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 3.4.5-5.3.0
45 Gcc by mingw-w64.org 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.org>
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++ 2005-2019 Express [or
67 Community, from 2017] Edition" (and also as part of the ".NET Framework SDK")
68 and are the same compilers that ship with "Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional"
69 or "Visual C++ 2005-2019 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<https://developer.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/sdk-archive>.
77 The MinGW64 compiler is available at L<http://mingw-w64.org>.
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, you can use nmake supplied with Visual C++
100 or Windows SDK. You may also use gmake instead of nmake. Builds using gcc need
101 gmake. nmake is not supported for gcc builds. Parallel building is only
102 supported with gmake, not nmake.
106 Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with Windows. Some versions of the
107 popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause you trouble.
108 If the build fails under that shell, try building again with the cmd
111 Make sure the path to the build directory does not contain spaces. The
112 build usually works in this circumstance, but some tests will fail.
114 =item Microsoft Visual C++
116 The nmake that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building. Visual C++
117 requires that certain things be set up in the console before Visual C++ will
118 successfully run. To make a console box be able to run the C compiler, you will
119 need to beforehand, run C<vcvarsall.bat x86> to compile for x86-32 and for
120 x86-64 C<vcvarsall.bat amd64>. On a typical install of a Microsoft C++
121 compiler product, these batch files will already be in your C<PATH>
122 environment variable so you may just type them without an absolute path into
123 your console. If you need to find the absolute path to the batch file, it is
124 usually found somewhere like
125 C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\VC.
126 With some newer Microsoft C products (released after ~2004), the installer will
127 put a shortcut in the start menu to launch a new console window with the
128 console already set up for your target architecture (x86-32 or x86-64 or IA64).
129 With the newer compilers, you may also use the older batch files if you choose
132 =item Microsoft Visual C++ 2008-2019 Express/Community Edition
134 These free versions of Visual C++ 2008-2019 Professional contain the same
135 compilers and linkers that ship with the full versions, and also contain
136 everything necessary to build Perl, rather than requiring a separate download
137 of the Windows SDK like previous versions did.
139 These packages can be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
140 L<https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>. (Providing exact
141 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
144 Install Visual C++ 2008-2019 Express/Community, then setup your environment
147 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\Tools\vsvars32.bat
149 (assuming the default installation location was chosen).
151 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
152 file to set CCTYPE to one of MSVC90-MSVC142 first.
154 =item Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
156 This free version of Visual C++ 2005 Professional contains the same compiler
157 and linker that ship with the full version, but doesn't contain everything
158 necessary to build Perl.
160 You will also need to download the "Windows SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
161 SDK" components are required) for more header files and libraries.
163 These packages can both be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
164 L<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>. (Providing exact
165 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
168 Try to obtain the latest version of the Windows SDK. Sometimes these packages
169 contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
170 other OS versions too. For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
171 also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
173 Install Visual C++ 2005 first, then the Platform SDK. Setup your environment
174 as follows (assuming default installation locations were chosen):
176 SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
178 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
180 SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\INCLUDE;%PlatformSDKDir%\include
182 SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\LIB;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib
184 SET LIBPATH=C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727
186 (The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on which version
187 you are using. Earlier versions installed into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK",
188 while the latest versions install into version-specific locations such as
189 "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
191 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
196 and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
198 =item Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003
200 This free toolkit contains the same compiler and linker that ship with
201 Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional, but doesn't contain everything
202 necessary to build Perl.
204 You will also need to download the "Platform SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
205 SDK" components are required) for header files, libraries and rc.exe, and
206 ".NET Framework SDK" for more libraries and nmake.exe. Note that the latter
207 (which also includes the free compiler and linker) requires the ".NET
208 Framework Redistributable" to be installed first. This can be downloaded and
209 installed separately, but is included in the "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" anyway.
211 These packages can all be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
212 L<https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>. (Providing exact
213 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
216 Try to obtain the latest version of the Windows SDK. Sometimes these packages
217 contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
218 other OS versions too. For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
219 also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
221 Install the Toolkit first, then the Platform SDK, then the .NET Framework SDK.
222 Setup your environment as follows (assuming default installation locations
225 SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
227 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
229 SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\include;%PlatformSDKDir%\include;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\include
231 SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\lib
233 (The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on which version
234 you are using. Earlier versions installed into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK",
235 while the latest versions install into version-specific locations such as
236 "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
238 Several required files will still be missing:
244 cvtres.exe is required by link.exe when using a .res file. It is actually
245 installed by the .NET Framework SDK, but into a location such as the
248 C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322
250 Copy it from there to %PlatformSDKDir%\Bin
254 lib.exe is normally used to build libraries, but link.exe with the /lib
255 option also works, so change win32/config.vc to use it instead:
257 Change the line reading:
265 It may also be useful to create a batch file called lib.bat in
266 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin containing:
271 for the benefit of any naughty C extension modules that you might want to build
272 later which explicitly reference "lib" rather than taking their value from
277 setargv.obj is required to build perlglob.exe (and perl.exe if the USE_SETARGV
278 option is enabled). The Platform SDK supplies this object file in source form
279 in %PlatformSDKDir%\src\crt. Copy setargv.c, cruntime.h and
280 internal.h from there to some temporary location and build setargv.obj using
282 cl.exe /c /I. /D_CRTBLD setargv.c
284 Then copy setargv.obj to %PlatformSDKDir%\lib
286 Alternatively, if you don't need perlglob.exe and don't need to enable the
287 USE_SETARGV option then you can safely just remove all mention of $(GLOBEXE)
288 from win32/Makefile and setargv.obj won't be required anyway.
292 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
297 and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
299 =item Microsoft Platform SDK 64-bit Compiler
301 The nmake that comes with the Platform SDK will suffice for building
302 Perl. Make sure you are building within one of the "Build Environment"
303 shells available after you install the Platform SDK from the Start Menu.
307 Perl can be compiled with gcc from MinGW (version 3.4.5 or later) or from
308 MinGW64 (version 4.4.3 or later). It can be downloaded here:
310 L<http://www.mingw.org/>
311 L<http://www.mingw-w64.org/>
313 You also need gmake. Usually it comes with MinGW but its executable may have
314 a different name, such as mingw32-make.exe.
316 Note that the MinGW build currently fails with version 6.3.0 or later.
318 Note also that the C++ mode build currently fails with MinGW 3.4.5 and 4.7.2
319 or later, and with MinGW64 64-bit 6.3.0 or later.
321 =item Intel C++ Compiler
323 Experimental support for using Intel C++ Compiler has been added. Edit
324 win32/Makefile and pick the correct CCTYPE for the Visual C that Intel C was
325 installed into. Also uncomment __ICC to enable Intel C on Visual C support.
326 To set up the build environment, from the Start Menu run
327 IA-32 Visual Studio 20__ mode or Intel 64 Visual Studio 20__ mode as
328 appropriate. Then run nmake as usually in that prompt box.
330 Only Intel C++ Compiler v12.1 has been tested. Other versions probably will
331 work. Using Intel C++ Compiler instead of Visual C has the benefit of C99
332 compatibility which is needed by some CPAN XS modules, while maintaining
333 compatibility with Visual C object code and Visual C debugging infrastructure
344 Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl toplevel.
345 This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with
346 versions of nmake that come with Visual C++ or the Windows SDK, and
347 a GNU make "GNUmakefile" that will work for all supported compilers.
348 The defaults in the gmake makefile are setup to build using MinGW/gcc.
352 Edit the GNUmakefile (or Makefile, if you're using nmake) and change the values
353 of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. You can also enable various build flags. These are
354 explained in the makefiles.
356 Note that it is generally not a good idea to try to build a perl with
357 INST_DRV and INST_TOP set to a path that already exists from a previous
358 build. In particular, this may cause problems with the
359 lib/ExtUtils/t/Embed.t test, which attempts to build a test program and
360 may end up building against the installed perl's lib/CORE directory rather
361 than the one being tested.
363 You will have to make sure that CCTYPE is set correctly and that
364 CCHOME points to wherever you installed your compiler. For GCC this
365 should be the directory that contains the F<bin>, F<include> and
368 If building with the cross-compiler provided by
369 mingw-w64.org you'll need to uncomment the line that sets
370 GCCCROSS in the GNUmakefile. 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 If you want build some core extensions statically into perl's dll, specify
380 them in the STATIC_EXT macro.
382 Be sure to read the instructions near the top of the makefiles carefully.
386 Type "gmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make).
388 This should build everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe,
389 perl535.dll at the perl toplevel, and various other extension dll's
390 under the lib\auto directory. If the build fails for any reason, make
391 sure you have done the previous steps correctly.
393 To try gmake's parallel mode, type "gmake -j2", where 2, is the maximum number
394 of parallel jobs you want to run. A number of things in the build process will
395 run in parallel, but there are serialization points where you will see just 1
396 CPU maxed out. This is normal.
398 If you are advanced enough with building C code, here is a suggestion to speed
399 up building perl, and the later C<make test>. Try to keep your PATH environmental
400 variable with the least number of folders possible (remember to keep your C
401 compiler's folders there). C<C:\WINDOWS\system32> or C<C:\WINNT\system32>
402 depending on your OS version should be first folder in PATH, since "cmd.exe"
403 is the most commonly launched program during the build and later testing.
407 =head2 Testing Perl on Windows
409 Type "gmake test" (or "nmake test"). This will run most
410 of the tests from the testsuite (many tests will be skipped).
412 There should be no test failures.
414 If you build with Visual C++ 2013 then three tests currently may fail with
415 Daylight Saving Time related problems: F<t/io/fs.t>,
416 F<cpan/HTTP-Tiny/t/110_mirror.t> and F<lib/File/Copy.t>. The failures are
417 caused by bugs in the CRT in VC++ 2013 which are fixed in VC++2015 and
418 later, as explained by Microsoft here:
419 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,
420 if you need fixed C<stat> and C<utime> functions then have a look at the
421 CPAN distribution Win32::UTCFileTime.
423 If you build with Visual C++ 2015 or later then F<ext/XS-APItest/t/locale.t>
424 may crash (after all its tests have passed). This is due to a regression in the
425 Universal CRT introduced in the Windows 10 April 2018 Update, and will be fixed
426 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>.
428 If you build with certain versions (e.g. 4.8.1) of gcc from www.mingw.org then
429 F<ext/POSIX/t/time.t> may fail test 17 due to a known bug in those gcc builds:
430 see L<https://sourceforge.net/p/mingw/bugs/2152/>.
432 Some test failures may occur if you use a command shell other than the
433 native "cmd.exe", or if you are building from a path that contains
434 spaces. So don't do that.
436 If you are running the tests from a emacs shell window, you may see
437 failures in op/stat.t. Run "gmake test-notty" in that case.
439 Furthermore, you should make sure that during C<make test> you do not
440 have any GNU tool packages in your path: some toolkits like Unixutils
441 include some tools (C<type> for instance) which override the Windows
442 ones and makes tests fail. Remove them from your path while testing to
445 To see the output of specific failing tests run the harness from the t
448 # assuming you're starting from the win32 directory
450 .\perl harness <list of tests>
452 Please report any other failures as described under L</BUGS AND CAVEATS>.
454 =head2 Installation of Perl on Windows
456 Type "gmake install" ("nmake install"). This will
457 put the newly built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP>
458 points to in the Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation
459 under C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same
460 under C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod\html>.
462 To use the Perl you just installed you will need to add a new entry to
463 your PATH environment variable: C<$INST_TOP\bin>, e.g.
465 set PATH=c:\perl\bin;%PATH%
467 If you opted to uncomment C<INST_VER> and C<INST_ARCH> in the makefile
468 then the installation structure is a little more complicated and you will
469 need to add two new PATH components instead: C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin> and
470 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin\$ARCHNAME>, e.g.
472 set PATH=c:\perl\5.6.0\bin;c:\perl\5.6.0\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH%
474 =head2 Usage Hints for Perl on Windows
478 =item Environment Variables
480 The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled
481 into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start
482 using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable).
484 If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB
485 to a list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl
486 to look for libraries. Look for descriptions of other environment
487 variables you can set in L<perlrun>.
489 You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and
490 backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See L<perlrun>.
492 Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain default
493 values if you choose to put them there unless disabled at build time with
494 USE_NO_REGISTRY. On Perl process start Perl checks if
495 C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> and C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>
496 exist. If the keys exists, they will be checked for remainder of the Perl
497 process's run life for certain entries. Entries in
498 C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> override entries in
499 C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>. One or more of the following entries
500 (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may be set in the keys:
502 lib-$] version-specific standard library path to add to @INC
503 lib standard library path to add to @INC
504 sitelib-$] version-specific site library path to add to @INC
505 sitelib site library path to add to @INC
506 vendorlib-$] version-specific vendor library path to add to @INC
507 vendorlib vendor library path to add to @INC
508 PERL* fallback for all %ENV lookups that begin with "PERL"
510 Note the C<$]> in the above is not literal. Substitute whatever version
511 of perl you want to honor that entry, e.g. C<5.6.0>. Paths must be
512 separated with semicolons, as usual on Windows.
516 By default, perl handles file globbing using the File::Glob extension,
517 which provides portable globbing.
519 If you want perl to use globbing that emulates the quirks of DOS
520 filename conventions, you might want to consider using File::DosGlob
521 to override the internal glob() implementation. See L<File::DosGlob> for
524 =item Using perl from the command line
526 If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line
527 shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased
528 with what Windows offers by way of a command shell.
530 The crucial thing to understand about the Windows environment is that
531 the command line you type in is processed twice before Perl sees it.
532 First, your command shell (usually CMD.EXE) preprocesses the command
533 line, to handle redirection, environment variable expansion, and
534 location of the executable to run. Then, the perl executable splits
535 the remaining command line into individual arguments, using the
536 C runtime library upon which Perl was built.
538 It is particularly important to note that neither the shell nor the C
539 runtime do any wildcard expansions of command-line arguments (so
540 wildcards need not be quoted). Also, the quoting behaviours of the
541 shell and the C runtime are rudimentary at best (and may, if you are
542 using a non-standard shell, be inconsistent). The only (useful) quote
543 character is the double quote ("). It can be used to protect spaces
544 and other special characters in arguments.
546 The Windows documentation describes the shell parsing rules here:
547 L<https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/cmd>
548 and the C runtime parsing rules here:
549 L<https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/17w5ykft%28v=VS.100%29.aspx>.
551 Here are some further observations based on experiments: The C runtime
552 breaks arguments at spaces and passes them to programs in argc/argv.
553 Double quotes can be used to prevent arguments with spaces in them from
554 being split up. You can put a double quote in an argument by escaping
555 it with a backslash and enclosing the whole argument within double quotes.
556 The backslash and the pair of double quotes surrounding the argument will
557 be stripped by the C runtime.
559 The file redirection characters "E<lt>", "E<gt>", and "|" can be quoted by
560 double quotes (although there are suggestions that this may not always
561 be true). Single quotes are not treated as quotes by the shell or
562 the C runtime, they don't get stripped by the shell (just to make
563 this type of quoting completely useless). The caret "^" has also
564 been observed to behave as a quoting character, but this appears
565 to be a shell feature, and the caret is not stripped from the command
566 line, so Perl still sees it (and the C runtime phase does not treat
567 the caret as a quote character).
569 Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell:
571 This prints two doublequotes:
573 perl -e "print '\"\"' "
577 perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" "
579 This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch":
581 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch
583 This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland):
585 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul
587 This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch":
589 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch
591 This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the console:
593 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less
595 This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager:
597 perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less
599 This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file "blurch":
601 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less
604 Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows 9x
605 is left as an exercise to the reader :)
607 One particularly pernicious problem with the 4NT command shell for
608 Windows is that it (nearly) always treats a % character as indicating
609 that environment variable expansion is needed. Under this shell, it is
610 therefore important to always double any % characters which you want
611 Perl to see (for example, for hash variables), even when they are
614 =item Building Extensions
616 The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth
617 of extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build.
618 Look in L<https://www.cpan.org/> for more information on CPAN.
620 Note that not all of the extensions available from CPAN may work
621 in the Windows environment; you should check the information at
622 L<https://www.cpantesters.org/> before investing too much effort into
623 porting modules that don't readily build.
625 Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can
626 be built, tested and installed with the standard mantra:
633 where $MAKE is whatever 'make' program you have configured perl to
634 use. Use "perl -V:make" to find out what this is. Some extensions
635 may not provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything or
636 fail), but most serious ones do.
638 It is important that you use a supported 'make' program, and
639 ensure Config.pm knows about it.
641 Note that MakeMaker actually emits makefiles with different syntax
642 depending on what 'make' it thinks you are using. Therefore, it is
643 important that one of the following values appears in Config.pm:
645 make='nmake' # MakeMaker emits nmake syntax
646 any other value # MakeMaker emits generic make syntax
647 (e.g GNU make, or Perl make)
649 If the value doesn't match the 'make' program you want to use,
650 edit Config.pm to fix it.
652 If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported
653 C compilers. You must make sure you have set up the environment for
654 the compiler for command-line compilation before running C<perl Makefile.PL>
655 or any invocation of make.
657 If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for
658 why it failed, and report problems to the module author. If
659 it looks like the extension building support is at fault, report
660 that with full details of how the build failed using the GitHub
661 issue tracker at L<https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>.
663 =item Command-line Wildcard Expansion
665 The default command shells on DOS descendant operating systems (such
666 as they are) usually do not expand wildcard arguments supplied to
667 programs. They consider it the application's job to handle that.
668 This is commonly achieved by linking the application (in our case,
669 perl) with startup code that the C runtime libraries usually provide.
670 However, doing that results in incompatible perl versions (since the
671 behavior of the argv expansion code differs depending on the
672 compiler, and it is even buggy on some compilers). Besides, it may
673 be a source of frustration if you use such a perl binary with an
674 alternate shell that *does* expand wildcards.
676 Instead, the following solution works rather well. The nice things
677 about it are 1) you can start using it right away; 2) it is more
678 powerful, because it will do the right thing with a pattern like
679 */*/*.c; 3) you can decide whether you do/don't want to use it; and
680 4) you can extend the method to add any customizations (or even
681 entirely different kinds of wildcard expansion).
683 C:\> copy con c:\perl\lib\Wild.pm
684 # Wild.pm - emulate shell @ARGV expansion on shells that don't
687 my @g = File::DosGlob::glob($_) if /[*?]/;
692 C:\> set PERL5OPT=-MWild
693 C:\> perl -le "for (@ARGV) { print }" */*/perl*.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
701 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
702 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
704 Note there are two distinct steps there: 1) You'll have to create
705 Wild.pm and put it in your perl lib directory. 2) You'll need to
706 set the PERL5OPT environment variable. If you want argv expansion
707 to be the default, just set PERL5OPT in your default startup
710 If you are using the Visual C compiler, you can get the C runtime's
711 command line wildcard expansion built into perl binary. The resulting
712 binary will always expand unquoted command lines, which may not be
713 what you want if you use a shell that does that for you. The expansion
714 done is also somewhat less powerful than the approach suggested above.
716 =item Notes on 64-bit Windows
718 Windows .NET Server supports the LLP64 data model on the Intel Itanium
721 The LLP64 data model is different from the LP64 data model that is the
722 norm on 64-bit Unix platforms. In the former, C<int> and C<long> are
723 both 32-bit data types, while pointers are 64 bits wide. In addition,
724 there is a separate 64-bit wide integral type, C<__int64>. In contrast,
725 the LP64 data model that is pervasive on Unix platforms provides C<int>
726 as the 32-bit type, while both the C<long> type and pointers are of
727 64-bit precision. Note that both models provide for 64-bits of
730 64-bit Windows running on Itanium is capable of running 32-bit x86
731 binaries transparently. This means that you could use a 32-bit build
732 of Perl on a 64-bit system. Given this, why would one want to build
733 a 64-bit build of Perl? Here are some reasons why you would bother:
739 A 64-bit native application will run much more efficiently on
744 There is no 2GB limit on process size.
748 Perl automatically provides large file support when built under
753 Embedding Perl inside a 64-bit application.
759 =head2 Running Perl Scripts
761 Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to
762 indicate to the OS that it should execute the file using perl.
763 Windows has no comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are
766 Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on
767 Windows rely on the file "extension". There are three methods
768 to use this to execute perl scripts:
774 There is a facility called "file extension associations". This can be
775 manipulated via the two commands "assoc" and "ftype" that come
776 standard with Windows. Type "ftype /?" for a complete example of how
777 to set this up for perl scripts (Say what? You thought Windows
778 wasn't perl-ready? :).
782 Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are
783 reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the
784 old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a
785 regular batch file to the OS, may be used. The install process
786 makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to wrap
787 perl scripts into batch files. For example:
791 will create the file "FOO.BAT". Note "pl2bat" strips any
792 .pl suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file.
794 If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that
795 "pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to
796 refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to make
797 sure that construct works in batch files. As of this writing,
798 4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *" statement in their
799 4NT.INI file or will need to execute "setdos /p*" in the 4DOS/NT
800 startup file to enable this to work.
804 Using "pl2bat" has a few problems: the file name gets changed,
805 so scripts that rely on C<$0> to find what they must do may not
806 run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the
807 original script, and so this process can be maintenance intensive
808 if the originals get updated often. A different approach that
809 avoids both problems is possible.
811 A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied
812 to any filename (along with the .bat suffix). For example,
813 if you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is
814 executed. Since you can run batch files on Windows platforms simply
815 by typing the name (without the extension), this effectively
816 runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or "foo.bat".
817 With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a different location
818 than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is available somewhere on
819 the PATH. If your scripts are on a filesystem that allows symbolic
820 links, you can even avoid copying "runperl.bat".
822 Here's a diversion: copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type
823 "runperl". Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :)
824 Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH
828 =head2 Miscellaneous Things
830 A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be
831 able to use it if you have a web browser installed on your
834 C<perldoc> is also a useful tool for browsing information contained
835 in the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager
836 like C<less> (recent versions of which have Windows support). You may
837 have to set the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager.
838 "perldoc -f foo" will print information about the perl operator
841 One common mistake when using this port with a GUI library like C<Tk>
842 is assuming that Perl's normal behavior of opening a command-line
843 window will go away. This isn't the case. If you want to start a copy
844 of C<perl> without opening a command-line window, use the C<wperl>
845 executable built during the installation process. Usage is exactly
846 the same as normal C<perl> on Windows, except that options like C<-h>
847 don't work (since they need a command-line window to print to).
849 If you find bugs in perl, you can report them to
850 L<https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>.
852 =head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS
854 Norton AntiVirus interferes with the build process, particularly if
855 set to "AutoProtect, All Files, when Opened". Unlike large applications
856 the perl build process opens and modifies a lot of files. Having the
857 AntiVirus scan each and every one slows build the process significantly.
858 Worse, with PERLIO=stdio the build process fails with peculiar messages
859 as the virus checker interacts badly with miniperl.exe writing configure
860 files (it seems to either catch file part written and treat it as suspicious,
861 or virus checker may have it "locked" in a way which inhibits miniperl
862 updating it). The build does complete with
866 but that may be just luck. Other AntiVirus software may have similar issues.
868 A git GUI shell extension for Windows such as TortoiseGit will cause the build
869 and later C<make test> to run much slower since every file is checked for its
870 git status as soon as it is created and/or modified. TortoiseGit doesn't cause
871 any test failures or build problems unlike the antivirus software described
872 above, but it does cause similar slowness. It is suggested to use Task Manager
873 to look for background processes which use high CPU amounts during the building
876 Some of the built-in functions do not act exactly as documented in
877 L<perlfunc>, and a few are not implemented at all. To avoid
878 surprises, particularly if you have had prior exposure to Perl
879 in other operating environments or if you intend to write code
880 that will be portable to other environments, see L<perlport>
881 for a reasonably definitive list of these differences.
883 Not all extensions available from CPAN may build or work properly
884 in the Windows environment. See L</"Building Extensions">.
886 Most C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not
887 behave as on Unix platforms. See L<perlport> for the full list.
889 Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it
890 doesn't exactly "behave", either :). For instance, calling C<die()>
891 or C<exit()> from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most
892 implementations of C<signal()> on Windows are severely crippled.
893 Thus, signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag
894 variable in the handler. Using signals under this port should
895 currently be considered unsupported.
897 Please report detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that
898 you may find at E<lt>L<https://github.com/Perl/perl5/issues>E<gt>,
899 along with the output produced by C<perl -V>.
901 =head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
903 The use of a camel with the topic of Perl is a trademark
904 of O'Reilly and Associates, Inc. Used with permission.
910 =item Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt>
912 =item Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@activestate.comE<gt>
914 =item Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ing-simmons.netE<gt>
916 =item Jan Dubois E<lt>jand@activestate.comE<gt>
918 =item Steve Hay E<lt>steve.m.hay@googlemail.comE<gt>
922 This document is maintained by Jan Dubois.
930 This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24,
931 and borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available
932 at the time. Various people have made numerous and sundry hacks
935 GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons).
937 Support for PERL_OBJECT was added in 5.005 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
939 Support for fork() emulation was added in 5.6 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
941 Win9x support was added in 5.6 (Benjamin Stuhl).
943 Support for 64-bit Windows added in 5.8 (ActiveState Corp).
945 Last updated: 26 January 2020