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1If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you
2see. It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is
3specially designed to be readable as is.
4
5=head1 NAME
6
7perlwin32 - Perl under Windows
8
9=head1 SYNOPSIS
10
b906aaa5 11These are instructions for building Perl under Windows 2000 and later.
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12
13=head1 DESCRIPTION
14
15Before you start, you should glance through the README file
16found in the top-level directory to which the Perl distribution
17was extracted. Make sure you read and understand the terms under
18which this software is being distributed.
19
20Also make sure you read L<BUGS AND CAVEATS> below for the
21known limitations of this port.
22
23The INSTALL file in the perl top-level has much information that is
24only relevant to people building Perl on Unix-like systems. In
25particular, you can safely ignore any information that talks about
26"Configure".
27
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28You may also want to look at one other option for building a perl that
29will work on Windows: the README.cygwin file, which give a different
30set of rules to build a perl for Windows. This method will probably
31enable you to build a more Unix-compatible perl, but you will also
32need to download and use various other build-time and run-time support
33software described in that file.
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34
35This set of instructions is meant to describe a so-called "native"
b906aaa5 36port of Perl to the Windows platform. This includes both 32-bit and
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3764-bit Windows operating systems. The resulting Perl requires no
38additional software to run (other than what came with your operating
39system). Currently, this port is capable of using one of the
40following compilers on the Intel x86 architecture:
41
912c63ed 42 Microsoft Visual C++ version 6.0 or later
a2b08671 43 Intel C++ Compiler (experimental)
ceb0c681 44 Gcc by mingw.org gcc version 3.2 or later
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45 Gcc by mingw-w64.sf.net gcc version 4.4.3 or later
46
47Note that the last two of these are actually competing projects both
48delivering complete gcc toolchain for MS Windows:
b906aaa5 49
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50=over 4
51
52=item L<http://mingw.org>
53
54Delivers gcc toolchain targeting 32-bit Windows platform.
b906aaa5 55
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56=item L<http://mingw-w64.sf.net>
57
58Delivers gcc toolchain targeting both 64-bit Windows and 32-bit Windows
59platforms (despite the project name "mingw-w64" they are not only 64-bit
60oriented). They deliver the native gcc compilers and cross-compilers
61that are also supported by perl's makefile.
62
63=back
9baed986 64
378eeda7 65The Microsoft Visual C++ compilers are also now being given away free. They are
3e7c2d43 66available as "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" or "Visual C++ 2005-2013 Express
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67Edition" (and also as part of the ".NET Framework SDK") and are the same
68compilers that ship with "Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional" or "Visual C++
3e7c2d43 692005-2013 Professional" respectively.
7241fd28 70
fa58a56f 71This port can also be built on IA64/AMD64 using:
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72
73 Microsoft Platform SDK Nov 2001 (64-bit compiler and tools)
fa58a56f 74 MinGW64 compiler (gcc version 4.4.3 or later)
9baed986 75
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76The Windows SDK can be downloaded from L<http://www.microsoft.com/>.
77The MinGW64 compiler is available at L<http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw-w64>.
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78The latter is actually a cross-compiler targeting Win64. There's also a trimmed
79down compiler (no java, or gfortran) suitable for building perl available at:
4cef65c2 80L<http://strawberryperl.com/package/kmx/64_gcctoolchain/>
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81
82NOTE: If you're using a 32-bit compiler to build perl on a 64-bit Windows
83operating system, then you should set the WIN64 environment variable to "undef".
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84Also, the trimmed down compiler only passes tests when USE_ITHREADS *= define
85(as opposed to undef) and when the CFG *= Debug line is commented out.
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86
87This port fully supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that
88is used to build extensions to perl). Therefore, you should be
89able to build and install most extensions found in the CPAN sites.
b906aaa5 90See L<Usage Hints for Perl on Windows> below for general hints about this.
9baed986 91
b906aaa5 92=head2 Setting Up Perl on Windows
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93
94=over 4
95
96=item Make
97
98You need a "make" program to build the sources. If you are using
b906aaa5 99Visual C++ or the Windows SDK tools, nmake will work. Builds using
378eeda7 100the gcc need dmake.
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101
102dmake is a freely available make that has very nice macro features
103and parallelability.
104
105A port of dmake for Windows is available from:
106
42d76a89 107L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/dmake/>
9baed986 108
13e18e90 109Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path.
9baed986 110
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111=item Command Shell
112
8cbe99e5 113Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with Windows. Some versions of the
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114popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause you trouble.
115If the build fails under that shell, try building again with the cmd
116shell.
117
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118Make sure the path to the build directory does not contain spaces. The
119build usually works in this circumstance, but some tests will fail.
120
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121=item Microsoft Visual C++
122
123The nmake that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building.
124You will need to run the VCVARS32.BAT file, usually found somewhere
b906aaa5 125like C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\Bin.
00808b83 126This will set your build environment.
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127
128You can also use dmake to build using Visual C++; provided, however,
129you set OSRELEASE to "microsft" (or whatever the directory name
130under which the Visual C dmake configuration lives) in your environment
131and edit win32/config.vc to change "make=nmake" into "make=dmake". The
132latter step is only essential if you want to use dmake as your default
133make for building extensions using MakeMaker.
134
3e7c2d43 135=item Microsoft Visual C++ 2008-2013 Express Edition
4a3cf07b 136
3e7c2d43 137These free versions of Visual C++ 2008-2013 Professional contain the same
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138compilers and linkers that ship with the full versions, and also contain
139everything necessary to build Perl, rather than requiring a separate download
140of the Windows SDK like previous versions did.
4a3cf07b 141
2a46176f 142These packages can be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
42d76a89 143L<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>. (Providing exact
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144links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
145changing so often.)
4a3cf07b 146
3e7c2d43 147Install Visual C++ 2008-2013 Express, then setup your environment using, e.g.
4a3cf07b 148
3e7c2d43 149 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\Tools\vsvars32.bat
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150
151(assuming the default installation location was chosen).
152
153Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
3e7c2d43 154file to set CCTYPE to one of MSVC90FREE-MSVC120FREE first.
4a3cf07b 155
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156=item Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
157
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158This free version of Visual C++ 2005 Professional contains the same compiler
159and linker that ship with the full version, but doesn't contain everything
160necessary to build Perl.
161
b906aaa5 162You will also need to download the "Windows SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
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163SDK" components are required) for more header files and libraries.
164
165These packages can both be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
42d76a89 166L<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>. (Providing exact
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167links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
168changing so often.)
169
b906aaa5 170Try to obtain the latest version of the Windows SDK. Sometimes these packages
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171contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
172other OS versions too. For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
173also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
174
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175Install Visual C++ 2005 first, then the Platform SDK. Setup your environment
176as follows (assuming default installation locations were chosen):
177
4246aec1 178 SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
1c847d4b 179
4246aec1 180 SET PATH=%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\BIN;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\Tools;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\bin;C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\VCPackages;%PlatformSDKDir%\Bin
1c847d4b 181
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182 SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\INCLUDE;%PlatformSDKDir%\include
183
184 SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\LIB;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib
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185
186 SET LIBPATH=C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727
187
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188(The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on which version
189you are using. Earlier versions installed into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK",
190while the latest versions install into version-specific locations such as
191"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
192
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193Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
194file to set
195
196 CCTYPE = MSVC80FREE
197
198and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
199
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200=item Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003
201
202This free toolkit contains the same compiler and linker that ship with
1c847d4b 203Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional, but doesn't contain everything
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204necessary to build Perl.
205
206You will also need to download the "Platform SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
207SDK" components are required) for header files, libraries and rc.exe, and
208".NET Framework SDK" for more libraries and nmake.exe. Note that the latter
209(which also includes the free compiler and linker) requires the ".NET
210Framework Redistributable" to be installed first. This can be downloaded and
211installed separately, but is included in the "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" anyway.
212
213These packages can all be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
42d76a89 214L<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>. (Providing exact
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215links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
216changing so often.)
217
b906aaa5 218Try to obtain the latest version of the Windows SDK. Sometimes these packages
1b4f0359 219contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
1c847d4b 220other OS versions too. For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
1b4f0359 221also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
7241fd28 222
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223Install the Toolkit first, then the Platform SDK, then the .NET Framework SDK.
224Setup your environment as follows (assuming default installation locations
225were chosen):
226
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227 SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
228
229 SET PATH=%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin;%PlatformSDKDir%\Bin;C:\Program Files\Microsoft.NET\SDK\v1.1\Bin
230
231 SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\include;%PlatformSDKDir%\include;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\include
1c847d4b 232
4246aec1 233 SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\lib
1c847d4b 234
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235(The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on which version
236you are using. Earlier versions installed into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK",
237while the latest versions install into version-specific locations such as
238"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
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239
240Several required files will still be missing:
241
242=over 4
243
244=item *
245
246cvtres.exe is required by link.exe when using a .res file. It is actually
247installed by the .NET Framework SDK, but into a location such as the
248following:
249
250 C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322
251
4246aec1 252Copy it from there to %PlatformSDKDir%\Bin
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253
254=item *
255
256lib.exe is normally used to build libraries, but link.exe with the /lib
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257option also works, so change win32/config.vc to use it instead:
258
259Change the line reading:
260
261 ar='lib'
262
263to:
264
265 ar='link /lib'
266
267It may also be useful to create a batch file called lib.bat in
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268C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin containing:
269
270 @echo off
271 link /lib %*
272
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273for the benefit of any naughty C extension modules that you might want to build
274later which explicitly reference "lib" rather than taking their value from
275$Config{ar}.
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276
277=item *
278
279setargv.obj is required to build perlglob.exe (and perl.exe if the USE_SETARGV
280option is enabled). The Platform SDK supplies this object file in source form
4246aec1 281in %PlatformSDKDir%\src\crt. Copy setargv.c, cruntime.h and
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282internal.h from there to some temporary location and build setargv.obj using
283
284 cl.exe /c /I. /D_CRTBLD setargv.c
285
4246aec1 286Then copy setargv.obj to %PlatformSDKDir%\lib
7241fd28 287
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288Alternatively, if you don't need perlglob.exe and don't need to enable the
289USE_SETARGV option then you can safely just remove all mention of $(GLOBEXE)
290from win32/Makefile and setargv.obj won't be required anyway.
291
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292=back
293
294Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
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295file to set
296
297 CCTYPE = MSVC70FREE
298
299and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
7241fd28 300
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301=item Microsoft Platform SDK 64-bit Compiler
302
303The nmake that comes with the Platform SDK will suffice for building
304Perl. Make sure you are building within one of the "Build Environment"
305shells available after you install the Platform SDK from the Start Menu.
306
e2736246 307=item MinGW release 3 with gcc
9baed986 308
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309Perl can be compiled with gcc from MinGW release 3 and later (using gcc 3.2.x
310and later). It can be downloaded here:
9baed986 311
42d76a89 312L<http://www.mingw.org/>
7c5b6093 313
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314You also need dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
315
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316=item Intel C++ Compiler
317
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318Experimental support for using Intel C++ Compiler has been added. Edit
319win32/Makefile and pick the correct CCTYPE for the Visual C that Intel C was
320installed into. Also uncomment __ICC to enable Intel C on Visual C support.
321To set up the build enviroment, from the Start Menu run
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322IA-32 Visual Studio 20__ mode or Intel 64 Visual Studio 20__ mode as
323appropriate. Then run nmake as usually in that prompt box.
324
325Only Intel C++ Compiler v12.1 has been tested. Other versions probably will
326work.
327
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328=back
329
330=head2 Building
331
332=over 4
333
334=item *
335
336Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl toplevel.
337This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with
b906aaa5 338versions of nmake that come with Visual C++ or the Windows SDK, and
9baed986 339a dmake "makefile.mk" that will work for all supported compilers. The
00808b83 340defaults in the dmake makefile are setup to build using MinGW/gcc.
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341
342=item *
343
dbd54a9f 344Edit the makefile.mk (or Makefile, if you're using nmake) and change
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345the values of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. You can also enable various
346build flags. These are explained in the makefiles.
347
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348Note that it is generally not a good idea to try to build a perl with
349INST_DRV and INST_TOP set to a path that already exists from a previous
350build. In particular, this may cause problems with the
351lib/ExtUtils/t/Embed.t test, which attempts to build a test program and
352may end up building against the installed perl's lib/CORE directory rather
353than the one being tested.
354
dbd54a9f 355You will have to make sure that CCTYPE is set correctly and that
4cef65c2 356CCHOME points to wherever you installed your compiler.
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357
358If building with the cross-compiler provided by
359mingw-w64.sourceforge.net you'll need to uncomment the line that sets
360GCCCROSS in the makefile.mk. Do this only if it's the cross-compiler - ie
361only if the bin folder doesn't contain a gcc.exe. (The cross-compiler
362does not provide a gcc.exe, g++.exe, ar.exe, etc. Instead, all of these
363executables are prefixed with 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-'.)
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364
365The default value for CCHOME in the makefiles for Visual C++
366may not be correct for some versions. Make sure the default exists
367and is valid.
368
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369You may also need to comment out the C<DELAYLOAD = ...> line in the
370Makefile if you're using VC++ 6.0 without the latest service pack and
371the linker reports an internal error.
dbd54a9f 372
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373If you want build some core extensions statically into perl's dll, specify
374them in the STATIC_EXT macro.
375
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376NOTE: The USE_64_BIT_INT build option is not supported with the 32-bit
377Visual C++ 6.0 compiler.
378
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379Be sure to read the instructions near the top of the makefiles carefully.
380
381=item *
382
383Type "dmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make).
384
385This should build everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe,
f7cf42bb 386perl519.dll at the perl toplevel, and various other extension dll's
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387under the lib\auto directory. If the build fails for any reason, make
388sure you have done the previous steps correctly.
389
390=back
391
b906aaa5 392=head2 Testing Perl on Windows
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393
394Type "dmake test" (or "nmake test"). This will run most of the tests from
395the testsuite (many tests will be skipped).
396
b906aaa5 397There should be no test failures.
9baed986 398
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399If you build with Visual C++ 2013 then three tests currently may fail with
400Daylight Saving Time related problems: F<t/io/fs.t>,
401F<cpan/HTTP-Tiny/t/110_mirror.t> and F<lib/File.Copy.t>.
3e7c2d43 402
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403Some test failures may occur if you use a command shell other than the
404native "cmd.exe", or if you are building from a path that contains
405spaces. So don't do that.
406
407If you are running the tests from a emacs shell window, you may see
408failures in op/stat.t. Run "dmake test-notty" in that case.
409
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410If you run the tests on a FAT partition, you may see some failures for
411C<link()> related tests (I<op/write.t>, I<op/stat.t> ...). Testing on
412NTFS avoids these errors.
413
414Furthermore, you should make sure that during C<make test> you do not
415have any GNU tool packages in your path: some toolkits like Unixutils
416include some tools (C<type> for instance) which override the Windows
417ones and makes tests fail. Remove them from your path while testing to
418avoid these errors.
419
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420Please report any other failures as described under L<BUGS AND CAVEATS>.
421
b906aaa5 422=head2 Installation of Perl on Windows
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423
424Type "dmake install" (or "nmake install"). This will put the newly
425built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP> points to in the
426Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation under
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427C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same under
428C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod\html>.
9baed986 429
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430To use the Perl you just installed you will need to add a new entry to
431your PATH environment variable: C<$INST_TOP\bin>, e.g.
9baed986 432
00808b83 433 set PATH=c:\perl\bin;%PATH%
9baed986 434
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435If you opted to uncomment C<INST_VER> and C<INST_ARCH> in the makefile
436then the installation structure is a little more complicated and you will
437need to add two new PATH components instead: C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin> and
438C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin\$ARCHNAME>, e.g.
439
440 set PATH=c:\perl\5.6.0\bin;c:\perl\5.6.0\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH%
9baed986 441
b906aaa5 442=head2 Usage Hints for Perl on Windows
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443
444=over 4
445
446=item Environment Variables
447
448The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled
449into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start
450using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable).
451
452If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB
453to a list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl
454to look for libraries. Look for descriptions of other environment
455variables you can set in L<perlrun>.
456
457You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and
458backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See L<perlrun>.
459
460Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain default
461values if you choose to put them there. Perl attempts to read entries from
462C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> and C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>.
463Entries in the former override entries in the latter. One or more of the
464following entries (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may be set:
465
466 lib-$] version-specific standard library path to add to @INC
467 lib standard library path to add to @INC
468 sitelib-$] version-specific site library path to add to @INC
469 sitelib site library path to add to @INC
470 vendorlib-$] version-specific vendor library path to add to @INC
471 vendorlib vendor library path to add to @INC
472 PERL* fallback for all %ENV lookups that begin with "PERL"
473
474Note the C<$]> in the above is not literal. Substitute whatever version
475of perl you want to honor that entry, e.g. C<5.6.0>. Paths must be
b906aaa5 476separated with semicolons, as usual on Windows.
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477
478=item File Globbing
479
480By default, perl handles file globbing using the File::Glob extension,
481which provides portable globbing.
482
483If you want perl to use globbing that emulates the quirks of DOS
484filename conventions, you might want to consider using File::DosGlob
485to override the internal glob() implementation. See L<File::DosGlob> for
486details.
487
488=item Using perl from the command line
489
490If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line
491shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased
492with what Windows offers by way of a command shell.
493
494The crucial thing to understand about the Windows environment is that
495the command line you type in is processed twice before Perl sees it.
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496First, your command shell (usually CMD.EXE) preprocesses the command
497line, to handle redirection, environment variable expansion, and
498location of the executable to run. Then, the perl executable splits
499the remaining command line into individual arguments, using the
500C runtime library upon which Perl was built.
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501
502It is particularly important to note that neither the shell nor the C
503runtime do any wildcard expansions of command-line arguments (so
504wildcards need not be quoted). Also, the quoting behaviours of the
505shell and the C runtime are rudimentary at best (and may, if you are
506using a non-standard shell, be inconsistent). The only (useful) quote
507character is the double quote ("). It can be used to protect spaces
508and other special characters in arguments.
509
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510The Windows documentation describes the shell parsing rules here:
511L<http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/cmd.mspx?mfr=true>
512and the C runtime parsing rules here:
513L<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/17w5ykft%28v=VS.100%29.aspx>.
514
515Here are some further observations based on experiments: The C runtime
516breaks arguments at spaces and passes them to programs in argc/argv.
517Double quotes can be used to prevent arguments with spaces in them from
518being split up. You can put a double quote in an argument by escaping
519it with a backslash and enclosing the whole argument within double quotes.
520The backslash and the pair of double quotes surrounding the argument will
521be stripped by the C runtime.
9baed986 522
00808b83 523The file redirection characters "E<lt>", "E<gt>", and "|" can be quoted by
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524double quotes (although there are suggestions that this may not always
525be true). Single quotes are not treated as quotes by the shell or
526the C runtime, they don't get stripped by the shell (just to make
527this type of quoting completely useless). The caret "^" has also
528been observed to behave as a quoting character, but this appears
529to be a shell feature, and the caret is not stripped from the command
530line, so Perl still sees it (and the C runtime phase does not treat
531the caret as a quote character).
532
533Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell:
534
535This prints two doublequotes:
536
537 perl -e "print '\"\"' "
538
539This does the same:
540
541 perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" "
542
543This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch":
544
545 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch
546
547This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland):
548
549 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul
550
551This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch":
552
553 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch
554
555This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the console:
556
557 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less
558
559This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager:
560
561 perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less
562
563This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file "blurch":
564
565 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less
566
567
568Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows 9x
569is left as an exercise to the reader :)
570
571One particularly pernicious problem with the 4NT command shell for
8cbe99e5 572Windows is that it (nearly) always treats a % character as indicating
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573that environment variable expansion is needed. Under this shell, it is
574therefore important to always double any % characters which you want
575Perl to see (for example, for hash variables), even when they are
576quoted.
577
578=item Building Extensions
579
580The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth
581of extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build.
42d76a89 582Look in L<http://www.cpan.org/> for more information on CPAN.
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583
584Note that not all of the extensions available from CPAN may work
b906aaa5 585in the Windows environment; you should check the information at
42d76a89 586L<http://testers.cpan.org/> before investing too much effort into
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587porting modules that don't readily build.
588
589Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can
590be built, tested and installed with the standard mantra:
591
592 perl Makefile.PL
593 $MAKE
594 $MAKE test
595 $MAKE install
596
597where $MAKE is whatever 'make' program you have configured perl to
598use. Use "perl -V:make" to find out what this is. Some extensions
599may not provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything or
600fail), but most serious ones do.
601
602It is important that you use a supported 'make' program, and
603ensure Config.pm knows about it. If you don't have nmake, you can
604either get dmake from the location mentioned earlier or get an
605old version of nmake reportedly available from:
606
42d76a89 607L<http://download.microsoft.com/download/vc15/Patch/1.52/W95/EN-US/nmake15.exe>
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608
609Another option is to use the make written in Perl, available from
610CPAN.
611
42d76a89 612L<http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Make/>
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613
614You may also use dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
615
616Note that MakeMaker actually emits makefiles with different syntax
617depending on what 'make' it thinks you are using. Therefore, it is
618important that one of the following values appears in Config.pm:
619
620 make='nmake' # MakeMaker emits nmake syntax
621 make='dmake' # MakeMaker emits dmake syntax
622 any other value # MakeMaker emits generic make syntax
623 (e.g GNU make, or Perl make)
624
625If the value doesn't match the 'make' program you want to use,
626edit Config.pm to fix it.
627
628If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported
629C compilers. You must make sure you have set up the environment for
630the compiler for command-line compilation.
631
632If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for
633why it failed, and report problems to the module author. If
634it looks like the extension building support is at fault, report
635that with full details of how the build failed using the perlbug
636utility.
637
638=item Command-line Wildcard Expansion
639
640The default command shells on DOS descendant operating systems (such
641as they are) usually do not expand wildcard arguments supplied to
642programs. They consider it the application's job to handle that.
643This is commonly achieved by linking the application (in our case,
644perl) with startup code that the C runtime libraries usually provide.
645However, doing that results in incompatible perl versions (since the
646behavior of the argv expansion code differs depending on the
647compiler, and it is even buggy on some compilers). Besides, it may
648be a source of frustration if you use such a perl binary with an
649alternate shell that *does* expand wildcards.
650
651Instead, the following solution works rather well. The nice things
dbd54a9f 652about it are 1) you can start using it right away; 2) it is more
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653powerful, because it will do the right thing with a pattern like
654*/*/*.c; 3) you can decide whether you do/don't want to use it; and
dbd54a9f 6554) you can extend the method to add any customizations (or even
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656entirely different kinds of wildcard expansion).
657
658 C:\> copy con c:\perl\lib\Wild.pm
659 # Wild.pm - emulate shell @ARGV expansion on shells that don't
660 use File::DosGlob;
661 @ARGV = map {
662 my @g = File::DosGlob::glob($_) if /[*?]/;
663 @g ? @g : $_;
664 } @ARGV;
665 1;
666 ^Z
667 C:\> set PERL5OPT=-MWild
668 C:\> perl -le "for (@ARGV) { print }" */*/perl*.c
669 p4view/perl/perl.c
670 p4view/perl/perlio.c
671 p4view/perl/perly.c
672 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
673 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
674 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
675 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
676 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
677 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
678
679Note there are two distinct steps there: 1) You'll have to create
680Wild.pm and put it in your perl lib directory. 2) You'll need to
681set the PERL5OPT environment variable. If you want argv expansion
682to be the default, just set PERL5OPT in your default startup
683environment.
684
685If you are using the Visual C compiler, you can get the C runtime's
686command line wildcard expansion built into perl binary. The resulting
687binary will always expand unquoted command lines, which may not be
688what you want if you use a shell that does that for you. The expansion
689done is also somewhat less powerful than the approach suggested above.
690
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691=item Notes on 64-bit Windows
692
693Windows .NET Server supports the LLP64 data model on the Intel Itanium
694architecture.
695
696The LLP64 data model is different from the LP64 data model that is the
697norm on 64-bit Unix platforms. In the former, C<int> and C<long> are
698both 32-bit data types, while pointers are 64 bits wide. In addition,
699there is a separate 64-bit wide integral type, C<__int64>. In contrast,
700the LP64 data model that is pervasive on Unix platforms provides C<int>
701as the 32-bit type, while both the C<long> type and pointers are of
70264-bit precision. Note that both models provide for 64-bits of
703addressability.
704
70564-bit Windows running on Itanium is capable of running 32-bit x86
706binaries transparently. This means that you could use a 32-bit build
707of Perl on a 64-bit system. Given this, why would one want to build
708a 64-bit build of Perl? Here are some reasons why you would bother:
709
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710=over
711
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712=item *
713
714A 64-bit native application will run much more efficiently on
715Itanium hardware.
716
717=item *
718
719There is no 2GB limit on process size.
720
721=item *
722
723Perl automatically provides large file support when built under
72464-bit Windows.
725
726=item *
727
728Embedding Perl inside a 64-bit application.
729
730=back
731
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732=back
733
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734=head2 Running Perl Scripts
735
736Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to
737indicate to the OS that it should execute the file using perl.
b906aaa5 738Windows has no comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are
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739executables.
740
741Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on
b906aaa5 742Windows rely on the file "extension". There are three methods
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743to use this to execute perl scripts:
744
745=over 8
746
747=item 1
748
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749There is a facility called "file extension associations". This can be
750manipulated via the two commands "assoc" and "ftype" that come
751standard with Windows. Type "ftype /?" for a complete example of how
752to set this up for perl scripts (Say what? You thought Windows
753wasn't perl-ready? :).
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754
755=item 2
756
757Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are
758reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the
759old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a
760regular batch file to the OS, may be used. The install process
761makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to wrap
762perl scripts into batch files. For example:
763
764 pl2bat foo.pl
765
766will create the file "FOO.BAT". Note "pl2bat" strips any
767.pl suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file.
768
769If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that
770"pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to
771refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to make
772sure that construct works in batch files. As of this writing,
7734DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *" statement in their
7744NT.INI file or will need to execute "setdos /p*" in the 4DOS/NT
775startup file to enable this to work.
776
777=item 3
778
779Using "pl2bat" has a few problems: the file name gets changed,
780so scripts that rely on C<$0> to find what they must do may not
781run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the
782original script, and so this process can be maintenance intensive
783if the originals get updated often. A different approach that
784avoids both problems is possible.
785
786A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied
787to any filename (along with the .bat suffix). For example,
788if you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is
b906aaa5 789executed. Since you can run batch files on Windows platforms simply
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790by typing the name (without the extension), this effectively
791runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or "foo.bat".
792With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a different location
793than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is available somewhere on
794the PATH. If your scripts are on a filesystem that allows symbolic
795links, you can even avoid copying "runperl.bat".
796
797Here's a diversion: copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type
798"runperl". Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :)
799Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH
800
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801=back
802
803=head2 Miscellaneous Things
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804
805A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be
806able to use it if you have a web browser installed on your
807system.
808
809C<perldoc> is also a useful tool for browsing information contained
810in the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager
b906aaa5 811like C<less> (recent versions of which have Windows support). You may
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812have to set the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager.
813"perldoc -f foo" will print information about the perl operator
814"foo".
815
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816One common mistake when using this port with a GUI library like C<Tk>
817is assuming that Perl's normal behavior of opening a command-line
818window will go away. This isn't the case. If you want to start a copy
819of C<perl> without opening a command-line window, use the C<wperl>
820executable built during the installation process. Usage is exactly
b906aaa5 821the same as normal C<perl> on Windows, except that options like C<-h>
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822don't work (since they need a command-line window to print to).
823
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824If you find bugs in perl, you can run C<perlbug> to create a
825bug report (you may have to send it manually if C<perlbug> cannot
826find a mailer on your system).
827
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828=head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS
829
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830Norton AntiVirus interferes with the build process, particularly if
831set to "AutoProtect, All Files, when Opened". Unlike large applications
832the perl build process opens and modifies a lot of files. Having the
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833the AntiVirus scan each and every one slows build the process significantly.
834Worse, with PERLIO=stdio the build process fails with peculiar messages
dbd54a9f 835as the virus checker interacts badly with miniperl.exe writing configure
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836files (it seems to either catch file part written and treat it as suspicious,
837or virus checker may have it "locked" in a way which inhibits miniperl
dbd54a9f 838updating it). The build does complete with
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839
840 set PERLIO=perlio
841
842but that may be just luck. Other AntiVirus software may have similar issues.
843
844Some of the built-in functions do not act exactly as documented in
845L<perlfunc>, and a few are not implemented at all. To avoid
846surprises, particularly if you have had prior exposure to Perl
847in other operating environments or if you intend to write code
00808b83 848that will be portable to other environments, see L<perlport>
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849for a reasonably definitive list of these differences.
850
851Not all extensions available from CPAN may build or work properly
b906aaa5 852in the Windows environment. See L</"Building Extensions">.
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853
854Most C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not
855behave as on Unix platforms. See L<perlport> for the full list.
856
857Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it
858doesn't exactly "behave", either :). For instance, calling C<die()>
859or C<exit()> from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most
b906aaa5 860implementations of C<signal()> on Windows are severely crippled.
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861Thus, signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag
862variable in the handler. Using signals under this port should
863currently be considered unsupported.
864
dbd54a9f 865Please send detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that
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866you may find to E<lt>F<perlbug@perl.org>E<gt>, along with the output
867produced by C<perl -V>.
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869=head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
870
871The use of a camel with the topic of Perl is a trademark
872of O'Reilly and Associates, Inc. Used with permission.
873
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874=head1 AUTHORS
875
876=over 4
877
878=item Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt>
879
880=item Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@activestate.comE<gt>
881
882=item Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ing-simmons.netE<gt>
883
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884=item Jan Dubois E<lt>jand@activestate.comE<gt>
885
2a46176f 886=item Steve Hay E<lt>steve.m.hay@googlemail.comE<gt>
2bfd3252 887
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888=back
889
2bfd3252 890This document is maintained by Jan Dubois.
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891
892=head1 SEE ALSO
893
894L<perl>
895
896=head1 HISTORY
897
898This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24,
899and borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available
900at the time. Various people have made numerous and sundry hacks
901since then.
902
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903GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons).
904
905Support for PERL_OBJECT was added in 5.005 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
906
907Support for fork() emulation was added in 5.6 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
908
909Win9x support was added in 5.6 (Benjamin Stuhl).
910
911Support for 64-bit Windows added in 5.8 (ActiveState Corp).
912
3e7c2d43 913Last updated: 22 October 2013
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914
915=cut