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 Gcc by mingw.org gcc version 3.2 or later
44 Gcc by mingw-w64.sf.net gcc version 4.4.3 or later
46 Note that the last two of these are actually competing projects both
47 delivering complete gcc toolchain for MS Windows:
51 =item L<http://mingw.org>
53 Delivers gcc toolchain targeting 32-bit Windows platform.
55 =item L<http://mingw-w64.sf.net>
57 Delivers gcc toolchain targeting both 64-bit Windows and 32-bit Windows
58 platforms (despite the project name "mingw-w64" they are not only 64-bit
59 oriented). They deliver the native gcc compilers and cross-compilers
60 that are also supported by perl's makefile.
64 The Microsoft Visual C++ compilers are also now being given away free. They are
65 available as "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" or "Visual C++ 2005/2008/2010/2012 Express
66 Edition" (and also as part of the ".NET Framework SDK") and are the same
67 compilers that ship with "Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional" or "Visual C++
68 2005/2008/2010/2012 Professional" respectively.
70 This port can also be built on IA64/AMD64 using:
72 Microsoft Platform SDK Nov 2001 (64-bit compiler and tools)
73 MinGW64 compiler (gcc version 4.4.3 or later)
75 The Windows SDK can be downloaded from L<http://www.microsoft.com/>.
76 The MinGW64 compiler is available at L<http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw-w64>.
77 The latter is actually a cross-compiler targeting Win64. There's also a trimmed
78 down compiler (no java, or gfortran) suitable for building perl available at:
79 L<http://strawberryperl.com/package/kmx/64_gcctoolchain/>
81 NOTE: If you're using a 32-bit compiler to build perl on a 64-bit Windows
82 operating system, then you should set the WIN64 environment variable to "undef".
83 Also, the trimmed down compiler only passes tests when USE_ITHREADS *= define
84 (as opposed to undef) and when the CFG *= Debug line is commented out.
86 This port fully supports MakeMaker (the set of modules that
87 is used to build extensions to perl). Therefore, you should be
88 able to build and install most extensions found in the CPAN sites.
89 See L<Usage Hints for Perl on Windows> below for general hints about this.
91 =head2 Setting Up Perl on Windows
97 You need a "make" program to build the sources. If you are using
98 Visual C++ or the Windows SDK tools, nmake will work. Builds using
101 dmake is a freely available make that has very nice macro features
104 A port of dmake for Windows is available from:
106 L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/dmake/>
108 Fetch and install dmake somewhere on your path.
112 Use the default "cmd" shell that comes with Windows. Some versions of the
113 popular 4DOS/NT shell have incompatibilities that may cause you trouble.
114 If the build fails under that shell, try building again with the cmd
117 Make sure the path to the build directory does not contain spaces. The
118 build usually works in this circumstance, but some tests will fail.
120 =item Microsoft Visual C++
122 The nmake that comes with Visual C++ will suffice for building.
123 You will need to run the VCVARS32.BAT file, usually found somewhere
124 like C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\Bin.
125 This will set your build environment.
127 You can also use dmake to build using Visual C++; provided, however,
128 you set OSRELEASE to "microsft" (or whatever the directory name
129 under which the Visual C dmake configuration lives) in your environment
130 and edit win32/config.vc to change "make=nmake" into "make=dmake". The
131 latter step is only essential if you want to use dmake as your default
132 make for building extensions using MakeMaker.
134 =item Microsoft Visual C++ 2008/2010/2012 Express Edition
136 These free versions of Visual C++ 2008/2010/2012 Professional contain the same
137 compilers and linkers that ship with the full versions, and also contain
138 everything necessary to build Perl, rather than requiring a separate download
139 of the Windows SDK like previous versions did.
141 These packages can be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
142 L<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>. (Providing exact
143 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
146 Install Visual C++ 2008/2010/2012 Express, then setup your environment using, e.g.
148 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\Tools\vsvars32.bat
150 (assuming the default installation location was chosen).
152 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
153 file to set CCTYPE to MSVC90FREE or MSVC100FREE first.
155 =item Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
157 This free version of Visual C++ 2005 Professional contains the same compiler
158 and linker that ship with the full version, but doesn't contain everything
159 necessary to build Perl.
161 You will also need to download the "Windows SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
162 SDK" components are required) for more header files and libraries.
164 These packages can both be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
165 L<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>. (Providing exact
166 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
169 Try to obtain the latest version of the Windows SDK. Sometimes these packages
170 contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
171 other OS versions too. For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
172 also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
174 Install Visual C++ 2005 first, then the Platform SDK. Setup your environment
175 as follows (assuming default installation locations were chosen):
177 SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
179 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
181 SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\INCLUDE;%PlatformSDKDir%\include
183 SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\LIB;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib
185 SET LIBPATH=C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727
187 (The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on which version
188 you are using. Earlier versions installed into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK",
189 while the latest versions install into version-specific locations such as
190 "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
192 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
197 and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
199 =item Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003
201 This free toolkit contains the same compiler and linker that ship with
202 Visual C++ .NET 2003 Professional, but doesn't contain everything
203 necessary to build Perl.
205 You will also need to download the "Platform SDK" (the "Core SDK" and "MDAC
206 SDK" components are required) for header files, libraries and rc.exe, and
207 ".NET Framework SDK" for more libraries and nmake.exe. Note that the latter
208 (which also includes the free compiler and linker) requires the ".NET
209 Framework Redistributable" to be installed first. This can be downloaded and
210 installed separately, but is included in the "Visual C++ Toolkit 2003" anyway.
212 These packages can all be downloaded by searching in the Download Center at
213 L<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en>. (Providing exact
214 links to these packages has proven a pointless task because the links keep on
217 Try to obtain the latest version of the Windows SDK. Sometimes these packages
218 contain a particular Windows OS version in their name, but actually work on
219 other OS versions too. For example, the "Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK"
220 also runs on Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000.
222 Install the Toolkit first, then the Platform SDK, then the .NET Framework SDK.
223 Setup your environment as follows (assuming default installation locations
226 SET PlatformSDKDir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK
228 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
230 SET INCLUDE=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\include;%PlatformSDKDir%\include;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\include
232 SET LIB=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\lib;%PlatformSDKDir%\lib;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Vc7\lib
234 (The PlatformSDKDir might need to be set differently depending on which version
235 you are using. Earlier versions installed into "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK",
236 while the latest versions install into version-specific locations such as
237 "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Platform SDK for Windows Server 2003 R2".)
239 Several required files will still be missing:
245 cvtres.exe is required by link.exe when using a .res file. It is actually
246 installed by the .NET Framework SDK, but into a location such as the
249 C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322
251 Copy it from there to %PlatformSDKDir%\Bin
255 lib.exe is normally used to build libraries, but link.exe with the /lib
256 option also works, so change win32/config.vc to use it instead:
258 Change the line reading:
266 It may also be useful to create a batch file called lib.bat in
267 C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003\bin containing:
272 for the benefit of any naughty C extension modules that you might want to build
273 later which explicitly reference "lib" rather than taking their value from
278 setargv.obj is required to build perlglob.exe (and perl.exe if the USE_SETARGV
279 option is enabled). The Platform SDK supplies this object file in source form
280 in %PlatformSDKDir%\src\crt. Copy setargv.c, cruntime.h and
281 internal.h from there to some temporary location and build setargv.obj using
283 cl.exe /c /I. /D_CRTBLD setargv.c
285 Then copy setargv.obj to %PlatformSDKDir%\lib
287 Alternatively, if you don't need perlglob.exe and don't need to enable the
288 USE_SETARGV option then you can safely just remove all mention of $(GLOBEXE)
289 from win32/Makefile and setargv.obj won't be required anyway.
293 Perl should now build using the win32/Makefile. You will need to edit that
298 and to set CCHOME, CCINCDIR and CCLIBDIR as per the environment setup above.
300 =item Microsoft Platform SDK 64-bit Compiler
302 The nmake that comes with the Platform SDK will suffice for building
303 Perl. Make sure you are building within one of the "Build Environment"
304 shells available after you install the Platform SDK from the Start Menu.
306 =item MinGW release 3 with gcc
308 Perl can be compiled with gcc from MinGW release 3 and later (using gcc 3.2.x
309 and later). It can be downloaded here:
311 L<http://www.mingw.org/>
313 You also need dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
323 Make sure you are in the "win32" subdirectory under the perl toplevel.
324 This directory contains a "Makefile" that will work with
325 versions of nmake that come with Visual C++ or the Windows SDK, and
326 a dmake "makefile.mk" that will work for all supported compilers. The
327 defaults in the dmake makefile are setup to build using MinGW/gcc.
331 Edit the makefile.mk (or Makefile, if you're using nmake) and change
332 the values of INST_DRV and INST_TOP. You can also enable various
333 build flags. These are explained in the makefiles.
335 Note that it is generally not a good idea to try to build a perl with
336 INST_DRV and INST_TOP set to a path that already exists from a previous
337 build. In particular, this may cause problems with the
338 lib/ExtUtils/t/Embed.t test, which attempts to build a test program and
339 may end up building against the installed perl's lib/CORE directory rather
340 than the one being tested.
342 You will have to make sure that CCTYPE is set correctly and that
343 CCHOME points to wherever you installed your compiler.
345 If building with the cross-compiler provided by
346 mingw-w64.sourceforge.net you'll need to uncomment the line that sets
347 GCCCROSS in the makefile.mk. Do this only if it's the cross-compiler - ie
348 only if the bin folder doesn't contain a gcc.exe. (The cross-compiler
349 does not provide a gcc.exe, g++.exe, ar.exe, etc. Instead, all of these
350 executables are prefixed with 'x86_64-w64-mingw32-'.)
352 The default value for CCHOME in the makefiles for Visual C++
353 may not be correct for some versions. Make sure the default exists
356 You may also need to comment out the C<DELAYLOAD = ...> line in the
357 Makefile if you're using VC++ 6.0 without the latest service pack and
358 the linker reports an internal error.
360 If you want build some core extensions statically into perl's dll, specify
361 them in the STATIC_EXT macro.
363 NOTE: The USE_64_BIT_INT build option is not supported with the 32-bit
364 Visual C++ 6.0 compiler.
366 Be sure to read the instructions near the top of the makefiles carefully.
370 Type "dmake" (or "nmake" if you are using that make).
372 This should build everything. Specifically, it will create perl.exe,
373 perl519.dll at the perl toplevel, and various other extension dll's
374 under the lib\auto directory. If the build fails for any reason, make
375 sure you have done the previous steps correctly.
379 =head2 Testing Perl on Windows
381 Type "dmake test" (or "nmake test"). This will run most of the tests from
382 the testsuite (many tests will be skipped).
384 There should be no test failures.
386 Some test failures may occur if you use a command shell other than the
387 native "cmd.exe", or if you are building from a path that contains
388 spaces. So don't do that.
390 If you are running the tests from a emacs shell window, you may see
391 failures in op/stat.t. Run "dmake test-notty" in that case.
393 If you run the tests on a FAT partition, you may see some failures for
394 C<link()> related tests (I<op/write.t>, I<op/stat.t> ...). Testing on
395 NTFS avoids these errors.
397 Furthermore, you should make sure that during C<make test> you do not
398 have any GNU tool packages in your path: some toolkits like Unixutils
399 include some tools (C<type> for instance) which override the Windows
400 ones and makes tests fail. Remove them from your path while testing to
403 Please report any other failures as described under L<BUGS AND CAVEATS>.
405 =head2 Installation of Perl on Windows
407 Type "dmake install" (or "nmake install"). This will put the newly
408 built perl and the libraries under whatever C<INST_TOP> points to in the
409 Makefile. It will also install the pod documentation under
410 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod> and HTML versions of the same under
411 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\lib\pod\html>.
413 To use the Perl you just installed you will need to add a new entry to
414 your PATH environment variable: C<$INST_TOP\bin>, e.g.
416 set PATH=c:\perl\bin;%PATH%
418 If you opted to uncomment C<INST_VER> and C<INST_ARCH> in the makefile
419 then the installation structure is a little more complicated and you will
420 need to add two new PATH components instead: C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin> and
421 C<$INST_TOP\$INST_VER\bin\$ARCHNAME>, e.g.
423 set PATH=c:\perl\5.6.0\bin;c:\perl\5.6.0\bin\MSWin32-x86;%PATH%
425 =head2 Usage Hints for Perl on Windows
429 =item Environment Variables
431 The installation paths that you set during the build get compiled
432 into perl, so you don't have to do anything additional to start
433 using that perl (except add its location to your PATH variable).
435 If you put extensions in unusual places, you can set PERL5LIB
436 to a list of paths separated by semicolons where you want perl
437 to look for libraries. Look for descriptions of other environment
438 variables you can set in L<perlrun>.
440 You can also control the shell that perl uses to run system() and
441 backtick commands via PERL5SHELL. See L<perlrun>.
443 Perl does not depend on the registry, but it can look up certain default
444 values if you choose to put them there. Perl attempts to read entries from
445 C<HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Perl> and C<HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perl>.
446 Entries in the former override entries in the latter. One or more of the
447 following entries (of type REG_SZ or REG_EXPAND_SZ) may be set:
449 lib-$] version-specific standard library path to add to @INC
450 lib standard library path to add to @INC
451 sitelib-$] version-specific site library path to add to @INC
452 sitelib site library path to add to @INC
453 vendorlib-$] version-specific vendor library path to add to @INC
454 vendorlib vendor library path to add to @INC
455 PERL* fallback for all %ENV lookups that begin with "PERL"
457 Note the C<$]> in the above is not literal. Substitute whatever version
458 of perl you want to honor that entry, e.g. C<5.6.0>. Paths must be
459 separated with semicolons, as usual on Windows.
463 By default, perl handles file globbing using the File::Glob extension,
464 which provides portable globbing.
466 If you want perl to use globbing that emulates the quirks of DOS
467 filename conventions, you might want to consider using File::DosGlob
468 to override the internal glob() implementation. See L<File::DosGlob> for
471 =item Using perl from the command line
473 If you are accustomed to using perl from various command-line
474 shells found in UNIX environments, you will be less than pleased
475 with what Windows offers by way of a command shell.
477 The crucial thing to understand about the Windows environment is that
478 the command line you type in is processed twice before Perl sees it.
479 First, your command shell (usually CMD.EXE) preprocesses the command
480 line, to handle redirection, environment variable expansion, and
481 location of the executable to run. Then, the perl executable splits
482 the remaining command line into individual arguments, using the
483 C runtime library upon which Perl was built.
485 It is particularly important to note that neither the shell nor the C
486 runtime do any wildcard expansions of command-line arguments (so
487 wildcards need not be quoted). Also, the quoting behaviours of the
488 shell and the C runtime are rudimentary at best (and may, if you are
489 using a non-standard shell, be inconsistent). The only (useful) quote
490 character is the double quote ("). It can be used to protect spaces
491 and other special characters in arguments.
493 The Windows documentation describes the shell parsing rules here:
494 L<http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/cmd.mspx?mfr=true>
495 and the C runtime parsing rules here:
496 L<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/17w5ykft%28v=VS.100%29.aspx>.
498 Here are some further observations based on experiments: The C runtime
499 breaks arguments at spaces and passes them to programs in argc/argv.
500 Double quotes can be used to prevent arguments with spaces in them from
501 being split up. You can put a double quote in an argument by escaping
502 it with a backslash and enclosing the whole argument within double quotes.
503 The backslash and the pair of double quotes surrounding the argument will
504 be stripped by the C runtime.
506 The file redirection characters "E<lt>", "E<gt>", and "|" can be quoted by
507 double quotes (although there are suggestions that this may not always
508 be true). Single quotes are not treated as quotes by the shell or
509 the C runtime, they don't get stripped by the shell (just to make
510 this type of quoting completely useless). The caret "^" has also
511 been observed to behave as a quoting character, but this appears
512 to be a shell feature, and the caret is not stripped from the command
513 line, so Perl still sees it (and the C runtime phase does not treat
514 the caret as a quote character).
516 Here are some examples of usage of the "cmd" shell:
518 This prints two doublequotes:
520 perl -e "print '\"\"' "
524 perl -e "print \"\\\"\\\"\" "
526 This prints "bar" and writes "foo" to the file "blurch":
528 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" > blurch
530 This prints "foo" ("bar" disappears into nowhereland):
532 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> nul
534 This prints "bar" and writes "foo" into the file "blurch":
536 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 1> blurch
538 This pipes "foo" to the "less" pager and prints "bar" on the console:
540 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" | less
542 This pipes "foo\nbar\n" to the less pager:
544 perl -le "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2>&1 | less
546 This pipes "foo" to the pager and writes "bar" in the file "blurch":
548 perl -e "print 'foo'; print STDERR 'bar'" 2> blurch | less
551 Discovering the usefulness of the "command.com" shell on Windows 9x
552 is left as an exercise to the reader :)
554 One particularly pernicious problem with the 4NT command shell for
555 Windows is that it (nearly) always treats a % character as indicating
556 that environment variable expansion is needed. Under this shell, it is
557 therefore important to always double any % characters which you want
558 Perl to see (for example, for hash variables), even when they are
561 =item Building Extensions
563 The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) offers a wealth
564 of extensions, some of which require a C compiler to build.
565 Look in L<http://www.cpan.org/> for more information on CPAN.
567 Note that not all of the extensions available from CPAN may work
568 in the Windows environment; you should check the information at
569 L<http://testers.cpan.org/> before investing too much effort into
570 porting modules that don't readily build.
572 Most extensions (whether they require a C compiler or not) can
573 be built, tested and installed with the standard mantra:
580 where $MAKE is whatever 'make' program you have configured perl to
581 use. Use "perl -V:make" to find out what this is. Some extensions
582 may not provide a testsuite (so "$MAKE test" may not do anything or
583 fail), but most serious ones do.
585 It is important that you use a supported 'make' program, and
586 ensure Config.pm knows about it. If you don't have nmake, you can
587 either get dmake from the location mentioned earlier or get an
588 old version of nmake reportedly available from:
590 L<http://download.microsoft.com/download/vc15/Patch/1.52/W95/EN-US/nmake15.exe>
592 Another option is to use the make written in Perl, available from
595 L<http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Make/>
597 You may also use dmake. See L</"Make"> above on how to get it.
599 Note that MakeMaker actually emits makefiles with different syntax
600 depending on what 'make' it thinks you are using. Therefore, it is
601 important that one of the following values appears in Config.pm:
603 make='nmake' # MakeMaker emits nmake syntax
604 make='dmake' # MakeMaker emits dmake syntax
605 any other value # MakeMaker emits generic make syntax
606 (e.g GNU make, or Perl make)
608 If the value doesn't match the 'make' program you want to use,
609 edit Config.pm to fix it.
611 If a module implements XSUBs, you will need one of the supported
612 C compilers. You must make sure you have set up the environment for
613 the compiler for command-line compilation.
615 If a module does not build for some reason, look carefully for
616 why it failed, and report problems to the module author. If
617 it looks like the extension building support is at fault, report
618 that with full details of how the build failed using the perlbug
621 =item Command-line Wildcard Expansion
623 The default command shells on DOS descendant operating systems (such
624 as they are) usually do not expand wildcard arguments supplied to
625 programs. They consider it the application's job to handle that.
626 This is commonly achieved by linking the application (in our case,
627 perl) with startup code that the C runtime libraries usually provide.
628 However, doing that results in incompatible perl versions (since the
629 behavior of the argv expansion code differs depending on the
630 compiler, and it is even buggy on some compilers). Besides, it may
631 be a source of frustration if you use such a perl binary with an
632 alternate shell that *does* expand wildcards.
634 Instead, the following solution works rather well. The nice things
635 about it are 1) you can start using it right away; 2) it is more
636 powerful, because it will do the right thing with a pattern like
637 */*/*.c; 3) you can decide whether you do/don't want to use it; and
638 4) you can extend the method to add any customizations (or even
639 entirely different kinds of wildcard expansion).
641 C:\> copy con c:\perl\lib\Wild.pm
642 # Wild.pm - emulate shell @ARGV expansion on shells that don't
645 my @g = File::DosGlob::glob($_) if /[*?]/;
650 C:\> set PERL5OPT=-MWild
651 C:\> perl -le "for (@ARGV) { print }" */*/perl*.c
655 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
656 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
657 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
658 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
659 perl5.005/win32/perlglob.c
660 perl5.005/win32/perllib.c
662 Note there are two distinct steps there: 1) You'll have to create
663 Wild.pm and put it in your perl lib directory. 2) You'll need to
664 set the PERL5OPT environment variable. If you want argv expansion
665 to be the default, just set PERL5OPT in your default startup
668 If you are using the Visual C compiler, you can get the C runtime's
669 command line wildcard expansion built into perl binary. The resulting
670 binary will always expand unquoted command lines, which may not be
671 what you want if you use a shell that does that for you. The expansion
672 done is also somewhat less powerful than the approach suggested above.
674 =item Notes on 64-bit Windows
676 Windows .NET Server supports the LLP64 data model on the Intel Itanium
679 The LLP64 data model is different from the LP64 data model that is the
680 norm on 64-bit Unix platforms. In the former, C<int> and C<long> are
681 both 32-bit data types, while pointers are 64 bits wide. In addition,
682 there is a separate 64-bit wide integral type, C<__int64>. In contrast,
683 the LP64 data model that is pervasive on Unix platforms provides C<int>
684 as the 32-bit type, while both the C<long> type and pointers are of
685 64-bit precision. Note that both models provide for 64-bits of
688 64-bit Windows running on Itanium is capable of running 32-bit x86
689 binaries transparently. This means that you could use a 32-bit build
690 of Perl on a 64-bit system. Given this, why would one want to build
691 a 64-bit build of Perl? Here are some reasons why you would bother:
697 A 64-bit native application will run much more efficiently on
702 There is no 2GB limit on process size.
706 Perl automatically provides large file support when built under
711 Embedding Perl inside a 64-bit application.
717 =head2 Running Perl Scripts
719 Perl scripts on UNIX use the "#!" (a.k.a "shebang") line to
720 indicate to the OS that it should execute the file using perl.
721 Windows has no comparable means to indicate arbitrary files are
724 Instead, all available methods to execute plain text files on
725 Windows rely on the file "extension". There are three methods
726 to use this to execute perl scripts:
732 There is a facility called "file extension associations". This can be
733 manipulated via the two commands "assoc" and "ftype" that come
734 standard with Windows. Type "ftype /?" for a complete example of how
735 to set this up for perl scripts (Say what? You thought Windows
736 wasn't perl-ready? :).
740 Since file associations don't work everywhere, and there are
741 reportedly bugs with file associations where it does work, the
742 old method of wrapping the perl script to make it look like a
743 regular batch file to the OS, may be used. The install process
744 makes available the "pl2bat.bat" script which can be used to wrap
745 perl scripts into batch files. For example:
749 will create the file "FOO.BAT". Note "pl2bat" strips any
750 .pl suffix and adds a .bat suffix to the generated file.
752 If you use the 4DOS/NT or similar command shell, note that
753 "pl2bat" uses the "%*" variable in the generated batch file to
754 refer to all the command line arguments, so you may need to make
755 sure that construct works in batch files. As of this writing,
756 4DOS/NT users will need a "ParameterChar = *" statement in their
757 4NT.INI file or will need to execute "setdos /p*" in the 4DOS/NT
758 startup file to enable this to work.
762 Using "pl2bat" has a few problems: the file name gets changed,
763 so scripts that rely on C<$0> to find what they must do may not
764 run properly; running "pl2bat" replicates the contents of the
765 original script, and so this process can be maintenance intensive
766 if the originals get updated often. A different approach that
767 avoids both problems is possible.
769 A script called "runperl.bat" is available that can be copied
770 to any filename (along with the .bat suffix). For example,
771 if you call it "foo.bat", it will run the file "foo" when it is
772 executed. Since you can run batch files on Windows platforms simply
773 by typing the name (without the extension), this effectively
774 runs the file "foo", when you type either "foo" or "foo.bat".
775 With this method, "foo.bat" can even be in a different location
776 than the file "foo", as long as "foo" is available somewhere on
777 the PATH. If your scripts are on a filesystem that allows symbolic
778 links, you can even avoid copying "runperl.bat".
780 Here's a diversion: copy "runperl.bat" to "runperl", and type
781 "runperl". Explain the observed behavior, or lack thereof. :)
782 Hint: .gnidnats llits er'uoy fi ,"lrepnur" eteled :tniH
786 =head2 Miscellaneous Things
788 A full set of HTML documentation is installed, so you should be
789 able to use it if you have a web browser installed on your
792 C<perldoc> is also a useful tool for browsing information contained
793 in the documentation, especially in conjunction with a pager
794 like C<less> (recent versions of which have Windows support). You may
795 have to set the PAGER environment variable to use a specific pager.
796 "perldoc -f foo" will print information about the perl operator
799 One common mistake when using this port with a GUI library like C<Tk>
800 is assuming that Perl's normal behavior of opening a command-line
801 window will go away. This isn't the case. If you want to start a copy
802 of C<perl> without opening a command-line window, use the C<wperl>
803 executable built during the installation process. Usage is exactly
804 the same as normal C<perl> on Windows, except that options like C<-h>
805 don't work (since they need a command-line window to print to).
807 If you find bugs in perl, you can run C<perlbug> to create a
808 bug report (you may have to send it manually if C<perlbug> cannot
809 find a mailer on your system).
811 =head1 BUGS AND CAVEATS
813 Norton AntiVirus interferes with the build process, particularly if
814 set to "AutoProtect, All Files, when Opened". Unlike large applications
815 the perl build process opens and modifies a lot of files. Having the
816 the AntiVirus scan each and every one slows build the process significantly.
817 Worse, with PERLIO=stdio the build process fails with peculiar messages
818 as the virus checker interacts badly with miniperl.exe writing configure
819 files (it seems to either catch file part written and treat it as suspicious,
820 or virus checker may have it "locked" in a way which inhibits miniperl
821 updating it). The build does complete with
825 but that may be just luck. Other AntiVirus software may have similar issues.
827 Some of the built-in functions do not act exactly as documented in
828 L<perlfunc>, and a few are not implemented at all. To avoid
829 surprises, particularly if you have had prior exposure to Perl
830 in other operating environments or if you intend to write code
831 that will be portable to other environments, see L<perlport>
832 for a reasonably definitive list of these differences.
834 Not all extensions available from CPAN may build or work properly
835 in the Windows environment. See L</"Building Extensions">.
837 Most C<socket()> related calls are supported, but they may not
838 behave as on Unix platforms. See L<perlport> for the full list.
840 Signal handling may not behave as on Unix platforms (where it
841 doesn't exactly "behave", either :). For instance, calling C<die()>
842 or C<exit()> from signal handlers will cause an exception, since most
843 implementations of C<signal()> on Windows are severely crippled.
844 Thus, signals may work only for simple things like setting a flag
845 variable in the handler. Using signals under this port should
846 currently be considered unsupported.
848 Please send detailed descriptions of any problems and solutions that
849 you may find to E<lt>F<perlbug@perl.org>E<gt>, along with the output
850 produced by C<perl -V>.
852 =head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
854 The use of a camel with the topic of Perl is a trademark
855 of O'Reilly and Associates, Inc. Used with permission.
861 =item Gary Ng E<lt>71564.1743@CompuServe.COME<gt>
863 =item Gurusamy Sarathy E<lt>gsar@activestate.comE<gt>
865 =item Nick Ing-Simmons E<lt>nick@ing-simmons.netE<gt>
867 =item Jan Dubois E<lt>jand@activestate.comE<gt>
869 =item Steve Hay E<lt>steve.m.hay@googlemail.comE<gt>
873 This document is maintained by Jan Dubois.
881 This port was originally contributed by Gary Ng around 5.003_24,
882 and borrowed from the Hip Communications port that was available
883 at the time. Various people have made numerous and sundry hacks
886 GCC/mingw32 support was added in 5.005 (Nick Ing-Simmons).
888 Support for PERL_OBJECT was added in 5.005 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
890 Support for fork() emulation was added in 5.6 (ActiveState Tool Corp).
892 Win9x support was added in 5.6 (Benjamin Stuhl).
894 Support for 64-bit Windows added in 5.8 (ActiveState Corp).
896 Last updated: 16 September 2013