[perl5.git] / README.amiga

If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you
see. It is written in the POD format (see perlpod manpage) which is
specially designed to be readable as is.

=head1 NAME

perlamiga - Perl under Amiga OS

=head1 SYNOPSIS

One can read this document in the following formats:

	man perlamiga
	multiview perlamiga.guide

to list some (not all may be available simultaneously), or it may
be read I<as is>: either as F<README.amiga>, or F<pod/perlamiga.pod>.

=cut

Contents
 
 perlamiga - Perl under Amiga OS

       NAME 
       SYNOPSIS 
       DESCRIPTION 
         -  Prerequisites 
         -  Starting Perl programs under AmigaOS
         -  Shortcomings of Perl under AmigaOS
       INSTALLATION 
       Accessing documentation 
         -  Manpages 
         -  HTML 
         -  GNU info files 
         -  LaTeX docs 
       BUILD 
         -  Prerequisites 
         -  Getting the perl source 
         -  Application of the patches 
         -  Making 
         -  Testing 
         -  Installing the built perl 
       AUTHOR 
       SEE ALSO 

=head1 DESCRIPTION

=head2 Prerequisites

=over 6

=item B<Unix emulation for AmigaOS: ixemul.library>

You need the Unix emulation for AmigaOS, whose most important part is
B<ixemul.library>. For a minimum setup, get the following archives from
ftp://ftp.ninemoons.com/pub/ade/current or a mirror:

ixemul-46.0-bin.lha
ixemul-46.0-env-bin.lha
pdksh-4.9-bin.lha
ADE-misc-bin.lha

Note that there might be newer versions available by the time you read
this.

Note also that this is a minimum setup; you might want to add other
packages of B<ADE> (the I<Amiga Developers Environment>).

=item B<Version of Amiga OS>

You need at the very least AmigaOS version 2.0. Recommended is version 3.1.

=back

=head2 Starting Perl programs under AmigaOS

Start your Perl program F<foo> with arguments C<arg1 arg2 arg3> the
same way as on any other platform, by

	perl foo arg1 arg2 arg3

If you want to specify perl options C<-my_opts> to the perl itself (as
opposed to to your program), use

	perl -my_opts foo arg1 arg2 arg3

Alternately, you can try to get a replacement for the system's B<Execute>
command that honors the #!/usr/bin/perl syntax in scripts and set the s-Bit
of your scripts. Then you can invoke your scripts like under UNIX with

	foo arg1 arg2 arg3

(Note that having *nixish full path to perl F</usr/bin/perl> is not
necessary, F<perl> would be enough, but having full path would make it
easier to use your script under *nix.)

=head2 Shortcomings of Perl under AmigaOS

Perl under AmigaOS lacks some features of perl under UNIX because of
deficiencies in the UNIX-emulation, most notably:

=over 6

=item fork()

=item some features of the UNIX filesystem regarding link count and file dates

=item inplace operation (the -i switch) without backup file

=item umask() works, but the correct permissions are only set when the file is
      finally close()d
 
=back

=head1 INSTALLATION

Change to the installation directory (most probably ADE:), and
extract the binary distribution:

lha -mraxe x perl-5.003-bin.lha

or

tar xvzpf perl-5.003-bin.tgz

(Of course you need lha or tar and gunzip for this.)

For installation of the Unix emulation, read the appropriate docs.

=head1 Accessing documentation

=head2 Manpages

If you have C<man> installed on your system, and you installed perl
manpages, use something like this:

	man perlfunc
	man less
	man ExtUtils.MakeMaker

to access documentation for different components of Perl. Start with

	man perl

Note: You have to modify your man.conf file to search for manpages
in the /ade/lib/perl5/man/man3 directory, or the man pages for the
perl library will not be found. 

Note that dot (F<.>) is used as a package separator for documentation
for packages, and as usual, sometimes you need to give the section - C<3>
above - to avoid shadowing by the I<less(1) manpage>.


=head2 B<HTML>

If you have some WWW browser available, you can build B<HTML> docs.
Cd to directory with F<.pod> files, and do like this

	cd /ade/lib/perl5/pod
	pod2html

After this you can direct your browser the file F<perl.html> in this
directory, and go ahead with reading docs.

Alternatively you may be able to get these docs prebuilt from C<CPAN>.

=head2 B<GNU> C<info> files

Users of C<Emacs> would appreciate it very much, especially with
C<CPerl> mode loaded. You need to get latest C<pod2info> from C<CPAN>,
or, alternately, prebuilt info pages.

=head2 C<LaTeX> docs

can be constructed using C<pod2latex>.

=head1 BUILD

Here we discuss how to build Perl under AmigaOS.

=head2 Prerequisites

You need to have the latest B<ADE> (Amiga Developers Environment)
from ftp://ftp.ninemoons.com/pub/ade/current.
Also, you need a lot of free memory, probably at least 8MB.

=head2 Getting the perl source

You can either get the latest perl-for-amiga source from Ninemoons
and extract it with:

  tar xvzpf perl-5.004-src.tgz

or get the official source from CPAN:

  http://www.perl.com/CPAN/src/5.0

Extract it like this

  tar xvzpf perl5.004.tar.gz

You will see a message about errors while extracting F<Configure>. This
is normal and expected. (There is a conflict with a similarly-named file
F<configure>, but it causes no harm.)

=head2 Making

  sh configure.gnu --prefix=/ade

Now

  make

=head2 Testing

Now run

  make test

Some tests will be skipped because they need the fork() function:

F<io/pipe.t>, F<op/fork.t>, F<lib/filehand.t>, F<lib/open2.t>, F<lib/open3.t>, 
F<lib/io_pipe.t>, F<lib/io_sock.t>

=head2 Installing the built perl

Run

  make install

=head1 AUTHOR

Norbert Pueschel, pueschel@imsdd.meb.uni-bonn.de

=head1 SEE ALSO

perl(1).

=cut
Commit	Line	Data
0a753a76	1	If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you
	2	see. It is written in the POD format (see perlpod manpage) which is
	3	specially designed to be readable as is.
	4
	5	=head1 NAME
	6
	7	perlamiga - Perl under Amiga OS
	8
	9	=head1 SYNOPSIS
	10
	11	One can read this document in the following formats:
	12
	13	man perlamiga
	14	multiview perlamiga.guide
	15
	16	to list some (not all may be available simultaneously), or it may
	17	be read I<as is>: either as F<README.amiga>, or F<pod/perlamiga.pod>.
	18
	19	=cut
	20
	21	Contents
	22
	23	perlamiga - Perl under Amiga OS
	24
	25	NAME
	26	SYNOPSIS
	27	DESCRIPTION
	28	- Prerequisites
	29	- Starting Perl programs under AmigaOS
b971f6e4	30	- Shortcomings of Perl under AmigaOS
0a753a76	31	INSTALLATION
	32	Accessing documentation
	33	- Manpages
	34	- HTML
	35	- GNU info files
	36	- LaTeX docs
	37	BUILD
	38	- Prerequisites
	39	- Getting the perl source
	40	- Application of the patches
	41	- Making
	42	- Testing
	43	- Installing the built perl
	44	AUTHOR
	45	SEE ALSO
	46
	47	=head1 DESCRIPTION
	48
	49	=head2 Prerequisites
	50
	51	=over 6
	52
	53	=item B<Unix emulation for AmigaOS: ixemul.library>
	54
	55	You need the Unix emulation for AmigaOS, whose most important part is
	56	B<ixemul.library>. For a minimum setup, get the following archives from
	57	ftp://ftp.ninemoons.com/pub/ade/current or a mirror:
	58
9f89dd86 NP	59	ixemul-46.0-bin.lha
9f89dd86 NP	60	ixemul-46.0-env-bin.lha
0a753a76	61	pdksh-4.9-bin.lha
	62	ADE-misc-bin.lha
	63
	64	Note that there might be newer versions available by the time you read
	65	this.
	66
	67	Note also that this is a minimum setup; you might want to add other
	68	packages of B<ADE> (the I<Amiga Developers Environment>).
	69
	70	=item B<Version of Amiga OS>
	71
	72	You need at the very least AmigaOS version 2.0. Recommended is version 3.1.
	73
	74	=back
	75
	76	=head2 Starting Perl programs under AmigaOS
	77
	78	Start your Perl program F<foo> with arguments C<arg1 arg2 arg3> the
	79	same way as on any other platform, by
	80
	81	perl foo arg1 arg2 arg3
	82
	83	If you want to specify perl options C<-my_opts> to the perl itself (as
	84	opposed to to your program), use
	85
	86	perl -my_opts foo arg1 arg2 arg3
	87
	88	Alternately, you can try to get a replacement for the system's B<Execute>
	89	command that honors the #!/usr/bin/perl syntax in scripts and set the s-Bit
	90	of your scripts. Then you can invoke your scripts like under UNIX with
	91
	92	foo arg1 arg2 arg3
	93
	94	(Note that having *nixish full path to perl F</usr/bin/perl> is not
	95	necessary, F<perl> would be enough, but having full path would make it
	96	easier to use your script under *nix.)
	97
b971f6e4	98	=head2 Shortcomings of Perl under AmigaOS
	99
	100	Perl under AmigaOS lacks some features of perl under UNIX because of
	101	deficiencies in the UNIX-emulation, most notably:
	102
	103	=over 6
	104
	105	=item fork()
	106
	107	=item some features of the UNIX filesystem regarding link count and file dates
	108
	109	=item inplace operation (the -i switch) without backup file
	110
	111	=item umask() works, but the correct permissions are only set when the file is
	112	finally close()d
	113
	114	=back
	115
0a753a76	116	=head1 INSTALLATION
	117
	118	Change to the installation directory (most probably ADE:), and
	119	extract the binary distribution:
	120
	121	lha -mraxe x perl-5.003-bin.lha
	122
	123	or
	124
	125	tar xvzpf perl-5.003-bin.tgz
	126
	127	(Of course you need lha or tar and gunzip for this.)
	128
	129	For installation of the Unix emulation, read the appropriate docs.
	130
	131	=head1 Accessing documentation
	132
	133	=head2 Manpages
	134
	135	If you have C<man> installed on your system, and you installed perl
	136	manpages, use something like this:
	137
	138	man perlfunc
	139	man less
	140	man ExtUtils.MakeMaker
	141
	142	to access documentation for different components of Perl. Start with
	143
	144	man perl
	145
	146	Note: You have to modify your man.conf file to search for manpages
	147	in the /ade/lib/perl5/man/man3 directory, or the man pages for the
	148	perl library will not be found.
	149
	150	Note that dot (F<.>) is used as a package separator for documentation
	151	for packages, and as usual, sometimes you need to give the section - C<3>
	152	above - to avoid shadowing by the I<less(1) manpage>.
	153
	154
	155	=head2 B<HTML>
	156
	157	If you have some WWW browser available, you can build B<HTML> docs.
	158	Cd to directory with F<.pod> files, and do like this
	159
	160	cd /ade/lib/perl5/pod
	161	pod2html
	162
	163	After this you can direct your browser the file F<perl.html> in this
	164	directory, and go ahead with reading docs.
	165
	166	Alternatively you may be able to get these docs prebuilt from C<CPAN>.
	167
	168	=head2 B<GNU> C<info> files
	169
	170	Users of C<Emacs> would appreciate it very much, especially with
	171	C<CPerl> mode loaded. You need to get latest C<pod2info> from C<CPAN>,
	172	or, alternately, prebuilt info pages.
	173
	174	=head2 C<LaTeX> docs
	175
	176	can be constructed using C<pod2latex>.
	177
	178	=head1 BUILD
	179
180	Here we discuss how to build Perl under AmigaOS.
181
182	=head2 Prerequisites
183
184	You need to have the latest B<ADE> (Amiga Developers Environment)
185	from ftp://ftp.ninemoons.com/pub/ade/current.
186	Also, you need a lot of free memory, probably at least 8MB.
187
188	=head2 Getting the perl source
189
190	You can either get the latest perl-for-amiga source from Ninemoons
191	and extract it with:
192
193	tar xvzpf perl-5.004-src.tgz
194
195	or get the official source from CPAN:
196
197	http://www.perl.com/CPAN/src/5.0
198
199	Extract it like this
200
201	tar xvzpf perl5.004.tar.gz
202
203	You will see a message about errors while extracting F<Configure>. This
204	is normal and expected. (There is a conflict with a similarly-named file
205	F<configure>, but it causes no harm.)
206
207	=head2 Making
208
209	sh configure.gnu --prefix=/ade
210
211	Now
212
213	make
214
215	=head2 Testing
216
217	Now run
218
219	make test
220
b971f6e4	221	Some tests will be skipped because they need the fork() function:
0a753a76	222
b971f6e4	223	F<io/pipe.t>, F<op/fork.t>, F<lib/filehand.t>, F<lib/open2.t>, F<lib/open3.t>,
b971f6e4	224	F<lib/io_pipe.t>, F<lib/io_sock.t>
0a753a76	225
	226	=head2 Installing the built perl
	227
	228	Run
	229
	230	make install
	231
	232	=head1 AUTHOR
	233
	234	Norbert Pueschel, pueschel@imsdd.meb.uni-bonn.de
	235
	236	=head1 SEE ALSO
	237
	238	perl(1).
	239
	240	=cut