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1 | If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you see. |
2 | It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is specially | |
3 | designed to be readable as is. | |
4 | ||
5 | =head1 NAME | |
6 | ||
7 | README.macosx - Perl under Mac OS X | |
8 | ||
9 | =head1 SYNOPSIS | |
10 | ||
11 | This document briefly describes perl under Mac OS X. | |
12 | ||
13 | ||
14 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
15 | ||
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16 | The latest Perl release (5.8.8 as of this writing) builds without changes |
17 | under Mac OS X. Under 10.3 "Panther" and newer OS versions, all self-tests | |
18 | pass, and all standard features are supported. | |
9ff7b177 | 19 | |
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20 | Earlier Mac OS X releases (10.2 "Jaguar" and older) did not include a |
21 | completely thread-safe libc, so threading is not fully supported. Also, | |
22 | earlier releases included a buggy libdb, so some of the DB_File tests | |
23 | are known to fail on those releases. | |
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24 | |
25 | ||
f7451e23 | 26 | =head2 Installation Prefix |
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27 | |
28 | The default installation location for this release uses the traditional | |
29 | UNIX directory layout under /usr/local. This is the recommended location | |
30 | for most users, and will leave the Apple-supplied Perl and its modules | |
31 | undisturbed. | |
32 | ||
33 | Using an installation prefix of '/usr' will result in a directory layout | |
34 | that mirrors that of Apple's default Perl, with core modules stored in | |
35 | '/System/Library/Perl/${version}', CPAN modules stored in | |
36 | '/Library/Perl/${version}', and the addition of | |
37 | '/Network/Library/Perl/${version}' to @INC for modules that are stored | |
38 | on a file server and used by many Macs. | |
39 | ||
40 | ||
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41 | =head2 SDK support |
42 | ||
43 | First, export the path to the SDK into the build environment: | |
44 | ||
45 | export SDK=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.3.9.sdk | |
46 | ||
47 | Use an SDK by exporting some additions to Perl's 'ccflags' and '..flags' | |
48 | config variables: | |
49 | ||
50 | ./Configure -Accflags="-nostdinc -B$SDK/usr/include/gcc \ | |
51 | -B$SDK/usr/lib/gcc -isystem$SDK/usr/include \ | |
52 | -F$SDK/System/Library/Frameworks" \ | |
53 | -Aldflags="-Wl,-syslibroot,$SDK" \ | |
54 | -de | |
55 | ||
56 | =head2 Universal Binary support | |
57 | ||
58 | To compile perl as a universal binary (built for both ppc and intel), export | |
59 | the SDK variable as above, selecting the 10.4u SDK: | |
60 | ||
61 | export SDK=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk | |
62 | ||
63 | In addition to the compiler flags used to select the SDK, also add the flags | |
64 | for creating a universal binary: | |
65 | ||
66 | ./Configure -Accflags="-arch i686 -arch ppc -nostdinc -B$SDK/usr/include/gcc \ | |
67 | -B$SDK/usr/lib/gcc -isystem$SDK/usr/include \ | |
68 | -F$SDK/System/Library/Frameworks" \ | |
69 | -Aldflags="-arch i686 -arch ppc -Wl,-syslibroot,$SDK" \ | |
70 | -de | |
71 | ||
72 | Keep in mind that these compiler and linker settings will also be used when | |
73 | building CPAN modules. For XS modules to be compiled as a universal binary, any | |
74 | libraries it links to must also be universal binaries. The system libraries that | |
75 | Apple includes with the 10.4u SDK are all universal, but user-installed libraries | |
76 | may need to be re-installed as universal binaries. | |
77 | ||
f7451e23 | 78 | =head2 libperl and Prebinding |
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79 | |
80 | Mac OS X ships with a dynamically-loaded libperl, but the default for | |
81 | this release is to compile a static libperl. The reason for this is | |
82 | pre-binding. Dynamic libraries can be pre-bound to a specific address in | |
83 | memory in order to decrease load time. To do this, one needs to be aware | |
84 | of the location and size of all previously-loaded libraries. Apple | |
85 | collects this information as part of their overall OS build process, and | |
86 | thus has easy access to it when building Perl, but ordinary users would | |
87 | need to go to a great deal of effort to obtain the information needed | |
88 | for pre-binding. | |
89 | ||
f7451e23 | 90 | You can override the default and build a shared libperl if you wish |
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91 | (S<Configure ... -Duseshrlib>), but the load time on pre-10.4 OS |
92 | releases will be greater than either the static library, or Apple's | |
f7451e23 | 93 | pre-bound dynamic library. |
9ff7b177 | 94 | |
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95 | With 10.4 "Tiger" and newer, Apple has all but eliminated the performance |
96 | penalty for non-prebound libraries. | |
9ff7b177 | 97 | |
9ff7b177 | 98 | |
e30a8c0c | 99 | =head2 Updating Apple's Perl |
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101 | In a word - don't, at least without a *very* good reason. Your scripts |
102 | can just as easily begin with "#!/usr/local/bin/perl" as with | |
103 | "#!/usr/bin/perl". Scripts supplied by Apple and other third parties as | |
104 | part of installation packages and such have generally only been tested | |
105 | with the /usr/bin/perl that's installed by Apple. | |
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107 | If you find that you do need to update the system Perl, one issue worth |
108 | keeping in mind is the question of static vs. dynamic libraries. If you | |
109 | upgrade using the default static libperl, you will find that the dynamic | |
110 | libperl supplied by Apple will not be deleted. If both libraries are | |
111 | present when an application that links against libperl is built, ld will | |
112 | link against the dynamic library by default. So, if you need to replace | |
113 | Apple's dynamic libperl with a static libperl, you need to be sure to | |
114 | delete the older dynamic library after you've installed the update. | |
ffb8d87a | 115 | |
9ff7b177 | 116 | |
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117 | =head2 Known problems |
118 | ||
119 | If you have installed extra libraries such as GDBM through Fink | |
120 | (in other words, you have libraries under F</sw/lib>), or libdlcompat | |
121 | to F</usr/local/lib>, you may need to be extra careful when running | |
122 | Configure to not to confuse Configure and Perl about which libraries | |
123 | to use. Being confused will show up for example as "dyld" errors about | |
124 | symbol problems, for example during "make test". The safest bet is to run | |
125 | Configure as | |
126 | ||
127 | Configure ... -Uloclibpth -Dlibpth=/usr/lib | |
128 | ||
129 | to make Configure look only into the system libraries. If you have some | |
130 | extra library directories that you really want to use (such as newer | |
131 | Berkeley DB libraries in pre-Panther systems), add those to the libpth: | |
132 | ||
133 | Configure ... -Uloclibpth -Dlibpth='/usr/lib /opt/lib' | |
134 | ||
135 | The default of building Perl statically may cause problems with complex | |
136 | applications like Tk: in that case consider building shared Perl | |
137 | ||
138 | Configure ... -Duseshrplib | |
139 | ||
140 | but remember that there's a startup cost to pay in that case (see above | |
141 | "libperl and Prebinding"). | |
142 | ||
80626d0c | 143 | Starting with Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4), Apple shipped broken locale files for |
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144 | the eu_ES locale (Basque-Spain). In previous releases of Perl, this resulted in |
145 | failures in the C<lib/locale> test. These failures have been supressed | |
146 | in the current release of Perl by making the test ignore the broken locale. | |
147 | If you need to use the eu_ES locale, you should contact Apple support. | |
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148 | |
149 | =head2 MacPerl | |
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150 | |
151 | Quite a bit has been written about MacPerl, the Perl distribution for | |
152 | "Classic MacOS" - that is, versions 9 and earlier of MacOS. Because it | |
153 | runs in environment that's very different from that of UNIX, many things | |
154 | are done differently in MacPerl. Modules are installed using a different | |
155 | procedure, Perl itself is built differently, path names are different, | |
156 | etc. | |
157 | ||
158 | From the perspective of a Perl programmer, Mac OS X is more like a | |
159 | traditional UNIX than Classic MacOS. If you find documentation that | |
160 | refers to a special procedure that's needed for MacOS that's drastically | |
161 | different from the instructions provided for UNIX, the MacOS | |
162 | instructions are quite often intended for MacPerl on Classic MacOS. In | |
163 | that case, the correct procedure on Mac OS X is usually to follow the | |
164 | UNIX instructions, rather than the MacPerl instructions. | |
165 | ||
166 | ||
f7451e23 | 167 | =head2 Carbon |
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168 | |
169 | MacPerl ships with a number of modules that are used to access the | |
170 | classic MacOS toolbox. Many of these modules have been updated to use | |
171 | Mac OS X's newer "Carbon" toolbox, and are available from CPAN in the | |
172 | "Mac::Carbon" module. | |
173 | ||
174 | ||
f7451e23 | 175 | =head2 Cocoa |
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176 | |
177 | There are two ways to use Cocoa from Perl. Apple's PerlObjCBridge | |
178 | module, included with Mac OS X, can be used by standalone scripts to | |
179 | access Foundation (i.e. non-GUI) classes and objects. | |
180 | ||
181 | An alternative is CamelBones, a framework that allows access to both | |
182 | Foundation and AppKit classes and objects, so that full GUI applications | |
183 | can be built in Perl. CamelBones can be found on SourceForge, at | |
184 | L<http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/camelbones/>. | |
185 | ||
186 | ||
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187 | =head1 Starting From Scratch |
188 | ||
189 | Unfortunately it is not that difficult somehow manage to break one's | |
190 | Mac OS X Perl rather severely. If all else fails and you want to | |
191 | really, B<REALLY>, start from scratch and remove even your Apple Perl | |
192 | installation (which has become corrupted somehow), the following | |
193 | instructions should do it. B<Please think twice before following | |
194 | these instructions: they are much like conducting brain surgery to | |
195 | yourself. Without anesthesia.> We will B<not> come to fix your system | |
196 | if you do this. | |
197 | ||
198 | First, get rid of the libperl.dylib: | |
199 | ||
200 | # cd /System/Library/Perl/darwin/CORE | |
201 | # rm libperl.dylib | |
202 | ||
203 | Then delete every .bundle file found anywhere in the folders: | |
204 | ||
205 | /System/Library/Perl | |
206 | /Library/Perl | |
207 | ||
208 | You can find them for example by | |
209 | ||
210 | # find /System/Library/Perl /Library/Perl -name '*.bundle' -print | |
211 | ||
e30a8c0c | 212 | After this you can either copy Perl from your operating system media |
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213 | (you will need at least the /System/Library/Perl and /usr/bin/perl), |
214 | or rebuild Perl from the source code with C<Configure -Dprefix=/usr | |
215 | -Dusershrplib> NOTE: the C<-Dprefix=/usr> to replace the system Perl | |
216 | works much better with Perl 5.8.1 and later, in Perl 5.8.0 the | |
217 | settings were not quite right. | |
218 | ||
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219 | "Pacifist" from CharlesSoft (L<http://www.charlessoft.com/>) is a nice |
220 | way to extract the Perl binaries from the OS media, without having to | |
221 | reinstall the entire OS. | |
222 | ||
6c8f3f7c | 223 | |
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224 | =head1 AUTHOR |
225 | ||
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226 | This README was written by Sherm Pendley E<lt>sherm@dot-app.orgE<gt>, |
227 | and subsequently updated by Dominic Dunlop E<lt>domo@computer.orgE<gt>. | |
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228 | The "Starting From Scratch" recipe was contributed by John Montbriand |
229 | E<lt>montbriand@apple.comE<gt>. | |
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230 | |
231 | =head1 DATE | |
232 | ||
ffb8d87a | 233 | Last modified 2005-11-07. |