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RE: perlhack.pod confused about POPSTACK
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1If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you see.
2It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is specially
3designed to be readable as is.
4
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5=head1 NAME
6
7Install - Build and Installation guide for perl5.
8
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9=head1 Reporting Problems
10
11Wherever possible please use the perlbug tool supplied with this Perl
12to report problems, as it automatically includes summary configuration
13information about your perl, which may help us track down problems far
14more quickly. But first you should read the advice in this file,
15carefully re-read the error message and check the relevant manual pages
16on your system, as these may help you find an immediate solution. If
17you are not sure whether what you are seeing is a bug, you can send a
18message describing the problem to the comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup to
19get advice.
20
21The perlbug tool is installed along with perl, so after you have
22completed C<make install> it should be possible to run it with plain
23C<perlbug>. If the install fails, or you want to report problems with
24C<make test> without installing perl, then you can use C<make nok> to
25run perlbug to report the problem, or run it by hand from this source
26directory with C<./perl -Ilib utils/perlbug>
27
28If the build fails too early to run perlbug uninstalled, then please
29B<run> the C<./myconfig> shell script, and mail its output along with
30an accurate description of your problem to perlbug@perl.org
31
ce80d64e 32If Configure itself fails, and does not generate a config.sh file
40dd8381 33(needed to run C<./myconfig>), then please mail perlbug@perl.org the
ce80d64e 34description of how Configure fails along with details of your system
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35- for example the output from running C<uname -a>
36
37Please try to make your message brief but clear. Brief, clear bug
38reports tend to get answered more quickly. Please don't worry if your
39written English is not great - what matters is how well you describe
40the important technical details of the problem you have encountered,
41not whether your grammar and spelling is flawless.
42
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43Trim out unnecessary information. Do not include large files (such as
44config.sh or a complete Configure or make log) unless absolutely
45necessary. Do not include a complete transcript of your build
46session. Just include the failing commands, the relevant error
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47messages, and whatever preceding commands are necessary to give the
48appropriate context. Plain text should usually be sufficient--fancy
49attachments or encodings may actually reduce the number of people who
50read your message. Your message will get relayed to over 400
51subscribers around the world so please try to keep it brief but clear.
52
53If you are unsure what makes a good bug report please read "How to
54report Bugs Effectively" by Simon Tatham:
55http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html
56
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57=head1 SYNOPSIS
58
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59First, make sure you have an up-to-date version of Perl. If you
60didn't get your Perl source from CPAN, check the latest version at
61http://www.cpan.org/src/. Perl uses a version scheme where even-numbered
62subreleases (like 5.6.x and 5.8.x) are stable maintenance releases and
63odd-numbered subreleases (like 5.7.x and 5.9.x) are unstable
64development releases. Development releases should not be used in
65production environments. Fixes and new features are first carefully
66tested in development releases and only if they prove themselves to be
67worthy will they be migrated to the maintenance releases.
3ce0d271 68
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69The basic steps to build and install perl5 on a Unix system with all
70the defaults are:
8e07c86e 71
dc45a647 72 rm -f config.sh Policy.sh
491517e0 73 sh Configure -de
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74 make
75 make test
76 make install
36477c24 77
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78Each of these is explained in further detail below.
79
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80The above commands will install Perl to /usr/local (or some other
81platform-specific directory -- see the appropriate file in hints/.)
ce80d64e 82If that's not okay with you, can run Configure interactively and use
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83
84 rm -f config.sh Policy.sh
85 sh Configure
86 make
87 make test
88 make install
89
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90 # You may also wish to add these:
91 (cd /usr/include && h2ph *.h sys/*.h)
92 (installhtml --help)
93 (cd pod && make tex && <process the latex files>)
adbebc0b 94
ce80d64e 95or you can use some of the Configure options described below.
7f678428 96
8d74ce1c 97If you have problems, corrections, or questions, please see
40dd8381 98L<"Reporting Problems"> above.
8d74ce1c 99
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100For information on what's new in this release, see the
101pod/perldelta.pod file. For more detailed information about specific
102changes, see the Changes file.
c3edaffb 103
1ec51d55 104=head1 DESCRIPTION
edb1cbcb 105
c3edaffb 106This document is written in pod format as an easy way to indicate its
107structure. The pod format is described in pod/perlpod.pod, but you can
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108read it as is with any pager or editor. Headings and items are marked
109by lines beginning with '='. The other mark-up used is
110
111 B<text> embolden text, used for switches, programs or commands
112 C<code> literal code
113 L<name> A link (cross reference) to name
ce80d64e 114 F<file> A filename
1ec51d55 115
c42e3e15 116Although most of the defaults are probably fine for most users,
ce80d64e 117you should probably at least skim through this document before
1ec51d55 118proceeding.
c3edaffb 119
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120In addition to this file, check if there is a README file specific to
121your operating system, since it may provide additional or different
122instructions for building Perl. If there is a hint file for your
123system (in the hints/ directory) you should also read that hint file
124for even more information. (Unixware users should use the svr4.sh or
125the svr5.sh hint file.)
c42e3e15 126
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127For additional information about porting Perl, see the section on
128L<"Porting information"> below, and look at the files in the Porting/
129directory.
d56c5707 130
ce80d64e 131=head1 PRELIMINARIES
c42e3e15 132
ce80d64e 133=head2 Changes and Incompatibilities
c42e3e15 134
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135Please see pod/perldelta.pod for a description of the changes and
136potential incompatibilities introduced with this release. A few of
137the most important issues are listed below, but you should refer
138to pod/perldelta.pod for more detailed information.
c42e3e15 139
ce80d64e 140=head3 WARNING: This version is not binary compatible with releases of
9a664500 141Perl prior to 5.9.0.
1b1c1ae2 142
cc65bb49 143If you have built extensions (i.e. modules that include C code)
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144using an earlier version of Perl, you will need to rebuild and reinstall
145those extensions.
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146
147Pure perl modules without XS or C code should continue to work fine
148without reinstallation. See the discussions below on
149L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> and
fe23a901 150L<"Upgrading from 5.005 or 5.6 to 5.8.0"> for more details.
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151
152The standard extensions supplied with Perl will be handled automatically.
153
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154On a related issue, old modules may possibly be affected by the changes
155in the Perl language in the current release. Please see
156pod/perldelta.pod for a description of what's changed. See your
157installed copy of the perllocal.pod file for a (possibly incomplete)
158list of locally installed modules. Also see CPAN::autobundle for one
159way to make a "bundle" of your currently installed modules.
16dc217a 160
ce80d64e 161=head2 Space Requirements
eed2e782 162
9a664500 163The complete perl5 source tree takes up about 60 MB of disk space.
8756f06c 164After completing make, it takes up roughly 100 MB, though the actual
d6baa268 165total is likely to be quite system-dependent. The installation
8756f06c 166directories need something on the order of 45 MB, though again that
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167value is system-dependent. A perl build with debug symbols and
168-DDEBUGGING will require something on the order of 10 MB extra.
8e07c86e 169
aa689395 170=head1 Start with a Fresh Distribution
8e07c86e 171
edb1cbcb 172If you have built perl before, you should clean out the build directory
173with the command
174
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175 make distclean
176
177or
178
edb1cbcb 179 make realclean
c3edaffb 180
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181The only difference between the two is that make distclean also removes
182your old config.sh and Policy.sh files.
183
184The results of a Configure run are stored in the config.sh and Policy.sh
185files. If you are upgrading from a previous version of perl, or if you
186change systems or compilers or make other significant changes, or if
187you are experiencing difficulties building perl, you should probably
d6baa268 188not re-use your old config.sh. Simply remove it
8e07c86e 189
d6baa268 190 rm -f config.sh
4633a7c4 191
e57fd563 192If you wish to use your old config.sh, be especially attentive to the
193version and architecture-specific questions and answers. For example,
194the default directory for architecture-dependent library modules
195includes the version name. By default, Configure will reuse your old
196name (e.g. /opt/perl/lib/i86pc-solaris/5.003) even if you're running
197Configure for a different version, e.g. 5.004. Yes, Configure should
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198probably check and correct for this, but it doesn't. Similarly, if you
199used a shared libperl.so (see below) with version numbers, you will
200probably want to adjust them as well.
e57fd563 201
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202Also, be careful to check your architecture name. For example, some
203Linux distributions use i386, while others may use i486. If you build
204it yourself, Configure uses the output of the arch command, which
205might be i586 or i686 instead. If you pick up a precompiled binary, or
206compile extensions on different systems, they might not all agree on
207the architecture name.
e57fd563 208
209In short, if you wish to use your old config.sh, I recommend running
210Configure interactively rather than blindly accepting the defaults.
8e07c86e 211
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212If your reason to reuse your old config.sh is to save your particular
213installation choices, then you can probably achieve the same effect by
214using the Policy.sh file. See the section on L<"Site-wide Policy
215settings"> below. If you wish to start with a fresh distribution, you
216also need to remove any old Policy.sh files you may have with
217
218 rm -f Policy.sh
dc45a647 219
aa689395 220=head1 Run Configure
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221
222Configure will figure out various things about your system. Some
223things Configure will figure out for itself, other things it will ask
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224you about. To accept the default, just press RETURN. The default is
225almost always okay. It is normal for some things to be "NOT found",
226since Configure often searches for many different ways of performing
227the same function.
228
ce80d64e 229At any Configure prompt, you can type &-d and Configure will use the
d6baa268 230defaults from then on.
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231
232After it runs, Configure will perform variable substitution on all the
1ec51d55 233*.SH files and offer to run make depend.
8e07c86e 234
ce80d64e 235=head2 Common Configure options
844fc9f4 236
ce80d64e 237Configure supports a number of useful options. Run
844fc9f4 238
ce80d64e 239 Configure -h
d6baa268 240
ce80d64e 241to get a listing. See the Porting/Glossary file for a complete list of
fb73857a 242Configure variables you can set and their definitions.
243
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244=over 4
245
246=item gcc
247
248To compile with gcc you should run
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249
250 sh Configure -Dcc=gcc
251
252This is the preferred way to specify gcc (or another alternative
253compiler) so that the hints files can set appropriate defaults.
254
d6baa268 255=item Installation prefix
4633a7c4 256
8e07c86e 257By default, for most systems, perl will be installed in
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258/usr/local/{bin, lib, man}. (See L<"Installation Directories">
259and L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> below for
260further details.)
261
262You can specify a different 'prefix' for the default installation
ce80d64e 263directory when Configure prompts you, or by using the Configure command
8d74ce1c 264line option -Dprefix='/some/directory', e.g.
8e07c86e 265
25f94b33 266 sh Configure -Dprefix=/opt/perl
4633a7c4 267
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268If your prefix contains the string "perl", then the suggested
269directory structure is simplified. For example, if you use
270prefix=/opt/perl, then Configure will suggest /opt/perl/lib instead of
271/opt/perl/lib/perl5/. Again, see L<"Installation Directories"> below
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272for more details. Do not include a trailing slash, (i.e. /opt/perl/)
273or you may experience odd test failures.
8e07c86e 274
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275NOTE: You must not specify an installation directory that is the same
276as or below your perl source directory. If you do, installperl will
277attempt infinite recursion.
84902520 278
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279=item /usr/bin/perl
280
281It may seem obvious, but Perl is useful only when users can easily
282find it. It's often a good idea to have both /usr/bin/perl and
dd64f1c3 283/usr/local/bin/perl be symlinks to the actual binary. Be especially
d6baa268 284careful, however, not to overwrite a version of perl supplied by your
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285vendor unless you are sure you know what you are doing. If you insist
286on replacing your vendor's perl, useful information on how it was
287configured may be found with
288
289 perl -V:config_args
290
291(Check the output carefully, however, since this doesn't preserve
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292spaces in arguments to Configure. For that, you have to look carefully
293at config_arg1, config_arg2, etc.)
d6baa268 294
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295By default, Configure will not try to link /usr/bin/perl to the current
296version of perl. You can turn on that behavior by running
d6baa268 297
7d56c962 298 Configure -Dinstallusrbinperl
d6baa268 299
7d56c962 300or by answering 'yes' to the appropriate Configure prompt.
d6baa268 301
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302In any case, system administrators are strongly encouraged to put
303(symlinks to) perl and its accompanying utilities, such as perldoc,
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304into a directory typically found along a user's PATH, or in another
305obvious and convenient place.
306
ce80d64e 307=item Building a development release.
04d420f9 308
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309For development releases (odd subreleases, like 5.9.x) if you want to
310use Configure -d, you will also need to supply -Dusedevel to Configure,
311because the default answer to the question "do you really want to
312Configure a development version?" is "no". The -Dusedevel skips that
313sanity check.
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314
315=back
8e07c86e 316
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317If you are willing to accept all the defaults, and you want terse
318output, you can run
319
320 sh Configure -des
321
ce80d64e 322For example for my Solaris/x86 system, I usually use
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323
324 sh Configure -Dprefix=/opt/perl -Doptimize='-xpentium -xO4' -des
325
ce80d64e 326=head2 Altering config.sh variables for C compiler switches etc.
46bb10fb 327
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328For most users, most of the Configure defaults are fine, or can easily
329be set on the Configure command line. However, if Configure doesn't
330have an option to do what you want, you can change Configure variables
331after the platform hints have been run by using Configure's -A switch.
332For example, here's how to add a couple of extra flags to C compiler
333invocations:
46bb10fb 334
2db3864f 335 sh Configure -Accflags="-DPERL_EXTERNAL_GLOB -DPERL_POLLUTE_MALLOC"
46bb10fb 336
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337To clarify, those ccflags values are not Configure options; if passed to
338Configure directly, they won't do anything useful (that will define a config.sh
339variable, but without taking any action based upon it). When passed to the
340compiler, those flags will activate #ifdefd code.
341
ce80d64e 342For more help on Configure switches, run
46bb10fb 343
ce80d64e 344 sh Configure -h
46bb10fb 345
ce80d64e 346=head2 Major Configure-time Build Options
46bb10fb 347
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348There are several different ways to Configure and build perl for your
349system. For most users, the defaults are sensible and will work.
350Some users, however, may wish to further customize perl. Here are
351some of the main things you can change.
46bb10fb 352
ce80d64e 353=head3 Threads
cc65bb49 354
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355On some platforms, perl can be compiled with support for threads. To
356enable this, run
4633a7c4 357
ce80d64e 358 sh Configure -Dusethreads
4633a7c4 359
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360Currently, you need to specify -Dusethreads on the Configure command
361line so that the hint files can make appropriate adjustments.
cc65bb49 362
ce80d64e 363The default is to compile without thread support.
cc65bb49 364
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365Perl has two different internal threads implementations. The current
366model (available internally since 5.6, and as a user-level module since
3675.8) is called interpreter-based implementation (ithreads), with one
368interpreter per thread, and explicit sharing of data. The 5.005
369version (5005threads) is considered obsolete, buggy, and unmaintained.
d6baa268 370
ce80d64e 371By default, Configure selects ithreads if -Dusethreads is specified.
d6baa268 372
ce80d64e 373However, if you insist, you can select the unsupported old 5005threads behavior
d6baa268 374
ce80d64e 375 sh Configure -Dusethreads -Duse5005threads
d6baa268 376
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377The 'threads' module is for use with the ithreads implementation. The
378'Thread' module offers an interface to either 5005threads or ithreads
379(whichever has been configured).
d6baa268 380
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381When using threads, perl uses a dynamically-sized buffer for some of
382the thread-safe library calls, such as those in the getpw*() family.
383This buffer starts small, but it will keep growing until the result
384fits. To get a fixed upper limit, you should compile Perl with
385PERL_REENTRANT_MAXSIZE defined to be the number of bytes you want. One
386way to do this is to run Configure with
387C<-Accflags=-DPERL_REENTRANT_MAXSIZE=65536>
d6baa268 388
ce80d64e 389=head3 Large file support.
b367e8b0 390
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391Since Perl 5.6.0, Perl has supported large files (files larger than
3922 gigabytes), and in many common platforms like Linux or Solaris this
393support is on by default.
d6baa268 394
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395This is both good and bad. It is good in that you can use large files,
396seek(), stat(), and -s them. It is bad in that if you are interfacing Perl
397using some extension, the components you are connecting to must also
398be large file aware: if Perl thinks files can be large but the other
399parts of the software puzzle do not understand the concept, bad things
400will happen. One popular extension suffering from this ailment is the
401Apache extension mod_perl.
d6baa268 402
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403There's also one known limitation with the current large files
404implementation: unless you also have 64-bit integers (see the next
405section), you cannot use the printf/sprintf non-decimal integer formats
406like C<%x> to print filesizes. You can use C<%d>, though.
d6baa268 407
ce80d64e 408=head3 64 bit support.
d6baa268 409
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410If your platform does not have run natively at 64 bits, but can
411simulate them with compiler flags and/or C<long long> or C<int64_t>,
412you can build a perl that uses 64 bits.
d6baa268 413
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414There are actually two modes of 64-bitness: the first one is achieved
415using Configure -Duse64bitint and the second one using Configure
416-Duse64bitall. The difference is that the first one is minimal and
417the second one maximal. The first works in more places than the second.
d6baa268 418
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419The C<use64bitint> option does only as much as is required to get
42064-bit integers into Perl (this may mean, for example, using "long
421longs") while your memory may still be limited to 2 gigabytes (because
422your pointers could still be 32-bit). Note that the name C<64bitint>
423does not imply that your C compiler will be using 64-bit C<int>s (it
424might, but it doesn't have to). The C<use64bitint> simply means that
425you will be able to have 64 bit-wide scalar values.
d6baa268 426
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427The C<use64bitall> option goes all the way by attempting to switch
428integers (if it can), longs (and pointers) to being 64-bit. This may
429create an even more binary incompatible Perl than -Duse64bitint: the
430resulting executable may not run at all in a 32-bit box, or you may
431have to reboot/reconfigure/rebuild your operating system to be 64-bit
432aware.
d6baa268 433
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434Natively 64-bit systems like Alpha and Cray need neither -Duse64bitint
435nor -Duse64bitall.
d6baa268 436
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437 NOTE: 64-bit support is still experimental on most platforms.
438 Existing support only covers the LP64 data model. In particular, the
439 LLP64 data model is not yet supported. 64-bit libraries and system
440 APIs on many platforms have not stabilized--your mileage may vary.
d6baa268 441
ce80d64e 442=head3 Long doubles
d6baa268 443
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444In some systems you may be able to use long doubles to enhance the
445range and precision of your double precision floating point numbers
446(that is, Perl's numbers). Use Configure -Duselongdouble to enable
447this support (if it is available).
d6baa268 448
ce80d64e 449=head3 "more bits"
b367e8b0 450
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451You can "Configure -Dusemorebits" to turn on both the 64-bit support
452and the long double support.
b367e8b0 453
ce80d64e 454=head3 Selecting File IO mechanisms
d6baa268 455
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456Executive summary: as of Perl 5.8, you should use the default "PerlIO"
457as the IO mechanism unless you have a good reason not to.
273cf8d1 458
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459In more detail: previous versions of perl used the standard IO
460mechanisms as defined in stdio.h. Versions 5.003_02 and later of perl
461introduced alternate IO mechanisms via a "PerlIO" abstraction, but up
462until and including Perl 5.6, the stdio mechanism was still the default
463and the only supported mechanism.
d6baa268 464
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465Starting from Perl 5.8, the default mechanism is to use the PerlIO
466abstraction, because it allows better control of I/O mechanisms,
467instead of having to work with (often, work around) vendors' I/O
468implementations.
46bb10fb 469
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470This PerlIO abstraction can be (but again, unless you know what you
471are doing, should not be) disabled either on the Configure command
472line with
46bb10fb 473
6d5328bc 474 sh Configure -Uuseperlio
46bb10fb 475
6d5328bc 476or interactively at the appropriate Configure prompt.
46bb10fb 477
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478With the PerlIO abstraction layer, there is another possibility for
479the underlying IO calls, AT&T's "sfio". This has superior performance
480to stdio.h in many cases, and is extensible by the use of "discipline"
481modules ("Native" PerlIO has them too). Sfio currently only builds on
482a subset of the UNIX platforms perl supports. Because the data
483structures are completely different from stdio, perl extension modules
484or external libraries may not work. This configuration exists to
485allow these issues to be worked on.
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486
487This option requires the 'sfio' package to have been built and installed.
1b9c9cf5 488The latest sfio is available from http://www.research.att.com/sw/tools/sfio/
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489
490You select this option by
491
492 sh Configure -Duseperlio -Dusesfio
493
494If you have already selected -Duseperlio, and if Configure detects
495that you have sfio, then sfio will be the default suggested by
496Configure.
497
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498Note: On some systems, sfio's iffe configuration script fails to
499detect that you have an atexit function (or equivalent). Apparently,
500this is a problem at least for some versions of Linux and SunOS 4.
501Configure should detect this problem and warn you about problems with
502_exit vs. exit. If you have this problem, the fix is to go back to
503your sfio sources and correct iffe's guess about atexit.
33e6ee5f 504
ce80d64e 505=head3 Algorithmic Complexity Attacks on Hashes
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506
507In Perls 5.8.0 and earlier it was easy to create degenerate hashes.
508Processing such hashes would consume large amounts of CPU time,
3debabd9 509enabling a "Denial of Service" attack against Perl. Such hashes may be
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510a problem for example for mod_perl sites, sites with Perl CGI scripts
511and web services, that process data originating from external sources.
512
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513In Perl 5.8.1 a security feature was introduced to make it harder to
514create such degenerate hashes. A visible side effect of this was that
515the keys(), values(), and each() functions may return the hash elements
516in different order between different runs of Perl even with the same
517data. It also had unintended binary incompatibility issues with
518certain modules compiled against Perl 5.8.0.
519
520In Perl 5.8.2 an improved scheme was introduced. Hashes will return
521elements in the same order as Perl 5.8.0 by default. On a hash by hash
522basis, if pathological data is detected during a hash key insertion,
523then that hash will switch to an alternative random hash seed. As
524adding keys can always dramatically change returned hash element order,
525existing programs will not be affected by this, unless they
526specifically test for pre-recorded hash return order for contrived
527data. (eg the list of keys generated by C<map {"\0"x$_} 0..15> trigger
528randomisation) In effect the new implementation means that 5.8.1 scheme
529is only being used on hashes which are under attack.
530
531One can still revert to the old guaranteed repeatable order (and be
532vulnerable to attack by wily crackers) by setting the environment
533variable PERL_HASH_SEED, see L<perlrun/PERL_HASH_SEED>. Another option
534is to add -DUSE_HASH_SEED_EXPLICIT to the compilation flags (for
f80da78e 535example by using C<Configure -Accflags=-DUSE_HASH_SEED_EXPLICIT>), in
86358043
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536which case one has to explicitly set the PERL_HASH_SEED environment
537variable to enable the security feature, or by adding -DNO_HASH_SEED to
538the compilation flags to completely disable the randomisation feature.
504f80c1 539
3debabd9 540B<Perl has never guaranteed any ordering of the hash keys>, and the
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541ordering has already changed several times during the lifetime of Perl
5425. Also, the ordering of hash keys has always been, and continues to
543be, affected by the insertion order. It is likely that Perl 5.10 and
544Perl 6 will randomise all hashes. Note that because of this
545randomisation for example the Data::Dumper results will be different
546between different runs of Perl since Data::Dumper by default dumps
547hashes "unordered". The use of the Data::Dumper C<Sortkeys> option is
548recommended.
504f80c1 549
ce80d64e 550=head3 SOCKS
1b9c9cf5
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551
552Perl can be configured to be 'socksified', that is, to use the SOCKS
553TCP/IP proxy protocol library. SOCKS is used to give applications
554access to transport layer network proxies. Perl supports only SOCKS
555Version 5. You can find more about SOCKS from http://www.socks.nec.com/
556
ce80d64e 557=head3 Dynamic Loading
d6baa268
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558
559By default, Configure will compile perl to use dynamic loading if
560your system supports it. If you want to force perl to be compiled
561statically, you can either choose this when Configure prompts you or
562you can use the Configure command line option -Uusedl.
563
ce80d64e 564=head3 Building a shared Perl library
c3edaffb 565
566Currently, for most systems, the main perl executable is built by
567linking the "perl library" libperl.a with perlmain.o, your static
568extensions (usually just DynaLoader.a) and various extra libraries,
569such as -lm.
570
9d67150a 571On some systems that support dynamic loading, it may be possible to
572replace libperl.a with a shared libperl.so. If you anticipate building
c3edaffb 573several different perl binaries (e.g. by embedding libperl into
574different programs, or by using the optional compiler extension), then
9d67150a 575you might wish to build a shared libperl.so so that all your binaries
c3edaffb 576can share the same library.
577
578The disadvantages are that there may be a significant performance
9d67150a 579penalty associated with the shared libperl.so, and that the overall
aa689395 580mechanism is still rather fragile with respect to different versions
c3edaffb 581and upgrades.
582
583In terms of performance, on my test system (Solaris 2.5_x86) the perl
9d67150a 584test suite took roughly 15% longer to run with the shared libperl.so.
c3edaffb 585Your system and typical applications may well give quite different
586results.
587
588The default name for the shared library is typically something like
ce80d64e 589libperl.so.6.2 (for Perl 5.6.2), or libperl.so.602, or simply
9d67150a 590libperl.so. Configure tries to guess a sensible naming convention
c3edaffb 591based on your C library name. Since the library gets installed in a
592version-specific architecture-dependent directory, the exact name
593isn't very important anyway, as long as your linker is happy.
594
595For some systems (mostly SVR4), building a shared libperl is required
596for dynamic loading to work, and hence is already the default.
597
598You can elect to build a shared libperl by
599
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600 sh Configure -Duseshrplib
601
602To build a shared libperl, the environment variable controlling shared
603library search (LD_LIBRARY_PATH in most systems, DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH for
604NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP/Darwin, LIBRARY_PATH for BeOS, LD_LIBRARY_PATH/SHLIB_PATH
605for HP-UX, LIBPATH for AIX, PATH for Cygwin) must be set up to include
606the Perl build directory because that's where the shared libperl will
607be created. Configure arranges makefile to have the correct shared
608library search settings. You can find the name of the environment
609variable Perl thinks works in your your system by
610
611 grep ldlibpthname config.sh
612
613However, there are some special cases where manually setting the
614shared library path might be required. For example, if you want to run
615something like the following with the newly-built but not-yet-installed
616./perl:
617
618 cd t; ./perl misc/failing_test.t
619or
620 ./perl -Ilib ~/my_mission_critical_test
621
622then you need to set up the shared library path explicitly.
623You can do this with
624
625 LD_LIBRARY_PATH=`pwd`:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH; export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
626
627for Bourne-style shells, or
628
629 setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH `pwd`
630
631for Csh-style shells. (This procedure may also be needed if for some
632unexpected reason Configure fails to set up makefile correctly.) (And
633again, it may be something other than LD_LIBRARY_PATH for you, see above.)
634
635You can often recognize failures to build/use a shared libperl from error
636messages complaining about a missing libperl.so (or libperl.sl in HP-UX),
637for example:
63818126:./miniperl: /sbin/loader: Fatal Error: cannot map libperl.so
639
640There is also an potential problem with the shared perl library if you
641want to have more than one "flavor" of the same version of perl (e.g.
642with and without -DDEBUGGING). For example, suppose you build and
643install a standard Perl 5.8.0 with a shared library. Then, suppose you
644try to build Perl 5.8.0 with -DDEBUGGING enabled, but everything else
645the same, including all the installation directories. How can you
646ensure that your newly built perl will link with your newly built
647libperl.so.8 rather with the installed libperl.so.8? The answer is
648that you might not be able to. The installation directory is encoded
649in the perl binary with the LD_RUN_PATH environment variable (or
650equivalent ld command-line option). On Solaris, you can override that
651with LD_LIBRARY_PATH; on Linux, you can only override at runtime via
652LD_PRELOAD, specifying the exact filename you wish to be used; and on
653Digital Unix, you can override LD_LIBRARY_PATH by setting the
654_RLD_ROOT environment variable to point to the perl build directory.
655
656In other words, it is generally not a good idea to try to build a perl
657with a shared library if $archlib/CORE/$libperl already exists from a
658previous build.
659
660A good workaround is to specify a different directory for the
661architecture-dependent library for your -DDEBUGGING version of perl.
662You can do this by changing all the *archlib* variables in config.sh to
663point to your new architecture-dependent library.
664
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665=head3 Environment access
666
667Perl often needs to write to the program's environment, such as when C<%ENV>
668is assigned to. Many implementations of the C library function C<putenv()>
669leak memory, so where possible perl will manipulate the environment directly
670to avoid these leaks. The default is now to perform direct manipulation
671whenever perl is running as a stand alone interpreter, and to call the safe
672but potentially leaky C<putenv()> function when the perl interpreter is
673embedded in another application. You can force perl to always use C<putenv()>
779ec477 674by compiling with -DPERL_USE_SAFE_PUTENV. You can force an embedded perl to
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675use direct manipulation by setting C<PL_use_safe_putenv = 0;> after the
676C<perl_construct()> call.
677
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678=head2 Installation Directories
679
680The installation directories can all be changed by answering the
681appropriate questions in Configure. For convenience, all the
682installation questions are near the beginning of Configure.
683Do not include trailing slashes on directory names.
684
685I highly recommend running Configure interactively to be sure it puts
686everything where you want it. At any point during the Configure
687process, you can answer a question with &-d and Configure will use
688the defaults from then on. Alternatively, you can
689
690 grep '^install' config.sh
691
692after Configure has run to verify the installation paths.
693
694The defaults are intended to be reasonable and sensible for most
695people building from sources. Those who build and distribute binary
696distributions or who export perl to a range of systems will probably
697need to alter them. If you are content to just accept the defaults,
698you can safely skip the next section.
699
700The directories set up by Configure fall into three broad categories.
701
702=over 4
703
704=item Directories for the perl distribution
705
706By default, Configure will use the following directories for 5.9.0.
707$version is the full perl version number, including subversion, e.g.
7085.9.0 or 5.9.1, and $archname is a string like sun4-sunos,
709determined by Configure. The full definitions of all Configure
710variables are in the file Porting/Glossary.
711
712 Configure variable Default value
713 $prefixexp /usr/local
714 $binexp $prefixexp/bin
715 $scriptdirexp $prefixexp/bin
716 $privlibexp $prefixexp/lib/perl5/$version
717 $archlibexp $prefixexp/lib/perl5/$version/$archname
718 $man1direxp $prefixexp/man/man1
719 $man3direxp $prefixexp/man/man3
720 $html1direxp (none)
721 $html3direxp (none)
722
723$prefixexp is generated from $prefix, with ~ expansion done to convert home
724directories into absolute paths. Similarly for the other variables listed. As
725file system calls do not do this, you should always reference the ...exp
726variables, to support users who build perl in their home directory.
727
728Actually, Configure recognizes the SVR3-style
729/usr/local/man/l_man/man1 directories, if present, and uses those
730instead. Also, if $prefix contains the string "perl", the library
731directories are simplified as described below. For simplicity, only
732the common style is shown here.
733
734=item Directories for site-specific add-on files
735
736After perl is installed, you may later wish to add modules (e.g. from
737CPAN) or scripts. Configure will set up the following directories to
738be used for installing those add-on modules and scripts.
739
740 Configure variable Default value
741 $siteprefixexp $prefixexp
742 $sitebinexp $siteprefixexp/bin
743 $sitescriptexp $siteprefixexp/bin
744 $sitelibexp $siteprefixexp/lib/perl5/site_perl/$version
745 $sitearchexp $siteprefixexp/lib/perl5/site_perl/$version/$archname
746 $siteman1direxp $siteprefixexp/man/man1
747 $siteman3direxp $siteprefixexp/man/man3
748 $sitehtml1direxp (none)
749 $sitehtml3direxp (none)
750
751By default, ExtUtils::MakeMaker will install architecture-independent
752modules into $sitelib and architecture-dependent modules into $sitearch.
753
754=item Directories for vendor-supplied add-on files
755
756Lastly, if you are building a binary distribution of perl for
757distribution, Configure can optionally set up the following directories
758for you to use to distribute add-on modules.
759
760 Configure variable Default value
761 $vendorprefixexp (none)
762 (The next ones are set only if vendorprefix is set.)
763 $vendorbinexp $vendorprefixexp/bin
764 $vendorscriptexp $vendorprefixexp/bin
765 $vendorlibexp
766 $vendorprefixexp/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/$version
767 $vendorarchexp
768 $vendorprefixexp/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/$version/$archname
769 $vendorman1direxp $vendorprefixexp/man/man1
770 $vendorman3direxp $vendorprefixexp/man/man3
771 $vendorhtml1direxp (none)
772 $vendorhtml3direxp (none)
773
774These are normally empty, but may be set as needed. For example,
775a vendor might choose the following settings:
776
777 $prefix /usr
778 $siteprefix /usr/local
779 $vendorprefix /usr
780
781This would have the effect of setting the following:
782
783 $binexp /usr/bin
784 $scriptdirexp /usr/bin
785 $privlibexp /usr/lib/perl5/$version
786 $archlibexp /usr/lib/perl5/$version/$archname
787 $man1direxp /usr/man/man1
788 $man3direxp /usr/man/man3
789
790 $sitebinexp /usr/local/bin
791 $sitescriptexp /usr/local/bin
792 $sitelibexp /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/$version
793 $sitearchexp /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/$version/$archname
794 $siteman1direxp /usr/local/man/man1
795 $siteman3direxp /usr/local/man/man3
796
797 $vendorbinexp /usr/bin
798 $vendorscriptexp /usr/bin
799 $vendorlibexp /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/$version
800 $vendorarchexp /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/$version/$archname
801 $vendorman1direxp /usr/man/man1
802 $vendorman3direxp /usr/man/man3
803
804Note how in this example, the vendor-supplied directories are in the
805/usr hierarchy, while the directories reserved for the end-user are in
806the /usr/local hierarchy.
807
808The entire installed library hierarchy is installed in locations with
809version numbers, keeping the installations of different versions distinct.
810However, later installations of Perl can still be configured to search the
811installed libraries corresponding to compatible earlier versions.
812See L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> below for more details
813on how Perl can be made to search older version directories.
814
815Of course you may use these directories however you see fit. For
816example, you may wish to use $siteprefix for site-specific files that
817are stored locally on your own disk and use $vendorprefix for
818site-specific files that are stored elsewhere on your organization's
819network. One way to do that would be something like
820
821 sh Configure -Dsiteprefix=/usr/local -Dvendorprefix=/usr/share/perl
822
823=item otherlibdirs
824
825As a final catch-all, Configure also offers an $otherlibdirs
826variable. This variable contains a colon-separated list of additional
827directories to add to @INC. By default, it will be empty.
828Perl will search these directories (including architecture and
829version-specific subdirectories) for add-on modules and extensions.
830
831For example, if you have a bundle of perl libraries from a previous
832installation, perhaps in a strange place:
833
834 Configure -Dotherlibdirs=/usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.1
835
836=item APPLLIB_EXP
837
838There is one other way of adding paths to @INC at perl build time, and
839that is by setting the APPLLIB_EXP C pre-processor token to a colon-
840separated list of directories, like this
841
842 sh Configure -Accflags='-DAPPLLIB_EXP=\"/usr/libperl\"'
843
844The directories defined by APPLLIB_EXP get added to @INC I<first>,
845ahead of any others, and so provide a way to override the standard perl
846modules should you, for example, want to distribute fixes without
847touching the perl distribution proper. And, like otherlib dirs,
848version and architecture specific subdirectories are also searched, if
849present, at run time. Of course, you can still search other @INC
850directories ahead of those in APPLLIB_EXP by using any of the standard
851run-time methods: $PERLLIB, $PERL5LIB, -I, use lib, etc.
852
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853=item USE_SITECUSTOMIZE
854
855Run-time customization of @INC can be enabled with:
856
36de116d 857 sh Configure -Dusesitecustomize
20ef40cf 858
36de116d 859Which will define USE_SITECUSTOMIZE and $Config{usesitecustomize}.
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860When enabled, make perl run F<$sitelibexp/sitecustomize.pl> before
861anything else. This script can then be set up to add additional
862entries to @INC.
863
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864=item Man Pages
865
866In versions 5.005_57 and earlier, the default was to store module man
867pages in a version-specific directory, such as
868/usr/local/lib/perl5/$version/man/man3. The default for 5.005_58 and
869after is /usr/local/man/man3 so that most users can find the man pages
870without resetting MANPATH.
871
872You can continue to use the old default from the command line with
873
874 sh Configure -Dman3dir=/usr/local/lib/perl5/5.9.0/man/man3
875
876Some users also prefer to use a .3pm suffix. You can do that with
877
878 sh Configure -Dman3ext=3pm
879
880Again, these are just the defaults, and can be changed as you run
881Configure.
882
883=item HTML pages
884
885Currently, the standard perl installation does not do anything with
886HTML documentation, but that may change in the future. Further, some
887add-on modules may wish to install HTML documents. The html Configure
888variables listed above are provided if you wish to specify where such
889documents should be placed. The default is "none", but will likely
890eventually change to something useful based on user feedback.
891
892=back
893
894Some users prefer to append a "/share" to $privlib and $sitelib
895to emphasize that those directories can be shared among different
896architectures.
897
898Note that these are just the defaults. You can actually structure the
899directories any way you like. They don't even have to be on the same
900filesystem.
c3edaffb 901
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902Further details about the installation directories, maintenance and
903development subversions, and about supporting multiple versions are
904discussed in L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> below.
10c7e831 905
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906If you specify a prefix that contains the string "perl", then the
907library directory structure is slightly simplified. Instead of
908suggesting $prefix/lib/perl5/, Configure will suggest $prefix/lib.
2bf2710f 909
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910Thus, for example, if you Configure with
911-Dprefix=/opt/perl, then the default library directories for 5.9.0 are
2bf2710f 912
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913 Configure variable Default value
914 $privlib /opt/perl/lib/5.9.0
915 $archlib /opt/perl/lib/5.9.0/$archname
916 $sitelib /opt/perl/lib/site_perl/5.9.0
917 $sitearch /opt/perl/lib/site_perl/5.9.0/$archname
2bf2710f 918
ce80d64e 919=head2 Changing the installation directory
c3edaffb 920
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921Configure distinguishes between the directory in which perl (and its
922associated files) should be installed and the directory in which it
923will eventually reside. For most sites, these two are the same; for
924sites that use AFS, this distinction is handled automatically.
925However, sites that use software such as depot to manage software
926packages, or users building binary packages for distribution may also
927wish to install perl into a different directory and use that
928management software to move perl to its final destination. This
929section describes how to do that.
c3edaffb 930
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931Suppose you want to install perl under the /tmp/perl5 directory. You
932could edit config.sh and change all the install* variables to point to
933/tmp/perl5 instead of /usr/local, or you could simply use the
934following command line:
c3edaffb 935
ce80d64e 936 sh Configure -Dinstallprefix=/tmp/perl5
c3edaffb 937
ce80d64e 938(replace /tmp/perl5 by a directory of your choice).
2bf2710f 939
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940Beware, though, that if you go to try to install new add-on
941modules, they too will get installed in under '/tmp/perl5' if you
942follow this example. The next section shows one way of dealing with
943that problem.
c3edaffb 944
ce80d64e 945=head2 Creating an installable tar archive
9d67150a 946
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947If you need to install perl on many identical systems, it is convenient
948to compile it once and create an archive that can be installed on
949multiple systems. Suppose, for example, that you want to create an
950archive that can be installed in /opt/perl. One way to do that is by
951using the DESTDIR variable during C<make install>. The DESTDIR is
952automatically prepended to all the installation paths. Thus you
953simply do:
830717a7 954
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955 sh Configure -Dprefix=/opt/perl -des
956 make
957 make test
958 make install DESTDIR=/tmp/perl5
959 cd /tmp/perl5/opt/perl
960 tar cvf /tmp/perl5-archive.tar .
9d67150a 961
ce80d64e 962=head2 Site-wide Policy settings
55479bb6 963
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964After Configure runs, it stores a number of common site-wide "policy"
965answers (such as installation directories and the local perl contact
966person) in the Policy.sh file. If you want to build perl on another
967system using the same policy defaults, simply copy the Policy.sh file
968to the new system and Configure will use it along with the appropriate
a0a8d9d3
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969hint file for your system. This will work even if Policy.sh was
970generated for another version of Perl, or on a system with a
da1b4322 971different architecture and/or operating system. However, in such cases,
a0a8d9d3
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972you should review the contents of the file before using it: for
973example, your new target may not keep its man pages in the same place
974as the system on which the file was generated.
55479bb6 975
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976Alternatively, if you wish to change some or all of those policy
977answers, you should
c3edaffb 978
ce80d64e 979 rm -f Policy.sh
aa689395 980
ce80d64e 981to ensure that Configure doesn't re-use them.
2ae324a7 982
ce80d64e 983Further information is in the Policy_sh.SH file itself.
aa689395 984
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985If the generated Policy.sh file is unsuitable, you may freely edit it
986to contain any valid shell commands. It will be run just after the
987platform-specific hints files.
aa689395 988
ce80d64e 989=head2 Disabling older versions of Perl
aa689395 990
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991Configure will search for binary compatible versions of previously
992installed perl binaries in the tree that is specified as target tree
993and these will be used by the perl being built.
994See L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5"> for more details.
86058a2d 995
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996To disable this use of older perl modules, even completely valid pure perl
997modules, you can specify to not include the paths found:
b2a6d19e 998
ce80d64e 999 sh Configure -Dinc_version_list=none ...
d6baa268 1000
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1001When using the newer perl, you can add these paths again in the
1002$PERL5LIB environment variable or with perl's -I runtime option.
86058a2d 1003
ce80d64e 1004=head2 Building Perl outside of the source directory
86058a2d 1005
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1006Sometimes it is desirable to build Perl in a directory different from
1007where the sources are, for example if you want to keep your sources
1008read-only, or if you want to share the sources between different binary
1009architectures. You can do this (if your file system supports symbolic
1010links) by
06c896bb 1011
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1012 mkdir /tmp/perl/build/directory
1013 cd /tmp/perl/build/directory
1014 sh /path/to/perl/source/Configure -Dmksymlinks ...
06c896bb 1015
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1016This will create in /tmp/perl/build/directory a tree of symbolic links
1017pointing to files in /path/to/perl/source. The original files are left
1018unaffected. After Configure has finished you can just say
06c896bb 1019
ce80d64e 1020 make
06c896bb 1021
ce80d64e 1022as usual, and Perl will be built in /tmp/perl/build/directory.
aa689395 1023
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1024=head2 Building a debugging perl
1025
1026You can run perl scripts under the perl debugger at any time with
3fe9a6f1 1027B<perl -d your_script>. If, however, you want to debug perl itself,
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1028you probably want to have support for perl internal debugging code
1029(activated by adding -DDEBUGGING to ccflags), and/or support for the
1030system debugger by adding -g to optimize.
1031
1032 sh Configure -DDEBUGGING=<mode>
1033
1034For a more eye appealing call, -DEBUGGING is defined to be an alias
1035for -DDEBUGGING. For both, the -U calls are also supported, in order
1036to be able to overrule the hints or Policy.sh settings.
1037
1038=over 4
1039
1040=item -DEBUGGING=old
1041
1042Which is the default, and supports the old convention of
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1043
1044 sh Configure -Doptimize='-g'
1045
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1046This will do two independent things: First, it will force compilation
1047to use cc -g so that you can use your system's debugger on the
1048executable. (Note: Your system may actually require something like
d6baa268
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1049cc -g2. Check your man pages for cc(1) and also any hint file for
1050your system.) Second, it will add -DDEBUGGING to your ccflags
1051variable in config.sh so that you can use B<perl -D> to access perl's
1052internal state. (Note: Configure will only add -DDEBUGGING by default
1053if you are not reusing your old config.sh. If you want to reuse your
1054old config.sh, then you can just edit it and change the optimize and
1055ccflags variables by hand and then propagate your changes as shown in
1056L<"Propagating your changes to config.sh"> below.)
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1057
1058You can actually specify -g and -DDEBUGGING independently, but usually
1059it's convenient to have both.
3bf462b8 1060
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1061=over 4
1062
1063=item -DDEBUGGING
1064
1065=item -DEBUGGING
1066
1067=item -DEBUGGING=both
1068
1069Sets both -DDEBUGGING in the ccflags, and add -g to optimize.
1070
1071=item -DEBUGGING=-g
1072
1073Adds -g to optimize, but does not set -DDEBUGGING.
1074
1075=item -DEBUGGING=none
1076
1077Removes -g from optimize, and -DDEBUGGING from ccflags.
1078
1079=back
1080
3bf462b8 1081If you are using a shared libperl, see the warnings about multiple
a522f097 1082versions of perl under L<Building a shared Perl library>.
3bf462b8 1083
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1084=head2 Extensions
1085
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1086Perl ships with a number of standard extensions. These are contained
1087in the ext/ subdirectory.
1088
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1089By default, Configure will offer to build every extension which appears
1090to be supported. For example, Configure will offer to build GDBM_File
1091only if it is able to find the gdbm library. (See examples below.)
8d74ce1c 1092Configure does not contain code to test for POSIX compliance, so POSIX
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1093is always built by default. If you wish to skip POSIX, you can
1094set the Configure variable useposix=false from the Configure command line.
8d74ce1c 1095
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1096If you unpack any additional extensions in the ext/ directory before
1097running Configure, then Configure will offer to build those additional
1098extensions as well. Most users probably shouldn't have to do this --
1099it is usually easier to build additional extensions later after perl
1100has been installed. However, if you wish to have those additional
1101extensions statically linked into the perl binary, then this offers a
1102convenient way to do that in one step. (It is not necessary, however;
1103you can build and install extensions just fine even if you don't have
1104dynamic loading. See lib/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.pm for more details.)
1105
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1106If you have dynamic loading, another way of specifying extra modules
1107is described in L<"Adding extra modules to the build"> below.
1108
c42e3e15 1109You can learn more about each of the supplied extensions by consulting the
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1110documentation in the individual .pm modules, located under the
1111ext/ subdirectory.
1112
1113Even if you do not have dynamic loading, you must still build the
1114DynaLoader extension; you should just build the stub dl_none.xs
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1115version. Configure will suggest this as the default.
1116
1117To disable certain extensions so that they are not built, use the
1118-Dnoextensions=... and -Donlyextensions=... options. They both accept
1119a space-separated list of extensions. The extensions listed in
1120C<noextensions> are removed from the list of extensions to build, while
1121the C<onlyextensions> is rather more severe and builds only the listed
1122extensions. The latter should be used with extreme caution since
1123certain extensions are used by many other extensions and modules:
1124examples of such modules include Fcntl and IO. The order of processing
1125these options is first C<only> (if present), then C<no> (if present).
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1126
1127Of course, you may always run Configure interactively and select only
1128the extensions you want.
1129
1130Note: The DB_File module will only work with version 1.x of Berkeley
1131DB or newer releases of version 2. Configure will automatically detect
1132this for you and refuse to try to build DB_File with earlier
1133releases of version 2.
1134
1135If you re-use your old config.sh but change your system (e.g. by
1136adding libgdbm) Configure will still offer your old choices of extensions
1137for the default answer, but it will also point out the discrepancy to
1138you.
1139
80c1f5de 1140Finally, if you have dynamic loading (most modern systems do)
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1141remember that these extensions do not increase the size of your perl
1142executable, nor do they impact start-up time, so you probably might as
1143well build all the ones that will work on your system.
1144
1145=head2 Including locally-installed libraries
1146
1147Perl5 comes with interfaces to number of database extensions, including
1148dbm, ndbm, gdbm, and Berkeley db. For each extension, if
1149Configure can find the appropriate header files and libraries, it will
1150automatically include that extension. The gdbm and db libraries
1151are not included with perl. See the library documentation for
1152how to obtain the libraries.
1153
d6baa268
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1154If your database header (.h) files are not in a directory normally
1155searched by your C compiler, then you will need to include the
1156appropriate -I/your/directory option when prompted by Configure. If
ce80d64e 1157your database libraries are not in a directory normally
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1158searched by your C compiler and linker, then you will need to include
1159the appropriate -L/your/directory option when prompted by Configure.
1160See the examples below.
8d74ce1c 1161
ce80d64e 1162=head3 Examples
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1163
1164=over 4
1165
1166=item gdbm in /usr/local
1167
1168Suppose you have gdbm and want Configure to find it and build the
d6baa268 1169GDBM_File extension. This example assumes you have gdbm.h
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1170installed in /usr/local/include/gdbm.h and libgdbm.a installed in
1171/usr/local/lib/libgdbm.a. Configure should figure all the
1172necessary steps out automatically.
1173
1174Specifically, when Configure prompts you for flags for
1175your C compiler, you should include -I/usr/local/include.
1176
1177When Configure prompts you for linker flags, you should include
1178-L/usr/local/lib.
1179
1180If you are using dynamic loading, then when Configure prompts you for
1181linker flags for dynamic loading, you should again include
1182-L/usr/local/lib.
1183
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1184Again, this should all happen automatically. This should also work if
1185you have gdbm installed in any of (/usr/local, /opt/local, /usr/gnu,
1186/opt/gnu, /usr/GNU, or /opt/GNU).
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1187
1188=item gdbm in /usr/you
1189
1190Suppose you have gdbm installed in some place other than /usr/local/,
1191but you still want Configure to find it. To be specific, assume you
1192have /usr/you/include/gdbm.h and /usr/you/lib/libgdbm.a. You
1193still have to add -I/usr/you/include to cc flags, but you have to take
1194an extra step to help Configure find libgdbm.a. Specifically, when
1195Configure prompts you for library directories, you have to add
1196/usr/you/lib to the list.
1197
1198It is possible to specify this from the command line too (all on one
1199line):
1200
d6baa268 1201 sh Configure -de \
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1202 -Dlocincpth="/usr/you/include" \
1203 -Dloclibpth="/usr/you/lib"
1204
1205locincpth is a space-separated list of include directories to search.
1206Configure will automatically add the appropriate -I directives.
1207
1208loclibpth is a space-separated list of library directories to search.
1209Configure will automatically add the appropriate -L directives. If
1210you have some libraries under /usr/local/ and others under
1211/usr/you, then you have to include both, namely
1212
d6baa268 1213 sh Configure -de \
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1214 -Dlocincpth="/usr/you/include /usr/local/include" \
1215 -Dloclibpth="/usr/you/lib /usr/local/lib"
1216
1217=back
1218
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1219=head2 Building DB, NDBM, and ODBM interfaces with Berkeley DB 3
1220
ce80d64e
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1221A Perl interface for DB3 is part of Berkeley DB, but if you want to
1222compile the standard Perl DB/ODBM/NDBM interfaces, you must follow
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1223following instructions.
1224
1225Berkeley DB3 from Sleepycat Software is by default installed without
ce80d64e 1226DB1 compatibility code (needed for the DB_File interface) and without
bb636fa4 1227links to compatibility files. So if you want to use packages written
ce80d64e 1228for the DB/ODBM/NDBM interfaces, you need to configure DB3 with
bb636fa4
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1229--enable-compat185 (and optionally with --enable-dump185) and create
1230additional references (suppose you are installing DB3 with
1231--prefix=/usr):
1232
1233 ln -s libdb-3.so /usr/lib/libdbm.so
1234 ln -s libdb-3.so /usr/lib/libndbm.so
f1300be0 1235 echo '#define DB_DBM_HSEARCH 1' >dbm.h
bb636fa4 1236 echo '#include <db.h>' >>dbm.h
f1300be0 1237 install -m 0644 dbm.h /usr/include/dbm.h
bb636fa4
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1238 install -m 0644 dbm.h /usr/include/ndbm.h
1239
1240Optionally, if you have compiled with --enable-compat185 (not needed
1241for ODBM/NDBM):
1242
1243 ln -s libdb-3.so /usr/lib/libdb1.so
1244 ln -s libdb-3.so /usr/lib/libdb.so
1245
1246ODBM emulation seems not to be perfect, but is quite usable,
1247using DB 3.1.17:
1248
1249 lib/odbm.............FAILED at test 9
1250 Failed 1/64 tests, 98.44% okay
1251
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1252=head2 Overriding an old config.sh
1253
1254If you want to use your old config.sh but override some of the items
1255with command line options, you need to use B<Configure -O>.
1256
1257=head2 GNU-style configure
1258
1259If you prefer the GNU-style configure command line interface, you can
1260use the supplied configure.gnu command, e.g.
1261
1262 CC=gcc ./configure.gnu
1263
1264The configure.gnu script emulates a few of the more common configure
1265options. Try
1266
1267 ./configure.gnu --help
1268
1269for a listing.
1270
1271(The file is called configure.gnu to avoid problems on systems
1272that would not distinguish the files "Configure" and "configure".)
1273
1274See L<Cross-compilation> below for information on cross-compiling.
1275
1276=head2 Malloc Issues
1277
1278Perl relies heavily on malloc(3) to grow data structures as needed,
1279so perl's performance can be noticeably affected by the performance of
1280the malloc function on your system. The perl source is shipped with a
1281version of malloc that has been optimized for the typical requests from
1282perl, so there's a chance that it may be both faster and use less memory
1283than your system malloc.
1284
1285However, if your system already has an excellent malloc, or if you are
1286experiencing difficulties with extensions that use third-party libraries
1287that call malloc, then you should probably use your system's malloc.
1288(Or, you might wish to explore the malloc flags discussed below.)
1289
1290=over 4
1291
1292=item Using the system malloc
1293
1294To build without perl's malloc, you can use the Configure command
1295
1296 sh Configure -Uusemymalloc
1297
1298or you can answer 'n' at the appropriate interactive Configure prompt.
1299
1300=item -DPERL_POLLUTE_MALLOC
1301
1302NOTE: This flag is enabled automatically on some platforms if you just
1303run Configure to accept all the defaults on those platforms.
1304
1305Perl's malloc family of functions are normally called Perl_malloc(),
1306Perl_realloc(), Perl_calloc() and Perl_mfree().
1307These names do not clash with the system versions of these functions.
1308
1309If this flag is enabled, however, Perl's malloc family of functions
1310will have the same names as the system versions. This may be required
1311sometimes if you have libraries that like to free() data that may have
1312been allocated by Perl_malloc() and vice versa.
1313
1314Note that enabling this option may sometimes lead to duplicate symbols
1315from the linker for malloc et al. In such cases, the system probably
1316does not allow its malloc functions to be fully replaced with custom
1317versions.
1318
1319=item -DPERL_DEBUGGING_MSTATS
1320
1321This flag enables debugging mstats, which is required to use the
1322Devel::Peek::mstat() function. You cannot enable this unless you are
1323using Perl's malloc, so a typical Configure command would be
1324
1325 sh Configure -Accflags=-DPERL_DEBUGGING_MSTATS -Dusemymalloc='y'
1326
1327to enable this option.
1328
1329=back
1330
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1331=head2 What if it doesn't work?
1332
8d74ce1c 1333If you run into problems, try some of the following ideas.
40dd8381 1334If none of them help, then see L<"Reporting Problems"> above.
8d74ce1c 1335
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1336=over 4
1337
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1338=item Running Configure Interactively
1339
1340If Configure runs into trouble, remember that you can always run
1341Configure interactively so that you can check (and correct) its
1342guesses.
1343
1344All the installation questions have been moved to the top, so you don't
aa689395 1345have to wait for them. Once you've handled them (and your C compiler and
1ec51d55 1346flags) you can type &-d at the next Configure prompt and Configure
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1347will use the defaults from then on.
1348
1349If you find yourself trying obscure command line incantations and
1350config.over tricks, I recommend you run Configure interactively
1351instead. You'll probably save yourself time in the long run.
1352
aa689395 1353=item Hint files
8e07c86e 1354
a0a8d9d3
DD
1355Hint files tell Configure about a number of things:
1356
1357=over 4
1358
1359=item o
1360
1361The peculiarities or conventions of particular platforms -- non-standard
1362library locations and names, default installation locations for binaries,
1363and so on.
1364
1365=item o
1366
1367The deficiencies of the platform -- for example, library functions that,
1368although present, are too badly broken to be usable; or limits on
1369resources that are generously available on most platforms.
1370
1371=item o
1372
1373How best to optimize for the platform, both in terms of binary size and/or
1374speed, and for Perl feature support. Because of wide variations in the
1375implementation of shared libraries and of threading, for example, Configure
1376often needs hints in order to be able to use these features.
1377
1378=back
1379
1380The perl distribution includes many system-specific hints files
1381in the hints/ directory. If one of them matches your system, Configure
1382will offer to use that hint file. Unless you have a very good reason
1383not to, you should accept its offer.
8e07c86e
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1384
1385Several of the hint files contain additional important information.
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1386If you have any problems, it is a good idea to read the relevant hint file
1387for further information. See hints/solaris_2.sh for an extensive example.
1388More information about writing good hints is in the hints/README.hints
a0a8d9d3
DD
1389file, which also explains hint files known as callback-units.
1390
1391Note that any hint file is read before any Policy file, meaning that
1392Policy overrides hints -- see L</Site-wide Policy settings>.
8e07c86e 1393
edb1cbcb 1394=item *** WHOA THERE!!! ***
1395
1396Occasionally, Configure makes a wrong guess. For example, on SunOS
13974.1.3, Configure incorrectly concludes that tzname[] is in the
1398standard C library. The hint file is set up to correct for this. You
1399will see a message:
1400
1401 *** WHOA THERE!!! ***
1402 The recommended value for $d_tzname on this machine was "undef"!
1403 Keep the recommended value? [y]
1404
1405You should always keep the recommended value unless, after reading the
1406relevant section of the hint file, you are sure you want to try
1407overriding it.
1408
1409If you are re-using an old config.sh, the word "previous" will be
1410used instead of "recommended". Again, you will almost always want
1411to keep the previous value, unless you have changed something on your
1412system.
1413
1414For example, suppose you have added libgdbm.a to your system
1415and you decide to reconfigure perl to use GDBM_File. When you run
1416Configure again, you will need to add -lgdbm to the list of libraries.
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1417Now, Configure will find your gdbm include file and library and will
1418issue a message:
edb1cbcb 1419
1420 *** WHOA THERE!!! ***
1421 The previous value for $i_gdbm on this machine was "undef"!
1422 Keep the previous value? [y]
1423
1ec51d55 1424In this case, you do not want to keep the previous value, so you
c3edaffb 1425should answer 'n'. (You'll also have to manually add GDBM_File to
edb1cbcb 1426the list of dynamic extensions to build.)
1427
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1428=item Changing Compilers
1429
1430If you change compilers or make other significant changes, you should
1ec51d55 1431probably not re-use your old config.sh. Simply remove it or
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1432rename it, e.g. mv config.sh config.sh.old. Then rerun Configure
1433with the options you want to use.
1434
1ec51d55
CS
1435This is a common source of problems. If you change from cc to
1436gcc, you should almost always remove your old config.sh.
8e07c86e 1437
c3edaffb 1438=item Propagating your changes to config.sh
8e07c86e 1439
1ec51d55
CS
1440If you make any changes to config.sh, you should propagate
1441them to all the .SH files by running
1442
1443 sh Configure -S
1444
1445You will then have to rebuild by running
9d67150a 1446
1447 make depend
1448 make
8e07c86e 1449
48370efc
JH
1450=item config.over and config.arch
1451
1452You can also supply a shell script config.over to over-ride
1453Configure's guesses. It will get loaded up at the very end, just
1454before config.sh is created. You have to be careful with this,
1455however, as Configure does no checking that your changes make sense.
1456This file is usually good for site-specific customizations.
1457
1458There is also another file that, if it exists, is loaded before the
1459config.over, called config.arch. This file is intended to be per
1460architecture, not per site, and usually it's the architecture-specific
1461hints file that creates the config.arch.
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1462
1463=item config.h
1464
1ec51d55
CS
1465Many of the system dependencies are contained in config.h.
1466Configure builds config.h by running the config_h.SH script.
1467The values for the variables are taken from config.sh.
8e07c86e 1468
1ec51d55
CS
1469If there are any problems, you can edit config.h directly. Beware,
1470though, that the next time you run Configure, your changes will be
8e07c86e
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1471lost.
1472
1473=item cflags
1474
1475If you have any additional changes to make to the C compiler command
1ec51d55
CS
1476line, they can be made in cflags.SH. For instance, to turn off the
1477optimizer on toke.c, find the line in the switch structure for
1478toke.c and put the command optimize='-g' before the ;; . You
1479can also edit cflags directly, but beware that your changes will be
1480lost the next time you run Configure.
8e07c86e 1481
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1482To explore various ways of changing ccflags from within a hint file,
1483see the file hints/README.hints.
1484
1485To change the C flags for all the files, edit config.sh and change either
1486$ccflags or $optimize, and then re-run
1ec51d55
CS
1487
1488 sh Configure -S
1489 make depend
8e07c86e 1490
aa689395 1491=item No sh
8e07c86e 1492
c42e3e15
GS
1493If you don't have sh, you'll have to copy the sample file
1494Porting/config.sh to config.sh and edit your config.sh to reflect your
1495system's peculiarities. See Porting/pumpkin.pod for more information.
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1496You'll probably also have to extensively modify the extension building
1497mechanism.
1498
d6baa268
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1499=item Digital UNIX/Tru64 UNIX and BIN_SH
1500
1501In Digital UNIX/Tru64 UNIX, Configure might abort with
1502
1503Build a threading Perl? [n]
1504Configure[2437]: Syntax error at line 1 : `config.sh' is not expected.
1505
1506This indicates that Configure is being run with a broken Korn shell
1507(even though you think you are using a Bourne shell by using
1508"sh Configure" or "./Configure"). The Korn shell bug has been reported
1509to Compaq as of February 1999 but in the meanwhile, the reason ksh is
1510being used is that you have the environment variable BIN_SH set to
1511'xpg4'. This causes /bin/sh to delegate its duties to /bin/posix/sh
1512(a ksh). Unset the environment variable and rerun Configure.
1513
1514=item HP-UX 11, pthreads, and libgdbm
1515
1516If you are running Configure with -Dusethreads in HP-UX 11, be warned
1517that POSIX threads and libgdbm (the GNU dbm library) compiled before
1518HP-UX 11 do not mix. This will cause a basic test run by Configure to
1519fail
1520
1521Pthread internal error: message: __libc_reinit() failed, file: ../pthreads/pthread.c, line: 1096
1522Return Pointer is 0xc082bf33
1523sh: 5345 Quit(coredump)
1524
1525and Configure will give up. The cure is to recompile and install
1526libgdbm under HP-UX 11.
1527
c3edaffb 1528=item Porting information
1529
e6f03d26 1530Specific information for the OS/2, Plan 9, VMS and Win32 ports is in the
1ec51d55
CS
1531corresponding README files and subdirectories. Additional information,
1532including a glossary of all those config.sh variables, is in the Porting
ce80d64e 1533subdirectory. Porting/Glossary should especially come in handy.
c3edaffb 1534
7f678428 1535Ports for other systems may also be available. You should check out
468f45d5 1536http://www.cpan.org/ports for current information on ports to
7f678428 1537various other operating systems.
1538
ce80d64e 1539If you plan to port Perl to a new architecture, study carefully the
491517e0
JA
1540section titled "Philosophical Issues in Patching and Porting Perl"
1541in the file Porting/pumpkin.pod and the file Porting/patching.pod.
1542Study also how other non-UNIX ports have solved problems.
1543
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1544=back
1545
ce80d64e 1546=head2 Adding extra modules to the build
fadf0ef5
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1547
1548You can specify extra modules or module bundles to be fetched from the
1549CPAN and installed as part of the Perl build. Either use the -Dextras=...
1550command line parameter to Configure, for example like this:
1551
1552 Configure -Dextras="Compress::Zlib Bundle::LWP DBI"
1553
1554or answer first 'y' to the question 'Install any extra modules?' and
1555then answer "Compress::Zlib Bundle::LWP DBI" to the 'Extras?' question.
1556The module or the bundle names are as for the CPAN module 'install' command.
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1557This will only work if those modules are to be built as dynamic
1558extensions. If you wish to include those extra modules as static
1559extensions, see L<"Extensions"> above.
fadf0ef5
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1560
1561Notice that because the CPAN module will be used to fetch the extra
1562modules, you will need access to the CPAN, either via the Internet,
1563or via a local copy such as a CD-ROM or a local CPAN mirror. If you
1564do not, using the extra modules option will die horribly.
1565
1566Also notice that you yourself are responsible for satisfying any extra
1567dependencies such as external headers or libraries BEFORE trying the build.
1568For example: you will need to have the zlib.h header and the libz
1569library installed for the Compress::Zlib, or the Foo database specific
1570headers and libraries installed for the DBD::Foo module. The Configure
1571process or the Perl build process will not help you with these.
1572
ce80d64e 1573=head2 suidperl
03739d21 1574
ce80d64e
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1575suidperl is an optional component, which is normally neither built
1576nor installed by default. From perlfaq1:
03739d21
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1577
1578 On some systems, setuid and setgid scripts (scripts written
1579 in the C shell, Bourne shell, or Perl, for example, with the
1580 set user or group ID permissions enabled) are insecure due to
1581 a race condition in the kernel. For those systems, Perl versions
1582 5 and 4 attempt to work around this vulnerability with an optional
1583 component, a special program named suidperl, also known as sperl.
1584 This program attempts to emulate the set-user-ID and set-group-ID
1585 features of the kernel.
1586
1587Because of the buggy history of suidperl, and the difficulty
1588of properly security auditing as large and complex piece of
1589software as Perl, we cannot recommend using suidperl and the feature
1590should be considered deprecated.
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1591Instead, use a tool specifically designed to handle changes in
1592privileges, such as B<sudo>, http://www.courtesan.com/sudo/ .
03739d21 1593
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1594=head1 make depend
1595
bfb7748a
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1596This will look for all the includes. The output is stored in makefile.
1597The only difference between Makefile and makefile is the dependencies at
1598the bottom of makefile. If you have to make any changes, you should edit
ce80d64e 1599makefile, not Makefile, since the Unix make command reads makefile first.
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1600(On non-Unix systems, the output may be stored in a different file.
1601Check the value of $firstmakefile in your config.sh if in doubt.)
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1602
1603Configure will offer to do this step for you, so it isn't listed
1604explicitly above.
1605
1606=head1 make
1607
1608This will attempt to make perl in the current directory.
1609
8d410bc4
YST
1610=head2 Expected errors
1611
1612These errors are normal, and can be ignored:
1613
1614 ...
1615 make: [extra.pods] Error 1 (ignored)
1616 ...
1617 make: [extras.make] Error 1 (ignored)
1618
8d74ce1c
AD
1619=head2 What if it doesn't work?
1620
8e07c86e 1621If you can't compile successfully, try some of the following ideas.
7f678428 1622If none of them help, and careful reading of the error message and
8d74ce1c 1623the relevant manual pages on your system doesn't help,
40dd8381 1624then see L<"Reporting Problems"> above.
8e07c86e
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1625
1626=over 4
1627
1ec51d55 1628=item hints
8e07c86e
AD
1629
1630If you used a hint file, try reading the comments in the hint file
1631for further tips and information.
1632
1ec51d55 1633=item extensions
8e07c86e 1634
1ec51d55 1635If you can successfully build miniperl, but the process crashes
ce80d64e 1636during the building of extensions, run
c3edaffb 1637
3a6175e1 1638 make minitest
c3edaffb 1639
1640to test your version of miniperl.
1641
e57fd563 1642=item locale
1643
bfb7748a
AD
1644If you have any locale-related environment variables set, try unsetting
1645them. I have some reports that some versions of IRIX hang while
1646running B<./miniperl configpm> with locales other than the C locale.
1647See the discussion under L<"make test"> below about locales and the
1648whole L<"Locale problems"> section in the file pod/perllocale.pod.
3e6e419a
JH
1649The latter is especially useful if you see something like this
1650
1651 perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
1652 perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
1653 LC_ALL = "En_US",
1654 LANG = (unset)
1655 are supported and installed on your system.
1656 perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
1657
1658at Perl startup.
e57fd563 1659
7f678428 1660=item varargs
c3edaffb 1661
1662If you get varargs problems with gcc, be sure that gcc is installed
bfb7748a
AD
1663correctly and that you are not passing -I/usr/include to gcc. When using
1664gcc, you should probably have i_stdarg='define' and i_varargs='undef'
ce80d64e 1665in config.sh. The problem is usually solved by installing gcc
bfb7748a
AD
1666correctly. If you do change config.sh, don't forget to propagate
1667your changes (see L<"Propagating your changes to config.sh"> below).
7f678428 1668See also the L<"vsprintf"> item below.
c3edaffb 1669
bfb7748a 1670=item util.c
c3edaffb 1671
1672If you get error messages such as the following (the exact line
bfb7748a 1673numbers and function name may vary in different versions of perl):
c3edaffb 1674
bfb7748a
AD
1675 util.c: In function `Perl_form':
1676 util.c:1107: number of arguments doesn't match prototype
1677 proto.h:125: prototype declaration
c3edaffb 1678
1679it might well be a symptom of the gcc "varargs problem". See the
7f678428 1680previous L<"varargs"> item.
c3edaffb 1681
1ec51d55 1682=item LD_LIBRARY_PATH
c3edaffb 1683
1684If you run into dynamic loading problems, check your setting of
aa689395 1685the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable. If you're creating a static
1686Perl library (libperl.a rather than libperl.so) it should build
c3edaffb 1687fine with LD_LIBRARY_PATH unset, though that may depend on details
1688of your local set-up.
1689
aa689395 1690=item nm extraction
c3edaffb 1691
1692If Configure seems to be having trouble finding library functions,
1693try not using nm extraction. You can do this from the command line
1694with
1695
1696 sh Configure -Uusenm
1697
1698or by answering the nm extraction question interactively.
1ec51d55 1699If you have previously run Configure, you should not reuse your old
c3edaffb 1700config.sh.
1701
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AD
1702=item umask not found
1703
1704If the build processes encounters errors relating to umask(), the problem
1705is probably that Configure couldn't find your umask() system call.
1706Check your config.sh. You should have d_umask='define'. If you don't,
1707this is probably the L<"nm extraction"> problem discussed above. Also,
1708try reading the hints file for your system for further information.
1709
7f678428 1710=item vsprintf
c3edaffb 1711
1712If you run into problems with vsprintf in compiling util.c, the
1713problem is probably that Configure failed to detect your system's
1714version of vsprintf(). Check whether your system has vprintf().
1715(Virtually all modern Unix systems do.) Then, check the variable
1716d_vprintf in config.sh. If your system has vprintf, it should be:
1717
1718 d_vprintf='define'
1719
1720If Configure guessed wrong, it is likely that Configure guessed wrong
bfb7748a
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1721on a number of other common functions too. This is probably
1722the L<"nm extraction"> problem discussed above.
c3edaffb 1723
3fe9a6f1 1724=item do_aspawn
1725
1726If you run into problems relating to do_aspawn or do_spawn, the
1727problem is probably that Configure failed to detect your system's
bfb7748a
AD
1728fork() function. Follow the procedure in the previous item
1729on L<"nm extraction">.
3fe9a6f1 1730
84902520
TB
1731=item __inet_* errors
1732
1733If you receive unresolved symbol errors during Perl build and/or test
1734referring to __inet_* symbols, check to see whether BIND 8.1 is
1735installed. It installs a /usr/local/include/arpa/inet.h that refers to
1736these symbols. Versions of BIND later than 8.1 do not install inet.h
1737in that location and avoid the errors. You should probably update to a
6d240721
JH
1738newer version of BIND (and remove the files the old one left behind).
1739If you can't, you can either link with the updated resolver library provided
1740with BIND 8.1 or rename /usr/local/bin/arpa/inet.h during the Perl build and
1741test process to avoid the problem.
1742
1743=item *_r() prototype NOT found
1744
1745On a related note, if you see a bunch of complaints like the above about
1746reentrant functions - specifically networking-related ones - being present
1747but without prototypes available, check to see if BIND 8.1 (or possibly
1748other BIND 8 versions) is (or has been) installed. They install
1749header files such as netdb.h into places such as /usr/local/include (or into
1750another directory as specified at build/install time), at least optionally.
f1300be0 1751Remove them or put them in someplace that isn't in the C preprocessor's
6d240721
JH
1752header file include search path (determined by -I options plus defaults,
1753normally /usr/include).
84902520 1754
d6baa268
JH
1755=item #error "No DATAMODEL_NATIVE specified"
1756
1757This is a common error when trying to build perl on Solaris 2.6 with a
1758gcc installation from Solaris 2.5 or 2.5.1. The Solaris header files
1759changed, so you need to update your gcc installation. You can either
1760rerun the fixincludes script from gcc or take the opportunity to
1761update your gcc installation.
1762
aa689395 1763=item Optimizer
c3edaffb 1764
9d67150a 1765If you can't compile successfully, try turning off your compiler's
aa689395 1766optimizer. Edit config.sh and change the line
9d67150a 1767
1768 optimize='-O'
1769
bfb7748a 1770to
9d67150a 1771
1772 optimize=' '
1773
1774then propagate your changes with B<sh Configure -S> and rebuild
1775with B<make depend; make>.
1776
4bbc1586 1777=item Missing functions and Undefined symbols
9d67150a 1778
4bbc1586
AD
1779If the build of miniperl fails with a long list of missing functions or
1780undefined symbols, check the libs variable in the config.sh file. It
1781should look something like
1782
1783 libs='-lsocket -lnsl -ldl -lm -lc'
1784
1785The exact libraries will vary from system to system, but you typically
1786need to include at least the math library -lm. Normally, Configure
1787will suggest the correct defaults. If the libs variable is empty, you
1788need to start all over again. Run
1789
1790 make distclean
1791
1792and start from the very beginning. This time, unless you are sure of
1793what you are doing, accept the default list of libraries suggested by
1794Configure.
1795
1796If the libs variable looks correct, you might have the
1797L<"nm extraction"> problem discussed above.
1798
1799If you stil have missing routines or undefined symbols, you probably
1800need to add some library or other, or you need to undefine some feature
1801that Configure thought was there but is defective or incomplete. If
1802you used a hint file, see if it has any relevant advice. You can also
1803look through through config.h for likely suspects.
8e07c86e 1804
1ec51d55 1805=item toke.c
8e07c86e 1806
1ec51d55
CS
1807Some compilers will not compile or optimize the larger files (such as
1808toke.c) without some extra switches to use larger jump offsets or
1809allocate larger internal tables. You can customize the switches for
1810each file in cflags. It's okay to insert rules for specific files into
1811makefile since a default rule only takes effect in the absence of a
8e07c86e
AD
1812specific rule.
1813
7f678428 1814=item Missing dbmclose
8e07c86e 1815
c3edaffb 1816SCO prior to 3.2.4 may be missing dbmclose(). An upgrade to 3.2.4
1817that includes libdbm.nfs (which includes dbmclose()) may be available.
8e07c86e 1818
f3d9a6ba 1819=item Note (probably harmless): No library found for -lsomething
7f678428 1820
1821If you see such a message during the building of an extension, but
1822the extension passes its tests anyway (see L<"make test"> below),
1823then don't worry about the warning message. The extension
1824Makefile.PL goes looking for various libraries needed on various
aa689395 1825systems; few systems will need all the possible libraries listed.
7f678428 1826For example, a system may have -lcposix or -lposix, but it's
1827unlikely to have both, so most users will see warnings for the one
f3d9a6ba
CS
1828they don't have. The phrase 'probably harmless' is intended to
1829reassure you that nothing unusual is happening, and the build
1830process is continuing.
7f678428 1831
1832On the other hand, if you are building GDBM_File and you get the
1833message
1834
f3d9a6ba 1835 Note (probably harmless): No library found for -lgdbm
7f678428 1836
1837then it's likely you're going to run into trouble somewhere along
1838the line, since it's hard to see how you can use the GDBM_File
1839extension without the -lgdbm library.
1840
1841It is true that, in principle, Configure could have figured all of
1842this out, but Configure and the extension building process are not
1843quite that tightly coordinated.
1844
aa689395 1845=item sh: ar: not found
1846
1847This is a message from your shell telling you that the command 'ar'
1848was not found. You need to check your PATH environment variable to
1849make sure that it includes the directory with the 'ar' command. This
1ec51d55 1850is a common problem on Solaris, where 'ar' is in the /usr/ccs/bin
aa689395 1851directory.
1852
1853=item db-recno failure on tests 51, 53 and 55
1854
1855Old versions of the DB library (including the DB library which comes
1856with FreeBSD 2.1) had broken handling of recno databases with modified
1857bval settings. Upgrade your DB library or OS.
1858
6087ac44
JH
1859=item Bad arg length for semctl, is XX, should be ZZZ
1860
11906ba0 1861If you get this error message from the ext/IPC/SysV/t/sem test, your System
6087ac44
JH
1862V IPC may be broken. The XX typically is 20, and that is what ZZZ
1863also should be. Consider upgrading your OS, or reconfiguring your OS
1864to include the System V semaphores.
1865
11906ba0 1866=item ext/IPC/SysV/t/sem........semget: No space left on device
220f3621
GS
1867
1868Either your account or the whole system has run out of semaphores. Or
1869both. Either list the semaphores with "ipcs" and remove the unneeded
1870ones (which ones these are depends on your system and applications)
1871with "ipcrm -s SEMAPHORE_ID_HERE" or configure more semaphores to your
1872system.
1873
d6baa268
JH
1874=item GNU binutils
1875
1876If you mix GNU binutils (nm, ld, ar) with equivalent vendor-supplied
1877tools you may be in for some trouble. For example creating archives
1878with an old GNU 'ar' and then using a new current vendor-supplied 'ld'
1879may lead into linking problems. Either recompile your GNU binutils
1880under your current operating system release, or modify your PATH not
1881to include the GNU utils before running Configure, or specify the
1882vendor-supplied utilities explicitly to Configure, for example by
1883Configure -Dar=/bin/ar.
1884
16dc217a
GS
1885=item THIS PACKAGE SEEMS TO BE INCOMPLETE
1886
1887The F<Configure> program has not been able to find all the files which
1888make up the complete Perl distribution. You may have a damaged source
1889archive file (in which case you may also have seen messages such as
1890C<gzip: stdin: unexpected end of file> and C<tar: Unexpected EOF on
1891archive file>), or you may have obtained a structurally-sound but
1892incomplete archive. In either case, try downloading again from the
1893official site named at the start of this document. If you do find
1894that any site is carrying a corrupted or incomplete source code
1895archive, please report it to the site's maintainer.
1896
16dc217a
GS
1897=item invalid token: ##
1898
ce80d64e
AD
1899You are using a non-ANSI-compliant C compiler. To compile Perl, you
1900need to use a compiler that supports ANSI C. If there is a README
1901file for your system, it may have further details on your compiler
1902options.
16dc217a 1903
1ec51d55 1904=item Miscellaneous
8e07c86e
AD
1905
1906Some additional things that have been reported for either perl4 or perl5:
1907
1908Genix may need to use libc rather than libc_s, or #undef VARARGS.
1909
1910NCR Tower 32 (OS 2.01.01) may need -W2,-Sl,2000 and #undef MKDIR.
1911
9ede5bc8 1912UTS may need one or more of -K or -g, and undef LSTAT.
8e07c86e 1913
11906ba0 1914FreeBSD can fail the ext/IPC/SysV/t/sem.t test if SysV IPC has not been
5cda700b 1915configured in the kernel. Perl tries to detect this, though, and
ce80d64e 1916you will get a message telling you what to do.
6087ac44 1917
d6baa268
JH
1918HP-UX 11 Y2K patch "Y2K-1100 B.11.00.B0125 HP-UX Core OS Year 2000
1919Patch Bundle" has been reported to break the io/fs test #18 which
1920tests whether utime() can change timestamps. The Y2K patch seems to
1921break utime() so that over NFS the timestamps do not get changed
1922(on local filesystems utime() still works).
1923
6c8d78fb
HS
1924Building Perl on a system that has also BIND (headers and libraries)
1925installed may run into troubles because BIND installs its own netdb.h
1926and socket.h, which may not agree with the operating system's ideas of
1927the same files. Similarly, including -lbind may conflict with libc's
1928view of the world. You may have to tweak -Dlocincpth and -Dloclibpth
1929to avoid the BIND.
1930
8e07c86e
AD
1931=back
1932
58a21a9b
JH
1933=head2 Cross-compilation
1934
e7a3c61b
JH
1935Perl can be cross-compiled. It is just not trivial, cross-compilation
1936rarely is. Perl is routinely cross-compiled for many platforms (as of
1937June 2005 at least PocketPC aka WinCE, Open Zaurus, EPOC, Symbian, and
1938the IBM OS/400). These platforms are known as the B<target> platforms,
1939while the systems where the compilation takes place are the B<host>
1940platforms.
1941
1942What makes the situation difficult is that first of all,
1943cross-compilation environments vary significantly in how they are set
1944up and used, and secondly because the primary way of configuring Perl
1945(using the rather large Unix-tool-dependent Configure script) is not
1946awfully well suited for cross-compilation. However, starting from
1947version 5.8.0, the Configure script also knows one way of supporting
1948cross-compilation support, please keep reading.
1949
1950See the following files for more information about compiling Perl for
1951the particular platforms:
1952
1953=over 4
1954
1955=item WinCE/PocketPC
1956
75472953 1957README.ce
e7a3c61b
JH
1958
1959=item Open Zaurus
1960
1961Cross/README
1962
1963=item EPOC
1964
1965README.epoc
1966
1967=item Symbian
1968
1969README.symbian
1970
1971=item OS/400
1972
1973README.os400
1974
1975=back
1976
1977Packaging and transferring either the core Perl modules or CPAN
1978modules to the target platform is also left up to the each
1979cross-compilation environment. Often the cross-compilation target
1980platforms are somewhat limited in diskspace: see the section
1981L<Minimizing the Perl installation> to learn more of the minimal set
1982of files required for a functional Perl installation.
1983
1984For some cross-compilation environments the Configure option
1985C<-Dinstallprefix=...> might be handy, see L<Changing the installation
1986directory>.
1987
1988About the cross-compilation support of Configure: what is known to
1989work is running Configure in a cross-compilation environment and
1990building the miniperl executable. What is known not to work is
1991building the perl executable because that would require building
1992extensions: Dynaloader statically and File::Glob dynamically, for
1993extensions one needs MakeMaker and MakeMaker is not yet
1994cross-compilation aware, and neither is the main Makefile.
1995
1996The cross-compilation setup of Configure has successfully been used in
1997at least two Linux cross-compilation environments. The setups were
1998both such that the host system was Intel Linux with a gcc built for
1999cross-compiling into ARM Linux, and there was a SSH connection to the
2000target system.
2001
2002To run Configure in cross-compilation mode the basic switch that
2003has to be used is C<-Dusecrosscompile>.
58a21a9b
JH
2004
2005 sh ./Configure -des -Dusecrosscompile -D...
2006
2007This will make the cpp symbol USE_CROSS_COMPILE and the %Config
b0f06652
VK
2008symbol C<usecrosscompile> available, and C<xconfig.h> will be used
2009for cross-compilation.
58a21a9b
JH
2010
2011During the Configure and build, certain helper scripts will be created
2012into the Cross/ subdirectory. The scripts are used to execute a
2013cross-compiled executable, and to transfer files to and from the
2014target host. The execution scripts are named F<run-*> and the
2015transfer scripts F<to-*> and F<from-*>. The part after the dash is
2016the method to use for remote execution and transfer: by default the
2017methods are B<ssh> and B<scp>, thus making the scripts F<run-ssh>,
2018F<to-scp>, and F<from-scp>.
2019
2020To configure the scripts for a target host and a directory (in which
2021the execution will happen and which is to and from where the transfer
2022happens), supply Configure with
2023
2024 -Dtargethost=so.me.ho.st -Dtargetdir=/tar/get/dir
2025
2026The targethost is what e.g. ssh will use as the hostname, the targetdir
93bc48fa
JH
2027must exist (the scripts won't create it), the targetdir defaults to /tmp.
2028You can also specify a username to use for ssh/rsh logins
58a21a9b
JH
2029
2030 -Dtargetuser=luser
2031
2032but in case you don't, "root" will be used.
2033
93bc48fa
JH
2034Because this is a cross-compilation effort, you will also need to specify
2035which target environment and which compilation environment to use.
2036This includes the compiler, the header files, and the libraries.
2037In the below we use the usual settings for the iPAQ cross-compilation
2038environment:
58a21a9b
JH
2039
2040 -Dtargetarch=arm-linux
2041 -Dcc=arm-linux-gcc
2042 -Dusrinc=/skiff/local/arm-linux/include
2043 -Dincpth=/skiff/local/arm-linux/include
2044 -Dlibpth=/skiff/local/arm-linux/lib
2045
2046If the name of the C<cc> has the usual GNU C semantics for cross
2047compilers, that is, CPU-OS-gcc, the names of the C<ar>, C<nm>, and
2048C<ranlib> will also be automatically chosen to be CPU-OS-ar and so on.
93bc48fa
JH
2049(The C<ld> requires more thought and will be chosen later by Configure
2050as appropriate.) Also, in this case the incpth, libpth, and usrinc
2051will be guessed by Configure (unless explicitly set to something else,
2052in which case Configure's guesses with be appended).
58a21a9b
JH
2053
2054In addition to the default execution/transfer methods you can also
2055choose B<rsh> for execution, and B<rcp> or B<cp> for transfer,
2056for example:
2057
2058 -Dtargetrun=rsh -Dtargetto=rcp -Dtargetfrom=cp
2059
2060Putting it all together:
2061
2062 sh ./Configure -des -Dusecrosscompile \
93bc48fa
JH
2063 -Dtargethost=so.me.ho.st \
2064 -Dtargetdir=/tar/get/dir \
58a21a9b
JH
2065 -Dtargetuser=root \
2066 -Dtargetarch=arm-linux \
2067 -Dcc=arm-linux-gcc \
2068 -Dusrinc=/skiff/local/arm-linux/include \
2069 -Dincpth=/skiff/local/arm-linux/include \
2070 -Dlibpth=/skiff/local/arm-linux/lib \
2071 -D...
2072
e7a3c61b 2073or if you are happy with the defaults:
93bc48fa
JH
2074
2075 sh ./Configure -des -Dusecrosscompile \
2076 -Dtargethost=so.me.ho.st \
2077 -Dcc=arm-linux-gcc \
2078 -D...
2079
e7a3c61b
JH
2080Another example where the cross-compiler has been installed under
2081F</usr/local/arm/2.95.5>:
2082
2083 sh ./Configure -des -Dusecrosscompile \
2084 -Dtargethost=so.me.ho.st \
2085 -Dcc=/usr/local/arm/2.95.5/bin/arm-linux-gcc \
2086 -Dincpth=/usr/local/arm/2.95.5/include \
2087 -Dusrinc=/usr/local/arm/2.95.5/include \
2088 -Dlibpth=/usr/local/arm/2.95.5/lib
2089
8e07c86e
AD
2090=head1 make test
2091
d6baa268
JH
2092This will run the regression tests on the perl you just made. If
2093'make test' doesn't say "All tests successful" then something went
2094wrong. See the file t/README in the t subdirectory.
84902520 2095
84902520 2096Note that you can't run the tests in background if this disables
fb73857a 2097opening of /dev/tty. You can use 'make test-notty' in that case but
2098a few tty tests will be skipped.
c3edaffb 2099
c4f23d77
AD
2100=head2 What if make test doesn't work?
2101
1ec51d55
CS
2102If make test bombs out, just cd to the t directory and run ./TEST
2103by hand to see if it makes any difference. If individual tests
c3edaffb 2104bomb, you can run them by hand, e.g.,
8e07c86e
AD
2105
2106 ./perl op/groups.t
2107
aa689395 2108Another way to get more detailed information about failed tests and
1ec51d55 2109individual subtests is to cd to the t directory and run
aa689395 2110
2111 ./perl harness
2112
fb73857a 2113(this assumes that most basic tests succeed, since harness uses
10c7e831
JH
2114complicated constructs). For extension and library tests you
2115need a little bit more: you need to setup your environment variable
2116PERL_CORE to a true value (like "1"), and you need to supply the
2117right Perl library path:
2118
2119 setenv PERL_CORE 1
2120 ./perl -I../lib ../ext/Socket/Socket.t
2121 ./perl -I../lib ../lib/less.t
aa689395 2122
5cda700b 2123(For csh-like shells on UNIX; adjust appropriately for other platforms.)
fb73857a 2124You should also read the individual tests to see if there are any helpful
10c7e831
JH
2125comments that apply to your system. You may also need to setup your
2126shared library path if you get errors like:
2127
2128 /sbin/loader: Fatal Error: cannot map libperl.so
2129
2130See L</"Building a shared Perl library"> earlier in this document.
c3edaffb 2131
c4f23d77
AD
2132=over 4
2133
2134=item locale
2135
1ec51d55 2136Note: One possible reason for errors is that some external programs
c07a80fd 2137may be broken due to the combination of your environment and the way
3fe9a6f1 2138B<make test> exercises them. For example, this may happen if you have
1ec51d55
CS
2139one or more of these environment variables set: LC_ALL LC_CTYPE
2140LC_COLLATE LANG. In some versions of UNIX, the non-English locales
e57fd563 2141are known to cause programs to exhibit mysterious errors.
2142
2143If you have any of the above environment variables set, please try
aa689395 2144
2145 setenv LC_ALL C
2146
2147(for C shell) or
2148
2149 LC_ALL=C;export LC_ALL
2150
1ec51d55
CS
2151for Bourne or Korn shell) from the command line and then retry
2152make test. If the tests then succeed, you may have a broken program that
aa689395 2153is confusing the testing. Please run the troublesome test by hand as
e57fd563 2154shown above and see whether you can locate the program. Look for
1ec51d55
CS
2155things like: exec, `backquoted command`, system, open("|...") or
2156open("...|"). All these mean that Perl is trying to run some
e57fd563 2157external program.
eed2e782 2158
0740bb5b
AD
2159=item Timing problems
2160
c29923ff
JH
2161Several tests in the test suite check timing functions, such as
2162sleep(), and see if they return in a reasonable amount of time.
9341413f
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2163If your system is quite busy and doesn't respond quickly enough,
2164these tests might fail. If possible, try running the tests again
2165with the system under a lighter load. These timing-sensitive
2166and load-sensitive tests include F<t/op/alarm.t>,
2167F<ext/Time/HiRes/HiRes.t>, F<lib/Benchmark.t>,
2168F<lib/Memoize/t/expmod_t.t>, and F<lib/Memoize/t/speed.t>.
0740bb5b 2169
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2170=item Out of memory
2171
2172On some systems, particularly those with smaller amounts of RAM, some
2173of the tests in t/op/pat.t may fail with an "Out of memory" message.
7970f296
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2174For example, on my SparcStation IPC with 12 MB of RAM, in perl5.5.670,
2175test 85 will fail if run under either t/TEST or t/harness.
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2176
2177Try stopping other jobs on the system and then running the test by itself:
2178
2179 cd t; ./perl op/pat.t
2180
2181to see if you have any better luck. If your perl still fails this
2182test, it does not necessarily mean you have a broken perl. This test
2183tries to exercise the regular expression subsystem quite thoroughly,
2184and may well be far more demanding than your normal usage.
2185
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2186=item Failures from lib/File/Temp/t/security saying "system possibly insecure"
2187
2188First, such warnings are not necessarily serious or indicative of a
2189real security threat. That being said, they bear investigating.
2190
2191Note that each of the tests is run twice. The first time is in the
2192directory returned by File::Spec->tmpdir() (often /tmp on Unix
2193systems), and the second time in the directory from which the test was
2194run (usually the 't' directory, if the test was run as part of 'make
2195test').
2196
2197The tests may fail for the following reasons:
2198
2199(1) If the directory the tests are being run in is owned by somebody
2200other than the user running the tests, or by root (uid 0).
2201
2202This failure can happen if the Perl source code distribution is
2203unpacked in such a way that the user ids in the distribution package
2204are used as-is. Some tar programs do this.
2205
2206(2) If the directory the tests are being run in is writable by group or
2207by others, and there is no sticky bit set for the directory. (With
2208UNIX/POSIX semantics, write access to a directory means the right to
2209add or remove files in that directory. The 'sticky bit' is a feature
2210used in some UNIXes to give extra protection to files: if the bit is
2211set for a directory, no one but the owner (or root) can remove that
2212file even if the permissions would otherwise allow file removal by
2213others.)
2214
2215This failure may or may not be a real problem: it depends on the
2216permissions policy used on this particular system. This failure can
2217also happen if the system either doesn't support the sticky bit (this
2218is the case with many non-UNIX platforms: in principle File::Temp
2219should know about these platforms and skip the tests), or if the system
2220supports the sticky bit but for some reason or reasons it is not being
2221used. This is, for example, the case with HP-UX: as of HP-UX release
222211.00, the sticky bit is very much supported, but HP-UX doesn't use it
2223on its /tmp directory as shipped. Also, as with the permissions, some
2224local policy might dictate that the stickiness is not used.
781948c1 2225
b2b23189
JH
2226(3) If the system supports the POSIX 'chown giveaway' feature and if
2227any of the parent directories of the temporary file back to the root
2228directory are 'unsafe', using the definitions given above in (1) and
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2229(2). For Unix systems, this is usually not an issue if you are
2230building on a local disk. See the documentation for the File::Temp
2231module for more information about 'chown giveaway'.
781948c1
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2232
2233See the documentation for the File::Temp module for more information
4f76e5ba 2234about the various security aspects of temporary files.
781948c1 2235
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2236=back
2237
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2238=head1 make install
2239
2240This will put perl into the public directory you specified to
1ec51d55 2241Configure; by default this is /usr/local/bin. It will also try
8e07c86e 2242to put the man pages in a reasonable place. It will not nroff the man
aa689395 2243pages, however. You may need to be root to run B<make install>. If you
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2244are not root, you must still have permission to install into the directories
2245in question and you should ignore any messages about chown not working.
2246
2247If "make install" just says "`install' is up to date" or something
2248similar, you may be on a case-insensitive filesystems such as Mac's HFS+,
2249and you should say "make install-all". (This confusion is brought to you
2250by the Perl distribution having a file called INSTALL.)
8e07c86e 2251
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2252=head2 Installing perl under different names
2253
2254If you want to install perl under a name other than "perl" (for example,
2255when installing perl with special features enabled, such as debugging),
2256indicate the alternate name on the "make install" line, such as:
2257
2258 make install PERLNAME=myperl
2259
beb13193
RS
2260You can separately change the base used for versioned names (like
2261"perl5.005") by setting PERLNAME_VERBASE, like
2262
2263 make install PERLNAME=perl5 PERLNAME_VERBASE=perl
2264
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2265This can be useful if you have to install perl as "perl5" (e.g. to
2266avoid conflicts with an ancient version in /usr/bin supplied by your vendor).
2267Without this the versioned binary would be called "perl55.005".
beb13193 2268
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2269=head2 Installing perl under a different directory
2270
2271You can install perl under a different destination directory by using
2272the DESTDIR variable during C<make install>, with a command like
2273
2274 make install DESTDIR=/tmp/perl5
2275
2276DESTDIR is automatically prepended to all the installation paths. See
2277the example in L<"Creating an installable tar archive"> above.
2278
2279
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2280=head2 Installed files
2281
8e07c86e
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2282If you want to see exactly what will happen without installing
2283anything, you can run
4633a7c4 2284
8e07c86e
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2285 ./perl installperl -n
2286 ./perl installman -n
2287
1ec51d55 2288make install will install the following:
8e07c86e 2289
d56c5707
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2290 binaries
2291
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2292 perl,
2293 perl5.nnn where nnn is the current release number. This
2294 will be a link to perl.
2295 suidperl,
2296 sperl5.nnn If you requested setuid emulation.
2297 a2p awk-to-perl translator
d56c5707
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2298
2299 scripts
2300
8e07c86e
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2301 cppstdin This is used by perl -P, if your cc -E can't
2302 read from stdin.
2303 c2ph, pstruct Scripts for handling C structures in header files.
2304 s2p sed-to-perl translator
2305 find2perl find-to-perl translator
aa689395 2306 h2ph Extract constants and simple macros from C headers
8e07c86e 2307 h2xs Converts C .h header files to Perl extensions.
24b3df7f 2308 perlbug Tool to report bugs in Perl.
8e07c86e 2309 perldoc Tool to read perl's pod documentation.
aa689395 2310 pl2pm Convert Perl 4 .pl files to Perl 5 .pm modules
8e07c86e 2311 pod2html, Converters from perl's pod documentation format
aa689395 2312 pod2latex, to other useful formats.
d56c5707
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2313 pod2man,
2314 pod2text,
2315 pod2checker,
2316 pod2select,
2317 pod2usage
aa689395 2318 splain Describe Perl warnings and errors
95667ae4 2319 dprofpp Perl code profile post-processor
8e07c86e 2320
d56c5707
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2321 library files
2322
2323 in $privlib and $archlib specified to
8e07c86e 2324 Configure, usually under /usr/local/lib/perl5/.
d56c5707
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2325
2326 documentation
2327
d6baa268
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2328 man pages in $man1dir, usually /usr/local/man/man1.
2329 module man
2330 pages in $man3dir, usually /usr/local/man/man3.
8e07c86e
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2331 pod/*.pod in $privlib/pod/.
2332
d6baa268
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2333Installperl will also create the directories listed above
2334in L<"Installation Directories">.
4633a7c4 2335
d56c5707 2336Perl's *.h header files and the libperl library are also installed
d6baa268 2337under $archlib so that any user may later build new modules, run the
56c6f531
JH
2338optional Perl compiler, or embed the perl interpreter into another
2339program even if the Perl source is no longer available.
8e07c86e 2340
d56c5707
JH
2341Sometimes you only want to install the version-specific parts of the perl
2342installation. For example, you may wish to install a newer version of
2343perl alongside an already installed production version of perl without
2344disabling installation of new modules for the production version.
2345To only install the version-specific parts of the perl installation, run
2346
2347 Configure -Dversiononly
2348
2349or answer 'y' to the appropriate Configure prompt. Alternatively,
2350you can just manually run
2351
2352 ./perl installperl -v
2353
2354and skip installman altogether.
2355See also L<"Maintaining completely separate versions"> for another
2356approach.
2357
aa689395 2358=head1 Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5
4633a7c4 2359
9a664500 2360Perl 5.9 is not binary compatible with earlier versions of Perl.
cc65bb49 2361In other words, you will have to recompile your XS modules.
14eee2f1 2362
693762b4 2363In general, you can usually safely upgrade from one version of Perl (e.g.
9a664500 23645.8.0) to another similar version (e.g. 5.8.2) without re-compiling
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2365all of your add-on extensions. You can also safely leave the old version
2366around in case the new version causes you problems for some reason.
2367For example, if you want to be sure that your script continues to run
9a664500 2368with 5.8.2, simply replace the '#!/usr/local/bin/perl' line at the
693762b4 2369top of the script with the particular version you want to run, e.g.
9a664500 2370#!/usr/local/bin/perl5.8.2.
693762b4 2371
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2372Usually, most extensions will probably not need to be recompiled to use
2373with a newer version of Perl Here is how it is supposed to work.
2374(These examples assume you accept all the Configure defaults.)
693762b4 2375
d6baa268
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2376Suppose you already have version 5.005_03 installed. The directories
2377searched by 5.005_03 are
2378
2379 /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.00503/$archname
2380 /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.00503
2381 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/$archname
2382 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005
2383
0a08c020
GS
2384Beginning with 5.6.0 the version number in the site libraries are
2385fully versioned. Now, suppose you install version 5.6.0. The directories
2386searched by version 5.6.0 will be
d6baa268 2387
0a08c020
GS
2388 /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.0/$archname
2389 /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.6.0
2390 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0/$archname
2391 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0
d6baa268
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2392
2393 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/$archname
2394 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005
c42e3e15 2395 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/
bfb7748a 2396
c42e3e15 2397Notice the last three entries -- Perl understands the default structure
d6baa268
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2398of the $sitelib directories and will look back in older, compatible
2399directories. This way, modules installed under 5.005_03 will continue
0a08c020 2400to be usable by 5.005_03 but will also accessible to 5.6.0. Further,
d6baa268 2401suppose that you upgrade a module to one which requires features
0a08c020
GS
2402present only in 5.6.0. That new module will get installed into
2403/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0 and will be available to 5.6.0,
d6baa268 2404but will not interfere with the 5.005_03 version.
bfb7748a 2405
c42e3e15 2406The last entry, /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/, is there so that
fe23a901 24075.6.0 and above will look for 5.004-era pure perl modules.
d6baa268 2408
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2409Lastly, suppose you now install 5.8.0, which is not binary compatible
2410with 5.6.0. The directories searched by 5.8.0 (if you don't change the
fe23a901
RF
2411Configure defaults) will be:
2412
2413 /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.8.0/$archname
2414 /usr/local/lib/perl5/5.8.0
2415 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.0/$archname
2416 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.0
d6baa268 2417
0a08c020 2418 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0
d6baa268 2419
d6baa268 2420 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005
fe23a901 2421
d6baa268 2422 /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/
bfb7748a 2423
cc65bb49
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2424Note that the earlier $archname entries are now gone, but pure perl
2425modules from earlier versions will still be found.
2426
0a08c020 2427Assuming the users in your site are still actively using perl 5.6.0 and
fe23a901 24285.005 after you installed 5.8.0, you can continue to install add-on
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2429extensions using any of perl 5.8.0, 5.6.0, or 5.005. The installations
2430of these different versions remain distinct, but remember that the
2431newer versions of perl are automatically set up to search the
2432compatible site libraries of the older ones. This means that
2433installing a new XS extension with 5.005 will make it visible to both
24345.005 and 5.6.0, but not to 5.8.0. Installing a pure perl module with
24355.005 will make it visible to all three versions. Later, if you
2436install the same extension using, say, perl 5.8.0, it will override the
24375.005-installed version, but only for perl 5.8.0.
0a08c020
GS
2438
2439This way, you can choose to share compatible extensions, but also upgrade
2440to a newer version of an extension that may be incompatible with earlier
2441versions, without breaking the earlier versions' installations.
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2442
2443=head2 Maintaining completely separate versions
4633a7c4 2444
1ec51d55 2445Many users prefer to keep all versions of perl in completely
d6baa268 2446separate directories. This guarantees that an update to one version
0a08c020
GS
2447won't interfere with another version. (The defaults guarantee this for
2448libraries after 5.6.0, but not for executables. TODO?) One convenient
2449way to do this is by using a separate prefix for each version, such as
d52d4e46 2450
9a664500 2451 sh Configure -Dprefix=/opt/perl5.8.2
d52d4e46 2452
9a664500 2453and adding /opt/perl5.8.2/bin to the shell PATH variable. Such users
d52d4e46 2454may also wish to add a symbolic link /usr/local/bin/perl so that
2455scripts can still start with #!/usr/local/bin/perl.
2456
693762b4 2457Others might share a common directory for maintenance sub-versions
cc65bb49 2458(e.g. 5.8 for all 5.8.x versions), but change directory with
693762b4
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2459each major version.
2460
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2461If you are installing a development subversion, you probably ought to
2462seriously consider using a separate directory, since development
2463subversions may not have all the compatibility wrinkles ironed out
2464yet.
2465
e655887d 2466=head2 Upgrading from 5.005 or 5.6 to 5.8.0
693762b4 2467
9a664500 2468B<Perl 5.9.0 is binary incompatible with Perl 5.8.x, Perl 5.6.x, 5.005,
e655887d
CB
2469and any earlier Perl release.> Perl modules having binary parts
2470(meaning that a C compiler is used) will have to be recompiled to be
9a664500
AMS
2471used with 5.9.0. If you find you do need to rebuild an extension with
24725.9.0, you may safely do so without disturbing the older
e655887d
CB
2473installations. (See L<"Coexistence with earlier versions of perl5">
2474above.)
c42e3e15
GS
2475
2476See your installed copy of the perllocal.pod file for a (possibly
2477incomplete) list of locally installed modules. Note that you want
cc65bb49 2478perllocal.pod, not perllocale.pod, for installed module information.
693762b4 2479
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2480=head1 Coexistence with perl4
2481
2482You can safely install perl5 even if you want to keep perl4 around.
2483
1ec51d55
CS
2484By default, the perl5 libraries go into /usr/local/lib/perl5/, so
2485they don't override the perl4 libraries in /usr/local/lib/perl/.
8e07c86e
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2486
2487In your /usr/local/bin directory, you should have a binary named
1ec51d55 2488perl4.036. That will not be touched by the perl5 installation
8e07c86e
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2489process. Most perl4 scripts should run just fine under perl5.
2490However, if you have any scripts that require perl4, you can replace
d6baa268 2491the #! line at the top of them by #!/usr/local/bin/perl4.036 (or
4dc3e0af 2492whatever the appropriate pathname is). See L<perltrap> for
d6baa268 2493possible problems running perl4 scripts under perl5.
8e07c86e 2494
aa689395 2495=head1 cd /usr/include; h2ph *.h sys/*.h
2496
d6baa268
JH
2497Some perl scripts need to be able to obtain information from the
2498system header files. This command will convert the most commonly used
1ec51d55 2499header files in /usr/include into files that can be easily interpreted
d6baa268
JH
2500by perl. These files will be placed in the architecture-dependent
2501library ($archlib) directory you specified to Configure.
aa689395 2502
d6baa268
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2503Note: Due to differences in the C and perl languages, the conversion
2504of the header files is not perfect. You will probably have to
2505hand-edit some of the converted files to get them to parse correctly.
2506For example, h2ph breaks spectacularly on type casting and certain
2507structures.
aa689395 2508
fb73857a 2509=head1 installhtml --help
aa689395 2510
3e3baf6d
TB
2511Some sites may wish to make perl documentation available in HTML
2512format. The installhtml utility can be used to convert pod
fb73857a 2513documentation into linked HTML files and install them.
aa689395 2514
d6baa268
JH
2515Currently, the supplied ./installhtml script does not make use of the
2516html Configure variables. This should be fixed in a future release.
2517
fb73857a 2518The following command-line is an example of one used to convert
3e3baf6d 2519perl documentation:
aa689395 2520
3e3baf6d
TB
2521 ./installhtml \
2522 --podroot=. \
2523 --podpath=lib:ext:pod:vms \
2524 --recurse \
2525 --htmldir=/perl/nmanual \
2526 --htmlroot=/perl/nmanual \
2527 --splithead=pod/perlipc \
2528 --splititem=pod/perlfunc \
2529 --libpods=perlfunc:perlguts:perlvar:perlrun:perlop \
2530 --verbose
2531
2532See the documentation in installhtml for more details. It can take
2533many minutes to execute a large installation and you should expect to
2534see warnings like "no title", "unexpected directive" and "cannot
2535resolve" as the files are processed. We are aware of these problems
2536(and would welcome patches for them).
aa689395 2537
fb73857a 2538You may find it helpful to run installhtml twice. That should reduce
2539the number of "cannot resolve" warnings.
2540
aa689395 2541=head1 cd pod && make tex && (process the latex files)
2542
2543Some sites may also wish to make the documentation in the pod/ directory
2544available in TeX format. Type
2545
2546 (cd pod && make tex && <process the latex files>)
2547
8ebf57cf
JH
2548=head1 Minimizing the Perl installation
2549
2550The following section is meant for people worrying about squeezing the
2551Perl installation into minimal systems (for example when installing
2552operating systems, or in really small filesystems).
2553
c8214fdf 2554Leaving out as many extensions as possible is an obvious way:
5cda700b
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2555Encode, with its big conversion tables, consumes a lot of
2556space. On the other hand, you cannot throw away everything. The
2557Fcntl module is pretty essential. If you need to do network
c8214fdf
JH
2558programming, you'll appreciate the Socket module, and so forth: it all
2559depends on what do you need to do.
2560
8ebf57cf
JH
2561In the following we offer two different slimmed down installation
2562recipes. They are informative, not normative: the choice of files
2563depends on what you need.
2564
2565Firstly, the bare minimum to run this script
2566
2567 use strict;
2568 use warnings;
2569 foreach my $f (</*>) {
2570 print("$f\n");
2571 }
2572
bfe08c74 2573in Linux is as follows (under $Config{prefix}):
8ebf57cf
JH
2574
2575 ./bin/perl
bfe08c74
RGS
2576 ./lib/perl5/5.9.3/strict.pm
2577 ./lib/perl5/5.9.3/warnings.pm
2578 ./lib/perl5/5.9.3/i686-linux/File/Glob.pm
2579 ./lib/perl5/5.9.3/i686-linux/XSLoader.pm
2580 ./lib/perl5/5.9.3/i686-linux/auto/File/Glob/Glob.so
8ebf57cf
JH
2581
2582Secondly, Debian perl-base package contains the following files,
bfe08c74 2583size about 1.9MB in its i386 version:
8ebf57cf 2584
bfe08c74
RGS
2585 /usr/bin/perl
2586 /usr/bin/perl5.8.4
2587 /usr/lib/perl/5.8
2588 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/B.pm
2589 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/B/Deparse.pm
2590 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/Config.pm
2591 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/Cwd.pm
2592 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/Data/Dumper.pm
2593 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/DynaLoader.pm
2594 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/Errno.pm
2595 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/Fcntl.pm
2596 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/File/Glob.pm
2597 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/IO.pm
2598 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/IO/File.pm
2599 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/IO/Handle.pm
2600 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/IO/Pipe.pm
2601 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/IO/Seekable.pm
2602 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/IO/Select.pm
2603 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/IO/Socket.pm
2604 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/POSIX.pm
2605 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/Socket.pm
2606 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/XSLoader.pm
2607 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/Cwd/Cwd.bs
2608 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/Cwd/Cwd.so
2609 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/Data/Dumper/Dumper.bs
2610 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/Data/Dumper/Dumper.so
2611 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/DynaLoader/DynaLoader.a
2612 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/DynaLoader/autosplit.ix
2613 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/DynaLoader/dl_expandspec.al
2614 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/DynaLoader/dl_find_symbol_anywhere.al
2615 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/DynaLoader/dl_findfile.al
2616 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/DynaLoader/extralibs.ld
2617 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/Fcntl/Fcntl.bs
2618 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/Fcntl/Fcntl.so
2619 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/File/Glob/Glob.bs
2620 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/File/Glob/Glob.so
2621 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/IO/IO.bs
2622 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/IO/IO.so
2623 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/POSIX/POSIX.bs
2624 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/POSIX/POSIX.so
2625 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/POSIX/autosplit.ix
2626 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/POSIX/load_imports.al
2627 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/Socket/Socket.bs
2628 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/auto/Socket/Socket.so
2629 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/lib.pm
2630 /usr/lib/perl/5.8.4/re.pm
2631 /usr/share/doc/perl-base
8ebf57cf 2632 /usr/share/doc/perl/AUTHORS.gz
bfe08c74
RGS
2633 /usr/share/doc/perl/Documentation
2634 /usr/share/doc/perl/README.Debian.gz
8ebf57cf 2635 /usr/share/doc/perl/changelog.Debian.gz
bfe08c74 2636 /usr/share/doc/perl/copyright
8ebf57cf 2637 /usr/share/man/man1/perl.1.gz
bfe08c74
RGS
2638 /usr/share/perl/5.8
2639 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/AutoLoader.pm
2640 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/Carp.pm
2641 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/Carp/Heavy.pm
2642 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/Exporter.pm
2643 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/Exporter/Heavy.pm
2644 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/File/Spec.pm
2645 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/File/Spec/Unix.pm
2646 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/FileHandle.pm
2647 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/Getopt/Long.pm
2648 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/IO/Socket/INET.pm
2649 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/IO/Socket/UNIX.pm
2650 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/IPC/Open2.pm
2651 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/IPC/Open3.pm
2652 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/List/Util.pm
2653 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/Scalar/Util.pm
2654 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/SelectSaver.pm
2655 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/Symbol.pm
2656 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/Text/ParseWords.pm
2657 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/Text/Tabs.pm
2658 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/Text/Wrap.pm
2659 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/attributes.pm
2660 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/base.pm
2661 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/bytes.pm
2662 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/bytes_heavy.pl
2663 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/constant.pm
2664 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/fields.pm
2665 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/integer.pm
2666 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/locale.pm
2667 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/overload.pm
2668 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/strict.pm
2669 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/utf8.pm
2670 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/utf8_heavy.pl
2671 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/vars.pm
2672 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/warnings.pm
2673 /usr/share/perl/5.8.4/warnings/register.pm
8ebf57cf 2674
e7a3c61b
JH
2675A nice trick to find out the minimal set of Perl library files you will
2676need to run a Perl program is
2677
a0a8d9d3 2678 perl -e 'do "prog.pl"; END { print "$_\n" for sort keys %INC }'
e7a3c61b
JH
2679
2680(this will not find libraries required in runtime, unfortunately, but
2681it's a minimal set) and if you want to find out all the files you can
2682use something like the below
2683
2684 strace perl -le 'do "x.pl"' 2>&1 | perl -nle '/^open\(\"(.+?)"/ && print $1'
2685
2686(The 'strace' is Linux-specific, other similar utilities include 'truss'
2687and 'ktrace'.)
2688
8e07c86e
AD
2689=head1 DOCUMENTATION
2690
bfb7748a
AD
2691Read the manual entries before running perl. The main documentation
2692is in the pod/ subdirectory and should have been installed during the
8e07c86e 2693build process. Type B<man perl> to get started. Alternatively, you
bfb7748a
AD
2694can type B<perldoc perl> to use the supplied perldoc script. This is
2695sometimes useful for finding things in the library modules.
8e07c86e 2696
1ec51d55 2697Under UNIX, you can produce a documentation book in postscript form,
bfb7748a
AD
2698along with its table of contents, by going to the pod/ subdirectory and
2699running (either):
34a2a22e
RM
2700
2701 ./roffitall -groff # If you have GNU groff installed
aa689395 2702 ./roffitall -psroff # If you have psroff
34a2a22e
RM
2703
2704This will leave you with two postscript files ready to be printed.
aa689395 2705(You may need to fix the roffitall command to use your local troff
2706set-up.)
34a2a22e 2707
bfb7748a
AD
2708Note that you must have performed the installation already before running
2709the above, since the script collects the installed files to generate
2710the documentation.
34a2a22e 2711
8e07c86e
AD
2712=head1 AUTHOR
2713
bfb7748a
AD
2714Original author: Andy Dougherty doughera@lafayette.edu , borrowing very
2715heavily from the original README by Larry Wall, with lots of helpful
2716feedback and additions from the perl5-porters@perl.org folks.
fb73857a 2717
f5b3b617
AD
2718If you have problems, corrections, or questions, please see
2719L<"Reporting Problems"> above.
2720
2721=head1 REDISTRIBUTION
2722
2723This document is part of the Perl package and may be distributed under
d6baa268 2724the same terms as perl itself, with the following additional request:
f5b3b617 2725If you are distributing a modified version of perl (perhaps as part of
d6baa268
JH
2726a larger package) please B<do> modify these installation instructions
2727and the contact information to match your distribution.