| 1 | If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you see. |
| 2 | It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is specially |
| 3 | designed to be readable as is. |
| 4 | |
| 5 | =head1 NAME |
| 6 | |
| 7 | README.beos - Perl version 5.8+ on BeOS |
| 8 | |
| 9 | =head1 DESCRIPTION |
| 10 | |
| 11 | This file contains instructions how to build Perl under BeOS and lists |
| 12 | known problems. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | =head1 BUILD AND INSTALL |
| 15 | |
| 16 | =head2 Requirements |
| 17 | |
| 18 | I have built and tested Perl 5.8.6 and 5.9.1 under BeOS R5 x86 net server. |
| 19 | I can't say anything with regard to PPC. Since Perl 5.8.0 had been released |
| 20 | for BeOS BONE, I suspect, there is a good chance, that it still compiles on |
| 21 | a BONE system. The only change I've made, that affects BONE systems is the |
| 22 | recognition of whether it is a BONE system or not in C<hints/beos.sh>. Now |
| 23 | network socket support should remain enabled on BONE systems. This might |
| 24 | as well break the build, though. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | As more recent versions of autoconf require flock() support, I wrote a flock() |
| 27 | emulation (flock_server) and released it on BeBits: |
| 28 | |
| 29 | http://www.bebits.com/app/4030 |
| 30 | |
| 31 | If you want to build a Perl with flock() support, you have to install this |
| 32 | package first. |
| 33 | |
| 34 | =head2 Configure |
| 35 | |
| 36 | With flock() support: |
| 37 | |
| 38 | CFLAGS=-I/path/to/flock/server/headers ./configure.gnu \ |
| 39 | --prefix=/boot/home/config |
| 40 | |
| 41 | Replace C</path/to/flock/server/headers> with the path to the directory |
| 42 | containing the C<flock.h> header. |
| 43 | |
| 44 | Without flock() support: |
| 45 | |
| 46 | ./configure.gnu --prefix=/boot/home/config |
| 47 | |
| 48 | =head2 Build |
| 49 | |
| 50 | With flock() support: |
| 51 | |
| 52 | make LDLOADLIBS="-lnet -lflock" |
| 53 | |
| 54 | Without flock() support: |
| 55 | |
| 56 | make LDLOADLIBS="-lnet" |
| 57 | |
| 58 | C<-lnet> is needed on net server systems only and if the compiler doesn't |
| 59 | add it automatically (Be's R5 gcc does, Oliver Tappe's gcc 2.95.3 does not). |
| 60 | |
| 61 | =head2 Install |
| 62 | |
| 63 | Install all perl files: |
| 64 | |
| 65 | make install |
| 66 | |
| 67 | Create a symlink for libperl: |
| 68 | |
| 69 | cd ~/config/lib; ln -s perl5/5.8.6/BePC-beos/CORE/libperl.so . |
| 70 | |
| 71 | Replace C<5.8.6> with your respective version of Perl. |
| 72 | |
| 73 | =head1 KNOWN PROBLEMS |
| 74 | |
| 75 | =over 4 |
| 76 | |
| 77 | =item * |
| 78 | |
| 79 | Network socket support is disabled for BeOS R5 net server. I didn't dare yet |
| 80 | to try enabling it and see what problems occur. |
| 81 | |
| 82 | =item * |
| 83 | |
| 84 | The LFS (large file support) tests (C<t/op/lfs> and C<xt/Fcntl/t/syslfs>) are |
| 85 | disabled as seeking beyond 2 GB is broken according to jhi@iki.fi who was the |
| 86 | last one checking the BeOS port and updating this file before me. Haven't |
| 87 | checked this myself. |
| 88 | |
| 89 | =item * |
| 90 | |
| 91 | The C<t/io/fflush> test fails at #6. As far as I can tell, this is caused by |
| 92 | a bug in the BeOS pipes implementation that occurs when starting other child |
| 93 | processes. In the particular test case a C<system("perl -e 0")> flushes the |
| 94 | stdout pipe of another child process. |
| 95 | |
| 96 | =item * |
| 97 | |
| 98 | The C<ext/POSIX/t/waitpid> test fails at #1. After all child processes are |
| 99 | gone BeOS' waitpid(-1,...) returns 0 instead of -1 (as it should). No idea |
| 100 | how to fix this. |
| 101 | |
| 102 | =back |
| 103 | |
| 104 | =head1 CONTACT |
| 105 | |
| 106 | For BeOS specifics problems feel free to mail to: |
| 107 | Ingo Weinhold <bonefish@cs.tu-berlin.de> |
| 108 | |
| 109 | Last update: 2004-12-16 |