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.
124 You will need to run the VCVARS32.BAT file, usually found somewhere
125 like C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\Bin.
126 This will set your build environment.
128 You can also use dmake to build using Visual C++; provided, however,
129 you set OSRELEASE to "microsft" (or whatever the directory name
130 under which the Visual C dmake configuration lives) in your environment
131 and edit win32/config.vc to change "make=nmake" into "make=dmake". The
132 latter step is only essential if you want to use dmake as your default
133 make for building extensions using MakeMaker.
135 =item Microsoft Visual C++ 2008-2013 Express Edition
137 These free versions of Visual C++ 2008-2013 Professional contain the same
138 compilers and linkers that ship with the full versions, and also contain
139 everything necessary to build Perl, rather than requiring a separate download
140 of the Windows SDK like previous versions did.
142 These packages can be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
143 L<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>. (Providing exact
144 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
147 Install Visual C++ 2008-2013 Express, then setup your environment using, e.g.
149 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\Tools\vsvars32.bat
151 (assuming the default installation location was chosen).
153 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
154 file to set CCTYPE to one of MSVC90FREE-MSVC120FREE first.
156 =item Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
158 This free version of Visual C++ 2005 Professional contains the same compiler
159 and linker that ship with the full version, but doesn't contain everything
160 necessary to build Perl.
162 You will also need to download the "Windows SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
163 SDK" components are required) for more header files and libraries.
165 These packages can both be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
166 L<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>. (Providing exact
167 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
170 Try to obtain the latest version of the Windows SDK. Sometimes these packages
171 contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
172 other OS versions too. For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
173 also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
175 Install Visual C++ 2005 first, then the Platform SDK. Setup your environment
176 as follows (assuming default installation locations were chosen):
178 SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
180 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
182 SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\INCLUDE;%PlatformSDKDir%\include
184 SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\LIB;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib
186 SET LIBPATH=C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727
188 (The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on which version
189 you are using. Earlier versions installed into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK",
190 while the latest versions install into version-specific locations such as
191 "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
193 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
198 and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
200 =item Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003
202 This free toolkit contains the same compiler and linker that ship with
203 Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional, but doesn't contain everything
204 necessary to build Perl.
206 You will also need to download the "Platform SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
207 SDK" components are required) for header files, libraries and rc.exe, and
208 ".NET Framework SDK" for more libraries and nmake.exe. Note that the latter
209 (which also includes the free compiler and linker) requires the ".NET
210 Framework Redistributable" to be installed first. This can be downloaded and
211 installed separately, but is included in the "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" anyway.
213 These packages can all be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
214 L<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>. (Providing exact
215 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
218 Try to obtain the latest version of the Windows SDK. Sometimes these packages
219 contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
220 other OS versions too. For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
221 also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
223 Install the Toolkit first, then the Platform SDK, then the .NET Framework SDK.
224 Setup your environment as follows (assuming default installation locations
227 SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
229 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
231 SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\include;%PlatformSDKDir%\include;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\include
233 SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\lib
235 (The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on which version
236 you are using. Earlier versions installed into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK",
237 while the latest versions install into version-specific locations such as
238 "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
240 Several required files will still be missing:
246 cvtres.exe is required by link.exe when using a .res file. It is actually
247 installed by the .NET Framework SDK, but into a location such as the
250 C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322
252 Copy it from there to %PlatformSDKDir%\Bin
256 lib.exe is normally used to build libraries, but link.exe with the /lib
257 option also works, so change win32/config.vc to use it instead:
259 Change the line reading:
267 It may also be useful to create a batch file called lib.bat in
268 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin containing:
273 for the benefit of any naughty C extension modules that you might want to build
274 later which explicitly reference "lib" rather than taking their value from
279 setargv.obj is required to build perlglob.exe (and perl.exe if the USE_SETARGV
280 option is enabled). The Platform SDK supplies this object file in source form
281 in %PlatformSDKDir%\src\crt. Copy setargv.c, cruntime.h and
282 internal.h from there to some temporary location and build setargv.obj using
284 cl.exe /c /I. /D_CRTBLD setargv.c
286 Then copy setargv.obj to %PlatformSDKDir%\lib
288 Alternatively, if you don't need perlglob.exe and don't need to enable the
289 USE_SETARGV option then you can safely just remove all mention of $(GLOBEXE)
290 from win32/Makefile and setargv.obj won't be required anyway.
294 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
299 and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
301 =item Microsoft Platform SDK 64-bit Compiler
303 The nmake that comes with the Platform SDK will suffice for building
304 Perl. Make sure you are building within one of the "Build Environment"
305 shells available after you install the Platform SDK from the Start Menu.
307 =item MinGW release 3 with gcc
309 Perl can be compiled with gcc from MinGW release 3 and later (using gcc 3.4.5
310 and later). It can be downloaded here:
312 L<http://www.mingw.org/>
314 You also need dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
316 =item Intel C++ Compiler
318 Experimental support for using Intel C++ Compiler has been added. Edit
319 win32/Makefile and pick the correct CCTYPE for the Visual C that Intel C was
320 installed into. Also uncomment __ICC to enable Intel C on Visual C support.
321 To set up the build enviroment, from the Start Menu run
322 IA-32 Visual Studio 20__ mode or Intel 64 Visual Studio 20__ mode as
323 appropriate. Then run nmake as usually in that prompt box.
325 Only Intel C++ Compiler v12.1 has been tested. Other versions probably will
336 Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl toplevel.
337 This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with
338 versions of nmake that come with Visual C++ or the Windows SDK, and
339 a dmake "makefile.mk" that will work for all supported compilers. The
340 defaults in the dmake makefile are setup to build using MinGW/gcc.
344 Edit the makefile.mk (or Makefile, if you're using nmake) and change
345 the values of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. You can also enable various
346 build flags. These are explained in the makefiles.
348 Note that it is generally not a good idea to try to build a perl with
349 INST_DRV and INST_TOP set to a path that already exists from a previous
350 build. In particular, this may cause problems with the
351 lib/ExtUtils/t/Embed.t test, which attempts to build a test program and
352 may end up building against the installed perl's lib/CORE directory rather
353 than the one being tested.
355 You will have to make sure that CCTYPE is set correctly and that
356 CCHOME points to wherever you installed your compiler.
358 If building with the cross-compiler provided by
359 mingw-w64.sourceforge.net you'll need to uncomment the line that sets
360 GCCCROSS in the makefile.mk. Do this only if it's the cross-compiler - ie
361 only if the bin folder doesn't contain a gcc.exe. (The cross-compiler
362 does not provide a gcc.exe, g++.exe, ar.exe, etc. Instead, all of these
363 executables are prefixed with 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-'.)
365 The default value for CCHOME in the makefiles for Visual C++
366 may not be correct for some versions. Make sure the default exists
369 You may also need to comment out the C<DELAYLOAD = ...> line in the
370 Makefile if you're using VC++ 6.0 without the latest service pack and
371 the linker reports an internal error.
373 If you want build some core extensions statically into perl's dll, specify
374 them in the STATIC_EXT macro.
376 NOTE: The USE_64_BIT_INT build option is not supported with the 32-bit
377 Visual C++ 6.0 compiler.
379 Be sure to read the instructions near the top of the makefiles carefully.
383 Type "dmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make).
385 This should build everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe,
386 perl521.dll at the perl toplevel, and various other extension dll's
387 under the lib\auto directory. If the build fails for any reason, make
388 sure you have done the previous steps correctly.
392 =head2 Testing Perl on Windows
394 Type "dmake test" (or "nmake test"). This will run most of the tests from
395 the testsuite (many tests will be skipped).
397 There should be no test failures.
399 If you build with Visual C++ 2013 then three tests currently may fail with
400 Daylight Saving Time related problems: F<t/io/fs.t>,
401 F<cpan/HTTP-Tiny/t/110_mirror.t> and F<lib/File.Copy.t>. The failures are
402 caused by bugs in the CRT in VC++ 2013 which will be fixed in future releases
403 of VC++, as explained by Microsoft here:
404 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,
405 if you need fixed C<stat> and C<utime> functions then have a look at the
406 CPAN distribution Win32::UTCFileTime.
408 If you build with certain versions (e.g. 4.8.1) of gcc from www.mingw.org then
409 F<ext/POSIX/t/time.t> may fail test 17 due to a known bug in those gcc builds:
410 see L<http://sourceforge.net/p/mingw/bugs/2152/>.
412 Some test failures may occur if you use a command shell other than the
413 native "cmd.exe", or if you are building from a path that contains
414 spaces. So don't do that.
416 If you are running the tests from a emacs shell window, you may see
417 failures in op/stat.t. Run "dmake test-notty" in that case.
419 Furthermore, you should make sure that during C<make test> you do not
420 have any GNU tool packages in your path: some toolkits like Unixutils
421 include some tools (C<type> for instance) which override the Windows
422 ones and makes tests fail. Remove them from your path while testing to
425 Please report any other failures as described under L<BUGS AND CAVEATS>.
427 =head2 Installation of Perl on Windows
429 Type "dmake install" (or "nmake install"). This will put the newly
430 built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP> points to in the
431 Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation under
432 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same under
433 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod\html>.
435 To use the Perl you just installed you will need to add a new entry to
436 your PATH environment variable: C<$INST_TOP\bin>, e.g.
438 set PATH=c:\perl\bin;%PATH%
440 If you opted to uncomment C<INST_VER> and C<INST_ARCH> in the makefile
441 then the installation structure is a little more complicated and you will
442 need to add two new PATH components instead: C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin> and
443 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin\$ARCHNAME>, e.g.
445 set PATH=c:\perl\5.6.0\bin;c:\perl\5.6.0\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH%
447 =head2 Usage Hints for Perl on Windows
451 =item Environment Variables
453 The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled
454 into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start
455 using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable).
457 If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB
458 to a list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl
459 to look for libraries. Look for descriptions of other environment
460 variables you can set in L<perlrun>.
462 You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and
463 backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See L<perlrun>.
465 Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain default
466 values if you choose to put them there. Perl attempts to read entries from
467 C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> and C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>.
468 Entries in the former override entries in the latter. One or more of the
469 following entries (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may be set:
471 lib-$] version-specific standard library path to add to @INC
472 lib standard library path to add to @INC
473 sitelib-$] version-specific site library path to add to @INC
474 sitelib site library path to add to @INC
475 vendorlib-$] version-specific vendor library path to add to @INC
476 vendorlib vendor library path to add to @INC
477 PERL* fallback for all %ENV lookups that begin with "PERL"
479 Note the C<$]> in the above is not literal. Substitute whatever version
480 of perl you want to honor that entry, e.g. C<5.6.0>. Paths must be
481 separated with semicolons, as usual on Windows.
485 By default, perl handles file globbing using the File::Glob extension,
486 which provides portable globbing.
488 If you want perl to use globbing that emulates the quirks of DOS
489 filename conventions, you might want to consider using File::DosGlob
490 to override the internal glob() implementation. See L<File::DosGlob> for
493 =item Using perl from the command line
495 If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line
496 shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased
497 with what Windows offers by way of a command shell.
499 The crucial thing to understand about the Windows environment is that
500 the command line you type in is processed twice before Perl sees it.
501 First, your command shell (usually CMD.EXE) preprocesses the command
502 line, to handle redirection, environment variable expansion, and
503 location of the executable to run. Then, the perl executable splits
504 the remaining command line into individual arguments, using the
505 C runtime library upon which Perl was built.
507 It is particularly important to note that neither the shell nor the C
508 runtime do any wildcard expansions of command-line arguments (so
509 wildcards need not be quoted). Also, the quoting behaviours of the
510 shell and the C runtime are rudimentary at best (and may, if you are
511 using a non-standard shell, be inconsistent). The only (useful) quote
512 character is the double quote ("). It can be used to protect spaces
513 and other special characters in arguments.
515 The Windows documentation describes the shell parsing rules here:
516 L<http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/cmd.mspx?mfr=true>
517 and the C runtime parsing rules here:
518 L<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/17w5ykft%28v=VS.100%29.aspx>.
520 Here are some further observations based on experiments: The C runtime
521 breaks arguments at spaces and passes them to programs in argc/argv.
522 Double quotes can be used to prevent arguments with spaces in them from
523 being split up. You can put a double quote in an argument by escaping
524 it with a backslash and enclosing the whole argument within double quotes.
525 The backslash and the pair of double quotes surrounding the argument will
526 be stripped by the C runtime.
528 The file redirection characters "E<lt>", "E<gt>", and "|" can be quoted by
529 double quotes (although there are suggestions that this may not always
530 be true). Single quotes are not treated as quotes by the shell or
531 the C runtime, they don't get stripped by the shell (just to make
532 this type of quoting completely useless). The caret "^" has also
533 been observed to behave as a quoting character, but this appears
534 to be a shell feature, and the caret is not stripped from the command
535 line, so Perl still sees it (and the C runtime phase does not treat
536 the caret as a quote character).
538 Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell:
540 This prints two doublequotes:
542 perl -e "print '\"\"' "
546 perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" "
548 This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch":
550 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch
552 This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland):
554 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul
556 This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch":
558 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch
560 This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the console:
562 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less
564 This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager:
566 perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less
568 This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file "blurch":
570 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less
573 Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows 9x
574 is left as an exercise to the reader :)
576 One particularly pernicious problem with the 4NT command shell for
577 Windows is that it (nearly) always treats a % character as indicating
578 that environment variable expansion is needed. Under this shell, it is
579 therefore important to always double any % characters which you want
580 Perl to see (for example, for hash variables), even when they are
583 =item Building Extensions
585 The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth
586 of extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build.
587 Look in L<http://www.cpan.org/> for more information on CPAN.
589 Note that not all of the extensions available from CPAN may work
590 in the Windows environment; you should check the information at
591 L<http://testers.cpan.org/> before investing too much effort into
592 porting modules that don't readily build.
594 Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can
595 be built, tested and installed with the standard mantra:
602 where $MAKE is whatever 'make' program you have configured perl to
603 use. Use "perl -V:make" to find out what this is. Some extensions
604 may not provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything or
605 fail), but most serious ones do.
607 It is important that you use a supported 'make' program, and
608 ensure Config.pm knows about it. If you don't have nmake, you can
609 either get dmake from the location mentioned earlier or get an
610 old version of nmake reportedly available from:
612 L<http://download.microsoft.com/download/vc15/Patch/1.52/W95/EN-US/nmake15.exe>
614 Another option is to use the make written in Perl, available from
617 L<http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Make/>
619 You may also use dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
621 Note that MakeMaker actually emits makefiles with different syntax
622 depending on what 'make' it thinks you are using. Therefore, it is
623 important that one of the following values appears in Config.pm:
625 make='nmake' # MakeMaker emits nmake syntax
626 make='dmake' # MakeMaker emits dmake syntax
627 any other value # MakeMaker emits generic make syntax
628 (e.g GNU make, or Perl make)
630 If the value doesn't match the 'make' program you want to use,
631 edit Config.pm to fix it.
633 If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported
634 C compilers. You must make sure you have set up the environment for
635 the compiler for command-line compilation.
637 If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for
638 why it failed, and report problems to the module author. If
639 it looks like the extension building support is at fault, report
640 that with full details of how the build failed using the perlbug
643 =item Command-line Wildcard Expansion
645 The default command shells on DOS descendant operating systems (such
646 as they are) usually do not expand wildcard arguments supplied to
647 programs. They consider it the application's job to handle that.
648 This is commonly achieved by linking the application (in our case,
649 perl) with startup code that the C runtime libraries usually provide.
650 However, doing that results in incompatible perl versions (since the
651 behavior of the argv expansion code differs depending on the
652 compiler, and it is even buggy on some compilers). Besides, it may
653 be a source of frustration if you use such a perl binary with an
654 alternate shell that *does* expand wildcards.
656 Instead, the following solution works rather well. The nice things
657 about it are 1) you can start using it right away; 2) it is more
658 powerful, because it will do the right thing with a pattern like
659 */*/*.c; 3) you can decide whether you do/don't want to use it; and
660 4) you can extend the method to add any customizations (or even
661 entirely different kinds of wildcard expansion).
663 C:\> copy con c:\perl\lib\Wild.pm
664 # Wild.pm - emulate shell @ARGV expansion on shells that don't
667 my @g = File::DosGlob::glob($_) if /[*?]/;
672 C:\> set PERL5OPT=-MWild
673 C:\> perl -le "for (@ARGV) { print }" */*/perl*.c
677 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
678 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
679 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
680 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
681 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
682 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
684 Note there are two distinct steps there: 1) You'll have to create
685 Wild.pm and put it in your perl lib directory. 2) You'll need to
686 set the PERL5OPT environment variable. If you want argv expansion
687 to be the default, just set PERL5OPT in your default startup
690 If you are using the Visual C compiler, you can get the C runtime's
691 command line wildcard expansion built into perl binary. The resulting
692 binary will always expand unquoted command lines, which may not be
693 what you want if you use a shell that does that for you. The expansion
694 done is also somewhat less powerful than the approach suggested above.
696 =item Notes on 64-bit Windows
698 Windows .NET Server supports the LLP64 data model on the Intel Itanium
701 The LLP64 data model is different from the LP64 data model that is the
702 norm on 64-bit Unix platforms. In the former, C<int> and C<long> are
703 both 32-bit data types, while pointers are 64 bits wide. In addition,
704 there is a separate 64-bit wide integral type, C<__int64>. In contrast,
705 the LP64 data model that is pervasive on Unix platforms provides C<int>
706 as the 32-bit type, while both the C<long> type and pointers are of
707 64-bit precision. Note that both models provide for 64-bits of
710 64-bit Windows running on Itanium is capable of running 32-bit x86
711 binaries transparently. This means that you could use a 32-bit build
712 of Perl on a 64-bit system. Given this, why would one want to build
713 a 64-bit build of Perl? Here are some reasons why you would bother:
719 A 64-bit native application will run much more efficiently on
724 There is no 2GB limit on process size.
728 Perl automatically provides large file support when built under
733 Embedding Perl inside a 64-bit application.
739 =head2 Running Perl Scripts
741 Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to
742 indicate to the OS that it should execute the file using perl.
743 Windows has no comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are
746 Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on
747 Windows rely on the file "extension". There are three methods
748 to use this to execute perl scripts:
754 There is a facility called "file extension associations". This can be
755 manipulated via the two commands "assoc" and "ftype" that come
756 standard with Windows. Type "ftype /?" for a complete example of how
757 to set this up for perl scripts (Say what? You thought Windows
758 wasn't perl-ready? :).
762 Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are
763 reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the
764 old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a
765 regular batch file to the OS, may be used. The install process
766 makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to wrap
767 perl scripts into batch files. For example:
771 will create the file "FOO.BAT". Note "pl2bat" strips any
772 .pl suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file.
774 If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that
775 "pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to
776 refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to make
777 sure that construct works in batch files. As of this writing,
778 4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *" statement in their
779 4NT.INI file or will need to execute "setdos /p*" in the 4DOS/NT
780 startup file to enable this to work.
784 Using "pl2bat" has a few problems: the file name gets changed,
785 so scripts that rely on C<$0> to find what they must do may not
786 run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the
787 original script, and so this process can be maintenance intensive
788 if the originals get updated often. A different approach that
789 avoids both problems is possible.
791 A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied
792 to any filename (along with the .bat suffix). For example,
793 if you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is
794 executed. Since you can run batch files on Windows platforms simply
795 by typing the name (without the extension), this effectively
796 runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or "foo.bat".
797 With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a different location
798 than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is available somewhere on
799 the PATH. If your scripts are on a filesystem that allows symbolic
800 links, you can even avoid copying "runperl.bat".
802 Here's a diversion: copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type
803 "runperl". Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :)
804 Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH
808 =head2 Miscellaneous Things
810 A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be
811 able to use it if you have a web browser installed on your
814 C<perldoc> is also a useful tool for browsing information contained
815 in the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager
816 like C<less> (recent versions of which have Windows support). You may
817 have to set the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager.
818 "perldoc -f foo" will print information about the perl operator
821 One common mistake when using this port with a GUI library like C<Tk>
822 is assuming that Perl's normal behavior of opening a command-line
823 window will go away. This isn't the case. If you want to start a copy
824 of C<perl> without opening a command-line window, use the C<wperl>
825 executable built during the installation process. Usage is exactly
826 the same as normal C<perl> on Windows, except that options like C<-h>
827 don't work (since they need a command-line window to print to).
829 If you find bugs in perl, you can run C<perlbug> to create a
830 bug report (you may have to send it manually if C<perlbug> cannot
831 find a mailer on your system).
833 =head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS
835 Norton AntiVirus interferes with the build process, particularly if
836 set to "AutoProtect, All Files, when Opened". Unlike large applications
837 the perl build process opens and modifies a lot of files. Having the
838 the AntiVirus scan each and every one slows build the process significantly.
839 Worse, with PERLIO=stdio the build process fails with peculiar messages
840 as the virus checker interacts badly with miniperl.exe writing configure
841 files (it seems to either catch file part written and treat it as suspicious,
842 or virus checker may have it "locked" in a way which inhibits miniperl
843 updating it). The build does complete with
847 but that may be just luck. Other AntiVirus software may have similar issues.
849 Some of the built-in functions do not act exactly as documented in
850 L<perlfunc>, and a few are not implemented at all. To avoid
851 surprises, particularly if you have had prior exposure to Perl
852 in other operating environments or if you intend to write code
853 that will be portable to other environments, see L<perlport>
854 for a reasonably definitive list of these differences.
856 Not all extensions available from CPAN may build or work properly
857 in the Windows environment. See L</"Building Extensions">.
859 Most C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not
860 behave as on Unix platforms. See L<perlport> for the full list.
862 Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it
863 doesn't exactly "behave", either :). For instance, calling C<die()>
864 or C<exit()> from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most
865 implementations of C<signal()> on Windows are severely crippled.
866 Thus, signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag
867 variable in the handler. Using signals under this port should
868 currently be considered unsupported.
870 Please send detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that
871 you may find to E<lt>F<perlbug@perl.org>E<gt>, along with the output
872 produced by C<perl -V>.
874 =head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
876 The use of a camel with the topic of Perl is a trademark
877 of O'Reilly and Associates, Inc. Used with permission.
883 =item Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt>
885 =item Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@activestate.comE<gt>
887 =item Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ing-simmons.netE<gt>
889 =item Jan Dubois E<lt>jand@activestate.comE<gt>
891 =item Steve Hay E<lt>steve.m.hay@googlemail.comE<gt>
895 This document is maintained by Jan Dubois.
903 This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24,
904 and borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available
905 at the time. Various people have made numerous and sundry hacks
908 GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons).
910 Support for PERL_OBJECT was added in 5.005 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
912 Support for fork() emulation was added in 5.6 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
914 Win9x support was added in 5.6 (Benjamin Stuhl).
916 Support for 64-bit Windows added in 5.8 (ActiveState Corp).
918 Last updated: 22 October 2013