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
45 Gcc by mingw-w64.sf.net gcc version 4.4.3 or later
47 Note that the last two of these are actually competing projects both
48 delivering complete gcc toolchain for MS Windows:
52 =item L<http://mingw.org>
54 Delivers gcc toolchain targeting 32-bit Windows platform.
56 =item L<http://mingw-w64.sf.net>
58 Delivers gcc toolchain targeting both 64-bit Windows and 32-bit Windows
59 platforms (despite the project name "mingw-w64" they are not only 64-bit
60 oriented). They deliver the native gcc compilers and cross-compilers
61 that are also supported by perl's makefile.
65 The Microsoft Visual C++ compilers are also now being given away free. They are
66 available as "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" or "Visual C++ 2005-2013 Express
67 Edition" (and also as part of the ".NET Framework SDK") and are the same
68 compilers that ship with "Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional" or "Visual C++
69 2005-2013 Professional" respectively.
71 This port can also be built on IA64/AMD64 using:
73 Microsoft Platform SDK Nov 2001 (64-bit compiler and tools)
74 MinGW64 compiler (gcc version 4.4.3 or later)
76 The Windows SDK can be downloaded from L<http://www.microsoft.com/>.
77 The MinGW64 compiler is available at L<http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw-w64>.
78 The latter is actually a cross-compiler targeting Win64. There's also a trimmed
79 down compiler (no java, or gfortran) suitable for building perl available at:
80 L<http://strawberryperl.com/package/kmx/64_gcctoolchain/>
82 NOTE: If you're using a 32-bit compiler to build perl on a 64-bit Windows
83 operating system, then you should set the WIN64 environment variable to "undef".
84 Also, the trimmed down compiler only passes tests when USE_ITHREADS *= define
85 (as opposed to undef) and when the CFG *= Debug line is commented out.
87 This port fully supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that
88 is used to build extensions to perl). Therefore, you should be
89 able to build and install most extensions found in the CPAN sites.
90 See L<Usage Hints for Perl on Windows> below for general hints about this.
92 =head2 Setting Up Perl on Windows
98 You need a "make" program to build the sources. If you are using
99 Visual C++ or the Windows SDK tools, nmake will work. Builds using
102 dmake is a freely available make that has very nice macro features
105 A port of dmake for Windows is available from:
107 L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/dmake/>
109 Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path.
113 Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with Windows. Some versions of the
114 popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause you trouble.
115 If the build fails under that shell, try building again with the cmd
118 Make sure the path to the build directory does not contain spaces. The
119 build usually works in this circumstance, but some tests will fail.
121 =item Microsoft Visual C++
123 The nmake that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building. Visual C
124 requires that certain things be set up in the console before Visual C will
125 sucessfully run. To make a console box be able to run the C compiler, you will
126 need to beforehand, run the C<vcvars32.bat> file to compile for x86-32 and for
127 x86-64 C<vcvarsall.bat x64> or C<vcvarsamd64.bat>. On a typical install of a
128 Microsoft C compiler product, these batch files will already be in your C<PATH>
129 environment variable so you may just type them without an absolute path into
130 your console. If you need to find the absolute path to the batch file, it is
131 usually found somewhere like C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\Bin.
132 With some newer Micrsoft C products (released after ~2004), the installer will
133 put a shortcut in the start menu to launch a new console window with the
134 console already set up for your target architecture (x86-32 or x86-64 or IA64).
135 With the newer compilers, you may also use the older batch files if you choose
138 You can also use dmake to build using Visual C++; provided, however,
139 you set OSRELEASE to "microsft" (or whatever the directory name
140 under which the Visual C dmake configuration lives) in your environment
141 and edit win32/config.vc to change "make=nmake" into "make=dmake". The
142 latter step is only essential if you want to use dmake as your default
143 make for building extensions using MakeMaker.
145 =item Microsoft Visual C++ 2008-2013 Express Edition
147 These free versions of Visual C++ 2008-2013 Professional contain the same
148 compilers and linkers that ship with the full versions, and also contain
149 everything necessary to build Perl, rather than requiring a separate download
150 of the Windows SDK like previous versions did.
152 These packages can be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
153 L<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>. (Providing exact
154 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
157 Install Visual C++ 2008-2013 Express, then setup your environment using, e.g.
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 MSVC90FREE-MSVC120FREE 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<http://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.
317 =item MinGW release 3 with gcc
319 Perl can be compiled with gcc from MinGW release 3 and later (using gcc 3.4.5
320 and later). It can be downloaded here:
322 L<http://www.mingw.org/>
324 You also need dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
326 =item Intel C++ Compiler
328 Experimental support for using Intel C++ Compiler has been added. Edit
329 win32/Makefile and pick the correct CCTYPE for the Visual C that Intel C was
330 installed into. Also uncomment __ICC to enable Intel C on Visual C support.
331 To set up the build enviroment, from the Start Menu run
332 IA-32 Visual Studio 20__ mode or Intel 64 Visual Studio 20__ mode as
333 appropriate. Then run nmake as usually in that prompt box.
335 Only Intel C++ Compiler v12.1 has been tested. Other versions probably will
346 Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl toplevel.
347 This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with
348 versions of nmake that come with Visual C++ or the Windows SDK, and
349 a dmake "makefile.mk" that will work for all supported compilers. The
350 defaults in the dmake makefile are setup to build using MinGW/gcc.
354 Edit the makefile.mk (or Makefile, if you're using nmake) and change
355 the values of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. You can also enable various
356 build flags. These are explained in the makefiles.
358 Note that it is generally not a good idea to try to build a perl with
359 INST_DRV and INST_TOP set to a path that already exists from a previous
360 build. In particular, this may cause problems with the
361 lib/ExtUtils/t/Embed.t test, which attempts to build a test program and
362 may end up building against the installed perl's lib/CORE directory rather
363 than the one being tested.
365 You will have to make sure that CCTYPE is set correctly and that
366 CCHOME points to wherever you installed your compiler.
368 If building with the cross-compiler provided by
369 mingw-w64.sourceforge.net you'll need to uncomment the line that sets
370 GCCCROSS in the makefile.mk. Do this only if it's the cross-compiler - ie
371 only if the bin folder doesn't contain a gcc.exe. (The cross-compiler
372 does not provide a gcc.exe, g++.exe, ar.exe, etc. Instead, all of these
373 executables are prefixed with 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-'.)
375 The default value for CCHOME in the makefiles for Visual C++
376 may not be correct for some versions. Make sure the default exists
379 You may also need to comment out the C<DELAYLOAD = ...> line in the
380 Makefile if you're using VC++ 6.0 without the latest service pack and
381 the linker reports an internal error.
383 If you want build some core extensions statically into perl's dll, specify
384 them in the STATIC_EXT macro.
386 NOTE: The USE_64_BIT_INT build option is not supported with the 32-bit
387 Visual C++ 6.0 compiler.
389 Be sure to read the instructions near the top of the makefiles carefully.
393 Type "dmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make).
395 This should build everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe,
396 perl521.dll at the perl toplevel, and various other extension dll's
397 under the lib\auto directory. If the build fails for any reason, make
398 sure you have done the previous steps correctly.
400 If you are advanced enough with building C code, here is a suggestion to speed
401 up building perl, and the later C<make test>. Try to keep your PATH enviromental
402 variable with the least number of folders possible (remember to keep your C
403 compiler's folders there). C<C:\WINDOWS\system32> or C<C:\WINNT\system32>
404 depending on your OS version should be first folder in PATH, since "cmd.exe"
405 is the most commonly launched program during the build and later testing.
409 =head2 Testing Perl on Windows
411 Type "dmake test" (or "nmake test"). This will run most of the tests from
412 the testsuite (many tests will be skipped).
414 There should be no test failures.
416 If you build with Visual C++ 2013 then three tests currently may fail with
417 Daylight Saving Time related problems: F<t/io/fs.t>,
418 F<cpan/HTTP-Tiny/t/110_mirror.t> and F<lib/File.Copy.t>. The failures are
419 caused by bugs in the CRT in VC++ 2013 which will be fixed in future releases
420 of VC++, as explained by Microsoft here:
421 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,
422 if you need fixed C<stat> and C<utime> functions then have a look at the
423 CPAN distribution Win32::UTCFileTime.
425 If you build with certain versions (e.g. 4.8.1) of gcc from www.mingw.org then
426 F<ext/POSIX/t/time.t> may fail test 17 due to a known bug in those gcc builds:
427 see L<http://sourceforge.net/p/mingw/bugs/2152/>.
429 Some test failures may occur if you use a command shell other than the
430 native "cmd.exe", or if you are building from a path that contains
431 spaces. So don't do that.
433 If you are running the tests from a emacs shell window, you may see
434 failures in op/stat.t. Run "dmake test-notty" in that case.
436 Furthermore, you should make sure that during C<make test> you do not
437 have any GNU tool packages in your path: some toolkits like Unixutils
438 include some tools (C<type> for instance) which override the Windows
439 ones and makes tests fail. Remove them from your path while testing to
442 Please report any other failures as described under L<BUGS AND CAVEATS>.
444 =head2 Installation of Perl on Windows
446 Type "dmake install" (or "nmake install"). This will put the newly
447 built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP> points to in the
448 Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation under
449 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same under
450 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod\html>.
452 To use the Perl you just installed you will need to add a new entry to
453 your PATH environment variable: C<$INST_TOP\bin>, e.g.
455 set PATH=c:\perl\bin;%PATH%
457 If you opted to uncomment C<INST_VER> and C<INST_ARCH> in the makefile
458 then the installation structure is a little more complicated and you will
459 need to add two new PATH components instead: C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin> and
460 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin\$ARCHNAME>, e.g.
462 set PATH=c:\perl\5.6.0\bin;c:\perl\5.6.0\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH%
464 =head2 Usage Hints for Perl on Windows
468 =item Environment Variables
470 The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled
471 into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start
472 using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable).
474 If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB
475 to a list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl
476 to look for libraries. Look for descriptions of other environment
477 variables you can set in L<perlrun>.
479 You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and
480 backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See L<perlrun>.
482 Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain default
483 values if you choose to put them there. Perl attempts to read entries from
484 C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> and C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>.
485 Entries in the former override entries in the latter. One or more of the
486 following entries (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may be set:
488 lib-$] version-specific standard library path to add to @INC
489 lib standard library path to add to @INC
490 sitelib-$] version-specific site library path to add to @INC
491 sitelib site library path to add to @INC
492 vendorlib-$] version-specific vendor library path to add to @INC
493 vendorlib vendor library path to add to @INC
494 PERL* fallback for all %ENV lookups that begin with "PERL"
496 Note the C<$]> in the above is not literal. Substitute whatever version
497 of perl you want to honor that entry, e.g. C<5.6.0>. Paths must be
498 separated with semicolons, as usual on Windows.
502 By default, perl handles file globbing using the File::Glob extension,
503 which provides portable globbing.
505 If you want perl to use globbing that emulates the quirks of DOS
506 filename conventions, you might want to consider using File::DosGlob
507 to override the internal glob() implementation. See L<File::DosGlob> for
510 =item Using perl from the command line
512 If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line
513 shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased
514 with what Windows offers by way of a command shell.
516 The crucial thing to understand about the Windows environment is that
517 the command line you type in is processed twice before Perl sees it.
518 First, your command shell (usually CMD.EXE) preprocesses the command
519 line, to handle redirection, environment variable expansion, and
520 location of the executable to run. Then, the perl executable splits
521 the remaining command line into individual arguments, using the
522 C runtime library upon which Perl was built.
524 It is particularly important to note that neither the shell nor the C
525 runtime do any wildcard expansions of command-line arguments (so
526 wildcards need not be quoted). Also, the quoting behaviours of the
527 shell and the C runtime are rudimentary at best (and may, if you are
528 using a non-standard shell, be inconsistent). The only (useful) quote
529 character is the double quote ("). It can be used to protect spaces
530 and other special characters in arguments.
532 The Windows documentation describes the shell parsing rules here:
533 L<http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/cmd.mspx?mfr=true>
534 and the C runtime parsing rules here:
535 L<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/17w5ykft%28v=VS.100%29.aspx>.
537 Here are some further observations based on experiments: The C runtime
538 breaks arguments at spaces and passes them to programs in argc/argv.
539 Double quotes can be used to prevent arguments with spaces in them from
540 being split up. You can put a double quote in an argument by escaping
541 it with a backslash and enclosing the whole argument within double quotes.
542 The backslash and the pair of double quotes surrounding the argument will
543 be stripped by the C runtime.
545 The file redirection characters "E<lt>", "E<gt>", and "|" can be quoted by
546 double quotes (although there are suggestions that this may not always
547 be true). Single quotes are not treated as quotes by the shell or
548 the C runtime, they don't get stripped by the shell (just to make
549 this type of quoting completely useless). The caret "^" has also
550 been observed to behave as a quoting character, but this appears
551 to be a shell feature, and the caret is not stripped from the command
552 line, so Perl still sees it (and the C runtime phase does not treat
553 the caret as a quote character).
555 Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell:
557 This prints two doublequotes:
559 perl -e "print '\"\"' "
563 perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" "
565 This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch":
567 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch
569 This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland):
571 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul
573 This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch":
575 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch
577 This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the console:
579 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less
581 This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager:
583 perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less
585 This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file "blurch":
587 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less
590 Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows 9x
591 is left as an exercise to the reader :)
593 One particularly pernicious problem with the 4NT command shell for
594 Windows is that it (nearly) always treats a % character as indicating
595 that environment variable expansion is needed. Under this shell, it is
596 therefore important to always double any % characters which you want
597 Perl to see (for example, for hash variables), even when they are
600 =item Building Extensions
602 The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth
603 of extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build.
604 Look in L<http://www.cpan.org/> for more information on CPAN.
606 Note that not all of the extensions available from CPAN may work
607 in the Windows environment; you should check the information at
608 L<http://www.cpantesters.org/> before investing too much effort into
609 porting modules that don't readily build.
611 Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can
612 be built, tested and installed with the standard mantra:
619 where $MAKE is whatever 'make' program you have configured perl to
620 use. Use "perl -V:make" to find out what this is. Some extensions
621 may not provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything or
622 fail), but most serious ones do.
624 It is important that you use a supported 'make' program, and
625 ensure Config.pm knows about it. If you don't have nmake, you can
626 either get dmake from the location mentioned earlier or get an
627 old version of nmake reportedly available from:
629 L<http://download.microsoft.com/download/vc15/Patch/1.52/W95/EN-US/nmake15.exe>
631 Another option is to use the make written in Perl, available from
634 L<http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Make/>
636 You may also use dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
638 Note that MakeMaker actually emits makefiles with different syntax
639 depending on what 'make' it thinks you are using. Therefore, it is
640 important that one of the following values appears in Config.pm:
642 make='nmake' # MakeMaker emits nmake syntax
643 make='dmake' # MakeMaker emits dmake syntax
644 any other value # MakeMaker emits generic make syntax
645 (e.g GNU make, or Perl make)
647 If the value doesn't match the 'make' program you want to use,
648 edit Config.pm to fix it.
650 If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported
651 C compilers. You must make sure you have set up the environment for
652 the compiler for command-line compilation before running C<perl Makefile.PL>
653 or any invocation of make.
655 If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for
656 why it failed, and report problems to the module author. If
657 it looks like the extension building support is at fault, report
658 that with full details of how the build failed using the perlbug
661 =item Command-line Wildcard Expansion
663 The default command shells on DOS descendant operating systems (such
664 as they are) usually do not expand wildcard arguments supplied to
665 programs. They consider it the application's job to handle that.
666 This is commonly achieved by linking the application (in our case,
667 perl) with startup code that the C runtime libraries usually provide.
668 However, doing that results in incompatible perl versions (since the
669 behavior of the argv expansion code differs depending on the
670 compiler, and it is even buggy on some compilers). Besides, it may
671 be a source of frustration if you use such a perl binary with an
672 alternate shell that *does* expand wildcards.
674 Instead, the following solution works rather well. The nice things
675 about it are 1) you can start using it right away; 2) it is more
676 powerful, because it will do the right thing with a pattern like
677 */*/*.c; 3) you can decide whether you do/don't want to use it; and
678 4) you can extend the method to add any customizations (or even
679 entirely different kinds of wildcard expansion).
681 C:\> copy con c:\perl\lib\Wild.pm
682 # Wild.pm - emulate shell @ARGV expansion on shells that don't
685 my @g = File::DosGlob::glob($_) if /[*?]/;
690 C:\> set PERL5OPT=-MWild
691 C:\> perl -le "for (@ARGV) { print }" */*/perl*.c
695 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
696 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
697 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
698 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
699 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
700 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
702 Note there are two distinct steps there: 1) You'll have to create
703 Wild.pm and put it in your perl lib directory. 2) You'll need to
704 set the PERL5OPT environment variable. If you want argv expansion
705 to be the default, just set PERL5OPT in your default startup
708 If you are using the Visual C compiler, you can get the C runtime's
709 command line wildcard expansion built into perl binary. The resulting
710 binary will always expand unquoted command lines, which may not be
711 what you want if you use a shell that does that for you. The expansion
712 done is also somewhat less powerful than the approach suggested above.
714 =item Notes on 64-bit Windows
716 Windows .NET Server supports the LLP64 data model on the Intel Itanium
719 The LLP64 data model is different from the LP64 data model that is the
720 norm on 64-bit Unix platforms. In the former, C<int> and C<long> are
721 both 32-bit data types, while pointers are 64 bits wide. In addition,
722 there is a separate 64-bit wide integral type, C<__int64>. In contrast,
723 the LP64 data model that is pervasive on Unix platforms provides C<int>
724 as the 32-bit type, while both the C<long> type and pointers are of
725 64-bit precision. Note that both models provide for 64-bits of
728 64-bit Windows running on Itanium is capable of running 32-bit x86
729 binaries transparently. This means that you could use a 32-bit build
730 of Perl on a 64-bit system. Given this, why would one want to build
731 a 64-bit build of Perl? Here are some reasons why you would bother:
737 A 64-bit native application will run much more efficiently on
742 There is no 2GB limit on process size.
746 Perl automatically provides large file support when built under
751 Embedding Perl inside a 64-bit application.
757 =head2 Running Perl Scripts
759 Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to
760 indicate to the OS that it should execute the file using perl.
761 Windows has no comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are
764 Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on
765 Windows rely on the file "extension". There are three methods
766 to use this to execute perl scripts:
772 There is a facility called "file extension associations". This can be
773 manipulated via the two commands "assoc" and "ftype" that come
774 standard with Windows. Type "ftype /?" for a complete example of how
775 to set this up for perl scripts (Say what? You thought Windows
776 wasn't perl-ready? :).
780 Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are
781 reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the
782 old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a
783 regular batch file to the OS, may be used. The install process
784 makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to wrap
785 perl scripts into batch files. For example:
789 will create the file "FOO.BAT". Note "pl2bat" strips any
790 .pl suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file.
792 If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that
793 "pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to
794 refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to make
795 sure that construct works in batch files. As of this writing,
796 4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *" statement in their
797 4NT.INI file or will need to execute "setdos /p*" in the 4DOS/NT
798 startup file to enable this to work.
802 Using "pl2bat" has a few problems: the file name gets changed,
803 so scripts that rely on C<$0> to find what they must do may not
804 run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the
805 original script, and so this process can be maintenance intensive
806 if the originals get updated often. A different approach that
807 avoids both problems is possible.
809 A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied
810 to any filename (along with the .bat suffix). For example,
811 if you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is
812 executed. Since you can run batch files on Windows platforms simply
813 by typing the name (without the extension), this effectively
814 runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or "foo.bat".
815 With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a different location
816 than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is available somewhere on
817 the PATH. If your scripts are on a filesystem that allows symbolic
818 links, you can even avoid copying "runperl.bat".
820 Here's a diversion: copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type
821 "runperl". Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :)
822 Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH
826 =head2 Miscellaneous Things
828 A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be
829 able to use it if you have a web browser installed on your
832 C<perldoc> is also a useful tool for browsing information contained
833 in the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager
834 like C<less> (recent versions of which have Windows support). You may
835 have to set the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager.
836 "perldoc -f foo" will print information about the perl operator
839 One common mistake when using this port with a GUI library like C<Tk>
840 is assuming that Perl's normal behavior of opening a command-line
841 window will go away. This isn't the case. If you want to start a copy
842 of C<perl> without opening a command-line window, use the C<wperl>
843 executable built during the installation process. Usage is exactly
844 the same as normal C<perl> on Windows, except that options like C<-h>
845 don't work (since they need a command-line window to print to).
847 If you find bugs in perl, you can run C<perlbug> to create a
848 bug report (you may have to send it manually if C<perlbug> cannot
849 find a mailer on your system).
851 =head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS
853 Norton AntiVirus interferes with the build process, particularly if
854 set to "AutoProtect, All Files, when Opened". Unlike large applications
855 the perl build process opens and modifies a lot of files. Having the
856 the AntiVirus scan each and every one slows build the process significantly.
857 Worse, with PERLIO=stdio the build process fails with peculiar messages
858 as the virus checker interacts badly with miniperl.exe writing configure
859 files (it seems to either catch file part written and treat it as suspicious,
860 or virus checker may have it "locked" in a way which inhibits miniperl
861 updating it). The build does complete with
865 but that may be just luck. Other AntiVirus software may have similar issues.
867 A git GUI shell extension for Windows such as TortoiseGit will cause the build
868 and later C<make test> to run much slower since every file is checked for its
869 git status as soon as it is created and/or modified. TortoiseGit doesn't cause
870 any test failures or build problems unlike the antivirus software described
871 above, but it does cause similar slowness. It is suggested to use Task Manager
872 to look for background processes which use high CPU amounts during the building
875 Some of the built-in functions do not act exactly as documented in
876 L<perlfunc>, and a few are not implemented at all. To avoid
877 surprises, particularly if you have had prior exposure to Perl
878 in other operating environments or if you intend to write code
879 that will be portable to other environments, see L<perlport>
880 for a reasonably definitive list of these differences.
882 Not all extensions available from CPAN may build or work properly
883 in the Windows environment. See L</"Building Extensions">.
885 Most C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not
886 behave as on Unix platforms. See L<perlport> for the full list.
888 Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it
889 doesn't exactly "behave", either :). For instance, calling C<die()>
890 or C<exit()> from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most
891 implementations of C<signal()> on Windows are severely crippled.
892 Thus, signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag
893 variable in the handler. Using signals under this port should
894 currently be considered unsupported.
896 Please send detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that
897 you may find to E<lt>F<perlbug@perl.org>E<gt>, along with the output
898 produced by C<perl -V>.
900 =head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
902 The use of a camel with the topic of Perl is a trademark
903 of O'Reilly and Associates, Inc. Used with permission.
909 =item Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt>
911 =item Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@activestate.comE<gt>
913 =item Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ing-simmons.netE<gt>
915 =item Jan Dubois E<lt>jand@activestate.comE<gt>
917 =item Steve Hay E<lt>steve.m.hay@googlemail.comE<gt>
921 This document is maintained by Jan Dubois.
929 This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24,
930 and borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available
931 at the time. Various people have made numerous and sundry hacks
934 GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons).
936 Support for PERL_OBJECT was added in 5.005 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
938 Support for fork() emulation was added in 5.6 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
940 Win9x support was added in 5.6 (Benjamin Stuhl).
942 Support for 64-bit Windows added in 5.8 (ActiveState Corp).
944 Last updated: 07 October 2014