3 If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you
4 see. It is written in the POD format (see perlpod manpage) which is
5 specially designed to be readable as is.
9 perlamiga - Perl under AmigaOS 4.1
13 This is a port of Perl 5.22.1, it is a fresh port and not in any way
14 compatible with my previous ports of Perl 5.8 and 5.16.3. This means
15 you will need to reinstall / rebuild any third party modules you have
18 newlib.library version 53.28 or greater is required.
22 Once perl is installed you can read this document in the following way
24 sh -c "perldoc perlamiga"
26 or you may read I<as is>: either as F<README.amiga>, or F<pod/perlamiga.pod>.
34 - Starting Perl programs under AmigaOS
35 - Shortcomings of Perl under AmigaOS
41 =head2 Prerequisites for running Perl 5.22.1 under AmigaOS 4.1
45 =item B<AmigaOS 4.1 update 6 with all updates applied as of 9th October 2013>
47 The most important of which is:
49 =item B<newlib.library version 53.28 or greater>
53 Perl installs into the SDK directory structure and expects many of the
54 build tools present in the SDK to be available. So for the best results
55 install the SDK first.
59 If you do not have the SDK installed you must at least have abc-shell
60 installed or some other suitable sh port. This is required to run
61 external commands and should be available as 'sh' in your path.
65 =head2 Starting Perl programs under AmigaOS 4.1
67 Perl may be run from the AmigaOS shell but for best results should be
68 run under abc-shell. (abc-shell handles file globbing, pattern
69 expansion, and sets up environment variables in the UN*Xy way that
76 /AmigaOS4>perl path:to/myprog arg1 arrg2 arg3
78 Abc-shell can also launch programs via the #! syntax at the start of
79 the program file, it's best use the form #!SDK:Local/C/perl so that
80 the AmigaOS shell may also find perl in the same way. AmigaOS requires
81 the script bit to be set for this to work
84 /AmigaOS4>myprog arg1 arrg2 arg3
86 =head2 Limitations of Perl under AmigaOS 4.1
90 =item B<Nested Piped programs can crash when run from older abc-shells>
92 abc-shell version 53.2 has a bug that can cause crashes in the
93 subprocesses used to run piped programs, if a later version is
94 available you should install it instead.
96 =item B<Incorrect or unexpected command line unescaping>
98 newlib.library 53.30 and earlier incorrectly unescape slashed escape
99 sequences e.g. \" \n \t etc requiring unusual extra escaping.
101 =item B<Starting subprocesses via open has limitations>
105 Subprocesses started with open use a minimal popen() routine and
106 therefore they do not return pids usable with waitpid etc.
108 =item If you find any other limitations or bugs then let me know.
110 Please report bugs in this version of perl to andy@broad.ology.org.uk
111 in the first instance.
117 This guide assumes you have obtained a prebuilt archive from os4depot.net.
119 Unpack the main archive to a temporary location (RAM: is fine).
121 Execute the provided install script from shell or via its icon.
123 You B<must not> attempt to install by hand.
125 Once installed you may delete the temporary archive.
127 This approach will preserve links in the installation without creating
130 If you have the earlier ports perl 5.16 or 5.8 installed you may like
131 to rename your perl executable to perl516 or perl58 or something
132 similar before the installation of 5.22.1, this will allow you to use
133 both versions at the same time.
135 =head1 Amiga Specific Modules
139 The Amiga::ARexx module allows you to easily create a perl based ARexx
140 host or to send ARexx commands to other programs.
142 Try C<perldoc Amiga::ARexx> for more info.
146 The Amiga::Exec module introduces support for Wait().
148 Try C<perldoc Amiga::Exec> for more info.
152 To build perl under AmigaOS from the patched sources you will need to
153 have a recent version of the SDK. Version 53.29 is recommended,
154 earlier versions will probably work too.
156 With the help of Jarkko Hietaniemi the Configure system has been tweaked to
157 run under abc-shell so the recommend build process is as follows.
163 This will build the default setup that installs under SDK:local/newlib/lib/
173 =item Port to Perl 5.22
175 =item Add handling of NIL: to afstat()
177 =item Fix inheritance of environment variables by subprocesses.
179 =item Fix exec, and exit in "forked" subprocesses.
181 =item Fix issue with newlib's unlink, which could cause infinite loops.
183 =item Add flock() emulation using IDOS->LockRecord thanks to Tony Cook
186 =item Fix issue where kill was using the wrong kind of process ID
190 =item B<27th November 2013>
194 =item Create new installation system based on installperl links
195 and Amiga protection bits now set correctly.
197 =item Pod now defaults to text.
199 =item File::Spec should now recognise an Amiga style absolute path as well
200 as an Unix style one. Relative paths must always be Unix style.
204 =item B<20th November 2013>
208 =item Configured to use SDK:Local/C/perl to start standard scripts
210 =item Added Amiga::Exec module with support for Wait() and AmigaOS signal numbers.
214 =item B<10th October 13>
216 First release of port to 5.16.3.
222 You like this port? See L<http://www.broad.ology.org.uk/amiga/>
223 for how you can help.