You will have to make sure that CCTYPE is set correctly and that | |
191 | CCHOME points to wherever you installed your compiler. | |
192 | ||
193 | The default value for CCHOME in the makefiles for Visual C++ | |
194 | may not be correct for some versions. Make sure the default exists | |
195 | and is valid. | |
196 | ||
197 | If you have either the source or a library that contains des_fcrypt(), | |
198 | enable the appropriate option in the makefile. des_fcrypt() is not | |
199 | bundled with the distribution due to US Government restrictions | |
200 | on the export of cryptographic software. Nevertheless, this routine | |
201 | is part of the "libdes" library (written by Eric Young) which is widely | |
202 | available worldwide, usually along with SSLeay (for example, | |
203 | "ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/crypt/mirrors/dsi/libdes/"). Set CRYPT_SRC to the | |
204 | name of the file that implements des_fcrypt(). Alternatively, if | |
205 | you have built a library that contains des_fcrypt(), you can set | |
206 | CRYPT_LIB to point to the library name. The location above contains | |
207 | many versions of the "libdes" library, all with slightly different | |
208 | implementations of des_fcrypt(). Older versions have a single, | |
209 | self-contained file (fcrypt.c) that implements crypt(), so they may be | |
210 | easier to use. A patch against the fcrypt.c found in libdes-3.06 is | |
211 | in des_fcrypt.patch. | |
212 | ||
213 | An easier alternative may be to get the pre-patched and ready-to-use | |
214 | fcrypt.c that can be found here: | |
215 | ||
216 | http://downloads.ActiveState.com/pub/staff/gsar/fcrypt.c | |
217 | ftp://ftp.ActiveState.com/pub/staff/gsar/fcrypt.c | |
218 | ||
219 | Perl will also build without des_fcrypt(), but the crypt() builtin will | |
220 | fail at run time. | |
221 | ||
222 | Be sure to read the instructions near the top of the makefiles carefully. | |
223 | ||
224 | =item * | |
225 | ||
226 | Type "dmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make). | |
227 | ||
228 | This should build everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe, | |
229 | perl56.dll at the perl toplevel, and various other extension dll's | |
230 | under the lib\auto directory. If the build fails for any reason, make | |
231 | sure you have done the previous steps correctly. | |
232 | ||
233 | =back | |
234 | ||
235 | =head2 Testing Perl on Win32 | |
236 | ||
237 | Type "dmake test" (or "nmake test"). This will run most of the tests from | |
238 | the testsuite (many tests will be skipped). | |
239 | ||
240 | There should be no test failures when running under Windows NT 4.0 or | |
241 | Windows 2000. Many tests I<will> fail under Windows 9x due to the inferior | |
242 | command shell. | |
243 | ||
244 | Some test failures may occur if you use a command shell other than the | |
245 | native "cmd.exe", or if you are building from a path that contains | |
246 | spaces. So don't do that. | |
247 | ||
248 | If you are running the tests from a emacs shell window, you may see | |
249 | failures in op/stat.t. Run "dmake test-notty" in that case. | |
250 | ||
251 | If you're using the Borland compiler, you may see a failure in op/taint.t | |
252 | arising from the inability to find the Borland Runtime DLLs on the system | |
253 | default path. You will need to copy the DLLs reported by the messages | |
254 | from where Borland chose to install it, into the Windows system directory | |
255 | (usually somewhere like C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32) and rerun the test. | |
256 | ||
257 | If you're using Borland compiler versions 5.2 and below, you may run into | |
258 | problems finding the correct header files when building extensions. For | |
259 | example, building the "Tk" extension may fail because both perl and Tk | |
260 | contain a header file called "patchlevel.h". The latest Borland compiler | |
261 | (v5.5) is free of this misbehaviour, and it even supports an | |
262 | option -VI- for backward (bugward) compatibility for using the old Borland | |
263 | search algorithm to locate header files. | |
264 | ||
265 | Please report any other failures as described under L<BUGS AND CAVEATS>. | |
266 | ||
267 | =head2 Installation of Perl on Win32 | |
268 | ||
269 | Type "dmake install" (or "nmake install"). This will put the newly | |
270 | built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP> points to in the | |
271 | Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation under | |
272 | C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same under | |
273 | C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\lib\pod\html>. To use the Perl you just installed, | |
274 | you will need to add two components to your PATH environment variable, | |
275 | C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\bin> and C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\bin\$ARCHNAME>. | |
276 | For example: | |
277 | ||
278 | set PATH c:\perl\5.6.0\bin;c:\perl\5.6.0\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH% | |
279 | ||
280 | If you opt to comment out INST_VER and INST_ARCH in the makefiles, the | |
281 | installation structure is much simpler. In that case, it will be | |
282 | sufficient to add a single entry to the path, for instance: | |
283 | ||
284 | set PATH c:\perl\bin;%PATH% | |
285 | ||
286 | =head2 Usage Hints for Perl on Win32 | |
287 | ||
288 | =over 4 | |
289 | ||
290 | =item Environment Variables | |
291 | ||
292 | The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled | |
293 | into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start | |
294 | using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable). | |
295 | ||
296 | If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB | |
297 | to a list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl | |
298 | to look for libraries. Look for descriptions of other environment | |
299 | variables you can set in L<perlrun>. | |
300 | ||
301 | You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and | |
302 | backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See L<perlrun>. | |
303 | ||
304 | Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain default | |
305 | values if you choose to put them there. Perl attempts to read entries from | |
306 | C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> and C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>. | |
307 | Entries in the former override entries in the latter. One or more of the | |
308 | following entries (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may be set: | |
309 | ||
310 | lib-$] version-specific standard library path to add to @INC | |
311 | lib standard library path to add to @INC | |
312 | sitelib-$] version-specific site library path to add to @INC | |
313 | sitelib site library path to add to @INC | |
314 | vendorlib-$] version-specific vendor library path to add to @INC | |
315 | vendorlib vendor library path to add to @INC | |
316 | PERL* fallback for all %ENV lookups that begin with "PERL" | |
317 | ||
318 | Note the C<$]> in the above is not literal. Substitute whatever version | |
319 | of perl you want to honor that entry, e.g. C<5.6.0>. Paths must be | |
320 | separated with semicolons, as usual on win32. | |
321 | ||
322 | =item File Globbing | |
323 | ||
324 | By default, perl handles file globbing using the File::Glob extension, | |
325 | which provides portable globbing. | |
326 | ||
327 | If you want perl to use globbing that emulates the quirks of DOS | |
328 | filename conventions, you might want to consider using File::DosGlob | |
329 | to override the internal glob() implementation. See L<File::DosGlob> for | |
330 | details. | |
331 | ||
332 | =item Using perl from the command line | |
333 | ||
334 | If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line | |
335 | shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased | |
336 | with what Windows offers by way of a command shell. | |
337 | ||
338 | The crucial thing to understand about the Windows environment is that | |
339 | the command line you type in is processed twice before Perl sees it. | |
340 | First, your command shell (usually CMD.EXE on Windows NT, and | |
341 | COMMAND.COM on Windows 9x) preprocesses the command line, to handle | |
342 | redirection, environment variable expansion, and location of the | |
343 | executable to run. Then, the perl executable splits the remaining | |
344 | command line into individual arguments, using the C runtime library | |
345 | upon which Perl was built. | |
346 | ||
347 | It is particularly important to note that neither the shell nor the C | |
348 | runtime do any wildcard expansions of command-line arguments (so | |
349 | wildcards need not be quoted). Also, the quoting behaviours of the | |
350 | shell and the C runtime are rudimentary at best (and may, if you are | |
351 | using a non-standard shell, be inconsistent). The only (useful) quote | |
352 | character is the double quote ("). It can be used to protect spaces | |
353 | and other special characters in arguments. | |
354 | ||
355 | The Windows NT documentation has almost no description of how the | |
356 | quoting rules are implemented, but here are some general observations | |
357 | based on experiments: The C runtime breaks arguments at spaces and | |
358 | passes them to programs in argc/argv. Double quotes can be used to | |
359 | prevent arguments with spaces in them from being split up. You can | |
360 | put a double quote in an argument by escaping it with a backslash and | |
361 | enclosing the whole argument within double quotes. The backslash and | |
362 | the pair of double quotes surrounding the argument will be stripped by | |
363 | the C runtime. | |
364 | ||
365 | The file redirection characters "<", ">", and "|" can be quoted by | |
366 | double quotes (although there are suggestions that this may not always | |
367 | be true). Single quotes are not treated as quotes by the shell or | |
368 | the C runtime, they don't get stripped by the shell (just to make | |
369 | this type of quoting completely useless). The caret "^" has also | |
370 | been observed to behave as a quoting character, but this appears | |
371 | to be a shell feature, and the caret is not stripped from the command | |
372 | line, so Perl still sees it (and the C runtime phase does not treat | |
373 | the caret as a quote character). | |
374 | ||
375 | Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell: | |
376 | ||
377 | This prints two doublequotes: | |
378 | ||
379 | perl -e "print '\"\"' " | |
380 | ||
381 | This does the same: | |
382 | ||
383 | perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" " | |
384 | ||
385 | This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch": | |
386 | ||
387 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch | |
388 | ||
389 | This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland): | |
390 | ||
391 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul | |
392 | ||
393 | This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch": | |
394 | ||
395 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch | |
396 | ||
397 | This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the console: | |
398 | ||
399 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less | |
400 | ||
401 | This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager: | |
402 | ||
403 | perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less | |
404 | ||
405 | This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file "blurch": | |
406 | ||
407 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less | |
408 | ||
409 | ||
410 | Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows 9x | |
411 | is left as an exercise to the reader :) | |
412 | ||
413 | One particularly pernicious problem with the 4NT command shell for | |
414 | Windows NT is that it (nearly) always treats a % character as indicating | |
415 | that environment variable expansion is needed. Under this shell, it is | |
416 | therefore important to always double any % characters which you want | |
417 | Perl to see (for example, for hash variables), even when they are | |
418 | quoted. | |
419 | ||
420 | =item Building Extensions | |
421 | ||
422 | The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth | |
423 | of extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build. | |
424 | Look in http://www.cpan.org/ for more information on CPAN. | |
425 | ||
426 | Note that not all of the extensions available from CPAN may work | |
427 | in the Win32 environment; you should check the information at | |
428 | http://testers.cpan.org/ before investing too much effort into | |
429 | porting modules that don't readily build. | |
430 | ||
431 | Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can | |
432 | be built, tested and installed with the standard mantra: | |
433 | ||
434 | perl Makefile.PL | |
435 | $MAKE | |
436 | $MAKE test | |
437 | $MAKE install | |
438 | ||
439 | where $MAKE is whatever 'make' program you have configured perl to | |
440 | use. Use "perl -V:make" to find out what this is. Some extensions | |
441 | may not provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything or | |
442 | fail), but most serious ones do. | |
443 | ||
444 | It is important that you use a supported 'make' program, and | |
445 | ensure Config.pm knows about it. If you don't have nmake, you can | |
446 | either get dmake from the location mentioned earlier or get an | |
447 | old version of nmake reportedly available from: | |
448 | ||
449 | ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/MSLFILES/nmake15.exe | |
450 | ||
451 | Another option is to use the make written in Perl, available from | |
452 | CPAN: | |
453 | ||
454 | http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/NI-S/Make-0.03.tar.gz | |
455 | ||
456 | You may also use dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it. | |
457 | ||
458 | Note that MakeMaker actually emits makefiles with different syntax | |
459 | depending on what 'make' it thinks you are using. Therefore, it is | |
460 | important that one of the following values appears in Config.pm: | |
461 | ||
462 | make='nmake' # MakeMaker emits nmake syntax | |
463 | make='dmake' # MakeMaker emits dmake syntax | |
464 | any other value # MakeMaker emits generic make syntax | |
465 | (e.g GNU make, or Perl make) | |
466 | ||
467 | If the value doesn't match the 'make' program you want to use, | |
468 | edit Config.pm to fix it. | |
469 | ||
470 | If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported | |
471 | C compilers. You must make sure you have set up the environment for | |
472 | the compiler for command-line compilation. | |
473 | ||
474 | If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for | |
475 | why it failed, and report problems to the module author. If | |
476 | it looks like the extension building support is at fault, report | |
477 | that with full details of how the build failed using the perlbug | |
478 | utility. | |
479 | ||
480 | =item Command-line Wildcard Expansion | |
481 | ||
482 | The default command shells on DOS descendant operating systems (such | |
483 | as they are) usually do not expand wildcard arguments supplied to | |
484 | programs. They consider it the application's job to handle that. | |
485 | This is commonly achieved by linking the application (in our case, | |
486 | perl) with startup code that the C runtime libraries usually provide. | |
487 | However, doing that results in incompatible perl versions (since the | |
488 | behavior of the argv expansion code differs depending on the | |
489 | compiler, and it is even buggy on some compilers). Besides, it may | |
490 | be a source of frustration if you use such a perl binary with an | |
491 | alternate shell that *does* expand wildcards. | |
492 | ||
493 | Instead, the following solution works rather well. The nice things | |
494 | about it are 1) you can start using it right away; 2) it is more | |
495 | powerful, because it will do the right thing with a pattern like | |
496 | */*/*.c; 3) you can decide whether you do/don't want to use it; and | |
497 | 4) you can extend the method to add any customizations (or even | |
498 | entirely different kinds of wildcard expansion). | |
499 | ||
500 | C:\> copy con c:\perl\lib\Wild.pm | |
501 | # Wild.pm - emulate shell @ARGV expansion on shells that don't | |
502 | use File::DosGlob; | |
503 | @ARGV = map { | |
504 | my @g = File::DosGlob::glob($_) if /[*?]/; | |
505 | @g ? @g : $_; | |
506 | } @ARGV; | |
507 | 1; | |
508 | ^Z | |
509 | C:\> set PERL5OPT=-MWild | |
510 | C:\> perl -le "for (@ARGV) { print }" */*/perl*.c | |
511 | p4view/perl/perl.c | |
512 | p4view/perl/perlio.c | |
513 | p4view/perl/perly.c | |
514 | perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c | |
515 | perl5.005/win32/perllib.c | |
516 | perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c | |
517 | perl5.005/win32/perllib.c | |
518 | perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c | |
519 | perl5.005/win32/perllib.c | |
520 | ||
521 | Note there are two distinct steps there: 1) You'll have to create | |
522 | Wild.pm and put it in your perl lib directory. 2) You'll need to | |
523 | set the PERL5OPT environment variable. If you want argv expansion | |
524 | to be the default, just set PERL5OPT in your default startup | |
525 | environment. | |
526 | ||
527 | If you are using the Visual C compiler, you can get the C runtime's | |
528 | command line wildcard expansion built into perl binary. The resulting | |
529 | binary will always expand unquoted command lines, which may not be | |
530 | what you want if you use a shell that does that for you. The expansion | |
531 | done is also somewhat less powerful than the approach suggested above. | |
532 | ||
533 | =item Win32 Specific Extensions | |
534 | ||
535 | A number of extensions specific to the Win32 platform are available | |
536 | from CPAN. You may find that many of these extensions are meant to | |
537 | be used under the Activeware port of Perl, which used to be the only | |
538 | native port for the Win32 platform. Since the Activeware port does not | |
539 | have adequate support for Perl's extension building tools, these | |
540 | extensions typically do not support those tools either and, therefore, | |
541 | cannot be built using the generic steps shown in the previous section. | |
542 | ||
543 | To ensure smooth transitioning of existing code that uses the | |
544 | ActiveState port, there is a bundle of Win32 extensions that contains | |
545 | all of the ActiveState extensions and most other Win32 extensions from | |
546 | CPAN in source form, along with many added bugfixes, and with MakeMaker | |
547 | support. This bundle is available at: | |
548 | ||
549 | http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/GSAR/libwin32-0.151.zip | |
550 | ||
551 | See the README in that distribution for building and installation | |
552 | instructions. Look for later versions that may be available at the | |
553 | same location. | |
554 | ||
555 | =item Running Perl Scripts | |
556 | ||
557 | Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to | |
558 | indicate to the OS that it should execute the file using perl. | |
559 | Win32 has no comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are | |
560 | executables. | |
561 | ||
562 | Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on | |
563 | Win32 rely on the file "extension". There are three methods | |
564 | to use this to execute perl scripts: | |
565 | ||
566 | =over 8 | |
567 | ||
568 | =item 1 | |
569 | ||
570 | There is a facility called "file extension associations" that will | |
571 | work in Windows NT 4.0. This can be manipulated via the two | |
572 | commands "assoc" and "ftype" that come standard with Windows NT | |
573 | 4.0. Type "ftype /?" for a complete example of how to set this | |
574 | up for perl scripts (Say what? You thought Windows NT wasn't | |
575 | perl-ready? :). | |
576 | ||
577 | =item 2 | |
578 | ||
579 | Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are | |
580 | reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the | |
581 | old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a | |
582 | regular batch file to the OS, may be used. The install process | |
583 | makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to wrap | |
584 | perl scripts into batch files. For example: | |
585 | ||
586 | pl2bat foo.pl | |
587 | ||
588 | will create the file "FOO.BAT". Note "pl2bat" strips any | |
589 | .pl suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file. | |
590 | ||
591 | If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that | |
592 | "pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to | |
593 | refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to make | |
594 | sure that construct works in batch files. As of this writing, | |
595 | 4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *" statement in their | |
596 | 4NT.INI file or will need to execute "setdos /p*" in the 4DOS/NT | |
597 | startup file to enable this to work. | |
598 | ||
599 | =item 3 | |
600 | ||
601 | Using "pl2bat" has a few problems: the file name gets changed, | |
602 | so scripts that rely on C<$0> to find what they must do may not | |
603 | run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the | |
604 | original script, and so this process can be maintenance intensive | |
605 | if the originals get updated often. A different approach that | |
606 | avoids both problems is possible. | |
607 | ||
608 | A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied | |
609 | to any filename (along with the .bat suffix). For example, | |
610 | if you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is | |
611 | executed. Since you can run batch files on Win32 platforms simply | |
612 | by typing the name (without the extension), this effectively | |
613 | runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or "foo.bat". | |
614 | With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a different location | |
615 | than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is available somewhere on | |
616 | the PATH. If your scripts are on a filesystem that allows symbolic | |
617 | links, you can even avoid copying "runperl.bat". | |
618 | ||
619 | Here's a diversion: copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type | |
620 | "runperl". Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :) | |
621 | Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH | |
622 | ||
623 | =back | |
624 | ||
625 | =item Miscellaneous Things | |
626 | ||
627 | A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be | |
628 | able to use it if you have a web browser installed on your | |
629 | system. | |
630 | ||
631 | C<perldoc> is also a useful tool for browsing information contained | |
632 | in the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager | |
633 | like C<less> (recent versions of which have Win32 support). You may | |
634 | have to set the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager. | |
635 | "perldoc -f foo" will print information about the perl operator | |
636 | "foo". | |
637 | ||
638 | If you find bugs in perl, you can run C<perlbug> to create a | |
639 | bug report (you may have to send it manually if C<perlbug> cannot | |
640 | find a mailer on your system). | |
641 | ||
642 | =back | |
643 | ||
644 | =head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS | |
645 | ||
646 | Norton AntiVirus interferes with the build process, particularly if | |
647 | set to "AutoProtect, All Files, when Opened". Unlike large applications | |
648 | the perl build process opens and modifies a lot of files. Having the | |
649 | the AntiVirus scan each and every one slows build the process significantly. | |
650 | Worse, with PERLIO=stdio the build process fails with peculiar messages | |
651 | as the virus checker interacts badly with miniperl.exe writing configure | |
652 | files (it seems to either catch file part written and treat it as suspicious, | |
653 | or virus checker may have it "locked" in a way which inhibits miniperl | |
654 | updating it). The build does complete with | |
655 | ||
656 | set PERLIO=perlio | |
657 | ||
658 | but that may be just luck. Other AntiVirus software may have similar issues. | |
659 | ||
660 | Some of the built-in functions do not act exactly as documented in | |
661 | L<perlfunc>, and a few are not implemented at all. To avoid | |
662 | surprises, particularly if you have had prior exposure to Perl | |
663 | in other operating environments or if you intend to write code | |
664 | that will be portable to other environments. See L<perlport> | |
665 | for a reasonably definitive list of these differences. | |
666 | ||
667 | Not all extensions available from CPAN may build or work properly | |
668 | in the Win32 environment. See L</"Building Extensions">. | |
669 | ||
670 | Most C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not | |
671 | behave as on Unix platforms. See L<perlport> for the full list. | |
672 | ||
673 | Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it | |
674 | doesn't exactly "behave", either :). For instance, calling C<die()> | |
675 | or C<exit()> from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most | |
676 | implementations of C<signal()> on Win32 are severely crippled. | |
677 | Thus, signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag | |
678 | variable in the handler. Using signals under this port should | |
679 | currently be considered unsupported. | |
680 | ||
681 | Please send detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that | |
682 | you may find to <F<perlbug@perl.com>>, along with the output produced | |
683 | by C<perl -V>. | |
684 | ||
685 | =head1 AUTHORS | |
686 | ||
687 | =over 4 | |
688 | ||
689 | =item Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt> | |
690 | ||
691 | =item Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@activestate.comE<gt> | |
692 | ||
693 | =item Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ing-simmons.netE<gt> | |
694 | ||
695 | =back | |
696 | ||
697 | This document is maintained by Gurusamy Sarathy. | |
698 | ||
699 | =head1 SEE ALSO | |
700 | ||
701 | L<perl> | |
702 | ||
703 | =head1 HISTORY | |
704 | ||
705 | This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24, | |
706 | and borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available | |
707 | at the time. Various people have made numerous and sundry hacks | |
708 | since then. | |
709 | ||
710 | Borland support was added in 5.004_01 (Gurusamy Sarathy). | |
711 | ||
712 | GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons). | |
713 | ||
714 | Support for PERL_OBJECT was added in 5.005 (ActiveState Tool Corp). | |
715 | ||
716 | Support for fork() emulation was added in 5.6 (ActiveState Tool Corp). | |
717 | ||
718 | Win9x support was added in 5.6 (Benjamin Stuhl). | |
719 | ||
720 | Last updated: 1 April 2001 | |
721 | ||
722 | =cut |