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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 | ||
63f87e49 GS |
11 | These are instructions for building Perl under Windows (9x, NT and |
12 | 2000). | |
68dc0745 | 13 | |
14 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
15 | ||
3fe9a6f1 | 16 | Before you start, you should glance through the README file |
68dc0745 | 17 | found in the top-level directory where the Perl distribution |
18 | was extracted. Make sure you read and understand the terms under | |
19 | which this software is being distributed. | |
20 | ||
f7c603cb | 21 | Also make sure you read L<BUGS AND CAVEATS> below for the |
68dc0745 | 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 | ||
7bac28a0 | 29 | You may also want to look at two other options for building |
873b149f | 30 | a perl that will work on Windows NT: the README.cygwin and |
3e3baf6d TB |
31 | README.os2 files, which each give a different set of rules to build |
32 | a Perl that will work on Win32 platforms. Those two methods will | |
7bac28a0 | 33 | probably enable you to build a more Unix-compatible perl, but you |
34 | will also need to download and use various other build-time and | |
35 | run-time support software described in those files. | |
68dc0745 | 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 | |
9036c72f GS |
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 | |
5db10396 | 45 | Mingw32 with GCC version 2.95.2 or better |
9036c72f | 46 | |
5db10396 GS |
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.) | |
5aabfad6 | 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. | |
c90c0ff4 | 54 | See L<Usage Hints> below for general hints about this. |
68dc0745 | 55 | |
56 | =head2 Setting Up | |
57 | ||
58 | =over 4 | |
59 | ||
63f87e49 GS |
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 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 | ||
3e3baf6d | 81 | =item Command Shell |
68dc0745 | 82 | |
26618a56 GS |
83 | Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with NT. Some versions of the |
84 | popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause you trouble. | |
85 | If the build fails under that shell, try building again with the cmd | |
63f87e49 | 86 | shell. |
26618a56 | 87 | |
63f87e49 GS |
88 | The nmake Makefile also has known incompatibilites with the |
89 | "command.com" shell that comes with Windows 9x. You will need to | |
90 | use dmake and makefile.mk to build under Windows 9x. | |
8ec44883 GS |
91 | |
92 | The surest way to build it is on Windows NT, using the cmd shell. | |
68dc0745 | 93 | |
a8deba26 GS |
94 | Make sure the path to the build directory does not contain spaces. The |
95 | build usually works in this circumstance, but some tests will fail. | |
96 | ||
3e3baf6d TB |
97 | =item Borland C++ |
98 | ||
63f87e49 | 99 | If you are using the Borland compiler, you will need dmake. |
3e3baf6d | 100 | (The make that Borland supplies is seriously crippled, and will not |
26618a56 GS |
101 | work for MakeMaker builds.) |
102 | ||
63f87e49 | 103 | See L/"Make"> above. |
3e3baf6d TB |
104 | |
105 | =item Microsoft Visual C++ | |
68dc0745 | 106 | |
8ec44883 | 107 | The nmake that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building. |
9036c72f GS |
108 | You will need to run the VCVARS32.BAT file usually found somewhere |
109 | like C:\MSDEV4.2\BIN. This will set your build environment. | |
68dc0745 | 110 | |
26618a56 GS |
111 | You can also use dmake to build using Visual C++, provided: |
112 | you set OSRELEASE to "microsft" (or whatever the directory name | |
113 | under which the Visual C dmake configuration lives) in your environment, | |
114 | and edit win32/config.vc to change "make=nmake" into "make=dmake". The | |
115 | latter step is only essential if you want to use dmake as your default | |
116 | make for building extensions using MakeMaker. | |
3e3baf6d | 117 | |
5db10396 | 118 | =item Mingw32 with GCC |
9036c72f | 119 | |
5db10396 | 120 | GCC-2.95.2 binaries can be downloaded from: |
9036c72f GS |
121 | |
122 | ftp://ftp.xraylith.wisc.edu/pub/khan/gnu-win32/mingw32/ | |
68dc0745 | 123 | |
5db10396 | 124 | The GCC-2.95.2 bundle comes with Mingw32 libraries and headers. |
68dc0745 | 125 | |
7a1f88ac GS |
126 | Make sure you install the binaries that work with MSVCRT.DLL as indicated |
127 | in the README for the GCC bundle. You may need to set up a few environment | |
128 | variables (usually run from a batch file). | |
68dc0745 | 129 | |
63f87e49 | 130 | You also need dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it. |
ee4d903c | 131 | |
68dc0745 | 132 | =back |
133 | ||
137443ea | 134 | =head2 Building |
68dc0745 | 135 | |
136 | =over 4 | |
137 | ||
138 | =item * | |
139 | ||
68dc0745 | 140 | Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl toplevel. |
137443ea | 141 | This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with |
8ec44883 | 142 | versions of nmake that come with Visual C++, and a dmake "makefile.mk" |
9036c72f | 143 | that will work for all supported compilers. The defaults in the dmake |
63f87e49 | 144 | makefile are setup to build using the GCC compiler. |
68dc0745 | 145 | |
146 | =item * | |
147 | ||
9036c72f GS |
148 | Edit the makefile.mk (or Makefile, if using nmake) and change the values |
149 | of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. You can also enable various build | |
63f87e49 GS |
150 | flags. These are explained in the makefiles. |
151 | ||
152 | You will have to make sure CCTYPE is set correctly, and CCHOME points | |
153 | to wherever you installed your compiler. | |
154 | ||
155 | The default value for CCHOME in the makefiles for Visual C++ | |
156 | may not be correct for some versions. Make sure the default exists | |
157 | and is valid. | |
9036c72f | 158 | |
26618a56 GS |
159 | If you have either the source or a library that contains des_fcrypt(), |
160 | enable the appropriate option in the makefile. des_fcrypt() is not | |
161 | bundled with the distribution due to US Government restrictions | |
162 | on the export of cryptographic software. Nevertheless, this routine | |
58231d39 | 163 | is part of the "libdes" library (written by Eric Young) which is widely |
26618a56 GS |
164 | available worldwide, usually along with SSLeay (for example: |
165 | "ftp://fractal.mta.ca/pub/crypto/SSLeay/DES/"). Set CRYPT_SRC to the | |
166 | name of the file that implements des_fcrypt(). Alternatively, if | |
167 | you have built a library that contains des_fcrypt(), you can set | |
2d77217b GS |
168 | CRYPT_LIB to point to the library name. The location above contains |
169 | many versions of the "libdes" library, all with slightly different | |
170 | implementations of des_fcrypt(). Older versions have a single, | |
171 | self-contained file (fcrypt.c) that implements crypt(), so they may be | |
172 | easier to use. A patch against the fcrypt.c found in libdes-3.06 is | |
173 | in des_fcrypt.patch. | |
26618a56 GS |
174 | |
175 | Perl will also build without des_fcrypt(), but the crypt() builtin will | |
176 | fail at run time. | |
c90c0ff4 | 177 | |
63f87e49 | 178 | Be sure to read the instructions near the top of the makefiles carefully. |
9036c72f | 179 | |
68dc0745 | 180 | =item * |
181 | ||
9036c72f | 182 | Type "dmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make). |
68dc0745 | 183 | |
137443ea | 184 | This should build everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe, |
63f87e49 GS |
185 | perl56.dll at the perl toplevel, and various other extension dll's |
186 | under the lib\auto directory. If the build fails for any reason, make | |
187 | sure you have done the previous steps correctly. | |
156a3eb7 | 188 | |
68dc0745 | 189 | =back |
190 | ||
191 | =head2 Testing | |
192 | ||
9036c72f | 193 | Type "dmake test" (or "nmake test"). This will run most of the tests from |
63f87e49 GS |
194 | the testsuite (many tests will be skipped, but no tests should typically |
195 | fail). | |
68dc0745 | 196 | |
8b88ae92 | 197 | If some tests do fail, it may be because you are using a different command |
a8deba26 GS |
198 | shell than the native "cmd.exe", or because you are building from a path |
199 | that contains spaces. So don't do that. | |
68dc0745 | 200 | |
328c22fc GS |
201 | If you are running the tests from a emacs shell window, you may see |
202 | failures in op/stat.t. Run "dmake test-notty" in that case. | |
203 | ||
a8deba26 | 204 | If you're using the Borland compiler, you may see a failure in op/taint.t |
3e3baf6d TB |
205 | arising from the inability to find the Borland Runtime DLLs on the system |
206 | default path. You will need to copy the DLLs reported by the messages | |
207 | from where Borland chose to install it, into the Windows system directory | |
208 | (usually somewhere like C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32), and rerun the test. | |
209 | ||
210 | Please report any other failures as described under L<BUGS AND CAVEATS>. | |
68dc0745 | 211 | |
137443ea | 212 | =head2 Installation |
213 | ||
9036c72f | 214 | Type "dmake install" (or "nmake install"). This will put the newly |
26618a56 GS |
215 | built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP> points to in the |
216 | Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation under | |
9036c72f GS |
217 | C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same under |
218 | C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\lib\pod\html>. To use the Perl you just installed, | |
219 | you will need to add two components to your PATH environment variable, | |
220 | C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\bin>, and C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\bin\$ARCHNAME>. | |
221 | For example: | |
222 | ||
63f87e49 | 223 | set PATH c:\perl\5.6.0\bin;c:\perl\5.6.0\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH% |
9036c72f | 224 | |
63f87e49 GS |
225 | If you opt to comment out INST_VER and INST_ARCH in the makefiles, the |
226 | installation structure is much simpler. In that case, it will be | |
227 | sufficient to add a single entry to the path, for instance: | |
228 | ||
229 | set PATH c:\perl\bin;%PATH% | |
137443ea | 230 | |
7bac28a0 | 231 | =head2 Usage Hints |
232 | ||
233 | =over 4 | |
234 | ||
235 | =item Environment Variables | |
236 | ||
237 | The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled | |
238 | into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start | |
239 | using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable). | |
240 | ||
241 | If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB | |
242 | to a list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl | |
243 | to look for libraries. Look for descriptions of other environment | |
26618a56 GS |
244 | variables you can set in L<perlrun>. |
245 | ||
246 | You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and | |
247 | backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See L<perlrun>. | |
7bac28a0 | 248 | |
9a40db4d GS |
249 | Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain default |
250 | values if you choose to put them there. Perl attempts to read entries from | |
251 | C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> and C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>. | |
252 | Entries in the former override entries in the latter. One or more of the | |
253 | following entries (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may be set: | |
254 | ||
4ea817c6 GS |
255 | lib-$] version-specific standard library path to add to @INC |
256 | lib standard library path to add to @INC | |
257 | sitelib-$] version-specific site library path to add to @INC | |
258 | sitelib site library path to add to @INC | |
259 | vendorlib-$] version-specific vendor library path to add to @INC | |
260 | vendorlib vendor library path to add to @INC | |
9a40db4d GS |
261 | PERL* fallback for all %ENV lookups that begin with "PERL" |
262 | ||
263 | Note the C<$]> in the above is not literal. Substitute whatever version | |
4ea817c6 | 264 | of perl you want to honor that entry, e.g. C<5.6.0>. Paths must be |
9a40db4d | 265 | separated with semicolons, as usual on win32. |
7bac28a0 | 266 | |
3e3baf6d TB |
267 | =item File Globbing |
268 | ||
63f87e49 GS |
269 | By default, perl handles file globbing using the File::Glob extension, |
270 | which provides portable globbing. | |
271 | ||
272 | If you want perl to use globbing that emulates the quirks of DOS | |
273 | filename conventions, you might want to consider using File::DosGlob | |
274 | to override the internal glob() implementation. See L<File::DosGlob> for | |
dfb634a9 | 275 | details. |
3e3baf6d | 276 | |
7bac28a0 | 277 | =item Using perl from the command line |
278 | ||
279 | If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line | |
280 | shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased | |
63f87e49 | 281 | with what Windows offers by way of a command shell. |
7bac28a0 | 282 | |
283 | The crucial thing to understand about the "cmd" shell (which is | |
284 | the default on Windows NT) is that it does not do any wildcard | |
285 | expansions of command-line arguments (so wildcards need not be | |
286 | quoted). It also provides only rudimentary quoting. The only | |
287 | (useful) quote character is the double quote ("). It can be used to | |
288 | protect spaces in arguments and other special characters. The | |
289 | Windows NT documentation has almost no description of how the | |
290 | quoting rules are implemented, but here are some general observations | |
291 | based on experiments: The shell breaks arguments at spaces and | |
292 | passes them to programs in argc/argv. Doublequotes can be used | |
293 | to prevent arguments with spaces in them from being split up. | |
294 | You can put a double quote in an argument by escaping it with | |
295 | a backslash and enclosing the whole argument within double quotes. | |
296 | The backslash and the pair of double quotes surrounding the | |
297 | argument will be stripped by the shell. | |
298 | ||
299 | The file redirection characters "<", ">", and "|" cannot be quoted | |
300 | by double quotes (there are probably more such). Single quotes | |
301 | will protect those three file redirection characters, but the | |
302 | single quotes don't get stripped by the shell (just to make this | |
303 | type of quoting completely useless). The caret "^" has also | |
304 | been observed to behave as a quoting character (and doesn't get | |
305 | stripped by the shell also). | |
306 | ||
307 | Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell: | |
308 | ||
309 | This prints two doublequotes: | |
310 | ||
311 | perl -e "print '\"\"' " | |
312 | ||
313 | This does the same: | |
314 | ||
315 | perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" " | |
316 | ||
317 | This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch": | |
318 | ||
319 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch | |
320 | ||
321 | This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland): | |
322 | ||
323 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul | |
324 | ||
325 | This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch": | |
326 | ||
327 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch | |
328 | ||
7bac28a0 | 329 | This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the console: |
330 | ||
331 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less | |
332 | ||
333 | This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager: | |
334 | ||
7bac28a0 | 335 | perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less |
336 | ||
337 | This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file "blurch": | |
338 | ||
339 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less | |
340 | ||
341 | ||
63f87e49 | 342 | Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows 9x |
7bac28a0 | 343 | is left as an exercise to the reader :) |
344 | ||
345 | =item Building Extensions | |
346 | ||
347 | The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth | |
348 | of extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build. | |
63f87e49 GS |
349 | Look in http://www.cpan.org/ for more information on CPAN. |
350 | ||
351 | Note that not all of the extensions available from CPAN may work | |
352 | in the Win32 environment; you should check the information at | |
353 | http://testers.cpan.org/ before investing too much effort into | |
354 | porting modules that don't readily build. | |
7bac28a0 | 355 | |
356 | Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can | |
357 | be built, tested and installed with the standard mantra: | |
358 | ||
359 | perl Makefile.PL | |
3e3baf6d TB |
360 | $MAKE |
361 | $MAKE test | |
362 | $MAKE install | |
7bac28a0 | 363 | |
ee4d903c GS |
364 | where $MAKE is whatever 'make' program you have configured perl to |
365 | use. Use "perl -V:make" to find out what this is. Some extensions | |
366 | may not provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything, or | |
367 | fail), but most serious ones do. | |
368 | ||
369 | It is important that you use a supported 'make' program, and | |
370 | ensure Config.pm knows about it. If you don't have nmake, you can | |
371 | either get dmake from the location mentioned earlier, or get an | |
372 | old version of nmake reportedly available from: | |
373 | ||
374 | ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/MSLFILES/nmake15.exe | |
375 | ||
376 | Another option is to use the make written in Perl, available from | |
377 | CPAN: | |
378 | ||
63f87e49 | 379 | http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/NI-S/Make-0.03.tar.gz |
ee4d903c | 380 | |
63f87e49 | 381 | You may also use dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it. |
4ea817c6 | 382 | |
ee4d903c GS |
383 | Note that MakeMaker actually emits makefiles with different syntax |
384 | depending on what 'make' it thinks you are using. Therefore, it is | |
385 | important that one of the following values appears in Config.pm: | |
386 | ||
387 | make='nmake' # MakeMaker emits nmake syntax | |
388 | make='dmake' # MakeMaker emits dmake syntax | |
389 | any other value # MakeMaker emits generic make syntax | |
390 | (e.g GNU make, or Perl make) | |
391 | ||
392 | If the value doesn't match the 'make' program you want to use, | |
393 | edit Config.pm to fix it. | |
7bac28a0 | 394 | |
3e3baf6d TB |
395 | If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported |
396 | C compilers. You must make sure you have set up the environment for | |
397 | the compiler for command-line compilation. | |
7bac28a0 | 398 | |
3e3baf6d | 399 | If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for |
7bac28a0 | 400 | why it failed, and report problems to the module author. If |
401 | it looks like the extension building support is at fault, report | |
402 | that with full details of how the build failed using the perlbug | |
403 | utility. | |
404 | ||
9cde0e7f GS |
405 | =item Command-line Wildcard Expansion |
406 | ||
407 | The default command shells on DOS descendant operating systems (such | |
408 | as they are) usually do not expand wildcard arguments supplied to | |
409 | programs. They consider it the application's job to handle that. | |
410 | This is commonly achieved by linking the application (in our case, | |
411 | perl) with startup code that the C runtime libraries usually provide. | |
412 | However, doing that results in incompatible perl versions (since the | |
413 | behavior of the argv expansion code differs depending on the | |
414 | compiler, and it is even buggy on some compilers). Besides, it may | |
415 | be a source of frustration if you use such a perl binary with an | |
416 | alternate shell that *does* expand wildcards. | |
417 | ||
418 | Instead, the following solution works rather well. The nice things | |
419 | about it: 1) you can start using it right away 2) it is more powerful, | |
420 | because it will do the right thing with a pattern like */*/*.c | |
421 | 3) you can decide whether you do/don't want to use it 4) you can | |
422 | extend the method to add any customizations (or even entirely | |
423 | different kinds of wildcard expansion). | |
424 | ||
425 | C:\> copy con c:\perl\lib\Wild.pm | |
426 | # Wild.pm - emulate shell @ARGV expansion on shells that don't | |
427 | use File::DosGlob; | |
428 | @ARGV = map { | |
429 | my @g = File::DosGlob::glob($_) if /[*?]/; | |
430 | @g ? @g : $_; | |
431 | } @ARGV; | |
432 | 1; | |
433 | ^Z | |
434 | C:\> set PERL5OPT=-MWild | |
435 | C:\> perl -le "for (@ARGV) { print }" */*/perl*.c | |
436 | p4view/perl/perl.c | |
437 | p4view/perl/perlio.c | |
438 | p4view/perl/perly.c | |
439 | perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c | |
440 | perl5.005/win32/perllib.c | |
441 | perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c | |
442 | perl5.005/win32/perllib.c | |
443 | perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c | |
444 | perl5.005/win32/perllib.c | |
445 | ||
446 | Note there are two distinct steps there: 1) You'll have to create | |
447 | Wild.pm and put it in your perl lib directory. 2) You'll need to | |
448 | set the PERL5OPT environment variable. If you want argv expansion | |
449 | to be the default, just set PERL5OPT in your default startup | |
450 | environment. | |
451 | ||
452 | If you are using the Visual C compiler, you can get the C runtime's | |
453 | command line wildcard expansion built into perl binary. The resulting | |
454 | binary will always expand unquoted command lines, which may not be | |
455 | what you want if you use a shell that does that for you. The expansion | |
456 | done is also somewhat less powerful than the approach suggested above. | |
457 | ||
c90c0ff4 | 458 | =item Win32 Specific Extensions |
459 | ||
460 | A number of extensions specific to the Win32 platform are available | |
461 | from CPAN. You may find that many of these extensions are meant to | |
462 | be used under the Activeware port of Perl, which used to be the only | |
463 | native port for the Win32 platform. Since the Activeware port does not | |
464 | have adequate support for Perl's extension building tools, these | |
465 | extensions typically do not support those tools either, and therefore | |
466 | cannot be built using the generic steps shown in the previous section. | |
467 | ||
468 | To ensure smooth transitioning of existing code that uses the | |
9036c72f GS |
469 | ActiveState port, there is a bundle of Win32 extensions that contains |
470 | all of the ActiveState extensions and most other Win32 extensions from | |
c90c0ff4 | 471 | CPAN in source form, along with many added bugfixes, and with MakeMaker |
472 | support. This bundle is available at: | |
473 | ||
63f87e49 | 474 | http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/GSAR/libwin32-0.151.zip |
c90c0ff4 | 475 | |
476 | See the README in that distribution for building and installation | |
477 | instructions. Look for later versions that may be available at the | |
478 | same location. | |
479 | ||
156a3eb7 GS |
480 | =item Running Perl Scripts |
481 | ||
482 | Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to | |
483 | indicate to the OS that it should execute the file using perl. | |
484 | Win32 has no comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are | |
485 | executables. | |
486 | ||
487 | Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on | |
488 | Win32 rely on the file "extension". There are three methods | |
489 | to use this to execute perl scripts: | |
490 | ||
491 | =over 8 | |
492 | ||
493 | =item 1 | |
494 | ||
495 | There is a facility called "file extension associations" that will | |
496 | work in Windows NT 4.0. This can be manipulated via the two | |
497 | commands "assoc" and "ftype" that come standard with Windows NT | |
498 | 4.0. Type "ftype /?" for a complete example of how to set this | |
499 | up for perl scripts (Say what? You thought Windows NT wasn't | |
500 | perl-ready? :). | |
501 | ||
502 | =item 2 | |
503 | ||
504 | Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are | |
505 | reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the | |
506 | old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a | |
507 | regular batch file to the OS, may be used. The install process | |
508 | makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to wrap | |
509 | perl scripts into batch files. For example: | |
510 | ||
511 | pl2bat foo.pl | |
512 | ||
513 | will create the file "FOO.BAT". Note "pl2bat" strips any | |
514 | .pl suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file. | |
515 | ||
516 | If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that | |
517 | "pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to | |
518 | refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to make | |
519 | sure that construct works in batch files. As of this writing, | |
520 | 4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *" statement in their | |
521 | 4NT.INI file, or will need to execute "setdos /p*" in the 4DOS/NT | |
522 | startup file to enable this to work. | |
523 | ||
524 | =item 3 | |
525 | ||
526 | Using "pl2bat" has a few problems: the file name gets changed, | |
527 | so scripts that rely on C<$0> to find what they must do may not | |
528 | run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the | |
529 | original script, and so this process can be maintenance intensive | |
530 | if the originals get updated often. A different approach that | |
531 | avoids both problems is possible. | |
532 | ||
533 | A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied | |
534 | to any filename (along with the .bat suffix). For example, | |
535 | if you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is | |
536 | executed. Since you can run batch files on Win32 platforms simply | |
537 | by typing the name (without the extension), this effectively | |
538 | runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or "foo.bat". | |
539 | With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a different location | |
540 | than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is available somewhere on | |
541 | the PATH. If your scripts are on a filesystem that allows symbolic | |
542 | links, you can even avoid copying "runperl.bat". | |
543 | ||
544 | Here's a diversion: copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type | |
545 | "runperl". Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :) | |
546 | Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH | |
547 | ||
548 | =back | |
549 | ||
7bac28a0 | 550 | =item Miscellaneous Things |
551 | ||
552 | A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be | |
553 | able to use it if you have a web browser installed on your | |
554 | system. | |
555 | ||
556 | C<perldoc> is also a useful tool for browsing information contained | |
557 | in the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager | |
558 | like C<less> (recent versions of which have Win32 support). You may | |
559 | have to set the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager. | |
560 | "perldoc -f foo" will print information about the perl operator | |
561 | "foo". | |
562 | ||
563 | If you find bugs in perl, you can run C<perlbug> to create a | |
564 | bug report (you may have to send it manually if C<perlbug> cannot | |
565 | find a mailer on your system). | |
566 | ||
567 | =back | |
568 | ||
68dc0745 | 569 | =head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS |
570 | ||
63f87e49 GS |
571 | Some of the built-in functions do not act exactly as documented in |
572 | L<perlfunc>, and a few are not implemented at all. To avoid | |
573 | surprises, particularly if you have had prior exposure to Perl | |
574 | in other operating environments or if you intend to write code | |
575 | that will be portable to other environments, see L<perlport> | |
576 | for a reasonably definitive list of these differences. | |
6890e559 | 577 | |
63f87e49 GS |
578 | Not all extensions available from CPAN may build or work properly |
579 | in the Win32 environment. See L</"Building Extensions">. | |
68dc0745 | 580 | |
63f87e49 GS |
581 | Most C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not |
582 | behave as on Unix platforms. See L<perlport> for the full list. | |
68dc0745 | 583 | |
3e3baf6d | 584 | Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it |
f7c603cb GS |
585 | doesn't exactly "behave", either :). For instance, calling C<die()> |
586 | or C<exit()> from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most | |
587 | implementations of C<signal()> on Win32 are severely crippled. | |
588 | Thus, signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag | |
589 | variable in the handler. Using signals under this port should | |
590 | currently be considered unsupported. | |
68dc0745 | 591 | |
68dc0745 | 592 | Please send detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that |
593 | you may find to <F<perlbug@perl.com>>, along with the output produced | |
594 | by C<perl -V>. | |
595 | ||
596 | =head1 AUTHORS | |
597 | ||
598 | =over 4 | |
599 | ||
3e3baf6d | 600 | Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt> |
68dc0745 | 601 | |
6e238990 | 602 | Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@activestate.comE<gt> |
68dc0745 | 603 | |
3e3baf6d | 604 | Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ni-s.u-net.comE<gt> |
68dc0745 | 605 | |
606 | =back | |
607 | ||
f7c603cb GS |
608 | This document is maintained by Gurusamy Sarathy. |
609 | ||
68dc0745 | 610 | =head1 SEE ALSO |
611 | ||
612 | L<perl> | |
613 | ||
614 | =head1 HISTORY | |
615 | ||
616 | This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24, | |
617 | and borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available | |
5db10396 GS |
618 | at the time. Various people have made numerous and sundry hacks |
619 | since then. | |
68dc0745 | 620 | |
3e3baf6d TB |
621 | Borland support was added in 5.004_01 (Gurusamy Sarathy). |
622 | ||
9a40db4d GS |
623 | GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons). |
624 | ||
80252599 GS |
625 | Support for PERL_OBJECT was added in 5.005 (ActiveState Tool Corp). |
626 | ||
5db10396 | 627 | Support for fork() emulation was added in 5.6 (ActiveState Tool Corp). |
68dc0745 | 628 | |
5db10396 GS |
629 | Win9x support was added in 5.6 (Benjamin Stuhl). |
630 | ||
63f87e49 | 631 | Last updated: 13 March 2000 |
3e3baf6d | 632 | |
5db10396 | 633 | =cut |