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68dc0745 | 1 | If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you |
2 | see. It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is | |
3 | specially designed to be readable as is. | |
4 | ||
5 | =head1 NAME | |
6 | ||
5aabfad6 | 7 | perlwin32 - Perl under Win32 |
68dc0745 | 8 | |
9 | =head1 SYNOPSIS | |
10 | ||
7bac28a0 | 11 | These are instructions for building Perl under Windows NT (versions |
9036c72f | 12 | 3.51 or 4.0). Currently, this port is reported to build |
26618a56 GS |
13 | under Windows95 using the 4DOS shell--the default shell that infests |
14 | Windows95 will not work (see below). Note this caveat is only about | |
3e3baf6d TB |
15 | B<building> perl. Once built, you should be able to B<use> it on |
16 | either Win32 platform (modulo the problems arising from the inferior | |
17 | command shell). | |
68dc0745 | 18 | |
19 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
20 | ||
3fe9a6f1 | 21 | Before you start, you should glance through the README file |
68dc0745 | 22 | found in the top-level directory where the Perl distribution |
23 | was extracted. Make sure you read and understand the terms under | |
24 | which this software is being distributed. | |
25 | ||
f7c603cb | 26 | Also make sure you read L<BUGS AND CAVEATS> below for the |
68dc0745 | 27 | known limitations of this port. |
28 | ||
29 | The INSTALL file in the perl top-level has much information that is | |
30 | only relevant to people building Perl on Unix-like systems. In | |
31 | particular, you can safely ignore any information that talks about | |
32 | "Configure". | |
33 | ||
7bac28a0 | 34 | You may also want to look at two other options for building |
2c2d71f5 | 35 | a perl that will work on Windows NT: the README.cygwin and |
3e3baf6d TB |
36 | README.os2 files, which each give a different set of rules to build |
37 | a Perl that will work on Win32 platforms. Those two methods will | |
7bac28a0 | 38 | probably enable you to build a more Unix-compatible perl, but you |
39 | will also need to download and use various other build-time and | |
40 | run-time support software described in those files. | |
68dc0745 | 41 | |
42 | This set of instructions is meant to describe a so-called "native" | |
43 | port of Perl to Win32 platforms. The resulting Perl requires no | |
44 | additional software to run (other than what came with your operating | |
9036c72f GS |
45 | system). Currently, this port is capable of using one of the |
46 | following compilers: | |
47 | ||
48 | Borland C++ version 5.02 or later | |
49 | Microsoft Visual C++ version 4.2 or later | |
9a40db4d | 50 | Mingw32 with EGCS versions 1.0.2, 1.1 |
9036c72f GS |
51 | Mingw32 with GCC version 2.8.1 |
52 | ||
a29d2910 A |
53 | The last two of these are high quality freeware compilers. Support |
54 | for them is still experimental. | |
5aabfad6 | 55 | |
56 | This port currently supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that | |
57 | is used to build extensions to perl). Therefore, you should be | |
58 | able to build and install most extensions found in the CPAN sites. | |
c90c0ff4 | 59 | See L<Usage Hints> below for general hints about this. |
68dc0745 | 60 | |
61 | =head2 Setting Up | |
62 | ||
63 | =over 4 | |
64 | ||
3e3baf6d | 65 | =item Command Shell |
68dc0745 | 66 | |
26618a56 GS |
67 | Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with NT. Some versions of the |
68 | popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause you trouble. | |
69 | If the build fails under that shell, try building again with the cmd | |
70 | shell. The Makefile also has known incompatibilites with the "command.com" | |
71 | shell that comes with Windows95, so building under Windows95 should | |
72 | be considered "unsupported". However, there have been reports of successful | |
b8957cf1 | 73 | build attempts using 4DOS/NT version 6.01 under Windows95, using dmake, but |
26618a56 GS |
74 | your mileage may vary. |
75 | ||
76 | The surest way to build it is on WindowsNT, using the cmd shell. | |
68dc0745 | 77 | |
a8deba26 GS |
78 | Make sure the path to the build directory does not contain spaces. The |
79 | build usually works in this circumstance, but some tests will fail. | |
80 | ||
3e3baf6d TB |
81 | =item Borland C++ |
82 | ||
83 | If you are using the Borland compiler, you will need dmake, a freely | |
84 | available make that has very nice macro features and parallelability. | |
85 | (The make that Borland supplies is seriously crippled, and will not | |
26618a56 GS |
86 | work for MakeMaker builds.) |
87 | ||
88 | A port of dmake for win32 platforms is available from: | |
3e3baf6d | 89 | |
26618a56 GS |
90 | http://www-personal.umich.edu/~gsar/dmake-4.1-win32.zip |
91 | ||
92 | Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path (follow the instructions | |
93 | in the README.NOW file). | |
3e3baf6d TB |
94 | |
95 | =item Microsoft Visual C++ | |
68dc0745 | 96 | |
3e3baf6d | 97 | The NMAKE that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building. |
9036c72f GS |
98 | You will need to run the VCVARS32.BAT file usually found somewhere |
99 | like C:\MSDEV4.2\BIN. This will set your build environment. | |
68dc0745 | 100 | |
26618a56 GS |
101 | You can also use dmake to build using Visual C++, provided: |
102 | you set OSRELEASE to "microsft" (or whatever the directory name | |
103 | under which the Visual C dmake configuration lives) in your environment, | |
104 | and edit win32/config.vc to change "make=nmake" into "make=dmake". The | |
105 | latter step is only essential if you want to use dmake as your default | |
106 | make for building extensions using MakeMaker. | |
3e3baf6d | 107 | |
9036c72f GS |
108 | =item Mingw32 with EGCS or GCC |
109 | ||
80252599 | 110 | ECGS binaries can be downloaded from: |
9036c72f GS |
111 | |
112 | ftp://ftp.xraylith.wisc.edu/pub/khan/gnu-win32/mingw32/ | |
68dc0745 | 113 | |
9036c72f | 114 | GCC-2.8.1 binaries are available from: |
68dc0745 | 115 | |
9036c72f | 116 | http://agnes.dida.physik.uni-essen.de/~janjaap/mingw32/ |
68dc0745 | 117 | |
9036c72f GS |
118 | You only need either one of those, not both. Both bundles come with |
119 | Mingw32 libraries and headers. While both of them work to build perl, | |
120 | the EGCS binaries are currently favored by the maintainers, since they | |
121 | come with more up-to-date Mingw32 libraries. | |
122 | ||
123 | Make sure you install the binaries as indicated in the web sites | |
124 | above. You will need to set up a few environment variables (usually | |
125 | run from a batch file). | |
68dc0745 | 126 | |
ee4d903c GS |
127 | You also need dmake. See L</"Borland C++"> above on how to get it. |
128 | ||
68dc0745 | 129 | =back |
130 | ||
137443ea | 131 | =head2 Building |
68dc0745 | 132 | |
133 | =over 4 | |
134 | ||
135 | =item * | |
136 | ||
68dc0745 | 137 | Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl toplevel. |
137443ea | 138 | This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with |
9036c72f GS |
139 | versions of NMAKE that come with Visual C++, and a dmake "makefile.mk" |
140 | that will work for all supported compilers. The defaults in the dmake | |
141 | makefile are setup to build using the Borland compiler. | |
68dc0745 | 142 | |
143 | =item * | |
144 | ||
9036c72f GS |
145 | Edit the makefile.mk (or Makefile, if using nmake) and change the values |
146 | of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. You can also enable various build | |
26618a56 GS |
147 | flags. |
148 | ||
9036c72f GS |
149 | Beginning with version 5.005, there is experimental support for building |
150 | a perl interpreter that supports the Perl Object abstraction (courtesy | |
151 | ActiveState Tool Corp.) PERL_OBJECT uses C++, and the binaries are | |
152 | therefore incompatible with the regular C build. However, the | |
153 | PERL_OBJECT build does provide something called the C-API, for linking | |
80252599 GS |
154 | it with extensions that won't compile under PERL_OBJECT. Using the C_API |
155 | is typically requested through: | |
156 | ||
157 | perl Makefile.PL CAPI=TRUE | |
158 | ||
159 | PERL_OBJECT requires VC++ 5.0 (Service Pack 3 recommended) or later. It | |
9cde0e7f GS |
160 | is not yet supported under GCC or EGCS. WARNING: Binaries built with |
161 | PERL_OBJECT enabled are B<not> compatible with binaries built without. | |
162 | Perl installs PERL_OBJECT binaries under a distinct architecture name, | |
163 | so they B<can> coexist, though. | |
9036c72f GS |
164 | |
165 | Beginning with version 5.005, there is experimental support for building | |
166 | a perl interpreter that is capable of native threading. Binaries built | |
167 | with thread support enabled are also incompatible with the vanilla C | |
9cde0e7f GS |
168 | build. WARNING: Binaries built with threads enabled are B<not> compatible |
169 | with binaries built without. Perl installs threads enabled binaries under | |
170 | a distinct architecture name, so they B<can> coexist, though. | |
9036c72f GS |
171 | |
172 | At the present time, you cannot enable both threading and PERL_OBJECT. | |
173 | You can get only one of them in a Perl interpreter. | |
174 | ||
26618a56 GS |
175 | If you have either the source or a library that contains des_fcrypt(), |
176 | enable the appropriate option in the makefile. des_fcrypt() is not | |
177 | bundled with the distribution due to US Government restrictions | |
178 | on the export of cryptographic software. Nevertheless, this routine | |
179 | is part of the "libdes" library (written by Ed Young) which is widely | |
180 | available worldwide, usually along with SSLeay (for example: | |
181 | "ftp://fractal.mta.ca/pub/crypto/SSLeay/DES/"). Set CRYPT_SRC to the | |
182 | name of the file that implements des_fcrypt(). Alternatively, if | |
183 | you have built a library that contains des_fcrypt(), you can set | |
2d77217b GS |
184 | CRYPT_LIB to point to the library name. The location above contains |
185 | many versions of the "libdes" library, all with slightly different | |
186 | implementations of des_fcrypt(). Older versions have a single, | |
187 | self-contained file (fcrypt.c) that implements crypt(), so they may be | |
188 | easier to use. A patch against the fcrypt.c found in libdes-3.06 is | |
189 | in des_fcrypt.patch. | |
26618a56 GS |
190 | |
191 | Perl will also build without des_fcrypt(), but the crypt() builtin will | |
192 | fail at run time. | |
c90c0ff4 | 193 | |
3e3baf6d | 194 | You will also have to make sure CCHOME points to wherever you installed |
80252599 | 195 | your compiler. |
a8deba26 GS |
196 | |
197 | The default value for CCHOME in the makefiles for Visual C++ | |
ee4d903c GS |
198 | may not be correct for some versions. Make sure the default exists |
199 | and is valid. | |
c90c0ff4 | 200 | |
9036c72f GS |
201 | Other options are explained in the makefiles. Be sure to read the |
202 | instructions carefully. | |
203 | ||
68dc0745 | 204 | =item * |
205 | ||
9036c72f | 206 | Type "dmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make). |
68dc0745 | 207 | |
137443ea | 208 | This should build everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe, |
3075ddba | 209 | perl.dll (or perl56.dll), and perlglob.exe at the perl toplevel, and |
9036c72f GS |
210 | various other extension dll's under the lib\auto directory. If the build |
211 | fails for any reason, make sure you have done the previous steps correctly. | |
68dc0745 | 212 | |
156a3eb7 GS |
213 | The build process may produce "harmless" compiler warnings (more or |
214 | less copiously, depending on how picky your compiler gets). The | |
215 | maintainers are aware of these warnings, thankyouverymuch. :) | |
216 | ||
3e3baf6d TB |
217 | When building using Visual C++, a perl95.exe will also get built. This |
218 | executable is only needed on Windows95, and should be used instead of | |
219 | perl.exe, and then only if you want sockets to work properly on Windows95. | |
220 | This is necessitated by a bug in the Microsoft C Runtime that cannot be | |
26618a56 GS |
221 | worked around in the "normal" perl.exe. perl95.exe gets built with its |
222 | own private copy of the C Runtime that is not accessible to extensions | |
223 | (which see the DLL version of the CRT). Be aware, therefore, that this | |
224 | perl95.exe will have esoteric problems with extensions like perl/Tk that | |
225 | themselves use the C Runtime heavily, or want to free() pointers | |
226 | malloc()-ed by perl. | |
3e3baf6d | 227 | |
af06e6b3 GS |
228 | You can avoid the perl95.exe problems completely if you either enable |
229 | USE_PERLCRT with Visual C++, or use Borland C++ for building perl. In | |
230 | those cases, perl95.exe is not needed and will not be built. | |
3e3baf6d | 231 | |
68dc0745 | 232 | =back |
233 | ||
234 | =head2 Testing | |
235 | ||
9036c72f | 236 | Type "dmake test" (or "nmake test"). This will run most of the tests from |
3e3baf6d | 237 | the testsuite (many tests will be skipped, and but no test should fail). |
68dc0745 | 238 | |
8b88ae92 | 239 | If some tests do fail, it may be because you are using a different command |
a8deba26 GS |
240 | shell than the native "cmd.exe", or because you are building from a path |
241 | that contains spaces. So don't do that. | |
68dc0745 | 242 | |
328c22fc GS |
243 | If you are running the tests from a emacs shell window, you may see |
244 | failures in op/stat.t. Run "dmake test-notty" in that case. | |
245 | ||
a8deba26 | 246 | If you're using the Borland compiler, you may see a failure in op/taint.t |
3e3baf6d TB |
247 | arising from the inability to find the Borland Runtime DLLs on the system |
248 | default path. You will need to copy the DLLs reported by the messages | |
249 | from where Borland chose to install it, into the Windows system directory | |
250 | (usually somewhere like C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32), and rerun the test. | |
251 | ||
9036c72f | 252 | The Visual C runtime apparently has a bug that causes posix.t to fail |
9a40db4d GS |
253 | test#2. This usually happens only if you extracted the files in text |
254 | mode. Enable the USE_PERLCRT option in the Makefile to fix this bug. | |
9036c72f | 255 | |
3e3baf6d | 256 | Please report any other failures as described under L<BUGS AND CAVEATS>. |
68dc0745 | 257 | |
137443ea | 258 | =head2 Installation |
259 | ||
9036c72f | 260 | Type "dmake install" (or "nmake install"). This will put the newly |
26618a56 GS |
261 | built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP> points to in the |
262 | Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation under | |
9036c72f GS |
263 | C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same under |
264 | C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\lib\pod\html>. To use the Perl you just installed, | |
265 | you will need to add two components to your PATH environment variable, | |
266 | C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\bin>, and C<$INST_TOP\$VERSION\bin\$ARCHNAME>. | |
267 | For example: | |
268 | ||
80252599 | 269 | set PATH c:\perl\5.005\bin;c:\perl\5.005\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH% |
9036c72f | 270 | |
137443ea | 271 | |
7bac28a0 | 272 | =head2 Usage Hints |
273 | ||
274 | =over 4 | |
275 | ||
276 | =item Environment Variables | |
277 | ||
278 | The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled | |
279 | into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start | |
280 | using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable). | |
281 | ||
282 | If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB | |
283 | to a list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl | |
284 | to look for libraries. Look for descriptions of other environment | |
26618a56 GS |
285 | variables you can set in L<perlrun>. |
286 | ||
287 | You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and | |
288 | backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See L<perlrun>. | |
7bac28a0 | 289 | |
9a40db4d GS |
290 | Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain default |
291 | values if you choose to put them there. Perl attempts to read entries from | |
292 | C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> and C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>. | |
293 | Entries in the former override entries in the latter. One or more of the | |
294 | following entries (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may be set: | |
295 | ||
296 | lib-$] version-specific path to add to @INC | |
297 | lib path to add to @INC | |
298 | sitelib-$] version-specific path to add to @INC | |
299 | sitelib path to add to @INC | |
300 | PERL* fallback for all %ENV lookups that begin with "PERL" | |
301 | ||
302 | Note the C<$]> in the above is not literal. Substitute whatever version | |
303 | of perl you want to honor that entry, e.g. C<5.00502>. Paths must be | |
304 | separated with semicolons, as usual on win32. | |
7bac28a0 | 305 | |
3e3baf6d TB |
306 | =item File Globbing |
307 | ||
308 | By default, perl spawns an external program to do file globbing. | |
309 | The install process installs both a perlglob.exe and a perlglob.bat | |
310 | that perl can use for this purpose. Note that with the default | |
311 | installation, perlglob.exe will be found by the system before | |
312 | perlglob.bat. | |
313 | ||
314 | perlglob.exe relies on the argv expansion done by the C Runtime of | |
315 | the particular compiler you used, and therefore behaves very | |
316 | differently depending on the Runtime used to build it. To preserve | |
dfb634a9 GS |
317 | compatiblity, perlglob.bat (a perl script that can be used portably) |
318 | is installed. Besides being portable, perlglob.bat also offers | |
319 | enhanced globbing functionality. | |
3e3baf6d TB |
320 | |
321 | If you want perl to use perlglob.bat instead of perlglob.exe, just | |
322 | delete perlglob.exe from the install location (or move it somewhere | |
dfb634a9 GS |
323 | perl cannot find). Using File::DosGlob.pm (which implements the core |
324 | functionality of perlglob.bat) to override the internal CORE::glob() | |
325 | works about 10 times faster than spawing perlglob.exe, and you should | |
326 | take this approach when writing new modules. See File::DosGlob for | |
327 | details. | |
3e3baf6d | 328 | |
7bac28a0 | 329 | =item Using perl from the command line |
330 | ||
331 | If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line | |
332 | shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased | |
333 | with what Windows NT offers by way of a command shell. | |
334 | ||
335 | The crucial thing to understand about the "cmd" shell (which is | |
336 | the default on Windows NT) is that it does not do any wildcard | |
337 | expansions of command-line arguments (so wildcards need not be | |
338 | quoted). It also provides only rudimentary quoting. The only | |
339 | (useful) quote character is the double quote ("). It can be used to | |
340 | protect spaces in arguments and other special characters. The | |
341 | Windows NT documentation has almost no description of how the | |
342 | quoting rules are implemented, but here are some general observations | |
343 | based on experiments: The shell breaks arguments at spaces and | |
344 | passes them to programs in argc/argv. Doublequotes can be used | |
345 | to prevent arguments with spaces in them from being split up. | |
346 | You can put a double quote in an argument by escaping it with | |
347 | a backslash and enclosing the whole argument within double quotes. | |
348 | The backslash and the pair of double quotes surrounding the | |
349 | argument will be stripped by the shell. | |
350 | ||
351 | The file redirection characters "<", ">", and "|" cannot be quoted | |
352 | by double quotes (there are probably more such). Single quotes | |
353 | will protect those three file redirection characters, but the | |
354 | single quotes don't get stripped by the shell (just to make this | |
355 | type of quoting completely useless). The caret "^" has also | |
356 | been observed to behave as a quoting character (and doesn't get | |
357 | stripped by the shell also). | |
358 | ||
359 | Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell: | |
360 | ||
361 | This prints two doublequotes: | |
362 | ||
363 | perl -e "print '\"\"' " | |
364 | ||
365 | This does the same: | |
366 | ||
367 | perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" " | |
368 | ||
369 | This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch": | |
370 | ||
371 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch | |
372 | ||
373 | This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland): | |
374 | ||
375 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul | |
376 | ||
377 | This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch": | |
378 | ||
379 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch | |
380 | ||
7bac28a0 | 381 | This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the console: |
382 | ||
383 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less | |
384 | ||
385 | This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager: | |
386 | ||
7bac28a0 | 387 | perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less |
388 | ||
389 | This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file "blurch": | |
390 | ||
391 | perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less | |
392 | ||
393 | ||
84902520 | 394 | Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows95 |
7bac28a0 | 395 | is left as an exercise to the reader :) |
396 | ||
397 | =item Building Extensions | |
398 | ||
399 | The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth | |
400 | of extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build. | |
401 | Look in http://www.perl.com/ for more information on CPAN. | |
402 | ||
403 | Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can | |
404 | be built, tested and installed with the standard mantra: | |
405 | ||
406 | perl Makefile.PL | |
3e3baf6d TB |
407 | $MAKE |
408 | $MAKE test | |
409 | $MAKE install | |
7bac28a0 | 410 | |
ee4d903c GS |
411 | where $MAKE is whatever 'make' program you have configured perl to |
412 | use. Use "perl -V:make" to find out what this is. Some extensions | |
413 | may not provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything, or | |
414 | fail), but most serious ones do. | |
415 | ||
416 | It is important that you use a supported 'make' program, and | |
417 | ensure Config.pm knows about it. If you don't have nmake, you can | |
418 | either get dmake from the location mentioned earlier, or get an | |
419 | old version of nmake reportedly available from: | |
420 | ||
421 | ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/MSLFILES/nmake15.exe | |
422 | ||
423 | Another option is to use the make written in Perl, available from | |
424 | CPAN: | |
425 | ||
426 | http://www.perl.com/CPAN/authors/id/NI-S/Make-0.03.tar.gz | |
427 | ||
428 | Note that MakeMaker actually emits makefiles with different syntax | |
429 | depending on what 'make' it thinks you are using. Therefore, it is | |
430 | important that one of the following values appears in Config.pm: | |
431 | ||
432 | make='nmake' # MakeMaker emits nmake syntax | |
433 | make='dmake' # MakeMaker emits dmake syntax | |
434 | any other value # MakeMaker emits generic make syntax | |
435 | (e.g GNU make, or Perl make) | |
436 | ||
437 | If the value doesn't match the 'make' program you want to use, | |
438 | edit Config.pm to fix it. | |
7bac28a0 | 439 | |
3e3baf6d TB |
440 | If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported |
441 | C compilers. You must make sure you have set up the environment for | |
442 | the compiler for command-line compilation. | |
7bac28a0 | 443 | |
3e3baf6d | 444 | If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for |
7bac28a0 | 445 | why it failed, and report problems to the module author. If |
446 | it looks like the extension building support is at fault, report | |
447 | that with full details of how the build failed using the perlbug | |
448 | utility. | |
449 | ||
9cde0e7f GS |
450 | =item Command-line Wildcard Expansion |
451 | ||
452 | The default command shells on DOS descendant operating systems (such | |
453 | as they are) usually do not expand wildcard arguments supplied to | |
454 | programs. They consider it the application's job to handle that. | |
455 | This is commonly achieved by linking the application (in our case, | |
456 | perl) with startup code that the C runtime libraries usually provide. | |
457 | However, doing that results in incompatible perl versions (since the | |
458 | behavior of the argv expansion code differs depending on the | |
459 | compiler, and it is even buggy on some compilers). Besides, it may | |
460 | be a source of frustration if you use such a perl binary with an | |
461 | alternate shell that *does* expand wildcards. | |
462 | ||
463 | Instead, the following solution works rather well. The nice things | |
464 | about it: 1) you can start using it right away 2) it is more powerful, | |
465 | because it will do the right thing with a pattern like */*/*.c | |
466 | 3) you can decide whether you do/don't want to use it 4) you can | |
467 | extend the method to add any customizations (or even entirely | |
468 | different kinds of wildcard expansion). | |
469 | ||
470 | C:\> copy con c:\perl\lib\Wild.pm | |
471 | # Wild.pm - emulate shell @ARGV expansion on shells that don't | |
472 | use File::DosGlob; | |
473 | @ARGV = map { | |
474 | my @g = File::DosGlob::glob($_) if /[*?]/; | |
475 | @g ? @g : $_; | |
476 | } @ARGV; | |
477 | 1; | |
478 | ^Z | |
479 | C:\> set PERL5OPT=-MWild | |
480 | C:\> perl -le "for (@ARGV) { print }" */*/perl*.c | |
481 | p4view/perl/perl.c | |
482 | p4view/perl/perlio.c | |
483 | p4view/perl/perly.c | |
484 | perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c | |
485 | perl5.005/win32/perllib.c | |
486 | perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c | |
487 | perl5.005/win32/perllib.c | |
488 | perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c | |
489 | perl5.005/win32/perllib.c | |
490 | ||
491 | Note there are two distinct steps there: 1) You'll have to create | |
492 | Wild.pm and put it in your perl lib directory. 2) You'll need to | |
493 | set the PERL5OPT environment variable. If you want argv expansion | |
494 | to be the default, just set PERL5OPT in your default startup | |
495 | environment. | |
496 | ||
497 | If you are using the Visual C compiler, you can get the C runtime's | |
498 | command line wildcard expansion built into perl binary. The resulting | |
499 | binary will always expand unquoted command lines, which may not be | |
500 | what you want if you use a shell that does that for you. The expansion | |
501 | done is also somewhat less powerful than the approach suggested above. | |
502 | ||
c90c0ff4 | 503 | =item Win32 Specific Extensions |
504 | ||
505 | A number of extensions specific to the Win32 platform are available | |
506 | from CPAN. You may find that many of these extensions are meant to | |
507 | be used under the Activeware port of Perl, which used to be the only | |
508 | native port for the Win32 platform. Since the Activeware port does not | |
509 | have adequate support for Perl's extension building tools, these | |
510 | extensions typically do not support those tools either, and therefore | |
511 | cannot be built using the generic steps shown in the previous section. | |
512 | ||
513 | To ensure smooth transitioning of existing code that uses the | |
9036c72f GS |
514 | ActiveState port, there is a bundle of Win32 extensions that contains |
515 | all of the ActiveState extensions and most other Win32 extensions from | |
c90c0ff4 | 516 | CPAN in source form, along with many added bugfixes, and with MakeMaker |
517 | support. This bundle is available at: | |
518 | ||
a8deba26 | 519 | http://www.perl.com/CPAN/authors/id/GSAR/libwin32-0.14.zip |
c90c0ff4 | 520 | |
521 | See the README in that distribution for building and installation | |
522 | instructions. Look for later versions that may be available at the | |
523 | same location. | |
524 | ||
156a3eb7 GS |
525 | =item Running Perl Scripts |
526 | ||
527 | Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to | |
528 | indicate to the OS that it should execute the file using perl. | |
529 | Win32 has no comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are | |
530 | executables. | |
531 | ||
532 | Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on | |
533 | Win32 rely on the file "extension". There are three methods | |
534 | to use this to execute perl scripts: | |
535 | ||
536 | =over 8 | |
537 | ||
538 | =item 1 | |
539 | ||
540 | There is a facility called "file extension associations" that will | |
541 | work in Windows NT 4.0. This can be manipulated via the two | |
542 | commands "assoc" and "ftype" that come standard with Windows NT | |
543 | 4.0. Type "ftype /?" for a complete example of how to set this | |
544 | up for perl scripts (Say what? You thought Windows NT wasn't | |
545 | perl-ready? :). | |
546 | ||
547 | =item 2 | |
548 | ||
549 | Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are | |
550 | reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the | |
551 | old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a | |
552 | regular batch file to the OS, may be used. The install process | |
553 | makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to wrap | |
554 | perl scripts into batch files. For example: | |
555 | ||
556 | pl2bat foo.pl | |
557 | ||
558 | will create the file "FOO.BAT". Note "pl2bat" strips any | |
559 | .pl suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file. | |
560 | ||
561 | If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that | |
562 | "pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to | |
563 | refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to make | |
564 | sure that construct works in batch files. As of this writing, | |
565 | 4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *" statement in their | |
566 | 4NT.INI file, or will need to execute "setdos /p*" in the 4DOS/NT | |
567 | startup file to enable this to work. | |
568 | ||
569 | =item 3 | |
570 | ||
571 | Using "pl2bat" has a few problems: the file name gets changed, | |
572 | so scripts that rely on C<$0> to find what they must do may not | |
573 | run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the | |
574 | original script, and so this process can be maintenance intensive | |
575 | if the originals get updated often. A different approach that | |
576 | avoids both problems is possible. | |
577 | ||
578 | A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied | |
579 | to any filename (along with the .bat suffix). For example, | |
580 | if you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is | |
581 | executed. Since you can run batch files on Win32 platforms simply | |
582 | by typing the name (without the extension), this effectively | |
583 | runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or "foo.bat". | |
584 | With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a different location | |
585 | than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is available somewhere on | |
586 | the PATH. If your scripts are on a filesystem that allows symbolic | |
587 | links, you can even avoid copying "runperl.bat". | |
588 | ||
589 | Here's a diversion: copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type | |
590 | "runperl". Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :) | |
591 | Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH | |
592 | ||
593 | =back | |
594 | ||
7bac28a0 | 595 | =item Miscellaneous Things |
596 | ||
597 | A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be | |
598 | able to use it if you have a web browser installed on your | |
599 | system. | |
600 | ||
601 | C<perldoc> is also a useful tool for browsing information contained | |
602 | in the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager | |
603 | like C<less> (recent versions of which have Win32 support). You may | |
604 | have to set the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager. | |
605 | "perldoc -f foo" will print information about the perl operator | |
606 | "foo". | |
607 | ||
608 | If you find bugs in perl, you can run C<perlbug> to create a | |
609 | bug report (you may have to send it manually if C<perlbug> cannot | |
610 | find a mailer on your system). | |
611 | ||
612 | =back | |
613 | ||
68dc0745 | 614 | =head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS |
615 | ||
f7c603cb GS |
616 | An effort has been made to ensure that the DLLs produced by the two |
617 | supported compilers are compatible with each other (despite the | |
618 | best efforts of the compiler vendors). Extension binaries produced | |
619 | by one compiler should also coexist with a perl binary built by | |
620 | a different compiler. In order to accomplish this, PERL.DLL provides | |
621 | a layer of runtime code that uses the C Runtime that perl was compiled | |
622 | with. Extensions which include "perl.h" will transparently access | |
623 | the functions in this layer, thereby ensuring that both perl and | |
624 | extensions use the same runtime functions. | |
68dc0745 | 625 | |
8b88ae92 NIS |
626 | If you have had prior exposure to Perl on Unix platforms, you will notice |
627 | this port exhibits behavior different from what is documented. Most of the | |
7bac28a0 | 628 | differences fall under one of these categories. We do not consider |
629 | any of them to be serious limitations (especially when compared to the | |
630 | limited nature of some of the Win32 OSes themselves :) | |
68dc0745 | 631 | |
632 | =over 8 | |
633 | ||
634 | =item * | |
635 | ||
636 | C<stat()> and C<lstat()> functions may not behave as documented. They | |
637 | may return values that bear no resemblance to those reported on Unix | |
7bac28a0 | 638 | platforms, and some fields (like the the one for inode) may be completely |
639 | bogus. | |
68dc0745 | 640 | |
641 | =item * | |
642 | ||
6890e559 | 643 | The following functions are currently unavailable: C<fork()>, |
5aabfad6 | 644 | C<dump()>, C<chown()>, C<link()>, C<symlink()>, C<chroot()>, |
26618a56 GS |
645 | C<setpgrp()> and related security functions, C<setpriority()>, |
646 | C<getpriority()>, C<syscall()>, C<fcntl()>, C<getpw*()>, | |
2d7a9237 GS |
647 | C<msg*()>, C<shm*()>, C<sem*()>, C<alarm()>, C<socketpair()>, |
648 | C<*netent()>, C<*protoent()>, C<*servent()>, C<*hostent()>, | |
649 | C<getnetby*()>. | |
26618a56 | 650 | This list is possibly incomplete. |
6890e559 GS |
651 | |
652 | =item * | |
653 | ||
68dc0745 | 654 | Various C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not |
655 | behave as on Unix platforms. | |
656 | ||
657 | =item * | |
658 | ||
659 | The four-argument C<select()> call is only supported on sockets. | |
660 | ||
661 | =item * | |
662 | ||
f998180f GS |
663 | The C<ioctl()> call is only supported on sockets (where it provides the |
664 | functionality of ioctlsocket() in the Winsock API). | |
665 | ||
666 | =item * | |
667 | ||
2d7a9237 GS |
668 | Failure to spawn() a subprocess is indicated by setting $? to "255 << 8". |
669 | C<$?> is set in a way compatible with Unix (i.e. the exitstatus of the | |
670 | subprocess is obtained by "$? >> 8", as described in the documentation). | |
68dc0745 | 671 | |
672 | =item * | |
673 | ||
26618a56 GS |
674 | You can expect problems building modules available on CPAN if you |
675 | build perl itself with -DUSE_THREADS. These problems should be resolved | |
676 | as we get closer to 5.005. | |
68dc0745 | 677 | |
678 | =item * | |
679 | ||
680 | C<utime()>, C<times()> and process-related functions may not | |
681 | behave as described in the documentation, and some of the | |
682 | returned values or effects may be bogus. | |
683 | ||
684 | =item * | |
685 | ||
3e3baf6d | 686 | Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it |
f7c603cb GS |
687 | doesn't exactly "behave", either :). For instance, calling C<die()> |
688 | or C<exit()> from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most | |
689 | implementations of C<signal()> on Win32 are severely crippled. | |
690 | Thus, signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag | |
691 | variable in the handler. Using signals under this port should | |
692 | currently be considered unsupported. | |
68dc0745 | 693 | |
694 | =item * | |
695 | ||
1a159553 GS |
696 | C<kill()> is implemented, but doesn't have the semantics of |
697 | C<raise()>, i.e. it doesn't send a signal to the identified process | |
698 | like it does on Unix platforms. Instead it immediately calls | |
699 | C<TerminateProcess(process,signal)>. Thus the signal argument is | |
700 | used to set the exit-status of the terminated process. This behavior | |
701 | may change in future. | |
702 | ||
703 | =item * | |
704 | ||
7bac28a0 | 705 | File globbing may not behave as on Unix platforms. In particular, |
3e3baf6d TB |
706 | if you don't use perlglob.bat for globbing, it will understand |
707 | wildcards only in the filename component (and not in the pathname). | |
708 | In other words, something like "print <*/*.pl>" will not print all the | |
709 | perl scripts in all the subdirectories one level under the current one | |
710 | (like it does on UNIX platforms). perlglob.exe is also dependent on | |
711 | the particular implementation of wildcard expansion in the vendor | |
712 | libraries used to build it (which varies wildly at the present time). | |
713 | Using perlglob.bat (or File::DosGlob) avoids these limitations, but | |
714 | still only provides DOS semantics (read "warts") for globbing. | |
68dc0745 | 715 | |
716 | =back | |
717 | ||
718 | Please send detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that | |
719 | you may find to <F<perlbug@perl.com>>, along with the output produced | |
720 | by C<perl -V>. | |
721 | ||
722 | =head1 AUTHORS | |
723 | ||
724 | =over 4 | |
725 | ||
3e3baf6d | 726 | Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt> |
68dc0745 | 727 | |
3e3baf6d | 728 | Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@umich.eduE<gt> |
68dc0745 | 729 | |
3e3baf6d | 730 | Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ni-s.u-net.comE<gt> |
68dc0745 | 731 | |
732 | =back | |
733 | ||
f7c603cb GS |
734 | This document is maintained by Gurusamy Sarathy. |
735 | ||
68dc0745 | 736 | =head1 SEE ALSO |
737 | ||
738 | L<perl> | |
739 | ||
740 | =head1 HISTORY | |
741 | ||
742 | This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24, | |
743 | and borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available | |
744 | at the time. | |
745 | ||
746 | Nick Ing-Simmons and Gurusamy Sarathy have made numerous and | |
747 | sundry hacks since then. | |
748 | ||
3e3baf6d TB |
749 | Borland support was added in 5.004_01 (Gurusamy Sarathy). |
750 | ||
9a40db4d GS |
751 | GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons). |
752 | ||
80252599 GS |
753 | Support for PERL_OBJECT was added in 5.005 (ActiveState Tool Corp). |
754 | ||
755 | Last updated: 18 January 1999 | |
68dc0745 | 756 | |
757 | =cut | |
3e3baf6d | 758 |