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.
7 perlwin32 - Perl under Windows
11 These are instructions for building Perl under Windows 2000 and later.
15 Before you start, you should glance through the README file
16 found in the top-level directory to which the Perl distribution
17 was extracted. Make sure you read and understand the terms under
18 which this software is being distributed.
20 Also make sure you read L</BUGS AND CAVEATS> below for the
21 known limitations of this port.
23 The INSTALL file in the perl top-level has much information that is
24 only relevant to people building Perl on Unix-like systems. In
25 particular, you can safely ignore any information that talks about
28 You may also want to look at one other option for building a perl that
29 will work on Windows: the README.cygwin file, which give a different
30 set of rules to build a perl for Windows. This method will probably
31 enable you to build a more Unix-compatible perl, but you will also
32 need to download and use various other build-time and run-time support
33 software described in that file.
35 This set of instructions is meant to describe a so-called "native"
36 port of Perl to the Windows platform. This includes both 32-bit and
37 64-bit Windows operating systems. The resulting Perl requires no
38 additional software to run (other than what came with your operating
39 system). Currently, this port is capable of using one of the
40 following compilers on the Intel x86 architecture:
42 Microsoft Visual C++ version 6.0 or later
43 Intel C++ Compiler (experimental)
44 Gcc by mingw.org gcc version 3.4.5 or later
46 Gcc by mingw-w64.org gcc version 4.4.3 or later
48 Note that the last two of these are actually competing projects both
49 delivering complete gcc toolchain for MS Windows:
53 =item L<http://mingw.org>
55 Delivers gcc toolchain targeting 32-bit Windows platform.
57 =item L<http://mingw-w64.org>
59 Delivers gcc toolchain targeting both 64-bit Windows and 32-bit Windows
60 platforms (despite the project name "mingw-w64" they are not only 64-bit
61 oriented). They deliver the native gcc compilers and cross-compilers
62 that are also supported by perl's makefile.
66 The Microsoft Visual C++ compilers are also now being given away free. They are
67 available as "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" or "Visual C++ 2005-2019 Express [or
68 Community, from 2017] Edition" (and also as part of the ".NET Framework SDK")
69 and are the same compilers that ship with "Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional"
70 or "Visual C++ 2005-2019 Professional" respectively.
72 This port can also be built on IA64/AMD64 using:
74 Microsoft Platform SDK Nov 2001 (64-bit compiler and tools)
75 MinGW64 compiler (gcc version 4.4.3 or later)
77 The Windows SDK can be downloaded from L<https://developer.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/sdk-archive>.
78 The MinGW64 compiler is available at L<http://mingw-w64.org>.
79 The latter is actually a cross-compiler targeting Win64. There's also a trimmed
80 down compiler (no java, or gfortran) suitable for building perl available at:
81 L<http://strawberryperl.com/package/kmx/64_gcctoolchain/>
83 NOTE: If you're using a 32-bit compiler to build perl on a 64-bit Windows
84 operating system, then you should set the WIN64 environment variable to "undef".
85 Also, the trimmed down compiler only passes tests when USE_ITHREADS *= define
86 (as opposed to undef) and when the CFG *= Debug line is commented out.
88 This port fully supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that
89 is used to build extensions to perl). Therefore, you should be
90 able to build and install most extensions found in the CPAN sites.
91 See L</Usage Hints for Perl on Windows> below for general hints about this.
93 =head2 Setting Up Perl on Windows
99 You need a "make" program to build the sources. If you are using
100 Visual C++ or the Windows SDK tools, you can use nmake supplied with Visual C++
101 or Windows SDK. You may also use, for Visual C++ or Windows SDK, dmake or gmake
102 instead of nmake. dmake is open source software, but is not included with
103 Visual C++ or Windows SDK. Builds using gcc need dmake or gmake. nmake is not
104 supported for gcc builds. Parallel building is only supported with dmake and
105 gmake, not nmake. When using dmake it is recommended to use dmake 4.13 or newer
106 for parallel building. Older dmakes, in parallel mode, have very high CPU usage
107 and pound the disk/filing system with duplicate I/O calls in an aggressive
110 A port of dmake for Windows is available from:
112 L<https://search.cpan.org/dist/dmake/>
114 Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path.
118 Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with Windows. Some versions of the
119 popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause you trouble.
120 If the build fails under that shell, try building again with the cmd
123 Make sure the path to the build directory does not contain spaces. The
124 build usually works in this circumstance, but some tests will fail.
126 =item Microsoft Visual C++
128 The nmake that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building. Visual C++
129 requires that certain things be set up in the console before Visual C++ will
130 sucessfully run. To make a console box be able to run the C compiler, you will
131 need to beforehand, run C<vcvarsall.bat x86> to compile for x86-32 and for
132 x86-64 C<vcvarsall.bat amd64>. On a typical install of a Microsoft C++
133 compiler product, these batch files will already be in your C<PATH>
134 environment variable so you may just type them without an absolute path into
135 your console. If you need to find the absolute path to the batch file, it is
136 usually found somewhere like
137 C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC.
138 With some newer Micrsoft C products (released after ~2004), the installer will
139 put a shortcut in the start menu to launch a new console window with the
140 console already set up for your target architecture (x86-32 or x86-64 or IA64).
141 With the newer compilers, you may also use the older batch files if you choose
144 =item Microsoft Visual C++ 2008-2019 Express/Community Edition
146 These free versions of Visual C++ 2008-2019 Professional contain the same
147 compilers and linkers that ship with the full versions, and also contain
148 everything necessary to build Perl, rather than requiring a separate download
149 of the Windows SDK like previous versions did.
151 These packages can be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
152 L<https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>. (Providing exact
153 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
156 Install Visual C++ 2008-2019 Express/Community, then setup your environment
159 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\Tools\vsvars32.bat
161 (assuming the default installation location was chosen).
163 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
164 file to set CCTYPE to one of MSVC90-MSVC142 first.
166 =item Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
168 This free version of Visual C++ 2005 Professional contains the same compiler
169 and linker that ship with the full version, but doesn't contain everything
170 necessary to build Perl.
172 You will also need to download the "Windows SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
173 SDK" components are required) for more header files and libraries.
175 These packages can both be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
176 L<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>. (Providing exact
177 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
180 Try to obtain the latest version of the Windows SDK. Sometimes these packages
181 contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
182 other OS versions too. For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
183 also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
185 Install Visual C++ 2005 first, then the Platform SDK. Setup your environment
186 as follows (assuming default installation locations were chosen):
188 SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
190 SET PATH=%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\BIN;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\Tools;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\bin;C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\VCPackages;%PlatformSDKDir%\Bin
192 SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\INCLUDE;%PlatformSDKDir%\include
194 SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\LIB;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib
196 SET LIBPATH=C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727
198 (The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on which version
199 you are using. Earlier versions installed into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK",
200 while the latest versions install into version-specific locations such as
201 "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
203 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
208 and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
210 =item Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003
212 This free toolkit contains the same compiler and linker that ship with
213 Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional, but doesn't contain everything
214 necessary to build Perl.
216 You will also need to download the "Platform SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
217 SDK" components are required) for header files, libraries and rc.exe, and
218 ".NET Framework SDK" for more libraries and nmake.exe. Note that the latter
219 (which also includes the free compiler and linker) requires the ".NET
220 Framework Redistributable" to be installed first. This can be downloaded and
221 installed separately, but is included in the "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" anyway.
223 These packages can all be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
224 L<https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>. (Providing exact
225 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
228 Try to obtain the latest version of the Windows SDK. Sometimes these packages
229 contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
230 other OS versions too. For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
231 also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
233 Install the Toolkit first, then the Platform SDK, then the .NET Framework SDK.
234 Setup your environment as follows (assuming default installation locations
237 SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
239 SET PATH=%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin;%PlatformSDKDir%\Bin;C:\Program Files\Microsoft.NET\SDK\v1.1\Bin
241 SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\include;%PlatformSDKDir%\include;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\include
243 SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\lib
245 (The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on which version
246 you are using. Earlier versions installed into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK",
247 while the latest versions install into version-specific locations such as
248 "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
250 Several required files will still be missing:
256 cvtres.exe is required by link.exe when using a .res file. It is actually
257 installed by the .NET Framework SDK, but into a location such as the
260 C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322
262 Copy it from there to %PlatformSDKDir%\Bin
266 lib.exe is normally used to build libraries, but link.exe with the /lib
267 option also works, so change win32/config.vc to use it instead:
269 Change the line reading:
277 It may also be useful to create a batch file called lib.bat in
278 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin containing:
283 for the benefit of any naughty C extension modules that you might want to build
284 later which explicitly reference "lib" rather than taking their value from
289 setargv.obj is required to build perlglob.exe (and perl.exe if the USE_SETARGV
290 option is enabled). The Platform SDK supplies this object file in source form
291 in %PlatformSDKDir%\src\crt. Copy setargv.c, cruntime.h and
292 internal.h from there to some temporary location and build setargv.obj using
294 cl.exe /c /I. /D_CRTBLD setargv.c
296 Then copy setargv.obj to %PlatformSDKDir%\lib
298 Alternatively, if you don't need perlglob.exe and don't need to enable the
299 USE_SETARGV option then you can safely just remove all mention of $(GLOBEXE)
300 from win32/Makefile and setargv.obj won't be required anyway.
304 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
309 and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
311 =item Microsoft Platform SDK 64-bit Compiler
313 The nmake that comes with the Platform SDK will suffice for building
314 Perl. Make sure you are building within one of the "Build Environment"
315 shells available after you install the Platform SDK from the Start Menu.
319 Perl can be compiled with gcc from MinGW (version 3.4.5 or later) or from
320 MinGW64 (version 4.4.3 or later). It can be downloaded here:
322 L<http://www.mingw.org/>
323 L<http://www.mingw-w64.org/>
325 You also need dmake or gmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
327 Note that the MinGW build currently requires a MinGW runtime version earlier
328 than 3.21 (check __MINGW32_MAJOR_VERSION and __MINGW32_MINOR_VERSION).
330 Note also that the C++ mode build currently fails with MinGW 3.4.5 and 4.7.2
331 or later, and with MinGW64 64-bit 6.3.0 or later.
333 =item Intel C++ Compiler
335 Experimental support for using Intel C++ Compiler has been added. Edit
336 win32/Makefile and pick the correct CCTYPE for the Visual C that Intel C was
337 installed into. Also uncomment __ICC to enable Intel C on Visual C support.
338 To set up the build environment, from the Start Menu run
339 IA-32 Visual Studio 20__ mode or Intel 64 Visual Studio 20__ mode as
340 appropriate. Then run nmake as usually in that prompt box.
342 Only Intel C++ Compiler v12.1 has been tested. Other versions probably will
343 work. Using Intel C++ Compiler instead of Visual C has the benefit of C99
344 compatibility which is needed by some CPAN XS modules, while maintaining
345 compatibility with Visual C object code and Visual C debugging infrastructure
356 Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl toplevel.
357 This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with
358 versions of nmake that come with Visual C++ or the Windows SDK, and
359 a GNU make "GNUmakefile" or dmake "makefile.mk" that will work for all
360 supported compilers. The defaults in the gmake and dmake makefile are
361 setup to build using MinGW/gcc.
365 Edit the GNUmakefile, makefile.mk (or Makefile, if you're using nmake)
366 and change the values of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. You can also enable
367 various build flags. These are explained in the makefiles.
369 Note that it is generally not a good idea to try to build a perl with
370 INST_DRV and INST_TOP set to a path that already exists from a previous
371 build. In particular, this may cause problems with the
372 lib/ExtUtils/t/Embed.t test, which attempts to build a test program and
373 may end up building against the installed perl's lib/CORE directory rather
374 than the one being tested.
376 You will have to make sure that CCTYPE is set correctly and that
377 CCHOME points to wherever you installed your compiler. For GCC this
378 should be the directory that contains the F<bin>, F<include> and
381 If building with the cross-compiler provided by
382 mingw-w64.org you'll need to uncomment the line that sets
383 GCCCROSS in the makefile.mk. Do this only if it's the cross-compiler - ie
384 only if the bin folder doesn't contain a gcc.exe. (The cross-compiler
385 does not provide a gcc.exe, g++.exe, ar.exe, etc. Instead, all of these
386 executables are prefixed with 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-'.)
388 The default value for CCHOME in the makefiles for Visual C++
389 may not be correct for some versions. Make sure the default exists
392 If you want build some core extensions statically into perl's dll, specify
393 them in the STATIC_EXT macro.
395 Be sure to read the instructions near the top of the makefiles carefully.
399 Type "dmake" ("gmake" for GNU make, or "nmake" if you are using that make).
401 This should build everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe,
402 perl531.dll at the perl toplevel, and various other extension dll's
403 under the lib\auto directory. If the build fails for any reason, make
404 sure you have done the previous steps correctly.
406 To try dmake's parallel mode, type "dmake -P2", where 2, is the maximum number
407 of parallel jobs you want to run. A number of things in the build process will
408 run in parallel, but there are serialization points where you will see just 1
409 CPU maxed out. This is normal.
411 Similarly you can build in parallel with GNU make, type "gmake -j2" to
412 build with two parallel jobs, or higher for more.
414 If you are advanced enough with building C code, here is a suggestion to speed
415 up building perl, and the later C<make test>. Try to keep your PATH environmental
416 variable with the least number of folders possible (remember to keep your C
417 compiler's folders there). C<C:\WINDOWS\system32> or C<C:\WINNT\system32>
418 depending on your OS version should be first folder in PATH, since "cmd.exe"
419 is the most commonly launched program during the build and later testing.
423 =head2 Testing Perl on Windows
425 Type "dmake test" (or "gmake test", "nmake test"). This will run most
426 of the tests from the testsuite (many tests will be skipped).
428 There should be no test failures.
430 If you build with Visual C++ 2013 then three tests currently may fail with
431 Daylight Saving Time related problems: F<t/io/fs.t>,
432 F<cpan/HTTP-Tiny/t/110_mirror.t> and F<lib/File/Copy.t>. The failures are
433 caused by bugs in the CRT in VC++ 2013 which are fixed in VC++2015 and
434 later, as explained by Microsoft here:
435 L<https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/811534/utime-sometimes-fails-to-set-the-correct-file-times-in-visual-c-2013>. In the meantime,
436 if you need fixed C<stat> and C<utime> functions then have a look at the
437 CPAN distribution Win32::UTCFileTime.
439 If you build with Visual C++ 2015 or later then F<ext/XS-APItest/t/locale.t>
440 may crash (after all its tests have passed). This is due to a regression in the
441 Universal CRT introduced in the Windows 10 April 2018 Update, and will be fixed
442 in the May 2019 Update, as explained here: L<https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/content/problem/519486/setlocalelc-numeric-iso-latin-16-fails-then-succee.html>.
444 If you build with certain versions (e.g. 4.8.1) of gcc from www.mingw.org then
445 F<ext/POSIX/t/time.t> may fail test 17 due to a known bug in those gcc builds:
446 see L<https://sourceforge.net/p/mingw/bugs/2152/>.
448 Some test failures may occur if you use a command shell other than the
449 native "cmd.exe", or if you are building from a path that contains
450 spaces. So don't do that.
452 If you are running the tests from a emacs shell window, you may see
453 failures in op/stat.t. Run "dmake test-notty" in that case.
455 Furthermore, you should make sure that during C<make test> you do not
456 have any GNU tool packages in your path: some toolkits like Unixutils
457 include some tools (C<type> for instance) which override the Windows
458 ones and makes tests fail. Remove them from your path while testing to
461 To see the output of specific failing tests run the harness from the t
464 # assuming you're starting from the win32 directory
466 .\perl harness <list of tests>
468 Please report any other failures as described under L</BUGS AND CAVEATS>.
470 =head2 Installation of Perl on Windows
472 Type "dmake install" (or "gmake install", "nmake install"). This will
473 put the newly built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP>
474 points to in the Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation
475 under C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same
476 under C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod\html>.
478 To use the Perl you just installed you will need to add a new entry to
479 your PATH environment variable: C<$INST_TOP\bin>, e.g.
481 set PATH=c:\perl\bin;%PATH%
483 If you opted to uncomment C<INST_VER> and C<INST_ARCH> in the makefile
484 then the installation structure is a little more complicated and you will
485 need to add two new PATH components instead: C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin> and
486 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin\$ARCHNAME>, e.g.
488 set PATH=c:\perl\5.6.0\bin;c:\perl\5.6.0\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH%
490 =head2 Usage Hints for Perl on Windows
494 =item Environment Variables
496 The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled
497 into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start
498 using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable).
500 If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB
501 to a list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl
502 to look for libraries. Look for descriptions of other environment
503 variables you can set in L<perlrun>.
505 You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and
506 backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See L<perlrun>.
508 Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain default
509 values if you choose to put them there unless disabled at build time with
510 USE_NO_REGISTRY. On Perl process start Perl checks if
511 C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> and C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>
512 exist. If the keys exists, they will be checked for remainder of the Perl
513 process's run life for certain entries. Entries in
514 C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> override entries in
515 C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>. One or more of the following entries
516 (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may be set in the keys:
518 lib-$] version-specific standard library path to add to @INC
519 lib standard library path to add to @INC
520 sitelib-$] version-specific site library path to add to @INC
521 sitelib site library path to add to @INC
522 vendorlib-$] version-specific vendor library path to add to @INC
523 vendorlib vendor library path to add to @INC
524 PERL* fallback for all %ENV lookups that begin with "PERL"
526 Note the C<$]> in the above is not literal. Substitute whatever version
527 of perl you want to honor that entry, e.g. C<5.6.0>. Paths must be
528 separated with semicolons, as usual on Windows.
532 By default, perl handles file globbing using the File::Glob extension,
533 which provides portable globbing.
535 If you want perl to use globbing that emulates the quirks of DOS
536 filename conventions, you might want to consider using File::DosGlob
537 to override the internal glob() implementation. See L<File::DosGlob> for
540 =item Using perl from the command line
542 If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line
543 shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased
544 with what Windows offers by way of a command shell.
546 The crucial thing to understand about the Windows environment is that
547 the command line you type in is processed twice before Perl sees it.
548 First, your command shell (usually CMD.EXE) preprocesses the command
549 line, to handle redirection, environment variable expansion, and
550 location of the executable to run. Then, the perl executable splits
551 the remaining command line into individual arguments, using the
552 C runtime library upon which Perl was built.
554 It is particularly important to note that neither the shell nor the C
555 runtime do any wildcard expansions of command-line arguments (so
556 wildcards need not be quoted). Also, the quoting behaviours of the
557 shell and the C runtime are rudimentary at best (and may, if you are
558 using a non-standard shell, be inconsistent). The only (useful) quote
559 character is the double quote ("). It can be used to protect spaces
560 and other special characters in arguments.
562 The Windows documentation describes the shell parsing rules here:
563 L<https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/cmd>
564 and the C runtime parsing rules here:
565 L<https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/17w5ykft%28v=VS.100%29.aspx>.
567 Here are some further observations based on experiments: The C runtime
568 breaks arguments at spaces and passes them to programs in argc/argv.
569 Double quotes can be used to prevent arguments with spaces in them from
570 being split up. You can put a double quote in an argument by escaping
571 it with a backslash and enclosing the whole argument within double quotes.
572 The backslash and the pair of double quotes surrounding the argument will
573 be stripped by the C runtime.
575 The file redirection characters "E<lt>", "E<gt>", and "|" can be quoted by
576 double quotes (although there are suggestions that this may not always
577 be true). Single quotes are not treated as quotes by the shell or
578 the C runtime, they don't get stripped by the shell (just to make
579 this type of quoting completely useless). The caret "^" has also
580 been observed to behave as a quoting character, but this appears
581 to be a shell feature, and the caret is not stripped from the command
582 line, so Perl still sees it (and the C runtime phase does not treat
583 the caret as a quote character).
585 Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell:
587 This prints two doublequotes:
589 perl -e "print '\"\"' "
593 perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" "
595 This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch":
597 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch
599 This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland):
601 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul
603 This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch":
605 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch
607 This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the console:
609 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less
611 This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager:
613 perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less
615 This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file "blurch":
617 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less
620 Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows 9x
621 is left as an exercise to the reader :)
623 One particularly pernicious problem with the 4NT command shell for
624 Windows is that it (nearly) always treats a % character as indicating
625 that environment variable expansion is needed. Under this shell, it is
626 therefore important to always double any % characters which you want
627 Perl to see (for example, for hash variables), even when they are
630 =item Building Extensions
632 The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth
633 of extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build.
634 Look in L<https://www.cpan.org/> for more information on CPAN.
636 Note that not all of the extensions available from CPAN may work
637 in the Windows environment; you should check the information at
638 L<https://www.cpantesters.org/> before investing too much effort into
639 porting modules that don't readily build.
641 Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can
642 be built, tested and installed with the standard mantra:
649 where $MAKE is whatever 'make' program you have configured perl to
650 use. Use "perl -V:make" to find out what this is. Some extensions
651 may not provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything or
652 fail), but most serious ones do.
654 It is important that you use a supported 'make' program, and
655 ensure Config.pm knows about it. If you don't have nmake, you can
656 either get dmake from the location mentioned earlier or get an
657 old version of nmake reportedly available from:
659 L<http://download.microsoft.com/download/vc15/Patch/1.52/W95/EN-US/nmake15.exe>
661 Another option is to use the make written in Perl, available from
664 L<https://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Make/>
666 You may also use dmake or gmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
668 Note that MakeMaker actually emits makefiles with different syntax
669 depending on what 'make' it thinks you are using. Therefore, it is
670 important that one of the following values appears in Config.pm:
672 make='nmake' # MakeMaker emits nmake syntax
673 make='dmake' # MakeMaker emits dmake syntax
674 any other value # MakeMaker emits generic make syntax
675 (e.g GNU make, or Perl make)
677 If the value doesn't match the 'make' program you want to use,
678 edit Config.pm to fix it.
680 If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported
681 C compilers. You must make sure you have set up the environment for
682 the compiler for command-line compilation before running C<perl Makefile.PL>
683 or any invocation of make.
685 If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for
686 why it failed, and report problems to the module author. If
687 it looks like the extension building support is at fault, report
688 that with full details of how the build failed using the perlbug
691 =item Command-line Wildcard Expansion
693 The default command shells on DOS descendant operating systems (such
694 as they are) usually do not expand wildcard arguments supplied to
695 programs. They consider it the application's job to handle that.
696 This is commonly achieved by linking the application (in our case,
697 perl) with startup code that the C runtime libraries usually provide.
698 However, doing that results in incompatible perl versions (since the
699 behavior of the argv expansion code differs depending on the
700 compiler, and it is even buggy on some compilers). Besides, it may
701 be a source of frustration if you use such a perl binary with an
702 alternate shell that *does* expand wildcards.
704 Instead, the following solution works rather well. The nice things
705 about it are 1) you can start using it right away; 2) it is more
706 powerful, because it will do the right thing with a pattern like
707 */*/*.c; 3) you can decide whether you do/don't want to use it; and
708 4) you can extend the method to add any customizations (or even
709 entirely different kinds of wildcard expansion).
711 C:\> copy con c:\perl\lib\Wild.pm
712 # Wild.pm - emulate shell @ARGV expansion on shells that don't
715 my @g = File::DosGlob::glob($_) if /[*?]/;
720 C:\> set PERL5OPT=-MWild
721 C:\> perl -le "for (@ARGV) { print }" */*/perl*.c
725 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
726 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
727 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
728 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
729 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
730 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
732 Note there are two distinct steps there: 1) You'll have to create
733 Wild.pm and put it in your perl lib directory. 2) You'll need to
734 set the PERL5OPT environment variable. If you want argv expansion
735 to be the default, just set PERL5OPT in your default startup
738 If you are using the Visual C compiler, you can get the C runtime's
739 command line wildcard expansion built into perl binary. The resulting
740 binary will always expand unquoted command lines, which may not be
741 what you want if you use a shell that does that for you. The expansion
742 done is also somewhat less powerful than the approach suggested above.
744 =item Notes on 64-bit Windows
746 Windows .NET Server supports the LLP64 data model on the Intel Itanium
749 The LLP64 data model is different from the LP64 data model that is the
750 norm on 64-bit Unix platforms. In the former, C<int> and C<long> are
751 both 32-bit data types, while pointers are 64 bits wide. In addition,
752 there is a separate 64-bit wide integral type, C<__int64>. In contrast,
753 the LP64 data model that is pervasive on Unix platforms provides C<int>
754 as the 32-bit type, while both the C<long> type and pointers are of
755 64-bit precision. Note that both models provide for 64-bits of
758 64-bit Windows running on Itanium is capable of running 32-bit x86
759 binaries transparently. This means that you could use a 32-bit build
760 of Perl on a 64-bit system. Given this, why would one want to build
761 a 64-bit build of Perl? Here are some reasons why you would bother:
767 A 64-bit native application will run much more efficiently on
772 There is no 2GB limit on process size.
776 Perl automatically provides large file support when built under
781 Embedding Perl inside a 64-bit application.
787 =head2 Running Perl Scripts
789 Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to
790 indicate to the OS that it should execute the file using perl.
791 Windows has no comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are
794 Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on
795 Windows rely on the file "extension". There are three methods
796 to use this to execute perl scripts:
802 There is a facility called "file extension associations". This can be
803 manipulated via the two commands "assoc" and "ftype" that come
804 standard with Windows. Type "ftype /?" for a complete example of how
805 to set this up for perl scripts (Say what? You thought Windows
806 wasn't perl-ready? :).
810 Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are
811 reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the
812 old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a
813 regular batch file to the OS, may be used. The install process
814 makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to wrap
815 perl scripts into batch files. For example:
819 will create the file "FOO.BAT". Note "pl2bat" strips any
820 .pl suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file.
822 If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that
823 "pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to
824 refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to make
825 sure that construct works in batch files. As of this writing,
826 4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *" statement in their
827 4NT.INI file or will need to execute "setdos /p*" in the 4DOS/NT
828 startup file to enable this to work.
832 Using "pl2bat" has a few problems: the file name gets changed,
833 so scripts that rely on C<$0> to find what they must do may not
834 run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the
835 original script, and so this process can be maintenance intensive
836 if the originals get updated often. A different approach that
837 avoids both problems is possible.
839 A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied
840 to any filename (along with the .bat suffix). For example,
841 if you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is
842 executed. Since you can run batch files on Windows platforms simply
843 by typing the name (without the extension), this effectively
844 runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or "foo.bat".
845 With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a different location
846 than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is available somewhere on
847 the PATH. If your scripts are on a filesystem that allows symbolic
848 links, you can even avoid copying "runperl.bat".
850 Here's a diversion: copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type
851 "runperl". Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :)
852 Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH
856 =head2 Miscellaneous Things
858 A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be
859 able to use it if you have a web browser installed on your
862 C<perldoc> is also a useful tool for browsing information contained
863 in the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager
864 like C<less> (recent versions of which have Windows support). You may
865 have to set the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager.
866 "perldoc -f foo" will print information about the perl operator
869 One common mistake when using this port with a GUI library like C<Tk>
870 is assuming that Perl's normal behavior of opening a command-line
871 window will go away. This isn't the case. If you want to start a copy
872 of C<perl> without opening a command-line window, use the C<wperl>
873 executable built during the installation process. Usage is exactly
874 the same as normal C<perl> on Windows, except that options like C<-h>
875 don't work (since they need a command-line window to print to).
877 If you find bugs in perl, you can run C<perlbug> to create a
878 bug report (you may have to send it manually if C<perlbug> cannot
879 find a mailer on your system).
881 =head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS
883 Norton AntiVirus interferes with the build process, particularly if
884 set to "AutoProtect, All Files, when Opened". Unlike large applications
885 the perl build process opens and modifies a lot of files. Having the
886 the AntiVirus scan each and every one slows build the process significantly.
887 Worse, with PERLIO=stdio the build process fails with peculiar messages
888 as the virus checker interacts badly with miniperl.exe writing configure
889 files (it seems to either catch file part written and treat it as suspicious,
890 or virus checker may have it "locked" in a way which inhibits miniperl
891 updating it). The build does complete with
895 but that may be just luck. Other AntiVirus software may have similar issues.
897 A git GUI shell extension for Windows such as TortoiseGit will cause the build
898 and later C<make test> to run much slower since every file is checked for its
899 git status as soon as it is created and/or modified. TortoiseGit doesn't cause
900 any test failures or build problems unlike the antivirus software described
901 above, but it does cause similar slowness. It is suggested to use Task Manager
902 to look for background processes which use high CPU amounts during the building
905 Some of the built-in functions do not act exactly as documented in
906 L<perlfunc>, and a few are not implemented at all. To avoid
907 surprises, particularly if you have had prior exposure to Perl
908 in other operating environments or if you intend to write code
909 that will be portable to other environments, see L<perlport>
910 for a reasonably definitive list of these differences.
912 Not all extensions available from CPAN may build or work properly
913 in the Windows environment. See L</"Building Extensions">.
915 Most C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not
916 behave as on Unix platforms. See L<perlport> for the full list.
918 Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it
919 doesn't exactly "behave", either :). For instance, calling C<die()>
920 or C<exit()> from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most
921 implementations of C<signal()> on Windows are severely crippled.
922 Thus, signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag
923 variable in the handler. Using signals under this port should
924 currently be considered unsupported.
926 Please send detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that
927 you may find to E<lt>F<perlbug@perl.org>E<gt>, along with the output
928 produced by C<perl -V>.
930 =head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
932 The use of a camel with the topic of Perl is a trademark
933 of O'Reilly and Associates, Inc. Used with permission.
939 =item Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt>
941 =item Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@activestate.comE<gt>
943 =item Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ing-simmons.netE<gt>
945 =item Jan Dubois E<lt>jand@activestate.comE<gt>
947 =item Steve Hay E<lt>steve.m.hay@googlemail.comE<gt>
951 This document is maintained by Jan Dubois.
959 This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24,
960 and borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available
961 at the time. Various people have made numerous and sundry hacks
964 GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons).
966 Support for PERL_OBJECT was added in 5.005 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
968 Support for fork() emulation was added in 5.6 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
970 Win9x support was added in 5.6 (Benjamin Stuhl).
972 Support for 64-bit Windows added in 5.8 (ActiveState Corp).
974 Last updated: 30 April 2019