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README.macosx - remove Carbon reference
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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
5=head1 NAME
6
7README.macosx - Perl under Mac OS X
8
9=head1 SYNOPSIS
10
0947f90e 11This document briefly describes Perl under Mac OS X.
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13 curl http://www.cpan.org/src/perl-5.12.3.tar.gz > perl-5.12.3.tar.gz
14 tar -xzf perl-5.12.3.tar.gz
15 cd perl-5.12.3
16 ./Configure -des -Dprefix=/usr/local/
17 make
18 make test
19 sudo make install
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20
21=head1 DESCRIPTION
22
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23The latest Perl release (5.12.3 as of this writing) builds without changes
24under all versions of Mac OS X from 10.3 "Panther" onwards.
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26Earlier Mac OS X releases (10.2 "Jaguar" and older) did not include a
27completely thread-safe libc, so threading is not fully supported. Also,
28earlier releases included a buggy libdb, so some of the DB_File tests
29are known to fail on those releases.
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30
31
f7451e23 32=head2 Installation Prefix
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33
34The default installation location for this release uses the traditional
35UNIX directory layout under /usr/local. This is the recommended location
36for most users, and will leave the Apple-supplied Perl and its modules
37undisturbed.
38
39Using an installation prefix of '/usr' will result in a directory layout
40that mirrors that of Apple's default Perl, with core modules stored in
41'/System/Library/Perl/${version}', CPAN modules stored in
42'/Library/Perl/${version}', and the addition of
43'/Network/Library/Perl/${version}' to @INC for modules that are stored
44on a file server and used by many Macs.
45
46
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47=head2 SDK support
48
49First, export the path to the SDK into the build environment:
50
51 export SDK=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.3.9.sdk
52
53Use an SDK by exporting some additions to Perl's 'ccflags' and '..flags'
54config variables:
55
56 ./Configure -Accflags="-nostdinc -B$SDK/usr/include/gcc \
57 -B$SDK/usr/lib/gcc -isystem$SDK/usr/include \
58 -F$SDK/System/Library/Frameworks" \
59 -Aldflags="-Wl,-syslibroot,$SDK" \
60 -de
61
62=head2 Universal Binary support
63
64To compile perl as a universal binary (built for both ppc and intel), export
65the SDK variable as above, selecting the 10.4u SDK:
66
67 export SDK=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk
68
69In addition to the compiler flags used to select the SDK, also add the flags
70for creating a universal binary:
71
72 ./Configure -Accflags="-arch i686 -arch ppc -nostdinc -B$SDK/usr/include/gcc \
73 -B$SDK/usr/lib/gcc -isystem$SDK/usr/include \
74 -F$SDK/System/Library/Frameworks" \
75 -Aldflags="-arch i686 -arch ppc -Wl,-syslibroot,$SDK" \
76 -de
77
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78In Leopard (MacOSX 10.5.6 at the time of this writing) you must use the 10.5 SDK:
79
80 export SDK=/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.5.sdk
81
82You can use the same compiler flags you would use with the 10.4u SDK.
83
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84Keep in mind that these compiler and linker settings will also be used when
85building CPAN modules. For XS modules to be compiled as a universal binary, any
86libraries it links to must also be universal binaries. The system libraries that
87Apple includes with the 10.4u SDK are all universal, but user-installed libraries
88may need to be re-installed as universal binaries.
89
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90=head2 64-bit PPC support
91
92Follow the instructions in F<INSTALL> to build perl with support for 64-bit
93integers (C<use64bitint>) or both 64-bit integers and 64-bit addressing
94(C<use64bitall>). In the latter case, the resulting binary will run only
95on G5-based hosts.
96
97Support for 64-bit addressing is experimental: some aspects of Perl may be
98omitted or buggy. Note the messages output by F<Configure> for further
99information. Please use C<perlbug> to submit a problem report in the
100event that you encounter difficulties.
101
f858446f 102When building 64-bit modules, it is your responsibility to ensure that linked
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103external libraries and frameworks provide 64-bit support: if they do not,
104module building may appear to succeed, but attempts to use the module will
105result in run-time dynamic linking errors, and subsequent test failures.
106You can use C<file> to discover the architectures supported by a library:
107
108 $ file libgdbm.3.0.0.dylib
109 libgdbm.3.0.0.dylib: Mach-O fat file with 2 architectures
110 libgdbm.3.0.0.dylib (for architecture ppc): Mach-O dynamically linked shared library ppc
111 libgdbm.3.0.0.dylib (for architecture ppc64): Mach-O 64-bit dynamically linked shared library ppc64
112
113Note that this issue precludes the building of many Macintosh-specific CPAN
114modules (C<Mac::*>), as the required Apple frameworks do not provide PPC64
115support. Similarly, downloads from Fink or Darwinports are unlikely to provide
11664-bit support; the libraries must be rebuilt from source with the appropriate
117compiler and linker flags. For further information, see Apple's
118I<64-Bit Transition Guide> at
119L<http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Darwin/Conceptual/64bitPorting/index.html>.
120
f7451e23 121=head2 libperl and Prebinding
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122
123Mac OS X ships with a dynamically-loaded libperl, but the default for
124this release is to compile a static libperl. The reason for this is
125pre-binding. Dynamic libraries can be pre-bound to a specific address in
126memory in order to decrease load time. To do this, one needs to be aware
127of the location and size of all previously-loaded libraries. Apple
128collects this information as part of their overall OS build process, and
129thus has easy access to it when building Perl, but ordinary users would
130need to go to a great deal of effort to obtain the information needed
131for pre-binding.
132
f7451e23 133You can override the default and build a shared libperl if you wish
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134(S<Configure ... -Duseshrlib>), but the load time on pre-10.4 OS
135releases will be greater than either the static library, or Apple's
f7451e23 136pre-bound dynamic library.
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138With 10.4 "Tiger" and newer, Apple has all but eliminated the performance
139penalty for non-prebound libraries.
9ff7b177 140
9ff7b177 141
e30a8c0c 142=head2 Updating Apple's Perl
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144In a word - don't, at least without a *very* good reason. Your scripts
145can just as easily begin with "#!/usr/local/bin/perl" as with
146"#!/usr/bin/perl". Scripts supplied by Apple and other third parties as
147part of installation packages and such have generally only been tested
148with the /usr/bin/perl that's installed by Apple.
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150If you find that you do need to update the system Perl, one issue worth
151keeping in mind is the question of static vs. dynamic libraries. If you
152upgrade using the default static libperl, you will find that the dynamic
153libperl supplied by Apple will not be deleted. If both libraries are
154present when an application that links against libperl is built, ld will
155link against the dynamic library by default. So, if you need to replace
156Apple's dynamic libperl with a static libperl, you need to be sure to
157delete the older dynamic library after you've installed the update.
ffb8d87a 158
9ff7b177 159
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160=head2 Known problems
161
162If you have installed extra libraries such as GDBM through Fink
163(in other words, you have libraries under F</sw/lib>), or libdlcompat
164to F</usr/local/lib>, you may need to be extra careful when running
165Configure to not to confuse Configure and Perl about which libraries
166to use. Being confused will show up for example as "dyld" errors about
167symbol problems, for example during "make test". The safest bet is to run
168Configure as
169
170 Configure ... -Uloclibpth -Dlibpth=/usr/lib
171
172to make Configure look only into the system libraries. If you have some
173extra library directories that you really want to use (such as newer
174Berkeley DB libraries in pre-Panther systems), add those to the libpth:
175
176 Configure ... -Uloclibpth -Dlibpth='/usr/lib /opt/lib'
177
178The default of building Perl statically may cause problems with complex
179applications like Tk: in that case consider building shared Perl
180
181 Configure ... -Duseshrplib
182
183but remember that there's a startup cost to pay in that case (see above
184"libperl and Prebinding").
185
80626d0c 186Starting with Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4), Apple shipped broken locale files for
ffb8d87a 187the eu_ES locale (Basque-Spain). In previous releases of Perl, this resulted in
f858446f 188failures in the C<lib/locale> test. These failures have been suppressed
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189in the current release of Perl by making the test ignore the broken locale.
190If you need to use the eu_ES locale, you should contact Apple support.
f7451e23 191
9ff7b177 192
f7451e23 193=head2 Cocoa
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194
195There are two ways to use Cocoa from Perl. Apple's PerlObjCBridge
196module, included with Mac OS X, can be used by standalone scripts to
197access Foundation (i.e. non-GUI) classes and objects.
198
199An alternative is CamelBones, a framework that allows access to both
200Foundation and AppKit classes and objects, so that full GUI applications
201can be built in Perl. CamelBones can be found on SourceForge, at
202L<http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/camelbones/>.
203
204
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205=head1 Starting From Scratch
206
207Unfortunately it is not that difficult somehow manage to break one's
208Mac OS X Perl rather severely. If all else fails and you want to
209really, B<REALLY>, start from scratch and remove even your Apple Perl
210installation (which has become corrupted somehow), the following
211instructions should do it. B<Please think twice before following
212these instructions: they are much like conducting brain surgery to
213yourself. Without anesthesia.> We will B<not> come to fix your system
214if you do this.
215
216First, get rid of the libperl.dylib:
217
218 # cd /System/Library/Perl/darwin/CORE
219 # rm libperl.dylib
220
221Then delete every .bundle file found anywhere in the folders:
222
223 /System/Library/Perl
224 /Library/Perl
225
226You can find them for example by
227
228 # find /System/Library/Perl /Library/Perl -name '*.bundle' -print
229
e30a8c0c 230After this you can either copy Perl from your operating system media
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231(you will need at least the /System/Library/Perl and /usr/bin/perl),
232or rebuild Perl from the source code with C<Configure -Dprefix=/usr
233-Dusershrplib> NOTE: the C<-Dprefix=/usr> to replace the system Perl
234works much better with Perl 5.8.1 and later, in Perl 5.8.0 the
235settings were not quite right.
236
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237"Pacifist" from CharlesSoft (L<http://www.charlessoft.com/>) is a nice
238way to extract the Perl binaries from the OS media, without having to
239reinstall the entire OS.
240
6c8f3f7c 241
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242=head1 AUTHOR
243
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244This README was written by Sherm Pendley E<lt>sherm@dot-app.orgE<gt>,
245and subsequently updated by Dominic Dunlop E<lt>domo@computer.orgE<gt>.
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246The "Starting From Scratch" recipe was contributed by John Montbriand
247E<lt>montbriand@apple.comE<gt>.
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248
249=head1 DATE
250
ee94f810 251Last modified 2006-02-24.